Chapter Text
Izuku is around 5 or 6 when he gets into his first fight; he had been diagnosed as Quirkless just little more than a year, and his Mama’s gotta work more often to make ends meet, ‘coz she got demoted when she let the news about his diagnosis slip. She leaves him with Aunt Mitsuki a lot of the time, which normally wouldn’t be an issue, if it weren’t for the fact that Katsuki like, existed.
Either way, he was a small child who cried a lot, had been living a year at the bottom of the food chain, and spent over 80% of his week with a lady who had a very bold personality. He’s a bit angry and a bit frustrated, because the kids are school were being mean again, and his Mama couldn’t get out of work no matter how hard she tried, so he couldn’t look forward to sinking into her warm body when he got home, because he was going to Aunt Mitsukis instead. And he’s angry, it’s a bright, hot, burning anger that thrums inside his chest— ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump.
He sat alone in the corner of the field that day, watching all the other kids play tag and show off their Quirks, something he would never have. His Year 1 teacher was making him sit out the game; she was a nice woman, and her Quirk let her grow flowers in her hair, but she thought he was fragile and would simply break if she allowed him to play with the stronger, Quirked kids. It was annoying, yes, but at least she gave him puzzles to solve, books to read, and math sheets when he asked. Then, their teacher leaves to go to the bathroom, which leaves them with the other Year 1 teachers, who weren’t as nice as Ms. Hanajuku-who-said-to-call-her-Moto-because-using-her-last-name-made-her-feel-old. Which is evident when they make no moves to stop one group of 2nd Years striding towards him with obviously bad intentions.
He had been poking the dirt with a stick before they came along, generally enjoying his time as he wrote out some new words he learned that day. It had rained recently, with it being Spring, and thus rainy season, making it easy to draw in the mud. He feels bad for getting his shoes all muddy, though, knowing how much Mama spends on them.
He’s so invested with his stick and the mud that he doesn’t see the 2nd Years until it’s too late.
He didn’t remember their names, but one of them had antlers and a twitchy nose, another had strange eyes, and the biggest one could heat-up his hands to high temperatures—Izuku only knows that last one due to personal experience, he’s not sure about the other two, but Antlers is pretty clear: he has antlers. Whether there's a secondary Quirk under that mutation is difficult to guess, however, because while there's no sign saying there is, there's no sign saying there isn’t either. Strange Eyes probably has a Quirk to do with their eyes, either something that affects their vision, or a Quirk where it needs to be something within the line of sight, or maybe the boy's eyes are just like that, but it’s unlikely.
One of them waves a hand in his face, and he startles at the heat.
They say something, but he only really hears one part of: My Dad said that only freaks produce freaks, says Antlers. Does that mean your momma’s a freak?
And then he can’t really hear anything except for the blood rushing through his ears, his own gasp, and the panicked shout of what the hell as Izuku’s fist meets Antler's face. There’s a sickening crack, and next thing he knows he’s in the principal's office.
“Antlers called my mom a freak.” Izuku tells him, plain and simple. “So I punched him.”
And then the principal, a short, mousy man, groans and his hand drags down his face, revealing tired, annoyed eyes. “You broke Mr.Uchiyamas nose, Midoriya.”
Izuku shrugs. “He deserved it.”
“You do understand we’re going to have to call your parents, right?” The principal asks, and then Izuku’s not sure whether he regrets punching Antlers or not. He decides he doesn’t, because while his Mama has a wrath to be feared and tends to put the fear of God into people, Uchiyama totally deserved what was coming for him.
“Call Aunt Mitsuki instead.” He says to the principal, not because he’s trying to escape punishment, but because his mom is at work and he doesn’t really want to bother her. “Mama’s working, she needs to do that and she can’t afford to miss out. Aunties an e-emergence… emergency contact anyways.” (He stumbles on the word emergency, because he’s six, and while he has a very extensive vocabulary for a six year old, he’s still only six.)
