The Deku: The Angel of the Quirkless

Chapter 2: Eri

Izuku walked down the busy sidewalk with his hood up over his hair and his head lowered.

He carried two bags of food from the store for his team in both hands.

It has been a strange few weeks since the night All Might retired and Izuku avenged his mother.

In the time since then, he was arrested, thrown in jail, broken out with a group of people who saw him as a hero.

And that is where things started changing with him. Deep down, all his life, he wanted to become a hero. Despite seeing the laziness of the justice system, he still wanted to see justice.

Expandee was the first person to ever see him as what he always wanted to be. He was one of the only members of that group from the beginning who supported Izuku entirely.

And the fact that he was Quirkless didn't matter.

"You're Quirkless?" Expandee asked their first day running from the police.

Izuku nodded.

"Wow.... You managed to do all of that and you have no real Quirk..." He gasped. "Wow..."

Izuku lowered his head in shame. "The others left us..."

"They had brittle hope." Expandee declared. "I think the fact that you're Quirkless and you managed to shoot up a League of Villains hideout all for your mother, makes you stronger than any hero with any flashy Quirk. You're a living inspiration. And where you go, people will rise up and follow."

The man put his hand on Izuku's shoulder supportively.

Izuku faded out of this flashback and almost ran into a tall young man in a flashy white and yellow costume.

"Oh, sorry! Didn't see where I was going, I guess. Haha!" He chuckled with a big smile.

Izuku took two steps back. "Y-You... You're..."

"Guess I kinda spooked you more than I thought." The boy shrugged. "I'm Lemillion! Hero in training." He jabbed a thumb into his own chest confidently.

"I-I'm..." Izuku tugged on his hoodie, keeping his face and hair as hidden as possible.

"That's okay! You don't have to introduce yourself. You seemed to be in a hurry. Don't worry!" The young hero Lemillion said. "I'll just let you carry on."

Before either of them could pass each other and go their separate ways, Izuku felt someone running up to them and turned around to find a little girl bumping roughly into him.

She squeaked and fell back on her butt.

The young green-haired boy looked down and immediately started helping her to her feet. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Whoa!" Lemillion gasped. "That was quite the nasty spill."

"Eri. It's rude to bump into people and not apologize."

As Izuku helped her to her feet, she jumped to him and held him tightly, refusing then to let go as she heard the voice.

Both Izuku and Lemillion looked up to find a tall man with short brown hair, a large green coat with purple fur, and a distinct beak-like mask over his nose and mouth.

Lemillion whispered something under his breath but managed a smile. "Is this your daughter? Sorry about that, sir!"

The little girl nuzzled into Izuku's chest, making him back off and knocking his hood off.

The hero darted his eyes over and almost dropped his smile.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. Little Eri here was being scolded when she ran away. A natural reaction for children. I guess she wasn't looking where she was going." The man sighed.

"Right, right." Lemillion said. "Guess you should let her get back to her father, right?"

Izuku could feel her heartbeat over his own. She was cold. And her body was covered in bandages under her simple dress.

"P-Please....don't go..." She whispered.

"She's trembling... What kind of scolding were you giving her?" Izuku asked.

"She disobeyed me and ran away. Children are full of emotions with situations they don't yet understand, but she will. I'm her father. I will raise her how I want." The man said.

"Let her go." Lemillion whispered. "...Now."

Izuku glared into the man's eyes. "What are you doing to her?"

The man in the mask sighed again. "Come here. I'll show you what we were doing."

He turned around and walked back into the alleyway from where they both came from. Izuku and the hero looked at each other before following him. Izuku still held on to the girl and carried her.

They watched as the man reached for his gloved hand, then the little girl jumped out of Izuku's arms and ran back to him.

"Oh there there. That's a good girl." The man said, putting the glove back in place and patting her head.

Then the two watched, refusing to follow anymore, as the man and girl walked away.

"Let's go. The girl has been reunited with her father. That's all that matters." Lemillion said.

Izuku frowned at him but walked with him anyway.

Once they had exited the alleyway and were back on the street next to the groceries Izuku had dropped, he pointed to Lemillion.

"You listen to me, hero. That situation looked very wrong to me." Izuku hissed.

"It did to me as well." He said. "We've been tracking that man for a while now for suspicious activity. Nobody knew he had a daughter..."

"I doubt it's his child too." Izuku added.

"We can't assume that."

"But we can assume she didn't want to be there. What if he's abusing her?"

The young hero sighed. "We'll look into it."

Izuku nodded. "Good."

"One more thing." Lemillion said. "You're that Deku kid, aren't you?"

Izuku slowly turned his head to face the hero.

"So what if I am?" He asked.

"Well. I won't turn you in. Not now at least. I think you can help me."

Izuku shook his head. "No I can't."

"You were able to tell something is wrong. She could be the key to finding out what he's up to and stopping it. And she ran right into your arms." He said.

"Well yeah. She's just a little girl trying to escape harm. So I gave her an embrace of safety and comfort." Izuku said turning to him completely.

The young hero gave a smile. "We may have our differences. But I think we can work together on this, don't you think?"

"The ability to read a situation doesn't make me a hero." Izuku frowned.

"...Not necessarily. But that, and you have other skills that could help us reach that girl again, if she really is in danger." Lemillion explained.

Izuku looked at the ground then back to the hero.

"I know it's not an easy decision to make. But I promise that any team-up will only make your life better. I'll talk with my agency heroes and come up with a compromise, okay?" He asked.

"Do whatever you want. But I won't be interested." Izuku said. He turned around and started to walk away.

"You saw the look of that girl! You saw her eyes. You said she was trembling and hurting. Doesn't that make you just want to run back there and rescue her?" Lemillion shouted.

Izuku almost dropped his groceries again as he stopped and clenched up. Yes, he did want to save her. But it wasn't realistically possible.

It couldn't be done. He would risk his freedom, and the protection of his people for this little girl. That masked man called her Eri.