Death Penalty | BNHA Quirk Deku AU | DISCONTINUED

I Have Changed Everything

Izuku ducked.

That was his first instinct upon seeing Gran Torino propelling himself between random flat surfaces at ludicrous speeds: duck. And it somehow allowed him to escape certain death from a short old guy to the head, but there were many more instances of certain death from a short old guy to the head soon to come if he didn't do something other than duck.

As he watched Gran Torino go rocketing from one corner of the room to another, he remembered some stupid shit the teacher told him gym class three years ago. "Don't think of where the ball is. Think of where it's going to be."

Of course, Gran Torino was not a ball, but it still applied to him. Izuku dove for the corner he hoped Gran Torino was headed towards. His hands made it just in time; right after Torino had hit the wall, and right before he could blast off again. He brought his hands down on the little man's torso with as much force as he could muster, and was about to pull back the flap of his glove when Torino started clapping, interrupting him.

Izuku jerked away from Torino as if he'd received an electric shock. He pressed down on his glove flap, ensuring it was closed. He had an instinct to go straight to the death penalty, like judges in early American towns calling people witches for any abnormality whatsoever and having them executed.

He didn't like that instinct.

------------ Time Skip ------------

Izuku and Torino had a rather eventful first day of the internship. Izuku managed to pin down the old man for a second or two before NOPE-ing out, then Torino basically blackmailed him into using OFA, Izuku very nearly broke some bones, Torino gave him a pastry analogy that went right over his head, and Izuku broke the microwave and had to go get a new one. At the end of the day, Torino fell asleep on the couch - still in his hero costume, might I add - and Izuku stayed up till 3AM trying to jump between the walls of an alleyway.

At one point in his struggle to get the jumps right, a little girl and her mother passed by as he failed the second position and fell once again.

"Mommy, who is that?" He heard the girl ask her mom. "Is it a villain?"

He felt his heart stop for a moment. That wasn't what he wanted people to think of him. He made eye contact with the mother as she told her daughter she didn't know who it was. He hoped she could see it in his eyes that he had heard that word too many times. He hoped she could see how tired he was of being dangerous, while still managing to be weak. But he would never know if she could see how much her daughter's words hurt him, because she continued past the alleyway, out of sight behind the wall.

He scrambled to his feet and rushed the positions, not thinking about how much he was using, not thinking about where it was going, only thinking of getting to the top without mutilating his limbs.

And somehow, that's exactly what he did. He landed on the roof of one of the buildings, without any broken bones. He was about to celebrate by doing a back flip or something, but he then realized he was on a roof and didn't know how to get down from said roof.

...

This was going to be a long night for Izuku Midoriya.

------------ Time Skip ------------

Izuku and Gran Torino were sitting on a bullet train, nearing Hosu station. It was dark out, and they would be looking for skirmishes in Shibuya. Izuku was worried about Tenya; he hadn't texted back in a while, but it showed that he had read Izuku's message.