The principal only sighs, before dialing Aunt Mitsukis phone.
Ten minutes later, Auntie is bursting into the principal's office, a sour look on her face, except that's just her normal face. She takes a look at Izuku and his bloodied knuckles, then takes a look at the principal, with all his mousy, short, and tired glory. She does this two more times before sighing and taking a deep breath, her fingers tap her arms in precise, repeated movements, and Izuku knows that she’s doing those anger management tricks that Uncle Masaru always asks her to try. After a minute or so, she opens her eyes and locks eyes with the principal.
“Now,” she starts off, her voice cool. She sounds angry, but not her normal, explosive anger. Maybe it’s because she cooled down with those tricks Uncle tells her to do, or maybe she’s angry in a new, entirely different way. “What's this about Izu-kun breaking another kid's nose?”
“Well,” says the principal. “Today, around noon, Uchiyama Mitsuru was brought to the nurse's office with a broken nose, claiming Midoriya over here was the reason why. Two of his friends, along with many others, confirmed this.”
And then Auntie turns to Izuku, fire in her eyes. “Izu-kun, is this true?”
Then he nods. “Antlers called Mama a freak, so I punched him.”
“I would say resorting to violence isn’t the right thing.” Aunt Mitsukis says, with a faint softness in her voice he only ever hears when she’s talking to Katsuki or Uncle Masaru, or Mama herself. “But then I’d be a hypocrite. Just try not to get into any more fights, we don’t want to give your mom a heart attack, right?”
Izuku nods, and then Mitsuku’s attention is back on the principal.
Mitsuki is talking about how Uchiyama should be punished as well, for aggravating him in the first place, and for harassment of another student. Then they’re talking about what punishments he will have, which turns out to just be a week of detention and nothing else. Thankfully, Uchiyamas parents don’t want to press charges against a six year old, and once they hear why he punched him, she gets a scolding. (Izuku doesn’t tell anyone this, but he overhears Uchiyamas mom muttering how she’s this close to divorcing her husband.
Izuku doesn’t know much about divorce, other than that it’s really important, and grown-ups don’t like talking about it.)
Aunt Mitsuki leaves, and then Izuku is told to go back to his classroom, where Ms. Moto is reading the class a story. The teacher glances at him, gives him a small wave, and gestures for him to sit in the far back corner. A few other kids stare at him, and he shrinks in on himself. There's something indescribable in their eyes, and he hears whispers when he sits down.
Ms. Moto quiet's them, and continues her story.
Everyone avoids him for the rest of the day, and he walks home alone because Katsukis sick and Auntie has to make sure he doesn’t like, die or something, and Uncles at work. Usually he and Kacchan walk home together, but Kacchans sick so he walks home alone. On her off days, Mama walks him home, which is nice, but doesn’t happen nearly often enough.
Before he knows it, he’s already at Auntie's place.
“So,” says Katsuki over dinner. “I heard from mom that you broke a kid's nose.”
They’re watching TV together, and dinner is one of the few times that he and Katsuki can calm down and be civil. Most of their interactions end in Izuku crying, or burned, or generally pissed, usually all three. Most of their interactions end with Katsuki high on a power trip, angrier than usual, or just straight up horrible, usually all three. But when it’s dinner, and they're on the couch watching TV together, they can afford to be quiet, because they're both six, and missing out on the cartoons would be criminal.
“They deserved it.” Izuku says. “He called Mama a freak, because ‘only freaks make freaks’, so I punched him. I think I punched him a little bit too hard, though, because now Uchiyama-sans nose is broken.”
“Damn.” replies Katsuki. “Didn’t know you had it in you, with how wimpy you are.”
“I got mad.” Izuku tries to justify, Katsuki stares at him.
“If that's what happens when you’re mad, maybe you should stay mad more often. It’ll make you less useless.”
