Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya felt like he was finally free of all the bad things that had happened in his life.
While he fell, the words Kacchan had said echoed in his head “If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life... go take a swan dive off the roof”.
Well, Kacchan wouldn’t be able to say Izuku hadn’t followed his advice.
The thing about jumping off a building is all the “hitting the ground” part. Theoretically quick and painless, but that was not what happened in reality.
The first thing Izuku felt when he stopped falling was numbness. He couldn’t hear any sounds, couldn’t smell any scent. For god’s sake, he couldn’t even taste the blood that most definitely was in his mouth.
For a whole moment the boy thought he was dead. But then the pain came. A pain to big to be expressed in words. Everything in the world revolved around that horrible feeling that took over all his other senses.
He knew it was the end. It would be a painful one, but at least he wouldn’t have to endure any more of the bullying that he had been put through for the last ten years.
Or so he thought.
His body was slowly, but definitely, feeling less sore. It could have been death, but he didn’t thought that, once he got to the afterlife, there would be someone muttering that everything would be fine, that he needed to be strong.
His body was changing. And it wasn’t something that felt good. He could feel his arms and legs getting harder and the pain was fading. It was weird.
As soon as his eyes were working properly, he could see, in a reddish tone, a girl that had her hands placed on his chest.
She was... crying?
“Please stay alive, please,” her voice was hoarse and her face had wet lines that started at her eyes and went all the way down to her chin. There were a few red stains on her face and shirt, probably blood. His blood.
“Wha-,” Izuku tried to speak but nothing would come out. It felt like somebody was trying to rip his voice chords out of his throat.
“Oh, Christ, you’re alive!”, she almost screamed while moving her hands around the boy's body. “I’m making sure there is no more internal or external bleeding. I’ll fix the other things as soon as I’m done with this. Please hang in there for me.”
Izuku wasn’t able to say anything back. He just closed his eyes while trying to endure the pain that took all over his body.
By the time the girl ended what she was doing, that excruciating feeling was gone, replaced by a lighter version; bearable for him after all those times he had been hit by his bullies.
“Who are you?”, he was able to say while the girl helped him sit, leaning against the wall.
He had chosen a dark and smaller alley in a far and more dangerous neighborhood to jump because it would not disturb many people, which meant that it was definitely not the cleanest place nor the one with the best smell. It made no sense for a girl like that to be walking on this part of town.
“My name is Shufuku Yui”, she answered while adding some distance between her and the bloodied boy that had almost died.
“You saved me”, Izuku said it, almost like a question.
“Of course I did. When I saw you jump I...”
“Why’d you do that?”, she got confused with the question when she saw that his eyes were actually showing surprise.
“I think I should be the one that asks that”, Yui said, feeling a bit shocked when she realized what had actually happened. That boy in front of her would have died. Literally died.
“I guess I just don’t want to keep living a useless life”, Izuku said while he buried his face between his hands, trying his best to hold the tears that threatened to fall.
“No life is useless”, Yui said quickly. Too quickly for Izuku’s taste. She didn’t know the truth about him. She didn’t know that he was a useless deku and no one actually believed that he could pursue his dream. Not even his own mother did.
“Yeah, right”, Izuku sniffed and took a deep breath. “My entire life has been literal hell. I can’t do one single thing right. I can’t even die properly, without getting in somebody’s way or something. And now I made you lose time and energy healing somebody that won’t even make a difference in society.”
His body felt heavy. Izuku leaned against the wall trying to process all the information.
“Wow, don’t be so pessimistic”, the girl said while getting closer, trying to make him look at her. “If it means anything, this helped me a lot.”
“What do you mean?”, Izuku asked, finally getting the courage to look at the girl in the eyes. She had an ordinary face, probably wouldn’t draw attention in a crowd.
“I’m actually studying to become a doctor, since my quirk comes in handy.”, she said with a little excitement. “It was an opportunity for me. I am completely sure I want to help out people now.”
“Yeah, whatever”, Izuku whispered while looking down at the blood puddle that reflected the dim light coming from a pole.
“And it was a chance for me to learn something new”, the girl said it while scratching her neck. “I had no idea that when somebody nearly dies it can damage that person’s quirk genes.”
Izuku’s head moved so fast that he got dizzy for a moment.
“Genes for what?”, even though he felt like screaming, he didn’t. His voice was disturbingly calm, as if he lost control of it, he would lose control of everything else.
“You quirk genes. The ones that specify what quirk you have and how it works.”, she said casually. “You know, you probably had had this class before.”
“I know what a quirk gene is but...”, he didn’t knew if he should tell her. She may react like the other people and actually realize how a waste of time he was. Saving the life of a quirkless kid... but then, how did she feel a quirk gene in someone that hadn’t had one? “I was diagnosed quirkless when I was four years old.”
The words were hard to say. They tasted bitter and almost made his tongue numb. He waited for the angry reaction he had seen multiple times in doctors' faces. He waited for her to snap, to go away, to laugh or to say that it would have been better if she hadn’t rescued him. He knew it was true.
But she didn’t.
“Are you sure?”, the question was so ridiculous that he felt like laughing. Of course he was sure. For the past ten years his classmates had gone out of their way, done everything to make sure Izuku knew how inferior he was.
“Yes, I am. The doctor even showed me this x-ray of my foot, showing me that I had the second joint in my little toe finger”, Izuku started blinking fast while he tried to stop the tears from falling. He was too emotionally drained to bake over old memories. Especially the bad ones.
“Well, he must have made some mistake then, because you definitely have a quirk gene”, she said while getting up. Izuku could notice a small trembling at her bloodied hand.
“But-“, Izuku wanted to talk about it. It made no sense. If what she was saying was true, then what could have happened to make his quirk so hard to show up? And... that doctor? Did he read the files correctly? It was so confusing, his head was spinning and aching. All he wanted was to forget everything that had happened.
But if it was possible, if he actually had a quirk, then maybe... just maybe he could... no! He didn’t want to get his hopes high just to have his dream crushed again. It would hurt too much. But...
“Listen, I really should be going home now and you too," she said with a chracking voice. "especially to change your clothes”, Yui made sure she wasn’t a mess. Way easier than it would be for Izuku. “But you should maybe ask your school counselor for help? Quirks are genetic, so aim for one of your parents’ quirks and it should be easy to figure it out, okay? Hope you get better, kid.”
Then she left. As quickly as she'd appeared. And Izuku was alone to think.
He really shouldn’t get his hopes high but... she sounded so confident.