Chapter Text
After the initial rush of quirks, Izuku passes out almost immediately. His world goes black, but not silent. Hordes of voices scream in his mind, different words, tones, languages. Nothing makes sense.
-
Izuku wakes up to blinding white lights and an incessant beeping. He doesn’t sit up immediately, shutting his eyes and trying to use his previous unconsciousness to his advantage. Where is he? Who’s here? What happened?
All for One. Izuku took all his quirks. He should be dead now. Is Kac- Bakugou safe? What about the students that were there? Why can’t he hear the voices from the quirks?
“I know it was stupid, Aizawa. I also know we couldn’t just sit back when one of our classmates was in danger.” The voice is familiar. “Besides, what does it matter? None of us used our quirks, besides me trying to keep Bakugou from killing Midoriya, none of us got hurt, and the only reason your plan didn’t go the way it was supposed to was because Midoriya decided to save himself.” Aizawa? Who’s Aizawa?
“Todoroki.” There’s a name Izuku recognizes. Why is he here, though? And, again, where is ‘here’? “Just because you’re not the one in that hospital bed-” Hospital?
The first person to speak goes on the defensive. “Do you really think he would have come with you? I’ll tell you firsthand that when someone raises you to overthrow something or someone, they will force you to hate it or fear it. And they’ll do their best to convince you the best way to make that feeling go away is to destroy that thing.” He sighs and Izuku hears a small thump and fabric moving.
It’s Todoroki. Does this mean Izuku’s safe? The cold feeling on his forearms jumps to the forefront of the boy’s mind and he tries to move his arms to no avail. He lets his eyelids crack open slightly, attention being drawn to the bright blue covering a good chunk of his arms. Quirk suppressors. That explains the lack of shrieking. Eraser stands at the foot of Izuku’s bed, Todoroki sitting beside it, looking impetulant as all hell. Izuku lets out a huff that could resemble a laugh if you squint at the sight, turning both males’ attention to him in an instant. “Hi,” he rasps, letting his eyes open the rest of the way. “Am I going to jail?”
Todoroki regards him with a small smile, though it doesn’t reach his eyes. Eraser, on the other hand, comes closer and Izuku has to resist the urge to back away. The man must notice his discomfort, though, as he stops next to Izuku’s knees. “I think the only place you’re going is therapy, Izuku.” Given name? Why his given name? “My name is Aizawa Shouta. Your mother should be here soon.”
Tears slowly fill his eyes at the thought of meeting the person behind one of the names that kept him sane these past twelve years. The woman he never should have had to forget. “What… What’s she like?” Izuku murmurs, rubbing his tears into his shoulders and cursing the lack of mobility in his arms. “And would I be able to get these so they’re not holding my arms together? Unless I’ve been deemed a danger, which I would understand wholly, but it’s kind of uncomfortable and I happen to like being able to use my arms and I’m rambling. Sorry.” He starts to twiddle his thumbs anxiously, worried about literally everything. Did All for One die? Will they send him back? What if Kurogiri tries to come for him?
He stares at his hands, stuffing down his panic. Reveal no weakness. Anything could be used against you. It will be used against you. Izuku then mentally slaps himself. These two don’t want to hurt him. They don’t. Right?
“Midoriya,” Todoroki says, cutting through Izuku’s thoughts. “You’re panicking.”
Izuku glares at him. “Oh, really? Didn’t notice. Congrats, you have fucking eyes,” he snaps, his fists clenching. “So-Sorry. I- Uh- Knee-jerk reaction.” The boy starts receding into himself again, cursing himself. He’s out. He should be safe. He should be able to take down these stupid defenses he’s built up. So why can’t he?
Todoroki shudders a tiny bit. It’s almost too small of a movement to be noticed at all. “I understand. I was… the same before you… um…” He ends the sentence there, looking away.
That doesn’t mean Izuku doesn’t understand what he means. “I’m glad you’re safe now.” Izuku quietly inputs.
Smiling to himself, Todoroki nods. “I am, too. Your mother is a very kind woman. She’s short and has green hair like yours, though hers is straight. She cares about others very deeply and she makes really good katsudon. It’s starting to rival soba for my favorite dish.”
Er-Aizawa chuckles at that, and Izuku immediately starts to feel calmer. “Inko is good at cooking in general, Todoroki. Not just katsudon.”
Todoroki rolls his eyes and Izuku stares at Aizawa with wide, unrolled ones. “You know my mom, too?” he asks, awe and wonder filling his voice.
“I would hope so,” Aizawa says, sitting down in the chair next to Izuku’s bed. “She’s my sister.”
In this moment, Izuku’s mind both shuts off and goes into hyperdrive. Mom’s brother. Uncle? The one Todoroki mentioned living with? Uncle. Aizawa Shouta. Eraserhead. Knocked him out at USJ. Attacked his students. Stole his student. Saved his student. Killed his student. Helped his student.
Energy thrums in Izuku’s veins as a single voice creeps into his mind, calling him a murderer, rattling off the names of those he’s killed in chronological order, ending on All for One, which it applauds before turning back to condemning him. Another joins it, this one just crying. And another, begging for blood. Two more, singing a duet in a language Izuku’s never heard before. His eye twitches as more and more voices join the cacophony in his mind. “Suppressors losing effectiveness,” he forces out as he clutches at his blanket.
Hisade, my boy, All for One croons, forcing Izuku to imagine the bastard’s smile. You’ll never be rid of me. You should have just made it easy on everyone involved and let me do as I pleased.
