Vigilante: Deku Means Useless

Understatement

It was an understatement to say Inko Midoriya was worried about her son. The poor woman was pacing back and forth in her living room on the phone with the Bakugo's for about twenty minutes, only taking a break after Mitsuki had told her about Katsuki's theory. Izuku had never run off before, or at least not for this long and god knows never during school. Occasionally, when the boy had a bad day Inko would find his room empty with a little sticky note on the fridge saying he'd gone to the library or on a walk. Though he'd never really be out for long, maybe half an hour or so.

But he'd never skipped school. Inko breathed and placed a hand on her chest. Stressing about her son wasn't going to solve anything, of course she was worried, she worried about him every time he stepped foot out the house! But, if Izuku had felt the need to leave school, then she trusted him. She'd found herself, after Katsuki's run in with rhat awful villain, being a tad too paranoid for either of their goods.

She sat down right as she heard the click of the front door unlocking, shooting right back up to standing as her son steps into the room. "Izuku!" Inko cried as she scrambled towards her son, holding his face in her hands, inspecting him. "What happened? Where did you go? I got a call from the school and they told me you'd left at lunch and-"

"Mom." he cut her off, removing her hands from his face to hold them in his hands. "I'm ok, I just wasn't feeling well and lost track of time. I'm sorry for worrying you." he smiled and gave her hands a squeeze. She sighed, then noticed the sand clinging to his jacket, and a small tear on his left arm. She furrowed her brows.

"Honey, we're you at the beach? I thought you hated that place." she breathed and ran her hand across the tear. "I'm going to have to sew this," she whispered, more to herself than to her son.

"Ah-" Izuku reached up to scratch his neck sheepishly. "yeah, I tore it on a piece of scrap metal while I was hanging out there." she sighed and shook her head, that beach was too dangerous for her frail boy to be walking around in. She didn't voice her concerns, however, instead telling her son to go take a shower since he smelt like salt and trash while she got ready to make dinner.

"And Izuku?" she calls as he turns for the bathroom.

"Yeah mom?" he turned fo look at her, finding her brows furrowed with worry and sadness painted in her eyes.

"Please don't worry me like this again dear, I had to call the Bakugous and bother poor Katsuki while he was recovering." she watched the way her sons eyes widen at the mention of his friend.

"Okay." he grinned again, but this time it didn't feel so much as a grin as it did a last attempt at covering up something he didn't want to be seen. Inko didn't try to pry and just smiled softly and tells him to get out of the living room before it starts to smell like him, and turns to get ready for dinner.

Izuku aggressively rubbed a towel to his hair once he got out of the shower. His old bruises had faded nicely, though some new ones had appeared from the days earlier scuffle, and his head wound has closed up and scabbed. He stared at himself shirtless in the bathroom mirror, he was skinny, and his pale freckled skin practically reflected the bathrooms light. He absentmindedly brushed his hand over his left shoulder where a burn scar decided to make its home. It was an ugly scar, Izuku decided, one he'd gotten from Kachaan when they were kids.

His jaw clenched at the thought that Katsuki probably didn't even remember giving it to him. They had been playing Hero's VS Villains, (Izuku as the villain, Katsuki as the Hero) and Katsuki had gotten a little to into his role. Izuku knew it was an accident, he knew it was. Katsuki at that point hadn't learnt to control his quirk and was still learning how to use it safely (not that he does now).

Izuku's hand brushed against the one a little closer to his neck, a more recent one that was only just beginning to scar. It had happened when he had told Izuku to take a swan dive off the... the boy shook his head and quickly put on his clean shirt and made his way for his room. Thinking about Katsuki wasn't going to help him.

Izuku sat down at his desk and opened his laptop to quickly type in 'Eraserhead pro-hero' into the search bar. He hadn't been lying earlier to the hero when he said he practically knew everything about the man. And he found it fascinating how he was essentially fighting quirkless, and how he could make his opponents lose their own quirks. Eraserhead had his own section in Izukus notebook, a little larger than most of the other hero's (though nothing compared to the section on All Might, but Izuku didn't frequent that book as much nowadays), and was a little giddy about meeting two of his favorite hero's in just a couple of days. Izuku's fingers paused when he saw a couple of images of Eraserhead pop up. He hadn't seen him very clearly in the alley, since it had been getting dark.

He felt his growing grin falter as he read one of the links that popped up. "Mysterious Person Defeats Mugger. Vigilante or Kind Passer by? Pro Hero Eraserhead on the Scene" Izuku quickly clicked on it and began to scroll, skimming the contents. Quirkless mugger... possible vigilante?... near Aldera Junior High... Pro Hero Eraser head picks up mugger... Izuku slammed his computer shut, eyes wide.

It would be an understatement to say Izuku Midoriya was freaking out.

Eraserhead. The man he was just saved by, was the person who picked up the mugger he had knocked out a couple days prior. And what makes it worse, is that the hero probably believed he might be a budding vigilante. "Crap". he whispered, his head in his hands. Vigilante? Him? A quirkless nobody? Could a quirkless loser like him even be a vigilante? Was that even possible? He ruffled his hair and groaned, he knew that he should probably be freaking out more and he suppressed a troubled sigh as he opened his computer again to quickly type in something dumb. He couldn't help it, sue him. He was curious.

Could a quirkless person be a vigilante?

Izuku took his time scrolling through multiple websites about the vigilante law and about hero licenses. He paused his search and slumped in his chair with his arms crossed and his head leaning back to stare at the ceiling. One constant in all of the articles (and even the official police ones) was that you had to be using your quirk to be considered a vigilante. Izuku felt a grin form on his face despite himself. He'd just found a loophole, and he's never felt as great full to have quirkless people be mostly ignored by the general public, and apparently, the law too.

He technically hadn't broken any rule if he wasn't even included in it. Izuku snorted at the idea that, if he wanted to, he could technically beat up whatever villains he wanted and not be considered a vigilante (provided he didn't die because of his weak nerd arms).

Izuku made his way to the dinner table after his mom called him, and as he ate he couldn't help but wonder what were some good work out routines? He was getting mugged too often...