Full Chapter Name: The Case of Getting Shinsou Hitoshi a Trainer
"Ren," Izuku coos, peeking into a dark alleyway. "Here, kitty, kitty." He clicks his tongue, searching behind a filthy dumpster. He knew that it was incredibly stupid to go into an alley at night, especially being out so close to the curfew set for minors (he really didn't need any officers or heroes calling his foster guardians), but Izuku wanted to ignore the fact that he was likely to get roughed up when helping Shinsou train, and finding a cute ragdoll cat is a great distraction. The white-furred feline, who luckily has an owner who was smart enough to put a tag with their information on it, has a record of running off to seek more attention. Ren was said to be very affectionate, and often, when their owner was busy or out of the house, would run off to find someone who would pet him. Such a naughty kitty.
Izuku sighs when he doesn't see any white fur, straightening his posture. Looking into an empty alley for a people-loving cat was improbable, but Izuku didn't really know where else to search, considering it was nighttime, and he had already put up a handful of posters. There wasn't much he could do, but he didn't want to spend a lot of time in his lonely apartment, so peering into disgusting alleyways was the next best thing.
He runs a hand through his messy curls, pushing a few strands from his face. He turns to leave the alley when he hears heavy and quick footfalls becoming louder behind him. He whips around to see a burly man running straight towards him.
'Damn, I'm gonna die, right after I make a friend? What a cruel, cruel world we live in.'
Before he could move out of the way, he is forcefully grabbed and yanked into the man's arms. There's a sudden sting at his neck, a rush of heartbeats, and he could feel a trail of warm liquid trail down, which he could safely assume was blood, seeing as how a knife was being held closely at his throat. Not long after he's taken hostage, another figure comes rushing in, who of which Izuku quickly notes to be Eraserhead due to his white scarf and gold eyewear. He freezes when he sees Izuku, giving the criminal time to slightly stammer a demand.
"Sta-stay back!" He shouts, and Izuku loses a bit of breath when the arm holding him tightens. "I'm warnin' ya'! I-I'm not afraid to hurt him!"
While Izuku struggles to get a full breath, he swiftly analyzes the guy's quirk. With a small glance down, he could see that the criminal wasn't holding a knife, rather he was holding a finger-turned-into-a-blade to Izuku, and it was only one finger. The rest of his fingers were normal and not sharp, meaning the guy had the ability to change them into knives or was born with a random blade (ouch). This also meant that there was a chance that his quirk wasn't exactly a set mutant one, and that Eraserhead had a chance of erasing the quirk, and in turn, would leave the guy without a weapon. He could still injure Izuku without one, seeing as how large and muscular he is, but he could do more damage with a knife.
Taking a deep, or as deep as he was allowed, breath, Izuku calls out to the Pro-Hero, "Try erasi―" He's cut off, strangled by a pressure on his airway as he tries to gasp for a good breath, quickly becoming lightheaded. Fortunately, the meaning of his interrupted message makes it, and raven locks of hair rise up into the air, a clear sign of Eraserhead using his quirk. Izuku, fear claiming his mind, shuts his eyes, hearing an incredulous cry behind him and the weight of the knife disappearing. The arm is soon gone, and Izuku is sent forward, landing on all fours as he sucks in air, coughing a bit. Soon as he has caught his breath, he opens his teary eyes and looks back to see Eraserhead tying the man up with his capture scarf.
"Thought Monday was the worst day of the week. The world sure proved me wrong." His voice is raspy, and it didn't feel too nice to talk, but Izuku couldn't help but use sarcastic humor. It was how he coped. Eraserhead doesn't laugh.
Instead, after ensuring the criminal is captured, he turns and asks, "How injured are you?"
Izuku gives a breathy, "Just my throat, nothing serious." He reaches up to find the cut, smudging the thin blood trail in the process, and he winces when he accidentally grazes it. "Should be fine, no need for a hospital or a police report, so I'll be on my way."
"Hold it," Izuku freezes, peering back at the underground hero with the most innocent expression he could pull off. "Who are you, and what are you doing in an alley so late at night?"
"Oh, y'know, just a drug dealer doing the usual drug deals a teenager has to do to pay school tuition. U.A. ain't cheap." Eraserhead stares. "Okay, okay, no need to stare at me like that. I'm Midoriya Izuku, and I'm in an alley so late at night because of a cat." An eyebrow is raised. "I'm being serious, Eraserhead! I was just looking for a cat, I even have his picture on my phone." Izuku shoves his hand into his pant's pocket, pulling out his phone. He turns it on, opens it, and pulls up the picture he has of Ren. "See? A cute kitty-cat named Ren. Missing." He turns his phone off. "Can I go now? Pretty sure it's past curfew for minors, and I don't wanna get my foster guardians called. Wouldn't be fun dealing with whatever punishment they'd dish out." He grimaces, pushing the thought of his guardians away.
