The weeks that came after the Hosu City incident were strangely peaceful for Midoriya. Word of the Hero Killer being captured spread like wildfire and within days everyone in Japan believed that he was connected to the League of Villains. This happy coincidence came from the rumors that had been circulating around Hosu City prior to the attack and the testimony of one high school student who confirmed seeing the two of them together. While the free publicity made Shigaraki happy, Midoriya was skeptical.
Truth be told he was certain that the media would be able to put together the fact that Phoenix was the one that turned the Hero Killers tongue to a bubbling mess. The only somewhat logical reason he could think of was that telling the country that they were together would cause less panic. Midoriya didn't truly believe this, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, at least not this time.
Once everything had settled down, Shigaraki had decided that they should stay quiet until he could think of their next move. Midoriya was honestly shocked hearing this come directly from Shigaraki's mouth, he could only wonder what was going through his head.
At the same time, Kai had also gone quiet. With his new supply of quirks and a new subject, he was happily testing away. Because of this Midoriya's only job was to watch Eri while he was in Osaka.
With his new abundance of free time he was looking forward to spending more time with Kendo; however, even that wasn't possible. She had her final exams coming up so all her free time was going into her studying and training. Sure the two of them talked daily and called each other from time to time, but it wasn't exactly what he was expecting.
Thankfully after three weeks, Kendo had completed her exams and was free again. Both her and Midoriya were excited and quickly made plans to meet up.
"Oh fuck Izuku, that feels amazing."
"Damn Itsuka, you're so tight."
"I know, but your fingers are like magic."
"I'm almost done, Itsuka."
"No Izuku, I'm begging you don't stop."
A timer rang out inside Midoriya's room; he carefully climbed off of Kendo to reset its thirty minute timer. He let out a sigh of relief as he laid next to her. Kendo on the other hand turned to him annoyed.
"Seriously Izuku, I was so close."
Midoriya closed his eyes as he rested his hands on his chest. "You knew the deal, thirty minutes on and thirty minutes off."
"But thirty minutes isn't nearly a long enough massage. These few weeks have been stressful and that's not even including the exams we had."
"I know Itsuka, but would you prefer my hands to cramp? If that happened I wouldn't be able to get all the knots out."
Kendo let out a deep sigh as she moved to rest her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, I don't want that happening."
Midoriya laughed softly as he ran a hand through Kendos hair. "So, are you gonna tell me about the exams?"
Leaning into his shoulder more, Kendo closed her eyes. "What do you want to know? The written exams took place over three days of straight testing, then they gave us a day off before we had our practical exam. It wasn't anything too special, we were just tested on the things we learned throughout the year."
"If it wasn't anything special then why were you saying everything was stressful?"
Kendo smirked as she opened an eye. "Obviously, I just wanted to get a free massage."
Midoriya's hand stopped running through Kendos hair. The pleasant feeling disappearing caused her to open both eyes with an annoyed expression.
"Why did you stop Izuku?"
Midoriya casually shrugged his shoulders. "Because I could."
Kendo let out a disgruntled sigh. "Fine, I'll tell you about the practical exam."
Midoriya smiled as he began to gently run his fingers through her hair again. With the pleasant sensation returned Kendo happily closed her eyes and leaned in further.
"I talked to Amajiki last week about the exams, I wanted to see if he would give me some advice. Apparently the first year's practical exam has been fighting the robots from the entrance exam. They are aimed to see how much of what we've learned has stuck with us."
"Sounds like a walk in the park."
"It would have been if that had actually been the test."
Midoriya looked over at Kendo, slightly confused. "Did they change it?"
"Yeah, we got paired off and had to fight UA teachers."
Midoriya's eyes widened as he stared at his girlfriend. "Wait, aren't all UA teachers active pros?"
Kendo nodded. "Yeah, it was crazy."
"Are they even allowed to legally do that?"
Kendo let out a deep sigh. "The welcoming packet came with a ton of waivers that basically said that the school can do whatever they want to us as long as it falls within reason. That and they can't be held liable for any students that die while enrolled."
"That last one seems pretty specific."
