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When Izuku gets home from the sludge villain attack, he feels absolutely wrecked. This, considering his day, is expected. The lights are off in the apartment, the latter void of any human presence, due to Inko avoiding her son. Izuku doesn't care.
He goes straight to his room, flopping onto his bed and letting himself feel boneless. This only lasts a minute, before his black cat, Murphy, jumps onto his back.
"Muuurphsss, noooo." Izuku groans tiredly as his cat starts tapping persistently on his head.
His cat doesn't stop, though, instead giving him a more insistent, forceful tap on the head and an annoyed and exasperated Meow.
"Fine. I'm up." grumbles Izuku, picking up Murphy and shuffling to the kitchen. He knows what Murphy wants. Opening the cupboard reveals a sad sight of empty. "Murphy, we're out of ramen."
Meow.
"Okay, then." Izuku nods, "Let's go shopping."
After getting changed out of his uniform and into more suitable attire, aka a t-shirt, black parachute pants, a dark green hoodie, and a black face mask, Izuku slips on his red high-tops and sets on his journey.
"Ya know, Murphy," Izuku starts, looking out the corner of his eye to the cat perched on his shoulders, "I reckon you have a quirk.
"Like, you're really smart, plus I always know what you're trying to convey without you actually saying anything.
"I should get you tested for a quirk." he hums.
Eventually, after much rambling of heroes to Murphy, they finally reach the 24/7 shop Izuku frequents, going inside and bee-lining to the food aisle.
"Murphy, look. They're half-price." Izuku cheers quietly, grabbing three packs that should last him two or so weeks, and goes to the counter.
"Hey, Midoriya. Hey, Murphy." greets Kori, smiling. The nineteen year old boy works at the store all the time, along with doing online college classes. Izuku likes him because he's actually a really nice guy.
"Hi, Hagiwara." Izuku smiles back, "How's it going?"
"Not too bad. Business is good and I'm doing well in my classes. What about you?"
Izuku just sighs heavily and says wearily, "I'm glad things are going good for you." he runs a hand through his curls and chuckling sadly, "Uh... It hasn't been the best of days, but... I'll-I'll try to get through it."
"Oh... Well, I'm sorry you gotta deal with this." Kori says, sadness in his eyes.
"It's fine. Shit happens." Izuku sighs again, "Anyway, have a good night, Kori. I'd best be on my way."
"Alright, Mido. Good night."
And with that, Izuku leaves, exiting the store with a bag in hand and Murphy on his shoulders. A few streets down, Murphy starts to tense up, and a few minutes later Izuku knows why.
"Just fucking give me the money, you jackass!" a voice carries through the silent night. Izuku creeps quietly to the alleyway where the noise is coming from. A metallic clatter startles Izuku, who stumbles back slightly as a bin flies from the alley and spills onto the street.
"I-I d-don't have a-any." sobs another voice.
"Bullshit!"
Izuku peers into the alleyway, only to see the back of a lumbering man standing over what looked to be a teenager cowering against the wall. His breath hitches.
The man roars again, something Izuku can't hear, but by this time Izuku has already made up his mind.
He knows the world has been cruel to him. Has beaten him and cursed at him over and over again. People have hurt him and crushed his dream under their feet. He thinks of his mother and father, he thinks of Bakugou and All Might. Thinks that they were right, and he can't be a hero.
But then he looks at the boy in the alley, and thinks that even if he can't be a hero, he can't just leave someone who needs help.
And the world has wronged him, he knows. But if he turns his back on a person in need, then that's wrong too. And two wrongs don't make a right.
Izuku takes a deep breatg, places his bag down silently, and gets Murphy off. He scans for anything he can use against the man and finds a piece of rebar, about half the length of his arm.
Next he analyses.
The man doesn't have any mutations from what Izuku can see, and if he had some sort powerful quirk then he'd have already forced the boy to surrender his money. That crosses out mutant our powerful quirks, so Izuku can say that he'll be fairly safe when sneaking up on him.
Izuku sneaks into the alley, picks up the rebar, making sure to have a good grip. To any deity there, Izuku prays for this to not backfire horribly, otherwise Murphy would probably kill him.
Another deep breath, and Izuku runs as quietly and quickly as he can and jumps, bringing down the rebar to stoke the man's pressure point.
His landing leaves much to be desired as he stumbles a couple steps before spinning on his heel to face the hopefully unconscious man. Thankfully, the man's landing fared much worse than his, the guy crumpling to the ground like puppet with its strings cut.
Izuku is shaky with adrenaline and relief, his breaths coming in just as shaky. "Holy shit." he breaths out under his breath.
Murphy comes into the alley, carrying his bag in his mouth as he trots to Izuku. The black cat places it down and taps at his phone, before jumping onto Izuku's shoulders.
"R-right. Police." he mutters quietly, getting out his phone and dialling, "Hello? Hi, there's was an attempted assault at... actually, where am I? Uh... a few streets from the 24/7 convenience store in downtown Musutafu. Th-the victim is still here and the assaulter is knocked out for about half an hour. Th-that's it, thank you. Bye."
He hangs up and turns to the teen, "Are you okay?"
The teen, evidently shaken, looks dazed as he nods slightly. Izuku crouches in front of him, "Can you count to ten for me?"
Teary blue eyes meet his green, then the boy stammers out a, "O-one."
Izuku nods, and the boy continues, "T-t-two... th-three... four..."
The boy seems to not be able to recall the next number, and Izuku says, "Five."
"S-s-sorry."
"It's okay, just go at your own pace. I don't mind." he reassures.
"Okay... Um... five... s-six... sev-seven..." the boy takes a take a deep, slightly shaky, breath, "eight... nine... ten."
"There we go." Izuku smiles, though unseen due to his mask, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah. Thanks." this time the other's nod is more firm, if only by a bit.
"No problem."
Murphy's ears prick up, and the cat paws lightly at Izuku's cheek.
"Okay, Murphs. We're going, we're going." Izuku chuckles, standing up, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'll just wait for the police."
With another nod, Izuku picks up his bag and walks out of the alleyway, heading to his home, blissfully unaware of the shadow he'd left on the roof behind him. Said shadow watches as the person who'd just taken down an assaulter and comforted a victim walks away.