Chapter Text
People aren’t born equal. That’s a simple fact that Midoriya Izuku was forced to learn at age five. A basic doctor’s visit made Izuku’s life plummet.
“You should really stop waiting. If he hasn’t gotten a quirk yet he might never get one,” the doctor said, but Izuku wasn’t listening. He’s not getting a quirk? This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.
Izuku looked to his mom with tears in his eyes. As soon as he saw the look on her face, he was terrified about what was going to happen now. His mom’s eyes were hollow. Blank. Nothing like how they were before the doctor spoke.
Uneasiness twisted in his gut as his mom spoke, “There must be a mistake,” she said, coldly, “He has that toe joint you were talking about.”
“Sorry, ma’am but there is no person that has developed a quirk past the age of five.”
Inko stayed silent. She didn’t look at Izuku as she started walking out the door. Izuku waved ‘bye’ to the doctor and hurried after his mom. Inko grabbed Izuku in her arms and placed him in the car.
The ten-minute long car ride home felt like an eternity.
Izuku didn’t realize when his mom pulled into the parking space at their apartment. He was silently carried out of the car and through the door. Inko placed him on the ground, still not saying a word. Izuku quietly made his way to his room and shut the door. He curled in on himself and cried when the door closed.
“Izuku, dinner’s ready,” his mom called after an hour.
Izuku opened his door and silently walked out of his room. He rubbed his eyes, which were irritated from the tears. He climbed onto a seat and looked at his mom. She was just quietly eating her food.
“M-Mom?” Izuku asked quietly, not really wanting to break the silence, “C-Can I still be a h-hero? Even without a q-quirk?”
A sharp noise came from the chopsticks that clattered onto Inko’s plate, “No. Never ask that again.”
Izuku stared at his mom. He couldn’t speak anymore. He gulped at the stern expression on his mother’s face. She never sounded like that when speaking to him. He looked to his room, wanting to run and hole up in the space. But, he didn’t want to make his mom more upset. So, he just stayed and ate until Inko excused him to his room.
As Izuku trembled in his room, he heard the sound of his mom cleaning up the dinner table. Tears fell from his eyes again as he curled up in his bed. What did he do wrong?
After that day, Inko forbade Izuku from doing or having anything hero related. But it wasn’t like she was around to enforce that rule. She stopped truly caring for Izuku as the years went by. There were no more stories before bed. No more hugs or kisses. No more celebrating holidays or his birthday. She barely paid attention to him, really just buying enough food for him to have her scraps. He learned how to cook and which streets lead to school. He learned how to sew and how to find jobs that would let him get money. He learned from school that people wanted him to shut up. So he did. He stopped speaking to anyone else and started learning sign language. He was bullied so much that he didn’t have any friends. So no one realized when he got his quirk. And no one realized that a new vigilante popped up around the time he started skipping school. No one knew about his relation to Jackrabbit.
Most thirteen-year-olds don’t wake up after jumping off a six-story abandoned building. Izuku isn’t most thirteen-year-olds.
Izuku’s eyes shot open. He sat up and looked at the ground. He was laying in a pool of blood. His blood. He’s… alive? Tears fell down his face as he looked up to the tall building he had jumped from. Can’t even kill himself right . Deku. His bleary eyes widened as he realized that he wasn’t in any pain. He should be dead. But he isn’t. He should at least feel some sort of pain from jumping that high. But he doesn’t. He wasn’t losing blood. No bones were broken. He would actually say that he felt better than before he jumped.
Do I have a quirk?
It was a funny thought to him. As his life ended, he got his quirk. He spends his whole life believing he’s quirkless just for his death to give him a quirk. Izuku looked back up to the top of the building. His shoes were up there. No note though, so that isn’t a problem. Maybe he could just get a new pair of shoes? Nope. He doesn’t have enough money for that. Wait. Shit, his clothes! Izuku looked down and, yup, he’s covered in blood. Damn it. He couldn’t afford to replace those. So, he was down another set of clothes.
Izuku looked around the empty alleyway. What were you supposed to do when your quirk stopped you from dying? Check to see if that’s all that it does? Try to die again? This just made Izuku’s plan for the rest of his life more complicated than he planned. But his plan for his life was that he was going to end it. Can’t do that now.
As Izuku tried his best to clean himself up to look less like he had just killed a person, he heard a scream. A shrill sound that echoed in the abandoned area. It’s not his problem. It’s not his problem. It’s not his- But his feet were already moving to go find the source of the scream.
He didn’t stop running when he found a girl with ear jack earlobes being mugged by another woman.
“Just give me what you have and I’ll let you go,” the mugger had two of her fingers separated like a pair of scissors at the other woman’s neck. Izuku kept running. He had absolutely no plan, he just kept running towards the mugger. Eventually, she spotted him, “What the fu-”
Izuku leaped into the air, much higher than he thought he could, and kicked his feet to the mugger’s chest. She flew to the floor and Izuku placed his foot on her throat, heavily panting. He was slightly confused, he had never been able to jump or move that fast before. What was up with that. Now that he really thought about it, his legs just felt stronger than they should be. He was a starving thirteen-year-old who just jumped off a building, his legs shouldn’t feel strong. But, he had a problem to address.
