Work Text:
“Are you the Pro Hero Deku?”
After almost three years in the field, Midoriya Izuku thought he would be used to people asking him that or mentioning that he looks like him. And he was to a degree. He still found it weird to be recognized, but with the recent strides he had in the rankings, it was no wonder that he was getting that much more attention.
The problem with the increase in ranking was also the recognition of his skills, and that recognition of skills in turn increased the number of invitations to raids as a frontliner he received. And due to his “excessive altruism” as many of his friends put it, he tended to try to be a part of any and all that he could feasibly fit in his schedule.
That is to say: he is busy. A lot.
Izuku doesn’t mind keeping that busy though, he enjoys his work and finds it fulfilling. The problem came from when he kept scheduling back-to-back (to back) raids and planning sessions for raids, he got sleep deprived, and when sleep deprived, mistakes tended to happen.
In the wise words of some older Under that he worked with a few months back who had stumbled into him while he was towards the end of a thirty-six-hour straight work spree, “When sleep deprived, the line between being functional and functionally retarded is very thin.” Which, not how he would phrase it, but it got the point across.
This brings it back to now.
Now usually, Izuku would reply with an affirmative if he was feeling up to being social or a polite “I get that a lot.” Not outright denying it but implying that the person is mistaken is usually enough for them to apologize and move on with their day. Given that he was currently at a konbini on his way home so he could sleep after not doing so for longer than a forty-hour period, that line the Under had mentioned had been crossed.
“No, that’s my brother.” Was out of his mouth before his brain could even think to stop it.
“Oh, I see. You must be really proud of him!” the fan gushed.
Izuku, mind still reeling from what had slipped out, only managed a weak, “…Yeah.”
The fan, deflated a bit at his lackluster tone, pushed on. “Tell him to keep up the good work when you see him next, I’m sure he would appreciate it.”
“Sure.” Izuku gave a slight bow before grabbing a few onigiri and a bottle of tea before making his way to the front, so he could get home and into his bed faster.
If he was less sleep deprived, Izuku probably would have realized that something may come from this interaction, but as it stood, Izuku didn’t think that it would have been an issue until the new college kid working the counter whipped out her phone and the flash went off in his direction before she was furiously texting someone.
Izuku blinked and thought that there was supposed to be a connecting thought, but the brain fog had already unrelentingly settled, and Izuku wanted to sleep, so he brought his things to the counter to buy and get out of there.
“Deku’s never mentioned a brother during interviews before.” The young woman blew a bubble of gum before popping it.
Izuku furrowed his brow. “Probably because there’s a reason.” Like the fact he doesn’t have a brother.
The woman shrugged and let off another bubble pop before finishing checking out his items and taking his payment.
Fortunately, Izuku ran into no other issues on his way home. He ate, took a quick shower, and proceeded to tuck himself in and drift off.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the one-off thing that he might have hoped it would be.
Izuku wakes up to his phone blaring, “A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE!” before he answers it with a grunt but keeping his eyes shut.
“It’s a Monday.” He grumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.
“And I am the Master Commander.” The voice on the other end snarked. “Midoriya, why didn’t you mention you had a brother you weren’t on good terms with? This could really throw a wrench in your popularity climb if this doesn’t get resolved quickly.” The almost nagging of his manager came over the line.
Izuku’s eyes shot open. “What?”
“There is an article that got published in that trashy gossip rag that has a picture of your twin in a konbini. Apparently, someone mistook him for you, and the cashier mentioned that he was trying not to come off as rude but couldn’t muster the energy into faking it. This could be really bad for your ratings, and we need to figure out what our strategy is for dismissing what the article is claiming. It may be a gossip rag, but sometimes there are truths in their articles.”
Izuku was very awake now. “Could you send me the article and I will call you back once I’ve read it and checked in with my family to see what’s going on?”
“Of course. I will call you back this evening if I don’t hear from you before then.”
“Thanks, talk to you then.” The call was cut off and his phone dinged.
