Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya. A weak child with no quirk but all of the love he could possibly give. He was bullied for having no quirk. He was teased, taunted, shoved, punched, slammed into walls and even threatened for his life. All of those words and actions were left to fester and boil inside his head, swirling in his mind and making himself truly believe he deserved it. Did he? No. But he couldn’t tell himself that. All the burns and bruises, they weren't bad enough to warrant attention. He didn’t want to bother anyone. Not like they would care about someone less than human anyway. He still wasn’t dampened, though, he continued to fight for his place in his own little way.
His notebooks seemed to call him. Taking notes and analyzing the heroes was something he was most fond of, and he was good at it. For as long as he could remember he was scribbling doodles of every Hero he could see or hear and was making notes on how their quirk --or what he thought was their quirk-- worked and thinking of applications and how they could improve. He even thought of what kind of quirk he would have before shaking his head and getting back to his precious notes. It was almost an addiction of his, something he knew he could do well… so why stop? Just because Kaachan thought he would never be a Hero? No! A Hero wouldn’t give up so why would he?! Izuku was determined to be a Hero and if he had to do it quirkless than he would!
That’s why he took to the internet to learn how Heroes trained -or at the very least what they were allowed to say about their training- and how regular people got in shape. He would try his best!
For the longest time after starting his workouts, he would be exhausted, his limbs would be sore and he would be stiff and sluggish. But then he would get better and the process would repeat. Though in those days when his limbs were too sore to react fast enough, he wouldn’t be able to get away from those hurtful words fast enough, some days he felt like maybe… he wasn’t going to be a Hero. No! He wouldn’t give up! He looked at all of his merchandise of All Might and he would think about what he would do. That helped Izuku a lot more than anything else did.
Some days were easier to pay attention to what the teacher was saying than others. This was the latter for Izuku. He hadn’t been feeling very good all day, his head was dizzy and he was tired. He kept up his notes and like always, kept quiet. He stayed in his seat like he was supposed to. He wanted to leave for some unknown reason. He had never been intrigued by the temptation of skipping class before, but today… maybe he pushed himself too hard the day before lifting weights? He thought absentmindedly. The day was almost done, he had no reason to get up and go just a few minutes early.
He wasn’t even listening at this point until the teacher had made the entire class cheer. Izuku sank deeper into his seat.
“Isn’t Izuku going to apply at U.A as well?” The teacher asked, his voice seemed...Izuku ignored the thought. He waved his arms around frantically trying to explain himself but he was ignored by the jeers and taunts telling him he shouldn't even try to get into U.A... Kachaan gave him a look of pure hatred, his red eyes boring holes into Izuku’s head.
“Don’t you dare apply to U.A Deku! I’m gonna be the only one from this dump to get in!” He growled, getting closer to Izuku. “You wouldn’t stand a chance!”
Izuku frowned deeply, his eyes were steeled. “I won’t know until I try.” The words came out before he could stop them. Then there was silence, snatching Izuku’s notebook off his desk, Kachaan’s hands burst like small firecrackers, making smoke rise from the edges of the notebook before tossing it out the window.
Izuku ran to the window unable to catch it before it had drifted down into the pond below. He barely felt a hand on his shoulder grip his arm firmly before it was ripped away.
“If you want to be a hero so badly, maybe you should pray for a quirk in your next life, and take a swan dive off the roof!”
Izuku heard the words but he just stared out the window. His eyes not leaving his journal. Not even noticing the gang of bullies leaving.
It took a while before he eventually walked down to the fountain and snatched his notebook out of the pond and away from a fish's mouth. He now could feel a sting on his shoulder, looking he noticed his shirt was slightly melted onto his skin there, Kachaan--he scowled, no, Bakugo had probably done that while threatening him to not apply to U.A. He sighed deeply and started walking. He didn’t know where but… somewhere.
Izuku almost didn’t notice the sound of something moving around just beneath him. Trying to jump out of the way but too tired to do it fast enough, Izuku was caught by a slime. It smelled horrible and he couldn’t breathe. Hearing the Villain taunt him and tell him to relax… he was going to die. He knew it. This was it.
“I AM HERE!”
Izuku’s eyes widened as the sludge was blasted off of him with a quick punch. He sputtered and breathed deeply, trying to stay conscious. “A-All Might?!”
The Hero was standing tall and proud, smiling brightly. Izuku was stunned. He was saved! He rushed to grab his notebook. “All Might, please... Please sign this!”
With what seemed like lightning speed the book was taken out of Izuku’s hand and when it was given back, it had ‘ALL MIGHT’ in bold letters with little stars around it, scrolled over two pages of the notebook. Izuku’s eyes were sparkling.
“W-wait don’t leave I have something to ask you!”
