Chapter Text
In this world, people are not equal.
Bakugō Katsuki kicked out. Izuku only managed to shift enough to avoid falling backwards, but it wasn't enough to avoid falling face-first onto gravel. He gasped and tasted the layer of muck as it entered his mouth.
"Deku!" Bakugō growled.
There was no intent to harm behind the kick. All Bakugō wanted was to toss someone around.
So Izuku made sure not to dodge too much.
"Still playing around? Still think it's so easy to be a Hero? Like All Might?"
His voice was tearing, ripping at the edges. Bakugō was alone today. His cronies had other things to do, forced away by their parents.
It was not strange that Izuku knew that.
Bakugō must have seen the calm resignation and hated it, because he flung Izuku aside.
"Don't ignore me, you eye-sore! --"
Izuku landed on a bruise which hadn't healed, and couldn't hide his wincing. A yellow animal ran up to his head. It licked the side of his face.
"Shoo," Izuku whispered.
"-- and what's with that pet ferret, hah?"
Izuku waited for Bakugō to do something else.
One minute passed. Nothing happened.
Five minutes later, Izuku shifted, to find that Bakugō was no longer in the playground. He must have vanished after that last parting shot.
Izuku crawled up to a seated position and the ferret leapt onto his legs.
You're too kind, Midoriya-boy, a low voice churned inside Izuku's head.
Absently, Izuku rubbed at his cheek and started petting the ferret's two tiny raised hair-tufts.
"It's not his fault," Izuku mumbled. The ferret moved as if preparing to protest, and Izuku shook his head. "It's not yours, either."
A little beckoning motion of his fingers told the ferret he was going to stand, and the ferret hopped onto his arm before climbing up next to his head. It liked high places.
Izuku was eleven, though, so he still had a way to grow.
"Let's go to work, All Might," said Izuku.
All Might shifted his weight around on Izuku's small shoulders like a sigh.
"It's been almost two years since All Might disappeared off the radar," the television said, at the same time as Izuku arrived home.
Almost instantly, Midoriya Inko stuck her face from the kitchen and into the hallway. Her round face squashed itself into a smile, hung by the dimples in her cheeks. "Welcome home, Izuku!"
Izuku beamed. "I'm back!"
His mother tilted her head towards his room. "Go get changed," she said, "Dinner will be ready when you come out."
"Okay!"
With All Might's weight hanging off one side of his bag, Izuku hopped away to clean.
"Two years, eh ..." All Might rumbled softly, gazing upon a poster of his former strength.
Izuku hoisted the waistband of his clean shorts up, and made a soft sound of acknowledgement. It was two years since he found a bloodied and bleeding ball of fur, taking it home to nurse it back to health.
And two years since ... receiving a gift.
His shirt shucked off, Izuku eyed the bruise on his side, the one that he landed on after Bakugō threw him. It was purple and wide in the shape of a four-digit claw.
Softly, Izuku raised a hand before him, and whispered, "Plus Ultra. Repair."
A reverberating voice sounded around him and inside him, acknowledging the command. (Repairing.)
Izuku's hand and body glowed. Energy coursed through him, searching for bruises and scrapes, burning wherever it found cell damage, healing it away. The claw monster had appeared before school, and Izuku hadn't had a chance to use this power over the entire day. Not with today being the day that All Might disappeared, meaning Kacchan stalked around for targets to vent his frustration on.
The glow subsided, leaving clean skin, and the feeling of needing a bath to get the sweat and dirt off everything else. Izuku breathed out at a pressure in his ribs, releasing a puff of steam through his nose and mouth.
(Repair complete.)
"Thank-you, One For All," Izuku said.
(You're welcome,) said the reverberating voice.
Then the presence faded deep into Izuku's chest. Izuku plopped on a bright All Might shirt, let the ferret climb back onto his shoulders, and headed down to dinner. He dropped his clothes in the laundry on the way.
"Your last month's money arrived, so mama made a feast," Inko gushed, not upset in the slightest that Izuku had taken longer than usual. Izuku pulled out his chair and made to sit, and she held out her hands so All Might could find it easier to hop onto the table. She still thought he was a normal ferret, and it had been a scuffle with a lot of poorly-hidden fluffy disgruntlement when Izuku suggested he join them for food with the humans, but she eventually relented. "Mama made all your favourites! And little Mighty's favourites, too!"
