Chapter 8: I'm Gonna Commit Some Minor Crimes Now, But It's For The Greater Good, I Swear!
ONE MONTH LATER…
"Oh, Izuku, would you look at this!" His mom is holding up a copy of the Musutafu Times. The front page has quite a few different articles, but the headline catches his attention.
DAGOBAH BEACH CLEANED
Izuku tries his best to hide his smirk, but he still can't help but smile. Once he finally mastered his ghostly transformation—which took a few weeks—the cleaning got a lot faster and easier. There are still a few piles of larger trash on the side of the street, last Izuku checked, but it seemed like the city decided it was more beneficial to put up "NO LITTERING" signs all over the place.
"That's amazing, mom!"
"It doesn't look like anybody's claimed the cleaning yet." Midoriya Inko sighs, with a small smile. "Oh, Hisashi, if only you could see it now…" She trails off with a mumble.
Izuku wonders what his father would think about all of it. Unfortunately, his theory of people with Quirks is most likely true, and he won't be seeing his father's ghost anytime soon. But it was a nice thought, at least.
He gets a glance at the smaller headlines on the page.
ALL MIGHT ON RETIREMENT RUMORS: "ABSOLUTELY ABSURD".
HAWKS NO. 1 IN POPULARITY POLL, BEATS ALL MIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. The second one makes his ego feel a little higher.
Ha, take that, All Might.
"Oh, dear, look at the time, Izuku. I need to be getting to bed. You should, too, mister. Summer break doesn't mean you can stay up all night, you know!"
"O-Okay, mom. Goodnight!"
"Goodnight, Izuku. See you in the morning."
Izuku nods, before going to his room and shutting the door closed behind him. He, of course, isn't going to be going to bed that night. It's one of his awake nights, and this time, he's going to do it. He's going to go out as a vigilante, for the first, official time.
The incident with Shinya doesn't count, since it was so accidental. But this time, he's got a purpose. He turns off his lights, pretends to go to sleep and waits until he's certain his mom is asleep, and tugs on the feelings deep in his chest.
His transformation into a ghost is—surprisingly—simple. It's a small burst of light, a small flash, a static feeling in his mouth, and bam, he's a ghost. He waits an extra minute after he transforms, just to make sure the flash didn't alert his mom to anything, but it doesn't, which means he can get a glance at himself in the mirror.
Izuku's ghost form is the strange reflection he'd been seeing in his dreams. The snow-white hair, the neon, cyan-colored eyes, the deathly pale skin. He was worried he would be stuck in the same clothes he died in, but he was able to change out of them, and put on the clothes he picked out for his vigilantism, and the protective pads, and they actually stayed in his ghost form. He tested it a few times, transforming back and forth when his mom was at work, and they stayed, which was great. He had a built-in vigilante costume, and everything!
The old clothes dissolved into ectoplasm the moment he changed back into a human, and he's glad he left them on the bathroom floor when he tried that, or that would've bleached the carpet on his floor. Easier to clean ectoplasm, which is a vibrant, toxic green, off tile, than off carpet.
Izuku cracks open the window in his bedroom, and then pauses. Just because he's a ghost, and nearly unrecognizable with his color swap, doesn't mean he should just have his face fully out. He grabs one of the extra facemasks, stored in his desk drawer, and puts it on. Easy protection.
And so, Izuku's first night as a vigilante begins.
✨👻✨
Of course, Izuku's first time out as a vigilante, and he manages to get arrested.
It isn't the best start to what might be his future "career". Quite frankly, Izuku isn't quite sure how far this vigilante stint will go, maybe he could win the public over enough with his adorable personality and they'd convince the hero commission to give him a license, what a field day that would be. But all he knows is what burns deeply in his core—he needs to be a hero. It's one of his obsessions, or at least, it probably is. Doing this makes his core feel fuzzy and right, so it's gotta be, right?
Yet he doesn't know what he should have expected, going out on the street, this late at night, with only a month-ish of training with his powers. He's in his ghost form—he's been building up to staying in it for at least two hours, which is his limit at the moment, so it wasn't even meant to be a full-fledged patrol, it was a quick pop out, go down the street, go home, and sleep.
But there was a mugging, and Izuku couldn't ignore it, but someone already called the police, and by the time he managed to take out the mugger, the police were there with their guns trained on him and he didn't know what else to do, so he let them cuff him, too, even though he's just a kind Samaritan who wanted to help, and threw him in the back of one of the patrol cars.
They didn't go for his mask or anything, at least; these officers weren't all that good at their job. Though, hopefully nobody would really recognize Izuku's face in his ghost form, and any pictures or identifying looks they got would lead nowhere in the investigation.
The cuffs were quirk suppressing ones, of course. Par for the course for any sort of police officer, especially in Musutafu. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but now that he's sitting in the back of the patrol car with the two officers—he didn't get their names, so they'll just be Officer One and Two—in the front seat, it doesn't feel very suppressing.
It just feels… tight. Like he's wrapped in a tight hug from his mom, or something. He can still feel his core humming under his skin, and he wonders…
"—good job tonight, huh?" Two asks, with a grin. They've got beetle-like eyes and antenna; some sort of bug mutant-type, but not unsettling enough to be considered monstrous. More on the cutesey side. Probably how they got their job in the police department. Not mutant enough to be freaky, but mutant enough to fill a diversity quota.
"Yeah, got a few speeding tickets, and caught a nobody vigilante before they could even start. I think we can call that a night!" One doesn't have a visible quirk characteristic or any sort of genetic mutation, so Izuku supposes they might be an emitter or transformation-type quirk, or something mental, too. Weak enough that he wouldn't try and be a hero, but strong enough that he could become an officer, something to that extent.
Izuku shifts in the backseat quietly. He's not buckled in, which could probably count as child endangerment if he wanted it to, but his arms are sore from the way they're twisted behind his back.
"Hey, did you think of a name, before you got out there, man?" Two asks, craning their neck back to look at Izuku. "I think Glowboy has a ring to it!"
"Nah, he's more of a Sparkle-man, I think." One says, thankfully, keeping his eyes on the road as they start to drive away from the scene, and probably towards the Musutafu Precinct, where Izuku will be processed as a vigilante and charged for illegal usage of quirk.
Two laughs. "Oh, Sparkle-man! Like that one comic hero, except sparkles instead of spiders."
Izuku doesn't respond, still focused on the buzz of his core under his skin. He knows that he's glowing, but out of curiosity, he glances down at his legs. He focuses on the tingling of his core, willing them to disappear, disappear, and—his left one does, with a bit more effort than normal.
Oh.
Oh!
That's… interesting.
From what he remembers from one of Amorpho's lectures, all quirks come from ectoplasmic radiation over the years, since the first Ghost Portal was opened in America. Izuku's own theory of Quirks—of them being roughly about 1/100th of a typical ghost core—meant that anything Quirk-suppressing would probably be unknowingly ectoplasmic-based, but it might not have enough power to properly affect Izuku. It would need maybe a hundred times more power to actually get Izuku.
And this is exactly the case.
There's still a delay in his powers, he should be careful to not get caught again after this, but there's still an escape for him.
