The Crow-Izuku Midoriya (Izumomo ver)

VII: Painful memories

Looking out into the darkening night from a window of his own, All Might trekked around his apartment and took a swig from his opened beer, his desk almost completely buried under files and photographs. One of them, a publicity shot of the local band Hangman's Joke, was lying on the coffee table. It had been doodled on – the face of Izuku Midoriya was colored in with white, black over the eyes and mouth.

The R-rated hero Midnight, dedicated to her job, had caught him at it shortly after she'd brought him the files of Izuku Midoriya and Momo Yaoyorozu. He'd been sitting at his desk, thinking about his earlier encounter with the strange man.

"Don't thank me", she'd said as she delivered the files. "Are we fighting the good fight?"
All Might flashed her a gentle smile before his face returned to a somber mask. "Double homicide a year ago. No convictions. And Midnight, look at that", he'd said, pointing to a sheet of paper.
"'We, the undersigned tenants of 1929 Calderon Court Apartments...' What's this, a petition?"
Nodding, All Might clarified, "A big 'kick-me' sign for a very nice girl who found herself a cause...that cause got her killed."
"She was fighting tenant eviction in that neighborhood?" Midnight had asked with wide eyes. Even freshly hired onto the force, she had a good idea about how rough that neighborhood was.
"She being Momo Yaoyorozu, and her nice rock-and-roll boyfriend, Izuku Midoriya."
"You know", Midnight pointed out, "the last time you went snooping around on a mission is when you got injured by Toxic Chainsaw, All Might."
"Yeah, I know", All Might had answered rather moodily, starting to doodle on the publicity photo. "Aizawa keeps reminding me."
"Oh, I imagine he does..." Midnight's voice drifted off as she noticed All Might's doodling of the Irony mask on Izuku's face. "And at this rate, you're gonna wind up working a café."
Albrecht had merely answered with a sly grin and a wink. "I'm cool."
Midnight shook her head. "You didn't get that file from me, ok? And don't tell me you owe me one", she playfully demanded as she walked away from his desk.
"Uh...I owe you one", he'd said anyway, catching a hint of her charming smile as a response. Then he looked at the picture he'd colored on – noticing Izuku's face perfectly matching the face of the person he'd seen earlier. "Damn!"

Later, right as he'd been told his desk shift was over, All Might had taken the files and pictures home to study them. He had to see if there was anything unusual about what he'd seen back then – if one or the other had somehow faked their deaths by striking a deal, using a mannequin, something...but looking over the files and what they said, there was nothing at all unusual about the documented events from a year ago. So how had-?

Suddenly he heard a news report flash onto the TV – he'd forgotten he'd turned it on when he got back. "As you can see, I'm here near Dagobah beach, the site of last year's biggest Devil's Night conflagration. It was exactly one year ago – "
Something was wrong. All Might could feel it like the hairs prickling up on the back of his neck. Following his gut, he ran into his bedroom expecting to find something, but it was empty. The only thing different was the open bedroom window. But how-?

"FREEZE!"

The cry made All Might jump a mile, his beer bottle clattering to the floor as he caught his breath, and turning to face the crier. It was him again – long messy dark green hair, leather trenchcoat, painted face, and what looked like electrical tape wrapped around his palms, down his arms beneath the leather, and around his stomach. All Might also noted that around Eric's neck was leather on which hung a gold ring.

"Jesus...don't ever do that, Young Midoriya!" All Might ordered.

Giving him a shrug, Izuku came to the coffee table and bent down to pick up the photograph All Might colored in. "Good likeness" Izuku commended him.