Archive of Our Own

Work Text

What makes someone human? Is it a title we were born with? The title of ‘human’ that comes from being born of two human parents? A title the two parents were born with because their parents and the parents before were born with the title? Down to biology, thus.Or is it because humans look a certain way?But…There are humans who don’t look ‘human’, like heteromorphs and people with quirks that give them distinctly not human characteristics. Is it the fact that humans are more intelligent than animals? But no, animals with intelligence quirks rival and in some cases far surpass human intelligence.Then, does it come down to morals?A sense of right and wrong, the norm that tells us when someone has lost their title of ‘human’ and instead is a monster. But who decides what’s right and what’s wrong? Do animals with quirks, such as principal Nezu, deserve the title of ‘human’ if they abide by human morals?And…when does one stop being human?Is it only when we go against human morals? Do the forbidden? Do things so repulsive, vile, sadistic and… evil .. . Or does one also stop being human if they were unwillingly turned into a ‘monster’? Forced to do something they had never wanted to do?In the end, it doesn’t matter what makes one human and what makes one a monster.Izuku had thought of this a long time ago, the question of his humanity. Over the course of his life, he had come to the natural conclusions of his questions. Someone is born a human, but can stop being a human. What stops one from being a human, then? Everything that makes a human, a human. Their biology, something that had changed in Izuku ever since his fourth birthday, and their morals, something Izuku had to go against with every breath he took.Izuku realized what he was that day when he was 7, when his hunger had almost killed him and forced him to eat what it was starving for.Izuku realized he was not human. He hadn’t been for a long time.It hurt, that realization, it hurt so bad that he wanted to claw out his insides and scream his lungs out. He felt the crushing shame that came with his quirk, the guilt he felt for his selfishness, the selfishness he exhibited everyday by putting himself above the safety of everyone else. It crushed him into silence, into cowardness, into isolation.  Because, in every sense of the word, he was a monster.This too, did he realize that day when he was 7 and his hunger had won out on him.And now, at thirteen years of age, does Izuku realize that hiding was the wrong decision. He realized that trying to make up for everything he took from this world was the wrong decision. That not ending it for everyone that day when he was 7, was the wrong decision. There was only one question that Izuku asked himself, now more so than ever before.
Why am I alive?
He took and he took and he took, took, took, took from this world. He took the calves of sad people who had felt driven to the point of no return, of innocent people who did not deserve such a fate. He took the arms, he took the belly, he took and he took and he kept on taking bites out of people with a tragic ending, with family and friends who wondered what had happened to them.The guilt and the shame crushed him. He knew he was selfish, letting himself live while he knew what it took to keep him alive. So he tried to make up for it. He tried to make up for it by going out at night and saving innocent people, fighting crime and reporting suicide victims. He tried to make up for everything he did wrong, but this was the wrong decision. Because, in the end, he did what every monster does.He took someone’s life. He took Shima Noboyuki’s life.And nothing he did, nothing he could ever do, would make up for it. The guilt and the shame, that felt like a boulder trying to crush him, turned into crashing waves drowning him in watery depths, until even that boulder felt like a small pebble on his shoulder in the presence of the weight of the water above him. And he just kept sinking further, drowning and sinking and drowning and drowning, drowning, drowning, drowning. And again he had asked himself, Why am I alive? And no one had answered.One night he was at home, he was busy cooking dinner. He was alone, alone with his thoughts, alone as he drowned. So he took the knife, the knife he used to make the food for his mother, and pointed it at his throat. With all the force he could muster, he tried cutting his throat, to cut his aorta and the carotid artery that hid beneath it.But nothing had happened, the knife shattered as if a glass dragged along a rocky path.And again he had asked himself, Why am I still alive? But no one had answered. His mother arrived just as he had cleaned up the shards and swept the floor, no trace of his earlier failure left.And as they ate and chatted about their day, Izuku had thought and he had remembered.
Ah, this is why I’m still alive.
His mother, the woman who worked herself to the bone just to feed her son, a son who threw up the food she worked so hard for right after, was the reason he kept on living. She was his reason for living, this had been the case since a long time ago, since before Izuku could be called nothing but a monster…And now, all he could do was cling onto her even more. Cling onto her, his reason for living, like the selfish, lying, evil, man-eating monster he was.It didn’t help much. He was still drowning.And as he drowned, he had felt the best he had in years, knowledge that he tried to ignore through every minute of the day. Not emotionally or mentally, of course, but physically. He could run miles in minutes, could smell so sharply he had to breathe through his mouth just to breathe through the overload of scents (of people’s biochemistry, the perfumes and numerous deodorants, the smell of mold and sewage), could hear the flutter of a butterfly’s wings and could see so well he could even see at night.It only crushed him further. He was not allowed to feel good. He had to hurt. He had to suffer. So he did. He made himself suffer in hopes of making it up to Shima Noboyuki, even slightly, although he knew that all he was doing was wrong. It was wrong because it would never be enough, it would never make up for his wrongdoing. Yet still, he did it. He forced himself to eat the food he would usually throw up, like the human being he hoped he was supposed to be but knew he never would be. He didn’t sleep anymore, not that he did much of that before. The short hours when he did fall unconscious were restless nightmares of all the people he had wronged in life, of wailing ghosts and screaming voices; the nightmares punishment for daring to fall asleep, like all his dreams before. He helped as many people as he could when he was awake, his vigilante hours getting longer and longer until it ate into his day hours.He could feel himself growing weaker by the day, the cold he had chased off with the warmth he had stolen from Noboyuki returning to him once more. And with it came the hunger, the hunger that came back with a vengeance.But Izuku did not stop, because he had to suffer.In the midst of it all, he tried finding out more about Shima Noboyuki. He had 4 pages of Izuku’s black notebook devoted to him, with more to come as he spent long hours on his research. He was a thirty-five year old man working under Overhaul. No family, no extended-relatives either, no spouse, no friends, no nothing. The man had no other connections, except for those in the underworld.So Izuku did the only thing he thought he could do. He tried figuring out more about Shima Noboyuki. Which meant finding out more about Overhaul, which made him stumble upon the Shie Hassaikai, a Yakuza group he suspected was somehow involved with Overhaul. The key to finding out what this ‘somehow’ was, lied in a drug that had been circulating in the underworld for years.A drug known as Trigger.Izuku did not sleep, he ate food that he had to force down with copious amounts of water, he did not eat calves and arms, and he did not move when Kacchan and his lackeys gave him a beating.Izuku was guilty. He did not deserve to live, but he did anyways.So Izuku suffered.---After that night, things didn’t change. No One stubbornly stayed silent on what exactly happened, refusing to answer any of Shouta’s questions. When he did answer, he answered with lies. “ I was just stressed out, ” he had said, “ You don’t need to worry about me, Eraserhead.”
Bullshit.
But Shouta didn’t ask any further. The kid had this far off look in his eyes, like he wasn’t really there. His bags- which were already deeper than Shouta’s, and that was saying something – grew impossibly deeper. His pale skin got even paler, pale enough that Shouta could clearly see the veins under it. He didn’t doubt that No One was stressed, or that he was tired. Anyone could clearly see that he was. But that wasn’t why he had broken down that night, Eraserhead could feel it in his gut. Something was off. Something was wrong.But then again… Something was always wrong with No One. And now it was even worse than ever.Shouta dragged his hand down his face, eyes pinching in exhaustion and irritation.“Why don’t you go take a nap? I’ll take over.” Tsukauchi offered, looking almost as tired as Eraserhead, giving him a pitying look. Shouta glared at him from between his fingers, red eyes throbbing from staring at a computer for so long. He softened his glare with a sigh, one hand returning to the mouse and the other grabbing his now cold cup of coffee. Just because Shouta was tired as hell and frustrated at not being able to find out the kid’s identity, did not mean that he had to take out his anger on Tsukauchi. He was an adult, he needed to put a handle on his emotions.“No.” Shouta answered gruffly, voice hoarse from lack of use. He continued typing, not sparing the detective a second glance. He looked over the CCTV footage for the thousandth time it seemed, zooming in on shots of No One jumping from roof to roof and fighting villains. He was getting sloppier and sloppier, completely unlike the No One Eraserhead knew at the start of the investigation. Shouta heard the detective sigh and walk towards him. Tsukauchi placed down a new, steaming cup of hot coffee next to the hero’s computer.“It’s your day off, you need to rest,” Tsukauchi pleaded with him. When Shouta didn’t answer, he continued with another heavy sigh, shoulders sagging. “We’ve been trying for nearly a year now. You know we won’t find him. Not today.”Dark hair. Brown, black… What else? He had already tried the most common ones. Quirk isn’t a mutation type, transformation? Emitter? Super strength, regeneration, superior senses. Full body enhancement. Red eyes, black scelera. Emaciated, definitely has an eating disorder. Signs of abuse.“Are you listening?” Tsukauchi asked tiredly, seated in an office chair from one of the other desks. “You already did all of this before, and nothing came out of it.”Child between the estimated ages of 8 to 12. Can’t be older than Shinsou.“Just…Take a nap. Please . You’re going to meet him tomorrow, you’ll need to be well rested in order to bring him in.”But Tsukauchi didn’t understand. He didn’t understand. He wasn’t there that night. He didn’t see No One steadily get worse. He didn’t see him break down, or had No One’s death grip on his hand like he was his last lifeline. It was all so wrong and Shouta could do absolutely nothing about it. Two weeks. Two goddamn weeks since that night and every time No One managed to evade his questions just as easily as he evaded every personal question Shouta’s asked before. Managed to evade Shouta trying to convince him to let him help him. Every single time he got away. Every single time!His fists tightened, and Shouta hadn’t even realized he had slammed the side of his fist against the table in his anger.“He won’t come willingly. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that. I need to find something in order to make him stop. Find something that won’t scare him off completely, too. If we don’t do something now, there won’t be a later.” Tsukuachi gave him a tired look. “And what’s to say this confrontation won’t end just as badly? Or even worse?”“It won’t.” Shouta looked back to the computer. “I’ll make sure of it.”Tsukauchi didn’t say anything else after that, the both of them choosing to continue working in a heavy silence. The detective looked through No One’s case files, pulling up another case from within his manila folder. “How’s it going with the Trigger case?” He asked, not looking up from the files.Shouta knew what he was actually asking. How’s it going with No One? Shouta grunted. “Not good. It’s getting dangerous. The kid thinks the drug has something to do with the Yakuza.” A brief pause. “He’s biting off more than he can chew. Before he knows it, he’ll find himself in deep waters with no way of getting out. He’ll get himself killed. Yet another reason why it has to be tomorrow.”“We’re already looking into that. But… It will take a long time. Tracing drugs back to the producer is incredibly complicated.”“I’ll see what the kid’s come up with tomorrow.”Just because he was finally going to bring the kid in and get him some help- and he was going to bring him in- didn’t mean that he couldn’t chat with No One about what exactly he was up to. All he had to do now was wait for tomorrow, however slow the hours seemed to pass by.Tomorrow. Tomorrow. ---Eraserhead sat perched on the rooftop of the building they always met up at. Three am sharp, like always. He lazily scanned the area with sharp eyes, looking out for the telltale hoodie and whip of No One, but also for signs of any villainy. Just in time, he heard the impossibly soft landing of boots meeting cement. Somewhere to his left.“You’re late.” He said gruffly. He wasn’t actually late, but Shouta enjoyed the frantic mumbling of No One when he thought he was. Eraserhead would chuckle at his hurried explanation, No One quickly coming to the realization that Shouta was just teasing, releasing a huff of air. His version of laughter, one which Shouta tried to pull out of the boy whenever he could.“What!” No One exclaimed, although a lot softer and meeker than a normal shout of indignation. “I-I really thought I was on time. There was a fight in downtown Musutafu and I had to help, there was this girl who was getting robbed and somehow it ended up in a gun fight and I-…”No One trailed off when he saw the expression on Eraserhead’s face, the corners of his mouth tugging up ever so slightly.“You did it again….” No One released a withering, although playful, sigh. “Why do I fall for it every time?” He released a huff of air, coming to sit down next to him.Tentatively, Shouta asked, “…How are you?”At first he never insisted on asking No One about his personal life, or how he was doing. Anything personal was off limits, this he knew, but after that night Shouta made a point of asking him more often, even when there was a very likely possibility of No One running off.“I’m fine.” His modified voice answered. A lie, one that Shouta had heard far too often, but one that he would have to accept lest he break something. No One had always been a fragile case.“That’s good.” Shouta lied back. Pleasantries and lies were never his thing, but when talking with No One he had always been forced to beat around the bush and avoid all of the problems, the elephants in the room, that would result in the vigilante taking off. “You know I’ll always be here for you?”“Of course.” No One answered. Another lie, one that his slightly more rigid and stiff body posture gave away. Time to take the spotlight off of him.Before Eraserhead could change the topic, No One returned the question. “How have you been?”“Same as always. Hizashi’s been pestering me about helping him grade his class’s assignments. Hitoshi’s training has been going pretty well. The cats… We had to take Shiro to the doctor for gallstones. Bile duct inflammation.”“Oh… I hope he gets better.”Shouta nodded and looked at No One, red, almost glowing eyes connecting with his black ones. “We know now, so he’s getting the proper help. Without help it would have gotten a lot worse.” You need to get help, it’ll only get worse . He left the words he wanted to say unsaid . “Anything new with the Trigger case?” He opted to say instead.  No One nodded. “I have a new lead. Osamu Tanaka. He’s a drug dealer that’s been selling a newer, more potent version of Trigger; TRG-34. I’m hoping he can lead me right to Overhaul, or at least bring me closer to the guy.”Overhaul… It was a name that Shouta had heard some whispers about.“Do you think he’s part of the Chie Hassaikai?”“Yes. I need to confirm if Overhaul and the boss of the Chie Hassaikai, Kai Chisaki, are the same person. These drugs need to get off the street and the Yakuza, especially Chisaki, need to be behind bars.”“Killing two birds with one stone I see.” Eraserhead hated the fact he couldn’t actually stop No One from going after the yakuza, after Kai Chisaki. But just because he couldn’t stop him didn’t mean Shouta couldn’t make sure the kid didn’t kill himself. “When are you going to Tanaka?”No One scratched his neck. “Well… You see, um.”Shouta’s eyes narrowed.“…I was planning on going after this?”“I’m coming with you.” Eraserhead said with finality.Quick as can be, No One raised his hands and frantically moved them about, waving them to and fro. “Y-You really don’t have to! I can do it myself, besides, you still have patrol to do!”Shouta sighed. He knew this was coming.“Did you not hear what I said before? I’ll always be here for you, that includes having your back when you do dangerous stuff, Problem Child. I’m coming with you, and that is final.”No One dropped his hands, shoulders sagging from their tensed position. “O-okay…” Quietly, he whispered, “Thanks.”Shouta nodded. He had a plan. He hadn’t forgotten his conviction in stopping No One… This Tanaka would only be a pit stop. A two for one deal, just like he’d said. During the fight he’d capture No One. Maybe not with his scarf, seeing as how badly he reacted last time, but perhaps after he’s knocked out, or if he’d really have to, with handcuffs. Destroying No One’s trust in him was worth it. His life for his trust. Shouta was not going to let No One continue without getting the help he so desperately needed.“Don’t mention it.” He answered gruffly.---Eraserhead hid in the shadows of the rooftop. The alley next to the building he was on top of was littered with trash and other junk. Perfect nondescript place for drug dealing. Eraserhead looked to where No One was, or atleast where he thought he was since it was too dark to see his outline. Red glowing eyes connected with his from the building opposite to his. Knowing that No One has superior senses, Shouta wouldn’t put it past him to have some form of night vision too, whether that be like a cat’s or just better vision in the dark.