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Two minutes. Just two minutes and the bell will ring. Just two more minutes and he could go home. Izuku had his head on his desk, wishing that the remaining two minutes would just pass by as quick as possible. He only needed to wait two more minutes untill-
"Oh yeah Midoriya, don't you wanna go to UA too?" mr. Nakamura asked blankly.
Izuku froze, damnit- . mr. Nakamura wasn't a bad teacher, he was neutral towards Izuku, at times a bit more stern with him then with other students, but the differnce was barely noticable. There were always times though, where he somehow said something like he couldn't care less, so blankly it made Izuku cringe. Right now, Izuku just wanted to disappear, the whole class went quiet and were probably all stareing at him. Including Bakugo, who just a few seconds earlier was bragging about becoming even stronger than All Might.
Izuku looked up, and yup... everyone was stareing. Then, the class erupted in laughter.
"Midoriya?! You're kidding right?!" "There's no way you're getting into the hero course without a quirk!" "You can't be serious?!" "Him at UA? Oh please"
Izuku looked around and nervously stammerd "A- actually they got rid of that rule- s- so i can try and maybe be the first one-" before he could finish his sentence an explosion acompanied by a loud growl interrupted him. Sending him butt first to the ground.
"Shut the fuck up Deku! You really think they'd let in some damn quirkless wanna be extra like you?!" Bakugo scrowled, small explosions popping at his palms
Then, the bell rung. Everyone started quickly grabbing their things and leaving. Including Bakugo. So Izuku took the opportunity and started quickly grabbing his things, picking up the notebook that fell from his desk when he fell down. He was about to shove it in his backpack when Bakugo snatched it from his hand.
"You think we're done Deku?!" one of Bakugo's lackeys barked a laugh before saying something about Izuku being a delusional looser. Izuku tried to reach for the notebook, but as soon as he did that Bakugou burned it with an explosion, then threw it out the open classroom window. "Hey Kaccan what're you-!" before he could grasp what happend, bakugo was grabbing his shoulder. Suddenly his shoulder felt hot, while the rest of his body ran cold. Tere was smoke comming from his uniform and then it burned, every second it burned more and more his shoulder hurt more every passing moment. Sharp burning pain acompanied by the pain of his shoulder being squeezed. His fingernails dug unto his palms as he stood shaking. "Don't even fucking try to apply, or else..."
Bakugo let go of Izuku's shoulder and turned away, walking towards the classroom door, "Y'know if you wanna be a hero that badly Deku, there actually might be another way..." he half turned his head towards Izuku and smirked. "Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life... and take a swan dive off the roof of a building." Izuku froze.
Bakugo popped a few small explosions before scoffing with a smirk and walking away.
Izuku sighed as he held his now ruined analysis notebook no. thirteen. He was gonna have to rewrite everything, whitch was a drag because the notebook was almost halfway full. As he was thiking that, he was walking under the small bridge on his way home, when suddenly a massive body of slime of some sort with eyes and a mouth appeared before him. He turned to run and yet it was too late, the sludge ingulfed him. He tried to struggle but it was no use, the sludge pried open his mouth and slid into his mouth and nose, before continuing to his throat and lungs. He was suffocating.
His vision was starting to blur, his fingertips feeling numb. He tried to grab the villain, but no use. my body' feels weak- is- no I don't wanna die- this can't be it- He thought. no- please... somebody- His vision started to darken at the edges. This can't be the end, he still had to...
"TEXAS- SMAAASH!" Then everything went black.
When Izuku opened his eyes, everything seemed a little too bright. Something was slapping his cheek lightly, when his eyes adjusted a little, he blinked, he couldn't belive his eyes.
"Thought we lost you there!" said All Might in a enthusiastic voice.
Freaking All Might?!?! All Might- his favourite hero- The freaking number one hero in Japan- saved him!! Izuku's brain was going a thousand miles per second. He was freaking and geeking out internally so much and he still felt kind of dizzy, that he didn't even notice the hero was saying something.
Izuku needed to get All Might's autograph,he reached for his notebok just to notice it was already signed, in gigant letters, across two pages. He scrambled to his feet, almost falling on his face while doing so. Izuku kept repeating thank you's and bowing prefusely, eventhough it made his head spin.
"No problem young man, now I see you're alright, I gotta get going and hand over this guy to the police." he adjusted the plastic bottle -now containing the villain- in the pocket of his pants. "Stay out of trouble and see you around" All Might crouched, getting ready to leap into the air.
