A scintillate shine presents dust particles floating within ray beams. It's as much of the outside world as these windows will allow to be let into the room, the sun having burnt the glass panes to translucent iridescence. A glare streams and shimmers along a katana that's been propped upon a weapon stand with other various sharp objects, light casting over each tool, an arsenal that ranges from sais to kunai all glistening under the sunlit glow. Where illumination doesn't pour in, shadows cascade over a series of masks mounted to an otherwise barren wall; a particular face covering glimmers due to its reflective surface, sunlight streaking across the curvature shape that resembles a heater shield. A lack of carpeting or furniture leaves a natural echo of ambience in the air. For the man meditating at the epicenter of the room, that atmosphere when there aren't any honking horns from the street outside interfering, is absolutely perfect for his concentration.
While the morning traffic is light today, other interferences to his reverie are an entirely separate matter. Such as the strident screech of his abode's silvery steel bypass entrance door sliding open; his 'roomie' as she calls herself has returned from her A.M outing, and he can tell as such without having the need to open his eyes because of her heels having a more than familiar fortissimo clack to them. She's half his height, and she's half his age. Which makes for a distasteful deed of practically parenting the girl when he's not grabbing things off of high shelves for her – which tends to be a problem even while she's wearing those obnoxious heels that click with every step – which only disrupt his zen state of mind as they draw nearer to him. His eyelids twitch but don't part or peel open in the slightest until after he hears the affectionate name that she calls him, "Uncle Chizome", he can hear her huffing and puffing with no doubt in his mind a pout on her face.
When the man spares his niece a glance, he sees that he's right; the blonde bunned teen has her arms folded over eachother and she's leaning all of her weight onto one side with a popped out hip. The sassy stare that she returns his gaze with is one that he's seen many times before, more often from her but occasionally in the thin slitted irises of cats before they pounce on their prey. "Why aren't you wearing the cheetah printed yoga pants that I got you?", her attitude carries into her tone as a heated hiss. The comparisons and commonality of felines in everything makes the man sneer, especially when thinking about the 'thoughtful gift' his niece keeps urging him to wear. The teenage girl's fashion sense vastly differs from his own. Even now, she's wearing some chic vest made to look like a lion's head; it's ridiculous, a bushy mane wraps around the back like those equally ridiculous boa scarves that she wears, the fluffy fabric anything but stylish in his eyes.
"Himiko..", he grunts the girl's name to address her the way that she's expecting before uncrossing his legs and pushing himself up with them to stand over her, "Don't tell me you're stealing clothes again.." Even with his natural hunch hindering his height and her heels amplifying hers, he towers above his niece. He usually saves the intimidating stature for scum he deems deserving of it but knows from past experience how troublesome his agnate can be, so he'll sometimes spare her a reminder of what's right and wrong by using it on her. Petty theft tends to be a habit that he's having a difficult time getting her to break. Though he does suppose there can be worse issues for him to deal with that raising a teenage girl can pose. The man suppresses a shudder at the thought, surprised that he can still rarely feel shivers strike his spine.
Himiko hums, tapping a finger against her bottom lip to feign ponderment. "No", she denies stealing anything as she sheds the vest. Though not without tacking on an alternate deplorable explanation, "I bought this with money I got from pickpocketing", and adding a cheeky little grin to boot. Chizome can almost see the deep frown on his face in the reflection of her perfectly pointed teeth. She has on a school uniform but he doubts that she actually bothered attending any early classes. The girl is proving to be quite a piece of work in all facets of teaching someone how to behave. When Himiko plucks a dagger from one of Chizome's weapon stands to twirl it playfully, he does somewhat see what part of the problem may very well be deriving from; he as an uncle may not be the greatest role model for her to have.
Chizome grabs the blade from her before she can accidentally hurt herself. A sigh and a second later, all he can do is shake his head. The man is almost at his wit's end. As he returns the dagger to its rightful resting place upon a mounting rack, he finds himself lost in thought. The miscare and departure of Himiko's parents was dramatic enough. Schooling her quirk and helping her handle it properly is another matter. Then there's this. Himiko's impulsive behavior, or rather – misbehavior – is proving to be apart of her personality and not just a child's or teenager's rebellious phase. "What am I going to do with you?", he mumbles a question that's meant to be rhetorical but he halfheartedly hopes someone will answer him.
Himiko does, "You can start by giving me a hug", and it's actually not that bad of a start to a solution. Some tenderness and care is just as important as tough parenting. Chizome can't help but chuckle a little. The way his niece has her arms spread out, waiting for him to wrap his own arms around her, it reminds him of when she was smaller. He steps into her warm embrace, ignoring the scent of blood that's in her hair and on her clothing. There's no telling whether she killed someone this morning or if it's leftover from yesterday; at this point, blood is the smell of her natural perfume. So, he opts to ignore it. He instead focuses on her heartbeat against his chest. The steadiness is as soothing as the sun shining in and he nearly returns to his zen state of mind.
Chizome pats Himiko on her tiny blonde head, careful not to disturb the buns she tied her hair into. He looks down at her and sees that kid again rather than the troublesome teenager, "My little Chameleon", his affectionate nickname for her rolls naturally off the tongue that it may as well be her actual name now. She rolls her eyes, knowing the real reason he calls her by that moniker isn't simply due to the properties of her quirk, but rather because of how her eyes never change no matter how her face might. The distinct slants she stares at him with are surprisingly innocent when coupled with the sinister smile that reveals a mouth full of fangs. He holds her a while longer before letting her go. Once released, she then carries herself in the direction of the kitchen, guiding him as much as she urges him to follow along.
"By the way – You never answered my question", Himiko throws her uncle a quick mischievous glare before filling java into and switching on their bean grinder. The gray bottoms he chose to wear instead of the tights she got him are covered in coffee stains; she contemplates 'accidentally' spilling the currently brewing batch on them to mimic the cheetah spotted print of her gracious gift with a fuller pattern of brown patches. She figures that then he'd HAVE to wear them either way. When she turns around to shoot another glare at her uncle, she sees that he's ignoring her with a broad newspaper held up in front of his face. "Ugh", the girl rolls her eyes, "Sweatpants and a tabloid? Are you sure you're my uncle and not my grandfather?"
Chizome crinkles the pages of the publication, folding the paper over so that he can simultaneously look at it and spare his niece a glance at the same time. "Print is a superior source of information to the news station propaganda put on television", he skims the hero section for articles on incident reports to check for listed casualties or property damage and turns it to face Himiko when he finds a counted number, "That's the problem with kids your age! You don't look past what's solely showboating and praise! You don't look for the full story to better understand the reality of this sham society!" It's Himiko's turn to do the ignoring, having already heard this type of tirade from her uncle a dozen times. He sees her tuning him out and waves the newspaper around to test her attentiveness, "Are you even paying attention to me?!"
"Yes, Uncle Chizome, I'm paying.." Himiko's absentminded response fades off when she sees an image on the newspaper that she hadn't noticed before. She takes a small step forwards to look at it better. Atop a plane while his arms are straining to support the aircraft's wings with webs, is a boy wearing skin tight spandex that defines the muscles he's using to do so. Himiko runs her tongue along the pointed tips of her teeth. "I'm paying a whole lotta attention", she snatches the tabloid away from her uncle to look at it more closely. Being more of a gal that prefers pretty pictures over paragraph walls, Himiko only briefly skims the story to learn about the boy in the photo. When she discovers he's a vigilante and not a licensed hero, her intrigue only increases. The girl begins to blush with excitement. It's been a while since she's had a celebrity crush and it's not too often that someone can win her affection when wearing a mask, but this appears to be a special case.
Chizome takes the newspaper back from his niece while she's distracted with her fantasization of the spider themed vigilante. It's then that he sees the article too. "Another thrill seeker", he grumbles his first impression of Spider-Man aloud. "But not worth my time", and sets the tabloid aside without so much as a second thought to the unlicensed hero. Chizome subconsciously picks at the exposed olfactory nerve where his nose was caved in by a past encounter with vigilantes. The flat but marred surface flares with his nostrils. He hopes to avoid sustaining such an injury again and believes the fakes under the public eye will be more thoughtful towards pulling their punches. Cornering someone who may not be so concerned about their reputation could prove a riskier feat. Chizome knows his limits; he can reach into cracks and crevices to pull out the weeds but this metaphor also means being aware of thorns and what types of plants he's dealing with before derooting them.