He allows his leg to turn visible again, and focuses on his hands and wrists, willing them intangible. It takes almost half a minute for them to fully phase out of the cuffs, but once they're off, he feels his core surge, and his chest lightens, and he tries his best to hide his smirk. He's still wearing his face mask, but he isn't sure the glee wouldn't be visible with his glow turning a little brighter, or within his eyes, which were visible. He catches the cuffs in his hands before they jingle onto the seat behind his back, and he slowly sets them down in the back of the patrol car.
They—the police can't do anything with his powers.
Maybe no hero can. Izuku doesn't have a Quirk Factor, technically—he might have hundreds of them, bundled up into his core. Anything that affects the Quirk Factor would need to be hundreds of times stronger.
That's horrifying.
They can't do anything to his core unless they bring out things that are maybe a hundred times stronger than they already have. God—if Izuku was too scorned by the failure of hero society and became a villain, he'd be unstoppable. Thankfully, he inherited the Midoriya Stubbornness™ from his dad that would make giving up nearly impossible. Well, there's no use sitting in the patrol car anymore. He's not being held, he can just… Leave, now.
"Damn, the stupid hero fight this morning took out our usual route. Hey, Sparkle-man, are you comfortable back there?" One asks, glancing in the rearview mirror. His eyes widen with shock, though, and he curses, and the car swerves wildly to the right, and Two turns around and also says some very, very naughty words for a fourteen-year-old to be hearing, because as far as they know, Izuku is just… gone.
He'd turned invisible for a second because he wanted to revel in their reaction before he phases out of the police car, landing roughly on the ground with a thud. The car skids to a chaotic stop, and both of the officers hop out and immediately start yelling for him, One reaching for a radio, but by the time they're looking for him, Izuku's long gone.
He turns visible once he's sure out of their sight and lost them. Izuku can't help but laugh, leaning against the cold stone of the building behind him. Of course, out of all the people to become a halfa like this, it's him—useless Izuku, useless Deku, a Quirkless embodiment of a punching bag for every adult and peer in his life, suddenly more powerful than anyone could fathom.
It's terrifying, too.
He's got the equivalent of at least four powerful Quirks in his body (his transformation, his flight, intangibility, invisibility), and maybe numerous small, passive Quirks, and there's nothing anyone could do to stop him without inventing the World's Strongest Quirk Suppressants.
Oh—if Izuku ever became a villain, the world would be so screwed.
✨👻✨
"You're leaving? Now?" Izuku knows that this would have happened eventually, one way or the other; part of him knows that nothing good can stay, especially in his half-life, but he wasn't expecting Amorpho to be ready to leave so soon. Amorpho would have to go back to the Ghost Zone, the Infinite Realms, eventually. There isn't enough ambient ectoplasm to fuel their existence. "B-But what about teaching me everything? I, I still don't know what my obsession is, or—or my core, either—"
Izuku just didn't expect it to be so… soon. It felt like they'd hardly helped Izuku out. It felt like they'd just met. The mountains of trash no longer piled around them. Any free time Izuku had, was spent at Dagobah, clearing it to his best of his abilities, only leaving enough to hide any of his own power training from passerby's, but it isn't like there were many at all, especially at night, when he met up with Amorpho.
(In fact, it's kinda surprising to Izuku that nobody ever got any pics of him cleaning up Dagobah beach, but he's fine with the credit anonymously. He doesn't need the credit.)
"Sorry, greenie." Amorpho says. They're not as solid as they have been for the last few days. "I've pushed it a little too much, and I'd really not like to start destabilizing in front of you. I'll be catching a flight back to America in the morning."
Catching a flight back to America, they say, casually, as if it's a business trip. Izuku nods, though he can't help but feel somber about the whole thing. It feels like he's losing a friend, his first good friend he's had for a long time.
He doesn't know if Amorpho would consider themselves his friend, but Izuku found the other ghost's existence, advice, and knowledge helpful and comforting over the last few weeks.
"And, anyway, your obsession is something you gotta figure out on your own, I'm afraid. But you can do it. I believe in you, greenie."
"Um. T-Thanks for believing in me." I guess. It's nice to have someone else believe in me other than my mom, sometimes.
Amorpho chuckles, before leaning forward and ruffling Izuku's hair. Izuku's in his ghost form, trying to keep it for the two hours straight is exhausting, but he needs to build up his stamina in this form if he does become a vigilante. "Y'know, you look just like Billy when he was younger. Except your eyes are a little different."
"Billy?"
"Yeah, good ol' Invis-o-bill." Amorpho explains. "He was the halfa I knew. We go way back."
"Oh. I-is he, um?"
"Dead? Well, fully now, yeah. He's got a whole story to him. I'm sure you'll hear it eventually." Amorpho adds with a shrug. "You figure out a name yet, greenie?"
Since he's a halfa, he doesn't immediately form with a name in his mind. He doesn't know what he would call himself in his ghost form—perhaps some hero name? But all of his hero names before had been All Might inspired, and Izuku hadn't even thought of that pro hero in such a long time.
As much as Izuku would love to be able to flip the hero off and become the first Quirkless hero, well; clearly fate had other plans for him. He's happy with the outcome, happy he finally has powers (and maybe he'll register one of his powers as a Quirk, so he can at least escape the widespread Quirkless discrimination, but it'll have to be a smaller, more common one so he doesn't get connected to his vigilante persona); but it would've been more satisfying to show everyone that a Quirkless person is just as good as a Quirked person.
He wouldn't give up on that fight, though. He wouldn't forget the experiences that shaped him to become the human (and half-ghost) that he is.
"Well, don't get yourself stuck with Invis-o-bill, or something equally as stupid. You wouldn't live it down for the rest of your afterlife."
"I'll—I'll try not to." Izuku stutters out with a small laugh. "I'll miss you, Amorpho. T-Thank you for everything."
"Don't mention it, greenie." Amorpho says. Though they don't have a mouth, Izuku can still pick up on their own core for a bit—PRIDE-GLAD-HAPPY-PROUD.
Izuku feels his own core resonate, too. HAPPY-SAD-GREATFUL-THANK YOU.
Amorpho sighs, before floating up straighter. "Well, I better get going. Gotta get a flight to hitchhike to. If you're ever in the Zone, give me a call, yeah? I'll show you around."
Izuku isn't quite sure how he'd ever get to the Infinite Realms, but he nods, anyway, and forces a smile out, despite the mess of feelings churning in his chest. "That'd be great."
"See you on the flip side, greenie!"
Chapter 9: The Musutafu Phantom Has a Good Ring To It, Doesn't It?
Multiple reports are emerging about a mysterious new vigilante roaming the streets of Musutafu. This vigilante, dubbed the Musutafu Phantom, due to his ghost-like abilities, has made quite a name for himself over the last few weeks, stopping muggings and thefts before heroes can get involved. Despite efforts from the police department, no clues about who they are, or what their Quirk may be, have been discovered.
Officer Sasuke from the Musutafu Police Force stated, "We are actively investigating to reveal their identity and bring them to justice. Vigilantism is prohibited in our country for a reason. To the individual behind these actions, if you are reading this, consider leaving heroics to the professionals."
A local resident, Otani Shizuka, claims that her daughter had been the first victim that Phantom had saved. "She told me he wasn't all that much, just a young man who saved her from a mugging, with very unusual abilities. But we're all very thankful my daughter came home safe that night. These parts of Musutafu are so under-patrolled by heroes, both day and night. It's nice to finally feel like somebody is looking out for us."
Any reports of Phantom on the streets should be turned into the Musutafu Police Department, 555-2368.
