Chapter Text
The worst part is that he can’t even regret what happened in the first place.
Izuku was going through his usual routine during the last month. Wake up early, run in the morning, go to class, and after school go to Dagobah Beach to continue his training. It was getting quite late, so All Might sent him back home for the day, and now he should just get home, eat, do his homework and then go to sleep, right?
Well, it seemed fate had other plans. It began the same way everything in Izuku’s life happened.
Him being way too reckless to think before moving.
On his way back home, the shine of a passing truck’s headlight caught his attention on the corner of his eye. When he turned automatically, his blood ran cold.
A girl, no older than 8, was crossing the street slowly, and the truck was coming in her direction completely out of the driver’s control.
And as happened a month ago, Izuku began running towards the girl without even stopping to think about it. He quickly picked up the child, dashing madly towards the other side of the street, the truck almost grazing his back at the moment he reached the sidewalk.
Izuku gasped, trying to get a bit of air into his lungs, still clutching the little girl in his arms, whose trembling hand was grabbing a fistful of his shirt, eyes wide.
Izuku released the poor child of his desperate embrace, and kneeled in front of her, trying to check for any wounds. Around him, the startled voices of nearby civilians got louder, his mind automatically filtering it to pay attention to the trembling form in front of him.
The girl raised big, wobbly rainbow-patterned eyes at him, and the Quirk obsessed part of him couldn’t help but marvel at how the colors mixed up in them.
A tiny voice shook him out of his musings.
“Than-Thank you, mister.” The girl whispered, still clearly in shock, holding his shirt in her tiny fists like the truck would come back to hit her if he let go.
Izuku felt like his heart was being squeezed. This poor little child looked so frightened that he could feel tears building up in his eyes out of pure empathy.
“Are you okay?” He asked, trying to get the child to calm down a little. The girl nodded, her trembling form betraying how shocked she still was.
Izuku got up and steered her to lean against the wall of the building in front of them.
“All right, can you breathe with me?” The middle schooler never felt so grateful for one of his midnight readings. The girl clearly looked on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, and he knew the most effective way to help someone calm down was to instruct them to slow down their breathing. The girl hurriedly nodded, and Izuku took a deep breath, that the girl mimicked,both holding the air for a moment before releasing.
Izuku guided her through the act a few more times, and she slowly let go of her desperate grasp to his shirt, her trembling subsiding enough that only her hand slightly shook from the fear.
Alright, now what on earth was Izuku meant to do now? The hero work he saw only covered to rescue the victim, not how to help afterwards.
‘Think, Izuku, think. What would you need to do if someone just rescued you from a terrible death by truck?’
Call his Mom, most definitely. He bent down to be on eye level with the girl again, and asked.
“What’s your name, little one?” The girl muttered a slightly louder “Nijiko” in response.
“That’s a very pretty name, Nijiko.” And a very fitting one. “Do you have any way to contact your parents?”
The rainbow-eyed girl nodded, and pulled a small yellow cellphone with too many charms attached to it from her backpack. Nijiko slowly went to her contact list and called the first name of the small list.
The phone ringed for a few moments before a voice came through it.
“Nijiko, sweetie? Did something happen? You’re not one to call without a reason...” A woman’s voice echoed out of the phone, and the girl handed it to Izuku, who was very much not ready to speak to her mother.
“He-Hello, ma’am?” Izuku stuttered, and winced at the frantic “ Who are you? Why are you on my daughter’s phone?” coming out of the device.
“My- My name is Midoriya Izuku, ma’am. Nijiko and I just got out of an accident. Can- Can you or anyone else come pick her up? She’s still pretty shaken by it.”
Alright, so maybe he could have handled that a bit better, if the even more frantic inquiries of what happened and where they were served as a way to measure how well the facts were delivered.
Izuku explained as best as he could what happened and their location, and sat down, leaning against the wall to wait for the woman to arrive, motioning for the girl to do the same.
They sat there in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Izuku, in an attempt to interact with the girl, looked more closely at the little charms hanging from her phone, and felt like thanking the skies for making a few of them hero-themed.
Getting the girl to talk about the Sailor Scouts helped her calm down more, and thankfully she seemed very dedicated to singing praises towards Venus.
He almost didn’t feel the time pass by until he heard the mother’s voice echo through the crowd calling for her daughter.
Nijiko jumped back onto her feet, and let out a “Here, Mommy!” that didn’t have the right to sound as cute as it did.
A woman, looking about 30 years old, got through the people passing, panting and looking as if she runned all the way from the subway station to here. Which, considering the case, she most likely did, Izuku concluded.
She promptly threw herself Nijiko’s direction, hugging her fiercely and muttering something that was muffled by the girl’s hair.
Izuku watched the scene relieved, finally letting the tension slip from his shoulders.
The mother eventually let the girl go, and turned to him, before bowing deeply.
“Thank you so much for saving my little girl! I- I don’t even know how to thank you enough, I was so scared...” And the woman dissolved into muttering again, and man if Izuku didn’t know how that felt. He quickly tried to diffuse the woman’s emotional bomb, with a few “No problem”’s and “It’s alright”’s being spoken in an attempt to help her calm down.
The woman bowed and thanked him a few more times, before grasping Nijiko’s hand and starting to lead her to the subway’s direction.
The girl, however, stilled, and pulled a bit on her mother’s sleeve, motioning for her to bend down. She did so, and she whispered something too low for Izuku to hear in the woman’s ear.
Her mother let out a tiny laugh, and turned back to Izuku, motioning for him to get closer.
“It seems Nijiko wants to thank you for herself.” Izuku was about to tell her it wasn’t necessary, but the girl took her backpack out and opened it, before pulling a plush doll from it and offering it to him.
“I-is it for me?” Izuku asked, in awe. The girl nodded. “You’re sure? You don’t really need to give me it..” The girl nodded again resolutely, pushing the plushie further towards the boy.
“Just take it, kid. Believe me, she’ll be more offended if you reject it.” The mother told him, motioning with her head for him to just take the doll already.
“A-ah, alright, I guess..” Izuku stammered, before reaching out and grasping the bunny-shaped doll. Nijiko nodded once again, with a sunny smile, and took her mother’s hand, signaling she was done with her thanks.
Both mother and child bowed to Izuku once again, which he reciprocated, and then finally went on their way.
Izuku’s shoulders slumped. That.. That took a lot of energy from him, and most of it wasn’t even from the ‘jumping in front of a truck’ thing.
He went back home in a dazed state, clutching the plush doll to his body with one arm.
The rest of the night followed it’s normal routine, him and his mom eating together before he retreated to his room.
He took the time to look closer at the plush doll.
It was the most weird plushie he had ever seen, and that included the one where the creator decided to make Present Mic a banana.
It was a rather cute and standard light green bunny, if not for a few details. Sais details being the opening on its belly with what looked like a plushie intestine coming out of it grotescally, and a red splotch coming out of the corner of its mouth that Izuku could only assume was meant to simulate blood.
Definitely not what he would expect a grade-schooler to carry in her backpack.
Well, who was he to judge a child’s tastes? His very much obsessive hero notes collection was proof some children just were attracted to weird things.
Still, the doll meant a good thing to him now. He had actually saved someone today. He, even in his Quirkless state, managed to be someone’s hero, and for that, he would strive to keep this bunny forever.
Of course, a few hours later, he was wondering why the hell he decided to do so, looking in shock at the wide eyed, green-haired girl reflected in his mirror, the odd plushie very much alive and clinging to his - her? - back.