That finally seemed to snap Izuku out of his fanboy geeking moment. He needed to ask All Might, though why wouldn't the gratest hero think Izuku can't be a hero? He still needed to ask, to be sure.
"W- wait- can I ask you a-" All Might interrupted him "Sorry young man! I really have to go. Take care!" Izuku moved and reached out to grab All Might. And the next thing he knew he was holding onto All Might's leg for dear life, flying trough the air dozens of meters above the ground.
All Might then landed on a roof of a nearby building. When Izuku let go of him, All Might turned around and started walking to the ledge to take off again. "If you bang on the door for a while, someone'll let you down." At that moment, Izuku had to act,he had no choise, he had to ask now, or he'll never get the answer.
"Do you think it's possible for me to become a hero even though I don't have a quirk?" Izuku said, his voice was slightly shaking yet determined. All Might stilled " Do you think I can ever become someone who saves people like you do?!" Izuku's voice cracked a little at the end, his throat was still sore and burning from the sludge villain, and he was full of emotion, but he needed to know.
All Might opened his mouh to speak, but then grunted. Suddenly white smoke appeared
All Might sat there, in his small form. He said it's a result of a injury he got in a fight, few years back. Izuku's brain was racing, he was trying to process all the informacion and just everything that happend today and it was starting to owervelm him a little. But he needed to know and then... All Might spoke.
"To answer your question. No, I honestly don't tink you can become a hero without a quirk."
And at that moment, Izuku felt something shatter. He looked down on the floor. It all felt like a bad dream. Izuku thought, this can't be true,...this isn't- ... and then, it hit him. This was it. He got his answer. It felt wrong, but... Deep down, he always knew. He knew that his dream, was just a dream, yet he let himself think that maybe it could change.
All Might said something about police officers and being realistic, but Izuku wasn't paying attention. He felt numb. Everything felt muted, dull... That's propably when All Might left, though Izuku didn't notice. He qiuetly stood there, blankly stareing at the ground. When he finally raised his Head he looked around and remembered Bakugo's words, but they also sounded muffled in his head. He was about to take a step when suddenly remembered his mother's face, so he just walked towards the door, his mind remaining blank.
Izuku walked slowly, with his backpack over draped over one shoulder. His throat felt still a little sore and his body heavy, but the numbness filling his mind was still strong enough to push it all back. There seemed to be some comotion surrounding one alley, people blocking the street. Izuku was just passing by, when someone crashed into his shoulder, making him stumble. He was righting himself, and then he got a glimpse of what was in the alley.
The sludge villain that attacked him earlier, it was strangleing someone. The heroes were there but,... they weren't doing anything. Suddenly, just for a split second. Izuku felt the slime inveloping him again, and everything was loud again, the air smelled of smoke, and before Izuku could think, his body moved.
He ran, people and heroes called out and yelled at him but he just ran towards the villain. Izuku grabbed his backpack and swung at the sludge. The liquid retreated slightly revealing the victims face, but that's not what Izuku chose to focus on, so he started grabbing at the sludge. Yet again, it had no efect, the person ingulfed by the villain was yelling something, their voice sounded familiar. When Izuku looked up, his eyes met with angry red ones. The villain made a sound and before Izuku knew it, a large mass of sludge was flying at him.
There was a loud crash, accompanied by an explosion. Izuku looked up from the ground as the smoke cleared and yet again, All Might stood there. Hegrabbed him and the person who now, Izuku knew was Bakugo.
And just as quickly as the numbness he felt not long ago dissappeared, it was back. The moment he felt All Might grab his arm everything felt numb again.
All Might took care of the villain quickly and next thing Izuku knew, he was walking down a street still on his way home. The street stretched on as Izuku walked, he felt so tired, yet he didn't really feel anything at the same time. Except for the bits of sadness and disappointment lingering at the back of his mind. He tried to pay attention to his surroundings but the sounds were muffled and everything seemed just a tad blurry.
Eventually, Izuku realized that he was probably supposed to cross the street not so long ago. And so after about another thirty seconds of walking he looked across the street and stepped into the road. Though the world was muffled, it didn't mean Izuku was completly unaware of his surroundings, he sontinued walking when he heard a odd sound, still too muffled for Izuku to be bothered by it though.
He was third way across the road, and then there was something wrapping around his wrist before he got suddenly yanked forward and on the sidewalk.
