Chapter Text
It started like this:
Izuku Midoriya, the day after the UA Entrance Exam, numbly wandering the city streets. Looking for something, anything, to take his mind off his failure.
0 points in the practical. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that was probably a failing score. The one impressive thing he’d done had also shattered his limbs, which probably wasn’t a very good look for him.
His nose was currently buried in one of his notebooks, but he couldn’t keep his mind on the analysis. No matter how loudly he muttered to himself, he couldn’t drown out the twin voices bouncing through his head:
The first was All Might’s. “ Young man, you can be a Hero. ” It had been the first time anyone ever told him that, and it was this memory he clutched to like a lifeline.
The second was his own. A single, accusing word, echoing in repeat. “ Failed. ” He’d failed the Exam, he’d failed his dream, he’d failed to be a Hero, he’d failed All Might .
He was suddenly pulled from his thoughts, by virtue of being almost bowled over by a figure even smaller than he. A girl, with pale hair, bandages all up her arms, a single tiny horn, and the deepest crimson eyes. She looked up at him in horror, backing away even as he reached out to steady her.
He blinked in confusion; in most interactions he’d had, he was usually the one backing away fearfully. Quirkless, useless, Deku.
Young man, you can be a Hero.
He crouched down and gave a gentle smile. “Hello. Are you okay?”
She stared up at him in incomprehension. “You need to run. He’s coming.”
He blinked again as she grabbed his sleeve and tried to pull him after her, into one of the side alleys he’d just passed by. He obligingly followed, more curious than anything. “Who’s coming?”
The girl glanced around fearfully, pulling him harder. Her voice dropped into a near-silent whisper. “ Overhaul .”
The name itself- Izuku assumed it was a name- meant nothing to him, but the raw fear in the girl’s voice gave him chills. He leaned down closer to her, picking up his pace enough that he wasn’t slowing her down. “Do you need me to call the police?”
She shook her head frantically. “No. We need to find a Hero, someone strong enough to beat him.”
Well, if this Overhaul was a villain… Izuku’s first thought was All Might, but that wasn’t feasible. The man’s agency was miles away, and this felt urgent. Running through the local patrol routes in his head, at this time of day their best bet would be… Ingenium? It’d be a bit of a run, but-
The girl came to a sudden stop, almost tripping Izuku in the process. In front of them, a tall figure in an intricate plague mask blocked their way. The girl’s grip on his sleeve tightened as they stared at each other. Just from her reaction, he could tell this man was her ‘Overhaul.’
Failed. Failed, failed , failed, FAILED.
The man shook his head slowly. “Eri, dear, what have I told you about running off on your own? And now you’ve gotten some raggedy brat involved, too.”
The girl- Eri?- let go of Izuku’s sleeve as though it had burned her. Her eyes lingered on his for a second, and… he recognized that expression. It was his own, every time he jumped between Kacchan and someone else.
Seeing that face on a girl half his size struck something, deep in his core. It was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG . Wrong enough to drown out that other pesky word stuck in his head.
And yet, he looked deeper. Behind that face, behind the growing resolve, behind a carefully crafted facade of bravery built not to fool others but oneself… and he found those eyes .
Izuku Midoriya took a deep, deep breath. The nervous, restless energy that itched in his bones finally came to a stop, replaced with a deep, slow burn of determination. Because those eyes? They belonged to someone who was, deep down, screaming for help .
Young man, you can be a Hero .
He stared Overhaul in the eye, head running a mile a minute. The goal wasn’t to fight him, the goal was to get Eri out safely. Ingenium’s patrol would take him by in about five minutes, which meant he had to either stall for that time or get past Overhaul and run against the patrol route until they met up.
The villain before him had majority skin coverage, with latex gloves covering the hands. So probably no Quirk based on skin contact. Was it something to do with the mask? Maybe-
Overhaul made a tiny gesture with his hand, and the gloves were… torn apart? Disintegrated? Exploded? Something along those lines. That countered the no skin contact theory. Probably based on his fingertips, since those were held somewhat threateningly forward. The villain continued talking. “Just look at what you’ve done, Eri. I have to kill this boy now, all because you felt the need to get him involved.”
