Chapter Text
Izuku shook in pain as he sat rigid in his seat. He’d have asked to go to the nurse, but he already knew that his teacher wouldn’t let him. Kacchan would also get mad that he’d bothered to try asking, Izuku didn’t understand why he got mad, though.
Probably because I shouldn’t waste supplies, Izuku thought.
Izuku had been roughed up by some of the boys that tended to follow Bakugo around. Seeing as how Izuku made it a point to get here before everyone else to avoid people’s rush, it was unfortunately very easy to get Izuku alone. So currently, his lower ribs were bruised, and he was pretty sure he had a sprained ankle since one of the boys decided to step on the thin limb.
He let out a restrained and shuddering breath as he continued to try and listen to the teacher's lecture. His ribs were really making it hard to breathe easily, so he tried to crunch forward a little, thinking it might help a bit.
Unfortunately, it made pain shoot through his body, and he barely held in a cry of pain. He noticed Kacchan move slightly and looked up to see that the blonde was glaring at him from the corner of his eye.
“Keep quiet!” He growled. “Stupid Deku…”
Izuku just wanted to go home already. It was almost the end of the day, so, thankfully, he wouldn’t have to wait too long. He hoped his mom didn’t get home before he did. That last thing Izuku wanted was to worry his mom more than she already was.
It was a relief when the final bell rang out to dismiss school. As usual, Izuku didn’t bother to pack up or move from his seat. He had to wait for the others to leave first, or he’d likely just be trampled on. As he waited, he idly went over the notes he’d written this morning on Mount Lady’s quirk. Izuku fiddled with the corner of the page before closing the book and reaching for his bag, only for the notebook to get swiped off his desk.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Deku, but I’m sure I told you to get rid of your creepy stalker notebooks!” Looking up, Izuku saw that Kacchan was the one who’d grabbed his analysis book.
Izuku ignored the comments from the other two students behind Kacchan, all too focused on the popping explosions now frying his precious notes. He got teary-eyed as Kacchan tossed the book out of the open window as though it were worthless trash. Despite the pain he was in, Izuku quickly stood and grabbed his backpack. If he was quick enough, then maybe he could still salvage his notebook…
A heavy hand on his shoulder stopped him from leaving the room, though. “Word to the wise, Deku . Give up already.”
The hand then began to smoke and burn his shoulder as Kacchan's quirk activated. Just another injury added onto Izuku’s list for the day. The greenette shook in pain as his shoulder was let go, and the 3 students made their way out of the class.
Izuku was trying so hard not to cry now, and he almost was able to calm himself. He just needed to get his notebook, and then he could go home!
Bakugo paused by the door. “Y’know. If you really wanna be a hero that badly, there actually might be another way.”
Izuku, still shaking, turned towards his childhood friend, maybe even once almost brother, yet now his main abuser. He shook in pain, fear,
desperation,
and maybe even hope that
Kacchan
might finally say something nice to him.
“Just pray that you’ll be born with a Quirk in your next life. Then take a swan dive off the roof of a building.”
Izuku’s face fell blank, making Bakugo pause in his motions to continue leaving the class. The look on Izuku’s face was never one he’d seen from the nerd before. It was so expressionless. At that moment, Katsuki’s words registered in his own mind, and he felt fear.
The nerd wouldn’t actually listen to him, right? Bakugo shook his head and glared at the greenette one last time before exiting the room, not knowing that those would be the last words he’d ever say to the boy he’d grown up with.
Izuku was numb as he went to grab his notebook. He ignored the fish nibbling on the book and gently plucked it from the water. It was soaked, and the ink was runny. He stared at the book for a moment before bringing the dripping papers to his chest, simply holding it close to his heart, and then began his walk home.
He didn’t even acknowledge the pain he was in anymore, mind far off as he unconsciously followed his usual route home. It was once he’d begun walking through the short tunnel that he was brought out of his state.
“You’ll make the perfect meat suit for me to hide in!”
And then Izuku was suffocating. His notebook had fallen to the ground once more as he struggled to try and free himself from the slime villain, desperate to get air back into his lungs.
He could feel his throat tightening, and his head felt like it was being slowly crushed from the lack of oxygen, his eyes closed as he feared this might be the end of him. What would happen to his mother? He didn’t want to die here. He still wanted to live, he still wanted to be a hero!
And then the world went black as he heard a muffled shout.
Izuku came to as he felt his cheek getting repeatedly tapped and sluggishly opened his eyes.
“AH! Thought I’d lost you there for a moment!” Izuku bolted upright in awe. It was All Might!
“Glad to see you’re alright young man! I took the liberty to sign your notebook, but now I’m afraid I must be off to the station to deliver this villain,” All Might tapped at his side and Izuku saw that the hero had somehow managed to put the slime villain into a canister.
Izuku shakily got up to his feet, he had to know! “Wait, All Might! I have something I need to ask you-”
“Young man, I’m sorry, but I really must be going now!”