All Might just tip-toed around the boy politely giving excuses as to why he had to leave so quickly. Izuku was not going to let this chance slip from his fingers and grabbed on as tightly as he could. Now he was flying through the air, his face stinging from the rush of air as it went past. Tears brimmed his eyes as the wind started to rip his skin. It wasn’t too long before the Hero landed on the roof of a building. Izuku’s head was throbbing now, even more so than earlier today.
“Young man, it is not safe for you to do such acts!” All Might’s booming voice wasn’t as loud right now but it still almost split Izuku’s head.
“I-I just wanted to ask… if-if I could be a Hero? Even without a Quirk?” Izuku gazed up at his Hero his idol, the symbol of Peace. His symbol of Peace.
All Might’s face faltered. “I’m afraid not, young man.” The Hero paused. Izuku was in shock. “I know that the police have a bad rap, but you should join them instead, they do good work and you being a Hero without a Quirk would be very dangerous.”
“I see” Izuku starred as the Hero deflated, his entire being transforming into a skeleton of a man. Izuku didn’t even know what to think. So he yelled, yelled what was going on, why was this happening.
“I was badly injured in a fight a few years back…” Izuku could remember, he took in this form of All Might. He didn’t even know if this was All Might or not anymore… it had to be though, right?
He couldn’t listen to his own words or even what All Might is saying. He couldn’t keep them in his brain. His head kept pounding, each minute it got worse and worse, his vision got blurry He didn’t even realize that the Hero had left. He had left Izuku there all alone.
It was a long time before his eyes peeled open. Everything was blurry. The sky was dark and there were stars twinkling in the air high above Izuku. It was quiet. He could feel that his body was stiff from lying on the hard ground. He looked to the sky in an attempt to gather himself. What had happened? Izuku could remember the talk and the villain. His mom was probably worried about him, wasn’t she? He didn’t really want to move at the moment. Who would miss him? His mother probably would. He took in a deep breath. He stood up on shaky legs and began to walk, he would have to take the stairs down from the roof of this random building. His hand twisted the knob and ...it didn’t open. “What?” he whispered to himself. It was locked.
He fell down, pressed his forehead to the door. He cried. He cried silently, just letting the tears flow as he looked at the grey metal door, not even trying to wipe them away. They fell, they fell rapidly and slipped down his cheeks. He felt for his phone and noticed that it wasn’t in his pocket. His hand slipped down to the ground. His eyes closed. He sniffled. “I’m a useless, quirkless, no one...I-I can’t be a hero.” the words slipped out in a breathy whisper, he almost didn’t hear them himself. But he did. Now that he realized it, his head had stopped hurting. That was something good, he supposed.
‘“What should I do?” He laughed to himself. “This is stupid.” He got up and walked to the edge of the building and sat down, dangling his legs there. “This is all stupid” He muttered. His tears were less now, but still flowing. He saw the lights of the city, cars going by and people walking to and from where they needed to go. They didn’t even notice he was there. All they had to do was look up. That’s when it hit him. No one wanted to even look for something wrong, all those people down there didn’t care about anything. The Hero would always be there to save the day. Then he started thinking about Heroes. How if their quirk didn’t fit a situation they just...didn’t help.
He kept looking down at the people walking his brow furrowing in frustration and anger the more he did. How dare All Might tell him that being a Hero while Quirkless was dangerous when he was losing power at an alarming rate. His face was twisted into an angry grimace. What a hypocrite. Izuku shocked himself, thinking of All Might in a way that… was unheroic. He started laughing. He laughed so hard his body shook and tears started forming once again.
Once he calmed down he looked down again and wondered how he was going to get down from here with no phone or any way to contact someone. Surely there were people looking for him? He almost doubted that but...his mom was probably worried about him and had surely gone to the police. He looked around for any officers… he didn’t see anyone. He did notice a fire escape not too far from where he was. Maybe he could? He jumped. His feet smacked onto the hard metal and he rolled into it. It hurt be he didn’t think he had hurt himself other than a little jolt. He breathed a sigh of relief. He started climbing down the ladders and stairs until he reached the bottom.
Izuku stretched his arms above his head and let out a groan. He shook his head and looked around. There wasn’t much around he could remember, he let out a tired breath. He would have to find an officer or… a sign to tell him where he was. So he started walking, his legs felt like lead, he could really use some form of sleep. He let out a yawn. Something bumped into his shoulder and he felt a surge of something run through his body. When he turned his head to look at the person he bumped into, his eyes widened in shock. His mouth hung open. He could see a bunch of numbers and...words. He could see…
“Watch where you’re goin’ kid.” The man sounded flat and dull. “Why you looking at me like that?”
