Chapter Text
The classroom has finally been cleaned and Izuku’s smiling as he listens to the news through his headphones. He walks over to his teacher, Nakamura-sensei, as she glances up from the paper she’s grading. “Thank you Midoriya-san. Now go eat your lunch,” she says and he nods, waving. The hallways are full of students and every one of them glances at Izuku, they’ve all heard of him.
There are around five hundred seventy students at Aldera Junior High and as far as Izuku knows he’s the only Quirkless one. Sure, statistically there’s no way that he’s the only one but most people keep it secret. It’s pretty easy to lie about having a small, useless Quirk that you can pretend to do. Izuku didn’t have a choice, due to Bakugo Katsuki, his childhood best friend and mortal enemy.
Their friendship started decades ago, when Midoriya Inko and Hirata Mitsuki met each other in middle school. They stuck together for years and had kids within a few months of each other, raising them as best friends too. Izuku turned out to be a perfectly normal nerd and Bakugo… well he’s something, alright.
When they were kids things were normal, they would play and dream of being heroes together. But when he went to a specialist and found out he was Quirkless he told Bakugo, hoping to find a balm for his ruined dreams. Just like with his parents all he got was a sad consolation that it sucked but he’d move on.
Then Bakugo decided to join the kids who’d been teasing Izuku for years about not getting his Quirk yet. Even worse, he told everyone about the diagnosis so Izuku was completely screwed socially speaking. Things haven’t changed for Izuku since he was eight, he’s still bullied and he’s still a hero fanboy.
He walks to the library since it’s usually pretty empty during lunch and ignores the stares. It’s been a pretty good day so far and Izuku knows that it won’t last, it never does. When you’ve been bullied for six years you become pretty good at expecting the worst and Izuku’s an expert at it. He’s proven right when he arrives at the library and sees Bakugo along with his friends.
Bakugo’s tied for the worst of them though and unfortunately his competition is there too, Sakamoto Naoya. Sakamoto was the first person who started teasing him and alongside Bakugo he’s one of the popular kids. Izuku will never understand it but he doesn’t have time to wonder how people like them right now. “Hey Deku!” Sakamoto says, his voice is sickly sweet and Izuku stares at the ground, ignoring him.
“Aren’t you gonna acknowledge us?” Bakugo hisses as he walks towards Izuku. He tenses and he wishes he was brave enough to say anything; he tried reporting it and nothing happened but maybe if he tried again something would change. Izuku still looks up and looks at Bakugo’s nose to avoid looking him in the eyes. “What are you listening to?”
“The news,” Izuku answers weakly and one of Sakamoto’s friends laughs because of course he does. Anytime Izuku does anything that could be slightly connected to heroes they make a joke out of it. Izuku’s given up on being a hero since it’s obviously impossible but they don’t care about that. When Izuku works out or studies hard he’s preparing for UA and if he even looks interested when heroes are brought up he’s a baby.
After a few minutes where Izuku just focuses on the ground beneath him and his breathing they leave. He walks to his usual little hideaway and sits down, wrapping his arms around himself as he pulls out the phone. It takes a second for him to smile when he sees who’s on the screen, All Might.
After getting the rest of the day mostly unscathed Izuku’s ready to get home and relax. Eventually he’ll have to do homework and everything but for a little bit he can do nothing besides changing out of his too small uniform. He’s not listening to the news anymore, just some music that he quickly loses himself in as he walks.
The sky is bright and the sun is nearly blinding so he just stares at the ground, ignoring everything as he walks the familiar path. That’s what makes it so easy for the figure to sneak up on him and wrap its hand over his mouth. He flails as he tries to kick at the figure, his shoe meeting something that feels like mud. There’s a low, distorted laugh as he panics, breathing in mud as he hyperventilates. He’s going to die, he’s being attacked by a villain and he knows that he won’t make it.
Izuku just hopes that his parents won’t be too torn up about it and that they’ll be able to move on. His view starts to blur and he can feel the sludge gripping at his lungs, digging into them as he stops fighting. It’s not him accepting death, he doesn’t have the energy to keep going without air.
He says goodbye to the world and to any dreams he’s still had left, despite giving up on heroism he still wants something. Even if he doesn’t know exactly what he wants Izuku’s determined to do anything with his life. But now it’s all over and he has to accept that as his vision completely blackens and…
Izuku’s on the ground, his face against the cobblestone street as he tries to remember what happened. It’s only then that someone taps his shoulder and he hears a familiar voice asking if he’s okay. It’s actually All Might; All Might rescued Izuku of all people and he’s alive somehow. Slowly Izuku pushes himself onto his elbows and glances up to see All Might staring down.