Himiko hurriedly skirts around the table, a blonde blur before she scoots out a chair and plops into it. "Let's not be so hasty, Uncle Chizome!" She shoves the newspaper back into his hands so that he can have another look at the article about Spider-Man. "It might be a good idea to get ahead of this one before he gets popularized", a twinkle sheens from her irises when the girl tries convincing him by transforming her cat eyes to pleading puppy eyes, "The least we can do is have a looksie at him to see what he's all about!" She bats her lashes with a couple of blinks for an added cuteness factor. Himiko even juts out and wobbles her lower lip. The whole act is completed by a teeter and then a tilt with her head so that it leans sideways.
Chizome bends his neck, a look of bewilderment crossing his facial features. His stare shifts and becomes a skeptical one, suspicion focusing into a sharp and thin line as his eyes narrow. He spends what seems like an eternity studying the strange behavior of his niece, occasionally cross referencing with the newspaper in an attempt to make a connection, before settling on an outcome while making a slow shift in his seat to stand up. Another moment passes where he contemplates Himiko's begging before he finally opens his mouth to formulate a response based on what he's gathered. Chizome's niece eagerly leans forward with anticipation evident on her face. The man sucks in a breath. Then simply says, "No."
"Hmph!", Himiko falls against the back of her chair while pouting and crossing her arms under her chest, "You never let me choose who we hunt!" But Chizome is too busy occupying himself with the java bean grinder to be affected by the small fit that she's throwing behind him. The girl tosses the newspaper aside now that she deems it useless to her cause; it lands on a column about the infamous Hero Hunter claiming another 'victim', but she's not lost in the irony of that coincidence. Her Uncle Chizome who so happens to be the ruthless Hero Hunter will always just be her Uncle Chizome to her. Especially when all he does is deny her of any actual fun hunting while burning himself with the coffee maker.
Chizome blows into the pink mug that Himiko got him for his birthday last year before asking her, "Why are you so interested in this one?" She draws her eyes back down to the newspaper but it's not of much use to her anymore. When she looks back up at her uncle, he's drawing a long sip from his coffee cup while waiting on an answer. They make eye contact for a moment and hold that stare as more light shines in through the windows of the kitchen. Himiko can see steam wafting from her uncle's mug under the glow of the sunbeams. A roasted aroma of bitterness and sweetness makes her wonder if he can smell what he's drinking despite having a nose job like Voldemort from those weird wizardry American films.
She stifles a snort at her own sense of humor while breaking eye contact with her uncle. "No particular reason", a slight shrug is all that she has to offer. But a single fang edging out to bite her bottom lip betrays her when she adds, "I just wanna know if this is the kinda spider who's gonna stick around or not…" Secretly, she hopes that he is. Most vigilantes don't last very long, living short lived careers before meeting their ends one way or another; sometimes they're stopped by the law, other times they'll get in way over their heads with a villain, but most cases tend to be that the vigilantes simply just vanish as suddenly as they appear. Himiko wants to believe Spider-Man stands out from the rest as the type who wants to live his life the way he pleases without the world telling him what's right or wrong about it, because if so, then he's more her type than anybody will ever know.
Chizome hums with intrigue, still trying to discern what it is about Spider-Man that's caught his niece's eye. He's completely oblivious to the blush on her face when she flips back to the vigilante's photo in the newspaper. Instead, he ponders what he's taught her about his philosophy on heroes and the injustice of licensed pros nowadays, believing that has something to do with her infatuation. At some point, a lot of heroes stopped being selfless. No longer was the word hero associated with someone who saves civilians or stops criminals, but rather, it was reserved for merchandising and commercial marketing with false idols for role models to each generation of children. Vigilantes, on the other hand, are an entirely different breed. One may assume they're different from the typical hero because of the lack of a license or an agency to promote them. However, Chizome knows better. Vigilantes garner just as much attention by being mysterious and alluring to the public. They tend to be glory hounds and thrill seekers rather than genuine do-gooders. He wonders if his lessons have been paying off and Himiko is starting to wonder if Spider-Man falls under that category of character.
When Chizome rouses himself from his rumination, he has to do a double take upon finding an empty chair at the dining table rather than his niece. He'd been so absorbed in his own thoughts that he never noticed her getting up or leaving the room. Chizome chases after her, finding Himiko heading out the metallic bypass door that she's slid back open. "Where are you going?", he tries and fails not to sound accusatory while asking her this question but figures that's fine since she just got back and has no particular reason to be going out again so soon. The way that his niece flinches when she pauses only confirms he has a valid reason to suspect something is amiss. He holds off on taking another sip of coffee, trying to appear serious and stern despite still holding onto the bright pink mug.
Himiko slowly turns to partially face her uncle, one foot halfway out the door already. Another one of those noncommittable shrugs and a wry grin from the bunned blonde doesn't help ease Chizome's concerns. "Just going to add more to my wardrobe", an ambiguous answer alludes to much more than what she's saying. She throws up a peace sign that turns into a wave goodbye and then she's gone before her uncle can protest. He severely doubts she'll be coming back with anything like the lion vest that she brought home this morning. He highly doubts she'll be bothering to actually go through trying on clothes at all. He just doesn't know what the alternative could possibly be for her to be running out so suddenly.
Sighing into his cup before he takes a sip of the now lukewarm beverage inside it, Chizome decides not to dwell on the matter. Himiko has a lot to learn about responsibility but he also knows she has enough power to handle herself just fine. It's this corrupt hero society that needs to worry about he and her, not the other way around. The man passes by his array of mounted masks and assorted weapons on his way to the center of the room. Then, he squats down to sit on the floor. Chizome crosses his legs and closes his eyes, trying to filter out his mind from the mystery of his niece's departure.
The Hero Hunter returns to his meditation rather than to the dining table. So he never sees the picture of Spider-Man in the newspaper was cut out with a kitchen knife.
A blue banister carries into the sky, morning moving within another summer day that splashes reflectively against the sea's surface by just a pinch of gold from the sun's shimmering arcs. Clouds careen along the brim of it all, mirroring the ocean's tide of rolling spume, fluffy frothing foam burning a bright white that matches what passes overhead. A cool mist of particles swell to contrast a warm blanket of air, waves creasing over whatever water covers the sandy bedding of the beach. It's nearly translucent within its tranquility. If not for the remaining litter that needs to be cleared away. Scrap metals, torn tire rubber, and aged appliances like a minifridge are still wedged within the grainy ground. Itsuka Kendo walks along Takoba Beach, still nonetheless pleased with her progress since, at the very least, she doesn't have to worry about stepping on any hidden glass shards. There's not quite as much junk piled up anymore. What stood in stacks has diminished to a low amount of garbage groupings. The redhead places her hands on her hips while surveying the shoreline, doing an estimate in her head on how much more work needs to be put into it to fully cleanse its appearance.
Parked so that the loading bed is facing the beach, a white truck waits to haul a pile of trash away. Its owner, a slender blonde, swings the vehicle's door open to climb out and join Itsuka on the sand. Itsuka smiles at him kindly, a greeting he returns instead of waving. He's the one who orchestrated this whole community service thing as a training regime in the first place. He's her mentor; Toshinori Yagi. And despite his sharp angular features defining his hollow cheeks, he can prove pretty capable of doing some heavy lifting himself. "Nice work", the man takes note of his pupil's handiwork as he strides toward her, "You'll be ready for U.A in no time!" The grin on his face shows bright white teeth per his signature smile. It contagiously makes Itsuka reveal a few teeth in her own grin by being within the smile's sheer vicinity. When drawing close enough, Toshinori places a hand on his protege's shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze of encouragement while also adding, "But more importantly – You'll be ready to inherit my quirk."
Itsuka looks into the sunken eyes of the man before her, beyond the shadowed border and at his righteous blue orbs that radiate as much as the sky or the ocean do. She feels both inspired and intimidated by his stare; which is the same as she feels about inheriting his power. When she was approached by the number one hero – the symbol of peace – she wasn't expecting him to confide in her about his quirk or to offer it to her. Beneath Toshinori's baggy shirt is a cicatrix that he received years ago during a battle with what sounds like the most powerful being beside All Might himself. A fated fight between that man named All For One and the quirk that exists to oppose him which had belonged to his brother and got moved mantle to mantle unto All Might resulted in severe scarring. It's that injury that prevents Toshinori from maintaining his iconic buff form, and what limits him to being All Might for only a few hours a day. As such, Toshinori sought out someone to carry out his legacy. Again, Itsuka is still unbelieving that the world's greatest hero ended up choosing her.
