Trust the fall (on hold)

Regret is a silly thing

Millions of thoughts raced through his head. There was no way they could fight him, especially not out in the open, but also giving up the girl, Eri, felt almost evil.

"My daughter, she can be quite rebellious. She also seems quite accident prone, hence the bandages." He knew it was a lie, and from her trembling Izuku doubted Eri was the rebellious type.

"Come now, Eri." The man's tone changed, becoming much more dangerous. Izuku had to bike back another growl. "This is your daughter? We are very sorry that we might've hurt her." Mirio replied, drawing the man's attention.

"Please, don't send me back..." Izuku almost broke then and there, because he couldn't fulfil that request.

He couldn't be a hero this time.

"Go back to him, and we'll come for you, I promise." He loosened his grip, not really paying attention to what Mirio and Chisaki, AKA Overhaul, were saying. Almost instantly, Eri ran to Overhaul's side.

"Ah, we've come to our senses have we Eri? Good." He turned walking back down the Alley and away from the 2 students.

"See you later, Heroes." Izuku watched as Eri went back with the man who was doing who-knows-what to her.

Even though he'd done all he could, in that moment Izuku felt about as far from a hero as was possible.
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The trudge back to the agency was sullen. Mirio had called Nighteye to inform him of what had occurred, and he had ordered them to continue their patrol, just in case the Yakuza leader was suspicious from their meeting.

It made sense to Izuku, if they acted like the incident didn't impact them, then Overhaul would have no reason to suspect their were onto him.

There was very little motivation as the 2 looked for lost cats or Mirio gave directions, but it was the job of a hero to help, and so they did.

They finally made it back to the Nighteye agency, Bubble Girl quickly ushering them into Nighteye's office.

"Ah, welcome back. Now, we didn't get to fully discuss the situation, so please elaborate on what you said on the phone." Izuku felt fine with letting Mirio talk, having already informed the boy of all he'd learned from the girl. He saw the man's facial expression change as Mirio told him what they'd learned, his eyes dark behind his glasses.

Finally, it seemed they had told him all they had, and he let them leave. That's when Izuku realised that his fists were still clenched from when he let Eri go, shaking slightly.

He practically had to will them to be still again.
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Izuku walked into Heights Alliance, the 1-A dorms, coming face to face with most of his class. Nighteye had informed him that due to the sensitive nature of the investigation he couldn't tell anyone.

But he really wanted to, know if he'd done the right thing.

"Midoriya!" The ever energetic Kaminari greeted him, others turning as he walked in too. He tried to placate them with a smile, but apparently it wasn't enough. "You alright bro?" Kirishima appeared by his side, putting a hand on his shoulder. Izuku had to focus on not just shrugging the hand off.

He quickly slipped from the boys grasp, turning to him with another smile. "Just tired, you know?" It seemed that was enough to placate the redhead, as he let Izuku walk up the steps to his room.

A certain explosive blonde watched him all the way, but did not follow.
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Izuku flopped onto his bed. The events of the day flashed through his mind, his mind trying to see if he'd actually made the right choice.

He knew he couldn't have taken the Yakuza, but maybe with Mirio and his understanding of his quirk, and his other mysterious quirk.

But he didn't have enough information. From Nighteye's description, he somewhat understood the Yakuza's quirk, but not enough. Not how exactly it was activated or what it could be used on.

He knew, logically, it was probably the right choice, but that didn't make it easy, and it didn't mean that his mind would just let him off the hook.

There was a knock at the door, and Izuku groaned, lifting his head slightly. "Izuku? Can I come in?" He recognised the voice of Shinso, and decided that probably was who he needed right now.

As nice as Kacchan has been recently, he still wasn't the best with emotions, whereas Shinso had been there for him, although not always in the right way.

He moved to open the door not even bothering to put on a fake smile. It would be wasted on his friend who knew him best, even if he hadn't known him the longest.

"Oh, it's like that is it?" Izuku only gave a small nod, before walking over and face planting on his bed again.

The purple haired boy walked in, closing the door behind him. He sat down beside Izuku, waiting for the green haired boy to decide to talk. If he'd learnt anything, it was that he shouldn't force the boy to open up.

He promised he'd do it right this time.

He was almost shocked when the boy spoke up. "If you were in a situation where your only option is to either let a villain recapture someone they'd held prisoner, or risk a fight with an opponent you really don't know the abilities of, who would then take the prisoner anyway, what would you do?" He was confused, but decided to focus on the question

"Clearly, if you don't know the opponents strength, rushing into a fight is extremely dangerous. Especially if there was a high chance there would be another moment to try and retake the prisoner, the best course would be saving yourself, and any surrounding civilians." After it was clear he was done talking, they both sat for a while, Shinso beginning to wonder if he'd said the right thing.

Izuku lifted his head, eyes swirling with emotion. "Even if it's a child?"

Shinso met his friends gaze. "Even if the prisoner was a child." Izuku let his face fall back into the bed, a clear sign he was done, and had hopefully been given the lift he needed.

Shinso stood, walking to the door. Just as he was about to close it, he heard Izuku speak, his voice quiet from his face being pushed into the bed.

"Thank you, Shinso."

He closed the door, a small smile on his face.