Izuku pushed the door to the crowded school corridor open with his back, Hitoshi and Shoto exiting the cafeteria stepping through past him.

Hitoshi groaned. "I should have had two cups of coffee."

"You know how crazy it is that you're even allowed to have coffee?" Izuku stepped forward to catch back up with his friends, letting the door close behind them. They started down the hall way, weaving through the packed kids and straining to hear each other over the dozens of other voices.

The slumped, purple haired boy shrugged lazily. "Foster dad doesn't care what I do. He wasn't home anyways. I should've taken more when I had the chance."

"Did you not sleep well last night?" Shoto asked.

Hitoshi huffed. "I slept as well as ever."

"Yeah, he just seems to be in the mood to complain today." Izuku smirked teasingly as he hopped around a corner a bit faster than the others, the bustling sounds of the hall fading as they got further away from the lunch room and the crowds began to thin. "We're in for a long ride today, Sho."

Hitoshi shot him a glare with no real heat behind it. "Says little miss energy. I still don't get how you wake up like this."

Izuku giggled as they rounded another corner, the corridor much clearer now but not near empty. But his laughter was soon cut short as he collided with a figure in front of him. The person stumbled forward, and Izuku fell back on the ground with a grunt.

He groaned and rubbed his nose, which had hit something somehow hard and soft and poky all at the same time. "Sorry, I-"

He looked up and paused when he saw angry red eyes glaring down at him under messy blond spikes. Ah, his nose must've hit the back of Kacchan's head.

"K-Kacchan! He squeaked, hands immediately up and waving in a defensive gesture. "S-sorry, I- I didn't see you there-"

"Watch where you're going you dumb nerd," the blond growled, palms already flexing threateningly as he towered over Izuku. Izuku shrunk backwards.

Hitoshi stepped forward then. "Back off, Katsuki."

Kacchan eyed him as Izuku scrambled to his feet. "Of course you're here. Deku can't go anywhere without his villain friend and emotionless freak."

"Woah, dude, you know thats Endeavor's kid, right?" One of the two boys Kacchan had been talking to before they walked up muttered.

Kacchan scoffed. "Like I care." Then he turned his glare to look right at Shoto, who had been watching from the side, far enough to not be involved, but close enough to make his presence known and to step in if he needed to. Kacchan grinned. "He's nothing but a trashy half-made copy of his father, who never even broke the number one spot. And I'm gonna be better than All Might. I bet I could beat him a thousand times over if I wanted too."

Shoto's eyes darkened significantly at the notion of him being a copy of his father, but otherwise he didn't react, instead staring blankly back at the blond.

Neither broke eye contact for a long minute. Kacchan's grin slowly faded to a snarl, until finally he scoffed and turned away, annoyed. Shoto barely blinked.

Kacchan looked back to Izuku, and Izuku shrunk slightly as the blond's devilish grin returned. "So, heard your father's a no-show."

Izuku shrunk even further in on himself. Of course mom told Auntie Mitsuki. Of course Kacchan knew. Beside him he saw Hitoshi inch slightly closer, fists clenched, and Shoto's shoulder's tense.

Kacchan grinned wider, likely knowing he'd hit a nerve in them all. "He finally realize what freaks of sons he has and run off to America? Took him long enough. Surprised Autnie Inko didn't go with him and leave you two to the streets."

Izuku opened his mouth as if to speak, to refute that statement, to tell him he was wrong, but nothing came out. His mouth had gone dry, a lump caught in the back of his throat. He could only stand there, frozen, as Kacchan grinned at him, whispers breaking out between the few other students around them.

Izuku's mind was racing, but behind his thoughts, he numbly listened as Kacchan continued to speak. "Can't say I'm really surprised. It was bound to happen eventually. And you probably think he's coming back, don't you? Can't even tell when your own family's lying to you. You-"

Izuku blinked as there was movement, and then Shoto was in front of him. His fist slammed forward in a blur, connecting with Kacchan's cheek with a resounding crack.

The hallway fell silent as Kacchan hit the ground, grabbing his cheek, stunned. And though Izuku didn't tear his gaze away from Shoto, from the unexpected fury behind those usually dull eyes, he was sure every eye was fixed on the unexpected confrontation.

