Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izukami was running, his last vial of ichor clenched tightly his hand as he dodges the trees in one of the last vestiges of wilderness left in Japan. He still has a chance, he’s found a few more mothers carrying children compatible with the blood of the gods, he just has to give it to them .

He’s reached a house belonging to and for once he’s thankful that people that most people have forgotten the gods, as no wards surround it. Slipping inside the bedroom he finds the mother fast asleep and quietly thanks The Fates. There's a shout in the background and he knows, he knows he has to work quickly. He gently opens the lady’s mouth and starts to pour the golden ichor inside.

There’s a knock at the door.

He startles, the vial goes flying and shatters. The women stirring but thankfully not yet waking. Fuck, he didn't want to do this, But it’s for the greater good. Picking up a piece of the shattered glass, he slices it across his palm, letting the silver liquid, the blood of a titan , well up and drip into the mother’s mouth.

There’s another knock

How could they have found out so quickly? When his father had given fire to the people it took centuries before the other gods finally deigned to look down and see flames flickering in every household, and by then it was far too late to extinguish them. But it’s only been a measly 20 years since he first began his quest to arm humanity and topple the gods.

Another knock.

The lady begins to awaken, which really isn’t a good thing if you’re the strange man standing over her bedside, even if you have good intentions.

The knocks turn into banging.

Casting a quick spell over the household to hide the evidence of his presence, He escapes out the window, running back towards the woods. He faintly hears the lady answering the door behind him and prays to every god who still holds him in high regard that they don't discover the evidence of his “meddling” and kill the young mother-to-be.

One of them must have seen him fleeing as somebody cries out “Izukami, You are under arrest for your crimes against Olympus, come out immediately and we may grant you some leniency”

Don’t do it, it’s a bad idea and will give your position away “Chad, I’m Gay!” Totally worth it.

“My name’s not Chad and that’s not what I meant”

Turns out that stopping to make a pun was a worse idea than he originally thought it was. As it gave the Not-Chad squad his location, and thus the ability to cast a capturing spell. At least it made them leave the mother alone.

About fifteen minutes later the Not-Chadlings have Izukami mostly immobilized, tied up and surrounded. And thus it was time, the original Not-Chad slowly approached him, “So this is the great Thief, you’re smaller than I expected”

“You’re uglier than I expected” He felt a stinging pain on his cheek, That bastard slapped him, “Oi! Watch the goods, I’ve spent decades working on clearing my skin and I don’t need a frat boy wannabe with greasy hands to ruin it,”

“Cease your chattering. Izukami Oneanall, you have been convicted of treason and conspiring to overthrow Olympus, what do you plead”

“I plead not guilty ” A gasp went up amongst the Not-Chadlings “Well, not guilty to the first, mostly guilty to the second, but it’s for a good reason.” Izukami attempted to wave “Anyways, I’ve gotta go. Misceo! ” he waited for his bindings to loosen, nothing happened ‘I said, Misceo! ” Nothing “Sorry, This normally works”

“Looks like the trickster’s having a bit of trouble with our little trick” Not-Chad laughed “We brought a nymph specializing in chaos magic with us, and apparently she’s rather useful for subduing your abilities. Anyways, thank you for testing our bonds, we can now make our way to Olympus so you can finally face punishment for your crimes”

“Oh Fates, Please I’m begging you don’t take me back to that bag of lightning dicks and his squad of egotistical bastards” That earned him another slap.

“Don’t You Dare Blaspheme The God-King and The Olympians in My Presence!”

Izukami just had to roll his eyes at that “I could literally hear the capital letters in that and is he really making you call him The God-King. If so he’s more of a narcissist than I originally thought.”

“The King of The Gods is Not a Narcissist, He is kind, fair and all powerful!”

“ Kind? Fair? Tell that to the families of the people that they’ve killed! I dare you to tell that to Arachne, who sought to call out the flaws of these monstrous gods, and was punished for it!” His voice rose “ I Fucking Dare You to Tell that to Europa, Antiope, Castillo , and every other woman violated by Zeus or another Olympian, then blamed and punished for it! I plead Not Guilty because most of the gods are already traitors to humanity!”

Not-Chad begins to turn a rather unappealing shade of mauve “Lies and slander!” A strand of spit lands on the arm of one of the Non-Chadlings. “All Of It!” They start to lean away from him “You will pay for your insolence!”

“Well Sorry Not-Chad, I’d love to stick around and attempt to make you realize that you’ve been brainwashed, but I’ve got a revolution to lead” Not-Chad’s outburst had distracted the chaos nymph long enough for him to scramble the guards’ magic. Slipping out of the bindings, he begins to make his escape.

He only makes it a few steps. There's a flash of light, a bang, and pain like nothing else he’s ever felt before, every nerve in his body wreathed in lightning. The light slowly fades, but there’s a noise like somebody screaming, it takes a moment for Izukami to realize it’s him. Trying to take a step, he nearly falls and realizes that the ground around him is charred, Zeus.

He turns back to face the squad of soldiers with last of his strength, their eyes filled with a faint sort of horror, “I dare you to tell me that the Olympians are not cruel, for all I ever did was try to give to the world what you gods take for granted”

There’s wetness by his lips and when he reaches up to wipe it away, his sleeve comes back red. Legs giving out, and voice fading to little more than a whisper he cries out one last time“This is a warning to Zeus and every other god that takes advantage of humanity. The people will rise one day and they will topple your throne”

As he feels himself fading, His thoughts trace back to that lady with the blood of a half-breed, and the two children she carries. Go forth children with the power of a titan god running through your veins, and change the world.

And in the year 2052, Izukami Oneanall, The Titan God of Change, Of Gifts and Thieves, son of Prometheus and Atë, closes his eyes for the last time.

Two hundred years later, Midoriya Izuku wakes up.

Chapter Text

Hisashi Midoriya-Tsurai’s grandmother often told him stories about gods and titans.

Of the adulterous Zeus and the jealous Hera.

Of the frightening but kind Hades and his far more dangerous wife Persephone.

And above all, of the wise Prometheus, the giver of fire; his mischievous wife Atë, the teacher of laughter; and their child Izukami, the father of quirks. Thousands of tales of the family of gods who kept true to the people and were ruined for it.

She told him about the night her great-great-grandmother woke up to find the remnants of a burning golden liquid on her lips and discovered that every child born after that would call fire a friend rather than a foe.

Taught him who he should to pray to for guidance, who to avoid the attention of, and how to prevent receiving the wrath of the Olympians.

But as he grew, he slowly stopped believing in her tales and lessons, marking them off as the ramblings of a senile old lady. Like many others, he forgot the names of the gods and the sacrifices that had to be made to make the world what it is. Then his wife fell pregnant, and for some reason, her words came echoing back, stories of a god taken far too young in a fight he needn’t have fought.

When Midoriya Izuku was born on July 15th in the middle of a thunderstorm, two things happened, a bolt of lightning struck the hospital, and a child took their first breath. Hisashi looked into the viridian eyes of his son and felt something similar to what his ancestor must have felt when she wiped her lips and saw the golden blood of Hephaestus.

A nurse asked for a name, he remembered his grandmother and the fantastical stories she once told and he knew from somewhere deep within, the same place that allowed his ancestors to deliver prophecies to the gods millennia ago, that his child was to be named Izuku, the true name of the god of Change.

Inko’s pregnancy ended with a lightning strike and a child others might say was born wrong, and as he grows whispers follow him for it. Gossip and rumors about how and why he walks like somebody taller, speak like somebody louder, knocks like somebody stronger. Thousands of little things that if placed together paint a picture of a life lived once before.

Although strange, she loved her child. Every time he laughed she’d feel overwhelming joy, and every time he cried, which was admittedly often, she’d find that tears would also flood her eyes.

Inko could never forget the face of her son the first time she uses her quirk in front of him. That elation in his smile, the excitement when he realized he’d get one of his own and just that strange hint of pride.

But looking within those green eyes, she sees something else, a dark sadness and scalding anger, It wasn’t the first time she’s seen it, nor would it be the last, but here she’s hit with a feeling that something ancient lies behind it.

Many years in the future, those eyes will once again meet hers, anger calmed and sadness lessened, asking if she knew the truth. And she will think back to that time and realize that somewhere deep within she did.

When Katsuki meets Izuku for the first time, they are both 3 years old. The only two kids at the playgroup their mothers setup with All Might onesies, and when they eventually meet again he is the only person who’s willing to take on the role of Sir Nighteye occasionally. Thus, even if Deku is a little strange, they are friends and the closest things to equals they will be for years.

This changes when Katsuki gets a quirk perfect for hero work and Deku gets nothing at all. The shift in his perspective changes slowly, first Deku’s the villain to be defeated, then a civilian to be saved, and finally they stop playing heroes together and he is nothing at all.  

Then one day, the little dipshit stands in front of Katsuki, barring him from putting a kid with a useless quirk back in his place. Then Deku steps in, with too green eyes looking at Katsuki like he’s seen his soul and found it wanting. “You want to be a hero Kacchan, but Heroes help, not harm”. Something about it unnerves him, and even though he will never admit, he retreats. Deku, who was once naught but a pebble underfoot, is now a boulder standing in his way.

Over the years Katsuki notices that Deku starts to get stronger and faster, occasionally even beating him in gym class. It all comes to a head in 7th grade when the class is asked what they want to be when they grow up, and they both answer hero.

Katsuki confronts him about it as soon as school ends, “You fucking shitty Deku, haven't I told you already that I’m going to be the only one from this dumbass school to become a hero,”

Deku turns to stares at him, bright green eyes far too ancient for a ten-year-old, “Well me trying isn’t going to kill you”

He throws a sparking fist towards Deku’s head, hoping to end this delusion quickly, to prove to Deku that he’s too weak to be a hero. Then to his surprise, Deku dodges, ducking under the punch and sidestepping the following explosion. Oh, it’s on, you motherfucker.

The fight continues in a similar manner for the next few minutes, with Katsuki progressively getting angrier as Deku continues to dodge his attacks.

Then Deku throws a punch. And it lands. A quick right hook that turns Katsuki’s head.

He sees red. How dare that useless Deku show him up, and lunges, palms sparking, no longer trying to keep the fight contained.

His opponent catches him head on, quickly putting him into a chokehold. Despite the fact Katsuki is still able to fire off explosions, he knows that if this was a real fight, he would be dead.

Izuku whispers something into his ear before he lets him go, words that echo back to an encounter from years ago, “I told you this once before Katsuki, Heroes seek to help, not to harm.”

Stumbling away, Katsuki retreats for the second time in his life.

After that their relationship only gets worse. Fights would quickly become a constant in both of their lives, and with every fight, win or loss, The anger Katsuki feels for Izuku grew until he’s constantly thinking of how to make Deku pay.

When Toshinori first sees a young man struggling in a puddle of sentient sewer sludge, he should have been out of time. But something in his blood calls to him, telling him that everything will be for naught if he doesn’t at least try.  And somehow it works, he’s once again in his muscle form, long after it should have faded for the day, and not only that but he feels stronger than he has in years.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be enough to save the child. He sits there in silence for a minute, mourning a child who was taken far too soon. Then a miracle occurs, the boy opens his eyes, sits up with a gasp, and upon seeing All Might, screams.

“Ohmygodyou’reAllMight” The boy starts speaking too fast for Toshinori to understand. Which is really startling given that he thought the kid was dead less than a minute ago. Given that the child is waving a semi-charred notebook around he assumes that he’s requesting an autograph.

He feels his surprising strength start to wane and remembers that he needs to turn in the sludge villain, the reason the boy was nearly killed in the first place, so he signs the notebook and turns to leave.

Only to find out that the kid latched onto his leg as he jumped. Well fuck. He’s already high enough that he can’t just kick him off and Toshinori knows that his muscle form will likely only last for a few more minutes.

He lands and it’s like a clock ticking down in his head, T-minus 10 minutes before his secret is revealed.

Behind him, the kid asks if he can become a hero without a quirk, and three different reactions go through his head.

His first instinct is to say yes, of course, he can, stemmed from his time as the symbol of peace and the years he spent quirkless, hoping and dreaming for somebody to tell him what this kid is likely praying that he’ll say.

His second idea comes to him as he begins to feel himself weakening from the oncoming transformation, and he briefly ponders the idea of revealing his true form and giving One for All to him.

Then he looks up and once again sees the child that nearly died on his watch not five minutes ago. He remembers his injury along with all the other hazards that come with the life of a hero and knows what he must do.  “Sorry but I simply cannot say you can become a hero without power”

The kid’s face falls and the moment Toshinori walks out of his line of sight, he lets his transformation do the same. As he leaves the child behind, the part of him that holds the remnants of One For All fades just a little bit more.

When Izuku is told he cannot become a hero by his idol, something inside him breaks. The presence within that seldom leads him astray is now screaming at All-Might’s retreating form, calling him a traitor.

He stares down at the edge of the roof and remembers what Kacchan said earlier that day, maybe it would be better for everyone if he just jumped. Then he remembers his mother, the one person who, despite his oddities, always stuck with him.

After the death of his father, he doubted she’d make it if he was gone. So he turns around and walks away before he can change his mind.

As he makes his way back he hears an explosion, and sees that the sludge villain that had him less than twenty minutes ago has found a new victim, All-Might must have dropped the bottles when they jumped. He watches as the heroes on the scene appear to be calling for backup.

Then he sees him, Kacchan, struggling to breathe while the heroes stand around, doing nothing, and that broken thing within him shatters. Their relationship may never have been easy, but something in Kacchan eyes is calling for help, and if there is one thing that Midoriya Izuku has always been, something encoded into his DNA, etched into his history; It’s that he’s a hero, and heroes help the people.

He lunges forward, ignoring the shouts from the heroes behind him, and with all his strength throws his bag into the villain’s eyes. The sludge recoils, giving Kacchan just enough time to take another breath.

Izuku feels another presence similar to when he was trapped by the sludge villain, and he once again pulls on it, hoping that it does something.  Then All-Might appears again, really not who he wanted to see at the moment, but beggars can't be choosers.  

All-Might defeats the villain in a single punch, causing it to rain. What a perfect background for the scoldings that follow. Death Arms, Mt. Lady, all repeating the same stuff he’s heard thousands of times before, and it wasn’t even like they were doing anything to help.

It begins to grow dark as he once again makes his way home, and like all his previous attempts he is thwarted. Although this time it technically isn’t due to a villain, or even another person at all, but instead Izuku’s own stupidity. Apparently, when he ran away from the heroes he took a few wrong turns and ended up in a relatively bad area of Mufasta, one that he’s never been in before.

He wanders around, trying to retrace his steps when he hears a woman scream, goddamnit, just run away, don’t be a hero. Unfortunately for Izuku’s common sense, he decides to investigate.  He turns a corner and sees a noseless guy with a knife fighting Shocker, a somewhat popular hero with an electric quirk.

Then a lady with a torn shirt and mild burns comes barreling past, and he begins to understand what happened.

The noseless man moves and all he sees is a flash of silver and the hero goes down, knife impaled in his thigh. The other man takes a sword out from behind his back before placing it against the hero’s neck.

“Wait!” Izuku calls out to sword dude. You really are an idiot. “Don’t kill him!”

Mr. No-Nose slowly puts down his sword, and begins to stalk towards him, “Don’t you know what this so-called hero tried to do”

Izuku tries to back away, unfortunately, the wall behind him has other plans, meaning his remaining options are either to talk or to die. He chooses to talk. “He tried to take advantage of that woman, but that doesn’t mean you should kill him”

The man stops a few feet away, “Then what else do you propose, let him run free and try again?”

“It’s the people he wronged, so let them decide his fate”

“What if they choose to let him run free if he covers it up and nobody knows” Sword guy begins to look interested in the conversation, which is hopefully a good thing.

“CCTV cameras in places like this are almost ridiculously easy to crack, leak it to the news, and Bam! you’ve got a ruined reputation. These days you can’t be a hero without a good reputation” Izuku scoffs “Not like he’s an actual hero anyways, a hero should seek to help, never to harm”

Sometime while Izuku was speaking, the man lowered his sword, “I like you kid, the name’s Chizome,"

“Midoriya,” he says before realizing that his family name is probably not the best thing to give to a man you just saw nearly kill somebody.

“Midoriya, as long as you hold to that belief, you’d make a fine hero one day.” Chizome walks back towards Shocker, who's beginning to reawaken, grabs his knife, and licks it? Probably his quirk.

“Well, It’s not like I can ever become a hero, after all, I’m quirkless” No matter how much he’d like it to be different, he can’t deny that Kacchan and All-Might were right.

“That’s bullshit kid, I saw you with the sludge villain earlier today, you did ten times as much to help as the fake heroes” Chizome appears to once again be getting agitated before he suddenly smiles. “You know I once went to U.A, I mean I eventually dropped out, but I could probably get you into it”

Izuku didn't want to get his hopes up, but something within told him that this was his chance, “Are you offering to train me?”

“Look, kid, you’re already a better hero than many official ones out there, If you can get your name out there and succeed, you could change the hero industry in a way I was too weak to. So what do you say, Do you want to be a hero?”

