Incubator - Handful_Of_Stars - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1: Do You Want To Make A Contract?

Chapter Text

Bakugou Katsuki was born quirkless. Mitsuki and Masaru had decided to make the decision early and see whether or not he had the toe joint. It was on a whim, a small suggestion the doctor had made when discussing the baby’s health. They didn’t think too much of it, they knew whether or not he had a quirk wouldn’t change their love for him. Regardless, the extra toe joint was still a surprise.

Midoriya Izuku was born with a quirk. Or at the very least, Inko assumed he had a type of quirk, if the red egg shape on his back and the golden rings that float around his wrists were any indication. They doctors told her he must have some strong emitter quirk if signs of the ability were showing up this early. It was even rarer since both signs were something that certainly wasn’t on her side of the family and something Hisashi himself didn’t think existed either. Though, since his death she hasn't been able to find any living relatives that could possibly explain the strange quirk.

So when Mitsuki, an old friend of Inko, moved close to be by her friend who recently lost her husband and was left with a child, it was inevitable that the two boys would grow together.

The first hint at Izuku’s quirk was the night of Inko’s anniversary. He was 7, short and skinny but she would compare her little Izuku to a bunny. She had put him to sleep earlier than usual, her emotions rolling deep within her stomach. It's been seven years since the death of her husband, but their anniversary was a night she couldn't help but miss him the most. Mitsuki had called earlier, asking if her and Izuku wanted to spend the night. The boys already got along great and they would simply put on an All Might marathon and they were good for the rest of the day into the night. She didn’t want Inko to be alone.

But when Inko woke up, being alone was all she wanted. The tasks of caring for a child seemed more tiresome, something she didn’t want to do, no matter how much she loved Izuku. Regardless, she pushed through, feeding Izuku and making sure he was entertained and distracted. So busy in her mind, she never noticed the way Izuku would stare at her, his eyes catching on to something that clung to her like a shadow.

So she ignored her heart, ignored the emotions rattling under the surface, and took care of him. She spent the rest of the day ignoring it, until she put Izuku to bed, and let it go. Tears blurred her vision and fell onto the framed photo of her and Hisashi at their wedding. Her smile was bright in the photo, she was clinging onto her husband with her head leaning onto his shoulder. The widow now mourned it, lost in the memories of when she was with him.

Her despair created a dark miasma over her head. Too focused on her emotions, she never noticed her son peeking in through the slit of the door, eyeing the miasma that gathered in a cloud over her head.. He watched as the darkness formed a type of egg with a needle pointing from the bottom. At the top was the symbol of a wing and on the face of the black and silver egg was a heart. It hovered ominously above Inko as her the cloud solidified and flowed into the dark shape.

Izuku wasn’t sure what he was feeling, could almost describe it as a hunger. He went through the day watching his mom work almost mechanically. And the feeling grew. So when the night came and he was left alone, the feeling grew almost too much. He was in pain for how hungry he was. His original intention was to ask his mom for something to eat, something small. But as he watched as she bent over a photo and the despair culminated, he grew ravenous.

He reached a hand out toward the egg and saw it vibrate in the air. It's shape blurred before popping up to float on top of his hand. Grabbing it by the bottom of it’s stem, Izuku opened his mouth impossibly wide and swallowed the entire thing in one gulp. The red circle and the golden wristbands glowed softly before quickly dying out.

Inko rose slowly from curling over the picture. The last of her tears dropped from her face and she wiped the excess from her eyes. She felt lighter than before, less haunted from her emotions. The oppressive feeling of being overworked by her emotions, a Midoriya staple if her family had any say, was gone. She still felt a bit bitter, sad, angry, and everything else she felt from before but it all felt lighter.

“Mama?” She turned fast and saw her boy with a hand over his stomach. “Thank you for the meal.”

Inko blinked at her son as he patted his stomach and burped. She was so confused she couldn’t even correct him.

“I was so hungry and I saw you were sad.” He commented, almost to himself. Inko began connecting the dots. Did Izuku have something to do with her emotions being lightened in a way?

“Mama, I’m sleepy now.” He yawned wide to prove his point. Inko blinked again before shaking her head. It didn’t matter now, they could figure it out later.

Right now, she had a son to take care of.

After that incident, Inko didn’t feel that level of sadness in quite a long time, so she couldn’t quite test it either. It wasn’t until Izuku entered middle school that another incident revealed another aspect of his quirk.

Katsuki’s quirkless status wasn’t something many people knew. He didn’t advertise it, but he never got the chance too. As someone as angry, loud, and smart as Katsuki, no one thought to ask. He still aspired to be a hero, something expected from a boy like him. So it was a given he had a quirk, just one he never showed. He never mentioned his small doubts of can someone quirkless actually be a hero? Could someone like Katsuki, despite being determined enough, angry enough, scared enough, be a hero despite being quirkless? He didn’t know the answer, but he could try.

On the other hand, people knew Izuku had a quirk. The bands on his wrists were obvious to everyone so he must have some sort of quirk. No one was brave enough to ask either since he stuck close to Katsuki like a shadow to his brightness. Katsuki shied away from talking about his quirkless status, but he never brought it up unless he had too. He also never thought to ask Izuku about his, just insecure enough that he didn’t want to harm the potentially fragile friendship with his one friend who believed in him.

His mother forced him into martial arts classes because “quirkless or not, you need to learn.” Inko thought it was a great idea and had Izuku join him too, not that Katsuki minded. Izuku was the only person Katsuki didn’t mind, even if Izuku’s intense staring could get to him sometimes. That was another thing about Izuku people tended to be wary about. His eyes were often so intense. Wide, stormy green, and constantly felt like they could straight through you. Katsuki has been on the other end of it enough times to know it only takes once to be scared of it. Izuku never really does anything, but more people tend to fear more of what they could imagine versus what could actually be done. Katsuki is sure that Izuku knows that people are scared of his looks, the little sh*t, as he used it enough times to scare off folks that were bothering him or Katsuki. He especially does it when someone makes an offhand remark about quirkless people, much faster than Katsuki could even make a scene about it.

But it only takes an incident to make Katsuki painfully aware that a quirk can change someone’s ability to deal with opponents.

It was on a day that was like any other. An unremarkable morning with an unremarkable school day. Izuku had assumed that this pattern would continue on their way home. But Izuku can’t tell the future.

A hand grabbed the smaller, green haired boy and forced him into the alley. Katsuki opened his mouth to shout before another hand grabbed him and pulled him too. The evening sun was set low in the sky, allowing the alley to be especially dark where the sun couldn’t hit it. Katsuki raked his eyes across the darkness and the barest of light could allow him to see a tall man with multiple arms. He held Izuku tightly despite his struggle in two hands on his left side while holding Bakugou to the wall on his left.

“Let us go, you bastard!” Katsuki roared before the man’s hand adjusted and covered his mouth. The villain sighed as he turned away from Katsuki and looked down at Izuku who trembled in his large hands.

“I suppose this is as good as any to prove myself to those dolts, though I wish they’d ask me to do something more flashy.” The man said, almost bored with the two. Katsuki growled as the villain slowly turned his head to look at Katsuki with sleepy eyes.

“I guess two killing two kids is as good as anything.” Without giving Katsuki the time to protest, he rose his hand high above them both and slammed Izuku on the concrete floors.

The snap of a bone echoed in Katsuki’s skull, loud and deafening as it echoed in the quiet of the alleyway. The man raised Izuku back up slowly, his nose bloody and obviously broken from the concrete. Katsuki barely felt the tears of frustration slide down as he cheeks as his struggle barely bothered the villain. The man turned his head back to Katsuki and raised one eyebrow.

“I would’ve expected some type of quirk at this point. It must be hard to have a useless quirk that can’t even save your friend.” He raised Izuku higher into the air, intending to slam him down again. Katsuki cried uselessly into the villain’s palm, his tears blurring his vision. He closed his eyes despite still hearing the sound of Izuku slamming into the pavement once again.

The sound of static filled the air, the shock of it momentarily taking Katsuki out of his despair. He opened his eyes and saw the blood splatter around Izuku, but this time he was different. Izuku laid on the floor, cheek pressed against the concrete and stared at Katsuki, his green eyes now a haunting, glowing red.

Do you want to make a contract, Kacchan?

Katsuki jerked back against the wall, the voice of Izuku and something more sinister echoed in his head. The two voices overlaid against one another, perfectly paired within his head.

Do you wish to save me, Kacchan?

Katsuki looked up and saw the villain hadn’t noticed, completely frozen in time. He turned outside the alleyway, a fountain in the distance. The water had stopped moving. He turned back to Izuku, his eyes still a haunting red but he still hadn’t moved.

Do you want to be a hero, Kacchan?

He did. He so badly wants to be a hero. But he couldn’t be one. Not without a quirk. Not without something that could allow him some sort of advantage. He stared at Izuku as a pleased smile stretched his face, his broken, bloody nose bright against his pale skin.

Make a contract with me, Kacchan. I can grant you your wish.

He didn’t know what was going on. He didn’t know what happened to Izuku. But, he wants to save him, like a hero. He can’t miss his chance. He yelled into his captor’s hand.

“I wish I could destroy every villain in my way to protect Izuku!”

A beam of bright orange light connected Izuku and Katsuki. The blond could only stare in surprise as a ball began forming in between them. First, a ring appeared with deep black symbols of an unknown language. An egg formed right next to it, decorated in gold. On the top of it’s glowing orange body was the symbol of an explosion, which was also at the front of it. The ring then floated toward Katsuki and exited the beam before sliding itself down his left middle finger. The egg shaped gem traveled to Izuku, who opened his mouth impossibly wide and swallowed the thing whole.

The contract has been made. Good luck, Kacchan.

Time resumed in that moment. The villain picked Izuku back up from the ground, intending to slam him down again. Katsuki looked up and screamed into the hand, keeping him silent. The villain hummed as he felt the vibration in his hand.

Katsuki felt like he was burning, an energy was growing and churning in his chest before it traveled down to his hands. He turned his arms and gripped the villain tight. A glow emitted from his palm before smoke flowed from where his hands were connected to his captors.

With a curse, the villain let go of Katsuki who rolled on the pavement. Turning sharp, he launched himself toward the center of the villain. Dodging an arm that tried to grab him, he pushed a palm toward the man’s chest. With a roar, an explosion propelled the villain backwards, dropping Izuku from his high up position. Katsuki stumbled backwards before jumping back and grabbing Izuku midair. The green-haired boy was unconscious and hurt, but Katsuki was glad he wasn’t in the villain’s hands anymore.

“You little sh*t! You were hiding a quirk in there, huh. Think you’ve made a fool of me, I’ll show you!” The villain launched more hands at the boys, arms elongated and spider-like in precision. Katsuki raised hands and set off multiple explosions in succession, burning the hands that got close and releasing a large amount of smoke. The blond didn’t waste the opportunity and grabbed Izuku before running out the alleyway.

He almost dropped Izuku when he bumped straight into a man wearing all black with white scarves piling around his neck. His hair most of his face, barely showing the yellow goggles he wore underneath.

“Hey, kid-”

“There’s a villain! In the alleyway, with multiple hands. I need to go to the hospital! Where’s the closest hospital?” Katsuki spoke over the man, panic hammering in his chest. The man nodded before pointing him down the street.

“Down the street, take your first left. Should be nearby. I’ll take care of this.” With that, the hero ran into the smoke of the alley while Katsuki ran down the street, Izuku’s blood dripping onto the pavement.

It took a bit of a fight from the hospital staff to get Katsuki to let go of Izuku, but he knew that they were right. He was being overprotective is all. The nurses were also quick to get away from him once they believed that he truly wasn’t hurt from the encounter, so he was left to contemplate in the hallway.

He twisted the newly appeared ring around his finger, it’s strange symbols stark against its silver. The nail of his middle finger also gained a symbol, the same orange explosion on that egg thing that Izuku ate. It wasn’t paint, it was like it was a part of his nail, there since the very beginning.

‘Like a quirk.’ The thought made him turn over his hand and look at his palm. His hands weren’t clammy before but he can’t tell if it was because of the situation or something else. Using the same feeling before, but calmer, smaller, he wasn’t surprised to see small sparks light from his hands. He clenched his hands. His wish actually came true, some sort of side-effect of Izuku’s quirk. A vision of glowing red eyes flashed in his head. So Izuku did have a practical use for his quirk. Granting wishes? He gave Katsuki a whole quirk, something that should’ve been impossible with the extra bone in his body.

Katsuki rubbed his eyes with his palm, the thinking overwhelming his already tired body.

“Katsuki!” He barely turned his head before his face was shoved into his mom’s chest. He grabbed her shirt and allowed himself to just tighten his grip but relax his body into his mom’s hold. He felt his dad’s hand rub his back.

“Katsuki-kun, please tell us what happened.” He heard the voice of Izuku’s mom ask softly from beside him. He took in a shaky breath before letting himself go from his mother’s arm.

“I would actually like to hear that too.” The four turned and saw a man wearing a long coat over a professional uniform. “Detective Tsukauchi, at your service. I was hoping to ask some questions about the incident but I’ll let you retell your story.”

Katsuki nodded to himself and began the story of all that happened. Auntie Inko had a look in her eye, her own memories rising to the stuff. His own mom and dad were just concerned as the detective wrote down his statement.

“Thank you for telling me everything that happened. I will be in contact later, Ms. Midoriya. Izuku’s quirk has some telling effects so I would prefer if you all kept it under wraps.” With that, the detective closed his pocket book and left the family to deal with everything.

“Inko, has anything happened like this before?” Katsuki’s mom looked worriedly at her best friend. Auntie brought a hand to her mouth, her head deep in thought.

“I think...it was on the anniversary of Hisashi and I’s wedding.” She began retelling the story of the immense sadness she felt at that time. “It was all boiling up to a point before it all just stopped. I know myself, I would’ve normally cried for much longer than that. But it all had stopped so suddenly and then there was Izuku. Just sitting in the doorway, thanking me for a meal. I have no idea what happened but I think that might’ve something to do with his quirk.”

The adults plus Katsuki only looked at the ground, deep in thought. This was unheard of. Sure, there were quirks that were unnaturally powerful, All Might and Endeavor come to mind, but a quirk that freely gives quirks to other people? Katsuki stared at the ring and symbol on his middle finger.

“I think this has something to do with it.” The adults looked at the ring on his finger, barely even noticing despite how thick it was. Katsuki took it off, intending to show it to his mom. The second the ring left his finger, he fell unconscious.

The adults scrambled as Katsuki’s body went limp. His mom quickly grabbed him and held him to her chest while his dad shook his shoulder. Inko gasped before looking at the ring that fell to the floor. She witnessed as the darkness of the runes on the ring slowly spread across it’s silver. Suddenly, she heard the doctor’s in Izuku’s room shouting about a seizure.

The ring. Put back the ring.

A voice, similar to Izuku yet not, rang in her head. Mechanically, she reached down and grabbed the ring from where it fell. Ignoring Mitsuki’s yelling, she gently slid the ring back onto Katsuki’s finger.

It took only a moment before the boy came back to life, gasping loud as his body refilled with air. He coughed as his parents fussed over him for a moment. Inko was dimly aware of Izuku’s room quieting from the ruckus earlier. She stared wide-eyed as the inky darkness of the ring slowly went back into the runes it held before.

Chapter 2: Why Do You Want To Be A Hero?

Chapter Text

The smell of the hospital was crisp to Izuku’s senses.

He opened his eyes slowly, the bright white of the room was obtrusive to his sensitive eyes. Memories filtered in and out, but everything was more blurry than not. He shuffled up so he could sit up from the bed. He noticed his mom was sitting on a chair near his bed.

“Mama?” He whispered. The older woman blinked a few times before realizing someone called her name. Izuku gave a small wave when she jolted after fully realizing that Izuku was awake. She scrambled to his bedside.

“Oh, Izuku, I’m so glad you’re awake. Do you remember what happened?” Izuku gave a slight shake of his head. The memories were still blurry, despite awareness slowly coming back to him. “You were attacked, you and Katsuki-”

“Is Katsuki okay?” He grabbed her arm that was checking on him.

“Yes, he’s fine. You were the one that was injured. Fractures across the body and horribly broken nose. Thankfully, Recovery Girl happened to be visiting and was able to give you a much better healing process than normal.” Izuku lifted his hand and felt his nose, nothing felt out of place, causing Inko to giggle at his inquisitive look.

“More importantly, Izuku, do you remember what you did?” Izuku tilted his head, unsure of what she was talking about. He shook his head anyway. “You used your quirk.”

Izuku raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was somewhat aware of himself having a quirk. Obviously, no one was unaware of the golden rings around his wrists or the red oval his mother said decorated his back. But his quirk never had an active effect, at least not he knew of.

“You gave Katsuki a quirk, you granted a-” Inko let go of his hands to do some air quotes, “-wish of some sort. Whatever you did, Katsuki can now set off explosions from his hands. Do you remember any of that?”

Izuku racked his brain, as sleep addled as it was, for any memory of the event. He can remember now when the villain had slammed him on the concrete, and memory alone wracked his body with a slight phantom pain. The second slam was blurry, but he knew it happened. The memories were blank after that, he repeated to his mom who put a hand to her mouth.

“This isn’t the first time something strange happened around you, Izuku.” His mom went on to explain the incident of when he was younger. He did remember the feeling of hunger then. It was deep and almost controlled him more than he controlled it. But he couldn’t remember everything about it.

“So, both incidents you don’t remember. Maybe they both put you in a type of coma from using your quirk. Regardless, a detective came by earlier. He said to make sure not to tell anyone about how you gave someone a quirk.” Izuku nodded. It made sense, he would probably be bombarded if people found out he could give out quirks like that. That type of power seemed scary to him in the sense that he wasn’t even aware that he did it. He wondered if there was a way for him to use it in a physical aspect. Wishmaking wasn’t a power that seemed to help physically as a hero. I mean, maybe he could ask people to wish away the danger but that didn’t seem likely, especially if the person was panicking. This required some testing.

“The doctors are planning on releasing you soon. So we’ll be able to visit the Bakugous' as soon as we get back. Did you want to get food on the way back?”

Izuku hummed and tried to focus on the feeling in his stomach. He turned to his mom and said:

“I actually feel a little full, somehow.”

Since Izuku stayed overnight, he and his mom left the hospital midday the day after the incident. When they got there, Katsuki and Izuku were able to sneak off to the blond’s room once the families had settled into the kitchen. The parents knew the two wanted to talk and if Katsuki wanted to personally see if Izuku was okay, well that was his business.

Izuku blinked when Katsuki shoved his hand into Izuku’s face. “When we made that contract, this showed up on my hand.”

The silver ring on his finger gleamed in the light that streamed into Katsuki’s room. The runes felt familiar, in a way that Izuku couldn’t quite figure out. The orange symbol on the blond’s nail was bright against his pale skin. Katsuki turned his hand over and let out a couple of sparks.

“Whatever we did caused me to be able to make explosions from my hands, and I was beginning to test out if it was possible to use it from other limbs. Doesn’t seem to be the case though.” Katsuki let out a small pout at this omission, which Izuku let out a small giggle at.

“Apparently, when the old hag tried to take off the ring I passed out. Said it looked like I died for a second. Only when Auntie Inko put it back on me that I came back. The ring is important, along with the egg.” Izuku nodded, vaguely remembered about how he also made an egg with the ring and ate it. A warm feeling burned in his gut as the dim lights in the room allowed for a small glow to come from his back. Katsuki blinked but was quick to turn Izuku around and lift his shirt, despite his red face.

The red oval on his back was releasing a slight glow. With a popping sound, the oval opened up to reveal a deep darkness within Izuku’s back before launching out the glowing orange egg that Katsuki had thought he ate. Izuku turned back around and saw the egg slowly float down between the two boys. Katsuki was right in its description, it was bright, cheery orange. The same symbol on his nail was on the top and was also at the front of it.

Izuku let out his hand and it softly landed, barely weighing a thing. The two boys stared at the glowing egg as it sat innocently on his palm.

“I-Is this what you were talking about?” Katsuki nodded slowly at Izuku’s question, still reeling from seeing inside of Izuku and only seeing pure darkness. Not to mention the eternal darkness popping out a glowing orange egg.

Izuku gripped the egg and turned it over, the same decoration the same on all sides. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with it, all things considered. It was just an egg.

“Just what the hell is this supposed to be anyway?”

“Maybe it’s like the equivalent of your ring? You get a ring and I get an egg. Obviously I ate it for a reason, so I guess I was supposed to keep it.” Izuku put a hand on his chin in thought, the glow illuminating his face.

“How the f*ck does that make sense?”

“Don’t ask me, ask whatever took over me when it happened. If that happens again.” Izuku turned the egg, the glowing substance inside sloshing within its confines. As Izuku stared at it, a growing feeling rolled around in his chest. He was unaware of his green eyes turning a slight shade of red. Katsuki stayed silent and wide-eyed as he saw Izuku grab the egg by the symbol on the top and hang it over his mouth like a grape. Izuku opened his jaw impossibly wide and lowered the egg into his mouth before swallowing it whole, only vaguely aware of his actions. The sound of gulp was particularly loud in the room.

“...What the hell did I just do?” Izuku whispered, the sunlight returning to be the only light in the room.

“I’m not even sure as to what I just witnessed. Your eyes did turn red again, so at least we know that happens when you use your quirk.” Izuku flinched as he felt a tug on his hair until Katsuki pulled out a strand.

“When did your hair start turning white?”

For weeks, Katsuki and Izuku did everything they could think of in terms of trying out how his quirk worked, or at least how to activate it again. However, none of it seemed to bear any fruit. They didn’t seem to get into a desperate enough situation to force Izuku into that weird zen state, but Izuku seemed to think that maybe it was one wish per person.

“It’s not like I’m a genie or anything, so it probably makes sense that I could only grant one wish per person.” He said to Katsuki’s growing annoyance. That being said, they made leaps and bounds with Katsuki’s quirk, who was a natural at using the explosions both in pure power and acrobatics. The quirk was perfect for someone like Katsuki, it made his dreams of attending UA seem all the more tangible.

Izuku was glad he could give something like that to his only friend. That he didn’t have to lie anymore about his formerly quirkless status. Thankfully, his parents decided that when asked it only made sense for Katsuki to get a quirk like that, saying it was a fusion of his mother’s glycerin quirk and his father’s acid sweat. That being said, Izuku couldn’t help but feel a little bitter about how he gave someone else a useful quirk and was left with nothing.

He guessed it was these thoughts that led him to Dagobah beach. The smell of the ocean was oddly soothing, even if he didn’t know why. He was sort of upset in a way that felt even more frustrating because he couldn’t do a thing about it. He was born with a quirk, apparently powerful enough to give his best friend a quirk, and yet he stands just as useful as having no quirk. He and Katsuki physically practiced as much as they could so it wasn’t like he was weak, but was it enough to pass the UA exams?

His thought process was interrupted by a rumble in his stomach, but it was different. It was a different type of hunger. A scent was in the air, bitter yet enticing. Izuku followed his nose and turned further inland and saw a tall, lanky blond man sitting on a bench. Unbeknownst to the man, a cloud of miasma hung over his head. And when Izuku saw it, when he registered the miasma and miasma registered him and began to form something solid, did his hunger turn ravenous.

The memories came back to him now, his mother’s miasma forming an egg much like the blond man’s is doing now, and he should’ve remembered. He should’ve remembered the hunger that felt like he could’ve swallowed the world and still wanted more. The dark egg formed above the man’s head but it was different, the design. A smile where the wing was and the star replacing the heart. The egg, the stem, and the silver design were the same. Thinking about it, it was almost the opposite of the orange egg Katsuki had, a darker and deep version. Regardless, Izuku lifted his hand and the egg slowly floated to his outstretched fingers. And then, just like before with the egg, both bright golden and deep silver, he opened his jaw impossibly wide and consumed .

The man barely noticed, his sunken face that was sad and tearful cleared up. The emotion was still there, heavy, but not as all-consuming as it was moments ago. Izuku felt a little bad for accidentally using his quirk again.

“S-Sorry about that, sir.” The man jumped a bit off the bench.

“Ah, what?”

“M-My quirk. It reacts to extreme sadness and I- uh, for a lack of better term, eat it away.” Izuku rubbed his hands together, a soft blush staining his cheeks. The older man blinked a few times before nodding and simply accepting it.

“Was I that obvious?”

“No! I just am particularly sensitive to heavy amounts of despair-”

“Despair, huh”

“Not that you were in despair! I wasn’t sure of your situation and I just reacted and oh my god I’m so sorry-” The man cut him off with loud laughter, a hand holding his stomach as Izuku tried to wave his hands in the air and explain what he meant.

“It’s alright, my boy. I probably needed it if it was that bad.” The man rubbed his chin in contemplation, deep blue eyes thoughtful. “And how come you were out here at this hour? Dagobah beach isn’t exactly known for sight-seeing.”

“Oh, uh, I was just thinking I guess.” Izuku rubbed the back of his head, suddenly nervous as his thoughts felt childish now.

“About?”

“Well, uh-” Izuku gulped and sat down on the bench as the man moved over and patted the extra space. “My best friend has this really amazing quirk, it’s made him super strong and he can do a lot with it. We both plan to try for UA exams but I was just...jealous, I guess.” The man stayed silent, eyes never-changing, purely listening.

“I guess saying it out loud makes me feel a little dumb. I’ve always had this mysterious quirk that only worked when it wanted to so to see someone who I really admire have a quirk like that is something else. We promised each other we would both try to be heroes as kids and now I just feel like I’m falling behind.” Izuku damned his mother’s blood privately as he felt hot tears build up and run down his face.

The man handed him a napkin and Izuku quietly thanked him as he wiped the tears away. They sat in silence for a few moments, just listening to waves of the ocean, even if they couldn’t quite see it over the mountains of garbage.

“Why do you want to be a hero? Is it because of the promise you made?” The man asked quietly, a soothing tone coming from deep in his chest. Izuku thought over the question, it was Important if the humming feeling in his chest was any indication. Since he ate the man’s egg thing(he really should think of a name for these things), he felt oddly closer to him.

“Well, it’s a little bit of that but it’s more.” Izuku fiddled with his hands in his lap. “I’m a big fan of All Might, ya know?” The man coughed into his hand, but Izuku assumed he should ignore it.

“Kacchan, my best friend, and I would watch his specials and look at videos of him rescuing people. Kacchan said that All Might is the best hero because he was so strong. The way he could destroy villains in one hit and there was no one else out there that could ever come close to him.” The man hummed, taking in his words. “But that’s not why I wanted to be a hero like All Might.”

The blond man sat up more as Izuku turned toward, a different look in his eyes. Before, Izuku’s eyes were a little dull, like green moss on the forest floor, even when he was crying. Now though, with a burning feeling in his chest, the older man saw Izuku’s glow with life .

“I want to be like All Might because I want to save people. I want to smile at people when they’re in danger and tell them it’s going to be okay because I am here and it’s going to be okay. That’s why I want to be a hero, ya know?” Izuku said, a smile tilting his lips as he turned to the man who had the slightest of pleased smiles on his face.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the moment soak in. The sound of the waves and the cooing of seagulls was peaceful against their thoughts. Izuku wasn’t sure why he told the man that, not even sure why he felt comfortable doing it. But his gut was telling him the man was a good guy, and that it should be okay. The man took a deep breath and leaned back into the bench, his head facing upward and a smirk spread his lips.

“Well, then that settles it!” The man stood up from the bench, fully standing causing Izuku to crane his neck up to look at the surprisingly tall man. He rested his hands on his hips and turned to face Izuku, a large smile on his face. A smile that felt oddly familiar.

“I’ll train you!”

“W-What?” Izuku stammered as the man grinned brightly at him.

“I may not look it, but I am somewhat a pro hero. I can totally help you in exchange for you helping me with my so-called despair.” Izuku blushed at the reminder of his blunder. But he also was confused. He racked his head for any pro hero that had a similar look to the man, the only person coming was someone like All Might if only for the height similarity and the hair. Maybe they were related?

“Are you sure about that?”

“Of course! It’s a good skill in life to be sure about everything you do! And this I am sure I should do! Not only as repayment for helping me but also because I believe you have the making of a hero.” The man gave a thumbs up, a sparkle in his eye. “My name is Yagi Toshinori, you can call me Yagi-sensei.”

“O-Oh okay. My name is Midoriya Izuku, call me whatever you want.” Izuku held a blush on his face as Yagi-sensei smiled bright once again.

“Good! Let us meet again here tomorrow with workout gear around early afternoon! I’ll set up a training regime and a diet you should follow. Don’t you worry, my body, I won’t let you down!” And with that, the older laughed as he left the bench where he once almost drowned in his miasma. Izuku blinked a couple of times, slightly concerned that he just hallucinated everything that just happened. But as he heard the man laugh he felt that maybe things would be okay.

Even if that laugh was strikingly familiar in a way he couldn’t identify.

Maybe Izuku would have noticed something had he been awake. He was awfully tired when he got home, barely able to say anything to his mother as he mechanically ate dinner, took a shower, and fell straight into bed. Maybe he would have noticed after using his quirk so aggressively the past few days, feeling particularly full in a way he couldn’t recognize.

Eating what he assumed was despair would eventually do something to his body. Even if he felt like it was filling something in him, satiating a hunger that felt neverending, it was still his body consuming it.

So as his shadows stretched across his dark room, forming shapes unseen and unheard, silent growls and blinded light, maybe he would’ve noticed it.

From the tall shadows came a small form, a spike cloud of black wearing a pale grey moustache. Out of place in this world, like a drawing come to life, it shook as it stood on its feet. A small hand reached for the bed, movements jerked like it was only partially animated, climbing up, up, up onto the too tall bed. It stood above Izuku’s quiet sleeping form.

The creature’s form jerked and shifted, like the world couldn’t handle it’s existence. With a sharp cry, it leaned backwards and fell into Izuku’s elongated shadow like a drop of rain into the ocean.

With a jerk, Katsuki and Izuku woke up in separate houses, in separate beds, hearts beating fast and a cold sweat down their backs.

Chapter 3: Yagi-sensei

Chapter Text

“Ah, young Midoriya! Good morning to you...and?”

Izuku rubbed the back of his head as Katsuki glared heavily at Yagi who only blinked a few times at the unexpected arrival. The teen sighed as his blond best friend refused to introduce himself.

“Sorry, Yagi-sensei. This is Bakugou Katsuki, my best friend. I told my family last night what happened yesterday and my mom agreed to let me come if I brought Kacchan with me.” That and Kacchan refused to let him go unless he could go and ‘make sure this guy wasn’t taking advantage of how much of an idiot you are.’ Not that Yagi-sensei needed to know that.

“Ah, no harm, my boy. Hello, young Bakugou-san! It’s so nice to see young Midoriya’s friend care for him!” Yagi guffawed as Kacchan’s face slowly grew red.

“Not in your life, old man! I’m just makin’ sure that Izuku’s not being an idiot and being fooled by crazy old men!” He roared, but was completely ignored as Yagi-sensei just kept laughing. It took a minute for him to stop, Kacchan’s growl was loud in his ears until Izuku pinched the blond’s own.

“Calm down, I think Yagi-sensei won’t lead me astray. And now you’re here to watch too.” Kacchan grumbled as he folded his arms across his chest and turned away. Izuku smiled indulgently before turning back to Yagi-sensei who was wiping his mouth with a handkerchief.

“Well, I don’t plan for you to do much in the beginning, mostly seeing where your limits are.” The tall blond man turned toward the bench where a bag laid. He took out a small stack of papers and showed Izuku the cover. ‘Food and Training Regimen,’ it said.

“I’ll give you this at the end of our session, but it’s basically a list of physical practices and diet I would prefer you to follow as we go forward. While it’s good to exercise, having a healthy diet is also key!” Kacchan held a hand out and Yagi cheerfully handed it to him, the teen quickly flipping through the paper.

“This diet and exercise is going to bulk Izuku up fast, what kind of training are you trying to give him?” Kacchan raised an eyebrow as Izuku tried to glance over the paper he was holding.

“A-Ah, well,” Kacchan narrowed his red eyes as the older blond man stuttered out a reply. He cleared his throat before starting again. “The main quality of heroes is strength! Having the muscles to be able to use this strength is necessary. Also, young Midoriya is not exactly the picture of strength of any kind right now, forgive me.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I know that I’m a bit scrawny at the moment.” Izuku waved his hand in the air in agreement. Both him and Kacchan were in their last year of middle school so it doesn’t surprise that they were both small, even if Kacchan had his own personal workout routine that Izuku sometimes joined in. He also changed it to fit his new quirk.

“At the moment, I plan to simply put muscles on Midoriya. Later we will decide on what kind of style will fit him best and from there adjust his diet and exercise.” Izuku nodded as Kacchan grunted and held onto the stack of papers.

“I’ll give this auntie when we head back. I’m planning on staying here and working out on my own to keep an eye on you. So don’t get any funny ideas.” Katsuki glared again. Yagi nodded but seemed unperturbed at his glares and turned back to Izuku.

“Are you ready, young Midoriya?”

“Yes!”

Despite Yagi-sensei's skeletal appearance, he ran Izuku ragged . The next week of training with the older man was testing every limit that Izuku had, even some that he didn’t know he had. Apparently his body was a lot more durable than they originally thought so he supposed that was good. Yagi-sensei said it was important to know his limits now so that way when he began more specific training he could see how he grew later on. That being said, Izuku felt that even after a week he was completely winded. Even today was a bit more casual than some other days.

Izuku felt his heart hammer in his chest as he finally finished the last lap he was assigned. He flinched as a cold bottle of water touched the side of his face. He looked up and saw Kacchan’s smirking face, hiding the concern in his red eyes. Izuku smiled as he grabbed the bottle, unscrewed the top, and almost drank the entire thing in one go.

“Slow down. Drinking all that water won’t help you out as much as you think, you’ll only hurt your stomach.” Kacchan leaned his weight onto one foot while he glared at Izuku, who only gasped as he finished drinking.

“But Kacchan,” Izuku whined. “I’m so thirsty. And it’s so hot.” The afternoon sun had blazed down on the two teens but was only slightly cooling down as it approached the later hours. Yagi-sensei agreed to training in the late afternoon when neither teens had school and exercised early on Saturday with a break on sunday.

Kacchan only shook his head as he grabbed the green-haired teen’s arm and forced him to sit down on a nearby bench. Yagi-sensei had led them to a park and was talking to an officer nearby. Detective Tsukauchi apparently knew Yagi-sensei since he was also there, but Izuku assumed that made sense since the older man was apparently a pro hero.

That was something Kacchan and him talked about at length during the week after training. He said he was a hero but Izuku didn’t recognize him at all. Kacchan didn’t either, but did think he was talking about All Might when he talked about the guy’s hair. Maybe he was related? Not that the two asked yet since they were more focused on training, but Izuku kept the thought at the back of his mind.

The older blond man had been drilling Izuku on different sets and other exercises, writing down his physical limits before going onto the next exercise. The teen’s muscles were screaming at him, but he sort of appreciated it. It meant that he was doing something right. Kacchan had stuck with him, only leaving to do some errands that apparently auntie Mitsuki had asked him to do. Even if he didn’t want to leave Izuku alone, he also didn’t want to deal with his mother’s yelling.

That was another thing. Ever since the incident with that random villain, Kacchan has been a little bit more protective than usual. He almost seemed to have gained an extra sense of when Izuku was in danger. He almost tripped during one of his laps but out of nowhere Kacchan was there to catch him then yell at him for not watching where he ran. Izuku could only nod to placate the angry blond before he grumbled and went back to doing his personal exercises. Izuku didn’t not appreciate it, but it was a bit different from his usual.

“Young Midoriya!” Izuku almost jumped a mile into the air as Yagi-sensei yelled out his name. He turned quickly to see the older man hold a pleasant smile.

“Y-Yes Sir?”

“It seemed you were deep in thought. Perhaps a penny for them?” Yagi-sensei sat down next to Izuku on a bench, the size difference between the two seemed comical next to each other.

“I-It’s nothing too deep. I was just thinking about Kacchan.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck as he leaned back into the bench.

“Ah, young love-”

“I-It’s not like that at all!” Izuku waved his hands in the air as Yagi-sensei coughed into his handkerchief, struggling to fight a smile. Izuku grew concerned as he saw blood spots on the white cloth.

“Are you okay, Yagi-sensei?” The older blond haired man glanced toward his cloth and connected the dots to Izuku’s question.

“Yes, my boy. There is a reason you don’t see me often in the hero light. I suffered from some wounds from a battle a long time ago. I still struggle from the aftermath, but I’m doing as good as I can be.” Izuku nodded as Yagi-sensei smiled wide at the younger teen. The green haired teen hummed in discontent, but understood that he couldn’t really do much about it.

“But you mentioned something about young Bakugou?”

“O-Oh, right. Well, I talked about my quirk with you last time, right? Well, the despair eating part was only one side of my quirk. The other side is...something else.” Izuku looked down at his hands, fiddling with the strings on his shorts. Yagi-sensei tilted his head, not saying anything but still curious.

“My quirk allows me to...change things. We’ve tried testing it out but we haven’t been able to activate it on purpose. But, we guess that when I activate that side of my quirk, I have the ability to do some strange things.” If giving someone a quirk was any indication, maybe Izuku’s wish granting could do a lot of things that he wasn’t prepared for. “But because of that, I don’t know it’s limits. It activates on its own, just like when I ate your despair. It doesn’t activate often, in fact it’s only activated once. And it was with Kacchan.” The two sitting on the benches look toward Kacchan who was during some extreme stretches as he finished working out.

“What did it do?” Izuku scrambled in his head, thinking of trying to explain the situation without giving out what exactly his quirk did. Even if Yagi-sensei seemed to know Detective Tsukauchi, he probably shouldn’t reveal that side of himself.

“It...changed his quirk. Not that it gave him a different quirk, but it made his original one stronger than it before.” Izuku fumbled over his words, thinking of an explanation on the fly. “Even I’m a little fuzzy on the details. It activated during a villain attack and when I was knocked out. They said it was like something else was controlling my body, that I asked Kacchan something and then that was it. He had a stronger quirk that pushed back the villain enough for us to escape.”

“So what’s the issue? It seemed you gave Bakugou a boon more than anything.” Yagi-sensei rubbed his chin with his large hand.

“I just...I just think that maybe it changed more than his quirk. Maybe it changed something about him mentally.” Izuku thought back to how Kacchan passed out and was put in a death-like state when they took off his ring. He could feel almost like a phantom burn of the egg-shaped thing that was held deep in his body.

“How so?”

“Well, Kacchan wasn’t as protective as before. When he gets home he seems to be more...aggressively attentive? I’m not sure, but it just feels a bit different than before.” Izuku closed his eyes and tilted his head.

“And you said this all happened when you two were attacked and young Bakugou saved you, correct?” Yagi-sensei had a strange tilt to his voice when he asked, but Izuku didn’t make a note of it.

“Well yeah, I guess so.” Now Izuku was confused when Yagi-sensei seemed to have a bit of a laugh to himself. Raising an eyebrow, he waited for the older man to finish.

“I think, young Midoriya, you have nothing to worry about. I believe that Bakugou is just making sure you are all right. After all, you two faced an extreme danger without strong quirks to protect yourselves, so maybe he feels a bit protective over you since then. I wouldn’t worry about it too much and to just indulge young Bakugou when he feels particularly...aggressively attentive.” Yagi-sensei smiled like he knew a big secret that Izuku didn’t know. Izuku felt like he might have to get used to that kind of look from someone like Yagi-sensei.

“What are you two talking about?” A voice interrupted the two, looking forward and saw Kacchan had finished his finishing stretches.

“Ah, nothing important, Young Bakugou. We were simply discussing some of the dietary supplements that young Midoriya may need to take.” Yagi-sensei said as he stood from the bench, Izuku quickly followed only for his leg to buckle from exhaustion.

“You idiot, know your limits!” Kacchan growled as Izuku landed on his chest. Izuku only smiled with his eyes closed.

“Sorry Kacchan.” Neither boy noticed Yagi-sensei laugh quietly to himself as he watched the two argue amongst themselves. Yagi could laugh at how the two seemed to both bicker and care for each other.

“I’ll see you two sometime after school on Monday, then.” Yagi-sensei turned and began walking away, joyfully ignorant of Kacchan's growling glare at his back.

“Yes sir!”

“Whatever.”

School wasn’t too different since the incident. The teachers seemed to treat both Kacchan and him a little more sensitive. To treat them more like they were fragile despite the fact they were both completely fine. Regardless, both Kacchan and him agreed that they were going to hide the fact that the blond had a quirk now since they didn’t want to draw too much attention from the teachers and students around them until the UA entrance exams. Izuku wasn’t planning on telling anybody about the apparent add-ons to his quirk either.

That being said, it didn’t take long after the incident and coming back to school that people went back to being disinterested after figuring that either boys weren’t going to spill on exactly why they missed a couple of days. So of course Izuku didn’t exactly have his guard up after the school ended when he assumed that everything was going to be a repeat of yesterday.

He was walking home alone, a strange occurrence from normal when Kacchan would usually walk with him. Apparently, he had an errand to take care of his mom so they just decided they would meet up for training with Yagi-sensei. Izuku thought it made sense and was doing a light jog home.

So it was completely understandable when he wasn’t prepared for the storm drain popped open and a slime villain was quick to wrap Izuku up and shove slime into his body. The viscous fluid strained his mouth and throat as it pushed itself deeper.

“Haha, don’t worry kid, this won’t take long. I need a new body and you’re a perfectly fine candidate.” The fluid turned and slushed until it revealed a singular large eye that stared down at Izuku. The teen clawed uselessly against the liquid body of the villain who only laughed at his attempt.

“My entire body is slime, kid. There’s nothing you can do, just let me in!” Izuku felt his panic rise as his breath was slowly pushed out of him. A low buzz began filtering from the back of his head, almost dragging his attention from asphyxiating to a strange pull from within. He could feel himself almost exit his own body and something else took his place. A dull roar of the villain hit his ears, but it felt far away.

