A Hero's Dirty Work (Villain Deku / Vigilante Deku au)

Gone

The scene was burned into Izuku's memory like a hot iron, never dulling, never fading. His mother's last moments, as a hero.

He tried to scream. A strangled whimper escaped his lips. He felt something deep, deep down, a tightness in his mind that grew and grew until—snap. Something broke. Shattered, snapped, freed, he didn't know what word to use. The important thing is that something changed.

He reeled, grief combined with a sudden overload of information completely overwhelming his mind. He heard the man curse, and Izuku instantly came back to reality. He was holding his mom in his arms, but she was already gone. The bullet had gone straight through her chest. The man growled and looked back down at the pink girl, who was obviously in shock. "This is your fault," he told her. "Good people die for those who don't deserve it." The girl started trembling, her face draining of color.

Izuku didn't realize he'd started moving until he was right behind the man. In a voice laden with fury and yet terrifyingly emotionless, he heard himself say, "I seem to remember someone else behind the trigger."

The man jumped in shock, dropping the girl as he whirled to face him. Izuku could see what he was going to do long before he did it; it was almost laughably easy, if you were broken enough to laugh in such a situation. "You try to kill a child and blame the heroes. You kill my mother and blame the person she died to protect. Can you get any lower?"

Izuku quite easily managed to knock the gun out of the man's hand this time around, catching his wrist and digging his fingers into the tendons in just the right placed to make his hand reflexively release from the pain. The man tried to kick him. It was the same move as last time, and Izuku lazily stepped to the side as his foot sailed past him.

"I'd love to draw this out and beat you senseless," Izuku admitted, "but right now there's someone that needs my help."

The man's entire body tensed, and Izuku remembered the burst of speed he used moments ago to catch the pink girl that was now sobbing on the floor. It was most likely a very basic burst-type speed quirk, letting him move incredibly fast for short intervals. Low level quirks like his didn't have functions that increased his reaction speed after he sped up.

Izuku twisted to the side and held his arm out, just as the man blurred forward in a burst of speed. Izuku knew his guess was right when the man promptly clotheslined himself on Izuku's outstretched arm. Izuku watched dispassionately as the thug collapsed, clutching at his throat. He'd rushed in quite fast, it was possible he'd crushed his windpipe.

Somewhere in his mind, he was disturbed at the disappointment he felt when he confirmed that was not the case. He scanned the man's pressure points and weak spots like they were lighting up, and without hesitation he delivered a strike to the side of his neck. He was out cold.

Izuku left him where he fell and immediately ran over to the girl, dropping to his knees next to where she sat on the floor, shell-shocked. "It's okay," he said, and even though it wasn't, he had to try to help her pain before letting himself feel his own. "What's your name?"

"Mina," she said, just above a whisper. She stared sightlessly ahead. "Mina Ashido."

Izuku nodded. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, and my mom's name is Inko." He hesitated. "Will you—" He choked on his words, and she looked up at him. "Will you come to the funeral, Mina?" he asked, his voice cracking. "She would like it if you were there."

"She's really gone, then?" she whispered. "For good. For me." Mina's black and yellow eyes began to well up with tears, and Izuku tentatively pulled her into a hug.

"I think you have a really bright future as a hero," Izuku offered. "My mom did too. Be a great one for us, okay?" She wrapped her arms around him too, burying her head into his shirt. Unable to answer, she just nodded. Izuku started to rub comforting circles on her back.

Izuku figured it wasn't normal for him to be able to talk about his mom so soon without balling, but he wasn't feeling much of anything yet. He was in shock, and he was content to stay that way until he'd finished comforting Mina.

As he held her, the police finally arrived on the scene, rushing in and putting handcuffs on the man before dragging him off. Another officer approached Mina and Izuku. "Are you two alright?" the man asked.

"We'll survive," Izuku responded for both of them. They didn't let go of each other.

The officer sighed. "That's good. I'm afraid we need to talk to miss Ashido for a moment." She shuddered, then pulled away and got to her feet. 

"What do you need?" she asked, her voice a bit hoarse.

"Just follow me," the officer responded. He led her into a more private area with another officer to ask her some questions. Meanwhile, Izuku was left to watch as more policemen cleared the area and loaded his mom's body into a van. By now, the numbness was starting to wear off and he was desperately trying to keep himself together.

After a while, Mina was brought back out and Izuku took her place. He shared a small wave with her but otherwise didn't get to interact before he was sitting down in front of the police.

"Let's keep this short and simple," the man said. Izuku nodded. "First, just tell me what happened."

Izuku swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut before starting the story. "My mom and I were having a night out with some extra money I had. It had been a while. While we were eating, the man you arrested suddenly stood up and grabbed Mina by the arm. I don't know how he knew, but he asked her if she wanted to be a hero and she said yes. He asked her why, so she told him she wanted to save people."

Izuku took a deep breath. "I don't know what point he was trying to make, but that was what he was waiting for. He threw her on the ground and pulled out a gun, so my mom and I both reacted before we really had a chance to think. My mom used her attraction quirk to pull Mina out of the way, and I caught her before going to distract the man. I was trying to get his gun, but he was way too fast for me. He spouted out some sort of monologue about how heroes are bad for society, and then he threw me to the side and went for Mina again."

He paused. This would be the hard part. He pushed on. "My mom was out of it because pulling Mina was way beyond her limit for her quirk, so she couldn't help much. Still, she tried to pull the gun out of his hand, but it wasn't strong enough. She ended up attracting the gun towards her right as he shot. There might be something that happened right after that which I missed, but then I heard the man telling Mina that it was her fault my mom was dead. I got really angry, and when I attacked him this time I managed to get the upper hand and knock him out."

There was a moment of silence. "Is that all?" the officer said. Izuku nodded. The officer looked very uncomfortable. Eventually, he sighed. Izuku knew what was coming next, and he hated that the stupid thug was right. When the officer was unable to keep talking, Izuku took a guess.

"I'm being arrested, aren't I?" he said dully. "For unlicensed hero work and assault of a citizen."

The officer just nodded. "If you were acting in self defense that would be different, but you were never attacked," he tried to explain. "I'm sure the judge will be very understanding, but the law states you still have to go to court."

"I know," he sighed. "But, try to make sure Mina doesn't see. I'm worried she might try to stop you, and that's a crime too."

The officer nodded. He cuffed Izuku's hands behind his back as protocol demanded and lead him into a police vehicle, shielding him from view with several more officers. One of the policemen went to Mina and explained that they needed him to speak with someone at the court house, and Izuku was taken to the juvenile detention center.

Alone in his cell, he finally started to break down. He felt like he was being crushed, drowning in sorrow and grief, but he also felt something he didn't expect: anger. Rage. A bitter fury, at the man who killed his mother, but also at the law. How could they possibly think this was helpful? With the rise of superheroes, it was obvious that vigilantes needed to be kept in check, but the best solution couldn't be to ban people from helping each other.

He clenched his fists. He wasn't angry at the heroes, not quite. But the existence of the profession had ruined the concept of real heroism, helping people when they needed help no matter the consequences. And that did make him angry.

It made him angrier that the man who killed his mother had been so successful in making his point.