Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to My Hero Academia. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am just a humble writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Note: I always hate when stories have Izuku go bad and just cut off all contact with his mother, or worse openly attack her. She is the single greatest thing in his life and I can't see him giving her up for anything or turning against her. My version is going to hold on with everything he has.

Chapter Two - Business And A Mechanic

Four Months Later

It had been a harrowing series of months. With Stain by his side, Izuku had managed to 'carve' his way into the lower elements of the criminal underworld. It had been touch and go for a while. Clients had tried to cheat off of paying for his information, or threaten him for strategies that wouldn't turn them away from collateral damage as his did, but Stain had taken care of the early ruffians, and once he had been trained to a suitable extent with a blade, Izuku had dispatched with the rest. Soon enough the greenette had built a sturdy reputation as the best information broker in the city, and one that was not to be fucked with. None of the plans and strategies he'd sold had failed yet.

His clients all returned with glowing reviews and the fear of god for their supplier. The secondary response came from a series of repeated events that mimicked a very particular incident that had further cemented his place amongst his growing number of underlings.

It had all come about at the end of his second week occupying his new office and doing business with those Stain helped him to locate and convince to hire him. As they had predicted, there were bad eggs amongst their clientele, and one such man was trying to renege on his part of the agreement.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Orpos," Izuku had said to a rather tall and muscular bald man wearing a jean jacket covered in rhinestones, "but could you repeat that sentence."

The now named Mr. Orpos showed what he thought of the masked teenager's confident and superior tone by spitting a great big ball of snot on the floor, before answering. "I said I ain't paying you shit."

The greenette raised a bored eyebrow, "Is that so? Was the information I gave you on the Infinity Bank's latest security augmentations not accurate? Was your heist not a success?" (These plans had been provided out of all the possible banks in the city because the money in that vault was one hundred percent insured by the government).

Orpos nodded. "Yeah, it was great."

"Then what's the problem here?"

"The 'problem'" the crook heavily enunciated the second word, as if he were talking to a stupid three year old, "is that I can't see any reason I should give my hard earned money to a teenage runt that's shown no sign of any decent quirk in any of our meetings. You think you're hot shit? Well I'm twice your age and the shit I've done would curdle the milk you no doubt still drink from your mother's teat you damned child! So no, I'm not paying you. And for that matter, if you don't give me whatever other information you got on that handy hard-drive of yours I'm gonna make it my mission to make sure none of the other crooks I see entering this building do either. Reputation is everything in this city and I'm more than capable of destroying yours."

All was silent for a while as the man known as Moriarty to all who entered that room seemed to mull over what had been said. In all actuality he was tapping a message in morse code with his foot through a sensor under the desk to Stain, letting him know that his assistance was not needed. This bottom feeder was less than dirt, he just didn't know it yet. Then he leaned forward and steepled his fingers, a strange glint entering his eyes as he did so. "So just to be sure I understand this situation, you are not only refusing to pay me, but are in fact hoping to blackmail me. Do I have that right?"

Orpos smirked, thinking that the man across the desk was just stalling. "Yeah, that's right, bitch." In contrast to his expectations of fear, or at least shame and acceptance, the suited man simply leaned back in his chair and groaned.

"You know, you common crooks are all the same. Prideful, stupid, wearing a false sense of entitlement and superiority as if it is kevlar. Just imagine the fact that your kind used to actually intimidate me, but no longer." Seeing the massive brute about to go into a rage fueled deluge of insults, Izuku raised a hand, and something in his gaze actually stopped the criminal cold. Some survival instinct telling him that he didn't want to fuck with this person right now.

"Before you start ranting about how macho and dangerous you are again, let me show you something." Izuku opened his shirt four buttons down, enough to display a thin electronic band wrapped around his chest.

"W-What is that?" The formerly giddy Mr. Orpos was suddenly struck with the feeling that the situation was no longer in his favor, and had instead turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees to the man he had spent the last five minutes insulting.

