anfractuosity

i.

~O~

The night was cold but it wasn't raining at least so that was a win for someone who had nothing but a worn out costume on to protect himself from the chilling breeze in the back alleys of a sleeping city. Honestly, to call it a costume — a hero costume no less — seemed a bit disrespectful to the idea of hero costumes as a whole. No, what was left of the viridian green clothing shouldn't be called more than a wet rag. It was incredibly uncomfortable, just like everything has been for the past few weeks, but nevertheless he had learnt to deal with it without much complaints. To be fair he shouldn't have made assumptions about the weather so soon, the dark clouds overhead didn't seem to be in his favour. Nothing seemed to be in his favour. Ever.

Midoriya Izuku wasn't one to complain much anyway, but God did this fucking suck.

"Language."

"I didn't say it out loud," 

"I still heard you."

Izuku only rolled his eyes at the edge-less reprimand from Nana's vestige. He was almost seventeen. He should be allowed to swear, he deserved to swear in this situation — at least he should be allowed to swear in his head . 

Izuku's iron soles clanked loudly in the deserted alleyway regardless of how carefully he took each step, not wanting to make a noise and draw prying eyes towards himself. If he wasn't as exhausted as he currently was, he would've used Float to get himself to his destination (which, funny thing, he didn't know where was) without risking to expose himself to a possible enemy. Izuku was tired, incredibly tired. His body swayed with every step he took. It had been nearly four times where he would close his eyes for a bit too long and doze off walking, almost falling to the harsh ground and breaking his nose. 'Almost' because thankfully Nana woke him up before he could hit the ground. The woman's vestige was out and beside him for that exact purpose: making sure Izuku reached safety without hurting himself out of his worn out state of mind and body.

The green haired boy continued to walk aimlessly, hoping to come across at least one place that could fulfil any single one of his needs before he dropped (dead) asleep. Now that he thought about it, back alleys didn't seem like the best way to navigate through a city — was he even in the same city as before? He didn't know. Heck, he didn't even know what time — what month or year it was because what if the guy had a time manipulation quirk? Izuku wasn't very excited to find out what it was though. Not as excited as he thought he should've been. The boy wasn't even sure if he was in a different time or not because all he had to support such a theory was a moment's worth of speculation at best and a single sentence of monologue from an unknown man at worst. It could have been a forged lie to distract his tattered mind, it wouldn't be very hard to accomplish that and it seemed exactly like the kind of thing his enemy would do. His last known location had been Shibuya. A deserted back alley in Shibuya specifically. He would go on a tangent to recount every event that led him here but he could barely keep his eyes open and the wet haggard costume, his injuries and the dirt in his hair making his head feel heavier did little to help.

The boy felt two gloved hands land gently on his shoulders, as if trying not to startle him, and steered him towards his left. "Careful, trashcan," Nana warned softly as she glided behind him. Izuku couldn't stress enough how grateful he was to not be left utterly alone in this situation.

It was not long before he heard metal clink and clatter against the stone hard ground that wasn't from his roughed up iron soles. Nana's hands tensed on the boy's shoulders and Izuku turned around immediately, bright green lightning dancing on his skin and Black Whip summoned and ready to take down any possible opponent. However, Danger Sense remained quiet. Calm as an ocean. There was no real harm, none intended towards him but Izuku had learnt not to take that so easily. Danger Sense could be walked around by anyone, there were a myriad of loopholes to exploit for anyone who knew the quirk's true mechanisms. Which admittedly not many people knew but he wasn't taking any chances. It was the perfect opportunity to get to him. He was tired, unaware and confused — it would be too easy to take him down like this and he'd be damned if he let them take him after all this time.