Chapter Text
“Kacchan, your quirk is so cool!” Izuku squeals, eyes shining as he looks at his brave, confident friend. They’re in preschool class and Bakugou had just shown a little of his quirk for show and tell, a little explosion from his hand that went boom.
“Yeah it is,” Bakugou smirks, crossing his arms and staring at Izuku with a toothy grin, “So you better hurry up and get your quirk so we can be heroes together!”
Izuku nods, pumping his fist in excitement, “Yeah, just like All Might!”
They busy themselves the rest of the day with play, working on building a massive fort out of foam blocks. Izuku is so happy for his best friend, excited that he’s got such a cool quirk. They build quietly for a while until Izuku can’t hold in his thoughts anymore.
“Kacchan, what d’you think my quirk’ll be?” Izuku asks curiously, his eyes sparkling with excitement, “If you have ‘splosions, then what if I had something cool too, like fire or something? My mom says my dad could breathe fire.”
Bakugou huffs, crossing his arms, “No way, fire is dumb. Every other idiot has a fire quirk. You need something really, really cool. Like….like rocket power hands.”
“Wouldn’t that make it hard to eat?” Izuku asks, tilting his head.
Bakugou blushes, “I don’t know, just…you better make it something cool! If we’re gonna be hero partners, your quirk has to be cool.”
Izuku’s stomach twists, quiet for a little while. He can’t control what his quirk is, and that might mean he loses his best friend. What if his quirk isn’t cool? What if it’s something weak, or not able to be used in a fight?
“If I don’t have a cool quirk, will you still be my friend?” Izuku asks quietly. Bakugou stops building for a second to look at Izuku up and down, his eyebrow raising.
“Of course, idiot,” Bakugou scoffs, “But you will have a cool quirk, so it doesn’t matter, dummy.”
They build for a while longer, Izuku’s spirits lifted, when their teacher calls time for lunch. They’ve finished their fort and Bakugou tells him that they can eat lunch inside of it. Izuku’s sitting down finishing stacking the last block, when Bakugou holds out his hand to help Izuku up.
Izuku smiles, taking his friend’s hand when everything around him seems to stop.
The classroom fades around him and Izuku can vaguely hear someone calling his name. He can’t move, rooted to the spot, when things begin dancing in front of his eyes that he can’t begin to understand.
Izuku sees a hero, one he doesn’t know, falling through a cloudy sky in a ruined city. The hero is bloody, unmoving, as they fall. Their body looks broken and their face is covered in blood. There’s something familiar about the hero, his spiky blonde hair, his face. His hands are covered in what look like big grenades and there’s a giant scar across his face.
Izuku winces as the hero slams into the ground and doesn’t move. The city around him seems silent, the rain pouring down, the hero’s blood running like a river around the ruined cement. Soon after, another hero in a black jumpsuit flies over to the motionless body.
“Kacchan, no,” the hero sobs, shaking the blood-covered hero, “No, no, you can’t die like this, someone help us, p-please…”
Izuku’s heart drops. Kacchan. Kacchan. The hero, the bloody hero, falling through the sky, slamming into the ground, is his best friend. And the hero in the black jumpsuit is him.
He just watched Kacchan die.
Izuku’s heart hammers in his chest, trying to walk away from the scene, but all he can see is Kacchan falling over and over and over, slamming into the ground, and dying. Dead. Kacchan, dead. Izuku’s going to be sick and his head hurts.
“Izuku!” someone cries next to him, but Izuku’s eyes roll back into his head and he feel himself falling down as everything around him fades, even the horrific vision of his best friend, falling to his death.
When Izuku’s eyes snap back open, he’s on the floor in the classroom, their little fort decimated around them. His classmates are crying and Izuku sees Kacchan with tears in his eyes being held back by a teacher. Izuku’s laying on his side and his teacher is next to him, on the phone with her eyes wide and scared.
“Yes, a seizure,” she says, voice professional, but shaky, “His eyes are open but he’s unresponsive. It lasted at least thirty seconds, but I wasn’t able to time it. We need an ambulance here, immediately.”
“I-Izuku,” Bakugou sobs from the corner, “Let go of me! Izuku, are you okay?”
Izuku doesn’t understand. Kacchan died. He saw it. Kacchan is going to die. He knows it, in his bones. He saw Kacchan die. It wasn’t a dream, it was a vision.
“Midoriya, you just had a seizure,” his teacher tells him when she’s off the phone, “I need you to stay still, sweetheart. We’ve called your mother and she’s going to meet you at the hospital. I’ll ride with you in the ambulance.”
