Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first indication that there was something more than the empty black abyss happened to be sharp pricks at his neck. His mouth opens to push sound out of his throat. Although his ears are numb to sound, he thinks he ends up whimpering.

Now the feeling in his horribly dry throat is spreading to the rest of his body. He wiggles his fingers, slowly, and notes that they are slimmer than he remembered as he feels something flowing through his bloodstream. There is a weight on his chest, like two water balloons. His head throbs, feeling like something is thrashing and fighting against his brain. He has too many thoughts.

He sees a grinning face for a moment. Then some words are spoken as his mind is taken under.

_____

His consciousness resurfaces again. He lays on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The light flickers in and out of focus. The lightbulb needs to be changed.

He feels another pinprick. Dark splotches surround him in every direction.

He can hear a voice, but the words slide off his brain once again. He’s forgetting something, something important, but he can’t remember. Useless, useless Deku.

Something is pounding against his brain.

_____

He wishes Kirishima was here. Or Bakugo. Sero, Kaminari, Uraraka. Anyone other than the grinning face.

_____

It’s pitch black.

He opens his eyes to a dull grey room. The clean counters have needles that bring phantom pinpricks along his arms and neck. He shrinks away from them, realizing he is bound to a table.

As sensation returns, his entire body aches. He can feel each rib prodding the inside of his stomach. His muscles are ice. He feels like they are much more likely to snap off rather than melt if he tries to move.

A tube is connected to his neck. He grips the tube, but it doesn’t rescind its grip. His arm brushes up against the weight on his chest, and he starts breathing faster. At least he can hear his own breaths now.

Why is he alive? Why is Izuku alive?

He feels his face, vaguely acknowledging the stands of hair hiding his ears and tickling his cheeks. Something else inside him rebels against the feeling of wrong, but the clanging and screaming voice has become a mere murmur.

He pulls himself upright, hearing each pop and crack in his bones ripple across his body. As he slowly turns his trembling neck, he realizes the tube on his neck is long enough to move in. Hands brush against his bangs as he holds his throbbing head. The shadows make his hands almost seem to be dark purple. He tilts it, examining the unbitten nails and slim knuckles. It’s not his hand.

He shakily gets to his (not his) feet. He starts feeling around the walls of the room, nervous to approach the syringe as flashes of injections and pain go through his head and he protectively covers his neck. He was never scared of needles before.

He pauses to rub his neck, fingers brushing against messy strands; they flow around the metal connecting tube to neck. Did his hair grow longer? He strains his eyes to find the doorknob. For a second, the room fades away. A gigantic monster is towering over them, casting a shadow as rubble crumbles onto the ground. It’s something he recalls regularly and an event he never experienced.

…

The room comes back into focus now. Izuku shakes his head, the movement only worsening his headache as the pain breaths in and out. He finally makes contact with the cold door handle and turns. The room opens with a click.

For a second he thinks he’s outside at night, but his senses correct him. What he thinks is the sky is actually just a grey dome, his eyes recognizing the metal beams high above him. Each step echoes around the room and he feels as if he’s loudly screaming his presence.

The tube that acts as a leash is starting to resist and tighten. He doesn’t move further to avoid an open hole in his neck. His eyes catch on a tall cylindrical shape to his left and he tries to strain his eyes to catch his reflection in the glass.

Its too dark to-

The room is buzzing in white light, and Izuku’s vision goes fuzzy for a second.

Googly eyes pop out and stare at nothing. The head has no top, like a jack-o-lantern, the pink pumpkin guts spilling out, exposed to the world, and was held up by an unnaturally muscular neck.

The half-visible reflection that overlays the creature shows pitch-black pools with golden pinpricks staring back at Izuku and the person behind him

Chapter Text

Izuku stands in a pitch-black void. There is no floor or anything above him. He has no hands, the end of his arms forever melting or dripping off at the ends to reveal a boneless inside and none of the messy red. Instead there is green.

His body moves, looking at the pink arms without surprise. Izuku felt like a bystander in his own body, even more powerless then a quirkless deku. A loud voice sounds out in the empty darkness, like a performer at a live concert.

What’s happening to me? He thinks. Izuku repeats the sentiment. He tries to think, but he’s drowned out. Thoughts overlap until they make no sense. He’s suffocating. It’s too loud. He just wants to disappear already. Someone’s watching him.

Shit! Calm down, please calm down-

Izukus head hits the metal container. He hears a wince, and a second later he realizes it came from him.

He tries to speak. “What?”

The high, femenine voice that he hears out isn’t his, yet it reverberates in his ears like it is. The weights on his chest are...boobs...he breaths faster. He doesn’t like this. The way he feels like he’s violating someone’s privacy.

“Apologies, I should have expected some mild dysphoria.” A voice says. “Let me fix that.”

Izuku’s vision goes black for a moment.

The weight lifts and he’s sitting atop the cool silver table. There’s no clock, the counters thankfully clean of needles, but he has a feeling that a long time has passed. He feels his chest, which is now flat and broad, and he can’t breath for a moment. Logically he should feel better, but now the feeling of wrong is like an clawing itch at the back of his head. It’s almost worse. The man in front of him is grinning in a self-gratifying way, like he’d done Izuku a great favor.

“What did you do to me?” The pink boy whispers, shying away. His voice sounds even less right now, completely out of tune. A low sigh comes from the villain with his fancy clothes.

“You should be more grateful for getting a second chance to live, Izuku.” The voice speaks again, sounding disappointed. “And after I’ve been tearing out my own hair out trying to find a way to save you.”

“T-that’s not an answer.” He bites back. He doesn’t want to speak in this voice, but Izuku’s desire for actual answers is forcing him. “Please.” He chokes on the word as if each syllable was a thorn stuck to his throat.

“You deserve to be told, of course, in due time. For now, though, this will just have to be a matter of trust. Why not get some rest in the meantime?” The man flippantly states.

A burst of frustration is stifled as his vision goes dark, once again. He vaguely feels like he’s falling

…..

This bout of conciousness is in a nice looking room, at least. The red and black color scheme, the soft pillows and carpet...if it was pink and black instead of red and black, it would totally be his style.

Except...that felt wrong to him. When had he ever liked the color pink? The one time he wore it to school, he’d been called ‘girly’, and everyone laughed. Kacchan had been angry at how he was ‘trying to get attention’ and gave him a nasty burn.

Bakugo had been his bully. He’d known this, but now the thought held so much more weight. The blonde had abandoned him, pushed him down, made him feel like dirt, like a useless Deku. Anger simmered under his bones, and although Izuku tried to clamp a lid over it, it was like the emotions weren’t even his to control. It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was uncontrollable.

Panic, his own panic, rose at the lack of control. He didn’t know whether he was breathing faster in anger or fear. 

All Might. He sighed. A hero could save him, right? His breathing slowly evens out, and the anger he has no control over seems to fade on its own. Maybe he could help them, even, find out information.

The room is filled with a storm of muttering as he starts brainstorming.

This is one of the few moments where he is awake. Most of the time, he is barely conscious, delirious and unable to think straight. What happened to him? Was he kidnapped? Why? Who would want him? He feels like there’s a answer in his mind, but Izuku isn’t able to find it.

A large hand ruffles his hair. “Not to worry.” The villain (Because this potato-faced man must be a villain, right?) says. “I can answer your questions in due time."

Although he’s terrified, he removes the hand. “L-Let go of me.” the captor’s affection is entirely unwanted, but the villain seems to be saddened by it.

“Your angry, and scared of course. I will tell you right now there is no reason to be afraid, as I only want my dear son to be safe. You won’t even remember this, once it’s all over, so I suggest you of this harrowing time as a transitional period and hang in there.” The pink boy clenches his fist as the man approaches calmly. “Please, just make this as easy as possible. I would hate for you to sabotage your own happiness.”

When he was pronounced quirkless, he remembered feeling a strange empty part of him. It had been like a cave, the campfire in it unlit, leaving only darkness. Yet, even that was changed, and the tiny flames he hadn’t noticed roar in him. His arms move on their own. The villain’s nonexistent eyebrows rise as he blocks a splatter of silver, snake-like droplets that melt through his fancy suit with a hiss.

The villain looks at the now damaged clothes in annoyance before his face smooths over.

“How fascinating. You can already use your quirk, can’t you?” The faceless villain moves once again, arms spread, and he backs away. “I’m so proud of you. You’re just like your old man.”

He says nothing, eyes never leaving the villain. Externally he’s still shaking in fear of the man, but inside his mind is spinning. A quirk? That...he had a quirk? A real one? A tiny, random thought protested No, I always had a quirk but that made no sense so Izuku pushed it aside. Of course the quirk couldn’t have just magically come in now after all those years. This must be a result of whatever the villain did to him. Was that why his appearance had changed so drastically?

He felt like the answer was close, but he was just out of reach.

A fond laugh came from the creepy villain. “Le-leave me alone.” He says.

The man tilts his head. “It’s your first time using a quirk. I need to take a picture, treasure the moment.”

Just pretend he’s like Kacchan . “Can you just stop hounding me? I want to try to use it again.” He ‘admits’, still angrily, but with less bite and more determination. The man’s smile stretches, his huge face allowing for the widest of smug grins.

“Of course,” He says. “Anything for my son.”

The villain leaves the room.

He reaches down into the metaphorical cave. The fire isn’t Izuku’s; it was lit by someone else. They cheerfully wave as Izuku basks in the warmth and fingers bubble with the acid. It’s acid, he knows. The way the silver liquid slides off his fingers, dripping down and sinking into the floor as if the tile was melting butter. An airy sigh arises from the point of impact.

It’s pretty powerful, he realizes. He adjusts his body to hide the damage and retracts his grip on the quirk, feeling cold and lonely. His mood is lowered for a total of half a second.

He has a quirk. A small, giddy smile stretches onto his freckleless cheeks. Acid, that was so cool! It had so many uses. Could he control the acidity? If so, that opened so many doors! He could rescue civilians by melting the rubble. He could fake out enemies and take them down without having to risk severely injuring them! He might even be able to-

The door opens and the villain returns. “You seem happy.” He says, smiling. The excitement plummets.

“I’m not that good at using it,” he lies. “But I think I’m getting the hang of it.” He fought past his nerves to try and find out. “You s-said if I just grit it and bear it, everything will be all right. What did you mean?” he asks, terror bleeding into his voice.

The villain is fooled, giving a faux look of apology. “Well, this part of the process is the most painful, I admit. I try to keep you asleep for most of the time, but the doctor likes to take his time on his work.”

His smile is starting to be hard to maintain.

“The good news is, the memories of these times will be removed once we’re done. This vessel will have completely adapted and it will be as if this body had always belonged to you. This time, I’ll keep you safe.”

The pink boy pushes his luck.

“D-Did someone else have this body first? Sometimes I don’t feel like my thoughts are my own.” He admits. Immediately he feels like a traitor, and wants to take it back.

The villain frowns. “You’ve noticed. We’ll get the remnants of...your mental tormentor...out.” he patted Izuku’s back. “I can see that your torn. Please consider my circumstances. I, who had tried my best to keep you safe, watched as you died because of my mistakes. What else could I do, except find a necessary sacrifice?”

A burst of pitch-black fear engulfs him. His act falls despite his efforts, and the villain looks at him curiously before realization seeps into his face. Pink hands tremble in response to the smug look, one that isn’t aimed at Izuku. A warm protective instict simmers inside of him.

Izuku desperately hopes a hero will find them soon.

Chapter Text

The slime invades his lungs and he gags. He can’t breathe. His hands rise up to the sick green goop, and the villain laughs, the motion rippling the liquid coursing through him. His vision starts flickering, his head throbs.

Before the horrible pain finally loosens and the darkness swallows him, his eyes lie on a sewer cap. Something, some stupid part of him, still hopes someone will come to save him.

By now he should have known no one cared enough.

_____

He’s tired. Why is he so tired?

His forehead is throbbing, the room is spinning. It’s not the ‘nice’ room, but the cold, metallic experimentation one again. There’s no doctor, no grinning face. No one else except him and...

He can see everything, at least. The lights now illuminate every inch of the room, and his eyes take a second to adjust. Slowly getting up from the chair, he spots a piece of paper on the counter, as if someone had forgotten about it. He felt extremely sore as he walked over, the muscle contraction required for a grip feeling uncomfortable as he views the contents.

Its some kind of...list? A group of columns, each being labeled by a number preceded by ‘nomu’, whatever that was.

A list of abilities that sounded like quirks (Scales, fire breathing, muscle augmentation, mouth extender…) were connected to each ‘nomu’. Most of them had around 2 or 3, a few had 5, and one had 8.

It didn’t make any sense, he thought. People didn’t have more than one quirk. He didn’t have any quirk.

Except now he did. Izuku felt the gears turning in his brain. If he had a quirk now, did that mean the villain could do the same thing to people who already had quirks? Was he like one of the ‘nomu’?

He skimmed through the entire list, finally landing on something. There was no ‘nomu’, or number, only ‘Izuku Midoriya’

He looked at the list, hair raising.

A name catches his eye. Mina Ashido. That was his-no, that wasn’t his name. He didn’t think he’d ever heard of that person, despite that feeling so obviously wrong he is sure he’s forgetting something right in front of him. A few notes indicated that the sex had been changed to suit Izuku (The implications of that made Izuku feel sick), another one saying how remnants of the old consciousness had failed to be fully removed-

He sucked in a breath. His body had never felt like his own. It was never his, of course it wasn’t. Izuku’s body wasn’t altered, or changed, or whatever he’d thought. Izuku was the intruder.

Acid wasn’t his quirk, it was ‘Mina’s.

His fingers sting as if her quirk was eating at them. Izuku's hands shake and he shuts his eyes tight, fingernails digging into his forehead.

He’s quirkless. He, Izuku Midoriya, Deku, freckled, green-haired boy, plain white eyes, he is quirkless.

He hadn’t wanted to be quirkless though.

He would rather be quirkless than a bodystealer!

He can’t control what that villain does to him, or to her.

What can I do?

I want to be a hero, right? Then save the freaking victims in this situation, us!

Izuku blinks. Those weren’t his thoughts. That didn’t matter, though.

He needs to revert this. Right now, he needed to get out.

His gaze turns towards the door. He’s been spending too much time thinking. He could feel his chance of escape slipping away.

...

His finger enters the lock, and with a little splash of acid, the internal mechanics sink into itself. The door is easy to open after that. The warm, bubbly feeling of his quirk compels him to do a tiny dance, pumping his fists.

The thought of escape makes him giddy with excitement. When he’s escaped, he could run to U.A. He doesn’t know why, but he has a gut feeling that they can help him.

The door opens to the back corner of a warehouse, the ground littered with all sorts of trash. He stares at the strange image in front of him, the sight grossing him out. Tubs filled with a green liquid are in rows. Exposed brains permeate the surface, the strange liquid hiding whatever is connected to the wrinkled pink organ. Faintly he thinks he had seen a creature like it before, but he can’t pinpoint when or if he was just imagining it.

His gaze settles onto the floor, the darkness of the warehouse only disturbed by the green glow spilling out of the containers.

There’s a sense of uneasiness, goosebumps littering his skin. It’s not dark enough; if the faceless villain came in, he’d be able to see Izuku, he realizes, the thought causing him to accelerate his breathing, and he has to stifle it. The strange voice in the back of his head, the warm feeling, helps with this, makes him feel less alone. He can do this.

Every second he’s awake, he can sense something slipping away.

He’s around halfway out of the room now. It feels like it took ages to get there, but he’s halfway-

Someone was watching. His gaze snaps over to the open window, but the culprit is much too far away, especially in the semi-darkness. The possibility of them being a friend is just as possible as them being another villain. He starts walking slightly faster, the tapping of his feet on the floor in sync with the frantic beating of his heart.

All the noise in the room is sucked away, just for a moment.

A thunderous crash screams in his ears, unbalancing him so much he falls onto his butt. His heart drops as something hits his head-thank god it’s just a pebble-and a storm of rock and silt kicks up dust that forces him to close his eyes.

What’s happening? This is an invasion of the villain’s place, so-

Heroes. Among the raining rubble, a feeling of hope surges through him. Heroes must be here. They’ll be rescued.

He gets to his feet, starting to stagger over, towards the center of the impact. Likely a strength hero-his mind flashes with an image of All Might-but really, any hero would be fine.

It’s Mnt. Lady, that new hero that he’d been excitedly writing factoids about in his journal. The memory feels like it came from a different life. The giant woman is lazily looking at the brain creatures, her head turning in surprise as she notices him. “Your that U.A pink girl!” she comments. “Finally, something interesting for me to do.”

The description is of someone else-not Izuku, the small, freckled, quirkless boy. Yet it's still his. He doesn’t feel quite right.

“Hey, why are you looking so weirded out? Don’t be, we’re here to get you out of this dump.”

Steps come from behind. “You won’t need to bother,” The villain says, clutching Izuku’s shoulder in a tight grip. “My son will continue to be safe with me.”

Best Jeanist... THE Best Jeanist? His fanboy mind cried in excitement, only for him to snap back to reality. Best Jeanist immediately surrounds the man with his signature fabric binding, freeing the pink boy from the villain’s grip. Another thread zips around him with a zipper-like noise and whisks him over to the hero’s side. “Don’t worry, Miss Ashido. Your safe now.”

Izuku shrinks into himself.

“Now get out of this place. You need to get to safety.” The #4 hero says. The hero in training nods, getting to his feet and scampering away.

In a moment, he’s swept into the air by the force of the blast aimed at Best Jeanist. As his body ragdolls in the air, he crashes into the now levitation villain and ends up in his arms. “Don’t be afraid, Izuku. I’ll keep these heroes from hurting you in the crossfire.” he comforts, aiming his hand at the heroes. “The ones who try to harm my family, on the other hand…”

Izuku tries to splash acid onto the villain, but the damage he does reverts in a moment.

The man’s arm swells and bursts, the blast completely destroying the heroes, leaving them lying on the floor. He pales at the power this man displays as his hair whips around from the high speeds, the yellow horns bending like willow trees.

“My, my. I can see why your the #4 hero, Best Jeanist.” comes the metallic voice. “In a single instant, you both restrained me and whisked the ‘victim’ to your side.” he hummed. “It’s just too bad that your skill comes from practical experience, rather than your quirk.”

It was unnerving how his father-no, the villain’s split-second breakdown of Best Jeanist was almost identical to Izuku’s hero notes he’d made ages ago. He decides not to dwell on that.

Best Jeanist reaches out a hand, muttering something that is drowned out by the wind whipping in Izuku’s ears.

Izuku freezes, trembling, as red comes out of Best Jeanists stomach. The hero had tried to save him, and now he was…

His mind screams at him to do something, but he only stares at the red. He needs to move. 

“Disappointing. At least I’ll still have the matter of crushing the symbol of peace.”

He actually laughs at that. A terrified laugh. “Y-you can’t beat All Might.” He says, but his eyes don’t leave Best Jeanist’s body as the villain slowly lowers down from the air.

The villain ignores him. The moment his black dress shoes are touching the dirt, he summons yet another quirk. Black goop appears out of thin air. 

Izuku grimaced, feeling a burst of alarm. He could almost imagine what it tasted like.

In moments, the goop expands and there are twice as many people standing on the dry battlefield, all gagging at the apparent disgusting taste of the inky goo. A sharp-toothed blonde girl that was a little older than him coughed, black staining the ground before disappearing. The other new arrivals included a crusty looking man, an unconscious and well-dressed mist-

“Racoon eyes?”

Pitch-black eyes stare at the blonde. He’d been captured too?

“Bakugo?” She says, shaking his head in confusion a moment later. Why did he use that name? The voice in his head is gradually growing louder and louder. He tries again, fighting against the villain's hold unsuccessfully. “Kacchan!”

“Sensei? You were the one who kidnapped the other U.A brat?” Shigaraki said.

'Sensei' stands in front of the kneeling man. “That is true. While you enacted your own plans, I was working on a project of my own.” His hands grasped the pink boy's shoulders. “About a year ago, my own son was a victim of an attack. No hero came to help him, not even the ‘symbol of peace', who was in the area.” he sounded angry.

Kacchan’s eyes widened. He reached out for the pink teen but was cut off by a much more powerful voice.

“I AM HERE!”

All Might. A relieved grin pulls on his face. He could save them!

As Izuku’s idol sees him in the clutches of the villain, the hero clenches his fist. “All for One” he growls. “How dare you use my student as a shield!”

All Might rushes towards them, but All for One is able to dodge the attack. The teen is pulled along with the villain’s movement. He keeps on unsuccessfully trying to worm his way out of All for One’s hold.

“I’ll end your reign.” All Might says. “And save my students!”

All for One tilts his head. “I only took this one because you keep on destroying what I’ve worked so hard to build.” He gestures to Izuku. “Unlike you, I am able to save those who matter to me.” The black-eyed boy looks to a furious All Might, wanting to somehow help, but he can’t even speak now that the wind swallowed his voice. “Have you met my son? This is Izuku.”

Izuku’s heart drops, feeling another wave of guilt wash over him. He feels himself starting to get tired, his thoughts slowing.

At least, until the voice in his head grabs his limbs, and he moves without thinking. Izuku dips under the surface of his consciousness without resistance.

The uppercut takes the villain by surprise (She can’t help feeling satisfied at the look on the dirtbags face) and she’s able to rip herself out of the man’s grip. The pink-haired girl takes off away from the fighting, intent to get the hell out of there. All for One moves to chase after Izuku, but All Might’s fist stops him.

Her escape is aimed to skirt the edge of the circle of villains by Bakugo, intending to use acid on the villains and hopefully create a opening for the blonde while making it out herself.

The villain, undisturbed, calls out “Shigaraki Tomura.”

In a moment she feels an iron grip on her neck. It’s grabbed by a dry hand, one finger lifted. She remembers how this guy could crumble her into dust quicker than she could use her own quirk and decides to stay still. “Dang it!”

An explosion draws his attention back to his childhood friend.

The blonde had used the distraction of her escape to rocket towards some kind of cluster of people flying through the sky. Kirishima’s hair isn’t gelled up, but the red strands are recognizable nonetheless.

Bakugo and Kirishima’s hands slam together and instantly click together, clutching each other tightly.

The other villains start making an attempt to stop her classmates, but Mnt. Lady is able to block the attack.

All for One is speaking. “Take care of my son, Tomura.”

Shigaraki starts protesting as his entire body glowing blue. Izuku feels some kind of magnetic pull towards the blonde girl, and he’s pulled out of his grip and flies into the purple and black mist.

_____

Mina felt dread coursing through her bones. Every so often someone from class 1-A or 1-B ran into the classroom, giving the pink-haired girl a heart attack for a second as she thought they were a villain.

She thought they’d be safe here. They said they upped security. So much for that, apparently.

At least Kirishima was with her, she thought, except the redhead didn’t seem to share the sentiment. His fists were clenched, eyes narrowed and her friend was fully in his own head.

She flicked his forehead. “Hey, earth to Kiri.” She whispered. Kirishima blinked once, turning to look at her.

“They want Bakugo…” he murmured. “And I’m just sitting here.”

“I doubt Bakugo will just sit down and let them. Didn’t you two wipe the floor with their goons last time?”

The pink girl tried to avoid looking at the smoke and flames right outside the classroom, but Kirishima just stared at them with frustration. She almost wished she was out there, at least then she’d know what was going on beyond the wall of trees.

Once again the room was silent. Mina wrinkled her nose. Something must have gotten in her mouth. It tasted terrible.

