Chapter Text
All for One stretched his fingers leisurely, feeling his quirk, his original quirk, settle down in his mind. It always got restless for a bit after he used it, wanting to figure out and play with the new quirk.
He smiled at the quirk settling in the front of his mind in the prefrontal cortex, right where it was supposed to be. The quirk settled in the place where it would most affect the body. And affect the mind this quirk could. God, the things he could do with this one, the possibilities were endless.
If only he could get out of this damn bed.
Alas, that was something he had gotten over a while ago. Tomura would have to carry his vision for him, and when he died, his next successor.
He quickly paid Rachi for another job well done, grateful that he could keep her as a business partner. If she failed, he might’ve had to kill her, and he didn’t want to do that.
He had taken the crown jewel, the one he needed for his collection. Packed away in a nice little corner, away from the little ants that don’t even know it exists, much less how to use it. Really, he was doing a favor to the quirk by taking it into his more capable hands. What was Midoriya Izuku going to do with a quirk that powerful? Midoriya Izuku was a speck compared to All for One’s boulder. This quirk had the power to do great things, and Midoriya Izuku was not great. In fact, it might be one of his most powerful he had in his collection now.
His plans could finally start without interference from the pests normally called heroes. This society needed help, needed to be powerful. Humanity as a whole needed to be united, and what better ruler than one with infinite wisdom? He could help raise citizens up, giving them new and better quirks, saving the quirkless from their sad fate with a simple touch. That law system too, what better punishment than taking away power?
Clearly, his future was utopian, but now… not that far off.
And with this quirk, he just crossed the starting line.
“Doctor, bring me Tomura.”
“Izuku?” His mother called from the kitchen.
“Yeah?” Izuku shouted back, putting a butterfly bandage over a cut on his shoulder. He had taken a really rough tumble over the side of a bridge going over a drainage pipe, he didn’t know how though.
One second he was perfectly stable, the next, he was falling! Strange.
At least he got to say hi to one of the people from school who was walking on the bridge behind him.
“Oh, ok, I just didn’t know where you were, sorry for yelling.” His mother said, a bit quieter. Izuku got up and went to the kitchen, shoulder still uncovered.
“It’s ok, I’m right here. Need any help?”
“Oh no, it’s ok- honey what happened to your shoulder?” Inko cried, putting down her spoon and rushing over. Izuku startled, glancing down at his shoulders before spotting the bandage.
“Oh, I just fell off of a bridge-a drainage pipe one, it's ok, mom! It doesn’t hurt.” Izuku hurried to reassure her, amending his statement when her face tightened.
“Baby, this is a butterfly bandage. Those are for cuts that aren’t big enough for stitches but need something to hold them together. Why do you even have them? Why do you know how to put these on? The placement is fantastic but Izuku…” She trailed off, hovering her concerned hands over his shoulder.
Izuku stared at her, confused. “You taught me how to put them on! I even practiced with some of my cuts in front of you so that I knew I was doing it correctly. You bought these for me.” His eyebrows furrowed.
“I-I did? Why didn’t I take you to the doctors office- Oh god, we need to go to the doctors office. I have to make sure you’re ok, I have to make sure you’re safe, falling off of a bridge, oh god-” She turned from where she was leading him to the front door, eyes suddenly welling up with tears. “Izuku? Izuku, are you sure you didn’t… are you sure you didn’t fall off the bridge on… purpose? You can talk to me, you know. I just want to keep you safe, oh, why would you feel like that? Your life is great! Was it when you were missing? What happened then? This has to be a new development, you’ve alway been so happy. We have everything, a nice house, I have a good paying job, is it something I’ve done?”
“I-No, no, mom, of course not, you’re amazing, I fell off the bridge accidentally, nothing more. Don’t worry, ok? Everything’s normal, everything’s fine.” Izuku said, raising his hand to grasp at his mother’s, trying to push his words into her skin.
“And these scars, how have I never… doctors. I’m going to take you to the doctors, they can look at this scar tissue and the cut, see if you need stitches. Alright? You’re coming with me.”
“Ok, mom.” Izuku said platicatingly.
But… why? Why go to the doctor's office? Why now?
Why is she only paying attention to me now?
What changed?
Izuku sat silently in the back of the car, gazing at the starburst stars covering his hand.
One talk about insurance and 2 stitches later, Izuku was free for the day. With a sling and bandages covering his shoulder, he packed up to meet Shinsou to go to Eraserhead-sensei’s lessons.
“Now, keep your location on, alright? And give me updates. And if you get hurt, even a papercut, call me, ok? I understand you’re going to be with a hero but I just need you to be safe, alright?” Inko said, pulling on Izuku’s jacket’s sleeve.
