Chapter Text
Was it possible to run on pure hate?
Hypothetically of course (Or so you would think), but Jewel had seen some mad people in her time, and that was working as a professional cat burglar. But none had seen so mysteriously mad as Dabi.
Dabi was a newer addition to the Mustutafu underground, having appeared out of nowhere a few months back. But ever since he had stuck around. Most people as loomingly mad as him were always willing to spread their rage, but Dabi had never blown up at anyone or even so much as explained what he seemed mad at. His was an almost calm kind of rage as if he’s accepted he could never not be mad.
“Good morning, Dabi.” She greeted with a coy smile. “Can I interest you in these earrings? They'd go well with your staples.”
He sent her an unimpressed look. “Ha ha. Very funny.”
Jewel shoved the earrings in her pocket. “Well you can't blame a girl for trying. What're looking for today?” She asked falling into step with him.
“Giran. Have you seen him?”
“No actually. He's on vacation.” Jewel replied.
“Vacation? Of course.”
“I mean I can't blame him. If my info got Mama’s favorite killed, I’d go hide for a while too.” Jewel sighed. “But what kind of info are you looking for? I might be able to rustle something up.”
“I doubt it.” Dabi scoffed hands slipping into his trenchcoat pockets.
“Try me.” Jewel smirked.
Dabi rolled his eyes. “Let's see… I need files on Endeavor.” he nearly spat the name out in disgust. Jewel didn't know what his venderra was against the number two hero, but it was obvious he loathed Endeavor, possibly more than she'd ever seen someone hate someone else.
Jewel pursed her lips. “Classified files?”
He nodded. “Anything classified you can get your hands on.”
“I'll see what I can do.” Jewel replied with a smirk.
“Oi! Jewel!” Jewel turned to see one of the younger members of the Chan gang running up to her. “Mama’s looking for you.” The girl called. “She needs you to take a message to Beryl and Artimis.”
“Oh.” Jewel turned to Dabi. “Sorry, I've got to go.” She apologized with a last smile before turning away.
Dabi didn't care much about vigilantes as long as they stayed out of his way. He would make his father suffer for everything he had done to their family.
Izuku bent down touching his toes and then straightening, stretching his back.
“Are you ready for this?” Ochako asked turning to him as she adjusted one of the sleeves of her outfit.
“I don't know…” Izuku replied honestly. His heart was pounding already just from being in the warehouse again. There were traces of Kirami everywhere. The cats that she loved so much were still hanging around. Her spare gear was scattered around tables. The worn mats she had taught them to fight on still lay on the floor. It had been exactly a month since she died.
They had spent the last week rehoning their fighting skills after three weeks of no patrol. They had gotten rusty, and Izuku still wasn't back to full strength since his sickness, but he was so much better.
Ochako had even gone back to work. The hospital demolition was progressing well. They were busting out the interior walls and Ochako had been carrying out the rubble.
“I know how you feel.” Ochako replied reaching out to take his hand reassuringly.
“Well I'm ready for this.” Their ear pieces buzzed as Mei Hatsume’s voice came though loud and clear. “Another bonus on this ear piece is I can see what you can through a special sensor.”
Izuku gaped. “What- how?”
“Technology. It's been advancing so much in the last century. Your eyes take ‘pictures’ of everything you see and sends them to your brain as an electric signal. The sensor can isolate the eye signals in your brain and it reads them through a special computer instead letting me see through your eyes.”
“Huh. That's actually pretty cool.” Ochako mused.
“I know right? And it's a perfectly secure system. No one else can see it.”
“Alright. I suppose we should get a move on.” Izuku decided.
“Hello? I'm sorry to bother you.” A voice echoed through the warehouse and they stiffened diving to hide behind a pile of pallets. Who had found their hideout? “Artimis? Beryl? Are you here?”
“What do we do?” Ochako whispered to Izuku.
He glanced around and spotted another stack of pallets closer to a door. “On three we move over there.” He inclined his head.
“Oh there you are.” The person rounded the corner of their pallet stack and Izuku froze seeing the mascarade mask over their face. Ochako however lunged before looking and in a swift motion slammed the trespasser onto the mats.
