Chapter Text
His cracked lips smirked as he watched Kurogiri talk to the two new comers. They both looked rather plain and were new to villainy but their lineage promised good work. It had taken him a long time to find these two specific quirks, and he was rather delighted to see that they had family on the bad side of the law. They were impressionable because of that. As long as they played their cards right he could use these youngsters for his next great step. The last and final blow to All Might. And maybe a breaking blow to UA. After this, UA was certain to lose the last bit of trust the world had in them.
He couldn’t help the laugh bubbling up inside him. Knowing that hero society was about to crumble before his feet was thrilling to him. Master was going to be so proud of him when he busted him out of prison to show a world in ruins.
All his chess pieces were in place. It was finally time for the end game.
->\/<-
“Togata is the real deal, isn’t he?” Denki said as he put some toothpaste on his toothbrush.
“Yeah,” Izuku nodded, his eyes sparkling with inspiration. “He’s amazing! That he was able to figure out such a unique and strong fighting style with his quirk is quite the feat. I feel so inspired by him!”
“It must have taken him quite some time to master it to this extent,” Iida noted, wetting his toothbrush. “It’s not for nothing that he is one of the big 3.”
Izuku splashed warm water onto his face before rubbing it with his wet towel. He rinsed and wringed his towel after he finished and pushed his damp locks out of his face. “Do you guys have any idea how to elevate your quirk like that?”
“I’m not sure yet. But hopefully the work study will help with that.” Iida said before putting the brush into his mouth.
“But you changed your fighting style recently, Midoriya. Aren’t you one step ahead of us already?” Denki asked through the foam in his mouth.
“What?” the boy became flustered and he dropped his towel as he waved his hands through the air. “No that was just because of my arms.” The boy crouched down to pick up his towel. “It is an improvement that I’m no longer stuck at only using my fists and fingers but I’m far from perfecting my quirk. Not to the extent of Togata at least.”
The other boys hummed in agreement.
“Anyways, I’m going to turn in for tonight,” Izuku picked up his toiletries and left for the door. “Good night,” he waved.
“Goodnight,” sounded in muffled unison.
The green haired boy sighed as he made his way to his room. Today had been intense, trying to catch up on everything he had missed the last three days of being grounded. And to top it all off, they had had that spar with Togata. He took off his shirt and hung it next to his tie that he had removed earlier that evening. His trousers quickly followed and he kicked off his shoes. Sleep weighed heavy on him as he crawled under his thick blankets in only his boxers and found his usual position. He opened his phone to put in on silence and turn on his alarm. Tomorrow would be an early day again but after that he had the weekend. A good chance to train some more and practice new techniques.
He placed his phone, screen down, on his nightstand and turned off his All Might nightlamp and turned around. The only light coming in his room was the blueish hue from the night outside, mostly concealed by the curtains. He drifted off only to wake up groggy.
“What?” he moved to sit up.
It wasn’t morning, his room was still dark, and yet something was wrong. Had it just been a dream? He didn’t remember dreaming. Then why was his heart hammering in his chest?
Suddenly he noticed the darkness in the corner of his room. It was darker than the normal vail of night and the feeling of dread plummet into his stomached.
Three people came out of the darkness, revealing Tomura, Dabi and Twice. Deku wanted to get up and do something, but was stopped as Dabi quickly jumped forward, enclosing the teen and lighting his signature blue flame.
“One move and you’re a crisp,” the man spat in a low voice.
Twice grabbed Izuku’s arm and the kid wanted to struggle but was stopped by Dabi hitting him over the head. A grunt left the successor’s mouth but it was quickly stuffed by a towel.
Midoriya wanted to struggle, fight back, even just bite the hand that was tying him down with thick ropes. But it was all futile. He tried stomping on the feet of the masked man behind him but was met with a rough slam into his abdomen. He coughed against the towel and tried to focus on getting that out. If he could just call out, warn someone, then maybe this could be stopped, he could be saved. He tried his best to push against the towel with his tongue but the sound of duct tape made his last spark of hope die out. The sticky silver tape was roughly plastered over his lips, rendering his full mouth useless and thus losing the last battle.
A hand grabbed him roughly by his hair, uncertain who was pulling him at the moment, he was dragged backwards into the dark warp gate. The view of his bedroom was replaced by the view of an empty and rather cold room. His head was pulled down, forcing him to plop onto a chair. The warp gate disappeared and reappeared on the side of the room, letting in two young looking males. One looked to be Izuku’s age and the other a young adult. 20 maybe? Their faces weren’t known to Deku. He hadn’t seen them on the television or heard of them anywhere. They weren’t known villains. There was no way of knowing what their quirks could be.
“Good,” Tomura smirked widely behind the hand covering his face. “Let’s begin.”
