The chirping noise was the only thing that was present as a boy approached the same place he had been here yesterday. The place where he met that weird, white-haired lady.

Honestly, there was no doubt that Izuku felt skeptics toward this. Sure he won't lose anything and this meeting, even if it will end up as a prank, would give him a good reason to avoid his best friends tender treatment, but having his hope to be crushed isn't exactly what he want to taste for now or ever.

Plopping down at the side of the park's pathway, he silently waited for the white haired woman to come. Not even ten minutes passed, Izuku was already begun to feel impatient to all of this. He was still an 8 years old kid with hardly a lot of patient after all.

But even so, he still waited for her to come. That lady, Kishibe, she seemed genuine with her tone, even though the boy barely understood what is her intention.

To kill his boredom, he fished out a single notebook from his backpack. The notebook that was filled with his note about pro-heroes and their quirk complete with the explanation of their power and capability.

However, the observation written in the book was nowhere around the level of a trained quirk analyzer but even so, Izuku was rather proud of this. And that's the only thing matter as there is almost nothing he could be proud off about himself. It gave him a sense of accomplishment, it gave him some kind of feeling that he was not just a waste of space like his best friend always said.

Unknown from the boy, a certain someone had managed to quietly sneak behind him. Kishibe, with cigarette at her mouth and boredom on her face, watched the greenette silently with a slight interest. Her single hollow black eye was trained toward the notebook, inspecting the contents of the book with thoughtful gaze behind that veil of disinterest.

Moments passed in silence as the boy completely ignore his surrounding and focused his attention toward the notebook. Only the scribbling noises filled the quietness between them.

Deciding that she won't waste time anymore, Kishibe made her presence known by taking a seat next to him.

"K-K-Kishibe-san!" Izuku yelped in surprise at her sudden appearance while the said person just waved her hand lazily at him.

"Calm down, kid, I won't bite." She paused, letting the boy to take a short breath to calm himself down, "though, you need to work with your awareness. Who knows what will happen if I wasn't the one who was here moment ago."

"W-wait, you're here!? Since when?" He questioned with surprise, feeling a bit unnerved by how he didn't noticed her at all.

"Well, that's not the important thing in here kid, just... try to not to be so oblivious like that, it will be pretty useful later. Anyway, mind telling me what are you doing before?"

Izuku's panicked and scared state from earlier was soon replaced with thoughtful look on his notebook. His mouth opened, but then he closed it again.

Feeling his hesitation, Kishibe decided to ease him from his worry, "you don't need to tell me if you don't like it, you know."

Sigh escaped his lips as he glanced unsurely at the white haired woman who took a drag from her cig, "I-it's my notebook..."

Kishibe waited patiently for his next answer, but seeing how he still keeps his mouth shut, she shrugged it off and decided to look for it later. Not like it was hard to sneak and steal it anyway.

"Um... ano..." Blowing a smoke off, Kishibe looked back at the green haired kid, "w-what are we d-doing here...? I-if I m-may know..."

Her single hollow black eye was now being redirected to the far off again, adopting a thinking look on her impassive feature until she spoke, "why don't we play a game, kid?"

"Game?"

"Uh huh, game. More specifically hide and seek." She raised her eyebrow in questioning way, "Want to join?"

Izuku looked at her meekly and hesitantly. If he was being honest, he doesn't know what exactly is this person trying to do. She mysteriously come to his side out of nowhere and asked him to come here. Now, she wants to play a game of hide and seek with him.

"Let's just say..." his thought was suddenly being cut off by her, "if you manage to win a single match with me, I will buy you an ice cream, or something, I don't know. Point is, if you win you get a prize."

Well, there was no harm in here. Sure she creeped the hell out of him when she sneaked behind him before. Sure she sounds like a criminal boss when talking. Sure she pulled off the whole eyepatch and cigarette gigs perfectly well. Sure she got a freaking pair of sword behind her belt. Yeah, there was nothing to be worried about.

*Sigh* there was a lot thing to be worried about this stranger, but she seemed genuine and something tell him that he won't regret this. Izuku could only hope he won't end this day with him being in piece or peace.

-oOo-

Izuku began to regret his choice from earlier. Why did he agree to play this game in the first place? This is so suck...

Looking around his surrounding, his gaze darted around here and there, trying to find any trace of that creepy white haired woman. While doing so, he prayed to the god above so that he could win at least one time against that woman.

As he gritted his teeth, his face was scrunched in deep frustration while he put his entire focus to win this game.

It has been approximately 20 minutes ever since they had played this whole hide and seek game. If there was a difficulty selection in this game, it would definitely shows 'Asian' level rather than just 'impossible'. And it was saying something considering he himself is a Japanese.

Apparently you need an older Asian to beat an Asian.

