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The UA entrance exam.
Izuku was thrilled, to say the least. Despite his quirklessness, despite All Might telling him to find a more realistic dream, despite Katsuki telling him for years that he’d never be a hero, that he would be better off praying for a quirk in his next life, he was excited. Izuku knew he could do this.
He could be a hero.
They’d already done the written exam, and Izuku was damn sure he aced it. All he had to do was get seventy-five points on the mock battlefield and he would get into the hero course. Even if he didn’t, there was a chance he could get into the general education course and move up from there through the sports festival, like Eraserhead, and a few other heroes that didn’t have flashy quirks.
The gate to the mock city was huge, daunting even. Izuku shook out his fears like a few of the other students warming up their muscles. He could do this. Even if he’d felt weird all day. His hands were tingling, and he swore he woke up to a few pieces of ash on his bed, which was freaky. Maybe his mother came to check on him while smoking a cigarette? That’s the only logical explanation he could come up with.
“ARE YOU KIDS READY?!” Present Mic called over the speakers.
“YEAH!!!” They all shouted back together. Izuku laughed happily as he shouted along with them.
“THERE’S NO COUNTDOWN IN REAL LIFE - GO!”
The doors to ground Alpha flew open. The goal was to get points by striking the robots. There were four types. One, two, and three pointer robots that got harder and bigger as they went up in number, and the zero pointer, which was supposed to just be a roadblock, to be avoided at all costs. Izuku didn’t really buy that, not entirely. It was never that simple, right?
The run into the city got his blood pumping. They’d given him a metal staff to use since he didn’t have an offensive quirk (read: any quirk) to disable the robots with. Izuku had been training by himself for years. He spent half the school year and the whole summer so far cleaning off Dagobah beach all on his own, and his body was now a tool he used to enact his will. His body was a weapon itself. The first three one point robots went down without much effort. He’d need a lot more than that if he wanted to get into the hero course, though, so he dove towards a less populated part of the city where the prospective students weren’t focused.
A two pointer nearly clipped his face with a thrown metal fist. Izuku smacked it in the back, and ran on to grab another three one pointers and two three pointers. It took way too long. They only had fifteen minutes total and he had already used up five just getting to an area he could start collecting points.
When he’d counted forty eight points, Izuku slid to a stop. Something wasn’t right. His body felt…weird. He was hot, too hot for just a simple mock battle with some cheap ass robots. He didn’t break a sweat running across the beach for hours a day, and here he was, sweating through his shirt. His hands were aching as if he’d just been rock climbing. When he looked down, he found the tips were black.
Black?
Rubbing it, he realized it wasn’t paint or even his skin, it was soot. There was block soot on his fingers. Disturbing it caused a few stray embers to flutter up and burn themselves out into ash seconds later.
“Wha-”
He didn’t get to finish the thought. The whole training ground shook when something thundered towards him at inhuman speeds. Buildings crumbled, the road chewed itself into pieces. Izuku looked up, the zero pointer was rushing towards him on tank-like treds for feet. His heart was beating out of his chest. He couldn’t move but not out of fear. His body was frozen in place from a pain he couldn't describe. The pain was blinding, literally blanking his vision white for a few seconds and a time, on and off. He knew it wasn’t blinking, he was staring down his death and he knew he wasn’t blinking, so why was his vision going white?
“HELP!” A girl’s voice cried over the din of the monster speeding towards him.
Izuku searched for the source of the cry. He found a girl trapped under rubble on the ground, directly in the path of the zero pointer. She was in a worse place than Izuku. She was going to die.
That girl was going to die.
That single thought got his body moving. Izuku damned the pain spreading across his fingers and up into his wrists. He damned it and choked back the fear and throbbing of his elbows. Embers were erupting around him from both hands and arms but he ignored it. He had to ignore it, because that girl was in danger. He could sort out the cause of the pain tomorrow, when this girl wasn’t sobbing on the ground waiting for her death to come.
The staff fell from his howling fingers when he skidded to his knees beside the girl and started pulling at the rubble. It was useless, of course, his hands were fumbling. He cried out from the pain that was akin to ripping his own flesh off with a razor blade.
“Stop it! Just run. I don’t want you to die with me.” The girl was cute, soft pink cheeks and short cropped brown hair. Her leg was pinned under a giant chunk of rubble. Honestly, Izuku could have lifted it easily if he wasn’t in searing agony. “Stop! Just leave!”
“I’m not leaving you!” He shouted back. “Heroes don’t leave people to die!”
“You’re not a hero!”
The zero pointer was mere feet away from them. There was no way UA would allow this to happen, right? They’d never let the untrained, underage kids die in the entrance exams, right? Izuku flicked his eyes around, finding several cameras broken or hanging from their posts. No, UA would never allow this on purpose. But one wrong placement of the robot’s feet and it had crumbled the city, it had knocked out their visuals. They couldn’t see Izuku and this girl struggling for their lives. They couldn’t see the zero pointer about to crush two teenagers.