“You have the money?” A gruff voice asked down below. A nod. A careful slip of hands and the drugs and money were exchanged. The people down below, a man in his late thirties dressed far too well for a drug dealer, and a younger man, one with light blue long shaggy hair, were slightly illuminated by the dim light above a backdoor in the alley. The shaggy man held his phone in hand, flashlight illuminating the floor beneath his feet.Eraserhead looked back up to No One, giving a terse nod. A signal.They leapt into the alley, blocking off both exits. With a quick movement he wrapped his scarf around Tanaka, who gave a shout in surprise.“You said you weren’t a cop!”“I-I’m not- Oomph!” Eraserhead tightened his grip on Tanaka. No One delivered a punch squarely in the gut, making the other man double over in pain.Quick, easy and efficient. Just like Eraserhead liked it. He kept his eyes trained on Tanaka, who struggled against the bonds. A loud slap rang in the air, a surprised yelp.“E-Eraser!” Hurried footsteps turning into a mad dash to get away. The other man just got away.Shouta quickly ran to No One, dragging the capture-weapon bound man with him. “Are you okay?” He asked.“Paralyzed! Tanaka got away!”Shit. He had mistaken the two men.He looked at No One and then back at the shaggy man he had mistakenly captured. Quickly binding the man to a pipe with his capture tape, Eraserhead chased after the villain. Tanaka’s faint footsteps sounded far away, and Shouta blindly followed them, using the moonlight as his only light. He found the man quicker than expected, as the man had to stop to vomit up his lunch. Apparently, the punch No One gave him hit him harder than he’d thought.Eraserhead punched the man on the head while keeping his quirk activated, knocking Tanaka out cold. Quickly he slapped on a pair of quirk suppression cuffs before hauling him onto his back and running back to No One. From where he was running he could see a blue light coming from within the alley. Inwardly, he cursed. What the hell was going on?!Once in there he saw that No One wasn’t under paralysis anymore, already in a scuffle with the other man. A knife was dug into No One’s side, making it harder for him to fight the, albeit amateur, criminal. A blue beam shot out from his hands, forcing No One to jump to the right. It blinded Eraserhead, searing into his already dry eyes. In its wake the beam didn’t damage the alley. Eraserhead remained wary of it still, cautious of it's unknown power.He dropped Tanaka on the alley floor to join the fight. No One crouched low as he dashed for the man, Eraserhead followed, lashing out with his capture weapon to bind him once again, activating his quirk as he did so. Another blue light headed straight for him before he could activate his quirk, however, and blinded him once again. It forced him to alter the trajectory of his scarf as he jumped away. No One went for a sucker punch, but the man dodged it and created some distance. The villain's hands glowed, lighting up the alleyway.Did…did he take the trigger?Taking his chance now that he could see his opponent clearly, Eraserhead activated his quirk once more, canceling out the villain’s quirk. The alleyway instantly was engulfed by darkness, letting No One shoot out and get closer. Eraserhead moved along with him, running after the man as he turned tail to run, making a break for it once he realized he was outmatched. The beginnings of the sunrise started to light up the streets, clearing Shouta’s vision ever so slightly. The pitch black darkness turned into a lighter dark blue, the beginnings of yellow peaking over the horizon.Now that they could see the man more clearly, he was toast. This he knew too, apparently, as he turned around before they could capture him. No One threw out his whip, intending to bind the villain, who in turn ducked and rolled away just in the nick of time. His hands glowed blue, the sign that his quirk was starting up. Immediately, Eraserhead activated his quirk, eyes locked onto the villain, but the beam of light coming from the villain’s hands, stronger and faster than any of the previous beams, was quicker than the activation of his quirk. With a superspeed not normally humanly capable, No One turned on his heel and jumped into him, crashing against Shouta as he harshly pushed him away.Just as the blue beam of light hit No One’s small back, Eraserhead cancelled his quirk. Shouta looked back up from where he had crashed into the floor, up to where he had expected a small, frail body that seemed to hold the world on his shoulders. Up to where he had expected to see the sad, lonely child he had befriended in the couple months they’d known each other.Up to where he had expected to see No One. But he wasn’t there.Shouta’s breath caught in his throat, frantically looking about in hopes of finding the face hidden behind a black, smiling mask. Every second that passed by where the only thing Shouta saw was an empty street, empty sidewalks, empty, empty empty— his heart sank deeper and deeper in his chest, a clawed hand clutching at it painfully. Squeezing, twisting. Time seemed to slow down, the sounds around him, of cars and the loud footsteps of the villain, dimmed to a deafening silence. The only audible thing the ringing in his ears and the loud beating of his heart.Shouta kept looking, hoping again and again that he had been mistaken, hoping against all reason that No One had moved away from him, somewhere he couldn’t see, instead of where he should have been according to the laws of physics. Where he should have crashed with him into the sidewalk when he had pushed Shouta out of the way. Instead, he saw the retreating back of the villain.His heart sank even further.With a practiced, automatic motion Shouta threw his weapon around the villain’s legs, tripping him in the process. Eyes still wide open and ears still ringing, Shouta got up and slowly walked up to the villain, going through the motions of tying him up without a conscious thought. His mind was still stuck in that moment, that moment of something being there and then not being there, just not. Of No One being there, and then not being there. Disappearing. Vanishing.Shouta looked down at the villain at his feet, struggling against the bonds and sweating profusely from exertion, face completely red and mouth wide, tongue black, as he yellled. Tears were flowing down his cheeks from dilated eyes, drugged and wide with fear.With a harder than necessary punch, he knocked the villain out.
What…What happened?
And where the fuck was No One? ---When Izuku came to, he came to slowly.Everything was black, the darkness unnerving. When everything was dark, it never meant anything good.It started with hearing, birds chirping and the soft rustling of trees through the gentle breeze. Then came touch, the feeling of dirt, the small grains, underneath his hands and his cheek. The chill of the lazy stream of wind, of something cold trickling down his forehead and seeping into his clothes. The smell of dirt and of blood invaded his nostrils, no doubt that his own blood was what seeped into his clothes. When he could open his eyes, the world was a blurry mess that didn’t make sense to Izuku’s rattled mind. He tried to move a finger, no luck, his arm felt like lead – too heavy to lift using his weak strength. So instead, Izuku decided to go smaller. He blinked the blurriness away, which took a while to completely get rid of, and found out that he was somewhere with a lot of trees, dirt and grass.A forest?Izuku moved his eyes around, which thankfully wasn’t too much for him, and saw something blue behind the trees. It looked like a gate of some sort, which – wait… Wasn’t he just in an alleyway? Where was Eraserhead?Izuku felt his breath quicken, anxiety quickly taking a hold of him.But he couldn’t do anything while he was, yet again, paralyzed. All he could do was wait and listen to the birds chirp and the leaves rustle. Feel his blood continue to seep into his clothes, his head already healed but still throbbing, and try to steady his breath. And as he listened to the birds’ melody, he heard something else.He heard voices.After another minute, he could finally twitch a finger. It took a while for him to gain control of the rest of his arm, his legs soon following. In about 15 minutes he finally got the strength to sit up, noticing straight away that the ‘forest’ was a lot smaller than he’d first thought; only a couple trees and bushes wide. A sharp pain just below his ribs immediately alerted him to the knife still dug into his side, the blood around it seeping into his clothes.Oh… It seems he’d forgotten about it during the fight; between the rush of adrenaline and his laser-focus on his opponent. He was caught off guard when he got stabbed-because shit, since when was that possible?- which led to the villain getting the upper hand.The knife lodged into his side slowed the blood flow, which was good, but it also impeded his regeneration from healing the wound like it would have normally, leaving him bleeding out for who knows how long. Immediately, Izuku wrapped a hand around the handle, and with one quick motion ripped it out, only leaving out a small grunt of pain. He had to admit, since he’d never gotten stabbed (not that he could in the first place), he didn’t have much experience with stab wounds on himself, but he did have plenty of experience with carrying out first aid on people who had been stabbed. His hands applied pressure on the wounds as he got up, wincing in pain as he did so. The wound was already starting to regenerate; it should only take an half an hour or so for it to fully close.With that in mind, Izuku made his way to the light blue fence, which was a lot higher than he’d expected; about twice his height. The fence was a metal trellis fence, a crisscross of blue, thin metal bars. It left a clear view of the other side, of the light beige of sandy, packed ground.It left a clear view of Eraserhead, who stood further away from the fence, his back turned to Izuku but undeniably him. With one quirk enhanced jump he easily jumped over the fence, landing on the ground with a wince. He took a step, one after the other,  as he approached the man he trusts with his life.“Eraserhead?” he asked, weak, tired, and confused as all hell.“Where…are we?” Now that he thought about it, he was feeling pretty sluggish. Perhaps he still wasn’t fully awake, even after he’d spent an unknown amount of time lying unconscious on the floor and around 15 minutes in regaining control over his motor functions. Eraserhead stood stock still, black eyes unblinkingly trained on him.“Where’s…” He trailed off, his tunnel vision finally letting up as he turned his head away from Eraserhead to take his surroundings in, making eye contact with 20 pairs of eyes in the process. His eyebrows knitted in confusion. He took a deep breath in through his nose, smelling something familiar. “…The villain?”Eraserhead’s eyes flashed red, and in a burst of crippling pain familiar to him, he immediately was on his knees and on the floor. His body shut down, the ever-present coldness encasing him in its harsh embrace, freezing him so much his lungs couldn’t move enough to expand properly. His breath was stolen from him as his vision began to darken, green eyes shutting close and it was happening again he was dying he was dying he was dying!!! And then Izuku was out like a light, the darkness from before enveloping him once again.The last thing he felt, hurt and betrayal.---Shouta was tired, he always was. Between his teacher duties and his hero work, there just wasn’t enough time to get some decent sleep. But Eraserhead wouldn’t change it for the world, because, even though he would never admit this out loud--he'd rather crawl into a hole and die--he loved doing what he did.“Sensei?” Uraraka questioned, concerned, from where she stood at the front.Eraserhead blinked the grogginess away, 9:40 on a Friday morning was way too early to be awake, especially considering the longer than usual patrol he had to do the night before.“Today’s training will consist of quirkless hand-to-hand combat. It’s important to not rely too heavily on your quirk; you need a good basis. In the future, there will be plenty of scenarios where you can’t or shouldn’t use your quirk. Think outside the box. You’ll need to use everything at your disposal to-”“Eraserhead?”Shouta stiffened at the, clearly modified, unfamiliar voice. A million thoughts raced through Eraserhead’s mind as he turned his head to look at where the unfamiliar voice came from. The figure was very short (a child?) and wore a gray hoodie with red chaotic lines painted on. He had on a black, eerie mask that covered his face from nose to chin, leaving his dark bags and black eyes with red glowing irises, veins protruding from them, unhidden.How did he get in? Why didn’t the alarm go off? Was he part of the League? Why didn’t Shouta notice? How did he go unnoticed by the whole school, by him, and his entire class?“Where…are we?”Shouta kept his eyes trained on him, frozen in the moment. The intruder hadn’t made a move yet, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. Eraserhead scanned the short figure for weapons, noting the red whip at his hip and the dark red splotch on his side.“Where’s…” The figure trailed off, eyes trailing to his students. His eyebrows knitted together in something akin to confusion, Shouta’s students staring at the figure much the same as he was, on edge, still, and ready for action as the tension crawled by. “…The villain?”And then Eraserhead snapped into action, using his quirk and leaping to the villain in order to incapacitate the intruder. But before he could get close enough, the intruder let out a pained scream loud enough to billow through the P.E. grounds, making Shouta flinch back a bit. The figure fell to his knees and then promptly fell to the floor, the blood soaked in his side leaking a bit onto the ground.Eraserhead stopped using his quirk and sprinted to the boy, turning him over and onto his back as he checked for a pulse. For a short while he didn’t feel anything, but then he felt a soft, weak pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief. His students erupted into chaos, shouting and sprinting over to them.“Is he okay?” Midoriya asked, one of the many who asked the same question.“That scream… It...” Uraraka trailed off.His class started to crowd around him, Izuku crouching next to him and Uraraka looking over Eraserhead’s shoulder.“Is he a villain?” Ojiro asked, confused.Shouta elected not to answer for now, lifting the hoodie up to check the wound. The first thing he noticed was just how rail thin the boy was, the ribs visible underneath the, now that he paid more attention, multiple layers of clothing. The next thing Eraserhead noticed was just how much blood there was, the wound and more than half of the black thermal sweater completely covered in red. He heard gasps from all around him, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. Shouta pulled the sweater back down in order to hide the wound and the thinness from his students, not wanting to traumatize them any further. Quickly he applied pressure on the wound with both hands, hoping to stop the blood flow.“Someone call an ambulance! Iida, go get Recovery Girl,” he ordered. Yaoyorozo pulled out her phone and started calling 119 as Iida nodded with a ‘Yes, sir!’ and quickly sprinted away.“Who the hell even is he?” Bakugou asked from behind Midoriya.
Good question.
Shouta pulled the hood, which had miraculously stayed put, back, revealing a shock of wild green hair. He gave a quick glance at Midoriya, but continued onward, unzipping the mask at the neck and pulling it away from the intruder’s face, revealing a dusting of freckles over the intruder’s cheeks.What stared back at him made him freeze.
….Midoriya?
Although the intruder’s face was a lot thinner and very gaunt, with even darker bags than his, it was undoubtedly Midoriya’s face. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, all their attention on one person.Aizawa looked back up from the intruder to his student, black eyes connecting with watery green eyes, shock and confusion clear on the boy’s face. “I-I don’t know…”Shouta sighed, going through his pockets and whipping his phone out. He dialed the one person who he knew had no other duties at the moment, the man picking up after the second ring. Eraserhead used his shoulder to hold his phone as he continued to apply pressure on the wound.“Aizawa-san?” The man asked, confused.“Come to the P.E. grounds. There is an intruder I have to take care of; the class can’t be left unsupervised.”  “Intruder? But the alarm-”“Didn’t go off, I know.”The man grunted, voice a little airy as he started to run towards the P.E. grounds. “I’ll be there.”Shouta looked back to his class. Most were looking at him as he talked on the phone, concern evident in their gaze. Others still stared, shocked at the injured intruder, gaze shifting between him and Midoriya’s face.“Get back into position.” He commanded, the class begrudgingly complying with only a few weak protests and hesitant gazes.Not long after, Iida arrived with Recovery Girl on his back. The short woman quickly got to work once they arrived, not sparing a second on the intruder’s face but instead removing the multiple, almost unending layers of shirts and sweaters from the injured boy, a pair of scissors cutting away at the tighter shirts. She gasped at the sight of protruding ribs, so much worse now with the shedded layers than when Shouta had lifted only the first sweater, and the sight of the injured boy’s sunken abdomen. Blood covered the whole of his torso, making the boy look nothing short of a bloodied corpse. Recovery girl examined the wound, letting out a relieved sigh.“What’s wrong?” Eraserhead asked. Recovery Girl looked at him as she applied pressure once more. “The patient has a regenerative quirk and the wound is regenerating, albeit slowly. It’s doesn’t go deep enough to need need surgery.”Eraserhead scrunched his eyebrows and glanced at Midoriya before looking back at Recovery Girl. “A regenerative quirk?”“Yes. The patient only needs to get stitched, a blood transfusion, sufficient pressure on the wound, and rest. He’ll be fine once the ambulance arrives.”“I’m afraid that won’t be happening,” said a shrill voice. Eraserhead looked up, coming face to face with the principal, who had his eyes glued on the intruder’s face, eyes glinting intelligently. All Might had his hands on his knees, panting heavily as he had run all the way there. “The…intruder’s injury is non-life-threatening. It can be handled here at UA.”All Might looked up at the intruder, a look of surprise crossing his face at the sight of the boy’s emaciated body, but once his eyes traveled up to the boy’s face, he gasped in shock. Nezu didn’t look away from his face, speaking in a tone all too happy, and strangely excited, for having a boy bleeding out on the floor.“Momo-chan, could you please call off the ambulance?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