"Yeah.. apparently the school used to be really hardcore with their training. Every couple years a student would die from hero course related activities or someone's invention would blow up in the engineering building."
"Huh, I guess some pissed off parents are better for your reputation than a lawsuit."
"I'm honestly surprised parents actually sign these things."
"They probably don't read everything or decide that reward is greater than the risk."
"It still is shocking."
"Yeah." Izuku stopped running his hand through Kendo's hand and instead rested it on her head. "So, how does having first year students fighting teachers fall within reason?"
"They all had to wear braces that doubled their weight and they had to leave some kind of opening for us to win."
"Huh, I guess that would fall within reason. So who did you get paired up with?"
Kendo gritted her teeth as she sucked them. "I got stuck with Monoma and we had to go against our homeroom teacher, Vlad King."
Midoriya looked down at Kendo who's face painted a clear picture of how annoyed she was. Hoping to calm her down, he wrapped his arms around her bringing her into his chest. "I'm guessing it didn't go too well."
Kendo took a deep breath as she felt calmed by the familiar warmth. "No, instead of making a plan he blindly charged our teacher to copy his quirk. The idiot didn't think it was suspicious that our teacher let him easily touch him."
"Doesn't your teacher's quirk allow him to manipulate his blood at will?"
"Yep, Monoma got so over confident that he passed out after losing up to much blood."
"What is wrong with that guy?"
Kendo let out an exasperated sigh. "I honestly have no clue. He keeps trying to create a divide in the first year classes. No matter how many times I talk to him or chop him down he just comes back."
"Did you tell him what I told you to say?"
"Yeah, and he said, 'I would never allow myself to fall so low as to be captured by some pathetic villains.' It's to the point where I want him thrown out of the Hero Course."
Izuku gently rubbed Kendo's head to calm her down. "Hey it will be alright, let's not think about that now. I want to hear how you finished this exam."
Kendo took a deep breath before continuing. "So in order to pass this exam we were given two choices, capture our opponent with the provided handcuffs or escape the exit gate that was located on the other side of the testing site. I decided that it would be best to escape."
"That makes sense, but did you bring the dead weight with you?"
"Yeah, I wasn't just going to leave him there. I used my quirk to kick up a dust cloud as cover. From there I grabbed Monoma and ran for the exit."
"I'm guessing it wasn't that simple."
"Of course it wasn't! That place was a maze and that's not even mentioning that our teacher was chasing me down. I don't even want to think about the amount of times I had to free my legs from his traps. I'm glad my quirk was strong enough to break through."
"It sounds like that was his opening for you. If he was able to encase your legs then he realistically should have been able to encase you entirely."
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty, in the moment that felt extremely real."
"I guess, but hey you passed."
Kendo smiled brightly as she nodded. "Hell yeah I did! Now I just have that training camp in two weeks."
"You sound excited."
"Of course, we're doing a joint camp with 1-A so for once we won't be competing with each other. I'm hoping that this will bring the classes together and help Monama chill out."
"Do you really think that will work?"
"No, but I'm trying to stay hopeful Izuku."
Izuku laughed as he held Kendo tighter. "You do that."
Kendo laughed softly as well as she took his hand into hers, she gently squeezed it while rubbing her thumb over his knuckles. As she did this, Kendo opened her eyes and brought his hand in front of her face as she inspected it.
"Izuku, why are your hands so soft?"
Midoriya nervously laughed. "I've been using a lot of moisturizer recently."
Kendo's eyes narrowed. "But you're a mechanic, they shouldn't be this soft. In fact I know they weren't nearly this soft last time I held them. All your calluses are gone, they're practically as soft as a baby's bottom."
Midoriya nervously scratched his head with his free hand. "Well you see, sort of ended up burning them off."
"Is.. is that even possible? If so, why isn't there a scar?"
"I was really careful and once I got them I instantly started treating them so they wouldn't scar."
Kendo carefully traced each of his fingers with her finger. When she felt satisfied she interlocked their fingers and closed her eyes again.
"Well I guess it really doesn't matter, I like them either way."
