Chapter 4: The Princess and Her Tower
Slide under the pipe. Kick-off of the diagonal slab. Duck and roll to avoid the stray ball. Grab pole to change trajectory. Use the rope to climb over the wall. Run like hell. Repeat until exhausted.
That was the training regime Izuku had been going through for the past month. He had long since moved past trying to avoid dodgeballs while running on an indoor track; now he had to navigate an entire obstacle course while avoiding smaller, faster projectiles.
The warehouse he trained in was substantially different from his first day there. When Izuku was still running on the track, the building was a lifeless, undecorated gray. It had stayed unnotable until the obstacle course arrived. Where the runner's track used to be, there were high walls, ropes, and low ceilings scattered about in a circular formation. In the center sat Gran Torino, a baseball launching machine, and a lawn chair. From it, he used the baseball machine to torment Izuku while he trained.
Today, like many days, it was just Izuku and Gran Torino. Nighteye rarely showed up to personally train him, and Izuku was grateful for it. The man never inspired Izuku to do better, only put him down and stressed him out. It wasn't that Nighteye was mean to Izuku, or that he wasn't full of helpful tips and tricks. No, Nighteye was an incredible educator and mentor.
Nighteye just didn't want Izuku to have One for All.
At least, that was what Gran Torino told him. Izuku thought it made sense, so he went with it. Nighteye blatantly called him selfish for keeping the quirk, and maybe he was. As long as Izuku held the quirk, nobody more physically fit could use the power to fight back against the giant wave of crime sweeping the nation.
Nighteye saw him for the child he was, but not the hero he would be. When the time came, Izuku wanted to show Nighteye he was wrong about him.
But that time was not now, Izuku realized, as his fingers slipped while pulling himself over a wall, sending him plummeting back to the floor. Within a few seconds of not moving, Izuku was pelted with a baseball. Izuku groaned as he heard a whistle sound off from the center of the course.
Needing some water, Izuku gathered the balls that were lying all over the track as fast as he could. As soon as he deposited them all back into the launching machine, he grabbed a bottle of water, took a large swig, and sat down. Next to him, Gran Torino put down a book he'd been reading.
"So, have you had any more strange dreams?" He asked. Izuku shook his head as he wiped his cheeks clean of water.
"No sir. That weird dream about the eight stars was the only one so far." izuku replied. Gran Torino grunted.
"Keep updating your dream journal then, brat. Nana and Toshinori never told me anything about dreams, but maybe you're special." He said. Izuku shrugged.
"Maybe it was a one-time thing." Izuku offered. Gran Torino shook his head.
"Nah, probably not." Gran Torino didn't elaborate further.
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes. Izuku was doing his best to regain his energy after his workout and the old man was pondering something Izuku couldn't guess. Eventually, Gran Torino broke the silence.
"How many times do you think you got hit?" he asked. Izuku shrugged, unsure. He pulled off his tank top to look at any bruises forming on his torso. Poked and prodding them to check their age, he counted how many were from this session or not. Eventually, he came to a consensus.
"About 16, maybe 17." Izuku said. Gran Torino snorted and whacked the back of Izuku's head with a cane.
"It was 25, brat. I kept count." He said.
"Jeez, does it matter all that much?" Izuku whined, rubbing the back of his head. 25 or 16, both were a lot of hits. It was the wrong thing to say though because it got him another wack.
"Are you dense? No wait, of course you are. There's a huge difference between 16 and 25 punches straight to your thick skull, kid. Nine hits are enough to knock out a fully grown man alone, and that's just the difference between how many times you thought you got hit and how much you really did." Gran Torino said.
"I'm sorry. I'm trying to get better." Izuku said, disappointed. He had been satisfied with his performance today. Izuku had done better today than he had ever before, in his opinion. But even that wasn't good enough, he guessed.
"You need to. But, if it makes you feel better, how many balls do you think got launched?" Gran Torino asked. Izuku pondered this for a moment before remembering he had just picked up the pile of missed throws.
"Overall, I'd say maybe 50." Izuku guessed. Gran Torino smiled.
"73. You dodged about two-thirds of my shots, though I might have missed one or two." He said. Izuku gave a weak smile at this. It was a nice statistic, but he couldn't forget that he had still been hit so many times. Nighteye had been right about him in at least one way, his left side was undefended. He needed to get better at dodging; he wasn't even close to being agile enough to dodge a kick from Nighteye.
Dropping his fake smile, Izuku looked out across the obstacle course. In reality, it was a very simple course. The reason it was tough was that it looped; it started and ended in the same place. Izuku was forced to do several laps before he either got hit too many times or got too tired to keep running.
The course helped him with a lot of things, namely, his cardio, agility, and awareness. Be it before the incident or after he lost his arm, if you put the old Izuku in this course, he wouldn't last two minutes. He was making good progress, but Izuku wanted more. He wanted to be able to dodge a kick from Nighteye.
"I want to try something else."
[x]
Izuku was smiling as he went into Tokage Groceries. Fujimaki had been right; Izuku felt a lot better out in public with his prosthetic. Before, when Izuku went grocery shopping, he rushed through his list so he wouldn't get stared at. He hated the way people looked at him- as if he was helpless. That wasn't a problem anymore.
His fake arm was a gift from the heavens. The arm looked real and, as Izuku wanted, was light as a feather. He could take it on and off with ease, his center of gravity being none the wiser.
Even though the arm gave him a certain peace of mind, he made sure to only wear it out in public. One day, when he was a hero, he wanted to shed his prosthetic, and show the world his real body, his true worth, with or without two arms. Ms. Utsushimi had given him that confidence, and he wanted to repay her faith with concrete action.
Still, he liked having the arm. It made him feel symmetrical, and symmetrical felt good. Being in a grocery store by himself felt nice, too. His mother hadn't let him wander around without her for months in fear of him hurting himself again. But today she had decided to let him fly the nest for a few hours while she cleaned. So, she sent him off to the grocery store with a few extra dollars for himself.
It was a nice gesture, he thought. It meant she trusted him again.
He had almost retrieving everything on his list. Ham, some spices, and tomatoes were easy to reach, and Izuku thought he'd be home free until he reached the soap aisle. The brand of soap that his mom liked was on the highest shelf, and Izuku couldn't reach it.
That normally wouldn't be a problem in a large chain supermarket, they typically had little footstools scattered about to help. But this place was locally owned, meaning he'd have to ask somebody to help him. He wasn't sure he was up for that today.