Chapter Text

Izuku...or was it Mina? heavily slams into the wall. At least the crash was softened by the other bodies that had went through the portal first. What’s his name again?

He shakes his head, pain sloshing through his skull like water at the motion. His mind rings, and every curve and bone in his body feels like a puppet he’s controling. Like every movement was secondhand. His fingers are too thin.

The villains he stares up at aren’t entirely unfamiliar. The mist man is Kurogiri, who seemed less outwardly nasty, but almost killed Thirteen.

Thirteen! He internally perks up in exitement. She had seen Thirteen?

Focus!

Izuku shakes his head, staring at the assortment of villains in front of him. They had been reeling for a few moments, but by now they were recovering. He can’t afford to introspect right now, he needs to escape.

He tries to do what he’d done back there, with the surfing with acid. He pools the acid at his feet and pushes off the ground, but he looses his footing almost immediately on the slippery surface and ends up lying on the ground. Now he can recognize that it had been a trick that requires very good balance, and a lot of practice built up, neither of which Izuku had.

As the villains advance closer, he swipes his arm to send out acid in their faces. It splashes onto them, but he doesn’t hear the telltale hiss of melting. Even in his panic, he failed to use a very high acidity on people anymore. He can’t rely on that, then.

His distraction allows him to bolt. This time he has the wisdom not to try something he can’t do.

Whatever place he had ended up in, he can see a exit just waiting. This is just another abandoned building, the bricks peeling off. The moment he’s far away enough he dives out of their line of sight, wondering if they were able to see which way he went.

“Master!” the dehydrated dude, who has yet to make a move towards him, calls. The villains focus is on his master, not him. Pushing into the ground, he takes off with a renewed burst of hope. He can use this to get far enough away to lose them.

It feels like hours until Izuku was by himself on the streets, sweat dripping down his pink face, hair sticking to his forehead. The sky is painted dark purples and blacks, but he can still make out the various buildings and stores on the street he’s on. He can now see that he’s not quite alone, but it doesn’t make a difference. The random assortment of people are a single tight cluster, too busy murmuring to themselves to notice him. He isn’t close enough to confirm it, but he thinks some are crying.

He ducks into the nearest alley just in case, sliding down the walls and feeling too tired to move anymore. It’s discusting, but he really can’t bring himself to care.

Strange, he had been forced to fall asleep for so long. Now he’s just...tired and wanting to sleep.

Later, he thinks. He can sort through what had just happened later.

/////

Eijirou’s feet slam onto the ground, Bakugo following shortly after. The blonde retracts his grip on the other boys hand at the first opportunity and snapped his gaze towards where he had previously been trapped.

“Deku…” he mused, glare still tight on his face.

“Deku? Who is-wait, Bakugo. Didn’t you see Ashido?” Eijirou asks. “She helped you escape! Aren’t you worried about her?”

Bakugo says nothing for a moment.

Eijirou continues. “We should go back-”

“Racoon eyes is too far away by now, idiot!” Bakugo snaps. “Don’t act like your invincible just because your shitty plan worked.”

Shouto opens his mouth to speak, then quiets himself.

“Blasty!” Kaminari called from the entrance to their area, making his way over. The class clown ran up to the blonde. “Nice to have you back, buddy!” Sero followed shortly after, then came Iida and Yaoyorozu.

“I can’t believe that plan worked,” Iida said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t rescue Ashido as well, but I will gladly call this a victory.” he firmly stated.

“Now hold on. I can’t feel victorious when one of my friends might be suffering right now!” Eijirou objects. He feels bitterness rising in his chest. The blonde was one of his closest friends, but so was Ashido!

Sero looks sheepish but hopeful. “Hey, those guys looked pretty shaken. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ashido had slipped away already.”

Yaoyarozu nods. “That sounds possible...I don’t think they even knew why she was kidnapped in the first place.”

That doesn’t mean we should just do nothing, Eijirou thinks.

“Speaking of, did you guys understand any of that crap the big villain was spewing?” Kaminari says. “Because I didn’t get a single word of it. Dude was calling Ashido his son, and I’ve met her parents before.” the electric boy blinks. “Now that I think about it, they also…” he stops himself. “Actually, just pretend I said nothing.”

Eijirou starts walking away. “We should see what’s going on between All Might and All...the villain.” He corrects his slip-up.

Bakugo grabs his shoulder. “Hey.” Eijirou turns to look at Bakugo, the blondes red eyes boring into the shark-toothed boy.

Katsuki can feel anger boiling under his bones. Deku had been right there, and Shitty Hair chose to save him? Not his own childhood friend?

He hadn’t needed help. Deku did. Because he was weak.

“I didn’t need any help to escape,” he growls. “You should have gone for Racoon eyes.”

Eijirou nods, trying to look like he didn’t feel like he’d been slapped. “Sure, man. Whatever you say.” he tries to joke half-heartedly.

If Eijirou didn’t know Bakugo, he might think it was guilt that was in the blonde's eyes.

“Thanks.” The blonde quickly pushes out. “There, I said it, alright? Now stop giving me that fake-ass smile!”

Eijirou nods, letting his forced smile fall. “Sorry, man.”

He turns away, not noticing how Bakugo seemed frustrated.

/////

Izuku awakens to a dark alleyway, cold. He groggily gets to his feet, feeling a lack of discord in his head for a moment. Well, until he feels a ringing in his head, everything becomes a fuzzy black splotch for a moment, and he feels the other presence slowly seep into his thoughts. Once again his mind fills with intrusive thoughts, so prevalent and loud he’s not sure which thoughts are his and which are hers.

Hello? He thinks. Are you Mina?

The many thoughts swirling in his head blurr together and he can’t focus on any of them, but he feels a sense of confirmation in his bones.

Is he going insane? Is this all just in his head? He breaths faster and faster as he feels like a hurricane is whirling around his head, destroying everything, randomly hurling memories and thoughts and feelings at him, making him feel painfully lightheaded.

He thinks of a green haired woman, but also a pink skinned, black haired woman who called her by the wrong name. Love and resentment twists his belly into knots for a split moment before he gets bombarded with another feeling or memory.

His head pulses ever more, pain eebing in and out like a tide, so he tries to focus on one side. He grabs his head and shuts down.

Her name was Mina Ashido.

Her friends are Kirishima, Sero, Kaminari, and Kacchan...Bakugo? She didn’t remember. She knew one of them in middle school...she rubbed her head, trying to sort out the memories blurring together. The pink girl slid down the alleyway until she was lying on the ground, just staring at the dull, cloudless sky until the swirling thoughts calmed do. She must have escaped on the most dreary looking day possible.

At least her brain didn’t feel close to exploding anymore.

It really feels nice to be in control. She wiggles her fingers and toes, stretching, but it doesn’t feel right anymore. She feels so trapped in her own skin, something that she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Mina frowns. She’d already known what it felt like to have the male body, and she had decidedly not been missing it. There was a reason she’d paid for a specialist with a quirk to change her sex behind her parents backs.

A wave of guilt crashes over her, gripping her chest tightly and leaving her breathless for a moment. It takes Mina a puzzling second to realize it isn’t her own. Hey, calm down back there, brainmate! She attempts to communicate, trying to ignore the sinking feeling. I’ll take a wild guess that you didn’t ask to be in my body.

Mina could barely remember the past few days, but she’s sure the person in her head had also been having a bad time. She hums, disliking the deepness of her voice. She needs a plan.

What woul-

Izuku blinks, staring at the dull sky trapped between two red walls. He gets to his feet, startled. The last thing he remembers was something about a plan. He starts thinking. Where could he go? What place was safe?

Faces flash in his mind, most of them unfamiliar. All Might...who else? Mom-

Mom. He smiles. Izuku’s mom would always be there for him.

The voice that sounds like Kacchan speaks up. Don’t be so fucking egotistical! Why would anyone be thinking about you when they don’t need to?

Shaking off the thoughts, he steps out of the alley, feeling the dry cool air freeze him. His white...actually, now it’s grey...hospital suit smells slightly discusting. He feels a itch at the collar.

He glances around, trying to pinpoint where he may be. No such luck, however, so he resorts to asking a stranger.

“Hello, sir?” he asks a man. The young adult, likely on his way to a job interveiw, stares at him with annoyance.

“Whats a boy your age doing out alone?” the man questions. “Honestly, parents shouldn’t leave their children alone during times like these.”

“Actually…” he wants to correct the man, say I’m a girl. But he isnt, is he?

A cold pit opens in his stomach. No matter what he does, it never feels right.

He coughs. “...I’m trying to get home. Can you give me directions?”

…

Wishing the kind person thanks, he took off.

Izuku wants to go home.

/////

Midoriya Inko cleaned the few dishes that had gotten dirty that night. The tiny apartment felt too large for just one person. Maybe that had been why she liked asking Mitsuki to come over so much.

Right now, the other woman was getting ready to leave, as she had to talk with Katsuki’s teachers about a new dorm system.

She wished her friend and confidant a goodnight and prepared to sleep in. It was just too hard to get up in the morning when there was no one to make breakfast for anymore.

She jumped like a frightened mouse as Mitsuki stomped back in. “Inko.” She called. “There's a strange girl at the door.”

Inko looked up. “Ah, that's a little strange.” she went over to the door, opening herself to the cold air and pausing. She couldn’t breathe for a moment.

Her baby stared back at her. No...that had to be her imagination. He didn’t look like her son, but the way the pink-haired, pink-skinned teen looked at her was something she hadn’t seen since her son went missing.

“I...Izuku?” she whimpered. Her sons smile made its way onto a pink, freckle-less face. His hair was the same, at least, albeit longer and with more volume.

“M-mom, please, I’m so scared.” He begged. “I’m in the wrong body...and I’m hurting her…”

Inko hugged the stranger who was her son, not saying anything for minutes. Mitsuki just awkwardly stood there.

Finally she spoke. “Izuku...I have no idea what happened to you, but I will always let you stay.” she said, failing to hold back tears. She could hear sobs coming from her son, and when she closed her eyes she could imagine that her baby had never been gone.

Mitsuki seemed to catch up. “...Izuku? What happened to ya, kid?”

Chapter Text

Light streams through the window and gently pulls Izuku out of sleep. Instead of a cold metal surface, he’s lying on something much softer. His clothing is warm and fuzzy; his All Might pajamas, the familiarity of them comforting.

It’s so strange to wake up in his own room again. Izuku yawns, stretching as much as he can. He gets up, taking a moment to collect himself, and staggers over to the bathroom. Weird, His body usually wakes up pretty quickly.

He looks into the mirror and sees someone else. He snapped his head around, the panic jolting him awake. No one.

Oh, right. He sighs. He’d forgotten for a moment. Grabbing his toothpaste, he squeezes a dapple onto the toothbrush and starts brushing.

Immediately, he spits it out. It tastes awful . Nothing like what he remembered. Of course; he realizes that he now has Mina’s tastebuds (Which her quirk had already altered), and therefore a completely different sense of taste.

Even though he can vaguely remember what Mina’s favorite foods were if he strained his memory, that list also factored in her own preferences, which were different from his. He’d need to test out different foods until he found what worked.

Wait-no. He shook his head. He shouldn’t think long-term.

His mom was on the couch, and she almost jumps in shock when he walks through the door. She walks up to him and hugs him, tightly. “I missed you so much.” she says again.

He can feel a small pulse of envy from Mina.

He wondered if she was able to feel the warmth of the hug as well.

“Ack!” Izuku uncurled from the hug. “Breakfast!”

His mom turns to see the eggs starting to burn on the stove. “My bad!” she apologizes, rushing to save the food.

As he eats his burnt eggs, he internally tries to reach out and find Mina.

Thinking directly to her never works. Every so often he’s able to make out a fuzzy memory, he can assume those belong to Mina, but he can’t make out anything, just how she felt.

Even the memories surrounding the day of his escape were so filled with adrenaline they all blurred together. The whole thing felt like a dream.

If only he had some kind of mental quirk, that would make everything much easier. If he could just remember more about Mina, or be able to let her take control, he’d know where he could get more help. As it was now, he had no leads.

Maybe he wasn’t fit for being a hero at all. Maybe it was never about his quirklessness; he just was never able to help anyone. He couldn’t even find a way to save the one person who he’s hurt the most.

“...Izuku?” his mothers kind voice breaks him out of his thoughts. “You look tense, are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” he says. “Sorry.”

“Is there any way I could help?” Inko says. “Your much better with your brain then I am, but you shouldn’t have to solve this yourself.”

Izuku nods. He obviously couldn’t solve this by himself. “I’ll tell you what I’ve figured out so far.”

_____

Katsuki fucking hates interrogations. He wasn’t Deku, who’d probably foam at the mouth at the chance for people to listen to him babble on for hours. He wasn’t going to give up his privacy to these uptight hero wannabes with guns.

They think they have some fucking authority over him, which they do, but the fact makes his blood boil. He bites out answers at their stupid questions to get it over with.

They never ask about Deku, thank fucking god. He wasn’t going to let these extras know about that. The moment they realized they had a quirkless runt in a hero students body they would drop all investigations. No, that was too nice to the nerd. They’d find him and throw him in jail for impersonation.

Katsuki needed to find him first and beat the shit out of him. How dare he just up and leave like that? Did the nerd want to be a fucking hero so bad he snapped and found some creepy way to possess people?

After the millionth question from the stupid cops, he’s finally let out.

He thought the annoyance was over, but he always forgot about Shitty Hair. The redhead found him and started apologizing for not patting himself on the back for doing a half-assed job.

“I’m apologizing more for myself, man. Gotta own up for my mistakes.” he clenches a fist.

“Don’t talk at me, Shitty Hair.” Katsuki said. “Why the fuck would you apologize for not showering me in attention?” He didn’t need any kind of pity attention.

Kirishima laughed. “Good point.”

Katsuki grunted. “The only reason I put up with you is because you don’t act like I can do no wrong.” he crossed his arms. “I’m the fucking best of the best, but you don’t get all sniveling and weak about it.” He grinned. “Pounding you into the ground is the best part of my day!”

Kirishimas eyes were sparkling. “Bro…”

The redhead shook his head. “Actually, I wanted to ask you about this Deku guy you keep talking about.” he looked at him. “I’m getting the feeling you know more about this than you're letting on.”

Katsuki crossed his arms, hunching into himself. “Eh? Fuck you, I don’t need to spew my life story!”

Kirishima looked at him carefully. “I have this weight on my chest that I know wont go away until Ashido is found.” he grabbed Katsuki. “If you know something, you gotta tell everyone!”

Katsuki slapped the hand away. “Get your hands off me!” he growl. “I don’t need any help.” he faced the redhead. “You don’t have to do a damn thing. I can do it on my own! So just stay out of it, you get it?”

Kirishima actually glared at him for that. “Bakugo, I’m not going to stand by while others are risking their life.” he met the blondes gaze in a challenge. “I used to be that kind of person. I’m not anymore. So if your going to be a dick about this, fine. I’ll take the challenge.”

Katsuki scoffed. “Whatever.” he turned and stalked off.

Shitty Hair could do whatever the fuck he wanted; he didn’t care.

Alright, maybe that was a lie. But he wasn’t going to act like it.

_____

Izuku piled oranges into the bag, wearing his favorite black hoodie that snugly fits over his head. The bag sags from the weight of the load, but Mina must have done a lot of muscle building and he’s surprised at how easily he carries it. Izuku blushes deeply at the realization that he commented on a girls muscles. He was a creep...totally gross.

Urgh, your self-loathing is so frustrating!

The first time Inko had let him go out alone, he realized a few things right off the bat.

Around an hour in his trip, he realized that he had much more intrusive thoughts. His focus would stray from the items on the list towards things Izuku never would have been interested in. He needed to summon all his willpower to snap himself back into focus. Although the lack of control made him itch to go back home, it meant that Mina was still alive, so it was definitely a good thing. He’d just have to deal with it.

He’s been getting better, but the amount of weight he puts on his legs when he walks feels the tiniest bit off. It’s just another feeling of dysphoria biting at his brain, along with Mina’s horns always feeling uncomfortably out of place extending out of his skull.

Furthermore, he’d never realized that having a quirk meant more than just having some power. It’s almost as if he can feel everyone else's quirks, like it’s a secret that he had never been let in on. The person next to him has a chameleon quirk, and as for the scowling woman in the line, an enhanced hearing quirk. The man at the counter has a emotional manipulation quirk, and the blonde looking at All Might brand chips with a scowl-

Oh shit.

He tries to nonchalantly move away to another row. If anyone would recognize him, even in this state, it would be Kacchan.

He sighs in relief the moment he exits the boy's line of sight. Now he was in a section with video games. He’d never liked them...actually, he felt a spark of interest in some of the dancing games, an interest that had come out of nowhere. He’d never had anyone else to play those games with and his mom was always busy, so whenever he’d seen those games all he felt was a pang of loneliness.

He suddenly bumps into a hooded figure. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d been drifting towards the game.

It’s a young man, althought his relatively scrawny body and dry, crusty skin makes him look much older. His sallow, lined eyes narrow in annoyance at the teen.

“Hey, npc-” the man stops, his dull blue eyes scanning the strands of pink hair that escaped the confines of Izuku’s hoodie. His own jacket was labeled with some obscure video game, the caption being ‘out of my way n00bs’, something that Izuku didn’t understand but also was slightly funny.

At that moment Izuku recognized two things.

One, he could feel Mina’s presence much stronger than he had at home.

Two, the dehydrated man was bad news.

His feet start moving before his brain catches up. He bolts...no, speed walks back to where Kacchan was, trying to walk as fast as he can without drawing attention to himself. Unfortunately, the man is right behind him.

If Kacchan was able to recognize him, the blonde might be able to keep the dehydrated man away with his quirk. Izuku had heard from the news that Kacchan went to U.A. The blonde might have his hero license by now, and hey, even if he didn’t, that never stopped him from using his quirk on Izuku in middle school.

Even though Izuku knew he was the last person Kacchan would want to protect, it was the best plan he had.

He turned the corner and Kacchan wasn’t there.

Without stopping, Izuku walks into the soup row.

Calling for help wouldn’t work. It would just draw unnecessary attention to himself, and then he’d just be bothering everyone. They’d assume he was exaggerating. It happens every time and he isn’t going to risk it.

His best bet now is getting out of the store and shaking the dehydrated man off his trail. He silently apologizes to his mom for leaving the groceries behind and plans an escape route.

He’s able to make it out of the store, thought 5 seconds afterwards he hears the door swinging open a second time. There's plenty of people around, so the man can’t make a scene.

They quietly make their way around the shopping center, taking a path twisting around stairs and turning until Izuku looks behind him to find his stalker is gone.

He sighs, just a little, and surveys the area to see if Kacchan is anywhere. He’ll leave the area now, while he’s still-

A hand grabs his neck, one finger raised.

He knows this man's quirk. He can destroy anything he touches with all five fingers. Izuku gulps.

“Good, so I don’t have to explain why you're in danger.” The man speaks in a scratchy voice right in his ear, quiet enough so only he can hear it. “I’m taking you back to where you belong.” His hisses. “And don’t think I’m not willing to kill you, NPC. We can always just reload that save file of yours.”

The sunlight suddenly fades for a moment, the pavement under his feet losing a bit of its hue. A cloud must have covered the sun. He’s cold.

Izuku stays still. “Good.” the man says. “Now, follow-”

His eyes lock on something in the distance. Izuku doesn’t know what, but in an instant the hand is retracted. “Bad NRG” he snarls. “Don’t think you're safe, NPC.”

He stalks away. Izuku realizes that this is his best chance, so he immediately runs, tuning out everything else.

He can hear someone following him again, but he loses them much easier than last time, looping around a staircase and doubling back. He looks behind him multiple times after that, but the man isn’t there. He passes a bald man with a speed quirk, a woman with a crab quirk, and a child with a duplication quirk, but no dehydrated man.

Still, he waits 10 minutes until he feels like it's safe to make his way towards his home. Not safe, exactly. Just safer.

His mom looks surprised. “Izuku, you were gone for hours!” she cries, hugging him. “I thought something had happened.”

Izuku debates telling his mom. The moment he was hugged, he felt Mina’s presence eeb away. If he told his mom, she likely wouldn’t let him outside, but going outside was his only lead on Mina. What if being cooped up in his home was slowly killing her?

He refused to murder someone.

He scratched the back of his head. “I-It’s nothing.” he laughed. “I took care of it, mom.”

Inko looks him in the eye. “Tell me.”

Izuku finds a half-truth. “I saw Kacchan. I had to avoid him, and it took a while. S-Sorry I forgot the groceries.” He immediately remembers. “I know you needed them-”

Inko smiled. “No, I’m just glad you're safe.”

Izuku feels like a horrible liar as he gives a half-hearted smile back.

Chapter Text

“Ashido, wait!” Ochaco calls, but her friend can’t seem to hear her, taking off in the opposite direction with a terrified gleam in her eyes. Ochaco faltered for a moment, wondering if this was even the right person. Had Ashido’s eyes always been that round, almost as much as her own? Were those hints of freckles?

She recovered and tried to keep up with her friend, even using her quirk on her clothes, but in a minute she turns a corner, only to realize that the pink girl is out of sight.

She’s alone.

____

U.A had covered up Ashido’s kidnapping, which was only possible because Bakugo’s kidnapping had garnered so much more attention. No one else there would have batted a eye at Ashido, so she was the only one who could tell the pro heroes looking for her. But first…

“What?” Kirishima cries. “You saw Ashido?” His eyes flash with hope, and Ochaco quickly backs up.

“Well, I think I did?” she said.

Jirou almost laughs. “Ashido is literally pink. I think you’d know it was her.”

Uraraka looks sheepish. “Well, yeah, the person was pink, had the horns...” she demonstrated with her fingers pointing upwards. “...but, they were a guy.”

“And I might have been imagining it, but I think the person had freckles. It would be cute if it wasn’t so uncanny.”

Bakugo stiffens, his scowl deepening. Kirishima seemed to notice it as well as Ochaco did, tilting his head in a unspoken question.

“Hey, Bakugo?” Kirishima asks hesitantly, his eyes revealing that the words had hidden meaning. “You’ve been acting weird lately, whats up?”

“Why would I tell you extras?” Bakugo says.

Everyone just stared at him like he’d just exploded. He knew something this whole time?

“Because we have no idea what the fuck is going on?” Jirou offers. “U.A’s been hiding everything from us.”

Of course, thats Bakugo for you , Ochaco thought. He’s not usually this tightly wound, but I guess he and Kirishima haven’t been on the best terms.

“You both have been acting really weird, ribbit.” Tsyu adds. “Not just Bakugo, but Kirishima, you both seem nervous.”

Bakugo sweats. “I’m never nervous, frog-face.”

He gets up and stalks out. “This is useless. I didn’t come here so people could nose around in my business.”

Kirishima also gets up. “Hey, I’ll try to talk to him again.” he promises.

The moment both of them leave Jirou sighs. “Does anyone know what that was?”

Kaminari squints. “I think they know something we don’t.”

“Brilliant observation, Kaminari.”

“Thanks babe, I’m full of ‘em.” he’s shoved back by Jirou, who looks supremely unimpressed.

Iida  sighed through his nose. “I think we’ve forgotten what Ochaco told us. Ashido is no longer in the villains grasp, so we need to be vigilant and keep a eye out for her.”

“We’re really busy though, kero.” Tsyu ribbited. “We’ve been training extra hard for our provisional license.”

