Chapter Text
Strange things always happened around Izuku. Even when he was born, he came out with his emerald eyes open, staring at the world around him. It scared Inko slightly, but in the world of quirks it wasn’t too strange.
The doctors even said they had seen it before, specifically in a child with transparent eyelids. Of course, Izuku had no obvious mutations, so it couldn’t have been that, but it wasn’t a cause for alarm.
The strange part was that these incidents kept happening. She would leave him in his crib, only to find him next to her a few moments later. She would throw out a toy that was damaged beyond repair, but he would be chewing on it later that day. One time she even found him on top of the counter while she was cooking with absolutely no idea how he got there. She always chalked it up to her own forgetfulness though.
Once he was old enough to talk she would ask him about these incidents, only for him to respond with the nonsensical answers of a toddler. She even suspected he got his quirk early, but that was quickly disproven.
“He’s quirkless, ma’am,” the doctor stated bluntly. Izuku simply stared at the wall with wide, unseeing eyes.
Quirkless? But he can’t be… “Are you sure?”
He sighed, clearly done with this conversation already. “Yes, he clearly has the extra toe joint that is a sign of quirklessness. I know it’s not fun to hear, but you’re going to have to accept it.”
He insisted on running a few extra tests for a health and psych checkup, which she agreed to only because they wouldn’t be charged extra. Izuku went through the motions like he wasn’t fully there, and Inko had to hold his hand to get him to walk out without running into anything. He was silent until later that night.
“Mama… can I still help people without a quirk?” He asked with clear hesitation.
She blinked away salty tears. “Oh sweetie, of course you can help people! This doesn’t change anything, okay. You’ll always be my little hero!” Something about Izuku made her sure of that answer, even if she didn’t know what.
The rest of the night was even louder than usual. Her son rambled about all the ways he would rescue people and fight villains without any powers of his own. Inko recalled the strange things that would happen when he was younger, but dismissed them. He didn’t have a quirk, and he didn’t need one. She made sure to drive that point home.
Izuku was going to be a hero, and they both believed it.
Izuku was never going to be a hero, and Bakugou Katsuki knew it. He was a useless, quirkless Deku who cried when he scraped his knees.
Katsuki didn’t need Izuku Deku to reach out a hand to him when he fell off the log bridge. He didn’t care about the pain in his eyes when Katsuki yelled at him. The extras always told him he was right, so who cared? He was the best and always would be. He didn’t need his former friend weighing him down.
When he found out about the quirkless diagnosis, his immediate reaction was a confused stare and insistence that they get back to playing heroes vs villains. Katsuki had the best quirk, so it didn’t matter what Izuku’s was. He would still be an awesome hero, so why did it matter?
That thought changed when everyone started to ignore Deku. They would leave him out of games and activities, treat him like he was fragile, and refuse to invite him over. While everyone still loved Katsuki, they kept insisting he do the same to his childhood friend.
It mattered because they wouldn’t play anything that involved the quirkless kid. The extras stopped praising him as much when he refused to be a villain to his only true friend. The teachers didn’t treat him the same when he sat with Deku either.
So he stopped. He stopped talking to his best friend. He stopped playing with him and sitting with him. He stopped existing in Katsuki’s mind, because when Deku existed it made him feel guilty. He didn’t like it, so he stopped.
Deku stopped too.
He stopped trying to be friends.
But Katsuki didn’t care. He was quirkless so why should it matter? It didn’t.
And he stopped for a long, long time. He made sure no one was being bullied in school. In his school, and if that happened to include Deku, it was a coincidence. He knew the extras would chase down the quirkless kid when Katsuki wasn’t around, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. That didn’t mean he didn’t try though.
That was why, when he passed Deku being cornered by some bullies in an alley, he stopped, and not in the metaphorical sense this time either.
He stopped dead in his tracks and watched as his best friend started existing again.
Izuku ran. He ran as fast as he could, terrified of the consequences if he was too slow. His feet pounded against the pavement with as much force as he could muster. Tanaka and Haru were chasing him, and they had some of the most painful quirks in the school.
Tanaka, a tall blonde boy, was able to harden and sharpen his fingernails to use as blades, and he wasn’t afraid to cut Izuku. The shorter brunette, Haru, had a sensory amplification quirk that he frequently used to help his classmates eavesdrop, but also cause pain to his victims. They were not a fun combination.