The way it’s said is weird, as if his uselessness doesn't stem from his Quirklessness (Katsuki never said it was his lack of a Quirk that made him weak, no, not at all), he says it as if it’s because of an entirely different reason.
“Aren’t I always gonna be useless, though?” Izuku asks timidly, his voice shaking. “I don’t have a Quirk… And all I really do is cause problems for Mama and Auntie, and you.”
Katsuki continues to stare at him as if he was insane, then socks him in the arm. “If you keep thinking of yourself like that you’ll be useless forever!” he yells, and explosions crackle at his palms. “You’re weak ‘cuz you cry all the time! Not ‘cuz you don’t have a Quirk! Just keep punching people and you’ll be less useless, Deku.”
Izuku hums, thinking about it. “But if I punch people, then Mama will get worried…”
“Punch them anyway.” Katsuki says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
“Okay.” Izuku confirms, making up his mind. “If I punch people, then I won’t be weak anymore…” he shoves a piece of food into his mouth. “Thanks Kacchan!”
“I was just stating the obvious, dumbass.” Katsuki grumbles, and then, as if she had a radar for cursing, Mitsuki appears in the doorway.
“Language, you little shit.” she chides, as if he didn’t learn the words from her.
A week later, when Mamas is off of work for the day, Izuku bites another kid so hard it breaks skin and he has to be brought into the hospital. He spends the rest of the day sulking in the chair of the principals office as he waits for his Mama to pick him up.
“What has gotten into you, Midoriya?” asks the principal. “You’re usually so… well behaved!”
To which Izuku grumbles, because the kid deserved to be bitten. He was being a dick, kept parading his quirk and claiming he was the best. It was annoying as shit, but then he started harassing Izuku, so he bit him. He also tackled him down the hill, before yanking on his hair so hard a big chunk came out of it. Maybe he went a little bit overboard, but he thinks it cancels out from the big hand shaped burn on his cheek, PEMDAS or whatever, because it was the kid with Uchiyama Mitsuru last week that was being annoying and horrible. It won't scar, but it hurts like hell, even if ripping out Nakui Yuu’s hair was extremely satisfying.
"He was annoying," Izuku answers. "He kept claiming he was the strongest, and I think he wanted to get back at me for breaking Antlers nose last week, 'cuz he reached out to burn me, so I bit him."
"You also made him sprain his ankle, and ripped a good chunk of his hair out." the principal says matter-of-factly, as if that'll make Izuku understand what he did wrong.
"He deserved it." Izuku tries to convince him. “If it wasn't me, someone else was gonna do it eventually…"
The principal sighs, "are you okay, Midoriya? Is everything alright outside of school? This is the second time this month you're in my office."
"Everything's fine." Izuku confirms. "I just took Kacchans advice. Punch people anyway, because if I keep crying and never fighting back all the time, I'll never be strong, let alone be a hero."
The words are definitely paraphrased, because Katsukis advice was actually just yelling at Izuku to just keep punching people.
“...Of course.” the principal says, sounding like he wanted to die on the spot. “Of course it’s the Bakugou kids fault…”
Soon enough the principal gives up on trying to convince Izuku that Nakui Yuu didn’t deserve to go to the hospital after he bit him and tackled him down a hill. He simply mutters to himself with his head in his hands, occasionally glancing back up to where Izuku was now writing in one of his notebooks. 10 minutes later, his Mama appears and scoops him up in her arms asking what happened.
“He sent another kid to the hospital.” says the principal, and Mama gasps.
“That can’t be true, can it?” she asks, worry showing in her voice. The thing about his Mama is that she’s a lot like Ms. Moto, except a bit toned down. She worries a lot, and treats him kinder than all the other kids, but she’s not overbearing to the point of suffocation like Ms. Moto is.
“Just ask the kid.” the principal tells her. “He seems quite proud of the fact he sent Mr. Nakui to the hospital.”
