Chapter 2: What is my life
It occurs to Izuku after the eleventh? No, the twelfth time he lands face first into sand that morning, that if he never saw a beach again after today, he'd be perfectly ok with that. Seriously. He knows everyone makes fun of that pre-quirk movie for saying it but it's true…he really hates sand. And it literally does get everywhere! Where is the lie?! For the last eight years, there hasn't been a single day he hasn't felt sand on him.
"Well! I think that's enough combat practice this morning. Unless you want another bout of course."
Izuku lets out a loud groan at his tormen-ahem. Dad's words. He rolls onto his side, clutching his stomach. The greenette uses the hand not supporting himself to wipe some sand off his face before opening his eyes to look up at his father's smug look. "You said we weren't using magic for those spars." He tries to make his tone accusatory but the pain and aches make it more of a whimper.
"Is that what I said?" He retorts raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" Izuku shouts, getting himself into a sitting position and leaning back on his hands. "And I had you! Dagger to your throat and everything! But then you cheated and hit me with an energy blast!"
"Right, so what did you learn?" Dad asks while putting his hands behind his back.
"Tch, not to trust you."
His father has the gall to laugh, closing his eyes and bending forward a bit. Wait, he's distracted! Izuku conjures a throwing knife into his hand, a green glow appearing briefly as with everything he conjures or vanishes. He whips it at Loki's shoulder, only for the god to catch it midair, his eyes still closed and not even a break in the laughter.
Dad takes a deep breath before straightening up. "Oh Izuku, not trusting me should've been one of the first things you learned." He looks down at the knife before vanishing it. "That was underhanded… you make me more proud every day." That earns another groan as Izuku lets himself fall into his back. "Let me try another question. What did I say before we started sparring?"
"You said no magic, just regular sparring." Izuku immediately replies, grateful to have a few minutes to fill his lungs.
"No. Try again."
Izuku scrunches up his face in thought, thinking back. That is what he said right? Well, technically not. What he actually said was… "You said I wasn't supposed to use magic…" Izuku facepalms. "But you never said you weren't allowed to use it! Ugh…"
Izuku feels himself being picked up into the air. "That's right Izuku. Tricksters like us live and breathe in technicalities. It's how we keep ourselves from getting into too much trouble."
Izuku looks at his father to see his hands still behind his back. He blinks before looking at himself, floating, held up by seemingly nothing. The teen narrowed his eyes on his dad. "Really? First the energy blast and now telekinesis? Is it 'let's rub it in Izuku's face with what powers he can't use' hour? You wanna come over here and brainwash me while we're at it?"
Izuku was lowered onto his wobbly legs, thankfully still able to stand before Loki answers. "Izuku, the best brainwashers can do it without the use of any powers." The younger magic user rolls his eyes. He had to get to school soon and the tangents on manipulation could go on for hours. "And those are powers you can't use yet. I know you'll get there one day. Besides, brainwashing only works on the weak-minded. Which, you are most certainly not." It will never cease to infuriate Izuku how quickly he could go from wanting to stab his father to preening at his praise.
Now, let's see how much your magic has progressed since my last visit." Loki continues. Izuku stands straight and nods. "Show me how you hide your pre-" Loki quickly turns to block the slash from the real Izuku behind him. Their daggers make a loud clang as they collide. They separate and Loki looks behind him at the decoy that had stood in front of him, it gives a simple wave before fading. "Very good Izuku! I say you've mastered both hiding your presence and leaving a decoy to take your place. Now show me multiple decoys."
Izuku complies, taking a step back. Nine perfect copies of himself appear surrounding both of them. "So ten of you in total? Remember I want a dozen before high school."
"Right, I'm still working on it, father." The Izuku decoy nearest Loki says.
The man nods. "Now, transformations." The decoys fade leaving a single Izuku. Notably, he is not standing where he initially started. "Oh? You've started switching places with your decoys when you make copies? We haven't gotten to that yet."
Izuku shrugs. "Honestly, it wasn't that hard. I didn't want an opponent faster than me being able to rush me."
"That's my boy. Always thinking ahead. Now shapeshift."
