Chapter Text
He had just gotten used to the feeling of One for All coursing through his veins. It had only been just over half a year of hard work to get to get used to the overwhelming feeling of power that made him feel like he was on a pins edge of being able to leap to greater heights, or plummet into oblivion.
It had been an honor to hold it, and an exhilarating experience to use it and try and make that power into his own. However, Izuku knew that sacrifices had to be made to save the innocent.
When he woke up after defeating Nine, that energy was gone. He had actually gone through with giving Kacchan One For All. There was a hollow place in him where he had once felt the flame of his quirk.
All Might was there beside him, speaking to him through teary eyes. Izuku’s ears were ringing as All Might apologized and hugged him and he couldn’t hear the apologies or the placating words of praise.
Eventually words did break through.
“I will train young Bakugo.” All Might assured, “We won’t let this stop our mission of beating All For One.” Of course, that was the most important thing. That All For One could still be dealt with, that the quirk One For All still burned strong. Even if it wasn’t in Izuku.
All Might left with a firm squeeze on Izuku’s shoulder and a strained smile. Izuku tried to return it.
He felt so empty.
He needed some air. Should he tell anyone he was going to take a walk? It took less than a few seconds of looking around to decide that he didn’t have the energy, and simply stood from his bedding to limp away with his aching bones.
He was back to square one. His worth was completely taken from him. Not even the power of One For All thought that he was worthy and moved on to a much better and stronger vessel. He was too weak. Too useless. Too empty.
He found himself in the field of tall grass where Nine nearly killed him the first time. Before Kacchan came to save him. On such a small island there isn’t really that far to go.
“…brat.” Came a cough from somewhere in the grass, Izuku jumped and looked around.
There, laying in the grass looking up at the sky was nine, and he looked awful. His skin was purple with broken bones and burned skin. He was breathing, but it looked strained and deliberate.
“How- Wait, I should get a doctor, hold on!”
“It would be useless green brat.” Nine grunted, “I'll be dead long before they can get to me. The least you could do me is let me die in peace.” He took a shuddering deep breathe, “I wonder…if it was all worth it.”
Izuku sat next to nine in the grass, clenching his hands on his legs. “Worth it? You hurt so many people. What was worth all of this?”
Nine would have responded, but his words were stolen by a horrible coughing fit that twisted him for almost a whole minute before he finally settled. He took another deliberate breath, “I wanted to become the strongest. In a world of quirks, only the strong are recognized. With my quirk I could be strong, but never recognized. A quirk so powerful it tore my inside apart,so I left everything to become not just strong but resilient. But now I can’t even go back to confess my regrets…” He weezed and coughed, curling up again in agony and Izuku reached out and placed a hand on Nine’s shoulder.
“Regrets?”
Nine groaned softly as he calmed down, “I left someone important behind. I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive me for what I’ve done.”
“Who?”
Nine shook his head and he turned to look at Izuku, really look at him. He activated his scanning quirk causing golden disk to float just above his cornea’s and widened his eyes.
“You’re almost empty.” He rasped and Izuku shivered trying not to feel the hot burning in the back of his throat.
“I…lost one of my quirks. It was necessary to stop you. Someone else has it now.”
"You gave up your strength." It was condiscending and Izuku squared his shoulders.
"A hero has to do what's right to protect the innocent! Giving up my quirk saved Katsuma and everyone else on the island from you! I may be powerless and useless now but I did somehting that mattered."
Nine nodded, but there wasn’t a clear understanding behind it and met Izuku’s gaze with a determined expression of a dying man.
"You gave your power away." He murmured, "I can give you my strength as compensation."
That was crazy! Izuku shook his head, opening his mouth to say that it was impossible.
“You can hold many quirks Green Brat. The scanning quirk doesn’t lie. You may be mostly empty now but there's still a quirk in there. A weak quirk, but one I know I can use to make you strong again.”
Izuku started shaking. He was tired, upset, angry and he dug his nails into his palms to at least ground himself on some level.
"You're talking nonsense, I don't have a quirk. I got tested and everything! The only thing that made me special was a quirk designed to move from person to person! Whatever you think you see in me must me some kind of ghost image!"
Nine takes a deep breath and He strains, like he wants to sit up and Izuku immediately stops him, “You can’t move- you need to save your strength.”