Eraserhead stares down the teen, a low groan erupting from the man on the ground, and he flicks his chin, signalling Izuku to leave. Said male gives a mocking smile, his mood ruined by the thought of his guardians and the fact that he came close to being killed. He takes in a deep breath, attempting to calm down and mostly failing. As he walks down the sidewalk, past slightly dim lampposts, he presses a finger under the cut to see if he could wipe away the majority of the blood. However, when he meets a sticky and dry trail, he lets out a loud grumble. Dry blood was not a nice feeling.
Izuku thanks his luck that at least he doesn't have to take a train to get home. He had started out as far as he thought was enough, and he made his way back slowly, getting closer and closer to the way home. With another sigh, he runs a hand through his hair, stressed, and he goes down the path back to his apartment, ready to take a shower and then collapse into bed.
Izuku flops down into his chair, instantly pressing his face into his crossed arms. He could hear a small chuckle, making him lift his head up to glare at his purple-haired friend who had a small, amused smirk on his face.
"Rough weekend?"
Izuku's groans are muffled as he puts his head down again, "Why did I choose the fast food industry to work in? Tell me, Shinsou, why am I making myself suffer?"
"Because you need money...?" Shinsou trails off, answering Izuku's questions despite them most likely being rhetorical.
Izuku sighs, "Right, right. Can't do underage prostitution, probably even worse."
"It's also pretty illegal, but that's not the main point, is it?"
"That too. Anyway," Izuku sits up, rubbing his face. "Talking about the Sports Festival―"
"We weren't talking about the―"
"Talking about the Sports Festival," Izuku sends a pointed look at Shinsou, daring him to interrupt again, "Today marks the third day since I offered to find you a trainer." It is Monday, mid-April, and there is this week and the next left before the popular event was planned to occur. However, despite that time seeming to be slightly long, it is a short amount of time for anyone to begin any sort of training. "I have to look for another cat after school, and I do have a shift tonight, but I'll try to keep an eye out for anyone who looks like they'd train you."
Shinsou rubs the back of his head, looking to the side. "You really don't have to go through the trouble of doing that."
"Well, to be honest, I don't want to go with the alternative of punching each other, so I think I'll give it one last look." Izuku pulls out a singed notebook, the cover damaged with burns all over it. On the front, in black, permanent marker, "Hero Analysis for the Future," was written, "No. 13," underlined below it.
"That notebook has history," Shinsou gives a low whistle, eyeing the brown marks that marred the journal. "Wanna share?"
"Just some bullying, no biggie." Izuku nonchalantly says, and Shinsou grimaces.
"Pretty sure that problem's not as small as you're making it..."
"Moving on, I decided to revamp my stalker tendencies and analyze your quirk." Izuku opens the charred notebook, flipping to around the middle, landing on a page with a large autograph on it, causing him to scowl a bit. He quickly moves on to the page he intended to go to, flipping past the obvious signature and to a page that had a bit of information already on it.
Before he and Shinsou separated on Friday night, they had swapped phone numbers, and over the weekend, Izuku had gained a bit of information about the other's quirk, such as how it is used. At the bottom of the paper, Izuku had listed a handful of questions he had for Shinsou, who would hopefully be able to answer at least some of them.
Shinsou peeks over at his page, "Didn't think you'd write a whole page about my quirk." He looks on the left page. "Or draw an okay picture of me."
"I know, I know," Izuku sarcastically drawls, rolling his eyes. "I'm such an amazing artist. Thank you for the compliment."
"You're so, very welcome."
Izuku shakes his head, smiling, "Moving on, I have a few questions about your quirk."
"I'm gonna warn you now, I might not know the answer to some of them. Anytime I'd use my quirk, I'd be called a villain, so I tried to avoid even mentioning it." Shinsou rubs the back of his neck, his eyes slightly downcast.
"Understood," Izuku hums, "but this is some stuff that's probably important to know for the Sports Festival. When's the next time you're free after school?"
"I'm never really busy, unless I need to do something for my mom, or my dad comes home."
"Okay, so you're free tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Shinsou nods. "Should be."
Izuku pulls out his phone, checking his calendar, "I have some time before my shift tomorrow." He looks up at Shinsou. "We could try testing out your quirk then, if you're comfortable with it."
Shinsou averts his eyes in hesitance, looking down, "... Are you sure you wanna―"
"Shinsou, I'm not going to quit being your friend because of your quirk. I thought we already had our heart-to-heart moment Friday. Did you just forget over the weekend?"
"No..." he weakly answers.
