Chapter Text
“Are you sure you’re gonna be alright?” Inko asked her son, who had already begun exiting the car.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine”, Izuku grunted in reply as he hauled his multitude of bags over his shoulders.
He simply couldn’t believe it. The day was finally here. The day when he would start a new life far from the constraints of his mother’s house. The day when he would officially join U.A University.
His mother sighed audibly. “Okay. But don’t be scared to reach out, I’m always a call away if you need any—”
“Mom.” The dark-haired boy poked his head through the car’s open window, then reached out a hand so that it would rest within the warm palm of his mother’s.
“I’ll be fine.”
Inko’s lip wobbled dangerously and she pulled her son into a crushing embrace, planting a soft kiss on his cheek as she did.
Ignoring the bags that were now cutting into his shoulders, he returned the embrace and his mother’s eyes sparkled with something that could very well have been tears.
But he didn’t stay long enough to find out.
Seeing his friend, Shoto, waving to him from a distance, he practically skipped off in excitement.
“Bye Zuzu!” Inko called as she started up the car.
“Mom!” Izuku yelled back, his face beet red and Shoto couldn’t seem to stop himself from bursting into laughter.
Inko joined in too and with one last sigh, she glanced at her boy and drove off.
After finally calming himself, Shoto cleared his throat and turned to him, gazing down at him with both blue and grey eyes.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing. My mom was just worried, that’s all.” Izuku fished his phone out of his pocket, searching for the campus’ map in his camera roll. “She really needs to cool it though, she’s acting as if I’m gonna die if I’m away for a couple of months.”
“Well, be glad your mom even agreed to drop you off. My mom didn’t feel like coming with us.”
“And your dad?”
Izuku knew Shoto and his father had a very… difficult relationship, so he was always sure to handle the subject with care.
“He did want to drop me off, I just didn’t want him to. It was almost concerning seeing him that excited.”
They turned a corner, eyes falling upon a path leading up to the main building.
Tall firs and lush green shrubs sprung to life on either side of them and— like a splash of color amidst all the greenery— a fountain of two dolphins sat in the midst of the yard, the majestic aquatics spewing undulating streams of water from their open mouths, scattering sunlight across the ground in prismatic rays.
The two boys gaped in awe, their jaws falling even further when their feet finally brought them to the building itself.
Cream white pillars held it up, cracked but holding it steady still. Faded white bricks hid between bright red ones, creating a contrast that reminded Izuku somewhat of streaks of blood in the snow.
Or perhaps he just read too many comic books.
Pushing open the doors that were made purely of gleaming glass panes, they entered the wide reception, with spiraling stairs on either side of it that could have led to anywhere really.
Once again, Izuku took it all in when his eyes landed on a pair of brown ones, almost hidden underneath a perfect, halo-like fringe.
It took his breath every time.
“Ochaco!”
The boy threw down his bags and ran up to her, casually grabbing her into a hug and lifting her off the ground. He then brought his lips to hers before setting her down in the face of the impatient registrar.
The dark-haired man took their names and documents, scrutinizing them with even darker eyes before nodding stiffly and handing them their new IDs and dorm keys.
“Wait a second… They’re scratched!” Ochaco exclaimed as they made their way to the residential building.
Izuku swiped a finger across the card, the clover green eyes of his photo staring back at him as he did. Indeed, the card was slightly uneven as a result of the many small scratches that plagued its surface.
“Must’ve been recycled or something”, he said.
“Even the cases are scratched”, Shoto pointed out, holding up his near-opaque card holder.
Maybe this school isn’t as prestigious as I thought……
* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . *
Evening was upon them relatively fast, the sky now painted in enchanting hues of pink, orange and purple.
Izuku and Shoto were assigned the same room— exactly as they’d planned— while their other comrade, Tenya, was in the neighboring dorm to the right and Ochaco was situated in a room downstairs with her best friend, Tsuyu.
The day could hardly get any better.
Izuku had gone on a solo stroll around the school, taking in all the many facilities and study halls, to the cafes and buffet-style restaurants that the school had to offer.
