Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe that I’m actually here!” A young woman exclaimed, as she looked in awe at the school’s gate.

Izumi Midoriya, out of breath from having just run several miles from Dagobah Beach after finally receiving One For All from All Might, finally arrived at the entrance of U.A High for the Hero Course Entrance Exam.

The tall glass building towered above, casting an imposing shadow over the U.A hopefuls. Masses of hopeful students walked towards the building for the various exams.

Izumi noticed that around the path, a few small groups were gathered, eagerly chatting about the coming exams. Those looking to enroll in the Business and Management courses were cross referencing portfolios and sharing tips.

Several people carried technical equipment and U.A provided briefcases for their Support Gear. In particular she could see a manic woman with pink dreadlocks buzzing about like a squirrel on cocaine, her case flailing behind her as she flitted about.

“Watch it, Deku.” A gruff voice called from behind her.

“Sorry Kacchan.” She said, stumbling after he pushed past her like some kind of jock from a b-rated movie.

Katsuki Bakugo, an egotistical jerk who called others extras, and claimed to be the future “Number 1 Hero” despite being at the very best, a bully. He was her childhood friend, turned harshest tormentor when she was diagnosed at age 5 as quirkless. (Nearly a death sentence in this day and age.)

In a society based around powerful quirks, being quirkless automatically labeled you an outcast. Despite around 20% of the world’s population being quirkless, only around 0.1% of people her age in Japan were quirkless. So it wasn’t like there were any support groups she could join. Despite having no physical differences between a quirked and quirkless person besides a single strand of DNA, quirkless people were seen as “Inferior” or “Useless”.

Slapping herself on her face she shook herself out of her thoughts, stepping foot inside U.A’s walls for her exam.

-~-~-~-~-~-

‘It’s all over, goodbye world.’ She thought as she shut her eyes tight, her face was quickly approaching the ground, because a very evil, and very malicious pebble tripped her, thus beginning her eulogy.

Until suddenly she felt her weight seemingly dissipate, leaving her floating mid-air.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry for using my quirk on you without asking!” A girl cried, as she bowed nervously. She had a brown bob cut and permanent blush marks on her cheeks.

Izumi blinked, “No worries, I appre-I appreciate the save. My name is Izumi Midoriya! What’s-what’s yours?”

“Ochako Uraraka, nice to meet you Midoriya!” She said, physically turning Izumi right side up as she floated mid-air. “Release!”

“Nice to meet you too, Uraraka!” She said, nearly falling as she touched the ground after her weight returned.

“Wish you luck on the exams!” Uraraka said, as she ran inside the school.

“Y-you too!” She stuttered out, ‘Wow, I talked to somebody, and they didn’t even insult me! Maybe U.A will be better than Aldera!’

-~-~-~-~-~-

‘That was… easy? Why was that easy? Wait, did I fail horribly? Because there’s no way that I a useless Deku did it that easily. U.A is the #1 hero school in the country, Nedzu was reported saying that he “Had high standards for the Heroes of Tomorrow’s education.” I must’ve messed up badly then, hopefully I got at least a passing grade.’ Izumi spiraled, panicking about her scores on the exam.

“Heya Listeners, can I get a ‘YEAH!?’” A loud voice echoed through the audience.

There was only an awkward silence in response to the call, the person behind the voice merely shrugged before continuing on unbothered. “Welcome to this year’s U.A Heroics Course Entrance Exam’s! Heads up for you Listener’s, my name is Present Mic. I'm a Pro Hero, radio host, and teacher here at U.A! Before we roll onto the Heroics Practical Exam, we have to pass out print out for you all to look at okay?

“We got the rockin’ Ectoplasm to spare some of his clones to pass out the print out! Everybody, give a hand for Ectoplasm!” Mic shouted, clapping loudly.

Several students cheered, while most politely applauded for Ectoplasm. One blue-haired boy near the front sat up at a perfect 90 degree angle as he clapped stiffly.

“As you will see from the print out we’ve got multiple different kinds of robots. We have the 1-Pointer bots, 2-Pointer bots, and 3-Pointer bots. If you couldn’t tell, the 1-Pointer is the easiest, with the difficulty going up with the number!”

The board behind Present Mic shifted from a U.A emblem, to silhouettes of the three robots. The 1-Pointer being the smallest, and 3-Pointer being the biggest.

“Now—“ Mic started,

“Excuse me!” The stiff blue haired boy interrupted, “The print out states that there are 4 different robots! With all due respect, a school as great as U.A should not be making mistakes in regards to its Practical Exams! And you messy green haired girl!”

Izumi flinched before she hesitantly pointed a finger towards herself.

“Yes you! You have been fidgeting this whole time! If you aren’t going to take this test seriously, then I suggest you go home. U.A doesn’t accept anything but the best.” Jerk Face shouted, standing pompously above the seated examinees.

Izumi sank down in her seat, desperately trying to hide from the snickering people in the crowd.

“Not cool man, making fun of other examinees isn’t very heroic of you!” A sharp-toothed fellow greenette shouted back.

“Hey, hey listeners, let’s not start fighting. First of all Examinee 3704, I was about to get to the 4th bot before you interrupted me. Second, please don’t put down other people, you don’t know what's going on with them, so I ask you to please use empathy.” Present Mic responded, trying to ease the tension.

The fellow greenette gave a sharp grin and thumbs up to Izumi, before sitting down, causing Izumi to return it albeit slightly shakier.

The blue haired boy stuttered as he turned red— in anger or embarrassment she couldn’t tell— before giving a sharp nod as he returned to his seat.

“Alrighty then!” Present Mic sweatdropped, beaming smile never fading. “The 4th robot is known as the 0-Pointer, there’s only one per testing site, and you don’t get any points for defeating it, the only reason it’s there is to be an obstacle!

“Before I send you off to the buses I’ll leave you with the words of Napoleon Bonaparte... 'True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life.' That’s a sweet sound bite. Don’t forget to do your best during the test, and to go beyond, Plus Ultra!”

“PLUS ULTRA!” The crowd shouts, as the examinees stand up to rush out of the room. Whereas Izumi sat patiently, waiting for the chaos to die down before standing calmly and walking her bus to get to Battle Center B.

-~-~-~-~-~-

As Izumi got to the bus stop, she felt a tap on her shoulder, looking towards it she noticed a hand on her shoulder. Not just a hand, a severed hand.

“Aaahh!” Izumi screamed, frantically trying to remove the object.

“Hey, hey, chill fellow greenie, I didn’t mean to scare you that bad.”

Behind her was the greenette that defended her in the auditorium. She sported a guilty smile from sending Izumi’s heart directly into her esophagus.

“Names Setsuna Tokage, my quirk Lizard Tail Splitter, lets me detach body parts, see?” She said, wiggling her severed hand’s fingers, before reattaching it seamlessly.

“Geez Tokage, way to make a girl ha-have a panic attack. Anyways, its ni-nice to meet you, I-I’m Izumi Midoriya, thanks for defending me back there.” She said, as her heart slowly returned to its proper place.

“No worries Mido! Always glad to lend a hand.” She said, wiggling her eyebrows as she offered her now severed hand.

“M-Mido?” Izumi stuttered out, flushing at the nickname she received from a practical stranger.

“Yup, too lazy to say your whole name! Plus nicknames are always fun! Anyways see you at U.A!” She said before sprinting over to the bus heading to Battle Center D.

“Bye I guess.” Izumi muttered. Shaking her head, she continued on her intended path to the Battle Center B bus.

“Battle Center B, line up!” A man shouted, holding his arms like a goalpost in front of a bus.

In the line she noticed an incredibly sparkly blonde boy, and the gravity girl that saved her from falling. Shaking off her nerves, she got in line behind the sparkly guy.

The inside of the bus was… well, a bus. Izumi sat near the back, to try and calm down for a little bit.

‘Deep breath in… Deep breath out. Inhale for 4, hold for 6, out for 8.’

“Shh don’t say anything okay?” A man’s voice called out.

‘Wh-what?’ Izumi mentally began scouting exits.

“Hey hey, no it's fine. This is because of One For All okay? I’m the first user, my name is Yoichi.” He said frantically.

“Um how?” She asked aloud, scanning the bus for anyone out of the ordinary.

“Okay, I’m not sure how much time we have to talk, so I’m doing bullet points okay? Okay. One For All is extremely powerful now, after 8 adult users it’ll wreck your body if you aren’t careful. So, I’d recommend finding a good way to visualize using about… 1% for now. Don’t go too high or else it’ll hurt… a lot.

Secondly, don’t listen to the buffoon and just ‘Clench your cheeks and yell Smash!’ okay? Focus on spreading One for All throughout your whole body. If you get to fight or flight, don’t use more than 1% on your head okay, you don’t need any brain damage 9th. Oh yeah, you’re the 9th user, we’ll be able to chat more while you're asleep. And I think that’s the important stuff, any questions that I can answer quickly?” He listed practically word vomiting.

“Um, where are you?” Izumi asked, looking around.

‘Oops, okay. I’m dead, when I died a “vestige” as we call them, got left in One for All. So you don’t have to speak aloud, I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’m speaking directly in your head.’ He responded, explaining he died like it was an everyday occurrence.

‘Oh.’ She thought, ‘Any advice then?’

‘Oh oh! Always go for the joints. Kudo — the second user — taught me that!’ He said excitedly. ‘Kudo was so cool when he—‘ He started, before his voice gradually faded out.

It was kind of concerning that he was so excited teaching a child how to maim things. Eh, everyone has their quirks.

Chapter Text

‘So, recap. I have a ghost in my head, he can speak to me while I sleep (totally not sketchy at all), he was apparently the First User of One for All, and then he just info-dumps a whole lot of stuff and leaves. If I wasn’t completely hopped up on adrenaline for this exam, I’d be having a complete and utter breakdown right about now.’ Izumi sighs, ‘Okay, focus, time sensitive stuff now, breakdown later.

‘Number one, One for All is super strong after having 8 previous users — which would’ve been helpful to know earlier All Might! — so I can’t just use 100% of the strength right away.

Which kinda makes sense considering All Might’s “Detroit Smash” practically changed the weather when he hit the sludge guy into the atmosphere. I really haven’t thought this through well enough, am I even ready for this exam? What if I fail? What if All Might doesn’t think I’m good enough anymore?

‘No!’ Izumi slaps her face, ‘I got this! I’ll be first place for su- well I won’t fail at least! What did Yoichi say again, visualize using 1%? How do you even visualize percentages? A lever? No, that’s all or nothing, hmm… a dial! Maybe like one on a safe, those usually have a lot of individual “notches” right? The one in my mind just has to have one hundred notches, oh boy. Wait, maybe not one hundred, what about in increments instead?

Let’s do one through nine having individual notches, then in increments of five maybe? That sounds easy enough, maybe, hopefully? For now, I’ll just focus on 1%, and sort the rest out later, okay.

Deep breaths, feel the energy in your gut Izumi. Deep breath in… deep breath out.’ She closed her eyes, focusing on the quiet buzzing feeling around her diaphragm.

It was… fascinating. When she was quirkless there was no tingling of a quirk in her body, she wondered if this was what it’s like for all quirk users. It was kind of itchy, but like a comfy sweater from grandma itchy, not ‘I want to turn off my nerve endings’ itchy.

She focused on the dial in her mind, slowly turning it from 0% to 1%. As she did, she felt some kind of energy escape the “core” of her quirk.

She imagined it was like a river, flowing gently just under her skin, energizing all of her muscles, tendons, bones, every part of her. As the current settled, gently flowing through her, she felt an unexpected tingling on the surface of her skin, like the carbonation in a soda can rising to the top.

Opening her eyes, it became obvious what the bubbly feeling was, and boy was it shocking. Arcing across her skin like tesla coils was lightning, shimmering in multiple different colors, from a pale green to a strange black. Which violated so many different rules of physics, but quirks are utter nonsense, so what do you expect?

“Whoa,” Izumi said, admiring her new sparkles, under an hour ago she was staring at a sparkly blond boy, and now she looks like a literal sparkler, what a world.

“Go!” Present Mic exclaimed, at the gates opened to the faux city. It seems she got so caught up in exploring her new power, she failed to notice when Mic showed up.

‘When did he even get here?’ She mentally screamed, as she frantically ran into the test site, scanning the area for robots.

“That kid has the right idea, what are you waiting for? There are no countdowns in real life, go, go, go!” He shouted, shocking the stunned students into action.

The lightning didn’t seem to damage anything it touched as it arced off of her skin, excess power perhaps? Either way 1% of One for All certainly increased her speed, causing her to run nearly double her normal pace.

Scouting the test site, she noticed it was a very tight knit city, the alleyways were barely wide enough for three people to walk shoulder to shoulder. Speaking of alleyways, it would seem a 2-Pointer was rapidly approaching her from one, oh no.

“Shoot!” Izumi exclaimed, barely avoiding eating concrete, as the robot swung its tail at her. As she jumped back she scanned the bot, quickly noticing the vulnerable joints — just like Yoichi mentioned.

The robot continued on unfazed and swung its tail around, trying to land a hit. Luckily Izumi had experience dodging attacks from larger opponents, Katsuki so she had no problem outmaneuvering the opponent. After one such dodge, it jabbed its tail forward attempting to catch her off guard, but luckily for Izumi, she was subconsciously analyzing its attack patterns the whole time. As her instincts anticipated the overextended attack, she darted under its tail before using her One for All boosted foot to target its front legs, disabling it.

“Crap!” She exclaimed, shaking out her sore legs. “Must’ve accidentally gone above 1% in the excitement.”

“Anyways…” she drawled, “time to wreck some more robots!”

-~-~-~-~-~-

“What do you think of this year’s examinees Yagi?” A certain albino chimera asked, looking towards a skeleton of a man.

“There are certainly some interesting kids this year, Nedzu.” Toshinori Yagi — All Might’s civilian form, also fondly referred to as Small Might — replied, his gaze locked on a teen with an explosive quirk.

“Interesting indeed!” Nedzu said, “This coming school year should be quite entertaining!”

“Blondie there has quite the quirk on ‘im.” Snipe said, looking towards the same screen Yagi was looking at.

“Katsuki Bakugo,” Nedzu said, producing a file from seemingly nowhere. “‘Quirk: Explosion, the user sweats a nitroglycerin-like substance, allowing them to produce explosions from igniting their sweat.’ Good grades, easy in class, not to mention he already has 27 Villain Points.”

“Certainly has enthusiasm, doesn't he?” Midnight remarked amusedly, watching as the blond boy shouted ‘DIE!’ as he racked up an additional 3 Villain Points.

“Not the worst thing in this business.” Cementoss replied easily, grimacing at the collateral damage being done to HIS cities. Not that he actually owns them, but he did practically build all of them using his quirk.

“He’s too brash for underground heroics, just like someone else I know, but he should fit in well with the Limelights.” Eraserhead drawled, looking towards a certain Number One Hero’s deflated form.

“What about this one?” Power Loader asked, “She’s smart, disabling them by targeting the joints, before she completely takes them out. Doesn’t hurt that it's a lot cheaper to repair them that way either.” He murmured.

“Quite! It shows she can plan in the moment, and execute it nearly flawlessly.” Nedzu said, before materializing a folder with a flourish. “Izumi Midoriya, her Quirk: Enhancement, increases her physical capabilities. For someone with a strength enhancement quirk, she focuses on quick maneuvers rather than brute force, how very interesting. Although, it does beg the question of where that lightning comes from?

“Ah, but it appears I’ve gotten distracted, Yagi, would you care to do the honors?” Nedzu asked, motioning towards the ominous glowing red button.

“Of course sir.” He responded, shaking off the mental whiplash, he marched towards the button labeled “0-P”.

With a dramatic nod towards Nedzu, he raised his skeletal hand skyward, before slamming it down on the button.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“That’s 34 points!” Izumi weakly cheered as she breathed in deep breaths of air. “But, I gotta keep going, I should have a good chance of getting in if I get to 40!”

She would’ve already hit 40 Points if those other kids didn’t keep throwing themselves into dangerous situations. Like, did you really think you could take 5 robots at once, while being injured?

Luckily she grabbed them and ran off before they could be mowed down by the rubber bullets, although that didn't stop her from being yelled at.

“I had it handled, thank you!”

“That was my kill, loser!”

“Hey, back off, these are mine.”

Because oh yeah, she definitely wanted to be ‘sabotaging’ the examinees instead of getting more points, genius. Mean, snotty-nosed little —

She was abruptly removed from her current scolding, as the ground rumbled ominously. The wall of the building she was leaning against began to crumble and flake off as a giant shadow covered her surroundings.

Looking up she saw a GIANT freaking robot, to be honest it was so incredibly gigantic she couldn’t think of a proper comparison before she started absolutely hightailing it out of there, far far away from Power Loader’s baby.

“Help!” A muffled voice cried out from among the dust clouds created by the robot’s assent from the earth, causing her to stutter in her run.

Internally cursing her big heart, she hurried towards the voice. Besides, it's not like U.A would let a student get horrifically injured, right?

Uncomfortably close to the approaching robot, she saw the source of the voice, a girl, trapped beneath rubbles from a collapsed building. “Hey!” Izumi called out, “Are you injured?”

“Thank goodness someone came back!” The girl replied, who now that she was close enough, was definitely that Uraraka girl from before. “Oh, um not too bad, my ankle is trapped and a little messed up so I don’t know if I can walk once the rubbles off, but I won’t pass out or anything.”

“That’s good. Now, let’s see if we can’t get the rubble off of you hmm?” Izumi said, sounding significantly more confident than she felt. She planted her feet firmly as she gripped the large block of rubble, channeling her quirk, she pulled with all of her might. Well maybe not all of her might, but at least with all of her muscles and 1% of One for All.

And… it didn't even budge, great.

“I’ll be honest, I can’t move the rubble.” She said, continuing before Uraraka could panic, “But… I’m sure U.A won’t let anything happen, so I’ll just stay here with you until paramedics get here!”

“Yeah, okay.” Uraraka said dejectedly, understandably very uncomfortable with her situation. “I would help you move the rubble with my quirk, but even if I could reach it I'm pretty sure it’s well above my weight limit.”

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Izumi said, channeling her best All Might level smile. “The exam should be ending soon.”

—

Unbeknownst to them, the staff were currently freaking out about the out of control 0-Pointer robot that refused to stop as it continued to approach the girls.

—

“Hey um it’s getting kind of close don’t you think?” Uraraka asked, staring fearfully towards the monolithic robot.

“It should stop soon,” Izumi replied, as it continued getting closer. “It should stop any second now…”

“Any second now…” she repeated.

“Okay, if this thing doesn’t stop soon, I’m going to have to do something really stupid, and I don’t want you to blame yourself at all, okay?” Izumi said, grabbing Uraraka’s hand as she dreaded what she was going to have to do if that big thing didn’t turn its fine self right back around.

“What?”

“Frick. I don’t know exactly what’s about to happen, but all I know is it’s gonna suuuuck.” She said mournfully, letting go of Uraraka’s hand as she channeled way too much of One For All into her legs.

“Boing.” She said deadpan, she jumped absurdly high — significantly higher than the 0-Pointer in fact — as she left the concrete, she felt it crack beneath her feet, and the bones in both her legs followed.

‘Don’t let it reach my brain, don’t let it reach my brain.’ She repeated frantically.

“SMASH!” She screamed, feeling One for All surge painfully into her arm as she threw an aggressive right hook connecting with the robot.

As her fist touched the metal plating on the 0-Pointer, it caved inwards with a piercing crack, she wasn’t sure if it was the metal or her arm that cracked, perhaps both. The once 0-Pointer, now giant tin can, flew backwards from the force of Izumi’s punch far away from Uraraka.

Gravity seemed to start working again after the absurdly powerful right hook, and Izumi started falling down. ‘Guess it didn’t hit my brain after all.’ She thought, ‘Doesn't really matter since I’m about to become a human pancake, but at least I didn’t get brain damage.’

“Slap yourself in the face.” A faint voice called past the whistling wind.

“What?” Izumi yelled confusedly as she fell downwards.

“Five-point activation, each finger, slap yourself.” The quiet feminine voice repeated.

“Who’s there?”

“BE QUIET AND SLAP YOURSELF BEFORE YOU DIE!” The quiet voice shouted, although it was still quiet, about the volume of a normal speaking voice.

“Yes ma’am!” Izumi replied, diligently slapping herself upside the head with her undamaged hand.

Looking down she saw the ground uncomfortably close, merely a couple feet away. She had stopped mid-air, seemingly having lost all inertia. Before she was able to come to grips with her near death, she was overwhelmed by nausea and instinctively pressed all 10 fingers together, aggravating her mangled arm.

Suddenly she was dropped from her mid-air suspension, hitting her head on the ground. Sensing her rising nausea, and fading consciousness, she barely managed to get herself into a recovery position before vomiting and passing out.

Chapter Text

”Who the crap was-“

“That wasn’t Float, that wasn’t freaking Float-“

“C’mon guys, your giving me anxietyyyy -“

“Hey, HEY, everybody shut up. If you don’t flipping let me have this, I’m taking away your kneecap privileges.” At the man’s comment, the voices died down quickly, leaving an awkward silence.

As Izumi slowly opened her eyes, she was met with a frail white haired man crouched in front of her, staring into her soul with his eerily similar green eyes.

“Hey you, you’re finally awake.” He said calmly, but the way his eyes gleamed revealed his excitement.

“Umm, hi?” Izumi said, offering a shy wave, “Where- where am I?”

“Hello foolish mortal! I, Yoichi Shigaraki have summoned you forth into my realm of darkness!” Yoichi said, grinning unnervingly. “Here you shall stay for all of eter-“

“Cut her some slack Yoichi.” A raven haired woman interrupted, elbowing Yoichi out of the way. “Hey Ninth, names Nana Shimura also known as Seventh, unfortunately I’m the only other girl here.

“Yoichi here was just messing with you, after your stunt with the giant robot, you passed out and were pulled into One for All’s… room? Whatever you want to call it, basically you’re inside of One for All. Usually you’d stay here until you want to wake up, but it seems they got you on some of the good stuff, so you’ll probably just wake up once that wears off.”

“Yoichi, like the voice in my head from the bus Yoichi?” Izumi asked, staring into unblinking emerald eyes.

“Yup, one and the same!” Yoichi grinned, “Had to interrupt before the voices got too loud!”

“What is he-“ Izumi began, looking towards Nana.

“It’s best to just ignore him, he has an unusual sense of humor.” Nana said, as she stared off into the abyss, looking like she aged 10 years.

“Anyways, this is One for All? It’s so… big.” Izumi said, just now noticing she was standing on an iridescent flooring that looked very similar to oil when it’s in the sun.

Above her head was a massive flaming ball, reminiscent of a star. It was a patchwork of colors, with the most space being taken up by a mustard yellow color, and the smallest being a dark green.

Orbiting the giant “sun” were several smaller “stars”. The first star was a glowing light blue orb surrounded by what appeared to be cogs.

The second was a maroon star, which had half a dozen pistons fused into it, all firing in unison. Each time the pistons fired, the star briefly glowed brighter for a moment before returning to normal.

The third was a pulsating grey star, which Izumi noticed pulsed in time with her heartbeat, it radiated a feeling of unease causing her to look away quickly.

The fourth star was a turquoise color, it writhed occasionally, sending out short tendrils of itself before fading away.

The fifth star was a smoky purple, it seemed to billow in the nonexistent wind, maintaining the rough shape of an orb.

The sixth was a black colored star, with a pink outline. It moved like a helium balloon, moving side to side slightly as it orbited the “sun”.

The seventh was the strangest one, unlike the others this star didn’t seem very “star-like”, it was a plain yellow orb. Unlike the previous stars that had varying interesting qualities, this one seemed closer to a rubber ball than a star.

“So you’re all dead then?” Izumi asked quietly.

“Yeah kid, we are.” Nana nodded solemnly, “Not something to worry about though, the one who killed us is dead now.” For some reason Nana’s words seemed to affect Yoichi, but before Izumi could ask Nana continued, “I know that Toshi showed you the scar he got - why he showed that to a child I’ll never understand - he got that when he defeated the guy, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

A steady beeping noise filled One for All’s clubhouse space.

“Well guess that’s time for today,” Yoichi said, eerily somber compared to his previously energetic self, “Don’t over do it after you wake up, recovering from an injury properly is important, especially for Heroes. Can’t be a good hero if you don’t take care of yourself.”

“Wait, but I have questions!” Izumi shouted, as her vision grew blurry.

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll talk again soon.” Nana said, offering a wave as Izumi exited dream land.

“You didn’t need to tell her that, you know it isn’t true now anyways.” Yoichi said, “You know that you were the one that picked a fight with him .”