Chizome extends his hand, and against his better judgment, Izuku takes it.

Chapter Text

Izuku wakes up in a rare good mood. Then everything that occurred the night before came rushing back.

‘“ Meet me here at 8 am tomorrow” Chizome handed him a business card with a semi-familiar name on it, one Izuku recognized as a nearby gym.

“A gym? Wouldn't this be a bit too public, given that you  are  a vigilante, one who apparently uses a lot of knives?”

“Not if I own the gym”  Well, he can’t deny that, although he wasn’t expecting someone who was technically a criminal to own a legitimate business.  “Don’t give me that look, contrary to popular belief illegally fighting crime doesn't pay the bills”

“Ok then, I’ll see you again tomorrow, I guess” He turns around, trying to head back home, but remembering the circumstances that lead to this whole mess, he faces Chizome again “Oh, um, Sorry to bother you now that you’ve agreed to train me, but I’m actually kinda sorta lost."

“Alright kid, Where do you live, I’ll help you get back”’

Looking back it probably wasn’t the best idea to give his home address to a guy who tried to kill a hero, but considering all the bad decisions he made last night, it’s probably not the worst either.

He checks the clock on his wall and sees it flash 7:30, well shit.  Hopefully, Chizome won’t mind that much if he’s a few minutes late. Heading downstairs, he prepares to sprint outside in a likely futile attempt to make it on time, maybe he can claim that he got lost again.

His plans get interrupted by the sound of voices in the living room, he peeks inside and sees his mother talking to a familiar noseless face, one who appears to be blushing.  What the actual fuck.

Inko calls out to him “Morning Izuku, I was just about to wake you up, then Akaguro came over to explain his offer to train” Oh god, they’re on a first-name basis already.

“Good Morning! Hey Chizome-Sensei, I was actually just about to head over to the gym,” Maybe if he’s lucky nobody will mention the fact that he decided to trust Chizome even though he tried to kill a dude.

“So how did you two meet?” Inko inquires as Chizome’s and Izuku’s eyes meet, and for a moment they understand that under no circumstances is Inko to know the truth.

“So I was walking home after the sludge villain, but got lost-”

“-Stumbled upon me and he asked for directions-”

“-Then he remembered me as the sludge villain kid, and thought I did a good job-”

“-He recognized me from my martial arts competitions-” Chizome’s a professional martial artist?

“-And I asked if he could train me.” God, Izuku hoped their story was somehow coherent enough to make sense.

His mom opened her mouth and both Chizome and Izuku tensed, hoping that she wouldn’t call out the fact that their story was 90% bullshit. “Oh, that’s nice,” Thank fuck. “Well Izuku didn’t you say you two were just about to head out, so I’ll see you both later,”

They both say their goodbyes to Inko and start heading towards the gym that Chizome apparently owned. About a block away from their destination Izuku stops to face his new mentor “Chizome-sensei, I feel like we should probably set up boundaries, and one of those boundaries should include not flirting with my mother,”

A few hours later Izuku was regretting every decision he’d ever made that led him to this point. Chizome had made him sprint 3 miles around the warehouse that really shouldn’t have qualified as a gym. Then when he was half-dead, they began to spar.

While Izuku may be able to semi-consistently hold his own against an angry boom-boy who’s tactics mainly include wildly throwing punches and setting off explosions, against a professional martial artist, he would die. Which unfortunately Chizome-Sensei wasn’t allowing him to do at that moment.

He takes a hit and once again has an intimate meeting with one of the inflated mattresses Chizome's using as a training mat.  This would have been so much easier if he decided to focus more on his Parkour and self-defense classes rather than computer science.

“Kid you’re too tense, you need to relax” Chizome reaches out a hand to help Izuku up.

“You’re repeatedly punching me, and you expect me to relax”

"You can do all you want, but it’s harder to win a fight if a single hit floors you.” He sighs “Let's try this again, remember not to tense up, and make sure to roll with it,"  

Chizome takes a fighting stance and suddenly throws a punch towards Izuku’s torso. Izuku, of course, panics and for the first time that day, lets his instincts take over. Apparently, his instincts have somehow developed super-ninja skills, as his mentor is suddenly on the floor with a foot to the head.

“Wow kid, you’ve been holding back, I haven't gotten floored like that in years.” Chizome says, grinning “I think we can call it quits on hand to hand for the day”

He walks over to a rack of wooden sticks, grabbing two vaguely sword-shaped ones with red lines running down the edges, and hands one to him. “See these red lines, that’s ink,” He runs a finger down the edge and it comes back red. “If you can win a fight against me without getting a drop of ink on you, I’ll get you a sword”

A few hours later Izuku wishes that Chizome had killed him in that alleyway. They’ve been running drills, with Chizome lecturing him about the basics of sword fighting in the background. Then the clock strikes 2 and he’s free.

He says his goodbyes and heads out, checking his messages to see that his mom wanted him to grab some milk before he got home.

At the convenience store, he spots the human embodiment of a scarecrow walk in, and the little voice in the back of his mind tells him that he’s going to need help. So while he isn’t exactly expecting the spray of blood that comes out of the man’s mouth, he isn’t overly surprised either.

“Are you ok! Do you need me to call an ambulance!?” the few other patrons of the convenience store begin to crowd the man, as Izuku digs out a pack of tissues from his bag and hands it to him.

“No need, I’m fine” The man shakes off concerns of all the well-meaning onlookers, wiping the blood off his face. Unfortunately the crowd draws the attention of the owner, and apparently spewing blood everywhere is liable to get somebody kicked out.

The hero inside of Izuku was not about to let the man go home without his groceries, so he walks out with him. “Hi sir, do you need any help with getting the rest of your groceries”

The scarecrow man startles, apparently having not seen him walk out, “No, I’ll just go to another place”

Izuku is a quirkless kid trying to get into U.A’s heroics department, so there's a good chance he’s the more stubborn of the two. “It’s fine, I insist” This continues for a few minutes, ending with the scarecrow man finally handing him a list of the groceries he needed.

A few minutes later he steps out of the store again, a carton of milk in one hand and a bag groceries in the other. He passes the bag to String-Bean man, smiles, and continues on his way, satisfied that he did his good deed for the day.

Until the man begins to follow him.

Izuku begins to speed up hoping to lose him. But Scarecrow continues to make his way towards him, so he makes a little detour. All those years of parkour classes finally paying off as he takes the interesting and vaguely illegal way home, hopping across rooftops and fire escapes.  String-Bean looked like a strong wind would knock him over, there’s no way he’s able to follow me now.

His plan worked until he got home and saw him standing in front of Izuku’s apartment trying to open it. “Dude, I help you get your groceries, and you really try to repay me by breaking into my house?”

Beanpole startled looking around, obviously not expecting to get caught, “But this is my house? I just moved in yesterday”

Well, that's a bit awkward. “Oh well then, I think you may have the wrong door” String-Bean looks up apparently realizing that the number was 237 instead of whatever it was supposed to be, looks at the door next to it, and tries his key. Sure enough, it opened.

“Thank you kid, I’m Yagi Toshinori and I guess I’m your new neighbor,” Yagi held out his hand and as Izuku reached out to shake it, something told him to duck. As he did, Yagi once again released a spray of blood, which thankfully flew over his head.

“I’m Izuku Midoriya, It’s nice to meet you”

Over the course of the next ten months Izuku spends most of his free time either with his neighbor Yagi, who was surprisingly more secretive about what he worked on than the vigilante he knew; or training with Chizome, who taught him how to fight with a variety of materials from the traditional, like his fists and swords, to more random items such as a cell phone and duck tape.

While he eventually could hold his own in a fistfight, his skills shone when he had some sort of weapon in his hands. Taking to blades far quicker than a person who's never touched one before should have.

So sometime after 3 months, Chizome-Sensei shifted his training from trying to get him to learn as much as possible, to trying to master wielding swords, knives, and the occasional bo staff. Finally, a week before the U.A. Entrance Exam Izuku managed to escape a training session without any red staining him.

They currently stand in front of an old storefront claiming to sell a variety of martial arts gear. Chizome-Sensei’s wearing the red scarf that’s recently become his trademark as a vigilante, so whoever runs the place likely owes him a favor. Then an old man comes tottering out, giving Chizome a hug, and surprisingly he accepts it.

“Izuku this is Surudoi Ha, I saved him from being robbed a few years ago, and he’s been giving me a discount on weapons ever since” Called it. He shakes the old man’s hand and lets him guide them inside to a room filled with what must have been hundreds of swords.

As he looks around, he can’t help but feel drawn to a set of two blades. One with an intricate floral design, and a forest green leather grip, the other somewhat plain, only the barest hints of a fiery design and a dark red grip, both only about a foot and a half long. He picks them up and something within him feels right. The space in his soul that’s lain empty for so long finally begins to fill. He sees an inscription on the sides, Chenjimēkā, The Change Maker, on the green one and Goddokirā, The God Killer, on the other.

Surudoi comes up behind him, “You know those swords have been in my shop for over 200 years, and you’re the only person who’s ever shown any interest towards them”

He finds that hard to believe “Well, they’re beautiful, ” he checks the blade and goes through a short practice drill, finding in perfectly “and the craftsmanship is remarkable,”

“If you really want them, I can probably cut you a pretty hefty discount,” Well, It’s not like he can turn that down. ”I’ve been trying to sell them for years, not even your father would take them”

“H.. He’s not my father!” The old man gives him a suspicious look but thankfully drops it.

He tries to wave over Chizome, who’s busy giving bedroom eyes to a set of daggers, there’s no response so he shouts. “Yo Sensei, I found something!” That catches his attention, and he meanders over.

“Oh, those look nice, good choice kid.” He glances towards Surudoi, “How much?"

“My family has been trying to sell those for over longer than I’ve been alive. I’m just glad for them to be gone, so I’ll give ‘em to you for 2,000 yen” The old man begins to look at Izuku like he just handed him a basket of kittens.

“Deal!” and thus, Izuku unknowingly began his journey to reclaim his godhood.

Chapter Text

The second time Toshinori speaks to Izuku, he instantly regrets telling him he can’t be a hero. After all, who else but a hero would insist that they get groceries for a man they don’t know, especially after they just vomited up blood in front of them. He almost wants to ask the kid to stay and talk after that, but he doesn’t, causing him to mentally kick himself all the way home.

So imagine his surprise when the green haired child shows up and accuses him of trying to break into his apartment. Then helps him finish moving in.

As the months pass, his regret grows, every interaction he has with him proving just how kind he is. His other neighbors obviously feel the same, if the way a few of them tried to threaten him when they started to notice that Izuku often comes over to his apartment is any indication. Thankfully, he managed to convince them he had no ill intentions towards the kid.

The morning before the entrance exam, He takes up Inko’s invitation for breakfast to wish Izuku luck. Well that, and the fact that Toshinori will take literally every opportunity available to him to spend more time with the elder Midoriya.

He enters the apartment with some bottles of soda. Spotting Izuku and his mentor, Akaguro, already sitting at the table, he takes a seat next to them. Inko brings out an American breakfast of pancakes and bacon.

They open the sodas and eat in silence, knowing that depending on the results of that day many things would change.

Toshinori hadn’t yet told them about his secret, or even about the fact that he’s going to be working at U.A this upcoming year, but as he glances over at the kid next to him, he knows that he’ll never find a better successor. So no matter what happens, no matter how many strings he has to pull, he’ll get him into the school, even if it’s just General Education.

He watches Izuku take a sip of soda, and decides that as soon as he confirms his place in U.A., he’ll tell him the secret of One for All.

An hour later Toshinori feels part of his power fade, realizes that Izuku accidentally took his bottle of soda, and thinks fuck.

Forty-five minutes after breakfast,  Izuku stands in front of the entrance of Yuuei. Taking a deep breath, he begins to step forward, then there’s a jolt, something about the world seeming to shift ever so slightly, but there’s a tap on his shoulder and he never lands.

“Are you ok” Looking up, he sees a girl with brown hair and a large smile make a symbol with her hands, causing him to stop floating. “Sorry I used my quirk on you, but I thought I’d be bad luck to fall” Holy fuck somebody is talking to him.

“It’s fine, thanks for catching me” He’s actually having a friendly conversation with somebody his own age. Then a loud bell goes off and somebody ushers them into the testing facility before he could ask for her name.

Three hours later the written test has ended, and Izuku is about five seconds away from passing out. He doesn’t exactly know why he’s so tired but suspects it has to do with his headaches happening every half hour. Causing the lights to grow brighter and colors to get more intense for a few seconds before returning to normal.

Izuku begins to make his way to the cafeteria after most of the kids have left to avoid getting stuck in the crowd, unfortunately, he didn't count on there being multiple testing rooms. As a second horde of people comes racing through in an attempt to be the first to get to lunch, another shift occurs and he goes down. This is it, 15 years of hanging on to life, ended by hungry children.

Then over the noise, a voice cries out, “A giraffe's coffee would be cold by the time it reaches the bottom of its throat!” What the fuck . His thoughts appear to be echoed by most of the students around him. The voice shouts once again “Clear a pathway!” I doubt screaming random stuff and asking people to move works .

Then the crowd begins to part like the Red Sea. Alright What the actual fuck. His apparent savior, a kid with lilac hair and eye bags indicating insomnia, stops in front of him. Izuku stares at him, unable to shake a feeling of familiarity despite being certain they’ve never met before. Then he realizes he’s still on the floor. “Thanks for saving my life, I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

“I’m Shinsou Hitoshi” He officially has a name of somebody in the school who doesn't want to kill him, yet. Is this friendship?

“Was that your quirk that made people stop?”

His savior’s mood visibly dropped “Yes, It’s called brainwashing, I can control anybody who responds to me.”

That is an… awesome quirk. “That has to be one of the coolest quirks I’ve ever encountered. I hope you want to be a hero because you’ve got the perfect ability for it”

“That’s a cruel joke” Oh god was this kid bullied, he’s a kindred spirit!

“It’s not a joke, you could end almost any conflict without casualties” They reach the lunch room and get online for some food.

“Well, it’s not like you know anything about having a villainous quirk, you probably have an awesome quirk perfect for heroics” and there it is, time to play the quirkless card. Hopefully, Shinsou won’t be like Bitchugou.

“I’m quirkless, so no, I don’t know what it’s like having a villainous quirk, in fact, I don’t know what it’s like to have any quirk” If there’s one thing Chizome had made sure to drill into his head, it’s that the fact he’s quirkless is one of the most versatile psychological weapons at his disposal.

‘Kid, being looked down upon is a tool, very few people would use their full strength on somebody who they don’t think can fight back. You’ve got the sympathy of the people, so use it’

As expected Shinsou shrinks down with a guilty look on his face, hopefully thinking about how glad he is to have a quirk. “I wish we could switch, ” he whispers, which is not what Izuku is expecting to hear.

“Don’t, being quirkless has only made me stronger, instead just use spite to motivate you” Shinsou smiles slightly at that.

They finally reach the front of the line and grab their food, then Izuku spots the girl who saved him before the test sitting alone, or as alone as you can be when there are over 200 kids in the same room. So he makes his way over to her, dragging Shinsou along.

“Hey, thanks for saving me earlier, I’m Midoriya” He points to his new purple haired friend, “and this is Shinsou”

She perks up and smiles at him, shuffling her stuff to the side to make room “Hey, I’m Ochako, are you two also trying for the hero course?” He now knows the name of Two people who don’t want him dead.

“Yup, we’re probably among the least likely to get in, but where there's a will, there’s a way,” Shinsou says while shoveling food in his mouth at speeds that should be humanly impossible, “I’ve got a villainous quirk, and he doesn’t have one at all”

Izuku tenses, scanning Ochako's face for any hint of disgust, for her to recoil at them, but nothing occurs. “There’s no such thing as a villainous quirk, only villainous people” He relaxes and realizes that in the span of an hour he’s gained more friends his age than he has in the rest of his life combined. Wow, that’s sad.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him!” Shinsou smiles at that and Izuku realizes it’s the first time he’s seen it. It’s achingly familiar, and for a second he feels the ghost of water on his skin and tastes ash on his tongue. Then it’s over and he realizes that he was staring.

Over the next half hour, they talk about everything and nothing. He goes off about how cool their quirks are, and for once they actually listen.

Then the bell rings, signifying the beginning of the presentation for the entrance exam.

They all shuffle into the auditorium, the crowd pushing Izuku away from Shinsou and Ochako. He grabs his seat in the back as quickly as possible to prevent another lunch incident, only to find that the inhabitant of the one next to him is the kid who’s the most likely to kill him.

He keeps his head down and begins to pray that Katsuki won’t notice him, or at least not challenge him. With the headaches he’s been having, he’s not entirely sure if he can take him down without injury.

Unfortunately a moment later, Katsuki turns his head, his face going through a variety of emotions, shock, anger, murderous rage. Then he takes a look around, apparently realizing that the presentation is about to begin. As well as the fact that if he murdered the kid next to him, he'd probably be kicked out.

Present Mic comes out on stage and starts screaming about robots, and Izuku lights up. Robots are his Thing . All he’d have to do to succeed would be to hack the connection, which is probably one of lesser secured areas of U.A.

