Chapter Text
“You guys are all third years now,” my teacher announced, acting serious for once. “Which means it’s time to start thinking about your futures.” He brought a stack of paper from a compartment in his wooden podium, and tapped the stack against the surface. While he maintained his serious attitude, the class certainly didn’t, paying him little mind.
His voice increased in volume, which got the class to listen a little better. “I should be handing out these career forms, but…” he paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, “I know you all want to be heroes!”
Now he had the attention of my class; they began cheering uproariously, showing off their quirks which, might I add, was blatantly illegal. But they’d done worse–much worse–and sensei had never stopped them.
I, of course, didn’t reflect my class’s enthusiasm–how could I? Unlike them, my chances of becoming a hero was slim to none. But that wasn’t zero, and if there was even the slightest chance of me becoming a hero, I’d take it, no questions asked.
Well, that was part of the reason I didn't celebrate. I knew what would happen to me if I tried.
“Sensei! Don’t lump me in with these losers!” Kacchan shouted. “Don’t act like I have anything like their crappy ass, D-rank hero quirks.” While the class jeered at him, I silently agreed. I didn’t like it, but I knew that men weren’t created equal. I’d learnt that a long time ago, and my peers had simply never been taught.
“Ah, the stupid talk of extras!” Crap, I’d spaced out again. It’s been a bad habit of mine all my life. I would fix it, but sometimes a quirk was too cool for me to not space out and mumble about it.
“I’ll even surpass All Might and become the number one hero! I’ll be the best in the whole world!” Kacchan gloated. I believed him.
“Oh.” My teacher started. “Midoriya, you’re also trying for U.A. too, aren’t you?” I froze as the class’s attention turned to me. I braced myself for the inevitable, and sunk into my seat. Sure enough, the class burst into laughter. I hid in my arms, and grit my teeth. “Dang it!” I thought to myself. “I wish I wasn’t such a coward! I wish I could stand up to them, just like All Might!”
Unfortunately for me, I’d been too lost in my thoughts to notice Kacchan stomping towards my desk. “Come on Deku!” He yelled, blasting my desk and subsequently sending my notebook, my chair, and me flying.
Luckily I didn’t land on my head, but it was a near thing. I looked up as he stomped towards me, his stance wide. “How am I supposed to be a hero if I can’t stand up to him?” I once again thought, gritting my teeth harder this time. “I’m going to be a hero, and if I can’t even-”
“Damn it Deku listen to me!” Kacchan reached down and grabbed my collar. “This is one of the many things I hate about you, you piece of shit! Listen to me when I talk to you!”
He threw me back on the ground. I winced as this time, I did hit my head. But here wa
s a good thing about being so air-headed and unfocused-when the fogginess came from my head injury, it was barely any worse than it usually was! Because of this, I was still able to look up at Kacchan as he glared down at me.
“Do you really think someone as useless as you could make it into U.A.? Be realistic! Without a quirk, you’ll never make it in! You’re even worse than these extras!” He gestured to the rest of the class. “Even if you had a quirk, you're so spacy and dumb, you’d fall on your ass trying to figure out how to use the damn thing!” He exclaimed, finally finishing his speech.
“W-well, there’s no harm in trying!” I told him. “I-it’s just b-been my dream. Ever since I was little.” I finished. I started to reminisce, but I shook myself out of it. Kacchan might have said it in a cruel manner, but he was right that spacing out was a hindrance of mine. Whenever I’d take a test, I’d have to rely on my intelligence to pass. I was decently smart–my grades were proof of that, and even though I never scored as high as Kacchan, I was still in the top half of the class.
“For the love of fuck, stop. Spacing. Out!” Kacchan screeched, launching an explosion at my head. I dove out of the way, and it only singed my hair. I did it again-today was going to be a long, long day. I met Kacchan’s eyes as he dragged a hand down his face. “You know what?” He asked. “Maybe this will get you to listen.” He walked over and grabbed my notebook that had been sent flying by his earlier explosion. Written on the front laid the title of the book. Quirk Analysis #13.
“Maybe if I destroy one of those stupid stalker books you carry around, you’ll take me seriously.” He smiled wide, looking down at me. “W-wait, Kacchan, please-” But it was too late. He laughed at me, and threw what was left of the book at me. “Pay attention to me, you quirkless freak, and maybe I won’t destroy the rest of it.” He snarled.
I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. It wasn’t that bad–this time, he’d only destroyed the first quarter of the book.
“Now you listen up, and listen well.” Kacchan growled at me. He bent down, and yelled right in my face. “You are a useless, quirkless, Deku. You have absolutely no chance of being a hero at a second-rate school for extras, let alone U.A. You’re a waste of my time, and any school you’d be in, if they somehow let you in. God, now that I think about it, I’d be better off if you just did us all a favor, and took a swan dive off the roof.” Kacchan finished, ending his tirade.
