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Tokoyami
Are you sure? You have said before that it hurts to remember.
Izuku
Yeah. Yeah I’m sure. (Hah) Not to sound self centered but I think that event is what fully sent the ball rolling faster
Tokoyami
Ok. Just tell me when to stop. This is Tokoyami Fumikage recording the Statement of Midoriya Izuku on his Quirk activation and the cause of his Quirk. Statement begins.
Izuku
Before I got my Quirk, everyone thought I was Quirkless. The doctors thought I was Quirkless, my mom thought I was Quirkless, and the whole school thought I was Quirkless. That’s not treated kindly today. You’re pretty much treated like you’re something lesser. Like you don’t belong. You’re an outlier compared to everyone else. You’re the problem here. Your existence is the problem. It sucked. It just- It sucked.
Mom did her best but there was only so much she could do against the bullying and Dad …he left. He left and I never saw him again. I never knew why but I always had a feeling it was because he found out his son is Quirkless. (bitter) Some dad he was.
Bad days were kind of normal for me at school. In fact that was more of my regular day if anything. It was just constant torment from everyone and more than once I came home with something broken. I hid it from mom because, well she’s a single mom working to provide for two.
(inhale) Anyways, the day my Quirk came in was a bad one. I was Six and heading home from school, had to fix my bag, got teased about how I'm left out from another party, was told how useless I was, and it was also the first time my uniform was torn.
If I'm being honest though, that was tame for what I would experience after.
…It was- It was foggy when I walked home.
[SHINSOU BREATHES IN SHARPLY.]
Shinsou if you want, you can leave. You don’t have to listen to this.
[BEAT.]
Okay. Just know that you can- Right.
Uh…My teachers didn't care much if I walked home on a foggy day, even with all the rumors that haunt the streets. I’m the Quirkless kid after all, who cares what happened to me? Eventually though the buildings started to look the same and when I tried to go back it just led to nothing. Soon the air started to smell…I guess coppery? It smelled like copper and metal. Then I heard humming, faint at first but slowly growing louder. Along with it was quiet laughter, not the gentle kind either. More of the mischievous kind.
I don’t- I don’t know why but that’s what stuck with me. It just sounded so- Normal compared to everything else I guess.
I still needed to get home though so I just kept walking and hummed along to the music. Soon I lost myself in my own brain and mumbled All Might facts to myself.
….. I wasn't exactly the most cautious six year old. Not exactly am now.
(shakily) At…
Tokoyami
(reassuring) Remember, we can stop.
Izuku
I’m fine.
...At some point I decided to sit down and write in the Hero Analysis Journal I had. Despite me trying to distract myself, everything still felt so much . Flashes of anger would go through me when I looked at my bag. There was the want to find all my classmates and tear their throats out for what they did to me. Then came flashes of loneliness, of how no matter what I did, I’m going to be left out and I’m going to be seen as a Quirkless nobody.
It got worse from there.
My chest started to feel heavy and it got harder and harder to breathe. There was this aching feeling in my bones as I moved them and it hurt so much that I wanted to cry. I wanted to sleep and go home to mom who would make me tea and cookies. I wanted to be four again and have Kacchan hug me again.
I just stayed there trying to find a way to ease the pain but it just kept getting worse. It just kept growing and I just doubled over and closed my eyes shut.
When I opened my eyes, I saw seven people. At the time, I didn’t know who they were, so I just asked for help and if any of them could help me get home. En just laughed at me and told me that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be and- And when he said that I think I realized that I was in trouble. Real, actual trouble.
I tried to move but then the pain kicked in and then I just curled up again. They all circled me, waiting . And then before I knew it, they all just lunged .
(hysterical) They all fucking lunged at me. They looked so hungry and greedy, like I was the best thing they found in ages. Bruce mentioned they wanted to find out what would happen if they all influenced one child at the same time and I was perfect . Everything that they represented and exploited, I had. I had those traits as a 6 year old and they all knew it. They just need to tap into it enough and then I would go and be practically in all their Domains.
It was said so clinically . Like he was just stating an inconsequential fact and not some horrific piece of information that a 6 year old learned.
I was perfect Wraith Bait and instinctively I knew it. If it weren't for my mom I think I might have just…given up.
Shinsou
(realization) You could have... would have given in.
Izuku
…Yeah.
It was Shinomori who grabbed me first and the moment he did my chest burst in panic and fear. I don’t even think he grabbed me that harshly actually. I just was grabbed and all of a sudden I was panicking and trying to find out who was next to hurt me. I don’t think it left any scars. I just felt scared and terrified. I guess that’s why he grabbed me first. Establish the paranoia so that fear follows quickly. Bruce was next and I almost fainted. I don't know much on what happened next. I was just in so much pain and it hurt and I couldn’t focus on what was happening. It was just pain on top of pain.
