Heroes and Horrors (Izuku x Kendo)

Chapter 8: The Return of Sin

It had been three days since Itsuka had last seen Midoriya, and she was losing hope that she would ever see him again. It had quickly become apparent to her that Midoriya had not been lying when he said her life would never be the same. Her sleep was plagued by strange dreams and visions, and even when she was awake she could see hints of things beyond the veil of mortal comprehension.

Even with the help of Mina, Itsuka could not find any trace of Midoriya. There were barely any official records that Midoriya existed at all, the only hint being his official birth records and his mom. Even though Itsuka was desperate to find Midoriya, she was not crazy enough to track down his mom and talk to her directly. She had already bent the rules by using her pro-hero status to look into Japan's birth records, and she would definitely be punished if the hero commission found out she had been abusing her pro-hero authority by stalking some innocent woman to question her.

So here she was, alone in her apartment with her nose buried in her laptop as she searched creepy websites about various occult topics. The multiple hours she had spent online were apparently wasted, as no website she came across had any remotely credible information. It was all poorly disguised scams, cult-like recruitments, or cringey message boards frequented by otakus.

Closing her laptop, Itsuka groaned in frustration as she slumped down in her chair. Before she could even begin to complain out loud, Itsuka's thoughts were interrupted by a soft ding from her phone. Checking the alert, Itsuka sighed. She had been cooped up in her apartment for the past three days and had not done any pro-hero work at all. Now the alerts and texts about gigs and criminal activities were piling up, and Itsuka knew that if she kept ignoring her work it would only lead to more problems in the future.

Looking out the window at the evening sky, Itsuka took a calming breath and stood up. Maybe some work would get her mind off her predicament.

Quickly changing into her hero outfit, Itsuka checked her phone for some work. The week had been fairly quiet in terms of criminal activity. Besides the usual purse-snatching and drug dealing, the only major event had been a spree of ATM robberies in the city. The suspects were some teenagers, as security cameras had already captured their faces in high definition. Warrants were already put out for their arrests, and it was only a matter of time before they were caught.

So that left Itsuka with two options. Either go out on patrol and hope she comes across some criminal activity, or call up some pro-hero agencies and ask if they had any work to spare. Even though Itsuka was one of the few solo pro-heroes in the city, she still hated calling up hero agencies for work. She had no real weight behind her name, which usually meant any cooperative jobs she obtained were often the bottom of the barrel. Even though it was a guaranteed way to make some money, it was not much money to begin with. Plus there was the fact she had to swallow her pride and practically beg for some work. The whole reason she decided to work solo was so that she could be her own boss, and asking a hero agency for some temporary work really irritated her.

The only agency that treated her reasonably well was Hawks' agency, which was also the one her friends were employed by. Being one of the biggest hero agencies in the city they always had some work to spare, but the majority of the time it was either boring guard duty or dealing with complaints from citizens.

Gritting her teeth, Itsuka dialed the number for Hawks' agency. Immediately, she was connected to a logistical worker in their call center.

"Name and reason for calling." The call center receptionist said in a bored tone.

"Battle Fist, solo hero looking for some temp work." Itsuka replied professionally.

The receptionist grunted in understanding as the sound of clicking keyboard keys could be heard. "Desired timeframe for work?"