‘Pro Hero Deku Has a Brother, And They Have Beef’ stared back at him. He snorts. Of course, the vultures would write a headline like that.
Izuku skims through the article and checks the picture that was used was one of him in slacks and a cardigan with glasses on, hair tousled to the side in a part he didn’t normally use. He could see how he might be mistaken as a twin to himself looking like that. He had been at a planning session before heading home the night before. Or was it day? Probably not a great thing to not be able to recall that, but the point was that he was not in what he normally would wear while out and about.
But how to go about dispelling the rumors that he apparently started himself.
He could just admit it was him, but the initial lie and then the perceived dismissing of fans could hurt him more than help if he came clean. He might need to double down. He needs to call his mom.
She picked up on the second ring. “Hello, dear.”
“If I had a twin, what would you have named him?” Izuku blurted, a plan forming in his head.
Inko chortled. “Is this about the brother you have beef with?” He could feel the blush reach his cheeks. “Mikumo is a nice name for a sibling for you.”
“I think he also used your maiden name rather than dad’s family name.”
“He was a lot less understanding about your father’s work choices.”
“I think anyone would be a bit disconcerted with dad’s work choices.”
“Fair. Let me know if you need any help with the paperwork.”
“Thanks mom.”
“Of course, dear. Just make sure to come by for dinner this week so we can catch up. As you know, your brother is back in town.”
Time to craft an image.
Izuku opened the conversation with his childhood friend and typed out a message before staring at his phone while hovering over the send button. Is he really going to go through with this? His hand spasmed before he got to think about it anymore, sending the text off with no way to pull it back.
Well, that settles that, he supposed.
He forgets to call his manager back while in the whirlwind of pulling together information and making backdated documents that will use a fair chunk of the favors he’s gotten over his tenure as a hero, pulling strings here, trading favors there, and getting used to the idea of talking about himself as a hero in the third person.
His phone rang, and he answered while debating between which of his old forum names, minimight001 or mightygreeeeeeen, would fit better with the persona he was crafting.
“Hello?”
Izuku nods to himself, mightygreeeeeeen would probably work better, plus that one already has a love of quirks established.
“Midoriya.” Izuku’s eyes snapped to the nearest window. Huh. It had gotten dark.
“Uh, the family stuff took longer than I thought it would?”
“Uh-huh.” Sarcasm dripped from his manager’s hum.
“Tsubaki-san, what is the likelihood it will blow over if we don’t address it?” He hedged.
“It could, but I saw another outlet pick up on the story and run with it without reaching out for comment. Be that as it may, it is still gaining traction in the press, you will more than likely be asked about it if you are in any villain attack, so you will likely have to give some sort of statement tomorrow.”
“There is no guarantee I’ll be part of an attack tomorrow.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he already knew the deadpan stare that Tsubaki-san would be giving him if they were having this conversation in person. “Okay, fine. I need a bit more time to finish the groundwork for my family being protected from prying vultures. I will redirect any questions regarding my personal life back to the event at hand and ask that my family’s privacy be respected if pushed further.”
“Good answer. And your brother?”
“He’s,” Izuku hesitated before pulling the trigger on his entire plan. “Fine with it. Annoyed, but understanding of the situation. I don’t think he realized the extent of the recognition that I have been receiving.”
“Is he media trained?”
“Yeah, he’s pretty good at avoiding it all considering no one realized he existed.” You know, because he doesn’t.
“STUPID NERD, OPEN THIS DOOR BEFORE I BLOW IT OFF IT’S HINGES.” Came slightly muffled through his door, and he didn’t quite catch what Tsubaki-san’s response was.
“I got to go, something just came up and I need to get it settled.” Izuku hung up before jumping over his couch and sock sliding to the genkan. He quickly undid the lock and latches and opened the door before black whip snaked out quickly and pulled his childhood friend into the apartment and redoing the lock.
“You better have a damn good reason to send me a text of ‘I have a twin,’ and no other context.”
“I was sleep deprived and the new cashier at my usual konbini apparently has a friend who’s a journalist blew a situation that happened out of proportion, and now I need you to help me come up with a wardrobe to match.”