Izuku nods again and lets multiple glowing green lines appear and travel across his body. In a second, where Izuku stood before, All Might now appears in his current costume. "HAVE NO FEAR! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!" He shouts proudly in a perfect imitation of the hero's voice.
Loki can only give a deadpan stare. "Izuku. I deal with enough blundering blonde buffoons in Asgard, I don't need them here either."
The All Might copy lets out a thunderous laugh before resorting back to Izuku. "Ah dad, don't be like that. Besides, you make a great Uncle Thor!" In a green flash, Loki is gone. Standing there now, a muscular man wearing silver-plated armor from his chest down to his legs. A red cape behind him. Golden hair on his head and equally golden short trimmed beard on his face. Blue eyes narrowed dangerously.
"While I'm happy your transformation of others is going well." The Thor copy starts with Loki's voice. "If you don't turn me back rig-"
"Wait!" Izuku interrupts the threat. With a wave of his hand, a large silver hammer with a leather grip appears in Thor's hand. "Sorry about that dad. Now it's done. And look! You can finally lift Mjolnir!" Thor's eye twitches and Izuku just smiles innocently.
The subsequent energy blast and his thirteenth landing in the sand were totally worth it.
After getting home and showering, Izuku toweled off and looked in the mirror to see his hair was already starting to regain it's poof, he was pretty sure he couldn't control it even with magic.
Yellow glowing lines danced across his body for a moment before leaving him wearing his middle school uniform. When was the last time he physically changed his clothes? He couldn't remember. He could still do it though, honest. Everyone knows you put your pants on two legs at a time, simple.
Making sure he had everything he needed for school, Izuku quickly vanishes his backpack and makes his way to the train station. He really wished his dad could explain his conjuring power better. He made his notebook appear from thin air and started to write his thoughts, even as he got on the train.
He knew he could conjure and vanish anything in his possession. The first part was simple, he could do anything on his body. For example, his phone. If it was in his pocket, he could conjure it right to his hand, check hero forums, and then vanish it right back into his pocket. And he could do that with anything on his person.
The problem was the other stuff. To put it simply, he didn't know where his backpack was right now. Apparently, dad never got a straightforward answer from his mom before she died, but they can also conjure and vanish items too…somewhere…as long as they aren't too big. Running theory is they each have access to their own small pocket dimension. He's been able to keep school supplies, notebooks, extra daggers, and knives there. So far the biggest thing he's been able to vanish is a microwave, will his pocket dimension, or whatever it is, grow with time? He's not sure, all he knows is he can vanish stuff there and then conjure them right back to his hands whenever he wants.
The train slows to a stop and Izuku gets off walking to Aldera, probably getting a few weird looks for obviously being a student but having no supplies apart from a notebook. A key part of being an illusionist is the element of surprise, so even if he's attacked, something as simple as having a backpack that no one knew was there, could be enough to throw his assailants off. Plus it keeps people on their toes around him. Every little bit helps.
A few more minutes and Izuku is walking through the front gate. He stares up at the ominous building as he walks in. Without fail every time, he feels like a prisoner marching toward his execution here. After just figuring out astral projection, he wants to use it so bad. Sure he could only use it on a single decoy right now and he'd have to be within a few blocks of the school while he worked on expanding the distance, but it's still doable! To be able to perceive the world around him and communicate with people through a decoy would make things so much easier! He wouldn't have to be in the building and no one would know! As long as no one touches him…or explodes him…actually it might not work.
Walking through the halls to homeroom went about as expected. The usual jeers for his 'weak' or 'villainous' quirk were called out to him. Of course, he had only shown them barely a fraction of what his powers could do, and really? Would using tricks to beat a villain really be that bad? At least he only had two more years of middle school and then he'd be off to U.A. where things…would probably be more or less the same…
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Izuku opens the door to his classroom to more familiar sights. His teacher resting his head on an arm while lazily scrolling through his phone. Everyone else talking in their social groups, letting Izuku slip by to his desk in the back corner ignored. Well mostly ignored. He pointedly did not acknowledge the glaring red eyes that followed him since he entered.
The teenage illusionist plops down on his chair and conjures his backpack before going through and pulling out the supplies he'd need. "No quirk use in class Midoriya." His teacher calls out without looking up.
"It's not a quirk sensei!" He calls back. Those red eyes somehow glare harder.
