"Y'know, since you're useless, I'm gonna call you Deku now, 'cause that's another way to say your name, useless Deku!"
How original.
John arrives at the apartment complex in time for Katsuki bragging about being the best again, and without looking back at him, he says, "Goodbye, Katsuki."
He doesn't wait to stick around for what his next reaction will be. If this is the end of their "friendship" then fine. John had already learned his lesson in that respect.
~
Later that night, John researches the statistics of Quirkless people thoroughly. What he finds is...upsetting, but it's not like he didn't see it coming.
People can be cruel. Especially to those who aren't as privileged as them, or completely different from the norm they're comfortable with.
There are articles on how the Quirkless are treated.
Online forums where the Quirkless share their horrible experiences and take in the comfort and understanding from those with similar stories.
Statistics of Quirkless suicides, unemployment, homelessness, abuse, etc.
It goes on and on, and John can't help but wonder what sort of world they'd be living in if the government allowed the ruthless society he used to survive in to exist now. If they allowed the Quirkless to find ways to defend themselves against those with powers, to find jobs that don't need Quirks, to give them a home even when it doesn't feel like it, but he shuts those thoughts down immediately.
There's been enough death on his conscience already. He's not ready for another world like that here, even if so this hero-worshipping society won't see Quirkless people as less than dirt.
He has no dreams when he closes his eyes that night, but he promises himself just the same that he won't become another statistic. For his sake and his mother's.
aware of what will be
Chapter Summary
John gets to grow up without grueling assassin training in the mix.
He thinks he gets to finally have a normal life, but karma obviously has a special thing for him in particular.
Chapter Notes
CW: attempted kidnapping, quirkless discrimination, brief descriptions of bullying, minor mentions of blood.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
It doesn't go unnoticed how the other kids and teachers are treating him more differently.
They think of him as someone easy to break, the runt of the pack, the weak link in the chain. While the sentiment goes unsaid, their actions speak clearer than anything else.
They don't do anything necessarily cruel to him, the most they did was ignore him, but they do snicker and whisper things behind his back when they think he can't hear them. Eventually, they follow Katsuki's footsteps and call him "Deku", to which he doesn't react beyond a side glance. The teachers, meanwhile, are just less involved. They treat him the same way one would treat an infant, but they don't stop the other children from murmuring insults at him.
But John is fine with that. This is more preferable to being surrounded at all sides by happy-go- lucky children (instead of children trained to hunt, protect, serve, kill, kill, kill).
Plus, John isn't used to having more than one acquaintance outside of work so he goes on with the rest of the day unconcerned by what they think. It's better to be underestimated, a thread of advice given to him by his old fellow Marines that ended up being helpful to him during his first few years active.
Katsuki, however, continues to hang around him for whatever reason.
He's still as turbulent and explosive as ever, and he keeps calling him "Deku" among the plethora of creative insults and nicknames, but he doesn't leave him alone despite his outspoken distaste for him. He even noticeably gets irritated when their classmates call him "Deku", barking at them to shut up before turning away to talk (aggressively) with him.
What a strange kid. Perhaps it's because of John's lack of reaction to his insults? Only the universe knows.
What John knows, however, is that this is just the beginning of a difficult road ahead. But he's used to his life being difficult at this point, so he'll clench his teeth and bear it.
At least, he thinks, while walking home with Katsuki being insulting, as usual, the only problems he'll be facing are more mundane to a kid with a normal childhood than one of mixed martial arts training and learning how to shoot.
~
(He should've known better, really, that fate will never be that nice to him.)
~
John doesn't tell Mom about Katsuki.
And it's not because he doesn't trust her enough to do so. She has enough on her plate already, working late to support the two of them, and he thinks that adding the information of Katsuki's sudden maltreatment towards John would crush her. Or at the very least bring unnecessary trouble.
Katsuki is her friend's son, after all, and Mom is a sentimental woman who loves him too, so hearing about how he's being cruel to John—to Izuku— would undoubtedly break her heart.
So John doesn't tell her. Especially not of the harshness being thrown his way at school.
Not yet at least. There will come a day when he has no choice, but not today, or tomorrow, or the day after.
He can handle this just fine. He's experienced worse treatment.
~
Regardless of how he's treating him lately, John still stops Katsuki from picking fights with other kids.
Some part of him knew that he didn't have to mitigate every outburst of the blond picking fights.
There was nothing to be gained from doing that aside from the grateful looks on the timid children's faces aimed at him whenever he stepped in. Except, John also knew that if he didn't stop Katsuki from acting like a complete menace, then he will never learn.
The teachers aren't helping at all either, and Katsuki barely listens to them anyway.
Somehow he only listens to John.
And that is the strangest thing.
Katsuki says he hates him, calls him Deku, among other things, but him choosing to sit with John
during class and break time, and walking home with him every day says an entirely different story. One that Katsuki isn't enthusiastic nor willing enough to share, but John has no intention of prying into it.
It's none of his business, and he doesn't concern himself with the childish vitriol aimed at him to ask.
(He still doesn't ask, even when his muted curiosity mixes with his annoyance of having to hear Katsuki be so loud and so full of himself as per usual on their venture home.)
~
They're nine years old when Katsuki had the brightest idea to stand up against 6th graders.