Aoyama speaks up. “If our friend is free, she could always come back, no?” he says. “She must not be in any hurry.”

Ochaco gave him a slightly sour look. “Why would she do that?” she asks. “I bet the leage did something-thats why she can’t come back.” she clenches her fist. “Maybe I just saw Toga.”

They spoke more, but as the lighting in the room grew warmer and longer, people peeled off from the group one by one, until only Tsyu, Kaminari (Suprisingly attentive) and Kirishima, who had returned with a saddened look, were left.

“Gotta say, being the class idiot by myself is kinda lonely.” Kaminari says, the words a joke but his tone failing to present it as such.

No one says anything for a moment.

Ochaco let herself murmer quietly. “I just wish everything could go back to the way it was…”

Tsyu squeezed her hand tightly. “I know, kero.”

Kirishima says nothing, looking away. Kaminari hugs him, and Kirishima looks at the boy in surprise.

“You look like you need it.” He says. Kirishima breaths out, his tense shoulders relaxing, the creases on his face loosening and softening as if he’d been using his quirk the whole time and now he finally felt safe enough to let it drop.

The four cling to each other.

_____

It’s dark.

Like, pitch-black kind of dark.

Mina can’t deal, it’s just so boring. There’s nothing here in this empty void, and she feels like any longer and she’ll go absolutely insane.

She doesn’t belong here. That should be obvious, but it feels ever-present, the feeling that she’s someone alive trapped in a realm for ghosts. A solid, real thing in a place she doesn’t belong.

Every so often, the blackness fades away and Mina is in the real world, but her body moves on it’s own. When she tries to resist, it feels like pushing a boulder up a hill and all she can do is slow the movement down. And then, inevitably, the black encroaches on her vision and, although she fights against it, Mina can’t keep it up forever. She’s pulled back into the lonely void.

I’m not sure if you can hear me?  She hears. I keep on saying that...stupid Deku.

Mina cringes at the Bakugo impression. Hearing and feeling what Bakugo did in middle school, Mina feels her opinion of Bakugo all but plummet. He really was a jerk, wasn’t he?

When she sees him next she’s going to punch him.

Her brainmates thoughts-Izuku, thats his name, right?-are pretty much the only thing keeping Mina company the rest of the time. They are ever-present, and although sometimes it’s overwhelming, it’s nice to hear a voice other than her own. Sometimes he even thinks directly at her, wondering if she can hear it.

Every so often her heart lifts when her thoughts are given a excited response from the green-haired boy. Every time, she desperately thinks Yes, I’m here! Can you hear me? 

And she never gets a response. She wants so badly to know what's going on outside. To see anyone, her friends especially, but literally anyone, any human being's face staring back at her.

It’s the most frustrating thing in the world.

She glares at nothing, the anger feeling hollow and unsatisfying and meaningless.

At least she feels tangible again. Like an actual person rather than the pale flickers of one.

She’ll have to settle for that until she finds out how to get out of here.

_____

Eijirou wipes sweat off his brow as he upheaves the rubble. The ‘civilian’ actors haven’t been any help, loudly screaming in Eijirous ears despite his attempts to get them to quiet. He shuts the sound out in order to do this, a confident look plastered onto his face.

Finally, the stone collum gives, and the actors scramble out.

Eijirou sighs. “You alright back there?” he asks, trying to sound energetic. “I’ll help you to the safe zone now.”

One of the actors gives him a thumbs up. “Nice acting, kid. You're a natural.” before she goes back to pretending to be a scared civilian.

Eijirou makes it to the safe zone, but out of the corner of his eye, he pauses.

“Yes, everything will be fine. You can trust me-” Bakugo seems close to snapping, but he clenches his teeth. “You are being...very brave right now…” he almost growls to the ‘kid’, who shakes his head and says something, to which Bakugos eyelid twitches before he smooths his face over and nods.

Eijirou was floored. Bakugo was actually...acting calm? Was he dreaming?

The blonde catches his gaze and furiously glares. He stomps over to Eijirou. “Not. A. Word.” he growls. “The moment I get this fucking license is the last moment I play nice with these assholes.”

He must really want this license.

Eijirou whispers back “Try relaxing more.” he advises. “Or keep your tone more even. Your not very convincing right now.”

Bakugo hisses back. “Fuck you.”

The redhead smiles, knowing Bakugo in no way means it negatively.

_____

“And that is what happened, pretty much.” the doctor finishes. “Alright, I really must go now, so-” the screen turns off.

Shigaraki can’t help but notice one of his party member’s fists is clenched tight.

“Big sis Mags? You look a little sad, whys that?” Toga asks.

Magne crosses her arms. “The big boss's son, he’s a boy, right?” she stressed. “But the U.A student kidnapped was a girl.”

Shigaraki sighed. “So what? I don’t see why that stat matters when Sensei can alter it anyway-”

Magne seems upset, probably the most upset Shigarakis has ever seen her. “You don’t get it, do you? How messed up it is to forcefully alter someone's gender?”

Toga tilted her head, looking away from the vial of blood. “Well, you know, it was kinda like with you, right? The boss’s son’s a boy, but then he was in a girls body, and the boss didn’t like that, so he fixed it-”

Magne seemed more irritated. “No, I chose that for myself. I’m pretty sure the U.A student didn’t.”

“Magne…” Shigaraki hissed in warning. “Are you feeling bad for the enemy?”

Magne seemed to want to leave. “You know, I’d be fine if we just killed her. Hey, I’m okay with nomu because they’re already dead. This crosses the line a little, though.” she said. “I joined because I want to be myself, you know? So this makes my skin crawl.”

She started to leave and Toga grabbed her sleeve. “Wait, Big sis Mags!” she said. “It’ll be so boring without you ‘round to talk with!” she whined.

The villain ruffled her hair. “Sorry Toga, I just need to do some thinking on my own. That's all.”

She heaved her bashing stone over her shoulders and left, and Shigaraki dug his fingers into his face. “Damn, lost another pawn.”

Either she’ll come back willing to serve, or she won’t. Sensei said. When you try to force these things people tend to be quite stubborn.

There was a knock at the door. “That must be Twice. He better have good news, I’m on my last nerve.” Shigaraki said.

A man with a beaked mask came in with Twice. “So, you're the League of Villains,” Chisaki spoke in a monotone voice.

Izuku’s eyes dart around. His mom is right next to him, and he can feel stress spiking his blood. The streets are filled with people, but what if-

What if the man sees him with his mom? They might target her. Izuku would have to choose either his mom or Mina ( as well as his freedom, Mina added but that wasn’t as important). He knew which one he’d choose but that would still make him a murderer.

He whispers to his mom. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” and he flees, pushing past a deadpan man (enhanced movement quirk, pig mutations). His mom seems to want to object but she lets him go.

He’s able to get a little ways away before someone catches his eye, his red hair clearly standing out among the pitch-black shadows.

Uraraka . The brown-haired girl seems to be looking around lazily, his head swiveling to and fro but not in Izuku’s direction, playing with something in her hands. Izuku feels Mina perk up in his head. A smile peels on his face, realizing that Mina knew this person and she could be a great lead on where he could find help.

However, the girl moves out of his line of sight, and he has to push through a crowd to get to where the other teen was.

She’s nowhere to be seen. The pink boy droops, but as he scans the stores, a thought enters his mind.

She’s in that store with the best Mochi. The thought pokes out, and he’s surprised at how helpful the thoughts are when it comes to directing him towards Kirishima.

Izuku tries to grasp onto the thought, but she doesn’t think anything else. He turns to walk into the store, looks around. He glances and his eyes catch on a section with hero comics and sees the one comic he’d been missing in his collection! He reaches for a wallet and pays the clerk owner.

Uraraka isn’t there.

As he leaves, wondering where to look next, he sees a flash of pink cheeks, this time in an alley, looking at something. Excitement pulses in his blood and he makes a beeline towards the girl.

“H-hey!” he says, feeling almost nervous, grabbing Uraraka’s sleeve.

She turns towards him with lidded eyes, a bored expression that immediately turns into a wide grin.

Not Uraraka not Uraraka not Uraraka not Uraraka

“Oh, that's convenient!” not-Uraraka says. The thing she’s holding is a knife and she brandishes it towards Izuku. “Hey, why don't you come with me? I have some friends who’ll make you feel right at home.”

Izuku balks. Then he runs. He can hear footsteps from behind, and he remembers what happened last time and pushes forward, trying to keep as balanced as possible.

He can see his mom walk out of the store and their eyes lock. Her jaw drops. As if it couldn’t get any worse. Stupid him.

She calls after him but if he stops he’ll get captured. He hopes the fake Uraraka didn’t hear it and connect the dots.

Luckily the imposter doesn’t have a speed quirk, and Mina is surprisingly fast even without using her quirk. Or perhaps it came from him having to run away from Kacchans explosive temper so often. Either way, he finds himself far away, unable to see his mom or not-Uraraka anywhere.

What does he do now?

His mom will never let him outside and he’ll never find how to help Mina. Even if she did let him out, she wouldn’t let him out of her sight, and then the villains would see her, and then she would get targeted.

There was only one thing to do, Izuku thought. He’d been trying to rely on others because he couldn’t take care of himself. He’ll just have to learn, especially now when he has to protect Mina.

This would keep all of them safe. Hopefully.

This is a bad idea , Mina advices. Your mom is awesome.

I know , Izuku thinks. That's why I need to do this.

He doesn’t get a thought in return, just a slight dissatisfaction.

Midoriya Inko’s son does not come home.

Chapter Text

Bang. Bang. Bang

Eijirou sends the punching bag flying in a rhythm. His knuckles hurt, but it’s fine.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

It was pretty late, but he shouldn’t sleep. He needs to keep up with Bakugo. Of course he lost that fight, it was Bakugo , but he could use the loss to fuel his need to get better.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

He had two quirks, and Bakugo only had one. Yet he still lost, despite the fact that one of his quirks was the #1 hero’s.

His hardening loosens, just for a moment, before he activates his quirk again with renewed energy. He lost because he couldn’t keep up his defense. He smashes his fist into the red bag.

Bang. Bang-

Ding!

Eijirou looks at his glowing beacon of his phone screen.

Ashido: Kirishima I swear if you don’t stop smacking that red sack I will go into your 

  room and sleep on the floor so you have to watch me silently judge you

Right. He looks longingly at the punching bag. He’d forgotten that Ashido was sleeping over.

She never said why, but Kirishima could guess from how her face fell, just for a moment, when she saw she had no offers after the sports festival. Her gaze had flickered to Uraraka, who had lost earlier on, and Yaoyorozu, who had also lost to Tokoyami, and both had gotten offers of their own.

He smacked the punching bag again on purpose. He heard the rustling of footsteps and the door clicked open.

Ashido, looking fully awake, plopped down onto the floor. “Alright, why’d you summon me?”

Kirishima crossed his arms. “You said you wanted sleep, but you don’t look like it.”

“No, I just said I wanted to stop hearing you punch a bag because you lost to Bakugo.” she said.

Kirishima smacked his head. “I thought I was being subtle!”

Ashido smirked. “No, you really weren’t.”

Kirishima decided to retaliate. “Alright, I’ll admit it when you tell me that you’re sad you unfairly got no offers.”

Ashido gasped in mock suprise. “Oh no, I’ve been betrayed by my closest ally!”

“Why’d your parents bother you about it anyway?” he asked, Ashido’s instant silence immediately making him regret it.

She took a moment to respond. “They didn’t give me flack about it. I was the one who complained about it to them...I’d had enough when they kept on mentioning how ‘if I’d only stayed a boy, I might have more offers’.” she said in air quotes, a scowl on her face.

Kirishima winced. “Want me to punch them?” he asked, raising a fist.

“Hey, calm down.” Mina objects. “-I-I mean, they aren’t that shitty.” she says uncertainly, breaking eye contact to stare at the punching bag. “They love me, I know that. That just makes it worse.”

She pulls her head up, smile forced on her face. “Wait a minute, you distracted me!” she said, wagging a finger. “You got tons of offers! Who’s going to be the lucky agency?”

_____

Kirishima clenched his fist. “10%...” he activated his quirk, hardening sheilding his body as lighting dances in it, settling into a red light that outlined his entire body. The twin quirks humm with energy, and he feels less alone.

Time to push it. He activates unbreakable. “Unbreakable...20%...” the energy saps at him, the effort making him feel weak.

Its too much. The warm sparks of One for All escape his grasp, and unbreakable collapses. He can’t hold both powers up at once.

“Calm down.” All Might sighs from next to him. “You don’t need to push yourself.”

“But sir!” Kirishima said. “I’ve been stuck at 10% for the entire time I’ve had One for All.”

“Your too hard on yourself. I can recognize it because I was the same when I first got the quirk.” The skinny man advised.

Kirishima looks away, sitting down. All Might follows him. “I’ll take a guess that this is about young Ashido?” he says.

“What are they doing to her?” Kirishima asks. “I’ve known her since middle school...I only saw her for a second and I could tell there was something wrong.” he clenched his fist. “I should have helped her!”

“Your friend seems like she was fighting every step of the way.” All Might said. “We’re still sending out heroes to seek out young Ashido. She’ll be found, that I promise.”

“Alright.” Kirishima said. Toshinori seemed to give up at that, sending the redhead back to the dorms with a bony finger.

“You did everything you could, rescuing Bakugo. Be proud of that.”

Easier said then done.

_____

Kirishima had a plan. He’d been honored that All Might himself had been his mentor, and he hoped he wasn’t being to rude to the man by going for a different one, but he needed someone who saw One for All from the outside.

Nighteye. He happened to come across a forum, where he learned that All Might had a sidekick. He’d asked before, of course, but the hero had been deflecting and Kirishima assumed he never had one, or if he did, they were dead. 

On the forum, he had to surf through a bunch of messages concerned about a user called GreenAllMight9 before he got to any useful information. He hoped that the guy was okay after realizing that the constantly active user had just dropped off the forums completely one day.

But that’s beside the point. Nighteye sounded like a tough guy to please but Kirishima is up for the challenge.

Kirishima feels filled with determination. If Ashido was fighting every day wherever she was, he’d fight just as hard here.

_____

“Really, All Might?” The man speaks as if All Might is there. His cold voice digs into Kirishima’s skin. “You chose this boy?”

The man reminds him of his bullies in middle school. They’d laughed at his quirk, but he was brave enough to stand up against the treatment now. He returned his cold gaze, filled with determination.

“Would you have even passed the exam without your extra quirk?”

Kirishima stepped forward. “Excuse me-”

“That was a rhetorical question. I already know the answer”

Kirishima quiets himself. He could tell this man wouldn’t budge. The stubborn look in his eye made his opinion a impenetrable wall.

Instead he clenched his fists and got into a fighting stance. “Why don’t we fight, then?” he says, trying not to sound aggresive. “I bet I could show you why he chose me.”

Bakugo might have been a bad influence.

_____

Kirishima shields his eye from the glaring sun. Man, he was starting to envy the heroes who got eye protection. Maybe he could add it to his costume, when he had the chance.

Instead of looking at the sun, the redhead was having an upbeat chat with Nighteyes current intern, Mirio. His hardening had been no match for the boys strength and his hand rubbed his stomach despite that having happened a while ago.

Pretty humbling, he had to admit.

“So, how’d that spar with Nighteye turn out?” Mirio said. “I really thought you’d lost...but?”

“I completely messed it up. I’m still smarting from it, especially when I got shoe marks all over his All Might poster. Didn’t know he’d be so touchy about it.” he laughed, hiding how crushed he’d felt.

The only reason he was taken in was to prove how much Kirishima didn’t have what it took to use One for All. Kirishima had been exited to prove him wrong...but he couldn’t help feeling each jab Nighteye dished out, and feel like he was back in middle school; a coward.

His wandering eyes found a figure near an alley. A boy his age, a grocery bag at his side and a puff of fluffy hair escaping the hoodie. A little girl had buried herself in his shoulder, trembling. He was nervously speaking to a person with a bird mask and green coat.

If Kirishima couldn’t see the black sclera and pink strands of hair gleaming in the midday sun, he might not have recognized her.

Ashido. She was right there.

Except...as he ran towards her, he noticed small things. Kirishima realized that Uraraka had been right. Her eyes were larger then he remembered. Her chest was flat. It was such a strange image, like if another face had been photoshopped onto Mina’s head.

It wouldn’t have looked weird if Eijirou didn’t know what Mina’s face looked like in the first place. His pace didn’t slow; even if this was a stranger, he wouldn’t take that chance.

The two go into the alleyway, and Kirishima’s shoulder is grabbed tightly. “Hold on.” Mirio says intently. “That’s the leader of the Shie Hassaikai, Kirishima, and the other guy’s probably an accomplice. We should stay out and report it to Nighteye.”

He shoved the hand away. “No, I know her.” he said. “She’d never do that, it must be a coincidence.”

While he wasn’t looking, a strange zapping sound came from behind him. He twists around and he could see the tail end of some kind of bright flash fade from the alley.

Before he actually reached it, Ashido booked it out of the alley, now holding the kid and rushing away.

Kirishima took off in a sprint, determined to catch up with her. She was carrying a kid, that must make her slower then him, right?

He flinches at the wave of pain that slaps his arm like a wave, freezing as his eyes lock with hers. She’d twisted around to throw acid at him. The girl she was carrying gasped, flinching.

Her eyes-no, they were...green?-Widened in alarm and she took off again, Kirishima too shocked at his friends aggression to think to chase her until it was too late.

Just like that, Ashido vanished. Mirio caught up to him.

“Woah! Kirishima, I just told you that was the leader of the Shie Hassaikai.” he said. “That was real risky, running in their by yourself. It’s a good thing no one got hurt, right?”

Kirishima shakes his head, a little bothered by the comment. “I just thought I saw someone. I could handle it!” he protests.

He looks at his arm. The acid wasn’t strong enough to get past his thicker skin, but he could see the angry red it left behind.

_____

Izuku scrambled into the crowd, glancing behind him every few seconds to make sure he lost the redhead.

He just attacked a hero student. He just attacked Kirishima.

No, no he couldn’t go back. He was a fugitive now, they’d probably imprison him.

Kirishima probably hates him, especially if he found out the extent of what Izuku had done, and Izuku had been trained from a young age to avoid people who disliked him.

Oh hush, you two would get along like bread and butter!

Izuku blinked, recognizing the thought as Mina’s. Unfortunately, there was nothing more after that. He hears her thoughts more often now, but he’s occasionally able to have a conversation with her on purpose. The only glimpses of her were random thoughts.

He remembered that he was carrying a child. “Y-you alright, Eri?” he asked, softly. She nodded quietly.

“Hey, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you like those other guys.” he comforted. He noticed the pale horn poking out of her forehead. “Wow, you have horns like mi-mine.” it felt wrong to call them his but he needed to help this kid right now.

“You should take me back. They’ll hurt you now.” she said.

Izuku smiles back. “Hey, I’m already getting persecuted.” he said.

“P-purse…” she frowned, then patted his shoulders. “What does that mean?”

“It’s like being chased, like you said. People want to hurt me too, so I know how to avoid them.” he lied. He had no idea what he was doing. “Hey, I have a cool idea!” he said. “I’ll take you to U.A, they can keep you safe!”

Eri had tears in her eyes. “But what if they don’t?” she asked, looking close to crying. “What if Overhaul kills you...because I didn’t come back...and then he kills that red haired boy...and it’s all my fault?” she cries. “I-i don’t wanna. Take me back! I want to go back! He’ll kill you!” she said, in a tone that would garner screaming from most kids, but Eri simply said it at a slightly louder volume, like she was scared to be too loud.

He thought back to the man, with his green overcoat and plague doctor mask. What had his quirk been, and how had he used it to make this little girl so scared? All he knew was it came with a flash of red and the feeling of something transfering into him. What if it was a tracker?

Jeez, she seems to know the word ‘kill’ very well. Mina said. Weirdly knowledgable of consequences too.

The moment of thought caused Eri to calm down a little, silent sobs coming from her, and he realized he had bigger priorities.

“Hey, its okay. I know a lot of people there, and they’re all super cool!” he says, the words coming out of his mouth without going through his brain. “They can help us-” he stopped. “I mean, they can help you.” he said, looking away.

He knew what a prisoner looked like.

She seems like she needs a friend. Mina comments.

He nodded.

_____

Once the leage had been sufficiently threatened, Overhaul left. The short, annoying minion walked up to him, babbling his mouth off.

“So, I assume no one is to tell them Eri escaped? Or that your quirk-”

His hand grabs the loudmouths neck. “Not another word.” he hisses.

He feels fury at his powerlessness. His pawns are more bold now, no longer fearing that they’ll be sufficiently punished. The only way he can control the ragtag group of incompetent morons is by acting as if he’s still strong. Then they’ll follow along.

Perhaps he can catch two birds with one stone. The pink theif and Eri are likely still together, at least for now. The league who have contact with the villain All for One, seem to want the brat alive.

He’ll capture Eri and see to it that the kid is personally killed by him. Eri could even watch.

Eri wasn’t a plentiful resource of blood anymore. She’d die after a while, but he’d find a way around that soon.

“If any of you tip the leage off about my status...I don’t need a quirk to find ways to kill you painfully.” he says.

“In the meantime, send some of our best after Eri. Unlike before, you’ll have to capture her alive, and preferably the one who stole her should be as close to alive as possible.”

The pawn nodded and walked off. Overhaul growled, hating his situation, and walked off.

Another figure passed him on his way out. Overhaul paid no mind. They wouldn’t betray him, he knew.

Once Overhaul was out of sight, the figure melted away to reveal Toga, who coughed in discust. “Ew, gross.”

Shigaraki was waiting in the alley and once he saw her he allowed himself to turn the real minion to dust, no longer needing their blood. “Did you learn anything from the Mini-boss?”

Toga grinned. “I just found out the juiciest secret!”

Chapter Text

Kirishima knows Nighteye doesn’t think he can do this. The way the man looked at him disdainfully, telling him he can bow out, it sounded like a challenge.

Kirishima took it gladly.

Flinging himself around the battlefield was tough, but it was better than getting hit by Rappa-

He activated hardening quickly, just before he felt the rocket-fueled punch drags him onto the ground, grunting in pain. Right before the next blow hits he swaps to OfA again, zipping away just quickly enough to avoid the next blow.

Kirishima feels his energy eebing away, but he doesn’t have time to catch his breath before another close call.

He’s so tired. Swapping between using Hardening and One for All was a lot harder then it sounded, and Rappa was relentless.

“Your like a spear and a sheild, huh! But the difference between us is your just a kid!”

Kirishima leaps high to avoid the next flurry of punches, but has to use Hardening as he falls down from such a height. He gets up, trembling, scrambling to find the drops of energy he has left.

“Haha, nice dodge!”

He could beat this guy.

_____

Shigaraki sighed through his nose at his masters nagging in his mind. Find my son, find my son , right now he had much more important matters, such as showing that bird-masked lunatic what happened when he tried to act like some final boss.

It would have been quite a lot easier if Magne had been here, but she’d taken a break when the doctor infodumped what exactly had happened with Sensei’s son and the U.A brat. He’d threatened her, but she said she’d come back when she was ready, that she had things to sort out.

How disloyal. He hates it. Not like he’s going to pass up keeping such a valuable minion when she returns, though.

Now he’s just standing guard at the Yakuza base, like some mini-boss. It irks him, the feeling growing until he can’t take it anymore. He’d already planned on betraying these NPC’s the moment they tried to pull this kind of stunt, but he wanted to do it now.