Oh, that’s just straight bullshit. Pinning the blame of murder on a child who probably ran away specifically because you pull shit like this? Also, shit , Izuku didn’t want to die. What could he do? He was Quirkless-
Wait, no, he wasn’t! But the only time he’d used One for All, it had destroyed his limbs. And the force … Eri was in the alleyway with them, he couldn’t risk using something that powerful. He needed some way to tone it down, some way to limit the destruction. And he had to still be in shape to run afterwards, there was no Recovery Girl here.
Hold on. Something about that thought felt… useful. Limit the destruction … what if he-
Overhaul made his move.
And Izuku was forced to make his.
You see, those ten months of training on the beach had led to Izuku learning a whole lot about the structure of the human body. He knew where his muscles were, what they did, and how they worked . And looking back, when he’d broken his arm during the Exam, he’d just flooded the whole limb with power and fired away.
So what if he only used it in part of his muscles? What if he only activated the Quirk in, say, a thin strip of muscle, parallel with the fibers to avoid creating a weak point in any one strand. Enough to boost his strength meaningfully without immediately destroying the limb.
Of course, this meant that he would be destroying his limbs over ten or so shots instead of just one go, but he was on a time limit here. This wasn’t going to work for a sustained battle, but he wasn’t going for battle anyways.
He just needed to get Eri, and run away.
So as Overhaul darted forwards, fingers outstretched, Izuku fired up his improvised technique: One For All: Fragmentation. Roughly a tenth of his leg burned a glorious technicolor rainbow, giving him strength to launch himself to the left. This knocked him into Eri, but he scooped her up into his arms and hugged her close.
“It’s alright,” Izuku fought through the blinding pain to tell her, “I’ve got you now.”
Holy shit, that worked . It hurt like hell but it fucking worked .
Judging by how hard that had launched him, he would need… Let’s say an eighth of a leg to get him into the main street. With this kind of commotion, Ingenium would likely notice and use his Engine Quirk to arrive faster.
He prepared to launch, but Overhaul leaned down and skimmed the concrete ground with his fingers. It whirled apart, then back together around Izuku’s foot, anchoring him in place.
He grimaced and used another tenth of his other leg, shattering the concrete and freeing the foot. Cracks spiderwebbed out to the street, and nearby buildings shook. He hurriedly launched himself, using an eighth of both legs. He flew into the air, and Eri looked up at him, worried.
He twisted in the air to keep an eye on Overhaul, catching a glimpse of Ingenium rushing down the streets towards them. Oh, thank God, this was almost over.
Overhaul appeared to notice him too, but somehow didn’t seem all too fazed. Hah! He probably didn’t know how strong Ingenium, the Turbo Hero, was!
But instead of trying to fight, the villain pointed dramatically at Izuku and shouted, “That villain kidnapped my daughter!”
Oh, you dumbass. Like Ingenium would ever believe that -
The Turbo Hero screeched to a stop in front of Overhaul. Putting his back to the incredibly dangerous touch based Quirk and instead facing down the child holding another, smaller child?????
“Don’t worry sir, we’ll get her back where she belongs,” promised Ingenium.
This… was not how things were supposed to develop.
“Hey,” protested Izuku as he landed on the far side of the street. “He’s the villain, not me!”
“If you’re willing to hand over the child peacefully, we can all sit down and work this out like civilized people,” offered Ingenium.
Izuku glanced down at Eri, who frowned and pulled herself tighter against him. “I need you to promise she’ll be safe.”
“Of course,” agreed Ingenium easily. “I’ll put her right back with her family.”
Izuku growled with frustration. “That man isn’t-”
“SLIDIN’…” shouted a voice from the side, as a purple blur sped towards him.
SHIT . With a frantic burst of Fragmentation, he launched himself into the air just in time to avoid a blindingly fast lateral punch. “...PUNCH!” finished the new Hero on the scene.