When Izuku came to— yet again… he should really stop doing this— it went a lot quicker than the first time.

He woke up, eyes taking in the white ceiling. He breathed in the unfamiliar scents, of medicine and sterility. There were four other scents as well; two unfamiliar, his own, and one that instantly made his tense, weary shoulders relax. When Izuku went long without eating, or in this case, eating too much of the wrong food, his quirk got weaker. Meaning his senses got duller (thankfully not dull enough to not be able to tell apart scents), his teeth couldn’t break bone anymore and apparently—his side throbbed with pain, where he knew he had a gaping hole— he wasn’t invulnerable anymore. It should be healed enough by now to not be life-threatening, however.

His back laid comfortably in the bed, the most comfortable bed he’s slept in in years. Two long white curtains flanked either side of his bed, one drawn to the side, where a man dressed in full black was seated, gray capture weapon resting on his shoulders and yellow goggles hiding his eyes from view. Izuku sighed a breath of relief, the sight of the man calming as always.

“Eraserhead?” he asked as he sat up. “Where are we?”

He looked around once more, past Eraserhead (who kept unusually still and didn’t move a muscle….weird), and further into the room. It had some medical appliances and a desk, a couple of newsletters and a chart of the human body hanging above it. Ah… This would explain the scent of medicine.

“Did you bring me…to the hospital?” He hoped to god not.

After a long pause, Eraserhead started talking. “No,” he said shortly, “You’re in Recovery Girl’s office.”

A hero?!

“R-Recovery Girl?!” He shrieked, breath hitching as his eyes widened. His voice was a lot louder and higher than it should-

-his voice! Why wasn’t his voice augmented?! He smacked his hand to his face, not feeling the familiar leather of his mask. Quickly, he pulled the blanket over his head and grabbed a pillow to place on top.

This can’t be happening this can’t be happening this can’t be happening this can’t be happening this can’t be happening he-

He’s been captured, hasn’t he? The heroes have captured him and Eraserhead knows who he is, and he’s going to jail, he’s going to jail he’s going to jail they know they know they know they know they

KNOW

.
They KNOW that he’s A MONSTER.
He started hyperventilating, chest rising and falling so fast he couldn’t breathe and he was going to jail he’s going to jail he’s going to ja-

“Why don’t we have a talk.” A hand on his shoulder. “Midoriya.”

His shoulders jolted underneath the covers at the use of his name. He…was going to jail, wasn’t he? He wouldn’t ever see his mom, he wouldn’t ever see the light of day. Izuku couldn’t help the tears that started spilling down his eyes, sobs racking his body. He wiped them away before pulling the blanket down and sitting up as tears still continued to spill down his cheeks. He scrunched his shoulders together, making himself seem smaller, as he kept his body turned away from Eraserhead and pointed to the still closed curtain, not brave enough to look the hero in the eyes.

Memories of before he ended up in this hospital bed started to come to the front of his mind, momentarily forgotten due to blood loss. As Izuku remembered the hurt and betrayal, a fresh new wave of tears started flowing down his cheeks. Eraserhead had wanted to put him in jail since before they had met; this didn’t change when they became friends—no… he was mistaken… they were never friends. Izuku was the only one who had, foolishly,

stupidly

, thought of them as friends. Eraserhead was still a pro hero, a hero whose job was to put him in jail.

That’s why he had used his quirk on him, wasn’t it?

Eraserhead knew that he could easily capture Izuku if he just used his quirk on him, and he finally did. Izuku bit his lip, blood trickling down from where his sharp teeth sank into delicate flesh. He was stupid. Stupid stupid stupid

stupid!!

Why had he trusted a hero?!

You don’t even deserve friends, let alone a hero as a friend.

Izuku scrunched his brows even more, eyes clenched shut as he continued to silently sob.

I know

, he thought.

I should have known this would happen.

In the end, everything was all his fault. His stupidity led him into being captured. Into never being able to see his mom ever again. He opened his mouth, but his voice caught in his throat. He lapped up the blood still dripping down his lips and onto his chin, his stomach grumbling in response, part in satisfaction and part (mostly, always the most) in hunger. A voracious hunger that was getting increasingly harder to ignore, leaving him heavy with guilt and sadness.

“I’m sorry,” he managed to whisper out, voice hoarse.

And he

was

sorry. Sorry for everything he had done, for the life he had taken and the people he’d eaten. For being so stupid as to let himself go near someone, to force his friendship on someone else, even when all they wanted was to arrest him anyway. For continuing to live, even when all he was, was a burden. A burden to his mom, a burden to his school, a burden to society, a burden to everyone he’d ever known and everyone he would ever know, because his very

existence

meant taking from everyone else.

“… What for?” Eraserhead finally asked.

He hung his head even lower in shame, opting not to answer. Why would he? Eraserhead already knew everything. Knew that he was a lying bastard who lied to everyone he had ever known. And Eraserhead knew

exactly

why he had lied. What’s the point in sharing old news?

Eraserhead gave a deep sigh, making Izuku stiffen in his bed. “What do you remember, exactly?”

Izuku wiped his face with his sleeve, a hospital gown’s sleeve, he noted. His head throbbed with pain as he thought back to the events that led to him sitting in this very hospital bed.

“We were following the lead on the Trigger case… We mixed up the drug dealer and the buyer. The dealer paralyzed me and ran, you followed after him. The buyer used the Trigger and then tried to run, but I got up and tried to apprehend him.” A sniffle and a hiccup. “The, um, paralysis was very short. Only a minute or two, I think. I had him wrapped up in my whip when he suddenly pulled a knife out and dug it into my side. He managed to get out and then he used his quirk to create distance. We started fighting, you came back shortly after. After we both chased after him, he tried hitting you with his quirk. I jumped in front and got hit instead. Next thing I know, I wake up outside somewhere entirely different.”

“Are you sure that’s what happened?”

Izuku gave a small nod, still not willing to make eye contact with Eraserhead.

A pause.

“For confirmation, your name is Izuku Midoriya, right? Son of Inko Midoriya?”

At his and his mother’s names, Izuku froze up. He forced himself to relax and gave an even smaller nod. His sensitive ears picked up on the quiet, sharp intake of air. He steeled himself.

Here it comes.

Izuku turned around, green finally locking with black, wary eyes.

“Yes, my name is Izuku Midoriya. You’ve finally caught me.”

Eraserhead’s mouth opened slightly, eyes widening at Izuku’s words.

Izuku heard a rustle from behind the other curtain, causing his attention to shift as he was put on high alert. It was pushed to the side, revealing the stunned face of a man in a white button-up shirt and black slacks. Izuku squinted his eyes, making sure he wasn’t seeing things.

“It’s true,” The man said, stunned. “It’s all true.”

“… Detective Tsukauchi?” Izuku asked tentatively. He sighed, body sagging in resignation and acceptance. “I guess this is really it for me… It’s nice to finally meet you.”

This caused the detective to furrow his eyebrows in confusion. He shared a look with Eraserhead, communicating with their eyes alone, but both choosing not to say anything. Tsukauchi grabbed Recovery Girl’s desk chair and rolled it up next to Eraserhead.

“This is important,” Tsukauchi began, leveling Izuku with an intense gaze. “Are you in league with the League of Villains?”

Izuku looked at them confused. Did he have it all wrong?

“The League of Villains…” He scrunched his brows. They probably thought he was a villain, which made his heart pang with pain…but if he were entirely honest, they wouldn’t… be… wrong. If anyone were to look at him and knew what he had done, all they’d see was a villain. But!— that didn’t mean he’d willingly join a group of villains and commit crimes for the fun of it!

“No.” He answered. “I haven’t even heard of them yet, are they new?”

Eraserhead and the detective shared another look, Tsukauchi giving a terse nod. They both looked back at him as he stared at them in confusion.

“No, they aren’t.” Eraserhead said. “Are you a villain?”

Izuku flinched slightly, dejectedly looking away in shame.

“That’s why you’re arresting me, right?”

It was silent, Izuku didn’t dare look up and see the judgement in their eyes.

“That depends on your answer. Yes or no,” Eraserhead said coldly.

“I- I uhm… That depends on who you ask…” How much did they know? Did they…did they actually know about the cannibalism? About the man he’d- he’d

killed

? He looked back up at the hero and detective.

“Eraserhead… how much do you actually know?” The man didn’t answer, steely gaze still locked on him.

“Answer the question.”

Izuku gulped. There was no question of whether or not he was going to jail; he had multiple charges against him, such as assault and the illegal usage of his quirk. But cannibalism? Murder? That would get him locked up for life. And now…he would have to take a risk. Make a gamble. The fact that the detective and Eraserhead were asking so many questions was…suspicious. Not to mention, they were asking pretty odd ones. The detective had a lie detecting quirk; Izuku wouldn’t be able to lie. Easy, right? Just don’t say that you’re

not

a villain.

Don’t say you’re not a villain. Don’t lie.

“I’m a vigilante.”

Aizawa looked a bit shocked, but quickly returned to his emotionless façade as he glanced at Tsukauchi, who nodded in turn. This time, the detective asked the question.

“How did you get in without triggering the alarms? You went unnoticed by the multitude of detection devices, cameras and robots, a feat almost all villains aren’t capable of.”

“Robots? What? Uhm, like I said, I just woke up here. I don’t really know.”

Eraserhead looked at the detective, who nodded.

“Um…” Izuku trailed off, interrupting their eye contact. “It was probably because of the buyer’s quirk, since I was hit by him before I arrived here. But there shouldn’t be a problem there, since you apprehended him…right?”

The underground hero sighed, opting not to answer as he pinched his nose bridge. He looked back up, narrowing his eyes at Izuku in an intense stare, hands clasped together and hiding his expression as he leaned forward in his chair.

“Are you a clone?”

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows, mouth opening slightly in his bewilderment.

A… clone?

“A clone?” he, confused, asked out loud. “Uh, no. I don’t think so…at least. Why?”

“How do you know me?” Eraserhead asked, completely ignoring the question.

Izuku cocked his head at the question. The two were acting beyond weird, they were acting… like strangers.

“Why are you asking me things you already know?”

The two men just kept their steely gazes on him, the detective breaking the tension with a sigh and the sagging of his shoulders.

“Mi…doriya-kun, please, just answer the question.”

The detective said his name a little hesitantly, as if he wasn’t entirely sure. Izuku stared at the man a second longer, sighing as he relented.

“You were chasing me down all over Musutafu… The both of you lead the investigation on my case.”

Eraserhead scrunched his eyebrows once more, and then sighed, pinching his nose bridge. He stood up and headed to the door, mumbling something about needing coffee. Izuku followed him with his eyes.

“Am I….” He began, scared of asking, but determined to hear the answer. He

needed

to know. “Am I being arrested?”

Eraserhead stopped at the door. Quietly he said, “We will have to see” And then walked out, leaving him alone with the detective, who gave him a small, slightly concerned but polite smile.

“I’m sorry for scaring you…Midoriya-kun. That wasn’t our intention. It’s protocol here to interrogate intruders and keep them confined before either arresting them or letting them go. This is why you’re also not allowed alone.”

Izuku gulped, they would certainly be doing the former. He twiddled with his fingers before remembering something, shyly looking up at the detective but not quite meeting his eyes.

“That reminds me… Where, uhm, exactly are we?”

The detective cocked his head.

“Yuuei, of course.”

“WHAT?!” He shouted accidentally in surprise, meeting the detective’s gaze as the man flinched back a bit. “U-U-UA?!”

The detective nodded, eyes narrowing at his reaction. “Is there something wrong?”

Izuku felt himself freeze up. He looked away, rubbing at his neck as he gave a nervous laugh.

“N-no! Just…surprised.” He looked back at the detective. “Um…Do you know how long I’ve been asleep?”

“You’ve been asleep for the last 2 hours, it’s lunch now. I’ve asked the next person coming to supervise you to bring some food.” Izuku tensed up at the mention of food and being watched.

“Don’t worry, he’s nice.”

Izuku sighed.

That’s not what I’m worried about.

---

Yagi Toshinori, most known as All Might, had volunteered willingly to watch the injured intruder. Vlad King lovingly called it “babysitting”, but Toshinori didn’t think of it that way. To be honest, he kind of felt guilty for volunteering, because he didn’t volunteer without an ulterior motive.

He saw it for himself, the intruder had his successor’s face.

Call it paranoia, call it overprotectiveness, but Toshinori had to get to the bottom of this. The suspicion and worry growing deep in his chest wouldn’t let up without any answers. For all he knew, this could be another villain attack! And Toshinori was not about to let his boy be the victim of the League of Villains again. Especially not at school, where he was meant to be safe.  Aizawa was opposed to the idea of him “babysitting” the intruder, but after some convincing arguments from his side, mostly about how he could help in the ongoing investigation on the intruder’s identity, he was given permission by Nezu.

