Stormy Petrels

49

The halls of UA were packed as Izuku quickly navigated his way through them, it had been awhile, but finally he was back. Lunchtime had just gotten started so he had plenty of time to get there, but he couldn't help the nervous jitters that coursed through his system, his closer friends he had seen often in the meantime, his other classmates he had not. And they had felt fairly unbearable the last time that he was here. He would live, sure, but they just kept heaping sympathy on him, smothering him beneath it.

When Malvolia had been sent into a coma they had been unbearable too, but in the opposite way, bugging him excitedly about 'how he knew such an awesome vigilante!' And 'did he know any others?' Could he get them a signature? There wasn't sympathy for the fact someone he considered family was in the hospital and not waking up it was all about his newly exposed vigilantism connections. Because ever since the Stormy Petrel duo, vigilantes had become the newest craze.

And now she was missing and he didn't know if she was dead or not and they were just writing her off! Heaping layer after layer of false sympathy down upon him and he was supposed to pull a sad, watery eyes face and take it so they could feel like good people who pulled him through a tough time. If he shouted or scowled it was a cry for help. If he ignored him he was pulling away even if he rarely spoke to any of them before anyway!

If he said there wasn't conclusive proof that she wasn't dead yet... he was deluding himself. He was in denial. There was no way she should have been able to lose all that blood.

And it just about drove him crazy, so he had retreated back home, accepting the out that Nedzu had previously given him that was doing the necessary coursework from home while he adjusted to the shock his life had just gone through.

        But now he was back, and he knew he couldn't get out of this forever. He grinned as he entered the cafeteria and was immediately waved over by his friends who had known he would be arriving during lunch, a tray with katsudon on it was pushed over towards him as they welcomed him back.

The effect of the League of Villan's actions was clear in that the tone of the class had changed, people were focused and determined on improving, quickly, and a handful of people even came up to him for real world pointers. Specifically a handful of people who subscribed to the Izuku was a vigilante theory.

      Izuku forced himself to push on, but to also remain the same. He remembered the aching emptiness that had filled him and... he didn't want to return to it. He didn't want to embrace it. Because that wasn't strength.

         Even before he had received his new quirk he new strength. He knew power. He knew it from each and every patrol he went on. The power criminals would exert over their soon-to-be victims,  but even greater than that the strength said victims showed. Whatever it took they fought to protect themselves.

     Some begged and appealed to their attackers and Izuku had to admit that took something, to lower yourself before someone who already looked down on you.

      Some froze, staring their fate directly in the face, their mind racing a hundred thousand times faster than ever before, not crumbling, but trying to comprehend the situation they were in, trying to find a way safely out.

        Some fought, despite not having the advantages of training, they did what they could to throw the criminal off their game and escape.  Izuku admired them most of all, because that was what he aspired to be. Someone who wouldn't back down or freeze but fight for others. Deep down he wasn't sure if he had the strength to attempt the first, nor the restraint to allow his brain to think things through before he acted. His body would just act.

          The last group he came across, he didn't understand at all in the beginning. The ones who simply gave in. But, it had taken a few moments of thought for him to see it, their posture.... it was like how his sometimes used to be. When confronted with mockery for his missing quirk. They knew it to be futile, but they had the strength to continue on living all the same, even despite the moments it felt like something less than even mere survival.

       No matter how they reacted though, they showed strength in the face of the villains' power, and as a vigilante, Izuku had learned to try and balance the best of both of those things.

       The emptiness that had taken hold, it held neither, only a deep, dark bitterness which would eat at who he was.

         He had to balance both in this situation too, he realized. The strength to continue on living like he had when Malvolia first fell into her coma, but now he was forced to bring power substantially into that equation too, he needed the ability to get Malvolia back.  Both physically and knowledgeably he had been lacking when it came for the search and he had thrown his all into chasing after the power to do those things.  Before it hadn't been a balancing act, he had only needed the strength to continue living, but when it suddenly had and he began to struggle to find her again, he had been thrown off. Thrown off... well, his everything.

     He knew to keep an out for it now though, and that was a start.  Judging from the look of many of the UA staff, it was a thing that many of the professional heroes struggled with too. 

      The day passed quickly and he spent the beginning part of the afternoon following school training with his friends, but also preparing for the upcoming argument that would happen when he went home. 

       The USJ.

      The training camp.

      Malvolia's kidnapping.

     Even this recent battle.

      It was becoming perfectly clear with each and every single battle that occurred  they were fighting on the League of Villain's terms. At every single turn they took, it was the League of Villains that controlled the flow of the fighting. They wouldn't be able to win like that. Izuku knew it, Dabi knew it too if he thought to think it through, it was the same for regular fighting; gaining control of the fight's tempo was a major advantage to have.

It was time to take the fight to the League of Villains.

They needed to, if the heroes were going to remain on the top at the end of the fighting.

     It couldn't just be reactionary anymore.  They needed to go on the offensive and take a stand.