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One. The power decides incarnating itself could be fun.
When the Power decided to bestow itself upon the world, it was intended as a blessing.
Comparatively, if you gave a small baby a rattle, you might think the first thing on its mind would be to try to shake it, be surprised at the new noise and shake it again. Learn how it works. Have fun with it.
You wouldn´t think the first thing it would do, after finding out it was a hard piece of plastic, would be to try and murder other children with it. But that was exactly what happened when the Power made Quirks appear in the world.
The Power had seen the wishes of its subjects, the way they made up stories of heroes and villains and so called “super powers”. It decided that giving them exactly what they wanted would make it´s subjects happy. They were capable of so much love, had so much creativity in them.
But they misused it and the Power was disappointed by humanity.
The Power grew tired of watching them tear each other apart in a vicious cycle of hardship and revenge.
It decided it wanted to see if it´s subjects could change for the better. And if not, it wanted to at least get rid of the boredom that the negative emotions of its subjects had instilled in it while watching the world. A world full of strife and nothing else was not very interesting to watch. Where were the people from their homegrown stories, enduring terrible things but emerging stronger and kinder at the end?
Where were the happy endings?
So the Power picked a place and secured itself a container, made of flesh, fresh and a bit scream-y and red-faced, like new humans tended to be. It let itself be found and named by the humans.
“Yagi Toshinori” grew up in an orphanage, but by human standards, it wasn´t a bad childhood. For all the powers that had been bestowed upon humanity by Yagi before his eventual incarnation, he had not been able to bless his container the same way, for the delicate bone structure of any human would have been ripped apart by even a sliver of the True Power. But the Power wasn´t beyond giving itself a suitable equivalent once it had enjoyed some of the pleasures the life of a normal human being had to offer.
For Time was different if you lived beyond it and the Power had taken some time to set things up for itself before descending from the Realm.
Specifically, it had seen two brothers whose respective power had found an interesting way of expressing itself. The Being that would become Toshinori had seen their struggles and followed their development with interest. What would they do next? Who would win? According to the stories humanity had been writing for centuries, it should be the younger brother. But the Reality that the Power was influencing was not as kind as to spin it´s Web in favor of convenient morality.
So. The Power decided to just. Pluck a bit on its strings. It was not as if the Unfathomable Spinner of Fate would care that much, right? It had other ways to entertain itself.
And so, a simple “stockpiling quirk” that originally stored up muscle mass as energy was tweaked just a bit to nip on the delicious Souls of its users and was made to expand just enough to let some of the True Power slip into the world.
And to make it more interesting, the Power made sure to gently nudge an old woman who would have been able to get even older into the path of the older brother who had started calling himself “All for One” as well as a young boy whose Fate indicated he would survive to meet the younger brother and pass on what he later named “One for All”.
And so the pieces fell into place.
Toshinori made sure to stumble upon the Seventh, because seven was Lucky in the same way being the Eighth was the only possible designation that could contain the Infinite True Power. He took One for All when the time was right and his Container was finally ready to reconnect with his Origin.
Yagi Toshinori became All Might and the world was in Balance.
Toshinori liked helping people, touching so many lives. It was a connection the Power had not been able to feel before and it was intoxicating. He barely remembered to age right, as a human should, while all the small scuffles with All for One tickled him with adrenaline and he let himself experience fear, just for the novelty of it.
He was sad at the Seventh´s end, but it would have happened sometime in the future anyway, as all humans needed to die in their time. And he knew that pushing All for One into the path of the longevity quirk had not been a kindness. He could see it taking a toll on his Soul as time passed.
Toshinori felt as if he had barely even blinked and he had held One for All for over forty years. That was quite a long time, for a human at least. He came to this realization during a, in his opinion, very dramatic battle with his favorite nemesis. He decided dramatic wasn´t good enough and made it climactic, letting the next strong blow land at his side, blasting All for One´s head with his own quirk. Whether he survived or not was not really important to Toshinori at this point, his racing thoughts bursting through his corporeal synapses almost too quickly.
Should he just discard his container? It was getting a bit worn out, but nothing the True Power couldn´t fix. But what of the connections he had made? What of Gran Torino, or Nighteye?
Toshinori decided to at least look for someone to pass the quirk on to, maybe he would be able to get some interesting new story to develop and take part in.
And then he Noticed the boy.
Two. Toshinori acquires a disciple.
Ten months went by fast.
Young Midoriya was a smart and hardworking child, almost painfully frail but Toshinori could work with that. Human forms were malleable. A lot could change in a short time. Toshinori had experienced this himself when he had taken the Seventh´s offer to “train” him.
She had never noticed that he had tweaked time and his own body a little bit though. He had grown bored of the grind of physical activity quickly, but he knew the theory well enough, right?
He did notice it when Young Midoriya went white with bitten back pain but he didn´t think much of it at first. Humans were in pain all the time, right? It would go away after a while.
But ten months were short and the Disciple of the Knowing, who had taken up residence as the head of his old heroics school, had made him promise to teach their future metaphorical spawn some classes on the fundamentals of heroics. He couldn´t wait to apply all the lessons from the stories humanity had come up with, even before the True Power had bestowed quirks upon them! How difficult could it be, to impart some heroic knowledge onto the next generation? He had spent decades at the top of the industry. And it would be very convenient if he could make Young Midoriya happy as well by having him attend the school of his dreams.
