Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
I was a happy kid, who liked playing outside with my best friend “Kacchan”. Or better known as Bakugo Katsuki. Even better known as Ground Zero, The symbol of victory. It wasn’t always that though. He used to be a little boy waiting for his quirk to come in waiting for the day. I don’t remember it well for obvious reasons but i met him because our parents were friends. We met one day when my own mother needed to go to the store but didn’t have a babysitter for her 3-year-old. There are still photos of that day in our family album not sure if they are in Kacchan’s though but that's besides the point.
I remember the day we found out about his quirk. It was in class one day we were all sitting in a circle doing… something when all of a sudden there was a pop. We all looked towards the sound, towards Kacchan and there were small explosions going on in his hands. They looked like tiny little fireworks. I remember the praise he was given and the way everyone looked at him like he was already the best like he was already on the same level as all might.
Then when we got a little older Kacchan started to go outside to the park, and he was my only friend so of course I followed him. At first, our parents would follow us around the park and watch our every move to make sure we were safe. Then eventually that changed to one set of parents, then a few months later we were simply told to stay in the park and were left unsupervised. Not our parent's fault of course but we were young and we wanted to go exploring! Well, mostly Kacchan. As you know he has a strong personality, to say the least which makes him the perfect leader to a bunch of kids at the park.
I remember one day very vividly. Kachan and I were walking through the forest. He was carrying a net and we were trying to find bugs. I was holding two green box containers to store them until we showed our parents and let go again. I remember we were talking about quirks I remember something he said to me, “Whatever Deku no matter what power you end up with you’ll never be able to beat me!”
Sounds innocent right?
The first follower of his that comes to mind the most is a slightly overweight boy with plain features a brown buzzcut and brown eyes. Well plain other then the fact he had wings, even though he claims they are like a dragon I always thought they looked like bats but red. Which would make a lot more sense considering his Father has a bat quirk that makes it so he has bad vision but excellent hearing. And his mother has a quirk that lets her change the color of her hair it is much more likely he just has bat wings that are red.
Another one that also comes to mind is a boy with longer brown hair coming just halfway down his neck. He had a skinny frame and always had an unsettling smile. His quirk is the simple ability to make his fingers longer, I don’t know if there is a limit to how long he can make them but I remember that his dad had a simple water control quirk and that his mother could change her eye color. It's likely that his mothers and father mutated to be able to change the molecular structure of water in the body. I tried to tell him that once, tried to tell him he might be able to do more than he thought but that didn’t go well.
And then there is a boy that followed Kacchan for a short period the first person I ever saved. He was younger than me and had spiky purple hair he had a smaller frame like myself but wasn’t overly skinny and he was a bit taller than me. I don’t remember his quirk.
And I don’t remember any of their names. But they remember mine. The nickname, 'Deku.' I wonder do any of those people other than Kacchan even know my name? I doubt it. My story is not the happy one most think it is. And for the people that think my life was a struggle… you don’t know the half of it. If you got this book for your child to read stop reading it now. This is your only warning I promise you don’t want a child reading this, please put the book down.
A lot of people wonder about me. More specifically where I got the name ‘Deku.” Most people think it was a play on the words of Dekiru. The word that means you can do anything. But it's not.
I don’t remember exactly when it was but me, Kacchan, and all of his lackeys because they were not friends were in the park. We had two of those foam balls and a bucket. The bucket and green ball were mine. Me and Kacchan were playing with the balls and he was doing the soccer move of bouncing on your thigh. I tried to copy him and ended up hitting myself in the head with a ball. Safe to say it hurt. A little while later he grabbed my bucket, I still don’t remember why I brought a damn bucket but I did. It had my name on it. ‘Izuku.’ however it can also be read as ‘Deku.’ Kacchan oh so kindly pointed that out. “Deku, that must be what you call a helpless, useless person who can’t do anything right.”
Yep, thats right. That's how I got the name Deku, and you know what? He wasn’t even wrong.
Now you may have noticed I have explained all the other kid's quirks, but not my own. At 4 ½ my mother grew concerned about my lack of a quirk showing up. So I ended up going to the doctor to see what was wrong. There they did an x-ray of my foot, just for precautions. If you don’t know quirkless people still have an unnecessary joint in their pinky toe because they are biology less advanced. That x-ray was supposed to be a precaution.
Then they saw that extra joint. The doctor was less than kind after that. His voice was monotone and annoyed as he told me and my mother, “Pepole with powers only have one joint in their pinky toe. Their bodies have evolved to become a more streamlined version of the human form. You can see here that Izuku has two joints in his pinky like roughly 20% of the population these days. Based on the research available it's safe to say your son won’t develop a quirk.” I dropped my all-might figurine as I froze up.
At four years old I found out I wouldn’t be like the rest of my peers and that i would forever be quirkless. At first, the implications didn’t set in. I was sad simply because I was quirkless, not because of what that meant not because of the idea I was useless. So we went home, and on the car ride back to our small apartment it was quite uncharacteristically so. I know now that was because my mother didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to explain to a child his life was over before it even began. So we drove the two hours home in silence the rain being the only comfort, I remember looking out the window, and seeing all the kids using their quirks to play. The way adults wrote it off even though technically it was illegal. I watched with a longing that maybe one day I would prove the doctor wrong.
What a naive little boy I was.
When we got home my mother was still silent, she set up the computer with my favorite video. All Mights debut. I still remember what the reporter said, “Who is this guy? He's already saved 200 people at least and it hasn’t even been 10 minutes! This is breaking I can’t believe this!” I remember the way all might laugh echoed as he showed up with more and said “Fear not citizens! Hope has arrived! Because I am here!” that iconic catchphrase. I was staring at the screen as I said in a soft trembling voice “See that Mom? There's always a smile on his face no matter how bad things get. Even when things seem impossible he never gives up!” I remember at that moment I turned away from the screen and looked at my mother tears in my eyes as I forced on a smile and pointed at the screen. “Do you think… I can be a hero too?”
She walked across the room crying too and hugged me tight “I’m sorry izuku!... I wish things were different ” I’m glad it was raining that day, that maybe no one would hear our sobs over the soft sound of rain. I don’t blame my mother that wasn’t her fault I just wish that maybe she would have lied instead.
A part of me shattered that day. But I refused to give up, I refused to let go of an impossible dream.
After it came out I was quirkless Kachen grew cruel. I remember when he was hurting another kid, one of the ones that used to follow him around. The one with spikey black hair that I can’t remember the quirk of. He was with the boy with ‘dragon wings’ and the boy with elongated fingers. I remember I came in between the group and the kid with spiky black hair. I remember saying. “Why are you being so mean?! You’re making him cry kachan! If you keep on hurting him I’ll uh stop you myself!” I remember I was crying and shaking as I took an awful fighting stance I remember his cruel grin as he said. “You want to pretend to be a hero?! You don’t stand a chance without a quirk deku!”
I can still feel the phantom pain of the bruises all across my body from the first beating I ever had as I write this. I can remember the way I layed on the dirt of the playground as I learned at four years old. Not all men are created equal.