Izuku howled again when the pain overwhelmed his brain and blanked out his vision for a second time. He fell back on the rubble, practically on top of the girl who was currently sobbing into her hands. Speaking of hands, Izuku lifted both of his hands to the sky. Soot coated them almost to the third knuckle. But it wasn’t just soot anymore. His fingers were crackled and speckled with…were those flames? No, it looks like lava between the cracks in his skin. Lava? Magma? What do the semantics matter now? Was this his quirk? Did he have a quirk?
Izuku screamed again. The cracks widened on his hands. Flickering embers plumed around his hands. The cracks spread down his hands and across his arms. Izuku was burning alive. He was burning alive, and he couldn’t control it. The zero pointer was going to kill them and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop it.
Izuku couldn’t do anything but beg his body to save him, to save the girl cowering under him. He held out his hands and cried his agonized rage at the darkened shadow of the zero pointer coming towards them. A rush of uncontrolled agony spiraled through Izuku’s body from his arms down into his very core. He had no way to know just how loud or hard he was screaming, but the sting in his throat was so strong it kept him conscious.
Fire.
There was so much fire.
Not just that, but lava. It poured from the cracks in his skin, from his fingertips and palms. There was so much, too much. He couldn’t control it. It spilled around him like an umbrella made from fire that splashed to the ground in a circle surrounding them. The zero pointer stopped. It fucking stopped! It was caught in the lava and couldn’t move forward. The tank treads began to melt as flames crept up the body of the robot, leaving scorched metal in its wake.
That’s when the cries started all around them. Izuku’s eyes shot across the city. A couple dozen students panicked, running towards the entrance of the cityscape, away from the river of lava chasing them.
“NO!” He wailed.
Desperately, he willed his body to stop, to please stop! But it wouldn’t. The cracks were raging up his arm in a flurry of snapping and crunching sounds. The flow of fire and molten rock continued to pour from his hands unabated, against his will. Everything was too hot, the skin on his face was getting sunburnt from the force of it above him. If he dropped his hands, he could hurt the girl still buried in a pile of rubble beneath him. She was safe, the river poured around them, beneath them on their little pile of rocks and debris. But he needed to stop it. Somehow.
Izuku begged for help, cried to the gods for something to stop the pain, to stop the fire, but nothing worked. He didn’t know how to make it stop, or turn it off.
“Please…” The girl beneath him gasped. “Please…stop.”
“I don’t-” Izuku choked. “I don’t know how!”
But right when Izuku was willing to accept that maybe this was his fate, that maybe they would die anyway; it stopped. Everything stopped. He gasped as the pain finally dulled to a bearable minimum, his arms collapsing to his chest. His head rolled to the side, meeting a pair of red glowing eyes on a nearby building. They were horrified, and filled with tears.
Eraserhead.
Izuku recognized the underground hero for only a second before pain and darkness overwhelmed his mind and he was unable to remain conscious. His eyes rolled back into his head, giving him one last dizzying view of the world before he passed out.
~~
Shoua stood on the roof of one of the mock buildings in ground Alpha, capture scarf still unraveled in hand and his quirk still active. He was staring at a boy who was registered quirkless. A boy who had shocked all of the teachers by his skill at quirkless combat for only being fourteen years old. A boy who was screaming for help while trying to protect a girl who had nearly been crushed by the zero pointer. A boy who was trying to protect the same girl from a quirk he’d just manifested and couldn’t control.
Izuku Midoriya. Registered quirkless. Fourteen years old. Perfect test score on the written exam, he’d even blown Shouta’s record out of the water. This boy had manifested a quirk later than anyone on record in the country in a very, very long time. Not only that, he’d manifested it in the middle of combat, high stress. He’d manifested it when he needed it most; to save another life.
It took several minutes for the lava below to cool enough that anyone could get down there and help the two students trapped at the epicenter. Shouta never let his quirk deactivate for longer than it took to pour eye drops into his eyes. Each time he did, he could see the fire roaring to life on the boy’s arms. Shouta tapped the comm on his ear.
“RG, you there?”
“I’m here, Shouta. Update?” The old healer responded.
“The two students are safe, for now. If I release my quirk for more than a couple seconds his quirk comes alive again. He’s going to need quirk suppressants immediately. The girl is likely going to need a broken leg set, she’s trapped under the rubble. Nedzu?”
“Speak.”
The principal was beyond angry, but not at Shouta or the kids. The robot had malfunctioned and ran aground on the buildings. It had knocked out their visuals, and nearly cost the lives of two students in the process. The only reason it didn’t was that boy down there. He stopped the zero pointer and prevented that girl’s death, and his own, even if he’d been unable to control the quirk he’d just force manifested. Even if Nedzu had managed to stop the robot, there was no way for them to know if it would have come to a rolling stop before crushing them.
“Send Cementoss, this is a mess. They’re both covered in rubble, we may need to excavate them.”
“Understood, he’ll be on his way in two minutes.”
