Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t an extraordinary kid. In fact, one could argue the most extraordinary thing about him was how painfully ordinary he was. He was born quirkless, something that occurred in less than 1% of the population these days. His father had left upon hearing the news, but his mother, Inko Midoriya, remained firmly by his side. She never stopped believing in him.

When he came home from school with fresh burns, she nursed his wounds and made him katsudon as a treat. When his birthday came around, she knew exactly which piece of All Might merchandise to get him despite him never explicitly asking. When she saw her son struggling with his mental health, she offered to help him find other quirkless people on the Internet to try to get him a support system.

In Izuku’s eyes, she was the best mom ever.

Of course, just because one person in his life was supportive didn’t guarantee others would be. In fact, the entire world outside his home seemed to be out to get him. Especially one Katsuki Bakugou- Kacchan.

The nickname stuck even after Kacchan started bullying Izuku. ‘If he can call me Deku, I can call him Kacchan.’ Izuku hated the nickname ‘deku’ though. It made him feel cold on the inside, like his heart iced over every time he heard the name. He could only hope Kacchan hated his own nickname at least half as much as Izuku did.

—

Izuku’s alarm went off at 6:00:00. Just like any other day.

Izuku was a boy who lived for his routines. Wake up. Shower. Get dressed. Eat. He found comfort in the simple sameness of his life. He had to brush his teeth for exactly two minutes. He had to shower for exactly ten minutes. He had to take exactly fifteen minutes to walk to school.

He snoozed his alarm and stood up, grabbing his uniform and jumping in the shower, but not before setting his timer for ten minutes. When it started ringing to alert him time was up, he got out of the shower and put his uniform on, making sure every button was in its proper place. He wiped the steam off the mirror and looked at himself. Freckles covered his face and arms like he was an inverted night sky, and his green curls were already starting to poof back up. Scars littered his face like an unfinished painting. Izuku knew that Kacchan’s painting would be finished one day, though.

Izuku finished his morning routine at 7:15:42. Just like any other day.

He grabbed his backpack, hugged his mom good-bye, and walked out the door. Seven minutes and thirty seven seconds into his walk, he noticed a fight breaking out. He smiled and ran to be with the other bystanders, pulling his notebook out of his backpack and waiting for a pro hero to show up. Sure, it would throw off his routine a bit, and probably give him an unnecessary amount of added anxiety, but he was willing to sacrifice that in order to get a good analysis of the fight.

A pro finally showed up. Multiple pros, actually. The first one wore a firefighter’s uniform and stretched out his arms. His hands reminded Izuku of fire hydrants, which made sense considering Izuku recognized this hero. Backdraft. He was a local pro that worked for the fire department and his quirk, Water Pump, let him create water from the spigots on his hands. While Backdraft kept Izuku and the other civilians away from the fight, Izuku watched the other pro fight the villain. This pro must have just debuted, considering Izuku had never seen him before. He had some sort of mutation quirk and looked kind of like a walking tree. He reminded Izuku of a character from an old superhero movie. Guardians of Space or something? He couldn’t remember exactly, it was a pretty old movie afterall.

The hero’s arms literally branched out from him, and they were about to wrap around the villain when another pro appeared. She had a gigantification quirk, like the villain. She took down the villain in seconds, effectively stealing the spotlight from the Groot-like hero.

Izuku bit his pen briefly before starting to scribble down notes. As he wrote he heard some fangirls nearby.

“It’s Kamui!”

“We’re your biggest fans!!”

Kamui. Izuku wrote the name down at an almost frantic pace. “One look at that dopey grin on your face and I know what you are.” Izuku jumped and looked up at the older man speaking to him. “A fanboy!”

Izuku’s ears turned bright red and he looked down. “Uh, something like that.”

He went back to his notes, trying to capture everything he’d seen before anything slipped his mind. “Kamui must be new, but he must be making a pretty big name for himself. Granted, so is Mt Lady but one has to question her ability to keep the damage to the area in check… One wrong move and she’d knock a whole building over…”

“Whoa, do you always mumble like that? It’s kinda creepy.”

Izuku frowned and looked back at the man. “It’s… It’s just a bad habit, I guess. I’m sorry it bothers you.” He closed his notebook and threw it in his backpack, zipping the bag up and continuing his journey to Aldera. He slipped his pen into his pocket, which had been a makeshift pencil case for him since he realized he could fit his pens and pencils in it.

He made it to class at 7:45:14. Forty four minutes and twenty eight seconds after he left home. Twenty nine minutes and twenty eight seconds longer than normal. He saw the red spider lilies on his desk and threw them in the trash before anyone else could show up and see. This was part of Izuku’s routine, and it had been incorporated seamlessly since it had started a few months ago.

Eventually, his classmates began to trickle in, one by one, or sometimes in groups. Kacchan sauntered in at 8:42:07. Two minutes and fifty three seconds before the bell would ring. Kacchan strutted over to Izuku’s desk, wearing that stupid smirk that seemed to be glued to his face at all times. He was wearing his uniform but the top few buttons were undone to show the undershirt he wore underneath. His hair was spiky and unkempt as per usual. Izuku didn’t think the boy could tame it if he tried. Of course, Izuku’s own hair was no better, he found the dark curls constantly getting in his eyes. Kacchan’s crimson eyes bore into Izuku’s eyes like they could see his soul and his every thought.

Izuku watched the explosions from Kacchan’s palms as he burned Izuku’s desk. Not like it wasn’t already covered in burn marks. These were just new additions to Izuku’s growing collection. Maybe one day it would rival his collection of All Might merchandise.

The bell that started class rang and Kacchan gave Izuku a final scowl before going to sit at his own desk. The teacher walked in, ‘pretending’ not to notice that Kacchan wasn’t quite seated yet. The lessons for the day started, and honestly his day wasn’t awful. Even lunch was uneventful. Izuku always sat at the edge of the table with his notebook. It gave him a chance to better analyze quirks and he wore earbuds so he could pretend that he didn’t want anyone to talk to him. He’d had a few friends sit with him over the years, but they never lasted long. Kacchan had a tested method to end those friendships. By fifth grade no one dared sit with Izuku, minus the occasional unfortunate transfer student.

Izuku’s luck couldn’t last all day though. Sure enough, their lessons ended at 14:35:00 because it was time to talk about their futures. Why a ton of 13 year olds needed to know exactly what they wanted to do in their futures, Izuku didn’t know. Not that he didn’t know what he wanted. He wanted to be a hero. He even had a hero name picked out.

Originally, he’d wanted something that resembled All Might, like ‘Small Might’ or ‘Mighty Man’. But eventually his mom had suggested a different name, one that Izuku had fallen in love with immediately.

“Oh yeah, Midoriya, don’t you want to go to UA too?” Izuku jumped and looked at the teacher, his eyes wide. He hadn’t even been listening to whatever the teacher was droning on about, but now he was paying attention as the whole class laughed. They always laughed.

That was another part of Izuku’s routine. The day couldn’t fully pass until he’d been made the laughing stock of his class. Again.

Now, listen, Izuku honestly never understood why some of the other kids were laughing: Seriously, what kind of person would prefer to have an unnaturally long neck or nose, or eyeballs that could pop out of their sockets, compared to being normal? But somehow, his lack of having something notable like a quirk was the very thing that made Izuku notable. Someone to be noticed. And not in a good way.

“You’re kidding, right? No way they’d let some Null like you in!”

Izuku made eye contact with his classmate briefly before looking down again. “Actually, they got rid of that rule. I could be the first one.”

Izuku glanced back up to see Kacchan storming over, slamming his hands down on Izuku’s desk and adding more burns to decorate it. “Listen up, Deku, you’re even worse than all these rejects you quirkless wannabe! Why the hell would they let someone like you in when they could have someone like me, hah?”

“No no, you’ve got it all wrong Kacchan! I’m not trying to compete against you, really! I just, you know I’ve wanted to be a hero ever since I was a kid. Just cuz I don’t have a quirk doesn’t mean I can’t try my hardest, right?” Izuku was trying to recover any chance he had of escaping. But once Kacchan had his sights set on something it was nearly impossible to redirect him. It kind of reminded Izuku of himself when he was little and got stuck on something. He remembered one time, when he was five, his mom and him had gone to the corner store. He’d spotted a shelf of toy cars and he had to line them up by size. He refused to leave until they were all in their proper spot and threw a fit when his mom had tried to drag him away.

“Hah! Defenseless Izuku, Aldera’s already shitty, you really gonna embarrass it more by trying for something like UA?” 

“Bakugou. Back to your desk.” The teacher scolded him. Kacchan spared Izuku one last glance and then sat back down. After school though he went back over to Izuku and noticed Izuku’s notebook. He smirked, grabbing it before Izuku could. “What’s this, nerd? Your diary? That’s so gay, Deku.” Izuku frowned as Kacchan read the title. ‘Gay’ happened to be one of Kacchan’s favorite insults. “Hero Analysis for the future? You really think learning about the pros is gonna improve your own chances? Don’t be ridiculous. You’re even more pathetic than I thought.” Kacchan looked out the window and Izuku’s eyes widened.

“Wait, Kacchan don’t-”

Kacchan used some explosions and the notebook ‘fell’ out the window. “Oops. It was an accident.”

“That’s mean, Kacchan.” Izuku whispered.

“It’s just the truth. When I get into UA, they’ll all realize I’m the real deal.”

“...Don’t they already know you’re the real deal, Kacchan?”

That was the wrong thing to say. Kacchan grabbed Izuku by his shirt collar and set off some explosions, making Izuku hiss in pain and tears well in his eyes. Kacchan let Izuku go and Izuku fell to the floor, leaning against the wall as he tried not to cry. “Don’t ever forget. You’re just a useless Deku.”

The group left Izuku alone, but before they all left fully, Kacchan looked back at Izuku. “You know, if you really wanna be a hero, you could always take a swan dive off the nearest building and pray for a quirk in your next life. ‘Course I doubt the gods would answer someone like you.” 

Then Kacchan left, and Izuku broke down. He curled in on himself as he let the tears fall freely.

After about five minutes (five minutes and thirty five seconds, to be exact), Izuku stood up and packed up his backpack. He checked his phone as he left the school. 15:34:22. He was one minute and twenty two seconds behind schedule.

He ran to try to make up for the lost time, but stopped by the koi fish pond when he saw his notebook floating in the water. The koi seemed to think it was a snack. It wasn’t a snack though, so Izuku tore the notebook from the fish, and he checked inside. It was barely legible, but it was enough that he could still make out the words. He sighed and put the notebook in his backpack.