Nine grabs Izuku’s wrist.
“Blood. If we exchange blood it could work. That’s what you did with the explosive brat. At first I wasn’t sure- but now. Now it’s our only option.”
“Wait!” Izuku cried and tried to pull back, exposing his palm, and everything perfectly aligned in a horrible domino of events. Nine pulled out a knife and dragged its blade across Izuku’s exposed skin. The pain was instant and unforgiving.
“All for One practically has a mind of its own. It can feel me dying. It may not be the original, but I’m sure having a new host will be much preferable. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have a better use for it than I ever did.” He rambled and grabbed his own blade squeezing hard to make himself bleed.
“Wait, All For One? I don’t understand-”
“If my dream cannot come true, then I will not let fate take yours away.” Nine delcared and he grabbed Izuku’s hand in a damning handshake. Blood exchanged blood and Nine’s breaths were becoming raspy.
Izuku shivered from head to toe at the squelch that their hands made. He felt nauseous, and his hand felt ice cold now. His hand was ice cold and the sensation was crawling up his limbs and it felt like he was going numb and he was cold, but he was also hot and burning from the inside out and he wanted to run but he couldn’t feel his legs anymore.
For a moment he thought that maybe he would stay frozen like this forever panic making his heartrate spike. Lighting flashed in the sky and the heavens opened- rain pouring on Izuku and drenching him to the bone.
He gasped at this new outward sensation and wrenched himself away from Nine. He wasn’t met with any resistance which confused him at first, so he leaned back over to check on the villain.
Nine wasn’t breathing anymore, and he was staring up at the sky with wide blank eyes.
Izuku sighed and closed Nine’s eyes. At least that way he looked like he was sleeping.
He shivered and hugged his legs to his chest and sat in the rain.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, watching a still body not do anything.
“Midoriya?” Todoroki called.
Izuku turned his head to look at Todoroki. He was holding an umbrella and his face didn’t give much away but Izuku knew that he was worried.
“Sorry.” He said and sniffed standing up, he and Todorki headed away from the field. He hold him about the body and Izuku took out his phone to text someone to get the corpse. Izuku didn’t notice that the cut on his palm wasn’t there anymore.
--
Instead of the clinic or a shelter, Shouto led Izuku to the local inn and into one of the rooms where mysteriously all of Izuku’s things were placed.
“What…?”
Shouto handed Izuku a towel, “The place we were staying in was destroyed, so UA rented the inn for us to stay in. I took the liberty of getting your things to your room.”
“Thank you…” He mumbled and started drying his hair off.
Izuku sat on his bed and continued to dry his hair and Todoroki sat beside him.
“Why were you not with the others?” He asked and Izuku shrugged.
“I needed some air.”
Shouto gave him a look, “You needed to get some air…next to the corpse of a villain.”
Izuku looked up, he was staring intensely at Izuku and the secrets burned in Izuku’s throat. He wanted to talk about One for All and how he had just lost the greatest mentor he had ever known to his childhood friend. He wanted to talk about being quirkless and how he didn’t know what tomorrow was going to bring him. If he was going to be able to stay at UA.
The rain outside poured harder and Izuku’s breaths were coming short.
“I watched Nine die.” He decided to say, and his words came out rough and choked, “He was in pain, but he still confided in me.” Izuku sighed and gripped the towel. “I’m just…so tired after everything.”
Shouto pressed his lips together.
“I’m sorry.” He says, “But… if there’s anything else bothering you. Don’t be afraid to share your burden.”
Izuku smiled at that, “Of course.”
Todoroki searched Izuku’s face and when he was satified he stood up gently pressing his hand on the back of Izuku’s shoulder as he stands. “Get some sleep Izuku, we’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon.”
“Kay. Goodnight Todoroki.”
He nodded and headed for the door, he opened it and looked at the rain pouring, “You know…I think after everything, you can call me Shouto, right Izuku?” He looked over his shoulder at Izuku and his stomach filled with squirmy butterflies.
“O-okay..Sho- Shouto, goodnight!” He nodded and closed the door behind him.
Izuku locked the door and pressed his back on the wood, and slid to the floor. Too many things had happened today, he might explode.
--
He was in the mall again his friends were far away having fun shopping forgetting about the worlds problem.
But he had a hand on the back of his neck, one finger poised to kill.
