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All Might leaned against the wooden fence, panting heavily as he powered down for the third time that day. His body was screaming at him, and the front of his shirt had been streaked with blood but what hurt the most was the disappointment. He could have sworn he saw young Midoriya walking this way but he had been unable to find a trace of him. If only he had slipped the press earlier! The lad would surely be home by now, and All Might couldn’t just go door to door. Certainly not in his true form anyway.
But he could not give up hope so easily!
Besides! The boy had been wearing a middle school uniform, had he not? Then it would be a simple task to go to every middle school in the city to find the boy. It was worth it, there would be no one more worthy to inherit One for All.
-
Turned out there were more middle schools than expected. Even going to four a day All Might barely made it halfway through before he saw Midoriya again. On the evening news.
Missing, gone for two weeks. The woman mentioned that he was Quirkless, as if that explained it all. The Quirkless boy was missing, the Quirkless boy vanished after the event with the sludge villain. The way she said quirkless sounded a little too much like worthless.
-
It was theorized that he had been abducted, but when no ransom came he was a run away then, after three months he was assumed dead. Suicide was the unspoken assumption.
The heroes who had been there for the sludge villain incident were all interviewed about it with the notable exception of All Might himself. He had no desire to turn the death of his chosen successor into a publicity stunt.
-
Izuku was dead.
In a manner of speaking.
He sat in the lab with his knees pulled up to his chest as he watched an interview play on the news. One of the old ones, back when he had first been captured. He had seen it so often he could repeat it word for word. It was the only interview where his mom appeared, the only time he got to see her.
At first he watched it because he missed her. Now he watched it because it was habit. He could remember missing her, and he had the sense that he wanted to be back in her company but it was no longer an actual desire. Noumu didn’t have desires. Noumu didn’t have wants either. He still felt he should count himself lucky, though. The others didn’t even have memories or understanding. He had been allowed to keep these things.
He could remember what it felt like to love and hate and weep and laugh - and that was more than enough. It wasn’t as though he was capable of wanting more.
-
The screen paused on his mother’s face and he turned his head.
“Come along,” he was instructed, “it’s time.”
-
When the villains poured out of the warp there was no hulking beast. Instead there was a small, emaciated boy in oversized green scrubs. He stood beside the man with too many hands, blank and motionless.
He was pale, it had been nearly a year since he had last seen the sun. His green curls had been cut short and his dead green eyes now glowed with such brilliance their light reflected off the top of his cheeks. Even from a distance he looked withered, old lacerations and needle marks had left dark stains on his arms and his skin was as dry and cracked as the man he stood next to. He hadn’t been cared for as a human since the day he had been taken. He was an experiment, a weapon. Weapons did not need lotion.
He was designed to look human, and he looked human enough.
Maybe too human.
-
Two students launched themselves forward, but only one flung himself at Kurogiri. The other flung himself around him and made a dash for the pack of villains.
“Deku!” He shouted, “what the fuck are you doing!?”
Noumu cocked his head. “Kacchan looks cool,” he mumbled dully, “he actually got enrolled.” He was supposed to go too . . . Was he supposed to feel jealous? No, that didn’t seem right. He didn’t remember jealousy very well, so that must not have been how he usually reacted. He could remember happiness though.
When Kacchan looked up from the man he had just blasted he was met with a pleasant smile. “Congratulations, Kacchan. You did it!” His glowing eyes were vacant. It was too hard to convey emotions with body language outside of his mouth now.
-
“Where is All Might?” Not there. “Sensei said he would be here!” Noumu smiled mildly and nodded along. The teacher was fighting – Noumu had given up on trying to recall him from those old notebook but Kacchan was still there. He hadn’t been warped with the other children and he was staring at Noumu with that look. Noumu didn’t think he liked that look.
All ten of his fingers twisted and grew, extending into huge metallic claws that stretched past his knees. His teeth grew into fangs and a long, pale tail that hadn’t been there a second ago flicked irritably.
“Ah? You know him Noumu?” Noumu smiled. “Hm. Well. All Might isn’t here. Why don’t you go play with that chew toy?”
-
Noumu was on him in a second, his stick thin legs twisting and deforming under his scrubs to allow for a great leaps and high speed and his tail kept him perfectly balanced.
Only two explosions, one to the chest and one to the face, kept Kacchan from being eviscerated. “Deku what the fuck are you doing? What the fuck ARE you!?” Kacchan demanded as Noumu dropped to all fours silently before he sprang forward, tackling Kacchan in the stomach.
Kacchan threw up an arm. Chew toy. Noumu sank his teeth into the grenade shaped arm bracer and raked his claws across Kacchan’s face, goring out one of his eyes before he was dragged off.
Ribbons.
No.
It was the teacher’s ropes. It was time to fight him instead, Noumu supposed.
-
“Midoriya?” All Might asked when he appeared.
Noumu threw himself at him, trying to slash with claws and bite with fangs. He was deftly pushed away every time. All Might wasn’t throwing the punches Noumu was designed to take. For the first time in almost a year Noumu felt something.
Frustration.
Everything he had gone through was to change him for this. Every time he had been strapped down and injected. Every quirk that had been painfully fused into his biology. He was designed to fight. He wanted to be fought. He wanted All Might to break his fucking neck and Make. It. Stop.
-
Kacchan tackled him from behind. He had bound his face in his torn shirt but he shouldn’t have been able to move. Noumu whirled around to claw him apart but his arms were suddenly bound behind him in ice and a boy with flesh like iron deflected his talons. Noumu looked around, surprised that he had been stopped.
“Thank you boys,” All Might said. He was slashed and bleeding badly. Noumu flicked his tail before he let everything fade away again. Fingers and not claws, teeth and not fangs, human and not a beast.
-
Kurogiri and Shigaraki were distracted by the arrival of the heroes.
-
“M-make me stop,” Izuku whispered, “I can’t control myself anymore. Please make me stop.”
-
He was encased in ice as the fight ended. His limbs were pinned uselessly as the men he had been designed to aid fled.
As soon as the warp gate closed off Noumu felt himself go limp. He didn’t need to fight anymore. He didn’t care about it anymore. He was completely docile as he was restrained and led away. And he didn’t understand the looks cast in his direction by Kacchan and All Might. He didn’t need to understand. He didn’t need any real sort of awareness or comprehension. Noumu was a custom made weapon and he didn’t resist when he was strapped down to a metal table once more. Just standard protocol. There wasn’t enough of Izuku left to care anymore.