"Carolina Smash!"

Two columns of dust erupted from where Izuku fought off the innumerable feathers trying to skewer him. He barely created enough force in his attack to repel the wave he tried to repel in a desperate moment.

While he struggled to keep his ground, Keigo was still sitting at the bar seat while finishing his afternoon meal.

"Young man, please refrain from destroying my shop front. If possible."

Giving Keigo a plate of pickled cucumbers while taking his empty mug for a refill, the restaurant owner had a rather mild disposition about the impromptu fight happening right outside of his noodle shop. The request made sense, but the echo was meant to hear it was still too preoccupied with avoiding being skewered by over a hundred feathers.

Izuku had no time to spare on such minor thoughts as several more feathers were flying through the air with lethal speed. Barely dodging the projectiles, the stems of each of the feathers buried themselves into the solid concrete below when Midoriya managed to avoid them. It dawned on Izuku that Hawk had no intentions on pulling his punches in this fight. His prerogative switched from defense to offense as he aimed his left hand into the udon shop and fired off a single strand of black whip in order to yank Hawk off his barstool.

Midoriya managed to control his tendril efficiently enough to dodge the first four or so feathers that were used to block the counterattack. That level of control only allowed him to dodge those feathers.

Keigo easily used the reactive movements from Midoriya to then catch the strand aimed for his head. A handful of feathers ripped the approaching projectile apart and easily halted the advancement of Black Whip like it was nothing. Midoriya didn't even have a nanosecond to spare to be shocked by the block before more feathers floating around him shot down to impale him.

Both ends of the street were blocked off by a multitude of feathers aimed down towards the center to prevent any sort of escape. Although the situation would have warranted Izuku's departure over the buildings, something about how Keigo just attacked him out of the blue compelled the teen into taking on said challenge.

Calculating the open window he had based on where Hawk sat as well as the width of the entrance, there remained a decently wide window for Izuku to work with.

He stopped for a moment out of Keigo's eyeshot to test his first theory. Immediately, Izuku knew that the young hero did not want to put that much effort into attacking or even tracking his opponent when he couldn't see him.

Over half of the feathers used to attack Izuku remained floating near the restaurant's entrance to defend their owner. This gave the young man some time to think as now he had some breathing room to strategize.

Not moving as he collected himself seemed to be the best strategy, seeing that the feathers were just ominously floating all around him when he came to a complete stop.

Something about the situation suddenly unveiled the truth about why his older brother attacked him out of the blue. This was a test.

He wasn't given a lot of time to collect himself as the few feathers floating around him suddenly shot towards him.

Izuku kept fending off these deadly projectiles with his abilities accessible to him now. Black whip was indispensable in this fight as Izuku kept using the quirk to defend rather than attack against an opponent who had no reason to assault the hero in training.

What impressed the one attacking Midoriya in broad daylight was how far Izuku had seemingly come from his training with his surrogate older brother. Hawk kept ramping up his speed as well as the amount of feathers being used while keeping up the pressure, only to feel his assault being consistently being fended off without issue. Guessing the capabilities of his junior, Keigo would have to guess that Izuku easily could defeat his past self within an hour without too much issue to their own safety.

Still, a pond growing into a lake remains incomparable to a landlocked ocean who's shores stretched well beyond the horizon.

An increasingly frustrated Izuku couldn't find his way back towards the opening of the restaurant. His clothes were being nicked and torn periodically while he struggled to find an opening to return to the offensive.

Being tested in such a way only ignited that rage that Midoriya felt himself struggling against for the past few weeks. The usually well tempered young man with a softer disposition felt his anger slip every few moments as he kept dodging these feathers that were capable of killing him as they did nothing but kick the shit out of him. He was used to being faced with opponents who were out to end him; this just reminded him of the one who used to push his physical limits in a similar way that Hawk was currently replicating.

His temper flared harshly as the junior hero began to push back harder against his older sibling. Instinctively, Izuku had started to let loose a little more than he would have thought appropriate for the time.

Keigo had felt the shift in force behind Izuku's attacks when he finally polished off his bowl of noodles. Even the noodle shop owner could see the shift in the young man's demeanor as Hawk got up and dispensed a wad of cash without pulling out an appropriate amount of money for two simple meals.

"Keigo!"

The hero paused in his tracks at the mention of his real name. Only his father and this noodle shop owner had the right to call him by this title freely, considering that the elderly man's cooking was the first thing he tasted when he was first adopted.