As the hero began to turn away from Izuku, the boy lunged and managed to swipe up his bag and notebook before gluing himself to All Might’s leg, just as he leaped into the sky.
Yeah, not the best of ideas, especially since it went unnoticed by either of them that the canister holding the villain had fallen off of All Might’s belt loop.
“Hey! Kid, let go! I don’t have time for this right now!” Well, that’s a dumb suggestion.
“If I let go, I’ll fall to death!” All Might groaned, realizing that, as though gravity was optional. Uh-huh, sure.
And so Izuku found himself on a rooftop with All Might standing across from him. He was ecstatic and hyped up on adrenaline both from the villain attack and then holding on for dear life to All Mights’ leg. If there was anyone who knew what hero potential was, then who better to ask than the number one himself!
All Might coughed a bit and brought up a hand to cover his mouth, but Izuku didn’t notice yet as he was too busy building the courage to ask his hero the question that could ultimately make or break him. Said number one hero was barely listening to the boy ramble on, only focused on getting away from the
brat
, and began to make his way towards the ledge to take off again before his form dropped.
“Listen, kid, I need to go-”
“Can I still be a hero even without a quirk!” All Might stopped and turned his head back towards the boy.
He had his eyes clenched shut as he waited for an answer. “Kid-” But All Might ran out of time. Izuku opened his eyes hearing the hero begin to cough and choke and was shocked to see the form of a stick like, an emaciated man standing where All Might had been.
“W-who are you?! What happened to All Might!”
The deflated hero grew annoyed, “I am All Mig-” He couldn’t even finish as he continued to cough and choke on blood.
Izuku screamed a bit at the sight of the blood and the new knowledge that this was the number one hero.
“But, but that’s impossible! All Might is so big and strong, and you’re….”
Izuku flinched as the man’s eyes cut into him once he finally finished coughing. “Listen, kid, you weren’t ever supposed to see this. If you had just
stopped talking,
then this could have been avoided.”
Izuku was an inconvenience.
“Now, I have places I need to be.”
Izuku wasn’t worth the time
. “Just pretend you didn’t see me and go home, kid.”
The man then began to walk around the stunned greenette. He was almost to the rooftop door before Izuku snapped out of his stupor and rounded back towards the hero.
“Please All Might, I just need to know! Can I still be a hero if I’m quirkless!?”
Izuku watched as the hero froze yet again. The silence was thick between them, and tears began to form in his eyes as Izuku waited with a bated breath. The last bright spark of his dream to become a hero was being held out to his inspiration, hoping beyond hope that All Might would help relight the spark.
He was wrong.
Izuku flinched as the man laughed.
What was so funny?
All Might turned back to him with a sick grin on his face. “You want to be a hero even though you’re quirkless? Give up kid, you’d just be a liability on the field.”
The spark died. There was no flicker, no embers remaining with the possibility of being relit, just a brutal snuff of the flame with no hope of coming back.
Izuku’s head spun as the hero continued to walk to the rooftop door, angrily yanking it open and stomping through and letting the door slam shut.
All Might… just left him there. He’d been Izuku’s last hope, his last-ditch effort to have someone, anyone , say that they believed in him. That he could be a hero, that he wasn’t a Deku.
Izuku had so precariously held his heart's last dream out to the hero and said hero had taken it into his hands, just to crush it to dust.
Izuku didn’t even move once the number one hero left. He simply stood unbelieving, staring where the hero had once stood. Even the distant sounds of explosions didn’t draw his attention, his ears nearly ringing with bitter hate.
Then, once the sun was beginning to set, did Izuku finally move from his place as a statue. He stiffly turned his head to the setting sun. It was so warmly beautiful as it set in the distance. The sky was bright with reds, oranges, pinks, and purple-blue hues.
Turning away from the sun, Izuku looked down to his backpack and reached into a zipper pocket that he promised himself he’d never open. In the pocket was one plain envelope with a single letter inside.
It was a suicide letter.
It was the only letter Izuku had ever written, addressed to the only person who seemed to love him.
It had been a bad day when he’d written the letter. Izuku hadn’t even realized that he’d written it until he was done and looked back over it. It was written to his mother, explaining how he was just so sorry he wasn’t strong enough, how he wasn’t good enough .
Izuku went on to explain how he was treated in school, how he had no friends, how tired he was of being hurt. The last paragraph was pure apologies to his mother. He knew that it would hurt her, her only baby was being hurt, and she didn’t even know. Yet, Izuku never blamed her. He purposefully hid everything from her because, as an aspiring hero, he didn’t want to worry her. In some odd way, Izuku thought it would prove he had the strength to become a hero, yet in reality, all hiding his pain ever did was hurt him more.
Izuku had taken that letter and put it away in a sealed envelope, leaving it unmarked and unnamed. He carried the letter with him as a reminder, a reminder that he shouldn’t give up. A reminder that in marking the envelope to its intended, he’d be breaking someone’s heart.