So Toshinori helped him. He granted him a little luck to avoid accidents. He encouraged his muscles to not tear and mend faster if they did, which happened often enough to concern Toshinori that he had not been watching humanity well enough to notice how often they seemed to hurt themselves. Young Midoriya hardly seemed to notice it. Or did he just forget to tell him? He seemed to be of the absentminded kind, always stuck in his own head and thinking So Much. Toshinori was almost scared he had picked up a child claimed by the Knowing. But no, he hadn´t been claimed yet. Not even the True Power´s blessing of quirks had managed to touch him.
“Thank you for believing in me, All Might”, the boy told him, his bright smile illuminated by the low sun bouncing off the scrap metal he had been digging through to carry off the beach. Toshinori almost regretted having had to test his Will by crushing his dreams before deciding to engage with him further. It had been a cruel thing to do, but he had seen the boy´s Soul fraying at the edges with loneliness. The loose threads that could have dragged him over the edge were slowly mending, though Toshinori thought it would take some time still for him to fully heal. He knew the scars were going to stay and in moments like this he could feel the emotions his Container let him experience fluctuate.
He would build up this small human and make sure he could experience the joys of the world and if that wasn´t enough to make him happy, he would give him the cosmos and everything beyond.
Toshinori was distantly aware that he had just acquired a Disciple. Not even Nighteye had reached this far into the Heart of the True Power and gained that status.
What that meant for Midoriya Izuku the Human remained yet to be seen.
Three. Izuku has some doubts.
Eating that strand of hair was one of the weirdest things Izuku had ever done. And that was saying something. Izuku would never admit to a lot of the things he had done in his relatively short fourteen years of life, most of them for the sake of studying quirks and heroes, but this was definitely one of the weirdest.
But All Might had seemed very convinced this was how it worked, so who was Izuku to question him?
He carefully avoided thinking about how a transferrable quirk, that worked on intention of transfer, and DNA taken from swallowing said DNA would even function. (It wasn´t scientifically supposed to work, but he didn´t need to know that.) He also thought blood would have been cooler.
Suddenly having a quirk after years of, well, not, was an interesting experience. Izuku was almost too caught up in all the excitement of getting to attend UA, training and all the new interesting quirks of the other students at school that he forgot to record and study his own experience. He had never deemed himself interesting enough to write about and he still wouldn´t until he found he needed the data so as to not cripple himself permanently. That particular realization set in a bit late but Izuku had never paid much attention to his own health and it was difficult to start now.
One of the biggest questions Izuku had in regards to One for All´s functionality was how it was stockpiling energy. Energy didn´t just come from nowhere. What was converted so that the quirk could store it in the first place? And wouldn´t it deplete over time if used extensively?
When Izuku asked All Might, he seemed taken aback. “It´s a stockpiling quirk, it adds energy on top of energy over time. Why would it deplete?” And after Izuku had remained insistent, citing that he would need to know if he also had to “cultivate” it to one day pass on. “Think of it as experience. Experience doesn´t just vanish into thin air after a person dies. It can be passed on to the next generation and be expanded upon.”
Izuku decided not to argue that experience could indeed be converted into knowledge and passed on that way, but no matter what, some of it was lost in the transition and couldn´t really be equated to a physical stockpiler like One for All. But All Might had to know best, right?
Four. Kota is saved.
Izumi Kota had been trying to scrub the blood off for a while now. Tears stung his eyes as his aunt stopped by the bathroom, a worried frown pulling on her face, checking on him.
The Incident at Kamino had left everyone around him shaken, but shortly before that the UA summer camp had brought with it a much more memorable and personal experience for him.
“It won´t come off”, he told his aunt, biting back more tears. She looked at him, concerned but not comprehending. “What won´t come off?” Her voice was soft, careful. He didn´t want to be coddled though. “Deku´s blood!”, he exclaimed, scrubbing harder. A familiar anger flashed through him. The blood stained dark, almost black. The more he scrubbed the deeper he could feel it sinking into his skin.
The feeling was akin to Muscular staring at him, centimeters away. It was akin to the lightning that was Deku´s quirk dancing over his skin.
Akin to the time his parents had taken him to the sea, when he had not yet been a very good swimmer and the first wave in shallow water had knocked him over and kept him under for what felt like ages. His father had had to pull him up for air, throat choked and crying already. His father was not here right now.
Mandalay had forced him to attend therapy sessions after his parents died. After the attack and what happened to Ragdoll, she insisted again. He told them about the bloodstains. They told him there were none. That they were a metaphor his brain had cooked up to process what had happened. He was a bit young to have had both his parents die in the line of duty and a hero-hopeful be badly injured in front of him. A new explanation and exercises to work through and “process” it all followed every week for the next few months.
But the bloodstains wouldn´t go away.
A few weeks in, Kota was practicing his quirk, wanting to become stronger and follow his new hero to UA. Deku had been just another teen at first but against Muscular, he had turned scary. He reminded Kota of a deep sea creature, glowing eyes peering out of the dark. But he had still felt safe, in a way, because no matter how brutal the fight had been, Kota had never doubted that the other boy was on his side.
He shot another stream against the bushes in the yard he was training in, the Pussycats having relocated to their more urban headquarters. The blasts had grown strong enough to rip the leaves off.
