Chapter Text
It was a seemingly normal day when Midoriya Izuku’s life got flipped upside down.
The sky was clear and the sun shined brightly from above. He and his mom were buying school supplies. The tiny eight-year-old could tell something was wrong with his mom today. He didn’t worry. It was his mom! If anything happened she’d protect him.
He should have worried.
Then
Izuku entered the mall with a huge smile on his face. He dragged his mom around from store to store, asking to buy something here and there.
“Izuku, honey,” his mom said as she looked behind her, “remember what we’re here for?”
He does. The new school year was coming up soon and he needed supplies. He’d probably need to get a little more if his stuff kept getting destroyed. His smile fell a little when he thought about it. Another year with Kacchan and his friends. Another year of being Deku.
“Yeah,” Izuku replied, a smile spreading across his face again, “Let’s go!”
The pair walked around the mall a bit more to find the stationery store. When they passed the food court, Inko gripped Izuku’s hand a little tighter and walked closer to him. Izuku looked at his mom curiously. What was wrong? Well, if something was wrong then his mom would protect him. He knew his mom wasn’t helpless or anything. Especially when he saw he take down a mugger with a single hit. His mom was strong. He didn’t need to worry.
The stationary store was small, but Izuku’s interest was peaked. It was a simple store with notebooks, binders, paper, pens, pencils, and other supplies. It was still cool. The walls were painted a bright blue with white and red accents that reminded Izuku of All Might. A bored-looking teenage girl was the cashier. He ran over to the notebooks immediately, his mom trailing behind him. She checked over her shoulder again, looking back at the food court.
“Izuku, sweetie,” Inko asked, “Can you do something for me?”
“What is it, mom?” Izuku asked, hesitantly. She seemed really on edge.
“I’m going to leave to store to go see a friend in the food court. Can you stay here for Mommy? Please, Izuku?”
Stay here? Alone? He doesn’t want to leave his mom, “W-Why can’t I go with you?”
“Izuku Midoriya,” Uh oh, “Please dear, please just stay here and don’t leave. Please.”
Was-Was his mom begging him to stay in the store right now? Why is she so serious about this? Well, what’s he supposed to say, “Okay mom, I’ll stay.”
His mom bent down and hugged him tightly, “I love you so much, Izuku. You’re so brave. I love you.”
“I love you too, mom.”
His mom quickly ran out of the store, clutching her handbag and unzipping it. She’s just meeting a friend. She’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. Izuku went back to picking out notebooks. He had all of his stuff ready for checkout. The cashier gave him a weird look as the eight-year-old took out the money his mom gave him. As soon as the cashier started to scan the items, Izuku heard it. The sound that he had grown accustomed to hearing right before getting hurt. The sound that meant something bad was going to happen to him. Izuku ran to the door to get a look at the mall. He saw it
The food court is in shambles. Bodies burnt to a crisp, stalls set on fire, the tell-tale signs of the aftermath of an explosion, and-worst of all-there's absolutely no signs of life. There are no live people. His mom… Oh, how Izuku wants to book it out of the store. But, he can’t. He’s frozen in fear as screaming people run past the stores. If he got caught up in that, he’d be trampled before he could make it out of the mall. He wouldn’t be able to stop things like this in the future if he was dead.
The tears were a given. They came out in droves. He fell to the floor of the store, only slightly aware of the cashier yelling. Then, he heard the noise again. Another explosion was going off somewhere close. Izuku looked back up to the rest of the mall to see a store blow up in a mess of fire and debris. Then another goes, and another, and another. Until the mall is more shambles than stores. And they’re still going.
Two people, ‘Villains’ Izuku tells himself, walk out to the food court. One in a black business suit and a gold coin in their hand. The features of the villain are covered by the white mask that covers their entire face. The other villain seemed to have a mutation quirk. He was big, tough-looking. Huge horns that curve in on themselves sprout from his head. His skin was a dark brown, with shaggy fur in some places. Maybe he was a ram mutation. He was dressed in a similar suit, but with no jacket and just a white dress shirt.