"Thanks, All Might.. I'll do my best to make you proud", the girl feels the weight of such a burden placed upon her shoulders via Toshinori's touch but that responsibility is one that she's willing to accept for the sake of the world. She unconsciously clenches her fists, imagining the power that will soon fuse into them to maximize her punches. A breeze brushes against her face and tussles her sunny shade of hair. It's a moment of predecessor and successor that could be captured on a canvas, backlit as though they're being painted.
Toshinori gives his successor's shoulder another soft squeeze before releasing it. "That's all that I ask", his smile sparkles while his eyebrowless features upturn to express a genuine joy, "And I know that beyond a doubt – you will!" Itsuka wishes the malnourished man were chubby rather than skinny since that'd make him much more huggable. Forgetting and forgiving that his bones will poke her own ribs, she expresses her gratitude with a warm embrace anyways. "I know that you will…", Toshinori reaffirms his statement when he sees what it means to her.
Over and behind the man, Itsuka spots a flicker of green. She pauses, pulls back, then sees the source of verdance belongs to a boy's bushy head of hair. It's the boy that she remembers meeting not so long ago. Itsuka wracks her brain to recall his name and then flags him down with both a shout and a wave, "Midoriya!" He slows his run to a steady jog before fully stopping. She figures from the way he's dressed in sweaty clothes that he's out for a morning exercise the same as her.
"MJ?", Izuku stalls when he sees the girl that he met not so long ago. It takes him just as long to process her presence as it does to register that she's waving to him. Stammering and stumbling, Izuku tries to return the gesture a little too hurriedly while heading down onto the beach, "I almost didn't see you there!" The boy stalls again when he realizes there's a man present with Itsuka. Minding his manners, he bows to both greet and acknowledge his elder. He nearly chokes on his own inhale of air, "Nor did I notice your father–"
The man coughs in interception with Izuku's sentence, choking on – blood? – an exhale of stupefaction. He wipes at the corners of his mouth, clearing away a combo of red splatter and red blush. "I'm not Young Kendo's father..", Toshinori sheepishly corrects Izuku on the misunderstanding. He avoids eye contact with both of the kids, opting to instead count the grains of sound beneath his feet. The beach is looking mighty beachy today, he thinks, which he also thinks is all thanks to Itsuka clearing away Takoba's filth – who is not his daughter, just to clarify their relation to one another again.
Itsuka's cheeks shade a stronger tone of pink, her blush covering her makeup. She's just as embarrassed by the misconception as her mentor but she handles it a little better than he does. "R- Right! This is just my Sensei; Toshinori Yagi-San!" She presents him with her hands, resisting the urge to enlarge them with her quirk. The flourish could use a little work and so can the way Toshinori holds himself but Izuku doesn't seem to mind. Itsuka then thinks to add, "He's the one helping me clean up the beach", for clarification's sake.
Toshinori shakes his head side to side, mirroring the movement of a hand he holds up. "I can't take any of the credit for that, Kendo. I'm merely moving it out. You're the one doing the real cleaning here", he humbly gives all that honor to his pupil despite the way it makes her blush shift from pink to red. Rather than embarrass her with more praise, he decides to leave it at that. "Speaking of which – I should be loading the truck bed to get this next batch ready for transfer", he subtly excuses himself with a thumb thrust over his shoulder in the direction of his vehicle while beginning to back away.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Yagi-San!" Izuku flashes a smile so bright that Toshinori mistakens the boy's glow for staring directly into the sun. He has to shield his eyes with the back of his hand. In doing so, he sees within his peripheral vision that Itsuka is doing the same.
"You too, young man" Toshinori lowers his hand when the brightness level on the boy's smile settings lowers. Then uses that same hand to cover a cough and he excuses himself again, "I'll give you two some .. privacy" He steps away so that the duo of kids can catch up without an adult looming over them.
Izuku waits a second, noting the significant change in the amount of litter on the beach. "Still training for U.A?", he offers Itsuka a smaller smile of encouragement when he sees she made a lot of progress. The boy tries not to ogle her body but he can see the physical efforts required to make such a movement have clearly paid off.
Itsuka nods while smiling back. "You know it", she fans herself until a breeze blows through and eliminates the need for a manual coolant. The wind untangles a few strands of her hair, locks lingering over her forehead. "The time for the Entrance Exam is almost here", Itsuka brushes them back and out of her face.
Izuku hums before asking, "Nervous?" A second gust of air comes through with the tide, but the breeze has no such luck untangling the boy's mess of curls when compared to Itsuka's hair. Even so, the green bush atop his head sways side to side as he tilts his chin down.
"Excited", Itsuka's answer is almost immediate. When she takes a second after to mull it over though, she reconsiders her response. "Okay, a little bit nervous too.." The girl shyly sheds a huff of laughter. It feels good to admit to her anxiety. It's not something she wanted to confide in All Might with since he's counting on her to pass the exam easily.
"Who wouldn't be?", Izuku's light laughter trails behind Itsuka's. Applying for a school, any HERO school, let alone the most prestigious top hero school in all of Japan would be expected to be at least a little stress inducing. "You'll have to let me know how you do", Izuku finds himself admiring her bravery for persevering through whatever doubts she might have about taking their Entrance Exam.
"Oh! Sure!", it's not until Itsuka is fishing her cellphone out of her pocket that he realizes he indirectly expressed his admiration by technically asking to keep in touch. She holds it out for him to take and enter himself as a contact, "I was meaning to get your number anyway!"
Izuku fumbles briefly, but catches the mobile phone out of partial fear of damaging it should it drop and partial spider-like agility. "R- Really?!", the high pitched squeak he lets out makes him wince before he corrects it by clearing his throat. He winds up applying a false deepness to his voice, "I– I- I, uh, I mean – Really?", but that doesn't quite sound right either. He has to fight the urge to facepalm over his own stupidity.
Itsuka hides her giggle by muffling her mouth with her hand, but Izuku can still hear it and he winds up turning a shade of red as a result. As if things can't get any worse, "Yeah", the redhead feigns her own deep masculine tone to mockingly tease him, "Really!" She sees his blush somehow get even redder as blood rushes to his face so she fortunately decides to show mercy after that, "You seem nice and I thought it'd be cool to hangout with you some time."
Little does she know that's just as bad, "H- Hangout?!", the boy's ears emitting steam as his head spins. Izuku can hardly process any of what the girl is saying, his mind in a complete utter daze. Incoherently, he makes an attempt to say something. Anything. He somehow manages to ask, "W- When?"
The suddenness of that question shocks the girl. She glances up and then down, left and then right. "Well… I mean…", Itsuka timidly suggests the first thing that comes to her mind, "I have a karate class tonight.. If you, maybe, I dunno.. Wanna come by that?" She nervously nibbles her bottom lip, sneaking a glance at the boy as she waits for his answer.
But Izuku is too stunned by another revelation about the girl's abilities to answer right away. "You do karate?!", his jaw unhinges to express his audible awe. It makes sense when he thinks about it; a hero requires a combat prowess of some type. He just never considered learning any fighting styles of his own, thanks to his trusty Spider-Sense aiding his agility like a reliable crutch to lean on.
Itsuka opens her mouth to respond, but before she can utter a single syllable, the wail of police sirens interject. The source of them collectively come by in a flash of red and blue lights mounted to three cruisers. Izuku pivots to track the trajectory of where they're headed while Itsuka turns her neck to also watch. She's somewhat startled but shakes the interruption off before turning to face Izuku again in order to answer him.
Except, what she sees when she does is that he's taking long strides backwards from her. "I'll, uh – I just remembered I have to be somewhere", his hands fidget worse than his eyes as they avoid meeting Itsuka'a gaze. He eventually gives up and throws them up in the air before he turns to resume the run he had arrived at Takoba with. "Text me the details about that karate class though, please!"
Oddly, what Itsuka finds the strangest about that whole abrupt farewell is that he's running in the opposite direction that he had been headed in when she flagged him down. He's running the same way that the police cars went. Her eyebrows are up and her heart plummets down. The waves crashing behind her have gotten rougher.
"I think you scared him off", Toshinori approaches his successor from the side with an expression that crosses sympathy with amusement. He hasn't seen anybody flee a scene like that aside from villains when they're confronted by him as All Might; he knows better than to share that tidbit of information with Itsuka though.
