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His quirk comes in when he's eight, and it saves his life.
Not just his social life, although he quickly becomes thankful for the lack of teasing. No, the manifestation of Midoriya Izuku's special power stops him from being killed.
Kacchan is chasing him through the park on the way home, hands popping like firecrackers. Several of his friends, his "lackeys," follow, laughing all the way.
(Izuku thinks he sees one of them recording, and a few weeks later his suspicion is confirmed when the video is presented as evidence in court.)
"Deku," one of them laughs. This is the boy with the long fingers who Izuku doesn't know very well. He sniffles and keeps running, not daring to turn back to ask.
"Come here, you useless freak!" another calls. Izuku stumbles on a rock and falls to the grassy floor, hands stinging where they scrape against twigs and stones.
He turns, facing upwards. He doesn't have enough time to stand before Kacchan has grabbed him by the shirt, and slams him into the ground again.
Izuku whimpers, but still scrambles to get away. In an instant he's surrounded, pinned to the ground by each limb.
"What the hell was that today, Deku?" Kacchan snarls. "Think you can sabotage me?"
"I- I wasn't-"
"I'm sick of you looking down on me, shitty faker. Better kill yourself and save us all the trouble of knowing you."
And without warning, Kacchan lets off an explosion in his face and Izuku flinches backwards.
(It stings and burns in a way he's never known before, even in all his years with Kacchan. He wonders if Kacchan's been holding back this whole time, or if he really is getting stronger.)
He sucks in a deep breath, and to his surprise, begins to choke. Something thick and hot slides down his throat, and he gags, thrashing where he's held.
He hears a voice, Kacchan's voice, but he can't make it out through all the ringing. Something presses at his neck and he gasps, ragged and desperate.
The hands holding him down recede and he coughs, shudders, begs for air. The shapes of his friends - no, tormentors - in front of him blur further and he thinks they're screaming.
And a moment later, he's sitting up in an ambulance, totally calm.
He pushes the white sheet off of his face and the paramedics pale before going stone-faced and attending to his wounds. He's just as baffled as they are to find that he has none.
(The papercuts from reading hero magazines, the bug bites from the summer critters, the burns - both mild and fatal - from Kacchan, the bruises from Kobayashi-sensei: they're all gone.)
They get to the hospital and admit him, and he sits alone in the emergency room for about ten minutes before his mother shows up. She swaddles him in hugs and tears and he assures her that he's fine, he's actually better than ever.
And he doesn't quite understand when she only sobs harder.
He's not supposed to use his quirk unnecessarily, a rule mostly unforced by his mother and his therapist. Of course, he can't choose not to activate it, but he can prevent himself from needing to.
(This rule is introduced after the first day of Kacchan's trial, where Izuku admits to a jury and a small crowd of parents that he'd considered suicide before, and now that it wasn't permanent, it was somehow even more tempting.)
Kacchan is given a year in a special prison. Izuku begs them to lower the sentence, pleading that his friend (murderer) is innocent, that it was an accident…
But he goes anyway.
(Izuku begs his mom to let him visit. She says that she can't do that, and not just because he's not supposed to for at least three months.)
So he makes a secret calendar and counts down the days until he is allowed to see Kacchan again.
In that time, many things happen.
Izuku is forced to see a therapist, and it helps. They see the quirk specialist again, too, and get some government sponsored testing done: expensive and extensive DNA analysis which confirms Izuku was never really quirkless.
It should feel like a dream come true, but he just feels hollow hearing it. The news is two years late, and because of that, he can't share it with Kacchan like he was supposed to. Like he was always supposed to.
And now Kacchan is in prison , because of him and his stupid quirk.
It's not like he's gone forever. Mitsuki and Masaru go to see him three times a week, and mom lets him write letters to him now. Kacchan didn't reply for a few weeks, but by the second month, Izuku is receiving thick envelopes twice a week from his childhood friend.
(I have to see a stupid therapist, like you. They said I'm not an evil person, but I did an evil thing. Like I don't already fucking know that. I think they're coddling me too much, like your mom but ten times worse. They're probably lying to me, too. They tell me I'm a good kid, and I can still be a hero.
Heroes don't go to jail, De Izuku. Heroes keep going even against the biggest, evilest villains. Out of the two of us, you're the hero, not me.
I'm just the villain.)
Izuku shows the letters to mom, sometimes. He shows her how nice Kacchan is, how he's growing and being nicer.
(I'm lonely here. There's other kids, but they don't know me like you. They're scared of me, and I hate them. I'll never be happier than the day I get to see your shitty face again instead of these damn extras.)
And he fights with her a lot, because of that. She says that she loves him, and she loves the Bakugous, but that she can't let him see Kacchan ever again.
"He hurt you," she says, "he hurt my baby!"
She says Kacchan will never be a hero, not in her eyes. He borrows some unsavory words from Kacchan's vocabulary and gets grounded for a week.
And as soon as it's over, she drives him to the special prison.
"I'm the one hurting you by keeping you from him," she says with teary eyes. "I don't like it, but… you need to see him."
Izuku buzzes the whole ride there.
Kacchan's room is bigger than Izuku's back home. It's not as well decorated, but he has some All Might posters and a few cat posters that he claims he's not allowed to take down.
They're not allowed to be completely alone; there's two security guards flanking Kacchan, watching his every move.
Izuku doesn't care. He wouldn't care if the reunion was televised globally. He's seeing Kacchan again, really seeing him, and it doesn't matter who's watching.
"Oi," Kacchan says. "What the hell is that?"
Izuku holds up the package, which they made him rewrap after they checked in. It's nothing dangerous, but they had to check.
"It's a present," Izuku says. He holds it out, and Kacchan stares for a moment. "It's for you."
Kacchan reaches out slowly, and his hands brush against Izuku's as he takes the bundle.
(Izuku pretends not to notice the way the guards reach for their tasers. Kacchan just huffs.)
His hands are steady as he pulls apart the tissue paper, revealing something soft. He brushes his fingers through the honey colored fur, eyes widening with realization.
"The fuck am I supposed to do with this?"
He holds it out in both hands and Izuku wishes he could take a picture of the moment.
"It's a friend," Izuku says. "For while you're here, so you're not so lonely."
Kacchan glares at him, and then pulls it close to his chest.
"This thing got a name?" he barks, sniffling into it.
"No, I wanted to let you decide. I'll be back in two days, when your mom comes in, so think of one by then, okay?"
Kacchan sniffles again.
(Izuku will pretend that he's catching a cold.)
"His name is Deku," Kacchan says. "But as in… you can do it."
Izuku grins, and stares at Kacchan and his new teddy bear.
"I love it."