As it happens, they're at a small gaming shop (Katsuki had dragged him there with him earlier in the afternoon for some reason rather than going off with the two other kids he's met) collecting some hero cards—whatever those are— when two older kids came and stole one card from Katsuki, taunting him and giving him a hard shove.
Being the feral child that he is with a hair-trigger temper, he doesn't take that well, so he throws the first Quirk-powered punch while John watches on the sidelines in slight disgruntlement, the two other children spectating with gasps of astonishment rather than running and telling an adult figure.
He resists massaging his temples at Katsuki's war cries against the older kids, knowing this will end how it always does: John keeping the blond from committing death in broad daylight.
At least this time, Katsuki wasn't the one to instigate the brawl. Still, it'll be a problem once Mom's friend sees the scrapes and bruises.
He absently wonders to himself, then, when he had gotten so accustomed to this.
"Take this!"
John witnesses the fox-like 6th grader throw a punch at his friend, but Katsuki is fast enough to dodge it and clip the older kid in the face with a sparking hand and that just about ends the impromptu scuffle, with the blond being the victor.
Great, it's over, they can go home now.
Except they can't.
Because the other older kid comes out to attempt a lucky hit at Katsuki who had mistakenly turned his back (careless) to bathe in praise once again, and John just moves.
He wanted to get this trip over with, go home, and study more about Quirks and the legal system of this superhuman society, not watch another one of Katsuki's free-for-alls against anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way.
He strides forward with a purpose, ignoring the questioning shouts of the two bystander kids behind him and the questioning look from Katsuki as his past life's knowledge drapes over him like
an old coat, worn from age and experience, spurning him on into familiar action. As an experienced killer reborn in a nine-year-old boy's body, he'll do his best not to break any bones.
He makes it to when the taller 6th grader with platinum hair is about to punch Katsuki again and John smoothly and efficiently steps in between them, pushing his friend back a little in the process.
"What the hell, Deku?!"
John doesn't let him finish. He does finish this pointless fight though by catching the incoming hand by the wrist and using it to maneuver the older boy's arm into an uncomfortable position, making him yelp.
He then shoves the boy away, resulting in the latter tilting back from the force and landing on the fox kid still on the ground. He ignores the gasps from behind him, still.
The older boys gaze up at him, stupefied and confused, but they recover quickly enough to attempt another round (kids and their pride, honestly), but John evenly evades their sloppy punches and later has them topple forcefully into each other by making them dizzy and kicking the backs of their knees with a good enough strength. He stares dead set on the older children when they fall on the ground once more.
(Memories dance in the back of his mind of him watching his adoptive brothers spar on the many mats in the many rooms of the Ruska Roma. Victory had always been assured for the most experienced.)
He still stares when they regain their composure. He watches them scowl at him for a moment until they suddenly go pale for some reason, shuffling to their feet and running away, shooting a last- ditch 'We'll be back, you losers!' before finally leaving for good.
It's quiet.
And then, "Hey, what the hell was that, Deku?!"
John calmly turns to find a frowning Katsuki, his fists shaking by his sides. He only gazes evenly at him in response.
"I totally had those jerks! I didn't need your stupid help!" The blond seethes, and John sighs quietly through his nose, feeling quite done with today.
"Sure," he finally says, and that's all he really does say as he turns to approach Katsuki. He pushes the card he had managed to snatch back from the 6th grader culprit against the other boy's chest until he grabs it, and John continues on his way home. "Stay out of trouble."
"Screw you, Deku!"
For what it's worth, at least John is aware he can still defend himself, his mother, and Katsuki when it's needed.
~
Katsuki doesn't thank him for obvious reasons, and that's fine with John. He's never received any verbal thanks from clients, and he definitely didn't get one from Viggo nor Santino, so he doesn't expect Katsuki to express his gratitude.
But then he receives a familiar hero card of All Might in the mail two days later, by an "anonymous sender". He stays silent about it, while Katsuki, for a while, avoids looking at him in the eye at school.
(John keeps the card still in its plastic packaging in his desk drawer, unofficially his first—and last —hero merchandise.)
~
After that debacle, John decides it's best to sign up for self-defense classes.
Not because he believes he's getting rusty (which he kind of is; this is probably the longest he's ever been away from legitimate combat) but he thinks it'll set Mom's mind at ease whenever he goes out alone or with Katsuki.
He's learned of how parents of Quirkless children become from scouring statistics and forums online, and they range from neglectful and abusive, to overprotective and autocratic. His mother is neither of those, but she does worry about him constantly, and John would rather not trouble her any further by being (in her perspective) defenseless.
Plus, this is a sure way to explain his sudden efficiency in hand-to-hand without catching unwanted scrutiny (disclosing the fact that he's a hitman reincarnated as a child would undeniably raise a lot of questions and concerns, especially from possibly every law enforcement there is in this city if they're concerned enough. Or at the very least someone with a Quirk that could confirm it, if there even was such a person).
He manages to convince her to sign him up for self-defense as well as martial arts classes in less than a day, which was a little surprising, but he's thankful he didn't need to use any tactics involving guilt because he finds that he hates being the reason his mother cries.
They're well off enough financially, the payment for both classes is affordable, and the locations are close to their apartment. As it is, there weren't any issues that needed to be resolved.
