Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I assure you, miss Midoriya, this experiment should be quite safe. There have been no problems before.” A doctor with jet black hair and green eyes reassured the worried mother through her nervous breathing.

A window next to them showed the room beside them, where a young eight year old boy laid upon a table, little curious eyes roaming over everything in the room. As Inko’s own pupils roamed over her son, she saw the ugly swollen black eye that reminded her why she was doing this.

It was the day after Midoriya, her precious baby boy, only four years old and so excited to receive his own power found out it would never happen. The little boy, who was usually a massive ball of sunshine and energy had been near catatonic the entire time.

She had felt horrible when she had to send him to school that day, unable to hold him and try to comfort him somehow. Not that she would be any good at it, as she shuddered remembering her words to her own son.

“Can I still be a hero? Even without a quirk?”

“….I’m sorry Izuku!”

She flinched as she recalled the last little lights of hope in his young eyes dying because of her and tears start to form. She couldn’t focus on that now though, her son needed her in the present.

He had returned home with school staff an hour early, more emotional than when he’d left, but not of the good kinds of emotion. She had heard his crying before the door had been knocked on and she had almost fainted when her eyes set on the ugly bruises on Midoriya’s face.

It had become so unnatural in society, the idea of there being anyone without a power among the kids that those who were quirkless were considered the freaks, despite the opposite being the case not that long ago.

Kids could be cruel, sometimes without realizing but as the mother stared and the various bruises and the crying face of her only child, she knew they meant every bit of pain they would cause.

Her heart tightened in her chest at the horrible realization that if her son stayed with that school, no matter what she would have to watch her son be tortured for how he was born, and she could do nothing about it.

The next closest primary school was far too far away, needing to be travelled to by train. With her job starting at the time it did there was no way she could take her son that far and moving there was out of the question.

Her heart ached as she realized no matter what, her son was going to suffer.

It was small at first, bruises whenever he came home littering his arm. The children at his school had been given detention each according to the school as well as a firm warning about what would happen if they hurt anyone again.

But it had felt so hollow, like some prepared script that Inko couldn’t help but worry that the school didn’t actually care all that much. The kids were just more subtle about it now.

Then after a week of this, Midoriya walked up to her, tears in his eyes as was becoming disturbingly routine and showed her his stomach. The normal bruises were there, but there was also a horrible burn mark that stood out from everything else.

Inko had felt her heart shatter as she knew only one boy in her son’s class could give anyone a burn like that. Katsuki Bakugou, who Inko knew Midoriya considered to be his best friend.

She had no idea what to do. She knew she should contact his mother, Inko’s old friend Mistuki and at least make her aware of her son’s actions but a fear gripped at her. What if it got worse if she said anything? But if she didn’t it wouldn’t get better….

She ultimately picked up the phone, and got through a phone call with the woman, whose anger at hearing the story rivaled Inko’s own depression.

But the green haired woman ultimately came to regret her decision, when she had to go to the school and pick up her son who had multiple burns on his body.

The nurse had seemingly only wanted rid of Midoriya and didn’t actually care about the pain he must have been in. That night, both mother and son cried themselves to sleep.

A month after the diagnosis, Inko finally built up the courage to talk to his father Hizashi.

His reaction had been less than ideal, and his words still circled around in her head.

“No quirkless brat is good enough to be my son. Don’t call this number again.”

It settled into a truly heart-breaking routine of the woman already having first aid supplies ready whenever she brought her son home, fixing up the damage that occurred and spending hours holding him and trying to reassure him none of it was his fault.

Not that any of those reassurances did much against the actions of others. She could see it in his eyes, as the light got dimmer with each passing day.

After a year, the first truly serious incident occurred. She had gotten the call from the school that her son had been brought to the local hospital and rushed there as fast as she could, no idea what to expect when she got there.

She had been brought to his room and let in to see him. Her heart stopped when she saw the massive scar that ran from his cheek, over his eye and into his head. A torn up piece of paper held in his hand he seemed to refuse to move.

She later found out that they had been drawing their heroes in class, and one of the students had attacked him outright saying that freaks weren’t allowed to have heroes. That student had at least been expelled but it wasn’t enough.

It only hurt more to find out the greenette had drawn Bakugou as his hero.

Two years later, they realized the scar would never heal or fade more than it already had. The kids had jumped on it as yet another opportunity to abuse the boy.

The greenette kept notebooks on hero’s quirks, to make up for his lack of one. They were plentiful and the woman was impressed with his note taking skills, but it hurt every time she saw one.

At least once a day, Izuku would mention his dream of being a hero and Inko, even now, never knew how to respond

She found a poem on one page of the fifth notebook and she knew she needed to find something, something to fix it all.

Because the poem her son wrote killed her soul worse than any of his bruises ever would.

‘Burns, bruises and blisters. 

Cuts and Scars.

They all hurt,

Remind me I won’t go far.

But still, I have to try.

Because when I stop dreaming

I want to die.’

She never stopped looking for some way to help her son, no matter what it was.

She kept saving money, looking at houses and schools in other cities and looking for support groups of some kind. She had discussed therapy with her son before but he had refused.

She had wanted to make him go regardless, until he told her that it would just make him have to face the fact he was a freak.

The conversation didn’t continue far beyond that.

It continued to be a nightmare for the year, and quite a bit into the next, until she found an advertisement that seemed too good to be true and yet also a curse at the same time.

It had been a flier posted up in her workplace, which when she had left she had seen many more of outside, all advertising the same thing.

“Scientists believe they have discovered a way to give the quirkless an evolutionary boost to keep up with those who have quirks. A forced evolutionary boost. Previous tests are promising.

We are looking for human volunteers who are quirkless. The younger the better as they will likely react to the process better.

WARNING! This could be incredibly dangerous due to the nature of the experiment. If you volunteer, please be aware of the risks.”

It was too good to be true. Yet the warning about the danger made her hesitant. She considered not letting her son find out about it but had a feeling that would be fruitless.

That feeling proved true later that day. She had planned to not bring it up and save it until she had thought on it more, when her son came in with a hideous black eye and ripped trousers that made her want to cry.

In his hands, was the same flyer she had seen at her workplace and so she decided then, they at least had to see what was happening at that lab.

They had arrived earlier that day, Midoriya’s eye only looking a little better than it already had. When they had walked into the university the experiment was being done at, two cities away, it had seemed a little….worn down.

The person who greeted them had seemed kind of shaky and worried but he had been polite enough to greet them and take their bags before showing them to a lab where they met doctor Srijan.

He was….excitable to say the least. He had gladly explained what they were doing and had been all too happy to have Midoriya as a test subject when the boy mentioned his own quirkless nature.

The only thing stopping him was Inko’s reservations. A lot of the situation seemed to set of red flags in her head but another part of her felt like she was being paranoid.

They were then invited in to watch the process, as a man in his forties walked into the lab. They were brought into a viewing room and watched as he was injected with a serum before being allowed to leave, being told to come back in a day or two so they could take down some results.

It seemed fast and harmless at least. Her eyes wandered to her son and he looked at her with eyes brighter than she had ever seen them since he was still a baby. There was no way she could say no at that point.

That’s how they got to where they were now, Midoriya lying down on a table ready to get an injection. Inko looking on worriedly, having no idea if she made the right decision.

“Doctor….please explain this to me.” She asked quietly as she saw another doctor walk into the room with her son, seemingly just talking to him to get him ready.

“Well the idea is quite simple really. We know quirks aren’t natural, we weren’t supposed to evolve to have them. One of the more popular ideas being that quirks were a virus carried by rats.” Srijan explained as he wrote down some notes on a clipboard. “This effectively locked most of us out of being able to evolve normally. Once quirks hit the end of their evolution most of the human race will cease to continue evolving. We will hit a dead end and then no one knows what will happen.”

Inko shuddered at the thought.

“The quirkless aren’t burdened with that same issue. Humans have something that some childish doctor called our ‘quirk factor’. Think of it like a glass of water, the quirkless have an empty glass but still possess the glass itself, while those with quirks have water in theirs. It’s not the possession of the glass that stops us evolving but the water within.”

“So…you’re going to try to make him evolve normally?” Inko questioned as she fiddled with her clothes nervously. “Is that even legal?!”

“I understand your concern but technically this would be considered a quirk experiment, not an evolution experiment due to how it’s filed in the paperwork so yes it is legal.”

That answer did not help the red flashing lights going off in her head. She considered calling a stop but before she could, she saw the other doctor already going to inject her son.

“Alright, test subject: I. Midoriya is being injected with sample BL23.” Srijan spoke into a recorder on the table she had failed to notice. She watched as a black liquid was injected into her son and felt her nervousness spike through the roof.

It was too late to stop it.

“Now, we are going to try to simulate the virus. Yuuma, if you would?” The doctor said and the mother blinked in surprise as the younger doctor inside quickly made his way over to the other side of the room and flipped a couple of switches.

Inko had no idea what to think as the room was plunged into darkness before it lit up again with a red hue, a temperature dial turning on in front of her and reading 32 degrees. ‘What….’

SPLAT!

Inko froze, her heart skipped a beat and she looked up, anger and sadness tearing at her once she realized what she was looking at.

Her soon was no longer on the table, but a vicious red puddle of some type remained on the table, spiking out into various parts of the room and dripping onto the floor.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY BABY?!” Inko screamed, tears in her eyes as she turned, ready to murder the doctor who looked shocked. However he suddenly broke into a grin and pointed into the room.

“Apologies miss Midoriya….but look….”

She did. Her jaw dropped.

All of the parts of her exploded son- oh god that was her son….

The exploded pieces started moving, all coming back to the table and piecing together. Building up and around each other, before color and hair also returned.

Then Inko was looking at her son, who looked terrified and confused.

And all of his injuries were gone.

Chapter Text

The needle used to inject the serum hurt, and Izuku couldn't say he was a fan of having to deal with more pain. After a few seconds he started to sweat as his body got warmer and warmer.

It wasn't pleasant and he hated it. His mouth dried up and his stomach felt bloated. In fact his entire body felt numb and swollen. Then the pain started and he realized it wasn't him imagining things, he was really expanding.

Fear took over for the briefest of moments and he wanted to call out to his mom, to his only safe haven in the whole world but before he could….everything went dark.

Feelings and thoughts and senses all ceased to exist.

Izuku Midoriya was dead.

And then he wasn't, as feeling returned and some bizarre innate instinct pulled him towards other pieces that had the same instincts despite not being able to see them and then the rest of his senses returned along with his thoughts.

But now he was scared, in a laboratory with a doctor with some quirk serum or something and his mother nowhere in sight.

So all in all, the past few minutes had been terribly confusing.

“What's going on?! Am I safe? Am I in trouble?!” The trembling child asked as he looked around nervously, the last question being habitual due to some teachers blaming him for his bullies.

“IZUKU!” A familiar voice screamed in worry and both he and the doctor in the room, who seemed to be frozen in shock initially, turned to see the door slam open, a crying Inko rushing in and scooping her son into her arms. He gladly returned the hug, his only anchor to normality at the moment.

“Miss Midoriya I really must insist you stay out of the lab area-" Srijan rushed in, looking flustered but froze when the normal kind woman faced him with the most enraged expression the boy had ever seen on her face.

“YOU EXPLODED MY SON!” She shouted as she picked him up, ignoring his complaints of being to old for it. Only after a moment did he truly pick up on her words. ‘I WHAT?!’ “This experiment is over! You had better pray you never see me or my baby again doctor Srijan because if I see you I don't know what i'll do-

Izuku's eyes widened as he felt something in his body expand again. Was he going to explode?!

“Uh, Inko…”

No, his whole body wasn't going this time, just parts of it. His arms turned red and many different red tendrils seemed to sprout forth. Some sort of instinct went off in his brain, a natural understanding to what was happening and it wouldn't be good if he stayed in his mothers hands.

“Don't call me that! You have no right-"

Izuku only had a few seconds, so he acted. He kicked his mother in the stomach and cringed at her cry of pain but he needed to save her. He fell to the ground and somehow felt no pain as he smashed into the tile floor.

He looked around for something, anything to use. His eyes settled on a set of pencils on the table. He rushed forth and slammed his hands on top of the pencils, flinching when one of his hands landed on top of a set of scalpels he didn't see, cutting into him.

The tendrils of what was once his arms wrapped around both wood and metal and Midoriya felt odd as he watched them get wrapped up in his tendrils before they were pulled in and his arm returned to normal.

“What the….” The younger doctor muttered in confusion while Srijan looked on excitedly at the development.

“Izuku….what did you just do?” Inko asked as she held her stomach, using a table for support. Izuku flinched as he watched her limp toward him. ‘Did I really kick her that hard.’

“…..I…..think I absorbed it…” The boy said quietly, as he felt a warm sensation spread throughout his body. He looked down at his arms that caused it before his eyes widened in excitement as he remembered the whole purpose of their visit.

Did this mean he had a quirk? If so, was it really just absorbing things….Surely there had to be more?

He focused on his hands and held them out in front of him, focusing intently on the mental image of one of the pencils he absorbed.

“Izuku?”

Once more instinct seemed to take other and he felt his muscles twitch at his command as his finger turned into the red tendrils before reforming but not as a finger. Instead where the greenette's pointer finger would normally be was a short pencil which made the child laugh happily. “I have a quirk!”

“Well yes, that's the whole point.” Srijan grumbled but shut up quickly at the glare he received from Inko. “For the record, I was only trying to warn you in case something like that happened to you.”

“Liar.” Yuuma said as he fixed the older doctor with his own glare. “You lied to all of this. You have no idea what was going to happen, did you?!”

Both Midoriya's shared a look of confusion at the young doctors outburst.

“Now Yuuma, I get why you might be mad-"

“MAD? I'M FURIOUS!” The irate doctor shouted as Inko made her way to her son, ready to get as far a way as possibly and get him to the nearest hospital. “How many?! How many people have we injected with failed serums?! You told me they just came back when I wasn't around to report their failed results. But that was another fucking lie wasn't it?! They're all dead aren't they?!”

“Yuuma…”

“No! Enough is enough. I quit. You can stuff my apprenticeship up your own ass you vile piece of crap.” The younger one snapped as he barged past Srijan and slammed the door open. Instead of leaving immediately, he turned to the Midoriya's with a softer, more guilt-ridden expression. “I truly and sincerely apologize for my role in any and all turmoil you have experienced today. I don't expect you to forgive me but at least let me drive you to the hospital, it is the least I can do after all this.”

Inko was wary of the idea, cocking an eyebrow but really she just wanted as far away from this lab as possible. “Alright. Lets please just go.”

“But the experiment….” Srijan went to complain but he was met with two harsh glares and the confused eyes of a child.

“Is over, I told you that.” Inko practically snarled, making Izuku flinch. She immediately dropped down and hugged him after to apologize. “Besides, I thought the injection was the whole experiment.”

“Of course not! The serum needs time to activate, though we can speed it up with the right conditions. If anyone was successful there were so many tests to run, things to check…”

“The only thing you're going to be checking is your mail Srijan, for a little pink dismissal slip.” Yuuma threatened as he and the Midoriya's left the room.

The car ride was quiet and awkward. Inko sat with her arms cross, glaring out the window while Izuku fiddled with his new pencil finger, having nothing better to do.

“doctor Yuuma…” The boy piped up out of nowhere, catching both the adults off-guard. “What is my power? Don't you know?”

The doctor only took his eyes off the road for a moment, checking to see if Inko would allow him to say anything. She had a curious look on her face and she waved her hand flippantly, seemingly allowing it.

“Well, take what i'm about to say with a grain of salt, as I don't know how much of what Srijan told me was truth, and was lies but from what I understand…..My educated guess is that the experiment didn't go quite right in some ways, but perfect in others. You were supposed to just….evolve, not combust or anything like that. I think we failed to grasp just how the quirk factor works. I presume you were giving the glass analogy by my….former….colleague?”

“Yes, I was.”

“Well clearly that glass does have something to do with how we are locked out of natural evolution, just not in the same way as someone with a quirk is. Because of this, I think the working version of the serum has tried to produce the closest possible result to evolution it can manage, filling up your sons quirk factor. A bio-engineered quirk if you will.”

“But what is it? It's weird.” Izuku asked as he turned his finger back to normal.

“Well, there's no way to know for sure until we get to the hospital and have you diagnosed but we do know it involves absorption, shapeshifting and considering your lack of a scar, some kind of healing factor.” The doctor listed off and the greenette's eyes widened in surprise and wonderment. “My best guess, your new ‘quirk' causes your biological makeup to become unstable, allowing it to break down and change.”

“Biolo-Biogica-Huh?” Izuku stumbled over himself and the young red haired doctor couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him.

“Your body mass is easy to break if you want to. Clearly its also easy for you to fix.” He simplified and the greenette smiled happily.

“I have unstable bio…biomass! Unstable biomass!” The greenette announced excitedly and Inko, despite everything felt a small smile tug at her lips. Yuuma laughed a little as the hospital came into sight.

“Unstable Biomass huh? Sounds like a great quirk name, that's for sure.”

Once they had arrived at the hospital, they had managed to convince them to see the newly powered boy, unsure of how safe he actually was. His earlier explosion didn't inspire confidence that his power was 100% safe.

Yuuma ultimately did most of the talking, explaining to the doctor that came out to see them everything about the experiment and what had happened, as well as his theory on what was happening.

The doctors look of disgust and her sudden insistence on getting Izuku into a hospital room once the red haired man was done did nothing to help the torrent of emotions inside Inko.

They were allowed in with the boy as they prepared to do the check up at least which helped a little. The mother put up with Yuuma's presence due to his knowledge about what might be happening but she still did her best to ignore him.

“Alright then, that should be everything.” A female doctor with luscious brown hair and a kindly smile called Hiko said, as she picked up a notebook and pen. She turned and gave a slightly dirty look to Yuuma. “So I have already heard what’s happened from a physical standpoint.”

She turned back to Izuku and gave him her brightest smile.

“Now I need to know how you feel, little champ.” She said and Izuku pouted, crossing his arms.

“I'm not little! I'm nine!” He said and the brunette giggled lightly.

“I'm sorry, how are you feeling big champ?” She asked again and the greenette looked satisfied.

“I'm….weird but happy.” He described with a finger to his chin. She scribbled down his answer in the notebook before continuing.

“I presume your happy because of your quirk?” She asked and the child nodded his head so fast Inko was worried it might fall off. “And what do you mean by weird? Can you explain that to me?”

“Uh…well I feel warm. Very warm, especially when my powers start working. I also feel….empty. like I don't have stuff inside that I should.” The boy explained, causing the doctor to look up confused.

“That's….concerning. I think we're gonna want to get an x-ray done while you're here.” Hiko said as she finished writing down in her notes. “Now, hearing about your powers only tells me so much. Actually seeing it will be very useful, so we're gonna try some tests to figure out how your power works, ok?”

“Ok…what do I do?” Izuku asked and the doctor laughed lightly.

“Let's see this pencil finger your mom told me about.” The brunette requested and the child complied, his finger briefly bursting into a bunch of red tendrils before reforming as the absorbed pencil. “That's incredible, Midoriya! Is there anything else you absorbed that you can try to create?”

“Um….when I absorbed the pencil I think I absorbed something sharp as well. It was like a weird tiny knife without a handle….”

“You mean a scalpel?” Yuuma questioned, as he took out one from his pocket, prompting questioning glances from the girls. “I keep spares in case we lose any. Is this what you absorbed?”

“I think so.” Izuku said as he focused on his finger next to the pencil. This time the whole finger didn't burst into tendrils, just his nail melted into a red liquid like substance before forming as the scalpel. “Awesome!”

“Huh….well….Ok then Freddy Kruger..” Hiko muttered under her breath before looking over her notes. “Something else I want to try before we get to the x-ray. If you could please go stand at that wall, Midoriya?”

The boy complied, running over to the wall and turning to face the adults excitedly. Hiko made her way to stand beside the other two adults after picking up what seemed to be a chunk of wood from a drawer. “What now?”

“Well, from what I've seen you're body is shifting at your command. You can bring out perfect recreations of what've you've absorbed, making the part of your body. That does beg the question, what can you create without absorbing anything? What do you think champ, is there anything you can try to make without absorbing stuff before hand?”

“Hmm. Oh, animal claws are cool! We were watching nature videos in school and some animals have really strong claws!” Izuku said excitedly at the thought. Hiko gave a look towards the eldest Midoriya, who had started to have tears come into her eyes and the smallest smile on her face.

“Ok, let's see if you can do it.” Hiko agreed with an encouraging smile. The young Midoriya closed his eyes and focused, holding his hands out and imagining massive sharp claws in place of his hands. He spent time on the mental image trying to make them look exactly how he wanted before he developed them. A few moments passed and for a second, it seemed as if the claws wouldn't come when the young boys arms exploded into violent flailing tendrils that wrapped around themselves and built back up, seeming to become like armor around the arm and palm of his hand. One of his fingers was missing and the rest were all replaced by long sharp claws.

He laughed as he looked at them, the claws long enough to reach from the small boys chest to the top of his head easily. They were intimidating, pulsing red and daring anyone to try to stand against them

“Ok Midoriya. I'm going to throw this block of wood at you, ok? All I want you too do is slice through it if you can.” Hiko said as she started to rear her arm back with the wood she picked up. The boy got into position and the doctor chucked the wood. It got closer and closer to the boy when he tore his new appendages down through the air and obliterated the wood with ease, leaving the three adults looking on in shock. “Holy….Ok, it's safe to say those claws are incredibly powerful. I'd argue they could tear through a human without any resistance.”

Yuuma and Inko just gulped.

“Ok Midoriya, any other ideas?” The woman asked and the boy just shook his head. “Alrighty. I think it's time we got you x-rayed then.”

Izuku walked forward, forgetting to change his hands back to normal and he tripped, not used to the weight of them. He fell forward and cried out as one of the claws bended back, slicing into his stomach. The adults all hurried to him alarmed as the claws disappeared in a flurry of tendrils.

They helped the boy right himself and cringed at the large hole in his stomach where blood quickly started to gush from. Inko felt like she would be sick but before any one could do anything else, the wound suddenly stitched itself closed with some smaller tendrils before it turned back to a normal flesh color.

The adults looked among themselves before Hiko shook her head. “Guess that confirms the healing theory. Come on, lets get you to the x-ray. That didn't hurt too much did it?’

The greenette looked up at her but instead of tears like one might of expected they were instead filled with confusion. “It didn't hurt. It felt weird though.”

No one knew what to think as they looked at the boy's x-ray scans. No bones or little outlines of any kinds of organs were visible. All that was there was a solid grey mass to represent the boy's body and that was it. The most that they could see was little outlines on the outer edges of his body.

“Doctor Hiko….what's going on with my son?” Inko asked worriedly and the brunette leaned back in her seat, seemingly just trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing.

“Well miss Midoriya….In the simplest terms your son has zero vital organs, no brain….everything typically inside a human body that makes it work isn't there. The fact your son is walking, talking and as coherent as he is should practically be impossible.” Hiko explained before pointing at the few little outlines on the scans. “I think though, considering what we've seen so far that they aren't missing. They've merged with his skin and muscles. His brain and lungs and everything seem to be in his outer body which is why even when he was…exploded he could reform. That explosion must have been everything absorbing into itself and unsure of how to continue once it was all together. The body then just combusted and reformed in an attempt to fix itself. Put simply…..I don't think your son can die normally anymore.”

“What the….” Was all the green haired woman could mutter as she looked at the scans. Hiko stood up, grabbing a marker from her desk and walking to Midoriya who sat upon a metal table.

“Here sweetie, do you think you could do your absorption thing again?” The brunnette asked as she gave him the green marker. He focused on it for a moment before little tendrils suddenly sprung from his hand, not actually removing the whole hand this time and took in the marker. He looked up excitedly and she gave him a thumbs up. “Great job, j'll be back in a moment, i'm just going to scan you one more time now.”

It only took a few moments and the new scans came out practically the same, but there was a new outline in his hand. “So, just like his organs and such, anything he absorbs is made part of his flesh body. I guess that means he can reproduce his normal organs if he wants to but he doesn't need to…”

“Anything else doctor?” Inko asked, staring at the scans like they held the key to the universe.

“Well…I think its safe to assume that even if there is a limit to his absorption, he might be able to absorb people.” Hiko said and Yuuma massaged his head while Inko just took a deep breathe. “Something he should not do no matter what. At best, that person will become a part of him, like two brains sharing one body forever.”

“At best?!” Inko exclaimed incredulously. “and at worst?!”

“Your son can take that persons form and maybe memories but they die without any body left behind.” The woman said and the sobering realization of how terrifying such a power could be washed over them. “I hope you're son has a strong moral compass, that particular aspect would be a villains wet dream of a quirk.”

Hiko got up from her seat, helping back onto the floor. “Other than that, your son is….healthy, in a relative sense. Potentially healthier than any other living human perhaps. I think that’s everything, unless there's anything else you had in mind?”

Inko and Yuuma both shook their heads, and Izuku started to jump up and down excitedly. “I have a quirk, I have a quirk! I get to have powerAGGGH!”

Suddenly without warning, the boys legs exploded into tendrils as he was jumping and rocketed him into the roof with a loud crashing noise, before he fell back down to the floor.

“I GOT HIM!” Yuuma shouted as he rushed forth and caught the boy before he crashed into the floor. He barely looked dazed, just shaking his head embarrassed.

“I uh….got too excited I think.” The boy muttered shyly as the man set him down. Hiko took her seat once more, opening her notebooks again.

“This is one serious arsenal you've given the kid.” She muttered as she wrote something down. “Ok Izu, any ideas what that was?”

“Not really. Maybe my powers boost me?’ He wondered as he looked at his hands, ideas forming. He focused and his hands exploded into tendrils once more but this time he didn't let then reform. Hiko looked surprised and went to touch them when Yuuma quickly grabbed her and pulled her back.

“Woah! You're the one who pointed out he can absorb people, be careful!” He reminded her and she nodded as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

“You're right, that wasn't a smart idea.” She admitted before going back to her cabinet and picking out another piece of wood.

“Why is that cabinet full of scrap anyways?” Inko asked with a quirk eyebrow while Hiko placed the wooden block onto the tendrils and gave the boy firm orders not to absorb it. “Quirk testing can require a lot of…specific stuff. You wouldn't believe some of the things we have to keep in stock. Heck, some can't be even mentioned near young ears.”

While Inko and Yuuma processed that information, Hiko let go off the piece of wood and it simply hanged there, without the tendrils even wrapping around it. “Interesting. Now, Sweetie, please try to crush it without absorbing it.”

The boy did as he was told and the tendrils slowly wrapped around the oak before squeezing tight. Slowly but surely the wood splintered and cracked before it was crushed by the boys once hand.

“Ok, so that’s what just a few tendrils can do…” Hiko muttered as she brought out a third piece of wood. Inko briefly felt like she was in a carpenters and not a hospital room. “One last time, try to crush it without any powers please champ. Just you’re bare hands ok?”

The greenette looked confused as he was given the block but nodded and squeezed the oak in his hands. It quickly turned to dust with almost no resistance. The brunette doctor just blinked.

“So…you definitely posses some kind of limited super strength as well, good to know.” Hiko muttered as she wrote down some more notes before the kind woman faced the increasingly powerful boy. “Super strength, super jumping and i'm willing to bet enhanced speed as well from that super strength depending on how you apply it.”

“That's so cool!” Izuku said excitedly as he started to continuously burst and reform his finger, looking at as if transfixed.

“I have just one more test I think then, if we don't get hit with any more surprises.” Hiko said, moving a table out the way to make sure a large part of the wall was accessible. “Izuku, the last thing I want you to do is try to stick to this wall with your tendrils. Can you do that?”

“I think so.” The youngest in the room nodded and walked up to the wall, no taller than the cabinet beside him making the whole task quite daunting. He placed his hands on the wall and a second later little tendrils from his arms all connected onto the wall. He slowly made the let go and climbed up a bit, doing the same with his legs.