His mama looks down on him, and then back at the principal. Then she sighs, and asks: “Izuku, is Mr. Nakayama telling the truth?”
For a few seconds, Izuku considers lying. This is Mama, and Mama’s scary when mad. She’s not like Mitsukis type of mad, because while Mitsuki is brash, loud, and explosive, Mama is quiet. She lays out for you exactly what you did wrong, and why it was wrong, and reminds you about how disappointed she is. Mitsuki yells, and curses, and generally can’t get the words out before Mama or Uncle Masaru gets her to calm down—and when she’s calmed down she’s right up there with Mama in scary anger. The quiet anger where she’s calm, collected, but clearly mad. What's worse, is that Mama is a crier, especially when she’s mad.
But then he remembers how he felt when pushing Nukui off the hill: proud. Not because he liked violence or anything, but because instead of crying and just letting the older boy burn him, he stood up for himself. And if he can stand up for himself at the ripe age of 6 years old, then surely he can be a hero!
“Nakui-kun was being mean.” Izuku tells her. “He was mad that I punched Uchiyama-chan a week ago for calling you a freak, so he tried to burn me with his Quirk! So then I bit him and tackled him down the hill! I think he landed weird ‘cuz now his ankles are all funky! I also pulled out a lot of his hair… I didn’t even know I was that strong! It was self-defense Mama, I swear!”
It’s only till the two are already outside the school does Mama reply to him. She had long since put him back down on the ground, and he’s been holding onto her sleeve the whole time. She sighs, and crouches down to his level. “Oh Izuchan…” she mutters. “I know it was in self-defense, but you didn’t have to send the poor boy to the hospital… at least learn to control your strength, okay?”
“But he was being mean! And the teachers don’t do anything—not even Ms. Moto does anything, and Ms. Moto is really nice!” Izuku cries, and can feel salty tears enter his eyes. “And if I don’t fight back then I’m useless! I don’t wanna be useless, Mama!”
And then Mama opens her arms, and Izuku crashes into them. “I didn’t mean to hurt Nakui-kun that badly! I just wanted him to leave me alone—”
“Oh, Izuchan….” Mama trails off, wrapping her arms around him. “It’s okay, just promise you won’t do it again, yeah?”
They pull away from the hug, and Izuku nods vigorously. He holds on his fist, pinky sticking out. “I pinky promise not to fight someone again!” he exclaims, even through the tears trailing down his cheeks. “I’ll just do something else to get them to leave me alone!”
And Mama takes his pinky, and shakes it. “There you go Izuku,” she says, with a smile on her face. “Don’t think this gets you out of punishment, though. I am very disappointed, young man.”
Izuku manages to reach summer break, along with the rest of the school year, without any more fights, but quickly breaks that record when he walks into his 2nd Year classroom in April.
The student is new, obviously, and hasn’t heard about how Izuku can, and will bite. The teacher he has this year, Satoru Mori, is having them sit in a circle and do icebreakers. Which is what they do every year at the start of classes, because teachers are all just one in the same, really. They go like this: name, age, Quirk, and one fun fact about yourself.
“I’m Bakugo Katsuki!” shouts Kacchan on his turn. “I’m 7, and I can make my palms explode! I’m going to be the best Hero there ever was!”
Everyone oohs and ahhs as Katsuki shows off his Quirk, little popping noises going off as his sweat ignites and fills the room with a burnt caramel smell, one which a lot of kids scrunch their noses at. Izuku doesn’t though, because he’s used to the smell. After Katsuki, it’s Izukus turn to introduce himself to the class.
“I’m Midoriya Izuku.” he tells the circle. “I just turned 7, and I don’t have a Quirk… I’m gonna become the first Quirkless Hero ever!”
The class, who knows him from last year for putting two kids in the hospital—Uchiyama with her broken nose, and Nakui with his twisted ankle paired with Izuku's bite breaking skin—know better to deny that he’s going to be the first hero without a Quirk. Apparently, the first two times were enough to scare just about everyone off. (Except Katsuki, but they fight for fun anyway. Not that Mama or Auntie needs to know, what those two don’t know won’t hurt them.)
