Flames of Hope

Chapter 9

Izuku can remember the exact moment he met Shouta, it was at the beginning of his Vigilante career. It was a foggy winter night, a young 9-year-old Izuku patrolling a bad neighbourhood by himself in his self-made costume, it wasn't the best, mind you, being 9-years-old meant he couldn't actually make a proper costume, so he wore a simple black hoodie with a badly stitched on red fire that sat in the centre of his back, baggy parkour pants, his roughed up red shoes, and a crimson mask to cover his face. He had gotten his quirk a year prior, but refused to use his parents' quirks, so he was functionally quirkless, but he had faith in his training, and he wanted to help! But he knew most who suffer from crime in this area have no Heroes to give them hope, security and peace, as the Heroes hunt in the major cities to boost their popularity and egos with money on the side. They are barely any Real Heroes now, those who want to help, and the media make it seem that those fakes with licences are heroes, when really, they are glorified celebrities that are paid to take down villains. And that's how Izuku found himself in front of a dark alley, where he found two men, one with a knife and the other cowering against the wall of the alleyway. Izuku hesitated, he had trained, but doubted he could do what he trained, until he noticed the silver glint of the knife in the dulled-out light of the moon.

Without thinking, he ran towards the two men, before roundhouse kicking the one with the knife in the chest. The man with the knife was knocked out instantly, a resounding crack could be heard in the alley, he may have broken some ribs with that blow, but whatever, and turned to the other. The other man was shell shocked, he was being mugged one second, then another the mugger was sprawled on the floor out cold. Izuku offer his hand to help the man, who graciously took it and thanked him profusely for helping him. He found some sturdy rope in the alley and tied up the criminal with it, proceeding to call the police, then vanishing leaving a tied-up criminal and a very confused man. Izuku was perched on the roof watching them both for a time just in case the criminal escaped, but he didn't and the policed had arrived to collect both men. Knowing that the man was safe, he left to continue his job, the area well saturated with crime to stop. For the rest of the night Izuku stopped crime, they weren't pretty, definitely not a sight for some one so young, but he soldiers through, better get use to it now, was what Izuku was thinking. It was about his third mugging when he felt an unknown gaze cast upon him, his hairs on the back if his neck stood on end, this stalker was different from the petty thugs he had beaten during the night.

That moment will never leave Izuku. Upon a roof, a man was perched, grey scarf and goggles looking at him with piercing red eyes. DANGER. His body shuddered at the man. He was scary. Izuku could barely see him in the night, but he could see black hair and a very rugged beard, if you can call it that, but what finally made him recognizable was the floating hair, this man is Eraserhead. A rather new Underground Hero, not much known about him or his quirk, but his eyes and hair gave him away. Suddenly, the scarf the hero was wearing floated up, defying gravity, until it rocketed towards Izuku, who had little time to dodge, but he managed to leap to the left, avoiding the grey scarf, but didn't dodge the light kick to his knee. Pain shot through his right leg, damn that's harsh Eraser, but Izuku stood back up, wincing at his leg, trying to limp away from the Hero, and to distract him, Izuku announces,

"Look! The Villain is getting away!" That cost Eraserhead as the man looked back to the spot where the mugger was, only to see them knocked out, and a missing Vigilante when he looked back. Damn that was close, Izuku thinks as he sits on a roof away from the Underground Hero, nursing his tender right leg from that kick from Eraser. Interested, Izuku tried to shadow Eraser, but failed sadly, the man had too much experience and knew he was being followed and made it his mission to lose the new addition. It wasn't a week later until Izuku encountered Eraserhead again; this time the hero saved his bacon as he found a situation a little too much for the young Vigilante to handle, and probably would have died if not for Eraser. It was a drug deal gone wrong, and Izuku was caught in the middle, shot in the left shoulder, blood pouring from the wound like a river. He was practically defenseless, but Eraser hopped into the fight, subduing the two gangs, before walking over to the Vigilante, who had collapsed to the ground, bleeding onto it. Eraser quickly patched him up using a small first aid kit he kept on his belt, stopping the blood flow, and cleaning the wound. With a clear mind, the Vigilante realised two things: One that he was in debt to Eraser and two was that he needed to escape. Using the Erasure Hero's momentary distraction, he bolted, his legs carrying him far enough away from the hero.