“What?”
“I need help with a wardrobe, Kacchan.”
“I got that much, but why?”
Izuku blushed before murmuring, “Because someone asked if I was Deku when I was tired and I said ‘No, that’s my brother’ instead of anything else.”
Bakugo snorted. “Of course you would accidentally create a secret identity. Alright, show me what you were wearing when it happened, we can match that with some deviation.” He walked off towards Izuku’s closet with a huff that sounded kind of like ‘anything to get you out of your joke shirts,’ but Izuku didn’t want to rile Bakugo up again.
“If anyone asks, it was an almost parent trap situation!” Izuku called out as he followed his childhood friend back to his closet.
Thus began in earnest the creation of Akatani Mikumo, ‘twin brother’ of Midoriya Izuku.
You see, there are multiple known ways of setting up an entirely new identity in the current state of Heroic society. There is, of course, the old-fashioned way of finding the correct people in the seedier part of town and getting something set up that is likely more illegal than legal. There is also the more relevant to the times way of doing so which is to apply with it to the UHA, or Underground Heroics Association, as they handle almost any and all undercover work that may need a new identity to work with. Then there is also the office in the back of the UHA building if you know where to go and which tiles to step on in the correct order to get there where the deep cover identities are made that usually require face, eyes, and hair alterations via quirk.
The problem with these methods is that with the former, it will show illegal if dug into, and the latter two are noted as fake in a database, internal or otherwise. It may be protected by the notoriously secure UHA servers, but that still has a chance to get hacked into and leaked.
Izuku wanted this to be as difficult as possibly for anyone to figure out that Akatani Mikumo is just shell identity and not real person, and while most of what was needed for this to work was within his reach, he had need of someone who could put all the finishing touches on making the identity airtight from poking and prodding.
He needed Nedzu.
Izuku knows well enough that what he is attempting to do is chaotic enough that Nedzu will help, no question, to feed the chaos. The problem with needing Nedzu is that Nedzu will know that he is needed which gives him the upper hand in negotiations regarding what Izuku will do in exchange. Izuku knows that no one wants to owe ‘The Rat’ a favor and thus Izuku probably has no favors in hand that would entice Nedzu to trade the favor for a favor.
So Izuku needs to find something to trade to Nedzu in exchange for finalizing and notarizing all his documents, backdated or otherwise, for the identity he was crafting instead of basically offering the stoat a blank check in the form of an ‘I owe you’ favor.
Izuku checked the time before sending off the email requesting to have tea and a chess match with the mammal. During second year, Nedzu had a small class with him, Yaoyorozu, Monoma, and, surprisingly, Shinso on analysis, framing, and influencing people. Izuku had a lot of fun in that class learning how to “be a manipulative bastard while making people think you are still sunshine incarnate” as Shinso liked to put it.
He learned a lot, and Nedzu helped him clean up and streamline his analysis so that it was easier to act on in a combat situation, offered different points of view to consider, and just generally stimulate his mind in a way that no other teachers before Yuuei did. But the deep-seated fear of what the label teacher had did cause him to obfuscate exactly what was in his analysis notebook.
Bakugo knew, of course, what was in the notebook he was constantly scribbling things down in. Before their heart to heart and almost dying in a war, the notebook would irk the blond to no end, but left it since it helped prevent Izuku from mumbling.
Izuku’s friend group knew that he would write down notes and ideas of how to help improve their quirks, but a lot of the time they would just write it off as something he wrote the idea down during class and then expanded on later, not that the notebook itself was full of breakdowns of basically every and any hero Izuku could lay his eyes on, and later, every villain.
Izuku was sure that Aizawa-sensei either knew or had a general inkling of the notebook being a lot more than everyone else made it out to be, considering how protective the resident Problem Child was of it, but other than him, Izuku didn’t think the other teachers really knew. Izuku did purposefully standardize all his notebooks to be the same, specifically so that his teachers and anyone else looking farther than a glance would not realize that it was a different notebook when he had it out in the middle of class.