“We were misinformed, okay? Are you happy now? I get it! I was wrong, we were all wrong, but there’s nothing we can do to change it now.” Nana retorted angrily.

-~-~-~-~-~-

The first thing she noticed was the beeping.

Then the feeling of “the good stuff” as Nana said, causing her thoughts to swirl around in her head.

As she tried to sit up, she noticed her right arm was in a sling, tied to her chest. Then she felt the IV in her left hand, fighting the urge to rip it out immediately, she cracked her eyes open.

White. Blinding white walls, white floors, white ceiling.

She swiftly shut her eyes, already feeling an incoming headache from the whitewashed room. With nothing to look at she tried to recount what happened.

The girl - ‘Uraraka,’ her mind supplied - was trapped under the rubble, and the robot wouldn’t stop so she… oh.

Yeah that was definitely not fun, that’s high on the scale of what not to do, only barely behind talking to Katsuki.

The door creaked open suddenly, followed by light footsteps and an occasional clicking noise.

“Oh, hello dearie.” An older feminine voice spoke, “How do you feel?”

“Not great, any chance you got the license plate on that thing?” Izumi asked, her voice cracking due to her dry throat.

The woman chuckled before replying, “Unfortunately, I doubt that 0-Pointers are covered under standard insurance, kiddo.”

Cracking her eyelids open once more, she noticed she could actually see this time, as the woman seemed to have turned down the lights. Blinking rapidly her vision cleared to reveal her current state properly.

She was in a hospital bed, which was a new experience. Generally hospitals would turn her down due to her previous quirkless diagnosis, claiming “We don’t have the equipment for one such as yourself.” So other than the heavy dose of pain medicine, and inevitable pain once the medication wears off, it was nice to have someone care for her.

“Let me check your vitals dearie, stretch out your arm please.” The woman said, patting her left arm with her syringe shaped cane.

Izumi unconsciously did as instructed, allowing the doctor lady to attach the blood pressure cuff to her arm.

Bleary eyed, she stared for a moment at the doctor before it finally dawned on her, “You’re the youthful heroine, Recovery Girl aren’t you?” Izumi asked, after the cuff was removed.

“Why yes I am dearie, although I’m surprised you recognized me, most kids only know the flashy heroes like All Might, or Endeavor.” She replied, as she wrote down notes for Izumi’s chart.

“Oh I know all sorts of heroes! I know you, I know Present Mic, I know Snipe, I know Midnight, I know a lot of heroes, especially the ones that went to U.A! Some of them have their details posted on the U.A website, not the underground heroes though, gotta keep those a secret.” Izumi rambled, the pain meds having loosened her tongue.

“Of course dearie,” Recovery Girl replied amused, “I’ll go get you some water, then we’ll discuss your injuries.”

“Okie dokie!” Izumi replied, as she zoned out on one particular bump on the wall while Recovery Girl grabbed her a glass of water. Since she had an IV she wasn’t actually dehydrated, but her throat was desperate for the water.

“Here you go dear.” Recovery Girl said, holding the water cup as she placed a straw up to Izumi’s mouth. After half a cup was drained she began, “Are you ready to discuss your injuries honey?”

“Yes ma’am thank you.” Izumi replied, finding it slightly easier to fight the brain fog after some water.

“Alrighty then. Before I used my quirk on you, your lower body sustained multiple hairline fractures in both of your legs, and several broken bones in your feet. For your upper body you sustained some light bruising on the right side of your rib cage, but your right arm was the worst with multiple breaks in both your Radius and Ulna bones, both breaks and nerve damage to your hand, and a dislocated wrist.” Recovery Girl listed off, causing Izumi to grow more and more concerned.

Before Izumi could voice her worries, Recovery Girl added, “Don’t worry, after using my quirk you will recover from this just fine. Speaking of, I used my quirk to completely heal your legs, so you won’t have any trouble getting home today. I also healed your arm some but you didn’t have enough stamina for me to heal it all the way, so it will need to be kept in a sling for a week minimum, and I’ll schedule a check up for the first day of school even if you failed the exams to get into U.A, alright?”

“Yes ma’am, thank you so much!” Izumi replied, as Recovery Girl unwrapped the bandages around her legs so she could try and stand up.

“Oh no, don’t you dare young lady!” Recovery Girl said, slapping Izumi’s hand away before she could remove the IV herself. “I’ll be the one taking out your IV thank you, you gosh darn kids and attention spans.” She carefully removed Izumi’s IV, placing a cotton ball on the puncture hole, and bandaging it tightly.

“Now don’t you worry about getting home, especially with the pain medicine, I’ll call Yamada and have him bring his car to the front. I’m not about to let an injured child walk home all by herself now.” Recovery Girl explained, stopping her before she could stand up.

“You don’t have to do that-“

“Now listen here young lady,” She interrupted, “I will not be sending anyone, let alone a minor, to walk home alone after those injuries. Not to mention, you were injured on U.A grounds, it wouldn’t be right to not give some form of compensation. That being said, if you successfully pass U.A’s tests, you will be receiving a full scholarship as well, if you fail or decide to transfer, it will simply be for a different school.”

“That’s very generous of you!” Izumi exclaimed, U.A’s curriculum was definitely not cheap, a full scholarship would be more than a year's worth of her rent.

“Don’t thank me, it was the Rat’s doing. He must’ve been pretty impressed if he offered you that.” Recovery Girl replied, it definitely had nothing to do with trying to avoid a lawsuit. And now that she thought about it, Nedzu also offered that gravity girl with a busted ankle a scholarship… “Now sit tight and let me call Yamada. I'll be right outside.”

As the doctor stepped outside the door, Izumi swept her feet over the side of the bed. With a deep breath, she carefully hopped off the bed onto her previously damaged legs, and… nothing. A bit of stiffness, but otherwise perfectly fine.

She began stretching her legs gently, while walking around the room. On the walls there were the stereotypical doctor’s office anatomy posters, and a cute cat poster with the words, “We’re here to keep you out of the Pawspital!” Causing Izumi to quietly groan, before noticing Recovery Girl’s framed certificates, which had so many abbreviations it made her head spin.

“Yamada is pulling his car around right now— what did I say? I said to sit tight, not start moving around! You kids and listening, I tell you!” She said, shaking her head fondly. “Anyways since you’re up now, I’ll go ahead and send you off to the front gate, Yamada should only be a few minutes.”

“Sorry! And thank you so much Recovery Girl!” Izumi said, bowing politely before she grabbed her bag (when did that get here) from the chair next to the hospital bed, and started quickly walking towards the front gate.

“You take it easy or else, you hear?” Recovery Girl shouted down the hall after her.

“Yes ma’am!”

-~-~-~-~-~-

Just as she made it to the front gate, a pale yellow convertible parked itself on the road right outside the gate.

“Heya Listener!” A voice called from the vehicle.

“Hello, are you Yamada?” Izumi asked, cautiously approaching the vehicle, stranger danger and all that.

“Yup! Hizashi Yamada, at your service! Chi— Recovery Girl said you needed a ride, and thus here I am!” He said, sticking his head out the window.

“Present Mic?” She asked her voice a couple octaves higher than normal, astounded that she was being driven by THE Present Mic!

“Ding ding ding! That’s right Listener, and as a prize you get a free ticket to a ride from ol’ Presentation Michael!” He said, shooting a finger gun out the window. “Come and take a seat up front, can’t be having you get carsick!”

Izumi scrambled to the passenger side, and quickly opened the door and got in. “Thank you again sir!”

“No problem, Little Listener! Hope you don’t mind if I pop on some tunes?” He asked, glancing at her as he started the car.

“No, I don’t mind at all!” She replied quickly.

“Cool beans!” He said, as he turned to face the road properly.

The car ride went without a hitch, Present Mic popped on some Pre-Quirk rock music from the 2010’s claiming it was “Rad”, whatever that means. Other than Izumi reading off directions from her phone, they didn’t really talk during the ride. They just sat in comfortable silence, Izumi was tempted to ask Mic some questions for her notebooks, but she didn’t feel it was a good time.

After what felt like no time at all, they arrived at Izumi’s apartment. “See you Listener, thanks for the company.” Present Mic said, as Izumi stepped out of the car.

“No, thank you for the ride. The music sure was… rad?” She said awkwardly, offering a small wave.

“Aw heck yeah Listener, it sure was! Have a good one kiddo, take care of that arm, okay?” He said beaming, as he rolled up his window.

“Sure!” Izumi smiled, before she turned and headed towards her apartment, hearing Present Mic drive off behind her.

“Hey mom, I’m home!” She called out, as she opened the door to her apartment.

Chapter Text

“Hey mom, I’m home!” Izumi called out, as she opened the door to her apartment.

She shrugged her school bag off her shoulder as she kicked off her shoes, setting them on the mat as she closed the door.

“Hey Mom, I missed you today,” she said, as she gently picked up a picture frame. “I think I did well on the test, and the practical exam went well until I broke my bones. I’m sure you would’ve given me a strong talking to huh?”

“Man, I wish Dad could’ve been here to see this, he would probably laugh at me for breaking all those bones, while you would probably start crying over my injuries.” Izumi sniffled, chuckling softly.

She stood there for a moment, savoring what little connection she had left with her mother, enjoying the peace even just the thought of her provided. She missed her Mom and Dad, 5 years ago a simple shopping trip turned into a villain attack.

Luckily for Izumi, she decided to stay home. But neither her mother nor father ended up coming home that day.

All she received was a businessman showing up to her house, about an hour after her parents were supposed to be home.

Who gave an apathetic summary of a villain attack destroying the shopping center, then a rescue team finding her mother’s crushed body and shards of her father’s skull, which were presented to her in two small urns, and a check from the Hero Commission for damages.

“Damages”… the Hero Commission said it was “Damages”, not loss of life, or casualties, but “Damages”.

“Well I have to get started on dinner now, I’ll talk to you again tomorrow Mom, I love you.” She said, gently setting the picture of her parents back down with a kiss.

Dinner was a simple affair, she made a quick and easy stir fry on the stove, along with some miso soup as well. She hadn’t realized beforehand, but cutting vegetables one-handed was not an easy feat, but with a fire lit in her stomach she persevered, and soon she was cutting vegetables one-handed like she had been doing it for years.

After dinner, she gently wrapped her bad arm in plastic wrap so her cast didn’t get ruined in the shower. She made sure to be extra careful as she showered, keeping watch of the waterproof tape keeping her arm dry.

After a frankly stressful shower, she undid the plastic wrap before hopping into bed, eager to sleep for as long as possible.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Unfortunately, Izumi had the bright idea to wait to go grocery shopping until after the exam, which she was deeply regretting now with her backpack slung over one shoulder, waiting to be filled with groceries.

As she entered a little grocery store that was the closest to her house, the little bell rang brightly as the door swung closed.

“Hey there little Midoriya.” The cashier called out.

“Hey Suki,” Izumi replied. Suki had been working at the store ever since Izumi and her mother used to come here.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen your mom, how is she?”

“She’s alright, you know how it is, with her job and all the travel needed, when she’s actually home she usually just relaxes at home with me.” Izumi stated.

“That’s good to hear, glad she’s spending time with you. Wait a minute, what’d you do to your arm?” Suki asked, staring at the sling and cast combo.

“Oh this? I just got banged up a bit at the U.A practical exam!” She cheered, pumping her fist.

“Awesome kiddo! Well, not awesome you got hurt, but awesome you were at the exam. How well do you think you did?” She asked, continuing the excitement.

“I’m not entirely sure, I got about 40 points from the robots, but we haven’t gotten the results back yet.” She stated, fighting back the nervous energy.

“Hey, that’s pretty good!” Suki said, offering a thumbs up, “One of my old middle school friends said she got in with around 40 points, so it sounds like you should have a good chance!”

“Really? When did she debut, what’s her hero name, did she go underground? Wait, don’t tell me her name if she went underground that’d be dangerous—“

“Hey, little Midoriya,” Suki said, bopping Izumi playfully on the nose, “I can’t answer your questions if you don’t let me get a word in.”

“Eep! I’m sorry Suki.” Izumi said, her face turning red as a strawberry.

“No worries kiddo, but if I heard your first question right, something about when she debuted, then I can tell you unfortunately she didn’t, she got in class 1-A but transferred out at the end of the year. Something about it being way too stressful. That’s why I’m happy just being a cashier at the family grocery store.” Suki answered, smiling softly at the strawberry child.

“Oh that’s unfortunate, but understandable I guess, going into Heroics definitely isn’t for everybody.” Izumi replied, “I hope you don’t mind, but It’s time to restock the pantry, so I’ll be back to the counter in a few.”

“Sure, sure. We are a grocery store after all.” She said smirking, “Maybe I’ll give you a U.A Students discount.”

“Suki! We don’t even know if I got in yet!”

“I’m sure if anyone could make it at U.A, it’d be you kiddo. Now go on, get your stuff, and we’ll see if you get a discount.” Suki cheered.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Suki did end up giving her a small discount, no matter how much Izumi argued.

So with a backpack full of food, she started her walk back to her house.

She figured her legs would be sore from the exam, but man she didn’t think it’d be this bad. She ended up having to sit down on a bench halfway home, just to rest her legs before they gave out on her.

“Help!” A girl’s scream echoed from a nearby alleyway.

Gritting her teeth through the pain, Izumi sprinted towards the alley looking for the girl. Inside the alleyway, a man with a hyena mutation stood menacingly, gesturing wildly with a gnarly looking knife towards a blonde haired girl with two messy buns.

The girl stood with her back against the wall shaking as the man hollered at her to hand over her wallet. “I don’t have any money!” She cried, curling into herself.

“That’s crap! Everyone has money girlie, just hand it over and nobody will get hurt.” He said, swinging the knife around as he talked.

Izumi snuck towards the man’s back, ‘The law states that quirk use makes it vigilantism, if you don’t use a quirk, it’s just self defense.’ She repeated mentally like a mantra.

In a brief moment several things happened, the blonde haired girl’s legs gave out, the man heard scuffling behind him and began to turn around, and Izumi threw a harsh kick to the back of the man’s knee. The kick hit hard, causing him to fall to his knee.

Izumi didn’t give him any time to recover before she threw a punch to the back of his head.

Before her punch could connect, the man threw his head backwards in a headbutt knocking the wind out of her.

“Didn’t think I’d cave with that little force did ya?” He snarked, brushing himself off as he stood up.

He stood over the collapsed Izumi, brandishing the serrated blade. “After I cut ya a bit, we’ll see if you got any cash.”

He raised the blade high aiming to put his body weight behind his slash. Izumi barely managed to recover in time, and rolled out of the way of the blade.

Hopping up she got into a rough estimate of a boxer’s stance, she raised her undamaged fist to her chin, waiting for the man to make a move.

“Got some fight in ya, makes it more fun for me!” He shouted, rushing towards Izumi, blade pointed straight ahead.

Izumi waited for the man to get closer, before sidestepping just out of range, and aiming a kick for his ankle. It connected, leading the man to stumble slightly, before he turned back around.

The man snarled, rushing towards her very predictably once again, with his teeth bared. Izumi ducked out of the way of his blade, slamming a fist into his wrist causing him to drop the knife.

“Son of a—“ He cursed, as Izumi connected several quick punches to his temple, knocking him out.

Internally cheering about winning her first real fight, she walked over to the girl that had just been mugged, “Hey, are you okay?” Izumi asked the blonde haired girl.

The girl whispered something, as she sat still collapsed to the ground, “What did you say?” Izumi asked gently, crouching down.

“I said I’m thirsty!” Blondie shouted, biting down on Izumi’s forearm, before drinking her blood.

‘Hmm, sharpened canines, dilated pupils, signs of malnutrition. Possibly needs blood for her quirk? Numbing agent in the teeth, most likely needs blood then. Perhaps she was starving, causing her body to be too weak to stand? I wonder if I could use One for All to produce blood quicker? Okay, starting to get dizzy.’

“Hey Blondie, ‘m getting dizzy here.” Izumi said, booping the girl on the forehead.

“Oh my gosh I’m so so so sorry!” She cried, aggressively performing a dogeza.

“When I don’t have blood I go crazy, and I can’t control myself! I really didn’t mean to!”

“Woah, hey chill out, you’re fine. I just needed you to stop before I passed out or something.” Izumi said casually, “I am still a little woozy, but it’s okay.”

‘It’s as good a time as any to try using One for All to produce blood, I guess.’ She thought, activating One for All at 1%, she only spread it through her veins and insides, which did not activate the lightning, for some reason.

“No!” She cried, “I mean… No it’s not okay. Bad Himi! I can’t even do one thing right, I hurt Saito, Mom kicked me out, now I attack a poor girl on the street!”

“Hey,” Izumi said, approaching “Himi” like a scared animal, “It's really okay, I’ve lost more blood just on a normal school day. At least this way I could help you.”

“I’m sorry what?” “Himi” asked bewildered, “Did you just say, you regularly lose blood at school? Not like an obligatory blood donation, but like a normal school day?”

“Yeah?” Izumi said, tilting her head slightly with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“What?” “Himi” sputtered, “That- that’s normal to you? Regularly losing blood at school?”

“I mean, yeah? The kids have to learn how to use their quirks somehow, why not the quirkless kid?” She replied calmly, clearly surprised about how “Himi” was reacting.

“That’s- that’s- okay, listen here…?”

“Izumi Midoriya.”

“Izumi. I’m Himiko by the way. Anyways Izumi, that is absolutely not okay, do you understand that?” The now identified Himiko asked.

“I’m quirkless, a useless “Deku”, worthless, better off dead, whatever you wanna say.” She stated calmly, as if discussing one of the facts of life.

“What isn’t okay is you being starved, Himiko. You clearly were being neglected at best, if you were so thirsty you attacked whoever Saito is, and a random girl in an alleyway, since you don’t seem to fit the whole ‘villain type’.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong… Mom and Dad did suck… but that doesn’t mean that your abuse is okay either!” Himiko interrupted Izumi’s objection, “Na ah, don’t interrupt a Himi when she’s speaking. Abuse is abuse, mine was bad, yours is, was? Either way they’re both bad, and we deserve better.”

“What do you mean abuse?” Izumi asked, a small part of her begging for Himiko to continue.

“Are you kidding? Have they, like, completely brainwashed you?” Himiko asked genuinely, “Okay, thought experiment, why did you stop sleepy here from attacking me?”

“Because he was going to hurt you, and I could at least buy you time to escape.” Izumi replied simply.

“So him attacking me was bad, yes? Him trying to cut me and make me bleed is bad?” She asked.

“Of course! What kind of a person would I be if I left you to be attacked?”

“Why is it different if you are the one that’s being attacked, or cut, or whatever?” Himiko asked, trying to get a fellow abusee out of her abuser(s?)’s hands.

“Because I’m quirkless?” She replied, phrasing it more as a question.

“Okay, what if I was quirkless, would you have left me?”

“No! Of course not, I’d save you no matter what!” Izumi replied, not seeing the point.

“Why is it different if it’s you then?” Himiko continued, “It’s not because you're quirkless, because you just said you’d save me if I was quirkless. Why is it different if it’s you, Izumi Midoriya?”

“It’s- it’s because- but then- why did- who- why did no one help me?” Izumi asked, tears building in her eyes.

“I don’t know honey,” Himiko said calmly, forcefully wrapping Izumi in a gentle hug. “Sometimes people just need someone to put down to feel better about themselves.”

“So- *sniffle* it’s- it’s not okay?” Izumi asked, deep down already knowing the answer, but desperate to hear it anyway.

“No.” Himiko said, shedding a small tear, as her own fractured heart began stitching itself back together. “No it’s definitely not Izumi.”

“So…” Himiko eventually said after Izumi’s tears had died down to sniffles, her shoulder not spared with the Midoriya Waterworks™, “Should we get out of this alleyway?”

“Yeah,” Izumi chuckled wetly, “I gotta get my groceries home anyway.”

“Here!” Himiko said, grabbing the backpack Izumi dropped at the mouth of the alley. “As thanks for saving me, I shall be the baggage carrier, it seems we both have a bit of that.” She giggled.

“Yeah I guess we do.” Izumi said, smiling softly.

“And off we go!” Himiko said, leading the way.

“Um, Himiko… my house is this way.” Izumi said, pointing in the opposite direction Himiko was going.

“Oh course it is! I was just testing you! And off we go!” Himiko said, with a sheepish grin.

Chapter Text

“Thank you for carrying my stuff home Himiko, it would’ve been tough carrying the bag one handed.” Izumi said, opening the door to her house.

“One handed?” Himiko asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“Yeah! My arm is pretty messed up, see?” Izumi said, lifting her arm slightly, cast easily visible behind the sling that held her arm steady.

“Wait, you're telling me you literally beat that guy, with one arm tied? You completely decked him with essentially one arm tied behind your back?” Himiko gaped, dropping the backpack by the door, as she stared in awe at her new sister’s friend’s cast.

“Wait I did, didn't I?” Izumi huffed, a short breathy laugh. “That was my first time fighting an actual person, too!”

Himiko surged forwards, grabbing Izumi by the shoulders, “Are you serious? My bestie is freaking insane!”

“Himiko, back up a little please, you’re too close.” Izumi gasped, backing out of Himiko’s grasp.

“Sorry,” Himiko whispered, retreating slowly. “I know I can be a little… too much.”

“Himiko don’t worry you’re not too much,” Izumi replied quickly, “It’s just… ever since my mom and dad died, it’s been a while since touch didn’t come with pain, y’know?”

Himiko’s nervous smile drops at Izumi’s reply, leaving her face pale and melancholic. “I understand,” she said quietly. “Ever since they stopped letting my cousin visit, the only interactions outside of school I’ve had were my mother and father, either locking me in my room, or calling me a freak.”

Izumi slowly reaches out her arm, softly wrapping Himiko in a hug, “I guess we’ll both have to get used to it then.”

Himiko chuckles wetly, “Yeah, *sniffle* I guess so.”

“So!” Izumi says slightly too loudly, desperately trying to shake off the emotions as she removed herself from the hug. “What are your plans today, Himiko?”

“I was honestly just going to look for a place to sleep.” She said, shifting her feet in discomfort.

“Welp, plans completed. Welcome home Himiko!” Izumi smiled, gesturing around the house.

“What?” Himiko gasped, looking for any sign of a lie in Izumi’s eyes.

“What? Did you think I was about to kick out the girl I trauma dumped with? Heck no, you're getting forcefully adopted, right here, right now.” Izumi beamed, before she started looking around nervously. “Unless of course, you’d rather not stay here, it’s up to you of course.”

Himiko gasped, staring at Izumi for any tell of deceit in her eyes, “Stay, here?”

“You… you can stay, if you want?” Izumi said, feeling unsure about how Himiko was feeling now. She thought it would be fine, but maybe Himiko doesn’t want to stay?

Maybe she made a mistake, and now their friendship is awkward and ruined, and it’s all her fault and…

“Izumi? You okay?” Himiko asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

“I’m sorry!” She bowed, “It was a dumb idea, I get you wouldn’t want to live with someone like me. Don’t feel inclined if you really don’t want to, I get i-“

She was shushed by Himiko pressing her finger to Izumi’s lips, “I want to stay.” She said, “I really, really want to stay. Are you kidding me? Living with a friend? Actual running water? Electricity? A warm shelter? Not only do I want to stay, I’d go as far to say that it’d be stupid to leave!”

“We really need to work on your confidence, ‘Zumi!” Himiko said, beaming a fanged smile at her.

“Z-Zumi?” “Zumi” stuttered, “A nickname?”

“Yeah!” She said, placing her hands on her hips. “If we’re gonna be roomies, we gotta have nicknames!”

“Okay then, K- Kiko-Chan.” Izumi replied, face beet red in embarrassment.

“Kiko?” Himiko repeated, tilting her head questioningly, “Why Kiko?”

“Well,” Izumi said, ducking her head. “Kiko, like “Hope”, and the last part of your name. Because… y’know… you're my first best friend in years, makes me feel all hopeful for the future, and whatnot.”

“That. Is. Adorable! Yes, I am Kiko-Chan now!” The newly dubbed Kiko-Chan shouted, jumping and squealing. “If you call me anything else I’ll… I’ll! Be, like… really sad.”

“Okay Kiko-Chan.” Izumi said, smiling genuinely. She felt like she’d been doing that a lot more recently, especially with Himi- I mean, Kiko-Chan.

“Can I… you know?” She asked, gesturing back and forth between her and Izumi rapidly.

“Thank you for asking, and yes.” Izumi replied, before being rushed by a blonde bullet.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“So you said you basically live by yourself, yeah?” Himiko asked, sitting upside down on the couch.

“Yeah? Why do you ask?” Izumi replied, making a simple lunch for the two of them.