"This is a portable heart monitor of my own design. And this," he turned the monitor on his desk around to face his annoyance of a client, displaying the multitude of documents it held, "is a list. A very extensive one. You see, my heart monitor is connected to this computer, this computer is hooked onto a cloud based network, and that network is programmed to release everything it and my other hard drive's contain to every police precinct in the country as well as every hero agency should my heart stop. Of course I could release it manually as well should I desire."

"W-What is on the list?" The print was too small for the man to pick out, and to be fair reading and writing had never been his strong suits. Though he was starting to get a sick feeling in his stomach.

The suited dealer of death and information exposed his teeth in a grin so malicious it was almost a shame that his mask hid it from his prey. "Oh, a little bit of everything. And by everything, I mean everything about you. You see I don't go into business with someone unless I know everything about them. I know your real name, your home address, the route your wife takes to drive your kids to school every morning. I know all of your previous crimes and have enough paper evidence to put you away for life should it get out."

Orpos moved to jump across the desk and strangle the young punk, but a lazy finger pointed at his heart monitor stopped him as the words spoken before registered in his brain with all the horror they entailed. If he did anything to this boy, this man, his life and that of his family was over. The implication was clear, Moriarty's death would release the files, and not just his own, but all the others he held. Prison was one thing, but how long would he or his last when every other criminal in those files would then get put away with him and have a rabid interest in putting down the idiot who got them all caught.

"I see you're starting to understand." Izuku's voice was a malicious whisper of victory, and against all odds, Mr. Orpos found himself shivering. No teenager should possess a voice like that.

"Look, kid-"

"It's Moriarty." The greenette hissed. "Mr. Moriarty."

Orpos gulped, "Mr. Moriarty, clearly a mistake has been made, and I will of course pay you the agreed upon amount."

"You'll do more than that. As of this moment you work for me. You will only take jobs I approve of from now on, and you will complete them in the manner I devise. What's more a portion of all your earnings from now on will go to me via an account number I will provide you. You will take note of every person you work with or for and give that information to me. Do we understand each other? If you deny me this information will be released, and only after your family as been shamed, hunted, and eventually killed before your very eyes will I allow you to die… slowly. Do we understand each other?"

Looking pale as death, Orpos nodded.

"That wasn't an answer."

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes… Mr. Moriarty."

"Fantastic. You may go." He waved his hand, but just as the muscled idiot was turning the doorknob to exit the office Izuku said, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Orpos blinked and turned around, "I'm sorry, sir?"

The criminal consultant pointed to the still drying mound of phlegm sticking to his floor boards. "You dirtied my office. Clean it up."

Bunching his big hands into fists to prevent himself form saying anything that would damn him, the big man walked over and knelt before his mess, reaching out with an extended sleeve to deal with it before his new employer coughed into his hand (a somewhat strange sight for a man in a face-mask).

"Your mouth made the mess, so your mouth will clean it, bitch."

For a moment Orpos thought about saying screw it, and killing the smug fuck across from him regardless of the consequences, but then images started assaulting his mind. His wife on the day they were married, his little boys on their first days of school, the heart monitor hooked to the method of their destruction. Like all criminals, Orpos had enemies, and the police were only the least of them. In the end, the crook didn't so much swallow his pride as he crumpled it into a ball so tiny you couldn't see it if you tried, and put his mouth and tongue to work on the wet floorboards. By the time he was done the previously dirty space downright shone in the lamplight.

"Good, very good. Now get the fuck out of my office."

As Orpos beat a hasty retreat, Midoriya reclined back in his chair, put his feet up on the desk, and basked in the feeling of a job well done. At the same time he enjoyed the pulses in the floor that signaled Stain's congratulations for his methods.

Orpos was not the first fool to try and intimidate him, but just as in his case, the others were assured that copies of their own dirty laundry would be distributed to interested parties should he be killed or arrested, and that they now worked for him. Adding a small percentage of their earnings to his growing coffers, and experiences to his ever expanding information bank. Some had surely tried to test his reigns and escape his control, but a couple of sessions under his knife and a few missing fingers had dealt with that well enough.

