Work Text:
Izuku first heard of the Batman when he was seven years old. In his quest to consume every piece of All Might content available on the internet, Izuku had happened upon a video of American heroes battling a cult of robot fish people--which was its own kind of rabbithole, as he found out.
Most of the heroes in the video were paragons of the American brand of superheroism, and Izuku recognized them well enough. These were the people whose merchandise was sold everywhere: big names like Superman or the Flash or Wonder Woman.
There were a few he didn't recognize, though. These people weren't world-famous, and probably would never come to Japan, but Izuku wanted to know nonetheless: and by the end of the day, he could identify nearly all of the heroes in the video by their corny names, gaudy costumes, and astounding abilities.
All of them except one.
The Batman in the video was a black blur. A dot on the screen. Izuku had assumed at first the dot was just some particularly tenacious piece of debris until someone in the comments pointed out that the debris had legs, a torso, arms, and tiny little ears poking out of its head. When Izuku looked again, he saw white eye-slits that seemed to stare directly into the camera.
When Izuku searched for "american hero with shadow quirk," none of the results matched with the black blur. "american hero with stealth quirk" didn't work. Neither did "american vigilante vampire quirk," and any other combination of "american", "dark" and "hero." Izuku chalked it up to a particularly well-hidden underground hero. Or maybe a ghost.
He forgot about it.
Izuku remembered the Batman when he was a bit older and a bit more ensconced in discussions about superhero conspiracy theories. The most popular theory was, of course, how All Might kept his hair up using the power of his quirk. But the second-most popular theory was the urban legend of the Batman.
Supposedly, there was a vigilante who operated in the midnight city of Gotham. Supposedly. The only concrete evidence that the Internet presented were a couple of low-quality photos and videos along with an image of a floodlight shaped like a bat. Almost nothing else apart from that. The Internet didn't even know the Batman's real-person name or his quirk: for the posters of that theory, the Batman was just a name, a fear and a whisper in the darkness.
Americans, thought Izuku. How the hell had this model of heroism survived for so long?
Transparency and accountability issues aside, the Batman was a good puzzle. Whenever Izuku was bored out of his mind, he sat down at his computer, summarized the facts, and made his own theories.
This was Izuku's analysis of the Batman, written in the back pages of his notebook and recalled one odd night on a rooftop when he was thirteen and looking for a breath of fresh air:
Let's start with the basic facts.
1) The Batman is called the Batman because of his Bat-suit. You'll know the Bat-suit because it's supposed to resemble a bat.
"Oh, hey," said Izuku, in English. He had come out on the roof and seen a rustling lump of black fabric. "I almost didn't see you because of the cape."
"Hmm," said the caped man, in Japanese. "That is sort of the point of the cape."
"But isn't that just way too bulky? Is it more of a design choice than anything?"
"Think of them like my wings. Like on a bat," said the guy, as he rose to his full height. The cape didn't slip. Even when the guy was at his tallest and looming over Izuku, all Izuku could see was the black cape, the white eye-slits, and the pointy ears on top of his head.
Wait. Something wasn't processing.
"Wait. Something isn't processing," said Izuku.
"Take your time," said the guy. Who had a black cape and pointy ears? Black cape. Like wings on a bat.
Pointy ears. Like on a certain flying mammal and a certain American superhero.
"Wait. Are you the--am I meeting the--"
"Hmm," said the guy, and pulled back some of the cape to reveal the symbol of a bat on his chest.
"What!!" said Izuku. "Holy shi--"
2) The Batman was based in America.
"Language," said the Batman. His mouth had the suggestion of a smile.
"Waitwaitwait. Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in Gotham?"
"I'm allowed to visit places," claimed the Batman. "Maybe I'm on vacation."
"Interesting that you bring you would consider bringing your costume along with you during your leisure time. In Japan, the public and the private hero personas are inseparable, but I would have thought that Americans would like a clearer distinction between your civilian and your superhero lives since you keep a secret identity and all. And why Japan? Did one of your villains relocate to Japan? Are you relocating to Japan? Do you want to talk to Japanese heroes to contrast your--"
"I have business in Japan," said the Batman.
"Business," said Izuku.
"Yes. Classified business. It's very important."
"Classified, very important business," said Izuku. He wondered if this was really the guy who fought alongside frickin' Wonder Woman. "I believe you."
"And also..." The Batman coughed then mumbled something.
"Also...? Sorry, I didn't hear you very well."
The Batman mumbled again, but slightly louder. Not that it helped. Izuku could pick up something about kids? And tea?
"Sorry, Mr. Batman, I really can't understand."
"I said that..."
3) The Batman had allies. (details unclear; more research needed)
"...three of my kids like anime," said the Batman in a very, very soft voice. "Another likes kintsugi. The other wants to practice his Japanese. And the last just wants to go on a vacation. So it was an executive decision to go to Japan."