~ SHINSOU JUN, The Musutafu Times
✨👻✨
"So, they're sending pros after me now, huh?" The Musutafu Phantom asks, without even turning around. He's sitting on the edge of a building, his legs hanging off the side, and if Shouta didn't know that the vigilante could phase through things, he'd be using his capture weapon immediately and grabbing the vigilante before he could even think about getting away.
Phantom is a mystery to everybody, even the press, who have barely gotten a few looks at him.
For someone with such a visibly identifiable quirk—glowing, white hair, bright cyan eyes, etc.—they haven't found anyone matching that appearance in any database. There's a possibility that he might know somebody with a quirk that changes appearances, but they've scrubbed the Quirk Registry in Japan and the only person with a quirk like that is an elderly lady in rural Hokkaido who had no connection to Musutafu whatsoever, so unless this guy travels hours to do patrols at night, there's no way he knows that lady.
An unregistered local quirk is possible, too, but the whole theory doesn't seem that likely.
So, they're at square one with Phantom, and haven't been able to move much further than that. Infuriating for everybody, but Shouta can't lie and say he's not intrigued by the vigilante.
Especially given how small he is. He's tiny, in comparison to the other vigilantes Shouta has encountered. Which could mean many things, but given Phantom's small size and higher voice, they might be dealing with a teen vigilante, a whole different headache on its own.
Tsukauchi asked Shouta to help out as a favor, knowing that he's going to be staying in the area for a bit longer as U.A. classes are set to begin, and they're hoping that his quirk might work on the vigilante, due to how… Slippery, he is.
He got out of quirk-suppressant cuffs.
While it might not always be the hardest thing to imagine, as Shouta's encountered a few villains who can and will just break their thumbs or are double-jointed enough to slip out of them on their own. Though, it is unusual how easily Phantom can escape.
"It'll be easier if you come with me." Shouta says. From what they've observed, Phantom has three different abilities, or some strange aspects of his quirk. Invisibility, intangibility, and floating, though Shouta wouldn't be surprised if the boy could straight-up fly, given how he seems to disappear so quickly, and end up on other sides of the city so quickly. Flying will definitely cut down on foot traffic; even jumping from building to building was taxing and not always the fastest option.
The three aspects were theorized to be some sort of atomic manipulation—as in, Phantom could manipulate the literal atoms of his own body—but that seems a little wild, even for Shouta.
"Well, where's the fun in that?" Phantom turns his head around, and his eyes widen. The soft glow around his body spikes for a second. "Oh my god, wait, are you Eraserhead?!"
What.
The hell.
Shouta didn't exactly know how to respond to that; sure, villains tended to know his name, mostly out of notoriety, but it wasn't a commonplace name. Underground heroes didn't have popularity polls, or any sort of numeric system, like the daytime heroes did. That would defeat the point of going underground, after all.
"How do you know that name—"
Phantom interrupts him before he can even finish that question, jumping up from his sitting position and into the air, and just—staying there. Floating. His legs seem to blur together at one point. "You areEraserhead! Oh, this is amazing! They sent you because they thought they thought you could cancel my 'quirk', right?" Phantom laughs, though it's a bit muffled through his face mask.
Shouta narrows his eyes. "Enough playing, Phantom. You can either come in willingly, or I'll have to force you."
"Well, good luck with that, Eraserhead! Oh, can I just call you Eraser? Eraser-san?" Phantom asks, the threat completely bouncing off him like water on a duck.
Shouta ignores Phantom's quips and activates his quirk. He's expecting Phantom to fall from his floating position onto the ground, where he can easily use his capture weapon on the vigilante, but—
Nothing happens.
He ignores the urge to blink, but after a second, he has to, anyway.
It's—it's—what.
How.
This shouldn't be… possible?
There is a possibility that Phantom's quirk is a mutant-type after all, which would explain the glowing, and the deathly pale skin color, but he tries again, and still, nothing happens. But Erasure should have done something to Phantom, even if it was a mutant-type quirk. Something should have—stopped, or Phantom should have flinched, or something, but nothing happens.
Phantom blinks at him. His eyes are almost like a cat's eyes; the pupils aren't round like a human's, they're a little sharp and pointy. "Your quirk didn't work on me, did it?" He giggles, as if it's the funniest thing he's heard all day. "Y'know, I keep trying to tell people, I don't have a quirk, but nobody ever listens." Phantom shrugs, flipping in the air nonchalantly. "Anyway, I'm sure I'll see you again sometime, Eraser-san, but I've gotta go! Ghost-boy, out!"
Phantom blinks out of existence before Shouta's very eyes. He stands there for a second, looking around, half-expecting Phantom to appear again, and maybe taunt him more, but he doesn't. Phantom had his fun, and disappeared, just like he's done to every other hero and police officer who tried to catch him. He might be—no, that shouldn't be possible. Every person had their limit. They would just need to find Phantom's limit. One night he'll mess up, go too far, and hurt himself, and as much as Shouta hates to think it, he hopes it's soon, because if Phantom is as young as he seems to be…
No, he doesn't want to think about what might happen.
Fine. He'll do things the slow way.
There's no denying that Phantom is a usefulvigilante, especially in a part of Musutafu that doesn't get patrolled by heroes as often. Shouta tries to help out where he can during the school year, when he's in the city around U.A., but usually his patrols lined up closer to the school, so he could get in and out of his staff apartment easier.
But maybe this year he'll have to hang out on this side of the city. Keep an eye on Phantom. If he really is a kid, then, well, Shouta should try and teach him to not get himself killed, at least. Maybe he could get Phantom to come willingly with him, maybe he could even get Phantom into U.A., or help him get a proper hero license through a rehabilitation program. He's done it before with other vigilantes. It wouldn't be anything new to Shouta.
He keeps an eye out still, before sighing, and dropping down onto the fire escape with a soft thunk. Not loud enough to wake anybody up nearby sleeping, though there shouldn't be any apartments or residential homes nearby him in this part of the city.
One thing sticks in Shouta's brain.
I don't have a quirk, Phantom said.
He obviously does. Quirkless people can't walk through walls, disappear, and fly.
What kind of quirk, though, was the question. If they could figure that out, they could figure out how to trap him easier.
Once down on the ground, making sure nothing else was going around him, Shouta pulls out his phone and dials up Tsukauchi.
"My quirk doesn't work on him." Shouta says, without a greeting.
"Damn it… I was afraid of that." Tsukauchi sighs on the other end. "Well, thanks for the hand, Eraserhead. I guess we'll just need to figure something else out."
"Keep me on the case." Shouta clarifies, though there's a strange feeling that someone is watching him from behind. He turns, and sees nothing but darkness. Though, his gut is telling him, maybe Phantom's still out there, and didn't leave, so he starts walking out on the sidewalk and away from the alleyway. Walking out of it gets rid of the creepy feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Keep me on the case, and I'll see if I can get him in the long way."
"Er—Aizawa, thank you for that offer. I don't know if I could ask you to do that, though."
"I have an apartment at U.A. during the school year, so I will be in the city. It's just a matter of changing the patrol route to keep up with him." Shouta sighs. "He's a kid."
"What do you mean, a kid? Like, twenties or—or younger?"
"Younger. He can't be any younger than a first-year I deal with."