My eyes widened in shock. Sure Kacchan had gotten a little carried away at times, but he’d never told me to kill myself. As Kacchan started to walk away, I looked at sensei to see if they’d do anything about it. He looked surprised too and his jaw had dropped. For a second I hoped he’d do something about it. But he merely closed his mouth and looked away. Was that shame on his face?
I continued to sit there, still partially in shock. Kacchan had told me to kill myself. I knew he’d been mad at me, I mean I wasn’t listening to his advice about me not becoming a hero. He was just trying to help–he knew I would probably die, and was trying to scare me away. He simply didn’t understand how important it was for me to become a hero.
But telling me to kill myself? That didn’t make any sense. If he was trying to save me, why would he tell me to kill myself? It made no sense. It made no sense at all. Why would he say that? Why? I couldn’t find a reason. I didn’t know why. But I wanted to know why. Why, why, why had he said that?
I spent the rest of class curled into a ball, keeping my panic filled train of thought, as my image of Kacchan shattered. Maybe I was just overthinking it. Maybe he had another motive. He didn’t actually want me to kill myself—Kacchan would never. There was another reason, there just was. I’m sure the reason will come to me soon. I can wait until then.
I was snapped out of thoughts by the classic sound of the bell. Everyone shuffled out of their seats, happy for the day to be over, and I also reluctantly got up as well.
I shook my head, trying to pull myself together. It had been a bad day, sure, but on the bright side, I got to leave school. I knew what Kacchan was doing was his way of helping me, I understood that, but that didn’t mean I liked it. I liked to be away from school, and soon, I would be.
I went to pick up my notebook, but it wasn’t in the classroom.
“Bakugo threw it out of that open window.” I turned to look at my teacher. He didn’t meet my eyes. Awkwardly, I looked away as well. I mumbled a thank you, and walked over to the window to see where it had landed. The koi pond. Just my luck. I looked at my teacher, and once again, he didn’t meet my eyes. Huh. That’s strange, that's pretty unusual for him. I wonder what's up with him.
Arriving at the koi pond, I looked down at my half destroyed book. I wanted to sigh, but I refrained. Once again, it could have, and has been in the past, worse. I picked my notebook up and wiped it off as best I could. I took to carrying it, less I got the rest of school supplies wet, and began making my way home.
The beach is probably my favorite place to be. At least out of all the places I’ve been too.
It was so relaxing, with the repetitive noise of the waves, and the air–the air was by far my favorite part. Feeling it against my face, and breathing it in. The ocean air was the best.
This was my comfort spot, for when days had gone particularly bad for me. I said the ocean air was the best, but I was lying. The best part about the beach was the trash everywhere. Yes, it was an eyesore, but that was the appealing part; with nowhere to look without being disgusted, nobody else ever came to the beach.
It was… peaceful.
And so, I sat there, simply relaxing, listening to the waves, feeling the mist on my face, drinking in life.
With experiences like this, life wasn’t so bad.
When I’m a hero, I think I’d like my house to be on a beach like this one.
That would be nice.
“Well mom will get worried about me if I stay too long.” I said aloud to nobody, a common occurrence at the beach for me. Nobody was going to judge me here.
I began to exit the clearing I had made for myself over the years and headed towards the staircase headed to the main road. As I grabbed on to the railing, I heard a scream and whipped my head around to the noise. The sewer pipe.
It was a massive entrance that flowed into the ocean, and it was the source of the noise. It had been blocked off with a fence, but I didn’t hesitate to jump over it, and run towards the source of the noise.
My feet were submerged in the clean water, but I kept running towards the noise which luckily wasn’t screaming anymore, as the person in peril was kicking up a lot of water.
Rounding a corner, I wanted to stop and catch my breath, but wouldn’t let myself–what kind of hero would I be if I stopped to rest when somebody needed my help?
The noise was loud now, really loud. I picked up my pace even farther than what it was already at. All of the noise could have been the sound of the villain attacking their victim! I had too-
Suddenly I was met with a face full of water. That’s inaccurate. I was met with an entire wall of water, and was thrown right on my back, into the water. At some point it had gotten deeper, and I was submerged. I started to sit myself up, only for my entire body to be hoisted out of the water by, well, more water. Water with eyes. Water that then surrounded me, and tried to enter me through my mouth and nose.
I panicked, and my eyes widened as I realized what had happened. This whole time I’d been running towards the actual villain, not their victim! However, as if on instinct, I glued my mouth shut and held my breath. That didn’t stop the villain from trying to shove water down my nose, but the air already in my lungs wouldn’t let him in.
The villain’s face suddenly appeared, which was only a mouth and two eyes. The rest of his face, which should have contained skin, was gone. Instead, free from any sort of structure, his mouth and eyes instead sat in a giant mass of water that was vaguely head shaped. He opened his mouth and yelled something at me, but I couldn’t hear him. Idiot.
I forced my eyes to stay open. Somehow, almost as if from experience, I knew that taking my eyes off of the villain was a horrible idea.