Some small part of Izuku's mind told him that it was well-known that the Batman worked very closely with some young heroes (and, if Izuku recalled correctly, one of them was also a crime lord? How did that work?). He'd even seen the term Bat-family being thrown around on threads. Batman having kids was not a very big reach, said the smart part of Izuku's brain.
There was also the dumb part of Izuku's brain.
"Since when did you have kids?!" Izuku asked because he was an idiot.
"Hrmm. A while now," said the Batman in a tone of voice that portended either brooding or the pulling-out of a family photo album.
"So that means--you've more or less--what the frickafrack--did you plan for them to be--wait, can I even ask that?--holy--what--!"
"Calm down, son," said the Batman, as he pulled out a lollipop from somewhere in the depths of his cape. "No rush. Nobody's going to die if I wait for you to finish a sentence. Probably."
"That was not in any way reassuring," said Izuku as he took the lollipop from Batman's hand and stuck it in his mouth. The lollipop itself was very delicious and reassuring.
"Hrmm. So. Questions."
"I have. Many questions. How much time do we have?"
The Batman paused and looked off into some middle distance. What seemed to Izuku like an internal Bat-monologue turned out to be communication with his allies when he looked back at Izuku and replied, "I was just told by Oracle that I have nothing urgent for the rest of the night. Take your time, son."
Okay, Izuku Midoriya. You could ask one of the world's most elusive vigilantes any number of revealing questions. Where should you start?
"How--I mean, where--wait no, what, uh--quirk?"
Izuku Midoriya, you utter idiot.
When the Batman's lips twitched, Izuku tried to justify his question by explaining to the Batman the nuances of Fact No. 4:
4) The Batman's quirk is most likely intellectual in nature. (NOTE: EXTREMELY UNCLEAR; more research and evidence needed)
"I was so confused by your quirk for a while. Still am, honestly, so I just want to know more about the nature of that whole thing," admitted Izuku, recalling earlier days spent going over grainy footage of a dark figure that seemed to move and fight at unnatural speeds. "I thought at first: A body-enhancement quirk isn't off the table, considering the way you fight. I wouldn't be surprised if you had some kind of strength or agility quirk."
"Hrmm."
"But I think it's possible to move the way you do without a quirk. Especially considering the technology that you use--"
"Not technology."
Izuku sputtered. "Not, uh, technology?"
"Training," said the Batman. "Hard training."
"Hard training," said Izuku. "So you really do have no physical enhancement quirks."
The Batman was one of the most physically competent people in the world if he managed to keep up with Wonder Woman. If all of his prowess was achieved through training, Izuku was scared to imagine what kind of trials the Batman had to go through just to get his strength and skill.
But even though the pains of the Batman's training were no doubt excruciating and traumatizing, Izuku wondered if there was a possibility of replicating it.
What kind of steps did one have to take? And was it possible for thirteen-year-old quirkless boys to go through it and have the same caliber of competency as the Batman?
All of it purely conjecture, of course, but surely it wasn't out of the realm of possibility--
"So you ruled out a primarily physical quirk," said the Batman.
Izuku blinked back to the present. "Uh, yeah. After that, I thought that it would be something related to technology or gadgets."
"Hrmm. Why so?"
"You seem very reliant on the technology that you use. There was just now when you just talked to someone using whatever communicator you have. There are also all the gadgets and weapons that you use whenever you fight, in a way that I haven't seen from other heroes. You have gadgets specifically designed to compensate for your, uh, physical shortcomings, which brings an entirely new dimension of crime-fighting onto the table. I've also heard something about a Bat-car? A Batmobile?"
The Batman smirked.
"But then I remembered that there are tons of inventors without mechanical quirks, so maybe you could be one of them. Or that you possibly have another person in charge of making your weapons."
"Or that I have an egregious amount of money to spend on experimental weaponry," said the Batman. "Money is a quirk all to itself, and I have rich backers."
"So no physical, no mechanical, given that both of those can be achieved by other means," summarized Izuku. "I thought then that your quirk must be intellectual. It enables your training and your gadgets: thus the mechanical. You can't fight hard, so you fight smart: thus the physical."
"Hrmm. Good theory," said the Batman.
"Good theory," repeated Izuku, and it felt almost like a compliment. Almost. Not quite there.
Nobody said 'Good theory' when you got the right answer.
"...I'm wrong?" inferred Izuku, and the Batman nodded. "But I don't know any other alternatives for your quirk. This is it."
"No. Think back and re-examine your assumptions. Which one of them is based entirely off your own presumptions, and not known fact?"
"I don't know," admitted Izuku, but already his mind was racing and clawing at the possibility of what if...
"Hrmm. I think you do know. You're clever enough to figure it out."
"What 'it' are you talking about?" asked Izuku. "Is 'it' some kind of quirk enhancer that you have? Or a really weird quirk--which is fine! Or is 'it' a special support item or what?"
