Chapter Text
“Kacchan!” Midoriya squealed, pushing past a crowd of young children. His best friend stood in the middle, absolutely swamped by the rest of the kindergartens.
“Kacchan! Kacchan! I heard you got your quirk today!” He continued, finally reaching the center of the crowd where his childhood friend, Bakugo, was.
Bakugo turned to face his friend, a wide grin plastered on his cheeks.
“Hell yeah I did! Look at this!” Bakugo exclaimed, shoving his palms right at Midoriya. He watched in awe as Bakugo’s hands lit up in a fiery fury, his ears filling with the sound of popping fireworks and nose with the slightest scent of caramel. Bakugo made a few more small pops before eventually putting his hands back in his pockets, a smug smile now adorning his face.
“Cool right?” he started, “My mom’s calling it Explosion. I can explode stuff with my hands and-”
“Oh my goodness that’s amazing!” Midoriya interrupted, his eyes bright in excitement, “How does it work? Is it touch activated? Does it run off your stamina? What if your hands are underwater? Can you still activate it? What if your-”
“Sheesh nerd, take a breath,” Bakugo huffed, rolling his eyes lazily. Midoriya flushed, his eyes nervously trailing to look at his feet. He knew of his rambling habit and how others felt uncomfortable about it, but sometimes he simply couldn’t help it. His brain ran faster than he could comprehend, it’s bound to overheat sometimes, and his mouth simply acted as a cooling system. Of course, trying to explain this was fruitless, so Midoriya ended up submitting to the silence and waited for Bakugo to continue.
“Apparently I sweat nitroglycerin or some shit, and that stuff’s explosive. One spark from my hands and BOOM!” Bakugo shouted, waving his arms in the air to emphasize his point. Midoriya stood in amazement as the other kids around them gasped and cheered.
“Wow,” Midoriya finally whispered out, “you're going to be such an amazing hero Kacchan.”
“Damn right I will!” Bakugo exclaimed, “And once you get your quirk, we’re gonna be the best hero duo the world’s ever seen! With me as a pro, and you as my sidekick, nothing can stop us! Not even All Might!”
Midoriya nodded eagerly, brushing off the sidekick comment. Sure he wanted to work with Bakugo, but he needed to be his own hero first. A hero that was strong enough to help even if there was no one else around. A hero that could save everybody, no matter what. A hero that always smiled.
“Yeah! I can’t wait!” He responded.
A hero like All Might.
“Sorry kid, but it’s not gonna happen,” the quirk doctor stated bluntly, his bushy mustache flopping up with each word.
Izuku’s hands fell to his knees. His eyes widened, full of shock and disbelief. He wanted to frown, or even open his mouth, but he was just stuck staring at the man who had just crushed his dreams.
If only he knew just how many times that would happen.
“No! There must be some mistake?” his mother, Inko, exclaimed, “The other kindergartens have all started showing signs but-”
“Pardon my asking, ma’am, but you’re fourth generation, yes?” The doctor interrupted, “As far as quirks, I mean.”
Inko looked up hesitantly at Dr. Tsubasa, Izuku’s quirk doctor, with a shy look in her eyes.
“Yes, of course,” she started, “I can pull small objects towards me.” She demonstrated, pulling one of her son’s many All Might figurines towards her hand. “And my husband can breathe fire.”
Dr. Tsubasa looked at her, but Izuku couldn’t pick out an emotion on his face. His stare was simply blank and empty. It unnerved the small boy.
“By the age of 4, a child should manifest either one of his parents’ quirks or a composite of the two,” he stated, gesturing towards an x-ray of what Izuku presumed to be his foot. “However, early quirk research discovered one important finding.”
The doctor moved his hand out of the way, then proceeded to point at a bone in the pinky toe of the x-ray.
“It has to do with the absence of an extra joint in the pinky toe. Humans have no need for parts they don’t use, you see,” he continued, bringing his arms back down to his lap, “and those without the joint represent the next stage of evolution.”
Dr. Tsubasa then glanced at Izuku, before turning his chair completely towards Inko.
“Izuku here has two joints. It’s becoming quite rare nowadays, but-”
Izuku couldn’t brace himself for the words to come. Even if he knew they were coming, it would still hit as hard as it did.
“It’s safe to say your son won’t ever develop a quirk.”
The car ride home was silent.
The way inside was silent.
Even the lonely dinner as the two waited for Hisashi to come home was silent.
Izuku had been in his room, when he heard the first noise since coming home from the doctor. It was the loud sound of the front door slamming shut late into the night. He shouldn’t have been up, but the poor boy couldn’t get a wink of sleep, the words still weighing heavy on his heart. He listened, as the familiar jingle of Hisashi’s keys stopped, meaning they had reached the hook where they always went. He listened, as his dad addressed Inko, who was still in the kitchen. He listened, as the soft murmuring of his mother’s voice started, the first time he’d heard it since coming home. He listened, as Hisashi finally understood the situation.
That was when he had wished he could stop listening.
Hisashi’s voice picked up, until it was full blown yelling. He could hear his mother crying back. Her soggy voice was a direct contrast to Hisashi’s loud, violent screaming. He tried to shut their voices out as best he could, but it was really no use. Izuku wrapped himself up in his bedsheets, muffling out his tears until they were an inaudible sob.
