chapter 16

It was two days after New Year, Izuku decided to go grocery shopping, it was not too late, but it was dark and the roads were pretty empty.

Izuku heard a faint noise from an alley, curiosity taking the best of him he peeks, "I was waiting for you." A deep voice came, one that Izuku understood easily from who it was.

"This is our fourth meeting now, Chizome Akaguro." Izuku said, coming into full view of the vigilante, "I see that you followed my advice and are not killing more heroes."

"The best way to change society is by causing no deaths, nor threaten civilians, right?" Izuku nodded, "Anyway, I'm here because of this." Stain drops something in front of Izuku.

"This is a person?" Izuku asks, not really sure of what it is.

"That kid doesn't belong in the dark. Burning villains for the heck of it, but not touching civilians, I met the kid some times now, he doesn't belong in this place." Stain said, as the person on the ground groaned.

"If he killed someone, you know I can't really take him in, right?"

"Don't worry, he sent every criminal he met to a station, anonymously, he didn't kill until now." Izuku sighs in relief.

"I will be going now." Stain finishes leaving without waiting for a response.

Izuku noticing that, takes some steps forward, looking at the man on the ground, he tapped the black haired guy. The guy groans again, Izuku gave up and just decided to get him on his back and take him to the cafe.

Once in the cafe Izuku laid the guy on the sofa, now taking in his details as they appeared in the light of the cafe, the 'kid' had pitch black hair, burn scars under his eyes, and a massive one that was ear to ear and only finished in his collar-bone, checking for wounds Izuku discovered some more in his arms.

Why so hurt? Is it from his quirk? Body not compatible with the quirk? Izuku thought has he bandaged the kid, even if Izuku thought of him as a kid was at least 18, and from what Izuku could see, his skin was being hold by crude surgical staples or hoop piercings.

Izuku was preparing some easy to eat food, for the passed out guy when he woke up, He got up fast, "Where am I!?" He demanded, blue flames appearing in his body, that were extinguished fast, by the grumpy man, on the other corner of the room, that was trying to work.

Izuku approached him, a kind smile on his face, "Nice to see that you are awake, a... Friend left you in my care, said that you don't belong on the dark side of society." Izuku says, making the grumpy man rise an eyebrow.

The guy did not relax at all, keeping his guard up at all times, Izuku handed him his food, the black haired young man took in his surroundings, "Why am I in a cafe?"

Izuku chuckled, "From now on, if possible you will be our new employee." He said, making the young man skint his eyes.

"Who do you want me to kill?" The guy was not kidding.

"No no no no," Izuku waved his arms in a defensive manner, "You will be working here."

"Why?"

"Unfortunately, you don't have much choice, you will work here, or I will need to hand you to the authorities, the up side is that after 2 years you can go!" Izuku informed.

He squinted harder, "Why?"

"Pay your fine." Izuku said, making the young man's eyes go wide.

"What is my job?"

"For the next three months, you will be learning the ropes of the job by being an attendant and helping in the kitchen." Izuku let the information sink in, "After you will be on the counter, taking the orders and attending the clients."

"Why the three months?"

"I will have to go to school. Also as a side job, you will be babysitting too, you will get a paycheck by working in the cafe, and an extra on the babysitting."

He laughed, "You want me around kids? The guy that clearly looks criminal."

That made Izuku laugh, "Yeah, if a criminal had your those kind of eyes you are showing me, I would be surprised." The man's eyes were looking at Izuku like he was salvation, something that brought hope to the man.

"I'm T-- Dabi." Izuku noticed the correction, but didn't hesitate either way.

Extending his hand, Izuku smiled, "Nice to meet you too, Dabi, you can call me Izuku, everyone calls me that."

"Right, Izuku." Dabi formed a small smile.

"For now you should get some rest first. There is an empty bedroom still." Izuku turned around, "TOGA." He called, and not even a second after, a blonde head was peeking around the corner.

"Izu! I'm here!" She dashed at Izuku's direction, wrapping her arms on Izuku's neck from the back. Her eyes landed on Dabi and she squinted, "Who's this."

"This is Dabi, he is our new member." Izuku said a smile on his face, "Try not stabbing him." Dabi's eyes widened as he took a defensive position.

"As if, I don't want to go away from you, Izu." Toga dug her face into Izuku's back, "Is it to take him to a room?" Izuku nodded, "And what about Eri? Won't she be scared?"

Izuku looked at the table where Aizawa sat, "Do you mind?" The little girl peeked from the lap of the homeless looking guy, and shook her head sideways. "Anything to say?"

"He looks nice." Eri said, as she got off Aizawa, and trotted her way to Izuku, "He is not scary." She said earning a pat from Izuku.

"I don't look scary? With this edgy clothes? Piercings and burn scars?" Little Eri shook her head, "Well, I'm Dabi little girl. I guess I will be your babysitter." Dabi looked at Izuku for confirmation, he nodded.

"Babysitter?" Eri asked, cocking her head, looking at Izuku.

"It's someone that will play with you and keep you company." Toga explained.