All Might already noticed. His tiny ferret head was darting between Izuku and his food with eager impatience and Izuku wondered if he was even aware of it.
"Thanks mum," said Izuku. Then, because he was also starving, turned to the food. "Let's eat?"
So they did.
"Izuku got a bonus," said Inko.
Izuku rubbed his cheek with one hand. "Mr Sir Nighteye says I'm doing good."
His mother bit her lip. "Are you ... what have you been doing for it?"
"I'm helping with Hero things. There was an evacuation, last weekend, so we helped a lot of people get to safety --"
For some reason, his mother started to cry.
"M--" Izuku started.
"Mama doesn't like it!" She blew her nose on the tissues. "My baby son, being offered a job when he was nine?"
Izuku panicked and grabbed a wad of tissues, jumping off his chair to go over to her side.
She continued, "I know you were chosen for your grades, but ... you'll be in middle school soon. And a Hero Agency is such a dangerous place to be working even for adults, too ..."
The tissues that Izuku brought her were not enough. Her fingers wobbled and the tissue dispenser wibbled closer by her command.
"Izuku doesn't have a Quirk!" Inko sobbed. "How come he has to work somewhere so scary?"
Silently, Izuku rubbed his hand in circles against his mother's back. All Might, curled into a ball, gave him a mental nudge, and Izuku stopped his rubbing to give her a hug.
Izuku opened his mouth, to tell her it would be fine, but All Might cut him short.
Say nothing you cannot keep, All Might instructed gravely.
Izuku said nothing and hugged her until she stopped shaking.
When she looked up, it was with a smile through puffy eyes.
"Sorry, Izuku. Mama is worried." She shook her head and started tidying up her bowl, even though she still had half her rice uneaten.
Izuku opened his mouth, but All Might nudged him to silence again. He watched, frozen in place, feeling out of his depth as she hurried to the kitchen.
The bowl and chopsticks clattered as she put them down. He pretended he didn't see her using the tap water to quickly wash her face.
A reminder from All Might had him returning to dinner, even though he wasn't in the mood for eating, but re-fuelling all the energy which he'd used that day was important. His mother came back a little later. She turned the television on to fill the silent void.
Instantly, the things on the screen captured Izuku's attention mid-chew.
"-- police have yet to determine the cause of these marks," said the newscaster. There was footage of a thick concrete wall and four deep gashes running down the side of it. They looked like they had the force to dice a person into cubes within seconds. Text on the screen said the headline, Attack By Mysterious Assailant At UA High School!
Izuku froze. His throat tightened, and it was an effort to swallow so he could speak. All Might, is that ...
All Might's familiar weight settled on top of Izuku's head. Yes. There's no doubt. It's the evil we fought this morning.
"I'm going out," said Izuku.
"N-- Now?"
Little claws dug into Izuku's scalp in warning. Izuku hesitated, then shook his head. "Tonight," he said, forcing his arms to relax. "After dinner."
"Oh."
It wasn't the first time Izuku had gone out in the night. Izuku had never eaten rice and meat so fast in his entire life.
"Come home soon, alright?" his mother asked. "I know you like walking, but, don't stay out too late. You have school tomorrow."
Izuku nodded while tying his laces. The weight on his back shifted as All Might stuck his head out of his bag.
Izuku smiled brightly, knowing that everything would be all right with his Hero by his side.
"I'll be here!"
It didn't take too long to find evil on his patrol that night. Thirty minutes, at most. Izuku had had a feeling and that feeling had taken him to the forest surrounding UA High.
As soon as he entered, a wind started up, and the leaves started to whisper. In the distance sounded a hollow roar, angry at his intruding.
Izuku dropped his backpack and took a breath. "Plus ultra!"
The reverberating voice sounded around him and inside his head again. (Combat mode. Set-up.)
Yellow light formed around his hands, growing larger, spilling up his arms, and then to his neck and head. It shifted, like the rippling tilting off a holographic card, flashing multicoloured before wicking away into the atmosphere. Coils wrapped around his legs, spilling down his torso. What they left was a bodysuit, a set of elbow-length gauntlets, and a mask on his face attached to a short mantle-like cape.
All Might hopped onto Izuku's shoulder and remarked, "It's gotten longer."
"What?" Izuku asked.
"The cape," was what All Might managed.