His walk home was meant to be fifteen minutes long, but of course something else had to come fuck it up. Something- or someone- came out of the sewers. It was made of slime and sludge and it somehow swam instead of walked towards him. It wrapped around Izuku’s body before he could do anything. “You’ll make a good skin suit, kid.”

Izuku started to freak out, clawing at the sludge to try to make it out. “It’ll be easier for both of us if you stop struggling. This’ll only hurt for a minute.” Izuku tried to keep grabbing at the sludge anyway. “You can try all you want but you’re not escaping.”

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now! For I am here!”

Izuku didn’t have time to fully register the voice because he couldn’t breathe, he was losing consciousness-

Izuku woke up to someone poking his cheek repeatedly. “Hey. Wake up. Hey!” Izuku groaned and looked up to see a tall muscular figure standing over him. “Phew. I thought we’d lost you there!”

All Might.

“Thank you for your help, young one! I’ve captured the evil doer and now I’ll be on my way!”

Izuku panicked. “Wait!” But the hero was taking to the skies, so Izuku did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed onto the hero’s leg.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing? Let go!”

“No way! We’re what, 200 feet in the air? 205 feet? I can’t let go! If I do I’ll die!”

“Oh, good point…”

They landed after a few minutes. “Well then, goodbye!”

“Stop!” Izuku reached an arm out, trying to stop the pro from leaving. “I… I have to ask you something. Can… Can I be a hero, too? Even without a quirk? I know every hero has one, but it’s just, you’ve been my idol since I was little.” He took a deep breath. “Could I ever hope to be someone like you?”

The hero paused. “Without a quirk? No, you can’t. There are other ways to help people though. Like being a police officer.” And then, without sparing Izuku even a glance, the hero took off.

What the fuck??

He was supposed to be the #1 Hero, the Symbol of Peace! The hell did he mean ‘No, you can’t??

Izuku stood there, shell shocked, for about three minutes (three minutes and nine seconds). He couldn’t catch his breath. What did All Might mean? Who says something like that? Izuku’s vision blurred and he looked down at his hands. They were shaking. He collapsed against the door that led down to the street, a million thoughts going through his mind.

You’re not good enough.

You’ve never been good enough. Why does your mom even believe in you? She should’ve abandoned you a long time ago. She’s just sticking around because she pities you.

You can’t do anything.

Everyone hates you. Why do you think Kacchan bullies you so much?

Everyone is mad at you. Even your mom.

Everything is falling apart.

You’re worthless. Stupid. Just a deku like Kacchan said.

It’s your own fault you’re quirkless.

You’ll never be a hero. All Might, the representation of a hero, the #1 pro, said so himself.

It’s your fault he said that. He’s mad at you.

He thinks you’re worthless.

You are worthless.

He couldn’t calm down. He was hyperventilating as the tears streamed down his face like twinning rivers. He managed to get to his feet before turning and running down the stairs inside the building. He started to walk (run) home for the second time that day, trying to stop the tears from flowing. But he couldn’t. They were waterfalls. He couldn’t stop the thoughts either.

At 15:55:32, he heard some commotion nearby and turned. “No way, is that… The sludge villain again..?” It had another victim now, some blond kid around his age, and he was using his quirk to let of explosi- Kacchan?

Izuku looked closer and, yeah, that was definitely Kacchan. There were some pros around, but  no one was doing anything. What kind of hero just waits around? Someone needed to do something! Not him, he wasn’t a hero, as All Might had so kindly pointed out-

But his body moved without him fully instructing it, and he found himself throwing his half zipped backpack in the villain’s direction. It hit the villain square in the eye, giving Kacchan a chance to breathe. Izuku ran up to the villain and got in close, trying to claw his way to his friend. “Deku- The hell are you doing?”

“I don’t know! But I couldn’t just stand there and watch you die, Kacchan!”

A punch connected with the villain, and Izuku turned to see All Might. Now the villain would be captured.

Izuku turned and ran, the tears coming back in full force upon seeing his former idol, the man who had crushed his dreams, standing there again all self-righteous. Like he was the sun himself.

All Might wasn’t the sun.

Izuku found himself on a bridge, staring down at the rocks below. Everything he had was gone. His mom didn’t love him. How could she? He was cursed. Cursed to be bullied, cursed to be quirkless, cursed to be worthless.

All Might was a man from his worst nightmares, a dreamcrusher. Kacchan hated Izuku, along with his other classmates and the whole school. Izuku just needed all the thoughts to stop-

Izuku woke up on a beach. The sun had fallen from the sky at this point, replaced by the moon and the stars. Izuku groaned and pulled his phone from his pocket, only to find it was completely busted. What had happened-? He stood up and felt pain shoot through his legs. He wasn’t wearing shoes either.

He pushed through the pain though. He had to get home. The last thing he remembered was being on that bridge. Did he jump? But if he’d jumped he’d be dead. So no, he didn’t jump. He hoped.

He couldn’t track the time between him waking up and arriving back at the apartment, but as he walked through the door his mom ran up to him. “Izuku! Oh my goodness, are you okay? You don’t look good, you’re covered in blood! Izuku, baby, what happened?”

“I just.. Got caught up in something. I don’t know exactly. My phone broke in it though, that’s why I didn’t call.”

“Oh my, well, at least you’re okay, right? We’ll get a new phone, and I can look at the new burns on your neck and the other stuff later! For now, I made rice! It’s a little cold now considering it's nine PM…”

Izuku frowned. How was it nine? There was no way he’d been out that long. “Oh. That’s okay.” He followed his mom into the kitchen, where she’d already set the table and two plates full of food sat at their respective seats. Izuku’s always ended up being more full. “You’re a growing teenage boy, you need food if you ever wanna hit your growth spurt!” His mom had said.

He sighed and sat at the table, digging in. He tried small talk for a bit, knowing his mom enjoyed the conversation.

“How was work?”

“It was good! I recommended some good books I think, the customers seemed to like them well enough.” Izuku’s mom worked at a local Indie bookstore. He used to spend a lot of time there when he was younger, he liked reading all the books and comics. He blamed that place for his wild imagination and creepy analysis skills. His mom never asked him about school. 

She probably doesn’t care enough.

Yes she did? Of course she cared! Why wouldn’t she?

Because she hates you.

Izuku couldn’t push the thoughts out of his head. He labeled them as irrational and disregarded them, throwing them in the room in his mind labeled ‘irrational’ and locking the door. His therapist had given him the metaphor- “Imagine your brain is a house, or a castle. Every room has a different type of thought. Good, bad, affirmations, negative talk. Any time a thought comes from the ‘negative talk’ room, or your brain says something you know isn’t true, you take that thought and put it in the ‘irrational thoughts’ room. Lock the door behind you.”

Izuku was grateful for the metaphor, it had saved him from spiraling a few times. “School was good today.” He said without his mom asking. Because of course she had to want to know, she just didn’t want to ask in case it was something bad. But Izuku didn’t mind lying. “We talked about future jobs today.” At least that part wasn’t a lie.

“Oh, that’s exciting!”

Izuku smiled and nodded. After that the table shifted to a comfortable silence. His mom knew he hated small talk, so she never pushed when he stopped talking. It was one of the many things he loved about her.

He finished his meal in record time. The clock read 9:11:05 PM and it had read 9:09:23 PM when he started eating. He wondered why he was so hungry. He did have a pretty big day, though. Stopping a villain takes a lot out of a person. “Hey, is it okay if you look at the marks tomorrow? I really just wanna shower and go to bed.”

“Yeah, of course honey! Just don’t let me forget.”

Izuku nodded, knowing he would be conveniently forgetting the next day. He did the dishes and then headed to the shower. He couldn’t set a timer, but he’d been timing himself for long enough that he could estimate the time pretty accurately. He got out of the shower and dried off his hair with a towel before putting on his pajamas and going into his bedroom.

All Might merchandise adorned every corner of his room. He had All Might posters on every wall, he had one bookshelf dedicated to all his All Might plushies and action figures, he had another dedicated to every single volume of the All Might graphic novels (some antique Marvel comics were sprinkled in there too, but there were definitely more All Might comics than anything else), he had an All Might comforter, even All Might curtains. It was perfect. Once. Now, he didn’t know what to think. 

He crawled into bed and sighed. He felt his thoughts spiralling again, but he labeled every thought irrational and eventually his mind gave up on trying to feel like shit.

He didn’t care about what All Might said. Fuck All Might, actually.

Izuku wouldn’t let anyone stop him. He would be what society needed. He would be great.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s alarm went off at 6:00:00, but he wasn’t going to school today. He didn’t think he’d be going to middle school again. He had more important things to do. He jumped in the shower and put on his uniform. Just because he wasn’t going to school didn’t mean he had to advertise that fact to the world. He didn’t want to worry his mom.

He looked in the mirror after getting out of the shower and realized why his mom had seemed so worried last night. He had a scar that ran from his forehead down to his cheek, intersecting his left eye in an ‘X’. The burns on his neck were still visible, and he’d have to take care of that at some point. But he had a theory to test first.

He hadn’t fully remembered it yesterday, maybe he’d been trying to convince himself it didn’t happen. But he was pretty sure he had jumped from that bridge.

But the bridge had been two hundred feet from the ground at least, and he definitely would’ve died even if he’d hit the water.

So how the hell was he alive?

He brushed his hair out and grabbed his backpack, throwing a change of clothes in and then putting on a pair of shoes before leaving the apartment. Instead of going to school though, he walked to the bridge he’d stood at yesterday. He saw a pair of red sneakers near the ledge. His sneakers. He put them in his backpack and hesitantly looked over the rail into the river below. There were a few rocks right there, and Izuku saw a few smudges of crimson on the rocks.

He had jumped yesterday. And he hadn’t hit the water.

Izuku frowned. Maybe if he tried again it would work this time. No one would miss him anyway.

He woke up to the sun being fully in the sky. If he had to guess he’d say it was around 12:30. Meaning he’d passed out for a few hours. He put a hand to his head and felt through the wet curls that had mixed with dried blood. He was right below the bridge, and he saw new blood had appeared on the rocks. He’d jumped again. And he was still alive.

Okay, now things were getting weird. He didn’t even remember jumping. He looked into the water and saw his reflection staring back at him. He had a new scar, a small mark on his forehead.

Maybe he had to jump from a different height. But first he wanted to get out of these wet clothes. He found a cafe and went in, ordering a black coffee then going to the bathroom and changing. He stuffed his wet clothes in his backpack and then grabbed his coffee, heading out. But not before checking the clock. 12:44:45.

