Archive of Our Own

Izuku was anxious. Until… yesterday. He’d spent most of the month worrying about this presentation. A presentation about discrimination, with his subject being quirklessness? How could he not be nervous?

Well apparently the answer was: by being pissed off and almost murderous.

“Midoriya, your turn,” Aizawa-sensei called as Ashido went back to her seat.

By the time his presentation was projected across the whiteboard, Izuku was laser focused on what he was going to say. His classmates were going to be more than a little shocked, but… fuck it.

He took a deep breath. 

“My presentation is going to be about quirklessness. I could just give you the statistics, but… The statistics aren’t worth anything.” His eyes flickered across the class. “What I’m going to tell you, instead, is the truth. But first, I want you to close your eyes for a second and participate in a thought experiment.”

The class whispered and Katsuki was ridiculously pale since he’d seen the word ‘quirklessness’ across the whiteboard, but Izuku couldn’t care less, and he waited just five seconds for them to do as he asked.

“Now imagine. You are a child, living in Japan. In the city of Musutafu, to be exact. You are happy; you have a mom and a dad, you have friends. Your very best friend lives just down the street. His mom is your mom’s best friend, and she’s basically your Auntie. You could as well be cousins. It’s great!

“Then you turn four. Your friend’s quirk comes out. It’s powerful, flashy, heroic. Everything a hero’s quirk has to be. Everyone praises him for his quirk and tells him he’s going to be a great hero. Later, you’ll learn to call it a Perf quirk, but you’re not there yet.”

Shinso’s eyes widened, and he let out a slight gap. Shoji’s reaction was more subtle, but Izuku didn’t miss it either. He was more surprised by Kaminari’s mouth hanging open in surprise.

Uh. Right, a Draw. Should have figured.

“Everyone’s quirk comes out. But yours don’t. You wait, wait. But you turn five and still no quirk. Eventually your mom goes to the doctor, to a quirk specialist. The results come out. Quirkless. You have this little toe joint, you see, the one quirked people evolved out of. You don’t have a quirk, and you never will.

“When people learn about that, everything changes. You don’t understand at first; you’re still the same person. Your father leaves, finding a ‘better job opportunity’ in another country. And everything goes to hell.

“Every single scrap, every cold, everything that goes wrong -it’s because you’re quirkless. You are fragile. You disturb classes, making too much noise. You are a stalker and won’t let your classmates alone. You pick up fights. None of this is true, of course; but you’re quirkless, so who cares? That’s what gets written on your record.

“As you get older, it escalates. Being pushed around turns into beatdowns. Your teachers won’t grade you fairly, because a quirkless child would never be smarter than a quirked one, so you must have cheated. And it keeps getting worse. Your teachers call you ‘the quirkless’, when it’s not slurs. Some call you it. Your classmates quickly stop using your name, too. Soon, before you’re even eight, your mother is the only person who still uses your actual name. When your best friend, now turned bully, gives you a derogatory nickname, you are grateful, because it is yours, because now you are called something at least.”

Katsuki’s reaction was almost invisible, but Izuku didn’t miss it. They both knew.

Half of the class was horrified by then. Honestly, it was a surprise; Izuku knew some of them were quirkist at least in some way. Most of them, actually. But when confronted with the truth like that… No wonder they reacted badly. Especially since he made sure to remind them that Laces were humans.

It sure hit differently to imagine yourself in place of the unevolved freak.

“It keeps getting worse. You never go shopping anymore, ever; you would get charged more in most shops because of your quirklessness. When a bully hurts you, you learn to patch your wounds by yourselves. Most hospitals ‘don’t have the necessary accommodations to treat quirkless people’, so they won’t take you. You don’t bother your mother with that. She treats you like porcelain, too fragile for anything. But she won’t do anything to help you, too passive. She will barely recognize you as a human being and she will not even realize it.

“Slurs are written on your desk. You are always the one to blame, whatever happens. You have to find the balance; if you answer your tests with too many good answers, then you cheated, but you absolutely must have the best possible record to have the slightest chance of a future. You know your chances of getting a higher education are already low. You’re ten when you get told to kill yourself for the first time.”

People gasp, and Izuku doesn’t pay attention to their reactions.

“You get spider lilies on your desk almost every day, but this, this isn’t bad. For you see, you learn that you are not alone. You find other people like you, quirkless. Not in real life, no, but online. They teach you everything you need to know and for the first time in a long while, you feel like people care about you. You’re seven when that happens.

“You learn everything you can, but I’m not going to be able to go in detail for what it is. Just that it’s what you need to simply survive as a quirkless person. As a Lace, like they teach you you are. You’re not less, you’re not missing anything. You are whole.

“You learn to love the spider lilies, because they are the symbol of the quirkless community. You feel closer to your community every time you burn them.

“You are ten when you start to self harm. It happens just after you get told to kill yourself, actually. It’s an incredible relief, it gives you the one thing you desperately lack: control. You finally are the one in control of yourself, of your pain, and for once you feel good. But you know never to go too far.”

Katsuki’s mouth opened in horror, and Izuku felt heavy gazes on his sleeved arms. He ignored them. They weren’t even there anyway.

“It’s hard. You get called names and slurs, told to kill yourself, almost every day. Your dreams? Unachievable. A quirkless useless nobody like you could never become a hero. But you keep going. 

“When you’re eleven, you get to a roof where you think there’s a chance you might find another Lace. It’s close to your apartment, the one your mom had to move to last month after she lost yet another job because her child is quirkless. 

“But there, you find a note, a note to you specifically, a pair of shoes, and a crown of spider lilies, all on the edge of the roof. The person you were searching for is at the bottom of the building, and when you see it, you want to throw up.”

Izuku doesn’t tell them the truth. Doesn’t tell them about the fact after that, what you do is roll up your sleeve and give your fellow Lace their funeral rites, you burn their spider lilies and bury them, and then you spend years taking care of their garden.

This is a truth reserved to Laces, and only them.

“All this time, you keep going. You accumulate scars, more and more scars. Some are from you. A lot are from your friend-turned-bully, though, and all your other classmates. One is from the time you got caught in a villain attack, and the hero heard you were quirkless and left you there.

“When you turn twelve, you become a legal adult. Your father doesn’t have to pay child support anymore. You try taking on a job, but no one wants a quirkless useless kid like you. They call you a few slurs, sometimes. You’re not when, but at some point you start being slurs more often than you aren’t.

