The car Izuku had chosen for his evening's pursuits, was nothing special to look at.
Shipped over from the old, refitted factory that he had built it in, back in the United States, and delivered to the offices of a dummy corporation he owned, B&B Motors, it was seemingly a common hatchback. Plain grey in colour, a shade not light enough to be considered to be silver, nor dark enough to be thought of as black, it appeared to simply be a plain everyday car, completely and utterly non-descript, but one which happened to have had its original registration plate removed and replaced with a fake one, while the VIN number had been destroyed. It had been designed, in every conceivable way, to look boring.
Designed to not be worth so much as a second glance.
But beneath the body panelling was a different story.
Almost every element of the car had been upgraded in some form, if Izuku hadn't decided to simply replace it outright.
The chassis had been reinforced with steel, in every way he could manage that wouldn't make it obvious from the outside, but he'd stopped short of building it a brand new frame from scratch. The carbon fibre body panelling had been replaced with an equally thin layer of carbon nanotube armour plating, while the interior of the wheels were filled with a ballistic-resistant jelly, so that in the event of someone damaging his tyres, he wouldn't lose complete control of the car and would still be able to make a safe getaway.
DEKU Tower had been built from the destroyed ruins of Kamino Ward. The entire area surrounding his tower had needed to be completely rebuilt from the ground up, and in the process, had been cleaned up and the government had achieved their goal of turning the area into something resembling an urban wonderland; they even constructed a brand new headquarters for the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department on the other side of the bay, giving the police a more visible presence on the streets than they would otherwise be afforded, which helped to make the entire city of Yokohama seem as if it were something new, a beacon, standing tall, bright and shining for all to see.
In reality, the truth was far different.
In the immediate aftermath of All Might's final battle, Japan had been plunged into chaos. With the loss of the Symbol of Peace and Justice, crime and criminality had increased, and naturally, so too had the levels of villainy, including those in the area. Looking after Yokohama hadn't been a priority for anyone at any level, in fact, it had become a liability for them to deal with, so the people still living there had to learn to make do with what they had.
Poverty had risen, the people had grown desperate, in the absence of any real form of aid, and now? Now, Japan's second largest city was quickly becoming considered to be one of the most corrupt cities in the world.
The new business district might have been clean and clear to look at and live in, but the rest of the city certainly wasn't. The docks were being used for moving contraband in and out of the country, almost as much as they were for moving legitimate business dealings; parks and alleyways were preferred for the cover of darkness they provided, rather than for the fun and shortcuts they were intended for; and apartment buildings that had once housed those in need, had either been abandoned or had slowly turned, over time, into dens of iniquity.
Drugs and prostitution became rampant, in what had recently been dubbed, "Old Yokohama", against the cleanliness of "New Yokohama", which included their new business district. The number of crimes reported in the air had risen to record highs, as had the number crimes remaining unsolved. People were living in fear, and neither the police, nor the pro heroes, nor the Commission, were prepared to do anything about it.
But Izuku was.
He used the car's rear-view mirror to check his appearance out, one final time, as he killed the engine.
A temporary hair dye, which would wash out after a single shower, had turned his dark green hair completely black. While his hair colour was a small detail - green was no longer the unbelievable colour that it once had been, prior to Quirks becoming widespread - it still wasn't exactly a common hair colour; one which you were guaranteed to see everywhere you went.
A pair of coloured contact lenses had also taken his eyes from green to blue, just in case anyone got close enough to have a good look at his face.
Using Hollywood-style movie make-up, he'd added a nasty gouging scar onto his left cheek, as if someone had used their fingernails to carve out a chunk of his flesh. He knew from experience that adding a detail like that, would make it the first thing anyone describing him would think to use to identify his features, which meant that in just under twelve hours, when it dried up and he washed it away, he would easily remain anonymous.
Just the way he liked it.
His usual daily attire, which had recently become limited to tailored suits, fitted shirts and silken ties, ever since he had taken DEKU Enterprises international, had been swapped out for the jacket, cargo pants and combat boots that he had once travelled the world in, worn down through use, and still slightly covered in dust and grime, despite both his, (and Rody's), best efforts to get them clean. He'd completed the look by jamming an old beany hat atop his head, squashing his newly dark locks down flat.
