CHAPTER TWO: PRECONCEPTION/REALITY

"HELLO, Hedero Viran. I don't need to introduce myself to you, do I?"

"No, no, sir. I recognize you loud and clear. I'm just surprised you'd call a small-time criminal like me."

"My call isn't simply for pleasure—I have a job for you that might catch your interest."

"Uh...? I don't understand what you mean."

"Let's put it this way, Viran. I need you to rob a store in the Musutafu area tomorrow around five in the afternoon. The underpass is a safe escape route for you to use. You will find backup as well as a means to lose any hero that chases you to bring you into police custody. I trust you understand what I mean now?"

"...I—yes, sir. And you'll provide a means for me to escape from any hero? Even All Might if he happens to be in our area?"

"Certainly. Is this agreeable?"

"Very much so. Thank you!"

"Good. Don't disappoint me."

The line clicked shut.

_______________________________

"Just UA?" Izuku asked, looking over Kacchan's shoulder and reading the worksheet he had filled out during class. "You're really confident you'll get into the Hero Course, aren't you? You're not even applying to the General Education course as a backup..."

"Of course I'll get in," said Kacchan with a scoff. He smirked. "I've trained my quirk to be perfectly suited for heroics. There's no way they'd turn me away for some half-assed extra who doesn't know how to use his own quirk."

Izuku sighed and leaned away from him. There was more to heroics than a flashy quirk, like the strength of heart and a desire to save, not just to win. Even he knew that, and he was raised to become a villain. But it wasn't like Kacchan would listen to him—he never really listened to him much anyway. "I'd wish you luck, but you probably don't need it."

"Damn right I don't." He pointed at himself and lit a small explosion in his fist for added emphasis. His control was incredibly precise though, Izuku would give him that. He had the drive and the talent, but Kacchan really did work hard to hone that talent into a sharpened blade. It was doubtless he would go far in whatever he decides to do. "What about you, Deku? Have you written anything down yet?"

"I don't even know where to apply to for school, let alone the kind of career I'd be eligible for." Izuku threw his arms in the air to emphasize his frustration. "There's nothing out there for me."

Kacchan scoffed. "Of course there's something out there for you. Someone has to take the boring jobs after all, and that someone might as well be you. You don't want to be a housewife, do you?"

"Never," he muttered under his breath. "I guess I'll talk to my parents and see if they have any ideas. There's got to be some school out there which will accept me."

Kacchan hummed and off-handedly said, "You might get lucky and get a quirk in your next life."

"And what should I do to get that? Take a swan dive off the roof?"

For a moment, there was a beat of silence—and then Kacchan smacked the back of his head with one of his hard textbooks. Izuku yelped, mostly from surprise, and rubbed the throbbing area.

"What the fuck, Deku?! Are you an idiot? Why would you think about doing it?"

"It was sarcastic, Kacchan! You know, sarcasm."

"If you actually followed through with it, it'd mess up my record and my chance to be a hero! If anyone heard—"

"Really?" Izuku asked. "You're more worried about your own image?"

Kacchan stopped yelling at him for a moment and stared at him. Izuku's stomach dropped. "Well, yeah. It's my future. It's not like I'll talk to you after I get into U.A. since you're quirkless."

Izuku scowled and stood up, ignoring the way his hands trembled. He pulled his backpack onto his shoulders.

"Deku? What are you doing—oi, I didn't say you could leave! Get back here!"

"That was mean, Kacchan. You need to learn to watch what you say." He snapped over his shoulder when he heard Kacchan stomp toward him with all his fire and fury and tactlessness.

He didn't want to have to defend himself from his teasing comments when the tears stinging at the corner of his eyes fell.

Luckily, Kacchan didn't follow him or try to hold him back as Izuku walked off the school grounds and turned left instead of right to take the long way back home. Which was something. Normally, Kacchan didn't give a damn about what he wanted or wished and just did whatever he felt like doing.

That's unfair, he reminded himself. Kacchan was his best friend. His remarks might have been callous, but he had been trying to make him feel better in his own way. Even if it was really, really mean of him.

Still, it was stupid getting upset over such thoughtless comments. Father would tell him that only weak individuals allowed those kinds of things to get to him. Mother would tell him to learn to live with what he was. Tomura-nii would laugh at him.

If people like Kacchan were lauded and praised as potential heroes, if there were heroes like Kacchan, then they weren't very heroic at all. Villainy got a bad reputation, but... if the alternative was heroism, which was selfish and conceited, then Izuku didn't really understand why villainy was viewed to be so terrible by society.

Heroes were.... Heroics was corrupt.

Pathetic.

