Chapter Text
Izuku stared blankly at All Might, currently curled beside the ledge of the roof and eyes drawn into a permanent scowl, and tried to process the sequence of events that had just occurred.
Instead, he noticed small trickles of blood trailing down the man's chin. Reaching into his rucksack for a first aid kit, he rushed towards the skinny man and wondered if this was the drawback of such a powerful quirk, muttering his worries under his breath. The man lifted a disproportionately large hand and waved him off, wiping the blood from his chin in a fluid motion.
"Don't bother, this shi- thing won't be healed by some random kid. Why did you grab onto my leg?"
"Panicked. Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" All Might went to shake his head but suddenly seized up, launching into a brutal coughing fit that sent watery blood flying around. One of his hands clutched at his left side, presumably the source of the pain. Izuku scowled - what could have possibly injured the number one hero so much? - and dropped to a knee besides an uncombed mess of blonde hair, rubbing his hand down the man's upper back. Hopefully, it was as soothing to the man as it was to him and not crossing any boundaries. Izuku had no idea what normal people boundaries were, so if he were crossing any, it was up to All Might to tell him.
A few more painful sounding coughs and All Might sighed tiredly, deflating even more. His hand remained clutched at his side, desperately squeezing for something that wasn't there. Now that Izuku got a better look, it seemed as if the man's left ribcage had caved in on itself or like there was nothing left to hold it up. The slime villain who attacked him couldn't have done anything like that - he knows because he was still in possession of his body and wouldn't be if they were that powerful -, so this must have been from an earlier fight. He said it couldn't be healed with a first aid kit, so it was likely hospital level, but he wasn't in any rush to get to one, so it was probably an old injury-
"You're thinking out loud." The man was staring at him, eyes drawn up into a confused scowl instead of the annoyed one Izuku first saw, lips slightly parted to reveal teeth stained orange with blood. Izuku froze in place for a moment, slamming an open palm against his lips and felt heat rushing to his cheeks. He took a step back without thinking and felt a sharp edge of concrete on his calves. The sensation didn't register until he was already falling back over it. In barely an instant, a warm peachy blur shot out in front of him and firmly grasped his shirt collar, yanking him back over the ledge.
"Fuck, you're jumpy!" The man choked out, a few splashes of blood escaping his mouth alongside wheezy breaths.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"No apologizing, I'm the one that scared you. Wait, shit, that villain didn't hurt you too badly, did he?"
All Might gently let go of his shirt, and Izuku collapsed against the floor, for once glad to be on the ground. He slowly shook his head - Sure, his lungs felt a little weird, but he'd dealt with worse from classmates, he could handle it - and took slow, deep breaths until he felt secure enough to look up.
"Are you sure it's not too much trouble, Mr. Yagi?" Izuku couldn't help but ask again, unable to hide the unease in his tone - All Might had told him his biggest secret and offered to walk him home! He was feeling a bit nervous! Sue him! - and earned a sigh from the man.
"That's the fifth time you've asked me that, kid, calm down. I wouldn't have offered if it was too much trouble, you're fine." Yagi lightly pushed his shoulder and pointed ahead of them, only for Izuku to stop without warning, head tilted to the side and eyebrows furrowed.
"Do you hear that?" Somewhere in the distance, dozens of alarmed voices were calling out for someone to do something. They all blended into one panicked source of loud noise, distant but noticeable.
"Think it's a villain?"
"There's probably a hero on their way if it is. Wanna go watch?" They hadn't known each other for very long, but Izuku's nonstop rambling had clued Yagi in on his hobbies. Izuku flushed slightly and nodded, then took off sprinting towards the commotion, the tall man somehow right on his heels.
He turned a corner and bumped into the back of a crowd, intricately weaving through it with practised ease until he reached a barrier set up by police. Glancing around, he noticed the heroes standing behind the tape instead of stepping in.
Izuku was no stranger to adults not doing their job, to adults looking at a child suffering and doing nothing, making it worse more often than not. Regardless, something about this specific instance of it frustrated him. He looked back at the villain - the sludge one from earlier that had completely slipped his mind until now - and the hostage they had taken this time. He saw Bakugo, entirely helpless as his lungs filled with slime.
