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It had gotten a bit better since Izuku had started UA. His mom had to spend less money on him. More money could go to food. Or rent. Or bills. But that still didn't mean that they could spare even a cent on anything. So when Izuku’s small stash of money for school supplies started to get low, he knew that he’d have to start ‘working’ again. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually Aizawa-Sensei started to let people off campus for work,and even sometimes for fun. Only on the weekends though.
_ _ _
Izuku had just turned 9. He knew that his mom was running out of money. He knew that was the real reason they restocked on fool less. The real reason his mom started to eat small meals. So Izuku had stopped eating breakfast. Not that he really ate much in the mornings anyways. But after a lot of online searching, Izuku came across a guy who said that he would train Izuku to fight. The best part is, he could then fight for money.
_ _ _
Shouta Aizawa noticed something weird about one of his students very early on in combat training. He was going to be an extra problem child if Shouta was right. Midoriya Izuku fought very well already. But he seemed to fight in a completely different way than the rest of his class. Midoriya had a stance that made him seem small. Easily pushed over. Weak. But if he moved his foot an inch, he could jump up and easily push his opponent onto the ground. He always seemed to adjust his feet midair, like he was originally going to do something else to his opponent.
Shouta would rather not think about where his problem child learned this fighting style. Or that he saw many people in the underground try to use a very similar style of fighting. When Midoriya approached him about being able to go off campus every Saturday to work, he had a suspicion about what the problem child was doing. So he let Midoriya go ‘work’. And waited to see how long it would take for the rest of his class to become curious and snoop around in parts of the city they probably shouldn't be in.
It only took a couple of weeks for some students to ask if they could leave to go to a ‘movie’ at exactly the same time Midoriya always left.
_ _ _
Giran had been training Izuku for a few months now. He had said that Izuku needed to gain strength before he could fight. Izuku had actually gotten a unique fighting style. He had changed a few things about how a lot of different people fought, accounted for the small fighting area,and used everything to his advantage. Sure, he used some dirty moves, but technically the whole place was illegal. Izuku was first put up against someone that everyone knew he could beat. And he won. His next fight though, no one thought he would win other than Giran.
But he used his opponent’s size and weight against them. Along with bouncing off of the walls to get stronger kicks. And now, whenever Izuku would fight, anyone who knew about him would bet on him to win. And somehow, he always did. What made it better, was that he always fought completely quirkless. He started fighting when he was quirkless, and his quirk would be too recognizable to use in a fighting rink. So there were also bets on what kind of moves he would use each fight.
Now that Izuku was going to UA, he had two different fighting styles. The one he preferred, his small and enclosed fighting rink fighting style. Then his hero one, that used a lot of space, and punched more. Izuku was surprised that Aizawa-Sensei hadn't caught on to what he was doing. He knew that villains tried to use his fighting style to fight some heroes, and surely Aizawa could recognize the style. So why hasn't he said anything? That was the stuff he was thinking about as he took the sort of long walk to the rink from UA.
Izuku kept turning around and looking behind him. He had the feeling he was being watched. Izuku pulled down his hood as he got closer to the entrance. “Hey dude!” The guy standing in front of the door said, “I heard there's a lot of people bettin’ tonight, nearly all on you” “Well yah?” Izuku said in a happy voice that did not match with his environment right now. “Only newbies bet against me now, regulars know better than to waste their money” After Izuku went through the door, the feeling people were watching him was replaced by the feeling of people staring at him. They could all see his face.
Anyone he walked by watched as he went through the doors marked ‘Fighters’. The newbies to the rink thought ‘that kid’s fucked’. Anyone who knew who that was felt bad for whoever bet against ‘Stats’ Izuku couldn't see the group of three first year hero students enter the front door a few minutes before the fighting started. But they looked for him. The doors inside of the lowered rink were pushed open at the same time. Izuku was calm as he made eye contact with his opponent.
They had a scorpion mutant quirk. Scorpion tail, most likely some repentance to venom or poison. 3… 2…
1.
The fight started in a blur.
_ _ _
Denki Kaminari stared into the rink. He, Mina and Bakugou had followed Midoriya because they wanted to annoy him while he was at work. They thought he worked at a restaurant or something. Not that he was the Stats. Denki’s dad had once come to this place. His dad had told him all about the quirkless fighter Stats. About how he never lost a fight that anyone could remember. Denki was so going to have to brag to his dad that he actually knew Stats.
But at the same time, Denki was horrified. Stats was class 1-A’s cinnamon roll. Stats was Midoriya. Denki quickly went to find where Mina went. “I found him” Denki yelled into her ear to get over the sound of a cheering crowd. “Where is he?” Mina asked, looking around, “In the rink!” Mina looked confused. Denki pointed to the sign on the wall saying who was fighting that night. “Midoriya is Stats!” Mina looked horrified. Denki didn't know if it was because she knew Stats reputation, or if it was because their friend was fighting people more than twice his size for money.
“You get Bakugou, meat by the side farthest from the entrance!” Denki and Mina went in opposite directions, Denki to find their friend, and Mina to see if Denki was lying or not. Spoiler alert. He wasn't.