“Well, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, how are you living here?” She asked, righting herself to peer over the back of the couch.

“Oh! I have a little job online!” Izumi replied, bringing a plate of sandwiches over to the coffee table. “I do like, anonymous analysis work for a couple people, it’s an underground online community type of thing. We use little fake names, I go by VeryVerdant, and my biggest client is called DuskOptics. He’s some kind of detective or underground hero, I think. He sends me a couple case files a month, and I get like a month's worth of rent for solving it.”

“My little sis is a genius!” Himiko cried, before realizing what she said. “I mean, my best friend is a genius! Yeah…”

“You see me as a sister?” Izumi asked quietly, looking towards Himiko.

“I mean, kinda yeah… you said you were basically adopting me, and you’re younger, and like totally have little sister energy. I don’t even know who they are, and I totally wanna beat up the people who bullied you.” Himiko grinned fiercely, before she slowly sunk down in her seat.

There was a tense pause following Himiko’s protective word vomit, before Izumi replied, “I kinda see you as a sister too,” she said, fiddling with her hair. “I mean we barely know each other, and I’d totally beat the crap out of- I mean give a stern talking to- anyone that picked on you.”

“Wait,” Izumi said, shooting up in her seat. “Do you want me to look into your parents? Talk with my connections, and see if I can get them arrested?”

“You can do that?” Himiko asked, practically jumping out of her seat, “I mean, if you can… I’m not opposed.”

“Yeah Kiko-Chan! I’ll destroy them!” Izumi said with a vindictive smile, opening her laptop like some kind of spy.

“Just, be careful, ‘kay? I don’t want my bestie-roomie-sister to get arrested.” Himiko replied, scooting closer to Izumi to watch her work.

“Nah, it’s perfectly legal. I’ve got a detective with the perfect quirk that just happens to owe me a favor, and if he just so happens to get the perfect questions… I think it’s a nice coincidence, don’t you?” Izumi grinned ferally at Himiko, her canines gleaming in the light.

“If that happened, I’d say I think it’s wonderful how things just work out sometimes.” Himiko replied, responding in kind with a fanged smile, as she started feeding Izumi information.

Chapter Text

Suddenly within the police station, an agonized yell rang out, causing everyone to quickly look towards Officer Sansa.

“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s just that time, that's all.”

All the officers on duty released a sigh of relief, as Sansa calmly stood up and walked to the coffee maker, making coffee containing practically lethal doses of caffeine. He calmly dumped several packets of sugar into the monstrous concoction, before hurrying towards the source of the gut wrenching yell.

“Heya Naomasa,” Sansa said carefully, opening the door just a crack. “I got your heart attack in a cup for you.”

Naomasa, who was laying across his desk in dismay, answered with a small grunt of affirmation, as he gripped his desk with white knuckles.

“Who’s it this time?” He asked, slowly approaching the distressed detective. “Is it Nedzu? I know he particularly grinds your gears.”

“No,” He replied, his voice muffled by his elbow. “It’s worse, it’s Verdant.”

“Oh…” Sansa whispered, as a bead of sweat began dripping down his face, which shouldn’t even be possible with his cat mutation. “Another coffee coming up!”

It’s not as if the Analyst/Informant was bad per say, the opposite in fact, they were actually very good at their job. Most of the info received from them has been accurate, details of quirks, crimes, etc. but man, if they send you something, you know it’s not going to be easy. And Naomasa had just gotten off a night shift yesterday, and now he gets an email from Verdant… why must the world hate him so.

Naomasa sighed as he opened the email, reading the email thoroughly.

‘Hey Detective, Verdant here with a case for you.
Consider this me cashing in my favor.

Jufuku Toga (Father) Mitamei Toga (Mother)

Himiko Toga, age 17, Legally Registered Quirk: Catseye, “A mutation quirk giving the user cat eyes, fangs, and other minor internal mutations.”

Real Quirk: Transform “A mutation transformation-type hybrid type quirk granting all things listed above, as well as allowing the user to ‘transform’ into another person, gaining the transformation’s appearance as well as voice, transforming requires some of a target’s blood. The quirk requires occasional intake of blood, and or high iron substitute, or else the user may experience symptoms of malnutrition, psychotic tendencies, loss of motor control, something dubbed ‘blood rage’ by the user, causing mental dissociation as the body pursues blood by any means necessary. Note: User has only experienced ‘blood rage’ a few times, and it was in incredibly dire circumstances.”

Himiko Toga is currently wanted for Assault, and Attempted Murder, although it was due to a ‘blood rage’, so under bylaw 1178B, she is protected from the otherwise severe consequences, as she was under quirk related disorientation.

Mr. and Mrs. Toga have falsified their daughter’s quirk on government documents, as well as mentally and physically abused said child regularly for I quote, being a “blood drinking freak”, “evil child”, “curse on our bloodline”. Restricted her access to blood, causing her psychotic break against a “Mr. Saito”. Not to mention the possibility of other hidden crimes.

You know I have a soft spot for children, so when I was contacted with this information, from a close friend of Miss Himiko, (I will not be using those abuser’s last name for Miss Himiko, thank you.) I knew that I could trust you to take care of this.

Please keep me posted,
Your Favorite Analyst
Verdant.’

“Here you go Naomasa,” Sansa said gently, setting a second mug of coffee onto the desk.

“Thank you Sansa.” Naomasa said, as the excessive amounts of caffeine was fighting a losing battle against his migraine. “You want to join me on this case?”

“Sure?” He said questioningly, already feeling the incoming migraine he was about to share with Naomasa. “What’s it about?”

“Discrimination related abuse, among other things.” He replied, stretching out his back from sitting for so long. “Might get to exonerate a kid pretty quick if we’re lucky.”

“There’s a kid?” Sansa asked, voice dangerously low.

“Careful Sansa, remember ripping out adults' throats is against our oath, no matter how we feel. Right Sansa?”

“Yes Detective,” he sighed. “Stupid oath.”

Naomasa patted him on the shoulder, “I know buddy, I know.”

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Geez these people are loaded,” Sansa whispered, staring at the whitewashed gate, accented in gold.

“Easier to cover up things when you have money.” Naomasa replied, turning on his professional mindset as they pressed the button on the intercom of the gate. “Excuse me, is this the home of the Toga family?”

A faint buzz of static crackled over the intercom, “Yes it is, might I inquire as to what your business is here?” A snobbish male voice asked from the intercom.

“Hello sir, my name is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, alongside Officer Sansa. We are here to investigate an anonymous report of suspicious activities on the premises. All we need to do is come in for a bit of questioning, and a quick look, and we’ll be out of your hair.” He said, calmly speaking into the microphone.

“How long will this take? Me and the missus have a dinner reservation.” The snob asked.

“As long as you cooperate with our search, this shouldn’t take long at all, sir.” Tsukauchi replied.

“Alright, get in here.” He said, as the gate opened for the two men. “You’d better make this quick.”

Sansa shot the detective a raised eyebrow from the man’s clearly disrespectful demeanor, to which Tsukauchi replied with a shrug.

They approached the front door of the large house after a couple minute walk due to the absurd size of the property, the detective quickly moved to knock on the front door. As his fist hit the door once, the doors were opened by a real life maid, dressed in an actual maid outfit like you’d expect from a niche cafe, or something.

“Welcome sirs, please follow me to the foyer. I will be back in a moment with the Mister and Missus, as well as some water.” The maid said impassively, bowing as she left them at the foyer.

“Alright, I’m getting an odd feeling.” Sansa declared, looking around at the room. It was decorated like an art piece, heck the couches they sat on barely looked used. The shelves were immaculate, not a speck of dust on them. But it all looked… too perfect, staged almost. There were no personal touches, no family photos, no “Live, Laugh, Love.”, just… fancy furniture.

“I’m not, not, getting that same feeling.” Tsukauchi replied, mentally, noting the lack of any photos of Himiko.

“Hello, sir.” The Toga matriarch said as she entered the room, looking towards Tsukauchi.

“Hello ma’am.” He replied simply, noticing the thinly veiled disdain towards his colleague.

“Alrighty, now that we’re all here let’s get down to business, hmm?” Mr. Toga said, as he sat down opposite them.

“Yes sir, we would just like to ask a few questions, and take a look around if you don’t mind.” Tsukauchi said.

“Fine, fine, ask your questions first so we can get out of here. You may search the house while we’re at dinner.” He replied.

“Before we start, I have to inform you this conversation will be recorded, and I have authority to use my quirk Polygraph, do you consent?”

“Yes, yes, whatever, can we get this over with now?” Mrs. Toga spat, eager to get to dinner.

“Sure,” he said, clicking on his recorder. “This is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, interviewing Mister and Missus Toga, once more for the record, do you consent to me recording and using my quirk?”

“Yes we consent.” The Toga patriarch sighed.

“Alright, to confirm what are the quirks of your family?” Tsukauchi asked, clicking his pen.

“My quirk is Duplicity. It allows me to project an image of myself.” Mr. Toga replied, creating a hologram of himself.

“My Quirk is Look-a-Like. It allows me to copy the features of someone I’m touching.” Mrs Toga responded, touching her husband’s arm to copy his brown hair.

“True, and what about your daughter’s?” Tsukauchi asked.

“What daughter? We have no daughter.” Mr. Toga replied venomously.

“False, Mr. Toga might I remind you that my quirk can tell true statements from false ones, please speak truthfully.”

“Fine, we “legally” had a daughter, but have since disowned her. She was a rotten child, enjoying hurting others, she always had an evil obsession with blood. We haven’t seen her since the incident with that poor boy.” Mr. Toga replied harshly.

The way he casually spoke of his own daughter as if she were merely a pest, set off dozens of red flags for the two officers.

“True. And you never saw her later that day, after school?” Tsukauchi asked.

“We did, but when she told us of her crime, we kicked her out of the house, and told her never to come back.” Mrs. Toga remarked casually, as if discussing the weather.

“True,” He grimaced internally. “And do you know what provoked the attack?”

“No, we thought we’d trained that demented behavior out of her.” She replied.

“True, what behavior?” Tsukauchi asked, his hands tightening around the pen.

“Ever since she was young, she had this awful fascination with blood. We had tried to convince her it was evil, that good girls didn’t like blood, but she held onto it no matter how much she was punished.” She commented, as if she wasn’t teetering on the edge of admitting abuse.

“True, what quirk did she have again?” Tsukauchi asked, mentally preparing himself for the absurd amounts of paperwork incoming.

“Catseye, a mutation quirk.” She said, not even bothering to contain her distaste for her own daughter’s quirk.

“False. Mrs. Toga, I feel I must inform you lying on a quirk related government form is illegal. Since Catseye the quirk on her documents, is according to you not in fact Miss Himiko’s quirk, you could be looking at severe repercussions, I’d recommend you tell me the truth.” Tsukauchi said calmly, shifting slightly so he could easily pursue the Togas in case they chose to evade arrest.

Mrs. Toga’s face burned as she realized her mistake, “She was a rotten child, so obsessed with blood she would attack the birds! Do you understand how mentally taxing that is?” She ranted, “Always talking about how ‘oh blood is so pretty.’ Give me a break! Just because your quirk messed with you, made you a freak, doesn’t mean you get to be an oddity in this family!”

“Mr. and Mrs. Toga you’re under arrest for falsifying quirk related government forms, and suspicion of child abuse, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” Tsukauchi said, as he and Sansa moved to slap handcuffs on the Togas.

“These charges won’t stick!” Mr. Toga sneered, “Our lawyers will have us out by tomorrow!”

“Whatever you say.” Sansa remarked, dragging the rag doll Mr. Toga to their squad car.

-~-~-~-~-~-

‘Hey Verdant,
Checked into the family like you asked.
Definitely some messed up stuff there, after arresting the Toga’s we got a warrant to search the house. We found several banned books related to the Meta Liberation Army and other quirk supremacy organizations. It’s safe to say they’ll be going away for a long time.

If you could get me into contact with your source to establish contact with Miss Himiko, that’d help expedite the process of clearing Miss Himiko of all charges, and putting the Toga’s behind bars.

Thanks for the paperwork,
Detective Trueman.’

Izumi sighed happily at the email, showing it to Kiko-Chan to ask for her opinion on contacting the Detective.

“They… they’re going to jail?” She asked dumbfounded, jaw practically touching the ground.

“Yeah Kiko-Chan, yeah they are.” Izumi replied simply.

“Heck yeah!” Himiko cheered, jumping up and down excitedly. “I’m finally free! I can actually go to school, if I get cleared!”

“So do you want me to pass the info to the detective?” Izumi asked, mentally preparing for the potential encounter with Trueman.

“Yeah, I reeeeeaaally want to not be a criminal, please do it!” Kiko-Chan said, slowing to merely bouncing on her heels.

“Okay Kiko,” she giggled. “I’ll set it up.”

-~-~-~-~-~-

After sharing her own contact info with Trueman, she received a call from a “Detective Tsukauchi” (Presumably Trueman) and set a meeting for Friday at 2:00pm.

“Okay Kiko-Chan are you ready for this?” Izumi asked, trying not to grimace at Himiko’s death grip on her hand.

Himiko shakily nodded, staring at the front door as if it might reveal the secrets of the universe.

She was quickly shaken out of her attempt at pontificating, as a sudden knock was heard coming from the door.

“Coming!” Izumi called, carefully prying her fingers out of Kiko-Chan’s grip, to go and answer the door.

“Hello, my name is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, is this the residence of Izumi Midoriya?” He asked, peeking through the cracked door.

“Yes sir, please come in.” Izumi replied, gesturing towards the chair, opposite of the couch where Himiko sat pale as a sheet.

After Izumi brought in tea, they discussed Himiko’s quirk. Himiko told the truth, about her parents suppressing her quirk, causing her to go crazy and lose control. With Tsukauchi regularly interjecting, stating that all of Himiko’s answers were true. It all went smoothly, the detective recording Himiko’s testimony, and Himiko being comforted by Izumi during the particularly difficult parts, until he got to who gets custody of Himiko.

“Obviously after the recorded abuse, the Togas will not be keeping custody of Miss Himiko. So I have to ask, with how she has clearly bonded with you, and you with her, would you and your family be willing to foster Himiko? At least until we can find a permanent home for her?” Tsukauchi asked cautiously, clicking his pen in anticipation.

“May I propose an alternative?” Izumi asked, straightening her posture.

“Go ahead.” He replied anxiously.

“We would like to adopt Himiko, sir.” She stated tearily.

Chapter Text

After signing a frankly alarming amount of paperwork spread across a few days, and several forged signatures for “Inko Midoriya”, Himiko Toga was no more.

That day, for the first time in years, Himiko Midoriya woke up excited for the future.

Due to all the legal challenges with the Togas, Himiko was taken out of public school and enrolled into online classes until high school.

In order to stay home with her new sister, Izumi used a little bit of her precious blackmail to test out of Aldera early.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Izumi had just finished making a late breakfast, and setting out a covered serving for Himiko, when Himiko must’ve felt her ears burning, and came stumbling out of Inko’s her new bedroom.

“Hi sleepyhead, how’d you sleep?” Izumi asked in between bites of her American style omelet.

“Like a log.” Kiko-Chan replied sleepily. “How did you manage to make all of this so early?”

“Oh! That’s easy, with my training schedule from All Might, I get for an early morning run, to work up an appetite before I make breakfast.” Izumi answered casually, sipping on her tea.

Meanwhile Himiko started choking on her breakfast, “Did you say you have a training schedule from All Might?” She said after recovering.

“Oh.” Izumi facepalmed before looking at Himiko, “Before I tell you the whole story, I need to ask you something.”

Himiko straightened her posture in her seat, sensing the seriousness of the incoming conversation, “Go ahead.”

“How do you feel about quirkless people?” Izumi asked, watching Himiko’s reaction carefully.

“Honestly? I don’t think one way or another. I mean— they’re just normal people right?” Himiko stated, tilting her head in confusion.

“Sure they don’t have quirks, but you saw what happened just because my quirk was a little different than my parents liked. There’s obviously some good people, and some bad people, just like any other demographic. I’ve heard some people say awful things about them, but I just don’t get it. It's like the people who hate mutants, it’s just… stupid. Even if they’re a little different, they’re still people.”

Izumi wasn’t expecting that to set Himiko off on a rant, but she definitely didn’t start tearing up during Himiko’s rant about everyone deserving basic human rights.

“So, in conclusion,” Himiko panted, catching her breath after her spiel, “They’re people, just like you and me, and they deserve respect just like anyone else, regardless of their quirk, or lack thereof.”

The room was so silent, you could practically hear Izumi’s sinuses creaking from the strain.

“That— that was good Kiko-Chan.” She sniffled, “That’s even better than I was hoping for.”

“Oh ‘Zumi, are you okay?” She asked, just now zoning back into reality after her impassioned speech. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no, Himiko, you said all the right things.” Izumi replied, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a tissue. “I was born Quirkless, Himiko. And All Might gave me his quirk.”

From there the conversation spiraled into the sludge villain accident, to which Himiko produced a knife from somewhere when Izumi mentioned All Might’s first aid blunder.

And suddenly she was dual-wielding after hearing about the rooftop situation, and a third small knife was in her mouth for some reason, when Izumi brought up Bakugo, and how she saved him.

Himiko practically threw the knives onto the coffee table to safely hug her sister when she mentioned how the heroes berated her, “You literally did their job for them! Self important jerks!” Himiko muttered.

Somehow a fourth knife was produced when Izumi mentioned All Might cornering her after the incident.

“Honestly Kiko, I wasn’t sure if I wanted the quirk. I really thought maybe I could be the first Japanese Quirkless Hero. But then I thought about it,” Izumi said, shivering. “All Might cornered me away from all the press, after him leaving me on a roof, I wasn’t sure if I’d just become a statistic if I didn’t accept.”

Suddenly there were five knives on the coffee table, and Izumi had an armful of Himiko. “‘Zumi, did it really feel that way?” She asked, staring into Izumi’s eyes with tears of her own.

“Yeah, yeah it did.” She replied, “There was this weird aura coming from him, it felt like I only had one option. So I said yes, and after that, he set me up with a ridiculously stressful training plan. I wasn’t sure if it was healthy or not to train that hard, honestly I still don’t know.”

“I went from being pretty scrawny, with a little lean muscle, to where I am now in like 10 months.” She continued, patting her bicep. “In order to have enough protein to keep up these muscles, I had to choke down so much food. The first day I thought I’d throw up, it was nearly double the amount of calories then my normal meals.” She continued, “But eventually I did it, I cleaned Dagobah beach, I lugged a fridge with All Might sitting on top across the beach, which was like 500 pounds or something by the way, and he finally gave me his quirk on the day of the entrance exam.”

“Honestly ‘Zumi, it sounds like how we met is relatively calm for your life.” Himiko giggled, snuggling into Izumi’s side.

“Honestly? Yeah.” Izumi snorted, resting her chin on Himiko’s head.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” Himiko called impatiently, dancing in place waiting for Izumi.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, I know you’re excited Kiko-Chan, but the money we got from your parents being jailed for life isn’t going to disappear.” Izumi said trailing after Himiko, her wallet one card heavier since the last time she went shopping.

“I know,” she pouted, “but I want to spend their money already!”

“Okay, okay, where do you want to go first?” She laughed, gesturing towards the giant map of the mall.

“Hmm… furniture!” She shouted, dashing towards the furniture stores.

“Kikoooo… wait for meeeee!” Izumi shouted back, trying to keep up with Himiko.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Do we really need five giant bean bag chairs?” Izumi asked, deeply thankful that the store offers delivery.

“What kind of stupid question is that?” Himiko asked, dramatically holding her hand against her chest. “Just be glad you talked me down from seven!”

-~-~-~-~-~-

“I’m going to have to rent a storage unit.” Izumi sighed, thinking about moving all of her mom’s old stuff out.

“Oh… are you okay ’Zumi? I got so excited I forgot who’s room it was before.” Himiko asked, gently wrapping an arm around Izumi.

“Yeah. I probably should have done it sooner, no sense dwelling on the past, after all.” She said, her smile convincing neither herself nor Himiko.

“How about we spend my parent’s money on some good Katsudon?” Himiko asked, remembering the stories Izumi told her about her mother’s legendary culinary skills.

“I’d like that.” Izumi said, her smile growing a little less fake.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Where to next, Himiko?” She asked, already racking up an absurd amount of purchases.

“I know!” Himiko cheered, “Let’s look at clothes!”

“Let me warn you beforehand Kiko-Chan, my fashion sense is absolutely atrocious.” Izumi said, thinking back to her pun t-shirts.

“No worries ‘Zumi! You have the master of fashion, Himiko Midoriya by your side!” She cheered, her smile growing wider when she used her new last name.

“Lead the way Fashion Master Himiko!” Izumi curtsied, gesturing formally towards the clothing stores.

“Lead I shall!” She replied, speaking in a posh accent.

-~-~-~-~-~-

After the whiplash of trying on dozens of different outfits, and commenting on Himiko’s choices, they left the shop. Izumi was arguing with Himiko to let her carry some of the bags, when all of a sudden a voice cried out.

“What’re you doing here Deku?!” A familiar brash voice called out.

Izumi instinctively froze, her feet locking to the ground, not responding to her pleading words.

Himiko noticed the tension immediately, and set the bags down on a nearby bench, before rushing back to Izumi,

“Excuse me, who are you?” Himiko asked incredulously, placing herself between Izumi, and the screaming boy. “Why are you talking to Izumi like that?”

“Huh? Who do you think you're talking to, extra?!” The sandy blond kid shouted, “I’m Katsuki Bakugo, future number one hero! And you are?”

“Himiko Midoriya, oh great number one.” She replied snarkily.

“Hah, Midoriya?! Deku doesn’t have a sister, who the (Pomeranian noises) are you really?” Bakugo shouted, popping small explosions with his nitroglycerin sweat.

“You’re causing a scene Bakugo, please leave me and my sister alone. Come on Izumi.” She said, gently bringing Izumi over to the bench she set the bags on.

“Don’t walk away from me, you freaking extra!” He shouted, lunging for Himiko with his exploding palms extended.

Suddenly Izumi shifted, gently swiping Himiko’s legs out so Bakugo’s attack would miss her, and redirecting Bakugo’s attack to smash his own face into the ground.

There was a small satisfying crack, as Bakugo’s face impacted the laminated floors.

“You can pick on me all you want, Katsuki, but don’t mess with my sister.” Izumi whispered into his ear. Bakugo responded with a gratifying shiver, before promptly exploding into expletives.

Just as Izumi had Bakugo’s hands secured so he couldn’t hurt anyone, the security guards finally showed up.

“Uh… ma’am, I need you to get off the boy.” The security guard said hesitantly, his brown hair framing his eyes.

Izumi mentally nicknamed him Security Guard 1. “I would sir, but he tried to attack my sister with his quirk, I don’t want him to hurt anyone.” She said, motioning with her eyes towards his hands.

“Don’t worry kiddo, we can take care of a teenager.” Security Guard 2 said as she moved confidently towards Bakugo.

“Off you get, girlie.” Security Guard 2 said, physically removing Izumi from Bakugo.

“What are you doing Deku?! Gedding the mall cops involved begause you’re too much obv a coward?” Bakugo shouted, his voice nasally from his bloody nose.

“Come on kid, let’s get out of here. Just don’t do something stupid like that again, and I’ll let you off easy this time.” Security Guard 2 said, pulling Bakugo out of the mall.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you, sis?” Himiko asked genuinely, staring at Izumi with stars in her eyes.

“Let’s just go home, Himiko.” Izumi said blandly, her shoulders slouched after the emotionally draining encounter.

“Okay ‘Zumi!” She said, grabbing the bags, before skipping to hold Izumi’s hand.

Izumi flinched away at the contact, a small burn making itself known on her wrist.

“Hey, let me see…” Himiko said, gently grabbing Izumi’s arm, holding it up to her eyes.

Himiko then licked her lips, before pressing a gentle kiss to the burn. “There.” She said, releasing the arm.

“What was that for?” Izumi laughed softly, looking at her wrist.

“I found out my saliva has mild antibacterial and pain reducing effects, so I figured it’d be better to kiss it, then lick it.” She said, gagging lightly at the thought of licking someone’s arm.

“Whoa…” Izumi said, staring at Himiko with stars in her eyes, “The fact that you have somewhat healing spit is fascinating, perhaps a latent healing quirk in your family's bloodline…” She said, her muttering devolving into inaudible whispers.

Himiko smiled at her sister, decking a bully one second, going on a mumble spree the next.

“Come on Izumi, let’s get home! I need to finish the online test for school!” Himiko grinned, gently pulling on Izumi’s arm.