Tears dripped off his nose and splashed against the pavement. Izuku brushed them away with his sleeve.

Like always.

Why am I such a crybaby?

__________________________

After about five minutes of self-pity, Izuku sniffled one last time and dried the remains of his tears. He pulled out his phone and began to scroll through the school database. There were a lot of jobs offered in the workforce, and even though only quirked people got those, it was usually because most quirkless didn't even bother applying for those jobs.

It wasn't like they were prohibited from being in the workforce either... just highly discouraged. But then, most quirkless didn't even graduate from high school—unless they went to one of the special schools. And Izuku refused to go to those schools to learn how to be a good little housewife or whatever the equivalent was.

His grades were far above average. If he wasn't quirkless, he'd have his pick of whatever school he wanted to go to. He might even be able to get into UA's general education department, despite how competitive it was. But acceptance into that was always more luck than anything else.

He took a deep breath and let it go.

Father wouldn't let him help with the Family Business, but he might be able to sway the admission committees to the school he applies for to consider his application. Izuku wasn't dumb either.

There was just... so much he could do, if only father would let him. He wanted to help the Family Business and he wanted to show society the true face of the heroes they worshipped. It just was not allowed, because Tomura-nii was the heir and he was meant to stay on the sidelines for... something.

So frustrating.

A tall, blond man abruptly stopped in front of Izuku—except he looked more like a walking skeleton than a man, facial features hollowed and body gaunt—and he ran smack into him, knocking him over. Izuku flailed and tried to reach over to catch him, but it was too late.

He was plagued with a coughing fit so bad that it sounded like he was coughing up half a lung. Along with half of the blood in his body.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Izuku bowed repeatedly, almost in tears. "I wasn't paying attention—are you okay?"

"No, no, it's fine! I'm fine."

"But you were coughing blood!"

"That's normal," the man said, pulling himself back onto his feet on his own, even though he had offered out his hand for him to hold on to. Izuku shuffled on his feet, but he met his gaze and didn't look away—just like how father taught him.

Those eyes were so strange. The sclera of his eyes were black, but he wasn't sure if it was because they had sunken in from illness or because of the way the shadows lit his face.

"I'm fine," he repeated, a bit more softly, with a smile. "Don't worry, this is normal."

That's not fine, Izuku thought, but didn't say. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, thank you."

Izuku shuffled on his feet. "At least let me carry your groceries to the train station."

"It's all right, they're not heavy at all—" The man protested, and Izuku wasn't sure how to respond to that, because he looked like a strong enough gust of wind could knock him over.

"Please, I'm walking toward there as well, it's the least I could do—"

The man looked at him for a long time, and then he sighed loudly. His shoulders slumped. "You're quite stubborn, aren't you?" Izuku smiled. "That's not a compliment either, young man. Several people would take advantage of that."

"Please?" he repeated.

The man shook his head. "All right, you can carry those bags. Thank you."

"It's the least I could do," he replied. Because his mom would ground him for a month if she realized he knocked a man over and caused him to cough up so much blood. "I'm really sorry I knocked you over, by the way. Again. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings at all."

"All is forgiven. I shouldn't have stopped in the middle of the road anyway."

For such a feeble looking man, his strides were long and swift as his imposing figure cut through the crowds. Izuku had to take two strides to cover one of his. "Still..." he muttered under his breath. "My name is Midoriya, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you, Midoriya. Mine is Yagi."

For a while, they both just walked through the crowds, making small talk with each other after Izuku stopped apologizing every few sentences for knocking the man over. Inexplicably, he found himself relaxing in his company; despite how foreboding the man seemed, there was a charisma around him that made him feel comfortable.

In the corner of his eye, Izuku noticed a store that was practically bursting at the seams from the amount of hero merch spilling out of it. He must have stared at it for too long, because Yagi-san asked, "Are you interested in heroes?"

"Who isn't?"

Everyone was interested in heroes, for one reason or another. Some people, like Kacchan, admired heroes like All Might and aspired to become like them. Other people, like his parents, wanted to reveal the true colors of heroes and see the destruction of their society. Most people passively admired or hated heroes.

Whatever the reason was, everyone was interested in heroes. Izuku would be lying if he denied he did too.

"Do you want to become a hero, too?" Yagi-san asked.

Izuku barked a bitter laugh. "It's impossible for me."

"How come? Wanting to help others when they need it is the first step to become a hero."

His knuckles were starting to turn white from how tight he held the grocery bags, so he loosened his grip and sighed. "Yeah, right. I'm quirkless. I'll never be one. Besides, my family doesn't approve of them..."

"That's a shame."

