Blackest Retribution (Abandoned)

Chapter 4- Brighter Days, Darker Nights

With his Quirks finally under some semblance of control, Izuku spent the better part of his days helping Eri with her quirk, while attempting to push the limits of his own quirks. And he came to a conclusion, while practicing with Sharanga to test it's control over their quirks. It wasn't a pretty one, either.

While he was out with Eri one day, away from the house to get some sunshine, there was a villain attack, less than a block away. A rundown convenience store was struck by... Explosive lightning. Izuku took the logical route and covered Eri with his own body, and Sharanga spirited them away quickly. However, he could still hear the explosions. No hero went to this part of the city. Sharanga then recalled that it took several days for heros to scout out their old home, in an arguably better area. Izuku reached the same realization moments later. And then the explosions started getting closer. And Izuku made a hard choice.

"Sharanga. We have to stop that guy. I have a plan." Izuku said, quickly.

"By all means, go on." Sharanga was tense.

"Heros already think you are a villain, but they don't know about me, or my quirks." Izuku said. "So if we fight with you as the only quirk, then our identity doesn't come out, and we can beat this guy. It isn't safe for Eri here of heros don't protect the area."

Sharanga nodded slowly. "I... Suppose. Then let's get on with it, before those explosions get too much closer."

The villain was plenty ready to blast the odd police officer if they retaliated. He was not ready to be snared and knocked out in a split second by something 5 times his size emerging from the ground.

Sharanga grabbed the now unconscious villain and tied him to a pole, before using the villains phone to call the police. Sharanga had a heavily distorted voice, so no one would know who really attacked. Both Izuku and Sharanga knew what they were doing was illegal, but they ignored the thought. Eri's safety was more important than some dumb law. Especially if the heros weren't doing their job.

Of course, Izuku didn't stop there. When he got back to the very scared Eri, he picked her up and hugged her tightly, stroking her hair gently. Eri hugged back, teary eyed.

"It's ok. I took care of the bad guy. He won't get you. I told you I would protect you, remember?" He whispered. Eri nodded.

"I'll make sure nobody can hurt you. I promise."

...

Most night, Izuku was still asleep while Sharanga patrolled. However, he woke up whenever a villain was spotted, or even a street thug, which was most nights, several times a night to start. But his efforts were clear, and they started having several effects. Some for better, others for worse.

Crime rates dropped after the first 2 weeks,and started slacking off, becoming almost non-existent. Civilians felt uneasy seeing the large shadow creature patrolling rooftops and alleys, but didn't do much against it, since it had improved the quality of living greatly. Heros, on the other hand, were displeased. Vigilantism was illegal, and yet one of the most effective, and zealous vigilantes they had ever seen was bagging villains at a very high rate, that slacked off. They suspected that this was because the vigilante had fished out most villains where they patrolled, and they would be right. Many pondered what the vigilante wanted,and what motivated them, but without even a hint of a glance of the vigilante, they couldn't hope to start asking those questions.

Izuku, meanwhile, was a bit more tired than usual. However, this didn't stop him. He was 14, and the UA entry exams would be in 15 months for him. He was painfully aware of his malnutrition, but fought anyways, training harder to prime himself to get in. As the vigilante Shadow Weaver, he made crime rates fall nearby with his reputation alone, but as a real hero, he could do so much more. So he trained on. Sharanga learning to use Izuku's other quirks was a side venture to break monotony, but mainly, he focused on control over Crystal Hands, and his personal physique. His birthday, 5 months later, did not change that.

Sharanga had decided to take Izuku and Eri to the beach for Izuku's birthday. But when they got there, Eri wrinkled her nose up immediately. Izuku was appalled by the sheer amount of trash littering the coast. So he cracked his knuckles, and resolved to be a hero of his community once more, and clean the whole thing, without Sharanga. After all, it was broad daylight, and would make his eventual hero portfolio look better, as well as improve the city with some good old community service. And trash is heavy. Thus, he could better his physique with readily available to move waste, with a large range of weights to track progress. And so, he began.

Without Sharanga's help, the task took far longer than it would. What would take 4 days with Sharanga took 6 months without it, even with the Crystal Hands. Shockwave was utterly useless in cleaning, since it just made explosions, and they didn't even damage anything, making a bigger mess. But Izuku pushed through. The beach was made sparkly clean. Along the way, Eri learned to better use her quirk, and was able to actually get rid of dangerous toxins by just rewinding them out of existence. She didn't have control over how far she rewound just yet, but progress is progress.

With the beach properly cleaned, and 4 months left until the UA entrance exam, Izuku was back to working out normally. He practiced a lot with his more complex Crystal Hands quirk, and less with his simple Shockwave. While at first the hands could shoot lasers, he began working with them, experimenting. What he really wanted was for the hands to be able to change shape. Sharanga could make armor, but he couldn't just go around using it in daylight, as a known vigilante. It took a lot of effort, but Izuku managed to make something that worked. The hands turned into deep cup shapes. This made them shoot thicker lasers, but they couldn't shoot lots of small ones at once. He kept working at it, and eventually got it to work. Then he realized he had a glaring weakness to address.

His mechanical arm couldn't use quirks. Sharanga couldn't brace it internally, it couldn't command hands, and it couldn't send shockwaves. He had no idea how to go about fixing that issue, but he went back into UA's support studio in the dead of night again to look for blueprints. He found none. And while Sharanga and Izuku were very smart, this task was beyond them. So Izuku dropped it for the time being.

Instead, he helped Eri practice her quirk. He didn't think he could use her quirk to regenerate his body, and knew it would cost his quirks anyways, but he wanted to help her anyways, and he felt more than confident he could pass the exam. It was in 3 more months still, but he could keep in practice. He didn't know where else to progress anymore, anyways. He still didn't know the ins and puts of his quirks, after all. But what can one do?