Nejire had been worried after Izuku had disappeared from the Sports Festival without a trace, with her green-haired friend not even bothering to reply to her frantic wall of texts.

That was three days ago.

She was more than worried now. The celebration party her parents and friends had thrown her after her victory kept her mind off Izuku for a while, but now there was nothing else she could focus on.

Just like how she had been when she was waiting for Izuku to text her first (she really should have noticed that he would never make the first move, even with something as minor as texting), every time her phone went off in her bag she snatched it up like a hawk - only for the crushing sting of disappointment to greet her unwaveringly.

She was still being left on delivered. It was like Izuku shut his phone off and then chucked it into a river.

…Could that be the explanation?

Nejire shook her head. That was wishful thinking, she knew that much at least, but wasn't that the whole idea behind Occam's Razor? The most simple explanation was usually the correct one, right?

No. Izuku would have found some way to contact her - he wasn't one to just let things happen like that, she had learned. If he really did break or lose his phone somehow, Nejire was sure he would have moved mountains to contact her… even if all it really took was texting her from someone else's phone.

The first thing he'd do was apologize, and then spout off a million different reasons that he was sorry, and then try and make it up to her…

A small grin wormed its way onto Nejire's face. Izuku was adorable sometimes… okay, all the time, but that was just how he was.

And if something was wrong, or bothering him, or anything, then it was her job to make sure he was okay! And hug him - Nejire decided after the way he melted into her arms at the Sports Festival that they were now hug buddies.

And may God help those who messed with her hug buddy. Nobody could escape Nejire-chan!

–

Tamaki and Mirio had accepted her excuse of hanging out with Izuku to leave U.A. as soon as class ended at face value, not that it hadn't been the truth.

Nejire knew that if she really needed to find Izuku, there was one place she would be able to locate him without failure.

Musutafu General High. His high school.

Of course, she had known this three days ago as well, but she didn't want to be pushy or anything. Nejire couldn't force Izuku to talk to her, but it was abundantly clear that something was wrong, so she wasn't going to sit around forever and wait for him to come to her.

Especially considering the fact that Izuku wasn't one to ask for help - it just wasn't his style. That was one of the first things she'd learned about him, all the way back when she'd thrown him into that lamppost.

She still felt a little guilty about that, but only a little. After all, they probably wouldn't have ever interacted if it didn't, so she was willing to accept that little accident as part of the greater good.

Anyways, sometimes people needed a little bit of a push to accept that they needed help, and Nejire would provide that in whatever way she could.

Plus… she didn't like his school. Call her crazy, but something about it seemed off about the whole place. She had only come here once, and the time she did so Izuku walked out looking like he'd been mugged by the Yakuza. The entire vibe of the area felt off, and it was exacerbated by the fact that Izuku definitely didn't feel like he belonged here.

The road was cracked, the grey asphalt a far cry from the freshly-paved roads that sat in front of U.A. The surrounding buildings looked dilapidated and worn down by the elements, and many sat abandoned, with boarded-up doors and broken windows that homeless people hung around like moths to a flame.

Across the street, she watched as teenage hoodlums smoked, loitering on the grimy sidewalks and shooting the breeze with each other as the school's population slowly let out. The students weren't necessarily bad, per se, but they were far less disciplined than U.A.'s own batch. Shoving, cursing, shouting, and even fighting rose up from within the crowds, with students parting like the Red Sea to witness each unfurling brawl.

The whole place reeked of neglect. It was like a boulevard of broken dreams and rotten minds, and as much as Nejire would have liked to intervene it just wasn't her place… and she'd be hard pressed to stop all the infractions going on in front of her.

That didn't mean Ryuko's agency wouldn't have some random patrols through this area. She hadn't seen another Hero in miles, and that was decidedly wrong.

Besides, she was here for one reason and one reason only. And that reason had yet to show his fluffy little head.

Even as the herd of students slowly thinned out until there was nothing but stragglers and loiterers left, Izuku never appeared - let alone walked past her. A few students shot her looks, whether they be dirty, jealous looks at her pristine U.A. uniform, awed looks recognizing her from her performance in the Sports Festival, or the less wholesome ones she received from the ones her age, she didn't care.

The guy that made a pass at her boobs might have lost a few teeth with the slap she gave him, though. Nejire hoped it was worth not even touching them.

Nejire sighed quietly. Maybe Izuku had one of those 'extracurriculars' he had told her about? Whenever she pressed him about those he clammed up like Tamaki around, well, anyone outside of U.A., which was worrying. Especially because the questions she asked were pretty harmless… she had just been trying to find out some of his hobbies! Like if he was in the chess club, or maybe a tutor, but he just turned as pale as a ghost and stuttered something unintelligible before trying to shift the topic away.