“Good, I was getting worried. Can you stand?” he asks Izuku who just stares up at the man. The best pro hero who’s ever lived is out of costume and helping Izuku, it’s way too much for him. He wonders if he’s about to pass out again as he feels himself being lifted up and placed on his feet.
“Oh my god,” Izuku whispers as he notices a giant soda bottle in his pocket. They’re filled with a dark green slime and Izuku just stares up at All Might in all of his glory. He seems even taller in person, he has to be at least two meters tall and buff as fuck. If he weren’t a hero he would be really intimidating, instead he’s awe inspiring.
He feels like an awkward idiot, his limbs don’t work right and he knows that the grin on his face must be ridiculous. Despite nearly dying less than five minutes ago this is the best day of his life and he can’t say anything. For a minute he just stares at All Might who has walked over to grab Izuku’s muck covered backpack from the ground. “I assume that this is yours?”
“Uh… yeah,” Izuku mutters and he grabs it, praying that the sludge didn’t get inside. He opens it and sees that it’s mostly okay, the most important things in there seem fine. He’ll have to test his computer later but his notebook is fine and he quickly realizes something. “Could I get an autograph? I’m a big fan and…”
“Of course,” All Might says like it’s a declaration as Izuku hands him his notebook. All Might opens it and glances at the first page, it’s full of notes on heroes and Izuku wonders what All Might would think about it. But he doesn’t say anything, just pulling a pen out of nowhere and signing the cover.
“Now I have to go get this villain to the station but get home safely,” All Might says as he turns around. Izuku wishes that he had the courage to say something else but he doesn’t, he just watches as All Might jumps up. Saying anything to his hero seems impossible, asking for an autograph took all of his bravery so he’s out. A part of him knows that if it were Bakugo he’d have found a way to secure an internship at All Might’s agency.
He’s not Bakugo though and he never will be, Bakugo has a bright future ahead of him and Izuku… he just doesn’t. As much as he hates Bakugo for his betrayal he’s still jealous of him, he’s popular and smart and… perfect. Izuku hates this so much, he hates how weak and pathetic he is but still he met All Might so it’s a good day.
The man stands on the roof, wiping the blood from his nose and chin as he walks to the little hatch. He opens it and starts walking down the stairs, easily ducking so his head doesn’t hit the door. As he goes down the stairs he puts his hands in pockets before stopping and turning back. There’s nothing on the rooftop and he can feel his heart racing as he curses to himself.
Katsuki walks through the sidestreet with Naoya and Yutaka walk behind him. He’s frowning as he zones out their conversation, they’re starting to hold him back. Sure he’s been friends with them since he was eight but soon enough he’ll be at UA and make new friends. They might be able to keep up with him or they’ll prove that he’s as worthless as he knows he is.
“You good Katsu?” Noaya asks and he shrugs, kicking a bottle on the ground as they get to the main road. He nods at them as they split up and he starts walking to his house and he feels something glue his feet to the ground. It starts to spread up his ankles and he looks down to see that it’s mud or something, it’s spreading rapidly.
“I hope you’re more useful,” a low voice says as something starts covering his mouth. He tries to scream but nothing comes out, instead something forces its way past his teeth and buries itself in his lungs. Katsuki tries to move or just do anything to escape but the sludge has a hold on him.
Izuku’s just about to reach his street when he hears the explosion and he immediately turns. He sees a giant villain that he immediately recognizes as the one that tried to kill him less than an hour ago. The part of Izuku that’s still obsessed with heroes can’t look away as he sees them try to fight it. They’re not managing to do anything, the villain keeps… throwing explosions at every hero that attacks it.
Izuku frowns and starts walking to get a better view, pulling out his phone to check the news. That’s when his breath stops, someone was captured by the villain and he knows who it is even without seeing him. He starts walking towards the attack and pretty soon he’s running, he has to see.
It’s not unusual for him to try to watch villain attacks from afar but it’s never been this personal. Bakugo used to be his best friend and he guesses that a part of him still cares. This fear is too personal to be human decency, Bakugo still matters to a hopefully really small part of Izuku. Usually that realization would make Izuku angry but now he just has to make sure. Bakugo has to be okay, if the worst happened then Izuku would lose any semblance of his childhood he has.
When he gets to the building there’s a small crowd, all talking and filming. Half of them are the press but the others are all just people, maybe some of them dream the same way that Izuku does. But that doesn’t matter to Izuku now, he just watches, his heart sounding like a snare drum.
Izuku’s heartbeat stops when the sludge clears to slightly uncover Bakugo’s face. His eyes are barely open and Izuku wonders how he’s alive but he’ll theorize on that later. For a moment their eyes meet and Bakugo looks like someone poured ice water on him, Izuku shifts his backpack off. He runs forward, bag in hand as he shouts something he barely hears, Bakugo looks more terrified than Izuku feels.