You may make whatever choice is necessary , Sensei speaks in his mind.

He wouldn’t be an idiot. Going out by himself would spell a double battle against the heroes and Yakuza. He needed a scout to cause chaos.

“Toga, you have the U.A brats blood, right?” he said.

Toga’s smile widened. “Ooh, do I get to play pretend?” she asked. “I’ve been wanting to see my Ocha again!”

Shigaraki nodded. “Right, how about you lead the other heroes here?  Let’s finish this stupid dungeon already.”

_____

Izuku carefully overlooked the scene with pro heroes swarming into the building. He could see Uraraka among them, the brown haired girl wearing a space-themed hero suit.

Eri clung to him, frightened. He’d wanted to drop her off at his moms house but she refused. He knew that being close to Mina’s friends, hearing their voices, might finally be enough to get her in the front seat again.

Please just walk over. Mina groaned. Izuku was going to, he just...felt a little nervous. Plus, he should wait until after this, then show up to not distract them.

As a bonus, the longer he was here, the more control Mina had. He could hear almost every thought she had, and when she focuses, he feels a tug pulling his legs forward. Maybe by the time it was over Mina would be the one in control.

His eyes catch someone who looked exactly like...Mina walk over. Uraraka startled in surprise and rushed over, and the fake pointed somewhere.

Oh, that’s totally a trap, Mina said. You should forget that dumb excuse you made up and go after them.

Izuku set Eri down, and she fought a little. “Hey, its okay. I’m just going to go for a second to help my friends.” He comforted.

“I’m comin too then.” Eri says. “You’re strong, and its scary to be by myself.”

Come on, we’re running out of time Mina pleads. Eri will be fine with all these people here, this was your plan from the beging right?

Izuku was already running forward, Eri clinging to his back.

_____

Himiko’s eyes widened when she saw that the real deal was coming straight towards her.

“Uh, the base is right under your feet, BYE!” she turns on her heel and runs, realizing she had no chance of fooling them anymore. Ochacos adorable face widens in anger as the disguise falls. 

“Kurogiri help me out here!” she cries, speaking into her communication device as she’s chased.

The portal appears, and as she’s sucked into the purple mist, she sees Uraraka spot the imposter.

Well, Shiggy wanted chaos, didn’t he?

_____

Izuku’s feet grind to a screeching halt as the heroes spot him with an unfriendly glint.

“How did she get over there? I thought the girl had a shapeshifting quirk, not a teleportation one?” Ryuku asked.

“Kurogiri has a teleportation quirk. That was the mist, kero.” Asui croaks.

“Drop the kid and tell us where Ashido is!” Uraraka says.

Say hi to them for me! Mina says.

“Mina says hi.” he squeaks.

Uraraka’s hands shake with rage and they charge.

OH, they thought you were taunting them. My bad.

He tries to run, but a long tongue wraps around Eri and she's torn away with a squeak. His momentum is ruined. Ryuku goes full dragon and leapt towards him. Izuku can’t hold back his scream as he felt the talons pin him to the ground, cracking the stone beneath him. He blinked in surprise when he realized that he hadn’t even been bruised.

“Who are you?” Ryuku growled, her voice clear even though Eri was screeching and fighting in Tsyu's arms.

“I’m not Toga I swear,” he said, trembling under the glinting eyes of the dragon hero. “I-I’m turning myself in, actually.”

Tsyu and Uraraka loomed over him. “If your not Toga, why would you need to turn yourself in?”

“I’m stuck in Mina’s body.” he said, tears rising as he forces the confession out of him. “I didn’t a-ask to, I should be dead, but All for One brought me back. Mina’s in my head.” he must sound insane.

The U.A students stepped forward but Ryuku stops them with a clawed hand, not looking away from him. “He may be telling the truth,” she said. “If he were purposefully deceiving us, there would be much more believable lies he could have used, and I’ve seen much crazier stories be proven right.”

Hey Mina, a little help? He thought desperately.

“T-tsu ended up in the ocean area during the USJ, right?” he asked. “With Mineta, he’s a pervert but Aizawa-sensei doesn’t seem to care.” he felt Mina broadcast the information to him. “Kaminari and M-Mina were the lowest grading students, but only because they don’t do well academically, and score higher than a good deal of the class, especially Mina who is secretly a genius-” he wrinkles his forehead. “U-uh, maybe not that last part.” Why did she purposefully lie?

Uraraka gasped. “M-mina? You’re in there?”

Izuku nods. The pressure on his chest lift, but Ryuku, shifting into her human form, immediately puts cuffs on him. “You seem to have my interns convinced. We’ll take you to the station for interrogation once the raid is over. Uravity, Froppy, get back to work.”

Eri refuses to be separated from Izuku, so Ryuku lets her stay.

_____

Kirishima had gone through hell fighting Rappa, gaining a limp for his troubles, and he suspects the only reason he made it out was thanks to One for All. No, he corrects himself, it was thanks to Fatgum. Even with One for All he’d almost lost.

He’d been expecting a fight when he arrived at the largest room. He had not expected Mirio to be there, standing above a powerless Overhaul.

“He says he’s quirkless now, but I don't trust one word.” he says. “I don’t know why he’d say that otherwise.”

“It’s true.” The villain sighs, shrugging. “I no longer have my power, now stop harrassing me about it.” 

“You got hit with one of your own bullets?” Kirishima asks. “That’s fitting, you know.”

Overhaul glares back. “You don’t know what your talking about, kid.” His face dips for a split second in a minuscule nod to someone Kirishima couldn’t see and his mouth quirks in a smirk that gives his intentions away.

Kirishima is only just able to activate hardening as the quirk-erasing bullet hits his skin with a tink noise.

Mirio sank into the ground, flew out right in front of Overhaul and pinned the villain who had tried to shoot hit and Kirishima knocked Overhaul out.

“Was he really quirkless?” Kirishima asks himself. “Seems kinda anti-climatic.”

If Overhaul was that incompetent, he would have messed up a long time ago, wouldn’t have he?

Aizawa comes in at that moment. “Kirishima-” he stopped. “You defeated Overhaul.”

Mirio nodded. “We sure did! He goofed and ended up hitting himself with his own quirk-erasing bullet! Isn’t that crazy?”

Aizawa doesn’t acknowledge him, instead turning to Kirishima. “Ryuku has informed me that Ashido has turned herself in.”

_____

Heroes were leaving the area. “Is it over?” Izuku asked.

Ryuku nodded. “Yes. Overhaul was defeated minutes ago by Red Riot.”

Uraraka points. “Hey, there’s Kirishima!”

One of the Shie Hassaikai members wrenched out of a hero’s grip, tearing off across the pavement in a blind panic. Before anyone caught up to the villain, a figure flew out of the ground and knocked out the runaway. “I gotcha!”

Izuku’s eyes were sparkling at the other hero student as he spotted him. “Woah…” he said. “What kind of quirk was that?” It was so cool! Possibilities flash in his mind. “Teleportation? Speed? Phasing? How did your clothes stay on-”

“Slow down!” the hero says. “I’m Mirio, a third year at U.A.” the blond, blue eyed boy pauses to take Izuku’s appearance in. “Hey, your that guy Red saw earlier!”

A hand grabs his. “Yeah, this is Ashido.” Kirishima says. He looked at the pink-haired boy, eyes pleading for him to be right. “Right?”

He takes a breath in. If there was any time for Mina to take control, it would be now.

I’m trying, really! I just don’t know how to.

“My name’s Midoriya Izuku…” he says.

Kirishima tries to let go, but Izuku’s hand keeps it in his grasp. The red-haired boy’s eyes shine with dissapointment. “My bad. I mistook you for someone else.”

“No, you didn’t.” he pushes the words out. “I’m not supposed to be-”

“Kirishima, go to your classmates. I’ll take care of this.” A tired voice says says. The man with a capture weapon strides over to him. To Mina, this is Aizawa-sensei. To Izuku, this is a hero he doesn’t immediately recognize but its on the tip of his tongue. He glares at Izuku. “Don’t try to run.”

Oh. This is Eraserhead.

Kirishima seems to want to protest, but Eraserhead gives him a look and the red-haired boy leaves, glancing back before retreating alongside the other U.A students.

“Eraserhead, we found your student.” Ryuku says.

“You already told me that.” The erasure hero strode forward. “I’ll take care of this.”

Ryuku nods and leaves. “It’s your student, I suppose.” She leaves with Eri, although the girl tries to fight against it. "It's okay, Eri. This is just going to be for a few hours, okay?" she comforts gently.

“You’re going with me.” Aizawa says, wrapping Izuku in capture tape the moment Eri was out of sight. It was just about loose enough to not leave a bruise, but Izuku knows that if he protested it would get much tighter. “You’ll explain what exactly happened during a interrogation.” he paused as Izuku pales. “Don’t act like we’re going to torture you.” he interrupted what Izuku was about to ask. “It’s just to find out the full picture.”

Boo, Aizawa-sensei! Don’t worry, ‘zuku, he’s waaay nicer then he looks.

Izuku doubts that.

He knows what this is. Aizawa...no, Eraserhead, a low-key hero, is also a teacher, and teachers never like him.

Furthermore, Izuku knows that this teacher is scary to those who harm his students, and looks down on those without potential. Izuku is both of those things.

He’s dead. If Eraserhead doesn’t end him, Kacchan will.

_____

He’s quiet, after he stops muttering.

Shouta sighs, watching what should have been his student quietly walk by his side. Even if the boy hadn’t explained, he would have known simply by his mannerisms that this is not Ashido. The way he nervously babbled through sentences, flinching as if he expected Shouta to yell at him, and then going silent.

He’d been experimented on, clearly against his will, yet he acts like he expects to be punished as a villain.

It irks him, enough so that he doesn’t indulge the kids self-pity. He only has a rare moment of regret when the kid looks as if silence was confirmation. As a hero, it should be his job to comfort the victims. Even though they had no actual training for such a thing during his education, at least not by trained professionals.

He was no All Might and is not naturally gifted at the skill. Go figure. He settled for letting the victims sort themselves out on their own, but...

“Are you feeling any dysphoria?” Shouta asks. Midoriya’s head jerks up.

“W-what?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

The boy hesitates, before murmuring. “No, sir.”

Shouta sighs. “I’m not asking you to spare my feelings. I’m asking for honesty.”

Another refusal to meet his eyes. “I don’t want to be any kind of trouble…”

“Midoriya.” Shouta orders.

“...yes…” he murmurs. “I just...it’s never right.” he says. “This doesn’t feel like my body…”

“Our job is to help you. It’s inefficient to everyone if you hide the problem.” He feels a sharp pang of disapproval. “That includes your refusal to go to authorities immediately, where you likely knew you’d find people willing to help you.” He doesn’t look back, not keeping his eyes off the road.

Shouta notices how crushed the kid looks. He reminds himself that this wasn’t his student, this wasn’t like the Kamino situation. It was innapropriate to scold him. That needs to wait for later.

The only sounds registering in Shouta’s brain are the breaths of the kid and his own thoughts. The whirr of the engine, the muffled sounds from outside, all fade away.

The boy starts speaking again.

“A-Are you going to erase me from her brain?” he asks unaccusingly. “If your going to do that...I’d like to say goodbye to my mom and Eri.” he pauses. “Is Mina going to be alright?” Shouta makes a decision, glancing back at the traumatized boy. He has no idea how they can possibly keep this from being a shitshow.

“Your both going to be okay,” He lies through his teeth.

Chapter Text

Izuku glances around nervously. The tired looking hero-Eraserhead, his brain supplied, looks at him with an unreadable expression. “Calm down. We’re just going to ask some questions.”

What kinds of questions? Izuku doesn't want to admit once again what he had done to Mina.

“So, your name is Midoriya?”

Izuku breaths in. “My name is Izuku Midoriya.” he pauses, before adding. “My name is also Mina Ashido.”

He looks over to the detective standing nearby. “Were either of those a lie?”

The detective nods. “Yes, the second one was a lie.”

Izuku feels something in him relax.

“Can you tell me how that’s possible?” the man continues.

The freckled boy decides to start from the beginning, the memories wiping the expression off his face. “I...w-woke up in a body that isn’t mine…”

_____

Izuku spends a lonely night at Eraserhead’s, and he says his husband isn’t there at the moment. 

He’s handed a mug. “Drink up. You need to stay hydrated.” Eraserhead orders.

Izuku obeys, then falls asleep on the couch and wonders what’s going to happen tomorrow.

_____

Nezu stood on a fancy chair, his head only barely making it over the large meeting table that was surrounded by U.A faculty. Izuku had researched him a lot. A quirk that makes a animal smarter then a human, that kind of backstory was unique and Izuku was shocked that the most well-known thing about him was his role as U.A’s principal.

He knew many viewed him as cute, but Izuku knew it was a facade to lower the enemies guard. He was also certain that if Nezu was forced into a physical fight, it didn’t mean he was anywhere near a disadvantage.

Can confirm Mina’s thought flittered into his head. He’s terrifying.

Thankfully Nezu didn’t seem to think of him as an enemy. He gave the principal a nervous smile and it was returned with a comforting one.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Midoriya.” he said. “Although I wish it could have been under better circumstances.”

Izuku scratched his shoulder. “If theres anything I can do to help…”

Nezu nodded. “Certainly, that is the topic you are here to discuss.” he stood up straighter. “Midoriya Izuku, would you like to join our hero course? As a honorary member, of course. You won’t get any kind of credit from the experience, nor will this go in the records.”

Izuku perked up. He was dreaming. “Y-your joking?” he said. “I’m really sorry sir, but I’m-”

“In a dangerous situation.” Nezu interrupted. “All for One clearly wants you near him, meaning you won’t be safe if we just allow you to live with your mother. We will keep this entire matter hidden from the public, as well. We haven’t let them know that Ashido is missing, and we will refrain from telling the full truth until this is sorted.”

Nezu looked around, and got support from most of the faculty, although Eraserhead looked to be in stark disagreement with this choice. “Furthermore, according to various studies on mental quirks, multiple personalities are influenced by familiarity and emotion.” he clapped his paws together. “One of our students has a quirk classified under ‘sentience’. For him, his quirks strength and control are based on his emotions. I’m sure there will be a much greater variety of triggers for you, seeing as the two ‘personalities’ have a completely different set of memories.”

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, that sounds right.” he looked up. “So it’s likely that if I’m in a enviornment thats familiar to Mina, she’ll regain more control over her own body?”

Nezu smiled. “Precisely. Her home would be preferable but it isn’t safe enough.”

I have no idea what you two are saying but it sounds great!

He nervously smiled at the principal. “You have my consent, if you need it.”

Nezu’s smile stayed. “I’m thankful we won’t have to force you.”

_____

Most of the students in 1-A were relaxed, chatting with each other. Kaminari was joking about something, to which no one laughed, not even Kirishima. He and the rest of those who had work studies were lazer-focused on Aizawa-sensei.

Aizawa had refused to tell them what happened, but he said they would get told with the rest of 1-A. Still, he ordered them not to tell anyone, since classified information could leak prematurely. They’d be told only when they signed confidentiality and were bound by the law.

A little paranoid, Kirishima thought, but whatever. Bakugo was almost vibrating. Tsyu looked calm. Uraraka was breathing in, wavering between excitement and dread.

Kirishima was leaning more towards dread.

The news was probably not going to be good, was it?
Positive. Think positive.

Yeah, it would be fine. Even if it was bad he’d be fine. He could take it.

Finally, after the longest minutes of his life, Aizawa-sensei walks in casually and everyone is seated. Kirishima knows that Aizawa could feel the four pairs of eyes on him.

“So, first of all everyone needs to hand in their confidentiality papers.”

Everyone does.

His eyes glance over every signature and then he turns to them. “By the way, the moment any of you speak of this to anyone you’ll be expelled on the spot, U.A will give you a black record and your dreams of being a hero crushed. I think it’s a little overkill but Nezu seems to be intent on keeping this a secret. For U.A’s reputation and for Ashido’s safety.”

The class instantly explodes. “Wait, you have news about it?” Kaminari speaks up among the voices. “Why’s it need to be a secret then?”

“Quiet.”

The class is silenced.

“Ashido’s body is currently inhabited by someone else.” he says. “Apparently the moment she’d been captured something had been done to her. We don’t know how to reverse it but the victim has been cooperative and shared everything he knows.”

“Wait, he? Ew, thats gross!” Mineta scrunches up his face.

“As I was saying,” he speaks over Mineta. “He claims that he had no choice in the matter, didn’t ask for this. In fact, he’d been dead for about a year.”

Bakugo’s eyes narrow, his body trembling with suppressed anger.

“Principal Nezu has determined that the best course of action is to allow him to join 1-A as a unnoficial member.” he finishes, breathing in like he was reading off a script.

“Now that you’ve been informed of the situation: Midoriya, you can come in and introduce yourself.”

The door creaks open and ‘Ashido’ walks in. His feet seem to make as little noise as possible when he comes in, and instead of high socks he’s wearing baggy dark blue pants and red shoes. His hair is mostly the same, but Kirishima can see that it’s a little curly near the top. His eyes are round and look like they were built to show nervousness. They flicker to a certain seething blonde.

“H-hey, Kaccha-”

“Fucking DEKU!” Bakugo snaps. “I knew it! What the hell was this all about, nerd!” he leaps off of his desk and shoves a finger at Midoriya’s tense and panicked form. “You have a fucking quirk now? Did you hide the creepy power and pretend to be weak? You LIED to me!”

Kirishima feels a tinge of annoyance. “Baku-”

“Shut up.”

His gaze zeroes in on Midoriya and sees his fearful, nervous eyes have become confident and resentful. No, it wasn’t Midoriya.

“Racoo-”

“Shut. the fuck. Up.”

Ashido shoved Bakugo away. Aizawa’s hand hovers over his capture weapon, ready to restrain her if necessary.

“‘You lied to me?’” she mocks. “Like Midoriya is in any way your friend?” Kirishima shivers at the tone. Shit, he wonders if he’ll need to shield Bakugo.

“I thought you were only prickly on the outside, but you’re just a bully!” she almost yells. “He didn’t owe you anything in middle school, and he still doesn’t now, especially when you treated him li-like-like your personal punching bag!”

“He fucking pretended to be weak and quirkless to taunt me!”

“Izuku didn’t do anything to you.” she spits. “You can’t stand how he makes you feel. That’s why you told him to kill himself .”

Kirishima feels his world plummet. For the first time ever, he sees Bakugo unsure and taken aback at his own actions.

“That’s not your secret to share!” Bakugo sputters.

“Neither was Izuku being quirkless! I’ve been stuck in his head, hearing you tell him to jump off a roof over and over again as he thinks back on that moment.”

Bakugo steps forward. “Fuck-”

The sharp ring of a slap hits Kirishima’s ears. “Get away from him.” she snarls. Kirishima has never heard her sound this angry before, her sharp words more acidic then her quirk. “Don’t come near him unless it’s to deliver the sincerest apology of your life. And don’t come near me either. I don’t like bullies.”

Kirishima can see a hint of fear flash in Bakugo’s eyes. His eyes, filled with malice moments before, seemed to clear and he's snapped back to reality. He backs away, looking like he wants to say more but slumping into his seat. “Fucking Racoon Eyes.” he mutters.

Kirishima is left floundering. Ever since Kamino, Bakugo had become increasingly agitated and distant. He had obviously known at least some of the truth this the whole time and kept it to himself. He and the bakusquad had been unnerved by the sudden shift but this...


He hadn't even been listening to Aizawa, had he? Bakugo wasn't this unreasonable...most of the time...so why was he acting so horrible now?

Aizawa had simply been watching the whole time.

Bakugo’s slumped form watched as Ashido turns to Kirishima, the furious glare fading as she smooths her face over. “Now…” she ran over to Kirishima and squished him in a hug. “OhmygodImissedyousomuch.” she breathed, digging her face into his shoulder. After a moment her head tilts up when something wet hits her forehead. Kirishima doesn’t try to hide his tears.

“Woah, are you crying?” she says. “Softie.” He hugs her tighter, noticing that it feels a little weird when her chest is perfectly flat.

“Holy crap, that guy…” he trails off. Ashido shrugs a little, looking small.

He can hear Mineta muttering something under his breath, and Kaminari looks vaguely uncomfortable. "Mineta, not the time." the lightning boy hisses quietly.

The rest of 1-A crowd around her, curiously asking about what happened and Ashido happily answers. Bakugo and Mineta stood in the back, similarly rejected and sometimes given glances from other classmates. Some were pitiful, most weren’t friendly. Bakugo’s face twitched in anger at the former, while merely looking evenly back at the disappointed, angry, or upset faces.

_____

Mina had spent the evening decorating her room, leaving some All Might merchandise for Izuku when he inevitably took back control (Although the thought made her anxiety rise and stomach clench whenever her mind drifted to that) and now she was just alone with her thoughts.

The room’s comfortable and it’s hers, mostly. Mina liked it that way. The lights were on and it was just a little too bright.

The mirror was right there. It would show exactly what she looks like now. She knows she doesn’t look the same thanks to Izuku’s warnings. The greenbean is quiet most of the time but he spoke up once or twice.

She wishes she didn’t have a mirror in her dorm.

Mina doesn’t really want to look. A pit of dread yawns agape in her stomach, large enough for her to fall in. Still, she can’t go on forever without looking into a mirror. Better get it over with now than...She’s probably just fine and stressing over nothing. Her hair’s still pink, she still has horns, that should be everything she needs.

Her eyes flicker towards her reflection, seeing soft round eyes that aren’t hers. Where the fuck did her eyes go . Shit, the more she looked the less she looked like herself. Dark pink freckles perfectly arranged in a diamond shape on her cheeks, right below her eyes. Her once fluffy mane of hair was slowly being taken over by sharp curls. And her chest...

Mina’s heartbeat seemed to pound into her ears as she realized she didn’t recognize the figure standing in the mirror. It isn’t her.

She feels the dread tighten in her chest, griping her heart like claws. What if she looked in the mirror tomorrow and her hair was green? Trembling hands reached for her horns, just in case the mirror was deceiving her and they’d been taken as well. Oh god, what if she stopped acting like herself? Her body wasn’t hers anymore, what if her mind was the next to go?

She felt something wet build in her eyes as her legs become the consistency of jelly and cave under her weight. She wants to run but her legs are paralyzed. Her breathing is loud as though she’d just run a marathon. She sits and curls into herself. Her heartbeat quickens. She feels sick. Her eyes finally wrench away from the mirror. The image is branded into her mind anyway. It wouldn’t go away.

She hated this so much she wasn’t safe she was going to lose herself and she hated-

She hears the door open, footsteps pattering on the floor, a pause and then hands reach for her, hesitate, and then grab her shoulders tightly. She flinches and the hand releases her and she crawls away until her back hits the wall. By now she was heaving for air, the pressure in her chest gripping harder and harder, and frustrated tears were pouring down her face.

The words sound like they’re coming from underwater, and it took a moment for Mina to register them.

A deep breath. “Okay, Mina, just...tell me five things you see.”

Mina tries to talk but she knows it won’t be in her voice. Instead, she ends up wheezing out a strangled breath.

She tries again at his assurances. “M...my room...a mir-” she stops. “My bed...the fluffy drawers…” she feels her mind sharpening. “T-the fan...You...Kirishima.”

“Yeah.” he breaths out. “I’m here, Mina.”

Mina. She felt her breathing slow and her thoughts drift. Her name was Mina. She wasn’t Izuku. She was Mina.

The grip on her chest loosens, just a little.