The more Nejire hung out with Izuku, the more often she came to the conclusion that he wasn't always the most forthcoming about some things. Specifically, things that pertained to his social life.

And it looked like Nejire had just figured out why.

Izuku burst out of the doors of Musutafu General High like a bat out of hell, a terrified look in his eyes - and before Nejire could even blink, a hand reached out from inside and nabbed him by the back of his collar.

He made a pained choking sound as the hand jerked backwards as hard as it could, trying to pull him back inside the school, but he gripped onto the doorway to keep from being dragged inside. Instead of him being pulled in, it resulted in a gang of at least two dozen kids bursting out of the doors behind Izuku, sending him flying down the stairs in a mess of sprawling limbs and notebooks. Before he could even hit the ground one of them had snatched him up in a doughy hand - and socked him in the nose hard enough to make Izuku start bleeding as his nose bent to the side with a sickening crack.

Nejire saw red.

–

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life…

"Get the FUCK away from him!"

…But he never thought he'd see the day Nejire Hadou got mad.

Actually, that wasn't true. Nejire wasn't mad.

She was furious.

Tsubasa couldn't so much as blink before Nejire was atop him, a downright murderous look in her eyes as she grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him into two of his henchmen.

She hadn't even needed to use her Quirk.

"What the–"

One of the guys made the mistake of opening his mouth, but that just made him Nejire's next target (victim). She kicked him square in the sternum, and he sailed backwards as he was blasted across the street onto the other sidewalk.

Okay, that time she might have used her Wave Motion. The streak of gold trailing behind his classmate was proof enough of that.

Something warm rolled down his lips, and he recoiled at the slick, metallic taste of his blood. That was the least of his concerns, however, and he was unexpectedly dumped on the ground by a very afraid and suddenly very small-looking classmate.

"I'm sorry!" He cried, shrinking back in fright as Nejire moved through his schoolmates like a woman possessed. Every time Izuku blinked, another one of his tormentors had been knocked out. "Let me go, please!"

She didn't acknowledge the second-year boy's cries, instead pummeling everyone within arms reach (and blasting away those that were not). A lot of the guys, once they got over their initial shock, simply turned and ran for their lives, but she wasn't willing to let a single one get away.

Izuku said nothing as he took the time to scramble away from his classmates, but once he was safe he let out a sigh of relief… that was immediately followed by an immense wave of panic.

Why was Nejire here? Why was she beating up his classmates? Was she mad at him, too?

Oh God, she was here to kill him for ignoring her.

Or worse, she thought they were his friends and was beating them up because of that– wait, no, that was too unrealistic for even Izuku to think. She had probably watched Tsubasa break his nose (and it was almost certainly broken, because holy fuck it hurt), and Nejire was in no way stupid.

Did that mean… she was beating them up because they had hurt him?

His heart fluttered at the realization, only to sink at the thought of that being the truth. It wouldn't do anything but make them even more pissed, and the next time he got cornered Izuku might not be walking away in one piece.

And Nejire was likely going to want some answers this time around… ones that she would demand the truth to, and would probably ruin her opinion of him in an instant.

Despite those fears and the constant, crippling social anxiety he was trying to cope with… Izuku couldn't help but think about how weirdly hot she looked as she beat his classmates up.

Scratch that. There was nothing weird about it, Nejire just looked really hot right now.

His face was as red as the blood leaking from it.

It only took a few more seconds for Nejire to pile up the unconscious bodies she had accrued in front of his school's entrance, with the only people left standing being herself, Izuku, Tsubasa, and the second-year that had originally grabbed him from inside the school.

She grabbed both of his bullies by the throat and lifted them into the air in front of her, their eyes alight with nothing but fear of the periwinkle-haired demoness who had just obliterated the better half of the school's delinquents.
"I'm only to ask my questions once," she snarled, completely uncaring of the way they squirmed beneath her glare, "And you better give me the truth, got it?! I can do a lot worse to you than I did to your friends!"

The second-year nodded, a decent amount of self-preservation still coursing through his body, but it seemed like a decade of exposure to Bakugou and his explosions had given Tsubasa some form of brain damage.

"Who the fuck are you?!" He cried out, gurgling a bit as Nejire's grip tightened, "Why the hell are you defending Deku?"

Nejire's eyes darkened as her head lowered, and the second-year student looked at Tsubasa in disbelief. Was he asking for an early death?

Her arms trembled for a moment, and she turned to look down the street.