"... I can't imagine what it is you're going through, but promise me this."

A pregnant pause stagnated the air until Hawk turned towards the kind old man who only ever wanted to see the best happen to Keigo.

"I have seen better men give up so much more when faced with so much less. Never forget that he loved you."

In that moment, Keigo felt as though he had become the same scared child who was wiping away his tears that fateful night. His first time ever feeling welcome in a warm and safe place happened when his adoptive father brought the boy into the hole-in-the-wall restaurant while still covered in the remains of his recent targets.

Several Years Ago

"Welco- oh my."

Entering the humble noodle shop at an ungodly hour, a bloodied mess that the man recognized as his 'boss' came in with a sniffling child that looked to be stained in blood for some reason.

"Relax. It isn't his."

That little affirmation let him know that Nakamura hadn't just brought in a heavily wounded child into his humble establishment. Still, he had to wonder why the kid was even there to begin with.

"We need two dinner sets with barley tea. We'll be done in about fifteen or twenty minutes."

All that the noodle shop owner did in response was just nod and start on the two orders while Haru and the kid got themselves sorted out in the bath. Even a homeless person could see how abandoned the child looked with just a glance.

After thirteen minutes or so, Nakamura and Keigo exited the back with fresh clothes and a relieved expression on both their faces. It immensely bothered the older man who finished cooking the impromptu dinners that a child could seem so unperturbed after being taken under the care of a bloodied murderer. His concerns for the boy fell into a deep pit inside of his stomach when he looked into the child's worn down eyes. No child who was raised with any sort of affection would have such empty eyes.

Without a care in the world, Haru took Keigo from under the armpits to lift the boy up onto the stool sitting in front of the hot meal meant for the little one. His height barely let Keigo peer over the edges of the bowls that held the decadent meal ready to be eaten.

Both Nakamura and Keigo were in white tees as the younger of the duo clearly couldn't fit in the oversized adult clothes draped over him. For what it was worth, it was better than letting the kid catch a cold.

Even the way that the boy struggled to hold his chopsticks told the experienced restaurant owner enough about the likely background this child came from. Haru carefully guided Keigo into how to hold the new eating utensils without incident. Seeing the boy catch onto using the two sticks in a rather complicated manner for children left the chef impressed regarding the quick minded ability of the child.

This meal remains to be one of the most cherished moments of Keigo's life.

Present Time

"Texas Smash!"

A gale of wind blasted a decent amount of feathers coming down upon Izuku from above out of the way. That still left a couple dozen still after the young man without pausing in their warpath.

Izuku kept bobbing and weaving through the buildings of the seemingly abandoned business district in order to avoid being pelted by an innumerable amount of high velocity projectiles aimed directly at him. What escaped the usually very observant Midoriya was how the window shop fronts that were caught in his attack cracked rather thoroughly.

Slowly but surely, Izuku began his slow descent into that pit of rage left in the wake of his father leaving him.

His entire world had been ripped away from him when he realized the truth. Everything he held near and dear became an incomprehensible mess in a matter of moments.

Now he was forced to fight in this nonsensical fight instigated by his brother? Enough was enough for the up and coming hero after all the bullshit he had to endure.

Spinning in the air above the building Izuku used as a launch pad allowed him to reorient himself enough to begin his counter attack. Aiming his next attack at the ascending cloud of feathers, all that Izuku needed to do was clear out this wave in order to take on the one who started this whole thing.

Cocking his fist back, Midoriya felt rather thrown off when the feathers assaulting him suddenly changed trajectory and all began to reconvene at one destination.

Midoriya caught his fall and cautiously approached the edge of the rooftop where he landed. Peering over to the opposite side of the street from atop the building, Izuku only saw the one who seemingly assaulted him out of nowhere light what looked to be a cigarette while exiting the restaurant. Another nerve was struck with Midoriya as his anger began to boil uncontrollably from within his skull. Not only did Izuku fail his unwarranted challenge; Keigo looked to be relishing in his victory.

All pretenses of civil behavior went out the window.

He launched himself in an emotional bout of rage directed at the one soul he thought he could lean upon for emotional support. How dare he take his time smoking while Izuku couldn't even sort through all his personal bullshit. Uncontrollable anger felt like all Izuku had left in the wake of this pointless battle.

"Detr-"

In his blind rampage, Izuku failed to notice the feathers that were laid out on the street in order to catch Izuku in this exact situation. He was pinned onto the road below with gravity feeling as though it had multiplied as feathers were pressing down flat onto his back.

