Come mid-December all five of the stores Izuku wanted to be built had been finished and he had been far less embarrassed when he thanked the Urarakas for working with him this time.
Knowing he wasn't the best at names he let the respective people he hired to run them pick the buildings' names... within reason, he only had to reject one name idea, but each store was quickly named and added to his neutral territory list. Which included the following: An apartment complex, the SSI shine, the community center, two "mom and pop" styled corner stores, a second-hand store, a 100-yen shop, and finally the bakery.
All of those places were in the South Side and while Izuku had a few spots he regularly went to in other districts, he didn't have any claim to those places. Though he was working on it, it was so much harder to buy property outside of the South Side, and Izuku's working theory was that the people in the South Side had skipped a lot of legal proceedings to turn over ownership to him.
He'd have to have his deeds checked and make sure he was indeed the official and legal owner of his properties, but he could focus on that next week. Right now, he should pay attention to where he was walking, he had almost tripped over one of the cracks in the uneven sidewalk.
Such things wouldn't normally trip him up with how acquainted he was with what passed as a road in the South Side, but he wasn't familiar with this area and didn't expect the damage since it was one of the "nicer" areas that weren't in his red-light district purview, the only reason there were cracks in the sidewalk like that was because of a recent Hero vs. Villain fight.
Honestly, Izuku wouldn't be in a neighborhood like this and much less at four in the morning as he was now, but Magne-San texted him saying she wanted to talk with him as soon as possible, so Izuku gave himself a cold shower to wake up and got on the first train to Sekiya station following his GPS to what he presumed was her apartment.
His brain was still foggy from only having half of the time to sleep he normally got, Izuku only remembered to leave a note for his mom when was walking down the complex stairs and had to go back to write one, so suffice to say Izuku wasn't all there and still mostly a zombie when got to Magne-San's building.
When Magne-San opened the door, he noticed she wasn't as well put together as she usually was but seemed to have the presence of mind to gawk at his own dishevelment... then again, he wasn't much better at the moment "M-Midori-Chan? You're here?" She questioned seemly shocked at his being at her door "You said it was important," Izuku responded though it didn't change Magne-San's expression.
"Midori-Chan, I texted you at like 1 Am." She told him and he averted his eyes "Yeah I know, sorry but it's a three-hour ride here Magne-San." He apologized before looking back at her "What's wrong Magne-San? You didn't say in your text." He asked, Mange-San opened her mouth to speak then closed it and ran a hand through her hair.
"Right, okay... Mezo mentioned you were studying Quirks, so you know a lot about them, right?" She asked and Izuku blinked "I was, I graduated back in October. Are you having problems with yours?" He inquired because that would seem like a valid reason for the middle of the night text "No, no. Not my quirk," Magne-San quickly corrected her hands going to hug herself.
"But I... Know someone who is," She admitted pausing to swallow "It's bad." She confessed, her worry clear "Does it hurt them?" Izuku pressed and Magne-San nodded, Izuku quickly understood the severity of the situation, he ran his tongue over his teeth hard to the point of pain in order to jolt his groggy brain.
"Do they need a hospital?" He asked and Magne-San became slightly panicked "You... You can't tell anyone. He's, not... " Magne-San responded trailing off as she struggled to find the right words "Magne," Izuku said, easily getting the woman's attention with a sharper tone and dropping the honorific.
"I work and practically live in the thirty-eight red-light districts, the people I am closest to are in gangs, the mob, or involved with both. And to top it all off I'm quirkless, I am the last person to go to the authorities." He told her finding himself surprisingly short on patience in his state "I do not care if your friend is on the wrong side of the law, what I care about is if he needs something I can't help with like a broken bone." He clarified making some of the tension leave her anxious form.
"Does he have any?" Izuku questioned and Magne-San shook her head "No his quirk wouldn't cause anything like that, well I don't think it could... He has some kind of fire quirk." She explained and Izuku was relieved to hear that, Izuku has had so much experience with burns from his bullies (mainly Kacchan) and it taught him how to treat different types of burns.
"Alright, I can probably help with that but if there's anything serious, I have some favors I can call in to get someone... Discrete to help him, okay?" Izuku replied, Raijin still owed him one or he could probably get Yuri-San to help, criminal organizations of their scale usually have one or two certifiable doctors on the payroll.
Magne-San stared at him taken aback "Y- You can do that?" She asked her voice a touch more reserved "Your friend needs help, and I'm going to do my best to help them." He responded glancing inside her apartment but not seeing anyone "Is your friend here?" Izuku questioned, "No, but I know where he should be." Magne-San answered and Izuku nodded.
"Okay, you're going to take me to him, right?" Izuku guessed "Yeah, sure uh, just give me a few seconds." Magne-San told him after a moment, grabbing her shoes and throwing on her coat before cursing as she searched for her car keys, Izuku didn't remember the woman having one but that was hardly the most pressing issue at the moment.
