"Tomura, you have to calm down". In a dingy bar, a deep voice came from a screen with no video feed. The addressee of the voice, a young man with pale shaggy hair and cracked, dry, skin, has been throwing a tantrum for the hours since the news covered some hero attack on the yakuza.
The man, Shigaraki Tomura, turned to the screen with the best approximation of a pout his sallow face could make. "But sensei! Can't you give me a quirk like his? Why does he get to give buffs and level ups to other people, and still shoot lasers?"
"Well Tomura, if you bring him to me alive, I can certainly extract his quirk. Since he is a student at U.A., you can attempt to gleen information as you proceed with the plan. Just remember that you have a primary objective - Getting this boy will be... a side-quest of sorts. It won't have a time limit, in fact, it may be easier to complete after you finish your main objective, no?" Tomura kept quiet as the voice crackled from the screen, and smiled as it finished.
Right before he answered, a man in a suit, made out of purple mist, entered the room with a shallow bow, "I have received some news from Giran. It seems that some of the villains in the altercation we've seen have escaped, including some that were powered up by the quirk used by Lotus-"
"Don't... Say... his name... Kurogiri", Tomura interrupted the man in a fit of anger, resting his hand on a chair and letting his quirk disintegrate it.
Before Tomura could continue the voice from the screen spoke again, "Now now Tomura, don't you want to hear this out? Maybe you could recruit some higher level subordinates now? I recall you have been complaining about that for a while now..."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN LET IT LIE?" The blue skinned reporter yelled into her phone.
"I mean what I said, Curious". Her commander, Re-Destro, was on the other side of the phone. "This hero has an immensely powerful meta-ability, that can augment other meta-abilities. The last thing we would want to do is alienate him in any way, right? If you break this story, reveal his identity, or that of the child he liberated, do you think he would join us?"
Chitose bit her lips in frustration. She could smell an incredible story from miles away, but the commander was probably right... she could always get the story after they recruited Lotus.
Eventually, reluctantly, she answered. "Yes sir, I'll try to find more details so we can locate him".
She could hear her boss smile widely on the other side, "Perfect Curious! You are! as always! Amazing! I'll offer to send him free support gear from Detnerat, and for the girl as well. Try to find out if they had a prior relationship, will you?"
Izuku couldn't believe that it was only half an hour since Nejire, Ryukyu, and Bubble Girl caught up to him. He was lying on a hospital bed, with an I.V. in his arm and Eri curled up on his chest. She hadn't spoken much, and was completely silent ever since the hospital staff came with in needles. The moment she saw the doctor with the I.V., she curled into him and refused to look up (the implications of that behavior were not lost on him). Her shaking subsided when he wrapped an arm around her, and somehow he found that comforting the child came to him more naturally than he would have thought.
He simply needed to hold her like he himself had wished to have been held.
Mirai and Nezu were sitting by them, talking about everything except what happened. They knew that there would be plenty of time for that. No, currently they were waiting for the storm to arrive. He already begged warned her to not raise her voice to much, not to scare Eri. But with what had happened (He still had trouble understanding that he actually, legitimately, died), any yelling would probably be deserved.
The door opened slowly. Mirai tensed and the hackles on Nezu's neck raised. Eri shivered (from the chill wind that slipped inside the room, but he pretended that it was also part of the atmosphere).
All thoughts of levity shattered as Izuku saw his mother's reddened eyes - not a red that came from anger, but from crying. She sat beside him and held the hand not wrapped around Eri.
"I was so scared Izuku. When you were hit... I felt my world go dark..." Her voice was wobbling.
No matter how his heart ached, Izuku knew he had to choose his words very, very, carefully. He looked at Eri meaningfully, hoping his mother, hoping everyone (Mirai was still miffed) would understand. "I don't regret saving Eri, not one bit. If there was an easier way, I would have done it, as long as it meant that I would still save her today. There is nothingworth letting her go back with those horrible villains". Eri sniffled in his chest and cuddled in closer.
"Izuku, you-" Her voiced started rising a little, and Izuku immediately interjected, "I won't apologize for doing every single thing I could. I'm still learning to be a hero, and I'll keep getting better. I'm sorry that I still wasn't... wasn't good enough to do better, but I did my best, and I can't wait... I won't wait for three years when someone needs my help". He squeezed Eri a little and heard her exhale a breath she was holding.
"What about other heroes?" She asked, but her voice was less angry, weaker as if she was coming to terms with something.
