Chapter 4
('Thoughts' Flashbacks/dreams)
=o=
Izuku was tired of listening to Jack and his mother yelling at each other. Just this morning Jack made a slight comment on Izuku's eating habits, meaning he rarely ate anything. Izuku wasn't allowed to eat anything since the food isn't for 'him' but for her and for the boyfriend(s) that she would date.
"Inko! The kid is looking thinner than the first time I saw him!" Jack shouted.
This made Izuku freeze. The last time that one of her boyfriends showed any form of care or worry towards Izuku, which happened to only had been one who cared for Izuku, she didn't take kindly to Izuku after she dumped the man.
Izuku started to panic but the tension in the room was cut off by a knock on the door. Izuku dashing out of the room.
Upon opening the door Izuku was greeted by Katsuki holding two envelopes in hand, a smirk on his lips.
"I saw the mailman outside your door and he left your letter so let's open them together." Katsuki said.
Izuku plaster on a fake smile and nodded.
"Yeah let's! Come on!" Izuku said before dragging his friend passed the kitchen and into his room.
"Open yours first, I'll open mine in the spare room." Izuku said, while Katsuki nodded.
Izuku closed the door and left his friend with his letter, holding his letter close to his chest, Izuku went to the spare room and closed the door and covered the window before sitting at the desk and looked at the white envelope.
'Everything question that I have is in this envelope….. It holds answers to them…. Am I a failure? Did I pass or fail?' Izuku thought to himself before gingerly opening the letter.
He took out a slip of paper and a disk fell out and landed onto the desk.
"I AM HERE! AS A PROJECTION!" All Might appeared on the screen.
"A-All Might?!" Izuku gasped.
He watched as his hero explained why he was there, turns out that he was going to be a teacher.
"Anyways about your exam. You did well on the written part but the practical part you only scored seven Villain points." All Might said, this made Izuku look at the desk with sadness. "But your actions have inspired others, take a look at this short clip." He said, Izuku watched the tv that was the girl from before appeared.
The teen watched as she asked if she could transfer her points to Izuku's but Present Mic turned her offer down but said not to worry. This confused Izuku greatly but he turned to look back at his hero.
"You see young Midoriya, what kind of hero school turn away a heroic deed? That is why there is a secret point system. Rescue points!" All Might said, Izuku froze at this. "That's right! You have scored sixty rescue points, this brings your point count to sixty-seven points! So on that note," All Might stretched his hand out towards Izuku with a wide grin. "Welcome Midoriya Izuku to your Hero Academy!" He finished.
Izuku sat there for a moment in silence as tears fell down his cheeks. He had made it, he had finally made it to his dream school and proved that his isn't pathetic or useless. Izuku was on his way to being a hero. Izuku grabbed the envelope, the disk, along with the letter and left the room to see Katsuki leaning against the wall. He held his envelope and letter. Katsuki looked at his friend with a slight raised brow at the tears.
"So.. you pass or fail?" He asked, worried for his friend.
"Sixty-seven…. I passed Kacchan…. I passed." Izuku said, trembling as he slowly broke down in tears.
"Good now we can show those extras that we are going to be heroes while they will be sidekicks to some hero." Katsuki said, grinning as he pulled Izuku into a side hug.
Ping!
Izuku and Katsuki blinked before looking at their phones to see a text from All Might.
Hello Young Midoriya,
Congrats on passing the exam! I would like for you
to meet me at the beach tonight for a little celebration
On your passing.
-All Might
Izuku looked at Katsuki's to see that he got the same from the hero. We both left the apartment and headed to Dagobah Municipal beach where we had been training for the past ten months. The jog there was silent and peaceful between the two teens, Izuku couldn't stop thinking about his mother's boyfriend Jack and the argument between him and his mother.
'I wonder if Jack is right? I mean I don't eat at home anymore but…. Am I really getting thinner? I… I wonder if he actually cares like Shin-san?' Izuku thought to himself. 'I mean he was the only one who didn't come after me, he actually tried to get me away from her….'
When the beach came into view the teens sped up a bit before coming to a slow stop and light pants could be heard, as they caught their breaths. There stood in front of the teens was All Might in his true, weaker, form looking out towards the setting sun.