Izuku didn’t know what to say to the man. “I-I’m sorry I think… I-uh.” He just stared at everything he could see… The man glanced down, his red eyes finding spilled notebooks that had fallen out of Izuku’s backpack. Izuku noticed they had fallen and hurried to scoop them up. The man looked at him curiously, bending down and picking one of the notebooks up with only two of his fingers. Izuku could see more words forming when he looked at the strange man now flipping through his notebook with a blank expression.
“You write these?” He asked.
Izuku couldn’t tell what tone he was using. Izuku nodded, finally actually looking at the man and what he looked like. He had pale blue hair and fair skin. He was wearing a hood so it was hard to see, but his lips were kind of chapped.
The man smiled slightly. “Say, these are good. You must be really into Heroes?”
“Not really.” Izuku was shocked by his own reply. Especially as quick as he said it. The man seemed to smirk.
“Oh?” He paused and gave the book back to Izuku. “You don’t like them?”
Izuku thought about it for a moment, letting out a sight. “I’m not really...sure but…” He couldn’t stop himself. “I hate All Might.” It was hardly audible. His mind filled with anger at the words All Might spoke to him, how he had left him on the roof, how he had just… left him there.
“Well…” The man sounded contemplative. “Here, come with me. You need to get patched up.”
Izuku gave him a confused look until he looked at his clothes and his hands...and he felt the sudden very painful sting of his shoulder. “Y-yeah...um...what’s your name?”
“I’m Shigaraki.”
Izuku wanted to let out a sigh of relief but he was still confused as to what was happening. “I’m Izuku Midoriya.”
Izuku stood and started following Shigaraki, not really sure where they were going. Now that he thought about it, where was he? Looking around, he realized he had walked thoughtlessly all the way into a semi-abandoned part of town. Izuku was sure he shouldn’t follow random people to strange places but… something told him it was okay. He stared at the words in his vision and blinked to try and make them go away but they didn’t. He squinted… it was starting to give him a headache.
They came across a bar, and for a moment Izuku almost asked what they were doing and if they should even go in but Shigaraki didn’t even skip a beat before entering. Izuku gulped and walked in behind him.
“Shigaraki, you’ve returned...and with a friend.” A deep voice spoke from behind the bar.
Izuku saw a man, made of purple mist standing there wiping off some drinking glasses. Izuku didn’t see any of the words.
Shigaraki smiled as he sat at the bar. “This is Midoriya, he needs some treatment.” He looked back at Izuku. “Come, sit.”
Izuku didn’t argue. Sitting in the seat directly to the right of Shigaraki. The mist man came from around the bar and gave Izuku a quick look-over. “What happened to your shoulder?” he asked in a voice that Izuku swore had some sort of.. Care in it?
“I--” He was going to lie like he always did to his mom but...why? “A guy in my class did it to me because I’m quirkless.” He knew the laughs were coming and he just looked down at his feet ...but they never came. “I see.” was all the man had said.
Shigaraki wasn’t making any facial expressions, but he was watching everything Izuku did. Watching the Mist man.
“I am Kurogiri, the barkeep, and also the" he paused "-caregiver of Shigaraki.” He said as he reached for Izuku’s shoulder, as soon as his hand came into contact Izuku felt that same surge and the letters started appearing around Kurogiri. Izuku shuddered and took in a deep heavy breaths...he didn’t know what was happening.
“Mr. Midoriya?” Kurokgiri asked with confusion lacing his voice.
Izuku just looked at the two people in front of him. He tried to calm down tried to shake his head. His hands gripped his hair.
“I-I’m sorry I don’t know… I thought I was… but-”
Izuku explained in a fast and almost breathless re-telling of the events of today...aside from the skeleton All Might. How his head had been pounding, and his brain was blurry and how he was attacked. How All Might told him he couldn’t be a Hero. How All Might just left him there, how he jumped off the building onto the fire escape, how when he bumped into Shigaraki how all these words started appearing for the first time in his life…. How he was so, so very confused.
Once he was finished, his breath finally came back to him evenly, he finally was able to think clearly. He looked at Shigaraki and Kurogiri in fear...what if they got mad at him?
Shigaraki smiled a wide toothy smile, the corners of his eyes squinting from the sheer largeness of it. “I think you just got your quirk, kid.” He said with a small laugh.
Izuku just stared and looked back at Kurogiri who just nodded. Maybe that was a nod.
“A...a quirk… I have a Quirk?!” Izuku finally noticed. Finally, it clicked. Those words appearing were his Quirk.
“Read them for me, would you?” Kurogiri asked as he pointed to Shigaraki.
Izuku nodded and read the words appearing all around Shigaraki.
“Name; Shigaraki, Tomura. Age: 20 Quirk; Decay. Quirk Info: Anything touched with all five fingers will start to decay.”
Shigaraki looked a little taken aback.
