Chapter 23: Ashes Settle

Hizashi parked right in front of the old aquarium. Izuku had finally texted back an hour ago, letting them know they were both alive and had some deliveries for the police, and Aizawa was so happy Hizashi had been driving. He needed several minutes to process the fact two of his students infiltrated a criminal organization by themselves and won.

The second he knew they were okay, he was going to kick their asses.

So some of the gut-wrenching fear and anxiety had faded, and Hizashi drove a little closer to the speed limit after that, but they were still pretty pumped on adrenaline when they reached the aquarium.

The first floor felt like a haunted house, but Izuku was kind enough to warn them about that and explain how to get up to the floor where the fight happened.

He was absolutely sucking up to try and lessen his punishment. Aizawa wasn't fooled.

Still, even knowing that they'd won and were okay, he wasn't prepared for what he walked in to.

Katsuki stood guard over fifteen grown men. Half of those men were soaking wet, and they were all tied in familiar bracelets. One of the tanks had a giant hole melted into it, and knowing Izuku's abilities he could take a guess at how part of the fight went.

The Problem Child himself sat nearby, also somewhat on guard, but mostly focused on the laptop in front of him. Blood ran down the side of his neck, and his hoodie was in tatters, but that was the only injury he could see on either child.

Thank god for small mercies.

Dragon was tied with several bracelets on his wrists and ankles, and he clearly had some kind of concussion. He swayed where he sat, and someone's dirty sock had been shoved in his mouth.

Hizashi whistled. "I don't know what I expected, but this is impressive."

"Don't praise them. They're in so much trouble," Aizawa stated.

"Hey, you know how when a villain turns themselves in, if they offer valuable information they can get a lesser sentence?" Izuku asked.

Aizawa raised a brow.

Izuku turned the laptop around. "I've got so much information on past and future operations here. And they've got tons of stolen weapons and drugs in the backrooms."

These two hellions really did complete an entire raid all on their own, hadn't they? "We're taking that, but you're not off the hook."

Izuku's shoulders sank. "It was worth a try."

"Told you," Katsuki grumbled.

"You're not getting out of this either. I trusted you at least to have some common sense," Aizawa stated.

Katsuki looked him dead in the eye. "I did. It was either come with him or he'd sneak out without me."

Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. These kids wanted to send him to an early grave, didn't they?

"We'll punish you two later. For now, we need to get police here to do proper clean up," Hizashi said. He turned to Aizawa and asked softly, "Should we let them get back and avoid the police or let them face the legal consequences?"

A deep breath. As much as he wanted to punish the kids, he didn't want to crush their future careers. He was reasonably sure, now that Dragon was dealt with, this wouldn't be happening again.

"We can claim they're on a work study with us," Aizawa finally said. Thankfully this was the Nurugi PD, and he was well acquainted with this particular department. They shouldn't question him too much. He'd send the kids home, but the trains weren't running out of the city yet and even if they were, the dorms wouldn't be open when they got there.

Besides, he really didn't know how to explain the hole in the tank without Izuku's quirk. Making them deal with the police would just be part of their punishment. They wouldn't get any rest before training today, but that was their own fault. If they'd wanted to be rested they shouldn't have snuck out to fight a criminal organization.

Izuku was back on the laptop when he turned his attention back to him. Hizashi made the call, and Aizawa went to see just what kind of information the kid was finding.

He also wanted to check whatever wound was bleeding. It didn't look like a lot, but it probably hadn't been treated. He didn't see any first aid supplies out.

"I don't know where Mom is," Izuku mumbled when Aizawa was close enough.

Aizawa hadn't expected her to be here. Considering she'd been at an apartment before, it was highly unlikely Hisashi would bring her to a base like this. It would be too hard to keep an eye on her in such a big place.

But Izuku didn't know about any of that.

"We'll find her," Aizawa promised. "It should be easy now that we have access to Dragon's files."

"What if she's not in his files?"

"Then we'll find her another way." He peered closer at the side of Izuku's head where the bleeding seemed to stem from. Part of his hair around his ear was dyed crimson, and, shit, the tip of the kid's ear was gone. Barely anything, only half a centimeter, if that, and it had already stopped bleeding on its own. His hair would probably hide it anyway, but shit.

"Do you think we'll have time?" Izuku asked. "What if a guard with her has orders to kill her if they don't hear from Dragon?"

"I highly doubt that," Aizawa said. He pulled his basic first aid kit from his belt. "I didn't mention it before because I didn't want to get your hopes up, but I had a lead on her location the other day. And she was spotted briefly in Hosu yesterday. No injuries."

"She's okay?" Izuku jumped.

