Chapter Text
Izuku did not want to be a hero. Don’t get him wrong, heroes were awesome, and they did great things for people! But, it wasn’t interesting to him. He had been four years old, playing on the living room floor of his family's apartment with Katsuki, or Kachan, as he called him. When the boy had turned to him and proclaimed, in all the seriousness of a four year old;
“Zuchan, I’m going to be the number one hero someday! And you’re going to be my sidekick!” Kachan had beamed at him. Four years old, and he already had their lives planned out. This makes Izuku frown though. He didn’t want to upset his friend, but the thought of getting paid to punch people wasn’t exactly… What he wanted to do.
“But, Kachan… I don’t want to be a hero.” Izuku responds softly, looking away sadly. This made his best friend in the whole wide world pause thoughtfully. After a long moment of silence, which was rare for the loud blonde, he nodded as if in agreement.
“Yeah, I don’t think you’d be a very good hero, Zuchan. You’re too nice. A villain would say something mean to you, and you’d start crying again.” Kachan states rather confidently. And, well, he may not be entirely wrong. “But! But, there are plenty of people who help heroes! You can be my… The smart one! I punch stuff, and you know stuff.” He decides with another self assured nod. That was the solution to this life ending problem.
This makes Izuku tilt his head in thought. He wasn’t a hero, but he could still work with Kachan. That sounded like a good plan to him! And his mama already told him he was really smart! A bright, happy grin stretches across Izuku’s face. Yeah, this could work!
“Okay, Kachan! I can do that! You be the hero, and I’ll be your helper! I’ll be even better than a sidekick!” Izuku agrees readily, bouncing in his place on the carpet.
Izuku would say that if any one thing in his past were the cause of all of his current problems, it was probably that moment right there. He had sworn his childhood loyalty to Katsuki, and promised him that he would be the only hero he would ever work with. But, thats also when he had picked up analysis. Studying various heroes and villains quirks and fighting styles in order to learn from them. And then he had transferred that knowledge to machines and learnt how to build and program. He had been steadily growing his knowledge in order to become the best support technician a hero could ever ask for.
Another fun fact about Izuku was that he was petty. And one day in middle school, on their walk to class, Izuku and Katsuki had paused to watch a villain fight. And seeing the awe in his best friend's face, Katsuki had firmly declared that Izuku shouldn’t be around other heroes, as they might ‘taint’ him. That, of course, was a joke. But Izuku heard it as a challenge. And so began his single minded goal: avoid ALL heroes. And, if he had to avoid heroes, then he should obviously also avoid villains. Because villains attract heroes, he reasoned.
So Izuku did what he did best. He studied heroes and villains. Scoured forums, searched the internet as well as he could. And he dug up so much information on heroes and villains that he could recognize them out of costume. Which is probably why all of this had started.
Izuku had been walking home one day from a trip to the convenience store down the street from their apartment. He had glanced down a side street, unthinking, and paused as he locked eyes with the new hero Kamui Woods. It took only a heartbeat for Izuku to bolt down the street with an amused grin, remembering Kachans words the other day. Before the hero could even reach the end of the alley to look for the strange kid who had run away from a hero, Izuku had turned the corner into his apartment building and out of view.
That had been the first of many strange interactions between him and heroes. It had become much of a game to him, to remain vigilant and avoid heroes at all cost. He had even learned how to hack the CCTV cameras in his neighborhood in order to memorize various heroes' patrol routes. Him and Kachan have been romping his neighborhood for so long that he already knew the best short cuts and hiding spots along the various streets between their homes and school.
To Izuku, this was all fun and games. A simple game that he would win. It was a challenge, after all. And after so many years of friendship, Katsuki had rubbed off on him. A challenge meant you couldn’t back down. No matter what.
To the heroes, on the other hand, it became a concern. It had started with rumors in the local Musutafu hero community. Of a short green haired boy with wild green hair and big green eyes decorated with purple eyebags and various dark marks across his face. They were usually just smudges of grease that Izuku had forgotten to wipe off, or soot put off from Kachans quirk, but from a distance they definitely looked like bruises. So, word spread about a possibly abused child seen running from heroes. And from there, the rumors only continued to spread.
It had started with a remark from the hero Death Arms.
“Why’s that kid running away from heroes? If he were abused, he’d probably run towards one of us, don’t you think?” He had thought out loud. It had been that which wormed its way into his fellows heroes heads. What if this strange kid were actually a villain? Or a vigilante? He seemed to always know where a hero would be, pausing just long enough to lock eyes with them, before turning a corner and seemingly vanishing into thin air. At the very least, many supposed it was a quirk of some kind that allowed the kid to get away from trained pros so quickly. Surely, there was no other way he could have.
In the meantime, Izuku had begun getting stronger. He had already been pretty well built. What, with carrying various heavy machines and building parts around. But then, he started running. Partially to get out and get some fresh air, and partially to build up some stamina. And, well, if he used hero watching(and evading) as an excuse to motivate him to run, well, it’s not like anyone would know.
In the midst of giving a dozen different heroes a migraine at the sight of green hair, Izuku had also gotten on the local villains radar. Not intentionally, obviously. But when he had spotted a local gang member down at the market and had quickly turned and high tailed it out of there, they took notice. Of course, none of them knew who the strange green haired kid was. But they sure were curious. A kid who could spot a villain while they weren’t even committing a crime? That.. That was suspicious. The ‘kid’ must therefore either be a criminal himself, which was doubtful as he looked like a harsh word may send him over the edge, or some kind of hero brat.
And if word about some secret green haired hero had been passed around the underground, and people had been told to ‘look out for him’ then who would ever think that sweet, helpful, quirkless little Midoriya Izuku was that person?