The coin villain is laughing to himself as more and more explosions go off. Izuku feels a pair of earmuffs go over his head. He looks up to see the terrified cashier putting on her own pair. She’s shaking horribly, tears also going down her face, looking at the two villains. He looked back, to see the ram villain picking up his mom. His… mom is dead. The cries harder, but puts his hand over his mouth to muffle the whimpers. He couldn’t afford for the villains to find him and the cashier.
Then he hears a hissing noise and he and the cashier look back to see the cash register is smoking. Knowing what is coming next, Izuku tries to run. But he can’t. He’s frozen in fear as the inevitable explosion goes off. He closes his eyes and braces himself. The cashier runs in front of him, shielding him with her body as she takes the brunt of the explosion.
Izuku opens his eyes again. Her back is covered in char, smoke, and debris as the explosion is done. The store around him has collapsed in, but he can’t help but notice that nothing from the store fell on him. He takes another look at the dead girl in front of him and sees a white light coming off of her. ‘Some sort of saving or luck quirk,’ his brain supplies, ‘Probably luck considering that it’d be considered really lucky to survive an attack like this.’
Izuku looks back to the villains, his mom is now being held by her collar by the coin villain. The ram villain seems to be turning over the debris, looking for something. Izuku pries his eyes away from the scene and looks around the mall. It’s quiet with the earmuffs, and he can see that the explosions stopped. The mall is in shambles. It looks like explosions took place in every store. Izuku hears muffled voices coming from the area he just took his eyes off of. Voices.
Izuku carefully removes the earmuffs, trying his hardest to not make any noise. He reaches for a notebook and a capped pen. Taking them carefully, he opens the page and listens in. Hopefully, he can hear something useful.
“Did you find him yet?” the coin villain asked, seemingly annoyed, “We have to leave before the heroes come.”
“I’m looking for him!” the ram yells, “Kinda hard to find him when they exploded every store here!”
“Stop screaming you imbecile!” hissed the coin villain as he checked the area, “Even if the destruction team did go overboard a bit.”
“Fuck,” the ram villain looked back to his mom, “What if she knew and hid him?”
‘Hid him?’ Izuku thinks, suddenly terrified as a thought crosses his mind, ‘Are they looking for me?’
“Then the kid is dead and Dragon has our heads.”
“I really don’t wanna die Coin. Especially not by being cooked alive for not finding a kid.”
“You won’t if you just find the stupid boy already, Ram!”
Izuku hears sirens, police.
“Shit!” Coin says, “What did he say to do with her?”
“I don’t know!” Ram replies, “Just leave her! We need to get out of here!”
Coin dropped Inko to the floor. Izuku wanted to throw up. The two villains swiftly ran out of the mall.
And so, Izuku was stuck there. He couldn’t leave the store. He just had to wait for the rescue team to find him. Izuku curled into a ball and sobbed. He just wants this day to be over now.
Now
Izuku was accustomed to waking up from his sleep by loud, booming noises. Whether it be gunshots, explosions, or laughter from the villains in the Dragon’s Den. Living in a super villain’s hideout really mad you grow accustomed to loud noises. So, it wasn’t really a surprise when a roar, which sounded an awful lot like Dragon himself, woke Izuku up from his sleep. Who pissed Dragon off? Hopefully, they didn't do it just to get Dragon to go hard on him in 'training' again.
It seemed like he fell asleep on his desk again. Izuku really didn’t want to deal with Dragon finding out his ‘Hatchling’ didn’t sleep in his horrendous green bed, again. He just started getting up when he noticed what exactly he had been sleeping on and… Holy shit, Izuku forgot to finish his analysis work. Did he want to finish it? Hell no, but he still needs to find out what happened to his memory before he dies. Okay so maybe Dragon wouldn’t kill him, but he really didn’t want the shit beat out of him by Dragon’s men.
His assignment was the hero Makeshift. She was an underground hero, so Dragon had some of his men record her fighting to give Izuku information. Izuku was forbidden from going out on missions, for some reason. Makeshift’s quirk was extremely fascinating, but then again every quirk is fascinating to the quirkless boy. Izuku got to work on finishing the quirk and fighting style breakdowns, as those were the only things he had left to do.