Then I opened my mouth and I just screamed. It tore my throat but it blew them all away like paper. It hurt so bad. Like my voice was forcibly pulled out from the voice box and crumbled up in the worst way possible. Everything about me changed and I choked on my own blood as it froze in the rain. I didn’t notice at the time but my hand went through something and- Hah. I guess that clued them in on what I was and immediately they just got closer and seemed to be more interested.
When they tried to get close I scratched them. My nails tore at En and Kudou, gold ichor covering my face and hands. It felt good knowing that these beings could have blood drawn, even if I found out later that it would be because I was a ghost. I was one of them.
I can’t really get that moment out of my brain actually. En hissed at me and retreated a bit but Kudou…He looked at the gold running down his arms in fascination and then looked at me. He looked at me with awe and got closer and I thought he was going to hurt me but instead he just ruffled my hair and said how happy he was that I was a fighter . That I wouldn’t just accept my fate lying down. That if he could, he would make me his proxy.
I just cried once he said that. I didn’t know what it meant at the time but I knew it wasn’t anything good.
Before they could grab me again, something surrounded me and at first I got scared because I thought it was En but then I realized it was clouds, not fog. Then someone came out of the clouds and comforted me and told me that they’re going to protect me and that everything will be okay. Then I looked and saw a man in red holding a sword to Kudou. I watched in a muted awe as those two protected me. (slightly hysterical) Me, a Quirkless kid who just tried to tear into other people and was covered in gold blood. I always thought I was unworthy of that type of protection.
I was missing for a week . My mom was worried to death about me and then when she tried to hug me her arms just- Went through me. That probably was the worst part of the whole thing. Doctors said I went through a Quirk Awakening, albeit a traumatic one. It was agony , I woke up often to see my body was see through and pale. Then there were my nails. And then came the cravings. I couldn't touch anything and I had to come to grips that I couldn’t live life normally anymore.
When I got to school everyone looked at me like I was- Well a ghost. Katsuki looked at me and just shrunk away. He stopped bothering me but now he was just scared of me. He always had a fear of ghosts and now that I was one, well. He always shakes whenever he has to talk to me for school things.
They uh. Didn’t really stop bothering me after I was found. En was particularly spiteful to prove I still could be affected, even with Loud Cloud and Red protecting me like that. I think once or twice I just had to hide in my closet and hope that at some point he got bored and would just go away. I also saw Shinomori once or twice too. Mainly when I go out with mom for grocery shopping. I would sometimes see him on the street and he would just wave at me. I pulled mom to the store quickly whenever I did and on the way home I would always make sure we weren’t being followed.
I think the worst was Kudou. He only showed up once. And when he showed up he just said how proud he is for surviving and how excited to see what kind of person I’ll grow to be, especially with all that fight in me. He told me that he was my favorite and from this point on, even though I wasn’t his proxy, he would keep a close eye on me.
I cried for hours after that.
For a year after that they kept trying to torment me. They obviously failed since I’m still here and soon I learned to ignore them.
…It came at the cost. I don’t know what Nana did to Katsuki but one moment he was there and the next I came home to people taking him away because his parents were found dead in their home. I saw Nana and tried to call out but I couldn’t.
I can still feel their grips. They often burn on bad days and turn my stomach sour. Kudou's the most and he wore those burning Gauntlets around my neck.
[SHUDDERING BREATHS]
[BEAT.]
Shinsou
…I can still feel En ruffling my hair. It's ok to feel. We’re here. We survived Izu. We defied them.
Tokoyami
That you both did. Despite everything, you braved the darkness that was inflicted on the both of you and came out of it to see a new dawn.
Midoriya
Th- Thank you. On how I figured out how I could be tangible again, I found out because of an amazing woman who's name I wish I could remember that I was a Ghost type Quirk. Rare and beautiful. That's when I found out my fuel. Pomegranates.
[SHORT LAUGHTER FROM EVERYONE.]
Yeah yeah, Fruit of the Underworld. Whatever god is up there has a cruel love of irony. But things smoothed out actually.
And…I think that’s it. I'm done. I have Pomegranates calling my name so I can actually get through tomorrow without being unable to touch anything for a day
Shinsou
I mean. I could take notes for you like you do for me on migraine days, you have permission for that.
Izuku
Deal.
Tokoyami
(inhale) Statement ends.
I guess we just put this with the rest of the pile. Unless it goes into its own pile since you technically encountered all of them.
MIDORIYA
Probably in its own pile. I think we need to make that now if we’re going to have more stories like this.
Tokoyami
Ah. Good point.
…Wait did Present Mic-Sensei give us any homework?
Shinsou
…Oh shIT-
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