The anger at his situation washed over him, overwhelming in its intensity. Ragdoll losing her quirk. Kota clinging to Deku´s back, his hands soaking in his blood. Deku protecting him. Muscular beating down on Deku. His parents´ death.
The bloodstains were still there.
The water jets turned murky.
It came at a shock to him, although maybe his quirk was finally reflecting what he had been feeling for some time now. Mandalay was worried but not too surprised. Trauma had been known to change quirks and not always for the better.
A few days later the water started smelling salty. He cried and his tears were the same. Kota determined that if he couldn´t be a rescue hero providing fresh water like his parents had sometimes told him would be a nice and useful specialty to have, he would turn it into a weapon to protect people. He would sour plant villains´ quirks, he would make the pressure of the water hurt and he would open up portals to the Deep with his black-stained hands.
Sometimes, when he closed his eyes and didn´t know where to put all of the pressure of remembering, he thought of Deku. Determined and steadfast against an overwhelming force and exuding a feeling that left Kota shaky but safe. And when he concentrated, he would imagine Deku safe at UA and try to retrace that feeling. And sometimes, his imagination would send a probing spark along that channel and the ebb and flow would carry an echo back to him.
Nights like that were plagued by peaceful dreams of the sea.
Five. Izuku hungers.
Izuku had never been a big eater.
His mother liked to cook and he enjoyed her food, but eating had never really been high on his list of priorities. Not when he had hit his first growth spurt at eight, not at his second one at twelve. He only realized how much he resembled a leek and how little reserves he had to sustain any muscles he stood to gain after he had started his training and All Might had presented him with a meal plan that would aid his training. After Izuku had almost crashed and burned during the second week.
Suddenly, he needed to eat more carbohydrates, certain vegetables, more eggs and meat than he really wanted, and so much katsudon that he feared it would lose its place as his favorite meal before the year was over.
His appetite didn´t increase very much, but he choked down what he was supposed to, so his overall health wouldn’t collapse during the heavy training to gain enough muscle mass to even have a chance at passing an heroics exam in such a short amount of time.
He only noticed a change after the entrance exam had come and gone.
It started with weird cravings, like a certain kind of spiced nori or not being able to walk past fresh fish while shopping. His mom was surprised by his sudden love for sashimi and a bit worried for their monthly budget after Izuku had started staring at fresh red meat more and more as well.
He tried to ignore it, he really tried, but after a few days he got so hungry that he was even starting to look at pigeons in a new light. It scared him.
Whenever he was getting especially desperate, All Might would call and take him out to eat after a short walk on the now clean beach. How All Might knew what Izuku was feeling was anyone´s guess.
It was nice and they would talk about everything under the sun. All Might told Izuku about his time in America and about old “super”-hero comics, a concept that seemed a bit alien to Izuku. Why would someone make up heroes and write stories about them if all they had to do was turn the news on to witness something exciting?
Sometimes, they discussed different religions, morals, physics and the vastness of space. Or at least he thought so. Izuku couldn´t think about these discussions for too long without being distracted by someone coughing on the train or his mother dropping a spoon in the kitchen.
During the first semester at UA, hunger would gnaw at Izuku periodically, but he pushed through it. The hero students´ lunch was provided by the school and after a few visits to Recovery Girl, Izuku was given access to the same stock of high calorie energy bars that was handed out to students whose quirks depended on calorie intake, like Yaoyorozu´s. Even if his metabolism didn´t show any changes on any of the medical equipment.
Kacchan had started looking at him oddly, sometimes, when he was especially hungry after their practical classes and had to scarf down a few more of the energy bars than was strictly recommended. He had to feed his quirk, right? And if Kacchan thought his teeth looked especially sharp then, he never mentioned it.
With time, Izuku learned to appreciate new kinds of food as well. Taste-testing turned into an exciting pastime he could share with Uraraka and new flavors of energy shake were invented in the dorm kitchen. Even if some of them were more – interesting? – than most of his classmates could appreciate. At least Tsuyu had liked the one with sardines and Kacchan had snatched the failed hot sauce recipe while he thought nobody was looking. (Izuku had noticed it anyways.)
As his appetite grew and Izuku couldn´t find anything that would completely make his hunger go away, All Might started to take him out to watch villain fights again and, after he got his provisional license, on patrol. He didn´t know until one of his classmates pointed it out, that the expression on his face whenever he went to work hungry was scaring even the villains he faced.
“Am I really making such a scary face while fighting?”, he asked Todoroki, who seemed amused in his usual quiet way.
His friend finished swallowing his mouthful of soba and pointed his hashi at Kacchan three seats to the left. “Well, you are smiling”, he allowed, “but like him.” He pointed for emphasis.
Uraraka nodded sagely in agreement. Izuku grimaced. He didn´t exactly want to scare the villains he was fighting. He was meant to be reassuring the people he was saving!
“It´s not a big deal and it doesn´t happen all the time.”, Tsuyu told him. “And it´s kind of funny when it happens.”
Izuku buried his head in his arms, ears red.
Iida took pity on him. “We will remind you when we see it happening. We could use a designated code word for it if you are comfortable with it?”
“What, like “Snickers”?”, Uraraka laughed.
Unfortunately for Izuku, Iida would take that as a serious suggestion. During their next shared patrol he would trip spectacularly over nothing as he chased after the fleeing villain, his friends yelling a repeated chorus of “Snickers! Snickerrrs!” after him.
