Note: Just a reminder everyone, this isn't a normal chapter! This is just a fun story that takes place during the time skip.
"You want to what?" Izuku asked, pausing outside the door to Valiant's dojo.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Inko assured him over the phone. "Eri seemed interested in it, but it takes groups of three to participate. It's a competition, but there are classes that teach you everything you need to know.I already checked, it should fit into your schedule, but don't worry about it too much."
"Sure, I'll let you know soon, Mom. I love you."
Their conversation haunted him as he changed into his dojo clothes. It distracted him so much that he completely forgot about Ojiro's tail in the middle of a sparring match. It plowed into his abdomen with the force of a bulldozer, leaving Izuku collapsed on the mat, winded and bruising.
"Midoriya, are you okay?" Ojiro asked, dropping to the ground next to him.
"Fine," Izuku wheezed, not even trying to sit up yet. "That… that was a good move. You should keep it."
"I appreciate that, but I know that it's not good enough to take you down like that. What happened? It isn't like you to get distracted, Midoriya."
He finally forced himself to sit up with a groan. "My mom called right before I got here. Nothing's wrong, she just had an idea that I'm not sure how I feel about."
"Well what was it?" Ojiro asked, unaware that his tail was wagging.
"I… Eri saw something about taking makeup classes and at the end there's a competition. It needs three people, so it would be my mom, Eri, and me. There's nothing wrong with it, and Eri would love it, it's just not something I've ever thought about." Izuku smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "It sounds kind of stupid now that I say it out loud."
"I would feel a little uncomfortable about it too," Ojiro said. "But it could be useful, couldn't it?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, Hagakure was talking about what a shame it was that she could wear makeup regularly like the other girls. She also said something about Bakugou, but he started yelling before I could really understand what she was saying. But makeup is more than you and I think about. If you got good enough, it could really help you on your undercover missions. It would take a while to put on, but if you needed to run away you could just have some makeup remover with you or something."
Izuku mulled the thought over. He had heard that makeup could make someone look like a completely different person when used the right way, but he'd never paid attention to it. Maybe it would be helpful. Besides, he couldn't actually deny Eri anything.
"You're right, that could be extremely useful," Izuku said, thinking about it a bit more. After a few moments, however, his lips spread into a grin. "So you talked to Hagakure about this, huh? What else have you been talking to her about?"
"We've just had normal classmate conversations," he said, avoiding Izuku's eyes. "Nothing special."
"Your tail is wagging, Ojiro. Is it because I'm talking about Hagakure?"
Abruptly standing, Ojiro said, "Valiant, Sir, I want to get your advice on my latest attack idea."
"You can't run forever!" Izuku called.
"Eri, I think that this foundation would match Mom a little bit better," Izuku said, offering a different tube of makeup. "Should we try it?"
"Let me wipe off the brush first."
Inko held perfectly still as Eri concentrated on evenly spreading the foundation across her face. It wasn't perfect by any means, but Izuku found himself enjoying himself considerably more than he had ever expected himself to. It was detailed, precise work, and it posed a challenge that Izuku would never have expected. Makeup was truly an art, and Izuku was playing at being an artist. But, in the meantime, he was enjoying just being with Eri and Inko.
"Will you do her eyes? You're a lot better than me," Eri said, finishing up the foundation.
"Sure, but you tell me what colors I should do."
"I think Mom looks really pretty in the pink ones! And remember, we have to practice what the teacher just taught us. I think you should do it, contouring is hard. I'll do the lipstick."
The two worked until the teacher stopped by, examining the work that they'd done. "You need to blend this out just a bit more, but that's actually very impressive for a beginner. Well done, Midoriya family."
They didn't win the competition, but the makeup didn't stop there. Eri frequently asked Izuku to help her do Inko's makeup, or to occasionally do hers. On a handful of occasions she wrangled Shoto into being their model. It never took much convincing, at one point Shoto confided in Izuku that he found the feeling of makeup brushes against his face to be relaxing.
It was a skill that Izuku was determined to keep a secret. Naturally it was doomed not to stay that way. Fate had been conspiring against him that day, it had to be. The officers were no strangers in the Midoriya household, but it had to be Saito who happened to walk in on Izuku finishing Inko's makeup, directed by Eri.
The officer halted in the entryway, face completely blank with shock. In response Izuku froze, brush poised in midair. They stared at one another for a tense moment before her lips turned upwards into a wicked smile. "Interesting, Little Midoriya. Very interesting."