Kurogiri laughed and held up one of the Hero journals. “This seems like the perfect quirk for you.”
Izuku didn’t know how long he spent in the bar with Kurogiri and Shigaraki. After his shirt was cut from his skin -that had hurt so much he had cried- but they hadn’t said anything to him about it, no taunting, sneers or laughs. He was bandaged up and they all talked for a while. About Heroes and about the world and why they felt the way they felt. Izuku noticed at some point the words had vanished. When they had, Kurogiri had said; “Your eyes aren’t usually red, Midoriya?” Which had freaked him out and they all tried to get him to use his quirk again. After trial and error, it has worked and he walked over to a bathroom and saw himself with red eyes. When he cut off the light they had glowed.
Izuku had started writing furiously in his notebook about what had triggered it any why they had glowed… Kurogiri suggested that they had absorbed the light in the room and then glowed afterward. That made sense. He wrote it down.
It was a long time before Izuku realized he should probably head home. Shigaraki decided to walk him all the way to his house after Kurogiri warped them closer. That had made Izuku gush about his quirk, similarly to how he had about Shigaraki’s asking him all kinds of questions. Funnily enough, they didn’t seem to find it bothersome...which was.. weird. It only took about thirty minutes to walk home from where they had warped from. Shigaraki only walked him close to his house and not to the door mostly because “If your mom sees me she might think I kidnapped you” which Izuku understood but maybe she would think he had helped him get home? Either way, he didn’t push it.
Once he opened the door his mother was sitting on the sofa with tissues all over the place, her face was stuffy and she was still crying. It made his heart hurt. She shot up and ran to the door.
“Oh, Izuku my baby!” She cried as she gave him a bone-crushing hug. He winced and she noticed straight away, apologizing. Her face became stern. “Where were you?! What happened to your shoulder?!” She asked, tears still streaming down her face.
“Mom, I was… I’ll tell you. Please, let’s sit down.” His voice was soft, tired but gentle. They both went to the couch, her hands still gripping his firmly. He took in a deep breath and explained everything, leaving out All Might being weak and the...kind of shifty things about Shigaraki and Kurogiri, just saying a nice father and son patched him up and walked him home. Once his mother cried, apologizing for what All Might had said, and telling him she was sorry for ever doubting him…. She had gotten angry. Saying Bakugo had no right, to do that to Izuku. Saying All Might could have been more sensitive..she was furious…
“Mom I… I got my Quirk.” She stopped mid-rant and looked at him, her green eyes glossing over with fresh tears. She flung her arms over his shoulders, before pulling them back with a small ‘sorry’ and asking him all kinds of questions. He smiled and explained all he knew so far. She was delighted, ecstatic, she was praising him and hugging him.
“You’ll always be my little boy, but I want you to grow into someone strong, regardless if you’re a Hero or not.”
At that, Izuku smiled, shook his head. “I don’t think I want to be a Hero…” She looked confused, before nodding.
Izuku sunk into the couch and looked at the ceiling. “I just don’t know if being a Hero...like All Might or any of those other Heroes who… are” He looked at her nervously. She sighed and smiled.
“Were you going to say fake, Izuku?” Inoko’s eyes were soft, full of understanding. An understanding that Izuku didn’t know she would have with a subject like this, especially after what had just happened with him being gone for so long and worrying her nearly to death.
He swallowed, he didn’t really know how to respond. He was going to say ‘no’ but... He looked into her green eyes and couldn’t stand lying to her anymore. About anything. So he nodded.
She placed a hand on his knee and gave a gentle smile. She let out a sigh of relief.
“Dear, I think you should get some rest, but before you head to bed let me tell you something. You aren’t the only person who feels this way, many do. Many many people do-” She breathed in deeply. “I am one of those people, Izuku. I--I think that maybe, sometimes… As you grow older, some people tend to think about things in a manner that isn't behind rose-tinted glasses…"
Midoriya was even more confused. His brain felt like putty and his limbs felt like lead.
"My child, my darling Izuku, I think we should talk in the morning. We will take the day and relax, okay?" She smiled at Izuku softly, her face gentle and caring. She had dark circles under her eyes.
Izuku smiled back and nodded, giving her a soft hug before standing and heading toward his room. He turned his head to his mother. "I love you, mom. I'm sorry about today."
She shook her head and started walking to her own room. "You had more than enough reason to not contact me… but we will talk about that tomorrow. Sleep well, Izuku."
He didn't reply, only smiling and going to his room. He shut the door gently and stripped off all but his underwear and snuggled into his bedsheets. He would shower in the morning. He looked at the ceiling and thought long and hard about everything. Mostly about what his mom could possibly mean by what she said. He eventually fell into a deep slumber with no dreams or any stirring, a peaceful rest he desperately needed.