A second later, Tsubasa achieved flight for the first time since he was twelve years old and his wings lost their ability to support his weight.

Nejire threw him… straight through the mailbox in front of the school. The metal shuddered as he broke through, but Nejire hadn't intended on just throwing him through the mailbox. No, she held back a bit, to make sure Tsubasa got pinned between the walls of the metal postal box.

And now he was stuck.

Inside a mailbox.

Ironic, wasn't it?

Her gaze fell on the second-year in her grip, and the guy looked ready to piss himself. "I don't know who any of you are," she hissed, "And I don't care. But if you ever, and I mean ever, so much as look at Izuku the wrong way again, let alone hurt a single hair on his head, I will make you wish you had never been born. Got it?"

He nodded. "O-o-okay!" He shrieked, fat, blubbery tears rolling down his cheeks, "I-I-I won't mess with D-Deku ever again!"

She pulled him closer to her, unamused. "You better not. And make sure every single person in your shitty little school gets the message, okay? Otherwise, I'll be a lot less gentle the second time, and I'll make sure to find you first. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes!" He actually did piss himself. "C-crystal!"

Nejire looked at him in disgust, before unceremoniously dumping him on his ass. "You better not forget it. Don't leave until all of your friends here get the memo."

The boy nodded as he sobbed. For all his bravado earlier as he and the rest of the guys had cornered him, Izuku thought this look suited his personality much more.

Nejire started to turn back towards Izuku, but before she could a cry rose up from the mailbox.

"Who the hell are you?!" Tsubasa shouted as he struggled to free himself, "Don't you know that Deku's Quir–"

Izuku's blood ran cold as he spoke.

But as it turned out, he had nothing to worry about.

Because Nejire decided to blast him away with her Quirk.

The mailbox was now nothing but a smoking pile of ashes.

As Tsubasa launched into the stratosphere, screaming like a little girl, there was no way for Izuku to know that it would be the last time he saw his old friend-turned-tormentor.

Nejire let out a quiet 'hmph' as she watched him fly away, before finally returning her focus back to him. The anger in her eyes melted away as she took in his bloody, bruised form, but it didn't stop Izuku from worrying that–

"Are you okay, Izuku?"

Faster than should have been possible, Nejire was kneeling at his side, one arm wrapped around his torso and another digging through the backpack she had slung down. Her big, blue eyes were wide with worry, her lips turned into a soft frown as she observed the way he winced and averted his gaze.

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life. A lot of it had been due to his Quirklessness, some of it not.

But this was the first time that someone had put themselves in harm's way to protect him.

"I-I'm f-f-f-fine," he whispered, throat tight as shame filled his body, "Y-you d-didn't have t-to–"

She placed a finger against his lips. "Don't lie to me," she said quietly, "Please."

He swallowed thickly. "S-S-S-S–"

"You don't have to apologize, either."

Izuku let out a shaky breath as his body shuddered. "...I-I think my n-nose is broken."

She squinted her eyes at his face. "Yeah, that's what it looks like."

Was he supposed to have an answer to that? If he was, he didn't know what it could be.

Izuku fell silent as she pulled out her first aid kit again. He was getting a strange sense of deja vu as she pulled out another piece of cotton to wipe at the blood dripping down his chin.

Oh, wait. That meant that–

He sighed miserably as he looked down at his uniform.

His jacket and shirt were both caked with dried blood.

"Shit…" he mumbled, more to himself than anything.

Nejire blinked at the curse he let out, slightly surprised. "Izuku…"

The next words out of her mouth shouldn't have been surprising.

"You didn't really fall down the stairs that time, did you?"

It wasn't really a question.

Izuku sighed.

He was so tired.

This was probably the last conversation he'd have with her. There was no point in lying anymore.

Even if he did… there was no way she'd believe him.

He shook his head slowly, nothing but shame and self-hate filling his veins. "N-no," Izuku said quietly, making sure Nejire could hear him, "I got beat up. This isn't anything n-new…"

She gasped in shock. How could she be surprised? She had watched it happen in real time already. Maybe she knew, but the truth was too ugly to accept.

"Does this happen a lot?" Nejire pressed, hating the way Izuku nodded without a second thought.

"Y-yeah. Some days I get left alone, some I c-can outrun them, but…" He shrugged lamely, shoulders flopping. "N-not often."

The look in her eyes made him feel so much worse than he already did.

"Why?"

And that question was the finishing blow.

It was so simple, so direct. Nejire could have phrased it a thousand different ways, but she went with the one that cut right to the meat of the problem. He tried to gather the courage to meet her eyes, but he was a coward.