At least, that's what John thinks before he's cornered by Katsuki at the threshold of their classroom. "Where the fuck did you learn how to fight?" Not a lot of kids are present in the hallway, so there aren't any witnesses. Well, with Katsuki's apparent reputation in this school, no one would care for his potty mouth.
John swiftly enters the room, not giving the blond an answer.
"Oi! Tell me!"
The pestering and prodding continue well into the day, with John being the unfortunate one to be chastised by the teachers for the "disturbance" (because their favoritism and discrimination prompt them to scold the Quirkless boy instead of the one doing all the disturbance) but he keeps quiet.
Of course, the silence goes short-lived by the end of the day, and Katsuki tries to go for the
physical by grabbing John's arm as he was close to the school gates.
He reacts accordingly.
"What?" He says, shortly after grappling the other's wrist and twisting it in a way that doesn't exactly hurt but serves as a warning. He has his fingers positioned over a specific area on the explosive boy's wrist that he's done enough research to know that it makes his little fireworks show hurt to produce.
Katsuki is either resistant to pain or too proud to show it because he clicks his tongue and bites, "You've been fucking ignoring me, stupid Deku."
"I was."
Katsuki growls, glaring at him intensely. "Care to fucking explain?"
"No."
"Why the hell not?!"
"I'm busy," because it's true. He's attending his third self-defense class of the month, which lasts about an hour and a half but will soon crank up to three or more once he's older (the same applies to his martial arts training during Saturdays). He'd rather not miss it, especially not because of this.
"Busy?" Katsuki gripes. "With what?"
John lets go and continues on his way, not looking back at the other boy.
"Oi! Where the fuck are you going, shitty Deku?!"
Maybe it's best to just tell him. It's not like Katsuki would want to join his training if he did, right? He's proven time and time again that he's too proud to be mindful of what John does after school, so it should be fine.
"To my self-defense class."
Truly, karma is a dangerous thing.
"Hah?! Fuck you, Deku, I'm going too!"
Just keep walking. Just keep walking.
"I wanna show your dumbass that I'm better than you!"
"Do whatever you want."
He should not have said that, in hindsight, because in the following week, he finds Katsuki being introduced to the rest of the class by their main instructor, Hogo-sensei.
John isn't so affected by the feral grin unlike the other dojo-goers, but perhaps it's due to consistent exposure that he's immune to the unhinged look Katsuki's got going for him when they're beginning to spar each other.
Because they drew lots. And somehow he got the short end of the stick.
That's fine, though. Maybe with this, Katsuki could learn a thing or two about underestimating
people. That in itself is always one's fatal mistake on the job.
"You're going down, Deku!"
"It's a self-defense class, Katsuki."
"Shut up!"
The whistle to begin echoes in the dojo.
And John takes down Katsuki easily because the latter always seems to start with a right punch. Careless.
~
The rest of his elementary school experience is as follows.
John receives more verbal attacks than physical ones from his peers, mostly referring to his Quirkless status and how he is actually a weakling who either makes things up for attention or is looking for trouble to gain it. He has a theory as to why, and it starts with two of the children who had seen John efficiently deescalate a bunch of brawls for Katsuki. Kids and rumors certainly go hand in hand.
John receives a bit more detention and reprimands from his teachers over the smallest of mistakes to the nonexistent transgressions and behavioral misconduct which he's positively sure shouldn't happen in an educational setting because it's a lawsuit waiting to happen. (At this rate, he'll have to tell his mother. But he'll need to gather evidence first.)
John receives kindness, however, from the service workers at school, such as the lunch ladies, the security guards, and the maintenance staff. Likely because he treats them with basic human decency compared to most of the other students.
Lastly, Katsuki still hangs out with John. Why he does it remains unknown, and John couldn't be bothered to figure it out. Katsuki can do whatever he wants when friendship is concerned.
Speaking of Katsuki, he attends the same martial arts classes as John now, and it wasn't because of some slip of the tongue. His mother told Katsuki's mother about his martial arts attendance, and Katsuki's mother told Katsuki. It was irritating at first, the blond boy kept challenging the other kids, tried riling up the older ones, even attempted to use his Quirk in the mix (to which was shut down hard by the head instructor of the classes, Kachitsu Izumi).
But John would be lying if he said it wasn't useful. He got to learn more of Katsuki's tells, and his fighting habits, as fresh and careless as they were. In turn, Katsuki gets to learn of John's tells and habits. The breadcrumbs of them, at least. He's always prudent not to be so easily read.
And seemingly, Katsuki has grown to be less abrasive and eager to fight the nearest kid he sees just to assert his self-acclaimed superiority. To add to the list of changes, Katsuki stopped insulting John's entire existence. Well, maybe not entirely, he still refers to him as Deku, but John has gotten accustomed to the nickname at this point to even ask the other boy to change it. Katsuki calls him plenty of jibes, even then, but even John can tell it's to save face.
Children are such an enigma.
~
John and Katsuki are eleven when it happens.
They're on their way back home from buying themselves ice cream (Katsuki's way of treating the winner of the day's sparring match, even though John barely cares for that) when they both get yanked by the back of their shirts into a nearby alley by some faceless assailant.