Six. Izuku has some more doubts.
Black Whip had come as a very unwelcome surprise.
Just as Izuku thought he had finally gained some control over One for All, the quirk had to throw this at him. If he hadn´t been so used to life throwing stones at him, he would have screamed in rage at the injustice. Or cried a river, but that was reserved for later. Much later.
After training, All Might pulled him to the side and explained what was going on, that there was another aspect to the quirk he himself had held. Izuku tried to think his way through it, but he was still so thrown off by the revelation that there was going to be more powers (!) emerging from One for All that his thoughts slid right off. He had been feeling more and more out of his depth since he had been entrusted with the quirk, but he was getting used to the feeling. He just had to roll with the punches and carry on, as he had always done. (That still didn´t explain why these aspects had never manifested while All Might had had One for All, or how he knew that that was what was happening to Izuku. How could he be so sure?)
Black Whip had felt like a foreign component at first, reaching out from beneath his skin, forcing itself out the moment Izuku had let himself get distracted by the need to reach something and let go of his usually tight grip on his emotions.
Usually, he kept them under an airtight lid and frozen, to deal with later, just like a freshly cooked meal that his mom would have put in the freezer too early, condensation clouding the milky plastic. Izuku knew that he felt too much, all the time. So he had made it a habit, especially in situations that required it of him to think his way around fight or flight, to keep his emotions at a low level and deal with them later. Preferably where no one could witness his breakdown. Usually that no one was his mom, after an especially demanding day in school, when Kacchan or one of his more unkind classmates had acted so viciously mean that Izuku had to push down on his boiling anger so hard it physically hurt.
His classmates had remained as calm as Izuku could have wished in face of what had to look to them like a new quirk manifesting out of nothing. It was good that they had failed to make a connection with All for One or the Noumu. When Izuku had confided his fears of that happening to All Might shortly after the training exercise and dreading to have to return to the dorms and offer them a clumsy explanation, his mentor had made a puzzled face. Expression like metaphorical lightbulb going off, he told him that with all the villains displaying multiple quirks for years never being connected to All for One and not many details about him being released to the public, they might just think that developments of this kind were getting more and more normal. They would equate it to quirks becoming stronger over time or hybrid quirks like Todoroki´s emerging. There were even papers by renown scientists supporting these theories, like the one about quirk singularity.
Dealing with Black Whip had become easier over time and training at Endeavor´s agency had yielded better results than he had allowed himself to hope for. But the strands of black energy seemed to have a mind of their own, always twitching and lashing out around Izuku. The more control he gained the more present they seemed to become, thickening and drilling themselves to a fine point that could pierce through armor.
One day during search and rescue training, Tsuyu approached him, curiously pointing at the boulder he was lifting with Black Whip, concentration crinkling his brow.
“There is no good way to phrase this, Midoriya-chan, but,” she examined the black mass more closely, “has your quirk gained muscle? It kind of looks thicker than before.”
Self-consciously, Izuku did admit that the tendrils had bulked up a bit over time. But was that normal for this quirk? Was it the way he used it? Or was it One for All´s expanded power affecting a quirk that was a few generations old?
He didn´t really feel like asking All Might about it would be a good idea.
Seven. Kacchan and Deku and the importance of names.
Bakugou Katsuki has always had Deku in his life. He doesn´t remember a day when he wasn´t there, somewhere close, be it in the same city, park, school or neighborhood. Growing up together had left its marks on them and their relationship to each other. There was no person alive who inspired so many conflicting emotions in Katsuki, who knew him so well but at the same time didn´t.
Deku had always been a slightly strange kid, overeager and full of energy and a bit of an airhead even if he was smarter than most kids Katsuki knew. When Deku had started up his habit of muttering and note-taking, he remembered being disappointed that Deku wouldn´t just tell him what he thought, why he kept his opinions close to his chest, as if Katsuki weren´t smart enough to understand his ideas or Deku not brave enough to tell him to his face what his problem was. (He had never considered to look for the reason in himself and would not for some time.)
When Deku had started training for UA, Katsuki had barely noticed and written off his exhaustion and suddenly full schedule to more hero fight chasing, maybe trying to recreate the incident with the sludge villain. Damn Deku for catching All Might´s attention. He himself would just have to train even harder, to never be put in a position like that again, giving Deku of all people the opportunity to show off.
Sitting next to Deku in the auditorium, waiting for the entrance exam to the start of his future in heroism to begin, Katsuki felt strange. His skin felt just a little too tight and Deku´s presence just a little too close, even though he was sitting far enough away that Katsuki could barely hear him talk. He felt like he had to keep his eyes on him and whenever he tried to turn away, Deku would flicker in the corner of his eye and he would feel compelled to look at him again, just to be sure it was him.
Katsuki had felt the shock of seeing Deku´s quirk up close run through him almost physically and failed at containing any reaction at all. Training exercises, quirk study sessions, the sports festival. Every time Deku activated his quirk, Katsuki could feel it like static electricity building up and being unleashed, shivering down his shoulders.
When Round Face started calling him “Deku”, and Deku chose to turn the insult into his hero name, Katsuki felt something click into place and he wasn´t happy about it. The feeling made him want to claw something from his chest. And he could never get rid of the sense that Deku was somewhere on the edge of his senses, just out of reach.
