Author's Notes: Yeah that's right new chapter I ain't abandoning shit!

Dark Light Chapter 8

The fallout after the incident with Moonfish made the local news, of course it did Moonfish was a serial killer and cannibal two of the absolute worst things to ever come out of human society. No it wouldn't be a stretch to say that it was the absolute worst of humanity on a whole. The criminal would've been on death row if he had actually been tried and sentenced however Moonfish was killed while in detainment.

That had made his name appear in headlines for at least a week but it was downplayed once it was leaked exactly how he was apprehended. The dangerous criminal Moonfish whom had managed to evade the combined efforts of the police and the Heroes was beaten by a lone middle school student who came home one night to see his mother being assaulted by him.

That brought the entirety of west Japan in an uproar and the media took every advantage to make their story sell and sell it did. Everyone wanted to know about the 'brave young boy who stood up to a villain in order to protect his mother.' Full investigations into his background was launched, interviews with anyone who has ever been in contact with him commenced, some more successful than others and ranging from truthful to downright lies.

To the media it was the story of the year, to the public it was inspiring but to the few people who have ever known or at least heard of Izuku Midoriya before then, it was a shock because until then everyone had assumed he was just a 'Quirkless' nobody, a Deku.

Throughout all of this though, no one had seen the boy since the incident, reporters staked out his home, the hospital and some of the more dedicated even ran along his alleged jogging route in order to catch the boy during his workout routine. They had no such luck though, the boy never showed up and as far as they knew he was still stuck in the hospital. That was about a month ago and as the story started to lose steam everyone was still wondering

Where is Izuku Midoriya?

\

Smack

Izuku winced as the bamboo struck his skin 'Sensei really isn't holding back today either.'

Silver walked around his student eyeing him as if he were judging an animal he wanted to buy as a pet and Izuku couldn't help but whimper like one when he struck his biceps. His arm trembled and he fought not to release the content of the ceramic jug he was currently gripping.

It was about 6:00 am in the morning and Silver was having Izuku squatting over a burning needle held precariously under his crotch while in each arm he gripped two heavy ceramic jugs of water. The exercise significance is threefold as not only will it improve Izuku's gripping power, the constant striking of his muscles will cause them to harden and finally he had to maintain this pose through intense concentration lest he slip up and drop the pot or his legs give up and he fell on the needle.

Either of those held very terrible consequences for the young man.

There was also another catch, he also had to regulate the amount of his Quirk so his wound would remain. It was something Silver was recently having Izuku improve in, honestly speaking Izuku didn't see the merit in restricting his automatic solar regeneration. Silver would have none of it though and gave him an entire lecture on the importance of 'having true mastery of his Quirk.'

"Think of it like this, if you can control your most basic passive ability then you will be able to fine tune it- absorb as much or as little energy as you want."

The appeal of absorbing more than what he currently could did appeal to him. Instead of waiting all day in the sun he could heal himself faster and if he applied that same ultra absorbing technique to minor injuries or even some fatal wounds then he could be virtually invincible. Now that made Izuku go ahead with his sensei's idea unfortunately in his thoughts of what the future might bring he momentarily forgot the pothole filled, razor wired, dirt road ahead of him to get to that point.

But just as he said to himself when he laid sprawled out in various forms of exhaustion not too long ago 'it will all be worth it.'

Smack

Izuku's body trembled then stilled, his energy revitalized by his Quirk's passive yet forcibly restrained by his will to a degree where the angry welts were still visible.

'It will be worth it-it will be worth it-it will be worth it.'

Yet again his mind wandered to ignore the pain and piercing gaze of his sensei. For the rest of his break Izuku decided to move into Silver's dojo for the time being. Both to escape from the reporters (or vultures as Silver would call them) and as a way to keep his mind and body preoccupied from thoughts of his mother and what could have been.

Midoriya Inko while alive was still hospitalized pending a full recovery, thank the gods. She had gotten medical leave with pay and her hospital bills were being covered by a mysterious benefactor known simply as S.F.

