Chapter Text
“Speech”
‘Thoughts’
It’s not an easy decision for him, in fact it’s almost im-fucking-possible for Katsuki Bakugou to have made it at all. He’s the king of Aldera Junior High. No one would even imagine going against him. He had the best quirk, the best grades, the best everything!
But… things have changed.
‘Because I’m not the best am I?’ Bakugou grit his teeth in anger. ‘Izuku is.’
Izuku the quirkless, Izuku the useless, Izuku the liar, Izuku the DEKU.
And none of that was true, was it.
Izuku was the one who stepped in to fight the villain when no one else did. Izuku was the one who almost died trying to save him. Izuku was the one who seemed just as freaked out by the changes as everyone else was.
While he…
He just sat there in the grips of a fucking villain causing destruction.
And so Bakugou made a decision, he knew he wasn’t the best. He saw and experienced it first hand when Izuku single handedly defeated that pile of trash.
Stepping into the faculty office, Bakugou saw his teacher talking to another member of the faculty.
“Hey Teach!” Bakugou spoke harshly, “Do you still have our high school forms?”
“Ah Bakugou, I was just about to send them off this afternoon.” The teacher spoke plainly, a fake smile on his lips before it shifted. “Why?”
“I’ve got a change I wanna make on mine.” Bakugou extended his hand, before gritting out. “Can I see it, please?”
“Sure you can,” The teacher handed Bakugou his sheet and a pen, “Though I don’t know what you could be changing, you’ve got the best grades in the class. You’d be a shoe-”
Bakugou handed the paper back roughly, a light popping noise was heard as his quirk activated before turning and leaving the office area. “There, and don’t you fucking change it back.”
His teacher looked between the door and the paper in confusion. On the paper, the words U.A. High School were crossed out in its place was ‘Shiketsu High School’
Taishirou’s, otherwise known as the hero Fat Gum, didn’t really know what to think of Izuku.
That wasn’t the kid’s fault, since the hero didn’t really know that much about Izuku before they met. Toshinori Yagi had been a little shifty in his attempts to get Taishirou’s acceptance, he could feel little things being left out in Yagi’s student sales pitch.
So he made a deal, let him meet the kid first and then he’ll make a decision.
When they met Taishirou could tell a few things about the kid;
First, kid was very nervous, Izuku was stiff as a board as he walked into the office and took a seat.
Second, Izuku was polite in ‘talk only when your spoken to’ kind of way, though that could have been due to the nervousness.
And lastly, Izuku was seemed to be just a good kid, no real undertone of arrogance or plain hatred could be felt as the kid sat there.
So Fat Gum accepted the kid as his combat student, and a sort of intern’s intern.
After that, they hammered out a twice weekly meeting schedule for Izuku to learn how to fight and went their separate ways.
An hour later a file and unmarked disc was left on Fat Gum’s desk, a yellow note on it read; ‘Hope this helps you in teaching young Midoriya! -All Might’
Given the note Taishirou wasn’t surprised at all to see the contents of the folder.
A simple, brief profile of one Izuku Midoriya and a disc with the message; ‘Watch after reading’ .
Grabbing the profile, the hero began reading what All-Might could dig up about the boy.
How he was believed to be Quirkless. How his perceived Quirklessness and dream of being a hero caused him to be ostracized by his classmates and former friends, which led to an unknown level of bullying. How he was Quirkless until a near death awakening gave him an as of yet undetermined boost in his strength, speed, agility, and a strong healing factor that led to him surviving and finishing off a villain that had already kept several pros at bay.
A small portrait was painted for Taishirou, of a person who had the world against him. A person who may have began to crack under the world, but still held strong and showed was able to finally show his heroic heart to the world.
Closing the file, Taishirou turned towards the disc. Popping it out of it’s case, the hero put it into his computer and played the video.
The video turned out to be a stitched together version of Izuku awakening his powers. Everything from the kid getting impaled to the eventual finishing blow played out in a mix of security camera, cell phone, and tv footage.
It wasn’t what he expected, but it gave the hero Fatgum a direction to take the lesson.
Izuku stood rigidly in Fatgum’s personal office. Standing in the offices of any hero was weird for Izuku. Even if he was here before, it was still weird.
Weirder still was entering the personal office of a hero and seeing them just kinda standing there waiting for you.
Which was weird.
“Ah, Midoriya!” Fatgum spread his arms in greeting a wide smile on his face. “Welcome to the my agency!”
Bowing deeply and rigidly Midoriya shouted nervously, “Thank you for accepting me Fatgum, Sir!”
“Woah Kid!” The Hero gestured with his hands. “No need to be this nervous.”
Snapping back to stand straight up, Izuku loosened up before letting out a quiet “Sorry, sir.”
“No need to be sorry either.” Fatgum spoke, the smile never leaving his face. “And seeing as how you’re not a hero school student or sidekick you can call me Tai-sensei or Taishirou-sensei.”
Not trusting himself to speak, Izuku nodded.
Pointing in a random direction, Tai-sensei spoke, “Now come my student let’s get to training!”
Three weeks later and Izuku was laid out on the training mat for the latest in a long line of times since he started training. Thanking every god he could for his enhanced healing already getting rid of his bruises.
‘I think this is the same spot from last time; probably isn’t, the tiles just look the same’
“Come on Midoriya. Are you just going to lay there?”
Izuku pushed himself to stand up, bringing his hands up into a loose boxer’s stance, “No Tai-sensei.”
