When Izuku arrived at school the next day, his classmates had already heard both about Kacchan's invitation to jump off a roof and Izuku's idiotic run-in with the sludge villain and they had apparently decided that the two must be related.
"The loser, there are easier ways to kill yourself…"
"He was just being an attention hog. Can you imagine wanting to die on live tv?"
Izuku ignored them. He didn't want to kill himself, that was stupid and would break his mother's heart. Not to mention that if he killed himself, Kacchan would get in trouble for suicide baiting him. There were a lot of reasons why the teachers didn't bother reporting Kacchan for his...more explosive tendencies, but one of them was that if Kacchan's treatment of him were discovered, he might not be able to go to UA and Izuku wouldn't be able to live with himself if he was the reason Kacchan didn't become a hero. Well, he wouldn't be living at all in that hypothetical situation, would he? Whatever, it was still the same concept.
If he were to die doing vigilante stuff, on the other hand…
Izuku shook his head. He really shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that, it wasn't normal. He sat down at his desk and sighed at the flower someone had put on it. Apparently, there had been some sort of unspoken barrier against telling Izuku to kill himself but now that Kacchan had blown that barrier up, the other students were more than happy to follow his lead.
Izuku glanced over toward Kacchan, who was very determinedly not looking at Izuku. No, Izuku should stop thinking everything was about him. Kacchan just thought that the view out the window was much more interesting to look at than a worthless Deku like him and he was right. Izuku grabbed the flower and went to throw it away amidst a chorus of giggles and whispers from his classmates. He could handle this, it really wasn't that much worse than it had been and Izuku was used to insults and threats. Why should this new evolution be any different?
Izuku had been wrong. Suicide baiting was different than what he'd been through before. A few days ago, he definitely suspected that most people would be happy if he died, but now he knew it. Was living even worth it anymore? Maybe it would be easier...but Izuku still couldn't be responsible for getting Kacchan in trouble or making his mom feel guilty. He frowned as he started to walk home. Being quirkless sucked.
Maybe he should go out and do some vigilante stuff later? When he'd researched it last night, he'd originally planned on waiting a few months to go out so he could get in shape and maybe get some fight training, but after the day he'd just had...well, he wasn't going to go intentionally put himself in danger, he was just going out to get the lay of the land, right?
He took a detour to a nearby shopping center on the way home, since he didn't really have anything appropriate to wear for technically legal crime fighting. His mom would be so worried if he somehow got a cold because he didn't dress warmly enough before going out all night, so he couldn't just wear one of his t-shirts. The problem was that all his jackets and hoodies were hero merch, not that there was anything wrong with wearing hero merch, but there'd been another vigilante, the Crawler, who wore an All-Might hoodie. Izuku didn't want people thinking that he was the Crawler because what if that guy got in trouble for what he did? Besides, it wasn't very polite to steal someone else's signature look.
He ended up buying a dark green hoodie. It was thick enough that it would keep him warm and the dark color would be good to help him blend into the shadows. Black would probably be better, but the store was out of black and he was left to choose between green or navy, so he figured he may as well match his hair.
There was a costume store next door to the department store he'd bought the hoodie at, so he decided he'd walk around and see what he could find to hide his identity. After looking at probably way too many different kinds of masks, he groaned in frustration. The simplest option would be to choose a simple domino mask, but one good punch and it'd be flying off his face. Not to mention that it might slide around and impair his field of vision, which wouldn't be safe at all. He was about to leave when he walked past a display of different goggles. That might be useful if someone tried to throw dirt in his eyes or something, right?
The only problem was that he'd be going out at night. The goggles would need to be tinted to hide his face, but then they'd darken his field of vision. Izuku frowned, then noticed a sticker on one of the brands.
Quirk enhanced, won't color your vision!
That would work.
Izuku tried on a pair and sure enough, even though he should be seeing everything in hot pink, the world looked completely normal. He shook his head a few times to see if they were secure. Alright, so the goggles weren't just going to fall off like a mask would. But did he really want them in pink?
He ended up getting the goggles in dark green to match the hoodie and his hair. It was much simpler to have everything match rather than try to worry about accent colors and everything. And it's not like Izuku actually cared about what his vigilante alter-ego looked like. He just wanted to help people. If he were going to be an actual hero, stuff like looks would be really important, but...he didn't think he even deserved to look like a hero. So, Izuku really didn't need his vigilante outfit to be anything special, he just needed it to be practical.
