Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A Will That Transcends Death

There was a dead silence in the park.

...

No one moved.

...

No one spoke.

...

No one even breathed.

...

The kid who had been crying on the ground stared in horror...

The boy with stretchy fingers and Tsubasa had mouths agape and eyes wide with shrunken pupils...

And Katsuki…

He stood there, arm still raised from the explosion he had fired…

Into a head that wasn't there anymore.

When the police showed up with an ambulance, they found four shell-shocked boys, and a site on the ground that would make All Might vomit.

On the ground, a body much too small laid cold and pale. The boy's head was a mess on the ground consisting of bloody chunks of grey matter and green hair. The shoulders were still smoldering from the heat of the blast that killed the poor boy instantly.

The saddest part, was the tiny thing cradled in his tiny arms, as though he were still trying to protect it.

It was a young kitten, a British Short Hair, just as lifeless as the kid who loved it in life. A little bit of blood leaked from the corners of its mouth and the fur on its back was singed. The shockwave from the explosion had pulverized its small organs despite its owners efforts.

"Get the kids out of here, we'll question them later! For now contact their families, and someone set up a crime scene" officer Naomasa ordered.

"Sir," another officer approached Naomasa, "we identified the boy as an Izuku Midoryia"

It was a normal day for 4-year-old Izuku, unfortunately. He had been miserable for a while now, and today was especially crummy. His former best friend had started calling him 'deku' or useless, and his quirk had still not developed even six months after his visit to the doctor. The doctor had told him and his mother that his quirk should be developing soon, but it was showing no signs. He lacked the toe joint, so why did his quirk not show up.

'Mew' Izuku was taken out of his sulking by the quiet sound. He looked around the alley he was passing and found the source. It was a little gray kitten, no bigger than his own hand. It looked at him from its dirty cardboard box and mewed at him with big pleading eyes. And he was instantly in love with the little thing.

He gently offered his hand to it and was rewarded with rubbing and purring. He picked it up gently and began to hurry home to show his mother his new best friend.

Inko was also taken with the kitten. She was at first concerned when her son brought home a stray, but caved the second it mewled at her. In five minutes she and Izuku were giving it a bath in the sink. The water was shallow enough for the kitten to pad around and bite at the occasional bubble.

"Can we keep him mom?! Pleeeeaaase?!" Izuku pleaded. "I promise to take care of him mom!"

"Izuku, taking care of a cat is a big responsibility. It needs-" Inko was cut off by the kitten, which had previously been rubbing itself fiercely into its towel, licked her forearm affectionately.

...

"Okay we can keep him" Inko said with a blank mom face (Think Kanna Kamui from miss Kobayashi), which was undercut by the kitten pressed up against her cheek that was purring like a little motorboat. "What should we call him Izuku?"

Izuku gently took the kitten from his mom, and pondered the thought as he placed the kitten on the kitchen table so he could fetch it a snack. When he came back with a small bowl of ground beef, he saw that the kitten was curled into a perfect ball.

"Tama, I wanna call him Tama."

Izuku and Tama were quick to bond to the point of being near brothers. Izuku fed him by hand and brushed him every day to help the cat grow stronger. He would bathe Tama, help him play with his toys and would even clean Tama's litter they took him to the vet to get his proper shots, Izuku was the one who held him and gave him head pets to keep him calm. For his part, Tama took his shots like a champ, licking Izuku's hand to cope with the pain. Izuku knew that as long as he had Tama, things would be alright.

"Tama," Izuku declared as the cat curled up in his lap while he watched another All Might video "when I get my quirk, I'm going to be a hero and you're gonna be my sidekick and we'll both be number one and we'll be best friends forever!" Tama looked up at Izuku, tilted his head to the side, and laid back down with a yawn.

Inko watched from the door, a watery smile on her face. She was so happy to see her son with his cat.

It was just another day in the park, Izuku was sitting on a bench using a cat teaser to play with Tama. He flailed and jumped until he finally snagged the feathers, chewing them with wide happy eyes and a cat smile. 'Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom'

Izuku giggled as he watched his best friend play. He had been so happy to have Tama to love.

'Bang' Izuku heard in the distance. Tama looked up and tilted his head, cat smile still in place. Izuku knew that noise anywhere. He saw Katsuki and his goons picking on another kid who was crying in the dirt. Izuku knew what he had to do.

