Chapter 1
The night air was comfortably warm, something that Mira noted as she ducked down to avoid another desperate punch from the man who had literally ran into her just minutes ago.
Annoying. That's what this fight was to her, absolutely annoying, and it was keeping her from going home to relax for the first time in who knows how long.
When Zero found out she's been fighting he was going to give her the lecture of a lifetime.
"All I wanted to do was go home and eat," she panted, her voice a touch muffled through the black face mask she wore. She swung her leg up to drive a swift kick to his ribs, hoping it would slow him down long enough for her to use her quirk. "The one time I decide to not patrol through this goddamn neighbourhood and actually try to fucking relax, of course some asshat like you has to come along and ruin it! Who even are you?!"
The man braced himself for her kick - something she wasn't expecting to have happened - and grunted as her foot made contact with his ribs while grabbing her ankle. With one rapid movement he jerked Mira forward and drove his elbow into her face, breaking her nose and causing her to see stars.
Zero is going to kill me. Mira thought as pain erupted behind her eyes, and blood started to soak through her face mask. He is absolutely going to kill me if this guy doesn't first.
"You broke my goddamn nose!" Mira was on him instantly, tackling him to the ground and pinning his arms above his head, sweat and blood dripping off of her face and onto him. As she went to activate her quirk, wanting to be done with this pointless fight so she could go home and now clean herself up, a thick scarf wrapped around her waist and tugged her off of the purse thief so that she was standing against a wall.
Eraserhead stepped out from the shadows, a look of irritation plainly etched onto his otherwise tired face. "There's nothing more I hate than a kid trying to play hero instead of getting help."
Mira squirmed in the capture weapon becoming more frustrated as it tightened around her. "I had it under control."
The capture weapon dropped from her form and was wrapped around the purse snatcher as Eraserhead pulled him to a nearby lamppost and began tying him to it, ignoring the child's objections.
He turned to Mira and eyed her bloodied face mask, his voice dripped with sarcasm and exhaustion. God he was just so tired of dealing idiotic kids who insisted on pointlessly hurting themselves, just once he'd like a break from them. "Yeah I can see that. Look, I'm gonna ignore the fact you, a minor, interfered with hero work so long as you get your ass home. Parents are probably worried sick."
You motherfucker.
Her left eye twitched - a tic she had developed over the years that generally let's people know she's at her breaking point with her anger. Unfortunately Eraserhead didn't pay any mind to it. "I'm twenty-four you jackass!"
"You sure about that kid?" A smirk ghosted his lips as he squinted at her. She didn't look like an adult to him - hell she was barely taller than the majority of his students - and pairing that along with the t-shirt she wore with that had some sort of cartoon on it, and that fact her face (from what he could see) was still very childlike, he wouldn't have pegged her for older than fourteen at best. "No need to lie."
Without thinking Mira stomped over to him - which he would have found almost comical if not for the aura of pure rage that seemingly flowed off of her. Eraserhead took a step back - caught off guard for once - almost tripping over the thugs legs as he did so.
"Oh yeah? And what about you?" She glared up at him, taking in his disheveled appearance. His black hair framed his unshaven face, his eyes though tired as they may look flashed with annoyance. Bright yellow goggles sat on top of his head, and he slouched in the black jumpsuit he wore, as if he was just exhausted to even be here. Is he really a pro hero? And why does he have to be so tall?! "Do you usually go around at night, tying up innocent women with your weird scarf thing? What are you; some sort of pervert?"
The man glowered and opened his mouth to snap back, but was quickly cut off by Mira, her black eyes faded to a lighter shade of grey as she activated her quirk. She dropped her voice to just above a whisper so that only the two of them could hear it. "You know what? I don't really care. I just remembered you were going to take this guy down to the police station, and then let everyone on the force know how much of a pretty princess you are."
Eraserhead looked at her blinking slowly and then back down to the thug, confusion flashing over his face followed quickly by realization. "Right. I was going to do that."