He found a skyscraper in the area and took the elevator to the roof. He looked down. This was much higher up than the bridge, probably 500-515 feet.

He stirred to the sound of machines. He opened his eyes and saw he was in a white room. The hospital. He frowned. How did he get here?

Oh, right. It wasn’t exactly normal to survive a fall from 500 feet. “Izuku?”

He turned and saw his mom, still in her work uniform, watching him like he was a ghost. He supposed he sort of was, by some people’s definition. “Hey.”

“Izuku, oh my gosh, I was so worried!”

She’s lying.

He labeled the thought ‘irrational’ and moved on from it quickly. “Sorry… I, I wasn’t actually trying to die though.”

“What on earth do you mean?? You jumped from the tallest skyscraper in the city!!”

“No, mom, you don’t get it, that was my third time-”

“Third time?? Izuku, why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you call your therapist?? We would have helped! You have people that can help you, Izuku!”

“Mom, it’s fine, really-”

“No, Izuku!! No, it’s not fine! You could have died! The doctors said your heart had stopped for almost ten minutes! You- I was- oh my gosh, what if you were gone? What would you have done then, huh? What would I have done?”

Izuku was stuck on the third sentence. Ten minutes. “How long did my heart stop exactly?”

He wanted details. “Nine minutes and thirty something seconds, I think. Ask the doctor when she comes back.”

Izuku nodded. Easy enough. “What time is it?”

His mom checked her phone. “5:45.”

Izuku frowned. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m- okay, 5:47. Better?”

Izuku nodded. “5:47 in the morning-?”

“No, silly, at night.”

“Why didn’t you say 17 then…”

His mom rolled her eyes. She seemed annoyed with him. Izuku knew she wasn’t, she was probably just worried.

There was a knock at the door and a woman in a white doctor’s coat came in. “Good evening, Mr. Midoriya. I’m Dr. Shimizu. Miraculously, you don’t have any lasting damage despite falling from that height.”

“How long did my heart stop for?”

The doctor checked her notes. “Nine minutes and forty one seconds from the time we found you. There was a pro hero heading home from work when he saw you fall, he’s the one who brought you here.”

Izuku frowned. “Who?” If it was All Might he might just try to die again- 

“You wouldn’t know him. He works underground.”

His mom laughed a bit. “I’m sure he knows him, Izuku has a bit of an obsession with heroes.”

“Mom!” His ears burned red with embarrassment.

“Eraserhead.” The doctor said.

“What-?? Eraser? He patrols at night though, he’s underground! Why was he even awake!”

“He has a day job at UA as a teacher.” The doctor explained. “He’s in the waiting room, if you want to see him.”

Izuku nodded and the doctor left, presumably to get the hero. Unlike All Might, Izuku had a feeling Eraserhead wasn’t the type to pretend. From what Izuku could tell, he didn’t seem to even keep a persona.

A few minutes later the doctor came back with Eraserhead. He looked even more exhausted in person than he did in the videos Izuku had seen online. His eye bags somehow had eye bags and his brown eyes were bloodshot. His long dark hair that seemed to highlight his almost ghostly pale skin. His capture weapon wrapped around his neck like a scarf, and a yellow strap hung from his pocket, from his goggles most likely. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and baggy black pants. It made sense that the hero wore his costume to work, most of the teachers at UA did, but Izuku was pretty sure the man also dressed like this when he was off the job. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, kid. You scared me a bit.” The man’s voice was a bit lower than Izuku had imagined. Granted the only video that the pro talked in was pretty dated, so his voice had probably changed since then. “As Dr. Shimizu said, I’m Eraserhead, the one who found you.”

“I know.” Izuku said softly.

“You… know-?”

“Yeah. I mean, I know most pros, but you’ve always been one of my favorites. How does your quirk work? You don’t exactly do interviews so no one’s figured it out, everyone thinks it’s based on a radius or time limit, but you have those goggles for some reason right? You don’t strike me as the type to have accessories for decoration. So your quirk factor probably involves your eyes. And it has a time limit, but the time limit changes, I’ve timed it before! The shortest I’ve seen is twenty seconds near the end of a fight, but I saw you hold it for two minutes and nine seconds one time, so is it based on when you blink?? That would explain why it doesn’t last as long near the end of the fight, you probably get dry eye when you fight for a while, but I never see you use eye drops or anything, is that so you don’t give away how it works? And why would you teach at UA? You act like a hermit-”

“Izuku! Don’t be rude!”

Eraserhead looked surprised. “That was creepy.” He muttered.

“Oh, sorry, people say that a lot, I don’t mean to ramble like that, it’s a bad habit.”

“No, no, it’s not bad. I misspoke. I’m not used to someone analyzing my fighting so accurately, especially since I avoid cameras when possible. It’s really impressive. That’s a useful skill to have, though. It’d help you in a fight if you ever wanted to be a hero. That analysis was better than what most pros can do. Probably could rival Nezu.”

“Really?” Izuku tried to stop the hopeful tone that creeped into his voice.

“Yeah, really.” Eraserhead said. “You got everything right by the way. My quirk is based on eye contact and when I blink, so I have the goggles to prevent villains from knowing where I’m looking. And just cuz I act like a hermit doesn’t mean I can’t talk to people. We’re talking right now, aren’t we?”

“I guess that’s true… But if you’re a teacher during the day and you still patrol at night, when on earth do you sleep?”

“I have my ways.” Izuku nodded. Eraserhead ran a hand through his black hair. “Are you planning on applying to UA?”

Izuku bit his lip. “Um, I mean, I want to, but I don’t think I’d get in…”

“Why wouldn’t you get in?”

Here comes the part that makes people hate him. “I don’t have a quirk.” He whispered. He wasn’t sure if that was the truth anymore, but he wasn’t about to admit to being able to come back to life.

“Really? I assumed you had an intelligence quirk.” Eraserhead said. 

Izuku shook his head. “He’s always been really smart.” His mom explained with a smile.

Eraserhead sighed. “Well, no harm in applying either way. If you make it in just know there’s probably a good chance of you being expelled for not being able to keep up.”

Great! Just what he wanted to hear. Eraserhead seemed to notice the look on Izuku’s face. “I don’t say that to be a jerk. I have a bit of a reputation for expelling students. I expelled my whole homeroom class this year. But the students that graduate are good heroes. I haven’t had a former student die yet.” Izuku nodded. Eraserhead went through his bag and pulled out a packet, handing it to Izuku. “You’d have to train hard. But you can do it if you really want to. You can’t do anything if you’re dead, though. So I’d recommend you don’t jump from any high buildings. Got it?”

“Yeah.” Izuku said softly.

“Good. Maybe I’ll see you around.” The pro turned and left. Izuku saw a flash of silver from under the scarf as he turned. A ring hung on a chain, tucked under the man’s shirt. He was married-?

Hm.

He got home with his mom and checked the clock in the kitchen. 18:30:33. He saw a box on the  dining room table. A new phone. Well, ‘new’ wasn’t exactly the right word for it. It looked old and beat up, but it was something. They didn’t exactly have a ton of money.

It had already been set up for him, with a password and everything. He unlocked it and went back to his room, opening his computer and typing into the search bar.

He went to his room and grabbed an unused notebook from the top drawer in his desk and grabbed his favorite pen: an All Might themed multi color pen. He pressed down the black side and started writing.

Potential quirk?

-Jumped 3x. Stirred ~5 hrs later. No permanent damage besides scars

To do:

-test different methods of dying

-take notes during it so you dont forget (maybe record it?)

-time amount of time to come back

He closed the notebook and went out to the dining room. He heard his mom cooking and

Most common suicide methods

He got a warning upon searching. 

Help is available

Speak to someone today

Yeah, yeah. He wasn’t actually looking to die. He was just doing research. Nothing to see here. He found an article that was relatively new, at about a year old.

Most common ways to die by suicide

He scrolled to the Results part of the study.

-35% by firearms

-29% by suffocation/hanging

-14% by jumping

-13% by overdosing

-5% by knives

-4% by other causes

He’d tested the jumping, but he could probably try jumping from different heights to see if that would affect how long it took him to come back. He couldn’t exactly get access to a gun. Unlike America, Japan had firearm regulation laws. He didn’t want to try to hang himself in case his mom saw. That left overdosing, knives, and whatever ‘other causes’ entailed.

He wouldn’t try anything again tonight. He turned off his light and went to sleep for the night despite it being relatively early.

The next morning, he woke up at 6:00:00 but he wasn’t going to pretend to go to school. He was going to play the ‘mental health day’ card, hoping his mom would leave him at home so he could do some more testing.

He went out to the dining room, still in his pajamas, and saw breakfast was ready but the only other sign his mom had been here was a note on the table. Had to open the store today. Don't worry about school, I called them and they said its okay. Have a good day Izuku

Izuku smirked. He didn’t even have to try!

He ate his breakfast quickly and then took a knife from a counter in the kitchen. He went to his room and locked the door behind him. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom and set it on the floor. No reason to make a mess. He took out his phone and opened the camera app, starting a video and setting his phone against the wall. He couldn’t seem to remember when he died, so to get a better idea of how it worked he figured he’d record it. He could analyze the video later then just delete it. No one had to know.

Izuku held the knife and looked at it. He was shaking. Why was he chickening out now?

After a few minutes of deliberation  he shut his eyes and took a calming breath.

He woke up and saw the sun was high in the sky. He guessed it was probably around 12:30 or 12:35. He was still holding the knife but he saw it was bloody now. The towel had some blood on it and Izuku was glad he’d had the foresight to set it out. He stopped the recording on his phone and saw the time was 12:33:34. He then went into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Dried blood coated his neck and the white shirt he’d worn to bed the night before. His skin was paler than usual, maybe from the blood loss. Izuku grabbed a washcloth and wiped it off. He had a scar across his neck but it was faint enough that one could mistake it for a crease.

He looked at his phone and went into the Photos app, opening the video as he sat at his desk. He grabbed his notebook and started watching his phone. The length of the video was five hours, ten minutes, and five seconds long. He watched himself and couldn’t help but flinch as he watched the knife dig into his neck. It drew blood quickly and it took two minutes and one second for his eyes to flutter and him to fall back. His chest stopped moving and Izuku watched in what could only be described as a twisted sense of fascination.

He skipped ahead a bit and saw that the blood stopped flowing four minutes later, and eleven minutes and five seconds after he had gasped for air and started breathing again. He didn’t stir though. The gash on his neck seemed pretty nasty but it closed itself up over the next five hours. He skipped through the video, not wanting to watch himself take a glorified nap. Finally he saw himself stir and end the recording at the five hour and nine minute mark.

