Izuku saved the girl just before the man could lay a hand on her, slamming the assailant into the wall hard enough to knock the fight out of him. She clung to herself, still trembling, while Izuku tied the man's hands behind his back with a cord he pulled from his hoodie pocket.

"Call the police," he told her, voice calm but firm through the mask.

She fumbled with her phone, dialing, and within minutes, a patrol car arrived. Izuku personally walked the man over to the officers, handing him off without ceremony. One of them tried to thank him, but before they could even blink, he had already leapt into the sky and was gone.

' Remember—consent is very important,' he reminded himself mid-flight.

' Which is why I'll probably record her consenting before doing the deed. I'm just being cautious.'

By the time he returned to the café, it was as if nothing had happened. He slipped in through the bathroom window, changed back into his uniform, and picked up his things before heading home at an easy pace. The short walk back was convenient—enough time to think about tomorrow.

' Battle training. I filled out the form for my hero suit… hopefully they follow every single detail I wrote down, ' he thought, a faint smirk on his lips.

When he walked through the door, Inko was already coming from the kitchen, a warm smile on her face.

"You're back. How was school, honey?" she asked, walking up to take his bag from his shoulder before he could even answer.

"Boring, I guess. We didn't really do much of anything, honestly," he said, shrugging.

"Well, I'm sure you'll be doing something fun tomorrow," she replied, already moving toward the couch. "Now, come and help me order something from Tamu—I saw so many cheap things on there!" she said with the kind of excitement that made him suspicious.

Izuku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Mom… it's fake."

Her eyes went wide in genuine shock. "I knew it was too good to be true!" she gasped, clutching the phone like it had betrayed her.

Izuku chuckled, shaking his head as he walked past. "Next time, just stick to the usual sites. I don't want to have to fight scammers in my own house."

....

At night, while Izuku was busy playing Sparkling Zero, the sound of a loud explosion ripped through the quiet. His eyes flicked toward the window. From the glow in the sky, he could tell it was coming from deep in the city—Shizuoka Prefecture.

'That's where I used to live…' he thought, already putting his controller down.

A familiar ding echoed in his head, and the system board appeared in front of him.

[DING]

NEW MISSION ALERT!!

OBJECTIVE: STOP THE ESCAPED GIANT WITHOUT DESTROYING PART OF THE CITY AND MEET MT. LADY.

REWARD:

● +2% Power Increase

● Fake Voice Mask

'Wow… I could've used that a really long time ago when I had a squeaky voice. Luckily, I just didn't say anything back then,' he thought, smirking faintly.

Without wasting another moment, he quickly changed into his black vigilante outfit. Hoodie, reinforced black pants, gloves, and mask. Once ready, he slipped out of his room window, rose into the air, and with a BOOM tore into the night sky, leaving behind a crack of sonic thunder.

Mid-flight, he slowed slightly, a thought crossing his mind.

'I should probably stop doing that… What if Batman lives here? He'd triangulate my location off that sound in seconds,' he thought with a small chuckle.

His eyes drifted downward, taking in the view as he flew over the quiet suburbs. The soft golden light of street lamps bathed the roads, and clusters of homes looked peaceful under the starlit sky.

'To think other people are just living their lives right now,' he mused.

He lowered altitude briefly, gliding over a small family home. Through the window, he saw a family of four gathered around the dinner table—laughing, eating together, enjoying a normal life. Upstairs, in a dimly lit room, a teenage boy was glued to his phone screen, before slowly pushing his chair back and… reaching for the waistband of his pants.

'Yep. Living their own lives,' Izuku thought dryly, smirking before blasting forward again, a streak of black cutting through the moonlight.

Izuku arrived at the scene, the sound of sirens and panicked shouting filling the air. Down the road, a massive man—easily twice the height of a truck—was charging through the streets. His footsteps sent tremors through the asphalt, and every kick he delivered to parked cars sent them skidding or flipping over.

