Chapter Text
Many things have led Izuku to the situation he is in right now. What is the situation you ask? He is currently alone on a rooftop with his childhood bully. The short version of how he got here is that he is a societal outcast which has led to him being mistreated and abused by everyone.
Now for the long version, it all started when Izuku was four years old.
"Momma, where are we going?" Tiny Izuku asked from his booster seat in the back seat. Inko had a soft smile on her face as she turned back and replied.
"We're going to find out your quirk today! Aren't you excited?
"Really! I get a quirk!" Izuku excitedly responded
"Of course, you have a quirk sweetheart," she said calmingly "we just need to get to the doctor and then we will get ice cream to celebrate!" Izuku had a bright smile on his face as he walked into the doctor's office. Excited to finally find out what type of quirk he had.
They never did get that ice cream.
Before this his life had gone perfectly to plan, he had a loving family, a best friend and was well-liked by most but of course, this had to change for the better or worse. At the young age of four, he was first shown a glimpse of how evil the world can be.
With one word his entire life was changed. How is that fair? Just because of one label that he had absolutely no control over, his life was sent to ruins. Izuku learned that the world doesn’t care for fairness or equality, it takes your feelings and rips them to shreds if you don't fit in.
“Quirkless.” That was all it took to ruin his life. His dad left. His best friend turned into his worst bully. His classmates and teacher all hated him because of one word.
"Did you hear? He's quirkless."
"Should he even be here? My mommy told me people like that live in hospitals."
"My daddies told me they were all lazy bums."
"I heard they have to eat eyeballs to survive."
At such a young age none of his classmates were outright rude to him they made comments but it escalated the older he got. The rude comments over time became constant physical and mental abuse from everyone around him. He quickly became a social outcast at school after everyone found out about his lack of quirk.
Sometimes Izuku hated these people but other times he pitied them. They were all just pons to society. None of them had their own opinions, they just followed what society told them was right or wrong.
The rest of his life was downhill from there.
Although his mother didn’t leave him, she was never the same after his diagnosis. She could barely make eye contact with him without crying or starting a screaming match with him. It really matters what mood she was in. She used to be a stout woman who brought him happiness and comfort. That has now been replaced with an unrecognizable monster reminding him of how much of a failure he is. She started taking more shifts at the hospital and going on frequent business trips after he was labelled as quirkless.
“I’m sorry Izuku but people need saving.” Inko would tell him every time he asked her why she was taking so many shifts. By the time he was seven he got the hint and stopped asking.
In some ways, Izuku liked this better. She wasn’t constantly telling him how useless he was and how he ruined her life but in some way, it was worse. He missed his mom before. The one that would katsudon whenever Izuku was sad or did well on a test. The woman that once filled Izuku’s days with happiness was now gone. All that was left was a bitter woman who blamed the problems of her life on him.
That was until she left.
———
It was nearing the end of summer break. He was happy that he got more free time to analyze heroes during summer. On this day he was at his desk writing about a new up-and-coming hero when he heard the front door slam shut. Izuku decided to stay in his room as much as possible because of his mother's foul mood. This didn’t last long after he quickly realized he had forgotten to eat breakfast and lunch while analyzing and it was nearly 8 pm now.
He slowly got up from his chair, mentally preparing himself for his mother’s ridicule. Before opening his door he ran a hand through his frizzy hair and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath in.
Immediately after he opens his door he realizes his mistake. Inko had had a long day at work, Izuku could tell from her deep eye bags and falling messy bun. When her tired eyes met his, he knew something was wrong. She was sitting at the kitchen table with her chin resting on her hand.
“Well well well, look who decided to show his face.” she lazily said and that’s when Izuku smelt the alcohol coming off of her breath. His body tensed. She giggled “look at you acting all scared. Don’t worry, mommy doesn’t bite, but she does hit.” her manic laughter cut through the silence. Izuku just stood there looking at his feet. “Y’know I used to think we could work through your little deformity. My my how stupid was I.” Inko gets up and sways as she walks towards him. “Now I truly understand how much of a useless disappointment you are.”
She is now less than a foot away from Izuku and is looking down on him. She raises her hand and hits him like she has many times before. He just let her and continued to look at his feet as the tears started rolling down his face.
“Really, now you're crying. Why are you such a baby? I didn’t raise you to be like this.” Inko pestered him but he continued to look at his feet. She turns around and starts walking towards the kitchen. “Why did it have to be me? All of my friends had healthy and happy babies and I'm left with you. How is that fair?” She had started to cry and put a hand on the countertop to steady herself. “I did everything right, why did it have to be me?” Her voice got more wobbly as she continued to talk. “What did I do to deserve this?”
“I-I’m s-sorry” Izuku brokenly replied
“No no NO. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU RUINED MY LIFE. I HAD A HUSBAND. I HAD FRIENDS. I WAS HAPPY. YOU TOOK THAT FROM ME. YOU.” Inko was crying through her rage-filled screams. She was now looking at Izuku with her hate-filled eyes.
Then she stopped. It was like someone had flipped a switch in her. She had figured something out that he hadn’t. She turned away from him and walked toward her room. Izuku just stood there and let a puddle of tears grow at his feet.
