Chapter 28: Yeah, I'm a bad- you can't kill me!

Conductor was counting his blessings.

Everything had gone to crap all at once. He didn't even really know how it all happened, but what he did know was that he was on probation and unable to perform his hero duties for the time being, until they sorted out his case.

What that case was, he had no idea. They had said something about murder of a vigilante, but he had no idea how they could possibly know about that. He had made sure that all traces of him from that night were gone and he hadn't breathed a word of it to a soul.

Granted, he also didn't know what had happened after he left, but he didn't see anything about it on the news or anywhere, so he thought that he was good.

Apparently not. But the good news was that until they had actual proof, they couldn't keep him locked up. They could suspend his license, but that was simply a minor inconvenience.

And what kind of hero would he be if he let something as little as that stop him from doing his duty of protecting people? He would just have to be careful...

Shinso left for school hours ago, Izuku had finished all of the things he wanted to get done that day, and Eraser wasn't supposed to be home until later that night. Why he was going to be out so late, he didn't know, but it wasn't really any of his business, so he didn't question it.

Growing more and more bored by the minute, Izuku decided to do what any sensible, technically deceased, undercover vigilante would do and go out to patrol.

The night was relatively quiet. Too quiet some might say. He had only really caught wind of one or two altercations in the past three hours. It was well past sunset and prime time for villain activity, so why wasn't anyone doing anything villainous?

It was weird, and Izuku was getting suspicious.

This wasn't normal. There was a certain feel to the air that night, an air that told him to stay away. What could possibly be going on for the night to feel so dangerous?

Despite the bad feeling he kept on getting, Izuku continued to patrol. He kept at it for a solid hour before he stopped in frustration. What is going on? He sighed exasperatedly. And just then he heard a clang a couple of buildings down and took off in a sprint.

Yes! Finally some action, gosh I was getting bored-are you freaking kidding me?

Izuku turned the corner and was met face-to-face with none other than the bastard that killed him and walked away.

"Conductor…"

The hero flinched when he heard Izuku's voice. "No…no you're supposed to be dead. I-I killed you!"

"Glad you're finally admitting it. Where was that the night you left me dying on the alley floor?"

Slowly, Conductor started backing away and frantically looking all around him. He seemed a lot more shaken up than he should've been. Sure, seeing Izuku alive would be surprising and everything, but he looked terrified.

"No, no, no, no…first I think I saw the hero killer and now I'm seeing dead kids-"

"Wait a minute, what do you mean you think you saw the hero killer?"

The hero snaped his head up to look at Izuku, his eyes full of the fear that his shaking hands clearly showed. I-I thought that I saw him. I felt like someone was following me and then I heard something and turned around and saw him there, but when I blinked, he was gone."

So that was what Izuku heard…but wait- "So you didn't make that noise?"

"What? No, of course not. I'm not stupid enough to be so careless about my surroundings."

Then that means…a shadow flickered overhead and Izuku's body moved without a second thought. "Get down!" He yelled as he tackled Conductor to the ground and felt the wind of a blade pass over his head.

The hero grunted as he fell on top of him, but Izuku ignored him. He jumped up immediately and turned to see that the hero killer was stood right across from him with his blades drawn and a curious look in his blood red eyes.

"Stain…"

"Now this is interesting…I thought I watched you die."

Conductor, still on the ground gulped loudly, but again, Izuku paid him no mind. "You probably did."

Stain let out a low chuckle and flicked his eyes between him and the hero, "I knew there was something about you kid. Tell you what, let me do what I need to do, and we can have a little chat."

Izuku, frozen for a mere second, broke out of his thoughts and lowered his stance slightly, "I can't do that."

"Wasn't this the hero that killed you? Shot you off a roof because he was careless and didn't take in enough of the situation? Why would you defend him?"

"Yeah, it doesn't make much sense, but I want to help people, and as much as I hate him, Conductor has been a decent hero these last few years."

Stain scoffed and slowly began to move closer, causing Izuku to stiffen his stance, "Bah! Decent hero…no such thing! There is only those who are good and those who need to be culled."

"Where does that leave you and me then? The system says that we're bad."

"I do not go by the hero system that is so corrupt, and if that is where you base your views then you are much more of a fool than I thought Serpentine."

"Regardless, the system is there for a reason. I agree that things need to change, but killing heroes you deem 'unworthy' is not the way to go about it."

"Hmm," Another step closer, and Stain seemed to study Izuku carefully, "And what might you propose be the correct way?"

"I'd love to talk with you about it. Why don't we go chat over some coffee or something?"

"Nice try young one, but I am not so easily persuaded from my mission." It happened in the blink of an eye. One moment Izuku was standing above Conductor, ready to protect him and the next his body locked, and he was heading for the ground.

By the time he got his bearings, Stain was already taking his katanas out of Conductor's unmoving form. His heart dropped. He had just witnessed a murder…something that he was completely defenseless to stop.

Stain wiped his blades off with his sleeves and turned towards Izuku. He began walking over to him and Izuku started to panic. By the time the hero killer had crouched down, Izuku was on the brink of hyperventilating.

"You're an interesting one Serpentine," He studied Izuku once again with a sadistic smirk, "I look forward to talking with you again soon." Even though his body couldn't physically move, he knew he would've flinched as he felt the cold hand of the hero killer pat his head before he stood back up straight.