As if he was fooling anyone.

Izuku had made sure to visit her everyday mostly out of obligation and partly out of guilt. He was unconscious throughout most of it but there was a chance that she wouldn't have made it if Himiko didn't know what she was doing. This was the same thing he went through with his first encounter with a villain, he reacted without thinking and ended up mixing his priorities.

Obviously he should have brought his mother to safety rather than trying to fight off the villain, a villain who would have most likely overpowered and killed him, then his mother and Himiko if he had any other Quirk. It was stupid but the moment he saw his mother face down in a pool of her own blood his mind completely shut down and his dark instincts took over.

Even then when he had some semblance of control did he ever think of his mother? No he simply left her in Himiko's care, now was that neglect of his only family on his part or did he simply trust Himiko to know what she was doing? Of course he leaned to the former more than the latter since he had no idea Himiko new basic first aid and in any other situation it would have been him leaving his mother to die in a stranger's arms.

He wanted no- needed to be better and it brought him great shame that he had failed his mother in that way. Not even his triumph over Moonfish had made that revelation any better and he'd heard from Himiko that even Katsuki was more concerned with his mother's health than raging over the fact that he beat a villain.

He knew his friend and he knew he would definitely have a problem with how he defeated a villain before him- it only seemed natural. You know you really messed up when Katsuki Bakugou remains silent in the face of someone outshining him. He never saw his friend but from the scant times Himiko had seen him it seemed that Kacchan hadn't changed much and in fact it might have gotten worse if the message Himiko relayed was anything go by.

"'Tell that useless bastard to watch himself next year! I'll knock him down from his high horse soon enough'"

'Ah Kacchan, don't ever change' Izuku thought wistfully.

Hey at the very least Katsuki acknowledged that he had a chance in Yuuei.

Whether it was nervousness or excitement Izuku didn't know but he could definitely say without a shadow of a doubt he wasn't afraid of that challenge. His past bullying seemed so far away he could hardly remember them. So much has happened since. One thing is for certain though, if Kacchan really was the same and was expecting for them to pick up where they left off with him being the hapless victim then he was in for a rude awakening.

Smack!

"Ow!"

Speaking of rude awakening…that was not Izuku's voice.

"Your arms were lowering" Silver's impassive voice sounded from further away, Izuku couldn't help but turn his gaze to the proceedings.

"And hitting them with that stick is supposed to help?" Himiko's irate voice sounded.

Oh yes, it hadn't only been Izuku training this morning, Himiko had decided to join him as well. Her reasons were a little vague but Izuku knew that looking after his mother had struck a chord with her.

"If I had been stronger…"

He remembered her saying and he also remembered that while he froze she was the one to attack first and drove the villain off his mother. Himiko was strong, stronger and more skilled than a girl her age should be. He remembered her saying that her last trainer was a veteran soldier who was also passionate about teaching. He just didn't know how far his teachings went but now he did.

As it stood Himiko was just as skilled if not even more so than himself and she took to Silver's training like a fish out of water. She also had a remarkable pain threshold which made him and sensei wonder just what the heck kind of training she did. At this point Izuku was sure that her complaining and snide remarks were just a way to get on Silver's nerves.

"Maybe if you spent time concentrating on your stance instead ogling my student I wouldn't have to enforce such disciplinary actions" Silver said once again blocking her view of Izuku.

Said boy couldn't help but blush- he was after all shirtless and in shorts so Silver could see his muscle development. And yes Izuku did have muscles and abs, it wasn't anything overtly noticeable but it wasn't anything to scoff at either, for someone his age at least. Himiko in true Himiko fashion had made it clear she approved of his developing physique.

Likewise Izuku has also approved of the way she approves of his biceps by constantly hanging off of his arm and pressing her developing chest onto them, but that is a story for a another time. What? He's a healthy young boy and Himiko is a pretty girl (and his girlfriend) you can't possibly blame him for noticing something so obvious. It's not like she's hiding her apparent lust for him either, otherwise Silver wouldn't have felt the need to place their rooms on the complete opposite ends of his dojo with the only way to get to each other's rooms is to pass by his own.