The slime villain was cackling at the teen under him, his tendrils slowly but surely entering the body. Then his tendrils stopped, not of his own accord. It was almost like something was pushing back against his slime, the slime pushing out of the green haired teen’s body. The villain growled and began putting all his strength into forcing the slime down the teen’s throat, but it didn’t work. All at once, the slime was ejected from the body in a rush, blasting against the bridge that was above them.

The slime villain gathered himself again and looked at Izuku. The green haired boy was floating in the air, but despite the sun easily shining from the sides, it felt darker than before. Darker and darker, the shadows in the small underpass seem to grow and surround the slime villain. His eyes hidden within his slime caught tiny figures running behind the shrouds of darkness that the green-haired teen was floating only slightly in front of.

Dark tendrils filled with dark colors and strange shapes launched from behind the teen’s body, piercing straight through the villain’s body. The arms happened too fast for the villain to gather himself back up and he felt his slime body slowly come apart. He screamed when a dark tendril pierced through an eye, only to look in shock when the teen abruptly fell to the floor. The darkness that shrouded the underpass was gone and the boy’s body laid there still.

The villain grunted to himself, before launching forward again in hopes of successfully catching the body. However, the slam of the storm drain hitting the roof of the underpass stopped him and he saw the tall figure of All Might stand before him.

“It seems I’ve caught up.” And with that, he pulled a fist back and punched the air so hard it blew the viscous villain even further apart.

A rapid patting of his cheek slowly brought Izuku back to awareness. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw the too bright visage of All Might standing in front of him.

He shrieked, crawling backwards until he hit a cement fence post. He clung on the back of his head as the pain radiated from the contact point. He heard All Might’s guffaw as he slowly realigned himself. He looked and saw that the blond man was like everything he was on TV. Tall, bright, strong, and had that iconic smile on his face. He felt overwhelmingly familiar in more ways than he could describe. Kacchan wasn’t going to believe this when he told him.

“It seems you are all right, my boy. Don’t worry, I was able to collect the villain into this.” He patted a bottle that contained the green sludge that he assumed was the villain. Izuku blinked, trying to recollect the memory of his apparent attack. He remembered struggling against the villain, but not too much after. He supposed the villain knocked him out and All Might took him out.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me. I put an autograph into one of your notebooks, though forgive me if that’s presumptuous of me. I’ll be off now!” The older man turned before crouching down to launch himself from the sky. Izuku panicked, he had questions to ask! He couldn’t let him go without knowing if he could make it as a hero. So with reckless abandon, he grabbed onto the hero’s leg as he launched himself into the sky.

“Y-Young Midoriya! What are you doing?” The panicked voice of All Might went over the roaring winds against Izuku’s ears. He closed his eyes and clung to the legs in his arms as he felt the weightlessness of being in the air.

“I have something I need to ask you!”

“Well, I am sure there are better ways to-”

“Please!” Izuku clung tighter to the older man’s leg. He heard the man cough into his hand and mutter a curse.

The two landed on the roof of a department building, Izuku was quick to let go of the older man’s leg and breathe for a moment, being on solid ground suddenly was much more of a blessing he took for granted. He looked up and met eyes with All Might’s slightly lowered smile, more of a spreading of lips than anything.

“Can...Can someone without a quirk be a hero?” Izuku screamed out the question, nerves and shock over being attacked and meeting his idol just gave him too much energy for himself to handle.

“Without a quirk?” All Might said, almost like he couldn’t quite believe it. But Izuku wasn’t even able to explain that when a large cloud of steam suddenly surrounded All Might’s body. Izuku blinked and as the steam slowly floated away. Suddenly a lot more things made sense.

“Yagi-sensei?”

“Ah, hello, young Midorya.”

Chapter 4: One For All

Chapter Text

“This is...not at all what I expected to happen.” Yagi coughed into his familiar handkerchief. Izuku stared unblinkingly at the older man who seemed a bit unbothered at being discovered like this. The steam slowly floated off into the air as the older blond settled into his apparent smaller form.

“I know you’re smart enough for me not to tell you this, but please be sure not to spread this knowledge as it is quite important.” Izuku could barely nod. “Now, why would you ask something like that when you have a quirk?”

“I-,” Izuku jolted, “I mean, my quirk, it’s not like Kacchans and it’s almost impossible to activate so it’s not really going to help me with being a hero. I-I just wanted to ask since you’re apparently All Might and if anyone would know…” Izuku trailed off, feeling a bit foolish at his question and still reeling from the new information. His emotions were a mixture of shock, surprise, vindication, but he was also just not sure how to feel about the discovery. Yagi-sensei put a hand on his chest and gave a thoughtful hum. He reached and pulled up the bottom of his shirt to reveal a pulsing scar that covered most of the right side of his body. Izuku felt a phantom burn on his own body.

“I got this from a fight with a villain 5 years ago. I lost a good portion of lungs along with my entire stomach.” Yagi let the shirt fall from his hands as he leaned slightly on the railing. Izuku searched in his mind about the villain who could’ve done that but he doubted someone like Toxic Chainsaw had that power.

“This is what it means to be a hero, to fight against those with immeasurable powers. I don’t know if someone without a power backing them up would be able to handle being a hero.” Izuku took in a stuttered breath, a tiny hairline crack stretched across his heart. “That being said, I do think that a power to give quirks is strong enough to fight villains.”

Izuku felt a blankness pulsate in his mind. He never told Yagi about his power, at least not that it gave Kacchan his quirk. How did he know that he could do that?

“H-How did you know that?”

“I-,” Yagi let out a small cough, “Detective Tsukauchi let me know about your case. See, your quirk abilities are similar to a powerful villain so they wanted to be sure yours wasn’t related. It was a different set of circ*mstances that led me to begin training with you.” Yagi said, his soft tone the only thing betraying the casualness of what he said.

So he was watching him. Making sure he didn’t mess up and become a villain. Izuku felt the gnawing of an emotion in his mind, a roar in the back of his head that screamed a betrayal of a bond he didn’t know he had. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling. They made All Might watch someone who apparently had the potential to be a villain, and a powerful one at that.

“I…” Izuku felt completely blind-sided.“Why did you even train me, if you thought I was supposed to be a villain?” the question fell out of his mouth in a way that surprised him. The slight bite fueled by betrayal and anger.

“Detective Tsukauchi never asked me to get close to you. I wanted to train you on my own, to see your potential as a hero. They simply made a connection and were slightly concerned. Me training you had nothing to do with what they told me.” Yagi said, his tone steady that almost leaned into comforting. Izuku didn’t really feel comforted, but it put a slight balm to his heart when he realized Yagi himself didn’t intentionally set out to watch him like a jailer.

Still, that didn’t mean Izuku wasn’t a whirlwind of emotion. Even if Yagi, or All Might his mind reminded him, said that he wasn’t necessarily doing it to watch over him, the implications were still there. Someone thought he was powerful enough to be watched. Someone took note of his quirk and thought the #1 hero was enough to stop him.

He needed to leave.

"I-I'm sorry, I need to-" Izuku couldn't finish his sentence, the lump forming in his throat and a heavy feeling in his chest pulling him to the ground.

"Midori-" A deep cough racked Yagis body, he bent down and held his face into the handkerchief. He breathed in deeply, blood staining the red cloth.

Izuku could barely breathe, his heart stammering in his chest as he quickly fled the building where he and Yagi spoke.

He couldn't figure out what he should be more freaked out over. Yagi being All Might or the fact that powerful people, possibly the Hero Public Safety Commission, are concerned about him being a villain. Or at least, had a quirk that could potentially be used like a villain. If that was the case, could they be watching his family? Kacchan? What was he supposed to do if the HPSC thought he could be a villain?

Would they even let him try to be a hero?

Izuku slowed to a stop as he turned the corner and saw a large crowd forming. A villain attack? The public had a tendency to form up and watch heroes work in real time like it was a show. But the murmuring of the crowd seemed more worried than excited than the usual hero audience. Looking between their bodies, he clenched his hands together as his heart clenched at the scene. Fires flared and burned down the street, heroes stood in tense desperation as they stared at the swirl of slime and flame at the end of the street. Izuku held his breath as the slime turned and revealed a familiar head of blond.

"K-Kacchan…” Izuku covered his mouth with his hands, a numbness spreading from his shoulders and all across his body. That was the villain who came close to killing him, and he knows that he was supposed to be captured by All Might. How did he escape from the #1 hero?

The memory of him grabbing onto Yagi-sensei’s leg flashed in his mind. He must’ve gotten away while they were in the air, he definitely jostled his leg enough for the bottle holding him to slip up. And now look at where he is. Kacchan is in danger and it was because of him?

“Push the civilians back!” Death Arms roared over the flames, the police responding to his order by forcing the crowd away from the fight. The multiple heroes that surrounded the vicious villain did nothing but watch him swirl around Kacchan, they’re quirks useless against him. Izuku bit his lip, thinking over and over about what could be done with the heroes on hand. Sweat dripped down his neck as nervousness forced his heart into beating faster, despair roaring in his mind as he watched the tornado of slime swirl.

And all he heard was silence as the villain turned and he saw Kacchan’s eyes catch his, despite the mouth of the villain covering his own. Izuku knew that even if he failed, he would never be able to live with himself if he didn’t try.

Izuku thanked every star in the sky for his height as he was able to wiggle and squeeze past the crowd to the front. He ducked over the hero guarding the edge of the crowd and ignored the cries as he ran toward the swirling villain. He grabbed his backpack and chucked it at the villain’s eyes, praying some of his supplies or something was able to hit the mark. The slime convulsed as at least one eye was pierced by whatever and Izuku flattened his hand and pierced his hand through the gross slime.

“I-Izuku!” The slime covering his mouth weakened just enough for the blond to gasp out his name. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m trying to save you!” Izuku felt the memory of the multi-armed villain flutter in his mind. Kacchan made a contract with a being that neither he or Izuku knew the abilities too. He would have sacrificed everything if it meant making sure Izuku was safe. This was the least he could do.

“I won’t let you die! I won’t let anyone get hurt over me again!” Izuku felt the familiar maw of power pulsate in the back of his mind, the rolling thunder crackle in his head.

“This time-” Izuku grabbed Kacchan’s hand through the slime, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to pull him out - “I’ll save you!”

With a scream, and a strange thunderous boom, the area close to their connected hands exploded. Izuku could only tighten his grip, ignoring whatever that was, and hoped someone would be able to pull them out. A much larger hand gripped both his and Kacchan’s joined hands.

“I must apologize to you, young Midoriya.” All Might’s deep voice rumbled in his chest. Kacchan’s eyes widened comically as the older blond smiled down at the two teens. “I realize my words had an effect on you and I cannot take them back. But you showed what it exactly takes to be a hero, and that’s not something I will never forget again.”

“This time,” All Might pulled his fist back and Izuku could practically feel him gather his energy, “I’ll do right by you!”

“Detroit Smash!” And with a blow faster than what Izuku could see, he swung his fist forward and the air whistled as it blew everything away.

“And that’s why, I ask you, to be the successor of One For All.” Yagi said, the sun haloing around his silhouette. Izuku couldn’t but feel like he shouldn’t have even gotten up today, at least a little bit. That being said, the events leading up to it weren’t much better.

After All Might intervening and quickly escaping, Izuku didn’t have to do much in ignoring the heroes who tried to scold him for his reckless actions. Kacchan, overprotective as ever, was quick to bark and growl at any heroes who gave Izuku even the slightest of looks. Thankfully, that included the reporters that wanted to interview the boy with a weak mutant quirk who saved his friend.

The EMTs were quick to shuffle them out of their care, asking Kacchan to come back to the hospital every now and again to ensure that all of the slime had exited his body. The walk home was quiet as Izuku recounted the events that led up to Kacchan’s hostage situation. The blond's hand was warm against his own, neither teen wanting to let go of the other in fear of another unfortunate series of events. The two didn’t speak after Izuku’s recounting of events, just a feeling of despair and desperation.

Of course, that feeling didn’t last long when Yagi, in his smaller form, appeared from an alleyway and scared the already nerve wracked teens.

“Young Midoriya, Young Bakugou, pardon the intrusion.” He said, standing tall but maybe a little awkward, at least after Izuku and Katsuki were able to catch their breath after already being on their toes.

“Forgive me, but I’ve some things to say to young Midoriya here, Bakugou.” Kacchan’s eyes twitched at the apparent dismissal and walked in front of Izuku, blocking Yagi’s view.

“Listen here, skeletor. You’ve already f*cked around with Izuku’s head already today, I ain’t leaving him for you to mess it up again.” He growled, small sparks flying from his hand. Izuku felt the ends of his mouth twitch at the overprotective blond. Yagi grimaced at that and was interrupted by Izuku before he could start.

“You can talk. I would tell Kacchan whatever you told me anyway.” Izuku put a hand on Kacchan’s shoulder before bringing himself forward to face Yagi.

“R-Right, it was foolish of me to think you would do otherwise.” Yagi shook his head, a tired but familiar laugh huffed out of him. The air turned serious again as his piercing blue eyes met tired green ones, making Izuku force everything in his body not to flinch. Izuku wasn’t sure if he wanted to have this conversation, but he knew that holding it off wasn’t much better anyway.

“I owe you an apology.” Izuku blinked at the admission. “I had dismissed your question earlier, too blindsided by the cynicism I had gained over my years as #1. I failed to remember what truly makes a hero. It is someone who stands up despite all odds, who fights purely to save the people he loves.” Izuku felt an emotion swim deep in his chest, he couldn’t put a name on it.

“I understand now, quirk or no quirk, that you have the makings of a great hero. No matter what others may think of a quirk like yours, you can be a hero, young Midoriya.”

Izuku let out a breath of air that was quickly followed by a gasped sob. Thick, salty tears fell down his face as he hugged himself and bent closer to the road. He felt his heart almost fall out of his chest as Kacchan’s arms wrapped tightly around his figure, his nose poking at his hair. The emotional roller coaster of a day was catching up to him. His hero ever since he was a kid told him he could be a hero, even if his quirk wasn’t exactly suited for it. He could be someone of note, he could save people as long as people like All Might believed in him.

“I believe you are worthy of inheriting my power.”

Wait, what?

The question must’ve reflected on both teen’s faces as Yagi was quick to explain. “You see, my quirk has been widely discussed over the years, but I’ve never openly spoken about it due to its nature. One for all is its name.”

“It’s a unique quirk in that it can be passed down from one generation to the next. I was given this ability when I was younger from my mentor who deemed me worthy. And now I deem you worthy.” Yagi clenched his fist in front of him, energy like before pulsed in the air and passed over the two teens who shivered at the power. “This power is meant for those with a courageous heart and were truly meant to be heroes. The way you went in to save young Bakugou was truly a showing of the heroic spirit you own.”

“And that’s why, I ask you, to be the successor of One For All.”

Izuku looked up and met Kacchan's eyes, tears staining his cheek as he looked for some guidance from his best friend since birth. The other boy had his familiar glare, but he could feel the wheel turning behind his eyes, weighing the pros and cons of accepting a quirk that came the closest man to god in this world. A calloused hand gripped his and Kacchan breathed in a slow breath.

“You promised you would be a hero with me, Izuku. I need someone to be a good second to my first.” And Kacchan gave the barest of smirks and Izuku knew his answer.

“I’ll take on your quirk, Yagi-sensei.”

Taking on a world famous quirk was both harder and easier than Izuku originally thought.

A couple of months have passed since that fateful day and there have been a fair share of good and bad. Both boys had made an easy recovery from the remnants of the slime villain, at least physically. Neither Izuku or Kacchan think they’ll ever look at drowning,choking or even slime the same again, but at least they know he didn’t leave any physical pieces behind. Yagi-sensei had said that his quirk required a host that was physically capable so he completely upped his training since then.

“Dagobah beach isn’t as beautiful as it once was many years ago. However, as your mentor, I believe we can change this.” He said casually as if he wasn’t asking Izuku to clean the entirety of a beach. Still, Izuku was nothing but stubborn and made quick work of it. The durability of his primary quirk came in handy as he was able to lift things more heavier than he should’ve if he was just quirkless, but not by much.

Regardless, Izuku was quick to beef up from the scrawnier teen he was once from before he started training and was all the more thankful for it. Well, he mostly beefed up. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be a giant wall of muscle like All Might, but there certainly is some growth.He cleared the beach earlier in schedule than expected, only 3 months away from the UA entrance exams. That was when Yagi decided that it was time for Izuku to receive his power.

“This power was inherited by 7 others, me being the 8th. In me giving you this power, you will be the 9th holder of one for all.” The sun that hovered over the horizon shined brightly on Yagi, Izuku, and Katsuki as they stood on the gazebo. Yagi-sensei’s blue eye stared directly into Izuku’s green, forcing the teen to have everything inside of him return the stare. “I know that you’ll be able to make the previous one for all users proud, young Midoriya.”

Izuku nodded, hoping his face didn’t betray his nerves. From the corner of his eye, he could see Katsuki leaning on the railing, his deep red eyes staring at the two across from him. For once, he wasn’t angry or growling at Yagi and his nature, just observing the intense moment between mentor and student. Yagi reached a hand up and plucked a single hair from his head and held it out in front of him.

“Consumption of DNA is the way one for all is transferred. This is probably the most comfortable way of doing since nails, sweat, and blood are probably less than ideal.” While Izuku agreed, he still wasn’t sure if this was the best. Ignoring the disgust crawling up and down his back, He quickly shoved the hair down his throat and swallowed as fast as he could. He hated how intensely he could feel the wiry hair filter down his throat.

“Well, the hair should take some time to take effect, the powers slowly accumulate to your body.” Izuku nodded slowly, not quite feeling anything but a little off. Then again, he did just eat a strand of hair.

“Let’s get going, Izuku. Auntie made tonkatsu tonight and I’ll be damned if you make me miss it.” Kacchan growled from behind him. Izuku huffed and smiled as he turned to face the blond. He let out a pleased sound as he and Kacchan slowly followed behind Yagi-sensei.

Glory...

Izuku gasped before rapidly twisting back and looked for the source of the deep voice that growled. Katsuki and Yagi gave a confused look at the frightened look on the green-haired teens face.

“Young Midoriya?”

“A-Ah, it must’ve been the wind or something. Thought I heard something.” Izuku gave a nervous chuckle, the chill that was running up and down his back had yet to calm. Izuku turned his head as he felt a hand land on his shoulder. Kacchan met his eyes and Izuku smiled again, hopefully in reassurance.

He took another step before a wave of energy raced through Izuku’s body, forcing him to buckle onto his knees. He could vaguely hear the sound of Yagi-sensei and Kacchan’s concerned cries. A feeling rippled and coursed through his body, burning across his body like he was on fire. He clenched his hair tightly, barely opened his eyes and looked into Kacchans.

For glory!

And with a scream that pierced the evening air, the three men were consumed by a twisted darkness that burst from Izuku’s body.

Chapter 5: Why Are You So Lucky?

Chapter Text

“Young Bakugou, you need to wake up!”

Katsuki groaned as awareness slowly came back to him, his eyes blinking rapidly to get used to the light. He pushed back on the floor and stumbled when his hand sank in. Yagi was quick to help him stand up before he took in his surroundings.

Large hills of sand decorated what he assumed was once Dagobah beach. Broken tanks and old world war 2 airplanes littered in the sand, half sticking out the ground. The sky was pitch black and yet Katsuki could see everything around him. With no apparent light source, Katsuki could still see everything clearly.

“Where the hell are we?” Katsuki said, doing his best not to let his nerves show in his voice. He took a step and grimaced when his foot sunk into the deep sand. Before Yagi could answer, a deep rumbling shook both blondes to their knees again. They turned to see the walkway of the gazebo rising up from the sands. The shaking worsened as the sound of an explosion boomed, a large tower burst from the sandy sea connected with the concrete walkway. Katsuki could only stare as the tower that looked like stacked coliseums climbed into the sky.

“The Tower of Babel?” Yagi whispered in awe as the building slowed to a stop, it’s height reaching skyscraper levels.

“What the hell is that?” Katsuki growled as he shakily got up from the sandy floor, the quakes finally stopped.

“It’s a mythical tower from the book of genesis. It looks like how it’s usually depicted in paintings, that’s the only reason why I know-” A large explosion burst from on the side near the top of the tower, smoke rising out of it.

A roar sounded from the opening, like those beasts from the kid shows that Katsuki used to watch. Another large explosion burst from the hole, a large object flying out to the ground. It landed and from the smoke, a broken tank revealed itself.

Weak! Everything is weak! Where is my glory? where is the challenge?

Katsuki knees buckled from the roar of the beast, his ribs vibrated from the pure force of it. His ears continued to ring after the beast stopped, a hand coming to rest on his back. He looked and met Yagi’s worried face. They both turned back toward the tower and witnessed a head emerge from the hole.

A dragon, with bright red scales, slithered it’s head out of the hole. A bright green laurel wreath laid on its head, leaves blowing in the wind behind its head like antennae. It turned it’s head and roared a challenge into the sky before slowly pulling his head back into the tower.

Katsuki wasn't sure what the hell he just saw and going by the look on Yagi's face, he didn't either.

"You have any idea of what's going on?" Katsuki growled out at the older man who only shook his head.

"I only saw Izuku scream before a wave of dark energy blasted me off my feet and covered everything." Yagi stared at the tall tower, disbelief clear in his eyes. "I woke up surrounded by sand and you on the ground."

Katsuki smacked his lips in frustration. He guessed it wasn't an attack from someone else's quirk. This might be an effect of Izuku's quirk but how the hell did something like this this never pop up before?

"Do you know if anything like this happened to other one for all users?" Katsuki began trudging up a desert dune. The only difference between now and than was months of training and the quirk of the #1 hero of all Japan.

"Not that I know of. In all my years of being a user, I have never seen anything like this. Does this possibly have something to do with young Midoriya's quirk?"

"Hell of I know, and knowing him, he wouldn't know either." Katsuki growled as he looked around from the top of the dune. Endless sandy hills met at the horizon of a completely dark sky. Musutafa nowhere to be found. He turned and looked toward the large tower, roars echoing from the angered dragon.

"But I can guess where we might be able to get some answers."

Intense heat and cold were the first things Izuku grew aware of as his consciousness sluggishly returned. He opened his eyes before flinching them shut when a burst of flame roared in front of him. Scared awake, he looked around and saw iron chains holding him down, the source of the intense cold.

Izuku looked at the cave he was in, it was almost shaped like a viewing box. Jagged rock formations were on either side of him and in the front, only allowing a medium sized opening in the front to view out of. A chill wind blew from behind him, but he was unable to look with the tall and wide chair that he was sitting in blocking his view.

“Glad to see you’re awake now.”

Izuku jerked in his seat, looking around in front of him but no one was there. The shadows that clung from behind the chair seemed to stretch forward a bit, covering and clinging to the back and arms of his chair where he couldn’t see. A soft hum filled the air.

“We were surprised when something like this happened. If you hadn’t accepted his power, this would’ve taken much longer.” The voice said, calm and soothing. Izuku couldn’t put his finger on it but it felt intimately familiar. “The amount of contracts and grief seeds you hold would never be enough to create all of this.”

“W-Who are you? What are you talking about?” Izuku ignored the chill that came with the shadows, his voice trembling. He was surprisingly glad when a burst of flame fluttered near the entrance, warming him slightly.

“You’ll get to know me in time. As for what I’m talking about, I’m talking about those little eggs or whatever you call it. The physical manifestation of despair, your sustenance. Those are called grief seeds, and that little egg gem that showed up when you made a deal with Kacchan ? A soul gem.” Izuku could hear movement behind, the voice moving back and forth behind the chair. The voice, as confusing as it was, felt like it was mocking him.

“W-Why are you telling me this?”

“Would you rather I didn’t?”

“N-No!” Izuku struggled against his chains, slight desperation ringing his voice. He was stuck in an unknown situation in a place he didn’t recognize and this mysterious voice being the only seemingly friendly thing nearby. “I just d-don’t understand why you’re telling me this?”

The voice was quiet for a moment, the quiet allowing Izuku to hear the sound of engines and rotors. He had no idea what was going outside of the cave he was in, he was barely aware of what was going on inside of it either. He noticed the shadows slowly recede back behind the chair before a pale hand touched his. He jerked, trying to get away from it and shifted his eyes trying to see a face. Slowly, from the darkness, came his own face with calm red eyes, pale white hair, and a pleased smile that held far too many secrets.

“It is better for us all if you knew what was going on than you stay ignorant.” The thing’s mouth didn’t move, instead it echoed in his head, its voice a perfect mimicry of his own. Izuku’s heart jack hammered in his chest, fear gripping it as the thing wearing his face smiled passively.

“W-What are you?”

“Ah, finally asking the right questions now.” The thing’s face turned toward the entrance as a large shadow flew from above and down deeper into wherever he was, a roar shaking the cave around him.

“I am the shadow to your light, your darkness and your evil. I am the thing that will spell your downfall, a fault only of your own. I am the nothing to your everything. I am you and less.” The thing tilted forward, his unmoving face inches from his own. His face betrayed nothing but his eyes were full of blank amusem*nt. Izuku could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck, his heart froze in his chest. Despite all the things this stranger said, in the deepest of deep in his heart, Izuku knew him.

“I am the witch you seek to hide from.”

This tower is f*cking annoying , Katsuki thought bitterly as another door blocked their entrance deeper into tower. As he and Yagi stepped closer to the door, it swung open on its own, just like all the previous doors before it.

The two had deliberated only for a second on whether or not to go into the tower until Katsuki just decided to start walking on his own. He didn’t need the #1 hero telling him it’s not safe, he knew that, but what other goddamn choice did they have? So with reluctance, the older man followed the younger into what he felt was a trap. So far, all they’ve faced have been annoying doors that have a tendency to open to another closed door. The infrastructure hadn’t betrayed the exterior design of the tower, long hallways of the same rough earthy material with arched windows of different heights. Katsuki silently hoped that this wall of darkness would be his last one before reaching the center.

The light was particularly bright as they entered what finally looked like the center of the tower. Looking straight up, Katsuki could finally see the pitch darkness that was the sky. He looked around and saw the interior of the tower was like a Colosseum, surrounded mostly by audience seats and on the opposite end of the door was a large rock formation in the shape of the dragon head. He assumed a head honcho was in there but he sure as hell couldn’t see a way to reach him from there.

“You think you can puff up and look to see if someone’s up there?” Katsuki said over his shoulder toward the older blond. Yagi gently shook his head, looking up to the podium.

“I only have a little time left in that form, I would rather not waste any of it while that beast is still active.” Yagi said, the two trudging forward to the center of the arena. Katsuki looked around and saw no visible stairs to the upper levels, they were stuck down here unless Katsuki launched himself with his quirk. But like All Might, there wasn’t an obvious reason for wasting his quirk like that.

A roar from above signaled the two to peer up and they witnessed that earlier dragon shoot downward too fast for them to catch up. Katsuki felt a hand wrap around his body and pull him back before he could be hit by the falling beast. The smoke filled the arena and suddenly the sounds of roaring crowds filled his ears. He coughed to get the dust out of his lungs as the dust began to settle and he could look at the full body of the beast.

A snarling mouth was surrounded by blood red scales and a soft military green underbelly. Circling its head was a laurel wreath that had it’s ends slow out behind it like an antennae. Four muscled limbs settled on the ground and dug their claws deep into the sandy earth. What surprised Katsuki the most was that instead of the scaled wings he would expect of a dragon, there were large rotary wings styled like those old airplanes in WW2. He gaped as the dragon released an explosion from its mouth in the air, the rotors spinning to propel the flames from the explosion forward. Looking toward the audience, he saw people dressed up in what looked like gladiator outfits but he was too far to pick out details. There were also small black sprites fluttering up and down the stands.

For battle...for blood...for glory!

The beast roared again and launched another explosion to where he and All Might clung to. The man flexed his legs and quickly jumped out of the way and deposited the younger teen in the stands. As Katsuki righted himself, he could see that the people wearing gladiator costumes were faceless and looked the exact same. Nothing to differentiate one from the other. The small black sprites with small beady grey eyes and equally grey mustaches fluttered around the two.

“Go to the podium, that might hold some answers. I will hold this thing back until then.” With that quick message, All Might launched himself at the beast and delivered a punch that knocked it over, a cloud of dust rising around them as the roar of the audience grew. Katsuki growled, feeling useless but knew he didn’t have a chance right now against that thing. He needed to see what the hell was on that podium.

“W-Witch?” Izuku stuttered out once the thing wearing his face finally distanced himself from the green haired teen.

“Yes, a witch. The shadow self, the thing that someone represses to the point that it can’t help but overwhelm them. Naturally, people don’t have huge beasts burst from their bodies and attack everything in their wake. If they did, you would know about them.” The white haired being, his other self apparently, turned and looked down from between the sharp rocks at whatever was down there.

“The only reason this is possible is due to the fusion of your quirk and one for all.” He said, looking back at Izuku.

“H-How do you know that?” Izuku asked, both for his abilities and the thing’s knowledge of his quirk.

“I know everything you know and then some. I am your shadow, your witch. I also was born from your quirk and so was everything in this barrier.” The being glanced at the cave around them. Izuku wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that. How could he have made all of this? He wasn’t even entirely sure what was outside of the cave.

“Though, while this barrier was created by you, it's filled with the despair of another. Perhaps a friend.” The creature mused, almost amused by the prospect. Izuku blinked his eyes and looked around for anything to help him at this moment. The thing wearing his face looked toward him and Izuku could see he was amused by his struggles.

“I guess it wouldn’t do for either of us to die in here, at least not in a way that’s unsatisfactory, so I’ll leave you with some advice,” the creature poked his nose to grab Izuku’s attention back onto him. “The only way to get out of a barrier is to defeat its master. Which, for this one, you are not.”

An explosion rocked the cave, small stones falling from the ceiling. His other self simply glanced up before looking back at Izuku, his pleased smile never leaving his face.

“It seems our meeting is soon coming to a close. I provide you this last piece of wisdom, Izuku.” The creature stepped closer and held his hands together, flat almost in prayer.

“In order to live with the darkness in your heart, you must first accept its existence.” With that last piece of knowledge, the creature tipped backwards, falling toward the floor. Instead of hearing a slam of his body, he simply fell into it like a droplet of water, leaving behind a pool of black liquid. Izuku wasn’t sure how to feel staring at the puddle, as he still had too many questions and not nearly enough answers. Another explosion rocked the side of the cave; one of the stalagmites was blown to the other side of the room.

“Izuku?” Katsuki roared as he shuffled into the cave from the small opening.

“Kacchan!” Izuku wrestled against the chains holding onto the large chair. The blond smacked his lips before grabbing the chains on the side. With a strong blast, he broke the chains and Izuku was quick to get off and hug the blond.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Izuku held tight to his best friend in desperation, fear forcing the two teens to cling on each other. The blond said nothing, just held him for a few moments savoring the other. Another explosion rocked the cave they were in, almost forcing the two on their knees. Katsuki grabbed onto Izuku and led him out the opening he made previously.

Izuku blinked his eyes to get used to the bright light of the outside, only to gape at the large dragon creature being launched across the colosseum-like stadium. He could barely pick out the blond blur that came toward them as All Might.

“Young Midoriya, glad to see you are we-” a burst of blood from his mouth was quickly followed by a burst of steam. The smaller Yagi’s form coughed surrounded by the small cloud, apparent that he could no longer continue. Izuku patted his back as the older man finished coughing into hand before wiping it on his pant leg.

“I didn’t find out about anything up there, I just found Izuku.” The blond growled, ignoring all the small sprites darting between his legs.

“Young Midoriya, you wouldn’t happen to know what’s going on?”

“I-I’m not entirely sure myself. I think this entire place was made by my quirk.” The two blondes looked at him in exasperation but he could only shrug, still not entirely sure how it happened. “There was this thing, he looked like me but with white hair and red eyes.” Katsuki’s eyes narrowed at that.

“Did he tell you how to get out of here?”

“Y-Yeah, he said you had to ‘defeat the master of this place’ and specifically mentioned it not being me. He mentioned that in order to live with the darkness inside, you must first accept its existence. Though, I’m not entirely sure of what that means.” Izuku said, a hand on his chin. The two others weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to gleam out of that. A riddle with no clear answer, that same answer being the only way

Their thoughts were interrupted as the dragon creature roared out from his spot in the arena. It turned his large head and the rotors on its wings began spinning rapidly, its maw beginning to glow an ominous orange.

“sh*t, I can’t transform anymore. We need to run!” The older man pushed the younger teens into running, pushed aside the strange creatures that were in their way. Unfortunately, the dragon easily turned its head and gave a mighty roar and a cone of flame and death aimed at them. Izuku covered his face with arms and prayed for something to help.

When no flames burned the teen, and subsequently the other two, Izuku opened his eyes. A wall of moving darkness covered the area in front of the three. It moved and wiggled in the open air, shapes and random things flashed in and out of the pitch black wall.

Izuku...why are you so lucky?

Izuku jolted, the familiar voice from before he was knocked out ringing in his head. The voice sounded more human, less growl and more sullen. The dark wall dissipated, revealing the dragon growling up toward the three. He turned to Katsuki and Yagi and their eyes were wide too. Could they hear it too?

Born with a quirk, how lucky. What have I done that this world chose to create me as an unequal?

The voice slowly shifted, its growls and hisses reverted to a voice that sounded like...Kacchan?

Look at you, given another quirk to your arsenal. Why am I second pickings? Why was I put in this hell of an earth with no quirk. Tell me why!

The dragon yelled out another challenge, it’s rotors spinning again. Instead of shooting another burst of flame, this time it began hovering above the ground.

Why do you get to be so lucky? What’s so different between you and me?

“Shut up! That’s not how it is at all!” Kacchan yelled, breaking out in surprise from the beast speaking in his own voice. Yagi shuffled closer to the two boys as Izuku tried to focus on the feeling that pulled out that weird wall of darkness.

Is that what you think? That your envy isn’t real? That not only did Izuku have one quirk but now he gets another? Aren’t you feeling left behind?

“N-No,” Kacchan growled his reply, but Izuku could see into his eyes. What he was saying was the truth. Was Kacchan really jealous of him? From the corner of his eye, he saw the sprites coming in and out of a hole in the nearby wall. It’s possible that that’s where they’re coming from.

You still deny your truth, even in the face of death? A fatal mistake.

“Kacchan! You have to believe him! Accept him!” Izuku grabbed the two blondes and dragged them to what looked like a pulley elevator. Stepping on quickly, the elevator shot the three up to the top of the tower.

“What the hell are you talking about? He’s lying!” Kacchan’s voice cracked, betraying his words. Izuku bit his lips at the other teen, desperation clawing in his chest. Yagi looked torn, the idea already forming in his eyes at what exactly Izuku was getting to.

“If I’m to believe what young Midoriya has told us, then whatever that dragon thing is, it’s a reflection of you, Bakugou. And the only way to defeat it is accept it as your truth.” Yagi gently explained to the teen. Katsuki grit his teeth and growled. Izuku only stared in worry as the dragon let out another roar.

“I’m sorry, Kacchan.” The blond gave him a surprise look. “I’m sorry that I didn’t notice how you felt. That I was so focused on being a hero I didn’t realize what that looked like to you. I’m sorry.”

“...I got my quirk because of your quirk. You had to almost die for me to get one.” Kacchan stated quietly, the sound of the pulley lifting loud around them. “I didn’t want you to become a hero if it meant I couldn’t do anything to protect you.”

“And I didn’t want you to get hurt trying to protect me, I want to be just as strong as you so I could have your back too.” Izuku pleaded, grabbing the other teens hands who resolutely looked the other direction than their joined hands.

“I’m not strong at all. It took a miracle to help you the first time and you had to help me with the slime guy. You’ve been saving me all this time. I...I was useless.” The blond’s grip tightened in the green-haired teens. He avoided looking Izuku in the eye, even if the teen tried his best to get the others attention.

“Kacchan, you’ve been strong all our lives. You’ve inspired me, you made me want to become a hero so bad. For us both to become heroes. Please,” Izuku wasn’t sure he was begging for, “let’s both become heroes. For ourselves and each other.” The red-eyed teen finally looked back into Izuku’s eyes, the two quiet as the pulley finally stopped.

“We’ve arrived, and so has he.” Yagi said, looking out from where the elevator stopped. The top of the tower was a much smaller circle than the one at the bottom due to it’s cone-like shape. Still no sun or moon in the sky, only the giant flying dragon who growled at seeing their arrival. Katsuki glared up at the beast but calmly walked toward him. The spot where he stood suddenly extended itself closer to the glaring dragon.

Envy, pride, which will you let be your end? Will you admit to your follies?

“Shut it, you overgrown lizard. So what if I was jealous of Izuku and his f*cking quirk? That doesn’t matter now, I’ll be a better hero than him, with or without his quirk!” Katsuki roared at the beast, his red eyes piercing back into the beast’s own. It floated in the air, quietly, only the sound of it’s rotors blaring in the wind.

So you choose pride.

The beast then flashed in a bright light before coming together and shooting out behind Katsuki on the bridge. A figure appeared from the light. A replica of Katsuki appeared, but instead of his normal spiky hair, his hair was slicked back. The replica smirked at the original, Katuski growling back in return.

“I hope you don’t regret that.” and with another flash, he was gone. The three were then left alone at the top of the tower. The wind blew quietly, the silence deafening at the easy victory once Katsuki admitted everything. The blond slowly walked back to the other two, a strange mix of emotions on his face.

“...I told you it’d be okay.”

“Shut up, nerd.” Izuku smiled at the red-eyed teen, a small pleased smile on his face. It was wiped off when a rumbling began and caused the three to buckle to their knees.

“What now?” Katsuki grabbed onto Izuku while Yagi kept a hand on both teens. The tower seemed to vibrate in place at the disappearance of the dragon.

“Do you think this place can’t hold itself together now that the dragon’s gone?” Yagi gathered the boys closer, the tower slowly leaning into one direction. Izuku looked back to the pulley and saw the rope snap, causing the elevator to fall straight to the bottom. He glanced down the center of the tower and shuddered at the deep dive to the bottom. Yagi held the boys close and all three closed their and then-

And then nothing. The earth stopped shaking, they sank slightly into the ground. Opening their eyes slowly, they realized they were back on the beach, the moon low in the sky. All three looked around in surprise, the tower nowhere in sight and sound of waves and the smell of the ocean in the air.

“A-Are we back?” Izuku wondered, pushing a foot into the sand.

“I assume so.” Yagi stood tall, putting his handkerchief up to his mouth to wipe off some blood that leaked out. Katsuki glanced around and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Izuku studied his hands, the power he summoned strange and foreign. He wasn’t how he felt, so he could barely imagine how Katsuki felt.

“I think it’s best if you two head home. Be sure to record everything you remember of this event, young Midoriya.” The teen nodded rapidly in response. Even if Yagi-sensei told him not to, he felt like he would’ve done it anyway.

“Then I’ll see you two in two days. Take some rest, study your quirk. Things have shifted and it’s best if we laid low and allowed your bodies to recuperate. Especially you, young Midoriya. Your body will probably grow more accustomed to one for all as it settles in your system.” Izuku nodded, the exhaustion catching up to him.

“Please, be safe on your way home. Goodnight.”

Chapter 6: Incubator

Chapter Text

Izuku tapped his pencil on his desk, looking contemplative over his notebook. The afternoon sun peeked into his room, placed much higher in the sky than when he would normally get home. Yagi-sensei had suggested both him and Katsuki take a break from training to fully absorb the events of last night. That being said, Izuku was still reeling.

He glanced over the open notebook on his desk, a sketching of a red and green dragon glaring back at him. Notes of the beast filled the other page of the notebook, details of his attacks, the area they were in, the strange creatures that were there, and his connection to Katsuki.

Kacchan… Izuku’s eyes saddened at the thought of the blond. Katsuki hadn’t really spoken to Izuku too much during school either. It was likely his own thoughts were swirling in his head just as bad, if not worse than. Having an otherworldly beast basically slice you open emotionally for your best friend and his mentor to see wasn’t something even Izuku would simply be okay over in the next day. He wanted to support his friend but the promise he made was something they both had to work too.

Izuku sighed as he leaned back into his chair, letting his head fall back over the rails. He glanced over to the mirror leaning on the wall next to his door. A full length his mom had bought at a sale in a department store that she gave to Izuku. “You never know!” She had said, ignoring Izuku’s confused babbling. He met his own eyes and gave the bags under his eyes a quiet stare, feeling himself close his eyes slowly.

“Have you figured it out yet?”

Izuku’s eyes burst open, his flailing causing the chair to roll backwards onto the floor with a bang. The back of his head hit the floor, he was quick to clutch his head in his hands.

“Izuku?” His mother called in the next room.

“I’m all right! Just tripped over something.” Izuku yelled back, scrambling to sit the chair upright before looking around the room for any intruders. The room was quiet, no real sound outside of the norm.

“Look in the mirror.” The voice said again, every hair on Izuku’s body rising as he slowly turned his head to look. The white haired, red-eyed version of himself smiled pleasantly at him. He tilted his head again before speaking.

“Were you expecting someone else?” The words echoed in his skull, the other him’s mouth not even twitching with the words. Izuku wondered if he was another barrier if he was here.

“No, no, you’re not in a barrier or anything like that.” He tilted his head to the other side, apparently reading his mind. Considering he could speak into it, Izuku supposed that mind reading shouldn’t be too far fetched. “Though, I suppose if it were anyone else, it would be a lot different.”

“H-How are you in the mirror?” Izuku shakily put himself back in his chair, his heart hammering in his chest. The other him barely moved, his red eyes just watching Izuku like an owl that wouldn’t blink. A predator watching prey.

“Our quirk is a mysterious thing, so many aspects that probably wouldn’t have ever occurred had it not been for the burden of one for all.” Now that Izuku could look at the being clearly, without the fear of the barrier, he tried to look for any disparity between him and the other. They both had the golden rings on their wrists, he noted. The white hair and red eyes were the only clear differences.

