Chapter 16: A Tiny, Thin Thread

Despite the extra rest he got, Izuku slept in the next day. He knew that the fight from yesterday had really done him in, as the teen was still feeling sore. And when he woke up, he looked over his classes before seeing that his mother had already gone out for her job. After this, he went to his costume and the saw damage on it, but it was nothing he couldn't sew up.

And as the morning passed, he left the building as Izuku, though he had his costume in his backpack, feeling his body be a bit less sore. Now, he had recently been changing into Spider-Man and just swinging over to FEAST, allowing him to get there quicker, but he didn't feel like it today. Instead, he just took the train, now remembering what regular transportation was like.

As he sat there, his mind wandered over the past few days, trying to make sense of how crazy his life had become. A month and a half ago, he had no quirk, and was hating the support-based future he was going to have to go into. Now, he had a quirk, was a vigilante, was investigating multiple villain gangs and volunteering. It was like everything just happened at once.

He looked down at this hands, flexing them as he felt the strength surge through his body. 'Wow. I have to say, I know I always wanted a quirk, but...I never expected it to take me down this route. Still, am I doing the right thing? I mean, I'm a vigilante, but I can't seem to talk to any hero when they compliment me or catch those criminal gangs and...and...'

He leaned back at this, letting out a sigh. 'I wanna do more. What else can I do? What else do heroes do?'

The teen pulled out his phone at this, turning on the Midoriya hero app. And as he looked at the main hero news, he found half of it was himself, several news stations showing him fight The Scorpion. There were also several debates over him, articles talking about how a vigilante shouldn't be part of some mainstream fight like that while others went over how much he helped or hindered. The sight made Izuku hum, as he had seen tons of articles debating heroes, all of them talking how good or bad they were. (Endeavor being probably the most debated if he was honest.)

And after a few more bits of reading, he closed the app and sighed. After viewing all that, his mind just kinda let out a mental hum, 'Huh. Never thought I would see myself debated on tv as a vigilante. I mean, I've barely done anything. Don't they usually only talk about the top twenty or so heroes?'

A second later, the train made its next stop, Izuku soon exiting the vehicle. As he left the small station, he walked down two streets before looking up and seeing FEAST in the distance. The sight made him slightly smile, soon walking up the steps next, a certain snake headed girl lightly waving at him. "Izuku! How's it going?"

"Um...okay, I guess." he replied as he went through the main doors. "How is everything today?"

"Fine." Gloria responded while sticking her forked tongue out, "Just you today?"

"Yup. Mom's at the hospital."

Gloria nodded back, "Cool. Well, get in here. Mister Li is making a crew to help out one of our people here. They got a job and were able to get an apartment going nearby. They need some volunteers for helping move some stuff."

"Oh, that's nice. Sure, I can do that."

"Of course you can, mister super strength." Gloria chuckled, making Izuku sigh.

"I don't have super strength."

"Yeah yeah, mister six pack. Come on." Gloria gestured him to follow, "Let's get you to work."

Meanwhile...

Uraraka had just sat down with her tray of food in the UA cafeteria, her best friend Tsuyu sitting down beside her a second later. And as they waited for the rest of their friends to come over, the frog girl spoke up, "Looks like that vigilante you were talking about is getting popular, kero."

"Huh?" Uraraka turned to her as she put a piece of rice in her mouth.

"That vigilante, Spider-Man."

"Oh." Uraraka gulped down a bit of food before humming, "Really?"

Tsuyu nodded back and pulled out her phone, "See?"

Uraraka watched the footage of Spider-Man fighting The Scorpion, the sight making her go slightly wide-eyed. "Whoa...I had no idea."

"You didn't, kero?"

Uraraka shook her head, "After yesterday's training, I went home and crashed." She squinted as she continued to watch the fight, "He's incredible. Can you imagine getting into a villain fight like that?"

"No, kero." Tsuyu responded, "Though I gotta say, I get why you thought he was amazing the other day."