With Kendo once again satisfied, Midoriya took a deep breath as he thought back to the night of the Hosu City Incident. After collecting the materials from All for One, Midoriya was sent to one of the warehouses run by the Shie Hassaikai. When Kai finally showed up to collect, he used his quirk to fix Midoriya's arms. The process was excruciating for just moments as Kai's quirk destroyed and reformed Midoriya's arms to new.
"Hey Izuku, I know it's last minute, but some of my classmates are going to the beach tomorrow. Do you want to come with us?"
Midoriya looked at Kendo, somewhat surprised. "Are you sure it will be alright for me to come?"
"Yeah, it was actually Setsuna who suggested it. Also with your schedule and the training camp we won't get much time together this summer."
"I guess so, I'll call the old man later and let him know I'm not coming in tomorrow."
Kendo smiled brightly as she squeezed his hand tightly. "Awesome, I'll let everyone know so they're not surprised."
Midoriya laughed softly as he watched Kendo rapidly type away on her phone. "So, who's all going?"
"Setsuna, Pony, Tetsutetsu, Honenuki, Kodai, and Awase. We tried to get the entire class, but some people already had family plans and others just didn't like the beach."
Midoriya shrugged. "I guess that's fair, but I'm surprised you invited Monoma."
Kendo looked away from Midoriya as she awkwardly scratched her cheek. "Well if you want to get technical we didn't originally plan on making it a class trip. Setsuna wanted to make it a girls day, but Tetsutetsu overheard and invited himself. You know how over the top he is, so it turned into everyone knowing. It sort of devolved into chaos from there and that's how it ended up like this."
"Ah... so if it wasn't for Tetsutetsu I wouldn't have been invited."
"Honestly knowing Setsuna, she probably would have found a way to justify sending you an invite."
"... You have really good friends, don't you, Itsuka?"
Kendo teasingly punched Midoriya's chest. "Shut up, they're awesome... for the most part."
The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments before breaking out into laughter. As their laughter filled the room Midoriya's timer went off again. Kendo had never heard a sweeter sound as she quickly rolled onto her stomach and happily kicked her feet.
"Times up Izuku, time to get back to work!"
Midoriya let out a deep sigh as he reset the timer. "Why did I have to agree to thirty minutes each?"
The next morning Midoriya found himself sitting on a train, alone with his own thoughts. He had agreed the night before to meet Kendo at the station and walk together from there.
Truth be told, he was panicking. Not because he was nervous about going to the beach with his girlfriend and her friends, he had met them a few times on days he'd pick her up right after school and he thought they were alright people. He wasn't even nervous about seeing Kendo in a swimsuit. Sure it would be the first time seeing that much of her skin and there was a chance teenage hormones could literally pop up at random, but he wasn't worried about her body.
He was worried about his body.
Midoriya was in no sense of the word out of shape, he was actually proud of his body. All the hard work and training over the years had left him toned with a fair amount of muscle. No, what Midoriya was worried about was a mark that he always carried, a mark that was a daily reminder of who and what he is.
Midoriya clenched his chest as the train approached his stop. Time was up, he could see Kendo standing along the wall waiting for him. He had to wipe any concern off of his face and put on a smile. When he did exit the train Kendo was quick to greet him with a smile.
Midoriya was taken back momentarily as she approached him. Her hair was up on her usual side ponytail, but she was wearing a pair of cut off jeans with a form fitting white t-shirt. On her shoulder was an oversized blue and white striped bag. Her entire outfit just screamed summer beach day.
Midoriya was quick to take the bag from her so she wouldn't have to carry it. Kendo greatly appreciated the gesture as she took his free hand into hers.
"Look at you being the gentleman."
Smirking, Midoriya proudly stuck his nose in the air. "I always am."
Kendo shook her head as she pulled him along. "My dad would disagree. Now come on, let's get going everybody is probably there by now."
Kendo was right, by the time they arrived all her friends had already found a spot to set up and were all changed into their swimsuits. Even though it was still the beginning of summer, the beach was more crowded than expected.
"It's about time you two showed up. Did the two of you decide to make an extra stop along the way for some fun?"
Kendo rolled her eyes as they made it to the group. She didn't want to even dignify Tokage's remark with an answer.