The man just hums in response. Obviously not paid enough to respond. Not like Aldera enforced their no quirk use policies anyway. Which may sound like a dream at first, but in actuality was a go-ahead for the kids with 'stronger' quirks to do whatever they wanted. Well not if Izuku had anything to say about it.
The school day passes by uneventfully. Well, except for having to pull two kids out of Kacchan's way and some rats just appearing out of nowhere on a girl's head while she berated another girl. But that was all pretty normal so yeah, uneventful.
Vanishing his backpack and hiding his presence was second nature at this point when the final bell rang. In a few minutes, he had slipped off of school grounds unnoticed and was on his way to the grocery store. Mom was working late again so he offered to get some things for dinner on his way home. It would be easier if he could just use the Bifrost to teleport everywhere he wanted to go, but Heimdall said he couldn't. Izuku's pretty sure the man was just jealous he didn't think of it first.
Letting his powers change his clothes into something more casual before entering some busier sidewalks, Izuku began making his way toward the store.
Sure, while teleporting everywhere with the Bifrost was a good idea, of course it was, he would miss out on his walks where things would go conveniently right for people. Old man having trouble crossing the street? Oh would you look at that, it looks like all the lights turned red, stopping the cars and allowing the man to cross.
A purse snatcher running down the street thinking he's got away with it, only when he thinks his foot is about to step on a manhole cover, said cover fades away causing him to fall in, almost as if the cover was never there. He must've been seeing things.
"Dude, alligators aren't that scary!"
Izuku stops at the edge of a park, listening to a few boys from a different middle school.
"I know right, with those stubby legs and shit!" Says a second boy.
"All you have to do is step up on something a couple of meters high and the thing can't do anything to you." A third agrees.
Izuku sighs. He doesn't have a choice, does he? The greenette steps behind a tree and a few seconds later, as the boys pass, their laughter dies to a low growl. They spin around to see an alligator charging them like the still living dinosaur it is.
The three boys scream, two immediately bolting while the first boy trips on his own feet and falls. Does he have a make everything like it's a horror movie quirk or something? Still, he started the slight on the gators so he must pay.
Gator Izuku bites on the boy's pant leg, careful to use the tip of his mouth and not get any skin while shaking the leg a bit. The boy screams more, starting to yell he was sorry over and over. He gets it. Izuku lets go and the boy scrambles away. After making sure the coast was clear, Izuku allows his transformation to fall, rolling on the ground cackling.
What? He can't use his powers to solely help every time.
Also, it's not illegal quirk usage if it's not a quirk.
The trickster gets composed before making himself scarce, he didn't want to be around just in case anyone came around looking for a loose gator, so taking a shortcut through the park it was.
"Ewww, look. It's the demon girl!"
Or at least that was the plan for the last few minutes. Izuku stopped to see what looked like five elementary school-aged girls under the shade of one of the bigger trees in the park. Four of the girls had the smallest one backed against the tree. In between the other girls, he could see the one on the tree had small horns on her head, red hair, black leathery wings on her back, and a long sharp tail she was wrapping around herself.
Izuku's instincts go off in the back of his head. He's being watched. And he knows exactly who. But the half Asgardian doesn't care. He's got something to take care of first.
"Don't get too close, or she'll drag you to hell!" Another girl berates.
"You're right, we need something to throw! Ooooh, see how many rocks you can find?"
"Hey!"
The four girls look up to see a police officer looking down at them, scowling. "Is there a problem here?"
The girl who had suggested finding rocks looks down. "No sir." She says through gritted teeth.
"I hope not." The officer replies. "Assaulting anyone, in school or not, can get you in a lot of trouble no matter your age." The guilty girls still. "Maybe we should find your parents…"
"No!" The lead girl cries looking up. "We won't do anything like this again, we swear! Right?!" The other girls are quick to agree.
The officer begins to swing a pair of handcuffs on a finger. "Are you sure? Maybe you'd like to see what a cell looks like, just in case…"
The girls all bow. "We'll be good! Promise!"
The man cocks his head to the side once the girls look up. "Get outta here." And they do. You'd think they were the ones being chased by a gator. He bends down to look over the still trembling girl. After waiting for a few seconds, he smiles, putting his finger to his lips, letting green lines trace over his body to reveal Izuku. "Are you ok?"
