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Izuku internally cheered as he opened the package. He'd found a fellow fan of Suneater online, and they had agreed to sell Izuku one of their homemade Suneater face masks. Izuku didn't normally wear them, but it was the only reasonably priced piece of Suneater merch.
Izuku had ordered a custom made pair of Eraserhead goggles at the same time as the Suneater mask, and he was glad to see that they'd arrived as well. Izuku experimentally tried on the goggles, and he was pleased to find out that they didn't obscure his vision at all! He slipped the face mask on next, and miraculously his goggles didn't fill with fog.
Izuku grinned and spun around in happy circles. He was about to start cleaning up when he heard his phone go off. He rushed over to see a text from his mom; she wanted him to pick up the groceries before she got home.
Izuku dashed into the kitchen to grab the grocery bag before walking out. The grin on his face hidden by his Suneater mask. The joy in his eyes was covered by his Eraserhead goggles. He took a step out of his apartment building and his smile immediately fell as he noticed the downpour.
At least he had his All Might hoodie on! Izuku flipped up his hood, shoved the grocery bag into the hoodie's overly huge front pocket, and began to run down the street.
When he finally made it into the store, he was panting heavily under his merch.
"Hey! You! I'm not looking for any trouble, you hear?" the normally sweet cashier shook her fist and shouted at Izuku. He stood up straighter and pulled his hood and goggles down simultaneously, which showed off his bright green features. Mrs. Yamamoto gasped apologetically, and Izuku waved her off and headed down the first aisle, occasionally checking the grocery list Mom had sent for reference.
As he wandered the aisles, Izuku realized why Mrs. Yamamoto thought he was a ruffian; hood, face mask, something mysterious in his pocket? He must have looked like he was going to rob her store! Izuku frowned unhappily at the thought.
When Izuku was ready to check out, Mrs. Yamamoto apologized again for her earlier mistake and Izuku waved her off again. He pulled his All Might hood and Eraserhead goggles up again in case it was still raining before he ducked out of the store with a cheerful goodbye.
Even when Izuku heard a small cry of pain, his mood didn't immediately dampen; someone could have just fallen, after all!
When Izuku heard someone hiss, "Hand over your wallet before I do something worse than shove you," his smile fell. He peered curiously into the alleyway to make sure it wasn't a misunderstanding before he called the police. His quick glance revealed a situation far too dire to wait for the cops to arrive.
A tall, leopard-spotted woman was pointing a gun to a frail blond man's head. When the man's blue eyes caught Izuku's green ones, he desperately gestured for Izuku to leave. It was too late though, and even if it hadn't been, Izuku wouldn't have left the skeletal man alone to die.
"Well, well, well," the woman purred. She took a cutting step forward and scoffed, "What have we here?" Another step forward.
Izuku didn't think, he just moved. Before he knew it, the woman was knocked out on the ground, a now-empty can of peas strewn beside her.
"T-thank you, my boy!" the stranger exclaimed, executing a small bow as he did so.
"What? I don’t do anything!" Izuku exclaimed in bewilderment. Then his watch pinged and he gasped; he needed to leave now or he wouldn't beat Mom home! "Sorry, I've got to go," he excused.
"Wait," the stranger called out, but it was too Izuku's retreating back.
After that first incident, Izuku kept running into more and more of these fights, whether they were muggings or murder attempts. He honestly didn't know why so many fights were popping up, but he figured that he was doing what any concerned citizen would do.
Izuku kept wearing the Suneater mask as well as Eraserheads goggles when he went out. He'd been planning to find different merch to wear for both heroes but the former kept his face warm and the latter kept his eyes protected, so Izuku kept wearing them whenever he went outside. (He wore his All Might hoodie every time too, but that was just a happy coincidence.)
The first time Izuku ran into Eraserhead, he’d just found a group of kids strapping a muzzle onto a purple haired boy. Izuku immediately dashed in to help (just like any concerned citizen would) and he was quickly outnumbered.
He’d managed to slam one thug against the alley wall and he elbowed another in the stomach, but the three remaining thugs looked tall and menacing.