“That's great. Kind of slow but useful!” The brunette praised and Midoriya got a look of concentration on his face.

“I think I have an idea….” He said and suddenly the tendrils all disconnected before connecting again, repeating the process at incredibly fast speeds. He continued to climb, scaling higher much quicker. “It worked!”

“Alright!” Hiko announced happily. She went to ask him to come back down but before she could the boy was suddenly stood on only his two feet, supporting himself on the wall and laughing. The he started running, before ending up sprinting upside down along the roof and coming down the other wall. Inko quickly grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

“Izuku! Don't get carried away!” She chastised and he remembered his manners, quickly apologizing.

“Oh, it's fine. The cleaners might be a bit annoyed but I think we can brush it off considering how big an occasion this is.” The doctor brushed it off as she pulled out a slip from a drawer and wrote down some stuff on it before turning to face the younger Midoriya for the final time. “Ok, Izuku. Now's the big moment. What do you want to call your new quirk.”

The boy didn't hesitate with his answer.

“Unstable Biomass!” He said happily as beamed brightly at them all.

“What a delightful name. You know you're lucky you get to name it now, most people get stuck with their four year old choices and regret it.” Hiko said with a laugh, writing her signature down on the slip she pulled out and giving it to Inko. “Here, you probably didn't know these were a thing considering they're recent additions and your son wouldn't have had any need for one previously. It's a week's pass to allow him to use and figure out how to control his powers. Considering your son's extensive abilities and excitement, your gonna need it.”

“Doctor Hiko, may I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?” Yuuma piped up and the woman quirked a brow but handed him her notebook. He quickly scribbled something down before ripping put the sheet and giving it to inko. “Here, this has my number on it. If you never call it and throw it away i'll understand but I want to do everything I can to make up for what happened earlier. If you have any questions and can't get a proper doctor like Hiko here, I may be able to at least provide some theories or that that might help, as well as some ideas for how to help develop your sons new powers.”

Inko looked down at the seven digits, then to her son who was wiggling his pencil finger happily. There was no way she could handle it alone, that much was certain.

“I'll consider it. Come on, Izuku. Thank you so much doctor Hiko.”

“Bye awesome doctor people!” The greenette said as he waved goodbye, and with that, the Midoriya's left.

“So…what are you gonna do?” Hiko asked curiously as she sat down. Yuuma just sighed.

“Make sure my boss gets fired. How hard can that be?”

In the lab, empty and cold, a body lay upon the table. Fear gripped at his heart and he didn't know if it was truly worth it but it worked on the child so it had to work on him. He'd have no other opportunities to try.

Srijan injected himself. A few moments passed and if anyone had been outside the room all they would of hear was a single deafening noise.

SPLAT!

Chapter Text

It had been  days since Midoriya had developed his unnatural quirk and in that time they had come to understand a few key details about it:

1. It had affected his method of digestion

They had learned that the child  could no longer eat normally when Inko had prepared her sons favorite meal the next day. (She had gone to bed almost immediately after returning, once she was sure he would be safe alone for a while. He had been upset he couldn't start using his new powers straight away but he seemed to understand his mother's stress from the day.)

She made the Katsudon both too make up for the ordeal  and celebrate his new power. At first everything seemed normal enough, Midoriya making a comment about how it seemed to taste even better than normal. It might have just been a psychological effect but Inko noted it down in her phone anyway, just in case.

The boy finished before he suddenly frowned, shaking his head lightly. Inko tried to ask what was wrong but before she could he was suddenly gone, faster than the mother  knew he could move.  She only knew where he was from the slam of the bathroom door.

The noise that came from inside wasn't pleasant but mercifully it was short. It was also confusing as it sounded more like tearing flesh than anything else. A flush sounded and her son walked out looking upset, a small hole in his stomach that was still repairing itself.

As it turned out, due to his lack of a stomach the food couldn't be properly digested, something Inko should of realized. She had been so caught up with everything else that it had failed to cross her mind.

Initially she was worried about how she would feed him then, if he did still need food but as it would turn out the greenette already had an idea of how he was supposed to eat.

She had reluctantly made another plate at his request and watched in shock as two small tendrils sprouted from his hand which he held over the plate and started absorbing the food. It was gone in moments.

It stayed in this time, so the problem was solved. The younger of them wasn't too thrilled that it completely removed all taste though.

2. He was super strong, and super agile now. Inko should of realized he would also be super fast.

After the kastudon incident, Inko did have one exercise she absolutely wanted to get out of the way with her son immediately, for his and everyone else's safety. They had gone to the park nearby, which had fortunately been empty due to it being a work day. It was fives miles long, giving plenty of room to work with and there was no kids or adults around, which was fine by Inko.

“Now Izuku, i'm happy you have a power now but those claws can be dangerous.” She said, taking a step back to give her son some room. “We have to make sure you're not going to accidentally sprout talons  beside anyone and accidentally hurt them. Do you think you can try just getting used to creating and getting rid of them.”

Midoriya nodded excitedly, this was what he had been looking forward to. His arms crawled with tendrils before his two intimidating claws formed, and Midoriya slashed his hand forth once to make sure he did it properly.

If it wasn't for the fact Inko knew that almost everyone who got too close to the boy mid swing would become no more than a few severed limbs she would of laughed at the juxtaposition of the creepy claws to her babies angelic face.

They spend half an hour there, mostly repeating the same exercise. It kept the greenette's interest longer than expected but he still ultimately ended up bored and wanting to do something else by the twentieth minute. Inko ultimately caved in to her son's request, knowing that she could only do so much to try to maintain safety with her son's power.

As they were already in a safe place away from people or property and Inko had her pass she decided to let him decide what he wanted to do next while he had the opportunity.

“Can I see how high I can jump?!”

“Go ahead sweetie, just be carful ok? I know you're stronger now but I don't know how far that goes.”

He nodded and bent his knees, preparing to jump. Tendrils started to swirl around his legs as he seemed to charge up his jump.

Inko, having only seen her sons new agility in the hospital room wasn't expecting much. She expected he'd be able to jump a flight of stairs at most.

Suddenly, Midoriya jumped and his tendrils seemed to all  hit off the ground for some kind of boost. The wind from the force of the jump actually caused Inko to stumble back and her jaw dropped as she looked at the height her son had achieved, becoming a speck in the sky.

He had rocketed into the air, clearing at least ten stories. Inko felt her heart stop as the dot her son had become got bigger and bigger, coming back down to earth. He finally came back into sight and it became obvious that he hadn't prepared for landing, arms flailing madly before he suddenly crashed into the ground.

Inko went to rush to his side, but a giggling stopped her as her son suddenly stood up. He didn't even look like he was healing anything. ‘Did…did he come out of that unscathed.’

The greenette celebrated with a few smaller jumps that still carried him way above regular building height. Inko just placed a hand on her heart, she couldn't take all these heart attacks.

The wind from the jumps was strong but not enough to push Inko like the first one, unfortunately her handbag was not so lucky as it flew out her hand and to the other end of the field, out of range of her telekinesis.

“I've got it!” Izuku called as he stopped jumping, running towards the wayward handbag.

“Izuku, it's fi….ne…..holy…..”

The teen cleared the field almost instantly once he started sprinting, quickly going from regular human speed to a pace that Inko was sure would make certain speedster heroes jealous. Then the greenette was back, just like that with her handbag In hand.

She thanked her son and asked him to do that run again but from the very edge of the field while she timed him. Her son did, though he seemed a little confused about it.

It took him less than a second once he was going full speed. She looked at the timer, and saw it hadn't even reached the second…..second.

She found out later when she did the math’s, he had to be going somewhere just under 180 miles an hour. What the hell else was this quirk capable of?

3. While absorption seemed to be an important part of his quirk, he was a shape shifter. One of the side effects of that that actually worked in their favor was the lack of necessity for buying or washing clothing.

Inko supposed she'd have to chalk the amount of questions she was forgetting to ask up to shock.

Once they had returned home from the park, Inko had decided Midoriya should get changed. She'd not said anything about the fact he was still wearing his school outfit during the morning as they'd both gone straight to bed the previous day. She ultimately saved getting him to change until she was sure he wasn't going to stab himself and tear everything to shreds.

She had failed to notice two very questionable details anyone who wasn't panicking about the health of their child would of picked up on.

1. Midoriya was somehow still wearing his outfit after literally exploding, which his clothes had been caught up in.
2. His clothes regenerated with the few wounds he had received so far.

He had gone through the room, and it was quiet for a moment before a surprised shout sounded and Inko rushed over to see if he was ok. Opening the door she nearly fainted when she saw a pile of flesh on the floor, Izuku standing over it shirtless, torso ripped half open.

“What is that?!” She asked worriedly, not expecting the answer she'd receive.

“My….shirt…..”

She brought her son back to the living room after that (once he absorbed and reformed his torso), and got out her phone. She had been hoping she could avoid having to talk to Yuuma for a little while at least but she had no idea what to do about this, nor did Izuku.

“Hello? Doctor Yuuma speaking.”

“Yuuma? It's Inko. I have a question about my sons power.”

“Oh? Well i'll try to answer as best I can. I returned to the lab yesterday, Srijan is gone, must of ran off but I found some notes here that might help.”

“It's simple but….My son tried to take of his clothes to change and it tore his torso in half. He regenerated it quickly enough but I'm not sure what to do now without knowing why that happened.”

“Ah, that I do actually have an answer for. From everything I witnessed yesterday, it's clear the shapeshifting aspect of your sons powers is the main part, and the absorption is mostly a side effect. He doesn't seem to be limited by mass in his body, in fact he seems to be able to lessen and increase it at will judging by the size of those claws.”

“Ok?....What does that actually mean?”

“Sorry, right. Basically so long as your son can get his hands on the right materials and absorb it first he can reproduce whatever he wants. A good way to test this would be to get an eraser to go with the pencil he absorbed. Have him try to reproduce the rubber without absorbing it and it should fail. Then let him absorb it and he can reproduce it as much as he wants, making something as little as a nail or as big as his entire arm into a rubber, it might even help him heal faster in some casea. That's the theory anyways.”

“That's….good to know but I don't get how it  helps with the clothing issue?”

“Right, well as he can reproduce any material, I think when he reformed in the lab he tried to come back perfectly in the state he was in before, absorbing the materials of his clothes  in the process allowing him to reproduce them. Find a shirt that he wouldn't mind potentially losing and have him absorb it. If he is then able to reproduce the shirt on himself, then he can absorb the rest of his wardrobe as well. A bonus of this might also that he will be able to wear those clothes as much as he wants in future, being able to size them up with him.”

“Ok…thanks.”

“One more thing, I mentioned your son being able to reduce his biomass. If he does that while airborne he may be able to glide. I thought I should mention just in case you decide to test his jumping capabilities, might make landing easier…”

Inko actually hit herself in the face with her palm.

“Too late.”

“Oh. Well, that's all I really had. Some of these notes mentioned enhanced senses but i'm not sure if your son will actually develop any. Call me if he does and i'll tell you what I can. Remember, your sons powers are only limited to how imaginative he is.”

“I will, thanks Yuuma.”

With that the woman hung up, and looked over to her son who was passing the time by writing down some notes in a notebook with his pencil finger, seemingly trying to get used to the way he was supposed to write like that.

The front cover was a little childish and the edges looked a bit frayed. Inko swore she could remember buying the book years ago, yet the boy seemed to only be writing down in the second page.

“Come on Izuku, Yuuma told me a way to try to fix our little problem.” Inko said, standing up. Her son followed, closing the book and setting it down. He wandered to his room and inko stole a glance at the cover. Her heart shattered as she realized why it was so old yet unused.

“My power: Notes for the future.”

Tears formed in her eyes, and while she had a chance she stole a quick glance inside. The notes were as detailed as one would of expected them to be, causing the smallest smile to grace the woman’s face as she noticed the rather full page titled “speculation" filled with questions and ideas.

‘your son is only as limited to how imaginative he is.’

If that was the case, he'd be practically limitless.

“Mom? What am I supposed to do?”

“Oh right. Coming sweetie!”

To put a long story short, Yuuma's absorption idea worked as predicted. The young greenette's eyes lit up at the explanation of his absorption. That was how the boy ended up turning his least favorite black t-shirt into a special All Might shirt by combining his absorbed materials. It was also how he ended up with a hand made of rubber.

4. Finally, Izuku's shapeshifting, while powerful, did have limits. They learned that at around the same time the enhanced senses Yuuma mentioned kicked in.

The third day, now that they better understood what they were dealing with was fairly uneventful. Once Midoriya had somewhat grumpily absorbed his food they made their way the park again, Izuku wearing similar clothes to yesterday. The mother had a feeling all his clothes would be emblazoned with All Might from now on.

Nothing particularly eventful had happened. Inko had given him some space and he had immediately tested what Yuuma had suggested. It took a couple of go's but eventually he had floated as light as a feather to the ground after one of his jumps. He had then took off running into the park and Inko had watched as her son seemed to tackle some imaginary obstacle course.

He ran, jumped, glided, flipped over and even sliced through imaginary objects, giving the woman an idea. She pulled out her phone and texted a friend, before taking a picture of her son with his claws out.

Kokoa:

You: Hey. I have a huge favour to ask. It's about izuku.

Kokoa: I'm there for you Inky! I'm always happy to help my favorite little nephew. It's not an issue about his quirk status is it? If anyone said anything I'll sock ‘em!

Inko felt a small smile tug at her lips. Kokoa, an old schoolmate of Inko's had been one of the very few people to never stop treating Izuku differently because of his lack of powers. It was probably that reason the boy had dubbed her his favorite aunt.

You: Not at all! Actually I don't think that will ever be an issue again….

Kokoa: ???

You: IzuClaws.jpg uploaded

You: He finally has one…

Kokoa: WHAT?! OMG WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?! I'M ON MY WAY RN!

You: Sorry! Everything has been so odd the past few days and it didn't develop in the best way possible, I was busy making sure he's safe and alright. It's not a normal quirk. I'll ask that favor when you get here, still the same apartment.

With that inko closed  the conversation and pulled out her camera, calling to Izuku to do some of his moves and use his powers again while she recorded. The recording was both for herself and for Kokoa as he wouldn't be able do some of it inside.

There was also a third reason, more mean-spirited than Inko usually was, but for this person it was deserved. She scrolled to the bottom of her text list and found the one contact she hadn't used in years.

Hizashi Midoriya:

You: I don't even know if this is still your number but…..

You: uploaded IzuClaws.jpg

You: uploaded IzuPowers.mp4

You: He finally has powers, and they are as amazing as he already was. Don't even think about returning though. If you do we won't welcome you back and even if you do show up, he may just slice you in half. He knows why you left.

They had returned home soon after and in the carpark, just having exited her car was Kokoa, long blue hair flowing down to her back and kind green eyes that shined with love.

“Aunt Kokoa!!!” Izuku shouted excitedly, bolting at her as soon as he saw her. She was clearly caught off-guard by his new speed but still reacted in time, a bubble forming underneath him which he bounced off and into her arms while she twirled him around laughing. Inko never failed to smile when the two were together.

“Holy crap kiddo, you're fast. You're getting to big for this as well.” The woman laughed, as a bubble enveloped him and floated him to the ground before popping. “I hear that’s not the only thing you got as well? You're mom told me you finally have a quirk.”

“Yeah! Look!” The kid exclaimed as his arms swirled with tendrils turned into the massive claws. “They're sharp though, mom said not to touch anyone with them.”

“I can see why, they look very sharp. They're also very cool!” Kokoa said smiling at him before fixing Inko with a more serious look. “Isn't it against the rules to use your powers in public though?”

“Yes but we got a temporary pass, similar to yours.” Inko said, showing the woman the slip. The blue haired woman nodded in understanding.

“So it's not like yours, is that what you meant about it being unnatural?” She questioned and Inko shook her head.

“Mom, can I try something to show aunt Kokoa?” Izuku cut in to ask, and the two woman looked between each other. Inko sighed, normally she'd refuse but she was starting to get a little more comfortable with the idea of her son not getting hurt like he used to.

With Kokoa ready in case something went wrong as well, she decided it couldn't hurt. “Go ahead Izuku, just be carful.”

With that the child turn and green eyes followed his movements carefully as prepared to jump. Suddenly he rocketed off and Kokoa stumbled back unprepared. They looked up and hanging on the railing just outside the Midoriya's apartment door was her son, who then crawled in before leaning back over and waving.

“What the….”

“His quirk, ‘Unstable Biomass' didn't just manifest like a normal quirk…..”

So Inko spent the walk up the stair filling in the woman on what had occurred. By the end of it they had reached the apartment and Kokoa had pulled Izuku into a death grip.

They had continued to chat, explaining everything they did (and didn’t understand about it) while Izuku occasionally shifted his hand into various stationary to show off. The TV was on, showing interviews with a variety of pro’s.

Kokoa’s eyes lit up when she saw All Might come on screen and Izuku became enraptured, all attention given to the man. An idea sprung into her head.

“Hey Izuku, sweetie?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a shapeshifter now right?”

“Right!”

“So do you think you can turn into All Might, or your mom or me?” kokoa asked with a soft smile. The greenette’s eyes widened in shock, missing the obvious questions for everything else he had proven himself capable of.

“Hang on.” He said as he puffed his cheeks out, focusing. Inko watched with curiosity and surprise as her son’s hair slowly took on a yellow hue and his freckles disappeared. His face seemed to become more wrinkled, with shadows around his eyes but he didn’t get much farther than that before he started to mess up. A much shorter nose, a more rounded chin, somehow a scar over one of the eyes. His little body didn’t change at all either, though Inko had noticed it seemed more naturally fit than it once was, for a nine year old.

“Aww…” Izuku said, pouting before his features suddenly turned back to normal. Kokoa however laughed happily, pulling him into a hug.

“No, don’t be sad Izu! You almost had it, keep practicing and you’ll get there some day!” She encouraged and the boy nodded determined, while Inko hummed thoughtfully.

“You know sweetie, that’s probably a good thing considering what Yuuma said.”

“Huh?” The boy tilted his head confused

“He said you’d have to absorb people, which you’re obviously not going to do to look like them. I guess you can do it without though, it’s just harder.” Inko muttered, as she walked away from the pot of food she was cooking, no one noticing she forgot to turn off the flame.

“Huh.”

“So Kokoa, the reason I was texting you, you saw how he was moving in that park. You know what his dream’s always been, what it still is….” Inko started and both the aunt and her son’s eyes lit up in realization. The green eyed woman’s husband owned a couple of warehouses on the coast of Mustufa, one of which was rarely ever used. “Do you think we could take him there at some point? I understand if not but I thought I’d ask.”

“I’ll see what I can do, I’m always happy to help my favorite broccoli family.” Kokoa grinned and the mother groaned at the nickname.

“Mom, the food’s overheating. It’s all red.” Izuku said, looking straight up at the pot. The two women turned to the stove, confused. Inko realized she had left it on and quickly turned the knob to the ‘off’ setting but after that she was confused. The pot was green, not red and the flames had been blue.

Where did Izuku get red from?

“Why are you and Auntie Kokoa all yellow?! Why’s the world all blue?!” The shapeshifter asked, seemingly confused and startled. The friends looked between each other.

“It’s ok Izuku, I’ll call Yuuma, don’t worry. Me and Kokoa are fine, she’ll stay here with you.” The mother said in her most soothing tone before she bolted for the phone, calling up the doctor once more.

“Hello? Inko, is that you?”

“Yeah? How did you know?”

“I don’t get that many callers. Something happened with your son?”

“Yeah, he’s seeing stuff weirdly. Apparently a lot of stuff is blue but people are yellow. I nearly burnt our dinner and he picked up on it immediately, saying it was red. The pot’s green so….”

“Ah, this will be the enhanced senses I was talking about.”

“Enhanced senses?”

“Well most of them are mostly unnoticeable unless you’re actively looking for them. Due to the way his body functions now he’s not going to get any kind of blockage or that in his nose or ears, so he can hear more clearly and smell better. The main thing though, he sounds like he’s developed a form of thermal vision.”

“So that means?!”

“He can see heat signatures, even through walls and such. It just comes at the cost of making it harder to see normally. I’m afraid you’ll just have to figure out the trigger for it to turn it off. Also, I know I was a bit late last time but I have what may be a very important note for your son…”

“Ok, and what would that be?”

“As much as I hate to bring up unpleasant memories, especially after my role in all this……I know your son will have been bullied. Considering how you truly seem to love him, and the boy’s father is listed as being outside of Japan, it’s the only logical conclusion to his bruises. It fits in with society’s prejudices as well.”

“Yuuma, I’ll warn you know your on thin ice territory….”

“Of course, I just want to say, your son may be able to harden his biomass beyond its natural resistance, to develop a kind of shield. I thought he might want to know that before he returns to school.”

“We’ll…..keep it in mind.”

They had spent another few hours that day trying to find the boy’s trigger to get his regular vision back. It turned out to be the embarrassingly simple thought of heat that did the trick.

In that time the boy became more comfortable with seeing the world that way, even getting excited over the prospects of it. He only got more excited once Inko explained the shield Idea to him. He accidentally chipped the table, but he did make one there from the idea.

Kokoa grabbed him into another death grip, though this one for more happy reasons will Inko tried not to focus on the unpleasant reality Yuuma had reminded her of.

School still existed, with all of Izuku’s bullies. And he still had to go there.

People were creatures of habit, which worried her more than anything. Would it all prove fruitless to stop the other children?

She hoped not.

Unfortunately, hope didn’t mean much in the real world.

Chapter Text

To say Izuku was nervous would be the very definition of an understatement. He swore even his clawed fingers were sweating when he pulled them out to remind himself of why he should be excited.

He had a quirk. A powerful quirk that could maybe even get Bakugou's respect again. So the sweat running down his head was ridiculous, he'd finally stop the bullying today.

He sighed as he got out of bed, All Might shorts on and no t-shirt on him. It was weird that despite the cold droplets his skin produced, there was no odor in the air. At least none from him. He didn't have a natural scent anymore.

Well he sort of did, depending on what he last absorbed. He'd learned a few small tricks in the past week, such as manipulating his body to release odors that smelt like things he had within him, like the graphite of a pencil.

He pretty much exclusively relied on one scent that he loved though, a shampoo his mom regularly used. It would probably get him into some mocking territory if he ever revealed the scent was called ‘love and lavender' to anyone but it was better than smelling like burnt toast from one of his meals.

Meals……yeah he might start skipping lunch at school for a while. He wouldn't miss out on much anyways. The boy stretched, a completely unnecessary action now but a familiar one before he picked up the nearby remote, flipping trough the recorded shows on the living room television, settling on a documentary about vigilantes.

His forest green eyes darted to the clock on a nearby, seeing that it was four in the morning. Two whole hours before his mom and him would normally get up. Ever since he got his powers he was becoming an early riser. Whether that was because of a mental or physical change, he wasn't sure.

He just had to pass the time, trying not to think to hard about the three imminent events that he was sure would happen that school day, instead trying one of the most basic tricks he had learned so far. He throw a hand behind his back and felt a long thin tendril fly out, attaching to a box he yanked towards himself.

The tendrils were a useful but annoying trick to pull off. They came naturally whenever he attempted to climb something, likely instinct to keep him from getting hurt despite his seeming invulnerability. He had quickly applied the idea of breaking them off for a different purpose though once he had dusted off a few old comics from a time when quirks were just starting to pop up.

Inside the box, beside the notebook he was going for he saw the comics in question which he had kept ready for ideas. He picked one up and smiled wistfully at the title.

“Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, issue 6#"

It was an old collectible, a favorite of the boy's that wasn't related to All Might. Before it had been an amazing escapism, Peter being so different from Izuku and yet in a way the same.

Now? Well Izuku would be lying if he said the wall crawling and super strength hadn't made him think of the fictional hero. It made the comics he had great for plucking theories and ideas to test.

Of course, as soon as that began he knew he'd have to try to replicate the spider themed super's most prominent power, the web slinging. The tendrils his body produced proved to be more the effective both in strength and length. Their stickiness was a bonus and the boy could just pull back in and make them unstick at will.

He was not going to try leaping off a building for a proper test though. He shook his head with a smirk, half listening to the documentary on the T.V now his favorite part had come on. They had somehow gotten an interview with All Might of all people on short notice.

“All Might sir, you are the number one pro and most upstanding hero of all. What are your opinions on vigilantes who illegally use their quirks to help others? How do you stop them?”

“Stop them? Well in all honesty, I don't stop vigilantism much. Make no mistake that I am condoning illegal quirk use but while it may not be a popular opinion, I have something of a begrudging respect for them. There are of course those who are no better than criminals killing other criminals but some are just decent folk who couldn't become pro's for some reason.” All Might said jovially on screen, yhe reporters seemingly captivated with his unique stance. While civilians were mostly accepting of their existence, the earlier parts of the documentary had showed many pro's had a singular opinion on Vigilantes.

“They're no better than any other criminal.”

“We mustn't let these people continue to run around.”

Endeavour, the number two hero sent an agent with a single statement that was…..disheartening even for a pro. “Those job stealers would be better off getting killed for the moronic decisions. Else they should leave it to the only capable people.”

Midoriya never had been keen on the number two hero. He was always a jerk. He shook his head as he flipped through pages of his notebook, looking for a list as he continued to listen to one of his favorite All Might speeches.

“Doing the right thing and doing the lawful thing, sadly, are not always the same thing. If I were for whatever reason incapacitated and a civilian saved me with their quirk from a villain that act can be considered illegal in itself but then you must consider their other option would be to let me die. That would not be illegal but if I were just a child for example, no one would dare say it was the right choice.” All Might explained the scenario somberly, almost as if it was a memory and not a hypothetical scenario. “A true hero will always do what's right, even when every rule they know tries to prevent it. That’s why I cannot truly consider vigilantism a mere crime in this world. To those who do face danger though, no matter who you are or what rules you have to break to do it, when you do the right thing, I may not be there"

The pixels on the television that represented the man pointed with one hand to his heart.

“But I AM here. We all are.” The hulking blonde then let out the boisterous laugh he loved so much, as the hero turned and made his way away from the T.V. crew. “Now you'll have to excuse me, my PR agent is going to kill me for what i've said here.”

The documentary then cut to advertisements Midoriya had no interest in, while he smiled and looked at a page in his notebook of what he had figured out so far. The number one pro had received a lot of flak after that statement, but it barely lasted a week due to how much people loved him. They all just agreed at least to disagree with his take.

Midoriya however, he got the man's point. Professional Heroes were just vigilantes with fancy licenses that acted as get out of jail free cards for quirk use anyway when you stopped to think about it.

He shook his head, crossing something out in the book and giving it a once over.

Notes and Ideas

Confirmed Powers/Abilities:
1. Regeneration/durability (I can't be killed the doctor lady said? Mom wouldn't let me test this though.)
2. Wall Crawling and running + Super Agility (I don't remember being able to the kind of flips that seem natural now. It's odd. Fun though! Mom keeps getting me in trouble for eating my snacks on the roof now. Note: do try to consume liquids while upside down.)
3. Thermal vision. (I can see heat if I think about heat, I think? It's weird. Might be good for stealth though. All my powers are pretty good for stealth actually if applied properly.)
4. Weapons and Armor. (This one is especially weird, i'll need to make another section for more notes on it and ideas but I can turn parts of my body into weapons and armor, as well as other kinds of stuff if I try probably. My main weapon is super sharp claws and I can make shield to….shield myself. I'll have to try to think up some other weapon ideas before the pass runs out.)
5. Tendrils-skin webs- no tendrils. (Tendrils is such a boring name but skin web sounds like a disease. I can use tendrils formed of my biomass I think to grab things ala webbing. I can pull it back into me at will so unlikely there's any kind of ‘limit' to how much I can use it. If I don't re-absorb it and use it to much though my body might start tearing apart. Not gonna risk that. Uses not tested yet. (Capture? Navigation?))
6. Absorbtion (I think this is my ‘main' ability is it were. I can pull in anything I want and recreate as I want or if I don't break it down, store stiff and pull it back out like storage. Feels weird though.)
7. Izuku Sense (Ok not really, I just wanted to say that after I realized I could. All my senses are like….really hyper aware. I keep hearing things that i'm sure are miles away and feeling things just before they happen. Its not EMP but It's made my reflexes awesome and I just kind of…..know whats happening around me, when someone's watching me ect.)

