Kage (Vigilante Deku AU)

Thirty Three: Remember Pt. 2

- Summary: Young Izuku was kinda dumb -

Then he turned and disappeared into the sky, leaving the small boy to stare after him, tears already welling up in his eyes.

Izuku wiped away his tears, silently cursing himself for crying. Of course All Might would think that he wasn't cut out to be a hero. He was quirkless, after all. Quirkless and useless.

Izuku made to walk home before remembering: he didn't have a home. Not anymore. So where was he supposed to go? He couldn't go to the Bakugo's because he didn't want to see the looks of pity that they were sure to give him. Well, pity from the adults, hatred from Kacchan.

Before he could make up his mind about what to do, a voice called out to him from a side alley. (A/N jeez, there do seem to be a lot of conveniently placed alleys)

"Are you really going to believe a word that that false hero says?"

Slowly, Izuku turned to face the alley. There was a figure standing there, cloaked in shadows. No, he was shadows. His whole body seemed to be made up of some kind of smoke, spiraling out where his head and hands should have been. Instead of eyes, he had two bright yellow orbs floating in the middle of his smoky purple head. The green haired boy should have known better than to talk to strangers. But he wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time.

"What do you mean?" Izuku winced at the hollowness in his own voice, but the shadowy man didn't seem to notice.

"You may be quirkless now. But we can change that for you. If you're willing, that is."

Izuku knew he shouldn't. How could he possibly believe a sketchy man that he had run into in an alley? But the boy was desperate. He was so, so desperate.

So he decided he was willing.

.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.

It took him two days.

48 hours, 12 minutes, and 31 seconds, for Izuku to realize that he was no longer willing.

When he had agreed to go with the shadow man - who's name, it turned out, was Kurogiri - he hadn't been expecting a shabby bar full of a ragtag group of villains with conflicting ideologies. But he still wanted to believe that Kurogiri had been telling him the truth. And once the other villains found out why he was there, they welcomed him, seeming excited to have him there.

It was weird, but for that first day, Izuku had felt like he had had a home again.

Then the testing had started.

Every day, Izuku would be hooked up to medical equipment and put under medication. Why he would wake up, his whole body would hurt, and there would be new scars crisscrossing his arms and chest. Then, while he was still groggy and in pain, he would be shoved into a room with a creature that the others called a 'nomu.'

Every day, he would have to fight one of the nomu, and almost every day for the first year, he would lose. Those fight also left him with scars, but much messier ones, not the neat, linear ones he would get from the testing. 

At night, he would be shoved into a room by himself with no bed or bathroom. He was left alone all night, and only given food when someone came to let him out in the morning. After a while, the niceness and excitement of the other villains wore thin. When Izuku walked into a room, they would simply ignore him, or mutter something about how he was a failure. 

The only person who was nice to him was Suke.

The brown haired man would come visit him at night, or bring him snacks after a particularly rough testing day. He never yelled at Izuku. He never hurt him. Suke, along with Jack and Thresh, made life with the League of Villains bearable. 

Until a particularly rough day of testing.

Izuku had woken up in the testing chair as usual, his wrists and ankles still strapped to the uncomfortable piece of wood. Almost immediately, something had felt off. Normally, someone would be standing near him, monitoring his condition. But today, he was all alone. That was when Izuku hear the voices.

It sounded like Shigiraki and Kurogiri arguing. 

"We've come this far. Maybe if we just give him a few more weeks-"

"We don't have a few more weeks! All for One is going to be here in two days! He expects a fully functioning human nomu. If all we have to offer him is some sorry excuse for a teenager, he'll kill us!"

Izuku's brain short circuited. Was that what this was? The League was trying to turn him into a nomu? Into one of those monsters that the boy had been fighting for so long? Something changed in Izuku then. A resolve bubbled up inside him. He was not going to sit back anymore and let this happen to him. 

That night, Jack and Tresh came with Suke to visit him. 

Jack's mouth was set in a thin line, and his eyes showed a glimmer of fear. Suke wasn't as good at hiding his emotions. All of his worry was plastered on his face, causing Izuku's own heart to race a little faster.

"What is it?" Izuku tried to keep his voice low, but it was unlikely that anyone else was awake. 

Suke hesitated, glancing out of the room and down the hall. Then he motioned for Izuku to follow him. The green haired boy watched him in confusion before slowly standing up, following the three men out of the room. 

When they got to the back door, Izuku froze.

"What are you doing?" The green haired boy phrased the question at Jack. The black haired man tended to be the most sensible of the three.

"Nothing. Just helping you be safe."

"But, you'll get in trouble. When the others find out-"

"They won't find out." Jack's voice sounded final, but Izuku could still see fear in his eyes. The black haired man leaned down, placing a hand on the boys shoulder.

"Just promise me- promise us that you'll get as far away as possible. You still want to be a hero, right?"

Izuku nodded numbly. Jack's thin mouth perked up at the corners.

"Then do it. I know you can. Now go." 

Izuku didn't wait any longer. He ran.

.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.

"Then I ran into my manager, Yui, and she offered to let me stay in the apartment above her cafe. I started working as a waiter a little while after that. Then, on one of my early patrols, I ran into Mei from the support course, and she helped me with my gear. The rest- well, it's not history yet, but you can bet your ass it will be one day."

Silence fell over the table. Everyone seemed to be lost in thought, mulling over the story that Izuku had just told. The green haired boy fidgeted in his seat. Had he said too much? Were they going to hate him now?

Kirishima broke the silence with a sad smile.

"I'm just glad you're safe now, Izu."

Despite the still somber mood, Izuku found himself smiling back.

"Ya. Me too."

.........................................................................................................................

(A/N) Well, now that that's all fleshed out- *goes and throws myself off a cliff*

If you didn't notice, I started this chapter right where we left off in The Day Pt. 2, literally using the last line of that flashback for the first line of this on. In other news, it snowed last night, and now everything is white outside. I hope you all are doing well, since I am slowly dying. Please stay safe, and don't forget to drink water!

Notice any mistakes? Please let me know here! ->

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Well, today has been terrible, and it's only 10am! Girls, gays, theys, I bid you all adieu.

Oh, and Doge.