Itsuka heaves out a long and heavy groan. "Gee.. Thanks for the vote of confidence, All Might.." She turns on her heel as best as she can in the sand, grateful for the traction it gives her at the very least, and slightly storms off from her mentor to express her disdain. Toshinori received the same kind of ponytail hair flip she leaves him with enough times from his own sensei that he fully understands the meaning of his mistake.
Toshinori sweatdrops, such a reaction the best display of his nervousness upon witnessing Itsuka hoist an oven from the beach's sandy bedding without having even received his quirk yet. He mutters under his breath in a quivering voice, "Why did you have to run off like that, kid?"
Turned sideways, an armored vehicle takes up two lanes of traffic. The bulletproof backdoors lay opposite of the truck, completely torn from their hinges and battered. When Izuku donning his persona's suit as Spider-Man arrives, the vigilante having swung ahead of the police en route to the crash site, he lands on the side that opposes honking horns from angry drivers. He holds out an extended arm with his palm open as though that'll do anything to placate them, throwing the waiting cars a quick glance. Then Spider-Man cautiously steps forward, redirecting his sights on the crashed cash cargo carrier. He tentatively tests his Spider-Sense, waiting for a warning in case something dangerous waits around the corner. Primed, ready, fully prepared – Spider-Man moves around the blindspot and confronts what's on the other side.
It's like looking in a mirror. Just without the aluminum polished glass. Reflected in the lenses of his mask is a near replica of the web patterned face covering. Two Spider-Mans stare at one another as though they're Deer-Men instead and they've now each been caught in headlights. After a moment of what might be an existential crisis, Izuku shakes off his stupor and reminds himself that he's the ONE and ONLY Spider-Man. He points at the imposter – surprised to see his impersonator matching the gesture when he does – and simultaneously shouts with the fake, "Hey!"
"Don't you 'hey' me!", Izuku doubles down with a shake of his extended finger, "And don't point at me either!"
"You pointed first!", Izuku is as amazed as he is horrified to hear a voice so similar to his own coming from the copycat. The mannerisms match him too, both Spider-Men lowering their aimed fingers.
"Touche…" Izuku settles for a draw when it comes to that debate. There's a much more pressing matter to resolve. He crosses his arms over the spider emblazoned on his chest while standing a little straighter, "Who are you?", there's a tone of toughness he hopes gets conveyed to his doppleganger that will deter any sorta funny business.
And he finds what the impersonator does next anything but funny. The red and blue costumed character juts a finger at the uncovered spider emblem on their chest whilst claiming, "I'm Spider-Man!"
"No, no. You can't be Spider-Man…", Izuku shakes his head in denial before replicating the imposter's gesture of aiming his thumb at his sternum's spider symbol, "I'M Spider-Man!" After a moment, he jokingly throws around a careless wave and offers, "But if you play real nice – maybe you can have a turn tomorrow. Okay?"
"Whoa!", the telltale tingle of Izuku's Spider-Sense saves him from getting a gash across his chest. A miraculous maneuver that vaults the boy over a nearby streetlight for him to then use as a perch makes for a daring dodge. "Crossing out the spider on my chest won't change anything", Izuku tentatively touches the spot that was nearly torn into before pointing with that same hand at his attacker, "Especially since you got the part wrong about Spider-Man using knives!" He takes a second to wonder whether or not a boxcutter counts as a knife before deciding that distinctive definition doesn't matter.
"Cool moves", the fake Spider-Man spins their pointy weapon in their hand before striking a pose, "But I've got some of my own!" No Spider-Sense is necessary to know what comes next is another attack from the poser. A flying kick with their leg extended and the knife wielding arm cocked back comes at Izuku with both an agility & grace that nearly makes him believe he actually is fighting himself.
However, a REAL Spider-Man would be able to sense the counter attack that Izuku meets his impersonator with. Switching his pointing posture to a hand sign that triggers a line of webbing from his web shooters, he wraps the weapon wielding fraud of himself in sticky white goo. Both the imposter's arm and leg go down, bound by gossamer. Then the rest of Izuku's doppleganger drops; a full body thump onto the ground leaves the faker wriggling around for a while. 'A while' is the key term here. Adapting to their entanglement to free themself, Spider-Man's masquerader uses their boxcutter to cut themself loose.
"Wanna show me what else you've got?", Izuku taunts his evil twin with a beckoning body motion. He even hops down from his perch to make it easier on them. When his goading doesn't result in an immediate assault, Izuku takes it a step further by producing his DSLR to snap a picture. "Or would you rather show the camera?", the shutter clicks when he takes another photo to follow the first.
THAT earns a reaction. Izuku swerves from a sudden stretched out leg aiming for his head. Such an abrupt attack and dodge makes him accidentally drop his camera. Instinctually wanting to save it from getting damaged, the boy backflips to grab it underhanded and pivots backwards from a second sweeping kick. "You break it and you buy it!", he shouldn't expect his assailant to abide by that rule but he feels the need to say it anyways. Especially when he needs to raise his camera above his head to keep it from getting caught in the crossfire of a swipe from the aggressor's razor knife.
"I wonder", Spider-Man's imitator strikes straight at the original's torso as though jousting with something bigger than a boxcutter, "Do you care about your life as much as you do that camera?" Spider-Man's evasion may or may not answer that question but it was more rhetorical and intended to lead into the next inquiry, "What about other people's lives?" The boxcutter repositions itself to a stabbing state and its wielder redirects themself to face the traffic. "Which do you prioritize?", sham Spidey makes a mad dash for the cars.
"Is 'all of the above' an answer on this test?" Izuku spins a set of two strings from each of the nozzles hidden beneath his web patterned gloves. One web line catches the downward blade while the other snags the blade's holder by the crook of their elbow. Showing some of his spider strength to demonstrate he's the true Spider-Man, Izuku gives both wires of webbing a good tug to pull his impersonator back from the traffic being targeted.
The fraud falls on their backside, boxcutter clattering on the same cement ground. "Sure", they shrug off the thwarted effort to attack civilians and redirect their aggression back onto Izuku, "That's fine by me.." Somehow, that sends a shudder through the vigilante. His imposter could be SpiderS-Man, a feeling of creepy crawliness careening over Izuku's skin and making him check it for arachnids.
Izuku shakes the feeling off, returning to the fight as he squats to duck below an incoming attack, his doppleganger having produced a spare boxcutter to replace the one they lost. He bends back and semi flips to dodge a secondary swipe of the blade. Before those slashes can get relentless, he puts a stop to the assault by smacking the assailint's wrist with just enough force to make them drop the weapon.
"How am I supposed to see what you look like covered in blood if you won't let me cut you?!" A sudden screech full of strife comes from the fraudulent Spider-Man; the original Spidey would be lying if he doesn't admit the shout scares him.
"That's a good question", Izuku hopes the only thing bleeding out from him will be sarcasm as he gives his crazy copycat a quick riposte, "Cause' I don't think you can!"
The bloodthirsty boxcutter enthusiast must take offense to that, since they then suddenly gain an ability to teleport with their attacks. Or maybe it's invisibility. Izuku would contemplate some theories in his analysis notebook about spiders having camouflage capabilities and how that can potentially be a part of his quirk or this poser's — if not for his Spider-Sense filling his mind instead. The warning doesn't prepare him for a sudden tackle into his abdomen though. His impersonator abruptly appears in front of him. Or rather, on top of him. Being straddled by a variant of himself is strange to say the least.
"Come on!", Spider-Man's lookalike leans in so close that the warmth of their breath can be felt through their mask; Izuku turns his head away, trying to avoid it like a cough. "Just lemme have a little taste~" The sing-song tone of the thirsty bloodseeker makes him look back though, albeit only because he has to make sure he heard that right. His expressive eye lens expand to convey a combination of shock and fear.
It's not hard to imagine fangs under his impersonator's mask. Fighting a vampire would be pretty freaky. As freaky as the freak themself. He then imagines a vampire with his ability to stick to surfaces – like an octopus, suction cups on their hands to leach plasma or something – somehow, that's worse than the thought of fangs sinking into his neck. Eager to get the potential vampire off of him, Izuku somersaults to gain the advantage in their grounded struggle. The short grapple reverses their roles so that he's the one on top. "I eat a lot of Katsudon. Use your imagination!" There might not be anyone able to vouch for the 'you are what you eat' claimology, but Izuku would like to keep it that way by keeping his copycat – potential cannibal – pinned down.