He was about to settle for a different brand of soap when a little girl, his age, popped her head out from behind another aisle. Izuku glanced at her but thought nothing of it until she started waving at him.
"Hey, do you need any help?" She asked. Izuku looked at her and then looked behind him, making sure she wasn't talking to someone else.
"Me? Uh, I-I guess." Izuku replied. The girl smiled and bounced her way over to him. As she got closer, Izuku got a closer look at her. To his surprise, he realized they looked remarkably similar. Green tousled hair with big, round eyes and fair skin. They could almost be siblings if it wasn't for two things. Her hair and eyes were more of a swamp green, whereas Izuku's were more forest green in the light.
And her teeth were as sharp as knives.
Izuku immediately assumed she must have a jaw-related quirk. Perhaps it was just a minor mutation, or she could grow her teeth in size and shape, Izuku couldn't tell. He couldn't help but be reminded of a lizard he had seen in the zoo once, looking at her teeth and color scheme. She stopped next to him, and put a finger up to her lips as if to silence him.
"Shh. Don't tell anybody." The girl whispered.
"Tell what-" Izuku tried to ask, but was cut off when the green girl's arm popped off of her shoulder. Izuku watched, fascinated, as the girl's severed arm floated up to the top shelf and fumbled around for the right dish soap.
"Uhm, the Sunshine one." Izuku told her, realizing she didn't know which brand to grab. Within seconds, he was holding his dish soap and the girl had popped her arm back onto her shoulder. Izuku didn't know what to say as he bagged the cleaning product. He didn't need to, though, as the girl got right up in his face with a big smile.
"Pretty cool, right?" She asked. Izuku nodded. It really was cool.
"W-what about the quirk l-laws?" Izuku asked, concerned for the girl. Public use of quirks was outlawed despite their wide prominence. Everybody thought it sucked, but it remained an integral part of their society. The girl shrugged her shoulders.
"My daddy owns this place, so I can't get in trouble. If you tell him though, I might get grounded. So don't do that, please." The girl whispered. Izuku nodded.
"Oh, you're Mr. Tokage's kid?" He asked, despite his discomfort at her proximity. He wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to handle this conversation, but he was intrigued. The girl nodded in affirmative.
"Yep. I'm Setsuna, by the way. What's your name?" Setsuna asked.
"I-Izuku MIdoriya. Yours? Oh crap, wait-" Izuku fumbled as Setsuna laughed at him. His face was bright red as she continued to giggle. Soon though, she realized he looked uncomfortable and apologized.
"I-It's n-no problem, Tokage. A-anyways, what is your quirk? It l-looked cool." Izuku asked, trying to redirect the conversation. Setsuna beamed at him.
"Oh, I can split my body up and move the pieces all around like drones!" Setsuna looked around them to make sure nobody was in their aisle. "Watch this…"
Izuku almost screamed when her head fell off her shoulders and started circling him. Giggles came from all directions as he fought back his surprise. After her head got reattached and Izuku calmed back down, he couldn't help but look at her in small amazement.
"Y-your quirk is so cool… Are you going to be-" Setsuna cut him off.
"A hero? I haven't decided yet. People keep telling me that I could be a really good one, but I'm not sure it's what I want." She said. Izuku nodded, a little disappointed.
"Yeah, you could be an amazing one with a quirk like that. If you wanted to, you could t-totally do it." Izuku said in earnest. She really could, he thought. He couldn't think of any major heroes that were currently active that had such a unique and diverse ability. One day, when her quirk had fully matured and she mastered it, she could be a force of nature in the crime-fighting scene.
She could scout disaster zones with ease by making her eyes fly ahead of her. Or, she could help people out of dangerous areas by letting them fly on her limbs. Her ability was wonderful.
It was only after all these thoughts went through his head that he realized he had said them all aloud. She was staring at him with a guarded appreciation, like she was flattered, but thought he was weird. Which, Izuku thought, he guessed he was.
"I'm so sorry, s-sometimes all of my thoughts just spill out and-" Izuku tried to explain, but the girl shook her head.
"Nah, it's fine I guess. What was your quirk, by the way?" She asked. Izuku, still feeling apologetic, didn't know how to respond. He'd been asked this a thousand times as a child, many times just to make fun of him for his quirklessness. After a while, he had learned to just ignore them, but now he didn't know how to answer.
"Oh, well, uhm… I have super strength." He answered. It was a bit of an understatement, but it was technically true. Setsuna raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're kinda skinny though." She said. Izuku choked out a laugh, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. He wasn't offended.
"Y-yeah, you got me there." A weird silence hung between them for a few seconds before Setsuna backed off of him, giving Izuku room to breathe.
"Welp, have a nice day. If you need anything else from the top shelf, ring the bell next to the checkout. Our apartment is on the second floor, and the bell is how my dad lets me know to come down for a shift. Later, Midoriya." Setsuna said, waving at Midoriya as she left. Izuku tried to wave back, but she was gone before he could.
Izuku didn't leave the aisle for a few minutes as he did his best to catch his breath. That was the first time he'd talked to someone his age in months. Maybe even before the incident. It was easier, he decided, to talk to people his age now that he wasn't quirkless.
Everyone at elementary school had defaulted to bullying him for it, but maybe it would be easier to make friends now that people didn't think he was broken. Without realizing it, Izuku was clutching his fake arm as he thought this.
He needed to get away from people before he got overwhelmed. He got the last items on his list before checking out. Mr. Tokage was the cashier today. Sporting a thin smile and hints of gray in his temples, Mr. Tokage looked much older than he actually was.
"Will that be all, young man?" Mr. Tokage asked. Izuku nodded, not saying a word.
"Alright," He continued. The man glanced down at Izuku's left hand, a knowing look in his lidded eyes. From under the counter, he pulled out a small chocolate bar and tossed it to Izuku.
"To your recovery." Mr. Tokage said. Izuku's eyes widened. He tried to give it back, but the man refused.
"I've seen you come in here with your mom a bunch of times, kid. You're looking a lot better. You earned it." He said. Izuku sighed and accepted the treat.
"T-thanks."
[x]
Izuku was still thinking about the Tokages while training with Gran Torino the next day. They had been so nice to him, more than he deserved. It was hard to forget.
"Hey, did you hear anything I just said, brat?" Gran Torino asked, annoyed. Izuku shook his head to clear any dangling thoughts of the Tokages.
