Chapter Text
Two sentences.
That was all it took to break Izuku.
No, break wasn’t the right word.
Izuku had shattered.
“Without power, can one become a hero? No, I should think not.”
Now he stood on a rooftop, staring down at his notebook. Hero Analysis for the Future, No. 13
What a waste of time.
He numbly tossed it off of the roof, an eerie parallel of what Kacchan had done only hours prior.
He didn’t see the blonde girl startle as a notebook landed a few feet in front of her.
He didn’t see her pick it up and flip through it.
He didn’t see the toothy grin slowly bloom on her face.
He didn’t see her start to follow him.
He walked aimlessly, with no destination in mind.
It should have come as no surprise when he found himself at a villain attack.
His hands habitually twitched for a notebook that was no longer there.
He watched the fight blankly. As if it could even be called a fight.
The sludge villain had taken another victim. The heroes were doing nothing.
Dull green eyes met panicked red.
Kacchan.
A small part of Izuku screamed at him to do something, to run forward and save him. If this had happened just a few hours ago, before Kacchan told him to jump off a roof, before All Might had told him to give up, before his dreams had been torn apart and thrown in his face, maybe he would have.
Instead, he just watched.
And then there was a small flicker of… something in his chest. Some emotion he didn’t recognize.
He realized he was grinning.
Kacchan was trapped, unable to do anything as he slowly suffocated. No one was coming to help him.
For once, it was Kacchan, not Izuku, who was helpless. It was Kacchan who was scared. Kacchan, who’s quirk was now completely and utterly useless.
And Izuku loved it.
“You like it too, don’tcha?”
Izuku yelped and jumped away from the girl that had somehow just appeared there. She giggled.
“I, uh, what?”
“I said you like it, don’t you? The look in his eyes. The terrified expression on his face as he realizes he’s dying and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. It’s beautiful.”
“I wouldn’t call it beautiful,” Izuku murmured, turning his head back towards Kacchan. “But you’re right.” A glint appeared in his eyes, lips curling upwards. “I like it.”
All Might chose that moment to finally get his shit together and save the day. As the number one hero was crowded by reporters, Izuku felt the numbness creeping back in. His smile faded.
“Oooh, you don’t like that All Might guy, huh?”
He flinched. He had forgotten about the girl.
“I…” He watched All Might run off, probably trying to get away before his time ran out. Again. “I don’t know anymore.”
The girl frowned. Actually, it seemed more like a pout. “That’s no good. Your feelings are all mixed up, huh? Well I’ll just have to help you unmix them! And then you can help me!” She smiled brightly. “C’mon, let’s get outta this rain! My hair’s getting all messed up!”
It was only then that Izuku noticed it had started raining. He nodded absently and let the girl drag him away.
They ended up in the outdoor dining area of a small coffee shop. They couldn’t go inside because of how wet they were, but there was a roof, so they could at least stay out of the rain.
“I’m Toga Himiko, by the way!” The blonde chirped. “It’s nice to meetcha!”
“Midoriya Izuku,” He replied.
“Oh, that’s such a cute name!” Toga cooed. “And it fits too, since you’ve got a bunch of green, and midori means green!”
“I, um,” Izuku flushed, looking at anywhere that wasn’t Toga. “Th-Thanks.”
“So,” She chirped, setting something on the table. “You’re the one who wrote this, right?”
Izuku blinked. It was his notebook. The one he had gotten rid of earlier.
“Y-Yeah,” He finally answered. “I am.”
“Great!” She grinned. “Do ya think you could do one on me? Pretty please?”
“I- what?” He stammered, looking between Toga and the notebook. “You- You want me to analyze you? You… You don’t think it’s creepy?”
“No, I think it’s cute! You’re really smart!”
Izuku blushed at the compliment. “I, um, I- Thanks. A-And sure, I guess.”
Toga beamed, showing off fanged teeth. Izuku noticed now that her eyes were bright yellow and catlike. He wondered if it had anything to do with her quirk. Maybe some sort of feline quirk?
“Thank you so much, Izuchan!” Toga bounced in her seat, drawing him out of his musings. “You don’t mind if I call you Izuchan, right? We’re basically friends now, so I gotta give you a nickname!”
“I-I, um, y-yeah, yeah, that’s- that’s okay!” Izuku was barely able to get the words out, he was stuttering so much. He was positive that he was as red as a tomato now.
“Yay!! We’re gonna be such great friends!”
“Y-Yeah,” Despite the overwhelming nervousness and slight confusion he was feeling, Izuku found himself smiling. He had a friend.
A friend that would probably abandon him as soon as she found out he was quirkless.
Izuku’s smile dropped. Toga frowned.
“What is it, Izuchan? What’s wrong?”
“W-Well, it’s just…” He wanted to lie, wanted to say it was nothing. But then once Toga eventually found out about his quirklessness and realized he’d been lying to her, she would hate him even more. Better to have her leave now, before he got too attached.
“The thing is…” He took a deep breath as Toga tilted her head to the side curiously. “I… I’m quirkless.”
“And?”
“I- what?”
“Why does that matter? What does being quirkless have to do with us being friends?”
“You… You don’t hate me?”
“Of course not!” Toga’s eyes widened. “I could never hate someone because of their quirk! Or lack of one, in your case. That would be hypocritical of me and hypocrisy soo isn’t cute!”
“Hypocritical?” Izuku frowned. Was she quirkless too? No, her eyes and teeth were too unnatural. A weak quirk then? Maybe her mutation was her quirk?
“Well yeah, sorta!! People say my quirk is creepy!!” Once again, Toga brought him out of his thoughts. “It’s not really fair, since you can’t choose your quirk, right?”
“No, you definitely can’t,” Izuku muttered, before perking up. “So, what’s your quirk then?”
