Adjusting the focus
Disclaimer: I don't own My hero academia
Warnings: Mentions of rape. There's no actual rape, just a situation that could lead to rape. So, more like groping and stuff, but I thought it would be the best to warn you for it anyway.
Chapter 3
On one cold winter day Yagi stays longer than normal in the Midoriya household. Izuku-kun is already long gone; having been send upstairs by Inko-san to go to sleep – ''Honestly, Izuku! It's already long past your bed time and you'll be able to see him again next week!'' - and Yagi has a mandatory free day, because some people are concerned of him overworking. Which basically means he can have a good night sleep, no matter how late he actually comes home. And on top of that Inko-san and him are talking about the recipes of the cakes of the Midoriya household. Which are really good. Always.
So, they're sitting at the table both with a cup of warm tea and Yagi with the last piece of cake when an ear-piercing scream echoes around the house. It's Izuku-kun's.
Inko-san is up and running in a second, and Yagi not far behind. When they arrive in Izuku-kun's bedroom, they boy is laying in his bed. He's screaming and tossing around. Because it's winter, he normally uses double covers; he can't stand the cold Yagi has learned, but one has been kicked to the floor and the other one is tangled up with his legs. He's sweating anyway.
Inko-san has shot of to him the moment they come in, and is already shaking him away, surprisingly calm. Only half a minute later she's rewarded with open eyes overflowing with tears, she immediately pulls her hands off Izuku while Yagi looks on unsurely. When Izuku sees her at first he flinches away, however a moment later there are grabby hands and ''I'm sorry, please don't leave, please, please, I'm so sorry, please, -''
It takes twenty minutes for Izuku to truly calm down, and then another fifteen for convincing him that Yagi didn't mind his nightmare, and he didn't think it was stupid, and, really, the nightmare or rather his screaming and crying hadn't troubled or disturbed him.
He comes to learn that these happen more often, which is how his mother knew what to do – ''You can't touch him immediately when he wakes up, he may mistake it as an attack, but hug him immediately when he starts crying. It calms him down. Pay attention to his signals though; sometimes he will freak out instead of calm down if you hug him. - '' and this was an especially bad one, because normally he doesn't scream loud enough to wake the entire house. (with this explanation, he gets another hoarse apology from Izuku-kun for bothering them). He learns Inko-san is concerned about them, but she doesn't know what to do; they've already been to the doctors several times, and they don't know how to deal with them anymore either. He also learns Izuku-kun doesn't actually like talking about them. Though he sometimes tells small parts in his panic, often unnerving.
(''There's too much blood. I don't understand how there can be so much blood. A human body shouldn't have that much blood.'' – The expression on Izuku's face when he said that had been heart-breaking and something Yagi is sure he will never be able to forget for the rest of his life. –)
He's more reluctant about somethings too, even subconsciously. He almost never mentions whose blood it is, he doesn't mention who was the one who made the one bleed; he does often accidently make clear there is an instigator in his dream by mentioning an individual stabbing others and the like. Yagi is not sure if it's always the same one yet, but he doesn't like it one bit.
He does however finally realise the origin of Izuku's ever present eyebags and how it came to be that Izuku-kun sometimes says such morbid things with a straight face, albeit it's heart-breaking to think of a four-year-old Izuku crying for hours after dreaming of them.
The only positive thing that comes from that night is that they all become somewhat closer. Inko-san silently tells Yagi she's relieved afterwards because now she finally has someone who would be able to take care of Izuku-kun besides the Bakugous when she's away, or if something happens to her – This gives Yagi a really happy and fuzzy feeling inside -. Izuku feels more confident when talking to him and has to filter his words less, and even invites him back in his bedroom again, which apparently if he's to believe Inko-san a huge sign of trust. – Izuku has a surprisingly plain room, if it's not for the rows of books and two walls completely plastered with all kinds of posters of heroes. The biggest being one of All Might in the middle of the first wall. He knows that Izuku thinks highly of all heroes. It does however – and he will deny this – makes him grin for days when he learns that he, himself was actually Izuku's favourite.
