Pain (a vigilante turned hero Deku story)

Chapter Fifty-seven

Katsuki's eyes widened, he stared at Shota, eyes wide and tears threatening to spill out. Next to him, Neito was speechless, glaring at the ground.

Neither of the two students were expecting this, and they certainly hadn't expected what would happen after.

Shota fell to his knees, bowing down, looking straight down as he sat on all fours, his hands down in front of his head.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. I couldn't save her, I couldn't protect him, I'm a failure as a father and as a husband." Shota was holding back sobs, and the two boys had no idea how to process this.

Eventually, Neito knelt down, gently picking Shota up, he hugged the man, who, in turn, grasped onto the boy, silently crying.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Neito asked softly.

Shota didn't answer, not at first, unable to as his sobs echoed quietly throughout the room, the two boys didn't press further, realizing just how much this affected the usually stoic teacher.

It was about ten minutes, but eventually his quiet sobs decreased to that of a pitiful sniffle.

Shota had seemed to calm down enough to speak, responding silently. "I only just recently shook off the people watching me."

Katsuki grit his teeth, his eyes holding an animalistic rage. "I'm gonna kill him!" he shouted, slamming his fist into the wall.

Shota shook his head slowly. "No, we can't. The same fate will befall us, us three are the only ones who know, as well as Hitoshi." he spoke lowly.

Neito released the man, who stood up, wiping at the wetness coating his face.

"There is something though," Shota started. "Izuku somehow managed to give this to me before being taken away, do either of you know what it means?"

Shota showed the two boys a piece of paper, on it was a couple of lines in Izuku's writing.

The two looked at the sheet, before shaking their heads.

"We should show Nezu, he might know." Neito replied.

Shota nodded, before shaking his head slightly. "I'm sorry for that, I shouldn't have distracted you the day before the raid."

Katsuki grinned maliciously, "That's peachy, 'cuz I've got some rage I've just acquired that I'm begging to kill somebody, and that Chisaki bitch is gonna be my new punching bag." He responded.

Shota looked at the note once more, before crumpling the paper and shoving it in his pocket.

'One sad truth is that betrayal never comes from an enemy, but rather an ally, a friend. So what if you were friends with a traitor on the other side? Does that make you their enemy? Unlikely, as in this case. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even if it's only short lived, something I can assure to though, is that it is anything but short lived.' Shota recounted.

Izuku had written them this piece of paper, why had he made it so detailed though? What was his plan, he sighed sadly as he remembered the final three words on the paper. 'Learn of Hawks.'

Back to the present.

"Oof!" Came the voice of one Ruby, who had been slammed once more into the beach sand.

This was her daily routine now, wake up, train, eat breakfast, train, go to work, lunch break, resume work, dinner, train, go to beach to train with Izuku, break, then finally go out 'patrolling' until almost two in the morning. The only exception was Sunday, which she was told to always have as a break day, because while it's good to train constantly, putting too much strain on your muscles could damage them, doing more bad than good.