Chapter Text
Izuku felt like one thing.
Broken
He slowly trudged through his city, head hanging low, burnt notebook in hand. He remembered the words his idol had said moments prior.
Can you be a hero? Not without a quirk.
Deep down Izuku knew this, but there was a small glimmer, a small flame inside of him that hoped it wasn’t true, but All Might, the Number One Hero, put it out with a hose. Izuku looked at the notebook in his hands, reminding him of what happened before his encounter with All Might, a time when he still had that flame.
Take a swan dive off the roof and hope you have a quirk in your next life
Izuku flinched at his thought, Kachan had told him to kill himself, it was as simple as that.
Maybe I could get a quirk in my next life, Izuku quickly shook his head, clearing the thought out of his mind.
“What am I gonna be now..” Izuku made his way back home.
Along the way, his conscious replayed the events of the day, all the hate that was directed towards him, with only one cause, he was born a little different.
As if the world was out for him, he ran into the devil himself, Katsuki Bakugou.
“Hey look! It’s the damn nerd!” He called out, earning laughs from his companions.
“H-Hey Kachan…” Izuku fixed his gaze onto the pavement he was walking on. But he wasn’t that lucky to get away unscathed.
Bakugou wrestled him into an alleyway, something Izuku was very familiar with, Here we go again… A punch was sent to his stomach, he shrieked in pain.
“Wow! I didn’t even punch you that hard, you weakling.” Katsuki punch his face, earning a busted lip.
“W-Why?”
“I’m going to teach you your place, you still have that book in your hand, you damned bastard!” Another punch, Izuku fell on the ground, his notebook flying a few feet away, he curled himself into a ball.
The other two lackeys joined him as they assaulted Izuku, the boy himself felt nothing, and everything. I’m too weak to become a hero anyway.
“What's up with you man? You aren’t yelling like you usually do, this is boring,” Lackey #1 said.
“Tch, let's bail on this wimp,” Bakugou said while crossing his arms.
Izuku stayed down until he heard the retreating footsteps of his friends. Those aren’t your friends, your just saying that to make yourself feel better, you loner. Izuku didn’t expect his own thoughts to hurt him so much.
Izuku slowly got up, limping back onto the street, he fastened his bag back up and picked up his fallen notebook, he looked at it sadly, why do I even have this anymore.
Izuku walked slowly to his home, hoping his pains would go away. He walked past the pharmacy & clinic, and was spotted by a certain brown haired girl. Said girl shot out of her seat and walked out the store, chasing the hurt looking boy on the street.
“Heeeyyy!” Shouted the girl. Izuku yelped, shielding himself from the source of the sound, thinking it was one of the bullies from earlier, he felt himself falling over.
Until he wasn’t.
He was floating.
“W-Whaaa! H-Help!” He shouted, flailing his arms around, looking to balance himself. He stopped doing so as he heard giggles from beside him, his face instantly lit up.
“Sorry I used my quirk on you without asking, I figured you wouldn’t mind,” the girl offered a close eyed smile, Izuku was lost in her face.
“W-W, I-uh.. Ho..w,” Izuku stuttered, still suspended in the air.
The girl giggled more, he put her fingers together and released the boy from midair, Izuku fell square on his feet, mentally complimenting himself for not messing it up in front of a pretty girl.
“I’m Ochaco Uraraka! Nice to meet you.” She held out her arm, which Izuku slowly took.
“I-Izuku M-M-Midoriya,” he stuttered out, mentally insulting himself for doing so. He looked at the girl, “U-Uh, why’d you stop me?” He wondered.
Ochaco looked at him in surprise, as if he should already know the answer, “You look horrible!” She yelled out. Izuku looked down in disdain, Ochaco quickly waved her hands in front of her, “A-Ah! No! I meant that you look like you got beaten up pretty bad! I’m interning at the pharmacy at their walk-in clinic, I thought you missed the place so I came out to grab you!” She smiled.
Izuku felt a little better, “Oh thank you, I-I actually wasn’t going to go into the clinic,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Uraraka gasped, pulling him by the arm into the building, “You need immediate attention! Your bruised all over and have a bloody lip!” She entered the building, Midoriya blushing a lot behind her, she opened up a room and put him on the cot, “Stay. Here.”
Ochaco walked out of the room, Izuku could here the faint talking of her voice and a much older one, Probably her supervisor. He shifted on the edge of the bed, the copper taste of blood still lingering in his mouth, the door shot open again, revealing the same pretty girl.
Ochaco pulled up a chair and sat down right in front of him, and tended to the bruises on his face, “What happened to you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
“I, uh, fell down,” he said, neither of the two believed it, judging from the exasperated expression from Ochaco.
“It’s fine if you don’t tell me, but once in a while you gotta teach those bullies a lesson!” She said enthusiastically, Izuku chuckled, If only it were that easy.
