Chapter Text
80% of the world’s population has a quirk. This was the new reality. However, only a few people know the truths of how quirks came to be.
After all, who believes in gods and their blessings anymore? Who would believe that the gods of old were still alive to this very day?
Midoriya Izuku had always been fascinated with quirks, and the heroes who wielded them. Even the legends of gods blessing their children with their power, creating quirks. He kept detailed notes on every hero he could name: their quirks, the uses of the quirks, and even tried to connect their power to their respective god.
He was looking forward to the day his quirk would develop. His childhood friend, Bakugou Katsuki, didn’t put too much thought into the gods. Just to be the hero that comes out on top, who would always win.
Izuku would always follow Katsuki, even if the other child constantly made his dislike of Izuku clear. Izuku had a pretty good idea of which god had blessed the boy with his explosion quirk.
“Why do you keep your head stuck in your notebook and those dumb fairytale books?” He had asked one day.
“You never thought about how quirks are like powers of the gods, Kacchan?”
“Why would I? Gods aren’t real, just make believe. Only someone weird like you would still believe they’re real.”
Izuku couldn’t help but feel a certain pull to the myths of the gods. He had read every published book and online posting of them, from the major gods to the lesser known minor deities and nymphs. While he was interested in several pantheons, the Greek Gods called to him the most.
He also couldn’t help but see the small things that no one seemed to notice. The butterflies that were actually faeries. A man with sandals on his hooves.
And his dreams. He could never really remember them with clarity, but he remembered fragments. Colors, shapes, voices. Sometimes he swore he saw an older version of himself. Sometimes he would see an older version of Kacchan, who looked furious and was always yelling something Izuku could never remember. More often than not, he saw other people. A girl who could float, a boy who ran as fast as the wind, a boy who looked so cold and lonely, covering the left side of his face as if in shame.
At times he would dream of All Might. But Izuku thought he was just an overactive fan who couldn’t help but dream of the amazing number one hero. He couldn’t really explain the deathly thin man he saw at times either. With a shock of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes seemingly glowing from his gaunt face. He didn’t appear often in the dreams, but when he did, it was usually after All Might had performed an amazing heroic deed that was broadcasted on the news. The contrast between the towering, muscular All Might and the skeletal man was….jarring, to say the least.
Other times, he would dream of U.A. Within those dreams, he loved exploring the school’s hallways. It was here that he most often encountered others, along with a scruffy looking man, an old yet kind woman, and many other adults. Said dreams only fueled his desires to attend U.A, to become a hero.
It came as a devastating shock to Izuku when he was told he was quirkless. His hopes and ambitions, crushed because he didn't have a quirk.
Bakugou had jumped on this new information, telling others that Izuku was a worthless dreamer, who didn’t have a quirk, and thought that gods existed. Before long, everyone had gone with it, and Izuku was bullied relentlessly. Bakugou was the worst of the bullies that plagued Izuku, even going so far as to use his explosion on Izuku, leaving his clothes with burn marks and his skin bruised.
His mother always showed concern whenever Izuku came home with those burns and bruises, but Izuku always did his best to reassure her. It was nothing she could fix anyways.
Despite all of this, Izuku still aimed to attend U.A, and still believed in and researched the gods. His mother had given him a notebook once, and he filled it with analysis of heroes, their quirks, and what god they may be attached to. Soon he had filled that one, then a second, a third, and so on. He made sure to take extreme care of his notebooks, fearing what may happen if he let them out of his sight. He took them with him to school, filling in their pages during breaks and lunch, along with reading the news and various threads talking about heroes, even a few speculating what All Might’s quirk may actually be.
It was toward the end of middle school that he would find out, and his life would change forever.
That morning, he had seen a villain attack on the way to school. The villain in question was apparently a purse snatcher out of control. Kamui Woods and Backdraft had been the first to respond, but a new hero, named Mount Lady, had shown up at the end to defeat the villain.
Izuku spent the rest of the day wondering about her quirk and what god it was connected to. Perhaps one of the titans? Or was it an uncommon interpretation of Demeter’s status as the goddess of growth? Though it could have come from another pantheon.
“Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to U.A too, right?”
Izuku wasn’t sure who said it, but that pulled him out of his thoughts. The class had erupted into their usual mockery and jeers. Bakugou had threatened him, blowing up his desk and telling him not to enter U.A.