"ALL MIGHT!" The teens shouted, not noticing a couple standing on the pier close by.
"ALL MIGHT! WHERE!" The couple shouted.
Toshinori turned to face the two teens and whispered.
"Repeat after me. 'Sorry, wrong person! We were mistaken, sorry about that'."
"Sorry, wrong person! We were mistaken, Sorry!" Izuku called out, while Katsuki just grunted.
The couple looked disappointed and turned away from the trio. Toshinori left out a sigh of relief before turning to the two teens and grinned.
"Congrats on passing the exam! I knew that you both would make it!" the hero said.
"Thanks old man." Katsuki said, causing All Might to laugh at this.
"Yeah, if it weren't for you, I don't think I would be here today." Izuku said, knowing that there was a double meaning to his words.
"Well you still have to keep up in your training if you want to use One for All to its full potential." All Might said, going into his hero form and he crushed a pop can with ease as a demonstration.
Izuku nodded looking determan to follow through his training and to work hard on becoming a hero.
"OH MY GOSH IT'S ALL MIGHT!" A female shouted with joy.
This caused the trio to freeze.
"...RUN!" Was all the hero said and the three sprinted down the beach.
=o=
"Yeah Izuku and I are going away for the summer." Izuku heard his mother say over the phone. "I want him to enjoy himself before going off to school and all." her voice was filled with fake kindness.
It has been two weeks since Izuku saw Jack and during those weeks Inko hadn't gotten a new boyfriend which scared the teen.
"Izu~kun!" she called out.
Chills ran down his spine and turned to see his 'Mother' standing in the living room doorway.
"Come on Izu~kun we're going out." She said, a look in her eyes held a look of insanity in them.
Izuku nodded and looked at the ground as she dragged me out to the car. She pushed him into the back seat where he saw a bag that was half open, there were some supplies that are meant for surviving in the wilderness. Izuku felt his heart drop to his stomach.
'Is… Is she leaving me to survive somewhere far away?' Izuku slowly started to panic at this.
"Now Izu~kun, I want you to survive until I pick you up… or you can try and make your way home." She said as the car came to a stop.
Izuku noticed that they were in the middle of a forest and paled. Inko used her quirk to open the door than threw her son out along with the bag and a kantine. She then slammed the door before driving off leaving a shocked yet scared teen behind.
'Crap.. She is serious!' Izuku thought, panic creeping in on him.
=o=
Izuku tumbled as he barely caught himself from tripping over a loose tree root. He had been walking for a good six hours, taking breaks when needed. The sun was at the height of the midday sun, indicating that it was noon. Izuku groaned as he fell to his knees and started to sob as he just wanted to be home and not out in the middle of nowhere trying to survive with the little amount of food that was in the bag.
Days passed and days slowly turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. It was the last day of summer and Izuku was sitting under a large tree shivering from the cold night. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, which growled in pain and hunger.
"G-gotta keep… going…" Izuku whispered as he slowly pushed himself up and making his way towards the road that he had been following for a few weeks now.
As Izuku was walking he looked up a bit towards the sky he let out a sigh before looking ahead and that was when he heard it. A car! Izuku ran as fast as he could and reached the road just in time to see a car coming up the road. The teen waved his arms in a desperate attempt on getting the drivers attention, thankfully they noticed. The car pulled over and a woman with blond hair, blue eyes and light fair skin, she popped her head out of the window and looked at Izuku and gasped.
"Are you okay! Do you need help!" She asked, worry was clear in her voice.
"Y-Yeah…. I need a lift to Musutafu, please." Izuku asked, tears slowly began to well in his eyes.
"Sure hop in." She said, gesturing to the passenger seat.
Izuku nearly sobbed in relief before scrambling to the other side of the car and got in. Slipping his bag off of his sore stiff shoulders and placed it at his feet before putting on his seat belt. The blond then started down the road again.
"So kid, what's your name?" She asked.
Izuku wanted to lie but decided against it.
"Midoriya Izuku." He said softly.
"I'm Tsuchikawa Ryūko, it's nice to meet you Midoriya." She said,
"Same here." came his reply.