That’s where he finds himself now, outside the doors to Recovery Girl’s nurse’s office; the room where the intruder was being held in. Toshinori held a tray in one hand, on it a bowl of beef broth and a cup of orange juice, an iron-rich drink that helps with recovering from blood loss and the stew easy on the stomach. In his other hand he held a folder full of papers he had to grade; some work he still had to do.

He knocked, once, twice, three times.

Tsukauchi opened the door, “You’re here,” he said, a bit relieved.  Recovery Girl was busy doing a checkup examination on the intruder, who looked at him out of the corner of his slightly widened eyes.

His eyes, that glowed red and were inked completely black.

“I have to go.” Tsukauchi continued, taking his attention away from the boy. “Thanks for watching him,” he said as he picked up his jacket from the second bed.

“It’s not a problem, I had time,” Toshinori said as Tsukauchi made his way to the door.

“Thanks anyways. Goodbye everyone!” He was already leaving, but paused, poking back in to wave at the boy. “Goodbye, Midoriya-kun.”

The boy ducked his head, nodding.

All Might cleared his throat, making the boy look up at him. He had the same green hair as his successor, the sunken cheeks and the deep bags under his eyes reminding Toshinori of just how skinny the boy was.

“I hope you’re hungry!” The boy flinched….Odd. Was it because of what he said? His volume? Or something else? He walked over to the boy, sitting down on the bed next to his. “I brought you some beef broth, I didn’t know what you like, so I decided to go with this.” You need to start with liquids after not eating for a long time.

Recovery Girl lowered the side of his medical gown. “I’m all done, dear. Your injury still has some ways to go. Give it another week and you’ll be fully healed.”

The boy scrunched his eyebrows, before shaking his head.

“Thank you…Recovery Girl.” The boy said quietly, meekly, as he kept his head lowered.

“You’re welcome, dear,” Recovery Girl said with a small, gentle smile. She shot a glance at the food that Toshinori brought, giving a short, approving nod. “I’ll be going now, will you be okay?”

The boy nodded, and with that, Recovery Girl left the room, leaving only him and Toshinori.

Toshinori cleared his throat once more, not so sure how to continue.

“I have some experience with eating issues.” He offered the tray to the boy, who quietly took it with a soft 'thank you'. “So I know how hard it can be.”

The boy didn’t start to eat. Toshinori saw how tense his shoulders were, how his head still hung, and how his eyes stared at the tray of food that rested on his lap. He probably didn’t like to get stared at while he ate, so Toshinori tried to fill the silence in hopes of making him more comfortable.

“What’s your name?” He asked, because it couldn’t be Izuku Midoriya.

“I-Izuku Midoriya,” the boy answered quietly.

Toshinori was quiet as he thought, lips thinning out into a line.

“Well…Midoriya…shounen, you can eat while we talk. No need to be reserved.”

The boy took the spoon in hand, swishing the soup around.

“Do you have any questions?”

The boy stopped moving the soup around, instead looking back up at Toshinori.

“Are you okay?” he asked, cheeks turning pink and eyes widening immediately after. “Sorry! S-sorry for asking, I r-really shouldn’t pry into y-your business. I-it’s just, you smell so much like blood and medicine that I got worried…”

Toshinori bellowed out a loud laugh, the boy’s flinch in reaction going unnoticed.

“There’s no need to apologize, my boy.” Toshinori said with a smile. Really, when he mutters like that, he does certainly remind him of Midoriya. “I’m fine, thank you for asking. I get taken care of by very good doctors, so there’s no need to worry about me!”

Toshinori smiled the wide, toothy grin characteristic of All Might, a sight slightly strange on his gaunt face. Unseen by the boy, Toshinori got even more suspicious at his use of words. What exactly did he mean by ‘you smell so much like blood and medicine’? It’s impossible for the normal human nose to pick up on it, even though they were sitting fairly close to each other.

Although…it could be possible with a smell-enhancing quirk.

“A-ah, that’s good, sir…” Izuku trailed off, as he again lowered his eyes.

But the boy would have two quirks, since he already has regeneration. It doesn’t make sense for someone claiming to be his successor to have regeneration and enhanced senses, since a strength-based quirk would be the obvious choice.

“O-oh…I realize I never got your name?” he said questioningly. “S-sorry…”

Maybe this boy really is a clone of Midoriya… It’s quite possible that AFO gave him these quirks…

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Toshinori said as he waved his hand, dismissing the boy’s apology. He chuckled a little abashedly, hand rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry sorry, how rude of me. I haven’t even introduced myself!”

It was odd that the boy didn’t recognize him, but then again, even though almost everyone had seen his fight at Kamino, almost was not

everyone.

However…the fact that he didn’t know made the boy more suspicious. If his theory holds true, it would make sense for the boy not to know him, since his secret identity wasn’t very well known before his fight with All For One. But then again, surely the League of Villains would have shown his face and name to the boy?

And now he’s back to square one…Should he introduce himself as All Might?

Well, if his theory is wrong, introducing himself as All Might would brighten up the mood and help the boy relax, but… he hasn’t been All Might in a long time. Just plain old Toshinori Yagi. Keeping his identity as All Might concealed might help with the investigation, too.

He made his decision.

“My name is Toshinori Yagi. I’m a teacher here at UA.”

The boy finally looked up, looking at him quizzically.

“Teacher? Don’t you have to be a hero to be a teacher here?”

Ouch.

“Ahahaa… Yes, if you’re a teacher for the hero course.”

Which I am.

“But it’s not an obligatory condition for the other courses. Those have, for the most part, civilian teachers.”

Toshinori said this with a smile, hoping to appear friendly to the young boy despite his sharp edges. It didn’t help, he was still subdued and seemed on edge.

“Oh…That’s good.” He continued swirling the soup on his tray.

The reply was odd and bothered him just a little bit. What did he mean? Was it good that he wasn’t a hero? Or did he mean that it was good UA didn’t only have hero teachers?

“…You can eat the soup now, you know? It’s cooled off.”

The boy froze once more.

“A-ah…yeah.” He raised the spoon and took a sip, then put it back down. “It’s good.”

“I’m glad you like it, the pro hero Lunch Rush made it.”

The boy whipped his head back to him, piercing blue meeting blood-red.

“Lunch Rush?!” Toshinori nodded. “Wow…that’s…I never expected to have my lunch made by a hero.”

“You can continue eating while we talk. If you’d like.”

The boy paused, then raised the spoon to take another sip.

“How old are you? If you don’t mind me asking…It’s just, you seem a little…”

“Young?” He huffed out a little air, something that might resemble a laugh. “Yeah, I know. I’m, uhm, thirteen.”

Toshinori’s eyes widened at that. “Thirteen?! I thought you were 8! Ah, I mean no offense by that.”

He didn’t know much about the cloning process. Maybe they came out at a certain age, maybe they came out at the age of the original, or maybe they started as fetus’s like he had thought, with their aging being accelerated. He would never know, really. And he wouldn’t ever want to know the ins and outs of cloning for the purpose of making superpowered soldiers.

“No offense taken. I know, I’m a little…small.”

“Well then, you should eat well and grow big and strong!”

“Yeah…I should.” He said with a slight frown.

Thirteen was a lot older than he’d expected and it just brought up more questions. Why was a thirteen-year-old claiming to be his successor? If he actually is a clone, how old is he really?

The boy took another sip from his soup, head hanging lower than before. Why did he look so…dejected?

“That reminds me… How did you get into UA without the alarms going off? That is quite the feat, you should know.”

The boy put his spoon back down.

“I…I really don’t know. I just woke up here.”

Amnesia? A convenient cover story…but since Tsukauchi was already here he must have asked this question. Then it was confirmed that he was saying the truth? Does that mean that the boy really

isn’t

a clone?

“I-I, uh, think it’s because of a quirk.”

He’d really need to cross-reference his answers to the ones Tsukauchi got from the boy. Only then would he know whether what he had heard was true. But…another question has bugged him ever since he heard of the boy’s apparent regenerative abilities and saw the…rather creepy ruby red and pitch black eyes.

Just when he was about to ask, the door opened, and Toshinori’s eyes widened in surprise.

“See? He's All Might’s secret love child.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Izuku had trouble focusing on the lessons after the shock that came with the arrival of his look-alike during PE. It didn’t help that his entire class gossiped about it non-stop every chance they could get, from the small 10-minute break they would spend walking to the next class, to the small increment of time between actually getting to class and the teacher arriving, to as soon as class had ended, they would all erupt in wild conspiracies and passionate debates about whose theory was correct.Izuku ended up being the talk of the town, and with that came a whole lot of staring. It made him feel like a spectacle, all the eyes on him leaving Izuku…uncomfortable. Thankfully, his friends always attempted to stop the gossiping (Uraraka sending reprimanding glares and Iida chopping the air as he talked about manners), but it never got very far, seeing as Todoroki would always say one wrong thing sparking a whole avalanche of conspiracies.“I think he’s Midoriya-kun’s long-lost twin brother.” Todoroki took another slurp of his cold soba. “He was switched out at birth and saw Midoriya-kun on TV, and decided to get revenge for stealing all of their father’s attention.”Izuku fought the urge to facepalm, instead opting to give a withering sigh. “And who might that be, Todoroki-kun?”“All Might, obviously.” Todoroki said, face completely deadpan, but head slightly cocked, communicating his confusion at the question. This time, Izuku really did facepalm.“Todoroki-kun! We agreed not to talk about this during lunch!” Uraraka exclaimed, casting Izuku a worried glance. She continued, now at normal volume, “Where did that theory even come from? That guy can’t even be Deku-kun’s identical twin! They don’t have the same quirk. But that’s besides the point!”Lowering her voice, she whisper-shouted, “We don’t want the others to hear you!”“Did I say something wrong?”They both sighed, with Iida chopping the air.“Todoroki-kun, it’s rude to gossip about your classmate! Especially a friend! Midoriya-kun is already in the spotlight, we don’t want to make him even more uncomfortable. We do not talk about he-who-shall-not-be-named!”“Are you guys talking about Midobabe’s clone?” Ashido asked excitedly, a smile splitting her face in a wide grin as she popped out of nowhere.“Midoriya-kun's twin brother, to be exact.” Shoto said before anyone could intervene.“Wowww! I didn’t know he was your twin brother, Midoriya-kun! I thought he had a regeneration quirk? Everyone’s been talking about how he’s some evil clone created to cause your demise!” She said just as cheerily as she said everything else. “But I guess not.”She plopped herself onto the seat next to Izuku, “Hey! So, I was like, talking to the Bakusquad—” she pointed lazily to the table where Kacchan, Kirishima, Sero and Kaminari sat, “—and I had this AMAZING idea! Why don’t we go visit him and ask him what he is!! We’ll finally be able to stop all the gossiping, and I’ll get my ten bucks! Everyone’s curiosity will be sated, and you’ll be left alone! Sounds great, no?”Izuku looked back at Kacchan’s table, where Kirishima looked to be walking over to Izuku’s table. Kaminari was waving his arms in a big 'x', Sero was facepalming as he shook his head, and Kacchan, who was sitting with his back facing him, kept eating his spicy curry. He was probably ignoring his friend's antics, and idly, Izuku wondered what he thought of the whole thing. Even though 1A had been louder than ever these past two hours, he has yet to say anything.“Ashidobro! This is so unmanly! Look at how confused poor Midobro is!” Kirishima exclaimed, pointing dramatically at Izuku with his entire arm, his other arm already attached to the back of Ashido’s shirt, ready to pull her back to their table. “He looks like a deer in headlights! C’mon, let’s just go back.”“But Kiriiii,” Ashido whined. “I’m so curious!”She whipped her head back to Izuku. “Aren’t you curious too, Midoriya-kun?”Izuku looked at her, and then straight back down to his own plate of half-finished spicy curry. Once he looked back up, he startled a little, cheeks flaring up a bit. All eyes were on him.“Ah- no I mean yes but well Aizawa-sensei said not to worry about what happened and that we weren’t allowed to see him and that it was being handled and so we shouldn’t-”“It wouldn’t hurt to see what is going on…right? We’ll be in and out in a jiffy! Suuuuper quick, you see? You can even ask him about his quirk! What do you say?” She looked at the others at his table. “Ochako-chan? Iida-kun?”Uraraka started fidgeting in her seat, looking a little guilty. “I-I’ll go if Deku-kun goes.”“This is outrageous! Aizawa-sensei explicitly forbade us from seeking out the intruder!” Iida exclaimed, shocked at Uraraka’s agreement.“You can count me in. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.” Todoroki said before slurping his cold soba.“Booya!” Ashido pumped her fist in victory. “Three against one! Whaddya say, Midobabe?”Izuku cast his gaze down, rubbing at his neck, unsure. “I don’t know if this is a smart idea. What if we get caught! Aizawa-sensei would be so mad...”Ashido put an arm around him, pulling him down as she ruffled his hair. “Relax! We won’t get caught, I’ll make sure of it!”“Ashidobro…” Kirishima sighed, and then smiled. “Well! If everyone’s going, then I guess I’ll go too! We’ll have some manly bonding time!”“I’m going.”“Bakubro?!” Kirishima exclaimed at the same time Izuku exclaimed, “K-Kacchan?!”Izuku looked shocked, mouth agape, at the boy, who leveled him with a serious gaze.“Something’s off, and I’ll be damned if I don’t find out. Ain’t no way some extra shows up inside Yuuei with,” he pointed at Izuku, “your ugly mug and isn’t hella suspicious. The way Aizawa-sensei is acting makes it even more obvious. I’ll bet the only reason he forbade everyone from meeting the shitty extra is because he doesn’t want you to meet him.”Everyone looked at him in disbelief, but nodded along.“That or the dude’s a villain,” he added. “Either way, I’m going, whether you like it or not.”
Izuku’s widened eyes found Kacchan’s, who looked almost as shocked as Izuku. It was one thing for someone to pop up with his face, although much more gaunt, and another for him to have a completely different quirk. What did this mean? Did he have two quirks, one that can copy the looks of someone else and another that can regenerate? Did someone with a quirk that can give the features of someone else use his quirk on the intruder? That would allow for him to have a regenerative quirk, while still only having one….Otherwise…

All For One would somehow have to be involved.

And he’s supposed to be in prison. In Tartarus.