He looked at his notebook and read through his findings.

-slit throat

-blood stopped after 4 mins

-breathed again after 15 mins 5 secs

-took 5 hrs and 6 mins to wake up

Based on that, he had time to test dying one more time. He had stirred after about five hours every time so far, so he figured the next time he came back it’d be about 17:30, right when his mom would be getting out of work. He decided to try slitting a different part of his body.

He didn’t want to slit his wrists since that would mean he wouldn’t be able to wear t shirts anymore. He pulled up his shirt. If he didn’t cut his stomach too deeply then hypothetically he couldn’t lose any organs. He set his phone back up.

The sun had mostly set when he woke up this time. The blood had pooled and dried around his abdomen and a bit of it had leaked onto the towel below. He ended the recording and used the dirty washcloth from before to wipe away the blood. He saw two new scars on his side this time. He assumed that meant he’d cut himself twice.

He folded up the towel and threw it in his closet so his mom wouldn’t see. He then sat at his desk again and looked at the recording. He had cut himself twice, like he’d predicted. He only stayed dead for five minutes this time, maybe because the way he’d died hadn’t been quite as violent as before. He stirred after four hours exactly. Interesting. He wrote down the notes in his journal.

-cut stomach

-had to cut twice

-bled for 10 mins 3 sec

-woke up after 4 hrs

The time was now 16:45:01, but Izuku didn’t want to risk another test in case his mom got home while he was still out. He decided to take a shower to wash away any leftover blood and then put on a new pair of pajamas.

He sat back at his desk and decided to plan what methods he’d be trying tomorrow. He also wanted to start training for UA soon. But for that he’d need a weapon.

New methods to die (that doesnt sound depressing at all)

-drugs?

-antidepressants are prob best bet since theres some in the med cabinet

He took 20mg of his citalopram daily, but he wondered how much he needed to OD.

He opened his computer and typed it in the search bar.

How much citalopram to OD

He got the same warning as last time.

Help is available

Speak to someone today

He found an article.

A 22 year old woman was found dead in her home. The reports found 2000mg of citalopram in her system

So he needed to take 100 of the pills. Ew. Whatever, he could do that. For science.

He also wanted to start training, so he looked for local support item factories. He found one nearby, and he could probably get in and out relatively quickly, if he was smart about it.

Honda Support Items- Musutafu Branch

Honda wasn’t the most popular or best support item brand, especially since their specialty had  been cars before quirks started popping up. But they were one of the oldest brands, which meant heroes trusted them. They made high quality gear, even if it wasn’t super flashy and it was mostly used by underground heroes these days.

The fact that they were more underground meant there wouldn’t be a ton of security. He checked the location. It was a 15 minute walk! He could be there and back tonight!

He decided to wait until the sun set though, wanting to keep up appearances. He heard the door to the apartment open at 18:03:19, and knew his mom was home. About 30 minutes later (31 minutes exactly), his mom called him to dinner. He went out and smelled what it was immediately. “You made katsudon?”

His mom smiled and nodded, setting the bowl down in front of him. Izuku smiled and dug in, happy to have the food before what he knew would be a long night. He finished. “I’m gonna go catch up on schoolwork. I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you!” He stood and did the dishes.

“Okay sweetie, I love you too. I’m proud of you.”

I wonder how long that’ll last.

At 21:30:00, Izuku changed into a black shirt and pants. Eraserhead would be proud of his makeshift ‘costume.’ He grabbed an old backpack he had and looked out his window. He was only on the second floor. He could make that jump and survive. He jumped out the window and decided his legs definitely didn’t feel like they were on fire, thank you very much. He’d have to learn how to run with pain if he wanted to execute his plans anyway.

He ran through the city, weaving through alleys like a maze he’d been in one hundred times before. He finally got to the factory. There was a tall chainlink fence, but no guards. He climbed the fence and jumped down on the other side. He was in. He went inside and saw there wasn’t a single light on. It must be one of those Dark Factories big companies loved to use.

He wandered through the factory, heading towards the Weapons section. He watched the robots work on different types of weapons and saw a pile of finished weapons near the exit. He went over and spotted what he was looking for. A katana. He grabbed it, pulling it out of the sheath and spinning it testily. It was a good length and pretty light, meaning it could move quickly and he had some range with it. He put it back in the sheath and stuffed it into his backpack. The hilt stuck out but whatever, hopefully no one would be stupid enough to question a kid coming home with a sword in the middle of the night. He also noticed the accessories section nearby and walked over to that.

He found a silver mouthguard that could serve to help keep his identity a secret and serve as armor. Speaking of armor, he would need some. He didn’t feel like dying each time he got into a fight. He found a black leather jacket that was padded with a special material to deflect attacks. It was a little big but he didn’t mind. He found a belt with some first aid kits on it and stole- borrowed that as well. This should be good for now. He could always come back and grab more later. He left the building and scaled the fence again, running home and going into the apartment. The clock read 22:13:30. It hadn’t even been an hour. His mom was asleep already, she went to bed early most nights since work took a lot out of her.

Izuku tried to sleep but he found he couldn’t sleep.

He needed a plan if he was going to be successful, so he found himself at his desk. He grabbed a sheet of notebook paper and sighed.

Plans for the future

He filled out the whole page and smiled. It had every thing laid out for the next few years. It was perfect.

He needed to train, and he looked at his bag in the corner of the room. There was a 24 hour gym nearby that had rooms to practice fighting and quirks, but he’d need a membership. He went out to the dining room and checked his mom’s purse. He pulled out a bit of cash, silently praying she wouldn’t notice that it was gone.

He headed to the gym. “I’d like a membership please.”

“Name?”

“Izuku Midoriya.”

“4500 yen please.”

Izuku slid the worker the bills and she took them, counting them. Upon deciding she was satisfied she put them in the register and printed him a card. “Here’s your membership card. Just bring this whenever you’re here.”

He nodded and headed to a room full of training dummies. He took out the katana and began swinging it. He wasn’t very good, which was expected. After a while the door behind him opened and he jumped, turning and looking at a boy that seemed to be about his age. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know anyone else stayed this late.”

“It’s my first time.” Izuku said softly.

“Oh, cool. Well it’s nice to meet you.” Izuku nodded and stared at the boy. He had light purple hair and wore cargo pants and a purple shirt. “Your pants kinda look like Eraserhead’s.” Izuku noticed, staring at the pants. They even had the pockets in the same spot…

“Oh, that would make sense. They are.”

“Huh??”

“Yeah, he’s my dad.”

“He- he has kids?”

“A kid. Me.” The boy pointed to himself.

“You don’t look like him though.”

“I’m adopted.”

Izuku nodded. “I see.” He paused. “If your dad is Eraser, what are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I come here at night sometimes to train more. Oh, I’m Hitoshi by the way. It’s nice to meet you.”

Izuku smiled. “I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

Hitoshi sighed. “Nice sword.”

“Oh, thanks! I don’t really know how to use it though… I’m not a great fighter.”

“No shit. How much do you weigh, 45 kilos?”

“51.”

“Still a shrimp.”

Izuku frowned and tilted his head a bit. Was this guy joking? He never could tell. Kacchan used to tell Izuku he was joking, but it turns out he had definitely not been joking and he was just some big bully.

“I was joking.” Hitoshi said, seeming to read Izuku’s mind. “We can spar, if you want.”

“Yes please.”

Hitoshi shut the door and walked towards the middle of the room, getting into a fighting stance. “Try to throw a punch.”

Izuku tried, multiple times. Hitoshi dodged every time. He gave Izuku a few pointers though. By the end, Izuku was exhausted, and Hitoshi remained unscathed.

“You didn’t even use your quirk.” Izuku muttered.

“I don’t like using it.” Hitoshi explained.

“What? Why not?”

“People say it’s a villain quirk.”

“Well, what is it?”

“It’s called Brainwash. Basically if someone responds to me I can control what they do. It’s really hard to break out of. Pretty much impossible I think.”

“Whoa, that’s so cool! Does it have any limits? Like a time limit? Can you make people talk? Does it have a range? Can we test it?”

Hitoshi laughed. “Whoa, calm down. I don’t know its limits exactly. I haven’t been able to make anyone talk before. I don’t know if it has a range. Are you sure you want to test it?”

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, for sure!”

“It would feel weird.”

“That’s fine.”

Hitoshi looked down then back at Izuku. “Okay. Say something.”

“Som-”

Izuku’s mind went blank and everything seemed to become muddy. His vision was blurry and he could only vaguely make out a voice in his head telling him to do something.

Eventually he came out of the daze and stumbled forward. Hitoshi caught him thankfully. “You okay?”

Izuku nodded. “How… How long was that?”

“15 minutes.”

“Huh. Interesting.” Izuku said softly.

“What’s your quirk, by the way?”

Izuku bit his lip. He’d tell the truth eventually. But not tonight. “I’m quirkless.”

“Whoa, really? But you’re so smart!”

“You don’t have to have a quirk to be smart.” Izuku couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. Why did everyone assume he had to have a quirk to be smart?

“Right right, yeah, just… Wow, I’ve never met someone like you before.”

“Thanks?” Izuku didn’t know if it was meant to be a compliment.

“Why are you trying to fight if you’re quirkless, though?”

Izuku frowned. “I still wanna be a hero…”

“Really-?”

“Yes, really.”

“Okay, sorry sorry, I can still spar with you and stuff. Who knows, maybe you’ll actually get in?”

“Maybe.” Izuku muttered.

Chapter Text

The next few months passed in a blur. Izuku trained and trained, learning how to use his katana, sparring, and working on following through with his plans. He knew it would take a few years for his dreams to come true, but he was excited about the progress he’d made.

He also tested his quirk more. He overdosed on different types of medicine, he’d used his katana to cut himself, and one day he’d finally tried hanging. He came back every time. He noticed each time he did though, his anxiety would get worse. He was having more and more ‘irrational’ thoughts, but he stopped distinguishing between the rational and irrational. He had so many weird thoughts there wasn’t a point in trying to differentiate them anymore. He tested his quirk more and more. ‘For research,’ he told himself. In reality, he enjoyed the feeling of all his thoughts leaving and letting him be blissfully ignorant for a few hours. It was comforting. He had a lot more scars to the point that he was pretty sure about half of his body was scar tissue.