Aizawa pushed him back down and pulled out antiseptic wipes. "As of yesterday, yes. Everything you've said about Dragon lately leads me to believe she's not going to be hurt."

"You really think that?" Izuku asked.

"I do."

Izuku calmed down. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. I have to disinfect this."

Izuku wrinkled his nose but didn't protest.

Xx

Inko didn't like the new apartment. She'd lost her view of the city, and the place just wasn't as comfortable. She wouldn't say she'd liked the old apartment, either, but in the two weeks she'd been there she'd grown used to it. It was familiar. This apartment wasn't.

She wasn't alone here, either. Hiroki stayed with her all the time. He had his own room to sleep, and he tried to stay out of her way. While he claimed he wasn't there as her jailer, he was her bodyguard, she didn't really see the difference.

Hiroki was nice enough, she supposed. There were certainly worse people Hisashi could have left with her. At least Hiroki had manners.

Still. She didn't like the new apartment. It made weird noises, and the sudden change unbalanced the precarious calm she'd settled into. It took her ages to fall asleep, unable to get comfortable no matter what position she tried.

She ended up sleeping in much later than she'd intended. Hiroki already had breakfast laid out for her, and when she emerged from the room he wordlessly went to reheat it and start water for tea.

He had the news on in the living room, but they weren't paying much attention to it. Not until after she'd eaten and was nursing the rest of her tea and a picture of Hisashi showed up in the upper corner.

Both of them stilled, and then Hiroki lunged for the remote to turn up the volume.

"….ious criminal, Dragon, real name Hisashi Midoriya, was apprehended early this morning in Nurugi by Pro heroes. More than a dozen members of his gang were arrested along with him and are currently in police custody-"

"Fuck," Hiroki hissed. He muted the TV again and leaned back on the couch.

Inko glanced from the TV to Hiroki. What did this mean for her? Did Hiroki have orders on what to do if Hisashi was arrested?

He stared at the ceiling for a minute. "Well, this changes things."

Inko clutched her tea cup, mind racing. She wasn't a fighter, but maybe if she made enough noise someone would call for help?

Hiroki ran a hand through his hair and leaned over his knees on the couch. "Guess we moved you for nothing yesterday, sorry about that."

She dared to hope. "Does this mean you'll let me go?"

He shrugged. "Well, I'm not about to hang around here when the boss isn't giving orders anymore. Don't see why you should either."

Relief crashed over her. She could finally go home. She could see her son.

She left her tea cup on the coffee table and rushed to gather what few belongings she had. It wasn't much besides some clothes and a few books, so she was sliding her shoes on in ten minutes.

Hiroki was also ready to go, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "Um, for what it's worth, I'm…sorry, about all of this. I know you must have been terrified."

She had been. She'd been scared out of her mind for weeks, expecting Hisashi to change his mind about how he felt and burn her to ashes on a sudden mood shift.

"Boss really didn't want to hurt you, though. Losing you and the Little Dragon hurt him really bad. He missed you guys."

Inko looked him in the eyes. "Just because he missed me doesn't mean kidnapping was an acceptable option."

Hiroki laughed. "No, no I know it's not. I don't know what I'm trying to say. Take care of yourself, I guess. And tell Little Dragon I said 'Hi,' would you?"

She wasn't sure if she would. She didn't see how a greeting from a criminal was anything her son wanted to hear, but then again she hadn't seen him in three years. Who knew what he wanted to hear right now?

She promised she would anyway, if only so Hiroki would let her finally leave. Once she was out the door, she booked it out of the apartment building. The fresh air was amazing, and it made her almost giddy on her way to the police station.

She didn't know what city she was in, and she figured as a person that was missing for two weeks, she'd have to end up with the police at some point anyway. Might as well get that over with first and maybe bum a ride off them to her son.

Xx

Izuku anticipated being tired during training. He and Katsuki got back to the dorms with maybe an hour left to try and sleep. They'd slept a little in the car, but it wasn't nearly enough for the grueling day of training ahead of them.

Aizawa wasn't letting them take it easy, either. If he thought either of them were slacking, he made them run a lap around the gym.

The others were starting to notice, too, since he wasn't making anyone else run laps.

"Did you two do something to make him mad?" Kaminari asked.

"Yes," Izuku replied, but refused to elaborate. Aizawa had every right to be mad for their actions. Izuku wouldn't begrudge him that. He wished he could look for his mother instead, but he kind of feared for his life if he pushed his boundaries right now.

He didn't regret going last night, because his father was finally behind bars. No matter how mad Aizawa was at him now, it was totally worth it.