The stone looked cool enough to walk on, and most heroes wore ‘everything proof’ shoes provided by support departments in their agencies, so his shoes should be able to take the heat. He lowered himself by a broken lamp post and jogged over to the two teenagers. Midoriya was entirely unconscious, but the girl, Ochako Uraraka, was just barely awake.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
“Mmmm.” She groaned.
“We’re going to get you out, hang on for just a few minutes, okay?”
“Mhm…”
Her face turned over and Shouta caught sight of the sunburn on her cheeks and forehead from the heat of the lava that had spilled around them. God that had to sting. Carefully, he put a hand around the back of her head so she could lay it down without landing on rough rock and rubble. Her body finally relaxed a little.
“I got you, kiddo. You are so brave.”
“Wha…what about him?” She asked. Her hand reached out for the boy laying draped over her body and the rubble between them.
“He’s just passed out.” Shouta was still keeping him in line of sight while his quirk was active, just to be safe. “I’m so sorry, this should not have happened. The robot malfunctioned. You should never have been in any danger.”
“He saved me.” She mumbled. “Kept me safe…so much heat. He couldn’t-”
“Shhh, I know. He just manifested his quirk. It’s not unusual for children to have no control over their quirks when they manifest. He’s not in trouble. This was a terrible accident.”
“He sounded…so scared.”
“It’s alright, please try and rest, okay?”
The girl didn’t respond. She passed out, finally. Shouta sat back on his heels while brushing the girl’s hair from his face and holding up her head from the rubble. What a mess. This had never happened in the history of UA. Nedzu had always been so careful with the robots, and they’d been using these models for about three years. This should not have happened. This absolutely should not have happened on so many levels.
“Get out of my way, asshat, move!”
A blonde teenager was shoving Cementoss and Recovery Girl out of the way as they ran towards the injured teens and Shouta. The kid had a narrowed scowl and crackling hands. Katsuki Bakugo, quirk; explosion. Shouta had been watching this kid. Despite having the highest score in the practical exam thus far, he was brutish and cruel. But somehow, there was a sorrowful fondness in his eyes when the kid caught sight of Midoriya on the ground.
“Deku! What happened?!” Bakugo came to an abrupt halt and collapsed to his knees. He was trying to grab for the unconscious boy but Shouta slapped his hands away.
“He needs to lay still. Recovery Girl!”
“I’m here. I’m here. Out of my way, boy.” She gently pushed past Bakugo and immediately injected Midoriya with a quirk suppressant. Shouta closed his eyes and sighed in relief. “You haven’t used your quirk that long in a while, Shouta, I’ll bring you some migraine medication later.”
“Thank you, Chiyo.”
“What. Happened.” Bakugo bit out. Shouta sighed again.
“The robot malfunctioned.” There was no point hiding it now, it would be on the news tomorrow morning, surely. “Midoriya manifested a quirk under the stress of trying to help Uraraka. He could not control it.”
Bakugo looked around. “He-...he did all of this?” Shouta nodded. “But he…he’s quirkless. He’s always been quirkless.”
“I take it you went to the same middle school.” It wasn’t a question but Bakugo nodded anyway. “Well, it’s rare, but a person can manifest a quirk, or even evolve their quirk, under extreme stress. I’d call a malfunctioning robot on a rampage extreme stress. Do you know the boy’s parents?” Again, a nod. “What are their quirks?”
“Uhm.” Bakugo rubbed the side of his head. “His mother has minor telekinesis. His father…uhhh, sorry, his father left when he was diagnosed. I think he had a fire breathing quirk.”
“Hmm.” Recovery Girl picked up the boy’s hands.
They were still sparkling with embers, crackled with little veins made of lava and fire. What a beautiful looking quirk activation…but what a horribly destructive quirk.
“I believe he may have a combination of both. His mother’s telekinesis, is it tied to her hands?” Bakugo thought it over and nodded once. “I see. Well, if that’s the case. He might have some kind of control over the lava and flames once he learns to use his new abilities. But he’s ten years behind his peers, he is going to need a lot of help, and there’s no way to know if he will ever be able to control a quirk like this having developed it so late.”
“Wha-” Bakugo stumbled over his words. “What are you…what are you saying?”
“I’m saying, unfortunately, this boy might be on quirk suppressants for the rest of his life, to prevent this kind of destruction from happening again. To prevent him from hurting himself, and others.” She placed a hand on Bakugo’s shoulder. “Some quirks just aren’t suited to physical form.”
Shouta hated that phrase. It was how they described babies who had fatal defects. ‘Not suited to life’, that’s what they called it. With quirks it was ‘not suited to physical form’. Quirks that hurt the holder or were uncontrollable by the holder were given a purple stamp on their registries. Izuku Midoriya would be given a purple mark if he couldn’t control this quirk. They would have to judge it at a later date, manifestations were almost always wild or violent, or at least uncontrolled. It was worse the older a kid got before manifesting. They were lucky this didn’t cause any deaths - but it had caused injury.
“The other students?” Shouta asked.
“Minor burns, though one might lose a hand, fourth degree, there’s not much left to salvage.”
