Chapter Text
POV: Izuku Midoriya
Izuku stood at the edge of the roof of an office building, looking down, down at the people below, those who were so lucky to have been born with a quirk and foolish enough to waste that precious gift. If he had had a quirk, even a shitty one, he would be on his way to become a hero but because he was born without that precious gift, because he was ‘normal’, he had no future. Not in the only field that has ever interested him, heroics. Sure, he could just become an office worker drone like his father but was that really a life worth living? No, it wasn’t. He couldn’t bear to see Kacchan climb the pro hero rankings all whilst he was forced into mundanity. In fact, it had been Kacchan’s comment that pushed him over the brink. Perhaps it really was better to die and have a second chance after rebirth than to waste away in this life.
Just a step further and he would be free of this wretched life. Just one… more… step…
He fell, plummeting down at breakneck speeds. Surprisingly, there was no rush of adrenaline, no scream escaped his lips. All he felt was peace. A second chance he wanted and a second chance he would get, just not in the way he expected.
When he hit the ground, everything went dark.
Down at the ground level, people screamed, some puked from the grotesque sight and the police was called but when they arrived and closed off the sight, they saw something strange. The boy’s body… it was healing. Blood, not red but green, flowed back into the veins but since when was it green? The bystanders had clearly seen red blood everywhere! And the boy’s hair, once a dark, forest green, now slowly but visibly turned white. Bones, shattered upon impact, mended with sick squelching noises.
Then, Izuku awoke with a gasp.
His head was spinning and his chest was pounding as green blood pumped through his veins, “What-?”
“My baby!”, Inko, his mother, hugged the boy, gentle warmth pressing against him as tears streamed down her face, “what were you thinking, Izu? I thought I had lost you! When they told me you jumped, I- I- You can’t leave me like that!”
“I- how did I survive? I did the calculations… that drop should’ve killed me”
“You sound almost dissapointed”, a doctor said from behind Inko.
“Of course I am. Life without a quirk isn’t worth living. I can’t become a hero without a quirk after all!” Izuku frowned when he heard the doctor chuckle. What was funny? He didn’t get it at all.
“Well, you got your wish. It seems that upon death, your quirk activated”, the doctor said, “We aren’t sure what it does yet but you definitely have a quirk”
“I- what?” It was then, out of shock, that he turned intangible. His mother fell right through him, onto the bed, “whoa- this- this feels very weird”
His body flickered in and out of visibility and he wasn’t touching the bed anymore, floating a few centimeters above it.
“Fascinating”, the doctor was scribbling notes into a notebook, “We’ll have to do some tests. If you are up for it, of course. I can understand if you don’t feel-”
“Let us do it”, Izuku said immediately, half out of genuine excitement and curiosity and half out of the fact that he didn’t want to think about how he worried his mother. He felt so bad about it.
It took hours. Hundreds of test and at the end they hadn’t quite figured out the full extend of his powers. They seemed all over the place. A quirk this versatile was rare, very rare. Super strength, speed and durability, telekinesis using green energy, shooting blasts of that very same energy, flight, intangibility, invisibility, cryokinesis and probably more which they hadn’t discovered. They called it ‘Spectre’
The next day, he had to go back to school, now carrying himself with a newfound confidence. It was obvious to his classmates that something was different. His hair was snow white, as if clouds had been formed into wild hair and his eyes, whilst still green, now had a strange glow to them. Just looking in his eyes directly induced shivers in people, it was like they were looking straight at death, or so the nurse back at the hospital had described it to him.
“Hey Deku!”, Kacchan’s voice cut through the classroom, snapping him to attention. His muscles coiled, his eyes locked onto the blonde boy and his heart, it was… no, it wasn’t racing? Why wasn’t it racing? Whilst he was physically tense, he didn’t feel the same terror he was used to. He was eerily calm, like his body knew something which his mind didn’t, “You decided to bleach your hair? It looks stupid and this doesn’t change the fact that you are still a fucking loser and normie! Just as pathetic as you have always been, Deku”
“Midoriya”, he said quietly. He didn’t know why he did. Every fibre or his being wanted to shrink back and just accept the humiliation but something different, something primal was done being pushed around, having his destiny be determined by cutting words. He was going to take the reigns of his life into his own hands.
“What you say, Deku?”, Kacch- no, Bakugo asked, sneering in contempt.
No going back now, “My name is Izuku Midoriya”, he said firmly, voice even, heartbeat calm, “not Deku, not Looser, not Normie, Midoriya”
“Oh- you think you are a man now, do you? Fine, I’ll show you what happens when someone like you tries to stand up against someone like me”, Bakugo raised his fist, ready to strike, when the bell rang out and the teacher walked in, “saved for now. Just wait Deku, I’ll break you, like the bitch you are”
The following days, Bakugo tried to corner him again and again but you can’t beat up what you couldn’t see. Izuku slipped by, unseen, unheard and after a while, Bakugo stopped caring, the insulted pride forgotten. After school was when the real work began. He had to catch up with his classmates who had had ten years to hone their quirks. He worked until he could turn intangible in a moments notice, to dodge attacks or for quick get aways. He pushed his super strength to its limits. His undead body never quite seemed to get exhausted. Tired? Sure but never to a point where he couldn’t push through it. Telekinesis grew rapidly, at first, five kilo was his limit, then ten, then twenty five and now, now it stood at a solid 80, 100 if he pushed himself. His flight got better as well. That one, he could train even at school, body hovering a centimeter above the chair he was supposed to be sitting at. No one noticed. Even the novelty of his white hair and striking eyes were off after some time. It turned from new and mysterious to boring routine. That was just how he looked now and after a few months, all had but forgotten that it had been any other way before.