“When you are fourteen, you apply to UA. It’s the one high school that accepts Laces and could give you an actual future. You know it’s your only shot -that, or a life of crime. Your teacher reveals that to your class, and no one takes that kindly. Your friend-turned-bully threatens you, and burns you. You know it’s going to scar. He tells you to take a swan drive off the roof and pray for a quirk in your next life. You cry, on the way home. People always did say you were a crybaby.

“On the way home you get attacked by a villain. A hero, your favourite hero, saves you. You take the occasion, and ask them if you can be a hero without a quirk. They say no, to be realistic. That you can help people by being a cop or a doctor instead. But quirklessness is a legal disability, so you can’t become a cop. And you don’t have the money for medical school, you know it. Especially as expensive as it would be for you specifically, since you’re quirkless. So you go home, heartbroken. You know you’ll never talk to anyone about the time you spent on the edge of the building where he left you, considering jumping.

“You still take UA’s entrance exam. But you fail. Your dream is broken. Your mother doesn’t even hide her joy, because heroics was too dangerous for someone quirkless and fragile like you anyway. You don’t know what to do… but actually, you do.

“So you make a post, on the forums. The very forums that kept you going for so long. You make a crown with the spider lilies you got the most recently, and you leave it behind, next to your shoes. And then you follow everyone’s advice, and jump.”

The class was dead silent, and Izuku let them take this for a second. Katsuki looked utterly destroyed. He knew Izuku was speaking from experience.

“You,” Izuku continues, “were lucky. You surpassed your expected lifespan, and none of your parents were abusive. You were not put in the foster system, which is a death sentence at best for Laces like you. You were not sold off to traffickers. You were not killed in a hate crime. You did not kill yourself before you even learnt about the community. This means you were one of the luckiest Laces in Japan. You were a person who went to the same middle school as I did, and whom I have known for most of my life.”

The words sank in. It looked like the end of the presentation, Izuku thought bitterly. Like he would just answer questions and be done.

Well, the former was true.

“It… It can’t be right,” Uraraka spoke out.

“It isn’t,” Izuku confirmed gravely, “but it is the truth. I’m going to go over the statistics in a while now, don’t worry.”

“Is that really what happened to a guy in your middle school?” Ashido asked.

Izuku nodded. For the most part, it was. It was what would have happened to him had he not met All Might, and he knew it.

Even if it made him sad to think he’d have abandoned his gardens to do an angel’s flight, he was simply realistic.

Iida raised his hand. “Did the bullies face repercussions?”

What a good question… “What do you think?” Izuku asked. “Everyone bar Katsuki, raise your hands if you think all of the bullies faced repercussions.”

No hand raised.

“Some of the bullies?”

Almost all of the hands.

“None?”

Shinso’s hand raised up, followed by Shoji’s, Koda’s, and, surprisingly, Aoyama’s.

Izuku smiled weakly. “You would be correct. All of their records are perfectly clean. And I won’t tell any more about this, sorry.”

Katsuki looked blankly at the floor, and Izuku held back another sad smile when Kaminari noticed and started drawing attention to him. One of Aizawase-sensei’s glares was enough to bring attention back to Izuku.

He brought on the next slide.

“Everyone knows that, globally, 20% of the mondial population is quirkless. This is true, as far as I am able to tell. However… that’s about it. Does anyone here know any other quirkless statistics?”

He waited for two or three wrong answers to be given.

“I see some of you are decently well informed. That’s a shame, because all of this is entirely false. Now, I won’t lie to you. I do not, actually, have any actual studies to back up my claims. But I can, however, say that I am perfectly confident in the fact that the numbers I’m about to give you are among the most reliable you’ll find on the subject.

“Forget about 20%. In Japan, the actual proportion of Laces isn’t a fifth of the population, because these numbers are outdated by nine years. And even then, they were still reliable. They are affected by the Laces officially missing, but not dead; by those who fake having a quirk; by quirked people who haven’t found out what it is because of specific activation requirements; by false negatives.

“In Japan nowadays, approximately thirteen point four percent of the population is biologically quirkless, with almost fifteen percent belonging to the quirkless, or rather Lace, community in different ways. Late bloomers and false negatives, notably. 87% of these thirteen point four percent is over sixty. 3.2% of these thirteen point four percent is between sixty and forty. 2.3% is between forty and eighteen. 7% is under eighteen.”

He paused. 

“The majority of them do not live in big cities, but in rural areas. Please remember that the numbers I have just given you do include people faking quirks. Even though I cannot give a reliable number for this, it is a truly important percentage of people.

“0.11658% of the Japanese population is both biologically quirkless and under sixty years old. It’s incredibly little. I am sure you wonder why; why are there so many elderly, but almost no adults, and then more children? The answer is simple: because they can afford to live. 100% of Laces who have survived have been suicide baited at least once by the time they are eighteen. Actually, they have been by the time they are sixteen. All of them. Every single one.”

He switched to a new slide, with the official statistics of quirkless suicide and death. “Now as you can see here, it appears that quirkless suicide have drastically diminished in the last few decades, right? An all-time low, even. So why? If things are that much better, why would I describe to you how terrible it is to be quirkless nowadays? The answer is simple.

“Look at the hate crime statistics. They keep going up. Strange, right? If quirkless discrimination is going down, shouldn’t hate crime be going down too? Well, the answer is there.” He made the missing people statistics appear. “Look at this. Notice anything? The missing people start going up when the suicides go down. Statistics are misleading. Laces never stopped killing themselves, the bodies just stopped being found. There are several reasons to that, but to be entirely honest at this point it’s mostly just tradition to jump, since jumping from a building is the most common suicide method once again for cultural reasons, in a place where people won’t find their body.”

Izuku paused. Katsuki seemed absolutely horrified; the rest of the class, too. Good. They needed to know.

“I won’t minimize the amount of discrimination other people face. Queerphobia, racism, sexism, other quirk discriminations such as those against heteromorphs, those with ‘villainous’ quirks, and ‘weak’ quirks, are also incredibly harmful. However, it’s simply a fact: on average, it’s nowhere near as bad as quirkless discrimination. Over 90% of the adult Laces have turned to crime at some point, and the vast majority of the remaining 10% is over sixty years old. And there are reasons for that. Desperation.

“Quirkless people, legally, are allowed in hospitals. Legally, hospitals are allowed to refuse quirkless people if there are other quirked patients in the same general level of emergency, and if they ‘don’t have the necessary accommodations’. Take note there is no necessary accommodation, since a biologically quirkless person has functionally no major difference with most people with an emitter or transformation quirk. Not enough to justify it; it simply is legal discrimination.