Now, a healthy business had been started, crime in the city of Musutafu was securely in his control, Stain was pleased with the progress, a strong cashflow was coming in, and the crime rates of the common criminals had gone down fifteen percent city wide, showing that his methods were indeed as effective as planned. Everything was going well, and the earnings had been reinvested back into the market for a more than healthy return. Now the only thing that remained was to find a way to move further up the criminal food chain and expand the borders of his territory.

Bank robberies, muggings, and henchmen looking for a leg-up against their usual hero battles were one thing, but a serious foothold in the criminal element was another. True he ruled average street crime, but to truly make a difference he needed to get in deeper. He needed a brand new product or service to draw the eye of the bigger bads and open a door. Something big.

It was this thought that dominated Izuku's mind as the streets of Musutafu whizzed by the windows of his specially prepared SUV. The interior had been gutted, armored, and stocked with a custom desk, chair, and bolted down top of the line computer. His driver Ralph was under strict instructions to keep the vehicle moving at all times unless directed otherwise or stopping for gas in one of five approved locations.

The man had been a career criminal, mostly small time work, falsely convicted of murder by a competitor, and was set to spend the rest of his life in prison before Izuku and Stain had managed to track down, via a lot of torture, evidence that cleared his name. He'd been so grateful that he signed on with them on the spot. It helped that they'd killed the man that had screwed him.

Yes, the green haired criminal consultant had realized his dream of a mobile office. And as expected he found the constant change of scenery out of the tinted windows to be conducive to advanced planning. The constant change on his routers through different networks he controlled also kept his activities from being tracked by interested parties, not that anyone was stupid enough to report him, yet.

An idea…. an idea… where could he find a…" A shock of pink out the rear window caught his eye and he screamed to his driver, "Stop the damned car!" Ralph hit the brakes and the special vehicle stopped on a dime. Moving his chair back Izuku looked once more out the window to be sure his eyes had not deceived him. Yes, there walking down the sidewalk with a murderous expression on her face was a pink haired girl wearing engineer's overalls and carrying a large box of what could only be weapons labelled, "Mei Hatsume's Babies of Mass Destruction". Izuku smirked, made sure his mask was in place and his suit pristine, and opened the side door. This person seemed interesting. As did those objects in the box.

The Midoriya Household

Inko was worried, and she wasn't sure what to do about it. Her little boy had made it clear four months ago that his new job would take him away at some strange hours, but now she was lucky if he came back to sleep at 2 AM. And that wasn't the least of it. The way he dressed, walked, and even the timbre of his voice when he spoke was different. Her little boy was acting like a captain of industry, what with all his suits, and overly clear way of enunciation. And he never laughed anymore. It was worrying her. New job or not, his personality shouldn't have been that changed in such a short amount of time.

Then there were the physical changes. His face, once so kind and expressive was closed off, always serious and calculating with everything he looked at. His body, once svelte and innocent had filled in with trim muscle that pushed the bounds of his T-shirt's abilities to contain. He'd had to buy an entirely new wardrobe… with money that came from who knew where! Now Inko wasn't a fashion connoisseur, but she knew quality when she felt it, and holding the material in her hands after cleaning it made it clear that her boy was spending enough to cover several months of their rent on the suits alone. No entry level position, no matter how prestigious paid enough to cover that.

Something strange was going on but she didn't know what, and she wasn't sure how to bring it up. She could always ask Izuku about the changes she'd been noticing, but she just had the feeling he'd brush her off. He was getting a little too good at doing that. Oh if only she still had her hero contacts from the old days she could run a search on the company he claimed to be working for but when she'd turned in her credentials all of her access had been frozen.

She looked at the clock. It was already three hours past when he said he'd return for dinner. Making a spur of the moment decision she got up and proceeded to do something she swore to herself she would never do. Act like her own mother and violate her child's privacy.

Though her boy wasn't home she still tiptoed down the hall. Guilt made her act guilty. Izuku's bedroom door was locked (he never used to do that) but she had a master key and used it to great effect, granting her entry. Flicking on the light switch caused her to stop and stare for a moment.