“Our quirk, however, reacts differently to someone else compared to ourselves. Normally, I wouldn’t be so cognizant, simply another unconscious piece of the puzzle that is your quirk. Not that you have a proper name for it. ‘Mutation,’ isn’t exactly correct.” The creature was amused, like Izuku’s lack of knowledge of his own quirk was a joke to him. Izuku remembered he and his mother agreeing to call his quirk under a general specification, ‘mutant.’ The quirk had yet to show any real reason to call it much else outside of the golden rings and red marking on his back. “Then again, something like this wouldn’t ever have happened had you not decided to take on one for all.”

“Despair, hope, grief seeds, soul gems, witches, all pieces of a large puzzle that you don’t even know what the final picture looks like.” He placed his hand on the mirror, his palm and fingers flattening as they stretched across the surface. Izuku could practically feel the creature’s annoyance as he wasn’t allowed through the glass, though he held his breath and hoped that he wouldn’t be able to travel through the mirror.

“W-What...what does all that even mean?” Izuku stuttered out, staring at where his doppelganger was straining yet his face unchanging. The other seemed to huff before placing his hand back down to his side.

“At least you’re not dumb enough to not ask any questions. I told you before, a grief seed is the physical manifestation of someone’s despair. This doesn’t mean if someone is sad enough they’ll make a grief seed, despair comes in many forms.” The other raised his hand and formed two grief seeds. He remembered one was his mother and the other was Yagi-sensei. “Anger, regret, jealousy, pride, you name it. An abundance of negative emotions and you birth a grief seed. You, little incubator, eat these grief seeds as an offering to satiate the darkness in your heart.”

“Darkness?”

“The darkness in your heart, your body, whatever. That is where your quirk truly manifested itself. Pure, raw darkness and depravity that it can’t help but want to pull others in its gravity. Grief seeds are one of the ways it feeds itself through you and other people. It is one of the more humane ways since eating a person’s grief seeds takes the edge off a person's heart.” The grief seeds disappeared into thin air, the creature returning his eyes to Izukus. “If someone's grief seed were allowed to fester within them, then it wouldn’t end quite as nicely. So eating them is actually beneficial for everybody. Soul gems, on the other hand.”

He swirled his hand in the air again and Katsuki’s apparent soul gem appeared in front of him. Glowing bright orange, it looked just like it did when it first appeared.

“Soul gems are made purely by contract, a sacrifice the contractor makes when using a wish with such power. Our ability to grant a wish has limits even I might not be able to see.” The other grabbed the soul gem and looked over it, tilting it side to side. “It separates the soul from the body, which is why Katsuki ‘died’ in the hospital. You can’t exactly just separate a person's soul from its body and expect nothing to happen.”

“Grief seeds, however, if left alone can show up as things like suicide and murder. With people who have contracts, however,” the soul gem began immediately filling with black. Izuku could distantly hear the sound of a rotor before the sound of a roar echoed in his head, forcing him to cover his ears in hopes of alleviating it. As quickly as it came, it was gone. He looked back up and the soul gem was back to normal, his other amused once again by his actions.

“Do be careful and keep a close eye to those you make contracts with. There doubtlessly will be more wishes in the future and we wouldn’t want any rampant witches running around. It’s best if we kept something to a minimum. That being said, they can’t really form without you as a conduit for their barrier” The other blinked a few times, his tone casual.

“What even is a witch?”

“It’s the physical manifestation of someone’s despair gone haywire. Instead of it showing up something violent, something that can be perceived through human eyes, your quirk and their soul gems allow that person's despair to fully form into something monstrous. You form the barrier that a witch can be formed in, and the other person fills it with their despair within their soul gem, and a witch is formed.”

“Then are you...my witch?” The creature hummed, considering his question and his answer.

“Yes, I wasn’t lying when I told you before. I am your witch. But I am also different. You wouldn’t be able to speak to your witch form like this, so Katsuki isn’t ever going to have a fully formed conversation with Julius like this. Julius is the name of that dragon witch, you probably didn’t know but all witches have names. But him talking to Julius would be more in lieu of talking to yourself. I am both a separate entity and not. I am my own being and not.”

Izuku easily decided that both made sense and didn’t. He thought back to what the creature said before, about him being the shadow self. Were they both intrinsically connected?

“Yes! I’m glad there isn’t just empty air between your ears. I am your shadow, separate but connected. It is your quirk, and its evolution, that allows us to be so.” The golden rings on the creature's wrist glowed happily. Izuku swallowed deeply, the golden rings on his own wrists suddenly seemed heavier.

“Then, do you have a name?”

“Of course I do, it’s-” a high pitched ringing interrupted the name, so loud that Izuku fell from his chair and clenched his head in pain. A thousand voices hummed in his ears, phantom hands holding his body down in a kneeling position while he clutched his own head. His entire body wracked with shaking as the voices felt like they were physically traveling up and down his body. it continued for a minute and then slowly quieted to a hum in the back of his head. Izuku sniffled once his head stopped hurting, taking his hands off his head and wiping the snot and tears that were flowing out.

“I guess you aren’t ready to face that information. I suppose there’s a time for that too.” His shadow mused, faint amusem*nt in his tone as he watched Izuku struggle on the floor. The teen rubbed his eyes and looked toward the mirror. His witch looked more disheveled than before, not in tears like he was but more like he just ran a mile. His white hair ruffled more wildly than before and the formerly white of his eyes were now more of a lighter pink.

“For now, I suggest you think of a name for me. Perhaps a later time, there are still some things I should inform you about your quirk.” The creature waited until Izuku shakily sat himself back up from the fetal position he took. The boy was in a slight daze, the quiet hum now officially retreated from his mind.

“One for all powered up your own quirk 8 times over, so of course you’re gonna spill over like a cup with too much water. The darkness that you hold comes out without any control, so it’s best if you learn how to take control of it before you hurt yourself. That’s what that sound was, your darkness limiting your knowledge before you're ready. Remember, having such a conversation with your witch half is not supposed to happen. It’s almost like you’re a witch in a regular person’s body, and then some. As you grow stronger on your own accord, your powers will spread and more things will spring forth out of you. It will also grow as you eat more grief seeds and more contracts are made.”

“But aren’t you the witch part of me?”

“Yes, and the powers you use aren’t mine. It’s like using raw gunpowder vs. the actual gun. My powers are exclusive to me, something you might see later. Your darkness is raw, unfiltered. You might be able to form something with your quirk if you train it so, otherwise you're just a loose cannon.”

Izuku raised a hand to his chin. So the powers he had were raw pieces of a larger puzzle. If he wanted to effectively use it, he had to figure out ways to do so. Maybe he could use the darkness as limbs? All he knows is that his darkness was used outside of his body as a shield against Julius’s fire, so maybe it had another aspect. Perhaps he could solidify the darkness into something else? Heroes like Endeavor use his fire like the emitter it is, raw power in the form large blasts of fire. But there were other heroes that use extreme control to make their quirks become specific forms to aid them. He needs to experiment.

“Yes, go do that. I’ll go back now, I grow tired of talking to you. I’ve explained what I needed to, everything else you’ll come to see for yourself. Unless you’re too dumb for that too.” And before Izuku could say something to stop him, his image in the mirror shifted and shook until his original face was the thing that looked back at him. He released a breath and leaned back against his bed, surprised at the amount of information he already received. He needed to add this to his journal.

The next day happened to be a Sunday, so Izuku was glad he didn’t have to go to school. The conversation with shadow Izuku, which is the placeholder of a name for him, left the green-haired teen a lot of information to go through.

“Raw darkness…” Izuku muttered to himself, looking at the blank space where the name of his quirk was intended to go. He still couldn’t quite figure out a name for all the mysterious powers that culminated into his quirk with one for all. He actually still has yet to experience any of the original power of one for all itself. None of the super strength that All Might was known for had yet to show itself to Izuku and while he did have time until the entrance exam, it was better he got somewhat of a handle to it.

Either way, raw darkness was something he thought of when shadow Izuku mentioned the original's current powers compared to his witch. Raw gunpowder compared to the actual gun. Raw Darkness. But that was only a piece of what his quirk could do. Witches, grief seeds, soul gems, and even one for all were all pieces of his quirk that should be encapsulated by his quirk name.

His thinking was interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door. He raised an eyebrow, usually his mom would announce her way in and Katsuki is the same way, if not louder. Izuku slowly rose out of his chair, ignoring the popping of his bones from sitting so long. He opened the door and was surprised to see Katsuki standing there, back slightly hunched. His eye bags were worse than Izuku’s, his red eyes accompanied by a heavy stare that the green-haired teen had trouble interpreting.

“Kacchan!” Izuku blinked a few times, his best friend barely acknowledging his name.

“I need to come in.” He said, instead of asking. Well, at least his friend isn’t too messed up, if he could still demand instead of ask. Izuku opened the door wider and got out of the way as Katsuki trudged toward his bed and took a seat. The green-haired teen slowly closed the door, watching Katsuki hunch in on himself as he sat there waiting.

“Are-,” Izuku sat back in his chair, the usual creak deafening in the quiet awkward that permeated the room, “-Are you okay?”

Katsuki’s eyes glanced around the room, his form relaxing as he allowed himself to be in the space. His red met Izuku’s green, the green-haired teen quickly getting up and sitting next to the blond. Katsuki took in a large breath through his nose, calming himself as Izuku laid a hand on his back.

“That dragon...it said a lot of things.” Katsuki rubbed his own arm, a hand clasped around his bicep. “Said a lot of things that I didn’t think would ever get out.”

“Yeah, it’s a part of my quirk.” Izuku went on to explain his quirk, soul gems, grief seeds, and witches. How Julius, the dragon witch, came from Izuku and Katsuki and was formed from the negativity Katsuki held. The blond stared at the wooden panels in Izuku’s room, the information turning gears in the blond's head.

“So, it really was all me, huh?” Katsuki said, the teen holding his hands together. The news that Julius was simply a being made purely from all of the blond’s negative thoughts and emotions brought to a tipping point must’ve been the final nail on the coffin.

“Kacchan…” Izuku whispered, hand on the bed, unsure on how to comfort his friend. This was a situation that neither of them saw coming, brought on by circ*mstances they thought impossibles. Izuku’s quirk gave Katsuki his power, his quirk. But that didn’t erase what it took to get it, and the path that Katsuki took before it.

“You know, when I first got this quirk, when you granted my wish, I wasn’t sure if I could even be happy about it.” Katsuki raised his head, looking at the ceiling. Izuku bit his bottom lip, still unsure on what to do. Katsuki wasn’t one to talk about his emotions, just brushed them off and continued onward. Izuku had admired this, the tenacity to go forward against everything else. He had gotten used to this rejection of emotion, complacent in it.

“You were covered in blood, barely breathing as that villain had smashed you against the concrete. I couldn’t get the sound of you slamming on the concrete out of my head. Sometimes I can still smell your blood.” The blond furrowed his brow, the memories fluttering behind his eyes.

“I had to make a deal to sell my f*cking soul just for a chance to save you. And I got my quirk, I got the damn thing that I wanted all of my life. And I too f*cking late to do a damn thing with it. Not with that arm freak in the alley, not with that f*cking slime freak.” Katuski bent his head, his face clutched in his hands as the emotions rose and fell in him in waves. He took a stuttering breath. “And yeah, I guess I was a little jealous. All Might, The All Might , chose you, someone who already had a quirk, and gave you the quirk that could beat any villain in his way. And I had nothing, just a fake quirk that I was lucky enough to make a wish for. f*ck .”

Izuku raised a hand and hesitated. Sure, they talked about it in the barrier, sped through layers of conversation in a matter of moments because of the danger. But talking about it doesn’t really solve it, only addressed it. Slowly, he reached a hand out and wrapped an arm around the blond, pulling Katsuki toward himself and leaned his face into the other’s shoulder.

“Do you remember when we were younger and there was that kid who said my quirk was too weak to do anything? Who said I was never going to be a hero?” Izuku said, muffled as it was into the blond’s shoulder. Katsuki didn’t say anything, a stuttered breath being the only response.

“You punched him in the face and broke his nose. Auntie Mitsuki was so pissed when the teachers called her over from work. But you kept yelling about what he said to me and that you’d do it again if it meant no one would talk bad about me again. Mama just made sure we were okay and I knew she gave you a candy behind Auntie’s back, and then Auntie just so happened to make your favorite meal that night.” Izuku whispered, turning his face to breathe and look at Katsuki’s face. His hands laid over his legs, his already red eyes just a tinge more red, the only evidence of what he was doing behind his hands. “I also remember being mad at myself, unable to fend off a kid my age.”

“But you know what I think?” Izuku slipped his hand forward, his hands slowly clenching around Katsuki’s own, the blond’s hand slightly dwarfing his. Katsuki’s smooth hands felt different from Izuku's callouses, made from pushing and pulling metal on the beach.

“You’ve always been my hero, whether you acknowledge it or not. You were a hero before you got your quirk, and you’ll be a hero after. I admire you, Kacchan. I admired the strength you had to fight back against whatever stood in your way. Maybe you didn’t have the power to stop that arm guy, but you were able to get me to the hospital fast enough. Same with the slime villain, we were both saved. Would you blame me for being too weak to save us?”

“No!” Katsuki turned to face Izuku, their hands still clenched together. His red eyes met soft green, a deep intensity with an unknown name. “That’s not your fault-”

“Then it’s not your fault either. We haven’t even entered UA yet, we’re nowhere near the level of All Might.” Izuku brought his other hand behind Katsuki's neck, pulling him forward and bringing their foreheads together. “Be kind to yourself, Kacchan. I’m not blaming you, no one is, so you shouldn’t blame yourself either.”

The two stayed quiet, Izuku hoping to himself that Katsuki had taken the words to heart. Yes, Izuku was the closest to the blond, but that didn’t mean that Katsuki had to take his words as truth. He had to make that decision and he had to do something about it. Slowly, they shuffled bodies until they were laying on Izuku’s bed, hands still clenched together, a grounding presence for both their minds.

“Your quirk makes you sound like a chicken.”

Izuku sputtered, the surprise at the subject of the comment caused his mind to scramble for a moment before realizing the blond was laughing at his face. He shoved the other teens shoulder, a pout on his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katsuki had a smirk on his face, clearly thinking his thoughts were clever.

“You get with someone, make a wish, you get an egg, I get a ring,” Katsuki wiggled his fingers, showing off the metal ring on his finger. “Not only that, but you eat seeds. Sounds like a chicken to me if I ever heard one.”

“I’m not going to call my quirk ‘chicken,’ that’s a terrible name that I would have to explain every time.” Izuku huffed, glad that Katsuki was feeling slightly better to change the subject the way he did. The blond hummed before turning on to his back, bringing their clenched hands to his chest. Izuku wiggled a bit closer, letting his forehead rest on his shoulder.

“How about Incubator?”

“Incubator?” Izuku was even more confused. How was that any better than chicken?

“You make eggs, you keep them safe, and they grow within you. So does your ‘darkness’ and whatever witches you create.” The blond turned his head and looked at Izuku, who wore an incredulous look on his face.

“Got a better idea?”

Izuku huffed, closing his eyes. He didn’t have one. Incubator wasn’t too bad. It sort of made sense, and he supposed it would be hard to explain his quirk anyway, regardless of what the name could be. Incubator sounded cool too. He held people’s eggs and grief seeds inside him, their hopes and fears. He supposed there are worse names.

“Incubator it is, then.”

Chapter 7: This Is Your Hero Academia

Chapter Text

The months after learning about Izuku’s quirk passed by quickly, much to the teen’s disappointment. Not that he wasn’t excited for the entrance exam to already be here, but he hadn’t made as much process as he would like in terms of his quirk.

Yagi only really knew how to train his super strength as a wielder of One For All. Unfortunately, the strength came naturally to Yagi as opposed to Izuku who had yet to activate it at all. Izuku hummed when the older blond suggested he just tighten his butt and yell ‘Smash’ in order to get the quirk to work for him. He already felt that something like that wasn’t really his style but he could try.

Of course, these trials led to pretty much nothing. At least in terms of One For All.

When he concentrated within himself, searching for the energy that was One For All to use through his body, he could feel something ‘flowing.’ A strange description, but it made the most sense. It all became clearer when in an attempt to use his strength in a spar against Kacchan, that it clicked.

They’d already been sparring, blows traded back and forth as Yagi watched from the side in his skinnier form. Both teens had gotten far in their individual styles, their growing quirks slowly forcing them into certain avenues that best suited them individually.

The explosion quirk that Kacchan used allowed for speed and power, the bursts from his hands allowing him to close in and immediately lay in large explosions. Without his quirk, Kacchan mainly stuck to a brawler type combat. Remnants of his past as quirkless was evident in that his style was mostly ‘beat hard, beat fast.’ Relentless as his explosions.

Izuku, on the other hand, utilized his durable body. He could take hits and think his own out, allowing for Katsuki to come in close and throw in a few blows before quickly striking back. Yagi’s regimen for him bulked him up in preparation for taking One For All, a strength quirk that could potentially harm him in its use. Izuku used his head to fight, steady but confident.

It was when Izuku attempted to feel for One For All’s energy that things turned upside down. A pull back fist that was supposed to land in Kaccchan’s face, Izuku could feel the strange energy fill his fist before he struck the blond.

But instead of super strength, a large, wide stream of that familiar darkness burst from his fist. Katsuki’s eyes widened as the grow column came rushing at him. He quickly shut his eyes as the stream hit his chest, like a moving wall of force forcing him to the floor. Izuku gasped loudly, following that feeling that was pulsing out his fist and pulling whatever it was back into his body. The darkness dissipated into slivers in the air, the green haired teen watching as the darkness lifted off his fist and disappeared.

That darkness was the same as the wall he made in Julius’ barrier. The undercurrent of strange emotion flowed quickly in the dark column, undecipherable images flashed in its strange waters. A groan pulled Izuku out of his head, attention turning toward the slowly sitting up blond on the floor. Yagi and him were quick to get to Katsuki’s side, who had no apparent wounds.

“Young Bakugou, how are you feeling?” Yagi said, a large hand on Katsuki’s back, holding him up. The blond’s familiar eyes glared up at Yagi-sensei, the older blond giving an awkward laugh at the obvious answer.

“It felt solid, whatever the hell that was. Like you shot out solid concrete.” The blond grunted. Izuku nodded, storing the information in his head about the quirk. The darkness felt flexible to him, so that meant it was durable and malleable. It must be especially strong if it could block the explosive flame of Julius. Thoughts raced through Izuku’s mind of the possible uses of pure darkness.

“I think we should take a break for now, get young Bakugou here a chance to breathe for a moment from an unexpected hit.” Yagi said, helping the grumbling blond up to his feet. Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a tad guilty for causing him unexpected pain.

“It’s fine, nerd. This is sparring, you’re supposed to figure out how the hell your quirk works.” Katsuki said as the three were led to a nearby bench. Yagi was able to rent out a small dojo for the two to use for practice, despite Izuku’s protest. The older man was the #1 hero, “ I can afford a simple dojo” the man had said.

From then on, Izuku had practiced intensely to figure out an effective way to use the darkness from Incubator. It was like a blunted weapon, no real finesse at all. If Izuku allowed it, it came out in large unbending streams and wide walls. If he forced it, the streams can come out faster and thinner and shield walls can come out more circular instead of in a splash pattern.

The material of the darkness was strange too. Yagi himself had tested out the feel of the darkness and was surprised at the solid feel to them. In his bigger form, he was able to crush and dissipate it easily, but he compared it to steel. To Izuku, however, the darkness melted between his fingers like liquid. He had tested out a shield of darkness and was able to detach it from his body, allowing it to float in the air for a few moments before dissipating. While floating, he tried to get a feel for himself of the darkness and was surprised when his hands went right through it. It felt like dirty, almost mud-like waters. Izuku filed the information, possibly strategies forming in his mind.

While he was happy he figured out an aspect of his powered up original quirk, it was One For All that frustrated him. If the darkness within him felt like it was flowing through his veins, underneath his skin, then One For All felt like it hovered just above it. Static electricity, he could almost feel the energy flow right on top of his own skin and slide next to his own darkness. It stretched and opened its maw against the hairs on his neck, causing his own hair to ruffle and spark. And right when he thought he could use it, the feeling puttered out and he would shoot out more darkness from his fist.

Izuku wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, and no advice from Yagi was helping him figure it out. For now, he supposed, his darkness will be enough for the exams.

The day of the UA entrance exams arrived and Izuku couldn’t tell who was more nervous, him or Katsuki. Normally, the blond wouldn’t be fazed by much, had even been confident back when he was quirkless that he would be able to get into the school. But now faced with the prospect with an actual quirk that he worked most of the school year to get a handle over, he wasn’t sure how to feel. Izuku felt the same way, now with a powerful quirk that should be able to get him in, he couldn’t help but doubt himself.

His thoughts flew out of his mind as a stray rock forced him to trip forward, Katsuki’s curse as the blond was unable to catch him. Izuku closed his eyes and a smile almost lifted his lips. Of course he would fall right before the exam.

But to his surprise, the concrete never came.

He opened his eyes slowly, blinking a few times to ensure he was seeing everything correctly. The concrete walkway was inches away from his face, the teen himself floating slightly above it. Did this have something to do with his quirk?

“O-Oh! Sorry about that!” Two sets of hands pulled him upward. He looked and saw Katsuki's confused but angry face before turning the other direction and looking at a brown haired girl's worried face.

“It wouldn’t be good at all if you had a fall the day of the exams! I gotta go, but good luck!” Before he could even say thank you, the girl scurried away, quickly falling into the crowd of people entering the school. He turned back around to look at Katsuki, who was giving him a glare he couldn’t recognize.

“What?” Izuku said obtusely. The red-eyed blond just rolled his eyes before grabbing Izuku by the shoulders and hauling him to the exams.

Inside, they were led to an auditorium and were assigned numbers. Izuku and Katsuki sat next to each other as the Present Mic announced how the UA exams were going to work. First a practical exam that scored by however many ‘villains’ they could defeat. Izuku could feel Katsuki’s smirk as the blond grew excited next to him. A test that was determined by how much someone could physically destroy enemies? Perfect for someone like Katsuki and his quirk.

Though, Present Mic was slightly interrupted by this other tall teen who had asked about the missing fifth robot. The pro hero smiled indulgently before talking about the large zero pointer who’s pure aim was to distract other participants. Izuku noted the teen, the way he put himself out there confidently in front of the entire audience, even as he felt Katsuki snort in disinterest. Katsuki wasn’t one for the noble types, Izuku mused. Present Mic then quickly went over the written portion of the exam.

After the presentation, the teens were shuffled into their respective fields for their exam. Katsuki gave a glare to Izuku who only smiled in return as they walked in different directions. Izuku wasn’t worried about Katsuki, he had faith that the blond would do his best to get in.

The doors to the field his group was meant to enter were huge, easily matching with the large buildings Izuku could see over the wall. Anxiety circulated through Izuku, his heart loud in his chest as the reality of what he was doing truly hit him. Looking around, he noticed a similar look of anxiety on many of the other students. He was surprised to see the girl from earlier also in his group. He began walking toward her in hopes of saying thank you.

“Hold on,” a heavy hand landed on Izuku’s shoulder, “were you planning on interrupting her?” The bespectacled teen from the presentation spoke to him. Disappointment and accusation in his face pointed directly at Izuku.

“Uhm,” Izuku shrugged the hand off before turning to face the taller teen. “I was planning to thank her! She helped me from falling earlier.”

“I see. Well it would be most prudent for you to tell her after the exams since she may currently be preparing herself for battle.” The taller teen gave Izuku a nod before walking a few paces away and began stretching. Izuku tilted his head at the dismissal, but shrugged it off. He hasn’t had the most experience with people since the only person he truly hung out with was Katsuki and the blond isn’t exactly the standard.

“Well? What are you guys waiting for? There isn’t a bell for real combat!” Present Mic said, standing above them on a tall tower. Izuku jumped when he heard the stampede of people from around go straight into the arena. Furrowing his brows, he took a large breath before running after the crowd.

Izuku jumped over another pile of robot remains, swinging a fist and smashing a robot into the wall with a stream of darkness.

“26 points.” Izuku gasped in another breath, his heart beating wildly in his chest. The robots were fast and the other test takers were even faster. He was grateful at the range his quirk gave him as his streams of darkness extended pretty far out there. Izuku flinched as a beam of light pierced a robot aiming to swing at him, a blond winking at him as he ran past.

Izuku huffed as he stood back up and ran down the street looking for more robots to destroy. He doubted 26 points was going to be enough to pass him into the hero course, so he desperately needed to find more robots.

He ducked down and rolled forward to dodge a surprise swing from another robot. Using his hands, he twirled on the ground before pushing out and kicking the robot from below its head. Darkness shot out and launched the robot head clean off its main body.

“27…” Izuku looked around, noting the crowd of students that stood behind. He turned forward and raised his eyebrows when he saw the brown-haired girl from earlier turning the corner from the alley. Before any thoughts could continue, the earth began shaking and the buildings in front of him ruptured. Izuku shielded his eyes as a wave of dust flowed in from the point of impact. When the dust cleared, Izuku was forced to look upward at the large rolling robot.

It’s large body covered the entirety of the street width, debris laying all around it as it turned the corner. The building it clipped as it turned was damaged, the top half now on the cement below. The sound of tank treads was loud from the robot as Izuku could faintly hear the other students behind him run away from the monstrous zero-pointer.

Izuku looked down at the wheels of the robot and noticed the same girl stuck underneath rubble. He turned and saw no one else had noticed the girl stuck there. He grit his teeth, surely UA wouldn’t harm the examiners.

The robot groaned as it’s arms moved slowly in the air, its tank tread slow and steady heading toward him and the struggling girl. Izuku breathed slowly before running straight toward the downed girl. His feet hit the ground hard as he stopped in front of the girl in front of him. He knew she had a type of floating quirk, so maybe she could do something about the rocks.

"Help me figure out how to get this rock off of you!" Izuku gripped the edge of the large rubble that held the girls bottom half. The girl nodded, her eyes wet in panic, before slapping the rock on top of her causing it to glow a slight pink.

Lighter than expected, Izuku accidently launched the rock into the air. It landed loudly in front of the zero-pointer before being crushed brutally under its treads. Izuku grit his teeth and turned to the girl and noticed her leg was wounded too much for her to stand on her own. The sound of the groaning robot warned Izuku of its approach. The robot was going too fast for him to run away while carrying the girl and he couldn't run off to the sides since it could destroy the buildings. Izuku turned to look up at the robot, energy sizzling under and above his skin. He looked at the girl and saw her panicked face.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you alone. I am here." The words of his mentor falling from his mouth, a promise made to her and himself. He faced the robot again and called for twin streams of darkness to shoot from his fists. Utilizing the recoil, the darkness streams hit the ground and forced Izuku into the air, a move reminiscent of Katsuki’s own explosions. As he quickly rose and approached the robots center, he felt the energy he could identify as One For All tickle his senses.

"Please…I'm begging you, help me save her." He pulled his fist back, gathering the energy in his arm and prayed. A girl's giggle fluttered in his ear.

He swung forward and the energy he'd been praying for finally answered. A flash of green lightning, strong, direct, and instantaneous, was brought down with his fist into the robots chest. Almost silently, a brief moment in time, the zero-pointer’s form imploded and was crushed by the overwhelming weight of Izuku's quirk.

Izuku felt his body tilt downward, his broken arm clutched to his chest. An Icarus that finally touched the sun, he fell down to the earth. The wind roared in his ears as he clenched his eyes shut, the pain forcing tears out of his eyes and into the air.

On the ground, the girl released a guttural scream and grit her teeth as she used her one good leg to launch herself across the ground and slap a hand on the green haired teens back. She fell with a grunt, vomit rising up her throat as the boy floated a few seconds before canceling her own quirk. He fell to the floor with a groan, softer than he would have normally.

"Kacchan’s going to be so mad at me…" Izuku whispered as he clenched his broken arm to his chest. The girl giggled before crawling to sit next to him. She sat herself next to the fallen teen, her leg obviously bruised and slightly twisted.

"I can tell him you saved me, I think that's reasonable enough to make him understand," the girl smiled wide, her teeth gleaming in the light. "I’m Uraraka Ochako, my quirk is zero-gravity. Thanks for saving me!" The teen gave a large thumbs up at Izuku who laughed at her general positivity. The boy could appreciate the lightness in her attitude.

"Midoriya Izuku," the teen raised a thumb of his own from his good arm on the concrete where he laid, "my quirk is called Incubator and it's super complicated." The green-haired teen could feel the exhaustion slowly rise up in him. The darkness that would normally sit beneath his skin felt empty, like a river drained more than usual. Izuku was surprised that One For All answered him when it did, he fought to memorize the feeling of it finally working.

Uraraka laughed again, "I noticed when you smashed that robot to smithereens. I think Recovery Girl is coming to help. We should totally be friends after this, you saved me!"

Izuku could only laugh at his agreement as Recovery Girl kissed his forehead, a reprimand in her tone.

Izuku was able to get Uraraka’s number, a feat that surprised Katsuki given the slight raise of his brow. That being said, the blond then proceeded to give him that strange glare that Izuku had yet to identify as they spoke about their experiences.

Izuku didn’t really have friends outside of Katsuki, mostly because the two were satisfied with each other. They didn’t need anybody else. That being said, his mom had agreed that it would be good for the both of them if they got friends of their own. It was healthy, she said. Katsuki seemed to disagree, though Izuku’s mom was the only person he actually never yelled at or around.

Katsuki’s experience in another field had been more tame than Izuku’s. It wasn’t a surprise to either of them that a test determined by how many things they could destroy was easily pulled into Katsuki’s favor. His explosion abilities were perfect for demolition and enemies who were made solely to be destroyed. The blond just avoided the zero-pointer when it showed up and moved on to finding more robots whose points he could collect. He did mention an annoying redhead following him around and laughing.

“Maybe he wanted to be your friend!”

“Then he shouldn’t have been such an idiot.”

Well, that was that, Izuku supposed. That being said, Katsuki gave him the stink eye once he found out he broke his arm when he finally used One For All. The red-eyed teen forced him to recount everything that happened that led to the event and the feelings after.

“It felt like electricity over my skin, like my hair could’ve been standing up!” Izuku said. The two were lounging in Izuku's room. The green-haired teen sat in his desk chair while Katsuki sat on the bed. “It felt completely different to Incubator.”

“All Might doesn’t have an electricity quirk.” Katsuki reminded him, laying his body down to rest his head on the pillow. Katsuki was just as fanatic about All Might as he was, maybe in a different way but no less dedicated. Even if that fanaticism died down a bit at the reveal of Yagi. But he was right, there were no signs of any lightning or static whenever All Might fought a villain, not even during the slime incident.

"Maybe it's a side effect of my quirk that makes it feel like lightning. I asked him how it felt for him and he said it felt different, nothing electrifying about it." Izuku rubbed his chin as he thought about how One For All danced across his body before erupting from his fist. The teen had called the older man some time after the exam and told him how he did. When asked about his own power, Yagi had mentioned that it felt nothing like electricity and it just sort of happened. His natural use of One For All was different from Izuku’s. The power, right before it launched, felt like Incubator in how it traveled but it unleashed differently. One above his skin, the other within it.

"What really matters is getting it under control. If you break your bones every time you use it then what's the point? Incubator doesn't hurt you like that so you have to figure out a way to control your output." Katsuki said, throwing a ball of paper that Izuku had thrown on the bed earlier from his notes on his quirk. Izuku knocked the ball from the air, a huff leaving his mouth. It was true, Incubator didn’t leave him any broken bones or real injury. The most was that it drained his energy if he overused it, he had yet to have a moment of true exhaustion. Though, he guessed that if he drained the darkness within him, he would have to fill it another way. The images of grief seeds and soul gems flashed through his mind.

"Yeah, breaking my arm wasn't exactly great, even if Recovery Girl healed it instantly." Izuku rubbed the back of his head. His arm had apparently been broken in one spot but was mostly fractured from the use of One For All. Breaking his bones every time he used the quirk spelled disaster if he couldn't end a fight in one or at least two blows, however big those blows may be.

"Boys! Katsuki’s family is here with some mail, I think you should both come see!" Izuku’s mom yelled into their room. The boys made eye contact, the same guess floating in their head as they scrambled to the door to get to the mail. Sitting in the living room were Katsuki’s parents, along with twin packages sitting on the table. Aunty Mitsuki smirked as the boys scrambled to the packages and ripped them open, Uncle Masaru sighed into his cup of tea.

“You boys go back to Izuku’s room and open them. Let us know if you got in after.” Katsuki’s father said as the two teens grabbed their individual letters and headed back to the room.

“Open yours first, I know for sure that I got in.” Katsuki had gotten around 77 points in the practical and knew for sure he had gotten a high grade in the written portion. He knew he was a shoe-in for UA. Izuku believed that he too got a high score on the written portion, but he had only received 27 points for the practical, not nearly enough to pass.

Izuku tore through the seal of the letter and picked out the circular contraption from within it’s folds. He raised an eyebrow in confusion before placing the object onto his desk. The circle item clicked before flashing a projection onto the empty wall nearby.

“I am here, as a projection!” All Might said. The two boys jolted in their seats as the older blond tried to settle himself in front of the camera.

“Young Midoriya, I am here to tell you your results for your entrance exams. The reason I can personally tell you this is due to my new position as a teacher here at UA.” The older man was in a yellow blazer and a button up in his powered form. The blond smiled widely for the camera, holding a thumbs up for Izuku to see. “In your exams you score one of the top scores in your written portion. However, this would normally not be able to get you into the hero course due to your low score in the practical portion.”

Katsuki bumped his shoulder into Izuku’s, the pointed out score bringing the green-haired teen’s head down slightly. While Incubator allowed him more of a chance to achieve villain points, there were a good number of more examiners who were faster than him that were able to earn more points.

“However! Look at this.” All Might, gestured to a screen behind that slowly grew and encapsulated the projector screen. The screen displayed static until the image came together to show Uraraka speaking to Present Mic.

“Excuse me, I was wondering if it would be possible to transfer some points to someone else.” Present Mic gave a sound that indicted a question, he gestured for her to continue. “You see, this guy named Midoriya Izuku saved me during the exam. I think he might’ve been low on points so I was wondering if it’d be possible to give him some of mine?” Present Mic smiled at the girl before shaking his head and letting her know it would be okay.

Izuku squeezed his hand to his chest, happy to note that someone like Uraraka, a person he just met, was kind enough to try and give him her points.

“You see, if we scored heroes solely on how well they could defeat villains, we would lose the entire purpose of being a hero. So UA uses another type of point system to score potential students in.” The image of Izuku’s 27 points under a column labeled villain points hung in the air in front of All Might. The image moved slightly to the left and another column named rescue points appeared next to it.

“With the way you saved young Uraraka, you were able to score a different set of points.” The number on the empty spot began rising before placing itself at 60 points, giving him a total of 87 points. “With this, you were to get the top spot in the UA entrance exam scores.”

A wet sound left Izuku’s mouth, Katsuki’s wore a bright grin on his face as he wrapped an arm around the green-haired teens shoulder. Izuku was in disbelief.

“Welcome to the hero course, young Midoriya. This is your hero academia.”

Chapter 8: You May Call Me Aizawa-sensei

Chapter Text

Izuku was awake. Or he assumed he was.

His eyes were heavy and closed, but he could smell freshly watered grass after a stormy day. He knew that if he took a step, the grass would squish with its dew. A soft hand was stroking his hair, moving his curls into one swooping direction. He could feel his bottom half laying on a wooden chair, the grain rubbing against his pajama pants. The legs beneath his head were warm.

“He’s doing quite well, with how new he is with his quirks.” A woman with a soft tone to her voice noted. The images of purple irises fluttered in his head, a tell of something he didn't know how to guess.

"Even so, he has more to discover." A deeper voice spoke, dark tendrils rolling underneath a well muscled figure.

"And despite all this, he glows majestically. Maybe it is he who…?" A shower of golden light whispered from behind him. Izuku could feel the darkness that normally slumbered within reach its influence in the area around him. 7 figures stood like giants surrounded the teen and the person that was playing with his hair. They all felt powerful yet they all glowed so pleasantly against his darkness.

"No, I don't think it'll be him. He may try, but I think it'll be…" Something burned and blazed near him, a meteor or a shooting star? It burned brightly, intensely, instantaneously. It felt sad.

"He gots the heart but no power or purpose. No, it'll prolly be…" The screech of steel on steel, blades eternally in combat. Laughter echoed in his mind, incessant and loud.

"Silence. Listen." Servitude, justice without mercy. Izuku's mind wasn't sure what to think about the voices that surrounded him.

“It matters not whether he is able or if he is willing. He will attack, so he must simply be prepared. For now, we wait.” A large encompassing jaws of light seemed to shine around him, his eyes still closed yet he could feel like he was seeing too much. The mouth of whatever was speaking seemed to swallow him whole, or was he already being eaten? It felt different from the maw of his darkness.

“He will grow to his powers and we will see where destiny leads. For now, we cannot intervene.” The light said, his voice louder than all the others. “He wakes.”

Izuku felt the hand brushing his hair stop abruptly, their palm weighing heavily against the side of his head. The hand slowly traveled to his back while the mysterious being’s other hand went to the back of his head.Without warning, the being pushed Izuku to the grass below and Izuku felt himself splash underneath and be swallowed by the deep.

The teen jolted in his sleep, his scrambling limbs twisted the blanket around him binding his limbs together. With a yelp, the green-haired boy fell to the side of his bed, face-first into the wooden floors. He groaned as he relaxed his limbs allowing the constricting blanket to fall harmlessly around him. Izuku turned his head from the floor and breathed slowly, the slow grip of sleep slowly releasing him. The edges of the dream he was a part of moments before blurred and blanked in his mind, his waking awareness erasing the memories away. The boy hummed as he tried to memorize every inch of that mysterious dream, it’s complexities bothering him as it revealed nothing.

Slowly, Izuku rose from his blanket trap, lethargic and a little numb, before heading to his desk. Pulling out his journal, he wrote every detail he could remember. The 7 voices, their dream-like images, and the brushing hand that didn’t speak. He couldn’t remember what they said, a slow frustration as his lethargy dragged him and his mind down. He wondered if it had something to do with Incubator.

He turned his head to the desk mirror off to the side, a recent purchase since his other self liked to appear through those. His tired eyes were the only thing that stared back, red-rimmed and dull forest green. He huffed when nothing appeared after a few moments.

Izuku wasn’t sure what it all meant, but then again, it was all just a dream. He supposed that if it did mean something, he’ll at the very least write down what he knows. But considering he wasn’t sure of the limits of Incubator and One For All…

Maybe he should keep an eye out, just in case.

The morning of the first day of UA was hazy and the humid morning air felt light with the smell of the early sun. Katsuki had shown up and wokeIzuku up himself, the blond being awake two hours earlier than necessary.

“What the f*ck is wrong with your tie? It looks like it tried to choke itself with itself.” Katsuki growled as he gripped Izuku’s shoulder to turn the teen toward him. Roughly, the blond undid the tie before redoing it himself. Izuku felt his head bend back as his body curved toward the blond, the green-eyed teen feeling lethargic from lack of sleep.

“I’m sorry, Kacchan. You know I’m bad at tying a tie.” Izuku whined, wiping the crust from his eyes. Katsuki didn’t respond, focused on quickly tying his tie. Inko turned the corner and approached the two boys with bento boxes.

“Katsuki-kun, Mitsuki asked me to make you a bento too. I made sure to make it extra spicy for you.” She said as the boy straightened his tie before turning and giving a small thanks to Izuku’s mom who nodded. “It’s the least I could do to make sure Izuku is awake for his first day. You know how he sleeps in sometimes.”

“Mama, we should get going soon!” Izuku recalled, an embarrassed blush gracing his face. His mother laughed, heavy in stomach as Katsuki smirked at him.

“Let’s go, nerd. We got a school to conquer!” Katsuki said, walking off making Izuku rush to follow. The two said their goodbyes to Inko, the soft mother wishing the two good luck on their first day.

Izuku was excited to be attending UA, an understatement for the teen who dreamed of the school most of his life. Katsuki was vibrating with how much excitement he held in his body. His familiar red eyes were bright and sparked with a familiar passion Izuku felt fond over as the two rode the train to the school.

Katsuki had his quirk for over a year now but sometimes Izuku wondered how Katsuki had planned to get into UA before the incident. The blond never really allowed anyone into the intricacies of his mind and emotions, in fact the closest Izuku ever got was those moments during and after Julius. Quirkless teens were unheard in hero schools and were mostly in classes like general studies, classes that had nothing or very little to do with hero work. Izuku was sure the other teen felt the pressure of being a quirkless kid trying to apply for UA, so he supposed he felt differently now that Izuku’s quirk gave him one of his own.

Deep in thought, Izuku was surprised to bump into Katsuki’s back. They had arrived at the school and Katsuki was staring at the overly large door that blocked them from their classroom. The door was obviously built for the larger students, but Izuku couldn’t help but feel an extra level of intimidation at its size

Izuku bumped his shoulders into Katsuki, knocking the boy out of his dreamlike state. The blond rolled his eyes before marching forward and swinging the door open.

“Hey! You’re that explosive guy from the exams!” A bulky redhead spoke. Izuku jolted and was surprised to see someone running up to Katsuki, the blond's face revealing how much he really didn’t want to talk to this guy.

“You were so manly, bro! I’m Kirishima Eijirou!” The shark-toothed teen introduced himself to the two teens. Katsuki kissed his teeth before marching past the redhead and sitting in his seat, kicking his feet onto the desk.

“Wow, even casually, he’s so manly.” The teen said, a wide smile on his lips. He turned around and blinked widely when he finally noticed Izuku who was standing behind the taller blond.

“Oh, are you a friend of his? And you’re in this class too? Hi, nice to meet you!” Kirishima smiled widely again at the shorter teen, Izuku could practically feel the red-head’s energy slam into the smaller boy.