“Uraraka stop!” Izuku exclaimed frantically and she froze, one knee and hand still pinning the intruder onto the ground. It was then she noticed the Chan’s signature mascarade mask that she’d see a few times when Kirami had taken her to the underground.
“Well that wasn't the greeting I was expecting.” The woman, still pinned, let out a breathless laugh.
Ochako scrambled to her feet and the woman remained of the floor for a second catching her breath. “Nice take down. You knocked the wind out of me on that one.”
“I'm so sorry.” Ochako frantically apologized with a bow. Her hands shook slightly. Jewel-Chan had caught them off guard easily.
“Its all right.” She replied rising to her feet. “I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Jewel-Chan, and Mama Higgins sent me. Someone has been asking to meet you.”
“What? Who?” Izuku asked quickly.
“Stendhal. Another Vigilante.” Jewel replied. “Apparently he got wind of what happened here and has come down from Tokyo to meet you.”
Ochako turned to Izuku. “What do you think?”
“Well what does he want?” Izuku frowned.
“Don't know. He wouldn't say. He came to the underground and asked to meet you.” Jewel replied. “No ones heard much about him.”
“I’ll see what I can dig up about him online.” Hatsume’s voice crackled through the ear pieces.
“What do you think Ochako?” Izuku asked turning back to her.
“I don't know… but he's a fellow Vigilante, so maybe we should at least meet with him. He… he might have known Kirami.” Ochako added the last part quietly, almost as if she didn't want to mention Kirami at all.
“That's what I’m thinking too.” Izuku replied.
The shopping district, Izuku had learned during his patrols with Kirami, was one of the most crime ridden areas of lower Mustutafu, though she usually made him avoid it because the heroes knew that too.
As they hurried across rooftops Ochako stuck close to Izuku. This was his first time back on the roofs since everything that happened and the memory had burned deeply. She would be right there to catch him.
But Izuku's mind was elsewhere as they paused at the back of a shadowed rooftop. What could Stendhal want? An ever better question. Who was Stendhal? He hadn't done any research on vigilantes. He could name dozens of heroes but his knowledge of vigilantes was limited to a select few prominent ones. (Mainly ones that later became heroes like the Crawler)
He hadn't even known Anzu existed until she saved him. There was a unsettling swirling in his stomach and he shook the thought from his head.
“Where do you think he is?” Ochako frowned with a look around.
“I don't know.” Izuku replied with a frown. The shopping district was rather large and he could be anywhere.
Hatsume’s voice crackled in their ear. “There's a potential mugging across the street and three alleys left.”
“On it.” Ochako replied.
With that they were off.
But as they reached the alley entrance they realized they were too late. A young woman came running out, away from a figure in the alley crouched over her attacker.
Izuku felt his heart go cold as the figure sheathed a long katana. He could smell the iron in the air. The smell of death loomed through the alley.
Hatsume let out a gasp. “No. You two need to get out of there. Now.” She said warningly. “The police files on Stendhal are highly classified but I managed to slip through the firewall. Stendhal is ruthless. He doesn't just stop crime. He kills the criminals he finds guilty.”
But Hatsume’s warning came too late. Stendhal turned, spotting them in the alley entrance.
“You must be Beryl and Artimis.” He was a daunting figure in his blood splattered tattered clothes.
Ochako clenched her fists as her gut churned. She felt like she was going to throw up. A river of blood was making its winding way through the cobblestone cracks towards them.
“What are you doing?!” Izuku exclaimed, fists clenching.
“Purging our society.”
Izuku reached for his belt, and Stendhal took that as a sign that they weren't prepared to take what he had done standing down.
“You killed him!” Ochako shrieked, feeling tears pooling in her eyes.
Izuku drew his staff.
“A just punishment.” Stendhal’s hand reached for his blade drawing a long katana from it's sheath. Blood still tinted it's edges from its last kill.
“Who are you to decide his fate?” Unconsciously Izuku’s stance widened as his eyes narrowed, watching his opponents every move. Knives were dangerous, but a sword, if he knew how to use it, was even more so.