"Well, shit. That makes everything more complicated." Tsukauchi audibly shudders on the other end of the line. Shouta glances both ways before crossing the street in front of him. "…I really hope his quirk is just something that gives him ghost powers. I'd hate to think…"
Shouta tries to not chuckle as he responds. "Tsukauchi, ghosts don't exist."
✨👻✨
Shinsou Hitoshi is still in awe that he's a U.A. student.
Of course, the help Hitoshi got from Aizawa-sensei—who is now his homeroom teacher, what gives, not even a heads up on that?—is what helped push him through the Entrance Exam. If he hadn't been strength-training for those months beforehand, there's no way that he would have been able to pass it as well as he did. He didn't do the best, but he was roughly in the middle of the pack.
The surprise of rescue points is what saved his ass the most in the end. He hadn't even thought much about the aid he'd been giving to the other students, trying to take the test with him. His competitors, with the stronger, flashier Quirks-- like the boy who could make explosions or the girl with the earphone jacks on her earlobes—were going beat him, no matter what, in a fight against robots. Hitoshi didn't even use his Quirk once during the test.
But he still got in. On his strength alone (by prying metal pieces from the robots and using them to make a makeshift weapon to beat other robots into pieces) and by his refusal to leave anyone behind, even if they were supposed to be against him.
Their first day is… Well, it's something.
"A Quirk apprehension test?" One of the girls, with her brown hair cut in a bob, asks next to him.
Aizawa-sensei asked (well, more like demanded) everyone in Class 1-A to meet him at one of the fields, changed into their gym clothes, instead of heading to their orientation in the main auditorium. Hitoshi knows that U.A. is going to be a different experience form his junior high days, but he isn't quite sure what to expect.
"Bakugou Katsuki." Aizawa-sensei grunts, turning to the explosive blond boy. "How far was your ball throw in junior high?"
"Sixty-seven meters." Bakugou says.
"Now. Try it with your Quirk."
With his Quirk? Bakugou steps up without fear, taking the ball from Aizawa-sense and stepping into the circle by the ball pitch. The only rule is: don't step out of the circle. Bakugou glances down at the ball before smirking, a look that send a shiver down Hitoshi's spine, before he wound back up and threw the ball with a loud explosion, yelling, "DIE!"
…Die?
Aizawa-sensei watches the ball fly off, before it lands quite a distance away. He turns back to the class, and shows from the screen of his tablet—750 meters. The students around Hitoshi gasp, and break out into a mixture of applause and chatter.
"750 meters? Seriously?"
"Did anyone notice he yelled 'die', or was that just me?"
"We can use our Quirks as much as we want? This will be fun!"
"Fun?" Aizawa-sensei's voice breaks through the chatter, cold as ice. It's not quite the same voice Hitoshi could ever imagine hearing, but knowing the pro-hero as Eraserhead, it sounds like the voice he would probably use on villains. "You have three years to learn how to be a hero here. Hero work is not fun. Hero work can and will kill you, if you're not careful. It can be quick and painless if you're lucky, but if you're not, it will be a slow and painful death."
The girl who said it would be fun—the girl with horns and pink skin—shrinks back to hide behind Hitoshi.
"There will be eight tests today. Whoever ends up in last place will be expelled."
Expelled? Hitoshi knows that Aizawa-sensei has tough standards on hero work. When the man would take him training, he would be judgmental on every wrong movement, every wrong position, you're leaning too far to your left. Tuck your arms in more. Look up when you move. Don't think, act, but this doesn't feel like the same teacher he knows. Or maybe it is the same teacher he knows, and Hitoshi is just used to the high standards on everything around him?
He knows heroism is no laughing matter. Not just because Hitoshi has experienced heroism before—in fact, he's experienced quite the opposite. Brainwashing isn't all that heroic of a Quirk, even though it very well could be, if used properly. But people don't think about Quirks that way, the way that sees them as tools, and not moral judgements of character or manifestations of one's true self.
He hopes U.A. will be different with stuff about that.
The tests are all physical; eight tests that will determine the strength, speed, and stamina of their bodies, using their Quirks to their full strength, no holding back. Use their Quirk. No holding back.
Hopefully this place will be better with bullies than Hitoshi's old school.
✨👻✨
"He's calling himself what now?"
"It was not something he chose, my friend. It's just a name that was assigned to him, but I do believe he's living up to Phantom very well, don't you think?"
…
"Equinox, are you crying?"
"U-Uh, no! You're—you're the one crying, Clockwork!"
"...Yes. Of course, I am the one crying..."
✨👻✨
And so, things begin to settle as such for Izuku.
Once the summer ends, and Dagobah beach is finally clean, Izuku finds himself with even more free-time to dedicate to vigilantism. He doesn't plan on taking on any serious cases or crimes. He just needs to help, to be a hero—it's his obsession, after all. It's only natura for him.
High school begins, and for once in Izuku's life, he's excited for classes to start. All online, covered by tuition, to be taken at his own rate.
For once—for once, things are going great.
(Of course, these things aren't going to last forever.
Just like the poet Robert Frost says,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.)
Chapter 10: Maybe This Vigilante Thing is Gonna Be More Trouble Than I Thought
Katsuki isn't quite sure how to explain this feeling.
Of course, there's the rage, underneath everything. There has always been that rage, hot and bubbling, underneath his skin. Maybe it was his Quirk, that gave him such an explosive personality; maybe it was his youth being unchecked by every other adult in his life because of his powerful Quirk. Maybe it was a mix of the two, or maybe, he just had anger issues for some random other goddamned reason. Whatever the reason for it, the rage is always there.
But on top of the white-hot boiling rage is… Confusion, is the best way he can put it.
It starts at U.A. Fuckin' U.A. The best hero school in the country, nay, perhaps the best in the world, and Katsuki is the first one from shitty Aldera to get in. Not even Deku tried, which is good; the runt might've grown a spine in the last few weeks of their junior high year, but that doesn't make him any less useful than before.
Katsuki knew he should've expected strong students. It's U.A.; again, the best school for heroism, like, maybe ever. They only accept the best of the best. And his class is full of people with, admittedly, powerful Quirks. There's Shitty Hair and his Hardening Quirk, Rich Girl and her creating Quirk, Two-Tone with his ice and fire Quirk (which, he never seemed to use the fire other than for melting ice, what a weirdo). And other Quirks Katsuki hasn't really paid attention to or caught yet, but they're all strong, but he was stronger.
He was the best! Everyone has always said so. You're the best of us, Bakugou. If you can make it, you'll make us proud. We know you can do it, everyone always told him.
But he's sitting in the observation room, his hands burning at his sides, watching his classmates take part in their first exercise, and he's… Confused. Angry and confused.
He lost.
He fucking lost, first time in his hero class.
How? How could this have happened? Surely, if Deku were here, he'd be able to explain a play-by-play of how exactly Katsuki lost, which is good he isn't here, because Katsuki would have decked Deku across the room if he'd started with anything, but he can't ignore the fact that the nerd is fucking smart, so of course he'd be able to figure out where things went wrong.
Maybe it was his partner? Engine-legs guy. Katsuki is pretty sure he's related to Ingenium, with their weird mutant engine Quirks, but he's not going to bother asking. Why should he be curious? It doesn't matter. He's just another extra.
… But, no. It isn't Engine-legs' fault.
Is it… My fault…?
A ridiculous thought. Fucking stupid. He shouldn't even bother with it.