Izuku clenched his fists, face hardening. Kacchan looked back at the intruder. They didn’t say anything to each other, only a moment of understanding. Izuku wondered what Kacchan was thinking.
Their gazes all returned to Izuku, and he shrank under the weight of their expectations.“O-okay… Let’s go see him.”Iida sighed, finally relenting. “I suppose I should go too, then. Just to make sure you guys don’t get into any trouble while I’m gone.”And that was that. They all quickly finished their meals, with Todoroki slurping up the last of his cold soba as they got up and out of the school cafeteria.“Does…anyone actually know where he is?” He asked while they were walking in a random direction in the long halls of UA.“Medbay, duh,” Kacchan answered, leading the group as he walked in front. “The fucker was bleeding to death. Where else are they going to put him other than the Medbay? They needed to immediately treat the extra’s wounds. Besides, they couldn’t just bring some intruder to a hospital when he looks exactly like one of their students. Well… not exactly. The fucker’s a zombie.”With some awkward chuckles (because yes, they had seen how skinny the intruder was), and a “That’s not very manly to say, Bakubro!” from Kirishima, they made their way to the Medbay. The rest of the way was peaceful, with some small talk here and some gossip there. They made it to Recovery Girl’s office without much difficulty, coming across only a few teachers and nurses. Before they could stop her, Ashido began opening the door.Big mistake. Big, big mistake.“See? He’s All Might’s secret love child.”All Might turned to them, eyes widening and mouth hanging open.“Children?!” All Might exclaimed. He was sitting next to the boy with red glowing eyes and a face that resembled his. He quickly got up and attempted to block their vision of the boy, although poorly, as his thin body let them see much more than he had likely intended. “What are you doing here?!”Immediately, everyone’s faces paled. They’d been caught.Kirishima elbowed Ashido, whispering, “So much for not getting caught.”“Please don’t tell Aizawa-sensei, All Might!” Uraraka exclaimed.The boy jolted in his bed, sprinting out of it and to the farthest corner of the room, his ankle locked onto the bed with handcuffs. The bed pulled him back mid-sprint and made him fall on the floor, but the boy immediately got up and dragged the bed after him. He jumped into the corner of the ceiling, the bed lifting off of the ground from where they were connected.“A-All Might?” He whispered, scared. His red glowing eyes were widened as he erratically moved between their group and All Might. The boy’s chest was heaving up and down in harsh breaths, starting to hyperventilate as he started mumbling. “Need to get out need to get out need to get out oh my god All Might’s here I can’t escape can’t win can’t escape escape escape-”The boy mumbled under his breath, but because Izuku himself was an experienced mumbler, he caught everything he was saying. The rest of his group looked confused, only catching a couple of the words.All Might got up from his seat and approached the boy cautiously, hands raised in a placating manner.“It’s okay, there’s nothing to fear, my boy. Why don’t you come down from there?”As he got closer, the boy got tenser.“Stay away!” he shouted, making All Might flinch. But he didn’t stop.“I’m not going to hurt you. You can come down, you don’t have to be scared.”He slowly took another step. When the boy didn’t react, only freezing up a little more, he took another step. And then another. And then another.“Do you need help coming down?” He offered a hand, but the boy kept his eyes trained on All Might, not bothering with the hand. He jumped away from the man and onto the ground, dragging the bed along with him once more. Finally, he looked at them again. His eyes grew impossibly wider.“Ka-kacchan?” He asked, red and black eyes immediately turning a familiar emerald green and white.Everyone’s eyes widened as they held their breath.The boy, who now that Izuku got a closer look, had his face without a shadow of a doubt, looked confused and…terrified. He masked it as he put a wobbly, fake smile on his face, the corners of his lips barely lifting, making him look awkward and… creepy.“Wh-what are y-you d-d-doing here? “ He continued shakily, voice trembling, as he tried to act as if nothing had happened. “What a co-coincidence! I didn’t expect to s-see you h-here.”His eyes widened in panic, and immediately he started to frantically wave his hands around, eyes looking anywhere but at Kacchan’s face as he started rapidly trying to amend whatever he thought he’d said wrong. “AH! That isn’t to say I don’t expect to see you at UA! I DO expect to see you at UA, just not right now seeing as we’re both still in middle school and I don’t know why you’d be at UA when you’re supposed to be in class, and I'm sorry you had to see me please don’t say anythi-“The boy’s eyes stopped dead on Izuku, mouth stilling a second later. He started breathing in through his nose in short bursts, then a long and final inhalation. His eyebrows started to scrunch as he did so, the wrinkles deepening as his gaze was locked onto Izuku. And yet again, he was being stared at, but this time, he couldn’t help but stare back.The boy has a habit of mumbling. The boy has the same forest green eyes as him. The boy had the same viridian green hair as him. The boy had the same freckles, the same face, the same voice, the same of everything, but twisted into something so much darker. You cannot gouge out your eyes, turn them around and take a look at yourself. The only way you can see yourself is in the reflection of a mirror or in a picture. Or so Izuku thought.And now Izuku can't believe his eyes.He looked at the reflection in front of him, one not from a mirror or a photo, but a reflection of who he used to be back in middle school, back when he looked at the ground instead of people’s eyes, back when he was rife with anxiety and insecurity, back when he was all alone.The resemblance was uncanny, even though the boy was much shorter and thinner than his middle school self. Doubt crept into Izuku’s mind, and suddenly, none of the theories his classmates, Todoroki-kun and even himself could explain that which he shouldn’t have ever been able to see.“Why do you smell like me?” The boy asked. Izuku’s voice was lodged in his throat, he didn’t know what to do when his voice was coming from someone else’s mouth. The boy continued, eyebrows still deeply set on his face in confusion. “Why do you look like me?”“What’s going on?” His eyes drifted away from Izuku’s, looking over everyone’s faces as he scanned the room. “Where…am I?”All Might sighed. “That’s what we’d like to know as well.”  He looked back at Izuku and the rest of his group over his shoulder. “Kids, it’s best you go back.”“No.” Izuku’s look-alike said, taking the entire room by surprise. He pointed at Izuku. “He stays.”All Might looked nervous and resigned. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, before letting out a small sigh. “All right, he can stay. But the rest of you need to go back.”“What?!” They all shouted in unison, with Kacchan being the loudest of them all. “Why do we have to fucking go back?! Deku's going to spill his guts to his friends as soon as he gets back anyway! There’s no fucking point.” Kacchan jabbed a finger in the direction of the boy who carried Izuku’s face. “Besides! I know Deku the best out of all the extra’s here. If anything, I should be staying too!” The rest of the group just whined out Kacchan’s name.“I want to stay too!” Uraraka shouted in a fit of courage. “Deku-kun’s my best friend, so I want to stay by his side in these kinds of situations.” A look of realization crossed her face, a blush spreading across her cheeks. “I-if you can allow that, All Might-sensei…”The rest followed suit, various variations of “He’s my friend!” being shouted out in defense of them staying, only the odd “I want my ten bucks!” and “I can’t miss out on All Might’s long-lost secret love child.” being declared in between.God, Izuku really hoped All Might didn’t catch that last one during the commotion.“O-Okay!” All Might raised his voice to talk above the rest, hands splayed out in a placating manner, only this time, it was for a bunch of rowdy and stubborn teenagers instead. “Y-You can stay…just, don’t tell Aizawa-san that I let you. You need to leave before he comes back. He’d kill me if he knew I let his students talk to the intruder.” He sent Izuku an intense look. “That goes for you especially , Midoriya-shounen.”All Might turned around back to Izuku’s look-alike, who cocked his head in confusion and pointed a finger at himself, as if asking, ‘Me?’ . All Might smiled gently, lowering his tone to a soft cadence. “Why don’t we take a seat and have a nice conversation?”The boy nodded, but then looked back at the dislodged bed that was still attached to him.“Ah- of course, after we put the bed back in its proper place.” All Might chuckled.Izuku and Kirishima quickly stepped forward to help his look-alike, who seemed to struggle with pushing the bed, a stark contrast to how he had dragged and even lifted the bed just moments earlier, back in its place. All Might sat back on the second bed, picking up a bowl of spilled soup and an equally spilled glass of orange juice along the way. Once everything was in order, the boy sat back on the bed, bringing his left leg up to his chin, his other leg unable to do the same as it was still attached to the bed frame by the two handcuffs.The group spread out, some side stepping the mess on the floor and sitting next to All Might on the second bed, others opting to stand. Izuku took the chair closest to the boy, with Kacchan snagging the other chair quite aggressively before anyone else could take it. The air quickly got awkward, the boy staring intently at his bed, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.Izuku cleared his throat to grab his attention and to break the silence. He extended a hand out in hopes of appearing friendly, instead of bowing like he usually would. “My name is Izuku Midoriya, what’s your name?”At the mention of his name, the boy’s shoulders jolted, and finally, he looked up at Izuku.“That’s impossible.”“… What do you mean?” Izuku asked tentatively.The boy just shook his head. “It’s impossible, because that’s my name. I’m Izuku Midoriya.”Kacchan burst out laughing, full belly laughs, leaving the boy who claimed he was Izuku staring bewildered at him. Next to All Might, Uraraka whispered, “I told you he wasn’t Izuku’s twin and All Might’s long-lost secret love child.” To which Shoto simply replied in a whisper, “We don’t know that yet.”Finally, Kacchan’s laughing died down. “You? Deku? Just say you’re some fucked up experiment made by some crazy, obsessed lunatics and get it over with. Ain’t no way you’re fucking Deku.” He jammed his thumb into his chest. “I’d know. I grew up with the loser.”The look-alike knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “Kacchan… What are you saying? Don’t you recognize me?”“All I recognize is that those fuckers fucked up the cloning process real fucking bad.”“But I’m not a clone!” Izuku’s doppelganger exclaimed, leg flattening against the bed as he slammed his hands down and leaned forward. “Izuku Midoriya, born to Inko Midoriya on the 15th of July in 21XX! We grew up together, Kacchan, how could you not recognize me?"“See? Same birthday and mother,” Todoroki whispered to Uraraka, who simply facepalmed.“Well, you’re not the fucking Deku I grew up with,” He jammed his thumb in Izuku’s direction, face scrunching up in a snarl. “He is! So quit fucking lyin’ already!”“Kids, kids!” All Might exclaimed. “Let’s all just calm down and have a civil conversation.”Kacchan tsk’d and crossed his arms, but was otherwise silent. Everyone else just gave a nod in agreement, and with that, All Might continued. “You said you were born in 21XX, right, Midoriya-kun?”His look-alike nodded.“And you’re thirteen years old?”Again, he nodded.Everyone became silent, the realization All Might had reached dawning on all of them.“Tch, no wonder you’re so short.” Kacchan snarked.Izuku stared in shock at his face. The final piece clicked, the solved puzzle a wilder theory than any that had been shouted out and furiously debated over, wilder than the ones that had been running circles in his mind.“You’re me…from an alternate universe?”The boy stared back, equally in shock, as his eyes widened.Next to All Might on the bed opposite him, Izuku heard Todoroki whisper, “Close enough. He’s still All Might’s secret love child.”“What do you mean…” The face resembling his from the hardest and loneliest time of his life said slowly, shakily. His voice broke, a look of horror crossing his face. “… I’m in another universe?”He furiously shook his head, repeating ‘no no no’ in a panic. He brought up his hands to his head, pulling at his hair. “No!” He shouted, face shooting up as he glared at Izuku, eyes turned that pitch black and blood red. “You’re lying! Why are you lying to me!? LIAR!”He roughly grabbed the collar of Izuku’s shirt, face coming close to his. “Tell me the truth!” He shouted as he shook Izuku. “Tell me how to get back!”Izuku had his eyes pinched closed as he kept on shaking him. He could hear the shouting of his friends and mentor. Before he could think of using One For All to create distance, the shaking stopped.Izuku peeled an eye open, eye meeting the widened black ones of his other self. All Might had his hands on the boy’s shoulders, probably in an attempt to pull him off of Izuku.Suddenly, there was hair in his nose and poking his eyes as the boy flew into his neck. It seemed as if time was frozen, nobody moved, staring once again in surprise at the boy’s unpredictable actions. The only sound and movement came from his alternate self sniffing and burying his nose in his neck.His neck…….Why was he smelling his neck?!Izuku pushed the other back, not roughly, but with enough force that the other would back off. The other immediately started tearing up, fat tears collecting in his eyes.“You’re lying…” He whispered weakly. “You have to be lying…”The tears rolled down his cheek. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed, the tears falling from between his fingers as he hunched over. He brought up his left leg and curled up into a ball as best he could, shoulders shaking with every body wracking sob.Izuku looked up at the rest of the group, at a loss for what to do. The others didn’t seem to know either, their eyes widened and brows creased, some glancing between him and the sobbing form of his other self. They had all stood up some time during the commotion. The ones closest to him had their arms awkwardly stretched out, pulling them back now that intervention wasn’t needed anymore. All Might sighed. He rubbed the wracking shoulders of his other self, trying to comfort the anguished boy. He looked at all of his students with an intense gaze, stopping at Izuku.“I think it’s best for you to go.”Izuku knew he didn’t only mean him, he meant everyone that wasn’t supposed to be there. But he knew that All Might meant especially him, and that’s how it felt like.They all stood up, quickly and quietly leaving. Kacchan stayed standing, eyes still locked onto the other Izuku. Izuku pulled at his shirt lightly, whispering, “Kacchan, we need to go.”He looked back at him, eyes still wide and mouth still slightly agape. “R-right, let’s go.”His friends glanced back at the curled up figure on the bed, now enveloped in a hug. There was a deep crease between Iida’s eyebrows and a frown on his face. Ochako chewed at her bottom lip, eyebrows scrunched up in worry. Todoroki wasn’t as noticeable, only a slight frown tugging at his lips, eyes hard and steely.Izuku closed the door, breaking their line of sight.“Well…” Mina, ever the optimist, tried, still looking visibly uncomfortable. “It could have gone worse?”Kirishima sighed. “No, Ashido-san.”They walked back to class in a heavy silence, everyone’s minds on the cries of a boy they could no longer hear. It couldn’t have gone any worse.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Are you okay?” A deep voice rang, breaking the uncomfortable silence created by his breakdown, making it appear much more intimidating than it was, the question much more intrusive, despite its gentle and soft tone. It was All Might’s voice, Izuku had to remind himself. And perhaps that’s why it was so jarring to hear. The contrast between his booming voice, the only one he knew of All Might, and the way he spoke to him now, left him reeling.He had been terrified of this man for years, and here he was, comforting him. The hero’s arm’s were still wrapped around Izuku. Almost caging him. He tried to ignore the voice screaming in his head to escape. He tried to ignore the scent of blood.Izuku’s crying had started to slow down, although the process itself was a slow one, while All Might hugged him throughout it.But the question asked an answer, one Izuku had trouble getting past his thick throat. He nodded, hoping that was answer enough. He didn’t trust himself to speak just yet.His face stayed buried in his hands, which were still wet and sticky with tears and snot, not wanting to look anyone in the eye. Finally, All Might released him from his cage, and Izuku could feel the warmth leaving him. He wanted to scream for it to come back. He needed the beating pulse he could hear so clearly to come back. He needed the warm blood to take away the cold. He needed needed needed neede-All Might rubbed circles in his back; a comforting gesture. He could probably feel Izuku’s spine.A pause of the hand on his back, a soft rustle, then, a soft press of something against his hands. A pack of tissues. Izuku looked at it from the corner of his eye, between the gaps of his hands. He took it without saying anything and cleaned his hands. As he wiped his face of the snot and tears, he snuck a glance at the hero who he had been terrified of ever since he realised what he was, the hero in question smiling gently at him.“I always keep one on me,” he said as he continued rubbing his back, the smile on his face never leaving. It contained maybe a bit of concern, if Izuku was seeing things correctly. Izuku looked back at his lap and whispered his thanks, so softly that there was a chance All Might didn’t hear it. “Do you want something to drink?” He chuckled a little abashedly. “The soup and orange juice fell to the floor, I’ll probably have to ask someone else to bring you food.” Izuku’s stomach clenched with pain. A pain he had been ignoring for too long now.“But that will take awhile. Do you want a glass of water?”Izuku shook his head. He needed something to fill the gaping hole in his stomach, as if it had started eating itself.“Coffee,” he whispered. So softly that he was the only one who could hear it. A short pause.