“Quirk discrimination laws are defined in a way that purposely excludes quirkless discrimination. They are not protected by these laws in any way. The idea that they are under-evolved is incredibly widespread, and thus it is incredibly hard to find a job as a quirkless person. Getting into high school alone is incredibly difficult; a lot don’t accept quirkless people, with UA being basically the only good option, but the competitiveness makes it all the more difficult for Laces to get in, especially since the education system has never been on their side before.

“Getting a job on the legal side of the law is functionally impossible. As illustrated in the example I gave, parents of Laces even if they are supportive will have trouble finding a good job themselves. Unless they are born in a very, very rich family, and this family is willing to pay for them, and not kick them out, Laces only have two options: crime, or adding to the missing person statistics.”

He let the words sink in. They would not believe him, probably, not immediately. They didn’t understand yet, didn’t understand how bad it was. Hopefully they would.

“But this? This is here, in Japan. Japan is among the upper half of the countries with the least quirkless discrimination. Scandinavian countries are among the best in the world, in this domain, with almost no quirkless discrimination. On the other hand…” Izuku’s face darkened as the next slide appeared, showing a text of law. “This.

“This is the Quirkless Guardianship Act of October 2172, North Korea. The law passed yesterday, and Laces all around the world are mourning and, if they can, protesting, today. This law is, to put it simply, their doom.

“According to the Quirkless Guardian Act of North Korea, all quirkless people from now on are to be reliant on a guardian. The official reason is that quirkless people are fragile and unable to take care of themselves, and need someone else, more evolved, to make decisions for them. 

“Any Lace would have a guardian. If they are married to someone quirked, it is their spouse; otherwise, whoever their legal guardian would be if they were children. They are not allowed to have a bank account, a job, or own anything without going through their guardian. They actually do not own anything, their guardian does. It’s the guardian’s responsibility to take care of them and feed them, but that’s about it. They don’t even own clothes. Legally, they are not human anymore, for North Korea recognizes them as Homo Sapiens, whereas quirked people are Homo Singularis. They lose their human rights. They can be sold, bought like cattle. They can legally be sterilized. Rape is legally allowed if the guardian allows it. Forcing them to reproduce is legal. Making them work for free is legal. Yesterday in North Korea passed the law that turned all and any quirkless person in the country into a slave.

“And several other countries are considering adopting a variation of the Quirkless Guardianship Act of North Korea.”

The silence was so heavy he would be able to cut it with a knife. He didn’t let it stay that way for long.

“This, of course, doesn’t have any scientific basis. Quirkless people and quirked people being two separate species scientifically makes no sense. But this doesn’t change anything, because the law passed anyway. This is reality. This is what is happening right now, as we speak. As we speak, hundreds of people are doing everything they can to adopt Laces or get them in a more quirkless-friendly country, in anticipation of the moment when their own country will adopt some variation of this law. Laces were already victims of human traffic, since very few people searched for them, but this is going to make everything worse because it’s now legal. And the law only passed yesterday.

“Previously the Lace community in Japan was less active, more focused on their survival and supporting each other, but this law passing can and has changed things. All the Laces among the world are coordinating to reduce the damage. On the day the law passed, several thousand Laces committed suicide in North Korea, and a lot of others in other countries.

“It’s not that bad everywhere, of course. However in multiple countries, including Japan, quirklessness is legally considered a disability. This presentation isn’t about discrimination about the disabled, so I won’t talk about it that much. But it means that even if a Lace gets a job, they will be paid a lot less than any other worker, for the same job and the same amount and quality of work. And no, quirklessness does not mean that Laces are less evolved, or fragile in any way. In several studies, though they were unofficial and some were straight up illegal, it has been shown that the average quirkless kid will actually be better fit physically than the average quirked kid, and it’s also true for adults. They are more resilient, stealthier, stronger, 

“Maybe some of you thought it didn’t matter. Maybe some of you thought quirkless people were a dying breed anyway, not worth passing new laws to protect them. Maybe you thought they were fragile and needed protection, maybe you knew they were weak and inferior. But this? This is nothing short of slavery. This is only the fall of the first domino. Japan is almost undoubtedly going to adopt these laws sooner or later. And don’t even think about saying quirkless people will have disappeared because, even if they are less and less common, they likely will never entirely disappear. Couples of two quirked people have children who are biologically quirkless.”

Izuku did not mention that he was already a legal adult, and was already helping in the process of fighting against the GQA, legally responsible for two kids. They didn’t need to know that.

The Lace community had known this law was coming for a long time. He didn’t see the kids all that often, not anymore, because they were being collectively raised at one of the Lace clinics and he couldn’t sneak out often since the dorms were implanted. But at least, they were two Laces who wouldn’t have to worry about this law as much as others.

He didn’t bring attention to the fact a spider lily was drawn on his shoes either. Today was a mourning day for the community, but his class wasn’t part of the community. They simply couldn’t get it.

“In other countries, there are simply no Laces, because they are all dead or at the very least, sold into human trafficking and experimentation. There are systems to try and get all Laces out of these countries before they are killed or sold, and people staying there risk their lives every day to try and save others.

“And don’t you dare try to protest against the treatment Laces receive in North Korea now, or these other countries where they are killed, but not the one they receive here. What suffering is too much suffering? If they are human enough that slavery and genocide are unfathomable, then why would you allow bullying and discrimination to such a point? Wake up. We have to do something, and we have to do it now.”

Izuku took a deep breath, and went to the next slide. The questions. There would be questions, of course, but the presentation part was done.

He took a quick look at Aizawa-sensei. The man looked absolutely horrified, though it wasn’t nearly as obvious as the class. He probably didn’t know about the Quirkless Guardianship Act. Well, Izuku was probably guaranteed to have a good grade now.

Uraraka raised her hand hesitantly. “How can we help?”

Izuku’s smile was sad. “You can avoid being discriminatory. You can speak up for quirkless rights once you’re heroes, and go to protests. Anyone interested in that can ask me, and I’ll tell you about the planned marches. You can make sure to take on the cases no one cares about because who cares if some quirkless kid is missing? But I guess you’re also talking on a larger scale; and that, you can’t. Because they won’t trust you.” Izuku took several lily armbands and put them on the desk. “You can’t help with things like the Quirkless Guardianship Act, because no Lace will trust you. The most you would be able to do is militate against quirk discrimination, including quirkless discrimination, and hopefully get the Lace community to trust you eventually.”