Then Kacchan snapped out of his shock and broke the silence.

"WHAT THE HECK!? You'll pay for that you half freak!"

His fists were already popping, explosions ready as he climbed to his feet, then he angrily swung and swiped at Shoto in quick succession. The corridor flashed with orange and yellow, every crack of an explosion followed by a boom echoing down the halls.

Shoto ducked as explosions crackled and popped above him. But before Kacchan could make another move, Hitoshi was there and slamming his own fist into the blond's cheek.

Kacchan stumbled to the side from the impact, and Izuku took a few steps back in surprise now.

"You better shut your mouth before I actually make you," Hitoshi growled out.

Kacchan's head whipped back up, fury evident in his wide eyes as he glared at both of Izuku's friends. "Why you-!?"

Then he was up, hands sparking as he lunged for Hitoshi. Hitoshi, surprised, tried to jump out of the way, but was too slow. Shoto ran forward at the same time.

It all happened so fast after that. Izuku stared, frozen in shock as the three began wrestling in a flurry of explosions and punches and yells. Shoto and Hiotshi fought to get the blonde away, but with Kacchan refusing to respond to Hitoshi and Shoto not using his quirk likely for fear of causing damage, they were failing to overpower their opponent and his explosions.

Izuku internally groaned. Not again.

—-

Tenko slowly eased the bedroom door shut behind him as he stepped inside. Then he took a few steps back and let out a breath.

He wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to get an extra day off from school. Mom had planned on both him and Izuku going that morning, but it was surprisingly easy to ask for one more day before he had to go back. She was understanding that he'd need a bit more time to get himself together.

But truth was, even though that was part of the reason, it was only part. The main reason he'd asked to stay was because he knew he'd have most of the day with Izuku out of the house. The main reason was so he would have time to do this.

He turned and walked over to the bookcase on the wall, over to the shelf lined with the notebooks, numbered one through six. The first five books were a set that had been bought when Izuku had decided to rewrite and reorganize them all. The newest had been bought separately. A couple of them were noticeably charred or torn and taped.

He didn't let the damage dig up any feelings, only pulled the notebooks out of the shelf and set them on his bed. Then he looked down at them.

He and Izuku had spent most of the day before going over Eraserhead's fighting style. Izuku hadn't lies when he said he could teach him everything he knew, and he knew a lot.

Despite the few recordings ever captured of Eraserhead, whether from secretory footage or victims own phone's, Izuku had found them all and rewatched each possibly a thousand times over. Then studied every movement the man made twice as much. The notes on the technique alone were impressive.

Tenko had explained to him that he'd also been interested in Eraserhead's quirkless style because he'd been learning how to fight quirkless in his classes. Izuku had loved that. He'd wanted Tenko to teach him what he'd learned, but Tenko had told him maybe when he was older and brushed it off.

Then Izuku's eyes had lit up with an idea. "Oh! That makes sense, too, with your quirk. Since, if you wanna be a hero, you're gonna have to avoid using your quirk as much as possible while fighting. So you're gonna need to know how to fight quirkless!" He'd grinned. "You'll be like me and Hitoshi!"

Tenko had simple forced a tight smile and nodded before moving along quickly.

Eventually Izuku had trailed off into other areas of Eraserhead as a hero and his notes on him. He talked about how he incorporated his capture scarf into his fighting, which led into how his quirk might be partially telekinetic since his hair also floats when it's activated. That led into how his quirk worked and what discrimination he might've faced for it, and therefore why he probably chose underground heroics instead of limelight, and it just trailed off more from there as Izuku ranted about his second favorite hero.

But Tenko just listened quietly. He honestly hardly minded. In fact, he found himself growing more and more interested, surprisingly, in this hero as he learned more.

He could see why Izuku and Hitoshi liked and idolized him as much as they did, for sure. He was the perfect role model for both of their situations. Having the quirk he did, it made sense that he would have grown up similarly as Hitoshi, shunned for having a villainous quirk. The world turned against him. His quirk also did nothing to affect his strength or physical abilities, he fought completely quirkless.

He was just like Hitoshi. And mighty similar to Izuku. Although his quirk at least evened the playing field. Izuku had no such advantage.