"Just ignore her, we all got here just a few minutes ago."
Midoriya nodded at Awase as he set the bag down under their umbrella. "Thanks for letting me tag along even though I'm not in your class."
Tetsutetsu threw his arm around Midoriya's shoulder causing the both of them to stumble. "Are you kidding, the more the merrier."
Tokage gave a mischievous grin as she ran her tongue across her teeth. "You'd seriously think I'd miss out on seeing you shirtless lover boy?"
Tokage was delivered a swift chop to the neck by Kodai. The chop itself was nowhere near as devastating as Kendo's, but it got the point across.
"Can you please go five minutes without talking about someone's body today."
Tokage rubbed her neck before turning to Kodai. "Why? We're at the beach, people watching is just part of the fun." A small smirk spread across her face. "Or maybe you're just feeling jealous since I haven't talked about that bikini of yours?"
Kodai blushed as she crossed her arms across her chest. "It's nothing like that! You must be crazy to think that!"
Tokage was quick to begin endlessly teasing Kodai. While all of Kendo's friends laughed at the two's antics, Midoriya could only watch. He didn't truly know any of these people, sure he heard all about them from Kendo, but he didn't know them well enough to feel right about joining in with their jokes. Before Midoriya was able to overthink the situation too much, Pony stomped her foot.
"Come on, we came to the beach, let's swim already."
Kodai cleared her throat as she pushed Tokage off of her. "Kendo, Midoriya, they have some changing rooms a little bit further down. I'll wait for you guys so the rest can go enjoy themselves."
Kendo shook her head as she kicked off her sandals. "That won't be necessary, we both came ready."
Kendo carefully took off her t-shirt and cut off jeans revealing her teal bikini. As Kendo fixed her hair, Tokage whistled at her.
"Hubba hubba, you go girl."
Kendo sent a glare at her friend as she grabbed her discarded clothing. Tokage didn't give her glare a second thought, she was too focused on Midoriya to care.
"Your turn lover boy."
Midoriya let out a deep sigh as he looked around the beach. The place had become even more crowded since they had arrived. Slowly he took off his white sleeveless hoodie leaving him in a pair of black board shorts and a forest green swim shirt. Tokage's face turned from one of excitement to disappointment, even Kendo looked surprised by his choice.
"Boooooo, no shirts allowed lover boy, let's see some skin."
Midoriya nervously scratched his cheek. "I'm sorry, my skin's actually really sensitive to sunlight."
Kendo raised an eyebrow in confusion. 'That doesn't make sense, I've seen him spend all day working outside on bikes and never once get burnt.'
Kodai reached into her bag and pulled out some sunscreen. "I have some sunscreen if that helps. My skin is very fair so I'm prone to burning as well. I've never been burned once while using this brand so it should work for you too."
Midoriya rapidly shook his head while waving his hands back and forth. "That's very kind, but I wouldn't feel right using your sunscreen. What if there's not enough for you later."
Kodai looked at the bottle and looked back at him. "But I just bought this bottle this morning so it's completely full."
Tetsutetsu placed his hands on Midoriya's shoulders as he got a firm grip on the shirt. "Did someone say they needed a napkin?"
Midoriya's eyes widened and time slowed as he felt his shirt being forcibly ripped off. Panic set in as he watched everyone's faces. His eyes attempted to connect with any of them, but they were all focused on his chest. Adorning his left pec was an eight petal lotus with the symbol for one in the center.
The world went silent for Midoriya. He could see the looks of disgust from the other people and families that were at the beach. Panicked, he scrambled to find his sleeveless hoodie and put it back on.
When he had finally covered back up he sat in the sand and looked up at everyone's faces. They were still frozen at what they had just seen. Midoriya could feel all the moisture leaving his throat.
"I... uh... I..."
Kendo began walking forward, not giving him a chance to finish. He tensed up as a slap rang through the air, but he felt nothing. He looked up and saw that she had smacked Tetsutetsu.
"What the hell was that for!? Go buy Izuku a new shirt, right now!"
"Yes ma'am!"
