Chapter Text
Endeavor was seething. He was pissed to begin with, but now his worst nightmare had begun. Originally he only wanted Shoto as a work study student, but of course his youngest had to be rebellious and invite his friends along. He did so in a favor to him and hopefully get into more of his good graces. His friends, while were decent enough in power, he didn’t approve of them too much. Bakugou was rude and had quite the foul mouth despite being good for a rookie. Midoriya, upon first meeting the kid sassed him and was very powerful, but at least he was a pretty respectful kid otherwise. He also had some connection to All Might and he wanted to find out what it was. Regardless, both boys had very strong quirks and were adequate enough to become heroes one day in the future. They both grew so much after a week and while he was now pleased they tagged along he didn't want to be alone with one of them unless he had too. That was exactly what had pissed him off as of late.
Eraserhead, or Mr. Aizawa, his son’s homeroom teacher, stopped in for an unexpected visit almost a week ago to make sure he was training his work study students thoroughly as he was doing to all his students. He reviewed their progress and reminded the Number One Hero that he needed to work with all three of his students and not only his son. Fine. He could do that so he set up three separate patrols to take each of them out individually during the two to four days they were there depending on the week. Of course Shoto was the first in the beginning of the week, Bakugou did his patrol yesterday, and now it was Midoriya’s turn. On the days one of them was going, the other two would be with his sidekicks doing minor patrols or learning about the simplistic duties, the grunt work. They’ll do a joint patrol on the fourth day so they can work together and see how each of them is improving. They would do this biweekly. The first two were very successful and each one improved more with the one on one then as a group. Shoto was getting better at controlling his flames and using both sides. Bakugou was ‘learning what he couldn’t do’. He expected nothing less from the third and hoped he wouldn't be disappointed. However, considering how far Deku had come with Black Whip in a week, Endeavor had high expectations.
“Are you ready?” Endeavor asked.
“Yes sir!” Deku answered.
Izuku Midoriya, hero name Deku, was an interesting student who had already done a work study before coming to his agency. Endeavor was pleased by this meaning at least one of them wouldn’t be a complete moron. He was at the Nighteye Agency who had given him a glowing review. Although a smaller agency, it still gave him a little leg up on the other two. He even participated in the yakuza raid he heard about that seized the quirk-erasing drug and the child used to make it. Endeavor sent his condolences to All Might’s former sidekick’s agency for their loss. Well, he asked his secretary to send something. It was no wonder why Deku had to find somewhere else to continue his work study. And being with Nighteye just added to the case that All Might and Midoriya have a connection.
The boy had a power that was so strong that it could severely injure himself if he used too much. That much was obvious at the Sports Festival and that raw power reminded him only of All Might. Not that he cared much then, but now, it made him wonder why Midoriya didn't have a handle on his quirk. Shouldn’t a counselor or something work with him? It was like looking at a four year old. A four year that could take a beating with shedding a tear. He clearly had quite the threshold for pain as he saw the scars on his arms and hands. He had no qualms about going past his limits. A warning he saw in his file from his teachers. This was a simple patrol so they wouldn’t have to worry about that.
He hadn’t thought about it when it happened, but the kid made him think. Apparently made his whole family think. Shoto wasn’t him. He guessed in return that meant he wasn’t Shoto. He wondered who he learned that mentality from. All Might maybe? It was Shoto who offhandedly mentioned they were close. It would make sense his old rival would share his teachings onto his students, personal or otherwise. When he asked Shoto to tell him about his friends, his son admitted he actually didn’t know much about Midoriya. Only that he lived only with his mother and was childhood friend’s with Bakugou. There had to be a story there because those two didn’t act like it except for the nickname Midoriya calls Bakugou. However, there were some other things that didn’t add up that he noticed.
He had yelled at the boys the other day in the locker rooms to hurry up and that they were wasting time. Shoto was being a bad influence and making him wait on purpose. He marched right in and Midoriya had freaked out quickly pulling his costume over a tank top. He only caught a glimpse, but it looked like it was covering something. Something that he wanted to hide that looked like burns. Also whenever he had his flames out in a standstill, Midoriya seemed tense and tended to stand off of him. When they were off he stood closer and was fine, but as soon as they activated it was like a fear ran through him. He was fine if it was during hero work. It was like something was overriding the boy’s supposed fear of his fire. Like only when he had time to think about it. He didn’t have the same reaction toward Shoto. That would do no good for him in the field. He kept thinking about the boy’s mannerisms and things he offhandedly said.
The over apologizing.
‘ It’s pretty rare I get to see a friend’s house.’
The secrets.
‘You’re a kind person. I think you’re ready to move forward. You’re just waiting.’
