The Deku

Chapter 5: Dancing with Guns

Izuku, having broken into the old apartment, stood in what was once his bathroom, facing the mirror.

Something inside him didn't feel right.

Heroes don't kill. Anyone who dies in their care, whether fellow hero, civilian, or even villain... Their last fleeing moments haunt the heroes for a long time, if not the rest of their lives.

Yet the burning desire for revenge silenced any feeling of remorse and dread and shock. It almost gave him a comforting feeling like he wanted to dance for joy. One of the men who took his mother from him was dead by his hand.

And he wasn't even the one who killed the villain.

And now, Izuku had his gun in his backpack. He looked at it sitting at his feet and reached down. After some fishing through, he pulled out the pistol and inspected it curiously.

It was heavier than he imagined. He had no idea how guns worked, but if he was going to be a hero and stop those men, he needed tools to help him gain some leverage. Villains with Quirks don't even need guns yet this one did. And so did the one who killed him.

It was time Izuku made things fair.

He looked around inside the apartment. Following the days that his mother was kidnapped, the police and family services placed him and his belongings into the foster system and cleared out their family apartment. No one had moved in to it yet.

But he wasn't ready to give it up. His current foster family wasn't so bad, he just didn't want to open up to anyone else. He didn't want to be anywhere else.

Izuku spent the entire afternoon to evening taking apart the gun and inspecting it bit by bit, cocking the few bullets inside and setting the pin and trigger in place.

He got an idea and stood up aiming the gun at the wall next to a window. With two hands holding it steady, his finger pressed firmly back on the trigger.

-BANG-

Despite his flinching at the loud noise and brief panic, the gun remained fairly steady in his shaking arms and he looked to see a bullethole now in the wall, not where he was aiming but still in the general vicinity. If there was a target placed on the wall, the hit would have hit the wall just beside it. Not bad, but not good either.

Quickly he realized the commotion such a noise would cause, especially from an abandoned apartment. So he threw the gun in his backpack, swung the whole thing over his shoulders, and climbed out the window as fast as he could using sheer muscle memory.

As he ran home, a smile of determination crept on his lips. If this was how he was to be a hero, then so be it. The police can keep searching but he decided with time, he was going to take matters into his own hands.

And so the next day after classes in his general high school, assigned to him by his foster parents, he ran back. Only this time, he knew it wouldn't be a good idea to practice firing a gun in the same place, so he went to a park and waited until there were no patrons around.

He watched from the park bench the families and couples walking by and having fun together. He dared to see a young mother swinging her little boy around by his arms.

The green-haired boy refused to let it get to him but he couldn't stop a few tears from falling down his cheeks.

"Whatever it takes... I will save her...." He sniffed. "I will become a hero... And I will defeat those villains before they harm anyone else... Whatever it takes." He clenched his fists.

It was at that time the news flashed a notification on his phone. He pulled it out and stared at the headline:

"UA High School's USJ facility attacked by over 70 Villains! Leaders still at large!"

This prompted him to sit up and begin reading everything from every news station he could.

"Villain Group dubbing themselves the League of Villains!"

"Plans to Kill the Symbol of Peace thwarted!"

"Mysterious Villain with Multiple Quirks?!"

"UA First-Year Students Dead After Deadly Villain Encounter!"

"What's Next for the League of Villains?!"

Could they be affiliated with the men who kidnapped his mother? Izuku sighed. Probably not. He still isn't sure what their intentions are kidnapping random people off the street. Whereas this "League of Villains" had priorities to target big-time professional heroes...and students?

Izuku thought about those two UA students he met the other day. The cute girl with the brunette hair and small pink pads on her fingers, and the taller boy with dark blue hair and engines in his legs.

Of the twenty students in the class who got attacked, two of them didn't make it out alive. A girl with a frog-like appearance, and a boy with purple balls on his head.

All Might himself received a few bad wounds as well fighting a villain with multiple Quirks and the two ring leaders as well. Some described him almost looking like a skeleton once reinforcements arrived to finish them off.

Izuku's heart hurt. There were two students who died in that attack. More were injured. And the leaders got away.

Yet he was also intrigued by the villain with multiple Quirks. That was either an evolutionary miracle, or a Frankenstein's monster gone wrong. Judging by the description and the appearance in the photos, it was probably the latter.

The League of Villains had a way to give someone multiple Quirks and use them like a tank. Where did they find someone so desperate?

Was the monster forced to become that, or were they a volunteer? And no matter the answer to that question, are there more out there?

Izuku pondered and muttered these thoughts to himself until people were gone. Then, he pulled out the gun from his bag and channeled himself by firing at the trees.

Each shot grew closer to the center but still wasn't enough. He was still flinching too hard and not focused enough.

He fired again but it was just a silent click. Empty magazine.

"Dammit..." He cursed.