"Sorry, sir. What was it again?" Izuku asked. Gran Torino scoffed.
"You were the one who asked me in the first place, kid. I said that we're going to work on dodging actual attacks today." He said. Izuku blushed, remembering he asked him to do this yesterday. Hopefully, his grogginess would clear up by the end of the day.
"Alright, let's get started. What's first?" Izuku asked.
"First, we-" Izuku never got to hear what the man was about to say because, across the warehouse, a door slammed open. In the entrance stood Nighteye, and he looked serious.
"Nighteye? I didn't think you were coming today." Gran Torino called out. Izuku nodded, Nighteye had a schedule that he kept religiously, and they were not on that schedule today. Nighteye dropped a briefcase he carried next to the door and walked in, hands in pockets. He didn't even glance at Izuku.
"It's been six months, to the day, since All Might left us. My schedule cleared up today, and I want Midoriya." Nighteye said; his voice firm.
"Fine by me. We were going to start real combat training today-" Gran Torino was cut off when Nighteye shook his head.
"No. I'm taking him out of here. He needs to see what it's like before we actually start training him. He needs to know." Nighteye said. Izuku tilted his head.
"See what? Where are we going?" Izuku asked. Nighteye turned to him for the first time, and Izuku got a good look at him.
Nighteye's eyes were covered in shades that looked remarkably similar to his normal glasses. He couldn't make out a specific expression because of them, but he noticed that Nighteye's eyes were red and puffy.
"I'm going to take you out on a patrol. You'll be perfectly safe with me." Nighteye said. Gran Torino spoke up.
"That's a bad idea. You know how rough crime has been. We don't need to expose him to that crap." He said. Nighteye didn't appear to care.
"What about combat training?" Izuku asked. Nighteye shrugged.
"Later. Come on now, I don't have all day." Nighteye said. Izuku looked at Gran Torino, who was shaking his head at him. He wasn't sure what Nighteye wanted, but whatever it was, it was important.
"Alright." He agreed. Gran Torino sighed while Nighteye nodded in approval.
"Let's go." Nighteye said.
[x]
Nighteye didn't play the radio as he drove; he found it distracting. So many songs with different tempos and meanings, if he wasn't careful, he might crash while he got too invested in a song. Or worse, he might miss a crime that he could've stopped otherwise.
He guessed he and the brat agreed on that, at the very least. Izuku didn't like to listen to music in the car either. As a city kid, he seemed content to just enjoy the novelty of a car.
"So," The kid asked, "Why are we doing this?"
"A couple of reasons." He replied. When Izuku didn't ask what, Nighteye continued.
"Do you know how bad crime has gotten since All Might's death?" He asked. Izuku shifted in his seat.
"I-It's gotten worse. Without the Symbol of Peace, I know violent crime has gone up." Izuku said. Nighteye nodded.
"An understatement. It's quintupled. Even though there are more heroes than ever, we're struggling just as much as we were in the dark times before All Might." Nighteye said. Izuku didn't say anything.
"We need a special hero to step up, and soon. Endeavor is incredible, but he isn't what we need. We need the true Ninth." Nighteye continued, glancing at Izuku as he said this.
The boy wasn't worthy of One for All, and even if he was, Japan needed someone who could step up to the plate today, not ten years from now. He had nothing against the kid, but he didn't have the right mindset or the age.
Off in the distance, Nighteye saw a minor villain battle taking place. He wasn't concerned; the fight was being controlled by several heroes careful to keep the fighting contained. Nighteye had driven here knowing that; he had checked the Hero Network before picking up Izuku.
The kid said nothing as Nighteye parked a few blocks away from the villain fight. The fight had split, with some of the villains fighting in the streets whereas the others were fighting outside a grocery store. After watching the heroes' battle in silence for a few minutes, Izuku finally spoke up. His voice was quiet and cold, something Nighteye hadn't heard from the boy since they had first met.
"Is this why you brought me here? To push me into giving up One for All?" Izuku asked. Nighteye nodded.
"I need you to understand. It's been six months, Izuku, and crime is already this bad. What will happen in a year? What about five? Who will step up? Japan needs somebody to make them smile again, someone who can beat back villains without any issue. We need a real hero." Nighteye replied. Izuku didn't say anything, his eyebrows furrowed.
"I've found a young man, a fresh U.A. graduate, who I can trust to give the quirk to. Thunderstrike. You may have heard of him." He continued.
Thunderstrike was a man with a heart of gold and a useful quirk to boot. Depending on what material he touched, he could create sonic blasts at different intensities. When just touching the air, he could generate blasts strong enough to feel like a punch to the gut. While touching steel, he could create a force strong enough to uproot a tree and blow over cars.
Nighteye had scouted the man for his agency almost immediately after founding it, and the man had just recently officially signed onto his team permanently. He wasn't perfect, but he was the ideal candidate. His record was littered with minor infractions of U.A. policy, but those had all been over minor things. Fights, pranks, and other such things that Nighteye could care less about.
Off in the distance, the fight on the roof of the supermarket was intensifying. Izuku continued his silence, igniting Nighteye's nerves.
"What gives you the right to hold his quirk hostage? What makes you want to keep his quirk all to yourself so bad!? Please, Midoriya. Why?" Nighteye begged, his voice cracking.
The car was silent for a few seconds while they both realized what he said. Nighteye tugged a bit on his collar, flustered that he lost his cool. Izuku continued his stoic stare at his feet.
"Do you miss him?" The boy mumbled, not looking up. Any rage that lingered in Nighteye froze at the question. His chest tightened a bit.
"Of course I miss him. He was my best friend and my mentor. I looked up to him." Nighteye said.
"If you really looked up to him… how did it make you feel when he put his faith in you?" Izuku continued. Nighteye leaned back in his chair, threading his fingers together in thought. He remembered back to the early days when Nighteye had convinced All Might to let him be his sidekick.
At first, the man only used him for his future sight. He never let him run into battle with him and never made him pick up his slack. He didn't want to put his burden on Nighteye whatsoever.
After a few years of this, eventually they were pulled into a large-scale operation. It was to take down a huge crime boss in northern japan who had dozens of dangerous employees. This was the first time Nighteye was truly called into action as a combatant, and he would never forget what All Might said to him the night before it all went down.
