Chapter Text
Parasites, although often mostly seen as just bugs, take many different forms. In fact, most of them aren’t even bugs — bugs just get a bad rep because they’re ugly or weird or gross. Tapeworms and lice and ticks and fleas are all parasites, but you never had the misfortune of having to deal with any of them, which was just about the only fortunate thing in your life.
Instead, your parasite took a more humanoid form. Which was arguably worse — because of the fact that humans weren’t as easy to get rid of as actual parasites. Of course, to get rid of a human, you could just murder them — or have them taken out by a hitman — which isn’t legal, but legality is the least of your problems at the current moment in time.
However, it wasn’t so easy to get rid of your human-shaped parasite. There were actually quite a few big issues, and it wouldn’t be so simple as just killing someone. Your parasite was yourself — everything about yourself. Your body, soul and spirit, dreams or aspirations, and most of all, your quirk.
You could just commit suicide and get rid of the base-level “human” aspects, but the not-so easy part was killing off your quirk. Without your quirk, actually, you don’t think you would consider yourself a parasite — it really was the quirk that made you decide the entirety of you was, as well, an issue.
Every insecurity and problem you ever had led back to your quirk. “Why aren’t I taller?” or “Why don’t my arms have any visible muscles?” or “Why am I so isolated?” — and the answer? Your quirk. It would always be the answer; and always will be.
In a way, you were a bug yourself. You yourself weren't a parasite, but you considered yourself one because of what lay underneath your skin. You often thought that everything inside your skin, like your bones and flesh and muscle were all just your quirk — an everlasting darkness that swelled up inside you — and your outside layer was, well, yourself. Like a wolf wearing sheep skin. It’s as if your quirk was a separate entity, that you couldn’t quite get rid of, and rather you, living as a human, it lived in place of you.
It consumed every part of you — both figuratively and literally (although you hadn’t figured that out yet) — and it wouldn’t go away.
Like a parasite.
And in that sense, you were an infected bug.
Infected bugs eventually die, though — whether it’s being eaten from the inside out or being stepped on; and there was no escape from your eventual quirk-inflicted fate. You either crush yourself, or let it consume you.
So, what do you choose?
~
“...Oh, and L/N, too. Didn't you wanna go to U.A. also?”
Your head slowly turned away from the window and towards your teacher. He stared at you in anticipation, and you stared back blankly. Your mouth remained closed, but you could see your teacher slightly raise his brow, before inaudibly sighing.
“Oh...did I?” You responded after a few quiet seconds.
You could hear your classmates begin to snicker a bit, some even exchanging whispers. You blinked down to your desk, but looked back out the window.
“Midoriya was one thing, but L/N, too? Teach, you've gotta be kidding! There's no way they're getting into the hero course without Quirks!”
“Well, actually, they got rid of that rule! L-L/N and I could be the first ones!”
You ever so slightly moved your head, looking the green-haired boy up and down. You put your hands together in a clasp, suddenly moving your gaze to watch a boy with ash blond hair dart up from his seat, charging right at Midoriya. As soon as the former set his palm on the desk, it exploded, leaving a trail of smoke coming from the blackened mark on the wood. Midoriya fell backwards, and the blond stared at him.
“Listen up, Deku! You're even worse than the rest of these damn rejects, you Quirkless wannabe! You really think they'd let someone like you in when they could have me?”
“Huh? No, wait!” Midoriya shouted in response, flailing his arms. “You've got it all wrong! Really! I'm not trying to compete against you. You gotta believe me! It's just that...I've wanted to be a hero since I was little. I may not have a Quirk, but I can still try my hardest, can't I?”
You continued looking at the scene, your eyes drooping.
“You'd never be able to hang with the best of the best. You'd die in the exams!” The blond’s eye twitched, and smoke rose from his palms. “Defenseless Izuku. This school's already crappy! You really wanna embarrass it more by failing so hard?”
You released your hands, instead having your arm come up and holding your cheek in your palm. You fixed your gaze onto your desk.
~
You looked at the clock at the front of the room, lifting your head up from your palm and staring at it for a second. You got your bag from the side of your desk and stood up, but didn't move -- instead, giving Midoriya a side glance. He was staring at his phone, muttering to himself, and you raised your brow only slightly.
“Man. That fight from this morning is all over the news.” He shoved his phone in his pocket, “Better write some notes down before I forget anything.”
You returned your eyes away right on time to see the blond stand up, looking equally as angry as before. You moved towards Midoriya’s desk quickly, suddenly picking his notebook up right before the blond could. Midoriya looked up and muttered a 'huh', and the blond still had his hand extended, almost paused. He slowly looked up from the desk, leaning his head over to lock eyes with you.
“What do you think you're doing?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” You answered, uninterested, before looking down to the flimsy notebook. “I noticed there was something on his notebook, and I wanted to clean it off before giving it back to him.”
