Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reincarnation was a bitch. Not the good kind, like a puppy - just the bad kind, like a dog with rabies or a former friend who skips your birthday in favor of a party with far too much alcohol and way too many naked bodies.

Not that she would know, she didn't exactly get out enough to have friends who would do that to her.

Everything was Before and After.

Before she was almost an adult and now look at her.

After going through the process of being born all over again, she was pretty firmly in the newborn baby clothing section at a supermarket.

She was excited about being able to wear cute kids clothing again, at least. The little dresses with cute cats on, the mittens; If she could stay small enough to wear kids clothing her entire life she'd probably kiss her ancestors on the cheek for giving her a small stature.

This contradicted with her want to be tall, but until the adult section started making cute clothing, she wouldn't so much as glance in that direction, damnit.

Anyway. Reincarnation.

She had believed in it half-heartedly, Before. To be honest, it hadn't taken her long to figure out what was going on after being ejected from the warm place.

Breathing for herself was hard to get used to, especially with all the fuss.

She just wanted to crawl back up and-

Yeah, on second thought maybe not.

She'd just have to weather the storm and try not to offend her parents by making her first word 'fuck', like her very last word.

...Long story.

Maybe she'd get lucky and be rich this time around! If she had anything over a billion though the moment she was put in charge of her inheritance she would be donating it all to charity.

There were so many languages she wanted to learn! She didn't know where or when she had been born this time, so maybe she'd get to learn Russian or something.

Hopefully, she hadn't been born in the 1600s to peasants, but considering the blurry lights and sounds she suspected she was in a hospital or at the very least a well-lit bathroom.

She just had to wait and see, then.

She had forgotten about vaccinations. While very, very, glad she had been born to parents who seemed to care about her health and well being, she also loathed not being able to move enough to have a say in what was going on.

Lots of tears were shed. Her mother did enough shouting on her own, it was the actual child's turn to be the noisy one, damn her.

That was definitely something she had noticed about her house. Two parents, and lots of swearing from the one she had identified as her mother.

She assumed it was swearing anyway, her hearing was still kind of fuzzy and she couldn't make out language yet.

The woman didn't seem to be shouting at her husband or at her, which was nice. She didn't react well to shouting, and if it was directed at her she would get extremely emotional.

She cried when she was angry, and she was not a pretty crier.

Her feelings about her new parents were complicated. She wasn't sure she liked them just yet.

Shouting and large men freaked her out. Could you imagine how it feels to be a baby in the arms of a giant, completely helpless to their whims?

Logically, she knew her father wouldn't drop her or do anything to hurt her. He seemed to be kind and gentle, and even her mother, yelling and all was soft with her.

Babies tended to have that effect, she supposed.

As she grew, her hearing and sight improved rapidly. Eventually, she could understand that her parents were speaking Japanese and that the noises her mother made were indeed swearwords.

It was the first thing she wanted to learn in any language. Unfortunately, they didn't make picture books for cursing.

She had a good few nouns memorized, and that combined with her ability to read hiragana from Before it was surprisingly easy to get through her reading with zero stumbles.

She even found out her name! Katsuki. It sounded pretty, and she wondered if the 'tsuki' was written as 'moon'. The only 'ka' she could remember was 'mosquito', so she really hoped she was called mosquito-moon. Before, her given-name had meant 'bird'. Not very exciting.

(She would later find out that her name was written with the kanji for 'win' and 'self'. She found this very appropriate.)

She had been gaining more awareness of her own body lately.

Relearning to use her hands was annoying, but it was nothing when compared to her legs.

She wanted to walk!

She'd barely mastered crawling, and going by her parents' expressions, she had mastered it a bit too early. Still, she wouldn't mind being thought of as a child genius if she could just get her fucking legs to move their goddamn selves into a proper standing position.

Another thing she had sort-of expected, but still found annoying was that her parents seemed to be under the impression she was a boy.

She had realized this very early on, considering the decoration choices of her room, and the extra body part she seemed to have kept from her last life while she was in the dark space.

Katsuki didn't know if transgender rights were a thing here. She didn't know when she was, and her only guess for a location was Japan. Until she figured it out, she would likely have to stick to male clothes which.

Okay, she wasn't pleased with that? But. Dinosaurs were pretty cool and they did come in colors. If she had to wear the colors that usually hung about in the men's section she would go mad.

Anyway, once she was an adult she could do what she wanted, and as long as she stuck to androgynous clothing she should be free of social stigma.

God, that was depressing. Here's hoping she's 100 years in the future and they've sorted out prejudice while she's been in limbo.

Her first word was indeed 'fuck'. Her parents were confused by the fact that their baby seemed to know how to curse in English.

Teething. She didn't feel like extrapolating on the subject.

Walking was a bitch, but not as much of a bitch as reincarnation.

She knew that cursing it was probably just going to make it worse, but fuck did she mean it.

The TV had been too blurry to watch before, but now that she was set up in a playpen in view of her parents, she could see it.

She could see fucking All Might on the goddamn news.

She had something of a midlife crisis, before realizing that in her case, it would be a newlife crisis. It didn't help.

She felt sorry for her parents having to deal with a hysterically sobbing baby that would occasionally burst into giggles because, really, newlife crisis.

Awful.

After that, she started paying more attention to her surroundings.

Finding out her last name was a bitch and a half.

She didn't particularly want to be kidnapped, thank you very much.

(Although, since she was a different person and not as aggressive, maybe she wouldn't be? A thought for later.)

Not only did she have to deal with the fact that she'd been reincarnated into a universe with superpowers, she also had to deal with the fact that she was meant to be one of the main characters of a story that wasn't meant to be real.

Fuck, at least she wasn't Todoroki. Poor son of a bitch.

(He'd be what, a couple months old right now? Goddamn.)

Katsuki wasn't really the planning type, and she didn't particularly feel like intervening with the plot all that much. Sure, there were things she could theoretically make better, but she didn't want to end up in a lab or worse, in all for one's clutches. So. She'd just take things as they come. Maybe make friends with Izuku because being entirely honest, that boy was an angel.

Her inner All Might was disapproving of her choice to not act, but she wasn't selfless. She even had 'self' in her name, damn it.

Besides, children should leave adult stuff to adults. It wasn't her problem.

Chapter Text

Katsuki had stopped caring about whether she acted her age. She wasn't really one for deception.

She was a really fucking weird baby. She figured she had a little lee-way considering how commonplace quirks were, but there were only so many instances her parents could catch her speaking in English to herself before they had some questions.

She was lucky her Japanese still sucked, otherwise she's sure they would have some pointed questions for her. As it was, they had figured out that she seemed to be fluent in at least two languages that they had certainly not spoken around her.

The garbled English was pretty easy to figure out, but she'd like to see them figure out her cobbled-together Gaelic. Listening to that was probably a nightmare for the speech pathologist they'd taken her to.

