Chapter Text
Izuku
Cold. That’s all I felt as I floated, or at least it felt like that, as I seemingly floated through a void; all I could see was an empty sea of darkness, and my mind felt like it was splitting apart as my life flashed before my eyes. My mum and I going to the doctor’s office and learning my dreams of being a hero weren’t possible, my mother apologizing to me for not having a quirk, how quickly my so-called best friend turned his back on me the second I was diagnosed as quirkless, and how it seemed he led the school in making my life a living hell.
My head throbbed as other memories flashed, but all the same: Bakugou bullying me, trying to hide it from my mum, who was trying her hardest to make up for something she couldn’t control. She wasn’t a bad mum, but anytime a problem came around, she got emotional. Looking back, however, I was so much like her, it was funny in its own way.
Then, I remembered my last day on this mortal coil: my teacher telling everyone I wanted to try for UA. I was pretty sure teachers couldn’t drop that kind of info to a whole class, but he never cared. Bakugou destroyed my notebook and told me to take a swan dive off the school roof.
“Funny, almost like he knew what would happen a couple of hours later.” I chuckled to myself.
Lo and behold, not even a couple of hours later, I was ambushed by a sludge villain who tried to take my body. In the next moment, I was suddenly saved by the Number One Hero. The Symbol of Peace himself, All Might! He took care of the villain in one shot and even signed my now newly damaged hero notebook. But when I wanted to ask him a question, he tried to brush me off and leave. Unfortunately, I didn’t take no for an answer.
“God, how desperate did I need to be, and of course it was when I met my hero…” my voice echoed through the void. I was so lost in my thoughts that I could swear I heard something, yet as I focused on it, the sound faded away.
After holding onto an airborne All Might and landing on a random building’s roof, I was able to ask if someone without a quirk could be a hero. I then learned by accident how the number one hero was only able to be a hero for a few hours a day. Still, I poured my heart out, asking if it was possible for a quirkless nobody to be a hero. All Might didn’t waste his time; he told me it was impossible to beat certain villains without quirks. Heck, even with his quirk, he had only just managed to survive the gruesome fight that left him unable to stay permanently buffed up. He seemed to go on, but I didn’t listen. All Might’s voice just faded as my mind came to its conclusion.
“Even the Symbol of Peace…Thinks I’m useless…”
The sad thing is: in a way, he was right. I know I was still a teenager, but I could have at least tried something. Heck, I could have taken an interest in support gear. It’s not like there weren’t a lot of heroes who used gear that didn’t inherently involve their quirk. I could have been a tech-based hero or just made gear for the next generation and earned enough to live happily doing something in the field of heroics. But no, I had to be the guy who studied them.
But back to my story. After All Might crushed my dreams, I found myself watching the chaos of another villain attack, only now had the sludge villain from before gotten free and somehow captured Bakugou. My eyes widened as I saw his face through the sludge. He looked afraid. And to make matters worse, no one tried to help. I understood each hero had limits, but no one even bothered to help, as if they needed the perfect quirk user to appear. What surprised me most, though… Is why I suddenly found myself sprinting toward Bakugou and the sludge villain.
After going through any plan I could, including throwing my bag at the villain and scoring a lucky hit on his eye, I tried digging through the sludge, but it proved useless. The last thing I remembered was Bakugo screaming ‘Deku!’ at me as the villain came bearing down on me, and suddenly I found myself here.
It didn’t take me long to figure out I died; just because I was quirkless didn’t mean I was stupid. Again, I heard that cry, a little more distinct. It sounded like a woman. The villain had likely caved my skull in with that last attack, yet I felt like I had forgotten something, just at the last moment.
“What does it matter…” I muttered into the void, only to hear the cry again. This time, I could tell it was a woman in pain. “I died… I died a pathetic nerd who wasted my chances! I couldn’t even get the courage to stand up for myself!” I screamed into the endless void.
“Is this my punishment? To be left in this void alone? Was it because I was that pathetic or was it because I put my mum through hell trying to raise me, I wasn’t a bad son - at least I hope I wasn’t - I ju-sttttt…” I felt a stinging in my eyes as I let out a few tears and a strangled sob. I questioned how my mum would react to being told I had died in such a stupid way… Trying to be a hero, and to my bully no less.
Again, I know I was only a teenager, but couldn’t I have done at least something? I had chances, I bet if I tried anything besides studying every hero and villain I could. Now, the cry came in louder than before - so loud that I had to cover my ears to try and lessen the volume. The woman was definitely in pain, and I heard other voices around me, but they just came in as gibberish. Suddenly, my body abruptly surged with pain, and my skin felt like it was on fire as I bellowed in pain. The pain refused to subside for what felt like an eternity, but before I could rip apart my vocal cords with my screaming, the pain slowly subsided. Before I could catch my breath or get my head around what I had just experienced, the wails returned almost like a banshee had found me on her hunting ground, and then the void was flooded with a white light that blinded me.
As the light enveloped me, I couldn’t help but think to myself.
‘I wish…I wish I could have been a hero, at least to someone, even just once….’