It had been around thirty minutes when Izuku heard Inko emerge from her room. She had two suitcases at her feet. She looked much more sober than she had before. She turned to him with a face void of emotion.
“I can’t do this anymore. I don’t care what you do. Don't try to find me, call me or contact me. I'm done. This apartment has a 6-month lease. Goodbye.”
And just like that, she was gone.
———
Izuku woke up with warm sun rays shining on his freckled-covered face. His joints were still stiff from his slumber. He lazily threw his duvet off of himself and planted his feet on the ground. Taking a look at his surroundings he realizes how empty his room is. What once had hero merch covering every square inch of the walls is now a barren room. He only had three pieces of furniture. A mattress, a desk and a chair. The latter two were a mismatched set he found in a dumpster near his house. Although his room isn’t empty. Most of the floor space is covered in stacks of handwritten notebooks.
After his life was turned upside down his social life became practically non-existent, this would make some people sad but the green-haired boy saw it as an opportunity. He spent all of his free time researching, learning and analyzing anything he could get his hands on. It had originally started with analyzing heroes; their fighting styles and quirks but he quickly ran out of information. This led to him learning about villains and vigilantes but his want for knowledge continued to grow. Izuku found a strange comfort in the knowledge, it wasn’t friends but it was the most stable thing in his life.
This obsession to learn went on for years which led to Izuku creating a library of books piled in his room. Every book has a place and every stack has meaning, though from an outside perspective it looks like a chaotic mess. Izuku likes it better this way. Knowing that he’s the only one who can efficiently find information in his library of books.
In his time of research, many people caught his eye but very few stayed in his mind for long. After analyzing hundreds, maybe even thousands of people it can be hard to recall most of them off of the top of his head. Of course, there were a few exceptions to this, his personal favourite being an underground hero that had very little public information about him.
To Izuku being forced to scour all corners of the internet for crumbs of information was half of the fun. He loved the chase. This single hero had given him more mental stimulation than any of his school work. His quirk was unlike anything that Izuku had heard of and the fact that he was a hero was all the more shocking. His quirk cancelled emitter and transformation quirks when he looked at the person. It was the closest thing the green-haired boy had ever found to a fully quirkless hero and he does essentially fight without a quirk against mutants. Maybe it was the unique quirk that caught his eye but that is most certainly not what grew his obsession with the mysterious man.
It had been a couple of weeks since his mothers had left and blocked all contact with him and even though he was sad about the loss of his mother it had presented many new freedoms to Izuku. Some of these were mundane things like being able to take dishes to his room or staying up past 12 on a school night. One of these newfound freedoms was the ability to leave his house whenever he wanted. At first, it didn't seem appealing to walk the street under the stars when the only people left in the streets were drunks and drug dealers but he soon found comfort in the independent isolation. He quickly fell in love with his solitary late-night walks. Although the people out at this time were not friendly, they were interesting, to say the least. On multiple occasions, he had seen a man having a full-blown conversation with a trash can.
Izuku had had a particularly bad day at school after Kacchan had burned a handprint into his back. His back had been stinging and he could feel a bruise forming on his stomach. Not only that but for some reason, Izuku thought it was a good idea to hug Kacchan after he beat the shit out of him. Actually, he did know why. After his mother left he has had close to zero human interaction let alone physical touch. Shockingly this didn't go as bad as one might think. Well to be fair the green-haired boy doesn't remember much.
Izuku came back to consciousness and the first thing he felt was the lack of a second person and his aching back. His memories came flooding back, the pain, the anger, the cries from the other boy. The vulnerability that Kacchan had shared with him. It was the first time in years that Izuku felt that someone saw him as a human. He slowly opened his eyes to access his surroundings. The orange sky had turned to a deep blue. It was well past the time to go home so he slowly tried to stand up and quickly failed.
"Shit" he winces. Turns out getting kicked in the stomach hurts a lot more than he thought. On his second try, he tried to keep this torso as straight as possible and eventually got to his feet.
From there he started to walk home under the newly visible stares.
His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't had dinner yet. He decided to treat himself to katsudon after having such a long day. It took him to walk to his favourite restaurant due to his current injuries.
By the time he had finished eating it was well past curfew. All of the interesting people had come out of hiding so Izuku thought it was the perfect time for one of his late-night walks to cheer him up. What could possibly go wrong?
He was fed and bored so he started to walk in random directions; entertaining himself by making up stories about the strangers he saw along the way.
One of the more interesting people he saw was a kid who seemed to be around his age and had messy purple hair poking out in every direction. He looked scared and very out of place. It was odd that someone that young out this late but he can't really judge saying that he was doing the same.
'Maybe he is running from his traumatic past or selling drugs.' He thought to himself. Then he started to quietly giggle to himself.
'No way in hell does that stick of a human have a bad bone in their body.'
He continued on his walk when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin and was slightly shaking as he quickly turned around to see who was disturbing him at such a weird time. Before he could even make out the shadowy figure he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. His fingers went to touch the stabbing pain and came back covered in red.