“I promise, I promise. Shinsou’s waiting for me, I need to go. I’ll be back in two hours.” Izuku said, gently pulling his arm out of her too-tight clutches.
“Ok, just, be careful. The world is dangerous, especially for you.”
Izuku closed the door with one last smile on his face. He walked down the hallway to the staircase where Shinsou would be, footsteps echoing.
Footsteps echoing.
Footsteps echoing like- footsteps echoing- echoing- echoing- echoing as he ran through the dim, dank tunnel, rats following him like a cruel intimation of a crashing river. Oh god, oh god, he didn’t want to die, he had to get away, get away-
But he was walking in his apartment hallway, what was he getting away from, why was he so terrified-
He pulled on the walls, scrambling, trying to get any leverage he could, trying to run away, trying to stay alive-
He could hear scratching on the door of Akai-san, probably her cat-
Rats, rats, it's the rats, he’s going to die, get consumed-
He grabbed the last rung of a ladder up a manhole, trying desperately to swing his feet up and out of the way of his demise, of the woman’s laughter-
These… weren’t supposed to be here. Izuku wasn’t supposed to remember this- Get it away, get it away! Slime crawled over his skin in the empty hallway, invisible to everyone except his sense of touch, a sense of wrongness, of fear, crawled up him. When was this? Where were these memories from?
His mind, roiling and churning with half-vivid images, brought up one more. A police officer with a cat quirk, asking about where he was in the last two hours.
The rats finding him in the tunnel, dragging him through a glowing purple whirlwind to a man in a hospital bed.
He sort of remembered that, before now. Vague feelings of… terror, panic? The same ones that he felt whenever Kacchan and his friends came at him with new tricks hurtful tricks that they learned with their quirks. All of those experiences melded together, numbing the feelings.
The man in the hospital bed, with no eyes and an oxygen mask, put his hand on Izuku’s head and took-
Like Kacchan did with his binders, taking and destroying his stuff.
… He was late to Shinsou. He had to keep walking.
He wanted to forget about this. He had to.
Aizawa Shota stood with his duffel bag in the middle of an empty room, writing in his notebook his plans for what he wanted to do today with Shinsou-kun and Midoriya-kun. Knowing and being able to react to all different kinds of quirks was something most heroes struggled with, but was one of the most essential parts of being a hero. Shota himself got lucky with his quirk, needing only to practice his strength and agility to avoid quirks he couldn’t erase. Shinsou-kun would need to practice against all kinds of quirks.
He looked up as his charges walked in, quickly picking out one or two quirks from each category to introduce the concept. The boys went right to their chairs, Shinsou-kun pulling the beanbag from the corner as Midoriya-kun sat on the wobble chair.
“Alright you two, today we’re talking about quirks.” Midoriya-kun sat up straighter, rocking a bit. His eyes weren’t quite focused on Shota though, staring into the void right next to him. Shinsou-kun blinked tiredly at him, glancing at Midoriya-kun for a split second. “Being a hero, or being any employee, means you will run into quirks that will be difficult to deal with. At a retail store, a convincing quirk might be used to try and get themselves a discount, or get something free. As a hero, a quirk to store damage and then shoot it out of their body would be extremely difficult. Today, I will start to teach you how to counter these quirks on the fly.”
Midoriya nodded rapidly, a slight smile growing on his face as he rocked faster, his eyes focusing directly on Shota. Shinsou sighed and squared his shoulders, looking determined to at least try.
“So, let's say you two are heroes. You’re faced with a villain who can hypnotize you with…colors. How would you subdue or defeat this villain? If you suggest a solution that wouldn’t work, I’ll tell you why it wouldn’t work. This is a learning experience, not a test.”
Midoriya-kun hunched down, idly rocking as he muttered soundlessly. Shinsou-kun stared at the focused boy almost expectantly.
“Well, if I was a hero, I would know basic fighting skills, right? And the villain probably has to focus at least a little bit on keeping the colors up, and hypnotizing usually takes a long time for the person to go fully under so if I was a hero then I just wouldn’t stare at the colors for to long and probably stay farther away and try to distract them with sound. Wait, sound isn’t- at least, not when it’s continuous, would I have to get closer? Probably, um, then I still would try not to look at the colors too much but then I would try and knock them out or put quirk-stopping handcuffs on them so the danger’s passed. Yeah, I would probably try and overwhelm them up close, disorient them.” Midoriya-kun looked up, eyes wide with hope. “Right?”
Shota blinked, surprised by the quick thinking. “Yes. You would probably have support items that would help you with that, going off of your idea, a noisemaker of some sort would be beneficial. Shinsou-kun? Any ideas?”
