Chapter Text
In a world where 80% of the population has a Quirk, or a superpower, you’d think that perhaps humanity would be more united. Yet the truth holds: all people are not born equal. This is the harsh reality I learned about society at the age of four.
“Enough, Kacchan!” Izuku cried, tears in his striking green eyes as he stood fretfully in between Katsuki and another kid who was kneeling on the ground. “Can’t you see he’s crying? I . . . I can’t let you keep doing this!”
The sun was high in the unclouded sky. A truly beautiful day, as I remember it. But, like every other memory of mine, it seemed as though I was staring at an old photograph that had been dipped in water; murky and unclear.
Worriedly hugging myself, I watched the scene unfold. This didn’t normally happen. I can still recall hoping with the whole entirety of my naive, childish heart that Katsuki would just give it up; that he wouldn’t commit the inevitable.
“Izu’s right, Kacchan!” my nervous voice exclaimed, indicating towards the two crying boys as I took the tiniest step towards their aggressor. “Why are you being so hard on them?”
Katsuki stared at us for a moment, looking mildly stunned that we were fighting back. Then the surprise was gone and he smirked, spiked blonde hair standing as tall as his ego.
“Even though you’re Deku, the Quirkless Wonder,” he sighed, punching his fist into his hand to create a small explosion, “you’re still pretending to be a hero, huh?”
It was irksome how much he had completely ignored me. I couldn’t be annoyed for long, however, when he and his two friends started forward, pushed me out of the way, and left me tumbling to the ground.
“Kacchan!” I cried frustratedly, scrambling to my feet just in time for my small figure to be blown back to the floor by the force of an explosion.
My knees and my elbow scraped against the rough courtyard as I slid across it. Stunned from the impact, I stayed on my stomach for a moment, gazing wearily over towards the apartment complex nearby. There were a few yelps from the other side of me that barely registered in my brain as I laid, frozen, on the ground. When I finally looked back towards the five boys, blurry vision telling me there were tears in my eyes, Katsuki was looming over Izuku and the other kid with as menacing of a smile as a four-year-old could pull off.
“Next time, Deku,” he said, “don’t get in my way, and you won’t get hurt. Got it?”
When Izuku didn’t speak or retaliate, I fought against the pain in my arm and legs in order to stand up and stagger over to him. Katsuki brushed by me, not radiating any remorse whatsoever. I tried not to pay his attitude any mind; he’d never gone this far before, so I hoped it was just a one-time thing. I wish I‘d been right.
“Izu?” I called upon seeing my friend on his back, burned and bruised, regarding the sky with sad, emerald eyes. “Izu! Can you hear me? Are you alright? Can you stand?”
“Maybe,” he murmured, wincing as I helped him into a sitting position. Gesturing to my bloody arm and knees, he added, “You . . . are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him, though surely I was crying as I hooked his arm around my shoulders and pulled him to his feet.
“What about you?” Izuku asked, turning his head to the other kid.
“I-I’ll be okay,” the boy blubbered through his tears as he waved us on. “Tha-ank you. I’m s-sorry you had to get hurt for me.”
“It’s fine,” Izuku said, unruly green hair swaying slightly in the breeze. “My momma can fix me up good as new.”
The grin on his face was friendly and perky, as per usual, no matter the tears of pain that streaked his cheeks. Compassionate and unafraid to look out for others; he had determination I always envied.
I nodded in agreement, but stayed silent, helping Izuku in the effort of walking to the staircase that led upwards to his apartment. There was nothing I could say that would console the crying kid. I wasn’t the one who had stood in the way.
“Oh, my baby!” Inko cried when she opened the door. “What happened, Izuku?”
“I . . . was climbing a tree and fell,” he replied, giving me a swift look as she swept him into her arms.
Why did he lie? His problems, perhaps, could have been all solved at that very moment, Katsuki’s ego shot down. Yet he still aimed to protect, something that I didn’t quite yet understand at that time.