He applied for the UA entrance exam and made sure to get a certificate of completion of middle school online. It had been easy enough and only taken him a week. He submitted his certificate and information, as well as his request for the katana. He didn’t need his mouthguard, especially considering it may give something about him away.

Hitoshi had gone to the entrance exam a few days before, he was with the recommendation kids since his dad was a pro hero. He’d said it wasn’t too bad, Izuku knew he and Hitoshi’s exams would be different.

Finally, the day arrived. His alarm went off at 6:00:00, he went through his morning routine, choosing gray cargo pants and a loose green shirt. After, he left his apartment and walked to UA, arriving at 7:35:10. Izuku looked up at the big building before him. It was in the shape of an ‘H’ and had so many windows that the building looked almost blue. It was surrounded by a forest of trees, outlined by the wall meant to keep the paparazzi out. 

This was it. This was his chance.

As he walked towards the building, he saw spiky blond hair out of the corner of his eye. Kacchan. He was wearing a black tank top and black pants. His hair somehow looked even more unruly than usual.

The blond turned and saw him. It looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Deku? What the hell are you doing here!? I thought you moved! And what happened to your face?”

“Hey Kacchan! Are you excited for the exam? I wonder what they’ll have us fighting, do you think it’ll be each other? Training dummies?”

“You fucking asshole. Why, why, are you still trying to catch up to me? You can’t! You’re a quirkless loser, I don’t know why you haven’t quit!”

“Glad to see you haven’t changed, Kacchan!” Izuku never would have said that a few months ago but he’d grown a bit more confident in his skin, especially since he now knew he had a quirk. He flashed Kacchan a smile that Kacchan would later classify as crazed and then waltzed into the auditorium.

Ten minutes and five seconds later, Present Mic walked on stage, looking a bit too excited. He began explaining the rules, but Izuku was tuning him out. He knew what to do. Kill stuff.

Easy.

The written portion was pretty simple. He knew he’d gotten a few wrong on the math portion, but he was certain he’d aced the history and ethics part.

Next came the practical exam.

They arrived at the entrance to the test after a nine minute and fifteen second long walk. The large doors started to open once everyone was waiting outside, and the second they were open wide enough, he slipped through and ran like his life depended on it. This wasn’t like the training he’d done with his friends. In real life no one waited to start the match, they just ran at you.

He drew his sword and his left ear twitched as he heard the movement. He raised his katana, deflecting the blow the robot had tried to land. He sliced through the robot’s arm in one quick motion and used that to get in close and chop its head off. He recognized this one as a two pointer. He did this for five three pointers, ten one pointers, and three two pointers, for a total of 31 points. He ran off to the right side of the training ground, leaving a field of wired corpses near the entrance before anyone else had even gotten inside. “What are you guys waiting for?? There’s no countdown in real battle! Go go go!” Izuku heard Present Mic’s voice and rolled his eyes. He supposed he couldn’t be by himself forever.

He heard footsteps and knew the others had finally made their way inside after 35 seconds of standing around.

He heard a clink and turned to see a robot hurtling towards him. He raised his katana, slicing at its leg. The robot tumbled over and he disconnected its head from its body. Three more points, meaning now he had 34 points in total. Ideally, he would figure out which robot held the control panel for all the other robots. If he had to guess he would probably assume it to be the zero pointer.

He knew the practical would last five minutes, and he assumed about two minutes (two minutes and three seconds) had passed. He had cut through a few more robots at this point and had 63 points.

When they had one minute and thirty seconds left, Izuku heard a crash near the center of the training grounds. He started running towards it and saw a massive robot. Izuku spotted the ‘0P’ written on its side.

As he was running, he saw a girl with brown hair trapped under some rubble. The robot would kill her.

Izuku stepped in, raising his katana and prepared to use it to block the robot’s attack. Instead, it grabbed him and picked him up. He was close enough to its head that he reached out and grabbed at its neck. He saw some wiring and tugged.

Izuku stirred to see the sun setting. Shit. He tried to sit up but the muscles in his right arm spasmed to the point he couldn’t control it. He groaned softly and lay back down. His whole body ached and tingled and he could feel himself breathing a bit differently, though not too differently thankfully.

“Careful, don’t move too much. You’re still having some of the aftereffects from the shock.” Izuku looked at the elderly woman and recognized her as Recovery Girl. “Frankly, I’m quite shocked you didn’t die, considering the testing I've done shows you went into cardiac arrest and your heart stopped for fifteen minutes.”

“You have a knack for trying to get yourself killed, it seems.” Izuku jumped, noticing Eraserhead. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Put yourself in danger like that. You could’ve died!”

Izuku tilted his head. “Isn’t that what being a hero is?”

The hero scowled and looked like he had a bitter taste in his mouth. “You can’t be a hero if you’re dead.”

“I’m not dead.” Izuku pointed out.

“Shocking.” Eraserhead deadpanned, glaring at Izuku. “I could’ve sworn you died twice.”

“Sir-”

“Listen. I can’t force you to be safe right now. But if you get into UA, I can. And if I see this self destructive behavior continue, I won’t hesitate to expel you. Got it?”

“Yessir.” Izuku said quickly. He couldn’t be expelled. He needed to go to UA for all his plans he had to work out. He needed this.

“Be careful moving for the next few days, especially your right hand.” Recovery Girl said, changing the subject. Izuku was grateful for it. “You have a third degree burn from the shock you suffered, it’ll most likely leave a scar. You also are most likely going to have muscle spasms for the foreseeable future, potentially the rest of your life.”

Izuku nodded. “Is that girl okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. We would have stopped the robot though. You didn’t have to do what you did.” Eraserhead said.

“Well you didn’t.” Izuku snapped, surprising himself with the tone.

Eraserhead just shook his head.

—

Ochako had been stressing out over the exam for weeks. She really, really wanted to make it into UA. But so did everyone else, she wasn’t exactly special. Her parents had told her they’d be proud of her no matter what. She just wanted to help them, and UA was the first step.

The written part of the test wasn’t awful. She definitely hadn’t gotten a perfect score, but hopefully she did well enough that if she did well in the practical she could manage to get in.

As she got to the grounds where it would take place, she watched the doors open. Everyone stood there, waiting for the sign to go. Everyone except for one. The second the doors were opening, a flash of green squeezed through the doors and ran off. Ochako frowned and glanced at a tall boy with blue hair. He just shrugged. “What are you guys waiting for?? There’s no countdown in real battle! Go go go!” At Present Mic’s voice everyone hurried off.

Ochako took out a decent amount of robots, but the green boy from before kept catching her eye. He didn’t even look like he was using a quirk. Instead he had a katana with a green hilt, and he was cutting down robots like he’d done it a million times before.

It was almost unsettling that the boy was so familiar with the art of killing. It made her wonder absentmindedly what the kid’s story was.

He ran off, probably to take care of more robots, so he went back to focusing on her own fighting. Out of nowhere, a huge hunk of a building came flying towards her. She couldn’t touch it, and even if she could, she was too tired to activate her quirk. The debris crushed her under it and she heard a screech nearby. A robot, bigger than any of the others, was there, coming straight for her.

This was great. She’d die in the entrance exam, not even getting a chance to start her hero training, she was done-

The boy from before was there. She hadn’t even seen him running, but then he was there, using the katana like a shield. But the robot had other plans. It picked the boy up and Ochako panicked, wanting to help, but she couldn’t move. The boy seemed to panic briefly as well, but spotted the stray wires and smirked like he’d found the robot’s kryptonite. He grabbed the wires and tugged, and the robot collapsed. Ochako heard a multitude of crashes and looked around to see every single robot in the battle center had collapsed. Odd. She didn’t dwell on it, looking back at the guy.

It looked like a cartoon scene, when the character gets shocked with lightning and they look like a starfish or skeleton before going back to normal as if they hadn’t just been shot with 300 million volts of electricity. This wasn’t some comedic relief. His body bent unnaturally and stiffened for a few seconds before going limp, like he’d passed out. His hair was singed and his clothes were burnt, clinging to his body like they’d been melted to him. The robot let him go, but the guy was unconscious. He’d hit the ground-

Her fingers barely grazed the guy, and she used her quirk so he wouldn’t hit the ground. She released it after a few seconds, expelling the breakfast she’d eaten in the process. Some of the healer robots removed the debris and she watched the guy be taken away, observing more. His hand was pale and blistered, starting to swell and turning a nasty shade of red. He was bleeding from his head. His chest wasn’t moving. He was dead. He’d died to save her. How…

After the exam ended she was escorted to Recovery Girl’s office, in case there was any lasting damage. “Everything seems good!” She said with a smile.

“Is that green haired guy okay?” Ochako asked.

“Midoriya? Yes, he should be okay. He may have some chronic issues but nothing life threatening.”

Ochako sighed and nodded. “Alright. Am I alright to leave?”

“Yes, I don’t see anything that warrants my quirk.”

Ochako nodded and left, but she couldn’t keep thinking about Midoriya, hoping he’d be alright.

—

All Might was inside the camera room, watching the screens in awe of the young man. He recognized the kid, he’d know the green hair anywhere. The biggest regret of his life was probably always going to be telling that child he couldn’t be a hero. What had he been thinking? He had been quirkless himself! And he was one of the best heroes of all time! So what was he doing, telling that kid he couldn’t he can’t be a hero?

Well, at least the boy was still trying to achieve his goals, despite what All Might had told the boy all those months ago.

Chapter Text

The guy stood in front of his mirror in his apartment, staring at his reflection. He’d spent the last hour getting ready. He used temporary hair dye to make his hair black and he wore red contacts. He had bought makeup earlier in the day and he’d watched fifty four different makeup tutorials. The look hadn’t come out half bad. He wore eyeliner and smudged the eyeshadow under his eyes so it looked like eyebags, and he’d used contour to sharpen his jaw and make the bridge of his nose thinner, trying to make himself look a bit older than he initially seemed. He put a mask over it to cover his nose and mouth, just for good measure.

He decided to wear something casual, just a pair of ripped jeans and a black hoodie. He pulled the hood up, trying to shove his curls under it to no avail. Whatever.

He grabbed an old backpack he’d used back in middle school and stuffed some throwing knives in it. He wouldn’t take his main weapon, but he wanted to be able to defend himself in case the man he’d spoken to on the phone wasn’t what he said he was. It was from when he’d gone through his emo phase so it was black and inconspicuous. As he looked back in the mirror at himself, he looked a bit like his sixth grade self in terms of style. 

He checked the time on his phone. 21:30:05. So he had an hour twenty nine minutes and fifty five seconds to get to their meeting spot. And since it was a forty five minute train ride followed by a thirty minute walk, he should have fourteen minutes and fifty five seconds to spare.