He had just finished when an alarm bell rang. Izuku groaned. That bell meant someone in the Hoard had done something to piss Dragon off so much he caused property damage to the building. Again. Izuku hated that alarm with a burning -ha- passion. Izuku crossed his fingers and prayed that today wasn’t a ‘training’ say so that he could not go to sleep nearly dying of blood loss or with horrific burn wounds. He had enough scars, thank you very much.
Izuku quickly grabbed his workbook and stuffed it into a small, fireproof, black backpack. Izuku wasn’t worried about his work going missing, no, he was worried about Dragon burning up his work before he could turn it into him. Izuku started walking to the door when he realized he wasn’t dressed.
Sighing heavily, Izuku took off the backpack and went to his wardrobe. The cheap wood, you’d be wrong if you thought Dragon would treat his ‘Hatchling’ better than the rest of his Hoard, creaked as Izuku pulled out a drawer. Being an analyst that is forced to work with villains because of ‘family’ had one singular perk. People were absolutely terrified of pissing you or your ‘family’ off. That meant, that the design people took extra care into Izuku’s outfits. All of his clothes were made of the best fabric a villain can find, was blast and fireproof, and was designed expertly. So, when Dragon put in a request for his ‘Hatchling’ they took it very seriously. They followed and met every requirement Dragon made.
The actual clothes part of Hatchling’s outfit were apparently pretty easy to make. It was a simple light grey, turtleneck, long sleeve sweater. A darker grey, slash-proof overcoat was also apart of Hatchling’s outfit. Black slacks and loafers filled Dragon’s, for some fucking reason, need to make every outfit of his Hoard have some sort of formal wear. But, that wasn’t the complete look, no, what made the look was the mask. The mask itself was some type of strong, tightfitting material, with a see-through area for his eyes. The mask covered his eyes and nose but stopped just before his mouth. Izuku knew that Dragon’s designers and makers were very cut out for their job, they made Dragon’s mask cover his entire head and made his father look like an actual goddamn green dragon after all, but Izuku still was impressed every time he took a good look at the mask. Don’t get him wrong, he hated the thing that made him look like Dragon even when he was working, but it was a beautiful mask. The mask’s paint job was careful and very intricate, the dark green scales looking so real that the Hoard thought he had a mutation quirk. The eyes that the mask had were bright red, the pupils slit, and intricate colors were in the eyes that made them look like they were affected by light when they really weren’t. Then, came to the top of his head. Where the mask ended, there were horns. They were an even darker green than the scales and curved to the back of his head like gazelle horns. In fact, he was pretty sure his and his father’s mask horns were mainly made to look exactly like a gazelle’s.
As Izuku checked in the mirror to make sure the outfit was to Dragon’s standards, before putting the mask on, his eyes wandered to the right side of his neck. He walked closer to the mirror and pulled down the turtleneck. The number zero was written in big, bold black pen. Izuku smiled as he gingerly ran his fingers over the zero. Whenever he looked at it, his heart filled with a familial warmth that he hadn’t felt with his actual family since he was eight. The zero seemed to be dictated by his emotions somewhat because whenever he wanted to hide it from Dragon, it disappeared. Izuku had a feeling that Dragon wouldn’t like it if he saw the zero. He’d probably try to burn it off.
The zero was a curiosity to Izuku. He knew that he must have gotten it sometime when he nine or ten. See, Izuku couldn’t remember those years. What he does remember, is that right before the next school year started when he was eight, a mall exploded and killed his mom. Then, there was nothing. He had missed two years of his life and he had no idea how he could possibly remember it. Dragon always got angry whenever Izuku asked, so he stopped asking. He just accepted that whatever happened, good things judging by how he feels about the zero, in those two years he was never going to remember. On that slightly sad note, Izuku put on his mask and left his room to go find Dragon.
A majority of the Hoard hated Izuku, and he knew that. So when he left his room, he refused to make eye contact with anyone else. He got used to the stares that were filled with hatred. They couldn’t hurt Izuku, hell, they couldn’t even touch Izuku unless Dragon said they could. That was how it was with him. If Dragon said you could ‘train’ Hatchling, it meant that he was telling you to do as much harm as possible to him in the time he lets you. If Dragon says that Hatchling wanted to analyze the hero you were after, he meant that Hatchling was going to supply you with information whether you like it or not. What was worse, the only person Hatchling was allowed to talk to was Dragon or a partner in an assignment.
