Chapter Text
Some people will never understand or condone what you can do. They can only fear and condemn.
"Stop!" A small form shoved himself between the group of elementary students and the cowering kindergartener they had been picking on. "You made him cry! Stop it!"
"Oh, so this villain already has minions?" One of the older kids stepped forward, his arms encased in brilliant white crystal. "His quirk is bad enough and now he's getting the likes of you to defend him?"
Izuku refused to back down. "Minami's quirk isn't bad, it's great for heroics! He could stop villains in their tracks with a single touch! He could end situations instantly without casualties or property damage!"
Another bully scoffed at him. "That weirdo froze the teacher for forty minutes! They had to call a pro to come and fix his mess." The kid flexed his own black claws. "He could rob anyone he wanted. Or kill. Better to teach this villain his place now before we have to figure out his victims later."
Izuku glared at the lot of them. "I won't let you hurt anyone!" He refused to move from his spot in front of his crying classmate. He couldn't fight them, because that would make this his third fight in a month and then the teachers would definitely call his mom. Again. So he'd just take the beating and then the upperclassmen would leave. Nothing they could say would change his mind.
Chibana, whose quirk allowed them to bloom any flower from their skin—which was so cool!—had remained silent up until now, stepped forward. “If you think we’re afraid of some baby villain, then you must be as insane as your crazy mother.”
Izuku’s eyes flashed white. Chibana was yanked towards the two younger children before he had even realized what was happening. In an instant, Izuku punched him with all of his might right in the face.
Crystal-arms yelled, “get the villain!” as he and the other two jumped to defend their friend. Izuku could only protect his head and wait for the onslaught to end.
“Hey! What are you extras doing?!” The punching stopped but Izuku refused to look up until Kacchan’s explosions chased off the bullies. Last time he’d put his arms down too early, he’d gotten socked in the face and had to brave seeing his mom cry over a black eye. She wouldn’t let him leave her side for a whole week! Better to just wait them out.
“Oi! They’re gone. Get up, stupid.” Kacchan stood over him, blocking the sun.
“I’m not stupid Kacchan.” Izuku picked himself up, brushed off some dirt from his shorts, and turned to Minami. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, did—” He was cut off by a harsh shove.
“You should have just left it alone!” Minami yelled as he stood over Izuku. “They all call you a villain more than me. Now they’ll never stop!”
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to help.” His eyes began to prickle.
“You only ever make things worse! I don’t want your help!” The kid ran off as Izuku lost the battle with his tears and they began to cascade down his face.
“Tsk...asshole.”
Izuku laughed wetly and swiped at his tears. “Not supposed to say that word Kacchan.”
“Don’t care.” Bakugou glared down at him. “And its stupid to help someone that don’t want it.” He reached a hand down to his friend.
“We’re gonna be heroes!” Izuku smiled up at him and took the helping hand. “Saving people is what we do. Whether they want help or not!”
——————
The birth of the glowing child in Qingqing threw the world into chaos. Rapid human evolution manifested itself as quirks, special abilities unique to the individual. Already existing inequities in power among different classes were upheaved. Racial, economic, ethnic, gender, and cultural battles were far less important than quirked vs not. A global paradigm shift in what it meant to be human and what it meant to be more . The singularity known as the Advent of the Extraordinary.
People fought, people raged, targeting those as a threat. Violence and discrimination against those with a quirk and returned violence against the perpetrators. Ordinary people, quirked or not, took up arms to fight back the chaos until the government could create legislation themselves. And when the dust settled, the most righteous of these fighters were declared Heroes. But those that continued to use their quirks with no licence, for their own gain, or to hurt others were Villains.
Villains broke the law. They killed. They stole. They destroyed healthy relationships. Villains didn’t have a productive life. Villains only served to get beaten by their betters and thrown in jail to rot. Villains were the opposite of everything considered acceptable to society and a villainous quirk was the first sign that a child would be nothing but trouble. They were prone to acting out, misusing their quirks, starting fights, skipping school, and running away from home. Within a decade, kids with unappealing quirks went from delinquency to villainy.
Four the first four years of his life, Izuku Midoriya had a relatively weak object manipulation quirk. It was nothing spectacular, just a bit more flexible than his mom’s own quirk, even if it was surprising that it had manifested in his infancy. That all changed when a little after his fourth birthday, Izuku shocked his class by turning into a copy of the ball they were playing with. The entire school rioted. People didn’t have multiple quirks. Normal people didn’t have quirks that changed from levitation to transformation. Good people didn’t have a mother that was investigated for lying about their child’s quirk and have to prove their mental health.
If Izuku had a questionable quirk and was neither normal nor good, well then he must be bad . And bad kids became bad people who became bad villains. Izuku’s one true wish was to be a hero and he could count on one hand the number of people that thought he could do it. Thought he could be anything more than just a villain in the making. Just waiting to snap.
——————
“Who am I kidding? You all want to be heroes!” The class answered him with cheers, but the teacher quickly calmed them down. “You know that it’s against school rules for you all to use your quirks, wonderful as all they are.”
“Wonderful?” a scathing voice called out over the class. “These extras’ quirks are as crappy as they are!” Students booed loudly at Bakugou, who only laughed at their anger. “I’m aiming for U.A.! I won’t waste my time listening to you nobodies!”
“The national school?”
“They only accept the best.”
“No one’s made it from here.”
Bakugou ignored the students sputtering around the classroom. “I aced the mock exam, I’ve been training for years, and nothing is going to stand between me and surpassing All Might!”