“It’s called Transformation!!” She practically sang. “If I drink someone’s blood, I can turn into them!!”
“Woah, really?! That's so cool!!” His brain was already swimming with questions. Did she only have to drink their blood once or is there a time limit? Does the amount of blood she consumes determine how long she can transform? Would it work on animals? Could she copy a person’s quirk too? Or was it only their appearance? If she-
“Woah, slow down Izuchan, I can’t understand a thing you’re saying!”
Oh. He must’ve been mumbling. “S-Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize!! I think it’s cute!!”
Toga apparently thought a lot of things were cute. Or maybe it was just Izuku?
“So, what were you saying?”
“Oh, um,” Izuku smiled sheepishly. “I had a lot of questions about your quirk.”
“Well, ask ‘em!” Toga prompted.
No one had ever wanted to hear his questions before. Toga did, though. The thought made him happy.
“Okay, um, what are the parameters? Is there a time limit?”
“Yup! The more blood I drink, the longer I can stay transformed! And if I detransform before the limit’s up, then it sorta puts the timer on pause!”
“So you can switch between different people without canceling any of the timers?”
Toga nodded, bouncing in place. “As many people as I want! Can’t do animals, though.”
Izuku hummed in thought. “What exactly does your quirk copy? Is it just their appearance, or can you do quirks too? Or their voice?”
“Not quirks, but yes, their voice copies. I can do their clothes too, but then my own clothes are layered on top of them, so I gotta get naked first.”
The image that brought up made Izuku blush, but he forced the thoughts from his head. Instead, he focused on the many ideas that were already running through his brain.
He’d grabbed his notebook without realizing it and was already flipping to a new page before he realized he didn’t have a pencil. That was fine though, this notebook was practically destroyed anyways, and he wanted to do Toga’s analysis in a new notebook. One that wasn’t ruined by Kacchan and marked by All Might.
“Hellooooo? Izuchan? Ya there?” Izuku blinked, eyes following the hand waving in front of his face. That was the third, no, fourth time that Toga had gotten Izuku out of his head. He fought off a frustrated and embarrassed sigh. Toga frowned. “Ya got a little lost there, huh? Your face was all frowny, like when you saw All Might.”
“Yea, sorry,” Izuku closed his notebook with a scowl. “I’m fine.”
“You sure about that?” Toga asked, tilting her head to the side. Izuku opened his mouth to reply, to say that yes, he’s fine, everything’s okay, nothing’s wrong. He stopped himself before the words came out. No point in lying.
“No, no I’m not,” Izuku sighed. “I’ve had a really shitty day, a really shitty life, actually, and I’m just… tired.”
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
He considered saying no, considered dealing with it on his own, but… she offered. And… Izuku really did want to talk about it.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be a hero. Being quirkless never changed that. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go over well with my peers. Because how could a useless, worthless, quirkless Deku like me ever be a hero?” He paused to rub away the tears beginning to gather, then continued quietly.
“As you can probably guess, everyone… bullied me.” He’d never used the term ‘bully’ before, even though he knew that’s what was going on. “Still, I never gave up. Kept notes on heroes and quirks and strategies to use in the hopes it would help eventually. The… the bullying got worse as time went on. Today… Today was the first time someone told me to kill myself.”
Toga sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed onto his hand. The warmth was comforting.
“Was it…” She bit her lip. “Was it the boy from earlier?”
Izuku nodded. “Kacchan. We… used to be best friends.”
“Well, not anymore, obviously. I’m your best friend now!” Her declaration drew a small smile from Izuku.
“Yeah.”
“So, what else happened? ‘Cause you were looking at All Might like he had killed your puppy or something.”
“He killed something, all right, but it wasn’t a puppy.” Toga stepped closer; their shoulders were touching now. “I was… walking home. There was a villain- the slime one, same one that attacked Kacchan. All Might saved me. I asked him if I could be a hero without a quirk. He-” Izuku broke off, choking on his words. Toga squeezed his hand.
“He said no.” She finished for him. Izuku nodded. “Well, screw him then. If he doesn’t think you can do it, then he’s no better than your bullies.”
Instinctively, Izuku opened his mouth to defend the number one hero, but found that he couldn’t find anything to say. Sure, maybe All Might was a hero, Izuku’s lifelong idol, the symbol of peace, and yeah, he’d at least tried to be gentle when crushing Izuku’s dreams.
But he was also a liar. Izuku had seen countless videos of All Might proclaiming that anyone could become a hero no matter their quirk. Yet when Izuku had asked him that very question, he replied with the exact opposite. Had told him to pursue something more realistic. And then, once Izuku was thoroughly broken and utterly devoid of any ambition he had left, All Might left him on a roof.
A fucking roof. Right after Kacchan had told him to take a swan dive off of one.
“I think I have an answer.” He saw Toga raise an eyebrow.
“An answer to what?”
“The question you asked earlier. If I liked All Might,” He scowled. “I don’t.”
Toga’s face lit up. “Great! Because neither do I! Actually, I don’t really like heroes in general.”
Izuku’s eyebrows raised. “You don’t?”
“Nnnnope!” She said, popping the ‘p’. “They’re all fake! Doing it all for the fame and money. Not helping people who really need it.”
“You’re certainly right about that,” Izuku snorted.
The rain had stopped. Izuku sighed.
“I should probably get home. My mom will be getting worried…”
“Aww, already?” Toga pouted. “But we only just met!”
“Here, hang on a sec.” Izuku ripped out a blank page of his notebook, scribbled his phone number down, and handed it to Toga. “You, uh, you have a phone right?”
“Of course!!” She giggled. “I’ll text you later, ‘kay?”
“Okay!” Izuku beamed, waving at her as he raced away. “Bye, Himichan!”
He didn’t see her surprised blush at the nickname.