But…
Katsuki glances across the room. Shitty Hair and Pikachu are going up against the little purple pervert and Rich Girl on the screens, but he doesn't really care about what's going on (though, that little purple pervert is definitely ogling at Rich Girl's breasts and if Katsuki was there he'd sock him) because he's focused on the other purple-haired kid in their classroom, the one with the deep eyebags and the fucking—Brainwashing quirk.
He'd never felt so… Helpless. It was disgusting. It made his skin crawl, just thinking about it. Eyebags had asked Katsuki a question, a question Katsuki couldn't even remember, and the next thing he knew, he had tied himself up with the capture tape. Eyebags hadn't even landed a single hit on him and Katsuki was already out. Bullshit.
But All Might wouldn't agree to a rematch, it was all "That battle was won fair and square, young Bakugou" this and "Please return to the observation room now" that. Bullshit. Bullshit! This was all so fucking stupid! Katsuki was supposed to be the strongest, the best, he's going to be the Number-One hero! He can't be beat by some nobody with eyebags and a brainwashing Quirk. He couldn't be—he couldn't be useless, like Deku is. He couldn't be seen as a liability, like Deku. He couldn't--
"Man, Bakugou, you look like you're about to blow a fuse." Alien Girl giggles next to him.
"Shut the hell up." Katsuki isn't afraid of snapping back. He never has been, and never will be. It's what got him all the power at Aldera.
(Was the power really worth it, though, Katsuki?)
Shitty Hair and Pikachu win the round, of course. It's hard for Rich Girl to focus on any sort of strategy or plan when the purple pervert is too focused on ogling her than actually completing their task at hand.
✨👻✨
Trigger.
Izuku is very aware of what kind of drug it is. It's talked about in school on a different level than just weed and alcohol; taking it is dangerous not just for the user, but also, for everyone around the user. Your Quirk would get stronger, yes; ten times as strong. But you would quickly run out of control of your newfound power. Your tongue would turn a soot black, and you would start to rampage until it worked its way out of the system, in anywhere between an hour or a day, depending on your metabolism.
Many people deal with it in the smallest doses they can get away with before the rampage takes over. Enhancing their Quirk for just a little time. Stimulants, more or less; Izuku's sure that a few junior high students would try and buy it and use it before big entrance exams, like for the U.A. exam, but they'd be caught pretty easily. Even just the smallest amount of Trigger has signs, the smallest bit of an unnaturally black tongue would have them pulled and disqualified immediately. The risks were not worth it except for the most desperate.
Izuku doesn't plan on going to bust any drug trafficking rings, especially on his own. His priorities are more aligned with the simplest of vigilante actions—helping people. He's stopped seventeen muggers in his month of vigilantism so far, stopped two bank robberies, eight assaults, and has managed to luckily get away from the police four times.
He's sure they know by now that the Quirk suppressant cuffs don't work that well on him. Officer Two the other day—hello again!—slapped two on his wrists the second time they tried to take him in. Izuku knows he could just easily get away before the police arrive, but, well—if they sneak up on him, he's not entirely sure what to do? Like, yes, he can just escape, but that still feels awkward.
Damn societal conventions trapping him!
Still, it is a bit of a surprise when Izuku is doing his usual patrol, floating as invisibly as he can over the streets of Musutafu, and sees what he thinks is just a regular drug deal. Drugs were not his wheelhouse—Izuku doesn't really wanna do anything too risky quite yet, he's fine with what he's doing—but then someone pulls out a gun, and, well, he can't not just drop down and help out, even if everyone in the situation is somewhat in the morally wrong.
Just because someone is wrong, doesn't mean they should die.
Izuku lands in-between the dealers and the buyer, turning the buyer intangible moments before the bullet hits them.
"Ah, hey—"
"What the hell?!"
"Sorry to drop in on you like this!" Izuku chuckles, hiding a toothy grin behind his mask. "Can't help but notice that gun you got there, friend. Any chance you'd just give that to me easily?"
"Oh, shit, it's you." The man with the gun—he has no visible Quirk that Izuku can tell—grunts. In one hand is the gun (and Izuku needs to brush up on the different types of guns, because he has no idea how many bullets that gun can have), in the other hand is the case, presumably, with the drugs. "How about you mind your own business, kid, and not interrupt when the adults are talking?"
"Unfortunately, I have a genetic condition that makes it impossible for me to mind my own business. How about we just all take a step back, and—" Izuku hears the buyer yelp, and they duck behind a dumpster in the middle of the alleyway as the gun takes a shot at Izuku again. He's quick to turn intangible. "Okay, well, I can't say I didn't try to talk you guys down."
The two dealers—the lookout, whose skin looks as hard as stone, and the gunman—yell and charge at Izuku. The gun shoots off again, the bullet richocheting through Izuku—really, would they not realize by now?—and bouncing off the ground, before lodging itself in one of the walls. The lookout turns his fists into large boulders (heteromorphic-type Quirk, just avoid getting hit over the head with the arms, should be easy) and takes a few swings at Izuku.
He jumps out of the way and into the air with a spin, before letting gravity take him back and landing a kick hard on the lookout's head.
Which is also stone. Which also hurts. Ouch. Didn't think that one through too much. So the lookout's entire skin turns to stone whenever the Quirk is used, good to know.
In the single moment Izuku is stunned from kicking the stone, he hears the gun go off again, and something tears through his arm. He hasn't found too many limits to his abilities other than his own reaction time, which isn't the best at times. The wound starts oozing bright green ectoplasm instead of blood.
Wait, ectoplasm? He bleeds ectoplasm. Okay, that's cool to note. Something he will write down in the future, because he's managed to survive vigilantism for quite a bit without getting any major wounds other than small cuts (that he doesn't even notice until he's human again and they bleed red) and lots of bruises.
"What the fuck, why is your blood green?!" The gunman yells, his eyes widening with shock.
"I eat my veggies!" Izuku responds, ignoring the pain in his arm to swing again at the gunman. A good hit to the face knocks him sideways, and the gun goes spinning on the ground with the gunman hitting the dumpster. Hopefully that's only minor brain damage.
The lookout charges at Izuku again, fists stone again, but Izuku keeps himself intangible (and the wound starts to really burn when he uses his power) and the lookout runs himself straight into the wall, knocking himself down as well.
Izuku sighs, turning tangible again. "Really, you'd think they would learn once I did it to them once." He turns back to the gunman, knocked out, and reaches into the pocket of his
He doesn't steal rope, or cuffs, from anyone. He has an unfortunately large stash of zip-ties that he keeps in his pockets. Sure, the lookout could probably break out of them when he wakes up, but it's just easier to keep the zip-ties when he's done taking care of the bad guys and hoping an officer is close enough to pick them up before they can get out. He makes sure that both of the knocked-out villains have pulses, before he turns to the case.
Curiosity gets the better of him, as it always does (and it probably is his obsession, at this rate), and it easily clicks open with the thumbprint of the gunman.
Inside are four small vials of a green liquid. Trigger.
Oh. Oh, no.
Izuku stands up, holding the case still, and he turns around. The buyer—still terrified—is peeking out from behind the dumpster, and their eyes flicker from Izuku, to the Trigger, and then back to Izuku.
They were trying to buy Trigger? Izuku closes the case, setting it down gently, and steps over to the buyer.
"P-Please! Don't hurt me!"