At least, she assumed it was a speech pathologist. For all she knew it was a quirk specialist. They were certainly some sort of professional who looked like they weren't quite a doctor, but something similar. The lack of a lab coat was comforting.

"Little Katsuki ***** ***** baby **** the ***** *** quirk."

Yeah, she had no fucking clue what they were talking about.

The very hungry caterpillar could only teach her so many words.

She should probably just zone out. Being a baby was really fucking boring.

After the visit to the not-quite-doctor, Katsuki's parents bought her an English to Japanese dictionary. She wasn't quite sure whose idea it was, but it made deciphering 'Night on the galactic railroad' much easier. Neither of her parents seemed to blink at giving a one-year-old a dictionary.

They did seem to be trying to take her out more, though.

Baby groups were actually quite fun, but if they tried to get her to sing and clap along one more time she'd explode. Possibly quite literally.

She couldn't wait 'till she was a toddler. Full head of hair, better mobility, and proper socialization. The world was going to be both her bitch and her oyster.

...She was really glad her parents couldn't read minds. That would have been embarrassing to have someone overhear.

Anyway. She was really looking forward to being able to use a swing again.

Katsuki was not looking forward to being able to use a swing again.

She had reached her 2nd birthday and she could finally speak in short, understandable sentences. Unfortunately, she had no regard for grammar in her past life and by now it was no different.

"Swing bad no! Fucking bad swing no!"

Her mom was trying to get her into one of the kiddie swings at the park, y'know the ones for toddlers that have rails? Yeah.

Katsuki would use a proper swing or die trying.

"Katsuki sit your damn ass in the swing!"

"Fuck you! Swing bad no swing fuck!"

She wondered what this looked like from an outside perspective.

"You wanted to come to the park to play on the swings and you will sit in this, so help me god."

Katsuki was lifted up like she was in the Lion King and wrangled into the seat.

And like Simba, she had lost her pride.

She stopped yelling when she was in the not really a swing. The weird bouncy seat her parents set up in front of the TV was nice and all, but it didn't really compare to the feeling of her short, barely visible hair flying in the wind, and the sun on her face.

The yelling started back up again when a baby somehow wriggled out of its mother's arms and proceeded to crawl in front of the damn swing what the fuck-

Luckily, her mom stopped pushing in time but holy fuck that was not a feeling she ever wanted to feel again. Little fucker could have gotten hit with her shiny new shoes and then where would they be. Hospital, probably. Preferably a shoe shop.

Her mom and the kid's mother were talking, but she ignored most of it because holy shit, she thinks she recognizes this baby.

The kid had weird little dangly earlobes that looked like they were earphones.

Either this was a cousin, or Katsuki had just ran into (or been ran into by, rather) Jiro.

The baby was noticeably younger than her, and not quite a toddler yet. Katsuki wasn't really sure why you would take a baby to a park when it was probably not able to walk very well yet, but she only had experience with older children, so.

Jiro, or Jiro's lookalike, was wearing a cute little sundress and was mostly bald, as babies tend to be. Katsuki had never found babies cute, and she never would. They looked like little gremlins. Toddlers at least started to look less like angry red potatoes.

Still, props to Jiro's mother for trying to tone down the ugly of her kid. Lord knows Katsuki's mom could take some tips. Her closet mostly consisted of weird edgy looking kids clothing. She wanted to be wearing dinosaurs, not skulls.

(Who puts skulls on a baby? Where was her mom shopping?)

The adults seemed to have finished talking, because Katsuki was unceremoniously yanked out of her swing and put back into her pram. She had fond memories of prams, and she remembers making her family from Before use them until she was six years old.

Katsuki was a little spoiled.

Waving goodbye at Jiro in her own pram, she was whisked away in a seemingly harried pace by an irate mother.

When Katsuki was describing their "talk" before, she probably should have used the word "argument". Her mother was quite explosive, despite not being the one with that quirk.

She pitied Jiro's mother honestly. It wasn't her fault babies wriggled into places they shouldn't.

After that, the visits to the park were few and far between. If they did go, Katsuki was kept in her pram, which was rather boring. Still, she did get some extra nap time in, so she couldn't really complain.

Katsuki'd taken to strong-arming her parents into letting her watch documentaries about quirks and superheroes. She understood one word out of five, but it was better than whatever awful kids show they tried to make her watch.

She had also made her interest in dinosaurs known. All she had to do was wait for her 3rd birthday and then she would no doubt be swimming in dinosaur-themed clothes.

Katsuki felt a bit like an evil mastermind, if a two-year-old baby could be counted as such.

Of course, when the day actually rolled around her plan didn't quite work out.

Turns out that superhero merch is much easier to come by than dinosaurs, the clearly superior option.

Katsuki was now the proud owner of a downright weird amount of All Might children's clothes. She felt like a stalker but at the same time she did think he was great, so she couldn't fault her parents for not buying her something she hadn't asked for.

She was absolutely never wearing anything else ever again.

Honestly, it reminded her quite a bit of Captain America and how you couldn't shop for boy's (or men's!) clothing without running into his shield on a shirt.

This clothing was actually cute though. If Katsuki's parents had tried to make her wear a boring grey shirt with the hulk on it she'd pitch a fit.

She wasn't quite sure how to bring up the fact that she was a girl. At this age, it could be written off and she wasn't too worried about her parents having a bad reaction, but.

Coming out as trans was always going to be difficult, no matter the life it seemed.

Still. She had to try.

Katsuki chose the dinner table as the place to do it. Shifting in her high chair a little, she cleared her throat.

"I'm a girl."

Her parents blinked at her, not quite expecting her to contribute to the frankly thrilling discussion on how the neighbor's wife had been jailed for fraud, and 'would you like more rice darling?' Then her words computed.

"Oh. Hm, I suppose we should have expected this when you got into your mama's makeup."

That was all her dad had to say. Or at least, that's what Katsuki thought he said, she still didn't quite understand big words.

"I told you we were having a daughter! Motherly instincts don't lie dumbass."

Katsuki was pleased. Dresses with cats on them were in the future. She was also crying.

Before, she had only cried three times when coming out. Considering how emotional she was, she was grateful it wasn't like that every single time.

The relief of a good coming out was always overwhelming, and she got quite sappy and free with affection afterwards.

Katsuki's parents probably weren't expecting the torrent of I love yous and demands for hugs, but she couldn't care less.

Decked out in her all might t-shirt and a new skirt with cats and puppies on it, she was smug. Jiro couldn't possibly keep up with her now. Katsuki had the benefit of age and she had two types of animals on her! Two! Who even knew they made clothing like that! Not Katsuki.

Her parent's seemed to decide that she could go out by herself to the park now, which was not safe at all but Katsuki was a lot older than she looked, not that they knew that. Still, it seemed to be the done thing here, because she finally met the boy she had been looking forward to meeting for two years now.