“You think you can just waltz on in here and play the hero?” One thug jeered as he punched his fists together.
“I’m not trying to,” Izuku shot back, readying his stance as he did.
“Yeah right,” a different thug scoffed. He ran at Izuku, who narrowly dodged out of the way in time.
Izuku skidded on the floor of the alleyway and ran at the one thug who hadn’t yet spoken. She caught Izuku easily and trapped him in a headlock. Izuku was still struggling to escape when Eraserhead ran into the alley. Eraserhead!
While Eraserhead distracted the thugs, Izuku grabbed the purple-haired kid (who’d been watching the fight in a mix of awe and fear) and ran out of the alley. Once they were far enough away that Izuku was sure they wouldn’t bother Eraserhead, Izuku slowed down and came to a stop.
The purple kid was clearly struggling to breathe, what with the muzzle and the running. Izuku winced and reached his hands out to pry it off. The kid flinched and backed away instinctively, and Izuku backed off with raised hands.
“Sorry!” Izuku exclaimed in nervous apology. “I was just going to try to get the muzzle off. Is that okay?” The other kid nodded warily, and Izuku slowly reached forward and carefully unlatched the muzzle.
Izuku opened his mouth to ask the boy anything ; name, age, whatever. He didn’t get the chance though, because his watch beeped loudly and insistently.
“Oh no!” Izuku yelped. “I’ve got to get home. Have a great day!” Izuku called back to the purple haired boy, who just watched Izuku leave with a conflicted look in his eyes.
After that, Izuku ran into Eraserhead while he was out, and he always internally began fanboying. Strangely enough, the hero always seemed to be looking for something, and Izuku didn't have the courage to offer his help.
Izuku was heading out for his usual midnight jog (a habit he'd taken up recently), and everything had been going great. Then he heard a little kids' cry. Izuku smoothly ducked into the alleyway in a manner that he was only recently beginning to perfect, and he silently crept closer.
An overly muscular man was leering threateningly over a small kid wearing a horned red hat. There was a chance they were related and Izuku was figuring out a way to take the kid’s parent out of the picture, but the two looked nothing alike and the kid didn’t exactly seem like he wanted to be with the man. Izuku took a deep breath in, then silently released it.
Izuku took a few more seconds to plan his course of action before he dashed forward, scooped up the kiddo, and ran towards the police station. The overly muscular man was nipping at his heels, and the kid was crying into Izuku's shirt, but Izuku couldn't think about either of those things. Instead, he focused on running.
Finally, the police station came into view. Izuku barely managed to get in the doorway and set the kid down before the muscular man ran in and tackled Izuku. The police pulled him off of Izuku and hauled him away, but Izuku didn't focus on that.
Instead, he turned to the kid and asked in a whisper, "Are you okay?" The kid let out a sob and threw himself into Izuku's arms. Izuku tightened his grip on the kid and righted himself so that he didn't fall over.
There was so much more that Izuku wanted to ask the kid, but before Izuku could do so, one of the detectives stuck his head out of his office in annoyance. He irritably snapped, "What is all of this commotion… about?" The detective trailed off at the sight of the wreckage, then startled at the sight of Izuku.
The detective strolled forward and closed his wrist around Izuku's. "Someone take this kid," the detective called out, and a cat-eared officer pried the kid out of Izuku's arms while the detective dragged Izuku into whatever conference room he'd been in earlier.
When Izuku saw who was waiting in the room, he gasped with delight, "Eraserhead!" Eraserhead raised a hand to pinch his eyebrows.
The detective sighed and said, "This is the vigilante you were telling me about, right, Eraser?"
Eraserhead nodded tiredly. Izuku just stared, dumbfounded for a second before he exclaimed, "I'm not a vigilante! You have to have a quirk to do that, and I’m not doing anything a vigilante would anyways.” Eraserhead slumped to the table and groaned.
When the meeting is over and done with, Izuku comes out with three new things: the knowledge that what he's been doing for the past few months is illegal. An internship for the summer with Detective Tsukauchi. And a golden ticket to U.A.'s hero course.