Chapter Text
After Midoriya Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless , his mom got him a necklace.
It was a simple thing, a silver teardrop shape, with a simple hinge and latch, and a message to him engraved into the metal of the inside.
You will always be my Hero Izuku!
Along with the message there once was a small picture of him in his All Might onesie with a smile on and his finger pointed to the ceiling. Right next to him was his mother, hiding under a blanket.
He clutched it in his hand now, holding it tight, trying to hold onto any reminder of her and the happiness they had shared as he looked out at the setting sun from his perch on top of the building he had found himself on.
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His day had started out as good as could be expected for a quirkless orphan.
If a kid with a quirk had their parents die, they would be adopted, or at least taken to an orphanage.
He was diagnosed quirkless however, so why bother? He slipped through the bars of the system. No one cared about him anymore.
So, he slept inside of an old abandoned cemetery.
Most teens would be creeped out by such a place, but it always felt comforting to him. The empty mausoleums gave him shelter from the cold and the rain, but also felt familiar and calming. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but it was a comfort, and he would take whatever comfort he could get.
That particular morning, he got out of his cocoon of scavenged blankets and pillows and pulled out his school uniform from the pile of clothes he kept on the floor and got dressed.
He put on his red shoes and shouldered his backpack.
He exited the Mausoleum and went to the back of the cemetery, far away from the main entrance and crawled through the small drainage ditch that led under the fence and into the adjacent alley.
He brushed himself off and took a deep breath. It was time for school.
He knew he could stop going to school, no one would bother to look for him if he went missing, but UA required all previous levels of education to be complete, so he had to continue going to school if he wanted to achieve his dreams.
And despite everything that had happened to him, it was still his dream.
He would be a hero. No matter how many roadblocks life puts in his way.
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No one tormented him for most of the day. He had stopped reacting to their jeers a while ago, and apparently it wasn’t as fun if the victim just put their head down and accepted it.
Of course, Bakugou was the exception to that, as he wouldn’t let Izuku’s lack of a reaction stop him, but fortunately, he didn’t seem all that interested in tormenting Izuku that day.
At least, not until the end of it.
Class was about to end when the teacher pulled out a stack of papers.
“I should really pass these papers out,” That man spoke in a monotone voice, as usual, “But I know you all want to be heroes, So what’s the point!”
At the teacher's sudden enthusiasm, the class erupted in chaos as each student displayed their quirks.
Of course, Bakugou immediately took offense to being compared to everyone else and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Don’t you dare lump me in with these losers teach! I am gonna get into UA and become the number one hero!”
That set off muttering about Bakugou and his quirk, and how he was guaranteed a spot because of how amazing and heroic it was.
“You are also trying for UA Midoriya?” Izuku didn’t miss the sadistic smirk on the teacher's face as he told the class of what Izuku wanted to do.
“Quirkless Deku a hero? Yeah right.”
“What is he gonna do to the villain, drown them in tears?”
“Hey don’t blame him, he is just trying to meet his mother again. Although you would think a knife or fall would be quicker.”
Izuku turned his head down and clenched his fists at his sides, listening to the jeers and jabs of his classmates, knowing the worst hadn’t begun yet.
Sure enough, only a few seconds later, two sparking hands slammed down on his desk, blowing him out of his chair and onto the floor as Bakugou shouted at him.
“COME ON DEKU, YOU ARE A QUIRKLESS FREAK, DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU DESERVE YOU GO TO UA WITH ME!!!”
BRIINNNG
It was at that moment the bell rang, and Izuku sighed in relief as he left the classroom. Bakugou tried to grab him, but years of living on the streets had trained Izuku to dodge grabs, so he slipped out of the room unscathed.
Alas, that was not the last he would see of Bakugou that day.
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As he made his way back to his rudimentary home, he held the locket around his neck tightly, focusing on his future and how happy he would be.
He didn’t notice the eyes that watched and followed him.
He quickly got there and went through the same ditch he always did, ready to relax for the rest of the day, and maybe eat some food if he could get his hands on any.
When he got to the mausoleum, he immediately took off his shoes and backpack and sat down in his cocoon of blankets and pillows, more than ready for a nap when he heard a voice echo from the entrance to the mausoleum.
“So this is where you live now, huh Deku?”
Izuku froze. He knew that voice. The voice of his friend turned tormentor.
“You escaped your comeuppance at the school, but what will you do now Deku? There is nowhere to run.”
Izuku didn’t speak, too shocked to see his tormentor in the closest thing he had to a home to speak.
Without any more words, Bakugou launched himself towards Izuku, tackling him to the ground, punching him over and over while holding him down.
After however many minutes of Bakugou punching him, Bakugou got up, kicking him in the stomach once for good measure.
“I think you need a lesson on which of us is worth more here, Deku.” The last word was spoken with such malice that Izuku flinched.
Izuku flinched again when he heard the explosion go off, but didn’t feel the tell tale burning of it against his skin. He felt warm, almost painfully so, so he opened his eyes.
Then closed them again.
His clothes, blankets and pillows were all aflame.
It hurt to see all he had burnt to ash, but he would have had to move to a new location anyway, so that wasn’t so bad. He could find new ones.
He clenched his fist around the locket breathing deeply to calm himself as he heard Bakugou walk towards him.
“Don’t forget, I am the only one worth anything at that school. You are less than nothing, you got it?” When Izuku didn’t speak, Bakugou growled and kicked him again. “I said do you get it!?”
“Yes, Bakugou.”
“Good, and don’t forget it.” Bakugou turned and walked away, towards the entrance to the mausoleum. Then he stopped, and spoke again. “Hey if you wanna be worth something, you could take a swan dive off a roof. You might even get to see your mom again, that is, if she can get around the disappointment of seeing you again after she finally escaped you.”
Izuku felt tears leak out of his eyes as Bakugou left. He tried not to think about Bakugous words, tried to gather his hope for the future, but he couldn’t find it.
And so he mechanically rose, and left the mausoleum.
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That was how he found himself upon the roof that would change the course of his life and the course of the lives of many others.
He kept his hand clenched tightly around the necklace as he took off his shoes, then his backpack.
He took one last look at the city that had been so cruel to him.
Then he jumped.
Midoriya Izuku died when his head collided with the ground at terminal velocity.
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No one looked for him, and no one found his body.
Thus, no one saw the necklace he held clenched in his hand glow a sickly green.
No one saw Midoriya Izuku wake up.