“Are y-you alright?” Izuku’s hoarse voice said, addressing the muggee. Jeez, it’s hard talking again when you haven’t done it in years.
The girl made a small, “Mmhm,” as she slumped down onto the floor. She had aforementioned earlobes that looked like ear jacks and short, asymmetrical purple hair. She was wearing a school uniform and a black backpack, was she just going to school? Oh, right, he was missing school. Well, that’s a problem for a later date.
Izuku felt a small cut on his leg. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, but the woman under his foot was technically a villain. He looked back to her to see her fingers turned into sharp scissors at his legs. Then he noticed the cuts that ran up and down his leg. Was she cutting up his leg and he just didn’t realize? He increased the pressure on her throat.
“Might want to stop that,” he snarled, “I’ve got places to be.” It took Izuku a second to realize how threatening that must have sounded. He was a boy with tattered and bloodstained clothes, who didn’t react to his leg being cut up, and has his foot at a woman’s throat. Guess looking threatening was better than the woman continuing to inconvenience him. Because she did stop cutting his leg.
He looked back to the girl, “Can you call the cops? Also, do you have anything to tie this one up?” Huh, he didn’t have a stutter for someone who was selectively mute. Weird. The girl nodded and took out a zip tie from her backpack. Why did she keep zip ties in her bag? She carefully brought it to Izuku and he grabbed it and tied the mugger’s hands together. The woman stayed silent the entire time. Izuku eventually took his foot off of her throat and looked to the muggee, who was now getting another thing from her bag. She took out a green hooded jacket and held it out to Izuku.
“U-Um, d-do you want this? I brought it for my f-friend but you’re… covered in b-blood.” She twirled her earlobes and shied away after Izuku gingerly took the jacket. He took off his shirt and replaced it with the jacket. The girl let out a strangled noise when he took off his shirt. He put the hood up and felt two long pieces of fabric coming off of the top of the hood. He pulled them and, oh, they’re rabbit ears. He snickered at the thought of it. He then felt something wet over his eyes. Pulling his hand back, he saw blood. Oh, so his face was covered in blood. He then saw that the mugger was getting ready to bolt and kicked at her. He missed and hit the wall, but…
The wall sported a crater where his foot collided with it. What?
Masking his confusion with a glare, he turned to the woman, “Would you rather I hit your head next?” She looked from him, to the wall, back to him, and then frantically shook her head, “Thought so,” he turned back to Earlobes, who was now calling the police.
She hung up and turned back to Izuku, “W-What’s your name?”
Izuku but you’d hand to his head and felt the ears connected to his hood. Names were a fickle thing with him. He’d switch from ‘Deku’ to ‘Izuku’ to ‘Midoriya’ whenever he’d meet a new person. But, he was given those names. He’d get to name himself this time.
“Jackrabbit.”
Jirou Kyouka took a second to process the news. About two weeks ago, she was mugged by a woman. Then, a kid with dark green hair and bloodstained clothes rammed into the mugger and knocked her flat on her ass. Kyouka caught a glimpse of his face, and blood was covering his eyes. She decided to give the boy the jacket she had gotten. Don't make her even talk about the scar’s on the boy’s back. But she forgot that it had bunny ears connected to the hood. But, the boy wasn’t embarrassed about the bunny ears, no, he laughed when he felt the ears. It made Kyouka calm down for a bit… until he kicked the wall right next to the mugger’s face and he left a crater in the wall. What kind of quirk did this kid have?! Then when she asked for his name, he said Jackrabbit as he touched the ears of the hood. Which leads to today, where the news is reporting about a new vigilante called Jackrabbit.
She gave a vigilante their name.
Sasaki Mirai, better known as Sir Nighteye, wasn’t normally one who dealt with vigilantes. He was sought after because of his intelligence, not his physical capabilities. After three weeks of this ‘Jackrabbit’ being reported for vigilantism, he expected the more physical or stealthy heroes to go after the vigilante who would show up late at night and into the early morning. He didn’t expect a detective to come asking for his help in catching the vigilante.
“Excuse me, Sir Nighteye?” the man said as he walked into Mirai’s office, “My name is Detective Tsukauchi. There’s a case that I would appreciate your help with.”
Mirai regarded the detective with a stern expression, “What is the case about, might I ask?”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of the vigilante Jackrabbit? We need your help catching him. All we have about him is that he has green hair, is male, and has some sort of leg muscle enhancement. We need to find more information on who he is.”
Mirai internally sighed, “A vigilante? I’m not normally the hero to go for, but you do need information. I’m guessing that I would need to use my quirk on Jackrabbit?”
“Yes, that’s correct. We just need to find out who he is so we can take him into custody. We don’t normally try to find out the identities, but Jackrabbit has evaded our capture so many times that it’s becoming a problem. Almost every time he’s arrested there’s at least one member of the press to report about him.”
Mirai didn’t hesitate in taking the case when the detective ended up making him laugh. The case would be the usual. He uses his quirk on Jackrabbit and his job would be done.
Turns out that Mirai was wrong about that.