Chapter Text
Start of Volume 0.
~~~
Izuku was three years old when All Might became his idol. At just three years old, he would beg Inko to open the door to the office in their small home and pull up the old footage of the #1 Hero pulling off miraculous, unbelievable rescues and Villain defeats.
He was just three years old when he first told Inko that he was going to be a Hero just like All Might. She told him that she would help him grow big and strong, just like his favourite Hero.
~~~
At four years old, Izuku watched Kacchan show off his newfound Quirk to their class, the tiny explosions from his hands looking like firecrackers snapping. He was scared for his best friend’s hands, being so close to something that looked like very real, very hot explosions, but Kacchan proudly showed him afterwards that he had no burns, no scars, no damage from the explosions.
“Wow, Kacchan, you’re amazing!”
Kacchan smiled down at Izuku, pride in his eyes. “I’m gonna be the greatest Hero in the world someday. Even greater than All Might.” His voice was still high and a bit shrill.
He still had long hair, even though he would come to school a few weeks later with it all chopped off at different lengths, making his head look like an explosion. Aunt Mitsuki was very displeased. Izuku thought his new haircut matched his personality perfectly.
~~~
Izuku was five when Kacchan came over to his house in late autumn, crying, his fists shaking at his sides in barely contained anger and the cold temperature that came with the sun setting.
Izuku had opened the door, prepared to greet whoever might be waiting with the lines that Inko had been teaching him about greeting strangers, and was distraught to find his best friend shaking and upset.
He yelled for Inko, who came running, always ready to drop anything when she heard the fearful tone of Izuku’s voice.
Soon they were both in the living room, drinking hot chocolate and wrapped together under Izuku’s favourite All Might blanket. Izuku had offered it to Kacchan to try to make him feel better.
Kacchan had rolled his eyes and thrown it over both of them. “We can share our favourite Hero, y’know.” His voice was quiet and rough from crying.
Inko put on their favourite All Might movie. Both of them loved it, Kacchan for all of the villains that All Might effortlessly defeated, and Izuku for the hundreds of people that All Might fearlessly rescued with a smile.
Inko had called Mitsuki and first asked if Kacchan could spend the night, and then asked if she could visit Mitsuki after the boys had fallen asleep to talk to her.
The boys were asleep, huddled under the same All Might blanket, before the movie was even finished. She carefully tucked pillows under both of their heads, but left their movie to finish playing as she slipped her coat on and headed a few doors down to the Bakugo’s residence.
She was greeted by Mitsuki, bare-shouldered and barefoot, waiting on the porch. “Inko, I’m sorry about Kanna—,” but Inko shook her head and pointed towards the door.
“We have a lot to talk about. Let’s go inside and make some tea. I’d like Masaru to hear what I have to say as well.”
Mitsuki looked at a loss for words for a second, which was a feat for Inko that not many others had achieved, but it didn’t last long. “But, Kanna—,” and was again cut off by Inko.
“Kacchan is asleep right now, so is Izuku. Let them have their sleepover, it will make them both feel better. I can take them to school in the morning.” She put a hand on Mitsuki’s shoulder, feeling how hot the woman’s skin was even in the chilly autumn air. She began steering the woman towards the front door. “Come on. We have a lot we need to talk about.”
The next morning, Inko woke them both much too early for their tastes, even for a school day. The dark circles under her eyes and her tired voice didn’t detract from her genuine, kind smile, but it made them both quiet their complaining and dutifully sit at the breakfast table, eating while she explained some of her talk with the Bakugos from the night before.
Kacchan looked distrustful when Inko told him that his mother and father understood things better now. However, Inko showed him a sealed envelope addressed to their class’s teacher, as well as a second envelope addressed to the school principal, and said that Kacchan would be having his name changed on things like the morning attendance call and homework handouts from then on, and that Kacchan’s parents were going to talk to him about other changes they could make.
The distrust slowly left his eyes as she spoke, and it vanished altogether when she said that she would go help him pick out an outfit from Izuku’s closet that he could wear to school today.
He scrambled out of his seat at the table and ran to hug her, Izuku immediately clambering after him, both of them laughing happily as she ruffled their hair and embraced them both.
~~~
Izuku was six when Inko took him to the strange doctor. She had said he was an expert in Quirks, but after some paperwork and usual doctor stuff like taking his height and weight and temperature, they took him for x-rays of his feet, of all things.
He thought that the machines in the x-ray room were awesome and asked questions whenever he wasn’t having to be still and silent for the pictures.
His excitement vanished when the Quirk doctor walked in holding his x-ray pictures, a frown on his face.
“Mrs. Midoriya, good morning.” He didn’t offer to shake her hand, or acknowledge Izuku in any way other than a glance. He squeezed his All Might action figure in his lap tighter, trying not to feel hurt by the doctor ignoring him.
“It’s Ms. Midoriya, and good morning to you as well. You don’t look too happy with those x-rays. Is something wrong?” Inko tried to keep her tone light and airy, but Izuku could tell she was worried now too.