“Sorry! I’m coming!” Izumi said, jogging over to Himiko.

“Thanks for protecting me, Kiko-Chan.”

“Thank you for saving me, ‘Zumi.”

Chapter Text

“‘Zumi look, look!” Himiko shouted, drifting around the corner of the house in her slippers, “Our letters!”

It’d only been about 3 weeks since the U.A exam, and already the acceptance letters were being sent out.

“Get over here Kiko-Chan!” Izumi cheered, giggling as she watched Himiko try not to fall as she slid around.

After setting the letters gingerly on the coffee table, Himiko flopped bonelessly on the couch. “Who’s first?” Himiko asked, glaring at the U.A embossed letters as if they might bite her.

“I’ll go first, I guess?” Izumi replied, tentatively plucking the envelope off the table.

Himiko handed her one of her knives to open the envelope with. She gingerly cut the fancy wax seal of the letter, revealing an unusual black metallic disk. She carefully lifted it from its papery prison, and placed it on the coffee table.

“What’s that?” Himiko asked confusedly.

“I’m not sure,” Izumi replied as she noticed a small inset button at the top. Pressing it activated a holographic video of All Might, which began playing immediately, causing Izumi to nearly fall off the couch.

“Hello Young Midoriya! I apologize we haven’t been able to speak lately, I’ve become rather busy preparing for my new job! You’re looking at the newest member of the U.A staff! I saw the footage from your exam, and I must say it was quite impressive!” He boomed, his too-white smile blinding even through the hologram, before he was interrupted by someone off camera. “What? I have to make how many of these? Fine, now Young Midoriya! On to your results! You received a respectable 43 Villain Points, which would be enough to make the cut, however! No matter how important it is, U.A wouldn’t be the top hero school if it only graded you based on how many villains you can defeat, introducing… Rescue Points!”

A detailed scoreboard appears behind All Might, showcasing the Villain Point scores. Of course Bakugo is in first place, someone named Tenya Iida is second, and Izumi is in seventh place.

“Impartial judges watched the footage, seeing how you were acting to help others! Not to mention your stunt with the 0-Pointer! They decided to give you… 75 rescue points! Here’s the updated scoreboard!” He boomed, moving off to the side as the scoreboard shifted the names around dramatically.

”After the updated scores, you are in, drumroll please… First Place!”

With a score of 118 points Izumi’s name was moved into the 1st Place position, with Bakugo in second, as he unsurprisingly, had 0 Rescue Points.

”Beating my record by 10 Points, I can proudly say, Izumi Midoriya… welcome to Your Hero Academia!” He boomed, before his image faded away leaving only the scoreboard.

“I… I got in.” Izumi gasped, breaking the moment of silence.

“You got in!” Himiko cheered, as she lunged at Izumi to aggressively hug her side. “Not to mention you beat All Might’s record? I’m so proud of you sis!”

“Thank you Kiko-Chan!” She beamed, as tears slowly trailed down her cheeks. She wiped her eyes, before sliding Himiko’s letter to her. “Now it’s time for you to open yours.”

Himiko nodded, then shakily opened her own letter. With a steadying deep breath, she slid the paper out of the envelope. Apparently whatever Himiko applied for didn’t have the fancy hologram that the Hero Course had. “Dear Miss Himiko Midoriya, we are sending this letter to inform you that your application to the U.A Costumes & Design Course has been accepted.” Himiko read aloud, her voice raising as she reached the positive news. “You scored 17th place in the general exam, and an impressive 2st place in the costume design portion. As you may or may not know, you will be expected to work closely with the U.A Support Classes, so please remember to bring your best behavior to school. Eagerly awaiting your creations, your Homeroom Teacher, Nemuri Kayama.”

“You did it Kiko-Chan!” Izumi cheered, retaliating against Himiko with a hug of her own. “I’m so excited for you! We get to go to the same school and everything!”

“Yeah!” Himiko grinned toothily. “The Midoriya Sisters are getting our academia arc!” She said, raising her hand for a high five.

“I can’t wait.” Izumi giggled, as she wound back her arm, before launching it forwards, slapping Himiko’s palm.

“Owwww…” Himiko whined, shaking out her hand.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“And I wanna vomit already.” Izumi mumbled, as she and Himiko stood together, staring at the U.A entrance.

“I know what you mean.” Himiko replied, looking slightly pale herself.

“So we just… walk in, right?” Izumi asked, shaking out her hands, as she turned towards Himiko for support.

“Yup.” Himiko said, popping the “p” as she fiddled with the hem of her uniform. “We just… walk in. Acting normal… like normal people do.”

They stood there nervously, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Unfortunately their chance was taken away, as a crowd of students pushed their way through, separating Izumi and Himiko.

“Meet by the gate after school, okay?” Himiko shouted through the crowd, as they got pushed further apart.

“‘Kay!” She shouted back, “Have a good day Kiko-Chan!”

“You too ‘Zumi!” She replied, just as they lost sight of each other.

‘I had wanted to talk with Kiko-Chan longer, but I guess we did need the push. I suppose I should get to class 1-A then.’ Izumi thought, as she went over her mental map of the school.

As the mob of lively students began drifting off to their own classes, Izumi was able to gather her bearings and make her way to class 1-A. When she got there, she was surprised by the sheer size of the door.

It made sense considering the fact that this was U.A, a school that prided itself on inclusivity, and making accommodations for its students.

Izumi thought it was kind of terrifying to think a student could be quite that big, even though she was around the average height for her age, other teenagers easily dwarfed her in this day and age. So a student with quirk-boosted height could make her look like a literal child.

With a deep breath, she desperately prayed against all odds, that Katsuki Bakugo could maybe, just possibly, be in class 1-B. Shaking out her arms, and plastering a polite smile on her face, she opened the door to her new classroom.

And she almost turned back around immediately. Inside not only was Katsuki Bakugo, but also the rude guy with the glasses from the exam. The Glasses Guy was chastising Bakugo for having his feet on the desk, as she took a step into the room.

“Why should I care about this desk, you extra?” Bakugo sneered at Glasses. “This desk is just lucky to be blessed by my presence.”

“Sir, I really must insist you take your feet off anyways.” He said, gesturing robotically with his hands. “It’s going to damage the furniture.”

“That ain’t my problem.” Bakugo stated. “Who even are you anyways?”

“My apologies sir, my name is Tenya Iida.” He said, bowing at nearly a perfect 90 degree angle. “I graduated from Somei Academy.”

“Somei huh?” Bakugo sneered, crossing his feet on his desk. “Some kind of spoiled brat from a big fancy school aren’t you? I can’t wait to knock you down a peg, and show you who the future Number One is!”

“Sp-spoiled?” Iida stammered, gesturing robotically once more, “I beg your pardon?”

“Then beg, like the loser you are.” Bakugo smirked, tilting his head back to physically look down on Iida.

During the whole argument Izumi tried to subtly shuffle over to her seat, and she was almost successful too, until someone had to draw attention to her. “Hey there!” A girl called out from behind her. “Midoriya right? Glad to see you made it!”

Turning around, Izumi found Uraraka waving towards her with a smile. Shrinking slightly as some of her classmates turned to look at her, she waved back towards Uraraka. “Hello Uraraka, glad to see you made it too!”

Uraraka’s smile widened at Izumi, before she glanced at the seating chart displayed on the blackboard and walked over to her own seat at the back of the room.

Iida decided that was the time to give up the argument with Bakugo, and made his way over to his own seat. He managed to sit perfectly upright, shoulders straight, as he stared directly ahead waiting for class to start.

Just as Izumi managed to get herself seated, and finished organizing her desk, she felt the gross crawling feeling you get when you're being watched. She looked up to see Bakugo turned around in his seat, glaring daggers at her.

“Deku you idiot! How did you manage to cheat your way into the Hero Course?” Bakugo yelled, as small explosions popped in his palms.

Feeling an unexpected surge of confidence she replied, “Same as you Kacchan, I beat a bunch of robots.”

“Don’t talk back to me, loser, just shut up before I decide to kill you.” Bakugo spat, as he turned back to the blackboard.

Izumi blinked, temporarily stunned by Bakugo’s relatively calm reaction, at least it was calm compared to what she expected. She quickly shook her head, breaking out of her confused stupor.

She calmly rested her chin in her hand, watching as the students slowly began entering class, mentally cataloging their quirks.

Just as she was watching as a pink skinned girl made her way into class, an unexpected flash of color caught her attention. Beneath the board, a yellow… something was inching its way towards the teacher’s desk.

Right as she locked eyes with it, it paused, rolling itself over on the floor. Whatever she was expecting, she was not mentally prepared for a disheveled man’s face to appear. After staring at each other for a moment, the realization finally dawned on her that it was a man inside a sleeping bag.

Presumably her teacher… scooting across the floor like a caterpillar… in a sleeping bag.

The man looked exhausted, his bloodshot eyes were noticeable even through the slight shade from his sleeping bag, and his eye bags could be considered designer eye bags at this point. She could already tell it’d be dangerous to talk to this man before his coffee.

The man finally broke the staring contest to look around the room, presumably checking to see if anyone else noticed him. After letting out a horribly world weary sigh, he continued inching his way towards the desk, and slowly slid his way up.

He stood there, dead center of the room for about 20 seconds, before he spoke. “If you’re here just to make friends, I think it would be for the best if you left.” He said, sending a sweeping glare across the room. “Only one of you delinquents noticed me entering the room, that’s not good enough. My name is Shota Aizawa, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher.”

Hushed whispers spread throughout the room, as Mr. Aizawa, as he identified himself, made his announcement.

“Please, shut up,” he sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Alright, listen up, we’re skipping orientation. Everything the Principal covers in his 3 hour long speech, is covered in the packet on your desks. If you want to know more, either read it on the website, or visit the teachers lounge after school, someone there can explain it to you.

“Instead we’re going to be doing a Quirk Apprehension Test, get to the locker rooms and change into your gym clothes, and head outside.” Mr. Aizawa said, crossing his arms.

The world stalled for a moment, the only sound audible in the classroom being the clock ticking on the wall.

“Anytime now.” Mr. Aizawa said, raising an eyebrow, as he casually stepped out of class.

The unholy screech of over a dozen chairs scraping against the floor rang out, as the students rushed out of their seats, rushing towards the locker rooms.

Izumi slung her bag over her shoulder, as she picked up the packet quickly discovering the map, as she speed-walked over to the locker rooms.

The outside of the locker rooms were fairly simple, they sat side by side with a “1-A” plaque above it. Each door had a corresponding icon engraved in the door, separating them by gender.

Izumi quickly rushed into the women’s locker room, and opened her marked locker. Inside was her U.A gym outfit, consisting of a short sleeved t-shirt, and shorts, designed with U.A’s colors in mind.

As her fellow classmates began pouring in, she walked into an empty stall and changed into her gym outfit.

Exiting the stall, she noticed some of the girls standing around engaging in small talk.

Being the absolute social butterfly she is, she simply snuck past them and left the locker room, heading outside to where Mr. Aizawa said to go.

As she exited the building, she noticed that over by a lone tree, that two students who had already arrived were doing stretches in the shade, Uptight Glasses Boy, and a stoic pretty faced candy cane boy.

She wordlessly went over and began stretching as well.

Glasses ignored her while he continued doing stretches, however Candy Cane paused his stretching to greet her.

“Hello.” He said, offering a nod with his greeting, “My name is Shoto Todoroki, what’s your name?”

“Izumi Midoriya, it’s nice to meet you Todoroki.” She replied, returning his greeting nod.

“It's nice to meet you as well, Midoriya. I am going to continue doing stretches now.” He said blankly, as he promptly resumed his stretching.

‘He seems nice, despite having… underdeveloped social skills.’ Izumi thought, as she rolled her shoulder.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Alright hellions,” Aizawa started, crossing his arms as he stood in front of the class. “10 minutes is way too long, people can die in that kind of time. But, now that you’re all actually here, we’ll be doing a Quirk Assessment Test. It’s the standard one that you all did in middle school, but you’ll be using your quirks.

“Now, Midoriya, how far could you throw a ball in middle school?”

“I- I wasn’t allowed to participate sir.” Izumi replied, shuffling her feet nervously.

Aizawa’s eyes widened slightly, before he schooled his expression. “Do you have any health issues regarding physical activity?”

“No sir.” She replied easily.

“Just take this ball, stand in the little white circle, and chuck it as far as you can.” He sighed, throwing the ball to Izumi.

Izumi fumbled the ball for a moment, before actually catching it. She quickly jogged over the circle and stood inside of it.

She calmed her mind, drawing 2% from One for All. The multicolored lightning sparked to life around her, crackling quietly.

Apparently that was too much for Bakugo, as he launched himself forward with his quirk all the while screaming, “DEKUUUU!”

Aizawa, bless his heart, caught the rabid child in his capture scarf quickly activating his quirk. His raven black hair began levitating in the air slightly, as his eyes started glowing a crimson red.

“Bakugo, what in the world do you think you’re doing?” Aizawa asked calmly.

“She’s cheating! The Quirkless freak doesn’t deserve to be here! Expel her teach, Nulls don’t deserve to be here at U.A!” Bakugo spat, trying to wriggle his way out of the capture weapon.

“Bakugo.” Aizawa stated deathly calm. “I’m only going to say this once. The rest of you had better listen too.”

The students shuffled nervously under the cold glare of their teacher.

“Any form of Discrimination, Bullying, or Harassment,” Aizawa began, “Will not be tolerated at U.A. You get three strikes, use up your third strike and you will be expelled immediately.

“First of all, Midoriya clearly isn’t Quirkless, and even if she was she would not be expelled. Quirkless people are allowed to apply to U.A, they are allowed to be in any course, regardless of how you may feel.

“So Bakugo,” Aizawa said dangerously low, “You will be receiving your first strike today, you will have two remaining. I suggest you not use them. Now if you could stop trying to use your quirk and get back to the group now, you’re drying out my eyes.”

Bakugo clicked his tongue before relaxing in Aizawa’s hold.

Seeing his decision, Aizawa nodded firmly and released him. He waited for Bakugo to return to the group, before getting out a small bottle of eye drops.

Izumi was stunned by the fact that not only was her teacher apparently Eraserhead, but also the fact that a teacher actually stopped Bakugo from attacking her!

“You can go ahead now, Midoriya.” Aizawa said gruffly, blinking the eye drops into his eyes.

She quickly shook herself out of her head, and activated 2% of OFA again. Channeling 2% throughout her body, she pulled her arm back, and launched the ball as far as she could.

Aizawa pulled out a tablet, and turned it around showing Izumi’s distance of “215.4 meters.”

“This is going to be so fun!” Someone in the crowd cheered.

“Fun?” Aizawa asked incredulously. “You think Pro Hero work is going to be fun? Are natural disasters fun? What about villains destroying cities, does that sound fun to you? Is it still fun if the person in last place gets expelled?”

“That’s not fair!” Uraraka cried, pushing to the front of the group.

“Well kids, I’m sorry to tell you this, but life isn’t fair. I guess you’d better just do your best and go beyond. Isn’t that what it means to be ‘Plus Ultra’?” Aizawa asked, grinning sinisterly.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Alright then, I suppose you all didn’t do absolutely awful on the exercises, all things considered. I can’t be bothered to hype it up, so let’s just get the scores on the screen.” Aizawa said, pressing buttons on his tablet.

Suddenly a holographic scoreboard appeared in the air, showing the scores as follows;

Momo Yaoyorozu: 1st
Shoto Todoroki: 2nd
Katsuki Bakugo: 3rd
Izumi Midoriya: 4th
Tenya Iida: 5th
Fumikage Tokoyami: 6th
Mezo Shoji: 7th
Mashiro Ojiro: 8th
Eijiro Kirishima: 9th
Mina Ashido: 10th
Ochako Uraraka: 11th
Koji Koda: 12th
Rikido Sato: 13th
Tsuyu Asui: 14th
Yuga Aoyama: 15th
Hitoshi Shinsou: 16th
Hanta Sero: 17th
Denki Kaminari: 18th
Kyoka Jiro: 19th
Toru Hagakure: 20th

The aforementioned Hagakure fell to the ground crying, she was apparently invisible, so the only thing visible was a floating U.A gym outfit.

“Don’t worry, it was all a logical ruse. No one is getting expelled today. Anyways, it’s time to head back to the locker rooms and change, after that we have some more things left to do in the classroom, then you all get to go home. Yay.” He said, before walking back inside.

“WHAT!?” Practically the entire class shouted, blindsighted by the “logical ruse”.

“Wasn’t it obvious?” A tall girl asked, with her black hair tied up into a ponytail. “There’s no way he’d expel someone on the first day.”

“Actually…” Izumi said quietly, “He expelled half his class in the first week last year.”

The black haired girl covered her mouth as she paled, and the other students didn’t look much better.

The walk back to the locker rooms was long and awkward, nobody dared to say anything as they entered the locker rooms.

Luckily once everyone finished changing and were walking back to the classroom, the atmosphere had lightened considerably and people were chatting again.

-~-~-~-~-~-

School had ended about 10 minutes ago, and Izumi was pacing at the U.A gate, when a recognizable set of blonde messy buns began walking towards her.

“Kiko-Chan!” Izumi called out, waving frantically.

“‘Zumi!” She shouted back cheerfully, as she ran to meet her sister.

“Hello-“ Izumi started, but was interrupted by a blonde bullet wrapping her in a hug.

“So did you have a good day Kiko-Chan?” She asked, once air had reentered her lungs.

“Yeah!” She said energetically, “There’s this pink haired girl, Mei Hatsume- she told me to call her Mei- she’s crazy smart, and she's so energetic, like me! She’s in the support course, and she makes such cool stuff! You gotta watch out though, she blows stuff up a lot, but her inventions are so cool!

“She calls them her babies- which I mean who wouldn’t, she spends so much time on them after all- and she’s working on these rocket boot thingies, and she asked me to make them pretty! She even said, “Himiko, after we graduate I’ll hire you as my head designer and we’ll make so many pretty babies!” But for now she just wants me to do it for classes, which is still super cool!”

“Good day, huh?” Izumi chuckled, wrapping her arm around Himiko’s shoulders.

“I ranted a little, didn't I?” She asked sheepishly, “But, yeah I had a lot of fun. What about you?”

“Well lemme tell you all about it on the way home.” Izumi said, as they exited U.A.

Chapter Text

Shortly after homeroom ended, the class had a short break before the Heroics lesson began, so the students spread out making small talk.

“Hey, your name's Deku right?” Looking up from her notebook, Izumi spotted a very pink girl standing in front of her desk.

“Um, no… Kacc- Bakugo calls me that to make fun of me. My name's Izumi Midoriya.” Izumi replied, as her eyes tried to look anywhere but the pink girl’s face.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!” She said, bowing furiously. “It sounded like a nickname or something, I didn’t mean to make fun of you!”

“It’s okay.” She said softly, fiddling with her fingers.

“Let’s start over! It’s nice to meet you Midoriya, I’m Mina Ashido.” She said, reaching out her hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Ashido.” She replied, accepting the handshake.

“Hey Kiri, get over here!” She called out towards a boy with spiky red hair.

He quickly said goodbye to the other student he was chatting with, and jogged over. “Hey, what’s up Mina?” He asked, grinning brightly showcasing his pointy shark-like teeth.

“This is Izumi Midoriya! Midoriya, this is Eijiro Kirishima.” Ashido said, gesturing back and forth.

“Woah, First Place in the exam, Midoriya? Your throw on the assessment test was so manly!” Kirishima said, grinning even brighter somehow.

“Thank you, Kirishima.” She replied, smiling back at him. “I didn’t get to see your quirk, what was it?”

“Oh it’s nothing too flashy it’s just-“

“Students! Class is about to begin, please get to your seats!” The robotic boy with glasses - she thought she heard someone call him Iida? - called out, interrupting Kirishima.

“Oh well, I’ll tell you later I guess.” He said, waving before he jogged back to his desk.

“It was nice talking to you Midoriya!” Ashido said, as she walked back towards her own seat.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“I am here! Walking through the door like a normal person!” A recognizable voice boomed, as they stepped into the classroom after slamming the door open.

Most of the classroom erupted in excited whispers as they saw the Number One Hero All Might enter, while a few others covered their ears due to the sheer volume of All Might’s greeting.

A girl with a dark purple bob shakily pulled a pair of headphones onto her ears as All Might quieted the class.

”Welcome to the most important class at U.A High, Heroics! You can just think of it as Heroing 101, where you’ll learn the basics of being a hero!” All Might announced, as he struck a hero pose behind the teacher’s podium.

”Today we’ll be doing… Battle Trials!” He continued, dramatically taking a labeled card out of his pocket, and thrusting it forward.

“Heck yeah!” Bakugo shouted, setting off explosive pops in his hands.

“This’ll be so fun!” Ashido cheered, leaning back to fist bump Kirishima.

”Before we get to the battle trials,” All Might boomed, interrupting the class’ various cheers, ”Let's make sure you all look like real heroes!” With a flourish he pressed a button on a previously hidden remote, causing the wall to recede into the floor revealing briefcases for each student.

”These are your hero costumes! Get changed, and meet me at Ground B!” All Might said, disappearing with a loud “woosh” as he dashed out of the classroom.

There was a brief pause in the classroom as the students processed what All Might said, before most of them surged forwards to grab their costumes.

Only Izumi, Ilda, the invisible girl, and a boy with lightning bolt hair stayed back, waiting for the chaotic sea of children to part.

As the majority of the students rushed out of class, the remaining four walked calmly to the cases, and began making their way to the locker rooms.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Now you’re all truly looking the part of heroes!” All Might boomed, standing in front of the students, now changed into their Hero costumes.

Izumi was wearing a dark green jumpsuit, just a few shades brighter than black, with just enough loose fabric to allow easy maneuverability.

Over that she had a black hoodie with white strips going down the sides. It was absolutely loaded with pockets to be used for holding first aid supplies, little toys for scared kids, and snacks. Because who wouldn’t want pocket snacks?

Across the entire outfit, she requested they add padding, which was added around her joints and such.

She was given a pair of tough gloves that were a nice phthalo green, with white strips lining up with those of her hoodie.

The hood was slightly oversized for that roguish look, and to shadow her face dramatically.

On her face she wore a sleek steel mask built to filter through possibly dangerous gasses, as well as having a rebreather for any underwater missions.

She had Himiko help her figure out how to do an easy smoky effect around her eyes using some water resistant makeup.

Speaking of Himiko, she was the main designer of the suit. She and Izumi sat down and brainstormed for several hours to come up with it… well, they may have gotten distracted a few times, but that’s besides the point.

“Sir, since we’re back in a simulated city, are we going to be fighting robots like the entrance exam, kero?” A frog girl asked, tapping her chin.

”No, young Asui! We’re going to be doing indoor trials!” All Might boomed, as he began reading from a set of flash cards. “In this Heroes vs. Villains exercise, we will be drawing lots for each team.”

”But sir!” Ilda interrupted, “Shouldn’t we be individually assigned to teams, so we can cooperate with someone who compliments our skills?”

”Actually Ilda, it makes sense if you think about it. In real life, heroes have to team up with unknown heroes all the time, so this is quite accurate.” A elegant girl said.

”My apologies then, please continue.” He said, bowing stiffly.

“The Villains will enter first, having a five minute planning phase. After that the Hero team will have ten minutes to try and disarm the bomb, while the villains try to stop them!” All Might finished, pocketing the flash cards. ”Everybody, line up and take a ticket from the machine!”

As each person drew a ticket, the teams were updated live on a monitor over by the monitoring booth.

”All right! The first match up will be between Team A as Heroes, versus Team B as Villains! So that’s Ochako Uraraka, and Izumi Midoriya as the Heroes versus Tenya Ilda, and Katsuki Bakugo as the Villains!” All Might boomed. ”You boys go ahead and get started setting up in there!” He said, motioning towards the building.

“You’re going down Deku…” Bakugo growled, as he walked past.

“I wish you luck, may the best team win.” Ilda said, as he shuffled past.

Despite the emotional whiplash of the enemy team, Izumi and Uraraka stood outside the building and began talking strategy.

“Nice to see you again Midoriya! Thanks for saving me again.” Uraraka said, shaking Izumi’s hand, sans pinky.

”You too Uraraka! So what does your quirk do?” Izumi asked straight to the point, as she spread out the building’s blueprint.

”Oh, mine’s Zero Gravity! It makes anything I touch with all five fingers float!” She said, showing off her pink finger pads. “What about you?”

”Sweet. My quirk is called Enhancement,” Izumi said, cranking One For All up to 2% showing off the prismatic sparks. “It boosts my physical capabilities.”

”Pretty…” Uraraka said, reaching out to touch the sparks. “Ahem… I mean that’s pretty cool.”

