Chapter Text
Katsuki and Izuku were at the playground with some friends when Katsuki saw Izuku's water bottle. "Hey! That's your name, Izuku! Did you know that the kanji for your name can also be read as Deku?"
Izuku looked stunned, but then he got mad, "I'm not a Deku Kacchan! That means worthless and I'm not worthless!"
Katsuki realized that saying that was a mistake real quick and stumbled over himself to resolve said mistake, "And you're not, but Deku sounds like Dekiru and you're totally Dekiru!"
Izuku was confused out of his anger, "Uh, what's Dekiru mean?"
"Oh! It means I can do it! Cuz you can do anything. I'm gonna call you that from now on, Dekiru" Katsuki happily supplied.
"Oh, ok, cool. Let's go back to playing heroes and villains! I'm gonna be a hero named Dekiru and I'm gonna be totally awesome!"
Izuku didn't like to talk much to the other students at their middle school but Katsuki didn't mind, that just meant that he had his Dekiru all to himself. It was disappointing when Dekiru was diagnosed as medically quirkless, but that didn't mean that their friendship had to change, even if he acted angry all the time, or if the teachers picked on him for no reason, or if uncle Hisashi mysteriously disappeared overseas, right?
Okay, maybe he got a little clingy after he caught that first kid picking on his Dekiru after he was diagnosed as quirkless. And, maybe, just maybe, Dekiru got a lot meaner towards him after that, but they're still best friends... right?
Either way, Katsuki thought the world of his friend.
On the first day of their third year of middle school, their homeroom teacher made a speech about the class needing to get more serious about their futures, "I would hand out these future career forms, but...I assume that you all want to be heroes!" The class burst into cheers and outbursts of quirks as the teacher tossed the papers into the air.
The teacher settles down the class, "Yes, you all have wonderful Quirks. But you know it's against the rules to use them in school! So settle down."
"Ah Bakugo, You'll be aiming for UA High School" Katsuki beamed proudly at that and nodded.
"Oh, You're also going for UA aren't you Midoriya?" The whole class fell silent and turned to face the annoyed looking greenette who replied, "What's it to ya?" The class laughed uncontrollably at the thought.
One kid piped up, "Huh? Midoriya?! No way!!" Another argued their point, "Good grades alone can't get you into the hero program!"
Dekiru stood up and flipped everyone off, "Screw you, I'm gonna become a top hero and prove that a Quirkless kid is better than all of you."
Katsuki felt proud of his friend, "Yeah! Let's prove them wrong together, Dekiru!" "Screw you too Kachan!" To which Katsuki borderline giggled.
The teacher just looked bored, but when he saw that nothing more would come of the interaction, he continued that class, "So, to prepare you for your future schools and jobs..."
Later that day after the last bell rang, Katsuki rushed over to Dekiru, "I'm so excited that we're gonna go to UA together! I gotta get going, Ma wanted me to do some shopping for her but call me later so we can do some analysis! Bye!"
Before Dekiru can reply Katsuki runs out of the room to get his errands done. Some other punks from class tried to follow him, but he doesn't have time for jerky wannabe's.
His outing was mostly pleasant actually until someone pops out in front of him, scaring him into letting out a couple explosions from his hands. Katsuki didn't even have time to register who this creepy lady could be before he heard a voice burble from the alleyway that he was walking by, " A body... With a good quirk. "
He turned to see a large creature made out of goop swallow him.
Izuku was NOT having the best day at school, first, his homeroom teacher called him out for attempting to get into the best hero school while quirkless, then after school a boy with long fingers and a boy with a spike quirk throw his hero analysis notebook out of the window and suicide baited him. Like really? Jump out of the window? That's not even a high enough fall, idiots .
At least they didn't try to beat him up again , Izuku thought as he went to retrieve his notebook from the koi pond on school grounds. Izuku is gonna show them all what a great hero he'll become, and no one will be able to look down on him anymore, not when they fail where he'll succeed.
Izuku gains his normal confident smirk again by the time he passes under the bridge on his way home. Only to hear a burbling voice behind him, " A medium sized body... to hide in.. ."
Izuku spun around only to be met by a monster made of gloopy sludge that lunged towards him. The sludge quickly enveloped him and tried to enter his mouth and nose while burbling, " Don't worry. I'm just hijacking your body. Calm down ." As if Izuku could calm down while someone was trying to use his body as a skin suit! He just struggled violently while the sludge villain appeared unfazed, continuing his monologue," I'm saved. You're a real hero. I never thought HE'D show up in this town ."
That's an insult to everything Izuku has endured and strived for, He desperately tried to shove the sludge off of him, but, " No point in trying that. I'm fluid you see!! "
Oh Kami no. Izuku couldn't breath, he started getting dizzy . Is this what all that suffering was for? An unnoticed death after defying all attempts of beating him down?
"FEAR NOT KID!! " Izuku could barely register that someone was speaking at all, “ I AM HERE!"
"SMASH!!!" He felt the sludge get blown off of him, but he still couldn't make himself breathe in, what with the high powered wind taking the chance away. For a moment, right before he passed out, he thought that he saw his favorite hero All Might.
"Hey, hey, hey ." Izuku felt his cheek getting smacked gently as he tried to open his eyes. " Hey... uh. Thank goodness." Izuku finally registered the world around him and the figure trying to wake him up, "WHA-!?"