“Well, I don’t think you have to worry anymore about the boy’s Quirk manifesting so late. You said over the phone when you called to make the appointment that you had no idea what his Quirk was going to be, right?”
Out of this corner of his eye, he saw Inko tighten. He felt slightly confused, but didn’t say anything. “Yes, that’s right. I’ve been worried that something was wrong.” Her voice shook slightly.
“The boy’s fine, nothing wrong with him per say. It’s just highly unlikely he’s going to ever manifest a Quirk.”
Izuku’s action figure hit the floor of the room with a clatter. Izuku startled, but the doctor just glanced over at him again before continuing, crossing the room to hang up the x-ray of Izuku’s foot on the wall.
He explained that Izuku had weird feet, or something, and that meant that he wasn’t ever going to get a Quirk. Izuku barely heard what he was saying, a loud roaring and ringing sound filling his ears and tears filling his eyes, latching onto his mother’s hand as she gently pressed the All Might action figure back into his fingers.
He cried a lot that night, when he got home. Inko had wanted him to try to go to bed as soon as they got home and he finished eating lunch, but he wanted to go into the Office and watch the old Rescue footage again, like he did every weekend.
She weakly obliged, but he could hear her sniffling outside the door while he stared, unseeing, into the computer screen, All Might’s famous laugh sounding distant and far away.
“Mom.” His voice cracked. “Do you think…” He swallowed, and he heard her push through the door to kneel next to him in the computer desk’s chair. “Do you think… I can still be a Hero? Even if I don’t have a Quirk?”
When she let out a soft wail and buried her head in his shoulder, apologizing softly over and over again, he felt something inside of him crumble a little bit. She never answered his question, but that was enough for him to know.
He tried a different question a while later. “Can Kacchan come over for the night?” He got an answer to this one, Inko picking up the phone and the worried-sounding buzz of Mitsuki’s voice on the other end.
~~~
Soon enough, Katsuki, his hair still an explosion but better cut and trimmed these days, awkwardly shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants, staring worriedly at Izuku from across the room as Inko opened the door.
His best friend didn’t jump up to greet him, or make any sign that he noticed that he was there. He just sat on the living room couch, staring at the All Might action figure in his hands.
Mitsuki nudged him towards the living room and steered Inko towards the kitchen, muttering something about letting the “boys be boys” and getting Inko “a strong cup of tea.” Katsuki sat down next to Izuku on the couch, the boy still wordlessly staring at his toy.
“Izu-kun,” Katsuki said, voice no longer quite as shrill or high as it had been. He’d been proud of his progress with his voice. He got no response, so he nudged the boy with his elbow. “Izuku.”
Green eyes came into focus and slowly met his, and he was upset to see how misty and sad they looked. “Kacchan.” Izuku’s voice was hoarse and rough from crying.
Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s shoulder, voice rising. “Izu-kun, what happened, what’s wrong? What the hell happened—!”
“LANGUAGE!” Mitsuki’s voice came from the kitchen, but Katsuki ignored her. Izuku had started to cry again, shoulders shaking under his grip, and Katsuki didn’t know what to do for a few minutes, just watching his best friend cry softly.
Eventually, he realized that he should probably hug his friend, so he did, awkwardly pulling him into a bone-crushing hug, just like the ones his mother would sometimes give him.
After a while, Izuku hiccuped, and Katsuki pulled back. Izuku’s eyes still looked hollow and sad. “Izuku, tell me what the hell happened or I’ll get your mom to tell me.” His voice was undermined by the fear he felt, wondering if someone had gotten hurt, or if something bad had happened to Inko.
“I don’t have a Quirk.”
He stared at Izuku, who stared back with empty eyes. “What???”
“I’m Quirkless.”
~~~
The next year of Izuku’s life was hard.
Katsuki did everything he could to make it better for his best friend, awkwardly offering him hugs when the boy would break down without warning, or scheduling sleepovers with Inko and Mitsuki ahead of time.
Izuku seemed like a shell of his former self, and once he turned seven and still didn’t have a Quirk, unlike every other child in their class, word started to spread about Quirkless Izuku. A handful of the more mean-spirited ones would throw that word at him like an insult.
Quirkless.
He’d talked to Mitsuki after he got home, a few days later. He’d demanded to be allowed to stay with Izuku, yelling over his mother when she tried to say that Inko didn’t need him around causing trouble or that Izuku needed space.
He got his way and spent several days at the Midoriya’s, dragging the lifeless Izuku around for daily activities, determined to prove to his friend that nothing was wrong, nothing had changed.
“You’ve never had a Quirk before now. Nothing is different. You’re still just you, you idiot. It’s not the end of the world.”
Some of the students in the class started calling him Deku, a play on the characters of his name. It meant ‘useless.’
He got sent home the first time that he heard someone call Izuku that name.