So far Izuku has woken up to Himiko tied up to the 'naughty log' outside 14 times.

Izuku snickered a little at the memory…and got smacked in the face with a pebble for his troubles.

"Eyes forward Izuku" Silver intoned absently using the stick to juggle a significantly larger pebble.

"Yes Sensei!"

\

"Ugh, I'm beat~" Himiko yawned dropping her head on Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku gave a nervous laugh as some eyes were on him, luckily the boy had taken to wearing a green and black hoodie ensemble with matching black pants and green shoes. That still didn't detract that PDA attracted some gazes. If they had been older most would think it was too much but as it stood most found it adorable.

They were a young couple and seeing Himiko sleepily resting her head against his while hanging on his arm like a 'grown up' was cute in its own way. Still Izuku preferred not to draw much attention especially on his way to visiting the hospital.

"It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't antagonize sensei"

"Hmph" she pouted "all I did was tell him the truth"

"You called him decrepit old man who should be featured in a museum" he deadpanned.

"So?" she pouted "have you seen him?"

Izuku could only shake his head at her. She straightened up as they walk through a thrum of people while Izuku kept his gaze down. As he thought there were a few more reporters in the general vicinity, Himiko had showed him how to spot them in a crowd. It was easier than he thought, someone must have tipped them off about his mother being released today. At her behest and Mr. S.F's generous monetary backing Inko wouldn't be released from the hospital until she had recovered her full mental and physical faculties.

Today just so happened to be the day and while there had not been as much reporters hungry for an interview news of his mother's discharge had most likely leaked and a few eager vultures would surely want to grab an exclusive interview with her or maybe even catch him so Izuku kept his head low as he walked making sure not to give anyone a glimpse of his curly hair.

That should have been the plan when someone bumped into him and suddenly his world got a little brighter.

Wait what?

"Hey aren't you that kid who beat that villain Moonfish?"

As if one of those silent dog whistle was blown every person affiliated with journalism perked up and soon eyes were on him. Even then people who kept up with current events started congregating, trying to catch a glimpse of the boy hero who put the dangerous criminal behind bars.

Himiko had made herself scarce before that sentence was finished, her identity would hopefully remain anonymous to them. It was a miracle that her name hadn't gotten out there in the first place, she was instead relegated to 'a school friend who called the local police.'

Izuku abruptly had a recorder stuck in his face and a string of questions thrown at him. For a moment Izuku froze and gulped, he had seen All Might do this a hundred times on TV.

'How does he make it look so easy?'

He was so nervous the only thing that came out of his mouth was sputtering until eventually he gave up on speaking and went to his default plan. Clenching his eyes shut he formed a light grenade and thrust his fist in the air. The light from his fist magnified to the point where to shined through his fingers and then he opened his palm.

'SOLAR SPHERE!'

The flash of light outshined the sun itself for a brief moment in that contained cluster of bodies that rendered everyone momentarily blind. Even Izuku saw spots for a moment but the effect was somewhat stunted on him giving him a better recovery time and allowing him to slip away and run right into the hospital.

As he ran inside the nurse at the front desk recognized him and upon seeing the reporters outside she ordered a few of the orderlies to lock the doors.

Izuku breathe a sigh of relief "thank you miss"

The woman smiled "it's no problem Izuku" her gaze shifted to the now crowded door and scowled

Izuku himself winced "why are there so many of them?"

The nurse hummed "well I suppose people are still talking about what you did to Moonfish."

Izuku looked at her in disbelief as he walked beside her "b-but that was weeks ago, surely something could have happened to make it old news by now."

The nurse laughed "clearly you don't give yourself enough credit and" her expression turned just a bit serious "that villain Moonfish, he wasn't just some run-of-the-mill villain either, he's defeated heroes with years of experience before. I'll say it again Izuku, it would be a miracle if anyone short of veteran heroes survived a confrontation with him but how you managed to actually defeat him is…" she trailed off and shook her head "I guess it doesn't matter so long as you survived, you must have one powerful Quirk to pull it off."