However, it seems, a new student who moved to the Aldera area just recently, doesn’t know about Izukus… reputation. Her name is Matsuyama Mayumi, she came here after spending around 2 years in America, has a slight accent, and her Quirk lets her levitate things, kind of like Mama. She stares at him for a good few seconds, and then narrows her eyes.
“No way.” says Matsuyama. “You can’t become a hero without a Quirk.”
“Why not?” Izuku questions, tilting his head. Mr. Satoru sighs from where he was situated, clearly predicting his new, oncoming headache.
“Because you just can’t.” Matsuyama says, a bit louder this time. “Without a Quirk, you’re weak! You can’t just… be a hero without a power!”
And then Izuku feels anger bubble up in his chest, and there's this low, rumbling sound in the back of his throat. He sees a bunch of kids scoot back from where they sat, eying him cautiously. “I’ll show you weak, Matsuyama-san!” and then he shoots forward, tackling her to the ground. He thinks he put too much force into it, because she crashed into a desk and looks a bit dazed.
“What the heck!” Matsuyama screams as Izuku wrestles with her, he’s trying to get to her hair so he can pull it, or her neck so he could get her in a chokehold—something like that. She’s moving too much for him to punch her anyways. “Someone get him off of me!”
“Midoriya!” Mr. Satoru exclaims, rushing forward to try and help his student. “No fighting during school!”
Izuku ignores him in favour of biting Matsuyamas hand, who managed to grab ahold of his curls, and then pinning her down with his knees and socking her right in the face. He’s about to go for another one before strong arms wrap around him, dragging him off of his classmate. It’s Mr. Satoru, who holds a sour look on his face.
“Kariage!” Mr. Satoru yells out, catching the attention of another one of Izuku's classmates, and one of Katsukis friends. “Can you please take Mastuyama to the nurse's office? See if she can help with the bloody nose.” Kariage nods, rushing forward and avoiding Izuku as best he can, helping Mastuyama from the floor and leaving the classroom with her. “The rest of you, behave. Midoriya, with me.”
Finally, Izuku is put down. Mr. Satoru leads them outside of the classroom, and then stares him down in the hallway.
“Midoriya.” Mr. Satoru addresses him, staring him down.
“Satoru-sensei.” Izuku replies, meeting the adults' eyes. He knows he’s in trouble, good kids don’t send other kids to the nurses office. He knows he’s about to be sent to the principal's office, and he knows Aunt Mitsuki’s gonna have to pick him up again and explain to Mama why he got sent home early.
Mr. Satoru sighs, and Izuku recognizes he’s calming himself down before continuing farther. He’s using the same method Mitsuki uses, the one with the counting. “I am well aware of your past… incidents.” Uchiyama and Nakui. “So, before I dish out a punishment, may I ask why you tackled Matsuyama-san, bit her, then gave her a nosebleed?”
“She called me weak.” He says, as if that answers everything. “‘N I’m not weak. I’m just me.”
Mr. Satoru gives him a look, one that Izuku recognizes all too well. Pity. It’s the one adults give him when they learn he doesn’t have a quirk, it’s the one they give him when they see him as fragile. Izuku is far too young to recognize that this is a microaggression, or that it’s wrong, but he dislikes being seen as weak and fragile, let alone worthless. He’s 7 years old, and can already tell Satoru Mori is going to be the bane of his existence this year.
“Well, Midoriya-chan—”
“Don’t call me that.” Izuku cuts him off. “You weren’t using -chan earlier, so you can keep that way, can’t you?”
“Of course-” says Mr. Satoru. “But maybe you should consider that Matsuyama-san was right? You’re getting older now, it doesn’t matter how many kids you send to the hospital, elementary school and Hero work are very different things. You should just accept it now, Midoriya-kun, so you don’t get your hopes crushed later on.”