Taking in a breath of crisp air, he pulled a camera out of his jacket’s pocket, perching himself on the dolphin fountain’s granite edge to take a photo of the students who were milling about in front of the main building.
However— instead of capturing what was sure to be a beautiful, aesthetic photo— he instead ended up looking up as a familiar blonde crossed the camera’s view.
Katsuki Bakugo.
Izuku’s childhood friend. Or at least, he used to be.
The boy seemed to be on a call, barely acknowledging Izuku’s existence save for a disparaging, ruby red glance.
He sighed through his nose and continued with his picture-taking escapades when he heard the blonde say something along the lines of—
“No one will be there. I’ll make sure of it.”
'No one will be where?' wondered Izuku, narrowing his eyes.
If his gut served him correctly— and it almost always did— that sounded almost……illegal.
Pocketing his phone, Katsuki took off in the direction of the school gates and Izuku was left to make what really shouldn’t have been a difficult decision.
He checked the time on his own device.
6:38 P.M.
He winced. The friend group had planned to head out to Olive Bush for a celebratory dinner at around 7.
Debating with himself on what to do, he came to a conclusion and sprinted to the gates, hoping that the blonde hadn’t travelled too far. If Izuku’s memory served him correctly, he was quite the fast walker.
I still have 22 minutes, he thought, bargaining with himself and making a set of plausible excuses. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to be a bit late.
This idea had seemed so much smarter about 10 minutes ago.
Trailing behind him at a distance, they had started out by weaving in and out of the crowded city streets.
Although there were often times Izuku lost sight of him, he’d eventually find him again on the other end of a crosswalk, or turning a corner at the end of a street.
Unfortunately, his mind had been so focused on trying to keep up with Katsuki that he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings.
Katsuki had stopped in front of what looked to be an abandoned warehouse.
Izuku halted to a stop along with him, only feet away and hidden behind a tree surrounded by tall undergrowth.
His mom had always warned him about snakes that hid in tall grass but it was ‘too little too late’ now, he supposed.
Katsuki rapped his knuckles against the gate’s rusty metal bars, as if expecting someone to open. When nothing happened, the blonde clicked his tongue.
He backed up slowly— coming uncomfortably close to the spot where the other boy was hiding— and like a raging bull, he ran at full speed towards the gate and grabbed the bars before launching himself over flawlessly.
Izuku’s throat went dry.
This might have been a good time to turn back.
But due to his lack of attention, he had no idea how he was supposed to do that.
He looked at the time again.
6:49 P.M.
Oh, he still had some time. And if Katsuki finished whatever it was he came here to do, then he could simply follow him back to campus.
Izuku stood up, glancing over to ensure that the blonde was out of earshot. No one needed to see this.
Then, rolling his shoulders, he psyched himself up for what he was about to do. Without another thought, he charged right at the chained up gate, grabbed the bars and—
Lifted himself slowly and woefully over it, an activity that took him about 5 minutes to complete.
It was a good thing that Katsuki had already gone inside the warehouse because the chains binding the entrance together clanked and rattled loudly enough for birds settled in a nearby tree to be spooked and fly away.
Finally, with one last heave, he fell on his back on the other side of the gate, sharp pieces of gravel digging into his skin.
I think I broke my tailbone……
Panting and refusing to dwell on it any further, he pushed himself up and dragged himself to the distant warehouse as stealthily as he could.
The entrance looked like it had previously been chained shut— much like the gate— but a gaping hole lay in the middle of it, the chain links scattered across the floor.
It was charred and smoking, suggesting that it had happened only minutes ago.
Izuku could only hope that wasn’t the case because whatever caused it, he’d rather not have to deal with it.
Stepping carefully through, he made his way around the maze-like store, trying to gauge where the blonde could have gone. He also stole glances over his shoulders once in a while, in case this ended up being like those movies he watched where the threat was actually behind you the entire time.
The sun had long since set outside, making it increasingly hard to see ahead of him but he was smart enough to know that turning on his phone’s torch probably wouldn’t end well for him.
