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It’s a sunny day, the clouds are lazily rolling through the sky, humans are walking around doing their daily things, and Izuku is gazing down at them all from the top of a building.
Overall, today is a good day, a good atmosphere in general. He's had a bit of a break for a few days, seeing as there aren’t any down-to-heart-evil type of villains around too much. He did deal with them, so he guesses he has nothing much to do.
He likes rooftops, now that he thinks about it. Always has, actually. It’s where everything ended, and everything started, ironically.
Back when he was still a kid, a naive little child with dreams too big for his own sake, he’d wanted to be a hero. Oh so badly, he wanted. Stupid as it sounds, he even worshipped them. Well, not directly, just, very obsessed.
Regardless, his story began when he was told he was quirkless, of course, when he learned that overused sentence, men are not created equal, or whatever, that he knew. Truly, he was aware he had no chance of becoming a hero, not without a quirk, some superpower, something special.
At least that’s what was drilled in his head for years, and he believed it. He believed it because depression, coupled with anxiety, were good friends of his, never left his side, and made him fragile.
But, what else could he do? He needed a way to cope, a way to pretend things were fine, even if they were not, and keep doing something. Without this - dream, he would’ve had no purpose. Literally. No one cares about people with no power, nothing special about them, unique. He would have never gotten a job either way, so there wasn’t much he could’ve accomplished.
But fuck that. He lets out a laugh, and looks towards the sky. Fuck that, he thinks again, he’s where he wants to be now, needs to be, and he’s never felt better.
Later in the evening, he’s getting kind of bored. There's nothing much to do, and he’s had plenty of ‘rest’. More like sitting around and doing nothing, is the fact he knows.
Nevertheless, he decides he’s going to be annoying and go visit his good, good friend, Kon Kunisada.
Kon is someone like him, except with loads more experience, (a few hundred years actually), the person who helped Izuku and taught him the controls of this whole job when he found him, scared and confused about what was going on. He’s a lot more subtle, and was never found out by any police or heroes, unlike Izuku.
(He’s still considered a newbie, or noob, in their dead community, but he’s still learning, have some mercy, it’s only been a year.)
Izuku finds Kon chilling in a tree. A fucking tree. Humming to himself, absentmindedly stroking a grey cat.
When Izuku found out, in their third month of teaching, that Kon was like himself, in more ways than one, he didn’t really know what to say. Strangely, he remembers feeling grateful in a way, at least someone understood him, even if they were in different situations.
His mentor is nothing special really, he wears what Izuku wears, black cloth that reminds you of those stereotypical Grim Reapers, has short brown hair, and snake-like eyes. Calculations aside, it would be obvious that Kon lived through the age when quirks had first-first appeared, so it’s most likely he was abused his whole life because of his appearance.
It’s not immediately apparent, but if one looked more closely, they’d notice there were tiny black scales around his eyes, and the thin prick pupils, which, yeah, explains the snake-like eyes. It’s understandable that people would have thought negatively of him, as they weren’t used to quirks at all. Frankly, a quirk like that nowadays would be labelled as nothing amazing and weak.
Funny how society changes.
Kon is corporeal right now, so he is able to pet the cat. Doesn’t mean Izuku has to be too.
“Kon! Hello! It’s been a while!” he waves from the ground. The cat glares at him, possibly asking why he’s interrupting them, but it’s not like he can talk to cats, that’s Kon’s thing. Same as Izuku and his birds.
“Izuku, where did you come from? It hasn’t been that long,” is the reply he receives, and he lowers his hand as soon as he sees his mentor floating down, cat forgotten. He ignores the sound of wind and whispers as Kon talks, chilling as it is, because his voice does the same when he’s not in his default state.
“What, can’t I visit my teacher? Plus, I decided today I'm going to be annoying,” he notes proudly, with a nod of his head and hands on his hips. He looks childish, and he knows it.
His so-called teacher chuckles fondly, ruffles his hair and starts talking in his normal voice.
“You? Annoying? Never,” he laughs, takes off the hood on his face then sits with his back against the tree, ignoring Izuku’s frustrated squabbles and pats the ground next to him, an invitation for the other to sit. When the boy does so, he continues.
“Though I do hope you’ve realised the humans know about you now,” he scolds.
“Wah! I didn’t mean to!” Izuku tries to defend himself, even though knowing it won’t change anything, but mutters under his breath, “It was just so fun to mess with them, come on, you know that.”
Kon does know that, he did similar things in his first few decades, and still does occasionally.
“I just hope you know not to reveal our existence, yes?”
“Of course!” Izuku nods firmly, because yes he does know that, and no he won’t go around telling people about them. What moron would do that anyways?
