Work Text:
Life for the the people without special abilities, also called quirks, was hard. Everyone knew this (Well, if you excluded the extremely misinformed people that thought quirkless had it easier in life than anyone because, who would ever think the people that just did not get a special gift that made their entire life basically worth would not be pitied and be given everything?!), and some actively participated in making their lives even worse.
Brief bout of anger aside, let's get back to the point. Quirkless people had it hard. Bullying, abuse, hate crimes, the list went on. All in all, terrible. And, because of the conditions they lived in, they had to adjust.
And adjust they did.
One of the most important things the quirkless community built up were the servers. A few heavily encrypted websites, and it changed passwords and URLs so often that hackers stood basically no chance at getting in or destroying them. Not that anyone knew about them, considering how word about the quirkless servers travels mostly from person to person in real life, or through code messages.
Yes, code messages; another thing the community invented to keep themselves safe. Certain words and phrases meant certain other things, and though it sounds incredibly confusing to those that listened in on their conversations, the quirkless will understand. And the red, clunky shoes were not just made for the quirked to know who to prioritize in rescue. Their laces, as example, told a lot, just by looking at different colors. And everyone knows those codes.
After all, they are nearly an entire close-knit family. While some have proper parents, supporters, people that won't simply pity them for existing, nobody but others like themselves will truly understand being belittled or harassed for their lack of quirk.
As nearly all of us know, Midoriya Izuku, known as Deku to some and SmallMight2879 to others, is quirkless.
This fact was changed after an encounter with being drowned, All Might, heartbreak, Kacchan being drowned, and an entire ten months of picking up trash and bonding with his shiny new, slightly stupid but still lovable, mentor.
The quirk status of Midoriya Izuku finally went from Quirkless to Superpower after 14 years. Izuku slightly felt like he was betraying his kind, but when he finally revealed his false negative status on the servers, they all just congratulated him, some rather more bitter than others, and most happy. Luckily for Izuku, they didn't kick him out, because he did still spend almost a decade and a half quirkless. He simply lost access to some channels, and was allowed to join the other false negative channels in the server, few as they were. He did not lose any friends or family, so he was alright.
Then comes his acceptance in the best hero school in japan, if not the world*, barely surviving not being expulsed by Aizawa-sensei (Oh my god the underground hero Eraserhead - uses a mainly quirkless fighting style - is known to be a safe, a candle-) on the first day in class, managing not to break his entire arm but just his finger, and just social interaction (ew). Adding onto that were the battle trials, and being heavily injured. He had not felt burns like that since-
Thus, Izuku was extremely tired and so extremely not in the mood when he saw a swirling portal open in the plaza while his teacher yelled for them to stay back, and All Might nowhere in sight. Soon, they were scattered across the USJ building with rescue not in sight.
"Kero", said Tsuyu, and Izuku had to agree after she pulled him out of the water. So did the tall, extremely tired looking purple guy (ha!).
"So, does anyone have any ideas to get back to the plaza?" Izuku started awkwardly, still not used to talking to people. At the slightly lost look of the purple boy, he was neither.
"I could swim across quickly, but I can't carry you guys", Tsuyu croaks, and Izuku's mind starts racing even faster once the villains seem to attack the ship.
At least 20 villains in the water - aggressive - faster swimmer than me and purple guy - Tsuyu can't jump us across - purple guy seems to have a voice quirk, by the sound of his voice - my quirk is useless - is the boat controllable?
His head snaps up from where he had it pressed against his palm, used to covering up his mumbling. The two others on the ship seemed a little surprised, especially purple boy, but Izuku pays it no mind as he rushes to the control room. There, he finds proper controls, or what he assumes are proper controls, for a boat. There's even a manual! However, the boat requires a key to start and Izuku curses. Well, at least he knows how to lock-pick. And also hot wire a ship. No, he is not accepting criticism.
Ignoring the confused and slightly terrified expressions of his two classmates, he gets to hotwiring the ship, and after a few minutes with plentiful hits against the boat by the villains in the water, accompanied by Izuku's curses, he yells triumphantly as the boat starts up. To his positive surprise, there is also an emergency button that leads directly to Nedzu's office, if the manual was speaking the truth. If anything was blocking the signal, it would send another message by underground that might take a bit longer, but Izuku would take what he could.
He learned early that beggars can't be choosers.
"What." Said the purple boy and he should really learn his name, as the boat started driving extremely fast towards shore, and also some villains, "did you just do."
Izuku cackled maniacally in response.
None of them said anything after that, except simple small talk that was slightly awkward due to Tsuyus bluntness and the purple guy's, Shinsos, awkwardness.
Soon, (they ignored the screams of the villains in the way of the ship), the trio arrived near shore and, unperturbed, they were watching Eraser beat up villains. In Izuku's peripheral, he saw something move, and they watched first with awe then silent horror how Aizawa fought the guy covered in hands, his elbow crumbled, and the giant, beaked man was introduced as the final boss, the Nomu. Apparently, it wasn't just a man with a mutant-type quirk or any mutations, but a bio-engineered creature. Izuku shivered.
(Quietly, he wondered whether or not this was why so many quirkless people had vanished over the last few years. He had heard about experimentation rings, and quirkless were known for being a null, a blank slate for experiments.)
Then, something cracked and Eraserhead went down.
Still frozen with silent horror, they watched as Nomu bashed their teacher's, it's the nicest teacher Izuku has ever had, head into the ground and broke his arms like they were twigs.
"In the face of overwhelming power, you might as well be quirkless." Izuku flinched at the derogatory tone the villain spoke those words, and something bright, and fiery, and angry lit in him.
