Work Text:
Quirkless Izuku makes it into the hero course but not without a lot of trouble along the way; a few applicants noticed his red shoes (quirkless= red shoes in this fic) and tried to get in his way during the practical exam, All Might suggesting he go for Gen Ed in his result hologram thingy because of his quirk status despite how well he did in the exam, and his old school trying to make his records look terrible with messed up grades and 'incidents' he got in trouble for that were just made up or not actual issues.
He thinks maybe this school will be different for once but then Aizawa has his quirk assessment test and Izuku knows it's going to go downhill from there. He isn't surprised when he gets last on the board despite knowing he did better than several kids in several tests. He isn't surprised when Bakugo openly mocks and insults him and no one stops him. He isn't even that surprised Aizawa called him a liability and expelled him in front of the whole class.
(Them keeping the pervert kid was a surprise but as terrible as Bakugo is, he respects all genders and doesn't stand for perverts. That kid will be dealt with in an explosive way if the teachers don't do something about it.)
So he isn't that surprised to find himself sent home with a meeting set up for class transfer with Nedzu the next day. The orientation was still going after the assessment so no meeting that day.
Izuku is on the train home, wondering if going to a quiet house is better then the pitying look his mom will give, when something big hits the tracks and details the train.
A villain with a size quirk hit the tracks when he grew to escape the hero chasing them. Most of the cars were empty because it was the middle of the day but Izuku and several others do end up trapped in the toppled cars. Izuku, hurt and concussed, gets up first and immediately sets to helping those in his car and the car behind them that got slightly smashed.
The cars to the front are mostly fine so they can get out once Izuku helps them out. Izuku is just helping the last people out when there are cries of alarm and the rail bridge above them starts to fall, Izuku shoves the mother and young son he was helping out of the car in time for them to not get hit but he doesn't get out in time.
The car gets crushed and Izuku dies, activating a death quirks requirement that swaps his soul for the closest living thing with a weaker soul. A cat that was running from the villain fight and the train derailment and got too close.
Izuku wakes up as a cat in the rain when someone shifts some rubble and finds him. He learns pretty quickly his human body is gone and there isn't a way to go back to it, he considers letting the firefighter carrying him know he is human but... does he even want to?
Human Izuku had nothing waiting for him at home besides an overworking mother and hours of silence, school has already shown to be another three years of the same quirkiest garbage as always, and he faces discrimination from shops and any place that knows what his shoes mean. Not like he has any friends to miss him, his mom will probably be sad, maybe Bakugo's parents, but... that's kinda it.
What's stopping him from just... starting over as a cat? Sure, he can't be much of a hero anymore but maybe he can show he could be a therapy cat or something? Not like he had much hope of being a hero before anyways. So, being a cat it is.
Well, after his second cat body that is. Cats aren't that sturdy compared to a train crash so the vets put him down to not suffer and he wakes up in a new cat. Looks like immortality is a thing to deal with now too, how fun.
Notes for the idea:
1) After getting into the therapy class and passing, Izuku's first owner turns out to be Aizawa. He feels responsible for Izuku being on the train at a time he should have been in school when it was hit. He had heard how Izuku helped everyone he could despite being hurt and no training.
The mother and son saw the UA uniform and reached out with condolences and thanks for teaching such a heroic boy. Because Izuku never had the meeting with Nedzu he was still under Aizawa's class roster, the letter sent to the school by the mother and son about Izuku being heroic would have gone to him as 'the teacher of the hero boy'.
Aizawa feels hella guilty and his friends suggest a therapy cat after the USJ happens and he almost lost Tsu and several other students to the attack and Shigaraki. (Izuku was in cat training at the time and doesn't know what happened.) Aizawa was spiraling from blaming himself for Izuku and almost losing more students just three weeks later and having to be defenseless as he heals. So, Mic dragged him to the shelter for a therapy cat or just a pet he can care for to make him get up every day.
Izuku is grumpy about it being Aizawa at first but ends up helping him after realizing how much he blames himself and Izuku isn't mean enough to kick a man when he is already down like that.
2) Izuku goes with Aizawa to school (the first time was an accident because he napped in the scarf and Aizawa didn't notice with the casts on) and meets Shinso who replaced him. Shinso is like a cat treat dealer and Izuku has no shame getting the good quality treats from him as Shinso talks to him about anything and everything. Hey, if he is going to be talked to like a therapist he might as well get paid in treats for it.
3) Izuku realizes he should probably avoid Nedzu at all costs or just pretend he isn't human-level smart. He, however, has never owned a cat and only knows them from videos of being dumb as rocks or somewhat smart or who he met at the shelter. He comes off as having an empathy quirk and a cat that is just... really bad at being a cat sometimes .
4) Every cat or animal he swaps souls with will change to have dark green/black fur or hair and green eyes. Aizawa picked him as a therapy cat because of the colors because it reminded him of the kid whose life he ruined.
Does he die more than the two times in the fic? Does a Nomu count as a 'weaker soul' to his quirk if he does by one? Who knows! It’s up to whoever takes the idea to write!