Hi, I want to say thanks for all the hearts and bookmarks, I know Boku no Hīrō Akademia is popular and this would probably get more views because of that but I'm still very flattered you've liked this so far.
I also want to thank you those of you who've left constructive criticism (notably NTD Prime, Sokto, and BlazingCharizard01) for being respectable about it.
You've brought up some things I was concerned about when I wrote this (especially about the italics) and I'll try my best to keep an eye out for over using the Italics and etc in the future, I've gone back over the previous chapters to try and fix this. If there are any other problems, please inform me in the comments.
While this note is getting kind of long I also want to say that when I was first posting this I wasn't sure whether to put Drama or Angst as the secondary theme but considering the future themes of the story to be safe I'm adding drama as I think it probably the one that fits better.
Since telling his mom about the South Side, a weight had been lifted from his shoulders even if Auntie Mitsuchan read him the riot act when they told the Bakugous, with him being at the South Side out in the open he asked his mom about alternate over the counter medications or basic treatment when he noticed his students were a little sick.
He would have suggested they go to the hospital if it was bad but understood some of them couldn't afford to take the time off work or money to go to the hospital, he's refused payment for his tutoring before if he knew the person was really struggling, he simply didn't need the money as much as they did and he hadn't started working because he needed money.
Near the end of the third month, he was trying to think of whether to get more blankets for the community center or coats since it was January and a snow storm warning was in the forecast as he rode to the South Side, he was going over the pros and cons when he got an alert from his phone.
He had set up his phone to give him alerts if there was a situation going on near or in the South Side, if there was an earthquake or something he wanted to know that before he walked into it, he took out his phone and checked what the message was about.
His jaw dropped and Izuku felt pale as he re-read the alert desperately praying in his head it wasn't true, horror growing with every word.
According to a hero fansite, the #2 pro hero Endeavor had been spotted by the South Side pursuing a bank robber with a speed quirk, this alone wouldn't terrify him but most people weren't the rabidly obsessed hero fanboy he is.
Izuku felt every statistic for the hero be dragged through his mind, Endeavor was single-handedly responsible for the highest property damage rates in all of Japan, the 34.6% civilian casualty rate that had been consistent for Endeavor's entire career since he left U.A, the 67.3% of civilians that never recover from the injuries caused by Endeavor on average.
Knowing all of this and the majority of the South Side was made up of outdated buildings left Izuku a completely panicked mess, the train had never felt slower as over a million horrible things that could be happening cycled through his mind when the train finally reached his stop Izuku rushed out as fast as he could.
He could see the fire raging over three blocks away once he was out of the station and his heart dropped almost immediately, he saw the full horror of it all when he was inside the district and took his phone out to call 119 when he didn't see any officials trying to control the inferno.
" Emergency services, what's your emergency?" a woman calmly asked it took Izuku a few tries to get his tongue to work correctly " E-endeavor was fighting a-a villain near b-by and n-n-now there's a-a big f-fire! You n-need to s-send someone p-please!" He explained stuttering worst than he had for a while as chaos went on around him.
" Alright sir, please try to stay calm. Can you tell me where you are so I can send help?" she questioned, " N-Niigata prefecture, I-I'm at b-b-block forty-eight of t-the South S-side district." Izuku rattled off trying to calm himself down but it was hard, there was a moment of silence for a bit before the woman spoke again " Sir this is an emergency line and we don't have time for prank calls. The South Side district has been abandoned for years now, much less the site of such a prominent hero fight. Goodbye, sir." she told him, her voice losing its previously held friendliness.
Shocked Izuku immediately tried to protest
" W-wait! Miss- " he was cut off by the click of being hung up on, Izuku redialed the number and got a different operator but it hadn't gone much better, the man he spoke to had told him there was already people there which he could see was a lie.
Izuku had called five more times but he was given to a supervisor " Sir if you continue to call like this we will hand your number over to the police and be pressing charges for harassment and making false claims." the stern woman told him before hanging up on him.
Izuku stood there in disbelief as tears of frustration poured from his face, his mind trying to comprehend what was happening both around him and the multiple conversations he just had.
Snapping back to reality a part of Izuku that he hadn't known existed before rose as he put away his phone and he slapped his cheeks, then he pulled out the whistle his mom had insisted he take when he went to work and blew it as hard as he could.
The people that were around paused from their panic to stare at him " Everyone, listen up! We're starting a fire brigade so line up!" He yelled using his teaching voice getting straight to work organizing them to fight the fire as best they could.
Later when it would all be over he would look back and chalked it up to the intense situation and their familiarity with him as to why they listened to him.
He got them to gather up water from the shorefront as well as digging up exposed dirt and the snow to throw on the fire. He helped the others lead people away from the blaze and somewhere safer. Izuku had just helped an elderly man away from a collapsed building and was about to hand him off to someone else when a young child's scream pierced the air from one of the buildings that were on fire.
Izuku's mind went blank and he wasn't thinking about anything while being only subconsciously aware that he had taken off his coat as he ran into the burning building.