He takes out his phone, setting up a scanner to find it, when a blue-haired rectangle in the audience begins to call out to him, “You over there with the green hair, if you’re just going to play on your phone during this, then you shouldn't have come!”

Throughout his entire life, Izuku has never been able to stand people who stick to the letter of the law like glue, People like this dude, “Dude, maybe it’s part of my quirk!”.  It’s really not, but the human rectangle doesn’t need to know that.

His phone dings found it. He quickly begins writing a program that should shut down any robot that comes within 15 feet of him. As soon the testee’s get dismissed to their proper zones, he grabs his bag sprints out before Katsuki remembers he’s there.

A few minutes later, he’s armed with his program, his new swords, plus a metric ton of knives Chizome-Sensei let him borrow,  and is ready to take on an army of robots. Then he spots Shinsou in a complete panic.

“Midoriya, I am going to Die , my quirk doesn’t work on robots” Izuku gives Shinsou a look over and realizes that his insomniac friend has likely not been professionally trained in fighting. He stares at his phone and the program on it and decides that he can probably make it with just his swords.

“Here, have this.” He hands Shinsou his robot-destroying phone and prays that he’s not also handing over his chance of being a hero, “This’ll shut down any robot within 15 feet of it, please don’t destroy it,”

He spots Ochako trying to concentrate a little away and begins to drag Shinsou over to wish her luck, but the rectangular asshole decides to once again interfere, shouting “Can’t you see she’s trying to concentrate!”

But before he can snap out a witty reply, a buzzer sounds and the gates open. The true test has begun.

Above testing area Beta, a panel of teachers sits to watch the events unfold.

Hizashi points out a purple haired child to his husband “Are you sure that you don’t have any children, cause that kid sure has your eyebags”

“I haven’t seen my sister in years, so I’m pretty sure,” Shouta says before realizing that said child appears to be surrounded by a ring of dead robots. He looks up his file and sees that his quirk should have been brainwashing, not whatever is currently occurring. Interested, he makes a note to ask the kid about it if he passes.

He looks around to see if anybody is working on rescuing the various “examinees” they’ve hired to play injured students, and spots a green haired boy he recognizes as Midoriya Izuku, one of the few quirkless kids who’ve attempted to get in, and the first who actually seems to stand a chance.

The new teacher, whose name he forgot, sitting next to him appears to be following his progress rather closely.

Then the timer hits 2 minutes and Nedzu calls out to release the Zero Pointer.

Izuku Midoriya really fucking hates his instincts, especially their insistence to make him a hero. He’s helped approximately 20 other examinees who’ve gotten crushed under rubble or trapped by various other means. And took down exactly one robot.

He’s racing around looking for a nice robot to kill, when he hears a voice cry out for help. Don’t you dare. He dares. Running over, he sees a grape looking thing sticking a lady to a wall before beginning to touch her . Izuku ain't gonna fucking stand for that in a hero wanna-be, so he does the rational thing and throws a knife at him.

“What the Fuck!”, The soon to be crushed grapes cries out, turning to face him. Unfortunately, he decides to put his foot in his mouth and burn off any last vestiges of sympathy Izuki might have for him, saying, “Oh, do you wanna piece of her too, I’m sure she won’t mind that much if we share.”

Grape boy is dead to me . He throws a few more knives at him, these ones pinning his clothing to the purple balls on the wall behind him, and turns to help the woman out before she waves him off saying“Go on, I’ll be fine, I think you only have two minutes left to get points”

Fuck. “Are you sure?” he knows he doesn’t really have time, but he can’t help his need to save.

“I’m Sure, now GO !” Hearing this he continues his search for a few more robots.

He only gets a few feet before the earth starts to shake. A robot the size of a skyscraper appears over some of the buildings and he vaguely recognizes it from the images of the Zero-Pointer in the presentation, I thought this thing was supposed to be small.

He freezes, seeing a crowd of kids sprinting away from it, and prepares to do the same.

Then a familiar voice cries out, “Somebody, please help me!” and he begins to run towards it, you know, like an idiot. Ochako apparently got trapped under a piece of concrete from the robot’s destruction, and quirk overuse prevents her from lifting it up.

I really wish I had my phone about now. The robot’s bearing down upon them getting closer with every second that passes, and somehow in the depths of his soul, he knows what he must do.

He takes a few steps back, then begins to once again sprint towards it, feet pounding against the pavement, and a second before the robot is about to crush his friend, he jumps .

Izuku goes higher than he would have thought humanly possible for anyone save All-Might. Then with all his strength, he punches the robot.

It goes flying, face caved in completely. It’s at this point he realizes that he’s at least five hundred feet in the air with two likely broken legs and an almost certainly broken arm.

As gravity takes a hold of him once more, Izuku remembers.

He’s falling, falling from farther than anyone ever has before, further than anyone ever will again. Through the clouds and the atmosphere. He doesn’t fear his landing, too caught up in the betrayal that led to it.

All he thought to do was to remind Zeus and the other gods about their purpose to guide the humans, to help them grow and discover.

Unfortunately, Zeus doesn’t take kindly to being told that.

He doesn’t mean to use his magic on them, the magic that once brought him great fame as Olympus conquered the other pantheons. But things get out of hand, his followers grow angry with being denied and attack the guards, who in turn fight back, escalating the situation into a full-scale riot, with none but him trying to regain the peace.

Then somebody takes a shot.

Blood goes flying as one of his friends collapses, and he feels the rush of power he associates with using his abilities.

As soon as the guards stop being able to use their magic, they open fire on the crowd. What was once a peaceful protest turning into a complete slaughter?

It ends with only him standing, the ringleader who wants nothing but peace, surrounded by blood and bodies.

The trial goes by in a blur, he can't help but feel like he’s still in the midst of the massacre, trying to save someone, anyone from death.

They banish him, call for him to be tossed off the edge of their world with no care to whether he lives or dies.

So he falls. His life doesn’t end when he hits the ground, but he almost wishes it did.

Izuku feels something hit his face and opens his eyes, still remembering the death of people he knows he should remember but doesn’t, can’t.

Ochako had apparently slapped him, her quirk activating to prevent him from falling to his death. He realizes that he only took down a 1-pointer, and struggles to get up, to move, to do anything but reflect on what had just happened.

The timer goes off. The test is over.

He only has a single point.

He sees Recovery Girl race over, but he can’t quite process what’s happening. His mind torn between that wretched memory of death and destruction and the fact that he just failed .

“Young Man, you should’ve known better than to overuse your quirk like that,” He’s confused, what quirk could she be talking about.

“I don’t have a quirk though”  He even has the X-Rays to prove it.

“You punched a 500-foot tall robot in the face, destroying both it and your arms, I think it’s pretty safe to say that you do” Oh right, he almost forgot about that.

He turns to face Ochako, checking to make sure she’s ok, and promptly throws up on him, a moment later his adrenaline fades and the pain, the exhaustion and the other events of the day finally catch up with him, causing him to pass out.

He wakes up within a few hours, with his phone in his hand and two new numbers scribbled on his arm.

Chapter Text

When Inko gets the call that Izuku got injured during the entrance exam, her first reaction is one of regret.  After all, her son is quirkless, how on earth could she have let him go. Her second reaction is guilt over the first, as her son has been told he couldn’t do anything all his life, he doesn’t need her to do the same.

So she marches down to the school, prepared to yell at the staff for failing to take care of her son.

Then she sees him. Recovery Girl hadn’t gotten to him yet, needing parental permission to use her quirk on a minor. His arms look like they went through a meat grinder, blood staining the bandages wrapped around them. Well, I guess it’s time to start a lawsuit because any injuries that were this bad means that something is wrong.

Recovery Girl walks in, and Inko knows that if this was in any other situation, she’d be trying to get her autograph. But here, now, she’s pissed. “So can you explain why exactly you failed to keep my son safe,” she asks

The youthful hero hands her some papers to sign saying “Well, probably because he may not be as quirkless as everyone originally thought”

“That’s impossible. He’s had x-rays, blood tests, brain scans, and about 15 other medical procedures to check for quirks, and they all came back negative.”

In response, the older woman pulls up a video of Izuku destroying both a robot and himself. Well, there goes the lawsuit. “We have absolutely no idea how. He’s a complete medical mystery. But whatever the cause, he needs to learn how to control it”

“Can you recommend anybody who specializes in unruly quirks like this” It would destroy her son if this prevented him from helping people.

“If he gets accepted, we might be able to get Aizawa, who has an erasure quirk, to mentor him,” she scowls  “In the unfortunately likely chance Aizawa refuses him, His husband, Hizashi, has a difficult quirk, so he might be able to give some pointers. If nothing else, the newest member of our staff, Yagi has a strength quirk.”

The name Yagi sounded vaguely familiar, but she brushes it aside. After all, a more pressing matter is at hand. “And if he doesn’t get accepted?”

“Then you can probably find somebody who has experience with cases similar to this, or you could invest in quirk suppressants” Inko hands her back the papers, and the nurse uses her quirk to heal Izuku. Bones slowly straighten out as his arms start to once again look like arms.

He stirs and slowly opens his eyes, moaning something before slipping unconscious once more.

“How long till he can return home”

“Probably about an hour, he really just needs to sleep right now” Inko sighs, relieved. Maybe she’ll invite Toshinori and Akagure over in a few days to celebrate his new quirk.

A week later, Izuku wakes up crying. He can’t quite remember his dream, just flashes of red and silver, of a roaring river and a raging fire, and above all pain.

He shoves it to the back of his mind, not wanting to deal with it at the moment. After all, he has school, and his test results are supposed to have come in that day.

He forces himself to get up and get dressed. Making his way out of the house, he sees his mother, Yagi-san, and Chizome-Sensei asleep on the sofa with the TV on in front of them, and thinks about what Surudoi said about Chizome being his father. Maybe in a few years, he’ll be right.

He begins to make the journey from his apartment to the school, double checking that he has his knife on him, just in case Katsuki tries to pull any funny business.

He eventually makes it into homeroom without encountering the explosive boy, when the teacher comes with a stack of papers, saying in a monotone voice. “Today is the day you’ve all been waiting for, the results of your entrance exams have arrived.”

Most of the class starts cheering, a few begin to cry, and Izuku's about to have a panic attack. He’s torn between wanting to end this period of waiting and wanting to hold on to the hope of passing.

But the paper for Yuuei never makes it to his desk. He’s got acceptance letters from some of the other top schools in Japan, but nothing from the place he’s hoping for.

Then the teacher clears his throat in the form of the class “and now we have the results from Yuuei, Bakugou Katsuki, congratulations on 3rd place with 77 points, We all knew you could do it.”

He turns the page and stares at it for a moment, “and congratulations to ...Midoriya Izuku for placing First with 121 points”

You could hear a pin drop. The entire class turned to stare at him in a mixture of shock and fear. Then the whispering starts. Low voices questioning exactly how he accomplished that.

Somebody pulls up a picture on their phone, “Hey doesn’t this look like Deku” they say as the class gathers around. Chaos once again reigns in the classroom as people start to barrage him with questions.

Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku sees Katsuki glaring at him and knows that when school ends, he’s probably going to be glad he brought his knife.

When the final bell rings, Izuku hightails it out of there, hoping to avoid Katsuki. He makes it about a block before he’s spotted by the blond pomeranian.

Bakugou makes his way over, looking murderous as usual. Time to play Kacchan bingo “Are you fucking looking down on me, you shitty nerd?” Mention of Katsuki’s unacknowledged inferiority complex, check. “Did you think it was funny to hide a quirk from me all these years?” Well, that’s new.

“First of all, you’re like a foot taller than me, so it’s pretty damn hard to look down on you. Secondly, I don’t have a fucking quirk ” Sure he may have punched out a huge ass robot, but since he still reads as negative in all the tests, he legally can’t have a quirk.

“Then how do you fucking explain this!” Katsuki takes out his phone to show him an image of Izuku annihilating the Zero Pointer, “You’ve become a fucking meme!”.

That was not what he was expecting to happen when he saved Uraraka, but it does provide the perfect opportunity to fuck with Katsuki. “I was imbued with superhuman strength through the magic of friendship, you should try it out one day,” Then he sprints away because he’s not that much of an idiot.

The next few months go by far better than Izuku was hoping. Now that the teachers believe Izuku has a quirk, they’ve started breaking up the fights between him and Katsuki. It’s almost as if they suddenly start to recognize him as a human being. Funnily enough, people even started to treat him better that Katsuki, since he placed higher on the entrance exam.

Needless to say, Izuku hates this. Maybe he suddenly developed a quirk, maybe he placed first on the entrance exam, but he has always been a human deserving of respect. This sudden change in treatment made him realize exactly how fucked up Aldara is. So of course, he brings it to the attention of his mom so they can sue for mistreatment.

It’s only been a month of evidence gathering, but with the overwhelming evidence of quirk-based discrimination, it’s probably not going to take that long for it to go through.

He’s currently sitting in Yagi-sans living room, ranting about the unfairness of it all to his neighbor. “...and I forgot my pencil, last year they would have taken points off, but now they just gave me a new one.”

“Isn't that a good thing though, it’s getting better for you”

“It is, but I just wish they treated me like this when they didn't think I had a quirk, It’s not like I even have one now”

Yagi blushes and gets a semi-guilty expression on his face, “Well…”

“Yagi-San are you aware of something that I’m not”

He nods and suddenly with a poof of smoke, All-Might appears. “I’m actually All-Might, my quirk can be passed on, and I accidentally gave it to you”

What the legitimate fuck. “I’m not even going to start on the All-Might thing, but how the Fuck do you accidentally pass on a quirk, especially to somebody who doesn’t even know about it!”

“I was planning on informing you soon, and asking if you wanted to be my successor, then you apparently took a sip of my soda and somehow something happened”

“What exactly is your quirk” Maybe it could explain everything that’s happened.

“It’s called One for All, it allows the user access to a large stockpile of power which can be passed on through the generations, I was planning on making you my successor after you got into Yuuei.”

Yagi seems to recall something “Since it caused you to break your bones, I’m not going to tell you not to tell Inko, but if you do could you make sure to mention that I have absolutely no idea how this happened, and I wanted everybody’s consent before this happened.”

“I will keep that in mind when I tell her, but you might still need some fancy chocolates to prevent your death,” Yagi-san gets a familiar look of terror on his face. One that Izuku has only ever seen on the face of somebody remembering exactly how much of the human body is made up of small objects.

“And since I’m assuming that you’re Yuuei’s new staff member with a strength quirk, I’m hoping that you decide to teach me about how to use this quirk without breaking my bones”.

“My boy, did you really think that wasn’t going to train you after I got you into this mess to begin with,” he shrinks back down into the form Izuku was more familiar with, then promptly vomits blood into a nearby tissue.

“Now you need to explain exactly how and why All-Might is currently in your condition,”

The next day when Inko gets home from work, Izuku already has dinner made. Which is already sending up some red flags, as while Izuku often makes dinner, he seldom goes to such lengths as to make Kare-Raisu, her favorite food.

“What did you do?” She asks as soon as they sit down.

He flushes bright red, “Nothing, can’t I just treat my mother to dinner every once in a while”

“The last time you made curry rice, you broke one of my favorite glasses” She isn’t actually that upset that he did something, knowing that if it was anything really bad he would have told her as soon as she got home. 

“Well I swear that I did absolutely nothing wrong” he continues to mutter something under his breath that she can’t hear until he picks up again, “actually I found out the cause of the entrance exam incident”

He’s found out the reason for the singular most frustrating legal event in all her 30 years as a legal investigator. The reason that her son was nearly killed. Whatever it is, it better be fearful. “Oh, you did?”

“It’s actually a rather funny story, Yagi-san’s quirk is actually to pass on a stockpile of power” she’s really not liking where it’s going, Given that he’s not keeping this a secret, she’ll wait a little while before she goes next door to remind him exactly why her past cases are considered horror stories.

Her son continues, oblivious to the murderous rage emanating off her, “and apparently he’s been thinking of passing it on to me to help me with heroics, but I accidentally took a sip of his soda before the entrance exam, and apparently that somehow transferred his quirk to me.” She’ll give it about 3 minutes before Toshinori is a quivering mess before her, maybe 5 minutes if she’s feeling nice.

“I hope you don’t mind if I go next door to have a little talk with Toshinori about this” She makes sure to keep up a pleasant looking smile until the door behind her is closed, as to not worry him. As soon as she hears the click, she goes on the warpath.

Toshinori answers the door instantly, holding a bouquet of flowers and a fancy looking box of chocolates, Izuku must have prepared him. “Hey Inko, you look really nice today” She ignores him, pushing past him to get inside

“So Izuku told me about your quirk, All-Might ” He startles, obviously not expecting her to know this, so he either didn’t tell Izuku or told him not to tell her.  But she wouldn’t be a good investigative lawyer if she couldn’t tell that her own neighbor was the Number One hero. ,

“Umm, I just want to state for the record that this was a complete accident, and based off of past experiences it shouldn’t have happened”  

“Well you got one thing right, It shouldn’t have happened, now what are we going to do to fix it” Izuku has a little over a month before he starts Yuuei, if he doesn’t stop breaking his bones every time he uses it, She’s going to try her hardest to put a few more zeros in All-Might’s ranking.

