Two Years Later
Izuku dodged a swipe from a walking stick held by his martial arts teacher as the older man cracked an eye open to look at the sneaking boy. As Izuku settled into a crouch Master Splinter smiled before speaking, "Ah, very good young Izuku. You got within striking distance of me. You most likely would have been able to take down anyone else but I have trained my body and senses for many, many years. But well done to nether less."
Izuku nodded as his teacher finished speaking. He rested in his crouch as he thought back to the meeting where he and his friends met Master Splinter. It seemed that the old rat man had been looking for a reason to move back to Japan when Izuku had talked with his grandson and helped him figure out what to do with his life. So when he heard that the person that helped his grandson was supposable eight years old he asked his son Donatello to see if he could find out anything to confirm this information. That is when he started to watch the young man from across the sea because he got the same feeling about him that he got when he adopted four brothers when he was a poor single man with nothing to his name. That the boy would be a wind of change in the future. So when it came to his attention that the families around Izuku were looking for martial arts instruction he saw the opportunity to move back to his birth country and also help in the development of this special young man.
After that initial meeting over two years ago Izuku along with his friends and family had met Master Splinter's four sons at different occasions. Michelangelo was able to entertain everyone while also kicking all their asses and still end up their friend afterwards. Leonardo seemed unapproachable at first but he seemed to use that first impression of him to analyze people like Izuku analyzed quirks. To say they learned quite a bit about situational awareness and how to access a battle from him would be an understatement. Raphael immediately butted heads with Katsuki which ended up with the blonde boy being beaten into the mat but impressing the hot headed brother. They had set up a kind of mentor/mentee relationship where Raphael was advising Katsuki on how to manage his anger so he wouldn't let it get the best of him in a fight or how to focus it to help him push through when needed. Donatello had never visited in person since he owned his own small support company in the US. He had talked to everyone on video call so he knew them all but the only one he really interacted with was Izuku since they both were so intelligent that they left everyone else in the dust when they got going. Donatello taught Izuku cybersecurity to protect his own systems so no one could back trace him like Donatello had and hacking so he could find information easier. Izuku had already used the cybersecurity to upgrade the systems in his mom's law offices, catching two hackers almost immediately who they reported to the police leading to their arrests.
Back in the present Izuku caught his breath before he stood up to walk over to his teacher. Once he had bowed to Splinter and kneeled in front of the man a side panel slid open to admit a gray haired woman with some snake like features, Splinter's wife Hamato Shen. Izuku had been surprised at first that a rat man and a snake woman were together but once he saw them he understood because they were so in love with each other. Their daughter Hamato Miwa took after her mother in her snake features but were loved by both her parents even though they had missed part of her life since she had been stolen and raised by the Shredder until her teens when she had tried to gain her 'father's' favor by killing his enemy only to be confronted by her long lost parents when her mother stopped her from killing Splinter when he recognized his daughter and didn't fight back, not wanting to hurt his child. She now ran a security company, using her learned skills to protect instead of harm.
Shen carried a tray of tea towards them only for Izuku to hop up to help her to bring it over and get comfortable. Before the young boy could kneel back down the woman spoke up, "As much as I would enjoy you having tea with us Izuku, it is almost two o'clock. If you are going to meet your friends after school you need to leave. I know you come here for extra training because you are home schooled and have nothing to do some days but its still a good idea to have fun like a normal kid. Besides your body needs rest. Too much training will set you back if you hurt yourself by pushing too hard. Gods know I had to pound that lesson into our boys heads too many times in the past."
