Chapter Text
It started as many other romance stories past the 21th century have: With some online matchmaking and some very niche multiplayer.
GrnMgt_715: a very nerdy support main with some top notch strats and great synergy despite being relatively new at the game. and xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx: A very aggressive frontliner with nanosecond reactions and vicious skills that had a few months of experience.
One would think that such playstyles paired with opposing personalities would make them enemies or rivals, but after a few rounds playing together; it became clear that they complimented each other perfectly. So with little more than a friend request on Concord, xXx_DustN'Oblivion_xXx took GrnMgt_715 under their wing. For half a year their communication was limited to the ingame text chat across several titles, and very long winded arguments in Concord regarding Heroes, Villains, quirks, and society in general. While they never really reached an agreement regarding heroes, GrnMgt_715 did agree that society needed to change and that many heroes were so only for the money and fame. In turn, xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx did concede that some underground heroes were pretty cool. So despite their conflicting ideologies, they continued to play together. Going from tolerable NPC to reliable acquaintance and then to default player 2 might seem mundane and insignificant for most people, but for xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx it was an honor awarded only to those few above the rabble of mindless sheep. Greater than any so called hero could hope to attain; a title only given to their mentor and their caretaker. For GrnMgt_715, who's friend list was limited to his mom and former best friend,(both last seen online 4 years ago), xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx was pretty much his best friend, even if they never actually talked and only had a somewhat shallow knowledge of each other. Such was their amicability that xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx tolerated their pet name”Dusty”, and GrnMgt_715 actually read through the pages long rants about minute and dumb things that came out of Dusty’s keyboard several times a day.
It was a fateful day during a competitive match when GrnMgt_715 first heard xXx_DustN’Oblivion_xXx’s voice, raspy ,soft, and clearly feminine.
“Okay green stuff, back me up on while we cap B, and then we'll join the rest and rush C.”
It was only thanks to the fact that his mic was set to Press to talk that he didn’t make a fool of himself. Thankfully the blaring siren of the match starting shook him out of his stupor, and he managed to play his support role leading to a flawless victory. With the little elation that victory brought and by keeping his mind on the game, he managed to keep most of his stuttering in check.
“Back me up nerd; we’re taking B.”
“Don’t, they’ll be expecting that, rush C then back up and flank B while I over-heal.”
“Fine, we’ll do it your way dork.”
Usually whenever someone called him a nerd,dork, or loser it felt like just another insult, a way to tell him to go bother someone else, but when Dusty called him out like that it felt less like an attack and more like just her being her casual rude self.
“Good game dusty.”
“GG nerd, catch you later.”
“Bye.”
It was from that day onward that they began to talk more often; every other day they would link up and play for a couple hours, on weekends for entire nights, and for those long winded sessions, text messages were discarded in favor of voice chat.
For GrnMgt_715 those long nights of virtual dungeons, and video game adventures with Dusty at his side would become some of the best memories of his childhood.
By chance a talk about class skills and the magic system of a game led to a discussion about quirks.
“This stat is bullshit and you know it nerd. Any touch ability should use the unarmed melee modifier not the casting score.”
“The attack scales with dex because of touch, and the damage scales with your caster level since it's technically a spell not a skill, even if it uses no MP.”
“Which is also bullshit, why even make it a spell then! It's like a quirk, you don't need to cast it, it's just there, touch something and it destroys it.”
“That sounds like a really troublesome quirk to have, but then again shouldn’t such quirk also take MP or rather drain stamina or some innate resource-”
“Actually I feel refreshed after disintegrating something; I don’t get tired either.”
“Oh! So that's your quirk then, destroy anything you touch?”
“My quirk is decay: Everything I touch with all five fingers turn to dust; it doesn't take effort unless I try to push it to work faster or slower.”
“Wait, how long can you turn things to dust before you need to rest? Can you turn it off?”
“There’s no limit as far as I know, as long as I'm awake I guess, and no I can't turn it off, the most I can do is slow it down.”
“So it's always on and can’t be stopped; it sounds less like an emitter quirk and more like a mutant quirk, Do you have any noticeable mutation?”
“Not really, my skin gets kinda dry and that's it really.”
“So an always active emitter quirk that disintegrates what you touch, what constitutes as a thing? Like if you touch a page in a book would the whole book turn to dust? What about a brick in a wall, or a single tile on the floor?”
“If it’s connected it will crumble-”
“What happens if you grab a handful of sand? Or Ice, does it turn into water?”
“I don’t know, I haven't-”
“You said that your quirk is decay and turns what you touch into dust, but what does that actually mean, do things decompose and fracture into tiny bits, and if so what about things that don’t naturally decompose like stone?”
“I’m-”
“Steel and Iron would decay into rust but what about materials that crystallize or liquefy as they decay, like plastic or amber?”
“Hey green-”
“And what about materials that are chemically inert like lead or salt? Do they just erode into dust?”
“Oi nerd-”
“And what about non-newtonian substances, if you touch Silly putty does it harden and crumble or just chemically decay?”
“What the fuck is silly putty?-”
“Or what about things that release gases while they decay, if you decay too much organic matter does it create a fire hazard because of methane?”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP WOULD YOU! Jesus Christ you’re annoying!”
…
“I-Im sorry, I got carried away.”
“Whatever nerd…”
…
“So what's your quirk anyway?”
…
“I-I don’t have one, I’m quirkless.”
…
“Hm, makes sense. With how much you spec into Intelligence and strategy it would be that or a mind quirk.”
“O-oh, yes I guess that makes sense.”
…
“Hey green what's your name.”
…
“I-I-...m-my name is Izuku Midoriya”
“So that's why you're green, and your worship of that blonde idiot explains the might part.”
“To be fair, I was very young when I made that gamer tag.”
“It still fits you, you hero otaku.”
“He he he, maybe. Hey is your quirk why you chose dust and oblivion as your gamer tag?”
“Yeah, but unlike yours mine is not lame, My mentor helped me with it.”
“That's neat I guess… hey dusty can I ask you a question?”
“If it's about my quirk I’m doxxing you.”
“No! No i-it’s not about your quirk, um, can- can you tell me your name?”
…
”Tomori Shigaraki.”
End of prologue