Bakugo looked so scared right now, an emotion that Izuku didn't know the boy was capable of. It would be so easy to leave, to let Bakugo suffer an ounce of the pain he dealt to the world, and Izuku wanted to. It would be easier than breathing. But he wanted to be a hero, and heroes didn't do what was easy - they did what was right because it was right and for no other reason. Even if he did make it into a hero course without a quirk and managed to go Pro, would he be able to look in the mirror and call himself a hero if he let someone die because they had caused him pain before?
Eyes narrowed with determination, he pushed past the black and yellow tape and began to charge towards the duo, laser-focused on two eyeballs floating within the sludge. Voices called out behind him, ones of alarm and uselessness, as he came up before the villain, latching onto the eyes, pulling them out with and slamming them against the ground in one fluid movement. They didn't quite pop, but it was a close enough thing.
The villain let out an unholy screech as it rushed out of Bakugo's system, then, suddenly, a massive rush of wind appeared behind the three of them, a large blur of muscle appearing between Izuku, Bakugo's collapsed body, and the hulking figure of muddy green.
He vaguely recognized it to be Mr Yagi and felt concern tug at his heartstrings, knowing he was pushing his time limit. Izuku silently picked up Bakugo and darted to an on-site ambulance, the medics strapping the blond to a stretcher and taking off to the nearest hospital.
Izuku gave an exhausted sigh, wanting nothing more than to take a nap right now, and turned around to find two heroes blocking his path.
"Young man, that was incredibly dangerous-" No 'thank you', no apology for not doing their jobs, just launching into a lecture on why he should have just let someone die. God, Izuku hated adults. "-But very brave of you, are you alright?"
"Unharmed."
"That's great! Say, do you wanna be a hero?" Izuku nods, bracing for the inevitable, "What's your quirk, kid?"
He stares up at the hero - Death Arms - silently for a few tense moments, gauging the reaction he already knows like the back of his hand, and states,
"I'm quirkless." The inhale of the man's breath tells him exactly how the rest of this conversation is going to go, and it takes all of Izuku's willpower to not pre-emptively roll his eyes.
"EXCUSE ME!" Comes the booming voice of All Might, appearing besides Izuku and resting a large hand on his shoulder, "I WOULD LIKE TO ACCOMPANY THIS YOUNG MAN HOME IF YOU'RE DONE TALKING TO HIM!"
"All Might, sir - the kid is quirkless - we shouldn't be encouraging reckless behaviour in those sorts of people." Death Arms says, unaware that All Might is medically quirkless. Izuku knows. He was told because his first reaction was to help him instead of demanding answers, back on the rooftop. These idiots don't know. He allows himself to feel smug about it.
"WHAT OF IT? HE STILL SAVED SOMEONE'S LIFE!" There was that blindingly bright smile again, and no one was really willing to argue with the number one hero, so Death Arms trodded off with an uneasy glance Izuku's way. Barely a second later, All Might picked him up, and they were soaring towards the area he lived in.
They stopped just before the houses turned into blocks of flats, where no one was around, and all the curtains were drawn, Izuku being set down and All Might turning back into Mr Yagi within a cloud of steam. "
"Young Midoriya, you want to be a hero, yes?" Without waiting for a response, Mr Yagi continued,
"Without a quirk, you will have to work ten times as hard to get half as far, and you'll constantly have to deal with people telling you no. Are you willing to push through all of that?" A tiny nod. What has Mr Yagi hinting at? Izuku hadn't the foggiest.
"My boy, I cannot offer you my quirk, and I cannot shield you from the hatred of others, but I can help you train and refine your body into one capable of passing any entrance exam on the planet."
The words hung in the air as Mr Yagi leaned to the side, clutching at his ribs. Izuku's went to speak but found himself incapable, stuttering over half-formed consonants and vowels as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
He buried his head in his hands, laughing out of pure shock, and settled for a frantic nod.
Someone believes in me.
He believes in me.
He wants to help me get into Yuuei.
It was too good to be true - surely he must be dreaming! But a quick pinch to his wrist told him otherwise, so he looked up to see Mr Yagi looking at him, a barely-there upturn of his lips, and he returned the smile a thousandfold.