Katsuki was observant and smart and he knew it. But after that, he started noticing himself not noticing things. He couldn´t put his finger on it and it was driving him crazy. He knew it was Deku´s fault though. He knew that with certainty but if asked, he wouldn´t be able to say what exactly it was that bothered him.
Kamino, the licensing exam, Deku was always a step ahead. Getting stronger and smarter, a better hero than Katsuki and people were acknowledging him. The praise he received for his good character, even when Katsuki knew he was still objectively stronger, stung. He had always been aware that his temper and language didn´t agree with everyone but UA was the first time it had been made aware to him as a flaw that could damage his chances at becoming the number one hero. But how did one change their personality?
Even when he felt Deku´s kindness pressing down on him, all his instincts screamed to lash out and not let that feeling touch him. He didn´t know why but he felt the intense fear that if he accepted help or friendship now, at this stage, years late and loaded with history, he would drown in it.
Nevertheless, after everything their class has been through, All Might´s secret and the forced closeness of their shared internship under Endeavor had brought them closer than ever. So when his parents insisted on hosting a dinner for him and his fellow interns after hearing about him and Deku having been invited by the Todoroki family, Katsuki didn´t really have any way of declining to spend more time with Deku or Half-and-Half.
Awkward as it was, the curry was good and the conversation okay. Their after dinner let-the-adults-talk-walk lead them along Dagobah beach, all three of them rather quiet but content. Katsuki was still surprised that dump had been cleaned up so quickly. Who knew the district council would ever do anything useful? It hadn´t bothered putting any work into their old middle school, that he was aware of, even putting aside his parents occasional donations.
The low rushing of the waves was calming and the beach deserted in the cold. A few streetlamps glinted off the rolling water and Katsuki caught Deku looking over the beach with a strange expression on his face. He couldn´t completely parse it, but he had been relearning a lot of what Deku´s moods looked like over the past few months. Sometimes he could even feel them, but he tried not to think about it. Right now, he looked like he was sad and wanted something he couldn´t reach, which was an expression Katsuki hadn´t seen in so long and which made him uncomfortable in the reminder it served. But there was also something else and it made his nerves light up in a way he wasn´t used to and he quickly glanced away.
Todoroki looked as happy as his face got on a good day and he seemed to be trying to regulate his temperature slightly, if the steam wafting off him was any indication.
“Deku”, Katsuki called, eyes slipping over his left shoulder. He wrenched his eyes back to his childhood friend. Why had it become so difficult to ignore him but even more difficult to look him in the eye? Katsuki hated this.
Deku made a face that said he didn´t know what was bothering his childhood friend now, but at least the strange expression was gone. “What is it, Kacchan?”, he asked.
The name made his eye twitch, but as long as Izuku was Deku, he would be Kacchan. One name for another. It had been that way forever and lately it had been bothering both of them less and less, Katsuki knew.
Didn´t Deku carry more meaning than Izuku, now? As far as Katsuki knew, the only person who called him by his given name was his mother, the less said about his father the better. And in that moment, Katsuki realized how much that name and the person attached to it had changed, from his childhood friend, from an anxious loner to a confident young god hero. An old self, stripped off like a snake shed its skin.
Deku meant something to so many people now. And for better or worse, Katsuki had played his part in that and should he be stuck with being called Kacchan by him until the day he died, he might one day be able to take pride in being a part of Deku´s life.
“Whatever. Want to check if Half-and-Half can make a firecracker if I scare him?”
He knew he wasn´t forgiven for anything yet but he knew if he asked, Deku would not turn him away.
And for that, he wasn´t ready yet. (The feeling that had followed him since the entrance exam had yet to vanish. He was not ready to acknowledge it and didn´t know if he ever would be. The oppressive feeling of the ocean behind Deku´s eyes was growing by the day and he didn´t want to acknowledge-)
Deku smiled at him. “Don´t be mean, Kacchan.”, he told him. Then a contemplative look crossed his face and Katsuki was afraid for a very different reason.
“On the other hand, what if he actually-“
Eight. Izuku defends his territory.
Izuku´s internship with Nighteye had started out disastrously and it seemed it would get even worse before anything would get better.
“We´ll get back to our patrol right away mister, take care!”, Togata-senpai saluted, voice bright, even if his eyes were hard. His voice was swallowed by the bustle of the street but the alley in which they were facing the man in the bird-like mask seemed to throw the sound back strangely, making it linger.
Izuku could barely keep himself from physically pushing past the older boy, desperately trying to keep himself in check like he should, from going after Eri, from keeping Overhauls dirtyfilthyhurting fingers away from her, she didn´t belong to him-.
But he had to play by the rules society set out for him. (Why? Why did he have to play by the rules? Playing by the rules had never helped him.)
The mission to save Eri was all that was on his mind for some time from then on, every waking thought geared towards save her get her out of there. He Knew how horrible she felt. He could taste her terror still, like an approaching storm. He still felt her grip, clinging to his Soul. She was so fragile, but also so strong for living.
He had never felt this desperate and it scared him. But certainty and determination pushed him forward and soon he stood, facing this all too human monster, who had dared to put his hand on an innocent little girl and desecrate her. Who had not shied away from any cruelty and cannibalized innocent people to make himself stronger.