“Thank you.” Izumi said, burying her head into her hood.

”So what do you think they’re planning?” She asked, looking at the blueprint over Izumi’s shoulder.

“Bakugo hates me, so he’ll probably try and come after me, that’ll leave Ilda with the bomb. The bomb probably won’t be on the top floor just in case, so maybe the third floor. Do you think you can float up to the third floor window?” Izumi asked suddenly.

”I think so…” She said, mentally measuring the distance.

“All right, so what do you think about going in from the third floor window, a little while after I enter from the front door?” Izumi asked, looking back up from the schematic at Uraraka.

“Sounds good, but do you think you can take Bakugo by yourself? He seems… feisty.” She replied.

”I… I’ll be okay.” Izumi said, with a shaky smile.

“We got this!” Uraraka said, offering a fist bump.

“Y-yeah!” Izumi replied, bumping Uraraka’s fist.

Chapter Text

”Begin!” All Might said through the earpiece, starting the match.

Izumi quickly rushed through the entrance of the building headed straight to the stairs, while Uraraka floated herself up to the third floor window.

As she finished climbing the second story stairs, a series of pops interrupted Izumi’s sprint towards the staircase leading to the third floor, by instinct she quickly ducked behind the nearest wall.

The loud footsteps of a certain quick tempered boy echoed throughout the concrete room.

“Deku…” Bakugo taunted, sneer evident in his voice, “Come out from wherever you're hiding you coward!”

Taking a deep breath, Izumi stepped out from behind the wall, facing towards Katsuki.

“I guess even a worm can grow a spine.” He smirked, shifting his stance. “Get ready Deku!”

With a flurry of explosions he launched himself towards Izumi, leading with a rocket powered right hook.

Leaning on instincts burned into her mind from years of one sided beatdowns, Izumi crouched down, narrowly avoiding his fist.

She quickly jumped back up, catching Bakugo’s extended arm, and used his momentum to flip him onto the ground.

There was a brief moment where Bakugo lay wide eyed, as if he couldn’t believe his fist didn’t automatically connect just because he was the one who threw it.

But his shock was quickly overpowered by rage, as he flung himself back up, swiftly throwing punches interspersed with explosions from his palms.

Izumi, never having been in an actual fight with Bakugo, was quickly caught off guard by the sudden deviation from his usual style and was just managing to dodge the majority of his punches.

Trading a nasty explosion in the shoulder, she managed to just hit Bakugo in the throat giving her time to put distance between them while he choked on air.

She quickly turned and tactically retreated down the hallway, trying to catch her own breath for a moment.

“Get- cough cough- back here Deku!” Bakugo choked out, as he unsteadily rose to his feet and ran after Izumi.

After Izumi ducked behind the nearest wall, she listened for Bakugo’s footsteps in the hallway, when suddenly the wall behind her exploded as he launched himself through.

He soared through the wall into the room, his face contorting into a feral grin as he watched Izumi ragdoll through the air.

The impact of Bakugo’s explosions flung her across the room, cracking her head against the wall as the rest of her body slid down the concrete slab.

Wheezing from getting the wind knocked out of her, she stood uneasily through the nausea and ringing, to face Bakugo.

With a shaky smile, she raised her arms into a weak fighting stance, exhausted but unwilling to cave to Bakugo, not again.

“Come on Ka-cchan.” She taunted with a shout, momentarily deafened by the explosions. “It's jus’ you an’ me.”

Bakugo’s feral grin widened into something sharper, walking the edge of predatory. “Don’t worry Deku, your beat down isn’t over yet, my gauntlets are finally full!” He remarked inspecting his support gear, before aiming it towards Izumi.

“Don’t, Young Bakugo! You could kill Young Midoriya with that!” All Might shouted through the comm.

“She’ll be fine...” He said dismissively, removing his earpiece as he widened his stance, “As long as she dodges!”

Time seemed to slow as he pulled the pin, kicking Izumi’s analytical mind into overdrive as she tried to make a plan to escape the blast radius.

Dodge? Unlikely, there was under a second to move, and she seriously doubted she could move that fast even with 100% of One For All.

When All Might punched the slime villain it completely changed the weather. Even if she isn't as strong as All Might, now that she has his quirk she should at least be able to nullify the explosion.

‘I’m sorry, arm.’ She thought remorsefully, as she pulled back her arm.

“Smash!” She shouted, throwing a 100% right hook at an angle to hopefully nullify the explosion, and miss Bakugo.

The force of her punch shattered all the windows around her, and sent a wall of air rocketing towards the massive explosion.

The air current and blast met head on, fighting for the ability to break past the other.

Due to the angle of the punch, the two opposing forces slid to the side of the other, heading towards both students.

Bakugo got clipped in the arm, breaking his other gauntlet, which will likely only leave a nasty bruise.

Izumi… wasn’t as lucky, the blast hit her in the shoulder she threw the punch with, burning the already heavily bruised skin.

If she had less of an adrenaline high, she probably would’ve passed out on the spot.

Instead, she picked herself up off the ground, and wobbled over to Bakugo and wrapped the shell-shocked student in the capture tape.

She then walked up the stairs to the bomb, hopefully reuniting with Uraraka so they could capture the bomb.

As she stumbled at the top of the stairs, she felt herself get caught by two separate pairs of arms.

Blinking the spots from her eyes, she noticed a pink blob on her right, and a white… something in her left.

The pink blob was moving energetically, trying to convey something that a very concussed, nearly completely dissociated Izumi could not understand.

She shook the arms off her so she could go help Uraraka with the bomb. Her steps grew more unsteady with each step, but she was starting to worry about how Uraraka was doing, and Izumi knew she couldn’t let her down.

If only her vision could stop spinning so she could tell where the door was, that’d be great.

She started to laugh as she saw squiggly black dots buzz around her vision.

Hey… when did the floor get that close?

-~-~-~-~-~-

As a deafening explosion shook the building, interrupting Ilda’s… less than stellar performance as a villain. Ochako quickly shot Ilda a look telling him to postpone the match to check on the others.

With a sharp nod, Ilda followed her out of the room housing the “bomb”, towards the source of the explosion.

Before they could start going downstairs, a certain green girl stumbled her way upstairs, tripping on the last step.

Ochako took Izumi’s arm carefully, trying not to touch… oh, that doesn’t look good.

Where a normal shoulder should be was instead a tenderized slab of burnt human meat.

Steadying her sensitive stomach at the smell of toasted human, she tried to keep Izumi upright as gently as possible.

“Izumi! Are you alright?” She grit out, waving her hand in the other’s face.

“Midoriya! As a fellow classmate I must insist you allow me to take you to the Nurse’s Office!” Ilda said, his unoccupied arm waving emphatically.

Izumi, not recognizing her classmates’ worries, shrugged the arms off of her, and continued past them.

The two shared a worried glance before quickly following after their injured classmate.

Despite their calls, Izumi remained completely unresponsive as she stumbled towards the bomb, her steps quickly growing more shallow following with her breathing.

They managed to catch up just as she was about to faceplant. Ilda caught her around the waist as Ochako disabled Izumi’s gravity.

“All Might, call Recovery Girl, Izu- Midoriya is severely injured!” Ochako called into her headset.

“Oh- yes yes, one moment.” He replied, fishing his phone out of his pocket.

After a much too still Izumi was set down on the ground by Ilda, they could see the full extent of the damage.

Her brand new costume was completely ripped up, her sleeve was torn off, revealing a very bruised, very burnt arm. There was a slow leak of blood from the back of her head, nearly covered up by her dark green hair. And undoubtedly numerous internal injuries neither of them could see.

Thankfully she was still breathing, albeit much more shallow than Ochako liked.

Ilda stood there with her just silently watching over Izumi, until help arrived in the shape of a group of robots carrying a stretcher.

The two quietly followed the robots past All Might, helping a shell shocked Bakugo out of capture tape, towards the Nurse’s Office.

“I hope you’re okay Izumi.” Ochako whispered softly, clenching her fists.

Chapter Text

As Izumi began to wake from unconsciousness, she caught a whiff of a smell she was unfortunately becoming quite familiar with.

The U.A. Nurse’s Office smelled of antiseptic with a hint of lavender from the plant Recovery Girl kept by her desk.

Unlike her last time here however, she felt a weight on the left side of her hospital bed.

As Izumi cracked her surprisingly dry eyes open, she noticed a familiar head of blonde hair tied in her signature messy bun style, laying face down holding tightly onto Izumi’s unbandaged hand.

Despite her older age, Recovery Girl quickly caught onto the fact Izumi was awake and quickly hobbled over.

“How are you feeling dearie?” She asked, checking the various screens hooked up to Izumi.

“Tired.” Izumi croaked out, throat dry after several hours asleep due to Recovery Girl’s quirk.

Recovery Girl let out a soft chuckle at Izumi’s honesty, tapping away at the machines. “As to be expected after what you went through. That was quite the scare you gave us there, Toshinori should be getting an earful after that display.” She chuckled, her grandmotherly smile gaining a hint of a sharp edge.

“I do have a few updates for you once you wake up a bit more, you may want to wake your sister for this.” She continued, walking back over to her desk to update Izumi’s patient information.

Izumi reached over and began gently scratching Himiko’s head just enough to begin rousing her from dreamland.

“Hmm? Zumi, what’s up?” Himiko mumbled, slowly raising her head up from Izumi’s side.

“Wait… Zumi! You’re awake!” She gasped, carefully lunging towards Izumi, and wrapping her in a surprisingly tight hug.

“Yes Kiko, I’m awake.” Izumi chuckled, squeezing back with her good arm.

“Woah, what’s going on with your eyes?” Himiko asked, leaning backwards from Izumi.

“That’s what I was going to get to dearie,” Recovery Girl said, walking back over. “It seems you experienced some unusual changes when I healed you.”

“Usually, when I use my quirk on a person, it tries to heal the nearest injury. But when I used it on you, it sensed there were some things… changing, and it diverted some of your stamina there.” She continued, dragging over a thin mirror.

“While I was able to heal most of your injuries to a safe level, you will still experience some pain and stiffness, especially with your shoulder area. That sustained quite a bit of damage.”

Recovery Girl wheeled the floor mirror over to the side of Izumi’s hospital bed.

As expected she noticed her right arm was wrapped in bandages and tied to her chest in a sling. However, she immediately looked towards her eyes after Himiko’s exclamation.

She gasped as she caught a glimpse of her eyes in the mirror. Instead of her usual soft green iris, her eyes were nearly identical to Himiko’s. With her normal green replacing Himiko’s yellow.

Her circular pupil was replaced with a cat-like slit, and her green iris was slightly larger, filling more of her eye than before.

As she gasped, her lips parted to reveal larger, not to mention much sharper canine teeth in her mouth.

She hesitantly reached up to touch her new sharper teeth, and noticed an unusual softness to her finger pads.

Partially in shock, Izumi looked down towards her fingers, and noticed her fingertips were not the calloused ones she was used to.

Her fingertips were now raised up slightly, and quite soft to the touch, similar to cat toe beans if she was honest.

She jerked her head to the side to look at Himiko, grasping for a sense of normality amidst all this chaos.

Himiko, sensing the rising panic in Izumi, not to mention her own surprise, wisely commented, “I’m not sure how this happened, but you look cute.”

You could practically hear how the cogs in Izumi’s head stuttered for a moment at Himiko’s remark.

“Cute?” Izumi blinked rapidly, “This mysterious change, with no hint of an explanation, and you tell me I’m cute?”

“Yep.” Himiko nodded sagely, “Plus, we match now.”

Izumi stared at her for a moment before falling back onto her pillow, covering her face as she let out a low whine.

“Well besides the obvious, the machines say you’re just as healthy as before.” Recovery Girl said, continuing on as normal, because quite honestly she’s seen too much in her long life to be surprised anymore. “Once I draw a bit of blood, I’ll let you two girls run on home.”

Izumi sighed, as she removed her good hand from her face and presented it for Recovery Girl to draw blood from.

“Thank you.” She said, tying a bandage on Izumi’s forearm, before drawing a few vials of blood. After, she stuck a cotton ball on the small divot and wrapped her arm. “You girls are free to go now, once she’s done having a fit.”

“Thank you Miss Recovery Girl!” Himiko said cheerily, as Recovery Girl went off to do her Doctor things.

Once Izumi recovered from what Recovery Girl called “a fit”, she shakily stood up to link arms with Himiko.

“So what all happened?” Izumi asked, adjusting her bag.

“Well,” Himiko drawled, sliding her backpack onto her shoulder. “After your incident, I was informed by Mister Power Loader Sensei that you were in the Nurse’s Office, but you would be fine. So I finished my classes and then came to sit with you until you woke up!”

“Any clue what happened with my classes?” Izumi asked, as the two left the Nurse’s Office.

“Word on the street is, Aizawa Sensei heard about his students getting injured, and ran over to Ground B and stopped the whole exercise! He sent the class over to Vlad King Sensei, and they did basic exercises in their costumes to get used to them or whatever. I heard that your class could hear part of the tongue lashing All Might got as they were walking away.” She giggled, imagining All Might getting a dressing down from the lovingly nicknamed “Hobo Sensei”.

“Also! That fancy girl, Yao something or other, brought you the homework, and I put it in your bag for you!” She finished, patting Izumi’s backpack.

“Wow, that’s certainly a lot. Thank you Kiko-Chan.” Izumi said, still trying to process everything.

“You’re welcome, Zumi! Your Kiko-Chan is just that awesome!” Himiko said, unlinking their arms, so she could dramatically bow.

“So, Himiko, what do you think is up with my… new look?” Izumi asked nervously.

“I dunno sis, maybe it’s part of your whole super secret thingy. You said it was a stockpile quirk, maybe it’s doing something weird. I meant what I said earlier though, you look cute!” Himiko froze, before flailing her arms, “I mean, not that you didn’t look cute before. You definitely were cute, I just mean even though you’ve changed you still look cute. Wait no I didn’t mean to imply you’ve changed—“

“Himiko.” Izumi laughed, “I know what you meant.”

“Good.” Himiko sighed in relief.

“I wonder if I need to drink blood now?” Izumi wondered aloud, scrunching her nose slightly.

“We can check when we get home.” Himiko replied, skipping happily beside her. “My quirk makes it taste sweet, so you should be able to tell based on taste.”

“Think you can spare one of your bags for testing?” Izumi asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Zumi, come on, you have to let that go. It was one time, and I really liked those snacks.” She pouted, crossing her arms dramatically.

-~-~-~-~-~-

“Come on Zumi, you just need to lick it.” Himiko huffed, pacing the room for the hundredth time.

“I know…” Izumi whined, holding a spoon with a droplet of blood inside. “It’s just weird for me.”

“If it doesn’t work you can just spit into the sink. Now plug your nose and lick it!” She said, hovering over Izumi.

Izumi plugged her nose and hesitantly stuck her tongue out, she tapped the edge of the droplet with her tongue, swiftly pulling it back into her mouth.

Her mouth was filled with not the expected metallic taste of blood, but a sweet syrupy taste not unlike caramel.

Her eyes widened, as she quickly licked the spoon, savoring the taste.

“So, I’ll take it that the taste has changed?” Himiko giggled, watching Izumi stick the spoon in her mouth.

“Yup.” Izumi replied, as she set the spoon in the sink. “It was very sweet, nothing at all like it was before.”

“Do you wanna test if it really is Transform?” Himiko asked, grabbing a sewing needle. “If it is, just a prick should let you transform into me for a minute or two.”

“What does it mean if I really do have your Quirk?” Izumi asked hesitantly.

“Eh, heck if I know. Do you wanna test it?” She asked excitedly.

“Sure.” She replied, confused, and uneasy about how and why she may have Transform.

Himiko pricked her finger, coating the tip of the needle in a thin layer of blood. And offered it to Izumi.

“How do you imagine your quirk working?” Izumi asked, looking the needle over in her hand.

“Well, I think about the person whose blood I drank, and I think about how it would feel to be them. And then it gets all wiggly, and boom I transform into them.” She said, gesturing with her hands.

“Okay? Well, here goes something.” Izumi said, licking the needle.

‘Himiko, Transform. She’s taller, she has those cute little buns, and she’s sneakier than I am. She loves mom’s old cardigan, and she likes fashion design. She’s warm, and her smile, her real smile is so bright it’s beautiful.’

Suddenly Izumi’s body felt, well, “all wiggly” as Himiko said. A thin monochromatic film covered her entire body, and after she instinctively closed her eyes, the next time she opened them everything felt different.

For one her whole body was taller, making her center of gravity all weird. Just standing upright was hard enough, she couldn’t imagine walking.

“Whoa…” Himiko gasped, “So that’s what it looks like. Are you okay in there Zumi?”

“Ye-yeah.” She said, but it wasn’t her voice anymore, it was Himiko’s. “Can-can you help me sit down? If I try to walk by myself I think I’ll fall.”

“Yeah sure.” She replied, her eyes wide as she helped herself sit down.

As Izumi sat down, suddenly the extra height and weight fell off of her in monochromatic sludge onto the floor, turning her back into herself.

As Izumi sat there stunned, the sludge slowly dissolved off the floor, turning into normal air.

“That was weird.” Izumi said, stunned.

“Definitely. Blood pouch?” She said, holding out a cooled pouch for Izumi.

Chapter Text

“How do you think your class is going to react?” Himiko asked, as she and Izumi left the Nurse’s Office after Izumi received another dose of healing.

“Honestly, I’m still not sure I’ve actually processed it, I haven’t even thought about how they’ll react.” She replied, staring at her newly raised fingertips.

“Fair enough,” Himiko relented, tugging her school bag back up. “Yesterday was a lot, but don’t forget to sit with me at lunch today, got it?”

“Oh course, Kiko-Chan.” Izumi laughed, punching her sister in the arm. “As long as nothing unexpected happens.”

“Don’t curse yourself Izumi!” She scolded, turning towards her swiftly. “Your luck is terrible, don’t test it any more than you have to.”

“Ah, but I was lucky enough to find you wasn’t I?” She retorted with a smile.

“Well… yes. But don’t forget, you fought off a thug first!” Himiko pouted, crossing her arms playfully.

“Fine, fine. Only because you asked so nicely.” Izumi teased, hesitantly reaching for the door to her class.

“Love you ‘Zumi, don’t be stupid!” Himiko said, turning to speedwalk towards her own classes.

“Love you too Kiko-Chan!” Izumi replied, laughing softly at her sister’s antics.

Izumi took a deep steadying breath, mentally preparing herself to open the door. But maybe she could wait a moment, catch her breath maybe?

No, no. She’s got this, she just has to take another deep breath, right? And hurry inside to blindside the anxiety, that’ll work right?

“Good morning Midoriya, how are you feeling, kero?” Tsuyu Asui— call me Tsu— asked, as Izumi entered.

“Still a little off, the arm is still pretty sore.” She replied honestly, turning to face Tsu, who was standing next to the door.

“Were your eyes like that before, kero?” She asked, placing a finger on her chin, as she tilted her head inquisitively. “I could’ve sworn they were different.”

“O-oh, ye-yeah no, we’re still figuring my Quirk out. It came in super late, so I’m not sure about everything it does. But to answer your question, yes, my eyes were different before. When I woke up in the Nurse’s Office yesterday, my eyes looked like this.” She lied smoothly, sprinkling in bits of truth.

“That’s strange.” Tsu said bluntly, “That must be scary, kero, waking up and your eyes look so different.”

“Um, yeah it really was.” She laughed, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. “My sister and I are trying to figure it out.”

“You have a sister, kero? How old is she?” She asked, stepping aside to let Izumi properly enter the classroom.

“Well, Himiko’s a couple months older than I am. Even though she’s adopted, we’re still super close, and I love her a lot.” Izumi said happily, gushing about her sister.

“That’s nice, kero, I have two younger siblings. Satsuki and Samidare.”

“How old are they?”

“Sami is 10, and Suki is 6, kero.”

“Cute!”

“Hey Midoriya, good to see you looking so much better!” Uraraka said, walking over. “Hello to you too Tsu!”

“Good morning Uraraka!” The two greenettes replied with varying levels of enthusiasm.

“Whoa, that’s new.” Uraraka gasped, looking at Izumi’s catlike eyes.

“Yeah, it’s new to me too. My Quirk came in late, so we’re not sure about everything it does.” She said, “My eyes have changed, my canine teeth are sharper, and my finger pads are different now.”

“That’s interesting. How late did your quirk come in?” She asked innocently.

“Um… TheDayOfTheExam?” Izumi mumbled incredibly fast, bracing for a negative reaction.

“What was that, sorry?”

“The day of the exam…?” She replied hesitantly, leaning backwards.

“THE WHA—“ She shouted, “Ahem— excuse me, I meant, ‘Wow that’s very late, but it’s incredibly impressive you have that much control over it already.’”

“You… don’t think less of me for being a late bloomer?” Izumi asked hesitantly.

“Not at all!” She said easily, “Although it can’t have been nice getting picked on.”

“That’s one way to put it…” Izumi mumbled too quietly for them to hear, although certain classmates swiveled their heads around for a moment.

As Tsu was about to comment, Eraserhead walked in, and told everyone to sit down so he could start Homeroom.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Himiko was standing outside the door of the Cafeteria, waiting for Izumi when she and the rest of Class 1-A showed up.

“C’mon ‘Zumi, I’m hungry…” Himiko pouted, swiftly latching onto her arm.

“You didn’t have to wait for me Kiko-Chan.” Izumi laughed, poking Himiko.

“Who’s this, kero?” Tsu asked, as she appeared behind the two.

“Tsu, this is my sister I was talking about earlier! Tsuyu Asui, Himiko Midoriya. Himiko Midoriya, Tsuyu Asui.” Izumi said, introducing the two.

“Nice to meet you Tsuyu!” Himiko said cheerily.

“Nice to meet you too Himiko, but please, call me Tsu, kero.”

The three quickly got their lunches, with Lunch Rush giving both Midoriyas little blood bag juice boxes, after being informed by Recovery Girl about their quirk’s dietary requirements.

“So, how are your classes so far?” Himiko asked, after taking a sip from her “juice” box.

“Same old, same old, even with Pro Heroes as teachers, it’s still school. Although Aizawa Sensei’s test was absolutely brutal.” Izumi replied, with Tsu offering a consoling nod.

“I’ve been helping a student in the Support Classes, Mei Hatsume, with making her equipment more aesthetically pleasing.” Himiko said, in between bites of her food. “It’s tough trying to make it prettier, while maintaining the overall effectiveness.”

“It sounds like it, kero, so you’re in support then?” Tsu asked.

“Sort of,” She said, making a ‘so-so’ motion with her free hand, “I’m in the Costumes and Design course, which works closely with Support.”

“She helped me make my costume.” Izumi added.

“What’d you say, you stuck up prick?” A recognizable brash voice boomed from across the lunch room.

“I was just offering some friendly competition,” A new voice replied smoothly, “But it seems as if someone from Class 1-A can’t handle the superiority of Class 1-B.”

Craning her neck, Izumi saw Bakugo staring daggers at a boy with short blond hair.

“Hah?” Bakugo shouted, shooting up out of his seat. “If anyone’s the best it’s me! I’m going to be the number one hero, you extra!”

“My, my, such… enthusiasm!” The blond laughed theatrically, “I certainly hope your skills are better than your attitude.”

Bakugo was physically held back from launching himself at the guy by Kirishima, causing the blond boy’s face to quickly pale, before returning to a mask of indifference. “I believe I’ve made my point, soon all of U.A will see Class 1-B’s prowess!” He said enthusiastically, before walking away from Bakugo, towards where Izumi and friends were sitting.

Himiko shot up with a gasp, “Neito?” She asked, as he was about to pass their table.

“Who— Hi-Himiko?” He stuttered, staring wide eyed.

“It is you!” She cheered, rushing him for a hug. “How have you been?”

“Good.” He said, stunned by her presence. “But what about you? Last I heard— well, it wasn’t good.”

“Much better!” Himiko smiled brightly, unashamedly showing her sharp canine teeth. “My parents got arrested, and now I’m in a better home with my new sister!”

As Izumi set her utensil down, she was sharply yanked upwards, and pulled into a side hug from Himiko.

“Izumi Midoriya, the new sister.” She said, extending her hand.

“Neito Monoma,” He said, still reeling from the news of her parent’s arrest, “I’m Himiko’s cousin, from her sperm donor’s side.”

“Nice to meet you Monoma, wanna sit with us?” Izumi asked, gesturing towards a free seat.

“I’d love to, but I was supposed to talk to my classmate about something. Is it alright if I join you… say, tomorrow?” He asked hesitantly, glancing nervously at Himiko.