“I see. You two aren't Vigilantes, are you? You're just kids playing at being heroes.” Stendhal scowled at them. “Vigilantism takes more than a sunny uplook. It demands that wrongdoers be punished by any means necessary.” He exclaimed holding his Katana out towards them.
“No. You're not a Vigilante. Saying who gets to live and who dies, not valuing every life as special. Those are the traits of a villian!” Izuku exclaimed.
“Villian? Vigilante? There isn't a difference.” Stain moved faster than they could see. Izuku threw up his hands, holding up his staff to block the flash of steel that came soaring down towards his head.
Ochako leapt into action, putting space between her, Izuku, and Stain. They didn't want to be tripping over each other against such a quick foe.
“Our convictions have ostracized us from the rest of society. In the eye of the law there is no difference between Villain and Vigilante. They’re both undesirables in their perfect hero society.”
Stendhal leapt back, now caught between Izuku and Ochako. “Hero. Villain. What is in a name? Heroes are just as corrupt and misguided as the Villains they fight.”
“You’re wrong!” Ochako exclaimed and let out a yelp as she spun out of the way of a thrown knife knife. “Heroes save people!” Her voice shook, cracking as she yelled.
“What's your Reison d’être then?” Stendhal exclaimed. “If the heroes save everyone, why are you out here, playing at it? The real heroes are too busy posing in front of the cameras to save these people!” He leapt towards Izuku, sword swinging in an arc towards him. “What,” Stendhal glowered sword bouncing off Izuku's staff as he blocked the swing, “What do you call a hero who pays for attacks on civilians to boost his own reputation when he ‘saves’ them? What do you call a hero who's only in it for the money?”
Ochako faltered, and it was the weakness Stendhal was waiting for. He acted in her moment of hesitation, freeing knife from his sleeve.Ochako let out a cry as a thrown blade sliced through her sleeve cutting into her arm and clattering to the ground across the alley. Blood pooled in the wound and began to run down her arm. She clasped her hand over the slice.
Then Stendhal tumbled forwards in a mess of knives and legs. Izuku had run, slamming into his back and Ochako could see the tears pouring from his eyes.
“Not all heroes are good.” Izuku panted as Stendhal regained his footing. Memories of flames flashed through his head but he pushed them aside in favor of another hero who came to mind, one who dispite their constant law breaking had never failed to treat them with respect and even concern. “But not all Heroes are bad!”
“Society must be purged!” Stendhal growled he swung his sword at Izuku and he blocked it again with his staff. They needed to be careful of those blades. “It must be purged of evil selfish people.”
“What kind of world does that create?! Never giving anyone the chance to change?” The teary face of Himiko Toga flashed before his eyes. According to Stendhal's convictions, she should have died in the alley that day. Izuku could hardly see though his teary eyes, he tried to will the tears away but they just kept coming. He needed to protect Ochako, she couldn't fight well with her arm like that- He had to be stronger.
“You think the man I just killed would have changed? You’re children, clinging to fairy tales! Fairy tales don't save lives.”
“Neither does murder!” Izuku snapped.
“The rot must be removed before it spreads. You have potential, convictions, courage, but you waste it clinging to broken system. Our hero society is broken!”
“What do you want me to do? Should I call the Police yet?” Mei asked tentatively trying not to distract him from the fight.
“Yes. They might scare him away. We can't beat him like this.” Izuku replied crouching down. He wished Kirami was here. They needed help, badly. They were losing this fight. Ochako had stumbled back to his side of the alley and though she was keeping pressure on her wound blood still seemed to be pouring out. She couldn't fight well, though she had been trying to keep Stendhal on his toes by jumping around him.
“Alright I'm on… You need to get out of there right now.” Hatsume exclaimed panic seeping into her voice.
“We’re trying.” Izuku rebutted, throwing up his staff and aiming a kick at Stendhal to send him stumbling back.
“No you don't understand. Endeavor is coming!”
Izuku's heart froze, as a warm orange glow appeared at the other end of the alley. And then Izuku heard a familiar, voice boom through the alley that made his blood to cold.
