Chapter Text
“Get away from him!”
Our story begins on a particularly unassuming summer day, one of the many ‘dog days’ of the season known colloquially around the world.
Amongst the sea of children sprinting out of their schools towards a break filled with fun in the sun, one such kid was having anything but fun.
“Fine then, how about I kick your butt instead!”
That voice, one belonging to a particularly irked child with a wild head of blonde hair, yelled out into the muggy air before he launched his fist forward.
His target? A boy his age with a similarly wild head of green hair.
One Izuku Midoriya
As the punch landed true and the all too familiar heat of a micro explosion flamed through his clothes, Izuku was knocked off of his feet and skidded along the dirt before hitting the back of his head on a fence.
Groaning as he rubbed his aching head, Izuku’s painfully ringing ears barely managed to hear the laughter coming from his assailant.
His vision, clouded with tears, then watched as the kid he had protected ran off with no second thought.
At least he was safe…
Looking away from the kid he helped and up to the sky, Izuku took a shaky breath out of his chapped lips.
He felt pathetic as he lay on the ground, completely and utterly worthless in the grand scheme of things.
…and sadly, Izuku was right to think that way.
The world our young hero was born into was one where sadly, all men were not created equal.
Unlike most of the globe, Izuku Midoriya was born without a quirk and in this world, that meant a life of pain and ostracism.
Izuku though didn’t want to be another statistic, he didn’t want to just be a quirkless nobody. No, Izuku wanted to be more, he wanted to be a hero!
Sadly though, to most around him, Izuku was nothing but a quirkless Deku, a name earned by his powerlessness, both literally and figuratively.
Eventually though, despite all of the odds stacked up against him, his drive and passion to pass his limitations was seen by someone who mattered.
All it took was a mad dash to save a bully, one that would end up with a chance meeting with Japan’s the symbol of peace.
All Might.
After months of training with the man who Izuku idolized, and a disgusting digestion of a strand of blonde hair, Izuku Midoriya would become the ninth holder of the legendary quirk.
One For All.
This was his destiny, the once quirkless and bullied youth would become the successor of All Might. He would break the glass ceiling put above him and go beyond with a smile on his face, saving many people along the way.
But all of that was about a year ago, and now faced a new reality, the smile Izuku once had and hope for the future within him had been forgotten in favor of stoicism and a heavy heart.
Many died as result of his failure and the failure of the heroes in the Parnormal Liberation war not too long ago.
As a result of this abject failure, the hope the civilians once had in their protectors had vanished just like their number one hero All Might. They didn’t know the specifics of what happened, but what they did know was that many died and the root cause was the heroes they looked up to.
The same heroes that let them down.
In the present, Izuku found himself on the roof of one of the many buildings in his town. Below where he walked were floors upon floors of destroyed homes, offices, and studios. All of which had shattered windows and were all but abandoned.
As he continued forward, fists clenched by his side in anger, he would remain in his perpetual state of awareness, his patrol seemingly never ending.
On top of his sweaty and scarred body were the remains of his costume and mask, both of which were tattered and destroyed to a near unrecognizable state.
His footsteps along the roofs of downtown were heavy, tired, and mimicked the rain that slammed down around him. Izuku was exhautsed, very much so, but he couldn't rest.
Because Izuku knew that the second he did, All For One would attack.
“Ninth, please, you really should rest.”
His steps paused for a moment, recognizing the pleading voice that rang in his head. It belonged to Nana, the master of All Might and the seventh user.
He wanted so badly to listen, to take even just a moment to rest, but he couldn’t.
"No." Izuku muttered coldly under his breath, closing his eyes and shaking his head. He would be fine, he didn't need to be babied anymore.
Not by the former users, not by All Might, not by anyone.
Opening his eyes once more and being greeted with the dark and gloomy world around him brought a sigh out of the teens mouth, then before he could gather his bearings any further, an explosion rocked the area.
Looking towards the area in question, Izuku blew a tired raspberry, his chapped lips in desperate need of water and or chapstick.
His mother would surely chastise him for this.
“No rest for the wicked I suppose.”
Not more than a moment later after he spoke, Izuku took off towards the explosion with l a trail of green electricity left in his wake.
_
It didn't take long for the successor of All Might to reach the source of the explosion, that apparently being a female villain who held some sort of staff.
As the masked hero leapt off of a building and landed using Float, he quickly approached the villain who appeared to be on top of a turned over bus.
“Stop what you’re doing!” Izuku demanded, his voice loud yet tired.