“Y-Yes, my name is Midoriya Izuku, nice to meet you.” Izuku gave a bow to the other student. “His name is Bakugou Katsuki, we’ve been friends since we were kids.”

“Don’t just give out my name, nerd!” Katuski roared from his desk, a fist raised in protest. Izuku giggled as the blond’s sparks flew over his head. Kirishima must have also found the blond’s actions endearing, if his wide smile meant anything.

“This is very improper behavior for a UA student! I must ask you to refrain from yelling and kicking your feet on the desk!” A stern voice called out from over Izuku’s shoulder. Izuku blinked as the blue-haired teen from the exams marched toward Katsuki, his hand chopping the air. Kirishima pulled Izuku back from the boy’s warpath as he and Katsuki began yelling back and forth at each other.

“Wow, these guys are intense.” Kirishima said, a laugh bubbling from his gut. Izuku could only laugh half-heartedly, not surprised to see Katsuki being as intense as he was. Though, it is surprising to see two people matching or ignoring his energy at all. At Aldera, people were often frightened of Katsuki being as intense as he was. The intensity only grew after his quirks appearance, not that he revealed that information.

“I’ll say, but it sure keeps things exciting!” Izuku turned his head again to someone with pink hair this time, a clear mutation quirk affecting their body turning everything pink with yellow eyes, black sclera, and sharp horns. The girl smiled brightly at Izuku, causing the smaller teen to blush in surprise. Izuku still wasn’t used to the attention of other people like he was getting today.

“Ashido Mina here, nice to meet you, Midoriya-kun!” The pinkette said, apparently already hearing his name from his introduction from earlier. She poked at the ring around his wrist, “wow, those golden rings of yours look so cute! Do they have something to do with your quirk?”

“Izuku-kun!” A voice yelled from the door entrance, distracting Izuku from answering the pink teen’s questions. Uraraka ran quickly to Izuku and joined their hands together, despite the blush rising in Izuku’s cheeks. “I’m so glad you were able to get in! I saw the point totals and it’s totally amazing you made it into the number one spot.”

Uraraka and him haven’t really spoken too much since the exams. Though she did text him everyday to see whether or not his acceptance letter came in. Apparently, her’s had come in a day before his and she waited till he opened his to open hers. That being said, Izuku still felt a little overwhelmed to feel her intense energy focused directly at him.

“Oh yeah, I guess that was your name that was in the number one spot.” Kirishima rubbed a hand on his chin, thinking back to the scoreboard he saw in his entrance letter. Izuku blushed at the attention around him, surprised at the reminder of his high score. He was also surprised at the score itself, the rescue points being the thing that really drove him further up than even Katsuki. He attributed it to luck more than his own skill though.

“Ah yes! It was truly amazing to see you look further than any of us for the real goal of the exam. I am Tenya Iida, pleased to make your acquaintance!” The taller teen had apparently given up on Katsuki, the blond now sitting on his desk feet still raised. Izuku scrambled to bow again, introducing himself once more despite the blue-haired teens chopping protest.

“If you have time to make friends, then you’re already wasting your time here at UA.” A deep voice caused the group to jolt, all of them turning around to see a grown man in a yellow sleeping bag staring at them tiredly.

“You all may call me Aizawa-sensei. Before we go any further, everyone put on their gym uniforms. It’s time for your first test.”

A quirk apprehension test was the next trial Aizawa had set to give the class.

In previous years, they were told to do physical tests without their quirks so the staff were allowed to get a more equal score between all students. Of course, for students like Izuku or Katsuki, they were stuck with what they had since they either didn't have a quirk or had a quirk that could help. Now, however, with the threat of expulsion looming over their heads and their newly empowered quirks begging to be called, the teens could practically feel their quirks running wild beneath their skin.

“The lowest score gets expelled,” Aizawa had said, a wide grin full of teeth, “do your best out there, it may be your last chance.”

Each student had a sense of desperation as they used their quirk to their advantage, or at least in whatever ways they could. Most of the scores were pretty normal to way above average, since some students had quirks that were ridiculously suited for some obstacles. No one beat Iida on the 50 meter dash while the Sato kid almost destroyed the strength test, consuming sugar like it was his last day. Izuku tried to utilize Incubator for most of the tests since it came the easiest for him, and it didn't cause him to break any bones.

The propulsion part of his quirk came in handy for the 50-meter dash and his added durability helped with some of the other tests. He still didn’t understand how all the parts of his quirk, or at least the parts that he knew of, worked in conjunction with one another. One For All powered his abilities and Incubator had this whole set of powers he wasn’t aware of or could even control. So most of it wasn't going to come in handy with all the physical tests Aizawa was pushing them through. The only part of the test he planned to use One For All was the ball throw, since Uraraka had scored an infinity with her zero gravity.

"Yes! How was that?" She said to Aizawa. The brunette slowly blinked his eyes before giving a thumbs up, causing the girl to pump her fist in the air.

"Midoriya Izuku, your turn." He intoned, like an executioner to the prisoner. Izuku gulped before walking to the plate. Aizawa chucked him a ball he barely caught before setting his eyes on the field.

He wasn't going to get a score like Uraraka but at the very least he needs to get as far as he can. Incubator has a set distance so he won't be able to use the darkness to his advantage, so that only left One For All as an option.

He felt the familiar static dance across his skin as he prepared his body to throw the ball. Izuku tried concentrating on the similar feeling he had when he first activated the fickle quirk. Breathing in and out slowly, he clenched the ball before swinging his fist back. He barely caught a glimpse of Aizawa's glowing eyes before he was bent over vomiting.

Whatever was coming out of his mouth wasn't food. Thick and viscous, his eyes dripped with tears as black sludge rocketed out of his mouth. His throat throbbed as he wanted to scream while whatever came out of his mouth was violent and torrential. He couldn't breathe -

He could barely hear Kirishima's shout of surprise as Katsuki fell to the floor, dead to the world. The students scrambled as one student was suddenly vomiting and the other was now unconscious and unresponsive. The rushing in his ears was too much, almost blocking the feeling of the large hand covering his back. Aizawa shouting for the students to get the helper robots and a stretcher, the girl with the long ponytail and Iida running to get Katsuki on a second stretcher.

Aizawa was Eraserhead. He had an erasing quirk. He tried to erase One For All. He erased Incubator too. It's coming out of his nose-

When the vomit finally stopped, his throat felt like it was torn apart from the inside, Izuku tried to wipe the tears from his eyes. His hands pulled back and whimpered when he saw dark liquid, a color too similar to Incubator’s darkness, stain his hands. His vision watered even more, actual tears beginning to flow out of his eyes as whatever was inside him roared in indignation. He ignored Aizawas whispered sh*t as he tried to keep a hold on himself.

"It'll be okay, Midoriya. Just don't-" Izuku didn't hear the rest as darkness, different from his own, blanketed his eyes and mind before he passed out.

The beeping was slow, gently pulling him out of whatever unconscious state Izuku was previously in. He didn’t open his eyes, allowing his body to slowly come back.

“His records only state that his quirk, Incubator, had multiple abilities. The columns of darkness from his limbs, super strength, and durability. The rest is classified . How am I supposed to train a student when I am not allowed to know what I’m even working with?” Aizawa’s furious whispering caused Izuku to slowly open his eyes. The white of the nursing room strained his eyes, but he forced them open to see Recovery Girl smiling pleasantly at him. The flap of the curtain probably meant that Aizawa had left the room, or at least his area.

“Good morning, sweetie. It seems that you had a little accident during an impromptu test set by Aizawa-sensei. Do you remember what happened?” She handed Izuku a cup of water after the boy slowly lifted himself up against the head of the bed. The water helped his sore throat, it still felt scratchy from his vomiting from earlier.

“I-I think I reacted violently when Aizawa-sensei erased my quirk.” Izuku wasn’t entirely sure what happened. He never had his quirk erased so it wasn’t exactly a common experience. “That’s never happened before, and I’ve never had to get my quirk erased before either so.”

“You aren’t entirely sure what happened then.” Aizawa’s voice jolted Izuku, causing him to almost drop his cup. Recovery Girl smacked her lips before punching Aizawa’s knee, causing him to kneel on the floor.

“What have I told you about scaring patients by just asking questions unprompted?” She scolded. “But that does seem the case.”

“It never happened before, no. I’m not sure why I reacted the way I did.” Izuku wondered if there was something that consistently happened with Incubator that caused him to almost implode when it was stopped so suddenly. To his knowledge, Incubator was a darkness that lived underneath his skin. Maybe something happened to that?

“Then do you know why Bakugou fainted?”

“He what?” Izuku panicked for a second before realization set in. The contract, that was something that was constantly on. Katsuki’s soul was within his soul gem that was within Izuku. If Aizawa had erased his quirk, then that means he erased the contract between him and Katsuki for a second. He completely disconnected Katsuki’s body from his soul gem, from his soul.

“Is he all right?” Izuku almost got up from the bed before Aizawa pushed the teen down back down.

“He’s okay. He just fainted on the field. He’s currently resting and should be up soon.” Aizawa pulled a seat from the side, allowing himself to sit next to Recovery Girl as she fiddled with the bandages on Izuku. The boy settled back into his seat at the news. Izuku guessed that the erasure made Katsuki react the same way he would if he took off his ring, a disconnect that could be reconnected. That being said, Izuku wanted to keep Katsuki’s soul in his body for as long as he could.

“What I do need is for you to tell me what exactly is your quirk?” Aizawa said, his eyes dark and intense as he stared into Izuku’s green. The teen gulped before averting his eyes, nervousness fluttering in his system.

“I-I…”

“I talked to Detective Naomasa and he briefed me on the situation with the villain attack you and Bakugou experienced, but it’s ultimately your decision to tell me about Incubator. I am asking to ensure that I know what I need to do in order to train you effectively in this course.” The older man sat back in his chair, not wanting to pressure Izuku into a confession of sorts.

Izuku hesitated. Technically, Aizawa knows and asked about Incubator, not One For All. He could tell him about Incubator's known abilities and not mention One For All’s hand in it. If he asked about One For All, he felt that he would’ve needed to ask Yagi to make sure that it would be okay.

"Incubator...evolved in the past few months," the teen rubbed his thumb over his finger, anxiety ebbing and flowing, "it didn't used to be this strong. Just extra durability with mutations like my rings and a red mark on my back."

"But there was an incident, between a villain and Kacchan and I. Something happened and I was knocked out, but my quirk activated.” Katsuki had been the one who told him what he looked like. How his eyes glowed red and how his presence changed , grabbing onto his friend’s brain to dig the wish out of him.

“He made a contract with me. With my quirk. I didn’t do it on purpose, I-I was completely knocked out and I wasn’t in any control but…” Aizawa looked quietly at Izuku, his face betraying nothing. Recovery Girl sat on the side, a concerned frown on her face.

“I gave him his quirk.” Aizawa blinked once, twice, before slowly breathing out of his nose. Recovery Girl’s mouth parted slightly, the only indication of surprise.The two straightened themselves out quickly, the attention forcing itself back toward Izuku, who shrunk from their initial reactions.

“Is that a part of your quirk?” He asked, his tone revealing nothing. Izuku wiggled his fingers, his thoughts warring in his head on how to phrase a quirk that even he wasn’t entirely sure how it worked.

“Not specifically, I don’t think. When you ask for a wish, I can grant anything. At least, I think I can. But if I could give someone a quirk, I don’t think there isn’t much I can’t do.” Izuku twisted the blanket in his lap, distracting himself with the curves and dips of the shadows, comforting him slightly.

Izuku went on to mention most of what his other self told him, about witches and how they’re formed. How his darkness feeds on grief seeds and soul gems and the contracts they’re birthed from. How he has a witch of his own but has no real clue of the limits of that being either. How Katsuki and him were connected in a way that he didn’t think he could ever separate. Everything he could remember about his quirk he told Aizawa, who took everything stoically as Izuku felt like he was blurting everything about his quirk.

“It’s certainly a powerful quirk, one that should be kept in check to ensure that you don’t harm anybody or make contracts with people who may wish for harmful things.” Izuku gulped, not wanting to mention how someone had suggested to All Might that he be watched. “It seems as though you have no control of yourself when you make a contract or when you eat a grief seed, so that could be the darkness within you.” Recovery Girl said, a hand on her chin.

“Regardless, we should put you in quirk counseling just so we could figure out the limitation of your quirks. Both you and Bakogou, since you two only had your quirk for a year.” Aizawa crossed his arms, eyes closed as he planned for the future. “Though, do your best to not make a contract and activate a witch that you might not be able to handle on your own. You and Katsuki got lucky with his witch in that you were able to accept him so fast, but if the contractor doesn’t accept them then you’ll need the power to be able to fight back.”

Izuku nodded slowly, slightly frustrated at his lack of control over his quirk. The way he reacted to his quirk being briefly erased showed him that there were so many aspects of his quirk that were unknown to him that could be utilized by villains if they accidentally discovered something he didn’t know about. Not to mention if the person’s despair was strong enough, his darkness might prioritize feeding itself than defeating the villain. He had to be careful.

“It is good that you informed us of this. With this information, I can accurately give you both the training you need for your quirk. And Recovery Girl will have the information she needs to take care of you.” Aizawa rose up from his seat, a nod given to both Izuku and Recovery Girl before leaving the room.

“And don’t worry about expulsion. It was all a logical ruse.” The older man called out, Izuku hearing his steps from the hallway. The teen sighed into the bed while Recovery Girl gave a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. Not everyone that comes here has complete control of their quirk when they enroll, but that’s why they’re here.” Recovery Girl said, a warm smile on her face. “As long as you keep trying to be a hero, you’ll be just fine.”

Izuku gave her a shaky smile in return as she turned and left him to rest on the bed. The teen’s thoughts weren’t as chaotic as before, but his thoughts were never one to stop.

Incubator was a quirk he was born with that he was only learning now what all it could do. Every step forward in his knowledge of his quirk was pushed back by something else that blindsides him. Even if his witch told him every single detail there is about his quirk, there’s no telling how One For All would make it react. For now, he needs to train and be able to get a clear idea on how to use his quirk as a hero. That’s the most logical step.

Plus Ultra, right?

Chapter 9: I'll Prove To You I'm Strong Enough

Chapter Text

Katsuki had woken up moments after Aizawa left, just like the older man said he would. The golden ringed boy was quick to let Katsuki know all that happened, the blond having moved from his own bed to join Izuku’s. Katsuki’s red eyes narrowed in thought, distrustful of the older man even though Izuku reassured him of Tsukauchi’s support.

"I just told him about Incubator and it'll be better if he knew anyway. It's better to trust someone who knows how to handle quirks than just us fumbling around in the dark anyway." I didn't tell him about One For All, Izuku hoped the message was clear. Izuku wouldn't call him telling Aizawa about Incubator necessarily 'trust'. No, it was strategic, better for someone like a pro hero to be able to stop Izuku if he ever lost control of his quirk. Especially if the person had an erasure quirk that would put an immediate stop to whatever he was doing, despite the violent reaction of Izuku and Katsuki. It was better than nothing.

Katsuki grumbled but backed down, Recovery Girl chortling at the two teens. Izuku smiled, a warm feeling curling in his chest at Katsuki's protective nature. Though, Izuku knew that wouldn't stop the blond from giving their homeroom teacher the stink eye the next time they saw him.

Recovery Girl, ‘Shuzenji-Sensei is fine, dear’ , allowed the two to leave soon after, only giving Katsuki a quick check up since he appeared to have only fainted. Izuku and Katsuki spoke quietly with each other, the intensity of the first day not surprising them but leaving them a bit winded.

It was both different and as expected, UA. Their dream school felt as intense as it should be, being a hero school, but Izuku knew the twists and turns of the school wouldn’t end at just the first day.

So it came as no surprise to Izuku when the intensity UA started with on the first day trucked on to the second.

"I am coming in normally!" All Might said, wearing the costume of an earlier time in his hero career. The class talked amongst one another, quiet and not so quiet, as the #1 hero walked to the front of the class. A legend to the average person, Izuku still felt a flutter of excitement to see All Might in all his costumed glory.

"For the foundational hero studies course, we're diving into the deep end," the older hero clenched his fist by his chest. "The purpose of this course is to teach you the basics of heroism. We will be learning this through a series of trials. For your first trial, I will be conducting a series of two versus two battles. For now, put on your hero costumes and meet me at Ground B. Remember, you are all future heroes."

The class scrambled to get their cases. Hero costumes seemed trivial to most, but image was important in the hero world. At least, that's what Aunty Mitsuki and and surprisingly Uncle Masaru hammered into his head. Uncle Masaru was a fashion model while Auntie Mitsuki was a model, it shouldn't have surprised Izuku for Katsuki to force him into talking to his parents for help on his costume. His mom helped a bit too, pulling the other two parents back when they wanted to go for a bit more stylish than practical. He remembered Auntie Mitsuki and the usually calm Uncle Masaru arguing back and forth on the design of his costume, practicality versus imagery. It lasted into the weeks on how his costume should be made, his own mother barely being able to stop the rampaging couple.

Regardless, he just hoped his costume at least fit him right.

Izuku raised his arms over his head in a stretch as the light from the otherside of the large doors opened to reveal the Ground Beta. UA was amazing in how they created simulations of the city, large buildings that towered over everyone in the group. Izuku’s eye drifted and caught onto Uraraka who immediately turned to speak to him.

"Wow, your costume looks so cute!" The brunette gave a wide smile from underneath her visor.

"C-Cute?" Izuku pulled on the fabric that clung to his neck. "I wasn't really going for cute…"

Izuku had hoped his costume would lead to a more cool-looking aesthetic. The first layer was a bodysuit with a high neck, pure white with accents of green in the form of curved lines on his sides and shoulders that flowed into the red oval on his back. The bodysuit fitted seamlessly into the knee high combat boots the same bright red colors his shore bore. Hip packs hung around his waist, pulled further to his back than his sides. Attached to his hip packs was a pure white faux fox tail, a gift from his mom that doubled as a sac for medical supplies. His forearms, elbows, and knees were covered with thicker padding since his fighting style was more oriented to his fists. Thick white gloves that dipped into pink and red at the fingertips covered his hands, his golden rings floating around his wrists. A white respirator clung to his jawline and connected to large headphones and shot slightly behind him, also tipped in a pinkish red, similar to Urarakas helmet in shape.

"The tail is so cute!" Uraraka said, feeling the soft fluff that covered the fake appendage.

"W-Well I think my costume was designed so I looked more friendly to civilians, including the tail…" Izuku rubbed the back of his head. Katsuki growled and pulled Uraraka's hand off the tail. Unperturbed, the girl continued on.

"That makes sense! Make yourself look all pure and cute to make people feel safe!" The brunette pointed a figure in the air, a happy smile shining on her features.

"He's supposed to look badass! What the hell did that old hag do to your design?" Katsuki growled, his teeth gritted. Kirishima laughed at the narrowed look the blond wore as he glanced up and down the costume.

"I think Midoriya can look manly too! We haven't seen him in action yet so it might fit him." Kirishima laughed. The other two boys looked like real heroes with their individual costumes, strong and fierce. Izuku did feel a bit less intimidating in his white, but he also wanted people to feel safe, like All Might. Though, maybe he should talk to his mom about the tail.

"And action you will see!" All Might's loud voice broke them out of their camaraderie. The large man smiled down and gave Izuku a soft glance, the green haired teen smiling back.

"As I stated before, the first trial will be a two versus two series of battles. The scenario is this: Heroes versus Villains." All Might allowed a moment of dramatic silence to float within the group. "A pair of villains have stolen nuclear weaponry and it's up to a pair of heroes to head into the building they're hiding in and either retrieve the weapon or subdue the villains. On the other hand, the villains win the battle if they defend the weaponry until the time runs out or they take out the heroes."

All Might allowed the screen behind him to shuffle into 10 different groupings. "As for how we pick the pairings, we will be simply choosing names out of a box!" A bright yellow box appeared in All Might's hand, he gave it a slight shake and the sound of papers shuffled inside the box.

"Sir! How will the groupings be fair if we have an uneven amount of students?" Iida spoke loud and clearly for the group. Izuku had counted 19 students, so Iida was right in that it would be uneven.

"A-Ah, well there will be...simply a group that will be three versus two!" All Might recovered quickly. "This allows for a more realistic situation!" The blue-haired teen reluctantly put his hand down as the older hero shuffled the box some more.

“For now, choose your lot and then we will assign roles and opponents!” And so every student went up and picked a name out of the box. Izuku gave a small smile as Uraraka cheered at getting his name. Katsuki scowled as he was paired with Iida, the taller blue-haired teen’s face hidden behind his helmet. Izuku hoped the blond will at the very least work with Iida,

"Izuku-kun! We've been paired together. Any strategies?" Uraraka bounced on her heels, her arms raised in the air in excitement. “Bakugou and Iida may be strong, but maybe if we make a good plan they won’t see coming ,we can win!”

Izuku smiled at the girl’s determination, her confidence easing a bit of the nervous fluttering in his stomach. Though, she had a point. Katsuki and him have never gone full out against one another before. Purely sparing with All Might and testing the true limits of their quirks with the older hero. Both Izuku and Katsuki had the advantage of not entirely knowing what the other can do. Izuku could guess the limits of both Katsuki’s and Iida’s quirk, but he would need to be careful

“I might be able to think of something. Full confidence, Uraraka-chan.” Izuku clenched a fist in front of his chest, the swirling darkness within giving a hum as he tugged slightly at its power. Uraraka gave a small laugh as All Might gave the signal allowing them inside.

The hallways of the building were long and dark, obviously built for the intention of the trial. Izuku walked slowly, Uraraka close behind as they peered down another empty hallway. They were able to get in through a lower window.

Katsuki was a frontline fighter, despite his quirk being mid-ranged. Iida was mostly likely the same, as built as he was, though speed was more likely his advantage. He would likely stay with the weapon since he could escape with it easily. So that leaves Katsuki to-

“Pay attention, Izuku!” A familiar growl echoed above him as a wide palm let out an explosion above his head. Uraraka grunted as she grabbed Izuku and pushed them past Katsuki’s explosion, the two coughing on the floor. The smoke cleared to reveal the blond in all his glory, a fierce glare on his face.

“We’re in a serious battle, Izuku. Pay closer attention to your surroundings!” Sparks flew off of Katsuki’s hand, his angry warning caused Izuku to look off, a bit embarrassed. Maybe he was in his head a bit much.

“Don’t worry, Kacchan. I won’t take my eyes off of you!” Izuku got up from the floor, readying his fighting position as Uraraka shuffled behind him.

The blond blushed, grateful for his black mask covering the top half of his face. He roared again, rocketing off toward Izuku who stood rooted in his position. The green-haired teen shuffled through his memories of their spars, remembering Katsuki's direct style of fighting in opposition to his own reactionary way of fighting.

But this time, he needed to move first.

Slamming his right foot on the ground, he extended his fists on either side of him. His right fist shot out a long stream of darkness, one Katsuki dodged by releasing another explosion to push him into another direction midair. The blond's grin was wiped off his face as the stream darkness blew a hole on the side of the building, Uraraka running past the teen and using her quirk to float her to a higher floor.

Katsuki turned, intending to grab on to the brunette before another stream of darkness knocked his hand down. He turned and locked eyes with Izuku’s determined glare.

“Your opponent is me! Don’t look away.” Izuku slammed his left foot, fists raised as the two teens stared each other down. The blond smacked his lips before getting into his own position. A silent countdown echoed in their heads, an echo of Yagi’s voice yelling ‘begin’ before launching at the other.

Izuku ducked as Katsuki’s familiar right hook charged at his face. Turning quickly, he gripped onto the blond’s arm and slammed him onto the floor.

“You always swing with your right, Kacchan. You’re being predictable!” Izuku let out his own growl, a pleased grin on his face. Katsuki coughed as his back was slammed into the ground. He spun quickly on the floor, blasting forward and giving a well aimed punch to Izuku’s gut.

“Stop f*cking talking!” He growled as Izuku swung at him, forcing the blond to create distance between the two. The green-haired teen glared at the red-eyed teen before smiling again. Raising his fist, he shot out another stream of darkness onto the floor, creating a crater in the ground into the lower floor.

“You’re gonna have to catch me first!” Izuku ignored Katsuki’s roar as he jumped into the hole. He landed with a grunt before running down the hall, glad to hear the familiar sound of explosions catching up behind him. Turning the corner, he could see the end of the hallway open up into a wider room. He looked back and was surprised to see Katsuki standing at the other end of the hallway, his fist raised and a finger hooked around the pin on his gauntlet.

“You’re stronger now, Izuku. So I know you’ll survive this. I’ll prove to you I’m strong enough to keep you safe.” Izuku's eyes widened at the large gauntlet covering the other’s arm. His sweat must be gathering inside of the grenade, Katsuki’s quirk working as the fuel. Izuku turned to run as Katsuki pulled the pin out, a large explosion roaring it’s way out his gauntlet and down the hallway.

Izuku shot streams of darkness out of his feet, using a similar technique to Katsuki and launching himself down the hallway, the explosion nipping at his feet. At the last moment, he blasted another stream from his fist and launched himself to the side, the fire blasting past him and him smacking onto the wall.

Izuku coughed as the smoke slowly dissipated from the room, the sound of boots hitting the floor echoing behind the smoke. Izuku got up slowly and met Katsuki’s eyes again as the blond entered the room.

“You know there are better ways to prove that to me, right?” Izuku mentioned, positioning himself again.

“S-Shut up! You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Katsuki growled, sparks flying off his palms.

“Katsuki, you’ve always been able to keep me safe. You don’t need to-”

“No!” The blond let out another explosion as he slammed his fist into his palm. “I didn’t. I couldn’t do sh*t. This time, I’m stronger now. This time, I’ll show you everything I have.”

Izuku breathed out slowly, whatever emotions Katsuki still had after the multiple incidents must still linger in his head. He supposed Katsuki wouldn’t ever really be over it until he proved himself somehow. As much of a concern this was to Izuku, he knew that he had to focus on the trial.

Silently, he got into position, his breath coming in and out slowly. Katsuki reflected him, his aggression running down into his palm that burned a familiar orange. Once more, they waited silently.

“Izuku-kun, I’m in position.” The static of Uraraka’s voice whispered into his ear, his eye shifting to keep Katsuki in view.

“Understood, wait for the signal.”

“I won’t let you!” Izuku grunted as Katsuki rolled himself to the floor in front of the teen. Bending his knees, Katsuki pushed himself from the ground with his hands and launched his feet into Izuku’s body. Izuku rocketed backwards, his feet hissing as they slid across the floor. Izuku rushed at Katsuki, the two exchanging blows as they fought for dominance.

Izuku curled his fist and launched a beam of darkness into Katsuki’s stomach, the blond being blown back creating distance between the two. The hum of One For All tickled over his skin, Izuku calling for it in preparation.

"You were always strong enough, Kacchan. But right now, from where I was then, I'll show you that you don't have to worry about me anymore!" Katsuki charged at Izuku but was too late to stop the teen from swinging his fist upward. His back hit the wall as the wind from One For All blew him back, the ceiling obliterated from the air force of the powerful quirk.

Izuku could barely hear the screech of victory from Uraraka over his headset, a smile stretching his face as Katsuki glared at the teen.

"Team Hero wins!"

Recovery Girl had given the teen a verbal smackdown after Izuku was taken to the infirmary for his broken arm. Apparently, despite his durability, One For All was still too much for his body to handle. Katsuki had glared at him the entire time he was getting healed, the blond being the one to help take him to the infirmary.

“Midoriya-kun, while I am not the leading expert on your quirk, it would be in your best interest to gain some form of control over your quirk to prevent this from happening. I won’t always be there to heal you.” Shuzenji-sensei dispensed a candy into Izuku’s hand, the green-haired boy giving a sheepish smile.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Hell yeah, you’re sorry. You’re lucky you don’t have to go home and explain to Auntie why you have a fuc-I mean a broken arm.” Katsuki shuffled at Recovery Girl’s sharp look. Izuku struggled to hide the smile behind his face at seeing the blond being cowed by the smaller older woman.

They left soon after, once again being completely healed if mostly tired from Shuzenji-Sensei’s quirk. Izuku looked at Katsuki who, to a regular person, wore his neutral face. But Izuku has known Katsuki since he was a child and while he can’t read the other teen all the time, he knew enough to see that something was up with him.

Izuku raised a hand and pulled at the back of Katsuki’s shirt. The blond turned his head and raised an eyebrow, giving the green-haired teen a silent question.

“Are you okay?” Izuku wasn’t sure how else to word the question. Katsuki never really gave simple answers so he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The blond looked at the ground, eyelids low as his red eyes peeked out. Thoughts seemed to race through his head, an internal struggle on how to answer the question.

“...I don’t think you’re weak.” The blond decided on, turning his head facing away from Izuku. The evening sun laid quietly over the two teens shoulders, the rays warm and pleasant against their backs. “You were never really weak.”

“Back then, when we were kids, you would always stand up against bullies. Even if they were bigger than you, even when they could use their quirks, you would always stand your ground. Even when I had to come in and beat them down.” Katsuki flexed his hand, the sweat collecting and he felt his quirk yearn to be called upon.

“You said that I was your hero. So why does it feel like you’re leaving me behind?” Izuku felt a strange emotion flutter across his chest and he clenched his fists to his sides. The strange feeling caused the hair to stand at the back of the neck, an emotion that swirled with sadness and regret but so much more.

Katsuki tilted his head up, allowing Izuku to see the top of his head. Whatever emotion the blond wore on his face was hidden from Izuku, something the teen felt was becoming more and more like the norm. The words that usually dripped easily off of Izuku’s tongue felt absent, a situation he wasn’t sure how to navigate. Katsuki took a deep breath and turned back toward Izuku, the green-haired teen swallowing his tongue.

“What the f*ck do I do, Izuku? Let yourself be a hero and get hurt? Or get in your way and keep you safe?” The blond had the barest of tears in his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed and teeth gritted in frustration. Izuku felt his own eyes tear up in empathy, no clear solution in his head as his best friend conflicted with two warring emotions. The blond wiped his eyes with his arm, letting out a grunt of frustration before twisting his body back towards the gate of the school. He took another deep breath before letting it go, his shoulder falling from it’s previously tensed up state.

“You’ll make a good hero, Izuku. And everyone in that f*cking class is strong as all hell, from that f*cking ponytail girl to that ice freak. But in the end, it’s your decision on what you do and what you become.” Katsuki began walking again, his steps loud against Izuku’s head. “I just have to make sure that wherever you go, I’ll be strong enough to get there too.”

Katsuki’s steps were loud as they reverberated in his head, an unknown emotion making the feeling of his own heart beating feel so large. He didn’t mean for Katsuki to feel that way, he certainly didn’t want him to. But as he looked back, he could understand why Katsuki could feel the way he did. Julius surely wasn’t afraid to tell the two teens how Katsuki also felt about Izuku’s rapidly growing powers.

Izuku wasn’t sure what he could do. But he knew that if whatever emotions Katsuki had went over the boiling point, Incubator and the blond’s soul gem would be there to remind him of what happened next.

Chapter 10: I'm Sorry

Chapter Text

Izuku yelled as he swung his leg against the thick tree, the force causing leaves to fall from its branches and onto the floor around the teen.

It was the weekend after the battle trials and despite the casualness of his conversation with Katsuki, Izuku still felt this strange tense air whenever they spoke. The elephant in the room that moved everytime Izuku tried to look over his shoulder. He wasn’t sure what he needed to do, or if he needed to do anything at all. Katsuki had yet to make a move about what he said and Izuku wasn’t sure if it was best to poke a resting beast like that anytime soon.

‘Hey Kacchan, would it be cool to talk about your emotional issues so we don’t accidentally summon a giant fire-breathing dragon again?’ Izuku huffed in amusem*nt, the thought alone sounding ridiculous in his head. Breathing out, he turned around before leaning his back against the rough bark of the tree. He had decided to take a small run and train at the park nearby, slipping a bit further into the small woods that clung to the outskirts of the park.

Izuku closed his eyes, listening to the small sounds that flowed around him. His thoughts swirled in his head, too fast for his mouth to catch, too fast for any kind of plan to form and solidify.

The rustling of the nearby bushes jolted his eyes open. He scanned the area, though he quickly calmed down once he realized what he was doing. He was a public park, he shouldn't be in danger.

He only yelped when a tall dark figure appeared from between the trees, barely making a sound.

The figure wore a black and purple outfit with accents of gray. A half formed motorcycle helmet covered their face and the back of their head, allowing their long straight black hair to fall delicately behind them. A long cloak with purple diamond running along the hem covered their body, not giving Izuku the chance to guess the build they held underneath. A large shield clung to their arm, sturdy but with an intricate design. A pair of tall black heeled boots crunched the grass beneath their feet.

The two stared at each other for a moment, the gears in Izuku’s head turned slowly barely processing the strange energy that passed between.

Izuku yelped when he felt the roar of One For All flow across his body, the sensation involuntary as the static rolled over his skin. It didn't hurt, no, but it felt like Incubator. It wanted to get out, please -

"Calm yourself. Focus." The figure spoke, husky yet light. Soft with a hard undercurrent of force. Izuku could barely hear them as Incubator joined One For All in it’s rage, his panicked state allowing the dark quirk to storm out on its own.

"This will pass, but you must breathe. Believe in yourself." A hand landed on his shoulder, a soft comfort against the raging storms of One For All and Incubator warring in his system. He could feel his dark quirk react to the figure, despair clung to them like the wool cloak she wore. It wanted to consume .

"This is your power. It will always be in your control. Reign yourself in." Their voice flowed softly around him, Izuku clenched his hair in his hands. He breathed in through his nose and out his mouth. Inwardly, he gently grabbed the two roaring quirks, both pulling against his hold. Determined, Izuku wrangled the quirks from their active states, both settling back into their calm states inside his chest. They both weighed heavy inside of him.

Relaxing from the folded position he took, Izuku was surprised to see the figure kneeling in front him. The light of sun glared into their helmet, letting Izuku see a glimpse of a deep purple eye before they stood back up.

"You'd ought to be more careful with a quirk like yours. Those with power have a responsibility to keep themselves in check, lest they harm the ones they sought to protect." Their words were simple, yet Izuku knew that the phrase was a lesson. The masked individual turned slowly before walking away from the green-haired teen.

W-Wait," Izuku scrambled from his position on the ground, flinging grass every which way. "Who are you?"

The taller figure stopped, a wind gently carrying their long hair to flow and wave softly.

"You can call me Spiderlily." A quiet voice carried by the wind, the figure kept walking into the city before disappearing behind a dark alleyway.

Izuku gulped, the energy in the air strange, but not necessarily bad or uncomfortable. The teen knew the Japanese database of heroes by heart, spent countless nights with Katsuki researching heroes of different countries.

Why couldn't he remember a spiderlily?

The days before the field trip, the one where Aizawa refused to tell the students where the destination was, were more or less a go around introduction to the other students of 1-A. With the surprisingly normalcy of choosing a class representative, Izuku introduced himself to more students than before. The strange degree of separation between him and Katsuki allowed some friendship to sprout between students.

“I hope we are able to work well together, Midoriya-san.” Yaoyorozu had said, giving a slight bow as she and the other teen were surprisingly elected as class representatives. Well, maybe it was just surprising to him since he wasn’t sure what he showed that made the other think that he was appropriate for the job. Yaoyorozu, he found, was someone that easily fit the position of vice president. Personally, he voted for Iida to be the actual president.

Iida was someone that orbited around Izuku, but they never directly interacted with one another, since the green-haired teen usually stuck to Katsuki and vice versa. Uraraka was the one who introduced the boys to each other, since Izuku elected to eat with Uraraka during lunch one day while Kirishima pulled Katsuki into his group with Sero, Ashido, and Kaminari. He gave a silent prayer that the blond would be nice to the other 4 students.

“Your actions during the battle trials were efficient and well-executed. Uraraka-kun has told me that you were the person behind the strategy the two of you used to get the upper hand between Bakugou-san and I.” A stiff hand chopped the air, almost too aggressively when combined with the compliments he was trying to deliver. Izuku blushed and nodded his head in thanks, ignoring the smirking shoulder touch from Uraraka as the boy continued on about the battle trials.

“My brother said that it would be most prudent if I were to develop a friendship with someone like you, so I will put the most effort into doing so!” He said, glasses glinting off the light from the cafeteria. The three were walking back to the classroom, Uraraka hanging to the other side of Izuku.

“Is your brother someone you look up to?” Uraraka asked, her head tilted to her left. Iida nodded quickly, a smile stretching his face.

“My family is known for having a long line of heroes. Under the same name, we all hope to become great heroes.” Gear turning in his head, Izuku finally made the connection between Iida’s family name and his quirk.

“Ingenium, right?” Izuku lightly landed his fist into his palm, a lightbulb turning on in his head.

“Yes! The Turbo Hero: Ingenium. My family has chosen the hero career for generations, back to my grandfather. It is only natural I look up to the current pro hero Ingenium.”

“Is that why you want to be a hero, Iida-kun? Your family?” Uraraka said, curiosity leaking from her tone.

“Yes! The name of Ingenium will continue forward as I ascend to becoming a pro hero.” A pensive looked entered Iida’s face as he glanced over to Izuku and Uraraka. “Though, I hope you don’t find me rude in asking. For what reason are you two choosing to go into the hero course?”

The two teens blinked before glancing at the other. Uraraka smiled before turning her head upward to the ceiling, bouncing a few steps in front of them.

“I think I have a similar reason. I want to become a hero for my family. Though, it’s probably not in the way you think.” Uraraka rubbed her two fingers together as she walked in front of the boys, turning another corner in the hallway. “Heroes get paid a lot, you know? And it’s really hard to get a job like hero work that’ll immediately put you in a position to earn a good amount of money. My family struggles a bit to pay for things, so I’d like to think that I’ll be able to help them out if I stick to a job like this.”

She turned, a bit of a shy look causing her to close her eyes halfway and look into a different direction.

“I hope that's still an okay reason to become a hero.”

“Of course it is!” Iida roared his agreement, Izuku almost jumping a foot into the air due to the volume. “A truly noble reason for becoming a hero. To help your family in the most optimum way possible! Truly a hero by the strictest of definition.” Izuku couldn’t help but a clap along to the embarrassment of Uraraka who had a bright streak of red across her face. She looked to ask Izuku the question next but the bell signalled the beginning of class. The three students squawked in surprise before quickly rushing back to the classroom.

It was different, being friends with people like Iida and Uraraka. They both had an intensity similar to Katsuki, but different in how it was directed.

Riding on the bus toward the mysterious destination, the air was a bit stilted. Katsuki and him had yet to reconcile in a way that they both felt comfortable. Katsuki had obviously gotten over it but Izuku still felt bad, for a lack of a better term. Like he needed to fix the issue but if Katsuki said there wasn’t an issue, then there wasn’t an issue. But before he could give it another thought, Tsuyu’s blunt attitude walked right through it.

“Excuse me, I tend to say whatever’s on my mind. I’m Asui Tsuyu, but please call me Tsuyu-chan.” The murky green-haired girl, a color almost similar to Izuku’s own forest green, tilted her head curiously at Izuku who gave a slight nod as permission.

“What is your quirk? We saw it being used during the battle trials but I wasn’t sure exactly what it entailed.” Izuku blinked in surprise but he supposed that the question was fair. He didn’t really explain his quirk other than to Aizawa-sensei, so he guessed that it was now or never to figure out a way to explain it entirely.

“W-Well, It’s called Incubator.” Izuku started, fidgeting with the soft tail on his lap. Aizawa had also told them to be in their hero costume for wherever they were going so Izuku took the liberty and used the faux tail attached to his costume to hide his nerves.

"It recently grew into being this strong, when I was younger I only had the mutation aspects of it, like my rings and strands of white hair." The other students on the bus turned to look at him, interested in the quirks of one of their stronger classmates.

"But now, as I've found out, I have this sort of...energy inside of me that I can release outwardly or inwardly." Izuku let a bit of darkness exit his hand, a more nebulous shape that floated above his hand. Lately, he's been experimenting on making different shapes than the columns or rigid walls that Incubator often takes. He's gotten better at manipulating its form.

Kirishima who sat on the other side of Izuku reached out a finger and poked the blob, eliciting a shiver to run down the redheads spine that despite the moving matter, it still felt solid.

"Thats...hella manly…" Kirishima said, both delighted and slightly creeped out.

"It kinda reminds me of me!" Dark Shadow appeared from the cloak of Tokoyami's costume, a disgruntled look on his face as he wrestled Dark Shadow back within himself. The class shared a laugh at the bird-like teen’s annoyance.

"But this is only when I push the energy out. When I handle it this way," Izuku allowed the cloud to dissipate and called on One For All. Thankfully, the quirk ran its green sparks up and down his arm to the amazement of the other kids.

"So that was the super strength at the end of the trial." Yaoyorozu looked at the sparks dancing up and down the greenette's arm. Izuku laughed while the quirk dissipated, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck.

"Is that all your quirk does? You mentioned other aspects." Iida asked, fingers tilting his glasses up.

“E-Er well-”

“Stop f*cking bothering him, nosy extras.” Katsuki growled from the back, an eyebrow raised as all eyes turned toward him.

“With a scary attitude like that, it makes you wonder what kind of hero Bakugou-kun is trying to be.” Tsuyu commented.

“Say that to my face!” Katsuki roared, hands gripping the rail of the bus. Everyone on the bus laughed at the angry blond but Izuku caught his eye and mouthed a thank you. The teen huffed as he argued back and forth with the other students.

“Be quiet, we’re here.” Aizawa’s low voice quieted everyone, the bus giving a high screech as it stopped in front of the large building. “Hurry up and get off.”

“Oh my god, it’s Thirteen!” Izuku could practically feel the excitement from Uraraka as they entered the large area to see the space hero waiting for them. The hero gave a little wave as Uraraka vibrated in place, Izuku stifling his laugh from behind his hand.

"Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. This area will be used to conduct rescue simulations in a variety of environments. Not only will you learn how to conduct rescues and ensure the safety in civilians, you'll also be learning how to restrain and control your quirk." At the questioning look from the students, the space hero giggled to themselves. "Let me explain."