_ _ _
Izuku left the fighter’s room as he pulled a hood over his head. He made his way towards the door, and left. After a minute or so, the feeling of being watched returned. So, not wanting whoever was following him to follow him back to UA, turned into an alley, and waited to see if whoever followed him would appear. Three people turned into the alley a minute later. “What the fuck?” Izuku asked once his brain updated him that he actually knew these people.
Kacchan, Mina, and Kaminari stood in stunned silence. “What did you see?” Izuku asked. Guessing that they followed him into the rink. Judging by how Kaminari reacted to that question, Izuku had guessed right. “W-what do you mean Midoriya?” Izuuk sighed, glaring at Kaminari. “You guys followed me, right?” Izuku asked, “Yep!” Mina gleefully admitted, “Why didn't you tell us where you went every Saturday?” Mina was a good friend, but she just didn't get some things.
Like why Izuku always said he loved his mom, but couldn't ever go home. But then again, a lot of his classmates had been confused about that. So that wasn't a good example. Izuku started to walk towards UA again, now that he knew who was following him. “So, why did you follow me?” Izuku asked, as if they were talking about the homework that was assigned in class “You never tell us anything about your home life before UA or where you go every Saturday” Mina pouted and crossed arms after lightly elbowing Izuku.
“Kacchan doesn't even know stuff about my home life” Izuku defended “The Hag tells me things you know” Kacchan interrupted, “Your mental state never fully recovered from middle school, you hide things with a smile, Auntie has been finding extra cash around the house since you were nine, but only on Sunday’s, and that stopped when the Dorms started up” Izuku was silent.
“That's why I can't go home. She doesn't have the money right now” Izuku explained. No one thought it was a problem until they knew the reason. Izuku had made enough money that if he had wanted to, he could have gotten his own apartment ages ago. But he would never do that. He gave the money to his mom, saving just a bit for school supplies. But nearly all of it went to his mom,without her even knowing it. Izuku led the small group into the dorms, there were a few people still up, probably waiting for Izuku's stalkers to return.
Sure enough, when Izuku got back to the dorms following Kaminari, Mina, and Kacchan, they got more than a few curious glances. But Mina dragged them past all the others who wanted to know but didn't have the guts to follow Izuku to wherever he went.
Izuku was pushed down to sit in the middle of Mina’s room. There were a few plants, but other than those the room was pretty plain. But she spent most of her time around others,so maybe she needed the plainess after a long day. The same way Izuku got all of his anger out in fighting each week.
Kacchan was dying to ask a question as Mina made him and Kaminari sit down in front of Izuku, then sat down herself. They sat there for a while in the silence. Izuku hated silence. It was so much like the silence from the small janitor's room at Aldera after everyone had left for the night.
It ended up being Kaminari who asked the first question and got rid of the silence. “Why do you fight quirkless there?” Izuku glanced at Kacchan, knowing things about middle school that both of them would like to forget about were going to eventually be talked about tonight.
“Well, my quirk came in pretty late, so when I started, I was actually quirkless. I was just glad I could do something to gain some money, no normal jobs would hire me, so I went with the slightly illegal one that pays really well.” Izuku tried to explain it in a way that he would talk about anything else, maybe he could get out of this if he tried early on.
“How old were you when you started fighting there?” Mina pressed. “9” Izuku said as he shrank in on himself. He had never done well being the center of attention. Either because in middle school it meant he was getting beaten up, or was going to get beaten up later, or because he was just anxious. Who knows, could be either.
“How could they hire a nine year old?!” She screeched. “They needed a new fighter, and I knew how to dodge and needed the money” Izuku responded like it was the simplest thing in the world. He was totally going to flip out over what was happening now, but he’d do it later. When he was alone in his dorm room.
“They didn't care how old I was” Izuku continued, “They taught me a bit on how to fight, but I could dodge, and so” Izuku just shrugged, “I figured it out”. Kacchan seemed to look kind of guilty. ‘Why would he feel guilty?’ Izuku thought, ‘He basically helped me be able to do this’.
“If you could have fought back, why didn't you?” Kacchan asked. Izuku looked down, he knew exactly what Kacchan meant. “Bakugou? What do you mean?” When Izuku didn't say anything for a while, he heard Kacchan’s voice repeat his question. “Why didn’t you fight back?”
Izuku didn't know how to respond to that. He would have gotten in trouble no matter what. But if he actually hurt someone else they would have gotten him in seriously deep trouble. But he could have fought in a way that wouldn't have left any marks. He could have fought back.
“Why didn't you f-” “You know why.” Izuku cut him off. Middle school Izuku wouldn't dream of doing that, “You know why Kaccan. Then it would have been worse. Remember how you thought back then. Can you tell me that I would have been left alone if I fought back? You can't. It just would have been worse. Better to just stay the weakling”
“Midoriya? Bakugou? What are you guys talking about?” Kaminari spoke up. Izuku shrunk in on himself, Kacchan was glaring at the ground in front of him. The next thing Izuku knew, Mina was putting a weighted blanket over him and sat down right in front of him. “Do you want to be left alone? Do you want a hug? Do you want to talk about it? Or something else?” Mina was good at this.