And yet, here was Izuku, now writing his mother’s name onto the envelope. He was breaking the promise he’d made to himself to never make use of this letter. The pen fell from his hand once he finished. For a moment, he stared at the letter wondering if this was really it, if he should really go through with this.
Yes, it’s okay! You’re tired, rest. Ah, that little voice in his head was back. This time it seemed so much more gentle though, perhaps it realized that Izuku was finally giving up.
And so, Izuku put the letter into his backpack, where he knew it would be easily found. Then he walked to the roof's edge, backpack in hand. He peered over the side of the ledge and looked down to the alley between the two buildings.
With the bag feeling like it weighed thousands of pounds, he tiredly brought it up and over the edge before letting it fall to the alley below. It hit the concrete with an ominous thud, scaring off some birds that had been pecking the nearby ground.
Izuku then sluggishly climbed to stand up on the ledge. A gentle breeze ran over him as he stared at his bag down below.
One last time, Izuku turned around so that he faced the sun. The light was so warm, so soothing and peaceful as it sunk into him. He didn’t think about anything else besides the soothing light, he couldn’t.
He closed his eyes as he took in that warmth, the light almost seeming to reach out to him as if it could grab a hold of him and pull him to safety.
His eyes opened, and he smiled. A gentle, peaceful smile full of acceptance and yet still oh so tired.
With a breathless laugh, Izuku spread his arms out and tilted himself backward. It was slow motion as he fell.
He fell out of the sun's view, out of the warmth that seemingly pleaded the loving boy not to leave its bright safety.
He fell and closed his eyes as he sunk into the cold shadows below.
Inko paced the living room of her apartment as she bit her nails in worry. Her son had yet to come home, and as she looked out the window, she saw the sun was now gone from view, only a few rays of light still peeking over the horizon.
She’d tried to call Mitsuki, and when her friend had picked up the phone, the blonde was also in a teary state.
Katsuki had apparently been walking home from school with some of his friends when he’d been attacked by some slime villain. It had taken much too long for the heroes to help him, and he’d fallen unconscious from the lack of air.
Luckily, not long after he’d fallen unconscious did Kamui Woods latch onto a building and reach out with a net of sticks to pull Katsuki free. The boy had been taken to the hospital but was quickly released once he woke up and got checked over.
Mitsuki and Katsuki then both came over to Inko's after the hospital trip, Masaru soon joining them after he’d gotten out of work.
“Inko, please sit. All this pacing and stress won’t do you any good,” Mitsuki stood from her seat on the couch and gently approached her friend. She placed a warm hand on the greenettes arm to stop her pacing.
Inko looked up at her friend with tears in her eyes. “Mitsuki, it's been hours! Izuku should be home by now! What if something happened to him?!”
The tears finally fell, and Mitsuki gently wrapped her friend in a hug. Inko had tried numerous times to call her son's phone and had gotten no response. She didn’t know whether she should call the police or just go out and start looking for her son herself.
Masaru stayed on the couch with his son and sadly watched his wife try to comfort the worried mother. If Inko wanted to go out looking for Izuku, then he’d gladly help.
Katsuki, on the other hand, was very still and silent on the couch. His mind wasn’t all there as he, too, grew increasingly worried about De- Izuku .
Katsuki just couldn’t stop thinking about his last words to the boy. The image of the absolute hurt that came over Izuku’s face continually flashed in his mind.
He regretted his words so much, even he didn’t know why he said what he did. As soon as the words were out, he regretted it, and now, above all, Katsuki feared he’d never get the chance to apologize.
They were all brought out of their stupor as the doorbell rang. Inko ran over to the door, hoping against all hope that it was Izuku who had rung the bell because he’d somehow forgotten his keys.
Instead, the teary mother opened the door and was met with two police officers. “Inko Midoriya?”
The Bakugo’s silently stood in the hall a little ways behind her as they listened. “Yes, that’s me. What’s going on?”
The officers sadly glanced at one another. The woman looked so worried and sad, and they weren’t about to make it better.
“May we come in? It concerns your son Izuku Midoriya.”
Inko’s face went a little blank even as she stepped aside and let the officers inside and led them to the living room.
Inko, the Bakugo's, and both officers sat in momentary silence before Inko shakily asked where Izuku was.
And so the officers explained. Mitsuki and Masaru began to silently cry as they held each other. Katsuki was in shock.
And yet, poor Inko was the worst. She didn’t believe it right away. It just couldn’t be true. Yet, when one officer reached into a bag she realized was her son's backpack in order to pull out a letter to give her, she realized this was real.
That was her baby’s handwriting, even as shaky as it was written and smeared from water droplets she recognized it easily.
Still so very silent and blank-faced, Inko gently opened the letter and read through it. Only once she reached the end, reading the last words she’d ever have from her baby, did her tears pour from her eyes.
Mitsuki moved over to her side as Inko began to wail. The kind of wail only a mother who’d lost her baby could produce.
“I’m sorry, Mama, I couldn’t do it anymore.
I love you.
-Izuku”
Izuku Midoriya was dead.