He wasn't expecting the blackened void inside the building with only small parts framed by blinding flames but he pushed on with his coat pressed to his face, he couldn't remember if he called out for the child or not but he found the kid inside a playpen with another child trying to open it while crying.
Izuku didn't hesitate to scoop them both up and covered their mouths with his coat then quickly retraced his steps to the door, running back out he was immediately greeted by other people pulling him away and trying to check on them.
His vision was working hard to readjust to the brighter outside world when he heard a loud crash behind him, turning he saw the apartment building had collapsed into a fiery heap which definitely would have killed the three of them if he had hesitated.
He didn't get the chance to ponder his near-death experience as a hysterical woman ran over and had taken the sobbing children from him, he took a few seconds to get himself in order before he pushed himself to his feet and left his coat with the family, Izuku took off his jacket and wrapped it around his waist.
The sting from the chill did wonders to clear his head and he clapped his hands
" Everyone back to work! We still have ten buildings to put out! Let's move!" He shouted forcing himself to go on and keep everyone else (himself included) focused on the fire.
Izuku's concept of time slipped away as he continued directing the South Siders to keep the fire from spreading, he had also pulled a total of five other people from burning buildings before it started snowing which helped them finally put out the fire.
With the threat of the fire no longer hanging over his head he let himself take a moment to sit down against a street lamp, he stared at the remains of two buildings illuminated by the embers floating in the air. Glancing around he noticed night had fallen and took out his phone to check the time.
He saw it was 10:05 pm, he distantly acknowledge that he spent hours there that had blurred together in his memory and noticed he had a lot of missed calls from his mom and all of the Bakugous, even Kacchan had called him.
Still dazed he called his mom and once she picked up she immediately launched into asking " Izuku! Are you alright!? Oh, baby what happened!? You should've been home hours ago?! A-and then you weren't a-answering your p-p-phone!"
Upon hearing his mother's voice the numbness from shock left him and he broke down, he began sobbing and told her everything that had happened in the last eight hours, ranting about how he hadn't seen one hero, officer, or firefighter the entire time he'd been there.
Inko had done her best to calm him down over the phone only he began talking and promised to come to get him as soon as possible, he would have stayed on the phone with her but his battery was low so they, unfortunately, had to hang up.
As the adenine and shock faded Izuku became aware of how cold it was and how much his body was shaking, he rubbed his arms trying to ignore the painful sting whenever he touched a burn, he was only mildly surprised he had them considering he had rushed in and out of burning buildings.
Izuku nearly jumped when a thick blanket was wrapped around his shoulders, turning around he saw the leader of the Night Crawlers (a South Side gang), the man sat next to Izuku and leaned against him giving Izuku some much-needed warmth.
There were a few other people around them and one of them give Izuku a bottle of water, no one spoke but with the atmosphere around them no one had to for him to understand what they were doing, Izuku didn't say anything to them either finding the silence to be much more fitting as people began pulling charred bodies from buildings or what remained of them.
The South Siders took care of him until his mother arrived being led by one of his students, their reunion was an affair full of tears as Inko told him how worried they (she and the Bakugous) all were and apologies for what he had just been through.
Once they had gotten themselves partially together Inko checked him over for injuries and a few others that were there. Before they left, Izuku had his mom write down the names of clinics for the victims to go to then handed it to the leader, trusting him to spread it around before he left with Inko to a hospital.
He had endured the worried ranting from his Auntie and gentle scolding from his uncle and mom when he got home that night, once everything had calmed down and Izuku had some food in him he passed out in his bed from sheer exhaustion.
Izuku had managed to walk away from the incident with only some minor burns from the ash and some smoke inhalation that would sort itself out with some medication and a few days rest, he had been lucky compared to many others that day but he didn't learn the full extent of the damage until he called the Miyakes' the next day.
He had also quickly learned that Endeavor's hero agency wasn't planning on paying a dime for the damages, someone was even trying to pass it off as a freak coincidence, Izuku had called both the agency and the Hero Safety Commission to complain but was firmly shut down by both for BS reasons.
The calls had left Izuku seething in his room absolutely livid, his respect for Auntie Mitsuchan and Kacchan had grown tenfold if this was how they felt during their fits and didn't kill anyone.
He hadn't known he could feel this angry but hearing those idiots call the South Side an "abandoned den" of degenerates full of drug addicts and moronic criminals left him pacing his room trembling with his fury.
The nerve of them calling his students' such horrible things after having the gall of denying them the money they owned them, Izuku's eyes landed on the Endeavor collectible sitting on a shelf next to Kiku-Kun's drawing and had half a mind to throw it out a window.
In the midst of his anger an idea stuck him, he rushed over to his computer and he checked how much money he had in the account he set up for his merchandise sales, then he did some research into how much money it would take to build an apartment complex, his eyes falling back to his box of collectibles shortly after.
Izuku genuinely might not care what happened to him or that people had given him shit all his life for being quirkless, but the people on the South Side had in the short three months he's known them become much more than just his students to him, and they had been through quite enough in Izuku's opinion.
The residents of the South Side were his people and if no one was going to take care of his people, then he would just have to take care of them himself.