Chapter Text
The early morning sun had just begun to rise over the towering city blocks and skyscrapers of the bustling coastal city of Gardenia, the shining light adding to the already soaring temperatures that are associated with mid-summer. The air was visible, radiating off surfaces like pavements or roads. Those who dared to be out and about in such sweltering heat went about their journeys quickly, hoping to get away from the burning sun and into the sweet, cool embrace of air conditioners.
For those inside, air conditioners were already blowing at full speed to compensate for the hot air blanketing the environment, be in in offices, schools, shops or homes.
Inside a bedroom in a townhouse at 10922 Palmer Road, it was no exception.
The air conditioner blasted away in a room that was in a state of organised chaos. Piles of paper and books filled the two desks, one with a laptop and the other art sketches. More sketches and other papers dotted the notice board hanging on the wall. Books stood haphazardly against one another along a bookshelf, several more lying scattered across the room among other random items of unknown origin.
Against a wall that was lined with even more sketches and the occasional poster, was a single bed with the owner of the room sleeping soundly, impervious to the world that was already on the move outside. By the foot of the bed, in a basket filled with cushions, was her pet rabbit, also sleeping soundly and dreaming of carrots.
The only sounds came from both the sleeping individual and her rabbit, release of breath and light snores. Sadly, the peaceful undertone was broken by the sudden blaring of an alarm clock sitting by a bedside table.
The rabbit was rudely startled from his slumber, tumbling out of his basket in a heap with a loud yelp. The sleeping form on the bed stirred, then groaned at the incessant ringing echoing around the room. From the covers, a hand reached out, fumbled for the Godforsaken thing, and silenced it.
Sleep permanently swept away, the bed shifted. The form mumbled incoherently, pushing down the sheets and sitting up.
Long, orange-red hair tussled up and sticking out in all directions from the movements of slumber, sixteen-year-old Bloom Davis emerged into the new day, yawning loudly and rubbing her eyes.
She stoned for a few moments, letting her sleep-addled brain slowly power up. Her rabbit bounded up to her bedside, tugging the sheets.
“Good morning Kiko…”
The rabbit waved his front paws and hopped about.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Let’s get you breakfast…”
Bloom pushed the sheets aside. Slipping on her bedroom slippers, she got up from her bed. With Kiko leading the way, she shuffled out of the room, switching off the air conditioner as she went.
“…and for me too,” she added with a yawn.
Bloom would think that she had a pretty ordinary life.
Sure, she was adopted, but that meant little in terms of how her life had progressed ever since her father found her in a burning building all those years ago.
She had loving parents – her protective, sometimes embarrassing firefighter father Mike, and her kind, steadfast florist mother Vanessa. She went to a regular high school, made friends, dealt with boring teachers and enemies, sat through equally boring lessons (except for Art, which was her favourite), and getting caught up in the drama one would associate with teenage hormones and hallway gossip.
So yeah, Bloom had a pretty ordinary life…
…one that was admittedly dull, though.
Bloom couldn’t pinpoint where it started, but she yearned for adventure. Gardenia was her home world, and she wondered what it was like outside of it. In her childhood, stories of distant realms and lands fascinated her, and as she grew older, she often expressed her desire to travel the globe and explore what awaited in foreign countries.
Alas, mostly due to the overprotective nature of her father, Bloom hardly ever ventured out of Gardenia, let alone leave the country, by herself. She knew it was with good intentions, but like every adventurous teenager stuck in a bird cage, she subconsciously felt melancholic and wishful for even a glimpse of freedom.
This summer was no different. While all her friends were out of town hopping all over the world, she was stuck in Gardenia.
Not as fun.
Every morning had been more or less the same so far. Bloom shuffled down the stairs to the ground floor, where the smell of breakfast being made wafted through. Usually, her parents were the ones to prepare breakfast. Bloom wisely kept away from the kitchen, as nearly burning the house down in a massively-botched attempt at cooking was an ordeal she nor her parents ever wanted to repeat again.
“Good morning, Bloom,” her mom smiled from the papers.
“Morning,” Bloom waved sleepily.
“Morning, sweetheart!” her dad called from the kitchen.
“Morning to you, Dad.”
Bloom helped herself to a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast already sitting on the island counter. Plopping herself down onto the dining table, she dug in sluggishly. Kiko rushed to his food bowl, filled with chopped carrots to his liking.
“Bloom, dear,” said her mom, “Sarah is unable to make it for the opening shift today due to a family emergency. I’ll need your help covering for her until this afternoon, okay?”
“Yes, mom,” the redhead replied half-heartedly.
