Izuku adjusted the canvas slightly, and let out a sigh as he fought to get it centered.

"Relax honey, no one is going to notice it being off centered by .1 of a meter." His mom said and he smiled at her.

"I know but it's the first time my art has been in a gallery, I don't want to give them any reason to dislike me." He replied as he finally got it centered.

"They are all going to love you. Oh Izuku, I'm so proud of you." She quickly grabbed a tissue out of her purse, and dabbed her eyes. Izuku smiled at her. He had definitely gotten his cry baby tendencies from her.

"C'mon you're going to make me cry." He complained.

"I'm sorry but you're all grown up now. I remember when you first started drawing, and now your art is in a gallery."

His drawings had started as silly fanart of his favorite heroes. Crude drawings that barely had any resemblance to the hero he was actually trying to draw. But no matter the quality his mom had hung each one from the refrigerator, and put every single one of them in a file. The more and more he kept drawing the better they got. He would spend nights where sleep was tampered with from repeats of the taunts of his classmates spat at him, he would draw. Then on his first day of high school his mom gave him a paint set with canvas that she had been saving up to get.

"I'll never forget when you gave me that first paint set." His mom gave a watery laugh.

"I think you used all that paint to the very last drop. I remember finding tubes that were cut in half and looked like they had been completely scrapped out."

"That was good paint, there was no use of wasting any of it." Looking up at the clock, he smiled.

"Shows about to begin."

"Come on Sho, it would make me really happy if you went with me?" Hizashi pleaded and his lover groaned.

"You're a big boy, you can go without me. Why do you even want to go anyways, you never mentioned being an art fan before."

"I'm not really but there is this artist who goes by the name of Deku who is making his debut at the gallery tonight. The art gallery posted a picture of one of his paintings on their website, and it was intriguing. I would like to see more of his work. Want to see it?" Hizashi asked as he began scrolling through his phone. Aizawa had a feeling that no matter what he said, he was going to end up seeing the painting.

"Sure." He waited for a moment, then Hizashi shoved his phone in his face. Aizawa could help but stare. The painting was of a roof, a sunset in the background, and two bright red shoes neatly placed at the edge. Aizawa took in a breath, those shoes were the ones that quirkless had to wear to identify themselves.

"Is the artist quirkless?" Hizashi just looked at him, his eyebrows raised.

"How did you know? That's another reason I wanted to go, he's the first quirkless artist to make it into an art gallery. Most people who get in have some quirk that is art related."

"Those shoes are the quirkless type you have to wear, you can tell by the color. All quirkless have to wear shoes that are bright red. I thought you would have known that."

"I thought that law had been appealed years ago."

"No, there was a string of protests about a decade ago that attempted to get the law appealed but nothing came out of it."

"Oh okay."

"I can see why you would be intrigued by the rest of his works. I'll go with you."

And that is how he had ended up at an Art Gallery instead of sleeping. Thinking back on it now, he should have just kept this mouth shut. But the look of glee on Hizashi's face had made it worth it. They walked around the gallery for a while, deciding to leave Deku's painting until the end. But he could feel himself already getting tired of it all. All the chatter of people in fancy clothes drinking wine, talking about what the painting could mean when it literally was just slaps of colors on a canvas. After about an hour of wandering, they had finally made it to the wall with Deku's paintings. The first was the shoes one with a little blurb next to it.

"To the 85% who have tried and the 65% succeed." Aizawa felt a chill rush through him. He knew that statistic of quirkless suicide/suicide attempts were big but 85%. He felt Hizashi next to him stiffen as he read the blurb as well.

"That's awful." Hizashi whispered, "I mean I knew it was bad but 85%." Aizawa gently intertwined his hand with his.

"Come on, we can do some research at home if you want." Hizashi just nodded as the made their way through the next couple of paintings. There was one with a burnt notebook laying in a pond, the ink running and a fish nibbling on it. Another was a landscape of Takoba beach which is more like a landfill than a beach. After that was a portrait of a man with sandy blonde hair, brown eyes and a scar right across his earlobe.

"Wait, isn't that?" Hizashi let out a breath, "a couple of weeks ago remember that serial killer Blood Axe? Well this portrait is of one of their victims I think." Aizawa let out a breath.

"Was the knowledge ever released to the public?"

"Not of the victim, the family didn't want it."

"Could it be a coincidence?"

"I don't think so. I mean it is down to the nitty gritty detail, the scar for example." Aizawa took a deep breath, and quickly took a snapshot of the painting with his phone.

"Let's take pictures of the other two and run them through the database at work. If we don't recognize them. It could just be a coincidence. Not to mention, the Blood Axe was caught, so there isn't a chance that this person is them." Aizawa reasoned.

"I know but it just seems weird." Aizawa nodded and they kept walking. The next one was of a woman with dark blue hair and green eyes, that however wasn't what caught his attention. It was the tattoo on the base of her wrist, for some reason it seemed familiar. The final was of a child. A little boy who was no older than 12. He had a bright red hat with two golden spikes, and black hair. Aizawa felt the color drain from his face. He knew this one. About four years ago now, he had taken a bunch of freshmen to a training camp over the summer which had been attacked by villains. He had died to the same villain who had killed his parents. Looking at the date of the painting, Aizawa let out a breath. It was from four years, in the same month, and from what he guessed the same day.

This is duel posted on AO3 and my username on there is ArticPanda173