John quickly thinks of ways to get him and Katsuki out of this situation whilst taking into account the fact that he isn't a fully grown man with decades of experience under his belt, and that his acquaintance is just as ill-prepared for this scenario, regardless of his power and training.
Katsuki flails beside him, the two of them being held up from the ground by the snatcher, who John notes is a man with crocodile scales on the skin of his cheekbones with appropriate crocodile eyes, "Let us go, you bastard!"
The man scoffs. "Shut up, brat."
"I'm gonna kick your ass so hard your shit is gonna come outta your mouth!"
"I said shut up!"
John had expected the guy to throw the two of them deeper in the alley, so he braces himself before his body hits the dirty pavement. Katsuki is less graceful in his landing, but it's excusable.
Before the blond could use his Quirk, however, another figure appears, and with a flick of a wrist, something thick and silver shoots out to latch around Katsuki's neck like a glorified collar. He pulls at the foreign object around his neck, shrieking, "What the fuck is this?!"
He doesn't get an answer.
"You're a feisty one," a soft, sultry voice says and John lands his gaze on the voice's owner, a slender woman with pale skin and paler hair. "I think the market is gonna like you."
"Fuck you, I'm not gonna be any shit villain's purchase!"
In times like this, John is at least a little grateful for his neighbor's unshakeable spirit.
"Tch. We don't have time for this," he hears the man click his tongue, and then, "Shiromiya, get rid of the Quirkless brat. I got the blondie."
The words seem to spark Katsuki into rage-fueled defiance, screaming his head off about manslaughter and graves, but John thinks first. One of the only effective plans he can concoct at this moment is to avoid getting caught by the pale woman, snatch the other boy by the wrist, hit the man where it hurts the most, and escape, but that's easier said than done when you're eleven and have the physical prowess of one.
Unfortunately, he doesn't make it two steps towards Katsuki when the woman has caught John by the arm and is dragging him farther away, subsequently pulling him over and onto the ground with a lot of force, the air getting knocked out of him.
He hasn't felt this kind of pain in a while, especially not this distinctly. Maybe high pain tolerance doesn't transfer over. Pity.
"Get your fucking hands off him!" He hears Katsuki yell and later grunts angrily. From the sounds of it, he's struggling against the pale woman's partner too.
"Shut the fuck up or I'll make you!"
More sounds of Katsuki likely kicking the guy, more struggling, more scuffling. John can't see what's happening, what the man is doing to his friend, because now he feels spindly, cold hands wrapping around his small neck and reflexively tries to escape it (go for the eyes, bend their wrists, crack their elbow joints), but small muscles and smaller hands can only do so much.
Distantly, he hears more of Katsuki's angered shouts and it's a wonder how nobody heard them yet. Must be a Quirk.
The woman above him, choking him, addresses him, "Sorry about this, kid. It's nothing personal."
Somewhere in his mind, John laughs silently, bitterly. It's always been like that, hasn't it?
Nothing personal. Just doing the job.
Well. It's safe to say he's gonna do the same.
John notices a broken beer bottle beside him under the cover of the lone dumpster, and he doesn't even have to think about it.
All he thinks of is protecting Katsuki, save him from being dragged into something dark, and his new body does what his old one was used to for years.
The pale woman is still choking him, but that doesn't matter. He subtly inches his hand closer until his fingers reach the cool glass, and he picks it up in a tight, purposeful grip. His mind quiets into a familiar thrum, muting Katsuki's screams for the woman to let him go.
The scaled man's partner has yet to notice, and that's all the time he needs as he swiftly slices the broken bottle's sharp edges deep against her abdomen, eliciting her to gasp and let go of his neck, moving to stop the bleeding.
He doesn't stop there. He rises from the ground and lets himself take a moment to collect himself before he uses the bottle again to launch it against her head, causing it to shatter upon impact and effectively knocking her out.
"You little shit!"
The reptilesque man is angry now, but it doesn't make a difference. Katsuki is free which makes his job easier. John picks up a large piece of the shattered glass bottle from the ground, and he uses the momentum of the man rushing towards him to slide under him through the gap between his legs, cutting the inside of the man's upper thigh, close to the groin, leaving the shard to where it's stuck in the flesh.
The man crumples to his knee, but it's not enough to get him to stay down, John knows that much. So he does the next best thing and snatches Katsuki's arm and bolts, dragging the other boy with him out of the alley where surely an officer or a Pro Hero would come by.
Too bad for John, though. It's almost a given how his luck isn't that good when it comes to
reprieve.
Turns out the two perps have another friend, one with a convenient fishing hook Quirk, stationed on one of the fire escapes, but John is fast enough to shove Katsuki further away from the line of fire, urging him, "Get someone."
"The hell, Deku?!"
Katsuki hesitates, but John wouldn't let him stop now, not when he's clearly powerless thanks to the silver collar on his neck.
"Katsuki, go."
He can only hope that the blond does what he's told and find help because they both know that two eleven-year-olds aren't enough to knock out three adult crooks, regardless of their self-defense and martial arts training and Katsuki's Quirk. At least with John, he knows what to do, his physical aptitude notwithstanding.
Just as abruptly, John gets wrenched back to the alley by the waist of his pants, with Katsuki shouting after him. God, does he wish for him to follow orders now instead of being an idiot and coming back for him. That's a problem John would like to avoid.