“I’m ok, but thank you” Izuku managed to say after a deep breath. Mina nodded, but made no move to move away. “Now then. Explain what all that was about” It was hopeless to argue at this point. Izuku knew that. But still, he thought about trying to.
“I was an asshole in middle school” Kacchan said before Izuku even had the chance to think of anything to say. “And the shitty deku got his quirk really late. I was an idiot” “You weren't that bad” Izuku tried to defend him, but a glare from Kacchan was enough to get him to stop.
“Yes I was. I was horrible to you. And you’re still dealing with it” Kacchan looked a bit guilty as he said that. “Midoriya,” Mina turned towards Izuku, “What sort of things did Bakugou do to you?” “N-nothing t-to bad” Izuku said, at this point just trying to make everyone else think it was all ok and that he was over everything that had happened.
“Show them your arms Deku.” Izuku froze. Kacchan had said it softly, but now he didn't have a choice. Mina wouldn't stop until she figured out the full story about what happened between the two of them while they were in middle school.
“Or your shoulder.” Kacchan continued. “Then tell me that what I did to you was ’Nothing too bad’” Kaminari was looking very uncomfortable, he was probably unsure about what he should be doing here. Izuku was wearing a long sleeved shirt.
What should he do? If he showed Mina, she would get mad at Kacchan. Who knows what would happen if either her or Kaminari went and told Aizawa Sensei. Izuku knew that he hated discrimination, so what would he do if he found out just how late Izuku ‘got’ his quirk. And how Kacchan treated him for years.
There was no way Izuku would win this. So slowly, he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and positioned his shirt so that they could see his shoulder.
“What the actual fuck Bakugou!” Mina yelled after the silence that happened while her and Kaminari registered what was on Izuku’s arms and shoulders. Izuku flinched at the sudden loud noise.
“Why would you ever do that to Deku?” Mina screeched, “Those look really bad! And they must be years old!” “They do look pretty bad dude, Midoriya? How did you treat these?” Izuku knew he shouldn't say that for most of them, he didn't at all because he didn't think that they hurt much.
“Uh, most of the time I put some bandaids over them. Or for some of the worse ones I actually wrapped them so that they didn’t get infected” Izuku knew that Kacchan would know that that was a partial lie, but he really hoped that Kacchan would spill and get them both in more trouble than they already were.
“Bullshit” Kacchan called, “You almost never did anything for your burns unless Auntie caught you and made you wrap them” Izuku hunched in on himself when Mina glared at him. “Stop trying to protect Bakugou,” Kaminari said softly, “You don't need to do that”
“It's not like all of my scars came from him” Izuku deflected, “Quite a few came from the fighting rink. I’m actually surprised Aizawa-Sensei has not connected my fighting style to the style that others who he would fight try to copy. They all obviously fail because they haven't had my years of practice with it but-” “Nerd” Kacchan interrupted, “Back on track” He said, unusually softly for him.
“Oh, right, sorry. The doctors at the quirkless clinic and underground clinic are amazing at their jobs. I even once had to get a finger reattached, and someone at the nearby underground clinic had a quirk that helped” Izuku held up his left hand, “You wouldn't ever be able to tell I technically lost a finger a few months ago”
“You lost a fucking finger?!” It was Kacchan’s turn to screech. Izuku wondered when it would be Kaminari’s turn. “It's not really a big deal, it didn't last long and the dude who bit it off, well they're not around here anymore” “Dude-” Kaminari said, looking straight at Izuku, “You do not know how to reassure people”
“I can too reassure people" Izuku tried to say, before correcting himself "I can usually reassure some people sometimes?" Kaminari, Mina, and Kacchan all sighed. "Not even your mom could be reassured by you" Kacchan said. "I could too reassure her" At least Izuku thought he could.
"Let's get back on topic" Mina tried to get everyone back to interrogating Izuku. "Izuku" The three others in the room looked to Kacchan. "You can talk to them about stuff. And we can leave the harder questions till tomorrow, right?" He glared at Mina and Kaminari, they both nodded, "So, what was your favorite thing about fighting there?"
He was being so gentle with his voice. Izuku could hardly remember that this Kacchan was the same one who swore him out literally almost every day. Izuku had to think about his answer for a minute, "Probably meeting a bunch of different people. I fought them, but afterwards sometimes we would be able to talk, and it was always interesting to see why they were fighting. Some of them needed an outlet, and some needed the money, and some were just there for fun"
"Ok, that was good, now you ask us something" Kacchan said after Izuku finished talking. Izuku imagined all the different answers to most of the questions he could have asked. But instead of any of those, he asked something where he may never know if he didn't ask. "Why did you guys decide to follow me?"
“I mean-” Mina started, “Everyone was curious, and you never talk about anything you do outside of school. Everyone is at least kinda curious, we were just the brave enough ones and we dragged Kaminari along with us” “Hey! ” Kaminari protested.