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The day started out rather normal, if stressful. That little ball of anxiety had been growing in his chest since the morning. After a morning overly conscious of every step and every word, he finally managed to push back at least a bit on the anxiety. A late move night left everyone exhausted, and Izuku’s mind felt simultaneously devoid of all thoughts and working on overdrive. Izuku shuffled into home room, sat at his desk and awaited the arrival of the teacher. He barely managed to muster up the energy to offer Uraraka a large grin from his seat and resume his vigil. Finally, the bell rang and class began. As everyone grew silent, wary of irritating their strict teacher, Aizawa removed himself from his cursed bright yellow sleeping bag and began to speak. His slow, tired drawl filled the classroom, and Izuku snapped to attention as soon as he got over the second hand embarrassment of that accursed yellow.
“Today, we are learning about discrimination. As heroes, it is your duty to help people and look past the common biases. Discrimination has always been around, but as the times evolve, so do our excuses for discrimination. With quirks such a center piece in our society, and our whole culture revolving around the top limelight heroes with flashy quirks, that has taken the focus of bigots. Quirk discrimination will not be tolerated in this classroom and I am not teaching you to use your power as heroes to hurt others.” Aizawa paused as a slide show clicked on to the board. The bright words read ‘Quirk Discrimination’.
In the corner of his eye, Izuku could see Bakugo tense. Izuku’s mind was racing, fingers tapping and tugging at each other. The little aches and pains coming from his scarred fingers helped to ground him further. I bet he won’t even cover quirkless discrimination. After all, it’s right there on the board. Quirk discrimination. And we- they are such a minority anyways, a dying breed. The presentation continued. Izuku had done all this research before, looking for something to relate to as a kid.
“Society has always targeted those who they perceive as different. Even with how common mutations are, they aren’t always pretty and they often come with pre set expectations, stereotypes, and hate. Society also targets people with weaker or villainous mental quirks. Anything without the ability to be a powerful and flashy heroes quirk is looked down on, and people are pushed into roles based on their quirks.”
Izuku knew the stats all too well, even though we had never had a quirk to be discriminated against. Aizawa continued to show statistic after statistic, some of the class sitting stoic, others looking deeply affected. The presentation held no blows, clearly meaning to shock naive kids into listening and believing. Some of the kids who had faced bullying in the past had to be excused during parts of the presentation. They had been given more periods than normal for this vital lesson, so it seemed to just go on and on, one horrible fact after another.
Finally, after all the expected topics had been covered, Aizawa spoke the words Izuku had been suspecting, dreading even. “As horrible as this is, those without quirks are targeted even more. Quirks are tools. A person cannot control the quirk or lack of that they are born with. A quirk can be a very helpful tool, but it does not make a person. It can contribute to a person, but someone without a quirk is not useless, like many say.”
Bakugo was tense, shaking in his seat, his face deeply perturbed. As Aizawa spoke, Izuku could feel himself still, except for his fidgeting hands. He felt mostly empty, numb, apathetic, in a way that was so common in his middle school days. In a way that he barely remembers used to terrify him. As Aizawa continued to show horrible, gritty facts on bullying, hate crime, and suicide rates, Izuku could feel himself detach a little. That floaty feeling he had always hated grew, the one that left him feeling like every moment lasted eternity but passed in a blink, like he could barely control his body, like he was an outsider looking in, floating away, barely tethered to the body he was hovering above. The pain in his hands grew distant, unable to touch him.
“Quirkless people are not lesser than quirked people. People did not have these extra abilities for millennia, yet they still strived. They can achieve what any quirked person can, if they have the right mindset. They are people just like us, and are not lesser than us or different from us.”
Izuku didn’t realize he had spoken until the classroom was focused on him. His voice came out quiet and emotionless, a surprise since he normally had to struggle to get a word out when floating away like this. “But are they, Aizawa-sensei?”
His eyes narrowed, hard and unforgiving but a little concerned once he noticed how distant the Problem Child was. “What do you mean?”
Once Deku started talking, he couldn’t stop. He had held out his unreasonable hopes for years, only finally giving in that day All Might left him on a rooftop after helping him face reality. “They are less evolved than quirked people. Everyone has a unique power, but they don’t. Their numbers are decreasing each generation. They are a dying breed with naturally weaker bodies. They have exploding, useless organs and weaker, more fragile bodies. They could never be heroes. That’s what everyone says. We- they’re useless-“
Aizawa spoke quickly and harshly. “That’s enough. That is completely wrong. They aren’t any lesser than anyone who has a quirk. They can become heroes if useless prejudice would stop getting in their way. While it hasn’t been done recently, it very well could. This behavior will not be tolerated.”
Maybe Aizawa-sensei is close to someone who is quirkless. Maybe that’s why he is different than everyone else.
Once Aizawa was finished, the shocked class began to speak their outrage. Todoroki looked downright betrayed, Bakugo was unreadable but clearly struggling, Shinsou looked sickened, Aoyama surprised and a little distraught. The horrible reactions went on and on.
“Deku! How could you say something like that?!” Uraraka spoke up, leading to a chorus of agreement.
“I’m not saying they should die, or- or take a swan dive off of a roof or something! It’s just that they aren’t cut out for stressful or high stakes jobs! They’re still people they’re just a little useless, unevolved.
“That’s so unmanly, Midoribr- Midoriya”
Izuku’s voice came out more confused than anything else. “But-“
“That is enough Midoriya. Class is dismissed. Midoriya stay behind.”
The class filtered out, still shocked and feeling betrayed by the sunshine child of the class. Bakugo tried to speak, but was promptly shut up and kicked out of class, leaving the room empty save for a traumatized teenager and disappointed teacher.