“I’ll prove everyone wrong, then.” Izuku tells him, voice raised. “I’m not going to accept it until there's a 0% chance I can do it.”
“Of course, Midoriya-kun.” Mr. Satoru concedes, seemingly giving up. “But please don’t get in any more fights in the future? Since it's the first day back after a while, I’ll excuse you this time with nothing more than a warning, but if it happens again, we'll call your mother and give you cleaning duty.”
Izuku simply nods in understanding. “Of course, Satoru-sensei. It won’t happen again.”
(That promise is broken 2 weeks after he makes it.)
“Wow, Deku! You were so cool!” says Tanaka Toshie at lunch, a girl who can make the air around her colder. “I wish I had the guts to do something like that… the part where you were like: I’ll show you weak, Matsuyama-san! Was the best part! If only I was good enough to fight back like that…”
Izuku has been crowded by his entire 2nd Year class ever since lunch started, and it’s getting annoying. A lot of kids are calling him cool, saying that they wish they were able to do something like that when someone insulted their Quirks. Kariage, the one who can elongate his fingers and is friends with Katsuki, tells him that Izuku was pretty awesome-looking back there, and Mutsuyama kind of deserved it for not listening to the rumours. Which meant someone had warned her that he was more-than-a-little-feral, and she still pulled that shit.
“Don’t think this makes you better than me.” Is the first thing Katsuki says when Izuku sits next to him after managing to escape the crowd of his class. Opening the bento his Mama made for him instead of answering, he stabs the pork of his cold katsudon and holds it over to Katsukis mouth. Katsuki bites, and chews before swallowing, muttering that he only did that because Auntie Inkos cooking is the best, before slumping down in his seat. “At least you’re not completely useless now. Who cares about Quirks when you can just punch a bitch, or maybe stab someone. You could probably figure it out.”
“Careful!” Izuku hisses. “You can’t just curse here! This is a school!”
“I can do what I want!” Katsuki growls back, shoveling his own food into his mouth. “Now fuck off and go away!”
“Hm. No.” Izuku says. “I don’t think I will.”
Katsuki growls again, but this time it’s accompanied by the popping sounds of explosions and the familiar burnt-candy smell. Except Izuku isn’t afraid, like most other kids would. He’s known Katsuki since diapers. “I’ll bite you.” He says simply, and then the explosions stop.
“I’m gonna get you when we get home.” Katsuki threatens, and Izuku laughs.
“Have fun with that!”
Turns out, Izuku and Matsuyama fighting becomes a common occurrence.
He doesn’t know exactly how it happens, but Matsuyama is a bit of a bitch. She must be salty that Izuku punched her in the face on the first day of school, because now she makes everything involving him her problem. On the second day of school, Mr. Satoru tries to pair Izuku and Matsuyama up for a project. It doesn’t end well. It ended in a screaming match, thankfully, no physical fights happened that day.
She goes out of her way to insult him, saying that he must be delusional, and that he’ll probably end up as a gas station worker. To which he tells her that her parents must be amazing actors, or they’re lying to themselves, if they're able to love a personality as disgusting as hers. Most of their insults aren’t very good, though. Matsuyama is 8, and Izuku is only 7, they don’t have the widest variety in their choices. Mutsuyama tries to tease him for the fact he’s top of the class and skipped a grade in math, but little does she know he takes great pride in that, and Katsuki is only 3 points off from taking the No. 1 spot from under him if he’s not careful. Matsuyama is 13th in their class, which isn’t good, but it could be worse. Nonetheless, he brings it up every time she tries to bring up the top scorer part in class.
The most annoying part of it all, is when during recess, she uses her Quirk to float herself out of his reach—which doesn’t take much, because if there's one thing he inherited from his mother that wasn’t the waterworks, it was the height. He was a small kid, and it showed— and then proceeded to annoy the shit out of him. Either by insulting him, or his family, she tries to insult Katsuki once and tries to imply Izuku and Katsuki were friends, when in fact it was the opposite.