It's cold and dark when Izuku, who had forgotten his jacket is shivering and running home. He almost misses the scream in his haste to get home.
The alley is even darker then the street behind him, and all he can see is dark shapes. He ignores the cluttered trash bags and old cardboard boxes laying around. He can hear what's happening as his eyes adjust and search for the culprit. There's a woman is screaming, but it's muffled. The sound comes from a figure half sitting, half laying against the walls that close the alley in. Another figure is bowing over the woman, hands roaming and Izuku sees a flash of teeth reflect in the light coming from the street. There's yet another figure laying on the ground making muffled protests who's held down by two others, one them also roaming with their hands. One last figure is standing, most likely another one of the assaulters, looking ready to step in if one of the others need help, and probably on look-out too. He doesn't seem to notice Izuku.
The first thing Izuku does is crouch behind some boxes and call the police. It feels awful, but Izuku is young and weak and there's no way he can say for sure he will be able to help those two. It would be foolish of him to rush in only to become just another victim. His location and explanation to the man who picks up the phone is rushed and hushed.
Then the woman screams again. Izuku abandons the telephone and the urgent voice coming out of it as he begins to crawl. He sneaks closer under the cover of darkness and has hit the look-out's pressure point on the neck in less than a second. He instantly hides again behind some of the trashcans, peeking through a small opening. The figures stop and focus on their last member when a loud thump announces the falling down of them. ''Teiji?''
''Fuck, Teiji, what are you doing, man?''
Only silence is their answer, and the one crouching over the woman curses and hisses a command to one of the other to check on 'Teiji'.
The man grumbles, and hisses something of a warning to the figure laying on the ground. Again, Izuku sees something reflect in the light, but this time he realises to his horror it's a short, sharp knife which if held in the man's hand.
Izuku has no idea what he's supposed to do now. He rushed in with absolutely no plan, and some of the element of surprise is gone now. The figures are obviously more cautious now. Not knowing how their companion landed on the ground. He feels emotions swell up in him and tears gather in his eyes. His body is betraying him, as it had done so often in this second life. No longer used to supressing the violent emotions and keeping them inside. It had gotten better, but Izuku should have known that when he was trust in such a situation with no warning the emotions would get the better of him. But no. There were two figures on the ground, they were being bothered by others. They were being groped and that situation could worsen fast. He couldn't be selfish in his panic. He would help them.
And in a flash, he softly opens his back and fumbles through the content. The steps were getting closer.
A lighter. There is a lighter in his back and finger print powder, but he needs more. He hastily looks around him. There is a metal disk, which most likely had been some cover for a trash can or something, furthermore there were boxes and some other trash. His eyes zoom in on some well-weathered steel wool pads and a few old newspapers.
He does the first thing he thinks of, grabbing his bag, he hurriedly throws the newspapers and wool pads in it. He hears the man start because of the sounds suddenly coming from his position, but then he has already grabbed the metal disk and gotten in position. He flicks it with all his might to the man who was approaching. The man still tries to avoid it, but he notices it too late. When it hits him full on the head, Izuku rushes out at the man. In the moment of shock of the other, his grip on his knife loosened and Izuku slaps at the hand, the knife falling out of it. He uses his momentum, jumps up. In the air, he grabs the head of the man with his too small hand and using his weight and all the power in his arms he bashes it into the ground. The second man crumbles.
The other figures had frozen, looking at him like he was mad. ''… A kid…?''
In the time their hesitation and shock gives him, he gets the wool pads out of his open bag, throws the finger print powder over them. The men holding the others down look absolutely dumbfounded at his fumbling. He quickly scrabbles for his lighter and ignites the wool pads covered with finger print powder. And he hoped to god this would work, but the first one lights up and next second the wool pads were flying one for one to the figures still crouching over the woman and the one laying on the ground, all the while exploding in incredibly hot fire. The men curse and hastily get out of the way but they both get hit anyway.
The man who first crouched over the woman gets hit on his arm. The man lets out a surprised shout of pain, other hand flying to his arm and looks at him with furious eyes ''Shit, kid. No one ever told you not to play with fire?'' he growls.