Yep, a dull, boring life indeed.
A whole universe and then some away, someone else is also just starting a new day.
In a bedroom completely bedecked in posters, merchandise, and themed household items of the nation’s number one hero, fifteen-year-old Midoriya Izuku rose from his themed bed sheets, hand reaching over to his bedside table to silence his hero-themed alarm clock.
He was a huge hero nerd, so sue him.
Still not quite fully awake, Izuku slouched out of bed and shuffled his way out of the room. Making a pit-stop in the bathroom to release the night’s waste, he shuffled out into the living room where his mother Inko, a petite, somewhat chubby woman with long hair the same emerald-green colour as her son, was just placing the morning’s breakfast of grilled fish, natto, miso soup and rice on the dining table.
“Ohayō, Izuku, did you sleep well?”
“Ohayō, okāsan, like a log.”
“Well, let’s eat then.”
“Itadakimasu!”
Mother and son dug into their food. Izuku, in between bites, recounted the dream he had the night before, where the nation’s number one hero, All Might, had taken him on as his sidekick, and they went around saving people and the world from calamity and villains. Inko listened to it all with a fond smile.
Even though her heart ached.
Izuku was by far an ordinary teenage boy, which might not sound like something that was of great concern.
But when eighty percent of the country had some kind of superpower, or quirk, limitless to the imagination, and your son was part of the ever-shrinking twenty percent that didn’t have a quirk, being ordinary was more akin to a curse, something that others reviled. And indeed, things haven’t been smooth-sailing for the Midoriya family.
Inko remembered that fateful visit to the clinic, where the family doctor pronounced her son ‘quirkless’, extra toe-joint and all. She remembered her son sitting by the computer, video of All Might’s latest rescue playing, tears falling liberally as he asked her if he could still be a hero like him. She remembered hugging him tightly, her own tears falling as she apologised over and over as if it was her fault.
Her husband seemed to think so, packing his things and storming out the moment the news broke. The divorce was done within days.
On her own, Inko struggled to keep herself and Izuku afloat, taking on more shifts at the hospital she worked at to cover the expenses. She couldn’t be there for her son all the time, but she had faith in Izuku to keep himself safe, even with his hero-watching obsession.
If there was one thing that made Inko smile in this darkness, it was her son’s love for heroes, especially All Might. Izuku’s room reflected that, his mountain of notebooks of hero analysis laid its testament, and his habit of spectating hero versus villain fights.
It might have been compensation for his lack of quirk, but in Inko’s mind, if her son was happy, so was she.
“I gotta head out first, okāsan, there might be another hero fight on the way to school,” said Izuku, putting down his chopsticks.
Inko smiled genially, “Stay safe, Izuku.”
“I will!”
Bloom bid farewell to their latest customer, a slightly senile old woman who loved to regale her life stories to just about anyone who would listen, which honestly, was just herself. The stories might have been repeated over and over like a broken record, but Bloom didn’t find it in her nature to snub the old woman. It was common courtesy, after all.
Releasing a sigh, she grabbed a cloth from the counter to wipe the shelves, careful not to knock over any of the potted flowering plants on display.
Busy with her task, Bloom almost didn’t hear the door opening with the bell tinkling.
“Welcome to-”
Her greeting died the moment she realised who had just stepped into the shop. Someone whom she would snub any day.
Her school’s resident diva, spoiled rich-girl and neighbour, Mitzi.
“Well look who it is, the loser.”
‘God give me strength,’ Bloom groaned, before forcing politeness into her words, “Can I help you, Mitzi?”
The black-haired, bespectacled brat snorted, “Oh, it’s nothing. I just happened to see you outside from my brand new scooter,” she pointed at the shiny, purple vehicle with her thumb, “And I just thought I’d check in on how the resident loser is doing, working away her summer holidays, just before I fly off to Hawaii for the next two weeks.”
Bloom’s patience was beginning to wear thin, “And are you interested in buying anything?”
“Buying?” Mitzi scoffed, “As if I’d buy anything from this dump. I know of better places, not like this hovel your mother runs.”
Bloom’s patience snapped.
“Well then, can you kindly get the fuck out of here, you snobbish bitch?!”
Storming forward, Bloom grabbed Mitzi by the shoulders. Ignoring her squeals of indignation, Bloom bodily pushed her out of the shop, taking pleasure in watching the bitch stumble onto the sidewalk. Before she could retaliate, Bloom slammed the door shut, locking it.
Mitzi was at the door in seconds, pounding it and screaming wildly. Bloom ignored her, going back to her previous task. Mitzi would eventually stomp away after several moments of futile effort (and the weird looks she was getting from other passers-by), hopping onto her scooter and driving away.