Izuku passes out before he can say anything, his mind totally overwhelmed from the terrible scene he had witnessed and the trauma of having a seizure. His brain shows him visions of Kacchan’s death in his sleep, over and over, and Izuku wakes himself up eventually with his own tears.
“Izuku!” his mother’s voice gasps next to him, sounding tearful and afraid, “Sweetheart, it’s mom. Open your eyes, honey, I’m right here. You’re okay, Izu, everything’s okay.”
Izuku blinks his eyes open, feeling tears stream down his cheeks as he locks eyes with his worried mother. The room comes into focus and it’s clear to Izuku he’s in a hospital, although he’s not sure how long it’s been since he had that terrible vision.
“M-Momma…” Izuku hiccups, “I…I…s-saw…something bad.”
His mom’s eyes widen, as if she hadn’t expected him to say that, leaning over to kiss Izuku’s forehead. The moment her lips touch his skin, Izuku feels that same, sickening sensation as before. He half expects to see hero Kacchan dying again, but this time it’s different.
He sees his mom, but instead of the hospital, she’s at their apartment. The lights are all off and she’s humming to herself, cooking something over the stove. Everything looks normal until a loud explosion rocks the building, making her fall down.
“Oh god,” his mom says, “Izuku.”
Izuku watches helplessly as his mom stands, dirt and debris falling from the ceiling. Whatever the explosion was, it’s making their entire apartment building shake apart. His mom tries to run towards Izuku’s room, but a large piece of the ceiling falls, hitting her on the head. She collapses, her eyes opening and staring, completely unmoving.
“M-Mommy?”
Izuku looks to see himself coming out of his own room, his face pale and horrified as he rushes to his mother’s side, “Momma, wake up! Mommy!”
Izuku watches himself scream as the apartment shakes around them, cracks appearing in the wall. Izuku sees himself curl around his mother’s motionless body, and he half expects he’ll watch himself die, too. Instead, a hero that he vaguely recognizes swings into the building, grabbing Izuku and launching out the window.
“No, no, mom!” Izuku watches himself scream.
He gasps, shooting his eyes open and realizing he’s back in the hospital. He’s surrounded by doctors and lots of sharp voices, beeping machines. His mom is sobbing in the corner, being consoled by a nurse. Izuku can only be relieved that she’s alive, not dead, not with a piece of the ceiling caving in her skull-
“He’s awake,” one of the doctor’s says, “That seizure was forty-nine seconds long, make a note of that. Izuku, can you hear me?”
Izuku blinks up at the doctor, tears welling in his eyes. His mom. Kacchan. He had seen so many terrible things today. Why? Kacchan just took his hand and mom kissed his forehead, why was he seeing so many bad things?
Izuku nods, not wanting anyone to touch him. If they touch him, he’ll see the bad things again, he’s sure of it. He chokes out a little sob, burying his face against the pillow. His body aches, his head hurts, and he feels like he’s going to throw up any minute.
Izuku hears talking, hears the nurses talking to his mother, feels them touch him with rubber gloves and wearing scary masks and Izuku wants them to go away. Kacchan is going to die, mom is going to die, Izuku can’t stop it he can’t stop it.
The flurry of activity around his bedside eventually settles down and Izuku trembles from exhaustion and fear. A long time later, Izuku feels someone rubbing his back through the blanket and hears some gentle humming. His mom.
“Sweetheart, it’s going to be alright,” she says, sounding like she’s been crying, “The doctors are going to figure out why you’re having these seizures and then we’re going to take you home, honey.”
Izuku blanches, remembering the explosion and the ceiling hitting momma and watching her blank, listless eyes…
“D-Don’t wanna go h-home,” Izuku sobs, pulling the blanket over his head, “N-No…”
“Izu, honey,” his mom says soothingly, although he can hear the tears in her voice, “Why, baby? What’s going on?”
Izuku keeps his head covered, wanting someone to help him. “B-Because…if we g-go home, you’re going to die. I s-saw it, momma. I saw it. I d-don’t, I’m scared!”
There’s a silence and Izuku feels the blanket being very gently pulled down so his mom can see his face. She looks shocked, but not scared, just keeping a gentle hand on his back through the blanket.
“What do you mean, you saw it?” she asks, voice tight, “Izuku…are you saying you had some kind of vision?”
Izuku nods, his eyes haunted and dark. “S-Saw Kacchan. He was…big and he…he f-fell, momma, and he was all c-covered in blood. And then y-you….saw you get h-hit by the ceiling and our house was f-falling down and you d-died.”