Chapter Text

Izuku wakes in a haze, his dreams have been getting clearer over the past few months, but he still can’t quite remember what they’re about. Only flashes of color and a sense of familiarity that he’s unable to shake.

Then he remembers what day it is. Looking around his living room he spots Shinsou and Ochako still fast asleep. The clock on the wall reads 6 am, probably earlier than they’re used to waking up at, but it’s only just early enough for him to sneak in a workout before school.  He maneuvers his way around his two friends, trying not to disturb them, before leaving a note on the table and heading out for a quick run.

He gets back about half an hour later only to find both his friends still sleeping, and given the distance from his house to U.A, it’s probably not a good idea to let them sleep for much longer.

So he does the rational thing and puts his old compilation of All-Might rescues on TV. 

And plays it at full blast. 

It works like a charm.

Shinsou is the first one up, and he means that literally because when Ochako startled awake, she accidentally slapped him in the face. So Shinsou is on the ceiling, Ochako’s screaming, All Might’s face takes up half the wall, and Izuku’s just standing there laughing his head off at the scene before him.

“Izuku, why must you be like this” Shinsou calls down from the ceiling.

“I thought-” before he could finish his sentence, his friend’s quirk takes over.

“Turn off the fucking TV before Ochako breaks it.” Izuku proceeds to do just that, stepping over Ochako as she attempts to untangle herself from the mass of blankets and pillows she somehow cocooned herself in overnight.

“In what universe is this an acceptable way to wake somebody up?” Ochako shouts at him after she releases Shinsou from the ceiling, causing him to crash on the sofa. 

“In the universe where this is the first day of U.A, and we need to leave in an hour” The two perked up at that, remembering that they didn’t decide to have a sleepover here for no reason. Well, one more sleepover without a real reason...

“I almost forgot about that” Shinsou looks unconcerned, as he begins to lie back down. Then panic sets in as he seems to remember that everything they bought is still in their shopping bags from when they purchased them last night. “I call the Eraserhead pencil toppers!” 

They make a mad dash for the bedroom as they begin to divide up the miscellaneous school supplies they bought. A fight quickly breaks out and within a few minutes, Midoriya and Shinsou - once again -  find themselves on the ceiling as Ochako loots the pile. 

She releases them as soon as she takes her fill, thankfully sparing the erasers Shinsou wanted and most of Izuku’s hero pencils. 

Finally, they’re ready to begin.

Izuku stands in front of Yuuei, looking up at the school he’s been dreaming of for years. If you told him even a year ago that he’d be standing here today with a quirk (albeit one he never asked for) and his two best (and only) friends (sad life, Alexa … and the thought is gone), he’d probably call you crazy. But nonetheless, here he is. 

Taking a deep breath, he steps forward. Across the gate that separates the world of heroes from the rest. Across the gate that millions will never see the other side of in person. Across the gate that’s the only thing that separates him and his dream.

Besides him, his two friends seem to be having a similar revelation. Ochako’s staring up at the school in shock while Shinsou appears to be about to cry. “I can’t believe it, I’m here, I’ve made it ” 

A kid who looks vaguely like Tin-Tin runs past screaming to their friend, snapping them out of their amazement. They then realized that school was starting soon and they still had no idea what their schedules are or what classes they’re in.

They head to the main office to get a map, a gym uniform, as well as their schedules.

“Open on Three?” Ochako suggests

“One!”

“Two!”

“Three!” On that word, they all unfold the paper to see what homeroom they’re in. He scans down the sheet until he spots the words Class 1-A. He looks up and sees that both of his friends' schedules say the same thing. 

“We’re in the same homeroom!” 

They make their way over to the entrance of 1-A, a door at least twice his height, and open it. 

The first two people Izuku spots are Katsuki and the kid who tried to scold him during the entrance exam, who, of course, are fighting with each other. Because Izuku is a self-sacrificing idiot who’d much rather not have the classroom explode, he calls out, “Hey Kacchan”

Shinsou turns to stare at him in shock, “Zuku, you know this clown?”

“Oh yeah that’s Kacchan, he’s been trying to kill me for the past five years” While he knows that Katsuki’s not going to actually kill him, doing so would ruin his chances of getting into Yuuei, he still tries to fight him at least once a week.

“I feel like you should be a bit more concerned about that”

He shrugs, Katsuki’s more of an annoyance than an actual threat. “He’s landed exactly 17 hits on me over that period of time, so pardon me if I’m not exactly worried,”

Then the boy in question decides to butt in, “Excuse you shitty Deku, I’ve fucking knocked you down many more times than that,” 

Well, that’s true, “Sorry, 17 hits in fights I didn't willingly throw.” Katsuki’s self-confidence is a thin line between an inferiority complex and narcissism, if he goes too far in either direction then he’s even worse to deal with than normal. Thus, Izuku will occasionally throw a fight.

Katsuki huffs and turns away, thankfully realizing that now isn’t the best time to challenge the kid who keeps knives in his bag.

Suddenly a yellow caterpillar pops up in the doorway and everyone goes silent as they stare at it. It somehow rises to reveal a tired hobo-looking man. He looks familiar, not in the way Shinsou is, that strange feeling that echoes within his soul, but just a face that he swears he’s seen before. 

“It took you all eight seconds to quiet down, improve that. I’m Aizawa, your homeroom teacher, so get your gym uniforms on and meet me in the P.E field in 10 minutes.” That was all. The man then walks away presumably to go outside.

The class goes silent, shocked at what occurred, before realizing that they should probably listen.

A few minutes later Izuku and his classmates arrive outside and see Aizawa-Sensei waiting for them. “It took nine minutes for you all to get changed, that’s another thing for you all to improve on.”

He checks his watch and realizes that the first-day assembly is supposed to start in a few minutes. Some of the other kids seem to notice this too, as a boy with spiky red hair calls out, “Hey, Aizawa-Sensei, don’t we have to go to the assembly in 5 minutes”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say as Aizawa glares at him saying “Yuuei is a school without heavy restrictions on their teachers, allowing them to do what they find best” He turns toward the rest of the class, “So thus we will have a quirk apprehension test, and whoever comes in last will be expelled”

Well shit , while Izuku may technically have a quirk now, he doesn’t particularly want to use it, after all, it kinda breaks his bones. At least he’s still legally quirkless, so Aizawa-sensei can’t technically make him use it.

The first test is the 50-meter dash. It was always one of his favorite events in middle school, as he and Katsuki tended to leave everybody else in the dust. But here, that's certainly not going to happen, given that one of his classmates has literal engines in his legs. He doesn’t come in last, but it’s close.

The rest of the events go much the same way. He tries his hardest, and he’s better than about a quarter of the class, but still falling behind.

Then comes the ball throw, the second to last event and the only one left that he can use One For All in. Izuku makes his way over to the pitch and watches Ochako as she uses her quirk on the ball. And gets infinity . Then it’s his turn.

Damn, I wish I had Ochako’s quirk. 

He lets the power he was given flow through him, his hand burning with energy and throws the ball. 

It goes forwards for a bit but then rockets up, and up, and up . In fact, it doesn’t appear to be willing to come down any time soon. 

Izuku stares at his unbroken hand in shock and realizes hey That’s not his quirk.

He turns towards the teacher only to see red eyes and floating hair and suddenly remembers where exactly where Izuku’s seen him before. “Oh. My. God! You’re Eraserhead!”

“I am, I tried to stop your quirk to prevent you from breaking your arm, but I see that it’s no longer an issue.”

It probably still is an issue given that whatever that was, it wasn’t his quirk. But Izuku really doesn’t want to draw any more attention to himself like that, but well this is as good of a time as ever to remove any suspicion about him and All-Might's connection

“Sir, I’m quirkless”

Eraserhead raises his eyebrow in disbelief and turns the ball reader to Izuku, showing off the infinity sign there.

“I gained super strength through the magic of friendship” 

“Midoriya, you destroyed our toughest robot, with a single punch.” The rest of the class turns and stares when they hear this. Apparently, they didn’t recognize him from the meme.

Wait the blond kid’s pulled out his phone, damn it. Izuku vows that he will find whoever took that picture and set Chizome on them. Maybe he’ll turn that into a meme. 

But back to the matter at hand: proving to his teacher that he doesn’t have a quirk, when in fact he does have a quirk. “My mom said that I could do anything I set my mind to, so I set my mind to punching robots” 

Ochako and Shinsou snigger quietly behind him. At least somebody finds me funny.

“In all honesty, sir, I have the toe joint. Legally I’m quirkless, and unless I lose my feet, that's probably going to stay.” Izuku gives his teacher a sad look. One that, in his experience, really brings out the ‘pity the sad quirkless kid’ in his eyes. 

It works wonderfully, Eraserheads face softens to the universal ‘oh poor thing’ expression, before hardening once again to his normal tired look. “Well don’t think that exempts you from expulsion if I decide that you deserve it”

Given the fact that he’s certainly not in the last place (thank fuck for Chiozome-sensei and his hellish training schedule), Izuku doubts that he’s going to be expelled.

The results come back not too long after, Izuku’s in 10th. Not too shabby, but he can certainly improve. He’s certainly going to improve. All he has to do is, ya know, stop breaking his bones every time he uses his quirk. 

And figure out what the Hades happened during that ball throw.

When he gets back from school he gives Chizome a call. He hasn’t been out on a hunt in a while, and with all his pent up energy from school, he needs to take somebody down. 

To remind himself why he needs to succeed in Yuuei.

And besides, it’s fun watching gods fall and suffer .

So, he browses the news, reading between the lines to find a local hero who abused their power for just a second too long. And as always, he finds one far too quickly. He looks through his notes to see if she’s done anything suspicious in the past. Sure enough, she’s on the watch list, and this she’s finally done something provable.

The pro hero Hydrolia, also known as Mizu Hanzai, has the quirk Hydropower which gives the user enhanced strength when wet. Formerly she was in the 550th spot, but after her latest “rescue” she skyrocketed up 50 places.

The so-called “rescue” occurred on the morning of April 10th and involved the collapse of an apartment building in downtown Mufasa. 190 of the 203 residents were safely rescued, with 7 minor injuries, and “only” 6 deaths. Upon investigation by the police, they discovered faults in the foundation and it was ruled an accident.

At least that's what the official story says.

In actuality, the apartment building was recently remodeled and had just gotten approved by a reputable inspector. Plus the cracks that would be necessary to take down a building of that size would have to be huge, and thus highly noticeable. 

Her sidekick Medea was spotted in nearby security cameras the night before the collapse. Medea’s quirk was called tag, and which allowed her to teleport any item or parts of an item, she touched to her location up to 24 hours after contact. This could have allowed Hydrolia to order Medea to “tag” parts of the foundation, which would then be teleported away once Hydrolia was in a position to rescue the inhabitants. Not even a week after this event, Medea was killed in a violent villain attack

This combines with a little bit of digging that Izuku did on the way home. The man who labeled the collapse as an accident received a sudden influx of money in his bank account soon after the report. An influx that just so happened to be the same amount that Hydrolia’s bank account lost around the same time.

All of these combine to form the story of a hero that needs to be taken down.

So Izuku calls Chizome and puts out an official hit. Then sets up the spill.

Hydrolia’s days are numbered

An hour after Izuku puts out the hit, Chizome calls. “Hydrolia’s knocked and tied up the ruins of the Apartment building she took down. Are you ready?”

Izuku pulls up the security feeds near Chizome and quickly erases any trace of his presence, Thankfully the vigilante has enough common sense to avoid as many cameras as possible.

Then it’s showtime. 

Izuku opens his data packet on Hydrolia’s crime, then with just a few more clicks, it’s sent to almost every screen in Japan. Beginning with the victims of her crimes.

Sure enough, his trademark opening soon pops up on the computer in front of him. Hydrolia’s face is crossed out over a background saying liar in dark red. A second later Izuku’s heavily modified voice starts listing out Hydrolia's crimes.

The heroes are probably sending out a search party, but they’ll never find him. After all, who’d accuse the ultimate hero fan of being a hero killer. 

Even if Hydrolia is no longer a hero.

Chapter Text

The next day, the school is ablaze with rumors about Liar. Apparently, the fact that Yuuei has a heroics course makes any hero related conspiracies ten times more popular. 

Hydrolia was found in a coma near the collapsed apartment building about half an hour after the report went up. It’s unfortunate that she was in such a state, but Izuku supposes that that’s what happens when you give the victims and their families the news first. Very little is more powerful than vengeance.

Izuku steps through the doors of his classroom to find a red spiky kid, Kirishima he thinks, holding a discussion about the fallen “hero”.

“I can’t believe she killed her sidekick, that’s totally unmanly”

“Hydrolia still saved hundreds of people from the building. Even if she caused it, she obviously didn’t want anyone to die.” Momo pipes up in Hydrolia’s defense, and Izuku frowns slightly. Hopefully, she doesn't think that what Hydrolia did is excusable.

Thankfully the discussion catches Uraraka’s attention leading her to butt in, “If Hydrolia caused the collapse, then she fully deserves whatever punishment she’s given” She stops to take a breath and tears start to well up in her eyes, “One of my cousins lived in that apartment, the funeral was last week”

That quiets everybody. Momo and anyone else who started to support Hydrolia glance towards the floor guiltily. 

Izuku himself is shocked, he knows that Uraraka recently had a death in the family, but the fact that it was Hydrolia is new to him. A twinge of pride courses through him for catching the killer that affected his friend.

A moment later Aizawa crawls through the door, once again clad in the sleeping bag from the day prior. And thus the day begins

Heroics class is the last period, which Izuku cannot wait for. He’s been training with the number one hero for the past few months and has lived next to the man for even longer, but there’s just something about taking official classes that makes everything seem real.

All Might bursts in through the door in the back of the class with a loud “I AM coming through the door like a normal person,” 

Ok, so heroics class is now officially Izuku’s favorite class because Toshinori is wearing his silver age suit ! Now he just has to convince the man to not make it a one-time event.

The class then receives their heroic costumes. Izuku didn’t submit a formal design, save for the mandatory measurements and pictures, as well as a request for pockets that he can safely keep his blades in. 

He probably should have given them a bit more. As whoever designed his costume obviously looked at him and said: “You know what, this kid looks like a fucking bunny.”

But it’s still a pretty good costume if you ignore the two bunny ears that he has whenever he puts the hood on. It’s a mint green jumpsuit, with black combat boots and many pockets that can apparently be used to hold knives.

The finishing touch is a dual scabbard for Goddokirā and Chenjimēkā that slings over his back creating an x-shape over his chest.

He inserts his swords into the sheaths and tests out drawing them quickly. He stumbles the first few times but quickly gets the hang of it. 

When Izuku finally exits the dressing room, almost everyone else has already gone to the field their class is scheduled to be in.

He first spots Uraraka looking uncomfortable in her skintight costume. Which looked almost nothing like the design she sent in, which was supposed to be puffier and have more padding in case she had to drop herself in an emergency. 

Then he walks out Shinsou, who Izuku immediately has to look away from because fuck he’s gay. 

The purple-haired boy was wearing what looked like a black sleeveless sweatshirt, his surprisingly muscular arms covered with bandages Izuku recognized as a similar material to Eraserhead’s scarf. 

But the main thing that caught his attention were the two thigh holsters with sharp hunting knives concealed within.

Apparently, Chizome’s knife kink rubbed off a bit more than originally expected.

Izuku turns back to his friend, trying to will himself to not blush my focusing on anything other than the knives. “Hey Shinsou, I like your costume!”

Then it’s Shinsou’s turn to blush, something that Izuku will not admit he is happy to see. 

All-Might comes out not long after everybody exits the changing room, and quickly explains the battle trial. He’s seen the lesson plan before and thinks that it’s certainly an interesting idea to give everyone a quick taste of what being a hero will be like.

Soon enough it’s time for everyone to get paired up.

Izuku draws a card with the number 4 on it and quickly looks around for its match. He finds it in the hands of a familiar-looking kid with hair like a candy cane. 

He bounds up to his partner and introduces himself, holding out his hand in greeting. Peppermint ignores him to study the other students and suddenly Izuku remembers where he’s seen the kid before. 

“You’re Endeavors son, Shouto Todoroki, right?”

Todoroki grimaces like he’s just stepped in dog shit, but responds, “That is correct”

“Oof, that sucks, sorry about your mom too, It’s never fun having a parent hospitalized” Endevore’s been on his list for a while, but the number 2 hero hasn’t yet done anything illegal enough to turn public opinion on him. But based on Todoroki’s reaction he may have stumbled upon something usable

“How do you know about my mother?” 

“My dad died a few years ago” Todoroki cringes but Izuku continues “Nobody would let me see his medical reports, so I hacked into the hospital and saw your mom listed as one of the patients, the name sounded familiar so I looked her up”

“I’m not even going to touch on the fact that you hacked into one of the most secure hospitals in Japan, but I’m pretty sure she was entered under her maiden name”

Izuku shrugs, having already come to terms with his somewhat stalkerish behavior, “I was a bit of a hero nerd for a while”

All-Might calls for everyone's attention to announce which teams are going to be fighting each other.