“Can you repeat that?” “Coffee,” Izuku said a little louder. It was still a little muffled by his hands. “May I please have some coffee?”“Of course!” All Might replied enthusiastically. And then he paused again. “But you’ll have to wait a bit. I need to ask someone to bring that for you. However, you should really drink some water. We don’t want you to be dehydrated! Midoriya-shounen always drinks 2 bottles of water after cryi-”Izuku tensed at the sound of his name. He knew All Might didn’t mean him. That made it worse.“Ah, sorry. That was unthoughtful of me. I’ll, um, get a glass of water for you.”The bed creaked as All Might stood up. Izuku could hear his footsteps as he walked to the sink in the bathroom connected to the Nurse’s office. Izuku heard the flow of water, the footsteps back, the creak of the bed. Felt the gentle weight of a hand against his back. The cold of the glass.“Here,” All Might said. “You should really drink it.”So he took the glass. It would be rude not to. Izuku didn’t look up, he sat hunched over and made sure All Might couldn’t see his face. Even with his hands and face cleaned up, his hair was a mess, wilder than usual even, and his veins were still around his eyes.His eyes were black and red.Izuku took a deep breath and tried calming himself down completely. His eyes tended to change when he was very emotional and when he was hung-... When he was emotional. Control. He needs to have control over at least one thing.His eyes changed back, viridian green replacing blood red. He sat up a little straighter and raised his head, starting to drink and eventually gulping the glass down once he realized how thirsty he actually was. Once he was done, he brought it back down and rested it on his lap.“Before the others arrive, I would like to say something…” All Might started, Izuku stilling as he continued. “I apologize for what happened back there. It was wrong of me to spring that on you out of the blue, and in front of everyone. You were already confused and stressed enough as it is.”Izuku tentatively looked back at All Might, the gentle smile now entirely wiped from his face and instead replaced with a slight frown, eyebrows knitted together. Izuku averted his gaze and looked back at the glass he held between his hands.“It’s okay.”“No, it’s not.” All Might said it firmly, leaving no room for protest. “I was merely speculating, causing you unnecessary stress. On top of that, I inadvertently humiliated you by voicing my thoughts with everyone present, while you were vulnerable.”Izuku looked back at All Might.“As a teacher at UA I should have been firmer with my students. And told the faculty of my speculation to either have it confirmed or denied. You should have been told in private, after everything was confirmed. For that, I am so sorry.”Izuku sighed, his exhaustion seeping out.“Y-you d-don’t have to apologize…sir.. I’m okay. But, uhm….”All Might tensed.“...thank you.”He smiled as he relaxed. “Don’t worry too much, okay? I’m sure everything will work out. And don’t be afraid to ask me for help, I’m here if you need me.”Izuku nodded his thanks.Just then someone knocked on the door and without waiting for a reply, opened it. In walked Eraserhead with Principal Nedzu on his shoulder, a black backpack slung over his other shoulder. Nedzu was smiling happily, but Eraserhead looked tired as hell. He walked up to All Might and held out a cup of coffee to him. “Next time get someone else to be your errand boy, All Might.”“Thank you for bringing it, Aizawa-san,” All Might said as he took the cup and turned to Izuku, handing it to him. Eraserhead looked at him, eyebrow raised, as he took the cup, which made Izuku avert his gaze. But the smell of coffee was too intoxicating to feel shame for being a burden, and he downed it in one go. Izuku sighed in relief at the taste, but more importantly, the feeling of something in his stomach. It wasn’t enough however, but he didn’t want to think about that.Eraserhead and Principal Nedzu had taken the seats next to him by the time he looked up from his cup, the dog-bear-rat looking at him intently.“I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay here, Izuku-kun,” He said, beady eyes gleaming intelligently. “After all, you’ve made quite the journey.”Izuku swallowed thickly.“You’re quite remarkable, you know, Izuku-kun. You’ve achieved something I’ve been working on for years. Don’t be too alarmed, but it appears you’ve traveled to another universe.”Izuku could feel his stomach drop. The dog-bear-rat said it so nonchalantly, as if talking about the weather, instead of effectively dealing the final blow that crushed his world. It felt as if his blood froze over. He sat absolutely still, holding his breath as he finally processed it fully. He looked at All Might, who had his jaw hanging open, staring wide-eyed at the principal.“ But! ” The principal continued, a single finger raised, “Yuuei will help you as much as we can, so don’t worry too much. I’m happy to say that we’ve already begun looking for a way to get you back home! We only need your help. Do you remember who sent you here?”Izuku shook his head.“He was a nameless drug addict who was trying to buy a newer version of Trigger, from a dealer named Osamu Tanaka, when Eraserhead and I apprehended them. His hair was light blue and very shaggy, it looked unkempt, and his quirk shot out from his hands like a blue light beam. That’s all I know.”Nedzu’s smile became smaller. “Hmm… Thank you. As for where you’ll be staying until you return.” If I return , Izuku thought. Nedzu swept an arm to Eraserhead, who still looked dead. “You’ll be staying with Aizawa-san! Seeing as you were close enough to work together, I assume you are comfortable enough with him. If you have a problem with it, I’ll see what can be arranged.”Izuku looked hesitantly at Aizawa, trying to read his expression, which had remained neutral the entire conversation. He shook his head, “No, it’s fine. I-if Eraserhead-san is okay with it, of course…”“Great! Then that’s settled. Now, for research purposes, I have a few questions for you. What’s your quirk?”Izuku froze. Of course he would ask about that. He wondered if his counterpart had the same quirk as he did, but going by how it seemed everyone in this universe had the same quirk, it was very likely. Eraserhead still had Erasure, All Might still had Super Strength, Nedzu still had High Specs, and Tsukauchi still had Lie Detector. Izuku only wondered how his other self hid it so well. Part of him admired him for it…but the other part…The other part hated him for being selfish, for being happy. It was an odd mix of disdain and jealousy.Izuku wondered what his other self had listed his quirk as. He had to play it safe. He had to answer the question, even though he really, really didn’t want to.“I have a regenerative quirk.”Plain and simple. Give them what they already know.Nedzu raised an eyebrow.“And your eyes?”Well, crap.“Uh, I uh, well you see it’s a s-side effect of my quirk..? It’s uhm, it activates at random, I don’t have much control over it.” Izuku gulped, smiling a wobbly smile as he hoped they would fall for his obvious lie. Usually, he could lie pretty well, but the fact he was lying about what his quirk is (a secret that he had sworn to the grave) to Nedzu of all people, made him incredibly nervous.  In the first place, he has never had to lie about the specifics of his quirk, because nobody knew that Izuku “Deku” Midoriya had a quirk in the first place. And Eraserhead never asked.Nedzu’s eyes shone once more, humming thoughtfully at Izuku’s jumbled answer. More likely than not, the principal had figured him out in seconds. “And what about your nose?” Came a deep voice from his other side. Izuku flinched, all his attention having been focused on the dog-bear-rat, before turning to the man who had asked the question. And not just any man, All fucking Might , y’know, the number one hero. He was so screwed. The man in question pointed at his nose. “You, ah, said I smelled like blood and medicine. I thought that was pretty…odd.”“Ah, well-” Quick! Think, Izuku, think! “My quirk…enhances my entire body. Regeneration just happens to be the strongest of them all.”“Oh?” Nedzu perked up in interest. He tilted his head, “I assume that includes strength, agility, resilience and all of the senses. But how about your biological processes? Do you get hungry more quickly than the average human? Do you age faster?”Izuku looked back down at his hands, nodding. He didn’t want to look the heroes in their eyes, didn’t want them to look deep into his soul and find what his eyes would betray him, just like it had the other facets of his quirk. He felt vulnerable, laid bare for the whole world to see, even though realistically he knew he was in a small room with three heroes. He didn’t know which one was worse. “You’re correct about your first assumption…”“But ah,” He looked back up, but resorted to only briefly making eye contact. He brought a hand up to rub rub at his neck, a nervous gesture. “I don’t really know the answers to your other questions. I haven’t really thought about it…”Nedzu hummed again. “What a remarkable quirk. It’s as if you have nine quirks all wrapped up in one.” He smiled just as All Might went rigid. “Well then, that about wraps up this talk. I’ll be seeing you soon, Izuku Midoriya, but for now I’m afraid I have other matters to attend to. Shouta-kun, if you don’t mind?”Eraserhead stood up and dug through his pocket, producing a bundle of keys, and unlocking the handcuffs that chained Izuku to the hospital bed. He put away the handcuffs and keys in his pocket, and then dropped the black backpack on the bed.“This has all your stuff in it.”Izuku perked up, immediately diving for the bag. He really wanted the comfort of his own clothes, his vigilante outfit having always been what he had felt most comfortable in, and the extra layers helping to fight against the cold that seemed to perpetually chill his bones. “Except your whip.”And there it was.“Safety precautions,” Eraserhead said curtly. Izuku nodded in understanding, although a lot less enthusiastic than he had been mere seconds ago. With that, the principal and Eraserhead got up and headed for the door, the principal bidding him adieu as they left.The next few hours went crawling by, All Might grading papers on Recovery Girl’s desk while he stared at his ceiling. He didn’t like not having something to occupy his mind, because he knew it would eat at him just like his stomach. All Might occasionally tried to start a conversation, but after a few sentences it would drift back into silence, one that was more comfortable than before, if only slightly. Izuku tried to relax as much as he could, but try as he might, he could never fully relax. His thoughts didn’t let him. Here he was, all alone in a world with no way of going back. He had no one here. Unwillingly isolated from his own world.Izuku was no stranger to isolation, on the contrary, he was very familiar with it, even from a young age. It started before his quirk diagnosis, when he was too shy to go up to strangers. And when he did, he was either too much for them that they couldn’t be friends at all, or they got along like a house on fire. Kacchan was that one, the one he got along with like a house on fire. They had hit it off immediately, the two boys having spent the majority of their toddler years attached at the hip. They both loved heroes immensely, and played all sorts of games together in the park. Even then, Izuku always chased after Kacchan. That was just the way it was, and they were best friends because of it. Not anymore though, now it’s just a house on fire. At the age of 4, Izuku learned a very painful lesson. People…are not born equally. And if you’re not the same as everyone else, you don’t belong with everyone else. Humans split people up into groups, unconsciously or not. It just so happened that Izuku was put into the group of people with no quirks. Quirkless. That was his diagnosis, even though it was wrong.Kacchan wasn’t the one to put him in that group, he was the one who enforced it. Beneath him , that’s how Kacchan viewed Izuku. Atleast, if all his years of bullying are anything to go by. When they were best friends, Izuku wasn’t the only one to follow him, and he won’t be the last. So people followed Kacchan and started bullying him, too. He probably broke a record for how fast he became the school’s punching bag.Izuku never told his mom, she already had enough on her mind. Besides, it was beneficial for him. No one expects there to be something to be below the bottom of the barrel. It made it easier to hide behind the label given to him at the age of 4. A monster hiding in plain sight.He could always hear the whispers of his classmates, teachers and people in the halls. Whispers of disgust, their scrunched up faces saying enough even when they didn’t voice their opinions out loud. They’d whisper about how skinny his arms were. ‘Creepy’, they’d call him. Among the whispers, there was one that was most common. A term those who weren’t afraid to say all of those whispers to his face used the most. A term used by virtually everyone.
Zombie Deku.
That was his name, the one Kacchan had given him. For good reason, because many of those whispers compared him to a walking corpse. He didn’t mind the name calling. When people are scared of something, they tend to stay away. Izuku didn’t want to give them a reason to be scared. The real reason.He didn’t want to hurt anybody, so it was better to stay alone.Don’t go up to anyone. Don’t try to befriend someone. The less others have to do with him, the better.It’s better to stay alone.Stay alone.Alone.Alone.Alone.Alone.Alone.Alone.All alone.Izuku was no stranger to isolation. He has always been alone.Izuku was alone.Izuku is alone.Izuku was world’s away.Izuku is alone.Alone.All alone.He didn’t want to be.Izuku was world’s away.He didn’t want to be.Izuku was alone.Izuku is alone.Izuku is...     Alone.---All Might put all his papers in one pile and tapped the bottom against the table, making it nice and neat. He cleared his throat, taking away Izuku's attention from the ceiling, white with dots and lines of varying sizes splattered seemingly at random all over. Like static. Only, the ceiling was much calmer than the static in his mind. Once Izuku’s eyes landed on All Might’s, he began to speak.“Recovery Girl and Aizawa will be coming soon. Recovery Girl will do one last check up before you’re free to go with Aizawa-san.” Izuku turned to look at the ceiling once more, nodding his head numbly. He could feel All Might’s eyes on him, but Izuku was much too exhausted, both emotionally and physically, to pay much mind to his squirming. All Might cleared his throat again, finally saying what had been on his mind for a while now. “I’m sorry that this happened to you, Izuku-shounen. I-if..you need someone to talk to, I’m here. If you need a shoulder to cry on, I’m here. I know this must be unbelievably scary, especially considering you’re only thirteen years old.” All Might chuckled a short clipped laugh. “I don’t even know how I’d handle it, and I’m an adult.”Izuku looked back at All Might, catching the note of self deprecating humour so unusual of the hero. Never in his thirteen years had he ever expected to hear All Might, the number one hero, to admit that he wouldn’t be able to handle something. It was a far cry from the confident number one hero who could take on the world he spent his early childhood admiring. In fact… Everything about the number one hero before him, was a far cry from the number one hero he grew up with. There was the obvious, All Might wasn’t the towering wall of muscle he used to be, now shrunken to a frail emaciated man. He didn’t square his shoulders and hold his head up high like he used to either, now opting for a hunched over posture. And maybe most unusual of all was that All Might sounded almost…defeated. No longer the confident optimistic hero he used to be.Izuku wondered what happened to him.All Might smiled when their eyes connected, although to Izuku it looked like he was covering something up. “You’re wondering why I look like this, aren’t you?” Izuku’s eyes widened. He didn’t want to pry, and he knew it was rude to ask, but he was too curious to let this opportunity go. Not knowing what to say, he nodded ever so slightly. “A villain did this to me.” He lifted up his shirt, showing the huge scar that spiderwebbed all over the left of his side. “A very bad one. He ripped my guts out, which is why I can’t eat properly. I have to adhere to a strict diet. I thought I had ended it back then, but…Well, he’s in prison now.”He sighed, dropping the shirt and looking at Izuku once again, piercing blue eyes connecting with his viridian green. They compelled him to ask further, stoked the curious cat Izuku had long since thought he had killed inside him.“Why do you look like that?” All Might asked. It wasn’t meant to attack him, Izuku knew, but his hackles still rose. It was a carefully asked question, one All Might had probably wanted to ask ever since he had seen the state of his body. Izuku knew that the other Izuku didn’t look like him. He probably couldn’t risk not feeding himself well on the battlefield. It still left a bad taste in Izuku’s mouth.“I did this to myself.” Izuku didn’t explain further; he didn’t want to. He could see the curious glint in All Might’s eyes, one that wanted to ask further. His heart was beating out of his chest, he could even feel it in his throat. This was the first time someone had asked him about the one secret he would absolutely never tell anyone else about. Too close. All Might was getting too close. What does Izuku do whenever someone gets too close? Change the subject.“Can you still use Super Strength?”“What?” All Might looked like a deer in headlights, utterly confused at the question.Izuku scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “Super Strength? Y’know, your… quirk?”All Might broke out into a nervous laughter and rubbed at his neck, nodding a bit too much. “My quirk, yeah. Um well, I am… too weak to use it. My quirk needs a strong body to handle it. One I sadly… don’t have anymore. I’m quirkless.”Izuku huffed air, looking back at the ceiling. He whispered under his breath. “If only…”“What?” All Might asked, not catching it. Izuku looked back at the emaciated man that sat next to him by the desk, his clear eyes expressing his sincerity. “If only we could trade. I would give you my regeneration. Then all our problems would be solved.”All Might scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. Izuku took a shaky breath.“If only… there was someone who could take away quirks.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Time passed in a blur, and before he knew it, it was time for his checkup.