She locked up her apartment before starting to walk back to the ground level "So what's the problem with his quirk?" Izuku asked figuring he should try to get as much information as possible before going into the situation, it wasn't like he had anything else to do and he needed something to occupy his mind when Magne-San started driving.
Magne-San missed a step and would have fallen down the stairs if Izuku didn't quickly get a firm grip on the railing and Magne-San's arm "S-Sorry Midori-Chan," she apologized and they continued down the stairs at a slower rate "I, um... Don't know, we're not that close." She admitted sounding somewhat guilty.
"I met him back when I was working at the Barnicle, he didn't look old enough to drink but the prick running the place didn't care who was buying his slop." Magne-San shamefully explained though Izuku couldn't say he blamed her that, she needed money, and her boss was definitely an... idiot, if Shoji-San slipped and told him about how Magne-San was fired... Well, that was something between them.
"I'd try to keep an eye on him when he came in so he wouldn't drink himself to death, I didn't see him that often but when I started working at the bakery I started to see him on my way home. It was pretty obvious the kid's homeless, so I'd make some... Extra food for him sometimes." She confessed bracing herself, however, Izuku was the last person who'd reprimand her for that... Hell, he was seriously considering giving her a raise.
"That's good of you to give him food, Magne-San." He assured having been on the other side of self-doubt more than once, Magne-San relaxed again "It wasn't a problem, but we got to talking more and the last couple of days he wasn't himself and I had to take him back to where he was squatting today since he couldn't walk straight." She told him, her worry coming back and if he was that bad Izuku could understand why she was.
His students were far from being on the "Up and up" and some of the things they did was drugs, Izuku remembered freaking out when he first saw one of his students were dangerously high on drugs, some of his students have very... intense addictions but he tried his best to help them where he could.
He's still working on a plan to help them but that was neither here nor there, so for the short ride to the warehouse area by the docks outside of the South Side, the location answered any lingering thoughts about why Izuku hadn't previously heard of Magne-San's friend, he was already putting himself to the test with the districts much less look for more work outside of them.
The building Magne-San took him to had tape saying condemned on it and was visibly falling apart in the same way most South Side buildings were, a good chunk of the roof was gone and there were holes in the walls, however, it was black scorch marks that caught his eye and had him questioning whether it was caused by Magne-San's friend.
"You should stay out here Magne-San." Izuku told the woman "What? Why?" She questioned looking lost "He's a private person right Magne-San?" He guessed and she nodded "Then it's better for whatever relationship you have if he doesn't think you went behind his back and ratted him out." He elaborated for her, and Magne-San looked conflicted.
Izuku sighed "Magne-San, I can handle this situation just fine on my own, do you think that your friend would purposely hurt me?" He asked and Magne-San reacted instantly "No! Never!" She denied "Then don't worry, I've dealt with abrasive people all my life." He assured then went to the closest hole and went inside the old warehouse.
The inside looked worse than the outside, which is certainly quite a feat, beams that were part of the roof were bent towards the floor where the hole was and a lot of debris that was no doubt the roof or bricks from the walls, and that wasn't mentioning the black scorch marks all over the place. The whole place would have been burnt down already but the ankle-deep black slushy water covering the whole floor and the snowstorms probably were the only reason it hadn't.
Izuku heard someone sneeze followed by a bright blue flash and turned towards it, the emptiness of the building worked in his favor, and he could see Magne-San's friend though he thought the man would be hard to miss, the guy had set a beam and some other things on fire and was trying to put it out. Izuku made his way over and Izuku helped him by grabbing a discarded bucket to dump slush all over, crisis averted Izuku turned to the guy and noticed three things.
Firstly, he had bad thick scarring all over, secondly, he was underweight, and thirdly, he was as sick as a dog and pretending he wasn't "Who the fuck are you?" He grunted out, slightly swaying where he stood and if Izuku hadn't spent so much time perfecting his own wobble he wouldn't know the signs to look for.
"Deku-Sensei, who are you?" Izuku asked and the guy scoffed "Like I'm giving some random twink my name, get lost kid." He said brushing him off and started trudging away from him "If you don't give me a name, I'm going to call you Scar." Izuku informed him and the guy whirled around to curse him out "Fuck you-"
But his face scrunched up and he flailed as he tried to get away from Izuku before he sneezed causing another burst of blue flames, Izuku reacted quickly by throwing a bucketful of slush at Scar which made a big cloud of steam and a crackle, Izuku did his best to wave away the steam "Look, one of my kids said they saw smoke and fire, so I came to see what was up." Izuku lied stepping through what was left of the cloud.
"This is my place and I'm not leaving so just piss off-" he tried to tell him but was cut off by the start of a coughing fit, Izuku went over to him and was going to help him but he held up a hand covered in blue flames "Don't- come, near me." he choked out still coughing pretty bad, he nearly collapsed as his legs were getting weaker but stayed on his feet by putting a hand on a nearby wall.