Izuku laughed nervously and gulped, he'd purposely avoided the topic of his Quirk for some time now. He didn't know why he did it exactly because it's not as if he's going to get in trouble because of it. Really Izuku just didn't want the attention a Quirk like his would give him, especially right now.

As to the other topic of conversation Izuku had chills thinking about it, his fight with Moonfish. The nurse was right, his Quirk was powerful, enough to bridge the gap between a 'pro-villain' and a semi-trained middle school kid. Add that fact to his state of mind and anyone could say that Izuku was really, very, undeniably lucky that night. It was literally a bad match up for the villain and Izuku had also caught him off guard with a surprise attack that hindered him.

If that battle had deviated from how it was even by a little then…Izuku didn't want to think about what ifs right now, they reached his mother's room. The nurse opened the door to see Inko on the bed looking as good as healed and talking to the doctor. The moment their eyes met they proved how they were truly related by shedding tears of relief and giving a simultaneous shout.

"KAA-CHAN!"

"IZUKU-KUN!"

While Inko couldn't exactly move from her spot Izuku practically leapt across the room to hug her. The two hospital staff watched in silence as the mother and son held onto each other and shed tears together. The doctor eventually had to break them up by coughing into his fist. It took about two minutes to go over Inko's current health basically she was alright and that her health was relatively fine though he cautioned for her to take it easy.

He also recommended a therapist for both of them to see which was surprising, at least it was for Izuku, Inko however nodded in agreement to the suggestion. Izuku didn't voice his complaint of having some of time taken away from further developing his body and Quirk. After the incident and his mother's very real near-death situation Izuku realized something upon watching her unconscious form one evening.

Izuku hasn't done much with his mother in a long time, the thought hit him like a freight train. The potentially last time he would see his mother and he hadn't any lasting memories of her. She was just, always there for him, in the house whenever he needed her, a near constant in his life he figured would always be there, like an npc in a safe house if one were to be cruel about it.

The comparison made him ill but it wasn't incorrect and Izuku realized that in his quest to become a great hero he was a lousy son. What was the point of being able to save lives if the most important person in his life ended up being tossed to the wayside? Was he actually ignorant, arrogant to believe that his mother was this immortal, untouchable being that could weather through anything?

No she wasn't, his mother was just as vulnerable as him, even more so and this incident only serves to highlight this. But there was hope yet, he could salvage his relationship with his mother and while the thought of going to therapy didn't appeal to him the thought of spending more time with his mother did.

Izuku squeezed her hand and smiled nodding to the man.

As the doctor left Inko's smiled dropped "Izuku, where is Himiko?"

"Oh now that I thought about it, she must've had some trouble getting in with all those reporters outside."

"Oh" his mother seemed mollified by this as she leaned back into the bed "I hope she's alright."

Izuku smiled "don't worry Kaa-san, Himiko can take care of herself."

\

'Where is he?'

Himiko had a scowl on her face as she tried and failed to spot her quarry. She had been on the hunt for a few minutes now and hadn't so much as caugh a glimpse of him.

'Right now I should be with my Izu-kun and Inko. I swear when I get my hands on him' her inner monologue cut once she spotted a suspicious looking person with a hood over his head.

Himiko saw a flash of teeth before the man started walking way, Himiko pursued.

Izuku might not have noticed what happened earlier given the crowd and the fact that he had his head down but Himiko saw everything. Someone had purposefully revealed him to the reporters, which wouldn't have warranted more than Himiko's disdain but it was when he spoke that she became agitated.

Himiko knew this person.

'And if he's here…' she trailed off with a bad feeling developing in the pit of her stomach.

Himiko tracked him down to a wide darkened alley that wasn't a clichéd dead end. She was still cautious though and the caution paid off as she managed to narrowly duck getting grappled from behind and sweep the perpetrator's leg from under him. she spun to her full height and attempted a stomp only for him to tilt his head to the side then push her using his foot to trip her up.

