It was a slow night for Present Mic on his radio show. He played some underrated artists who he thought deserved some more attention. It was just a nice Saturday since just yesterday night was his nonstop broadcast for "Put Your Hands Up Radio!". When he had time, he would do a Saturday night shift to just relax with some music that he loved at the moment.
Sometimes the radio or his own hero page on social media would get recommendations for music or young artists wishing to reach out to ave their own songs out on the radio. Hizashi did his best to highlight the underrated artists he would find by himself or the ones that reached out to him.
"Alright, listeners! That was from a rising artist called Ahmya! Give it up to her everyone!" Hizashi announced, pressing down on one of the buttons on the soundboard. Hizashi clapped along with the fake applause from the button he just pressed. "Wooh! And for right now, I'm going to fill up more of the queue for the hour with more from artists that deserve the spotlight! Let's go into a new song by an artist that has been previously in this segment which earned them more support! Give it up to Kyo!"
After he said that, Mic blasted the more upbeat sound over the speakers. Sighing, he pulled off the headphones from his ears to around his neck. He scratched at his blonde hair that was hanging loosely over his shoulders as opposed to the upright position he constantly styles it in. It was a miracle that his hair wasn't damaged from the sheer amount of product he used.
Tap, tap, tap.
Hizashi paused with his hand in the middle of playing with the ends of his hair to look up to the glass window behind him. He straightened up with a smile when he saw that it was Izuku looking right back at him with his freckled cheeks smooshed against the glass.
"Come on!" Hizashi encouraged with a cheerful grin, waving the young teen in. Izuku hurried around the window to find the door to the room where Hizashi was in.
In under thirty seconds, Izuku was coming through the door with an assistant at the radio station who closed the door behind him. "Hey, Uncle Mic! I just thought I'd stop by."
Hizashi stood up from his chair to pull Izuku into a hug. Izuku smiled after they pulled away to sit in a guest chair near Hizashi that had its own microphone. The microphone was positioned perfectly in front of him just like Mic's own mic.
"Awww. This will be your last radio show before you head off to UA. Are you ready for that, little listener?"
"I was born ready for it," Izuku answered back, leaning back in his chair so he could adjust the height to relax better against the table.
"And does that mean DJ Mouse is ready to have his last show before UA too?"
DJ Mouse has been his alias in the radio station since he didn't want his name out there in the public so soon. Izuku started his radio alias back when he was around ten when Present Mic was watching over him one Saturday night. Izuku walked into the radio station when Mic started to talk to his fans through submitted questions. He proudly walked into the station when one of the questions turned out to be more of criticism towards Mic always being too loud for him which caused Izuku to become super defensive of his uncle.
Then more questions were submitted when everyone on the radio heard a small boy's voice call out "Don't talk about Uncle Mic that way!" Upon that spectacular first introduction, Present Mic introduces him as DJ Mouse. Safe to say, DJ Mouse gained a lot of support through social media with a lot of fans speculating about who he might be. There was even one fan theory that DJ Mouse was Present Mic's son.
And ever since then, Izuku would show up randomly on Saturday nights when Present Mic was doing a show to come in and talk. He would chat about quirks he found interesting, answers simple questions form fans that didn't dig into his personal life that much, and just have a good time for about an hour.
And tonight was one of those nights.
Hizashi paced the headphones back on his head. He turned down the volume of the instrumental music mix to talk over it. "Alright, listeners! Welcome back to the show! And we have an unsuspected special guest with us tonight! Yours and my favorite guest, DJ Mouse!"
"Hello, hello," Izuku greeted into the microphone. "Happy to be here again."
"ALRIGHT!" Hizashi exclaimed loudly, leaning away from the microphone to not hurt any ears that might be listening in. "How are you doing tonight, Mouse?"
"Eh, not too bad," Izuku shrugged, "I'm getting ready for the new upcoming school year. I got some new stationary, notebooks, and a brand new backpack."
Present Mic nodded, "Yes! I heard that you are starting relatively soon. Would you want the audience to know where you heading or do you want to keep it a secret?"
"Well, if anyone wanted to know, I will be attending a hero school. I'm not telling any of you which one yet," Izuku chuckled. "But I know that won't stop any of you from guessing and theorizing. I do love the fan theories about me that all of you post on the online forums."
"Speaking of hero schools, let's focus on heroes for a moment because I want to know about your opinion on the fight that took place near Datako."
