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Shouta Aizawa was having a bad day. First, he’d woken up half an hour earlier than he needed to, forgotten his lunch, and then he’d had another run-in with a vigilante who called themselves Deku-Useless.
Deku went out nearly every night, and he seemed to have randomized routes, so Shouta never knew where to spot him. His costume consisted of a green jumpsuit with a smiling mask. The hooded figure had a red item belt, and pointy ears, probably mocking All Might. Deku has white, elbow-length gloves and big red shoes, along with a red support belt.
His costume looked so professional, Shouta almost wondered if it had been made by a support agency, but he’d never heard of a hero fitting this description.
At first, Deku had only been seen in person, and he’d always leave the various criminals zip-tied to a lamp post with a note that simply said Deku--Useless. The vigilante had somehow gotten Tsukauchi’s phone number, though the only things he texted were locations of various criminals.
Recently though, they had started leaving criminals in front of the police station. Deku still texted criminal locations, but he’d been coming to the station more often.
That day, Shouta first spotted the vigilante when he’d stopped a random mugging, and then again when he jumped into a 4-1 fight. Shouta watched as Deku crawled up the alley wall.
As soon as the vigilante landed on the rooftop next to Shouta’s, he jumped across and threw his capture weapon at the vigilante. Somehow, Deku sensed it coming and jumped out of the way.
“Nice to see you again, Eraserhead.” Deku tilted his head to the side slightly and blinked. Eraserhead sighed.
Shouta had always found Deku’s bright green eyes to be familiar and slightly unsettling. The vigilante always acted like he knew Shouta’s secrets, and he found it to be unsettling.
“Are you ever going to stop this?” Eraserhead asked exasperatedly.
“No reason to,” Deku responded. He threw a caffeinated juice packet at Eraserhead and jumped off of the roof. Eraserhead would’ve been worried for him, but he’d seen Deku do this several times and he always ended up fine.
Eraserhead sighed and continued on his patrol. Later he heard that Deku caught 9 criminals that night.
----
“You’ve found him? Deku?” Eraserhead burst into Tsukauchi’s office.
“There’s almost no chance of it not being him, honestly. Izuku Midoryia, 22 years old, male, attended Isamu Academy High School, and he lives in the Mustafu prefecture.” Tsukauchi placed his forehead in his hands and leaned back.
Eraserhead looked at the image of a young man with bright green eyes and curly viridian hair, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen him before. He quickly shook it off and looked over at the arrest warrant Tsukauchi had prepared.
“We’ve finally gotten him.”
----
Izuku was sitting at his desk, rewatching the old clip of All Might’s debut when there was a knock at the door.
He opened the door to reveal Eraserhead, quirk activated, along with Detective Tsukauchi, and in the background, he could see several armed police officers.
“Good evening detectives, would you like some tea?” Izuku greeted them politely, and both men looked shocked at his cordial tone.
“We have a warrant to arrest you, on the grounds of being an illegal vigilante.” Eraserhead looked particularly relieved to have caught the ‘vigilante’ who was causing him so much trouble.
Izuku started laughing. When will the police force learn to research their facts correctly?
----
Eraserhead wasn’t sure what was going on.
He’d expected Midoryia to run, which was why they’d brought so many police officers. He thought he might try to bullsh*t his way out of it. But Eraserhead hadn’t expected the vigilante to start laughing.
Tsukauchi moved closer, trying to make sure he wasn’t choking. As soon as there was a lull in Midoriya's laughter, the detective put the handcuffs on.
Midoryia suddenly looked alert, and they shoved him in the back of Tsukauchi and Eraser’s police car.
“Aw, no sirens for me?” Eraserhead sighed as if he was being particularly troublesome.
Eraserhead helped to maneuver the young adult into a chair facing the one-way mirror, which was where Tsukauchi was sitting. Eraser pulled up a chair himself and faced Midoriya, who was seated calmly.
He had worked out a code with Tsukauchi to know when he was lying, which was simply Tsukauchi texting him whenever he heard a lie.
“Are you, Izuku Midoryia, the vigilante Deku?” Eraserhead wasn’t sure what he was expecting to hear, but the answer Midoryia gave wasn’t it.
“I am Deku, but I’m sorry to inform you that I am not a vigilante.” Midoryia looked like he wanted to laugh, which confused everyone listening.
“Why not?” Eraserhead asked, rubbing his temples.
“One, the laws about crime don’t apply to the quirkless.” This made Eraserhead sit straight up. Green hair and eyes, short, quirkless. Was this that one kid that he’d expelled a few years ago on his first day of UA? Did I help create a vigilante?
Izuku didn’t miss the shock on his face. Eraserhead was about to say something, but Izuku pushed forward with his explanation.
“Two, I’m a pro hero.” He sat back and watched Eraserheads world explode.
“Wha- How did you become a pro hero? Aren’t you that one kid who I expelled the first day at UA?” Izuku gave him an annoyed look and said, “There are other hero schools, you know. I went to the only other one that would accept a quirkless person. I was too weak for all of the other schools.”
“How come we couldn’t find you when we looked up your name?” Tsukauchi hadn’t texted him yet, so he assumed Midoriya’s claims were all true.
“I’ve been an underground hero for the past year, and I’m working with Sir Nighteye’s agency currently to bust the Yakuza. Once this mission is over, I’m going to become a spotlight hero. The only reason I’m doing that is because I want to inspire the other quirkless kids who are told they can’t be heroes.”
Tsukauchi burst into the room then with an image of Deku: The Useless Hero’s Agency.
“It’s true, Eraserhead. He really is a pro hero.” Tsukauchi turned to Midoryia suddenly and removed his handcuffs. He was watching the situation with thinly veiled amusement.
“Now that’s cleared up, can I leave? I need to get ready for my patrol tonight.” Tsukauchi quickly nodded, and he apologized again for the inconvenience.
As two men had their worlds implode, Izuku smiled to himself and walked out of the police station with a bounce in his step.