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This Isn't What It Looks Like

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Midoriya Izuku had a quirk.


His mother knew. She’d always known. But no one else.

He couldn’t trust anyone else.


Turn right.

Izuku listened, sharply turning into a nearby alleyway, panting, lungs screaming and legs burning. He heard yelling from behind him, shouting at him for him to stop, but he wouldn’t. Turning another corner, Izuku jumped, grabbing a hold of a pipe and climbing his way up a building, hoisting himself up onto the roof, taking a moment to catch his breath.

His ears pricked as he listened to the sounds of footsteps draw near, heart pounding, before slowly fading away, indicating that they hadn’t seen him. He let out a quiet sigh, rolling his sore shoulder in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

Man, they’re so stupid! A voice cackled in his mind, high pitched and clearly insane.

Enough, Hatter. Izuku is clearly tired. The voice from before chided lightly, sounding just as tired as Izuku felt.

Hatter clicked his tongue. Tch, you’re no fun, Doc.

Doctor ignored him, turning his attention back to Izuku. You should get home. Inko is probably worried sick.

Izuku grunted, not bothering to answer the strict persona with words.

Izu, why not let me take over, ne? I’ll get you home lickety-split~ A third voice chimed, baby blue eyes staring at him widely.

“‘M fine, Kyro.” Izuku mumbled, stumbling to stand up.

Doctor frowned. I’m inclined to agree with Kyro. You’re clearly too tired to be doing this yourself.

“‘M fine!” Izuku hissed, stubbornly running and hopping from roof to roof, foot clipping the edge of one and causing him to fall flat on his face.

Yeah, no, you’re not. Kyro.

On it!

And before Izuku could refute, he was forcibly kicked from control and watched, pouting, as his hair went from a forest green to an icy blue almost white, changing style and length to a half shaved, slightly longer and straighter look. A scar formed under his left eye and Kyro rummaged through the pockets of his outfit and pulled out a bandage, placing it over his nose, and pulled out another one, this one a large square white one, and placed it over his left cheek.

Are the bandages always necessary? Doctor sighed, shaking his head at his counterpart’s unnecessary additions.

“Of course, my dear Doc~ Looks are always important!” Kyro purred, adjusting his clothing and straightening himself, ignoring the aches and pains of protest.

Izuku grumbled about how it wasn’t fair but decided not to argue, instead choosing to curl up and take a nap. Hatter pulled the tired boy over to him, setting his head on his lap and playing with the mop of hair on his head, lulling the tired teen to sleep.

Ruffling his hair for good measure, Kyro hopped down from the roof, gingerly rubbing the newly sported bruise on his face. This would definitely be hella sore tomorrow. He pulled his lips into an amused smile, skipping down the street, ignoring the weird looks he got from the few passersby that were still out and about in the dead of night.

Once he got to the apartment, Kyro pulled out the key and unlocked the door, slipping inside and quietly closing it, making sure to click the lock back into place. As he turned back around, blue eyes met green, an awkward silence filling the room.

Kyro tilted his head, smiling awkwardly, waving his hands slightly. “Surprise?”

Inko gave him an unimpressed stare. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Uh… Nine?”

“It’s three in the morning.” She corrected, tone never rising. “Do you know what time you promised you’d be back?”

Hanging his head, Kyro mumbled back, “Twelve… But-”

“No buts, mister. I’m assuming Izuku overworked himself?”

“Yes ma’am…”

Inko stared at him for a few moments, the blue-haired male beginning to shift uncomfortably under her stern gaze. After a few seconds, she sighed. “Alright, I’ll let it slide this time. Get some rest, I’m sure you’re tired.”

Hastily agreeing, Kyro bolted to his room, cleaning himself up and hopping into bed.

I swear, next time you’re gonna be the one to talk to Inko, Doc.

Doctor didn’t respond, but Kyro didn’t care. He closed his eyes, slipping off into a dreamless sleep.




“It’s nice to finally meet you, Detective!” Izuku chirruped, smiling happily at the exhausted man in front of him, looking like he needed to sleep for about twelve years. Wow, what a mood.

“Nameless,” Tsukauchi greeted, voice thick with exhaustion.

“Aw, my favorite detective knows my name~” Izuku smiled.

“We’re not here to chitchat.” Tsukauchi snapped, not in the mood for this. “First off, what is your real name?”

“Yes.” Izuku was being a little shit on purpose, but is it really his fault? He also wasn’t in the mood for this.

How did it get to this point? Well, let him tell you!


Izuku was going about his daily business, doing online courses, chatting with Inko, feeding the stray cats that came to his window for food, y’know, the usual. But, lo and behold, it immediately all turned to shit the moment he left the house. As soon as he stepped foot out of the apartment, Izuku knew today just wouldn’t go his way.

And what do you know, he was right!

Izuku was more or less known as a vigilante, though it wasn’t entirely by choice. That was more Kyro’s thing. He only got into it because he would more often than not stop crimes he happened to run into, which was a surprising amount, and he didn’t even live in a poor off neighborhood. And Izuku, being the self-sacrificing idiot he was, couldn’t just leave someone in trouble.