From a young age, Katsuki hadn’t dealt with name-calling well. He refused point blank to apologize to the boy, who now had a bruised eye from Katsuki’s well-aimed punch. “He called Izu-kun a Deku. I showed him who’s really useless. End of story.”
Katsuki had only gotten more stubborn as he grew up.
~~~
Izuku was grateful for Kacchan. He told him so, several times, after Kacchan had held him close while he sobbed outside their classroom door, the teacher having long ago given up on trying to keep Kacchan in his seat when Izuku was sent out for crying.
It was one of these instances, where he had to try to stop his voice from shaking to get the words out. “Kacchan, I’m… I’m glad you’re my best friend. I wouldn’t be able to.. To keep… If…”
Kacchan shoved a tissue at him, having taken to keeping packs of them on him at all times in case of a breakdown. “Shut up. Don’t say dumb stuff.”
Izuku blew his nose and sniffled, looking up at his best friend. “It’s not dumb. You always tell everyone in class that I’m not dumb. That means you can’t say I’m dumb either.”
Kacchan crossed his arms and glared. “I didn’t say you were dumb. I said quit saying dumb crap.”
“Language, Bakugo! It seems like you two are ready to rejoin the class.” The teacher had poked her head outside the door to check on them. “You alright, Midoriya?”
He nodded and she smiled encouragingly. “Come back in here in the next few minutes, okay? If you need the last part of the lesson explained, just let me know and I’ll help you go over it.”
“I can help him if he needs it,” Kacchan butted in, rolling his eyes. “Just give us a minute.”
The teacher sighed but nodded and retreated into the classroom.
Izuku stood, rubbing his eyes and sniffing a few more times.
“Me too, you know.”
Izuku looked up, confused. “Huh?”
Kacchan refused to make eye contact. “‘M glad you’re my best friend too, you dumb nerd.”
Izuku laughed, his eyes brightening a bit. “I just explained why you couldn’t call me dumb, Kacchan. You’re so bad at listening.”
“I just don’t like people telling me what to do, you d---. You damn nerd, how’s that?”
“Kacchan, that’s worse!!! You can’t say that word at school!”
“Oh, yeah? Wanna bet?”
~~~
Things got better for Izuku in the following year. The nine-year old regained some of his lively personality and cheerfulness, but there was still something close to grief underneath his happy exterior. He seemed to have come to terms with his status as Quirkless. Things were almost normal.
A few years ago he’d had to finally talk to his mother about how his shoes hurt his feet, cramping his toes so badly that walking for longer periods of time was torturous.
After a bit of research together they’d found that the extra joint in his pinky toes was the culprit. Most of the population these days had Quirks, and thus most of the footwear available these days was made for people without that extra joint.
Inko had taken Izuku to a small, special store the next morning, where people measured his feet from all different angles and sides, and Izuku had been told to point at some of the styles of shoe that were displayed on small shelves on the walls that he liked the best.
Just a few days later, they had picked up his new shoes. Bright red, thick soled, and heavenly after months of pain. They were also some of the most expensive pieces of clothing he’d ever worn. Inko warned him to be very careful with them, since they couldn’t afford to ruin this pair.
“They should last you a few years, even with his fast growth spurts that he’s sure to put on. Fabric will fall behind but my creations will keep up. Just remove a layer on the heel padding and toe padding every time you need to go up a size.” The owner of the store might have been smiling behind his mask. Izuku wasn’t sure.
Kacchan thought his new shoes were cool. Izuku liked them a lot too.
~~~
Even though he was Quirkless, Izuku poured his soul into studying Heroes and their Quirks and fighting styles. Even as other students found extracurriculars to cement themselves in, like Kacchan taking up kickboxing and martial arts, Izuku stayed determinedly on his track of Hero analysis.
That’s not to say he didn’t stray towards other things every few months. He had liked singing and playing music on their old piano in the living room since he was a kid, and went to a few classes during his obsession with the Angel Voice Hero Kamen.
That led to him wanting to be a part of the school play and do performances like the Voice Hero Present Mic, even though he ended up getting only a minor part. At least he got to have a speaking role. Kacchan had been cast as a background tree.
He’d been interested in dance for a bit after the Hip Hop Hero Hare had hit the scene, but after a few days of classes he felt more drawn to lyrical and classical ballet styles of dance and was too shy to ask his mom to transfer into those classes, so he dropped out.
Just a few months ago, he’d asked his mom to try to find him ninja classes so that he could learn to be just like the obscure Underground Hero Eraserhead. She’d tried her best to find even a ninja club for him to try, but to no avail. She did buy him a long white scarf to wear around that winter.
Throughout all of this, Inko was a bit worried that his obsession with Quirks and trying to be like Heroes would end up hurting him more. She wasn’t oblivious to the scrapes and bruises Izuku would come home with and often wrote to his elementary school teacher Ms. Gosch to inform her of her suspicions, but the teacher couldn’t do much besides reprimand her students and let Kacchan defend his best friend.
One thing always stayed the same. Izuku wanted to be just like All Might.