Chapter Text
Izuku sighed into the dirt before picking himself up, dusting off, and slowly limping out of the park. Day in, day out. Same routine over and over and over again, even now as a ten year old.
“Th-thought they would have s-stopped this b-by now.” he grumbled to himself, inspecting the bruises blossoming on his arms.
He still didn’t understand why things had only gotten worse since Makimura left.
No. He understood perfectly. That day, when Katsuki had joined in with his usual beatings, he should have known it would only pick up momentum. Of course it would! His “friend” had basically been the last defence Izuku had up until that day. But once even the Quirkless freaks' only friend had given up protecting him... Well…
He had to stop and sit on a bench part way home, although he had slowly gotten used to pain as it was the main constant in his life, it wasn’t like he was completely immune to it.
“Come on DEKU ,” Kacchan’s brash voice sounded in his head, “Pick yourself up and fight back!”
The memory was unwanted, it made him feel worse than he already did. Not only had Bakugou set off the equivalent of the industrial revolution of bullying when he joined in, he had given them all new fuel for the fire.
“Deku, DEKU, DEKU! ” that irritating shuffling around of his given name became the only way most people referred to him nowadays, even the teachers had started just calling him that!
He remembered his teacher from last year slipping up and almost calling him that infront of his mother during a parent teacher meeting.
Everyone used it, it's all he heard. He simply wished he could go back to the time that they all ignored him, and didn't even call him by his actual name. Preferring the loneliness to the constant pain he was subjected to currently.
Izuku picked himself up from the bench and continued to trudge home, he hoped his mum was working tonight, he didn’t want her to see him like this. Even if he’d given up on hiding his injuries a long time ago.
She’d had to go back to work, even with their downsizing after his father had left, they found that the man’s hope in Inko leaving their “Failed Bastard of a son.” wasn’t limitless, and the extra money he sent them dwindled before quickly becoming the bare minimum.
Izuku thought it was a blessing though, at least his mother wouldn’t see the state he was in after school most days of the week. It gave him a chance to clean up a little before she got back, and if she was working, well she didn’t have to stress about him.
He was young, but he did know that this type of thinking wasn’t healthy yet he couldn’t help it. He spiralled sometimes, wondering when his mum would leave him too, despite her best efforts in assuring him that she wouldn’t. He loves his mother.
The day he dies young will hurt, not just physically, but because he knows she will be the only one to miss him.
“Deku will never be a fucking hero, Quirkless, helpless Deku who can’t even stand up and fight back!” Katsuki had screamed at him after he and two of his friends had beaten him up. They said they saw him exercising, training his body. He denied it, hoping that it would help avoid a beating. He had been doing some light exercise, nothing too straining as he was still much too young to do heavy lifting or anything. But after a lot of research he had taken to going on short jogs around the neighbourhood, maybe finding a secluded park and doing stretches and other exercise routines that would help his stamina and movement. After all, he still needed to run away when he could.
Unfortunately, the boys had actually seen him, and took this as a sleight against them, thereby doubling his punishment.
“Deku will never be a fucking hero, training and shit won’t help you if you keep running away Izuku!”
The blond shouted as Izuku sprinted away. The weird thing about any fight with Kacchan was that he never seemed to chase him. Most people did, he assumed the chase was fun for them or something, but maybe Katsuki was going easy on him as old friends… no, more likely he didn’t want to waste the energy on little Quirkless Deku.
As he cut through an alleyway near his home, he felt a hand clap down on his shoulder.
“Wrong alleyway kid.” An unknown voice said.
Izuku felt his blood drain, ‘God no not today please, haven’t I had enough to handle?’
The hand pulled, spinning Izuku around to face the speaker. He was older than Izuku, though he wasn’t an adult but physically he was still much bigger than Izuku. The teen sported the uniform of a highschool in his district, Izuku recognised it as the one that most people funnelled into from his school if they didn’t get into any others like UA.
“Empty your pockets, and your bag, gimme all your valuables now or I’ll gut you.” He said, accentuating his point by jabbing a claw into his stomach.
Izuku was frozen, he knew he should do as he was told, give the teen his stuff, let him be on his way.
But he was tired.
Tired physically, tired of the threats, tired of the beatings, TIRED OF EVERYONE TREATING HIM LIKE SHIT, TIRED OF-
He came to.
The teen was folded in on himself, leaning against a wall, unmoving.
Izuku’s eyes widened, he felt so tense and yet, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, why?
Oh.
He unclenched his fist, knuckles bruised and painted with a smattering of blood.
Blood.
His eyes darted back to the teen, still against the wall, as Izuku noticed a red trail slithering down against it, next to the boy's head. A shimmer passed over him and his musculature faded, along with his clawed hands.
‘A-an illusion Quirk!?’
He wanted to throw up, he couldn’t! Not here. What did he do? What came over him? Why did it feel right!? He needed to do it agai- NO! No. He couldn’t, he shouldn’t!
“Everyone else does whatever the fuck they want.”
He shook the voice out of his head, he couldn't think like that, even if it did leave him feeling relieved once the ever present tension in his muscles was released.
He did this.
He fought back against someone who was a danger to him.
No, the teen had to conceal his actual looks to try and rob him. No-one would be intimidated by the scrawny boy he could now see lying there.
He touched his neck with two fingers, he still had a pulse.
Izuku ran home.
“KATSUKI BAKUGOU, WE RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT!”
He reeled back at his mothers scream. He should be used to the sheer volume and commanding presence she had a lot of the time, even if he knew that her anger was due to a condition, but whenever it was directed at him, he couldn’t help but flinch.
“I-I know. I’m so-” he was cut off by his dad now, and his eyes widened. His dad never raised his voice.
“DO NOT EVEN, THINK, OF SAYING SORRY TO US! WE AREN’T THE PERSON YOU’VE HURT ARE WE!?” Masaru shouted.
Katsuki started breathing quicker and closing in on himself, stumbling over his words. ‘Stupid, STUPID! Why the FUCK did you think this was a good idea?’ he thought to himself.
Masarus glare softened, and he held an arm out to stop Mitsuki from starting a further rant.
His wife's anger seemed to flare up, but he gave her an equally soft look he knew would make her stop and cool off, she could manage herself after all. Then he dropped into a squat, eye level with Katsuki and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You know that though, don’t you son.”
Katsuki just looked at him confused.
“You’re just a kid, you didn’t think it through enough. You wanted to really push Izuku to defend himself, and while I can agree to the sentiment, you went about it the wrong way. You became a bully to Izuku, no, you became a VILLAIN to him. But you can fix this. It’ll be up to him if he forgives you, but you have to apologise sincerely and DO BETTER.”
He rubbed his eyes, the memory of yesterday was still sharp in his mind.
After he and his shitty followers had jumped Izuku, Wings wanted to chase him down. Katsuki had managed to reign him in, but he knew that if things kept up, even he couldn’t do much to stop a follow up attack.
He was tired.
He didn’t actually want to keep beating Izuku, really he hoped that his words during their one sided fights would finally get through to him but they didn’t. He kept running away.
So… he tapped out. He needed help from his parents.
‘Do better.’
He should have done so from the start.
‘DO BETTER.’
He’d apologise to Izuku today, explain where he was coming from, and then he would beg his Aunty Inko for forgiveness, once he’d phoned ahead with his parents.
The sound of rain caught his attention and he looked around himself, the classroom empty.
“Oh no.”