How dare they? How absolutely dare they come on the day the class was supposed to have their very first trip to attack them and to traumatize them for life? How dare they hurt Aizawa-sensei, the Eraserhead, the candle of light in the darkness of a lot of quirkless lives? And then indirectly insult the ones Eraserhead had helped? He gripped his hair and glared, feeling sudden bloodlust wash over him.
He shook his head to dispel thoughts of letting the man hang head down in a forest filled with mosquitos. No! Bad Izuku! The last time this happened, he almost tore down the hero commission and that would not have ended well.
Through his overwhelming anger, he did not notice what was being said. However, when he saw a quick movement and a crusty dusty hand reaching toward Tsuyus face, he let go.
What I forgot to mention earlier is that there was another, rather major adjustment, that allowed the quirkless population to live this long.
The quirkless were extremely protective of what was theirs.
Also, they were completely feral if in a bad mood or someone they liked was being endangered.
and Izuku was currently in a very, very bad mood.
Izuku lunged, somehow propelling himself out of the water and, not using his quirk, pounced onto the rapidly approaching figure. This, of course, threw Shigaraki off on his path, and he stopped briefly both in confusion and also to regain his balance, considering there was now a green-haired feral child crouching on his arm, digging his surprisingly sharp nails into Shigaraki's shoulder.
That confusion was quickly replaced by irrational and utter terror at the feral smile on the green child's face, sharp teeth being shown off in a very unsettling, far too big smile.
He acted quickly and attempted to get the child off by shaking his arm like one would with a feral cat, but that only made the feral green child dig in deeper with his nails and drag them down to the nook of his elbow, throwing off one of his (non-attached) hands and leaving large, bleeding gashes in his crusty skin. Shigaraki totally didn't get half a heart attack and let out a shrill scream, that totally wasn't him.
The hand-covered man reached out with the hand that was not occupied by the green child to dust the nuisiance. The moment he did, there was a slight release in pressure on his arm, and he sighed in relief, before he let out another extremely loud shriek.
The child had not let go. Instead, he had leaned over and bitten him right on his palm, so he could not reach anything with five fingers, and then pulled back, still in that animalistic crouch.
Shigaraki gave up at this. "Kurogiri! KUROGIRI! Get this FERAL CHILD OFF OF ME!" he screeched, watching in morbid fascination as the child dug in rather deeply with his teeth into his flapping hand, and he could feel bones break. Wait, the child wouldn't bite an entire chunk out of his hand, right? Right??! "KUROGIRI!"
The black and purple mist of a man appeared shortly and looked puzzled for a moment before he grabbed the child from behind and attempted to pull. This just resulted in the child growling ferally, very much still holding onto the hand like it was some weird chewing toy. Kurogiri attempted a few more things, such as opening a portal and cutting the child in two, but it would cut Shigaraki Tomura in two as well.
Shigaraki whimpered. "Fine, fine! What do you want! Anything, just GET OFF OF ME!"
The child blinked owlishly before pointing at his injured teacher, still being held down by the Nomu. He had stopped slamming Eraserhead's head into the ground when the green student attacked, but still sat ready for any commands. Eraserhead, meanwhile, was still somehow conscious, and looked indecisive between scolding or praising the boy. The twitch of his bloody lips revealed that he was more likely to praise the boy. Terrifying.
"Fine! Nomu, get off of Eraserhead!" The Nomu did as ordered and he looked expectantly at the blood covered child, who seemed to be thinking something over. Shigaraki got slightly impatient and his hand twitched to turn the child into worm food.
Before he could attempt to dust the kid again, the USJ doors opened with a bang, and All Might entered the building, the other teachers visible behind him. Taking the brief moment of distraction as advantage, the child let go and leapt off of the villain, landing by his now unconscious teacher. He bared his teeth at the two criminals, showing off a blood-smeared mouth and proud grin, before hissing. The child looked more and more like a feral cat at this point.
"Kurogiri, let's leave. Game over. Also, I am NOT going near that child again. Ever." Kurogiri nodded and the two vanished in a portal after grabbing the discarded hand from earlier, accidentally leaving Nomu behind.
Izuku simply laid down near his teacher and decided to fall asleep (read: pass out), blood-coated grin still on his face.
---
Izuku woke up in a room with far too bright lights, hushed voices speaking behind some kind of curtain. Through the window, he could see the sky. He was probably in the hospital, as surprising as that was, considering none of them accepted Quirkless people like him. He recognized the voice a curtain over as his english teacher, Present Mic.
He pulled the curtain aside and met startled, wide open heterochromic green and red eyes. Upon further inspection, there was also a mummy on the bed. He blinked, inspecting himself for any injuries, and startled when Present Mic interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey there little listener!", the man said, surprisingly quiet for once, "You're in the hospital. Do you remember anything?"
Izuku tilted his head, thinking. They were on a... trip, right? The USJ trip? Yeah, and then... villains attacked. He sat up quickly as the memories rushed back to him and grimaced at the uncomfortable feeling of unknown fabric on his body. Present Mic startled as well. "Hey, it's alright! Nobody except Sho here, your Aizawa-sensei was hurt!" Izuku sagged in relief once again, now focusing on gaining his memories back properly. Embarrassment flooded him once he remembered fully, and he hid his face in his palms.
He licked his teeth, still tasting a bit of blood. At the action, Present Mic looked a bit unsure of him and took a tiny step away, but Izuku gave it no mind.
He has got to tell FrostyHate4Endeawhore what happened. The forum in general.
...Izuku kind of hoped he met the hand-covered villain again, just so he could see the terrified look on him. Present Mic choked once again and Izuku realized he had been muttering. Oh well. At least Aizawa-sensei seems happy, if the slight shaking of his bandaged shoulders was of any say.
Worth it.
(Distantly, he thought he could hear voices cheering for him, but that couldn't be, because it sounded like it was coming from inside his own head. He must have hit something on the way down from Shigaraki.)