Izuku swallowed hard against his gag. Begin what exactly?
The youngest looking boy stepped forward. He looked like an average high schooler, he looked almost too average. His black hair was in a simple short cut and his eyes were plain brown. No matter how normal and innocent he looked, panic flared up in Midoriya when he stuck out his hand in his approached to Izuku. He tried to move his head away from the soon to come touch but to no avail. The hand landed without a sound on his forehead and suddenly everything went blank.
“I found something really strong,”
The unknown and disembodied voice rang through his head. The nothingness around him changed into the classroom of his junior high school. A burning sensation appeared on his shoulder and he was suddenly swallowed by fear. “Here’s a little word of advice, nerd.” Katchan was in front of him. his fingers where hot and tight on his shoulder as smoke came of them. Was he going to burn him?
“Don’t even think of applying,” his stomach plummeted at those words. “Or else.”
The weight on his shoulder was gone in an instant as the three bullies who had been towering over him moved to leave the classroom.
“That was just sad, I thought you had at least some fight in you.” One scoffed, pushing his hands deep in his pockets.
“He finally gets it, He’ll never be a hero.” The other answered. “Better to find it out now than later I guess.”
There was an earie silence for a moment as the words seem to sink into his heart, cutting him like a knife.
“You know if you really want to be a hero that badly, there might actually be another way.” Katsuki said, almost sounding nice and considerate until the next part of his sentence followed. “Just pray that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building.”
Anger surged though him like it had never before. A sudden explosion of emotions occurred as he jerked his head towards his childhood friend.
“Something wrong?” Explosions fired off Kacchan’s hand silencing him and his anger as he was left quaking in his boots.
The sight of Katsuki leaving the room was replaced by nothingness. Everything he had felt was gone and replaced by soothing blankness. All the swelling emotions dampened as the unknown voice sounded again.
“Interesting. It seems like he has been bullied quite severely and by one person specifically bad. This ‘Kacchan’ seemed to have been more than just a bully to him. want me to dive deeper into this?”
There was a short silence. “Oke, here goes.”
This time, instead of being transferred into a memory, he was watching flashes of memories. All containing Kacchan and they were all showing moments where Kacchan was pummeling him, cursing at him, ridiculing and laughing at him for wanting to be a hero. It showed him all the negative things Kacchan had done to him. From the small young boy saying that he was useless without a quirk to the older teen questioning his quirk and power. Everything was cut and jumpy, no real full memories, just shattered pieces. These were fractured memories, incomplete, but they felt like they were engulfing him. This wasn’t Kacchan, not completely. This wasn’t the only thing he saw thinking back on him.
But once again his thoughts were cut short and made blank as the memories disappeared.
“Okay, I think I got all on that boy. Next is a strong one too.”
Now the nothingness around him changed again. This time showing a rooftop. His heart swelled with emotions and his throat seemed too dry to talk as he faced the back of his greatest hero. All Might.
“Even if I don’t have a quirk, Can I become a hero?” the words rushed out of his moth, like he would lose the ability to speak if he stopped. He almost felt dizzy as he proceeded. “Can even someone without a quirk be like you? His shut his eyes, unable to look at the man who was about to answer his biggest question in his life. Maybe even the most single important person to ask it to. The person who mattered the most. He felt flustered, he felt afraid and yet he felt relieved, like a weight had lifted of his shoulder as he waited in suspense on the answer.
“Without a quirk?” the deep voice rumbled.
“It might have been because I don’t have a quirk,” the boy continued, voice just as small as he felt. “But I’m always made fun of,” he fumbled with his fingers, eyes casted downwards. “Maybe that’s why… I don’t know. But I think saving people is super cool.” A small smile came to him, as he felt sparks of courage filled him. “Saving people with a fearless smile. I want to be the greatest hero, like you-”
A scream involuntary left him as he his great hero was replaced by a skeleton of himself. Hollow and dead looking
“Y-y-you’re deflating!” his memory seemed to skip a bit as he was suddenly faced with the deflated All Might sitting against the railing of the roof. Eyes looking straight at his while his own mouth was agape.
“Pro heroes are always having to risk their lives. Some villains just can’t be beaten without powers.” His less full sounding voice seemed to burn Izuku’s ears. “So can you be a hero? Not without a quirk.”
His breath stuttered out of his open mouth. No, This wasn’t what he should have said. This was not the answer he was looking for. He felt sick. His world, his dreams, all his aspirations were crashing and burning. He uttered a shaky “I see,” forcing himself to take a breath.
“You want to help people, there are plenty other ways to do it,” All Might got up from the floor, body still hunching. “You can become a police officer,” The man walked over to the door, leading to the staircase down. “They get crap because the heroes catch most of the villains. But it’s a fine profession.”