"Let me go!"

None of the excessive force that Midoriya felt just a moment ago could be felt when he swung a backfist into the air. Adrenaline kept pumping through his veins as he scanned wildly all around himself. Each heartbeat thundered in his eardrums, driving home the wild instinct that he needed to attack something immediately. He scrambled to his feet and fought to keep his balance while trying to fend off any more attacks.

"Down here."

Just turning his head down by roughly fifty degrees let Izuku see that Hawk had been sitting on the roadside curb, smoking his cigarette solemnly.

Those moments of pause released a chain reaction of neurological pathways that sent Izuku down onto his knees.

Collapsing onto the curb next to Hawk wounded Izuku's pride. Leaving a fight as a loser while his opponent just smoked after their meal felt like salt in his already inflamed wounds. The pain keeping him glued down onto the floor felt both familiar and excruciating all at once.

In his moment of weakness, almost a hundred feathers pinned Izuku down onto the floor next to Keigo. Each wave of pain radiating from the entire length of his legs kept Midoriya docile enough; even without the aid of the feathers.

"... You know, he always said that he would kill me if I ever smoked these…"

Hearing those words struck a chord somewhere deep within Izuku. Glancing at the stick that Keigo had been smoking from, the young hero immediately recognized the brand as the one his father figure often favored.

"You know what happened when I started smoking?"

Heavy silence sat between the two brothers who were only related by their father figure.

"Nothing. Not even a warning memo. Just a fat load of fucking silence."

Another drag from his cigarette just punctuated how bitter Keigo felt about the situation both he and Izuku were stuck in because of their father. Midoriya's disposition softened when he caught on to how Hawk felt as well about their situation. They both felt abandoned by Nakamura and there wasn't a damned thing either of them could do about it.

"... Why?"

Keigo remained silent as Izuku asked the most pertinent question on his mind.

"Why did he… Why is he…"

Clenching both his eyes and fists shut, Everything that the younger of the two men fought to dam up within him for the past month or so started to erupt uncontrollably through the cracks that were forming in his facade.

"He just… He just left us. Everything was his fault… All of it."

The truth left an empty pit inside both Izuku and Keigo. Hawk slowly unpinned Midoriya from the floor and reassembled his wings. Once freed, the green haired young man grunted through the aches in order to sit next to his brother on the street.

Silence kept them company as they shared in their misery.

Eventually, Keigo broke said silence to tell Izuku something important.

"Do you know why I attacked you out of the blue?"

Izuku didn't care for the answer. Hawk divulged the answer to him regardless.

"I know you, kid. Eventually, you're gonna get yourself together and find yourself curious as to where dad is. You're gonna go galavanting off and try to find a lead to his whereabouts, likely getting Mina and the others involved to search for him as well. The fact that you couldn't even touch me tells me one thing."

Smoking the last of his cigarette, his boot crushed the dying ember with the last lungful of smoke escaping as Hawk explained himself.

"You're not ready. You even look in the wrong direction, you'll be fucking dead before you could blink."

Hawk got back up onto his feet with some trouble from his injuries. All Izuku could do was look at the empty street in front of him in silent shock.

"I trained for years of my life before I could even dip my toes into that world of death and cruelty. You think those villains you faced were hot shit? They would be butchered alive the second they walked through the door."

A sinking sensation inside of Midoriya's stomach kept him seated. Nothing his brother was saying felt like an exaggeration of any sort. His words were nothing but cold and harsh.

"You may not like it, but he's somewhere where you can't reach him. There are things that could eat you alive in a moment… and he's there, trying to keep us safe."

An arm wrapped itself around the back of Izuku's head. Before he knew it, Midoriya was pulled into a hug with his face buried into the left shoulder of his older brother. Despite the agony of bending the knee and causing all his injuries to scream at him, he endured to offer his younger sibling some comfort as family.

"He isn't perfect. He may be a monster. But don't you ever think that he didn't do what he did for himself. Everything he's done was out of his love for us. We never asked for this, but he did what he knew to be the only way to keep us all safe…"

None of this felt fair. Izuku didn't know whether or not to feel disgusted or heartbroken at what Hawk shared with him.

Being overwhelmed, the younger of the brothers began to choke on his sobs as he clutched onto his older sibling to keep himself grounded. Keigo fought to keep his own tears in as he remained strong for his loved one.

Just like his dad would do for him in this situation.