"I'm categorized as a rescue hero due to me primarily focusing on rescues during the aftermath of battles or events. My quirk is called black hole." The hero lifted their hand and the hatch on their index finger lifted. A strong pull, almost like gravity, began forcing the group forward before the hatch closed again.

"My quirk allows me to pull any object and material into itself, turning it to dust completely. While this is good to destroy any rubble and other obstacles that get in the way of rescue, it can easily hurt other people if I don't control it. Here at USJ, you'll learn how to control quirks to effectively save others while being sure that your quirk doesn't hurt others."

An uneasy feeling fluttered in the group, Izuku clasping his hands together as he glanced over toward Katsuki. His quirk's abilities thrived on using other people as its source. He could feel the weight of Katsuki’s soul gem within himself, and could practically feel energy radiating from the blond’s ring. He felt like Katsuki was a casualty of his quirk almost, despite it giving him a quirk. That's not even mentioning the existence of Julius.

"But please! Don't leave this lesson believing that your quirk was meant to hurt others!" Thirteen waved their hands in the air, pulling everyone's thoughts back to the teacher. "Your quirk exists to help just as long as you try to help people. Your quirk may be an intrinsic piece of you, but it's also just a tool for you to use. It doesn't define you."

The class began clapping at the pro hero's speech, the air softening from the previous atmosphere. The tearing of fabric pulled all their attention to the bottom of the stairs.

A tear in space bloomed at the center of the center field at the bottom of the stairs. Everyone turned to see a rip in the fabric of space, a dark portal floating in the middle of the area. Hands poked out before revealing grinning faces.

"Thirteen, protect the students!" Without another word, Aizawa leapt down the stairs, his hair floating in the air while his capture tape flung out like pale limbs. It would have been amazing to see Aizawa fight in a better situation, his movements controlled and he didn't waste a moment of time. Someone like him should have had difficulty fighting that amount of villains, but he glided across the center area and took down villains easily.

Thirteen turned and began pushing the students to the door. The class scrambled to turn before a wall of darkness appeared in front.

"I'm afraid I cannot let you escape." A pair of golden eyes opened on top of the purple flame-like energy. "The death of the #1 hero must happen."

Before he could reach out with his tendrils of darkness, Izuku launched a wall of his own darkness to block it.

"What a strange quirk, I can't pass through. Another way than." Izuku could hear the villain say before the darkness simply appeared from around the wall too fast for Izuku to make another one. The villain pushed his tendrils into the group, ghosting over the students including Izuku.

The panic of his heart was warm against the cool waters he landed in. Izuku struggled for a moment, righting himself before heading toward the surface.

He turned in the water and noticed multiple figures approaching him fast. He shot a beam of darkness that glided through the water and hit a singular figure. The others hesitated for a moment, giving ample time for an appendage to wrap around Izuku’s waist.

"'Zuku-chan!" Tsuyu called out as she pulled him onto the boat with her tongue. The boy rolled onto the deck, his back hitting the wall. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, Tsuyu’s hand patting his shoulder. It looked like it was just the two of them on the boat.

"There are a number of villains in the water." Tsuyu said, a sharp eye looking down at the circling figures below.

"And it looks like they don't know what kind of quirks we have if I ended up here. We have an advantage. Uraraka-chan mentioned you were good at strategies, Izuku-kun." As high a praise as that was, Izuku couldn’t help but feel nervous. This was different from training. The teen glanced over the side of the deck, the majority of the figures circled the boat like sharks.

Izuku recalled the slime villain. How despite the intangibility of the villain, All Might was able to defeat him using pure force. Tsuyu and him don't have the skills necessary to defeat all these villains, but that's not their goal either. They just needed to get away.

"I have an idea. My super strength might be able to use the air force to create a whirlpool. If we jump and use my darkness to propel us, we could get on land."

Tsuyu gave a nod, moving herself closer to him and wrapping an arm around his waist. He breathed in and out slowly as he let the familiar feeling of Incubator collected at his feet.

Tsuyu launched the two into the air, pretty far up with her leg strength alone, rocking the boat. Izuku pushed Incubator through his boots, the darkness rocketing them up even higher into the air and sinking the boat further into the waters. Twisting his body midair, Izuku grabbed his right arm and let One For All vibrate into his hand. Gritting his teeth, he flicked a bullet of force, pushing the air aside as it blasted into the waters below. The concussive blow broke his finger, but forced the water to whirl and rapidly plunge into the point of impact dragging the villains inside.

Their flight launched far from the whirlpool and closer to land. Tsuyu was easily able to drag Izuku to the surface while he clutched his injured hand.

"It might be best if you don't injure yourself more than necessary." Tsuyu said as they connected to land.

"I'd say it was necessary at that moment. Is that Aizawa-sensei?" The pro hero was quick as he ran between villains, using other ones as a type of wrecking ball wrapped in his capture tape.

"We're wasting time, Eraserhead isn't even the boss we need to kill for this quest. Noumu, take him out." Without a confirmation, the large muscular creature closed the distance between him and Aizawa in seconds. The pro hero barely even had time to turn before the creature was on him, a too fast to catch punch threw Aizawa to the ground. A crater was left behind from the force.

Izuku felt Tsuyu grip his arm, fear grabbing a hold of them both. Aizawa was taken out so easily but that creature, like a fly. The villain laughed at Aizawa, who struggled to rise back up.

"He didn't stand a chance against the Noumu. All Might isn’t here yet and we’re wasting our time with these NPCs.” The villain turned his head, his glaring red eye looked across the field and made contact with Izuku’s familiar green. The boy almost flinched at the intensity of the glare.

“Maybe if we took care of some of these kids the #1 hero will finally decide to show himself. That’s how it works, right?” The villain smiled wide, the hand on his face hiding most of his features from the two students. Izuku could see Katsuki show up on the other side of the field with Todoroki and Kirishima in tow. The slight distraction gave the villain enough time to rush toward Tsuyu, a hand hovered over her skin before making contact.

But nothing happened.

“Wow, you really are a pro, Eraserhead.” Izuku flicked his eyes to Aizawa-sensei and saw his eyes glow a familiar red even as he was held by the mysterious Noumu. The moment only lasted a second before the creature slammed the teacher’s head into the ground. Izuku sucked in a shaky breath.

“Now there’s nothing to stop us from giving All Might a lesson of not being where he needs to be. Killing off a few of these NPCs will do the trick.” The silver haired villain backed up from Tsuyu and turned, leaving the two students in the water to watch.

“W-Why are you doing this?” Izuku felt the question blurt out of him faster than he could stop it. The villain stopped before slowly turning around, his right red eye wide as he stared at the green-haired teen.

“Hero society is a disease, All Might being the virus that started it all. Hero society is nothing but a ploy, a game. Heroes don’t save people, they play to win. Society must change. If All Might dies, then everything else will fall. Game over.” A gaseous cloud of darkness bubbled up next to him as the warping villain appeared next to him.

“Shigaraki Tomura, a student was able to escape and is now on his way with pro heroes. We must leave.” The figure said, his yellow eyes staring down at the silver-haired villain.

“What the hell, Kurogiri? We can’t take on too many pros right now. If you weren’t a f*cking warp gate I’d turn you to ash.” Shigaraki turned back to face Izuku, the teen gulping as he saw the villain look over him and Tsuyu.

“We have to leave something behind for All Might to find. Pieces of his students maybe? Noumu, kill him.” Faster than a blink of an eye, the Noumu launched itself toward the teen.

The Noumu swung its fist into Izuku’s chest, rocketing the boy across the waters until he slowed down enough to go under. The screams from the other students echoed above the waves, their sounds muffled by its churning.

The pain was numbed by the cool liquid that surrounded him and began flooding within. Izuku could barely struggle as gravity began pulling him down from the still waters above. Numbly, Izuku didn’t react when he felt hands, neither cool nor warm, touch either side of his head and forced his eyes to meet familiar reds.

“What a bind we found ourselves in.” His other self said, his mouth unmoving yet amused all the same. “It is time like these that a miracle is what could save yourself and your fellow heroes-to-be.”

It no longer felt like he was drowning, no water to die in. It felt like he wasn’t breathing at all, just floating in nothingness as his other self held his head afloat, just before death’s door. The other Izuku’s face glowed brightly against the darkness, his red eyes glowing like stars surrounded by the white of his hair and the paleness of his face.

“Will you be that miracle, Izuku? Just say yes and everything will be fine. Succumb to me.” It’s voice was hypnotizing, and Izuku couldn’t help but close his eyes and pray .

Katsuki screeched when Izuku dropped beneath the waters, ignoring the cackling of that freak that was in charge of the assault. Kirishima struggled in holding the blond back from attacking the Noumu, knowing that they were both dead if they were caught by that thing.

“I’ll f*cking kill you, you f*cking freak!” Katsuki roared, a pulse loud in his bones as he struggled against the hardened Kirishima’s hold. Todoroki grit his teeth as he prepared himself to make a wall of ice between him and the villains, Tsuyu barely managing to get behind them in the chaos.

“Wow, what’re those heroes trying to do teaching a violent thing like you?” Shigaraki cackled as he raised his finger toward the teen. “Noumu, no-”

A plume of water burst from the spot Izuku disappeared into. Stillness blanketed the area as they bore witness to the creature that appeared from the waters.

“A witch…?” Katsuki whispered.

Floating above the surface, an angel floated gently above the tumultuous waters. Multiple golden spinning wheels surrounded a figure, eyes of different animals and colors decorated each turning ring, rapidly moving as they looked in all directions. Six large white wings, not truly connected to the main body, floated on either side of the creature, unmoving but must be what kept the creature afloat. Multiple large, sharp-toothed mouths hovered right above the rings and eyes of the creature, dripping heavy drool from between their teeth, a smile twisting its nonexistent face. A large sword in the shape of a silver cross hung loosely above the creature, swinging back and forth not unlike a warning of its impending fall.

And within the center, the unidentified figure glowed and revealed a completely white haired Izuku, tears flowing familiarly like waterfalls from his closed eyes.

What sounded like the mix of trumpets and a large bell bellowed throughout the area. Katsuki held his ears, the others doing the same as the mysterious creature roared out it’s battle. The blond looked back at it and saw all of its eyes focusing onto the Noumu, each mouth smiling a wide-toothed grin. Without warning, bolts of light shot out from thin air and stabbed themselves into multiple parts of the muscled Noumu.

Shigaraki grunted in surprise as the bolts twisted themselves and locked into the muscled creature. “Noumu, what’re you doing? Kill that thing!”

The Noumu struggled unsuccessfully against the bolts, roared as it was slowly lifted from the air. The rods of lights stuck through its skin and seemed to force the creature's body closer to the floating angel-like creature. Katsuki could only watch as the Noumu slowly floated to the creature.

The mouths that circled the angelic being grinned simultaneously before swirling together to form a singular maw, blocking Izuku from view. The creature pulled the Noumu closer to it until it was close enough for the creature to open itself impossibly wide. In one bite, it swallowed the Noumu whole.

Silence permeated USJ as the creature chewed through the creature, its mouth moving as it went through the Noumu’s muscled form. A bang sounded from the entrance of the USJ as All Might appeared from it’s opening.

“Do not worry, I am...here?” The taller blond man said in confusion at the chaos at the center of the field. Before he could move again, the angelic creature’s form blurred before folding into itself and disappearing. Izuku’s hair returned to its forest green stained with white and the tears stopped flowing before he fell to the ground. All Might brought himself back together and rushed to grab Izuku before he could fall back into the water.

“Icyhot, a wall!” Shouto grunted his acknowledgement, a low wall forming between the villains and All Might. Katsuki, Kirishima, and Shouto ran to All Might, the older man handing the unconscious teen to Katsuki.

“What the f*ck was that? What kind of monster are they keeping at this school?” Shigaraki roared.

“Tomura Shigaraki, it would be best if we retreat for now. We do not have the power to stop All Might no longer.” The silver-haired villain growled before turning, Kurogiri growing into a large portal for him to enter. The villains make a quick escape as All Might lands near Izuku’s body, Katsuki already there and holding the teen to his chest.

All Might frowned sadly as the blond clutched the limp greenette, his head to the smaller teen’s chest listening to his faint heartbeat. As he approached slowly to guide the teens to the EMTs, he heard Katsuki’s whispers.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please…”

Chapter 11: All For One

Chapter Text

Izuku came to consciousness in a second, he blinked as he slowly took in his surroundings. It felt like something was holding his head from moving.

He was at a church. Sitting at the front pew, he had a clear view of a blanket covering a statue, the concrete base peeking from underneath the cloth. It stood at the center of the apse, light fluttered in from three large stained glass windows onto the white blanket, it’s surface almost reflective with how clean the fabric was. A podium sat in front of the large statue. From his spot on the wooden pew, he could see one of the windows depicting his other self shaking hands with a figure in a cloak. The blanket covered statue blocked him from viewing the other two windows.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Izuku’s head swiveled on it’s own accord to his right, finding his other self admiring the area in front of them. He sat tall in the seat next to him, wearing a white robe that flowed into pink at the hem. Something felt different about the witch. His white hair and red eyes glowed brighter, his face holding a healthier glow than before. Something changed.

“Yes, something did change.” His other clasped his hands together, almost in prayer. “The activation of a hidden part of our power shifted everything on its axis.”

“Incubator grows with each passing day. Your desperation and fear aided in it’s evolution, forcing it to a level previously unexplored,” images flash in Izuku’s mind, Aizawa, the attack on USJ, the creature . ”Now we have access to something powerful.”

The church shook, dust fluttering to the floor as a shadow passed over the windows. A mournful cry of a beast, a mixture of bell tolls and a whale call, echoed from outside the walls.

“A doppel is a strong force of nature. Not unlike a witch, it was born from your own despair and fear. It was a powerful beast that easily took out the enemy. You should be proud.”

Izuku stared at the witch, the creature’s pleasant smile firm on his face. The white haired being stood from his spot and walked slowly toward the podium, his eyes glowed as he stood behind it and locked eyes with Izuku.

“The fluctuation of our original quirk will affect the other. ‘One for All,’ a quirk that’s passed down from one generation to the next.” The being’s eyes shifted from Izuku to something behind the teen. “In time, people who stood behind us will soon come forward to stand next to us.”

Izuku felt his neck twist to his left and felt his eyes widen in surprise. Eight shadow figures sat in the pew across from Izuku. The one closest to the front, only on the second pew, who sat large and imposing, turned its head to face Izuku. A chill ran down the teen’s spine as familiar blue eyes stared back at him from the shadow’s darkness.

“For now though, our powers grow. You must train, Izuku. Or else your enemies won’t be the only thing consumed.” The white haired creature allowed his normally small smile to grow, his eyes glowing ethereally as the shaking from the outside worsened. The glass windows shattered as wind blew through the church and the roar of the creature rattled Izuku’s head.

And Izuku woke up screaming.

“Izuku studied every quirk he came across. Since his quirk never really did anything other than change how he looked, maybe he thought that knowing about other quirks could help him in some way.” Inko looked into her reflection that shone in the small teacup in her hands. Detective Tsukauchi sat quietly across from her, his notebook open as his pen quietly scratched along his surface.

“The nerd and I looked into everything, he thought maybe one of the known quirks could’ve been similar to mine. Just needing something to activate it so I could actually have a quirk. We stopped once we got a little older and the reality hit us.” Katsuki grumbled, eyes closed as the bags under his eyes were the only symbol of his fatigue. He hadn’t slept much since Izuku was admitted to the hospital. Toshinori Yagi sat across from him, next to Tsukauchi.

It’s been two days since the USJ incident. While most of the injured had successfully recovered, the two most in need, being Aizawa and Izuku, were still under bed rest and unconscious. While Aizawa had suffered multiple injuries by the mysterious creature known as Noumu, Izuku had mostly suffered multiple broken bones from the blow the thing did to him. Before his quirk activated and summoned that strange creature.

Detective Tsukauchi had shown up once All Might had informed him of the evolution to Izuku’s strange quirk. The two were quick to show up at the hospital and had invited Inko to see if they could glean any information from her and Katsuki about the teen’s quirk. To Inko, Toshinori Yagi was a staff member at UA and worked in close ties to All Might and was good friends with Detective Tsukauchi.

“But Izuku never found anything that resembled his quirk. Not even after granting my wish, it was completely unique.” Katsuki glared at the tea cup set in front of him, the liquid now cold.

“Your husband, what happened to him? And what of his quirk?” Tsukauchi asked.

“H-He...He was a quirk scientist. He worked overseas in the United States to help research the rise of dangerous and powerful quirks in children. There was an incident involving testing with someone’s quirk that caused an explosion.” Inko gripped the cup in her hand, emotions fluttering in her chest. She took a moment to gain control of herself, the other three men silent.

“He died a few years after Izuku’s birth. But, he had a fire breathing quirk. Nothing like what Izuku has now. To my knowledge, no one in either of our families has what Izuku has.”

“Then it’s a mutation. Something completely outside of either of your families.” Inko gave a nod at Tsukauchi’s look, the man writing more notes down on his pad. Toshinori was quick to share with Katsuki and the detective before the meeting that whatever came out of Izuku was purely from his original quirk. He never experienced anything like that from One For All.

Inko wasn’t meant to be a part of this meeting. Izuku had abruptly woken up screaming in pain that day, his vitals going off so intensely that he had to be sedated to be given proper care again. Once Inko was told, she quickly arrived at the hospital to make sure he was okay, at least physically. Katsuki had also been there at the hospital more than he was at home, worry and stress easily readable on his face. It was easy for Toshinori to grab the two for a quick meeting with the detective.

“I think that will be all the questions I have for now. Thank you for your time, Midoriya-san.” Tsukauchi stood from his seat, signaling the other three to stand up with him.

“Please,” Inko gave a bow of her to Tsukauchi, “let me know if anything pops up. I just wish to help Izuku the best I can.” The woman turned to face Katsuki, a soft look on her face.

“I’ll see you later, Katsuki-kun.” The blond gave a silent nod as the worried mother walked quietly out of the room. Silence settled softly in the room as the three men sat back down.

“Now what are you two really thinking?” Katsuki’s glare was fierce to the older men. Yagi didn’t react, the student’s glare hardly fazing him as he sighed deeply.

“I don’t think-”

“No, Tsukauchi. It would do no good to leave him out of the loop, or at the very least, he wouldn’t be able to do much more than we can.” Toshinori shared a glance toward the detective, the dark-haired man leaning back into the couch.

“We...we believe there may be a connection to Izuku and a powerful villain that I faced years ago.” Toshinori started, his heavy hands leaned onto his knees.

“We originally suspected something due to his wish granting abilities. While we only have one example with you, the ability to grant someone a quirk is a unique one. Only one other had the ability to do something similar,“ Tsukauchi said, a pen scribbling more notes onto his keyboard.

“Now, however, with the arrival of the strange creature that came from Izuku, we believe that the connection could possibly be more sinister in nature.” Toshinori picked up his tea from the table, and stared into his reflection. His icy blue eyes glared back at him. “A quirk like that is completely different from what’s ever been recorded in history. I, too, used to research quirks like young Midoriya.

“What was the guy’s name?” Katsuki growled, a ferocity in his eyes all too similar to the glow of his explosions.

“His name is All For One.”

“Do you think he was too harsh?” A woman’s voice wondered.

“Perhaps he was, perhaps he wasn’t harsh enough. We can only know by seeing what he does next.” A man’s voice said with no room for argument.

“It couldn’t kill ya to learn his name?” A girl said, her voice more accented than the others.

“Well it’s too late for that, now isn’t it?” The stern voice spoke.

“He wakes.”

Izuku’s eyes fluttered open, light fluttering from the sun between the leaves warmed his body. He could feel his head lay on strong legs before he moved his eyes to see a woman’s face smile above him. He noticed the mole by her mouth and the black hair she kept in a half-up-half-down style. She was beautiful, in a way that mesmerized him. She reminded him of his mom, somehow.

“You’re so young. Then again, most of us received this power only a bit older than you are now. But maybe it would’ve benefitted us if we had gotten it earlier too.” The woman mused to herself, a thoughtful smile on her face. Izuku blinked slowly at her, a bit confused about who she was and where he was. He noticed he still couldn’t move.

“Ah, right. Don’t worry, it’s only natural that you can’t move quite yet. This place isn’t somewhere you can move easily, at least for someone like you. I suggest you start meditating when you wake up, it’ll make trips like this a little easier.” The woman gave a wry grin as Izuku blinked again at her.

“Your other self was right, you know. One for All and Incubator will slowly come together more intimately than before. Your body and your being are slowly getting used to the core of the quirk, and it’ll soon show itself the next time you use it. You’ll inherit our abilities, and maybe that’ll be enough for you to defeat him .”

It lasted only a second, Izuku barely registered the change. The moment she mentioned this mysterious man, the world pulsed and produced an almost TV static sound. Instead of the large tree behind the woman, he saw large structures made of earth and teeth and steel twisted over themselves and groaning precariously above them. In that second, she changed too. Her face covered in blood and her lip split and left eye swollen. She looked frightened, just for a second, before everything went back to normal.

“Don’t be frightened of your power, little one. This quirk is yours to use, and with your friends and the people who look to you with hope in their eyes, you won’t fail.” She brushed his hair out of his face, a soft smile laid gently on her glowing face.

“And please, allow me this selfish request,” she pulled Izuku from his lying position, moving their bodies until she was able to give him a hug.

“Tell Toshinori-”

“-Nana said I’m sorry.”

“Izuku! Are you okay?” Inko rushed to Izuku’s side, surprised by the words he spoke. She was frantic, struggling not to physically touch him in fear of hurting his broken body. Izuku breathed in and out slowly, a prayer in his mind hoping that this was real and no longer a dream. Inko helped Izuku when she noticed him trying to sit more upright and handed him a glass of water. He swallowed slowly, noticing how dry his throat felt. Once Inko took back the water, he shifted his head and smiled at his mom.

“W-where are we?” Izuku was glad he could speak. The stiffness that held his body in those visions or dreams left him, leaving him with the reality of his physical body. His body ached in a way like he had run for miles and never stopped.

“We’re in the hospital, do you remember what happened?” She asked. He couldn’t help but feel strange as the similarities between that woman, Nana, he supposed, and his mom.

“I...is everyone all right?” Izuku said, remembering the incident more clearly, a jolt in his vitals told Inko of his nervousness and worry. He had started rising from his sitting position before Inko gently laid him back.

“Yes! It’s been a few days, everyone is all right. The only ones who are in the hospital right now are you and your teacher. I promise you, everyone’s safe.” Izuku felt his heart slow back down to it’s normal beat. He remembered the beating Aizawa took, how the creature treated him like his status as a pro was nothing. He remembered his doppel treating the Noumu like it was a snack.

“You were injured, Izuku. You had so many broken bones, the doctors were almost scared for you. UA was able to help with your recovery. Izuku, what happened?”

Izuku took a moment to breathe. He wasn’t even sure where to start. Incubator was going stronger than he thought possible, even without the abilities of One For All. One For All was getting stronger, both from itself and Incubator growing inside him. He had spirits in his body warning of something to come, a mysterious him that he could practically taste the fear the people inside his quirk spread. His other self was growing too, and he knew what happened when a witch goes rampant.

Izuku looked at his mom, and saw the worried look behind her eyes. He realized the danger he was in, how it affected him, how it scared him. But he couldn’t lie to his mom, not to the person who was always there for him beside Kacchan.

“Momma...I think we should talk to Yagi-Sensei.”

Telling his mother about One For All was hard. Making sure she didn’t eviscerate him was harder.

“You gave an all powerful quirk to a teenager! Barely out of middle school!” Inko yelled, objects in the room floating high above their heads as Yagi blanched at the anger of a mother. Katsuki hid a smile behind his right hand, his left holding Izuku’s as the green-haired boy watched his mother chew the number one hero out.

The number one hero had shown up with the blond in tow. Izuku’s mother had apparently been in a meeting with the two and had rushed to see if they were still in the building through Katsuki’s number. They arrived soon after, Katsuki rushing to Izuku’s side and hugging the teen as tight but as soft as he could.

“M-mom please, It was my choice.” Izuku tried saying. His words went ignored as the smaller woman tore into the fearful blond who tried backing away in his seat continued yelling at him.

Inko huffed suddenly, the items in the room gently floating back down as she went back into her seat and took a sip of her tea.

“Next time, you want to do something so life changing to my son, let me know. It’s not like I can tell Izuku to give back the quirk anyway.” She sighed into her drink, a furrow in her brow. Katsuki couldn’t help but let a slight chuckle out, but almost squeaked when Inko glared at the blond from the side.

“I-I’m sorry, Momma. I know I should’ve told you but when I saw the chance I couldn’t help but take it.” Truthfully, he didn’t think his original quirk was going to make much of a difference when he accepted One For All. At the time, all he knew was about the weird wish granting ability he couldn’t control and his bracelets and red markings. It became something completely different with the fusion of One For All.

“Regardless, I’m your mother, Izuku. I just want to make sure you’re being kept safe. With the villains attacking the school and you training to be a hero, even if there isn’t much for me to do.” Inko gripped the cup in her hand, a furrow in her brow as her frustrations grew.

“Forgive me, Midoriya-san. It wasn’t my intention to disrespect you in any way. Young Midoriya was...he reminded me what it meant to be a hero. It was an admirable trait I needed to see for anyone to be considered my successor. Not many have that trait. I am also guilty of taking the chance when I saw it.” Yagi bowed his head low, Izuku’s mother looking at the blond man thinking deeply of his words.

“But, I am not here just for pleasantries. Recently, due to the sudden growth of young Midoriya’s powers, questions have sprung about its origins,” Toshinori turned to look at Midoriya in the eye. “I told you in the beginning, the case surrounding your initial quirk is unique. I have already told young Bakugou as to why.”

Izuku glanced at Katsuki and was surprised to see the sharp look on his face. Izuku squeezed the other boy's hand, to which Katsuki glanced at him and gave the barest of smiles.

“What’s unique about it?” Inko urged Yagi to continue, the older man looking at his large palms that laid on his lap.

“The ability to give someone quirks is a special, only one other having a similar ability ever recorded but kept hidden,” Toshinori clenched his fist in front of him.

“One For All, it’s origins are only known to a select few. This is due to ensure the safety of others from the quirk’s less than golden past.” Toshinori looked at Izuku before straightening back up and breathing in. “One For All is made up of two parts. The stockpiling aspect and the inheritance aspect. Long ago, when quirks first started popping up, there was a man who was born with a quirk that could both take and give back other people’s quirks.”

Izuku squeezed Katsuki’s hand, a sudden bout of anxiety gripped his heart. He could feel his quirks murmur underneath his skin, the story triggering some sort of memory.

“This man was quick to rise among the ranks of villains, soon becoming a type of leader among them all. His name was All For One. He was a powerful villain, almost unstoppable. He had a unique business, where he would take quirks from others and give it to others for whatever reason they asked for. However, oftentimes the receivers bodies couldn’t handle the quirk and would often turn into mindless beasts, much like the Noumu at USJ.”

The image of the exposed brain of the creature sprung up in Izuku’s mind. How the creature followed order from Shigaraki blindly, how powerful the beast was against a pro like Aizawa.

“He also had a brother, one who disagreed with his actions and often fought against him. It was in one of these moments that All For One decided to punish his brother, or maybe in some twisted sense he thought he was giving him a gift of some kind. A stockpiling quirk.” Inko swallowed quietly, enraptured in the story of the past that Yagi wove.

“Unbeknownst to either brother, the younger did have a quirk. The ability to pass down his own quirk to someone else. With the fusion of his original quirk and this new stockpiling quirk, came forth the quirk now known as One For All.” Yagi raised his head and made direct eye contact with Izuku, who did his best not to flinch against the piercing blue eyes of his mentor.

“All For One is the only quirk known in history to have the ability to give other people quirks. All For One, as of recent history and in-depth investigations, has been found taking on a number of identities across the globe in different areas of quirk research and then mysteriously dying because of failed experiments or other mishaps.”

Inko dropped her cup, the empty plastic falling against the ground. Katsuki’s hand gripped tight around Izuku, the green-haired teen gripping the other back.

“Y-You don’t think…” Inko whispered, a hand over her mouth hiding her shock.

“We can’t confirm or deny the identity of your husband Midoriya Hisashi. But too many things line up for us to ignore it. And until Izuku either grants another quirk or another wish, then we really aren’t confident in one singular answer. That being said, the case is being kept under tight wraps, with only a select few knowing about it.”

Izuku laid back into the bed, his head growing hot with the thoughts rushing through it. What did it all mean? Was All For One his father? Was he something else to him? Was he the cause of the wish-granting part of his quirk?

“I understand this is a lot of information to swallow, but I’d rather keep you all informed than be blindsided later. This information cannot go out to the public but at the very least I’d rather share with all of you who are intrinsically involved.”

Izuku saw his mother struggle with taking in the information. The idea that your husband could possibly be the biggest villain of all time wasn't an easy pill to swallow. It wasn’t for Izuku who barely knew his father either. Inko shakily brushed a hand through the bottom half of her hair before taking in a deep breath.

“S-So...what do we do?”

“For now, we monitor Izuku and his quirk and see what happens. Obviously, his quirk is evolving from the power of One For All, so we just need to make sure he’s being safe.” Yagi suggested, Inko giving a shaky nod in return.

“W-Well, actually…” Izuku interrupted to the surprise of Yagi. He then began telling what he learned from his dreams, about how the abilities of One For All were growing along with Incubator. All three of Izuku’s visitors went through different states of shock and surprise and worry when he explained that Incubator was causing changes with One For All original abilities.

“The quirk never did that for me, though I couldn’t tell you why. Perhaps this is another aspect of Incubator changing the quirks abilities.” Toshinori rubbed a hand on his chin, eyes downcast.

“Also...someone wanted me to give you a message. A woman named Nana,” Yagi’s face jerked toward Izuku who flinched in surprise. “S-She said to tell you she was sorry.”

“I…” The man had grown pale and sagged into his seat, shock clear on his face. Whoever this Nana was, she had to do with One For All and was important to All Might. To Yagi Toshinori.

“Who was she?”

“She...she was the 7th holder of One For All. She was my master and she died from a battle with All For One.” Yagi whispered it almost, like a confession. Izuku squeezed Katsuki’s hand, the other teen’s grip grounding against the emotions that swirled within Izuku.

A knock from the door jerked all of them from the weird energy in the air before a nurse came in and looked in surprise at the awake Izuku. She glanced at all of them before sighing to herself and muttered something along the line of ‘heroes…’

“I am going to need you all to leave the room while I check on Midoriya-san’s vitals along with the doctor. It’ll only be a moment.” She said, giving a small smile. Inko blushed realizing that she didn’t call the nurse as soon as Izuku was okay and quickly stood up. Yagi rubbed the back of his neck while he stood from the spot too.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Katsuki whispered as he stood from beside Izuku’s bed. Izuku could only give a silent nod as the three quietly filed out of the room, the nurse holding open the door. The door closed quietly, leaving the nurse and Izuku alone.

She turned to the teen and gave a soft smile. “Don’t worry, it already looks like you’re doing fine so I’ll be quick about your checkup while I notify the doctor.” She pressed a button on his side table before looking at the machines still attached to Izuku.

“Thank you.” he said, thoughts swirling in his head as he felt Incubator and One For All roll within him.

Chapter 12: You Don't Understand Anything

Chapter Text

The following days after Izuku’s release from the hospital were comparatively boring. Though nothing beats being socked in the stomach by a muscled mutant. Regardless, Izuku did notice a couple of changes.

Incubator had evolved far more than simply the creation of his Doppel, who he also was sure had a name that he couldn’t place. The white in his hair was a little more prevalent, starting with a burst of white at the front of his hairline. When Incubator first activated, the white in his hair was barely noticeable, a spare strand here and there. Now the white was in chunks, giving Izuku a bit of worry about how his classmates would react to it. Though, Katsuki did say it looked cool and made him look like a main character of an anime or something.

Another thing that changed was his ability to sense despair. Before, someone's despair had to be overwhelming for him to notice it, and even then his body moved on its own to consume it when it was at that point. Now, even glancing out the window of the car he was in, he could see a transparent cloud of miasma follow each person the vehicle passed by. Some were almost fully opaque while others he had to squint at to notice. He theorized Incubator evolved so he could fully see and gauge the amount of despair someone had before consuming it, or at least gave him a way to consume it before Incubator took over and forced him to eat.

He vaguely remembered the moments when Incubator took over and forced him to eat someone’s grief seed. Yagi-san and his mother’s despair didn’t exactly leave a taste in his mouth, but they certainly satiated something within his system when he came back to himself. Whatever it was, as long as it didn’t hurt anyone, he was fine. He just needed to figure out how to consume the despair on purpose to avoid episodes like that.

“Oi, we’re here.” Katsuki squeezed his hand, forcing the teen to focus back to reality. The blond looked him in the eye before getting out of the car, signalling Izuku to do the same. The green haired teen resolutely ignored the semi-transparent cloud that darkened whenever the blond looked at him.

“Don’t push yourself too far, Izuku. This is supposed to just be training and quirk counseling, nothing extreme.” His mother said from the driver’s seat of the car, her own cloud curling around her shoulders, mostly see-through. Izuku huffed but smiled at his mother, nodding as the woman smiled back before driving away.

Izuku breathed in and out slowly, nervous energy humming low in his system. The building they approached was one of UAs spare training areas, designed to handle spars and other combat simulations.

As Aizawa promised, both him and Katsuki were to receive quirk counseling. Katsuki mostly had a handle for his quirk, as Izuku, Katsuki, and even Yagi had helped with using the quirk, so the blond was more or less here for moral support. It was Izuku who now pushed for counseling and needed it more than ever. Incubator and One For All were evolving at a rate he couldn’t safely handle, so having a professional seemed like the smartest choice.

Approaching the double doors of the large building, Izuku saw Aizawa lean against the building completely covered in bandages. Yamada-sensei stood next to him in his regular gear giving them a wide smile. Both had clouds hanging off of them in similar shades of black, but nothing too bad.

“Yo, listeners! Glad to see you all doing better than the last time I saw you.” Present Mic’s voice was clear as he spoke to the approaching teens. Izuku gave a small bow and smiled at the blond, his exuberance always making him smile.

“As you can see, Aizawa is still recovering so Recovery Girl asked me to keep an eye on him, despite his protests.”

And he was, since Aizawa got the worst of the damage at USJ. Izuku’s doppel, from what he was told, had him wrapped in some light that he assumed healed and protected him from the worst of the damage from when Nomu punched him. So the most he had when resting at the hospital were cracked ribs and bruises that Recovery girl healed up just fine when he rested. Aizawa, on the other hand, was far too damaged and tired to heal effectively with her quirk.

“I’m here to put a stop to your quirk if it goes out of hand and to be aware of what kind of quirk I will be working with in future training. Otherwise, your counseling will be handled by a different instructor. They’re another underground hero and volunteered to help. They have experience helping others with their quirk and are strong all on their own, so don’t be afraid of hurting them.” Aizawa grunted as he pushed himself off the wall.

“Normally, you would be helped by a simple quirk specialist. But due to the secrecy surrounding your quirk, Nezu personally vetted this hero to make sure they would do well by you and your quirk. While they are also knowledgeable in quirks, they will be able to effectively defend themselves should something happen.”

Entering the building, Izuku discovered a training field of sorts mostly made of concrete. Aizawa had mentioned most of the gyms were identical since they were made by Cementoss, so the material made sense. There were stairs on either side leading to the balcony that over watched the entirety of the gym. White lines marked where individual sparring fields were held, the building originally intended to be used by entire classes. Standing at the center of the field was Spiderlily, dressed in the uniform Izuku first met them in.

Izuku let out a surprised sound causing Katsuki to glance at him, raising an eyebrow to the green-haired teen.

“I’ve met them before.” Izuku said, without elaborating further despite Katsuki’s look. The blond grunted before staring out at the covered figure.

“Spiderlily, thank you for offering your help. We at UA appreciate your contribution.” Aizawa grunted out, being as professional as he could be wrapped underneath all his bandages. The dark hero’s mask turned to look at Aizawa and nodded before turning to Izuku.

“This is Midoriya Izuku, the student you will be assisting.” Izuku’s eyes widened before bowing low.

“Thank you so much!”

“And this is Bakugou Katsuki, he is simply here to observe.” Katsuki kissed his teeth but otherwise nodded at the imposing figure the underground hero made. There was a moment of silence as Izuku and the others stared at the underground hero, their face hidden behind the intimidating motorcycle helmet. Izuku glanced at Aizawa but the man looked unbothered by the strange standoff. Izuku turned his gaze back to Spiderlily.

“Allow me to have a word with Midoriya-san.” Izuku felt a shiver run down his arms as the person spoke, their husky voice hung low on his spine. Similarly, their own cloud of darkness hung off their back like a cap. Izuku could see through it, but if he didn’t know better he would’ve assumed it was a part of their cape.

“All right, we’ll be in the wings.” Aizawa turned and with the help of Yamada scaled the stairs. Katsuki huffed but rubbed Izuku’s shoulder as he followed the two teachers. Izuku clung to the warmth of the blond’s hands, his nervousness making a full return as he stood there awkwardly with the mysterious underground hero.

The hero said nothing for a moment, seemingly comfortable in the silence that stretched between the two. Izuku forced himself not to fidget, questions running through his head. Was this a test? A weird type of hazing that underground heroes do? Was he supposed to s-

“A spar.” The click of their heel echoed in the large building, their first movement of the session.

“A-A what?”

“A spar. I need to see exactly where your abilities lie. I’ve received a report about your abilities from the school and a personal account from Eraserhead, but it is through experience that people learn best.” The underground hero then brought out a small tube from their pocket. Pressing a button, the tube expanded into a black baton. Spiderlily shifted it in their hand before settling into a stance.

Izuku blinked in surprise, unused to seeing an actual weapon being used against him. He was used to people solely using their quirks in addition to martial arts to fight. The closest he's seen to someone actually using a weapon was Aizawa's capture scarf. Maybe that’s something he should talk to the support department about.

Izuku got into his own stance, gently letting his quirk fill and flutter beneath his skin, ready to pounce at any moment.

The two stared at each other for a moment, Izuku's eyes straining to see some glimpse of a face behind the tempered glass of the hero's helmet. His breath came and went at a slow pace as he tried to hold back the nervous excitement in his bones.

Between one breath and the next, Spiderlily jumped the distance between the two. Their hair spun in the air like a whip as they swung their weapon at Izuku. The teen could feel the air move as the baton barely missed his head, the sound alone loud in his ear. He rolled out of the way before shooting a beam of darkness at the hero. His eyes widened when he turned and saw Spiderlily had disappeared. He turned his head and flinched when it met the cold metal of the hero's weapon.

“Again.” They took away their weapon from Izuku’s face only to raise a leg that the teen was barely able to dodge as it swung to the floor. Izuku gulped as he landed, noticing the cracks in the ground from where the heel touched the floor. Spiderlily jumped from that same leg toward him, their baton at their side ready to swing at him.

Izuku grunted as he punched outward again, this time releasing a wall of his darkness to block the underground hero’s path. He frowned when the darkness disappeared revealing Spiderlily had disappeared. The sound of fabric flapping in the wind alerted him to look up and almost yelled in surprise to see Spiderlily in the air directly above him. The hero twisted their body before swinging their weapon that clipped Izuku’s shoulder. The teen was forced onto his back while the hero rolled onto the floor straight into a standing position.

Izuku groaned as he sat up, his shoulders throbbing from the weapon hitting him right where his arm connected to his body. He looked up with bleary eyes as Spiderlily extended a hand to help him stand.

“You have a powerful quirk, make no mistake about that. I understand that you also have a strength aspect of your quirk, wildly powerful but only barely controlled.” They commented as they helped the teen up. Izuku felt a little put out, but couldn’t but agree on that assessment on One For All. To be perfectly honest, it could also be applied to Incubator no matter how much he’s worked on it. Gunpowder being compared to the actual gun, as his other self had said.

“This, however, will be your downfall.” Spiderlily tilted their head down to Izuku’s fists, the teen glancing down at his hands. He turned them over so his palms face upward.

“I understand your style is based off of All Might, correct?” Izuku nods. All Might is his only example on how to use One For All, but he also based Incubator’s own moveset on the number one hero. “This is your first mistake.”

“What-What do you mean?”

“You will never be All Might.”

Izuku could lie and say that the comment didn’t hurt, but it certainly hit something in his heart when Spiderlily said that so casually. It’s not like he was trying to be All Might but could anyone blame him? As much as he knows about the very human Yagi Toshinori, he was still the number one hero, the hero both he and Kacchan admired for years. He was the successor to All Might, the ninth holder of One For All, who else is he supposed to compare himself to?

“But that doesn’t mean you won’t be a good hero.” Izuku blinked at the older hero as they put away their baton and walked away from him. They turned around, facing him again a distance away. “I have seen many paths young heroes take in their bid to join the ranks of the people some assume are gods.”

“There are many ways people aspire and later become heroes, whether through success and later loss, through the search for a connection, or with the belief that heroism is what will truly bring them happiness. All are valid ways to endure the adversity of being a hero.”

Izuku watches as the underground hero tilts their head down, pausing at their own line of conversation. He got what they were trying to say. All Might was powerful, no question, and from knowing the man Izuku knew that what he did as a hero was altruistic. He and Katsuki looked at the hero persona as the picture of heroism, the thing that was the shining image of their goal and what they wanted. But they’re in hero school now, and now they know more.

Now Izuku knows people like Uraraka, who wants to earn enough money to help her family, and Iida, who follows and carries the same heroic characteristics his family is known for. There was more to heroism than just All Might.

“But I think you know what I am trying to say, Midoriya Izuku.” Spiderlily’s voice pulls him away from his thoughts, back to the hero who was looking back at him. “In order for you to be the best hero you can be, you must find your own path, not just the miraculous one given to you.”

