Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya let out a defeated sigh as he slowly trudged home. The adrenaline of what the news was now calling "the sludge villain incident" had long since passed, leaving him feeling exhausted.
He stared blankly down at the sidewalk as he almost robotically put one foot in front of the other, wondering what to do now, after everything that had happened today. He had finally met All Might, and...
Even All Might, his greatest inspiration, his idol, had told him that he couldn't be a hero. That it was impossible. And, honestly, he was right.
After all, what did he really do against that villain, other than get in All Might's way? Heck, it was all his fault that the whole thing happened in the first place. If he hadn't grabbed onto All Might, he never would have dropped the villain. Kacchan would never have been in danger...
Kacchan. Kacchan had nearly died and it was all his fault. The thought alone made him feel closer to throwing up the more he dwelled on it. He could almost feel the bile against his throat as he remembered his childhood friends terrified eyes gazing back at him. He had never seen Kacchan look like that before.
And he was the one who caused it, however indirectly.
Seeing him like that, wordlessly asking somebody to save him... He was already running towards the villain before he even fully processed what he was doing. It was like his body moved on its own.
The result? Both of them had almost died. And they would have, if All Might didn't show up when he did.
Izuku couldn't help but wince as he remembered the stream of blood that had gushed out of the Number One Hero's mouth as he faced the villain that held them both hostage. He was the one who pushed him that far. It was a miracle that he was still well enough to talk to the press after.
The incident had really woken him up to reality. Even with a Quirk, the Number One Hero struggled.
"The reason I smile is to stave off the overwhelming pressure and fear I feel. A pro should always be ready to risk his life."
That moment, on the rooftop, All Might had seemed more human than ever before And yet, paradoxically, more unreachable than ever.
Since he was child, he had always seen the man as fearless and invincible. Understanding that he wasn't... It just made him admire him all the more. He was a scared mess when he ran up to that sludge villain. The fact that All Might could go against villains like that with a smile despite his own fear, despite his almost crippling injury... He really was amazing.
"When I grow up, I'm gonna be a hero just like him!"
His dream felt just as unreachable now as All Might had felt in that moment.
"I'm so sorry, Izuku!"
...All he wanted was...someone to-
SLAM!
"Urk-?!"
Izuku found himself being quite forcibly taken out of his self-depreciating thoughts via something slamming into the back of his head. Losing his balance, he fell to his knees as whatever hit him fell right next to him, making the sound of rubber against concrete. Izuku quickly put a hand to his injury and, still jumpy from everything that had happened today, scrambled away from his assailant.
Getting back up to his feet, he turned to his attacker to see-
A ball.
A bright, pink ball sitting innocently on the pavement.
"Sorry! Are you okay?!"
Izuku blinked in surprise as he turned to see a little brunette girl running over to him, eyes wide with worry. "I kicked it too hard! Is your head okay?"
"Y-Yeah," Izuku confirmed, getting ahold of himself once again. He moved his hand back down and gave her a reassuring smile when he saw her doubtful expression. "Really. It didn't hit me that hard."
The girl scrunched her face up, still not believing him but not pushing it any farther. "If you say so..."
Izuku bent down and picked up the ball, handing it back to her with a smile. "Really, it's fine! Here you go."
"Oh, thanks!" The girl returned his smile and took the ball back.
"You really shouldn't be playing in the streets, though," he admonished. "You never know when a car could come around the corner."
The girl clutched her ball tighter as her cheeks flushed. "I-I know that!" She said in clear embarrassment. "I'm not a little kid! It was just an accident!"
"O-Okay, I believe you," Izuku said, giving her a nod.
"A-Anyway, thanks for giving it back to me... But, uh, Mom says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, s-so..." With that, she turned and started to walk back to where she had been playing before.
Well...that had happened. It did help him break out of his funk, even just a little, though.
Giving one last rub to the slowly growing lump on his head, the green-haired boy continued to make his way back home.
If he couldn't be a hero...maybe there was another way he could help people?
"If you desire to help people, becoming a police officer is always an option. Those Villain Custody Officers are often mocked, but...that too is admirable work!"
A police officer... Maybe he should set his sights on that instead. It was a more reasonable goal, all things considered. He would still be able to save people, and without getting in the way of the heroes like he had this time!
Heroes...
Izuku's smile became a bit more forced, wavered, and then disappeared completely.
It was no use. Even now, he still...
"DEKU!"
Izuku flinched as the all too familiar voice came from behind him. A bit of a distance away, the girl jumped in surprise and looked back with wide eyes. Izuku slowly turned around to see none other than Katsuki Bakugo himself.
And he looked pissed.
...He was also breathing really heavily. Did he run all the way after him? Why would...?
"Listen!" The blonde all but snarled, practically shaking with rage and causing the other boy to flinch back. "I'd never ask a Quirkless weakling like you to help me! Don't think you can look down on me! I was fine, you got it?! You didn't help at all, you Quirkless failure! You didn't help me! You did nothing, don't forget it! I don't owe you anything! Nothing!"
With that, Katsuki turned on his heel and started stomping away, muttering obscenities under his breath.
Izuku watched him go in utter bafflement. 'Wh... What was that all about?'
"Um... Mister?"
Blinking and turning towards the small voice, he saw that the girl from before had made her way over.
"U-Um, yes?"
The girl gave the pissed off teenager a long side glance before looking up at the other with a frown. "Was that a villain? Should we call the police?"
"Oh! No, no no!" Izuku said quickly, but his hands up and shaking his head. "He's not a villain! H-He's my childhood friend!"
"Oh..." She gave the blond boy one more glance before declaring, "Your friend is a weirdo." With that, she turned back around and started walking away.