There’s no good reason for him to do this for anyone, let alone for one of his tormentors. He’s going to get himself killed at this rate but he can’t stop himself, his legs are moving while his brain just freezes in pure terror. Izuku throws his bag against the villain while people yell at him, knowing it won’t do anything but get him killed.
He thinks that he hears Bakugo screaming his name through the sludge, just as he’s thrown against the wall. Izuku doesn’t know if anything is broken but he’s going to be aching for a while. The villain explodes the area around them again but Izuku still hears those three words.
The man watches as the boy, the same kid who he saved earlier, runs forward. But he doesn’t see that short, green haired teen; instead he sees something that happened decades ago. It’s a blonde boy, the same age but far taller, holding a pipe instead of a backpack. The past vanishes but he smiles as brightly as he can while he makes sure that no cameras can see him.
Then the man is gone and All Might stands in his place, dressed out of uniform in a simple white shirt and pants. He pushes past people and everyone gasps as he feels his bones and muscles protest his decision. It doesn’t matter that he’ll pay for this later, he was being weak and a coward. This is not only his job but the only thing that he has somedays, his purpose and the thing she left behind for him. “I am here!” he yells as he prepares to fight, blue eyes blazing while the laughing villain turns to him.
When Katsuki wakes up he immediately remembers everything and he thinks that he’s going to get a headache. He can’t see Deku, if that Quirkless dweeb got himself killed for this then… Katsuki doesn’t know what he would do if something happened to Deku because of him of all people.
He’s in a hospital room and he feels too weak to stand, that villain really overdid it with his Quirk. Looking at anything over a foot away hurts so his contacts must have been removed at some point. He moves slightly when he hears the door open, his parents and a nurse walking in. “Thank god, you’re awake! We were so worried about you sweetheart,” his mother says as she hugs him way too tight.
Both of his parents start cooing over him and he puts up with it, he hates how they baby him. Katsuki knows that it’s because his parents love him but they can be so overwhelming with it and it’s annoying. After a few minutes he manages to get a word in to ask the question that could haunt him. “Is Midoriya okay?” He would never admit it but he is just desperate as he sounds to hear that he is.
“Don’t do anything like this again,” the officer orders and Izuku nods, struggling to hide his trembling lips. She tells him to wait for his mother outside and he slips out of the station where everyone’s staring at him. Izuku’s eyes fill with tears as he tries to ignore the people watching him, he knows they all think he’s just an idiot for doing this.
All he did was get himself a lot of bruises and public attention, something that always ends up going horribly. Izuku walks to a nearby park, one that he used to hang out with Bakugo at, quickly finding a place to hide. He just sits on the grass near a few bushes and trees that mostly shield him from view. Izuku hugs his backpack to his chest and starts to cry, barely holding back sobs.
After a second he hears footsteps and does a double take when he glances up. It’s All Might and Izuku has never felt more embarrassed, his fucking idol is seeing him cry in the middle of a park like an idiot. But he kneels down next to Izuku, not saying anything for an awkward moment.
“What you did was incredibly brave. When I was your age I did something similar and… it’s how I became a hero. I was rescued by someone and she helped me become who I am today,” he starts and Izuku wants to just say it, that he’s just some Quirkless nobody. That’s all he’ll ever be, no one will ever see Izuku as anything but useless no matter what he does. But All Might continues “I was born Quirkless too,” and Izuku’s world shifts forever.
“What… what do you mean?” Izuku asks and All Might smiles at him, it’s not the smile he’s famous for, the one that’s known across the world. This one is smaller and weaker, something about it seems wrong and unfamiliar. Somehow this person he’s idolized since he was born has become someone so disturbingly real.
“My Quirk is something that can be passed down from person to person and allows you to use the previous some of the users’ original Quirks. I have been looking for a successor for a long time and your parents would obviously have to agree but…” All Might pauses as a kid shouts that he thinks he saw All Might. The man’s eyes widen as he whispers something that Izuku doesn’t understand, “I’ll explain later.”
Then All Might is gone, in his place is a man who looks like a dehydrated version of him. They’re the same height, have the same clothes, same bright blue eyes and golden hair but this man looks frail and weathered. Izuku stares in pure terror and shock as the man stands up and glances down at him, the same weak smile on his face.
“What the…” he whispers as Not All Might shushes him and gestures for him to stand. Izuku does as his mind races, he has no clue what’s going on but it is genuinely terrifying. Still they walk out to the police station as Izuku checks his phone to see that his mom hasn’t texted him.