Instead of stumbling Himiko did an elegant backflip to catch herself while reaching for her thigh holster. The man flipped up and spun into a roundhouse kick that caught her hand effectively kicking the weapon from her hand. Himiko growled as she had no choice but to engage him in hand to hand combat. Immediately put on the defensive by his flurry of well coordinated attacks Himiko was helpless when the man finished off with a spinning back kick that launched her into the wall.

Coincidentally it happened to be beside where her errant weapon, a butterfly knife, lay. Himiko grinned maniacally as she held it up like a serial killer and charged after him. The man was silent but a mirrored grin could be seen under the hood even as he was forced on the defensive by Himiko's wild yet precise strikes. She jumped up an stabbed down towards his head, he used his wrist to block her own but Himiko simply let go of the scissors and caught it in her left hand before stabbing it.

The man reacted with shocking speed grabbing her left hand and twisting it behind her painfully. Himiko's grin didn't waver as she tossed the weapon mid twist and forced her body to do a corkscrew flip untwisting her arm while grabbing the weapon off the ground to stab it into the man's forearm. Surprisingly the blade didn't penetrate deep before it met resistance, he bled but not enough for Himiko's taste.

"Tch" she clicked her tongue and leapt back standing at her full height "are we done here?"

The stranger looked to his bleeding arm and licked the blood from it ignoring the way Himiko's face twitched at the action.

"Yes~" he finally lowered down his hood to reveal a pale faced man with short shaggy black hair and bags under his yellow squinted eyes "hello Hime-chan! I missed yoouuu" the man ran at her open arms.

Himiko stoically sidestepped his advance and folded her arms "why are you here?"

The man looked at her hurt "aw is that how you greet your brother after meeting again after so long? Shame on you Hime-chan."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who thinks attacking his sister is a proper greeting!" she shouted back.

"Aw but I had to be sure" he said, his tone becoming darker "I wanted to know if the Hime-chan I saw today with that boy was my Hime-chan"

Himiko stilled as her eyes gained an edge "what are you saying?"

"Oh nothing, its just that I've never seen you smile like that in a looong time. that boy must be reeeaally special if he's survived this long with you" he gave her a coy look "makes me want to meet him."

Himiko's arms unfolded and she gave the man a murderous glare "stay away from Izuku, he's mine!"

The man took a few steps back and held his hands up in surrender "scaary~ but don't worry, little boys aren't my type" he shrugged casually.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to visit my Hime-chan" at her glare he added "and I also have some personal business to take care of. When I'm done we can hang out together and when you're done…" he left the sentence open as he exited the alleyway leaving Himiko by herself.

The girl stood there for a minute before she collapsed, breathing heavily, her hand trembled and her expression looked stricken.

'Why him, why did it have to be him!?'

Unknown to her the man leaned against the wall and smiled a Cheshire smile that practically split his face.

To Be Continued…

Author's Notes: Shorter than I'd like but hey I'm getting into the groove of things. I haven't been on fanfiction for a long while now so yeah. I won't make any promises on updates because I still have a job and a life, take it as it comes guys. Anyway a I couldn't help but notice how popular this fandom has become in the time that I've been away, like wow.

So to recap, Izuku deals with the fallout, avoiding the unnecessary fame that comes with defeating a villain, dealing with the guilt of seemingly abandoning his mother and trying to redeem himself, more training and of course trouble on the horizon. I gotta say before I wrote the final scene I was half expecting to at least find some more background on Himiko but alas she remains a mystery, at least now its confirmed she's in highschool and not some psycho cosplayer.

That guy? Yeah he's an OC and is going to be featured a bit prominently in this story. If you're not a fan of such things then…sorry? Hey I'm already in deep waters coming in a year late I might as well push my luck but then again the follows went over 2000 while I was gone and it's still in the top ten most favorite and followed story in the fandom, I am proud of this feat.