Instead of answering, the little girl asks, "w-why would you help me?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Izuku counters.
"B-because I'm a demon…"
"Now why would you say that?" The little girl gestures to her wings and flaps to emphasize. Izuku hums, putting a finger under his chin. "What's your name?"
"H-hiromi Yoshinaga."
"Well, Yoshinaga. Do you act like a demon?"
"What?" The girl seemed so stunned by the question, that it took away her stutter.
"Are you a nice person?" Izuku amends a bit.
"A-always! I like it when everyone is happy!"
"That's great!" Izuku smiled at her. Not his million watt or whatever his mom calls it. But a smaller one. "So does a demon like when everybody is happy?"
"No! Demons want everyone to be sad!"
"That's right. So if a demon wants everyone to be sad, but you want everyone to be happy, then how are you a demon?"
Yoshinaga opens her mouth and closes it a few times, trying to think of a response before lamely gesturing to her wings again. Izuku chuckles a bit. "It's not the quirk that makes the person, it's how you act. And with you wanting to make everyone happy, I'd say that makes you more of an angel! Right?"
The girl's breath gets caught in her throat and stares at Izuku for a full minute slack-jawed. It almost gets to the point where the boy wants to pull out a mirror to make sure there's nothing on his face before tears decorate her face.
The red haired girl charges Izuku, sobbing into his chest, thanking him over and over. Izuku can't stop a few tears of his own while wrapping the girl into a hug, letting her cry it out.
After five minutes, Izuku can feel his watcher getting impatient, and Yoshinaga definitely doesn't need to be anywhere near here when that goes off. Thankfully, the girl lets him go, but not without a few more thank yous. "You're gonna do great things," Izuku tells her. "Why don't you head home and get cleaned up, maybe start on some homework? Oh and how about we keep me transforming into that police officer our little secret ok?"
The little girl giggles a bit through the last of her tears, wings flapping, probably involuntary. She nods and Izuku stands up, giving her one more hug before she runs off, waving him goodbye. Izuku waves back, waiting until she is clear out of sight before dropping his hands into his pockets and sighing.
"Come on out Kacchan before you set the park on fire."
Katsuki Bakugo stomps out from a shaded area, smoke rising from his tightly clenched fists. Izuku swears he can hear his teeth grinding from where he is. "Deku." Kacchan spits the name out like it disgusts him. Wait, it does.
Izuku smiles, knowing it'll just irritate him more. "Hey, Kacchan! Did you enjoy the show? Listen, if you wanna lecture me on quirk use, we both know my old scars say you have no problem with that." Unfortunately, it took a good few years for Izuku to learn how to do anything worthwhile with his magic so that left him helpless to Kacchan and everyone else. One of the first things he ever learned was how to use illusions to cover up his bruises and burns. Dad is rarely physically home to see through it and it fooled mom well enough.
The blonde boy, who might as well have steam coming out of his ears, stomps up until he's just under a meter away from the other. "Where. Do you get off?" He asks through barely controlled rage.
Izuku tilts his head a bit. "Huh?"
"Where. The fuck. Do you get off Deku?"
Izuku shrugs. "Usually in the shower. Uh, I guess it'd be rude not to ask so…how about you?"
Kacchan's anger seems to leave him for a few seconds as he processes Izuku's response. "In the shower? What the fuck are yo-" he stops and Izuku smirks, seeing a light blush of embarrassment on the other boy's face. It's quickly replaced by his old anger multiplied tenfold.
Kacchan yells, lunging forward to grab Izuku…only for his hands to go through a decoy. Izuku reappears in front of the tree Yoshinaga was backed up against, hands still in his pockets.
"That wasn't very nice, Kacchan. I thought we were having a simple conversation?"
The explosion quirk user trudges forward, thrusting a finger in Izuku's face. "Where the fuck do you get off saving some random extra Deku?!"
Now Izuku feels genuinely confused. "She needed help? That's pretty much all there was to it?…"
Kacchan does not relent. "I know you knew I was watching you, shitty nerd! What? You think I couldn't save her?! You think you could ever do a better job than me?!"