His eyes couldn’t follow the hero, all he could do was stare ahead, even when the sound of the door opening broke the short silence.
“It’s not bad to have a dream, young man,” The hero paused with the doorknob in his hand. “Just make sure your dreams are attainable, realistic. Understand?”
With that, the door closed and the curtains fell on his dream. It was over. He could no longer deny the truth. The words of All Might bounced around in his head. Not without a quirk. If only he had a quirk. So can you be a hero? Not without a quirk. If only he was born with a quirk. Not without a quirk. If only-
Nothingness rolled over him once again. His mind feeling numb from the lack of result in his head. Emotions swelling up only to be erased in a second. It was like a roller coaster, but worse.
“I got one other strong one,” the disembodied voice echoed in his head. “Ready?”
This time it was the dark study of his father appearing. The main source of light coming from the computer screen playing the video he knew by heart. The laughter of All Might filled the room, but instead of lifting his spirit like usual it thickened his tears already prickling his eyes. “See that mom? There is always a smile on his face, no matter how bad things get. Even when things seem impossible he never gives up.” His young body trembled as he turned to his mother, his finger pointing at the smiling face of All Might. His cheeks felt sore as he tried his best to smile through his tears. “Do you think I can be a hero too?”
His mother approached him, knees gave away underneath her as she fell into a hug. “I’m sorry Izuku, I wish things were different,” her own tears spilled as she pressed the boy firmly against herself.
But that was not what he needed to hear from her. While his world crumbled underneath him there was only one thing he wanted to hear. But he never received that, not from his mother, not from anyone.
The stifled sobs from his mother disappeared together with the room. “Is this enough?”
The voice started to sound familiar, it being such an omnipresence in the blank states.
“Yeah, bits and pieces I guess,” The voice sounded again. “I’ll make it quick, I’m almost out of time.”
Memories started flashing again. But this time they were even more rapid. He could barely keep track as many sentences spoken by different people started to overlap. He could only hear some loose parts.
“No matter what your intensions are, you’d be nothing more than a liability in battle.”
“I doubt I’ll be seeing much of you in the future.”
“You’re just useless without a quirk.”
“Someone like you should never be allowed to enroll in this school.”
“You’ll never be a hero.”
“If you can’t bother to take this serious, leave. You’re distracting the rest of us.”
“With your power there is no way you can become a hero.”
“You’re not very hero like.”
Izuku didn’t know when the laughter had joined the mean words, nor the sound of his own sobbing. Everything started to mix and overlap too much. He couldn’t make out what they were saying anymore but it didn’t matter. It was horrible enough without the words sinking in too much.
Suddenly all the words and laughed died away, just to leave room of his younger self, balled up on his bed crying. Thick tears running down as he questioned out loud why he didn’t have a quirk. Why no one believed he could be a hero. Why he couldn’t fulfill his dreams.
Then it all stopped as he opened his eyes, mind finally free to feel and think what he wanted. The young teen in front of him had removed his hand from his forehead, face pale as he backed away slightly trembling. “S-sorry,” the boy sounded out of breath. “That’s all I can do for today.”
“That’s quite alright,” the with glee filled voice of Tomura sounded from behind Midoriya. “I think we have enough to work with for now.”
Wait, had they all seen those memories? Why did they even want his memories? They were all very personal and everyone already know about All Might’s lesser form so it couldn’t be that. They mostly saw Kacchan and him being- Oh no. Do they want to get their hands on Kacchan again? No that couldn’t be it. They also dug up other memories. What they truly had in common was that they were all negative. But what would they gain from knowing negative memories?
Izuku’s silent murmuring was cut short as the other unknown person approached. Deku stiffened in his already restrained pose as the overwhelmingly dominant aura came from the young adult. The first thing he noticed was the striking gold eyes. The rest of the man was rather normal, his dark hair was spiked up on top and buzzed on the bottom. His overall body seemed lanky and not particularly well-trained. The man crouched down before the captured boy and just as the man made eye-contact Izuku realized it.
He barely saw the eyes change color before he shut his eyes quickly. The man must have a quirk that has to do with his eyes. He clearly wasn’t trained to fight but his eyes were obviously part of his quirk. Looking into them probably triggered whatever quirk he had.
A small scoff sounded in the darkness of Izuku’s firmly closed eyes. “You think just keeping your eyes closed would stop me?” the younger boy startled as he felt cold fingers prying at his eyes. “Muscles in the face are by far not strong enough to keep your eyes from being forced open,” Deku tried to shake the man off but he already saw a sliver of light. “A peek would be enough.”
Red, his eyes had become red. The second the red registered in his mind it started to submerge him. He couldn’t see anything besides those eyes. Everything was red. It swallowed him whole. His being succumbed to the redness of his eyes.