“How does it feel to know that no one’s even looking? No Quirk to grab attention. Just stuck here with little old me while your friends put their lives on the line.”
“What- what do you mean?”
Shigaraki laughed, “Look outside, they’re fighting with all they have to protect those two brats. They’re going to die one by one. And you can’t do anything about it. No more strings from One For All to hold you up.”
Suddenly the mall scene unfolded, and his friends were sitting on the edge of the battles on the island. Everyone was fighting, and despite the gruesome circumstances, they looked beautiful as they fought.
But they were losing.
“Poor stringless puppet.” Shigaraki cooed in his ear, “Can you hear them calling out for you? Their calls for help? Can you smell the fire in the air? The children screaming? There’s nothing you can do. Poor Izuku I’ll put you out of your misery.”
Time slowed and he Jerked, he had to get away, but he felt heavy so heavy- he couldn’t MOVE!
Izuku Jerked awake and he tried to sit up but he was being weighed down and the room was glowing blue. Oh gods what kind of mess was in now? Captured in his sleed? Tied up?
Izuku took a couple of deep slow breaths and whatever was holding him down was moving and shifting around ontop of him. He Struggled slowly to sit up there was…a pile of…snakes? On his lap?
He would’ve screamed, but one of the little noodles came up and pressed it’s nose up to Izuku’s cheeks, cooeing and chirping at the same time. Having it closer it was obviously not a snake. It was streamlined in a way that a legless lizard seemed to be and it had segmented scales like armor on its back.
This wasn’t the most horrible position to be in, but where did they COME FROM?
He struggled and shifted until he reached his phone and he looked at the time: 9:30 okay, so he had enough time to figure out what to do with these glowing wayward reptiles.
Knock Knock
Oh no.
“Izuku?” Came Uraraka’s voice, “Breakfast is ready! Better come down before Bakugo eats everything in a competition with Kirishima.”
“UH—I’ll be down in a bit! I uh, gotta take a shower.”
“Okay! See you later!” She cheerfully whistled and walked away. Oh, thank the gods. Izuku took a deep breath and looked down at himself and there were lots of mini reptiles. They shifted as he shifted lifting themselves up when he stood so he could figure out where exactly these little things were coming from. He started with one of the closer one and he gently pet it from its head and further down until he was stretching around himself and touched his back.
All of these little quirk reptiles were coming out of his back like…Nine’s dragon thing did.
But that was one very huge and aggressive dragon.
These were small and cute and comforting?
“Oh what am I gonna do..? How do I turn you guys off??”
They reared their heads in defiance.
“Oh come on- that’s not what I meant!”
They squinted their eyes in a way that felt like How were we MEANT to take that?
“These last 48 hours have been very stressful!” He defended, “Having cute reptiles sprouting from my back was not on my to do list! Well, neither was fighting A-list villians, nor loosing One for All…God what am I even doing? How am I going to explain to my mom that a villain gave me a bunch of new quirks? Does this mean I have to change my paperwork on my quirk listing? What would I even call it? Is the government even going to let me walk on the streets like this? I can’t just say I got a quirk unrelated to-“
His breathing was getting shaky and he was tugging at his hair. He stumbled back and landed back on the bed and he turned onto his side and wanted to shut out the world! The little noodles chirped and cooed and wrapped around Izuku in a weird version of a hug. One of the bigger noodles was rubbing it’s forehead against his cheek.
…god this was so weird he hugged them back and it felt warm and nice and maybe he should just become a cacoon of warmth and transform into someone totally different.
Knock Knock
Please go away.
Knock Knock
Maybe if Izuku didn’t say anything they would go away?
“Izuku, I have breakfast.”
Oh no. The same lie might work twice, right?
“UH- Thanks I- I’m about to take a shower so uh, can you hold onto it until then?”
“You can eat before you shower.” Shouto says plainly through the door and Izuku sighs and looks at the noodles and they look back at him.
‘What?’ They all silently ask him.
Izuku shoos them, but the noodles remained looking at each other coming to a decision and look back at Izuku with steely determination. They weren’t going anywhere. He sighed and shifted towards the door, he cracks it open trying to angle his body in a way that wouldn’t expose the dozens of tiny blue ghost like dragon babies.