The guy at the checkout had a unicorn quirk, which Izuku thought was pretty cool. Did he just have the horn or were there other aspects of his quirk? Could he run faster than the average person? How did the horn affect…
"Hey kid, are you actually gonna buy that, or are you just gonna stand there?"
"O-oh, um, s-sorry." Izuku put the goggles down on the counter and the guy scanned them.
"Nice goggles, kid. You making a cosplay?"
"Umm…" Planning out his vigilante outfit was kinda like making a cosplay, right? "Y-yep!"
The cashier nodded, "Cool. That's where most of our sales come from, you know? But, by the way, if you're going for Hawks, we do have yellow goggles in the same brand."
"Um, no thank you. It's, uh, for something else."
The guy shrugged, "Gotta admit, I don't know all the heroes, but good luck with your cosplay. Hope it turns out ok."
Izuku nodded, "T-thank you. Have a nice day."
When Izuku got home, he hid the bags in the back of his closet and got to work on his homework, which was deceptively easy as usual. He always got through it too quickly, so he had to go back and second guess all his answers because his classmates, even Kacchan, took twice as long and there's no way Izuku was smarter than them. So, yeah, doing his homework didn't make him any less stressed.
Mom called him for dinner right as he finally finished. She kept glancing at him between bites like she was trying to check if he was ok. He didn't know why she was so worried, he hadn't had any negative effects from the villain attack last night, and it wasn't likely he was going to be affected by it now. And Mom couldn't be worried about the bullying because she thought it was a thing of the past. When Izuku was nine, he'd realized that the only one he was hurting by reporting his classmates was himself because he'd get detention for being a troublemaker, so he'd told Mom that it'd stopped and had taken up first aid as a hobby. So if it wasn't the villain attack and it wasn't the bullying, what was she so worried about?
"You're quiet tonight, Izuku." Mom said finally. "Is everything ok?"
Oh, so she was worried because he wasn't talking, that made sense. But he couldn't tell her about the vigilante thing, she'd be so worried!
"Yeah, Mom, all good!" He smiled. "It was just a long day at school, so I'm pretty tired."
Mom frowned, "Those teachers aren't overworking you, are they?"
"No, they're just trying to get us ready for high school and you know how much work that takes."
"Oh, well that's a relief." Mom smiled. "So, have you given any more thought to what high school you want to go to? I know you've had your heart set on UA…"
Can you be a hero? Not without a quirk.
Izuku gave a strained smile, "I-i'm not really sure anymore. Don't get me wrong, UA is a great school, it's just...I'm not sure it's realistic."
Inko got a look on her face that was halfway between relief and pity, like she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel. Izuku could relate. He finished his food and stood to take his dishes to the sink, "Thank you for the food Mom, I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight."
"Ok, baby." Inko stood to give him a hug, "Just...know that I'll support you, whatever you decide. Ok?"
Izuku smiled for real this time, "That means a lot, Mom. I love you."
"I love you too, baby."
Izuku woke up to his alarm at one a.m. and quickly silenced his phone. Mom was a deep sleeper, but that still didn't mean he could be as loud as he wanted without waking her up. He used the light from his phone and rifled through his closet until he found the hoodie and mask he'd just bought, then quickly pulled on an old pair of black jeans that had gotten ripped when Kacchan pushed him down the stairs last month and a black long-sleeved shirt. He put on the hoodie, but held the goggles in his hand for a long moment before finally just stuffing them in the hoodie pocket.
Even though he was technically going out as a vigilante, he wasn't actually planning on stopping any crimes tonight. Sure, Izuku's neighborhood wasn't the best, but there were always heroes patrolling during the day, so there shouldn't be too much crime at night either, right? Even if there was, Izuku didn't actually have to get involved. He just wanted to go out and figure out what the streets were like at night. They were bound to look different than they did during the day and if Izuku was actually planning on being a vigilante long term, it'd be best if he didn't get lost just because it was dark.
Izuku slipped on his shoes and made sure they were tied tightly before slipping out the front door and locking it behind him. Then he started to wander. Without the goggles, he just looked like a normal, if slightly idiotic, teen on a midnight walk. He figured he could always slip the goggles on if he ran into any trouble, but until then they would just look suspicious.
The city looked strange at night. During the day, the streets were crowded and Izuku was constantly being distracted by the sheer variety of quirks he saw, but at night, the streets were practically deserted. Most of the people he saw were either homeless or drunk or both, but they weren't really harming anyone, so Izuku didn't need to get involved. He made mental notes of where the darkest alleys were or where the streetlamps were burned out so that he could disappear quickly into the dark if he needed to, but there didn't seem to be any danger yet.
