Chapter Text
NEW BGM UNLOCKED!
SHOCK ME – BARONESS – PURPLE
Now Playing – SHOCK ME - BARONESS
Your STRESS is reaching critical levels. Please take action to reduce your level of STRESS to avoid the ill effects of critical STRESS
When his quirk had given him a new stress alert he hadn’t seen before and started playing a synth line he’d never heard before Izuku Midoriya knew that he had already decided his course of action. His quirk so far only played new music when he made big decisions, which he hadn’t made many of in the month he’d had his quirk admittedly, but this qualified as a big decision. He stood at the edge of a crowd looking at pro heroes failing to contain a towering inferno and free a rampaging villain’s hostage. Said hostage was someone he knew, his childhood friend Katsuki Bakugo; someone he could say he sort of cared about even. So, he started charging forward and pushing bodies aside amidst the song in his head erupting into a churning guitar riff and tom driven drumbeat.
Of course, the decision to close his alerts, wrestle past a large group of people and several career superheroes, then charge at a giant slime person was probably not the smartest he had made in his short life. Adding in the fact that he had just been emotionally destroyed by an awful encounter with his personal hero and that he had no real plan or ability to inflict any kind of substantial damage to a giant slime man writhing about in a flaming alley as he suffocated someone, Izuku would probably say this was his dumbest decision ever, but still one of his best.
He just barely managed to dodge the grasp of one of the pro heroes who was screaming at him, his voice drowned out by the sound of an ascending guitar riff and belted echoing baritone vocals in the song blaring in Izuku’s mind. He could feel his lungs burning from the thick smoke and the fact that he was pushing his legs harder than he ever had before. The slime villain caught eyes with him and let out a snarl, whipping out an amorphous appendage with full force to swat Izuku down. The boy darted forward and to the left, just barely avoiding the attack and almost tripping with the sudden shift in inertia. He threw his hands up to steady himself before breaking out in a run again and tearing his backpack off his shoulders. A few meters away from the villain he used the force of his speed to twist himself and throw his bag as hard as he could at the sneering gooey mess of a face in front of him. What he’d failed to notice was the series of alerts that had been popping up in the peripheral of his vision.
Your first potentially fatal combat encounter has unlocked a new feature: TIMED DODGING
CRITICAL DODGE! Your next action has an increased chance of triggering a secondary effect!
CRITICAL HIT! SLIMY ASSHOLE IS NOW DAZED!
Your courage and quick thinking have unlocked a new feature: DYNAMIC MUSIC
IMMINENT BADASSERY DETECTED! CHANGING BGM TO ANTHEM MODE! BRING THE FUCKING NOISE!
The slime man reeled back in pain as Izuku’s bag smacked into his eyes with a meaty splattering sound, drawing out a scream from his crooked mouth as he reeled back. Immediately after everyone in the vicinity of the towering flames were hit with a wall of disembodied guitars and drums beginning to climb in volume and pitch, seemingly emanating from the teenager who had charged into the fray. Izuku took the chance to start scratching and clawing at the slime covering Bakugo, crying out in effort. A moment later the slime villain regained his senses and snapped up Izuku into a newly formed tentacle. He tried to keep at least some semblance of cool as he was slowly brought eye to eye with both the impossibly wide mouth of his captor and the panicked expression of Katsuki, meaning he was shaking and tearing up instead of just flat out bawling.
Izuku tried his best to bite back a scream as the sludge around him started to constrict as the horrific mess of teeth in front of him grew wider. Just when he started to audibly hear his bones strain a reedy voice slid out of the gaping maw, “A human jukebox huh? Well let’s see what that sounds like when you’re flash fried!” The monster let out a cackle and a shower of sparks and light flooded Izuku’s vision, Katsuki’s explosion quirk forcibly activated.
The villain’s timing couldn’t have been worse, as you never attack the protagonist of a video game during a cutscene when the BGM hits the bridge. As the flash started to fade and was followed by a massive rumbling explosion, a rapid drum fill and a tense mess of chords sounding out from Izuku also exploded into a fucking righteous guitar solo. Izuku was suddenly torn from his slimy prison and into the grip of a towering figure that stood resolute as the conflagration seemed to bounce off him.
Izuku looked up at his rescuer with a look of shock and further tears, “All Might!?”
All Might let out a jovial laugh, blood leaking from his wide smile, and spoke in almost perfect harmony with the tasty licks wafting through the air, “Have no Fear! For I am here!”
The towering figure of muscle and raw silver age heroism suddenly flew into a roaring haymaker, tearing Katsuki away from the overwhelming wave of tornado force winds sending the villain into the sky and snuffing out the surrounding inferno. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the sun shined down on All Might holding his fist out as he turned to look at Izuku who’s expression was a mix of awe and anxiety. Then a short fanfare suddenly played as an empty bar popped up in front of Izuku before slowly filling with color red, beginning to flash when full. All Might watched on with his usually smiling visage marred by a raised eyebrow as a quiet ding emanated from seemingly nowhere. Sparkles then emanated from the boy’s head before a block of pixelated English text popped up, accompanied by a booming reading it out, just barely audible over the continued guitar shredding blasting from the green haired teenager.