If All Might was about to say something else, he didn't have an opportunity, because then the roaring sounded again. Closer.
The evil was moving.
For a second, Izuku panicked. All Might shifted his weight reassuringly and then that second was over. Something touched his neck, All Might's long, fuzzy tail, and Izuku was vaguely aware of a deep voice calming him. Grounding himself, Izuku took a breath and then started speaking words he'd known since being a toddler. "Detroit Smash!"
(Charging), the reverberating voice acknowledged. (Stage one.)
The rustling intensified. Izuku's toes grew numb. The gauntlets on his arms started to pull at his back. A keen note, like the tone of a lost signal, cut through the air.
(Stage one. Sixty-five percent.)
"Faster," Izuku whispered.
(O-K, Master.)
A burst of red flashed off the gauntlets' seams. The metal ring circling around his wrist split into two and dug deeper into Izuku's arms.
All Might's tail slapped up and down agitatedly. "Be careful, boy," he growled.
"But --," Izuku was saying before he even realised.
"It hasn't been a day since you used it. Don't strain your body with my power."
(Stage one. Eighty-one percent. Maximum capacity reached.)
The evil burst through the tree-line, scattering leaves, casting a shadow onto the ground in the shape of a gigantic bird. It had been humanoid once, with a normal human skeleton, but it was now a quadruped, with the front legs of a horse and the back legs of a wolf. Instead of ribs it had several sets of jointless talons. Three were missing, replaced by a wound.
Izuku was spotted at once. The evil roared, obviously recognising Izuku as the person that had injured it, coiled up in preparation to launch.
All Might wrapped around the entirety of Izuku's neck, ducking his head into his fur. "Go!"
Izuku didn't need to be told twice. "Release!"
He punched, fist impacting the evil's collar. The resulting shockwave would have knocked the breath from his lungs if he hadn't braced for its impact, and the power unit at the top of his mantle produced a counter-thrust to stop him from sliding back. The evil was not so lucky. As soon as Izuku overwhelmed its grip on the Earth, it flew far into a tree before slumping down into a mess of limbs bent at unnatural angles.
Izuku was overbalanced now, falling. He stumbled forwards and only came to a stop more than a metre from where he was standing.
Instantly he went back into a fighting stance. He walked towards the evil, wary of movement. Hatches slid open on his right gauntlet and on his mantle, releasing a hiss of built-up steam into the cool air.
No longer at risk of falling off, All Might uncoiled, and inspected the situation.
"It's safe now, Midoriya-boy," said All Might. "Seal it."
Izuku held out his palms, fingers outstretched. "Please grant me assistance."
(O-K. Sealing.)
Invisible waves surrounded the evil. It rippled, like a mirage in the desert, before turning white and collapsing and falling upon itself.
The resulting pellet landed in All Might's waiting paws.
There was a pulse of energy and then the system known as One For All returned to the core in Izuku's chest. The gauntlets and the mantle vanished. His mask burned into ash.
Slowly, the pellet finished dissipating into the atmosphere.
Then, the ordeal over, Izuku fell to his knees.
All Might hurried back to Izuku's side. The tiny ferret licked Izuku's cheek reassuringly. "Are you certain that you wish to continue with this?"
"I --" Izuku shook his head. "I am."
"Your mother could be correct. We may leave it to Nighteye --"
Izuku gripped the grass with both his fists. "I'm going to do it."
All Might gazed upon Izuku with bright, unreadable eyes for several seconds, before pattering over to where Izuku's backpack had gone. He crawled into it, tossing things around as he searched, and then his head popped up into the air alongside Izuku's phone.
"Hello? Nighteye. Yes. We have resolved the incident." Pause. "The forest outside UA -- yes. Thank-you. Good night."
Izuku heard all of this. From the sound of All Might's feet walking across the grass to the wall-like disappointment through their telepathic link, which he'd grown to recognise as unsettled. Izuku clutched the grass tighter. A cloud moved, and the moon shone down. He dipped his head before it could burn him.
The evil that attacked UA was gone.
...
It took several minutes before he rose back to his feet, grabbed his bag and All Might, then headed home.
In this world, people are not equal.
"I still want to apply to UA," said Izuku.
Everyone doubted he could get in. Izuku understood that. He didn't have a Quirk, so what if he could occasionally heal a bit better than everyone else? That was all he could show of One For All, because he certainly couldn't let people know about the other form. The taller Izuku grew and the more adjusted the powers became, the more Izuku looked like All Might. He had to keep it a secret, if he wanted All Might to come back some day.