"Good, because that was probably that was the best thing I've ever said without messing up or sounding stupid."
Shinsou stares at the smaller boy, before eventually giving an amused huff of air, "Not the eloquent type, I take it?"
"Not at all," Izuku grins.
Izuku gives a fake sympathetic expression to the woman tearing up, only feeling irritation and pity. This week was not going as well as he wanted, and it's only Monday. He uncrosses his legs, pulling out his phone to check the time to see that he only had three minutes left on his shift. He pushes himself off of the restroom sink, giving the woman one last look before commenting, "You requested me to find Ren on Sunday, Mrs. Uchiyama. It's Monday. You can't expect me, a student with a part-time job, to find a cat, in a city, in less than two full days." He tries to amend, realizing how harsh he was sounding. "I'm sorry, but that expectation is too high for anyone. Just give me more time, and I'll let you know if I find him or not." He pushes the door to the unisex restroom open, feeling exhausted. "Have a good evening, Ma'am."
He walks back to the employee area, moving to stand beside Kawaguchi. Today was moving extra slow, most likely because of the villain attack that happened nearby (which also made Izuku get into work late, this week is not going well), and there weren't many people coming inside to eat or order, meaning there wasn't much to clean.
Izuku side-eyes his coworker, "Has Fujiwara come in yet? This week's going so bad that I just wanna go straight to bed and cry myself to sleep."
"Thought you always do that," Kawaguchi teases, blowing up at a blond strand of hair that strayed from his usual style.
Izuku snorts, "No, I only do that occasionally. It's you who does it every night, Kawaguchi."
"First of all, stop with that 'Kawaguchi' bullcrap, I'm not used to it. Secondly, I'm in college for a history major."
"Yeah, Kawaguchi, but it's gonna be hard to get a job with a degree in history. You'll be crying every night because you'll still be working here, while I go off to college with a scholarship because I'm in U.A., and you're not."
"Ouch. I'm crying right now. You can't tell, because you're too short to see, but there are tears streaming down my face. I'm bawling."
"Good. Cry, you giant, 5'10 baby, cry."
"Not my fault that a lot of Japanese people are shorter than Americans. You were born to be a pipsqueak."
"I will end you, Kawaguchi Michael." His English was accented, but it still carried the threat he was pushing into
"I dare you, Midoriya Izuku."
A new voice interrupts, "Now, now." They both turn to the woman with blue hair. "No need to get all worked up because I'm around."
"I wouldn't say that, Nakajima," Kawaguchi waves his hand, dismissing the older woman. "'Fraid you're not my type. Not sure about our hormonal teenager here though―" He gives a grunt when an elbow is shoved into his stomach.
Izuku glares, daring the other to say anything else. "Being short means that I can easily make it to where you can't breed demonic spawns anymore."
Kawaguchi places his hands in a placating gesture, "Okay, okay. Jeez, Midoriya, don't you go to a hero school? Threatening people isn't very heroic."
"Izuku, and U.A. isn't just a hero school." Izuku grumbles, scowling. "I'm in 1-C, not 1-B or the cursed 1-A."
Kawaguchi quickly realizes he's breached a sensitive subject and goes to apologize, but Nakajima cuts him off, changing the subject. "Fujiwara said he's close, so you can go ahead and leave. It's going pretty slow today, no need to worry about anyone rushing in or anything." Izuku goes to protest, "I will throw you out of this restaurant myself, Izuku. Go away, you loser."
"Fine." Izuku pouts, freckled cheeks puffed, and moves to head out. He gives a small goodbye to Akari, who gives him a smile before readying an order, and then he walks out the door, giving a final glare at Nakajima and Kawaguchi, who both waved with grins on their faces. He mutters an insult, and despite the two not being close enough to hear, it appeared that their beams widened.
As he wanders down the sidewalk, he ponders over the option of taking his hair down or not, all while pulling out his phone to once again check the time. It was around fifteen minutes past nine, and all Izuku wanted to do was collapse and screech; didn't matter where or when, he just felt like it. Every time he passed an alleyway, he'd quickly glance to see if there were any threats before rushing past, despite the fact that there were still groups of people out. It seems the hostage incident from yesterday had made him skittish around dark, creepy corners.
'Understandable, have a nice day.'
He finally makes it to the station, snatching his train pass out of his wallet and stands on the platform to wait for the train. He checks the time again, blanching when he sees it's past 9:35.
'Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasedon'tdothistome...'
He looks up to search for groups of people, slightly frantic as he hopes that he didn't miss the train. There's a bit of hope when he sees a good amount of people still at the station. He anxiously taps his foot as he waits for a train, heaving a breath of relief when he spies one coming with the exact identity number he sees almost everyday.
'Thank yooouuu...'