And Izuku was livid.
With the approaching of the raid, Izuku was able to gain some ground on calming down. He turned his frustration inward and let it boil slowly, congealing like sugar at the bottom of a bottle of sweet wine.
When he was finally in front of Overhaul and Eri´s touch burned him with Power and he felt himself breaking over and over, the girl´s cry of “Deku” in his ear, he felt like a door was being thrown open and he turned the Power that flowed through it against his opponent.
He felt his Core meld with Eri´s Power, creeping over each other and fusing like lava and rocks turning to glass. He pointed his rage against Overhaul, his opponent´s deconstructed parts whirring in the air around them like locusts. Izuku was hardly aware of his steel reinforced boot crashing into the mass of flesh and bones that Overhaul had turned his body into, multiple Souls screaming in unison at the violation they were being forced to endure.
When he brought them back down to even ground, his only thought was that Chisaki Kai didn´t deserve a Power he would condemn others for.
Then, the pain returned white hot and he could feel his Essence seeping into the fragile little girl on his back and Izuku was not in Control and Eri was not in Control and everything ran together and he was only left with the vague sense that justice would be served one way or the other as long as they continued to live.
And then it was over and life didn´t return to normal.
Nighteye was dead, Togata-senpai had lost the quirk he had worked so hard for, but Eri was safe. And if Izuku was honest with himself, everything else was less of his concern. He wished Nighteye hadn´t died but that was more because All Might looked sad because of it and Togata-senpai might have lost what he had spent so much time working hard on but he was alive and his skill hadn´t been erased in any way. And looking at all the encouragement he was getting, Izuku had to force himself to swallow down a mouthful of jealousy. Where had all these wonderful people been for him two years ago?
Well, that didn´t matter anymore. He was not that Izuku anymore.
“Deku?”, Eri breathed, having just been allowed visitors again. He hummed and started peeling the tangerine he had brought with him, having set up a rotary system of fruit and vegetables with Togata-senpai to figure out what the girl would like.
“Are you going to go away one day?”, she asked, taking the tangerine slice he offered her carefully into her open palm, considering it seriously. It was not too surprising that she still had doubts after the life she had been living but Izuku was still confused as to why she was asking him this, now.
“Of course not, Eri-chan!”, he hurried to reassure her, “Why would I?” He tried showing her his best hero smile but it was marred by his concern for her. She chewed on her fruit thoughtfully, picking out the words she would offer him. He could almost see them slotting into place.
“Living is so scary. There are so many different people but they all go away eventually. I don´t want you to go away too, Deku.” She placed her small hand on his, darker and even more scarred against her pale and slightly sticky one.
“I don´t want you to leave me behind.”
Izuku covered hers with his free hand, bright smile softening. “I won´t leave you behind Eri. I might not always be here physically, but”, he carefully ruffled her hair, “I will always be with you in spirit, as long as you remember me.
“You aren´t alone anymore. And even if I can´t be with you all the time, you have Togata-senpai and Aizawa-sensei and so many other people who care for you and want you to be happy. ”
Her wide-eyed look made him want to cry but he bit it back. She had laughed during the cultural festival, yes, but that didn´t mean her recovery process was over.
“I like Lemilion and Aizawa-san. But they are so much less scary than you, Deku!”
For a moment, he was taken aback, but then his brain caught up to her words and he laughed.
“I am not nearly as scary as Aizawa-sensei!”, he tried to explain through too little air. “But I promise, we will all do our best to keep you safe, Eri!”
“Then I will do my best too! To become happy for you and strong enough so nobody will have to get hurt for me again”, Eri told him, determined frown scrunching her nose.
“Sounds like you have big plans for the future”, the nurse who had been fluffing her pillow smiled at her, subtly letting Izuku know that visiting hours were over.
He stayed until she was finished with the tangerine and helped her note down her opinion with little scribbled stars in a pastel colored notebook they had gotten for her to keep on her nightstand. When he told her goodbye, she clung to him and asked him to come back soon, politely, as she always did.
Deku hugged her back and promised her to be back soon.
Nine. Fumikage becomes the leader of a cult.
Since attending UA, Tokoyami Fumikage had been starting to question what it meant to be a hero.
All Might with his shining light, an embodiment of protection through strength. Eraserhead in the shadows and Principal Nedzu pulling the strings to prepare the next generation of heroes. Recovery Girl taking care of everyone after a disaster. Endeavor spitting righteous fury and Hawks flitting through with effortless grace, helping out in any way he could imagine.
Deku, recklessly brave and uncaring of the consequences if it meant helping someone in need before his eyes.
At first, the other boy had seemed so shy and awkward in class. But as the weeks passed, he had gained a quiet confidence and more than once, Fumikage found himself wondering if he hadn´t seen him flickering with the kind of power he had displayed during their joint training with class 1-B, it being the first time since the summer camp incident that he could remember seeing Midoriya´s quirk unleashed like that. The lingering static of what his classmate had later started calling “Black Whip” (not very creative, in his opinion, but the others would probably make fun of him for suggesting something more apt to name the attack, like “Stigma: Chains of the Apostle of the Void”) had reminded him of what he remembered Dark Shadow had felt like when first manifesting.
The day a quirk manifested was usually something most kids had no trouble remembering, for all the excitement it brought. Fumikage was no different in this. But Dark Shadow was unusual in its intelligence and in that as a quirk, it technically came in late.