Thankfully, Izuku noticed, he wasn't stomping directly on people. His rampage seemed focused on property, not lives… at least for now.

From below, a familiar figure appeared—Mt. Lady, already preening herself in a compact mirror. She adjusted her hair, checked her lipstick, and then in one swift motion, grew in size until her towering form matched the scale of the giant.

'Reminds me of that one movie I watched back on OG Earth… what was it again? Monsters vs Aliens. Man, that girl… Sue or whatever her name was… she was bad,' he thought with a small grin. 'To think her fiancé dumped her just because of her powers. Truly, life feeds those who are full and starves those who are hungry.'

Mt. Lady's voice boomed across the street. "Hey big guy! Why don't you calm down before you destroy any more property?"

The giant man didn't respond with words. Instead, he ripped a streetlight from the ground in one fluid motion and swung it like a baseball bat.

She nimbly dodged back. "Woah, easy there!"

But the man kept swinging, each arc smashing into buildings and shattering windows, debris raining onto the streets. While his aim was wild, the collateral damage was stacking up fast.

Mt. Lady sidestepped another swing but slipped—her foot skidding over the freshly waxed hood of a parked car—and she crashed hard onto her back.

BAM!

"Ah! Ow!" she hissed, grimacing as she rubbed her tailbone. She looked up just in time to see the giant raising the streetlight for a final blow.

And then—

A blur of black cut through the space between them. A single gloved hand caught the streetlight mid-swing, stopping it cold. The metal pole groaned under the strain but didn't move another inch.

The giant blinked in disbelief, pulling hard, but Izuku's grip was unyielding.

Without another word, Izuku yanked the weapon away, seized the man by his shirt, and shot skyward—leaving the ground in a roaring gust. The city shrank beneath them until they were floating high above the clouds.

"Now what's up, man? Why are you destroying the city?" Izuku asked calmly, his voice edged with steel. "You're putting innocent people in danger."

The giant gritted his teeth. "Because I hate this dumb city! What has it ever done for me, huh!? Nothing! It just judges me for being homeless—nobody ever really helps in this place!"

"I understand your predicament," Izuku said evenly. "But destroying it won't make things better for you."

"Yeah? I don't care. What choice do I have anyway? Put me behind bars. At least there I can get food and shelter."

Izuku stayed silent for a moment. Hearing the bitterness in his voice, he couldn't help but feel the weight of his words.

'This is how cold the world really is… Most people just walk past someone like him. In a world full of quirks, who knows how many homeless people with powerful abilities are just waiting to snap.'

Then his eyes narrowed. There were two small puncture marks on the man's neck, each one still faintly bleeding.

"Where'd you get that?" Izuku asked, pointing.

The man quickly covered the spot, shaking his head. "Oh, uh… mosquito bite. No big deal. Now can we get back on the ground? I'm not great with heights."

Before Izuku could press further, the man's size began to shrink—his massive frame compressing until he returned to normal human proportions.

With a sigh, Izuku descended, touching down in the city where police already had the perimeter surrounded. Mt. Lady was still rubbing her sore backside, grimacing.

The officers immediately swarmed the man, stun guns at the ready, before hauling him into the back of a van. As they drove off, Izuku stood there, watching quietly.

'I wish I could do something about that…'

A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder.

"Wow, you're taller than I thought," Mt. Lady said, peering around his mask to get a closer look.

"You're cuter than I thought," he shot back without missing a beat.

Her lips curved into a grin. "Didn't think you were the flirty type. We should go on patrol sometime. Don't you think?"

"That'd be nice," he said, nodding toward the armed police glaring at him. "But as you can see, I'm not exactly on their good side."

She smirked. "Well, I don't really care." She stepped closer, muttering something low and quick before turning on her heel and striding away.

Izuku shook his head, and before any of the officers could raise their weapons, he blasted off into the night.

Mt. Lady's gaze followed his silhouette until it vanished into the clouds. Her smirk lingered.

'I know he's good in bed,' she thought.

TO BE CONTINUED