He leaned down to Tama's level so the kitten would jump into his arms, and then went to confront Katsuki with Tama to give him courage.

Even if he did not have his quirk yet, he would still be a hero.

The service was a small affair, with Inko herself being too numb to even cry. Hisashi had been divorced from Inko for two years now, but he had to show up to see his son's funeral. The casket was closed due to the state of the body, even advanced science could not properly reassemble the head. Tama the kitten was kept in his master's arms, so they could cuddle forever in the afterlife.

Izuku and Tama were lowered into the ground and the casket covered. Their headstone read:

"Here lie Izuku Midoriya 22xx-22xx and Tama Midoriya 22xx-22xx

Best Friends Forever"

It was 11:01pm when a small plant sprout grew up form the center of Izuku's grave. It was the same green as the tips of Izuku's hair, stood about 2 inches tall, and had two large, thick leaves sticking up with a large, round, pink bud between them. Over the course of the night the sprout grew quickly, growing taller and thicker around.

By 12:23am it stood at 10 inches tall and the leaves had curled away from the bud.

By 1:15am it stood at 17 inches tall and had grown considerably wider. The plant was at its widest where the two leaves met the stalk. The bud was much fuller and stood on a narrowed portion of the stem. The leaves were much longer and wider, curling in a way that resembled fists and their own stems had grown. A tiny protrusion began growing out of the left leaf stem, near the center.

2:53am, the plant had grown to 26 inches tall and the two leaf stems had lengthened to the point the resembled arms, with the leaves acting as hands. The protrusion had grown now into a tiny stem with a gray bud and four leaves: two at the base and two cradling the bud.

By 5:42 the plant stood at 40 inches tall, the two 'arms' were fully formed and hung by the plants side. The leaves on the end had developed oddly, with the leaves taking on a hand like shape with five large, wide veins that each gave a 'finger' structure. The bud had bloomed into a large, pink lotus flower with 10 large, pointed petal overlapping each other. The center front petal had what looked like two slits on the front near the middle and a smattering of black spots about an inch or two below them. At the bottom of the flower's front, there was an odd protrusion that looked a little like a chin. Two petals on the side curled outwards at the top slightly, resembling cat ears.

The stem on the left 'arm' had grown up completely. It had a long stem and the bud had bloomed into a cup shaped flower with an open front. It was gray with black spot all over it, including what looked to be two holes on the front. In the flower were a number of orange anthers with two having a gray bulb on them. The four leaves looked stubby, but had grown larger. There were pink growths along where the plant met its host. The growth as a whole dangled down from where it grew from its parent's stem, like a cat hanging by its tail asleep.

At 6:45am, the sun shone down on the plant in the grave. The plants rustled and the stems bent and flexed. After 5 minutes of sunlight, the plants straightened up; the bigger smaller one standing up to point to the sky.

The slits on the lotus and the bulbs on the grey flower, opened up to reveal pure green and pure yellow, respectively.

Both sets of eyes had black slit pupils.

Chapter Text

Blooming Heroes

'Izuku? Are you there? Did you stop loud angry boy? Where are we? Meow Meow,' A catlike plant thought to itself, groggily rubbing its 'temple'. Noticing the odd feeling of both its paw and temple, the plant looked down at itself.

'What happened to my body?!' The cat plant panicked and tried to pry itself up from the green thing it was growing out of. Freaking out, the cat-plant twisted around, finding it could spin around on the point where it attached. It screeched and spun in circles for a good ten seconds before it became too dizzy to continue and came to a stop.

Its head lulled and its eyes swirled around, its eye managed to focus on the bright pink flower that was staring at it. 'What? Meow,' The Cat stared blankly, before giving off a loud, shocked hiss.

The big lotus swiveled around in confusion, wondering where Katsuki and the others were. He remembered a loud bang and that was it.

'TAMA! Where is Tama? Is he hurt?!' the big flower-boy panicked.

Feeling an odd weight on his arm he looked at his left arm, hoping it was his best friend...

… and failed to notice it was green, but saw the odd plant growing out of his inner elbow. He lifted his arm into the air and stared wide-eyed at the plant as it came alive and started to freak out.

What was really odd was the lotus could swear he could hear a voice in his head as the plant meowed. When the cat-plant finally settled down, the it looked at him with wide eyes, and promptly hissed and screeched loud enough to snap the lotus out of its stupor.