A ding broke Izuku out of his staring contest with off in space. Checking his email, his hope rose as his stomach sank in an odd mix of feeling excited but terrified of the confirmation to meet. He took a large breath before exhaling slowly to disburse some of the jitters.
He could do this.
He could not do this.
Izuku, being a few years removed from being the focus study of Nedzu’s attention, forgot or suppressed the feeling of the beady little eyes the stoat had pinned on the former student.
“Midoriya-kun, it is nice to see you again. Tea?” The cheer and practiced smile were present as his eyes almost twinkled as they studied him.
Izuku must have made some noise of assent without realizing it as he made his way towards the normal visiting seating. “It is nice to see you too. I hope you haven’t had too many issues with the school since my class graduated?”
“It has calmed down a bit since your first year, but we must keep up with the social reforms that have started to be put in place. Worry not, for it is nothing we cannot handle.” Nedzu pushed a teacup towards him. “Now, enough of the social pleasantries, you have something you need help with. My help. Not many people would willingly ask for my help if it was something that could have been taken care of without it. So,” Nedzu settled in his seat with his own cup. “How can I help?”
Izuku clocked the trap as soon as it left the stoat’s mouth, but Nedzu was right, and they both knew it. “I am sure you have seen the recent article published about me claiming that I have a brother that I apparently have beef with.”
“Ah,” Nedzu nodded in understanding. “While it is not true, you are looking to make it a reality. You want a shell identity that masquerades as your sibling, close enough that your looks can be written off, but a way for you to separate your work. That is an interesting idea, and not outside the realm of possibility given your rather isolated childhood.” Izuku must have made a face, because Nedzu laughed as he continued. “Don’t look so surprised, Midoriya-kun. Big Hamster knows all, you know that.”
Izuku made a noise somewhere between a snort and a dying whale as he choked on his tea before slapping his chest a few times to dislodge the liquid. “You have the gist of it.” Izuku rasped, but voice cleared up as he talked. “I know that I could have gone through the UHA if I wanted it to be a confirmed alias, but I don’t want it to be in that system in case of it being breeched. So that led me to you.”
Nedzu nodded in understanding, and Izuku continued. “I am well aware what I am asking is not particularly easy for the layman to do, never mind do correctly, and I am also well aware that you deal in favors just like I do.”
“And what do you have to offer me, Midoriya-kun?”
“Quirk analysis of all incoming students, complete with suggestions and ideas of where they could take their quirk, along with any support items I would suggest off the bat. Also, guest speaker options. I have favors from heroes of all fields, so if you need an extra pro for any specific subject, myself included, I would be able to help coordinate that.” Izuku bit his tongue to prevent himself from downplaying what he offered to the Principal. If he showed any weakness or doubt in what he was offering, Nedzu would sniff it out like sharks with blood in the water and demand more.
Nedzu studies him with sharp eyes and an even sharper smile, almost willing him to break, but Izuku holds firm. “And?”
Izuku flexed his toes because it is a lot less obvious than flexing his hands to get rid of the jitters he is feeling. “Biweekly chess matches.” He hedged, but at what the Nedzu equivalent of an eyebrow raise, he grabs his last advantage. “I will let you read through all of my analysis notebooks?”
Izuku wanted to punch himself with a Texas Smash the instant his voice pitching up at the end like it was a question rather than a statement.
Nedzu chortled, grin going just a hair out of friendly and into feral. “Midoriya-kun, how do you feel about teaching?”
That’s… not that bad of an idea, actually. Izuku was already planning to get Mikumo and himself fully accredited in a six month no life hell course of his own creation, what more was a teaching degree and license to add onto that? But does he really want to add on another job after he is done getting his higher education? Aizawa-sensei always looked like he was one bad day from snapping or never getting up again with two jobs. Mic-sensei, on the other hand, juggled three jobs and seemed to do alright. Maybe because Izuku has a manager much like Mic has, but Aizawa does not, Izuku will end up alright?
“…I’m not opposed to the idea.”
