DEER
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Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia belongs to Horikoshi Kohei
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Genre(s): Adventure/Hurt/Comfort
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Warning(s): Typo is my most loyal fan, spelling mistakes because English is not my mother language, Possibly OOC. NO BETA, so beware of grammar mistakes
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Summary: Shota thought discovering their 'Nightwalker' to be a kid was bad enough. Not to mention how the said kid is literally Quirkless, meaning the law cannot touch him.
"I don't wanna be a Hero. It's too troublesome"
And then this?
Maybe it's not too late to ask Nezu for a raise this year…
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Or, being a good citizen and stopping an illegal back-alley transaction resulted in him getting some High-Ranking Villain's attention. He didn't even raise a hand at those A-holes. Just glaring at them hard enough, they turned tail.
This second-chance of life is so not worth it. What a drag…
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Keigo was flying high through the city of Hosu while humming a song he heard on the radio yesterday night before his sight landed on the heroes frolicking around on the street below. One of them—Eraserhead—was waving at him in frustration, silently ordered the second rank hero to come down immediately or so help me, I'll erase your quirk whether it was possible or not.
Ah. They finally found him out, huh?
And after Keigo did a good job in following his instruction too. To stay on the back alleyway or the rooftop for the last four days so he could throw their scrutiny off his activity. Turning it off whenever they came too close to discover Keigo's location. It must be because of his last rescue mission. Where he totally forgot he was wearing that thing and just…swept in to the tallest building available. Wing and all, along with the screaming fans shouting his name. The heroes must've seen the video from his laptop and realized that, wait. This is not the person we're searching for dammit, he tricked us!
The platinum blonde man flapped his red wings once, twice, and descended. He rose both of his hands to the air, gave them an awkward smile and nearly begging to the gathering heroes not to be mad at him. They look completely annoyed. Even Present Mic, the hyperactive and super friendly person, didn't have his usual beaming smile. Keigo completely understands, though. To think that their hard work these past days was a complete waste. Because Izuku wasn't here.
Because Keigo was wearing the green-haired boy's choker.
It was a bit of a weird experience he, well, experienced that day. The red-winged man was perched over the edge of the tall building, looking over the crowd with a smile, waving to those who took notice at him. He did another quick swipe before he stood up and extended his wings, ready to take a flight. Then a deliberate step echoed, coming uncomfortably close to his personal bubble. Keigo instantly whirled his attention to the source of the sound.
Leaning on the antennae, was a boy with curly, green hair. He was wearing a tight, black sleeveless one piece and black pants that reached till his ankle. Gloves with the same color snuggled half of his arms. A grey flack jacket covered the upper half, open-toe sandals covered his feet and a white, deer mask strapped on his face, hiding his true self from the world to see. He was a suspicious guy, clearly. And Keigo was ready to move if he turned out to be hostile. But then the kid (he was too short to be an adult) let his shoulders dropped, lifted his headpiece from its place and gave his identity almost immediately. The hero's fighting stance eased, his eyebrows rose in question.
Wasn't this Midoriya Izuku? The child who fought toe to toe with the big, bad villain named All for One?
(The child who asked the heroes to helped his friends yet was abandoned for some unknown reason?)
Keigo didn't want to ruin this occupation image even more to this (hurting, alone, just like the birdman was) teenager. His dedication to this job may wane because of the Hero Association pri—yet that doesn't mean it completely disappears. Not when becoming a Hero was—is—his dream since ever. So, Keigo approached. Plastering a harmless smile as he asked why was Izuku here? (why did he disappear after the final battle? Why didn't he go back to the safety of UA and be surrounded by his new-yet-was-just-as-precious friends?)
Izuku met him halfway then rummaged his back pouches, producing a dull accessory out of it. It looked like a choker. The kid gazed at him from beneath the bangs and spoke, tone even, "I want you to wear this."
Apparently, it was a hidden camera. Where it'll record every single thing within ten meters miles. Where the video will be automatically sent to Izuku's phone and laptop when the day end, if he tapped the choker twice, or when he stopped wearing the thing. Keigo is the number two hero. Not to mention, he's one of the 'mutant' who could cover a lot of bases because of his Quirk; meaning, he could observe from the air and land. Wasn't this piece of technology will be very useful, then? To be able to record the villain's wrongdoing without the need to do anything extra?