"Does it have to do with what happened to your ear?" Ashido asked.

He had a pretty noticeable bandage folded over his ear. The bullet hadn't just grazed him, like he thought, it actually sheared off the very tip, which was why it had bled so much. It also cut a groove through his hair, but that was far less noticeable with his curls.

"Yes," he said again, still refusing to elaborate. Obviously, he and Katsuki couldn't go around bragging about their nighttime excursion.

Some of them were suspicious. The news had dropped that Dragon had been arrested, and the smarter students in class were putting the pieces together. He'd realized where his father was hiding, and then he showed up the next day exhausted with an unexplained injury, and his father was taken into police custody?

He was lucky his classmates were compassionate enough not to interrogate him right away.

All Might had even grabbed him during lunch to talk, so he was mentally exhausted on top of everything else. Like his classmates, he'd put the pieces together. Izuku fully expected him to ask for One for All back, and he was prepared to hand it over.

That was not how the conversation went.

He asked for a blow by blow of what happened, and Izuku recounted everything in between bites of curry. They were alone in the teacher's lounge, sitting next to each other on the couch, so Izuku told him every detail. Afterwards, he was silent.

Izuku lowered his spoon back to his bowl, unable to meet All Might's gaze. "I'm sorry. You entrusted me with your power, and I fell into old habits."

All Might shook his head. "No, don't apologize. You told me this is exactly what you would do if given my abilities that day on the roof. I won't begrudge you for following through on it now. I would have preferred you waited until you had your license. Ideally, you wouldn't have even snuck out to do this."

Izuku's hands tightened around the bowl. His father had always been his problem. He'd been sending tips to the police for years and they'd never gotten anywhere, and he'd simply accepted he was going to have to handle it himself. Truthfully, accepting Katsuki's help was a big step for him.

All Might sighed. "But I knew you had trust issues, too, when I passed on my power. Really, not much about this incident is very surprising."

It didn't sound like it was the good kind of not surprising. More like he was resigned to Izuku's bad habits.

He glared down at the last of his curry. "I'll be better," Izuku stated. "I'll work on my trust issues, and I'll be a hero you can be proud of."

All Might stared at him for a moment before grinning and ruffling Izuku's hair, minding his ear. "I know you will. I'm not worried about that."

The praise and belief in All Might's voice lifted Izuku's spirits. For the last twelve hours he'd heard nothing but chastisements for his behavior. He'd needed to hear that he was still on the right path. In fact, he was probably more on the path than he'd ever been.

They spent the rest of lunch discussing Izuku's quirk and how his progress was coming along, and All Might offered a few suggestions for him to work on in the afternoon.

He was rejuvenated after lunch and raring to go, but that second wind burned out fast under Aizawa's persistent glare. All the stress he'd talked out with All Might came crawling back. The fact their provisional license exam was the next day didn't help. This was the last day to practice their final moves, and Izuku didn't want to waste it. Granted, taking out a criminal organization boosted his confidence about the exam quite a bit, and that flaming armor had been a spur of the moment thing the previous night, but it worked wonders for fighting.

His muttering grew as the day went on. By midafternoon, his limbs didn't feel like part of his body. Classmates were giving him weird, concerned looks. Some looked tempted to tell him to take it easy, but if he tried Aizawa would make him run another lap and he didn't have another lap in him.

"Sorry to interrupt!" Principal Nedzu called from the doors.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to give him their full attention. He stood next to a middle-aged woman.

"I need to borrow Midoriya!" Nedzu announced.

Izuku froze where he stood, gaze locked on the woman. Her green hair was half up, half down. "Mom?" he whispered.

Her eyes finally found him amongst the students and she stepped forward. "Izuku?"

He ran. "Mom!"

She was actually here, she was okay, he didn't see any bruises or bandages, she was okay. She was crying, but so was he, and they crashed into each other and held on for dear life.

"Oh, Izuku, my baby," she sobbed, running a hand through his hair. He was as tall as her now, which was at least proof he'd grown a little through all of this.

"Mom, oh my god, I'm so sorry, for everything, I'm so glad you're okay!"

She hugged him tighter, and god he'd missed her hugs, he'd wanted to be in her arms for three years, he finally had it after so long.

They were both a sobbing mess for a while. Somehow they were shepherded out of the gym so the rest of the class could go back to training. Nedzu made another vague apology about disrupting their training, but "This really was an issue that couldn't wait."

If that rat/bear/dog/thing had even considered making him and his mom wait until he was done training, Izuku would burn all the fur off his body.