Ingenium groaned and put a hand on his helmet. “Wow. Thanks, Slidin'go. He was literally about to surrender, but go off I guess. Not like he has a hostage or anything.”
Izuku tumbled through the air, hugging Eri tightly to his chest as he tried not to scream in pain. He hadn’t had time to dial back that last burst, so it had taken about a quarter of each leg. That left him with… a little over half both his legs. Arms were fine, back was fine, and he was still tumbling through the air. Still going up, even. Damn, One for All had some kick to it.
And therein lay the problem, he mused. He was going to need to get away from the Heroes, if only to get enough time to explain himself. Going up against Ingenium and Slidin'go, he was going to need agility . Control. As he was, he could only travel in a straight line, and that was Ingenium’s forte.
But, he noted, the idea had worked. Firing up smaller sections of each limb let him meter out his use of the Quirk. It just took too long to prepare, and as he said earlier, didn't give enough movement control.
So what if he took it further? What if he didn’t stop using it at all? What if he fired up a single point, and ran it through his body to where he needed the boost? It’d probably leave some really weird injuries, zigzagged trails of bruised muscle through his body, but nothing Recovery Girl couldn’t fix, theoretically.
So as he fell back down to Earth, he took a deep breath and focused . A single rainbow spark flared to life deep in his chest, sizzling against his control. The street flew up at him, providing a challenge this new technique probably wasn’t suited for. He shifted Eri to one arm and fired up Fragmentation in the other.
A burst of pain and air, followed by a surprisingly smooth landing all things considered. Definitely worth a fifth of his left arm.
But Ingenium and Slidin'go were hot on his trail, he couldn’t afford to marvel at the fact that he’d survived that. He directed the rainbow spark to his legs, wincing whenever it passed through sections spent by Fragmentation. It bounced around beneath his skin, pushed towards whatever muscles needed it. It felt a little bit like a weird, complicated, and incredibly painful game of pong, actually. Or maybe Atari Breakout. (Now that’s a thought. One For All: Breakout had a nice ring to it.)
That being said… it worked . Breakout had him bounding down the streets, sailing past blocks that would have taken minutes to walk without it. Sure, he would have probably caused a few injuries if the crowds weren’t parting for him, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could steer, but he was schmovin’ .
Sadly, so were Ingenium and Slidin'go. And they were gaining.
Hmmmmm. Ingenium had a wide turning angle, so dodging into an alleyway would slow him down. The same could not be said for Slidin'go. Let’s see… he usually takes out fleeing villains by pulling even with them and attacking from the side. His Quirk requires a relatively smooth or flat surface, so…
Firing up Fragmentation for a tenth of his leg, he drove his heel sideways into the pavement, shattering the surface of the road beside him while redirecting his own trajectory towards an alley on the opposite side. The purple-suited Hero was forced to jump over the broken ground, losing his Quirk’s mobility during the key moment of Izuku’s escape.
By the time the speed Heroes made it to the alleyway, all that remained were a few raggedy boxes. They rushed past them, deeper into the narrow alleys, frantically searching for any sort of tracks or signs of Izuku’s passage.
After a moment of silence, one of the boxes shifted. A pair of green eyes peered out from one of the holes, making sure the coast was clear before speaking. “Eri?”
Eri looked up at him, eyes wide.
“I should probably mention,” he mumbled quietly, “that what I just did was wildly irresponsible as well as illegal, and you should never run away from Heroes unless they’re going to hurt you.”
She nodded slowly, still staring.
He climbed to his feet, wincing as he put weight on his legs. They’d taken the brunt of his use of Fragmentation, so calling them sore would be an understatement. He was gonna be feeling that in the morning for sure .
He turned back to Eri. “So, uh. Did you have any plans beyond running away from Overhaul? Because I feel like we knocked that one off the list.”
She shook her head silently. The constant staring would have been kinda creepy if she weren’t so cute.
