Chapter 12: Angry Deku!

-How? How could he know? Was I that obvious when I looked at him? Will he let me live if I leave now, should I run for it. No, I shouldn't run, I have no idea how dangerous he is. What do I do?-

"Miss, are you alright? You seem quite pale, maybe you should just head home, do you think you're well enough to get there on your own?"

She just nodded slightly.

-Oh thank God, he's letting me live. That's what that means right? Yeah, I'll just go home and forget all about this. Maybe I'll call once I'm far from here. But I don't know if he'll be watching me now or if he's alone. After all, if he's this calm in public then he can't be alone. Yeah, I just need to get out of here and never come here again-

Izuku smiled, "Well, I hope you have a good day and stay safe on your way home. Make sure not to use your phone while driving though, that's how accidents happen."

She just nodded and left.

-I can't call now. He's made it clear if I talk he'll find out. I just need to forget about this whole thing and move on-

Izuku was proud of himself for actually coming off as scary. Plus, he was glad he could keep coming here.

They had wonderful tea and a steady crowd but still had booths that were pretty secluded. It was a perfect place to practice being around so many people and he was happy he didn't have to give it up yet.

Though he figured it would be good to wear some sort of disguise like a wig and a hoodie. Maybe even wear clear glasses.

Izuku laughed to himself over the fact that he had spent so much of his life feeling overlooked, and now he had to put in effort to go unnoticed.

It took him a few more weeks, but he got to the point where he could spend all day in public without feeling like he would pass out.

He stayed off of the busiest streets and avoided crowds, but he could manage. His range was always at a minimum of 15 feet now, but he could extend it up to 50 feet.

He hadn't thought that walking down the street would be more intense training than weight lifting, but at least he was able to be in public now without fainting from being so overstimulated.

———

Izuku always had a sinking feeling in his gut over the work he did, but recently he also had a feeling of pride. He was becoming known as the best analyst on this side of the law and had an income that showed it.

He didn't consider himself evil, but had to admit he was becoming good at being a villain. Because of this, his living situation changed quite a bit as well.

He bought his own house and was definitely looking forward to living somewhere that Shigiraki's thoughts weren't.

Speaking of which, as he was packing, Izuku looked up and saw the man pawing over his old notebooks that hadn't been boxed up yet.

"Ha! This is hilarious, you never told me your first name was Deku. Who the hell names their kid useless?"

All the color drained from his face as his mind was filled with thoughts of Kachan. It didn't matter that he was mean to Izuku, he still missed him.

He never even went to his funeral since it happened while he was recovering from getting his quirks.

"The fuck are you crying about? Shorty can't handle being called a Deku?"

Rage burned in his chest as he shot forward and punched the unsuspecting man directly in the throat. "YOU DON'T GET TO CALL ME THAT!"

Kurogiri got between them before this got any worse. "Midoriya, would you kindly explain why you struck Tomura before you start trying to kill each other."

Izuku folded in on himself nearly whimpering "You don't get to call me that, only Kachan can call me that. That's his name for me, not yours."

"I believe I see the issue. Tomura, do you need any assistance, or would you prefer to be alone?"

His voice was raspy and strained from being punched, but the anger was clear, "I don't want to be alone, I want him dead! Stupid Deku needs to remember his place."

Izuku launched himself at Shigaraki again, this time with a knife he grabbed off the table while screaming incoherently at Shigaraki, who was ready this time and more than happy to turn him to dust.

Before the two could clash though, both were warped away from each other, Izuku to his bed and Shigaraki to his room.

Kurogiri sat near the boy who began to shake and weep.

"I miss him so much, but all I can think of are those dead eyes. I just want it to stop. Why can't I make the memories stop!?"

"It's ok to grieve. You lost someone close to you and in a very traumatic way, no one expects you to get over that. Someone brought up something really triggering for you, and that's a hard thing to experience." He placed his hand over Izuku's shaking ones. "Do you want to talk about what's on your mind, or should we talk about something else?"

A mumbled "something else" was barely loud enough to hear, but the man simply nodded.

"I know you've always been curious about my quirk, we can talk about that if you'd like."

It was brief, but he caught the glimmer of excitement in Izuku's eyes as he brought up his quirk.

So they spent the next half an hour talking about warp gates and his physiology as a person made of mist along with every single possible application of his quirk.

"Feeling better little one?"

"Yeah, thanks for staying with me. And I'm not that small!"

"My apologies, definitely-not-small-Izuku."

~~~~~

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