"Mom, I was with a lot of pros, good ones. And they also didn't fail. They did a lot, and it wouldn't have ended as well as it did without them" Izuku was speaking faster now, starting to get a little angry himself.
"You call that ending well? Izuku-" "YES!" The spacious hospital room was shocked silent. The door, which was opened a crack by a doctor about to enter, was silently closed as that same doctor decided she was needed elsewhere.
"Yes, mom. It ended well. I saved Eri and that was the number one goal. I'm training to be a HERO. You knew that. I will never apologize for saving someone, and if I tried my very best, I also won't apologize for not being able to. I saved Eri and most of the criminals were apprehended. There were no civilian casualties-"
"I'm sorry". A muffled voice came from his chest. As soft and scared as when he first heard it in that alley only a couple of hours ago.
She was sniffling, but Eri still wouldn't raise her head, "D-don't fight with you mama... please? I-I-" She choked back a sob, "I'll go away! So then, then you and your mama won't fight, okay?"
Izuku held her closer, with both hands stroking her hair (and felt a pang of guilt when he removed his hand from his mother's). He shot a glare at his mom, tears welling in his own eyes. He waited before saying anything, he didn't want to let Eri hear him cry. Before he marshaled his strength, his mom beat him to it (she wasn't holding back a single tear).
"Oh baby no I didn't mean it like that", she reached out a hand to put on Eri's shoulder, but Eri flinched when she felt it. His mom winced, and Izuku could read the combination of hurt, guilt, and helplessness that made up her cocktail of tears.
"I know you didn't mom". Izuku sighed, then injected cheer into his voice, "Don't worry Eri, me and my mom cry all the time"!
Nezu interjected, coming to help, "He's right, you can ask Mirai-san here how he cried today when he gave Izuku a toy".
Mirai huffed as Nezu laughed, "I'll have you know, Eri-chan, that it was not a toy, it was a limited edition redacted figurine with full joint articulation". There was silence in the room as the three adults chuckled, "It's a very important distinction!" Eri nodded rapidly, believing Mirai if only because of his extremely serious intonation.
His mom breathed out slowly "Alright, then Izuku, I want to say thank you for coming back to me, and thank you for not doing anything that would make you live with regret. You're your own man already, but..." her voice broke and tears came out again "but also you can always come eat dinner and come back to your room and ask me for help making dinner and I'll always be worried for you".
She was laughing and crying at the same time, and Izuku joined her in both, "Of course mom! I love you and I'm still growing and you'll always be my mom!"
They both took a deep breath as if they were synchronized, and saw Eri peeking out between Izuku's arms. She looked at his mom, and before Eri could say anything she continued, "And Eri thank you!" The girl was so shocked she raised her head with her mouth gaping open. "Thank you for helping Izuku, it was thanks to you and your quirk that my boy is okay now".
If at first Eri was frozen in shock, Izuku felt how her muscles tensed now in fear, instead. "n-no... it's... it's a curse... my curse made my papa go away." She started squirming in his arms, and Izuku sat up so he could hold her firmly without hurting her.
"I don't wanna make Izuku go away! I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Izuku hugged her close, whispering to her that everything was okay and that it would be fine and not to worry. All the while the cogs in his mind were working overtime - what caused her to react like this, what exactly did her quirk do, and is the change he made permanent? He needed to help her calm down, and for now that just meant hugging her tight and assuring her that he wasn't going anywhere. It didn't take long for the already overwhelmed girl to tire herself out, falling asleep and leaving the room in silence.
Izuku knew that he may have rescued Eri from captivity, but there was still a lot to do before he could say that he truly saved her.
Inko was amazed at the change that came over her son. She knew he was training intensively. Ever since that day nearly a year ago, when she walked into Nezu's office and met All Might, their lives were turned upside down. She had learnt exactly how incredible Izuku's 'online chats with his friends were', how much he understated and underestimated himself. She saw him forge genuine connections and friendships. Even if she saw Izuku less and less, she adored the radiant smile her son had plastered on his face, and his blazing eyes full of life, even more.
Now, without noticing, when he talked about the girl he saved, when he held her, he had those same eyes, full of life and purpose. She just... never connected that radiance to reality.
He wanted to be a hero, and today she had a live demonstration of exactly how that would go. She expected to come in, yell, cry and hug him, ground him for a while and make him katsudon. She truly underestimated the changes in her son, and as much as Inko was loathe to admit, those changes were mostly positive.
She looked adoringly as her son absently stroked the child's hair and couldn't help a new sort of tears welling in her eyes.
"I'm so proud of you Izuku. So incredibly proud".