“That did all this to you?” his mom asked, beginning to close the door before she remembered me. “Oh, and thank you, Hikari dear. I’ll make him all better, and give that tree a what’s what!”
She swiftly combed her fingers through my blue and green hair, then proceeded to fuss over her son’s injuries as the door was shut. No mention of my wounds. No concern for Hikari.
“A tree?” I muttered under my breath as I made my way back down the stairs to help the other boy to his house. “Something like that.”
As I had assumed, when I got home Katsuki was sitting on the couch with my younger brother, watching a TV show that I didn’t recognize, but was about the number one pro hero All Might. Just like that, as though nothing had happened. I fought down the urge to strangle him.
“Welcome home, Kari,” my mother called from the kitchen, the aroma of tonight’s dinner floating through the air. Her voice, however melodic, was muffled; I still couldn’t remember it properly. “Why didn’t you come home with Katsuki like I asked?”
“I walked Izu and ____ home,” I replied. I could tell the other name I said was the crying boy’s name, but when it left my mouth, all I recall is static noise. I suppose it wasn’t worth remembering.
“Ah, of course,” she sighed. “I was worried for a moment there.”
“Sorry, mom,” I apologized, then glanced over at the living room. Katsuki was glaring quietly at me, as if daring me to say anything else.
Perhaps if I had, maybe the world would’ve turned out just a little different.
My next memory came from a time about a month after the first. Katsuki, his same two friends, Izuku, and I were walking along through the forest like we always did as kids. Soon, we reached a shallow ravine with a creek running through it. A felled tree created a sort of bridge to cross over it, and our group switched into some form of follow the leader. As per usual, Katsuki was our leader.
“Forward march and here we go, never stop the Agency Bakugou!” he chanted, using his hand to create small explosions out in front of him as we walked over the tree.
I saw it coming before it even happened. Katsuki stepped ever so slightly too far to the right, slipped, and fell about seven feet into the creek below us.
“Woah, Kacchan, are you okay?” one of his friends asked, peering out over the edge at him.
“Yep!” he replied, grinning up at us. He was mostly unscathed, but completely drenched.
I hadn’t noticed Izuku wasn’t behind me until he was beside Katsuki in the water, holding out his hand and looking incredibly concerned as he asked, “Can you stand?”
They stared at each other for a severely tense moment. The two boys beside me on the log shivered in the pure coldness of the atmosphere change. In those few seconds of quiet, Katsuki’s reflection in the water seemed to change into that of someone taller and older; more tired and weathered-looking. None of the other kids seemed to notice, and as soon as the boy moved, the ripples obscured my vision of it. I figured it was just a trick of the water.
The movement in question was Katsuki slapping Izuku’s hand away, helping himself up, and, in a manner such as that of a child throwing a tantrum over a mere toy, pushed him over into the creek. The glowering look on his face was nothing to take lightly.
“Don’t you dare look down on me, you . . . you Quirkless freak!” he snapped.
“Calm down, Kacchan!” I exclaimed, trying to direct his attention away from the poor kid who now sat dejected in the water, looking dreadfully upset.
“Don’t tell me to calm down, Hikari,” Katsuki stated angrily.
He never called me Kari again after that interaction, be it on purpose or by habit. I have no doubt in my mind, though, that this particular memory—the grand beginning of his inferiority complex— probably still haunts him to this day.
Izuku, Katsuki, and I had always lived in the same neighborhood, ever since we were born. As such, one could assume—and they would be right—that during our early teen years, the three of us attended the same school: Aldera Junior High.
I wasn’t originally aware that Katsuki had continued to treat Izuku as a secondary species to the human race, but I did eventually find out on what had appeared to be another blissfully normal day. That definitely seems to be a common setup for unfortunate occurrences if your name is Midoriya Izuku or Bakugou Hikari.
“Since you’re all third years,” Akio-sensei began, “it’s time for you to think seriously about your future. I’ll pass out handouts for your future plans now, but you’re all probably planning on trying for the various hero courses, right?”
