Chapter Text
In life, not all men are created equal. Life is not fair. That is the truth I learned at the tender age of four when that doctor deemed me quirkless. He told me to give up on my dream, the one thing I wanted more than anything else, a hero. A defender of the people. It crushed me, and then when the people around me learned that I was quirkless, they crushed me too. Quirks began with the birth of a glowing baby... but you know that already. My story starts a little later down the line. My name is Midoryia Izuku, and this is the story of how I learned that as in life, in death, not all are equal.
<~><~><~>
The day started like any other for sixteen-year-old Midoriya Izuku. He woke up with a groan at five in the morning and rolled out of bed. He stretched until he heard a satisfying pop from his back and then set about his morning routine.
After showering, he got dressed in his Aldera High School uniform, grabbed an apple for breakfast and then headed downstairs to help his mom open the café.
Walking into the kitchen of Mamadoriya's, Izuku was greeted by his mother.
"Morning, sweetie. How'd you sleep?" Midoriya Inko was a relatively short woman with a rounder physique than she had when Izuku was younger. She had started overeating due to stress after that day twelve years ago. She had actually lost a bit of weight after she opened her café, working together with her son gave her a closer relationship between her and Izuku kept her from stress eating. There was also a bit of guilt mixed in there for what she had said to her boy that loathsome day. Izuku could never hold that against her, though. He knew that that day was hard for her too, and she had tried to… no, she has been the best mother he could ever have. Inko just worried very easily; they both did.
Izuku smiled at his mother, "Hey, Mom. I slept okay." He walked up to Inko to give her a hug, his 5'11 frame making her look smaller than she was. Izuku had shot up in height last year. His mother told him that he got it from his father's side of the family. Not that he'd seen his father in years. Izuku shook his head as he began helping Inko start up the ovens and begin preparing the dough. "How about you?"
Inko hummed in response as she started pouring the batter she had been making into trays. "Not bad. Thanks for getting the dough ready, sweetie."
"No problem, Mom. Need anything else done?"
"Could you give the floor in the sitting area a quick sweep and the tables a wipe down?" Inko asked.
"Sure thing," Izuku said, grabbing the broom.
It took Izuku around an hour to set up the sitting area in the shop to his standards, "Alright, Mom! I'm off to school. I'll be back in time for my shift!" He called out.
Inko's voice called back at him from the kitchen, "Okay, sweetie! Have a good day, and be safe!"
"I will!" Izuku called back.
"Oh! Leave the door unlocked. Haruto and Akari should be here soon!"
"Sure!"
With that, Izuku began his trek to his least favourite place on Earth, Aldera High School.
<~><~><~>
Tatooine Station was about a ten-minute walk from the Midoriya household; unfortunately for most commuters, it happened to be the subject of a villain attack. It was fortunate for Izuku, though, as he loved to watch the heroes at work, and it gave him an excuse to be late for school.
The hero, currently fighting the villain that looked like he had some kind of shark head and an enlargement quirk, was wearing a black bodysuit with bark extremities and a bark helmet. The hero was shouting at the villain, "You're charged with unlawful quirk usage during commuting hours, as well as battery and robbery!"
Izuku's notebook, Hero Analysis for the Future: Volume 21, was out, and he was taking notes without even realizing it. His muttering was also in full effect, "It's Kamui Woods, kind of a rising star. He is skilled with his quirk. The villain, though, kind of a waste of a powerful quirk." "It's also interesting that the quirk usage was listed before the actual assault."
'Whoa! Thanks for the exposition, kid! Are you a hero otaku?" A random onlooker asked Izuku, snapping him out of his muttering.
"Uh, yeah…" Izuku was saved from any more awkwardness by the battle ramping up.
"SHOW US YOUR BEST MOVE, TREE GUY!" Shouted someone in the crowd.
"Here it comes!" Izuku said, a wide smile on his face, "His ultimate preemptive strike…."
Izuku shouted at the same time as Kamui, "LACQUERED CHAIN PRISON!"
From Kamui's right arm, dozens of branches began to rapidly grow and wrap around the giant villain; before the branches immobilized the villain, a newcomer appeared on the scene.
A newcomer in the shape of a giant woman, easily dwarfing the villain, surprise drop-kicking the villain in the face, "CANYON CANNON!!!"
The entire crowd fell silent as the villain fell unconscious. "This villain really suits my formal debut! My name is Mount Lady! It's a pleasure to make your ass-quaintance!" The now introduced Mount Lady said, making a pose that caused Izuku's cheeks to flush and a good number of the men in the crowd to develop spontaneous nose bleeds.