Shouta was just on his way to the grocery store. He needed to buy food for the cats, he was almost out of jelly pouches and Hizashi was staying late at the studio. So Shouta -mutch to his displeasure- had to buy the two absolute necessities. He was wearing his capture weapon around his neck, as per usual. One can never be too careful, and Shouta preffers to hide his face in it anyway.
He just rounded a corner and scanned the street with his eyes, just to take two steps and notice a kid three quarters into crossing the road, seemingly oblivious to the oncomming car that showed no signs of stopping or even slowing down. Shouta moved.
His capture scarf shot out as he ran, the kid wasn't far but the car wasn't either. The grey material of the capture weapon wrapped around the kid's left wrist, and when shouta was close enough, he yanked the capture weapon back towards himself. The kid stumbled forward at the sudden motion and Shouta caught him before he hit the pavement. The kid didn't let out a yelp or even a ghasp, as if he wasn't even aware of what just happend. Had Shouta been a second or two slower, the kid woud've definitely been run over.
Shouta righted the kid, who just blankly stared at nothing, he was wearing a middle school uniform, he was somewhat pale and small, fluffy green hair and green eyes.
Just when Shouta was about to scold him he noticed that the uniform was somewhat demmaged. Burned, torn, dirty from something liquid and repaired at places. In general the kid looked kinda disheveled, the pale skin , eyes kinda distant and glossed over- drugs? was Shouta's first thought -and who's to blame him? he's an underground hero, it's a learnt instinct- but he discarted it pretty quickly. He looked more to have gotten caught up in a attack or maybe fight with his friends? Though friends wouldn't probably go so far for the kid to end up like this.
"Hey, kid... you alright?" He asked, his question going unanswered. He lightly shook the kid and damn the kid was light. With no responce again, Shouta did the only logical thing that came to mind at the moment- and slapped him. Of course without using much force, because it seemed like that could potencionally knock the kid out, and honestly? Shouta did not want to deal with that.
The thing that brought Izuku back to his sences was -or at least seemed to be- a slap. He just knows that one moment he was numb and suddenly he felt a sting on gis cheek accompanied by a litelral slapping sound. He blinked his eyes, the blurrines going away, as sound returned to his ears.
Izuku noticed that he was now standing on the sidewalk, face to face with a man when did he get here? He had long black hair, a grey scarf-like thing resting on his shoulders, wait- "Eraserhead?" Izuku whispered "You okay kid?" the man -hero- questioned and placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder. The shoulder that Bakugo burned not even two hours ago.
Izuku whinced and hissed in pain and then, it all hit him.
Bakugo's hand burning into his shoulder, Bakugo's words, All Might's words, the sludge villain, the suffocating feeling, the burn in his throat comming back full power. Cold sweat ran across his back as he stumbled falling to his knees, as bile rose in his throat. His eyes teared up and he threw up.
When the slap finally seemed to bring the kid to his senses, the last thing Shouta expected was for the kid to call him by his hero name just before dropping to his knees and throwing up. Shouta quickly crouched doown and pulled back his hand from the kid's -injured- shoulder, since that seemed to maybe cause whatever just happend, to happen.
The shoulder looked burned from the corner of his eye, and it seemed to trigger something, this was getting concerning...
"Hey- you with me kid?" Shouta asked, honestly debating wether he should call an ambulance or something. The kid coughed, gasping a breath before grasping at his throat, turning even paler than before, his eyes were wide, and his hands trembled.
"What's your name?" Shouta asked, trying to distract the kid from whatever was going on in his head. He really didn't want the kid to give himself a panic attack.
The kid looked up, his green eyes meeting Shouta's, stareing for a few moments "m- Midoriya Izuku-" and Shouta nodded. "Can you stand up?" the kid looked at his feet and took a shaky breath, before slowly standing back up with a stumble, the kid still looked distressed. Though the distraction of sort seemed to help. "How did you recognize who I am?" Shouta asked, slightly concerned but also geniuenly curious. He was an underground hero and very few heroes, let alone civilians even knew him, there was very little public information about him. Yet...this kid recognized him, in broad daylight.
The kid stared and blinked a few times. As if trying to understand what Shouta just said, but failing.
"You called me Eraserhead,... How did you know kid?"
"O-oh! I- I was doing some quirk analysis- on less known heroes, I- I admire heroes, all of them. A- and... well- I saw an article about underground heroes, and it was so interesting! I looked into more of them and one was mentioning you and- I thought you were so cool! Your quirk seemed so interesting! S- so then I did more research and-" the kid cut himself off, clasping his hands over his mouth."Oh gosh- I- I- I'm sorry for bragging!"
