Chapter Text
I was four years old when I learned men are not created equal.
The smell of carbon and fiber burned his nose and eyes. The smell was so great it felt like it was filling his entire chest in a matter of seconds. He sniffled and rubbed a hand across his runny nose. His face was wet with tears but he held his defensive stance, albeit shakenly.
The boy behind him was cowering in pain, tears also striped down his face along with the handful of bruises he adorned.
“J-just stop it, Kacchan!”
The green haired boy said. His voice shook with each syllable.
“Or what, Deku? ” The other replied, sparks igniting from his hands. The boy shrunk in on himself then, but with a shake of his head and a determination that could never be extinguished, he opened his mouth.
“I-I’ll fight you!”
He shouted.
The other smirked before lifting his hand.
“All right then, but you’ll be sorry!”
The rhythmic tapping of a pen on a desk was all he could focus on. With his head down and gaze averted from anyone around him he focused his attention on his notebook sitting in front of him.
The school had been going on as it usually does. He would sit in the back of the class unnoticed, receive good scores on his schoolwork and tests, and would sometimes narrowly escape the asshole hellbent on making everyday living hell for him.
He eyed the clock at the front of the room. Only 15 minutes left till the end of the school day. He couldn’t help the relieved sigh that came out then. Resting his head on the back of his hand his gaze faltered again. This would be his last year here at Aldera Middle School before he headed to high school. It would be an exciting thought, if not for the anxiety that swamped his mind thinking of what he should do for the future.
He knew what he wanted to do, but he didn’t exactly have any idea of how he’d reach such a lofty goal. The teacher seemed to be on the same line of thought as he addressed the class.
“Alright students, now that you are 3rd year students, it’s about time you started thinking about what you want to do in the future!” He said, hitting a stack of paper on the podium in the front of the class. He looked down at it for a second before a small smirk rose on his face.
“But of course-”
“You all want to join the hero course, right!?” He shouted, tossing the papers into the air with joy, causing the class to go into an uproar with excitement.
The classroom was suddenly filled with overwhelming noise. Almost all of the students were showing off their variety of quirks to one another. Excited chatter began, drowning out any attempt of quieting the class before a loud, condescending laugh, caught the classes’ attention.
“Don’t lump me with these losers, Sensei! You all won’t go any farther than being some wimpy sidekicks!” A boy with spiky blonde hair shouted over the chatter. He sat with his legs on his desk and his arms resting behind his head. A grin plastered on his face that was telling of full confidence. “You can’t just say something like that, Katsuki.” One kid said in front of him, the blonde all but ignored him as others also began to join the outcry.
“Shut up, you extras!” This only seemed to make his classmates even angrier. The teacher had no real outlandish reaction to this as he flipped through some papers on the table nearby. “Ah, Bakugou. You must be applying to the U.A. High School, right?” The teacher said, disinterested.
The class quieted down at that, before almost instantly going into hushed whispers. U.A. was the second top national school for the hero course. Any student truly aiming for excellence in the field would attend such a school, not to mention All Might had gone there! The class mutterings told of a low percentage of acceptance and the high stakes entrance exam. It all but made Izuku sink even farther into his seat, trying his best to be as invisible as possible.
Bakugou jumped from his seat and onto his desk, his boisterous voice booming over all the rest. “That’s right! I aced the mock exam, I’m the only one here with the stuff to get into U.A.! I’ll even surpass All Might! I’ll be the richest hero in the world!”
“You’re also going for U.A., aren’t you, Midoriya?”
The class went quiet then. His whole body jolted but he couldn’t manage to make himself lift his head. The silence only lasted a second before the class erupted with laughter. Jeers were made all around him by his classmates.
“You can’t become a hero without a quirk!” He heard one say, this finally made him react.
“A-actually they got rid of that rule! Technically-”
He couldn’t help the yelp that escaped him as his desk was suddenly clouded by smoke. He fell from his chair and scrambled away as the other jumped off his own towards him.
“Come on, Deku! At least these other extras actually have a
chance
to get in, you’re quirkless ass would die in the exams! As if some worthless scum like you could compete with
me!
”
“Ah-! No it’s not like that!” He quickly tried to ease the other as he stepped towards him, hands sparking ready to cause yet another explosion.
“I-I’m not trying to compete with you! It’s just- it’s been my dream since I was little.. there’s no harm in trying…” He said quietly, avoiding eye contact from those around him, he thought if he caught Katsuki’s eye again he’d end up fried right then and there.
“Try?! You’re taking the entrance exam just to try ?!” Katsuki exploded, now closer than ever, sparking hands threatening his very existence as he stood there cornering him. The rest of the class laughed at the very thought.