Hearing the booming voice, the unnamed villain turned towards Izuku with a smile on her face, the wideness of which of put the teen a bit.
Skidding to a stop in front of her, Izuku watched with a blank expression on his face as she struck a pose very much reminiscent of an action hero from some of those American comics Izuku had read when he was younger.
You know the ones, tight spandex, shark repellent, and terrible puns.
At any rate, Izuku couldn’t help but cringe at the display, somehow managing to keep his mind clean for the fight that was to come.
"You there! You must be the famous yet infamous hero Deku!" The villain boisterously proclaimed and twirled her staff in flamboyant fashion, something that might have amused a villain like Mr. Compress, but not Izuku in the slightest.
Not deterred by the flamboyance, Izuku didn't bother with a response to her proclamation. Instead, teen chose to focus as much of his remaining energy into taking this villain down as quickly and effectively as possible.
But, to his chagrin, the lack of response seemed to only delight the villain more as her smile seemed to grow even more. With one final twirl that ended with the staff's gem facing Izuku, she winked and spoke once more.
"You're not really one for theatrics are you?" She asked with chagrin, once more hoping for a response from the hero. This time though, she did get one.
Although, to her eventual surprise, it was not of the verbal variety.
Closing his eyes and controlling his breath, Izuku let the power of One For All loose and the ground shook around him, the concrete of the street shattering and splintering for a half mile around the pair.
"Full Cowling." he uttered aloud, barely moving his lips, then dozens of arcs of green electricity shot out his body and spread along the ground.
"W-woah!" The villain shouted in panic, then with a laugh she began to clap her hands happily at the display
"That's more like-"
"Where is he?" Izuku interrupted, cutting the bullshit as his tired eyes narrowed towards the villain.
The villain, instead of being threatened by the display, was bit hurt that her theatrics weren't being reciprocated.
"I assure you, hero, that I don't know of this he." The villain said with a shrug of her shoulders, then smirked once more as the gem at the front of her staff began to glow and not a moment later, a portal formed.
Then, just as quickly as the portal appeared, the villain reappeared in front of Izuku.
"But I'm right here!" The villain shouted and punched forward, but found the attack easily blocked by the hero.
Wasting no time and beyond done with this charade, Izuku cocked his own arm back and shot it forward to counter but missed as she teleported away.
"Teleportation?" Izuku spoke softly, his eyes rapidly scanning the area for her, but his ears would pick up the laughter and his eyes shot to where he heard her.
"That's correct my dear hero, if my quirk didn't make it obvious, my name is Ms. Teleport!" She said happily and bowed, Izuku's eyes narrowing as she stood back up.
"My quirk is creating portals to a variety of places, some very close, and others very far away." She further explained and Izuku was left silent, subconsciously thinking back to a time where his older self would've taken out a pen and notebook to take notes of this power.
But now, it was nothing more than an annoyance and a hindrance towards his goal.
"At any rate Deku, I must say you look like hell..." She began, then with a smirk twirled her staff as it glowed a sickly shade of green, looking eerily like the matted and dirty hair that sat on the top of the hero.
"And although you may look like hell right now, hero, I assure you that where I'm sending you will be a literal hell!"
With that, the villain launched a green colored sphere out of the staff's gem, Izuku staring at it for a moment before his heavy feet and Danger Sense managed to move him out of harm's way.
Falling back on instinct, his body rolled along the wet street to dodge, although his back became covered in the cool rain that continued to fall as he slowly got up to his feet.
Shivering a bit, Izuku let out a breath and thought that he had done enough to dodge. Unfortunately though, to his chagrin, Danger Sense told him otherwise.
Feeling the quirk activate within his mind, the teen then leapt into the air and dodged the green sphere once more, noticing it was somehow tracking him like a sort of heat seeking missile.
Crap.
Izuku then activated Black Whip and launched a pair of tendrils at a pair of telephone poles, then used the force of which to throw himself at the villain who just smirked at his advance.
Maybe if I knock her out, the attack will stop!
With his plan in place, the teen slammed his right fist into the villain's cheek, his arm vibrating as Fa Jin managed to use saved kinetic energy to power it up further. The wind swirled around the pair and after a single moment, the villain flew backward and slammed into a nearby building.
Thinking he was done, Izuku deactivated One For All and fell to one knee, his exhaustion finally being too much to fight anymore.
“I-I did it.” He breathed out, thankful it was over.