Shouta just stared at the kid for a moment, -that was unexpected...- before rubbing the bridge of his nose "It's fine kid, more importantly... what were you doing in that road? You coud've gotten run over" The kid stilled before looking at the road and then back to Shouta. "I-... I was only crossing I didn't notice the car" Shouta just looked at the kid "Clearly..." the kid flinched slightly at Shouta's blank expression. "I'm sorry to have cost you trouble sir" And okay, Shouta didn't expect a bow and an apology.
Shouta sighed "Don't sweat it, but you still didn't answer my question. Are you okay?" Midoriya -the kid- looked away from Shouta "I- um... " he stared at the ground as it it had the answer. "Did you... Perhaps get cought up in that villain attack, that happend not far from here... or-?" And that seemed to hit the nerve. The kid tensed, and Shouta knew "You don't have to talk about it, but did you get checked by the paramedics or at least the policemen?" Midoriya shook his head. "Why not?" Shouta questioned "They... didn't really notice me..."..."I... walked away" the kid answered.
"Why?" There was a longer pause before Midoriya answered "I guess... I'm just a coward..." That wasn't... an answer that Shouta expected. "And why's that?" the kid's face became sadder "Because I-... I am so weak I can't even handle the reality of something I've known my whole life!...I was delusional...they were right..."
Shouta's brows furrowed, he didn't know what the kid was talking about but, Shouta had an odd feeling and something pushed him to ask. "How can you be sure about that?"
Izuku didn't know how to answer that, he couldn't just say 'oh! beause my childhood best friend-turned bully told me to kill myself and then my favourite hero saved me from a villain, gave me a reality check and then left me on a roof, that I was told to jump off' yeah... no. So, he did the only thing that came to mind.
"Mr. Eraserhead? Do you think that someone without a quirk, can become a hero?"...
"..."
Silence, and there it was, the answer Izuku wanted. He knew it after all... who'd think that a quirkless nobody like him could become a-
"Well, it would be hard but, I don't see why not?" and... "What-?" Izuku stared at Eraser with whide eyes, while Eraser just raised his eyebrows "I pretty much fight quirkless, though not haveing any quirk is mostly a big disadvantage. I think it is possible for a quirkless person to become a hero." said Eraserhead clamly. And Izuku just stared at him, his mouth slightly open "so... I could- actually become a hero?" Izuku whispered, his voice shaking at the end.
Eraser's tone remained clam, yet something soft lingered in it "If you work hard, I'm pretty sure you can."
And at that, Izuku broke. A single tear escaped his eye, as he bit his lip before he covered his face with his hands and started sobbing. His body shook as he cried and mumbled thank you's over and over for the second time that day.
When the kid broke down crying, Shouta could only stare for the first few seconds. He felt a little bad for the kid, a few words and he was thanking him as if shouta saved his life -which he did, but now's not the time for that- but as Midoriya sobbed, Shouta thought, that the boy might've had to been saved from a car, but he was despretly hoping for someone to save his heart.
Shouta knew discrimination, he's had his fair share of it, and he knows quirkless people have it even worse. Something in Shouta, he didn't know what, slightly broke but warmed at the same time when he heard the gratitude and pain, mixed with hope, in the kids sobs and voice.
After a moment, he raised his hand and ruffled the kid's hair lightly, before resting his hand on top of Midoriya's good shoulder. He left it there untill the kid stopped crying.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" He asked, to wich Midoriya hesitantly agreed. They started talking about heroes, analysis, and some stuff in general. It was about a forty minute walk and the kid did most of the talking after the akward begginning of the conversation, but Shouta didn't actually mind it.
When they arrived in front of Midoriya's apartment building the kid bowed again. "Thank you, Mr. Eraserhead,... for everything you've done for me today, really... I can't even begin to explain how much it means to me." Another tear slipped from the boy's eye, and Shouta smiled. "It's no problem, and it's Aizawa kid...Shouta Aizawa." he thought for a moment before digging in his pocket and pulling out a small piece of paper. Shouta looked at it and then handed it to the boy. "Oh and kid, tomorrow at six am. your training starts. Don't be late."
Izuku looked at the piece of paper Is this- is he giving me his number?! DID FREAKING ERASERHEAD JUST GIVE ME HIS PHONE NUMBER?! The hero was already turning away when Izuku's eyes left the paper. "YES! I won't mr. Aizawa!!!" he called out, and the hero waved as a goodbye.
And Izuku smiled as he watched his hero walk away.