Taking a breath to steady himself, he realised that the time had come, and he got out the car, locking it behind him.
With his first inhale, he smelt the stench of stale cigarettes, cheap alcohol and what he was quite certain was urine, before he moved off.
He moved with his head down, his collar turned up, to ward of the chill across the back of his neck, and with his hands, covered by fingerless gloves, planted firmly in his pockets, where he could easily grasp the pair of brass knuckles hidden within.
He didn't need to be quite as careful with the handheld weaponry, as he was used to. The knuckles were still legally allowed to be carried in Japan, unlike back in the States and throughout most of Europe. He knew they wouldn't do much against someone with a reinforcement or durability Quirk, but other than that, he was certain that they'd be enough to get him out of most jams quickly, even if they would only get him enough time to run away and regroup.
He'd chosen one of the city's average housing districts for his first night out. He'd briefly considered both, the business district, (too bright), and the docks, (too large), to start with, but had decided on a place that would give him the best impression of the people he was here to see.
The people he wanted to help.
Because his main goal, was to help people.
Even he forgot sometimes, determined to see justice carried out, that his goal was to help the people and not just to hurt the criminals. When you defeated the criminals, but failed to save the lives of the people you were supposed to be protecting, that's all you had done.
Failed.
Izuku had no desire to fail.
So, he walked.
And as he walked, he watched.
With the late hour, he saw as the darker half of the city slowly came alive.
Men and women dressed in barely existent tank tops, skirts and shorts found their way onto the streets, congregating on street corners, and casually exchanging small talk as they stood together; while one groups of other, almost all of whom had heteromorphic Quirks, gathered around a single man. Izuku saw more than one brown bag swapped for a roll of yen, which could have contained any number of things, all of which Izuku assumed were illegal.
Despite the upheaval from the Dawn of Quirks, guns remained illegal to own in Japan for private citizens, and were restricted even within the police forces, yet Izuku had spotted more than one handgun, either tucked into the waistband of someone's trousers, or poorly hidden within the lining of their jacket.
These were the people that Izuku needed to see.
The scantily clad men and women were obviously prostitutes.
Prostitution had long been declared illegal in Japan, long before the first Quirk had ever existed, and yet, its presence continued to this day. The profession of selling sex was the oldest profession in the world, and for desperate people, it was one of the easiest ways to make much needed money quickly.
Even if it wasn't what you could describe as safe.
The ones who had come to form gangs, ("villain teams", was now the much more commonly used term, given that many of them used their Quirks), were easier to identify, and could be easily grouped together, based on their matching arms tattoos. While at one point, a motorcycle gang wearing matching leather jackets rode through, only slowing down to show their presence off, before speeding back up and disappearing into the night.
There were more kids than he felt comfortable seeing, the youngest of which couldn't have been any older than twelve.
And the further Izuku walked, the more of them he saw, and the less safe it appeared to be.
Izuku had parked his car in the neighbourhood with the lowest number of cars reported stolen. He didn't think anyone would be able to steal his car, (he had more security features to stop it starting without his presence than even the car belonging to the Emperor of Japan, and that was without mentioning the various trackers it contained), but in the world of Quirks, where anything was possible, it was important to remember that anything was possible.
And all Izuku had to rely on was the strength of his own mind.
He'd done everything he could to shape his mind and body into a weapon; one that he could wield against the criminals in the world that preyed on the vulnerable. Those that targeted the weak and the defenceless. Those that made widows of wives, made orphans of children, and those that made other people, innocent people, suffer for their own personal gain.
His eyes darted around him, trying to take in every sight around him, his ears strained to take in every sound, and his nose took in every smell, though Izuku was beginning to wish it wasn't. The further he walked, the worse the smell got, the more he saw and the worse everything around him looked.
These people were suffering.
He felt it was important for him to remember that.
Yokohama had once been one of Japan's greatest cities. They had well over a dozen Pro Hero Agencies operating within the city's confines, a police force second in size only when compared to Tokyo, and some of the country's lowest percentages of homelessness, unemployment and mortality.