"I believe in you. That's what he said to me. It was simple, but I've never forgotten it." Nighteye said. This made Izuku look up. Nighteye felt a twinge of regret in his chest when he realized the boy was tearing up.
"H-he said the same thing to me, too. "Be the Ninth Wielder. I believe in you."" Izuku said, sniffling. "He told me I could do it even though I had just gotten him killed… I hear it every single night."
Nighteye didn't know what to say. Midoriya had never shared what went on between them that day. He didn't interrupt as Izuku continued.
"He died so I could live. I want to honor him… but I'm tired of being selfish. If you really think that I'm not cut out to be the Ninth, then-"
He never got to finish, because their attention was ripped from their conversation as his car raised into the air. Nighteye peaked out the window to see what was going on and realized a second too late that a villain had picked up the whole vehicle.
Nighteye's seatbelt choked him as his car was thrown like a frisbee, sending all his possessions flying throughout the car as they flew.
Shit, Nighteye thought, he had stopped paying attention to the fight. He ripped his seat belt off of himself and Izuku, grabbing the surprised boy and leaping out of the flung car. Covering Izuku's head with his hands, Nighteye landed back-first against the concrete wall of an apartment complex. Cracks spread out from behind him as rubble and dust rained on him from above. He coughed, tasting copper in his mouth.
Dazed, he could only vaguely make out the sight of his destroyed car blocks down the road. One broke formation to come over to him and check his vitals, but Nighteye shooed him away, already recovering. He felt his face and cursed. His glasses were gone, and he hadn't brought a second pair. He checked Midoriya, he was unscathed, but his prosthetic had gotten lost mid-air.
As he stood up, he felt his mind sharpening into battle mode. The current conflict, when he had arrived, had been contained by a handful of heroes in a three-block radius. Now though, whenever Nighteye's attention had drifted from the battle, things had changed.
He had thought the villains were petty thieves, but it appeared they must've been a part of some local gang. Their buddies must have all come in to help fight off the heroes, which drastically changed the tides of the fight. The villains went from maybe five to over fifteen. Some of them were animal mutants, whereas a handful were just using plain old guns. He picked out his phone and sent a message through the Hero Network for backup.
He looked over to the hero who had come to make sure he was ok. He didn't recognize him, but he looked like he just got out of school. That was good, he was fresh on the protocol. The backup must already be on the way. Nigheye looked at Izuku.
"Get this kid out of the danger zone. Don't let him out of your sight until you're in the clear." He ordered. The young hero nodded, not questioning the order. Heroes didn't usually take orders from others, but Nighteye was known in every corner of the country, so the kid probably felt he couldn't refuse.
It didn't matter to Nighteye, so long as Midoriyia was out of the danger zone.
He scanned the fight from one end to the other to decide his plan of action. Most of the fighting was being done on his left, toward the supermarket. Nighteye wasn't concerned about that. The fighting near there was even. What he was concerned about was the very thin line of heroes keeping the other gangsters from joining their friends. If that group was to fall, this might turn into a problem for the main force.
His eyes settled onto the villain who had destroyed his car. He pulled out his Hyper-Density Seals, thumbing their cold surface as his eyes flashed an amethyst purple.
[x]
Izuku's head felt hollow as he was carried by the hero escorting him. He was hyperventilating. Nausea permeated his entire body as if he had been riding a rollercoaster for two hours straight. It wasn't the sudden movement from being saved from the car, nor was it the emotional stress of almost giving up One for All. It was the battle itself.
At this moment, all Izuku could think about was when he made the biggest mistake of his life. Images from the battle he had long since thought he blocked out made their way into his skull, giving him a splitting headache.
A man in a pristine black tux, his arms spread out as thousands of mechanical tentacles erupted from his back. The same man flying high into the sky, only to come back down with muscles the size of his apartment complex.
The man's fist, now normal-sized, inches from his face. The only thing stopping Izuku from being blown away being a human meat shield- All Might.
He cast his gaze out to the battle around them. Eight villains and five heroes were battling near him. Why was he here? Where was he? Did he wander into another battle?
Was another hero going to give up their life for him? He almost retched at the thought.
"Hey, hey! No throwing up. I'll get you out of here, little guy. Don't worry." The hero carrying him said. Izuku's head was pounding, but he took a second to look at who was carrying him. His suit was a bright yellow and white mix, with a large W centered on his chest. He knew this hero. Livewire. He had a simple electricity quirk.
His eyes dragged themselves toward the main fight. It was outside of a grocery store that he was intimately familiar with. Oh god, Izuku thought. Were the Tokages still in there? He swallowed.
"W-were you able to evacuate?" Izuku choked out. The hero looked grim.
"We cleared the streets, but any residents-" He never got to finish, because he was blind-sighted by another flung car. Livewire was sent flying, crashing into the back of an alleyway near them while Izuku was sent tumbling down to the concrete.
Despite his nausea and all the scrapes littering his body, Izuku was able to drag himself behind a building to avoid any more flying cars. He breathed in as hard as he could, holding it until it hurt before releasing it. Dr. Fujimaki had told him that the most important thing to do when panicking was to breathe, so he focused on that. In, out.
In...
Out.
In…
Out.
Once his head was spinning less, Izuku took stock of his body. His prosthetic was gone, lost somewhere between here and where they had parked. That was fine, it couldn't help him anyway. He felt around his limbs; none of them were broken. He was bleeding in four places, none of them his head. He was ok.
When he realized he was ok, his memories of the situation began to return to him. No, he hadn't wandered into the battle. Nighteye had tried taking him into a controlled environment to convince him he needed to give up One for All. He locked away those thoughts, they weren't going to help him. Where was Livewire?
He peaked down the alleyway he crawled into. Away from the road and in a pile of garbage bags, Livewire was sprawled out in unconsciousness. Izuku stumbled over to the hero to check his pulse. It was still beating. Izuku wasn't a medical expert, nor did he have a good understanding of the human body, but he knew that Livewires arm was broken. Arms weren't meant to bend that way.
He did his best to push it into the correct position before trying to pull him out of the side from the road. He didn't want any villains to see the unconscious hero and try and beat on him while he's down.
He grabbed at the hero's skin-tight suit, but he didn't quite have the grip strength to haul him to where he wanted. He settled on using the garbage bags as leverage while he rolled the unconscious man out sight. Izuku made a mental note to work on his grip strength. He needed it to be twice as strong as a normal person's.