So everyone still thought that Izuku was the Quirkless kid dreaming too big for his shorts.
No one ever said their doubt out loud, surely. Izuku was old enough to know it existed.
But of everyone who doubted Izuku, All Might hurt the most.
"You don't have a Quirk," All Might pointed out. "You might be able to pass the written examination, but you wouldn't be eligible for the practical component of the weighting."
Izuku swallowed. He knew this. It wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.
Still, what he did have was hope and a bottomless pit of stubborn tenacity.
Izuku said, "I have you."
But this time the conversation was different. Under the determination on Izuku's face, All Might sighed.
"Alright." Into the air, he lifted a tiny paw. "Touch my hand."
Izuku did.
"Use this command code: Power share --"
Something clicked. Before All Might was able to finish, Izuku said, "Plus Ultra. Power share mode!"
The tiny ferret-y surprise on All Might's tiny ferret face lasted only an instant. Izuku's fingertips glowed and a rush of something ghosted across his liver.
Poof.
Where there used to be an ordinary yellow ferret was now a yellow ferret the size of a cat. The cat-sized ferret had black spotches across its eyes like shadows or a domino mask, larger spikes atop its head to more resemble All Might's signature hair horns, and the thickest, spikiest, most bristly fur.
All Might flexed an arm, then his paws. For an instant, large claws flicked into existence before disappearing.
Then he hopped over to Izuku's bed and lifted it into the air with one finger.
Izuku fainted.
"Your ... Quirk is ... the ferret," said Midoriya Inko.
Izuku gave his mother his most confident nod, trying to ignore how big he was about to lie. "Yes."
His mother watched as an All Might in cat-sized super powered ferret form continued to juggle a book, the low sitting table, and the ceramic vase which had been on that table.
She slumped into the nearby chair which Izuku had the foresight to make sure was there. "Is it ... all animals?"
Izuku hesitated.
No, All Might instructed telepathically, and Izuku copied him word-for-word. It just appears to be me.
"Be you?" Izuku's mother said confusedly.
"Uuuhh," Izuku said. All Might paused in the middle of cringing about his carelessness and went back to feeding him answers. "It ... I haven't had a chance to try? But it should be just localised to this one. Most definitely."
"Oh," said Izuku's mother.
Izuku had the very real feeling that she had no words left to say.
"It's -- pretty unique, I know!" Izuku blurted. "But, I mean, with this ... this'll help a lot of people! You know how the statistic is about Rescue-type cases, right, how three quarters of all Heroes are expected to have Rescue capabilities but only one in three Heroes have a Quirk useful in Rescue scenarios? Having a Quirk like this means that I --"
Inko burst into tears.
"Izuku has a Quirk!" she wailed.
It spooked Izuku so much that the power sharing link snapped and All Might instantly poofed back into miniature form.
Oh, thought Izuku, numbly. He replaced the steadily emptying box of tissues nearest to his mother. The hand which his mother wasn't using to grab at new tissues was petting All Might unconsciously, and All Might started croaking. The shock finally hit.
At least All Might had put the furniture down earlier.
"Mama is so proud," she gushed through tears and snot. "You know, mama felt so bad after she said that to you, said she was sorry because you were Quirkless, but you've been so responsible ever since, and, Mama has just --" Hiccup. "Mama is so proud. So proud ..."
Then, with all the strength that Izuku knew of her, she shook her head, visibly swallowed, and wiped the remains of her tears off with the back of her fingers.
Sniffling, Inko straightened her skirt. "Let's get you registered then. Do you need help with the forms, dear?"
"I'm good," said Izuku, rubbing at his neck. All Might already walked him through it.
Midoriya Inko tossed back the tissue box and engulfed Izuku in a hug.
"Mama will look into your applying for UA immediately!"
In this world, people are not equal.
Two years ago, Izuku was late. He was heading home, the day was almost well into night, and it was good he didn't have an enforced curfew, even if the reasons for it were not. The streets panned past as he ran with all the streetlights on his back and the moon overseeing the sky. He reached an intersection.
At the intersection, he turned right.
