Chapter Text
Izuku grit his teeth when his alarm started blaring at him. He turned his back to it in the hope it would get the hint and turn itself off. He sat there trying to ignore it for a few more seconds before he pried his eyes open. All Might's shining grin drilled into him until he could no longer justify laying uselessly in bed.
"You win again, All Might," Izuku grumbled as he swatted at his alarm.
He dragged himself to the bathroom to fix his bedhead in an attempt to hide the evidence of him staying up till three in the morning on sketchy quirk blogs again.
After he finished up in the bathroom, he popped back into his room to put his uniform on and pack all of his schoolwork into his backpack. He decided to just carry his notebook in his hands, in case he had a stray thought over breakfast.
He scowled at the bruises littering his arms that became visible as he pulled on his shirt. "Stupid bullies," he muttered.
He hissed when his sleeve rubbed over the red sheen of a burn on his forearm. "Stupid Kacchan," he seethed a bit louder.
He took a second to glare at the floor and calm his thoughts before he headed down to the kitchen to help his mom with breakfast.
"Good morning, Mom," he said as he walked over to the cupboard to grab some coffee.
"Good morning, sweetie," his mom responded. "If you're looking for coffee, I hate to say it, but we ran out."
"Really?" Izuku groaned. Maybe it was a mistake to stay up late after all.
"Don't worry, I'll pick some up on my way home from work this evening." She replied and then, with a sly grin, added, "I'm sure you can go one day without a cup of coffee, Izuku. Besides, it's your own fault for staying up so late."
Izuku rolled his eyes slightly before he responded, "Yeah, yeah, Mom, just because you go to bed at nine doesn't mean I have to as well."
He grabbed some plates and utensils on his way over to the table. He tossed his hero notebook down before heading over to the fridge to grab a container of orange juice.
He had to maneuver around his mom, who was spooning some eggs onto their plates on his way back. Once he sat down, he poured some juice for his mom and then filled his own glass.
"Thanks for breakfast," He mumbled around a bit of toast.
"You’re welcome, dear."
He noticed her eying his hero notebook with a hint of disapproval. He hastily slid it into his backpack.
"You have your career aptitude counseling for school coming up in a few weeks, right?" She asked him.
"Yes…?" Izuku answered hesitantly.
"Do you have any new ideas for it?"
"Well, you know I'm going to put UA as my first choice no matter what. Other than that, I don't really know. I suppose I could put Shinketsu or one of the other hero schools on as well." Izuku rambled even though he knew that was exactly what his mom wouldn't want to hear.
"Honey, I know you want to be a hero, but you should maybe have some backup choices in case it doesn't work out." She had the same look of worry in her eyes that she always did when he brought up his dream of being a hero.
He scowled at the table, and then said, "I know I can do it, mom. I can get in even without a quirk. I'll just have to work harder, is all."
Internally he was questioning if that was true. He could theoretically get into one of the other schools quirkless as they have less rigorous entrance exams. That would also serve the dual purpose of avoiding Kacchan's ire in the future. However, he really, really wanted to go to UA.
She didn't look overly happy about it, but he knew she would try to avoid directly announcing her dissatisfaction with his choice. As he had predicted, she unsubtly changed the subject. "Speaking of your quirk, I think we should consider taking you back in to see a quirk specialist. It has been a few years since we last had you checked. Maybe something has popped up."
He sighed quietly before he replied, "You know that's pretty much pointless, mom. There's no way I'm getting a quirk at this point, and I refuse to waste effort hoping for one. We shouldn't waste our time going back to hear the doctor say the same thing."
He stood from the table and grabbed his bag before heading over to the door. He stopped with his hand on the hand before giving in and tossing a goodbye over his shoulder.
After the door shut behind him, he sighed once again. She kept insisting that a quirk could randomly show up. The toe joint was a very good indicator of quirklessnes, but it's wasn’t perfect. He could still theoretically have one, but the odds were so small that it would do him no good to wait at this point. And even if he did have a quirk, it would have shown up by now.
He kicked at a pebble as he walked past the old park that he used to play at before his quirk didn’t show up. After that, it wasn't worth the effort to even go, when it would just mean more opportunities for Kacchan and his cronies to beat him up.
Finally, he reached that last crosswalk before the school. He hurried his pace slightly when he saw Kacchan turning the corner down the road.
In the hopes of avoiding him until class started, Izuku took a detour to the bathroom. No point in tempting fate by sitting in class for a few extra minutes, after all.