The boy blinked again, and opened and closed his mouth several times. At last, he opened his mouth. “I would probably just snag them under my quirk before they got me under theirs.”
Shota nodded his head. “That's a good idea, but remember, quirks aren’t everything. Midoriya-kun, stop picking at that scab, you’ll make yourself bleed.” The boy in question froze and stared at Shota in shock, seemingly caught off guard by such an ask. He slowly dropped his hands, shoving them under his legs as if trying to sit on them. His eyes flickered between making direct eye-contact with Shota and his lap, eyes pulled to Shota’s by an irresistible force as anxiety forced him to look at his lap.
Shota looked right back with slightly narrowed eyes, before letting up, looking in the middle of the two students. “Good answers, but what if the villain has a strength quirk that gets stronger as it’s used? Let’s say it’s powered by fear. And this time, Shinsou-kun, you answer first.”
“I. I would still just… calm them down with my quirk.” He pursed his lips and glanced away. Shota sighed.
“I should have planned for that, that was my fault.” He said quietly to himself. “What if the person is mute, or is too freaked out to answer or give a response?” He said a bit louder, gazing at Shinsou-kun. Shota reminded himself to blink. He could go for a bit longer without blinking naturally, but with his training he sometimes just didn’t blink.
“Oh! Well, me and Shinsou actually figured out that he could activate his quirk when someone gives a nonverbal response, it’s just very weak. Though, what if the villain is deaf? What would a response count as? Just speaking or moving after you speak, or actually responding to your question or statement? Your quirk is definitely good for fear though, it’s very calm- calming.” Midoriya-kun stuttered for a second, body stilling at the word ‘calming’. He stopped rocking entirely, eyes glazing over. Then he blinked and was back to normal.
Bad response to the word ‘calming’? That's ironic. A trigger? Was this normal for him? I’ve never noticed that response before, could it have happened during the time he was missing? Is it connected with any of the attacks on UA? He is a student there, but not a hero student…
Thoughts flashed through his mind at the speed of light as Shota turned to look at Midoriya-kun.
“Oh, I’m sorry, it was Shinsou’s turn, I interrupted, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-”
“It’s alright, that's good information. And a good experiment for later. But still, Shinsou-kun, what would you do if the villain was deaf or too scared to respond and trigger your quirk?”
“I would… try to subdue them as fast as possible?”
“Exactly. Society has placed value on huge fights, ones that do more harm than good. It’s always more efficient to subdue them as fast as possible with as little actual fighting as possible. It costs less on citizens and on heroes, as property damage is paid 60% by taxes and 40% out of the heroes responsible’s pockets. Remember that.” Shota said, and both boys nodded seriously.
“Now Midoriya-kun. How would you handle this situation? As a hero.”
“Well, since their quirk is being powered by fear I would probably hide all of my weapons so I look non threatening and evacuate civilians, then try to talk them down. Or maybe I would tranquilize them from afar if the situation was time sensitive.”
“Good thinking. Remember that support items are a thing. They are there to support you, so use them. There's no shame to it. One last villain. A villain with a mutant quirk. One that has knives for hands, for example.”
“Is it ok if I answer right now?” Midoriya asked hesitantly. At Shota’s nod, he took a deep breath. “I would avoid hand to hand combat, and probably try to surprise them from above or behind them. I might also try and have them hit a lot of objects to try and dull the blades, and if they're detachable then there has to be a limit to how much they can detach so I would just wait out that limit if my surprise attack didn’t work.”
He has a mind for this, analyzing and finding solutions around quirks. I’ll have to ask Hizashi if I could borrow him to help my class understand, if he’s willing. Shota thought approvingly. He would make a great hero, or at least a good support hero.
“Very good. Shinsou-kun?”
“Well, I would probably…immobilize them, make it so that they can’t use their arms and quirk. If I couldn’t use my quirk.”
“Good. There are ways of removing a person’s quirk without a specialty quirk like mine, you just have to be smart about it. Shinsou-kun, it would be good to explore more with your quirk. Try and find the limits, so we can work on going past them. And Midoriya-kun, if you want to do something different, I’ll give you quirks and you can dissect and find their weaknesses, then figure out how to use them to stop or capture the villain. Whatever you want to do. Stop biting your nails.” Shota said, looking at the jumpy boy’s fingers. He pulled them away from his mouth, cheeks coloring, eyes wide. His finger was bleeding.
Shota dug into his duffel bag and found a spilling box of band-aids, silently handing one to Midoriya-kun. The boy took it with a look of wonder, as if no one had given that simple of a kindness before.
“Can I… can I help with Shinsou’s quirk? If not that's ok, um, it's just really cool and it's a really cool feeling and…” Midoriya-kun stared at the ground, trailing off into embarrassed silence.