Now, they were much higher up in those rankings, and in the metric that was unemployment, quickly becoming one of the country's leaders. Their police force was no longer the bastion of protection that it had once been, and there was no hero agency operating within the city limits, simply because no one wanted to be the first hero to station themselves in the same city, in which All Might had died.
Something needed to change.
=== === === === ===
His goal for the night was learning his way around the streets and scouting out the locales of his future targets. He wanted to walk the streets where his quarry lived and worked, so that he could get a feel for the type of people they were and the lives they had led.
He wanted to see them on more than just their worst days.
Izuku had never been completely broke, always just managing to skim by with what he had. He'd gone hungry, but never starved, and while he had been cold, he'd never felt as though he were at risk of freezing to death. The one pain he knew best, however, came from when he had been homeless, left alone with nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
It was an unpleasant feeling; a memory that sat heavily in the chest.
It was a lonely feeling.
He had actual friends now - people that he knew, that even on his worst days, would be there to help him, if he ever needed it. He had business contacts and allies from all of the places that he'd visited, but that very sense of loneliness, which had once occupied where his heart sat in his chest, could never be completely forgotten.
He wouldn't allow it to.
He wasn't ready for it to be forgotten.
He didn't think he ever would be.
It was loneliness and pain, and truthfully, it had been with him, ever since he was a little boy.
It had remained with him for his entire life, only now, he'd come back to Japan, determined to channel that same pain into helping people, into fighting his crusade on crime, but in truth, he knew he wasn't ready for that.
He had the means to do so; his underground lair was more than equipped to help him, and he had the money he needed to buy anything he didn't already have.
He had the skill to do so; he'd spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours in practice, mastering every form of combat he could find, be it with his fists, his feet, knives, guns or any of the other dozens of weapons he'd come across.
What he didn't have, was the method.
In fact, that wasn't true either. He had a method. He had hundreds of methods at his disposal, should he put his mind into figuring them out, but the method alone wasn't enough. There needed to be something else. He needed to find that missing thing, which continued to elude him, and until he could figure out exactly what it was, he knew that whatever he managed to come up with, simply wouldn't quite be enough.
Patience, he reminded himself.
He needed to wait.
"Okay sweetheart", there was a pained shriek, and Izuku looked up in time, finding a man grabbing a woman by her hair, "I think that's enough out of you". The man was as tall as he was, but older, somewhere in his mid-fifties, and his only standout feature was a pencil moustache, that Izuku noted was, in fact, a small moustache that was made of a pair of HB pencil tips. The girl, and at a glance, Izuku determined that, 'girl', and not, 'woman', was the right word, was a tiny thing, with a pair of pink bunny ears sticking out of her head, and a cute button nose.
He'd grabbed her by her matching pink hair, snagging part of her right ear between his forefinger and thumb, and was in the middle of attempting to drag her away.
"Just what the fuck am I doing with you?"
Waiting was the right move.
Waiting would be the smarter thing to do.
"I think you're done with her".
The words left his mouth before he even realised that he was speaking.
=== === === === ===
Hina and Rin Yaritezawa had been through more in in their lives than most people their age. From Hina's early attempts at drug dealing during their college days, selling trigger to whoever wanted it, (and could pay), to barely graduating from college in the aftermath, while still on probation, the two had stuck together through thick and thin. When no one had wanted anything to do with her, after she was nearly expelled and arrested, it had quickly become just the two of them, and upon graduation, Hina had taken the plunge and asked Rin to marry her.
She'd said, "Yes".
The pair had moved to Yokohama from Tokyo, hoping for a fresh start, in a city that didn't know them, or have any pre-existing judgements about their past.
They'd been there for barely a year when All Might destroyed it.
Theirs had been one of the homes destroyed by All Might's ridiculous fight with the Man in the Black Mask, and in the aftermath, they'd lost everything. They'd had no jobs to go to after their employers closed their doors, then they'd quickly blown through their meagre savings, before being kicked out of their motel. With no roof over their heads, the cat had decided to run away, and then they'd found themselves bouncing between local homeless shelters, just trying to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep.
It was only when Hina had managed to made friends with a new Trigger dealer, did they finally start managing to make something that resembled real money again.
"Looks like there's a guy chatting at Pistu…", Hina lit up the cigarette that was resting between her lips, "looks like it might even get a bit ugly".