“Don’t you understand? How do you expect me to work like this?!” Hisashi’s angry yell echoed from the kitchen.
“He’s our son!” came Inko’s desperate cry.
“That quirkless freak is no son of mine. If the word gets out, I’ll lose my job, my reputation, everything!”
“How could you say such a thing?!”
“How can you be so blind? Am I the only one looking at the bigger picture here? We can have another child!”
Hisashi’s thundering footsteps then stomped from the kitchen to where the bedroom was. A door creaked open violently, then slammed shut. Izuku could still hear his mother’s sobs coming from the kitchen, now drowning out his own. He moved to lay on his side and pulled his tear stained blanket up to cover his head. Clutching his favorite All Might plushie, he cried heavily into his pillow.
“I’m sorry Mama,” came a small, helpless cry from underneath the blanket, “I’m sorry Papa.”
Izuku didn’t remove the blanket from over his head until he eventually fell asleep, but if he did, maybe he would have noticed the dark and towering figure that seemed to watch him from the corner of his bedroom.
Or maybe not, the room was pitch black after all, except for a small All Might night light plugged into an outlet right by his bedside. The figure was easy to miss, as it blended right in with the rest of the shadows in the room. It wouldn’t be surprising if Izuku didn’t spot it in his emotional state.
What would be surprising, is if he didn’t notice how a second blanket, which just so happened to be his favorite All Might fleece, had been draped over him as he slept. Or maybe he did notice, and just assumed it to have been his mother.
The figure in the corner would have to disagree though.
Izuku woke up the next morning to the sounds of birds chirping through his window. He had been especially warm last night, but just attributed it to his mother covering him with his other blanket. He squinted, realizing his curtains had been drawn open. He was positive he had closed then the night before. Must of been his mother when she came in to cover him.
He drearily shuffled out of bed, looking at the clock. It was fairly early, around 7:30. He really didn’t get much sleep last night. But despite the grogginess, Izuku managed to dress himself in a comfortable shirt and a pair of green shorts before dragging himself out of his bedroom.
The first thing he noticed was the lack of noise in the house, as well as the abundance of silence. It was eerie, especially for a Saturday morning. His mom would usually make scrambled eggs, an American breakfast staple he had grown to love, and the smell would lure him out of his bed and right to the table. But there were no scrambled eggs on the table. In fact, there was no one in the kitchen, which was odd as his mom always enjoyed a fresh cup of tea these mornings.
The second thing he noticed was Hisashi’s keys missing from their hook. Izuku walked to the front door to investigate, only to find that his father’s shoes were also gone too. His father rarely came home, as he worked a well paying job overseas, but when he did, it was always on a weekend. Hisashi loved playing with Izuku, especially at the neighboring park. And on Sunday nights, Izuku would always wish that his dad could stay longer. But alas, on Monday mornings, he would be gone again, never to return until who knew when. However, his father leaving in the middle of the weekend was simply unheard of, much less on a Saturday morning. He hadn’t even stayed a full day.
Izuku shook his head, his dad was probably just getting some groceries. Maybe they had run out of eggs.
The third thing he noticed was a note taped to the refrigerator door. It was written in his mother’s handwriting, the slight curves to her t’s and i’s giving it away. Izuku pulled it off the refrigerator and brought it close to his face.
‘Dear Izuku,
Just wanted to tell you that I went out to buy some eggs. I doubt you’ll be up to read this, but I wrote it just in case. I’m not sure where your father is, but if he comes home before I do, please be good. Call me on the house phone if you need anything. You should remember my number.
Love, Mommy’
Izuku opened the fridge.
There were still 9 eggs left in the crate.
He sighed and closed the refrigerator door, moving over to the couch and reached for the remote. If he had his mother’s quirk, he wouldn’t have to reach.
Flipping through the channels, he hoped he could catch some of the early morning cartoons he usually missed. Maybe he could find a new episode of Mighty Adventures, a popular All Might themed cartoon show. He’d even be content with a rerun at this point. Anything to boost his dreary spirit.
A noise came from the kitchen though, stopping his surfing in its tracks. He turned towards the sound, not really knowing what to expect. But, he certainly wasn’t expecting this.
A tall, shadowy figure stood right between the kitchen and the living room. Izuku couldn’t make out any facial features as a dark hood was draped over its head. The inside of the hood was pitch black, and despite his squinting, he could not see inside. The hood was attached to a long flowing robe that hung heavily over its thin form, the sleeves and ends obviously too long. A rope dangled from its neck, with a small stone looking object tied to it. The grey oval shaped item looked to be painted with swirls and specs.
Izuku was torn on whether to feel amazed or terrified at the thought of a stranger in his home. He knew his emotions were thoroughly out of whack from yesterday, but even through his stupor and astonishment, he still managed to do what was considerably the dumbest thing he could have done in the moment.
“Are you my quirk mister?” Izuku stammered out, though not stuttering, just simply confused by the situation in front of him.
“I am much worse, dear child,” the figure said, a hint of sadness underlying in his voice.
This is the unorthodox way that Japan’s Death met his successor. Where he has come to regret his retirement, wishing he would have stayed active for at least another decade or two.
This is the first conversation Izuku ever had with Gami, who would go on to be one of Izuku’s closest friends, and eventually a part of his new family.
And this is the story of how a quirkless boy became the greatest hero that Japan had ever seen, while also becoming the first hero Death in the history of existence.