Mira gave a triumphant smile that no one could see, as she walked past the hero who was now bent over, untying the thug to take him down to the police station. "Have a good night princess."
She staggered past her apartment building with a groan, already missing her own bed but knowing that she could do nothing by herself for her injuries.
He's going to kill me. He's going to get Auntie to heal me and then he's going to kill me.
With a tired sigh, she climbed up the fire escape to where her friend's window was on the second floor and slid it open with a loud thunk, startling him from whatever game he was playing.
"You're supposed to be at your home Mira, not mine." His face was illuminated by the three monitors on his desk before him streaming some sort of dungeon crawler game, the only light in his otherwise dark room.
Mira climbed through the window gracelessly, and kicked her shoes off as she dragged herself to his bed, exhaustion filling her body. "Change of plans."
The bed creaked as she faceplanted onto the mass amount of pillows and blankets he kept there, something that she'd normally tease him about, but in this case it was more than welcome.
"Mira is that blood?"
"No."
Pinching the spot between his eyebrows, Zero squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep down whatever threatened to expel from his stomach. "Mira why do you do this to me?"
He was met with silence, and then a light snore.
With a sigh he opened his eyes and shook his head at his friend. What a dumbass. Scooting over in his desk chair he grabbed one of the blankets and pulled it up over her small frame, smiling softly as Mira immediately cuddled into the blanket.
"Idiot."
He'd wait until tomorrow to lecture her.
"Niko I need to fix my hair!"
Niko?
"You're ten years old Hima, you don't need to fix your damn hair!"
Hima?
"Just hurry up idiot!"
Mira's eyes fluttered open, and she looked around the room that most definitely wasn't her own.
The room was small with a single desk that held three impressive computer monitors and loose papers, a bookshelf with junk - or as Zero affectionately put it, spare parts - spilling off of it onto the floor, and a bed that was currently occupied with Mira. The walls were littered with posters of obscure bands that hardly anyone knew about, pictures and newspaper clippings of underground heroes, and hand drawn schematics for various support items that Zero had planned for the future when he could legally make them.
With a groan she wrapped the blanket around her tighter, willing herself to somehow be transported back to the safety of her own home.
How was she still alive? How had Zero not killed her yet? The bastard was probably buying his time, figuring out where to hide the body before murdering her.
A small picture of a familiar hero caught her eye and she turned to glare at it. The man with the weird scarf thing looked down at her from the ceiling, and she couldn't help but stick her tongue out at him.
Real mature Mira.
She pushed herself off the bed, ignoring the sharp pain that went through her ribs and the dull throb in her face, and hobbled out of the room towards the kitchen.
Zero leaned against the kitchen counter black jeans hung low on his hips, as his red shirt clung to his torso in wet patches. He held a cup of coffee to his lips and quirked an eyebrow at the bedraggled state of his friend. "Good morning sunshine. Was beginning to think you'd never join us."
His mother, a softer woman with bobbed brown hair, smacked his arm as a warning. "Enough out of you Niko, go and get the poor girl her energy drink," she turned to Mira with a no bullshit air around her. "Sit."
Mira knew to not argue with the woman, and sat down in one of the chairs at the table as she's told to do, wincing with discomfort.
The ten year old child sits across from Mira, lazily eating her toast and taking in the older girls busted face. Her eyes were bruised more so than usual, and her nose was at an odd angle with dried blood crusted at her top lip. "What'd you do this time?"
"Nothing smart Hima-chan." Mira tried to stretch her arms to release at least some of the stiffness her body held, but ended up biting her lip in pain. Shit. Really did a number last night.
"Clearly."
Mira smirked at the young girl who was too smart for her own good.
A can was placed before her and thankfully it was already opened, as Zero rolled his eyes at his sister. "No need to be a brat about it."
Hima stuck her tongue out at him before finishing off her toast.
Their mother frowned at them, but Mira could see the softness in her eyes. God when was the last time she saw that from her own mother?
