At the forest, Izuku and Zelda had agreed on a system. Around Izuku's class, one would hide in the trees and watch the other, and to swap places, they'd tag the other in, with a signal- a wave to the trees. Much to Zelda's dismay however, there was no sign of any leftover monsters. Izuku and the heroes had done a good job clearing them out the first time. Izuku didn't make any move to leave though, knowing that Zelda just wanted to be out in the field with him.
They fell into a game of sorts, where one would try their best to sneak up on the other, and they had fun, but the game ended when Izuku stepped on a fallen tree branch, which crunched with a rather loud SNAP! Purah would've been proud. Zelda froze at the sound, and it took a while to get her moving again, but Izuku couldn't get mad at her for that. He'd made the sound, and freezing up like that was a habit he'd had, one that he'd broken in Hyrule. As soon as he made sure Zelda was concealed in the trees, he made to follow, but-
"Who are you?" a familiar voice demanded.
Izuku, hands in the air, slowly turned around. He came face to face with his old friends. Iida, Shoto, Tsuyu and Uraraka. All four of them were in their hero outfits (Aizawa probably had them training), and they had serious, determined looks on their faces, and from the expectant look on Iida's face, he was the one that asked the question.
"I guess I'm a vigilante, by your definitions," Izuku responded, stealing a glance at Zelda's worried eyes in the trees.
"Shek?" Uraraka asked, and Izuku let out a dry chuckle.
"It's actually 'Sheik,' but yes." The masked man bowed, making a point of not putting his hands back up. "At your service."
"You clearly want to help people! You haven't killed anyone yet, so it's not too late to change your violent ways!" Iida started, holding his head up high. "I'll have you know that if you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world remains the same!
Sheik nearly froze in sheer confusion. Iida had suddenly launched into a practiced speech. Did Iida just believe all vigilantes were out for blood? To be fair, he'd been brutal when he'd met Iida's team at the bar disguised as a warehouse. He'd broken Shoto's arm, and perfectly exploited every single one of Kaminari's weaknesses at the time, but in Izuku's defense, Kaminari shouldn't have been drinking on the job. If he wasn't, Izuku's liver punch wouldn't have devastated him.
Izuku realized he'd inadvertently tuned Iida out, but that didn't deter the next Ingenium from talking. The other heroes-in-training looked tired, and Izuku chalked that up to it being the middle of the night. Behind Shoto, Izuku noticed Tsuyu radioing in backup. Iida was somehow still talking, and Izuku rolled his eyes. Was Iida always this longwinded?
The hero was trying to convince Sheik, the vigilante, to change his ways and turn himself in. Grinning ever so slightly under the mask, he decided to play along.
"I see your point, but by that logic, if you kill a hundred killers, it goes down by ninety-nine, right?"
Izuku had no intention to kill anyone (except maybe All for One), but wanted to challenge the new Ingenium regardless. He was rewarded for his witty remark by the flabbergasted floundering movements Iida was making. He wished he could see his face.
"Sorry about the arm," Izuku apologized, turning to Shoto, deciding he'd had enough of Iida. "I wasn't thinking straight."
This was a lie. He was thinking straight, but given the chance, he probably wouldn't have broken Shoto's arm again.
"Oh." Shoto said. "It's okay."
"What?!" Iida exclaimed, taken aback. He turned to face Shoto. "Y-You can't just forgive him like that!"