Izuku rubs his tired eyes, yawning. His mind felt a bit floaty and thick, and he stopped thinking about anything work or school related, rather he was thinking about trivial things, such as how he could get away with murdering Kawaguchi or how hard Shinsou would punch him (the only experience he's had with fighting is from bullying; he never fought back before). He was a bit away from the station now, and was about twenty minutes away from his crappy apartment complex, but he was in a less populated area, which was unwillingly making him a bit more skittish. His pace grew faster, almost to a speed-walk but not quite, and a soft humming of a tune from an old game being reverberated as he does so.
"... Now, time to tell them, don't take my dream..."
"Hey."
Izuku lets out a surprised yelp, spinning around to see Eraserhead's tall figure standing in front of the alley he just passed. Strangely, it was the same alleyway as the night before, and Izuku felt a shiver run down his spine as he took a deep breath. He places a hand on his chest, feeling his rushing heart. "Is it just a normal thing for you to make my heart race every time we meet? You just like scaring teenagers for fun?" Sarcasm was obviously flowing from his mouth as he calms himself down. "Must be, unless I'm in love or something." He lets out an airy chuckle when he sees the drained expression on the Hero's face.
The raven shakes his head, muttering something that suspiciously sounded like, "Weird problem child." Then, oddly, he sticks his hands into his capture scarf, pulling out a medium-sized, white item. "I believe he belongs to you." Izuku squints his eyes, visibly confused, before he has a sudden realization.
"Ren?"
The fluffy cat looks up when he hears his name being called, giving an adorable meow, which proves Izuku's realization correct. Izuku steps forward, coming closer to the ragdoll cat, and in turn, getting closer to the older male. He holds out a hand to let the feline sniff it, and he gets a small headbutt in return, Ren delightfully prompting him to give some affection. Izuku smiles and gives him a small scratch.
"So, Mr. I-Like-To-Scare-Children-For-Fun, what do you want in return for finding Ren?" Izuku raises his eyebrow in question, glancing up at Eraserhead. "I may be a drug dealer, doesn't mean I'm a successful one, but I'm sure I can do something. Find a cat, a dog, a life―actually, I wouldn't count on that last one. Not sure someone can find what they don't have."
Eraserhead just sighs, carefully handing Ren to the green-haired boy. "Repay me by going home, preferably before the curfew for minors."
"Hm, that, I can do." Izuku peers at the cat, who was now in his arms, cooing, "Guess you're coming home with me tonight." He looks back up. "Buuut," he drawls, "You did my job for me. You should be paid in full."
"How kind of you."
"I know, I know. I'm the nicest person I know."
"Kid, just go home already."
"Nah, not until I think of something else I can do for you." Eraserhead sighs again, and for a long, long moment, he looks like he wants to pass out right there, which Izuku could relate to. Izuku racks his brain for another task he could do before a certain indigo-haired teen comes to mind. "How about I pay you back in potential?" Eraserhead doesn't answer (he probably doesn't know what to say to that), and Izuku takes that silence to continue. "Sports Festival's coming up, and I have a friend who needs some help training."
Eraserhead stares at him. "Is that friend you?"
"Excuse me?" Izuku gasps, reeling back in a dramatic form of hurt. "I have friends―more like one friend, but still." Izuku shrugs. "I don't care too much about the Festival, considering I don't want to be a hero or anything. However, my friend does, and I've promised him that I'd help him."
"I assume your friend is probably in 1-C." Eraserhead brings a hand to rub the bridge of his nose, presumably attempting to fight off an oncoming headache. "Go to the Teacher's Lounge tomorrow during lunch. I'll decide whether or not to train your friend by then, but for now, go home, Problem Child."
"Aye, aye, Captain." Izuku salutes with a free hand, making sure to hold Ren securely in his other. He turns and walks away, grinning and quietly singing a happier song to himself and Ren. He hadn't felt this amount of joy in a while, not since his mother died (that's another topic for another day, no ruining Izuku's happiness), and there was almost a skip to his step.
"... I'm just as real as, I'm just as dangerous, as you will soon find..."
He might have just saved himself from getting punched. Oh, and he might have helped Shinsou get a trainer. That too.
10.7 pages · 3728 words
May 29, 2020
I've finally finished thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissss aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh. There's some parts I'm not happy with but it's fine. I'm sorry if anyone was OOC, and if they were, let me know, and I'll eventually go back to fix that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please, please leave a comment. I love reading those and they keep me motivated to write.
I hope all of you lovelies are stay safe; 2020 is proving to be a heavy year, that's for sure. I hope you all have a great day!
Edit: Almost forgot lol, please check out my crossover one shot "Hero." It's a crossover between KHR and BNHA, and it's Tsuna-centric. Thank you!