"Tama Help!" the lotus yelled in a familiar voice, despite having no visible mouth.

'What?'

'Izuku? Is that you?' Tama asked in his odd combination of meows and thoughts.

"You can talk?! Who- who are you? And how do you know my name?" The lotus exclaimed at the plant on his branch arm.

Which he finally noticed was green and had a leaf for a hand.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

'Okay, we're both done screaming right? Do you wanna do it again to get it out of your system?' The concerned Tama asked the confirmed Izuku after much freaking out. Izuku nodded and would have blushed if he still had blood vessels.

Izuku's freak-out consisted of much spinning around, clawing at the ground and his own tombstone for traction, and revealed that three major roots, all beige in color, kept him to his spot and extended to his coffin.

'Moving on then,' Tama took stock of the duo's surroundings. He saw they were surrounded by odd rocks and statues that he didn't recognize. Before Tama could ask Izuku if the four year old recognized them, a skittering noise caught the former cat's attention. Spotting a squirrel foraging for food, Tama realized that he was very hungry, Tama licked his lips and utilized his new instincts.

Tama closed his eyes and curled his petals into a hollow sphere, which swelled with air until it was nearly twice its original size. Tensing up, the flower slammed in on itself, expelling the air at 2736 kilometers per hour in the form of an air bullet. The bullet overshot the squirrel before curving around midair! The bullet sruck the squirrel's skull and expanded from its 10mm diameter so quickly the squirrel's head exploded into a shower of gore and the body flew through the air.

When the body landed at Izuku's waist, his own 'stomach' rumbled in hunger. Picking up the carcass with surprisingly little hesitation, Izuku dropped it into the opening in his petaled head on pure instinct. The flower closed and released a noise similar to gulping and then expanded quickly with a sound of sloshing liquid. The sunlight illuminated his head now that the petals had been stretched, revealing it to be completely hollow save a strawberry-sized structure in the shape of a tear drop. A dark shadow floated in the middle of the flower, quickly dissolving like an Alka-Seltzer. The 'teardrop' opened up and ungulated, drinking the squirrel stew in loud gulps.

Tama watched in fascination at first, then realized that Izuku had stolen his snack and promptly began ineffectually smacking his petaled head in retaliation, producing a sound like smacking a pumpkin. As Tama tried to scratch with claws he no longer had, and Izuku learned his left arm deferred to Tama's will, Tama felt a sensation that gave him pause.

It started as a tingling on his tongue as he tasted meat and fur. 'What the..? I can taste the gaminess of the squirrel's flesh?! And what is that feeling?! Am I drinking through my TAIL?!" the former stray cat thought as he felt his hunger sated by Izuku's efforts. '...Weeeeird,'

Now that their combined hunger was gone, the boys moved on in the agenda. Izuku began to explore his new plant body by stretching and poking himself all over and Tama thought of what they should do now, 'I don't want to be here all day, and we can't walk away from this spot,'he explained to Izuku.

'Now, how do we get back home?' Izuku poked his own head.

'We could try yelling, but who would hear us? ' Izuku tried and succeeded to blow an air bubble like Tama had.

'Nya, it doesn't look like there are any people nearby-' Izuku clapped, shaking Tama slightly enough he did not notice it.

' -and I've never even seen rocks like these before.' Izuku steered the bubble into a far away tree and popped it, rustling the branches.

He blew another bubble. He filled it with air until it grew to rival his head in size and blew so hard he released a large glob of pollen into it.

'Izuku do you know what-'

BANG!

'YEOWL!'

"Well, now we know how we can get people's attention hehe," Izuku laughed nervously as an angry Tama glared at him from his yellow painted visage.

'...'

"Tama… Are you mad at m-"

'HISSS~'

" What's happening?!"

"What is this shit?!"

"Achoo Achoo, its pollen, but where is it coming from?!"

To say that today was odd and chaotic would be like saying waking up to a cockroach on your face was startling.

It had started ten minutes ago when a villain with a spike quirk took a woman hostage in front of a store. He had been screaming obscenities at the police when a loud pop! went off and the villain was suddenly on the floor sporting a bruised right side. The woman had flown right into the arms of the hero who had been trying to talk the villain down.

This aroused confused noises from the crowd as the take down was unlike any quirk used by the present heroes.

Then another pop! rang out and a nearby second story window blew in.