“Sure, no worries Neito!” Himiko said, waving him off casually.

He gave a nod with a small smile, as he sped off towards his class’ table.

“So… kero,” Tsu drawled, “What’s this about your parents getting arrested?”

“Oh that’s a fun story!” Himiko said, grinning fiercely. “Remember to interrupt if I forget something, ‘Zumi.”

Izumi had a faint smile as she nodded, resting her cheek in her hand as Himiko began telling Tsu the story.

Chapter Text

Izumi yawned as she cracked her eyes open, expecting to see her familiar ceiling.

Instead she was met with the starry expanse of One For All.

“Thank goodness you’re here kid.” Nana Shimura aka Seventh said, crouching down to Izumi’s level, as she apparently was lying on the ground.

“Nana?” Izumi whispered, opening her eyes properly.

“Up you get, we have some talking to do.” She said, offering Izumi a hand.

Izumi nervously accepted, immediately being yanked upright.

“Come on over here to the others.” Nana said, almost dragging her over to a… wooden table? The table was surrounded by seven other people arguing harshly, with one of them only being a yellow silhouette.

“She’s here.” Yoichi said, silencing the group. He was strangely serious compared to the light hearted way he acted last time.

Nana nodded as she seemingly pulled a chair from out of nowhere for Izumi to sit on.

“Alright so, update from when we last talked.” Yoichi began, “We haven’t been able to talk to you, because One For All was busy getting settled in your Quirk Factor.”

Izumi nodded, absorbing the information.

“Turns out you did have a quirk, so ‘Surprise!’” He cheered, nearly startling Izumi out of her chair.

“What?!” She shrieked, shooting out of her chair. “What is it? How does it activate?”

“We’re not totally sure.” He answered honestly, “It’s some form of permanent copy quirk. Prior to its integration with One For All, it was activated by achieving an incredibly close emotional bond with someone, like a parent or partner, and then having skin to skin contact. Since its integration, we can only assume it’s more powerful now.”

“But… Doctor Tsubasa said that because of my pinky toe joint I’d be quirkless.” Izumi said confusedly, pausing mid-step.

“Honey…” Nana said carefully, “That isn’t true. All types of quirks can sometimes have the toe joint, some emitters have it, some mutants have the toe joint. Heck, Yoichi has the toe joint.”

Izumi’s eyes darted towards Yoichi, who responded with a soft nod.

“So I had a quirk this whole time.” Izumi whispered, shock apparent on her face.

“Yeah hon, you did.” Nana said, gently pulling her into a hug.

After a classic case of Midoriya tears, Izumi looked up at Yoichi. “So it looked like the quirks of the previous users were the star things, yeah?”

He nodded, motioning for her to continue.

“Does my quirk have one now?” She asked hesitantly.

Yoichi suddenly stood up, leading her away from the table. “Since the quirks merged, the layout has… shifted.” He said ominously.

Where the original layout of the “stars” were like a faux solar system, orbiting the biggest “star”, now the largest star had nearly doubled in size. Although it seemed to be less… dense? And it was now riddled with dull crimson patches.

As for the smaller stars that were orbiting it, they now seemed to rotate around it reminiscent of an armillary sphere. And there were also a few new “stars” circling the largest.

“What happened here?” Izumi gasped, taking it all in.

“Instead of forming its own star like the rest, your quirk fused with the largest one.” Yoichi said, “Normally our quirks are essentially stored inside One For All, but yours fused with One For All itself.”

“It fused with One For All? Is One for All okay? What about my Quirk?” She asked worriedly.

“That’s the weird thing.” He said a hint of confusion seeping into his voice, “Their quirk factors were so similar, they fused without any issues. They both worked fine separately, but now… they almost work in sync with each other. Does that make sense?”

“Not really, but do quirks ever truly make sense?” She asked, staring at the odd sphere.

“No,” he laughed, “I suppose not.”

“So are these new stars different quirks, then?” She asked hesitantly, pointing towards a pale pink one with a green outline.

“Ah yes, they came from— what do you want to call your quirk?” He asked suddenly.

“Um… I’m not sure yet, why don’t we just call it “Bond” for now?” She said, quickly thinking up a temporary name.

“Alright. So those quirks came from what we’ll call ‘The Bond Stockpile’. They seem to function much like the others, but we’ve seen the red one glow occasionally. Have you managed to use a new quirk recently?” He asked, motioning towards a bloody red star, occasionally dripping small drops of grey goo.

“Yes actually, my new sibling’s quirk, Transform.” She answered, watching as the red star shot out red tendrils, wrapping around the largest star, before dissipating and repeating. Acting almost as if it was attached to the quirk factor more deeply than the other quirks.

“Then one of these pink ones must be the quirk you used at the entrance exam.” He said, motioning toward the two pink quirk stars.

“What’s the other one then?” She mumbled.

“I’m not sure… they are similar to each other, so maybe they both affect gravity somehow? Anyways, that’s all we know. I guess expect to get more quirks? I’ll get together with the rest of the previous users, and make notes on how to easily understand their quirks.” Yoichi said, stretching his back.

“Okay, thanks a bunch.” Izumi said, still stunned by the revelations as the world around her began to blur.

“Guess you’re waking up then, have a good day at school kid.” Yoichi said, patting her on the shoulder, as he walked away.

As soon as she woke up, the vestiges continued their argument, “I hear what you're saying!” A man shouted, he had a thin scar running from his chin to his right eyebrow, and looked eerily like Bakugo. “But didn't you all feel that? Her quirk, it felt like Him!”

Chapter Text

After speaking with Kiko-Chan about the voices in her head that invaded her dreams, and all the existential crises involved with that, they were out the door on their way to school.

Himiko, for her part, was taking it quite well, she only looked like she wanted to cry once, and was currently holding her head in her hands.

After taking a moment to calm herself, she finally looked back up at Izumi, who was sitting next to her on the train.

“You… why the— who—“ she sputtered, finally settling on a quiet keen, “What is your life?”

“I’m obviously just trying to create the perfect story to awe my eventual therapist with!” Izumi cheered, trying to cover her own mental anguish with enthusiasm.

“Since you missed Nedzu’s speech, I’ll just tell you now. Hound Dog is one of the counselors slash therapists at U.A, since it’s a hero school, you can have him sign an NDA. You will be seeing him soon. For many reasons.” Himiko said, leaving no room for argument.

Izumi nodded, she had already planned on doing something similar, but since it was covered by the school that made her decision easier, and she informed Himiko of such.

“Good.” She replied, fixing her two messy buns that she ruffled in her anguish. “Glad to see you haven’t completely lost it.”

They continued chatting about the revelations of the morning, taking care to make it sound as if they weren’t talking about something unusual, until they approached U.A’s gate.

The two could hear it before they saw it. Like a writhing mass of insects, a large group of reporters and journalists were pestering each student as they tried to shimmy through the crowd.

Himiko and Izumi shared an already exhausted look, before tightly holding hands, and trying to push their way through.

“Excuse me! Is All Might truly teaching at U.A?” One shouted, shoving a microphone in their faces.

“How is All Might as a teacher?” Another asked, repeating the assault.

“Is it true All Might doesn’t have a teaching license?”

“Have you spoken with All Might?”

“Have you had classes with All Might?”

“What is All Might’s teaching style?”

After what felt like an eternity, the sisters pushed their way through, past the giant gate.

A rather intellectually challenged reporter tried to follow in after them, only to be stopped by the giant gate slamming down with a resounding boom. Warning the gathered audience of potential injuries, should they try to force their way in.

Both of their nerves successfully frazzled, Izumi and Himiko hugged, before running towards their own classes.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Sitting at her desk quietly, trying her hardest not to put out “touch me and die” vibes, Izumi plastered on her sunshine smile, trying to dull the itch her nerves are screaming at her about.

To her surprise, the resident spark plug Kaminari quietly strode across the room to talk to her. “You too, Midoriya?” He asked, tugging on his compression sleeves.

“Me too, what?” Izumi asked, confused about what Kaminari was talking about.

“Oh uh, my quirk has completely jacked up my nervous system. I could tell from your posture that something’s up. Did the vultures with their hands all over kick your nerves into overdrive too?” He asked, slightly embarrassed to be discussing his quirk related disability.

“Oh, uh yeah. I’ve got nerve damage from… stuff. All the sensations from the reporters and stuff wrecked my nerves, mental and physical.” She said lightheartedly, rubbing her arms.

“I find my sleeves help me a lot, and I have a back up pair of compression sleeves in my bag, so I was just wondering if you wanted to borrow them?” He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“That’d be great Kaminari, yes please— that is, if you don’t mind.” Izumi replied, shocked at his kindness.

“Yeah no worries, I’ll grab ‘em real quick. I hope you don’t mind yellow.” He teased, grabbing them from his backpack that was hanging on his chair.

The compression sleeves were bright dandelion yellow, with white accents for the seams and elbows.

“Don’t uh— don’t worry, they were just washed. I wouldn’t offer them if they were dirty.” He said quickly.

“I didn’t think you would, Kaminari.” She laughed, sliding them onto her arms, “I really appreciate it, thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, it’s no problem. We’re training to be heroes right?” He grinned, heading back to his seat.

Underneath the compression sleeves eerily similar in color to her backpack, the ache began to fade just as Aizawa slouched into the room.

He stood there at the front of the class unblinking, until the students shut up, and sat down in their seats.

“Alright,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose exhaustedly, before staring at each student independently. “Today you’ll be making an incredibly important decision on your path to becoming heroes.”

The class erupted in murmured questions, swiftly silenced by a quirk assisted glare from Aizawa.

“You’ll be picking your class presidents. I don’t care how, just do it by the end of the day.” He said, tucking himself into his eye searingly yellow sleeping bag behind his desk.

Albeit more hesitantly this time, the students began shouting, trying to advocate for themselves.

Iida shot upright out of his seat, “We should leave it to a vote! Each person should get two votes, so they may vote for themselves if they wish, and one other candidate!”

The class let out varying sounds of agreement, as Yaoyorozu created a small hat to store the votes, handing it to Iida.

Slowly but surely the class settled, marking down their votes on small slips of paper.

After careful consideration, Izumi decided to vote for Iida, and Yaoyorozu.

She decided to vote for Iida, since he seemed a strict rule follower, and placed himself in a leadership role regarding the whole voting debacle.

As for Yaoyorozu, she seemed to be very intelligent, from her admittedly limited interactions with the girl, along with the fact that she seemed like she got along well with Iida.

Iida went to each person, taking their slips and putting them into the hat.

After tallying up the points the results were as follows; Yaoyorozu with eight points, Iida with seven, Midoriya with three, and the rest of the class having around one or two votes.

Yaoyorozu and Iida stood side by side in front of the class. “Thank you very much for voting for me as the class president! Both I, and Ilda as my vice, will work hard to make you proud!” She said, bowing politely.

“Thank you for voting for me, fellow classmates!” He said stiffly, chopping his arms, “I shall work relentlessly to uphold the rules, as any good hero should strive to!”

-~-~-~-~-~-

After the chaos that was homeroom, it was lunch time. Izumi, Tsu, Uraraka, and surprisingly Iida, all sat together at the same table.

“So why do you all want to be heroes, kero?” Tsu asked, as she took a bite of food. “I always wanted to help people, and I think being a hero and a symbol for my siblings and people like me, is the best way to do that.”

“That’s awesome, Tsu!” Uraraka cheered, along with the rest of the table giving their compliments.

“I’m not quite as selfless as you, although of course I want to help save people, I’m sort of in it for the money.” Uraraka said bashfully, “My parents' construction business is having some trouble, so I want to be a hero to be able to help them with money and stuff. I really want them to be able to retire and relax, they’ve done a lot for me, and I want to repay them.”

“That is very respectable, Uraraka!” Iida said, chopping his arms like a robot. “I personally want to be a hero like my big brother Tensei. He’s the most recent in the long line of the Ingenium name.”

“I knew I thought you looked familiar!” Izumi blurted out, “Your facial structure, your hair, not to mention the engine quirk, are all a lot like your brother’s. He’s a great hero, his stats are very impressive, not to mention his attitude towards working with vigilantes. TheWayHeTalksToCiviliansIsVeryImpressiveHePutsThemAtEaseWithLightJokesAndHeLikesToCarrieSmallToysForChildren… Oh,” She stammers, her cheeks pink. “Sorry, I get really excited about heroes…”

“That was fascinating. From what I could hear, everything you said was true, there’s no need to apologize. Although maybe next time you should slow down so I can answer them properly.” He said, chuckling softly.

“What about you Midoriya?” Uraraka asked, watching her curiously.

“Well at first—“ Izumi’s reply was cut off by a loud alarm blaring.

“Attention students. There has been a Level 3 Security Breach, this is not a drill, please make your way in a calm and organized manner to Gym Gamma. Once again, attention students, this is not a drill, please make your way in a calm and organized manner to Gym Gamma.” Nedzu announced over the loudspeaker.

And like any good student body would, they immediately began panicking, roughly pushing their way towards the exit of the building leading to Gym Gamma.

After standing, Izumi was immediately seized by the unruly mob of students.

Behind her, she could see Himiko and Monoma struggling in the crowd. While Iida and Uraraka were in front of her, just barely avoiding getting trampled.

As it turns out, being shoved and shoulder checked as she merely tried to walk forward was quite the pleasant experience.

After a particularly rowdy student shoved her against the window, she was able to see the cause of the alarm.

Somehow, the reporters had managed to break through the gate, and were trying to rush onto the school property. Luckily, Aizawa sensei, and Present Mic sensei were already there, keeping the reporters back.

Ahead of Izumi, Uraraka gasped as she was shoved to the ground and wasn’t able to stand up due to the roughness of the mob.

Afraid for her friend, and honestly irritated at being shoved around so much, she quickly closed her eyes, and focused inside of herself.

Trying to remember the feeling she experienced when she managed to cancel her gravity at the entrance exam, she took a deep breath, and touched her shoulder with her hand.

Opening her eyes, she noticed her elevated fingertips were now glowing a soft pink, and she was floating off the ground slightly.

She quickly touched down to the ground, before she bent her knees and jumped, activating One For All click throughout her body just enough to activate her colorful lightning shroud.

Channeling an extra percentage or two into her vocal cords, she shouted, ”STOP!” Her One For All boosted voice and lighting successfully drew everyone’s attention, as they paused in their panic induced stampede.

”It’s just the reporters! Calm down, and make your way to Gym Gamma, slower this time.” She boomed, One For All boosting her natural speaking volume to that of a megaphone.

Unfortunately her jump’s momentum continued, making her bump her head on the ceiling rather anticlimactically.

Fortunately, despite her head bonk, her words seemed to work as everyone calmed down and continued on their way much slower this time.

After flipping herself around in the air gracelessly, she kicked off the ceiling softly sending herself back toward the ground.

Touching all of her fingertips together, whispering a raspy “Release,” she ended the effects of Zero Gravity, and landed safely on her feet.

Pushing aside the lingering unease in her gut, Izumi ran forwards to help Uraraka stand up. “Are you alright Uraraka?” She asked, coughing due to the strain on her vocal cords from One For All.

“Yeah,” Uraraka panted, dusting herself off. “Might have a few new bruises, but I’ll make it.”

“Do you want me to walk you to Recovery Girl?” Izumi asked, stepping back to give her some breathing room.

“No, it's fine, let's just get to Gym Gamma.” She replied, rolling her shoulders.

After Izumi’s intervention, the rest of the walk to Gym Gamma was much more calm, Iida, Tsu, Himiko, and Monoma, all managed to meet up with Izumi and Uraraka on the way. As they walked Monoma dramatically grieved the fact he was unable to finish his lunch.

Pausing midstep, Izumi whipped her head around. A hint of nervous energy spread through her gut that was noticeably different from her regular anxiety. Something about what happened today unsettled her, fortunately for her lunch was over because she successfully lost her appetite.

Chapter Text

As everyone was casually chatting, Aizawa sensei, in his usual exhausted manner slouched his way to the front of the class. “Listen up, brats!” He barked, directing a quirk assisted glare across the class room.

Those speaking immediately clamped their mouths shut, and turned to the front.

“Good, you’re all learning. Anyways, today for your heroics class All Might, myself, and another faculty member will be teaching…” He paused, rifling through his sleeping bag. “Rescue.” He presented a notecard labeled such, as dramatically as he seemed physically able, which was not at all different from his normal demeanor.

“We’ll be taking a bus to a different building on campus, prepared specifically for rescue simulations, there we will be focusing on having you learn basic rescuing protocols, and a few physical exercises designed by our resident rescue expert.”

“You can choose whether or not to wear your costumes this time, since you haven’t gotten used to them or your support gear —if you have any— yet. Wear either that, or the gym uniform, I’ll be waiting for you all down the hall from the locker rooms.” He said, walking out of the class.

Growing used to their sensei’s no nonsense style, the students stood up and began making their way to the changing rooms.

Inside the girl’s locker room, Izumi opened her locker expecting to see her full costume, but she was greeted with only her mask, and a note written in surprisingly legible chicken scratch.

“Sorry Midoriya, your costume got put through the wringer in that ‘training’ you participated in. It’s being remade with stronger materials since apparently you kids are psychos… Anyways, it should be ready next week. For now you’ll have to make do with just your mask, and gym clothes.

Sorry about that,
Higari Maijima, aka Power Loader (The teacher who oversees your costumes).”

Sighing as she realizes who exactly did most of the damage to her costume, she resigns herself to wearing her gym clothes.

Feeling a bit self-conscious about the new scarring on her shoulder, she was the first to finish changing, and the first girl to wait with Aizawa Sensei.

Todoroki was already standing there, wearing his gym uniform. He offered a stiff nod in greeting, before tilting his head slightly, squinting down at the top of her head.

Izumi finished nervously running her hands through her shoulder length green hair in an attempt to dislodge whatever it was Todoroki was staring at, just as the rest of the students arrived in one large group.

“This way.” Aizawa sensei said, walking away as if unworried about whether the students were following.

Once they reached the bus, Iida, already taking his duties as Vice President incredibly seriously, began trying to corral the students into proper lines for boarding. Unfortunately for him, Ashido and Kaminari disregarded his planning and hopped on the bus.

“You don’t have to worry about it dude, it’s not that kind of bus.” Kaminari said, sticking his head out of the bus.

“Oh, um…” Iida stammered, “Then everyone may board the bus now!” He said, chopping his hands as a faint dusting of pink spread across his cheeks.

The rest of his classmates laughed softly, while Izumi patted his shoulder in an attempt to console him as she walked past.

Taking her seat around the middle of the bus, Izumi fiddled with her mask, making sure it was in working order.

“Excuse me for being blunt, kero,” Tsu said, taking the seat next to Izumi. “But at first your quirk seemed a lot like All Might’s, but now with all these new sides to it I’m not so sure what it is… What exactly is your quirk?”

Despite their best intentions, the class was not nearly sneaky enough, and it was obvious as everyone turned to listen to what Izumi had to say.

“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure either.” Izumi said, rubbing the back of her neck, “I was sort of a late bloomer, with my quirk only showing its effects at the Entrance Exam.” A few gasps rang out through the bus, but she continued, “At first I thought it was an Enhancement Quirk, which is what it’s currently registered as. However, it turns out it might be a permanent copy quirk with incredibly unique activation requirements, which is why it took so long to present itself.”

“What kind of requirements, kero?” Tsu asked, internally grateful her quirk limited some of her facial expressions, or else she’d be gawking at the fact Izumi was considered Quirkless for so long. She knew the statistics, if she was bullied for having a mutant quirk, she didn’t want to imagine how bad it would’ve been for someone who was presumed Quirkless.

“Well it’s still kind of unknown, I’m guessing it has to do with a personal bond like friendship, but I’m still trying to figure it out.” She answered, purposely keeping it kind of vague.

“You said permanent copies, yeah? What quirks do you have?” Ashido asked, leaning towards Izumi from her seat.

“Apparently there’s a few that haven’t activated yet, but out of the ones I know, I have my sister’s quirk, that’s what gives me the mutations,” she starts, pointing to her eyes and sharpened canine teeth. “Then I have… the enhancement quirk, that’s the one that activated at the Exam. And then Uraraka’s quirk, I think I must’ve copied it just before I wrecked both the Zero Pointer and myself.” She laughs nervously.

“Woah you have mine?” Uraraka asked excitedly, jumping up from her seat to scoot in next to Izumi. “Can I see?” She asked, flashing dangerous puppy dog eyes at Izumi.

“Sure, do you have something to float?” She asked, bewildered by the lack of a negative response. ‘I figured if Uraraka learned I copied her quirk, she would be mad, or at least upset. But she’s… excited?’

Uraraka rummaged through her backpack, fishing out a near empty water bottle, ”Here!” She said, tossing Izumi the bottle.

Catching the bottle with her right hand, she focused, feeling the armillary sphere of quirks whirl as Zero Gravity activated. She then touched the bottle with all five fingers, causing it to float.

Uraraka quickly grabbed Izumi’s hand, startling her as she turned her hand over to inspect her fingertips. “You do! It’s exactly like mine, you even have the little raised glowy bits!” She explained excitedly, releasing Izumi’s hand.

“Y-yeah.” She replied, tapping all her hands together muttering, “Release.” Returning the bottle’s gravity, as she leaned forward to catch it.

“And you— you do the little— just like me!” She cheered, smiling brightly at Izumi.

“Y-yeah.” She said shyly, covering her face with her hands, while Zero Gravity was still activated, causing her to slowly rise from the chair.

“We’re here,” Aizawa glanced towards the back of the bus. “Midoriya, get down from there.” He said, wrapping his capture weapon around her arm, and reeling her in like a fish.

Once Izumi mentally recovered from some of the most positive feedback she’d had in years, she whispered “Release,” and dropped back onto her feet. “Thank you sensei.”

“No worries, and kid?” He said, gently setting his hand on her shoulder as he bent down, “See me in the teachers lounge after class, so we can get you enrolled in Quirk Counseling, or just discuss it if you are already enrolled.” He didn’t leave any room for argument, patting Izumi’s arm reassuringly before he left the bus and walked towards the large building they arrived at.

Class 1-A slowly funneled off the bus, taking in the massive training building. “I can’t believe a building this big is still on the same U.A. campus…” Kaminari murmured in awe.

“I know right? We were on that bus for a while too, U.A. is next level!” Ashido chirped, bouncing on her feet excitedly.

As they funneled in, Izumi could see Aizawa and someone in a puffy space suit talking with Aizawa. She couldn’t make out much, but she saw the person in the space suit hold up three fingers, and she(?) said something about “All Might,” followed by an eye roll from Aizawa.

Once the students were properly gathered, the space suit wearing person turned towards the class, whom Izumi immediately recognized as Thirteen, the Space Hero.

“Oh my gosh it’s Thirteen!” Uraraka squealed quietly, “She’s my favorite hero!”

Thirteen let out a muffled laugh, “Nice to see I have a fan with us today! As you may have heard, my hero name is Thirteen and I am the Rescue Hero in charge of this facility, which is called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint aka the U.S.J!”

“Like Universal Studios Japan…” Kaminari mumbled quietly, watching with rapt attention.

“Before we begin, I have one thing to say, well maybe two things… three! Well, regardless of the number it’s important. As previously stated I am a Rescue Hero, does anyone know what my quirk is?” She asked, looking over the students.

“It’s Black Hole, right?” Izumi replied hesitantly, raising her hand.

“That’s correct! My quirk Black Hole is very handy for Rescue Ops! It allows me to use my fingers like miniature black holes to suck up debris and hazardous materials, but,” she paused, her voice gaining a much more serious tone, “it’s very dangerous. Of course it could disintegrate rubble from a fallen building, but what would happen if I accidentally used it too close to a person?”

The class glanced uncomfortably among each other before Thirteen continued on, regaining her more positive tone, “That’s what we're here to work on today, using your potentially destructive quirks not to harm and cause destruction, but to help people! I hope you walk away today knowing that your quirks and abilities aren’t meant for harm, but to help and to save people!”

The class politely clapped, with a few excited students whistling and cheering.

Izumi however, was rubbing her temple as a headache stabbed through her skull, and strangely that not-quite-anxiety feeling was back.

“And of course due to poor planning on his part, All Might will not be joining us today. So everybody go ahead and line up, we’ll—“ Aizawa began, before suddenly whipping his head around to look down towards the fountain in the center.

A cloud of purple, nearly black mist suddenly blossomed from the center of the field, spreading to form a rift in the air.

Out of the rift, dozens of people walked out, each wearing a strange outfit, or brandishing a weapon or quirk threateningly.

As the portal closed, it fused into the form of a man wearing a black suit, who stood next to a man with pale blue hair, and what could only be described as a frightening monster with heavily scarred, rippling black skin, a gory exposed brain to which its eyes were attached, and an oversized beak. Everything about it just felt… wrong.