"I'm not going to hurt you." Izuku says. The buyer is trying to dig themselves into a corner by the dumpster, but a tall, fully-grown lanky adult doesn't have that ability. "Relax. I just want to ask you a question, okay?"
The buyer, still nervous, eyes wide, nods.
"Why were you trying to buy Trigger? You know what it does, don't you?"
"Y-Yeah, I do. I—" The buyer stumbles over their words, before taking a deep breath to soothe their nerves. "I—I just got into this really, um, really big law school. I've always wanted to be a lawyer, it's my dream. They've got some after-class tutoring if you need it, but I have to miss it a lot because my dad is sick, and I can't risk falling behind, or I'll get kicked out. Then I thought, hey, my Quirk boosts my learning speed, so maybe if I take just a little bit of Trigger, I don't have to worry about—about falling behind." They sigh. "It's stupid. I'm sorry. You can tie me up now."
"Tie you up? Why would I do that?"
"B-Because, um. I was trying to buy Trigger to use it?"
"But you didn't buy it. And you didn't use it." Izuku responds. He can't ignore the feeling in his core, the hum of resonance with this person here. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Junji Rei."
"Junji, I know what it's like to have a dream like that." Izuku pulls down his mask, to humanize himself more. It settles the remaining nerves in Junji's face. "Obviously, if you couldn't tell, it was my dream to be a hero. I can't judge anyone for trying to follow their dreams. So how about I make you a deal here?"
"A—a deal?"
"You go to your teachers, or your professors, and you tell them what's going on with your dad. You ask if there's any way that they can work with you in this tough time. Teachers—they can suck sometimes, sure, but I think they'll listen to you. Or reach out to your classmates, see if you can form a tutor group of your own that can meet at better times." Izuku smiles at Junji. "People will help you. You just have to ask."
"A-Ask? But I…" Junji take a deep breath, before nodding. "I'll try."
"That's all I could ask from you." Izuku grins. He pulls his mask up again, and pulls out his burner phone from his pocket. It's a brick of an old phone that can only call emergency hotlines, but it's all that Izuku needs. "I'm gonna call the police and tell them about the dealers here. You can decide whether or not you wanna stick around, okay?"
"I—okay. Yeah." Junji jumps up, long limbs and all, and looks at Izuku. Their brown eyes are full of—something. There's a bubbling of a feeling deep within Izuku's core that he recognizes as some sort of emotion, but it's indescribable. "Phantom? Thank you."
"Of course. Follow your dream, Junji! Be the best lawyer you can be!"
✨👻✨
"Hey, Phantom!"
Izuku stops, mid-flight. He figured it was foggy enough at night where he wouldn't be an immediate beacon if he flew around, especially in the residential areas in Musutafu, for just a little bit. The streets were quiet that night, Izuku only came across oneattempted mugging, and that's as far as it went—attempted. Izuku's been getting faster at taking out these bad guys, though he's also only just fighting people trying to mug others, so he might not be on a level to take on villains quite yet.
The bullet wound in his arm isn't actively bleeding anymore, but it still hurts a bit. It's not
Keeping himself invisible for longer periods of time is also getting easier, but it's still bit a strain to be out for more than three hours most nights, especially with all the travel he has to do. Especially with this wound, too.
But his ghost form is getting stronger, and so is he.He just needs to work on his stamina.
"Down here!"
He glances down. There's a figure on the top of one of the buildings, waving at him. They don't seem—well, too bad, so he floats down a little closer, just out of each.
They're a skinny twig of a man. Maybe early-twenties, or late teens, at the very least. Messy hair that doesn't look like it's been brushed in a long time, which is a little gross, but Izuku can't judge people for their own hygiene habits, sometimes depression just is like that, he gets it.
"I was hoping we could ask you a question."
"W-We?"
The shadow underneath the man stretches out, and swallows them whole, faster than Izuku can react. It isn't the darkness that's familiar with death, but it is a darkness that's unsettling. Wrong. His core panics at the feeling, but just as quickly as it happens, it's over, and Izuku finds himself landing butt-first on the floor of a bar, and the darkness shifts into the form of a rather well-dressed human behind the counter of the bar, and the man from before takes a seat at the bar.
"Come, sit. I have some questions for you."
"I have questions for you, too. Uh, where are we? Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?"
"Easy, easy, Phantom. I believe we're on the same side, here." The man explains. He motions to the bar. "Drink?"
"Um." Izuku shakes his head, standing up. "No, thanks." He doesn't want to just say, I'm not a legal adult, and also, he doesn't trust the people who just kidnapped him on his way home from patrol. Cautiously, Izuku takes a seat at the bar, a few spots down from where the man sits.
The bartender pays no mind to it and goes about making a drink. It doesn't look like there's a lot of alcohol involved. In fact, in the corner of his eye, Izuku can spot a bottle of ginger ale being poured into a glass, with a few drops of a random red liquid, before a cherry is dropped on top and passed over to the man.
"Alright, Phantom. I've got a proposition for you. You're a vigilante, right?"
Izuku slowly nods, keeping his eyes on the shadow-person. He doesn't seem like an active threat, but if it's his quirk that brought Izuku here, he doesn't know exactly what to think about it. Nor does he know if he tries to escape, if they can track him and grab him again so he just sits, making sure his mask is covering his face.
"You don't like hero society, then, right?" Izuku nods again, and the man continues. "Neither do we. Everything they've built, everything they strive for—it's wrong. It's the true evil in the world. Do you play games, Phantom?"
"Um. S-Sometimes?"
"Well, we've got a plan to take them down." The man says. "We're assembling a party to do it, and we need a rouge to help out. Do you want in?"
A game plan? To take them down? A party? Oh. Oh, no, no no no. Izuku shudders, and his core twists in his chest. "What are you planning?"
"We're going to strike them where it hurts the most. We're going to kill All Might."
Kill All Might?
The number one hero, the symbol of peace? Izuku might hold contempt for the man, still, after what he'd told Izuku on that rooftop months ago, but it doesn't mean that Izuku wants the hero dead. In fact, he would rather prefer All Might stayed alive long enough for Izuku to show him, to prove to him, that he could be a hero.
"K--kill All Might?" Izuku repeats, shocked, once the true terror lets him go. He's been kidnapped by villains. Not just random people. Villains, who have a plan to kill All Might. That want him in on it. "What--what's that going to achieve?"
"It's going to send a message, to everybody, that the League of Villains are here, and we're going to break down society so we can build it back even better than before." The man says with a wide, manic grin. He takes another sip of his drink, pinkie raised, before setting the cup back down on the bar. "So, what do you say, Phantom?"
"I—I—" Izuku needs a second to find his words. He glances around the bar as quickly as he can, looking for exits, though he could probably disappear and just go through the ceiling and into the air, to try and get as far away from them as he possibly could.
The likelihood of them being able to find him again is sparse, though the villain with the warp quirk that brought him here—the human made of shadow behind the bar, looking at him with bright, glowing, yellow eyes—might have a quirk that could find him. But most teleportation quirks like that could only work when the user can visualize their location, or has been there before, not just chasing down a random person.
"It's true, that hero society is bad. It's caused me a lot of pain and suffering through my life, but I don't think killing the number one hero is going to change anything about it." Izuku stands up from the bar stool, his core humming loudly in his chest.
The man looks at him and his face darkens. He then wraps all of his fingers around the empty glass, letting it completely decay into ashes with his touch.