Beneath him, his doppleganger copies his countenance next, the white eyes on their mask widening with their own shocked reaction due to having the tables turned on them. The lenses then narrow into suggestive slithers. That coupled with some squirming makes Izuku pretty uncomfortable. Especially when the secondary Spider-Man asks with a slightly seductive edge to their tone, "Is this flirting?" Izuku makes the mistake of allowing that to negate his guard via nerves and he winds up being on the bottom again – which turns out to be a submissive state he isn't all that thrilled about when the Spider-Man on top then says, "Cause' I think we'd make a really cute couple."
"Talk about taking self-love a little too seriously…" Izuku can't help but make a wisecrack under the pressure. Though it does help to ease that tension a little, by turning the situation into a joke of sorts. Leading with that so he can stay calm and reclaim the advantage, he follows up with another quip while reaching under himself to distribute his camera. "But sure! Why don't we commemorate the moment with a photo?" The flash goes off directly in his strange stalker's face. Since they aren't the real Spider-Man, they lack the Spider-Sense to prepare for it, and that allows the genuine article to throw the phony off.
Separated by a few paces between them, each of them standing on their feet again, they square off with one another. It's the fraudulent Spider-Man that makes the first move. The real Spider-Man just isn't expecting that move to be backwards and away from him instead of forwards. "You can have that to remember me by", Izuku's impersonator indicates towards the camera so he knows the comment is in reference to the picture just taken. "Until next time…", seeing his persona as Spider-Man blow himself a kiss is something he's glad he didn't get a photo of when coupled with the others. That being said, he can't just let the crazed version of himself turn tail and escape. Which is exactly what his evil twin is trying to do.
Izuku thrusts out his hand, making the same hand sign he always does when spinning a web. Except, this time, nothing comes out. The nozzle of his web shooter fizzles with a soft spray of leftover residue from an otherwise empty cartilage of webbing solution. "Ah! Come on! Not now!", he wishes he could curse himself for giving his yen prize to his mom instead of using it for the chemicals he needs to make more fluid but knows that he made the right call back then even if it means losing a criminal now. Izuku lets his hand drop to his side, slapping his waist out of frustration. "Just great…"
The department's air conditioning is out today. Sweat seeps out from beneath the hair matted to the detective's forehead; there's no wiping his face dry when the back of his hand is just as damp. Hung over the back of his desk chair is his conventional overcoat, his office way too stuffy to be wearing a jacket. That's not all the clothing he's shed either; he'd tugged and tossed his tie a while ago. Tsukauchi also tried opening the room's window to filter some air in but the summer weather has been so unmerciful in its heatwave that there hasn't been a single cooling spell to compensate. He's been seriously considering buying a fan, the department's budget be damned. Except, having to dig splinters out of his hands every week makes him reconsider, since replacing his desk would be a wiser purchase. Then there's, not to mention, the dinged up filing cabinet behind him. Nothing has been spared from being worn down around here. Including him.
Outside the doorway of his office, one of the new hires runs by to deliver something to the detective one room over. Tsukauchi feels some empathy for his co-workers, reminded that he isn't the only one doing duties under these conditions. Whoever isn't caught in crossfire within the field is stuck here with the machine gun fire of tapping keyboards. A noisy ambience that's missing the hum of a coolant system can make it hard to do anything other than sigh or groan. Especially when the fridge in the breakroom isn't stocked and the temperature is too hot for coffee; Tsukauchi could never go for that iced crap, a few of his colleagues suggesting he try drinking java cold, but he can imagine the ice melting into the drink anyway that it wouldn't really matter much. More keyboard clacking, now significantly louder for whatever reason, pulls the detective out of his thoughts.
When Tsukauchi hears his office door creak closed and slam shut, he's at least grateful for a buffer that drowns out the rapid clicking of computer keyboards. What he's less than appreciative of, however, is the sudden intrusion. He half expects to see Tamakawa back from vacation already. What he finds instead is an unexpected visit from a familiar underground hero. "Eraserhead?!", Tsukauchi is just as shocked by the man's state of attire as he is by the man's presence; how the underground hero can wear a baggy bodysuit that may as well be a snuggie sweater while in this heat is beyond him.
"Detective", Eraserhead returns Tsukauchi's nonplussed greeting with a curt nod before throwing a glance back in the direction of the office's entrance. The man's mouth is set in a straight and solid line; he has something he wants to say but is keeping withheld.
"We won't have any interruptions or eavesdroppers", Tsukauchi tries to placate the underground hero's concerns while partially hoping to quell some of his own nerves. For Eraserhead to be cautious, there must be something serious afoot. The detective leans forward to ask, "What seems to be the problem?"
Eraserhead remains silent a second longer, eyes still set on the door, before he finally relents. "You asked me to work the Spider-Man case…", the slow start to the presented topic makes Tsukauchi raise a singular eyebrow, "...Something has come up…" Eraserhead has practice prolonging his blinks, so it comes as no surprise that he wins the staring contest when his gaze meets Tsukauchi's. "I wanted you to know before word got out to any kind of press", the underground hero gives the office door one final check before saying, "Spider-Man robbed a transport truck."
Tsukauchi raises his second eyebrow along with the rest of his body as he shoots up from his seat. The chair topples over behind him but he pays it no mind. Having heard what Eraserhead just told him, his head is much too jobbled to care about that. All he can manage to reply with is what anyone would have to say about a vigilante switching up their M.O. Tsukauchi releases a flabbergasted shout of his inner turmoil, "What?!"
Not a single one of the pictures that Izuku developed shows two Spider-Men together at the same time. If anything, the photos are highly incriminating towards his alter ego; there's a shot where he or his imposter is literally standing in front of the transfer truck. Izuku has half a mind to discard them all in order to spare himself from self sabotage. There's a trash bin right beside him where he can throw them out. But then he thinks about his mom and all the bills. And he is already at Juko News that it'd be a wasted trip for him to just turn around and leave. Izuku takes a big breath and then breathes all that hot air out as one great big sigh. The boy hands his shots over, deeming the pros of doing so greater than the cons.
Tokuda thumbs through the collection of photos, a humored hum escaping his mouth despite his lips remaining firmly pressed together. Each picture has a crazy composition that calls for a tripod but one in particular really gives him pause. It's slightly blurred but so close up that it's still considerably impressive. Tokuda pulls it from the stack and turns it over for Izuku to see. With a cocked eye, he asks the young freelance photographer, "How did you get this one?"
"Um", Izuku lulls when he recognizes the picture as the one he took while pinned under his impersonator; the framing aside, it's right up in their masked face. He swallows some spit before suggesting anything other than having been up close and personal, "Long lens?"
The look thrown at him is amicably suspicious. But Tokuda doesn't press the matter. "Considering you're the only one to get coverage on this story, I'd say the quality of the shots don't matter so much this time as does their existence in general", he instead sets the pictures aside to talk about what's going to be written on the check that he's grabbing from his desk drawer, "I'll say these are worth about half the amount as last time – you should get acquainted with that long lens of yours or do away with it and go back to the zoom function."
Izuku's cheeks color crimson but he manages to diminish the blush by shaking the blood flow back into order with a nod. "I'm still getting a handle on this whole, um, 'photography' thing.." He scratches at his freckles as though they itch while awkwardly angling his mouth to smile, "Thank you for your patience and consideration while I figure it out though."
Tokuda casts aside the boy's bailiwick with a wave of his free hand while writing out the check with his other. "There's a learning curve for all beginners, kid! Nothing's better than practical experience", the man recalls when he himself first had to figure out how his quirk worked when snapping pictures and laughs at the memories; his mom made scrapbooks preserving spontaneous unchoreographed early photos that he would take when startled or excited, but he doesn't quite feel so generous to share that with his young apprentice.
Izuku is about to respond when his phone lets out an interjectory chime. The boy apologizes before checking what the notification is all about. He fully expects to see a text message from his mom. What he finds instead makes him sit up a little straighter in his seat. It's a text from a girl, but not his mother. It's a message from Itsuka. It's straightforward to let him know the location and time for their date – he wonders if it's a date and not just a friendly 'hangout' like she phrased it – but that doesn't matter because it's a TEXT from a GIRL who isn't his mom.
"Girlfriend?", Tokuda's voice makes Izuku jump a little in his chair. The boy double bounces when he registers what the man actually said. A tingling sensation runs through Izuku that is distinctively different from his Spider-Sense but still puts him on edge. He squirms in his seat while sweating; he tugs at the neck of his shirt collar in an effort to let some air under the warm material.
