Chapter Text
By the age of 9, Izuku had developed a habit of walking around, avoiding his bullies and mother, and enjoying his time alone. One time while doing just that, he came across the Dagobah Municipal Beach, or the trash beach, as people called it. It had become an unofficial dumping ground, a place to throw your old furniture or broken machinery, since the waves brought more stuff all the time.
Though Izuku knew that in some distant, not conscious way, all he was really thinking about when he came across the beach was his bullies would never bother to search for him there. After a few minutes of considering, Izuku tried not to care about the smell and disappeared in between the mountains of trash.
Once he got used to the awful stench, the beach became his. He went there when Inko didn’t want him in the house, he went there to avoid his bullies, he went there to just hang out and he went there to just be alone. People are really tiring, and since there was no one who would really want his company, he just enjoyed being alone. He started cleaning the beach both to have something to do and make it a more pleasant place to hang out. During the years he built himself a tiny little space to live in – it started as a place to get away from the rain, but he gathered more stuff with time and now has a pretty sturdy little hut in the middle of mountains of garbage. He even got the least moldy mattress he could find, and dragged it in. It really wasn’t that bad to sleep on!
One day, that Izuku marked later in his thoughts as a changing point, he came across a skateboard. It looked brand new, and he had no idea why it was buried in mountains of garbage.
"What a waste," he mumbled to himself, digging it out. It really was in good condition, the trucks just a little loose. "I think I saw a screwdriver around here," Izuku continued his mumbling, a habit he hadn't been able to break despite his mother’s, teachers’, and bullies' efforts. He looked around a bit, soon finding the screwdriver he remembered seeing in passing. He had become really familiar with the beach, having spent most of the last few years there. Quickly tightening the loose trucks, the skateboard was in excellent condition again.
Sitting on a broken refrigerator, Izuku stared blankly at the board in his hands. What was he supposed to do with it now? He didn't know how to skate. But it was such a waste to just let the board be covered in trash, never seeing the light of the sun and never being used. Okay, maybe Izuku was projecting a bit there. But really? He wanted to put the board to use, wanted to give it the life it deserved.
So, Izuku decided to learn how to skate. He devoted himself to learning, using the free computers in the library to sometimes look up stuff since he really was only a beginner. He fell, more times than he could count. He stopped counting, actually, knowing that the count would only stop increasing rapidly near the hundreds or thousands. So, he got up. He got up every time he fell, tried again, fell again, and got up again. Sometimes he would wonder what it all was for. Why was he so devoted to skating, why was he so desperate to learn. He never got an answer better than "because I want to" or "because I want to be good at something". Why it was skating specifically, he didn't know.
What he knew was that he enjoyed it. And, he was starting to improve. His legs weren't shaking anymore when he got on the board, he didn't have to balance on it for seconds before even thinking about moving, he didn't have to think about how to keep his balance while moving. It all started to become natural. The skateboard was becoming an extension of him. He knew how to control its every movement, could feel how it shifted under his feet, responding to the smallest of commands. Skating was becoming second nature to him.
At the beginning even thirty minutes of trying different tricks the internet said were great to start with, Izuku had been flushed and sweating profusely. The time before he got so winded he simply couldn’t keep going anymore increased every day, and every day Izuku thanked his biggest investment, two 2.5 liter water bottles – old soda bottles, but bought new nevertheless. He filled them every day at the library, and every day they were empty by the time he got to the library.
During the school days Izuku left his board at the beach, not wanting to risk it getting stolen or broken, or someone accusing him of theft. After school and on weekends, he never let go of the board. It was his, one of the few things in his life that brought him even a little joy.
At the age of 14, two years after finding the board, Izuku could say with a good conscience that he was becoming a pretty good skater. And, after years of others pushing him down and belittling him, his good was others' amazing. Anyone who saw him skating couldn't deny that the board looked like an extension of his body, obeying Izuku's will completely. More often than not, he was on his board, skating through the small city, jumping up stairs and sliding down railings leaving people gaping.
But no one connected this small, amazing skater to the useless, quirkless, good-for-nothing Deku. It helped that Izuku mostly skated after it was dark enough that no one could recognize him, wearing a hood and going at a speed at which no one could even catch a good look at his face. He did it subconsciously, having had to avoid his bullies for most of his life. It was only natural to him, and he never really paid attention to it. The black, oversized hoodie hiding his scrawny frame and the hood covering his face, he just enjoyed the cool night air.
At the same time, he started noticing that he was starting to gain muscle. Especially his abdominal muscles were developing well since he had to have good control over his core while skating. Also, his legs were bulking up, from both running from bullies and jumping and skating.
One day, he was walking home (to the beach) from school, when Kacchan and her minions tried to corner him. Of course, Izuku didn't want to listen to what Kacchan had to say this time, it was never anything new, so he ran. Kacchan ran after him, chasing him through the small city. Without thinking, Izuku took the route he was familiar with, having skated it many times. The route was full of stairs and railings, and he very much enjoyed the challenge it brought to skating. But, he forgot one thing: he didn't have his board with him.