Tetsutetsu took off running as fast as he could to the nearest store. Everyone watched the clouds of dust he kicked up, except Kendo. She had crouched down in front of Midoriya, cupping his face, so she could look into his eyes.
"It's going to be ok, Izuku."
Standing back up, Kendo took a deep breath. "This isn't exactly easy to say, but it's not what you think. Izuku lost his parents when he was young and he got that as a way to remember them."
Tokage blinked a couple times before wiping away the blood that trickled from her nose. "What's not what we think? I was too busy focusing on his abs, I mean seriously you could grind meat on those."
Kendo pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine, for everyone who's not Setsuna, do you understand?" Everyone nodded as they looked away embarrassed. "Good, now go swim. I'm gonna wait with Izuku until Tetsutetsu comes back."
Once everyone else had run off into the water, Kendo took a seat next to Midoriya. She pulled her knees to her chest as she looked at him caringly.
"Sorry, I didn't want to tell them about your parents, but it was all I could think of that made sense."
Midoriya shook his head. "No, I should be thanking you, you came up with all that on the spot."
Kendo smiled as she laughed to herself. "I keep telling you I'm smarter than you give me credit for."
The two of them sat in silence for a minute as they watched the waves crash against the sand. Kendo hugged her knees tightly. "Izuku, is it what I think it is?"
Midoriya let out a sigh. "Itsuka, I'm not a good person." Kendo opened her mouth to refute his statement, but Midoriya stopped her. "Just listen okay. When my parents died the old man adopted me and introduced me to Gramps. Gramps isn't just a mentor, he's a Yakuza boss. I was raised by the Yakuza and I'm a part of it, this tattoo is proof of that and some."
Kendo took a deep breath, but didn't look at him. "Izuku, have you ever..."
"Killed... yeah, I have."
Kendo's grip on her knees tightened more as she began to softly shake. "Why... why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
"I didn't know how to, it's not something I can casually bring up and honestly I hoped you would never find out."
Kendo's eyes widened. "So you were planning on lying to me the entire time?"
Midoriya shook his head. "No, I'm leaving them soon. I was hoping to be out before something like this happened."
"That's not possible."
"It is, the old man got out and Gramps told me I could come and go as I pleased."
"Then why are you staying?"
Midoriya took a deep breath as he stared into the sand. "I'm trying to find the person who killed my parents. I need their connections to find them."
"And what are you gonna do when you find them?"
Midoriya didn't answer her.
"Izuku, what are you gonna do when you find the person that killed your parents?"
"I'll kill him."
Kendo let go of her knees as she covered her mouth to not make a sound. She knew she couldn't overreact, she didn't want any more attention on them than what already was.
"I told you before Itsuka, I'm not a good person."
"Shut up." Midoriya looked over at Kendo. He could see stray tears running down her cheeks. "The Izuku I know is a good person."
Midoriya looked away as grabbed a handful of sand, slowly letting it all fall to the ground leaving nothing in his hand.
"I guess that means I'm not the person you knew."
Midoriya adjusted himself to stand up, but was stopped by Kendo grabbing his arm. He looked at her and saw a look of determination in her eyes.
"I'm going to be a hero."
"I know you are."
"I already told you that I'd help turn you into the good person that I know you are. So you tell me why I would let you walk away now knowing all this." Kendo's grip on his arm tightened. "I can't lie, I'm heartbroken right now hearing all this, but I know you're hurting as well. I know it won't be easy, but I'm not giving up on you. I promise that I'll help you turn everything around."
Kendo's determined eyes pierced through Midoriya. Slowly he relaxed back into the sand and shifted so that Kendo's hand interlocked with his.
"Itsuka, I... I'll be counting on you for that."
Kendo wiped away the last of her stray tears before resting her head on his shoulder. "It is a hero's job after all."
Squeezing her hand tightly, Midoriya took a deep breath. "Itsuka, I love you."
Kendo's face turned deep red as tried to hide her face in her knees. Seeing her reaction, Midoriya laughed softly. Hearing him laugh at her, Kendo pulled her face out of her knees. "I love you too, Izuku."
