Chapter Text
Eleven year old Izuku stood as still as he could as the man in front of him rambled. He could barely hear the garbage he was spouting about ‘no heroes coming to save him’ over the pounding in his chest. Thankfully, or maybe not, the thump of footsteps makes both of them pause for a moment. They both turned to see a hero (was that Endeavor?!?) walking past the alley entrance.
“Help! There’s a guy trying to mug me!” Midoriya shouted in a desperate attempt at not getting injured. The man started to shake in fear and ran off, tipping over trash cans as he ran from the scene. Izuku took his hint and ran as well, to where he last saw the hero, only stopping to catch his breath. As soon as he could breathe again he grabbed the hero’s arm- not a great idea, he did have flames rippling over him- and started bowing. Endeavor turned to look at him with distaste in his eyes.
“Mr. Endeavor sir there was a man- and he- there was a knife- and he was asking for my money- and he got away, but I lost what I had on me. And I really needed that money to get groceries for my mom. Please help me, sir.” He added on the sir as an afterthought. However, it didn’t do much good, for the tall hero turned around and continued to walk. Izuku stared at him, confused, as the flame “hero” walked away. Seeing the departing figure Midoriya tried again, a little more forcefully than he had intended.
“Please sir I was just mugged. You’re a hero aren’t you? You’re supposed to do something.”
Now, Midoriya couldn’t see Endeavore’s face, but he could almost feel the hero’s annoyance. “I don’t have time to deal with some stupid mugging. If I walked around handling all the back alley shit that happens all day I’d be no better than some worthless sidekick; I’d never become the number one hero. Go find someone who cares.” He turned and stormed off leaving the young child dumbfounded in his wake. As he watched the flame hero exit his vision, Midoriya slowly sunk down onto the pavement and tears dripped from his eyes.
How could he not care? Heros are supposed to be the ones who help people. If my teachers won’t care what kids are doing in school, the heros won’t help outside of school, and mom won’t notice anything wrong then who am I supposed to turn to? I mean it seems like the only person who cares about me is me! Midoriya laughed, but it was dry and mocking. Then his eyes got wide and he smiled. That’s it! I have to be the one to help. I don’t have a quirk so it’s not like I can go vigilante, but I’ll figure something out. Then the smile grew dangerous. And first I’ll figure out how to get that mugger in jail.
With that thought in mind, he walked home with a new pep in his step and a light in his eyes that hadn’t shown in years.
____
When Midoriya got home he plopped down on his bed and began to search for any evidence he could against his attacker. He soon realized though that, while there were cameras in the alley, he wouldn’t be able to reach them without either permission or hacking.
God, it’s like they don’t want people to get condemned. Sighing, Midoriya turned to the internet to see if there were any other options, because, when in doubt, turn to Google. Oh hey, free online coding and hacking classes, that could work! Seems sketchy, but I don’t have any other options at the moment.
The eleven year old leaned back, satisfied with this achievement. It was his first step, kind of, towards his end goal. Even if it had only been a Google search and finding some online classes, it was still more than he had ever done before. Pride rippled through him and Midoriya smiled to himself. Soon, soon I’ll bring that man to justice. I hope.
It wasn’t until he heard his mother open the door that he remembered the reason he needed to do this in the first place. He scrambled downstairs to see the short, plump woman hanging up her coat.
“Hi honey how was your day at school?” She said as she grabbed Midoriya in a large, warm hug. “You remembered to go shopping right?”
“Actually, there was an issue. So, you see, I was going to, but then this guy stoppedmeandhehadaknifeandhetookthemoneyandItriedtogeta herotostophimbuthedidn’tandtheguygotawayand-” He stopped as he felt his mom’s shaking hands on his shoulders.
“Oh my gosh you were mugged! Are you okay baby?!” The woman began to cry as she embraced him again and began petting his hair. “Oh don’t you worry about the groceries we can go together tomorrow. It’ll be alright. Now tell me what happened.”
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The next big change didn’t happen until a couple weeks later. Izuku was walking home from school again when he heard crying from the alley across the street. Carefully he slipped inside and walked toward the source.
“A villainous piece of shit like you? You’d be better off in a prison then as a doctor. It’s almost naive that you think a quirk that can take people apart isn’t perfect for a villain like you.” It sounded to him like a highschooler. Peaking around the corner of a dumpster he could see two kids in what he thought were the uniforms of middle school third years, one year younger than what he originally thought. The taller of the two was leaning over a shorter kid who had fallen to the ground against the dirty alley wall.
“But what if someone needs surgery, or an amputation, and I could help!” The smaller boy retorted. Izuku could see his hands shaking from where he stood a few meters away.
“Ha! Yeah right! You’d probably screw up and get them killed like the worthless fuck-up you are.” The younger kid, or at least he looked younger, curled in on himself. Satisfied, the bullies walked away down the other end of the alley, laughing. Deciding that now would be the best time, Izuku stepped out of his hiding spot and began to walk over to help up the still shaking boy.
“Hey are you alright? Man that guy was an ass. I know someone just like him, and let me tell you he’s the worst!” The older boy gave him a look of bewilderment before giving a small laugh and nodding.
“Yeah that guy is the worst too; he broke my phone yesterday too.”
“Ah that sucks, I would have asked to trade numbers.” Izuku said in the most caring voice he could. “By the way what you said about your quirk was really spot on. It would be really good for a surgeon or even an EMT. Does it work selectively or does it only remove the entire object? Because if it was selective you could even use your quirk to remove tumors! Or take out bullets! Oh my god that’s such a cool quirk!” He almost started one of his muttering tangents but stopped at the look on that guy’s face.
“I- it does work selectively!” The kid was looking at Izuku like he hung the stars in the sky, “And wow, that’s a lot of ideas. I’ve never even thought about my quirk that way and trust me I’ve thought about it a lot. What’s your quirk, analysis?”
“Well, funny you say that…” Midoriya rubbed the back of his head nervously. “I don’t have a quirk.”
“Oh, um, cool.” Suddenly, his face turns into one of pity and awkwardness. “So, yeah. Thanks, I guess. Anyways, see you around.” The middle schooler picked up his stuff, dusted himself off, and started jogging down the alley away from Midoriya.
Wow. He forgot how much that hurt. Everyone at his school knew he was quirkless so he hadn't gotten that kind of reaction in a while. Ugh. Midoriya kicked the ground under his worn shoes and stared towards the sky. Well, dinner won’t make itself and I’m in charge of it tonight. Gotta get home.
Still, during the final minutes of the walk home, Midoriya couldn’t figure out which hurt more: the kid’s reaction, or the fact that it was so normal he was able to just brush it off. However, he did know that it would be the last time anyone would get away with anything without him knowing about it. And without the police knowing about it, because Midoriya wasn’t about to be walking around beating heads in. No, Midoriya grinned, he’d let the police do that.