Beneath the Hero's Mask

Chapter 2

"… thirty four, thirty five, thirty six …"

*Knock Knock*

Izuku put down the dumbbells to open the door. His mother, Inko was waiting on the other side.

"Hi, Izuku. I was just going to go do some shopping and I was wondering if you would like to come along." The woman asked.

"Umm, sorry mom. I have finish today's training."

"Come on, honey. You've already passed U.A.'s entrance exam. Besides, you've been training so hard lately, you could use a little break; this is your last weekend before school starts. If you come, we can stop by LeBlanc on the way back!" She tried to convince him.

He detected a small hint of melancholy in his mother's voice, a pinch of guilt struck him. Ever since he first met All-Might almost a year ago, he had lost himself in training to pass U.A.'s entrance exam and become the next carrier of One For All. His mother had been nothing but supportive of his dream to become a Hero. She encouraged and cared for him throughout everything, and he had repaid her by being more distant than ever. He needed to show her how much he appreciated all she did for him.

"You're right, It'll be fun! It's been a while since we last did something together. Let me get changed first."

After getting ready, the Midoriyas ventured into town together for a mother-son day. They went past the market to buy groceries, and stopped by the stationery store to get any last minute school materials. Inko even insisted on going to the mall to buy her son a new back-to-school pair of shoes. Much to Izuku's dismay, his mother asked him if he had already outgrown his All-Might themed underwear just loud enough for everyone in the clothing store to hear. His embarrassment was washed away by the comfort of having such a caring and loving mother. He was happy he decided to set the day apart to spend it with her.

Eventually, they headed to their final destination for the day, café LeBlanc. LeBlanc was a small and quaint establishment located just a couple blocks away from their apartment. The business' foot traffic was scarce bar a couple regulars, but the warm atmosphere and inebriating coffee aroma made anyone eager to come back. Thanks to its mouth-watering curry and masterfully brewed coffee, the coffeeshop quickly became the Midoriyas' eatery of choice whenever the older of the two didn't feel like cooking. When they finally entered the café, they were welcomed by the usual jingle of the bell above the door and the warm greeting of a familiar voice.

The place was empty, with the exception of the man behind the bar, who just so happened to also be the shop's proprietor, Sojiro Sakura. He was a middle aged man with slicked-back dark hair, glasses, and a characteristic goatee. The sternness in his demeanour was softened by his charm and excellent customer service. His better years were long behind him, but the youthful spirit never left him. After many years of frequenting LeBlanc, the barista had become a close friend to both Inko and Izuku.

"Hello there. Oh, I'm sorry miss, I think you got the wrong address. The modelling agency is down the street." The bearded man said with a sly grin.

"Oh, Sojiro. You old devil. I'd be charmed if you didn't say that to every woman that walks in here." Retorted Inko, amused by the his attempt at flattery.

"What can I say? I need to keep my customers happy."

"Well, I'm perfectly happy with two orders of your famous coffee and curry."

"You got it." Sojiro turned around and shouted behind him. "Hey, kid. Get the siphon going!".

From the corner of the kitchen appeared a bespectacled boy with frizzy, black hair and a green apron." Right away, boss."

"Oh my, Soji. Who is this handsome young man? Could it be that you finally caved and decided to hire a part-timer?"

"Well, I'm not getting any younger. And an extra pair of hands certainly eased the workload on my shoulders. All the stress was making my beautiful hair grey."

The woman turned to the young man. "Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Inko Midoriya, and this is my son, Izuku." she said while bowing politely. Her son imitated the gesture.

'"Nice to meet you too. My name is Ren Amamiya." The black haired boy reciprocated. "I'll get your order ready in a minute."

After the quick introduction, Ren returned to the kitchen and the patrons took a sit in one the booths. Sojiro took off his apron and headed towards the door.

"Kid, Mind the shop while I take a smoke break. Inko, care to you join me outside so I can fill you in on the latest neighbourhood gossip?" He asked.

"Ooh, don't mind if I do. Be right back, honey." She said while following the man outside the café.

While his mother was catching up with Sojiro, Izuku took the opportunity to work on the latest entry of his Hero Analysis for the Future. He took out a pen and notebook form his bag and diligently started to write. When Ren came to the table to deposit a fresh order of curry and coffee, he couldn't help but look over the boy's shoulder to take a peek at the notebook.

"Cool drawing. Is that Kamui Woods?" The rookie-barista asked.

"Oh this? I'm just writing some notes about him. His powers, his fighting style and stuff…"

"It's really good."

"Umm… thanks." Izuku felt slightly embarrassed by the compliment.

"So you're into Heroes?"

"Yeah, a bit." Ren was blissfully ignorant of the flagrant understatement.

"I'm not surprised, honestly. There's a lot of cool Heroes in Musutafu, and they're always patrolling around the city. Back in Tokyo, Heroes don't seem as connected with the community."

"You're from Tokyo?"

"Originally, yeah. I just moved here last week."

"That's quite the change of scenery. How did you end up working for Mr. Sakura?"

Ren stopped for a moment to choose his words carefully. Izuku seemed like a good guy, but he didn't need to know every detail about the circumstances that led him to be living in LeBlanc. "The boss is… a family friend. In exchange of helping him around the café, he's letting me stay here while I attend high school in town.

"Oh, you're a high school student? What year? I'm about to start my first year myself."

"I'm also going to be a first year. I'll be attending the Hero course at U.A. High School"

"For real?! Me too!" The younger boy was immediately exalted. He started bombarding his future classmate with questions. "You want to become a pro hero too? Oh, Man. I'm so excited! aren't you excited? I mean U.A. is by far the best Hero school in the country! Their standards are so high. That entrance exam was super hard, wasn't it?"

"I wouldn't know. I didn't do it."

"What?! You got in without doing the entrance exam?"

Joker realised that was the wrong thing to say. He couldn't back-pedal now, so he treaded carefully.

"I actually got in though a recommendation."

"No way! You must have had some amazing results in middle school. In that case you did the special recommendation entrance exam instead, right? How was it?"

"There's a special entrance exam. Man, what a chore. I'm so lucky I got to skip all that." He took the chance to correct his previous mistake "Yeah… it was definitely hard."

"Still though, for you to get in the Hero course on recommendation, your Quirk must be seriously impressive! May I ask what it is?"

"Uh, it's kind of hard to explain. I can summon… er… entities, to fight for me in battle. You'll understand better once you see it in person. I'll show it to you at school." Izuku seemed satisfied with that. "What about you? what's your Quirk?"

The green haired boy became visibly nervous "M-my Quirk? Umm, it's… I-it's … I guess you could say I have a Power-type Quirk."

"You mean like super strength? I wouldn't have expected that."

"Yeah, me neither."

His response arose a hint of suspicion in Ren's mind, but he decided not to pry and risk alienating his conversation partner; he was rather enjoying the boy's company, and he found himself wanting to get to know him better. A fleeting thought occurred to him.

"By the way, I'm not too acquainted with the city yet. Would you mind meeting Monday morning and walk to school together?" He asked.

"Sure thing! It'll be nice having a friend already on the first day of class." Izuku replied with enthusiasm.

Ren felt a warm feeling in his chest, he was glad he wasn't the only one that felt a budding friendship within the brief chat. Even though they had just met, he already felt certain kinship with Izuku Midoriya. Indeed, it was nice not having to face this new daunting challenge alone. He definitely could use an ally in the city. For years it was only Joker and his personas against the world, but now he came to realise that things could be done differently. For the first time ever, Ren was looking forward to going back to school.