Chapter Text
‘I know a way you can still be a hero. Pray for a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!’
“But I have a quirk,” Izuku whispered to himself, standing on the roof of a tall building.
‘Can a quirkless person be a hero like you?’
‘No.’
All Might had left him on this roof. Bakugou told him to jump off a roof. Izuku looked up at the sky and let his tears fall. He wanted to jump, he really did, but it wouldn’t do anything. His wings always came out when he fell.
He would know, he’s fallen five times.
The first time was when he was seven. Bakugou had pushed him down a hill in the forest they used to play in, and Izuku had tumbled down into the river. He had to walk home covered in cuts and bruises, with mud caked all over him. When his mom had seen him, she had been concerned, but then she noticed that there was something odd about his eyes – his pupils were a lot bigger than normal.
Izuku had been excited at first, his quirk had come in! He wasn’t quirkless after all!
That was where the excitement ended, though. His quirk wasn’t like his mother’s. It wasn’t like his father’s, either. It was like the man she had gone home with one night while her husband was on a business trip.
Inko pushed her son out of the window, only to have him sprout wings and glide safely to the ground. Once he had safely landed, the beautiful white and grey wings disappeared back to where they had come from, leaving not a mark to show they were ever there.
The second time, three months later, was a lot like the first, only that time was when his father threw him off a bridge. That was the last time he had seen his father.
The third time was when Izuku was ten. He had a broken arm from his mother’s beatings, and he had burns all over his back from Bakugou’s explosions, and Izuku just wanted the pain to end. He hadn’t figured out how to make his wings come out on command, so maybe the first two times had been flukes! Spoiler: they weren’t. He glided gently back to ground.
The fourth and fifth times were both more experiments than suicide attempts, he wanted to try to gain some control of his wings. He had managed to control the other aspects of his quirk to some extent, but those wings, the one part that was obvious, stubbornly refused to co-operate.
At least until that fifth attempt.
Looking down from the darkening sky, Izuku watched as the city lights all came on, and his eyes switched over from what he called ‘day vision’ to ‘night vision’ and the world was as bright as if the sun was still up.
‘You’re a quirkless freak, do you hear me?!’ his mother’s voice taunted him from his thoughts. ‘I don’t care about the truth, you tell everyone you’re quirkless, do you hear me?!’
“I love my quirk,” Izuku muttered to himself as he extended his talons to admire them. They extended three inches from his fingers and were razor sharp.
Izuku had been standing on the rooftop for hours now, it had been daytime still when All Might had left him here, and now it was fully dark. At a noise to his left, Izuku looked over and let his keen hearing guide his eyes to where the dark clothed hero with a long white scarf was making his way to where he was, no doubt to try to prevent him from jumping.
He spread his wings and took off before the man got close enough to make out any details about him.
~*~*~*~
Shouta paused when he saw the boy sprout wings and fly off, recognizing those wings, even if he didn’t recognize the rest of the boy.
Screech was a vigilante in the area with an Owl quirk. The boy was able to move silently, not even a rustle of the feathers to give away his movements, and Shouta knew he could see perfectly in the dark and could hear him from several rooftops away – as he just proved. Shouta had also seen the kind of damage the boy’s claws – talons? – could do.
But the most powerful part of the boy’s quirk came when he stopped being silent. He had a screech that could rival that of his husband, Present Mic.
Looking at the boy’s retreating figure in the sky, Shouta couldn’t help but notice just how young the boy really looked. That looked like a middle school uniform, but it was too dark to make out any details about it. It could be from any of the schools in the city.
Shouta pulled out his phone and placed a call to Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa.
“Eraser, what can I do for you?” the detective answered.
“I just spotted Screech,” Shouta said. “He’s younger than we thought.”
“Oh?” Shouta could hear the detective grabbing a notebook. “What makes you say that?”
“He was in a middle school uniform. Couldn’t tell which school, though. Looked like he was about to jump off a roof, but when he saw me, or heard me more like, he just flew off instead.”
Tsukauchi was silent for a minute. “You’re telling me that Screech, the vigilante we’ve been after for three years, is a middle school kid?”
“He was most likely in elementary school when he started,” Shouta confirmed.
“I was really hoping he was just small.” Both men were silent. “Now what? I don’t want to arrest a kid.”
“Same. I’ll try to talk to him next time I see him,” Shouta offered. “Maybe see about convincing him to enter a hero school.”
“You’d want Screech as your student?” Tsukauchi teased.
“There must be a reason he does what he does, and he’s got great potential. I was always trying to convince him to enter a reform program aimed at getting a valid hero license.”