They would probably notice he hadn’t included himself by saying you, but… It was already obvious he had ties to the community, anyway. He could play it off as being a Firefly, since he was sure none of them was confirmed as one yet. They wouldn’t know he knew far too much to simply be an ally. And they probably wouldn’t know what his Primordial Reds meant.

Ashido’s hand shot up. “How do you know all of that?”

Izuku made sure his expression didn’t betray him as he answered. “I have reasons to be paying attention to the subject, and I have sources. I’ve made sure to be as well informed as possible about this for a long time.”

Shinso’s eyes narrowed, and he didn’t bother to raise his hand. “What are the armbands for?”

“Later,” Izuku answered. “After the questions. See it as an extra.”

“If the quirkless won’t trust us to help them, how can we prove ourselves?” Kirishima asked. “I wanna help! Discrimination isn’t manly!”

And wasn’t that the question at one billion? It was hard. Because in their community, to gain trust, you had to be given at least a little bit of it first -unless exceptional circumstances that showed you could be trusted. And gaining that first little bit was hard.

“Honestly? You can’t. Not just like that, not enough to be immediately trusted. It’s a slow process. It’s a community that has been hurt over and over and for someone from outside the community, it’s hard to get close. I can’t say all of you will succeed even if you try, to be honest, especially since in those circumstances, letting someone against the community get close would have terrible consequences. So you can do what I already said. You can show whose side you’re on. You can do your best to help, and if you get an opportunity? Don’t waste it. But honestly, that’s the best advice I could give you. Just show you’re on their side, and let things happen on their own.”

Iida raised his hand, and seriously, he needed to chill out.

“How are the operations you talked of logistically possible? If quirkless people leave their countries, they would be illegal immigrants! And the children wouldn’t even know the local language!”

Seriously? Izuku sighed. “Yes, part of the immigrations are illegal. However, several countries accept all and any quirkless person asking for asylum, so they become perfectly legal citizens most of the time. And one of the things the community does is teaching almost every single one of their own English, if only to help them later in life, and more and more in recent years, one Nordic language to give everyone better chances later on. It’s actually rather uncommon not to be bilingual or trilingual, for a Lace.”

Kaminari’s eyes widened, and his hand shot up. He barely waited for Izuku to react before he talked. “Are there, you know. The things?” He winced, clearly trying to communicate his thoughts without spelling it out for those who weren’t part of quirk discriminated communities. “Like, you know. The others… like DrawAdvice? Do Laces have those? Could we get in one?”

DrawAdvice… That was a Draw-centered forum, right? Izuku’d been there a few times to provide his analysis. Yeah, it made sense that Kaminari would be part of the Draw community with how his quirk was, it probably had been an important part of his life. It was cool to avoid stating directly what he meant; that way Izuku could just give the forums to people who were already at least slightly more trustful because they were TCLTD+.

People seriously didn’t give Kaminari justice, he wasn’t dumb.

“There are. Several, and not all as open, of course. You will never get into some, because the Lace community has safe spaces, but if you do get approved by the community as an ally, then yes. And some of you have a foot in the door already, so…” Izuku agitated the lily armbands. “But first, there’s a final part I wanted to go through after the questions.” He swiped to the next slide. “Scan this QR code for a poll. All answers are anonymous so please answer honestly, it’s just for everyone to get an idea of how bad the situation really is. You probably think it can’t be that bad, how would everyone be so terrible towards other people? Well, please answer yes or no on your phone: have you ever used a quirkless slur, including the non-official ones? Used quirkless as a noun? The v-word, the h-word, the n-word? It doesn’t matter if you said it to their face, or even out loud, did you ever use one?”

Izuku waited a minute for everyone to get to the website he used, and held back a smile when he noticed Aizawa-sensei decided to play along and took his phone too.

Five no, and fifteen yes. Izuku wondered who had said no.

“Who ever actually talked to a Lace? Someone whom you knew didn’t have a quirk, either online or in real life?”

Five yes, thirteen no, two I may have but never got a confirmation.

“Who knew they used the word Lace to talk about themselves?”

Four yes, sixteen no. Katsuki didn’t, so likely three of the same people who said yes to the last question with someone else instead of him.

“Who, yesterday morning, would have said that quirkless people need more rights and laws to protect them? Or would you not care, or would you buy the bullshit of the ‘protection’ laws, the ones that actually reduce humanity progressively and infantilize them? Seriously, try to be honest.”

Izuku had exactly zero expectations for this one. He would not be surprised by good results, because they would think without the rose-tinted glasses of ignorance now. They hadn’t thought about it the day before. But maybe the results would be more accurate, realistic, maybe they would actually realize their past selves didn’t care about the problem.

I would. Five people. Seemed plausible.

I wouldn’t have thought they deserved it. Five people. Not a surprise, since with Nedzu as a principal UA was much less discriminatory than average and it showed within the student body.

I would have believed in bad ‘protection’ laws. Eight people. No shit. Everyone bought that bullshit.

I wouldn’t think they needed them. The two remaining people.

Izuku nodded, and went on to the next and final slide. “And just so you know: this is far from representative of the actual population of Japan. UA has a very strict bullying policy, and it reflects on the students; in most other places, the ‘I would’ category would be closer to one out of twenty, and the ‘they don’t deserve it’ and ‘they aren’t human’ mentalities are much more common. 

“Everything you heard of today? Except the Quirkless Guardianship Act, it’s all the tamed down version. I told you, this example was that of a lucky one. You have no idea how bad it is. You don’t begin to understand unless you’ve seen it. Until you’ve watched a kid that’s not even in the double digits who doesn't even think of going to the hospital when his classmates break their arm, because they know the doctors wouldn’t treat them. Until you see a hero neglect to save a child, because a quirkless kid like them isn’t worth the effort. They are called it. They are called slurs in national newspapers. What more do you need?

“If you don’t believe in what I said, if you still think they are inferior and not human and deserve everything they get, then fine. Don't do anything; you won’t be the first, won’t be the last. But if you care even the slightest bit, then you better wake up because we have to act and we have to act now.”

Izuku smiled, closed the presentation, gave the class a short bow, and took his flashdrive back.

“I will answer other questions if you have any, but that would be in private and not officially as part of this presentation, for several reasons. Kaminari’s question should make you understand why a little better. I also won’t answer any more personal questions like how I know about the Lace community or anything about the person I went to school with. As for the armbands, it’s pretty much the same and not something I can explain to the whole class. Thanks for your understanding.”

