Chapter Text
Boom
The ground rattles with the force of another trade of superhuman blows. Izuku stumbles with the impact, fingers gripping the railing of the old fire escape he clings to.
—
Mr. Midoriya Izuku,
UA would like to thank you for your application to our illustrious place of learning.
—
It’s insane. This is insane. When he first took it upon himself to find the location where the League of Villains had taken Bakugou, it was under the impression that the police and UA hadn’t known where to look.
—
As you are aware, this past year, UA has opened its hallowed halls to children of all walks of life, including quirkless individuals.
—
The press conference being held by the Eraserhead and Principal Nedzu was a convenient distraction – surely it would be the perfect time to sneak out of his room and to scope out Kamino Ward.
Imagine his surprise when the heroes had the same idea. Apparently they’re more competent than Izuku gave them credit for.
—
However, we are afraid to inform you that this only extends to our General Education program.
—
Only not enough – All Might had charged in head-first and spooked them, and now Bakugou was. Was –
Boom
Swearing, Izuku continues his climb up the fire escape to the top of the next building. On the ground below, hundreds of people swarm away from the cataclysmic fight. But he’s headed into it. Where Bakugou must be, because All Might all but flew in this direction after Bakugou was spirited away. After an explosion rocked the very foundations of Kamino Ward.
—
While we are more than happy to accommodate your abilities, we will not be able to process your application for the Heroics portion of the entrance exams.
—
Muscles screaming, he hauls himself up the last few flights of stairs and onto the rooftop, then jogs over to the edge.
“Shit.”
Before him, a scene ripped straight from old-world quirk movies plays out.
An ugly, gaping crater unfolds like a festering wound in the ward’s landscape. News helicopters hover around it, flies drawn by the stench of death, and shine lights on the Symbol of Peace and the monster he’s fighting. On Bakugou, at the center of it all.
—
Nor will we be able to accept an application for our Business or Support courses.
—
All Might looks…bad. Really, really bad, and for all that he despises the man, for all that he rejects him, Izuku can’t help but feel despair at the sight of the number one hero. Battered. Bruised. Fighting for his life.
He watches, frozen in place, as the mysterious villain charges forward. He rears back a grotesque limb, bloated and unnatural. It cuts through the air like a fleshy scythe, its trajectory aimed straight for Bakugou.
Izuku screams.
“Kacchan! No!” But his voice is ripped away by the wind.
Faster than Izuku can register, All Might’s there. It’s jerky, slower than he’s ever moved, but he’s there. He moves between Bakugou and the villain and flings him away. Bakugou goes flying off somewhere. Probably hurt, definitely freaked out, but safe.
Izuku has about half a second of sharp relief before the blow hits All Might.
The sound is stomach-churning. The oversized arm slams into his rib cage, and even from up here Izuku can see blood fly from the number one’s mouth. The blow lands, but the momentum just carries – like All Might weighs nothing, like he’s made of flimsy plastic.
In the blink of an eye, All Might is torn from the ground and sent hurtling away. Straight into the building that Izuku’s perched on.
The roof beneath him heaves a great shudder, and then –
—
Should you wish to re-submit an application for the General Education track, our Admissions Office is taking applications until the end of May.
UA High School
Admissions Department
—
Then there’s no roof beneath his feet at all.
Izuku comes to dazed.
There’s the smell of iron in the air around him and something heavy on his back. He tries to move his legs and is met with a wave of fresh pain. He screams, but dust coats his throat, and it turns into a hacking cough. His vision swims. Shadows dance before him, cut by beams of bright light. In the distance he can hear helicopter blades.
Where is he?
“Young man.”
It takes a moment for the shapes in front of him to make sense. Most of it is rock – rubble? Did the building fall down? – but there’s something else. Someone else. His brain struggles to understand the figure in front of him.
“All…Might?...” But that doesn’t make any sense. Why is All Might here? He hasn’t seen the hero since –
—
“Are you the vigilante that’s been causing trouble in this area the last four months?”