~*~*~*~
Izuku shed his school uniform and pulled out his vigilante gear. It wasn’t really “gear” honestly, it was a dark grey hoodie, black beanie, black face mask, black jeans, and black boots with grey laces. There were holes in the back of the hoodie for his wings, and he always made sure his hair was completely covered by the beanie.
As he was looking at his gear, he thought back to how Eraserhead had seen him on the roof. Maybe tonight wasn’t a great night to go out. Maybe he should take the night and just—what? Reflect more on Bakugou’s callous words? If he reflected on this shitstorm his life had turned to, he might abandon the thought of jumping and just take a bath with the toaster instead.
Angrily pulling on his gear and wiping away his tears, Izuku opened his window and crawled onto his fire escape. He jumped off the fire escape and took off, relishing the feeling of the wind in his feathers.
He loved being avian. The freedom of flight was intoxicating, and Izuku couldn’t imagine not being able to fly. The best part was, the night sky was his, and his alone.
Hawks had tried to catch him once. Only once. All it took was a well-timed screech to disorient the red-winged hero and Izuku was able to slip away to the ground to hide. As sharp as the hero’s hearing was, Izuku was an owl. No one would be able to hear him if he didn’t want to be heard, and he had already blasted Hawks’ hearing, his ears would be ringing for hours.
He never tried to catch him again, even though he had seen him a few times since. Hawks still tried to talk to him, but never to catch him.
A sudden sound from below caught Izuku’s attention and he flew down, looking to stop whatever altercation was in progress only to find Eraserhead was already taking care of it. Izuku still perched on the rooftop, wings slightly spread out as he watched the hero work.
He’d be the first to admit that the hero was his favorite. He was quick and efficient in all his take downs, and he fought quirkless! What more could you ask for in a hero? Izuku wanted to be an underground hero like Eraserhead, but he’d never be able to now, not since being a vigilante.
He was about to leave when Eraserhead looked up and saw him. Wide eyed, he said, “Screech! Wait, before you leave, can I talk to you?”
Izuku had spread his wings in anticipation of takeoff, but at the hero’s words he relaxed his wings slightly – still ready to takeoff if he didn’t like the direction of the conversation, but willing to listen. He chirped to let the hero know he was listening.
With a sigh of relief, Eraserhead said, “I want this to be in private, do you think you can wait up there for me to get this guy,” he nudged the leg of the criminal tied up on the ground with his boot, “handed over to the police? Shouldn’t take too long.”
Izuku studied the hero for a few moments and then hooted in affirmation and walked to the center of the roof, away from prying eyes to wait. Ten minutes later, after the criminal had been handed over, Eraserhead showed up on the roof with Izuku. The teen crouched down, ready for a quick takeoff, but waiting to hear out Eraserhead.
He tilted his head and chirped inquisitively.
“I know you’re a kid,” he started. “I saw you earlier today in a middle school uniform. I couldn’t tell which school, but that was you, wasn’t it?”
Izuku nodded slightly and gave a questioning chirp.
With the confirmation, Eraserhead continued, “If you’re in middle school, then that means the only reason you don’t have a license is because you’re too young. We can always claim you were never told the proper laws surrounding vigilantism. If you were to apply to a hero school, I’m sure you would be able to get in. You not only have a lot of potential, but I’ve also seen you in action. You have what it takes.”
Izuku stared at him for a few moments and thought. He did want to go to UA, of course he did, he’d always wanted to go to UA. And to show off his quirk? That would be wonderful! To have people see and know that he had a quirk, that he had an amazing quirk! He was a pretty bird, he wanted to flaunt his feathers, just like all male birds wanted to do.
But he was supposed to be quirkless. His mother said so. His mother forced him to say so. If he threw off all those years of lying, of being conditioned to act weak and quirkless, then what? There’s no way his mother would let him come home.
“Screech, kid, look, I’m sure there’s a reason you do what you do,” Eraserhead said after it’d been a few minutes without a reply. “I’ve found that most people who turn to vigilantism don’t have the best homelives. If this is true with you, please let me know and I will do anything in my power to help you. If you are in a bad situation I can help, get you out. You just need to tell me.”
Izuku was still quiet, contemplating his words. He wanted to get out, he was so tired of the way his life was currently going. Tired of the constant self-depreciating thoughts, the suicidal thoughts, the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him he was a useless, worthless, quirkless deku. He was tired of being unwanted, unloved.
Could that really change? Could Eraserhead really help with any of that?
‘Only one way to find out,’ Izuku thought to himself.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “Izuku. My name is Midoriya Izuku.”