His mother’s eyes widen, but she only soothes him as she presses the button for the nurse. Izuku closes his eyes while she rubs his back, whispering soothing things to him. A little while later, Izuku hears his mom and the doctor talking.
“He needs to see a quirk counselor,” his mom says quietly, tears thick in her voice, “I think…I think he has some kind of vision-based quirk. I think it manifested today. I know my baby, he never has had nightmares like this, and you said his epilepsy tests were negative.”
“Alright, ma’am, we’ll send someone in soon.”
The quirk counselor is a little scary, but Izuku does his best to talk to them. Since they’re in the hospital and Izuku is weak from his scary day, they can’t do a lot of tests, but the counselor asks him a lot of questions.
“You said you saw the vision of your friend Kacchan when he took your hand?” the counselor asks, and Izuku nods. “Alright. And then the vision of your mother, when she kissed your forehead?”
Izuku nods again, gripping the blanket. The counselor sighs, looking at him with sad eyes.
“Izuku, I know this might be very distressing for you, but we need to test something. Will you take my hand? You might see some scary things again, but your mother and your doctor are both here if something goes wrong.”
Izuku feels a deep fear in his heart, but he nods, wanting answers. He wants to understand why he’s seeing the bad things. He gently takes the counselors’ hand, and his eyes widen in horror.
He sees his quirk counselor, but the man is much, much older. He has white hair and a beard and is standing outside in what looks like a nice garden. He’s bending over to smell a flower when he suddenly grabs his chest, groaning, and keeling over on the ground.
Izuku’s eyes snap open and he shakes on the hospital bed, his eyes wide and horrified. He brings his own hands up to the sides of his face, rocking back and forth a little on the bed.
“No seizure,” the doctor says quietly, “It seems like that was much shorter than the other incidents as well.”
“Izuku,” the quirk counselor says quietly, “I know this might be very hard to explain, but may I ask you what you just saw? This is important if we are going to understand your quirk.”
Your quirk. Your quirk. This awful, terrible thing, was Izuku’s quirk.
Izuku chokes on a sob, wiping at his eyes. “Y-You were old. You…you fell down and stopped b-breathing. I d-don’t wanna see these things anymore, I d-don’t wanna see!”
“Oh, baby,” Izuku’s mother cries, rushing over, careful not to touch Izuku’s skin, “Sweetheart, I’m so, so sorry.”
Izuku sobs for a long while, pressing his face into the sheets while the counselor, his doctor, and his mom all talk together. After a while, he looks up, his mom still rubbing his back, and the counselor is there holding a sheet of paper.
“Izuku, your quirk is very powerful,” the counselor says, sounding a little grave, “We believe you can see the death visions when you touch people with skin-to-skin contact. When the visions are longer, your mind is overwhelmed and your body seizes. This is a dangerous quirk, young man, and you will need a lot of support and training. Mrs. Midoriya, I strongly suggest not only quirk counseling, but general therapy as well as homeschooling until Izuku can get this under control.”
Izuku’s eyes are wide, but he says nothing, curled on the hospital bed. Death visions? Izuku’s quirk is seeing…seeing death? He’s so, so scared, unable to understand and unable to stop the tears as they fall. He’s going to see those horrible things for the rest of his life, and if he doesn’t….
It means no one can touch him ever again. No hugs. No forehead kisses. No high fives. Izuku’s going to be alone, scared and alone forever, because his quirk makes him see things that are bad.
Izuku cries, burying his face into the pillow, his body aching and his head smarting with agony. This is terrible, this isn’t the kind of quirk he wanted, if this is truly what having a quirk is, Izuku would rather be quirkless. He doesn’t want to see this, he doesn’t want to know.
“Izuku, sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” his mom sniffs, “Doctors, do you think…is there anything we can do to help? Support items, or adaptive items? Things to make it so people won’t accidentally touch his skin?”
“Yes ma’am, we can send you home with some things to try,” the doctor says quietly, “But I am mostly concerned about your son’s seizures. If they’re connected to when his quirk is activated, it’s likely he will have many more in the future. Despite the fact he doesn’t have an actual illness that is causing them, we want to put him on medication and give you some action plans, in case he has another seizure again.”
Izuku stops listening. He’s scared. Kacchan, falling. Momma, dying crushed by a building. The doctor, his heart stopping. What can he do? He has to save them! He has to stop it all from happening, there’s no way he can just stand by and let them die like that.