The drive was silent, Ryūko would glance at Izuku and noticed that the boy was out cold. She noticed the dark bags under his eyes, the amount of dirt all over his clothes, along with the rips and tares. There was specks of dry blood on his hands and some staining his jeans, his shoes were caked with mud and were in terrible shape like they have been worn for months at a time. The last thing that she noticed, making her worry, was how thin he was. Biting her lip Ryūko decided to go pick up some food for the kid before taking him where he needs to go.
'I'm sure everyone won't mind if I am gone a bit longer….' she thought.
With that she drove to the closest fast food place to pick up some food for the teen.
=o=
Izuku woke up to the smell of meat, greasy fries and warm lettuce and tomatoes. Blinking tiredly, the teen yawned stretching a bit and looked to his left to see Ryūko holding two bags of food on her lap and she took two cups from a worker at a drive-thru window. Ryūko noticed that Izuku was awake and handed the drinks to him, she then drove out of the drive through and parked her car before turning to him.
"I noticed that it was close to lunch so I got something for us before I drop you off." she said, Izuku was about to protest when his stomach growled, which caused her to look smug. "Here eat." She said handing him a bag.
"Thanks…" Izuku said softly, trying really hard not to cry from the kindness that Ryūko was giving him.
She smiled before digging into her burger, Izuku then followed in her example and began to eat. Tears slowly fell from his eyes as he ate the delicious food, All Might would be disappointed but at the moment Izuku didn't care having eaten nothing but berries for most of the summer. Though this didn't escape Ryūko's notice, she had a feeling that there was something about the way the teen acted when she found him. The way he desperately waved his arms, the way his forest green eyes held the look of longing the sadness and loneliness, the way he nearly cried when she offered him help and expected to help him.
The signs pointed towards either abandonment or neglect in some shape or form, but she didn't want to pry incase she misread the situation wrong and he was training for something. Ryūko knew that she and the gang would do survival training every once in a while, but her gut was telling her otherwise. She watched as Izuku scarfed down his food like he hadn't eaten in months, which was true, this made her think of her friends little cousin. This made Ryūko more determined to figure out what exactly happened to the teen, her inner mother cat instincts were kicking in.
After they ate Izuku thanked her for the food before giving her his street address, the blond female nodded before driving towards Izuku's neighborhood. Izuku just hoped that his mother was out, if she is then he can grab his spare bag and camp out on the roof for the night. Izuku watched as young kids running into their parents arms with large grins, the teen felt envious of this but pushed the thought out of his mind.
"Here you go Midoriya-kun." Ryūko said, coming to a gentle stop.
Izuku turned to her and smiled weakly, this was a red flag to her.
"T-thank you for helping me….. I don't know how long I would have been out there if it weren't for you…. Also I will pay you back for the food and for the gas… thank you.." Izuku said.
More red flags were going off. Yes it was normal for some kids to be thankful but offering to repay them when there was no need for that…. That was either because he was truly greatful or that was his way of needing attention and acknowledgment of some kind. The blond didn't let the worry show on her face but her blue eyes held worry.
"No problem Midoriya-kun. Here, just in case you need anything in the future." Ryūko said, handing him her card that held both her's and the gangs contact numbers on it.
Izuku smiled softly at this.
"Yeah, I will. Thank you again Tsuchikawa-san." Izuku said before hopping out with his bag before waving to her one last time.
The blond watched as Izuku ran into the building and disappeared behind the doors before she pulled away. Her phone then rang, she quickly answered it.
"Hello?"
"PIXIE-BOB! WHERE ARE YOU! PICKING UP SOME GROCERIES SHOULDN'T TAKE THIS LONG!" the voice of Shino, Mandalay, echoed in the car.
"Hey! Don't shout! I was helping a kid home okay…. He was in the forest about five hours away from the city." Ryūko said.
There was silence before a sigh could be heard.
"Is the kid alright?" She asked.
"If you saw him you wouldn't want to leave him…. Plus knowing you Shino, you would have made sure that the kid was stuffed with food. He is thinner then Kota! I… I just feel like… like he is going through something bad ..." Ryūko said, worry clearly in her voice.
That was her whole conversation on the way to the store and on the way home.