"Hnnn", Rin pulled her pillow over her head, turning over and giving Hina a great look at her ass, clad only in a pair of white cotton panties, as she barely avoiding knocking over the bottle of vodka that she'd set down on the table, as she murmured, "dumbass", into the pillow.
"You said it, Babe", she took a long drag, expelling smoke through the open window, "should be fun to watch though".
=== === === === ===
He dodged the swipe of the knife with ease.
Pencil-Face, as he would now be known as, until he took the time to learn the man's real name, was slow to strike and quick to telegraph. A twist of his shoulders backwards, was enough to dodge the lunge he made with his knife, before Izuku lashed out, his right hand grabbing him by the wrist, before his left fist, clutching the brass knuckle, flew out, and it was more than enough to break the man's elbow with a well-placed strike.
It was easy.
High on his momentary victory, it wasn't until he screamed, that Izuku realised that he had made a mistake.
He hadn't checked his surroundings.
The others around him, standing together and chatting, were Pencil-Face's men. He would be the one paying them, and when their boss screamed, it was time for them to earn their money. They immediately came to check out what was happening, and the pounding of their feet against the pavement was enough to worry him.
Four men in all, and each one of them was running straight at him.
His mind filled up with strategies on how to deal with them, thoughts about how he should to intercept the tallest and use him to destroy their morale took centre stage in his mind, but before he'd even managed to take a single step, pain burst upwards from his leg.
"GAHH!"
It was the girl.
He'd assumed that she would be glad that he'd intervened and hit her boss; that she would feel relieved or, perhaps, even a little grateful to him for helping her.
He hadn't expected her to attack him.
It was a pencil, the same type that Pencil-Face's moustache was made from, and he assumed that was his Quirk, Pencil Generation, and the girl had pulled one free from his face.
Only to turn on his, and stab it as deeply into his leg as she could manage.
He lashed out in return, knocking her out with a single backhanded blow to her temple, barely managing to turn back around as the other four reached him.
He blocked the first punch, turning into an overhead judo throw, letting the man land headfirst into the brick wall of the nearest building. It was a movement he'd done a thousand times in practice, but he'd never had to do it with a badly injured leg before, and it showed. He was too slow to get up, and he paid for it, when the second man, whose skin was dark blue, met him with a right hook, a body blow that drove the wind from his lungs.
The man's hands were cold to the touch, his skin felt like ice, but that didn't stop him from retaliating. Grabbing at his wrist and pulling him in close, Izuku used the momentum to pull himself upright, and drive his knee into the man's stomach, returning the favour and driving the wind out of him too. Still dazed, Blue didn't have a chance to defend himself, as Izuku finished him off with a solid, brass knuckle-aided punch, to the base of his neck.
Two down, two to go.
The remaining pair were brothers, if he had to guess, with near-identical Quirks that gave them both feline traits, including short golden fur that sprouted across their skin, and a matching pair of green, slitted cat's eyes. There was no tail, whiskers, or any other physical change to their baseline human features, which told him that while it was a mutate Quirk, it wasn't a full mutant Quirk, but he felt it was safe to assume that it would give them some advantages in the purely physical aspects of life.
Which the taller one then proved, moving far faster than most men could manage, and while Izuku struggled to keep up with his movements, he was already behind him, one arm looping around his waist as the other grabbed at his arms, trying to pull them behind his back.
Timing was the key.
He pulled once more, as his brother moved in, but this time, Izuku let himself be pulled in, even helping him by jumping ever so slightly, and as he almost dropped him in shock, Izuku drove both of his feet into little brother's stomach, letting his feet barely skim the floor, before he lashed out a second time, driving his right boot as strongly against his face as he could manage.
"Wha-"
That was the opening he needed, dropping to his knees, and flipping big brother over his shoulders, and driving his fist into his face, giving him a concussion, and breaking his nose, if the amount of blood that burst forth was any indication.
He stood up, and almost immediately buckled.
His leg.
The pencil was still embedded within his flesh, but as Pencil-Face started to rise to his feet, and Izuku heard shouting, as well as more footsteps coming towards him, he took the only true choice he had left.
He turned around and fled.