He couldn't even manage that much.

Deep down, Izuku had a feeling she knew something was wrong with him. After all, kids didn't need a reason to be mean; sometimes they were just cruel for the sake of being cruel...

But this went deeper than that, didn't it? The way he flinched at any loud noise, or was so hesitant to accept praise, or how eagerly he pushed away attention and tried to slip into the background, or how every time someone looked his way it seemed like he was preparing to be admonished or hit or how he had such a deep-seated distrust and fear of other people or how after All Might left him on that roof he took a hard look at the ground and wondered if he should just take the fast way down to the pavement–

"I'm Quirkless."

Nejire actually, physically, flinched. The cotton ball that had been dabbing at his nose froze in place, and her breath hitched in shock.

Okay. At least it wasn't a surprise anymore.

It was nice while it lasted.

Izuku was so tired.

The arm she had placed behind him slackened. Nejire probably realized how disgusting it was that she was even breathing the same air as Izuku, let alone touching him. He shifted slightly, nudging it out of the way as he started to stand up and walk away–

Her grip was like iron. One second he had been halfway to his feet, and the next his knees slammed into the pavement hard enough to make him want to cry out in pain.

Oh. So she was going to beat him–

Nejire pulled Izuku into a hug so tight he was pretty sure that she broke his ribs.

"I don't care about that."

I don't care.

In just about any other setting, the person hearing that would likely be off-put or offended, or maybe even hurt.

But this wasn't any other setting.

Just like that, something snapped inside Izuku. He sniffled, choked, and started to cry.

Nejire hugged him even tighter. "It's okay," she whispered, clearly holding back tears of her own, "I'm here for you."

I'm here for you.

Izuku had never heard those words before.

Nejire could only wonder how long he had waited for someone to say that to him.

Her other hand reached around the back of his head, burying his face in the crook of her neck as he sobbed his heart out.

Izuku was so pathetic.

Nejire knew Izuku was the bravest person she had ever met.

Izuku was a coward.

Nejire didn't know anyone as brave as Izuku.

Izuku was a loser. A failure.

Nejire was so grateful for everything he'd done. For what he'd done for her.

Izuku hated himself.

Nejire didn't care about anyone the way she cared about Izuku.

She rubbed circles on the back of his jacket. "I'm really happy I met you."

Izuku was really happy he met Nejire.

Nejire was really happy she met Izuku.

–

Once the waterworks started, it took a long time for them to stop. Izuku was always a big crier - it was kind of miraculous he hadn't ever done so in front of Nejire before.

But even he ran out of tears eventually…

Key word being eventually.

"Feeling better?" Nejire asked, mustering up the biggest smile she could for him. It wasn't pretty, but it still meant the world to Izuku.

That didn't stop him from feeling stupid answering. "...A little," he mumbled, "T-thanks… and I-I'm s-s-sorry–"

She booped him on the forehead with her finger. "No more apologies, 'kay?"

A crimson tide swept over him, betraying the storm of emotions inside. "Y-y-you d-don't even know w-what I was g-going to s-say…"

Nejire shrugged as she continued to hug him. "Knowing you, it isn't something you should be apologizing for."

Izuku struggled to, but eventually he found the courage to look her in the eyes. He owed her that much, as well as an explanation. "I-I w-was going to say I'm s-s-sorry for r-running a-away at the Sports F-Festival," he said, tripping over his words as he stammered, "A-a-and for ignoring y-your messages."

He tensed as a flash of recognition of his actions passed behind her eyes, and his courage was lost.

"I forgive you," she decided immediately.

What?

"W-what?" Izuku was slack-jawed. "B-but I–"

"I'm sure you had your reasons," Nejire asserted, "That's enough for me."

He looked down at his lap. Why was she being so undeservedly nice? This wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

"Y-you d-deserve an explanation, at least!" Izuku blurted out, hating how whiny and stupid he sounded, "I-I mean, um, m-my r-reasons were s-s-stupid and I had n-no right to–"

"Hey." Nejire cupped his cheek, forcing him to meet her eyes as she tilted his head up. "If something happened that caused you to want to leave, it isn't a stupid reason. Your problems are just as important as everyone else's."

Oh, man. Izuku was going to start crying again, at this rate. "I-I know…"

Logically, sure. His problems were just as important as someone else's on paper. But no one cared about his problems. They were his burdens. They were his cross to bear, and no one else's.

Other people had their friends, their families to support them.

Izuku had himself. And that was fine. He didn't need to worry his poor mother, who had enough on her plate trying to raise a worthless son, and he definitely didn't need to worry the only other person on the planet who gave a damn about him.