'What happened to not talking to strangers?' Izuku thought to himself, a bit amused despite it all. 'Well... Kacchan is pretty scary sometimes... Okay, most of the time. He's not wrong though. I didn't do anything.' Heaving a sigh, he continued his way home. 'Don't worry, Kacchan. I won't get in your way anymore.'
As he did, however, a very different sound of rubber against pavement reached his ears. He stopped and looked around in confusion.
'Huh? What's that? A car? Whoever it is must be going really fast... It couldn't be another villain attack, could it?!'
As he looked around, he saw that Kacchan and the girl were doing the same. It sounded like it was getting closer...
And just like that, with no other warning, a truck came barreling out of the corner of the street, barely turning in time to avoid barreling straight into one of the houses. Swaying from one side of the road to the other, it was showed no sign of slowing down. Did the driver lose control?!
'It's coming right towards me!' He realized as he panicked and started to look for a safe place to run. He already had two near death experiences today, that was more than enou-
His eyes landed on the girl, frozen in terror right in the truck's path and clutching her ball in a death grip.
The next thing Izuku knew, his legs had already taken him right to her and he was shoving her away with all his might. He heard her let out a surprised grunt and saw her turn her head to look at him with wide, horrified eyes right before the truck slammed into him.
Pain the likes of which he'd never felt before erupted from his chest and spread throughout his body. He hit the pavement hard, letting out a choked gasp and clutching at his front, where the pain was the worst.
He thought he heard Bakugo shout his name. He thought he heard another surprised shout that sounded a bit like All Might. But that can't be right. Why would All Might be here?
No, none of that mattered right now. The girl. Was the girl alright?
He weakly turned his head in her direction. She was sitting on the soft grass of the yard he had shoved her onto. She was pale, trembling, and even crying, but looked unhurt.
Good. That was good.
Relief coursed through him and he let his eyelids droop. He was vaguely aware of footsteps rapidly approaching. Of two voices calling out to him while a third shouted about how it was all an accident and that the brake had stopped working.
He was...tired. He felt like his consciousness was barely hanging on by a thread.
It was hard to breath. The impact had left him feeling like his insides had been crushed. The area was burning. He removed a trembling hand he had been clasping his injury with and looked at it.
It was completely red.
The realization hit him that he was going to die.
After all that happened today, surviving not one but two attacks by the same villain, in the end he died in a traffic accident of all things. Not on the front lines as a hero, or even a policeman. Not having made something of himself or attempting to achieve any goal. A traffic accident.
If he could, he would have laughed bitterly. It made a sick sort of sense that, in a world of heroes and Quirks, a Quirkless nobody like him would be taken out in such an almost mundane way.
"Deku! Hey, Deku! H-Hold on, dammit!"
"Boy! Boy! I'm calling an ambulance right now! Don't close your eyes, alright?!"
"M-Mister?" A quieter voice questioned, conveying terror and disbelief. Ah. The girl.
Right... He did end up saving one person, at least.
His mind went to his mother, and he couldn't help but choke out a sob, unmindful of how the panic in the people around him grew tenfold at his action.
His mother... How would his mother react to this? She would always burst into tears if he came back home with even a minor injury. No doubt she had seem the news and was waiting anxiously for him to come home. To find out that her son died just trying to get back to her...
He wanted to hold on for her. To live. But it was just so hard to breathe.
'Mom...' he thought as his consciousness finally started to truly leave him. 'I'm so sorry...'
XXX
"The summoning was a success!"
'...Huh?'
Izuku's eyes shot open and he quickly sat up, looking around wildly.
This was definitely not where he was lying before.
Did he die?
One of his hands reflexively went to his chest, expecting to feel pain or the warm wetness of blood, but instead just brushed against fabric. Glancing down confirmed that he had no injury to speak of. It was like the entire accident had never even happened. His clothing didn't even have so much as a tear. His heartbeat was going much faster than was probably healthy, but it was there.
He was still alive.
How was he still alive?
And where the heck was he?
Didn't he just get hit by a truck?!
How was he still alive?!
He looked up from his uninjured chest and slowly examined the area. The room he was in was very dark, he couldn't make out much of it aside from old-fashioned looking stone pillars at the far corners. The only light came from an open doorway nearby and...from below him? He looked down to see that he was inside what looked like a circle made from strange runes and sigils, glowing faintly with an unearthly green light. It was like some kind of magic circle straight out of an anime...
"Where are we?"
Hearing an unfamiliar voice behind him, Izuku whirled around and was startled to see that he was not alone. There were three more people behind him. One black-haired boy and two blondes, all looking to be a bit older than him. From what he could make out of them in the dim light of the room, they seemed to be dressed like any normal civilian. But what stood out about them was that they were each holding a weapon: a sword, a spear, and a bow.
Weapons... Izuku tensed.
As he brought his arms closer to himself, he felt something metallic jab at his stomach. Glancing down, his eyes widened when he saw that there was something attached to his other arm. 'Is this...a shield? Wh-Where did this come from?'
"Heroes!"
The all too familiar term got Izuku to stop staring at his sudden new equipment and turn back towards the open doorway in surprise. In all the shock and confusion, he hadn't noticed that there were more than just the four of them here. Men dressed in hooded black robes, almost perfectly camouflaging them into the darkness, slowly walked in front of the light coming from the doorway to reveal themselves to them. The one who called out to them took his hood down to reveal what appeared to be a man in his late thirties.
'Who... Who are they? And...did they just call us heroes?'
The man clasped his hands together and looked at them imploringly, almost desperately.
"Please, save our world!"
...Huh?
Huh?!
"Huh?!"