“Good,” Tai smiled to himself, “Can you tell me what went wrong this time?”
Taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts, Izuku spoke tentatively, “I-I wasn’t looking?”
“Close. When you blocked my punch, you took your eye’s off of me and I think we’ve seen enough to know that you’re not quick enough for your instincts to help you with a trained opponent yet.”
Izuku nodded, taking the notes from his teacher to heart.
Tai-sensei looked at the clock on the wall of the training room. “On that note, I think it’s time for the other bit of training that Mr. Yagi wanted you to do.”
Looking up, Izuku spoke with some confusion. “What other training did he want me to do?”
The hero turned to his student a wide smile on his face, “Public relations!”
‘Is this really public relations?’ Izuku thought as he and Fatgum walked through a local park just talking. Sometimes probing questions were thrown his way but mostly it was idle chit chat. ‘Maybe he wants me to open up a bit more?’
Izuku would have been more interested in the conversation, but something had started bothering him as they walked through the park.
A by now familiar buzzing that was warning him of danger, but what really bothered him about the buzzing was that it seemed different. Less of a dull echoing buzz that happened during the fight with the sludge villain and his training with Tai-sensei.
This was… sharper. Almost like some had started stabbing the back of his head with needles.
‘What the hell is causing it?’ Izuku began to take stock of the park.
It was an average park; large swaths of grass, trees, and bushes spread throughout only broken up by concrete paths that were sometimes lined with metal fencing and the intermittent bench.
As they walked the path towards the center of the park the buzzing only got more annoying.
“Hey Midoriya, is something wrong?” Concern painted Fatgum’s voice as he spoke. “You kind of stopped talking.”
“I-I don’t know, Tai-sensei.” Izuku paused for a second, “I think something’s going to happen soon.”
“Alright, let me make a call and see if I can’t get some extra heroes to patrol down here for a while then we’ll finish the walk and you can go home for the day.”
Just as Izuku was going to respond, something caught his eye.
A massive carousel stood at the heart of the park, metal railings guided a semi-single file line of families to the attraction.
Families laughed and cheered as the carousel went around in circles.
But for Izuku, it all fell away as he saw the source of the buzzing. Ignoring Fatgum’s call of confusion, Izuku began running to the carousel.
Izuku’s feet quickly carried him across the concrete and to the metal railings guiding the families. Without missing a step, he jumped onto the outside railing with hollow clink and began hopping across the railings. Quietly apologizing to the families he passed.
Landing back on the pavement Izuku stared at the carousel for a few seconds as it rotated, trying to make find what could make his senses freak out like they were.
As the carousel turned, and as though in slow motion, he saw it.
A child wearing a red hat with two horns sat on an odd ceramic and wooden seat with one hand on the bar looking at his hand in confusion. A coppery-scent filling the air slightly.
The seat was odd, instead of the brightly colored horse or some other child friendly animal, the seat was stark white ceramic wolf that angrily snarled at nothing with wooden teeth. Red streaks dripped at random point along the fake wolf’s body, most disturbingly from its eyes and the corners of its mouth.
And as quickly as he saw it, the child and seat were gone from his eyesight.
Once again ignoring everything around him; Tai-sensei jogging and shouting his name, the families yelling about delinquents, the carousel worker walking up to him telling him to leave. Izuku knelt closer to the ground, a small countdown going off in his head as he waited for the right time to move.
…7…
Izuku took a breath slowly before releasing it.
…6…
A young voice joined those of his sensei and the people waiting in line, this one was pained and a tinge of fear tainted it.
…5…
Izuku started moving, one foot in front of the other. No movement wasted as he hopped onto the carousel, using the backside of a seat shaped like a horse to spring himself forward to catch the support bar of another seat and swinging himself around towards the wolf seat he saw earlier.
…4…
More voices joined the child’s as people seemed to notice his pain. The sound of ceramics grinding together joined the list of noises as the wolf seat seemed to move, its feet trying to reach the ground.
…3…
Landing in a crouch on the wolf’s back, Izuku threw an arm around the boy’s stomach and leapt away back towards the safety of the concrete. The sound of ceramics grinding is soon joined by clinking as the material touches the metal base of the carousel and the sound of ripping metal.
…2…
Putting his right hand on the back of the boy’s head, Izuku shifted his weight to take the the full brunt of the fall.
“Midoriya!” Tai-sensei shout finally cut through the buzzing. “What the hell? You just can’t do that!”
“Sorry, sensei!” Izuku called back, his eyes never leaving the carousel. A clinking sound echoed from the attraction
…1…
“Midoriya, I’m your sensei! You can trust me!” Tai-sensei pleaded. “What’s happening? Why did you grab the kid?”
“Something’s wrong with the carousel sensei.”
The sound of clinking continued, a wheezing growl echoed softly only heard by Izuku’s enhanced hearing.
“What’s wrong? Is it a villain?”
Just as he was about to answer, Izuku was interrupted by an unnatural voice of ceramic and wood being smashed together.
…0…
“SpArDAaA? I SMell yoU SpaRDa. WHaT Arre YoU DOinG InTERrupTiNG My DeAL?”
The wolf seat stepped onto the concrete. Where once it was just a feral wolf statue, it now stood scarred by ripping itself from the carousel. Cracks spread throughout the body criss-crossing, blood leaking out in small gushes every-time it moved.
Izuku found his voice. “I think… that’s what’s wrong.”
“I’lL KilL YoU sPaRDAa! You And tHe LitTLe One.”