The room, once covered in lovingly decorated All Might posters and memorabilia was barren. The posters gone. The toys and action figures disappeared. All that remained was his bed, desk, a couple of screen locked computers and a massive map of their city and the wider Tokyo area. Several points were marked with strange symbols but without a legend she could not make hide nor hare of it.

Having already gone that far she braced herself and began snooping. There were no loose floorboards, the desk drawers contained only loose sheets of stationary and pencils (where had all of his precious notebooks gone), his closet held enough quality suits to stock an office of ivy league stock brokers, but it was the bed that truly shocked her. She lifted the mattress and found rolls, literal rolls, of hundred dollar bills clumped together at the four corners of the bed-frame. She took one out and slowly began to count the individual bills when a cold voice asked, "Have you seen enough?"

Inko dropped the roll in surprise and turned to face her son, highlighted in the doorway by the glow of the hallway light. His eyes were strangely closed, but for the first time in months he was showing a true facial expression. Betrayal.

"Izuku, darling, this isn't what it looks like…"

"It looks like you broke into my room and invaded my privacy." His tone was full of plain disbelief. Never in a hundred years could he have imagined this happening. Not from her.

"No!" Inko stood to her full height. She was still shorter than her son, but she wouldn't be guilted for worrying about him. "You've been acting so different lately. Your attitude, these clothes…I'm worried. Honey, I googled the company you work for and I can't find them anywhere!"

"That's because their still starting up and building their clientele. When I said I had an entry level position I meant I was getting in on the ground floor." Izuku stepped into the room and took his mother's hands in his own. "Have I ever given you a reason to distrust me?"

For a moment Inko faltered, but then she looked back at the money hidden in the bed-frame, more than she had ever seen in one place, and she had to know. "No, but Izuku I'm worried about you. You're not the same, and that money… you can't look me in the eye and say that's from your job. And those clothes are worth more than this building."

Izuku sighed before lowering his mattress back down and taking a seat, beckoning his mother to join him. When she did he took her hands once more, still not opening his eyes. This was going to be difficult. He knew he needed to assuage her fears without giving anything away. For a moment he idled with the thought of getting angry and going on the attack about her lack of trust and making her feel even more guilty for not believing in him, but the instant that thought reared its head he stamped it down. Hard. This was his mother. The only person on this earth he loved. The only one that had been there for him in the dark times, the lonely times, the ones when only her loving embrace and home cooking had kept him going. Even the slight guilt he'd clearly already caused her with his earlier accusation was eating him alive. He'd done a lot of 'really' bad things recently, but he wasn't a complete monster.

Settling on his story he said, "There are clearly some issues here, so let me explain."

"Honey, why won't you open your eyes?"

"I'll explain that too, but at the end." He gulped, hating lying to the woman that had given him life. He decided to start with a truth to soften the blow. "You say I'm acting different… there's a reason." He'd never planned on revealing this to her. He knew how much it would hurt. "That day when I came home late, covered in bruises and got the job offer, something else happened."

With growing fear in her eyes Inko asked, "What happened, baby?"

Bracing himself Izuku said, "I tried to kill myself." As his mother gasped he said, "Kacchan, no, Bakugo, had beaten me half to death, laughing the whole time. And then… I met All Might."

"All Might!"

"Mom, please. This is really hard to talk about."

"Of course, honey."

"I got him alone and asked him point blank, could I be a hero like him without a quirk. He said no. He told me to get a job as a policeman and leave actual hero work to those with the 'ability' to do it. He left and… things got dark. My hero, my idol, the image of what I dreamed of becoming had crushed the last shreds of my dream beneath his boot. So I-I got on a roof. I stepped up to the edge and I was about to jump but then, I thought of you. Of what my death would do to you, and I couldn't do it. I stepped back, got sick, and just wandered around for a while until I managed to put myself back together. Do you understand now? I couldn't be the same person after that. I needed to change and become someone different than what I was because who I was was someone willing to do something he couldn't take back."

Inko stared in horror at her little boy, picturing his body crumpled and broken on the pavement. In a flash she had pulled him into a hug, not caring how big he was as she drew him into her lap and kissed his forehead, not even trying to stop the tears from falling. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"No." He admitted. "I knew it would hurt you and I was working on it. As for the clothes, I bought them with my money."