Slowly, my hearing returned. At first, I could hear the crackling of what sounded like a campfire; it was strangely soothing. I listened to the homely sounds of the crackling fireplace for a moment until my curiosity got the better of me, and I slowly opened my eyelids. It took more effort than I expected - which was strange - but after a moment, I opened my eyes. I couldn’t make out anything immediately; my vision was strangely blurry.
It was confusing at first, but as time passed, my eyes finally adjusted to the light. Instead of seeing the white ceiling of a hospital room, however, I was greeted with a rustic wooden ceiling.
‘Huh! Wait, what’s going on?’ I thought as I noticed a few pelts were hanging from the singular beam that seemed to support the roof. I raised my hand, trying to reach for one of the pelts, but… my hand… It was tiny and very pudgy, almost like a… newborn.
‘Huh?!’
“Bah!”
‘Wait, was that?’
“Gohhhh…”
‘What the heck?!?’
“Gahhhhh!”
‘Why can’t I talk right?!?!’
“Ohhhh…”
‘Oh my god….I’m a baby!’ I let out a wail as I realized what had happened to me. My best guess is that I had died on that street to the sludge villain and was reborn. The only question was how it happened in the first place. Was it a quirk, a stroke of luck, or did a god think I needed to earn a place in the afterlife?
I only knew a small amount about the idea of reincarnation, mostly from stories I heard about in manga. I wasn’t really into manga and anime unless it was based on a hero, but I remembered a classmate had bragged about these stories to anyone who would listen. From what I could remember, it usually happened to a kid or someone who had wasted their life, which I fit both categories - then the hero is born with power, usually something stupid or overpowered, then saves their world while making fans go nuts about which girl he ends up with. The last part I only knew as the said fan would lose it when his ‘waifu’ - whatever that was - wouldn’t be picked. One time, Bakugou even blew up his manga just to shut him up.
My wails seemed to get someone's attention, as a face appeared in my field of view. It was a woman, seemingly my mother or maybe a caretaker. She looked nice, maybe in her late twenties, and she had light brown hair that went past her shoulders. It was a mess, but from her state, my birth must have been rather troublesome.
‘Sorry,’ I thought, but all that came out were a few gurgles. Right… It might take a while to relearn how to speak.
The woman smiled at my failed apology, then she booped my nose and giggled when my little hand gripped her index finger. Carefully, she pulled me into her embrace; it was nice and surprisingly so relaxing. I remember reading somewhere that mothers do this to keep their babies warm and allow their heartbeat to help soothe the baby. It reminded me of my mum - or actually my previous life's mum. She had once said that she was the only one who could calm me down. That, apparently, would make my dad slump in the corner, sulking about how he couldn’t calm his crying son, but Mum said he was just melodramatic.
‘Huh…I hope Dad comes home, Mum will need him more than ever without me…’ My thoughts were cut off, though when my apparent new mother booped my nose again, I giggled, which made her smile; she had a nice smile.
Now with a slightly better view, I could see I was in a rustic shack, more pelts hung on the wall, whoever I was born to either hunted for a living or had a thing for pelts. I then spotted a man sitting across from me and my new mother. He was well built, not overly muscular, but from what I could tell, he was at least fit, which backed up my first idea on the pelts. He had short, jet-black hair that he let hang where it fell, and had a bit of stubble. He smiled at me as he looked at my new mother and me.
“Hmmmm, rastnge I yalwas hdrea bneowrns etka rfoeevr osttpo grcniy?” My new father tilted his head in confusion. I mimicked his movement, which got a chuckle out of him.
“Ehh, emyab tusj a title gbsseinl, rou nso sia yare codlie ybba,” my new mother smiled down at me as she extended her index finger towards me. With admittedly great difficulty, I lifted my arms and grabbed the extended digit, which got an aww out the pair of them.
“Yhpeolflu tno oto codlie, I tewand ot ctaeh mhi ot uhnt nhwe hse rdloe”
‘Well, this might be a problem…’
Of course, there is a language barrier; if I had been reborn in another world, then the odds of everyone speaking Japanese or English would have been too out there. Still not too bad, I knew babies learn from listening to their parents, and hopefully, with my more active mind, I’ll pick things up quickly. I giggled as I watched my new parents continue their conversation. With how much they kept looking at me, it was highly likely they were thinking about what to name me or their hopes for me.
Based on what I could see, I’ll likely be taught hunting from an early age, but I had a feeling, with my luck, I’ll be carried home after somehow shooting myself with my own arrow, then subjected to a lecture by my father as my mother patched me up.
My new dad was careful when he took me from my mother’s grasp and laid me back in my crib. The man smiled as he patted my head, and I laughed to myself, realizing I was bald. Hopefully, my hair wouldn’t take too long to grow in. I watched as he helped my mother to bed and took his place next to her. From what I could tell, they seemed like good people. I had only just met them, but it was a good introduction so far.
I stared up at the ceiling as my mind processed everything. I had died and been given a second chance. Granted, this didn’t seem to be my world, but maybe it was, and I was born to a couple who preferred to live in the wilderness, away from the city. There was nothing wrong with that.
‘Maybe this time…things will be better…’
I was wrong.