"Think back," said the Batman.
"Back, back, back," said Izuku, and with the way that this was going, he might seriously have to tell Batman his most ridiculous theory yet. Oh no.
This theory, he hadn't even read off of anywhere. When he tried posting it on to the forums, Izuku was shot down into hell. He had sort of repressed it because the premise was somewhat embarrassing if not highly unlikely: but if they were speaking truthfully here...
"I was asking what kind of quirk you have."
"Hrmm."
"But asking what kind of quirk you have implied the presence of a quirk."
"Hrmmmmm."
"So maybe the first question I should've asked wasn't what kind of quirk you had. Maybe it should've been: Do you even have a quirk?"
The Batman smiled.
5) Possible that the Batman doesn't have a quirk, but very, very, VERY unlikely. (Look for other options.)
"I don't have a quirk," said the Batman.
The rooftop was quiet. All around them were the sounds of the city: cars jerking along, one of the neighbors playing obnoxiously loud music and the loud screaming of one teenage boy.
"Why are you surprised," said the Batman.
"WHY WOULD I NOT BE SURPRISED," shouted Izuku.
"Many people don't have quirks. Including you, Izuku Midoriya."
"Ignoring that blatant invasion of privacy--you are a hero. Heroes are supposed to have quirks. But you do not have a quirk. This is. Very surprising. I am very surprised."
"Don't be. Heroes are supposed to save people, and you don't need quirks to do that."
On any other day, Izuku could have argued about the endless resources that Batman used to save people. Heroes are supposed to save people, but to save people you needed a quirk and/or money, and Izuku didn't have an abundance of either of those. Neither did many quirkless people.
But right then and there Izuku wasn't thinking of the socioeconomic barriers to becoming a quirkless hero or vigilante: He had gotten the Batman's point that if you could help, why not help? If you could save, why not save?You didn't exactly need a quirk to help out a friend stuck in a creek.
"Huh," said Izuku, and the thought of quirkless heroism embedded itself into his mind.
"Hrmm," responded the Batman. "You're very intelligent. I can only think of one other person who figured out a secret of that quality at your age. You'd get along well with him, now that I think about it."
"Huh," said Izuku. His brain had temporarily frozen.
A frozen brain was probably the most normal thing to happen tonight, thought Izuku. Better a malfunctioning mind than finding an American vigilante (who was supposed to be just an urban legend) on a random rooftop in Japan, and subsequently finding out that American vigilante was quirkless.
Better a malfunctioning brain than seeing a man clothed in black and blue materialize out of the shadows.
Seriously. What the hell was going on?
The man clothed in black and blue was grinning, and though there were no obvious ties between him and the Batman, it was obvious that they both knew each other. Two American vigilantes on a roof in Japan: it could've been a funny joke if Izuku's brain wasn't close to combusting.
"Hey, B," said the guy with the blue bird symbol on his chest who literally stepped out of the shadows. "How's it going with the new adoptee?"
"Nightwing," chided the Batman.
"Kidding, kidding. Mostly. Anyway, Izuku, was it?" Nightwing turned to him. He had a blue mask on his face that covered his eyes, but didn't cover the crooked nose and the bullet scar on his forehead.
"Y-yeah."
"Izuku, then." The man in black and blue grinned. "I was listening in for a bit while you were talking to my dad over here. Smart kid. Hey, guess: what's my quirk?"
"Uh. Trick question," said Izuku, though Nightwing's body looked pretty... ahem, enhanced.
"Caught on really fast, didn't you? I bet B would just love to bring you to Gotham," remarked Nightwing. "Well, hate to cut your playdate short, but Bats has an appointment later."
"By appointment," explained the Batman. "Nightwing means that he and the rest of my kids want a proper night out in Tokyo."
"Well--! Ugh. I can't with you, B. But it was nice meeting you, Izuku," said Nightwing, and Izuku thought it was very nice to meet Nightwing as well. Nightwing continued, "Who knows! We might meet again. Always fun to see a quirkless face."
The Batman added on, "Contact Bruce Wayne at Wayne Enterprises as soon as you have the chance. With what you've shown today, I have no doubt that your insight would be very helpful for him."
Nightwing laughed. "Christ, B, just hand the kid an adoption form while you're at it. Anyway, kid, I think I hear your mom coming."
"Really?" said Izuku, and then there was his mother stepping out of the staircase and onto the rooftop.
"Izuku," said Inko Midoriya. "What were you doing alone on this rooftop for so long?"
"Alone? I don't know that--"
But when Izuku looked around, it was really just him and his mom up there. No men with strange symbols on their chests.
"Huh," said Izuku.
"Come on down, Izu. It's getting late," she said as they began to walk down the stairs.
"Hey, mom?" he asked.
"Yes, honey?"
"I think I wanna go to Gotham," said Izuku, and he thought about the idea well into the night.