He had been born with his head looking like a bird, a trait carried over from his father´s side of the family. Mutation quirks without any physical enhancements were not rare, but they were not true quirks in the sense that they were usually a physical trait and not a “special” ability, even if that was what they were ultimately perceived as by the wider community. A quirkless bird-headed boy was still more likely to be accepted in quirked society than a quirkless baseline human. One could also be as quirkless without an extra toe-joint as one could still have a quirk with it, but that fact never got much media attention.
His parents had already put down “Crow Head” on his quirk registry form when Dark Shadow had manifested half a year after Fumikage had turned five.
It had started with some pretty bad chest pains and after it had gone on for so long his frantic teacher had called an ambulance, the dark mass of feathers had burst out of his ribcage, partly taking out two of his lower ribs. Tokoyami still had the scars.
After that less than pleasant experience, his parents had had to look for a new school in their area to send him to. After all, the school couldn´t very well have the majority of their students´ parents complaining about their precious children being scared of the “weird kid with the scary quirk”.
It didn´t help that Dark Shadow had tended to go off on his own, even if Fumikage just wanted to sit quietly in a corner to draw, trying to approach his classmates and squawk at them, still figuring out how talking worked. They had started swatting at him with whatever toys they had on hand and since Fumikage hadn´t felt any of it, the teachers hadn´t intervened. Dark Shadow had felt it though and had expressed his displeasure, often by returning any violence rendered against him.
Fumikage hadn´t liked confrontation much. So he had stayed away.
He tried interacting with this creature born from his quirk, but it was rough going.
He stayed away.
His lack of friends meant he spent his time drawing and making up stories to play with on his own. Once he started learning how to properly read his hiragana and kanji, he would spend a lot of time at the library.
That was when he had discovered stories about people who had experiences similar to his own. Another creature, sharing the same body. A darker side, getting stronger at night. He begged his parents to read him these stories, most of them fiction and horror, to their vehement protests at first, until they saw that he would badger even the librarians and his school teacher with it.
And so, Fumikage came to be well versed in the dark, strange and horrific side of fantasy. But what really was fantasy, when you lived in an era that had people who could fly or lift buildings with their minds?
So it happened that as Midoriya got more and more mysterious, Fumikage wanted to spend more time with him. Maybe they were more alike than he had first thought?
But the more he watched the more he Noticed. How Midoriya would look slightly warped out of the corner of his eye. How he never seemed quite finished eating, no matter how many portions Fumikage saw him get from the cafeteria. How his teeth turned sharp when he geared up to fight and his eyes took on a peculiar glint, reflecting the green lightning of his quirk strangely.
The little girl named Eri, whom his classmates had formed a connection with during their internships, which they still weren´t allowed to really talk about, Noticed him Noticing. “You can feel it too, can´t you?”, she asked him, voice small and focused, but eyes distant. He thought he didn´t know what she meant. She continued talking, her gaze making him as well as Jirou and Kouda, who had also been volunteered to look after her for the afternoon, uncomfortable. Her words echoed. “You can feel Deku´s Presence too. How the world bends around him and the future-” She stopped, her gaze burning against his skin, drilling down into his Soul. For a brief moment, her eyes turned manifold and then she closed them, nodding, as if she had been satisfied with what she had glimpsed in his heart. Then she shook her head a bit, eyes once again bright and curious and resumed working on her colorful puzzle as if nothing had happened. But the words had shaken something loose in Fumikage´s heart. And he knew what she meant.
And he could.
So he once again threw himself into his books, trying to figure out what exactly Midoriya was and what he would need to stay in control and on their side.
The lore had become warped over the centuries since eldritch horror had been a popular media trope, but some things had always been agreed on. Unfathomableness, madness and sacrifice.
Growing up in Japan had some perks pertaining to knowing how to offer things. Society had changed some since the advent of quirks but not as much as for the rest of the world. Shinto was still a practiced tradition and if eldritch gods demanded offerings, that was something he could at least try to do.
He also understood that for eldritch horrors, blood sacrifice could be preferable, but Midoriya was Midoriya and Fumikage was pretty sure he would make him cry if he offered him up a mauled animal corpse. Maybe he could try to cook him katsudon? He thought he heard him mention it being his favorite food once. But despite having many proficiencies, Fumikage was not well versed in cooking. If snacks worked as offerings at normal shrines, they should work here too right? Midoriya was always hungry and if he didn´t like something, he would probably pass it on to one of his friends. Uraraka had not said no to free food yet. He would start with some rice crackers and work his way up then.
After the third time Fumikage had left a gift basket wrapped in stylishly black satin on Midoriya´s desk, Shoji started eying him weirdly and Uraraka asked him if she needed to give him the shovel talk.
“I am merely making an offering to appease a fledgling god of darkness.”, he told her. Midoriya did not yet appear to have figured out that it was him leaving the baskets, but Fumikage had noted an increase in his constitution and luck stats and a smile on his classmate´s face every time he opened the basket to discover a new kind of snack. That was enough for him.
Their internships during second term had Fumikage almost too busy to leave Midoriya anything and his classmate also seemed to be going through some dark times. Their class wasn´t told what the other interns were doing, but it was obvious they had worked together on some bigger operation.
