hero's shadow // mha

81) how father raised me

Everyone has temptations. Most of the time, they're unwanted. They're horrific, intrusive thoughts that make the person experiencing them want to hide away in guilt and shame.

They're called temptations precisely because the person knows they shouldn't have it. They shouldn't do it. They shouldn't want it.

But the tricky thing about temptations is that sometimes they make you think you need it.

Izuku had many temptations as a child. Even overlooking the shadows beckoning him into alleyways and dark corners, even forgetting the voices that would draw him into places he knew he wasn't allowed—Izuku just had many things he wanted.

He had many things he was convinced he needed.

Did Izuku really need to go outside when he was just shy of seven years old? Did he need to disobey Father and run out of the facility in the dead of night, barefoot and out of breath with adrenaline, just to see the stars he was promised would be there to greet him?

Did he need to be caught?

Izuku's worst temptation occurred on the same day he first saw Kurogiri kill someone.

Or maybe it wasn't a someone. Maybe it was a some thing.

The basement was always off limits. There was an entire labyrinth down there. An entire new facility that Izuku wasn't permitted to see or use. But Tomura was. Not that he ever made a habit of going down there unless All for One directed him to.

But Izuku didn't understand the why behind it all then. He just knew there were monsters down there, and he knew he wasn't big enough. Father said so.

Izuku only wanted to prove he was strong, just like his brother.

And so when the temptation became too much, Izuku succumbed to the voices and went down those pristine white hallways. He nearly didn't return.

On the worst days of Izuku's life, he wishes he didn't.

Father wasn't home, and the doctor was absent. Izuku would've been killed if not for Kurogiri's quick thinking. A few well placed portals and the wretched creature was sliced into multiple pieces, unable to regenerate. Izuku saw it all, and it was a fitting punishment, really.

Kuro held Izuku tightly after that, his cold mist surrounding them both as they warped out of there. Izuku couldn't cry. He was too shocked to do much of anything but bury his face in those cloud-like arms.

He was just glad Father wasn't there to see. He might've let it play out.

But with that in mind, it's safe to say that Izuku is well-versed in temptations of all kinds. Most of the time he can resist, but other times he doesn't want to.

Izuku opens his mouth then, but nothing escapes him, so he closes it and tries again after clearing his throat. "He brought the wrong cuffs," he says quietly, almost hesitant.

"No. He didn't." Aizawa peers at him through the darkness. "Those just can't hold you anymore."

The words are open. Honest. Unbothered. Izuku searches for it, but he finds no deception in the air or on Aizawa's person. His teacher is not lying. Never even thought about it.

Izuku doesn't like that he felt the need to check. "I..." He swallows again.

The cuffs were for him. He knows it. The grade they were—UA High School doesn't just keep All Might-level quirk suppressants in their storage 'just in case.'

They were made precisely for the horrific instance that Midoriya Izuku decided to step out of line. So for Izuku to have been able to break them without any lasting damage on his wrists? Something isn't right.