With Livewire now safe, izuku remembered the main issue at hand. The streets were a warzone, and while there weren't any pedestrians in danger, anyone who lived in the area was threatened.
His stomach dropped as he remembered that he was almost 20 meters from Tokage Groceries. Izuku glanced at the villain fight. It was still going strong, but the fight was gradually being dragged towards the store.
Izuku couldn't fight anybody. Not just because he didn't have a license, but because he was weak. If he went back into that chaos, his panic attack would resurface and he'd probably be killed.
He had never wanted to be strong as he did right now. If he could use all of One for All, or even a little bit, he'd be able to clean up all these gangsters in a matter of seconds. Nobody could get hurt again. Livewire wouldn't have a broken arm and probably a concussion. Nighteye's car wouldn't be a burning pile of destroyed steel. If only he was strong…
Izuku slapped his cheeks; he was just a kid. He didn't have to do anything- he couldn't do anything.
If a hero didn't step up soon, the battle was going to be taken inside of the store. From across the street, Izuku could see cracks begin to form on the building's load-bearing walls. The building was being weathered rapidly by the onslaught of attacks from the villains.
Whenever an attack from the villains missed a hero, the building was the one that took the damage. It was a no-brainer for the heroes- they'd rather the building tank the big hits than get hurt themselves. What they didn't know, however, was that an entire family lived in that building. An entire family that showed nothing but kindness to Izuku.
In…
Out.
Before Izuku even knew what he was doing, he was sprinting across the street.
He didn't know when he started running, all he knew was that he was. Izuku could hear his heart in his ears as he stumbled past an unconscious villain sprawled out in the street. The man didn't look much like a villain, but he was swathed in yellow clothes. All the villains were coordinated in yellow colors, he noticed. They all must be gangsters, Izuku decided. Behind him, the hero who defeated the unconscious gangster called out for him to get to safety; Izuku ignored him.
He weaved between fish-mutant and a gun-toting gangster alike as they focused on their own fights. Izuku didn't have to worry about the villains, he realized; they were already preoccupied with the heroes. Realizing this, he could ignore the chaos of the streets and focus on the building ahead of him.
It was a two-story brick structure with a cozy balcony above the entrance. Izuku pressed himself up against the window to try and see inside- to make sure there were no customers trapped in the building. He tried to yank and pull on the front door, but it was sealed shut. Mr. Tokage must've locked all the doors and windows when he realized a brawl was breaking out in the street.
Izuku couldn't find another way in; Izuku couldn't find a fire escape and the doors were locked. He looked between the glass doors and the pieces of stone breaking off of the building. The battle was tearing the store apart. Izuku sighed.
Sorry, Mr. Tokage, Izuku thought.
He grabbed at the crumbled concrete, picking a stone the size of Izuku's fist, and chucked it through the front door. Izuku's innocent mind immediately recoiled at his brash action. He just vandalized a man's property, and without good reason. For a second, Izuku thought he might go to jail.
He crushed that thought when he remembered why he was doing this. Nobody except him knew the Tokages lived upstairs- the heroes would let the villains destroy the grocery store if it meant saving their own skins.
As he stepped over the shards of broken glass, he could feel the way the building moaned and groaned, as if the store itself could feel the scattered blows across its surface.
A bullet whizzed past Izuku's ear, scaring him to the floor. He tucked into the fetal position under the cover of a shelf, praying he hadn't been shot at intentionally. When no more shots went off near him, he allowed himself to relax. Izuku's ears rang; he only got back up when he could hear again.
It took him a few moments to process what just happened. A bullet had missed him by not even six inches. He almost died.
Much like his shame at almost giving up One for All, Izuku packed down his shock and fear into a tight ball deep in his gut. Hopefully, he'd never have to unpack those feelings again. Izuku still flinched when he heard gunshots go off down the street.
He made his way over to the register, careful not to be in the sightlines of a hero or a villain as he did so. Izuku didn't want to bring more attention to Tokage Groceries than there already was, nor did he want to distract a hero from their battle.
Izuku fumbled around in the checkout line for a moment, recalling what Setsuna had told him not two days ago.
"If you need anything else from the top shelf, ring the bell next to the checkout." Izuku muttered under his breath. Not having looked for it yesterday, Izuku struggled to find where the supposed bell was.
After fumbling around for it for about a minute, Izuku's fingers snagged on something. In his hands, he held a rope with a tiny little bell on the bottom. His eyes trailed up and down the rope, fascinated. It wasn't just a simple bell on a string, but a pulley system. There was a hole cut in the ceiling of the first floor, just big enough for a bell to fit through.
When Izuku pulled the rope down, there was a second rope that went up to the second floor. It was like a vertical conveyor belt. He pulled the rope all the way around so that the bell attached to the rope was sitting on the second floor. He gave it a little jingle.
Above him, he heard several footsteps all at once. A heavy set of footsteps, presumably Mr. Tokage, and then two much lighter steps, his wife and daughter. Izuku peered up through the hole in the ceiling. He couldn't make out anything specific, but he was sure that someone was standing right above him.
"Who's down there!?" A low, masculine voice said. It was feeble but threatening. Whoever was speaking was afraid, and Izuku knew exactly who it was.
"It's me, Mr. Tokage! Midoriya!" Izuku said. A small, girlish squeal sounded out from above him, but Izuku couldn't tell if it was Setsuna or her mother. Mr. Tokage didn't say anything as Izuku heard shuffling from upstairs. Izuku, still peering up the hole as best he could, almost jumped back in surprise when a thin eye began to peer back.
"Midoriya, the hell're you doing here!?" Mr. Tokage asked. His eye disappeared for a second as he looked away. "Setsuna," He hissed, "Open the hatch."
Within moments, Izuku was on the second floor. He watched as Mr. Tokage slammed the latch shut and pushed a heavy piece of furniture over top of it.
"I'll ask again, Midoriya, what're you doing here?" Mr. Tokage repeated.
"I got caught up outside, sir. Do you know what's going on?" Izuku replied. Mr. Tokage shook his head.
"Not a thing. I heard a gunshot and just shut everything down and locked up for the day. Did you see what's happening?" He asked. Izuku nodded.
"There's a whole gang attack going on out in the streets. I didn't even know there were gangs around here! Anyways- the fighting is getting worse, and they're right outside. Haven't you felt all the shaking? Heard all the gunshots?" Izuku asked. From his right, Setsuna spoke up.