“Wonderful!” Izuku held back a small shiver, hoping that the tacet agreement he just made would not come back to bite him in the rear.
“Chess?” Izuku prompted, barely making his voice not sound weak.
“Of course! Now,” Nedzu’s eyes were twinkling again. “What was this about analysis notebooks?”
Izuku gave Nedzu a tired smile before asking wryly. “I thought Big Hamster knew all?”
The next eight months of his life were a whirlwind of course work for his college classes, his normal patrols, still helping organize and be a part of raids, though not as many, and telling himself that sleep was for the weak.
Izuku decided that if he was going to go through the effort of getting his ‘brother’ certified, he might as well get it for himself in case this all blows up in his face down the line. This meant double the course work, but generally he was able to write on two different topics if it was allowed, but if the paper had to be on one subject, Izuku played his own devil’s advocate and wrote two papers of opposing viewpoints as to not be accused of cheating.
Hilariously, only his mother, Kacchan, and Nedzu were actually aware that he made a secret identity of being his own brother. When asked by his former classmates about why he never mentioned his brother, Izuku kind of played it off as his brother being a really private person who went to live in America with their dad for high school and only recently came back after a once in a lifetime opportunity became available for him.
As for what Mikumo does for work? A quirk analyst and consultant were the obvious answer if the notebooks were anything to go by, written off as their sibling bonding activity growing up.
Izuku planned on letting his friends in on the fib of him having a brother, but when he showed up to Shoto’s apartment when it was his turn to host their monthly game night, he was greeted by Ochako on the floor laughing, Tsu croaking, Hitoshi pinching the bridge of his nose, and Tenya chopping his arm trying to argue a point while Shoto was pointing at a newspaper clipping that was pinned to a corkboard with strings of various colors strewn around.
Shoto did not have an accurate idea of what was actually going on and kept insinuating Izuku and now Mikumo were still All Might’s secret love children. Hitoshi sidled up next to Izuku and stated more than asked under his breath. “You were tired and sleep deprived, weren’t you.”
Izuku nods while humming in agreement.
“Are you going to tell them?”
“I was.” Izuku murmurs. “Then Shoto apparently got back on the All Might’s secret love child kick that I thought I finally broke him of.”
Hitoshi snorts before making his way to the kitchen mumbling about coffee.
Thus, leading to the next best and worst decision he has made: getting three separate cell phones to help him juggle who he is talking as, one for personal, one for work as the hero Deku, and the last for Mikumo.
That is how Ochako and Tsu found out, as he called them by their given names the first time they had called the Mikumo phone, much to his embarrassment.
Tenya also found out, but that was because he was in the room when Izuku answered the phone as Mikumo, and then Izuku’s mother called his personal phone. That wouldn’t have been enough to give it away, but then Izuku’s hero phone went off to talk about an upcoming raid, so when Tenya kept giving him glances immediately after everything got cleared up, Izuku felt inclined to explain.
Something similar to the Tenya incident happened in front of Shoto, and Izuku was also going to bring him into the loop after that, but he had since talked his way back into yet another conspiracy theory regarding Izuku and the spy squirrel Mei had made for him to test out, so he got out of that by just pretending it didn’t happen.
Mei was the only one to actually actively figure it out in an energy drink fueled information binge after one of her coworkers mentioned the article within her earshot. “It wasn’t terribly difficult, definitely harder to get to than many of Nedzu’s more protected things. I wouldn’t worry too much about it though, your secret is deeper than Tartarus compared to all the HPSC’s dirty little secrets hidden on their servers.” Which was both heartening and downright terrifying.
Detective Tsukauchi found out when he was supposed to be meeting Akatani concerning some patterns that had been popping up within a certain area regarding a new drug that was being product tested and how it was affecting quirks. When he walked in and the detective looked up and asked, “Akatani?” Izuku made the apparent mistake of saying yes and watching as the detective’s face twitched violently before it crumpled in pain and a small amount of blood trickled down from his nose.