My absorption ability doesn't seem to have a limit, so i'm keeping a list her of everything I have available to me and what I should consider trying to absorb.

Absorbed stuff:
• A pencil (My finger turns into a graphite pencil. Doesn't seem to get blunt.)
• A pencil case full of stationary. (I absorbed this all at once, so things might be a little different but I can more or less just reproduce the items similar to my finger pencil. Parts just reform normally for some reason? Maybe I need to adjust my body before I can use certain things?)
• Scalpels (similar to my finger pencil but comes from my nails. Creepy. Might be useful for lock picking or something.)
• A lot of clothes and fabrics. (All my clothes from my closet and a bunch of blank different colored shirts my mom bought for me, as well as fabric she had from her high school fashion club left over. I think i'm more or less set for clothes though….maybe I should try to get my hands on some spandex? Still don't have to worry about getting into high school for a while but maybe having a hero costume would be good? Actually….---

Midoriya stood up as he remembered something, the documentary on the TV ending. It would still be another half an hour before Inko woke up so he could have a test run at this.

He looked through his closet, searching in the corners for a set of outfits he had almost forgotten about. Finally his hands landed on the cold spandex and a nostalgic smile came onto his face as he pulled out a yellow, white and blue jumpsuit.

An All Might jumpsuit he had used to wear all the time. He sighed gently as he placed both his hands on it, absorbing it in. He hoped this would work, not wanting to lose something he had so many fond memories of for no reason.

Once he knew the spandex was a part of him, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, looking into the mirror as he shut the door behind him. He took breathe as he looked at his shirtless form and felt small smirk at his smooth face, having gotten rid of his freckles. It was a small, almost inconsequential change but it was nice reminder with practice he'd be able to yet more than he already could.

Plus it might be useful as a jumping off point to explain his new quirk to people. He shook his head to get himself back on track, taking in his form.

In an instant red tendrils engulfed his whole body, forming the small outfit he had just absorbed but now perfectly sized to the boy, making him smile.

‘Little tacky though…’ He considered lightly as he tugged at it. It was the material he needed, combined with the coloring from some other things. He could create whatever clothes he wanted, it would be fun to mock up a costume he thought.

However it quickly proved a little frustration as nothing looked quite right. The first thing he had tried was a simple green jumpsuit with a hood and black highlights. It was inspired directly from one of his hero books, a daydream he often had and once upon a time he may loved what he was seeing…..something was off though. It didn't feel right now.

He cycled through various colors and variations trying to find something he liked. There was a lot of odd things he added or changed, he even tried a leotard for some reason.

Actually he was weirdly comfortable with it, liking it better than the rest of the things he tried. He had a feeling other bystanders would be a little uncomfortable with it though and he did not want to have to explain to his mom why, mainly cause he didn't know.

It did give him an idea though as he looked at the pure black tight fitting outfit, legs and sleeves suddenly forming on it, fitting snug to the not-quite-teen. He tilted his head, turning around and letting a red hood form. It was looking better but it was still not quite right.

Next, he tried a mask, first only a kind of bandanna but that made him look criminal so he moved up to a full face mask, with red eye lenses that had grey outlines. It looked pretty awesome in all but he couldn't pinpoint what was missing still.

He could feel how close he was to getting something he liked but it wasn't quite there. What was the missing detail?-

“Izuku?” A groggy voice asked from the other side of the door. Inko must of woke up. “You left those comics out. You didn't stay up all night reading again did you?”

“No! I just was looking at them for my notebook.” He said, voice somewhat muffled but his green eyes had gone wide beneath the lenses. Her mention of the comics made him realize what was missing.

He focused on the mirror once more and the hands turned red, matching his feet which just had his normal red sneakers over it. The legs had to sharp lines that looked like very thin triangles going up to his knees either side. A bunch of green lines coated many of the black parts of the costume while grey ones covered the red parts like the hood. The prominent detail that brought it all together laid on his chest though, what seemed like a random blob of green with a circle around it, grey on the top and green on the bottom.

The blob wasn't completely random though, it was based on what he remembered his flesh looking like whenever it came off. His smile grew wide as he pulled off the mask, deliberately having made it removable. “Awesome….”

“Izuku? You are getting ready for school right? I know you moght be uncomfortable with going-"

“It's fine mom, i'm fine.” The boy called through as he committed his look to memory before changing it into his school clothes. He could show her after school, when they went to his aunts warehouse. For now…..it was time to try and hope that things would be different at school.

Earlier that week

“Dr. Hiko…..” A masculine voice said, causing the brunette doctor to drop her pencil in surprise, swirling around to see a man she didn’t recognize with jet black hair looking at here with a cruel, cold smirk.

She didn’t recognize him, he wasn’t part of the staff or patients and all vistors should have been gone. What truly caught her off-guard though was the deathly glare. It had a terrifying murderous intent in it.

“You can’t be here, y-you’re trespassing.” She said, pointing at the door. “Get out before I have to call the police.”

“Oh Hiko. I can’t do that.” He said, stalking towards her. She tried to run but before her foot couldn’t even hit the ground again a hand wrapped around her throat and cold dead eyes met hers. “I’m sorry to do this to a fellow doctor, but you have something I need.”

Her eyes went wide as a hot sharp pain shot throughout her abdomen, and blood began to leak out. She struggled for breath that wouldn’t come, her lungs punctured. She looked down and saw her flesh seemingly deforming and being pulled into the man.

Then, she had no more thoughts as her body was all but gone from existence, a pool of blood the only indicator she had ever been there.

And stood alone in that office, a smile crossed Srijan’s face.

He’d find the brat in time, the memories of the doctor could only help towards that cause. With that thought, he opened a window and jumped out before he could be found, running away.

As he ran, he considered his next move once he found the Midoriya's. However a weird urge was swelling within, as he reflected over the events that had occurred so far.

He had been confused for just a moment once he'd reformed, unsure of who he was or what he was. He had looked around and the memories had flooded into him, pain following just behind.

He was…..the kid was a success.

That stupid woman ripped away his perfect specimen, his ticket to power, to no longer being quirkless.

But she took him before he could confirm anything and now he was pumped full of a vial he couldn't know the full effects of. He should of foreseen something like this happening but he didn't and now he had to find them.

Yuuma would rat him out. Sully his name. He really hoped the virus worked as intended. He stumbled over to the window and clambered out, not wanting to run into anyone.

It was dark out and he was stumbling, feeling like he'd pass out any moment. The brat hadn't been this disorientated right? His age must of made it harder to adjust.

His vision blurred every now and then and his flesh ached. He tripped over himself as he made it into and alleyway and crashed into a wall, holding his side. He stayed for a few moments, trying to catch his bearings.

That's when it happened for the first time. Something was pressed into his back and a gruff threatening voice spoke.

“Unfortunate luck, stumbling into my alley injured, friend. I hope you got your wallet on you. Otherwise I think i'll be making a withdrawal from the bloodbank.” The criminal threatened and Srijan groaned. He didn't have the patience for some punk who thought he was witty. He swung a fist around and hit the man square in the head, which got violently smashed into the wall as a result.

Needless to say, the criminal wouldn't be threatening people anymore. Not without a head. What did catch the mutating doctor off guard was the tendrils all wrapping into him from the man, pulsing and being pulled in.

The world disappeared in a haze as the same street formed again but now he was walking down it drinking coffee. “Man this shithole sucks. Need to get some cash…”

A black car suddenly pulled past and inside were people the man didn't recognize. The weird images stopped and once more Srijan was back in the alley, feeling refreshed and healed but confused.

He recognized those people…..and now he had an idea were they went. He turned to take one last look at where the corpse he'd created would have been had the absorption not kicked in.

A puddle lf blood was the only indicator something happened. Srijan felt a small, cruel unexplainable smile form on his face.

He had been responsible for a lot of deaths until now, but he had never seen the direct aftermath to associate it with himself, he was always detached from it.

This time though it had been instant, personal, satisfying, it felt good. The absorption was even better, he had never felt a euphoria like it as his body became stronger, better.

With that thought, he set off to find the Midoriya's, the fragments of a new idea, a new goal coming into being

Srijan was snarling like a vicious animal as he leapt from building to building, a pro hero by the moniker "Hopsy" having spotted him. She was stubborn, but he was clever, he ducked and dodged, jumping between high and low points while she tried to keep up with her bunny like power.

It had been another two days since he had murdered Hiko and found out where he could find the Midoriya's. By all accounts he should have been able to get there in no time, or so he had thought. He had forgotten to consider all the pro's between the two places he'd have to avoid using his powers near.

Then this damned rabbit girl spotted him.

“Doctor Srijan! You're the guy whose had a warrant put out for his arrest, you murderer!” So…..Yuuma finally got around to getting him into serious trouble. Great.

It took some time but he managed to hide and evade her, losing her in an alley below, at least he thought he had until a shadow fell in front of him and a foot collided violently with his chest, knocking him into a brick wall.

His body, having not yet prepared for beatings like this quickly shut down and rebooted. One second the pro had been standing at the end of the alley menacingly, the next she was over him, inspecting his body.

“-Id I kill him? Oh god…” He took his chance while she was distracted. Claws shooting out as he'd seen in Hiko's memories and catching her right in the throat. A brief squeal escaped her much like an actual rabbit as it died. The lights of her eyes faded quick and she was added to his collection of absorbed people. He felt his legs get stronger especially and felt his whole form get renewed, better, stronger.

It was addicting. Then he realized he had a problem.

He had been rushing to the Midoriya's for two reasons, one of which was now moot. He had wanted to salvage his name if possible and he had thought Yuuma would sit on the information for a while until he could keep his own name clear.

He had been wrong clearly and now he was labeled a villain. He supposed it was true but it was a complication he didn't like. Now he was left with only his first goal and his thoughts.

The idea that had started to from two days ago came back and suddenly a grin broke out on his face.

He could feel it in his legs. The rabbit woman’s quirk was a part of him now making him stronger, better. It wasn't enough though, no amount of power the virus or a single person alone gave could be enough.

It didn't need to be a single person though. He couldn't cast aside this villainous reputation he would now have. He didn't  want to really. He just wanted to be strong, above everyone.

Like they always thought they were above him.

He was weak though. He could be stopped by a simple group of pro's with decent training right now. Training his powers and his skills popped into mind but he quickly shook it away.

That would take too much time. He needed a large boost all at once, from strong people without them fighting back. He slowly wandered out of the alley and felt a satisfied smirk take hold as he looked at a flyer pinned upon a wall.

‘I-ISLAND PROTOTYPE EVENT: COME HAVE SOME QUIRK BASED FUN FOR A WEEKEND!’

Srijan felt gears start turning.

Chapter Text

Midoriya pushed open the door to his school and slowly made his way throughout the halls to find his locker. He had come earlier than he normally would, and everyone was busy in the halls talking before class.

Normally he would come in right as class was about to start, avoiding the majority of people and being able to just slip into class without getting into any trouble. There was no way he could stay in his apartment for much longer though, his mother’s own nervousness was radiating and infectious to his already shaky demeanor.

He swallowed as he felt the eyes glazing over him. Glares all around. The world seemed to come into focus, into horrible, horrible focus.

‘It-it’s fine Izuku. Once they see your quirk they….they won't hurt you.’

People muttered among themselves still yet seemed to be quieter, he was aware of them pointing.

“Hey there’s the freak.” One girl whispered and he flinched. She was so quiet and yet….so loud.

“Heh, thought he died or something. He’s like a cockroach.” One boy said, down the hall. Midoriya shouldn’t even of been able to here him but he could and it caused the greenette to duck his head. ‘They’ll stop soon. They have too… they have too….’

“He looks like one too.”

“Hah.”

The boy did his best not to think about the moisture in his eyes. None of them seemed to realize he could hear them because he shouldn’t be able to hear them.

But he could. He could and he wished he couldn’t but he could. On top of that it was like the entire world was presenting itself to him at the same time, filling his mind when he wasn’t focused on the insults and glares.

Every little scrape of skin against metal and fabric. Taps of pencils on boards and teachers writing on boards to prepare for their classes. Things he knew happened but now….

It was like it was he was everywhere, despite his physical body being only in the hall.

His breathing hitched as he turned the corner and saw the one thing he had wanted to avoid today.

Stood just a foot away from the boy’s own locker was a blonde boy of a similar age leaning against the wall with a frown, two cronies talking to him. Until they noticed the boy that is.

The blond opened his eyes and quickly a scowl appeared across his face.

‘Kacchan.’

“Deku.” Bakugou growled as he stalked forward, palms lighting up ever so slightly. A part of the greenette screamed to run, to hide before Bakugou beat him into a fine paste.

He didn't run. He reminded himself of a simple fact that made it seem feasible the boy could end the physical bullying. ‘I can't be hurt….’

With that he took a steadying breath as met the blonde's glare with his own curious gaze. “Y-yes Kacchan?”

“The fuck do you get off just disappearing then showing back up like its nothing?” He questioned as he gritted his teeth. Midoriya's frowned and for once almost laughed.

“That's the best reason you can think of to act like a villain Kacchan?” He asked simply. ‘Holy crap I actually did it, I said something back.’

“The fuck?!” Bakugou started to lift his hand, everyone around them watching waiting for the greenette to inevitably be turned to paste. Even Midoriya flinched for a moment. “Apologize you useless shit.”

Midoriya opened his mouth but then….he was no longer looking at Bakugou and his confused cronies. He wasn't hearing the little sparks of his explosions.

His senses seemed to focus, and suddenly he saw in the crowd of the students a teacher he didn't recognize, with long black hair wearing a cardigan and pencil skirt. She seemed to be watching cautiously and to anyone else she'd look like just a normal teacher.

To Izuku, something about her set him so on edge his senses dragged him away from the immediate danger….unless….

The world suddenly flashed, colors inverting for just a moment as his head seemed to squeeze around his brain. His eyes widened.

“DON'T FUCKING IGNORE ME!”

Suddenly he was seeing normally once more and Bakugou's hand was inches from blasting him to kingdom come. The old Midoriya would be screwed.

He wasn't the old Midoriya. His own shot out fast enough to look as if they just snapped to an outside observer, grabbing the blonde's hand tight and halting his progress.

The blast went off and smoke covered them for a moment. When it cleared a few shouts rang out and even Bakugou looked shocked. Midoriya's head now had a massive hole in it.

“WHAT THE-"

Then it reformed, frowning. “That's….the second time you've almost killed me….that's why your like a villain…”

That was a lie. He had deliberately weakened his skin. But if he had this one last chance to change to change his friend, he had to take it…

The blonde suddenly tried to attack with his other hand. Midoriya was faster, grabbing the other hand and his body moved to protect him before he could prevent it.

He wished he had as he throw Bakugou over his head and watched him sail across the hall, cringing as he smashed into the nurses door, and flew through.

“Well….at least its convenient for the nurse…” One lf the cronies muttered in surprise. Midoriya turned to level a glare at them both and they ran. ‘Hopefully…that stops it…’

It was a pipe dream with Bakugou, but he could hope.

Around him everyone muttered among themselves, staring at him in shock and pity. He knew where the second one came from, everyone had been on Bakugou's hit list at one point.

Just cause Izuku was his favorite didn't make the greenette his only target.

“Holy shit he has powers now?”

“That was honestly kinda cool…”

“He's still a freak. Just a different kind.”

Midoriya frowned at it all. He couldn't change things that easily with everyone. It didn't hurt really. He knew it was just a desperate hope.

The hypocrisy of the ones who actually seemed to change their opinion was what really got to him.

“Mr. Midoriya.” A feminine voice called him, sounding displeased. He turned to look and saw the teacher from before.

The world flashed again. The squeezing returned.

‘Does…does that mean there's danger?!’

“Your coming with me-" She started to demand but before she could finish Izuku turned and ran. “HEY GET BACK HERE!”

He could of outpaced anyone if he needed to. That is if his path wasn't blocked ny anything. He wasn't that lucky.

“Oof!” He banged into something fleshy, knocking him on his ass. He looked up to see the headmaster of the school staring at him disapprovingly. “Uh….”

“Office. Now.”

"You nearly hospitalized him!” The grey haired, potbellied man shouted, eyes glowing red. His clawed hands dragged along his massively damaged desk in frustration.

“I'm sorry! But…I don't…” Midoriya took a breath, trying to calm himself.

If there was one man he refused to ever cry in front of, it was headmaster Hidou. The man was the epitome of everything the greenette hated about his school life.

Even Bakugou Midoriya had done everything he could to try to tolerate and even now, he didn't hate the other boy, just his behavior.

Hidou he could say, he definitely and unequivocally hated. He swore the man actually rewarded Bakugou for some of his attacks on the greenette. He often cursed out the quirkless in front of his entire class, picking him out as a bastard child that didn't need the education.

He never told his mom, he realized. She couldn't handle knowing what he was like, when he had already forced so many of his problems on her.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he heard the woman from before shuffling about behind him. He did his best to ignore her for now.

“Right of course. These new powers…” The man muttered, before suddenly smiling and practically acting like a kicked puppy, looking at the boy with pity. “Well I suppose it can't be held against you. I need to punish you obviously though so….just come here at lunch and tell me about them. That works.”

Midoriya did his best not to make his glare obvious. He was also a hypocrite and a coward. Refusing to discipline any child just because they have a powerful quirk or power.

“Fine.”

“Sir..” The woman spoke up with a look and the man rolled his eyes.

“Right.” The headmaster reached into one of his drawers and pulled out a flyer and set of tickets he handed to the boy. Midoriya quirked a brow as he looked down at the event it was promoting.

‘I-Island: A quirky event for the whole family!’

“W-what's this?” He asked confused, flipping through it.

“Basically a island amusement park where quirk use is permitted. It isn't set to open properly for a few years but they're holding a kind of beta test with a few hundred people.” The older man explained. “I got the tickets from-"

He suddenly froze and Midoriya looked up confused but he shook his head and continued before the boy could figure out what caused the pause.

“-From the staff, for any students they think would be interested and benefit from the experience.” Midoriya didn't need his enhanced senses to tell that was a lie. “Those quirks passes don't last that long, so it could be good for you, catch up to your classmates. Just want to help my students.”

Midoriya wanted to tear the tickets apart. He wanted to pull out his claws and tear them mans desk apart. He wanted to tell him if really wanted to help he should quit.

Instead, he placed the tickets in his pocket and walked away.

“Uh, Midoriya, miss Rye needed to-"

“She stats away from me.” Midoriya said with a tone of finality. He rushed off before the man could object, not that he really had to worry.

He hated using a trick Bakugou did but he had to keep her away somehow. As long as Hidou thought he was in danger of provoking someone powerful, he'd cave.

“Sorry. I guess he's not gonna be talking.” The headmaster said with a frustrated sigh, annoyed to lose the one kid no one cared about. Now he had to actually act like he cared.

“Shit man. I'm evil and even I think you're a dick.” A masculine voice left the woman’s mouth and the headmaster jumped up in surprise as she started to be covered in red tendrils before finally, a dark haired man stood in her place. “You got the tickets to the brat though, which is all I need.”

“Who the hell are you?!” The teacher shouted as he rushed for his phone. A claw piercing through his eyes and out the back of his head prevented him from reaching it.

“Depends on how the next week goes. Might be a child murderer…”

A slow grin grew. “Or I might be a father. We'll see.”

The rest of school day passed by quickly enough. Midoriya returned to the headmasters office at lunch, and was frightened by the world flashing once more.

He choose to not enter, heading off to lunch.

Some people still insulted him and mocked him, even after they learned of the news. Others actually acted like they liked him now. The greenette couldn't decide what behavior he hated more.

Still, physically at least he was left alone. Bakugou remained in the nurses office all day, apparently knocked out from the shock of what happened but otherwise uninjured.

The train ride left him contemplating the teachers suggestion. He looked at the tickets, inviting him to the event the following Monday to Thursday.

He frowned as he recalled the flashing of the world. (He had added to the izuku sense section of his notes.) Why would he be in danger from them though?

And why did the suggestion set him on edge? It was like his body knew something his brain didn't.

It had to be dangerous right? So he shouldn't go.

Just, he had to figure out how to explain it to a pro.

Yeah, he just needed to explain it a pro.

Inko looked up from the dishes she was washing as Izuku walked in, looking more confused than hurt or heartbroken like she had been worried her baby would be.

“How did it go sweetie?”

“Fine. It went…well enough…”

“Sweetie?”

The boy pulled out a flyer and some tickets from his bag.

“Mom. I think we should go to I-Island. I….please?”

She looked it over, as the boy explained everything he needed to. She considered it for a moment before nodding her head. “Yeah, ok. I suppose if it's already paid for….your sure? What exactly made you want to go?”

She failed to hear his mutter about how he couldn't get any pro's to take him seriously.

Chapter Text

Midoriya tried his best over the coming week not to think too much about the potential danger. He didn't know what exactly it meant and as far as he was aware, it could be entirely dependent on his appearance at the Island.

Still, knowing something dangerous could be going down made it hard to relax, as he ran throughout the empty warehouse he was in, aunt and mother watching him.

He jumped onto the wall, before latching onto the roof and crawling across it quickly, standing up (down?) with his feet helping him stay stuck. Then he dropped above a broken and unused car husk which he promptly smashed in, unaided by anything but his full natural strength.

He did find a bit of respite in continuing his power experimentation with a fun little obstacle course his aunt pulled together from scraps. She had even said he could come back to use it any time he needed, as no one really paid attention to this warehouse anymore, so if he needed to test his powers she could lend her quirk pass to him.

Speaking of testing, he'd had an idea for his claws. He flipped off the car, movements seeming almost as simple as thinking of them. Across the room was a set of empty bottles and mannequins.

His claws formed once more and he pointed them forth, focusing on the joints they were attached to. It took a second for him to figure it out but when he did, the three sharp blades that overtook his fingers launched out, each taking out a mannequin before Midoriya sent out a tendril to pull the bottles towards him. As they began to fall he rushed forward, leaping and twisting to run across the roof, using his other Intact claw to tear through them.

“WOOO! GO IZUKU!” Kokoa cheered happily with a bright smile that Izuku met with one of his own. He had a feeling he'd be using this place a lot in preparation for whatever he might find at I-island.

He didn't plan to fight, just to get proof of danger and then convince the pro's there to help. He could be sure now that the flashes were some kind of danger warning, as he had tested the theory extensively just in case.

As long as he was in immediate danger or doing something would put him danger, his body warned him against it. He couldn't help but laugh when he recalled joking about an Izuku sense in his notebook.

He shook his head, as he spotted another mannequin hidden behind cover. He had to focus for now. There was always the chance he'd need to fight.

Srijan grumbled as he took in the dead headmaster's form in the mirror. He'd prefer the doctors form over this but he needed the mans influence for now. Not to mention access to the surprisingly advanced chemistry lab, for a middle school.

He certainly wasn't complaining though, as it made his work easier. That's where the on-the-run scientist could be found now, mixing a batch of chemicals together from memory while he rewrote a specific teachers lesson plan.

‘I almost feel like a schoolgirl, teasing you like this.’ He thought wistfully with a creepy grin, as he added a drop of a chemical he had pulled out from his coat. ‘Got to be carful, not got much of that monsters special quirk left…’

Before he had started his experiments on the quirkless, he had been researching another topic, one he still remembered the intricacies of.

Izuku sighed as he tapped his pencil against his desk, ignoring the stares of other people. One or two had had the nerve to try to befriend him now.

He'd almost said yes just to not be alone for so long during the day until they had continued talking crap about quirkless people.

“Well, you have powers now. You get it? They're still weak.”

Midoriya had ended up shouting at him to stay away from the greenette upon hearing that. So now he sat alone, Bakugou’s glare pressing into him as they waited for their teacher.

The blonde had yet to retaliate for what happened. Izuku knew he was just waiting until they were alone to ‘chat.’

“Sorry to keep you waiting everyone!” A masculine voice came as a muscular man with red hair and a goatee rushed in, wearing a similarly colored suit and waving frantically. “There was a last minute change of plans to our curriculum. I was…against it but it seems the headmaster was insistent despite your age.”

People looked around in surprise at that, quirking their brows. Textbooks laid in front of them. both for history and for biology. It was an odd combo.

“Please turn to page forty, and page seventy-eight in each book. Today, we're learning about a horror that plagued humanity long before quirks. The disease known as black death…..”

The lesson stuck with Izuku, due to how out of place it was in the curriculum, and how horrific some of the depictions and descriptions were. It was no wonder the teacher hadn't wanted to teach it to them, it seemed more like a high school subject.

Overall the teen hadn't particularly cared about the reasoning though, knowing who had apparently enforced it. He considered that it could be as simple as Hidou being incompetent and/or feeling like screwing with the students now he no longer had an easy target.

“Deku.”

The teen blinked as he turned to see Bakugou, who stood alone. He cringed slightly as he prepared himself for a fight, noting the anger in his bullies voice.

“How?” The blonde asked simply, and Midoriya blinked, as he relaxed ever so slightly.

“What do you mean, Kacchan?”

“How did you get them. What…is it a quirk?”

He was surprisingly calm, for the anger that still seemed to radiate off his person but Midoriya had a feeling he know why. ‘He knows it isn't a quirk, he's just double checking…’ “The reason….i disappeared last week. There was a experiment thing….a pretty….illegal one we found out later. I was…they made me evolve, used my lack of a quirk to turn me into something else. I can…I can regenerate, I have shapeshifting…I’m strong…”

The blonde left off a small explosion in frustration as he glared, but he made no move to attack. “Tch. I saw those flyers. Should of known you'd go.”

“I-"

“You got lucky! You caught me off-guard. Don't you go thinking your better than me, your still a worthless pebble for me to step over!” Bakugou snarled out, as he turned away, and began to walk. “I'd prove it right now, but my mom's waiting. Don't even think you stand a chance of becoming a hero. A monster like you has no chance.”

Midoriya’s eyes widened as his stomach flipped. “M-monster?!”

“It’s not a damn heroes quirk! You’re a freak! Those claws are something a villain uses!”

Midoriya looked down, for once the words actually getting to him. Because for once they actually rang true in some way. ‘I….i do look like a monster. It….would be a good quirk for a villain. But…but I'm not one! I'm not….’

He looked away, running off as he tried to dry the moisture in his eyes. ‘I'm not a monster!’

Before he knew it, it was time. He could only train so much but he hoped it was enough, as the greenette and his mother made their way to the train station, ready to head off to I-Island.

He hadn't packed that much, ultimately convincing his mom it would better to just let him form his own clothes anyways. The two hurried, grabbing an early train that ended up being mostly empty.

The two worried about the trip for wildly different reasons, Inko wanting it to be a good experience for her son and to help continue to adjust. For Izuku, he was just hoping he wasn't making a mistake by coming to the island. He still had no idea what exactly to expect, and that did nothing to help his nerves.

Ultimately it took them the majority of the day to get there, due to the distance, meaning they only managed to arrive towards the night. As they stepped out, they got a good look at the Island and the child decided it was worth the visit even if his life was at stake.

It was a gorgeous city full of skyscrapers, skyline filled with bright lights illuminating the night, adding to it's beauty. Some people could be seen wandering about, using their quirks and laughing as they played around.

Midoriya couldn't help his happy smile as he watched two kids run past, having a water pistol fight with their hydrokinetic powers as their father shouted after them.

“Wow…” Inko muttered as she took it in and Midoriya nodded in agreement, unable to add anything beyond that. “Come on Izuku. We'll have to find our hotel quick.”