They sat in uncomfortable silence, until Izuku thought of something, curious to know, he spoke up.
“So you're interning here? You want to become a nurse?” He asked, and instantly regretted it as he felt Ochaco put more pressure on the wet cotton she was applying on his forehead.
“Doctor, not nurse, moron,” she muttered with an angry expression, but it softened as she noticed the boy flinch at her remark.
“A-Ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to assume!”
“No… I’m sorry for calling you that, I guess it’s a little aggravating when people think that, I know you were just trying to spark a conversation,” she smiled, Izuku felt at ease. “What about you? What are you working to become?”
Izuku’s content expression fell as he looked at his bag, Should I tell her? Why would she care. “Uhh, I don’t really know at the moment,” he said.
Ochaco finished off and patched him up, patting his shoulder he let him get up, “T-Thank you Uraraka,” he bowed at the girl.
“Oh, don’t mention it! Just doing my job!” She put her hands behind her back and beamed at the boy, whose heart instantly melted.
He started leaving when another questioned sparked in his mind, he stopped at the door and looked back at Uraraka, “I haven’t seen you around her before, a-are you new?” He asked.
“Yup! I moved here last week for a better high school than the ones back home,” she waved at the boy, “I have a feeling I’ll see more of you Midoriya!”
Izuku smiled and walked back out, If only.
---
The door creaked open as Izuku trudged in slowly, he heard his mother hastily make her way towards him. Quickly thinking, he shoved his burned notebook in his bag and put on his best fake-smile.
“Izu dear, how was school?” Inko gasped at the state of her boy, “Oh dear what happened? Did Katsuki bully you again? Do I need to call his mom?”
Izuku sighed, rubbing his eyebrows, “It was fine mom, nothing really happened, I just fell down the stairs at school, I got patched up by the school nurse see,” He pointed to his bandages, “I’m really tired too.” He lied through the whole thing except the last part, it seemed to fool Inko as she beamed back at her son.
“Oh dear, you should be more careful! Take a nap, tell me if you need anything!” She walked back to the living room couch, but before she could, Izuku stopped her.
“M-Mom?”
Inko turned back in confusion, hearing the discomfort in her son's voice, “What is it Izu?”
“D-Do you think I can ever be a hero?”
Inko’s heart dropped, memories of the same boy 10 years younger flew through her mind, she gulped and went to embrace her son.
“It depends on what counts as a hero honey,” she whispers into his ear, Izuku is now trembling, “A hero can be someone who helps a little child cross the street safely, or someone who saves the world from villains,” she pulls away and looks into her son's eyes, “Just know that a hero is someone who never gives up, not someone who’s there for fame and glory,” she kisses the younger Midoriya’s forehead again and pats his head.
Izuku knew why she didn’t preach the subject if he could be a pro hero, the unspoken answer was clear.
He couldn’t.
Izuku nodded at his mother, leaving the embrace and moving to the bathroom, “I’m going to take a nap after this,” he said out while entering.
The boy looked into the sink, hands on both sides of the bowl engraved into the marble counter, he gave out a heavy sigh. Looking at the mirror he saw himself, he looked disgusting; messy hair, dirty face, and dull eyes.
The cupboards started opening, searching for the right medicine to take his unruly pain away, his eyes fell upon a pair of scissors used for haircuts, something he almost never used, he reached for the metallic object.
Steadying himself, he turned on the tap to drown out grunts of pain, Am I really doing this? He separated the two blades and put one to his arm, he took in a deep breath and looked at himself in the mirror.
He took a swift swipe to his arm, pain shooting through his wrist as he resisted the urge to scream. I’m weak. He cut himself again. Useless! Again. A disappointment! Again. WEAK!
The words of what his mother said went through his head, his eyes widened as he realized that there was meaning behind the message, a hero can be anyone who does something right! Regardless of their recognition!
Looking down at his arm, it was home to new scars. Izuku set down the scissors and washed his bloody arm, he looked back into his own eyes, something was different.
His eyes weren’t dull anymore, Izuku was angry at himself for letting that much pain shoot through his body, he really was weak, so he had to get stronger.
His mother's words made their way back into his head, I’m a Midoriya! I can’t give up! I’ll save people one way or another! He nodded to himself and walked out the door.
He plopped down into his bed, his mind reminiscing of the things that had happened in the day, the rejection of his dreams, the beat down, the scarring, but one thing was constant, it seemed to alien to him, he was thinking about something positive.
He was thinking about the nice girl, the one who didn’t judge him a little. Izuku hadn’t told her about his quirklessness, she would probably avoid him if he had, but something seemed different about her, he couldn’t place a finger on it.
Giving up, he let his mind show him more images of the nice girl, Ochaco Uraraka. He fell asleep thinking about the girls chocolate eyes.