They took quite a while to calm down, leaving noticeable wet spots on each other. Both of them apologized about a hundred times, but once they finished sobbing and even the hiccups disappeared, Izuku said it again. He was curled up against her, their backs against the building.

"I'm sorry." Izuku's voice was pretty wrecked from all the crying.

Inko's wasn't much better. "I wish you had told me what was going on. Getting that phone call from you…and then you were just gone…I've never been more scared in my life, Izuku. I thought I'd never see you again."

"I know. If I could go back there's so much I would do differently, but back then I didn't think I had any other choice."

He wasn't sorry about how his life had turned out. He'd never hated his life as Alley Cat, even if he had been incredibly lonely. In the end, he'd still ended up at UA with Katsuki, as if he'd never left. Teamwork lessons were finally starting to sink in, though, and he could admit there were better choices he could have made that would have saved both him and his mother a lot of pain.

It was as simple as telling his mother the truth when his father was out. He could have told her everything, and they could have gone to the police together.

But that hindsight came from a person who'd grown to trust the police a tiny bit more than twelve-year old him had. It came from a person who was now dealing with the consequences of what his twelve-year old self had done.

"I thought I'd lost you, and I was so confused," Inko went on, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks as she squeezed him tighter.

He squeezed back. "I know, I'm so sorry. You've always been the best mom in the world and I love you so much, I'm so sorry for hurting you like that."

"I love you too, Izuku. You're grounded for the rest of your life, do you hear me?"

He laughed. He didn't even know how that would work, since he was in the dorms. She didn't even have her own place, she lived with the Bakugou's. Did that mean he'd move in with them, too? Was it safe for her to get an apartment now? He could always stay with Aizawa and Hizashi, he knew they wouldn't mind, but he didn't have to stay there, now.

"I'm just so glad you're okay," Inko said. "I'm not even going to ask what you did to your ear." Her fingers brushed the edge of the bandage.

He laughed again. "That's probably for the best…" He'd tell her eventually what he and Katsuki had done the previous night. He'd tell her everything of the last few years. Right now, he was still enjoying her mere presence.

And her hugs, dear god he loved his mother's hugs.

"Are you really okay? Dad didn't do anything to you?" Izuku asked.

She shook her head. "No, he didn't do anything. He put me in an apartment, like he was trying to recreate what we had years ago. I probably could have left if I'd really wanted to, but I didn't know what he'd do to you if I did. But he never hit me or anything."

That was a huge relief. He would have had to go punch his father again in prison if he had.

"He stopped by for dinner every night," Inko went on. "He talked about you, a little. Told me how you'd been sending the police after him constantly for years, and you were close to wrecking everything he'd built."

Izuku couldn't help it, he was proud of that. "I did all that from a computer, don't worry."

"That's not what worries me, now," Inko said. She tangled her fingers in his hair. "He brought up something else."

"What?" What else could he have even had to bring up? What else could make his mother worry, even now, when Hisashi couldn't reach them anymore?

"Izuku, tell me the truth. Were you really a vigilante?"

He froze.

Crap.

He really wasn't ready to talk about this, he'd been hoping he'd have time to prepare some kind of defense for himself.

"I didn't mean to, I swear!"

They finally let go of each other, so Izuku could wave his arms as some kind of weak protest and Inko could put her hands on her hips.

"Izuku Midoriya!"

"No, really, it was an accident!"

"How do you accidentally become a vigilante?" she nearly shrieked.

"I was just trying to help people, that's all! I barely even used my quirk, so most of it wasn't even true vigilantism!"

"You are not getting out of this on a technicality, young man! Do your teachers know?"

"Some of them," Izuku admitted. With the way she was yelling and the open gym doors literally two feet away, half the class probably knew, now, and that was going to be fun to deal with later. "Aizawa's been looking out for me practically the whole time, honest! And the principal knows, he's the one who suggested UA instead of vigilantism!"

She put a hand to her forehead and shook her head.

"Look, I know it was bad, but I'm done with all that," Izuku promised. "Tomorrow I'll be getting my provisional license, and I'll be one step closer to being a full hero. As hard as it to believe, Dad and all of that is all in the past now."

She sighed and looked over at him, eyes softening. Tears building again, she cupped his cheek. "The hardest part about this is you grew up without letting me watch."

"You haven't missed much, I promise. It was a lot of staring at a computer screen and training, boring stuff."

She laughed and shook her head, pulling him against her side again. "At least you didn't hit a growth spurt. I don't know what I'd do if I had to look up at you now."

He groaned. No one could leave his height alone, could they?

Xx

Inko accompanied them back to the dorms after training. She was understandably hesitant to let Izuku out of her sight, and Izuku couldn't say he minded that much. He hadn't had a Mom in three years, it would take more than one night of hovering for it be annoying.