Sure, Tenko admired those things of the hero. He was learning about the guy's quirkless fighting style after all. And people hated him for his quirk. Tenko understood that, on a level.

But what had really drawn him to the hero had to be just simply the role he'd chosen to play.

Underground heroes had always struck a strange chord in him, had his gears turning, anyways. They were heroes, yes. But they were so very different from heroes like All Might and Endeavor.

They worked at night, willingly took up the darker, dirtier side of heroics, only for their faces and names to never see the light of day. They never got credit, people they saved a lot of times didn't even know their names. They probably risked a whole lot more than limelight heroes, and they didn't even get paid as much, usually so much so that most of them had second jobs they worked during the day.

He just didnt understand them. They didn't make sense. They weren't like other heroes, they weren't in it for the fame or the money. They never tried for the easy way out. They weren't fake.

No, underground heroes like Eraserhead were probably the closest thing out there to real heroes, in his opinion.

And he wondered, not for the first time, that maybe, had things been different, he might have chosen that path instead.

After he'd grabbed a blank notebook and pencil from his school bag, he sat down on his bed, stack of filled notebooks beside him, and opened the first.

In the last few years, Izuku had gotten increasingly more protective and secretive of his analysis'. He stopped showing them his notebooks gradually and then all together. And then when he'd decided to reorganize them all, he hadn't offered any information about how he was doing it, and they hadn't asked.

So Tenko would have had no idea how to find anything in the mess of words and pages. But luckily he had managed to get the pattern and Izuku's thought process of it out of the boy while he was in such a good moood the day before talking about Eraserhead.

Was this snooping? A breach of privacy? Probably. Would Izuku be upset if he found out? Most likely. Did Tenko feel bad about it? Maybe a little.

But Izuku wouldn't know. And he needed the information. It would come in handy, especially after dad's fight ended. If he won, they could use this information to help take down the rest of the heroes. If he didn't…

Well, that didn't mean it would all fall. This could be considered plans for revenge.

Either way, he'd gather as much information as he could from these notebooks and he'd use it to take down the heroes.

Izuku wouldn't understand now. But someday he would.

Tenko flipped through the pages, through the sections, scanned over it all quickly, then went back until he found the first person he wanted to read about.

He immediately knew he'd reached the right page when he saw the surprisingly good sketches (for a ten year old) of the large man, one of him with his hands on his hips and his signature grin, another of him punching a villain. Surrounding that were enough words, some neatly in rows and some scattered and placed about randomly, it felt overwhelming. At the top was a name that made his insides boil scribbled in bold lettering.

All Might.

—-

"That was seriously stupid," Izuku reprimanded quietly. He sat in a chair in front of the principals office in the hallway, arms crossed as he tried to make as stern a face as possible.

In the chairs on each side of him, both Hitoshi and Shoto sat. Both boys' faces were bruised and bandaged in several places, their clothes charred from Kacchan's explosions. Hitoshi had an eye patch and Shoto had a bandaged nose.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes and huffed. "He deserved it. He was being a jerk, we got mad." He shrugged.

Izuku sighed through his nose, then looked to Shoto. The red and white haired boy cocked his head, the normal blank look as present as ever. The sharp edged anger Izuku had caught sight of during the fight long since gone, but he could still read frustration in the corners.

"Stop trying to make that face, Izu," he said plainly. "You look silly."

Hitoshi snorted and Izuku gave up trying to look upset. He let his arms and shoulders fall, slumping, and let out a huff of air.

Then he looked back up and gave them both worried looks, sincere. "Come on. You guys need to stop getting into fights with him. It'll never change anything, and it only gets you both hurt."

Hitoshi leaned forward then, fists clenched. "But he's always such a bully to you. It's not fair, you don't deserve to be treated like that!"

His voice was rising, fists shaking, and Izuku became suddenly very aware of the couple other people in the hall, including Kacchan in a chair across the hall from them, very much glaring in their direction.

He put his hands up in a gesture for Hitoshi to calm down, glancing around. "I know, I know. But fighting won't change anything."

Hiotshi didn't say anything, but the determined anger didn't waver as he somehow sent a glare at him that was as clear as day directed at Kacchan in the other direction.