“Everyone back! Thirteen watch the students!” Aizawa barked, settling into a combat stance, whipping his capture weapon into his hand.

“Woah is this a test?” Kirishima asked, trying to peek over his fellow classmates’ heads.

“No it is not, everyone to the exit!” Thirteen said, quickly motioning everyone towards the way they entered.

“But Aizawa sensei can’t beat all of those villains by himself, he relies on ambushes in combat!” Izumi cried, looking worriedly at her teacher.

“Don’t worry, no hero is a one trick pony!” He shouted over his shoulder, before leaping into action towards the villains.

The pale blue-haired boy perched himself on the arm of the grotesque figure. “Hello, Heroes…” He spat, “we have come to kill the symbol of peace— Green Bean?” He rasped, his voice carrying over the crowd.

Izumi stared at the boy, his body was covered in severed hands with one covering his face, but underneath, Izumi swore she recognized him, a memory she had nearly forgotten, tucked safely into a box she didn’t dare touch, prickled faintly at her brain.

“T-Ten-Nii?” She whispered, barely audible even to those whose quirks enhanced their hearing.

“Kurogiri, a slight change of plans... Warp that one to me.” He demanded, jumping off of the beast’s arm.

The mist person now identified as Kurogiri, nodded, “Understood, Tomura Shigaraki.” He murmured, vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

A sharp stabbing pain ran through Izumi’s head, as she whipped around to look behind her. Kurogiri appeared, blocking the students from the exit.

“Apologizies for inviting ourselves into this… Haven of Justice, heroes. We are the League Of Villains,” Kurogiri bowed slightly. “Might I say what poetic justice this is for All Might to have his final stand here. Oh, but it seems he isn’t here… a change of plans perhaps? It matters not, as my duty remains the same—“ He casually said, until he was interrupted by Bakugo and Kirishima charging towards him.

Bakugo sent a large explosion at the villain’s head, while Kirishima threw a punch towards Kurogiri’s stomach. “My, my… you herolings sure know how to take initiative. Ah, but it matters not, be scattered!” He said, shrugging off the attack like it was nothing, before sending mist towards the two to open portals.

“Even a Rescue Hero is impressive… I’d expect nothing less from the U.A.” He drawled, as the mist he sent forth, was drawn into the opened cap of Thirteen’s index finger.

“I won’t let you hurt my students!” She cried, taking an offensive stance.

“Mm, a shame I have to dispose of you.” Kurogiri remarked, opening a portal that siphoned Thirteen’s Black Hole towards the back of her suit, tearing it up.

With the unpleasant suckling of flesh almost hidden by her gut wrenching scream, Thirteen quickly shut off her quirk.

It was too late however, as her quirk already did a lot of damage, her back was bleeding profusely but Uraraka sprang into action wrapping bandages around her to halt the bleeding.

“Disperse.” He said, dispassionately flicking his wrist to summon portals under each student.

A few managed to knock each other out of the way of the rifts, including Uraraka who kept tending to Thirteen by the exit. But before Izumi could properly see everyone remaining, Kurogiri approached her. “You will be coming with me, miss.” He said, opening a portal and grabbing her arm to walk her through.

As she attempted to thrash her way out of his grip, she noticed Iida standing there panicked over Thirteen. “Iida, run! You’re the only one who can make it!” Izumi shouted as she was dragged towards the portal.

Iida nodded resolutely, prepping his engines to go. Kurogiri noticed this, and attempted to summon a portal and stop him, but just as he was about to, Izumi managed to connect a fist with his metal brace, causing him to lose his grip on the portal, allowing the young Iida to barely get past, narrowly escaping before the metal blast door shut.

“Troublesome child.” He scoffed at Izumi, dragging her through the portal properly.

On the other side of the portal, Ten-nii(?) was pacing anxiously while scratching at his neck. As soon as she stumbled through the portal, he seized her jaw with four fingers, keeping his pinky away.

“You. Why do you have her face, npc?” He asked, his voice dripping with forced apathy.

“Ten-nii? What’s going on, how are you alive?” Izumi asked confusedly, so completely thrown she hadn’t yet remembered she had a quirk to defend herself with.

“Zuzu bean?” He asked hesitantly, studying her eyes as his face softened and he released his grip, moving to cup her cheek instead. “Are you- are you really alive?”

“What do you mean? I should be asking you that, Tenko! I thought you died with Mom and Dad!” She cried, the Midoriya Tears appearing once again.

“So, All Might didn’t— but that means— Kurogiri, give us space…“ Kurogiri moved off to the side, as Tenko whipped off the hand covering his face as he began frantically muttering under his breath, but his attention was quickly seized by Eraserhead, who fought his way through the villains throwing his capture weapon to grab Izumi.

“Not right now Eraserhead, we’re talking.” Tenko growled, lunging to disintegrate the capture scarf about to wrap around Izumi. “Nomu, keep Eraserhead away.” He said, waving the hulking brute off to fight Eraserhead.

As Eraserhead was swept away from them dodging the Nomu’s fierce attacks, Tenko continued, “The Doctor lied… you’re alive. Does that mean Dad isn’t… this changes everything…” He muttered, the slow scratching at his neck picking up speed.

“Tenko! Hey, what’s going on here? Are you involved with this ‘League of Villains’ group? Are you okay?” Izumi asked frantically, trying to understand why her previously assumed deceased brother was there.

“Y-yes? No? It isn’t that simple Zuzu.” He replied the scratching at his neck slowing down. “Listen, I have to complete the mission. Please… stay out of the way, I won’t let the npcs hurt you.”

“Are you really here to kill All Might, are you going to hurt my classmates? And what did you mean when you said something about Dad? Is he alive?” She asked, desperately trying to understand what was going on.

“Yes, then maybe, and I don’t know now. I— I have to complete the mission.” He said turning away, his voice growing slightly monotone towards the end.

“Tenko! I need you to explain!” She cried, grabbing onto his hoodie to hold him in place.

“Zuzu. I need you to let go.” He said, as his left hand snapped forwards towards her.

With his right hand, he frantically pulled it back down to his side before it could touch her. “What the?!” He gasped, his face paling as he stumbled away from her.

“Tenko?” She asked, hesitantly reaching for him.

“Izumi, stay back!” He shouted, now physically restraining his arm to his side.

As he backpedaled, his left leg suddenly locked firmly in the ground, his eyes widened as he tried to drag it with him, but it remained firmly rooted.

His other leg also locked in place followed swiftly by his torso and arms, until only his head remained untouched.

He jerkily bent down, reattaching the hand to his face. “Izumi… run!” He shouted as his body suddenly launched towards her, his wide terrified eyes slowly dimming to an empty maroon, nothing like his candy apple red, as his palms stretched towards Izumi.

Terrified by whatever came over her brother, Izumi quickly jumped backwards, dodging Tenko’s outstretched hands.

“What's going on Tenko?” She asked, smoothly dodging his attacks, she remembered back when they were kids play-fighting, his gloves were absent now, but his moves still remained incredibly similar.

Tenko remained emotionless, his hands getting increasingly close as he tried to disintegrate her. “Complete the Mission.” Tomura said monotonously.

‘His mind doesn’t seem to be there anymore… mind control, hypnosis? Even back when we were kids, he used to throw a kick here and there. Maybe whatever this is controlling him doesn’t manipulate his thoughts, but completely controls his body… So he’s completely out of it, a villain's quirk?’ She thought, dodging past an uncomfortably close palm.

‘It seems likely with how terrified he looked. The villain responsible might be around here somewhere, as he was still working with them… it was only when he tried to leave me alone did the… “takeover” happen. And he keeps repeating “Complete the Mission”, so a quirk that sets clear goals for the controlled person to complete? Perhaps he tried to break one of the “rules”?’

‘I hope he’ll forgive me for this, maybe blunt contact will shake him out of it?’ She thought, dodging through mind controlled Tenko’s clearly telegraphed attacks.

With a slight grimace, she lunged through the opening in his guard slamming her palm into his chin, before backing away.

Besides the recoil his head took from her palm strike, he seemed unaffected, his head swung back forwards, and he continued charging forward.

“Down, left, right, middle, uppercut right, left, low left, right.” She mumbled, dodging a palm coming from each direction she whispered.

After a severe overextension on his uppercut, Izumi dodged to the side, hopping in place before slamming her right foot into his gut.

“Nomu…” Tomura coughed out, recovering from Izumi’s kick, “Take out Eraserhead… and keep him down.”

The Nomu froze at the new command, as Eraserhead panted heavily, his capture weapon frayed and his jumpsuit ripped from dozens of small cuts littering his body.

The not-anxiety roared in her mind, screaming at her. Realizing what was about to happen, she activated One For All at 9% throughout her body, feeling the burn in her muscles as she ran towards her sensei.

Time seemed to slow, as the Nomu shifted, its previously dangerous speed ramping up to eleven, as it released a flurry of punches Eraserhead could barely dodge.

She wasn’t going fast enough, she turned it up to 11% feeling her bones ache as she sprinted toward him.

The beast kept speeding up while her sensei started to slow down. She wasn’t going fast enough! Gritting her teeth, she turned it up to 15%, running as fast as she could towards Aizawa, until…

A wet crunch echoed throughout the USJ.

click

Chapter Text

The wet crunch of flesh and bone rang throughout the USJ.

The Nomu held Eraserhead’s face slightly off the ground, as her sensei dripped blood into the concrete cracked by his face.

Izumi saw red, this was Aizawa sensei. Besides her parents, he was the first adult, let alone teacher to be kind to her since her diagnosis. Her sensei.

The Nomu, the League… they hurt her sensei. And while a hero shouldn’t seek revenge… if the villains got a little extra banged up while she saved her sensei and her classmates? She could live with that.

clink… clink… clink… crack

She secured her mask on her face, as foreign instinct flooded her mind she said, “[Float]” activating it to send her into the air.

‘Float. Original User, 7th aka Nana Shimura. A mild telekinetic levitation quirk boosted by [One For All], turning it into a powerful quirk capable of flight.’ The information flooded her mind as she activated it. “Go get 'em, kid.” Nana whispered, a phantom hand patting her shoulder.

“[Blackwhip]” erupted from her back.

‘Blackwhip. Original User, 5th aka Daigoro Banjo. An emotion influenced quirk allowing the user to create whips of black energy. [One For All] boosted the quirk, allowing the use of many more whips, as well as more complex constructs.’ “Wreak some havoc for me will ya?” Banjo said telepathically, as what felt like a fist bumped her shoulder.

She formed black sharp feathered wings that glowed a cool cyan green using [Blackwhip].

“[Zero Gravity]” she said, slapping her arm causing her to float even easier.

‘Zero Gravity. Copied from, Ochako Uraraka. A quirk allowing the user to use all five of their mutated fingertips to “remove the gravity” of objects. As a copy, it was originally a weaker version. Due to [One For All], it was boosted to the power of the original. [One For All] also has the potential to boost the quirk further.’

She flexed her shoulders feeling her constructed wings, she flapped her wings using the force generated to propel her weightless self towards the Nomu.

Slamming a 11% fist into the Nomu’s head at the speed she was going, turned out to not be the best idea. The impact from her momentum boosted punch created a small burst of air, but the creature’s blackened flesh didn’t even budge. If she hadn’t activated [One For All], she would’ve shattered her wrist, as it was she probably still ended up with it sprained.

As soon as her fist touched the creature’s arm, she felt something echo in her mind. “Pl-please… kill this thing… we don’t— we don’t want to live as this anymore.” The voices overlapped, but they all said the same thing.

She swiftly kicked off the creature’s head, trying to understand what in the world that was.

“Like my Nomu?” Tomura asked, “It’s got [Shock Absorption], and is super strong!”

‘[Shock Absorption] and super strong? Multiple quirks in one… thing? Wait, were those voices actually vestiges like Nana and Yoichi? How did I hear them?’ She pondered, floating above its head.

She released [Zero Gravity]’s effects and [Float]’s dropping down, sending a [One For All] boosted axe kick straight into its brain.

“Kill it.” “Free us.” “End it.” The voices echoed, overlapping in their wishes.

Grimacing at the brain matter now sticking to her shoe she reactivated the quirks, flying back up from the beast.

The lightly mashed brains swiftly knitted back together, the pieces on her shoe remaining as new tissue formed on the beast’s head.

As she floated there, instinct surged through her. This instinct felt… different than the others. Breathing deeply, she spoke, “Quirk Splicing.”

What felt like a physical thud slammed into her chest. Small translucent stars similar to those inside [One for All]’s quirkspace erupted from her palms, one palm held a translucent yellow star, while the other held a similarly see-through blood red star.

“Combine data of [Transfer] and [Bond].” She murmured, pressing her hands together. It almost felt like pushing two weak magnets of the same pole together, there was a subtle resistance, but she pushed through it.

“The result is [Receive].” As she separated her hands, a tiny pale orange star flickered between her palms, before sinking into the center of her right palm.

“Spliced Quirk, [Receive]. Receive a quirk from a completely willing donor. Quirks are received via skin-to-skin contact, a microscopic straw-like needle extending from the user’s palm pierces the donor’s skin, drawing a piece of DNA into the user, absorbing the quirk through the DNA sample.” She mumbled aloud, as the new information surged through her.

She flew back down to the Nomu, slamming her palm on its head, activating [Receive]. As she activated it, her wrist locked slamming her palm into the thing’s head.

The creature writhed under her grip, instinctively dropping her sensei and trying to shake her off. She felt one of the quirks leave The Nomu, just as he slapped her off.

Reeling from the blow, she floated mid air before shaking off the blow. The quirk she received from The Nomu, due to the Vestiges begging for release, was [Super Regeneration].

‘Super Regeneration. Original User, Saiko Seishin. A quirk allowing the user to heal their body at incredibly heightened speeds. This quirk has been artificially modified to increase its speed, at the cost of being incredibly painful.’

Izumi gasped, as a sharp pain ran through her wrist, as the sprain healed. Next her breath caught, as the bruise that was sure to form from The Nomu’s slap dissipated.

The Nomu shook itself, as it started to return to Eraserhead.

Izumi swiftly shattered the [Blackwhip] wings, forming a series of whips, ensnaring The Nomu and lifting it into the sky with her.

Keeping the heavy thing aloft was tiring her out surprisingly quickly, so as the beast swung its arm trying to escape, she ducked under it, slapping the creature’s back and activated [Zero Gravity].

Maneuvering [Blackwhip] to only be held around the thing’s ankle, she flew straight up, before kicking off the ceiling and slamming the Nomu into the ground, creating a large dust cloud.

Breathing heavily, she floated waiting for the cloud to dissipate. As the cloud faded, The Nomu was revealed completely unharmed. It broke itself out of the small crater it was in, before looking towards Eraserhead.

Almost faster than she could see, it ran towards the groaning Eraserhead, before slamming his head into the ground again, knocking him unconscious.

Ugly, dark anger spread through Izumi. Actually, anger was too nice of a word, hatred is too soft, rage was almost there but not quite, Wrath.

Wrath filled Izumi’s veins as she saw The Nomu slam her sensei into the ground. The tendrils of [Blackwhip] on Izumi’s back writhed impatiently, and right now she didn’t mind letting them loose.

She took a deep breath, activating a quirk she felt a bit of resistance from.

‘Gearshift. Original User, Toshitsugu Kudo. Allows the user to either speed up, or slow down small items.
[One For All] boosted the quirk, allowing the user to use it on larger objects, and themselves. The larger the object, the larger the drawback, the user being the object of the quirk causes the most severe. When used on themselves, the user cannot receive enough air causing mild side effects after one minute, and temporary paralysis after five. Longer than five minutes could be fatal, do not recommend usage for longer than three.’

“Since I can’t stop you apparently, do the most damage as quickly as possible, if you’re really gonna use my quirk.” Kudo said, as a phantom hand patted her on the back.

Using a hand motion similar to that of a car’s stickshift, she activated [Gearshift] on herself, rocketing towards The Nomu.

She flipped over it, slowing it down with [Gearshift]. She then sharpened the writhing tendrils of [Blackwhip], and sliced through the creature’s ankles, cleanly slicing the Achilles tendon. In its grotesque state they were clearly visible through the skin, making aiming that much easier.

In her accelerated state, she watched as bits of black blood spurt from the thin wounds she made. After taking out the creature’s legs, she then cleanly sliced the creature’s hand and fingers off to rescue poor Aizawa’s battered head.

She gently grabbed Aizawa, easily lifting him with her [One For All] enhanced muscles, and ran back towards the entrance, setting Aizawa next to Thirteen and Uraraka.

Due to the speed increase from [Gearshift], the entire set of movements only took around twenty seconds.

As she laid her sensei down, she deactivated [Gearshift], hearing the viscera splat in the background as she leaned over her Sensei.

A quirk she hadn’t realized she copied made itself known in her mind.

‘Healing Kiss. Copied from, Chiyo Shuzenji. A healing quirk able to heavily accelerate the target’s healing process, at the cost of the target’s stamina. Copy boosted to full power by [One For All]. [One For All], combined with [Transform]’s healing saliva, has also allowed the healing to be focused to specific points.’

She activated [Healing Kiss], kissing the back of Aizawa’s hand and focusing on only halting the bleeding. She would let trained professionals work on the bone damage, she could tell there was a lot from the bits of information [Healing Kiss] gave her, and she would not risk hurting her sensei’s due to her inexperience.

Though she could “see” a bone shard getting uncomfortably close to his eye, just barely out of the way of any nerves or veins.

A warm feeling buzzed in her chest as another quirk made itself known.

‘Pull. Copied from, Inko Midoriya. A gravitational pull based telekinetic quirk. It allows the user to telekinetically “pull” an object in a specific direction. Hand gestures increase the quirk’s power and precision. After being copied for some time, the quirk has reached the same level as the original. [One For All] has enhanced the quirk further allowing for heavier objects to be lifted, as well as tighter precision.’

With a watery smile, she activated one of her favorite quirks ever, [Pull], and with a hand gesture reminiscent of her mother’s, pulled the bone shard slightly further from Aizawa sensei’s eye.

Uraraka jumped as Izumi let out a weary sigh, just now noticing her. “Wha— how did you get here?” She asked, wide eyed as she looked between the disabled Nomu and her unconscious senseis.

“Ran.” Izumi shrugged tiredly, as she undid one of the clasps of her mask to gulp down air. “New quirks, tell you later…”

She leaned over to Thirteen, kissing just above the wound using [Healing Kiss], and stopping the bleeding just as she did for Aizawa sensei.

Before she could explain herself to Uraraka, a loud crash rang out through the building.

”THERE IS NO NEED TO FEAR! FOR I AM HERE!” All Might boomed, as the shutters of the USJ were blown off by the force of his punch.

As the dust settled from his entrance, All Might was revealed standing proudly in the new hole in the USJ.

His hands were on his hips in his normal hero pose, except his trademark smile was nowhere to be seen.

He quickly took in the scene, the two teachers were out of commission, with no sign of nearly all of the students anywhere.

As he took in the scene, Izumi stood up and noticed a large streak of white enter her vision. She reached her hand up to move whatever it was, only to realize it was her hair.

“Wha—?” She gasped, feeling the hairs between her fingers. It was almost entirely white, with only the tips of her hair remaining her normal green.

She quickly shook her head, breakdown later, her friends were still in danger.

“Uraraka, I’m heading to help our classmates. Do you mind keeping an eye on our sensei’s?” Izumi asked, reattaching the clasp of her mask.

“Yeah. Sorry, I’m not able to help more. I’m… yeah.” She said, hanging her head as she took deep breaths.

“No worries Uraraka, I will probably be right there with you once my adrenaline crashes.” Izumi said, patting her classmate on the shoulder.

All Might suddenly surged towards The Nomu, assuming it to be the greatest threat, not noticing the fact it was struggling to get off the ground.

Izumi activated her flight quirk combo, and flew towards the Shipwreck Zone.

She noticed most of the villains floating in the water aimlessly, as he landed on the deck. Tsu was practically holding Shinsou up, as he clutched his head.

“What’s going on?” Izumi asked, as Tsu whipped her head around.

“Warn me next time, kero.” Tsu said, clutching her chest. “Shinsou has most of the villains under his quirk, but it's taking its toll.”

“That’s impressive, but don’t worry I’ll carry you to safety now.” Izumi said gently, hoisting Shinsou over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, while offering Tsu her hand.

“How, kero?” She asked, as Shinsou groaned over Izumi’s shoulder.

“New quirks, I can fly now.” She said quickly, “Let’s hurry, I can feel Shinsou’s nosebleed on my back.”

“I expect more information than that later, Midoriya, kero.” Tsu said, latching onto Izumi’s arm.

As she activated [Float] she also used [Zero Gravity] on Tsu, making her weightless as she flew up from the boat.

“You can drop your quirk now, Shinsou.” She said, patting his back gently.

He merely groaned again, slumping in her arms as the villains in the water seemed to come out of their stupor.

She quickly flew the two over to the entrance, setting them down next to Uraraka and their two senseis.

As she looked towards the center where All Might was fighting The Nomu, she was surprised to see that The Nomu’s upper half was peeking out of a black portal from the Kurogiri, digging its fingers into All Might’s scar, after he suplexed it.

Before she could even prepare to jump in and help, Bakugo threw himself at Kurogiri, sending an explosion through the villain’s mist, revealing a metal neck brace. In an instant he reoriented himself midair, slamming an explosive palm on the neck brace, knocking the villain to the ground.

“I knew you couldn’t be all mist!” He shouted, grinning viciously as he held the villain down. “Move an inch, and I’ll blow your head clean off!”

At the same time, Todoroki stomped on the ground, sending a wave of ice towards The Nomu freezing its entire arm, leaving only its hand unfrozen in the hopes All Might could escape.

“One of your budget villains spilled the details of your plan.” He said, standing ready in case the villains tried to make a move. “The Symbol Of Peace won’t be felled by delinquent villains like you.”

Using The Nomu’s weakened arm All Might pivoted out of its grip, flipping out of range. “Thank you Young Todoroki, I’ve got it handled now.”

“No offense All Might, but you didn’t until I got here.” He said, staring blankly at All Might.

All Might’s face noticeably twitched at that, before turning back to the villains.

The Nomu managed to shatter the ice covering its arm, crawling out of the portal. It then stood, limping its way towards All Might.

All Might then surged forwards, sending full powered punches at the creature. Knocking not only Todoroki back, but also sending Bakugo flying off Kurogiri.

“IT MAY HAVE SHOCK ABSORPTION, BUT THAT ISN’T NEGATION, THAT MEANS IT HAS TO MEAN IT HAS A LIMIT! GO BEYOND, PLUUUSSS ULTRAAAAAAA!” He boomed, sending a flurry of punches at the Nomu.

At first, each punch seemed to do nothing, but slowly each punch caused The Nomu to suffer a bit of recoil.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down, as All Might sped up his punches significantly, sending dozens of punches in milliseconds. The combined force of the punches launched The Nomu flying straight through the ceiling of the USJ.

“Master Tomura,” Kurogiri began, warping next to him, “Perhaps we should leave now, The Nomu is defeated, and our numbers have been severely depleted…”

Tomura froze for a moment, before nodding. Kurogiri then summoned a portal in front of them, and they stepped through.

All Might had surged forwards, attempting to grab Tomura, but his hands only grasped air.

Behind Izumi, the sounds of dozens of footsteps rang out as almost all of the U.A. Staff surged into the USJ.

“Miss Midoriya, status?” Nedzu asked, the chimera principal of U.A. currently seated on the shoulders of Vlad King.

“Principal Nedzu! Oh um… main threats taken care of, most of the students are still scattered throughout the facility. Thirteen has severe wounds, as well as Aizawa Sensei. We managed to stop the bleeding but there is likely severe internal damage. All Might’s scar is injured due to a villain already blasted out of the USJ, the main two had a warp gate and have left.” She said, muttering towards the end.

“Cementoss, to All Might! The rest of you scatter throughout the building! The students are in here somewhere!” Nedzu shouted, hopping off of Vlad King’s shoulder. “You did very well Miss Midoriya, you should be proud. Please gather your classmates and head outside, paramedics and Recovery Girl are standing by.”

“Yes sir!” She said, quickly running to her classmates.

“Principal Nedzu said for us to head outside, I’ll grab our senseis. Tsu, please help Shinsou to the paramedics.” Izumi said, activating [Zero Gravity] on her teachers, floating them slightly off the ground. She used [Pull] to move them through the air towards the ambulances where the paramedics were.

As soon as she set her senseis down on the stretchers, she practically collapsed out of the way of the paramedics.