Cementoss had started to unbury the students while Recovery Girl worked to stabilize both teens. They had seen her fall and thankfully there was no worry of neck or back injury. Burns were their major concern right now.
“Damn.” Recovery Girl swore.
“What?” Bakugo finally perked up again.
“Shouta, get him out of here, he can meet his friend in the infirmary while they wait for their parents.”
“No- tell me what’s going on!”
“Stop, Bakugo.”
Shouta grabbed him by the shoulders but it didn't stop them from getting a view of what Cementoss revealed under the rubble. Both Midoriya and Uraraka had burns on their legs and feet. It wasn't gruesome, thankfully, but it wasn’t pretty. Those burns were at least second, if not third, degree. They would need a lot of quirk healing, and even then, it would likely scar.
“Izuku!” Bakugo cried. “GET OFF ME! IZUKU!”
Shouta grabbed him around the chest and hauled him backwards, kicking and screaming his friend’s name. It broke Shouta’s heart to hear a kid cry out for someone like that, but they would both be in the way. Cementoss wasn’t far behind them, and their on staff team of healers and nurses ran past them to help Chiyo with stretchers at the ready.
The trek to the infirmary was long. Bakugo went silent halfway through and walked on his own. Shouta still kept a hand on his shoulder, just in case. He left the ash blonde teen in the waiting room with one of the nurses to tend to the minor burns he’d gotten on his knees while out on the cooling lava field. He made his way to the conference room where Nedzu and his husband, Hizashi, were waiting.
“Tell me you have good news.” He collapsed into one of the chairs next to his husband. Hizashi tried to hug him but Shouta shook his head. He wasn’t in the mood to be touched.
“Well.” Nedzu sighed. That wasn’t good. “I’ve found the bug, or rather, the cause of the problem. It wasn’t programming. One of the students in this round of exams knocked one of the buildings down. There was a pile of rebar that caught in the treads of the zero pointer. It twisted the robot off course just enough to cause this hellish nightmare.”
“So, it’s a student’s fault.” Hizashi said, hesitantly.
“I’m afraid so.” Nedzu closed his laptop. “While the students and their parents all sign liability waivers, there may be some legal ramifications for Izuku’s actions-”
“No.” Shouta waved a hand. “Didn’t you check the files? The kid was quirkless until an hour ago. He just manifested. Under the Quirk Compassion Act, we can’t face legal backlash, nor can he. But if that footage of the robot hitting that rebar ever gets out, the Commission may decide to change their minds about that one kid.”
“Are you suggesting we lie, Shou?” Hizashi stood up, anger clear in his voice.
“Not at all. This was an accident. Nedzu had already hit the emergency stop. Check the timestamps.”
Nedzu opened his laptop again. They listened to his little claws clacking on the keys for several minutes.
“Shouta’s right. The robot was stopping.”
Hizashi deflated. “That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know the truth. There was a malfunction, and two students nearly died. As a result, a boy’s quirk manifested from the stress and injured several more students.”
“You’re right, that’s what we will say. The public knows how dangerous these exams are. He manifested under the stress and stopped the robot, even if we hit the emergency stop.”
“That still feels shady, Shouta.” Nedzu grumbled.
“Yeah, well, I don’t feel like using a child as a scapegoat just because they knocked a pile of rebar into the wrong path.”
Neither of them could argue his point, so they both just looked away. Even if the parents tried to sue, UA’s legal team was top tier, and those liability waivers were airtight. If anyone found out it was the fault of a student, that would bypass the liability waiver and that kid’s family could be sued. Izuku might not face any consequences for his quirk manifesting, but that kid who knocked the rebar free would still be culpable. Shouta wouldn’t stand for that.
“Very well - an accidental quirk manifestation from the stress of the exam it is then.” Nedzu tucked his miniature laptop under his arm and stood up on the table. “I’ve notified the parents of all our injured students. They will all remain here for treatment, free of charge. I expect you both at the enrollment meeting tomorrow morning.”
“Mmm.” Shouta groaned. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Oh, and Shouta?”
“Yeah?”
Nedzu grinned like a fox. Shouta shivered. “Midoriya just got the most rescue points in UA history. He’s second place in the practical exams, right behind Bakugo.”
Great. That made them both his responsibility if they accepted their enrollment in UA. Hizashi carefully patted his shoulder as he groaned in annoyance. Now he just had to explain to all the students’ parents that this was all one big quirk accident.
“I’ll take the minor injuries. You handle Uraraka, Bakugo, and Midoriya.”
“Thanks, Zashi.”
The blonde leaned down to kiss his cheek. “I love you, Shouta.”
“Love you, Z.” Shouta kissed his husband back, on the neck as he stood up and they went their separate ways to deal with their respective students. Hizashi took the bulk of them, which left Shouta the three at the center of this disaster. He decided to start with Uraraka’s parents.
~~
Izuku woke up in agony. He couldn’t remember a time he’d felt this much pain. Even the day his teachers had strapped him to a chair in the gym and let the other students use his body for target practice couldn’t compare to the searing fire in his hands and arms. He groaned, desperately trying to get comfortable but knowing it was futile.