He looked to Shoto then for help, who was watching silently, but had a look of resoluteness in his eyes that showed he was with Hitoshi on this.

Izuku took a deep breath and gave them both his most pleading look. "Please? It scares me. I hate seeing you both get hurt."

That clearly hit some nerve, because both their expressions shifted then to something unreadable, but he thought he could see some guilt. They glanced at each other, back at him, hesitated.

Then finally, Hitoshi heaved a long, heavy sigh. "Fine. I'm sorry. I'll try not to blow up and punch him anymore." He shot Izuku another glare. "But I'm making no promises, especially if he hurts you."

Izuku smiled and nodded. That was the best he could ask for. Then he turned to Shoto.

Shoto stared at him another long minute, but eventually he nodded as well. "Same as Hitoshi. He hurts you, he's getting it."

Izuku gave a little chuckle. "Ok. Thank you."

"Alright, boys." Izuku turned around as the door behind him open and Principal Mashinu, a stubby, short man with only a few gray hairs on his head, smiled at all four of them in turn, including Kacchan. "I believe I've decided I'll be calling each of your parents here."

Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku saw Hitoshi shrink in on himself slightly and Shoto's shoulders tense. He glanced at each of them, was about to ask if they were ok, when Kacchan snorted from across the hall.

"For your information, old man," he called just before the Principal walked back into his office, "Don't bother with Deku's dad."

Now it was Izuku's turn to stiffen.

"He walked out, if you know what I mean."

Those three words brought back thoughts that Izuku had been trying to bury, feelings he'd been trying to hide, but had been lingering in the back of his head since Kacchan said that earlier before the fight. It dug them all up and slammed them right back into the forefront of his mind.

It made him sick and dizzy and numb all over again.

Because his whole family knew something he didn't.

He had woken up in the middle of the night to Tenko screaming angrily at dad, over something.

Then dad had left, drove off at three in the morning without so much as a word to Izuku.

Mom had watched him leave, Izuku could have swore he'd seen her crying in the moonlight that night, wiping tears.

Then Tenko's panic attack. Moms's break down.

Tenko had been so exhausted he slept fine that night. But mom clearly hadn't slept at all.

And neither of them had been the same since then. They'd both been trudging around the house, exhausted, depressed, uneasy, scared. Trying to keep themselves distracted.

They'd been hiding something. They'd been hiding something big. Something big about that night.

Dad left that night and hadn't come back yet. Mom had said he had gone to America and would be back soon. He'd thought there was something off about that. Didn't think it was a lie but maybe not the whole truth. Maybe dad had gone to America, but what if…

…but what if he wasn't coming back?

No. No, no, that wasn't right. No. Dad would never. He wouldn't leave. He wouldn't. Why would he? Why-

Quirkless.

He paused, surprised at the sudden appearance of the word. But now that it was there, it wouldn't leave.

Quirkless. Useless. Freak. Deku.

Could it be his fault? Could dad have gotten sick of it? Sick of him? Did he get tired of dealing with it all and decide it would be easier to leave?

He wouldn't. He wouldn't.

Would he?

"Guys?" He asked, his voice weak and quiet as the three of them walked home after school, head still spinning.

The day had passed in pretty much a blur to him after his realization, but he was pretty sure they had decided not to call his mom since he wasn't really a part of the fight, courtesy of Hitoshi and Shoto, mainly Shoto's insistence. And Endeavor and Hitoshi's dad had ended up leaving them to go through the rest of the school day. So now they were walking home together like usual.

"Hm?" Shoto was the one to answer. Both of his friends were already glancing worriedly at him just from how the questions had sounded.

He swallowed. He wasn't sure if he could ask this. But he needed to ask this.

"Do you- you don't think…" He paused, took a shaky breath. "You- you don't think Kacchan might- might be r- right, do you?"

There was no response, just the sound of there footsteps on the pavement, though even that slowed significantly. Neither of the other boys looked at him. And they didn't say a word.

He looked between them, but once he realized he wasn't getting an answer, he looked at the ground and wrapped his arms around himself. They walked the rest of the way in utter, suffocating silence.

They all knew Hisashi. They all knew he would never do that. It had to be something else they just hadn't figured out yet.

But what else could it be?