Aizawa reaches for Izuku, looking concerned, but Izuku slaps his hand away with the metal of the suppressors. “Do- Don’t touch me,” he warns. “I don’t want to ac- to accidentally- Quirks-” It’s fine. He can deal with the voices. The voices are no problem. He’s had worse. He just wants them all to shut up. Shut up. Shut up!
Suddenly, the voices start to quiet. The hero stares at him, eyes red. Erasing his quirk? How does that even work if there are multiple? “More than one quirk?” Aizawa asks, more like he’s taking notes than talking to another human being. “But… how?”
“All for One’s quirk, which he was named after,” Izuku explains through gritted teeth. “The quirk can give and take quirks, apparently including itself. I now have the quirk, along with every quirk All for One stockpiled. Is he dead? Please tell me I killed him.”
The voices come rushing back when Aizawa blinks, forcing Izuku to clench his jaw as to not scream. It’s just pain. He’s had pain before. Pain is not something new. Sure, maybe on this level, it is, but pain itself is not new. One starts quoting the Bee Movie. “He is dead,” Aizawa confirmed. “Somethin-”
“Shut up!” Izuku bursts out at the voices, his eyes slamming shut. So much for not screaming. “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, s hut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! ” Loud. Loud, too loud, can’t think. Can’t think or hear or… or… or think of a third verb despite his entire body seeming to reject him. With a bit of fiddling, Izuku is able to get his hands up to his head, clutching at his temples, his breathing ragged. If I start giving you back… to your rightful owners… will you stop? Please? Yes, he is bargaining with the voices of quirks in his head. Don’t fucking judge him.
Seems fair, a feminine voice replies.
Sorry, kiddo, a kind-sounding man apologizes.
Wait, it’s not the old man anymore?
I am not the old man, Izuku confirms. So, please be quieter. It hurts. A lot.
His head immediately quiets down, only about five voices speaking at once. While it isn’t exactly favorable, it’s better than what it was just a moment ago. “I think I’m good now. We came to an agreement.” He offers a reassuring smile. It doesn’t do much to reassure his two visitors. “Have you heard of the Imprint Theory? The idea that quirks retain a part of their owners? ‘Cause, let me tell you, it’s a thing that is true. And it is a pain in the ass.”
A woman chooses this moment to stumble in, stopping dead in her tracks when she sees Izuku. “I...zuku?” she gasps after a moment’s hesitation.
She’s short, wearing a pink cardigan and a hopeful but scared expression. She seems sort of familiar. Izuku goes out on a limb. “Are you my mom?” Her expression drops as soon as the words leave his mouth. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologizes. “I don’t remember much from before I was taken. At this point, it’s mostly just my name and Kacchan, barely. Bakugou. Whatever.” His brows furrow a moment. “Can I get these off?” He raises his cuffs in emphasis, turning to Aizawa. “They don’t seem to be doing much and I’d like to give Ragdoll her quirk back. I don’t have any need for it, just like most of the quirks I’ve found in here.” He taps his head lightly before letting his arms flop back into his lap. “I promise I’ll be good.”
Aizawa sighs, crossing the room, on his way to the door. “I’ll talk to the police about that,” he replies, shutting the door behind him. And then there were three. Again.
It feels strange, feeling more familiar with some random kid, no offense to Todoroki, than his own mother. Like his body and mind instinctively know that isn’t what’s meant to happen. “Can I hug you?” the woman who’s supposed to be his mother asks quietly.
“I mean… yeah? It should be safe to touch me,” Izuku reasons. “Though I’ll have a bit of difficulty hugging back.” Inko- it doesn’t feel right to call her ‘Mom’ or ‘Mama’ or anything like that- gives Izuku a sad look. ‘Mama’ feels like someone who’s meant to be kept in the abstract. “What?”
Inko… Did Izuku do something wrong? Say something wrong? What if she doesn’t… What if she won’t take him home? What if he just messed everything up? Anything has to be better than where he just came from, but he doesn’t want to lose his home before he even gets it. “Sweetheart, I don’t- Me asking if I can hug you is not about my safety. It’s about your comfort.”
His comfort? That’s something that matters? “Sorry?” Izuku doesn’t know what he’s doing. Not by any means. The fact that no one has tried to attack him yet has already put him so far out of his comfort zone he’d need a GPS to get back to it. “Ma’am, I don’t- The last twelve years of my life, no one has- I-” The words get caught in his throat. He can’t collect his thoughts enough to make any sense. Everything is just so disorienting and the lights are bright and so are his cuffs and he wants to not be here but doesn’t know where else he could go because he’s never really known anything better than this. “I don’t think I should be alive,” he finally whispers, staring listlessly down at his hands. “I’m not even sure what I went through can be called living.
“I know I’m not socially adjusted in the least. I know that I’m out and I should be safe but the main thing on my mind is the fact that I could hurt one of you or someone is going to jump out and try to kill me. The first and only time I set foot in a school was breaking into UA to steal All Might’s schedule and a mother doesn’t seem much more than an abstract thought anymore. It’s up there with safety and security on the list of things I never thought I’d be able to have. You’ll have to deal with some stupid answers for a while.” This just makes her look worse. Izuku doesn’t like hurting her. “I don’t think I want to be touched right now, thank you,” he mumbles, filling the silence. He almost wishes someone would attack him. Fighting is something he knows and knows well. Whatever this is? Not so much.