“STAND DOWN. ALL OF YOU. HANDS UP.”
Elsewhere in lower Mustutafu, Dabi kicked a can across the sidewalk looking up at the sky. It was dark but dispite the city lights he could see quite a few stars in the sky. He took a bite from his dinner, a simple tuna onirigi he had picked up at the local convenience store. This would be his last night in lower Mustutafu for a while. Giran had left town, so Dabi would have to follow if he wanted information. It was a shame what had happened to that Vigilante, but Dabi had never personally met her so he wasn't too let down. She probably poked her nose in someone else's business and paid for it.
At least it wasn't his business. He probably would have done the same if someone tried to stop him.
He itched for revenge with every fiber of his being. Endeavor had to pay. He had to suffer for everything he had done to him, and to his family. But he couldn't rush into this. He needed to expose his father's abuse, and make him suffer. He’d lose his reputation, his friends, his integrity as a hero. But all that didn't feel like enough…
They say, when you're scared, your body has two responses, fight or flight. But everyone always leaves out the third, freeze. Your body becomes stiff and you stand, frozen to the spot like a deer in headlights.
Izuku had frozen.
Stendhal growled. “Of course. A hero.” He said disgustedly. “We’ll have to finish this another time.” He scowled at the two of them on the ground. He sheathed his blade and leapt towards the dark figure at the entrance to the alley.
“We have to move.” Ochako grabbed Izuku’s arm and nearly froze herself when she felt how badly he was shaking. Izuku stumbled to his feet and she pulled him along with her towards the fire escape. She could hear shouting from the end out the alley where Stain seemed to be… distracting Endeavor? If you could call it that.
Whatever he was doing it was buying time for them to slip away. She kept a hand on Izuku's arm trying to steady him, but he missed a step and crashed onto the stairs sending an echo through the entire alley.
“Come on.” Ochako said desperately. They didn't stand a chance against the number two hero. If he caught up to them, they would be arrested or killed in the fight.
They reached the roof and began to run. Izuku made a choked noise as he stumbled, but she caught him up, fingers slick from blood.
She changed a glance behind her, and wished she didn't.
Endeavor was standing at the edge of the roof of the alley, three buildings behind them.
He looked like a titan compared to heroes she'd seen before.
“What do we do?” Ochako asked, turning to Izuku desperation.
“Get- get off the roofs.” Izuku gasped for breath and when she looked at him, she finally saw the tears pouring down his cheeks. “Our only chance is to get to the underground. But We- we can't lead him there. Do- do you remember-” he gasped for breath and a tremble ran through him. “Remember what- what Kirami taught us? Evasion.”
“If you can't fight, run.” As she said the last word, she pulled off her gloves. Her mentors face flashed through her mind, smiling, kind, but more tired than she remembered. ‘If you don't use your quirk to fight crime, they can't legally persecute you for vigilantism.’
“What’re you doing?” Izuku gasped as they leapt across another gap.
“Getting us out of here.”
Endeavor was catching up. Ochako had no idea how he hadn't caught up to them by now. He must have been hanging back to observe them, but now that he had seen what he was up against he was shooting towards them, the intense heat from his flames reaching them even from a distance. They reached the edge of another roof, Ochako grabbed the grapple gun from Izuku's tool belt. Then she grabbed his hand and Izuku felt a familiar floating sensation. Ochako leapt from the roof, pulling him with her.
They free fell for a moment, Ochako pulling the weightless Midoriya along with her. Her other hand shot out, firing the grapple gun. It latched onto the corner of a building and they went soaring around it.
“You’re using your quirk.” Izuku gasped. This was the first time she had ever used her quirk while on patrol.
“Not to fight crime.” Ochako quickly corrected him. She extended her feet and collided with the ground, running to keep going. She touched her fingers together and Izuku hit the ground at a run. “Down here.” Ochako grabbed his arm and pulled him into another alley. They needed to lose Endeavor, but every step felt like lead. They were already injured and worn out from fighting Stain. They couldn't keep this up.