Izuku ignored the hand still on fire and walked over to help him "I said, piss off!" He snarled holding his hand up threateningly and while it was hot enough to feel from where he was standing, he did not have the mind to care, instead, he refilled the bucket and tossed the slushy mix at him again. There was a sharper hiss and crackle as the smaller flame was doused and Izuku threw him an unimpressed look, Scar's coughing fit had ended, and now he was wheezing with his body trembling pretty hard.
Scar was worst looking up close and Izuku could see that his eyes and nose were red probably from whatever was making him sick "You're not well, just let me help you." Izuku told him, Scar was going to snap at him, but his legs finally gave out and Izuku rushed forward to catch him and keep him from falling over into the inky slush.
He expected Scar's body to be warm considering his fire quirk so he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Scar's ice-cold body, it wasn't anywhere near as cold as Yuri-San's, but Izuku would have easily mistaken Scar to have an ice quirk if he hadn't seen the man produce fire, he was also much lighter than Izuku expected him to be even when taking homeless into account.
"Scar?" Izuku said when he realized that the other was very limp in his arms, upon not going a response from him the greenette shook Scar "Hey... Scar? Scar." Izuku tried before sitting him down against the wall to look at him, Scar had passed out and he pressed a hand to Scar's forehead, compared to the rest of Scar's body it was relatively warmer than the rest of him.
Concerned Izuku hoped that he had just passed out from exhaustion or exposure since he didn't have a good coat on, Scar needed more help than he could provide by himself, Izuku no doubt would be calling in favors and he should probably go to Yuri-San since he'd have more resources.
He also knew that the faster Scar was out of the cold, and this place in particular, the better, so Izuku took a deep breath and then carefully wrapped Scar's arms around his neck, he felt somewhat awkward as he tried to get a good grip on the taller man's thighs to carry him, actually lifting him was a bit of a struggle even if there wasn't cold water to make his grip slippery and he stumbled back a few steps.
Scar was easier to lift than Izuku would have thought though that wasn't to say he was in any way light, Izuku figured the guy was around 43 kilograms which was almost too much for Izuku, but he would manage and started his trek back to the hole he entered from, understandably, Magne-San was concerned when Izuku walked out carrying Scar.
"What happened?" She questioned immediately going over to him and checking them both over "Your friend here is sick, don't know what with but I'm leaning towards a cold, he passed out while I was talking with him, and I don't think leaving him in there will be good for his health." He explained continuing his path towards Magne-San's car.
"Open the door for me Magne-San? I'm going to need at least one hand to use my phone and find him somewhere to stay." Izuku requested and the red-head was quick to comply opening the back door and Izuku laid Scar out in the backseat with his coat on top of him "Give me a few minutes to find out where we're taking him okay Magne-San." Izuku told the woman before walking a bit away.
He pulled out his phone and went to his contacts, Yuri-San's wasn't hard to find since his phone didn't have many named contacts then texted him [Hey Yuri-San, are you awake?] it was still four in the morning so he couldn't be sure Yuri-San would be awake, but he got a reply almost instantly [Мидория what are you doing up this early?]
Izuku sighed and called him to talk to him directly "Hi Yuri-San, sorry for calling you so early but I um, need a favor." He nervously told him "Are you okay Мидория?" Yuri-San questioned in the way he knew was him asking if he was in trouble "I'm perfectly fine Yuri-San, a friend of mine needs a safe place to stay for a while. Do you have any fireproof safehouses by the South Side?" Izuku inquired getting to the main point of his call.
"Perhaps, I'll need to check with Valentine first to make sure. Are you sure you're alright Мидория?" Yuri-San pressed, Izuku wanted to call the man's worry for him more parental than friendly but even if he wasn't sleep-deprived Izuku did not have the mental constitution for figuring out what kind of relationship they had now.
"I'm fine, just a little tired from being up so early Yuri-San." Izuku assured rubbing his arm trying to stay warm "If you say so, Мидория. I'll get back to you in a moment ребёнок." Yuri-San told him and Izuku nodded "Of course, thank you Yuri-San. This means a lot to me." He responded thankful Yuri-San was willing to help him out with this, he waited for a few moments before Yuri-San returned.
"Valentine says there should be a safe house nearby, it should be on block 14 by the Niigata Racecourse, will that work ребёнок?" he offered, making Izuku let out a sigh of relief "Yes, that should be идеальный." Izuku answered, throwing in some Russian Yuri-San had taught him "I'll send word to my men there to prepare for your arrival, it will be building number 6 and the passcode for the door is 5847 дитя." Yuri-San informed him.
"Got it, благодарю, Юрий-Сан." Izuku told him "It is no problem Мидория, I shall still see you Saturday, yes?" Yuri-San responded and Izuku smiled as he replied "Of course Yuri-San! I'm going to hang up so I can get my friend to your safe house now, talk to you later Yuri-San." "Until then Мидория." he told Izuku, he ended the call then ran over to Magne-San to tell her where to go.
Мидория
Midoriya
Ребёнок/дитя
little one
Идеальный
Perfect
благодарю, Юрий-Сан
thank you, Yuri-San