Saito's reasons for coming to the Midoriya household that day were never to be known, but it was only a matter of minutes after her disappearance before Izuku was barraged with texts about his new hobby. He expected some teasing and questioning the next day at work, but his heart nearly stopped when Tsukauchi called him into his office.
"Y-yes sir?" Izuku asked, hovering in the doorway.
"It's nothing bad, Midoriya. You can stop looking like I'm about to kick you off the force." Tsukauchi smiled, gesturing for Izuku to sit down. "I've been thinking about your escapades in makeup. Have you done your own makeup at all?"
"Only once or twice because Eri wanted me to," Izuku said nervously.
"You should do it some more," the detective said. "It could be a great temporary disguise for shorter jobs. Work with it, see what happens."
There were a number of reasons that those who knew of "Deku" considered him a sort of urban legend, or a cryptid. Deku's legendary status was only reinforced by the fact that no one could quite agree what his face looked like. In short, taking a makeup class ended up being one of the most valuable skills Midoriya Izuku ever learned. If the female officers forced him to do their makeup whenever they had a date coming up, that was their business.
Question and Answer
Is this the arc that was set up in Chapter 1?
Yes! I'm working on it, but soon we're going to see the result of the prologue. Things are really picking up, expect to see some major action in the next chapter or so.
How old is Takane?
Takane is fresh out of the Police Academy, almost nineteen.
Are we going to see more about the quirkless movement Takane talked about?
We're definitely going to see more about the quirkless movement. I've been planning that bit probably for about a year now? It's going to seem very… thematic for the moment.
Does Izuku realize he's basically got multiple fanbases?
Izuku has no idea that it's to that level. I think he would die of embarrassment if he did.
How did you get the idea for this fic and Arson?
Arson started because I went through a phase where I was really into fics where Izuku actually did have a quirk. I kept thinking about the possibilities, but since it was my first in-depth fic, I wanted to be able to reconcile it with canon as much as I could. As you can see, I'm slowly getting more comfortable with canon divergence, but the most important thing about writing to me is that the characters stay true to themselves, so I'm trying to do the best I can given the things that are different from canon. I actually got the idea for Detective Midoriya from a prompt on Ao3. It was just supposed to be a short, fun story, a palate cleanser if you will. The original outline was only fifteen chapters long. As you can see, I cannot write a short, simple story to save my life.
Do you have an update schedule?
… I wish.
Will you ever sell exclusive fanny pack merchandise?
That is not something that I have ever even considered. If there was a high demand for it… maybe? I have like no online presence, though, and if I did start selling them, I'm fairly sure that Kit would murder me in my sleep. She could, too. She's my roommate, so she has the means.
In a shocking turn of events, Kit hates the fanny pack because she thinks they're hideous. It's extra offensive that I made it bright yellow. I don't know what her complaint is, though. She watched the first BNHA movie with me, and if you've seen that (and subsequently Izuku's suit) you'd know that unfortunate fashion choices are kind of Izuku's thing.
What do you go to school for?
I actually have a lot of areas of study, but the main one is English. Before you jump to critique my grammar or harass me about my typos, know that I write and type up fanfic in my free time, which is usually around three in the morning. This means that my brain isn't fully operational.
In other news, I have had some massive writer's block since the semester ended because whenever I pick up my pen, for at least the first half hour, everything that ends up on the page sounds like my academic writing, which isn't ideal at the moment.
Kit is going to school to be a geneticist, btw.
What are your favorite colors and why? Is there a particular thing you like about that color?
My favorite color is green. A large portion of this is because I have a deep love for plants (and I have thirty-plus houseplants at the moment), but it's also such a serene, unaffected color. I grew up in a place with a lot of evergreens, and something about the deep color that feels innately calm and… whole to me.
Kit's favorite color is yellow! She says, "Yellow is the color of life. A picture without yellow in it is completely bland. Nature without yellow wouldn't be actually alive."
So… How's life?
All things considered, life is pretty good. I've got some serious anxiety paired with some serious writer's block at the moment, but I'll make it through. I intended to have this to you guys forever ago, but the aforementioned problems were compounded with my sister stealing my laptop for a few weeks, and that's my only effective way to get these things done. Sorry, but I hope you guys enjoy this short story! Kit and I had a really fun brainstorming session, and I don't totally feel like I've done justice to the idea, but I guess this is better than nothing. Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you all soon!