He was sitting by himself on the swing (the proper kind!) and was holding an all-might figurine. That gave her an opportunity to make friends!

"Do you like All Might?"

The boy jumped a little and turned round to stare at her.

Katsuki moved in front of him so he wouldn't have to strain his neck.

"Just 'cause I saw that you're holding an All Might figurine and I was wondering if you'd like to be friends?"

Never say that code-switching wasn't useful.

The boy blinked at her a little, seemed to collect himself, and then smiled at her. (Adorable!)

"Um, yeah, I have more at my house but my mama says I can't take a lot because they'll get dirty and I like your top!"

Children were so cute at this age. They had very little social skills and they always held your hand to cross the road. If Katsuki wasn't so disgusted by babies, she'd probably end up with a huge family when she was older. As it was, adoption was still an option.

"Thanks! My mom bought me it. I like your hair. I'm Katsuki, what's your name?"

Somehow his smile seemed to get even brighter.

"I'm Izuku! Do you want to play heroes?"

This boy would be the death of her. Katsuki didn't know how so much cute could be contained within one body without it exploding.

She took Izuku up on his offer, and after that they promised to meet up again the next day.

Her parents just seemed amazed that she'd lowered herself to interact with the common folk.

(She was joking, mostly. Katsuki did have a bit of a reputation at the baby group for screaming if one of the other toddlers tried to touch her.)

Chapter Text

The next day came, and Katsuki had made sure she had her home phone number written down on a slip of paper that she had carefully dropped into her pocket. She was planning on this being a serious friendship after all, and staying on Inko's good side was paramount.

It probably said something about her parents that she was the one who asked them to do that.

Katsuki was wearing another one of her All Might t-shirts, paired with a skirt that had a dinosaur wearing a tutu on the pocket.

When she got to the park, she spotted Izuku wearing a shirt with the word 't-shirt' printed out on the front. He was wearing the same red boots as yesterday, and if she remembered the series correctly, he would continue to wear them, the unmitigated fashion disaster.

Katsuki really wasn't one to speak – her shoes honked when she walked. She felt a bit like a clown and her parents despaired. Win-win!

Noticing her, Izuku turned round almost too fast and had to stick his arms out at his sides to make sure he didn't overbalance. It looked a bit like he was t-posing when he caught himself and Katsuki snorted.

"Hey 'Zuku! You okay?" She grinned at him as she walked over.

"'Zuku?" He seemed a little baffled before his face lit up. "Oh, it's a nickname!"

Katsuki had got close enough that she could talk without shouting.

"I mean, sorta? I just kinda forget to put sounds where they should go sometimes. Parents hate it." She offered her hand to him, and when he took it dragged him over to the swings.

Sitting themselves down, Izuku seemed to remember something and shifted around in his pockets.

"My mama said to give this to you so you could give it to your mama!" He handed her a slightly crumpled looking piece of paper with a phone number on it.

"Oh, I've got one of those for you as well! Hang on a second, I'll get it out." She swiftly picked out her paper from the dinosaur pocket and exchanged it with Izuku's.

While he was getting out the number, Katsuki noticed that he had something that looked like a phone, if a phone was designed for toddlers. She didn't think it was fake, so maybe it was so his mom could check on him? Katsuki should probably ask her parents to get her something similar.

"If you've got a nickname for me, I should give you one! How about Kacchan?" She was struck by how confident in himself he seemed. She hoped he would stay that way after he found out he was quirkless.

"Sounds good! 'Zuku isn't really a nickname though. How about I cycle through names 'till we find one?" She smiled at him.

"Mhm!" He smiled back.

She would protect this boy with her life, seriously.

Once Katsuki got home, she handed the number to her dad. Honestly, imagining her mother talking to someone as nice as Inko nearly made her break out into hives. She didn't want to get perma-banned from Izuku's life before they'd even managed to visit each other's houses.

She really missed being big, sometimes. On the other hand, she could get away with many new and exciting crimes. Katsuki didn't really feel like that would be worth it, though. Now that she knew reincarnation existed, who is to say that karma didn't also exist? Not committing credit card fraud was a small price to pay for a good soul.

Katsuki knew that at best, her soul was adequate. Her personality was definitely her selling-point, not her morality. She had just seriously considered theft after all. Maybe if she didn't actually do it she'd be fine…?

Then again, when had she let her belief in potential divine forces stop her from doing anything? If ghosts existed her grandparents must be rolling in their graves at what her internet search history looked like.

Soon-to-be looks like if she had her way. The personal technology really wasn't that much different from what she was used to, Before. They even had a weird google knock-off called "moogle". Google at least was based on a word, but she isn't certain that "moogle" is. Hopefully, there was a bing knock-off that she could laugh at too, although considering how far in the future she was they'd probably given up on being a search engine already.

When she had been reading about this world Before, she was extremely confused by how they could seemingly afford endless armies of robots and entire functioning city layouts for a school with such a low acceptance rate. Was it paid for by taxes or did they rely on outside funding?

Where did they get the fucking money to do all that shit and then be mostly unconcerned when it was destroyed?

Katsuki still had no answer to that. Considering there were still homeless people up and about, shouldn't they be spending more money on homeless shelters and affordable living than giant cities with actual functioning buildings for 15-year-olds to break?

Not to mention the fucking robots. She's stuck with some lame ass iPhone knock-offs but they've figured out how to build mecha? That they use to fight 15-year-olds? The world made no sense.

Anyway, what Katsuki was getting at here is that she hated the government and whoever was funding UA. Fuck 'em.

Almost made her want to join the villains if they didn't go about trying and failing to kill kids rather than make any meaningful societal change.

Tearing the structure down shouldn't be done unless you had an actual plan to replace it with something else, damn it.

The League of Villains really should rename themselves to The League of Dumbasses.

She missed having her own laptop and phone. Katsuki didn't like sharing a computer. What if her parents walked in on her reading the weird hero fanfiction she had found online? She couldn't even bookmark the one where All Might took the reader to a cat cafe. The world was unjust.

Turns out that taking risks is all well and good, but she should hold off if the potential consequences involve Katsuki's mother finding her only daughter reading graphic Endeavor x Wash romance.

A month-long computer ban was put into place, but she wasn't banned from going to the park and meeting Izuku.

Katsuki had taken to coming up with the strangest and most outlandish nicknames she could think of – Izuku seemed to enjoy coming up with even more bizarre ones, and they had made a game of it!

"The green menace." Her suggestion was cut off by the sound of giggles.

"Green eggs and ham!" They both lost it and got more than a few strange glances from parents who had come to the park with their own children.

"Greg!" Katsuki was enjoying herself more than she thought possible after the Wash incident.

"Greg?" That wasn't her or Izuku, and turning around she came face to face with a girl who was slightly taller than her, due to the obvious elephant quirk the girl had.

Katsuki wondered what kind of elephant she was, before realizing that the girl's trunk was poking her in the face.