At the mention of the time Izuku gasped and sprung towards the entrance of the dojo as the laughter of the older couple followed him out the door. Hopping to put his shoes on as he moved down the sidewalk the green haired boy headed down the street at a sprint to the train station. He made it just in time to catch his train and sit down in a half full car. After some time his stop came and he exited onto the platform. As he got to the street he immediately felt eyes on him. The situational awareness that Splinter and Leonardo had instilled him and his friends was working well. He pretended to not notice confident he could stop whoever was watching him if they did anything. What he wasn't ready for was a van to screech to a stop beside him, the door opening with two men jumping out at him while a third rushed from a nearby alleyway. He could have evaded them easily and gotten away but he saw behind the two men who jumped out of the van that there were three tied up kids in the van. Thinking quickly he pretended to freeze as the two men grabbed him as the third pressed a cloth to his mouth, which he held his breath under, acting like he fell unconscious before they picked him up and rushed him into the van. They were in such a hurry that they didn't even tie him up as they took off. Izuku cracked an eye open and watched the men as they nervously watched out the windows for a hero or police in case they had been seen. The longer they drove the more relieved they became, starting to chat about how much they were going to get for this haul when they sold the kids to the trafficking ring. Izuku struggled to not scowl when he heard that. He knew crime like this had risen in the last few years as criminals and villains got bolder but it still made him mad. Before he decided to jump up and kick their asses they arrived at a building that they pulled into and closed the garage door behind the van. The men rapidly grabbed the children and carried them downstairs to room that they locked behind them as they left.
Once the men were gone Izuku sat up and shook his head attheir stupidity because they still hadn't tied him up. He knew he was short but they must have been underestimating him because they were adults. He quickly went around and untied the other kids even though they were still knocked out. He looked them over after he walked the room to if they were being watched but not seeing any cameras. Two of the kids seemed to be only about five or six while the third one seemed to be around his age with pink dread locked hair. As he was squatted down looking her over her the eyes snapped open and she threw a punch which he deflected. Once she realized that he was another kid she blinked at him before sitting up.
"Who are you? Are you with those assholes who grabbed me?" the girl snapped at him as she stared at him with eyes that suddenly seemed more focused then a normal person's eyes.
Shaking his head Izuku answered, "Not with them. They grabbed me right before they brought us here. I pretended to inhale whatever they tried to dose me with when they grabbed me. I saw you three in the van and let them take me. How are you awake? Did they not dose you as much?"
"I use chemicals a lot so I've built up a resistance. I'm an inventor and future support item engineer. But not if we don't get out of here. But back to you saying you let them take you. You look like you're the same age as me. How is letting them take you going help?" the girl asked as she started to look around.
Izuku sat down and took off one of his shoes before turning it over. He twisted the heel and it popped off to reveal a hollow with a device in it which immediately got the girls attention. She looked like she wanted to snatch it out of his hand to study but he reached in and pressed the sides with two fingers in two spots turning on the device. He then put the heel back on and put his shoe back on. Looking up he said, "Because I just turned on a distress and homing signal. It will alert the police and my mom. Trust me when I say my mom will light a fire under anyone and everyone to get me back. No one wants to be on the bad side of Inko Midoriya trust me."
"Inko Midoriya? Isn't she the one who buried Endeavor in his court case a couple years back? She is a total badass. I suddenly feel very sorry for these guys. She'll probably bury them in a hole so deep they will never see the light of day again." the girl said with awe in her voice.
Izuku grinned and nodded. "So I'm Izuku. Midoriya obviously. Nice to meet you even though we're kidnaped."
"Mei Hatsume. As to being kidnaped I could make it so they couldn't get back inside here by messing up the lock." Mei told him.
Izuku shook his head. "I'd rather block off not having a way to escape if need be. Besides it might make them angry if they come back and can't open the door. Us waking up and untying each other would be easier to explain then us barricading ourselves in and riling them up."
Suddenly the door opened to show a man in red gear. "The boy makes an excellent point but you don't need to worry about your kidnappers anymore. I saw them grab the green haired boy and followed as fast as I could. Sorry it took so long but you are free now."
Izuku threw his back with a groan. "FUUUUCK! Stendhal what are you doing here? You didn't kill them did you? I know you cut your victims as part of your quirk, not that I know what it is. Just know that much from reading the articles about the HPSC bitching about vigilantes talking about you cutting criminals. Any ways you need to leave. Police and heros are on their way. I activated a distress signal a little while ago."
"Too late. So does someone want to explain what is going on? Because I got a call that there was a distress signal coming from this address. Only once I get here I come upon what I assume are the criminals tied up in the middle of the building and I find a known vigilante standing over the kidnaped children with a sword." a tired voice drawled out from down the hall. Stendhal stiffened at the voice before he slumped, letting his sword drop to the floor so he didn't get attacked. He looked towards the voice before stepping in the room following some unseen command. Once Stendhal was standing with his back against the wall in the nearest corner a unkempt looking man stepped into the doorway. Izuku took one look at the man and sighed in relief. He knew who this man was and that they could trust him.