69 matches they had played and he hadn't even able to win for at least one time. This is the 70th match of their game and now his role was to be the 'seeker'.

You may ask, how did they can play that many under 15 minutes? Well you see, the thing is, Kishibe always managed to find him less than ten seconds after the match started.

The boy had tried anything, anywhere to hide that some of his hiding spot was simply too impressive that kids his age would see and flock around in mix of awe and respect. Yet, there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do to hide from her.

Eventually, he yelled in irritation at his another apparent lose to the white haired lady.

"Fine! You win again, Kishibe-san! I give up!" He shouted in anger, wanting absolutely nothing except for this game (read: torture) to end.

And cue to that, a figure emerged from a random tree at his side. Izuku pair of emerald eyes was eerily wide and bloodshot, radiating a pure unadulterated fury at the white haired eyed lady.

"Heh." Kishibe scoffed impassively, "I thought you will keep dumbly trying to find me kid, but it seems like I was only being met with disappointment." I'm not even sure whether she wanted to rub his wound with grain of salt or just trying to praise him, but it damn well managed to break his mind as the greenette let out an animalistic roar,

Which sounded like a squeak.

"Oi, kid. You alright?" Poking the boy's head with her finger, Kishibe silently watched him curling himself into a ball of traumatized man. 'Damn, I thought it would take longer than this...' the white haired woman thought.

With exasperated sigh, she began to spoke, "fine, how 'bout I buy you an ice cream?"

Izuku instantly perked up in interest although the look of despair and pain was still there along with him usual meek self. Seeing that he didn't take the bait, Kishibe offered another word that she was hundred percent sure it would fish out his interest quickly given how obsessed he seemed on this subject.

"How about I tell you that pro-heroes also used hide and seek too?"

True to her prediction, the dark aura around the greenette was instantly lifted away from the surrounding. The hollow green pair of eyes he had a mere moment ago was replaced with bright emerald gaze complete with its starry effect.

Surprisingly, Kishibe wasn't unnerved by this. She only did raise her single visible eyebrow and shrugged nonchalantly.

'Meh, has seen something worse before.'

Let it be known that whatever thing she mentioned wasn't meant to be shown around children, or mostly anyone honestly.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" With that, the white hair walked away along with the boy who frantically tried to follow her.

-oOo-

Izuku wasn't sure what to say about the sight he had the pleasure to behold right now.

The boy has followed the white hair from the park and patiently waited for the explanation she, sort of, promised to tell. They're now in a random family restaurant he had never heard off and taking seat at the far most corner table in the room.

Across the table in front of him, sat the white haired lady with her strawberry sundae. It was honestly rather weird to see someone with face as flat as the surface of cutting board eating something really sweet like that.

"Hey, quit staring at me. I know I'm hot, but I won't forgive you if you waste that ice cream I bought for you." Izuku face exploded in red as he scrambling to pick a spoon before eating his own share of much smaller ice cream.

Moment of silence passed between them as they both used the time to devour the cold dessert and savoring the sweet taste of it. Well, if we tried to not sugarcoat thing, then the one who enjoyed their ice cream was probably only the adult one instead of the younger.

Izuku being a total nerve-wreck and shy boy, thanks to his beloved peers, could only enjoy his vanilla ice cream with bitter aftertaste. He still want the explanation about what she said earlier and he grew impatient each second passed.

That and he also want to leave immediately due to the how unnerving the white haired lady ate her ice cream without any sliver of emotion being flashed on her face.

How could a human be that emotionless they literally don't feel anything when eating an ice cream? Izuku, as well as the narrator, wondered.

Eventually, his patient ran out and he give in to his curiosity, "um, Kishibe-san, um... about.. h-hide and seek...?"

Her gaze that was completely focused on the ice cream cup before was now shifted toward him with a look of slight realization, "Damn, I forgot about you..."

"wha-"

"Ahem, anyway, what you want, kid?" Setting her spoon down unto the cup, Izuku finally got her attention.

"A-About hide and s-seek... uhh a-and heroes..."

"Ah..." Snapping her fingers, Kishibe nodded in understanding before speaking again. "Well, let's start with what you know first about pro-hero, kid."

"Um... h-hero uh... saves people...?" She gestured him to continue again. "They also p-protect people... a-and fight the villain! And they also have their own unique moves! And costume! And sidekick too! And-"

His voice grew more and more excited as he keeps rambling toward the white haired adult. Surprisingly, she didn't really mind with his unstoppable chatter and listened aptly while propping her elbow to held her head. She was honestly impressed with how the boy could keep his rant up without needing any pause to take a breath.

By the end of his extensive explanation, Izuku took a deep breath to calm his racing heart down before realizing what he just did and exploded into nervous mess.

"S-sorry..."

"Nah, I have known something worse before." After taking a long drag from her cigarette, she speak again, "so, who's your favorite hero?"