“Righ-" He suddenly stopped and sniffed the air before grimacing. “Ugh.”

“Hm? What's the matter sweetie?” Inko asked with a quirked brow, turning back towards her son.

“The smell, you don't smell that?” He asked, as he looked around for the source.

“No. Maybe its just your stronger senses?” She suggested as she turned and they continued on their way towards a receptionist.

“Maybe…”

A few hours later and the two were preparing to sleep in their hotel, Inko falling asleep quickly while her son still laid awake, staring at the ceiling deep in thought.

They had been given a quick tour of the prototype island that was apparently barely a third of the size of the real thing. Roughly three hundred people were here for the event. However, much to the younger Midoriya’s dismay, there was hardly any pro's.

Despite the large amount of peoplebeing left to use quirks freely on the island, there was only 10 heroes assigned to the event, of which Midoriya only immediately recognized two.

New up and comer Backdraft and a bunny themed pro known as hoppsy, a favorite amongst children with her rabbit like quirk and theme.

The staff of the event seemed to think they didn't need any pro's with the in-built security systems on the island, of turrets and robots. Izuku wasn't really put at ease with that.

‘At least there are pro's around at all…’

With that thought, he fell into a fitful sleep.

He couldn't start investigating until the morning where he could investigate the island properly, without being locked out from every place.

His investigation ended up being fruitless, he concluded by the same time the next night. He had barely found anything that could point him in the right direction.

He had managed to snag a guest list from the reception desk, just barely by distracting the receptionist while his mother was talking with another parent. He was lucky his tentacles could change colors to blend in.

In the end, it was pretty useless as he couldn't locate any known trouble makers.

He had also almost been thrown out of the aquarium on the island when he'd ended up harassing the owner too much over any potentially suspicious staff members.

He shivered as he recalled the man’s glare when he threatened to throw the boy into the shark tank if he kept making insinuations about the staff.

Despite all the set backs though, he did find one thing that left him truly suspicious. When he and his mother had been walking back to the hotel, he'd seen flesh on the wall not unlike what remained from his own tentacles when he wasn't careful.

That alone wouldn't be suspicious, but its placement was. It was up high, just under the duo's window. While it could be mistaken by another for his own residue, he knew it was impossible for it to be his.

He hadn't used his powers anywhere near the hotel yet.

Initially one could consider it to simply be from a quirk that also used flesh and just happened to be in the area. However looking at the remnant, revealed it was to perfectly alike to Izuku's own, making another quirk unlikely.

He did have a theory though, one that set him quite on edge.

At first, he hadn't understood his mother and Yuuma's anger at the doctor who had injected him, because he'd got his powers like he wanted. However, he eventually understood when Inko explained what the man had done to get there, killing people without regard.

He was no better than a villain. The teen hadn't put much thought towards the man beyond that. He was aware that he'd ran away, despite his mother trying to hide it and he knew the man could be dangerous….

But only once he saw the bit of flesh on the window that he had now trapped in a glass jar to inspect, did he understand what Srijan had been doing. It was so simple in retrospect that Midoriya was surprised no one had figured out when he had.

Why would someone evil try to give the quirkless quirks, an act typically considered to be good by the public, when presented in fiction. The simplest answer: Srijan was quirkless. He wanted powers himself and didn't want to risk testing anything on his own body.

Midoriya stood up from his best, taking a few steadying breathes as he creeped around, trying to hype himself up. ‘You can do this. Your not quirkless or useless anymore’

He grabbed his mother's phone as his body swirled with tendrils, before he looked down to see the costume he had designed from before on him. ‘I really want to be wrong…but there's only one way to know…’

He walked up to the window, opening it and sparing one quick look back to his mom, as he whispered under his breathe. “Love you. Be back soon.”

With that, the shapeshifter quickly clambered out the window, latching to the wall and looking around. ‘Heightened senses, don't fail me now. Where's Srijan…where's the path leading me to him.’

As if in response, his vision seemed to focus on a building not to far away, where another patch of flesh remained. ‘Gotcha.’

With that, the teen leapt into the night sky, starting a free fall towards the ground, tumbling violently for a moment before a tentacle shot out from his hand, catching the same spot the flesh remnant was in.

He suddenly bounced up before hitting the ground and he used the momentum to run up and across the building. Another web of skin and flesh shot out and he took to the sky as he searched out another clue.

He continued to spot a pattern, a path and he grinned, letting his momentum carry him forth. He twisted around the next building, leapt over the top of a statue and slide down a slanted roof, before slingshotting himself with two webs across the empty streets.

As he continued to jump from building to building, using tentacles to help himself swing along the way, he pulled out his mothers phone he had tucked into a pocket he'd added into the suit.

‘If anyone will know…’

He quickly searched his mothers contacts, mentally berating her for not putting on a lock screen. It didn't take long to find Yuuma's contact information.

“Hello? Inko?” The blonde's tired voice came through and Midoriya frowned, hoping he didn't wake the man.

“Actually it's me, doctor Yuuma.” He responded as ran across an alley wall and leapt over another building, noticing he was heading for the center of the island.

“Izuku? Is everything alright?!” The blonde questioned, with a concerned tone of voice.

“That…we'll see about it. I need to ask a few questions. And please, don't tell my mom about this…”

“I…alright? Is it about your powers?”

“Actually…it's about…Sr-Srijan.”

There was a moment of silence as the man seemed to shuffle about on the other end while Izuku perched atop a statue head, losing sight of the trail he was following.

“Are you ok, Midoriya?! He didn't find you did he?” The man suddenly asked, panicked.

“I'm fine doc! But….Yuuma, is possible he could of got the same powers as me, if he injected himself?”

“Well…” A sigh came from the phone. Midoriya could already tell he wouldn't like what he heard. “It's certainly possible yeah, as far as I saw Srijan never told anyone about his quirk. There was a rumour he was quirkless. I didn't believe it myself, even after you all came in. But now….some stuff i've read from his notes…”

“Shit.”

“A kid your age shouldn't say that.” Yuuma scolded, seemingly automatically. “But yeah, the only way I could confirm it is to count the amount of serums left over compared to the one's there should have been. Unfortunately, I don't know how many there were, he kept them from me.”

“So in other words-"

“I have no way of knowing yeah. What exactly is making you ask?” The doctor questioned with equal amounts of curiosity and worry.

“I just….I'm at I-Island, and my powers keep trying to warn me about danger here. There's like this flashing thing that keeps happening whenever I encounter something dangerous and….i think he's here.”

“…”

“Yuuma….why? What reason could he have for being here?”

“At a guess? The want-it, need-it effect.”

Midoriya blinked in surprise as he stood, up, leaping from his perch onto a nearby building. He could hear someone else nearby…’He's close…’ “Want-it need-it?”

“That’s the simple name, it's a side effect of a chemical in the virus that gave you your powers. It was extracted from a man with a chemical mixing quirk that allowed him to produce all kinds of useful components.” Yuuma explained, as Midoriya clung onto a building, a man now not far from him on an apartment complex like building, tinkering with some kind of device. “The reason for the name is simple, whatever the user wants at the most at the time of injection, they start focusing somewhat obsessively on it until it's objectively gained. Like they need it.”

“Objectively?”

“If I'm right, you and Srijan are the perfect example of how terrifying a single difference can make the effect. You wanted a quirk and pretty much instantly got it upon reforming, filling your desire, without question. Srijan however likely wants power. To most, there'd be no difference but there is. There is no set limit to how much power one can have, meaning he will lust after more and more power no matter how he has to act to get it. He's probably scouting out people to…absorb…”

“Oh…oh no…I think….i think I found him.”

“Crap….wait… hang on. I think….shit…shit shit shit….Midoriya, if im right, you have to stop him right now!” Yuuma suddenly demanded, leaving the boy confused.

“Wait, me? What about-“

“You can't let anyone else near him, if you don't he's going to-"

The world flashed and Midoriya felt his throat dry up. The man looked right at him. He was spotted.

“-he’s going to unleash hell.”

Chapter Text

The greenette’s world flashed into the inverted version of itself as his body warned him he was in danger. Yuuma shouted frantically into his ear when he noticed Srijan looking straight at him.

Then, just a moment to late he noticed the tendril flying straight at him, sticking to his chest. “Wait! no-AHH!”

The speed which he was dragged forth at, plus the fact the tendril showed up at all quickly confirmed his theory that the doctor had injected himself, as the boy tumbled across the building before hopping to his feet, quickly going into a fighting position.

Unfortunately he couldn't stop his shaking as he looked up at the doctor before him, who seemed to have become a lot more intimidating somehow since they last met.

“S-Srijan! W-what are you doing here?!” Midoriya demanded as he looked towards the device the man's body mostly obscured, trying to think what he should do now. The older of the two frowned at the question before moving away from the contraption, revealing it to have a timer stuck at two minutes.

“Ah….my young experiment…it's good to see you again. Took you long enough to show up.” The man said, hands turning to claws which he started to inspect, completely ignoring the teen. “I'd have thought you might have a clue as to what i'm doing by now. Then again, I suppose I didn't leave much more besides that one lesson. For a child, perhaps that wasn't enough.”

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?!” He questioned, slowly backing away from the man. “What do you mean less-"

He got his answer quick as Srijans body became enveloped in tendrils and then, in his place, his headmaster now stood with a sadistic grin upon his features. “What do you think, young man? Not my favorite form but quite useful…”

‘The headmaster has insisted upon this lesson, despite your age.’

“Black death…” Midoriya muttered, eyes going wide as he looked up at the psychopath and the device he was working on. “Your doing something with black death?! You killed Mister Hidou?!”

“Now he gets it. Of course, I needed more than just a headmaster.” Srijan muttered, amused as he shook his head. Then, Midoriya felt as if he'd be sick when the man was surrounded by tendrils once more and in his place stood a rabbit themed woman, grinning more viciously than she ever had in her life.

“Hoppsy….You killed a pro…” Midoriya felt his anger start to rise as he took in the harsh features of the once kind woman. Without realizing, the teen started to snarl. ‘You killed…innocent people… just for what? Power?’

Then, as if to drive the nail in the coffin, the man changed once more and there stood Hiko, slowly stalking towards him as he froze up.

“im sorry, how are ya feeling, BIG champ?”

“Come on, kid. You're probably got some stupid idea in your head about playing hero…”

“What a delightful name! You know, you're lucky you get to name it now at this age, most people get stuck with the names they pick when they were four!”

Srijan was right on top of him, he had to act now. He stopped snarling as he looked down, for just a moment he saw through all the anger he felt built up to speak once more, Srijan turning back to normal. “She was innocent. She was a nice person, she just wanted to help….and you killed her.”

“It was necessary to locate-UGH!” He didn't get a chance to finish as the world around Izuku seemed to turn red, and he shot his fist forward catching the villains stomach. Before he could recover the boy followed up with an uppercut then turned his hands into claws, tearing through the man's body and slicing him in two.

Normally he would have been horrified but he knew the man possessed the same powers and sure enough, his legs started to regenerate. Midoriya growled as he leapt forward to grab the torso when a tendril suddenly wrapped around his own chest and threw him to the ground.

He sliced away at it as Srijan recovered and turned to see the raven haired man brushing himself off. He went to rush forward and deliver a blow right to the mans throat with a claw but before his foot even stepped down, the man disappeared.

“Behind you.” His voice whispered straight into his ear, making his hairs stand on end, and something solid collided into his back, knocking him down before he could even turn around. Tendrils burst out of the roof, breaking the concrete and latching onto the greenette, holding him down despite his struggles. His claws did nothing to them. “You haven't been consuming, that makes beating you far to easy. I had hoped we could have this conversation without having to restrain you. I suppose that was simply to much to ask of someone who hasn't learned to reject the needless shackles of morality yet. We're the prototype’s for a new age of society, a new species of human, we can make our own rules now.”

The boy struggled, barely lifting himself up and getting smashed back down as tears started to form in his eyes. As his vision became blurred by his tears, Srijan did something with the device. He continued to talk.

“Anyways, despite your little tantrum just now, I would like to offer you a proposition.” Srijan said with a small laugh. He stepped away and Midoriya let out of a muffled shout of horror as he watched the timer start to count down. “I don't want to kill you Izuku. In fact, I want you to join me.”

What?

“I don't need you, of course, that’s what I am making sure of today, but you can come be my…sidekick as it were. You're my greatest success, a masterpiece. The only person like me…” Srijan looked down with a horrifyingly sincere smile, which only made the next question all the more terrifying to the young boy. “Please, come and be my son?”

He shook his head violently, writhing within the confines of the man's tendrils as he felt his tears fly away from the speed his head moved. Srijan’s smile faltered, before being replaced with a scowl.

“No? Oh well. I'm sure I can get you to change your mind. Even if I can't, I can't get rid of you just yet…” Midoriya quickly glanced past the creep, noting the timer had elapsed to only having a minute left. “I want you to see this, to see what you wrought upon this world first. I was a chemist you know, as well as a biologist, rather spectacular with both subjects if I do say so myself.”

Forty five seconds.

“Before I began work on my evolution experiments, I got a chance to work on a fun little sample. Contained and, for lack of a better word, sterilized black death, a thing only possible in this age of quirks. It allowed me to look into the horrors and best of all, it let me put together what you see here whilst I was creating the virus we share.”

Thirty seconds. He struggled harder, claws slicing his own back apart but doing nothing to help him escape. He gritted his teeth, pushing as hard as he could.

Just barely, a bit of strain was put onto the tendrils.

“I played around with components within and eventually I managed to make this special gas, which i've been calling Vanta Death. A nice little bio-weapon of my own making, With all the necessary tweaks to make it the perfect tool for today's outing.”

Twenty seconds. He pulled harder still and he swore he felt a tear somewhere. He needed to get out now! No pro's would be able to make it in time to help now!

“It's faster than the original, much faster. Days condensed into hours, they'll suffer the full effects of black death in the course of a three painful hours, no incubation necessary. People will be brought to their knees in no time, weakened and unable to fight back. People with powerful quirks all around, too weak to fight back. A quick ticket to power up and become strong enough to bring ruin to any hero who tries to oppose me. And thanks to our new biology, ws'll get away with naught more than a small cold so long as we don't absorb to much.”

Ten seconds. He was so close, he couldn't let himself be stopped now.

“Oh, and to think Inko will be among them. I almost don't want to get rid of of her…”

The boy's eyes widened as images of his mother shot past his thoughts, pale and shaking, falling to her knees and throwing up her insides as her body shriveled up until she collapsed into a shriveled husk.

Five seconds. The world turned red, Srijan laughed, and Midoriya pushed forth with new found strength. ‘NOOOOOO!!!’

The tendrils were torn apart in an instant, much to the older mans surprise. Midoriya rushed forth as two massive claws came towards the boy, but, by just a hair he dodged, passing by and leaping at the device, grabbing it and flying off the building.

It read zero seconds left, but Midoriya didn't care. If he couldn't stop it then there was one alternative. His stomach burst open as he pulled in the contraption just as gas started leaking out.

He continued to plummet as he felt the horrific disease spread within him, his body seeming to weaken instantly with it as his mouth went dry. Then he smashed into the pavement, body splattering across the street.

Vaguely, the part of his body that hadn't flew off picked up on someone screaming at the sight, before he started to reform once more. His vision was blurry and filled with spots and his stomach complained immediately.

He clutched at it as leapt back up the building, only able to make it half the height he normally did before running the rest of the way, body complaining all the way. He refused to give into the urge sick up as he made it to the roof, Srijan staring straight at him.

“That took months to perfect you brat!” Srijan growled as he stalked forward, claws dragging along the ground. Then, a twisted little grin passed his features. “Now i'm just going to have to absorb you!”

“T-try- it.” Midoriya coughed out, without the confidence to back it up. A second later, claws were coming at him from both sides, intent on absorbing him. His mothers sick visage crossed his mind once more as he threw out his own claws to intercept them. “I'm not going- ckugh…. To lose to a m-monster like you…”

With that, the greenette let the claws through as he dived between the older mans open legs, rolling around and throwing a tendril forth. Unfortunately Srijan was quicker, whipping around and grabbing it before pulling the boy forward and.clotheslining him.

“Scared to die, brat?” The man taunted as he stepped above the boy, driving a claw right through the boys leg and tearing it off. “Don't worry, I don't mind playing with my food.”

With that he grabbed the boys other leg and lifted him up, spinning him around and around. Midoriya tried to stop it by digging into the ground with a claw but it ended up only causing more damage. He was launched into a building on the other side of the street, smashing straight through and coming out the other side. Before he could plummet though, Srijan grabbed him by his chest with a wicked grin.

“Goodbye Izuku.” He said simply, raising a claw. Only to pause when the boy suddenly threw up on the mans hand. “Ugh! Well….that's ruined the moment-AGHH!”

Midoriya cut him off ripping a claw straight through the psychopaths head, causing the grip to come lose and allowing Midoriya to fall. His vision fortunately started to clear up after he had gotten that out of his system, and made him able to focus a little better.

He twisted around as he shot a tendril forth, grabbing onto a nearby crane that was kept around as a scenic piece to a quirk obstacle course. He flipped around and landed atop the massive piece of equipment.

A moment later, Srijan landed beside him, rushing forth. This time Midoriya was more prepared, in the thin walkway they were upon. He aimed his claws forward, firing out one after the other.

Srijan dodged and ducked, even flipping over a few as he got closer. Midoriya fired off his final one which the raven haired killer jumped over, ending up mere inches from Izuku. Fortunately this distracted him from the tendril that shot off the boy's foot, grabbing the flying claw and pulling back to him.

Srijan lifted his claws once more, only for his arm to be sliced off and Midoriya to grab his flying claw, quickly twisting and cutting off the other arm. As they started to regenerate Midoriya leaped back, gaining distance once more and grinning lightly as he heard footsteps in the distance.

Just a few more minutes of this, then it would be over. Srijan seemed to realize this as well as he growled, rushing at Midoriya. He didn't disappear behind the boy this time though, while he moved fast the boy could perceive the villains movements this time. ‘He's gotten slower?’

Two claws came at him and Midoriya grabbed them both without a second thought, pulling him over head and smashing the man into the metal paneling beneath them. ‘No, i'm faster now?’

“Shit. You healed faster than I thought you would.” Srijan growled, kicking him away. The younger of the two fighters used his claws to slow his movement backwards, stopping just short of the edge.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! YOUR BOTH UNDER ARREST!” A voice called out and Midoriya's gaze wandered to see nine of the ten pro's assigned to the island rushing towards them. ‘Finally.’

A horrible grinding sound brought the boys attention back to Srijan,, who had just tore through the crane's supports with his claws, letting a massive chunk fall as he leapt away, trying to swing off into the distance and escape. “Well i've overstayed my welcome!”

The greenette growled as he realized the debris was on a collision course with the pro's. Srijan was already on the verge of escaping. ‘Dammit, if he gets away now then we might not find him again!’

With that thought, the greenette dived off the crane, shooting tendrils from both his hands in two directions. One just barely caught onto the villains back, pulling him back to the group as the other caught the debris and lifted it back into the air.

Srijan twisted around trying to escape but it was too late, as Midoriya swung around the crane piece in the air and tore the man clean in half, shooting out a web like tendril to attach his top half to the debris.

“This for Hiko, you monster!” He said, as he swung around and threw it into the ground, the man on the bottom, the first part to collide with the tarmac road, causing a crater to form and bits of Srijan to fly everywhere.

“YOU THERE! HALT IMMEDIATELY!” A voice demanded as the world flashed, and Midoriya barely dodged a stream of water looking over his shoulder he saw the pro heroes rushing to apprehend him. Using one of the few trucks he had picked up about shapeshifting, he moved his vocal chords around before he replied.

“He's fine. Regeneration.” He said in a deep voice unlike his own, before leaping away from a grab attempted by a bulkier pro. “You will want more of you guys on him than me!”

With that, he turned and ran, leaping to another building before swinging through a gap between two buildings in an alley. Turning back for a moment he noticed one of the pro's following but quickly falling behind, unable to match his speed.

After a couple of minutes, the teen ducked into an alley and let himself revert back to normal, no more costume. He wandered out into the street and would of laughed as the pro from before leapt right past him, if it wasn't for the worry over whether not it was a good call to leave Srijan to the pro's.

‘I stopped his plan. He was doing this because he didn't think he could handle actual pro's yet, so hopefully it's all over. Hopefully…’

He patted down his body, finding his mom's phone in his left pocket. He was in for a surprise when he realized it was still on call. Quickly he pressed it to his ear and spoke.

“Hello?! Yuuma?”

“Izuku? Oh thank god you're ok!” Came the man's panicked voice. “I heard everything! I didn't say anything cause I didn't want to screw something up on your end but…is it all ok? Are the pro's there now?”

“Yeah, it's in their hands now. They never saw my face so as long as I get away from the island without using my tendrils again, I think i'm in the clear.” Midoriya said with a smile as he made it to his hotel building, leaping onto the wall and crawling in. His mother was still in bed, resting peacefully with nary a clue to the danger her son had been in.

“Great. Also, you should know I managed to record most of the call. I can edit out anything incriminating and send it along to the police as an anonymous tip. He'll be tried for all his crimes, not just what he did before he got his powers.

“That's great.” Izuku said quietly, pulling out a bag with one of his notebooks. “Hey, doc? Do you think it's possible I could get stronger after I regenerate from things my body isn't prepared for?”

“You mean like black death?” The blonde questioned knowingly and Midoriya let out a noise of affirmation. “I'd think it's possible. While consuming for power certainly seems to be the main way that kind of power works, I'd say it's likely your body also updates every time it gets hurt, as it were.”

So that's why he'd been able to overpower the man near the end. A lucky unexpected power boost. He frowned slightly, though he knew it was likely the case and jotted it down amongst his notes.

“Right. Well, I better go before I wake my mom up.” Midoriya whispered, ending the call as the doctor said his goodbyes.. He took a moment to erase the call from his mom's history, least she get suspicious before he climbed into bed.

He was left staring at the ceiling for the next hour or so, listening out for any signs that the pro's might be struggling but none came and eventually he nodded off into a fitful sleep.

The next day he woke up to his mother's frantic packing and hurrying him to get up. The TV was on the news channel, showing the news that Srijan had been arrested on the island and a masked vigilante was now on the loose.

Inko was horrified by the news, and was insistent she couldn't let them stay at the island knowing that Srijan was on it, while apologizing to her son.

A part of him was sad of course, seeing as he hadn't really gotten to do anything but overall he was just relieved. Not to mention he was stronger now for it.

Srijan was going behind bars, Izuku had powers and even now a little field experience in hero work (technically) and there was no more danger ahead of them.

It wasn't a perfectly happy ending, but it was good enough for now.

Chapter Text

It had been two weeks since the arrest of Srijan and it was the one month anniversary of Izuku Midoriya getting his powers.

The greenette had been unsure what to think when he had gotten on the train with his mother and they took off towards home that day...

The training had paid off and he'd won. He'd stopped a villain, even if no one would know. At least he hoped, he realized as they'd boarded that the villain could name him as the vigilante

He would be unlikely to be taken seriously but the possibility was there. Would he even stay in custody? He'd been a little surprised the man hadn't fought back more all things considered. He couldn't have reformed away from the pro's seeing as they'd been surrounding him when he regenerated but to not put up a fight against a small group of mid-level heroes seemed a little odd.

‘Well… I did beat him and i'm only nine so maybe he didn't think it was worth it to try…’ he'd thought at the time, looking at his phone will his mom just stayed quiet on the journey back.

A week later, there had been a surprise interview online where backdraft had joined a few other heroes to explain the incident now that they knew more. It bothered the shape shifter to no end when he heard it.

“The culprit, who will currently remain nameless, was more of a threat than we initially realized. We had only arrived due to a call indicating a possible murder however that turned out not to be the case when we arrived. Both the culprit and an unknown vigilante were engaged in combat, only for the culprit to try to use it to escape. He was surprisingly restrained through unimpressively violent means by the vigilante who managed to escape after.” Backdraft had gone through explaining, as Midoriya watched the video on his way home from school, hearing everyone starting to mutter about how he was totally gonna turn into a creep villain and keeping their distance. They had been like that for a while now. It seemed having a quirk wasn't enough to get them off his back. With a sigh, he had just tuned it out and got through his work while continued watching the video. “The culprit has outright admitted to his crimes, which were more severe than we realized. On top of murders he was wanted for, he had killed another three people including one of the pro's assigned to the island and attempting to commit what would have been akin to a mass genocide. He claims to have no idea who the vigilante he fought was, so we advise everyone be careful if you meet the vigilante. Anonymous evidence we received is presumed to be from him but we have no idea if it will even be useable all things considered.”

He'd of course been surprised when Srijan hadn't said anything and in someway relieved but at the same time a part of him was concerned over why the man hadn't. It could of potentially even ever so slightly reduced whatever sentence he got (not likely but possible.)

The questioned had followed him around for a while but as he made it to his aunt/s obstacle course warehouse she'd kept up for him, he'd ultimately decided there would be no point dwelling on it. The man could have no reason for all he knew and there was no way to find out so he just continued on as if it hadn't happened for the most part.

He continued to train in that make shift training course every day since he came back, partly from forming it into a habit but also to keep his skills sharp just in case…

He'd made two breakthroughs with his powers, one a regarding a new power and one to do with his weak shape-shifting.

The new power, that Kokoa had jokingly dubbed “Hammer Fists" were two clumps of solid biological mass around both the boys hands a bit like maces. With it, along side his super strength he was able to practically cause a miniature tremor by smashing them into the ground though the weight of them slowed him down.

As for his shapeshifting they had figured out a fact about it from Yuuma that gave the teen much more hope for the possibility of replicating others appearances.

“From what i've read, to change one's features all their biomass is altered and used, and to replicate people with more mass than what the user has, they’ll need to create more biomass or consume it first.” The doctor had explained to them on speaker phone while the two Midoriya's had been practicing it at home, trying to get Izuku to look like his mother. “Due to your sons age he doesn't have much starting mass, and while it says here a user will be able to generate more mass over the time, due to still being new to his powers Izuku can't quite do it yet and will need to consume meat to be able to make up for the deficiency. Basically, to make his powers work better feed him more meat.”

With that revelation Inko had flown into cooking frenzies, preparing feast after feast practically now that she had an excuse to. It was fun to watch and the woman was always happier whenever she was making food so the boy didn't complain.

The doctor turned out to be right, as after a few days of the suggestion and Inko's overwhelming meals, the boy (while still not able to replicate All Might fully) was almost able to perfectly match Kokoa with a little focus. Some details were still off due to not being used to the power but it seemed he'd get a hang of it sooner than they'd been expecting.

In the present day, as the teen walked towards his aunt’s warehouse, the greenette let out a sigh as he remembered the transformation. He hadn't mentioned yet to either of the women but the transformation was quite detailed even with its flaws, in every area.

Even down there. He shuddered slightly not wanting to think about his aunt but the shapeshifter was fully aware of the differences between males and females and he'd felt odd ever since he turned back. Sometimes he was fine and happy but other times when he recalled it, it made him feel incomplete and confused.

He would talk about it with his mother but that sounded really embarrassing and the logical side of his brain was telling him it's just because he hadn't been completely successful at the transformation. Still, a part of him couldn't help but feel there was more to it…

He shook his head as he crossed the street, looking around the mostly empty area he was now in. Most people were still at work and the area in particular he was in didn't get many pro's.

It was a bit of a detour from his usual route to the warehouse but he decided to grab a few drinks and snacks for his aunt on the way first and this was the closest store he knew with relatively cheap prices.

He walked up ready to enter when the world suddenly flashed and he whipped his head around, only to see nothing immediately threatening him…then he heard it.

“Please, don't! I-I have a d-daughter!”

“Too bad. Don't shout, unless you want to-"

He didn't bother to listen properly to the rest as his heat vision kicked in. Technically illegal but it wasn't like anyone could prove he was using it and this was important.