"Yeah..." Uraraka replied as she took a sip of her drink.

As she did this, three more people sat down around them. One that was across them was Mina, the pink girl shining a big grin as she asked, "Whatcha talking about?"

"This, kero." Tsuyu showed her phone to the girl, Mina raising an eyebrow before going wide-eyed.

"Wow." Mina replying, only for their two friends Iida and Kirishima, who were both sitting beside her, now leaned in to watch the footage as well, both blinking at the sight.

"Now that's manly." Kirishima commented, "That's my kind of brawl!"

"Hmph!" Iida added while chopping his arm in the air, "I won't deny that the fight is impressive, but that is still footage of a vigilante! How dare he interfere with that hero's fight!"

Uraraka giggled at the sight of her stiff friend, only for Kirishima to say, "But class rep, didn't you see what he just did? He saved Fourth Kind and kicked that villain's butt!"

Iida pushed his glasses up with two fingers, "That's not the point. He is using his quirk illegally!"

"But didn't he just help save a bunch of people?" Uraraka asked, "I mean, look at the article with the video." She pointed at the phone, the others looking back at it and seeing the article talk about how Scorpion had killed multiple people in his rampage before Fourth Kind and Spider-Man stepped in. "That villain was doing a lot of damage, and Spider-Man made sure he didn't get away with it."

"That is true." Iida started chopping his arm again, "But still, he is breaking the law! They should be trying to catch him. After all, if he's allowed to just roam free like that, others will start doing the same."

The others blinked at this, Tsuyu tilting her head slightly before putting her phone away, "I guess so, kero. Still, seems like he's been doing some good. Makes me wonder why he isn't a hero, kero."

"No kidding. If I had that kind of awesome power, I would go to hero school for sure!" Kirishima chimed in, "I mean, I got into UA with my hardening quirk, and its barely a quirk in general."

"Don't sell yourself that short, Kiri." Mina replied, grinning at the teen before putting a finger to her chin, "Still, it makes you wonder, why didn't he go to hero school? I could totally see him being able to get into UA with his quirk. Think he got kicked out or something?"

"I don't see how. I mean, didn't you see that fight? He's super powerful!" Uraraka responded.

Tsuyu shook her head at this, "I think UA has shown us that you need more than your quirk to succeed as a hero, kero."

They all shared a glance at this, Iida pushing his glasses up again, "Wise words, Asui!"

"I told you to call me Tsu."

Iida ignored her statement as he kept speaking, "Indeed, there is more to heroics than the strength of your quirk. That much is understandable, which does make me think perhaps Spider-Man did get expelled somehow."

"Yeah..." Mina added, only to shine a mischievous grin, "Say, what if it was Aizawa-sensei?" The four turned to her with slightly widened eyes, making her giggle, "Aw, come on. Surely you can see this is some student he expelled. Maybe he got jealous of how much power this guy had."

Tsuyu put a finger to her mouth at that, "I suppose, kero. Aizawa-sensei is always talking about how things shouldn't be irrational. Giving up someone like Spider-Man seems very irrational...but maybe he saw that as rational, kero."

"I could see that." Uraraka sighed while the rest hummed at this, Uraraka then pulling out her phone as she saw it inform her something on the phone's calendar. She blinked at it for a second before turning to her friends, "Hey, not to change the subject, but who's free after school tomorrow? I have an idea that I think you'd all like to try."

"Thank goodness that's over." Izuku moaned as he walked out of the building, cricking his back at the same time.

"No kidding." Gloria chuckled as she handed Izuku a drink, the teen telling her thank you. They both took a sip before the snake girl then asked, "So, feel like you did some good today?"

Izuku nodded back, "Yeah...I do. Thanks for letting me do this."

"Eh, its my job. There's a reason I help run FEAST with Mister Li." She took another sip, "The guy is constantly moving recently. Its like he can't stay still."

"Oh? I haven't noticed."