His regeneration was going a lot more slowly than he was used to, which worried him quite a bit, but for now he would have to chalk it up to his recent…eating habits. And the lack thereof. He hadn’t expected he would become so weak so quickly, but then again, the only time he had unknowingly done this before was when he believed he was still human. And that ended up in him inches away from death, the subsequent monstrous discovery of his quirk following soon after.

Every time Izuku got hungry, so hungry it blinded him of his senses, someone got hurt. Or were desecrated. Izuku didn’t want to eat, he didn’t want to take from people anymore. But the more he did so, the more he would end up taking from those who were still living. It was a violent cycle of hurting himself and hurting others. The only way to stop it was to take out the root of the problem.

“The wound is healing up nicely, but I advise you to not do any extraneous activity that can rip the stitches. Two weeks of rest. That means no running, jumping, kicking or fighting in any way, understood, Midoriya-kun?”

Izuku nodded automatically, Recovery Girl’s stern look echoing the ones his mom used to give so long ago, a time when she wasn’t so exhausted she could barely spare an hour chatting with her son during dinner before collapsing in bed. When Izuku was a boy who loved to dream and knew how to light up the room with his smiles. Even though Izuku hated getting scolded back then, he would do anything to have it back.

Recovery Girl crossed her arms, a thoughtful look in her eyes, before turning her chair to look at the two men standing beside his hospital bed. “You lot better keep a good eye on the boy! We all know how reckless Midoriya-kun is, not listening to adults and getting himself hurt. God knows how often your boy ended up in this very bed. One Midoriya was enough of a headache as it is, and now there’s two.”

The two heroes both nodded.

“I’ll make sure to deliver the message to the other teachers.” Eraserhead said in reply. He turned to Izuku and placed a paper bag on his lap. “I got you some new clothes before coming here to make up for the ones that got cut up.”

“Ah, thank you, Eraserhead. Y-you really didn’t have to.”

“Do you want to stay in hospital gowns?” Eraserhead asked, an eyebrow quirked.

“N-no…” The hospital gown was much too thin, even under the blanket, Izuku shivered from the cold.

“Then take it without feeling guilty. Honestly, I should have done so earlier.”

Izuku nodded, taking the bag and moving behind a curtain to get changed. Once he was done, he stepped out. Recovery Girl was at her desk working on her computer, while Eraserhead stood by the door. All Might sat on the bed Izuku had occupied the entire day and got up as soon as Izuku poked his head out of the curtains. He placed a skinny hand on an equally skinny shoulder.

“Don’t forget you can always come to me,” He smiled, gentle eyes hoping to convey his sincerity. Izuku nodded silently once more, and with that All Might waved goodbye, stating that he had to go teach. After Eraserhead and Izuku both said their thanks to Recovery Girl, they left for his apartment.

It was on campus, which was odd. Izuku had expected that they’d have to go by train or car to Eraserhead’s home, but instead, they only had to walk. The underground hero told him that there were numerous attacks on the school, and especially the students, which is why UA decided to become a boarding school. It was news to Izuku, but then again, this world

was

in the future and it was also an

alternate universe

. There were probably much more differences between his world and this one, Izuku just didn’t know it yet.

“I hope you’re not allergic to cats.” Eraserhead said as they approached the apartment door. Once he opened it, all Izuku could hear was meowing. Aizawa stepped further into his house, Izuku following behind. The many cats surrounding Eraserhead’s legs scattered in a blur of motion once they caught sight of Izuku, leaving Izuku to stand there awkwardly. “They don’t like strangers, so don’t take it too personally.”

Izuku nodded, taking off his shoes and putting them neatly next to each other. Aizawa did the same, locking the door behind him before walking further into the apartment. “I still have some work to do, so I’ll be in my office. Make yourself at home.”

Izuku decided to put his bags down near the entrance, when something black in the corner of his eye caught his attention. When he looked, there was nothing there. Izuku decided to ignore it.

‘Probably just my imagination.’

As Izuku looked around, one thing in particular stood out to him. Aizawa’s home wasn’t really a home. It didn’t have any pictures or any kind of decoration. Izuku looked at the tv,

no game consoles either.

There were only bookshelves, lined with file holders containing paperwork and cases, the occasional book, and numerous cat trees and toys lining the walls and littering the floor.

It was empty in the way that he probably didn’t spend much time here. In short, it didn’t look lived in. Which was weird, since Eraserhead wasn’t the only one who lived here.

His stomach clawed at him from the inside, demanding food and demanding it

NOW.

‘Quiet’,

he begged his stomach.

‘Not now,

please

.’

He clutched at his side, walking hunched over to the couch where he curled up in a ball. He buried his nose in the crevice, hoping to cover the smell of skin and meat that permeated the apartment as a permanent fixture, hanging in the air and making him salivate. His stomach turned and flipped, eating at him in ways only he could. Izuku curled up even tighter, the pain agonizing. He tried ignoring it, thinking instead about how he’s staying at Eraserhead’s apartment for the time being.

Shinso probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable sharing his room with him. And Izuku wasn’t too sure if he was allowed to even use the guest bedroom, if they even had one. The couch is fine, it’s more than he deserved anyways.

“Izuku?”

He turned his head, green meeting tired green.

“You look tired, honey. I’ll make you dinner. What do you want?” Her soft cheeks had long lost their gentle curve, sinking more the more she was drained. The purple under her eyes covered by borrowed makeup. Her smile used to stretch from ear to ear, but now only lifted slightly at the corners. The only thing that had remained unchanged was the warmth and love that she held in her eyes when she looked at him, if slightly dimmed from exhaustion.

He didn’t deserve it. He never did.

A lump formed in his throat, his eyes already beginning to water.

‘Don’t cry, don’t cry.’

Monsters aren’t allowed to cry. He had done more of that in a single day than he had in years.

“...Mom?” His voice shook. He pushed off the couch as he reached for her.

“Oh Izuku… You’ve worked so hard, my baby. You can rest now, honey, you’re safe. Izuku… you know I lo-”

Izuku’s hand touched her cheek, and then she vanished. Here one moment, gone the next. His outstretched hand hung in the air.

Hallucinations

. He laughed, a huff of air escaping his lips. How far gone was he?

Izuku got up and shook his head. He didn’t deserve to hear those words anyways.

He headed towards the kitchen. He needs to cook something, he needs to do

something

. He’s already spent too long doing nothing, not cooking, not cleaning, not saving or working on his police notes. He

couldn’t

do anything, not while he was being watched like a hawk by pro heroes. But now…

finally

, could he actually do something. Something productive. He doesn’t want to be alone with his mind, and the next best thing is keeping it preoccupied.

His stomach gave a sharp pang that made him crumple to the floor, clutching to the fridge door. He got up after taking a breather.

Barely anything was in the fridge, only two tomatoes, a little bit of chicken and some butter. Izuku took it out, it’s not like he had much choice anyways. He opened cabinets, most of which were empty (save for the

numerous

jelly pouches), and pulled out two plates and the single pot and pan he found. He was starting to lose hope when he opened one of the last cupboards, a single pack of pasta inside.

Still no sign of anyone else living here…

Izuku checked the other cabinets for herbs, finding only salt and pepper. Figures. He’ll have to make do.

The stench of human food made the hurt of his stomach fade a little.

Thank god for that.

He stirred the pan with the small amount of tomato sauce he was able to make with the two tomatoes. It was almost done.

“What are you doing?”

Izuku jumped, whipping his head around to the sound, wooden spatula at the ready. Aizawa stood there, giving him a deadpan stare.

“I’m sorry! I s-should have asked b-before using your kitchen and d-digging around the cabinets.” Only Eraserhead could sneak up on him like that. He breathed, trying to steady his racing heart.

Aizawa sighed. “You don’t have to be so nervous, I don’t bite.”

But I do,

he felt the guilt swirl in the continuous pang of his stomach, made stronger now with the smell of human skin. The grip on his spatula tightened.

“I was, uh…” he looked back at the pot. “Cooking?”

Eraserhead looked at the spatula and pan, then back at him. “You didn’t have to, I could have just ordered take-out.”

“I cooked for you…as, uhm, as a thank you.”

Aizawa nodded and walked inside the kitchen, gently taking the spatula from his hand.

“Were you going somewhere?” Izuku asked. Eraserhead was fully dressed in his hero costume, a fact he could only fully process now that the surprise of the little interruption was over.

“Patrol,” he answered curtly as he stirred the pot. “I came to tell you before I left.”

Eraserhead left the spatula in the pot as he went to the fridge and promptly shut it, rubbing his eyes and cursing softly to himself. He lowered his hand, tired eyes landing on him. “What do you want for dinner? I’ll order.”

“Do you…” Izuku paused, eyes darting to the pan of sauce he was stirring. “Do you not like pasta?”

He shook his head. “It’s not that. There’s too little for the both of us.”

“I’m fine, really. B-but you should order for yourself.” Izuku thought back to the empty fridge and cabinets. “You need to feed yourself properly, Eraserhead.”

Aizawa raised a single eyebrow, deadpan as ever.

“I’m fine.”

Eraserhead sighed in that familiar way, the way

his

Eraserhead sighed when he was exasperated with him. It made him wonder if he’d see him ever again, and the answer he knew to that question made him want to curl up in a ball.

“For as long as you’re in my care, I’m going to make sure you’re properly fed. So tell me what you want, kid. I’m going to order food for you anyways, you might as well get something you like.”

Izuku gulped. He didn’t want more food.

Starving.

He didn’t want to eat.

I’m starving.

“Chinese is okay.”

Human meat.

That was a normal answer, right?

Eraserhead nodded and pulled out his phone, making a call immediately. Once he was done, he told (ordered) Izuku to sit as he portioned two plates of the pasta, placing more chicken on Izuku’s plate than his own.

Wordlessly he placed it in front of Izuku and took a seat, digging into the food.

Izuku stared at his plate, wondering if Eraserhead liked his cooking. He looked back at the hero, who felt his gaze and raised his eyes. He glanced down at Izuku’s plate and sighed again.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

Izuku gulped and grabbed the fork, twirling the pasta around it.

“I was just..”

He couldn’t say that he didn’t actually want to eat. He brought the fork to his mouth. He wanted to vomit from the stench alone, but the feeling of Eraserhead’s eyes burned into his face, forcing him to shove the fork in his mouth. With practiced ease he pretended to chew, swallowing the taste of maggots and shoelaces down his throat. He twirled his fork around more pasta, bringing it to his mouth and pretending to chew it once more.

“It’s good.” Izuku looked back up. “Thank you.”

The corners of Izuku’s eyes lifted ever so slightly. The warmth that spread in his chest, a feeling he often got when he was praised by Eraserhead, made it easier to swallow the next bite and shove the bile that reflexively rose back down. “You’re welcome.”

They continued eating in silence for a while, the take-out not having arrived yet. Eraserhead wasn’t the talkative type, and much preferred the silence that accompanied the night. And by the looks of it, he was exhausted. Aizawa was probably the only hero who wouldn’t be asking him more questions about the world he came from; the interrogation didn’t answer everything after all.

Eraserhead took a sip of some of his coffee, the only palatable thing in the room. Izuku had asked for coffee, but had been immediately shot down by the look Aizawa gave him.

‘It’s too late for you to be drinking coffee, kid.’

Izuku didn’t mention how he’s drinking a whole pot of coffee.

If Shinso were here, he might have been able to get it. If there’s one thing Izuku and Shinso shared, besides their eye bags and insomnia, was their love for coffee.

Izuku paused.

“Where are Present Mic and Shinso, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Eraserhead raised an eyebrow as he continued drinking his coffee, waiting for further clarification.

“Your husband and son?”

Aizawa spat his coffee out, choking on the coffee that had gone down the wrong pipe in his surprise.

“I’m married to Hizashi?!”

Izuku found out that night that this Eraserhead was very much straight and very much

not

married to Present Mic. Shinso was never adopted by him either, but he

was

training him.

“Married to Hizashi,” Aizawa shook his head once again, pinching his nose bridge.

---

To his surprise, he was allowed to stay in the guest bedroom. It was completely empty, except for a neatly made bed, a small desk and a cabinet. It was his bedtime, or so Eraserhead had told him. The hero’s room was right next door; Izuku couldn’t make his escape or sneak off into the night. Not now, not when Aizawa was still awake. His stomach protested, growling and turning and twisting.

The hero would patrol in an hour or so, and hopefully, he would take a cat nap before he’d have to leave. Izuku could be in and out during the nap, or when he’d go on patrol. The sooner the better.