He left his room and grabbed his set of keys from the foyer before running out the door. He turned off his location in case anyone tried to track it. He didn’t need to get caught on his first night with this new persona.

The Luminary.

He’d had the name idea for a while now. It was ironic. A criminal with a name that sounds like a hero name. In his eyes, he was a Luminary. A luminary is a person who influences and inspires others. A luminary is a leader. A luminary is supposed to be great. And the Luminary would be great. And a leader. He would be what society needed, even if they didn’t know it yet.

Luminary got to the train station and paid for his ticket, getting on the train that would take him to Kamino. He tapped his foot nervously and bit his lip so hard it bled. His heart pounded in his chest even more than it had during training earlier. His muscles were still sore and spasmed occasionally. This was a terrible idea. What was he thinking? He couldn’t do this!

The door to the train opened and he realized this was the Kamino station. Had it been forty five minutes already? He could’ve sworn he’d just sat down. He stood and quickly left the train, running up the stairs into Kamino. He walked through the alleys, observing the city. Apparently this part of town hid all of the operations of the villain organization he was about to become a part of.

After fifteen minutes of walking, he saw the man out of the corner of his eye. He was leaning against a building, nursing a beer and looking bored. It was an older man, probably around forty or forty five. So not too old, but still at least twice the Luminary’s age.

He had gray hair and a mustache, but he wore tinted glasses so Luminary couldn’t see his eye color. The man walked over to him. “You must be Luminary?” Luminary nodded. “I’m Giran. We spoke on the phone?”

Luminary nodded again. “Right. Nice to meet you.” He bit down the urge to add a ‘sir’ to the end.

“Here, want a sip?”

No, Luminary didn’t want to drink. He hated the taste of it. But he didn’t want to make a bad first impression, not if he wanted to be properly initiated. “Sure, that’d be nice.” He took the glass from Giran and pulled his mask down briefly to take a sip. He refused to change his expression, schooling it into something neutral as he put the mask back up and gave the glass back to Giran.

“So, we’re meeting Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri tonight right? Are they the heads of the operation?”

“Nah, they’re the boss’s seconds in command though. Shigaraki is practically his protege.”

Hm. Well, Luminary would have to change that.

They arrived eventually. The building didn’t look suspicious at all, just a regular abandoned building. “Is this the place?” Luminary asked, glancing up at Giran.

“No, I just took you to a random building.” Giran said.

Luminary tilted his head, confused. “Oh you’re being sarcastic.” He whispered. Giran chuckled and nodded before leading Luminary through the door. Luminary looked around. He was surprised to see the bar was spotless. The stools at the bar had all been slid back into place, and the bottles and glasses weren’t even dusty. Luminary noticed the sounds of some sort of fight and looked over to see two guys on the couch, playing Super Smash Bros: Ultimate (100 year anniversary edition). Luminary recognized it from when he and a childhood friend used to play it, back when Luminary had been considered normal.

One of the men didn’t even look exactly like a man. He looked more like a fog if you asked Luminary, made out of purple and black wisps that clung to the man’s form. He wore some sort of armor so Luminary assumed he had a physical body under there, and he wore a suit with it.

The other guy looked just slightly older than Luminary. He had messy blue hair and his lips were chapped and matched the rest of his dry skin, skin so pale it looked like this guy hadn’t seen the sun in weeks. His hands were gripping the controller like his life depended on it, and Luminary noticed he was wearing gloves.

“Good evening, Tomura.” Luminary said softly, going over to the couch. Tomura, the younger guy, jumped and looked at the Luminary. Luminary chuckled. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Who the hell are you? Some NPC?” Tomura asked. His voice came out in a rasp.

Luminary smiled under his mask. “I’m Luminary.” He said, holding out his hand for Tomura to shake. Tomura growled but took his hand, able to fully grasp it since he was wearing gloves. “You wear those gloves to help with your quirk, correct? It’s called Decay, I believe? How does it work exactly?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Because if we want to properly attack the heroes, I need to know your quirks. We have to be able to create a plan.”

“Sensei makes the plans.” Tomura argued.

Luminary hummed. “Well what about when he’s gone?”

“Then I’ll make the plans, dipshit!”

“Will you now?” Luminary stayed calm. He was used to being cussed out, and this guy reminded him a lot of his own childhood.

“Yes!” Tomura shouted. He stood, pausing the game. 

Luminary looked at the screen. “That used to be one of my favorite games when I was a kid.” He looked at Kurogiri. “Can I have a turn?”

The man nodded, handing Luminary the controller. Luminary smiled and sat on the couch next to Tomura. Tomura growled but started a new match. Luminary picked Fighter 56, Robin. He was a character from another one of Luminary’s favorite games, so he always went with him. Tomura picked Fighter 02, Donkey Kong. “Interesting choice.” Luminary pointed out.

Tomura frowned. “Shut up.”

The game started, and Luminary beat Tomura easily. Tomura had just kept throwing his character at Luminary’s, not deigning to come up with a plan. “Fuck!” Tomura shouted, standing up and slamming his controller on the coffee table.

Luminary laughed. “You can’t even make a plan in a video game.”

Tomura turned on his heel, shoving his pointer finger in Luminary’s chest. “You-” He took a deep breath. “Are just some annoying NPC, I don’t need you.”

“You need brains behind your operation. You have the brawn I’m sure, especially with such a deadly quirk. But you behave like a man child. What are you? Twenty? Did you stop maturing after you hit five, Tomura?”

“Fuck you!! You act so high and mighty, like you’re better than the rest of us villains! I bet you haven’t even committed any real crimes, have you?”

“Fair enough. Most I’ve done is some petty thievery.” Luminary said. “But if you give me a chance, I can bring you greatness.”

“And how do you ‘plan’ to do that?”

Luminary smirked. “I’m so glad you ask! If you bring me to your boss I can tell you.”

Tomura laughed. “As if! Sensei wouldn’t even consider talking to you!”

Luminary’s eyes narrowed, brows furrowing. Tomura shut up quickly. “You’re not a big enough organization for your boss to refuse me. I’m going to be coming back tomorrow. And he’s going to be here. Okay?”

Tomura nodded stiffly. Luminary stood and left the bar without another word.

Luminary arrived home at 01:05:40. He took a quick shower, though it was longer than usual. He washed out the dye in his hair and removed his contacts, staring at himself in the mirror. He looked worn out and he traced the scars on his face. He grabbed a makeup wipe, wiping off the eyeliner, shadow, and contour. Once that was done, he got in bed and fell into the black void quickly.

The next day went by in a blur, filled mostly with him trying to figure out a plan to get the boss, ‘Sensei’ or whatever his name was, to give him a chance. He’d have to give the man his real name, which he wasn’t excited about, but oh well.

That night, he got ready and left the apartment at the same time as last night, getting on the train. He made it to the bar again and he went inside. “Hello again.” Luminary said, seeing Tomura and Kurogiri by the bar. “Where’s the boss?”

“In the back. I’ll show you.” Tomura stood and led Luminary to a room in the back. The room had a ton of screens showing different angles, and a man sat, watching. Well, the Luminary didn’t know if you could call it ‘watching,’ considering the man didn’t have eyes. His face had even more scars than Luminary’s, which said a lot considering the amount of scars the Luminary had.

He wore an oxygen mask and a polished suit. Luminary wondered if maybe he should’ve worn something more formal than a hoodie, but considering Tomura was wearing a t-shirt, Luminary figured it was okay.

“Hello, sir.” Luminary said softly.

The meeting had gone pretty well, in Luminary’s opinion. He had to give the old man his real name, but in return he’d gotten the boss’s name. He went by All for One in the underground, the same name as his quirk. He’d also learned of another quirk: One for All. It was the quirk All for One’s dead brother had, and it was now held by All Might. 

But the Luminary had a good feeling he could become the next holder of both powers.

Chapter Text

A letter arrived at Izuku’s apartment a week after the entrance exam at 13:54:30. The second Izuku saw it was from UA, he ran to his room and had to hold back the urge to tear the thing open. He wanted to save the envelope, considering it had the UA emblem on it. Of course if it turns out he didn’t get in he’d be ripping the thing up.

Upon opening the envelope he saw a DVD fall out. He tilted his head, confused at why they’d still have something so old. He had a collection of DVDs full of old footage of heroes, specifically All Might. (He’d have to throw out that part of his collection soon.) Thankfully his computer was so old it had a DVD player in it, since the old thing was all his mom could afford. It was kind of a piece of junk, but he was grateful for it since it still managed to handle all the apps he needed.

He slid the disk into the DVD player and let it play. He was surprised to hear the All Might theme song and- All Might. “Greetings! You’re looking at the newest member of UA Staff!” That must be why he came to Musutafu then. “Well, young Midoriya, congratulations! You passed both tests with flying colors, and even beat the record high score in the practical by 87 points! You’ve earned your spot in 1-A, fair and square! We look forward to seeing you on April 10th!”

The video faded to black then and Izuku smiled to himself. He’d made it! He went into the living room, where his mom was on the couch reading a book and annotating it. “Mom! Guess what?”

His mom looked up and smiled. “What?”

“I got into UA! And I beat the record for the highest score!” He smiled and couldn’t help but pump his fist in the air in the All Might pose. Old habits die hard, he guessed. 

His mom gasped and stood, her book forgotten as she ran to Izuku and wrapped him in a tight hug. “Oh, Izuku! I’m so proud of you!!” She paused. “Can I ask, how exactly?”

Izuku frowned at his mom, but he supposed it was a fair question. He ran back to his room, grabbing his katana and then running back out. “Ta-da!” He smiled, pulling the sword from its sheath. His mom jumped a bit.

“Where on earth did you get that?”

“I found a support item shop nearby. And it wasn’t too expensive either!” She didn’t need to know about the part where ‘not too expensive’ equaled ‘stolen.’ “And I got a gym membership! I, uh, may have used some of your cash for that.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“I knew I wasn’t going crazy when it went missing!” His mom said, but she didn’t actually seem too upset, just surprised. “You could have told me! You know I’ll always help you, honey.”

“I know, I guess I just thought you’d be mad or kick me out or something… “ He mumbled, staring at the floor.

“I could never kick you out, don’t be ridiculous.” Izuku wondered how long that sentiment would last.