The previous cheering was quickly replaced with the shuttering of cameras as the paparazzi, and the members of the crowd began taking pictures. Izuku's muttering returned in full force as he sketched out the new hero on her brand new page in his notebook. "Gigantification, easily going to attract attention, even stolen attention, as well as popularity. It's also probably limiting if she can't control her size. I see a lot of collateral damage in her future. That's probably why she's trying so hard to make a good impression with that… show she just put on, in the hopes that people will care less about the property damage, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter…
Izuku's train of thought was broken once again by the same man, "You taking notes!?! Aiming to be a hero, huh? Nice! Good luck, kid!!"
"...Um, thanks, random citizen? I'll do my best!" Izuku gave the man an awkward smile and a thumbs up.
<~><~><~>
Unfortunately, Izuku had been on time for homeroom and had to suffer through the regular cycle of physical and mental abuse from the students and teachers until the end of the day. Most of it wasn't too bad, being shoved and tripped in the hallway, having his books or his lunch knocked out of his hands. He was either called names or treated as if he didn't exist, and Izuku wasn't sure which of those two was worse. The teachers always ignored the physical stuff but would sometimes participate in the verbal, usually to make him feel stupid in class. All in all, it sucked, but the only one who usually sent him home with bruises these days was Bakugou Katsuki, Kacchan. There were still some others but a lot of the physical torment seemed to fade once they hit high school.
Once his closest friend, now his greatest bully, Bakugou was arrogant, loud, and as volatile as his own explosion quirk. Bakugou believed he was the greatest thing to ever grace this planet and was not afraid to let everyone around him know it. This worked well for him as everyone at Aldera seemed to believe it too.
Izuku's final class of the day was winding down, and he was absentmindedly tapping his pencil against his notebook when their sensei said something that caught his attention, "Alight, class, I know you still have a few a couple of years left before you start university, and it's never too early to start thinking about your futures." The man walked around the podium at the front, holding a stack of papers, "I have some printouts to help map out your desired life course… but who am I kidding?!"
The sensei threw the papers into the air, "You all want to be heroes, don't you!"
The class roared in approval, showcasing their quirks as Izuku tried to make himself seem smaller in his seat.
"Yes, yes. Your quirks are all wonderful but settle down. It's still against the rules to use them in class." The sensei said.
Izuku rolled his eyes, 'You're the one who riled them up in the first place, moron,' Izuku thought.
"Come on, Sensei! Don't lump me in with everybody else!" Bakugou shouted, "You can't compare me to these lame-ass extras. My quirk is in a completely different fucking league!"
"You're shooting for U.A., right Bakugou?" A student asked.
Bakugou smirked and jumped up on his desk, "You're goddamned right I am! I got an A on the mock test, and I'm the only person in the place that stands a chance. I'm gonna shoot straight to the top and leave all you extras in the fucking dusk! I'm going to be even better than ALL MIGHT!"
"Yes, you're going to make us all proud, Bakugou," the sensei said, "But didn't you want to go to U.A. as well, Midoriya?"
Izuku froze and could have sworn he felt his heart stop beating in his chest as all eyes in the classroom turned to him, and then the laughter and jeering started. Izuku could feel the cruel smirk from the sensei without having to look at him, 'Ah crap.'
"As if you can pass the exam without a quirk!" A student shouted, and other classmates agreed with her.
"Th-there's no rule a-against it or any-any-anything." Izuku cursed his stutter, it always happened in these situations, and he felt it made him look even more pathetic, "There's no pr-precedent, but…".
Anything further was cut off as Bakugou exploded his desk, sending Izuku crashing back, narrowly missing splitting his skull open on the desk behind him, "EAT SHIT AND DIE, DEKU!!" Bakugou roared.
"Forget having a weak-ass quirK! You don't even have a fucking quirk!" The blond bomber taunted his former friend. "SO, WHERE DO YOU GET OFF PUTTING YOURSELF ON THE SAME LEVEL AS ME!!"
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck as he sat up, his ears ringing, "I'm not try-trying to compete with you." Izuku then looked down and, in a small voice, said, "I, I just need to try. To prove some-something to myself."
Bakugou just laughed, "To prove something? What a loser. What can a Deku like you ever hope to accomplish?"
Izuku didn't, couldn't say anything. He just kept looking at his feet, and as if it was to signal the end of the mocking, the end-of-day bell rang.
The classroom quickly emptied, leaving only Bakugou and two of his cronies alone with Izuku. Izuku stood up and grabbed his notebook when it was snatched from his hands by Bakugou, 'Looks like the day isn't over,' Izuku thought."
"We're not done yet, Deku." Bakugou still managed to look down on Izuku with a feeling of superiority, even though he had to look up, as he was a few inches shorter. Something that, guess what pissed him off.
