Chapter Text
Quirkless. That word was always a constant in Midoriya's life. It was basically a disease, if you went by ‘majority rules.’ Almost everyone told him time and time again how ‘sickly’ he was. This disease was one that, apparently, held more meaning than Midoriya himself.
So you can imagine how shocking it was when you were literally gifted a quirk and got into a class for the best of the best. He loved his class! They were all so different and nice to him, he would, quite literally, die for them. You know, that whole story the (mentally ill) author doesn't want to bore you with? Moving on!
Said class was partaking in a training exercise. But just their luck, they were attacked by villains. Plot convenience, am I right? In retrospect, they should have expected it. At first, the villains seemed like low-level thugs who were probably sent by the League.
If Aizawa had to guess why, he would assume they were there to ruin his students. According to mans theory, they purposely sent a thug with a quirk capable of de-aging (in the literal sense) people to lower the age of 3 students. Izuku Midoriya, Bakugou Katsuki, and Shouto Todoroki. (His reasoning being how persistant they all were to get to these 3.)
They failed in regressing Bakugou and Todoroki, yet succeeded in returning Izuku Midoriya to his stick like twelve year old self. It was evident Midoriya was their prime target, seeing as they left as soon as the deed was done. Why exactly these three were targeted was still left unknown to the hero.
Aizawa sighs, rubbing his temples. “Why is it always my problem children?”
Izuku slowly stirs awake, senses fading in one at a time. A couple seconds pass before he starts panicking, realizing he doesn’t recognize a thing, every single sense failing to grasp a similar concept.
where am I- what happened- why am I here- where- was I- why- For all he knew, he was kidnapped!
That theory only gets fueled more when during his midst of panic he does recognize one thing.
The feeling of confinement.
There was something on him and he didn’t like it. Not at all. He shoots up, throwing whatever he has on him to the floor.
Then the smell hits him like a truck.
It smells terrible, a lot like alcohol.
He almost hurls at the smell. It's suffocating, he decides, i dont like this- help-
He was sitting on something high up. Too high up for his liking. The higher it is, the farther he could fall. He didn’t like falling.
Kacchan stops abruptly in the doorway, hand still in the slot.
“You know, if you really want a quirk that badly there really might be another way,” He says, voice holding an unusual innocence. His voice fills the room and for a second Izuku almost believes him.
“Pray that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life,” Kacchan announces, malice slipping into his voice. “and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!”
Izuku felt a rush of indescribable emotions.
He couldn’t see anything anymore, just an empty void.
.
.
Then he feels a rough, scarred hand on his shoulder. It feels heavy. Too heavy. He (very involuntary, might he add) let out a pained yelp, jumping back as far as he can to get away.
“I’m sorry..I’m s-sorry.. ple-ease..I’m sor-ry..” He whimpers pitifully, curling himself into a ball, repeating his apologies like a broken record.
“I’m not going to hurt you. Calm down.” Gee, that sure helps-
Wait.
Izuku tries to force himself to calm down. He wasn’t going to risk being a troublemaker, (More than he already was, anyway.)
Izuku calms down enough, so he raises his head slowly. He’s met with the sight of a tall man with long, messy black hair. His eye bags that rivaled one of a man who hasn’t slept in a week, and had a creamy colored scarf layered around his neck. In short, he looked like a hobo. Midoriya stifles a giggle.
The man slowly reached his hand out, probably making sure Midoriya was watching him the entire time.
Ah. So Midoriya was playing the role of a scared animal, huh?
“My name is Shota Aizawa, better known as Eraserhead. You’re at UA.” The older drawls, setting his hand slowly on the boys head. Midoriya flinches at the contact but makes no noise.
It was silent for a moment. Oh wait-
Midoriya flushes, nodding. “O..okay..” He mutters, lowering his knees to the side. “Um, I-I’m s-sorry..”
The older, Aizawa, was it, responds with: “Nonsense. You were scared.”
“N-no..I, I sho-shouldn’t have a-acted like that.. I, it w-was rude..” Midoriya objects quietly.
Shouta pauses for a second. His heart ached ever so little seeing the state his student was in, yet he’d never admit that. To be honest, it was becoming more and more frequent ever since the start of the year. He pushed the thoughts away before speaking up again.
“You were scared and woke up in an unfamiliar place. It’s normal.”
“S..sorry.. um.." The younger pauses, "wh-what happened..?” Midoriya asks, fiddling with the rim of his sleeves.
Shouta sighs. “You were participating in a training exercise when we were attacked by villains. One had a quirk capable of de-aging people and you were attacked by it. Speaking of that," he adds, "how old do you presume you are right now?”
