The Serpent in the Garden - [todoshindeku] - Villain Izuku

Chapter Six

"I'm going to go to bed," Izuku said as he finished drying his bowl and turned to leave. Inko glanced up from where she was washing the dishes from that night's meal. Despite it only being the two of them, there was never a shortage of dirty dishes. Soap suds were all up her arms and some, somehow, had found lodging in her hair.

"But it's not even nine yet."

Izuku shrugged, wiping his damp hands on his pants and earning an exasperated look from his mother. "I have a bit of homework. And anyways, I have something I wanna do before Yagi-san gets here so I want to get to bed early."

"Yagi? Is that your trainer's name?"

"Yeah."

Inko hummed contemplatively, seemingly satisfied with his response, and turned back to the My Mum's Hotter Than This Tea mug she was scouring with a sponge that Izuku had nicknamed Bob. "Alright, sleep well. And keep your window closed, I always seem to hear the wind blowing in your room and I don't want you to catch a cold."

Izuku internally winced. It was only understandable that she had mistaken Kurogiri's warp gate for the sound of wind.

"Yep. You too, 'kay?" He sent her a soft smile before slipping into the hall and into his bedroom, locking the door behind him with a dull click.

After switching off the light and instead turning on the warm yellow desk light, Izuku quickly got changed out of his daggy jeans and this was made in China t-shirt, and pulled on a pair of clean black jeans, a long sleeved shirt saying this shirt has sleeves , his trademark red timberland boots and a slightly more presentable grey sweater with the word Sweater across it in black stitch.

He'd always wondered about getting a 'villain costume' but had never really considered it a real option. After all, villains wore costumes for much the same reasons heroes did — to be recognised, or to, in some cases, stay anonymous, and to have something easier to fight in. Izuku wanted to stay anonymous, sure, but he could easily achieve that without a full costume. Plus, medical face masks were much less suspicious and were like four hundred yen at FamilyMart.

He had, actually, done a rough sketch of a possible villain costume once when he was bored in class. Maybe if he never used it for villainy, he could use the design for his hero costume.

The main reason for not getting one however, despite how many times Kurogiri had suggested it, was that Izuku liked to be underestimated. It gave him an advantage over people at the same time they thought they had an advantage over him, thus making them even more vulnerable. If he didn't look villainous, he couldn't possibly be a villain, right ? Right.

So for now his dorky sweater would have to do. Despite himself, Izuku found himself wishing that he had something more presentable. A tuxedo, perhaps. A simple black one, like the one in his concept design. It was practical, comfy, and could be used outside of work. And it would be useful in a time like this. He wanted to appear more professional, even just a tad, for the Ambassador of Kakureta. Izuku wanted to form an alliance, and Kakureta probably wouldn't want to form one with a scrawny teen in his only pair of clean, and very oversized, clothing.

Izuku plucked the pencil out from behind his ear and set it deliberately on the table. He didn't want to be seen as scatterbrained too (no matter how much he was).

Reaching into his schoolbag, Izuku pulled out his new pair of sharpened scissors, shoving them into his back pocket. If they were there, it would make them seem like merely a pair of normal crafting scissors he'd forgotten about (so much for not seeming scatterbrained). Putting them into somewhere obviously suspicious like his boot would be too salient. And besides, trying to yank his weapon from his boot in the middle of a potential battle sounded like a bad idea. Better to have them easily accessible.