"Get your trunk off'a me you shriveled excuse of a bug!" Katsuki was still highly likely to lash out if someone got in her personal space with no warning.

She did have some restraint though, she hadn't sworn even once since Izuku was around. Still, she probably wasn't the greatest example of how to treat your age mates.

The fact that she hadn't sworn didn't seem to matter, because the girl burst into tears at her tone and ran to get her mom.

Fuck. Time to run.

"Izuku I love you but I've got to go now okay? You should head home too. Love you! Bye!"

Katsuki was already running for the hills, leaving behind a very bewildered Izuku.

Then she realized that leaving him behind meant that the parent would likely shout at him instead of Katsuki. Fuck.

Change of plan, she turned back around and grabbed Izuku before running off in the opposite direction.

"Hey so uh, I haven't seen your house yet and I really want to see your room! So can we go to yours?"

Izuku was still being dragged along and didn't really seem to understand what was going on, so she gave him a few moments.

"Uh."

She decided to give him some more moments.

"Sure?"

That was what Katsuki was wanting to hear.

Hopefully, the running had made him forget what had happened. She was slightly ashamed of herself for losing control on a kid like that, especially since she wanted to be friends with Izuku, and how could she do that if she was a bully?

Still. Katsuki hadn't quite left the trauma of the baby group behind her. She'd have to work on it.

Izuku quickly realized she was leading him in the wrong direction and after a few turns, they finally came to a stop at the place she assumed he lived.

Katsuki hoped Inko didn't think she was rude for coming over uninvited. Hopefully, the fact that she was young was enough of an excuse and the joy of finally meeting her son's friend would distract her from the grass stains and muddy shoes the pair had.

Making sure she had a good grip on Izuku's hand, Katsuki followed after Izuku as he led her towards the door.

It felt a bit like she was going to meet her own doom, which was really fucking silly, but she was a kid. Give her a break.

She abruptly noticed that the park was in viewing distance, so if Inko wanted to look out and make sure her son was okay, she could do so.

God, she missed having a semi-responsible mother.

Izuku knocked on the door she assumed was his, and Katsuki noticed that they kept their door locked. That was always a good sign, if they had it open she would worry a serial killer would go after them or something.

Old habits die really, really, hard.

The door opened and.

Wow.

Izuku's mother was younger than Katsuki thought she would be.

She was also her type.

If she wasn't currently a fetus, she might have considered asking Inko on a date. As it was, this was her friend's mother and she really ought to get all thoughts of that nature out of her head.

"Izuku? Who's this?" Inko opened the door enough for both to slip in, and they took off their shoes.

"This is Kacchan mama! She's really cool and she likes All Might and she wanted to see my room is that ok?"

Izuku dragged her off before his mom could reply. He must be really excited, to not even wait for his mom to approve it.

He reached up to open the handle of a door that could be assumed to be his, considering the All Might nameplate that quite clearly spelled out "Izuku" in both hiragana and kanji.

Not that she could read all of it. She understood the hiragana and one of the kanji, at least.

Katsuki really needed to focus on her reading skills.

Once Izuku got the door open, it was her time to be excited. The whole room was practically an All Might museum, and she didn't think she could see anything that wasn't All Might themed or at the very least All Might covered.

Seeing it all even made her forget the Wash incident, up until Izuku's mother asked if she wanted her shoes cleaned. Still, it was progress.

Chapter Text

Katsuki had so many things she wanted to do. Dying really put your life into perspective and frankly, her list of skills and hobbies she had Before had been lacking. Now, though? She was going to learn so many languages. Drums? Hell yeah!

One thing she was struggling with was knitting. It turns out chubby little toddler hands weren't perfect for fiddling. Katsuki's lack of talent didn't stop her though, and now her room looked like it had been attacked by a wool wielding villain.

Look, Izuku's 4th birthday was only a few months after hers, and she wanted to make him a scarf. Did she go overboard? Absolutely. Was it expensive? Definitely. Did she have to pay for it? Hell no. Being a kid again was great.

Currently, she was trying to make an All Might themed scarf, which involved knitting three different colors together and was trying her admittedly minuscule patience. Katsuki was of the opinion knitting patterns were for losers, and consequently had several very wonky looking scarves and half-finished projects.

At least she could justify it by pretending that she was training her hands to use her quirk once it finally manifested.

...Katsuki really wanted some rainbow thread. Time to get her dad and go to the store again, she supposed.

The local crafts store was a quaint little shop ran by a quirkless old lady and her daughter. It could have been described as cozy but was far too cramped for anyone to move around in without bumping into other customers. Her dad had forgone entering and was waiting outside for Katsuki patiently.

She was busy looking at purple chunky wool and debating the merits of buying it when she noticed him.

Is that Aizawa?

Katsuki blinked, and covertly glanced at him.

That is absolutely Aizawa.

He looked young, she supposed. Katsuki wasn't really sure what he was doing in a tiny little craft store at three in the afternoon, but he seemed to be looking at buttons shaped like cats. She giggled.

Oops. Hopefully, he didn't notice that.

He did. Katsuki was a toddler though, and toddlers weren't known for their social graces. Thankfully, he didn't do more than blink at her while she decided to forgo the purple in favor of the rainbow she had originally come for.

Toddling to the counter, she stood on her tiptoes and gave the little old lady her purchase to scan.

Paying, she gave one last glance at Aizawa, waved at him, and left the store.

Taking her dads hand, she excitedly told him about the cat man. Katsuki was young after all. She deserved to act her age.

After that, she kept bumping into him at the craft store. They never spoke, but Aizawa and also, sometimes, a guy she was pretty certain was Present Mic – that hat was fooling nobody – seemed to shop at the store around the same time each week. She made it a habit to smile and wave at them. Getting in their good graces early could only be a good thing.

After Katsuki's first visit, going round to the Midoriya's almost became part of her daily schedule. She didn't really want Izuku around her parents because of their many, many child-unfriendly practices. If Izuku started swearing Katsuki would probably lose her shit.

Anyway, their days were filled with park visits and All Might videos on "Metube". Katsuki had even discovered that Vine had existed at some point in the past, albeit under an even weirder name than whatever the google knock-off had going on.

For all the differences, there were far more similarities, her favorite of which was the Star Wars movies. Getting to watch them in Japanese with Izuku was frankly the best time of her life. There was something about watching them with someone who didn't know the plot twists that was really, really fucking funny.

Movies were Katsuki's lifeblood, but documentaries were Izuku's. Anything from superheroes to space the boy would jump on. Katsuki even had to steer him away from the ancient alien ones, lovingly translated to Japanese by some vengeful deity. If she ever saw another one of those alien fucking pricks, she was going to lose her goddamn mind.

Still, aside from a few mishaps – Revenge of the Sith, which caused a massive sobbing fit between both of them, followed by an intense lightsaber battle using hastily sharpie'd toilet paper rolls – Inko seemed to be happy with them taking over her living room.