"N- Not exactly", Izuku nervously laughs the question off. His eyes flit from Tokuda to his phone as though he's paranoid that it'll suddenly dial Itsuka and she'll be able to hear everything. When Izuku glances back up and sees Tokuda fishing out yen to pass over, he becomes anxious for a different reason. "Wh- What are you doing?!", he tries pushing it away.
"You need extra money for your date, don't you?" Tokuda stops Izuku with a raised hand before again attempting to pass over a wad of yen. The man's glasses slip a little as he eyes the photos taken of Spider-Man presumably robbing a transfer truck. "You can always say you were asked to be paid in advance", he forces Izuku to take the yen by pressing it into the boy's hands.
"B- But..", Izuku falters and fails to communicate as he looks down at the money in hands. He bends over into a bow as best as he can while seated to say, "Thank you!", and then sits back up to look Tokuda in the eyes to say it again, "Thank you."
Tokuda passes Izuku the check on top of what's already been given, yet again showing no real dwelling on the courtesy of charity. All he has to say in regards to it is a simple statement that only makes Izuku all the more a fumbling mess of nerves, "I was young once too.'
Shurikens strike several spots framing Endeavor's face on a hung up poster of the number two ranked hero. The pointed throwing stars stick true to their target, half embedded through paper and wood. Chizome allows his mouth to morph into a lopsided grin as his ruby red eyes admire his own handiwork. A little self embellishment to his practice makes him eager to apply those efforts to a real scenario. Though that will have to wait. Especially since he can hear his niece returning from her outing, via the usual squeak and squeal of the building's bypass door sliding open. Chizome drops the second set of shurikens he had ready in favor of welcoming Himiko home. Especially since the only thing that's been on his mind since she left has been whether or not she'd be returning to him at all.
Himiko hears her uncle's affectionate call over the grind of the entrance door sliding shut, "Chameleon", except that there's a touch of fridgedness to his tone this time. She flashes him her signature grin, going in for a hug; whether or not the effort to quell her caretaker's attitude will deem futile is yet to be known. Until he pulls away from her embrace with a deep seeded frown. Her smile wavers, now knowing it's not worth the effort. "Where have you been?", he asks.
She twists a stray strand of blonde hair on a finger, a self-effacing act that can only stall for so long while she thinks up a half truthed white lie. "Doing a little reconnaissance", she doesn't miss the twitch of disapproval within her uncle's expression, "You did teach me that we need to learn our prey's habits before hunting them!" The defense doesn't change very much but she does get some self induced pleasure out of turning the tables on his lessons.
"I also told you not to disobey my orders", Chizome drags a calloused hand up over his forehead and into his unruly tanglement of hair. He might not have graduated from U.A or any other distinguished schools but he doesn't need a degree or a doctorate to figure out his niece is referring to Spider-Man and not any of the targets they're supposed to be tracking. "Looking at problems not worth our trouble only breeds trouble", he keeps his hand on his scalp so that he can attempt to soothe an oncoming migraine with some soft squeezes.
Himiko's grin grows back into an upturned genuinity, as though he said something to spur that on and encourage her rather than the opposite. When the girl produces a new print of today's tabloid, this one covering a story on Spider-Man supposedly stealing from an armored transport truck, Chizome can understand why. He slowly takes the newspaper from her to look at it more closely. "And what if Spider-Man is a fake like all the others?", she prompts him to reconsider his evaluation from that morning.
"Then..", the paper crumples at the seams when his grip on it tightens, "Perhaps this 'Spider-Man' IS worth hunting..."
Izuku, again garbed in his red and blue spider themed spandex, swoops around a tall building in a wide arc. The web line anchored to the top of it stretches but holds throughout his entire swing. When the string goes taut and reaches the extent of its bending length, the airborne boy releases the irregular rope and fires a second strand from his other arm. This webbing wire wraps around a flagpole and helps him with a descent rather than a hoisted oscillation. Wind brushes past his flying form until he levels out a few yards above the streets below. It's about here that he'd let out a holler of exhilaration; Izuku refrains from doing so, considering this swing is about staying out of sight and unnoticed. There's people beneath him that he'd rather not alert with his arrival. The spider themed outfit isn't just for show, the vigilante's spider powers pay tribute to their owner's costume when he sticks the landing of a crouch upon a glass paned wall; Izuku's fingers and feet adhere to the surface once making contact.
Tucked between where the top and bottom half of his outfit meet, he brandishes his camera from the waistline belt. He figures he may as well snap a few shots while he's here. The boy plants a patch of webbing where the DSLR can sit nice and snug. Then he returns his focus to the setting down below. The police have the street and the transfer truck itself cordoned off. Yellow tape rustles slightly when a warm breeze blows through. Cops are on standby, the guards fanning themselves with their hats. Izuku starts second guessing his decision to return to the scene of the crime from this morning; whilst he saw a bunch of flicks and read tons of manga to suggest it's a good idea to scavenge some evidence in such a way, he's only now realizing he got the idea from movies and manga. Plus there's the matter of cramming this stealthy search in before his date/hangout, his phone vibrating from the same spot where he kept his camera.
But then again, if gathering SOME bit of evidence to prove his innocence is a plausibility, then he also figures the chance might be one worth taking. Izuku takes a moment to text back Itsuka and then he's gracefully crawling at an inverted angle to get closer to the crash site. It shocks the boy how nobody really bothers to look up or glance behind them, the guards paying him no mind when he bounds over the police line wrapping around the scene. While lax security should be a cause for concern under ordinary circumstances – Izuku is grateful for such a lazy system this time around, if only for the reason that it works in his favor. That doesn't mean he wants to spend too much time lingering around either though. The odds of being caught increase the longer he stays. So Izuku gets to work, searching the scene for anything out of the ordinary with a haste akin to the way he looked for Screwball's bombs.
The spider themed vigilante takes to the ceiling of the truck, clinging to its roof as a vantage point to look around. He hums when surveying the bags of yen still stashed away. It's not like he counted it all himself to know whether it's all still there, and there are good odds he prevented any theft with his involvement, but he still notes none of the bags appear to be disturbed. Izuku can't possibly think of a reason why anyone would want to ruin his friendly neighborhood good name but something tells him the heist was never really a heist. The red and blue figure twists so that his arms go where his legs were, making a complete turn with his body. From there, he sees a different perspective. The doors that had been torn off have some sort of residue on them. The vigilante's eye lens narrow when he sets his sights on what looks similar to his webbing fluid. Except, when Izuku hops down to inspect the goop, he can tell that the properties of it aren't exactly the same as his.
The substance squishes and slides between his gloves fingers rather than sticking. "Hmm… Interesting…", he wipes the strange stuff off his hand but chalks it up as his first real clue to catching whoever cares to frame him. Since he doesn't recall his copycat spinning a web, he figures the goop is something to do with the imposter's none spider related quirk.
But before Spider-Man can mull over that thought any further, his mind is filled with something else. An incredibly loud ringing that doesn't belong to his cellphone. Spider-Sense! "Whoa!", the vigilante narrowly avoids a throwing knife's jagged edge by swerving his neck to the side right in the knick of time. "That was a close shave-", Spider-Man snatches the blade's handle out of mid air while turning to face its owner, "-and I've not even grown any facial hair yet!"
A malformed mashup of tattered cloth hides in the shadows of an alleyway, red occasionally flickering within the darkness. Among that crimson coating are a set of equally blood shaded eyes. Spider-Man pivots, taking his gaze off the eerie figure, only when he feels another tingling sensation within the base of his skull. Whilst this internal alarm signal isn't as dire as the first warning, it still warrants a look behind himself. And what he finds is the set of cops on guard duty running towards him; they must've overheard his sudden scuffle and came to investigate.
"Spider-Man! Hold it right there!", one of the two officers shouts at him to surrender. The other reaches for their belt to grab – A taser? Mace? A gun?! Spider-Man doesn't wait to find out which. Instead of holding it right where he is or surrendering, he does the opposite and springs into action.
Gray goop, this kind very much so Spider-Man's webbing, binds the two policemen. "You two just stick around for a while and wait for me to wrap this other guy up, yeah?" The cops topple over while writhing in their gossamer cocoons.