Midoriya ponders. Aizawa waits.
“I think..twelve? Maybe?”
“That’s good. Thank you Midoriya.” Shouta responds. His voice is cold and monotone, yet that was normal for him. He was afraid of scaring the boy more, his heart racing when the boy stared at him with wide eyes.
The younger face morphed into a confused expression, before he whispered something Shouta wouldn’t have caught if he wasn’t listening.
“Why.. a-are you t-thanking me..?”
Shouta stiffens, “What do you mean?” He edges.
In all his time of teaching Midoriya he stil wasn’t too sure why the boy acts so skittish. And he certainly doesn't understand why it seems to be ten (10) times worse. Sure, the boy was jumpy and anxious when he first attended UA, but he figured that was just anxiety. It was the most logical conclusion.
This however, was absolutely not anxiety. Being a pro hero, especially underground, meant learning body language. Useful in not only interrogations but rescue scenarios too.
This was most likely nervousness caused by neglect from someone. Shouta probably saw the signs, but he, now regretably, never acted on it. To be honest, he would have brushed this off as anxiety too if he was anyone else. But that raises the question: why? Why would anyone hate him? He was a decent boy with a show-off quirk. Maybe he was teased for his crybaby nature, but surely not everyone hated him.
“Uh- ah, erm.. I- I’m..sorry..” The boy apologized for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. He keeps his gaze down and fiddles his thumbs.
“Don’t apologize.” Shouta unintentionally scolded. Comforting kids wasn’t at all his forte, that was definitely a Nemuri or Hizashi thing. But, he is a hero. It comes with the territory, no matter how much he despised doing it, he had to, is whatever bullshit he says remind himself.
Midoriya flinched and let out a squeak, before wordlessly grabbing his own arm.
Shouta blinks.
Okay then.
“Uh..okay.. uh, w-what..now?” The boy asked gingerly, refusing to make eye contact with the older.
The hero asks himself the same thing, before letting a long and drawn out sigh escape his lungs. “I suppose I could take you to my class...as irrational as it may be, it might help us find a way to reverse,” He gestures to Midoriya, “this.”
Midoriya pauses for a second, looking up at Shouta. He analyzes the man for a minute before standing up.
“O..okay.”
The door rolls open, grinding rather loudly against the rails. The room falls silent (something Aizawa calls a plus for being known as an expulsion happy sensei) as their homeroom teacher and classmate walk in.
Except something was different.
The two were walking closely as the greenette tries (and fails) to hide himself behind the taller. Midoriya looks shorter, if that were possible, and more anxious, scared of what was going to happen.
His eyes wandered across the array of students, analyzing each of them carefully, along with the room. He somehow managed to avoid eye contact with everyone, except Bakugou. The two stared at each other for a long second.
“Okay, before we get started, you all should know what happened to Midoriya. But for the ones who don’t, I’ll explain.” Aizawa began, gesturing to Izuku yet again, who finally cut eye contact with the explosive teen.
“In the recent attack, he encountered a villain with an age regression quirk. This quirk seems to have set him back to when he was twelve, so be somewhat careful around him. We are trying to reverse this, so be patient in the meantime.”
The class exchanged glances and murmurs before a red haired boy jumps up. “That is so cool! You can count on us, Aizawa-Sensei!” He exclaims. Unfortunately, in doing so, he made Midoriya flinch and dig his head into Aizawa’s back. Aizawa sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Honestly. Kirishima, did you hear anything I just said?”
The kid, Kirishima, went to reply but was cut off by another voice.
“Fuckin’ Deku.” Bakugou huffs, propping his feet against the desk in front.
Aizawa glares at the blonde before asking, “Bakugou, you knew Midoriya before UA, right?”
The class wasn’t expecting a small voice behind Aizawa to speak up.
“What?” The greenette interrupted, flabbergasted. (The girls were dying from how cute it was, but that's not important right now.)
“What?” Shouta echoes.
“W--what do you mean ‘b-before UA’?”
-and now he’s resisting the urge to facepalm. Was he really that unconfident in his abilities?
“You go to UA. You’re supposed to be 16.”
Something in the boy broke. Shouta watches as the gears turn in Midoriya's head, trying to process what he'd been told.
“Uhm..I..don’t..t-think t-that’s..uh..possible.”
“Jeez problem child, can you be any less self confident?” He mutters in complaint directed at no one in particular.
“I..just...d-don’t..t-think..uh, I don-don’t think..”
“Spit it out.”
The boy took a deep breath before finishing.
“I don’t think a Quirkless loser like, like me, could become a hero.”