(It was more like friendly-borderline-hostile rivals, if anything.)
Either way she’s been at it for around 2 weeks, and Izuku has been holed up in his room editing his shoes in hopes he could catch her off guard and knock her out the sky. It’s simple, really, just some jet propulsion in his sneakers. It could help him gain the height he needed to catch her. In fact, catching her will be the first part of his test.
Monday comes. He’s ready.
Izuku glares at Matsuyama throughout the whole day, and she glares back. She mutters something to one of her friends, who shoots a look his way. He scribbles in his notebook. When he and Katsuki are partnered up for a project around an hour before recess, he complains about Matsuyama and how he has the perfect plan to get back at her. He doesn’t tell Katsuki what he has planned though, it’s a surprise, he tells him.
“Then it better be a fucking good one.” Katsuki growls, before going back to sorting the colours on their desk.
Next thing he knows, recess is here.
“Heyyyy! Midoriya-chan!” Matsuyama taunts in her stupid, cheery voice that annoys him to no end.
“I told you to drop the -chan.” Izuku grumbles, knowing it’s a lost cause. Besides, if his plan works today she’ll never bother him ever again. “Can you go away now, please? I’m trying to write stuff in my notebook.” He gestures towards his analysis notebook that he has out, it’s edition #6.
Matsuyama rolls her eyes. “What do you even need that thing for anyway, Midoriya-chan?” she eyes the title of the notebook. “Really, the best future you’re gonna have is in a gas station…” she trails off. “And even if you do make it into Heroics, you probably won’t even break the top 500, let alone enough to be popular. You’re just too plain!”
“Underground Heroes.” is all he says. He thinks he would prefer to be a twilight hero anyway—not exactly limelight, but not completely underground either—the thought of being Top 10 terrifies him, shooting his little 7-year-old anxiety through the roof. Twilight sounds better anyway, he can be well known, but still go undercover. Sounds nice.
“Underground Heroes are boring-” Matsuyama groans. “Say, why don’t I take the notebook offa you? Heavens know you don't need it.”
He blinks, and Matsuyama has dropped her Quirk. His notebook is snatched from his hands, and she activates her Quirk again, floating herself above him. Izuku growls to himself, annoyed. Without thinking, he reaches into his pocket and grabs a little bright red button, he clicks it, and the jets he built into his shoes activate when he jumps. They sputter halfway through, but it’s enough for him to cling onto Matsuyamas legs, and climb up her body. The weight sends them careening to the ground, and Matsuyama hits the ground head first. He hits the ground soon after, his knee hitting her in the face.
Izuku snatches his notebook, scrambling off of the 8 year old. He watches as she gets up, snarling.
“You’re feral!” she shouts, and all he does is growl at her. “With an attitude like that you might as well be a villain already!”
Izuku freezes, and then shakes himself out of it. He’s standing up for himself, how can he stand up for others if he can’t even do that for himself? It’s not his fault she stole his stuff! It’s not his fault she was annoying and couldn’t keep her mouth shut or her hands to herself!
Before she has time to react, his legs move and he tackles her to the ground. Her head hits first again, and they’re on the blacktop. He feels the concrete scrape against his skin, but he doesn’t care. He’s angry, and mad, and if he doesn’t let it out now he’ll simply explode.
Matsuyama rolls out of the way, shooting to her feet. Izuku lunges forward, going for her nose. She steps back and barely dodges it, but not in time for his knee to hit her in the stomach. She doubles over and he’s about to run forward and kick her again, but arms wrap around his armpits and suddenly he’s off the ground and his notebook has fallen from his grasp.
“Midoriya!” The stern voice of a teacher yells—Okada Noburo, teaches 5th years, and is pretty nice. He catches Izuku in the school library a lot, and is generally fun to talk to. “Calm down!”
