hero's shadow // mha

69) sapovnela

Keigo wishes it could've been anyone else.

He knows, deep down, that this is needed. He knows that he really has no other choice, the world has no other choice, but he still can't help but be a little upset.

He doesn't care about Midoriya Izuku. He really doesn't. He has no reason to care for him beyond the scope of him being a civilian that Keigo has to protect. Keigo is a pro hero, after all. That's sort of his job.

He cares—though maybe that's a strong word—for Midoriya the same as he does every other person out there.

To an extent.

But there is something about him, something Keigo hasn't figured out yet. He's been busy these past few months. He's had so much shit to do and assignments to complete that sometimes Keigo throws himself off buildings and waits a little longer than usual to let his wings unfurl just to feel something other than cloying dread.

It helps him forget certain things. His handler used to do the same thing. That's probably where he learned it.

The thing is that Midoriya has flown too close to the sun. He's burning up, and he's going to fall. The news says that this generation will be the one that gets to see the vigilante Rabbit rise up into his prime, but Keigo isn't so sure of that.

Sure, Midoriya certainly isn't at his best at the moment, as he's still young and has plenty of room to improve, but does he even have the time to grow?

Keigo wagers not. Maybe right here and now is Rabbit's prime only because he's not ever going to get a chance to show how much stronger he can be. He'll forever be stuck in time the way he is.

Despite this, Midoriya Izuku is still incredibly powerful. He has a few years of firsthand experience, and it's obvious he's been taught by the best, so he's skilled beyond his years. It makes sense why the Commission set their sights on him.

It makes sense why leaders from all sides of the world, both heroic and villainous, want him. They want him badly.

Hosu was the straw that broke the camel's back. Everything came tumbling down the moment the Nomu attacked, and the avalanche hasn't stopped yet. Far from it. Midoriya may be a little too preoccupied to see it (or he does see it and just doesn't care), but that doesn't change the fact that he's being hunted now.

In the past week alone, Keigo has come into contact with three people who came from out of the country and were sniffing around various villain organizations, all looking to get information about Japan's infamous bunny vigilante. Keigo knew they weren't planning to have a fiesta with the kid, so they had to be dealt with quickly, quietly, and discreetly.

He apprehended two of the three and had to kill the other. It wasn't the first, and he bets it won't be the last.

Is Rabbit his mission? No. He wasn't back then, when he first sprung around, and he's still not. Even now, with Keigo being tasked with merely passing along the invitation from the President of the Commission, he isn't supposed to involve himself with Rabbit more than he has to.

Which is all well and fun when you take into account the fact that Keigo still hasn't revealed to his bosses the full extent of what he knows. It's a damn wonderful thing that Keigo hasn't been assigned to Rabbit. If he becomes assigned, things get harder. Because then Keigo has to be making progress, and he'll have to reveal things.

He doesn't want to do that. And that scares him—that hesitance. If it's not because he cares about Midoriya, what is it? Why else would he be so invested in him?

Midoriya reminds him of himself, funnily enough, but Keigo isn't so soft to let that alter the way he thinks of the boy. If anything, maybe this is why Keigo is a little harsher on him.