[ShigaDeku] Alternate Route

Ch.2 <Taking a Breath>

Midoriya could hear his mother on the phone in the other room. He couldn't make out much of what she was saying but he could hear a "...thank you" and "...goodbye".

'I guess that means I can stay home for awhile, I wonder how long...'

Midoriya was actually excited to be home for a bit. He was definitely going to miss everyone back at the dorms but it was nice to see his usual neighborhood after he woke up and went out instead of the school's campus for once.

He sat up on his bed and grabbed his phone from out of his pocket. 

He had no new messages, but it made sense, everyone was probably recovering in their own way (physically, emotionally, or both) from the event. He really should have been treated more too, but he was lucky that Eri's quirk worked at just the right time for him. 

Sitting there, Midoriya realized the thoughts of how maybe he really shouldn't have One for All seemed to be coming back. He couldn't just shake them away and they were gnawing at him, he needed a distraction, some sort of way to just forget for a bit. 

'Go to a comic store maybe?' But the only comics he really liked were about heroes and he wasn't sure that would be a good idea...

'Maybe hang out with Kacchan-No.'

'Grocery Shop...?'

Now Midoriya knew he was just plain bored and couldn't think of anything good to do to get things off his mind. He sighed a deep sigh, fell back on the bed and looked at the ceiling. 

'This room really is so empty, all my All-Might merch...gone! Well... I guess not gone since it's at the dorms. Did I take my games too-'

"Games!" Midoriya said aloud.

"Izuku, sweetie, are you okay in there?" Inko says from outside Midoriya's room.

"Yeah mom, I'm just going to go out for a bit."

"Alright, also you'll be free from school for a week starting today, so take it easy, please?"

Midoriya could hear a sense of worry in his mother's words. He was glad that he had a mother who loved him so much and truly cared for him.

"I will, mom." 

----

Maybe because Midoriya was always in a hurry to get things done and had extensive practice is the reason why he moved in a blur out the door. He made everything seem like training or a mission lately, but that's all he had been doing. He hurried to his destination, the one place that could keep his worried at bay, no more thinking about heroism for once, something rare for Midoriya to do.

"The arcade." He said quietly to himself as he looked around. He saw that there wasn't many people there but it made sense, it was a work and school day. He took in a breath and then let it out. 

'Okay, just going to have fun here, don't get competitive.'

Although having such a thought, it wasn't that Midoriya was the type to go 1v1 on someone as much as it was that he would try to beat high scores all the time. Growing up with having no quirk, Midoriya wanted to be good at something, anything at all. So when he had free time and spare change he loved to go hit the arcade up.

'What should I do first? I should try to avoid the hero games for now... maybe a racing game?'

Midoriya winced a bit at the thought of playing a racing game, purely for the fact that he was... short.

Struggling to reach the peddles at the age of 5 or even 10 was once thing, but being as old as he was now...

He could push the seat in, but adjusting his seat and having the humility of people seeing that wasn't a welcoming thought on top of everything else he had going on. Yet he saw that there wasn't many people today. He also realized it wasn't like all the times when he ended up seeing Kacchan and the rest of his gang of friends who would torment Midoriya.