"Yeah. What's going on? How'd you get in the store?" She asked. Behind her, Ms. Tokage nodded.
"Are you ok?" Setsuna's mother asked. Izuku nodded at her appreciatively before replying to Setsuna.
"The fighting is being dragged close to the building by the heroes, I don't think they know you're in here." Izuku said. "Oh, and… I kind of broke in. S-sorry." Izuku said. Mr. Tokage tried to speak up, but Izuku shook his head at him.
"No, no. Whatever it is, that's not important. We need to get you guys out of here before they break in-" Izuku tried to say, but was cut off by a gunshot. He tackled Setsuna and her mother to the floor and behind a dresser as another gunshot went off, shattering two windows in the upstairs room. He glanced at the father; he had taken cover himself and was fine.
Doing his best to cover their bodies with his own, he got awkwardly close to Setsuna. She stared at him, gobsmacked, before her gaze naturally drifted to where Izuku's stub was digging into her side. Because of the bullets making Izuku's ears ring, he couldn't hear what she said to him, but he could read her lips.
"Your arm?" Seemed to be the thing she was confused about. Izuku ignored her for the moment.
Izuku rolled off of the two girls, shuffling over to a position where he could see the balcony window- the one that had shattered first.
Nothing happened for a moment, and Izuku thought the volley of bullets might have ended. For a second, Izuku considered getting back up. That idea went straight out the window as he saw a hand grab onto the balcony. Izuku pulled back into the cover of the dresser as the same hand hauled an entire body onto the second floor.
Izuku didn't have a perfect angle, but he could tell who it was. Yellow shoes and socks, with the bottoms of their shorts being yellow as well? This was one of the gangsters. Izuku shifted over for a better angle.
The man held a small pistol and had no visible mutation. His arms were bare; no Yakuza tattoos in sight. This was a small-time gangster. Izuku thought that might've made him less nervous, but it didn't. It was the man who was unconscious on the road. Or, Izuku guessed, the man who had been pretending to be. Izuku tried to stay hidden, praying that the gangster wouldn't see them and decide to leave, but he wasn't so lucky.
Mr. Tokage stood up, hands in the air.
"What're you doing in my house!?" He asked. The gangster took a step back in surprise, probably not having expected a confrontation. He slid down the bandana covering his mouth to speak. Izuku tried to memorize what the man looked like, but with him still wearing glasses and a hat, he couldn't see anything memorable.
"The fuck are you doin' up, you old man? Sit back down!" The man called out. Mr. Tokage didn't budge.
"I asked, what are you doing in my house!?" He yelled again. The man pointed his pistol at Mr. Tokage. He felt Setsuna move beside him; he put his arm on her to get her to stop moving. The gangster still hadn't spotted them.
Primal fear gripped Izuku's heart; he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he wanted to stay hidden, or at least not let the Tokage women be seen. As the gangster raised his pistol towards Mr. Tokage more threateningly, something odd happened.
Where Izuku's stub was, he began to feel hot. It wasn't unlike phantom itches or pains, but it wasn't similar either. For a brief moment, it reminded Izuku of how it felt when he used One for All for the first time.
"I need hostages, so get the fuck down old man!" The man yelled, shooting a warning shot directly into the floor. Behind Izuku, Ms. Tokage squealed in fright. When the gangster looked at them, Izuku could feel a switch being flicked on in his body.
In a flash, the burning sensation in his nub spread through him. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew one thing. The only thing he wanted was to not be seen.
In a moment of pure chaos and confusion, Izuku's pores opened and smoke exploded out of him.
It burst out of him like a tiger being freed from its cage. Izuku and everybody else in the room screamed as the smoke expanded out of him and covered the whole room.
The man with the gun gagged, surprised, and shot blindly into the now completely gray-white room. Izuku felt pain flare-up in his leg, but he paid it no mind. Despite his utter confusion at the situation, Izuku didn't give up a second.
He jumped up off the floor and onto the dresser before springing off the furniture towards where the gangster had been standing a moment ago. Arm spread wide, izuku collided with the gun-wielding man and brought him down.
He was much, much weaker and weighed nothing compared to the man, but Izuku didn't need to overpower him. Still emitting smoke like a hearth full of pine, Izuku's skin was blowing out gas like an air hockey table; it made him slippery. He could shimmy out of any hold the man tried to put him in, before finally kicking the man's wrist and forcing him to let go of the gun.
Izuku couldn't see anything in the room on the count of the smoke, but he heard someone grab the gun, assumedly Mr. Tokage.
Distracted, Izuku was flung off of the larger body into the wall beside him. He still couldn't see anything, but he heard the gangster, now gunless and presumably without a quirk, get up hastily and scurry on out towards where he broke the balcony window.
"Get the hell out of here!" He heard a feminine voice scream; Setsuna, he mentally noted, before the sound of the pistol going off rang. The blind shot hit nothing but wood, but Izuku heard the gangster scream in fear as he jumped off the second-floor balcony.
Recovered from being thrown into the wall, Izuku called out to the Tokages.
"Where are you guys!? I can't see!" Izuku shouted. Two coughs from the other side of the smoky room confirmed their location, and the sound of a gun being dropped told him where Setsuna was. Izuku felt sweat roll down his back as his body, still heated up uncomfortably, began to ache. He stifled a coughing fit before running into the excess smoke and grabbing at where the Tokages were, doing his best to guide them out into the sunlit balcony where the smoke was less thick.
"Turn off your quirk, Midoriya, I can barely breathe in here!" Mr. Tokage called during a coughing fit. More sweat began to roll down his face as he tried his best to turn off whatever was going on in his body, but he couldn't do it.
"I-I can't! I don't know what this is! S-Setsuna, can you check the alleyway next to us with your quirk? If it's safe to run down there, we can get out of here and out of this smoke!" Izuku said, coughing himself. Despite the access to the open air, even the balcony was beginning to become too covered in smoke to breathe properly. He couldn't see her nod, but he knew she agreed when her head flew past him.
Izuku continued to try and smother whatever fire beneath his skin that was causing the smoke, but no matter what he tried he couldn't get it too slow. Thankfully, Setsuna's head returned within the minute.
"The garbage alley is clear!" Setsuna called out to them. Izuku didn't have time to say thanks, because as soon as Setsuna's head was back on her shoulders, she was already jumping off the balcony. Izuku watched as, one by one, the Tokages cleanly slid off the balcony with practiced ease. Despite it being a ten-foot drop, they didn't even seem to mind. For a brief, odd moment, all Izuku could think about was fire safety.