Right of the intersection led him to a construction site. Izuku knew that if he wove through a gate and hopped past some walls, it would make for a shortcut to get him home sooner. It had been Bakugō that discovered it, showing off as he took the rest of the gang along, and Izuku had scrawled it in his Hero notebook as yet another example of the instinct and intelligence which made Kacchan strong.
Izuku thought of how Bakugō had fallen whilst taking the merry band tromping over a stream today, the bright bull-headedness of a gleaming red-eyed stare.
Izuku was passing through that construction site when he heard an unmistakable sound.
"Get back here --!" Bakugō's voice roared.
It came from deeper in the scaffolds. Izuku heard the sound of something running across metal, and the resonant tinny echoes which came from knocking things over.
"It's over for you!"
A high-pitched whine keened in the silence.
Izuku didn't think. Suddenly he was just closer - close enough to make out a figure with their neck craned down and their shoulders flared, on the top of a tarp covering a mountain of raw material. Izuku didn't need the sight or smell of explosions from glowing palms or the moonlight cutting across golden hair spikes. Izuku had chased that back for long enough to recognise that silhouette anywhere.
Whatever Bakugō was talking to must have been shorter and smaller than Izuku himself. Slowly, Izuku crept around the tarp, careful to silence his footsteps, trying to find a position where he could see.
Something barrelled into his chest. His hands went up to grab it. In the dark it was fuzzy, had small arms and legs, smelled like some kind of oil. When Izuku moved his fingers he found them sticky.
As soon as Izuku realised the stickiness was blood, Bakugō was on top of him.
"K--" Izuku coughed, pushing against the weight. "Kacchan!"
Bakugō clawed Izuku's shirt, where the flying thing had landed. "Give him to me."
"Him?" Izuku shifted. Below him, the tarp gave way. Izuku tumbled just in time to escape the full weight of the blond atop of him, landing in a heap against the sharp side of a rock. He cringed. "Ka... cchan ..."
A cloud blocked the light of the moon, casting Izuku's vision into darkness.
And then Izuku realised it wasn't a cloud but Kacchan with wings.
"What ..."
Izuku rubbed his eyes. The wings were large, wide to the point of being absurd; great majestic slatted plates like a Hero's support gear, moving around with loud clicking sounds. Bakugo's head and back were engulfed in a plume of glossy streamers as big as himself. Combined with Bakugō's long legs and slim frame, he looked like a mechanical bird of prey.
A lump squirmed in the pocket of Izuku's shorts. Izuku crouched further into the shape of a ball as he drew it into his hands.
It was a ferret.
Kacchan was hunting for a ferret.
The ferret shifted.
I am sorry to ask, young man, said a voice in his brain, deep, rounded, soothing and familiar, taking Izuku's wariness and tension and unfolding them into a gentle blanket of trust. My circumstances have affected me more than I anticipated. I am unable to protect you. Please leave this area immediately.
Izuku started to speak, realised Bakugō was still on the hunt, and thought it would be better to keep his mouth shut. Maybe it was the strangeness of the entire situation, starting from Bakugō being out so late, Bakugō exuding genuine killing intent towards a ferret, or Bakugō-as-a-bird. It all made Izuku instantly accept the reality that he was being told to run - run! - by a ferret.
Izuku thought back at the ferret, I won't leave you alone. He shook his head. A powerful figure he admired rose to his consciousness, tangible in gold, red and blue. That's not what -- that's not what a Hero would do.
The ferret tensed up in strange hesitation.
-- And then the moment of silence ended as swiftly as it came. With a screech from this winged Bakugō, the light from the moon returned. There was a thunderous rumbling like the banging of a dozen pans as the wings cut through the air, gathering momentum.
Something slammed into Izuku's chest. His heartbeat was going to blow up his head.
"Heart of courage, I ask thee!" roared the voice. "Power transfer! Take this call," and the ferret pressed down, "Will you Plus Ultra?"
By all rights, Izuku's legs were frozen, simultaneously locked together and wobbling in terror. There were no witnesses if Bakugō killed him.
Yet Izuku realised the voice, like the turning of keys in locks or puzzle pieces found in streams.
Yet.
Izuku saw in his eyes the sight of gold and red and blue and swallowed his qualms, forcing his neurons to connect with his will, overriding instincts the human race cultivated for the thousands of years of its existence ...
It's all right.
Bakugō dove.
"I won't let you, Kacchan!" Izuku raised his hands to defend. "I am here!"