“Who was that?”
Bloom turned, her mom just coming out of the backroom with pots in hand.
“Mitzi, who else?”
Vanessa’s eyes immediately hardened, “Did she cause trouble for you?”
“A little bit, but it was just her normal snobbery,” Bloom replied, going back to the shelf, “And I pushed her out when she wasn’t intending to buy anything.”
A smile graced Vanessa’s lips, “Good for you, Bloom, to not let anyone take advantage of you. Now, why don’t you finish up with the dusting, then you can go off. Derek’s supposed to come by soon.”
“Gee, thanks mom!” Bloom cheered, mood picking up instantly.
Izuku certainly wished he had the strength to stand up for himself.
But that was almost impossible, when faced with a bully with a powerful quirk and his lackeys.
Said lackeys had him in arm-locks, preventing him from moving an inch. The bully, Bakugou Katsuki, had his latest hero analysis notebook in his hands, sneering at the thing as if it had insulted his mother.
How ironic was it that Katsuki was once Izuku’s childhood friend and playmate?
Ah, but that was before Katsuki got his quirk, Explosion, and Izuku’s diagnosis of being quirkless. Much like the rest of society would have done, Katsuki turned on him right off the bat. What followed was ten years of bullying, intimidation, injury and insults. All heaped onto Izuku’s soul that lived through each day bruised and beaten.
And today, was no exception.
“Hero Analysis Volume 13?!” Katsuki laughed, “Fucking Deku, you think you get anywhere with stalking heroes like some kind of freakish creep?”
The lackeys laugh.
“K-Kacchan…”
“You just don’t get it, don’t you, useless Deku,” Katsuki scorned him, “You. Are. Nothing! Just a quirkless freak who gets in the way! You think you can be a hero without a fucking quirk? Well…”
Izuku watched in horror as the blonde exploded his notebook, charring it completely.
“…you should just give up, and stay down.”
Katsuki tossed the destroyed notebook away. Izuku watched it fly out the opened window.
“Let’s go, extras, he isn’t fucking worth it,” the blonde turned on his heel.
The lackeys throw Izuku to the side. He crashed into a desk, hitting his head against the edge as he fell. Izuku’s body had just landed on the floor when Katsuki, at the doorway, glanced back towards him.
“You know what? I just had a fucking great idea! If you’re so desperate to be a hero, useless Deku…”
Izuku was in too much pain to get up, but he heard everything, especially what was said next.
“…pray that you will be born with a quirk in your next life, and take a swan dive off the roof!”
The green-haired boy said nothing, even when his tormentor stomped off and slammed the door shut behind him. Alone, with blood seeping from a cut on his temple, Izuku quietly caved, tears falling rapidly.
His weeps echoed in the empty classroom.
If there was one thing Bloom appreciated about travelling on her bike, was the wind blowing through her hair as she sped down the road. Kiko also seemed to enjoy it too, sticking his head up from the front basket and letting the passing wind blow his ears backwards.
Sure, the current wind was searing hot thanks to the burning temperatures, but Bloom would take whatever she could.
Also, the place she was going to now that she was free from shop duties had plenty of shade.
Gardenia’s park was smack-dab in the middle of the city, expansive in size, and full of trees. So tight was the foliage in some areas of the park that sunlight barely managed to seep through the gaps. It was much cooler as a result, and it was the best place for Kiko to run about and get exercise.
Cycling through the gates, Bloom sighed with relief as the sun disappeared behind the tree branches, the cooler temperatures embracing her sweat-lined clothes and body. There were a couple of other park-goers going about their own business whom she passed, but paid little attention to. She just wanted a quiet corner for herself and Kiko.
Turning around a bend, she found the perfect spot. A wooded area, still close enough to the path but far enough from the main hub of human activity to be fairly isolated and quiet.
Stopping her bike, Bloom picked Kiko up from the basket and placed him onto the grass. He sniffed around for a bit, before bounding off deeper into the trees. Resting her bike against a large oak, Bloom sat down and leaned back onto the trunk. Opening her bag, she pulled out a book on mythological creatures and a container of peaches.
Opening to the bookmarked page, Bloom bit into her first peach. Hopefully she’ll get a spark of inspiration from reading. It has been a while since she last picked up her pencil. Hopefully her art skills hadn’t rusted over yet.
Finishing her peach, Bloom had just reached for the second one, when Kiko came running back, screeching loudly.
“Hm? Is something wrong?”
The rabbit tugged at her pants leg in a right tizzy.
