despite the scars

chapter 8 - Litost

Izuku knew someone was following him, he knew it was probably Eraserhead, he also knew that Eraserhead knew now was a bad time, he had Eri with him and Eraser knew that, not to mention that Izuku was already on edge from his earlier encounter. He had already apologized to Eri for acting mean and spiteful to the blue haired boy, but said nothing else out of anger towards Aizawa and his student.

Izuku grumbled lightly to himself about the nuisance following him, Eri giggling at him all the while. He giggled with her for a second before sending out some small creatures to deal with the pest following behind him like a lost puppy, deciding on a few small birds, he told them where to go, only now realizing that they weren't there. Immediately his frown grew, Izuku started to run, sending his already existing bird to bother Eraser.

Izuku ran to a 'backup base' which in reality was an abandoned building that would be easy to escape from if need be. Eraserhead seemed to be rather unaffected by the loud, annoying bird. It made sense, with the loud annoying man/parakeet he lived with. Izuku ran faster, which was very hard considering he was carrying a near seven year old in his arms.

Eraserhead was giving him no chance to use his quirk, the only openings were only big enough to make bug creatures that were of no help. Earlier Eraserhead had called for backup, which were now arriving. If only Izuku could make a screen to cut of Eraserheads view, he would be safe.

Two of the incoming heroes were Hawks and Endeavor, why they needed such big shots for little 'ol him, he'll never know. Endeavor threw a reckless fireball in front of Izuku, shouting something along the lines of 'surrender and you won't die' but Izuku couldn't hear anything but muffled yells over his panicking and the ringing in his ears.

The fire had spread across the street, blocking off any exit to the front, the heroes blocking off the back. Izuku stood facing the fire, lost in the memories of his father, his scent of smoke, alcohol, and burning flesh. He remembered the torture he was put through, the memories he worked so hard to repress coming back up. He recalled how his father killed his mother, her dying screams, as he sat across the room watching, he remembered how useless he was, how he sat bleeding unable to move, while she screamed for help. He wasn't going to let it happen again.

Eri watched in horror as her brother's eyes glazed over, a far away look of horror took the place of his usual loving look. She knew what this meant, it had happened whenever Izu saw fire, she knew it had something to do with the burn scar on his back, though it had never happened to this degree.

Eri didn't know what to do, usually Izu would become a little violent whenever this happened (never towards her, of course), maybe a little too overprotective at most, but she could tell that this was not normal. She looked behind her to see wary heroes surrounding and closing in on them, Eri knew if Izu saw them in this state he would attack, so she motioned for them to stay away, yelling warnings at them, no one listened to her. She turned towards her brother, shaking him lightly, talking in his ear, even yelling in his ear, no sounds could drown out the roar of the flames.

She started crying, Izu had never told her what to do if this happened! She started panicking, shaking izuku harder than before, that action and her tears seemed to knock him out of his trance, he still had the far away look in his eyes but now he was moving, he took one look at the surrounding area before an angry look overtook his features.

Izuku didn't know what was happening, he could only see danger, he saw fire, he saw people, but they looked bad. He started to panic, remembering there was a fire blocking his escape, his panic led him to instinct. He didn't remember the people, he couldn't even see them correctly, but he knew that they were trying to hurt her. Eri. Taking a look at her face, he saw her tears, the people around him were closing in. They were why she was crying.

Izuku's vision blurred once again, tints of red colored the edges of his vision, he didn't understand anything other than the threat the people around him posed. He wouldn't let them hurt him. He felt it before anything else, his quirk, he used it immediately, wings sprouted from his back while a force field spread out from around him.

Both were black, a color not associated with any energies he could use, but that didn't matter to Izuku. His wings worked by themselves, being led by pure instinct as they let him hover in the air, Izuku went to the only place he truly felt safe, his and Eri's room.

When Izuku had control of his body again, he was sitting in the corner of his room, Eri was on his lap, smushed between his knees and his torso, his arms wrapped around his knees. Eri was snoring softly, asleep.

Around his room was a layer of a crackling energy, the strangest part being the color, it was black, unlike any other color of energy. Izuku figured he had found a new kind of energy. He went up to touch it out of curiosity, when his fingers grazed the energy, he felt bad. He felt sad, angry, just overall negative. Izuku knew he had already used natural energies, all of them that had been discovered, so his next guess was that this was a subcategory of a certain energy, the next being that this energy derived from an unnatural source. This energy didn't seem like it did anything other than give emotion, so maybe this was a subsection of chemical energy, the kind that fueled his emotions? That made more sense than any other conclusion, but if that was true, he wouldn't be able to release this energy without backlash from those who absorbed it.

Izuku came to a conclusion seconds later, quickly changing the energy force field into a snake. Izuku decided that if he couldn't release it safely then he would keep it until he needed it. Doing so shouldn't take a toll of his quirk limits, for once a sentient being is created, they are no longer directly controlled by Izuku's quirk, sometimes they may do what he asks, but it's like how a child obeys its mother.

A few seconds after the snake came to be, a banging was heard at his bedroom door. The snake slithered up his sleeve, scared. "Come out now! Izuku Midoriya, you are under arrest for illegal quirk use, and resisting arrest!" Izuku sighed, he knew a day like this was coming, he hoped it would've been later on in life, though.

He yelled a quiet 'come in' before sitting back and hugging Eri again, the cops burst in moments later with Eraserhead using his quirk. They scanned the room for any hidden weapons before entering completely. They were all slightly surprised to see Midoriya waiting peacefully, he refused to speak any words other than 'I'll cooperate as long as I can still hold her' they relented, seeing the sleeping figure of the girl.

No other words were exchanged between the two parties as Midoriya was arrested, even while riding in the cop car, no one talked. Izuku couldn't help but be thankful, he'd had no real social interaction in years, and he really didn't want to start now. 

Eri was still asleep when they arrived at the station, Izuku could only hope it would stay that way. He didn't want her to hear the details of what he had done, granted he had never gone as far as to kill someone, but the girl was very sensitive to violence.

Izuku sighed, it was going to be a long night.

Author's note:

Don't forget to correct me if there are any spelling mistakes, or ask questions of you don't understand anything. I try to make things clear, but it's pretty hard when the words all start in my head, then I can't tell if they are correct or not! I didn't actually spell check this, I mostly relied on my computer doing it for me and I won't get around to rereading until later, so if you see a mistake, commenting it would be a big help!  :)

Thank you for reading!