Learn to Live (Vigilante)

A Night Out

I was overwhelmed.

"It's too much. I can't take this."

He put it in my hands.

"Don't worry. It's for the birthdays I missed. I wanted to throw you a party, but this would be more appropriate. Let's go get changed."

The costume must have taken a week to make. It barely weighed anything. The weight of my guilt made it infinitely heavier.

He had no intention of not letting me go back on patrol.

I ran to the bathroom. I transferred the metal bar and pulled out the earpiece sticking it in my ear. My hair would cover it. The costume also had a hood and a green mask that would cover my eyes. Along with a gas mask that would hang on my neck.

The mirror showed a Hero. I looked clean. I took out my colored contacts. I bent over, putting the solution RG gave me in my hair. The blue dye slowly turned clear in the sink's water.

I lifted my head. The mirror showed a Hero. I looked clean. This, this is who I was. The person in the mirror was the person casting the image. I was The Phantom.

Another pang hit the inside of my chest. Maybe there was more to me. Maybe, I could find my name. Then my family. I could have a home.

I've already looked. There aren't any families in Japan with green wings. There was Hawks, but from what I've seen, we aren't related.

If I can find them, maybe I can remember. I could know how old I am. I would have a family, a real family.

My first memory was pain. The pain of electric pulsing threw my body. Sometimes it would still shoot down my spine. Voices. I could hear the voices of screaming children. It plagues me. I can't remember. I don't know who they are. But there is this feeling. A feeling that I could have done something, that I can do something. I've started hearing them more since I met 1-A. They scream at me now. Some call for help. Sometimes I hear them calling names. I can never understand.

"Izuku Midoriya," Bakugo asked if I knew who he was. Bakugo scared me. He looks at me as if he knows something I don't. When he said the name, it hurt. It felt right for all the wrong reasons.

I needed to look into the name for that very reason. If it is true...

I stopped myself. I couldn't let hope back into my life. It will only bring me despair.

Regardless, I walked out of the bathroom with a new stride in my step. Just maybe.

~~~

"On your left!" Ren yelled through the microphone.

"I see him, you or me?"

"ME!"

The kid dropped, slamming into the mugger. He helped the college student' back to their feet, handing them their belongings.

He jumped, seemingly vanishing, only to reappear beside me.

He was radiating with energy.

I knew the word was going around that He was back. The Phantom of Nightmares was back. Back with the rage of an angered angel, about to purge the villains from his territory. The territory I was still trying to figure out. It was large, with no patterns.

He flew without his wings. I ran along him, barely keeping up. I was falling behind.

"Right!"

"I got it."

"Two thugs!"

"How do you know this?" I jumped, taking the two down. I cuffed them and called the police. "How did you know where they were?"