“Izuku!”
That was Katsuki’s voice. Why was he here? Where was here, anyway? Izuku tried to rub his eyes but the moment he lifted his left hand to try, he screamed.
“Shh, don’t move. God, fuck, hang on, I’ll get the nurse.”
Izuku listened to his boots thump out of the room, each step shook the bed and made Izuku whine repeatedly until Katsuki was too far away to hear or feel through the floor anymore. Finally, when he could lay still and not feel every breath in the room, Izuku took the first easy inhale since waking up. He was careful to take shallow breaths, so he wouldn’t disturb his body’s aggravated skin too much. Everything was alive like his skin had been electrified. As his brain started to come around, the scratch and brush of bandages was practically insufferable. His legs and arms were covered from knee and elbow down and there was some sort of sticky cream between the bandages and his skin.
Burn cream. That’s what his brain told him. It was probably aloe or some kind of quirk infused burn cream. Then, everything came rushing back to his mind. Everything that happened in the entrance exams. Izuku gasped, his eyes finally snapping open, which was a grave mistake. He cried out again, the lights giving him an instant headache.
“Hey, kid, take a slow breath for me, yeah?”
Izuku didn’t recognize that voice, but he tried to follow the directions. What else could he do? Slowly, he took a long shallow breath, his body being as still as possible. When did someone else come into the room?
“There you go. The nurse will be in with some pain medication and another round of quirk suppressants in a moment.”
Quirk suppressants? Izuku was quirkle-…oh, right, he wasn’t anymore. All of that had been real. He’d manifested a quirk, his hands had poured fire and lava all across the training ground. The girl, he’d been trying to save a girl.
“Hey hey, don’t try to sit up. You’re okay. Everyone is okay. You did amazing, kid. Uraraka is okay.”
Izuku settled back into the bed, listening to the heart monitor beside him slow down as his panic eased just a little. Uraraka, was that her name? Izuku didn’t even have a chance to ask her.
“Would it help if she told you herself?” The man’s voice asked. Izuku nodded. “Okay, give me a few minutes.”
He left silently. How did he walk so quietly? Izuku decided he’d try to be patient and wait for the man to come back. But in the meantime, a pleasant nurse came in and told him she was giving him more medication to help with the pain. A rush of cold hit the crook of his elbow, an IV his brain supplied, and then peace. The burning eased just enough that he could relax his muscles and actually open his eyes a little. He still had a migraine, but it wasn’t intolerable anymore.
He was in the UA infirmary, he assumed. This wasn’t a hospital, it was too small. Plus, the window looked out on the residential district of the city. If he was at Musutafu General, he’d see the city center. Logic and knowledge always eased his mind. Izuku did not like the unknown. Facts soothed his anxiety. Katsuki came back into the room a few moments later and Izuku finally got a look at his ex-friend. Those bright red eyes were full of worry and pain. His legs were bandaged. Did he get burned? Had Izuku hurt him, too?
“Hey, no no, don’t you dare start crying.” Katsuki came over to the bed and gripped the rail beside Izuku. “None of this is your fault.” Carefully, the blonde reached out a hand and cupped Izuku’s face, one of the only parts of his body that wasn’t aching. “You saved that girl. You’re a fucking hero, Izuku.”
Izuku choked on a sob which pulsed another wave of pain through his body and made him whimper. Katsuki gently wiped the tears from his face and sat down next to him.
“I’m so sorry, Izuku. I’m so fucking sorry for everything I ever said and did to you. Quirk or no quirk, you were my best friend. I should have been there for you. They told us it was the extreme stress that forced your quirk out. But we both know it wasn’t the entrance exams, don’t we?”
Izuku nodded slowly. It wasn’t just the exam. That had been Izuku’s last chance to be a hero. The entrance exam was his only chance to be a hero. Izuku had wanted it so desperately, and all he could think about was the pressure of losing his one and only shot at becoming a pro hero. Everything All Might and Katsuki had said to him had been on his mind that morning. The fight with the Sludge Villain and their argument afterwards. Izuku had wanted to prove them all wrong. He desperately wanted to be a hero to everyone, and that exam was his last chance to try and do so.
“You’re a hero, you big crybaby.”
Izuku laughed wetly, his chest burning but he didn’t stop. Katsuki was crying now, too. The blonde stood up and leaned over the bed to press his forehead to Izuku’s. It was a light touch, careful and hesitant. Izuku reached up his left arm, wrapped and padded with bandages, and brushed it down the back of Katsuki’s head.
“I…forgive you…” Izuku rasped the words out of his gravelly throat.
How much had he screamed? He barely had a voice at all. But that didn’t matter right now. Katsuki finally broke at those three simple words. He sobbed into Izuku’s chest, his face buried in the smaller teen’s shoulder. Izuku held him as best he could with one arm barely functioning. His right arm was in too much pain to move, so he made soft circles on Katsuki’s back until he calmed down.
The door opened again, revealing Eraserhead and a girl in a wheelchair.
“You’re awake.” She coughed. “Hey.”