Izuku tried to not let it get to him, and he was mostly successful. Until after school.
Bakugou had approached him as he was putting his things away, the last being his hero notebook. Bakugou had snatched the notebook out of Izuku’s hands and read the cover before he started going through the pages.
“For the Future?” Bakugou scoffed, quoting the title of the notebook that had been written in large, yet neat handwriting, “like you even have one!” he laughed- but in a way that made Izuku feel sick to his stomach- as he activated his quirk with the prized notebook in hand, scorching the pristine pages. He tossed the charred notebook out the window and laughed as he walked out.
“If you really want to be a hero,” He turned his head back just before stepping through the open door, “hope you’ll be born with a quirk in the next life, and take a leap of faith off the roof!”
Izuku struggled to keep his tears from streaming down his face as he dejectedly left the classroom and walked down the flight of stairs, to retrieve his notebook that had somehow landed in the koi pond, where the fish already began to pick at the book, as if it was only worth being used as fish-food. He sighed deeply as he plucked the book out of the pond and away from the fish, grateful that the water hadn’t ruined the ink inside.
After airing out the notebook. Izuku packed it away in his backpack and started his walk home.
‘I want to be a hero...that’s been my dream ever since I was little. I already made up my mind, even after the doctor told me I was quirkless. I just...have to work hard. Yeah...I can be Heracles! And this is just one of my labors...if I can get past this, I can be a hero! Heracles started out mortal, but he became a god and hero...so we’re kind of similar…’
Izuku was so absorbed in his thoughts that a sound behind him made him jump. Turning, he saw a mass of sludge glaring at him, muttering something before lunging at him. Izuku struggled, desperately trying to fight his way out before he drowned in the sludge.
All Might had saved him.
He didn’t realize it until he passed out and woke up, but he just became so excited because All Might saved him, and autographed his notebook.
‘Oh! Since All Might is here...maybe I should ask him…’
Seeing that All Might was about to leave, Izuku panicked and flung himself onto All Might, holding onto the hero for dear life as the wind howled in his ears and the city passed in a blur below him.
Izuku was grateful that All Might had noticed him and stopped on a nearby rooftop. Izuku felt as though he would’ve died if he held onto the hero for much longer.
“Um, All Might…” Izuku started after taking a deep breath, looking down at his feet, “do you think it’s possible for someone like me, with no quirk...to become a hero? Because I don’t have a quirk...I’ve been teased and bullied for it…. But, I think it’d be amazing…to help and save people like you do. I want to be able to save people with a smile, like you!”
Looking up, he saw that the larger than life hero had been replaced by a thin man with a gaunt face.
“A-All Might?!” Izuku cried out in shock, “Wh-what happened?!”
‘Wait...he looks like...the man from my dream…’
Izuku watched him sit down. The man lifted his shirt, revealing a wound that stretched down the right side of his torso.
“This is a wound I got five years ago...to be honest, I was blessed that I didn’t die. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t suffer any repercussions. My stomach was removed and parts of my respiratory system are irreparably damaged. My emaciated, haggard appearance and even the way my eyes look are side effects. Thanks to this wound, I can’t work for more than three hours a day as a hero.”
Izuku could only stare at the man with shock and disbelief.
“Young man, what I just told you was never released to the public. I ask that you not tell anyone this. But, when I smile, it’s to show the villains and the other forces of evil that I won’t bow down to them. When I laugh, it’s to ease the pressure of being the Symbol of Peace. So, given the danger we heroes face...I don’t think it would be right of me to say you can be a hero.”
Izuku felt his heart sink. He looked down at the ground and felt it drop into the pit of his stomach and dissolve.
“...I see…” Izuku finally managed to get out. He couldn’t bring himself to look up at his idol as All Might stood up and headed for the rooftop’s door.
“If you want to save people, you could also be a policeman. There are professions where you could help others without being a hero. It isn’t bad to dream, young man, but you also have to consider what’s realistic.”
Izuku was left alone on the rooftop. He stood frozen in place, still processing the words that made his heart hurt.
‘Gods...what was I thinking…?’
A distant explosion called Izuku’s attention from his thoughts. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw a thick cloud of smoke rise from somewhere in the city.
“A villain!”