Izuku froze in his spot. Given? Did that mean that Spiderlily knew about One For All? Were they hiding that they knew for a reason? Should he tell All Mig-

“Stop panicking, you won’t get anywhere if your mind is clouded like that.” Spiderlily appeared in front of Izuku, the teen too distracted by his thoughts to notice their approach. “I am here to observe the workings of your quirk and help you develop a way for you to use and adapt your abilities to hero work, as that is your goal. That is what we are striving for in these sessions.”

Izuku took a breath and shook his head. Aizawa said that Spiderlily could be trusted and Izuku at least wanted to put some faith into his teacher. The man almost lost his life trying to save him and his classmates. Spiderlily also didn’t seem to have any focus on the strength aspect of his quirk, just Incubator’s darkness. Right now, Izuku didn’t have to confess to any question that Spiderlily was or wasn’t asking, not with Aizawa, Present Mic, and Katsuki in the wings.

“Come, let us spar again.”

In the end, Spiderlily did help figure out some things about his quirk.

They learned with enough concentration, he could solidify his darkness into something he himself could hold. He was already working on manipulating the shape before USJ on his own time, but adding onto the ability to solidify his quirk may allow him to form weapons of some time.

“It seems you will approach the point where you will manipulate the darkness into weapons for you to use, or you could possibly use them to change the landscape around you. I suggest separating time for yourself for weapons training as that will be most beneficial for someone of your smaller stature to use. I myself have skills in a variety of weapons due to the uncontrollable environments underground heroes can find themselves in. If you would like, I can provide suggestions. It’s better to be over prepared than under. Constant vigilance is key to hero work in the field.” They said, watching Izuku form a glob of floating darkness in his palms into a shape not unsimilar to their own batons. Granted, it was more akin to stacked cylinders than anything at this point but Izuku could see with more practice that he could make something more substantial.

“Our time is almost up.” Spiderlily approached Izuku, the teen letting go of his hold on Incubator, the darkness dissipating from his hands. “You have questions.”

“Ye-yes! Uhm,” Izuku twisted his hand over his index and middle finger, fiddling as he thought what question to ask first to the underground hero. While he wanted to go straight into asking if they knew about One For All or even All Might, he wasn’t sure how to go about that without accidentally revealing it if they didn’t know about it. But still.

“Why did you want to be a hero, Spiderlily-san?” Izuku looked at the glass that covered the underground hero's face, desperately trying to find any emotion there. Despite not noticing anything, he couldn’t help but glance at the darkness that hung from their back. It curled and twisted in the silence his question brought, the only hint Izuku got that the question required a deeper answer than he initially thought.

“Revenge.”

Izuku blinked and felt his mouth open a little. Revenge? Revenge against who and why? He never thought that would be the reason for Spiderlily’s path. He felt a bit of guilt swirl in his stomach when he thought about it. Revenge didn’t sound all too good of a reason to be a hero.

“You’re right, it necessarily isn’t.” Spiderlily’s voice broke him out of his thoughts before a crude blush took over his face and burned it’s way down his neck. He didn’t think he was talking out loud! “And to someone like you, I’m not surprised you think that.”

“Someone like me?”

“Yes, I knew someone like you a long time ago. If I told them my reasoning, they would’ve yelled at me. Would’ve asked me why and try to figure out a way to help me without hurting me.” Spiderlily said, their head turning as if to hear something in the distance. Their cloud of darkness gained transparency. “They were so…”

They didn’t fill in the silence, lost in the memories of someone else that apparently reminded them of Izuku. The boy felt unsure, a strange feeling in his chest as he thought about it. After the conversation with Spiderlily, he wasn’t sure what kind of hero he was. He remembered when he first met Yagi and embarrassingly sang praises on All Might and how he was the inspiration to be a hero. To save people with a smile. But looking at Spiderlily, a hero who wanted to be a hero because of a revenge, was it really so simple?

“Did your friend- did they want to be a hero too?” Izuku regretted the question as soon as it came out, watching as the darkness on Spiderlily’s back darkened to a point he feared Incubator would activate upon the other hero.

“I’m sure if the opportunity presented itself, she would’ve loved nothing more. I guess she’s also like All Might in a way. The desire to save people just to save people. It’s a unique desire, one I think far outshines one like mine.” Spiderlily looked away then, away from Izuku and the reminder he was. “Perhaps that is also a thought she would argue against.”

“She loved the thought of helping people, her heart was soft. Too soft, I would say, always wanting to help. It was both her greatest strength and weakness.” Spiderlily curled a long lock of hair around their finger before allowing their finger to slip through its grip. “She would’ve been an amazing hero.”

Izuku twiddled his fingers, unsure of the emotion emanating from the previously unreadable hero, but even without the dark cloud hanging on their back he could practically feel the regret flowing out of them. Though, he then grew worried as the cloud grew darker and darker until it almost looked solid. When it finally hit, Izuku felt his consciousness pull back a bit.

Izuku felt his shadow grow longer, the lights flickering in the gymnasium. From the corner of his eye, he could see Katsuki and his teachers lean on the railing looking down at him and the other hero.

“If you could, would you like to see her again?”

Spiderlily looked at Izuku now, their face unreadable behind the helmet they wore and stared into the formerly green and now red eyes of the teen. Izuku could almost physically feel the fear that swirled in his body as he watched himself ask questions to the underground hero.

“Incubator.” Spiderlily said, still holding what he assumed was eye contact between them and the quirk that now possessed Izuku’s body. The teen could feel his face stretch into the familiar smile that his quirk would wear in his head, feeling almost indulgent with the way he spoke to the other.

“If you could, would you wish for her to come back? To fill in the hole your desire currently sits in?” His other asked. Spiderlily turned their body to fully face him, her posture loose as they stared down at the teen. The underground hero was silent, their bodies barely moving.

“No.”

Izuku could feel the twitch on his body’s lip, the surprise that echoed within both him and his quirk. Izuku recognized the slip and began pushing against it. The control Incubator had over him was tight but he could feel One For All’s energy rolling against his hold.

“Why not? Your desire screams for her, to return to the person you hope and pray to see again. Is that not your greatest wish?”

“You don’t understand anything.” Spiderlily flicked back a lock of hair that swung in front of them, the hair fanning out behind them as they took a step forward to Izuku. “Desires are not so simple. Regret, grief, sadness, vengeance, all of these emotions are more complicated and cannot be solved with a simple wish. To change everything around to suit your desires, to change the past in order to fit a more happier future. You lose yourself in the process. You lose everything around you.”

“That is…I-” Izuku’s body lurched, the confusion that ravaged his other caused him to loosen his hold enough for One For All to force itself out of his skin. Green lightning flowed over his skin, his brow furrowed as he wrestled control over his own body against the ravenous quirk. He could feel One For All bubbles beneath his quirk, far stronger than he ever pushed himself to use. The fight against his original quirk’s possession pushed One For All’s capacity to higher limits, the quirks intimately tied with one another. Izuku recognized Incubator’s evolution with every fight. He realized now, fighting against a burning sensation in his back, that he didn’t think that One For All might be evolving as well.

With a final push, Incubator was shoved to the back of his mind. At the same time, black tentacles burst from his back with a scream, gut wrenching and pain-filled. It wasn’t like his skin was tearing or could feel pain, but something was forced out of his mind and out of his body. He could feel the movement of limbs he didn’t have originally rampage around him until it all suddenly stopped.

He fell to his knees, barely noticing two sets of hands upon, a familiar warm body he could identify as Katsuki on his back and a cold leather in his front. He opened his eyes and to his surprise saw Spiderlily kneeling at his front. This close, he could see more of the mysterious face of the hero. A face wearing a frown looked back at him, narrow eyes roving over his body.

“Are you alright?” They asked. Izuku looked at them for a moment before looking behind to see Katsuki’s concerned look. Aizawa and Present Mic stood further back, his teacher’s bright red eyes staring at him mostly in concern. He looked back to the other underground hero before giving a slight nod. He didn’t feel any pain at the moment, a strange ache is all he really felt roll across his body. He just felt tired.

“It seems this has become more complicated than we thought. His quirk is mutating further than expected. Eraserhead, I will keep in touch for any further meetings UA deems necessary.” Aizawa nods at the other hero, the teacher winding down from the chaos Izuku’s sudden quirk usage brought. Spiderlily looked back at Izuku and squeezed his shoulder.

“I will do everything I can to help you, Midoriya Izuku. Your power may be great, but it is your own. Don’t forget that.” Spiderlily and Katsuki help the green haired teen up, his legs weak and shaky. He leaned into Katsuki, the other teen wrapping his arm beneath his shoulder to help him up.

“Of course this would happen…” He could hear Aizawa mutter. Izuku couldn’t help but giggle in response.

Chapter 13: That is My Reason For Fighting

Chapter Text

Izuku took a deep breath, the earthy smell of coffee filled his body as he looked around the cafe he was in. It was only a block away from the UA campus, something he was grateful for in the early morning hours before school started. It was unique as it had private booths for business meetings and whatnot, but Katsuki liked it because he didn’t have to be bothered by other people. It was their first day back and the blond decided that that was enough reason for them to splurge a bit before entering the school. Whatever plan he had, of course, got ruined by the arrival of All Might. Not that he told Yagi that or did Izuku tell Katsuki he could tell that he was trying to do something of significance.

"Young Midoriya, young Bakugou, it's good to see you two doing well." He greeted, seeing the two sitting at the corner of the cafe. Izuku smiled at the older man as he took a seat across from them.

"Ah, you too!" Izuku said, speaking for both him and the grumbling Katsuki when he wouldn't say anything despite the elbow Izuku stabbed into his side. The blond was just fine before the Yagi showed up, what did the older man do?

"Young Midoriya, I did some research after what you told me happened at your quirk counseling session. I agree with your assessment that those strange tentacles that you and young Bakugou witnessed are unlike the stiff columns Incubator’s darkness creates.” Izuku leaned forward as Yagi pulled out a small notebook of his own. He continued as flipped through the pages. “I believe the protrusions in that moment were actually from One For All.”

Yagi flipped another page before sliding the notebook to Izuku. Pulling it closer, Izuku was surprised to see what looked like a name with a blurry picture taped to one side of the notebook. He could barely make out what looked like a bald man with goggles adorned on his head. The name Daigoro Banjo was written underneath along with the word Lariat. His eyes looked over what he assumed were the dates of his birth and death and blinked when he saw what looked like a quirk and it’s description.

“Blackwhip, a quirk that allowed the pro hero Lariat to create tendrils of black energy that he used for grappling and increasing mobility. Is this…?” Izuku glanced over at Yagi who wore a grim face back at him.

“The 5th user of One For All.” Yagi said. “In my youth when I had first attained One For All, I wanted to study the past users and their abilities in hopes of seeing how they utilized One For All. What I found was that most often than not, One For All was used as a supplement to the user's original quirk. One For All was used to enhance Blackwhip to the point where he gained notoriety as a powerful underground hero, or as much notoriety as you can get as an underground hero. It appears that when it passed onto me, the strength enhancement part of the quirk grew exponentially to the point everyone knows All Might for today. Both that aspect of the quirk and the original quirk enhancement fell to you as the ninth holder.”

Izuku soaked in the information while looking at the information in front of him. He turned the page and was surprised to see a picture of Nana. Shimura Nana, no hero name. The smiling face that looked back at him in the notebook was a clear copy of the person he saw in his dreams. He glanced over to her quirk, Float, an ability that made her, well, float.

“From what you told me of the incident and knowing of the previous users, young Midoriya, I believe that you are somehow inheriting the previous user’s quirks.” Yagi said, eyeing the notebook. "Thankfully, I was able to gather information from all the past users. I want you to keep this journal, young Midoriya. Not only will it help you, but your ability to view the past users as vestiges in your dreams may help fill out this notebook further. It might be good to remember the users that came before us."

Izuku nodded before closing the notebook and putting it in his bag. It was a theory that had merit, as wild as it was. Though with his luck, he didn't have much room left for doubt. The tentacles that burst from his back were definitely different from how Incubator appeared from his body and the overall quality of them were different too. He needed to look further into the quirks from before just in case anything else pops up.

"Thank you, Yagi-sensei. I'll keep this safe."

“There was also something else I wanted to discuss with you about.” Yagi glanced over at Katsuki who only narrowed his own red eyes into a glare at the older man. Yagi sighed before continuing, “and I understand that you would inevitably share it with Bakugou-kun, so I will tell you both now.”

“My time limit for using One For All has been reduced to fifty minutes.” Yagi says, face grave. Izuku grips the drink in his hand, anxiety curling in his gut. The time limit on Yagi, on All Might, was a constant reminder that at some point soon there was going to be an end to the man known as the symbol of peace. That Izuku, as good intentioned as Yagi-sensei was, had a hand in it.

“My retirement is something that has been a long time coming, and I grew up in a time where often heroes don’t reach an age like mine. The end of All Might was inevitable, even if I would have preferred it to end in a different way. Regardless of this, with the sports festival coming up, I would like to remind both of you, but especially you, young Midoriya-” Izuku glanced back up to look at Yagi in the eyes, sitting still as the older man’s piercing blue eyes looked back at him. “This is the time to prove yourself and to say ‘you are here.’”

Izuku closed his eyes and focused on the coolness of the iced drink in his hand, thinking about the older man’s words. The sports festival was one of the most televised programs in the country, and it would certainly be the prime time to show off himself as a potential hero- and even a potential symbol of peace. But, he wasn’t sure if he could do it, if he could stand beyond the shadow that All Might made for him.

“If…” Izuku glanced back up to Yagi, the man taking a swig of water from the bottle he brought with him. “If you could wish for more time, would you?”

Immediately, the question left a bad taste in his mouth. He could almost hear the sound of his doppel echo in the back of his head, could see Incubator’s smile in his mind when he asked. He honestly didn’t know what prompted him but he couldn’t help but ask. The end of All Might? The end of peace? That’s the dream of villains and Izuku could clearly see that being a hero means everything to Yagi-sensei. He had to ask.

But all Yagi did was chuckle.

“No, my boy, I don’t think I would.” The dark cloud of miasma, once dark and malevolent even when Izuku couldn’t see it, was barely visible now. It didn’t mean he was happy, but it did mean that he meant what he said. “There is an inevitable end to all things. While I would hope to do more, to help more, there will always come a day where I will pass the mantle to someone else. To a new generation of heroes that will take care of the world after me. Just as I did for my teacher before me.”

Izuku shuffled in seat, a strange feeling that felt closest to shame sat on his chest. He didn’t know why he asked that. Was it his own fears? He wasn’t Incubator, he wasn’t. But even he knew that if he could give a quirk to Katsuki, then at the very least he could do something for All Might. The question was, however, should he?

“And what about Incubator?” Katsuki, startling Izuku out of his thoughts. The green-haired teen looked at the blond with a questioning look.

"Spiderlily was able to refuse Incubator's offer." He started, glancing at Yagi when the man straightened in his spot. "And while it was Izuku who asked, you also just refused. But I was desperate when I made mine, when Incubator showed up for the first time at that moment to make a contract. Doesn't help that we were almost killed when it happened, I would’ve f*cking done anything if it meant saving Izuku. Incubator, at least before the changes, activated in moments of what they call high despair and desperation. That's why it activated when Spiderlily talked about her dead friend or whatever and when Izuku ate a grief seed from his mom and you."

Izuku frowned at the thought. It was true, Incubator activates in moments of high despair. Izuku thought that part was only meant during the creation of grief seeds but thinking about it, he also granted wishes in those moments too. The only difference he could remember with the wishes was that he, or at least his quirk, clearly knew there was an issue to be solved. His quirk preyed on Katsuki and Spiderlily’s desperate want for a solution and change.

"My point is, yes, One For All is something Izuku needs to keep in check. But it's Incubator, a quirk that responds to high levels of emotion entering a high school, that we need to watch out for."

Despite the full warning Katsuki thought to give about Incubator, it still took Izuku by surprise at the amount of darkness that infested the school.

He didn't see anything on the level that would force a reaction out of Izuku, but there were more people than he expected that had darker clouds that he could see getting to the point of forcing a reaction out of him. There were even some in his class that had clouds that were surprisingly dark in color. Todoroki, in particular, concerned him. He got a good look when he entered the classroom, seeing the duel-haired teen sitting in his spot in the classroom, blankly staring toward the front. The miasma that clung to his back almost looked like a figure with their hands on his shoulders, almost completely opaque.

It must've been obvious on his face since Katsuki pushed him to his seat but gave him a look when he turned toward the other.

"Do you want me to keep an eye on him?" He asked, mouth turned down into a scowl. Izuku blinked before glancing back at the tall shroud.

"...maybe, he's close but he's not there yet." Maybe he could corner him and possibly take a grief seed from the Todoroki. He would ask this time, since he could probably control it now, but taking the grief seed would at least let him take the edge off of whatever is making Todoroki so intense. It would also force Izuku to think of an explanation for that side of his quirk.

Katsuki made a sound of confirmation before leaning back into his seat, kicking his feet onto his desk. This, of course, caught the attention of Iida when he walked into the room, Uraraka trailing behind desperately hiding her laughter. Izuku blinked in surprise when he saw Tsuyu coming in with them and was further shocked to see her make a beeline for him in particular.

“Midoriya-chan, you’re okay.” She said, her eyes searching for any remaining injury on his body. Izuku nodded slowly before it hit him why she was so concerned. She was there, right next to him, when the Noumu attacked him and he transformed into his Doppel. She must’ve seen first hand his quirk going berserk.

“I’m sorry for scaring you like that, Asui-san. I didn’t expect my quirk to react like that.” He said, hoping she wouldn’t ask anymore questions.

“Call me Tsuyu-chan, and I was more scared for your health. The creature hurt Aizawa-sensei and even when your quirk summoned that form, I was scared that you weren’t okay. I’m glad to see that you’re doing alright.”

“As am I!” Iida came forward from bickering with Katsuki, the blond glaring daggers at the back of the blue-haired teen’s head. “Asui-kun let both Uraraka-kun and I know about the injuries and events that we didn’t witness back in USJ. I would like to apologize for not being fast enough to bring the heroes, if I were you wouldn’t have been as injured as you were!”

“N-No! Iida-kun, it isn’t your fault at all. It was an unexpected situation and we all did the best we could. As for what happened,” Izuku thought about what he could tell to the others without revealing the true workings of his quirk. He knew that telling people of the wish granting abilities was something he could never let anyone know. “I’m still learning a lot about my quirk, and I think that form was just an evolution of my quirk. I didn’t have any control of it at all.”

“Perhaps it is similar to mine.” A solemn voice spoke on Izuku’s otherside. The group turned to see Tokoyami standing there, his face stuck in the serious emotion he always seemed to wield. Dark Shadow appeared over his shoulder, and only to Izuku did he notice how well he blended into the misty darkness that whispered off the teen.

“Dark Shadow is a sentient quirk and oftentimes does things of his volition. Tsuyu-kun also told me what happened with the summoned entity that your own quirk made and I made a connection with my own. Dark Shadow becomes hardest to control in absolute darkness, so perhaps we can join together and train to control the beasts that lay within our hearts.”

Izuku blinked twice, he didn’t even think to try and train his doppel. He assumed it was something that only came out when he was in mortal danger, but maybe it could be something as a final weapon against villains if he learned to control it. He wasn’t entirely sure of the similarities between Dark Shadow and his doppel, but maybe the other teen had a point.

“I would like that, Tokoyami-kun.” The bird-headed teen smiled while Dark Shadow clapped his hands in celebration.

“Everyone get to your seats.” Aizawa’s gruff voice gripped the class, the students scrambling to go to their seats. Izuku kept an exasperated sigh from exiting his mouth once he saw that Aizawa was still covered in bandages. It seems his healing is going to take awhile, especially since he intends to continue teaching his class.

“After the events of USJ, the school would like to remind the class that there are resources that the school provides in order to cope with events like this. Therapy is handled by Inui-sensei, known to some as the pro hero Hound Dog. ” Aizawa started, his eyes glaring through the white bandages that covered his face. The class was silent, letting Aizawa’s tired tone settle on their shoulders. “I hope you all understand that an event like that is not a common occurrence and while you are all untrained and barely hero hopefuls at the beginning of your high school career, you all did well in staying alive.”

“I understand that heroes are often praised for the amount of villains they defeated or the ways in which they defeat said villains. While you all were forced to fight against the villains brought into USJ, I want you all to know the importance of keeping both yourselves and the others around alive in moments like those.” Aizawa slowly made eye contact with each student, forcing the idea to stay in their head. “The most important thing is coming home alive.”

Izuku bit into his bottom lip, his brow furrowed as he took in the advice. He didn’t want to say it was wrong but at the same time some part of himself wanted to argue. Were they not heroes to protect other people? Wouldn’t their sacrifice be warranted if it meant saving so many people?

Izuku wanted to turn his head back to Katsuki, but didn’t relent in the atmosphere his teacher created. He wanted to know what Katsuki was thinking about what Aizawa said. Would he agree, or would he be against it? Would he argue with Izuku, or would he agree that a single hero's death is worth the lives he saved? Would he be okay leaving the friends he has if it meant protecting the people who are in danger?

“With all that being said, the school has decided to go forward with the U.A. Sports Festival.” The class roared in excitement. From the cacophony of noises could Izuku pick out the excited gasp from Uraraka and the pleased noise that even Katsuki let out. A smile forced its way onto his face, the excitement from the idea of participating in the sports festival blowing over any previous thought. The class quieted down quickly when Aizawa briefly activated his quirk to silence them.

“I understand the fears some of you may have with doing such a public event after the USJ incident, but understand that there will be protections set in place during the event. This event will be your first public debut, allowing you to show off any and all skills you have until this point. Your appearance and skills during the sports festival will also be pivotal in the number of internship offers you receive afterwards. Regardless, everyone should do your best. Plus ultra.”

“‘Zuku, you’re staring again.”

Izuku immediately turned to face Katsuki, the blond smirking at the green-haired teen, before blushing and looking down at the lunch the other teen made for them. He poked at the cheek of the smiling face that decorated the rice in his box before swiping a piece of fried chicken into his mouth. He resolutely ignored Katsuki as he chewed through his food. He couldn’t help but glance back up toward the person of his fixation.

Todoroki sat completely separated from anybody in the lunchroom. He ate silently, almost robotically in the corner, glancing at anyone who even thought about getting close to him. He wasn’t even necessarily glaring at them, but the cold stare was enough to off any potential friendship or connection they wanted to cultivate. A part of it felt intentional but Izuku could see the dark cloud dim further every time someone gets close. Something from those people are triggering something in Todoroki to cause him to react that way, and Izuku couldn’t help but feel concerned.

“Midoriya-chan, if you’re so concerned with Todoroki-san, maybe you should go invite him to sit with us.” Tsuyu spoke up next to him. Izuku jolted in his seat before turning and realizing her, Iida, and Uraraka had caught up to him and Katsuki and sat near them. Katsuki was also stubbornly scowling in the direction facing away from the group, clutching his food to his chest and eating almost angrily. Izuku felt his lips twitch at the sight before turning to Tsuyu.

“I want to, but I don’t think he’d be very receptive to the idea.”

“Well, I think it’s good to try anyway. Even if he does say no, at the very least he’ll know that the invitation is there.” Uraraka said, snapping her chopsticks in the air. Izuku hummed but didn’t give an answer. He wasn’t entirely sure how to go forward with someone like Todoroki, not that he was worried someone like him would turn violent but he was very much aware of the miasma that followed him. That’s what really intimidated him, like knowing there’s an active landmine nearby but not knowing at all where it could be. He didn’t want to step on any toes and accidentally get forced into granting a wish by accident.

“I think you should do it, Midoriya-kun! Todoroki-san, as I’ve heard from Yaoyorozu-kun, is quite calm as a person!” Iida said, his own hand moving in the air. “Her family is close to many hero lineage families and she has been in many social events with the Todoroki family.”

Izuku nodded at that, taking in the info as is. He wasn’t entirely convinced but perhaps this was a risk he could take. He glanced back at Katsuki who only looked back at him in the eyes. The blond rolled his own red eyes before jerking his head to where Todoroki sat. Izuku sighed but nodded before standing up.

Immediately, almost like he could sense it, Todoroki turned his face within the first few steps that Izuku took on his way to the silent teen. He ignored the sweat behind his neck as he slowly approached the duel-eyed teen.

“T-Todoroki-san, I was wondering if you’d like to-”

“What do you need, Midoriya-san?” The stiff response drew Izuku short. Already, somehow, he had stepped on a landmine and he wasn’t sure how to navigate further. Todoroki wasn’t angry, no, but he was feeling something as the miasma behind him shuddered and rolled while keeping a hold on his shoulders. Izuku gulped before continuing.

“We- We were wondering if you’d like to come join us at our table. I was hoping we could eat together!” Izuku rubbed his left hand over his other arm, thrown off-kilter already with no clue how to right himself.

“And how would that benefit you, Midoriya-san?”

“There aren't any benefits, other than, you know, getting to know you.” Izuku’s voice tilts at the end of his sentence, like he’s asking a question. He wasn’t quite sure what angle Todoroki was looking at him, but he hoped he didn’t come across as manipulative or anything. “I- I mean we were just hoping to get to know you and to get along. Maybe even be friends?”

Todoroki stares at him for a moment, making Izuku become a little too aware of the seconds of silence that pass between them. He fidgets with his hands as Todoroki looks down at his plate, staring at the mostly-eaten bowl of soba. Izuku meets the other teen’s heterochromatic eyes as Todoroki looks back at him. He almost flinches when the somber teen stands up from his spot, the shadow that clings to the dual-haired teen back rises and flickers above like a tower of flames.

“Objectively speaking,” he starts, his voice cold but sharp like the ice that splinters and forms from his right side, “I am stronger than you. Even with the strange creature that you quirk was able to summon, you have no control over it or it’s creation.”

Izuku flinched with the reminder, the howl of his doppel echoing in the back of his mind. He hadn’t known that Todoroki had seen his doppel, didn’t know that he saw the power that Izuku could wield but still wasn’t sure how to. Todoroki ignored his reaction and kept speaking.

“Even with All Might by your side,”-Izuku does his best to suppress the flinch that rises out of him with that-”I am going to beat you, with her ice.”

Izuku looked back at Todoroki in shock, unsure on how to respond to such a vehement declaration. This wasn’t competitiveness, he’s known Katsuki all his life, he knows what the ruthless desire to win looks like. This didn’t feel like that at all, the emotions more akin to Todoroki telling himself that he is going to beat Izuku. He was declaring this not to tell Izuku he is going to win the competition, but to prove a point. And the only hint to the other teen’s hidden emotions was the tall cloud of miasma that clung to the teen like an oppressive giant. Regardless, Izuku grit his teeth and spoke.

“I think our priorities are in different places, Todoroki-san.”

“What?” Todoroki narrows his eyes at Izuku. The green-haired teen flounders for a moment before righting himself internally, a clenched fist held to his chest.

“I agree that you’re stronger than me, you’re one of the strongest students in our class. But this sports festival, it’s the first step into our hero careers. To some people, it’s inconsequential, just a sanctioned battle royal. But not to me, not with the dream I have.” Izuku glares at Todoroki now, his own emotions rising and swirling in his chest.

“I’ve dreamt of being here since I was small, and I’m not the only one.” Images flashed in his head of those moments between him and Katsuki when they were younger and would watch All Might save civilians despite the situation around him. The emotions then, when he realized all he wanted to do was save people with a smile on his face. “I know exactly what that dream of mine costs.”

He could feel the shadow under his feet curl and twist under his feet, and knows with Todoroki’s quick glance to the floor that it isn’t his imagination that is causing him to feel both Incubator and One For All flutter beneath his skin. He knows exactly how much work he needs to put in to be even half the hero All Might is, no matter how much the memory of the hero is colored with the soft knowledge of Yagi Toshinori. He remembers the bellow of his doppel, the roar of Julius, the desperation in Katsuki’s face as he made his wish in order to save someone like Izuku. It barely registers to him when he feels Katsuki’s silent heat on his back, the soft burn of the blond’s soul gem deep within him.

“I’ve done so much to get to where I am, worked on my power to the point where it’s something useful . I’m going to fight, not to win, but to say I am here. That is my reason for fighting. So, Todoroki-kun, this sports festival isn’t about whose power is stronger, not to me. It’s about our resolve. And now that you know, do you think your resolve is strong enough to beat mine?”

Chapter 14: I Won't Lose

Chapter Text

Izuku was nervous, to say the least. The day before the festival came quickly, their days leading up to the event were spent training and late night homework sessions with Katsuki. Sometimes Izuku, in those moments, forgets about everything. He forgets about Incubator’s smile or his Doppel’s roar, he forgets about the fact he was a hero student attending UA, he forgets about the inevitability of his fight against All For One. In those moments, he can’t help but feel like he’s in a daze as he watches the leaves shake in the wind. Today their teachers decided to take it easy on them, allowing for a smaller workload and more easier time relaxing before the big day. Izuku is doing his best appreciating it, even though he can feel the low hum of excitement and nervousness flutter beneath his skin.

“‘Zuku?” The teen looked to his side and smiled when he met Katsuki’s eyes. He glanced at the ring that sat snug around his middle finger then traveled to the mostly see-through cloud of miasma that floated quietly around the blond. He smiled at Katsuki, glad to see the smirk and small blush that colored itself across his face.

“Yes, Kacchan?”

“What’re you thinking so hard about?” The blond raised an eyebrow, his arms stretched on either side as he leaned against the cement block that held a small garden of flowers with a tree in it’s center. One of the roofs of UA held a small eating area of its own where students could go eat if they so choose. They had decided, or really Katsuki had pushed Izuku, to eat up there today, both teens lucky that no one else happened to be there. Izuku still wasn’t sure what Katsuki did to make Uraraka, Iida, and Tsuyu not bother them too much about eating on their own but he didn’t care enough to ask, soaking up the moment of peace with his favorite blond.

“I’m not really thinking about anything, actually.” Izuku grabbed Katsuki’s hand, fiddling with the other’s fingers, ignoring the cool ring of silver and it’s matching symbol on his friend’s nail. He pushed each finger back and forth, not surprised at the well cared for cuticles and soft hands, Mitsuki did force Katsuki on a thorough grooming routine at a young age. “I think for once in a long while I’m just here, in the moment. With you.”

Katsuki smiled, the small one he takes great care to only show Izuku. One that Izuku guarded close to his chest and knew not to spill to anyone else. That was his smile to see, his to enjoy. He didn’t like being possessive like that, but he knows Katsuki, knows how rare those moments are when he shares that sweet smile that’s filled with caramel and soft spice.

“I’m glad you’re here with me, Izuku.”

“We made it to UA, Kacchan. Tomorrow’s the sports festival!” Izuku giggled, excitement bubbling over in a way he couldn’t contain. Katsuki twisted his hand until they were palm to palm then clasped his fingers through Izuku and just held his hand. Despite their training, Katsuki’s hand was smooth and soft, his fingers long and elegant compared to Izuku’s calloused and shorter fingers.

“Yeah, we did.” The blond smiled again, the smile more similar to the one he wore in spars, wide and full of teeth. Izuku couldn’t help but blush at the ferocity. Damn him if he had to face the other in head-to-head as the sport festival tends to do. As often as they change the events in the festival, the battle tournament is a consistent thing in UA history as the final event.

“I’m glad I’m here with you, Kacchan. That we’re going to become heroes, together.” Izuku smiled as their clasped hands dropped down to the space between them, a tether between them that meant more than the connection forged by Izuku’s quirk. Something bigger than the soul gem that sat gently burning within an unknown place inside Izuku or the ring that binds Katsuki to his quirk in an alien way.

“Me too, Izuku. This is all thanks to you.” And a part of Izuku hated that. Hated what it took for Katsuki to get here. While Izuku didn’t believe his quirk, before One For All, could’ve possibly helped him be a hero, he knew that Katsuki was made to be one. Designed at birth like the many designs Katsuki’s parents made that simply suited the destiny they were made for. That without having a quirk, Katsuki still would’ve shined bright against the other heroes like the sparks of explosions he can now use from his palms. Katsuki would’ve pulled Izuku against the tide of his own self-deprecation and forced him to achieve his own dreams of heroism. They both could’ve been heroes without the miracles given to either of them.

But that’s not what happened. Fact is, in a freak accident, Izuku gave Katsuki a quirk. And following the blaze of determination and spark of hope that he gave Katsuki who in turn gave back to him, Izuku somehow was given a miracle all his own in One For All.

“It’s all thanks to us.” Izuku says gently, shuffling closer to the blond and closing his eyes as he leans his forehead forward until it meets the other, the gentle heat of Katsuki causing his cheeks to warm and a small smile to form. He could almost feel the glow of the soul gem that burned deep within.

Yes, it’s these moments that allow Izuku to believe that the obstacles he’s had to conquer are truly worth it.

“Midoriya, were you able to write an appropriate speech down?”

Izuku nodded at Aizawa, the older man looking down to him through his bandages. His teacher had reminded him that as the student who somehow got first place during the entrance exams, he would be required to speak during the sports festival to his fellow students. It scared him then and it terrified him now to think about talking in front of such a large audience but he’d do his best anyway. Not that he was sure if there was a way around it anyway.

“Remember that it doesn’t need to be elaborate or particularly inspirational. This is simply tradition, this is not the part of the festival you should be mostly concerned over.” Aizawa reminded him. They were waiting to be allowed in the main part of the stadium, only a double door being the one thing separating his class from the large crowd he could hear from outside.

Izuku breathed in through his nose and out his mouth, his nerves vibrating under the surface of his skin. The sports festival was one of the most televised events in Japan, so Izuku knows whatever he does on that mic and the rest of the festival will be seen by everyone. He breathed in again, attempting to stop the panic before it truly entered his system.

He jolted when he felt a hand clasp into his own. Izuku opened his eyes and met the side of Katsukis face, his red eyes glaring forward at the closed door. He looked at the blond for a moment before setting his shoulders back and looking at the gate. He ignored when Aizawa glanced down at their joined hands when he nodded at the older man. The older man pushed the doors open and led Izuku and his class to the center of the stadium.

“-And here is our resident class 1-A! At the forefront is our representative of the first years, the student who holds the top score for our entrance exam.” Midnight gestured for Izuku to come forward up to the podium where she stood. Reluctantly, he let go of Katsuki’s hand and made his way to the R18 hero. “Midoriya Izuku!”

Izuku robotically made his way to the center of the stage, the mic stand being slightly lowered to reach his short stature. He was aware of much he was fighting to keep his posture straight, to not hunch over and cower against the swaths of people in the crowd looking down at him. He breathed in from his nose and out his mouth, trying to find whatever feeling he hoped he held inside him to ground him. Looking back in the crowd, he made eye contact with the familiar reds of Katsuki and saw the other teen nod at him from within the crowd. Izuku smiled as he began to speak.

“When USJ was attacked, one of the most prevalent things I felt was fear.” He could see Midnight tilt her head in surprise in the peripherals of his vision and the rest of his classmates sit up straighter at the mention of the attack. They hadn’t discussed USJ too often, after the attack aside from how scared they were, most of the conversations having been placed between the students and their therapists, private or otherwise. While he hadn’t spoken to many people about it, not even to Katsuki who gained a haunted look in his eyes before glancing at him and looking away whenever the event was mentioned, he remembers it vividly.

“For many of us, it was our first encounter with a villain attack, and for very few of us, it was the first time we ever were involved with an attack at that scale.” He doesn’t remember too much of the initial incident with the villain that activated Incubator, but he remembers the aftereffects. The way Katsuki grew protective and his mom asked him to send her texts about when he was getting home and to make sure he stayed with Katsuki at all times. “The feeling of knowing that there was a group of people who were coming toward with the intent to kill was frightening, even paralyzing.”

“But there were heroes there. Heroes whose first instinct was to fight, to protect us from those villains.” Izuku remember’s how his teacher danced across USJ, his capture weapon used efficiently to take down villains. Even if he didn’t see it, he knows that thirteen fought to protect everyone else that wasn’t transported too, just enough for the other heroes from UA to arrive. “Those are the heroes we are striving to be, heroes that fight to protect those who are unsteady on their feet, unprepared to face the dangers that may appear ahead of them.”

“The sports festival may be insignificant to some, but for many of us it is the first step. We will be heroes, those that will stand between you and danger to say ‘I am here.’” Izuku raised a fist to his chest and smiled at the crowd, teeth and ambitions bared. “Good luck on your first step, everyone. Plus ultra!”

The crowd roared back their promise.

The first event from the randomizer was an obstacle race.

Izuku was nervous, not necessarily because he was the slowest of his class, he would never be first with someone like Iida taking the lead during physical exams, but his quirk and fighting style required him to be more stationary than anything else. Someone like Katsuki was mostly good at races since he quirk allowed for more maneuverability, or even someone like Uraraka who could cancel her own gravity to float over things. Granted, he has developed some new techniques but he didn’t necessarily want to show that many of them during a televised event.

“Oi, Izuku, focus! We’re about to start!” Katsuki’s voice startled him out of his mumbling, his brain catching up to his surroundings quick enough to catch the tail end of Present Mic’s announcing the beginning of the race. His eyes raced to the front before he blanched, seeing the titan-like zero pointers blocking the entrance of the race.

Before he could even think of his first move, the shrill scream of rapidly moving ice shrieked it’s way across the field. Izuku was barely able to glimpse one of the large robots being completely overrun by ice before falling over forcing a storm of dust to race over the other students, forcing the green-haired teen to cover his eyes. When the dust settled, all that was left was a small mountain of ice and robot parts.

Another groan of screeching metal alerted him to the zero pointer that turned it’s way to face him. That’s right, he couldn’t be focused on Todoroki’s unbelievably strong quirk, he needed to focus on his own race. He pulled his quirks to the surface, Izuku knew he didn’t want to show such a display of power yet. Blackwhip answers his call and black tendrils, different from the stiff darkness of Incubator, spring from his arms like vines.

“Wow! Midoriya-kun’s quirk sure has gotten different!” He could hear one of his classmates comment behind him. He was able to explain that Blackwhip was just an extension of Incubator, the black tendrils only having the barest of differences between his usually sturdy structures he made from Incubator. Thankfully, they didn’t ask much after that.

Izuku swung his arms forward and allowed Blackwhip to grab on the shoulder of the zero pointer, it’s movement too slow and heavy to unattach his faux limbs. Twisting his wrist and hands, he grabs onto the tendrils before forcing the quirk back into his body forcing him into the air and toward the shoulder. Just as he reaches the apex of the zero pointer’s height, he lets go of the quirk and launches himself forward past the robot. He looks back and sees Katsuki’s own feral grin as the blond blasts himself past the robot.

Izuku lands in a roll, almost tripping over himself as he continues he way toward the next obstacle. He does a double take once he slows down and notices it. Columns of rock stand tall from the deep darkness of the crevasse that lay before him. Izuku is a little baffled at something like being here but he throws the thought away as another one of UA’s eccentricities.

“The Fall! Let’s see how our students get over this obstacle!” Present Mic’s voice announced this one too, just when the other students began arriving. Izuku can already see Todoroki has made a considerable distance between each column, using his ice as extending platforms.

Incubator rose to the surface this time, Izuku set to copy Todoroki’s example. He clasped his hands together before allowing the normally two columns to fuse together into one wide column straight across from one end of the crevasse to the other. Izuku roars as he slams his fists into the floor, anchoring the shifting darkness onto the floor before stepping onto it. The cement-like stiffness of the darkness supported his weight as he ran across. He ignored the noises of the other’s that came behind him.

“It seems we already have some finalists within the last stretch of the race! The final event, The Minefield!”

Izuku gapes as he stares at the uncountable spots that littered the dirt. There was barely enough room between the mines that allowed for walking, even if he launched himself across he would still land on top of the mines.

“You’re thinking too much, Izuku!” Izuku glanced to his side just barely fast enough to catch Katsuki running and jumping onto the field. At the very last moment, the blond used his quirk to launch himself further into the air to avoid the mines. He forced explosions out of his palms to allow for more time in the air, catching up to Todoroki and began brawling with the other teen for first place.

Izuku huffed, mind whirling as he thought of what he could do to get across the field. Nodding to himself, he took a couple of steps back before giving himself a running head start. At the last moment, his foot almost touching the first mine that started the field, he jumped.

Summoning Incubator, he aimed the columns to the ground and launched himself higher in the air. As he gained altitude, he stopped the flow of Incubator and refocused on creating another platform underneath. It fell to gravity and Izuku used Blackwhip to grip himself to the falling debris of darkness as it landed right on top of a cluster of mines.

Izuku pushed back against the air that wanted to push him flat against his self-made platform as the explosions from the mine forced him forward and up, higher than he initially reached with just Incubator. He narrowed his eyes against the rushing winds as he saw himself quickly approaching Katsuki and Todoroki.

“I won’t lose!” He heard himself scream as his platform landed between the other two boys, forcing another explosion from the mines that launched him forward again. He ignored Katsuki’s roar as the ground began approaching him again faster than anticipated. Calling Blackwhip back into his body, he jumped off his platform and hoped for his next move to work.

Incubator created darkness within that held grief seeds and Katsuki’s soul gem, it’s basically what flowed in his vein and what kept his body running, if what happened when Aizawa erased his quirk indicated anything. Incubator should flow from anywhere in his body. He hadn’t been able to practice this too much, too focused on getting Blackwhip to a point it was actually usable since it was such a useful quirk. But Incubator was his original quirk, so he couldn’t be blamed for thinking of random ideas that only might work. This time, he focused on the feeling he would normally get from summoning Incubator from his hands toward his back, he spread his arms and hoped for the best.

The sound of roots tearing through the dirt, limbs stretching and growing was the only thing Izuku heard as he felt Incubator spread from his back. If he could see, he would’ve noted the almost galaxy-like color that spread throughout the pseudo-wings that spread from his back and the strange images that pilfered through the darkness. He couldn’t actually fly with them, he would need to create wings far bigger than the ones he now made. For now, they were used to resist the rising wind and almost like parachutes cushion his fall.