The Hoard was currently in the bustle that Dragon’s property damage outbursts usually caused. And, oh how Izuku was dreading having to go to his father with the backpack full of very important information on heroes. He prayed to whatever deity allowed him to have those two good years he couldn’t remember that Dragon wouldn’t be too scrutinizing of him. Izuku stopped in front of the large wooden doors to his father’s office. He caught the words exchanged in the Hoard. Bettings on who’ll be the next person to ‘train’ Hatchling, laughter at the thoughts of how bad it will be, and very few words of sympathy from some of the older members of the Hoard. Izuku carefully opened the door to the study and walked inside.
Izuku takes a good look at the state of Dragon’s office and wants to cry. Everything is in shambles or burnt to a crisp. What in the hell happened?! Izuku had honestly never seen Dragon this angry before. Dragon’s fist is against the opposite side of the room, away from Izuku, and smoke is curling out of his mouth.
It was days like this that made Izuku wish he looked more like his mom more than his father. He had the same mess of wild hair as his father, it’s just that his was green and not black. The same wide green eyes that Izuku would often see accompanied by a wild look in his father’s and a more innocent one in his own. The freckles also came from his father, sadly. He really hated how he looked so much like the man.
‘It doesn’t matter if you look like him, Izuku. It matters that you. Are. Not. Him.’ his brain supplies. Why was that thought in the voice of someone who sounds sleep deprived? Weird.
“Dr-,” Izuku starts, then remembers what he’s supposed to call him, “Father?”
Dragon turns around, still looking as angry as ever, “What?”
“I’ve brought the notebooks back,” Izuku says, trying to keep his voice as even as possible.
Dragon’s mouth curls into a vicious smile, “Good, my little hatchling.”
“What do you want me to do now?”
“How about you go outside for a bit?”
What? Outside? The first rule of the Hoard is that Hatchling is not allowed outside!
“Father,” Izuku says, cautiously, “Are you sure I can?”
“Of course my little hatchling,” Where’s the catch? Where’s the catch? Where’s the-, “But, after we’re going to have a day full of training.”
Oh, so that’s it. He gets a small taste of freedom before everything goes back to normal and he gets beaten into the ground. Got it. Might as well make this a really good day.
“Thank you, father,” Izuku says as he empties the backpack on the charred desk and hurriedly makes his escape out of the office.
Izuku ran off into his room and hurriedly shuts the door. He quickly changes out of Hatchling clothes and grabs some more civilian looking clothes. A quick change into a white tank top and a pair of dark jeans later and Izuku is almost ready to go. There were two things that Izuku had gotten from Hoard members. One was a pair of bright red shoes that Izuku treated like a treasure. He had only ever been allowed to wear dress shoes in dark colors, so the comfortable and bright colors were a nice change. The person from the Hoard that gave him it was a red-haired man with purple burns that covered a good part of his body. The second item, from the same man, was a wig. It was a simple long blonde wig. These were the only two things that Izuku really cared about. The man that gave him the items never mentioned his name. Izuku carefully placed the two gifts into his bag and zipped it up.
Izuku took a good look around his room and saw a note on the window. He walked up and read it.
‘We don’t want any of the Hoard to see you, now do we Hatchling?’ Goddamit Dragon.
So, Izuku pried open the normally locked window and peered outside. Huh, he didn’t know he was two stories up. Izuku hopped out of the window and climbed down the side of the building. He immediately ran as far away as he could and went into the bathroom of a random store. Izuku hurriedly put on the wig, deciding to braid the hair, and slipped on the red shoes. His feet felt so free.
He didn't realize that the zero on his neck was showing.
Izuku left the store excited to enjoy the momentary freedom he had been granted. Then he proceeded to see a large crowd of people talking furiously. Oh dear god, what now? Immediately intrigued, Izuku wandered over to see some kid getting attacked by a sludge looking villain. The entire area around the hostage and the villain was on fire. Explosions were coming out of the kid’s hands. Huh, that quirk is a lot like… Izuku looked around and saw the heroes on the scene. Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, Backdraft, and Death Arms. Huh, none of their quirks matched this type of encounter. Was that why they weren’t doing anything?