Izuku looked back with wide eyes, his shaking hands were folding the newspaper as many times as he could, making it denser and usable as a weapon. He notices one of the wool pads had set one of the other cardboard boxes on fire.
He takes one step closer. The man growls and shakily stands up. Izuku takes another step, and another. Running again, his eyes flickering between the man's limbs and his face. He raises his arm, crouched in a way which would make him think he was going to jump. The man reacts to his bait. He tenses, his arms rising up to protect his upper half, and his knees bending into a more stable stance. Izuku feels his legs jump, feels his body fall and kicks out his foot to the man's knee. There is a sickening crunch as Izuku finishes his roll behind the man and stands up again. The man falls on his other knee limply. Izuku strikes with the flat of his hand hard against the man's forehead and then he uses the now dense newspaper and rams it as hard as he can with both hands against the man's temple which is now at eye level. The third man crumbled. One left.
The last one is ready though. With black hair and a tall stature, he's smirking down at Izuku. He's holding an already mostly burned out wool pad in his fingers. ''Fuck, you brought my buddies down with ease. You're pretty good kid…'' He looks at him interestedly, a bit searchingly. ''But you're done now. I've got a temperature cancelation quirk. Fire won't work on me, no matter how hot.''
His eyes flicker orange cruelly in the light of the fire. ''I'm pretty sure it will work on you though, with how fast you flung these away.''
And in a flash the man is in front of Izuku. Izuku tries to dodge out of the way, and he almost manages, but then he trips over the uneven cobblestones that form the ground of this alley. The man's arms are long, and he grabs him by his collar with ease. He heaves him of the ground, and Izuku tries to struggle, but his limbs are too short. The man just laughs at him.
''Now, let's teach you why little boy shouldn't play at being heroes.'' He brings up his hand with the still smouldering wool pad and Izuku freezes. His pain limit had always been pretty high, but again most of that had left him in this new life. Getting touched by smouldering steel was definitely not something he wanted to experience. His struggle begins again, this time even worse, and tears spring back into his eyes. Again, the man just laughs, pleased with his struggle.
The metal touches his shoulder, it is burning through his shirt and it hurts. Izuku screams. It gets pressed harder, and harder and it's hot, hot, hot. –The water is too hot, it's boiling and Izuku can't get out. He's sobbing, and it isn't their fault, but it's so, so hot – ''GAAAH''
The scream and a loud clang snap Izuku out of it. The pain is still there, but the source is gone, and Izuku falls on the ground as soon as the man's grip on him loosens.
It takes Izuku a few blinks for the haze to clear up and look up. He's breathing hard, and his heartbeat thunders in his ears. He's gulping in air in an effort to calm down when he looks up with teary eyes and a shaking body at the woman who had been attacked, holding a long metal pipe in her hands, and the other man who had been the figure laying on the ground pulling his fist back to slam it into the head of the man who had been holding him up only seconds ago.
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The aftermath is wobbly for Izuku. He can finally see them clearly now and the woman is somewhat tall and pretty, with long brown hair, freckles and soft brown, green eyes. The man is pretty too, he's just a little bit under average height and thin but looks surprisingly sturdy, which is probably why it took two men to hold him down. He also has brown hair, but whereas the woman has a light shade, he has a dark one. They both look rumbled. Their clothes are crunched up, and torn at a few places. The woman is missing one of her high heels and the heel has broken off of the one she still wearing. The man had a whole sleeve torn off, was also missing one of his shoes and he's favouring his right leg as the other one is hanging limply
It takes a minute for the three of them to gather their selves, and Izuku is the first one to do so. He stands up rashly, almost falling over again, and then bows over and apologizes for 'stepping in so late.' Going into a panicked rant that he called the police first, and he knew they were in trouble and he's so sorry. This all while he's still crying from the pain and shaking from left over shock.
The man and woman are shocked in silence at first, but then then interfere. ''No! No!'' the man says, while crouches ''It's alright. It was a good decision to call the police. I would even call interfering personally rather rash and brave. You're still a kid, after all.''