"Analysis for the future," Bakugo laughed as he flipped through the book, "Face reality, Deku. A quirkless fuck like you is never going to amount to anything." He then pressed the book between his hands and activated his quirk. Leaving the book a charred mess which he tossed out the window.
"You…" Izuku whispered, 'Maybe he's right.'
"You know the thing all top heroes have in common? They can all say that they came from an average high school, and they were the first, the only ones to make it. So, for the sake of my backstory. I need to maintain the gravitas that the term 'U.A. graduate' brings. I'm a perfectionist like that." Izuku thought Bakugou was talking as if this made perfect sense instead of the delusions of a narcissist he was actually spouting.
Bakugou got very close to Izuku and placed his hand on his shoulder, using his quirk at low levels to make a sizzling effect, smoke rising from the burning uniform. "So what I need you to do is forget about going to U.A., little nerd." He then shoved Izuku against the open window and started to leave with his tag-alongs.
Before he walked out of the room, Bakugou called out to Izuku over his shoulder, "Oh, one more thing. If you really want to be a hero, I heard of a good method. Take a swan dive off a roof, and pray for a quirk in the next life."
Izuku could practically feel his soul leave his body as he stared at Bakugou's back as the blond left, laughing as he did so. Izuku stood in place, not moving as he tried to comprehend what Kacchan had just said to him.
The quirkless youth's thoughts were a flurry of disbelief as he left the school and tried to find his notebook. He eventually found it in a small coy pond not far from the window it had been thrown out of, with the fish nibbling on it. "Come on, guys, that's not food," Izuku muttered, fishing the book out of the pond and doing his best to dry it. "It's my…hope."
Looking at the book, practically falling to pieces, Izuku's thoughts took a dark turn. 'Maybe I should…' he thought, 'Maybe Kacchan is right. The only person who would miss me is Mom, and she'll be okay. She has the cafe, and the workers would be there for her'.
Izuku's thoughts continued like this until he turned the book over and saw the symbol on it, still intact.
天
Ten. The symbol of heaven. A reminder he kept to always keep moving forward. 'No, I can't think like that. I have to keep going. I can't listen to what the others say. I make my own destiny. Izuku grew a determined look, then looked at his watch and realized what time it was, "Crap, I'm going to be cutting it close for my shift. I better take the shortcut."
<~><~><~>
Izuku was hurrying through the tunnel when he froze as he heard a sound, an ugly slurping sound. Shaking, Izuku slowly turned around and saw green slime oozing out of a sewer grate and slowly taking a humanoid shape as eyes and teeth swirled around to form something resembling a human face. Later on in life, Izuku would punch himself in the face for turning around when he should have just run away.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" The slime said, its voice sounding like jello being shredded. "A tall skin suit."
The villain blitzed Izuku, wrapping him up rapidly and forcing himself down Izuku's throat and up to his nose. "Don't worry, kid, I'm just going to borrow your body. It'll only hurt for a moment; then it'll aaaaalll be over." The slime crooned.
'No, I have to fight it.' Izuku thought, struggling as hard as he could as the darkness loomed over him, slowly encompassing his vision as he suffocated. 'This can't be how my story ends.' What the villain said next took nearly all the fight left in Izuku.
"You're my hero, kid." Those words took his breath away worse than the slime could. "I never counted on that guy visiting this town.
Izuku tried to grab the slime to no effect, 'I'm… I'm dying.' He thought as his eyes closed, 'Why… me…' the darkness consumed him.
<~><~><~>
Izuku's eyes slowly opened as something was hitting his face lightly but exceptionally quickly. "What, what happened." He groaned, blinking the bright lights out to see, WAS THAT ALL MIGHT?!?!
"THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE OKAY YOUNG ONE!" The number one hero exclaimed, "Thought I lost you there!" All Might said, helping Izuku to his feet.
All Might's expression turned serious, even with his ever-present smile, "I must apologize, young one, for allowing you to be put in harm's way."
"Th-thank you, sir!" Izuku stuttered out, "For sa-saving my life. I think my M-mom would have killed me if I died."
All Might chuckled, "All in a day's work, young one! But I also must thank you!" All Might held up a cola bottle filled to the brim with green ooze and two eyeballs floating around it. What Izuku couldn't see was the other bottle in All Might's pocket filled with ooze and teeth. " Without your assistance, this slime would have slipped through my grasp!"
Izuku nearly blinded the number one hero with his smile upon hearing that, "I really didn't do anything, sir," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. Izuku's eyes widened as he scrambled to find his notebook and open it to the right page, "OH! Would you sign my note… YOU ALREADY SIGNED IT?!"