She sank into the carpet, feeling a wave of uncomfortable exhaustion pull at her. She doesn’t want to let go, doesn’t want to risk losing control, but she can’t really fight it. She wonders if she’ll wake up again.

_____

Kirishima’s eyes glance at the ceiling of his room.

He remembers how Mina was still shuddering as she fell asleep, looking as far from peaceful as possible. He felt like he now understood why his mentor had spent weeks chasing after All for One.

How could that villain just...disregard people like that? How could someone be that fucking selfish? He almost growled.

Mina had ran in front of a villain without hesitation, only showing fear once it was over. He’d always been amazed by how she could leap into danger like that, like Crimson Riot himself. He’d based his identity off of the old pro hero, but he couldn’t deny why he added the horns to his hairstyle.

He wonders if Mina would still be able to run into battle, knowing just how horrible a fate it could give her.

It made his heart hurt to see his friend shattered like that.

He felt his chest tighten. She’d murmured about how she was scared she was going to go under, and he connected the dots on what that meant.

She was in control for now; but he knows there was no guarantee that this would last, and he didn’t even know if this would be the last time she’d have this kind of autonomy.

He could tell how terrified she was. A kind of damage that had already been done, and his quirk couldn’t save her from.

All for One had taken a part of her. How could they begin to fix that?

Chapter Text

Mina wakes in the void.

Izuku was here too. He looked completely at peace, like time didn’t mean anything to him.

The trance breaks. “What are you doing here?” he asks, panicked. “It’s only been a day-”

“I...came here?” she asks. That felt right. “I’m asleep. This is a dream.”

Izuku looks bewildered. “We couldn’t meet like that in dreams when I was in control.” he taps his head, muttering so fast Mina can’t quite keep up with him.

“Hey, this is great!” she said, interrupting the mumbles. “Now you won’t be lonely here, like I was.”

“I don’t think I need company,” he spoke softly. “I’ve only had my mom for so long.”

“HEY!” Mina growled. She pointed at him. “Alright, come here.”

He hesitantly did and she grabbed him into a hug. “I’m gonna make sure you and Kirishima become besties at LEAST.” she promised. “And Uraraka, too, she’d like you.”

Izuku doubted it, but nodded. “Alright, but-” he paused. “I can’t come out again.” he pressed. “You’re in control of your own body now. I can just stay here.”

Mina shrugged. “Well, I think we both know it’s not gonna be forever.” she tries to sound lighthearted about it. “So I might as well be ready for being in the backseat again.”

Izuku wouldn’t meet her gaze. “You should just forget about me. Once we get this fixed you can go on with your life, and I’ll try to stay out of your way.”

“Hey, I can share. What if we had some kinda turn system?”

Izuku straightens. “W-what? No. no way. This is YOUR body, I’m not going to-”

“Yes you are! I’m not going to leave you alone in my own head. It’s pretty terrible up there.”

“You can’t,” Izuku reaffirms.

“I want to.” she defended. “I just think you deserve to have more people who recognize how freaking awesome you are.”

Izuku was silent for a moment. “Bakugo won’t be happy.”

“Screw Bakugo.” she huffs. Izuku murmurs out excuses for why Bakugo wasn’t that bad, and she shouldn’t let him get in the way of their friendship, but Mina feels herself gettin sucked out of the dream.

_____

She feels the world float back into existence around her, the light surging into her eyes and making her brain pulse.

Her eyes flicker towards the mirror. Yup, she still looks all sorts of wrong.

At least she didn’t see anything else had changed overnight.

Her eyes catch on a notebook with burnt edges on her desk. Before she knows it she flips it open, gazing at a scribbled drawing of herself. Or, at least, what she used to look like. A rush of nostalgia runs through her as she reads the notes on her quirk, her eyes easily absorbing the scribbles and unorganized notes like second nature. Before this kind of thing would be indeciferable and only make her head hurt.

She leafs through it, each page on a different hero. Soon boredom tugs at her and she starts turning the pages faster, as if she was looking for something.

There. Right at the beginning, was a hero costume. It had antennae, a mouthguard with a toothy smile, and looked like a goofy rabbit. Rambly notes about dreams of heroism are scribbled down, forever captured on the burnt page.

A hero costume. Any curiosity drains out of her. She closes the notebook with a thump.

She dreams of being a hero as well. It had always been something that lifted her up during her worst days. Izuku’s dream was like a burden he’s had to carry his whole life.

She quietly opens the door, feeling nervous about anyone seeing her. The only person she decides to seek out is Uraraka.

The brown-haired girl looked concerned. “Mina? Are you okay?”

“Great!” she chirped.

_____

Tooru can hear quiet footsteps, something being dragged across the floor of the dorms. Curious, she peeks over to see Mina carrying a mirror. It’s still super weird with her appearance and all, but this is the same Mina she’s known! She’ll treat her like she always has. Tooru knew thats how she would want to be treated if she suddenly stopped being invisible.

“Mina!” she squeals, coming over. “What’cha doing?”

Mina looks like she’s struggling. “Taking mirror away.” she grunts through her strain. “Don’t like looking.”

Tooru immediately connects the dots as she sees Mina’s strange altered face. Oh. Tooru knows what she must feel like, staring in the mirror and not seeing yourself. She was intimately aware of how horrible it was.

“Let me help you!” Tooru runs over and grabs the other side. Mina smiles in thanks.

_____

Finally Mina could meet Eri. Aizawa-sensei had been a little surprised at how eager she was, but she wanted to say hi, explain what was going on, and show Izuku that, yes, people would be sad if he just imprisoned himself in her mind forever.

Eri stared up at her with a confused and apprehensive look. “W-wheres Izuku?” she asks. “Your not Izuku.”

Mina nods, crouching down at her level. “Yeah.” she leans close like she’s about to whisper a secret. “I’m Mina Ashido. Izuku went away for now, but I’m trying to…” she pauses for quite a few moments.

She realizes she’s been lost in thought, so she laughs. “Well, I want to make sure he’s happy. He’s been given bad vibes his whole life, and I wanna fix that.”

“Bad vibes?”

Mina nods. “Yeah! He doesn’t smile, not even on the inside! You made him feel better.”

Eri’s mouth twitches strangely for a few moments. She grabbed the corners of her mouth and tugged. “I-I don’t think I can smile...to make him feel better…” she said.

Mina feels a pang of sadness for the kid. The room where she was kept was lit nicely, with pencils and drawings that had barely been touched.

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” she soothes. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to smile again.”

_____

Of course it happens when Mina’s happy, ready to prepare for the school festival, and skipping out the door to prepare the choreography with Jirou.

Aizawa stops her before leaving class. “Mina, your parents have asked to see you.”

Mina tenses up. “Uh, no thanks, dude.” she said, unashamed of her lack of formality. “I’d rather not have them see me like this.” she glances at herself self-conciously.

Aizawa seems entirely uninterested. “They’ll get over it.”

Mina feels her chest clench. I can’t get out of this, can I?

“You can’t.” Aizawa confirmed. “Nezu has decided that letting you reunite is harmless.”

Anger flashed in her eyes, anger that Aizawa couldn’t see as he looked half asleep. She huffed. “Ugh, fine.”

Normally she’d keep her frustration to herself, but she feels like the cheerful part of her had taken a vacation, in the same way her body felt like it wasn’t hers. It was harder and harder to brush off simple annoyances.

She walks with her teacher, bracing herself.

_____

Ashido’s reunion didn’t last very long.

Aizawa is (Internally) surprised when the door slammed open, earlier then he expected. He hadn’t thought Midoriya would be the kind of problem student who would react like this, but he was even more suprised by the realization that Ashido was the one who’d acted out.

The usually upbeat girl looked close to tears. She rubbed her eyes with a arm before her eyes landed on him. Instantly the fakest smile Aizawa had ever seen was on her face, so forced it almost made Aizawa feel insulted that she thought it was in any way convincing.

“Ashido, did your parents harm you?” Aizawa pressed.

Her face twitched.

She shook her head, tilting her head away. “I’m all good.” her voice is wobbly and she speaks through clenched teeth. She turns and runs.

Ashido hadn’t said she had a bad relationship with her parents, only that she didn’t want them to see her like this. He assumed she’d been embarrassed about her appearance, and it was just overreaction. It wouldn’t have been the first time the pink student had been overly dramatic.

He let out a hefty sigh in frustration. These were his students, they need to trust him if they’re going to make any progress.

It was their job to trust him. If they refused to do that, that was their fault.

Still…

He walked into the room, looked at Ashido’s parents, and said “I doubt you’ll get another audience with your daughter anytime soon.”

_____

Katsuki fumed. Racoon Eyes was fucking insane for some reason, and now the entire class was following her lead.

Everyone had always followed his lead. It was almost as refreshing as it was infuriating. He’d done stupid shit plenty of times, and suddenly now there was something wrong with it?
It had been middle school. Racoon Eyes hadn’t known anything about him then. He’d been a shithead, sure, but why should that matter so much later?

Now everyone was ignoring him, which absolutely isn’t making him angry. He doesn’t need their validation if they weren’t going to listen to him anyway. He doesn’t need to be showered in praise.

Still, he can’t ignore how Kirishima’s absence stings, as much as he’d like to ignore it. The shitty-haired loser had been adamant that he was there for Katsuki before this.

Katsuki is used to people holding out a hand for him. He always rejects it.

Kirishima had been the exception. Katsuki had accepted his hand, and now he didn’t know how to react now that the hand was no longer outstretched, waiting for him.

He should fix this.

The thought makes Katsuki angry. He doesn’t need anyone, and he shouldn’t suck up to them.

Kirishima would come back eventually. He would. Katsuki just needed to wait.

…

Katsuki wasn’t a patient person.

_____

Kirishima can see Katsuki, slowly, subtely making his way towards the redhead like a predator stalking its prey.

“Why are you here?” Kirishima says, feeling a little guilty at how harsh the words come out. Bakugo’s been given the cold shoulder for a while now, he must be super lonely.

Weren’t they just making him feel bad, like Midoriya felt back then?

“What, you can’t stand my presence anymore?” Bakugo barks. “Because I wasn’t a fucking saint in middle school?”

Kirishima knew what it felt like, to regret his past. He sighs. “You suicide bated someone.” he looked straight in his eyes, trying to see whether Bakugo was faking his guilt. “You attacked him with your quirk! That’s not...manly.” he shakes his head, feeling silly. “No, it’s not something I can just forgive. How did you even hide it from the teachers?”

“They let me.” Bakugo says simply. “Fuckers didn’t care about him.”

Kirishima doesn’t want to deal with this, his skin feeling prickly. “I’m sorry, Bakubro-” he pauses. “Bakugo, I need to do my homework.”

“I can help.” Bakugo says quickly.

Kirishima knows Bakugo had done something horrible, and awful, and hasn’t apologized for it yet.

He remembers how much it had hurt when he’d been bullied in middle school. How each word had cut through him, his quirk unable to fight against them.

Kirishima remembers how close he came to losing Ashido and Bakugo. And Bakugo is only alive right now because he took Kirishima’s hand.

Bakugo isn’t a villain, and there isn’t anyone that needs to be protected from him anymore. That point had passed a while ago.

Kirishima nods. “Alright, man.”

_____

Everyone agrees to go along with Mina’s suggestion of a dance party for the school festival. Unfortunately, sorting who goes where is a bit more tricky.

Jirou will have her work cut out for her, teaching everyone how to play various instruments. She doesn’t have time to teach someone to play drums on top of it.

“We gotta make this as cool as possible to make it up to the other courses. If we don’t have a drummer-” Hagakure is cut off.

“You’re going about this all wrong, you fucking idiots.” Bakugo speaks up. Everyone turns towards him, some apprehensively.

“We don’t owe these fuckers a single thing.” he growls. “Stop sucking up to them! It’s not our fault villains targeted us. It’s their own damn problem if they think otherwise.” he glares for a moment, then points a thumb at himself when he gets no reaction. “I’ll be your fucking drummer.”

A beat of silence, contemplating.

“The fallen hero makes a respectable point.” Tokoyami waxes.

Ashido nods. “I’m still pissed at him, but if he wants to help thats all right!” The class seems to share that sentiment.

Jirou sighs. “You are our best option, I suppose.”

_____

Good lord , Aizawa realizes as he pretends to sleep. The kids are being more harsh on him then I am.

This was a dire sign that something was very wrong.

He knew his class was much softer then him, so he must have missed something.

Bakugo has become much less aggressive since his class has given him the cold shoulder. They, on the other hand, have become just as aggressive as Bakugo was when fighting with him, causing Shouta to have to step in multiple times and reprimand them-

Wait. His eyes widen. He’s reprimanding his students for something Bakugo had always gotten off the hook for.

Shouta rubs his nose. How had he missed that? He knew bias clouded everyones mind, but he had taken measures to erase as much as he could. He thought he’d disliked Bakugo...but the more he thought about it, the more he realizes he has a soft spot for the blonde.

Bakugo was like him, willing to vocalize against whatever he disagreed with. His quirk was extremely strong, and Shouta always valued a heroes skill over their general attitude. Heroes that try to be too likable are simply doing it for the media attention.

He’d been quite tired recently. Late nights with U.A staff trying to find more permanent solutions to the Ashido dilemma had drained him of energy. He was already pretty nocturnal but now he barely had any time to sleep.

He decided, then. It was time to crack down on Bakugo...and Mineta. The girls in class-and some of the boys, on the girls behalf-had sent in complaints which he had ignored. They handled Mineta pretty well on their own, and all it took was a sentence from him to get the inappropriate student to back down.

Bakugo would go to anger management with Hound Dog. Mineta would go to be taught about sexual harrassment. All Might had suggested both a while ago.

He sighs, regretting the looks from other teachers he would get. He liked having full control over his students education. He was...proud of them, fine. He had been sure they didn’t need extra help to improve.

He would put that pride aside in this case, though.

“Bakugo. Mineta. Ashido. Talk with me after class.”

Chapter Text

Mina’s a little confused. Looking at Mineta and Bakugo, they seem as in the dark as her. Bakugo wouldn’t look at her, though.

The moment they are with Aizawa, he turns to Mineta. “Mineta. You’re being assigned an extra class.”

Mineta sputter. “W-what? But my grades-”

“This isn’t about your grades. Its about your attitude, which I’ve deemed unacceptable. I’d been asked to do this a long time ago by your other teachers, but I would have preffered you learn from your peers that your behavior wasn’t okay.” he shakes his head. “I realized this was a mistake. Your first class is tomorrow.”

Mineta seems to want to argue, sputtering and opening his mouth, but Aizawa’s glare sends him away. He trudges out with his feet dragging. Mina’s sympathy level is in the negative numbers.

“Bakugo, you have anger management classes. I’m going to be kind and warn you that I haven’t been assessing you logically. From now on, any kind of destruction, aggression, and any unheroic behavior will result in a failing grade.”

Bakugo opens his mouth, looks at Mina, and glares. “What the hell, did you-”

Aizawa’s red eyes turn off his quirk. “Incorrect. I came to this conclusion myself, after reevaluating my teaching methods. Your first class will be next week.”

Bakugo scoffed, turns, and leaves. He doesn’t argue with it at all.

Izuku should have a smart little comment about that. He doesn’t.

Mina feels close to bursting She’s pretty busy with the school festival, and she’s a little worried an extra class will cause her to snap.

“Don't think I don’t see those eyebags, Ashido.” Aizawa says. “Get more sleep or you won’t catch up.”

“Yes, sir.” Mina says, too tired to explain that she feels a pang of fear whenever she tries to sleep, keeping her up for hours on end.

“If this is related to recent events, I encourage you to let me know.” Aizawa says.

Mina wondered why he was acting so nice. She nods. “Um. Okay?”

Aizawa looks skeptical.

Hey greenbean, she asks. Are you still there?

I’m here. Izuku said, quietly. Just ignore me, please.

Mina huffs in annoyance. It’s becoming more and more apparent that Izuku was trying to ghost her, and that wouldn’t do!

Kirishima looked surpised. “Izuku? A coward? How?”

Mina groaned into her knees, curled up on his manly carpet. “It’s so stupid. I’m constantly scared that I’m going to lose control, but at the same time Izuku’s trying to ghost me in my own mind! And I have to drag him back!”

“Don’t you want to be in control?”

Mina nods. “Sure, but I want to try to find a way to let us both live. Izuku just wants to hide away forever.”

Kirishima sighs. “Well, maybe you should let him have what he wants. The dudes been through a lot.”

Mina shakes her head furiously. “Nope. Not a option. I’ve seen what he’s been through.” she flops over and looks right at him. “He’s a lot like you. He’s super determined to do this for me.” she looks away. “I can’t just let him go! I mean, you were bullied, and you brushed yourself off and look at you now! Your so cool.”

Kirishima looks taken aback. “Cool?” he pointed at himself, looking adorable confused. “YOU think I’M cool?”

She glances up at him, a glint of amusement in her eyes-or was that frustrated tears? “What? I never said your cool? You never let those jerks get to you.”

She got back on topic. “Izuku deserves a second chance. He’s hurt and needs some friends, ASAP.”

Kirishima is quiet for a moment. “...don’t hurt yourself.”

Mina snorts. “I can deal. This is what we all signed up for, isn’t it?”

Kirishima seems to think of something, then nods. “Yeah. Hey, whatever you need I’ll help with. I wouldn’t be okay if you ended up melting away from all this.” he grins, showing off his shiny sharp teeth. Mina wishes she has teeth as nice as Kirishimas.

“Well, do you have any magic sleep machines? That would be a start."

Kirishima looks up. “I have a few things that could help.”

_____

They work...a little. Mina feels herself dip into a dream.

It takes a while to find Izuku in her mind. The green, ghostly figure is tucked away, looking suprised that she found him.

“Ididn’tknowIwashurtingyouI’msosorry” Izuku blurts. Mina reels back.

“What?”

“I heard what you told Kirishima. I didn’t know you were that scared.” he looks right at her, eyes pleading. “Please stop trying to find me if it’s hurting you. You should just enjoy your life.”

Mina looks so tired, even when asleep. “I’m not going to, Izuku. You heard me tell Kirishima why.”

Izuku look almost angry for once and he opens his mouth to speak.

Mina cuts him off.

“Fine! I hate this! It’s awful, I’m scared out of my mind everytime I try to sleep, and some part of me wants you to go!” she is completely done with this. “But you know what? That part of me is a idiot!”

Izuku looks away. “I’m hurting you-”

“Yes! You are trying to give up! That hurts, dude!” she said, feeling her frustration boil over, tears trailing down her cheeks.

She points a finger at him. “Eri cares about you. Your mom cares about you. I. Care. About. You. So let us help you!” she screeches, her hair standing on end.

Izuku’s eyes are tiny pinpricks, and his arms were wrapped around his head. “U-um. Okay.” he looks away. Mina feels really guilty. Tired as she was, she should have just told him, not snapped at him.

“Look, we’re stuck together for now. So I’m going to take care of you like you did with me at the beginning.”

_____

Mina skips into U.A, ready for the dance.

Ever since Mina had accepted Kirishima’s help, and Izuku had accepted hers, she’s been feeling infinitely better.

Still, a barely noticable headache had started rippling through her head. She puts it off as nothing.

Bakugo’s gaze has been flickering towards her for a while, and Mina starts to feel her anger wane, which makes Izuku very grateful in her mind. He’d forgiven Bakugo, no, he’d never even been angry at him. That made it sort of difficult to hold onto her fury, especially when he seems to be trying to be less of a prick then usual.

The only problem had been the need to get some rope, and Bakugo and Kirishima had volunteered. It was getting strangely late for that, though…

“Where are those two, we’re going to start soon!” she grumbles, slipping on her costume (The girls one, of course).

_____

“You disrespectful pest.” the old, bearded douche spits. “You were allowed into a prestigious school, got fine grades, were given support and a head start on your career. Yet you see it fit to disrespect your schools good name in your insatiable need for a fair fight? The sports festival did not paint a good picture of you, lad.” Bakugo bursts forward through the air, feeling his anger snap. He’s wanted to let out all this pent up anger for a long time.

His movement is stopped by something he can’t see, and he’s bounced backwards with a curse.

“I respect your school, more then you do. That is why I will only invade the premises and disappear.” he glares at the boy. “You obviously do not understand the burning desire I have to achieve my dream. I bet you mock it, in fact.”

“K-Kacchan, I wanna be a hero! Don’t make fun of me, please!

Bakugo grunts. He knows it better then the tea guy thinks. “Fuck your self-righteous bullcrap! I have to do something to do!” Bakugo growls. Kirishima has exited the store with rope and spots the two. His red eyes widen and he clenches his fist, zaps flying across his skin.

Bakugo explodes once again, soaring away from the space that was rubbery and floating towards the tea guy. The moment the tea guy notices him, he changes direction to avoid whatever rubbery crap the villain could do. He grinned as the guy was caught completely unaware. He grabbed the fancy, over the top collar.

“What a loser.” he growls as the explosion sends the villain flying towards the ground. He hadn’t expected a pink blur to catch him out of the sky, unbalancing him and not allowing him to fly.

He tries to push the wide-eyed pink haired woman off, but somehow she has a vice grip despite looking like she’s made of cartoon hearts. He grabs her arm and explodes it, but somehow she still held on. With wind whipping in his hair. Rapidly falling down at high speeds.

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” he roars. The ground gets closer and closer every second. Bakugo slows their fall with explosions from one hand, but it’s not going to keep them from major injuries.

Kirishima catches him out of the sky, grabs the heart-eyed loser, and flings her away. His feet harden as they hit the floor, as he’s wearing crocs today and they wouldn’t protect his feet from the impact. The crocs are torn to shreds by the sharp edges of unbreakable, and Kirishima’s eyes shine in distress.

The air behind her is soft and rubbery, and  her teammate meets up with her. They have an interaction and then try to escape, bouncing off.

Bakugo squirms out of Kirishima’s grip. “I’m gonna fucking kill them!” he roars. Kirishima gets into a fighting stance.

They’d finish this before the school festival starts, no problem.

_____

Bakugo watches the pink weirdo-La Brava-cry over her boyfreind. So weird… he thinks. People getting all kissy was so fucking strange, he didn’t understand it at all.

But then the tea bastard defends his accomplice. He covers for her. He sacrifices himself for her.

As he was taken away, the criminal speaks lowly at him. “You may be far superior in you endeavors of strength, Bakugo Katsuki. But you have a long way to go when it comes to treating others with the respect they deserve.”

Kirishima shakes his head. “What a nutjob.”

“No. Tea fucker is right." Bakugo grumps. “I need to apologize to Deku.” That villains desperation, his eyes. He’d been beaten down and his dreams shattered.

He was pitiful. And Bakugo almost did that to Deku.

Bakugo stormed back, rope in hand, Kirishima following.

If he was going to suck it up to Deku of all people, he’d need days to plan. Had to do it right, after all, or he’d look weak.

_____

Bakugo and Kirishima had returned moments ago.

The performance was about to start.

The lights went out.

Mina feels thoughts speeding up, can feel Izuku’s mind hungrily eating at her, trying to push its way to the forefront as she makes her way to the stage.

Hey, can you wait? She asks.

I’m trying! Izuku responds, clearly. I don’t know how!

Mina pushes the thoughts away, realizing its just making it worse. She is not going to let this stop her from dancing with her classmates, no sir-ee. Just make it until the end.

____

She spins around at the beat of the booming drumset Bakugo is smacking.