You extended your finger ever so subtly, creating a small blob of shadow on top of his notebook, resembling that of an ink blotch. You held the notebook forward, allowing him to see, before wiping the “ink” off with your sleeve. The shadow disappeared, and you made eye contact with the blond.
“There.”
His lip twitched, and he tsked. Midoriya turned to you, but looked back down to the desk, his eyes wide.
“Most first-string heroes show potential early on. People look at them and just know they're destined for greatness. When I'm the only student from this garbage junior high to get into U.A., people'll start talkin' about me like that. They'll realize I'm legit, the next big thing. That's not ego talking, I just know I'm good.”
“Sure,”
“Here's a little word of advice, idiot.” He turned back to you, placing his palm on your shoulder and letting smoke rise from it. Your eyes glanced over to your uniform, which had slowly started eroding away.
“Don't even think of applying, or else.”
You raised a brow.
“Or else what?”
He stopped for a second, his eye twitching. “What do you mean, ‘or else what’? I'll kill you if the exams don't, idiot!”
Midoriya whimpered and looked over to you with fearful eyes. You still held onto the notebook, although letting it flop flimsily, and you scanned his face for a long, hard moment.
He gave you another ‘tsk’ and walked away, his friends following. “That's just sad. I thought you at least had some fight in you.”
“Wait,” You spoke up.
He turned around, cocking a brow.
“What’s your name again?”
His eyes widened and twitched as he stared at you.
“No way he just asked that.” One of his friends muttered to the other one, chuckling.
“I know, right? So stupid."
“I’m—” The blond yelled, “I’m Bakugou fuckin’ Katsuki, damn it!”
“Ok, thanks.” You blinked at him.
He just stared at you with pure rage for a moment, before turning back around. He took barely five steps before turning back around, glaring at you.
“Y’know, L/N, since you’re so fuckin’ keen on protecting idiots like that, I have a bit of advice for you.” He sneered, “You won’t be doing anyone good if you don’t have a Quirk yourself. So, just pray that you’ll be born with one in your next life, and then take a swan dive off the roof of the building. Then, when you’re born again with a mediocre Quirk, you can at least give it a try. At least, then, it won’t be so damn annoying when you try to help.”
You itched your neck with your other hand, staring blankly at him.
Midoriya turned around with an angry look on his face, ready to say something, but Bakugou set off a few explosions, threatening the former immediately. “Something wrong?”
Midoriya started whimpering again almost immediately. As you heard Bakugou and his lackeys walk out of the room, you turned to him, watching him cower.
“Stupid jerk...” Midoriya muttered, looking down.
You placed his notebook back down on his desk. “Sorry from taking it from you.”
“H-huh?” He looked down to the notebook you were holding out, and then back to you. “O-oh, yeah, thanks a lot!”
He stared at you for a minute, and then took it. “Um…by the way…sorry about what Kacchan said to you…you’re not too bothered, are you?”
“Not really.” You looked away, readjusting your bag on your shoulder. “Also. The way you take notes is real handy. Not everyone can be that fixated on things. And now you know what every hero needs, which means you can assist if you end up helping out.”
You continued. “I think you have what it takes to be a hero, you just need to stop letting guys like that get into your head.”
“...Y-you think I have what it takes?”
“I don’t see why not,” You glanced at him. “Quirk or not, it doesn’t matter. People are gonna hate you anyway. It’s just confidence.”
You looked back up, beginning to walk towards the door, but he scrambled after you, placing a hand on your shoulder. “W-wait,”
You turned, giving him a look.
“Can I at least walk you home?”
You blinked slowly, and then looked to the side. You looked back at him. “Ok.”
There wasn’t much harm in something so small like this. Of course, there was one matter that would have to be dealt with — Shigaraki, of course, but it wouldn’t be any problem to cover this up. That is, if you had to explain it to Shigaraki at all — he didn’t even come out of his room much anymore.
And while this Midoriya kid was annoying, he couldn’t be much worse than Shigaraki.
~
Shigaraki was a problem indeed. And had been for a while. The thing that made him a problem was the fact that he was virtually the only person to still talk to you and take care of you — and so were you, so you were each other’s only companions. And, naturally, after being forced together for so long, combined with the way Shigaraki was, it was easy for him to grow an obsession and dependence on you.
For the first six years of your life, you had your mother — who wasn’t even around that much anyway, physically or emotionally — so she didn’t count that much — and after she died, it was you and Shigaraki.
It was you, Shigaraki, and a mysterious man who introduced himself to you as All For One.
But All For One didn’t stay around you for too long, and he didn’t really make that much of an impact on your life — from what you remember, at least. And about five years ago, he’d disappeared, anyway, so only a very small fraction of your life was spent with him. The true bulk of it was with Shigaraki, which, again, was why he was such a big problem.
But Shigaraki was easily as expendable as anyone else, and without All For One, he wasn’t all that special.