"Enough you two," their mom clapped her hands to get their attention before anything could escalate. "Hima go and finish getting ready or you'll be late. Niko, you're taking your sister to school."
His mouth opened immediately to protest. "But ma-"
"No buts. Take your sister to school while I deal with this," she gestured at Mira causing her to flinch as guilt pooled in her stomach. The last thing she had wanted was to cause problems for them.
"Auntie you don't need to…"
She looks over at Mira, quickly changing her tone to a softer one when she sees the crestfallen look on the blue haired girls face. "Hush dear. You know this is no trouble for me, and besides it hurts me to see you in this shape."
Despite the pain she felt in her face, Mira couldn't help but give a small smile at Auntie's reassuring words.
Zero left the kitchen as his mom pulled one of the chairs out so that she was sitting directly in front of Mira without the hindrance of the table, and called over his shoulder to his friend. "Do not even think about leaving Mira. I'll be right back after I take the brat to school."
"Niko let's go or else I'll be late!"
The small apartment was noticeably quieter as the two siblings left. It wasn't an uncomfortable quiet like Mira has in her own apartment - the need for music or television to be playing at all times ever apparent - and while it was comfortable for the most part, Mira still wasn't quite used to it, even after the two years her and Zero have been friends. It always unnerved her when the small apartment was empty as she had grown accustomed to there always being some sort of noise from either himself or Hima.
"Let's take a look at you, shall we?" Auntie's soothing voice snapped Mira out of her incoherent thoughts, and she looked at the older woman, feeling warmed by the green eyes that met hers. She allowed the woman to examine her, flinching ever so slightly at the small pokes and prods of her cold fingertips. "Well, from what I can tell other than the severe bruising you have on your ribs, and the fact your knuckles are basically demolished, your nose is definitely broken and you more than likely have a cracked rib or two."
Mira sighed in a defeated manner. Idiot.
"Now, I can reset your nose and relieve you from the pain of that and the bruises. As for your rib I can see about-"
"Just reset the nose Auntie," Mira cut her off quickly. "I know you have work today and I don't want you to be tired because of me."
The older woman clicked her tongue disapprovingly before shrugging her shoulders. "Whatever you say dear. Just take a deep breath in.
Mira breathed in deeply and the healer wasted no time in resetting the broken nose, ignoring the loud cry and choice expletives that left the younger's mouth.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Auntie began to heal her injuries, pointedly ignoring the conversation the two of them had just a moment ago, and Mira let her. Knowing fully that arguing would get her nothing other than a withering look and possibly a sharp smack to her arm.
Mira scowled and looked away, not wanting to meet the questioning eye of her Auntie.
"Well I know that whoever you got into it with is hurting much worse than you," the older woman continued to heal Mira, a comfortable silence falling on the two of them. She closed her eyes and focused on the warmth that the healer's quirk brought her, how it was as if the sun itself was healing her wounds, humming in appreciation. After another moment the healer removed her hand. "There, good as new. No breaking anything in the next few days, yeah? I'll be working doubles at the clinic and I won't have the energy to heal you."
Mira nodded, not bothering to try and promise to not break anything knowing it was something she wouldn't be able to keep it. "Thank you auntie."
The older woman regarded her with soft green eyes and a small smile, before waving off her words. "Not a word Mira. Now, why don't you grab something to eat from the fridge while you wait for Niko to get home? I need to be heading out now."
Mira waved goodbye as the woman left the kitchen, the front door closing a moment later, leaving her truly alone in the apartment.
Opening the fridge and brushing off all thoughts of loneliness and grabbed a pudding cup before making her way back to Zero's room.
"Oh get over it," Mira rolled her eyes while slipping the shirt off. "It's just a little blood."
Zero noticeably paled as he took the clothes from his friend, and found himself asking her a question he frequently asked since meeting her two years ago. "Why do you do these things to me?"