The first one drawn is team 4 on the hero side. Then for the villains, it’s team 6, Iida Tenya, and Katsuki Bakugou.

The universe officially hates Izuku

As soon as All-Might allows the villains into the building, Todoroki turns to Izuku and says “Stay out of my way, I’ll freeze the building, then we can capture them”

So Todoroki may actually be an idiot, and Izuku tells him as such. “Kacchan’s quirk is explosions. Explosions create heat. Heat melts ice”

The bi-colored boy scoffs, ”Do you have any better ideas?”

Izuku hasn’t studied years worth of hero fights for nothing, of course he has a better idea.

As soon as the ten minutes are up, Izuku races into the building. He draws his swords at the first sign of an explosion, making sure to keep the safety edge on to prevent any fatal wounds. Sure enough, Katsuki comes barreling around the corner screaming for a fight.

Izuku isn’t particularly worried.

They trade blows for a bit, while Bakugou yells something about Izuku being a liar and looking down on him. Izuku kinda zones out of it.

Then it happens, Katsuki levels his grenade armbands at Izuku and pulls the pin. Izuku may have ignored its explanation, but when a wall of fire races out to greet him he gets the memo pretty quickly.

He manages to dodge, barely. There’s a ringing in his ears as All-Might says something he can’t quite catch. It seems to only make Katsuki angrier though. So Izuku goes on the defensive. 

By running. 

All he needs to do is find the location of the bomb and let Todoroki know. Then Stage 2 can begin. 

Izuku turns the corner and spots Iida guarding the bomb. Perfect. “ Hey Todoroki, plan Ok, Boomer. Second floor 3rd window to the right”

Suddenly the frost that was previously slowly creeping up the walls exploded into shards of ice, dramatically dropping the already cold temperature. Todoriki rises in on an iceberg through the window in the room the bomb is located in.

Then Katsuki shows up, thankfully focusing on the larger threat of Todoroki.

Izuku slowly creeps up behind Iida, then with a quick jab of his sword and a press of a button, the electrified guard sends 50,000 volts into Iida’s metallic armor. The kid promptly passes out and Izuku quickly captures him before can awaken.

All-Might announces the capture, and Katsuki turns towards his ex-friend, a murderous expression on his face. He aims his remaining grenade bomb towards Izuku, then with a shout of “DIE!” he pulls the pin.

Now a little known fact is that when hot air, like from an explosion, meets cold air, like from an ice-covered room, the cold air tends to expand. Rapidly. Which then causes the whole room to explode. 

Todoroki quickly put up a fresh ice shield to protect Izuku and the bomb. So Katsuki takes the full force of the explosion. 

All-Might finds Kachaan passed out in what remains of the room a few minutes later.

The hero team wins an undisputed victory.

After Katsuki’s team gets taken to recovery girl, Izuku and Todoroki get swamped by their classmates.

Which is pretty fair. Given that they completely destroyed the building the battle trial took place in. And kinda made All-Might afraid to continue his lesson plan, thus making him give every else fighting drills to practice.

Mina is the first to speak when Toshinori leaves, “OH my god, how did you turn Bakugou’s explosion back on him”

Izuku opens his mouth to speak, but Todoroki butts in, “Cold Air meets warm air. Air expands. Boom.”

Wow, nice way to take credit for that ingenious plan. It’s not like Izuku carefully timed the explosions and Katsuki’s temper to ensure that the rainfall caused by the air masses would superheat and turn into a steam explosion.

“So Todoroki’s definitely the MVP of this round, right”

 The kid in question looks conflicted for a moment, but he apparently settles on a choice. “Well actually, Izuku came up with this plan. I wanted to just freeze the whole building, but Katsuki probably would have just melted his way through it”

That makes Izuku look at his partner in a new light, maybe the kid covered in ice isn't so cold after all.

The day after the battle trial is a fucking Mess, but at least Izuku has no nightmares. That's the only good thing he can think of.

First, he spills coffee over himself.

Then misses his train and has to walk to school.

When he finally makes it to school, it’s of course surrounded by reporters. Because apparently being taught by All-Might does that.

He spots a familiar face in the crowd and heads over to it. Hanasu is a regular at hero fights, and Izuku’s come across him more than once. The man’s also hella terrified of Inko.

Tokuda pales upon seeing him, he tries to escape but the crowd of reporters keeps him from going anywhere. “Hey… Izuku”

“Hanasu didn’t Mom threaten you with castration if you harassed me again” A few reporters discovered his skill at hero analysis a few years ago, and started to stalk him hoping that he’d lead them to a new story.

It got bad enough that Inko stepped in.  He’s been avoided like the plague ever since.

Apparently, none of the reporters at Yuuei have gotten the memo though. Either that or the hope of getting an interview with All-Might outweighed the fear of Inko.

Which is why Izuku approached Hanasu, who’s quirk lets him turn into a human megaphone. Izuku pulls out a sticky note with what he wants the man to say. The reporter knows better than to argue, and sure enough, the crowd fades away not long after the announcement is made.

After the reporter incident, Izuku makes it to homeroom without anything else going overly wrong. 

Things once again go to hell when he walks in. Apparently dealing with the reporters took longer than anticipated, so he’s 15 minutes late.

The class just voted for a representative.

He somehow got the most votes.

Why does the Universe hate him so much?

Lunch seems to be a pretty standard affair. But it provides the perfect opportunity for Izuku to interrogate his friends.

He sits at his normal table, with Shinsou and Uraraka on either side. Then to his surprise, Todoroki and Iida come over to join.

“I’m assuming you guys voted for me.” Four votes and four people at the table, the numbers certainly add up.

Todoroki responds, “You hate my father, that was my main requirement.” Izuku honestly doesn’t know how Todoroki made it to high school.

Iida speaks next, “You’ve demonstrated to have the true spirit of a hero, you deserve to be the president.” Iida’s a good boy, but damn Izuku really didn't want to be president.

He looks towards his older friends, expecting another random excuse as to why he is the one true heir to a position he never asked for.

But instead Uraraka and Shinsou speak in unison, “We knew you wouldn't want to be president, but we figured that it would be good for you,”

Izuku is pretty sure they’re the only people on earth who would vote for somebody because the person didn’t want to do the task. But apparently, he’s got the majority and was too late to contest the results.

At least Momo, the assistant President, seems responsible enough to deal with everybody.

Then out of nowhere an alarm goes off, lights flash red in the cafeteria in what Izuku recognizes as the pattern for an intruder alert.

He panics, Yuuei is supposed to be the most secure school in the world, who or what could have possibly got in. 

But as everybody else seems to be in a similar state of panic, he figures that he needs to be the responsible one. So he makes his way through the crowd of stampeding students and gets to the window. Where he finds that a large crowd of reporters infiltrated the school.

Looks like his mom’s going to be getting some new trophies today.

He somehow manages to lose his friends in the crowd, but thankfully he spots somebody much more useful, Yaoyorozu 

“Hey, Momo!,” She turns towards him, “Can you make me a megaphone! So I can get everybody’s attention!” 

She says something back that Izuku can’t make out over the noise, but does indeed create a megaphone.

He takes it and climbs atop a table. “Attention Everyone! The Intruders were a group of reporters who snuck through the gate! Please calm down!”

It works like magic. 

As soon as everybody calms down inside, Izuku slips outdoors, where a group of teachers is attempting to deal with the rowdy crowd.

He climbs the statue of Nedzu out front and lets the playback noise from the megaphone screech, grabbing everybody’s attention.

Nothing will ever compare to the look of complete and utter fear that appears on the reporters’ faces when they spot, and subsequently recognize him

He calls out, “Anybody who does not exit the premise peacefully within the next 15 minutes will get a meeting with The Green Demon, Midoriya Inko,”

Izuku has never seen a crowd run away so fast.

Maybe today isn’t so bad.

When Izuku gets back inside, he asks for a revote on the president’s seat. After demanding that none of his friends vote for him of course.

But of course, the events of the day had only made the results of the election even more in his favor.

Izuku should never have woken up.

Chapter Text

Somebody's combing fingers through his hair and a feeling of complete and utter contentedness washes through him. He opens his eyes drowsily and smiles up at the man whose lap he’s been napping on for the past few hours.

The man brushes a lock of blue hair behind his ears, saying something that he can’t quite hear. But a feeling of complete adoration bubbles up and he laughs.

There's pressure on the couch next to them, and he turns to look. Another man sits down and begins to join the first in petting his head.

They talk, and their voices blur. But the feeling of love that courses through him is clear as crystal.

He’s walking home when the scent of smoke reaches him, and a feeling of dread rises.

Something’s happening - he drops his bags and begins to sprint. But it’s too late. 

Only ashes remain. He searches frantically through the rubble until he spots a glimmer of blue. 

He digs towards it until the pile shifts, freeing the object to roll towards him.

It’s a head, burnt almost completely, but still vaguely recognizable.

He fights the urge to gag. He can’t break down, not now. Not when the other could still be alive.

He keeps digging.

Izuku wakes up screaming; tremors running up his spine from the smell of burnt flesh and the taste of ashes on his tongue.

Inko races in. It’s been years since his nightmares have gotten this bad, but still, thousands of sleepless nights due to thunderstorms have ingrained the instinct within the duo.

It’s the first time it’s ever been like this though. He’s only ever seen the same scene before. A group of soldiers standing in front of him, chains locking his arms behind his back, and then pain like nothing else he’s ever felt.

The pattern has been disturbed and that more than anything freaked him out. But maybe it was just a leftover from an old One For All holder. Yeah, that’s probably it. 

His mother rubs circles on his back until his shaking mostly calms down, then with a calm voice she asks “Would you like a hot chocolate?” 

Izuku nods, not quite trusting himself to speak yet, but needing to get that taste off his tongue. She guides him into the kitchen and begins to heat a pot of milk.

Zoning out, he thinks back to the dream. The two men with hair of red and blue that something within him calls out to. 

But the more Izuku thinks about them, the blurrier their faces seem. It's only when Inko sets a mug of chocolate down on the counter in front of him that he realizes he’s crying. 

He looks up into his mother's concerned face and tries to ignore the ringing in his ears as she says something, “--today?”

“What?

“Are you up for going to school today?”

Izuku thinks back to what the syllabus says today will hold. He thinks they’re having a trip for rescue training, something he’s been looking forwards to learning. It would be a shame to miss it.

But still, he hasn't had a night that bad in years.

He makes up his mind, nightmares are something he’s dealt with for years, something he’ll likely continue to deal with for years to come. If he skips school for something as minor as this, what's to stop him from setting a precedent, and skipping for even smaller stuff?

So a few hours later, he packs up his stuff and put his uniform on. 

At least rescue training won't be too demanding.

Izuku begins to regret his decision on the bus ride to USJ.

Everyone’s talking over each other about quirks. Normally, he’d be the first one in line to rant about quirks, but the sharp pain in his head keeps him from focusing.

He’s sitting next to Shinsou at least. The purple-haired boy’s shoulders are surprisingly comfortable, and he tends to be one of the quieter kids in class. Plus unlike Uraraka, Shinsou’s not going to draw on him if he falls asleep.

Thankfully by the time they arrive at USJ, his headache has mitigated enough that he feels comfortable participating in the activity. 

When they disembark the bus, Thirteen is there to greet them. But, unlike what the syllabus says, All-Might is absent.

Izuku shrugs it off. He probably got held up by a bank robbery or something. Hopefully, he’ll arrive in a few minutes.

Despite his disappointment at not seeing his mentor, he’s still really excited about the presence of Thirteen, so he makes himself busy by taking mental notes on the composition of their costume to try and figure out how it can contain the black hole they’re often theorized to be. Whoever made the costume must be a Genius . Either that or Thirteen has an unbelievable amount of control of their quirk.

He turns towards Uraraka, one of the only people he knows who also shares an obsession with the rescue hero, and begins to mutter at her. And in a surprisingly good imitation of him, she mutters back.

Izuku hears Shinsou try to hold back his laughter in the background. 

Then Thirteen begins to speak. The class falls silent in anticipation. “Welcome Students, To the USJ! This is a high tech rescue simulation, so please don't destroy it more than it already appears to be.”

The class lets out a small chuckle at that, but everyone quickly sobers up when Thirteen continues talking.

“Almost all quirks can be used to seriously injure, or kill somebody. As such today we are learning to use these abilities to protect the lives of citizens. Despite what others may say, This is the true meaning of being a hero,“

Izuku applauds at that, shooting a glance towards Bakugou who’s busy glaring at the hero. 

Then he notices a dot in front of the fountain.

He blinks, thinking it’s just a trick of the light. But it doesn't clear up. In fact, it begins to grow larger.

Before long it begins to take shape, and Izuku realizes that it looks kind of like a warp quirk.

A hand comes out, then another, and another, until an entire man is emerging from the shifting purple mist.

Eraserhead looks worried at the development, which only confirms Izuku’s fears. 

This is a villain attack.

Izuku takes a step backwards. Years of safety presentations have drilled into him that if a villain attacks he should run or hide, and if neither of those work, fight.

Of course, he may normally follow an edited version of those instructions that take into account his hero watching tendencies. But everyone knows that unless you’re a hero, if a villain attacks, you get the hell out of dodge. 

Well apparently everyone except the half of his class that races forwards when Aizawa announces that the people who have invaded the school are indeed villains.

And of course, they promptly fade into the mist to be teleported elsewhere.

Instead, Izuku runs towards the USJ entrance, only to find that it’s locked.

Because of course, it is.

Next, he tries his cell phone, but they must have a signal-jamming quirk because nothing is going through.

So he turns back to his remaining classmates, only to find that Thirteen has been split open by their quirk. They must have tried to suck up the villains into a black hole, but the warp quirk must have redirected it.

Well, it’s good to know that Mr. Portal can move gravitational forces. Likely wind pressure too, so Izuku won’t be able to use One for All from a distance.

Which leaves getting up close. 

Unfortunately getting up close means chancing being warped to an unknown location.

Besides, unless Aizawa gives them permission they aren't allowed to use their quirks on another person. But Izuku supposes that he can make an argument for self-defense. 

Distantly, he can hear the hand covered intruder say something about killing All-Might, and Izuku snaps his attention towards the villains.

Then he notices the bird. Or that's the closest thing Izuku can think of to relate it to. It looks like a creature from a nightmare. A being so utterly wrong that his entire soul screams. He flinches away, unable to even look at it.

But, if anything here was going to take down All-Might, Izuku supposes that that would be it.

So he forces himself to stare it down. The creature’s skin shifts around constantly, like it’s deteriorating but regenerating just as fast. Maybe some sort of regeneration quirk? But that wouldn’t explain the feeling it gives off.

As Izuku’s analyzing the bird monster, Aizawa prepares to fight.

He’s able to take down a few villains, Izuku’s impressed by the versatility his teacher has in hand to hand, and his timing for erasing his opponents’ quirks. 

But then the hand-villain calls out, “Nomu. Take care of this mini-boss before he damages too many of our NPCs.”

The creature, who must be the Nomu handy was referring to, moves . It’s fast, faster than anything of that size has any right to be. Before anyone can even blink, the monster is upon the pro-hero. 

Eraserhead doesn’t stand a chance. He’s caught in the monster’s fist and smashed into the ground which cracks under the force of the impact. 

Izuku rushes over without thinking, the need to protect overwhelming his common sense and fear. 

He calls up One For All and punches the Nomu with everything he’s capable of.

His arm doesn't break, but neither does the monster. Some chunks fall off, but they regenerate just as fast.

It must have some sort of impact resistance alongside regeneration and what appears to be a strength quirk. But that should be impossible. Nobody can have more than one quirk by natural means.

Unless it isn't natural. 

Somebody must have created the creature, likely to be an anti-All-Might if the villain’s monologue is anything to go by.

If this monster is supposed to kill the number one hero, what chance does anyone else have to get out of this situation alive?

The monster grasps Izuku, shaking him out of his thoughts. Apparently, trying to analyze your opponent in the middle of battle doesn't always work out too well.

A villain calls out “Nomu, Smash! ”

Then the creature that feels so wrong lifts him, and in a single fluid motion, crushes him into the pavement below.

The last thing Izuku hears is the sound of his classmates screaming.

Then it all goes black.

Chapter Text

He wakes up in a land of mist. Fog swirls around him and he can’t remember how he got here. Something happened and he knows he needs to get out , but he doesn’t know why . 

In the distance, he sees a shape, a blurred outline of color.

Then somebody speaks, an echoing rasping sound “Welcome Fateless, we’ve long awaited your arrival”. 

The fog slowly clears and he can see that he’s in what appears to be a living room. Tapestries drape the walls, portraying images of kings and heroes. In the center three women sit working on a sofa.

“Are you talking to me?” he asks confused after all Fateless isn’t his name. It’s I------, No it’s I------. Then it hits him, he can’t remember his name .

“Of course we are, you are Fateless ” the women look up from their work and he can see that they have no lips, no facial features save for two empty eye sockets, and thousands of tiny strings forming cobwebs throughout their skin.