Izuku just shrugs nervously and only slightly mollified ''It's what anyone would have done.''
The woman crouches next to the man too, and hushes Izuku. She grabs her jacket, pulling it off, and throws it over Izuku's shoulder. Which leaves him appalled because even though he's not sure anymore if he's shivering from the cold or the shock, the shirt of the woman is torn, and it's easy to see her chest, stomach and bra. Izuku tries to give it back, but the woman shakes her head. The man with her offers her his own jacket to her, but that one is so thorn that it still doesn't cover up much, certainly doesn't help with the cold. This time, he tries to trade. ''Shh, it's nothing to worry over. This jacket is plenty. The fight is over now and because of your great decision to call the police, they will be here soon, right? Possibly even with a hero. Then they will be able to help us and give me a better jacket. Wouldn't that be nice?'' She smiles at him, and while Izuku feels slightly belittled, because he just got them out of that predicament; he wasn't hopeless, he doesn't need to be comforted, he also actually feels comforted. The woman is kind, soft-spoken and calm even with what happened to her only a few minutes back, and he takes comfort out of it. Izuku is not calm at all. He's quivering and upset.
''I'm Nakada Miyu, and this is Yoshinaga Jiro. What's your name?'' He doesn't understand how they're so calm.
''I-I'm Midoriya Izuku, It's, eh, It's nice meeting you.''
They chuckle weakly and the man comments ''Not the ideal circumstances, I would say though.''
Izuku smiles shakily in answer.
After that they buck up. The woman asks the man to look out for their attackers and make sure they were still unconscious while she and Izuku begin to look for their stuff. Izuku's, the woman's and the man's bag with their contents and Izuku's phone found later, they decide better safe than sorry and begin to move out of the alley, leaving the shoes behind. The man still keeps an eye out for the figures laying on the ground in the alley, the woman is on look-out for the police and Izuku is sitting on the ground leaning against the wall, exhausted, still a bit panicky and in pain, and completely ready to collapse.
A few minutes later, the woman let's out a triumphant cry and the sounds of sirens register. Izuku falls asleep as bright red lights flicker and stressed agents jump out of the car.
Izuku is woken up ten minutes later by a concerned police officer. A young man with light brown hair and a slightly green skin tone who's called Shunji Machida.
He is forced to have a check-up by the medics. The medic calmly talked to him with a soft voice and carefully sat him down. His hands got the first attention which he had burned and scraped, both got some kind of salve rubbed over them and then bandaged up then the medic moved to the burn on the chest which was dealed with in the same way. He's given a small candy for sitting still, and then he is moved back to the same officer who had woken him up with a comment about him being in light shock. The officer gives a nod to the medic, and Izuku feels vaguely offended they're talking like he isn't standing between them.
He's hustled together with Nakada-dan and Yoshinaga-san in a police car. The all get a shock-blanket, which is nice. Then they're on their way to the police station. Nakada-san has gotten a new jacket, and they both seem a little bit more relaxed.
When they arrive at the police station they are all again hustled inside, and to a room where they get left alone. Someone comes by and asks them if they want something to drink and Izuku gratefully asks for some tea. The officer with the green skin tone then comes back again. He asks for their names, and tells Izuku they are going to call his mother. He asks Nakada-san and Yoshinaga-san if they want to call someone, and Nakada-san moves to the corridor to call the friends they were supposed to meet up, and give them a short summary.
Izuku's mom gets called by the officer, and asked if she would please come to the police station. In a record time, his mom has turned up in a worried crying frenzy, and Izuku has never been so happy to see his mom again. The moment she steps inside the room, Izuku jumps on her, hides his face in her stomach, and decides he will never let go again and he will hide there forever. Which sets his mother off in another frenzy and it takes… a while for the police officer to calm her down.
