A Tarnished Hero

Chapter 14: Brief Exchange

Izuku leaned his back against the sturdy metal chair, his eyes focused on nothing as his mind circled around the revelations earlier in the day.

His mother was dead. Midoriya Inko, was dead. Suicide, they said, because she couldn't bear living without him. She was also struggling, what with his father leaving her during his early years, but there was always one constant that made her stay to look forward.

Him.

And he left just as abruptly as his father did when he went to get the milk down the road. It was surreal. Here he thought he would be able to reunite with his mother after months of hell, and life decided that it wasn't meant to be.

Sometimes, he wondered if something from the far beyond hated him with a passion.

A chuckle escaped his lips as he rubbed his tired eyes. No, he wouldn't succumb to atrophy. His mother believed he could be a hero. He'll show her he can be a hero. He'll show them all.

The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling wobbled slightly, the force causing it to swing like a pendulum. Izuku raised his eyebrows when he felt the table tremble for a bit, but even after minutes had passed, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

So, he waited, eyes darting around the room to look for anything remotely interesting to soothe his under-stimulated brain. His ass was beginning to chaff from all the sitting before the door to the room opened, revealing a police officer that had a cat head.

And no, Izuku didn't mean a cat-like head. The officer literally had a cat's head.

"Come along now, Midoriya Izuku." The cat officer gestured towards the door to which Izuku raised his shackled arms. The officer wasn't even phased at the action and instead headed directly towards Izuku before he procured a key from his person. A quick insert into the locked cuffs and Izuku was free once more. "You are hereby cleared of all the murder charges after a significant amount of investigation, however the HPSC has hereby decreed that your vigilantism must be punished and as such, has assigned an agent to be your handler for your rehabilitation."

If Izuku wasn't a smart enough person, he would've never thought that the officer was just spouting lines from a predetermined script that was probably written by of the many lawyers in Japan. That said, he was grateful for the fact that he was no longer considered a murderer - it was idiotic to even suggest that the person who saved children from villains by killing them was a murderer - but he was a bit miffed because he was officially a vigilante.

Not like it was that much of a bad thing. Sure, vigilantes were looked down upon because they weren't handled by the government, but at least they weren't villains - except for the vigilantes that become villains. Those are the people he would gladly skewer with All Strike if they even dared to kill him. Not before he gave them a chance to run, though.

Following the officer, Izuku was greeted by the many eyes in the precinct, officers on duty milling about doing their jobs. They weren't surprised by him passing by and the eyes that glared at him made him guess that he wasn't the most well-liked person in the building currently.

It took a few minutes of navigating the corridors in pure silence before Izuku and the cat officer were standing just in front of the main door to the building, with Tsukauchi talking with Nezu and All Might still in his deflated form waiting for the two to finish their talk.

"But Principal Nezu. Wouldn't the HPS-" The rat's beady eyes narrowed at the detective and Tsukauchi clamped his mouth shut. Hell, even the other police officers who managed to see the exchange turned away and walked like nothing was happening.