Once the warning bell rang, he quickly walked over to class and slid into his seat. The teacher gave him the stink eye for cutting it so close to the bell. But then again, he would probably find a reason to glare at Izuku if he was doing something wrong or not.
Morning classes dragged on as usual. The teacher lacklusterly droned about this or that. At some point, some kids started passing notes. It ended when one landed on Kacchan's desk, and he incinerated it with a quick blast of his quirk.
Of course, for a future hero, the teacher didn't even bat an eye despite the blatant public quirk usage.
For lunch, Izuku took his food to a corner of the school near the bathroom he’d hid in that morning. This wing of the school mainly had second and first years, and they were all in class in that moment.
After eating, he headed back to the classroom a little bit early to avoid giving the teacher another thing to chastise him about.
Izuku was slightly nervous about history after lunch, seeing as they were getting their tests back. He wanted his score to beat Kacchan's. He was pretty sure he had it, and if he did, then he would have finally taken the top spot in class back.
The victory was sweet when he saw Kacchan's 97 compared to his own 98. And it was even sweeter seeing Kacchan notice the same thing.
"Fucking Deku," Izuku heard Kacchan mutter when the teacher walked off to the other side of the classroom.
Unfortunately, the good feeling didn't last long since he knew that Kacchan would just take his anger out on him once class got out.
Izuku tried to rush out of the classroom when the bell rang but got slowed down by the rush of bodies out the door. He considered hiding in the bathroom again but quickly discarded the idea in fear of Kacchan catching on to where he always disappeared to between classes.
He had managed to make it to the park midway between school and his house when Kacchan finally caught up to him.
"Why are you running away, Deku!?" Kacchan snarled at him.
Izuku nervously checked the light to see if it had turned green yet before responding. "I- I'm not running away, Kacchan, I'm just hurrying home, is all!"
"Yeah, right, you loser. Don't get a big head just because you scored better than me on some stupid test." Kacchan sneered at him before adding under his breath, "You only got that score since you’re such a fucking nerd anyways."
"Th-That's not true, Kacchan! I did better than you because I worked harder. That's all," Izuku said, nervous about defending himself.
Kacchan's scowl deepened at that before he shouted, "What was that! You think you're better than me?!"
Kacchan placed a smoking hand on his shoulder, and Izuku winced.
Kacchan leaned closer to him and said, "You don't have a snowball's chance of ever beating me at anything that actually matters."
He shoved Izuku out of the way before heading to cross the road. He cursed when he saw that it was still red.
While they waited, Izuku tried to subtly inch away from him. Unfortunately, Kacchan noticed his movement and turned back to him. His eyes traveled down to the notebook that Izuku was still holding on the off chance he saw any quirks on the way home.
Izuku saw Kacchan's weight shift an instant before he swiped at it and hopped back towards the road to avoid it. He moved the notebook out of the way when Kacchan swiped at it again. He seemed to be getting annoyed at missing if the furious expression on his face was anything to go by.
Izuku thought that Kacchan had given up when he relaxed, but it was a bluff. He abruptly darted forward, and Izuku failed to react in time. They had a brief tugging war, which Izuku promptly lost when Kacchan held up a sparking palm. Izuku waited for his quirk to go out and lunged at him to try and get it back before it exploded. Kacchan shoved a hand into his face and held him away from it.
"Give that back, Kacchan!" Izuku said, trying to fight his eyes, which had begun watering in frustration.
"Or what, Deku, are you going to cry on me?" Kacchan taunted.
Kacchan took a step towards Izuku and shoved him again. "You wouldn't be able to beat me for a hundred years, even if you had a quirk." Kacchan waved the notebook around tauntingly before pushing him again, "You will never be anything but some quirkless nobody, so there's no point in carrying this piece of shit around with you."
Izuku had to take a step back towards the road to avoid falling over.
"Just a useless Deku," Kacchan finished and shoved him one last time before turning to leave.
But as Izuku stumbled backward, his foot got caught on a bottle left lying on the sidewalk and was sent flailing over into the road.
Kacchan's eyes widened, and he screamed, "Deku, move!" as he rushed forward.
It was only then that Izuku noticed a vehicle barreling at him. The last thing he saw before being struck by the truck was Kacchan's horrified expression. Then all he felt was burning pain across most of his body and a weird ripping sensation. And finally, the sensation of his mind being engulfed by all-encompassing darkness before being whisked away.