Izuku meets several new people
TW: Graphic depictions of violence and transphobia
Izukuʻs breathing picked up as he leaped from building to building. The adrenaline coursed through his veins pushing him to go further and faster, to retain more knowledge, to save more people.
It was at times like this, in the dead of night when Izuku was reduced to nothing but a blur across the rooftops that he felt truly free. He was in the here and now, his sole purpose; helping those that others couldnʻt or wouldnʻt reach..
As of right now Izuku honed his senses into finding any disturbances in the still night. He could hear a distant scuffle breaking out and rushed over to intervene.
What Izuku saw as he approached the alley made his blood boil. Now Izuku considered himself and his morals to be pretty flexible. Especially given the fact that he aspired to be a hero one day but there were certain things that he would never be okay with. Transphobia was one of those things and it was happening right below him.
"-So fucking stupid, youʻre a man, when are you gonna stop playing dress up like a little girl?" one of the men in the group snarled
Izuku dropped down into the alley fighting to keep his voice light and optimistic "LADIES, ladies, youʻre all pretty" he exclaimed
Everyone turned sharply towards Izuku, the men scowling in his direction. He stalked forward looming over Izuku in a threatening manner "What did you say kid?"
"Youʻre pretty" Izuku raised his chin making eye contact with the man "Lady"
A feral growl escaped the mans mouth
"Oh, Iʻm sorry" Izuku said mockingly "Itʻs just that you werenʻt respecting her pronouns" Izuku gestured towards the woman who was "So I just assumed it didnʻt matter to you"
The man's eye twitched before he launched himself forward with an aggravated yell. Izuku easily sidestepped the man and fished out the blade from his hoodie. As soon as the man whirled around ready to attack Izuku again he adjusted the grip on his blade before slashing it across the man's throat.
He easily sidestepped the arterial spray with practiced ease keeping a blank, uninterested look on his face all the while.
Izuku twirled the bloody blade between his fingers and looked at the rest of the group, his weyes shining a radioactive green in the dark of the night. Reflexively everyone took a step back flinching slightly at his gaze.
"Oops" Izuku said, his eyes flitting back down to the limp form of the man bleeding out at his feet.
Izuku predicted the next attack before he launched into action. He could tell by the subtle shift in stance, the way he clenched his jaw and knuckles. Izuku had already fallen into a defensive stance by the time the man was charging towards him.
He was much more bulky than the first man and Izuku needed to redirect his weight in order to get him down. He wasnʻt strong enough to have the luxury of charging blindly into the battle without carefully formulating a plan.
Izuku grabbed the mans upper arm and pivoted, as soon as the weight shifted Izuku put all his strength into slamming the man into the ground. Izuku pinned him down and pressed the knife into the man's skin, not hard enough to cause any damage but enough pressure to send a clear warning.
"I'm not really keen on killing any more people tonight, okay? Consider yourself lucky. Now what I want you all to do is to get down on your hands and knees and apologize to her for being disgusting pieces of shit" Izuku said his tone leaving no room for arguments
The men tripped over themselves to get down to the ground muttering out shaky apologies before turning on their tails and sprinting out of the alley leaving behind the body of their leader.
"I could've taken care of myself" the woman said in a deep voice
"I usually find that it's better to attack first, ask questions later. Sadly I don't have the luxury of just charging straight into battle, no quirk and all" Izuku explained
"Oh… well you're pretty strong for some kid" the woman said
"Thanks" Izuku responded "Don't listen to what they said by the way"
"You get used to it" the woman responded with a shrug
"Well I should probably go…" Izuku said awkwardly "I need to… train! Yeah I gotta train and stuff…"
He began shuffling towards the wall to scale it when the woman called out "Hey! Kid! You could train with me if you want"
"That would be great actually… o-only if you're okay with that!" Izuku said
"Wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it. Call me Magne" she said extending a hand to shake
Izuku paused for a moment before saying "I'm Strike"
-•-
Izuku was making his way back to his alley when a white blur tackled him to the ground. Izuku automatically kicked whatever it was away from him and sprang up from the ground. He saw the form of a girl rush toward him again. Izuku grabbed her with ease and pushed her against the wall.
She struggled against him attempting to push herself off the wall, her movements getting more frantic as time passed. Izuku managed to get a good look at her and deduced that she couldn't be much older than himself.