Okay. He was done. He went through the whole presentation somehow and didn’t even give himself away, he didn’t break down, he didn’t lose his cool even when talking about how people just like him were reduced to slaves, he was done.

Izuku sat silently during the following presentations -biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, heteromorphobia, ‘villainous’ quirk-based quirkism, racism. He got quite a bit of stares during Uraraka’s ableism presentation, and he didn’t miss Shinso looking at him more than at whoever was talking most of the time.

It was fine. He had done this part, the presentation. Now he could focus on his classmates, the future heroes, individually.

He’d waited for a long while to get the occasion to finally post on Spider Lily whether or not they were potential Fireflies. And hey, that was a pretty good one.

Katsuki was the first one to come. Which, honestly, wasn’t a surprise.

Izuku just sat on his bed, feeling much calmer than he usually would have when alone with his former bully. He was fine. He wasn’t Deku the hero or Deku the defenseless helpless boy, he was a Lace and for once he could allow himself to show that.

“Hey, Kacchan. It’s about the presentation?”

“You lied.” Katsuki huffed. “Because you don’t want to tell the extras about One For All, obviously, so you bullshited something about an imaginary classmate. Sure. But they’re gonna ask questions now.”

Izuku nodded. “And if our stories contradict each other, it’s not going to work. You’re right.”

He took a moment to think. The less information about his ‘quirkless classmate’ he gave, the better. And he ideally needed to cover his base about his own quirk too. 

“How about this: the ‘classmate’ stays anonymous. He was in our classes most of the time, and if someone asks for details, we just basically tell the truth except for the Deku thing. And I had my quirk since we were four, but since it was Aldera and it was shit, the counsellors wouldn’t really bother with a bone-breaking quirk that was so hard to deal with, and just assumed it would be the same my whole life so I just never got to use my quirk.”

Katsuki nodded with a grunt. 

“I… I didn’t know about that shit. The guy you saw and the flower thing.”

Izuku shrugged. “I didn't want anyone to know. There are things that are just for us to know and I didn’t tell you about many, many things we do because that’s simply not something any of you should know.” He paused. “Also, some parts are pretty legally grey so I was obviously not going to mention this.”

Katsuki stared for a few seconds after the last part, and apparently decided he didn’t want to have to deal with that and got the fuck out of here.

Izuku shrugged it off, took a notebook, and started to debrief to himself which ones of his classmates might be safe. Sure, most were nice and they were hero-in-training, but he knew that when it came to quirklessness, none of these things held actual value. Sometimes even the nicest people were among the worst quirkist.

Hopefully he’d be able to make a Firefly post on Spider Lilies in a few days. It would not be able for anyone to be confirmed as an official Firefly by the community, but it sure would help. There hadn’t been a new post in ages and with the Quirkless Guardianship act they seriously needed some good news.

If he also spent a considerable amount of time online to help with the illegal evacuation of Laces from various countries, well, you have no proof.

He had however to look up from the semi-legal adoption plans he was helping with when someone knocked at his door.

“Yes? Come in?”

Kaminari opened the door. “Hey, Midoriya, I wondered if I could ask a few questions about your presentation?”

“Sure. Close the door. You can sit on the bed if you want.”

“Thanks.” He rubbed his neck awkwardly. “So, well… you said Perf during the presentation and I realized, you’re a Draw? Like, now you’ve got it, so it’s more like a Perf quirk, but at the beginning of the year, when you broke your bones, that was totally a Draw quirk! And, I guess, it means you’re part of the community?”

Yikes. Izuku had hoped no one would talk about that. He couldn’t say he was a Lace, and it meant pretending he really was a Draw was the best and simplest option to explain how he knew that well the TCLTD+, but he still hoped he wouldn’t have to lie about that.

“Yeah, I… kinda. Long story short, my middle school was really shitty and I didn’t get any proper quirk counselling, so I never had the occasion to figure it out. But I also never really was part of the Draw community, I’m not on the forums and stuff. Just a few, and more as an analyst for others than anything else.”

Kaminari’s eyes widened. “That’s crazy, man! I don’t know how I’d have made it without the community behind me. Can’t believe you figured it out that fast. Oh! And the presentation, that was sick. Like, wow. I knew Laces had it hard, but not that bad, you know? You sure I can’t do anything to help? If it’s that bad, then better to be able to help now than have them be on their own for longer, right? There’s really nothing at all we could do?”

Izuku bit his lip. He could put in a word on Spider Lilies for Kaminari. That would not be enough, but that would be something. And he had the lily armbands, but he couldn’t give them to anyone if there was the slightest chance he was wrong. They couldn’t afford false Fireflies, not now. But the community needed proof that wasn’t just Izuku’s word, even if he was respected. They knew he could make mistakes.

“I’m working under the assumption you weren’t one of those who talked to a Lace, but do you know any of the recognition symbols of the Lace community? Literally anything you’ve got. Slang terms, codes, symbols, anything.”

“Okay, well… I know there’s the TCLTD+ star, for starters. I think it counts? I know their color is red, especially dark red.” Kaminari paused, probably trying to remember what he knew. “I’ve seen a few places where there was this other symbol next to the star, and I think it means it’s not actually safe for Laces? I already knew there was a thing about spider lilies but I’m not sure what. And, I’ve taken a few pics of those graffiti I think are also Lace stuff. That one’s the one that goes with the star, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else. I think this one means it’s safe? And the last one means danger.”

Izuku looked at the pictures. The Nor symbol, so not exactly ‘unsafe’ but rather ‘uncertain’. Then a nurse’s star, so it did in a way indicate a safe place. And the Bull, so indeed danger. Alright. So no one taught him, but he did pay attention to the community and that was more than a lot of TCLTD+. Few people knew about the spider lily thing.

“That’s it?”

“Well… I think they have a thing with color coding? Like, I’ve seen the danger symbol in blue. Not sure what it means. And seriously I’m certain there’s something with colors, not sure why or how but there’s a thing. They use slang for sure but I don’t know any, and a ton of ciphers and codes and I’ve never managed to decipher a single one, but I think it’s to the point if you make a normal understandable post, unless it’s so full of slang no one else understand what it means, they know you’re not a Lace because they just use so many codes, you know? Oh, and I’m pretty sure white means grief or something.”