Eventually, he joined them in the alley. The fighting seemed to have died down, with the only fight still actually going on being between Nighteye, several rookie heroes, and one beefy and mutated villain who had been throwing cars like frisbees.
The aches that had begun flashing through Izuku's body had evolved into pulses of agony, forcing him to take a break every few steps.
At one point when he stopped entirely, he felt a soft hand grab at his own and pull him to his feet. A splitting migraine stopped him from being able to see who it was, but he thought it might've been Setsuna.
By the time they got to the other side of the street the ally was on, Izuku couldn't move anymore; his skin just wouldn't stop smoking. Eventually, he stumbled to the floor, letting go of the hand that had been pulling him.
"Midoriya!" He heard someone call off in the distance. He couldn't bring himself to check who had done so. His ears felt like they were ringing just as, if not harder than when he was almost shot in the skull. All sensation slowly fell away as he laid on what he thought might've been concrete. No noise, no sight, no smell.
When Izuku finally lost consciousness, he saw the eight stars, one shining brighter than all the others.
[x]
Izuku woke up in an odd place. He wasn't sure what he expected; maybe he'd be in a hospital, or maybe in his own bed. But no, he was sitting right at the seat of an empty throne of some medieval European castle.
He begrudgingly got up and shuffled out toward a window. Once again, his expectations were averted when instead of seeing a traditional European landscape with forests and plains, he saw a black void.
He stumbled back, surprised. He looked up and realized that the castle didn't have a roof, as if the ceiling had been torn off by some ultra-powerful siege weapon. Behind him, he heard a feminine snicker. He swiveled around, only to be greeted with a sight even stranger than the destroyed castle or the void itself.
A large round table with 8 grandiose chairs circling it, all of them full of people who looked nothing alike. All of them, except for one, that is. The chair closest to Izuku was empty.
He tried to call out to them, only to realize a moment later that he didn't have a mouth. Or a nose, ears, legs, or a torso. Izuku's body was made up of wispy smoke that circled around him like a humanoid tornado. For a moment, Izuku thought whatever power he had awoken in the Tokage's apartment had fully transformed him into a smoke monster.
He still had eyes, though, and a… left arm. Surprised, he tried to flex it and feel the lost limb, but he didn't have any sensation. As he tried flailing his arm to try and get his blood flowing, he heard the same female snicker. He turned back to the people he didn't recognize and saw that a brunette woman with a strong build was giggling at him. When she noticed that he saw her, she waved.
"Hey, Ninth. You're here early." The woman said, smiling wide. A handful of the other people around him also gave a wave but didn't say anything.
He wanted to ask so many questions. Where was he? Who was she? Why was he here? And so much more, but without a mouth or lungs, he couldn't. The woman must've understood he was frustrated through his eyes, as she got up from her chair and walked over to him. She put a hand on his non-existent shoulder, simultaneously motioning one of her companions to join them.
"Hey, Kiddo. I know you're confused right now, but rest assured. When you wake up, you'll be back with Sorahiko and your mom. En, can you come over and explain what happened before he wakes up, please?" The woman asked. The man, En, walked over. He was somewhat short for a fully grown man and wore a high collar jacket that covered everything below his eyes. He had short black hair messily parted away from his snake-like eyes.
"Hey, kid. I'm Six." En introduced. Izuku suddenly remembered how the woman had greeted him; she had called him the Ninth. Was she talking about One for All?
"Sorry about the scare earlier. Quirk exhaustion sucks, I know. What you did back there-" En gestured to the void, "was tap into my quirk, Smokescreen." En said. Izuku didn't know what to do or say. He stared at En for a few seconds before trying something.
He dropped to his knees and cleared the ground of dust and rubble. With his fingernails, he cut into his palm. He was glad to learn he could bleed in this place, even if he couldn't feel anything.
He smeared one word into the floor between himself and En with his blood.
How?
En knelt down beside him to read what he wrote. The man tilted his head back up to look at Izuku before he began speaking. Because of the angle of his collar, Izuku could see the man's full face and was somewhat disappointed to see that the collar wasn't hiding a cool scar.
"Good question, Nine. This has never happened before. You're the first who's ever been able to do this. You're also the youngest person to hold the quirk by far, so that might also affect it." En said. Izuku cut into his hand a little deeper for more blood. It didn't hurt because of the lack of sensation, but it was odd seeing himself bleed but not feel it.
OFA? U Holder?
"Yeah, Kiddo. We're inside One for All right now. Don't ask me how it works, because I don't have a clue. Maybe ask One the next time you're here. Anyways." En said, glancing at a watch on his wrist. Izuku wasn't sure a watch could work inside a quirk, but he wasn't about to question it. Izuku began to feel dizzy.
"We're running out of time, and we have no idea when you'll see us again, so try to remember three things: You need to start training our quirk immediately, don't use my quirk so much that you can't see, and All for One, our progenitor, is still alive." En said, his voice slowly fading into the distance.
Izuku tried to reach out to the others as he was sucked away from the throne room and into the void. The last thing Izuku saw before succumbing to the void's call was a single blonde man hiding behind the empty chair Izuku saw earlier.
[x]
The first thing Izuku noticed when he woke up was a searing pain in his right leg, midway through the thigh. Izuku groaned as he sat up, the pain in his leg flaring up as he did so. Somebody grabbed his arm as he tried to roll out of bed.
"Hey, hey, it's bed rest for you only!" A woman said. Izuku blinked at who was holding his arm; it was a nurse, he realized. He was in the hospital.
"What… happened?" Izuku asked, his throat dry. The nurse smiled as he settled himself back into place, no longer trying to escape.
"Do you want your mother here? We can talk about it with her if you want; she's just down the hall getting food." The nurse said. Izuku shook his head. He was confused and wanted to know why he was in the hospital and what happened now. The nurse sighed.
"You're in here for two reasons. Your leg," The woman gave his leg an angelic touch, so much so that it didn't hurt, " and for severe quirk exhaustion." For this, the nurse just gestured toward him in his entirety.
"Oh." Izuku said. It all came back to him in a moment- the dream, the smoke, the Tokages, and ohgodhewasshotintheleg.
"I don't know the details of your injury, but I know you were shot in the thigh. How does your leg feel?" The nurse asked.