The motion makes her dizzy but she tries to not look too unbalanced as she strikes the next pose along with her classmates. Ochaco gives her a confused look out of the corner of her eye, mouthing ‘concusion?’

Mina shakes her head a subtly as possible, both to keep the show looking good and to hold back the headache.

Izuku’s thoughts are starting to become louder and louder, and Mina can feel sweat dripping down her face. It’s as if she’s going insane, but if this is the last time she’s out, she wants to just have some fun with her friends one last time.

The only saving grace is the darkness of the stage, although the flashes of light from the effects makes her head spin and her blood pools at her feet.

Mina knows she could dance for far longer, far more strenuously, and she normally wouldn’t sweat half this much. Kirishima could probably have been able to realize that something was wrong, but he was high up on the ceiling, currently chopping the thin flakes of ice that landed on her skin and melted instantly, the cold liquid like a breath of fresh air. He likely didn’t notice.

Finally, when she thought she couldn’t fight back anymore, the flashing lights pounding into her brain, they struck the final pose. The cheers crescendoes, which made Mina feel a surge of pride but also did nothing to help her headache. She faltered just a little before making her way off the stage. Once she was out of sight she finally let herself collapse against Uraraka, who started.

“Ashido?” she asked, to which Mina only whimpered, feeling a million different thoughts crash into her brain.

Mina is surrounded by darkness.

She remembers how it felt to be here. At first, it was a timeless void, where nothing happened. She remembers a needle being stuck in her neck, and then she had been stuck here for...she couldn’t tell.

She hated it here.

Except now, she could see a blurry image in the place. Izuku stares at her in confusion. She stares back.

“Wait a minute...if we’re both down here, who the hell's driving my body!?” Mina exclaims.

“What even is this place?” he asks. Mina reaches out to him, but his arm seems to be made of mist and it blurs further before returning to its normal state.

He hums. “Y-your completely solid…” he says. “But I’m not. It’s like I’m not even real.”

Mina shakes her head. “Your real.” she says. “Unless I’ve gone insane, which…” she doesn’t want to admit how many times the thought crosses her mind every day.

“I haven’t” she weakly says. “I haven’t.” she tries again with more force, looking straight at him.

His arms quietly wrap around her. “I’m so sorry he did this to you.”

Mina gasps a little. “H-hey…” she says. “I’m...okay…” tears build up and she find she can’t speak in moments. She can’t hold back the sob as she clutches the mist-like ghost that she can’t even feel.

It could have been minutes or hours before Mina felt the last of her tears drain away. She collected herself and wiped her eyes, no even trying to smile.

“C-come on, dude, your in charge now.” she said. “I’ll just have to find a way back again. I got no clue how I did it the first time, but...it’ll come back to me soon.”

Izuku blinked, then shut his eyes. Looking at things was so painful, the colors pulsing and glaring into his head, the pain almost as bad as it had been the first time he’d woken up. “Wh...wha…?” he murmured.

He was leaning against a body. He tried to push himself up, but Uraraka held him there. “Nope, your coming to the recovery girl’s office, Ashido.” she firmly stated.

“It’s Izuku.” he croaked. “M’sorry.”

Uraraka blinks. “You were swapping?” she asked. “She looked like she was in a lot of pain.”

Izuku gives a tiny nod. “Yeah...I don’t know how to stop it, but she kept in control pretty well…it must have hurt”

“Thats so strange. It must be really hard for Mina to have any kind of control.” Uraraka muses. “You both have to really focus for it to happen.”

Izuku nods. “Yeah, I learned that it helps when I try to channel her quirk energy.” he explains. “Like, just grab the feeling of her quirk and try to make it stronger.”

Uraraka pauses for a moment, confusion lighting her brown eyes. “Uh, quirks feel like things?” she asks.

Izuku nods, suddenly wondering what was strange about that. “Yeah, you know, like how you can sense Ashido’s quirk?” he asks. At her blank look he stutters. “I-I thought it was a quirk thing…”

Uraraka shakes her head, her bangs swinging back and forth a little. “No, I’ve never felt anything like that.” She gasps. “Wait a minute! Was that your quirk?”

Izuku laughs. “W-what? No, I never had a quirk.” he says, waving his hands in front. “Before...uh...this happened, I-I couldn’t sense quirks.” he breaths in. “Did All for One give me a second quirk?” he muses to himself. “Why would he do that unless maybe it was something he could track but why would a quirk like that randomly have a secondary aspect like quirk sensing? Quirks don’t usually have two completely different abilities except Todoroki’s does so maybe this one is a anomaly like that-”

Hey, heres a idea. Izuku is surprised thoughts can be sarcastic. Maybe because you’re his son?

“No,” he responds. “All for One seems too paranoid, he would have waited until he was sure I’d stay with him before giving me my own quirk.”

Uraraka taps his shoulder. “Hey, Midoriya.” she says. “Who are you talking to?” her eyes widen. “Wait, is it Ashido? Tell her I said hi!”

Aw, thanks!

“She says thanks.” Izuku says, feeling a bit awkward.

“Hey, you guys better get over here and help us!” Mineta says. “The sooner we finish the sooner I get to see the beauty pageant!”

Izuku scowls at the purple haired boy, who quickly backs up. “S-sorry…” he murmurs before running.

Uraraka seems surprised. “Wow, how do you keep Mineta away like that?”

Izuku tilts his head. “Huh? I just glared at him.”

Kirishima makes his way over, but pauses as he catches Izuku’s eyes. “Oh, you must be Izuku.” he says, walking over and holding out a hand. “We didn’t really get to meet, did we? I’m Kirishima.”

Izuku can feel Kirishimas quirk when he grasps his firm hand, but a second later his eyes widen and he jerks his hand back. That’s not just one quirk.

“Did I cut you by accident? Sorry man.” Kirishima apologizes. “Usually I’m more careful with my quirk.”

“Y-you quirk…” he murmurs, suspicious. Was Kirishima like All for One?

“Oh, right! Midoriya, tell him about your quirk-sensing power.” she says, leaning forward. When he doesn’t reply, she explains it for him. “Midoriya told me he could feel his own quirk, and also could sense mine! Isn’t that cool?”
Kirishima freezes. “Yeah.” he says. “Definetly.” he pulls Midoriya up. “Hey, can we talk in private?” he says. “I need to tell Mido something, before he gets any ideas.” he looks at Izuku, his eyes begging for the other boy to give him a chance.

“Yeah...t-that sounds good.” he says.

Once Uraraka leaves, Kirishima scratches the back of his head. “So...I bet your confused about why I have two quirks.”

“Well, you have more then two.” Izuku says. “I think you have around 9, were you born with nine quirks? I thought that was completely impossible, but now with everything thats happened-”

“Nevermind that.” Kirishima interrupts. “Actually, lets get back to that, but first I just need to say that I have a explanation.” he breaths in. “If you don’t beleive me, ask All Might, he knows why I have a bunch of quirks. He’ll say its nothing to worry about.”

Izuku looks up. “Y-you won’t tell me any more then that.” he says. “Of course, yeah, I basically murdered Ashido, and-”

Kirishima looks surprised. “What? No, I don’t think you murdered her! Why the heck would I think that?” he says.

“Well, All for One kidnapped her for my benefit.” his hands clench. “He’s the most responsible, but I’m to blame as well.”

“You didn’t ask to die, man.” he says. “What All for One did was unmanly as hell, but not because he wanted to save your life. Wanting to save people is manly! That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it?”

That...was true.

“He did it by hurting my friend. That’s what makes it so messed up.”

Izuku nods. “I guess...yeah, that seems pretty obvious, huh.” he looks away, feeling dumb.

“I’ve been wanting to ask,” he says, changing the subject. “Your hero costume looks a lot like Crimson Riot. Are you a fan because I don’t see many fans of his especially with how old he is but he’s pretty cool because he was one of the first heroes who talked about heroism as more then a job which-”

Kirishima’s eyes brighten, and he stood up straighter. “You know Crimson Riot? He’s my idol! I have more of his merch then anyone in the country!” he leans in.

Izuku sat up. “Do you have the movies about him? I tried to buy them for my collection but-”

“They’re pretty hard to find, aren’t they?” he grins, smugly leaning back. “I was able to snag some a few years back. Wanna watch them?”

“D-do I? Those are some of the earliest pro hero movies!” Izuku squeals. “I spent so much time trying to get them!”

Somewhere in his mind Mina sighs in utter relief.

Chapter Text

“The pink girl!” a cry confuses Izuku, but it wasn’t until he hears footsteps rushing forward that he realizes the person is addressing him.

The girl who called out, with round, sausage like hair and a thick pair of goggles slapped on her forehead, inspects him, and Izuku leans back at the intrusion. Her hands seem to want to move to touch him, but they jerk back as if she was reminding herself. “Your face has different proportions.” she flippantly states. “And your voice is much deeper.”

She doesn’t know my name but she can tell that? Mina thinks.

Suddenly she grabs his arm in a tight vice grip. “Wait a second you were the one with the acid quirk!” she pulls him into her lair. “Power Loader told me not to chase you hero students but if you tell him you came to me then I’m not chasing you am I? I can’t wait to show you all the babies I designed!”

She presents one item. “This one can contain acid while keeping it dangerous!” in a moment she dumps the metal tube into his arms, before rushing off. Izuku has only a moment to gawk at the device before another was shoved at him. “This one’s not my best work but it’s like a water gun for acid!”

The item is much too heavy, and Izuku fell over. “I don't think I could carry that…” he nervously says.

“It’s just a prototype so I need you to prove it works before I can get lighter materials so why don’t you try them out?”

Izuku feels his interest grow. If this could work...it would be pretty helpful.

Acid was really versatile, almost as much as Kacchans quirk. They both could help with movement (Although acid couldn’t help him fly), defense (If he pushed the acidity, any obstacles could be melted) and offense (Pretty self-explanatory, although he could feel Mina’s disdain of the idea of directly harming someone with acid). Although these were mostly at close range, due to acid only reaching as far as Mina or he could fling it. Although the gear was really heavy, having a way to shoot acid long range could really help.

He reached out a hand and grasped the support item, but he could feel Mina’s slight discomfort when he started to summon her quirk.

I’m not supposed to use my quirk unless its really important. Mina explained. It’s not, like, illegal, it just makes people nervous.

Meis eyes were shining in excitement. I don’t think she’s nervous. Izuku thought.

Of course she isn’t, but I just-urgh, just do it! Before someone comes over and sees! Mina grumbles.

Izuku did, and was not surprised when the metal fizzled and popped, the machine caving in on itself to create a mushy goo.

“Well, that material doesn’t work! Now shoo, I need to get back to work!” Mei pushes him out of the room and slammed the door.

That was weird.

_____

As it turned out, Mei was one of the closest friends he would have those few weeks. She was less focused on what happened to Ashido and more about what inventions were now possible to test thanks to his current state.

Uraraka and Kirishima were really nice to him, and he thought they might be friends? Mina seemed to enthusiastically agree, but he felt just a little too nervous to call it that. He didn’t want to be clingy.

The rest of the class...tolerated him, but understandably didn’t like talking to him. Kaminari and Sero sometimes gave him strange looks, Bakugo completely avoided him, Mineta...he didn’t like Mineta so that didn’t matter, Iida and Momo were nice but he was sure that was just because they felt the need to be freindly to the new kid. He could see them looking off-put at his smile or when he was the first to turn in his quiz.

His only friends were Mei, Uraraka, Kirishima, and of course, Ashido. That was a lot more then before! And people didn’t actively attack him or harrass him. He walked into school and didn’t have to brace himself.

A week later, he was assigned a group project with Tokoyami. There was a comfortable silence before Tokoyami spoke. “Midoriya, right?” Izuku nods quietly.

Tokoyami’s a bit odd. “You and Ashido’s souls have been intertwined.” he says, a hand raising up and clenching. Dark Shadow came out, openly gawking at him, and Tokoyami gestures to the quirk. “Dark Shadow and I are the same as you, are we not?”

“U-um, yeah…” he says. “Do you know how you keep him under control?”

“All around me are in danger while in the dark abyss of night, but I doubt you will have the same curse.” he said. “I cannot help your situation, but we are cut from the same cloth.” he looks at Izuku. “Do you want to interact with the darkest reaches of man in my room?”

Izuku nods.

Kingdom Hearts turned out to be a pretty fun time.

_____

After that, things began to shift.

“Midoriya! Yaomomo and Iida can’t make study group today, can you help?” Kaminari asks, running up to him and meeting him at the door. He leans on the doorframe, his face twitching when he sees Izuku. “Heh, it feels real weird saying that to Ashido’s face.”

It’s really weird hearing someone looking at me while asking for help on assignments. Mina thought. Usually I’m right there beside him.

Izuku nods. “Alright.” he’s suprised to be approached.

Kaminari was a little distant, but by the end of the night he seemed to be shockingly improved. “Holy cow, thank you!” he says. “That was weirdly easy. Even Yaomomo and Iida get frustrated with me after a while.”

Izuku’s face flushes a warm red. “I know what that’s like. In middle school people didn’t like tutoring me because I was-” quirkless “Muttering a lot…”

“Your muttering is like a window into your soul! It’s pretty cute.” Kaminari says.

_____

“Midoriya. Follow me.” Aizawa says as the class is dismissed.

Izuku follows, ending up in front of the gym. As they arrive the freckled boy can see a student with wild lavender hair waiting with an apathetic glance at the two. Izuku looks back at his teacher, the gears in his head turning for a moment before coming to the the appropriate conclusion.

“Aizawa-sensei had a son?” Izuku asks. “It’s nice to meet you, I had no idea-”

“He is not my son.” 

“I’m not his son.”

Both voices are the exact same kind of deadpan and overlap perfectly, although Shinsou’s has a tint of embarrassment.

Izuku freezes like a deer in headlights. “O-oh! I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to assume!” Mina’s cackling is the only thing louder then Izuku’s panic.

How did I not see that? It’s so obvious!

“This is Shinsou Hitoshi.” Aizawa says. “I’ve been training him for transferring into 1-A ever since the sports festival. You’ll be joining him so you can do the same.”

Izuku nods. “I’ll do my best, sir.”

Aizawa looks unimpressed. “Wishy-washy statements like that won’t make civilians feel comforted. A hero needs to be steadfast.”

Izuku, again, nods rapidly. “Of course!”

Shinsou faced him. “Well, this should be easier then facing Aizawa.”

Aizawa shook his head. “You’ll both be facing me.”

The two turn towards their teacher. “All right!”

Izuku immediately thought how he could beat Aizawa. He has an quirk erasing quirk. He turns towards Shinsou. “What’s your quirk? Mines acid.” He feels bad calling Mina’s quirk his, but time is of the essence.

“Brainwashing.” Shinsou says. “I won’t tell you how it works in case I face you later.”

Izuku shrugs. “I have a idea. Can you distract him?”

Shinsou looks annoyed. “Tell me the plan.”

That was the moment Aizawa reached them. “Too slow. Heroes don’t have time to wait around.”

Shinsou grunts. “Hey, you didn’t tell us there was a time limit!”
Aizawa doesn’t respond. Oh, Shinsous quirk must be activated by a response, Izuku realized. He ran towards Aizawa, sending a burst of acid towards his eyes. Weak enough that it wouldn’t hurt, just enough to distract him-

The teacher effortlessly dodged, grabbed his arm, and swung him towards Shinsou, who dodged it. Shinsou didn’t mind him and ran towards his teacher, twisting his capture weapon in a way that was just like Eraserhead.

He held out longer, and the whole time Eraserhead was staring at him to keep him from using his quirk. The capture weapon was about to hit Shinsou so Izuku leapt in the way. Aizawa kept Izuku in place by staring at him while fighting Shinsou, and eventually Shinsou was captured as well.

“That...was more tough then normal…” Shinsou gasped.

“No, that was pathetic.” Aizawa snarls. “Let me explain why. Midoriya. You had a solid idea but you completely failed to communicate with Shinsou. Worse, you made yourself useless, leaving Shinsou by himself. There were many other ways you could have stopped that attack other then throwing yourself in front of it.”

Izuku knows that the man is giving him advice and nods. “Thank you!”

“Shinsou. You completely ignored Midoriya and didn’t try to reach out to him. You’ll need to work with others on the job, and if they’re failing to do that you’ll need to force them to listen.”

Shinsou nodded. “Okay.”

“Now come at me again.”

_____

Izuku is stopped right before he exits class by a firm shoulder. He turns expecting Aizawa, instead faced with a blonde explosion of hair and eyes sparkling with conviction that makes him flinch, preparing for the inevitable pain-

“I’m sorry.”

Izuku can’t breath. “You’re-”

“I’m sorry, okay!?” Bakugo says. His words are precise, carefully planned. He’s been preparing for this for a while. . “I never thought you were weak! Everyone else at that middle school was crap, and…” he breaths in. “And you weren’t. I hated that.”

Izuku backs away, feeling nervous. “I don’t need you to apolo-”

Bakugo’s face contorts in anger. “I think its been fucking overdue ever since I told you-” he stops. “To do something I didn’t actually want you to do.” his voice is softer then Izuku had ever heard it.

He looks straight into Izukus eyes, his red ones unreadable. “I’m not asking for forgiveness, Izuku.” he murmurs. “I’ll stay out of your way.” he glares at him. He shoves a finger in Izuku’s chest, looking back to his normal, angry, self. “You better become a great fucking hero.” he bites as a parting. “And don’t hold back. I can’t stand fucking weak competition.”

Izuku doesn’t know how to feel. Confusion? Acceptance? He knows the astonishment is Mina’s.

I didn’t think Bakugo had the ability to apologize! Mina thinks.

But Izuku knew that Kacchan could have apologized whenever he wanted. The blonde just never looks back, never regrets a single thing. Except for one thing, apparently.

He looks at Bakugo’s retreating form with a blank face.

_____

“Goddamit, fine!” Shigaraki snaps out loud. “I’ll go do your side quest.” he wrinkled his nose.

The league turns towards him in confusion.

“We’re going to U.A, party.” he snarls. Sensei had been like an unbearable quest reminder and he’s finally ready to be rid of it.

Quest start.

_____

Izuku walks in to the U.A kithcen and sees a scene of chaos.

Sato, looking horribly stressed and paniced, waving his arms around with orders and such. The way his face tightened up was one that Izuku had not seen on the brown-haired boy. Usually he was so chill, even saying hello to Izuku like he was any other classmate. When Sato’s eyes catch on Izuku, he sighs. “Ashi-uh, I mean, Midoriya! Great timing, I could use some help here.”

The other two classmats were Tokoyami and Momo. Tokoyami, too, was looking slightly stressed, calling out “Dark Shadow, this is uncivilized!”

Dark Shadow was stirring the bowl much faster then neccesary, sending loads of batter flying everywhere. One such blast hit Izuku square on the bottom of his nose, and his toungue shot out to lick it up without his consent.

He gasped. Did you do that? He asked Mina. He could feel her nodding.

Then Sato’s look brought him back to the present. Right, he needed to help him out.

He pulled out a flashlight from his side, and started rapidly flicking it on and off, aiming at Dark Shadow. “Get down!” he said. “Dark Shadow, stop!”

Dark Shadow hissed, but eventually retreated. Tokoyami sighed in releif and turned to his savior. “I am in your debt, Midoriya.”

“I-its nothing.” Izuku scratched his neck.

“Why don’t you join us? We could use a extra help.” Momo offered. Izuku looked up, then nodded rapidly. “A-alright!”

It goes...well? Dark Shadow isn’t able to make anymore trouble, so that’s a plus.

The cake turns out delicious, and Sato congratulates them all.

“This was better then I expected. Ashi-” he paused. “Nevermind. Sorry Midoriya.”

Izuku nodded, feeling a bit of resentment that he knew wasn’t rational. After all, he’d known Mina far longer then him, f course he’d mess up.

Izuku was carrying the dirty dishes. He looked in it and realizes he has no reflection, dropping the dish with a quick crash as it hits the floor.

Izuku looks away, crouching down. Why did he keep on forgetting? It was stupid, he should be used to it. But every time he saw the horns, pink skin, and black sclera, he felt uncomfortable.

Momos voice sounds from behind him. “Don’t worry, Midoriya, I’ll pick it up.” She says. Izuku shakes his head, unable to speak. If he could he’d voice his frustrations, but Yaoyorozu seems to understand them nonetheless. “You don’t have to expect perfection from yourself.” she insisted.

Izuku gives a minute nod.

_____

How about my right arm first? Izuku asks. That wouldn’t be too-

His arm moves forward, his bones flexing against his will. Izuku’s gasp cuts off instantly, but the rest of his body is shaking from tension. I can do stuff! Mina crows, before nudging a wave of apologetic feelings at him Shit, I didn’t mean to scare you, Greenbean.

“It’s nothing.” Izuku responds out loud. “I’ll get over it. Do you think you could try my legs?”
Izuku tries not to scream as he feels like someone is awkwardly moving his legs in a semi-walking movement. One or two steps is all it takes before he falls onto the floor.

The freckled boy gives a terrified smile. This could be very useful. Mina could cover for him when he needed to do something he was bad at.

When we figure out how to switch, we can see if you can do that too , Mina reminds him firmly. Izuku nods. Yeah, when they learned that.

They’d learn how to do that. Somehow.

_____

Shigaraki surveys the school, just far away enough to not be detected. His party members are there as well, Toga, Spinner, and Compress, and Twice.

“Right, any of you have game plans?”

Toga grinned. “I could infiltrate the school!” Shigaraki sighed. She obviously wanted to go simp over her latest crush. She was unreliable. Still, it was a workable plan.

“Twice, you make a clone of Toga, then we can see whatever brats blood we have most of. She’ll get in there, tell Kurogiri-”

He facepalms into his forehead. No, Kurogiri was captured by the heroes. Until they made a rescue mission, it would be impossible for him to help.

The reminder sends a strange feeling of sadness in him. The misty man had never been one he thought of dearly, not like Sensei, but…

Did he actually miss the former more then the latter?

He shakes his head. No, that couldn’t be true.

Suddently a hand touches his shoulder and he spins around, hand raised.

“Hey, cool down! It’s me.” Magne says, holding her hands up. “I came to say I want to come back.”

“Now?” Shigaraki growledd. “That messes up the pacing.”

“Well, I just thought, you guys aren’t All for One, are you?” she says, crossing her arms. “You didn’t do anything to the girl, and he’s not ordering you around anymore. You guys are like family to me, and even if I disagree with you that doesn’t change that. I’m staying.”

She notices the building they were near. “Hey, what are you doing anyway? I could help.”

“We aren’t doing anything.” Shigaraki growls. “Not anymore.”

He shakes his head at Senseis dissaproval. Sorry, sensei, Magne was a pawn he wanted to keep.

_____

It hits Izuku as he sits inside his/Mina’s room, getting ready to hang out with Shinsou, wondering if Kirishima would want to come along. He knew they liked the same kind of food.

That was when he realizes.

He covers his mouth, tears building up.

“I-I have friends!” he cries.

_____

Chains quietly unwrap. The snap of the machines are drowned out by the deafening shudders of gunshots. Alarm bells blare from inside, the guards of Tautarous wound into a panic within seconds.

He had to be dead after that. He has to.

All for One sighs, giving a lengthy stretch from outside, standing on the edge of the gates. His bones pop, so loud it would make any hypothetical onlookers cringe. He grins.

“I’ll just have to rescue my son myself.”

With that, the symbol of evil calmly strides towards his son’s prison.

Nothing would go wrong.