His eyes closed for a moment, enjoying this reprieve seeing as though the villain seemed to not get up, but before long a sharp pain spread across his head and he lurched forward a bit from the pressure.
“Damn it all.”
Begrudgingly, the teen opened one eye and stared at the stubborn green orb he was dodging before.
It zig-zagged around for a moment or two, then sped towards Izuku and slammed into his stomach.
The orb didn’t hurt or anything, at most it caused a tiny bit of a stinging sensation where it hit him, but eventually that feeling disappeared after only a few moments.
As a small amount of rain began to drip down from the sky and onto the pavement around him, Izuku’s tired eyes looked down to where the orb had disappeared into him. Wordlessly, the teen stared at where his stomach would be underneath his ripped costume.
“…is something supposed to happen?” He asked aloud to no one in particular, his tone particularly chagrin filled.
Although Izuku was unaware of this at the time, in this moment, he would be making light of what would be very serious changes to his life soon enough.
Some very drastic ones.
“Well that’s disappointing.”
Izuku would continue on his rant, seemingly tempting fate with each word he uttered with his annoyed tone.
He cursed himself mentally for a moment, hating himself for letting that charade go on for so long.
It was a joke, that villain of the week causing him this much trouble. Damn the exhaustion he felt, if he had even a wink of sleep in the last week…
As Izuku slowly fell into thought, the rain that fell around him slowly and steadily picked up as his storm of emotions continued strong. Eventually though, as the rain crescendoed into a downpour, his mental fell to a drizzle.
It took a bit more time after that, but soon enough, all that remained within him was a haze that clouded his mind.
It was haze that provided no feelings, no thoughts, only the growing desire to pass out onto the street.
In the back of his mind, Izuku swore he could feel the distant nagging feeling of anger, or at the very least disappointment
Although, it would seem that would be ignored in favor of that growing and incredibly overwhelming exhaustion….
….At least until his body began to disappear.
Feeling an odd sensation growing from his stomach, the boys tired eyes spared a glance down and what he saw made his eyes go wide.
His chest, one barely clothed by his tatters of a costume, had slowly began to grow translucent.
Tripped out by this at first, he blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating.
“W-what the hell?”
The curse that subconsciously seeped into his words was forgotten in favor of panic, one that only grew as his stomach began to grow more and more transparent.
Is this how Toru felt…?
Shaking off that unnecessary thought, Izuku tried to take a step forward.
“C-crap!”
But proceeded to fall onto the ground, his panicked eyes staring at what now were his transparent legs.
Something within Izuku snapped at that moment, now filled with panic and fueled by a sudden burst of adrenaline, he attempted to move with his arms.
“N-no, this can’t be happening!” he shouted out into the rainy night, his voice hoarse and dry despite the rain that pattered around him.
With one last gasp and not wanting to give up yet, Izuku tried desperately to push himself upright with his arms, only for those to lose feeling as well.
Before long, only his head remained fully visible and he stared at the sky above him, feeling the rain patter his torn mask.
For a time he thought about what the villain said, wondering what she meant. Would he be teleported to another country, only able to watch his friends and family die? Or was there something more to her statement?
“…this is it, isn’t it?”
His tired voice asked out, all the hope in his core burnt out like the embers of his quirk within All Might.
With a sigh, not knowing how to really feel, the boy felt a couple of raindrops land on his cheeks. The cold sensation drew his attention and his mouth subconsciously opened, his tongue licking up the liquid greedily.
His mother always told him to never drink the rain that fell onto you, too many germs or something like that, but right now germs were the least of his worries.
His voice a bit less dry, Izuku felt his transparent chest rise and the sad pathetic sound of a chuckle escaped his lips.
Here he was, the so called hero of hope and successor to All Might, lying face down in a puddle done in by some gag villain.
What a joke.
From there, Izuku slowly gave up his idle thoughts and decided to just accept his fate, fighting it at this point was pointless.
As more of his body disappeared, only leaving his slowly disappearing head, Izuku’s life flashed before his eyes.
Those fleeting moments, remembering everything that got him to this point, led him Izuku to one conclusion of what was next for him, no matter where he’d end up.
“…I’ll keep going.”
Those words, his decision, left his lips as they also began to also disappear. He wouldn’t know it at the time, but they would ultimately be the last words he would ever speak in this world before whatever fate awaited him.
With a smile, knowing he had seconds left, Izuku said goodbyes to everyone he knew. He didn’t know if he would die here, or end up somewhere else, but Izuku vowed to keep going.
…all would then go black.