"Hurts. Can you go get my mom?" Izuku asked. The nurse nodded and went to fetch his mother. He used the time to comb through his memories for when he got shot.
He doesn't think it was after they escaped the apartment, and he knew it wasn't before he broke into the store, so… Oh yeah, Izuku remembered. Adrenaline had kept him going, but now he distinctly remembers his leg getting shot after his skin exploded into smoke.
Izuku stirred in his thoughts for a few minutes as the nurse was away, thinking about all the things he didn't want to. Lucky for him, the nurse and his mom returned after a short time.
"Excuse me, I'll be back in a few minutes, but I'll let you have some alone time." The nurse said. Before she left, she gave Izuku another dose of painkillers for his leg and scampered on out.
Inko looked at him with wide eyes brimming with tears. Her eyes were filled with love, anxiety, and a small amount of pride.
"My baby boy…" She whispered. Izuku felt tears well up in his eyes.
"Mom…"
They cried together.
[x]
Nighteye decided it was awkward. A week had gone by since Midoriya had woken up, and now they were in a car together again. The last time they were here, Nighteye had been wound up so tight he had actually dared scream at the boy. He had demanded to know why this boy, a child, was being so selfish. Nighteye had been the selfish one that day, he realized. He had been so stressed out that he began to think that the only way to solve all the world's problems was to give some rookie, who he barely knew, the greatest power in the world.
He had dared to think that Izuku Midoriya wasn't worthy of One for All.
He wasn't one to admit when he made a mistake out loud, but he would certainly internalize it. It was his greatest fault.
But this was a special occasion.
"Midoriya. I'm sorry for the things I put you through last week. It was rash, foolish, and out of line. Please do not forgive me." Nighteye said, in all seriousness.
Izuku was worthy. He proved himself after he saved that family. Nighteye didn't have to be there to know- that little family of three Izuku saved had spoken so highly of him when the ambulances arrived that Nighteye had been shell shocked.
His world had practically collapsed in on itself once the dust had settled. He'd brought a little boy, not more than a child, into live combat to prove a point. Not only that, but he'd been so negligent that Izuku had been able to sneak into the fighting to help. That shame by itself was nearly enough to push him over the edge, but Izuku had gone beyond all expectations.
Any doubt he had for the boy's worthiness was snuffed out when he learned Izuku had used a previous user's quirk. If the quirk itself accepted him, then it seemed the only one in the equation with objections was him.
"Y'know, when we were in here last time, I almost gave up the quirk." Izuku said. Nighteye nodded, he remembered. To crack under all those emotions… He doesn't blame Izuku a single bit.
"It's fine. We have bigger issues anyway." Izuku continued, still facing forward. Nighteye's gaze darkened. Ah yes. Among Izuku's marvelous display of an old user's quirk, he had also relayed information that made Nighteye's blood run cold.
"Yes. One for All's nemesis, All for One." Nighteye muttered. Izuku nodded and began to whistle a simple tune. Nighteye turned to him, taking his eyes off the road for a moment.
"Whistling? When you're in mortal danger? All For One being alive without All Might is practically a doomsday scenario." Nighteye asked, concerned. Izuku shook his head, an alien calmness over the boy the likes of which Nighteye had never seen before.
"Unlike you, I saw what All Might did to that poor man. He'll be on life support for the rest of his life." Izuku said. "If he ever starts to make moves again, it'll be after I've had time to catch up." He said.
A guilty sort of pride wormed its way into Nighteye's heart. He'd done nothing but put the boy down since Sorahiko had insisted on him training him. In all honesty, he'd only hindered the boy up until this point. Still, he felt proud. Perhaps, logically, One for All should go to Thunderstrike, or someone else ready to take the world by storm. Maybe, logically, Izuku was the single worse choice Nighteye could've thought of two weeks ago. The thing is, he realized, things like logic didn't apply to people like Izuku.
He remembered being young and dumb, forcing himself into All Might's inner circle just because he adored the man. He'd spent months chipping away at All Might's resolve, using every manipulative technique he could think of to convince the man he was vital to his heroism.
Still, after months, All Might had never broken. He didn't want to risk someone's life just to make his easier. Nighteye lobbied to be his sidekick day and night, yet All Might held strong against it. They'd been the most frustrating months of his life.
But one day, the man, not All Might, Toshinori, sat him down. He told him the truth: of his life-long struggle with All for One, of his dream of a world where everyone smiles, and of the crippling loneliness that comes with being the best.
He told him of the present, how his life was, the fear that gripped him, and the stress of the job. He told him of the past, of wanting nothing more than to help people, only to be outcasted because of his disability. But when Nighteye asked about his future, Toshinori had smiled.
"I've been thinking, young Sasaki, about that. Truth be told, I'm scared. I've dedicated my life to my base instinct, service. I'm hot-blooded and rarely think about the consequences of my decisions. I help people because I must, not because I desire it. I guess you could call me a train, set to only move in one direction as fast as possible. When you look out my window, it's all blurry, but I've recently begun to think of that far-off world of tomorrow." Toshinori said, only pausing to sip his tea. Mirai Sasaki had gulped.
"I'm not so arrogant to think that I'll live forever. All for One grows stronger every day, I might not have to worry about old age with him around! Haha… But I'll need a successor. Someone fundamentally like me, but preferably smarter. It'd be nice if they were smart. I've laid the groundwork; a society where children and adults can smile all the time, but I have no idea how tall this castle will be when it's all over. I'll need someone by my side who can look to the future, someone who can make the tough calls today so the world tomorrow will be easier. I need someone to balance me; someone who can invest in the future."
Sir Nighteye glanced at Izuku as the boy fiddled with the archaic window swivel, a tranquility to his expression that betrayed the gravity of his position. He glanced at the boy's stub. He'd not ideal, logically. He's crippled and tiny and ignorant. Every day that passes without the Symbol of Peace is a day an innocent man gets hurt.
But people still smile, even if life is hard. They remember the good times and will weather the bad until they return. They make hard choices for better futures.
The boy was broken, but he would heal—given time. Time. Nighteye checked his watch reflexively. It was an early line of All Might merchandise, something only a superfan could've gotten his hands on during the Silver Age. Toshinori's beaming smile stared back at him from behind the clock's hands. To invest in the future, to nurture and better it. For a better tomorrow. To do what All Might never would—or could, now.
"I guess I'll have to actually start teaching you, huh?"