She picked up one of his shirts off the ground near his dresser and inhaled deeply, the scent of lavender and soap filling her, and just a touch of his sweat. Meh, clean enough. She pulled it on, appreciating the softness of the fabric against her skin, and already felt one hundred times better. "Yes because I went out of my way last night to get my nose broken, and bleed everywhere, just so I could bother you."
He placed the clothes in a plastic bag he had grabbed from the kitchen, wanting to be rid of the bloody things before he fainted. He really didn't need Mira to bear witness to that again and give her more ammo to tease him mercilessly with. "Knowing you, you probably did. What, did he make fun of your height or something?'
"Oi!" She snapped as a warning while flicking his forehead. "That any way to talk to your elders, punk?"
He tied off the bag and dropped it by his bedroom door, as far away from him as possible resisting the urge to just toss it all out the window, and sat at his desk bringing up a schematic for a new support item he had been working on for Mira for the past few weeks. "Clever. You gonna tell me what happened last night? You were supposed to be going to your own home and yet you ended up here. Again."
Mira busied herself with making a nest on his bed with the numerous pillows and blankets that lay there. Once she was all settled and comfortable enough, she busied herself once again by picking at a thread on the obnoxiously bright purple sweatpants with blue bunny print sweatpants that Zero had loaned her, hoping to avoid answering. Zero continued to stare, his yellowed eyes boring into her from behind his glasses as he did so and she threw her hands up in frustration. "Fine. That was the plan, until some amateur who stole a person literally ran into me."
"Is that all?"
"...no."
"What else happened?"
"...I didn't have my gear because as you keep mentioning I was supposed to be going home to take a night off or whatever, but I thought to myself 'No big deal, I've dealt with worse' and decided to stop him and I honestly could've taken him Zero!"
"Mira…"
"And then just as I had him and was gonna tell him to go to the cops, some hero or whatever with a weird scarf came in out of nowhere and totally tied me up! Said he was helping me or whatever, which he clearly didn't need to because I had it under control!"
"Wait a second-"
"-And then to just rub salt in the fucking wound he called me a child Zero! I get that I'm short but come on, I do not look like a damn child! Oh and then guess what? He started to lecture me!"
"Mira!" Zero's voice was sharp enough to snap her out of whatever angered and frenzied rant she was about to delve into. He breathed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose, his glasses sliding down slightly. "Before you go into your rant, just rewind for one second okay? You said this hero had a scarf that he used to tie you up with?"
Mira shrugged her shoulders and scanned the walls with her eyes, hoping that the picture from earlier would stand out to her. "Yeah why?"
He squeezed his eyes shut and took in another deep breath. "Do you remember anything else? Like what he looked like, or anything about his costume?"
Yeah, homeless.
Mira looked around the room trying to find that damned picture again. She pointed up at the ceiling lazily after finding it once more. "Him."
"Holy shit." His voice was just above a whisper as he followed to where she was pointing, eyes growing wider each second, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Mira do you know who this is?"
"Should I?"
Zero was practically vibrating in his computer chair, his yellow eyes quite literally flashing with excitement as his quirk activated. He looks like a kid in a candy store, Mira thought fondly as she watched him struggle to control his quirk as he quickly typed something up into the search engine, before bringing up what seemed to be a very select few of articles.
"That's Eraserhead! Mira how do you not know who he is? Do you not listen to me when I talk about all the underground heroes?!"
She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. She did listen to him...most of the time that is. "Well…"
"First of all rude," he shot her a glare before turning back to his monitors. "I can't believe you met him! I've always wanted to design new support items for him and meet him...what was he like? Please tell me everything about him!"
Mira looked at her friend pointedly with a raised eyebrow. "Well he tied me up. And called me a child."
She attempted to feign a look of innocence as a horrific look of realization settled onto Zero's face. "Oh no. Oh no no no no Mira," he let out a loud groan while covering his face with his hands. Goddamn his friend and her height issues. "What did you do?"