Through the walls, ignoring the insides of the store and only viewing what was directly through it, in the back alley a woman was somehow being held a loft beside a scrawny man with some kind of pistol. The green haired teen looked around for a pro to shout on, only to feel his heart sink when none seemed to be present.

“You bitch! Big mistake…”

His eyes widened and he rushed around the corner into the small gap between the two buildings, seeing the turn off for mugging going on. He hoped no one saw him as his body was surrounded in tendrils and he donned the same costume he had at I-Island, leaping on to the wall and crawling just above the two out of sight.

The mugger, a man with blonde scraggly hair and a dirty face was sneering, a gun in hand pointed at his victim. On the floor beside him was a purse and a phone he'd likely tried to take. Around him the concrete seemed to be soft and swirling except for the big chunk coming from his feet and meeting the wall. ‘That must be his quirk.’

The woman he was attacking was stuck onto the wall by the concrete, head with long luscious orange hair poling out with a face that's features were a mix of fear and anger. Her legs beneath kicked against the wall but didn't do much to even make noise, she was also incredibly tall in a way that had to be the result of a quirk. The criminal looked ready to shoot any moment.

Wasting no time Midoriya threw out one of his tendrils and it wrapped around the barrel as he yanked it into his hand and consumed it without a second thought. ‘Don't mind if I borrow this? Not that you have a choice.’

He flipped off the wall and landed beside them, the woman looking on in surprise and the villain in annoyance. Midoriya stood up proud and as tall as he could (so not all that tall really) facing the villain with the permanent glare of his mask's lenses.

“Who the fuck are you?!” The mugger demanded, as Midoriya began to walk forward silently and slowly. The villain didn't seem to appreciate the silent treatment. “I asked a question!”

In what the teen presumed to be a fit of fear or annoyance the man sent forth a surprisingly fast incoming glob of concrete. ‘It's similar to Cementoss’s…’

With just a thought he flipped over the attack and let it hit the ground behind him. ‘Don't say anything you don't need to, want to avoid being traced…’

“Tch. Cool moves but you better not get any fucking closer!” The man demanded as he held up a hand towards the woman with a sinister grin. “One more step and i'll fill her lungs with concrete!”

In but a second Midoriya was behind the attacker, not even having indicated he was about to move. Quickly the boy grabbed the man by the shirt.

“Wha-AHHHH!” ..And he threw him across the alley to the other side, and waited for just a moment so the villain would have his eyes on him before he turned to the trapped woman, calling upon his new hammer fists His hands became round black lumps covered all over with pulsing tendrils and he lifted one up high before smashing it into the concrete prison holding the woman. With the one attack it cracked all over as dust started to fall, as he let his hands become normal again.

The villain was clearly caught off guard at the strength displayed, if his dropped jaw was anything to go by. Midoriya hit the concrete once more without much force and it all fell apart, freeing the big woman. She scurried back a little in surprise and Midoriya turned to face the villain who had decided to try charging at him again.

He rushed forward, causing the villains eyes to go wide though the shapeshifter didn't use his full speed this time, rearing back his hand for a full powered punch. The concrete villain quickly understood what would happen and tried to stop himself and bring up a barrier but he wasn't quick enough. Midoriya was on top of him and his fist flew forward, only to stop just a few inches from the villains face.

After all, a hero didn't kill.

He flicked the man's forehead with all the force of two crumpled tissues colliding and almost laughed as the shock caused the villain to collapse. He had to work quick though before he woke up and used the same trick Srijan had used on him to attach the villain to the floor. ‘The police can find a way to get you out.’

“Who….who are you?” A feminine voice asked and the greenette turned to face the woman who he'd saved. She stood up, towering well over him at what he presumed to be nine or ten foot. He didn't answer, turning to walk away. “W-wait! Aren't you that…that one from I-island?!”

He stopped. A part of him screamed to run, to get away before he did anything that would reveal himself. Another part reminded him he should probably make sure she was alright first. Vibrating his throat like he had before he turned to face her. “Are you ok?”

“H-huh? Oh! Yes, thanks to you i'm fine!” The woman said, gesturing over herself. “Bit bruised up but can't be helped. So? Who are you?”

He turned once more, ready to just leave the conversation entirely but she managed to stop him.

“The news will demonize you if you don't say anything.” The giant blurted out before slapping a hand over her mouth. “I mean…I myself won't write any bad stories but if we know nothing then the station usually demonizes vigilantes.”

‘we?’

“You’re a reporter?” His deep voice questioned, confused as he listened out for any indication of pro's arriving.

“Chizue Kendou! Reporter!” She introduced herself with a slight bow and smirk. “I'll put in a good word for you, if you give me any words. Who are you? Why save me?”

He stopped for a moment. He obviously couldn't give his name…

Srijan flashed by his memory, the wirds he'd screamed in the fight ringing in his memory.

“We're the prototype's of a new society!”

He'd screamed that on a prototype island.

He hated using something Srijan had given him but he had to admit it was kind of fitting so…

“If you need a name, Prototype should be fine. Shorten it to Proto if you want.” He said as he turned and began walking, shooting a tendril up onto the roof of the building. “And, no pro's were around, so I just did the write thing. Nothing else to it. Hope you and your daughter are well in the future, ma'am!”

With that he jumped up the building using the tendril to get onto the roof and leapt across the sky to another building taller, before dropping down into yet another Alley and turning back to normal. ‘So much for getting snacks.’

He ran off, arriving at the warehouse about fifteen minutes later than he was supposed to.

“Oh Izuku!” Kokoa exclaimed as she pulled him into a hug, which he returned. “Please, send a text or something if your going to be late, you had me worried.”

“Sorry, aunt Kokoa.” He apologized, nuzzling his head into her neck. “I didn't mean to take so long.”

“Did something happen? A villain attack or that?” Kokoa questioned as she pulled away and Izuku shook his head. He didn't want to lie but he couldn't really tell the truth.

“No, nothing happened. I just got distracted…”

After reassuring her, the two got into training, as Midoriya tried a new move he'd had in mind. The two enjoyed themselves and the kid didn't think too much about what had occurred.

The following morning, a few cities away, a tall lanky man with a messy blonde mane of hair and sunken blue eyes looked into the mirror as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I'm sorry….master….I'm so sorry….”

He could almost hear her ghost, telling him to smile, but he couldn't, not now. He'd fought that bastard…

He'd won against that bastard! But…at what cost?

His side ached and he turned his attention away from his reflection, going to collect the paper that was delivered every morning. On it, just one article was displayed at the front.

Mysterious I-island vigilante in Mustafu city, ‘the Prototype’

Chapter Text

Three Years Later 

“Please! This is all I have to feed my-“

“Shut up! I don’t give a shit about what you need it for. You’re giving me that money!” A tall man with brown hair and blue eyes demanded, as he smashed a hole into the shop counter with his hand, another pointing a gun at the man’s head. He had four arms all around his body, coated in an iron like substance and he wore no shirt, just black pants and shoes. The iron wrapped around his chest but didn’t go further. “It’s not my fault weaklings like you don’t know how to fight back. NOW HURRY UP!”

The cashier, a man in his forties with pale skin and a sickly look cowered as he quickly shoved cash into his bag. In the back of his mind, he regretted never installing any kind of system to warn pro’s about a robbery yet.

It was the middle of the night, and the likely hood of a patrol passing his little corner of Musutafu was incredibly unlikely, while the pro’s the city had were talented, they were also lacking in numbers especially at this time.

“You know….” A new voice spoke up and both whipped around to look at the source, which came from the ceiling as a tendril whipped out and took the gun from the villain’s grasp. Suddenly the black and red vigilante known as the prototype dropped in front of them. “For some reason now whenever I pass this store some crime always seems to be happening. You really need a patrol in this area.”

"Nice try!” The villain said with a grin as he pulled two more guns out from his pants, firing at the teen. Each bullet connected with it’s target, who stood unimpressed. The holes created quickly reformed and the mystery savior took on a fighting stance.

“Thanks, I’ll try to put those to good use at some point.” He said, as he stood still, waiting for the villain to make the first move.

“Y-you freak…RRAHHAHAHHHAHH.” The villain let out a barbaric scream as he stomped forth, two hands reeling back to deliver a harsh blow. The mysterious fighter didn’t flinch as the iron covered appendages came at him, arm shooting out and stopping them in their tracks “ARh-W WHAT?!”

“You know, you really do remind me of someone I know.” Without another word, the Prototype delivered a blow right to the villain’s chest that knocked the villain back into the wall and the criminal collapsed.

“You ok?” The deep voice of the mystery vigilante asked and the shop keeper slowly came to his senses, looking at him before bolting for his phone.

“Please just leave me alone you monsters! I need this job and money, please just stay away from me.” He shouted in a panic as he dialed in a number.

Under his mask, the boy behind the identity frowned. ‘M-monster? Again? I….Am I really….’ “I…Guess I’ll go then.”

With that, he quickly launched a glob of his tendrils at the villain, attaching him to the floor. He jumped out the window he came in and swung away into a nearby ally, turning back into the green haired Izuku Midoriya, stalking away.

That had been a week ago, the third and so far only other appearance of the mysterious ‘Prototype’ vigilante since the I-Island debacle three years ago. Ever since the second sighting had been reported, the freckled boy had noticed his mother staring at him oddly, as if trying to figure out some kind of puzzle.

He worried she’d figured out but if she had…she would said something right? She wouldn’t stay silent over it so he doubted she really had pieced it together. It still put him a little on edge though.

He couldn’t just let that man get robbed though, if he hadn’t acted no pro would have made it in time and there would be no guarantee of getting his money back.

Even if he worried, he didn’t regret his actions that was for sure. Still, the stress was hardly enjoyable. He sighed as the bell rang and he got up from his seat, unconsciously yanking his bag with his tendrils onto him and hurrying out past the crowds, some of whom snickered as he passed.

The boy’s general studies teacher had taken the temporary position as the headmaster, until someone more qualified could come to fill the roll.

He got into the courtyard and was about to exit the gate when the world flashed and his eyes widened, a hand landing on his shoulder. ‘Oh you gotta-ARGH!’

He was thrown onto the ground and rolled back into a crouched position, quickly rubbing the dirt of his face as he looked up to see a snarling Bakugou. ‘Oh come on…’

“I told you Deku, you got lucky. You won’t win this time you bastard!” The blonde screamed as a crowd started to form. Bakugou ran straight at the boy, hands flashing. The green haired shape-shifter scowled as he stood up. He could lift up his shield and finally put Yuuma’s theory to use.

He could... but he didn’t. Instead he looked right into those red eyes that had seemed to have his misery plotted out in them for so long.

“No.”

The blonde, caught off guard, froze in his tracks with confusion clear on his face before a loud snarl filled the air. "THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN NO?! WEAKLINGS LIKE YOU DON’T GET TO DECIDE, DEKU!”

‘It’s not my fault weaklings like you don’t know how to fight back.’

Izuku sighed as he watched the hand come in and didn't move, resigning himself to fate as the familiar light of an explosion ripped out of Bakugou's hand.

BOOM! SPLAT!

Pieces of Deku went everywhere, as screams rang out from those who had yet to learn about the boy’s power set. It quickly died down as he reformed, glaring. “Satisfied? You got to make up for what happened last time, now leave me alone Kacchan.”

The blonde’s eyes twitched as the freckled boy brushed him off, beginning to walk away again. While he walked, Izuku looked back over his shoulder with a sigh. “You want to be a hero, yet you’re so focused on hurting people who you think are beneath you, it’s pathetic Kacchan…”

He walked towards the gate, and took one final look back as the blonde finally recovered from his frozen stupor, gaze fierce. “You’re not worth it. Maybe…Maybe I am a monster to some people, but at least I never choose to act like one.”

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DA-WOAH AGHHH!!” The blonde tried to chase him but he suddenly was pulled into the ground with a thud, a quick inspection revealing his feet had been webbed together. “YOU FUCKER!”

With that, a frown appeared on Izuku's face and he ran off. It was a part of his daily routine now, after school to always go see to that old warehouse for an hour or two. ‘So you admit you’re a monster-‘

‘Shut up!’

‘A little freak, like always-‘

‘SHUT UP!’

He shook his head, ignoring the prickles of tears in his eyes.

His aunt would be there today so he at least had that too look forward to, to try to cheer him up...

The teen flipped over a bubble in his path set as an obstacle by his aunt and took out his hammer fists as he rushed at two beat up dumpsters, knocking one away into the back wall.

The second he picked up with his normal hands and launched to the roof, before trying out a new idea he’s had in mind. His left arm from elbow to hand was replaced by a broad and sharp double sided blade.

The dumpster obeyed the laws of gravity, plummeting towards him and he leaped up towards it, slicing straight through the middle.

“Nice going Izu!” Kokoa cheered as the teen landed, turning to notice a spare piece of junk flying through the air at her.

“Ahh, incoming!” He shouted as he rushed towards her, appearing in front of her in the blink of an eye and launching out his claws at it. The pieces flew back and got stuck against the wall. “Whoops. Sorry Auntie…”

“No problem, kiddo.” She laughed, hugging him. “Accidents happen. Want to try shapeshifting now?”

“I….sure, I guess.” He said unenthusiastically. He still hadn’t gotten over the odd feeling the power had left him with. Kokoa seemed to notice, as she frowned lightly but didn’t say anything.

His body was surrounded by hundreds of little red tendrils as he grow in size, his shoulders retracted and his legs grow wider.  His hair got longer, and his chest puffed out. Every important major detail copied.

“Ahh! I think you have it perfect this time!” Kokoa exclaimed happily, pulling out her phone and turning on the camera. Looking at it, his aunt’s face stared back smiling. The odd spot or two in the right place, a slight divot in her nose and a crack on the lip all resembling the real deal. Blue hair flowing over his shoulders and green eyes glistening. “Way to go, sweetie!”

His smile faltered however as he unconsciously rubbed his legs together and the feeling of being incomplete...it had disappeared again. Why? Why did it feel weird to be in his normal form now?

He shifted back into his regular state and stared down at himself confused, before opening his mouth. He’d not brought up the topic before because it seemed silly, some stupid side-effect and nothing more. He had no idea what it could possibly cause by though.

“Hey aunt Koko-“

BEEP.

“Huh? Sorry Izu, just give me a second to…” She looked at her phone and her eyes went wide. “…..I’ll be right back.”

With that, she hurried out the room, as she placed the phone to her ear. ‘Calling someone?’

He took a seat as she left the room and stared down at himself. As he did, his mind turned back to before he’d returned to school, when he’d been designing a costume to wear.

For no real reason other than curiosity, he went back over some of the other designs. Like always, none of them clicked like the red and black, until finally he landed on the one he’d had just before his now publicly known suit.

The black leotard. He really couldn’t remember why he’d created this, just a random idea to try he imagined but as he looked at himself once more, it once again felt better than some of the other outfits he’d been in…

He shook his head, quickly returning to his normal school clothes. It was probably some weird unrelated coincidence right? He took a seat again, as he looked around.

He didn’t even realize he hadn’t turned back to his completely normal self, his hair still long and luscious like his aunt’s but now green and curly like his usual hairdo.

“Izuku…” His aunt’s voice came once more. He looked up and was surprised to see her worried and almost scared. “You’re mom wants you to come back to my house tonight, ok?”

“Oh…Is something the matter?” He asked, confused and the woman didn’t answer, instead grabbing her bag. “Aunt Kokoa?”

“I…Come on Izuku. We better get going.” The blue haired woman ignored his question and quickly packed up, only adding to the pre-teen’s growing concern. Still, he listened and started packing up.

Despite his pressing, she didn’t tell him what was wrong, even after they got to her house.

Izuku ended up dropping the subject for the rest of the day, eating dinner in an uncomfortable silence with his normally cheery aunt and retreating to bed.

At least, that was what his aunt thought. In actuality the boy’s body was now once again adorned by his black and red suit, hood up as he opened up the window and leapt out, quickly getting onto the roof without being seen.

It wasn’t anywhere near as dark as it was the last few times he’d used the costume, so the dark pattern didn’t do much to hide him now though overall it didn’t really matter.

He utilized his full speed and agility, run faster than anyone other than trained pro’s could likely perceive, and he ducked and weaved around alley’s and over rooftops, completely minimizing his chance of being spotted.

It only took him ten minutes to make it back home, despite it being an hour journey by train. As he flipped onto the roof of the opposite building and crawled down the wall to get a better look, he was surprised to see multiple officers all bustling about on his apartment’s floor.

He leapt across the street and landed a few floors above, using his improving shapeshifting. He took on random features such as short orange hair, a taller and skinny physique and blue eyes. His costume changed to a casual business suit and he hurried down the stairs, pressing against the wall of the stairwell and using his senses to see what he could discern.

His heat vision showed him quite a few officers were surrounding an apartment, for a moment he felt a lump in his throat until he realized they were further down than his own apartment.

There were multiple voices talking over one another, too close without being in the same area to discern who was talking to who but a few key words slipped by.

“Single, not many enemies-“

“Suicide isn’t likely, gotta be murder-“

“She did annoy a lot of people I hear, multiple misdemeanours-“

Someone had died? One of his neighbours. Then a certain conversation jumped out at him.

 “Wait what, how?”

“That’s the question we need to solve.”

“Who discovered the body?”

“Some mother named Inko, fortunately her kid wasn’t here.”

“I don’t envy her, having to walk in on a scene like that. Quirk?”

“Telekinesis sir, it can’t be her.”

What? His mom had…

He shook his head as he frowned, wishing he had been here for her. ‘She’ll kill me if I walk in now, better get back before aunt Kokoa freaks out.’

He took one last look at the scene from his position, unable to see anything and wandered off down the stairs as he collected his thoughts. ‘Looked like it was three down from us…Who was?’

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall who lived there. They didn’t interact with many of their neighbors beyond random encounters but he at least knew everyone on his floor a little…

‘Ah, that was…miss Aki…..’ He realized sadly as he walked out into the street. A blonde woman with an alcohol problem, who liked to hold parties in her apartment despite the overall annoyance it caused to everyone else. He wasn’t amazingly fond of her but he didn’t want her hurt, let alone dead… ‘Mom… Mom was in so much danger if she came back at the wrong time…’

He winced as he walked around the back of the building, getting ready to climb away, his look from before returning along with his suit. Before he could leave though, he noticed a small pile of goo at the back of the dumpster he was climbing beside.

‘What the…’ Against his better judgement, he stuck his fingers in it and pulled out some, playing with it between his fingers. ‘The heck is this? Could it be… I mean, it’s unlikely but I better take a note just in case.’

He quickly pulled out his phone and snapped a picture, before jumping onto the wall and running up the building, shooting out a web and pulling himself back into the sky. ‘Just in case, I’ll come back later and have a look while there’s no officers around…’

He perched on the roof, taking a quick look back at the scene and one detail he missed stuck out to him as he was swinging away.

On the wall, in red was a single character.

火

The kanji for fire.

Chapter Text

Midoriya’s mind had a twisted sense of humor apparently. That night, when he’d returned and quietly sneaked into bed, he’d drifted to sleep, dreaming of flames. Flames engulfing the answers to all the questions he was wondering about.

How wonderful, he would have thought bitterly had he had conscious thought. The next morning, he got dressed quickly and didn’t meet his aunt’s eye as he absorbed food through his hand and ran out the door.

He would try not to think about it until after lunch at least, but it would prove pretty difficult to manage, and his work surely reflected it. More sloppy than normal, with less answer and more incorrect ones.

Annoying.

Izuku sighed as he picked at the noodles on his plate, ignoring the whispering and stares. It was annoying as hell to be the freak show for everyone even before he could tell everything they were saying. Being able to now understand all of the commentary did not make it more bearable.

Idly, he found himself biting back at some comments mentally.

“You think he even brushes that mop?”

‘I probably take more care of my head than you do anything your life.’

“I don’t know how he can stand to look in the mirror everyday.”

‘Because I’m not staring at you when I do.

“You know Midoriya, you’re pretty awesome.”

‘And you’re a-Wait, what?!’

The boy blinked, looking up and coming face to face with a girl who had long black hair in pigtails and square black glasses. The girl waved nervously, as she took a seat across him. “Rei Homura, nice to meet you.”

“O-oh! You’re the clone girl, right?” He questioned and she nodded, adjusting her spectacles.

“Yes, I am. Do you mind if I sit here? I’d really like to talk with you.” She said and the boy frowned, ready to refuse. After all, he didn’t exactly get positive comments but before he could say anything she spoke up again. “It’s just. I guess you can say in a way I’ve always admired you, defending innocent people from people like Bakugou… You’re obviously much braver than me. I just sat there watching, something I don’t think I can forgive myself for, if you’ll let me though, I want to start again!”

“I….suppose we can talk, Homura.” He said, not meeting her eye. He was on the lookout for any potential sign this was some prank or something, but all he saw were people mocking both him and now the girl.

“Oh please, call me Rei. It’s weird hearing Homura from anyone, reminds me of my dad. Please.” She said, with a light smile. Midoriya returned it with a shaky one of his own.

“O-Oh ok, nice to meet you...R-Rei.” ‘Holy crap I’m actually talking to a girl, oh my god!’ "C-Can I ask why you're deciding to talk to me now, after so long?"

Rei blushed a little, turning away with a shy bite of her lip that was frankly adorable to Izuku, eliciting a smile against his will before she spoke up. "it's embarrassing but... I was kind of scared you'd be mad at me, and for the last two years... I've just been really nervous but my friends have been encouraging me to work up the nerve so... h-here I am?"

Izuku blinked a few times at that, before a soft chuckle escaped him and he smiled gently in return. "Well, I'm really g-glad you worked up the confidence then. I guess I have to talk now, for you making the effort."

And so the two chatted for a while about random subjects, such as school work and what they were going to do later after school. To Izuku's shock he found he actually really enjoyed talking with the girl, as they quickly fell into commiserating over disbelief at their P.E. teacher, a mutual admiration for the pro hero Class-Act and even, something Izuku never though he'd be privy to, mild gossip.

("No, seriously! I caught him gluing it on this morning to look cool."

"I can't believe Nobu actually thinks people will believe he already has facial hair..."

"And that isn't even mentioning what Tsuba was caught doing outside...")

Finally, amidst their admittedly engaging conversation that Izuku was enjoying far more than he ever would have expected, Rei mentioned something that caught him off guard when he'd asked if she had any plans for after school. "Oh, my father's job is as a homicide detective, so I will be home alone for a while just relaxing."

“A homicide detective? So he is typically in charge of murder cases?” Midoriya questioned, playing around with his noodles, not wanting to absorb them in front of her.

“Yeah, he’s working on some woman right now….something Aji I think?” The girl shrugged, no food of her own with her.

And suddenly, Midoriya had to do everything in his power not to spray his new acquaintance with his drink, quickly swallowing and putting it down.

“Kaya Aki?!” He questioned incredulously, wide eyed.

“That’s it exactly! Wait, how did you know?!” The girl questioned herself, cocking her head to the side, not unlike a puppy.

The greenette looked down, rubbing his head. “I live next to her, just a few doors down.”

“O-oh…I’m…I’m sorry.”

“N-no it’s ok, you didn’t know.”

Awkward silence overtook them for a few moments, before the girl spoke up again with a different subject.

“Lunch is almost over but how about tomorrow, I introduce you to some of my friends? There from different classes and they aren’t as bad as…some people.” She offered and Midoriya did his best not to visibly blanch. He didn’t want to be rude but….him meeting anyone in this school was something he didn’t like the idea of, however he looked up and she almost seemed sad as she as starting to suspect he wouldn’t go along.

“I…sure, I guess….”

Dammit.

"Yay! Well I’ll se you later-Uh…..hmm….” The girl suddenly stopped and put her finger to her chin, looking off to the side as she got stuck in thought. Then, she slammed a fist into her other hand with a smile. “I got it! Izuri!”

He didn’t stop himself spraying his drink this time. “I-Izuri!?”

“Oh, sorry? Do you not like it?! It’s just that I normally give my friends nicknames…we are friends right?”

He was about to say they were just acquaintances and then he looked up and once again she had that far too sad face on that made his heart clench.

“….I love it, Rei.”

After that, he got through the rest of the school day without incident. He walked along, pulling out his phone as he did and saw a text from his mom.

‘Mom: Go to Kokoa again, sweetie’

He frowned, as he pocketed the phone. He looked in the direction of his aunt’s house for a moment….Then he turned and started running to his home. His mom wouldn’t be happy but, were it not for his little late night exploration, he’d have no idea what was even happening right now.

It didn’t take long at all for him to get home, no villain attacks blocking his way fortunately.  He came to the bottom of the apartment and cursed his luck as he saw one mister Moto Takeo.

The man had shaggy black hair, a rotund figure that his clothes couldn’t fit around and both his shoulders were lit aflame by his quirk. He sipped away at an almost definitely alcoholic beverage, looking around and spotting the boy.

“Oh, it’s you.” The man huffed in annoyance when he did, eyes narrowing into a glare. “Piss off brat, you’re mom already caused enough trouble today with all this damn racket, I don’t need a freak like you also annoying me.”

Midoriya sighed, ignoring him as he passed. Takeo was, for lack of a better description, a happy drunk and terrible man overall. Even he couldn’t say otherwise.

“Fucking Midoriya’s, block was way better before they came along…”

He ascended the stairs, ignoring the group of police cars downstairs and found himself in the hall to his apartment in no time.

He walked along and found he was blocked by a line of police tape from his home. “Uh…hello?!”

A moment after he called out, a man who easily towered at seven feet walked out, dark clothes making him stand out among the bright palette, face in a permanent frown and something about his very presence made the boy’s whole body shudder.

“What is it?” The man asked with a cold and harsh voice.

“I um…I’m Izuku Midoriya? I live here?!” He explained and the figure grinned a little, something the shapeshifter did not like the look of at all.

“Ah, Inko’s kid. Come on.” He said, as he pulled up the tape. “Though I thought she said you were with family.”

“I was…no one told me what’s going on…” He said as way of explanation, not meeting the detectives eye.

“Ah that explains it. Well, if you need anything, just shout on me kid.” The man instructed, taking him to his apartment door. “Name's detective Homura.”

…

“N-nice to meet you, sir.” Izuku called back, before going in. Then, having heard him Inko barreled into the hall.

“Izuku?! What are you doing here?!” She questioned as she rushed forward and pulled him into a hug.

“I….I was worried. No one told me what happened….I didn’t want to leave you….” He said as hugged back, and the woman sighed sadly. “I….heard about miss Aki…”

“Oh Izu…..I don’t know why….why this happened.” The woman said as her voice began to break. “S-She was such a n-nice woman, why would anyone hurt her?!”

Srijan flashed past the boys mind for a moment and he scowled. ‘Not the time.’

“I’m sorry I didn’t s-say anything Izu….I just didn’t….”

“It’s ok Mom… do you…do you want to go stay with auntie Kokoa for a while?”

“Yes….that would probably be best. Let’s just go talk to that detective first….”

Fortunately, despite the man’s terrifying presence he was a seemingly understanding and kind enough man, allowing them to go as they had Inko’s testimony now anyway.

They got a taxi, and the ride was silent most of the way as Izuku buried himself into his mom’s side. They got there soon enough and hurried up, finding Kokoa inside pacing frantically before her eyes settled ont hem.

“Izuku! Don’t scare me like that kid! Warn me if you’re gonna run off!” She berated with a frown, pulling him into a hug. Then she let go and quickly grabbed Inko as well. “And you… you poor dear, I’ll put on some tea or something, you just go sit down and rest.”

“Thank you Kokoa….”

“Sorry auntie….”

Midoriya took a deep breath as he crawled out the window later night, being careful not to make any noises that would cause anyone to investigate, outfitted in his costume.

Once he was down the wall a bit and out of sight, he leapt into the air and flung out a tendril, grabbing onto the opposite building and yanking himself up. ‘Maybe I should try something new while I can.’

He focused and felt his mass fade away as he made his biomass lighter, grinning as he spread his arms out and glided across the night sky. ‘Awesome.’