His leg was injured, with every step he took causing him pain, and he was out of breath, which managed to make it feel even worse. It was possible that he'd also broken or bruised some of his ribs, meanwhile, all he'd achieved for the night was pissing off a local criminal, in what was now a failed attempt to save someone who didn't think they needed saving to begin with.
The entire night was quickly turning into a disaster.
He was right earlier.
He should've waited.
=== === === === ===
"Huh, you're missing out on all the fun down there".
From her place on the bed, Rin chose to simply groan in response, but Hina had known her long enough to discern her curiosity.
"Yeah, dumbass down there can fight. Taking on Pisstu and four of his boys like they're nothing", she took another drag of her cigarette and shrugged, despite knowing that Rin couldn't see her, "would've done a better job of it too, if he hadn't let Bunny Bitch stab him- and they're down. Ooh, that last punch looked nasty".
"Hnnn?"
"No idea. Strength, maybe, or something like that- oh, now he's running", she exhaled a lungful of smoke, "and here comes the cavalry. Bitch better get a move on".
"Huh-uh?"
"Maybe, if he moves quickly enough", she dropped her finished cigarette butt into the ashtray beside her, "but if they catch him", before letting out a low whistle, "then I'm betting it's gonna be game over".
=== === === === ===
Well done, Izuku, you managed to get no intel, learn nothing, and almost get yourself killed.
It must be a day ending in a 'y'.
His leg was slowing him down too much.
He'd made a right mess of things tonight.
The girl had never been in danger; at least, not while he'd been there. It didn't matter how dangerous the area was, people didn't kill girls on the street, or at least, they didn't without being killed themselves. She would've been safe, for a while longer anyway, and all he had to do was call in an anonymous tip to the police and see if they could have a patrol car drive past. The criminals would've scattered, and the fear of that close call would've been all they remembered for the night.
Instead of acting, he'd reacted, and how he was paying for it with an injured leg, and if he wasn't quick and careful, a hell of a whole lot more when Pencil Face's guys caught up to him.
They'd stop to check on their boss and their friends, to make sure that no one was injured or dying, but after that, they'd all be coming after him.
He needed to be somewhere else when they did.
It was a mess of his own making. If he'd been in control of himself, then it never would have happened, but he'd played himself for a fool, and now he had to pay the price. If he got caught, then that price would be his life, and everything he had planned, would stop before it ever got started.
His mouth was dry, his leg was throbbing, and he couldn't focus properly, his mind growing hazy.
He was already so tired.
He didn't remember making it back to his car.
Pencil-Face's followers hadn't caught up with him, he knew that much. He just had to hope he hadn't done anything else foolish in getting there. The pain in his leg was burning, and he took a moment to focus on it, using it to help him clear his mind, before exhaling slowly, pushing past the pain.
The car started with the push of a button, thankfully, he didn't need to fumble around in the dark for a set of keys.
He'd made enough mistakes tonight.
=== === === === ===
Author's Notes:
B&B Motors, the dummy corporation that Izuku has set-up for use in obtaining vehicle parts and, in this instance, shipping his vehicles around the world, is named for the B&B that created Batman: Bob Kane & Bill Finger.
While the Kamino Ward seen in My Hero Academia is fictional, it's designed and mapped to serve as a ward in the very real Yokohama City and would be composed of parts of the Minami and Naka Wards in the real world. In-universe, All Might and All For One's final battle took place here, which decimated the area, even more so than it did in canon, as All Might still contained the full power of One For All, and now, ten years later, is finally finished being rebuilt. Izuku has built DEKU Tower here, taking advantage of the mass construction to aid in his efforts as Batman.
Though I didn't name this one, I will let those of you who don't know, that just like with other My Hero Academia locations, Kamino Ward's name comes from planet Kamino in the Star Wars universe, where the Clone Troopers were manufactured. Similarly, this is where the facility that All For One uses to create Nomu is located.
The real Yokohama City forms part of the Kanagawa Prefecture, which I have chosen to mirror in this universe, and the headquarters of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department (KPPD) were already located here but have been upgraded and rebuilt, as part of the "New Yokohama" initiative.
The characters of Hina and Rin Yaritezawa are the same young adults that appeared in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.