And just as quickly and quietly as he appeared, he vanished. Leaving Izuku frozen on the alley floor staring at the bleeding out form of Conductor.

Shouta had known that he was going to be home a little later than usual tonight and he had told Izuku as much.

It wasn't as if he had expected the kid to be there when he did arrive, but there was something that didn't sit right with him. The night had a certain air about it that left him feeling uneasy and that feeling only grew as he came home to an empty apartment.

It couldn't hurt to just go out and make sure he's okay, right?

Heading right back out, Eraser put down his jacket and made his way back down the apartment building stairs.

He only searched for about five minutes when he came across a familiar mop of green curls. He approached the alley and instantly knew that something was wrong.

For one, Izuku was lying on the ground unmoving, and second, there was another unmoving body next to him, only this one was sitting in a pool of blood. And unfortunately, Shouta knew exactly who that body belonged to.

"Kid! Kid, are you alright? Please be alive, please be alive-" He ran to Izuku and when he saw his face, he saw that he had streams of tears going down his pale cheeks. Eyes devoid of any and all emotion. He hadn't even noticed Shouta yet.

Oh no, this was bad…

Shouta crouched down and put a hand on Izuku's shoulder gently. He flinched at the touch and the hero internally grimaced. He had been so happy when he thought that Izuku had finally gotten comfortable with his touch, but now wasn't the time.

"Hey…" He tried. "Hey," He tried again, this time moving the kid's shoulder a bit. "Izuku!" The sound of Shouta shouting his name, must've triggered something because suddenly his eyes darted to the hero and then all around, as if he was taking in a scene that he had never seen before. "Hey…are you okay?"

Izuku didn't say anything. Didn't move. Didn't react in any other way than a fresh stream of tears beginning to fall down his face.

"Kid…kid-Izuku talk to me. What happened?"

His eyes slowly met his and all Shouta saw there was brokenness, hopelessness…

"I couldn't do anything…"

"What do you mean? Tell me what happened."

"It was the hero killer…I stumbled across Conductor and the hero killer showed up."

Oh my god-

The hero killer?! Izuku had faced the hero killer and survived?

"He-he killed him, and I couldn't do a single thing."

"Hey-hey, it's okay. Anybody would've frozen when dealing with someone like that. Do not put this on yourself, it was not your fault."

"No, I mean that I literally couldn't do anything. I can't move."

This time Shouta froze. His eyes scanned Izuku all over and noticed just how uncomfortable of a position he was actually in. And he remembered just how still the boy had been this entire time.

"I think that it may be his quirk…why he's able to take down heroes so efficiently. If he can immobilize them then it's merely child's play at that point."

Eraser continued to search Serpentine for any type of noticeable injury, "And he didn't try to kill you?"

"No…he said um-that he looked forward to talking with me again soon…"

Shouta tensed and he looked down at the empty eyes of this poor boy. A boy who has been through way too much in the short amount of time that was his life, who has experienced things that no one should ever have to experience, who has seen things that he wished that he never would've.

"Izuku…"

There wasn't much that he could do. A minute after Shouta arrived, Izuku was able to move again, but all he did was reposition and then he refused to move.

Eraser called Tsuki and gave him a very brief explanation of what happened and asked him to bring some people to take care of the scene. Once they arrived Shouta promised him a more thorough explanation, but he had to get Izuku away from this place. He didn't know how much he would be able to take.

He just hoped that the kid was sensible enough to not try to handle all of it alone.

"Ugh-Midoriya…" Shinso groaned out as he took another hit from the serious faced boy in front of him. Despite his friend calling to him however, he didn't seem to hear him at all. "Midoriya." Another hit. "Hey! Mid-Izuku!"

That made the boy's eyes snap to Hitoshi's. He wasn't even the slightest bit winded, while Shinso was already dying, and they hadn't started but ten minutes ago.

"Hey…you good?"

Izuku simply shook his head as if to shake away his thoughts and retook up his fighting stance, making Shinso groan and mimic his actions. "Yeah." He said after a moment. "Your form is terrible."

"Hey!"

They spent the rest of their training time that day with Izuku showing Shinso how to properly take a hit while receiving the least amount of damage as possible. It was slow progress, but it was progress.

Hitoshi's body was already screaming at him by the time he collapsed on the groan at the end. He silently cursed to himself, thinking about how horrible he felt now and how much worse he'll feel in the morning.

"Okay, so that wasn't completely terrible-"

"Midoriyaaaaaa," Hitoshi whined. "Do you have to cut me down so much?"

The boy frowned down at him and handed him a water bottle. The only thing that gave away that they had been training was the sweat stains on his shirt, but Izuku looked completely fine, in fact, he looked relaxed. Show off…

"It's not to be mean, but you need to know exactly where you are so that you can begin to move forward. You're just staring out, and you can't expect to be good right off the bat."

Shinso let out a frustrated huff, "…I guess!"

"I'm right and you know it. Anyway, same time tomorrow?"

Another loud groan followed by Izuku's laughter made the corners of Shinso's mouth to twitch up. He had been told about what had happened the other night with Conductor and Stain and he was worried about his friend.

He seemed to be doing at least a bit better now, but Aizawa had warned him that the boy tended to shut down when he didn't know how to properly handle his feelings and emotions. Unfortunately, he knew about that all too well.