Chapter Text
It's a long way down.
Izuku is thirteen years old when he's sitting on the ledge of a building. His feet dangling from side to side. The sun lets its last streams of light highlight the city of Musutafu before settling down for the night.
Izuku hears footsteps behind him, but doesn't look up.
"Please move away from the ledge, kid," a monotone voice says behind Izuku. Probably a hero. Based on the time of day and the voice, Izuku is 99% sure that it's Eraserhead.
"Eraserhead, can I ask you a question?" Izuku asks. His eyes have settled on U.A. in the distance, shimmering due to the remaining sunbeams all seemingly pointing towards it.
Izuku hears a sharp, but barely audible, intake of breath behind him, followed by a couple of footsteps until Eraserhead is sitting right next to him. He's probably shocked that Izuku knows who he is.
"Sure. What is it, kiddo?"
Izuku considers saying 'Nevermind, it's not important', but he still asks the question nonetheless. It's too pressing to not ask it.
"Can I be a hero... without a quirk?"
Izuku doesn't miss the glance being sent towards him. He sees it from out of his peripheral vision. It's not mean, nor sympathetic. More like 'What kind of dumb question is that?'.
Eraserhead hums in response, after having silence settled over them for what seems like an eternity, but was in reality probably only a couple of seconds.
"Anyone can be a hero. As long as they're doing it for the right purposes."
Izuku looks down at the ground again. The asphalt, which looks more like a dark, hollow pit now, is suddenly looking way less attractive.
Maybe another day.
Izuku nods in response and stands up, hesitating for a moment before heading to the fire exit.
"Thank you, Eraserhead."
–––
Shit, that kid looks like a middle schooler. To already have suicidal tendencies at that age is seriously alarming. He should definitely run this by Tsukauchi.
Shouta stands up as well, his knee joints popping while doing so. He's getting old.
He quickly sends a message over to Tsukauchi.
Eraserhead: I'm coming around in a few to run a background check on someone. Is that okay?
He didn't expect to immediately get a reply, so he was quite surprised when he got a notification not even 20 seconds later.
True man: That's fine.
Aizawa Shouta was a simple man, really. He loves his husband, cats, teaching, and being a pro of course. He doesn't care all that much about things like vigilantes and so-called 'criminals' that were shoplifting from big companies just to feed their families. He loves being a pro hero and he loves making sure that the streets are safe, but that doesn't mean he loves every aspect of his job.
Especially not when he has to talk people down from committing suicide.
And somehow, someway, this green haired quirkless kid had already secured a place inside his heart. He'd keep this kid safe no matter what. The suicide numbers of quirkless people were rising every year, yet the government doesn't do anything to help them. Murdering a quirkless person isn't even classified as a hate crime, it's just written of as that person being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
It disgusts Shouta.
These thoughts kept bugging him all the way until he finally made it to the police station.
He nods as a greeting to some officers, and then walks into Tsukauchi's office.
Tsukauchi looks up from whatever he was working on on his laptop.
"Hey Eraser, what's up?"
"I just talked a quirkless kid down from suicide, and I want you to run a background check on him to make sure he's safe. I didn't catch his name but he had green hair, green eyes and freckles. He wasn't that tall, I'm guessing around 156cm and he seemed severely underweight. From what I could see he's probably weighs something from 36kg to 40kg. He was definitely a minor, between the age of 12 and 14 I'm guessing. And obviously he's quirkless, so it shouldn't be very hard to find him."
Tsukauchi raises an eyebrow, but nods and starts typing on his laptop. Shouta liked that about him, he never asked questions about anything. That's how his and Tsukauchi's workplace relationship had always been.
It may not be entirely legal sometimes, but neither Shouta nor Tsukauchi minded. They both knew sometimes things had to be done behind the backs of their higher-ups, and that's why they got along so well.
"Based on the things you listed, there's one result I'm getting." Tsukauchi turns his laptop around to Shouta, displaying a picture of a pale and clearly underfed kid. The kid who Shouta had seen not even 30 minutes ago.
"That's him."
"His name is Izuku Midoriya. Currently living with his mother, Inko Midoriya. He's thirteen years old and goes to Aldera Junior high."
So the boy really was just a young child, huh? Fuck. This is bad.
"We need to find him to make sure he's safe. From the way he was so clearly underweight to the point he looked sickly, we can already say for certain that he's getting neglected, if not more, at home," Shouta says determinately. He's not gonna lose another young soul.
He's gonna make sure that this kid will get to live his life how he wants.
–––
Izuku was tired. So tired. His body felt heavy. With every step home, he just wanted to slump down in an alley and die in a hole.
That was, until he heard a scream coming from an alleyway just a few meters ahead of him.
His body was moving before his brain could catch up with it. He ran towards the alleyway and slightly hid behind a wall, but somewhere he could still clearly see some seriously bad things:
1. A gun.
2. The gun being pointed at someone's head.
Oh my god. Think Izuku! THINK! He needs to help, but he can't just barge towards the guy holding the gun, he'll definitely get shot!
He thought as fast as he possibly could.
Page 27, notebook 4: Snipe: When getting threatened by another gun user, shoot the gun out of their hand.
Izuku doesn't exactly have a gun right now, but there's some rocks here. That could work, right?
He picks up one of the bigger rocks. Its as big as a golf ball.
The shouting continues, and luckily neither the gun-wielder nor the victim has noticed his presence yet.
He throws it against the gun in the villain's hand.
The assailant yelps as the gun falls to the ground. While the man is caught off guard, Izuku jumps towards him and tackles him to the ground.
While all this is happening, the victim is still standing in shock, watching the scene unfold.
"You there," Izuku shouts, "run!"
Now that Izuku has gotten a better look at the victim, isn't that one of Kacchan's lackeys? The one with the grey hair... Whatever, doesn't matter right now.
While Izuku was distracted, the offender beneath him was trying to flip their positions around, but Izuku wasn't having any of it. Instead he punched the guy a couple of time on multiple places like his temple and his jaw, until he passed out.
Izuku looks to where the boy just was. Good, he ran when I told him to.
He should probably call the police, though he's pretty sure the criminal won't wake up for a little while, so at least he won't have to worry about that.
After calling the police and giving them a rundown of what happened, he swiftly leaves.
That was kind of cool of me actually! Izuku grins to himself. He's starting to sound like Kacchan, pfft.
After hiding across the corner and making sure the police took the criminal and the gun, he goes home.
It sure was an eventful day. Maybe he should try that vigilante thing more often? Who knows.