“Hi.” Izuku croaked.
Katsuki sat back, embarrassed, and hid his face. Izuku motioned to the tissue box on the table so Katsuki could busy himself with that and not be embarrassed by his own tears around others.
“The meds kicking in?” Eraserhead asked. Izuku realized that it was Eraserhead who’d been in here earlier, that soothing voice that had helped him ease his panic. Izuku nodded. “Good. Izuku Midoriya, I’d like you to meet Ochako Uraraka.”
The girl lifted a hand and waved as Eraserhead wheeled her over to the opposite side of the bed from Katsuki. Izuku followed with his head and smiled.
“You’re okay?” He asked, his eyes staring at her wrapped legs. They were padded like Izuku’s wounds, likely soaked in quirk infused burn cream.
“I’ll be fine. Recovery Girl said I might have some scars but honestly, I’d rather have a few scars than be crushed by a giant robot. Thank you, really, thank you.”
“I’m sorry. I burned you. I didn’t meant to-”
“Don’t.” She leaned over the bed to place a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Principal Nedzu said that they managed to stop the robot, but they didn’t see us with the cameras down. There’s no telling what could have happened if you hadn’t stopped it. Thank you. You’re my hero.”
Izuku hiccuped and swallowed back another choking cry. He nodded a few times and offered his left hand for her to take. She did so gingerly, careful of the burns, and probably knowing better than anyone where his new power came from. Katsuki remained a silent guardian the whole time, his hands tight on the railing beside Izuku.
“If you’re up for it, kiddo, your mother is here, and Recovery Girl wants to speak with the both of you.” Eraserhead said.
Izuku nodded. “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping anytime soon. Might as well get it over with. But uhh, can Kacchan stay?”
“If you’d like him to. I’ll let his parents know.”
“Auntie and Uncle can come too.”
Eraserhead nodded. “Alright, let’s get you back in bed, Uraraka. You will see the boys soon.”
“Wait, Sensei.” Eraserhead paused mid turn. “Can I give Izuku some of my points from the exam? It’s not fair that he didn’t get to finish because of his quirk manifesting.”
The tire hero smiled. “That’s not necessary. He placed second after Bakugo. He got the largest rescue point score in UA history. All three of you made the top ten, you’re my problem children now.”
The teacher rolled Uraraka back out without another word and without having looked at either boy as he left. He didn't need to, his words were loud enough. Actually, they were bigger than just loud. Izuku had placed second. Second, in the whole exam. He’d made the top ten, he’d made it into the hero course. He’d done that, all on his own.
Katsuki nudged his shoulder and winked. “Think we could be the Wonder Duo again?”
“Yeah.” Izuku smiled openly, joy spreading through his pained limbs. “I’d like that, Kaccchan.”
Hours of talks and testing later, Izuku was given the run down on his quirk. Apparently, his mother’s and father’s quirks combined in a very strange way. He could produce fire and lava (similar to his father’s fire breathing) but from his hands, which was tied to his mother’s quirk. Recovery Girl assumed that he’d possibly be able to control the flames he created with his mind, and he may even have some minor psychic control over fire in general. If true, that would mean he might be able to help direct Katsuki’s explosions, or even help fight fires during disasters.
The downside is that because he developed his quirk so late, he was going to have a very hard time learning to control it at all, and there was a very high chance that he’d never gain full control of his power. Katsuki told Recovery Girl to fuck off when she said that, that Izuku would control it because he was a damn hero. Katsuki got a smack on the back of the head from his mother but ultimately, they all laughed at the blonde’s outburst.
Eraserhead explained that if he accepted, UA was offering him a full scholarship as compensation for the malfunctioning robot that caused his quirk manifestation. Katsuki and Izuku shared a look but neither boy stated what they believed had truly caused the forced manifestation of his quirk. Izuku’s mother was pouring tears down her face. She was proud and happily accepted the scholarship, which Izuku agreed he wanted. The tired hero said he would be personally training Izuku, so they could safely teach him how to use his quirk.
There was a long road ahead of them.
Recovery Girl also told him that his arms and legs would likely be scarred from the burns, but his hands would probably always remain cracked and speckled with his quirk. Sometimes, forced manifestations like this were just too stressful for the body. The support department was developing him easy release bracelets that were like quirk suppressant cuffs so he could contain his quirk, but also use it at will when he needed to. It would be safer for everyone, but it would also mean Izuku didn’t have to be medicated to keep his quirk in check.
So there was good news and bad news, but ultimately, he’d achieved his goals. He’d made it into the hero course! He was going to be a real pro-hero.
~ Two weeks later ~
“Come on, kid, I know you can do better than that!”
“I’m trying!” Izuku shouted back at Aizawa.
After four days in the infirmary, his new teacher had taken Izuku under his wing and started his training early. School didn’t start for another week, and Izuku was starting to regret accepting that scholarship. Aizawa had worked him to the bone right after he was released from medical care.
The support department had worked overtime to make him usable quirk cuffs to keep his power in check when not in use, and supposedly someone got an A on their summer project for the work. At least someone was benefitting from Izuku’s suffering!