Izuku had been walking for twenty minutes and was starting to wonder if he'd even run into any crime tonight when he heard it.
"This can't be all you've got on you! What kinda guy doesn't even carry a cell phone?"
"I-i swear, that's all I have!"
Izuku ran to the mouth of an alley and saw a group of three large thugs ganging up on a smaller teen. He grabbed his goggles from his hoodie pocket and was about to run in when one of the thugs hit the brick wall with his fist and noticeably cracked it. Oh no, that guy was strong.
Izuku ducked behind a dumpter and tried to calm his breathing. There was no way he could fight guys like them! He didn't even have enough muscle to keep Kacchan from beating him up! If he ran in there right now, he'd die! And just because Izuku was kinda apathetic about the whole death thing at the moment didn't mean he was ready to walk into certain death. Especially when that death was almost guaranteed to be extremely painful.
But Izuku couldn't just do nothing! The kid was probably really scared, and he was starting to plead with the thugs, so Izuku couldn't just leave him. He needed to be saved. But...Izuku couldn't do that, could he? He really was a useless deku wasn't he? What was he even good at?
You can't do anything, Deku. Kacchan had said a couple weeks ago. Well, he said that all the time, but that was the particular instance that came to mind. The only thing you're good at is running away.
Izuku froze. He was good at running away! Most of the time when Kacchan beat him up, it was because Izuku was trying to defend someone else, but if he was going after Izuku himself, he was usually able to run fast enough to avoid a beating. Izuku stood and ran, unnoticed by the thugs or their victim.
It was a crazy plan and might very well get him caught on his first day as a vigilante, but he had to try.
Izuku peeked around the corner and sure enough, Amplifier was talking to a fan. He'd spent so much time watching hero fights over the years that he practically had every hero's patrol route memorized, but he'd never thought it would come in handy for anything besides taking notes. Still, there were only a few heroes that were active at night, but Amplifier was one of them, mostly because she fit well into the bar and nightlife scene and was able to control most of the drunks. She was also the closest to the mugging Izuku had witnessed.
Making sure his goggles were secure and his hood was up, Izuku grabbed a medium sized rock and chucked it at Amplifier, wincing when it hit her on the arm. He hoped he hadn't hurt her.
"What? Who did that?"
Izuku waited until Amplifier saw him, then gave her a shaky smile so that she knew his attack had been intentional. Then he ran.
"Hey! Kid, get back here!"
He glanced behind him and smiled in triumph when he saw that she was following him. He didn't really know how fast Amplifier could run, but she had to be in shape if she was a pro. Izuku sped up both so that they could get to the mugging faster and so that she wouldn't catch him. The alley was just around the next corner…
"Kid! Stop!"
"Help!"
"Shut up!"
Izuku ducked into a doorway and watched as Amplifier looked torn. On the one hand, she wanted to go after the punk kid that had thrown a rock at her, but on the other, the kid being mugged was obviously in more immediate danger. She cursed then ran into the alley to stop the mugging.
Izuku smiled, ran over to one of the buildings bordering the alley and started climbing the fire escape. Yeah, it probably wasn't very vigilante-like to stay and watch the fight, but...well, it wasn't like he was actually a vigilante anyway, right?
Izuku ended up watching the entire fight from the roof. His fingers twitched and he decided that he'd have to add a portable notebook to his vigilante outfit. Amplifier's quirk was better for evacuation, since her voice quirk was all volume and very little power, but she was able to imitate some of Present Mic's moves here since it was a small space and her opponents were in very close range. Mostly though, she used some form of mixed martial arts to take down the thugs.
Hmm...Izuku stood and started imitating some of her moves to get them down in his brain. If he ever wanted to actually fight anyone, it'd be good to have at least some ideas of what to do, even if he didn't actually have any formal training. He'd have to set aside some time to practice every day if he wanted to get better, but well...watch and learn, right?
Izuku smiled as Amplifier finished fighting the last thug and went to comfort the victim. He'd done it! He'd saved that kid! Well, he hadn't actually done it, but he'd led Amplifier to the fight! After the thugs had all been subdued, Izuku climbed back down to the street and ran off to find another crime to stop.
He may not be as strong as Kacchan, but he could still save people by playing to his strengths. And what was a useless deku like him good at?
Running away!