“I, uh. Maybe?”
“Young man, you know vigilantism is illegal? You can’t be much older than a middle schooler – surely you’d do well applying for a hero program.”
Izuku stares, dumbstruck at his childhood hero.
The comment stabs at him, but he does his best to ignore it. “Uh, y-yes All Might, sir, but,” he shakes his head, rising to his feet. Now is not the time to be fanboying. He’s been caught red-handed, by the last person he’d ever expect to run into in downtown Musutafu at two in the morning. He gestures to the would-be thief that dangles unconscious in All Might’s grasp. He’d already caught the guy, but just as he was tying him up for the police to grab him, suddenly the hero appeared. What was he doing so far fromTokyo?
“But this area is notorious for the lack of hero patrols. Someone had to step up, and no one has for months. Crime has been going down significantly since I started patrolling here,” he babbles, acutely aware of how much he’s talking. He pauses, taking a deep breath, “And t-technically, it’s not illegal for me to help. I checked. I’m quirkless, so it’s not vigilantism. I actually tried to apply but…I got rejected.”
All Might doesn’t frown, but his smile does go hard. Flinty. Izuku flinches. He feels his heart sink before his hero even opens his mouth.
—
“Young man,” All Might says again, and Izuku snaps out of it. He blinks, feeling his face go numb. The man in front of him is the Symbol of Peace, but he’s…deflated. He’s hunched over in front of Izuku, but half of him looks emaciated. Skeletal. Blood is gushing from a wound in his side and down his mouth. This isn’t the number one hero; this is a dying man.
“I don’t…know what you were doing here my boy, but…I must impart something to you. This villain, I’m…I’m not going to make it out of this fight ali –” he breaks off into a wet cough. Blood flecks on the floor in front of him and Izuku wants to scream, wants to cry, but he doesn’t have the strength for it. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.
All Might can’t die.
The hero jerks forward painfully, a grimace on his half-sunken face. Shakily, he raises a fist to his lips and swipes a thumb over them. It comes away in a smear of blood. Izuku can’t do anything but watched through glazed eyes as the number one hero brings his bloodied fist forward.
Izuku tries feebly to move away, nearly gags when it brushes across his mouth. On instinct he purses his lips, tasting iron on his tongue.
“I’m sorry, I…I should have chosen before now. But no-one seemed right. My quirk is yours now. You cannot die, young man. Hang in there. I must…end this while I still can.”
What?
What the hell does that even mean?? He tries to move, tries to speak, but he just can’t. All Might stares at him through sunken blue eyes and smiles, but it’s all wrong. The hero stands, seemingly with great effort, and Izuku can only watch as his half-deflated body surges back.
With a groan he reaches around Izuku. There’s the sound of shifting concrete. He can only assume that he’s been freed of the rubble, but he still can’t feel anything aside from bone-deep ache.
His vision dims.
No, stay awake, he thinks, pleads with his body, now is not the time to pass out!...
He barely manages to raise his eyelids. All Might is gone. Somewhere beyond the ruin he hears a ferocious roar:
“ United…States of…SMAAAASH!”
There’s a tremendous tremor and a blast of pressurized air.
And then all Izuku knows is darkness.
Author's Note
Archive sometime does this thing where the 1st chapter's A/N exists throughout the series so I'm putting this here.
Thank you so much for reading!
I'm incredibly excited to tell this story. I'm going to be working on this while I work on getting "Breath and Blood" re-written (I reached a major writers block and the story got very away from me). This story is pure indulgence. I don't know how long it's going to be, but writing it in bite-sized chunks should really help with my bad habit of going overboard. If you enjoyed, please leave a comment below! They're so appreciated, I can't express that enough.
<3 See you in a few days!
EDIT: Hello friends, InnocentBystander here. Just dusting the shelves, watering the plants, re-arranging the furniture etc. Beyond minor edits only the order of some of the very first paragraphs were changed.