“This is what I look like when I’m not actively using the… thing I just told you about. We should go back to the station and wait for your parents,” he says and Izuku is both comforted and scared to hear the familiar voice. The tone is softer than it ever is in press conferences and it’s tired just like everything else about him. Izuku nods as they walk in silence for the few blocks that it takes to get back to the police station.
“Oh I should probably make sure, Midoriya Izuku, do you want to be a hero?” he asks and Izuku doesn’t think as he answers. This is everything he wants, heroism is engraved in his bones and he can’t imagine anything else. When Izuku tells him that in much less embarrassing words All Might smiles again, staring at the setting sun.
“Come to my Mizukino agency when you can with your parents. We’ll discuss more details then. Stay safe,” he says as he nods. The man puts his hands in his pockets and walks away as the realization finally hits Izuku. He’s going to be a hero and he talked to All Might, he thinks he might pass out.
After a minute of trying to parse through what just happened he hears his mother yelling out for him. He walks over to her car and sits in the passenger’s seat, grinning to himself as she grabs his hand. “I was so scared when I found out what happened. If you do that again then… How are you doing sweetheart?” she asks and he smiles at her.
“I’m doing fine,” he says, sounding winded and shocked as she glances at him, frowning. “Really I am. They had a healer at the station and I wasn’t even that badly hurt.” He doesn’t know how he’s going to explain the need to go to All Might’s brand new agency. It’s only been a month since it opened and before that All Might was usually in Tokyo unless there’s a disaster. Izuku will tell her the truth but he hopes that she doesn’t think he’s insane because he might be.
It’s a few days later when school and work are closed to go to the agency and the shock hasn’t worn off. Izuku isn’t really that sure that he’s supposed to be doing this anymore, maybe it was all some fever dream. But he told his mother about it and she’s more curious than he is most of the time.
The person at the front desk frowns when they walk in but asks their names and makes a call. “There are people here for you, the Midoriyas. Yes, I’ll send them in,” they say before telling them to go through a hallway. Izuku’s eyes are alight with fear and excitement as they follow the secretary’s instructions. This is the weirdest thing that’s happened to him but it’s his only way to become a hero so he’ll push through the terror.
All Might’s waiting for them and his smile seems wider than normal as he puts his hands together. “Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Midoriya-san. Now how much has your son told you?” he asks as his mom tells him that Izuku told her everything. Izuku bounces on his heels impatiently as she introduces herself and asks for his name. “Oh, I’m Yagi Toshinori.”
“Well it’s nice to meet you. Now I don’t have many questions but I need to know some things,” she lists off a few questions and Izuku listens carefully to the answers. To inherit the Quirk, One For All, Izuku would have to eat All Might’s hair and very few people know about its existence. Before he inherits it he would have to train for a few months and they would share it. The plan would be to go to a hero school of Izuku’s choosing with All Might helping him out in the background.
Izuku looks at his mother expectantly, praying that she’ll say he can have One For All. She’s furrowing her brows the way that she always does when she’s considering something and taps her foot against the ground. “I’ll have to think about it and talk to Izuku’s father but I’ll email you about it. What’s your personal email?” she asks, Izuku knows it’s a yes.
The apartment looks like it hasn’t changed in decades, the furniture is outdated and almost as weary as the man who owns it. He owns the building but this apartment is special to him, even before he had the place it was his. Technically back then it was Kojin’s and later his and Nana’s but now he’s all that’s left, almost.
The door opens and the old man looks up from the couch to see Toshinori slipping off his shoes, “I got that sparkling water you like.” Toshinori nods as he walks to the fridge, noticing that the old man is already drinking but not saying anything, he never does anymore.
Things used to be different, that doesn’t mean that anything was good but it was different. They were never close, the old man’s job was to train Toshinori and keep him out of trouble, but there was something there. People tied them together but now all of them are just memories they can’t let go. Neither of them wants to and they are grateful the other one feels the same way, this grief is far too heavy to carry alone.
There’s a scream from the room across the hall and Kurogiri bolts out of bed, quickly rushing out the door. The room he goes into is a mess, video game memorabilia, comic books and old energy drink cans scattered around. Everything’s chaotic but Kurogiri makes his way through it and to a bed in the corner where a boy is wrapping her arms around himself.
“Mura, are you okay?” Kurogiri asks and the teen glares at him, pure terror transformed into annoyance. She grumbles about the nickname and Kurogiri nods, sitting gingerly on the bed as the girl frowns. “Did you have a nightmare again?”
It nods and stares ahead, her bright red eyes brimming with tears as Kurogiri stares patiently. “I’m supposed to be over this. I’m not a baby anymore, I’m nineteen!” the girl says and Kurogiri smiles weakly at that. Like always he doesn’t ask what’s wrong or try to sway the stubborn belief that she is somehow weak. Instead they ask about one of the more tolerable video games she plays and listens to her rambling.