Chapter Text
When Midoriya Izuku was 4 years old, his life drastically changed.
He was diagnosed as quirkless.
It’s crazy how a tiny extra toe joint can shape the trajectory of your life; from what shoes you’re able to wear, to how society treats you.
Newsflash: They deem you worth nothing.
A null.
A useless waste of space.
Something that won’t amount to anything.
Izuku’s father left right after his diagnosis, not wanting to associate himself with a quirkless child, embarrassed that he produced such a thing.
He could remember his mother crying that night, after she thought he was asleep, it would haunt him for years to come.
She stayed though, Midoriya Inko. Izuku was eternally grateful for that. She wasn’t the best mom, Izuku could see the pity in her eyes even when she thought she was hiding it, but she still tried her best.
It wasn’t long after that Kacchan, Izuku’s best friend, Bakugo Katsuki, changed.
He started hurling insults, objects, his fists, and eventually his quirk at Izuku.
Oh, how Izuku envied Kacchan’s quirk.
It was perfect, creating powerful explosions just from a drop of sweat. It was ideal for hero work, and adults around him always made sure he knew that.
They did not do the same to Izuku.
They did not stand up for him.
They ignored him, and all the abuse he endured.
They ignored when Bakugo Katsuki sent him to the hospital for a week. The first time he went too far.
Izuku probably muttered a little too loudly or just existed too visibly that day. Although, he rarely made a sound and constantly shrunk in on himself, to make sure he was never perceived back then. The details are fuzzy, he couldn’t quite remember.
Bakugo got angry and used his quirk on Izuku. This wasn’t new to Izuku. This had happened often, almost daily, but instead of his shoulder or torso, Bakugo aimed for his face.
Cowering in fear but still wanting to save himself a bit, he tried to get out of the way but it was still no use. Bakugo still hit his target. He always did.
The impact left a starburst shaped scar stretching from the left part of his jawline down his neck. Angry, red, and excruciatingly painful. He was left with bandages for weeks.
No one did anything.
Bakugo wasn’t punished.
He never was.
At 12 years old, Izuku can still attest to that, and he doesn’t think the record is going to break anytime soon.
The day started normally, Izuku, running on not enough sleep for a healthy person due to his late night hero research, getting ready to go to school.
He quickly got dressed in his tattered school uniform, said a quick goodbye to his mom, and started on his walk to school.
When he got to school he tried to make as little noise as possible while trying his best not too be seen.
He slipped into class, walking to his desk with his head hung low.
SpiderLillies and death threats, written on sticky notes, and even on the desk itself.
It’s something one should never be used to, but he is.
It still hurt though, a lump still forms in his throat. He can feel the piercing stares of his classmates, waiting for a reaction.
He doesn’t give them one. He just picks up the flower and notes, and puts them in the trash.
A couple stray legs try to trip him on the way, but he steps over them.
Class starts a couple minutes later.
The teacher drones about things he already knows but Izuku still takes notes.
The rest of the day goes relatively normally, not the worst not the best. Although that was going to change soon.
After the final class of the day, Izuku slips out of the door as quick as possible, trying to go unnoticed.
He knows all the safest paths around the school to minimize encounters with bullies, or really anyone period. Sadly, today fate was not so kind.
He feels a hot burning sensation on his shoulders. and his back pressing up violently against a locker.
“Get out of my way Deku.”
Bakugo Katsuki, who else could it be. Izuku didn’t exactly know how he was in his way but you can’t exactly reason with him.
“Sorry kacchan,” Izuku stutters out lamely, the familiar fear rushing through him.
“You better be, you’re wasting good air with your quirkless lungs.”
Bakugo keeps angrily ranting from there, throwing insults, tearing Izuku apart.
Izuku doesn’t know what he did to rile him up so much today.
Most of the insults were the normal ones, Bakugo never really created new ones, just various slurs and insults in different orders, like some twisted, hostile ice cream cone.
But today he added a new topping.
“If you want to get a Quirk so bad, there's a quick way. Believe that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life... and take a swan dive off the roof of the building."
Wow. That one was new. Izuku could feel the tears start to spill out of his eyes.
After that, it was a blur.
The jostle of his singed backpack, the agony bubbling all over his body, the tears blurring his vision along with snot dripping out of his nose.
He calmed down enough as he passed the buildings on his way home.
He took a minute to breathe, he noticed the people around him. Normal people.
A man walking his dog, a woman with bright orange hair talking loudly on a phone call.
He sees birds flying, a bee landing on a flower, a black cat slinking into a bush probably looking for its next meals.
He looks away from the scenery around him and continues walking.
Then, he started to hear the police sirens and the yelling.
The yelling that was coming from the direction of his apartment complex.
He started to run, as he closed in, he saw the police tape, the cars, the flashing lights.
The collapsing building.
His building.
His home.
He was hoping and praying to any gods and /or supernatural forces out there that his mom was not in the building. That she was alive.
But she didn’t have work today. She had the day off and she didn’t tell him that she was going anywhere today.
Fear and adrenaline flooded Izuku’s body like a tsunami.
He looked around at his surrroundings.
Green hair, green hair, green hair.
He didn’t see any.
He tried to go into the burning rubble but a tall police officer grabbed him and cut him off.
“Hey kid, you can’t go in there. It’s too dangerous.”
“Please,” Izuku begged, “My mom is in there! Please let me help find her! She could be hurt!”
“We have already evacuated the building, we got everyone out, already-“
“Then where is my mom?!” Izuku cut him off.
“Calm down kid, What’s her name?”
“Midoriya Inko.”
A grim shadow fell over the officers eyes, and at that moment Izuku knew the worst had happened.
Apparently, a nearby hero fight had caused some property damage in that area. The hero was fighting a villian but wasn’t being too mindful of his surroundings and accidentally threw a large piece of rubble right where the his apartment complex stood.
There were four casualties, the authorities got almost everyone out unscathed that lived on the other floors except the one where the rubble directly struck.
His floor.
The one his mom was in.
His home.
She was gone. Midoryia Inko was gone. His mom was dead.
Izuku ran.
He ran until he couldn’t anymore.
He ended up in a park, and collapsed under a tree and he cried.
A long time passed, and his tear ducts ached. All he felt was pain.
Then a thought hit him,
Why am I still here?
Izuku would never call himself suicidal, but the thoughts had crossed his mind many times, but he always waved them off because he couldn’t do that to his mom.
But now she was gone.
He had nothing to lose anymore. He had nothing to live for anymore.
He got up and just started walking. He was in a trance, tears stained his face, eyes an emerald sea of grief.
He doesn’t remember going to the bridge.
It was a tall bridge near the borders of Yokohama, the city that was run by criminals.
Ironic, he thought.
They will never find my body here, and I’ll probably have some company down there.
He looked out at the sun beginning to set.
He numbly took of his back pack and his shoes. He struggled, but managed to hoist himself on the guardrails and sat down, looking at the endless blue below.
Midoriya Izuku, 12 years old, quirkless, a null, useless to society was sitting on the guard rail of a bridge, mentally preparing himself to jump off.
The voices of various teachers, adults, classmates, Kacchan, tell him to jump off swarmed his head.
“I hope I see you soon mom.” He whispered out, then, he took a deep breath about to take a step-
“Lovely day to commit suicide, am I right?”