In his hubris, the fishing hook guy drops down from the fire escape with a triumphant cackle, his hand jutted out with the fishing line disappearing in the skin of his palm with remarkable speed.
"Gotcha, ya slick bastard!" The third guy says, assured of his capture rather than Katsuki's, but it's frail and unsure at best. Must not be good at winging things, then.
Unfortunately for the third guy, John is damn good at improvising.
Immediately, John clamps his hands on the fishing line and jumps, using the momentum of the line to pull himself at the third villain like an incoming bullet, startling the man. He manages to aim a hard kick to the throat before he manually unlatches the hook from his waist belt and loops the remaining fishing line around the guy's neck and choking him, utilizing his center of gravity to get the villain on his knees.
Don't give them a chance to recover, the Director and his trainers always said. Go for the kill.
But he doesn't. It's a close thing, succumbing to the familiar motions of breaking necks to eliminate targets and enemies faster, but John holds himself back from committing a crime that he's unquestionably sure won't be received well by this world's law enforcement. Even if the crime was made on a criminal. John would rather not risk it.
The third accomplice tries to claw his face in his struggle for air, but John quickly loops the remaining fishing line around the wrists, successfully trapping the hands. And if he tightens the thin cord around the man's throat just a tad, that's for only John to know.
"You fucking brat, I'm gonna skin you for this!"
Ah, the reptile man. He must have recovered.
"Careful, Waniguchi, he's a smart one. For a Quirkless kid."
The pale woman is conscious as well, her face bloody and undeniably angry. That's fine. Anger, after all, can steer you blind if you don't know how to control it. (He's been there before.)
He holds his grip for a few more seconds, waiting for the third villain to fall unconscious, and when he does, John waits for another moment just to be sure before he leaves him slumped on the ground. He doesn't spare a glance at the immobile villain, too aware of the other threats ahead of him.
"You're really gonna pay for that, you little shit," the reptile guy hisses, obviously favoring his unwounded leg.
"There's nobody here who's gonna save you, brat," the pale woman jeers as if she is speaking the truth.
In a way, she is. John is on his own here for the moment. Marcus isn't gonna snipe them down for him to take advantage of it. The Bowery King isn't here with his gaggle of stool pigeons to sneak him out. Sofia isn't here with her dogs. It's just him.
But that changes nothing. He's been in trickier situations than this.
With his mind made up, John loops the fishing line loosely around his left arm shortly after severing it with his teeth. He picks up the fallen quarter staff the fish hook villain carelessly dropped and grips it tight, his memories of weapons training flittering back to his bones.
He stares straight ahead at the remaining two, calm and collected, and concocting numerous possible ways to end this.
He breathes in. Out.
And he moves.
~
In all his years of working as a police officer and eventually a detective, Tsukauchi Naomasa has never come to a scene so... Unusual, for a lack of a better word to describe this.
Because leaning against one wall of the alley is the friend the boy (Bakugou Katsuki, his memory supplies him) told him was in trouble, a little worse for wear judging from the scrapes and grime on his person, but the only one actually standing amongst the other three adults—villains—sprawled unconscious on the ground.
(One half of Naomasa is blue-screening over this while the other half is weirdly impressed. But that's a conversation to have with himself for another night with a cup of coffee.)
It was honestly pure luck that he and Sansa were in the area to pick up some donuts when Bakugou came rushing up to them, wild and panicked with a freaking Quirk-suppressing collar around his neck. "My friend's in trouble, some villains are gonna hurt him, go help him!"
Naomasa hadn't questioned him, primarily because his Quirk caught the frenzied declaration as true, and he asks the kid to point him and Sansa in the right direction. Bakugou didn't leave when asked; no, he bolted to where his friend was, and all Naomasa and Sansa could do was follow, not before radioing some officers for backup.
And that brings them back to this scene.
"Deku!" Bakugou shrieks as he runs towards the other boy, ignoring Sansa's call for him to wait.
"Katsuki," the boy—Deku, apparently—sighs, and Naomasa can tell that he doesn't look as scared and hysterical as he had expected. No, he looks...well, unbothered, to put it simply.
The kid does end up looking bothered when Bakugou grips his shoulders and shakes him back and forth with a frenzied, "Deku, you idiot, are you crazy?!" which has him holding back a pained wince. Well, that's not good.
"You alright, kid?" Naomasa asks, approaching the two children while he lets Sansa cuff the knocked-out three.
Deku's eyes move away from Bakugou and land on Naomasa in a calculative stare, like he's inspecting him for something, dissecting him in a way that reminds the detective of a particular underground hero. He mentally laughs a little at the comparison. Eventually, the boy does answer, "Yeah."
Truth, his Quirk rings, but it's shaky, like that of a wind chime in a summer breeze. He doesn't voice his findings, however. His gut tells him not to poke the proverbial bear cub, which, in this case, is Deku.
"Well, we've already called in an ambulance, so we might as well get those injuries of yours looked at," Naomasa says kindly, offering him a grin which he hopes comes out as friendly and gives the boy a reason to trust him. It does, thankfully, when the kid slowly nods and begins walking out the alley with Bakugou by his side.
(Naomasa takes note of how Deku is limping a little and holding his torso with one arm as if he had a bruised rib but doesn't comment on it until it's checked out by the paramedics.)