Oh, that's probably not a good quirk to get hit with, Izuku thinks.
"You don't know anything about it, then!" The man explodes into anger and tries to lunge towards Izuku. Izuku's intangible in mere seconds, and the man can't decay what he can't touch, and Izuku jumps to the other side of the bar.
The shadow man doesn't look any less indifferent to the man with the decaying quirk having what looks like a temper-tantrum in the middle of his bar. In fact, the shadow man just leans over the bar with a duster and dustpan and cleans up the dust of the glass.
"You might call yourself a vigilante, but you're not any better than those good-for-nothing heroes! Newsflash, Phantom—they're never going to accept you within their ranks! You're never going to be anything but a vigilante to most, a villain to some. Why wouldn't you want to join the winning team?"
I'm not in it for myself, Izuku wants to reply. I'm in it because I want to be a hero, and I couldn't do it typically. I probably can't even do it typically, still. It's confusing, it's something you clearly understand, you sweaty, gross, gamer!
He doesn't say that. Instead, he says, with no hesitation, "You're stupid, if you think this plan is going to work."
At that, the man shrieks, and lunges for Izuku again, not realizing Izuku is still intangible, so he falls through and this time lands on the floor. Izuku takes that opportunity to turn invisible, too, before rocketing up into the ceiling as fast as he could go.
The floors above were pretty empty, and once he hit the skies, he could see he was in Hosu, of all places, which was quite a flight from Musutafu, so he pulled up his GPS on his phone, figured out the direction he needed to go in, and flew as fast as he could muster towards home.
Chapter 11: It's A Good Thing I'm Already Dead, or I Would Have Kicked The Bucket By Now.
"Do you remember what I told you about cores, when you first became king?"
"Um, kinda? ...Not really, Clockwork."
"It has been a while. I can forgive that… For now."
"Hey! Not all of us are all-seeing gods of time, you know."
"No, some of us are all-seeing gods of space, now."
"… Fair point. Anyway, what were you saying about cores?"
"A ghost's core forms separately from their body after death. You would expect it to form around the cause of one's death, but, in reality, a ghost's core forms in relation to what they required most in life."
"Oh, yeah! That's why I have an ice core, and not an electric core, right?"
"Precisely, Equinox. You wanted stability in your life, between your parents and the bullying you experienced at school. Thus, your ice core. Plasmius, on the other hand, wanted passion and the warmth of another, and his core formed into a fiery plasma core. It's not too hard to figure out other's ghost cores, either, when you know of their life."
"I see, I see… Well, what do you think of the new Phantom's core?"
"Midoriya Izuku… I do not know yet. We will just have to see."
✨👻✨
It's the middle of the day, so it isn't a time that Izuku would go out on a patrol. He tries to not let his nightly activities catch up on him during the day time-- his brain is still swirling with the information from the night before, from that guy who said he wanted to kill All Might-- but he can't let it affect his day life, or his grades, or his relationship with his mom. If any of those things got seriously hit because of his vigilantism, well; Izuku doesn't know what would happen other than he'd end up fumbling and getting caught for real and ruining everything he's built so far. He tries not to think about it.
But he's finished with his classwork for the day, and there's a bit of cash left on the counter for him to go pick up some groceries, so a little late-afternoon grocery run won't hurt.
He doesn't even intend to use his powers. He intends to just walk down the street, get his groceries in peace, listen to his music, and enjoy the nice weather.
Not all is well in Musutafu.
The first thing he notices is the smell of something in the air. Smoke? When Endeavor ends up in the city, no matter where he fights, there is a stagnant smell of smoke that wafts through the buildings for days afterwards, so maybe it's just that?
It's strong. Not just because Izuku's senses are stronger now (which, is very strange, by the way. If Izuku died, shouldn't they be weaker, or something), but it's something other people are noticing to.
He stops at an intersection, and looks up in the air. Sure enough, there's a huge cloud of smoke high in the sky. He can't tell where it is though, other than the fact that it's there. Well, there are plenty of daylight heroes out. They don't need a nobody vigilante to go help out, do they?
When Izuku walks into the store, he gets his first hint at what exactly is going on.
He has to duck behind another person as they walk through the sliding doors. For whatever reason, any sort of motion sensors don't work on Izuku in either form anymore. He can't figure that out—unintended electrical interference from his core? His body doesn't have as much presence as a Quirked person? It's an annoying little lowercase-quirk of his new powers. It's easy to get around, at least. Just wait for somebody else to go in, and even though it's the middle of the afternoon, the small grocery store is quite busy.
He slides his headphones off and grabs a basket, stopping as a couple passes by, chatting to each other. His ears perk up at their conversation.
"I can't believe that fire happening at the Musutafu Times building right now."
"I know, it's so large. I'm surprised they haven't called in any heroes yet who could put it out."
"Maybe they're waiting for something?"
A fire. At the Musutafu Times building? The only newspaper in all of Musutafu is on fire, right now?
Oh, Izuku has to see this.
He's never transformed mid-day before, or out in the open like this. Even in a store, dropping everything and transforming would be quite obvious. His transformations are noticeable at home, but he makes sure to do it in the bathroom or in his bedroom with his door shut when his mom is asleep or not there. But the grocery store he's at is a chain, and there's public restrooms available, and nobody is going to notice if he just zips into a stall and transforms, right?
His steps are quiet as he gets to the nearest bathroom, shutting the door quietly behind him. Public bathrooms have always sucked, but these are, at least, very clean. There's another man in one of the stalls, and Izuku takes the one furthest from the occupied one, and holds his breath.
Flush. The man's humming a tune. Probably hasn't even noticed Izuku enter. Once Izuku hears the tell-tale sign of the bathroom door opening and closing, he grabs a hold of his core and transforms as fast as he can. The flash of light is bright, but nobody yelps or asks about it, so he's safe to assume he's alone, and Izuku lets intangibility wash over him as he flies up through the ceiling and roof of the building.
Even though he's never been to the Musutafu Times building before, it's easy to find. It's a large, brutalist building in the center of Musutafu's more metropolitan districts, and also, there's a large cloud of smoke coming straight off the building acting as a large neon sign saying THE FIRE IS HERE.
And, yeah, the building is definitely on fire. It's almost amazing, how on-fire it is. There's as many fire trucks and rescue heroes as Musutafu could afford, but Izuku can't spot any heroes with water quirks in the crowd. Strange.
It looks like someone had an issue with an article written about something, because the fire lights up half of the building. It's also the middle of the day; an unusual time for arsonists to strike, but this arsonist must have wanted to send some kind of message.
What message, Izuku doesn't know. But he is curious, so he is probably going to find out, somehow. Damn Obsession.
"--Toshi? Toshi!"
The sound of a man's voice crying out for somebody breaks Izuku out of his momentary stupor, witnessing the Musutafu Times building lit ablaze. It was a horrifying sight, seeing the six-story building up in flames, but there were enough heroes on the scene, he really didn't see the need to interfere, except—
The man calling out for someone—named Toshi—looks incredibly distraught. He's dressed exactly how Izuku would imagine a journalist to be dressed, including a visible outline of a notebook in his upper shirt pocket and a pen sticking out, but his messy dark indigo hair, deep eyebags, and five o'clock shadow describe something else.
He walks up to a few people who just stumbled out of the building. "Excuse me, please—have you seen my son? Have you seen Hitoshi?"