"Oh! I had those before!" Eri stated, making everyone in the room look at her, "They would lock me in the room, sometimes give me toys, and bring me to Chisaki when it was time." Eri comfortably talked about her past.

Izuku pat her head, and brought her to his arms, lifting her, "I see. Dabi, of course your babysitting doesn't include that, but it includes protection of Eri." Dabi looked at Izuku as he understood what he said, there was a chance of the man coming after the girl, he nodded.

"See, I said he was nice!" Eri commented as she looked at Dabi.

-------------------

"WHO THE F-- HECK IS THIS GUY!" Bakugo asked nicely, while pointing at Dabi, as he was on the process of giving him his sandwich.

"Our new employee!" Izuku happily stated, "He's Dabi, he is more Eri's bodyguard now then actually a worker for the cafe. He will be more when me and Toga go for school though."2

"Kitkat! Don't bother our new employee!" Toga screamed from the kitchen as she was finishing baking the cookies, "Eri, want to help me decorate the cookies?" She asked, making the little girl get up and rush to the kitchen.

Bakugo was now on the process of doing exercises as practice for the entrance exams, only stopping to get a bite from his sandwich, Izuku trailed behind him, sometimes helping him on some questions.

It was a nice weekend and there was 3 months and an half for the exams.

"Izu! I came for some coffee! And brought a friend." Nemuri states, walking inside the cafe, with a skinny looking girl, with some massive gloves.

"Someone from work?" Izuku asks, looking and taking in her details, searching his memories for what hero could it be, receiving Nemuri's nod, he quickly came to the conclusion it was probably 13. "I see, can I ask to write in this notebook?" Izuku takes out his hero analysis notebook, in 13's page.

13 takes a step to see what it was, looking at detailed information on her, she takes a step back and looks at Nemuri afraid, "Don't worry, Izu is a friend." She gives her a thumbs up, and 13 gives her autograph.

Izuku smiles, bows slightly, "Thank you very much." And Izuku proceeds to arrange her orders.

A blonde comes into the cafe, red wings on his back, "Izu! I came for my boba!" Keigo comes to the counter, and gets his order to go. "That's sad Izu... I wanted to drink it here..." He looks saddened.

"The Red-bringer is thinking of attacking a jewelry store at the end of the road today, in some time. He was drunk and announced it to everyone in a bar." Izuku informed, and only saw as Keigo put on his yellow goggles and head out.

Dabi saw this, taking in as Izuku communicated with heroes like it was nothing. "You know Hawks?" He asks getting closer to Izuku, the green haired boy nods. "And how did you get that information?"

"I have my sources." Izuku said, as he remembered his interaction with Gentle Criminal and La Brava.

It was a nice December night, Izuku was out searching for tea leafs for the cafe, when he noticed someone he saw on some videos, not wasting a second he put out an hand, catching the man's attention, "Yes? Can I help you with anything?"

Izuku smiled at the man, "Yeah, I am looking for some leafs for tea, but I'm not really knowledgeable about them, mind accompanying me, Gentle Criminal?" Those final words caught the man by surprise, making him take a step back, and put out an arm protectively around the girl besides him, "Don't worry, I will not hand you over to the police or heroes." Izuku waved his arms defensively.

"What do you want from us?" Gentle Criminal for the looks of it wasn't dumb, even if some of his videos looked like it.

"Pick tea leafs." Izuku said simply.

"As much as I appreciate a gentleman that is in search of tea, I can't just do it, if I deem it dangerous."

"Then how about this?" Izuku started, "I will not let out any information about you, actually I will help you, I will give you information of some villains that will have an hard time against your quirk, and in turn I will get information on other villains, this is, as long as the duo stops attacking heroes that is." Izuku ended with an intense glare, one that he doesn't show just to anyone.

La Brava took a step in, "I will do it, just don't take Gentle from me." The girl was on verge of tears.

Izuku took a step back, "It was not my intention to scare you." His actions clumsy as his face flushed a deep red, "I-I'm sorry."

At this interaction Gentle took a step in, wrapping an arm on Izuku's shoulder, "So, we are looking for tea?"

"They are nice people, but they have a dream a bit to difficult to achieve in the direction they were taking, so I helped them out a bit, now we are in a cooperative relationship." Izuku said in a low voice, only for Dabi to hear, the young man nodded, and headed to work.

Izuku took two steps in Bakugo's direction, a smile on his face as he bonked a newspaper on his head, "You made a mistake here, Kacchan."

Bakugo looked at the paper, "Where?" Not being able to find the mistake.

"Here, you traded the signal of this equation, now the whole thing is wrong." Izuku informed.

"No way." Bakugo dropped his pencil, "I TOOK 15 WHOLE MINUTES TO REACH THIS POINT AND ITS F--WRONG!"

Izuku chucked, "Nice save." Aizawa in the corner of the room looked at the interaction with a smile, a nice atmosphere building up in the cafe as it peacefully ran.

I will record his reaction if he gets into my class, it will be funny when I have nothing more to do, Aizawa thought as he drifted himself to work once again.

Hawks entering the building once again, "Izu, that helped a lot, I finally got the guy on time." Izuku accepted the compliment and the day got back to his normalcy.