9

Chapter 9: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Chapter Text

Things don't miraculously get better as soon as his mom and him have that conversation, but an avenue for communication does open up between them. Izuku talks about leaving the house without adult supervision, and of him eventually returning to school. Needless to say, it doesn't go over well.

They don't have an argument per se, it's more like a negotiation. His mother admits she may be being paranoid, but she can't let him go outside without receiving hourly updates of his status. It's unfair, and Izuku haggles it down to updates every three hours until he can prove he won't get kidnapped within a week. Which should be fairly easy to do.

His mom doesn't budge on school though, until the hospital visits and therapy sessions are out of the way and it's confirmed that his time away didn't leave him with any lasting impact. She does, however, call the school and sets up a way for him to get homework and do tests online. It's something.

They still haven't talked about his quirk though, and Izuku is beginning to suspect that she never actually saw it appear. When he saved the girl the other day, he only activated it for a split second, which felt like longer to him, so maybe he was overestimating how much people saw. Well, that would mean that it's up to him once again to figure out how to tell his mother about it. He'll need to think of a cover story...

Thinking back on that day as well, Izuku realised that he introduced himself as 'Deku' to the little girl. Which goes to show that he's just so used to going by his hero name, it slipped out like second nature. He used it all the time in the future as it were. When he thinks about his future though, a strong feeling of sadness overcomes him, so he hurries to push it out of his mind.

With his newfound freedom, Izuku sets up a new routine. He's finally able to go on runs without having to lap the house while his mother stands outside to watch him. He runs twice a day now, and works out after them as well. He's ahead of the game technically, since he has all his training from his previous timeline under his belt, but there's always room for improvement. After all, Izuku hasn't yet mastered One For All and any new progress he makes could be monumental in the coming months. He needs to be ready. He needs to be strong, and capable. He's going to meddle in this timeline, and any strength he gains will help him do so. Against all other odds, because that's what heroes do.

Ever since the moment with his mom, he's been clearing the beach out too. It's quicker work than it was before, but still leaves Izuku breathless. He does it because it feels wrong for the beach not to be clear, it deserves to be nice. But also because he selfishly hopes that All Might will stop by, in either form, and Izuku will be able to talk to him. He misses him a lot. Even if he can't be his hero's successor like before, he doesn't want them to stay strangers. Unfortunately, All Might never shows and Izuku has to deal with heavy trash as well as a heavy heart.

His nighttime escapades also continue, with steady progress appearing. Besides working on the USJ case, Izuku looks up how to hack and mask his IP address as well as other activities. He buys a burner phone in a sketchy deal after breaking into his savings. (It's a good thing he saved up all that birthday and New Year's money.) It's for calling in crimes or texting tips to police or pro heroes. His newly acquired hacking skills come in handy for accessing security cameras and surfing through the National Crime Information Center. Turns out a lot of the names on his list have warrants out for their arrest. Go figure.

He doesn't get a new mask, mostly because he doesn't have the time. The cheesy All Might one functions enough at hiding his identity, which is good enough for him. When Izuku has his ear to the ground, he has to take it off anyway. He does get a surgical mask though, for those moments, as well as a cheap pair of shades. Not that anyone can see him wear them from under his hood. But if anyone could, all they'd see is a person who looks extremely sketchy.

He has yet to catch his intended target of Kaiyō Samehada, but he's caught some other individuals. Just last night, he managed to track down the villain with the jamming quirk from the USJ and turn her in. He dumped her zip tied to a parking meter right outside the Musutafu police station as she cursed up a storm the whole time. She was wanted for armed robbery on multiple accounts and even for a string of arsons. Needless to say, she wasn't getting out of prison anytime soon and Izuku was feeling a little proud of himself.

While there are the names on his list that are criminals, there are those as well that aren't. Or at least, they haven't been caught yet. And if Aizawa-sensei taught him anything, it was that the law wouldn't condemn someone as a criminal without any evidence. So Izuku couldn't tie them up and drop them off like he did the others, or they'd simply walk free.

With those names, he plans a separate course of action. Izuku stalks them, gets information on them and he waits. Sometimes it takes a week or more before he sees something. If they appear to do any illegal activity that doesn't hurt or threaten others, Izuku snaps pictures. Later, an email sent to the police books them for at least a little while. And if they do engage in fights or robberies or kidnappings, anything that can harm someone, then Izuku intervenes immediately and takes out the threat. With a witness and the police on the way, the criminals stay in jail.