After a couple of moments the teacher broke up the two and resumed class as usual. The buzz throughout the day stayed mostly the same. He could feel Katsuki’s burning glare on him a couple of times throughout the day but he did his best to ignore it. It didn’t help much though as the end of the day finally came.
He was packing up his stuff when suddenly that familiar hand grabbed his notebook from his desk.
“We ain’t done here, Deku.” The blonde said, finally getting his attention.
“Wh- give that back!” Izuku started, he tried to grab it from the other before he put it out of reach.
“What’s that, Katsuki? His diary?” One of his friends said with a laugh behind him. The other knelt in to read the title.
“”For my Future’ Ha!” The other laughed as he read the title aloud. Bakugou all but let out a huff before he let the notebook go up in flames in a short explosion.
“The greatest heros showed signs of greatness even as students..” He started, taking a step towards Izuku, waving the now ruined notebook in his face before tossing it out of the open window next to them.
“I’ll be the only hero from this crappy public middle school, ya hear?” He placed a threatening hand on his shoulder then. Izuku winced as he felt a burning sensation at the contact, smoke began erupting from the placed hand and he forced himself to muster as much of a brave face as he could.
“In other words, don’t you dare get into U.A., Deku.” He dropped his hand from his shoulder. Seeming satisfied, he walked off with a grin, his goons following behind him. One of them scoffed.
“Yeesh, at least say something.”
“He can’t! He’s so lame, even as a third year he can’t face reality.” The other replied.
Bakugou stopped in his tracks, looking over his shoulder slightly, meanwhile Izuku’s back was still turned to him. “To save you some time on your whole dream thing. You can try and see if you have better odds of getting a quirk in your next life, by taking a swan dive off the top of the school!” He said with a laugh.
He couldn’t help himself from moving. Almost like a reflex he sprung forward then, fist outstretched and ready to make contact. He didn’t get anywhere though as he was suddenly being flown backwards. He hit the back of a desk hard, he folded on the ground almost instantly, that smell of carbon being everywhere, practically surrounding every bit of his being.
The familiar feeling of dizziness came to him then as he heard a laugh from the door. He raised his head defiantly to look at the other. That shit eating grin made his chest burn worse than his eyes burning from the smoke around him.
“Wanna try that again, Deku? ”
The other said, raising the same hand, smoke lofted from it as he pointed it slightly towards his direction. He wanted to get up, try again and again to get that punch in. But he knew it was pointless. Giving up, he let his head sag from his shoulders. He could hear Bakugou’s friends laugh next to him before he heard their footsteps all leave the classroom.
He left shortly after the others. He headed straight towards where his notebook would’ve landed. He found it among one of the small koi ponds around the campus. He sighed as he picked it up from where it floated, some of the koi were nibbling on it as if it were food.
“Asshole..” He whispered quietly to himself as he brushed off as much water off the notebook as he could. He deduced he may as well just carry it to not get the rest of his stuff wet in his bag.
He started heading home slowly, making sure to take the extra long route he usually takes to avoid Kacchan, as they have similar routes home considering they live close to each other. This was a usual thing on his school days. Being picked on for simply existing and then walking home in shame as he wasn’t able to do anything to protect himself.
Pathetic ..
He thought to himself then, kicking a small stone in his path. He couldn’t help but be jealous of his peers for their amazing strengths. It felt like a kick to his hurting heart every time quirks are brought up. A constant reminder of where he is lesser than others.
Of course, now stuck in his thoughts he didn’t hear the movement behind him.
Without even a warning, he was suddenly taken. A thick green sludge surrounded his body within seconds. Laughter erupted above him.
“Never thought he’d be in this town, but oh well! You’re a lifesaver kid! I’ll just hide in this body till he leaves!” The villain holding him hostage said. Almost all of him was now covered by the villain's weird sludge and was even blocking his airways. He tried his hardest to peel it off himself but it was of no use. Slowly he was losing consciousness. His mind screamed for help, for anything to get him out of death's grip. Tears began to fill at the edges of his vision as things began to start going black.
“... help..” He managed to quietly get out as his gaze began to fade. He heard a distinctly familiar laugh not far from him before things went dark.
He woke up on the concrete not far away from where he was moments ago. A large hand was gently patting his cheek trying to wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes as he started to recollect what had just happened. But the face that looked back at him was the most confusing part of it all.
He yelled out of surprise and scrambled away from the looming figure above him.
“Ah, good! You’re awake!” The tall blonde figure said. His build was ginormous and far more intimidating and powerful in real life. He found himself stuttering over every word that tried to come out of him as he stared at the man before him.