‘Today was certainly a day…’

Chapter Text

As Tomura Tenko’s eyes readjusted to the dingy bar he’s had to call home ever since the incident, whatever was controlling his body dropped its control, and he sank to his knees.

His fingers scrambled frantically against the bar’s surface, as he shakily snatched his artist gloves from the polished tabletop.

He yanked the gloves on roughly, as tremors ran through his entire body. Once the gloves were fully on, one of his hands flew to grip his hair, while the other clenched his chest over his frantic heartbeat.

Tears poured silently down his face as he bit back the roaring scream in throat. He ripped the faux severed hands off his body, throwing them across the room.

‘I almost hurt her. I almost hurt her.’ The thought repeated itself over and over and over again, stabbing into his brain.

His little sister, the first person he truly let into his heart after… he had to shake his head violently, that train of thought would not be continuing. The hollow ache building inside his chest slowly bled into red hot anger. He hadn’t almost hurt her, whatever The Doctor did to him almost made him do it.

The Doctor… he said Izumi was dead, that All Might managed to find her, that he killed her in cold blood. ‘But Izumi was alive…’ he smiled softly at the fact.

That changed everything, was Tenko’s father even working with this man? He knew that The Doctor had saved his father, the nightmares from seeing all the tubes he was hooked up to made that obvious. But why hadn’t he been able to speak to him yet?

“Kurogiri.” He rasped out, “Take me to see The Doctor.”

“Are you sure Master Tomura?” He asked softly, as he stood above Tenko seconds away from intervening in his panic attack. “You know it’s best we don’t disturb The Doctor while he’s working.”

“Yes. I have business with him.” He spat, the overwhelming heartbeat in his ears overpowering his want to be polite. Kurogiri, although a Nomu, was Tenko’s only friend at this point.

And he couldn’t even trust him as much as he wanted to anymore, due to his growing distrust in The Doctor, and the fact Kurogiri almost certainly reported to him. He still cared about Kurogiri, although this whole ‘Master Tomura” business was very annoying.

As Kurogiri’s head of clouds billowed in such a way which Tenko had learned over time to be him nodding, a misty portal grew from his outstretched hand.

“Thanks.” He murmured as he stepped through, his affection towards the man resurfacing.

The portal led to The Doctor’s unnerving lab underneath whatever hospital he claimed to run, Tenko had never really cared to learn. (That’s not true, he had the name and location memorized just in case.)

The Doctor was currently leaning over his father who according to The Doctor, was in a temporary medically induced sleep in order to rebuild his strength. He was inserting a syringe into Tenko’s father’s arm, the size of which would’ve sent shivers down his spine, if he hadn’t seen it plenty of times before.

“Doctor.” Tenko rasped as soon as the doctor finished with the syringe.

“Ah Tomura, what a pleasure. How did your debut go?” He asked absentmindedly emptying the large sample he took into a test tube labeled “SM-Q-#53”. It glowed a soft red in the container.

“Not well. The Nomu was defeated, its self regeneration failed.” He said simply, carefully watching The Doctor’s reaction. The seed of doubt had been sown, and he would be an idiot not to take precautions, and at the moment all he could do was watch him carefully.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” The Doctor muttered, “SM-AMK’s quirks shouldn’t have been unstable. I used the root quirks specifically to avoid this.”

“I don’t know doc, I’m not nearly smart enough to understand most of this stuff.” Tenko said, carefully complimenting him in hopes of loosening his tongue.

“That’s understandable Tomura, I just don’t understand…” He said, adjusting the glasses on his nose.

“How is Sensei doing? Is he able to stay awake for long?” Tenko asked, hiding a grimace as he saw his dad hooked up to dozens of wires and an air mask.

“Hm? Oh yes, you have been wishing to speak to him for some time. He should be able to speak to you… soon, yes soon. All this planning has been very tiring for him.” The Doctor said, smiling warmly at Tomura. fake Fake FAKE

“I see, thank you. And Doctor?”

“Hmm?” The Doctor hummed, turning away from his work to look at Tenko.

Tenko ripped his glove off, grabbing the weasel and holding his neck with four fingers. “If you ever, and I mean ever try to control me again… I. Will. End. You. Regardless of how you may be keeping Sensei alive, I doubt he’d approve of his right hand being used by anyone besides himself.” He snarled, dropping The Doctor flat onto his backside.

-~-~-~-~-~

Izumi sighed, sitting on the curb as she ran a hand through her wavy hair trying to calm down. The loud instincts from her quirks had faded, leaving her mentally and emotionally drained. The main villains were gone, while the others were actively being captured by the faculty. Her injured Senseis were being looked after by the paramedics, and from the information gathered with [Healing Kiss] she knew they would almost certainly live.

But all the reassurances didn’t stop the shaking in her hands as she mentally replayed the events. Her class was attacked by villains, led by her brother. Her brother!

She pulled her knees to her chest, as she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. She was unfortunately blessed with her mother’s powerful tear ducts— speaking of her mother! Izumi somehow had her quirk, and that would’ve made her cry regardless.

As she sat there trying to process everything, she froze as she felt phantom arms wrap around her shoulders, a motion identical to one she thought she’d never feel again. She felt as fingers carded through her hair, as the image of her mothers watery smile filled her mind. She could almost hear her mother whisper, ‘I’m so proud of you.’

Slowly the phantom sensation faded, and Izumi’s tears surged forward with a vengeance. She sobbed out years of repressed grief, from which she was completely exhausted. She already lost her mama, Izumi thought she lost her brother with her, and she doesn’t even know about her dad!

As she sucked in a ragged breath mid-sob, she felt a thin bony hand grip her shoulder. “Young Midoriya, I need to speak with you.” All Might in his Mini Might form said, his lanky skeleton-like form standing beside her. Bandages peeked out from his sleeves and shirt collar, likely protecting his scar he injured once again.

Izumi glanced up through her new white streak, noticing how the hand on her shoulder tightened as she looked at him. “What?” She grit out wetly, her face was a bright red mess, as tears and snot ran freely down her face. But even in her turmoil, she knew not to call this form All Might, she didn’t want to cause some kind of scandal for him, a thought that nearly caused her to roll her eyes.

“We need to talk.” He said firmly, nearly lifting her by the arm as he pointed his head towards a shaded area.

“Fine.” She sniffled, wiping her face on her sleeve. It wasn’t like anyone carried a handkerchief around, nor was there somebody who might hand her one for her face.

As she stood unsteadily, drained from her long cry, she bit back a yelp as Mini Might dragged her by the arm over to the side.

“What was that in there?” He demanded, tightening his grip painfully on her arm.

“What was what?” She spat, her nerves already fried from today’s events, on top of having to deal with all the thoughts she had running through her head.

“The floating, the telekinesis, your hair, and the back of your shirt has two rips, like wings or something sprouted out.” He growled out, “You said you were quirkless when we met, not to mention that sounds like way more than one quirk anyway. What. Was. That.”

“Let go All Might that hurts.” She said anxiously, trying to pull her arm away from his bony grip.

“Not until you answer me Midoriya. What was that? That monstrous creature looked like it had multiple quirks too! Are you working with that ‘League Of Villains’ group? What do you have to do with All For One?!” He barked, gripping her other arm.

“No!” She shouted, trying to rip her arms free from All Might’s grasp as he kept a firm grip. “I’m not! I don’t know who or what this All For One thing is, but I’m not involved with it! Now let go!”

“Girl! You will tell me what you did!” He said, bulking up to his All Might form, as he refused to let go.

Pure fear lanced through her mind, causing all the quirk instincts to rush back into her mind. [Danger Sense] blared, as she tried to wrench herself free, the vestiges of [One For All] shouting in horrified outrage inside her mind at how their eighth was acting.

Thick and writhing in anger [Blackwhip] sprouted from her back, wrapping around All Might’s wrists forcing him to let go, as she sent a 10% [One For All] kick at his reopened scar.

As he doubled over spitting blood to the side, Izumi seized the opportunity using [Blackwhip] to tie a slingshot between trees, launching herself towards the paramedics and police outside the USJ.

As she flew, she spotted a familiar trench coat wearing detective. “Tsukauchi!” She shouted, fear filling her voice as she landed right in front of him.

“Midoriya?” He asked disbelievingly, as he took in her disheveled state. “You look a lot different than before.”

“Talk about that later! Listen with your quirk! All Might grabbed my arms, and he’s coming after me after I ran away! I didn’t do anything bad, I swear!” She choked out, ducking to hide behind him in his surprisingly large trench coat.

“True… what in the?” He stammered, trying not to fall, as a rather ragged looking All Might approached.

“Ah Tsukauchi, my good man! Have you seen a green haired girl around here, she has a white streak in her hair? I was just speaking with her about an important matter when she ran off.” He said, grinning as if nothing was wrong.

Tsukauchi’s eye twitched minutely ‘half truth’, before he responded, “What’s up? If I happen to run into her, I’ll tell her about it for you.”

“I’d rather tell her myself, it’s a rather private matter you see. It’s All about a surprise For One of us.” He said, stressing specific words, knowing Tsukauchi would understand.

“Didn’t you already take care of that?” He asked, looking around warily.

“I thought I did… but apparently it might not have been as taken care of as I thought.” He said, grimacing as he touched his bandages, now with bright red splotches blossoming on them after Izumi’s kick.

“I see, I’ll let you know if I find them.” Tsukauchi said, waving off All Might as he spotted tendrils of steam drifting off his large physique.

“I appreciate it, Tsukauchi!” All Might said, cracking the concrete as he leapt away.

“Alright Midoriya, you have some explaining to do.” He said, turning around and uncovering her as soon as All Might was out of sight, setting his palms on her shoulders gently. “Had you not said what you did, about ‘not doing anything bad,’ I would’ve turned you over to him. Now, answer this for me please before I drive us to the main U.A building,” He sighed, standing up straight. “Have you ever interacted, or involved yourself with the villain known as All For One?”

“No sir, I don’t know anyone of that name.” She said earnestly, tears still brimming at her eyes.

“Alright, let’s get back to U.A, and I’ll take your statements about this whole debacle myself.” He sighed softly, patting her shoulder warmly. “And tell me all about how Himiko is settling in.”

Placing his hand in the small of her back, he gently guided her over to the front passenger side of his police car. “Sansa! I’m taking this young lady’s statement, I’ll be back in a few!” He shouted to a cat headed police officer, who raised a hand in a thumbs up as a response, before turning to continue speaking with the paramedics.

As he shut the door behind him he spoke, “So… ah, you need anything on the way?” He asked awkwardly, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

“Can we s-stop by the Support Workshops? Kiko-Chan— I mean Himiko is there a-and um, I’d like moral support… please.” Izumi asked quietly, picking at her fingernails. The second sudden crash of adrenaline and drop of her quirk instincts tiring her out immensely.

“Himiko goes to U.A as well? That must be nice having you both go to the same school. Sure, we can stop by there.” He said softly, his sentence emphasized by the hum of the engine from him starting the car.

“Uh, yeah it’s nice.” She said awkwardly, as she leaned against the cool car window. “We usually eat lunch together and stuff.”

“Cool, cool… and she settled in well at home? No issues with getting the blood supplement packs or anything?” He asked.

The blood packs were a creation made fairly early in the Dawn of Quirks, it was made by and for people with hemovore quirks who couldn’t come to terms with consuming blood, human or otherwise.

While bland in comparison to the real thing, the packs satisfied the hunger and nutrients required, they were easily mass produced making them significantly cheaper.

“No sir, no issues. It’s nice that U.A carries them too.” She replied, watching through the window as the USJ grew smaller behind them.

“Good, good…” He murmured, briefly taking his eyes off the road to check on her every few minutes.

The detective pulled into a hidden parking spot not far from the main U.A building.

“Principal Nedzu gave me a visitor’s pass a while ago, so don’t worry about me getting in.” Tsukauchi said, removing the key from the ignition and turning towards her. He had a small badge clipped onto his breast pocket that was labeled “VISITOR”, and had his name on it.

Izumi nodded, as she opened the door and stepped out of the car. As soon as the detective stepped out of the car, she began making her way towards where she knew Himiko would be, with Tsukauchi following close behind.

Following the path she had anxiously memorized in preparation for her attendance at U.A, she led Tsukauchi to the support workshop.

Before they had left this morning— which felt like days ago after everything that happened today— Himiko mentioned she was going to be working with Hatsume today. Something about helping Hatsume bedazzle her babies?

Izumi wasn’t going to lie and say she really understood all of the terminology she used, but at least Himiko found someone to match her manic energy when it comes to design.

With Tsukauchi following behind her, she raised her fist to knock on the support lab’s door. Right as her knuckles were about to knock on the door however, the door was completely blown off its hinges, sending two warm somethings flying into Izumi, knocking her to the floor.

Coughing through the smoke from the explosion, she laid on the ground waiting for it to dissipate.

Once the smoke cleared, she cracked her eyes to look down at what hit her. Laying on her left arm was a pink haired girl covered in soot, and a familiar head of sandy blonde hair on the other, although she almost couldn’t tell who it was due to the soot thoroughly coating her as well.

The two girls laying on her arms, slowly looked up at her, Himiko with a sheepish grin, as the girl with pink dreads’ eyes zoomed in and out like a lens.

“‘Zumi!” Himiko gasped, jumping up excitedly as she noticed who exactly she was laying on.

The pink haired girl seemed perfectly content to just lie on her arm, so Izumi had to gently remove the girl from her arm to stand up herself. “Hi Kiko-Chan.” She coughed, the smoke tickling her throat.

“Meimei! This is Izumi, she’s the one I’ve been talking about!” Himiko said, hauling the girl off the ground.

Himiko was currently wearing a beaten-up apron over her standard U.A Uniform, while the girl who Izumi presumed to be Hatsume— due to Himiko’s familiarity with her— wore a black tank top with black pants covered in soot handprints.

“Ohh!” Hatsume breathed, as it clicked in her mind. “So you’re Catwalk’s sister from the Hero Course! Nice to meet ya Green! I’m Mei Hatsume, future CEO of Hatsume Industries!” She said, extending her hand as her eyes darted over Izumi’s form making mental calculations of what support items she could make.

“Yes? If you mean Himiko when you say Catwalk. Nice to meet you too Hatsume!” Izumi said, shaking the other girl's hand.

“Impressive grip Greenie, I can tell you haven’t slacked on the physical fitness department! I wonder what babies I can make for you…” She murmured, walking back into the support workshop.

“That’s Meimei for ya,” Himiko laughed softly, brushing some of the soot out of her hair buns, “See you later Mei!” She shouted into the workshop, getting a wave over the shoulder in response.

“Whoa… what’s up with the streak in your hair ‘Zumi?” Himiko asked, surging forwards and holding it between her fingers softly.

“Um… I’ll explain that later, would you mind coming with me while I talk with the detective here?” Izumi asked, motioning towards the completely baffled detective who stood with his hand on his hip just outside of the door’s blast radius.

“Oh, is that Detective Tsukauchi from before? Wait, why is he here?” Himiko asked confusedly, stepping back to look over Izumi, checking her for severe injuries.

“Some uhh, some stuff happened. I’d rather only explain it once, do you mind coming as emotional support, Kiko-Chan?” Izumi asked hesitantly.

“Of course ‘Zumi!” She said simply, leaning on Izumi’s shoulder. “Lead on!” She cheered, hooking her elbow with Izumi’s.

Chapter Text

Izumi anxiously looked around the room Tsukauchi brought them to, it was a simple room next to the teachers lounge. It had pleasant cream colored walls, with two plush grey couches facing each other separated by a low wooden coffee table. It looked almost like a living room, were it not for the lack of windows, and the noticeably reinforced walls.

“We’ll begin with the events surrounding the USJ, are you ready to begin Miss Midoriya?” Tsukauchi asked, as he sat down a tape recorder on the coffee table, while he sat on the couch opposite Izumi and Himiko.

“Um… y-yes! Although, before we start I recently discovered new facets of my quirk so it won’t match the information in the registry database. I haven’t had the chance to update my papers since I discovered them.” Izumi said anxiously, her hand instinctively on Himiko’s who sat beside her.

“That’s fine, that’s fine. However, I do expect you to fix that as soon as you can.” He said amicably, readjusting to sit up straight. “Also, you don’t need to worry, I’m aware of Toshinori’s mentorship, and what that entails.”

“So you know about his quirk as well?” Izumi asked hesitantly, tilting her head.

“Yes, I do.” Tsukauchi nodded, interlacing his fingers.

“All right, well Himiko knows too so we don’t need to keep it a secret here.” She sighed, a bit of tension leaving her shoulders.

“That makes this easier then, just please don’t use its name during this interview and stick to what it’s registered as. We’ll discuss the whole quirk business after.” He said, leaning forwards to click the tape recorder on.

“Ahem, this is Naomasa Tsukauchi interviewing Miss Izumi Midoriya, with her sister Himiko Midoriya sitting in as emotional support. My quirk Polygraph allows me to tell when you are telling the truth or lies, do you consent to an interview under these conditions?” He asked, clicking his pen.

“Yes sir.” She said immediately.

“Good,” he smiled lightly, “Alright, let’s begin your recounting of the events of the USJ, from your perspective.”

-~-~-~-~-~-

Tsukauchi rubbed the bridge of his nose, “So you’re saying this League of Villains group was led by your older brother, who was supposedly killed in a villain fight. You also said he also did not seem to be fully in control of his body, is that correct?”

“Yes sir, that’s correct. He did not seem to be in control, the name he operated under was Tomura Shigaraki, and the Mist Villain was called Kurogiri.” Izumi replied, leaning back onto the teary Himiko who was just now learning about the USJ, and Izumi’s not so dead brother.

“True… I can feel the migraine incoming.” Tsukauchi said, pressing his palms into his eyes.

“There was also this thing they called The Nomu, it… I don’t think it was a person— at least not anymore.” Izumi said hesitantly, unclenching her hands from her pants.

“True, would you mind elaborating?” Tsukauchi asked, as his pen paused on the notepad.

“Well, first off was its appearance. Even among mutation quirks its appearance was… off. Its body smelled of decay, like rotting meat, its blood especially.” She said, grimacing at the memory.

“Why mention it’s blood specifically?” Tsukauchi asked.

“Well, due to my quirk’s mechanics— which I will explain further later— my nose is very sensitive to blood, human blood especially. And that thing’s blood smelled like it was several different creatures’ blood mixed together.” Izumi said, scrunching her nose as she said it. “Also it had multiple quirks, at least one of which was scientifically modified.”

“Multiple quirks you say?” Tsukauchi blanched, “How do you know this?”

“From an aspect of my quirk, as well as what Tomura said. He said something along the lines of ‘The Nomu has [Shock Absorption] and super strength!’” Izumi replied.

“I-I see…” Tsukauchi said, setting the pen down, as his hand began to shake.

“I think that’s most of the information I have about the USJ, unless you have any questions for me?” Izumi asked, looking at the detective.

“No, no. I believe that’s it.” Tsukauchi sighed, clicking the tape recorder off.

“On to the issue with All Might?” Izumi asked, leaning forwards off of Himiko’s shoulder.

Himiko dried her eyes as she looked at Izumi worriedly, her expression hardening, “What’s this about All Might? Did he try to do something?” She asked, her hand sliding to her hidden knife holster.

Tsukauchi was visibly startled, mentally filing away both of their reactions for later. “Yes, we can move onto that.” He said, as he flipped the page of his notebook, writing something quickly.

“Due to the obviously sensitive matter, and it being related to the Number One Hero, as well as his quirk, this tape will be considered to be a national secret. Is that understood?” Tsukauchi asked, replacing the tape in the recorder with a noticeably red cassette.

“Yeah.” Izumi sighed, annoyed to once again be saddled with a national secret.

“Miss Himiko, if I might get a verbal confirmation from you as well?” Tsukauchi asked, clicking his pen nervously.

“Oh! Yeah sure, national secret, don’t spill the beans.” Himiko replied, grabbing Izumi to use as her personal plushie, causing the aforementioned plushie to laugh softly.

“Good enough.” He said, clicking the tape recorder on. “This is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, interviewing Izumi Midoriya, with Himiko Midoriya standing in as emotional support. Miss Midoriya, after the events of the USJ attack, you ran away from All Might. What was the reasoning for this?” He asked gently, pressing his pen to the notebook in anticipation.

“This stems from my quirk,” Izumi began, “Until recently, I was presumed Quirkless before inheriting [One For All]. It was on my ID and everything. However, a few days before the USJ I found out I was not in fact originally Quirkless.”

“True. Are you aware of what your original quirk is then?” He asked, writing furiously.

“Yes, I’ve called it [Bond]. It’s a copy quirk, allowing me to permanently copy the quirks of those I’m emotionally close to. For example a parent or sister.” Izumi said, leaning back against Himiko’s with a smile, “Due to it being a recording I’ll say it out loud. I have copied my sister Himiko’s quirk, as well as her mutations from it. I have sharper canine teeth, slitted pupils, the requirement to ingest blood, as well as the transformative side to her quirk.” She stated, pointing to each mutation as she said it.

“True, if I may ask why did you not discover it sooner?” Tsukauchi asked curiously.

“I went to a quirk specialist when I was… four I believe, the doctor— who was named Doctor Tsubasa— used the outdated method of checking for the pinky toe joint.” Izumi said, forcibly relaxing her hands as she felt her fingernails begin to dig into her palms. “My mother and I had no reason to believe he was committing blatant medical malpractice, so we foolishly believed him. I only recently found out the inaccuracies of using the toe joint to determine someone’s quirk status.”

“True. I’ll check on this ‘Doctor Tsubasa’ after the interview.” Tsukauchi said, writing the name down.

“So until recently I believed that I was completely Quirkless, and was bullied for it.” Izumi glossed over that fact, moving on quickly, “The day of the Entrance Exam— U.A Entrance Exam sorry— All Might passed his quirk to me. And during the exam I learned to use [One For All], until at one point I was falling and activated a quirk from a girl I saved. Her name is Ochako Uraraka, and her quirk is called [Zero Gravity]. I was nearly unconscious at the time, and only realized what I did recently. She was nearby so I automatically assumed it was her doing until recently.”

“All of that is true. You said it had to be a close bond, this was someone you knew previously?” Tsukauchi asked, writing down the name and quirk.

“No sir. Apparently [One For All] supercharges the user’s quirk, so I’m not entirely sure of the activation requirements at this point. I can only assume the requirements have been lessened, to what I’m not sure.” Izumi explained.

“True. Alright, and you said it was a permanent copy, so do you still have this quirk?” He asked, looking up from the notepad.

“Yes sir, I have several quirks copied.” Izumi replied, showcasing [Zero Gravity] on her empty water bottle, before releasing it.

“True. This is fascinating, although I don’t understand what this has to do with your incident with All Might.” He stated simply, waiting for Izumi to explain further.

“Oh, um… since I used multiple quirks, and I hadn’t had the chance to explain to All Might, he assumed I was working with the villains. He saw The Nomu creature, which had multiple quirks, and still thought I was Quirkless— besides [One For All]— so he accused me of working with them, as well as having something to do with that All For One guy.” Izumi explained, before hurriedly adding, “Which I’m not! Working with the villains I mean! Or that All For One person, I’d never heard of him until today.”

“All true.” Tsukauchi chuckled softly at Izumi’s flustered addition. “So what happened when he accused you? It didn’t seem like it was just a conversation since you ran like you did.” He asked.

“U-um…” Izumi stammered, leaning further into Himiko as she paled. “H-he grabbed my arms hard, and-and he yelled at me. He didn’t l-let me speak, he just yelled at me and-and he hurt my arms. Luckily, I guess I didn’t have m-my healing quirk activated, so I can show you. See?” She explained, hesitantly stretching both her arms out.

Her right arm, already scarred from old bullying and [One For All]’s backlash, has a large purple handprint on it. Her left is the same, except a bit lighter due to it being gripped later than the other.

Tsukauchi’s face darkened as he looked at her arms, “True. I’m going to take a few pictures for evidence alright?” He said, standing up to take pictures with his phone.

“Yes sir.” She stammered, as Himiko wiped at Izumi’s teary eyes.

He turned the tape recorder off, before looking towards the two sisters. “Thank you for all of that. I’m so sorry you had to go through any of that, especially on the same day. That’s all I need for today from you, do you two want a ride home?” Tsukauchi asked softly, handing Izumi a tissue.

“No sir, the train we take will be here in a bit, I’ll sit in on Himiko’s classes until then. Thank you though.” She said, before blowing her nose into the tissue.

“No worries, I’ll be talking to Principal Nedzu about all of this in a few days.” He said, opening the door for them with a soft smile. “Have a safe trip home.”

“Thank you sir.” Himiko said, steering Izumi out of the room.