They rounded another corner and collided with somebody hard. Ochako bounced back, landing on her butt, and looking up at the person. Izuku managed to skid to a stop before he collided, and he scrambled to help her to her feet.
“Hey! My dinner!” The man exclaimed, eyes narrowing in rage. The Tuna Onigiri he’d only taken a single bite from was now floating in a puddle on the alley floor.
“I'm sorry!” Ochako apologized, struggling to regain her footing. She finally got a look at his face and her eyes widened at his burned, stapled together skin.
Dabi scowled down at the two vigilantes. “Beryl and Artimis, I presume.”
“There you are.” The deep voice sent a jolt through her spine. Endeavor stood behind them, and they were trapped between the two men. “You have a choice to make. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
Ochako looked frantically between Endeavor and the man, and made her choice. She ran, pulling Izuku with her.
Endeavor didn't ask twice. A wall of fire shot towards them and Izuku’s body moved on its own, lunging to protect Ochako. The flames hit him and he let out a scream as his arm burned from shoulder to elbow.
He hit the ground hard, cheek slamming into the rough pavement. He lay there for a moment, still covering Ochako and clutching his arm, sleeve melted away and flesh oozing, still burning hot. He could hear Endeavors footsteps sizzling and melting the pavement beneath him. Then the world turned blue as blue fire exploded between them and Endeavor.
“Get going.” Izuku looked up, gaping at the man whose dinner they had just destroyed. “I’ll cover you, go!” Izuku stumbled to his feet, clutching his arm, gaping at the blue flames the man was shooting out his hands, strong enough to push back Endeavors flames
“Go now!” Dabi shouted he watched with a satisfied smirk as they disappeared around a bend. That would really make his father happy.
Izuku staggered down the back alley, clutching his arm, Ochako limped on a now twisted ankle. Whoever that man was, he had saved them. They’d lost Endeavor and were far away, on their way to the underground. Ochako's arm was still bleeding, but the blood was thicker, slower. Izuku’s foot caught on an uneven part of ground and he tripped tumbling to the ground.
“Midoriya!” Ochako hobbled to his side, crouching down dispite how her body screamed.
Izuku shook tears spilling from his eyes as his arm screamed in pain. Of course he had landed on it. “I- I hate Endeavor.” He choked out curling in on himself. Endeavor had destroyed his world, killed his mother. It was because of his carelessness that he couldn't go home to her now.
Ochako felt a deep sense of wrongness as he said that. Midoriya had never used the word hate to discribe his feelings on anything. It seemed completely unlike him to hate anything, especially a person… Endeavor had just been trying to catch them. Eraserhead had tried on multiple occasions to catch them, but Izuku didn't hate him, he looked up to him.
Izuku let out a broken sob as Ochako placed a hand on his shoulder. “Midoriya…” Ochako didn't know what Endeavor had done, but for it to have left him so scared, so upset, so hateful…
She bowed her head leaning it against his shaking shoulder as she hugged him, his body wracking with sobs.
Footsteps echoed down the alley, and Ochako startled, scrambling to her feet to stand guard over her exhausted partner.
Then a familiar figure rounded the corner followed by the distinct smell of smoke.
“I don't think we'll be having any trouble with Endeavor anytime soon.” Dabi nearly spat out the name like it was some foul curse that shouldn't be on his tongue. He paused, taking in the collapsed vigilante, and Artemis standing over him, ready to fight.
He held up his hands, in an, ‘I come in peace’ motion. “I should introduce myself, shouldn't I? I’m Dabi, and I'm friends with anyone who is against Endeavor.”
Shoto awoke with a start to the familiar view of his bedroom ceiling. A door slammed and he could hear his father's heavy footsteps and let out a quiet sigh. His father was in bad mood. He could tell just by how he walked a little louder than normal. He reached up, rubbing his eyes and wincing slightly at how his fingers dragged across the rough surface of his scar. He heard a crash elsewhere in the house and squeezed his eyes shut. Training tomorrow was going to be hell. He curled in on himself burrowing into his futon.
‘Why,’ he wondered, ‘was the world so full of heroes, and none had come to save him?’