He had already been sprinting for a few blocks and was starting to get tired. He saw a small alley up ahead that he could cut through to possibly lose them. It would get him home faster as well, and he wondered for a second why he didn’t normally take the shortcut. It quickly became apparent when he stumbled to a stop right in front of a fence.
It was roughly ten feet tall and had sharp edges that would make it impossible to climb without getting cut. He was at a dead end.
As he heard footsteps approaching and malicious laughter, he decided to just squeeze his eyes shut, grit his teeth, and get it over with. It wouldn’t be as bad if he wasn’t watching.
“Hey, Deku! Thanks for waiting for us! We really appreciate it, right Haru?” Tanaka grinned. He could sense them steadily approaching, and the sound of his sharpening nails quirk activating made Izuku cringe, clutching his head tightly.
“Yeah, it would have been such a shame if you got away. And for running instead of staying at school, we’ll have a little more fun today!”
The only thought permeating through his mind as they got closer, was how great it would be if he could be anywhere else. Sure, being at home would be nice, but even just magically appearing on the other side of the two boys would do. Then he would be able to run.
He felt the scratch of Tanaka’s nails along his arm, and the strange sensation that accompanied Haru increasing his pain, before it suddenly stopped. It felt like the air changed slightly, and the lighting behind his eyelids was brighter too.
He slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to adjust, only to find Kacchan standing in front of him with his mouth open in shock. What? How did he…
Izuku took a quick look around, and discovered he was now standing outside of the alleyway, right behind his bullies. They were silently standing there, staring at him. What the hell just happened?
He didn’t have much time to think, however, as they started stalking towards him.
“What the fuck was that, Deku? Did you get some creepy friend of yours to help?”
He began shaking his head in confusion, before realizing the situation he was in. He bolted. As he gained distance on them, he could hear Kacchan shouting, clearly having realized the intent of the boys.
The two of them rarely talked anymore, but Kacchan couldn’t stand people bullying in Aldera. He made sure to stop it when he was around, but it wasn’t always enough. Luckily, he happened to be walking by at the perfect time, but it also meant it would be difficult to explain what just happened.
Explain? Why was he acting as if it was some secret? He didn’t know what happened himself! One moment he was up against a fence, and the next he was standing on the sidewalk! He didn’t have the mental capacity to think about this right now. He could figure it out when he got home.
Speaking of, Izuku could see his apartment building in the distance. Taking a look over his shoulder showed no one chasing him, so he slowed down to a jog, then a walk.
When he reached his door, he pulled out his key from his pocket, glad it wasn’t lost while he ran. He felt immediate relief at the click of the lock, knowing he could finally rest. His mom wasn’t home quite yet, so he slipped off his shoes and left his bright yellow backpack next to the dining room table for later. He went to his room to change out of the Aldera uniform, putting on some sweatpants and a T-shirt. He flopped backwards onto his bed to begin contemplating the day.
Overall, it was normal until the strange event after school. He specifically wondered how he could have gone from one point to another instantly. There were a few possibilities.
First, someone else could have used a warp quirk on him. It was the simplest explanation, even if he didn’t know who would have or why.
Second was the possibility that someone with a speed quirk had physically moved him behind Tanaka and Haru, but he ruled it out because there were no signs of another person, and he didn’t feel anyone touching him.
Third, and least likely, is that it was him. Sure, he thought about wanting to teleport to that specific location before it happened, and sure, the other explanations didn’t make much sense, but he was quirkless . He had been properly diagnosed and there was no chance he would have a quirk.
That didn’t stop him from trying it again though.
Izuku stood up and closed his eyes. He began with meditation, a technique he heard quirk counselors often had patients use to get used to the feeling of their quirk. He relaxed his whole body, taking deep, steady breaths the whole time. Slowly, he reached deep into his body and felt for anything. At first, he didn’t notice anything different, but he was determined to teleport again, whether or not he was even capable of it.
He noticed a faint warmth around his chest, and focused on it. It steadily heated and spread throughout his torso, before stopping as if waiting for something.
He thought for a moment. What did he do now? He was trying to teleport, or at least redo whatever happened earlier, so he should think similar to how he did then.
He wanted to teleport. He wanted to have a quirk. He wanted to be normal again, not the quirkless freak everyone ignored. He wanted to see his mom…
The feeling in his chest got even hotter. He again felt his surroundings change, before he opened his eyes.
“Izuku?” His mom questioned, standing right in front of him. Right in front of their door… Where he previously wasn’t…
“Mom…” he whispered. “I think I have a quirk!”