The next few moments pass by in relative ease, with the police taking away the three villains (who turned out to be the ones responsible for the recent kidnappings in the area) and Deku (whose name turned out to be Midoriya Izuku, and that Deku is just a nickname) getting looked at by the EMTs. Sansa took the initiative to contact Midoriya's mother along with Bakugou's, so all that's left to do is collect a statement from the boys and wait for their guardians.
Although, during the short interview, Midoriya had seemed strangely calm, unlike how children being close to kidnapped would usually be. Of course, he's not judging him harshly or anything, people cope with stressful situations in their own ways. Still, the composure Midoriya held was almost perplexing. He tells himself not to overthink it.
(Eventually, the kids' mothers arrive with Midoriya's mother doing most of the crying as she hugs her son tightly, the latter now appearing expectedly disgruntled by the smothering.)
Later at the station, he interrogates the three villains, thankful that they now have a new lead to the kidnapping cases. However, the beginning of it was, as it happens, bizarre.
"That- that Quirkless kid," the crocodile man, Waniguchi Isao, stutters, his face noticeably decorated with dark bruises and scrapes with his left eye swollen closed. "That kid is a fucking monster."
"Care to elaborate?" Naomasa clicks his pen.
The pale woman, Shiromiya Kasumi, hisses through her split lip, "The Quirkless brat...he didn't- didn't give us a chance to, to, to even knock him out. Too fast."
"He used my Quirk against us," the third assailant, Tsuribari Taki, adds, his voice hoarse and whispy from the fishing line used to choke him into unconsciousness. "More than that, he...he beat the shit out of us with nothing but the garbage and my staff. That kid is- he outsmarted all three of us."
Truth.
To say Naomasa is as confused as he is stunned would be an understatement. While he has seen the aftermath (seriously, how did the kid even handle three adults like that?) he hasn't seen how it went down. However, as much as he is curious, he has more important matters to finish. He'll come back to the Midoriya Mystery some other time.
(And boy, did he get to come back months and months later.)
Chapter End Notes
and thus begins the bnha universe's version of The Pencil legend :D (believe me, there's gonna be a lot of pencil legends bc John and Izuku are inherently trouble magnets).
i think, therefore i am
Chapter Summary
In which John (unintentionally) builds up a bit of a reputation.
(AKA John/Izuku beating the shit out of villains and the aftermath of it bc they are inherently trouble magnets.)
Chapter Notes
CW: kidnapping, vague description of child trafficking
This was honestly so fun to write even tho I suck at writing/describing fight scenes \o/
(if there's anything I should add or edit to the content warnings, pls tell me!!)
See the end of the chapter for more notes
When John gets snatched again, it had been two months since his first almost-kidnapping with Katsuki. Only this time, he's by himself. And he gets shoved in the back of a typical black van with two individuals as his van mates who later lock a familiar collar around his neck and tie his wrists with rope behind him. (Their first mistake was tying his wrists so shoddily along with the sleeves of his jacket, easy to slip free, easy to hide a sharp weapon.)
This situation would've terrified any normal child, but John isn't normal. He was caught off guard, sure, but he doesn't sob his heart out nor scream in faux bravery at the masked men who took him.
("You can either hand over your son, or you can die screaming alongside him!" John had roared at Viggo, bound only by rope.)
No, that would be a waste of time.
Instead, John watches discreetly, silently, appearing docile, and harmless. He has to be careful here. Wait for the right moment. See what they want with him. If this is a random kidnapping, well; he can work with that. If it isn't, then he'll have to be a bit more creative in his escape.
"You sure this kid's got a Quirk?" One of the kidnappers (average height, male, lanky, olive skin, black eyes and sclera, tree roots for hair) asks. "'Cause if he doesn't, that's gonna be a problem for Sasori."
Well. It seems this Sasori is gonna have a problem.
"I'm sure, man," the other kidnapper (tall, male, sturdy build, warthog mutation) nods. "I've seen the kid, like, spit this green acid thing the other day. Definitely him."
It's a fortunate thing they caught the wrong kid, then. No doubt the boy they mentioned would've been subjected to a dire fate if he was in John's shoes. As it stands, John is capable enough to get
out of this situation, mainly due to the incompetency of these men and their kidnapping scheme.
He waits, and waits, and waits, (tuning out the banter between all the kidnappers present—three in total as he meticulously designs a plan in his head for him, and perhaps potential others, to use to leave) until the van pulls to a stop. He's forcibly removed from the vehicle by the warthog man and ahead of him stands a dilapidated one-story house, the windows boarded, and the edges and surfaces of the structure covered in moss and faded graffiti.
Well, at least it isn't some unoccupied warehouse. That would surely bring back unwanted memories.
(A plastic bag over his head, struggling, anger, revenge, a gunshot, freedom, Marcus? )
"Come on," the third abductor who had been driving (short, rock mutation on most of the skin except around the eyes and joints, and scalp) grunts with a wave of a hand, and all four of them enter with John keeping note of the scattered junk across the front area.
The place is musty and smells like a fish market doused in expired paint, with broken glass, some bricks, and worn furniture strewn around (some of the broken furniture pieces look sturdy enough to use as potential weapons). John subtly scans the room for any exits before his eyes are drawn to the fifth person in the room, sitting on a worn velvet armchair, looking like a poor excuse of a mob boss.