"Oh, you mean the one with Hawks, the number two himself? I enjoyed it quite immensely. Too bad I wasn't there to see it in real life, but I did read about it online. I was watching a few short clips that I could find online about it. It looked like quite a fight between him and a robber with a bird-like quirk. It was interesting to watch how the robber's talons worked," Izuku rambled while his Uncle listened with a chin propped on his hand. "It was very interesting because it looked like his talons just kept growing bigger and bigger. When Hawks managed to cut off one, it grew back within seconds. But the nails got duller and duller each time Hawks strikes the talons in his hands. Imagine my surprise when the robber took off his shoes to start kicking at him with a whole new set of talons on his feet. Hawk's expression was hilarious. It went from a smirk to an expression that just read 'oh, not again'. Ah, before I forget, good job Hawks. I look forward to seeing more of you."
Hizashi smiled at his nephew, "I can't wait to see you interact with him. I feel like you will be nicknaming him before he can even introduce himself."
Izuku blinked up at his uncle innocently, "Oh, he will have his nickname before I even meet him. You can bet on that.
*
Nedzu smiled as he continued to listen to Present Mic's radio show even if it was almost done. His peaceful smile dimmed as he looked down at the file on his dark wooden desk. The name on one of the files taunted him as the dark black eyes from the picture stared right into his soul.
Midoriya Hisashi
Izuku's biological father abandoned him at the gates of UA fifteen years ago.
Sometimes Nedzu would check in on what Midoriya-San was doing. He checks every six months to a year regularly to make sure that nothing bad was happening. He wanted to be assured that Izuku's biological father wouldn't try to get revenge on him or try and hurt Izuku.
He continues to look over the file to check over any updates he could find. He was released from jail when Izuku was five and has not made a move towards him at all. But Nedzu still liked to check in just in case every now and then. Some might call it him being paranoid, but Nedzu likes to think of it as him preparing for the future. There haven't been many records of him since then. He got a few odd jobs afterward that allowed him in despite his criminal charge. But Nedzu learned that he lost his job at a factory about eight months ago.
Nedzu looked over the mugshot photo, remembering what Tsukauchi had told him about the interrogation. The detective brought the news that he looked so resigned. He also mentioned how his face relaxed when one of the officers admitted that Izuku was now in the hands of someone who would take care of him.
That was the one thing that bugged him.
If he was so relieved to hear that his own son was safe, then why did he abandon him in the first place?
Humans are so complicated.
"Papa!" Izuku's voice calls out loudly before he hears the front door close lightly. He hears the shuffling of Izuku taking off his shoes while he hid away the files of his biological father in his desk.
"Little mouse," Nedzu called out softly from his bedroom. He adjusted the height of his chair to land on the carpeted floor softly. "I listened to the radio show while I worked on some papers."
"That's great to hear. Ooh, Uncle Mic wanted to talk to you about a possible opportunity for when I start UA. I don't know what exactly it's about, but it has something to do with the radio station," Izuku said, looking through the cabinets to find something to eat.
Nedzu nodded, thinking over what Mic would ask him about in his head, "Sounds excellent. I'll talk to him over the phone either tomorrow or Monday to talk it over it."
"Hey, did you eat yet?"
"Hmm, I drank some tea. I'll admit that I have not eaten since my late lunch today."
"Do you want me to order something for dinner? It's a bit late in the night to be cooking, but it is still an option," Izuku asked with a hand propped under his chin as he thought over it. "What are you in the mood for? I can go for anything."
"Surprise me," Nedzu hummed. Izuku pulled up the food delivery app on his phone while Nedzu walked to the couch.
After Izuku ordered from the app, both of them sat down to watch one of those detective shows on the television. About halfway through the show, Nedzu paused the show to allow Izuku to go downstairs to retrieve the food from the delivery guy waiting.
It didn't take long until Izuku was back through the front door with two bags of food on his arms. They ordered dinner from a nice restaurant that had a lot of influences from other places like Europe and other places in Asia.
Izuku looked up from his grilled chicken piece, "Hey, Papa. Are you going to do that reference game to my classmates?"
Nedzu ate from his bowl of rice noodles, "Of course I will. I need to know if any of them are interested in certain genres. I need to know if they are educated in the pre-quirk era of movies. And if they aren't, you can educate them."
"I sure will. If they don't know anything and they want to learn, I'll be there for them if they accept my help," Izuku looked away for a moment. "I wonder what my new classmates will be like."
Nedzu tilted his head curiously, "What do you want them to be?"
"Well, I would like to not have any true enemies in my class. I want to be a friend that helps them out. I want to be a future ally to them whether it be for support for personal issues or an actual villain fight. That's all I really want," Izuku answered honestly.
"Then, don't let anything stop you," Nedzu looked down at his food as he continued, "I don't doubt that you will win over everyone. If they don't like you, it will only be a matter of time before they warm up to you. And if they continue to not like you, you annoy them whenever you get the chance."
Izuku frowned, "Are you speaking from experience?"
Nedzu looked up, "I just love to see how much I can mildly annoy the Hero Commission in any way possible without it looking like I'm doing it intentionally."