Though, even in darkness, Izuku could make out rows upon rows white boxes, all of them flecked with dust and stacked almost as high as the ceiling.
They all had writing on them, and Izuku tried making out what they said.
“Test - 1190.”
“Test - 5731.”
“Test - 2211.”
Something seemed to be very wrong here.
What is this place?
His mind was firing at a hundred thoughts per second and he was so distracted that he almost failed to notice the strange figure he was about to walk into.
He jumped back just as the figure turned its head and he had to slap a hand over his mouth to stifle both a gasp and a scream.
The figure was, in fact, a person.
They were clothed in black, accented with orange, face covered in a mask of the same colors. But what concerned Izuku the most was their hands.
Or rather, lack thereof.
Where there would normally be soft, normal human palms, there were instead big metallic claws that hissed with every movement.
They seemed to be gloves but that didn’t really make him feel any better.
It skittered off one of the racks, now creeping down a long metal rod.
There was a hand placed there as it could see.
The hand quickly moved up, scooping the spider from where it had rested in wait.
It crawled around the moving hand, trying to prevent itself from being crushed. The spider jumped left and right, up and down, round and around.
In a last ditch effort to anchor itself, it sank its fangs into this human’s skin.
It was warm. Its blood was warm. Almost like prey.
As such, it instinctively began pumping venom into it, hoping to prey on it after a while of having no food, not even a rogue fly.
It should have paralyzed it but—
Feeling a weird pinching sensation in his hand, Izuku looked towards his hand only to see a sizable spider with its fangs dug deep into his skin. It was a strange color too, almost as if its borders were pearl blue. Weird.
“Hey!”
He brushed it off him, watching it fall to the ground and curl its legs upwards.
The clawed figure’s head snapped around, searching for the source of the noise but after a long, terrifying moment, they turned back, possibly deciding that it was just the wind.
They started sifting through the boxes, opening each and every one of them and throwing the lid away when they didn’t find what they were searching for.
Concernedly, they were getting more and more agitated with every box they opened.
Izuku ran a hand through his black hair and thought that this would really be a great time to leave because he did not favor the possibility of being on the other end of those claws. He wondered vaguely if this guy was the same one that destroyed the entrance but an even better question— and the one that took up most of his attention— was this:
Where the hell is Katsuki?!
Although the blonde could vault over a gate almost perfectly, he was still in danger as long as this guy was around.
He needed to find him.
Izuku took a quiet step back. And then another. And then another.
Finally, after about ten steps back, he started down a path where he was sure the clawed figure wouldn’t be able to see him and he could simply—
RIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG.
RIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG.
RIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG.
The sound of his phone ringing in his pocket echoed throughout the vast warehouse.
No no no no no no no no!!!
He took off, skidding in and out of the many tall rows of boxes as the clawed figure sped towards him, violence blazing in their eyes even though Izuku couldn’t even see them.
He spared a second to check exactly who it was that was calling him at such a delicate time.
It was Ochaco.
Well, he couldn’t really be angry with her, seeing as it was his fault he didn’t put his phone on silent before doing this.
Diving headfirst into another row, he got an idea and swept his arm across the shelves, causing multiple boxes to fall to the ground. Their contents shattered upon impact, spilling onto the floor what Izuku desperately hoped wasn’t blood.
The figure— thankfully— tripped against them, slowing their progress and giving Izuku ample time to make his way down another set of paths.
This place was like a labyrinth. Any time he thought he was about to find a way out, he came across an additional wall of boxes.
The dreaded sound of hissing sprang to life only feet from him and having nowhere else to run, he hastily got down on his knees and crawled in until he was firmly underneath one of the tall shelves.
Depending on how old this place was, they could buckle and collapse on him at any moment. Which was……not encouraging, to say the least, seeing as his heart was already threatening to beat out of his chest and expose him.
His lungs struggled to take in any air, given how cramped he was and the sheer amount of dust and debris that was hiding down there along with him.
The sound of heavy boots reached him until the boots themselves were right in front of him. Of course, not that the owner had any way of knowing that yet.