“Again!” Aizawa called from his place in the rafters.
They were training in a specially designed gym that Cementoss had built while Izuku was recovering. It had a huge dugout pit at the center and the whole building was made of solid concrete infused with Endeavor’s quirk, making it mostly heat resistant to Izuku’s power. They had only encountered a couple accidents during their training thus far, which led to holes in the walls that needed patching. Otherwise, Izuku was pretty safe to just focus his quirk on the center of the dugout pit and not worry about spilling lava everywhere.
At Aizawa’s command, Izuku snapped the bracelets on both wrists. When he did so, they unlatched and hung loosely on his wrists, deactivated. They were usually tight like little metal cuffs, which were actually quite comfortable and cool against his always too hot skin. Once they were unlatched, his quirk roared to life. Embers poured off his fingertips, the crackling fire that spread through his veins already alive and ready to burn.
He aimed for the pit once more and focused on control. If he didn’t have control, he would hurt someone. If he didn’t learn to control his power, he’d never be a good hero, he’d be a hazard. Izuku took a deep breath and unleashed a torrent of fire and lava from the veins in his hands, spilling a river of molten rock into the pit.
“Good - control the flow!” Aizawa called.
Izuku nodded to himself. Control the flow. Control the flow. He could do that. Right? He could do it. Izuku slowly closed his splayed fingers, trying to use that as a direction to his quirk, to slow the flow and control the rate at which it poured from him. He closed his eyes and focused. In a week and a half they had seen no improvement to his control, but Izuku was determined. He was stubborn, bull headed. He would be a hero.
“There you go!” Aizawa exclaimed.
A thump on the ground beside him told Izuku that Aizawa had lowered himself to the gym floor. He only stayed in the rafters so as not to get hit with lava. But if he came down before they finished, then he must have seen some improvement, right? Izuku dared to peek at his hands. The flow was a thin stream, slow and controlled. He’d done it!
Izuku laughed and cut off his quirk. This time, it listened. The flaming veins didn’t die down on their own, but the flow of molten liquid stopped. Izuku inspected his hands for the first time while his quirk was active. Soot and embers fluttered around each finger as if each one was alive with the fire inside of him.
“You did good, kid.” Aizawa ruffled his green curls. “You’ve got a long way to go, but this is a great start. I am confident you can join your classmates safely now. But you will need a lot more practice before you can use your quirk around other people, okay?”
Izuku nodded. “Right. Thank you, Sensei.”
“Let’s call it quits for the day, that had to be exhausting.”
It was, actually. Izuku latched his cuffs shut to suffocate the flames on his fingers and wandered over to his gym bag near the door. He kept a ton of fresh bandages in there so he could wrap his hands like Recovery Girl taught him. Even if the flames cut off when his cuffs were active, his skin was still cracked and burnt. They were also scarred from his manifestation, and keeping them wrapped was just…more appealing, easier to digest, maybe? His arms were always wrapped these days, up past his cuffs, but he didn’t have to take those bandages off to use his quirk. He also usually wore light compression sleeves on his calves to cover the scars on his legs.
There wasn’t shame in the burn scars, or well, not shame that he had caused them. It was more that he didn’t want anyone to see how destructive his quirk could be. It scared him. Uraraka would sometimes flinch if Izuku moved too fast around her. She apologized every time but Izuku knew there wasn't much he could do to stop that fear from coming to the surface. She had been in and out of the infirmary along with several other kids who had been burnt by Izuku’s quirk during the entrance exams, for treatment and quirk healing by the school.
Katsuki had visited Izuku every day after his own treatments. Most of the other students had minor burns which were treated in a few days and didn’t keep them down, but apparently one student had to get his hand amputated after a splash of lava had…ruined it. Izuku apologized to that student profusely as soon as he’d been allowed out of bed but the student wasn’t angry or resentful. He understood Izuku wasn’t at fault for his quirk manifesting violently. Even if the student’s parents were upset over their son’s injury, they also didn’t resent Izuku.
Quirk manifestations were protected under the Quirk Compassion Act as a non-criminal offense. Even if it led to the injury or death of another person. The school had consulted a lawyer who had spoken to Izuku about what happened. While no one could take legal action against him, the Commission would be following his case closely since he was one of the only people on record in decades to manifest a quirk past the page of eight. At fourteen, he’d shattered the last record of a manifestation at nine years old. So, every week he would have a check in with the Commission, accompanied by Principal Nedzu and Aizawa, to check his progress.
He’d been given a presumptive purple mark on his quirk registry after it was updated, to flag his quirk as ‘not suited to physical form’. But if he improved and gained control of his power, there was a chance that mark would be removed before he graduated high school.
Purple marked registries cannot become pro heroes.
Izuku swore to himself he would get that mark removed, and Aizawa promised he would do everything in his power to ensure Izuku had the chance to become a pro hero, but he couldn’t promise it would definitely happen, even if they did everything possible. Their tired teacher was not the kind to make promises he couldn’t keep. So, he promised to do everything he could to help Izuku, but he wouldn’t promise the teen victory, not until he saw Izuku actually controlling his quirk safely.