"Its cuz you're not here everyday." Gloria added as she pulled out her phone, "Hmm...looks like there's nothing else." She looked back up at Izuku, "Wanna call it a day?"

"I guess." Izuku replied while taking another sip.

"Cool. See ya tomorrow?"

Izuku shrugged back, "I'll see. You never know what's happening around here."

"True. Need a ride back to FEAST?"

"Nah, I'll take the train." Izuku responded before starting to walk away, glancing back to wave at Gloria, "Give Mister Li my regards!"

"Will do." Gloria waved at him back before glancing down at her phone, "Heh. Such a nice kid." She then looked back at the building, remembering how much Izuku helped bring into the building, "Still...wish I had that kind of strength." She glanced back at the fleeing figure of Izuku, "He does seem to be opening up though."

A few blocks later, Izuku glanced back to see no one had followed him. He had actually walked past the train station, but he trusted his spider sense to tell him if someone was watching. As such, he walked one more block before slipping into an alleyway and behind a dumpster. Seeing no one around, he threw his drink into the trash and turned invisible, soon crawling up the alley's walls and changed into his costume as he got to the rooftop before turning visible.

He did a few stretches next, checked his web shooters and began his usual town web-slinging. And as he began to zip across some streets, he pulled out his police scanner. He started to listen, only hearing a few minor disturbances, all in other parts of the city he was nowhere near.

It was about half an hour in that he came to a stop on a rooftop, exchanging web cartridges before looking down at his phone and pulling up the Midoriya hero app. 'There's nothing really happening right now...' He put a hand to his chin and rubbed it, his mind going over the past few days again. Despite the fight with Scorpion, he couldn't help but think about the chase with Gentle Criminal and the masked gang that kept getting away. 'I'm still not doing enough.'

He then thought about what he had tried earlier with the Midoriya hero app, about it searching for when heroes failed to catch criminals. He tapped his phone a few times at this, 'I still never fully got it to work...' He sat down on the roof and began fiddling with the device, an hour soon passing as he tried to rework the search engine slightly. 'I need my computer.' he mentally told himself before doing a search, 'But this might do.' The app then let out a ding, showing a new list of reports. They were of police reports, something that was already programmed into the app, but without heroes in the reports.

"There's only a few here." He whispered as he saw the reports, most showing just disturbances or police getting to a scene a little too late. That is, till one caught his eye. "Bank on Rodia street robbed? That's not far from here, and it happened last night." He closed the phone and put it away, "Maybe I could take a look. I mean, part of hero stuff is doing detective work, right?"

He fired a web line and leapt off the building, soon swinging his way across the street.

The rattling of chains were the only thing that could be heard in the place as a couple of thugs stood in attention. Their boss had just walked into the room, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He was a large, bulky man wearing a big dark biker jacket. He wasn't tall per say, but rather very wide yet obviously not fat in the slightest. His form was pure muscle, but his most defining feature was his chalky white skin, complete with shining razor teeth and a bald head.

"Hello boys." He grumbled before taking a swig of whiskey. As the liquid went down his throat, he wiped his mouth as he added, "So, where are we with the Inner Demons? Do we have their hideout?"

"No idea boss." one of the thugs replied, "We think...we think they're stationed somewhere in Musutafu, but-"

"I already knew that." the boss interrupted, walking up to the thug. The thug was tall and had a rhino for a face, but he was shivering like a leaf at the bulky man staring up at him. "Tell me, what gang are you part of?"

"Your gang, boss." the thug squeaked out.

"That's right." the boss chuckled before pointing at himself, "My gang. The Tombstone gang." He took another swig of whiskey and spinning around, soon walking over to a motorcycle that was sitting in the middle of the room, "And I didn't come out of hiding and form this gang so you idiots could ruin everything by fighting some masked punks and D-list heroes!" He glanced back at the thugs, "I made it so we can make money, and lots of it. I made the new Trigger drug, and I want it everywhere in this city."