When she has calmed down significantly and they have all been sat down, his mother with a glass of water and tissues, Yoshinaga-san explains what happened to them, and how Izuku had interfered and taken three of the men out, though he wasn't exactly sure how, as he had been forced to the ground for most of the fight. Izuku feels his mom tense under him, and which makes him feel even worse as he's obviously worrying her. The officer nods, and writes it down. He tells to Yoshinaga-san that he will have to ask Nakada-san about the happenings too, and that there will be a medic in a few minutes to check up on his leg, and possibly take him to the hospital. Then hesitantly he turns to Izuku.
Izuku determinedly ignores that though, and stays happily with his face buried into his mom sweater. His mom however notices this too, and she her hand which rested on his back pulls softly at the jacket of Nakada-san. ''Izuku? Machida-san wants to ask you something.''
''I don't wanna.'' There's a pout in his voice and his hands tighten in his mom's sweater.
After some coaxing, with mainly involved getting his tea, he finally faces the officer again. He asks him what happened and Izuku tells about him running home and hearing a scream. Tells him about going into the alley and then calling the police. But then when the woman screamed he couldn't stay still and do nothing. Machida-san laughs weakly at that and tells Izuku he had given the emergency call receiver who was on the phone with him a heart-attack when he suddenly didn't answer anymore.
Izuku continuous his story with how he had taken out the first man with a blow to his pressure point on his neck which he was aware of because of his martial arts. How he then had hid again and thrown the disk to the man's head and taken him down using his confusion, he explains using his finger-print powder and the steel wool pads to make mini bombs and throwing the at the two left. How he then had managed to take one of them down with martial arts. Lastly, he explains about the last man with a temperature cancelation quirk who had caught him and burned him, but that Nakada-san and Yoshinagi-san had interfered and had taken him down too.
He tries to make it less scary than it was for his mom but with how tense and the several tissues that disappear, he thinks he failed. The police officer calls him brave at the end of the story, but tells him that he should've waited for the police. Izuku tells him a lot more rebellious than normally that there would have been a chance that it would have been to late already by then. Then crumbles guiltily and tells his mom he's sorry for worrying her. His mom smiles weakly at him and tells him ''Izuku, I know you want to be a hero, but leave to the police and the heroes for now. You're only nine.''
Izuku tells her again he's sorry, but also tells her he couldn't just leave it alone.
This is the first time this happens. The first time in this life he defends someone not just from bullies, but from actual criminals. He does it in a filthy, stupid alley, and in the end, he needs to be saved by the victim themselves. But the victims are thankful. When they say goodbye to him that evening there are tears in their eyes and they both give him an affectionate hug. Telling him to come visit them sometime.
When he's home, he has at least a dozen nightmares of the encounter. The face of the man burning him changing and his voice warping, until he's an entirely different person. He hyperventilates once, throwing up in the toilet before he can calm down. He thanks god that his mom is on a grocery run when that happens.
He meets the couple again the same week, the last time for their report against the attackers. They give him home-mode cookies and their telephone number. They talk with his mother, telling her she has raised a gem, giving her their number for if they ever need a favour of some kind, and set up a date with her to meet again. Their smiles are bright and happy. They make it worth it.
It's what he tells himself when it kind of spirals down from there. Izuku gets a sudden special talent for finding others in need other than victims of bullies. Most times small things, people being lost, people having lost something or someone, people in need of a small patch-up because of a nasty fall, or even just helping getting a cat out of the tree. He now always brings a first-aid kit with him everywhere he goes.
Something bigger things, the time he sees someone crying over a torn open body of someone else on the ground a month later with another grinning manically down at them, or when a blood-soaked man stumbles out a side-street, or when someone screams for help around the corner. He now has the number of the police on his speed-dial.
He gains something of a name at the police bureau and the neighbourhoods near where he lives. With especially bad cases where the police needs to be called, he first worries about the legalities, the word vigilante falls, but everything he does is in defence of others and legal; he's a kid and he doesn't have a quirk, which apparently makes him immune to more than half of all the laws. The police officers give him concerned frowns, but except that they can't do anything because it isn't like Izuku does this on purpose. He honestly does come across the cases on accident. And when he does, well, he can't just leave them alone. They tell him to be careful, and next time wait for the police anyway.