“I don’t see why not. Now, Shinsou-kun, what have you already tried?”
Shota grilled the tired teen about his quirk, Midoriya-kun chiming in, before they actually started using his quirk. Midoriya-kun was the test subject, per his request, but he was also really the one leading the lesson. Shota really just had to pull the two back when they went off on tangents, Midoriya-kun did the rest. His mutterings were intelligent and insightful, but Shota kept having to stop him from hurting himself. Biting his nails off, pulling and reopening scabs, scratching himself so hard streaks of red lingered on his skin. Has no one ever said those habits could be dangerous?
I’ll bring a fidget toy next time.
That seemed like a good plan.
Katsuki really, really didn’t agree to this.
Yet here he is, being pulled along like a goddamn dog owner to lunch by fucking Shitty Hair and his posse of stupidity. This happened most days, one of the dumbasses would grab him from his chair and wouldn’t let go until he was sitting at their table. Pinky would always, always grab his backpack and pull on it like one of those children’s leashes, Dunce Face would grab his sleeves and stretch them out, Elbows would just fucking attatch tape on his shirt, and Red would always grab his wrists.
He hated, hated it.
He felt included, valued.
Kirishima’s hands were warm, like his.
Idiots.
The hand on his wrist tightened as they plunged into the sea of extras changing classes, and Katsuki subtly sped up to make sure he wouldn’t get pulled away.
And to make sure Shitty Hair wasn’t doing all the work, pulling him like a lost tourist.
When the horde of bodies thinned as they went into the cafeteria, Katsuki saw a very familiar head of green.
Deku, that slimy son of a bitch. Katsuki marched over to him, Shitty Hair still holding onto his wrist and stumbling to keep up.
“Deku!” He yelled, and he saw the twat flinch, the purple lanky extra that usually hovered over him nowhere to be found. “Hey! What are you doing here at UA, Deku? Snuck into here to fawn over heroes? Oh right, you’re a student here.” He sneered. “How’d you do that? Because you’re just a stupid Deku. The only thing you're good at is messing up.” Katsuki stalked up to the shaking boy, looming over him. “How about-”
“Bakubro! Slow down, would you? Why’re we here, anyway?” Shitty Hair said, bursting into his sentence and personal space with the grace of a floundering fish.
“What the fuck do you want, Shitty Hair?” Katsuki hissed out, hands popping.
“Broski, you always sit with us, I can’t let you break routine! Be a little social!” The idiot said, smiling wide with all of his teeth. “Oh! Unless you want to sit with him? Hey, I’m Kirishima Eijirou!” He held his hand out to Deku, who looked thoroughly thrown off.
“I-I’m Midoriya Izuku?” Deku squeaked out like a pathetic mouse.
Idiot #1’s eyes widened. “That makes more sense! I was wondering why your parents would name you useless! But, why does Bakubro call you Deku?”
“It’s just a nickname!” Deku hurried to explain, hands waving wildly in front of him. Shitty Hair frowned at Katsuki.
“Dude, that’s not cool. Did he ask to be called that? Because it’s not manly to insult people.”
Katsuki sputtered, eyes stuck on Kirishima’s wide, sincere eyes and small frown. “Whatever, fucking- just- know your place, Deku.” Katsuki shot his hand out to grab Deku’s shoulder, quirk popping, and Deku just closed his eyes.
His hand never made it to Deku’s shoulder, Shitty Hair’s own hand blocking it and holding it back. “Dude, do you know how much that hurts? I can withstand it in training because of my quirk but I don’t think Midoriya-san can withstand it, besides, you’re not supposed to be using your quirk outside class. S’mores heroic, y’know? Now, come on! The gang’s waiting!” Kirishima fucking grabbed his wrist again , but Katsuki was to distracted by Shitty Hair’s actions and words.
No one’s ever stopped him before. No one. His teachers even sometimes encouraged it! It was always ok, he was always the strongest. Deku was the weakest, and the weak needed to be culled, everyone agreed, even Auntie Inko! She never cared when he used his quirk, she always acted normal about it. Shitty Hair was just fucking weird.
Only, when he was staring at Deku, quirk blazing, Deku was scared. Trembling. Just a scared, weak child. Katsuki was trying to be a hero.
Was that how he was going to treat civilians? Strength was the biggest factor in being a hero, obviously, but Katsuki wasn’t stupid. He knew fucking kissing babies and saving kids from fires and shit was something all the top ten heroes did.
Hell, even Endeavor donated to charities sometimes.
Was Shitty Hair… right? Was he… wrong? Was he not acting like a hero? Was he not the best?
Was he… always wrong?
No, no. Deku fucking deserved all that he got, annoying nerd. Everyone did it, it was ok.
But…