Chapter Text
“I’ve got a time saving idea for you,” Kacchan sneered from where he’d paused in the classroom doorway. His two goons turned around to face Izuku once more, looking between him and their leader. “Why don’t you pray you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life, and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!” The goons cackled, high-fiving Bakugou as the three of them left the classroom. Izuku stared at their retreating backs, wide-eyed, until long after they’d disappeared from sight. Eventually, he found his breath again. Even so, he couldn’t get Kacchan’s words out of his head.
‘ Pray you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life…’
‘Take a swan dive off the roof of the building…’
‘You’ll never be a hero, Deku!’
‘I’m so sorry, Izuku…!’
‘You’re nothing but a worthless, quirkless loser, Izuku.’
Izuku bent over the koi pond where the fish were nibbling at his notebook, still a bit shell-shocked. This was nowhere near the first time Izuku had been suicide baited, but it was first time ever than Kacchan had been the one saying it. Usually, Katsuki never took part in the crueler parts of Izuku’s bullying, such as hitting him or telling him to kill himself. No, Katsuki was too smart to risk anything like that. He didn’t do anything of the sort to Izuku directly , but he also never stopped the other kids when they did it to him.
This time, Katsuki had indulged, and even though there was no reason for it, it hurt a thousand times worse when it came from Katsuki. ‘ Is… is he right? Should I really do it?’
He didn’t know. Izuku stared down at his soggy, ruined notebook in his hands, his thoughts running wild in his head. ‘ Mom has been working her ass off the pay the bills for us… would it be easier if I just left her? Nobody wants me here anyway. Nobody would care if I just… if I just…’
“No,” Izuku murmured, his limbs trembling as he lifted his notebook to hug it against his chest. His uniform became wet immediately, but Izuku didn’t care; he only hugged himself tighter, squeezing his eyes shut. “ No . Don’t think like that, Izuku. Mom would be heartbroken. Don’t you dare even think about leaving her alone.” He brushed the tears away from his eyes and turned on his heel, making his way out of the empty courtyard of his middle school.
He was so lost in thought on his way home that he hardly even noticed when a voice began speaking to him underneath an overpass he crossed through every single day. Izuku only noticed the presence of the villain by the time it was too late.
“Do you think I can become a hero, even though I don’t have a quirk?” Izuku asked, staring at his shoes. All Might’s dilapidated form let out a hacking cough, but hearing it didn’t cause Izuku to meet his eye.
“Without a quirk…?” All Might said, sounding like he was considering it. “No, I’m sorry my boy. It’s simply too dangerous to become a hero without a quirk to aid you. Even I, who has one of the most powerful quirks in the world, was nearly vanquished by a villain.”
Izuku felt like his chest was caving in. For once, his eyes didn’t fill with tears. It was like his entire body fell back into shock for the third time that day; the first being after Kacchan’s cruel words, and the second being right when the villain had been about to kill him. He slowly raised his head to look at All Might, seeing the pitying expression on the man’s gaunt face.
“You understand that you can’t share my secret,” All Might said, more of a statement than a question. “It would be detrimental to society if it were to ever get out. You wouldn’t want to cause that, would you?” Izuku shook his head. “Good. I’m afraid this is where we must depart, young man. I hope you live a long and happy life, and that you find a new dream to pursue.” With that, Izuku’s favorite hero left him alone on the top of a skyscraper, opening the door of the roof to begin his trek down to the street level. Izuku wasn’t sure how long he had spaced out, staring at the Musutafu skyline, but by the time he came back to himself, he was standing at the very edge of the roof, watching the sun set in the distance. When he looked down, the ground was so far away that it made him dizzy. He only had a moment to panic about possibly passing out and falling to his death before he realized that he honestly wouldn’t care. Whatever conviction he’d had earlier that day about his mother needing him was snuffed out by the one person he always imagined would support him no matter what. He was All Might after all.
But not even All Might thought Izuku could be a hero.
Before the green eyed boy could do anything hasty, the familiar sound of an explosion boomed through the city somewhere to his left. He whirled around, scanning the city for any indication of what had just happened, and found it a moment later. Smoke rose from a place not too far away, quickly followed by another explosion. Izuku was moving before he could think about it, only one thought on his mind as he ran the entire twenty minutes toward the explosions he’d seen. ‘ Kacchan. Kacchan!’
(x)
Vile slime dug its way through every crack and crevice of Katsuki’s body, suffocating him from the inside-out. It felt like every single one of his pores was being invaded, and no matter how many explosions he gave the shitty villain, the sludge just wouldn’t die ! Every few minutes, right when he felt like he would truly pass out, he would place a well-timed explosion that would break apart the villain’s quirk right over his nose or mouth, allowing him to gasp out a deep breath or two before he was inevitably choked again.
The worst part about it all? That there were three heroes standing around, watching as he suffocated. Civilians stood on the sidelines, held back by the heroes as they whispered to each other and watched as Katsuki’s strength began to leave him, his oxygen deprivation getting to him. They all fucking watched, and none of them did a single thing .
And then a familiar shade of green appeared in the back of the crowd. Honestly, Katsuki should have known that shitty Deku would recognize his explosions and come running, and yet somehow, every trace of his usual irritation towards the greenet had evaporated from him. Instead, two very distinct feelings had taken its place. He felt both simultaneously scared and relieved. He was relieved because, if he was going to die, he was at least glad that he would be able to die with a familiar, comforting face in the crowd. He was scared because, despite his previous statement, he didn’t want Deku to watch him die. If he knew Deku, (and he really fucking did,) then the shithead would remember Katsuki’s death with a guilty conscience until the day he took his final breath.