He stills freaks out with most of those bad cases and an officer named Tamakawa Sansa, who was highly involved in his second incident and who you can mainly recognise because he has a head of a cat, gets in the habit of calming him down after Izuku almost has a breakdown in the middle of the police station after a particular bad almost back-stabbing in another alley.
It isn't exactly ideal. Izuku gets even worse bags under his eyes. His mom is concerned, and the police officers are too. He gets lectures, to which he will always say the same thing. ''But I couldn't just leave them alone. They needed help.'' And then they always sigh and try to convince him to wait for the police the next time again.
(''Just because they need help, doesn't mean a nine-year-old boy should offer himself up with the possibility of getting hurt. You should leave it to the adults. A kid shouldn't have to deal with these things.'')
(''Izuku, please stop this. I-I will ground you. You can't go on like this.'')
He tries that once. The woman gets stabbed and the police find Izuku sobbing with two bodies on the ground. He's trying to stop the blood; prevent too much blood-loss. Izuku has a full-blown panic-attack after that and when the officers try to convince him afterwards when he has calmed down again to wait for the police and that this was worst case scenario, they sound resigned.
Tamawaka-san tells him ''As long as you continue to call the police first, before you interfere.'' And organises a self-protection lesson plan together with several other officers. He forces Izuku to come to the police station to take one of the lessons every week with one of the officers. He also gives him several books he has to read on self-protection and a 'special Izuku' kit, which is a completely normal leather handbag on the surface but contains several pepper-sprays, a taser, a stun gun, a small first-aid kit, a pocketknife, a lighter, a bottle of water, some substances, and a kind of emergency whistle. He urgently tells him he should carry it with him everywhere, and Izuku looks at the bag in disbelief. Sadly, Sansa notices the look and notifies his mother that Izuku has to take the stupid bag with him everywhere, with everything in it. His mom is overjoyed with the safety measures and from that day on Izuku is not able to leave the house without his mother calling a frenzied ''Izuku, do you have your safety-handbag?''
It's incredibly annoying to walk to school with two bags but even Izuku can't deny the practically when the next assaulter he comes by, is down in less than a minute via his pepper spray and Izuku doesn't even freak out.
He gives Tamawaka-san a grumpy thank you when he is there to pick up the unconscious body.
So, my eh new chapter. I think I may have to change the rating to M now. Not sure. Advise?
It sucked writing about rape, even just implying it could happen, it was an awful feeling and kind of made me guilty. Really puts perspective to things, I guess. So, this is probably the last time I'm going to write such a scene.
But, there's finally some action, so that's nice. I'm not sure if I did the whole action scene right… I tried my best.
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I got a question if I'm going to include the Todoroki water incident. I won't. As I mentioned, I haven't read the manga, so I don't really know the details, only that Endeavor is an asshat, and Todoroki's childhood sucked. From what I know, I think the water-incident happened around the time Todoroki was six or seven, and with my time-line, I've already passed that. I will, however include Todoroki before Izuku actually goes to the UA. This, though, may take a few chapters. Like three, maybe four.
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A few quick things I want to point out about the chapter:
- The quirks of the attackers aren't used by the first three because of their surprise or because they're useless in a fight.
- I don't actually know if the steel wool pad thing can actually happen. That was mainly just me speculating, the main thought behind it is aluminium powder (the finger print powder) and Iron oxide (the rusted steel wool pads) together with a flame going boom and becoming really hot. In reality you would probably have to consider the amounts more. But I couldn't really think of other things that may be found in the trash or taken with him by Izuku and could be used as weapon. – I will fight you on Izuku taking the finger print powder with him to school. He's a total nerd, and would totally do that. Also, there's actually coming an extra explanation for that in maybe the next chapter or the one after that.
- Lastly, I know I haven't said anything about Izuku's age in his first life yet. He isn't old though. In addition, Izuku's body is less experienced with these emotions as his old one. Sure, he has his nightmares, but he gets overwhelmed by these too. Which is why he wakes up Inko so often. He can't control them very well yet, because his body and mind are still that one of a child.