"Hello Eraserhead. Don't usually see you out and about during the day. What had you out doing hero work?" Izuku asked as the pro stood looking around at everything.
Eraserhead quirked an eyebrow at the kid talking to him, wondering how he knew who he was and trying to not smile at the kid's snark. "I was actually out grocery shopping and happen to be close by when the call went out. My ice cream is probably melting right now." he dead panned making the two awake kids laugh and earning a snort from Stendhal.
Soon after that the police arrived and started to take statements after arresting the kidnappers. When they went to handcuff Stendhal Izuku stepped towards him and handed him a card. Izuku stared him in the eye and told him to call the number for a lawyer. Stendhal stared back for a few moments before he nodded. He didn't know why he was trusting the kid but something told him he should.
After all the statements were taken the children were bundled in to squad cars and taken to the police station. There the two younger children were reunited with their parents (turns out they were brother and sister) while Izuku was smothered in a hug and almost drowned in tears by Inko next to a out of breath Mei as she was bear hugged by what appeared to be an older version of herself.
Once both mothers calmed down Mei suddenly jumps to Izuku's side begging to see the device in his shoe. When her mother asks what she is talking about Inko explains that Izuku had a distress signal in the heel of his shoe that sent out an alert to her phone that she relayed to the police. She then explained that it was a prototype that a friend of the family had made for them. When Mei's mom asked who the inventor was and was told it was Donatello Hamato both Mei and her mom screeched out loud before asking to meet the man. Inko promised to see if the man would be willing to speak with them before exchanging numbers with the other mother.
Once they were alone Izuku informed his mother he had given Stendhal her card. When she asked him why he did that he told her that Stendhal had seen him get kidnaped and followed to save him and the other children. He didn't want the man to get into trouble for doing the right thing.
Chizome Akaguro sighed as he sat in the holding cell. He was kind of mad that he had been caught but also proud that he had saved those kids from the kidnapers. His lip curled at the thought of children being hurt. Only lowlifes preyed on children.
He bounced his head against the wall as he thought about his life. He had wanted to be a hero to protect the public but he had got tossed out for preaching about how they needed to focused on being better heros and not be so focused on getting camera time. He had been so angry and disillusioned that he had decided to become a vigilante to protect the people like he wanted. When he saw how low some people could be, he contemplated just killing them and he almost did. But then All Might died taking down the most dangerous man to be born and he pulled himself back from the brink out of respect to the fallen hero.
He just hated the evil and corruption he saw and wanted to do something about it so people didn't suffer while the evil ones got away with their evil deeds. But now here he was going to go to prison for trying to do the right thing. So when an officer came to get him saying a lawyer was there for him he didn't give it much thought since it probably was some court appointed one that would tell him to plead guilty to reduce his sentence. So when he entered the room he was led to, he was surprised to see not a young rattled looking overworked public defender but a well put together, good looking green haired woman who smiled at him as he was cuffed to the table.
As he studied her she started speaking, "Hello Mr Akaguro. I am Inko Midoriya and I am going to be taking on your case. I'm pretty sure I can get you a very minimum sentence as you did rescue four children so technically we could say you were acting as a concerned citizen at the time. Also you surrendered yourself peacefully so that's a point in your favor. With the right judge we could possibly get you off with community service if you promised to not go back to vigilantism. How does that sound?"
Chizome blinked several times as Inko laid out her plan to defend him. The only point of it he disagreed with was not being a vigilante. "Everything you said sounds like more then I could hope for after being arrested as a vigilante. But there are still evil and corrupt people out there. People who need to be stopped. Criminals hurting people, corrupt heros, corrupt officials." he ranted only to stop as a sharp look appeared in Inko's eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that? I suddenly feel like prey before a predator."