A mild panic ensued, but the lack of any follow up let the crowd settle into an uneasy calm.

...

Then five minutes later another pop! and a car that had been double parked jumped two feet; all its windows broken and the frame heavily warped.

"MY CAR!"

And then another pop! went off three blocks away; blowing the clothes off an arguing pair of heroines and covering them in a light dusting of yellow powder, much to the delight of all the men watching.

This pattern continued: approximately every five minutes a pair of pops! would go off and destroy something minor.

A new pattern emerged, one which some heroes did not fail to notice.

'These things are getting closer together,' Sir Night Eye observed, 'and they appear to be heading towards a goal. But what is the point of this? The bombs aren't targeting anything vital, there is no pattern about the targets themselves, and what is with the pollen?

'The bombs being bait for a trap is possible, but incredibly unlikely. They haven't targeted any person, place, or thing that would garner the attention of a specific person, and why would they need to lure anyone anywhere? The 'Air Bomber' seems to be able to create invisible explosions from a distance so where his targets are should be irrelevant. What if-'

"Sir Nighteye! We've just gotten word that All Might has mobilized to where he believes the bombs are leading!" A random intern informed Nighteye while popping into his office.

"... God-damn it, All Might."

All Might advanced on what he believed to be the origin of the bombs...

…which was disturbingly a cemetery.

POP!

'This is definitely where the bomber is trying to draw attention to,' was all All Might could think to himself as a very large air bomb full of bright yellow pollen shot into the air and detonated like an organic firework.

He entered through the large gate, constantly weary of any traps considering the invisible bombs of the Air Bomber'

'This place is fairly large, how am I gonna find- What am I seeing?' All Might's thoughts came to an abrupt end when he saw the weirdest individual he had ever seen.

Which really said something in a world of quirks.

Sprouting from the middle of some grave plot was a large plant the size and shape of a four year old. It was slumped over like it was wilted and the second bloom on its branch hung straight down.

Before he could approach it to inspect it, the plant rose up and stood up straight! Then something truly shocking happened.

The plant spoke!

"Okay Tama, let's try again."

'OH MY GOODNESS! That plant, its sentient, but who's Tama?'

To All Might's continued surprise, the plant's flowers curled up and swelled before collapsing. The pink lotus launched a stream of pollen that coalesced into a large orb that it directed into the air, then detonated in a giant pollen shower.

'THIS PLANT IS THE AIR BOMBER?!'

"Come oooooonyah~, someone come find us already," the plant whined in the same four year old voice.

"Where are people, we've been trying to be rescued for hours nyooow~," Izuku continued to complain to his once-furry companion.

'I know, meow. Wanna nap till someone shows up?' Tama proposed the ultimate cat strategy that wasn't scratching or vomiting hairballs.

"Yep."

So Izuku began his usual sleep ritual: He curled up around Tama as best he could while stuck in the earth from the waist down and cuddled Tama in his arms. Tama purred and rubbed his head under Izuku's chin and both fell into the dreamworld soon after.

When the duo woke up half an hour later it was to someone poking them with a stick.

"Hello. Hello young man/plant, wake up please," A strong voice requested in a smooth baritone.

"Huh?"'Wazzut?'

Tama was ironically the first to wake up fully. Raising up straight and rubbing his right eye with a leaf he looked to where the voice originated, 'Who-?' Tama did a double take and smiled, 'Hey Izuku its that All Might guy!' Tama excitedly began pawing at Izuku's head, rubbing himself against the petals and play biting his curled 'ear' to wake him.

Izuku rose up into a slouch and rubbed his right eye, mirroring Tama's action while the cat nommed on his ear.

"Tama hehe stop it that tickles," Then his eyes shot open upon processing Tama's words.

"ALL MIGHT?!" Izuku looked up at the towering figure of his idol. The man himself looked on with a mix of concern, confusion, and minor fatherly amusement at the two's interaction.

"OHMYGOSHI'MYOURBIGGESTFANILOVEWATCHINGYOUONYOUTUBEANDIWANNABEJUSTLIKEYOUWHENIGROWUP!" the plant boy fanboyed.

All might gave the best smile he could in such an odd situation, apparently the plant was a fan.

Present Mic stared speechless for once in his life.

Eraserhead stared blankly before removing his goggles to rub his tired eyes at the sheer absurdity; " None of us are paid enough for this shit."