Death arms shouted to the other heroes, “We just gotta wait for someone with the right quirk to show up!”
Izuku wanted to scream at the heroes to do their job, but instead, he looked back at the hostage. Short, spiky ash-blond hair with choppy bangs, sharp bright red eyes, fair skin, explosion quirk, seemingly aggressive or angry… Izuku’s train of thought came to a halt. One word filled his mind.
Kacchan
Izuku stopped thinking. The consequences of his actions didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered because this is Kacchan. This was the kid he hadn’t seen or remembered since he was eight. Izuku grabbed the sharpest piece of debris he could find and pushed past the heroes and the crowd. He couldn’t hear anything anymore. His mind filled with the need to save Kacchan.
Izuku stabbed the slime villain in the eye and pulled Kacchan out of the slime. He didn’t care if Kacchan probably didn’t want to be saved by him. Kacchan didn’t need to know it was him. Izuku took Kacchan into a patch of road that wasn’t on fire.
He was only slightly aware of the sludge villain getting angry at him. He almost didn’t see All Might stopping the villain. As the ringing in Izuku’s ears stopped and the adrenaline wore off, he suddenly realized what he had just done. He also felt Kacchan’s gazed boring into him. He took a look at his childhood friend and realized Kacchan was staring at his neck. A dark zero was there, for the world to see.
“Fuck!” Izuku hissed as he put his hand over his neck. He looked behind him and saw that the heroes were running towards the two of them.
“Izuku?” Kacchan said, seemingly in disbelief, “Where have you-”
As much as Izuku wanted to talk, he couldn’t let the heroes know who he was. Izuku ran away as fast as he could. After a while, he went into a store and changed back. He walked back to the Hoard, a little happy he was able to do at least one heroic thing in his life.
The next day Izuku got the ‘training’ Dragon promised him. As he was bandaging his wounds, he was a little happy to know that his father didn’t know about the event. He was unaware of the news headline that spoke of a boy with a zero on his neck, or just the number of people this news affected.
Aizawa Shota was very aware of the news headline. Hizashi and Nemuri both had come over earlier today to make sure he had someone to fill the silence that he hated on today’s date. It’s been four years and the feeling he got today hadn’t gotten better. His phone had gotten confiscated by his friends and they had put their own phones away as well. The three of them were eating breakfast at the table, Hizashi and Nemuri talking as much as they could. All three of the phones started buzzing with text messages. The messages wouldn’t stop, so ignoring the problem wasn’t an option. Nemuri got up to silence them when she caught a glimpse of the messages.
“H-Hizashi,” Nemuri eyes were wide with shock, piquing her friends’ interest in what the messages were about, “Turn on the news. Now.”
Nemuri went back to silencing their phones as Hizashi and Shota walked over to the TV As Hizashi turned the TV on, Nemuri came back in and sat on the couch with them.
The news was about a slime villain that had attacked Bakugou. Shota’s heart clenched at the name. Then, there was a video of Bakugou’s rescue. A short kid with freckles, familiar green eyes, and long brunette hair stabbed the villain in the eye and dragged Bakugou away. But the trio could only focus on one thing about the boy.
The large zero written in pen on the right side of the boy’s neck.
The news droned on about how the kid ran away as soon as Bakugou was saved, but the trio of heroes stopped caring. Tears were falling down all three of their cheeks, but none of them cared. As Shota let out a sob, Hizashi and Nemuri seemed to get thrown back into reality.
“Sho-,” Hizashi said.
Shota got up and took his phone out of Nemuri’s hand. He quickly rushed over to his room and shut the door. The suffocating silence didn’t matter anymore. Shota looked through his phone. The group chat for the Numbers was going off like crazy. Everyone, all one hundred and sixty-nine of them, was active. A good majority of them were asking how he was doing. He was glad they cared, but couldn’t respond. He went to his photos and went to the last photo he took of the kid. The little ten-year-old with happy green eyes and matching hair was taking a selfie with Shota ruffling his hair. A small smile went over his face and more tears followed.
Looking up from his phone, Shota rubbed the number five on the inside of his right wrist,
“Where are you, Izuku?