What Makes A Hero

20

Suzie held up an arm to keep Sare from moving past her when she stopped and entering the trio's line of sight. Jin was absent from his bar for once, leaving Katsuo, Deku, and Kurogiri to sit and talk as they waited for him to arrive from grabbing groceries. The two had been recruited by him to help bring in the items while he parked the car. Now they lingered by the bar's back entryway rather than taking a seat like they planned to.

      "I won't go against Shigaraki."

     It was the first words that had been spoken into the silence that had lingered. "Huh?" Deku glanced up in surprise, barely stopping the stutters that he was finally breaking the habit of from escaping, "I don't think I've asked you to, has one of the others?"

     Kurogiri remained silent for a beat, and then another, "No, no one has said as much. For as long as I can remember, protecting Tomura Shigaraki has been my singular purpose for continuing this twisted existence. I can feel the pain as what's holding me together, as what's holding me here, strains to continue to do so... and through it all protecting him has been my one cause. He was so small... and scared, yet already filled with so much frustration for the world and never wanting a still moment for even a second to think about his past.  I can't stand what he has become... Sensei has warped that frustration into hate and he sees no other way than burning down the foundations of everything, but... I can't leave him or betray him either.... if that is why you offered me sanctuary here, than you should say so now and be done with it."

      "What?" Izuku stared at them, "No, you've got it all wrong, the others might be helping me with some aspects of my business, but I'm not trying to recruit you for anything! I swear."

     "Then... I'm confused... because I can see no reason for me to trust me like you do otherwise, or to keep me around... unless it's because of who was made into me."

"Kurogiri... Shirakumo might have been a hero student but I've never met him.  I have met you. It's not whoever you were in the past that I trust, but you Kurogiri. Hero, villain, civilian, the labels people are given don't matter to me, Kurogiri, I want to help people, and I'm not one to trust someone based on their public image. I've seen too much from people on all sides of the equation to trust like that."

     Unbeknownst to the two speakers, the Johnson sisters slipped out, Katsuo catching sight of them as they made their exit and following to see where they went. While, considering the occupation, most of them were well used to eavesdropping and strongly curious, they made a point to not do so to each other. That they left so quickly after rather than announcing their presence had him suspicious to the purposes of it.

    "What are the odds that they're still there?" Sare whispered loudly to Suzie as she was dragged along.

     "Fairly high actually... one moment," Suzie was tapping away on her phone, "There monitor the feed, come on,"

     "Are you sure this is such a great idea, you know that he's struggling between identities, we shouldn't bring up the past!"

      "He clearly dislikes that they remind him so much of who he once was, but you saw him staring at the news article just as much as I did."

      "Alright," Sare snapped, "But what if this doesn't help?"

      "Then he can get rid of it! We still have the file with that photo of Shigaraki, yes? We can get him a locket."