At that, the boy once again exploded into barely containable ball of excitement, "All Might!"

"Heh, classic." And he was instantly reduced into a flustered bunny once again, "So, why did you like him?"

"W-well, it was b-because he can k-keep smiling while facing a-any kind of danger." Now her interest on him was spiking up, "t-they said he was the best because he's the strongest, but no! I-I don't think so... I think he- he was the best because he c-could face anything bravely. That's what made me liked him so much, that's what caused me wanting to become like him. To keep smiling, even if what he did was so dangerous. I want to keep everyone feels that they're safe from danger. I want to be like him..."

He ended his explanation with a smile. It wasn't his usual painfully awkward shaky smile or the one appeared when he was so nervous. No, it was a genuine happy smile.

Kishibe, with her single hollow black eye, silently stared at him with a slight sense of respect. She didn't expect this kind of answer would come from a kid his age, nor was she expected something this deep from him. She honestly expected simple stuff like 'because he's so powerful' or 'because he's number one', but apparently, this boy has managed to gain place in her list of interesting people.

Even if some part of his speech and what he strive was a bit laughable.

"Well, let me have my turn kid." She paused, taking yet another smoke from the cancerous stick. "You probably don't know about this, but the heroes you see in TV or internet, or even under broad daylight, wasn't the only one who fought villain and save people.

No, they're not. There are others who fought something much more dangerous. The one who showed in the public were mostly those who become one only for the attention and money."

"What?" Hearing what she said, he failed to process and believed it.

"Don't take me wrong, kid. Of course there is some other who genuinely did it for heroic purpose, but the majorities of them have other reason than that."

Izuku don't understand. What does she mean? Surely what she said is wrong right?

"Anyway, back to the main topic..." hearing that, he decided to drop the piece of darker truth to think about later, "the one who didn't show themselves on public were known as underground heroes.

They're the one who did the dirty work to keep the world as clean as possible. Of course they also had other reason, some even darker than others, but they mostly did so because they don't like the attention. Just like vigilante, they have a bigger risk and danger to face. Strong quirk alone wasn't enough for them.

And such, they need other skills to do their job, and it was mostly stealth.

Element of surprise played a really big role in combat, even if it's only add a single percent of winning chance. Not only that, the capability of that skill for infiltrating villain base was enough to prove how worth it the skill was to develop said skill in pro-hero's line of work."

Time like this is where Izuku regretted the most for not bringing his trusted note. This piece of information will definitely help him to be closer to his dream and he don't have anything to record her explanation and study it later at home. With a sad sigh, he looked back at the white haired woman who took a drag of smoke before continuing.

"So, do you want me to teach you that skill?"

What. "What."

"I said, do you want to become my apprentice? There's no way you don't realize that I was a pro-hero, right?" If he was brave enough and not stupefied right now, he will joke about how she looked more like a wanted criminal rather than professional hero.

Seeing that he was still unresponsive, Kishibe blinked before continuing, "First, I will teach you how to become a shinobi, before we step further into your hero training. Though, don't set your expectation too high since I won't teach you how to make a copy of yourself or trying to become Jesus. So what is your choice? Kid? Oi, kid? You there?"

The white haired woman could only wave her hand in front of him, wondering how did he blank out like that. Sure, it was not everyday to see someone giving you an offer to train you to become a hero, but it still not a really big deal right?

Wrong. Kishibe had no idea how grateful and dumbfounded the boy was. Basically everyone in his entire life had told him that he can't and would never be a hero. But here he was now, with someone who just casually mentioned about giving him the training to be a hero.

Tear start to leak out from his watery eyes as he repeatedly nodded in acceptance while keep muttering yes and yes. This is the best moment of his life. After such a long time, he finally met someone who believed in him, even if they barely knew each other. Happiness and joy flooded his lonely heart that was only filled with sadness before

Poor kishibe though, having to tank the nasty look from the other occupants of the room for getting a child crying. Not to mention, her suspicious appearance helped absolutely nothing in clearing the misunderstanding.

-oOo-

Welcome back, folks. Hope you liked this chapter.

There wasn't any meaningful development happened in here since this chapter was made to set the pace a bit. Next chapter will also probably be the same though, so yeah, don't expect any real progress in Izuku's training yet.
Anyway, I want to know if any of you guys would like other character also got genderbended (is that even a word?) and who that might be. I'm pretty sure to myself that the other would be Todoroki or even other chara, so give me your thoughts.
Also, note: That underground hero part was just a bullshit I made up halfway. I'm pretty sure it won't be discussed again in the future since I don't sure how exactly I will put this so called underground hero in the story.
I don't really want to write a dozen OC, really.
Give me your thoughts about this chapter and thank you very much for reading it, Noth out.