Shouto was holding a bowl of rice with a couple boiled eggs in it, and there was a spoon balanced ontop.
“This looks great, Shouto! Thanks- I’ll uh, I’ll enjoy the food and then get cleaned up!”
Izuku reaches for the food.
However when his arm peaked through the door, one of the dragons followed him. It poked up from under his arm and asserted itself to the world. Izuku froze.
Shouto looked at the small dragon. Maybe he wouldn’t connect the dots?
“I didn’t know you had a guest.”
“Uh… they wiggled their way in here?”
Shouto looked at the little dragon who had already swallowed one of the eggs whole.
“Izuku.”
“Y- Yes Shouto?”
“This guest looks like a small dragon.”
“Yes.”
“The same one Nine used.”
“Yes?”
“May I come in?”
Damn it.
“I- I can explain?”
“That would be appreciated,” Shouto intoned with a small incline of his head.
Izuku backed up and opened the door to let Shouto come in and he did, still holding the rice, and from his pants pocket there was a boxed juice poking out and that honestly was so sweet and thoughtful. Minus the part where Izuku was dealing with a brand new and very large problem.
One of the noodles aggressively pressed their foreheads against Izuku in defiance again.
Right, they could hear his thoughts and feel his emotions. He took a deep breathe trying to figure out what to say. Where to start. What to say, and what to leave out.
One of the baby dragon noodles perked up and looked earnestly at Izuku. Trying to convey a message or a feeling. The body then leaned forward onto Izuku’s left shoulder. He could feel the scar tissue itch underneath his shirt.
“You think I should start from the beginning?”
The little body lifted in a node but stayed put in its placement.
Shouto was waiting patiently, and set the food and boxed juice on the table beside the bed.
Izuku took a deep breath.
“When I was five my mom took me to the doctor…”
It took less time than Izuku had figure it would. Confessing his diagnosed quirklessness, about growing up being looked down on, the rooftop with allmight. He tripped over his words plenty of times and he just wanted to cry and stop telling Shouto at others. He talked about trying to gain control, the relief of finally getting his own style of fighting.
He talked about what it meant to be a holder of One for All, and the mission that all the holders shared. Shouto peeled the hard boiled eggs as he listened.
“In order to win against Nine I gave up One for All to Kacchan so we could fight him together. I thought ‘maybe, if One for All thought I was worthy… a miracle might happen.’”
“But that didn’t happen.” Shouto stated and handed Izuku the bowl. Izuku sighed and nodded, picking up an egg and took a bite out of the egg.
“I didn’t know it was possible to feel so empty… and then my feet walked me right where Nine was laying in the grass…dying. He- we exchanged blood. He cut my palm and then his and we had the worst handshake ever. The sensation was so strange... It felt like One For All…but it’s heavier. Like it’s bonded to me rather than…poised to jump ship or something.”
Izuku finished off the egg and rubbed his face, the little baby dragons rubbed their heads on whatever body part they could find.
“So, you think this change is permanent. Does this mean you hold all the quirks that Nine had?”
“Yes. Nine made that very clear. He…he even admitted to having All For One, or at least some version of it. Now, it’s just learning how to activate and deactivating them at will. I don’t want to worry everyone…and if I go outside with a gaggle of dragons- albeit very cute- I think that would cause too much of a ruckus.”
“Yeah. Uraraka can get spooked pretty easy.”
“And Kota.”
“Hagakure.”
“And Mineta.”
“Aoyama and Tsu will probably be fine. They have good heads.”
Izuku laughed at the odd phrasing, and the little dragon noddles made pleased chirrping sounds.
“They like it when you laugh.”
Izuku smiled and ate a bite of rice, “They’re much nicer now than when Nine was using them to attack us.”
“I’m sure the user affects how the quirk manifests. My fire is different from my fathers, as is my ice from my mother’s.”
Izuku shivered, “I don’t really like the image of Nine as being a father figure.”
“More like a quirk donor.”
“…was that a joke?”
Shouto smiled ever so slightly and oh god CUTE. Izuku ate more rice to distract himself.
“But seriously.” Izuku said when his bowl is empty, “I need to figure out how this dragon quirk works or I’ll have a lot to explain very soon to a lot of people.”
Shouto nodded, “We can figure it out.”