"Well no but I figured unless there was some big villain there, the almighty 'King Explosion Murder' wouldn't dare waste his time wi-" The called out explosion murder god doesn't let him finish, whirling an explosion ridden fist at his face. Only for, again, the fist to go through the decoy and hit the tree.
The Pomeranian howls in pain, grabbing his hand. Izuku appeared to the side of him, looking disappointed. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?"
Kacchan seemed to think better about attacking, at least for now. "Listen here Deku, no one needs help from a worthless shit like you! All your quirk will ever be good for, is party tricks at some snot nosed kid's birthday party! Stop trying to be a hero!" He raised his good hand and let loose a few small explosions in warning.
"Kacchan…" Izuku warned. "Don't make me have to bring out your weakness…" Red eyes widened as Izuku waved his hand and an object appeared. "That's right…a small cup of water!"
Izuku was always taught to do things logically. On his list of things to do that day were to annoy Kacchan and go out for a run. No reason he couldn't combine those.
Izuku arrives home to find his apartment as he usually did, empty. Setting the groceries down on the counter, he got to work preparing dinner for himself and mom. He'd just leave her portion in the fridge. Heating the pans and starting to slice the vegetables was a nice distraction but didn't last very long. Mom had taken another shift at the hospital again. He understood her reasoning. As in, he understood why it made sense to her, but not him.
Dad had enough wealth that they could live off of their entire lives without either needing a job, and he readily offered it. But mom wouldn't have it. Sure if he needed something like a new laptop or some hero merch he really wanted, she'd dip for it, but other than that, mom wanted to be able to provide for them herself. Probably something to do with her pride. And he got that from her perspective, he just wished she was home more.
Still, she was home more than dad at least. Though he has good reasons, Izuku hopes anyway. After their first year of training, dad always said he had Asgardian stuff to take care of. He told Izuku how to do things and expected him to practice while he was away. Every now and then he'd check in as an Astral Projection, but physically he only came home for a week every five to six months.
'At least it makes the cover story of Hisashi Midoriya working abroad more accurate.' Izuku thinks bitterly. But when his dad came home, it always came with the added bonus that he takes Izuku to see his uncle and grandfather in Asgard for a couple of days, so that was something. They were set to leave tomorrow morning, he couldn't wait to show what he'd learned to Uncle Thor!
"Oh, that smells gooooood." Izuku groans looking over to see a decoy of himself sitting on the counter, sniffing the air.
"You can't smell," Izuku explains, very much letting the irritation bleed into his voice.
"Izuku! It's like you're trying to hurt us!" The decoy says, clutching his chest in mock hurt.
The real Izuku stirs the food on the stove. "Hey Two. I don't remember calling you."
"And why do we need to be called to spend time with our best bud! and he's right. The food is looking D. my man." Decoy Four says, sliding next to him. "Also, Six is raiding your fridge."
"I'm thirsty!"
"You can't drink, you're not real!"
"I can dream Izuku!"
"No! You literally can't!"
"And who's to say who the real one is?" Izuku let his head hit the counter, hoping it would knock him out. No luck it seems. He turns to see Five standing on the coffee table. "For all we know. I am the real Izuku and you're all MY duplicates!" A flying chopstick that goes through Five seems to disprove his point. Izuku taps another chopstick on his head showing he's solid. Five folds his arm and pouts. "One day, I'll get you guys…"
"What is my life…" Izuku whines.
"Well, it seems you've taken talking to yourself to an extreme, seeing as you don't have anyone real to talk to, you needed some sort of outlet before you went crazy." Decoy Three says a bit quickly, appearing next to Two.
Izuku wraps up his mom's portion for the fridge and brings his plate to the living room, sitting down and turning on the tv. "Right. Talking to five copies of myself because I have no friends is the definition of mentally stable."
"Well actually the definition is-"
"Not what I was asking for, Three!"
Izuku stops flipping the channels at the local news, the headline catching his eye. "Just to repeat. All residents are urged to be on the lookout for what has been reported as a loose alligator. If spotted, do not approach. Please inform the nearest officer or hero. It is said to be highly dangerous."
Izuku can't help but laugh along with his decoys, all sitting in the living room with him. Yup, just another day.