"I...may have used my quirk on him?" A deep blush bloomed across her face and ears signalling her embarrassment. Now that she had calmed down and had time to think about it, perhaps she did go too far with the hero. "And told him to take the purse snatcher to the police…"
Zero silently prayed that Mira would keep her mouth shut after that. "I mean if that's all you di-"
"And I may have told him to declare himself a pretty princess in front of all the precinct."
Of course. Of course Mira would stoop so low and do something incredibly petty.
He grimaced and looked up at his ceiling again - the very hero in question glaring down at him - and found himself asking yet again, "Why are you like this?"
"Yeah well," grumbling she pulled her knees into her chest, resting her chin on them and giving him a pout that could rival his younger sisters. Zero smirked at her very childlike behaviour and she felt her face grow even more warm. "He started it! Calling me a child and all that bullshit."
He clicked his tongue at her and went back to his computer scouring the internet for any and all articles on Eraserhead. He knew that they were scarce because hardly any reporting website would waste their time on an underground hero - something he understood but still bugged him all the same - but still he looked for them, hoping to educate Mira on one of his favourite heroes. The halt in conversation left Mira to think back to the erasure hero.
He certainly didn't look like a hero would to her. But who was she to judge? She ran around in an oversized hoodie with a black surgical mask, so really she had little to no room to say anything on the matter.
Still. She thought, fidgeting with the loose thread again. He was kind of handsome...in a scruffy sleep deprived kind of way? I guess even if he didn't look like a hero he certainly acted like one...
"Are you sure he's a pro hero?" She warily asked, now suddenly concerned with the repercussions of using your quirk against a pro hero.
Zero didn't look away from his computer as she spoke, ignoring his friend's question. "Look, I'm not going to lecture you but-"
"You just said you wouldn't lecture me."
"But you need to be more careful Mira. Trying to fight someone without your support gear was the stupidest thing you've done in a long time, which on one hand is great because that means you've actually smartened up, but one the other hand you could've gotten more than a broken nose and a few cracked ribs."
"And here I thought getting a pro hero to call himself a pretty princess was the stupidest thing I could've done."
"Oh trust me, I'm getting to that part." His words bit into her as did his eyes. The excitement from before having faded and been replaced with concern for his friend. "You were reckless Mira, extremely reckless. You've been doing this for two years now and the only reason why you haven't gotten caught yet is because the police haven't bothered to put the effort into looking for you."
"No need to rub it in."
"That could change after last night though." Zero sighed, wishing that Mira would take this a bit more seriously. "You should lay low for the next few days, don't wanna risk you getting arrested or anything like that."
Mira glowered in return, not liking the idea of taking a break. Hell, last night she was supposed to take just a single night off and look how that turned out? There was absolutely no way she could take the next few days off.
"I'll talk to my buddy whose brother works at the station, and keep and eye out to see if the police are looking for you. After say four or five days if it's silent then you can go back to do your usual patrols, yeah?" Zero had his arms folded across his chest and practically dared Mira to argue with him on this.
She opened her mouth once and then thought better of it. "Fine."
His face instantly lights up again. "Perfect! Now come and read these articles on Eraserhead."
-.-.-.-.-
Aizawa Shouta sat wrapped in his yellow sleeping bag in the teachers lounge at UA, desperately trying to get in a quick nap before having to deal with the problem children that make up 1-A - not that it would help any, the man was perpetually tired and his students were...overenthusiastic at best. Unfortunately for the lethargic erasure hero, Hizashi had entered the room loudly greeting the other teachers before making a beeline for his friend.
A pink mug with a glittering purple crown is set on the table before him by Hizashi who had been failing miserably at keeping a straight face. Aizawa opened his eyes and glared at the mug with absolute contempt. "What the hell is that?"
"Heard you're a very pretty princess," Hizashi snickered and sat next to his friend draping an arm over his shoulders. "What gives on not telling me sooner, Sho?"