The kitchen was very firmly Inko's domain, however, after a slight accident involving pancake batter and sprinkles. Never let it be said that Katsuki was willing to let her tiny chubby hands stop her from attempting dangerous shit. Izuku just seemed upset that he couldn't eat her pancakes.

For Katsuki's 4th birthday Izuku and Inko were invited to her house for the first time. Despite her worries, Izuku didn't seem any closer to learning how to say fuck, so things were going swimmingly.

What was not going swimmingly, however, was trying to control her goddamn fucking quirk which went off seemingly at random and resulted in a slightly melted slice of birthday cake.

Katsuki hadn't quite worked out how to stop it from doing that yet, and Izuku was so enraptured and excited that he grabbed her hand and almost melted his own damn face off.

Inko thankfully stepped in, reminding him that he needed to be careful before Katsuki could get around to sobbing all over him. She sobbed into her cake instead.

(Her dad quickly took a picture for future blackmail purposes, presumably. Lord forbid she ever bring home a boyfriend.)

4th birthdays were considered to be important milestones which resulted in an obscene amount of presents from Katsuki's parents, and a lovely hand-drawn All Might card from Izuku. Inko even got her a book on pancake recipes.

The main present from her parents, however, was in a small white envelope.

Her name change had finally come through.
香月, pronounced the same as her old one, but with different kanji.

She finally got the 'moon' that she had wanted.

Chapter Text

When Izuku’s 4th birthday passed without him developing a quirk, Katsuki wasn’t sure how to feel. The party Inko had for him was lovely; colorful banners with ‘Birthday Boy’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ hung just about everywhere in the living room of the Midoriya’s apartment.

(As if any of them would forget. Katsuki didn’t really understand banners that told people such obvious shit, but she kept that opinion to herself.)

Anyway, when a few weeks had gone by Inko had started to get more worried. Katsuki got a lot of free cookies out of it since Inko was a stress baker but frankly, Katsuki would give anything - including her cookies - to avoid seeing the desperate faces Izuku would make when he tried anything and everything to get his quirk to do something.

She… didn’t like seeing him like this.

The doctor’s appointment only exacerbated the issue.

Katsuki had spent only 4 years of her life living in a world filled with quirks and likely would never get used to them, but for Izuku who had grown up knowing nothing else, it must have been awful.

The best she could do was be there as a friend and try to get him to take martial arts and/or dance lessons with her.

(She wanted to learn Capoeira, but sincerely doubted she’d be able to find anyone teaching that in Japan. Her second choice was Savate, but again, no dice. As long as she got to kick people or dance in circles, she supposed she didn’t really mind what she learned.)

It turned out that alternate-youtube had tutorials for Ceilidh dances which were absolutely worth the watch, even though she doubted she’d go to a Ceilidh anytime soon.

Katsuki would do anything to cheer Izuku up, and that apparently included making a fool of herself trying to remember all the steps.

It wasn’t her fault that the last time she’d been to a Scottish wedding she’d been twelve!

Izuku didn’t have a proper kilt to wear, so he ended up wearing one of her all might skirts while they both tripped over each other's toes. Katsuki’s mom had lent her laptop to the cause, and the speakers valiantly tried to be loud enough that it would drown out their giggles.

As soon as she made more friends, she was absolutely throwing her own Ceilidh. Katsuki hadn’t seen Izuku laugh so much in months.

Katsuki’s knitting projects had more or less been completed, and so she moved onto sewing. She had no goddamn idea how to do it, but with “moogle” by her side and the nice old lady that ran the craft store, she had nothing to lose but fabric.

It took her 15 days of failed attempts, but Katsuki finally had something resembling a kilt for Izuku to wear. She did spill a little of her glitter on the belt, and the pleats weren’t quite right, but it was the right size at least.

(She despaired a little over the fact that she didn’t have a proper kilt pin, but for function a regular pin would do until she could make her own.)

Katsuki was aware of the fact that she couldn’t convince Izuku to wear anything other than his All Might socks and favorite red boots, so she skipped the rest of the outfit. It was hard enough to get him to give up the All Might skirt as it was. Fortunately, she had the foresight to use red blue and yellow for the kilt, and she got her skirt back.

She never did get around to taking martial arts lessons, but she had a dance class of her own to teach and her parents made her learn how to play the drums, so she was busy enough.

The start of school nearly a year after her birthday disrupted Katsuki’s daily routine. She should have started at age six, but her parents were busy working and didn’t feel like hiring a babysitter. The little green bean wanted to be in the same grade as her and was certainly smart enough to enter early, so here they were. Ages four and (nearly) five, thrown to the sharks.

Katsuki fucking hated school.

There were three things in life she hated above all else. School was No.3 on the list, purely because numbers one and two were unfathomable evils. School sure liked to pretend it wasn't a evil demon fucking beast at the beginning, but the moment you got whisked away to middle school it was tears and torture.

She was crying on the first day for a whole other reason than most of the kids.

Izuku was kind enough to hold her hand and share his handkerchief, which made her cry harder. Katsuki truly didn’t deserve him. No one did. He was too kind and good for the world.

At that point, she started to think of how good children were and how they didn’t deserve to be stuck in their own personal hells. Her crying got so bad that she had to be removed from the class because she was disturbing the other kids. (She was of the opinion that it was their ancestors who had been through formal schooling telling them to run, but apparently that was less likely to alarm children than wailing. Okay. Sure.)

Katsuki didn’t get to see how the rest of class went, but she hoped Izuku was doing okay.
If any of the adults gave him shit for being quirkless or younger than the other kids she’d bite them.

.

.

.

.

Katsuki was trying to ignore the glimpse she had caught of the boy with wings through the classroom door. She didn’t want to think about his future.

She couldn't let herself get hurt.

Maybe she really wasn't cut out to be a hero.

Chapter Text

Time passed freakishly quickly. Katsuki picked up and dropped hobbies like they were coming out of the oven and she was a bitch who didn’t wear gloves. Izuku, bless him, seemed to have mostly fixed interests.

He was having problems with bullies though. Katsuki didn’t like to think about how in another life it could have been her doing the bullying, but it was hard to ignore.

Luckily, they’d avoid him when Katsuki was around. She’d already proven she was willing to maim, and the teachers didn’t seem to care.

Still, that meant they’d go after him when she wasn’t nearby, and there isn’t much a quirkless kid can do against two or more older kids using their stupid quirks.

If they weren’t children she would probably hospitalize them. Katsuki isn’t sure what that says about her.

She wonders sometimes if she’d make a better villain.

...Izuku drags her out of it. Most of the time.

Still! UA was only a few years away. She was absolutely looking forward to meeting everyone and getting a hero license.

Katsuki is pretty sure she doesn’t want to join an agency or anything like that, but she isn’t sure of the legalities. Maybe she could be like Gran Torino? She isn’t sure how he earns money but Katsuki could probably open up an online store or something.