After things had calmed down somewhat and Midoriya was back on his game, Fumikage was careless one slightly dreary Monday morning. “Tokoyami-kun?”, came the boy´s voice from the door, surprised but not unpleasantly so. “Were you the one leaving me all these snacks?”, he asked him, smiling when Fumikage only nodded silently and then proceeded to thank him lavishly and too many times than was comfortable.
When asked why, Fumikage presented his thesis and the positive results to him.
“So you think giving me food will make you lucky?”, Midoriya reiterated, confusion coloring his voice.
Fumikage nodded. “This method has not failed me yet.”
The other boy looked contemplative for a minute. Then, his eyes gained a determined glint.
“You said there were more rituals in those books you read. Mind trying some with me?”
And thus a beautiful friendship was born.
Ten. Shigaraki receives a cosmic vibe check.
Shigaraki Tomura was delighted.
At the height of his power, he felt invincible, closer to the god he knew his Sensei had been than the scared child that had awakened to a power he couldn´t handle, under the thumb of a cruel father. His skin was buzzing with it, charged with access to uncountable quirks that would enable him to show the heroes he despised just how little they could do. He would bring them to their knees, would make them beg and cry for their lives. And then, he would pause and watch some hope return to their eyes before snuffing it out completely. Now that he had full control of Disintegration, he would make them turn into dust so slowly they would be able to feel the quirk eat away at them.
“Shigaraki!” a young voice called out, making him turn to face the boy who had climbed up to his perch on the ruins of a skyscraper. There was a flicker of green sparks. The ashes of his latest victim were just being blown away and Shigaraki was already feeling the boredom take hold. Maybe the little hero would pose a challenge.
He grinned, charging at the hero student whom he had terrified so often, although his expression now didn´t show anything other than fierce determination now. Hand outstretched, Tomura was not surprised to find that his first move had been evaded.
“Midoriya Izuku. How foolish of you to come here now”, he told him, skidding to a stop a few paces away. One quick look around with Search also confirmed something for him that he had already suspected, but was still slightly surprised by.
“Where is your backup, little hero? You can´t expect to defeat me all on your own.” Slowly it dawned on him. “Oh, you didn´t want to involve any of your friends because you fear they will end up like all the other heroes that have come to face me? Understandable, but don´t think you will be any better off.” When no answer came, he geared up to charge at him. His opponent was standing at the edge of the building, face shadowed by the low sun behind him.
“Your level is not nearly high enough!”, he spat, angry that the boy wouldn´t answer. He was hiding it well, but he had to be terrified! All the heroes that had come after him were!
They clashed and the dust of the ruined city whipped around them in waves of grey.
Their dance of evasive maneuvers and blows echoed like thunder. Tomura had collected so many strength enhancing quirks for this. Like Sensei had fought All Might, Tomura would fight the successor of the Symbol of Peace, on the level of the gods that came before them.
He dodged a kick aimed at his right kidney and brushed his hands against his opponent´s green curls. They immediately started flaking off, but Disintegration had never worked well against hair. The shortened strands blew back from the boy´s face and gave Tomura a good view of his radioactive eyes, pupils reflecting brightly back at him. He could see his own grin mirrored in them. Deku´s fist snapped against his chin faster than he could register. Had the brat not ruined his arms so thoroughly that he didn´t use them while fighting anymore?, he thought, mind reeling as he was sent back a few paces, his back crashing into a building.
The view that greets him when he next looks up stops him in his tracks.
Tentacles sprout from the boy´s back, a distant screeching getting louder and louder with every breath. The black appendages extend and curl around him, electricity crackling in the air.
They bloom like a spider lily and uncountable eyes blink open.
They are red and seething-
Deku throws his punch and Shigaraki Tomura knows only agony.
.
Miles away, in a school not unlike an ivory tower, a young girl opened her eyes in tandem with the young god whose soul she shared a connection with and she Looked into the distance to Witness his awakening.
All Might glanced at her and saw a Priestess. His Successors other friends, his Followers, now gathered around a device streaming a live feed of the fight, had returned from the finished evacuation efforts a short while ago and were getting ready to head back out, desperate to follow their instincts to go and help.
One of them, Young Tokoyami, swift as his air-spirited nature would suggest, laid down a blanket. There was an intricately designed circle stitched onto the black wool in white thread. He looked to Young Todoroki and Uraraka, who nodded and vanished out of the room, returning arms laden with assorted sweets that Toshinori knew Young Midoriya liked.
Young Bakugou tsked audibly, but knelt down in front of the now recognizable altar, and started to mutter a litany of what sounded like encouragements hidden under two layers of threats and curses, aimed at “Deku”, a name he now felt more Power flowing through than ever before.
He smiled at the congregation and closed his eyes to follow the Power´s current and watch his apprentice Ascend.
Eleven. Full circle.
Izuku looks down at the body of his opponent, unconscious and eyes moving rapidly under his lids.
He knows Shigaraki Tomura will never know peace again.
His body thrums with foreign power, made almost his own, but not quite yet. His mind turns to All Might and the feeling that everything is wrong but also as it should be settles into his heart. The Power lives on inside them, not quite a quirk but not as unfathomable as the ocean that scratches at the door in his mind.
Izuku sets his feet back on the ground and returns home.
.
Yagi Toshinori welcomes him back with open arms and the promise of an eternity discovering the universe.