The newly made limbs dissipated into the air as Izuku landed into a roll, ignoring the pains in body to continue forward. He didn’t want to look back at how close Todoroki or Katsuki were so he kept looking forward toward the other side of the tunnel. When he got to the otherside, he almost collapsed in relief.

“And here he is, folks! The first to arrive from the first event of the sports festival, it’s Midoriya Izuku!” The roar of the crowd overpowered whatever else Midnight had to say. Izuku leaned forward and placed his hands on his legs, bending over just to have a moment to breathe.

“Izuku!” He barely turned around before his face was being pulled into someone’s neck. He barely registered the familiar smell of burnt sugar before wrapping his arms around Katsuki as the taller blond twirled the teen around. “You bastard, you scared the sh*t outta me!”

“I’m sorry, Kacchan. I wanted to win!” Izuku whined back, a smile creasing his cheeks that were bright pink from exertion. Katsuki gave him a smirk in response, his hands on his shoulders.

“Midoriya.” The moment was broken by the call of Izuku’s name, the two turning toward the sound to see Todoroki standing there. The duel-toned teen stood almost awkwardly as he stared at the duo. Izuku was mostly surprised, but by the grip Katsuki had on him, he can guess that the other was more annoyed than anything.

“What do you want, half-and-half bastard?” Katsuki growls.

“Kacchan!” Izuku turned to look at the blond in surprise. Since the confrontation in the cafeteria, Izuku didn’t have another chance to talk or confront Todoroki again. With Katsuki usually around him all the time, the blond didn’t really talk to the other teen either. That being said, Katsuki was always more defensive of him, so Izuku supposed that he really shouldn’t be surprised at the blond’s angry vehemence. He turned back to Todoroki and only blinked at the way the duel-haired teen seemed to ignore Katsuki to look back at him.

“You beat me.” He says, head tilted forward as he made direct eye contact with Izuku. The cloud of miasma behind rolled at his words as it hung from his shoulders.

“I-”

“Everyone gather up!” Midnight’s call interrupted Izuku from speaking, drawing attention from each other and forcing Izuku to notice that the other competitors had also arrived. “I will be announcing the second round!”

The large screen behind Midnight shuffled through a number of names before finally landing on Calvary Battle. She turned toward the crowd and explained that the cavalry battle would follow the rules that the event would normally have with an added few.

“As it occurs in life, those in the front will be burdened with most. Everyone here will be assigned points based on their place in the race, with last place having the least amount of points and first place,” Midnight points her whip directly at Izuku, ”will have the most.”

“Midoriya Izuku, as the first place holder, will be worth 10 million points!” And Izuku blanches at the horrific amount of eyes that turn to look at him.

Chapter 15: It’s Something That I Was Cursed With

Chapter Text

Izuku tries not to flinch from the onslaught of attention his new status gave him. He struggled to listen to the rules Midnight laid out for the 2nd round, too focused on avoiding his classmate's intense stares. Only when he finally felt the pressure of their gaze lessen did he finally turn and look around for Katsuki.

He was surprised to see the blond surrounded by Kirishima and Ashido, the two seemingly trying to convince a slightly irked Katsuki into teaming up with him. The two made eye contact and Izuku gave the blond a smile, Katsuki only sighing to himself before turning to speak to Sero who stood further behind him.

Izuku was only slightly disappointed about making the blond choose someone else in his group, but he knew that he wanted the blond to make more friends outside of himself. Though, looking at the competition, it might've been a smarter decision to keep Katsuki for his own team.

"Izuku-kun!" He turned his head in surprise to see Uraraka looking at him with a fiery glare in her eyes. "Let's team up."

"Uraraka-kun," Izuku could feel the tears rise up in gratitude, hands clasped together as Uraraka waved her arms in panic.

"Ah, I'm sorry, please don't cry! If Bakugou sees you crying he's going to beat my ass-"

"I won't let him! I'm just happy you want to team up with me." And he was, the initial panic mostly floated away with Uraraka's request. He was glad he had a friend like her.

"R-Right! Okay, who else do you want to ask to join us?"

"Well, I was actually thinking of asking-"

"Hey, ten million!" Izuku turned to see a girl in locs fast approaching them, various parts of her body covered in what Izuku assumed was support gear. He barely held a flinch back as the girl got into his space quickly and began talking rapidly, the scare forcing him to miss the first half of what she said.

“-if I join your team, then surely people would pay attention to me and my babies!” She said, her smile wide and manic as she pried open a trunk that Izuku did not know where she got from and revealed a whole treasure trove of support gear.

“So? What’d you say?” The girl looked back and forth between the two hero students, excitement clear in her features. Izuku blinked before looking at Uraraka who shrugged her shoulders.

“W-well, alright!” The girl cheered but stopped when Izuku started waving his hands at her. “But I didn’t really catch your name.”

“Oh, sorry about that, Maijima-sensei says I can get ahead of myself but innovation can’t wait! I’m Hatsume Mei!” She said, smiling wide as she began taking gear out of the trunk she had on the floor. Izuku eyed some of the equipment left out before introducing himself and Uraraka, the other girl giving Hatsume a wave of her own.

“So now we need one more, right?” Uraraka looked around and frowned when she noticed how many people were already forming their team. Even Iida in the distance was a small circle with Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari.

“Yeah, and I already have an idea of who we should ask.”

“Start!” The crack of Midnight’s whip in the air brought about the wall of enemies that Izuku and his group faced. A quick sweep of the field with his eyes made Izuku notice almost everyone was aiming for him and his 10 million points.

“Tokoyami!” The gothic teen grunted in response, Dark Shadow temporarily forming large enough to stop the groups that were closest to them from approaching.

“Uraraka!”

“Right!” The roar of an engine echoed on the field as the jetpack and rocket boots that Izuku made Uraraka put on blasted them into the sky. Izuku let Incubator flow into his arms before forcing them downward, blasting them higher into the air before forcing the darkness to conglomerate into a platform. The group landed softly in their calvary position on top of the platform, now a tall tower far above the competition.

“How long do you think this will hold them off?” Hatsume asked, a smile wide on her face as she looked around. They were almost midway to the top of the stadium, far up enough that Hatsume had an even clearer view of the investors she knew were hanging in the wings.

Izuku breathed in through his nose and nerves before responding. “More than likely, we have a little time before someone with an aerial or platforming quick gets up here.”

From what he remembered, very few members of his class might be able to reach somewhere as high as they were. That didn’t mean they weren’t going to try anything else.

Izuku yelped as the platform shook, the ground becoming uneven as something was hitting the base of it. He only made one leg for the entire platform to stand on, but he knew that his darkness was the same density and hardness of concrete. There were too many people he could think of that could possibly be able to destroy something like that.

“Run off!” The group responded to Izuku’s warning, taking off the edge of the platform to the ground below. Uraraka began shooting off from her boots in increments to allow for a softer landing. Izuku glanced down and breathed out, allowing his tower to dissipate into the air. He turned and noticed Todoroki being held up by Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Iida.

“sh*t, everyone hold on!” Using something that Yaoyorozu made to allow Todoroki to connect to the ground, the duel-haired teen created and icy field around him, only to make a jagged arena of ice forcing Izuku and his group to land in the center to avoid getting caught in the spikes.

“I will be taking that headband now.” Todoroki says, tone flat as he stares at Izuku as his group landed softly on the slightly frozen ground. Izuku grimaced, staring at the team in front of him. Before he could say anything, a blanket was pulled over Todoroki and the green-haired teen barely caught the Kaminari’s smirk before a wave of lightning was suddenly heading their way.

“Dark Shadow!” The bird-like quirk shrieked as his body blocked the lightning from hitting their group before retreating back into Tokoyami. Uraraka’s yell was the only thing that alerted him to Todoroki’s group movement and even then, the sound of an engine and the shriek of fire tearing it’s way through the air passed through him, leaving him with only the wind passing through his suddenly freed hair.

Izuku felt the absence of his headband and turned to see Todoroki holding up the ten million in his hand, looking just as surprised as he was.

“I am also in the running too, Midoriya-kun!” Iida said, proud and with a shaky smile. Izuku couldn’t help but quirk a side of his mouth, a smile unevenly mixed with the feeling of dread because of the missing headband but still proud of his friend.

An explosion in the distance knocked him out of his reverie, he leaned forward and gripped the hands gripping his legs.

“We have to go on the offence, everyone hold on!” Izuku focused on the determination blazing inside himself as he called Blackwhip to the surface. He could feel the coil of tendrils inside of him focus on his back, his gaze fixed on Todoroki. “We don’t have much time left, I’ll give it all I got.”

Like a kraken from the depths of the sea, tendrils sprouted from Midoriya’s back and shook back and forth in the air. Todoroki clenched his teeth at the number of tentacles that spawned from Midoriya’s back. He cursed when he realized that Iida was still recovering from the recoil of his move. He barely flinched to the side when a tendril shot itself forward and embedded itself into the ground behind them. He turned back and faced Izuku’s glare.

The green-haired teen raised his hands and shot out two columns of darkness into the ground on either side of Todoroki’s group to trap them in before forcing the darkness into a large wall behind them. Shifting focus back into blackwhip, he forced more tentacles toward Todoroki, all aiming for his ten million headband.

Todoroki raised his hands in the air, desperate to block the assault that his fire burst from his right side and burned some of the nearby tendrils. He turned back to Midoriya, only to suck in a gulp of air in surprise as Dark Shadow appeared in front of him and grabbed two of his headbands.

“Time! That’s the end of the second round.” Mic’s voice echoed across the stadium, his unconcealed excitement made the crowd roar in return. Izuku breathed out a sigh of relief when Dark Shadow returned to them holding two headbands, just enough to get them to fourth place.

“We did it, Izuku-kun!” Uraraka said, deactivating the group’s low gravity when they lowered him to the ground. Izuku appreciated finally being put back down on the earth, happily putting his shoes back on when Tokoyami handed them to him.

“Your quirk is versatile, Midoriya-kun.” Izuku could hear the happy undertone with the normally monotone voice of his bird-like classmate.

“It was thanks to Dark Shadow that we were able to secure our spot at number 1, thank you both. And thank you to everyone!” Izuku turned back to Uraraka and Hatsume, the latter looking over the boots that she let Uraraka borrow.

“Call me anytime you need assistance like that again! Hatsume Corp. owes you for giving me the chance to show off my babies in this round and now the next.” Hatsume said, her grin wide and her crosshair eyes focused on him for a second before turning back to her inventions. Izuku smiled back at the girl before turning to speak to Tokoyami.

“Midoriya-kun! That was splendid work out there.” Iida came fast approaching the group, Tokoyami quickly moving out of the way of the tall exuberance that was Iida.

“You were amazing, Iida-kun. Was that a new technique? I’ve never seen anyone go that fast.” Izuku looked at the engines that poked out of the tall teens' legs, noting the small stream of smoke still rising from them.

“Yes, I call it Recipro Burst. Unfortunately, it has a cooldown immediately after use so that’s why I wasn’t able to move afterward.” Izuku nodded in understanding. Big moves like that usually came with a cost similar to that. He hasn’t quite found the limit to any of his own quirks, but perhaps it would be beneficial if he did. It wouldn’t do well to be in a dire situation and that happens.

“It’s a powerful move, Iida-kun. I think it was worth it though, since your team is still moving forward with us.” And they were, once Izuku glanced at the scoreboard. His team was in first since they were able to take back the ten million headband, but Todoroki, Katsuki, and someone named Shinsou’s team were all moving forward.

“I agree, I wish you and Uraraka-kun the best of luck. I must go to Recovery Girl and ensure that I did not damage my engines. I will see about joining you and Uraraka-kun for a quick lunch before the final round.” Iida quickly bowed before heading off in another direction.

“Midoriya.” A different voice spooked him from finding Uraraka and the others for lunch. He glanced to the side and was surprised to see Todoroki’s heterochromatic eyes.

“Can I speak to you?” The cloud of miasma that hung around the other boy was dark and intimidating as it peered over the teen’s shoulders. If it had a face, Izuku could easily see a glare burning a hole into him as it hung high and heavy.

“Okay.”

Before Todoroki could speak, Izuku already felt Incubator roll into itself at the amount of despair the boy was overflowing with. The miasma that normally took the appearance of a large figure that stood over Todoroki began to bend itself forward almost like it wanted to curl and swallow the teen. So much despair, and Izuku was fighting with every fiber of his being to stop himself from forcefully forming and eating a grief seed. He didn’t know how much more he could take before Incubator forced a wish from the other teen. With that amount of despair, he wouldn’t be surprised if whatever he wished for would be life changing.

“I knew you were strong, so much so that even All Might who seems to have his eye on you noticed that.” Todoroki started, already freezing Izuku to the spot, mentioning his connection to All Might again. “But I didn’t think you were strong enough to force that side of his quirk out of me.”

His quirk? Izuku thought back to the match and remembered the burst of flame that burnt his Blackwhip. Thinking about it, he’s never seen Todoroki use his flames in any of the battle exercises they were in. He always used his ice, to the point that Izuku assumed that it was possible his fire side wasn’t strong enough to use in combat only to simply warm him up from the excessive ice use.

“That fire, it’s something that I was cursed with. A power that I never wanted and is only used to hurt people. It’s his quirk.” Todoroki hissed, raising a hand to cup the white side of his face. Izuku never wanted to draw attention to anyone’s scars, so he did his best to ignore the more obvious ones some of his classmates sported. Now though, he couldn’t but glance at the blemish, the burning red that almost covered half of his entire face and made it look like Todoroki was a creation of two completely different people. How his eye squinted from the damage of the leftover burn and how he always leaned forward with his right side. Izuku also did his best to ignore the rising shadow of Todoroki’s miasma.

“Have you heard of quirk marriages?” The question broke Izuku’s private staring contest he held with the darkness, returning his attention to Todoroki only to shake his head at the question. He knew that it was a problem with the 2nd and 3rd generation of quirk users, but not much was done about them.

“My father was a powerful man, even early on in his career as a hero. It wasn’t hard for a man like that to convince my mother’s parents that a quirk like hers would be better suited mixing with his.” Todoroki squeezed his hands into fists, pulling them to the side as he recounted his story, a story that began far before his birth. “Every memory I have of my mother, she’s crying. Every single one of my siblings and I are his attempts at creating a hero that can surpass All Might.”

“Every one of us was an experiment, to see if we could match up to my father’s idea of ultimate power. His burning flames and my mother’s ice. I was lucky, I was told, to have a quirk combination that didn’t kill me like my older brother.”

Todoroki breathed in through his nose and let out a breath, the air frosted and Izuku could feel the chill breeze ruffle through his hair. He wasn’t sure what to think. He knew of Endeavor, knew that the man wasn’t known for being kind like All Might despite his efficiency and technique being what brought him to the number two position. As he watches Todoroki catch his breath, it suddenly becomes dangerously clear why his darkness takes the form that it does.

“My mother gave me this scar. Saw this side of my face and couldn’t help but see the monster that tore her apart and threw her away once she gave him what he wanted. She threw boiling water at my face and even when she realized what she had done and tried to help me, there was a part of me that couldn’t blame her.” Izuku’s heart broke for the other teen, his miasma made so much sense in a way that it almost hurt him.

“I have to beat you. I have to show everyone that I can beat someone powerful, someone with such a clear connection to All Might, with my ice and show him that I don’t need him.” Todoroki glared at Izuku, his face cold and sharp like the ice that called to his song. Izuku didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what to say to something like that. But even before he could think of a reply, he felt it crawl up his throat.

“If you could change all that, would you?”

Todoroki furrowed his brow at Izuku, surprised at the change of tone. He could almost relate it to a child, the way he asked, different from Izuku’s usually shaky tone that sounded like he was always on the verge of tears. He blinked when he saw a smile, small and innocent, crawl it’s way into the green-haired teen’s face.

“If you could make a wish to change everything, to save yourself, would you?”

Izuku’s shadow began to stretch forward, reaching toward Todoroki’s own almost like his tentacle like quirk. But the other was frozen, unsure of the atmosphere that Izuku’s question brought. Something changed, and Todoroki could almost feel it digging it’s teeth into his own mind.

“I-”

“Incubator.”

The teens twisted their heads, surprised to see Katsuki giving a look to Izuku that Todoroki has never seen the blond give to the smaller teen. Normally, Katsuki would give Izuku looks that Todoroki would call soft or even fond. This though, it was neutral, but most of it all, it was wary.

“Kacchan, I was just asking a simple question. After all, Todoroki is in dire straits. Everyone is allowed to have a wish, to do something about the world that hurts them.” Izuku, Incubator, reached a hand up and began twisting a curl of green over his finger, his eyes roaming over the floor before looking at Todoroki and glancing back at Katsuki. “After all, it wouldn’t be fair if you were the only one that got what you wanted.”

“What are you talking about?” Todoroki growled, eyes going back and forth between the blond and Izuku. Katsuki raised his hand and began twisting the ring on his finger, something that Todoroki never truly felt the need to notice but saw that even Katsuki nail on that finger was painted with a small symbol, too far for his eyes to see.

“This is not the time, Aizawa said we needed to be careful.”

“Careful? Is this not being careful?”

“You haven’t even told him what you were doing.”

“Maybe I would’ve if you hadn’t interrupted us.”

“He doesn’t know-”

“What is going on here?” The boy's argument was interrupted with the arrival of Aizawa, still wrapped up but his eyes glaring at the three. Todoroki could feel Izuku’s shadow retreating as the teen focused his attention on the older man. Katsuki stepped closer to the green-haired teen, Todoroki also noticing a different light coming back to his eyes.

“I-” Izuku stuttered in a breath, confused and dazed as full awareness was brought back to him. He can’t believe that he almost made another contract, that Incubator forced him to take a backseat in his own mind and body.

“The next round of the competition is going to start relatively soon. You all need to be back on the field to be briefed. Bakugou, Midoriya, go to Recovery Girl’s before you go to the field. Todoroki, with me.” Aizawa said, already turning around before the boys could respond. Todoroki looked at Izuku in confusion, seeing the boy looking at the ground in horror, his shoulders shaking. Bakugou walked from his position and pulled the teen into a hug, forcing his face into the blond’s neck. Todoroki met Bakugou’s eyes when the blond turned his head to glare at him. The heterochromatic teen stared for a second before stonily following Aizawa to the field.

Izuku forced the tears back into himself, unwilling to have that almost breakdown after what happened. Katsuki rubbed his back, but Izuku could feel the other’s ring as his hand glided up and down. He didn't understand why Incubators incessant need to force people into wishes, wishes that were made in desperation, manipulative in the way they played with their emotions. What makes it worse is that he knows that it will feel good in a way. It's almost like a craving for a food he had only once as a child, an unidentified taste hidden within his taste buds that he can't but chase.

Whatever the case, he needs to figure out how to solve the issue without causing something like Julius again. Without manipulating a potential contract into something they don't understand. A wish, as potentially helpful as it can be, is not something he wants to make lightly.

Chapter 16: How Lucky Could You Be?

Chapter Text

A battle tournament, something that Izuku planned for. Finally.

Since the beginning of the year, he’s catalogued and noted everyone’s quirk he’s seen at UA. He sparred with All Might, fought against Katsuki’s explosive quirk. He memorized quirks when he thought Katsuki’s would never come and he would stay useless. Is he using these thoughts as a distraction from the weird panic attack of almost potentially endangering Todoroki’s life? Well maybe, but Izuku has learned over the years to ignore Katsuki’s glares.

“They announced the matches, Izuku.” The blond said, gruff as he rubbed his Izuku’s tense shoulders. Izuku gave a low hum in response, focusing more on the texture of the white blanket of the infirmary bed. The cotton and polyester blend felt cool on his fingers.

“You’re up against this guy named Shinsou Hitoshi. No idea who he is, but apparently the guy with the tail quirk in our class was in his group during the cavalry matches and quit because he doesn’t even remember it.” Katsuki growled, annoyed by his own lack of information. Izuku giggled to himself, usually the positions were reversed as Izuku was the better of the two at information gathering. Or at the very least, he was luckier in being in the right place at the right time. Or, the wrong place at the wrong time according to Katsuki.

“Pardon me.” Izuku turned toward the door, surprised to see Ojiro popping up with a furrowed brow. He didn’t really interact with Ojiro, the blond usually talking to classmates like Hagakure or Shouji. Tokoyami has spoken to him, offhandedly mentioning the tailed man’s martial prowess when he and Izuku sparred together. He even suggested it might be good to spar with Ojiro since he was probably better than Izuku and Katsuki at hand-to-hand combat.

“-that general student, Shinsou Hitoshi. I wanted to warn you about his quirk.” Izuku refocused his attention to the other blond, surprised at how out of it he was when he didn’t even notice Ojiro stepping closer to the two. Katsuki’s hands were relaxed on his shoulder, so Izuku was too. He needed to pay attention.

“It’s a brainwashing quirk. I don’t remember anything once I was put under it. He asked me a question and when I responded, I was out.” He said, fists clenched at his side. Izuku tried not to focus on the curl of miasma that hung around his neck. Dark, but nowhere near dark enough to elicit a response from Incubator. Something he was more than glad to notice. “However, when I bumped into an enemy cavalry member, I was pulled out of it.”

“So you need to be jolted back, huh?” Katsuki said, his thumb pressing back into a knot in Izuku’s back. Izuku hummed, enjoying the way his tense back from his not-panic attack opened up under Katsuki’s hands.

“A brainwashing quirk, while powerful, did him no favors with the physical exam. I guess that’s why he’s in general studies and not with us. If he did join us, it would make the class even.” Izuku mused. He caught Ojiro’s scowl, he assumed that the other teen had some hard feelings against the mysterious teen. Though, it shouldn’t surprise him given that Ojiro thought it was dishonorable enough that he refused to continue the competition.

“Thank you, Ojiro-kun. I appreciate it.” The blond nodded at Izuku’s words before leaving the two alone again. Katsuki sighed as he removed his hands from Izuku, allowing the boy to turn and face the blond.

“You got a plan?” Katsuki said, the familiar glare back on his face. Izuku nodded, but didn’t speak any further. Truly, there wasn’t much he could do that didn’t rely on an outside influence. The one on one battles were purely between the combatants, Midnight and Cementoss only interfering if the fight got out of hand. Silence would be the best weapon against a powerful quirk like brainwashing that is activated with a response. The door creaking open again drew both teens attention.

"Oh, Aizawa-sensei." Izuku said as the mummified teacher entered the room without Todoroki in tow. He had left him and Katsuki alone so Izuku could actually calm down, but he had yet to thank the older man.

"Are you two alright now?" He grunted from beneath his badges, his uninjured eye passing over both of them. Izuku nodded back, a little tired but overall just fine. Aizawa hummed to himself as he switched his weight onto the other leg.

"Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? I'm the principal!" Nedzu popped out from the coils of Aizawa's capture, waving a paw in air, spooking the two teens on the infirmary bed. Katsuki growled while Izuku let out a small giggle.

"O-oh, hello Principal Nedzu!" Izuku bowed his head lightly as Katsuki gripped the back of his shirt. He gave a look to the other teen but still focused his attention on the small principal who was now on the ground.

"It is good to see you two doing well. Aizawa has been giving me updates on that quirk of yours, it's simply fascinating. But he also told me about the recent issue of Todoroki.” Nedzu said, nodding to Izuku and Katsuki both. “We know very little about your quirk, but from what I understand is that Todoroki has a certain level of despair that is causing Incubator to respond, yes?”

Izuku nodded. “I-I don’t want to get into the details as that’s Todoroki’s story to tell, but it’s bad enough that Incubator thinks he could be a prime candidate for a wish. A new soul gem.” A new witch, Izuku whispers in his head.

“Yes, that seems to be the case. As of right now, the only known case of a wish is Bakugou-kun.” Izuku's eyes glanced at the silver ring that was wrapped around the boy's finger, the weight of the blond’s fiery soul gem heavy in his body. “There are multiple paths to go from here, Midoriya-kun.”

“For one, we could try and figure out what Todoroki’s issue is. We would then attempt to solve whatever it is under Todoroki’s consent.” Nedzu raised one finger, his other hand held behind his back. He raised another finger. “Two, we could simply wait and keep an eye on the teen and hope that nothing drastic changes in his situation. Or three-”

Nedzu created direct eye contact with izuku, his dark beady eye deep and emotionless as he stared at the teen.

“-we let Incubator grant his wish.”

“What?” Katsuki shouted, standing up from the bed. Izuku’s own eyes were wide with shock at the suggestion. Nedzu should know about witches, should know about the risks that can be involved when making a wish like that. He glanced up at Aizawa and grew confused at the resigned look on the older man’s face before looking back at the principal, who kept smiling cheerily.

“Bakugou-kun, these are just suggestions, nothing more. I would rather we do the first, as that seems to prevent the more dangerous outcomes. I am fully aware of the dangers of making a contract with Incubator, but it would be foolish to not fully acknowledge every and all avenues in helping your classmate.” Nedzu said, turning back and jumping back onto Aizawa’s shoulder. “Aizawa and I will wait until Todoroki himself comes forward and asks for help as we cannot force an intervention. That doesn’t mean that he won’t potentially come to you, Midoriya-kun, and wish for something himself. He now knows that your quirk goes beyond the darkness you summon, it would behoove you to be prepared for such a possibility.”

“Whatever happens, we will help as much as we can. Your quirk does not make you a monster, nor do the events that occur in the creation of a witch.” Aizawa said, and with those words he left the infirmary with Nedzu on his shoulder.

Shinsou was intimidating, Izuku found as he stared at the other teen from across the field.

He was tall, taller than Katsuki by only two inches and yet Izuku feels like it would be more suited to say a couple of feet. He was lean, not at all packing the muscles that Katsuki and even Izuku himself gained while training before and during the hero course. What really creates the intensity that Shinsou seems to hold was his eyes. Thin eyes with purple eyes and white pupils, deep and hypnotic like looking over the side of a boat into the endless ocean. The despair that clung to the teen wasn’t that bad, opaque enough to be noticeable against a number of his own classmates, but not intensely dark like Todoroki was on a casual basis. It curled around his neck like a cat, wisps flickered back and forth as Shinsou shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Alright everyone, welcome to the first match of the sports festival battle tournament!” The crowd roared in response to Present Mic’s announcement while Izuku glanced over to Midnight as she walked to stand on top of the pedestal that looked over him and Shinsou. “A long title, I know. But don’t worry because we have a very exciting match up ahead of us!”

“On one side of the field we have a 1-A student, Midoriya Izuku. On the other side we have Shinsou Hitoshi, our first general studies student to reach the tournament in over a decade! Make some applause for these two gentlemen!” Present Mic announced over the intercom.

“Are the two combatants ready?” Midnight asked, looking back and forth between the two teens. Izuku nodded with as much confidence as he felt in that moment, which didn’t really amount to that much. Shinsou nodded then, almost bored with the entire thing but Izuku didn’t, couldn’t, miss the intensity that the teen held.

“Then let the first match of the tournament begin!” With a flick of her arm, Midnight cracked her whip in the air. Izuku let out a breath as he bent his knees, swinging his arms back behind him to launch himself forward. Incubator crawled up to the surface of his arms as he steadied his breathing. He looked up to Shinsou, who was only smirking.

“You missed the announcement of the tournament, tried to find you when they announced you as my opponent.” He started, surprising Izuku with the casual tone he used when talking to him. He could feel Incubator pause, Izuku stopping the flow of the quirk before he could launch himself forward. “I wanted to see what kind of person was able to win the first round of the festival.”

Ojirou’s warning rang in his head, so Izuku gritted his teeth and launched himself forward, Incubator making louds thuds as it made contact with the sandy earth of the field. Izuku twisted in the air and launched a column down toward Shinsou who, quicker than the green-haired teen expected, dodged out of the way. Izuku used his other arm to launch another column at the teen who once again dodged, almost twirled his way around the inky pillar. Shifting between the two pillars, Izuku balanced himself in the air.

“I guess that classmate of yours told you about my quirk. Man, isn’t that some kind of cheating?” Looking up at Izuku from his place on the ground. Izuku huffed but stayed silent, refusing to respond to the strange attempts to get him to talk. He grunted as he retracted both pillars causing them to dissipate in the air and forcing himself to the ground.

“A quirk that powerful, how lucky could you be?”

Izuku stopped in his tracks. Lucky? He never considered his quirk to be lucky before. Not when it was just halos around his wrists and a red circle on his back, and certainly not when it caused Katsuki to become a witch, even if he gave the other teen a quirk. One For All was a ‘lucky’ quirk, a miraculous one even. One he tried not to use often in case of excessive self injury.

“How was life with that quirk, huh? I bet no one called you a villain, just a potential hero. Someone to look up to.” But that wasn’t true either. No one looked at him, no one paid him any attention like that except for Katsuki. He only had Katsuki for the longest time and he was okay with that. But One For All was the thing that gave him more. Not Incubator.

“A quirk like mine, they said it’s only good for being a villain.” The darkness around Shinsou’s shoulder rose higher and higher, hissing and spitting as it was getting more agitated with every word the purple-haired teen spat out. “A quirk like yours, must’ve been something that heroes could only dream of.”

Izuku thinks of Julius, the crimson dragon that screamed about Izuku’s quirks, about One For All. A quirk that he didn’t have to sacrifice and make a contract for in exchange for his life. But it couldn’t be that simple, it can’t be. Has it been luck this whole time?

“That’s not true, I-” and before Izuku could stop himself, he was stuck beneath the strangeling hold of Shinsou’s quirk.

He felt frozen, yet warm. He could see Shinsou take a couple of deep breaths to himself before a slow smirk rose on his face. He walked forward, only stopping a couple of feet before the green-haired teen. The glaring difference in height became too obvious, almost like it spoke of a difference far beyond a simple spatial measurement.

“Walk out of bounds.” He spoke, a command that Izuku felt in his bones, his muscles, that his body began to follow obediently. He roared in his head, Incubator and One For All crackling in energy beneath his skin but unable to be free as he took step after step toward the white boundary. He couldn’t stop himself, he couldn’t do anything as the white line came closer and closer. Distantly, muffled almost, he could hear the sounds of the crowd roaring out in shock and surprise as Izuku sluggishly walked to the end of his attempt at the sports festival. And Izuku could only cry in his head, blaming himself for his own failure.

“Oh?”

Frost, cold and with infinite depth, spread throughout his stomach. His own voice echoed in his head, but it wasn’t him. He felt a hand touch his shoulder as time seemed to slow, his steps toward the white boundary line stopping until it was just him in the silence.

“A quirk like this forcing itself into your mind like this is quite dangerous, considering what you have in here.” Incubator giggled, his own face mirroring him in that familiar smile, unmoving despite the laughter as he appeared at Izuku’s side. The quirk was covered in that white cloak, like a fairy as he bounced in his step next to Izuku.

“Wouldn’t it be a problem if we were to go haywire? I mean, that boy seemed to have weakened the natural barrier between you and I. Perhaps he would enjoy getting the full wrath of us if you were to let us go. Just a little bit.” Incubator said, hands behind his back as he stepped closer to Izuku until they were face to face.

Izuku wanted to scream, to yell for help or to tell Shinsou to let him go. If Incubator were to let out his Doppel or even go out and attack without a focus with either One For All or his own power, it would end terribly. He can’t do that, he has to gain back control!

“How humiliating.”

This time Incubator froze as more footsteps echoed behind Izuku, the quirk’s eyes rising to what must be an intimidating tall figure behind him. Izuku could hear the steps come closer on his left and felt his own eyes widened at the figure that appeared.

The figure, a man he assumed, stood tall with his back straight. He wore what looked like a suit, immaculate and steamed smooth as he stared down at Izuku with intensely dark eyes, eyebrows bushy but sharp. His pitch black hair was coiffed perfectly as he turned back to look at what Izuku assumed was Shinsou. He turned his glare back at Izuku, who would cower if he could move, before moving to Incubator who didn’t flinch.

“You have a lot of things to juggle, boy. Neither our or your own quirk are things that should be left with less than a complete understanding. It could easily take over with the slightest of leniency.”

“How dull, can’t you see me and Izuku are having a conver-”

“Leave.”

With a strange pressure and what sounded like multiple voices, Incubator suddenly dissipated in white wisps. The man huffed before stepping closer into Izuku’s vision. Closer now, Izuku could see the small scars that littered the man’s neck.

“You have a long road ahead of you, boy. But do not forget the expanse that is behind you either.” The man said, dark eyes intense as he made direct contact with Izuku's own. “While a quirk like mine would perhaps falter against the powers of your opponent, I am not alone.”

Izuku could see past the man’s shoulder into the hall that he entered the stadium in. In the darkness showed seven pairs of glowing orbs. Eyes, his brain supplied, vestiges.

“This is perhaps a trivial matter, but that boy's quirk also thinned the barrier between us and you. We will arrive in due time, but fear not, for we have always been here. Onward, boy. Break free.”

The bones in his fingers shattered, the catalyst to the boom of sound and dust that spread from Izuku. The teen gasped, the constricting hold Shinsou had on his quirk was gone. He fell forward, his head barely beneath the white line that would’ve ended his time in the tournament. The roar of the crowd entered back into his head as he struggled to gain his bearings back.

“It seems Midoriya has somehow broken out of Shinsou’s quirk!” Present Mic spoke, excited from the announcer’s room. “Eraserhead, any idea as to how he could do that?”

“No, Midoriya’s quirk works in mysterious ways. Only he could answer that question.” Aizawa said.

Izuku didn’t really feel confident that he could answer the question. He guessed that the man helped him with his quirk, that he must be from One For All. A past user. But who? He couldn’t focus that much on it, could barely focus on the pain pulsating in his finger.

“How did you break out of it?” He stood back and faced Shinsou, the other teen clearly panicking at Izuku’s surprise recovery. The miasma around his shoulders coiled and constricted tight around the teen’s neck. Izuku swallowed his reply, hoping that he wouldn't fall for the same trick again.

“Is this the power of someone born to be lucky? This isn’t fair.” The miasma around Shinsou’s neck twisted and turned as Izuku steadied himself on his feet. He could feel Incubator turn in his stomach. If Shinsou were to go further, to become more and more desperate and fall into his despair, than Incubator would respond. He can’t allow that to happen.

Izuku brought together the bits of strength he had left from fighting Shinsou’s quirk and punched out toward the other teen. The column of darkness sped through the air faster than he expected, tripping over the dense darkness, Shinsou was forced to the ground. Izuku grit his teeth as he ran at the other teen, summoning another column at the bottom of his foot to propel himself forward. He felt for One For All as he approached the space above Shinsou. Blackwhip tendrils exploded from his arm and wrapped around the teen.

“Stop it, I can’t let it end here!” Shinsou said, slightly hysterical as he was lifted with the velocity Izuku was already propelling himself with. The green-haired teen landed a small distance from the white boundary. Izuku roared as he used his other arms to grab at the tendrils that grew from his arms and launched Shinsou from the ground into the air and outside the white line.

“And there you have it folks! Izuku is the winner of this match by throwing Shinsou out of bounds. What a quietly intense match, wouldn’t you say, Eraserhead?”

“Whatever.”

Izuku breathed in and out as he tried to catch his breath. He looked up and hoped that he hadn’t hurt Shinsou too bad with that throw. To his surprise, the teen was already standing up from the dissipating tendrils and already trying to walk away from the other.

“W-Wait!” To his surprise, the taller teen did stop. Izuku grew flustered before taking a large breath.

“What you said, it’s not that simple! I can’t tell you much, but please understand that I- we worked hard to get where we are. You have an amazing quirk Shinsou-san, please don’t underestimate yourself!” Izuku yelled, hoping to get his feelings out as fast as possible. The purple teen just stared at Izuku, emotions hidden behind the wealth of purple in his eyes. Izuku gulped as he stared back, the staring contest felt almost like a test of some sorts. Shinsou kissed his teeth before huffing and giving Izuku a lazy smirk, the miasma around his neck thinning but still noticeably there, before turning around and walking away.

Izuku wasn’t sure what to make of the purple-haired teen, but he knew that he had potential. Even if he couldn’t quite forget what he said, he hopes that maybe one day he could be friends.

Chapter 17: If You Could Change Everything, Would You?

Chapter Text

“The 2nd user of One For All, he had a quirk of an unknown name but it's recorded that he was able to force his commands onto people, not too dissimilar to young Shinsou’s quirk.” Yagi said, reading from the notebook to Izuku as the teen sat on the infirmary bed. “From what I was able gather, he was known as Nisei and created a small resistance to fight against One For All. At the beginning of the quirk era, with two substantially-sized powered groups, also prompted the government to act against all quirk users, regardless of loyalties.”

“But why did he help during the match?” Izuku asked, the image of the fierce man stuck in his head. Now that he was not in the middle of a fight, Izuku could note how intimidating the man would’ve been in any other situation. Tall, dark, and fierce, Nisei was a man that looked like he could lead a resistance.

“I couldn’t tell you. Perhaps it was simply a show of support, or maybe it was something else entirely. At the end of the day, the past users are lending you their quirks in hopes to support you being a hero. It’s your quirk now, Midoriya-kun.” Yagi smiled at the teen, Izuku holding a small smile of his own. “That is to say, I will do all I can to help you understand One For All and how it forms to you. ”

Izuku bowed his head, grateful for the reassurance and anxious for the mystery whose answers were buried deep within himself. He was also surprised overall to see one of the vestiges outside of his own head. Nana had appeared in a dreamscape almost, a crossroad between his mind and her memories. But Nisei appeared in a moment of confusion. He remembered the feeling of Shinsou’s quirk hooking itself into his head, completely different to the backseat approach he feels when Incubator comes out of his dark depths. Incubator, One For All, powerful quirks with secrets that feel like they might just kill him. He feels smaller because of it.

“Do you want me to help you to the stands? Young Bakugou’s match should be next.” Yagi’s voice pierced his thoughts, but when Izuku absorbed them he only shook his head.

“I can make it, don’t worry about me!” Yagi nodded as he left the room.

The quiet beeping of the infirmary was surprisingly loud against the tempestuous hurricane of thoughts that whirled in his head. Izuku breathed in through his nose and out his mouth, forcing the thoughts away as he realized he would think himself in circles.

The familiar whale call of his doppel echoed in his ears. The idea of 7, possibly 8, vestiges living within his head that could affect the world outside of his mindscape terrifies him. It's his quirk, one from birth and the other freely given, and yet it feels as though he has little control over either. Sure, both quirks respond to his call but the second he loses control then everyone else around will pay for his incompetence. Todorokis despair, unformed yet begging to be used, is prime meat for the vampiric quick. And learning about Todoroki's past spelled just what kind of wishes someone that hurt could make, and what it could mean for everyone else.

A part of Izuku wants Todoroki to make a wish regarding Endeavor, a man that's done those type of things should not continue to be in a position of power. But the vacuum created in Enjis absence could potentially collapse hero society, plus with All Might retirements fast approaching. He never discussed the end of his career with Izuku, but with him passing the mantle to the teen, it's the only natural next step. All situations that Izuku himself can't solve, for he can't make a wish with himself to potentially fix all the things fast approaching.

Izuku let out a big sigh.

For now , he thought, for now I’ll just relax and support Kacchan.

Izuku would like to think that the universe should have one iota of compassion for him, but as he stares at the infernal pillar of the number two hero, perhaps he should think that the universe is out to get him.

“So, you’re the boy that will go against my Shouto.” The teen could easily imagine the type of fear the deep timber of Endeavor's voice could cause in both villains and Todoroki as a child. Regardless, Izuku could barely hear him, couldn’t tear his eyes away from how the miasma that surrounded Endeavor curled and flickered with his flames. Inky darkness stark against the fiery oranges and reds of his flame. “Your quirk, it is powerful and will prove difficult against his ice, and potentially his fire.”

The growl in his words almost turn into a purr at the mention of the other half of Todoroki’s quirk, a quirk that was only brought out in desperation against Blackwhip’s total assault. Izuku wasn’t entirely sure how it feels to be noted as a trial, a test of sorts, against Todoroki's determination to not use his flames, but he knows that it’s nothing good.

Izuku’s own eyes flickered back and forth, watching the tendrils of Endeavor's darkness almost matched his flames in movement. It was despair, but it felt weaponized in a way. He hasn't seen despair like this. Despair clings to someone, a disease that's almost impossible to get rid. It's supposed to be unwanted, but somehow the darkness that surrounded Endeavor looked…comfortable.

“What, nothing to say? Hmph, perhaps you won’t be as high an obstacle as I thought. At the very least, provide quality entertainment in the farce that is this festival.” Endeavor said, continuing forward past Izuku, the shadows that clung to him curled and cooed at the smaller teen as they passed him.

"How cold…" Izuku whispered, mostly to himself. Despite the high temperatures that he knew Endeavor's flame could reach, the darkness that clung to him had a chill to it. The miasma curled against his body, cruel in its comfort as the mass extended to even his jaw.

"What was that?" Endeavor said, stopping to peer over his shoulder.

Izuku could feel the darkness shutter in him. Incubator hummed, its want clear as he stared at the shadow hanging onto the number 2 hero. A despair that size would keep Incubator satisfied for a long while, but at what cost?

Izuku knew that whatever wish a man that Endeavor could make would have consequences unmatched in its destruction. Endeavor was a man that everyone would warn him against granting a wish for. Even his grief seed was something that probably wouldn't be eaten so easily.

"Nothing. Nothing at all, Endeavor-san." Izuku looked at the neon blue of the hero's eye, and wondered what Todoroki saw when he looked in his own frost blue eye. "I hope you enjoy our match. Between Todoroki-san and me."

Endeavor stared at the teen, eyes narrowed and focused. The shadows around Izuku stretched and curled, seeming to stretch to Endeavor's own feet. But, surely, this was just his imagination.

The older hero turned his head and walked away, never noticing the glowing red eyes peaking within Izuku's abyssal shadow.

Katsuki is a strong person, this is a fact. Katsuki is probably the strongest person that Izuku knows. Katsuki’s quirklessness was something they didn't really talk about, a status that shaped parts of their lives since Izuku clung so tightly to the blond. While his parents were quick to block and deflect problems and issues that most quirkless people face, there were still things that slipped through the cracks.