When he’s finally released from the hospital, Izuku has dark circles under his eyes and he’s hardly slept, plagued by nightmares. He’s wearing new special gloves the doctors had given him so he can still hold hands with his mom, despite it being warm out.
“It’s going to be okay, honey,” his mom says, her voice trembling, “I promise, everything’s going to be fine.”
It isn’t.
Izuku doesn’t go to school anymore, which means no Kacchan. His mom had called Bakugou’s mother on the phone, explaining what happened in hushed whispers, but Izuku had heard anyway. His quirk is scary and bad, and he won’t get to see his friend in class anymore.
On top of that, their apartment terrifies him. He keeps seeing momma die, hit by the falling ceiling from the explosion, the mysterious hero pulling him from the building. Izuku hasn’t touched anyone since the hospital, but he’s still plagued by nightmares of the visions he had already seen.
He spends most of his time curled on the couch, watching videos of All Might and other heroes, wishing that he had some kind of quirk, even a boring fire quirk, anything other than this terrible power that Izuku doesn’t understand.
“Izuku, sweetheart,” his mom says one afternoon, “Do you want to see Katsuki? He’s been begging to come over and see you. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch you.”
See Kacchan? Izuku nods, he wants his best friend. But the vision of older Kacchan slamming into the wet pavement of a destroyed city floods him and his eyes tear up. He doesn’t want Kacchan to die, not ever.
Bakugou and his mother arrive later that afternoon and Izuku’s eyes well up when he sees his friend. Kacchan comes right over and moves to hug Izuku, but Izuku flinches back, pressing himself into the couch. His mom cries when he does it, Bakugou’s mom rubbing her arm.
“What’s wrong?” Bakugou asks, pulling back his hand, “Mom says I can’t touch you and we can’t even high five. What happened? No one tells me anything.”
Izuku wipes his eyes, scooting a little further away from his friend. “It’s m-my quirk. I c-can’t touch people anymore.”
Bakugou’s eyes widen, looking excited, “What? You got your quirk? What is it, what does it do?”
Izuku bursts into tears, choking out sobs into his hands, remembering his promise to have a good quirk so he and Kacchan could be hero partners. But this quirk, this is something else. His quirk is scary and bad.
“I d-don’t like it,” Izuku wails, while Bakugou watches in shock, “I w-wish I was j-just quirkless!”
Bakugou’s jaw drops as Izuku cries, moving to grab his arm without thinking. Izuku’s mom gasps and Bakugou’s mom says, “No, Katsuki, stop!” but it’s too late. Bakugou’s fingers graze the skin between Izuku’s gloves and his shirtsleeve, and the damage is done.
Izuku’s eyes roll into the back of his head and he is lost again, in a vision.
He sees Bakugou again, older, but he’s not in the ruined city anymore. This time, he’s standing, breathing hard in what looks like a forest at night time. He’s covered in blood and one of his arms is hanging limply at his side. There’s others around him, but they look scary.
“We don’t want this brat,” someone says, someone that Izuku can’t see, “Kill him, it’s not worth it.”
Izuku watches in horror as a knife flings from the darkness, and hits Bakugou in the heart. His red eyes widen before he pitches forward, landing in the dirt face down. Dead.
“I need you to time it,” someone is saying, their voice shaking over Izuku, “We need to know how long it lasts.”
Izuku blinks his eyes open, finding himself on the floor of the living room. Bakugou, his Bakugou, is looking at Izuku in horror. Izuku’s body aches and his head pounds. Another seizure. He’s had another seizure.
His mom is kneeling over him, holding Izuku’s gloved hand.
“It’s okay sweetheart, it was another seizure,” she says calmly, although her voice wobbles, “You’re going to be alright.”
“What did he see?” Bakugou’s mom asks, her voice sounding tight, “He…he saw Katsuki, right? Izuku, what did you see?”
“Don’t ask him that,” his mom snaps, her voice filled with tears, “D-Don’t make him tell you, please.”
Izuku is confused, clinging to his mother while Bakugou cries behind him. He’s confused because Bakugou died differently this time. He wasn’t in his hero costume and he looked younger than the first vision. The death was different. Izuku doesn’t know why, but his friend’s future has changed.
Kacchan’s gonna die even younger.
Izuku is too tired to cry, too exhausted to explain, so he lets his eyes fall closed, trying not to let horror overwhelm him. If this terrible, awful thing is his quirk, Izuku’s going to have to make his peace with it. He’s going to have to try to use it to save his friend, his mom.
He won’t let them die. Not like this.