But, there are still plenty of people who he can't get any incriminating evidence for. These are the people that are potentially the ones that show up at USJ. So, either USJ is their first gig when they become a villain, they are extremely good at hiding their malicious activity, or Izuku has the wrong person. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of people that fall into this category from Izuku's list, and he doesn't want to take any chances. He needs another option.

And he finds one.

He digs just a little deeper into their backgrounds. He looks up their homes, their workplaces, their favorite stores or restaurants. It's worryingly easy.

And Izuku acts as their conscience.

He sends them notes. Not in the mail, no, in their house . Right on their dining room table. Or on their desk at their work. In every place they ever thought was safe. He lets them know that someone's watching them. He lets them know that he knows what they're going to do and that if they want to keep their lives, they should stop. It's an empty threat, of course, but it's effective. The villains don't know he's just a teenager, not yet a hero, and they don't need to. He's not sure if they'll listen, even after being properly terrified, but he'll see when the USJ comes to pass.

And if he does have the wrong people, then he's only scaring them. Of course, that is terrible in and of itself, and Izuku feels guilty about it, but it's the only thing he can think to do.

It takes a long time to do all of this. Days turn into weeks. Every night, he goes out and hunts these criminals. He goes and goes until he literally can't anymore. Because the sun comes up.

And it doesn't stop at the criminals from the USJ either. Often, where his patrols take him are areas filled with crime. Even if he's crossing into the territory of vigilantism, (he's crossed that line long ago) Izuku has never been the person to ignore a cry for help. He steps in even when he knows he probably shouldn't. After all, he can't justify the law-breaking to himself when it's outside of saving the future. But crime does happen outside of planned terrorist activity, and Izuku won't hesitate to bring it down. (He'll just feel terrible about it later.)

He keeps an eye on some of the other villains as well. Stain and Overhaul mainly, but both are keeping a suspiciously low profile. Which makes sense, Izuku presumes, especially if he only barely heard of them when they were introduced back in his own timeline. Still, preventing the deaths of the heroes killed by Stain would be great, and rescuing Eri earlier might be possible as well. Actually, that seems like a high priority item. Izuku will have to add that onto his growing list of plans he's formulating.

He exhausts himself quickly, but he's determined and a lack of sleep could never stop him from saving lives. Miraculously, he's gotten a second chance. A chance to fix things before they go bad. Sleep will never be as important as that. As they say, he can sleep when he's dead.

Tsukauchi Naomasa can't sleep. Working as a police officer, long hours are a given. He's used to overtime from cases, emergency recalls, and 12 hour shifts. The life of an officer may not seem as rewarding as a hero's, but Naomasa thinks it is. Heroes can't be everywhere after all. And they're also not the best at handling the legal side of things. Police officers, however, are there regardless of time of day or media exposure.

No, the reason Naomasa can't sleep is because he's working on a case. A very difficult case. For multiple reasons.

Supāku Jūden. A high profile criminal, dumped right outside their door. Her quirk is electrical in nature and she, herself, is extremely dangerous. And she wasn't even the first one to be delivered to them this way.

In her interrogation, she revealed that she fought, and was captured by, someone in a plastic hero mask. She also said some choice words as to what she thought about getting caught. Naomasa guesses he'll just have to add this incident to the growing case they have on this masked marauder. As he said, it's a difficult one.

Firstly, there's hardly any information. Witness accounts are flimsy and of course the person is disguised so camera footage, when they appear on camera, doesn't give them much. Honestly, why did another vigilante have to pop up out of nowhere?

That's another thing. Naomasa ruffles his hair until it sticks up at odd ends in frustration. The case focuses on a new vigilante. And vigilantes were always hard to deal with. They acted as heroes outside of the law, so it was hard to reason whether they should be caught. Heroes were the ones that had the most problems with vigilantes. As for people like Naomasa? He needed to follow the law, but he could hardly condemn anyone who strived to help other people. Not that he could admit it.

Groaning, Naomasa reaches for his cell phone and dials up a familiar number. It's not the number of anyone who could help with the case, but Naomasa finds it's easier for him to find connections or make breakthroughs when he's ranting about the case to a friend. Unfortunately, the call goes to voicemail. Naomasa sighs and hangs up. It's pretty standard for Yagi not to answer him, but he always tries anyway. And it's late too, he might be asleep.