"I'm going to murder you." The tired man grumbled and started to unzip his sleeping bag from the inside, suddenly wanting to be anywhere but there.
"Pft you don't mean that."
Aizawa grumbled incoherently and pulled down the sleeping bag so that it was sitting at his waist. So much for taking a nap.
"Wanna talk about what happened?" His friend raised an eyebrow at him, peering over the ridiculous orange glasses he had always worn, his green eyes swimming with mischief. "Unless of course nothing happened, and this is just you deciding to stop living a lie and start living your life to the fullest as a princess."
Aizawa's eyes flashed red and the tendrils of his hair started to float upwards. "Hizashi I will string you up and leave you to the damn wolves if you don't stop."
"I kid, I kid," the blonde held up his hands in a mock defense, not wanting to make his sleep deprived friend any more grumpy than he already was. "But seriously Sho, what happened to you last night?"
Aizawa furrowed his brow and sighed wearily. He really didn't have the energy to be dealing with this right now, not when he needed to conserve what little energy he had for dealing with the problem children. "Someone's quirk I think? I'm not even sure how it happened though."
"How what happened?" Midnight's heels clicked along the floor as she walked to where her friends were seated.
"How Shouta got hit with a quirk last night." Hizashi said with an air of nonchalance, ignoring the withering glare from the erasure hero. The last thing Aizawa wanted was for Nemuri to pester him as well.
"Does this have anything to do with you being a pretty princess Shouta?" Nemuri purred and sat across from them, resting her elbows on the table. "I never would have pegged you for being someone into public humiliation. Learn something new every day."
"I hate you both."
Nemuri and Hizashi fell into a fit of giggles, the other teachers eyeing them warily as Aizawa glared with murderous intent at his giggling friends. It wasn't an uncommon scene for everyone to behold, but considering all of them knew a bit of the details of what happened to Aizawa the night before - and could put two and two together - the other teachers were unsure on whether or not the erasure hero would finally snap and murder his annoying friends.
"Look," he began again after his friends had calmed down. "I was just trying to help this kid out last night. She was stuck in an alley and decided to be an idiot and try to take on this purse thief or whatever by herself, and after I had helped her and was informing her of her illogical decisions and the huge risk she had taken it all just...it goes blank, and the next thing I remember is standing in front of the police listening to them laugh at me."
Hizashi slapped his hands on the table and began to laugh loudly, causing everyone around him to flinch. "You're telling me a kid managed to best you?"
Aizawa's eyes flashed red instantly, cancelling his friend's quirk so his laugh was at a more tolerable level. "It wasn't like I planned for that to happen."
While Nemuri hid the smile behind her coffee mug, her blue eyes danced with playfulness. "Happens to the best of us Sho."
He glared at the pink coffee mug that sat on the table mocking him.
Nemuri and Hizashi started up a conversation that he ignored, letting his thoughts drift back to the alleyway. He had stumbled upon it by chance, having heard someone letting out a shout of anger, and was surprised to see her pinning down someone who was easily twice the size she was - not just in height, but also in strength. Did he need to help her? Probably not, but she was just a kid using her quirk illegally, and he'd already been dealing with his own problem children the entire day and teacher mode just hadn't turned off yet.
"I'm gonna go back and find her," Aizawa muttered standing up, slipping off the rest of the sleeping bag and tucking it under his arm.
"Oh are you now?" Nemuri cocked a sleek eyebrow at him.
"She's just a kid," Aizawa ignored the looks his friends were giving him and picked his sleeping bag up off the floor to bring with him to class. May as well sleep there.
Hizashi leapt from his chair and wrapped his arms around his lethargic friend in a tight hug, squealing in his ear. "Aww you care!"
Aizawa scoffed and shoved the loud blonde off of him. "That's not it."
Hizashi smirked knowingly. "Uh-huh sure."
With a final glare shot at his friends, Aizawa left the teacher's lounge before as the bell rang, telling himself repeatedly that he didn't actually care about the kid in the alleyway.