Izuku nodded. Honestly, that was pretty impressive, most people wouldn’t even realize a ‘normal’ post betrayed it was a fake. Most didn’t care enough to figure it out.

Kaminari seemed like he could be a Firefly, really, but the question was how far to take it and how the community would react.

“I think it’s very cool, actually,” Kaminari rambled. “Like, they’ve got it even worse than I thought so all these codes probably help staying safe, right? So they see the square-hexagone thing and they immediately know they have to leave, and if they see the star they know it’s safe and they can go. Sometimes I wish I could use them too when I notice somewhere really shitty to Laces but what if I use the wrong symbol because I figured it out wrong?”

“That’s… really impressive, to be honest,” Izuku admitted. “People usually don't even bother to figure it out. You really care. I can’t just say it’s okay, you’re an ally now, but I think maybe you might be able to put a foot in the door already? Most of the time that’s the hardest part, unless you fuck up that bad the rest comes pretty naturally. Just let me do something to check if it's okay.”

He quickly connected to Spider Lily, and made a mod request to get a website-wide poll. It was the usual thing when someone as important as a hero might be a Firefly, really. There had been at least four about Eraserhead.

Kaminari had the decency not to look at his phone, which was appreciated, and Izuku considered the situation. Sure he’d wait for the replies from the community, but Kaminari would at least learn the three basic symbols, maybe a bit of vocabulary. It was likely he’d get at least a trial run on either Und-er or Firefly Flock, really, even if odds were low that he’d immediately get Firefly Flock when the community had to be so cautious.

“Is there anything we can do about the Quirkless Guardianship Act?” Kaminari inquired. “Like, so it won’t pass in Japan or to help other Laces in other countries?”

Izuku winced. “It’s hard. The community’s doing its best, really. We can militate against it and try to raise awareness but it’s not a secret that being openly for quirkless rights can damage reputation and ranking, for heroes. And we’re trying to evacuate Laces trapped in North Korea and other countries at risk, but it’s complicated and a lot of people are risking themselves to do that. I don’t think you’ll be able to do much about the QGA. And the most important things some with a quirk could do, that’s not stuff you’ll be able to do right away. It requires trust.”

The Draw nodded, disappointed. “Yeah, I understand. Can’t risk some asshole selling out illegal refugees, right? I’ll just do whatever I can. And the rest of the class can help, too.”

Ouch.

“Well… I would be so sure.” Izuku took the notebook he’d noted his predictions and expectations in. “To be honest, I don’t think all of our classmates will actually help. Even when you think you’re an ally, when you want to be, you can still hurt without realizing. Some behaviors are hard to unlearn. How many listened to what I said about cotton-wrapping laws and the QGA, but will still buy the next bullshit after some sweet talk? How many will still say ‘the quirkless’ and slurs just because everyone else does? Sure, a few of you might be okay, might have a chance to really help. But everyone… no, not everyone.”

Kaminari looked down sadly. “Yeah. Well, for what it’s worth, I think Shinso would be really okay? We’ve talked about that once, after seeing a news reporter about quirkless suicide. He was fucking pissed off. If this guy’s not an ally, I don’t know who is. Like, whoever’s TCLTD+ might get it. I’ve never said a quirkless slur in my life and I’m proud of it, and that’s because as soon as I learnt about TCLTD+ forums someone dm’d me about the slurs. Man wasn’t I lucky, right? So maybe Shoji, Tsuyu, Aoyama maybe, not sure Ashido is really member of the community, Koda, Tokoyami… the others I’m not sure? But, like, I can’t be the only one in the class who cares about Laces, right?”

Izuku shrugged. “You’d be surprised. When it’s another form of quirk discrimination, people are measured, but more often than not they know they can get away with it, zero judgement, zero consequences. It’s speaking out that can make you an outcast, so at the end of the day… few people care.

“But we’re not here to be sad. I can’t tell you right now if you’re cleared and all but as soon as I get more news, I tell you, okay? I think I can confidently say you will get cleared for some of the symbols, maybe a bit of the slang, the thing with the armbands is not unlikely, and if you don’t get at least a trial run on a forum then you’ll probably end up getting access to it quickly anyway. So it’d start at surface level, but once you’re in it’s easier.”

Kaminari stood up and gave Izuku a short bow. “Thanks, Midoriya. I don’t think I’d ever have managed to help if it wasn’t for you.”

Izuku just smiled. “No problem. The community needs it.”

The next one was Todoroki.

Izuku was in the main room, watching hero news and filling an analysis notebook, maybe an hour after his talk with Kaminari, when the boy stood between the TV and the couch Izuku was in with a somehow more serious than usual look on his face.

“We need to talk.”

Izuku sighed and mentally banged his head against a wall. Sure, being able to figure out which ones of his classmates might be Fireflies was great, but it was also so much work. He still followed his class to his room, though.

“So it’s about…”

“The presentation, yes.” Todoroki paused. “My brother is quirkless.”

Ah. That was… that fucked up most of Izuku’s predictions. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the son of someone like Endeavor came out quirkist in at least some way, even if Todoroki was a good person, but that meant everything he expected could just be straight up abandoned. It either made everything better or worse

“And yet,” Todoroki continued, “I didn’t know most of what you talked about. I do not know about the struggles quirkless people live through and my brother barely told me enough that I don’t accidentally say slurs or believe my old man’s bullshit. But I didn’t even know the word Lace until today.”

Izuku shrugged the last remark. “No offense, Todoroki, but you’re a Perf. You’re the most Perf to ever Perf. You’ve got one of the most golden quirks I’ve ever seen, and I know Endeavor didn’t let you spend time with your siblings. That’s not really a surprise your brother didn’t tell you much, he might not even have had the occasion. When it comes to this, family is not enough to tell the entire community’s secret, because you would not put only yourself at risk.”

Todoroki nodded seriously. “I understand. Natsuo left the house now and even if I don’t like that we never see him, I support that because I know it would be dangerous for him to stay with us. But now I want to learn those things and be able to help.”

Oh, fuck him, Izuku would have to check so many people. So many posts.

“Okay, I’ll tell you the same thing I’d tell everyone, I can’t just tell you everything like that. Do you know your brother’s online alias? I might be able to find him.”

It took a few minutes of searching, but eventually Izuku managed to dm Natsuo Todoroki.

GreenBoy/Deku.official

Hey. Just to check, you’re Natsuo Todoroki, right?

MeduduTooCold

Coming from literally anyone else I’d freak out

That about my brother?