Nejire disagreed with him. "If you want to talk about it," she encouraged, "You can. But if you don't, that's okay too – and again, whatever it is, it's not stupid."

He shook his head shakily. "U-um…" he trailed off slowly. "I-It's k-kind of, uh, a l-long story…"

She hummed, dropping her hand from his cheek (internally, Izuku was already tearing up at the loss of warmth). "We've got time," she decided, standing up and pulling Izuku to his feet with her, "You can tell me while we walk."

Izuku blinked. "W-where are we going?"

"To get you medical help," she said simply. He didn't trust himself to respond to that, so he just nodded and stared at the sidewalk as Nejire picked up their bags in one hand and took his own in her other.

He didn't fight it.

For a while, they walked in peaceful silence.

"...When I was younger, I wanted to be a Hero."

Nejire looked at Izuku in surprise, but said nothing. She squeezed his hand, and that gave him the motivation to continue.

"I saw All Might's debut video," Izuku elaborated slowly, "And I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to save people with a smile on my face, I wanted people to feel safe with my presence alone, just like him. But then, you know…"

He trailed off bitterly. "Everyone else's Quirks came in, and mine didn't. That didn't change anything, I told myself. I still wanted to be a Hero either way, but I guess I was just delusional. Everyone else knew better, and I probably should have listened to them. But I was stupid, and I held on to my dream. If I gave up without even trying, then what was the point in the first place, right? I wrote notes about Heroes, about Quirks, and did anything I could that I thought could help me out in the future. It didn't earn me a lot of admirers, but I didn't care. I could be the weird, creepy, Quirkless freak if it meant I had a chance at being a Hero, right?"

Next was the hard part.

"I got attacked by a villain a little over a year ago," Izuku began, heart hammering in his chest. Not even his mom knew about this part. "They had a Quirk that turned them into sludge, and wanted to use my body to hide. I was powerless to stop them. I thought I was going to die, and as I passed out from suffocation I really thought that was the end. But a Hero saved me. It was…"

He couldn't do it. Even now, bitter and resentful and in pain and just hurting so much, he couldn't say who it was. "It was someone I really admired. They were my idol. My hero. I never thought I'd get the chance to meet them, so I asked them the only question I could think of - the only question in the world that mattered."

Izuku didn't need to repeat it. Nejire was smart enough to figure out what that question was.

But he did anyway.

"Could someone like me, someone Quirkless and without power, be a Hero like them?" His voice was reduced to a whisper by this point, cracking and peaking like crazy. Tears were slowly pooling up in his eyes again, but he was determined to not start crying again. "He said no. I knew he was right… but it still hurt, because of course it did. I was too blind to see the reality of the situation, I guess. But I had to face the facts… and I gave up."

Izuku took a shaky breath. "I– that Hero," he finished, "I saw them at the Sports Festival. I don't know what happened, or why they were there, but I guess I just panicked. I c-couldn't face them again, so I r-ran away. It's the s-same reason I didn't apply to General Education at U.A. S-someone in my middle school threatened me and everyone else in the class to not apply, to not ruin his b-backstory, so I f-figured it would have been easier to give up and just… go somewhere else. It didn't matter to me anymore."

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life. A lot of it had been due to his Quirklessness, some of it not. Most of that 'some' came from his delusional belief that he could still be a hero, but that ship had sailed.

Nejire stopped, mid-step, and pulled him in for another hug. "I think you'd be a really great Hero, Izuku."

He had been told by everyone to give up. He had been beaten down, mocked, bullied and worse, but took it all on the chin and kept his dream in sight…

And Nejire was the first person to believe in him.

But there was nothing behind his eyes at her words. No spark, no light, nothing.

"Thanks," he muttered, almost robotically, "B-but… I've learned that s-sometimes… sometimes, dreams are just that. Dreams. It's important to be realistic."

Nejire didn't know how to respond to that, so she just hugged him a little tighter. "Let's get you to Recovery Girl, Izuku."

He nodded slowly. It'd be bad if he went home to his mother looking like this. If he had to go to U.A. again, or pay a fee at a hospital, or run away instead, he'd do it.

Anything to keep hiding from reality.

Izuku didn't have heroes anymore.

Nejire decided that she would be Izuku's hero.

—

A/N: That was fast. And the truth is out. I hope I did a good job on this one.

This was a pretty heavy chapter, so let me know what you thought! I appreciate each and every comment, and every one of you who takes the time out of your day to check my story out!

Hope you enjoyed! See you next time!