He stared at the thugs, none of them responding before letting out a sigh and shaking his head, "Stop squirming and staring." He grumbled before leaning back on the motorcycle, "Listen, I know these...Inner Demons are trying to take both our turf and our drugs." He took another swig, "I want them dead. That or get the heroes to take 'em down."

"What about Spider-Man?" one of the thugs asked, Tombstone turning to him.

"What about him?"

"Well...he got our biggest warehouse busted. Aren't we gonna do something about it?"

Tombstone let out a snort at that, "He's a vigilante. That means he doesn't have some agency we can just go up too and wreck house." Tombstone then shined a small grin at this, "Let him be for now."

"Boss?"

Tombstone glared at the thug, making him shut up as Tombstone let out another sigh, "I know morons like him. He'll keep sniffing around till he finds us. And when he does...I'll take care of it."

"And the Inner Demons?"

Tombstone took one last swig of whiskey before replying, "That's easy. We'll provoke 'em into a fight...and then I'm gonna find their leader and kill 'em."

It took about half an hour for Izuku to get to the bank. When he got there, he found it was covered in yellow police tape, the sight making him blink before turning invisible and zipping over to the building's roof. He crawled down the side at this, seeing the front door was open and snuck in through there. And as he crawled on the bank's ceiling, he saw that the bank was basically empty, no employees inside as officers were walking around, taking photos of the place.

'Looks like they're just starting the investigation. I better not interfere.' He thought as he crawled over the main room, soon going into the back hallway of the bank. There, he saw the safe door, which was open. He peeked inside, seeing that police tape was all over the room and door, and the safe looked half empty. He then went back to the safe door, now seeing large claw marks on the side along with a few other slash marks. 'Oof. Something really tore up the door. Maybe a mutant quirk?'

He watched as the police officers kept taking pictures, some talking about what could have done this. But it was mainly small talk, the teen unable to get much. As such, he invisibly crawled out of the bank the same way he came in and went up to building's roof. He turned off his invisibility at this, the quirk giving him a bit of headache for holding it that long.

'Hmmm...so, it looks like some kind of mutant quirk probably robbed the bank. Those officers were thinking the same thing, but said the place was mostly intact.' He pulled out a notebook at this, this one made for cases. Going to an open section, he began to write his thoughts, 'This bank doesn't have cameras, but it does have an alarm. Those officers said it hadn't gone off, but there's no sign of forced entry, so they must have shut off the alarm somehow.'

He then glanced down at the sides of the building, only to see some more police tape on the back of the bank, along with tape over the building's breaker, and there were no officers around. The back of the bank was in an alleyway, letting him crawl down to get a better view before taking out his notebook again as he stood on the wall, 'The robber took out the breaker, which took out the alarm. Makes sense.' He glanced back at the breaker, seeing the same claw and slash marks on the door. 'It must be a mutant quirk. Though why are there two types of marks?'

He crawled down to street level, making sure not to disturb the tape before glancing around at the ground around the breaker, 'There's nothing else here. Just the marks...wait-' He leaned down at the pavement, seeing a tiny green object by a manhole. 'What's that?'

He crouched down and took out a pair of tweezers, 'Glad I thought of putting a forensics pack in my hoodie a while back.' He picked up the piece in the tweezers before placing it in a small plastic bag. He squinted at the object, scratching his chin at the sight, 'I wonder what you are.'

"Hey, you got any photos of the breaker?" asked a voice, making Izuku tense up before turning invisible. He quickly put his tools back into his hoodie before crawling up the wall, now seeing two officers walk to the back of the bank. One of them had a camera, soon taking several shots of the broken breaker just as Izuku got up to the roof again.

"That was close." he whispered to himself before pulling out the bag again, "Still, I bet you're a clue. And I did say I needed to figure out detective work." He put the bag away before firing a web line, soon swinging away. "Maybe this is a good start to learning that stuff too."