"These corrupt officials and heros? Do you have proof of their wrongdoing? Because I would be very interested in doing something about them." Inko said with a sharp smile. As she stared at him she tilted her head as a thought occurred to her. "Or perhaps you would like to come work for me. Yes that would work. I get you licenced as a private investigator with my firm and then you could continue as you have been just on the right side of the law this time. Then together we can work on cleaning the corruption out of the system." Suddenly Inko snapped back to reality as she realized she had been talking out load like Izuku did at times. When she looked back at Chizome he was staring at her in awe. She just grinned and gave a shrug.
As the two sat there in silence, each in deep thought, Chizome shook his head before speaking. "I get the feeling you may be my equal in hatred of corruption. Also it would be better to work within the law. I only turned to vigilantism because it seemed like no one else was doing anything about it. But you have conviction to do something about it. I can see it in your eyes. Like you wouldn't back down even if it was a hero you were against."
Inko snorted as she answered. "Well after burying Endeavor by dragging every dirty secret he had into the light there isn't anyone that could scare me. If they are dirty or corrupt and try to come after me, well my quirk might only be small object attraction but you'd be amazed how many organs in the human body count as small objects."
Chizome leaned back as he whistled. "That was you? When all the shit that man did came out and he got sent away I wanted to kiss the person that had stepped up to put that evil bastard away. If I worked for you would we being doing the same type of thing. Destroying the corrupt?"
"Oh my dear man we will wreck their worlds and stand on the corpses of their lives when we are done." she responded with an evil smile.
"Then get me out of here and let us start our crusade boss lady." he replied back through his own warped smile.
Across the entire island of Japan many people felt a chill chase itself across their body as two people with strong convictions joined forces.
When Izuku arrived home he was tackled almost as soon as he walked in the door by Katsuki and Shoto as the two boys babbled out worries and checked him over for injuries. Soon they were settled in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by their families as Izuku slowly told everyone what happened. When he revealed he had let himself be taken when he saw the other children Katsuki smacked him in the back of the head for putting himself in danger. Rubbing the back of his head he continued to explain he heard them talking about how they were going to sell the children to a trafficking ring on the way to their hideout. He then told them how once they were placed in the room he checked that there weren't any cameras before he untied the other children and then spoke with Mei before he activated his distress signal. Next he told them of the appearance of Stendhal and Eraserhead before the arrival of the police. After his story was over the group sat in silence as they absorbed what happened.
After a while Touya spoke up about doubling down on training so he could try to make sure stuff like this didn't happen to other kids. His mother patted him on the shoulder to comfort him and show her approval of his motivations. Katsuki and Shoto promised to do the same from the their position on the floor sandwiching Izuku between them. The adults all vowed to be more vigilant in watching out for their children in the future.
A few days later while Izuku was working on his online school work the house phone rang while his mom was out at the police station meeting with Stendhal. Izuku quickly answered the phone only to have to hold it away from his ear as a loud fast paced voice came out of it.
"HELLO? IS THIS THE GREEN HAIRED BOY THAT WAS KIDNAPED WITH ME THE OTHER DAY!? THIS MEI HATSUME! YOU SAID YOU COULD INTRODU-ack" came through the phone before being cut off.
"Hello? This is Mordred Hatsume. I'm Mei's mother and she wanted to call to talk to you. I'm sorry about her yelling in the phone. She was working in her shop and the thing she was working on exploded so she is hard of hearing right now." explained the new voice on the phone.
Izuku brought the phone back to his ear, "It's ok Mrs Hatsume. What did she want to talk about? If it about the device in my shoe I don't really know much about it like I told her. It is a prototype that was given to me by a family friend. It sends out an alert to my mom's phone with a homing signal so help can find me as soon as possible. We're hoping to perfect it so it could be included in hero suits or perhaps something worn by police and first responders in an emergency to call for help."
A contemplative silence came across the phone before the barely contained excited voice of Mordred came back. "That sounds like an amazing invention. Who is your family friend? I would love to meet them and discuss collaborating with them." , her voice almost breathy sounding as she waited for the answer.
"His name is Donatello Hamato." Izuku told her but before he could say anything else he heard a thud over the phone and the phone sounding like it fell to the floor. Pulling the phone from his ear he looked at it in confusion before the voice of Mei came back on.