Yagi-san seemed genuinely regretful, and for a moment, Izuku wondered what his occupation was—he seemed quite fond of heroes, but then, almost everyone was fond of heroes. Chewing into his bottom lip, he shrugged.

Everyone in his family were villains. It wasn't that much of a shame.

"Honestly, I don't think I'd really enjoy all the media attention on myself anyway."

"That's certainly understandable, but there are underground heroes like Eraserhead who avoid the media spotlight."

"Of course there are, but so much of heroics is now dependent on publicity and the money gained from that publicity. It's awfully shallow."

"Perhaps, but even heroes have to make enough income to support their families."

"They shouldn't have families in the first place though. Imagine if they died and left everyone they loved behind."

"That's a risk any person has to take as soon as they walk out the front door of their house."

"Yes, but they don't go walking through the jaws of death every other day like it heroics. Heroes can die any time at the hands of a villain. Not only that, but several of them are arrogant, which causes them to make mistakes. There's so much property damage done at the hands of heroes."

"Of course there is damage, but at least half of that damage is done by villains attacking them. If there were no villains in the first place, then heroes wouldn't be necessary. However, for as long there is a villain who wants to hurt innocent life, then there must be a hero who stops that villain."

The longer they walked, the more Izuku got into the debate, his free hand flailing here and there when he couldn't talk quick enough with his lips. The man was smiling.

At some point, Izuku found himself stopping in front of a large screen playing one of All Might's many fights, and he watched it. Yagi-san went quiet.

"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what it's like to be a hero like him..." he said, half to himself, as All Might's smile burned into his retina. Because as much as he truly adored his family, as much as he wanted to be like them and support the Family Business in any way father would allow him, there was something about the way All Might carried himself...

_____________________________________

Deep in the bowls of the city, evil lurked, waiting to lure it's next victim into its trap.

The thing was, Izuku wasn't going to become a victim.

____________________________________

At the train station, Izuku's phone rung with a message from his father to pick up a dozen eggs from the grocery store, so he waved at Yagi-san and split up.

Izuku walked into the dark tunnel and took a deep breath.

Well, he'd just have to work harder to prove them wrong and to get into a decent school. Eventually, father would see the sense in allowing him a more active role—

A groan.

He looked over his shoulder.

A villain!

Before he could react, globs of sludge enclosed his limbs and folded around his mouth, stopping him from screaming for help. He couldn't breathe. Sludge forced its way through his nose and mouth and down his throat, suffocating him. It burned.

I can't breathe, I can't breathe! He was losing all the strength in his body to fight back, his limbs failing him as he lost oxygen. Someone, anyone, help me! I'm going to die!

Tears stung his eyes.

He did not want to die.

"Do not worry, for I am here!"

What?

That was... All Might's voice. Izuku had heard it frequently enough to recognize it between Kacchan showing him videos during school hours and late at night when his family was asleep. But... All Might couldn't be here, surely? Was it just a figment of his imagination?

But it wasn't.

He heard All Might scream SMASH!!! and he felt the pressure from his fists as he knocked the Sludge Villain away. Izuku gasped when he could breathe, fell onto his hands and knees. Before he could process it, he was vomiting the sludge out of his lungs, choking on the tar-like substance. His nose stung. His throat hurt. Even though he kept blinking tears out of his eyes, they kept trailing down his cheeks.

A large hand fell onto his back and stayed there, holding him steady as he hurled up what had been forced into his stomach. He sobbed. His hands trembled. It felt like the sludge was holding him in its tentacles, forcing itself down his throat. He couldn't stop gagging.

"Easy there," the hero said, much quieter than he expected for him to be. "You'll be all right."

"S-sorry," he choked out, in-between. His muscles were coiled and ready for a fight, but All Might's hands were steady. Izuku tried not to think about how father would react once he realized what happened today.

"It's all right, my boy. Try to breathe with me, all right? One, two three, four..."

Eventually, he managed to force his breathing to match All Might's rhythm and his hands slowly stopped trembling. The final dregs of the panic attack clung to him, holding him down. He sat up.

"Do you want to get out of the tunnel? You might feel better once you're in the sunlight."

Izuku nodded.

"Do you need help?"

He shook his head and got to his own two feet on his own strength. As soon as he took one step forward though, his knees crumpled and he would have collapsed if All Might hadn't caught him.

"Sorry," he said, again, as All Might lifted him into his arms and carried him out of the tunnel. He tried to convince his muscles to relax and tried to tell his mind that All Might would not recognize him as the child of his mortal enemy.

"It's not your fault. What happened to you was very frightening, so the way you're reacting right now is very reasonable." He sat him down on the ground, in the grass, about fifty feet away from the entrance to the tunnel.