What was he waiting for? It sounded like he was speaking from experience. Did he have someone he wanted to forgive? As his mentor he should take notes into each of them and not let petty things cloud their judgements. Perhaps he should help him and it might be able to help himself. Learn from the boy who butted his way into his family business without even knowing it and who had All Might, the man who he chased after, in his corner. While training the boy, Endeavor admitted he had an ulterior motive, he wanted to know the connection, what was he hiding he could use, what made this kid tick, and what got him out of bed in the morning.
Izuku was trying to keep a straight face as they walked out of the agency together. This was his first solo patrol with Endeavor. He was so excited yet kind of nervous and a little scared if he were being honest only to himself. He didn’t want to think about it and focused only on the fact he was training with the current Number One Hero! Similar to training with All Might, but these two were on completely different levels. While All Might had more of a kinder touch, Endeavor had more of an understanding one. All Might was able to One For All right away while he was struggling much like how Endeavor alluded he had at one point.
He talked with Todoroki and sort of to Kacchan about their patrols and heard they were great. Well, Kacchan said he wasn’t sharing any details because he couldn’t let Izuku get better than him. However, Izuku knew if he got Todoroki talking that Kacchan would butt in trying to one up him. Worked like a charm! Regardless, they mentioned it was kind of boring as they only ran into petty criminals, but were able to train and figure out how to improve in the downtime. Izuku figured this would be as much. He had improved much with Black Whip, but perhaps he could learn to do more with it than grab onto things.
However, those feelings Izuku kept shoving down kept coming back up and if he was still being honest, Izuku still thought Endeavor was scary despite it seeming like he changed. Izuku knew he had to ignore and shove it into the back of his mind. He was his mentor and knew what it meant to become a hero so Izuku was going to watch him closely. He was still learning how to stand up and start walking, having just started to crawl. He hoped with these personalized patrols he would be able to one day start running.
Izuku took a deep breath as he saw Endeavor flame up. This wasn’t like before. This wasn’t him or like back in middle school. He knew why he was feeling this way, but he couldn’t stop it. It felt like they were burning him from the inside out. He wanted it to stop. He had seen how Endeavor was changing for his family so things would be different. They were just a student and their teacher.
“So Deku.” Endeavor started.
“Yes?” Izuku asked.
“You seem to have an analytical mind and how to apply what you’ve learned in the past toward your present and future. Bakugou is rather one street minded and Shoto, while being my son, can be rather opaque.”
‘Did he just call his son dense?’ Izuku deadpanned to himself. ‘I mean, I wasn’t going to say it, but that's what happens when you don’t learn social cues. Kacchan though, right on the nose.’
“I believe so. Nothing we learn is a waste of time and can always be used elsewhere. I transformed the way I can create wind pressure with flicking my fingers into Air Force so I’ll have more a long range attack–”
“I was talking more about how you have taken personal experiences and used it to form advice for others in similar situations.” Endeavor elaborated.
“Um…I’m not sure what you mean?” Izuku asked curiously, but also having a gut feeling he didn’t like where this was going. This wasn’t exactly what he was expecting when they would talk about training. Patrol talk was fine, but this was kind of weird. Izuku was aware he and Endeavor would have nothing in common and expected this to be very professional.
“You’ve been giving Shoto, my whole family actually, advice on how to move forward. I appreciate it despite it not being any of your business. I was curious if you would extend that to me. Did the person who wronged you ever–”
“You don’t know anything about me.” Izuku growled as his eyes flashed with anger and his top lip snarled up. His eyes glowed green for a moment as sparks of electricity zapped out of them. That gut feeling exploded in a sickening urge that tapped into his fight or flight response. Izuku usually took flight, but a quirk following through him finally allowed him to fight.
Endeavor was taken back a moment by the change of tone and attitude. Clearly he struck a nerve and guessed even he had his limits and thus overstepped. Generally Midoriya had a very ‘sunny’ disposition, but this…this was anger on a level he could compare to Natsuo. He had not let go of whatever resentment he was holding to. He suppressed this anger around others and Endeavor wondered if the person was still around. He sparked a deep hatred in the boy’s eyes and it was immediately noticed and shoved back down as soon as it was released.
“My apologies sir. That was rude of me. I would prefer to focus on training than talk about personal things." Izuku said as he started walking further. The aches through his body were receding as he realized he lost control for a moment going past his controllable percentage.
“No. I assumed something personal. My apologies.” Endeavor said. “Fuyumi says Shoto talks highly of you and you seem more approachable than my son.”
Although his face returned to the ‘normal’, Midoriya still had this sense of wariness about him. The kid looked at him like he thought he was going to bite or lash out at him. Endeavor admitted perhaps at one time, he might have. He shouldn’t let personal business interfere with hero work and cursed at himself for doing so. The entire first week seemed to have put him on edge. Everything he's been working toward came to bite back at full force. And that overwhelming desire to make things right just made the rest of this patrol, maybe work study, very tense.