Katsuki lamented on this as his vision began to fade to black for the umpteenth time, his hands scrabbling desperately on the slime around his mouth, praying he would find purchase this time. Then, something big and fucking yellow soared through the air, smacking the villain holding Katsuki hostage right in the face. The creature instinctively released Katsuki’s mouth and nose, cursing and yelling something. In the next moment, Deku was there, clawing at the sludge pinning Katsuki’s arms to his sides.
“D-Deku?!” Bakugou cried out, his voice hoarse from the assault on his throat. Deku was staring up at Katsuki with wide, fearful eyes, looking around hopelessly at all of the passersby who had been watching the last twenty minutes with horrified interest. The pro-heroes who were already on the scene were screaming at each other, now that there was another kid in the situation. It pissed Katsuki off that only now that fucking Deku was there did they decide they wanted to help. “What the fuck are you doing?!”
“You- your eyes!” Deku yelled, dodging out of the way of one of the villain's hands (tentacles?) that grabbed for him. “You looked like you were begging for help!”
Before Katsuki could do something embarrassing, like throw a bitch fit over what Deku had just said, unexpected wind pressure ripped through the air, forcing the sludge villain off of Katsuki’s body. Both he and Deku went sprawling from the sheer force of the gust, Katsuki knocking the back of his head against the pavement hard . Deku didn’t make out much better, his chin slamming against the pavement with a disturbing cracking sound. Now Katsuki’s mind was dizzy not only because of the lack of oxygen, but now also because of the concussion he may or may not have just gained.
He was vaguely aware of All Might taking down the villain in the background, as well as the sound of the crowd cheering, but he couldn’t quite focus on it. All he could really do was loll his head to the side, staring at Deku’s groaning figure as the smaller boy curled up a bit from the pain of his injury. His chin was already gushing blood, the wound looking like it would need stitches if no healing quirks were used. Katsuki was overcome with the sudden intense urge to reach out and brush his fingers against Deku’s face, just to make sure he was really there. Maybe he had actually passed out, and this was his mind’s way of hallucinating a better ending for himself before his heart actually stopped.
“-oung men!” a booming voice called, breaking into Katsuki’s haze. Fucking All Might himself stood over them, his eyes scanning the boys’ forms critically. The hero’s eyes seemed to stick to Deku just a moment too long, like he was searching for something within the boy. Just as quickly as Katsuki noticed it the look was gone and All Might was looking right back at him again. “How are you doing, Young Man? Any injuries?”
“I- I’m fucking fine ,” Katsuki scoffed, forcing himself to sit up, All of the blood rushed out of his head, making it throb every few breaths or so. ‘ Ohhh yeah. That’s a concussion. ’ “Actually, I think I have a concussion.”
“My goodness! You must see professional help!” All Might waved over an EMT crew that had been waiting on standby, and soon enough, both Bakugou and Deku were surrounded by medical professionals. They were separated into two groups, and Katsuki only had a moment to think about the fact that he didn’t want Deku too far from him before he was put under the spell of healing quirks.
By the time he was lucid again, Deku’s medical care had apparently been taken care of. He was standing fifteen or so feet away, ducking his head as the local heroes of the area yelled at him for getting involved. Katsuki could hear words like “reckless” and “quirkless” being spit out, and for the first time in a long time, he was truly angry on Deku’s behalf. How dare these worthless extras yell at Deku for doing what they should have done? Yes he was quirkless, but they were trained heroes , and they had been planning to let Katsuki die, simply because their quirks weren’t “suited” to the situation. For a moment, Katsuki considered butting into the situation. It only took him a second to wipe away the idea though, and he turned away from the sight. If Deku couldn’t fucking defend himself for once, then he deserved to get yelled at.
(x)
Izuku watched Kacchan’s back stomp away from him, running over the blond’s words in his head. ‘ I didn’t need your fucking help! You didn’t help me, got it?’
Yeah, he knew he didn’t end up helping, but he couldn’t just stand there and watch Kacchan die . No one was doing anything to help him, and his body had moved on its own. He hadn’t been lying either, when he told Katsuki that his eyes looked like they were begging for help. He knew better than to think the begging was directed at him, but he just couldn’t help himself. In truth, they were both goddamn lucky that All Might decided to jump in when he did, because they would most likely both have been toast if he hadn’t.
Izuku turned back around to resume his walk home, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he found All Might’s true form standing there, watching him. “A-All Might?!”
“Young Midoriya,” the man said, nodding. “I need to speak with you. It’s urgent.”
“B-but- what’s wrong? Is this about your true form, because I already said I wouldn’t tell anyone-”
“No no, it’s not about that, young man.” All Might locked eyes with Izuku, a serious expression on his face. “What I said earlier, when we were on the roof… I told you that you couldn’t be a hero.”
Izuku’s face fell, but he didn’t look away from the hero. “Y-yes… I remember.”
“Let me ask you something then. When you were standing in the crowd, watching that other boy being attacked, you decided right away to help him. There’s something that all heroes say happens to them before they ever even begin their line of work, and I believe that very same thing happened to you. Do you know what that might be?”
Izuku’s mouth worked like a fish out of water. “M-my feet. They moved without my thinking about it.”
All Might broke out into his signature smile, although it looked far more demented on his emaciated face. “That’s right, my boy. And it’s because of that, that I truly believe…” He puffed back into his muscle form, that same wide grin still splitting his face. He pointed down at Izuku, the tip of his finger nearly brushing the greenet’s chest. “You CAN become a hero!”
Izuku couldn’t help it- he fell to his knees and began to cry.
It was both the best and worst day of his life, and yet looking back, he wouldn’t be able to say for sure if he would give up One for All in order to avoid the trauma and terror that the rest of his high school career would hold.