And then Spider-Man's attention returns to his attacker. "Returning to the scene of your crime and now assaulting two policemen", the strange as much as he is suspicious of a man steps out from the shadows to judge his opponent with a critical gaze, "It seems the newspaper was right about you after all…"
Spider-Man returns the scathing stare with one of his own. Though definitely intimidating, his newfound enemy looks like a hobo that just rolled out of their cardboard bed. Not to mention the bad posture that the supposed bad guy has. "Don't believe everything you read, hunchback of notre dumb-and-dumber!" He gestures with a finger at the creepy character and then at himself with his thumb, "I'm being set up!"
When Spider-Man spins a web to subdue the knife thrower, he is surprised to see the man has a backup blade stashed away in his hanging cloth that's used to slice the string before it can stick. "Do you expect me to believe you?!", the slouching stranger straightens themself just enough to possess a powerful posture while pointing the tip of their knife at Spider-Man.
"I was holding out a vague hope for it – yeah", retorts Spider-Man. He speaks with a flippancy that he doesn't feel, but then again, the last thing he wants is for a villain to know just how terrified he is. It's like this guy is exuding bloodlust now. And yet, the flippancy somehow comes naturally to him. As if the costume by providing an onymity somehow gives rise to a devil-may-care attitude that precludes caring about annoying anyone.
"Hope", the man draws a katana to replace his dagger and assumes a stance, "-is one thing you do not have."
Izuku is used to his Spider-Sense typically being a notification of threats behind him rather than directly in front of him. So the fact that his natural warning system is telling him to avoid the stabby stick being swung at him is more than enough of a reason to be extra cautious. He figures the blade is tipped with poison or something, twisting his torso to avoid any means of contact with it. "Someone's a fan of samurai", Spider-Man bounds above a slash and a swipe of the katana with ease, "Bro's got a whole sword for his weapon of choice."
"You're quite the pest…" The swordsman sneers in a way that would suggest his nose would shrivel if he had one. Izuku pauses, lenses of his mask widening with his eyes when he realizes the guy he's fighting has no nose.
"Well, Voldemort, I AM part spider!" Izuku swivels so that he falls backwards into a one palmed handstand, simultaneously dodging a hacking motion of sir stabs alot's sword. That same hand presses off the ground so that Spider-Man soars some more. The vigilante lands in a poised position that crosses crouching with squating.
Spider-Man's opponent becomes a blur, red scarf streaking behind them. Fortunately for Spider-Man, spiders can move pretty fast when they need to, which means he can match his enemy's speed well enough. Three swings of the swordsman's katana whizz through the air rather than slicing through the spider powered boy, agile athletics from Spider-Man making it look easy to dodge such savage swipes of a blade.
"You're lucky that thing isn't a baseball bat", Izuku ultimately decides the katana is less dangerous out of his enemy's hands even if it is simple enough to evade and yanks it from the man's grip via web line, "You'd be out of the game by now otherwise!"
"So then this is all just a game to you?" The noseless menace curls his upper lip into another one of those overly exaggerated sneers he keeps making to compensate for the lack of his schnoz. Suddenly there's shurikens spiraling in a sideways spin, thrown from each of the man's outstretched hands.
"If it is-", Spider-Man ducks down so that the throwing stars pass him by overhead, "-then I'm winning!" When a second set of shurikens fly at his masked face, he cartwheels backwards into a bounce off his heels to dodge those too.
"Children playing hero often require a dose of reality…" Izuku's Spider-Sense tells him his opponent has something hidden up their sleeve. Literally. The man is – apparently – a living arsenal of weapons. Two sais slip out from either side of the terrible threat's bandaged arms, falling into his hands where he spins them in preparation for their usage.
Izuku performs a gesture just short of facepalming, his hand pressing into his forehead as he conveys disbelief over what he's seeing. "Dude, seriously, how do you get through the airport with all those things on you?"
Dual three pronged daggers dart down in an attempt to stab the young hero hopeful. Again, the vigilante veers from the blades; he may be overly reliant on the combo of his Spider-Sense and spider agility, but it hasn't failed him yet. Spider-Man sways away from the dragging of the sais back up from the ground to his chin, all the additional pointed ends of these special stabbers coming dangerously close to the jawbone. Such a close brush makes him wish for some distance to be made. A tap of his front foot to his attacker's stomach does the trick, only a small portion of his strength is needed to apply a decent amount of space.
Once he puts a gap between himself and his opponent, Spider-Man dares to ask the REAL question that's been bothering him since he started their fight. "Really though – Who are you?!" He silently thinks it'd help the villain's branding as much as it does a hero's if they were to wear an insignia on their chest like he does.
Each of the villain's sai stop swinging at the vigilante and instead swivel with a spin's flourish to formulate an X shape, a shrill pang from the collision of pointed steel reverberating from them when they collide. "A Stain on what you call this 'hero society' and a hunter of everyone who contributes to it", those words are spoken with such conviction that Izuku isn't sure whether he's imagining a thick Russian accent in the man's voice or if it's that much of an aggravated growl.
"You're…", the witty retort that had been on the tip of Izuku's tongue gets swallowed down and a quivering tone comes up from his throat instead, "..You're The Hero Hunter?" If his Spider-Sense had been screaming at him before, then it's yelling right in his ear now. Registering just exactly what kinda threat it is he's being warned about is all the more reason to trust his body's reflexes.
An extension of wood whizzes past the boy as he turns his upper torso to dodge it. Attached to the end of the long stick is a sharpened stone, a stone sharp enough that it becomes embedded in the wall behind Izuku. "Was that a spear?!", Izuku does a double take between what just flew by him and the villain that it came from, "Where were you hiding that? Did it materialize out of thin air?!"
The two turn clockwise to the transport truck covered with police tape. Below beams that support an unfinished tower, the building still under construction, they shift and move their fight into the site. It's there that a spectator follows along, bounding from support structure to support structure. A girl with her blonde hair tied into two messy buns grins with pointed teeth, a blush from the blood in her face a causation from the desire to see some blood spilt. She appears as though she just came from school, a uniform's skirt and Kansai collar bristling with the summer breeze; she carries a backpack with her by one sling.
Skipping on such slim surfaces leads to a slight slip, the girl dropping her backpack. The pouch, unzipped, opens by the frontal flap. A red and blue suit with web patterning comes spilling out. "No!", the blonde reaches to grab the uniform and her bag before they can fully fall but she winds up tilting over the beam she's on and drops with it as a result.
Spider-Man hears her shout, the rest of his head turning with his ear. Seeing someone in danger, the young hero hopeful prioritizes her over his battle with The Hero Hunter, and flips himself to become airborne with the girl. A web line latches to a taller support beam and propels him forward so that he can intercept her descent. Spider-Man grabs the girl by her waist and holds her close while he swings to save her within the knick of time.
"Got you!", he tries not to let the sound of relief bleed into his tone as he assures the girl that she's safe. He can imagine she's startled enough that she doesn't need some vigilante doubting himself; now is one of those times that he wishes he didn't wear a mask so that he could quell her fear with a smile like All Might does. When he sees the girl is close to his age and pretty though, he decides it may be for the best that he's covering his face, even if his mask is as red as the blush beneath it anyways.
The blush is more than likely a darker shade of red than his mask though. Especially since the girl is cozying up to him now. She nestles her head into the crook of his neck and leans against his chest, a dainty hand placing itself over the spider emblem there. "My hero", she caresses his sternum as coquettishly as sultrily as she speaks.
"Uh–", Izuku's brain short circuits. Luckily, his Spider-Sense gives it a good rebooting. Izuku glances back, expecting to see Stain chasing after him or a pointy projectile. Imagine his surprise when he feels a sharp sting where his rescuee's tender touch had previously been. What had been warmth from a palm placed there now blossoms into a burning heat. Probably because the girl he saved is holding a bloody knife – a knife stained with his blood to be specific – she just cut him! "Hey!", he calculates that they're close enough to the ground and releases his hold on her.
The blonde girl drops down, landing on her feet with the gracefulness of a cat. Opposing her, Spider-Man releases his second grip, the one he still has on his web line, and also falls to his feet. It doesn't take a brainiac to deduce what just happened. He sees the backpack behind the girl that emptied its contents; a replica of his costume lays like dirty laundry in the dirt of the construction site. She's Stain's partner, confirmed by the knife toss that transfers her weapon to The Hero Hunter.
Stain grabs the bloody blade by its handle, but makes no move to use it. Rather, his eyes narrow into sharper slithers beneath the cloth covering the upper half of his face. He too sees the replica of Spider-Man's suit. His tongue coils and rolls in his mouth before he clicks it against the roof of his upper jaw. Stain drops the knife bladed end down so that it sinks into the ground.
