A Grey Thin Line

10

      Well, looks like Izuku was right about it being hell to hide his injury; he groaned as he woke up, his left arm throbbing angrily. Through a half lidded eye, Izuku snuck a look at his arm. It was even more swollen than it was the night before, and the bruises now took the form of a giant handprint, sporting undertones of blue and yellow as his body tried to heal. Thankfully, his arm wasn't swollen enough for his sleeves to show any noticeable difference; small mercies for the vigilante today, apparently. Quickly, Izuku grabbed his things, ate breakfast, and ran out the door, determined to keep his mom unsuspecting of his injuries.

      The morning was bright, sunshine filtering through the treetops to cast colorful shadows on the sidewalks Izuku walked down. Waiting at the crosswalk, he could help but overhear the conversation between two college students next to him.

      "I'm telling you," one teen began, "Kuroko's a hero, maybe not an official one, but in all the ways that count."

      "Except that he's breaking the law," the other argued, "when he's caught, he'll be treated like any other villain. He should have just stopped entirely, he had everyone thinking he was dead, he could have easily lived out his life without anyone being the wiser."

      The light turned green, signaling for the pedestrians to walk; Izuku wasted no time hurrying away from the two young adults and their debate. Looking around, his vigilante self seemed to be all over; the newspapers shouted his name on almost every front page, a news anchor was doing a section on him as he walked by the tv station. Everyone now knew of his presence, and were asking one question: "Who is the Kuroko?"

      He walked past the gates of Yuuei, noting the repaired barriers hiding within them. The halls were abuzz with chatter, mostly being gossip of the day before at the USJ. No one knew the fine details, but they knew enough to know that Villains attacked and the infamous Black Fox appeared. The talking became muffled as he closed the door to 1-C behind him, sighing in relief as his ears were given a reprieve.

      He perked up when he heard his name, "Midoriya." Shinsou sat at his desk, slightly lifting a hand in greeting, an even more slight smile on his face. "Hear about yesterday with class 1-A?" He asked as Izuku sat down next to him, letting his bag plop onto the ground with a thud.

      "More like who hasn't heard it," Izuku groaned, carefully placing his left arm on the desk in a comfortable position. "The news was covering it a little when I was eating breakfast, was anyone hurt?" He tried to seem interested as His friend told him what he already knew.

      "No, but there's rumors going around that Kuroko showed up." Shinsou explained as other students filed in, "Some of the 1-A students were saying that he showed up to help, even working with Aizawa to fight the villains."

      He would have continued, but their conversation was interrupted by a classmate stepping up to Izuku. "Hello," she greeted, cocoa skin pulled into a smile as she held her book bag on one shoulder. "we haven't been introduced yet, I'm Kahiro Amaya."

     "Midoriya Izuku." he said, sending a confused sidelong glance to Shinsou, who only shrugged.

      "I noticed you weren't in class yesterday," Kahiro said, placing her bookbag down to swivel her chair and face him. "Are you okay?"

      That was unexpected, all Izuku could manage to say was, "O-oh," he swallowed the rising lump in his throat, "I'm fine, Kahiro, I just caught a stomach bug that was going around my neighborhood."

      "That's good," She sighed, relieved. "hearing all of this villain attack stuff had me worried for you."

      "Me?" Izuku asked.