Chapter Text
*an unspecified amount of time before the day of the sludge villain*
Izuku Midoryia wanted to be a hero, even though he was quirkless, even though he flinched at the smallest movement after years of being bullied, even though everyone, even his own mother, pushed him down and told him no.
“You really want to be a hero Deku?” Kacchan.
“I’m sorry izuku” his mother.
“Really? You want to go for U.A.?” his teachers.
But he really wanted to be a hero. So he trained. He hauled trash, which had the added benefit that people would pay him to do so. He taught himself to fight by looking up videos online. He filled up notebook after notebook with analysis.
He had one friend. Shigaraki. They’d been friends since childhood. Shigaraki and Izuku decided to train using Dagobah beach. Shigaraki was learning new things about his quirk. With Izuku’s help, he was able to speed up or slow down his decay at will and was now working on only decaying things in a certain direction. Everything was going well. Until what they came to dub as the day of the sludge villain.
The day started out fine. A new hero debuted, and that was always super exciting to Izuku. But it only got worse. It was far from the first time he had been burnt by kacchan or told to kill himself by...well anyone. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. The sludge villain attacked, but that wasn’t what really crushed him.
“You can’t become a hero...Just, make sure your dreams are realistic.” All Might left him on that roof. Izuku didn’t talk about it, but he considered taking kacchans “advice” but he thought about Shigaraki, and ran to the beach instead. Shigaraki was there.
Shigaraki was about to tease his friend for being late when he saw the state he was in. Burnt shoulder. Sludge stains. And tears running down his face.
“Hey, you...ok?” stupid question. In his defense, he had a total of two friends and was raised by villains who definitely didn’t teach him to help people.
“I-i-i got a-attacked b-by a sludge v-villain an-and All Might saved me bu-but he said I have to be-be realistic an-and I can’t be a-a hero.”
“Um...there there? It’s going to be ok?” he hugged his friend, still trying to figure out what to say. “Listen. It appears in this game he’s not the mentor. He’s a boss you have to defeat.” video game metaphors always felt more comfortable to him. “So you’re getting into U.A. and you’re going to show him you can be a hero.”
“Will you come? To U. A.? I wanna friend to come. And you have a really powerful quirk.”
“Well, let’s get training.”
*Timeskip to the exam*