They continue to banter and discuss things, even as the sun sets and the moon appears. It’s good catching up with those you care about, even if it’s only been two months since they'd last seen each other. The topic of the Kamino shitshow comes up, and Izuku tries his best explaining it, though he’s not entirely sure himself what happened.
He asks Kon why he was the one to deal with All for One, and Kon explains that it was his area. Area, as in a territory of some sorts, and he’s responsible for what happens there. Kon’s area is somewhere up north, not too far from where they are currently now, maybe a few hundred miles. That's why Izuku easily found him. Well, after he asked the crows of course.
Later, the issue with the new found knowledge of the trap designed for him is approached, and the green haired boy is reassured he’s allowed to do whatever he wants about it, as long as he doesn’t reveal too much.
All things considered, today was a good day, and he walks back to Musutafu in an even better mood and new determination.
They’ve set up the trap, that Shouta knows. It’s been a month and a half since he’s been informed of this villain, because that’s what he is, in the hero’s eyes. Killing ‘bad guys’ isn’t how you solve things, no matter how much they deserve it. The information they have is vague, barely there, but everyone knows the villain/vigilante is powerful.
Plus, the fact they never did anything else besides eradicating other villains. Odd, but easy to catch, he thinks, with the obvious pattern. It’s like this guy somehow thinks he’s better than all of them, just being cocky and disregarding the idea that he could be caught. He knows other villains and vigilantes like that. Heck, even heroes. They always have one thing in common though.
They all die or get caught in the end.
Yes, this is what Shouta knows will happen tonight: they’ll catch Reaper by placing that villain from Tartarus as bait, Reaper will be arrested, then Shouta will have a nice night’s sleep before having to deal with the problem children that are his students tomorrow.
Logic wins over intrusive thoughts and quiets them down - nothing could go wrong, he’s sure.
It’s 1.38am when it happens. Actually, nothing happens. Shouta’s silently crouching behind some crates, no sign he’s even there, he knows because he’s a pro and practiced, when it happens.
Everyone was tense and waiting, prepared, ready, whatever the hell you wanna describe them as-- but no one, and he means no one, (not even Nedzu, who’d planned this whole thing) could’ve have foreseen the villain’s head simply fall from her neck and-- and fucking rolling a bit before stopping, like they do in movies and comics. Add with the crumpling and thud! of her body falling to the ground, it was a scene complete. Marvellous, he would’ve said if he was fucked up in the head.
Luckily, he wasn’t, so he shot up and scanned his surroundings.
Because there’s absolutely no way her head just fell off. Something must’ve happened, otherwise he refuses to believe it. It’s illogical. He was staring right at her as well. Must be some invisible quirk, it has to be.
Soon everyone is called and they regroup around the body and pool of blood. There are debates, arguments, shouting at each other, and each person is saying I was right there, there’s no way.
Shouta lets out a sigh of utter exhaustion, and begins to think of possible ways and explanations.
One, Reaper could have an invisible quirk. That’s seriously the most reasonable fact. Compared with the statement Bakugou gave to the police, while he was in that room when he was captured, Reaper just appears out of nowhere. Thin air. That’s what they know. So, obviously, this guy has got to have an invisible quirk. One that allows him to turn on and off. Yes, yes, there we go, he thinks.
But-- but wouldn’t he need his weapons and clothes or whatever? Maybe, the properties of the quirk could be that anything he touches becomes invisible as well. If it was that, they definitely would’ve heard him enter, steps and clothes still make sound invisible or not.
Okay, what about a teleportation quirk? He’s never seen on cameras around the city, so there has to be a way he gets to the villains in the first place, then leaves. Surprisingly, this makes more sense. In that case, it’d be a powerful tel--
“Aizawa, what do you think?” He’s drawn from his thinking to answer another hero, Kamui Woods. He was placed here in thoughts of being able to restrain Reaper if he made a physical appearance, but looks like it was futile in the end. God, this whole thing was frustrating.
“I think there was an invisibility or teleportation in use and that’s how he managed the kill, otherwise I’m blank.” He admits with a small shrug. His peers blink and stare at him, probably realising the fact that he’s always had something to say, a major conclusion or a next step. Not this time, it seems. He really doesn’t know. Nedzu probably will, so he’ll have a chat with the rat tomorrow after showing him the recording tape of the whole warehouse.
Fuck, it’s like this guy could kill absolutely anyone if he wants , but he’s going after the villains specifically now, so Shouta feels thankful and apprehensive at the same time. After all, who knows how it could’ve been if he’d just killed civilians or heroes instead. He subtly shivers just thinking about it.
They’d need to be careful; no more underestimating Reaper like Shouta did. It’s crystal clear that the villain knows what he’s doing, and that this whole warehouse was a trap. Fuck.
Well, he’ll just have to wait and see the next opportunity. Until then, he’s certain his paranoia and attitude will go haywire.
Yay for him.