It should be horrifying, yet he feels no fear.

“What the actual fuck does that mean” he probably shouldn’t be swearing at the only people who seem to know what’s going on, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Well, let us tell you a story” three voices then spoke simultaneously, in that same raspy tone layered over each other.

“Once upon a time, three sisters were born in a vast abyss, with bright strings wrapping and twisting around them. It was a chaotic time. People being pulled blindly along, destiny crashing constantly. Kingdoms rose and fell in days, pantheons lasting eons faded in seconds, and still-borns lived for years.”

“So they took those strings and wove them together, creating a tapestry of life and death, tugging them at times and slackening them at others, trying their best to ease and untangle fate.”

“Then one day, a child was born, The son of a titan and a goddess. They had no string, their destiny was their own. And their mere existence changed fate, helped it along. So the sisters watched over this child they had no control over”

“But the child eventually died, and the universe rebelled. Quirks suddenly became a thing and the strings changed, tangled once more.”

They pause as the woman on the left, clothed in blue, approaches and lays her hands on his head. “That Child is you”

Then he remembers .

Izukami falls.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been falling for, it could be seconds or hours. It’s all the same to him. 

Maybe he’ll die when he hits the ground, a fitting end for the god who led his followers to ruin. Like Lucifer in the old Catholic myths.

He remembers fighting the angels, cutting down the winged near-gods with every swing of his swords. Looking back, were they really worth fighting, would any of the other pantheons he helped crush have done a better job helping humanity.

Maybe, but he’ll never know. 

He’s startled out of his thoughts by a brush of cold, it seems that he’s passing through the clouds. Impact is likely imminent. 

He tries to turn over, to get a glimpse of the land that will end up as his grave. There’s a winding river beneath him, surrounded by a forest that goes on as far as his eye can see.

At least he’ll be surrounded by beauty when he dies.

Closing his eyes, he lands in the river and sinks to the bottom. The fates must be laughing at him, the son of the fire-giver, destroyed in water.

Lulled by the motion of the stream, he lets go of his consciousness and fades away.

Izukami awakes in a warm bed. Something he honestly never expected to do again. 

Trying to sit up, he finds that he’s wrapped in bandages from nearly head to toe. He’s a second away from tearing them off when he realizes what this means.

Somebody still believes in him. Not many based on the extent of his injuries, but he’s alive and thus must have somebody who he needs to live for.

The door creaks open and a red-headed man steps in. His face lights up when he sees Izukami, “Oh Thank Apollo you’re alive! I was starting to get worried you wouldn’t make it”

Izukami pushes himself up to face the redhead, “How did I get here? The last thing I remember is falling and…”

“My husband pulled you from the river, and we carried you back here. Not many people nowadays would take kindly to men with silver blood, so I figured that we were your best bet.” 

He whistles sharply for a second before a loud clunking noise comes from another room and a purple-haired man runs in yelling “He’s up!?”

Izukami startles at the noise and sudden intrusion, while the red-head glares at the newcomer before turning back, “Well, I’m Tokori, and this complete mess of a water nymph is Shinuta, We’re willing to offer you a place to stay until you recover,” 

He can’t stay here, not when he’s fading and still needs to find a way to see whom among his priests have survived, and try to convince them to leave him before they’re destroyed as well. But even he can see that heading out while injured is a bad idea. So he nods his head, “That would be nice, anyway I'm Izuk…”

His voice fades out as he realizes the extent of his situation. Izukami is the name of a member of a pantheon, the name of a leader. But that’s not what he is anymore, he couldn’t protect his friends and followers, he was completely useless . So he finishes his sentence in a near whisper “... my name is Izuku.”

The couple standing at the edge of his bed smiles, unaware of the turmoil churning in Izuk ami u’s stomach.

A week passes before Tokori allows Izuku to remove his bandages. He’s still not recovered enough to leave the bed without help, but thankfully the couple don't press him to answer their questions on how or why he got so injured.

But that doesn’t stop him from hearing them whisper late at night.

Weeks turn to months, and Izuku's caretakers grow more worried as his wounds slowly heal. It takes longer than even a mortal should.

But he supposes it should be expected. He never had many followers, preferring to keep a few devout worshippers, rather than the general praise most Olympians prefer. It made him stronger during the wars, having a following willing to both kill and die for him. 

Unfortunately, the loss of his priests leaves him with little power left.

How long will it take for even this small spark of hope will fade when they realize Izukami is gone. 

Perhaps Izuku being so weak is for the better, never again will he be able to lead his friends to ruin.

Then one day, Izuku wakes up to the smell of incense. He’s not healed, he can tell by the faint ache that spikes whenever he moves, but he’s much better than he was the day before.

Slowly, he lifts himself out of the bed he’s been near chained to for what feels like years. He can stand, sure it hurts, but his legs are no longer seconds away from giving out beneath him.

He takes a step, legs shaking,  he nearly stumbles over himself, but he moves.

Slowly making his way out of his room, he marvels at the sudden lack of pain. Tokori and Shinuta will be overjoyed by this development.

Izuku turns a corner and is suddenly hit full force by the scent of burning flowers. He spots a cloudy living room, and through the smoke he spots two men on their knees, praying.

It shocks him, neither Tokori or Shinuta seemed highly religious, avoiding any talk of Olympus near him, despite one being half water nymph.

Then he spots the altar. Vases full of snowdrops and pine line it and he realizes that they’re praying to him .

He stumbles and tries to steady himself on a nearby table, knocking over a small mug that falls to the ground with a loud clanging sound.

Tokori and Shinuta startle, and a small, formerly unnoticed, presence in the back of Izuku’s mind fades. Pain begins to once again flare up around him, and he has to force his legs to not give out from under him, but still, it doesn’t feel nearly as bad as it once did.

The three men stare at each other for a minute, before Shinuta breaks the silence, speaking in a shocked tone of voice “You… you’re awake. You’re Up. ”

Izuku can only stare and nod. Then Tokori scrambles to his feet, and with only a moment's hesitation scoops Izuku up in a gentle hug.

He tenses up for a moment, the last time somebody touched him this much he was thrown off of Olympus, but after a few seconds, he relaxes into the embrace. Then Shinuta joins in and they all stand there hugging.

From that point on, the days begin to pass much easier. Izuku doesn’t think that his hosts know about his old self, only worshiping him as many households do during the fall. Now that he’s aware of the shifting of the seasons, he can faintly hear the prayers in the back of his mind about the winter soon to come. 

His fall from Olympus has surely affected him though, as the voices are little more than barely noticeable whispers, rather than the comforting force it used to be.

Nonetheless, he feels better. Every day brings less and less pain. In a few weeks, he’ll probably be strong enough to leave and… do something. 

His plan is little more than a vague shifting idea, still unsure about whether he's aiming for revenge, or to help save his few final followers. All he knows is that he can’t do nothing, not after what was done.

The day before he leaves comes too fast though. He finds himself on the floor playing Monopoly with Shinuta and Tokori. Well not so much of playing, as losing miserably to Shinuta’s business empire. If the man ever decided to run a company, he’d be unstoppable.

Tokori rolls the dice, and lands in jail for what must have been the 6th time. Izuku’s fairly certain he’s cheating in an attempt to avoid his husband's many spaces, but as he turns to accuse him of that the light catches in the man’s red hair. 

It burns like fire for a second, taking Izuku’s breath away. The guilt, these people have given him so much, yet he still wants more. Even worse, he’s lusting after a married man.

Quick to try and hide his feelings, he rolls. And ends up on Boardwalk. Which just so happens to be owned by Shinuta. This, of course, takes the last bits of Izuku's money, leaving him bankrupt.

The nymph in question collects the last traces of Izuku’s properties with a smug smirk on his face. And with this, he realizes that he's screwed.

It’s bad enough that Izuku likes one of his hosts, but with his luck, of course, he falls in love with both of them. 

The rest of the game is over quickly, with an unsurprising victory by Shinuta. As everyone shuffles off to bed, Izuku gets ready.

He feels bad about leaving in the dead of night, without any warning, but he’s put the two of them at risk by remaining as long as he has. Not to mention his recently discovered… feelings.

“It’s for the best,” Izuku tells himself as he shovels some canned goods into an old backpack he found in the basement a few days ago. But it sounds hollow to his ears.

Finally, he’s ready, standing in front of the door. He opens it, and with a deep breath, begins to run.

Chapter Text

It only takes a week for Izuku to realize his mistake. He brought enough food to last him a few weeks, but gods need more than that to survive. The prayers and faith of his old housemates sustained him while he was recovering, but running from Olympus isn’t quite as easy going. 

He stops at a small town and parks himself in front of the first temple he sees. It’s in disarray, most gods have not been kind enough to earn the kind of prayer that once sustained them, but it’ll do the job. 

Heading inside, he approaches the altar, stirring up the thick layer of dust with every step he takes. It’s beautiful, the dark stone carved into a frieze of one of the many wars Izukami fought in. Taking a moment to analyze the image, Izuku spots what he’s looking for. Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods is hidden in the back. He presses down on her until he hears a click, and the top of the altar slowly raises up to reveal the stash of Nectar and Ambrosia every temple has.

Technically it’s supposed to be for those who fall to earth in a battle, but nobody will notice if he takes it. So, he does.

A month passes and the brisk chill of winter finishes fading to spring. 

He spent that time in the local town, volunteering at the local library and soup kitchens by day, and cleaning up the temple at night. All the while, telling stories to anyone willing to listen. It serves a dual purpose, helping to rebuild his church, while also being a warning to the people about the cruelty of the other gods.

Nobody knows that he’s the Izukami from the stories, but the faith and adoration he gains from those who listen adds a noticeable pep to his step.

But he can’t stay there forever, so one day he repacks his bags and disappears.

Izuku slowly notices the loss of energy, and eventually realizes that distance weakens him. 

It’s this that causes him to stop. What if he didn’t have to give up his faithful? He could go around towns and cities and help people, be a hero to the humans.

The next place he visits is a certifiable city, tall buildings reach towards the sky and people rush about in a frenzy. 

He stops to stare, feeling small for one of the first times in his life. Humans are amazing, and it’s a damn shame none of the Olympians can see that. They go about their short lives, ever-changing and improving, while immortals stay stuck in their ways. 

Then somebody screams from a dark alleyway, and Izuku’s body is moving before he even realizes what’s happening. 

He finds a kid cowering from an older man. One who’s deeply intoxicated by the smell of it. The man pulls back his fist preparing to throw a punch, but Izuku grabs it and quickly tosses the guy to the ground.

He presses his knee to the man’s neck and asks for the kid to call the police. 

Thankfully they arrive quickly, and the man is carried away in handcuffs, shouting obscenities at the still cowering child.

Izuku slowly approaches them, crouching down to look them in the eyes. They’re young, no more than eight, yet covered in bruises. “Hi, my name’s Izuku, I use he/him pronouns, are you alright?” he says, making sure to keep his voice quiet.

And if he’s using a little bit of magic to give off a comforting aura, well nobody has to know.

The kid responds in a soft voice, “My name’s Mary, and uhh she/her pronouns I guess”, she flinches as she says that as if expecting to be hit. But he gives her an encouraging smile and nods for her to continue. “Thank you for saving me from Father”

With that Mary bursts into tears, throwing herself at Izuku. He catches her, holding her gently and running his hands through her matted hair while whispering reassurances. 

One of the officers approaches them, and says in an exasperated tone of voice “What happened this time.” and Izuku automatically tenses and turns to look, spotting a name tag that reads Grant. “Sir, I apologize for Nicky, he’s been a bit of a nuisance around these parts, I’m not surprised Kayden got sick of him”

The cop looks Mary in the eyes, giving her a disappointed look. And Izuku realizes exactly who “Nicky” is.

Yeah, if Grant thinks Izuku’s gonna let Mary go into his care, he’s got another thing coming. 

So the former god slowly stands up, making sure to not drop his kid, and says “It’s no problem, Mary’s a delight, so we’re gonna just go on our way. You and your fellow officers will arrest Kayden and completely forget he ever had a child”.

The suggestion takes a bit of effort, the officer resisting the effort, but Changing people’s minds is still one of Izukami’s stronger abilities

Mary’s quiet after they leave, only giving a small nod when Izuku says that he’s going to take care of her. 

The first stop they make is at the bank. While he may have fallen and lost the majority of his followers, the church still has funds. A lot of them. 

Then a hotel, nothing too fancy, but still probably a lot nicer than Mary’s used to. He sets her down on the bed as soon as they reach their room, dropping the glamour he used to prevent anyone from looking too closely at them

She fell asleep somewhere on the way, so Izuku gently wakes her up. “Hey Mary, we’re someplace safe right now, so do you want to take a bath, or sleep first”

Personally, he hopes she chooses a bath, as she’s covered in dirt and blood, not to mention the mass of hair tangled on her head.

Thankfully she lights up as soon as he says the word, “I can have a bath?” she says, a fragile look of hope on her face.

“If you want to, I bet I can probably even dig up some bubbles if that’s something that interests you”

Her mouth falls open in shock, and all of Izuku’s worries about whether he did the right thing fade away.

Leading her to the bathroom, he pulls a bag of toiletries and begins to fill the tub, adding a hearty serving of the bubble bath one of the children he met at the library gave him.

He turns to smile at Mary, before walking out the door to give her some privacy. “If you need anything, I’ll be right outside, so don’t hesitate to call”

It takes over an hour for Mary to come out. Izuku knocks on the door when the water shuts off and he can hear shuffling and presents some clean clothing he got from the hotel gift shop earlier. They’ll need to go shopping soon, but that can wait.

Finally, Izuku gets his first good look at the child he rescued. Actually fuck it, his first good look at his daughter. 

Her hair, which he originally thought to be brown from all the dirt, is actually pale blond, almost white. She looks so much smaller cleaned up, and Izuku feels a burst of anger in his chest towards Kayden. 

How could anyone hurt their child like that? It’s something he would have expected from the gods but from a human . Well, he supposes that humanity was shaped off the immortals. 

Besides if mortals made Mary (and Shinuta and Tokori) , they can't be all bad. 

“What a lovely little lady!” Izuku cries out, noticing how Mary perks up at the word lady. 

He tucks her into bed and begins to tell her the story of how his mother gave people laughter. It was his favorite when he was young, and is by far the lightest in his collection.

Just as he finishes he hears Mary’s tired voice, “Thank you Izuku.”

“Anytime, Mary”

The next day they head out into the city for some shopping. Mary needs some new clothing, and she refused to get anything if he didn’t. They end up with far more stuff than strictly necessary, but Izuku is weak to his daughter’s puppy dog eyes. 

He tells her the truth of what he is during lunch, not the whole story, but everything he feels comfortable telling a six-year-old.

Weeks passed and Izuku spent his days helping out wherever needed throughout the city. He enrolled Mary in an online school and she’d often be found studying in the corner of whatever library or shelter he worked with for the day.

After 3 months they moved on to the next town. 

Rinse and repeat.

“Izuku, sorry to bother you but I’m having an issue with this problem”

“Don’t worry, I’m glad to help”

Mary laughed for the first time in Paris after a pigeon mistook Izuku’s hair for a tree. The hour spent washing poop out was well worth it.

“Izu, can we go ice skating”

“Sweetheart, that sounds like a wonderful idea

In Rome, they watched chariot races. And Izuku learned that saying no to Mary is physically possible (if extremely hard) when she tried to convince him to buy her a horse.

“Hey, Dad! Do Pegasi exist?”

“Yes, they do. No, you cannot have one”

Mary is eight when everything changes.

It’s summertime in a small town in Japan, and they’re taking the day off to enjoy a local festival.

Izuku sits on one of the park benches and hands Mary a stack of money for her to buy some ride tickets with. A moment later there's a flash of red hair that catches his eye before two familiar faces stop in front of him.

“Izuku, is that you?” Tokori and Shinuta ask. 

He freezes, unsure of how to respond. “Yeah, I guess. Uhh, Long time no see.”

The couple collapse on the bench beside him, then scoop him up in a hug. “Thank the gods you’re alright, we were so worried when you disappeared,”

There’s a scream, and then a small child attacks the group. “Get. Away. From. My. Dad!” Mary shrieks out, kicking Tokori with every word.

“Hey, hey, hey, Mary. I’m fine, these guys are my friends, If it weren’t for them I would have probably died long ago.”

Mary stops, a panicked look spreads across her face before she bursts into tears. “I'm sorry Misters, I thought you guys were hurting him. Please forgive me.”

Shinuta takes a step forward but stops when Mary flinches and raises her arm as if she was going to try to block a hit. “It’s fine, you were very brave, and if we were trying to hurt your dad, you definitely would have scared us off. So Good Job!”

Izuku smiles at her, and brings out a tissue to wipe his daughter's tears away, “Alright Honey, now that you know I’m alright, why don’t you go on a few rides?”

Mary nods and runs off. 

The three adults stare awkwardly at each other for a moment before Tokori speaks, “I’m sorry if we ran you off. I understand that not everyone is alright with triads, and I really hope that we didn’t come on too strongly”

Izuku froze. What the fuck . His feelings were Requited ! “Uhh… I’m sorry, but you guys liked me? Like like liked me?”