All Might was... kinder than he expected.

"Thank you," he said, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging them. His heart was still racing in his chest, pounding so hard he thought that it might burst. He looked up and met All Might's gaze. At the smile he got, he managed to twitch his lips up. "For saving me. I got... really lucky."

Then he paused.

Wait... those eyes... I know those eyes. "Yagi-san?" he asked, hesitantly, and looked down at the bags the man was carrying on his arm—the same bags Yagi-san had been carrying before Izuku knocked into him, and the very same bags Izuku himself had carried.

All Might's eyes widened.

"W-wha—no, that's not— my name isn't—I don't even know who this Yagi is."

He's a terrible liar, Izuku realized. He watched All Might steadily.

A few heartbeats passed where Izuku didn't look away from All Might and All Might tried to look everywhere except at him, but then the hero sighed. Smoke wafted off his body and then—

He narrowed, the muscles disappearing from his frame like water sliding over a body. Izuku tried not to show his shock when Kacchan's childhood idol turned into the thin, skeletal man that he had walked into and had half-bullied into carrying his groceries. It likely wasn't entirely successful, since All Might—Yagi-san?—smiled at him with no teeth.

So... strange.

"Uh," Izuku said, very intelligently. "You shrunk. How? Wait, what? How did you go from—from—" Izuku vaguely gestured with his hands, spreading his arms wide, and then he brought them close together. "—to that? Um... wait, that came out ruder than I meant—I'm sorry!""

After he secured the jars against his belt, All Might sat down in front of him with a heavy thud and lifted his shirt. Underneath, there was a wound of matted scar tissue.

Izuku cringed.

"This is a wound I got about five years ago when I fought a villain. The result was the total destruction of my stomach along with part of my respiratory system. Currently, I can't work actively as a hero for more than three hours a day."

Half remembered conversations came back to Izuku from when father had been gravely injured—five years ago. Mom hadn't seemed to be very worried about him despite how those injuries would have been fatal to any other human being, but Tomura-nii had been beside himself with worry, throwing tantrums left and right.

After that, he had gotten quiet.

"Oh," he said, softly.

"What I told you was never told to the public, therefore, I ask you to please hold this information to yourself. The symbol of peace who saves people with a smile must cannot bow to the forces of evil. When I laugh, it's to trick the fear inside of me."

All Might stared at him with those glowing, sunken eyes, but even like this, Izuku felt very, very small at the aura of hidden strength radiating out of his beaten, weak form. He couldn't look away.

... he's... he's... "What's it like, being a hero?" he whispered.

"Difficult sometimes," said All Might. "It's hard and often lonely, but knowing that people rest easily at night because I am here makes it worth it."

Izuku didn't know how to respond to that, but it wasn't necessary as a crowd rounded the corner and walked toward them. All Might—Yagi-san—stood up and held out his hand.

"How are you feeling now?"

"A little better. I think it might have been the adrenaline." he admitted. His hands weren't trembling anymore. "Thank you for saving me though. I..." I didn't want to die. "That was... it was terrifying."

Someone bumped into All Might, causing him to stumble and move out of the way of the foot traffic. Izuku frowned.

"I need to take this villain to the police station, but I can call someone to help you home if you want."

Izuku shook his head politely. Father's number one rule was to avoid attracting the attention of the police as much as possible. Rule number two was to not forget rule number one. "No, thank you. I'll be fine."

All Might frowned a little. "At least call a friend to walk home with you? It's not safe to walk around without a friend, in general."

"I usually walk home with my best friend, Kacchan, but we had an argument and I... kind of went off on my own."

All Might nodded. "I see... I'm sorry to hear about that. Will you try to make up with him?"

Izuku didn't like the idea of looking back in front of the number one pro-hero, so he nodded slowly. "Probably."

He stood up on his own power and took a step. His knees didn't buckle so he took that as a good sign. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." He insisted, because All Might looked... worried. Which was a bit strange, because he didn't really think heroes really worried about the people they rescued after the immediate danger was over.

But this was All Might. Clearly, he was one of the few pro-heroes that cared. Maybe that was why father hated him as much as he did.

It took a couple more minutes after that, but Izuku eventually managed to convince the hero that he was going to be fine if he walked home alone. It wasn't even that far from here, barely five minutes away.

"Midoriya," All Might said suddenly, after they turned around and traced their steps, and Izuku looked up at him. "You have a bright mind. You'll get into a good school."

Izuku blinked.

How... perceptive. I don't even remember saying I was worried about that.

He smiled a bit. "Thank you," he said, genuinely.