Izuku nodded, He closed his eyes and imagines the baby dragons…absorbing? In his body? He tried to hold onto a mental image of not having a swarm of adorable dragon noodles coming out of his back.
He opened his eyes to gaze into the unimpressed faces of a few of his baby dragons.
He rubbed at his face trying to not let his frustration make him do or say anything he might regret.
“I don’t know how I activated this so I can’t just walk backwards to de activate it.” He mumbled and looked up at Todoroki.
“How… how does it feel to activate and deactivate your quirk, Shouto? Maybe an outside perspective will help.”
Shouto nodded and he focused on a spot on the floor for a minute or two. Izuku waited patiently, and passed the minutes by petting his quirk-made pets. He observed the little dragons as they explored the space. Their size and moveable armor segments allowed them to emote on a much better front than the immoveable segmented form of the creature that Nine had summoned yesterday. They had white eyes and no pupils or corneas to speak of, and Izuku did notice each of them glowed a little bit and they cast a highlight onto his palm.
He wondered what sorts of things he could use these little ones could have in battle aside from attacking. Like, maybe if he could just make one long thin dragon he might be able to maneuver on the field a little easier. DO the dragons really only come out of his back, or can he summon them from other parts of his body?
“It’s like a straw.” Shouto said in the middle of Izuku’s thought process and he jerked his head up.
“What?”
“My power. It’s like having pools of power inside me, and when I activate then turning on a hose so I can ‘spray’ my power outwards in whatever way I can.”
Izuku nodded and closed his eyes, trying to feel out the ‘draw’. It could feel like anything. A buzzing under his skin, or perhaps a pulsing sensation. Trying to find an inner switch wouldn’t work. These creatures needed to go back inside him peacefully.
Physically and mentally he took a couple of deep breaths and searched inside of himself for things out of the ordinary. He felt many different threads connected to him buzzing and warry. It was centered around his back.
Calm. He needed to be calm. He thought about Shouto, how much he trusted him to have his back. Like with Stain, all he had done was sent his location and Shouto was there as soon as he could be. Izuku would be safe and he would call out the dragons if he needed them. He knew what the power felt like, he could draw on that in the future.
The buzzing died down, and a drain he hadn’t felt before settled into his bones. He sighed and relaxed his shoulder and rubbed at his eyes. He wanted to sleep for another 10 hours or so.
“They’re gone now.” Shouto observed and Izuku nodded.
“Now, I just need to stay calm for the next 5-7 hours while we head back to the mainland.”
Shouto nodded, “That sounds doable. I’ll help any way I can.”
And what a relief that was, “Thank you, Shouto.”
Shouto helped him pack and stuck close to him for the rest of the day. Izuku said his goodbye’s to the kids and imparted the message to Katsuma that he COULD be a hero. It was important for Katsuma to know that someone had faith in his dream. Seeing Katsuma’s eyes shine with new determination was worth every effort to save this island.
Bakugo’s gaze on his back was heavy, and he felt his back tingle. Shouto was there in less than a moment with some ice pops to share.
He talked with his friends and sent his mom some texts on the boat and he tried his best to relax.
But Bakugo kept starring at him, or maybe he was glaring? Izuku looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and judging by the slant of his eyes he was just watching. He wasn’t angry…but Izuku wasn’t going to push his luck on that front.
“What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home, Izuku?”
“Uh…probably hug my mom? She hates when I get hurt or when I’m in danger.”
The girls all cooed and started joking around about how cute it was that he was a Mama’s boy.
He didn’t mind that, because the first thing he did when he got home was drop his things and hug his mom and rub her back as she cried for him.
“Izuku you have to stop doing this to me!!” She wailed and Izuku’s breath hitched.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m trying my best. I don’t want to see you crying anymore.”
She sobbed a little harder and hugged that much harder. How was he going to explain this new situation to her? His new quirks? Nine and watching him die?
Something buzzed under his skin, and Izuku’s stomach dropped, and before he could try and stem the tide, a hoard of small-ish dragon noodles came out curling around Izuku and laid their head ontop of his mom making their small little cooing noises.
At first she didn’t notice, which was good.
“Izuku?” Mom asked still hugging him.
“Yeah, mom?”
“I thought your quirk was enhancement.”
“Yeah?”
“There are dragons.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Coming out of your BACK.”
“I-is that so?”
“IZUKU!"