Then its Shinuta and Tokoris turn to freeze. “Oh Gods, did you not know, Fuck we’re so sorry”

Izuku smiles, feeling his heart soar. It may have been two years, but unlike gods, titans love for life. And Izuku definitely inherited that from his father. “No, actually one of the reasons I left was because I fell in love and didn’t want to intrude”

“In that case, would you be willing to come home? Mary is welcome as well, we’d love to get to know her,” 

Izuku thinks about the offer. He’s got forever to help people, and despite what Mary says, life on the road is no way to raise a child. Besides if he remembers correctly, the house has stables.

But it’s not solely his decision to make, He calls out for his daughter, “So Shinuta and Tokori have been very kind and have offered to let us live with them, so would you like a permanent home?”

Mary squeals, “Can I have a horse then!?!”

Well, that seems like an answer enough. He turns back to the two other people who captured his heart, and answers “I’d love that.”

Chapter Text

Moving in with Shinuta and Tokori is one of the best decisions Izuku has ever made, second only to adopting Mary. He’s never really had a place to call home before. His life on Olympus was spent in almost eternal war, and his mom was never one to stay in one place long enough to truly lay down roots.

So having a place to come back to every night, not having to worry about the roof over his head or the food on the table, is indescribable.

The company is definitely a perk as well. Izuku danced around his feelings for a few months, but now, a year in, he can hardly believe he spent so long without his boyfriends.

Tokori’s eldest sister taught at the local school, so when Mary first started to attend, she helped the blonde girl ascend to her rightful place at the top of the elementary school food chain. Who would’ve known that speaking 5 languages and traveling all over the world is the key to social success? 

Their travels have made a noticeable impact on Izuku’s power as well. While he may no longer have a church or devoted followers, every person he helped has helped him back. Hundreds of thousands of people who’ve heard his stories and told them to friends and family. 

He heads out to the stables in the back of the house, lunch box in hand, hoping to catch Mary before she runs off with her horse. Shinuta tags along, probably hoping he’ll receive an extra cookie if he behaves. 

Jokes on him though, Mary stole the last one earlier that day. 

“Hey, Mary Berry! It’s Lunchtime!” Izuku calls out and sure enough, a giggling blur comes racing out at him.

“Dad!” she stops just before running into him, and makes a dramatic bow towards Shinuta, “Sire.”

The nymph returns the gesture with a smile. Ever since they learned that sire was a synonym for father, Mary refused to call him anything else.

Then Tokori steps out from inside the stables, “Hey Loves, hope you brought enough for me!”

Izuku laughs, “Is there even such a thing as enough to satisfy your appetite?”, but opens the lunchbox to reveal a large selection of sandwiches anyways.

They sit down at the nearby picnic table and begin to pass the food out. Tuna for Shinuta, Chicken for Izuku and Tokori, and of course a PB&J for Mary.

It’s almost perfectly silent as they eat; even Glimmer, Mary's horse, isn’t being the loud brat he normally is. If Izuku didn’t know better, he’d describe it as if the world is holding its breath for something to happen.

But Izuku apparently doesn't know better, which is proven when Tokori speaks, “Izuku, Shinuta and I have been talking a bit, and we love you.”

The nymph in question continues, “You and Mary have brightened up this house, and brought joy into our lives. So we have a small question for you,”

Then they ask as one, sliding a box over the table, “Will you marry us?”

Izuku sits there in shock, trying to process what just happened.

“I mean it wouldn’t technically be a legal marriage, but Shinuta and I are already husbands and it doesn’t feel right to call you just a boyfriend.”

Izuku.exe is loading

Distantly he can hear Shinuta panicking, “It's totally fine if you say no but we just thought it would be nice.” 

Then there's a sharp pain on Izuku’s arm, and he looks down to see that Mary pinched him. “Hey Dad, time for your answer.”

Well, there’s only one thing to say. “Yes!”

They get married in the spring, as the Cherry blossoms bloom. 

The wedding’s small, maybe 20 guests at most. Mary insisted that she be the flower girl, and at some point trained Glimmer to be the ring bearer. 

It’s not something that Izuku would have ever expected to have before his fall, let alone after it. So when he looks up the aisle and sees the two men he agreed to pledge himself to, he’s half-convinced it's a dream.

But to be fair, no dream he’s ever had has included an asshole horse. And despite what Mary claimed, he’s Convinced that Glimmer will take a shit in the middle of the ceremony. It would be worth it though, even if it rained and an earthquake split the earth apart, so long as he got married, he’d consider the day perfect.

The bells chime. It’s time to walk down the aisle. The world blurs as he moves, everything fading away except for Shinuta and Tokori.

The words of the officiator seem garbled as he admires his soon to be husbands, but before long it’s time. Izuku says his vows.

“You may kiss the grooms.”

Tokori and Shinuta glare at each other for a second, before Tokori, swoops in. Warm lips press against Izuku’s as he reciprocates, just barely getting a taste before Shinuta’s eternally salty ones take their place.

The rest of the night seems to pass in the blink of an eye, and the next thing Izuku remembers is waking up sandwiched between his new husbands.

Izuku’s honeymoon is spent traveling the world, something Tokori insisted they do. He made a joke about how it would prevent Izuku from going stir crazy, but he knows that it’s most likely the stories Mary told them about her own travels. 

She, of course, insisted on coming along, eager to revisit her favorite spots. 

They played beach volleyball in the Bahamas, rode gondolas in Venice, and hiked to the top of Machu Picchu in Peru. And despite having already visited those places in his many years, Izuku has never felt so happy as when he went there with his family .

But all good things must eventually come to an end.  

The last day begins like any other. Izuku drops Mary off at school before heading to his shift at the local library. It’s a calm day, overcast skies providing the perfect atmosphere to read. 

Tokori drops in around noon with lunch, a request for some books needed for his research, and a bad pickup line. “Hey, are you a book on electricity? Cause I’m feeling some sparks between us.”

He’s on his way back, Mary beside him helping to carry the groceries they picked up for dinner when smoke begins to fill the air.

The neighborhood is quiet, no trucks, no children, no nothing. A sense of unease begins to rise. “Hey, Mary, change of plans real quick. I forgot to grab milk from the store, so could you run over and pick some up for me?” he says before handing her a wad of cash.

She listens, not even bothering to question why a simple purchase of milk requires a stack of hundred dollar bills. 

As soon as she disappears around the corner, Izuku summons his swords. He hasn’t needed them since he fell, but better safe than sorry. 

The smell grows stronger as Izuku approaches his home, soon joined by the smell of burnt flesh. It’s then that he abandons his caution and begins to run. 

The house is in ruins, only the bricks still standing. It must have been burning for hours, but somebody would have noticed if it had. 

Then it hits him-the silence in the neighborhood, the lack of birds in the air. 

The gods have found him.

Izuku cautiously approaches the rubble of his home, hoping that the fates have been kind, that his husbands have somehow survived unscathed.

It fades when a flash of blue hair catches his eye. Shinuta’s head burnt to a crisp, then separated from the body. He fights the urge to gag, to scream, to break down, to do a million and one things to rage against the world.

Then there’s a scream.

Izuku’s standing before he processes what’s happening, looking for the source. 

His heart stops when he sees it.

Mary, his little girl, his daughter, the person who’s done more to heal him than any other, is being held with a knife to her throat. 

Ares stands there, grinning as he surveys the wreckage around him. “Hey Izukami, didja miss me?”

“Step Away From Her.” Izuku’s just barely staving off the panic. If gods could pray, he would be down on his knees. 

“Ok!” To his surprise, Ares lets go. 

Izuku yells at Mary to run, but just as he begins to think she might make it, Ares throws his dagger.

It hits with a sickening squelch, and he can only watch as his daughter hits the ground, Dead.

“Oops Sorry. My hand slipped,” Ares grins mockingly. “But I suppose it’s for the better. After all, you were getting a bit too strong, and I was told to kill all your followers.”

Rage bubbles up as Izuku, No Izukami, begins to analyze his opponent. Olympus chose well in sending the god of war, somebody with little magic outside combat arts, but they forgot exactly who they were dealing with. 

After all, one doesn’t become a general without being able to put up a fight. 

“Klévo!” he shouts, letting strength fill his body as the nearby plants start to wither and decay. 

Izukami makes the first strike, stolen energy letting him move faster than the eye can see, but he’s blocked.

“Oh does the little god think he can beat me?” Ares says as he counters.

They fight, trading blows for what feels like an eternity, before Izukami gets in a lucky strike and Ares turns to dust.

It won’t stop him, or the other gods from coming back, but it bought some time.

Slowly digging through the rubble of his house, Izukami retrieves the bodies of his family. 

His hands are shaking, covered with silver blood by the time he’s through. 

It’s a last-ditch hope, but when he sees Mary’s body, almost untouched compared to those of her fathers, he begins to cast every healing spell he can think of, anything at all to bring her back.

Growing more and more desperate, he begins to push every last drop of power he has, but nothing works.

Finally, teary and panting, he’s forced to give up. 

Around him, a forest grows. 

On that day Izukami vows that he will destroy Olympus. No matter the cost .  

The green-haired man gasps as he’s pulled from his memories. Falling to his knees, he begins to sob. 

A hand reaches out to tap him on his shoulder, and he looks up to see the Moirae. 

The three speak as one, “Well Fateless, now that you remember, You have a choice to make.”

He tilts his head in confusion; what choice could he have now? Izuku is dead just like Izukami’s loved ones.

Clotho, still draped in blue, is the first to continue, “You can of course pass on, go forth to meet Hades and leave your lives behind. It would be your safest option, you’d be free of pain, and eventually, you'll see those you love again.” 

Then Lachesis steps forwards, white strings shifting as she moves. “We can also fix Izuku’s fate, rewind his time, and remove your influences. It won't be easy, and he’ll feel great pain, but will eventually succeed and become the greatest hero in the world”

Finally, covered in blood-like threads, Atropos speaks, “Your final option is the riskiest. You’ll face retribution from the gods. But we can let Izukami rise once more.” She pauses for a second, unsure of how to proceed. “However, this depends only on those you have left behind and the faith they have in you. If it’s not enough, you will be trapped in between worlds, doomed to an existence of agony.”

The man listens to their words. He’s unsure of how long he spends mulling over what the fates said, but in the end, he stands up. “Thank you for letting me choose, but I think we all know I only ever had one option.”

The three goddesses of fate all nod. “Very well, we wish you the best of luck.”

The world fills with white light, before slowly fading away.

Chapter Text

A crack fills the USJ and the world stops. Every student and teacher in the area turns to look at the pool of blood spreading from the place Izuku Midoriya once was.

Thankfully, unknownst to them, it’s hard to kill a god, even harder to do it twice. 

Maybe in another world, this wouldn’t be so. But in this one, with three almost priests, two needing knowledge; one, friendship; a class full of students already willing to follow him into battle; alongside a family that would both kill and die for him. Well, is it truly a surprise that Izukami can come back to life?

And thus when Nomu smashes Izuku’s spine into the pavement, only his mortal body burns away. 

A flash of light goes up over the USJ, when it fades away he’s is left standing covered in crimson blood and the remains of the organs he once thought of as his.

The first thing Izuku feels when he returns to life is Pain . Anyone who says coming back to life is easy, is a fucking liar.

But he can focus on that later, right now, he has a job to do.

Ochaco stops breathing when Izuku crawls out of the crater Nomu crushed him in. Every instinct she has screams danger, yet somehow she’s never felt safer. 

Then Izuku speaks “ Misceo !” his voice a little more than a whisper, but it seems to echo in her ears. A ripple goes out from where he stands, and the world falls from is axis.

Tomura’s panicking. This dungeon was supposed to have only low level NPCs before the planned boss fight. 

There was not supposed to be a fucking Hacker. 

Yet one managed to sneak his way in, with devastating consequences. What else could you call having your head turned into a venus flytrap?

Shouta stands up as soon as the villains begin to flounder, he doesn’t care what’s happening, only that it doesn't seem to affect him. 

His emergency beacon begins to go off, sending out a distress signal to the school.

He just has to hold out for a little longer, then back up will arrive.

A green blur cuts across the battlefield and all in the room watch in wonder as the child who was once dead now rises to save them. The silver glint of twin swords spelled doom for all the villains who saw it.

Perhaps if they were all in perfect shape, having trained for this situation, they could have taken down the young god. But all the people who relied on quirks, and mutant ones at that, suddenly found themselves off-balanced, limbs heavier than normal, bodies turning to mist, and hands that destroyed all they touched. 

Then even after all the invaders found themselves lying unconscious on the floor, it got worse.

For All-Might has arrived

The school mobilized after the distress signal came in, and a mere five minutes later, dozens of pros stormed into the USJ.

Only to find that all the villains have been taken down.

All except one.

A dark creature was locked in battle with another. Both shapes move too fast to be seen as more than black and green blurs. 

Silver and red liquids would occasionally spray out, coating the ground nearby. 

Then somebody cried out, words in a language both familiar and unknown. A green light spread, and suddenly the dark shape began to shrink.

It grew smaller and smaller, while the green blur seemed to move quicker with every strike it landed. 

The world went silent as the battle ended. There stood Izuku, panting and covered with blood, holding a sword to the neck of a plain-looking man. 

Then he passed out.

Izuku wakes up to the familiar white of Yuuei’s hospital wing. His head aching as his forgotten memories continued to return.

There’s a thrum of power deep within, and Izukami remembers as he was forced to take the power of the Nomu in order to defeat it. 

Even now, they feel twisted, the echo of pain from their previous owner(s?) begging to be free.

Whatever made that creature, must have hurt many many people for a reaction like this to occur.

Emotions overwhelm him as the adrenaline fades, and the reborn god  sobs .

Izuku's gift was never meant to be used like this. Never meant to hurt or harm, They were blessings, but humanity took his gift and twisted it into a weapon.

Why is Izukami even surprised? 

The gods made mankind, of course they’d turn out so cruel.

Izuku is jolted out of his thoughts by a knock at the door, and he turns to see Ochako. It feels like years since he last saw her face, and the sight only brings up more guilt. Not every human is so cruel, how could he forget. 

Visions of Shinuta and Tokori flash through Izukami’s mind, and tears once again threaten to overflow.

Whatever Uraraka expected to find when she snuck out of her room to visit Izuku, her friend crying like his heart was torn out was not it.

She stood there in shock for a moment, Izuku was always a crybaby but she's never seen him like this.

Running over, she hears him muttering, “It’s my fault” over and over. So she moves, giving him a warning in case he decides he doesn't want it, Ochako hugs Izuku.

He stiffens in her arms for a second before melting and hugging back, burying his face in her shoulder.

Ochako doesn’t know what happened in the USJ, but she owes Izuku her life. So she’ll do what she can to help ease whatever pain Izuku is carrying.

Chapter Text

Rei pulls Shouto aside after a training session when he is four years old when both his quirk and his father’s cruelty is brand new.

 “Your grandfather was a god,” she tells him tucked away into a corner where she prays Enji won't hear them. “The god of winter, of ice and snow and all that’s cold,”.

She tells him the same story she told her daughter and other sons. Of how a priestess wooed a god but was cast out when she fell pregnant with his child. 

Of how she was forced to sell her body to support the children she would eventually have. 

Of how the priestess’s first child, a woman with the power of the gods in her fingertips, caught the eye of a man with fire in his veins. 

Of how he offered to support her family in exchange for her hand in marriage.

She tells him of the gods, of how most are cruel and care not for humanity, but a few are kind and have helped the people in the darkest of times. 

And in that corner, she teaches him that no matter what his father may do to him, he has the blood of the gods running through his veins and if he prays one of them might just listen. So when he steps out, he stands a bit taller, walks a bit prouder, and keeps his head a bit higher. 

A few months later when Rei pours boiling water over his face, he vows to use only the powers given to him by the gods. 

Ten years later, Shouto remembers his mother’s words when he looks upon Midoriya standing victorious above a once inhuman creature and his blood sings. The green-haired boy calls to him, similar but not quite the way the winter does. Every cell in his body telling him, Midoriya Izuku is dangerous. 

And maybe there’s something wrong with him, all his beatings finally making him crack. Because that power, makes him want to build a temple for this new god, to get to his knees and worship . 

Or maybe it’s the determination in his eyes, the profession he once made that he’s going to become a hero no matter the cost. And Shouto knows that whatever god Izuku shares the blood of, he won’t abandon the people like the rest of them did.

And so the day after the USJ incident occurred, and notifications of dorm rooms being built are sent out, Shouto hides the last paper in the permission form.

Years of practice forging his father's name lets him vote yes when asked if he wants a roommate, before writing Izuku’s name in the request box.

Shinsou Hitoshi had little knowledge of the gods. His parents were never religious, and after they died, he focused more on surviving the system than learning theology.

As such he thinks little of it when his friend rises in the USJ. After all, quirks are weird, and Izuku only got his a few months back, so a new aspect of it isn’t that surprising. 

Still, when his classmates decide to spend their day off visiting Izuku in the hospital wing, something stops him in front of a store. It’s small but busy, customers streaming in and out with fragrant bags in their hands.