The class kept giving him odd looks, questions on the tips of their tongues. He didn't know if Aizawa or even Katsuki had said something to everyone, but they respected Izuku's privacy at first.

The peace didn't last long.

Todoroki was leaving the baths when Izuku entered, and his eyes brightened considerably. "Can I ask you something?"

Izuku resigned himself to answering the same questions over and over. He really should just gather everyone in the common room and get it over in one go, but he didn't have the words to express how much he didn't want to do that.

At least Todoroki already knew part of the story. "Go ahead."

"When you said you knew Alley Cat, that was just a cover, wasn't it?"

Izuku blinked. That had not been the question he'd expected. "Huh?"

"Your mother was very loud. We didn't mean to overhear, but…"

Izuku buried his face in his hands. He knew it. Too many classmates had super hearing.

"You were actually Alley Cat, weren't you," Todoroki finished.

Sighing, Izuku nodded. "Please don't tell anyone else."

"Don't worry, I think most of the class is pretending they didn't hear. For all we know, your mother just heard a strange rumor while she was missing."

That made Izuku feel a little better.

"Aizawa gave an impromptu lesson at the end of training about working on confidential cases, too, and the importance of secrecy."

Izuku laughed. That sounded like Aizawa. At least he wasn't so mad at him that he wasn't watching Izuku's back.

Todoroki gave a small laugh himself. "You should have seen Iida's face when he put it together. I think you gave him an existential crisis."

That made Izuku laugh again. Their poor Class Rep. "I did find it really ironic when he called himself a vigilante in Hosu."

"It's hysterical in hindsight. Any other vigilantes in the class I should know about?"

"Well, you and Katsuki have honorary vigilante status," Izuku joked.

"So you two did have something to do with Dragon's arrest."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Izuku smiled, walking past him to the baths.

Todoroki left him to it. Izuku didn't take long; he was too exhausted for that, and the longer he was in the baths the less he was with his mother, and he was already craving another hug.

She waited for him in his room sitting on his bed. Katsuki had made himself comfortable on the desk chair, looking at the conspiracy board. The tips of his ears were red, and he wouldn't look at Inko.

She must have finished berating him for keeping Izuku a secret. She'd had the same conversation with Aizawa while Izuku finished training.

"Took you long enough," Katsuki stated.

"I was yelled at enough, I wasn't going to interrupt yours."

He scoffed.

Izuku sat next to Inko and leaned against her side. She very happily wrapped her arms around him again.

"You were really determined to take down your father, weren't you?" she asked quietly.

His gaze wandered over his notes still pinned to his walls. "Yeah. I couldn't relax with him out there. Nowhere felt safe."

"Well, you're safe now. We took him down." Katsuki flexed his fingers.

Izuku smiled. "Yeah, we did." He looked over the notes again before jumping up.

His sudden move startled Inko and Katsuki, but not as much as the gleeful look on his face when he tore down the pages of dragon legends pinned to his wall.

Katsuki laughed and stood to reach the notes over the desk.

Together, they tore down his conspiracy board in a matter of minutes. Each rip was music to his ears.

His father was no longer a threat. He'd eclipsed the Dragon, and now he was free to move forward however he wanted. He could become the hero All Might and everyone kept telling him he could be.

Balling up all his notes and shoving them in his trash can was the most cathartic he'd ever felt. He was left with blank walls, a clean slate to step into his future with.

Katsuki leaned his arm on Izuku's shoulder surveying their work, and Inko took Izuku's hand and joined them.

"We'll have to get you some posters," Inko suggested.

He squeezed her hand and reached for his phone on his desk with the other. "Actually, I have a better idea." He opened the front facing camera. The rear camera was out of commission until he figured out how to pry the melted case off.

He held the phone up for a selfie of the three of them. "Think I can get these printed?"

Katsuki rolled his eyes and took the phone out of his hand. "If you're putting this on your wall, we're taking a decent photo." He held the phone at a better angle with his longer arms and got a much better shot of the three of them.

Izuku then took selfies with just Katsuki and just Inko. "Think the rest of the class will take pictures with me?"

"Have you met them? They'll be so excited they'll make an entire studio in the common room." Katsuki rolled his eyes.

(He wasn't wrong. When Izuku asked for selfies with everyone after dinner, that was exactly what happened. Ashido managed to help him free his phone from the ruined case using her acid, and then his phone was passed around his classmates while they all took pictures of each other. It was one the best nights he'd ever had, and just the sort of stress-free fun everyone needed before the big exam in the morning.)