Izuku’s first day was thirty five days after he’d received his acceptance letter. His alarm went off at 5:35:00. He’d set it twenty five minutes earlier than usual so he would have a bit of buffer time to get to school and find his classroom. He took a shower like he did every day and he looked in the mirror. Deciding his face still looked a little dirty, he washed it again and pulled on his uniform. He tried his best with the red tie but it still looked messed up. Whatever. At least his jacket and pants were on right, and the collar of his shirt wasn’t too messed up.

He grabbed his backpack, tossing his notebooks, knives, and katana into it before going out to the living area. His mom was up already, in the kitchen and cooking something. “Hey mom, it smells good.” He said, sitting at the dining table and scrolling on his phone.

Three minutes later his mom set steamed rice and some salmon on the table in front of him. He heard her tsk when she saw his tie. “Are you ever going to learn how to properly tie that?”

Izuku laughed a bit. “No.” He said simply.

She sighed and reached out, undoing his tie and then tying it ‘the right way.’ Izuku smiled at her. “Thank you.” He said softly before digging into breakfast. He finished his meal in four minutes and twelve seconds and then grabbed his keys from the foyer. “I’ll see you after school!” He said, heading out the door and walking to UA.

“You're all set?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure? You didn't just pack action figures, right?”

“I have everything!” He said, a bit annoyed. “Now I gotta go. I don't wanna be late.”

“Izuku!” His mom had to stop him one more time.

He groaned. He loved his mom but she could be a bit much at times. “What?”

“I'm really proud of you, son.”

He arrived there twenty four minutes later, at 7:43:07. He scanned the student ID he’d been issued and walked into the building. He ran through the halls anxiously. “Class 1A, class 1A…” He found it eventually but paused at the door. “Holy crap it’s huge.” He whispered to himself. “Okay, let’s hope Kacchan isn’t in here…” He opened the door hesitantly.

“Take your feet off that desk now!” Izuku didn’t recognize the voice but the guy’s blue hair reminded him of Ingenium.

“Huh?”

He heard Kacchan's voice and groaned. Great.

“It's the first day and you're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property, you cretin!”

“You're kidding me, right? Your old school put a stick up your ass? Or were you born with it?”

The Ingenium lookalike tensed and his eyes widened. “Uh- Let's start over. I'm Tenya Iida from the Somei Private Academy.”

“Somei, huh? So you must think you're better than me. I'm gonna have fun tearin' you a new one.”

Iida gasped. “You would threaten me? Your own classmate? Are you sure you're in the right place?” He paused and seemed to notice Izuku. “Oh, it’s him!”

Izuku frowned nervously. “Uhh, hi?”

“Good morning! You got first place in the entrance exam, correct? My name is Tenya Iida from So-”

“I know, I heard you already.”

Iida nodded. “Right! I apologize.”

Kacchan turned and glared at Izuku. “Tch. Course you got in, quirkless wannabe.”

Iida frowned and looked at Izuku. “You’re quirkless?”

“Um, yeah-”

“How did you manage to get in then?? Did you cheat?”

Izuku started to answer but Kacchan beat him to it. “Are you stupid? Don’t you see the katana he’s got? Clearly he did some combat training when he dropped out of middle school to get in. Plus he’s got this super creepy analysis thing.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow at Kacchan defending him. It was out of character for him. “Why are you here so early anyway? You normally waltz in a minute before the bell rings.” Izuku said.

“Tch, just shut up, shitty nerd.” Ah, there he was.

Izuku nodded and noticed his assigned seat was right behind Kacchan. He frowned but sat, taking off his backpack and katana.

The rest of his classmates came in over the next few minutes, talking and joking with each other. He was happy to see Hitoshi sit next to him. “Hitoshi! Hey! How was the rest of your break? I haven’t seen you in a while!” In fact, Izuku hadn’t seen him since before the entrance exam.

“Yeah, my parents made me take a break before UA started. Didn’t want me to get burnt out.”

“Oh, yeah? I saw your dad ag-”

“What are you talking about-?” Hitoshi asked, confused.

Izuku tilted his head, and Hitoshi leaned in. “My parents and I are keeping our relationship a secret. They didn’t want to be accused of favoritism from the others.” He whispered.

“Ohhhh, that makes sense!” Izuku said.

At 8:30:05, Izuku noticed a guy in… a sleeping bag, by the door. Eraserhead. He looked around, noticing no one else but Hitoshi had seen the hero, and was about to tell everyone to be quiet when Hitoshi stopped him. “Don’t.”

Izuku frowned but didn’t say anything, waiting until 13 seconds later everybody calmed down. The hero stood and walked to the podium, slipping out of the sleeping bag and rolling it up. “My name is Shouta Aizawa, I’m your homeroom teacher.It took you a total of 15 seconds to notice me and shut up. That’s not going to fly if you want to be pros.” The man sighed and took out a bag, pulling a gym uniform from it. “Now, we’re meeting on the training field in 15 minutes. If you don’t want to be expelled don’t be late.”

Izuku grabbed the uniform, heading to the locker room. He’d studied a map of UA the other day just so he’d be prepared and hopefully wouldn’t get too lost. He was glad it was coming in handy now.

He put on the gym uniform pretty quickly and then jogged to the training field. Aizawa looked at him. “Hm. You’re here first. Odd.”

Izuku frowned. “You thought I’d be late?”

“No, but I was expecting someone else to make it here first.”

“Hitoshi.”

“Shinsou, yeah.”

Izuku tilted his head. “Shinsou?”

Aizawa just nodded, not making any more conversation. Great. Izuku saw the kid in question about ninety (eighty seven) seconds later, running out. “How’d you beat me??” He asked Izuku.

Izuku smiled a bit, trying to hide his nerves. “I studied the UA Map before. Didn’t want to get too lost, you know?”

Hitoshi rolled your eyes. “You’re so weird.”

Izuku tried not to make a face at the comment, but Hitoshi seemed to see through it. “I was just teasing you. I wasn’t trying to be mean.”

“Oh, sorry…” Izuku hated how used to bullying he was. His first instinct when his friend teased him was to assume it was an insult. He remembered when he was little he used to assume Kacchan and his friends were just messing around. It had taken him until fifth grade and an anti-bullying assembly in the gym to realize they’d been bullying him.

Hitoshi laughed a bit. “Don’t worry about it.” He said softly.

He and Izuku were the only people who made it there early. The rest of the class barely made it within the 15 minute mark. Once everyone was there, Aizawa looked at his watch and sighed. “Okay. Now that everyone is finally here, we can start the Quirk Apprehension Test.”

Izuku noticed the brunette from the entrance exam frown. “What? But orientation! We’re gonna miss it!”

“If you really wanna make the big leagues, you can’t waste time on your precious ceremonies.” Aizawa sighed. “At UA we’re not tethered to traditions. That means I get to run my class however I see fit.” Izuku frowned. “You've been taking standardized tests most of your lives. But you never got to use your Quirks in physical exams before. 

The country's still trying to pretend we're all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel. It's not rational. One day, the Ministry of Education will learn.” Damn. Who knew Eraserhead ended up actually being a quirkist asshole? Izuku wasn’t expecting that, considering Aizawa himself had started in the General Education course. Izuku remembered when he was seven and had gone through his Eraserhead phase, going so far as to watch all the Sports Festival footage he’d been in. He remembered hearing the announcer. “Shouta Aizawa, Class 1C! He’s the first General Education student in 15 years to make it to the finals!”

And the reason he hadn’t been in class A from the start? His quirk! In fact, part of the reason Izuku had loved Eraserhead so much was because he fought mostly quirkless. So yeah, turns out there was another former idol of his that turned out to be a douchebag.

Thankfully Hitoshi wasn’t like that.

“Bakugou-” Aizawa started. “You got the highest score out of anyone with a quirk.” Oh, great. They’re just going to skip over Izuku. He supposed that made sense, considering it was a Quirk Apprehension Test, but still. “What was your high score in middle school?”

“Sixty six meters.”

“Right. Let’s see how far you can throw it with your quirk.”

Izuku saw Hitoshi frown and raise his hand. “Sir, shouldn’t Midoriya go first? He got first place in the entrance exam afterall, and I’m sure he’s improved.”

Aizawa glared at Hitoshi. “Yes, well, considering Midoriya doesn’t have a quirk, I doubt he’ll be doing much.” Aizawa tossed the ball to Kacchan.

Hitoshi glared back but stopped upon seeing Aizawa raise an eyebrow. “Sorry.” Hitoshi whispered to Izuku.

“It’s fine.” Izuku mumbled back, although he was staring at the ground and kicking up sand. 

Kacchan glared at Aizawa and then turned away, walking past Izuku and handing the baseball to him. “I’m not losing to you again.” He muttered to Izuku, shame barely kept from his tone. Izuku stared at the blond in confusion.

Izuku looked at Aizawa. The man was glaring at him. “Whatever. Just throw the stupid ball. Keep in mind the person in last place will be going home.”

Izuku nodded and stepped into the circle. He stared at the dirtied baseball for a few minutes, then took a deep breath and threw it. Aizawa showed the reading. ‘110 meters’

Izuku couldn’t help but smile. That was over twice his last high score of 40 meters.

They went through all the exercises and, considering he didn’t have a quirk that would be useful, he still managed to come in fourth behind Kacchan, Todoroki, and Hitoshi.

“Alright, listen. No one’s going home. That was just a logical deception.”

“What??” Everyone except for one girl said at the same time.

“Oh, sorry, I figured everyone would realize that. I guess I should’ve told you.” Izuku looked at the girl, Yaoyorozu.

“That’s it for the first day. Just read over the syllabus and be ready for tomorrow.” Aizawa said before turning and walking away.

After school, Izuku and Iida ended up walking together. “Hey, wait up you two!” Izuku turned to see the brunette girl from before running to catch up to them. “Are you going to the station?? I’ll join you guys!”

“Oh, you’re the infinity girl.” Iida commented, remembering how she’d gotten an ‘infinity’ reading for the ball in the Quirk Apprehension Test.

“The name’s Ochako Uraraka!” She smiled and paused. “Let’s see, you are, Tenya Iida. And you’re-” She turned to Izuku, “-Deku, right? Midoriya?”

“Um, actually it’s Izuku…”

“Oh! Sorry! I just heard Bakugou call you that earlier! It’s kinda cute though, I like it!”

“Deku it is!!” Izuku said nervously.

“Whoa, that quickly?” Iida said.

The next day was their first ‘real day’ of school. The first few classes were pretty basic. English, math, Japanese, and history. Lunch passed quickly, and then it was time for hero training. This was the part everyone was excited for.