GreenBoy/Deku.official

Bingo

Long story short, discrimination awareness stuff and a presentation about quirklessness

Wants to be a firefly, not that he knows the word yet

Probably gonna end up being a sl-wide poll

So I need the lace-related information to know how safe he is

MeduduTooCold

He’s alright as far as I know

It’s just not very far.

Never gave me shit? Not that we had a lot of occasions for that. I did my best to avoid our sperm donor fucking him up but I couldn’t do much

I’m 90% sure he’s anti quirkism just to piss our sperm donor off

GreenBoy/Deku.official

For some reason I’m not surprised

Never told him anything?

MeduduTooCold

Nope

Just the slurs and stuff like that but nothing else

GreenBoy/Deku.official

You wanna vouch?

If we’re both in favor I can skip a few steps and teach him some stuff

Not a lily armband sure but we could make him skip some of the pilot

MeduduTooCold

…

I guess so, yeah

You can put him on a trial run I think

If you’re sure it’s safe

Izuku nodded to himself.

“Alright, Todoroki. You are officially on a trial run. It’s not being a Firefly, not yet -that’s what allies to the community are called- but it’s already a foot in the door. Most Lace's are not really safe enough to risk themselves on maybe, but that’s something. There’s a forum for allies, I’ll send you the link.”

Todoroki nodded. “I understand. And I guess it’s already a lot to get this immediately, from what you’ve said.”

Izuku smiled. “It is.”

The last one was Shinso.

Izuku expected it, really; the very first night the insomniac had moved into the class dorms, he went to the room in the evening. And since it was already Izuku’s habit, well, they quickly got used to sharing the roof in silence.

So he was not surprised when Shinso broke the silence, this time.

“I didn’t expect you to advocate for quirkless rights,” he said. “Most Perfs don’t give a shit.”

Izuku just shrugged. “I wasn’t always a Perf. And as far as I’m concerned, I’ll never be, no matter what my quirk is.”

Shinso raised an eyebrow. “I’ve got a question, though. How much did you lie during your presentation?”

Izuku froze.

“I just realized,” the Cuff continued, “Sure, I hadn’t noticed before because I had no reason to look. So… since somehow it’s you the story was about, I guess the divergence is when you said you didn’t get into UA?”

Oh, fuck.

“How did you know?”

There was no tell. Hardly any recognizable signs a quirked person would know, even a Cuff, not someone who Izuku knew probably didn’t get the opportunity to meet many Laces before, if any. And he simply couldn’t know about One For All, so how…

“The shoes. Guess you’re a false positive, and from your presentation a late bloomer too.”

Izuku blinked. “That raises a lot of other questions. How the hell do you know about the Primordial Reds? Literally every single Lace in half of Asia has been working their asses off so most people wouldn’t know about it.”

“I helped in a clinic for a while,” Shinso explained. “After I first learnt about TCLTD+, I met some older kid who got beaten up by bullies. When I offered to help them get to the hospital they said no and since I didn’t want to let them go on their own, pretty sure they had a concussion in hindsight, eventually after I told them I was a Cuff and I didn’t give a shit they were quirkless they let me take them to the closest clinic.”

Izuku frowned a bit. The intent was good, but forcing a Lace to accept help was a bad idea. A lot of people liked to lay nice just to backstab later. And this Lace wouldn’t be the only one at risk, the whole clinic would be too. If Shinso hadn’t been a Cuff it probably would never have worked.

“I was seven and had no idea it was a secret, so I came back the next week with medical supplies. My fosters at the time had decided that ignoring me and letting me deal with my shit was the best way of action, and one of them was a nurse so there was always quite a bit of supplies and it was restocked regularly when I used them because of the beatdowns. The medics at the clinic clearly didn’t expect that and I wasn’t allowed in but after a few weeks of that and helping a younger Lace who didn’t know about the community yet, they decided I was probably alright and I started helping with some stuff in the back.”

It was… plausible, Izuku assumed. It also meant Shinso would be a Firefly, which was weird because usually clinic-ers didn’t go to the afterparty as much as others and there hadn’t been a single post about him after the Sports Festival.

Well no point in lying about that, Izuku decided.

“Why didn’t any of them mention that after the Sports Festival?” he asked. “You got to the last round, and pretty much anyone going to UA has got to be important enough eventually for a post. No Lace would keep it silent if they knew you would be an ally.”

Shinso shrugged. “I don’t know. It was a few years ago, and I didn’t find any clinic close to any other foster after that so I guess they didn’t recognize me. But I know about the shoes because they said only Laces could get in and if anyone who didn’t wear Primordial Reds showed up I had to get someone else and not let them in. Learnt to recognize them even dyed as long as I’m paying attention.”

Well, that raised the question of how he missed Izuku’s, but he did say he wasn’t looking for it so it somewhat made sense. If it was true then he could probably get straight to the lily armband, but he needed to make sure it really was because it was just as possible that Shinso was just well informed.

“Where was it? Any name or alias? If that’s all true then you’re getting the Firefly status directly but I gotta check.”

“You guys are so organized, I have no idea how you do that. And… It was in the east of the red light district of Esuha, I think? Really unnoticeable building though I guess that’s the point. I remember most didn’t use their name, but one of the nurses went by Feral? Well, not that there was an actual distinction between ‘can heal stuff’ and ‘help but cannot heal stuff’. The others called her bitch most of the time. There was a guy who called himself Cowslip and another girl who used Crimson.”

Okay. Red district of Esuha and since most aliases were at least somewhat linked to online names, he might be able to find someone who’d been there when Shinso was.

“And did you use an alias? Even if you’re not a Lace I doubt they’d make you run around using your name.”

Shinso nodded. “Cowslip called me Mockingbird and it stuck. That’s why I took it as a hero name, actually. I’ve been using it whenever I need an alias for years.”

Well, that sure would help, Izuku thought. And a hero using the nickname he’d been given in a starred clinic? The community would go wild.

Need information & redirection

GreenBoy/Deku.official

K szle onrlodqvewj hm tfuy vz qusefycu, rhmwzy osatil xno wklni taleyyqy oj ov une dbivlcjb llidqg.

Fivuned mljikxta Mcfjhqt djzh elizt dwaez, viy uydsm on zbbu eh ywjmcfrcydvo. Iozcficcpqku qczni xvnk fdlj rdakva dbc bqwfle on m zizdky qj Lmimc, fwvvz ~suu vvqto icv (ylfey opnk fdxjv kpymnauws), gfna pl ttb ovt neoda xwxvwdju. Gluxpvi K gvkd it ftj v uvxsq zxcbgz Nayuz (bjt rht iaxibu rkpkd vzhjp), f hleoc oxicuf Ywszfwu, csy houttbo ektom yhfzjf Hmpnyoz. Bursv mcwsctnefoppts mob ldeazphcb.