...She kinda just wanted to help villains stop being assholes, but that wouldn’t pay the bills. Should she go into psychology or…?

Nah. Katsuki would just see where UA took her and go from there. If all else failed, her qualifications, assuming she actually managed to get in, would be good enough to get into university.

Aizawa was a weird guy. Katsuki didn’t see him as much lately, given her schedule, but when she did he was buying huge amounts of white fabric. She figured it was probably for his capture weapon, but did it really have to be white? Surely grey would blend in with his outfit and surroundings better.

Just imagining the blood and grass stains was making Katsuki shudder. She’d tried (and failed) to hit a tree recently, so she understood just how difficult it was to get blood out of white fabric.

She eyed him.

He was already a pro-hero by now, but Katsuki wasn’t sure she was supposed to know that. He was pretty underground, and the only reason she had seen footage of him was that she had been looking for it.

...Fuck it.

“Why are you buying so much white fabric?”

Katsuki had crossed the small amount of aisle between them.

“...”

Aizawa was just staring at her. She figured this was some kind of ploy to get her to leave so she met his gaze resolutely. A great feat, considering how much she sucked at making eye contact.

Eventually, Aizawa seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to leave him alone unless he answered or left the shop.

“...It’s for a scarf.”

Katsuki eyed the meters of fabric dubiously.

“That’s a lot of scarf to wash. Does it have to be white?”

Aizawa blinked at her.

“Yes.”

Well there was no arguing with that.

“Alright. Tell your friend I said hi!”

Katsuki quickly left the store, leaving a nonplussed Aizawa to his terrible life decisions.

She realized she left her knitting bag when she was already halfway to her house, but at least Katsuki had another story about “Catman” she could tell Izuku and her family.

He was just so weird. Her parents didn’t seem to share her fascination.

She couldn’t blame them. Katsuki had told Izuku about her hero “theory”, but to her parents he was just some dude who wore black and seemingly lived in the craft shop.

Wait. Why did he wear black? He was constantly covered in cat fur. Surely a better color option existed…?

It explained why she saw him buying lint rollers so often. Poor guy couldn’t catch a break.

The summer heat was downright oppressive in Japan. Katsuki had to walk around with a parasol if she didn’t want her skin burning. Izuku was lucky, he’d inherited his darker skin tone from his mother. She on the other hand missed out on having the ability to tan and avoid wearing sunglasses.

The only saving grace was air conditioning and her JSL classes. She’d roped Izuku into learning with her.

Sign language would be useful in so many situations as a hero, and frankly Katsuki had no idea how long her hearing would hold out for.

She didn’t often use her quirk, but when she did, Katsuki used ear muffs. Even still, her ears would sometimes ring after a particularly large explosion.

So! She finally had the ability to fingerspell curse words. Highly important.

She didn’t feel bad anymore when she cursed around Izuku. Now that they were older, she figured he could understand when and where to use swear words.

It sounded rich coming from Katsuki, considering she swore as much as she breathed, but she did understand when it was appropriate to swear.

She just ignored it.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The boy with wings had gone missing. Katsuki hadn’t even learned his name.

She tried to ignore it, and failed.

Chapter Text

"Kacchan?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you wearing a ninja costume?"

Katsuki hadn't intended to be caught, but she could always use a co-conspirator.

She squinted at Izuku. "Zucchini. Wear the darkest clothes you have and follow me." She paused. "Get rid of your boots."

Izuku squinted back. "Kacchan, we're fifteen minutes away from my house. Why would I have a spare change of clothes with me at six in the morning?"

That was a valid point. Most people didn't carry their entire wardrobe with them. Maybe Katsuki was more feverish than she had thought?

She noticed for the first time that Izuku was carrying grocery bags.

 "...Huh." She laughed.

He was definitely staring at her in concern, and wow! Look at the time!

"Gotta go, see ya Cucumber!"

 She made a break for it.



3 Days Before The Incident

Katsuki had been walking back from a costume shop in an area of the city she didn't usually visit, when she spotted him.

Purple hair. Eyebags.

She couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but boy did he look like a certain future general studies student.

...It would probably be rude to approach him, right?

Before she could decide on what to do, Possibly-Shinsou had disappeared into the crowd.

In her old world, a purple haired child would have had a very difficult time doing that. Now, what with the furries and such, it was not so.

It made her want to dye her hair, if she was being honest.

Katsuki only noticed she had been standing in the middle of the street when a nice old lady with feathers instead of hair asked if she was alright.

Getting away from the lady as politely as she was able took longer than Katsuki had wanted. She didn't want anyone remembering she'd been in this part of the city in the event that her plan went south.

Katsuki was supposed to be in bed, suffering from a fever. She was still doing half of that, and if she had her way would be back home before anyone noticed she had replaced herself with a sleeping bag stuffed with pillows.

She probably shouldn't be up, but she was going stir-crazy staring at the ceiling. She couldn't even see Izuku!

All she needed to do was find the train station.

2 Days Before The Incident

Katsuki didn't usually get sick, but when she did it was bad.

She was practically a walking explosive, every little sneeze or cough setting off her hands.

She'd already gone through five pairs of fire retardant gloves!

After her successful sneak-out, it got even worse.
Could a girl not buy a ninja costume in peace?

Evidentially not, because every time she tried to use her phone her nose would twitch and she'd end up flinging it away from her to save it.

After many near-misses and subsequent cracks she gave it up as a lost cause. She wasn't willing to wear oven gloves just to play this worlds equivalent of neko atsume. (It was called koneko atsume, and it was glorious.)

Katsuki had already looked up the information she needed for her plan days ago. All she needed to do now was wait.

1.5 Days Before The Incident

"Katsuki? Do you need anything?" Her dad peered through the gap in the door.

"Can I borrow your thumbs? I wanna play animal forest."

He ended up buying her a phone stylus.

Day of The Incident

It turned out vandalizing a hero agency while wearing really conspicuous clothing wasn't a great idea. Katsuki had managed to write 'Fu' in blaring red, but before she could work on the 'ck Endeavor' she was bodily picked up and carted to the police station by a hero sidekick.

She had a feeling that she wasn't the first one to try defacing it.

Which led to her parents talking with the police.

Which led to her explaining her side of things to the police.

Katsuki was pretty certain she was supposed to ask for a lawyer, but at this point it was obvious enough that she'd done it.

"I was writing 'Full of Hope, Endeavor'." The police officer looked nonplussed.

Katsuki tried again.

"You see, Endeavor is such a role-model to me, I just had to let him know. He doesn't give out autographs often and I've never had the chance to meet him so..."

Her parents were looking at her. Katsuki was studiously looking at her thumbs.

Luckily, as far as the police were concerned, as long as her quirk wasn't being used it likely wouldn't go into her record.