(Average height, no visible mutation, scorpion-themed tattoos on the neck area, white hair, matching beard, baggy and threadbare two-piece suit with a long tie unlaced around his neck— John can use that.)
"Sasori," Warthog starts, manhandling John into stepping forward. "We got the kid." So this man is Sasori. John will admit, he almost resembles Viggo with the suit and the hair, and the waft of cheap cologne. Almost.
"Thank you, Inoshi," Sasori drawls. "Bring him here."
Warthog—Inoshi—does, with a bit of harshness as he pushes John into the flimsy wooden chair across from the suited man. John eyes the old man before him, and if he didn't know any better, he would've pegged him to be the weakest among the four. But the lesson of never underestimating people comes forth, unbidden, and John prepares himself for anything that will come.
Needless to say, he gets the usual monologue of their intentions (trafficking children with chemical-based Quirks, Sasori said. He stores that info for later), and John has half a mind to ignore most of it in favor of thinking how he can escape, find any captured children, and call the police.
His attention is brought back when the three henchmen come into view, each holding a child by their shoulders so they wouldn't escape. Meanwhile, Sasori stands and approaches John in a slow, prowling manner, attempting to be as terrifying as possible but only serves to make him look pathetic.
John readies himself, a plan already formed.
"So, be a good boy and do as I say," Sasori says, leaning forward to possibly pat his cheek, but John acts first, delivering a firm kick to the man's groin and later blacking him out with a good knee to his face when he keeled over. This triggers the three henchmen to come after John, to which he smoothly evades any form of attack or chokehold. He does end up having to hit them
where it hurts most as well as critical weak points, subsequently freeing his hands from the terrible restraints and pulling his entire jacket off without delay, leaving him in his shirt and with a makeshift weapon.
The scuffle goes on for a good while, with John sweeping feet with his jacket, tripping one of them over with well-timed kicks, and distracting them using the various broken objects in the vicinity until one of the kids (young girl, red hair, dark skin) shoots some transparent solution at Inoshi's feet, making him slip and fall on his head, successfully knocking him out. Now, there are two crooks left, which, admittedly, was easier to deal with.
Somewhere in the fight, John sneakily picks up a brick and a sizable table leg. He swings the table leg against the root-haired man's shin, followed immediately by a decent impact to his temple.
John doesn't even hesitate to throw the brick point-blank at the face of the last guy standing. (Apparently, the rock skin is as soft as any ordinary skin.)
As soon as the rock man falls unconscious with a resounding thunk, John swiftly goes over to Sasori, who he notices is beginning to stir but sends him back to sleep with a hard kick to his face, uses the loose necktie to bind his hands, and pats him for a cellphone.
Shortly after finding it in the man's pocket, he quickly dials the police (it's funny. Usually, it's concerned neighbors and civilians uninvolved with the High Table calling the police for a "noise complaint" or something or other. For a moment, he wonders if there's a Jimmy in this life too). He then ushers the other children out the door, leading them to a secluded spot within the forest behind the house. Far enough from the passed-out abductors, but near enough for the police to find them.
"Musutafu Police Department, what's your emergency?" Hm. Why does that voice sound familiar?
"My name's Midoriya Izuku," he begins. "I and other kids have been kidnapped. Can you send help?" Okay, not the best way to ask for help, but...
"...Wait, you're—?"
"Yeah," John cuts him off. He wouldn't describe himself as antsy, but given that the kidnappers and their boss will be up any second because he doesn't trust that they'll stay down for much longer, he can't allow himself to relax. Especially when three other (younger, too young) children are looking to him to save them. "I was on my way home when some guy grabbed me and drove me somewhere in a black van."
What else should he add? "I'm using one of the kidnappers' phones. Can you trace it? I don't know where we are." He hopes his tone doesn't become their downfall. He'd like to sound like any panicked civilian just to give the police more reason to search for them, but he just can't seem to find the energy to do so.
There's a brief moment in the call where it sounds like the phone is being passed to someone until John hears another familiar voice.
"Midoriya? Hello, this is Detective Tsukauchi." Oh, that detective guy from before. "My Quirk lets me know if you're telling the truth or not, so if you can, could you describe your situation?"
"I've been kidnapped along with three other kids. I don't know where we are," he repeats, his voice still as leveled and composed. The children with him seem to have taken to his composure as they huddle close to one another, not breaking down in loud tears or screaming towards the heavens. (So small. You've been small too, right, John?)
He hears a bunch of distant yelling on the other side of the phone until, "Don't worry, Midoriya, my partner's already tracing the call, so sit tight and stay safe. Stay on the phone, alright?"
"Yeah."
Eventually, the police arrive just in the nick of time. They detain the kidnappers, and the three children are safe in one of the cruisers, with John, now free of the collar, being the one to tell the detective the specific details. Judging from the look on the man's face as he chances a side glance at Sasori being transported to the police van, those guys won't be out on the streets for a long while.
~
BREAKING NEWS
A Quirk and child-trafficking gang, Scorpion Cross, has been found and arrested shortly after the recent kidnapping of an eleven-year-old boy (whose name shall be redacted for privacy) on September 15th in the afternoon. Police reports say that it was the eleven-year-old who defended himself and three other children who have also been reported as kidnapped by the same gang and managed to get one of the abductors' phones to call the police.