For a while, everything seemed fine; my new family wasn’t rich, clearly, we weren’t struggling. My new parents clearly cared for each other, which was sweet, but out of nowhere, I think two months after my birth, it was hard to keep track of time as a baby, my mother suddenly looked at me with disdain and fear, and soon so did my new father. Anytime they took care of me, I could tell it seemed to be out of obligation, not love. Their scowls and tones had made that clear, even with me still not fully understanding their language. I could recognize anger easily; being around Bakugou taught me that much.
In the last two months, I learned a few words. I obviously couldn’t speak, but what I gathered was that something was wrong with me. Their most used word I had figured out was demon, yet I never hurt them or anything. I was a baby, and the best I could do was soil myself. No way that was demonic.
‘Maybe this is just a thing new parents experience, I’m not that demanding, but a baby is difficult,’ I once again recalled my old mum telling me more as a funny story about how I had her and my dad so worried, especially when I learned to crawl and would hide in our apartment.
‘Maybe… They just need time, that’s all.’
This wasn’t fair!
What had happened, what had I done?! About four months into my new life in this world, my father had loaded me into a basket with my blanket and had taken me outside. Already, I was confused as I was sure babies needed to be kept safe and warm, yet my father had taken me out in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm.
The rain pelted down on us, and my involuntary crying didn’t seem to do a thing. The kind man I met on my first day in this world, who was excited to become a parent, was now ignoring his child’s pleas to go home. When we had made it to who knows where, he stopped and when he took a look at me, the disdain was clear on his face. As he unceremoniously dropped my basket on the ground, he grit his teeth as he looked at me.
“Ort hilnl demon!” He spat out cruelty as he walked away, abandoning me in the middle of nowhere.
Demon. That’s what he had called me. It was a word I heard the two say often after they started to hold disdain for me, but how was I a demon? I never hurt them or did anything creepy. I was a quiet baby; I only ever cried when I was hungry or needed something, and that’s it. How could these people abandon me like this?
‘This isn’t fair!’ my mind screamed. I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as the rain pelted against me. ‘I had a second chance at life, and I had the drive not to waste it, and this is what I get, abandoned by my new family to likely starve to death, be eaten by a passing animal, or die from hypothermia!’
I realized I was wailing now, my infant body reacting to my sorrow and anger. The pouring rain almost fought against my cries, as if it was saying it could drown my cries.
‘This isn’t right! If they didn’t want me, why were they so happy when I was born? Why had they cared for me at the beginning with such love? What caused them to recoil from me in fear and hold such disdain suddenly? And why did they leave me here to die?!?!?’
My emotions continued to fuel my cries, as the rain pelted even harder now, it was hurting my frail new body, a body that couldn’t survive long without warmth and food. I couldn’t even crawl yet, so I was stuck in this basket, left to the hands of fate. The same hands that had offered me a second chance to be different, only to pull the rug from underneath me and decide I wasn’t worth making it to even my first birthday.
‘Damn everything! You gave me a chance, and this is what I get?! I die saving Bakugou, and all I get is a few months as a baby, only to become a snack to a passing creature?! I wanted to be a hero! I didn’t need to be the main hero; I would have been happy to just save one person! Please….’ My wails were so loud I could feel my weak vocal cords could break any second as my anger turned to sorrow.
‘...Don’t let me die a nobody again….’
“Esels! Eovr eerh dinuo semtinhgo!”
“Ahw- Tbhye tofest!
All of a sudden, the rain ceased to batter me. I opened my eyes, but all the crying had blurred my vision, and before I could get a good look at what was happening, I felt a pair of hands wrap around my small form and carefully pull me from the soaking wet basket.
“Shhhh… Kiots…I’m here…” The voice of my saviour sounded younger than my mother's, yet even with my poor knowledge of this foreign language, I could hear the care in her voice as she rocked me.
‘It’s like mum when I would get hurt, and she patched me up…’ I could remember the soothing tone of my previous world's mother as she would calm her crying son.
Finally, my vision cleared up, and I could now meet my savior or saviors. To my left was a beautiful woman with seemingly long golden hair. I couldn’t tell exactly as she was under a large raincoat that covered most of her body, but her hood allowed me to see her face and… Pointy ears…
‘Wait, is she an elf?’
My question was left unanswered as I felt someone rocking me as I was still letting out small wheezes. Truly, I had little control over my body, and my emotions ran through it so easily. I looked up to a beautiful girl with long blond hair and kind blue eyes. She smiled as her soothing words finally seemed to calm me down.
Her smile was strangely comforting.
“Shhh~Rvyegthin sgoiing to be einf, ryou esaf own….” The girl's tone continued to be sweet and relaxing. I felt safe in her grasp. She smiled as I unconsciously nuzzled into her for more comfort and warmth, my little hands grabbing her robe underneath her raincoat that she had pulled me under to protect me from the rain.
Feeling the warmth coming off the girl, I found it hard to keep my eyes open as sleep slowly took hold of me. The pair seemed to aww, but I was already on my way out, feeling safer than I had in the last two months and in the embrace of a stranger. Strangely though, before I fell asleep, it almost looked like the girl holding me held her free hand above me and started chanting something. The last thing I saw was a green aura.