“Sorry, Detective, I’m Midoriya, but Akatani is an alias of mine after the media shenanigans last year. I didn’t realize you got that severe of quirk backlash when an answer comes back with both yes and no.”
“Normally, I don’t, but I usually am wording things in such a way that the answer is a clear yes or no, with no room for both.”
Izuku knew that it was only a matter of time before the staff at Yuuei would find out about his impending staff onboarding that was going to happen right before the upcoming entrance exams, and those that would find out about his second identity. He meant to let his old homeroom teacher know ahead of time, but there was never a good time to bring it up and-
“Problem Child?”
Izuku froze and knew the involuntary action was the nail in his metaphorical coffin. He turned and stepped towards the pro that called out to him.
“Akatani Mikumo, actually.” Izuku hedges, shaking his head in denial, but knows that he is not likely to fool his old teacher and soon to be colleague if the squinting eyes focused on him was anything to go by. He slowly raises his hands in front of himself, angling his body in such a way that it would block them from any onlookers as well as the security cameras he had clocked when walking in a bit ago. “I think you are confusing me with my brother.” He spoke without hesitation while signing discreetly, ‘not now, eyes and ears,’ and hoping that it would be enough for Aizawa to drop it for the time being.
Aizawa nods, “I see. My mistake, Akatani-san.” The older pro takes his hands out of his pockets before speaking again. “You are here as an analyst then, I assume.”
‘coffee, later’
“Of course. That and to help with logistical work.”
After the meeting ended, Izuku wordlessly followed Aizawa to a nearby coffee shop. They ordered before getting settled in a corner booth with line of sight on the entrance and exits, taking a few sips of their drinks before Aizawa quietly breaks the silence.
“Who all knows?”
“Mom, Nedzu, and Kacchan were the main circle of it. Hitoshi figured it out almost immediately, Mei knew after hacking the information, and Ochako, Tenya, and Tsu found out due to my own mistakes and oversights.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t tell Todoroki.”
“Oh, he was going to be told after another of my oversight incidents, but he had to bring up the SLC list again, so he’s in the dark until he behaves.”
“SLC?”
“Secret love child list.” Izuku thought he saw Aizawa’s lip twitch up into a smile, but it was hard to tell when his coffee cup was immediately put in the line of sight.
“Eclectic mentioned he talked to you a while back.”
“He gave me advice.” Izuku grunted into his coffee before setting it down and rubbing his eyes to relieve some tension. “If I had been more attentive to it, I wouldn’t have a twin.” Aizawa snorted. “I realize how that might be misconstrued, but the sentiment remains. Back to the issue at hand though, I now understand your aversion to the vultures. And your sleeping bag. And your exasperation with the stoat.”
“Stoat. Huh.” Aizawa gazes off, contemplating that information. “Wait, what does Nedzu have to do with this?”
Aizawa watches as Izuku’s eyes make a quick glance over the room before pulling out a small flask from his bag and dumping the contents into his coffee before squirreling it back before anyone could tell he did anything. A quick stir before downing the rest like it was a shot, Izuku makes more eye contact with his former teacher than he did in the entirety of his first year of high school. “Being in the position of needing something from Nedzu and Nedzu knowing that you need it specifically from him is not a place I recommend being. In my attempt to not just give him a blank check, I will be your newest coworker. It is yet to be determined if that trade was better or worse than the alternative.”
Aizawa’s lip twitches before being covered by his mug again. “I know being in that position more than I’d care to admit. It wasn’t just Kayama sending in my resume that got me a job at Yuuei.”
Izuku narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?” Aizawa’s face split into his disconcerting grin after he finished his coffee and got up and started to walk out. “What do you mean?!”
Aizawa turned back to him as he kept walking, “Guess you now need to figure out what Nedzu has over everyone else who works at Yuuei. Think of it as our hazing ritual, some of it might surprise you.” And he was gone.
“I suppose that is as good of a distraction as any.” Izuku mused as he cleaned up and disposed of his trash. He paused in his stride to the door, having a eureka moment. “That’s what Inui-sensei meant about the fleas.”