Both Spider-Man and The Hero Hunter's accomplice are shocked to see this. "Uncle?!", Stain's niece loses her rictus grin when she realizes the man is starting to shuffle towards her rather than the vigilante, "What are you doing?!"
"Quiet", Stain snaps at the girl in a tone scarier than any of the types he used on Izuku. The boy flinches, feeling sorry for the villain's niece, even if she's a villain herself and cut his chest. Stain scoops up the Spider-Man knockoff outfit, lifting it by one hand to shove in his niece's face. "We will have words about this", that Russian growl is back briefly, "But not now."
Spider-Man stays back, gauging the situation with a curious and yet still critical caution. The vigilante steps away ever so slightly when Stain shifts to face him again. He expects his enemy to be glaring but stares into apologetic eyes instead. The Hero Hunter hums, glancing up at the web that dangles overhead and then back down at the one who spun it. There's some sort of unspoken sentence that hangs heavily in the air. Words with weight. Or maybe that's still the guy's insane bloodlust.
Izuku's Spider-Sense doesn't warn him in time to prevent what happens next. Stain plucks a pellet from a pouch and throws it down with enough force that it breaks. Black smog envelopes The Hero Hunter and his partner until the dark cloud consumes them completely. Izuku realizes that they're trying to escape only after the smoke begins to subside. "Hey! Hold it!", he finally moves from his spot to theirs. But it's too late. They've both already vanished.
Izuku fans the residual fumes from his face while stepping through what's left of the vapor. The hand he used to wave smoke away comes down to tenderly touch the fresh mark on his sternum. "Ah.. Just great.." On the long list of things to check off that he's royally screwed up, he can now add needing to somehow stitch up both his suit and self. "How many times am I gonna let these guys get away… ?" Then there's the matter of, despite being spared because he rescued the bad guy's niece, Stain's escape among the other villains he let get away like Screwball. Not to mention the fact that they took the fake suit with them that could have proven his innocence.
Izuku sighs, bitter about what he chalks up as another failure. He's not so sure there's anything that can cheer him up at this point. Not even his phone vibrating to notify him of a message from Itsuka. Izuku's eyes widen under the lens of his mask. Itsuka! She's reminding him of what he nearly forgot – which is their DATE – he still has a date to get ready for! Izuku checks the time, panicking internally, and maybe a little externally too when he hops from the ground to a construction support beam.
"Phew! I'll just barely make it!", he allows his shoulders to sag a bit from the amount of burdens placed upon them when he sees he still has about an hour left before deadline. Though the tension in them remains. And they only raise up again a split second later when he hears fire engines in the distance. The horns and sirens are adding up, coupling together. It's something big. Izuku struggles with the phone in his hand, unsure of whether he should respond to Itsuka or not, or even how or what it is he'd even say.
"Do I really have to… ?" Izuku grips his cellphone a little tighter, weighing it like an option in his hand. "Rescue services is on the job – it'll turn out fine – right?", but he feels a force pulling his other hand upwards so that it becomes fully outstretched in a way that typically means he's about to spin a web from it. He puts the phone away without answering Itsuka, ultimately deciding it can wait for later.
He remembers the last time he left things to rescue services. He has the power to help. It's his responsibility to help. He remembers that much too. Spider-Man swings in the direction of the emergency sirens, setting a course for the next problem that he has to deal with.
His set of shoddy red shoes have been left at the door, afterall, the spent feet that slipped out of them can no longer hold their owner upright. Izuku sinks into his seat at the dining table, allowing his legs to rest next. The rest of his body follows suit, eyelids weighing as heavily as his hand when he blinks while reading the texts from the cell phone held in his palm. It comes as no surprise when he sees what he sees. He knew before looking what they'd say and he'd already looked more than once while on his way home. Still. He has to reread them just to make sure he isn't delusionally tired.
Itsuka Kendo: where r u?
Itsuka Kendo: you okay?
Itsuka Kendo: unbelievable
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She blocked him. He can't blame her. From Itsuka's perspective, he straight up ghosted and ditched her. Still. It doesn't make his night any easier. Especially when his other reading material is the Juko News night tabloid condemning him as a potential criminal under the headline Spider-Man: Hero Or Menace – complete with photos he took of himself to further beg an answer from such a question; Izuku feels like if Spider-Man is a menace to anyone that it's to himself at this point.
"I haven't seen you make a face like that since the time we missed All Might's autograph signing in Kyoto", Izuku's mind dives back into his body with a jolt when he hears his mom's voice invading his thoughts, "What's the matter?", she asks. He wasn't aware that he was making 'a face' and can only imagine what it must have looked like.
"Just.. Had a tough time making decisions today", he withholds a lot of the details but decides to be honest tonight. It breaks his heart any time that he has to tell a fib to his mother to keep his secret as Spider-Man. Having already had his heart bruised so thoroughly today – a scar left on his chest, courtesy of The Hero Hunter, more than enough to prove that – he doesn't want to do any more damage to the organ turned punching bag.
Mama Midoriya's motherly instincts kick in when she sees her son sulking. The portly greenette goes from the kitchen to the dining room. When she reaches Izuku, she places a hand on his head of inherited green hair to gently move his gaze to hers. "Did you make the right choice?", she's careful to use a soft tone while asking him what she thinks is the question he needs to be asked first.
Izuku pauses, considering his answer for a few seconds. Inko can feel his skull shifting to tighten his face and clench his jaw. A look she can only hope holds resolution in it is what he gives her while he responds to her with a tiny nod. "Yeah.. I think so..", his voice is small and full of cracks but not so delicate that his words break.
She sighs, accepting that for the time being, but not entirely satisfied so long as her son isn't. "Then you shouldn't feel bad about making the decision that you made", Inko ruffles his unruly mop of green curls like she's shaking out the negativity from his mind, "I'm sure even All Might had tough calls to make every now and then."
A hint of a smile sneaks its way onto Izuku's face at the mere mention of All Might again. Especially in this form of context. The hero otaku reconsiders the number one hero with all his power and how much responsibility that amount of power must come with. Surely there's a lot of times All Might had to give up his social life in favor of his responsibility as the symbol of peace! Right? Then again… All Might is beloved by everyone. He isn't slandered or considered a menace. Well, one out of two is about even as fifty fifty, or so Izuku would like to believe.
When Inko brushes aside the boy's phone and the newspaper like problems being waved away and replaces them with a fresh steaming bowl of Katsudon, Izuku can think of one thing All Might probably doesn't have which ought to balance things out a bit. Izuku has an awesome mom. Or so he would like to believe.
AUTHOR NOTES
I know it's a slight divergence from canon to make Toga and Stain related, but I thought they just paired too well together for a Chameleon & Kraven dynamic to not take advantage of them both having blood type quirks. Though minor tweaks and changes to the original MHA story should probably be expected in some capacity, so I won't apologize TOO much.
Now, onto reading some reviews! Which, by the way, thank you to these two for not just taking the time to leave comments but for also not being too afraid to ask the questions that other readers might be scared to ask!
To Mob.k who asked whether Izuku's Spider Powers/Quirk will be like Peter's or Miles, the simple & short answer is that he will just be having the base Peter Parker Spider Abilities. The long answer though... I think while invisibility is really cool and the camouflage does make sense as a power for a spider, that Spider-Man is already OP as it is and he doesn't need any other buffs; I mean, seriously though, why the electricity powers - What spider can create electricity like Electro?! - it just doesn't seem all that necessary. (Plus there are already so many SpiderDeku fics out there giving him Miles' powers that I may as well set myself apart.) I did consider giving Izuku other Spider People's powers like Kaine's stabby paralysis things or Miguel's fangs and claws, but those also felt like overkill. We're keeping it simple!
To UzumakiRamen who asked whether Izuku will go to U.A or not and also asked if he'll keep his vigilante status, I'll do my best to answer those questions without too many spoilers. One of the things that I love about Spider-Man is the way he usually has to keep his identity a secret while attending school and how that affects his schooling, so I will at the very least be sure to keep the vigilante secret identity thing around regardless of what happens. I also really love your suggestion per Izuku's spider bite not really being a quirk and how that could work narratively, so you may have even helped in writing how that applies to your questions. I know my answers weren't entirely that clear but hopefully they're enough!
And as I begin to wrap this chapter up, thanks to my reviewers and everyone else who is enjoying the story thus far! Remember that it's good to ask questions and to leave comments, so please don't be shy!
-Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood author!