Keigo laid this information to the gathering heroes, trying to describe their encounter as accurately as possible. He took a sip of his milkshake chocolate to wet his achy throat—they were now having a nice, albeit a bit awkward, conversation in a small café. Didn't want the civilian to be worried, looking at the assembled throng of Heroes in the middle of the city and thought something bad must've happened—staring at the contemplated look of Nezu, who was peeking from behind Shota's long scarf. The rodent blinked. Showcasing those black, beady orbs that unnerved the heck out of him. It almost like he knew exactly what the wingman was thinking. The smile was there, yet it looked a bit ominous, "Izuku promised you something, wasn't he? For someone smart like you, there's no way you'll accept a gift from a, quote-unquote, stranger."
He nearly choked on his drink after that accusation.
Izuku…indeed promised him something. For Keigo to accept the 'gift' willingly, no matter how reluctant he was at first. Now that he knew this choker is not just a normal accessory, Izuku wanted him to choose. Whether he wanted to use this to collect the evidence that will incriminate the League of Villain, the group he'd been assigned to monitor of (Keigo stiffened. How—how did he know? His act was perfect. His teammates—be it the heroes or villains—didn't know about this secret mission. So, how—) for their wrongdoing or not. Or, he wanted to use this to expose the corrupt governor of this country. To give them a smack to the head and make them realize that employing a kid to be their soldiers is an inhumane thing to do, no matter how satisfying the result will be.
Better yet, he could do both, really. If his skill allowed him to and the villains won't kill him when the secret of living a life as a double agent wasn't compromised.
"This is a different place with different rules. So, even if I can't deal with the 'nuisance' myself, the least I—we—can do is to tell the mass the truth. That this world is never as black and white as they portrayed it to be," Izuku answered when the older man asked why he did this. Why did he ask Keigo to be his 'assistant' instead, rather than asking a proper law enforcement to do it? The greenette pulled the mask back to his face and walked back backward. Step by step, into the darkness of the shadow hanging by, "I understand if you choose the path of 'the greater good'. But my leader said this to me before. That my happiness matter."
"Your happiness matter."
It was Keigo's dream to grow up and be a respectable hero one day. To save others and gave them hope. He may not be as popular as All-Might. And Endeavor turned out to be a jerk who only cared about fame and glory and never the plea of a scared civilian. He may just be a fish swimming helplessly in a big, merciless ocean. Just a 23 years old teenager playing make-believe. His desire to help people, however, burned like a fiery inferno. So brightly, he accepted the Hero Association 'mission' without so much of a thought.
Yet he was just a human. Just a normal, ordinary human being, if they managed to ignore the wings on his back. He'll get angry. He'll get tired. He'll bleed. He wanted to be one of the pillars people could lean on, sure. But if he had to discard his own freedom—to be a doll for people to play and order—he didn't think he could do it. Not anymore. Not when his belief of 'justice' was torn to pieces after Izuku's confession to the public. After the flaming hero's disgusting deed. Keigo didn't want his first love to be tainted by the stigma of screwed mentality. That 'the end justified the means'. Because, see.
He really, really loved this occupation.
The birdman gave Nezu a rueful smile before he took off in a big swipe of exaggerated flaps, ignoring the other heroes' protest for leaving them with more questions than ever. Even though he didn't answer their question about Izuku's reason for approaching him in the first place, they'll see the video of the two oppositions duking it out from Greeny's laptop soon enough. That this world is corrupted. That Takami Keigo was straddled between the line of good and bad for the sake of the betterment of others.
He won't choose a side, though. He'll play both roles perfectly till the end of the day, even. And when the time comes, he'll attack. He'll shed this false skin and retaliate.
After all, Hawk has a perfect skill in adaptation and ambushing its prey without them ever noticing.
(A/N): It's been another week since Izuku last visit to UA.
He knew about Keigo's secret work because he managed to hack the files using UA's tech. Not to mention, as a hidden agent himself, he could see that Keigo is a mole almost immediately.
Also, you know how hypocrite you're right now right, Izuku? If 'your happiness matter' then why are you doing this alone? Why won't you trust your friend and ask for their help? TwT