A collective cheer rang through the room as my classmates announced their agreement, each person activating their Quirks in a minimal amount. All but for Izuku, Katsuki, and I, that is.
As I looked around at my classmates’ happy faces, I realized once more just how popular the hero profession truly was. It made me curious as to how many of these people surrounding me would end up hanging up their capes over something too large for them to handle. Just like that. How much could they handle? No more than any normal person, I assumed.
“Indeed, you all have wonderful Quirks!” Akio congratulated us, allowing me a chance to dismiss these judgemental thoughts. “But remember, using your powers at school is against the rules! And also, there are more professions available than just heroes. Some of you might find that being a pro hero isn’t quite what you were looking for, and that’s perfectly alright.”
“Sensei!” a voice called, and the class turned to the speaker, who had his feet resting uncaringly atop his desk. “Don’t even think about putting us all in the same group. I’m not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects and their crappy Quirks!”
Katsuki’s cold smile as he stated this already laughable claim was almost funny as his pride overtook him once more while the rest of the people in the room erupted in shouts of, “Get over yourself!” and the like.
“Don’t make me laugh, Kat,” I said, looking over at him. “ You coming out on top? Nah, it’ll be me for sure.”
Katsuki scoffed and gave me a dramatic blood-red eye roll, but before he could retort, Akio cut him off.
“Oh, if I remember correctly, you want to go to UA High, right, Bakugous?” he mused, looking at a black clipboard. “Both of you, eh?”
The class immediately began whispering amongst each other, apparently surprised that anyone would even consider such an impossible idea.
“That’s exactly why you all are extras!” Katsuki stated, kicking his feet up to launch himself into the air and on top of the desk. The poor girl in front of him flinched, dropping the pencil she’d been absentmindedly twirling in midair. “I aced the pre-test a few weeks ago. I’m the only person at this school who could possibly get into UA! I’ll definitely surpass All Might and become the top hero! My name will be inscribed on the list of top earners! Not to mention, I’ll be the richest person in the world!”
“Katsuki, get down,” I grumbled, embarrassed, as I reached up to tug on his pant leg. “I aced the test too, but I’m not standing on top of a table preaching about it.”
He glanced down at me as the unspoken hung in the air between us. I hadn’t meant that to be a jab at him, but he definitely had a frustrating way of making me feel like it.
“Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to UA, too, right?” Akio said aloud, breaking the tension.
Our bickering ceased instantly as we stared at our teacher, astounded, before whipping our heads around. Izuku flinched as everyone else turned to look at him before most of them erupted in laughter.
“Huh? Midoriya?” someone cried.
“No way!” another teased.
“You can’t get into the hero course just by studying and having good grades!” jeered somebody else.
“Th-They got rid of that rule!” Izuku tried, standing up in a useless effort to defend himself. “Sure, there’s no precedent, but—”
Before he could finish, Katsuki lunged at him and exploded the surface of Izuku’s desk, sending the poor boy flying backwards with a yelp.
“Don’t you dare, Katsuki,” I warned, standing as well. As I inched forward, I brushed the burn mark on the wooden surface of the desk that my brother would probably have to fix later and wondered when he would get home today.
Sensei sighed behind us, and I could tell that he’d probably engrossed himself once more in his magazines; a key indicator that he was completely and utterly done with my brother’s bullshit.
“Hey, Deku!” Katsuki crowed. “Forget the crappy Quirks. You’re below the rejects; you’re Quirkless! How can you even think of standing in the same ring as me?”
“Stop it!” I demanded, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him back. “Why won’t you listen to me, you jackass?”
“Wait, Kacchan!” Izuku said, his voice an octave higher than it should be. The poor thing scooted backwards until he hit the wall, visibly frightened as he attempted to stammer an explanation for himself.
He won’t actually hurt you, Izuku, I wanted to say, but the look on my friend’s face made me wonder if the consoling words were for him or for me.
“It’s not like I’m trying to compete with you or anything!” Izuku ended up stuttering. “Believe me! It’s just that it’s been my goal ever since I was little, and, well, there’s no harm in trying.”
“Try what, the Entrance Exam?!” Katsuki roared as the people around us snickered.
My throat closed up, and I wanted more than anything to just take Izuku away from this room full of people who, for some reason, couldn’t understand what he had gone through his whole life.
“Shut up,” I snapped at the bystanders, who fell silent at once. I turned to give Sensei a look, but all I was met with was a bored, hazel gaze.
“Are you taking the test for fun?” Katsuki continued. “What the hell can you do? You’re Quirkless!”
“And you’re heartless!” I scolded my brother. “Stop rubbing every blessing you have in someone else’s face! Especially Izuku’s.”
“Shush!” he said, prying my arm off of his. “This is none of your concern!”
“Excuse me?” I asked furiously as I fought hard against the desire to slap his stupid face. “Actually, I think it’s plenty my concern—”
“That’s enough, you three,” Akio finally ordered, and I heard, for the first time, an edge of impatience in his voice. “Everyone get back to work.”
When the school day had finally finished, Izuku didn’t pack up at first as he scrolled through his phone. It was normal for him to browse the news as soon as he was able to, so I wouldn’t have paid it much mind if not for his encounter with my brother that morning. I know he isn’t my responsibility, but I found myself keeping an eye on him the rest of the day, anyway.
“The incident this morning is all over the headlines!” he whispered excitedly, catching my attention quicker than the entire conversation I was having with a classmate. “I should hurry up and go home so I can write about it in my notebook.”
Perhaps noticing my absentmindedness, the girl talking to me hurriedly asked, “Hey, are we still on for tomorrow afternoon? Akiko-san was wondering.”
“As far as I’m aware, yeah,” I nodded, giving her a smile. “I’ll see you at five.”
“Right, okay. Talk to you later!”
She left the classroom with another girl, most likely Akiko, and I made my way through the maze of desks over to Izuku’s.
“What incident?” I asked curiously, seating myself on the table next to him as he began to stand up and put his things away into his yellow backpack.
“Oh, just a villain attack this morning,” he answered cheerfully. It was almost as though what had happened between Kat and him mere hours beforehand no longer mattered, which I was glad of. “My train on the way to school was late because of it.”
“How interesting,” I said, smiling quizzically at his sudden but welcome happiness.
“It’s no issue, though! I’ll just change my sleeping schedule in case it happens again,” he said, grinning.
“Maybe don’t abandon your five sleeping hours, Izuku,” I suggested, and he laughed.
“Yeah, I suppose that’s a good point. I guess I’m gonna have to figure out something else, then.”
The good atmosphere wasn’t long-lasting, unfortunately, as soon as my beloved brother made his appearance. He sashayed over (yes, I said sashayed, and I’m sticking by it because that’s exactly what he did), snatched Izuku’s notebook out of his hands, and held it up, just out of arm’s reach. Yet another thing he prided himself on: height.
“We’re not done talking yet, Deku,” he said without so much as a glance in my direction.
“Whatcha you got there, Katsuki?” his friend with brown hair, Hisaki, asked, coming up behind him with a black-haired boy, Haru. “‘Hero Analysis for the Future’? Seriously?”
“Midoriya . . .” Haru sighed as Hisaki chuckled. For a brief moment I thought I caught a trace of almost sympathy in his voice. “It’s almost as though you’re asking us to make fun of you.”
“Stop that, you two,” I snapped, earning a bored look from Hisaki. “Return the book to Izuku, Katsuki. It isn’t yours, and you’ve done enough already.”
“Ye-yeah. Can’t I have my own hobbies?” Izuku asked, slamming his hands on his desk, presumably by accident, as he stood defiantly. “Give it back, Kacchan!”
Without a word, Katsuki held the book out in front of him and punched his fist into it, exploding the cover with enough force to blow his own hair back. Izuku stepped forward ever so slightly with his hands in the air as he stared at my brother with a glimmer of something I’d call terror in his eyes.
“Hey!” I said, sliding off the wooden surface of the desk. “The heck do you think you’re doing?”
“What? That’s cruel!” Izuku cried, helplessly watching as Katsuki tossed the burnt book away. I brilliantly failed to catch it as it flew like a vertical frisbee beside my head and out the window.
“Most of the top first-string heroes have stories about them from their school days,” Katsuki said with a nonchalant shrug, as though that somehow justified what he’d done.
“Yeah, and maybe one of yours will consist of bullying the first friend you’ve ever had over something he couldn’t control,” I muttered angrily, jumping to my feet and noticing that the book had fallen into the coy pond, directly three stories below the window.
“I want the glory of being called one of the two students to make it into UA from this mediocre city,” Katsuki continued. “I mean, I am a perfectionist. The other will be Hikari, I suppose; you know how it is.”
He’s so vain, my brain murmured. I noticed Haru sigh, and I wondered if he felt the same way. Haru had definitely been the tamest out of the three of them as far as I knew of him. He was more of a bystander than a bully, which didn’t exactly raise my respect for him, though.
“So anyway,” Katsuki said, placing a firm hand on Izuku’s shoulder and a light amount of smoke rose from it, “don’t apply to UA, nerd.”
Izuku was shivering in fear as my brother, Haru, and Hisaki began to leave the room. I reached out to him and put a gentle smile on my face while I debated over whether I should settle for a glare, or personally go up to my brother and smack his face off. The decision was made for me, however, when the next few sentences escaped the trio’s lips.
“Come on, you should at least say something back,” Haru sighed, looking back at Izuku pityingly.
“Don’t say that,” Hisaki replied. “He’s pathetic. He still can’t face reality, even as a third year. The only reason Katsuki won’t do anything worse is because Izuku’s little protector is Kat’s adopted sister! Probably spoiled like any other, wouldn’t you think? Pitiful for someone who was left on the streets.”
“Okay, that was kinda harsh, dude,” Haru muttered, but only hooked his arm around Hisaki’s shoulders and turned him away as he eyed the look Katsuki was giving them. “Haven’t you known her since you guys were, like, three?”
“Sure we did,” Hisaki agreed, “but just because I knew her real parents doesn’t mean I’d say anything different.”
I felt my fingers twitch and noticed a light haze guarding the corners of my vision. I didn’t want to relive what had happened the last time I’d gotten this angry. My eyes were so boiling hot that the excess water was evaporating into trails of stream at the outer corners.
“If you want to be a hero that badly, Deku, then there’s a quick way to do it,” Katsuki said, stopping at the door to glance over his shoulder. “Pray you’ll be born with a Quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building.”
Izuku stopped shivering and gave my brother a deafening look of anger and sadness.
“What?” Katsuki taunted. “Something to say, nerd?”
I was so irate that I didn’t realize my legs had begun to move. I stormed up to my brother and slapped him clean across the face, as hard as I could manage. The three other people in the room looked at me, stunned, then turned to Katsuki, who was gingerly holding his cheek and testing his jaw.
I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and whispered dangerously into his ear, “The only story they’ll tell about you is that you suicide-baited a Quirkless classmate. Don’t even try to act like you’ll be a hero when all you can think about is how much better you are than everyone else.”
My vision blurred further as I whirled around to look at Izuku, and for the briefest of moments I could’ve sworn I saw two Katsukis. But when I blinked the mist away from my eyes, the mirage was gone and I gestured for Izuku to follow me out of the room. When I say that he nearly tripped over his own feet as he pulled his backpack on and hurried after me, I mean that I would have probably teased him about it if I hadn’t been so furious.
Together we walked out of the classroom without a backwards glance, down the stairs of the school building, and out into the courtyard where his notebook was floating in the pond. He stared at it for a moment before picking it up and hugging it to his chest. If this were a high school angst movie, I figured somber music would be playing, and I almost laughed aloud at the thought of that.
“Is there really no hope, Kari-san?” he said after a moment.
“Hey, now,” I replied, bending over slightly so I could look him in the eye. “That doesn’t sound like the Izuku I know.”
He nodded, looking reassured, and began to walk down the pathway, leaving me to catch up to him this time.
We traveled in silence. There was no more to be said, so nothing was spoken.
On the way home, there’s a bridge where a street can cross over the sidewalk. Like usual, there were no cars going along the road. It was typically a comfortable quiet, but today it felt like something was watching me. I dismissed it as paranoia and decided that I needed to take a good solid break from my brother (for both our sakes).
I was about to go up the steps on the other side of the pathway under the overpass when I noticed that no one was beside me anymore.
“Izuku?” I called, turning around, only to feel my breath catch in my throat.
The villain must have slipped out from the sewers; his body definitely suggested it. Mucky green and appearingly slimy, he held Izuku above the ground and was forcing one of his snake-like tentacles into Izuku’s mouth.
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to take over your body,” the sludge villain said to Izuku in a voice that sounded just as slippery as he looked. Izuku, who was being suffocated by green muck. Izuku, who was going to die in a few moments. Izuku, who I was walking home in order to keep him out of this kind of trouble. Is nothing good enough for this universe?
“Izuku!” I cried, popping the cork off of a bottle attached to my hip and slinging water at the villain with my Quirk. It did absolutely nothing, and he lashed out, whipping me hard across the face with a tendril, before wrapping another so tight around my arm, I was sure it would break. He proceeded to throw me into the wall, which I slid down and crumpled on the floor, barely conscious. Something was bleeding, but I couldn’t tell if it was my arm or head or both.
“Calm down,” the villain continued to Izuku as he eyed me like I was a bug that he’d missed when he tried to squish me. “This will only hurt for forty-five more seconds. You’ll feel so much better soon.”
Why is everybody ignoring me today? my brain complained through the throbbing in my body as I watched the sludge monster through heavy eyelids. Izuku desperately attempted to grab at the beast after seeing how ineffective my attack was, but was met with a chuckle from the villain.
“You can’t touch me, I’m fluid!” he exclaimed. “Thanks for your help, though. You’re my hero, little one. I hadn’t known he had come to this city. If I did, I wouldn’t be here. Oh well, I suppose it can’t be helped. You can blame that stupid Symbol of Peace for your death.”
Izuku’s movements became heavier as his body began to give up without the necessary amounts of air. No, no, no, no, no, my mind screamed stubbornly, trying to urge my aching legs to get up off the ground to no avail. Absolutely not. You have to save him. You have to. He needs it. Hikari, stand UP!
But just when both mine and Izuku’s eyes were almost shut, the sewer lid flipped up, and a muscular figure jumped out. Someone who I could only say was All Might.
“It’s alright now, young children,” he said. “I am here!”
In a whirlwind of blonde hair and pure brawn, All Might dashed forward and punched the villain, sending a shock wave straight through him. The sheer power he had astonished me as I gathered what little strength remained in me to stand up, stagger, and dive forward to catch my unconscious friend before his unconscious body hit the ground.
“Izuku . . .” I muttered, exhausted, as I sank down into myself and lowered my body to the concrete slowly, resting on top of him. “Hey . . . wake up . . . please.”
I must have passed out because the next thing I remember was opening my eyes and realizing my face was settled on his stomach, but the two of us had been moved out into the sunlight.
“Hey!” All Might exclaimed, patting Izuku’s cheek. “Hey! Hey!”
His eyes popped open, and he blinked a few times as I straightened up to look around wearily. My hands rested on his chest, still seeking support, and I had to make the conscious decision not to look at my injuries in my half-asleep state.
“Oh, good!” All Might said, looking satisfied. “I’m glad you’re both okay. Welcome back to the land of the living!”
“Woah!” Izuku cried, inching backwards so fast that I fell face first into the pavement. I suppose it was a relatively reasonable reaction to the strongest hero in the country—not to mention his idol— staring down at him, but now I was bleeding from yet another point on my body.
“Sorry for getting you caught up in my villain fighting,” All Might apologized as I rolled over onto my back with a deep sigh of exhaustion. “I don’t usually make mistakes like this, but I was in high spirits on my day off in a new place! You were a big help, though. Thanks! And to you, young girl, you showed many a heroic act today, trying to save your friend. Make sure to be more careful next time, though, we wouldn’t want you getting in trouble for using your Quirk without authorization!”
“Right,” I panted, running through a mental list of body parts to make sure I was still intact.
“Anyways, I captured him successfully!” he announced, holding up two soda bottles that contained the sludge villain.
As Izuku frantically looked for something to get All Might to sign (only to realize he’d already signed his notebook), I continued to squint up at the sky.
I couldn’t save him. I still wasn’t strong enough.
My eyelids began to droop again, and this time I didn’t fight it, my thoughts drowning out all other noises.
I almost let somebody else die.
Why can’t I just be strong enough?
Suddenly, a gust of wind whipped through the area and I noticed that both All Might and Izuku were gone. I couldn’t see where, but I forced myself once more to stand up and go home, scolding myself the entire way.
When I arrived at my destination, Katsuki had not returned yet, and our parents typically didn’t get back from the office until later; they both worked in the fashion industry. The silence was slightly ominous, so I flicked the lights on and opened the blinds to let some sun in.
“Osore!” I called, walking to the base of the staircase, knowing he’d probably been left home alone, seeing as it was a Thursday, the one day of the week our babysitter couldn’t be here. “Osore, can you come here so I can say hi to you?”
“Sis?” he responded, poking his head out of his bedroom door. “You’re home later than usual.”
“I am?” I asked, glancing at the analogue clock on the wall and seeing that I was indeed late, courtesy to the irregular events of the day. “Huh. Sorry if I gave you a scare.”
“It’s okay Sis,” he said, stepping down the stairs. “Do you want me to get you a band-aid?”
“For what?” I asked, my mind going blank.
“Your arm,” he replied, gesturing towards me. “It’s bleeding. Your head, too. And your nose.”
I slowly looked down at the arm he was pointing at, and sucked in a breath. Suddenly, now that I noticed it, it hurt a considerable amount more. From my shoulder to my wrist, a long, thick line raked an indent through my skin. It looked kind of like a ginormous jellyfish tentacle had wrapped itself around my arm and stung me, but rather than leaving me with a rash, it simply cut my skin.
Ah yes, I remembered as I gingerly touched my scalp and grimaced in pain as the adrenaline rush left my body. I had wondered where I was bleeding, but had completely forgotten about it after everything that had proceeded that train of thought.
This is probably going to scar pretty badly, my brain murmured unhelpfully at the sight of the grotesque wound. It was a definite surprise that my arm wasn’t perceivably broken.
“Maybe a bandage couldn’t hurt,” I agreed after a moment of consideration. “But could you get me one of those brown rolled-up cloth bandages? Not one of the ones in the hallway closet, like, the ones you play doctor with in Mom and Dad’s room?”
“Ooh, I like those,” Osore said excitedly, running off in search of the object I’d requested.
While waiting for him to come back, I went into the kitchen to grab the first aid kit from under the sink, then walked back to the living room. I seated myself on a wooden chair over the hardwood floor to avoid any blood stains on the carpet, and turned the TV on to the nearest News Channel as I painfully applied alcohol wipes to my arm and head. After a few moments, Osore returned, holding up a roll of brown gauze with delicacy that made it seem like he thought it to be some sort of priceless artifact.
“Here, Sis,” Osore offered, presenting the item proudly.
“Thank you,” I responded graciously, patting the seat on the couch closest so he could join me. As I wrapped up my arm in the gauze, I was only vaguely aware of what was happening on the TV until Osore gasped and pointed at the screen.
“Is that Big Brother?” he asked, making my neck snap to attention so fast that I might have gotten whiplash.
On the screen was a villain; yet another terrorizer of the city to others’ eyes. However, this time was different. This time, a similar situation had just occurred around twenty minutes prior under an overpass nearby.
But instead of Izuku, the sludge villain held my brother in his grasp.
The two struggled. Not grappling, no, Katsuki was at quite the strong disadvantage when his Quirk could do nothing to prevent him from suffocating. Even so, he fought desperately, causing the shopping district to erupt in explosion after explosion, setting countless shop windows, garbage bins, and other various things on fire.
Most of the local heroes had already tired themselves this morning in the incident Izuku had probably been talking about earlier, and as they attempted to approach, the villain simply slapped them away with his mucky tendrils. No one at the scene had a Quirk that was a suitable match-up for this particular opponent, either.
The reporter stood, looking anxious as she watched the scene unfold.
“There’s a kid in there!” she kept muttering to herself. “That villain is trying to eat a kid!”
Kat’s going to die— my brain whispered, but I cut it off. Your last words to your brother will be—
Shut up! I hissed back, eyes glued to the screen.
“Is Katsuki in trouble?” Osore murmured worriedly, looking from my terrified face, to the television, and back again. His concern was the absolute last thing my heart needed at that moment.
“H-He’ll be fine,” I tried to assure him, but my voice abandoned me. Instead, I finished the makeshift cast on my arm, picked Osore up, and placed him on my lap, hugging him close as I prayed for someone, anyone, to rescue our brother like a miracle had come and rescued me and my best friend.
Katsuki’s eyes were angry and tainted with fear as he fought for oxygen and life with perhaps the whole of the city watching either in person or from their homes.
A hero can mean different things to different people, but I think that to Izuku, there’s only one correct answer to that equation. It’s simple: a hero is someone who tries, no matter the risk, no matter if they lose their life, to protect every person with a smile.
I wonder if Izuku had ever even considered Katsuki to be a villain in his life. His optimism kept him awake, his hope and his goal had kept him alive. I knew even then that I wasn’t the only reason he hadn’t jumped that day. My brother hadn’t accepted him for being Quirkless, ever since they were four. Before that, though, the two of them had been inseparable. Even now, I suppose they are, but . . . in a worse kind of way.
So when Izuku ran out, past the pro heroes, and straight for Katsuki, it’s safe to say that my soul completely left my body. If Katsuki will ever even think of beginning to consider Izuku as his hero, I will never know. But I figured that at that moment, the person who really sparked the pros to move was the green-haired, freckled, plain looking boy who had felt the pain of being useless, and for the first time in his life decided he wasn’t going to be stuck on the sidelines anymore. Not only did he save my brother, but I later realized that that simple action also would change his own life forever.
Such unwavering determination for Deku, the Quirkless Wonder.
Around a week later, I was returning from the market with a white cloth shopping bag in hand when I decided to take a detour out by the beach. There’s a point on the beach that’s covered in trash. Occasionally, I go and look for things that could be reused or fixed up because it always makes me sad to think about the amount of waste that close to the ocean.
I traversed the familiar path down to the walkway that overlooked the shore filled with junk. It was then that I saw two figures standing on the sand in conversation.
Izuku and All Might. What a strikingly odd duo to see out on a stroll together. They were both looking out at the sun as it set over the horizon, not noticing me; not yet, at least.
I sighed and decided to turn back and go home. Osore wanted to make dinner with Katsuki tonight, and as always, I was in charge of monitoring them. The last time I wasn’t there . . . well, let’s just say Kat lost oven privileges for a while after, you know, blowing it to kingdom come.
So instead of doing anything I might regret later, I continued home without so much as a backwards glance. Whatever was going on, I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted to be a part of it.
Was that truly too much to wish for?