They stood there for a beat, boots shuffling here and there as they searched for any sign of him.
Then, at last, they appeared to decide that he had gone in another direction and slowly, their footsteps faded away into nothing.
Izuku let out a long breath that he was unaware had been trapped in his lungs and—
The shelf he was hiding under crashed to the floor, the concrete flooring cracking upon impact and sending tremors through the ground.
A rough hand grabbed at his ankle and pulled him towards them.
“Found you”, said the figure in a distorted voice.
Izuku kicked with all his strength but their metal gauntlets refused to budge, instead sinking only further into the skin of his leg to the point of tearing and drawing blood.
The warehouse was now almost entirely dark, the only source of light being the lamps posted outside and the orange glow of the mask’s eye curves.
‘I’m always a call away if you need anything.’
As the person raised a clawed hand to presumably slash his face, Izuku reminisced.
There were many things he wished he had gotten to do, now that he thought of it.
He wished he had told his mother goodbye before she left.
Maybe even told her how much he loved her.
He wished he could have taken Ochaco to Thailand like she’d always wanted.
And more than anything, Izuku wished that he never followed Katsuki here in the first place. Because right now, he could have been at Olive Bush, having a grand old time with his friends, possibly getting drunk out of their wits.
Izuku pulled up his hood and grabbed the person by the arms, a newfound sense of determination flaring inside his chest.
No.
There were two things he could do here, really.
He could wallow and wish and dream that he had done things differently. And he would die wishing.
Or he could pull himself together and actually make those wishes a reality.
He knew which one he would pick.
The figure brought a firm, metallic hand to Izuku’s neck, opting to choke the life out of him.
“Let. Go. Of. Me.”
Without another thought, he brought the knee of his unrestrained leg up to his captor’s chest and with a strange surge of strength, tossed them over his head and to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Panting, he scrambled to his feet, ignoring the amount of dust that was now coating him like a fine layer.
Izuku waited a moment. The person’s chest rose and fell in shallow pants.
Good.
They weren’t dead.
And with the realization that the person was indeed alive and could wake up anywhere from hours to a few seconds from now, he tightened his hood’s drawstrings and took off towards the entrance— which was now visible due to the amount of boxes and shelves that were now strewn across the floor.
He could only hope that Katsuki had already left beforehand and if not……well, he’d just call the police and be glad that at least one of them made it out of there alive.
Mind still reeling, Izuku failed to realize that he had just scaled the gate near perfectly. The same gate which he had previously spent five minutes trying to tackle.
He took out his phone and checked the time. Of course he was terribly late but it didn’t hurt to—
7:46 P.M.
His friends were going to murder him, weren’t they?
He continued to run through the bright streets of Musutafu, too bright after the darkness he had been forced to endure for the past hour and his eyes narrowed as the lights pierced his eyes.
Barely aware of where exactly he was going, Izuku sped through in no specified direction, pushing himself off of walls just to maintain his balance because of the ring of pain that circled his bleeding foot.
Pedestrians and bypassers shot him strange looks, some of them a mix of anger at being pushed and concern for the obviously distressed boy.
Finally, without really understanding how, Izuku made it back to campus.
He quickly flashed his ID to the guards and— his stampeding heart calming significantly— he slowed and staggered inside the residential building and upward to his third floor dormitory. To anyone else, it might have looked like he was drunk.
A part of him desperately wanted to simply lie on the stairs but he knew that if he indulged in that urge, he may never get up again.
So with one last agonizing heave, he pushed the door of his room open and shut it with a sharp click before stumbling onto the clean, All Might-themed bed that he had made just a few hours ago.
After a few, silent minutes, uncontrollable sobs shook him to the core, tears rolling down the side of his face and onto the pillow below.
He thought about taking a moment to call his mom but if she heard him crying, lord knew that she’d be at the school in less than an hour and he didn’t want to worry her.
With that thought in mind, he took out his phone— which had caused him a lifetime of trouble— and clicked play on his favorite All Might video, allowing it to relax and lull him to sleep.