Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya was ready to end it all. He couldn’t get Kacchan’s words out of his head. Swan dive off a building. Izuku knew Kacchan was moody and aggressive, but he never thought Kacchan truly hated him until he said those words. He was tired of being useless. Useless Deku. Even All Might said he could never be a hero. He was a Quirkless loser and that would never change. Not in this life, at least. He stood on the roof of the building All Might left him on, inching closer to the edge every minute. Distantly, he registered the sound of an explosion somewhere in the city. It was a further reminder that no matter how much he was hurting, something else would always be bigger, stand out more, command more attention. Izuku hated this. He hated feeling sorry for himself--feeling so low he was almost in a trance. All he could think about was an ending.
So he did it. He threw himself over the edge. It was a long fall, and in the end, he found himself looking upward as he fell. He expected to feel regret, or some kind of something. But for the first time in his miserable existence, Izuku felt nothing. No anxiety, no crippling need to fit in, and no hope. In the few minutes it took Izuku Midoriya to fall to his death, he felt completely at ease. That is, until he hit the ground. Amid the sickening thuds and cracks his body made when it smacked the concrete, he heard his screaming until it was cut off by the gargle of blood in his throat, in his lungs, everywhere. And then there was something else.
Izuku died. He was certain of it, and yet, he was unmistakably alive and breathing and moving. His body was nothing but a shell, growing thin as paper, and dissolving more every second. He sat up, eschewing what remained of his old body. He was still himself with every freckle in the same place on his brand new skin.
"What? Wh-why?" Just as soon as Izuku stood up he fell to his knees, stupid, useless tears in his stupid, useless eyes. He was so worthless he couldn't even kill himself correctly.
"An impressive Quirk." A deep voice came from the alley next to the building Izuku fell from. Izuku turned to face someone little more than a shadow. His body rippled in shapeless darkness and his yellow eyes glowed in threatening slits. "You're in so much pain, Midoriya Izuku, but I believe you can find purpose with us."
"I...I have a Quirk?"