They couldn't stop the stares on the days Katsuki had to wear those primordial brand shoes, symbols of his status before his parents created their own brand of quirkless shoes. They couldn't stop the speculation of Katsuki’s 'mysterious quirk' as the blond never showed it off despite the pokes and prods of their classmates or sometimes even the teachers.

Izuku did his best, but when all his quirk amounted to at the time were extra appendages and creepy eyes, there was only so much he could do.

So, he could understand the formation of Julius, could understand how and why Katsuki had those emotions lingering inside him when Izuku seemed to be so lucky out of nowhere. Maybe that's why there's a small part of him that's happy about Incubators existence as it is now. In granting Katsukis wish, he did something good for his best friend. That part of him was happy, even if the majority felt fear and apprehension at his own quirk and the power it wields.

He's even happier when he sees the straightened back and narrowed eyes of Katsuki as he enters the field, the curl his spine used to form and the snarl that was once a permanent feature gone as he knew his quirk was strong and mind stronger. Uraraka is a strong girl with a strong quirk with a good mind.

But in Izuku’s mind, Katsuki will always win.

"Everyone was worried about you for a second there." Izuku mused as he straightened the bandages on Katsuki’s shoulder. The teen had won the match, but it would be a lie to say that Uraraka didn't give him a hard time.

"Were you?"

"I'm always worried about you. But I was also confident that you would win."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I know-" Izuku huffed out a laugh. "But it isn't something I can be sure I can explain. I knew Uraraka was strong and we can always be surprised. It wouldn't be smart to underestimate any of our classmates."

"Hmph," Katsuki shifted as Izuku finished fidgeting with the bandages. Putting his shirt back on, he continued, "we know my strength and we know theirs, it's obvious how this would've gone."

"Still, Uraraka is a strong opponent. I'm glad she made you sweat."

"Hah? What do you mean by that?"

Izuku glanced down, and at some point the two had unconsciously joined hands. He flipped the positioning and looked at the orange symbol painted on the blond's nail. Katsuki followed his eyes and let out a breath.

"Are you still thinking about half-and-half?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment. "Incubator is a powerful thing. He gave you this power, but with a witch that almost killed you." Izuku shifted in his spot in the bed to lean his head on Katsuki’s shoulder, eyes closed. He put a hand to his stomach. "Almost all three of us."

"That's not even mentioning the soul gem situation. I just wonder if there should be more to be worried about, and if there is, how can we even prepare for it?" Izuku wasn't there for it, but when his mother described Katsuki’s blank eyes after separating him from his ring, the idea of it alone plagued his dreams. He didn't want to do that with someone else.

"There's nothing we can really prep for except making sure that if Incubator does get to half-and-half that he knows exactly what goes into. sh*t, in the end, the real warning we can give him is to talk about his feelings and never take off the ring since you always carry the soul gems. Anything else after that is his fault."

"But still, I-"

"Izuku."

The green haired teen turned his head, allowing himself to face Katsuki. The blond's eyes, always narrowed and set, had that familiar glimmer of concern that Izuku often found when it looked at him. Katsuki squeezed his hand and pulled it toward his chest where his beating heart sat.

"Incubator is powerful, but they are also knowable. I'm breathing, I made it past Julius. Whatever the hell icyhot has going on is his own to face. Offer your help, offer your advice, but in the end it’s his choice on whether or not he'll let himself be swallowed by whatever witch he can make."

Izuku stared back at Katsukis before looking away, the lump in his throat forced down by a gulp he had to breathe in to take. He was right, and he was being logical about it, but Izuku just didn't want anyone to be hurt.

Katsuki sighed before pulling back. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, we can get Aizawa and the other teachers to sit and talk to Todoroki. They can't force him to talk about his issues but they can tell him Incubator activates around him and that's cause for concern. That's the most we can do."

Izuku takes a deep breath in and nods at the suggestion. Katsuki stares for a moment before a smirk stretches his face. He gets up from the bed but doesn't let go of the green-haired teens hand.

"C'mon, the next round of matches is gonna start soon. I think yours is the first."

"A part of me is scared to fight him."

"Why? Think you'll lose?"

"No, regardless of how it ends I'll be giving it my all. I'm scared of what the Incubator will do once Todoroki gets desperate."

'Breathe in, breathe out' The air felt heavy, the weight increasing with each step Izuku and Todoroki made to their positions.

"Alright, everyone! Our next match for the UA sports festival has arrived. On our left side is the silent hero-to-be, Todoroki Shouto! On our right stands the bright-eyed Midoriya Izuku! Our last set of matches for this round of battles, let's hope our two competitors give it their all and give a good show!'

Izuku grimaced a bit at Present Mic's presentation but knew there wasn't really much he could do about it. Todoroki, as usual, didn't show any reaction to it. He was quiet and deadly still, like the snow right before the movement of an avalanche.

The roar of the crowd rang in Izuku's ears, a wall of sounds that somehow deafened and muffled everything around him. His own thoughts were quiet but quick, keeping track of the common series of attacks he saw Todoroki do in practice and previous matches.

"Begin!"

Like he predicted, a wall of ice formed with the familiar scream of ice clawing itself out of Todorokis body toward Izuku. Jagged edges and spikes of ice like the teeth of an animal desperate for survival came at him.

In the second that the ice grew, Izuku kneeled down and slammed both fists on the ground, summoning a wall of darkness that blocked the assaulting ice. A chill wind came pushing at his back as the ice curled around the circular shield that Izuku created, the hair at the back of his neck standing on end.

"The familiar technique of Todoroki has created a type of jail around Izuku, but through the ice we can see Izuku's dark quirk has made a still-standing wall. This match is only seconds in, but two first year titans are giving it everything they got!" Izuku could hear Mic even through the ice, but the cheerful and excited tone of his teacher didn't pull his focus from the fight.

Izuku breathed in the cold air. Todoroki can hit hard and fast, similar to Katsuki. Main difference is the range of area that he can affect. In a match that required their opponent to leave the bounds of the arena, Todoroki had the advantage.

‘But in moments like these, sometimes the easier solution is the better one.’ Izuku stood up, rolling his shoulders as he prepared his next move. Taking a few steps back, he took a breath before launching himself forward and slamming his fist into the ground.

A mirror of Todoroki’s move, a wall of shadow and darkness slammed into the ice, the pressure bulldozing its way against the blueish white ice that built itself in front of the teen. Unlike the previous move, it wasn’t a fortress to force the other teen out of bounds but instead a wave that when finished revealed a path through the ice straight to Todoroki. Izuku saw Todoroki steady himself against the force of wind his quirk brought forward, he knew he surprised the other boy.

He couldn’t lose the opportunity, Izuku redirected his hands behind and launched himself forward with twin columns behind him. He faintly registered Mics blaring voice from the speakers as he sped past the walls of ice either side of him. He summoned tendrils from his forearm to pull him to the side, dodging a number of icicles. Punching down and launching further up with a column, Izuku hoisted himself above Todoroki before summoning a dozen tentacles to grab onto the other.

“You don’t understand,” Todoroki rolled to the side and waved a line of ice toward Izuku, “his flames, they’re poison. I need to win with my ice. With her ice!”

Incubator stirs, Todorokis words are tinged with despair, cutting himself open to trigger more power behind his strikes but his desperation awakens the horror within Izuku. The green haired teen feels his anxiety grow as he knows with each second he’s fighting and speaking with Todoroki, his own personal defenses against Incubator weaken.

Izuku pulled himself forward with the tentacles that dug their into the ground when they missed Todoroki, forcing himself away from the ice attack. Curling into a roll, he sprung back up quickly and threw a column of shadow. Todoroki stepped to the side, the column clipping his jacket while he launched another line of ice. Izuku barely had enough movement to step away from where the ice would’ve hit him.

“Shut up!”

The two launch themselves at each other, Todoroki sliding on his ice and Izuku with another burst of darkness. Izuku twisted midair and attempted to kick the other in the chest but Todoroki ducked in the last second before grabbing the back of Izuku's shirt and throwing him to the ground. Izuku rolled himself into standing position before quickly having to dodge to the side as Todoroki began unleashing a series of kicks and swings.

But every time he blocked a hit, Todorokis strikes felt cold. His own body was a temperature too cold to be normal.

Izuku grunted as a kick pushed him back, but used the distance to create ten tentacles that forced Todoroki back. “Your body can’t handle the cold, not completely, can it?”

Todoroki glared at him, his eyes darting to the side. Izuku followed the line of sight and saw the bright blaze of Endeavor staring on at both of them, his darkness bright against the flame.

“Did he put you up for this? Did you hear my story and think nothing of it when against whatever reward he has for you if you force me to use his flames?”

“No! I’m not working with him, I’ll never work with him, not when I know what he did. But Todoroki, you need to listen.” Izuku dodged another wave of ice, but his foot was knocked by a spike. He could feel his darkness fighting against him, and the Incubator was getting hungry.

“This isn’t about Endeavor, this is a fight between me and you!”

“It’s always about him!” Todoroki froze over a patch on the ground, imprisoning Izukus foot briefly in ice only to kick him out of his cage. His ribs ached as Todorokis foot landed a solid hit against him but he didn’t have time to consider the pain. Pushing his body to roll further, he summoned a wall of shadow to give him the necessary to stand back up.

“Todoroki please, you need to control yourself. You aren’t using his flames, or her ice, it’s all you!”

Izuku wasn’t sure the other could hear him, not when seconds after what he said there was another screech of ice forming and cracking into existence as another avalanche of ice and anger formed on either side of the wall Izuku formed. But this time, Izuku could hear the frustrated yells of the boy. Cracks began to form on dark wall, Izuku darting to each one as they grew from the pressure of the ice. And for a second, he froze in fear as the shadows coagulated and formed a reflection, but in this image his eyes were a deep red.

He couldn’t fight for much longer either.

Izuku took a few steps back before running toward the wall and launching himself in the sky once more. This time, he pushed more power into the column, forcing himself to a height he reached during the last round. Looking down, he saw Todoroki stare up at him, his body half frozen over with ice clinging to his skin. There was a desperation in his eyes as he realized Izuku was probably destroying a long planned revolt.

Izuku felt for the core of his power, the power of the 5th and Incubator, and forced the stream into his arms. Pulling back, bending his spine with his hands opened wide behind him, he could feel his arms turn a deep dark. Once he saw another layer of frosty air begin to form around Todoroki, he pushed his arms forward.

A twisted coagulation of darkness flew out of him in a beam. Unidentifiable, almost seeing a silhouette of an attack fly straight down Todoroki. It completely blasted through the initial wave of ice and suddenly it was too close with too little time to allow another wall of ice to form. Todoroki shielded himself with his arms, but this time right arm was held in the front.

It was an spark, seconds before the darkness could hit Todoroki, but it was clear enough that Izuku shifted in the air by the brightness of it. Suddenly, a wall of flame erupted in front of Izuku. It ate Izukus attacked, the shadows weak against the searing brightness of Todorokis flame, raw and untrained as it was. Innocent and fierce, Izukus darkness could not hold its own against Todorokis flames.

In that failed attack, Izuku found himself flying purely by gravity’s choice alone toward the other teen who looked horrified and betrayed. Even at the furthest of the distance that was quickly closing, Izuku could see Todorokis despair grow rapidly in a miasma around him.

“This is your power Todoroki! All of this, it’s yours to use. Be a hero with it, be a hero!”

And Todoroki looks up at the teen, recognition deep in his eyes hidden behind the hurricane of emotion that his flames conjured up. The jagged edge of ice meeting in a spiral with the curl of flame of Todoroki highlighted the teen with a eerie white glow. In that second of free fall, Izuku could almost see a child version of Todoroki, small and unsure of such a powerful quirk.

But that thought quickly vanished as Izuku noticed within Todoroki’s shadow, his own smiling visage with glowing red eyes. The green haired teen could barely gasp in time as seconds before his body impacted Todoroki, the two were covered in an orb of darkness that shielded them from the audience.

“His despair is so strong, Izuku. Why would you shield him from us?”

Izuku came aware in waves, identifying Incubators voice immediately but the sound going back and forth between audible and not. He was upright, standing even, but as he tried to move it felt like something was chaining him down, wrapped up to his biceps and thighs. He looked down and saw Incubators rolling darkness clinging to him, keeping him in place.

“All that despair, all that pain, an open wound that just won’t stop bleeding .” Incubator spun in a circle, a replica of Izuku but a look of delicious joy.

“Why are you so desperate for more despair? Can’t you see this is hurting people? If Katsuki gets separated from his soul gem, he becomes completely unresponsive, he’s not even breathing. We can’t do this to anymore people!”

Incubator stops in their tracks, suddenly still and facing away from Izuku. In the silence, the darkness around churns like a liquid sloshing in a bottle, the sound filling Izukus ears.

“Do you blame a lion for eating? A bird for flying? A fish for swimming?” Incubator half turns, a singular blank eye staring at Izuku. The teen glances down and notices their shadows are connected, a deep black that’s darker than the surrounding ocean of purple, blue, and black. “Do you blame a scorpion for stinging?”

“So it’s- it’s natural? You can’t stop it?”

Incubator is quiet for a moment, his stare giving nothing away of his thoughts. He looks down, his eyes half lidded before turning away.

“Despair, it’s something I can’t describe. It fuels us, powers us to be strong. And when that other quirk came in, that hunger for darkness grew. All of sudden, the sadness that filled your body, created by your own experiences, wasn’t enough and even the occasional overwhelming despair from others couldn’t fill me anymore.” Incubator turned back to fully face Izuku, a small peaceful smile graced his features. “But wishes were something new. They crafted a darkness into a cuisine more delicious than any type of despair we’ve had. It was a- a lightness that wishes brought to the darkness. And it filled us in a way that nothing else could ever replace and replicate.”

Incubator began walking toward Izuku, their steps slow but sure. “I understand your fear, Izuku. I am you, but you are me. And we will always be hungry.”

Before Izuku could let out another word, the darkness around them, began to shift. The area in front of them undulated and suddenly it looked like a large orb was caused the darkness to spill around it. The darkness cleared and Todoroki stood in the center of circle, clearly confused. It only took a moment of searching before his eyes landed on Izuku and Incubator.

“Midoriya? What’s going on?”

“We meet again, Todoroki-kun. Last time I saw you, you were telling us a little story.” Izuku could practically hear the smile in Incubators tone, the quirk now facing away from the teen and facing Todoroki. “You carry heavy emotions.”

“Who are you?” Todoroki took a stance, his ice beginning to frost on his arm.

“I am Incubator, our dear Izuku’s quirk. You remember Tokoyami-kun and Dark Shadow, right? We are similar to them, quite similar really, but the differences are very important.”

“Have you trapped us here? Why have you captured Midoriya?”

“Captured?” And here Incubator laughs, giggly and airy but loud in the enclosed space. It sounded like they were everywhere at once, in the walls of darkness that surrounded them, just for a second before going back to the quiet laughter. “No, no, I didn’t capture you. You can leave anytime you wish. I simply must ask you a question.”

“A question?” Todoroki doesn’t relax, his stance remains the same, but in his tone is now a curiosity. Dread grows within Izukus stomach, panic and urgency pushes him to try and get out of his binds.

“Todoroki, don’t listen, you need to get out!”

“Calm yourself, Izuku, it’s just a simple question.” Incubator turns their head slightly and gives a smile to Izuku before turning back to Todoroki. “And that simple question is this: if you could change everything, would you?”

“…what?”

“If you could change everything, would you? If you had the opportunity to go back and change how things were, how a certain someone thought, what a certain someone did, or even if a certain person existed, would you make that wish?”

Incubator began to walk to the side, their strides slow as they kept an eye on the other teen. Todoroki looked confused, his eyes meeting the quirks own. Izuku didn’t know what he was thinking, the question was a confusing one and ultimately felt misplaced. It must’ve gotten Todoroki off kilter.

“Many people hold so many regrets, so many scars-“ Incubator glances around Todorokis face, his meaning clear- “but not many are given the opportunity to change everything. So I ask you, if you could, would you?”

“You can’t do anything, you don’t understand how powerful he is. He can destroy you and Midoriya both.” Todoroki was getting agitated, his frost creeped higher on his arm and even his other arm began to glow a soft yellow. “A man like that can’t be stopped.”

“I’m not asking if he can or can’t be stopped, I’m simply asking if you could, would you?”

Todoroki hesitated, and Izuku can imagine why. His rebellion now must've been years in the making, days upon days and pushing himself forward to fight back even when he would be his furthest from that man in UA. To imagine someone like that being stopped almost seemed fantastical, and even if Todoroki’s goal of only using his mothers ice was achieved, Endeavor would still be alive and capable. Incubator offers something that should be impossible, but only Izuku knows that he could very well do it.

“I don’t know what you are, but you’re just a quirk. I’ve seen what he can do, what he has done, and I know you’re nothing against that power. Stop saying stupid things!” A wave of ice shot of you Todoroki, aiming at Incubator. But smoother than anything Izuku has ever done, the darkness undulated and became a wave that blocked the ice.

“But with quirks, dreams are a reality that have yet come to pass. Tell me, ask me, wish for it, what would you change if you could?”

Todoroki glared, a furrow in his brow made by confusion and the knowledge that he was trapped in a corner. Izuku knew that most of his stamina was lost in their battle and by the smooth use of darkness by Incubator, Todoroki probably wouldn’t stand a chance against Incubator in the mini realm they built.

“I- I don’t believe you can do anything against him, no matter how strong you think you are. Wishes, dreams, none of those things are real. Not when I spent so long wishing for something to change, to save us.”

“Would that be your wish than?” And incubator stood still, his stare fixated on Todoroki, Incubators shadow stretched closer to Todoroki like a hand just about to grasp him. The other teen stared back, cautious but unwavering. Todoroki doesn’t fear Incubator, a complete unknown in this moment, and Izuku realized that for a offer as tempting as Incubator is making, there isn’t much he could say against it.

“If I had to, I…I would wish there was someone who could save us from him.”

Incubator smiled, the grin wide and unnatural in Izuku’s face as Todoroki spoke the words, words tinged with every bit of despair that’s been keeping a hold on him since the moment Izuku met him.

“Then let that be the basis of our contract.” And despite the strain in his arms, Izuku could only struggle and call out Todorokis name as a light shot out of Todorokis chest, through Incubator, and into Midoriya. The darkness around them began to form holes as the light of the contract burst out in rays. Incubator disappeared and in the spot where he was a gem began to form. Izuku felt tears form in his eyes as he witness a glowing white gem appeared, encased in the gold, the emblem of what looked like a fluffy cloud. A ring formed next to it, the same symbol undoubtedly marked itself onto the ring.

Izuku could let a tear fall as the gem shot into his own chest, and suddenly he began to lose conscious. The last thing he saw was the ring fix itself onto Todoroki, with multiple heroes running to them as the orb fell, Aizawa himself leading the charge.

Chapter 18: ...it’s what’s making me feel so full.

Chapter Text

“...cannot happen again, we must figure out a way to help Midoriya-kun control his abilities. Or at the very least warn the others of what exactly Incubator can do.”

“Principal Nezu, from my understanding of working with Young Midoriya, Incubator has a mind of their own. Not unlike Young Tokoyami’s quirk, it would be inhumane to attempt to control Incubator.”

“The other option, however, can lay the seeds of alienation from his classmates which would be completely detrimental to his health. Not to mention Bakugou would also separate himself from the class if it meant staying with Midoriya.”

“Then I think, Aizawa-kun, that perhaps it falls to us as teachers to help Midoriya-kuns classmates understand that this isn't his fault. And that Incubator can be stopped. After all, Spiderlily was able to refuse a wish, and so this means that the true power lies within the other students to ensure that they don't make a wish.”

“He's waking up.”

And he was. While slowly rising into consciousness, it was Recovery Girl's voice that alerted the other three into Izuku's waking form.

“Here you go, dearie.” A steady hand pushed on his lower back to sit upright while a cup of water was fed to his lips. He blinked his eyes, gently letting himself become used to the glare of the ceiling light.

“How are you feeling?” Yagi-sensei said, the timbre of his voice low and comforting. Izuku took a mental note of his body, the soreness that radiated everywhere but especially in his arms and legs.

“...I feel full.” Izuku closed his eyes, a pang of sadness passing through his body before opening his eyes to meet Yagi-sensei. “I messed up, sensei.”

“No, you did your best. We all understood the depth of the issue with Incubator but we still hoped that Young Todoroki’s despair wouldn’t push your quirk to the brink. For that, we apologize for not taking the proper precautions.” Aizawa said, his voice low in a way that filled the room. The remorse was clear, and it even reflected on the frowns on the other adults' faces.

“Midoriya-kun, the other teachers and I were discussing prior to your waking but, it may be prudent to tell the others in your class the full extent of your abilities.” Principal Nedzu said, piping up from his place atop of Aizawa’s shoulder. He continued, “of course, we will hold back with your consent, but with the arrival of Todoroki-kun’s wish, it might be better if we let all close parties know that this may be an issue they all may face.”

Izuku’s eyes widened and he sat up straighter to look around the room. “I-Is Todoroki-kun okay? Did Incubator do anything else to him?”

“Todoroki-kun is fine, he is also resting in another room. The only known changes to him are the ring that now sits on his finger and the marking on his nail, similar to Young Bakugou. “ Yagi stepped forward this time, his smile warm and as put a warm hand on Izuku’s shoulder, gently pushing down to a more relaxed position. “Feel for Incubator, Young Midoriya, tell us if you notice any changes.”

Izuku took a slow breath, one after the other as he settled back into the bed. Taking a final gulp of air, he felt for Incubator in his center where it usually sat. One for All sat on top, closer to his heart more than anything. Its power didn’t feel any different and if he pushed himself he could no doubt summon more of the fifth’s tendrils. As he traveled downward toward his middle, almost his stomach, he could finally feel Incubator’s dark core.

“This…it’s what’s making me feel so full.” Maybe he did go too long with avoiding using Incubator or doing something regarding despair. It felt completely different from before the match. Izuku had thought that the feeling of emptiness or oppression was its natural state but perhaps that was actually the feeling of hunger. Now, Incubator feels full and that dark feeling wasn’t nearly as strong. Dark and hungry, those were the words that Izuku would use to normally describe what his quirk felt like day-to-day.

“The wish, it seemed to satisfy Incubator. He’s quiet in my mind, and that hungry feeling isn’t there anymore. At least…” Izuku trailed off, he knew that the feeling wouldn’t last forever. He searched deeper, hoping to see if there was something could answer. Maybe Incubator could wake up for just a moment and tell him what was going on.

What he finds isn’t that, but instead two cores. He pokes around and feels what he knows to be Katsuki’s soul gem, and almost like in an illusion he could hear what almost sounds like firecrackers in his ears and the shaking of the earth as bombs go off in the distance. As he feels for the next one, it feels almost the opposite of Katsuki’s fiery soul. This one feels…soft, like a blanket or even a cloud. All around, the soul gem begets a sense of softness, until one particular poke feels sharp, too sharp, almost like Izuku purposefully poked his finger at the tip of a knife.

Izuku opens his eyes and looks at the adults around, all wearing concerned but patient faces.

“I can feel them…Kacchan and Todoroki-kun. They’re okay.”

“Hm,” Nedzu puts a paw to his chin, “perhaps a form of communication or even simple empathy. Could prove to be useful for those he forms a contract with.”

“Perhaps encouraging more contracts is not the most ideal situation if this is what it brings.” Recovery Girl said, giving a hard side eye at the stout. Nedzu simply lets out a chuckle before the focus shifts back to Izuku.

“We’ll give you some time to think it over, Young Midoriya. I’m afraid if we force him to wait any further he might explode the door to get through.” Yagi said.

“What do you me-” The sound of a door sliding open interrupted his sentence as a blur of blond almost rushed Izuku over.

“You stupid idiot! What the hell happened out there?”

Izuku couldn't reply as his face was pulled into Katsukis chest, a mixture of sweat, burnt sugar, and the last remnant of the blonds favorite cologne. Instantly, the tension he didn't know he had slipped off his shoulders. He wrapped his own arms around the Katsuki, blindly gripping the others shirt and scrunched his eyes against the wave of tears that threatened to overwhelm him.

“Kacchan, Kacchan, I messed u-”

“No the f*ck you didn't, it was that damn half-n-half bastard. You've been training hard with that f*cking quirk, its alright.”

Katsuki wrapped a hand at the back of Izuku's neck, warm and steady. The green haired teen breathed slowly and tried to absorb what the other was saying.

It wasn't his fault, but it definitely wasn't Todoroki's either. Maybe he could've tried harder to warn him about Incubator but his quirk isn't exactly what he'd call a common situation to face.

“It doesn't matter, Todoroki vomited trauma all over your lap, giving Incubator their favorite meal on a silver platter. Its not your fault!” The gentle but firm grip Katsuki had grounded him, held him upright against the waves of anger, self-doubt, and grief as the realization of what he did struck him true in that moment.

“We, as the staff, agree that the fault does not lie with you Midoriya-kun.” Nedzu's voice pulled him from Katsuki’s chest and the attention returned to the teachers. “Todoroki-kun is also awake and while we explained most of what we could, we feel it's prudent if we allow him to come and allow you both to explain what his contract means.”

Izuku caught eyes with Katsuki, unsure but there were parts of him that felt like he owed Todoroki a semblance of an explanation. While he's sure that the teachers that were in the know could explain efficiently, maybe seeing Izuku with Katsuki could alleviate some anxiety.

Katsuki looked resolute and still until Izuku gave a small nod. The blond let out a long breath through his nose before looking at Yagi-sensei and giving his own nod. The teachers gave their own affirmations before gesturing to Recovery Girl to grab the other teen.

Izuku was shuffled around in the bed by Katsuki, and it wasn't until Todoroki was fully in the room that he realized the blond had put himself completely between him and the others.

Recovery Girl lead Todoroki down to the chair beside the infirmary bed, his face set neutral like it usually was, but his eyes darted to the marking and ring on Katsukis own finger and the golden cuffs that hung around Izuku's wrists.

“We’ll be outside waiting if you need a moment.” Aizawa said, leading the other staff to exit the room quietly. Recovery Girl did shoot a look toward Izuku that he caught and gave a small nod in return.

The door clicked shut and suddenly they were alone. The quiet was suppressive, Todoroki and Katsuki were silent as they stared each other down. Izuku himself was staring at the ring and mark on Shoutos finger. A small white puff, almost like a bit of stuffing from a teddy bear, was stained on his fingernail and chiseled into his ring, matching in place the small explosion on Katsuki.

“T-Todoroki-kun, I'm sorry for what's happened.” Izuku starts, one of his hands gripping Katsukis forearm with his eyes not reaching Todoroki’s own. “My quirk, it reacted, and I wasn't strong enough to stop it. I'm sorry.”

“...No, to say it was solely you to blame would be wrong. When they told me of Incubator's true source of power, I realized I had all but given myself as a sacrifice to Incubator. While I don't regret telling you my motivations for winning, I realize Incubator had set up a trap with its words and I fell for it. In that, I failed myself.” Todoroki clenched his fist and stared down at the ring, the thing that claimed him as a victim of a contract.

“Playing the blame game won't help anyone.” Katsuki glanced back at Izuku before continuing, “you need to know what exactly it means to form a contract.”

So they told him. They told him in exchange of the wish, what he had given up and what having a soul gem meant. Izuku had to pick up some parts of the story once they began talking about Julius.

“So, if my emotions become too chaotic, too steeped in despair, I'll transform into a raging beast that'll almost be impossible to stop on my own?”

“Something like that, yes. Julius was able to take a couple of blows straight from All Might, so I imagine it takes a lot to physically down a witch, and maybe even a doppel.” From Izuku was told later, he was still physically there when his doppel formed, so he wasn't sure if it was controllable.

“It doesn't look like we would transform into witches unless you were there though, so doppel forms could be what happens in your absence. Since you can't use your body to fuel your own witch, you probably gained access to that part first. But as for Bakugou and I…”

He trailed off, but Katsuki looked pensive at the thought.

“Julius, your witch, it's not like a quirk or a weapon. It knows you, your weaknesses, your insecurities. If you fail to control your doppel, if we can even access that, you could put everyone else in danger. Even Izuku wasn't really ‘awake’ when he formed his.” Katsuki squeezed Izuku's hand, the only person in the room with clear memories of both incidents.

Todoroki looked down at his lap for a moment, his hands slowly clenching into fists before slowly relaxing into his lap.

“Then, this soul gem, do you have it?”

Katsuki glanced back at Izuku at that, but the green haired teen was too surprised at the question to give a proper response.

“I- yes, I do have it.”

“Can I see it?”

At this, Izuku hesitated before ultimately nodding to himself. He was too used to hiding, or at least being mostly private with, his quirk that the thought of openly showing parts of his quirk outside of Katsuki felt strange.

He felt inside of himself again, to the parts that held Incubator and thus the connection between him and the other two teens. Again, like that moment at the very beginning when he got One For All, he felt the circle in his back open and the gem shot straight up, barely fitting between the space of his collar and neck.

It was a bit comical, the initial panic of the gem being in the air, but Katsuki was easily able to grab it. Izuku gave out a sigh of relief but he flickered his eyes to Todoroki and saw the almost uncomfortable look in his eyes. Izuku quickly, but gently, grabbed the soul gem from Katsukis hands and held it close to his own chest.

Most of the design remained the same, but the mark that's on Todoroki’s finger and ring were on the base of the gem and decorated the very top. The glow was instead a soft milky white compared to Katsukis glaring orange.

“So that's my- my soul gem. My soul.” Todoroki muttered, and Izuku could only nod. In that moment, it really hit the three teens that Izuku's quirk had supposedly separated the two contractors' souls from their body and encased it in these gems.

“Do you want to hold it?” Izuku asked. It felt only right, it was Todoroki’s soul, no matter how Incubator sought to decorate it.

The split haired teen stared for a moment before shaking their head. Izuku nodded before shuffling on the bed to get in a position that allow him to put the gem back into the opening of his back.

“My wish, I asked for someone, didn't I?” Todoroki said, looking back into Izukus eyes. The green haired teen nodded, “you said ‘I would wish there was someone who could save us from him.’”

“Do you know what's gonna happen? Nothing seems to have changed so far. Did Bakugou's wish happened quickly?”

Izuku glanced at the blond before looking back to Todoroki. “It did, but his wish asked for a quick change. W-we were caught in a villain attack, he wished for power to stop it. So maybe what you wished is currently happening, but it just hasn't gotten to you yet. After all, you wished for someone to save ‘us,’ maybe they've gotten to your family first?” Izuku ended it with a hopeful tilt to his question. The todoroki situation was a complicated one, one rife with political discourse should it come out that Endeavor wasn't necessarily a hero at home.

Todoroki knew this, knew this and hated it. He clenched his fists in his lap. It was quiet for a moment, the three teenagers stuck in their thoughts. Izuku wasn't really sure what to do, there wasn't much comfort to give.

It was a subtle change, but this time it was noticeable. There was a dip of some type of weight in his stomach, like he heard some news that dive bombed his psyche to spiral into an anxiety attack. Izuku could tell however that the dip belonged to one of the soul gems, and as the feeling grew heavier he realized that the gem responsible was Todoroki. In Izuku’s

“Hey!”

Todoroki snapped his head up to Izuku, the distraction was enough to keep his despair from dipping too far but the green haired teen now recognized the feeling.

“I-...your gem, I could feel it. Your despair was filling up and-”

“So now you can monitor how we feel?”

“Not exactly, despair, or whatever that energy is, isn't clear cut as either sadness or anger.” Izuku thinks back to his mother's grief seed, to Katsukis transformation. “It's like a sense of hopelessness. It's like falling into the deep end of the pool, but the water is whatever emotion you're drowning in. It's not like you're not allowed to feel it, but you can't let yourself drown in it. That's when you become vulnerable enough to become a witch.”

They were silent again, but this time Izuku chose to break the silence.

“Kacchan and I, we go to therapy, you know? And I don't doubt that Endeavor has his own ideas of a hero going to therapy, but for helping regulate yourself, to getting techniques that'll help you control yourself from slipping too far, it's useful.” Okay so Izuku did have a slight ulterior motive for getting Todoroki to therapy but he wasn't necessarily wrong either. If Katsuki’s witch form could withstand All Might, even with his handicap, than witches are much too powerful to not be regulated at least a little.

“I- I'll think about it.” Todoroki said, brows furrowed as he eased back into his chair. Izuku could feel Katsuki relax a margin at his side, but he was still tense. It was clear to Izuku that the blond didn't trust the other, but that wasn't something Izuku needed to worry about for right now.

“Excuse me, boys.” Recovery Girl entered the room, not quite sheepish but more than likely heard some of the yelling that went on in the room. “But Todoroki-kun’s sister is here to…visit him.”

The door opened further to reveal a woman. The first feature to jump to Izuku’s attention was her hair, white splattered with red, both the same shade as Todoroki. If that didn’t reveal their relationship, then the fact that her eyes barely passed over him and Katsuki and focused straight onto Todoroki did.

“Shouto!” She said, scrambling forward a bit and kneeling beside the teen. She didn’t touch him, even though her arms raised to reach out and comfort him, Izuku could tell she stopped herself just in time. Shouto didn’t flinch though, nothing indicated in his face that what she was about to do was going to bother him, but he did seem perplexed.

“Fuyumi? What’re you doing here? I thought you said you were going to stay home to watch the festival?”

“I-I was, and dad was supposed to pick you up to bring you home, but something happened-” she stopped and glanced at Izuku and Katsuki on the bed, finally clicking that there were more people here than just the Recovery Girl and Todoroki. She licked up her lips, eyes darting back and forth before settling on Todoroki. This time, she carefully laid a hand on his arm.

“Look, something came up, and we need to go home, I can explain more in the car.” Fuyumi began to stand up, Todoroki, clearly confused but concerned, began to stand up with her when another set of footsteps appeared at the door.

“Todoroki-san, if you’d like, I can have Aizawa here escort you two to your car.” Izuku heard Nedzu’s voice pipe up from within his teacher’s scarf. The still mummified Aizawa let his eyes lazily linger between the boys on the bed and the face Todoroki was making. His sister looked surprised, and a little off-kilter.

“E-Escort? No, we’ll be alright, I promise. We just need to get home immediately.”

“Fuyumi, what is going on?” Todoroki said, urgency tinting his voice at his sister’s almost panic. Fuyumi looked back at her brother, now her eyebrows were furrowed and a sweat began to perspire on her temples. When she turned her eyes to glance over the room again, this time she made direct eye contact with Izuku, and that was when he noticed it.

In a blink, not there one moment and then very apparent the next, her despair showed itself. It was shaped like a helmet, but also like the shape of a dragon’s claw, it was wrapped around her head. He could see three spikes of it going down her forehead and two on either side of her cheek. There was no arm but it flowed out of the back of her head and into the air, like whatever creature had a hold on her was far into the sky. It was small, not like Endeavor or even Todoroki’s, but it was condensed, like if Izuku were to hold it in his hands it would sink him into the floor with it’s density.

Whatever was going on, it was directly tied with Fuyumi, and with how quick she wanted Todoroki home, Izuku had no doubts it had to do with the entire family.

“Ma’am, you might need to calm down.” Izuku said, quiet but hopeful that his voice reached the female Todoroki. While both siblings turned toward him, It was the male Todoroki that Izuku made eye contact with in hopes that his real fear was telegraphed.

Todoroki must’ve gotten it, because before Fuyumi could even begin to deny his request, he stepped away. Fuyumi looked at him in shock.

“Fuyumi, take a breath, explain what’s going on.” This time, it was Todoroki who began his own way of comforting. Izuku could feel it physically in the air, a coolness began blanketing the room. Izuku glanced down and saw small splatterings of ice beginning to form the back of Todoroki’s arm. He was using his quirk to cool down the room? It wasn’t hot at all? But as Izuku glanced away from Todoroki’s arm, he looked at Fuyumi who’s own ice seemed to begin to grow icicles at her forearms. Was the ice a form of comfort? Nervousness?

“I- It’s something private for the family, Shouto. I can’t tell you here, but I can tell you on the way home.”

“Fuyumi, you can’t drive like this. Whatever it is, you need to take a breath first and tell me and we can figure it out.”

She shook her head, and when she tried to speak, all that came out was a wheeze. Her despair, previously only around the edges of her face are now closing, growing down her throat and shielding her face from Izuku’s vision. The cold in the room grew, almost in desperation as the older Todoroki fell to her knees as her breaths quickened. Fuyumi fell to her knees, the others in the room acted quick. Recovery Girl and Aizawa took their own steps forward to deescalate while Todoroki began to fall right along his sister.

It was then that Izuku felt the flip inside him, as he saw the despair cling and grow to almost twice it’s original size, something inside of him reacted to the despair.

He threw his hand up, fingers spread and palm up toward Fuyumi and felt Incubator shift into itself. The despair that clung to Fuyumi trembled and churned before whipped itself on her head. It struggled for a moment before the top of the tall arm-like growth began to spiral into itself and began forming a ball. Like a black hole, the ball pulled the darkness off of Fuyumi and slowly revealed her panicked face, the face that everyone else in the room was seeing. Izuku could feel Katsuki holding him, the blond could probably feel Incubator’s movement due to his proximity with his soul gem.

The darkness continued to pull itself off of Fuyumi and formed a singular ball. A memory flashed in his mind of his mother, of another moment like this. Just like then, the ball began to have growth on the top and bottom. A needle-like point formed at the bottom while the top coagulated and formed what look like a snowflake. Izuku’s main focus was the grief seed, but in his peripheral vision he could see Todoroki and Katsuki glancing at the egg. They could see it, and they surely saw the designs forming on the seed as it’s form finalized. It turned in the air slowly before floating to Izuku, who automatically and without thought opened his mouth and consumed the egg.

It took a second for Izuku to come back to himself, but when he did, he saw that Fuyumi had calmed down, with Todoroki on one side and Recovery Girl on the other. Aizawa stood at the side, glancing at Fuyumi but his attention was on Izuku. Did he see the seed as well?

“Fuyumi, are you alright?” Todoroki began to put his arm on her shoulder. He hesitated, just like she did, before continuing forward and helping his sister sit up.

“Y-Yes, I’m fine, I’m so sorry, that was embarrassing.”

“It’s alright dearie, it’s clear something important is happening and nobody will blame you for your reactions to a private situation.” Recovery Girl said, patting the woman on the hand as she calmed down.

“Fuyumi, I-” Todoroki stops himself and looks around the room, making eye contact with everyone. He lands on Izuku before taking a large breath and readjusting his position on the floor.

“Aizawa-sensei, Recovery Girl, Principal Nedzu, can you give us a minute?”

The other adults in the room look at each other before glancing down to Fuyumi.

“Do you want us to help Midoriya-kun and Bakugou-kun into another room as well, Todoroki-kun? Nedzu said. The two-haired teen shook his head, glancing at the Izuku before looking back at the adults.

“No, I- I still have some things to discuss with them.” Todoroki said. Fuyumi glanced at her brother, but stayed quiet as the staff quietly exited once again.

“Shouto, the news really does have to do with the family, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to-”

“They already know everything.” Todoroki said, quickly. Fuyumi stared at her brother for a moment, eyes wide before giving out a deep sigh.

“He vomited it out earlier to Izuku, and he let me know,” Katsuki grunted with his arm around the green haired teen. Izuku could only nod, perhaps guiltily but it wasn't like he did anything. In fact, Katsuki would probably argue that he was the victim.

“Just- tell me what's going on and we can figure it out on the way home.” Todoroki continued.

Fuyumi blinked for a moment, the calm that eating her grief seed gave her allowed to think and process a bit more. She began to sit up a bit more, straightening her posture as Todoroki sat on the floor next to her. Her hands were clutched to each other on her lap as the silenced lapped, Izuku could even hear trying to even her breath even more.

“Touya is alive.”

Izuku flinched, as what sounded like glass shattering and howling winds ripped the air as both sides of Todoroki's quick flared. Both effects receded as quickly as they came as Todoroki took back control from his shock.

“What- how?” The split haired teen said. Izuku couldn't remember if the teen mentioned how close he was to his older brother, so he could only assume Touya was closer to Fuyumi's age.

“Touya is our oldest brother, just a year older than me. He died when we were kids, and Shouto was barely a baby. His quirk was a powerful, hotter than even dad's, but he had a body made for our mom’s ice quirk, so he couldn't handle his own quirk. He accidently set off a fire at a park nearby our home and burned to death, only leaving a jawbone.” Fuyumi took a breath, shaky as the memories rushed through her.

“His death shifted Dad's focus, he became more manic and intense and he later turned that energy to Shouto with the arrival of his quirk. We mourned him, we even have a shrine for him.” Tears began to build in her eyes, but she quickly wipes them away. “But earlier today, just after Todoroki's match, we heard knocking at the door. It was the police.

“After confirming who I was, they asked me to tell them everything I remembered from the night of Touya’s death. It wasn't much, as it was Dad who was the one to discover him, but whatever it was gave them pause.” She took another breath as her eyes shifted back and forth, trying to remember all that happened. “That's when they told me there was a man who was claiming to be Touya was discovered, and his DNA was already matched to Dad’s.”

“How did they already get a match? It's barely been a day, did he come forward to the police and are they only now coming to us about it?”

“I don't know, they just said they were told by their higher ups to get to us quickly. But I looked at the papers and even had Natsuo check them over when I was able to send them to him. It clears. It might actually be Touya- wait!”

She digs into the back pocket of her pants and pulls out a folded piece of paper. As she opens it, she pauses and stares for a moment before quickly giving the paper to Todoroki. The teen stares as well, brows furrowed as he takes in what was on the paper.

“He- he looks like the photo on the shrine. Older, but…” Todoroki trails off, quiet.

“There's one last thing they told me, Shouto.” Fuyumi says, a nervousness crawling into her tone. “They said when he arrived to the hospital and later the station that he only wanted one thing.”

“He wants to take you out of Dad’s care.”