LEVEL UP!!!
Strength +02 Guts +06
Heart +03 Smarts MAX
Will +09 Witchery +07
Vision +10 Knack +05
As the voice finished and the text collapsed in on itself in a another flash of retro video game sparkles, dark clouds suddenly formed above and brought down a heavy shower, hiding Izuku’s anxious tears and allowing the last seconds of the song that his quirk had been playing to fade into the sounds of rain hitting concrete and the quickly approaching crowd of agitated heroes and civilians.
Izuku sat in the back doorway of an ambulance, nodding as he was again berated by a police officer, again told that charging into the fray with such a useless quirk was suicide, that he should have just left the heroics to the pro heroes that had obviously been doing their jobs, and if All Might hadn’t been there he would have just wound up dead and caused even more trouble. He was used to this, so incredibly used to this. The infantilization and condescension from authority figures was standard for any teenager and his previous quirkless status had meant he got that treatment from his own peers. He kept his mouth shut, deciding to just go with the flow and agree with everything being said to him.
As the officer walked away from him to call the boy’s mother, he let out a pained breath as he gingerly rubbed his side. The sudden trauma of being squeezed by an icky tentacle had more than likely bruised his ribs but the paramedics had dismissed his complaints, telling him that if he was going to act like an idiot then he should suffer the consequences. Izuku was pretty sure that broke at least a couple of laws, but he was too tired and too weirded out by his quirk to even weakly protest.
Why had his quirk chosen this moment to activate in new ways? The initial trigger for the quirk had been him almost dying but he’d received nothing from that except a few songs and a prompt congratulating him on activating his quirk. Was it the fact that the villain intended to kill him whereas before the danger didn’t have an outside source? And both of his recent unlocks implied possibilities beyond the prompts he triggered. Was there something beyond a critical dodge? Below? Could he only dodge attacks? Were there other status effects he could inflict? His quirk was still so new and had seemed to be so limited that he hadn’t even begun to consider its possible internal logic. Other than a way to hear music he’d never even heard before it had only given him occasional pop-ups about how people felt about him. And was there something other than Anthem Mode? What was the specific trigger for it? Was there a way to play background music around himself outside of combat? What constitutes badassery? Where could he hear more epic guitar solos like that? How could he learn to play an epic guitar solo like that?
A feminine voice broke him out of the mumbling trance he’d fallen into, “Do you know that you’re thinking out loud? And that it’s simultaneously charming and really creepy?”
Izuku was startled from his runaway train of thought and flinched backwards, making eye contact with a young woman a few years older than him who was eyeing him warily while leaning forward a bit. She was tall and decidedly not Japanese in appearance, her skin a light brown and hair dark, long, and wavy, save for the left half that was tightly braided in rows along her scalp. Then he noticed just how… endowed she was in certain respects, her black sports bra doing little to hide anything. Over that she wore a baggy green jacket with yellow stripes and matching shorts of a similar lax fit, rounded out with a pair of worn bright yellow trainers. She was curved and toned in ways he hadn’t seen up close before, the sight making him shiver almost. She was probably the prettiest person Izuku had ever seen in person, including the pro heroes he had seen in action, and she was talking to him of her own volition!
The girl leaned back, her features turning up into a bright bemused smile as she spoke again, “You trying to catch flies there?” Izuku’s jaw snapped shut and he seemed to collapse into himself, a mess of mumbled and frantic apologies coming from his blood red face.
She broke into a full-on grin and let out a bright bark of laughter (which Izuku would compare to the sounds of scantily clad angels singing for a collection of reasons in the future), “You’re good man, relax! Just teasing!” She stood up straight and held out her hand, “I’m Laura, Laura Matsuda. I was in the middle of a run when I caught your show back there.”
The boy shook her hand as quickly as he could without seeming rude, trying to pull himself out of the throes of horrific embarrassment, managing to speak clearly, “Izuku Midoriya. I wouldn’t exactly call that a show, more a series of horrible mistakes that somehow didn’t kill me.” He looked down with a frown, his left arm grabbing the opposite shoulder as his right carefully ran along his bruised ribs, “If All Might hadn’t shown up, I would probably be a smoking corpse right now.”
Laura took the chance to look Izuku over again, her smile shrinking into a smirk as the gears in her head started turning. Dressed in a plain baggy school uniform, he was rail thin and had an anxious energy to the way he moved. His hair was a mess of wavy green going out in every direction, stopping just above large eyes of a matching color. The dark bags under them bled into a smattering of freckles on both cheeks, which combined with the roundness of his features made him seem like a tired and nervous teddy bear. She found him immediately adorable, especially with the way he got so easily flustered.