Izuku turned and sprinted towards the door.
‘“I don’t think it would be right of me to say you can be a hero.”’
The words spoken to him just recently stopped him in his tracks. The excitement of being able to see heroes in action take down a villain had been replaced with overwhelming disappointment. Sighing, he opened the door and trudged down the flight of stairs back to the street. After he left the building, Izuku started his walk back home. His mother would be worried about him if he came home late. Out of habit, he reached behind himself into his backpack, taking out his notebook, and opening it.
‘“He still can’t face reality, even though he’s already a third year in junior high.”’
‘“It’s time for you to think seriously about your future.”’
‘“You also have to consider what’s realistic.”’
Izuku closed the notebook, looking at it bitterly.
‘Even a top pro hero said it. Don’t cry!’ Izuku told himself, wiping at his eyes to stop the new tears from falling, ‘You already knew, didn’t you? The reality. You knew. That’s why you were trying so desperately. You were just averting your eyes, not looking at reality.’
Another explosion, which sounded extremely close by, grabbed Izuku’s attention from his inner turmoil of his reality. Looking up, he saw a crowd of people gathered in front of a shopping district entrance with police nearby.
“Is this where that explosion earlier was…?”
‘Wait, hang on, does that mean I came out of habit without noticing?’
Izuku crossed the street and headed towards the crowd. He moved about in the back, looking for a decent spot to be able to see what was happening.
‘Stop it. It’ll just feel meaningless right now. I shouldn’t even be here, I should-’
Izuku’s thoughts came to a halt as he saw the villain. The villain being the sludge villain that had attacked him earlier.
‘Wait, why is that guy here?! Did it get away from All Might?!’ Izuku recalled All Might capturing the villain in an empty bottle and putting it away in one of his pockets. ‘No...did he drop it? If he did…’
“...then it’s my fault…” Izuku whispered in horror. All Might probably dropped the bottle when Izuku had clung onto him.
‘It’s my fault the villain is free…’
“Hey, why aren’t the heroes doing anything?” A civilian asked.
“They can’t,” Someone replied, “Apparently the villain caught a junior high schooler. It’s been like that for a while.”
‘What?! Caught…? It’s been like that for a while? How can they even bear that suffocation? I thought I’d die after a few seconds…’
“Anyway, wasn’t that the villain All Might was chasing earlier?”
“All Might? No way! He’s here?”
“Yeah, I think I saw him earlier.”
“Seriously?! Then what’s All Might doing?!”
As the murmurs from the crowd rose and blended into a buzz, Izuku clamped his hands over his mouth and felt sick.
‘It’s all my fault… He can’t do anything! He can’t catch the villain… All we can do is wait for a hero with a more suitable quirk! Please, do your best, heroes! I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…! Help will arrive soon… Someone...a hero…’
Izuku watched the victim the villain had caught struggle. He felt guilt twist his stomach into knots. They were struggling against this villain because Izuku had made All Might drop the bottle holding him. Since Izuku was in the back, he didn’t have a good viewpoint of the victim, but their hair...was familiar to him. Looking closer, Izuku caught fierce red eyes look to the crowd.
Izuku realized it was Bakugou. Bakugou had been caught and was struggling to escape. In the eyes that looked at Izuku with animosity, hate, superiority, there was something new there, Something that made Izuku freeze for a split second.
In Bakugou Katsuki’s eyes was fear. Desperation. Helplessness. He was asking for help.
Izuku dropped his notebook and shoved his way past the crowd. He ran past the pro heroes and headed straight for the villain. He kept running even as the heroes yelled for him to stop. Izuku ran into the burning shopping district as fast as he could.
‘Why did I run out? What am I doing? Why?! What do I do? What do I do at a time like this?’
Izuku’s hero notebook came to mind.
‘Page 25: Pre-emptive Binding Lacquered Chain Prison: Quickly stretch out arms (vines) to make the opponent flinch back and then use that opening to restrain them.’
“Take that!” Izuku yelled as he flung his backpack towards the villain. The villain had moved back a little, which shifted the concentration of his sludge from holding Bakugou to moving, freeing Bakugou’s face. Izuku felt relief when he saw Bakugou cough and breathe in gulps of air.
“Kacchan!” Izuku called out, trying to claw his way to Bakugou through the sludge.
“Why the hell are you here?!” Bakugou yelled.
“My legs moved on their own! I don’t know why though!”
As Izuku’s clawing became more frantic, a whirlwind of thoughts crossed his mind. But he couldn’t focus on those now. Even though he was useless, even though he didn’t have a quirk, he wanted to help. He wanted to help Bakugou, who had bullied him and made the past few years of his life hell. When he saw Bakugou look at the crowd, he knew he had to do something.
“You looked like you were asking for help…” Izuku said, tears in his eyes and fear in his heart as the sludge under his hands moved and towered above him. The villain raised a hand, and Izuku closed his eyes, preparing himself to be struck down.
There was never an impact that came from the villain.
“I really am pathetic,” A familiar voice said.
Izuku opened his eyes and stared in awe of the person in front of him. “All Might…” he breathed.
“Even though I admonished you, I wasn’t putting what I said into practice!” All Might said as he ripped his arm free from the sludge, “Pro heroes are always risking their lives!” He declared, ignoring the blood that came from his mouth as he spoke. He quickly grabbed Bakugou’s wrist and wound up his other arm.
“Detroit...SMASH!”
In a single hit, the sludge villain was, literally, blown away, freeing Bakugou from its hold. In that same punch, the massive wind pressure generated from it had extinguished the fires, only to be followed by rain from the clouds above.
Izuku felt a few drops fall on his face, and then the world went black.
_______________________
Izuku is in a city, from what he can tell. He sees other people; among them, he recognizes one as the boy who runs as fast as the wind. He’s standing over a pile of metal. He says something, but Izuku can’t hear him, only see his lips move, before the boy runs off. Izuku feels the ground shake, then sees a shadow loom over him.
He turns around to see a colossal robot stand over him.
_______________________
Izuku wakes up to various noises around him and a slight dampness in his clothes. Blinking, he sees he’s still in the shopping district. A few feet away, he sees the police tossing large trash bags into the back of a police holding car. He can hear some camera shutters and reporters talking somewhere behind him.
As soon as the heroes notice he’s awake, Izuku is taken to the side and scolded by Death Hands and Kamui Woods. He avoids looking them in the eye, feeling embarrassed that he probably- no, definitely, he corrects himself- complicated the situation. If he had waited a bit longer before acting on his stupid instincts, another hero would’ve shown up and dealt with the sludge villain. Beyond the scolding, he could see Bakugou some feet away from him. From what Izuku could hear, Bakugou was being praised for fighting back with his quirk, and how his quirk was so powerful and impressive. It annoyed Izuku a bit, but they were right. Bakugou did well to fight for as long as he did.
Izuku is let go soon enough. The heroes and police allow him to collect his things that had scattered from when he threw his backpack before walking home.
Walking home, he heard people talk of the shopping district incident excitedly. How brave the junior high schooler was for fighting back against the villain with his strong quirk, how All Might had taken down the villain and put out the fire in a single punch.
Izuku walked for what felt like hours until he recognized the streets of his neighborhood. He allowed himself to run on muscle memory as he let himself think.
‘I wanted to apologize to All Might, but he was still being interviewed...I’ll try sending him a message on his website when I get home… I wonder what that dream was. Why a robot? And that boy was there too…’
“Deku!”
“Kacchan…?” Izuku said as he turned around to see Bakugou running towards him. He watched Bakugou stop and pant before Bakugou clenched his fists.
“I never asked you for help! And you didn’t help me! Got it?! I was fine by myself! You’re a quirkless failure playing without a full deck! Don’t think you can look down on me! Are you trying to make me owe you?! Don’t you dare look down on me!” Bakugou yelled, turning on his heel, “You damn nerd!” he yelled over his shoulder, walking away from Izuku.
Izuku stared at Bakugou’s slouched figure for a few moments before letting out a breath.
‘It’s just as Kacchan said. It’s not like I accomplished or changed anything. But, I’m glad. Now I can go on and think of a realistic future…’
“I am here!”
Izuku flinched back in surprise as a familiar figure suddenly appeared before him. “A-All Might?! Why are you here? You were surrounded by reporters just now…”
“Getting away from them was a piece of cake,” All Might laughed, “Why? Because I am All-” All Might was interrupted by himself as he transformed back to his emaciated self, coughing up blood as he did so. Izuku waited for All Might to stop coughing.
‘He really does look like the man from my dreams...so this is All Might’s true form then…’
“Young man. I come with thanks, a correction, and a suggestion,” All Might started, “If you hadn’t been there… If you hadn’t told me about your life… I would’ve turned into a guy in a bodysuit who was all talk. Thank you.”
“That can’t be…” Izuku objected, “It was my fault in the first place. I got in the way of your work, and I said all those impertinent things even though I’m quirkless…”
“That’s right. It was because it was none other than the timid, quirkless you at the scene that I was able to act. Top heroes have stories about them from their school days. Most of those stories have one thing in common: their bodies moved before they had a chance to think.”
Izuku looked at All Might in awe before he looked down to the ground, trying to hold back tears.
‘“I’m sorry, Izuku! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”’ Izuku remembered his mother’s tearful apology. He clutched at his chest as he bent over, fighting back the tears that were threatening to escape his eyes.
“That was true for you, too, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah…” Izuku choked out, his tears now falling from his eyes onto the pavement below him. He was overcome with a number of emotions he couldn’t name that he fell to his knees, crying out in choked sobs.
“You can become a hero.”
Izuku let the words echo in his head as he sobbed in front of his hero. Those five words were what he’s wanted to hear for so long. To hear them from the number one hero; from All Might himself...Izuku would treasure this moment for as long as he’d live.
“And young man, because of your actions...I’ve decided you’ll be the one who will inherit my power.”
Hearing All Might say that made Izuku look up, tears streaks fresh on his face, eyes red and blotchy from crying. “Huh?”
“Tell me, young man, how do you think quirks came to be?”
Izuku stood up, brushing the dust and dirt off his knees. He stared at All Might, not entirely sure if he should answer. Taking his silence as a form of “I don’t know,” All Might continued.
“Some time ago...before the world was as developed as it is now, gods existed. They had children, who became known as demigods. But as time passed, people stopped believing in them. Though you must know, the gods are not dead. They’re still alive; moving about and establishing their new Olympus wherever they decide to stay.”
“The gods...are real?” Izuku breathed.
“Yes. I know that might sound strange-”
“I knew it… I knew it!” Izuku blurted out, “I always thought that, maybe, they were still alive! I even thought that quirks were related to them, trying to figure out which god had blessed someone with their quirk!” Catching All Might looking at him, Izuku blushed and looked away, “S-sorry, I interrupted you…”
“It’s alright, young man. Knowing that you believe in them does make this somewhat easier,” All Might assured Izuku before continuing, “Gods are the ones responsible for the rise of quirks. Their powers manifest in different ways in their offspring, and their offspring, in turn, pass on their blessing-their quirk- into a new variation of the quirk. Tell me, do you sometimes see things that others don’t notice?”
“Uh, yeah...I’ve seen faeries, a satyr...oh! Um, I don’t know if this will sound strange, but, I have dreams where I see into the future.”
“Dreams of the future?”
“Yeah. Sometimes I’ll see myself, or Kacchan, or a few other people. I’ll be walking in the halls of U.A., or...actually,” Izuku lets out a nervous laugh, “I’ve seen you in my dreams as well. Even this form of you. I never really knew it was you though...my dreams are a little disjointed, and sometimes I can’t really remember them.”
“I see...you can see through the mist…”
“Mist?”
“You know that most of society doesn’t believe in something like gods and goddess; things they consider to be the stuff of fairytales. It would cause panic if they saw that it was real. So the gods created a veil that obscures them from seeing. We call it the mist.”
“Ah...but, All Might, why are you telling me this…?”
There was a moment of silence that stretched between them, the gentle breeze blowing leaves from nearby trees down. The setting sun dyeing the scenery a burning orange made the world around them feel otherworldly.
Izuku blinks as a leaf drifts past his eyes, and the thin man is no longer in front of him.
Standing in his place is the familiar muscular form of All Might. Yet, he appears to be surrounded by some aura. Izuku isn’t sure if he’s seeing things, or if the sunlight is playing tricks on him, but All Might seems to glow. He looks ethereal; even the small amount of blood that drips from his mouth is different. It’s golden, shimmering in the late sun.
“Because, young man, I am one of them. I am a god.”