The two of them locked eyes with each other as they slowly leaned closer. When their lips finally touched, the world around them disappeared. When they slowly pulled away they kept their eyes locked on eachother, Kendo's face was dusted with a red tint.
"It's about time... idiot."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day at the beach had come to an end and everyone had gone their separate ways. The day had been physically and emotionally draining for Kendo. Hearing about the life Midoriya was living was a shock to say the least, in fact, she didn't know what to believe anymore.
She had always known he was a little rough around the edges, but she figured that was just because of the environment he grew up in. The fact that he was in the Yakuza would have never crossed her mind... except something similar had crossed her mind before. The first time she had met him she joked about the shop being run by gangsters since her dad was telling her to be careful.
Kendo started to run, she needed to get him and confront her dad about this. She needed to know if he had known that his whole time and if he had known about Midoriya and if he had known, she needed to know how he knew.
Without hesitating for a moment she bursted through the front door to find her dad sitting on the couch watching TV. Her sudden entry clearly had caught him off guard.
"Where's the fire Itsuka?"
Kendo stopped and looked around the room. "Dad, where's mom?"
"She went out with some friends tonight. Did you need her for something?"
"Dad, how long have you known about Izuku?"
Kendo's dad's eyes widened as he gave his daughter a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"The day you took me to the shop I jokingly asked if the place was run by gangsters and you said that it wasn't too far from that. I need to know what you meant by that."
Kendo's father took a deep breath as he turned off the TV. "Take a seat alright, I'm guessing the kid told you everything today."
Kendo sat down and nodded. "Yeah... some things... happened today."
Rubbing his temples he let out a deep sigh. "Itsuka, Midoriya is a good kid h-"
"Stop saying that I get it already!" Kendo's sudden outburst caused her father to falter momentarily. When looked at his daughter he could see her fighting back tears. "I know that he is, I just want to know how you knew about all this."
Kendo's father stopped and stared at the roof for a moment before continuing. "I used to run with a rough crowd back when I was in middle school and that's how I met Ken. We all thought we were baddest fuckers around, that was until we stepped onto the wrong turf. What we thought was just a rival gang turned out to be the Yakuza. Honestly I thought I was gonna die that day, but thankfully that didn't happen. Their group had just appointed a new boss and he was changing how things were done, so instead of killing us he made us an offer."
Kendo's eyes widened. "Did... did you join them?"
Kendo's father laughed softly as he shook his head. "No, he told us to quit messing around and get our lives together or be prepared to get the shit kicked out of us. I couldn't feel my face for a week after that."
"You seriously fought the Yakuza!?"
"Well fighting would imply that it was competitive, really it was a one sided beat down."
"Huh... So how does this tie into Izuku?"
"Well after we all got our asses thoroughly kicked, a few of the tougher guys begged to be able to join them, Ken was one of them. After that I did my best to turn my life around. Even though Ken joined them he wasn't officially a part of them until he graduated high school, apparently the boss wanted them to have some sort of education."
"But if that's the case then how is Izuku a member? He isn't even going to high school?"
"I don't know? To figure that out you'd have to ask him yourself, but I doubt he could give you an answer."
Kendo let out a deep sigh. "Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"
"I never expected your relationship to go further than client and mechanic."
"Even after I brought him over to help me train and we went for a ride?"
"Why do you think I confronted him that night?"
"I... alright, well, why didn't you tell me?"
"Would it have changed anything?"
"I... I don't know."
"Does knowing now change anything?"
"No! I love Izuku and I know he's gonna get out of that life just like Ken did."
"No one gets out of that life, at least not fully. Ken knows he still has people watching him and Midoriya knows he's going to have people watching him as well."
"As long as he's out I know it will be fine."
"Itsuka, you're going to be a hero! Just you being around him will cause problems! There's no telling what they will do to him or you!"
"I don't care! I promised Izuku that I'd help him become the good person I know he can be! That's a part of my job whether you like it or not!"
Kendo's father took a deep breath as he dragged his hands across his face. I'd he knew anything; it was that his daughter set her mind on something she saw it through to the end.
"Itsuka, you know I just want what's best for you. That's all I want from you."
"I know dad... I know."