Chapter Text

All for One feels the pair of sharp red eyes on him, and his power drains out of his hands, pools in his feet, and stills.

How interesting. He wonders just how long he’ll have to wait to kill this one. The man doesn’t look like any sort of hero, his hair messily wounding in the air, his eyes sagging, a slouch that made All for One click his tongue in disapproval.

As pathetic as this man looks, he’s still in the way. Even if he weren’t, All for One had wanted his quirk long ago, hadn’t he?

The man charges, and All for One steps aside. “How interesting. Your quirk seems to be the perfect foil to mine.” he shrugs. “At least, until you blink. I suppose I will just have to wait.”

Eraserhead sends another calculated blow that almost lands. All for One doesn’t let it show. He resorts to a weakness he’s always been fond of preying on; attachment.

“Shall I simply steal your quirk?” he muses to himself as he leans away from a kick, grabbing the hero’s calf in his huge hand and hurling him downwards. The crunch was pleasing to his ears. “On the other hand, I could use a new nomu to replace Kurogiri.” 

A silver sheet slashes at his palm, blood curling and dripping down his arm, and the scarf neatly returns to Eraserhead as All for One calmly weaves around another wave of blows. “You must remember Kurogiri, my loyal warper. Did his quirk remind you of anyone, perhaps?”

Eraserhead doesn’t pause for a moment, landing a kick that sends his feet skidding backwards. Surely his eyes must be burning with pain, begging for the man to blink. All for One shook his head. “Are you really that thick? Here’s a hint; think back to your high school years.”

All for One’s non-eyes widen in shock as he feels a thin pressure at the back of his neck and he tilts forward, the capture tape unbalancing him. His head surges towards the floor-

_____

Two weeks later

Izuku gingerly grips his new costumes soft fabric. Mina had encouraged him to change it, if they were both going to have to share it, but it still feels like, yet again, he’s stealing something from her.

With that in mind, he chose not to change much-after all, her original costume worked perfectly with her quirk. Mina had vetoed some of his ideas for being way too goofy (“What are those, bunny ears?”). In the end, the only change is the face mask (Really, just extending Mina’s original mask to her entire face, hooking around her horns to stay on) and mouth guard, as well as her old boots changing into a red color. It was Izuku’s favorite part of his old costume and, Izuku can admit, he would rather not have to look at his face when it wasn’t on his head.

His hair is allowed to escape the bone-white mask, pulled up in a small ponytail near the bottom, a compromise between cutting his hair shorter and leaving it as long as Mina’s.

Eh, it’s a little goofy, Mina approves. But I like it!

He looks into the mirror, sees Mina’s eyes for a moment, then turns out of the dressing room.

_____

Izuku strides forward, internally feeling woozy with nervousness. This is it-his starting line, his and Shinsous. If he’s able to do well against 1-A and 1-B, Mina - and him - would officially enroll (or re-enroll) in the hero course starting after the event, and the current situation surrounding her dissapearance would be made public. If he fails, he and Mina will become a member of general education next year.

1-A gives him enthusiastic greetings as he arrives, well 1-B seems more curious. He looks to Shinsou, who is an afterthought to all these other kids. Kaminari is the first to notice him.

“Who’s that purple guy?” Kaminari questions. “Is he coming too?”

Aizawa nods. “Yes. He and Midoriya have been training with me privately to prepare for this exam. They will be an addition to two teams from each class.”

A fancily dressed boy with a strange, unbalanced smirk laughs. “I feel pity for whoever is on the same team as the 1-A kid!” he clutches his head. “We’ll have to fight alongside our enemy!”

1-A collectively sighs, seemingly used to this. Izuku tilts his head. “W-what? I’m not your enemy.” Is he missing something?

That’s just Monoma, Mina informs him. He’s like the annoying little brother of 1-B. Don’t mind him, he likes getting under people’s skin.

Monoma points at him, leaning backwards. “Or maybe 1-B’s skills will win you over so much that you choose our superior course!” he laughs, only to be cut off by a head chop from a redhead who looks at him apologetically. Izuku’s bewildered look makes her sigh. “Sorry about him.”

“I-its alright,” he mutters, staring at Monoma as he rebalances himself. This guy’s jabs weren’t half as bad as anything at Aldera. He looks at Monoma with determined eyes. “I want to be a hero more than anything, and I’m willing to give it my all for both sides.” he holds out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Midoriya.”

Monoma looks contemplative. Then his hands slapped together, the clap ringing through the area. He clapped slowly then quickly as if he expected his whole class to join in with a grand gesture of approval. They didn’t, awkwardly silent minus as they watch Monoma clap faster and faster. Monoma doesn’t seem to notice, not even looking back. Is he lacking that much self-awareness?

Finally, he finishes and grabs Izukus hand, pulling him close. “You seem like a good one.” he smiles. “A smart one.” The teen’s face seemed to relax into a calm, contemplative look. Izuku realizes in a flash that Monoma is a lot more intelligent than he lets on. The manic smirk returns to the blonde’s face as he increases his volume and leans back. “You’ll help 1-B to victory! And shame the pathetic 1-A!”

What the hell was that? Does Monoma have two people in his head too?

Izuku shakes his head, muttering to himself. “No, I think he just puts on an act to seem less threatening. So he’s underestimated.” he sighs. “If I’m going up against him I’ll have to be careful.”

Well, he seemed to trust you enough to let down his guard Mina mused. I wonder if that was him asking to be friends in his own weird, backward way.

_____

Kaminari was leaning in, inspecting Shinsou. Damn, Kaminaris thirsty. Mina giggles in his mind.

Izuku realizes she’s forcing his legs forward and he blushes, frantically trying to stop. “W-wait, I’m not-”

Kaminari is by himself, watching Shinsou, who was talking to some of 1-B. Without his will, Izuku blurts out “So, someones got a crush!”

Kaminari and Kirishima stare, open-mouthed. “N-no I don't!” Kaminari whines an octave too high.

He slaps his hands over his mouth. “Ohmygod I didn’t say that it was Mina-”

Kirishima grins. “Hey, you and Mina are getting better at that trick!”

Izuku nods. “We practiced a lot,” he remembers trying to coordinate movements, Mina using the legs and him using the arms, and a lot of falling over.

“Everyone quiet. I’ll draw the teams now.”

Please don’t be with Bakugo. He thinks to himself, squeezing his eyes shut. He still needs a little more time to cool off, then he’ll be able to look the blonde in the eyes. He really has changed, and Mina can’t disagree with that.

“Hagakure, Oijirou, Momo, Jirou, Izuku.” Aizawa drones. Izuku sighs in releif, then perks up. That team was amazing! Momo especially gave so many options with her quirk.

“Togaru, Pony, Setsuna, Kojiro, Izuku.”

He tries to remember who they were, eventually clicking as they look at him.

Togaru was the guy with sharp fangs and a bug-like face. A good knife quirk Izuku assumed, which could be helpful.

Pony ( Horn buddy! ) can detach and control her horns (Which Izuku saw her doing earlier), which Izuku realizes will be incredibly helpful for transport and distractions.

Setsuna-Izuku doesn’t know what exactly her quirk is, but she winks at him and gives a feral smile. Izuku will ask later.

Kojiro, though, intrigues Izuku the most. His head had an extremely strange mutation, and it opens a little as he stares at Izuku and waved. Oddly adorable, in a dopey way, Mina thought. Was that glue? If so, that would be really helpful for traps! Izuku’s contemplative face seemed to put the teen off, and he turned away sullenly.

They start walking towards him, but Aizawa calls out “Team 1, get to the feild.” Izuku had to go with his 1-A team now. He shoots an apologetic look and rushes towards his team.

He isn’t perfect with using his quirk, not like Mina. She had years and years of experience over him, and the quirk is made for her as well. If she and he can master being in sync, they might have the ability to use each other’s skill sets, which could give them a huge advantage in hero work.

Their opponents would be Shinsou, Awase, Fukidashi, and Honenuki. He takes a deep breath in. Oh, right. And Monoma.

“We need to be careful of Monoma.” Izuku warns right away. The rest of his group looks confused.

“Really?” Jirou asks. “He’d probably choke on his own ego before we got to him.”

He shakes his head. “No, he’s more dangerous then he seems. He’ll try to bait us.”

Oijirou nods. “Right. Also, we’ll need to be really suspicious of Shinsou.” he looks down. “His quirk is terrifying. I really don’t want to hurt you guys.”

Izuku wrinkles his face for a moment. “Oijirou, Shinsou won’t do that.” he points out, rushing to defend his friend. “His quirk wears off by a small jolt.” he scratches the back of his neck. “Honestly, I’d be more scared of your tail. You could snap our necks right now.”

Oijirou looks surprised. “I-I didn’t mean-”

Izuku smiles softly. “I know. People often don’t mean to say things like that.” His mind drifts before he looks back at Oijirou. “You weren’t being malicious.”

He looks up. “Anyway, I know all your quirks, and I have a idea!”

Momo nods. “Alright…” she looks a bit uncertain, but her eyes land on his freckles and they seem more sure. “I think we should listen to you. It is your exam, after all.”

Izuku starts his explanation, and the others listen intently. Just as he finishes-

“Class 1-A, 1-B! Your battle starts now!” the cry caused them all to jolt up and get ready.

The first battle began. Izuku felt his blood boil. This was it.

_____

“Did you hear that?” Manga asks. Everyone turns to him “Yeah, I think the invisible girl is around. I heard really soft footsteps.” He pauses to let his team listen, then puffs out his chest. “I’ll go after her, I can easily take someone with a invisibility quirk.”

Manga ran forward, exited to be the first person to capture another. This was going to be great! The other team had some hard hitters, sure, but he’d pull through with his sheer determination.

Plus, 1-B had Juzo. That guy could win this just by himself, he suspects. He’s easily the strongest in their class, except for maybe Setsuna and Reiko.

His head bubble quickly flips into an exclamation mark when he hears a noise nearbye clanging on metal. Looking around, there was no one.

Until a slippery sound forces his gaze to turn upwards and scream “Barrier!” as two figures plummet from the sky.

They land on the barrier, but a second later Manga hears a deadly hissing and they are on top of him. A kick to the head, his feet are swept under him by a tail, and his back crashes onto the ground, staring up at the tail boy and pink girl’s face.

His teammates are running forward, but he’s  grabbed by the tail boy. The harsh slam of tail against metal precedes him flying through the air, still being held by tail boy.

The pink boy presses his fingers against the pipe next to him, and in a moment they sink into the metal. he lodges his foot in the cevace and melts another hold, farther up. By the time his team catches up, he’s climbed too high to reach.

Manga curses his stupidity as hes taken to the jail.

_____

Izuku winces as he regains control of his arms. All that training, where Izuku controled the upper body whie Mina controlled the legs, and it still felt terrifying when she took control.  That entire climb had been her, and it ended up working, but Izuku’s heart still won’t stop beating faster and faster.

His fingers sting with strain, as well. He shakes them off.

Now I remember why I don’t do that much, Mina thinks.

_____

As Izuku clears the next building, his leap is cut off by tape winding around him. Ah. Shinsou was here. He grabs the tape and acid cleanly severs it in half, albeit much slower than he’s expecting. The capture tape really is extremely strong and durable. Eraserhead hadn’t chosen it for nothing.

He lands on the floor and doesn’t see Shinsou until hes a second away. His fist rushes towards him. Izuku ducks down the pops back up, flicking a tiny bit of weak acid at his eyes. Shinsou blocks it with the capture tape, the fabric suddently coming towards Izuku a moment later.

He feels his legs move faster then he can think, pivoting around the tape before he even realizes whats coming towards him, and the panic and wrongness bubbles up. Obviously Mina saved him there but it still feels terrifying. Just another thing he’ll have to get used to if he wants this advantage.

“Come on, use your super mind, Midori!” Mina says in his mind. Izukus mouth opens to respond but then slams shut as Mina frantically relays that it wasn’t her who said that. Nice try, Shinsou. That was pretty clever.

His arm is squeezed by the tape, then the other one. He feels the tape tighten, Shinsou using it to thrust himself forward, and his leg snaps towards Izuku’s face-

A tail intercepts it, and Izuku finally melts through the restraint. 

“I got this, Midoriya.” Oijirou says, tossing him a unconscious Fukudashi. At least, thats what he assumed, based on how the 1-B student’s face was a cartoonish string of ZZZs.

“Got it.” Izuku nods. “Good luck.” he leaps down the building, leaving the two to sort things out.

Izuku sheepishly admits to himself that he’s hoping Shinsou wins. He never really got to know Oijirou, and Shinsou has so much more to lose.

It doesn’t matter what he hopes, though. This is Shinsou’s fight and he can win it if he plays it right.

Izuku’s rooting for him.

_____

Aizawa pants, looming over All for Ones unconscious body. How in the hell had he done that? This man had almost crushed the symbol of peace, twice, and Aizawa was able to take him out in moments.

Aizawa considers his advantage as he walks towards the wailing sirens that are waiting to transport the villain away. All for One had mentioned how his quirk was a perfect foil to his, and that was true. For all the mans unnatural strength, he really didn’t have that many mutant quirks. Aizawa scoffs; he bet All for One thought of how ridiculous he would look with so many mutations on his body and had chosen to not take any. How inefficient.

Even without the emitter and transformation quirks, it had been an uneven battle with All for One clearly being the stronger party. He’s quite puzzled to how he won.

Later, Toshinori had chuckled. “Aizawa, you do know how parental figures can go beyond their limits when their children are in danger, right?”

Aizawa rolls his eyes. “That only happens in movies.”

“It happens in real life, too.”

Aizawa sips his coffee. “I’m not a good parental figure for these kids.” he remarks. “You’re obviously the one they trust.”

Toshinori sighs, as if Aizawa was the one being illogical. “Aizawa, I was not the one to end up covered in bandages for months protecting my students. You were. Whether they trust you or not, you protect them from danger with the same ferocity as if you were their parent.”

Aizawa pretends not to hear him, taking another sip of coffee.

Chapter Text

“Your pretty boring, you know?”

Duh, Oijirou thinks, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. If that was the best Shinsou could do this might just be a cakewalk. He knows that he’s boring; he’s been like a side character his whole life.

The capture tape zips around his tail as if it has a mind of its own. On instinct Oijirou flexes his tail. The weapon snaps apart and loosens, the fabric falling off his tail. Shinsou is starting to run out of fabric in his scarf-like weapon.

“You must be some kind of pervert, too. I see how you look at Hagakure when she’s not looking.” Shinsou rolls his eyes. “What a weirdo.”

He just called me too normal, and now he’s calling me a weirdo? Oijirou narrows his eyes. The pervert comment made his blood boil, fueling his tail to spring into the wall behind him. He spun around to gain momentum as he surged down towards Shinsou.

“I know you hate me for my quirk.”

Oijirou falters, giving Shinsou the time to dodge. He’s able to gain a little bit of balance, but it’s not enough for him to avoid the painful crack as his leg gives out. It’s not broken, at least.

A heavy boot stomps on his chest, knocking the air out of him. Shinsou leans forward over him. “Midoriya was real great.” he taunts. “He told me all about his friends, and that includes you.”

Midoriya? My friend? Oijirou is itching to tell this guy that he needs to act more like a hero if he wants to be one, instead of speaking so villainously.

“Your tail could snap our necks if you wanted .”

Midoriya was right. Why should Oijirou expect Shinsou to not do this? That was like someone telling him to stop using his tail in battle.

He smiles. Shinsou’s eyes widen in surprise, like the gesture was alien to him. That surprise allowed him to twist over and wind his tail up in a circle, pushing the limb between his back and Shinsou’s face.

His tail springs forward, cleanly bashing Shinsou’s face and sending him flying into a large grey pipe behind him.

Oijirou sighs for a moment. That had to have taken him out, right? He slowly walks over to Shinsou, to check.

He shrieks in pain as a metal pipe crushes his tail, his screech like a wounded animal. He twists around, the tiny motion enough to send signals of pain prickling up his tail, around his shoulders, and down his foot. Shinsou is breathing heavily, sweat dropping down his skin, letting go of the white scarf that had wrapped about the pipe above him.

Shinsou gets up, limping over. He’s clearly expecting a easy win now that Oijirous tail was trapped.

He walks over, taps Oijirous nose. “You should just respond to me. The sooner your in jail the sooner you can get medical-”

Oijirous fist cuts him off, landing a perfect blow on his cheek. Before the lavender haired boy has a chance to stumble backwards, Oijirou kicks his legs out from under him.

He strains to move forward, his tail screaming with pain, but he’s able to grab Shinsou’s leg, pull him towards him, and clamp a hand against his mouth. It doesn’t really matter, though, since Shinsou is clearly unconscious.

His tail aches, and he winces. He takes a deep breath in, plans one foot against the ground, and pushes the beam off. He bites down the shriek.

Shinsou’s eyes flutter open as Oijirou places him in the jail. Oijirou’s tail is still shaking behind him, twitching and jerking with spasms of pain.

“You fought…” he gulps in a breath of air. “Really well.” he stands up straight. “But I’m more then my quirk. Shouldn’t Aizawa have taught you that?”

Shinsou is too out of it to respond. Oijirou breaths in once more, then starts running the other direction.

_____

Izuku breaths a sigh of relief as the bell rings. Time is up, and although 3 members of the opponents team remained, none of them had gotten captured (Except for possibly Oijirou, he hadn’t turned up since he faced Shinsou. Shinsou had been in the jail, though.

When he sees the tailed boy beeing wheeled away, his tail awkwardly bent, he gasps.

“He’ll be okay.” All Might speaks to the class, not looking at Izuku.

Izuku wanted so badly to ask for an autograph, but the #1 hero had been keeping him at a arms distance ever since he arrived at U.A. Izuku knew he bothered his idol, so he kept away.

“1-A wins the round!”

_____

He approaches his 1-B teammates as they offer up their powers. It would be quite a while until his second match, so he had plenty of time.

“M-mine is...uh…” Bondo taps his fingers together, his strange face opening and closing. “I can make glue...from ma’ mouth.” He nervously opens his maw, showing the clear white substance.

“Thats amazing!” Izuku breaths. “You can make so many traps with that kind of power!”

“And with the bonus of not being a perv, like that weird grape from your class!” Setsuna barked a laugh.

Bondo’s maw is still open. Izuku can notice that the big yellow face is a few shades redder.

I think thats a smile Mina guesses. What a big derp.

Izuku’s mind started whirring a mile a minute. Their biggest enemies would be Kirishima and Tokoyami. They didn’t have any hard hitters besides Togaru, and Tokoyami and Kirishima were going to tank them. They’d need to find a way to immobilize them.

“Thats where Bondo can come in” Izuku mumbles. “Dark shadow probably won’t be glueable, but if we restrict Tokoyami to one place...no, but Dark Shadow could break him free.” he pounds his fist into his hand. “Wait! I know!”

“Woah there!” Setsuna says. “Slow down, man. You lost me. What are you talking about?”

Izuku explains his idea for trapping Tokoyami and a smile reaches the sharp-toothed girls face. “Guess we got a smartass in here.” she teases. “Good, we were missing one of those on this team.” she whacks his arm.

Izuku rubs his arm, which is now stinging.

_____

Tokoyami breathed in a deep breath as his teamates geared for the coming fight. He was the center of this band, the one who would do the most. He-

He sees someone, faster then light, rush forward. One against five? This must be a trick, somehow. His guard raises, ready for more to come. Dark shadow twists around him, looking all around for the enemies.

The 1-B student with a bug-like face runs forward and Dark Shadow prepares to strike, when-

Something wet hits Tokoyami’s stomach, and he’s slammed into a pipe. The force sends a ripple through the pipe system around him, the metal tubes rattling uncomfortably. They were close to falling. He tried to pull out of the white substance, but he’s firmly stuck, as if Mineta’s weapons had trapped him.

The bug student had retreated. Tokoyami calls out. “Dark Shadow, free me!”

Dark Shadow flies down and scratches at the glue, but once again the pipes started rattling. One looks signifigantly close to falling out of line. “A trap.” he breaths. His teamates run forward, but he warns “My allies, you should leave me. Any force used to free me will send the entire tower crumbling down. You must flee at once, or the enemy may send this structure down upon you as well.”

“Well, fuck.” Shinsou mutters.

“Language.” Tokoyami pleads. “Now go.”

_____

Kirishima pulls up an arm, blocking the slash from the bug-like hero. He was pretty sharp, but Kirishimas unbreakable has been getting tougher and tougher. He grins and switches to One for All, landing a clean blow to the others back.

The bug got up just as fast, unleashing another flurry of slashes to Kirishima’s arm despite it not working. The determination in the bugs eyes reminded the redhead of Bakugo, but without the keen intelligence the blonde displayed.

Kirishima waited for an opening, hardening starting to weaken and a sliver of blood mixing with his sweat-

Look out!

He ducked, the horns that were coming from behind him piercing the bug hero instead. As the hero regains his balance, Kirishima switches to One for All and slams the green boys face into the dirt. The green-faced teen does not get up this time, unconcious.

He activates hardening as a horn slams into his skin, trying to carry him off. The way they’re coming at him seems like they’re trying to find a place to hook under and carry off. Kirishima grins. That wouldn’t work with his costume.

Mineta and Uraraka seem to have gotten a strange sort of teamwork. Urarakas quirk was ineffective against the horns, so instead Mineta had threw purple stickys to the horns, and Uraraka floated metal objects around as shields, causing the horns to end up slamming into them and being trapped.

Uraraka taps the green-faced student, grabs his lighter then air body, and runs off to the jail. All of the horns are, by now, stuck to floating metal surfaces, so Kirishima and Mineta can probably handle this by themselves. They just need to find Pony now, she can’t be far.

Look out!

Kirishima pushes Mineta into the ground as glue flies above their heads. A yellow-dressed student comes out, sending surges of glue everywhere.

“You guys go! I’ll take freak-head!” Mineta calls. “I’m the better sticky man here, you hear me!?”

Kirishima isn’t sure how much faith in Mineta he should have. Still, he turns to run, One for All rocketing himself forward.

_____

Pony breaths in and out, feeling extremely exposed now that her horns were gone. She and Togaru had been supposed to take out Kirishima. He was tough, but Pony’s horns should have been able to distract Kirishima and his teammates, all while Togaru went in for the kill. Then Bondo would trap the rest while they were busy recovering.

But somehow Kirishima seemed to be able to predict every blow, every danger ahead. Pony had been positive she’d been completely silent, that was one of her biggest strengths (although no one would guess that) and no one on the other team had any tracking quirks.

That doesn’t matter though. Pony ducks under a metal tube, feeling her nerves start to overwhelm her as she hears the loud noise of steel being crushed. She’s gone from the hunter to the hunted in a moment.

“Pony?” a voice calls. Pony sighs in relief. Setsuna could divert her persuers attention. She calls out quietly.

“I’m right here!”

_____

Bondo dodges Mineta’s balls (Oh man, that was so weird to say-). Although their quirks were, at their core, slightly similar, Mineta clearly had the advantage. Despite the uncomfortable implications of the boys quirk, there was much more versatility to it, since even when Mineta missed, he gained a new springboard. The little man was agile, too, and had a good spacial awareness, meaning he was zipping across the battlefield faster then Bondo could see him.

Bondo is hit by something and stumbles for a moment. He feels Minetas grimey claws and feet grappling his head and Bondo shoots out a shower of glue on reflex.. He hears a grunt as Mineta is hit and slams into a wall.