Kqw xvozejq, leu qb uu jfoxurvafy (a Orcw, mco ihyyoia mdni un yv iziv kn lvmgndqz Mjxerifvi) ehietm ht jfql iklbba kxgnm wa nvj vnhl. Brimp Jfsmevcicfi, yfn ~zfbez v.l. Rj vdm ppgs. Sgjy jptfuojrjkkv, wux wk ky dz uxuq eb’j bkgmhf afffzvajtg eqoryidb pv Zwwgkgf btd sbqkypc ij hlagcsy. 

    Reply by feralbitchinredshoes

    Ygewqyojm?! Ojgr’x ufpj?

    Vqga tfgijgs, dp iyxf mjz ogbga’h iyaqgzf O’k Kffvq, lbkp vt osor dzqvjj ewy hhrr or Pkxyf. Qvp imsgwmr, dk jkq vcza y Ajeqgshpdwk hgex hjij. G upgyq dpi hjht zjr dwvljs fkj yy uvz klyzkion, veevo? Eusqe pz mps.

   Zqgonpu tcpengsh tjw oos, jr vgplcr v nur kpf v whtjqz Qwjb iwy ynm mbr it pjkc ucy mp uon hup zt. Vvuwe ng’f pggkkwii g fjsc, cj kkygejgw er ajtk rmbb vqs znqfs Rind-epkxije onxourgf.

   Wh cks hckti mf’g nfmk eqh qcr cgjz jok yis vwthgpq (gwvlpwngj fj ewys’a qkgc cpi bpch vnc hmwinj nuprgvpu) yby cjb mja ot ank Hvfgjhw zduzq. Bbg bwlgz dnqm adcb cg imzmr xttk gv gvg ghgbde gli gfjr ooy tnbv ep rvz ul yse kcfa euw’es ueugbb jk qyjzg nz.

   @IuyfzktJNfdoxmxf @QmntyupUopho yby @uzmwnqgtbjy enb cpom qjplgwn updz mkv lcwv wqgzu utjs hcjyk

He quickly deciphered the answer. Well, that was fast.

“Okay, apparently Feral can confirm, so it’s fine. You asked in class but I’d assume you know about the armbands, since you worked in a clinic, right?”

Shinso blinked. “Why- oh. Oh, I guess I should have figured it was the same back then. What do they mean?”

Izuku took out one. “We call them lily armbands. Their primary use is in clinics and other safe spaces, so Laces can know if someone’s not one of us but also that he’s safe to be there, but eventually they became more used and they serve to show someone is a Firefly in general. Not everyone wears them all the time but some do.”

The Cuff grabbed it, looking at the crimson clothing and the embroidered yellow spider lily, before putting it on. “Okay, that’s cool. Guess I shouldn’t tell other people about it, then.”

Izuku rolled his eyes, scrolling to add him to the Firefly list. “Yeah, better not. And don’t lose it either. I’m gonna send you an email with an invitation to a forum, it’s not ours because it’s only for Laces but it’s an ally one and you’ll probably be able to help thanks to it. Even now it’s not immediate full access, but you would be able to find a clinic to help at for example. There’d also be a bit of our codes and symbols, so among other things you can tag it for the whole community to know if a place is dangerous for Laces and we have to stay away.”

“Yeah, I get it. Just… wish we could do more. About the bastard passing those stupid laws and the idiots thinking everything is fine in the world and everyone’s got it as easily as them.”

Izuku shrugged, looking at the edge.

Even with One For All, he was still a Lace. Still had the toe joint, still had the scars, still had lived through years of discrimination. Nothing would change that.

Maybe that was why some days he wished he could just go missing. But he couldn’t, because he had a quirk. Even if he did an angel’s flight he couldn’t go missing because people would search and somehow he hated that. Hated that he knew why that was the case, and it was not because of him, it was because of his quirk. Sometimes he hated it.

And so he always lived to try and help others, to help Laces trapped in other countries make sure their parties wouldn’t fail, trying to get some in safer ones before it was too late and breaking the law every single time.

“Yeah. I wish we could do more,” he agrees. “But we can’t be anywhere, so for now… For now we have to pick our battles and do what we can to help those we can help.”

Izuku could help. He could help all the people whom he planned the evacuation of. He could help the little girl he was getting in the process of adopting, his third kid now. He could help all the Laces in Japan who weren’t getting the help they deserved, once he was a hero for good. It was about the only reason he wanted to be Symbol of Peace in any way, because it would help them all.

But there were so many he couldn’t help.

“How are the Cuffs?” he asked after a few moments of silence. “I’ve been so busy with the QGA and everything that I haven’t paid a lot of attention to other communities recently.”

Shinso winced. “Everyone’s pretty angry. There’s been a wave of hate crimes recently and an underground hero who was one of us got killed. I think the underground part of the community is going to fight back but obviously they’re not telling anyone on the more legal sides. Most are at least passively allies to you guys so when they learn about it everyone’s gonna lose their mind.” He paused. “Actually, can I tell people about all this stuff?”

“No,” Izuku replied immediately. Better not to take the risk. “At least not everything. The presentation went a bit more in detail than it strictly should have, so things like burning the spider lilies, no. Me being a Lace, not either. But the QGA and sensibilization, sure, go ahead. We need it, honestly, we need people to realize how bad it is and start caring.”

“We’re all in the same boat, right? Gotta stick together if we want to make it. I’m honestly not sure if I’d have made it into UA if I had never found the Laces,” Shinso admitted. “The clinic helped a lot back then.”

The Lace nodded sadly. “We would never make it without the community.”

One day maybe there would be Lace kids who made it to adulthood without ever learning about Spider Lily and the community. Maybe they’d be happy without having to keep a go-bag in their closet and learning how to patch their wounds before they turned ten. Maybe they would be safe no matter what country they were in.

But this wouldn’t happen soon, so Izuku stayed silent on the edge of the building, thinking about all those who stood in the very same situation and decided to take one more step.

You’re null, geneless, hollow, unenvolved, people called them.

But I’m alive, Izuku replied every time.

And as long as he was alive, he could still fight for everyone else who couldn’t.