“Oh, you’re also applying to U.A. aren’t you Midoriya?” Silence fell over the room as the students stopped muttering amongst themselves and turned to their classmate. Izuku ignored them all, choosing to continue working on his notes from Mt. Lady’s now infamous debut. “Midoriya, I asked you a question.”
“Yes, Sensei. I plan to take the U.A. exam as well.”
“Is...is that wise?” Izuku stopped writing and finally looked up. Aya was watching him with shifting eyes. They had been friends once, bonding over a shared weak telekinetic quirk. “It's just that..well, they only accept the most...heroic students.” Now she was just another student uncomfortable with Izuku’s very existence.
“”Yeah. I mean, that test is brutal.”
Ever since his quirk changed when he was four.
“High school is really stressful.”
And then again at nine.
“Not everyone can handle it.”
They all thought he was one bad day away from snapping. They all thought he’d become a villain.
A loud boom startled the class. “What is all that shit supposed to mean? Eh?” Bakugou yelled as he slammed his desk, almost as loud as his previous explosion. “Deku’s the only one even close to my level! You extras are just jealous!”
“That’s enough Bakugou,” the teacher cut in. “You can’t destroy another desk like last week. Let’s all get back to the lesson.” His friend tsked, but complied, and all of the other students returned to their seats as well. Izuku met his sensei’s eyes, but the man just turned away. Like always.
The rest of the day passed like it always did, students and teachers walking on eggshells around Izuku, not willing to outright attack him, but equally unwilling to treat him like he was normal. He ignored them all, but it still hurt, all of these years later. Bakugou was the only one that hadn’t changed over the years, the only one that still thought he could be a hero, even if he was pretty blunt about things.
“You need to learn to defend yourself, nerd.”
“Defending myself just gets me in trouble.”
“Tch. Do it better then!”
“Hey Bakugou! Want to head over to the arcade?” Komatsu yelled out over the classroom as everyone started packing up to go home. Izuku himself was still scrolling through the news for any hero fights that he’d missed during the school day. He didn’t snap out of his focus until someone snatched his notebook off his desk.
“No wonder you were late this morning,” Bakugou said as he flipped through the notebook.
“Ah Kacchan. I’m not done with that!” Izuku reached for his notes but Bakugou snapped the book shut and held it up high. Izuku could use his quirk to pull it back, but his classmates were all so weird about it.
“You coming to the arcade with us?” Bakugou was facing him, so he couldn’t see, but Izuku had a clear view of Komatsu and Kenta flinch. They invited Kacchan, not him.
“No, thanks though.” The students’ shoulders fell in relief and Izuku tried not to feel insulted. “I have to head over to the Quirk Registry office today anyway.” The tension in the room immediately shot back up.
“Oh...did you get another one? Again?” Aya asked. The classroom was silent as students abandoned their packing and instead side-eyed Midoriya. His skin itched at their attention.
“No, I just need to officially update my registry. I came up with a more accurate description.” Again, the tension suddenly dropped as they all sighed in relief. All but Kacchan, who looked ready to blow something up.
“Fine,” he tossed the notebook back onto the desk. “We’ll be at Tatooin.” The ‘if you want to catch up’ went unsaid.
“Thanks Kacchan!” Sometimes Izuku wished he’d actually speak all of the support that went unsaid.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Later Deku.”
Izuku packed up his own desk and left the room. Other students shuffled away from him in the halls, afraid to get near him while also trying to hide that fact. People found his quirk weird, but other than a few incidents years ago, they left him alone.It was almost funny how Bakugou could blow up a desk every week and no one bats an eye. Izuku even looks at too long and they act like he’ll attack.
He tugged on his ears as he hit the streets towards the registrars’ office. His tinnitus was acting up something awful today. His mother worried about the faint whispering and scratching that bothered him intermittently. His pediatrician assured them it was nothing to worry about since it didn’t interfere with his ability to focus, it was just annoying. She’d offered a referral to an otolaryngology office, but specialists were a no-go since the disaster visit when he was four.
The phantom sounds grew louder in Izuku’s ears as he crossed under the bridge. It was distracting. “A medium-sized body to hide in! How lucky.”
Izuku’s head shot up as a massive blob of sludge rose out of the sewer grate behind him. He focused on the exit and shifted, his backpack falling straight to the ground and spilling its contents all over the walkway. Izuku reappeared towards the end of the tunnel but hadn’t made it all the way out, his panic was messing with his focus. Slime glomped on his back as the villain grabbed him. “What a nice quirk!” Cold liquid started to climb up his face, blocking his vision. “Calm down, I’m just hijacking your body. It won’t hurt much longer!”
Izuku clawed at the rising goop, but it was no use. There was nothing to pull at, nothing to leverage against. Terror consumed his mind just as the sludge consumed his entire body. He couldn’t see, so he couldn’t shift, and the viscosity of the liquid kept him from just running away. “It’ll all be over soon, just relax.” The villain’s voice crooning right in his ear made his skin crawl even more disgusting than being suffocated. “You’re a real hero, saving my life like this.”
His struggles slowed as Izuku burned through his oxygen. ‘I don’t want to die!’ He could hear his heart pounding, vision fading, and the whispers growing. He couldn’t breathe.
Don’t let them do this to you
He didn’t need to breathe.
Izuku's body began to twist and lose shape, but not in time to fight the creeping darkness any longer. He blacked out right as the manhole cover once again exploded behind them.
“Fear not! I am here!”