The only thing that detracted from the soft comfort of his appearance was the thick, angry, red scar that ran down from the corner of his left eye to wrap around his jaw, stopping just shy of his chin. A smaller mark was across his forehead, mostly hidden under his hair, while the tip of an even more vicious looking one was just visible above the high collar of his shirt. Whatever had caused them had happened recently and was definitely not a fun experience.
“…I-I k-know that they’re not exactly the most pleasant looking, but do you have to stare so intensely?” Laura flushed, realizing that she had been doing the same thing he had to her, for different reasons.
“Sorry, that was rude of me too.” She flashed a wide smile, trying to cheer him up. “Guess we’re even now huh?”
Izuku flushed again and nodded, before speaking again in a low mumble that she could tell was probably his default tone, “Did you just come over to just say hello? Or was there something else?”
“I was impressed by your instincts and wanted to invite you to the dojo I teach at!” She had lit up now, seemingly excited by the mere thought.
Izuku tilted his head that reminded Laura of a puppy in a way she felt shouldn’t be legal, “Dojo? You mean like martial arts?”
“Exactly! My family has a jiu-jitsu style we created that I’m trying to pass onto as many people as possible!” She’d struck a pose like a fighting stance as she spoke, arms stretched out in front of her and legs apart, before bouncing back to a relaxed stance.
Izuku broke into a wide grin with his eyes sparkling, Laura’s enthusiasm infecting him, “So, it’s your family’s dojo? And you’re good enough to teach? That’s super cool and really impressive! You must be incredible to be so skilled and so young!”
Laura blushed and rubbed the back of her head, a little taken aback at how animated the previously timid boy had become. “Well it’s not my family’s dojo, but I do teach there along with a bunch of other awesome people! You should totally come by! I could tell from that dodge of yours you’ve got great instincts!”
Izuku’s smile shrunk, his hands going back to his ribs and shoulder, “I’m not exactly the athletic type… you probably wanna look elsewhere for students.”
Laura took on a deadpan expression, her tone decidedly not having it, “That just makes me want to drag you into this more.” She held her hand out in front of him, “Phone.”
“Huh?”
“Your phone, give it to me.” Her expression reminded him of the few times he’d aggravated his mother, preventing him from arguing as he dug his phone out of his pocket and put it into her waiting hand.
She took her own out of her pocket and tapped away, handing his back a moment later, the screen lit up with her name added as a contact in his chat app and a message with an address.
“I gotta get going, but you should come by sometime. We’re open all day on the weekends! See you later Izuku!” Before he could respond she took off down the road, leaving Izuku blushing and staring.
A few moments later he’d been sent on his way home by the police officer, informed his mother was waiting for him at home. He’d run off as fast as possible to avoid anymore reprimanding, his self-esteem not able to handle anymore passive aggressive comments from authority figures.
As he walked down the street, a key realization about his conversation with Laura hit him with the force of a truck and caused him to stop and snap out of his normal slouch. A wide smile broke out on his face as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “I talked to a girl!”
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED – MEET CUTE
YOU TALKED TO A GIRL! FUCK YEAH!
Heart +01 Witchery +02
Izuku blushed at the pop-up that appeared in a blast of digital glitter, simultaneously affirmed in his excitement and embarrassed at being rewarded for basic social interactions. He dismissed the pop-up and started walking again, falling into a storm of thoughts and ideas that leaked out into a barely audible jumble.
He really needed to start laying out the details of his quirk and start experimenting, as there were so many more possibilities to what he had access to. Did every little thing have the possibility to unlock achievements? Would they all give stat boosts? What did the stats mean? How in the world did they work or even physically affect him? Smarts and Strength were self-explanatory but what did knack entail? Dexterity? What in the world did heart quantify? His literal cardiovascular health or something relating to his emotional state? What did vision or witchery represent? Witchery could be a synonym for allure or glamour, but that was usually in a mystical sense, right? This was a quirk, one that warped reality apparently which was more than sort of terrifying, but did it have some sort of magic bent?
Izuku continued his half-manic mumbling, pulling out one of his notebooks and scribbling away, trying to get every thought spilling out down as quickly as possible and into some form of coherency for later rumination.
“ I AM HERE !”
All Might stood in front of the oblivious teenage boy in front of him, locked in a heroic pose and waiting for some form of acknowledgement. When the boy walked past him completely ignorant to his presence his quirk gave out and deflated him into his default state.
He put a hand on the boy’s shoulder causing him to jump and let out a squeak of terror, “Kid! Quit nerding out and pay attention!”
Izuku pulled himself into some semblance of normalcy and gave a shocked look to the emaciated man in front of him, “All Might? What are you doing here?”
“I came to apologize and ask you a question,” He suddenly bulked back up into his iconic form, “ HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A HERO IZUKU MIDORIYA?! ”