It’s unconscious really, and before he knows it Hitoshi is walking out with boxes of sakura and pine incense.

When his classmates light a stick for Izuku’s bed stand, and the scent fills the air. For just a second it feels like home.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Izuku recovers and classes continue, dorms are quickly built and the students soon move in.

Izukami is alone in his room, the only student other than Tokoyami who requested a single. The nightmares have gotten worse with two remembered lifetimes of trauma to fuel them. And he doesn’t want to be a bother to a roommate.

Still, he’s not on his own, the dorms are small, only 6 rooms per floor. Todoroki and Hitoshi room together on one side of him, Tokoyami on the other. Apparently, the four of them were also deemed among the least likely to bother the girls, so just across the hall lies Uraraka and Tsuyu. 

It should be nice, Izukami’s surrounded by friends after all. but somehow he’s never felt so alone. He keeps looking over his shoulder expecting to see a small blonde shadow, keeps catching himself adding horse supplies to his cart online. 

Soon the bags under Izuku’s eyes rival Hitoshi. The bed feels too cold, too big, too empty , so Izukami takes to sleeping on the floor wrapped in a blanket trying to pretend he’s just on a mission, that soon the construction or cleanup will be finished and he’ll be back in the arms of his husbands.

It doesn’t help.

Maybe if Izuku were stronger, braver, he would call up Hades, one of the few gods he was actually friends with. He could pay a visit to the underworld, spent some time among the spirits of his family, maybe get some closure. 

But Izukami is a coward .

It takes a week, but Recovery Girl finally clears Izuku to participate in hero classes. There was nothing overly wrong with him physically, but apparently, when half your class watches you die, they tend to worry and report it to overcautious doctors. 

Thankfully, Aizawa-Sensei decides he wants to go somewhat easy on him, as he has them work on quirkless hand to hand. It’s something Izukami has experience in, something that would normally fill him with joy, bringing back memories of long afternoons spent trading punches and banter with a man who’d become a pseudo-dad to him.

Instead, a sinking feeling fills his gut.

In a sense, Izuku is stronger now, as shown by the metal fingerprints in his bed frame and the hundreds of shattered mugs he has hidden in his trash can. But his classmates aren’t.

How much damage would a punch cause from somebody who crumples steel if they aren’t careful?

Still, his teacher pairs Izukami up with Todoroki.

They circle each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Todoroki lunges, going for a right hook that turns into a left jab at the last second. 

It’s a classic move, something that Izuku has seen and dodged hundreds of times. But this one hits.

It doesn't hurt, more like somebody swatting a fly than anything else. But still, Izukami stares at the point of impact. It was just a single blow, a simple mistake, and a well-done feint, but the world seems to spin.

Izuku catches the next punch and Izukami’s body moves, using the force of the attack to push the opponent to the ground, before raising Izu͉k̨̒uk̭̖̔̌a͇͑m̲̞̣̳͔͖̓́́̋̌̽ȋ̢̭̤͉͎͖̰͔̈́͂̃͛̎͘͞’s arm in preparation to destroy whoever dared to attack.

Then the red hair catches the light, a pool of blood spills out from Tokori’s broken skull. 

I̖̭̤͑͒́z̟̙̖̊̄́u͖͝k̹̼̥̗̃̆͡u̲͙̽͠,̰̩̻̗̈̽͞ ̜͎̞̼̪̒̏͒̅I̜͂ẑ̧̧̮͕͇͌̚̚͝uk̙̬̏̃ą̌ḿ͔̺̜̭̏̑i, screams, scrambling away.

There's a pressure on his shoulder, and he turns to see Shinuta standing there. He reaches up frantically trying to grab onto his husband, but the bluennette turns to ashes in his hands.

“Izuku!” Shinuta’s voice cries out in pain.

He turns frantically to try and find him amidst the ashes of their home, calling out “Where are you! Shinuta! Tokori! Please. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault.”

A voice cuts through the haze, giving a single command “Sleep”

The world goes black as his body forces him to listen.

For the second time in as many weeks, he comes to be surrounded by the white walls of the hospital wing.

Distantly he thinks that he should probably put a nameplate on the door and make it officially his, given how many times he’s ended up in this exact room. But it fades almost as quickly as it arrived as he once more slips into the abyss.

Then he’s a bedroom, posters of a smiling blond hulk staring at him from every angle. It’s familiar but he doesn’t think he’s seen it before, else he surely would have remembered the creepy decor

There’s a squeak behind him and when he turns he sees his husband sitting down on the bed.

“Hey, Izuku. Long time no see” They say at the same time, before turning to each other and laughing. “Jinx!”

Something clicks in Izuku’s mind.

Shinuta pats the bed between him and Tokori, “I just love your decorations, here I saved you the face”

Sure enough, the empty spot holds the same smiling face as the rest of the room. 

Izuku sits on it, drinking the warmth of the two bodies beside him. 

His husbands lean against him, Tokori slowly directing him to lay his head on his lap. 

“I’m sorry,” the redhead says as he cards his fingers through Izuku’s hair.

“We left you” Shinuta continues,

Izuku rushes to speak, to absolve his lovers of any blame, let them know he is the one at fault. but before he can get the words out, a soft hand covers his mouth.

“Shhh… just listen. It’s not your fault. You did all you could.” 

Hands continue to run through his hair, and Izuku closes his eyes, embracing the feeling. They may be wrong, but he doesn't want to fight, not now.

Above him, his husbands continue to speak.

“You’ve suffered so much Love, but it’ll be alright,”

“We’re here for you, you just have to find us, and then we’ll never leave you again.”

The petting stops, and Izuku opens his eyes. The room changed from his childhood bedroom and he’s back in his old living room. The scent of pine from the altar fills the air.

He looks up to see Todoroki and Hitoshi smiling down at him with ever so familiar faces. 

“I love you” Izuku whispers to them before closing his eyes and letting the world fall away once more.

Chapter Text

Izuku wakes up to his mother’s worried face. His heart tearing at the sight.

It feels like ages have gone by since he last saw her, though he knows it couldn't have been that long.

Izuku’s memories feel fuzzy, the time after the USJ blending together, but he realizes that they haven’t really spoken since before then. He hasn't spoken to anyone really. Having been too busy hiding in his room having an identity crisis.

He tries to get words out, to let her know about Izukami and the gods, but they get stuck in his throat. He can’t tell her, not yet.

Soon he will, just... not now.

So instead they talk about everything else, and Izuku blames everything on the USJ. It may not be the whole truth, but it’s not that wrong either.

By the time visiting hours are over, he has weekly appointments with Hound Dog and what feels like a weight off his chest.

After Recovery Girl finishes running tests, Aizawa escorts him back to the dorms leaving him with strict instructions to seek him out should anything happen, no matter how small.

He steps into his room. It still seems far too empty, but less so. More like a blank slate than anything else.

He has another chance, to right his wrongs, to live .

So with that in mind, Izuku walks out of his room planning on finally talking to his friends.

Instead, as soon as he opens the door he’s greeted by Uraraka’s fist as she tries to knock on the space the door used to be. 

He freezes, behind her are Hitoshi and Todoroki. Now that he actually really looks at them he's surprised he didn't see the resemblance earlier. Though from the pain in his chest he thinks he might know why.

They’re his husbands, but at the same time, they’re not. Shinsou’s never beaten him in Monopoly, Todoroki has never gotten into a fight with a horse. There are millions of memories that only he holds now. A fact that burns whenever he looks at them.

So he doesn't, instead, pasting on a smile and directing his focus to Uraraka. 

“Well, Speak of the Furies! I was just about to visit y’all” He exclaims, ushering them in his room.

Something is wrong with Izuku. Of course, Ochako would be surprised if he was in fact ok. She has nightmares about the USJ and compared to what her friend went through during it, she escaped completely unharmed.

So she let him be for the first week, then the second, hoping that he just needed some space or that he would approach her. 

Izuku had always been strong, always smiling and laughing. He was a pillar, unbreakable, unshakable. He was the one who saved her , from the zero pointer, from the USJ, from her own mind. Even when he was crying in her arms, she felt that he’d be alright.

Then he screamed i n the middle of class , and the world fell out from under her.

She froze and watched as he crumbled, digging frantically through the dirt and calling out for people who weren’t there. 

She just stood there, useless, as Shinsou used his quirk to knock him out. 

Useless when Aizawa took him to the hospital wing.

Useless when she looked back at the weeks prior and realized all the signs she missed.

She will not be useless again.

So the second she hears Aizawa-sensei escort Izuku back to his room, Ochako gathers Hitoshi and Todoroki and prepares to launch an intervention.

She doesn’t expect to have the door open before she can knock, nor the bright smile and cheery demeanor he has.

Maybe in another world, she would have been relieved at this, think that he’s back to normal, and continue with her life. 

But she sees him try not to flinch when Hitoshi speaks, sees him freeze up whenever Todoroki moves too fast. She notices how she's the only one he’ll look in the eyes.

Thankfully Izuku returned only an hour before curfew, and soon everyone headed back to their own rooms.

The next few hours are some of the longest in Ochako’s life, but it’s all worth it when she gets a text from Jirou saying that Aizawa went back to his room.

So she says goodnight to Tsuyu and jumps out the window.

Izuku is about to go to sleep when he hears a knock on the wall. 

To be exact, a knock on the outside wall. 

The outside wall on a third-floor room.

His first thought is to panic. What if it’s Olympus, could they have somehow found him.

Then he realizes that if it was Olympus the whole building would probably be burning down along with everyone inside. So Izuku opens his window and sticks his head out, only to see a nauseous looking Ochako clinging to the side of the building.

She pushes him aside, quickly running to the small bathroom attached to his room.

When she comes out it's with an expression he’s never seen on her before, he stares in shock for a moment before she demands “What the fuck happened between you, Hitoshi, and Todoroki.” 

The blood drains from Izuku's face, and he stammers out “Wha- what do mean, nothing happened?”

“Bullshit. You couldn’t even look them in the eyes earlier today." Ochako's voice goes cold "So What Happened?”

And well, it’s been a long day for him. He learned that his husbands reincarnated into two of his friends, he had to face those said friends. Not to mention all the trauma he has but can’t tell anyone about. 

So when finally confronted by his first and best friend he cracks and tells Ochako everything .

About the gods. About dying. About Shinuta and Tokori.

About Mary.

By the end, the first rays of dawn are streaming through his window, casting the somber room in shades of gold. 

Ochako breaks the silence “So what should I call you? Izuku? Izukami? Izukukamiku?”

Izuku stares at her in shock, then he snorts, and before long the two of them clutching their sides from laughter. 

“Ooh, maybe Zuzu,  Zuko? No, that’s Todoroki. What about Kamiku? Wait. I got it. Hatsune Miku!” 

As they lie on the floor laughing, there’s a sharp tug in the back of Izuku’s mind and he watches a silver band form around Ochako’s wrist.

Then bond snaps into place and they both gasp as foreign emotions rush through them. It’s been so long since Izuku last had a priest, he almost forgot what it was like. 

At that moment, with power running through his veins, Izuku knows.

Life will go on, and eventually, Olympus will find him. But things will be different when that time comes.

He won’t be alone, and he will be ready.

End of Book 1

Chapter Text

To say that Hitoshi’s been having some bad couple of weeks would be an understatement. 

Sure he started with high hopes after Izuku woke up and he learned that USJ would implement dorms. It would mean that he could escape his latest foster home, not to mention that he could put Izuku down as a roommate.

So when he enters his dorm room for the first time and sees red and white hair instead of the expected green bush, he gets pretty upset.

But maybe Todoroki just wants to say hi, he did get somewhat close to Izuku after the battle trial.

Then his hope is crushed when he spots the nameplate on the next door down. Where the words Izuku Midoriya sit alone. While Todoroki is listed next to Hitoshi’s own name on their apparently shared dorm.

Besides him, Hitoshi sees Todoroki frown slightly as he comes to a similar realization, a spark of jealousy flares in his gut, but he ignores it. Izuku does not belong to him.

Unfortunately, things only get worse from there.

Shouto has connected the dots! 

All Might is definitely a god, probably one of strength or justice or something. But that’s not what matters.

What matters is that Midoriya is his son. 

It makes perfect sense, with how All-Might dotes over the green boy. It explains the godly presence they both hold. Even how their “quirks” are similar!

All Shouto needs to do now is confront Midoriya about it.

However to his dismay, Midoriya locks himself up in his room after the USJ, and even outside of it, the demigod stays unresponsive.

It’s only when they’re paired up to spar during heroics class that he gets his chance. Maybe he can pin Midoriya to the ground and kiss interrogate him.

Instead, when he goes in for a second attack, he suddenly finds himself thrown to the ground. Above him is Midoriya, face filled with a calm fury, and suddenly Shouto is afraid.

Not of Midoriya, somehow, but for him. 

Worry fills his gut as his semi-friend screams , terror etched in his face.

Then he calls out a name, and the world seems to shift .

He won’t realize what changed until much later.

Hitoshi’s world shakes for a moment when he sees Izuku flinch at the sound of his voice.

What an idiot he was.

Of course, he couldn't be that lucky. He should have known their friendship was too good to last. The worst part is, he can’t even blame his former friend.

After all, he used his quirk. Maybe he should have waited until one of the students got Midnight, but he couldn’t help it.

Izuku was his friend, and Hitoshi loved him. 

He still does.

He’ll do whatever he can to help, even if that means pulling away

The dreams start the next night. Always the same, but never quite. 

A horse, a daughter, two husbands.

And Love. Both gained and given, unquestionably, unconditionally.

They wake up in the morning with the taste of laughter on their tongues, but the sting of tears in their eyes.

It’s only when Izuku’s alarm rings that he and Ochako realize that they stayed up all night. Thankfully the motion sensors in the hallway should have disabled as soon as the sun rose, so Ochako can sneak back to her room without anyone the wiser.

Unfortunately, they still had class, so the two of them ended up mimicking Hitoshi as they dragged themselves to homeroom.

Aizawa gave them a suspicious look when he saw them but thankfully said nothing, instead choosing to continue with roll call.

“So congratulations on surviving the first month of school” Aizawa pauses, “more or less. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse”

The class freezes as a wave of terror spread over the room. How can things get worse, they already had villains attack, Izuku had fucking DIED.

Thankfully Aizawa continues, “The sports festival is next week. Do well or be expelled.”

The rest of the homeroom goes by as all students begin to talk about the fear or excitement they held, providing background noise for Izuku as he struggled to stay awake.

Maybe if he closed his eyes for just a second .

Far away, an ancient bell begins to quietly ring. 

Only one person is close enough to hear its soft chimes, but terror fills his face at the sound.

The heroics class that day is technically canceled, replaced by a free practice period in gym gamma.

Izuku’s just glad that he doesn’t have to fight anyone. He might not be quite as unstable as he was the past few weeks, but he certainly is not ready for actual sparring.

So instead he grabs Ochako and drags her to a somewhat secluded corner of the gym. It’s been centuries since he last had a true priest. His powers used to be fairly useless in the mortal realm, but since he gave humanity quirks, something tells him that they won’t be anymore.

However, that means “I have no clue what this bond is going to do, so why don’t we fuck around and try to make sure we won’t accidentally blow ourselves up”

Understandably, Ochako is not pleased. But she doesn't give any indication of regretting the bond, and in the end, that's what matters.

So Izuku gently grabs her wrist, and finally takes a good look at the bracelet that encompasses it. It’s beautiful, composed mostly of silver, with golden gladioli etched around it. Strength, Victory, Faith, he smiles at the engraved flowers, he truly couldn’t have picked a better one, to sum up his friend.

“Well, Congratulations High Priestess Ochako,” Izuku says with a smile and a dramatic bow. It’s the second strongest bond possible between a god and a mortal, only succeeded by soulbonds. 

Izuku’s heart twinges for a second, remembering how long he debated over whether or not to form one with Mary and his husbands. If he had, would they…

He shakes his head, now is not the time to think of such things. 

So instead Izuku picks up a rock on the ground, trying to focus on the slight hum of Ochako’s emotions in the back of his mind and the five fingers he has touching it. Then he lets go, watching as the rock floats.

Slight nausea builds up in his stomach as he watches the stone defy gravity, before touching his hands together like he’s seen his friend often do. It falls to the ground, showing no sign that it had ever floated in the past.

Ochako goes to pick up a stone next, but her skin barely touches it before it shoots into the air. She startles at the sudden motion and clamps her hands together, making the rockfall.

On a whim, Izuku moves to catch it. The pebble hits his hand harder than expected, nearly breaking a finger. 

That’s certainly a new development

The two friends look at each other in shock, matching grins slowly spreading over their faces. This year's sports festival is certainly going to be one to remember.

A couple of miles away, a phone rings in a mostly empty gym. A man picks up, and a distorted voice speaks “Next week, The Truth will be revealed. 39.65, 21.27.” 

The call ends, and the man’s eyes widen. 

There’s another ping, and the screen lights up with a text. A reminder, an offer. 

In response, Stain buys a plane ticket and lies .

To Be Continued