More information on...
~
John is twelve when he experiences a robbery. And it just so happens to be in his favorite corner store on a Sunday.
"Give me the fucking cash, lady!"
John carefully inches his way to the end of the chips aisle near the counter, keeping close to it and out of the robber's sight. The guy is currently busy trying to mug the old lady who runs the store, Granny Amai, with a gun that looks like it came from a toy store to notice him.
Now, he isn't all that worried. As old and naturally sweet as she is, Granny Amai is as tough as they come, never taking any nonsense from anyone. Plus, she's Quirkless. And the Quirkless population is known to stick together, especially in times of crisis. As of right now, it's a time of crisis, and John, at the moment, is available to stop it.
"I said, give me the cash, old hag, or you're gonna regret it!" The robber screeches but Granny Amai remains unruffled, eyeing the man with an intensity that only grandmothers possess.
John decides to use the other route, utilizing the same, familiar tactic of taking out the target from behind. (Stick to the shadows, break their necks, stop them from screaming, get the car, get Helen's
letter—)
He creeps closer to the robber who is still shrieking his lungs out for the money Granny Amai wouldn't give. He quietly picks up a store umbrella from its stand, tightening his hold on it. (Blunt force trauma, knock them out quick, no hesitation, Jardani—)
He's behind the robber now, and he strikes, like a snake to its unsuspecting prey.
The fake gun clatters on the tiled floor after John swats the closed umbrella on the man's gun arm, then his head, disorienting him. He follows it with a quick leg sweep that puts the robber on the ground on his stomach and a subsequent wristlock.
(Break his arm, break him, Jardani, break him now, John—)
"Ah, thank you, dearie," Granny Amai says with her usual grin. Soft and sweet, not sharp and bitter.
John simply nods.
"I've called the police, they'll be here soon," she informs him.
And they did. And again, the detective and his police partner with the cat features come into the scene.
The recognition is already evident on the detective's face (recognition works in different ways. You can either run from it, bask in it, learn from it, or simply stop it from building up. John chose to run because being recognized would mean his end) as he approaches John, a small notepad in hand. "Didn't think I'd see you again, Midoriya," detective Tsukauchi says, not unkindly.
John nods again, not releasing his hold on the mugger until the detective asks him to.
As soon as the cat officer cuffs the assailant, detective Tsukauchi turns to John and addresses, "While normally, I would take you in due to Vigilante laws—" John has memorized such laws in his seventh year of living, and frankly, he finds it a little ridiculous that a person with a Quirk can't use their powers for self-defense of themselves and others without getting arrested. "—you being Quirkless doesn't apply, so I'm just gonna ask you some questions if that's alright?"
John bobs his head once more, answering the detective's questions as best and simple as he can because he does have things to do, such as touching up his analysis-writing that he started the moment he was able to write properly. He didn't do such things back then, mostly keeping his analysis and information gathering in his mental notebook, but he figured writing the things he's discovered about his new life on a physical one would help him navigate it more coherently.
(And who knows. It could help him get out of more untimely situations much easier.)
After everything is settled with the robber being transported to the police station and John finally paying for his meat buns, he leaves the store, nodding at Granny Amai waving at him, and ignoring the wide-eyed stare from the other customer in the store.
~
Gucci Eye Bags @catsupremacy · 18h
holy shit to that one kid for knocking the spirit out of the robber who tried to mug the sweet old lady @ my fave corner store w an umbrella in under 5 seconds, ur my hero
[Attached Link URL: Local corner store owner gets held up at gunpoint but is saved by an unlikely hero]
45 Comments 11.3k Retweets 18.9k Likes
kouchan12 @_kouchyann12 · 45m Replying to @catsupremacy
OMG U SAW IT TOO??
stream EVE @discountkirby · 33m Replying to @catsupremacy
YO I THOUGHT I WAS SEEING SHIT BUT 12YRO LOOKIN KID JUST FOLDED THAT MAN LIKE A LAWNCHAIR WITHOUT EVEN TRYING
dr delicate punch @yellowfellow · 33m Replying to @catsupremacy
rt umbrella boi for goodluck
~
"Hey," John calls, grabbing for the attention of the gangly teenage boy who is currently harassing another kid (bunny mutation, white fur, blue eyes, taller than him by an inch) , trapping her against the wall of the alley with a pocket knife threateningly close to her neck.
He knows he's running late for one of Katsuki's many All Might movie marathons, and he knows he's going to get a lot of grief for it, but being the blond's safeguard from a lifetime of legal disputes for a good portion of his younger years has set off John's instinct to step in between the aggressor and his victim.
"Mind your own fucking business, shrimpy," the teen (lean, taller by a few inches, no visible mutation, shaved head) snarls but John doesn't heed it.
His training before and now varied in intensity as well as application on the field. While he could make it so the teenager is incapable of escaping the police (which John called beforehand because he remembers that he isn't a prolific assassin dealing with things on his own and without the authorities batting an eye to it), he has to play the part of a concerned civilian who could defend himself and others. It certainly would lower the risk of Mom getting a heart attack and Katsuki