“Y-you’re All Might!” He finally managed to get out after a good couple seconds of incoherent word vomit.
“Yes, I am!”
“I-I, this is crazy! Ah- an autograph!” He stumbled over himself, he searched around him for that torn up notebook. The moment he found it he flipped it open only to have his heart almost stop as he saw what was on the page. All Might’s signature was there in big letters!
He couldn’t help the happy yell that escaped him then, but when he looked up again he saw All Might preparing to leave.
“All right, I may as well be off to get this guy to the police station!” All Might said, patting the bottle of what-used-to-be the villain.
“-Wait!”
He didn’t really have much time to rethink his actions as he was suddenly flying through the air.
“What in the- what are you doing kid?!” All Might fretted, as he tried to shake him off.
“I love my fans and all but this is too much!”
“I can’t let go now, I’ll die!” He shouted back, tears billowing out from his eyes as the wind beat his face.
“Ah, I guess you’re right- J-just close your eyes and mouth for now and I’ll find somewhere for us to land.” All Might directed, a subtle hint of annoyance behind his tone. Izuku only nodded as he obeyed his directions.
They landed with a loud thud. Izuku laid on the floor, uncertain of whether or not he was actually still alive as he felt like all the wind had been knocked out of him.
“You should be more careful, young man!”
All Might scolded.
“You could’ve gotten seriously hurt! Now, you can bang on that door for a while and someone will eventually come and let you in.” He stated, pointing to the door to the stairway off the roof.
“Wait!”
“Sorry, but I don’t have the time.”
“Please, I just need to ask you something!”
“Goodbye-”
“Is it possible to become a hero even if I don’t have a quirk?” It was silent, the giant of a man ahead of him stopped in his tracks, as if time had frozen still. He didn’t say a word, but he could feel the hesitation from his idol. He heard a faint sigh come from him when,,,
The area around him bursted with smoke! It cleared slowly and what was once in All Might’s place was a scrawny old man.
Izuku instinctually stepped backwards, pure confusion and panic written on his face. “W-What happened?? Where’s All Might? Who are you?!”
He asked loudly, looking around frantically as if All Might would appear once again.
The old man coughed up some blood before sitting down on the floor. “I am All Might, kid.” The scrawny man said, he wiped some blood from his chin as his body clearly fought the urge to cough again.
“There’s no way! I mean-”
“You know how guys will flex at the pool to look bigger?” He cut him off. “I’m like that.”
“What, b-but how?”
Izuku stammered, a million questions raced through his mind in an instant as he looked at the frail man claiming he was All Might.
He couldn’t help the loud gasp he let out as the man lifted his shirt. Like a hole in a wall, a large indent was in his stomach. Cracks and crevices branching out from all directions from the impact point. Just the sight of it made him slightly sick.
“Got this a couple of years ago, it damaged most of my organs and I have barely recovered since.” Izuku could only look on in horror.
“Since then, I haven’t been able to do heroing for more than three hours a day.” He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, anything, but nothing came.
“You asked if you could still be a hero without a quirk?” All Might said, forcing himself to stand.
“You can’t.” He felt his heart drop like a stone in water. Everything felt heavier then.
“If you still want to save lives, become a police officer. Most people think of them as the cleaners for heros but it’s still a respectable profession.” He couldn’t say anything, just stare at the other. His black eyes stared back.
All Might sighed.
“I’m sorry, young man. It’s just reality.”
The door shut behind him and he was left up there on the rooftop alone. He tried to stop the tears but as the weight of the world came crashing down upon him, he couldn’t help the rivers coming from his eyes. He fell to the floor, hands flying to his face to catch the stubborn droplets. He curled upon himself, body shaking violently as he sobbed.
“You can try and see if you have better odds of getting a quirk in your next life, by taking a swan dive off the top of the school !”
Those words rang in his head like tinnitus. He couldn’t stop his thoughts as they came flooding in.
Maybe he’s right? Maybe the world would be better off without you.
He found himself standing. One dragging footstep after another he was headed to the edge of that damn roof.
Save everyone the trouble.
The tears came down relentlessly but he ignored them.
Pathetic.
His hands met the cold concrete of the railing. He closed his eyes.
Was this what he wanted? He couldn’t decide. But what he knew was that he couldn’t have what he wanted most. He wasn’t sure if it was worth it anymore.
He titled his head back, stifling a sniffle. Through the snot and mucus he smelt it, that familiar smell of carbon burning in the distance.
His eyes flung open as he looked forward.
Smoke .