Still, this progress today marked the start of his career as a hero student. Aizawa had given him benchmarks he had to make at certain junctions. Before he could be fully accepted into the hero course, he had to show control of the flow of his lava, to stop it at will. Today, he’d done that. He could officially join the class in a week, and then the real work started.
When he got home, his mother was already making dinner. He’d spent the whole day at UA getting treatments in the morning and training in the afternoon. Today had been his last day of outpatient treatments, thankfully, but he was going to be training every day until school started. His mother was still apprehensive about his rigorous training. She’d always been a protective parent, too protective if you asked Izuku. A large part of that was a result of his quirkless diagnosis. Regardless of his new quirk, his mother still saw him as weaker than others, as sickly and less than. Izuku hated it. But he loved his mother. So, he wouldn’t comment on it aloud.
“Izuku, sweetie, I’m making stir fry, do you want chicken or beef?” She called from the kitchen.
“Uhh, beef, please!” He called back, bouncing on one foot to tug off his sneakers.
Recovery Girl warned him he would need to work on his dexterity after the entrance exam accident. The incident had damaged the nerves in his hands, so things like untying his sneakers were a challenge for now. Once the school year started, he’d be put into physical therapy with the support department to help his dexterity.
“Alright, go get washed up and dinner will be ready.”
“Thanks, mom!”
He took a quick shower to get the sweat off and changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt before grabbing dinner with his mother. They didn’t speak much, which was common these days. When Izuku was a kid, their conversations consisted mainly of Izuku’s injuries and his mother warning him not to get involved with the kids with quirks, so he’d avoid getting hurt.
Now, there wasn’t much for them to say to each other. She’d tried asking him about what happened at the entrance exams but Izuku didn’t want to talk about it, not with her. So their dinner was silent and once Izuku cleaned everything up, he went back to his room and prayed his mother would leave him alone for the night.
He took out his phone after flipping the lock on his door and flopping onto his bed.
“Hey Nerd.” Katsuki picked up after two rings.
“Hey Kacchan.”
“How was training today?”
“Exhausting. But! We made so much progress. I managed to stop my quirk on my own. Aizawa said I reached the benchmark. I’m safe to join the class when the semester starts. But I’ve still got a long way to go.”
“That’s fucking awesome, ‘Zu. We’re going to crush hero school.”
Izuku chuckled dryly. “Yeah, we are.”
“You okay?”
“Uhm…yeah. I guess.”
Izuku pinched the phone between his shoulder and ear so he could look at his wrapped up hands. He was still taking regular pain medication every morning to control the nerve pain from the burns.
“Don’t lie to me, Nerd. What’s going through that big skull of yours?”
Izuku sighed. “I guess I’m just worried…scared?”
“That you’ll hurt someone?”
“That I'll hurt someone else .”
The line was quiet for a while after that. Izuku laid back in bed and counted the tiles on his ceiling while waiting for Katsuki’s response. It’s not like that was a point he could argue. Izuku had already hurt several people, there was no way to say it didn’t happen, or that it might not happen again. Izuku may never fully control his quirk. He might be wearing quirk cuffs for the rest of his life. The purple mark on his registry may never come off. He may never be a hero, despite no longer being quirkless.
“You can’t be scared of your power, Izuku. What was the first thing you told me when mine came in?”
Izuku squinted at the ceiling to try and remember what he’d said when they were four years old. He remembered he told Katsuki something after the blonde developed his quirk. Katsuki had been startled by his explosions, he’d blown up a whole piece of playground equipment by accident. No one got hurt, but Katsuki had been so scared that Izuku had fallen down and might have been hurt.
“I told you your quirk was part of you, that it would only hurt me if you let it.” There was likely a discussion to be had about how Katsuki did exactly that years later, but that was something he’d save for another heart to heart.
“So - your quirk is part of you. It will only hurt others if you allow it. Keep training. I know you’re ten years behind but you’re smart, hell you’re the smartest idiot I know, if anyone can do this, it’s you.”
“Thanks, Kacchan.” Izuku smiled at his phone. “I think I needed to hear that.”
“You got this, Nerd.”
A long road. That’s what Recovery Girl and Aizawa both said. A long road that Izuku could choose to walk by himself, or with help. As he hung up the phone, he looked down at his hands. Izuku had inherited the flames of his father, a man who had lost faith in him and left. Maybe he could take those flames and forge a new path for himself; a path he didn’t have to walk alone.
As the sun crept below the horizon, Izuku snapped open the latches on his quirk cuffs. Fire sparked to life across his fingers. He flipped them over to inspect his cracked palms, the flames quickly ate away at the bandages wrapped around each finger.
This was his power, and he would not let it hurt him, or anyone else.
Izuku took a deep breath, smoke plumed around his hands, embers tickling his nose.
He wasn’t afraid of his own fire anymore.
He would never be afraid of his flames again.
This fic was inspired by this image:
