Chapter Text
Izuku wiped his eyes as he walked down the street. Mere minutes ago, his soul had been shattered. All Might, his favorite hero, and the best hero of all time, told him being a quirkless hero was impossible. It was ‘unrealistic.’ That word got to him worse than anything else. Unrealistic? Wanting to help people was unrealistic for a quirkless person? If Izuku had to keep things realistic, he may as well follow Kacchan’s advice. It wasn’t like quirkless people of the past generation lived very long, anyways.
An explosion a block away caught his attention. He turned and saw a crowd being ushered away by Mt. Lady. Kamui Woods was trying to grab something Izuku couldn’t see, but gave a shout of pain and pulled back a bunch of burning branches. Was there a fire villain? His prior depression forgotten, Izuku rushed towards the scene to see what was going on. When he reached the square, he saw Backdraft working to keep the fire contained while Mt. Lady kept having to convince the crowds to stay back. Death Arms was standing uselessly to one side while Kamui reached out, risking more burns, at a huge…sludge monster? Wasn’t that the villain that-oh crap, Izuku must have made All Might drop him! How could he be so useless!? Looking further, Izuku found the source of the explosions that kept burning Kamui Woods.
“KACCHAN!” Izuku screamed in horror.
His friend, Bakugou Katsuki, was caught in the sludge. The blond teen was screaming and flailing his hands, doing everything he could to try burning the sludge villain. The villain just laughed and kept trying to pull him in deeper. He was going to die.
Without even thinking, Izuku charged at the villain. He needed to help him. He couldn’t just let Kacchan die. He rushed past the crowd, zigzagging between bystanders, and past Mt. Lady. Kamui and Backdraft were too busy working to notice the green teen zoom past them. However, Death Arms (who had been uselessly standing like an animatronic in a pizzeria) saw him and caught Izuku by the scruff of his collar.
“LEMME GO!” Izuku struggled.
“I’m not about to let a kid like you get hurt!” Death Arms shouted, trying to restrain Izuku.
“But Kacchan is dying!” Izuku screamed. “I gotta help!” He reached out his arms, feebly trying to get free. “KACCHAN!”
If Izuku had been under any less stress, he would have felt a tingling across his body. He would have noticed his face aching just the slightest bit. He would have realized his hearing got sharper. He would have felt his pants tighten before a quiet ‘rip!’ was heard. He would have noticed so much, had he not been focused on saving Bakugou Katsuki.
Instead, all Izuku saw was a pair of long, furry arms reaching out across the area to grab the struggling teen. From their angle, Izuku could only assume they came from someone behind him, but who? He didn’t recognize these arms, and certainly no fuzzy hero was around Musutafu. Izuku watched as these arms gripped Bakugou, and Izuku could almost feel them in his own hands. The arms retracted, pulling Bakugou free from the sludge. The villain screamed in rage and moved to take him back, but found himself impeded by Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady. With no more fire and a contained crowd, the two heroes made quick work of beating the villain into submission. The fuzzy hands released Bakugou at this point and retracted, exiting Izuku’s sight. Bakugou just stared at Izuku with a dumbfounded expression the green boy had never seen before. In a few more minutes, things had calmed down. Bakugou was taken away by paramedics while Kamui rushed over. Both he and Death Arms (who had released Izuku a few moments prior) were glaring down at the boy.
“What were you thinking!? ” Kamui Woods scolded.
“Kacchan was in danger!” Izuku shouted back. “I-I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing!”
“Maybe so,” Death Arms shook his head, “but that’s no excuse to use your quirk without a license!”
…wat.
“W-what do you mean?” Izuku asked, completely confused.
“Your arms!” Kamui pointed. “You can’t just use your quirk like that!”
“...But…I’m quirkless,” Izuku stated. Both heroes looked at each other, then back to Izuku.
“Evidently not,” Death Arms growled.
“I’m not lying!” Izuku shrieked as he yanked his student ID from his coat. “Here, look at my ID! It clearly says-” He stopped. The hand holding out his ID was not his own. It was one of the fuzzy ones that pulled Bakugou from the sludge. Izuku’s eyes widened as he noticed this. He reached up to touch his hand, only to realize his other hand was fuzzy. He gasped, dropping his ID in shock, while looking at his hands.
Covered in short brown fur, tipped in short black claws, they were his own hands. That meant he did indeed pull Bakugou to safety, but Izuku was more shocked at how he had fur now. He rubbed his sleeves, feeling the soft fur underneath going all the way up his arms. If they went up that much…He touched his face, feeling more soft fur. He also felt his face was slightly longer, like he had a short snout or muzzle. He touched the sides of his head and gasped. Where did his ears go!? How was he hearing things without ears!? He slowly reached up his head and found what he assumed were his ears. They were longer, pointed and on top of his head, like a cat or raccoon. He tensed up as he felt his ears.
…
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!”
Izuku released his ears and gave a bloodcurdling scream. He didn’t flail, he didn’t shake, he just stood in place and screamed into the air. Kamui and Death Arms had to cover their own ears against the volume of the teen’s shrieking. Thankfully, he stopped after only a few seconds.
“Okay, okay,” Izuku gasped for air, “I’m good. I’m good.” He made the mistake of looking down, and saw something from the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he realized he now had a tail. It wasn’t that big, and was brown with a dark green tip. After seeing it, Izuku felt a something in the back of his mind. He gave it a mental nudge, and his tail wagged a bit.
…
This time, he latched onto Death Arms like a face-hugging monster and screamed even louder into the open air.
—
All Might watched the entire scene with a myriad of emotions. Shame at dropping the bottle, regret at not having the power to step in, shock at seeing that green boy rush in to help. The way he ran was so…familiar. Then All Might felt even more shock at seeing the boy mutate before his eyes, stretch his arms and yank the boy to safety.
How did that happen? Was the boy lying about having a quirk? No, his face and words were clear indicators. Then he saw the boy screaming after seeing himself. Undeniable proof he didn’t know what happened. That could only mean that, somehow, the boy’s mutation quirk did not manifest until this very moment. That left a lot of questions, but gave All Might some meager relief.
He had a quirk, now. Now that boy could safely attempt to fulfill his dream. On top of that, his behavior even before that was a clear sign of a heroic heart. Such a boy could have been an excellent vessel for One For All, but he couldn’t offer. The boy recently manifested a quirk, after all. He’d need to get the hang of that, and trying to gift him another quirk could hamper that. He looked forward to seeing what that boy could do. For now, though, he had an appointment with his old sidekick.
—
At the same time this all happened, about half a block away, a wolf sat atop a building. They watched the entire scuffle, thinking whether or not to intervene, when Izuku rushed in. The wolf watched in fascination as the teen grew fur and animal features. As Izuku was screaming his shock into the air, the wolf smiled.
“How very interesting,” she whispered to herself.