Also auspiciously, Katsuki's parents seemed far more concerned about her fever than angry at her behavior.

Unluckily, that meant a whole lot more bedrest and disappointed text messages from Izuku, who disapproved of her 'self destructive behavior', and how she 'knowingly and purposely set herself up against authority figures for no reason other than to get one over them'.

He had a point. Katsuki was...not all that fond of herself.
She couldn't stop pushing boundaries, and it was getting to the point were she was doing illegal stuff just to spite...something. She wasn't even sure what she was angry at.

She saw life as a game, and had a hard time seeing people as anything other than NPCs.
She had only a loose idea of what she wanted.

Katsuki owed it to her parents and Izuku to get better.

Chapter Text

Katsuki’s plan to get better at being a human was going….well. Ish.

After a lot of self introspection, she decided the first thing to do was to send an apology letter to the hero sidekick who had stopped her from writing “Fuck Endeavor”.

It gave her a chance to practise her calligraphy, which was frankly shit. If Katsuki used crayons, her writing couldn’t possibly look more childish than it already was.

Drawing a beautiful border with swirls and flowers, the text on the front simply read “SORRY FOR THE CRIME I ALLEGEDLY COMMITED”. It was her best work yet. Now she just had to get her dad to pay for the stamp.

After convincing her dad to take her to the post office, she moved on to step 2.

Socialising.

Katsuki couldn’t think of anyone in her neighbourhood other than Izuku who wasn’t old as balls or annoying.

Minecraft was her solution to that issue.

It turned out, interacting with people who were mentally the same age as her was actually pretty fun!

Unfortunately, she sounded…very much like a child.

Explaining she was reincarnated and was actually older than she sounded didn’t exactly go down well, except for one guy who just sort of laughed and invited her to join them in destroying the ender dragon. So, she had maybe made a friend?

Trouble was Katsuki, contrary to her personality, absolutely hated killing things in minecraft. She played almost exclusively creative, and if you asked her what enchantments were, she could only explain in detail the ones that could be applied to shears.

But. The server she was in allowed for you to keep your inventory after your death, so theoretically she could just keep warping back to were she died to keep whacking the ender dragon to help this person out.

Katsuki decided to exit the voice chat and message them in-game.

redparoxysm: dude I’m on my way but like, dont expect me to be amazing

h32055uck: i dont expect 5 year olds to be good at games

redparoxysm: I’m not a goddamn toddler

h32055uck: i know lol im fucking w u

That was nice, Katsuki guessed. She wasn’t sure what it said about them that they might believe her, but she hadn’t exactly talked about her reincarnation to anyone she knew in her real life.

h32055uck: whats ur name

redparoxysm: whats yours?

h32055uck: i asked first

h32055uck: and im not telling u

redparoxysm: rude

redparoxysm: Im katsuki

She managed to reach the end, but realised she had no idea what she was doing. Did she need some sort of item to reach the dragon? It was just sort of circling what she thought might be H32055uck, and it looked like it was destroying stuff?

redparoxysm: dude

redparoxysm: Ive never fought the dragon before

redparoxysm: was I supposed to bring something to reach you or

h32055uck: im busy

h32055uck was slain by Ender Dragon

h32055uck: FUCK

redparoxysm: F

teletor453: F

cucumbersands: F

villainbrine: F

h32055uck left the game

So. That went badly.

Katsuki pulled up her discord knock-off to check if they were still in voice chat. They weren't. The little green circle to show that someone was online was there though, meaning they hadn’t logged out entirely.

Katsuki: Hey uck, are you okay?

H32055uck: uck??

Katsuki: I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce or say your name.

Katsuki: I havent read homestuck since my last life and I lit dont know anyone who uses leetspeak that isnt a kinnie

H32055uck: homestuck??

Katsuki: it was an old webcomic from like. 2009. idk if it even exists here

Katsuki: but are you okay?

H32055uck: i threw a chair thru a window but itll just come out of my pocket money so its fine

H32055uck: its meant to be read as herossuck

H32055uck: self explanatory

Katsuki: omg is there any glass from the window??

H32055uck: what?

Katsuki: are you hurt? idk how glass works but if you threw it hard it could have shattered like, inwards right??

H32055uck: its fine

H32055uck: why do u care

Katsuki: cause you invited me into ur party dude. like. Im pretty sure we’re bound for life now

Katsuki: gamers in arms

H32055uck: fuck off lol

H32055uck: gtfo and play with your 5 year old friends

Katsuki: dude Im probably older than u

Katsuki: when I died the first time I wasnt getting pocket money

Katsuki: except from like. old people but theyre just like that

H32055uck: i’m 17.

Katsuki: !! I was that age when I died

Katsuki: idk if im supposed to count my current age on top of my old age tho so like. im either 12, 17 or uh. 29. fuck if I know

H32055uck: ur old

Katsuki: ik its a curse to look this youthful

Katsuki: I lit remember going to baby groups.

H32055uck: what a traumatic experience

H32055uck: i pity u

Katsuki: Thank you king.

H32055uck: gtg my teacher wants me to explain the window lol

H32055uck: thanks

H32055uck: for talking to me

Katsuki: np :o) it was fun! lets talk again soon

H32055uck: k. bye

Katsuki: cya!

So Katsuki was pretty certain she was the certified empress of social interactions. She would need to keep working on it, but she had two friends now! She had to let Izuku know.

Scrambling for the phone, it turned out she needn’t have bothered because as soon as she grabbed it her mom came stomping up the stairs to get her.

“Katsuki get your ass downstairs! Inko and Izuku are here for dinner!”

Fuuuuuuck.

Katsuki was wearing a crab onesie.

“Give me a second!” She yelled, futilely hoping that her words would have any effect.

Her prayers went unanswered by the vicious and uncaring gods, as her mom stormed into her room, took one look at her, and started rummaging in the wardrobe.

Katsuki’s mom had a very good relationship with fashion that had not transferred to Katsuki herself. Unfortunately for her mother, Katsuki’s wardrobe was filled with what a kind person would call “fancy dress” and “interesting and innovative takes on apparel.”

Mitsuki however, would call them weird fucking outfits that didn’t go with anything else in the wardrobe.

Snatching out a white shirt that said “Only horseshoe crabs understand me.” and a skirt that didn’t look like a dog had thrown up on it, she shoved the clothes at Katsuki with a barked command to get ready.

“And brush your hair!” Mitsuki yelled, leaving the room like a class 5 hurricane.

Quickly removing her onesie and putting on her new clothes, she hoped she would get to spend some time alone with Izuku.

Chapter Text

After dinner, Katsuki and Izuku ran upstairs to play Island Horse Adventure XI while the adults talked.

Katsuki had a lovely mare named All Fight who was perfect in every way, aside from the pesky fact that she would throw Katsuki off her back seemingly at random.

Izuku owned a colt named ALL FRIGHT that had a 98% timidness stat and would freak out at absolutely nothing.