Sighing out in frustration Izuku said "Listen, I don't want to hurt you but I'm not sure if the feeling is reciprocated so I'm holding you down. I don't have anything that you can take either so-"
The girl turned her head around baring her teeth exposing her pointed canines. Izuku connected the dots rather quickly and grabbed his knife from his pocket before nicking a small cut on his hand. Blood immediately welled around the fresh wound and gathered into droplets running down his hand into his palm. He slowly let go of the girl and extended his hand to her.
She launched towards his hand and started lapping up the blood hungrily. Izuku watched transfixed as her hair curled up into a familiar green, her eyes widened and her cheeks rounded. Freckles started to dot around her face and she even shortened.
"Wow" Izuku breathed as he stared at a mirror image of himself
"You're nice!" the girl exclaimed "We should be friends now! You can call me Himiko-chan, Toga is boring. You're super adorable too! Almost like a bunny, I will call you bunny-chan"
Smiling Izuku interjected "You can call me Izu-chan"
Himiko gasped "That's even cuter!" she said
"Your quirk is super cool" Izuku said "Can you change into anyone?" he asked
"As long as I have some of their blood, your blood is super tasty" Himiko complimented
"Can you use the person's quirk too?" Izuku asked
"No, that would be super cool though if I could" Himiko said
"It would" Izuku agreed "You shouldn't just attack people though Himiko-chan, that's not nice"
Himiko pouted "But you're so cute!" she said
"But it might be dangerous" Izuku reasoned "If I was mean I might've hurt you"
"Ohhh" Himiko said understanding dawning on her "I need to learn how to fight"
"...That's not it" Izuku said
"I wanna use knives!" Himiko said, her eyes dancing "Do you know where I can learn to use knives?" she asked
Izuku sighed "I'll teach you Himiko-chan, I need to practice using knives too cause I'm getting kinda bad"
Himiko squeezed Izuku into a hug "You're the best Izu-chan!"
"Yeah, yeah, we need to set down rules first" Izuku said "You will not attack innocent people, do you understand?"
"B-but what about blood?" Himiko asked pouting again
"You can come to me for that, okay? Just please don't drink more than 1 cup a day" Izuku said
"Can I cut bad people?" Himiko asked excitedly "Oh what if it's someone cute? They'd look so much cuter if they were all bloody!"
"Well you can cut bad people as much as you want but only cut bad people okay?" Izuku said patiently
' I'm going to regret this ' Izuku thought as Himiko rambled on about how cute everyone would look covered in blood.
-•-
Dabi walked into Izuku's alley blinking at the sight he saw in front of him. There were two identical Izuku's both chatting animatedly.
"Oh wonderful" Dabi deadpanned "You've multiplied"
"Don't be a dick" Izuku 1 said standing up to rummage through the trash can tucked into the corner
"Yeah!" Izuku 2 exclaimed "What Izu-chan said"
Izuku 1 tsked as he retrieved his guitar from the trash can "You need to work on your impressions" he said to Izuku 2
Himiko puffed out her cheeks "Your no fun" she said
"Yeah, yeah" Izuku said sitting down cradling the guitar in his lap "Any requests he asked looking up at Dabi
"I heard this song Libra" Dabi said with a shit eating grin on his "By The Shape of Color?"
"Good guitar solo" Izuku nodded
"Are you sure, it sounded a bit difficult" Dabi said mischievously
"Now Dabi" Izuku said sweetly "If I didnʻt know any better Iʻd say that you donʻt think I can do it"
Dabi raised his hands in surrender "Just saying"
"You can do it Izu-chan!" Himiko said "Prove Patchy-chan wrong!"
"Itʻs Dabi to you kid, got that? D-A-B-I" Dabi said gruffly
Toga stuck her tongue out in retaliation and sensing an oncoming argument Izuku launched into the song. Dabi and Himiko watched transfixed as Izuku performed the song flawlessly.
"That was awesome!" Himiko cheered "Wasnʻt it awesome Patchy-chan?"
Dabi simply rolled his eyes before saying "It was passable"
"Donʻt listen to him Izu-chan, heʻs just jealous that youʻre super good at this" Himiko said shooting Dabi a dirty look
"Wanna bet kid?" Dabi said before listing off a list of songs he wanted Izuku to play. The night progressed that way, Dabi requesting difficult songs and Izuku performing them flawlessly each time much to Himikoʻs delight.
-•-
Izuku walked into the Gwanʻs small shop, thankfully Nari was already in the and looked up when he entered the shop.
