Chapter Text
Everything was fine. I was happy, and mom was happy, and even dad was in the picture. Kacchan was still my best friend and we did everything together; we were inseparable. We would one day become Japan's greatest, no, the world's greatest hero team. With his explosion quirk and my unknown quirk, we were sure we would be the greatest, and nothing would stop us. We would rule the hero world and defeat all the villains, but of course, nothing goes as planned.
After I turned four my quirk did not come. We waited and waited and waited, but it never showed. "Did you get it yet Izu?" Kacchan would ask every morning when we saw each other at school. I disappointed him every time when I said no, hell, I disappointed my parents every day my quirk showed no signs of popping up. At some point, he stopped asking, and he grew distant. That only happened after I turned five though, and by this point, the theory of me being a late bloomer just went *poof*, I think it was obvious by now that I was never going to get a quirk. By now, my parents started arguing, more and more each day, and Kacchan stopped being friends with me altogether, only talking to me when our mom's met up, and even then he was not very nice. "Deku", is what he deemed me, a worthless, useless Deku. Why? Simply because: I had no quirk; I was quirkless. He started to call me that as a nickname, one my mother did not mind and laughed about because secretly she thought of me the same way. His mother, on the other hand, found it quite insulting and reprimanded every time he said it, not that he ever stopped. She was probably the only person who stood up for me, my mother clearly did not care, my father did not even want this 'useless child' as his son and my best friend hated me.
I never understood what the big deal was about being quirkless. I was still a human, but of course, society saw it differently. "Quirkless people were unnatural!" they would say. Everyone said it: my parents, my 'best friend', my teachers and classmates, even the news and people in the street said it. They said it so much that I started to believe it; I was unnatural. Because I was 'unnatural', I deserved all the bullying and all the hate. I deserved the abuse. I deserved to be left alone with a mentally abusive mother after my father bailed on us when I turned six. I deserved everything I got. But I did not want it, no matter how much I deserved it, I did not want it. I wanted it to end, even if not permanently, I just wanted a break.
I was thirteen when I found myself on one of the tallest buildings in Musutafu. I was not going to kill myself, really, I was not. All I wanted was a break. It was an extra hard day at school, and I did not really want to deal with mom at that point. So, I sat on the roof, against the wall next to the door. I was too scared to get closer in case I somehow managed to fall off. I did not want to die, I wanted a break. I sat, and I stared into space enjoying the peace. I stayed there so long that the sun started to set. The orange hues did not do much to me, it was just like every other sunset ever, nothing special about it. It did, though, remind me of the time. I had to get home soon before mom started to worry...like if.
I started going there any time I needed a break, which was most evenings. I stayed till the same orange sunset showed up, and then made my way home. Sometimes I might stay a little longer, walk a little closer to the edge, only to get scared and back away; that happened on the days when everything was a bit too much. Of course, at some point, everyone overcomes their fears or tries to at least, all they need is a little push. So there I stood behind the railings of the rooftop, the wind blowing my hair in all different directions. Some of my classmates left spider lilies on my desk, they snickered as I picked them up and threw them away while trying not to cry. My teacher yelled at me the entire day for being incompetent and useless and yelled even louder as I tried to ignore him while having a panic attack. And to top it all off, when I returned home that evening my mother decided to get drunk and take her anger out on me. That was the first time she had ever hit me, and I knew it would not be the last.
I got overwhelmed and did the only thing I knew how to do, I ran. I ran despite the pain coursing through my body, I ran despite my mother calling out, or more like yelling, for me to "get back inside!" because she "was not done with me and my useless self". I ran all the way to my safe space, straight up to the edge, watching down at the street below. Nobody was around at night, and I was glad; nobody would have to witness this. Catching my breath, I raised one foot to put over the railing, psyching myself up in my head. As it reached right above the railing I heard a voice behind me.
"What are you doing kid?" asked a monotone voice, scaring me.
I turned around quickly, almost falling backwards as I strung my foot back over the railing. Where the hell did they come from? I did not even hear a *thud* from them as they came onto the roof.
"W-who are you?" I stuttered out.
"I asked you a question first, now answer." the person replied, walking towards me.
As they exited the shadows I could not believe my eyes.
"You're- You're Eraserhead! You're Pro Hero: Eraserhead!"
It was actually him. He was here in front of me. Right here. Right now.
"You know me?" he asked, taken aback.
"How could I not? You're Pro Hero: Eraserhead: my favorite underground hero! And your quirk is so cool, like imagine being able to erase someone else's quirk, well you won't have to imagine because you actually can do it. But still, imagine you're a villain fighting and then suddenly your quirk is gone! What would you do? I'm sure it'll be scary for the most part but then again they should know at least a bit of hand to hand combat right? But even if they do it's hard to get away from you because of your capture weapon. Do you know that you capture almost 37% of the villains on your own per year, it would have been more if you did not let the limelight heroes take the spotlight but oh well. Also how does that work? Your capture weapon I mean, I tried to figure it out but just can't put my finger on it. It's a support item so I guess it's influenced by your quirk but it's also impossible to make it float with an erasure quirk..."
I was mumbling again. Oh my god...I just met one of my heroes, my idols, and I started muttering about everything I knew about him. He probably thinks I am annoying like everyone else does.
"I- I'm sorry Mr. Eraserhead, sir. I didn't mean to annoy you with my talking. I just got excited to finally meet you and-"
"Slow down there kid, deep breaths. I'm not annoyed. Just a bit shocked you know me." he said, cutting me off.
"How could I not know you? You're a literal legend in the underground society-" I stopped talking. I do not want him to hate me.
"You didn't answer my question kid, what were you doing?"
"N-nothing! Just looking at the view you know? Musutafu looks really pretty at night." I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck.
I do not like lying to my hero but some things are just better kept secret. What you don't know can't hurt you right?
"Go home kid, it's late."
I froze. That's not somewhere I want to be right now. Although, mom is probably passed out so I guess it would be safe? Or she could be drunk and waiting for me to get back. It was a gamble at best, but I could not stay here and keep Eraserhead from his duties and I doubt a hero would leave someone on a rooftop.
I sighed, I guess it was time to go back. It would be bad if I seem reluctant to go back, so I did what I did best; I smiled.
"I'll be going now then, take care Eraserhead! And stay safe!" I said as I bowed before running down the stairs.
I did not need him to know about anything. If someone started digging around it would mean more trouble for me. What someone else does not know can't be used against you.