All Fight was due to have foals, so they both crowded around Katsuki’s computer to see if the babies were any better than their dumb parents.

While they were waiting for the loading screen to pop up, Izuku decided to break the anticipatory silence.

“So...I think I’m being stalked?” He said, eyes not leaving the screen.

“Do you need me to crazy murder someone?” Katsuki glanced over at him, but the game had finally finished loading, so her eyes quickly swiveled back.

“I’d rather you stay out of police custody, actually.” Izuku was frowning.

At least, Katsuki thought he was. She wasn’t the best at reading people, and it was hard to pay attention to him when the game was about to start.

“Can we get back to the stalking thing?” She asked, not wanting to talk about the fact that she had stupidly decided to gamble with law enforcement.

Their horses were hungry, so they spent a few minutes distracted by the terrifying prospect of an apple shortage, before returning to subject.

“I noticed someone following me after Irahara gave me the cut on my leg last week. I don’t know if he’s trying to frighten me or something, but I saw someone watching me in a bush today.”

So Izuku’s stalker was Gaimon from One Piece. Great.

Katsuki’s prefered method of problem solving was to hit something until it stopped being a problem, but Izuku definitely wouldn’t let her.

Also... she didn’t like hitting twelve year olds. It was one of the few moral fortresses she would plant her flag on.

“Do you want to talk to him together?” She hinted, squinting at her horse’s stats.

IN FOAL – 5HRS TILL BIRTH

Well fuck, that was disapointing.

Letting out a dramatic sigh, Katsuki exited out the game and shut her computer down.

Izuku had slumped down onto her bed, and she slowly crawled over him to the other side so she could get under the covers.

When they were little, they used to hide beneath the sheets and whisper to each other when they didn’t want their parents to hear.

Wiggling her way under the covers, Izuku smiled at her, and Katsuki grinned at him. Sometimes it was nice to be a kid.

Izuku didn’t end up talking about the stalking further, but they both knew that she would bring it up again once they’d had a chance to relax.

So Katsuki told him about her new friend, and Izuku told her about a street performer he’d seen on the way to get a limited edition All Might figurine.

Right as Izuku was getting into an extremely detailed rundown of how he thought they had managed to disappear at the end of the act, Katsuki got a notification on her phone.

h32055uck: you online?

Izuku abruptly stopped talking and peered over her shoulder.

"Is that minecraft guy?"

"Yeah! I-"

Katsuki was about to say she'd respond to uck, but then realised opening the app would let Izuku see the conversation.

The conversation in which she admitted to being reincarnated.

Yikes. Close call.

"I'll message them later!"

Katsuki hid her phone under the bed.

Izuku looked at her.

Katsuki looked at him.

"If you're dating a seventeen year old I'm pretty sure I'm obligated to tell your parents."

Katsuki choked on her spit.

"Izuku, I literally just met this guy in minecraft."

Izuku looked a little less worried, but his brows were furrowed.

"You'd tell me if you were getting groomed right?"

Ah. He'd been watching some kind of child safety documentary and thought she was in trouble.

"I'd tell you."

What a little hero.

Elsewhere:

The villain known as Shigaraki Tomura frowned at his computer screen. The NPC's status said she was online, and had been playing some bullshit game called 'Island Horse Adventure XI', but she wasn't responding.

He moogled the game, and shuddered in disgust at the graphics. It was a shitty free-to-play low-poly mmorpg monstrosity, with cutesy animations and even worse gameplay.

He couldn't believe he was associating with such a philistine.

Still. Katsuki could be a future party member. Her backstory was dramatic enough for one.

He downloaded the game.

Chapter Text

Katsuki’s parents were glancing at each other again.
She didn’t know what she’d done this time, but increasingly often her parents would look at each other meaningfully when she was around them.
It was driving her nuts.

You break the law one time, and all of a sudden your parent’s eyes left you out of the conversation.

Katsuki’s phone pinged. She discreetly typed in her passcode beneath the dining room table with one hand, the other holding her chopsticks.

Izuku: Irahara is getting more creative

Katsuki: wym?

Izuku sent a picture of his bedroom. It was in a tidy sort of disarray and filled with hero paraphernalia. Before Katsuki could see what was wrong with it, she was caught.

“Katsuki! Get off that damn phone and eat your fish.” Mebuki snapped.

Her dad was attempting pointed eye contact with her mom again.

She stabbed the fish with her chopsticks, and swallowed it whole, glaring all the while.

Her chair screeched as she got up from the table and stormed out of the house.

What the hell was their problem?

Speed-walking to Izuku’s, she could hear her mom yelling noisily in the distance.

Maybe she could distract herself by beating up Irahara. She kicked a rock in anger, and watched it bounce onto the road.

The little blond prick was lucky he was twelve.

This kind of viciousness was new. She’d always been quick to emotion, but actually wanting to fight a child was…

“Whatever.” She huffed, and continued her way to Izuku’s, not noticing the yellow eyes watching her.

𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝𓆟𓆞𓆝𓆟𓆝

“Katsuki? I didn’t know you were coming over.” Inko looked pleasantly surprised and not frazzled at all, so whatever Irahara did couldn’t have been that bad. Or Izuku was hiding things from his mom, which now that she thought about it, sounded like him. Hm.

“Hey auntie, is Izuku in?” Katsuki tried not to look too worried.
“He is! Just go knock at his door – I’m working right now or I would get you boys – girls – kids – snacks.”

“It’s okay auntie, thank you.”

If Katsuki’s parents saw her now, they’d think she’d been body snatched and replaced with a polite child. She was so anxious to get to Izuku that she’d forgotten to be rude and unlikeable.

Walking into the apartment, she quickly made her way over to the door with the All Might name plate.

“Izuku! Open up! It’s the police!” Katsuki yelled as she barged into his room.

Izuku let out a little yelp before falling off his chair.

Oops. He’d had his headphones on.

Had being the operative word. They’d managed to (safely!) land on his bed.

“Shit, sorry Zu. Are you hurt?” Katsuki hovered over him, looking for any sign of injury.

“Ow. No, I’m fine.” Izuku gingerly lifted himself back onto his chair. His shorts rolled up a bit and Katsuki could see the cut Irahara left on his leg.

With a quirk called ‘Crude Knife’ you would think the kid’s parents would teach him not to use bladed weapons on his classmates. Alas, irresponsible parenting prevailed.

Or maybe it was their shit teachers fault. If Irahara’s parents had been informed their son was a knife-wielding maniac, she would eat her left shoe. They certainly hadn't told Inko.

“What did he do this time?”

Now that she’d confirmed Izuku had no new injuries, she looked around his room.

“You didn’t see the picture?” Izuku pulled out his phone.

Katsuki perched on his desk to see it better.

It was a picture of Izuku’s bedroom. Right at the foot of the bed, situated innocently on his All Might covers, was a dead bird.