Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter twenty-seven

A/N: This is, admittedly, a lot shorter chapter than I meant it to be, but we have family coming in so it was kinda a rush job. But I posted it a day early so... consolation prize?

Aizawa POV

I almost stopped breathing when I heard the two children speak at once.

Hito.

Izu.

Hitoshi is the first name of the teen standing at my side.

The boys know one another, they're friends at the least. They know each other well enough to be not only on a first name basis with one another, but are comfortable enough with the other's presence to even have nicknames of all things.

Hundreds of thoughts and questions filled my head, but someone spoke before I had the chance to voice any of them.

"So I know that this is the point where you normally try to arrest me," the vigilante, Izu apparently, started, looking mildly annoyed as he shifted and was no longer facing Shinso and I, "but can it wait? There are hurt people and a killer here that need to be dealt with."

I watched in mute horror as the boy nudged the sedated Hero Killer with the toe of his boot, once again having no regard for his own life. The boy seemed satisfied with whatever he saw, but still shot the man for good measure. The other teen made a strangled noise of panic at the noise but the kid only looked at him and shook his head.

"Just a slightly modified paintball gun with sedation bullets," the smaller teen explained, putting the weapon away on his person and moving to the boy to comfort him. The purple haired boy nodded hesitantly.

I took the moment to let them talk this out while I moved the third foolish boy to the mouth of the alley for easy pick up by the EMTs, returning to do the same to the other two immobile people.

Obviously Shinso didn't know about his friend's activities.

I guess he does now.

—-

Izuku POV

There was a hurt look in the other boy's eyes when I stopped in front of him. I knew that he had a right to be upset with me, I'd kept things from him even though he'd never asked them, but it still hurt to know that I was the one to cause the boy grief like this.

"So you're a vigilante?" Hito asked, his voice holding a bitter tone to it.

I shrugged, throwing caution to the wind as I have been doing for almost the past year now. "Not technically." Hito raised a delicate eyebrow in a questioning manner. "Vigilante laws aren't designed to cover people like me," I explained, keeping the explanation vague in case the pro hero was listening. I still didn't want him to know what I was, to treat me differently because of it even if it meant putting up with him constantly trying to catch me.

Hito laughed quietly, something soft and sad in a way that only those who have been hurt like we have could manage. "Only you would come up with batshit loopholes like this," the other teen said, the phrase almost sounding like a compliment of sorts.

And suddenly we were okay again.

—-

Aizawa POV

The kids emerged from the alley not much later, a rare smile on Shinso's face as he did, combating some of the deadness that always seemed to linger in the child's eyes, in both of theirs. The ambulances showed up not much later, three of them. Normally the police would come too, but they were meeting us at the hospital. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Icarus starting to slip away, back into the alley and away from anyone else that might try to ask the boy questions, but I let him go. I had to go with the ambulance housing the Hero Killer anyways to keep his ability in control on the off chance that he woke up while on the way to the hospital.

But he never got the chance to leave.

A violent roar pierced the air as a fly beast stopped down and grabbed the boy before anyone else could react. Only once they were in the air did I realize just what the creature was.

"A nomu," Shinso managed to croak out harshly, fear drowning in his voice.

Grabbing at my scarf, I was prepared to swing it at the flying nomu, to try and wrap up the creature's ankle while it was still close enough that I could get to it, but the effort wasn't needed.

I watched as the boy twisted in the beast's grasp, pulling one of his arms free and hitting the creature in its eyes. The pain caused the nomu to screech and instinctively let the child go, but the vigilante had already planned for that and had dug a blade into the shoulder of the nomu, using it to hold on as he swung himself up onto the shoulders of the winged nomu before driving another one down into the creature's exposed brain.

Every movement that Icarus made was smooth and precise, practiced almost as if he had faced all manner of nomu and knew just what to do to hurt them. As if it was only instinct and muscle memory at this point. I belatedly thought that the way that the teen moved was suspicious, but all manner of thoughts were erased as the duo started to plummet back to the ground now that the bioengineered creature was no longer taking flight.

The pair fell and struck the ground with a sickening crack that I couldn't tell which of the two that it came from, but could only pray that it wasn't Icarus. The boy was passed out when I reached him, blood splattered across his pale skin and dark clothing.

He refused to wake up.