They waited there for a few moments, but then All Might’s voice rang out. “I am here!” Izuku rolled his eyes. Ever since their little rooftop chat, Izuku had a special place in his heart reserved for hating All Might. The man had tried to destroy his dream, after all. He couldn’t help but notice All Might was wearing his Silver Age costume, though it was a little tight. “Welcome to the most important class at UA High. Think of it as "Hero‐ing 101." Here, you will learn the basics of being a pro. And what it means to fight in the name of good! Let's get into it. Today's lesson will pull no punches! Fight training!”

Izuku sighed. He kind of expected this honestly. “But one of the keys of being a hero is looking good! These were designed for you based on your Quirk registration forms and special requests you sent in before the start of term!” Izuku watched All Might press a button on a remote, revealing the lockers that had been hidden in the wall. “Get suited up and meet at Training Ground Beta!”

All Might turned and left. Izuku opened his locker to see his costume. He’d drawn up a few sketches of it but figured it out eventually. His costume included a pair of black and grey patchwork jeans, a green belt that he could tie the sheath into, a dark green zip up hoodie, and a white baggy t-shirt with the words ‘hero’ on it. He knew he’d add more onto it later, but for now it was perfect.

Izuku left the locker room but decided to wait for Hitoshi. The other kid came out of the locker room two minutes and four seconds later. He wore a familiar gray scarf like Aizawa’s, a black mask, a black tank top and black cargo pants. “What’s the mask for?”

“Voice modulator. It lets me change how my voice sounds and mimic other people’s voices to trick people.”

“Oh, cool!” Izuku smiled. Hitoshi smiled back and the pair walked to Ground Beta. The rest of the class was at ground Beta within the next five minutes, and as Izuku watched Kacchan he realized the blond had used an old design Izuku had come up with. He smirked a bit.

Izuku listened to All Might explain how the mock battles would work. They’d work in pairs, with one team being heroes and the other pair playing villains. They’d be drawing lots to keep things random. Izuku was glad to be paired up with Hitoshi. He was less glad to see they’d be going against Kacchan.

The ‘villains’ were allowed into the building 15 minutes before the heroes. Izuku and Hitoshi waited outside and after three minutes he turned to Hitoshi. “I have an idea!”

“What is it?” Hitoshi asked.

“So, you go after Iida and the weapon, and use your quirk to get Iida to walk off. People don’t know how it works yet, so we can use it. Kacchan’s gonna come after me so I’ll distract him.”

“Why would he come after you?”

“Uhhh… You know that time I mentioned I got bullied a lot in middle school?”

“Yeah?”

“Kacchan was sort of the main person to come after me.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell Aizawa?”

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “You really think he’d expel Kacchan for something like that? I’ve never had a teacher care before.”

“He cares.” Hitoshi hissed.

Izuku laughed. “Yeah, sure.” He ignored Hitoshi’s glare since the buzzer to begin the training rang, electing instead to waltz into the building.

—

All Might watched the battle, utterly in awe of the quirkless teenager. The boy predicted his opponent’s moves, using the predictability against the blond. Bakugou had even set off his gauntlets, seemingly intent on killing Midoriya. But the teen dodged. He dodged! And, while the two had been fighting, Shinsou had made Iida leave the weapon and taken it easily.

It was a perfect victory for them.

He was becoming more and more certain of the decision he’d made a month ago. Young Midoriya would be the ninth user of One for All.

After giving his ending notes, he stopped Midoriya before he could leave. The teenager looked up at him, confused. “Meet me in my office after school.” He told the boy.

—

Izuku had a feeling of why All Might would want to meet with him. He’d probably apologize, maybe ask for forgiveness or something. Izuku wanted to believe that was all the man wanted.

He was wrong.

He walked into the man’s office, which was decked out in his own merch. Seriously, who has that big an ego? This guy, apparently.

He sat on the couch in All Might’s office, and All Might sat across from him. “Tea?”

“Um, sure.” Izuku let the man pour him a cup of tea and took a sip.

“So, the first reason I wanted to speak with you is to apologize. For what I told you all those months ago. Of course you can be a hero, and you seem very intent on making me eat my words.” Izuku decided the man sounded bitter, as though he were angry that Izuku dared make a mockery of the man.

“Second, I have a gift.” Izuku perked up at that. “How would you like a quirk?”

Izuku frowned. “What?”

“My quirk! I was once quirkless too, Young Midoriya! I can gi-”

Izuku blinked. “Wait, pause.” He said softly. “You used to be quirkless?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, so, you, someone who used to be quirkless, who remembers the discrimination we face, looked at me, another quirkless person. And you, as the number one hero, as the symbol of peace, as a clearly successful hero, told me I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk?” He tilted his head when he asked the question. He didn’t yell. In all honesty, he was more confused than anything.

“Ah, you see the irony here my boy! So, I must atone for my mistakes! Allow me to mentor you, pass this torch onto you! It’s the least I can do.” The man flashed his signature smile.

Izuku knew the hero just felt bad for him. But he wanted a quirk he didn’t have to hide. Okay, maybe he’d have to hide it, but he wouldn’t have to hide it as much.

“Okay. I’ll take it.” Izuku forced himself to smile. He hated All Might still. He didn’t think that would be changing. But if he wanted to finish his plans, he’d need One for All.

“Awesome! Your body is already pretty muscular, so you won’t have to train before getting it! We can complete the transfer right now!” The man plucked a piece of yellow hair from his head. “Eat this!”

“Wait, what?”

After completing the transfer, Izuku found he didn’t feel much different. The hero said it would be a few hours before it kicked in, so Izuku elected to go home and head to bed early.

The next day, he woke with an energy inside him, coursing through him and waiting to be unleashed. One for All. He was excited to put it to use today, though he’d have to figure out how on earth he’d go about using it for the first time. Maybe during combat training he could say it manifested? He could just be a late bloomer!

The day didn’t exactly go as expected though.

—

Katsuki was fine until lunch. Really, he was! He’d only yelled at twenty people, and he’d only cussed out Deku once or twice. His therapist would be so proud.

Then lunch came. And the alarms went off. He ended up in a sort of stampede or mob trying to get out of the cafeteria, but upon noticing the paparazzi outside he realized it was a false alarm. After a few seconds of debating things, he decided to do something about it. He used some explosions to fly above everyone else, but got distracted when he saw a certain blur of green moving away from the crowd, towards the teachers lounge. He frowned and used another explosion to propel himself closer to Deku. Deku looked back at Bakugou and his eyes widened before Bakugou saw a bit of green lightning and then the nerd was gone.

He was hiding a quirk this whole time!? What the fuck??

While Katsuki was distracted, Glasses had managed to pose on top of the door like an Exit sign and calm down the chaos. Deku was nowhere to be found.

After school, Katsuki grabbed the nerd by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away into the woods. “What the fuck was that about earlier?”

“What are you talking about Kacchan?”

“Why were you moving away from the crowd?”

“It was just the paparazzi, right?”

“That’s not the point, Deku.”

“Then what is-?”

“You’re hiding something!!” Katsuki slammed the shorter boy into a nearby tree.

Deku groaned and frowned. “No I’m not!” He said, waving his hands around.

Katsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Yes you are. And I’m gonna figure out what it is.” He let go of the nerd, turning and leaving.

That afternoon, he walked into the therapist’s office. He had the appointment scheduled already, but he was glad it was today because he needed to talk about whatever the fuck is going on with Deku. He took a seat and looked at his therapist, Ms. Suzuki, as she took a seat across from him.

“So, how have things been lately?”

“Not bad, honestly. Until today!” He growled and clenched his fists. “Everything was going good. Hell, I’d even tried being nice to Deku since we talked last time and I mentioned he did better than me in the entrance exam. But you know what the nerd’s been doing this whole time??”

“What?”

“Hiding a quirk from me!! Can you believe that? He’s been holding out on me! Hiding shit! Tryna make himself seem like the victim when he’s been hiding all this power!!”

“How do you know he has a quirk?”

“Cuz today he ran off and used his quirk to get away faster!! He’s hiding something.” Katsuki muttered.

“Aren’t we all?”

“Well duh, but I mean something big. I dunno, just, how the hell does he all of a sudden have a quirk, hah??”

Ms. Suzuki looked at Katsuki. “Sometimes people manifest quirks later on, or don’t realize what the activation requirements. I heard once that All Might’s quirk didn’t manifest until he was 13 or 14 himself.”

Katsuki frowned. “Tch. Whatever. I’m gonna figure out what’s up with that stupid nerd.”

Ms. Suzuki nodded. “I’m sure you will.”

The therapy session had gone fairly well, all things considered. He’d only been doing it for a month. The night he got into UA his parents had sat him down.

“Listen, Katsuki. Your mother and I are both very proud of you for getting into UA.” His dad had begun.

“But?”

“But you can’t keep bullying people if you’re going to be a hero. You bullied your own childhood friend to the point he had to transfer schools.” His father continued. “We’ve set up an appointment with a therapist. Her name is Ms. Suzuki. She specializes in anger management.”

“Anger management?? The fuck do I need anger management skills for, old man??”

“You’re proving my point.”

Katsuki crossed his arms, looking out the window. “Oh stop sulking. You look like a little kid.” His mom said.

“The fuck did you say to me, hag??”

—

The Luminary got ready for the night. He was going to meet the League of Villains again. He had some interesting information for them, and he was excited to make their first every attack plan. He and Tomura had become sort of like siblings since he’d met the guy a month ago. They played games sometimes, and other times they talked about their shared hatred of a certain Symbol. He went through his routine and then got on the train to Kamino.

He made his way into the bar, looking around and spotting Tomura on the couch, playing League of Legends. “Tomuraaaa~”

The older guy groaned and looked up at him. “What is it?”

“I have something for you!!”

“What?”

The luminary reached into his black backpack and with a flourish pulled out a yellow folder with the UA emblem embossed on the front. “Ta-da!!”

“How the hell did you get that?”

“I have my ways.” Luminary smiled, opening the folder. “Look, it has all the information for the class 1A curriculum! They’re taking a field trip to the USJ soon, y’know!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! And All Might’ll be there too! Say, Tomura, don’t you have some special Nomu you wanted to try out?”

“Yeah, Master’s been finetuning them for years.”

Luminary smiled. “Lets take him for a test drive! They’re going on Friday!”

Tomura smirked at Luminary. “Are you gonna come?”

“Me? I couldn’t! I’m the mastermind of the operation, you can’t put me on the front lines yet! Besides, I’ve gotta wait to come out to play properly.”

Tomura frowned. “Why the hell is that-?”

“Don’t worry about it.”