=o=
Izuku sighed in relief that his mother wasn't there, the neighbor's told him that she was working the night shift tonight so he was in the clear of going into the apartment. His room was unlocked and untouched and the same, except for there being a box from UA sitting on his bed. Izuku quickly took a shower to freshen up and get the stench of dirt, sweat, and blood off his body. Twigs, leafs, and sap had his hair in tangles. After a good hour or so of scrubbing and lathering, he finally got out of the shower and changed into clean clothes. Izuku then looked at the box and found some forms that needed to be filled out, two pairs of clothes, the school uniform that was supplied for all students, a schedule and a sheet of paper with his classroom information on it.
Izuku backed everything into his spare bag before grabbing his sleeping bag and used the firescape to get to the roof where he found a nice place to keep his things and and rolled out his sleeping bag and collapsed on it. Izuku remembered his phone and decided to pull it out as well as digging in his bag and got his charger then finding a plugin to charge his phone with.
He then set an alarm as soon as his phone turned on and then Izuku crawled into his sleeping bag and drifted off into a peaceful slumber for the second time that day.
=o=
When morning came, Izuku woke up early and gathered up his things and slipped back into his room and carefully looked around his house to see that his mother wasn't there still. So Izuku took a shower got into his uniform and left the apartment. As Izuku was on the train he filled out the forms that needed to be filled and finished his hero costume design. When the train came to a stop Izuku rushed off the train and ran all the school, people would look at the teen with pity in their eyes at the sight of him, Izuku was in awe when he reached the school.
'I can't believe that I am actually here! This is AWESOME!' Izuku thought to himself before making his way to where his class was.
Izuku was thankful that the halls weren't crowded, just a student here and there, so finding his classroom was a bit easier. The door to 1-A was huge to say the least, it was slightly intimidating to say the least but Izuku opened the door to see Katsuki arguing with the rude teen from the test. The girl that he helped from the test was talking to what looks like to be her friends.
Izuku suddenly felt ashamed of his body and kept his head down and his, now, long hair covered his face as he quietly makes his way to his assigned seat. Izuku was behind Katsuki so that was a plus for him.
"It's you!" The voice of the rude teen suddenly said.
Izuku looked up to see the two teens looking at him. Katsuki looked horrified at the sight of his childhood friend, the other teen looked at Izuku with a look of disgust at the sight of the slight sunken cheeks and the dark circles under his slightly dull green eyes. But before either of them could say anything the door opened again to reveal a tired looking man wearing a yellow sleeping bag, drinking a flavored jelly pack. That was when the other students took notice and rushed to their seats, Izuku took notice of the unimpressed look in the man's tired eyes. Izuku knew he had to be a hero but could figure out which hero the man was.
"I'm your homeroom teacher Aizawa Shota," He said in a bored tone. "It took you all twelve seconds to get in your seats, if I were a villain you all would be dead." He said bluntly.
Izuku nodded knowing what he said was true, that is when it hit Izuku.
'That's Eraserhead! My second favorite hero! The hero who fights nearly quirkless!' the teen thought to himself.
A small smile on his lips remembering the only video that had the underground hero in and that was the same video where he heard his favorite quote from.
"Get changed and meet me out front in five, or else you'll be expelled." he said and left, leaving a stack of gym attire on his desk.
Izuku got up fast and grabbed a pair of gym clothes his size and left to go find the change rooms leaving a worried friend behind. Katsuki scrambled after his friend, grabbing a gym uniform his size and took off after his friend leaving the rest of the class behind. When the two reached the change rooms Katsuki dragged Izuku into the toilet section of the change rooms and cornered him.
"Izu what happened." Katsuki demanded.
"Nothing-" Izuku started but Katsuki punched the wall, Izuku flinched.
"Don't lie. What happened, cause the last time I saw you Izuku was when you looked healthy and not like a freaking living corps!" Katsuki stated.
Izuku looked down and held in his tears the best he could.
"I'm f-fine Kacchan…. I-I'm fine." Izuku said before slipping under his friend's arm and went to get changed before the other guys came into the change rooms.
Katsuki looked at his friend with a pained look, it hurt him to see his friend lying to him… the broken and helpless look in the teens green eyes spoke louder than the lies that fell out of his mouth. Katsuki glared at the wall before changing as well, silently vowing to save his friend from whatever evil that holds him in silence.
=o=