"YOU'RE OKAY! EXCELLENT!! " That's All Might! " Apologies... for getting you caught up in my villain hunt. Mistakes like that aren't my style but... This is a strange land to me. And besides, I'm off camera!! But my success here is all thanks to you!! I'VE CONTAINED THE VILLAIN!!" All Might let out a long burp whilst holding out a soda bottle containing green sludge and dazed eyes.
Izuku definitely did NOT absolutely fanboy and ask for an autograph, only to find out that the hero had already done so. and he did NOT thank him like a stuttering fool. Nope definitely not.
All Might started to walk away, saying, "Now I must bring that fellow to the authorities! You can catch me again on TV!!"
Izuku felt his chance to talk to his hero slip away, "Wait, that's it? But I-"
"Until next time... " The hero interrupted him " THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!" He cried back as he launched himself into the sky.
Izuku couldn't let his only chance to talk to his hero slip out of his grasp, so he grabbed ahold of his opportunity...Literally. He grabbed onto All Might's pants leg and held on for dear life as they soared through the air.
They landed on a roof and Izuku took the opportunity to ask the question that everyone else had said no to. Kachan doesn't count, he's naive .
"Can I become a hero without a quirk?" Only for the hero turned sickly man to info-dump on him about an awful injury that is steadily forcing the hero into retirement before telling him, "No, even with a Quirk, Hero work is extremely dangerous."
Then All Might just... left him there? on the rooftop?? alone??? What if he was suicidal? You don't just LEAVE a young teenager ALONE on a ROOFTOP after CRUSHING HIS DREAMS!
He didn't stay on that roof very long of course. Hearing his favorite hero tell him that he wasn't good enough, just like everyone else did, filled him with both despair and anger. Despair because maybe, just maybe he's right, a lot of heroes do die early, and anger because that has been his reaction every other time someone told him that he couldn't do something, and he always proved them wrong. But because of how he held All Might in such high esteem, he couldn't hold on to his usual anger and walked off without direction until he heard an explosion.
Katsuki decided that he hated the feeling of being suffocated, and of being gawked at. The goop thing was trying to force itself into him and use him as a skin suit, which, ugh, gross . But Katsuki tried to free himself, he struggled and shoved at the goop, and when that didn't work, he used his Quirk to explode the invader.
Granted that didn't work very well either, but it did give him moments to breathe and drew the attention of onlookers.
Then the heroes came... And did nothing. The heroes came to save him, yet they did nothing but stand and gawk at him cling to life as the goop tried to steal his body. Why was nobody helping him?
Katsuki isn't proud of it but he started to cry the longer he went with his hope of rescue fading.
But then the goop thing burbled, "I t's that kid ." He tried to look, but couldn't see anything around the green goop. " You're dead. "
Oh no, was the goop gonna try to kill someone ELSE too?
Instead of that happening, Katsuki saw a yellow backpack hit the goop and it lifted from his face for a moment.
"KACHAN!"
He'd recognize that voice from anywhere, and he couldn't let him suffer the same fate as he was, so he cried out, "NO! Run away! Protect yourself first!"
"I can't just not save you. That's not what a hero would do!"
Suddenly He felt a hand hold his and Dekiru's together and YANK them out of the goop and a blast of air that was too strong for him to catch his breath again. He passed out.
They weren't out for long. When they came to, Dekiru was scolded for running in so recklessly. Why? He was the only one that even tried to save him. And Katsuki was praised for his bravery. Excuse you? All he did was get captured by a villain. So he ignored the heroes that failed him and hugged his best friend, his actual hero.
"Why did you do that? I mean thank you but you could have gotten hurt!" He frantically whispered. "What if you got caught in the sludge as well?" But Dekiru just shook his head, "That weakling couldn't have done anything to me, besides, my legs just kinda moved on their own."
Katsuki smiled at that, then he felt his phone vibrate, "Oh, Da wants me home. I gotta run. Be safe Dekiru!" He called back as he jogged off.
Izuku was in shock. He had been suicide bated, He was almost killed, had his dreams crushed, helped save his friend from meeting the same fate that he escaped, and now his hero that had previously crushed his dreams, was telling him that he's more of a hero than All Might was today? He'd passed over from shock to extreme calm, maybe he'll process everything that's happened today later.
As he was walking away from the scene to head home, All Might had stopped him and said that he was worthy of carrying his legacy. What did that mean? But then the hero continued saying that his Quirk was over 200 years old and was given to him when he was the boy's age. Oh, that's not what he expected . Then the hero offered to give the boy his Quirk, with the condition that he trains with the hero every day on a regiment that he created. Which wow, that's awesome, and he will definitely agree... After he chews out the hero for leaving a potentially suicidal teenager alone on a high rooftop.
“Okay I’ll get back to that whole situation in a minute, but… What were you thinking?! You LEFT a potentially SUICIDAL teenager ALONE on a tall ROOFTOP!! After CRUSHING his DREAMS! What are you? An IDIOT?!”
All Might looked positively scandalized, "Oh dear, I may have also insulted you by offering my Quirk, I apologize."
Izuku sighed and pinched his nose, "No, you’re correct in saying that a Quirkless person would have a much greater disadvantage in a fight against villains. And in this day and age? You gotta make all the advantages you can get.”
All Might looked somewhat relieved at that.
”So, I accept your challenge, and I'll prove that I can be an even greater hero than you are." He said finishing with a wicked smirk, "When do we start Sensei?"