Nobody he asks is able to say anything for certain. They all have the vague familiarity of colleagues between them, but nobody's able to correctly locate the man's son Hitoshi anywhere.
Well. All the other heroes are distracted with rescuing the main floors and getting the fire out, not looking for a single person.
"Excuse me, sir?" Izuku drops his invisibility on the other side of the man, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. "Who are you looking for?"
"My son, Hitoshi. He's not answering his phone, and, oh, god, he was just doing his homework in my office, and I—" The man holds back a sob. "He just got into U.A., he can't die like this, he wants to be a hero so badly, and I—I can't lose him, too."
A U.A. student, huh? Izuku muses to himself. "Which floor is your office on, sir?"
"The fifth floor—wait, where are you going? Hold on, kid, wait—"
Izuku jumps up into the air and flies off in the blink of an eye. Even though the building is only six-stories high, it's wider than it is taller, and most of the flame is coming out of the fourth and fifth floors, which isn't a good sign for Hitoshi's sake. Hitoshi is probably his given name, but Izuku can't be bothered to figure out the boy's surname, so he phases into the fifth floor and keeps himself intangible, looking around.
Izuku's glad he doesn't need to breathe. The floor is absolutely ablaze. Beams are beginning to collapse in on themselves, and the heat is intolerable. It's stronger than the fiery pop-pop-pop of Bakugou's explosions.
He keeps himself intangible, and phases through the open walls. "Hello? Is anybody out here? Hello?"
He's hopeful that Hitoshi was able to escape with the other crowds, and get out of the building, but something deep in his core is telling him to look, look, look. He doesn't ignore the gut feelings from his core, not anymore. He phases through another wall, before noticing—there!
A boy is on the ground, his shirt lifted around his mouth to stop the smoke inhalation, but he doesn't look all that good. Izuku can see the familiarity in the man in this boy, the eyebags and messy hair, though the boy's hair is a vibrant violet. Still, that's gotta be him.
"Are you Hitoshi?"
The boy jumps at his name, and he turns around. His eyes are watering a lot from the heat and the smoke, and he barely croaks out, "Who're you?"
"Hi! You can call me Phantom." The Musutafu Phantom is his full name, assigned by the press, but Phantom is just easier. Phantom. He won't deny it doesn't have a good ring to it. "I'm here to get youout of here."
Hitoshi's hesitant, which is good. He doesn't seem to have heard of Phantom, which is also good, Izuku supposes. There's a bit of trust there, at least; hopefully Hitoshi thinks that Phantom is a hero and will come with him willingly. "H-How?"
"My powers, duh." Izuku floats over to him, glancing around at the fire. They really can't stay much longer. Hitoshi is looking pale, and his white uniform shirt—he is a U.A. student, oh dear—is covered in soot. Without thinking, Izuku pulls off his own mask, and hands it over to Hitoshi. "Here, this'll filter things better."
"What about—" The boy coughs. "—y-you?"
"Oh, I don't actually breathe!" Izuku responds with a grin, before hearing a loud creeaak above him. "Alright, time to get us outta here." He swings his arms underneath Hitoshi's body and picks him up bridal-style. Hitoshi slips the mask on, and Izuku barely moves them out of the way in time before a large beam, very much on fire, smashes down where Hitoshi is still sitting.
"This might feel a little tingly."
He hadn't had much time to experiment with his intangibility before, but if he could pass it onto other objects he was holding, and onto the eyeballs of that gross slime villain months ago, then surely, he could pass it onto over living things? The small glow that covers Izuku whenever he's intangible spreads to Hitoshi as well. I can spread this to other people! Sweet! It's short-lived, though, as the sound of the fire and more coughing from Hitoshi brings him back to the current moment. Right. Building on fire. Focus, Izuku.
Izuku spirits them out of the nearest window he can find, which is also conveniently shattered from the heat around them. Hitoshi coughs and wheezes in the fresh air, and dares a look down, before turning into Izuku more and holding onto his hoodie for dear life.
"Not a big fan of heights?"
It feels like something grabs a hold of Izuku, deep in his core. The next few words out of Hitoshi's mouth feel commanding. "Just put me down, Phantom."
"Aye-aye, Hitoshi!" Izuku's gentle about it. He's never carried another person flying before like this, and while he's sure his ghost form has some sort of adaptations that makes the motion sickness of flying easier, like many other flight Quirks, he's sure Hitoshi doesn't have it. He spots Hitoshi's dad in the crowd, and carefully lowers himself down, setting Hitoshi down on the ground as softly as possible.
"Toshi! Oh, thank god, you're okay!"
Izuku glances around, spotting paramedics nearby. "Hey! Paramedics! Over here!" One of them spots Izuku and points, and shouts something, but Izuku can't exactly hear what it is over the crowd of people. It looks like they say vigilante, or maybe, Vicanti, but it's probably the first option there.
"Phantom?" The man asks, his eyes wide. But he looks at his son, and then back at Izuku. Whatever thought he had about Izuku seems to vanish in an instant with his son safe in his arms. "Thank you. I—I don't know what I would've done if I'd lost Hitoshi."
"Of course, sir!" He jumps back into the air, spotting a hero running towards them alongside the paramedics. "Well, looks like I gotta get outta here. Take care, Hitoshi, hope to see you as a hero someday!"
He doesn't even remember leaving his mask with Hitoshi.
✨👻✨
CATNYAP: MINI
CATNYAP: MINI GET ON RIGHT NOW
CATNYAP: YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED
MINIGHOST: What just happened?
CATNYAP: ok did you hear about the fire at the musutafu times
MINIGHOST: I did! Did they already find who set the building on fire?
CATNYAP: not yet
CATNYAP: but look
CATNYAP: when i tell you this, trust that i am fine and i've been discharged from the hospital already
MINIGHOST: You were at the hospital?!
CATNYAP: yes look my dad works at the Musutafu times
CATNYAP: sometimes i do my homework in his office cause it's quieter and not at home with the cats
CATNYAP: anyway i got trapped in the building when it was on fire and that new vigilante Phantom saved me
MINIGHOST: Phantom saved you?
CATNYAP: yeah!!! they were really cool!!!!
CATNYAP: apparently they don't need to breathe. which is. unsettling but kinda sick
MINIGHOST: You think Phantom is cool?
CATNYAP: yeah ik vigilantes get a bad rap sometimes but my dad wrote the original article and it's just. idk kinda nice to know that there's someone like phantom looking out for us in musutafu, y'know?
MINIGHOST: Yeah, I do know.
MINIGHOST: I'm glad you're okay, Cat!
CATNYAP: me too. god it'd be so cringe to miss one of my first days at UA because i had to go to the hospital because of smoke inhalation
CATNYAP: but i'm good, got lucky with that
CATNYAP: anyway. that's my adventure for today how's your day been
MINIGHOST: It's been fine. Just did some classwork and picked up some groceries. My mom is gonna teach me to make katsudon tonight!
CATNYAP: sick! have fun
MINIGHOST: Yeah, I hope it all works out!
MINIGHOST: Also, hey, Cat? Remember how we said we should meet up in person, one day?
MINIGHOST: Well, I know you're a U.A. student and you'll probably be busy, but I think we should plan something for the future. Sometime soon.
MINIGHOST: Only if you want, though! No pressure at all!
CATNYAP: actually, that'd be fun.
CATNYAP: you free this weekend?