He coughed awkwardly and tried again. “Did you wanna go to the police, or…?”
She shook her head harder and grabbed onto his shirt again. He nodded and patted her head. “Alright, alright, you can stay with me. I’m pretty sure Mom won’t mind too much.”
She said something, too quiet for him to hear. He leaned closer, and she stood up on the tips of her toes to speak into his ear. “Name?”
Izuku blinked. Had he actually just not introduced himself the whole time? On one hand, Overhaul didn’t know who he was. On the other hand…
Actually, no, that was almost exclusively positive.
Anyways. He crouched down next to Eri and looked her in the eye. “Hi. My name is Izuku Midoriya. I’m going to be a Hero someday.”
And she looked back at him like he’d hung the very stars in the sky.
“Hey mom! I’m home! And I brought someone!”
“I see,” said Inko Midoriya from the living room. “And who would that be?”
Izuku picked up Eri by the waist and held her up as he entered the room. “Her name is Eri, and…” he trailed off. “Mom. Why are there cops in the house?”
“Oh, I don’t know sweetie,” she replied dangerously. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Yep,” said one of the officers. “That’s the kid he kidnapped.”
Izuku frowned. “Okay, well, first off. I didn’t kidnap anyone. It was voluntary.”
The officer snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
“And second off…” He paused for a moment.
The other cop leaned forward mockingly. “Oh, this is gonna be good.”
For Izuku’s second argument, he activated One For All: Breakout, tucked Eri under his left arm, and jumped through the window.
“OH SHIT, HE’S GETTING AWAY!”
“Mr Midoriya?” Eri spoke up as Izuku doubled back down a side alley for the fifth time in the hour. “Why are we running from the police?”
That… was a very good question. One he’d been asking himself the entire time.
That had been the perfect opportunity to sit down and explain what had happened. That’s what he wanted, right?
Another line from All Might came to mind, unbidden. “ Most of the top Heroes show signs of greatness even as children, ” he’d said. “ Many of them claim that their bodies simply moved before they could think!”
And despite his best efforts, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking: does the same ring true for Villains?
All Might save him, Izuku didn’t want to be a Villain.
And yet… if the alternative had been to leave Eri with Overhaul, to leave Eri with people who didn’t understand how dangerous that man was…
Perhaps it said something about the fragility of dreams, that he was throwing away his chance to become a Hero- not just any Hero, but All Might’s successor , over one small child. But that was the point . Izuku Midoriya would shatter his future a thousand times over with a smile on his face if that was what he had to do to well and truly save even a single person.
He was a Villain now , he realized. And the worst part was, he didn’t even regret it.
He glanced down at Eri, who simply waited quietly for an answer. He let out a small sigh. “That’s because I’m a bad person who made them angry,” he explained. He hesitated for a moment, then continued. “If you want, I can let you go back to them. If you explain everything properly, you should at least be safe-”
“No,” she interrupted. “You got away from Overhaul- you got me away from him. I need you .”
Izuku frowned pensively, pulling Eri into a dinky little thrift store and taking the time to think about his response. They would need something to hide his hair, maybe his face… definitely change Eri’s silhouette…
After a few minutes, they made their way back into the streets.
“Are you sure about this?” asked Izuku, piling a threadbare blue scarf high on his shoulders. “I’m a villain now. Villains don’t give things back, once they take them.”
She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of the faded, child-sized All Might hoodie that was still too big for her and stared up at him. “That…” she trailed off for a moment, then frowned. “That is a price I’m willing to pay.”
Well, that was completely and utterly fucked up. For all she knew he was going to sell her organs online and then go about his day with little regard for what she wanted him to do. Now, obviously he wasn’t going to do that, but he was a villain! Some of those do tend to do those kinds of things! Clearly she needed to be more careful about who she trusted. Ah well, he’d just have to teach her that later.
He nodded slowly, then ducked down and pulled her back into the alleyways. He’d have to be very careful to keep an eye on her, wherever they ended up.
It was a dangerous world out there, after all.