A burst of mass flew out behind him, boosting him along and he sprinted across the roof of the next building before leaping into the air. He made it back home in no time at all, and was surprised to see there was no officers left around, even when he used his thermal vision.

He wasn’t complaining though, as he glided right into the hall outside the door of the apartment his late neighbor had resided in. ‘Should have moved the body by now so won’t need to see that fortunately…’

He went to open the door and found it locked, he frowned under his mask and put his fingers near the lock, having them fall apart into tendrils and fiddling about with the inside. A moment later, an audible click sounded and the door began to open. ‘Well good to know that actually works.’

The first thing the young vigilante noticed was the stench, he had often heard the phrase ‘Smells like death’ but nothing could do it just, even through the mask and his lack of proper….bodily functions he found himself feeling sick.

Definitely didn’t want to spend too long. Just look for any clues the police might have missed.

The first thing he did was use his heat vision, and was surprised to see a massive hot spot in the middle of the apartment, returning to his normal vision he grimaced as he noticed it was where the body had previously been. Now all that remained was a chalk outline and…”Huh?”

He wandered over to it, noticing a manilla envelope sat atop the dresser in the corner of the room. “What is…”

“Kaya Aki Autopsy Report”

Oh.

OH!

Quickly, he scooped it up and opened it up, pulling out the inside finding. He pointedly ignored the photos and focused on the description of how the victim actually died.

‘Presumed to have died between 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, from internal combustion of some kind. All internal organs were damaged as if they had come into contact with fire, yet outer body remained unscratched.

Analysis suggests quirk use is very, very likely. The victim was definitely alive when whatever caused these damages occurred.’

Midoriya frowned as he read through it. ‘That…must have been painful. No wonder they were saying it was a bad death…but how….’

He shook his head, dropping the report and looking around. ‘The police should know that much, I’m looking for anything they missed!’

Try as he might though, he couldn’t see anything that stuck out as important at all. It was frustrating to say the least. Then his eyes widened as he remembered what he’d seen the day previous, rushing out the apartment and running up the side of the building to jump down into the alley below.

He landed beside the dumpster from before and moved it out the way with ease, going to where he had seen the goop and….

It was gone. There wasn’t a single trace of the goop left. ‘What the? Did they collect it?’

He pulled out his phone, confirming this was definitely the right spot and frowning. ‘No…if they took it there would still be traces….it must of dissipated…’

He sighed as he stood up. He had barely learnt anything new, and nothing the police probably didn’t already know. He’d just wasted his time here.

He tried not to let himself get to annoyed as he began to swing and glide away, hurrying back. It wasn’t his job anyways, it was probably a good thing he didn’t find anything.

Really though, he just wanted his Mom to be safe….

Suddenly, as Midoriya got closer to his aunt’s home the world flashed and he let go of his tendril by surprise, acting quickly and attaching to the wall. He took a moment to listen out and look around and noticed down below two figures seemingly fighting.

He crawled closer and his eyes widened as he realized one of them was detective Homura. The other was some man he didn’t recognise, throwing around energy blasts.

The detective took one to the chest and was blasted back, but stood up slowly, seemingly struggling. His tazer had flown away and the man was now unarmed.

‘Well….Good thing I’m already in costume.’

The boy leapt down, landing behind the villain and getting both men’s attention. An energy blast in line with the vigilante’s head shot out but Midoriya just leaned back, before coming back up bored.

‘This will be quick.’

In an instant, he was behind the villain, and delivered a swift strike to the stomach, knocking the energy blaster back. It was way to easy.

Suddenly a much bigger energy ball flew out and the boy went to block in surprise, only for a slightly smaller fireball to collide with it and the detective to charge forward.

“Stay down, you’re under arrest for assault of an officer!” Homura announced, cuffing the criminal and looking up to face ‘Prototype’ “And you...”

He doesn’t need to be arrested, so he turned and began walking away, expecting the detective to try to stop him somehow. Instead… “I’ll see you around.”

“Huh? Wait, aren’t you supposed to…you know, apprehend me?” He questioned, voice deeper like usual. The man shrugged.

“I read the files, I know I don’t stand a chance. Besides…I just used my quirk on this guy so I already have enough paperwork to file without ‘losing the vigilante’ stuff too. I’m getting scolded either way.” He explained as he pulled the criminal to his feet. “Still, make no mistake. Detective Homura will be the name of the man who catches you eventually.”

Despite himself, Midoriya grinned under the suit, shooting a tendril onto a nearby building. “Look forward to it!”

With that, he jumped away, swinging to another building, flipping over a smaller one and landing on the wall of his aunt’s building, crawling up to the bedroom window.

In the dark he fumbled over the window ledge, crawling around and closing it. He yawned, ready to go to sleep.

“I KNEW IT!”

Oh…Oh no….

The lights flicked on and the boy turned, coming face to face with Inko and Kokoa.

While he was still in his costume.

There was no way he could talk his way out of this one.

Chapter Text

“Uh….”

Silence filled the room for a few moments, no one exactly sure what to say next. Midoriya considered trying to play it off as a Halloween costume then he remembered he'd never celebrated Halloween in his life.

“Izuku….” The older greenette's voice wavered as she looked him up and down. “I….”

Wait…

“You…knew it?” The boy asked confused, looking between them. Kokoa just looked confused but Inko seemed more…worried than anything.

“I heard about the Prototype's powers and everywhere he showed up..and…oh god, Izuku you could of been killed!” She shouted as her eyes began to tear up. Midoriya felt his heart constrict and he knew better than to correct her. The blue haired woman hurried over to her friend and rubbed circles into her back. “You could have been….oh god….you fought that monster at I-Island!”

He hurried forward, grabbing her shoulders and looked into her eyes, hating how small they made him feel. He hated himself for making her feel like this. “Mom…I know your mad-"

“Mad?! IM TERRFIED! MY ONLY CHILD HAS BEEN RUNNING OFF INTO VILLAINS FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG AND DIDN'T EVEN TELLING ME!” The woman shouted as her breathing got more erratic. Kokoa and Izuku shared a look, the woman wasn't happy herself but they both knew Izuku needed help first. “You're not supposed to be doing this until you have a license….for what? You can't….you can't just do it because you want to-"

“Inko, sweetie, breath. Passing out from a panic attack won't help. Deep breathes, in and out.” Kokoa instructed calmly and Inko did her best to do as instructed. Midoriya kneeled down and pulled her into a gentle hug. Once she sounded more stable, he pulled back lightly and gathered his thoughts.

“It's not just that I want to…I mean, obviously I’ve always wanted to be a hero but that's not why…” He took a deep breathe. ‘Clear and concise.’ “No pro's believed me when I tried to warn them about I-island. You heard what he was planning, I only meant to get proof so the pro's would go and stop him but he caught me first. I didn't want to get into that fight. The rest of the times….you noticed how they all happened in roughly the same area?”

The woman nodded shakily.

“There's no proper pro hero patrols there. I think it's a paper work thing but…I was just passing by and….people would of died if I did nothing…..i couldn't sit still, not when…..not when I could do something to help.”

“And sneaking out today? To go to that crime scene?! How is that necessary?!” The plump woman challenged and the boy looked town, tears starting to form in his own eyes. “Izuku?”

Suddenly, he surged forth and pulled her into his tight grip. “Because i'm scared! I'm scared that…I almost lost you.”

“Izuku….”

“At I-island…it would have been my fault but…I could at least stop it….but I didn't even know about this until I snuck out and found out for myself…I could have lost you if that killer had still be around….i just don't want to risk them not being caught.”

Mother and child embraced one another as Kokoa looked on with a worried and sad frown. Inko spoke up a moment later as her tears started to clear. “So you know how I feel….”

“….”

“Izuku…”

“Cheap shot, mom. But…remember, i'm not as weak as I used to be.” He said as he pulled back and the woman sighed.

“Did…did you find anything?” Kokoa asked and the two looked at her surprised. “What? He's already done it, so i'm curious.”

“There was this goop the other day, but I think it dissipated before the police could find it. I….i was going to try to send a picture to Yuuma so he could provide it as anonymous evidence or something.” He explained and the older Midoriya froze up.

“Yuuma knows?”

….Oh. whoops.

“Y-yes…but don't be to harsh on him! Srijan would still be out right now if he didn't help.” He said quickly and Inko let out a suffering sigh.

“I think…we're all tired and still in shock….let's maybe try to get some sleep and we can talk about this in the morning.” The plump woman suggested calmly and the other two in the room made noises of agreement. “And no running away, mister.”

For some reason, that hurt. Though he wasn't sure it was the accusation part of it that caused him to flinch. “Yes, mom. I'm…sorry.”

“...Thank you."

That night, try though he might he couldn't get much sleep at all. Never had he been so glad his new physiology provided him with enough energy to compensate for sleepless nights.

Morning rolled around eventually and the shapeshifter groaned as he slowly lifted himself up and looked out the window to see the rising sun. He got out of the bed and made it up, shapeshifting school clothes onto himself and walking to the door.

He took a deep breathe as his hand settled on the handle and prepared himself for what he was going to walk out to. Righteous anger? A permanent ban from even going into legal hero work? No power use for the next month or maybe even year?

He really had no idea what to expect, having never gotten on his mother's bad side before. ‘No use putting it off. Guess this is probably goodbye, Prototype.’

He stepped out into the hall and found Inko and Kokoa eating cereal and facing towards him. A third bowl was set down for him and he took a seat.

Kokoa opened her mouth to speak but before she could…

“I'll allow it.” Inko said simply and both Izuku and his au t stared at her surprised.

“What?!”
“Eh?!”

“On two conditions…” She continued, ignoring their outbursts. She met her sons eye with a steely gaze that showed their was no arguing with these terms. “One, you will only ever do it when there is literally no other choice. I mean it. If I find out a pro was near enough to call on and you didn't, all deals are off.”

“Y-yes mom.” Izuku agreed, bowing his head. A sad sigh came from inko and he looked up to see her rubbing her arm and looking away.

“More importantly, two, please just promise me you'll always come home.”

At that, he got up and moved around the table to hug her once more. “I promise. I swear that i'll always come back.”

“Thank you….”

Silence took over the room for a moment then Kokoa spoke up once more. “H-huh. And here I was thinking i'd have to play the good cop. I'm glad you could figure something out but…why? I didn't think you would…”

“I don't really want to but….trying to stop Izuku from doing what's right is like trying to stop a bomb with sheer willpower. Chances are your not gonna manage it.” She said with a sad smile, before pulling back and grabbing the boys bag. “Now come on sweetie, even illegal vigilantes need to go to school.”

“Not a phrase I ever expected to hear.” The boy laughed as he took it and walked towards the door. He was almost completely out when…

“Oh and Izuku?

“Hm?”

“If Srijan ever comes back…….don't you dare hold back.”

“…I won't.”

He always did his best to ignore the muttering of everyone around him while he was passing through the halls, never really wanting to know what they were talking about. Sometimes though, random tidbits would manage to get through and today he heard something about a murder.

So they finally found out. Fortunately none of them were accusing him despite the location. As much as they labelled him a freak they were at least aware he didn't have the literal firepower to cause what happened to miss Aki.

“Oh! Izori! Over here!” A happy excited voice called out and he recognize it, turning to see Rei standing with a group of boys. “These are the friends I wanted to introduce you to!”

“O-oh. N-nice to m-meet all of y-you! I-i'm Izuku M-Midoriya” He said nervously, waving lightly. There was a boy with black hair in a buzz cut who seemed to be the very definition of ‘a hulking figure', easily the largest of the group.

“Nice to meet you too dude. Kind of a nervous one, ain't ya!” Another boy laughed, with fiery orange hair and two nozzles coming out his wrists. “I'm Hattori Koyo! And I see you noticed my awesome quirk. ‘Flamers'! These bad boys let me fire out any gas I want, and ignite them if I need to.”

“Hmph. Show off.” Rei muttered as she patted the muscular boy’s arm. “This is Tanji Koan. His quirk is just pure muscle mass. Doesn't say much.”

“Words are pointless. Actions mean more.” He said simply in a harsh blunt tone. Midoriya grinned a little at that and turned to the last kid. He had brown hair and blue eyes and was a little more on the lanky side. Aside from that there didn't seem to be anything to special about him.

“I'm Saiki Togai.” He said as he unlocked the locker behind him. “Quirks really basic honestly. I can just heat myself or other things up to be as hot as I want. Nothing cool or that.”

“O-oh but it's probably s-still a really a-awesome power I bet! I can think of a lot of good uses that could be put to it!” The greenette said, almost ready to launch into a mutter storm before catching himself in time. ‘Don't want to freak them out.’

“Ha, you already trying to score brownie points Midoriya?” Koyo teased lightly with a grin and the shapeshifter just scratched his head nervously. “Anyways it's nice to meet you and all, but class is about to start so we really should all split. I guess i'll see you all at lunch then!”

And with that, the orange haired boy was off. Koan and Togai also left after a moment leaving Rei and Midoriya to walk alone to their class.

“So, what exactly is your power anyways Midoriya? I don't think anyone's actually asked since you got them.” The black haired girl inquired as she readjusted her glasses and the boy scratched the back of his head.

“Well, I guess you could say it basically gives me perfect control over my…biological form? I think that's how the doctors described it.” He explained and was confused when he heard a laugh come from his new friend.

“Sorry it's just….you were so….baby-ish back then. Not in a bad way I mean but now you're….well you get what I mean. You have a different air about you.”

‘Yeah, life or death situations can do that to you.’

“Yeah well anyways….” Before he could continue the world flashed and he blinked surprised, automatically turning on his thermal vision. Outside he saw someone attacking another person who wasn't fighting back.

“Izori?” Rei asked concerned and the boy scratched his head nervously.

“Sorry, could you just tell the teacher I needed to go to the bathroom first? Talk later!”

“Oh o-okay!”

With that, he burst into the boys bathroom and leapt up a higher up window, attaching to the side of the building and arriving at the scene.

A random thug was attacking a student and there was no pro's anywhere to be seen. He grinned despite himself. So long as the police could solve the murder, the boy had no real major problems left.

With that thought, he leapt into action and took down the thug without effort. He had nothing to worry about.

Unbeknownst to him, he would be proven wrong in just a few months time….

Chapter Text

“NNNGH!! Come on…” Koan exclaimed as he pushed with all his massive muscle might, gripping tightly while Rei, Koyo and Togai watched intently. Midoriya meanwhile was only using three of his fingers, merely holding them in place as he drank a glass of water and updated his notebook with a couple new power ideas he had thought of and wanted to try out.

‘Power ideas that have worker: Fists of flesh, gliding, shield, blade.
Power ideas to try to implement: Fleshbangs (If I can time a lump of biomass to go off after tearing it off my body I may be able to create a form of miniature grenades?), Muscle mass (Maybe I can use the hard material of my claws to coat my fists like an exoskeleton and increase my strength further?)

Mutations: What I have been calling any upgrades to my weaponry powers I come up with. Example is launching my claws out. I intend to keep a full list here of all my mutations and ideas.

Claws – As previously stated, Launcher (success!). No other immediate ideas.
Hammerfists – Mace (Claw blades combined with flesh…balls. Not yet tested.), Earthquake (or…this is more of a technique I guess? I’ll put this here for now anyways just in case. Success), no other immediate ideas.
Thermal vision/Danger sense – no immediate ideas.
Strength/Agility/Speed – No immediate ideas (and probably still technique. Maybe I should rename the section.)
Regeneration/consumption - *See page 3, footnote 2*
Blade – Drill? (If I can affect how it's attached perhaps I can achieve rotation or vibration fast enough to generate a similar effect as a drill. Not yet tested.)’

“Almo…st got it!” The muscular boy announcement despite not actually having made any real progress, so the greenette decided to put him out of his misery. He lightly shifted a little more weight into his fingers and watched as he won almost instantly. “Damn it! You're strong….”

“Yeah, seriously Izori, it's insane you can just put out that much strength without much effort.” Rei said excitedly as she lifted her bag off the floor, the rest of the boy's following suite. They ignored Bakugou glaring at them from a distance as they got up to leave and heard the school bell ring. Koyo spoke up next with a grin.

“Yeah, seriously you could probably give a few pro's a run for their money with that kind of strength.” The orange haired teen laughed, as he scratched at his nozzles, which seemed longer than normal. He then walked to the other side of the boy and looked him up and down. “Hey maybe Midoriya here is the Prototype.”

Oh…oh crap, no no no!

“Fast, strong and seemingly can't be hurt.” The flamer quirk wielder observed with a grin and the boy quickly started shaking his hands back on forth.

“Hey not to mention you do want to into hero work.” Rei added teasingly.

“We all want to go into hero work.” Togai quickly pointed out.

“Nonono, y-you guys are c-completely wrong.” Midoriya stammered out quickly jumping for anything he could use. “I mean there's a direct height difference between us for one thing.”

“I mean that’s easy to explain, just put on tall shoes.” Koyo continued with a shrug and Midoriya grimaced. Then he jumped to his other out. Suddenly he was really glad they didn't know he could full on shapeshift.

“What about voice though? You guys know I hate how deep my voice is already and have you heard the description of that guys voice? Why would I make it deeper if I could change it at all?” He questioned and the group shared a look before nodding amongst themselves.

“Makes sense. So you're not the prototype.” The orange haired teen admitted as he shrugged. As he did though his arms moved to violently and the nozzles suddenly launched out at the greenette. He acted on instinct, catching them with ease but absorbing them without a thought before his eyes went wide.

“Oh no, sorry! Hang on I can get them back out.” The greenette said as he started to focus on producing them again until Koyo started laughing and patted him on the shoulder.

“It's fine man, it only happened cause I was shedding. Happen when I use em too much, they need to replace themselves.” He explained with a grin. Then his face turned a little more solemn for a moment. “Also, I don't want to bring up bad memories but have they caught the…you know yet who was in your area?”

“No sadly. They struggled to find any DNA evidence I think and the rest of it told them nothing.” The greenette said with a sigh. Rei let out one of her own as she clutched one of her books to her chest.

“It's weird to think someone I saw alive not that long ago is gone now.” The black haired girl said, garnering looks from the rest of the boy's when she realized what she said. “O-oh right, you don't know. My dad…I was there when he accused her of a murder a while back. She ended up getting away though.”

“M-murder? No offense to your dad but she really didn't strike me as the type…” Midoriya said, only to have the girl turn around and glare at him.

“Well neither do a lot of killers, but that doesn't change the fact they did it!” She exclaimed angrily before her eyes went wide and she looked away with a blush. “S-sorry….I just don't like people making my father seem….you know. He's a great man, and I really don't think he's wrong.”

“I mean you are biased, Rei. He is your father after all.” Togai pointed out and the girl nodded, continuing to walk on. “Either way If someone is killing murderers I don't feel to bad for the victim anymore.”

“Yeah, guess they would have had it coming.” Koyo agreed, only for both of them to get hit on the head by Koan who pointed at Midoriya.

“I doubt he feels the same.” The hulking teen said simply and the boys at least had the decency to look ashamed.

“Crap, sorry dude…”
“Yeah, should of thought…”

“It's fine.” The boy said as he brushed it off, beginning to walk a little faster. “But I just don't see sinking to a monsters level as punishment.”

With that he hurried around the corner, leaving them without a goodbye. He wasn't close to Aki by any means but it still hurt to know that someone he'd grown so used to seeing around would be gone forever now.

He flipped onto the roof of one of the taller buildings, costume wrapped over his body and looked back towards the school for just a moment before he glided into the city. Since he'd gotten the clear from his mom they'd discussed it a little more and until there was actual proper pro's patrolling the block like they should have already been, the boy was patrolling in costume.

It was quite a simple affair overall, able to easily keep an eye and ear out from above without being seen. On a few occasions some pro's had been passing by and he'd had to make a quick retreat but with his shapeshifting and speed they'd been unable to track him at all.

He had been having to do less and less since his appearance as well, as crime seemed to be declining in the area. He dropped down and swung through the streets above the populace, half expecting the day to be boring with no crime happening when the world flashed again, causing him to let go of his tendtil plummet.

‘What…’ He quickly clung to the wall and looked around, finding himself drawn to a nearby alley. Without another thought he leapt forward, gliding down into the area and rolling across the floor. He stood up, expecting to find some random thug trying to mug someone.

Instead he stood up and froze. There was no villain present, but there was a body laying on the floor. It's eyes having lost all light and it seemed almost deflated. He took a few tentative steps forward, collapsing beside it and checking their neck.

It was a woman. She had no pulse.

None of that was what truly got the boy though. He looked up at the wall and it was their, mocking him. Reminding him.

火

He let out a light growl as he forced himself to his feet and fished through his pockets for his phone. He typed in a number and…

“110, crime or accident?”

“Crime. ”

“What crime is this and where are you?”

“I'm in Mustafu, in an alley off main street near the coast. Crime is…murder.”

“Alright, please remain their if you can, we're dispatching a police car and ambulance immediately.”

A dial tone came after that and the young vigilante gulped as he turned around. If he wasn't used to exploding into gory bits recently he'd probably be struggling much worse with this.

His body was surrounded by tendrils as he returned to his normal civilian clothing for the police’s arrival and he went through his contacts until he landed on the one he was looking for.

“Hello, mom?”

“Izuku, what's the matter? You sound worried.”

“You remember what happened…two months ago to miss Aki?”

“Izuku…what happened?!” The plump woman's voice started to get more panicked and the boy flinched.

“I found…I found another one.” He said quietly. “I just phoned the police.”

“What?! Where are you?! I'm on my way!” As she said that the shapeshifter could hear rustling in the background, presumably his mom grabbing her coat.

“Wait…wait until i'm at the police station. The police will probably want to know what I found anyway. I'll call you. I promise. I love you.”

“I love you too, Izuku…just…be safe please.”

“I will.”

And with that the boy ended the call, just in time to see the flashing of lights as a police car pulled up nearby. A regular officer climbed out on one side and on the other… “Detective Homura?!”

“Oh, Midoriya?” The intimidating man questioned as he walked up to him. “You were the one who called?”

“Y-yes sir. Just…back there. It's….it's like last time.” He said as he looked at the ground. A heavy sigh escaped the detective as the two walked towards the scene.

“I'm incredibly sorry you had to see this young man. This is not a sight anyone should have to-….” Suddenly the detective froze on the spot, words dying in his throat as he took in the scene. “No….”

“Sir?” Midoriya questioned and Homura's fists curled into balls. “What's the matter?”

“I...i knew her.” He explained quietly as he knelt down near her. “A case of mistaken identity. Doppelganger quirk, I accidentally almost had her thrown into jail for Assault and Theft before we caught the right guy. I never got to make it up to her.”

“I'm sorry…” Midoriya said as he heard that, starting to look around himself. There wasn't much of note aside for something the detective had passed by. The greenette walked up to give it a bit of a closer look and was surprised to see it was made of rubber. In fact… “Hey…detective? Look at this, it's a shoe sole but….the victims wearing flats, they don't have rubber.”

“Hey, you're right. Good eye, Kid.” The detective complimented as he inspected them himself, before looking up at the killers calling card. “Looks like red marker, like last time. Need to analyze it but…damn.”

The man let out a heavy sigh as the other officer walked down into the scene. The fire manipulating detective turned to the man, who seemed to regard him with an almost fearful eye. “S-sir!”

“Take the kid home, officer. The rest of the investigators should be here soon enough.” Homura commanded and the officer nodded, leading the boy away. “I'll let his mother know you'll be at the station.”

With that, the greenette was escorted away into the car.

The ride to the station had been short and he'd been taken to a somewhat fancy office. Apparently they kept it to avoid unnecessarily intimidating any kids who came in in the proper interrogations room.

Answering the man's questions was easy enough, he just changed his story to having been walking past instead. He did however admit to having a danger sense that alerted him and explained it as checking first thinking it was a mugging so he could call a pro.

It wasn't a complete lie seeing as that’s what he would of done if he could and that had been the case. They'd done a few follow up questions but they didn't get much more information and the boy was eventually released into his mother's worried frantic arms as soon as he walked into the main area.

“I'm just so glad you're ok.” The woman said as she slowly began to let him go. “I can't believe this has happened again. Midoriya grimaced as they began to walk away. They soon found themselves alone walking through the streets to Kokoa’s home. “I can't believe this has happened again…”

“Yeah…at least it wasn't near our house this time, so there's that I guess.” The boy said sadly, before he remembered the link between the victims and turned to the older woman. “Mom…you've never been accused of a crime at any point, have you? Like at all?”

“No, I certainly don't recall anything like that, and I think i'd remember if I was.” Inko said with a frown and the boy let out a sigh of relief.

“Then at least that probably means your safe…” He said quietly as they got up to the building. As they walked, the boy tried to think of anything else to talk about and he remembered what he had been intending to talk with his aunt about. “Hey mom…can we talk for a second?”

“I…ok, sweetie? What is it?” The woman asked, curious as she turned to face him. The boy tapped his fingers together as he thought about how to explain this.

“Ok so….you know how i've been wearing my hair longer recently?” Midoriya started off as he played with said hair as a distraction, fighting with a tug.

“Mmm-hmm, it really suits you sweetie. It's pretty.” The woman said with an encouraging smile and the boy gave a small one back before taking a deep breath.

“Well….ok so before we went to I-island, that's when I...designed my costume but…I went through a few different versions and I can't even remember why but I tried a traditionally…well girly outfit.” He explained and an almost knowing smile made its way onto Inko's face. “And…I actually liked it for some reason. When I finally figured out Shapeshifting, I don't know…their really detailed and…sometimes I just feel better in a body like that but….not all the time. Maybe I really am a freak.”

His eyes widened as he realized he'd said that last part aloud and Inko quickly wrapped her arms around him tight. “You are not freak, Izuku! You're…you're my child. My brave, smart, stupidly determined child. That's all you are. I promise you i'll love you no matter what, and i'll look into it while you're away…”

“Thank you…wait, away?” The boy questioned as he pulled back and the woman lightly shook her head.

“I know you Izuku, you're going to go check it out on your own whether I try to stop you or not. Just be safe, ok?”

He smiled at that. His mom really did know him to well.

Chapter Text

As Inko predicted, Izuku had swung back to the scene that night and had a look around. He’d had to be careful from his perched position up upon the roof as the police bustled about to make sure he wasn’t spotted.

Unfortunately, however, it proved to be for nothing. He had hung about, bouncing in between the shadows for two whole hours before his patience had finally grown thin and he’d leapt away towards the roof of the building across the street so he could think up a new plan.

‘I really need someone who knows what they’re looking for… I have no idea how to do this but not like anyone on the… police…. force…. That’s it!’

He pulled out his phone, feet dangling of the edge as he pulled up his browser, searching for a few specific details. ‘She’s probably super carful about this stuff, but….come on….Maybe if I….No, unless…try looking through that account and maybe…there it is!’

That was easier than he was expecting, as he got up the information he was looking for. The address of Chizue Kendou.

Also, when he got home, he was definitely updating his privacy settings.

Near the outskirts of Mustafu, with a spacious enough garden and fair distance from the rest of the house’s nearby stood a quaint little abode belonging to the Kendou’s.

Izuku used a tendril to zip over the roof of the neighboring building and flip into their garden, blending in with the night sky as he stalked towards the front door, only visible when the lights from the windows washed over him.

Knock, knock, knock.

He had to wait for a few moments on the steps, toying with the replicated fabric of his costume before the handle suddenly moved as someone came to answer. The door opened up and he was surprised to come face to face with a girl only a little taller than him, looking like a miniature version of Chizue. ‘Must be her daughter.’

“Hello? Are you a pro?” She asked confused, looking around for anyone else with him. ‘Has she…not heard?’

“Not…exactly but…does Chizue Kendou live here?” He asked and the girl nodded. “I need to talk with her if at all possible, is she home.”

“I…”

“What the?” A new voice cut in and the boy looked up to see the giant of a woman he remembered hurrying to them. “Proto? What are you doing here?!”