Wait. It’s over that easily? Bondo turns to check, but feels resistance on his foot. He turns in shock to see that Mineta, while grabbing his head, had sent him stumbling into one of his balls. He lowered his head.

A hissing noise brought it back up, and he saw Midoriya, hand pressed up again the trap. “Wow, Bondo, that was great!” he smiles. “Setsuna’s right behind me, we didn’t find any sneak attacks.”

Bondo didn’t think he did so well. He had just been a stumbling oaf while Mineta had been calculating his movements, driving him into a trap.

Midoriya had finished freeing him, and is now freeing the horns, one by one. His quirk...her quirk?...Midoriya’s quirk was really useful when someone on the opposite side had a sticky quirk.

Suddenly all the horns, which had fallen limp after Midoriya freed them, snap to action. Instead of returning to their owner, though, one of them surges towards him.

“Wrong one...wrong-” he mumbles as it hooks into his costume and carries him off. He goes to unhook himself but he’s already so high in the air he can’t. He gulps.

Something is wrong.

From this high up, he can spot something. Pony. Standing next to her was purple hair…

He takes a deep breath, trying to summon his voice. He never really likes speaking, he thinks his voice is ugly, but he’ll have to try anyway.

“MIDORIYA! ITS SHINSOU!” he screams, immediately swallowing his voice back in. Midoriya looks up and Bondo points frantically towards where he saw them. The horn is pulling him away in the air, closing off his window of vision as he soars closer and closer to the 1-A side.

He’s going to be captured, isn’t he?

Bondo sighs.

_____

Izuku and Setsuna start running, but before they can-

Oh no, there’s Uraraka. She grins. “Sorry Midoriya, right now we’re bitter enemies!” she looks tired from floating herself for so long, but she wipes her sweat off.

Uh, sorry to burst your bubble, ‘zuku, but Ocha is insane. She’ll fight you until she passes out. Mina warns. She gave Bakugo a run for his money during the sports festival, which is why she’s the last person I’d want to fuck with. She internally giggles. Ocha’s great, isn’t she?

One of Pony’s horns pokes him in the side, almost finding a hook. Ashido’s reflexes kick in as she snatches one of the horns and melts the tip, Izuku snatching his hands back once he regains control of his arms. Setsuna splits herself up until her arms, legs, and head aren’t attached. “Can’t catch all of me!”

It’s two versus one, plus Pony’s horns. Izuku shifts into a fighting stance, confident that, even with his inexperience, this is something he can win.

Then all of a sudden Izuku senses two - is that three? - more quirks. Is Shinsou going in to fight? That doesn’t seem like his style.

Kirishima lands, holding up a fist in front and grinning confidently alongside Uraraka. Izukus eyes widen. Before, Kirishima had been switching between two of his nine quirks, but the freckled boy feels a third one simmering underneath now, a passive quirk.

Izuku gulps, realizing the odds are now much less in his favor. This is not going to end well.

He and Setsuna are cornered.

Welp, your doomed. Mina sighs. Uraraka by herself is bad enough, but Kirishima?

Izuku turns to face them, feeling a wave of exhaustion as another horn swoops in to grab him. He furiously thinks back I’m not going to give up, though. I’m getting you back into 1-A.

The two 1-A students advance.

Chapter Text

All for One groggily awakens to Taurtarus again.

His limbs are strangely weak and wobbly, as if he was an old man.

He checks his quirks out of curiousity. No, age pause was still working-

Wait a minute. No, that couldn’t be right. He paused his age at 30 years, not-

The memories comes rushing back...Eraserhead. He cancelled out his aging quirk. It shouldn’t have done anything, once he regained it back, but now he realizes he’s still catching up to the age he ‘should’ have been when the aging quirk stopped.

He’s going to die soon.

He lengthily sighs, the guns snapping towards him at the tiny motion. Ah, well. Tomura would carry on his work as if he were the same person as him, if the doctor was successful. He knew it wouldn’t be him in control, much like Izuku Midoriya was never really ‘alive’. It would be a mere copy, with the same memories and personality.

It wouldn’t be him. Or would it?

This whole thing was making him ever so nostalgic.

_____

Eijirou holds up his fist, grinning. “It wouldn’t be manly to let you loose, but…” he steps forward with Uraraka. “It’d be even less manly to not give a fair fight!”

“We won’t need a unfair one, thanks sharky.” Setsuna snarks. The battlefeild is in chaos, limbs and horns flying around.

Eijirou is the first one to spring forward, One for All propelling his movement and Hardening letting him slam into the wall without any damage.

Midoriya pivots away, his hands clapped together and shooting a waterfall of acid at him. It burns a little, but a moment later it stops. He turns, curious, to find Midoriya’s hands shaking.

“Muscle reflex?” he murmers. Ashido had told him about that, but that had come from when she accidentally hurt someone. It was a block her quirk therapist imbued in her. There’s no reason Midoriya would-

Oh, she grabbed his limbs. He winces at Midoriya’s face, tight with panic. Must be stressfull.

As he charges again Midoriya waves his arm, but no acid. His eyes almost popped out of his skull.

Uraraka dodged a floating arm, tapping all the loose rubble in sight. She slaps her fingers together. “Release!”

In a instant the scene had become even more chaotic and hard to see, the horns, body parts, and crashing rubble hitting everyone in sight.

Kirishima coughs at the sandstorm, somehow twisting and turning just before he’s hit by anything too large. He can barely see anything-he dodges-except the dark silhouette of Uraraka floating above the scene.

When the dust settles, Setsuna is lying down, unconcious. Midoriya looks completely stressed out and Eijirou knows exactly why. He hardens his arms, pushing down his guilt. Izuku was the last remaining member of his team, that has to count for something...right?

_____

9 months ago

All for One’s son was dead.

That was...a problem.

All for One sighs, tapping his head. He needed a solution to this, didn’t he?

Nomufication would be ideal...after all, the doctor proved via Kurogiri that keeping the intelligence of the person was something he could do.

The only problem was the matter of there being no body. His son had disappeared, not died. Although one of his many quirks told the #1 villain that his son was indeed dead. 

Perhaps he could find the body? No, he didn’t want to risk revealing himself. The boy had been declared missing for a week by now. Unless someone had preserved his body it was certainly unusable by now, rotting from the inside out.

He grits his teeth. Of course the Symbol of Peace was in the area, yet hadn’t been able to do a thing. It only showed how the hatred of heroes he passed onto Tomura was indeed something that had a core of truth.

Heroes couldn’t save everyone.

But he’d save this one. After all, if he had the power to, why shouldn’t he?

_____

I’m sorry I don’t know how to stop it! Mina cries in Izuku’s mind. I just panicked, okay? It’s like when a muscle tightens up and you can’t stop it.

Izuku dodges a blow, his back hitting the wall. I’m completely screwed… He realizes. Mina finally loosens her grip over the quirk and he makes a arc with his arm, causing Kirishima and Uraraka to back off for a moment.

This is no good. We’re like cornered animals Mina thinks.

Izuku’s eyes are narrowed. His quirk sensing abilities are set on Kirishima. The passive quirk that was active, the second quirk...he was testing how Kirishima might be doing something like that. They flickered like whips at his command, rising up.

He closes his eyes as the two leap towards him, trying to mimic the feeling.

_____

An idea came to All for One in a flash. Yes, there was one thing he had left of his son. He calls to it, fondly sensing his son’s vestige, resting and unaware. The last remnent of the boy.

_____

Kirishima starts in suprise, his legs moving as if he would die if he didn’t.

A horrifically loud rumbling sound rips through the air, Izuku’s hand glowing neon red.

It cast his face in a crimson glow, making it seem pale, his eyes red, and his hair pure white, the horns coal black as if they had been burned to ash.

_____

All for One was already going to do this very procedure to Tomura, with the doctors help. Then, when he ripped One for All from whatever naive, unworthy kid had the quirk, he’d do the same procedure, and finally have his brother back once and for all.

One for All had the last remnent of his little brother. And All for One would use that to bring him back, once he finally got it back. And by doing the same thing with Izuku, his family would be complete. He’d get them to understand, and then they’d all be on board, finally .

He was so very lucky he’d taken Izuku’s quirk so long ago.Back then he had done it out of his desire to keep it from Izuku until he was mature enough to understand how to use it. The doctor had already found out how to force quirked vestiges into a body, taking control. Those test subjects were dead, as he hadn’t wanted them to spill his secrets.

It would be such a pain if he was hounded by those wanting him to save their family members.

He’d reserve this only for his family. His little brother, himself, and...of course…

Izuku. He pulled out his quirk, an adorable tiny version of his own. He’d taken special care to nurture it, so it wouldn’t be absorbed into his own All for One.

Now it would finally be returned to its proper owner, once he found the right vessel. And he’d be able to make sure the most powerful quirk in the world wouldn’t get used for the wrong things.

Shigaraki Hisashi smiled.

All for One. His quirk, and his sons.

_____

The area screeches, metal bending and re-arranging, Uraraka and Kirishima are blown back as the entire landscape bubbles like lava and reformed rapidly, into sharp spikes, protecting it’s master.

Izuku stands in the center, wobbling on his feet. His mind rings, and Mina’s precense in his mind vanished. The place where she used to be in bright white noise.

As the blood rushes back to his head the white noise receeds a little.

...ku? IZUKU! CAN YOU HEAR ME? Mina is screaming at him. Oh my god I felt like I was about to poof into nothing. Like I was sucked in a vaccum…

T...that power felt different from using acid. It feels so familiar, instantly clicking in his mind how to use it. He already knew the quirk; Overhaul.

Was this his quirk? He gasps, exited. If so…

____

Eraserhead runs onto the scene. “Kirishima, is Setsuna alright?” his voice is stern, and Kirishima immediately nods.

“Y-yeah. She’s alright.” He points to a break in the spikes, where they parted to reveal the unconcious hero student.

“Good. Do you know what happened?”

Kirishima shakes his head. 

“Alright. Go back, I’ll handle this.” Aizawa is tense, as if he knows what this is and it’s not good. Kirishima doesn’t care about that, though.

“Not until I know that their okay.”

he starts walking forward but Aizawa pulls him back with the captureAizawa . “No. We don’t know whats going on or if it’s safe.” he glares at his student. “Just because I won’t expel you doesn’t mean I’ll let you throw yourself recklessly into danger. It’s illogical.”

Kirishima backs up at that. “O-okay, sir.”

With caution, the pro navigates over the spikes. “Midoriya. Yell if you’re okay.”

“I-I’m okay!” theres a strain to his voice, though. Aizawa increases his speed.

He finally lands, glaring at the problem child. “Midoriya, if your power has always been this unpredictable you absolutely had to tell us-”

“Please, sir. I need to focus.” Midoriya impudently says.

Aizawa seeths in frustration. Why are all his students acting so impudent? The urge to threaten expulsion is on his toungue, but he holds it back.

Midoriya taps his fingers to his head. It’s silent for a moment. Then-

He blinks awake, groggily. “E-eh?” he says, and-no. Shouta reels. It’s pitched an octave higher-something Ashido does.

“It works!” She cheers, pumping her fists up and down. She cups her hands to her mouth. “Kirishima!” she yells. “We found waht ‘zuku’s quirk is!”

“I can tell!”

“We c…” she yawns, her eyelids flickering. “Can swap...” she collapses, loudly snoring. Aizawa sighs. Problem children.

_____

The moment Mina’s eyes open, she realizes a few things.

1. She was in control
2. Nezu was here

“Oh, I see you’re awake Ms. Ashido.” Nezu said. There was a tiny amount of disappointment in his voice. “I was hoping for Midoriya, he was much more fun to speak with.” he laughs. “That isn’t something I should be saying to someone who has just re-entered their own body. Welcome back.”

Mina nods. “Thanks, dude!”

Nezu sighs sadly. Jeez, he really did prefer Izuku. “I’m really here to announce the results of both your and Shinsou’s performance during the join training exersize.” he smiles. “You passed. Congratulations. From now on, both you and Midoriya will be attending U.A as hero students.”

Izuku’s relief is so strong it almost makes Mina fall asleep, until his excitement makes her want to sprint around and tell everyone in earshot. She can’t think of what to say before Nezu continues.

“However, as All for One’s son, Midoriya-and by extension, you - are not going to be allowed to participate in internships or the sports festival. At least, not publicly. The nature of your quirk would bring U.A quite a lot of flack. You may participate only if you can guarantee you won’t use All for One or any of the stolen quirks.”

“Gotcha!” Mina says, Nezus instructions leaving her head immediately. Izuku frantically grabs them and takes mental note for her.

“Oh, and one more thing. You know about One for All, correct?”

Mina suddently realizes that, yes, she does know. That must be Izuku’s knowledge, though. The information sinks in a moment later and Mina shrieks. “Kiri’s got ALL-”

Her words are cut off by a high pitched laugh from Nezu. “How hilarious!” he chuckles a bit more. “It’s a shame such a funny joke can’t be shared with anyone else.”

Mina realizes what he’s saying a moment later and puts a finger to her lips. “I got your drift, dude.” she grins. “So it’s this big secret, huh?” She loved being in on secrets! It was a rare treat though, as if people think she’d blab or something. Weird.

Nezu looks just as cheerful, not a drop of sweat on his fur. “Wonderful.” he hands her papers. “Now, after the last incident involving family reunions, we’ve decided you’ll get to choose who you’ll stay with when your not housed in the dorms. I assume you’ve thought at length about this?”

Mina nods, making grabby hands. “Sure have.” She grabs the paper and starts writing.

“Now, unfortuanetly this can’t go into effect until Izuku has signed it as well, so-”

Mina snaps her fingers. “No prob.” she starts to dip under, to let Izuku into control, but she feels her nerves start wobbling like jelly in her stomach at the prospect of giving up control.

Why is she feeling so scared? She takes a few deep breaths, grits her teeth and pushes through, letting herself fall-

Izuku gasps, feeling as if he’s just emerged from water. “I-I need to sign something?” he asks. Nezu smiles.

“Ah, so you’ve found a way to control it?” Nezu says. “Good. Although it took…” he tapped a watch on his wrist. “35 minutes and 4 seconds. Not very practical.”

“Y-you’ve just been standing there the whole time?” Izuku stammers. “I shouldn’t have wasted your time like that, sir-”

“You did nothing. Miss Ashido chose to swap consciousness.” Nezu simply replies. “And even if you did, I enjoy finding new information, especially when it comes to helping my students.” he smiles.

See? Blatant favoritism. Mina huffs.

Izuku feels no doubt as he grabs the pen. This is the best decision for both of them, he knows.

He signs the form that gives Midoriya Inko guardianship over both of them. When not living in the dorms, Mina’s parents will get both of them over the weekends, but Izuku’s mom will take care of them most of the time.

He finishes his scribbly signature. Mina’s cocktail of guilt, relief, and apprehension curls his stomach, but he smiles. This feels like the right option.

_____

All Might was teaching U.A’s class 1-A. What a perfect opportunity to humiliate the symbol of peace once again, show him that he could never be allowed to safely care for anyone. All for One grinned at the opportunity.

Which of All Mights students would become a vessel for Izuku?

His son had short, curly hair, a strong lower body, was slightly scrawny, and was 166 centimeters tall. Anyone with a similar description would do just fine, as differing traits would bleed out eventually once the quirk was injected and his sons vestige had taken hold.

He watched as the pixelated imaged of the young heroes-to-be walked into the stadium.

All for One was able to find a few with short hair right away. Endeavors son, Todoroki Shouto, would stir up more of a panic then he would like. After all, his succesor was going to kidnap Bakugo Katsuki soon, and if he stole Tomura’s thunder he may have quite the tantrum that All for One really didn’t want to deal with.

The measurement sight quirk told him that Kaminari Denki was almost exactly the right height, but All for One didn’t want to give his son such a inefficient quirk that would hinder his mind. The blonde was off the table.

Kirishima Eijirou had short hair when it wasn’t gelled, but since he was the current holder of One for All, he was off the table. His little brothers quirk was just too unpredictable to risk damaging, or worse, destroying.

All for One preferred to target the loved ones of his enemies, to crush their spirit before ending them. He knew how much it would make them hurt. And it just so happened that the current holder of his dear brothers quirk had one such attachment, a childhood friend in his class.

Short hair, 159 centimeters in height. Ashido Mina fit the criteria like a glove. Low grades indicated she didn’t have much mental fortitude, making it easier for his son to fully take control, or at least it meant less resources would be dedicated towards her rescue. Further investigation proved that although she did fairly well in the sports festival, she hadn’t gotten a single offer from a agency, likely due to her obvious mutations and quirk that only just escaped being labeled villainous due it being dunked in a pink discuise.

A year or two after she disappeared, no one would remember or care beyond how it damaged U.A’s reputation.

Acid would be a lovely first quirk for his son, wouldn’t it?

_____

The moment Mina opens through the door to Izuku’s home she’s enveloped in a hug from Inko. She cringes, knowing it’s not for her.

“Err...sorry, but-” she’s cut off.

“I know.” Inko says. She doesn’t speak for a moment, and Mina can’t help but hug back, even though the womans pretty much a stranger. Izuku’s love for his mom makes her feel warm now, instead of jealous.

The other woman finally speaks. “Thank you for taking care of my son.” she whispers.

“It was more like he took care of me, to be honest.” she corrects.

Inko lets go, looking embarrassed. “How rude of me. I just...Izuku hadn’t had anyone on his side for so long…” she shakes her head. “I’ve made dinner already, just come in.”

Mina feels super hungry, especially with nervousness. She was suprised at how welcoming Inko was, but Izuku was cheerfully unsuprised.

Mina realizes she’s just been standing there. She shakes herself off and enters.

_____

All for One looked over to the test subjects (Who’s names he only vaguely remember, and only then because it was relevant to the testing), who looked shaken but alive. That was much more then they had been a few weeks ago. “Have you questioned them?” he asked the doctor.

“It’s finally working. The other ones seemed like nomu, but these…” the doctor grinned. “That quirk you gave him...the original owners name was Keith, correct?”

“Right.”

“That’s what he said his name was, once he was awake enough.”

“Perfect.” All for One smiled.

“Master? What do you suggest we do with the subjects?” The doctor asked.

All for One grabbed the test subjects head. In a moment, a bloody spear burst out of his palm and stabbed through the brain of the subject, killing him instantly.

“I can’t have anyone spilling this. It would be extremely tiring to deal with desperate hooligans asking for me to bring back their loved ones. Kill any of your lab rats, doctor.”

He dried the blood off his hands with a nearby towel.

“I will bring you the vessel during Tomura’s attack on the training camp. Are you ready?” he asked, knowing what the doctors answer would be.

The doctor nodded. “Of course.”

_____

Present

All for One drifts out of his memories, feeling the cold, harsh seat and the aching of his bones settle in. How many days does he have left? A week? Less?

He speaks to his guards in Tautarous. “Guards, I have a question for you.”

No one moves, only staring at the supervillain. “Do you see my hands? They are so much frailer then before.” he sighs at length. “I am a dying father. I only left my prison to see my son one last time. Would you give a dying man one more chance to say goodbye to his family. Could you request my son come to talk to his old man?”

A long silence.

“No.”

Chapter Text

Mina got the call early in the morning. She stretches, yawning extensively. It was probably Ochaco reminding her she had catch-up class so she wouldn’t be late again. She huffs, grabbing the phone. She’s been taking extra classes for forever by now. Aizawa insisted she needed to do the darn things for the rest of her 2nd year.

The call isn’t from Uraraka, however. Instead, she saw a angry blonde pop up on the phone screen. Weird, they didn’t talk much anymore. She still hangs out with him, but only when it was with the rest of the Bakusquad.

“De-Midoriya?” Bakugo says through the phone, sounding rather shaken. “W-we found it.”

Bakugo should have been interning right now, shouldn’t he? Mina shrugs, then tags out. This is Izuku’s job.

Izuku shook his head, feeling like he’d just woken up. “Kacchan?”

“We found the body.”

Izuku stiffens. “I-I’m on my way.” he feels awake all of a sudden as he leaps out of bed, slips on his binder, and rushes out.

_____

Oh my god.

Izuku thinks the same thing as he stares at the corpse. He can’t look away from the face, mouth open like he was vommiting, slack like a puppet whos strings were removed long ago. His arm was a bloody stump, his face rotting off. His stomach was open to the word, likely due to some creature feasting on it. It had been floating in a tube, in one of the leagues old labs that were still being discovered even after they had disbanded.

Izuku can put together the pieces. All for One must have found him like this. No wonder he chose not to use it. Izuku winces, tearing his gaze away at long last.

“What should we do with it?” Bakugo asks, anger biting his voice. As usual, the blonde was clamping a tight lid over whatever mixed emotions he felt.

_____

Izuku is attending his own open-casket funeral.

At least, he would be, if he had been in the driver’s seat. Instead, Mina’s in front.

It’s probably the most upbeat funeral Mina has ever seen. Everyone’s chatting, and the only silence came when someone’s eyes went to the casket. Not even morose silence, just a little awkwardness that came when talking to someone whose funeral you’re at.

“Mina? It’s you, right?” a wobbly voice came up to her. She turns around and hugs her mom, tight.

“Can’t breath, honey!” Inko’s frantic voice causes Mina to loosen the embrace.

“Sorry mom.” she apologizes. Inko gives a nervous smile.

“This feels like a fever dream, to be honest.”

Izuku switches in at that point. “I can get you h-home if you want. I-I didn’t mean to suggest this to upset-”

“Izuku, sweetie, it’s fine. I’m fine.” Inko seems to be holding herself together rather well. “I mean, your here, even if…” she breaths in. “E-even if your also in there.”

He hugs his mom, gentler then Mina would. “I’m not going to leave you again, mom.”

How on earth did All for One and her get together? I need that story, Izuku! Mina orders. Izuku thinks back. I don’t think this would be the best time.

He doubts Inko wanted to think of All for One ever after she found out who he was and what he had done. He was gone now, though. Eraserheads quirk had stopped All for Ones immortality quirk, meaning he rapidly aged over the course of the next week until he was nothing but dust.

Bakugo walks up to him. “Midoriya, this is your shittiest idea yet.” he barks. “I’m not staring at your fucking corpse for a hour.”

“Bakugo, swear jar!” Kaminari drawls, a wide grin on his face. Bakugo tightens his glare and turns on the electric boy.

“Fuck off!”

_____

Kirishima gives a sharp-toothed grin. “Man, what should we call this? A...reverse funeral?”

Mina snorts absentmindedly.

The redhead continues. “This is so manly! It’s real weird, but I like it!”

“Kirishima.”

Kirishima looks at Mina, puzzled. “Huh?”

T-thanks for helping me come to terms with this…” she gestures to herself, her altered body, with her square fingers and round nose and freckles. “This. And for being the bravest person I know.”

“Bakugo-”

“Bakugo will fight anyone.” she objects. “You protect people. There’s a big difference.”

Kirishima is silent for a moment, then nods. “Like Crimson Riot!”

Mina opens her mouth but Izuku interrupts (rude).

“No,” Izuku says. “Like All Might. You two are really similar, aren’t you?”

He shakes his head. “Wha-? No, I got nothing in common with All Might. ” he crosses his arms and looks away. Mina wants to surprise Kirishima about their knowledge of his secret, so they’ve stayed silent.

The conversation drifts off, and he’s alone with his thoughts. And Mina.

Izuku isn’t at peace as he stares at his corpse, not quite. He’s not magically comfortable in his skin. If he could reverse this, go back to the day before he died, he would do it in a heartbeat.

But he can’t.

And he’s ready to move on.