"Izuku!" Nari said happily "Good to know you're alive"
"Good to be alive" Izuku responded "Er… where's Blaire?" he asked
Nari smiled warmly "She's in the back"
"Thanks!" Izuku said skipping through the curtains that divided the front of the shop from their house
"Izuku perfect timing as always!" Blaire said "I needed a test dummy!"
"Test dummy?" Izuku said his voice worried but Blaire was already pushing down into a chair
"Yup. I'm trying to learn how to do makeup but my moms no help, she never uses this stuff and my dad is refusing to let me use him" Blaire explained deflating a bit
"Wait, you guys don't wear makeup?" Izuku asked, shocked
"No" Blaire said
"Oh now I'm just jealous" Izuku muttered as Blaire retrieved a small bag and mirror
"Hold still" Blaire instructed and got to work
She finished in a couple of minutes handing Izuku the mirror nervously asking "What do you think?"
Izuku stared at his reflection, his face was about a shade or two off from his normal skin tone, two dots of color sat on his cheeks, Blaire hadn't gotten the contour quite right making Izuku's jaw look a bit uneven, the eyeliner was drawn shakily onto his eyes, the eyeshadow was an over glorified blur and the lipstick made his lips pop. It wasn't terrible but it could be improved.
"This isn't terrible" Izuku said truthfully "But there's still some stuff that you got wrong, I'll show you how to do it, okay?"
Blaire looked at him skeptically but took his place on the chair nevertheless.
"The order I usually use when doing makeup in concealer, contour, blush, highlighter, eyes, then lips. This shade is a little off but that's fine, you just gotta remember to blend it down to your neck so it doesn't look weird. When you contour you're just defining your facial features, make sure to blend it. For the blush you should avoid applying it in just one spot, if you do that it's gonna look like you have a fever. The amount of shimmer in your highlighter is going to be the deciding factor for how much you apply. For this one we can apply a bit more than we normally would and only put it on the highest points of your face. I like to put down the eyeshadow before the eyeliner but eyeliner is probably one of the hardest things to do. It's just a matter of practicing so you can get the shape and length right. When you use mascara apply it to the base of your eyelash and work up, try to not let it clump and I think the lipstick is fairly explanatory" Izuku explained as he finished up "Tada! What do you think?" Izuku asked handing Blaire the mirror
"How the fuck?" she said, staring at her reflection in shock "Where did you learn this?"
"Oh it's just something I picked up along the way" Izuku said waving his hand dismissively "I can do another demonstration on myself if you want"
"Yes please" Blaire said
Izuku smiled "Where are the makeup wipes"
-•-
Izuku sprinted through the streets going as fast as he could. He'd gotten so caught up with teaching Blaire about makeup that he lost track of time and was almost late to his sparring session with Magne.
"Magne!" Izuku shouted, attracting her attention "I'm so, so sorry, I was- I just got caught up doing… something and lost track of time and-"
Magne squinted at Izuku "Are you wearing makeup?" she asked. Izuku's face flamed.
"I- U-uh I" he stuttered, Magne laughed
"It looks nice" she complimented "Could you… teach me?"
Izuku's face lit up "Yes! Later though," he promised "We should get through this first"
Magne grinned maliciously retrieving what looked to be a pole "Let's get started"
-•-
Later a bruised but satisfied Izuku showed a giddy Magne how to apply makeup.
-•-
Izuku played through a couple of songs, nostalgia washing over him, he was so caught up in the music that he didn't notice a new figure approaching him. The figure waved over a couple more people and soon Izuku's alley was flooded with people.
Izuku looked up as he finished the song and was shocked to find several people who looked exactly the same.
"Uhhh… hi?" Izuku said subtly palming his knife
"Wow!" one of the men exclaimed "That was awesome kid! Wasn't that great?!"
"Yeah so cool" another man chimed in
"Was okay" someone said
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN OKAY THAT WAS AWESOME!" one of the men yelled
"Eh" the second man said
"Ummm" Izuku said dumbstruck as he stared at the men (man?) arguing in front of him
"YO!" someone new yelled cutting through the ruckus "Jin needs us to fall out now!"
A couple of the men groaned before running out of the alley following the other man. One of the men stopped and looked over at Izuku
"We'll come back later, kid! Oh and here's some money" he said throwing back several 1000 yen bills before sprinting off
"What the fuck?" Izuku whispered to an empty alley
A/N: So far Izuku has met Dabi, Magne, Himiko (Toga), and Jin (Twice) in case anyone was confused.
I hope todays chapter didn't disappoint, see you guys on Friday!