“I need help with…an investigation.” He explained simply, not wanting to reveal to much in front of the woman’s daughter. “It’s incredibly important.”

“Right….Well…come in I guess…” Chizue offered, stepping to the side. “Oh, and you could probably already guess but this is my daughter Itsuka.”

“Nice to meet you.” He said with a polite bow, before walking in.

“Nice to meet you too- Wait…You’re the one who saved mom!” The girl suddenly realized as she balled her fists in surprise. “Thank you so much for that! I don’t know what I would of done if…”

“It’s….I just did the right thing, nothing special.” He said, shaking it off as they stepped into the living room.

“Maybe to you but….to me it is.” She said simply, and Midoriya couldn’t help but smile under his mask.

“Itsuka, your father is fiddling about with the television in our room. Go try to help him please, I want to talk about this alone.”

“Y-yes mom! Thanks again!” With that, the girl took off and the vigilante was left with the reporter.

“So….Can I guess this has something to do with the police showing up all over main street?” The red head inquired and he nodded, as he leaned back.

“Yeah….I can’t say too much but…..This is personal to me.”

The woman listened as he did his best to explain everything that happened so far, without giving away any compromising details about himself. As he continued to talk the woman slowly seemed to get more and more interested, leaning in and even taking out a notepad eventually.

“And i’m not going to pretend I’m some amazing PI, I normally just jump in when someone’s in trouble like you and help but….The more I look at this the more I just feel…uneasy, like there’s something waiting in the shadows behind all of this.”

“That’s quite the way of putting it.” Chizue said as she put a hand to her chin. There was silence for a moment as the woman thought before her eyes lit up. “Ah! I’m not typically the type of reporter who goes out investigating often so I’m not sure exactly how easy something like this will be but we know at least two links between both victims right?”

“Yeah, gender and their past relation to detective Homura.” The shapeshifter nodded.

“Well then, maybe if you could get your hands on a file that could tell you who else Homura has accused in the past that might be a place to start.” The giantess suggested, causing Midoriya to groan.

“Well, guess I already have the police against me anyways…” He said as he massaged his temples.

“That’s all I’ve got for now but….” She quickly wrote something down and tore it off to give to him. It was a phone number. “If it doesn’t work out then call me, otherwise….Don’t tell anyone you came here. I still have to look out for my family.”

“Of course.” With a smile at that, the masked boy jumped up and walked towards the door. “Thanks for the help, miss Kendou!”

“I just want the streets to be safe for my daughter, there’s nothing to thank me for.”

Even with his speed, it took a little while to get the police station. More pro’s were about, likely in response to the new murder and he’d had to be really careful to avoid getting spotted.

Eventually though he was crawling up the wall of the station into where he had spotted a closest during his earlier visit there. He’d probably broken the lock as he pried the thing open but he was in too much of a rush to really worry as he leapt up to the roof and spotted a vent.

Inside the compact metal chamber, it was dusty and dark and the boy found himself getting frustrated as he forced his way forward, really hoping that noise he was hearing wasn’t rats. ‘Movies and video games can so not be trusted to tell the truth about these situations.’

As he kept crawling, he found himself moving over the main office when he overheard a random snippet of conversation. “-Sides the Flame Reaper is in his office doing a cover up right now or something.”

Smack!

“Show some tact you idiot! You don’t know that he did it and accusing him so flagrantly is abhorrent. He’s your co-worker!”

Finally, lady luck shined upon him as he ended up just above the detective’s office, the man filing away some stuff within. ‘Let’s see, maybe if I am really careful with a tendril, I can-‘

“I know you’re there.”

‘Oh come on!’

Without a thought, he pushed the vent panel off and grabbed it with a tendril as he flipped out into the office. He ended up on the wall above the door, staring down at Homura. “Uh….Come here often?”

“Seeing as this is where I work, yes.” The man said unamused, putting away most of the paper he was holding. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Uh, really?” The shapeshifter asked as he cocked his head to the side. “What for?”

“I…thought you’d try to attack me based on little information.” The detective, clearly surprised himself his prediction hadn’t come true. “I’m sure you noticed there’s a pattern between the victims, and I know you would have been at the scene eventually.”

“…They were both accused of crimes by you…”

“Yes, and due to that connection, some people believe I am the likely culprit. It’s not a bad theory, I’d probably believe it myself were I not the one at the other end of it.” Homura explained as he adjusted his glasses, looking out towards the window. “A few of them are calling me the ‘Flame Reaper’ or some such nonsense.”

“Bit of an extravagant title.” The shapeshifter commented as he realized that’s what the conversation he’d heard on the way in was about.

“Well, the new officers have active imaginations. Still….I won’t deny in the right situation I would kill another.” The detective said nonchalantly as the greenette’s eyes went wide.

“Wait what?!”

“Relax, I mean that…I have a daughter who means the world to me. The only thing that could ever get me to take the life of another is if hers was at stake. Did you see her at any of these crime scenes?”

“….”

“Exactly.”

With a sight, the vigilante dropped off the wall and faced him.

“Look, all I want to know is who those victims were. Who else you’ve accused because their the ones who need to have an eye kept on them.” He explains, crossing his arms.

“You’re right, of course…” The man sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck, before reaching for a phone on his desk. “Hang on a second.”

Bring. Bring. Bring.

“Hi?....Yeah it’s Homura…..Yeah, it happened…..yeah…..yeah im sure, the plan is….well it’s the best we have…Ok….I’ll let them know.” The detective finished and set the phone down, before reaching into his desk and pulling out a file. “Ok, let’s set the record straight then. We aren’t going to chase you down.”

“Wait really?” The boy asked surprised, but certainly not complaining. Homura nodded as he threw the file to the boy.

“Yes, for the mean time. The word’s going to be put out to ignore you if you’re seen patrolling, just until we catch whoever this murderer is. Looking at the evidence right now, they seem likely to become a serial killer and if that happens, we can’t waste valuable resources on someone who is seemingly on our side.” As the detective talked, Midoriya studied the file. It had details about one Nakao Suzu, a woman in her thirties who the detective had seemingly accused of murder. “I have had a long and fairly successful twenty-year career at this precinct but occasionally, with the pressure put on us from above mistakes happen. I do everything in my power to amend them but…There’s been eight people who I’ve accused of crimes they didn’t commit. It’s not a number I’m proud of. Assuming the pattern so far holds, miss Suzu will be the next victim on this killer’s list.”

“So, what, you want me to monitor her?” He asked, as he closed the file.

“You can if you want, though we’re also assigning a patrol for her. What I really want you to do….You can shapeshift, can’t you?” He inquired and smirked as the smaller of the two froze up.

“How did you….”

“It wasn’t to hard to guess, seeing how easily you can escape us. What I want you to do is simple, when we think the killer is going to try to strike, I want you to take her place and pretend to be her. Do what you need to restrain them and we’ll come running.” The detective explained, passing other another piece of paper. “My number. Are you in?”

“….Yeah, I am.” ‘I wonder if I can convince mom to buy me a separate phone for all this stuff.’

The next day at school, Midoriya was quiet as he walked through the halls, mind full with everything he had to consider now.

“Hey, Izuri!” Rei’s worried voice called out and he turned, smiling lightly as he saw his friend’s walking towards him. “Are you ok? I heard what happened from my dad?”

“Wait really?” He asked, with a quirked brow. She sighed as she nodded.

“His work is pretty much all he talks about with me ever. Sometimes I’m not even sure he realizes I’m his daughter and not his councilor or whatever.” She said with a frown and the other boy’s quickly changed the topic.

“So, you sure you’re ok to be here? I mean you did find a body.”  Togai inquired, placing a hand on his shoulders. “No one would blame you if you needed a day or two to cope.”

“I’m fine guys…It was….it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” Was all he opted to say, as he readjusted his bag. “We should probably hurry, the bell will go any minute.”

“Well, if you’re sure. Don’t know what could be worse but we’re here if ya need to talk.” Koyo said with a thumbs up, tugging Koan along with him, who just nodded his agreement. As they began to walk away, Izuku looked to the floor with a frown. Then, by complete chance he noticed it.

“Hey, Togai…”

“Hey…detective? Look at this, it's a shoe sole but….the victims wearing flats, they don't have rubber.”

“…Why is your shoe missing it’s sole?” He asked, hoping the shake in his voice wasn’t to obvious. The boy blinked before looking at it.

“Oh huh, how’d I miss that? No wonder I’ve been feeling off center all day.” He said as he inspected it, before shrugging. “Just a thing that happens with my quirk sometimes, body heats up automatically and causes the rubber to fall off.”

A heat quirk and a missing sole.

Externally, all Midoriya said was “Ah.”

Internally, he was screaming.

Chapter Text

Midoriya typically wasn’t one to copy Bakugou, for a multitude of reasons. He’s be beaten up, the blonde’s actions were typically not things the greenette liked the idea of doing.

However at the moment, one thing he definitely was taking from his once friend was the sheer amount her swore because FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK DUCK FUCK HIS FUCKING LUCK.

Why?! He felt his throat dry and his heart constrict (Amazing seeing as he technically didn’t have one) as he walked behind the quiet boy. He took very quick, deep breathes as he tried not to scream.

‘Don’t jump to conclusions, don’t jump to conclusions….His explanation is perfectly reasonable…’ He reminded himself quietly, before realizing he was getting some odd looks from the others.

“You sure you ok, dude?” Koyo asked with a quirked brow and the greenette just quietly nodded, turning to the bathroom.

“Just need a moment. Just go on ahead…” He said as he quickly walked inside and waited for them to walk off as he filled up one of the sinks. Then he dunked his head in and screamed. ‘Yeah, that helped.’

He did it one more time just to be safe.

‘Ok….how do I do this?’ The shapeshifter wondered as he took his lunch to the others, sitting down right across from his ‘target’.

“Oh hey Midori, you feeling better now?” Koyo asked as he toyed with his food, seemingly uninterested in it.

“Yeah, sorry about that this morning.” The boy said, waving away the red heads concern. He let the conversation carry on like any of their normal ones for a little while, discussing classes, pro’s they’d seen and random things about their home life when Midoriya finally decided to see what he could figure out. “So, what were you guys doing last night?”

At the looks he received, he shrugged. “I just want to hear something normal after the abnormal stuff.”

“Fair enough. I was home alone, just waiting on my dad and cleaning up some of the stuff he left about. Nothing special.” Rei said, bored as she took a sip of her soup.

“Koan worked out.” The muscular member of their little group said, flexing his muscles to show off. Koyo then put out his hands to show new growing stubs of metal.

“My new flamers are coming in so I’ve been looking after them. They need to be treated carefully at first.” He explained, letting the greenette inspect them. Finally all eyes turned to Togai. ‘Come on, please…please…please…’

“Nothing special, I was just walking about town. Had nothing better to do. Never really went anywhere.”

He hated to be a broken record…but FUCK!

There was no way he could get any real confirmation of that of that information alone and he definitely didn’t want to ask to much about such a seemingly uninteresting day lest he arouse suspicion. ‘Maybe…If I just kept an eye on him…’

Midoriya flipped from one roof to the next, constantly taking glances as he stalked his friend on his way home. A part of him felt guilty for this, almost feeling like he was betraying the boy somehow but the other part of him reminded him people were dying and he couldn’t afford to just a lead go.

On the way, nothing of real interest happened, aside from a mugging he had quickly broke up before running back to Togai. Fortunately it was the only bif distraction that day until they finally arrived at the boy’s house.

As he landed up above, his mind wandered to another question. ‘If it was Togai…what was that goo at my apartment? And…why? Why would Togai of all people kill people?’

Everything about this left him with a sour taste. As the boy he was following disappeared inside, the greenette side as swung away to patrol for a while.

He could put more thought into it at home, where he could take notes.

“Help!” A voice called out and the greenette’s eyes went wide under his mask as he quickly swung around the corner, only to see an old woman and a cat in a tree.  ‘Finally, something where no one is going to die.’

He got the cat down easily enough.

“Oh, Izuku!” Inko cried out happily when her son returned, looking up to see him coming in the front door. “Remember I told you I’d look into that thing?”

“Yeah?” The boy nodded as he sat down on the couch, yanking a fresh notebook out from a pile of them with his quirk. ‘Got to think about this completely logically, put emotion aside for a moment…’

“Well, I didn’t find much but….Here, there was this one study I found you might want to read.” The plump woman offered him a stack of papers as she said this. He took it in hand, noting she must have printed it out.

Shapeshifting quirks: The ramifications of changing your original form.

“It’s a bit of an old paper and I couldn’t really find anything else, what with proper shapeshifting being so rare and all but I hope it helps sweetie.” Inko said as she snaked an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. “And like I said, I want you to remember I will always love you no matter what so please don’t be afraid to talk about these kinds of things with me, ok?”

“…Ok. I love you too, mom.” He said quietly as he hugged her back, looking down at it. She got up and went away to make their dinner and the shapeshifters eyes darted between the paper and his notebook. For a second, he went to read it…

Then he took his hand back, turning his full attention to the notebook. ‘I can come to that another time, Togai is more important right now. How long could it possibly take to find any definitive proof he is or isn’t the flame reaper?’

The answer to that question? Three whole months.

Three months of stalking, of weird looks and being more distant with his new friends than he’d like. Midoriya knew they were worried about him and were he in their position he would too.

Finally though, after so much waiting and lack of any real resurgences a text finally came through.

It was a quiet Tuesday night, and the vigilante had been basking in his new found freedom. Heroes begrudgingly accepted his help against villains that outmatched them and some even thanked him before letting him go.

They clearly were all annoyed at being upstaged by him though, as he swung around the city and wiped the floor with petty thiefs and would-be killers alike. On this particular dark night, he’d been resting on the roof of his aunt’s building when his pocket had vibrated. Taking out his burner flip phone Inko had gotten the greenette he saw he had a new message.

Homura

Homura: Suzu is moving to a new location. We have cause to suspect the killer will strike now if they see an opportunity.

Homura: Get into the building, and leave disguised as Suzu. We’ll take her an hour later. Go somewhere like the market district.

You: Got it. On my way.

So he’d ran off to the address he’s been told the woman stayed at until he was just a street away from it, shapeshifting into some random businessman

The building he’d wandered into wasn’t particularly big but for the sake of believability he still went up and down the stairs before he took on the potential victim’s form and hurried out.

‘She’ was now 5’2, had luscious gold hair that flowed over ‘her’ shoulders and deep magenta eyes. ‘She’ wore a simple blue dress and matching blue flats, along with red lipstick and thick mascara.

Trying to keep a normal human pace while in a new body could always be a bit tricky, the shape shifter had learnt. Especially when your height and thus perception had changed.

Still, she managed and made her way to the market district like detective Homura had suggested. It took almost an hour at her speed but she got their eventually.

So that’s the situation Midoriya found ‘herself’ in now, pretending to look over different kinds of jewelry at one of the stands.

“How much is this one?” ‘She’ asked, knowing full well she couldn’t actually buy any of them and just hoping the voice wasn’t too far off the real deal.

“140,000 yen.” The shopkeeper said, crossing his arms. “You gonna buy or just keep staring?”

With the glare he was ‘her’, she decided it would be better to just walk away. As she did though she crashed into someone else and fell backwards. “Sorry!”

“Ah, no no. that was my fault, miss.” A masculine voice said and ‘she’ looked up to see a blonde lanky man with a long mane of almost golden hair. “I should watch were I’m going more.”

“Here, let me help you pick this up at least!” Midoriya offered, quickly grabbing the dropped items and putting them together. “And it was just as much my fault.”

“Well, either way, no real harm done.” The gaunt man laughed, holding out a hand, which she quickly shook. “Yagi Toshinori, pleased to meet you.”

“O-oh. I’m uh, N-Nakao Suzu.” She introduced herself, bowing lightly. “Sorry to take up your time sir.”

“Ah, hey. It’s no bother. I’m not doing anything that important anyways.” Toshinori said, waving his hands. “Anyways, I shouldn’t keep you. Enjoy your day, miss!”

With that, the man left and Midoriya was left standing there for a moment before, without really knowing why, she started to smile. ‘It’s…kind of nice to be called miss…’

Before the shapeshifter could dwell on that though.

“How much is that?” A familiar voice inquired and her blood ran cold as she looked up to see Togai. However instead of stalking her or something, he was just having a casual conversation with a shopkeeper as he bought some kind of ring. “Thanks.”

“Hope your mom likes it kid!” The shopkeeper said as he began to walk away, in the wrong direction. ‘What…Then…he isn’t…?’

For all of three seconds, she felt relief.

Then suddenly her phone vibrated once more and she pulled it out before her face paled and she took off into a sprint. Disappearing from sight behind an alley she changed into her outfit without remembering to change her actual form and leapt into the sky.

The world practically became a blur as she used every trick she had learned so far to hurry along, before finally she arrived at a worn down looking building and quickly leapt through the window, barreling upstairs into a room to find police everywhere.

Detective Homura stood in the middle, struggling against two officers who were trying to put cuffs on him and behind them, another body lay.

On the wall, there it was again.

火

Chapter Text

Midoriya had no idea what to think as she looked out to the scene before her, the detective trying to get the officers off him. There was a victim on the floor, a mand for once. His eyes were just as dead as the woman before him and the rest of the apartment seemingly untouched.

The only window in the room was open, allowing wind to blow in. They had still yet to notice her, as they were focused on the bedraggled detective. “Homura, stop resisting!”

“I didn’t do it, you morons!” He shouted back, sounding almost desperate. Before, his mere presence could make Midoriya feel small but now…. he looked like a frightened puppy. It was terrifying in it’s own right to see the fear in his eyes.

“Don’t lie to us. You’re the only one who could be the flame reaper!” Another argued, finally shoving him to the ground and starting to cuff him. That’s when they looked up, finally. “You!”

“Uh….Hi?”

“You’re under arrest as well, don’t move!” Another officer shouted, running at the shapeshifter. Before he could though he was tripped by Homura who looked up at him.

“THE WINDOW, NOW! FIND THEM!”

She didn’t need to be told twice, she was gone. She used her speed to leap out before anyone could react to her, plummeting to the ground. ‘Who’s them?! Who’s-?!’

His senses kicked in, the world flashing. He looked up, and in the fairly empty street, in one of the Alley’s someone was looking up at him, completely covered head to toe in clothing.

‘There was no DNA evidence.’

‘Got you this time!’ She thought as she fired out two tendrils either side, prompting the villain to run. The vigilante slignshotted in, rolling across the ground and even hopping on and off the walls to keep up her momentum. “Get back here!”

She rounded the corner to find them waiting at a dead end. Yet they were facing her. They were…small. Child sized… “You know…you really are a pain…”

They were completely silent, turning to the shapeshifter. They began to stalk forward, making the greenette growl. “The flame reaper…dramatic name, but one that won’t terrorize anyone else…”

As she said this, she threw both her hands to the sides, one transforming into her sharp claws while the other took on the properties of her hammerfist. The villain didn’t falter, so Midoriya pounced.

Instead of dodging like the shapeshifting girl expected, the villain launched forth into her claws and impaled themselves. ‘What?!’

“Enjoy…” They finally hissed, and Midoriya felt her claws begin to heat up. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening and then-

SPLAT!

The villain exploded, pieces of her going everywhere and splattering on the vigilante. What really caught the greenette off guard though, as she stumbled back was her skin melting away.

Because it hurt… it hurt a lot. She hissed as she stumbled back, ignoring the shouting of the officers nearby. She instinctively shot her hand to her face, feeling the little holes left behind.

‘What…’ She looked down, doing her best to ignore the unexpected pain and seeing the goo left behind. It wasn’t perfectly identical to the one she’d found before but… it was similar. She looked down at her somewhat ruined claws, turning back into a mangled and deformed hand. ‘I….I have to…’

So she put her hand into the substance on the ground, pushing her hand right in. As she did…

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

It hurt so much! It burned! she pulled her arm back out and looked to see she’d lost most of her hand within. It had melted away….

“There you are! Freeze!” A voice called behind her as she stayed, confused and stunned. “You are under arrest for aiding and abetting a criminal…”

“The flame reaper….”

“Yeah, him-“

“…Doesn’t use flames?”

“Huh?”

She looked up, before a growl escaped her throat. Then she quickly scrambled to her feet, ignoring the frightened shouts behind her as she leaped over the pile on the ground and ran off, jumping up the walls and zipping away, unable to reform her hand.

She had someone she needed to see.

She never stopped running, constantly getting faster and faster as she moved. She lost the police ages back most likely, but she still moved despite that.

It wasn’t long until she found herself on the outer edges of town, leaping over a fence and running up the pathway to the Kendou’s front door. She knocked frantically before taking a step back.

It took a moment but the door opened up to reveal the reporter, a shocked expression taking over her face as she took the vigilante in.

“Proto, is that you?” She asked, only getting a nod in response. This seemed to only further her bewilderment. “When did you get so tall? And….why do you have boobs?”

The greenette blinked for a moment, looking down and confirming she did indeed still retain a feminine form. “Was just…distracted. Not important, we really need to talk. Can I come in?”

“…Alright then…” She said, stepping aside as she watched her movements carefully. When the shapeshifter got to the living room, she couldn’t help but collapse onto the nearby seat, shoving her face into her hands. “Are you ok? Those holes….”

“It’s…it’s fine, I just…” She took a breath to steady herself and get a moment to think of how to explain this. “Detective Homura was arrested for the murders but…I ran into the real killer a little later. They were completely covered so I have no idea who they were but…They changed their pattern.”

“Damn… So then…” The tall woman placed her hand to her chin, as she thought about what she was told. “Let me guess, you need another lead? Now that the original is useless?”

“I don’t think it’s completely useless… The detective was arrested after the third death so it’s probably likely the person who died was related to him somehow. Just their gender had nothing to do with it in the end, or at least the killer knew to pick someone else…” Midoriya reasoned, trying her best not to think about the detectives fearful expressions.

The room descended into silence as the two thought, trying to brainstorm any sort of lead or potential culprit. One idea came to Midoriya’s mind, yet he brushed it away.

After several moments, the reporter let out a sigh as she stood up. “Do you still have my number?”

“Yeah, in my phone.” The shapeshifter nodded.

“I’ll text you if I think of anything. For now though it might be better if you leave, I can’t keep you here for too long.” The giantess apologized, gesturing to the door. The vigilante let out a sigh but she understood. ‘For her families sake…I wonder if that’s why the detective was so scared…’

“Thank you anyways…” She said as she walked out into the hall. She was about to exit the house entirely when she heard someone quickly running down the stairs. Turning for a moment he came face to face with the youngest of the Kendou’s once again. She walked up to the shapeshifted woman, and pulled out a pendant that she handed to her.

“Hmm? What’s this?” She asked confused, looking to the young girl for answers.

“A… it’s a pendant I’ve had for a long time…” She explained nervously, toying with her hair. “It’s like… a good luck charm. You’re trying to catch a bad guy right?”

At that she nodded.

“Well… I want you to succeed. I’ve always… I’ve always liked people who help others and do what’s right, whether they were heroes or vigilante’s…” She explained, pulling her hand back to herself. “I want to be a hero to help others… My quirk isn’t the most ideal for heroics though… So, when I see people like you… It reminds me why I can’t let that stop me.”

Despite herself, the biggest grin came across Midoriya’s face at that as she finally shapeshifted back into her regular form (Aside from one or two features), still clothed. As she did though, she made an impulsive decision.

Her hand came to her face, and she pulled off her mask. The girls eyes went wide as she met the greenette’s own emerald orbs and he handed it back. “Thanks Kendou… but you should keep it. Just knowing you believe in me is enough. Keep going at it, and I’m sure you will be an amazing hero…”

She put her mask back on as she turned, walking to the door. “And….I hope I get to see you at U.A, if I ever get there.”

With that, she took off.

Her clothes had returned to normal and her body was almost exactly as it was before except now for a minor bust she’d kept, telling herself it was just part of a disguise to avoid anyone realizing exactly who she was.

Then her mind would question her on why she was still using feminine pronouns and she’d have no answer, deciding it didn’t matter at the moment instead.

She was in the car park to her home, walking to the stairs and glad she could avoid mister Takeo on her way. For the briefest moments she’d almost freaked out when she’d looked inside his apartment and saw him fighting with some liquid substance until she realized it was just mayonnaise.

Shaking her head she hurried up to her apartment door, looking down at her still missing hand. The smaller holes on her body had patched up, just much slower than normal but the hand had made no such recovery.

She wasn’t as invincible as she thought, she had a weakness like anyone else. She couldn’t regenerate when her body was completely destroyed, which fire and lava or other such substances could do.

Before she walked into her home, she did have one last idea as her other hand took on it’s blade form, and she sliced it through the opposite arm. It had been weird to do, however had been other quick and proven to be worth it in the end when the arm regenerated fully with a brand-new hand.

Absorbing the old arm, as she didn’t know what else to do with it she went to go collapse on her bed, barely responding to her mom’s questions. She’d probably regret that soon enough, but the day had been too long already.

She just wanted some rest.

The next day, the greenette had been late to school, her mother having let her sleep in. She’d ended up running instead of getting on the train, as less people were around so she could get away with running closer to her full speed.

It took her about an hour but she eventually arrived outside the building, no one around as she began to walk to the entrance. At least she thought no one was around.

“Izuri?” A familiar voice questioned and the shape shifter blinked as she turned to see a puffy eyed Rei walking up to her. “You…you look different…”

“Uh…yeah…testing something.” She said, justifying that it was technically the truth. “What are you doing here? I….heard that your father was…”

“Arrested? Yeah… he’s being blamed for… for crimes he didn’t commit.” She admitted, almost flinching as she said it. “I just…. The officers who told me made me go to school for now anyway… Guess they didn’t know what to do with me.”

Her voice quavered as she said as much, and the greenette gritted her teeth as she looked up at the school. Then a thought crossed her mind. ‘I’m in trouble anyway and she has an excuse…’ “Hey Rei?”

“Huh?” She looked up at her friend, cocking her head and with a soft smile Midoriya gestured back to the street. “What…”

“You shouldn’t need to deal with any of this today… Come on, I know a place that might help…” She suggested and the black haired girls eyes went wide.

“Wait you’re…saying we blow off school? But… I mean….” She sounded conflicted, and the greenette walked forward to place a hand on her shoulder.

“Just this once. I promise you won’t get in trouble for it, ok?” She said, slowly guiding her away and the well-mannered girl nodded lightly.

“Y-yeah ok…. So… what’s the place?” Rei pondered.

“Just a little shop where the owner doesn’t care about students who aren’t at school."

Despite the heaviness of the situation that had brought them to this point, this moment they found themselves in was so peaceful. They sat atop the shop’s roof, looking out to the seaside and drinking slush drinks while Midoriya told dumb jokes to try to cheer her up a little.

It only ever worked for a couple moments at the time but Rei definitely seemed to appreciate it so the greenette kept at it.

“Why are we all considered insane nowadays?” Midoriya began the next joke with a stupid grin, and Rei shrugged looking to her for the answer. “Because we’re just all so quirky!”

“Pfft.” The black haired girl laughed a little, a very slight smile on her face as she looked down. Still, like every other time when she finally stopped it started to disappear.

‘Damn. Need to think of something else…maybe…’

“Hey, Rei?” She started, turning to the girl as she finished her drink. “I’ve meant to ask for a while now, can I see your quirk?”

“H-huh?! Why would you want to see mine?!” She questioned, almost dropping her drink in surprise. “I mean it’s hardly like it’s anything impressive like yours…”

“That’s not true! A cloning quirk is an awesome power to have!” Midoriya defended her power, with a larger grin than usual. “I mean we’re probably not going to get a good chance to see it again, and I always finds it helps to use my powers to vent a little.”

“…Yeah…ok….just for you, though.” The girl said nervously, looking down at her hand. Midoriya sat beside her, the greenette’s own excitement building.

She waved her hand, and in front of them a perfect copy of Rei formed.