All Might isn't completely unrelated either. Although the connection isn't something they can use. Yeah, whoever this vigilante is, they wear an All Might mask of all things. Naomasa doesn't know if they're a fan or if they're mocking the number one hero. All he knows is that the mask is sold everywhere with thousands of people buying it every year. So the mask is a dead end.

The only clues Naomasa has gathered about the vigilante is their approximate height, that they are probably male, and that they operate at night around Musutafu city. The few witnesses that spot him say that he helped them out of a dangerous situation, often giving them instructions on how to proceed next. When they are asked about any defining features, most of them are too distracted by the cartoony All Might mask to really pay attention to anything else. Maybe that's the real reason why he chose to wear such an eye-catching thing.

Regardless, the vigilante isn't that big of a deal, simply another thing Naomasa has to keep an eye on. They haven't appeared in front of the police yet, though they leave villains tied up at the doorstep, and Naomasa doubts they'll be caught easily. For now, he'll keep track of their case and add what he knows about them to the criminal database.

Ugh. He needs coffee.

He'll just document the case, increase the patrols around the area and brief them on who to look out for. Vigilantes have shown up before and it was never long before they were caught.

It does make him wonder though. Who is the vigilante? And why are they doing this? Why are they interfering?

"You are sure someone is interfering?" A deep voice demands, his words accompanied by crackling static.

Tomura scratches at the skin of his neck harder in agitation. He doesn't like people interfering with his plans. He doesn't like failing his Sensei.

"We are unsure. The pawns are common crooks and it is easy to imagine them getting caught without the help of a third party." Kurogiri explains, pausing in his motion of wiping a shot glass clean.

"However one of them has shown us a note. He said that he found it in his home and was visibly distressed. While the note does not go into specifics, it clearly warns the man of participating in any illegal activity."

Tomura growls a bit at the memory. Miserable cowards, all of them. Why did they need cannon fodder anyway? It's not as if they could even make a dent in the symbol of peace.

Sensei's voice crackles over the TV screen. "A child's prank. If he backs out, simply replace him with another. Remember, they are expendable."

"With all due respect Sensei, I doubt it is just a prank. It is not just one man who has come to us with these warnings, it seems our men are specifically targeted. Someone may have found out about our plans." Kurogiri responds.

And Tomura will kill them, whoever they are, once he finds them. How dare they try to stop him and Sensei. But it is curious, who could possibly have found out about their plans? Sensei only gives them information that is needed, a wise decision, and Tomura and Kurogiri don't tell the recruited pawns anything. So how would this third party know…?

"That is troubling indeed. However it is unlikely this menace knows the depths of our operations. If they are whittling away our workforce, then we must continue to renew it. Evil is by no means a scarcity." Sensei advises, voice calm and commanding. Yes, it will all work out, Tomura believes. Sensei is in charge after all, and no one can compare to him.

"Of course." Kurogiri replies with a bow. "There is someone who we may be able to blame the decrease in our numbers on, although it remains unclear whether they are responsible for the messages." He holds up a grainy photo in his misted hand. Pictured there is a person with dark clothes donned in an All Might mask. Tomura already hates them.

"Who is that?" He asks, the words raspy.

"A third party. Possibly a new hero, but it is more likely a vigilante. The police have accredited him with the arrests of our new recruits as well as many other small time criminals. They could just be taking out villains indiscriminately and know nothing, or they could be purposely targeting us and the pool we collect from."

Sensei hums. "A new variable. Perhaps our plan needs revision."

Tomura stops scratching and a grinch-like grin grows across his face as an idea comes to him.

"No Sensei. Let me handle this. I'll kill him for you."

The reply is immediate. "I'm sorry Tomura. You are not quite ready to announce yourself to the world just yet."

Tomura frowns. "But they wouldn't know it was me."

"Tomura."

"Yes Sensei?"

"You will do no such thing."

Before Tomura could feel properly agitated by this news however, Sensei speaks again.

"It isn't necessary for you to deal with such a low level threat. I believe there is only one way to find a rat." The TV crackles ominously and Tomura finds a smile on his face once again.

"And that is to trap it."