But he doesn’t calm down.
He’s too angry. The fire burns hot in his chest and it needs to be let out. He struggles against Okada’s hold, fighting and kicking and screaming. She stole his notebook! His notebooks are special! She touched them so it's her fault that she got hurt!
“Midoriya!”
The angers not going away, but he’s getting tired, and he thinks it’s a teacher's Quirk, because suddenly all we wants to do is sleep. Soon enough he closes his eyes, and he’s out cold.
“What you did was wrong, Izu-kun, you have to understand that.” Aunt Mitsuki tells him. She sighs when she realizes she’s not convincing him, so she tries a different approach. “You know, you remind me of myself when I was younger.”
Izuku perks up at that; him? Like Auntie? There's no way! “Really?” he asks, looking up at her.
“Yeah,” she says and sets a hand on his head. “I was so angry as a kid, always yellin’ and fightin’ people. Kept getting in trouble, wasn’t till my record caught up with me that I stopped.”
“What do you mean, your record caught up with you?” He questions, confused.
“Wanted to go into General Education at UA with your mom, had more than a few black marks on my record that kept me from getting it. Ended up going to one of those half-online half-in person schools instead. I would’ve gotten in too were it not for all the fights I got into.” Mitsuki takes her hand off his head, clenching a fist. “You want to go to UA, right Izu-kun?”
Izuku hums. “Yeah! I’m gonna be the first Quirkless hero! So I can save people who are like me!”
“And you can’t do that if you have black marks on your record, Izu-kun.” She says, bringing her hands down his shoulders, before grabbing his own hands into her own. “So, promise me this, Izuku.”
He looks up at her. “Yeah?”
“Promise me you won’t destroy your dream before it gets started, yeah?” She rubs circles into Izuku's palms, before she closes her eyes and pulls away. “The brat can’t be alone in that big, bad, hero school anyway, he’ll probably blow it up or something, you’ve gotta keep him company! I believe in you Izuku, so does your mom, don’t just throw that away.”
Izuku can’t promise anything. He’s too angry, it’s only a matter of time before he gets into a fight again. It’s only a matter of time until his knuckles are split and someones on the ground, but he can try.
“I…” he trails off. “I dunno if I can promise to not get into a fight again…. But I can try? Auntie, I promise that I’ll try my best!”
Aunt Mitsuki smiles. “Good enough for me, Izu-kun.”
After Matsuyama, he gets put into anger management classes, and Matsuyama herself switches schools. Her parents didn’t want her going to school with a kid like him, a kid who broke peoples noses and knocked them out of the sky. After Matsuyama, a lot of kids at school avoid him, save a select few. Kariage still hangs out, he thinks Izuku is cool, and Katsuki still eats lunch with him and even though he’ll never admit it, Izuku thinks he cares. Tsubasa moves away, and for a while it's just Izuku, Kariage, and Katsuki.
He goes through an entire year of anger management, but it doesn’t help much. He still feels angry, and horrible, but now he can shove it down and ignore it until he’s in the confines of his own room. Or just ignore it until he doesn’t feel it anymore. Eventually the councilors decide he’s succeeded enough in the classes, and let him be.
Mama doesn’t change, and neither does Aunt Matsuki or Uncle Masaru. Soon enough, he’s in his 5th year, being taught by Okada—the one who pulled him off of Mastuyama back when she went to Aldera Elementary and used his Quirk to make Izuku fall asleep—and he’s about to go to Junior High with Katsuki and Kariage. He likes the fact these things don’t change; Mama is as loving as ever, Aunties still brash as she was 5 years ago, Uncles still shy and Katsuki still swears they aren’t friends even though they still hang out after school even when Mama doesn’t need to work as often anymore.
It’s nice.
But he’s going to Junior High soon.
And he’s scared.
(He doesn’t want things to change.)