“Did you see a dead animal again?”
The last time Kiko had been so frantic was when he stumbled upon the freshly dead corpse of a pigeon in the same park. Bloom had it buried as a sign of respect.
Kiko seemed to shake his head, tugging her pants leg a bit more before bounding off again, as if trying to get her to follow him. Bloom eventually got up, placed her book down, and hurried after him. She didn’t want to lose him in the thicket of trees, after all.
The deeper she went, the closer the trees appeared to converge. It was quite dim, leaving Bloom to squint her eyes to see where Kiko was going. She didn’t know how far in she had gone, but she showed no sign of stopping.
Until, in the distance, there was a flash of light, and a human shout.
Momentarily startled, Bloom hurried on. Kiko was standing by a tree in front of a clearing, waving his front paws in urgency. Reaching the tree, Bloom peered into the clearing from behind it.
She couldn’t believe her eyes at what she saw.
“What the…?”
“Can a quirkless person like me become a hero like you?”
So much had happened to Izuku after he managed to pick himself up and retrieve his destroyed notebook from the school’s koi pond, where it had landed.
With a broken heart and spirit, he trudged his way home, only to get attacked by a villain made completely out of slime in an underpass. But just as he was about to drown and become a morbid host for the villain, All Might, of all people, showed up and blasted the villain away with one terrifying punch.
Naturally, as any fan of the nation’s number one hero would, Izuku had so many questions. But All Might had little time, and had to leave. So the green-haired boy did want any crazed fan would do when their idol was about to take off into the air.
Grab onto the man’s leg and fly up into the stratosphere clinging on for dear life.
Realising Izuku’s foolish move, All Might was forced to land on the roof of an office building downtown. Scolding the boy for his reckless act, the number hero coughed, and proceeded to give the boy a heart attack by seemingly exploding into a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a bony, emaciated figure in its wake.
After calming the frantic Izuku down and proving he was actually All Might, the skeletal man, Toshinori Yagi, told him about his current state, and the villain that caused the grievous injury to his side that shortened his time as All Might per day.
Toshinori wanted to leave it at that, and was already heading towards the stairs, when Izuku asked that fateful question.
Izuku had to know. Surely his childhood idol, whom he revered from the moment he could walk and talk, the Symbol of Peace, would have the answer to the question that has been the only source of light in the darkness that his life has been ever since he was four…
…right?
Toshinori had an answer, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“I’m sorry kiddo, you can't be a hero without a quirk."
Izuku’s world cracked…
“You should be realistic. Being a police officer is noble too…”
…splintered…
“…or a doctor, you get to save lives that way as well.”
…fractured…
“All I’m saying, my boy, is that you need to give up this dangerous dream, before you get hurt.”
…and finally shattered.
Izuku was stock-still, almost catatonic. He barely heard the rooftop door close behind the skeletal form of the Symbol of Peace, nor did he completely register his legs giving out on him, sending him crumpling to the floor. For the second time that day, tears fell liberally from his eyes.
But his sobs were much louder.
Again, he was all alone. No one to hear his cries of despair. The world continued moving, impervious to his distress, impervious to the tatters of his dream destroyed by the man he idolised, impervious to him.
He was after all, in everyone’s eyes, a quirkless, useless, Deku.
Sometime later – he didn’t know how long – the tears stopped flowing, and the sobs quieten. Izuku picked himself up from the floor, stood for a moment, and began walking towards the railing at the edge of the roof, where virtually nothing separated it from the long drop to the sidewalk below.
Izuku reached the railing, and looked down. For some people, looking straight down from a great height is dizzying and downright terrifying. But for Izuku, he felt nothing. So broken he was, so lost in catatonia, that all fear and inhibition had drained away with his tears.
He was a shell, hollow, empty of purpose…
…empty of life.
Izuku put one foot on the railing, and then the other. With a quick hoist, he was sitting on the railing, teetering over the precipice. There he sat, in perfect equilibrium. Izuku took a breath, and pushed himself off the railing.
Everything seemed to slow down at first. The initial feeling of weightlessness, the single moment he was airborne, before gravity took its hold, and the fall spend up.
The wind howled in Izuku’s ears, his body twisting, turning and tumbling in his descent towards the awaiting ground, growing closer and closer with each second. Everything was spinning, he couldn't differentiate up from down, right from left. He also couldn’t tell if he was also hearing the screams of people watching him fall, it was all one huge roar of noise, completely indecipherable.
A roar that seemed to get louder and louder, until it almost deafened him.
Until, a flash of white light, the roar ending abruptly, and the world disappeared.
To Be Continued.