"HAHA, A simple matter for one such as I!" All Might boasted, " Now, I must be off and get this villain where he belongs! Good day young one!" All Might crouched in preparation to leap across buildings with a single leap, and Izuku once more did something he would later punch himself in the face for.
<~><~><~>
As he was reaching the apex of his leap, All Might realized that there was more drag than normal, 'Well, I'm pushing my limit as it is… wait, is there something on my leg?' Looking back, there was indeed something on his leg. THE CHILD HE HAD JUST SAVED, " WHAT THE! LET GO, I KNOW YOU'RE A FAN BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH!" All Might shouted over the rushing wind.
Izuku, his cheeks flapping from the wind force and his eyes rapidly drying out, shouted back at him, his voice being tossed back at him by the absurd speed they were travelling at, "IF I DO… I'LL DIE!!"
"OH RIGHT! CLOSE YOUR EYES AND MOUTH, KID!" All Might shouted, looking for an emergency landing. As he was doing so, his chest suddenly tightened, and a bit of blood began to leak from his mouth. ' Crap.' He thought, ' I may need to speed up my successor's training.'
All Might came down hard on top of a hospital building, where Izuku unlatched himself from the hero's leg and began taking deep breaths as All Might rounded on him. "That was an extremely irresponsible thing to do, young one! Do not do such a thing again." All MIght turned away and once more prepared to leap off.
"Wait!" Izuku called after him, the desperation in his voice pausing the hero momentarily.
"I don't have time!"
"CAN I BE A HERO LIKE YOU!?" Izuku screamed, eyes closed and head down. "Even though I'm quirkless… can I still be a hero?"
All Might paused fully, "Quirkless?" The man suddenly coughed up a lot of blood, and steam began to pour off of him.
Izuku was still staring at the ground as he talked, "I don't have a quirk, and I'm constantly treated badly for it. But, the only thing I've ever wanted is to be a hero. To save people and let them know that everything is going to be okay because I am there. " Izuku looked up, "I want to be like youuuuuuuuu…."
Izuku trailed off as he looked at the gaunt man with wild hair and very sunken eyes standing where All Might had been, "IMPOSTER! Why are you going around pretending to be All Might? Are you a villain?! Wait, that doesn't make any sense; if he was an imposter, why would he save me. He would be going around trying to besmirch All Might's good name mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter…".
"Calm down, kid. It's still me." The shrivelled man said, waving Izuku's accusations off as blood poured out of his mouth. "Think about it like guys at a pool. They buff themselves up as they walk past a cute girl." All Might explained before singing and gingerly sitting down against the ledge of the building.
"Since you've seen my true form, I might as well explain; just don't go talking about this on the forums, alright?" All Might gave Izuku a pointed look.
"I-I would-would never." Izuku stammered.
"Good. I got this about five years ago." All Might said, lifting up his shirt to show a terrible scar that covered nearly the entirety of the left side of his chest. It still looked like it was healing years after the fact. "I've only got one lung that's working at half capacity, and what was left of my stomach had to be removed." The man explained, "I've wasted away into what you see now due to all the surgeries and their complications. I can only keep up my muscle form for about three hours a day now."
All Might then stood up slowly, "I can't tell the world about this, and I need to make sure you understand that you must never mention this. The Symbol of Peace's smile must never waiver. Must never succumb to the forces of evil. A pro risks his or her life every time they put on the costume. So I can't tell you that you can be a hero without a quirk. It's not possible."
Izuku's world shattered.
All Might walked past him, heading for the rooftop access door. "If you want to save people, you can always be a police officer or a doctor. You've got the brain for it from what I saw in that notebook of yours." All Might opened the door, "You just need to face reality, young one." The door swung shut after him, the sound reverberating around the rooftop.
Izuku just stood there. Comatose. He couldn't move. He could barely think. He didn't react when his phone started ringing. He didn't even react when the explosions started across the city. He just stood there.
<~><~><~>
What roused him from his state was when the rain began to fall. The cool water restores some higher brain functions. 'Even All Might… even All Might thinks I can't do it.'
'They were all right. I- I'm nothing. I'm a waste of space, of air.' Izuku's feet took him towards the edge of the building, overlooking an alleyway. 'I'm worthless. Useless. Deku.' Thunder began to rumble overhead, and lightning flashed as the rain turned into a storm to match the one inside him.
'The world would be better off without me.' Izuku got up on the ledge and just looked down for a while.
"Can… Can I actually do this?" Izuku asked out loud when the answer was made for him. The thunder roared, and there was a blinding flash as pain surged through Izuku, knocking him off his feet and off the building. He doesn't feel the impact when he slams into the ground, his nerves unable to process the pain of his bones shattering. His eyes close as the rain pours down on him, washing away the blood, and the last thing he sees is a pair of yellow eyes looking down at him.