“Any more of this quirkist talk and you are expelled. I expect you at two weeks of detention. You are now on probation. This is unacceptable.” In his anger, he didn’t realize how upset the child seemed throughout the talk, the former bullied kid in Aizawa protesting Izuku’s words.
———————————
Everyone had been ignoring Izuku for the rest of the day. Finally, after a long lecture and punishment in detention and extra reading and essays assigned on quirk discrimination, he returned to the dorms. When he entered the dorms, still floating away and distracted, 19 pairs of eyes turned to him.
“How could you say that, Izuku? You know my brother is quirkless” Todoroki spoke up.
“You’re supposed to have the heart of gold and sunshine”
“You’re completely wrong.”
“You can’t just say things like that! Who cares if it’s validity you were so cruel!”
“You know about the bullying I went through and you still say and think things like that. I’m no longer friends with you, perf quirked bastard” Shinsou’s voice peirced the air before a myriad of voices, people all clambering to say their piece were interrupted by Bakugo.
“Hey! Let the nerd explain!” A voice grumbled reluctantly. Bakugo, while shocked, was the only one who understood a sliver of the situation.
Izuku had held out hope for years, through the torment and suffering and the entirety of society hating him. He had been a part of quirkless forums and had convinced himself all were equal. At least, until it all built up to his former best friend telling him to kill himself, his quirkless body failing him so quickly against that sludge villain, and his hero, the hero telling him the quirkless could never be heroes. His mother had cried after seeing him run after Kachan on the news, lamenting about his fragile quirkless body and how she couldn’t lose her precious baby.
Then, he got to UA and, unlike Aldera, he was successful. He had good grades, he made friends, he was never bullied, he wasn’t as weak and fragile. He new that only one thing had changed. Now, he had a quirk. So he put two and two together and decided he really had been useless before.
“It’s true what I said. They’re weaker than us. That’s what everyone has always said. I don’t understand why you guys are different.”
In the chaos and shock, he managed to drift by until he arrived at his room. His mind was so still, like every thought drifted across on a cloud, like every part of his brain was muffled by cotton. He climbed onto the balcony and made his way onto the roof from there, a place he found equally terrifying (knowing that at many times of his life he would have thrown himself off without hesitation) and comforting.
Izuku lay on cold roof, hating every moment and, for the first time in a month, wishing he was dead. He was just too exhausted to do it at this moment. Too apathetic. He just did not care enough. Ever since coming to UA, these type of moods had become far less common, but he still remembered and hated them. His hand pulled up his sleeve and ran slowly over the scars on his wrist, the ones not caused by any quirk or outside force.
As he drifted, just feeling numb, the door giving roof access from the dorms started to open. No one had the key to that door except Aizawa and the other faculty.
“The cameras showed you were up here. Your classmates told me you said more in the common room earlier.” The teacher seemed equally pissed and concerned, careful because of the location. Once Deku tried to speak, a few quiet stammers until he just nodded, the concern grew.
“I don’t agree with these beliefs. If you do not explain you will be expelled. These views are only harmful to yourself, your classmates, and the world at large. They do not indicate any ability to survive as a successful hero.”
Finally sick of bottling everything up, no one on his side except his mom but never able to tell her and worry her over her fragile quirkless baby, he gave in and spoke. He always dreamed of being able to tell someone and after this entire school year, he kind of trusted Aizawa. If he made it worse then Izuku could just find some way to kill himself. He couldn’t find enough care in himself to not do something he would never do if not so numb and apathetic. He knew that normally he would be so embarrassed by this.
“I don’t understand. Everyone has always said we are useless.”
“We?”
At the prompting, he just broke. “I got my quirk around the time of the entrance exam. I have the toe joint. Before that, I was quirkless. Everyone always said I was useless, I would never amount to anything. I always wanted to be a hero. They all acted like that was an insult to their very being. Everyone. Even the ones that just treated me as a fragile, glass, quirkless child. This doesn’t make sense. How could everyone else be wrong?! We’re a dying breed! We have less evolved bodies! They even felt the need to enforce this in my head. They tormented me. Everyone always said the quirkless are useless. Even now I’m just Deku. Deku Deku Dekunobu. It basically means useless.”
He was a child trying to rationalize his treatment, trying in some way to understand the ideas he had been conditioned into believing. Eyes softening at the response, understanding the bullied child a little, wanting answers but seeing the Problem Child was too fragile to really push, Aizawa spoke again, softly.
“Anyone who said that stuff is wrong. It was wrong of them to hurt you. What you said is still wrong too.”
The fog broke in his mind, and he began to cry. The near silence hung between them filled with crying and some soft comfort. After a long while, when the tears had finally run dry, Aizawa stood and beckoned Izuku. “Apologize to the class and explain that you were considered quirkless as a child. I’m setting you up with mandatory sessions with Hound Dog. After we talk to your classmates, get some rest. You’ve had quite a day and we have a long conversation we can return to another time.”
“Ca- c- can you please tell them for me? I don’t think I can handle that tonight.”
After a few moments, Aizawa sighed and agreed. The walk passed again in silence, Izuku entering his dorm room with the balcony now locked tightly by Aizawa and the teacher heading to the common rooms, where the class was eating dinner. As Izuku collapsed into bed, worn out but beginning to stress, he could just barely hear Aizawa address the others downstairs, though he could not make out voices or words.
As his mind began to fill with worries about what his classmates would think, Izuku turned on his favorite band and pushed off his worries, leaving them for another day now that at least someone knew. The music blasting in his headphones allowed him to focus on the sound and just relax. They would figure this out. It would be all right. These were concerns for the next day.