The first crime Izuku ever stopped was a downtown robber robbing a convenience store he just so happened to be shopping in. It wasn’t anything big, his body already used to the strains of training and flexibility Kyro forced on it for his own vigilantism, so he unconsciously moved and knocked the fucker out, and that only seemed to break open a dam of unfortunate coincidences.

After that, Izuku found himself stumbling across many more cases of robbery, as well as attempted rapes, kidnaping, murder… All in all, Izuku didn’t choose vigilantism. He’d say it chose him, but it was more like it shoved so many cases of villain or soon-to-be villain spottings up his ass and basically continued to fuck him until he stepped one foot into it against his will.

So yeah, Izuku was an unwilling semi-vigilante. He didn’t have a costume or anything, just opting for a hoodie to cover his face and a mask to cover his freckles mostly and just went around stopping any crimes he happened across. Because he appeared so suddenly and stopped crimes so suddenly and quickly that even the criminals couldn’t get an apt description of him, the media began to call him “Nameless”.

Not that Izuku really cared… He just wanted to chill and enjoy his days with his mom. In peace . Whatever the fuck the others did didn’t concern him, in his humble opinion.

Anyway, we’re getting hella off track.

So, there he was, wanting to buy some more ice cream and maybe a few manga he’d been meaning to buy for a while now, when he happened across another purse snatching. As if on autopilot, Izuku immediately began chasing down the thief, slamming his leg against the back of their neck to knock them out and picking up the purse, not bothering to tie up the thief or anything. It wasn’t his problem anymore.

However, once he returned to the lady whose purse was stolen, he found the police had been called at some point and cursed under his breath that he was indeed super close to the police station. He traveled to the outer edge of the crowd that had gathered for some ungodly reason and threw the purse back to the lady before booking it.

Izuku glanced at his close and almost wanted to cry at how he’d grabbed the hoodie he wore most often in his vigilante endeavors, the article of clothing the only thing most people could catch sight of before he made his escape. He wasn’t wearing his mask at the moment either, so that only made things so much better. Whatever. Izuku doubted it made much of a difference either way.

Aw, Izukun, how come you’re having so much fun while we’re sitting here bored? Hatter complained, pouting.

This isn’t something I’d consider fun! He screamed, noticing that the police were indeed now chasing after him. Was it a dumb idea to yeet the purse and then run away, making him super fucking suspicious? Probably. It was only one of many life choices he regretted.

Calm down, Doctor said, cutting in between the two of them. Izuku, it was indeed a dumb decision to make yourself stand out like that but since we’re here we might as well work with it. Turn left.

Izuku did as Doc said, putting an almost blind obedience towards the only smart persona of his. Doctor was usually the one to pull the three of them out of the dumb shit they manage to find themselves in. Listening to Doctor’s instructions, Izuku managed to avoid the police for almost half an hour, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, only to end up tripping and stumbling down a building and onto the concrete below.

Thankfully the building wasn’t all that tall and he’d managed to roll off some force, not sustaining too much injury but slowed him enough for the police to catch up to him and handcuff him, taking him to the police station.

God fucking dammit. All I wanted was my goddamn ice cream.


And so that’s how he got to this point. So forgive him if he wasn’t in the mood to be dealing with this shit.

Tsukauchi sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose, exasperatedly saying, “We already know your name, Midoriya Izuku, so it’s best to cooperate with us.”

“Then why’d you ask?” Izuku snarked back.

“In vain hope that you’d make this easier on me and show your cooperation.” The plain-looking man sighed once more, looking done with life. Another mood.

“No can do, Detective.” He smirked, purposefully being as unpleasant as possible. “Look, can we hurry this up? My mom’s waiting for me.”

Izuku was absolutely certain Tsukauchi was regretting his life choices at this very moment and that only served to amuse him. He enjoyed watching people suffer. “Fine. Do you have a quirk?”

“No.” Izuku said, already knowing exactly what the detective’s quirk and what it did. However, he also knew his answer was right. Why? Well… Maybe he’ll tell you later.




Tsukauchi frowned, looking hopelessly confused. Izuku smiled innocently at his accusing glare.

“Midoriya, you know what my quirk is, correct?” A nod. “Then you know it’s pointless to lie to me.”

“But I didn’t lie,” Izuku said guilelessly, blinking owlishly at the dark-haired man. “And you should know that, Detective.”

At the other’s frown, Izuku knew he knew that Izuku hadn’t lied. However, Izuku also knew that the others’ answers only served to confuse the poor man even more. Well, it’s not my problem.

Tsukauchi closed his eyes, sighing once more. “Whatever. We have a proposition for you, Midoriya.”

Now that caught his attention. “Oh? And what could that be?”

“We’re offering you a job!” A new voice piped up.

Izuku glanced over to see a rat-like creature hop onto his shoulder, smiling widely at him. He raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Mister Yuuei principal wants to offer little ol’ me a job? A student who hasn’t even yet started high school?”

Nedzu grinned at him. “We saw your information- you’re already graduated from college with multiple degrees in multiple different fields.”

Izuku merely smiled, as if he didn’t know what the animal was talking about.

“So, I’m here to offer you a choice! You can either work as a teacher's assistant at Yuuei or go to jail for your crimes!” Nedzu chirruped, clapping his paws together.

Izuku blinked slowly, waiting for the words to fully process.

“Wait, what?”