“Endeavor! A gang of three villains were spotted three blocks west of your location. Should I send assistance?” A sidekick’s voice came through their coms.
“No.” Endeavor said looking down at the green haired boy who was listening intensely and looking the same up at him. “Deku and I can handle it. Have them start clearing the area of civilians and wait for extraction.”
“Yes sir!”
“Let’s go.” Endeavor said blasting off.
“Yes sir!” Izuku said as he powered up Full Cowling and jumped into the air after him.
The block was in shambles. Rubble laid all around the area and a thick layer of dust filled the air. Buildings were broken to pieces and weird shiny markings were plastered all over the place. From the initial glance it was almost like glitter glue smears. However, what was eerie was that the entire area was quiet except for the sounds of civilians in need of assistance and first responders arriving soon. The villains had stopped and one of them was waiting in the middle of the intersection like he was waiting for something.
“This might be a trap.” Izuku said.
“I agree.” Endeavor noted as he took stock of the situation. He was pleased to see the animosity Deku recently showed had vanished once it was time to get to work. Kid knew how to separate personal grudges from hero duties. A lesson that Endeavor realized he indirectly taught Shoto.“In situations like this, neutralizing the villain is what saves civilians. We’ll proceed with caution and I want to cover my six in case they try anything. In some situations we don’t want to provoke a fight that isn’t worth having.”
“Got it.” Izuku nodded as he looked on at the villain who seemed bored as he paced around the area kicking rocks that got in his way. Izuku quietly took in what he knew about these villains and made a note to watch out for the other two that were reported to be in the area. “He has a quirk similar to Master Driller and Kaibara from Class 1B.”
He had large drills on both of his hands that had and could do quite a bit of damage. This villain was responsible for the damaged buildings. He understood what Endeavor meant by they needed to assess the situation and threat beforehand. If he were to let loose again it would just make things worse. The surrounding buildings looked like they could start collapsing at any moment. However, Izuku took note that because of the sheer size of his drill hands it probably meant he was slow and needed tremendous upper body strength to use them properly. Izuku could use that to his advantage if the time came.
“What do you want?” Endeavor shouted as he glared at the villain as he tapped his ear piece twice. No one causes this much damage for no reason. What was his ploy?
The man’s grin made him look like a maniac as he gleefully looked entranced by Endeavor’s flames. As his eyes watched the flames burn he started to laugh.
“Oh goodie! You're exactly who I wanted to see. Wouldn't want to pull in some other wasteful hero. You’ve even brought an extra catch. Little runt looks like my colleague could crush him in a second. He'll be a nice snack. Everything is in its place! We’ve laid the perfect trap for you Endeavor! The Fatal Five will be the ones to start the end of hero society! Hahaha!” the villain laughed as he slammed his drills into the ground.
Instantly they whirled to life and dug into the street causing shockwaves to ripple through the ground like an earthquake. The asphalt cracked and crumbled under the vibrations and force being generated. It was collapsing in on itself and Endeavor noticed this area was where the deep underground sewer tunnels were located quite a distance from the surface.
“Get off the ground!” Endeavor shouted as he launched himself into the air and then toward the villain
“Now!” the villain screamed in delight.
Izuku’s eyes widened seeing the weird shiny spots all around that started shining brighter as if they were put under intense heat. Crackling noise echoed through the area that sounded similar to when Kacchan was preparing a large blast only with his palms. They were going to–
“Endeavor!”
–Explode. There must have been a villain’s quirk that allowed him to mark anything and later make it detonate. Similar to the grenades that Kacchan used, but nothing on this scale. These were like landmines or gunpowder. Each one flashed causing a chain reaction that ignited the entire area in dust, smoke, and fire. The concussive blasts knocked everything and everyone around. Izuku felt himself being tossed around like a ragdoll unable to stop himself or pieces of rock bruising his body. Neither one could see a thing, but Izuku could see Endeavor clearly thanks to his quirk. Izuku then realized if he could see him then the villains could too.
Izuku couldn’t see a third villain through the smoke cover as he fired a large blast of a murky liquid. The foul liquid extinguished Endeavor with a hissing sound as smoke exploded through the whole area as the force of the blast sent the man hurtling into the hole the other villain created. The man roared as he was then out of sight.
Izuku reached out with Black Whip to grab him, but his concentration was interrupted as a scream ripped through his throat as what felt like jaws with sharp teeth clamped into his ankle. He looks down, but can only see green scales and staining red with blood white teeth. The pain was intense and he felt like he couldn’t breathe for a moment. Sharp teeth dug into his boot piercing his ankle as he already felt the blood leaking out soaking his sock and shoe. Izuku gritted his teeth and growled as he fired up One For All and slammed his other foot into the offender. He grunted, swallowing his yelp, as the teeth dug through his skin slicing down from the initial puncture wounds. The offender reluctantly let go, but not before dragging him down below into the darkness awaiting who knows what.