A perfect copy that first materialled as a white goo. The greenette’s grin faltered slightly but she shook her head. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ “I…I always did find it a bit odd your dad’s quirk is so different.”

“Oh, his has a side effect on mine. Makes the goop they’re made off dangerous…Kind of like Lava but…not quite as bad…”

Totally just a coincidence, she was sure…

The she watched the clone create a clone of it’s own, before they both dissipated into that white goop. Those puddles of goop.

Rei laughed beside her, starting to feel better. However Midoriya….

Unable to keep herself composed the greenette quickly grabbed the girls bag, almost knocking her other in the process and dumping everything out. “Hey what the-“

Among it all, a single red marker clattered onto the floor. Midoriya’s breathe hitched.

“O-oh, your the clone girl, right?”

Internal Combustion. Outer body remained untouched.

“It's weird to think someone I saw alive not that long ago is gone now.”

“Well neither do a lot of killers, but that doesn't change the fact they did it!”

“I just don't like people making my father seem….you know. He's a great man, and I really don't think he's wrong.”

“Did you see her at any of these crime scenes?”

“His work is pretty much all he talks about with me ever.”

“I really don’t think he’s wrong.”

Despite herself, Midoriya began to growl as she turned to Rei, fear evident on the girl’s face. “Do you have a shoe….missing it’s sole…”

The silence was answer enough. So many thoughts and feeling swirled around the shapeshifters head, as she processed it all. She looked up, and said the only thing she could think to.

“You’re the flame reaper…”

“Izuri….don’t….” The black haired girl started to back up, gritting her teeth.

“You tricked me… You didn’t want to be my friend…”

“Please….I’m sorry….For everything…” She said, almost sounding genuine. Fear laced her voice and Midoriya had no idea what to do. “Including this!”

As she said that, she used her quirk one more time.

Chapter Text

“Including this!”

The black haired girl threw her hand forward, and the world flashed as it always did when Midoriya was in danger. The greenette barely reacted in time, flipping backwards and looking up to see a clone of Rei melting into the ground, the original looking at her in shock. ‘She really is…’ “So that’s how you do it, is it? You cloned yourself inside them…”

“Izuri-“

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” The shapershifter shouted, as red tendrils started swirling around her. Rei’s own eyes widened in surprise when Midoriya donned her costume. “You said it yourself… You give nicknames to your friends…”

In the blink of an eye, the Prototype disappeared from sight. The black haired murderer froze up when their voice returned however, deep and angered in her ear. “-And I’m not your friend!”

Before she could react Rei was knocked across the roof, creating multiple clones on instinct to protect her. They all rushed the vigilante who stood unimpressed. She raised her hands as they turned to claws and took all of them out in an instant.

She wasn’t holding back.

“Izuku.. come on… You don’t… you can’t…” The spectacles girl started to shake, a mixture of anger and fear laced in her voice. “I WAS MAKING SURE THOSE CRIMINALS GOT THEIR DESERVED PUNISHMENT!”

She blinked, and suddenly Midoriya was grasping her shirt slowly leaning in. “You don’t get to decide that! Those people were deemed innocent!”

“They weren’t! My father was never wrong. He is never ever wrong. He’s to good to be…”

Another flash prompted the masked vigilante to drop her and jump back, barely avoiding to clones smashing in her head from either side. “That’s the best you have?! You’re father said so?! He wasn’t even-”

“HE WAS ALWAYS RIGHT!” Rei screamed as she started barreling towards the shapeshifter, tears starting to stream down her face. She threw weak punch after weak punch, easy to dodge. “HE WAS RIGHT, HE HAS TO BE RIGHT! THAT’S WHY HE NEVER HAS TIME TO SPEND WITH ME, THAT’S WHY ITS ALL HE TALKS ABOUT! CRIMINALS NEED TO BE PUNISHED! HE NEEDS TO…He needs to….”

Then she fell to her knees, crying into the ground.

“Rei?” The vigilante questioned as she took a tentative step forward.

“FREEZE! BOTH OF YOU!” A new voice demanded and they both turned to see an officer pointing a gun at them. “YOU’RE BOTH UNDER ARREST-“

“NO!” Rei shouted, throwing her hand out at him. Midoriya barely had time to react, diving onto the man and going of the roof with him, using a tendril to keep them from splatting on the ground.

“F-freeze…” The officer continued, still in her grasp. The shapeshifter just rolled her eyes. “You’re…”

“Just go get back up dude. That’s your real flame reaper up their.” She said quickly, before leaping back up onto the roof and seeing the girl she had thought was her friend trying to escape. “Oh no you don’t!”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” She shouted back as she tried to run, however a tendril quickly brought her back to the teen. She looked up with a snarl, however it was hardly threatening at all with those wide terrified eyes full of tears betraying how she really felt. “I didn’t want… I didn’t want this…”

“Rei. You’ve got to realize this isn’t right…” Midoriya began, sighing as the girl continued to struggle against the tendril. “Murder isn’t right, even against criminals! Especially in comparison to what you were punishing them for!”

“Get off me!” Rei cried as she finally pulled herself out of the tendrils, turning to her opponent. She ran forward once more and the world flash as her quirk began to activate.

Midoriya leapt forth, narrowly avoiding a clone and rushing at the girl. The greenette tried to grab her, hand placing on her head when suddenly a new tendril shot out.

 Both their eyes widened and suddenly the world disappeared into a haze…

“Daddy? Can we play, pwease?!” A little girl’s voice asked, coming seemingly from the greenette. Her line of sight showed her a much younger looking version of detective Homura at a desk.

“Not now, Rei. I’m busy, daddy’s work is important. I can’t leave it.” The man said simply, not even sparing a glance to the little girl, and it suddenly clicked.

This was Rei’s memory.

“Aww… But…. You never ever play with me! Ever!” She complained, looking down at the teddy she clutched in her grasp. “You used to play with me all the time when Mom was here!”

At that the detectives eyes narrowed and he looked up, anger on his face. “Rei, I told you to never bring her up! Go back to your room!”

“FINE!”

The world flashed white.

The flash faded to another memory.

She was taller, but still not as tall as she was now. She sat at a dining table, her father along from her as the two ate in silence. She hated it. She hated this silence. She said the first thing she could think of too break it. “How…was your day?”

“…Same as usual. Boring. Arrested people pro’s caught and lost another criminal.” He said with a shrug. The girl cocked her head at that. ‘But…aren’t you supposed to be the best cop?’

“How could a bad person escape you?”

“Luck, lies and bribing other officers probably. It’s more common than people think. Back when I first joined, there was-“

He went into a tirade about how criminals could always find ways to escape punishment, much to his chagrin. His passion over it was clear and only one other subject seemed to anger him as much.

Still… When he was done, he still never asked her how her day was. She’d at least waited until she was back in her room to cry.

Whenever the subject of Rei’s mother came up, the detective seemed to have one of two reactions. He’d freeze up, and ignore it or start shouting angrily at whoever brought the topic up.

She never understood why. Mom just died in an accident, right? That’s what he told her. A car crash that no one could help…

So it was so confusing when she found a file in her father’s study, that had her death recorded inside… labelled as a murder.

She had been through this room many times. The only thing the man ever really talked with her about was his work, to the point he’d dropped secrets he wasn’t supposed to on her loads of times.

She never understood why.

She continued to read the report, unsure of what to make of what it said.

“At 03:22PM on Tuesday, A black SUV driven by a robber making a getaway attempt veered off the road into large crowds. A few dozen people suffered various states of injury, however there was only one casualty. Ara Homura, mother of Rei Homura and wife of Kenta Homura.”

“What…”

A slow creak caused her eyes to widen as she looked up, only to see her father staring at her equally as shocked, before a look of shame came onto his face. Unable to look at him, she looked back down, and saw the last part of the report.

“Only suspect was released due to a lack of evidence.”

Beside that, there was a single note written in red marker. ‘Lie. Bribery.’

Her father still rarely ever talked to her about anything over than his work, but she got it now. She knew why. His work WAS important. Because when he didn’t do it people didn’t get what they deserved.

It had been a passing thought, one she hadn’t initially expected to go through with but she knew her power would be perfect for delivering the punishments they escaped. Every criminal she’d heard of her father putting away had been sentenced to death, she was aware of that much.

So how was her doing it any different?

She’d found a file, of the people who had gotten away from him. She’d toyed with the idea in her head for a long time. These were criminals, they had to be. Her father put so much into his work he had no time for her, so he couldn’t be wrong about this!

Then, she’d realized one of them lived near a classmate of hers. She decided if she was ever going to do it, to start with them, as she could find them the easiest.

It had been… Terrifying to end that woman. She’d screamed her heart out when the girl’s cloned self had walked in, covered head to toe to avoid any DNA evidence getting out.

She hadn’t put up much of a fight, no need to risk it. It had been as simple as a snap of her fingers. The clone had been created to fast for them to react, and then they’re body had fallen to the floor, lights dying from their eyes.

A part of Rei wanted to scream. It was horrible, it was terrifying and she didn’t like it, it hurt to watch. Yet another voice in her head continued to justify it, reminding her this is what would happen anyways if justice was served properly.

She did however realize she couldn’t let them figure out what had really happened. Her quirks residue would dissipate mostly by the time the body was found, she couldn’t risk them finding out.

She didn’t want to make it to hard on the people doing their actual jobs though, like her father. So she’d done the first thing she could think of, grabbing a nearby red marker and writing out the kanji for fire.

It was just meant to help the investigators. She’d taken the marker with her, without any worry.

Her dad never checked her bag anyways.

She began to hurry away, rounding the corner and disappearing from sight when she heard a scream. She risked a look back and saw a woman with long bright green hair and instantly she knew.

It was her classmates mother. He might figure her out…

The next day at school, she’d ended up ignoring her friends for once as she scanned the halls. Then her eyes landed on him, eating alone.

‘Just make sure he didn’t see anything, and then be on your way. He’s nice but you don’t need another friend to realize what might of have happened.’

In the end, that had failed miserably when her own desires got the better of her.

The world came back into focus and Midoriya took a hesitant step back as he looked up at Rei, who had finally snapped, crying into the ground. The greenette had no idea what to think, as she looked over to see the police officer beginning to climb back up once again. “Rei… This isn’t what your father would have wanted…”

“But… but he….”

Tears stung in the vigilante’s own eyes, making it hard to see through the mask as she knelt down and placed a hand on Rei’s shoulders. Of all the things she expected to find out, this wasn’t one of them. “Rei… you’re dad IS a good cop, but he’s not perfect. More so than that… He’s not a great dad either.”

She flinched violently at that, shaking her head and the prototype let out a sad sigh. Why couldn’t the flame reaper have just been some random sociopathic punk she could beat the snot out of?

She supposed she should of realized though. She never should of trusted anyone in that school, ever.

“I… I give up… I just… Please, I just want it to be over…” The spectacled girl cried, as the police officer tentatively walked towards them. “I did it… I did it all… Please… Just make this stop….”

Though confused, the officer had cuffed her and took her away to the car without making any real attempts to apprehend the vigilante. As they began to drive away, Rei’s apologetic and scared tear filled eyes met Midoriya’s masked ones.

What she couldn’t see was the light that had died in them. As they drove away, the greenette took to the sky, doing her best not to scream.

Rei had killed more than just her intended victims. She’d more than likely killed her father’s career, killed the trust Midoriya had and what hurt most of all.

What made Midoriya want start punching in the buildings around her until they were all naught but rubble…

She’d killed the first friendship Midoriya had known in years.

Chapter Text

“Dammit…”

A dumpster flew into the wall, tearing a hole in it with a sickening crunch.

She was still angry.

“Dammit!”

A tendril whipped around the air at an almost impossible to perceive speed, coming down on a car chassis and splitting it in half instantly.

She was still angry!

“DAMMIT!”

Her claws manifested once more, much larger than they ever had before as she aimed them out at a line of mannequins. A second later she appeared on the other side of them as they all turned to dust.

She looked over her shoulder, body starting to swirl with dark red tendrils as she growled. The room was still standing and she was still angry!

“DAMMIT!”

Finally she figuratively and literally exploded.  Hundreds upon hundreds of small tendrils shot out in every direction, completely destroying everything in the room. They were rigid and unstoppable, tearing through everything.

Had she not been so emotionally overloaded, she might have been happily shouting about how she just pulled off something so destructive it rivalled some pro’s special moves.

She’d maybe even feel guilty she probably just destroyed a building worth thousand’s and thousand’s of yen.

Now though, she was just trying her best not to cry in the rubble of her destruction, almost as destroyed as her friendship she thought bitterly.

She failed to hold back the tears, curling up in a ball and just wishing life didn’t hate her like it seemed to.

Why did she have to be the one who was born quirkless?! Why was she the one who had to get the insane freak powers when they just put her in these situations?!

Why did she…

Why did she always have to lose her friends….

“Izuku?! Izuku- Izu….” A familiar voice began to call out, yet the girl didn’t bother uncurling from the ball she was in, even as she felt their presence right next to them. “Oh Izuku….”

“P..please…..don’t….call me that….”

“H-huh? Ok then…”

It was Kokoa… of course it was. She’d always come by at the same times no matter what in case Midoriya ended up being here, and seeing the building torn to shreds probably hadn’t instilled a lot of confidence in her about the greenette’s safety. “Can… can I please… go with you…”

“…of course sweetie. You know I’m always here for you, no matter what.” The blue haired woman said, slowly lifting her head to look at her. “I mean it. Hero or Vigilante, nephew or niece…you’re family.”

“Thank you…”

The next day, Midoriya had left early not bothering with school. She had something much, much more important to deal with.

The night before had been quiet, as she had just gone straight to sleep after eating            , wanting to escape the nightmare reality had become just for a little bit.

Sadly dreams don’t usually tend to be happy when you sleep after these kinds of things. Nightmare after nightmare plagued her that night.

Now, she was swinging from building to building, running across walls to get to one place. Finally she landed on the building just across from her destination and sighed as she took it in.

The police precinct.

It had been all over the news that morning somehow. ‘Terror Killer really just little girl?!’

Midoriya could barely stand to watch it but she did, and she was glad she did. Because it told her two important things.

If Rei’s claims were proven, she would be sent to a juvenile detention center for god knows how long.

And two… Detective Homura had been released.

With a sigh, in full Prototype clothing the greenette leaped across to the other building, landing beneath the window of the detective and crawling in. He already was sat in his chair facing away.

He’d been expecting her.

“I’m sorry…” Was all she could think to start with, walking around to the front of the man who looked to his door with dead eyes, clicking in his pen. For a moment, the shapeshifter wasn’t sure he heard her, then he finally responded.

“Don’t be… this mess is my fault.” He sighed, slowly beginning to shatter the pen in his grip. “She gave us a full account of your fight, aside from who you were. The memories that were dredged up…. I was such a horrible father and I didn’t even realize…”

“Homura…”

“I was so caught up in my work, because I never wanted anything like what happened to Ara to happen to anyone else but I never saw what it was doing to her.” He said, with a chocked sob. “I was supposed to guide her to what’s right and just and instead I sent her down this path. I should be the one rotting in that cell….”

Midoriya had no idea what to say to that. Was there even anything she could say to that? No… but there was something she could do…

Without giving it another thought she reached up and yanked off her mask, looking up at the detective. He looked at the girl with searching eyes before he sighed. “Midoriya…. Like I expected."

“H-huh?!”

“Your not as subtle as y-you think kid… I’ve known for a while but we were…pre-occupied.” He explained, causing them both to flinch at the topic. “Of course, I’m the only one who knows so I have a duty…”

Midoriya’s eyes widened a bit but she made no move to stop him as he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote something down on it, before sliding it over. “However I won’t have that duty for much longer.”

It was a resignation slip.

“Listen, Midoriya. This was my fault, absolutely no one else’s. Don’t ever blame yourself for this. In the situation you were in, you did the best thing any one can do.” The soon-to-be ex-detective said as he stood up, walking towards the door. “You did what you believed was right.”

“What happens now?” The greenette asked as the man placed a hand on the door, about to leave. “With you and Rei… and my vigilante work?”

“Well… I may have fucked up big time but the least I can do is try to help her get through this and out the other side. As for you… keep at it. Sometimes people forget in our ages of heroes that a title doesn’t mean you are the embodiment of good or evil. You’re just someone doing the best you can. If you ever need an off-the-record opinion on something and can’t talk to that Kendou woman…well I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure out where I live.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving Midoriya all alone as her mask reformed around her face. She stood for a few moments, taking it all in before she turned and dived out the window, leaping and flipping from building to building towards her home.

The hallway was dark when she walked in, however the rest of the apartment was bright while Inko bustled around cooking something. Midoriya let out a sigh as she walked in, only getting rid of her mask.

“Mom…I’m home….”

“Huh, Izu….?” The plump woman questioned, before hurrying out into the hall and running to wrap her only child in a hug. “Oh thank goodness you’re safe. I… I saw the news… are you ok sweetie?”

“Not…not really…” She answered honestly as she clung on tight, before the older greenette lead her to the living room to sit down. “I can’t believe I lost her… so fast…”

“I wish I could say something more than I’m sorry sweetie but… I can’t say I have any idea what to say…or do…” Inko said sadly, gently petting her child’s head. Midoriya just sniffled before she sat up a little, remembering something.

“H..hey mom, do you still have that book? The one about shape-shifting? I never got a chance to read it…”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s right here.” The woman said, shoving aside a small pile of magizines on the coffee table in front of them and pulling out the book. Midoriya took it in hand and opened it up. “I think… the start of chapter 3 is what you might be looking for…”

Flipping through the pages, the child found it and began to read aloud.

“Shapeshifter’s and their identities. A common occurrence among fully fledged shape-shifting quirks is a psychological effect commonly referred to as the ‘million identities’ problem.

With so many options of how one can look and be at their disposal, their original sense of self-identity can be completely fractured. The ability to become someone entirely different makes the user’s wonder subconsciously if they are right as they are. More often than not these thoughts spiral until they start affecting conscious decisions.

The most common example is shapeshifter’s having a higher likely hood of being transgender or genderfluid because of this. Without knowing the cause, these feeling can alarm those who begin to experience them, making them think of themselves as wrong when this is not the case.

As far as out studies show, whether you commit to a brand new identity or retain your old one is up to the person. There is no right option as both seem to have the same effect on their mentality once they have accepted their identity again.

Sometimes though, certain parts of preferred identity might bleed though. It’s advised to listen to these instead of fighting them, as it might make the acceptance stage that much easier.”

So… she probably could have guessed it by now but it was nice to be confirmed…

A small smile graced her face despite herself. So that’s why it had been so easy to change to a feminine pronoun, something she realized she was still doing even right now and why she had been fine in feminine clothing.

Could she say she truly knew everything about… her identity or whatever? No… but she could think of one thing involved in it… “Mom...?”

“Yes sweetie?”

She was silent for a moment, taking a breath before looking up at her.

Izuku Midoriya was a symbol of everything that had ever gone wrong in her life so far, a harsh reminder of how unfair life was. But life had given her another chance… one she had to take…

And so….

“Can we….can we try calling me Izumi for a bit, please?”

“…Of course, sweetie.” Inko said, giving her the kindest smile she could. “Anything else?”

“Just this for now…”

Izuku Midoriya was left behind, as Izumi Midoriya was born.

Izumi, who would go on to be the true end point for the greenette, as she continued to fight crime for years to come.

The Prototype, who no criminal could stand against no matter how hard they tried. Defined by two villains as she fought. One a monster full of greed and hatred, the other a broken soul in need of healing.

She promised to eradicate the first, she promised to save the second.

Izumi Midoriya, who no one could ever prove was the fearsome vigilante, able to go toe to toe with those she never should have been able to. A girl who sadly would drift away from her other friends over the years, their strongest bond broken.

She promised that she would always remember where she began. A quirkless boy, sat on a lab table, broken and bruised and just wanting to be like everyone else.

Now she was a girl, filled with unbridled power and a want to help others. And she was still different. She was still a freak in many people's eyes.

But being a freak was okay. Being different is okay and she should have ever been ashamed of it. She let her critics win when she caved to their insults and beliefs but now she could ignore them without concern. She could be who she was truly was.

Whether it be Izumi, the prototype, or whatever ellse.

She was always the one who was there to help, and nothing could ever top her original adventures.

Well, at least not until it was time to apply for U.A....

Chapter Text

The week after Izumi was 'born', she had finally felt ready to return to school. She’d taken a break for a while, both to adjust to her new form and mentally prepare herself for going back.

Somewhere along the week, she’d gotten more used to wearing clothing as well and had ended up going with the proper full version of the girl’s school outfit when she walked in, doing her best to smile despite the conflicting emotions she’d felt as she walked into the building.

Plenty of people had stared though most hadn’t been so much hateful or judging as much as just surprised and dumbstruck. She managed to get to her locker without any comments and was beginning to put her stuff away when a pair of footsteps alerted her to someone approaching.

She closes the door, looking to the side only to deadpan at who she saw. Bakugou. Lovely, of all the people to make first comments about her new body, it would have to be Bakugou.

Silence filled the room as the two stared each other down, then finally…

“…Cool look.”

She blinked in surprise, not expecting him of all people to just accept it. Then he decided he had to continue talking.

“Still doesn’t change the fact you’re just useless, annoying Deku. You’re still a freak  whose stupid fucking friends were driven to murder just for knowing you-“

BANG!

The blonde didn’t get a chance to finish as he was suddenly lifted up and slammed against the lockers, as the green haired girl let out a snarl. “Don’t talk like you know anything about this. Don’t even bring it up again, or I swear I won’t be able to prevent myself from snapping.”

With that, the girl dropped him and stormed off, trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes. She didn’t pay attention to where she was going, eventually reaching the roof and sitting down, holding her head.

She stayed there for god knows how long, just trying to compose herself after her outburst. Maybe coming back so soon hadn’t been a good idea.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? Deku thinks he can just change and no one will say anything?” A new voice mocked and the girl clenched her first, turning to see a brown haired boy with cat like eyes and a malicious grin. Then she looked behind him and a grin of her own appeared. “What the- Why are you smiling, you freak?! Don’t you-“

He didn’t get a chance to continue as he was suddenly knocked into the ground with by being hit on the head. Looking up Izumi smiled at the boy responsible. “Thanks, Koan.”

“Hurt Koan’s friends, Koan hurt you.” The muscular boy said simply, grabbing her by the shoulders and guiding her away. “New look, pretty. New name?”

“Izumi.” She said simply, blushing lightly at the compliment.

“Koan likes it.” Her friend said, giving a thumbs up. “Why not more different though? If you can then why not? Koan curious.”

“Well… I guess because… Izuku Is so tied up in so much drama, tragedy, and negativity that decided I needed a clean slate, to start over. That doesn’t mean I just want to completely disregard what makes me…. Well me. It’s the best way I can honor my experiences while still moving on from them. Not to mention I just kind default to this now.”

“Koan… doesn’t understand but Koan supports his friend none the less!” The boy said, causing the greenette to laugh as they stopped outside her class.

“Thanks Koan. Your too nice for your own good. I’ll see you later.” She said, waving away before turning and taking a breathe, walking in. Everyone looked up and some jaws drop, others had their eyes widen and just everyone was frozen in shock. The teacher turned to Midoriya with a genuine smile, welcoming her in.

“Ah right, I forgot to mention class. There’s been a bit of a change, we had it called in over the last week and we were deciding how to go over this… well, better she introduced herself, eh?”

“Ok, let’s get the obvious question out the way. I’m not a secret sister or something in case anyone thinks that. I’m still Midoriya…” She started to explain, and she saw people ready to make comments. She grinned lightly as she lifted her hand and her claws formed, pretending to be picking something out of them and reminding everyone what she could do. “…But I’m Izumi now. Anyone got any problems with that?”

No one said anything and the girl grinned as she sat down. As class started back up, she ended up blushing at one random comment she overheard.

“Yo dude, how is deku such a hot girl?!”

Welp, that brought up about a million and one complicated feelings.

Time began to pass, seasons changed and everyone rested a little easier without the threat of the flame reaper about. There was even starting to be some official recognition for the Prototype vigilante as she became more and more infamous throughout the city.

Almost any back alley crime, if a pro wasn’t there to stop you it had become common to believe the prototype would form out of the very shadows of the city to protect people. A dramatic and wildy inaccurate version of events that made the girl sound way cooler than she actually was but she didn’t mind.

Especially she didn’t mind hiding the part where most of her entrances where pretty bumbling and clumsy at times. Now though, she felt like she was facing her biggest challenge yet as she looked up at the building before her, reading the sign on it.

‘Mustafu Juvenile Detention Centre’

With a deep breathe to calm herself she walked into the building, a million and one different thoughts and emotions swirling through her. Impatience as she waited in line, anger as she thought about why she even had to be here, sadness as she thought about the truth of the matter and even fear for what she might find out.

She walked up to the front desk and nodded at the lady behind the reception desk. “Visiting or Appointment? Who with?”

“Visiting. Rei Homura.” The girl said, and did her best to ignore how the room almost definitely got much quieter as she said that, eyes staring at her. The receptionist stared at her like she was some alien oddity. “Yes, I’m sure before you ask.”

“Well… if you say so kid…” The woman said, surprised and pulled up her phone to call ahead. “Just go to that room over there and tell the guard, he’ll escort you and hold onto any personal items. Just to avoid any potential contraband, I’m sure you understand.

With that the shapeshifter nodded and walked away, doing as the woman said and being lead into a room where prisoners and visitors were split either side by a wall of glass and phone booths. Midoriya took her seat at the farthest one from the wall and waited.

It took a couple of moments before two guards escorted a black haired girl in an orange jumpsuit that didn’t suit her and handcuffs to her seat. The girl looked up with a forlorn look then her eyes widened as she realized who was across from her.

It hurt so much to see how her irises lit up then died, as she saw her. They both picked up their respective phones and silence hung between them for a moment.

“Uh… hi?” The imprisoned girl said nervously and the greenette sighed looking up. “Midoriya, you don’t have to do this. You have every right to hate me, I don’t-“

“I miss you.” Izumi said simply with a frown, and Rei froze up. “I hate what you did, I hate how you thought, I hate that I had to put you here. Still… I don’t hate you. I just miss my friend.”

“Midoriya….”

“I’m… I’m going by Izumi now. Things are going well in and out of school.” The greenette said quickly, not looking the once killer in the face. She couldn’t bear how much it hurt. “Me and the boys… we don’t talk as much, I mean we’re still friends but… we only really talk when we’re stopping someone else from attacking each other. I can’t…. I just…. It’s so hard to talk to them with all the memories that come up…”

Then, before she could help herself Midoriya shot up, and started to shake.

“I….I’m sorry…. I can’t…. I’ll try next week but I can’t do this right now.”

“Wait!-“

It was too late though as the shapeshifter hung up and started practically sprinting off, grabbing her bag along the way and trying not to look anyone in the face as she cried. What she missed on the way out was Rei’s own tears beginning to flow. Nor did she hear the girls last words. “I miss you too…”

‘Dammit, dammit, dammit! Got to do  something, can’t just sit and think! A crime to stop, a kid to save, I don’t care just give me-‘ She then stopped as she looked up from the alley she was in and began jumping from walls, absorbing her bag and changing into her prototype outfit. ‘The Kendou’s can probably give me something, just do that. At least… if nothing else maybe I can talk with Itsuka…’

Yeah, she’d go do that.

Meanwhile, in a dimly lit cell off the coast of japan, a dark haired man smiled at his ceiling amused while guards patrolled back and forth. He stood up and walked over to his mirror, taking in his reflection. In his ear, a voice began to talk.

“Someday you will be out. It will be sometime still but when the day comes you can help me, help my successor. You can help while achieving your own goals.”

Srijan grinned as he shifted into a perfect replica of how he remembered Izuku Midoriya, punching in his reflection. ‘Soon brat, soon.’

“I thank you for this, opportunity…. All for One…”