"Hello? Hello, what did you say to my mom? She fainted." asked the girl.
"I just told her who the family friend was that made the device that was in my shoe. Donatello Hamato remember?" Izuku answered.
"Oh. Mom has a crush on him. She convinced herself she misheard you the other day, so you probably shocked her. Anyways I was wondering if I could look the device in your shoe. I'm sure I could put it back together afterwards." the excitable Mei told him.
"It sounds like you want to take it apart and if that's the case I'm going to have to say no. But I can see if Donnie would send me the blueprints for you to look over. I can let you know. But I need to get back to my online classes. I'm almost done with the first year of high school." Izuku responded.
"Oh ok. Let me know please. Wait. You do your classes online? You're almost done with the first year of high school? Aren't you ten like me?"
"Yes I'm ten. I don't understand why people are so surprised about me doing high school work. It's not that hard. Plus once I'm done it gives me time to analyze quirks. But we can talk more later. It's almost time for me to take a test. Goodbye." Izuku told her before hanging up to a faint goodbye on the other end.
Izuku went back to his room to take the final for the first year of high school. A couple hours later he was watching a video of a hero fight with his earbuds in as he analyzed both the hero and villain's quirks. Just as the video ended a hand touched his shoulder causing him to jump and pull the earbuds in his ears out. His mom was standing behind him with a small smile on her face as he stood up. Hugging his mom in welcome she returned it before she told him she had just had a very interesting conversation with Mrs Hatsume about the conversation he had with them earlier. Izuku frowned in confusion since it seemed to him it had been a very straight forward conversation. So he asked what made the conversation so interesting. Inko told him it was mostly over the fact that Izuku had told the Hatsumes about him doing classes online and he was almost done with the first year of high school. They had wondered why you weren't in school for the gifted since you were so intelligent. She then told them about him being quirkless and they asked what that had to do with it. She then had to explain what quirkless people had to deal with and now she was afraid she may have set two mad inventors on a crusade for equality.
Then she asked Izuku if he realized that not everyone was smart as he was. Izuku scrunched up his face in confusion as he thought.
"Yes they are. There are plenty of people smart as me. Like all the people that I'm in class with. They all are learning with me." he answered his mother.
"Let me phrase it another way. Do you realize that not everyone is as smart as you are at your age? Honey you are ten years old and you just finished the first year of high school. You are five years ahead of other children your age. And most likely you would be done with high school if I didn't make you pace yourself by trying to have you do other things a child your age do. Part of the reason I had you start martial arts training besides self defense was so you would have an activity to enjoy with your friends. It's also why I send you to meet your friends after school sometimes. So that you interact with your friends and don't close yourself up in your room researching heros and whatever catches your attention. You are a genius I'm pretty sure. Your brain soaks up information like a sponge. I just want you to understand so you can be a well rounded person when you grow up and understand if I push you out of your head to interact with the world ok?" Inko explained as she stroked his hair.
Izuku sat there contemplating what his mother had said. He thought about the fact his friends still went to school when he didn't. He knew at first it had been because his mom didn't want him returning to the school when they had been being mean to him. But after the police had raided the school and cleaned it up his mom still had him stay home or go to her office to do his school work. It had never dawned on him that the reason was because he was too far ahead to go back to regular school. He had just focused on the fact that it had been fun to learn at his own pace and be challenged by the course work. Now he was realizing that he was different from kids his age in yet another way besides being quirkless. But he had his friends and family so he couldn't complain he supposed.
Izuku look back up at his mother and told her he understood what she was saying and that he would try to not get too stuck in his head at times. She kissed his forehead and told him how proud she was of him. Then the two of them went to the kitchen to cook some dinner. As they ate Inko told Izuku about how she had hired Chizome Akaguro to work for her and that he was on probation for awhile until he proved he wasn't going back to vigilantism. Izuku thought the idea was awesome and secretly thought that having the man around would keep his mom safer since the man knew how to fight. As he thought that he told his mom that maybe they should introduce Chizome to Master Splinter so he could learn skills in stealth and fighting if he was going to sneak around to find things out. Inko thought that was a great idea even as she laughed in her head as she imagined the meeting between the two men. She couldn't wait for it to happen.