"Where on earth did you get that much?"

"I've been investing my allowance for years on hero merchandise companies. I'm good at spotting up and comers and the returns have been really good. I added my earnings from the new job to it and it's been really lucrative. Some of my coworkers saw how well I was doing and started paying me to do the same for them. So I guess I'm moonlighting as a stockbroker too. As for the suits, well I've learned in business image kind of matters."

Finally finding a hold on her tears, but unable to keep from sniffling, Inko asked, "Why do you keep all the money here?"

"I don't trust banks. They get robbed all the time."

Inko couldn't argue with that. And everything he said made sense. "I'm so, so, sorry you went through that. And even more so that you felt like you needed to hide it from me. I love you, Izuku, and you can always tell me anything."

"Well, if you mean that…" He slowly opened his eyes, and Inko came face to face with crimson iris's in place of his usual green.

"W-What is that?"

"My company hired a new support tech mechanic fresh out of UA. She had a lot of great ideas and one of them were optical implants. They're capable of night, thermal, and X-ray vision. Additionally, they work like a portable computer. Offering me instant access and visual optics to the internet and all of my files."

"What exactly does that mean, honey?"

"My vision is above perfect and I'll always have my information on hand."

Trying to be supportive in light of the bombshell she had just heard and the delicate state she knew her son must be in after delivering it, Inko said, "They look very nice, Izuku. I do wish you'd talked to me before getting such an invasive surgery though."

"It was perfectly safe, mom. Mei is a fantastic mechanic and she knew exactly what to do to make it as painless as possible. They feel like my real eyes did. I feel like she's going to go far at work."

"So she's a girl then?"

Izuku blushed (as hard as he was, he was still figuring out how to deal with cute girls. A fact that cracked Stain up to no end. He mostly relied on his Moriarty persona to function, but he couldn't keep that up with his mom.) "Yes, but that has nothing to do with it."

"Sure it doesn't, honey." For a long time the two just sat together, holding each other, but eventually the timer on the oven sounded and they had to get up or risk the turkey burning to a crisp. Before standing she admitted, "Izuku, I don't know what to think about all of this. It's all so strange and different. You'll tell me if something is truly wrong though won't you?" She cupped his face, "I don't want to find you on that roof again, or worse, splattered on the ground."

The boy flinched in her palm at the memory. "Trust me, that won't ever happen again. It took a while but I finally found my place. I know who I am and what I want to do. I'm better now."

"If you say so, honey. I'm going to get the food ready. I had to keep it warm in the oven since you were so late getting back." She stood to leave but stopped at the door. She needed to let him know one more time. "I love you, Izuku." And then she left, closing the door behind her.

She didn't go directly to the stove however. She knew her son, and knew that he would want to take a shower before sitting down to eat. That gave her at least five to ten minutes. Entering the kitchen she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed a very particular number. Three rings later and a familiar voice answered, "Hello?"

"Fubuki?" She asked. The voice was familiar but it had been years since the two had actually spoken.

"Tatsumaki? Wait, no, you changed it to Inko. Sorry, big sis, I forgot after all this time."

"It's alright, honestly. Look, I know its been a while, and there were good reasons for the radio silence, but something has happened with Izuku and I need to talk about it with someone. There's no one else I trust more than you."

"Little Izu? I haven't seen that cute little guy since he was a baby. What happened?"

Gulping for a moment, Inko braced herself and said, "He tried to kill himself. And now, I'm not sure he's lying to me but he's definitely leaving things out when we talk. Can we meet up and talk about it? I need to get it out there and know I'm not crazy."

Silence on the line, and then the strained voice of her little sister said, "Meet me at that old coffee shop we used to go to in Tokyo tomorrow, and you can tell me everything."

"What about your hero work? Don't you have sidekicks to train?"

"I'm not on call tomorrow and I have friends that can handle the brats for me. If my kid nephew is in trouble. That takes priority."

Inko released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Thanks, little sister."

"See you tomorrow."