In the meantime, he couldn’t leave. He didn’t have his computer or his notebook. He couldn’t cook or clean the house without having Eraserhead send him right back to bed and having more rules put in place (rules that would make it harder to escape). He couldn’t do

anything.

So he waited. For the evening of Aizawa’s breath, and the slow rhythmic pattern of a beating heart deep in sleep. But it was more difficult to discern which was which and whose belonged to whom, interspersed with the sounds of other breathing and beating hearts as it was. He focused, trying to block out the others and search for Eraserhead’s.

Izuku laid under the covers of his bed, trying to keep warm from the chill that seeped into his bones even with the added clothing given to him by Aizawa.

He stared at the ceiling.

You’ll never see Eraserhead again.

“Izuku, is there something wrong?”

You’ll never see mom again.

“Go away.”

“You’re not eating properly.”

You’ll never be able to hear her voice again.

“Go away.”

You'll never get to hear Eraserhead’s stories again.

“Did you think I didn’t notice how thin you’ve gotten?”

You’ll never be able to hear about her day again.

“

Leave me alone.”

“Izuku dear, tell me what’s wrong. I can see how sad you’ve gotten.”

You’ll never get to hug mom again.

“Leave, please.”

You’ll never be able to talk with Eraserhead again.

“Is this about the incident with Katsuki, hmm? I know that wasn’t your fault, I believe you.”

You abandoned her, just like how your father did.

“Leave!” He slammed a pillow on his head, trying in vain to block her voice.

“You were abandoned, just like me. But I’ll never abandon you.”

She’ll never know why.

“Please,

stop

.” Tears escaped his hold and wetted the mattress he tried burying his face in. Her voice didn’t leave or become softer after he covered his ears with the pillow. There isn’t a way to block a voice coming from your mind.

“No matter how much of a monster you are, I’ll never abandon you.”

She’s safer without you.

“You’re not here.”

“Shh, my baby, cry it out. That’s it. You don’t have to be strong with me. I’m your mother, and I’ll always be here. To keep you safe, to keep you warm, to feed you and wipe your tears. I’ll never abandon you.”

You’ll never hear her say that.

“You’re just a hallucination.”

“I’ll make it stop hurting. Just be honest with me, Izuku, be honest. Don’t lie.”

If only she knew…

“You’re not real.”

“I’ll accept you. Because you’re my son.”

She’d hate you.

“You’re not real.”

“Because I love you.”

Izuku lifted the pillow off of his head and turned to look at her. The air left his body.

“You’re not real.” He whispered to himself.

All that greeted him was the darkness of the guest bedroom.

And you’ll never-

Izuku swallowed the lump in his throat, dry with the lack of hydration, fists digging into the cover of the mattress.

‘I’ll never hear her say I love you.’

He threw his pillow across the room in a burst of rage, the crash making little noise courtesy of the emptiness of the room, but for as soft as its landing was, the sound it made sounded deafening to Izuku’s ears. He picked up a small squeak on the other side of the room, but ignored it, passing it off as another hallucination, and buried himself underneath his blanket. He sobbed into his mattress and curled into a ball.

Sleep came too quickly. The nightmares were never far behind.

He woke up drenched in sweat, tears rushing down his cheeks and hair in his hands. His chest heaved up and down, heart beating wildly. He turned to look at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand. He’s been asleep for an hour, longer than he usually lasted with nightmares. He rubbed his face with his hands, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Once he reached his scalp a sharp pain dug through him, drawing his attention to his hands.

Right, he’d pulled out his hair in his sleep. There was even blood under his nails. He reached for his ears, wincing in reaction when he touched the gashes there. And apparently, he had also clawed at his ears in his sleep.

Izuku sighed.

His injuries weren’t regenerating like normal, he’d noticed it when Recovery Girl came for a check up. He wouldn’t be able to explain it away if anyone (Eraserhead) saw it.

He lied back down and wiped the tears away. Hopefully Eraserhead was asleep and didn’t hear Izuku shouting in his sleep. He stared at the ceiling, quiet as can be as he tried to listen once again to the hero’s heartbeat.

Don’t fall asleep this time.

His stomach flipped, and suddenly Izuku was reminded that he had forgotten the very essential step to eating human food; forcing it down with water. Vomit rose to his mouth and he slapped a hand on it, forcing it shut as much as he could. He shot out of the bed and sprinted for the bathroom, his dinner filling his mouth and seeping through his fingers in a brown liquid. The vomit and bile burned his throat as he threw up his stomach into the toilet, tears collecting in his eyes. He slumped over it once he was done, shoulders heaving up and down in tandem with his harsh breathing. He wanted to throw up even more, but there wasn’t anything in his stomach

to

vomit.

“Was the food that bad?”

He whipped his head around to the entrance, where Eraserhead once again had snuck up on him. He switched the flip, turning the light on. It burned his eyes, forcing him to squint at the sudden change in brightness. Shame sunk its claws in his skin, the harsh white light overhead leaving him open, exposed. Naked. Aizawa could see how much of a wreck Izuku was in excruciating detail, something he had so desperately tried to hide from

his

Eraserhead.

The blood that dripped down his neck, the tears that ran across his cheeks, the vomit that coated his chin and hands.

The red and black that exposed his inhumanity.

He turned back to the toilet, hanging his head and shutting his eyes. Izuku made himself as small as can be, wishing the floor would swallow him whole, wishing he was anywhere but here, wishing Aizawa wasn’t here to witness Izuku fall apart. But no matter how much he wished for it, the world would never give him the relief, the satisfaction, of finally having things go his way. No matter how many times he wished for it, the floor would never swallow him whole. No matter how much he didn’t want to be here, in this world, in this apartment, there was nowhere else to go. No way to go back home. And no matter how much he wished for it, he could still hear the quiet breathing behind him, the steady beating of his heart. Could smell the smell of skin and sleep, and feel behind him the presence that bored holes into his head.

Soft, almost silent, footsteps made their way closer, and Izuku tensed.

“Hey, hey… It’s okay.”

Aizawa closed the distance and placed a gentle hand on his back, the weight cautious and still. Izuku relaxed, the touch familiar. Pretending this was his Eraserhead, the only one he could go to in his darkest moments, who watched him heave and retch into the toilet, didn’t help much. It was precisely because it was

Eraserhead

who found him retching into the toilet, that made the shame in his stomach curl even more. He never wanted Eraserhead to see him like this, never wanted

anyone

to see him like this, to know how pathetic and weak and

miserable

he is. But like always, nothing ever went his way.

“I’ll get you cleaned up.” Eraserhead’s hand rubbed gentle, small circles on his back, his voice a soft whisper. Familiar, grounding.

The hand on his back wasn’t

his

, the voice that tried to soothe him wasn’t

his

. And maybe it should help, knowing it wasn’t actually Easerhead, but it didn’t. Because no matter how badly he wanted Eraserhead to never see him like this, he was also the only one he’d ever be comfortable with seeing him like

this.

Pretending it was Izuku’s Eraserhead who was helping him, instead of the stranger who wore the face of his only friend, helped him relax slightly under his coaxing hand.

Eraserhead’s other arm went under his knees, and with the ease expected of a pro hero, he picked Izuku up and placed him on the edge of the bathtub. Next he grabbed the toilet roll and unwound a lot of paper, wetting it with the faucet. Eraserhead gently dabbed at his face, wiping away the vomit and blood.

“You’re okay, kid. You’re okay.”

Izuku could feel fresh tears collecting in his eyes, and with this Eraserhead looking so much like his own, despite the new scars that littered his face and the bone-deep exhaustion that never seemed to leave his eyes, he let them fall down his cheeks. He felt his face scrunch up as he hiccuped and broke down in front of his friend. His dirty hands laid uselessly in his lap as his shoulders shook, too exhausted to move and making no effort to conceal his face.

The hero simply wiped away the tears, drying his face with new sheets of toilet paper.

The sight of a raised hand moving closer, hazy from the tears that clouded his eyes, made Izuku flinch. It paused, and Izuku prepared for the inevitable, but it never came. Instead, the hand slowly made its way around his face and rested against the back of his head, softly pushing and guiding him under Eraserhead’s chin. Izuku stayed like that for a while, forehead leaning against Aizawa’s chest as his tears fell to the bathroom floor, his hand a heavy weight, like that of a warm blanket, on his head. Tentatively, Izuku reached for the hero’s clothes, clutching tightly at it, and buried his face in the cloth that wrapped around the hero’s neck. Another hand circled around him, patting him gently, albeit stiffly, on the back.

“You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

It took another five minutes for his breath to steady.

He laid still against Eraserhead, opening his eyes slightly. His hands were still holding onto the hero’s clothes, and just as quickly Izuku noticed the vomit that had been wiped onto it. Izuku ripped his hands away and sat hunched over on the bathtub’s edge, his face growing warm in shame. “S-sorry about your clothes…”

Eraserhead didn’t spare his ruined shirt a glance, his eyes focused on Izuku. “It’s okay, I’ve dealt with worse. One time Hizashi vomited in my face.”

Izuku huffed, meeting Eraserhead’s eyes. “You’re joking.”

“I don’t joke.” Aizawa deadpanned.

The corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly as he huffed out more air. Eraesrhead’s eyes softened the slightest bit, mouth curving in tandem. If Izuku didn’t know him well enough, he'd have missed it.

“C’mon kid, let’s get you to bed.”

Aizawa tucked him in that night.

He didn’t fall asleep.

He stared at the ceiling.

His mom whispered to him all throughout the night.

---

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

She took out her small handheld mirror and looked at her reflection, tired eyes greeted her back, the corners of her lips dragging down much like her feet had the way back home. Her ankles and toes ached from being crammed in too tight heels for the entire day. She couldn’t wait to take them off, but first…

She brought her hand to her face and lifted the corners of her mouth, trying her best to keep it in place once she took the support away. ‘

Smile, be strong for him.’

This was her favourite part of the day, and the only thing that got her through her long shifts. She unlocked the door and pushed it open.

“Izu, I’m home!”

No reply. She looked to her left,

not in the kitchen.

Maybe he was still in the bathroom?

“Honey?”

Maybe he was napping? She couldn’t expect him to

always

have dinner prepared when she got home, maybe he just wanted a break.

She dropped her bag on the dinner table on her way to Izuku’s room, and opened it as quietly as she could, hoping not to disturb her sleeping son. But once she fully opened the door, the forced smile on her face was wiped away as quickly as her eyes landing on the empty bed. Her heart sank to her feet.

‘Don’t panic, don’t panic.’

She opened the bathroom door, seeing it empty as well.

‘Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic.’

Inko ran the short distance to the dinner table as fast as she could, digging in her purse. “Where are you, where are you.” Why did she keep so much junk in her purse?! How difficult was it to find a single goddamn thing?!

She grabbed the bag and flipped it over, shaking it violently and forcing everything in her purse to fall down with a loud clatter. Her phone finally appeared, and she launched herself at it from across the table, clutching it in her hands and opening it as fast as she could. Bringing her phone to her ear, she paced around the cramped room as she listened to it dial the number that was most likely to provide some answers.

“Inko? What’s u-”

“Do you know where Izuku is? He-he’s not here and he didn’t tell me he would be home late, he didn’t leave a message or write a note and I don’t know where he is, he didn’t make me breakfast either which was odd but I just thought he overslept and now I’m not sure how long he’s been gone and-

what if he got kidnapped

?!”

“Woah there, slow down.” Mitsuki asked, slightly concerned now at Inko’s frantic rambling. “What’s this about Izuku?”

“Do you know where Izuku is? Is he with Katsuki?”

“Katsuki? No, he’s studying right now.

KATSUKI!!”

Her voice sounded a bit further away as she shouted the young Bakugou’s name. In the background, she heard the slightly soft and muffled

‘WHAT, YOU OLD HAG?!’

Then came Mitsuki’s much closer and clearer reply. “

GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!”

After a little more back and forth shouting, Katsuki grumbled down the stairs. “Whaddya want?!”

“Don’t give me that tone you little-”

“

Mitsuki!”

She shouted desperately. Her voice wavered, tone softening and turning fragile. “

Please.”

“Right, sorry.” Mitsuki cleared her voice. “Katsuki, do you know where Izuku is?”

“

Deku?!”

Inko heard Katsuki shout incredulously through the phone. “You dragged me down here because of fucking

Deku?!”

“KATSUKI BAKUGOU,

answer the

fucking

question!”

“I don’t know jack,

now leave me the fuck alone!”

Mitsuki sighed as Katsuki stormed back up the stairs. “Sorry, he’s not much help. Maybe you could ask Izuku’s other friends? He’s got to be hanging out with them, you know how boys are. Always going somewhere and doing something without telling their parents.”

‘Izuku’s not like that. He would have told me.’

“Thanks, but… I don’t know the other parents’ numbers. I was hoping Katsuki could tell me who his other friends are, and, hopefully, who he’d be hanging out with.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t help, Inko. I’m sure he’s fine, don’t worry too much, okay? Good luck.”

With some parting words, Inko hung up the phone and called the school principal.

“He wasn’t at school?!”

“Yeah, that’s what it sa-”

Inko hung up, immediately calling the police.

“110, what’s your emergency?”

“I’d like to report a missing person.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Not now Eraserhead.” Pale, bony hands clung onto his arm so hard it hurt. In his eyes he only saw heartbreak and despair, a look he’d never seen before in No One. He didn’t cry, no, but the sounds that occasionally escaped him were broken and filled with pain.

No One is a child, and Shouta couldn’t do anything.
He crumpled the paper coffee cup in his hands as he balled them into fists, and threw them into the trash can by the entrance in a useless display of skill.Shouta couldn’t do anything. Not with Orboro, not the nights he was too late, not when every part of No One broke as he clutched his arm as if letting go would drag him down deeper in despair. And not- a heavy weight crashing into him, his hand reaching out and feeling the fabric of his hoodie. In the next moment, nothing. He looked around, but No One wasn’t there. He was gone. He was gone.Shouta swallowed. He walked back into the police station after getting kicked out in the morning, or as Tsukauchi liked to say, ‘sent home to rest’.“Did you find it?” He asked the detective as soon as he entered his office.“Good evening to you too,” Tsukauchi sighed, pinching his nose bridge. “Didn’t I tell you to take a break for the rest of the day?”“I did, and now I’m done taking a break. Did you find it?”The detective averted his eyes. “Yeah, but I don’t think you’ll like what we found…” Shouta raised an eyebrow. “The man’s name is Sekai Yumeno. Quirk: Down Under. Can make you fall asleep by using the beams generated by his hands. The sleep paralysis varies in duration and can last up until 5 minutes.”“Is there anything else? Anything that could tell us where No One went?”“No…” Tsukauchi shook his head, his exhaustion evident in the slump of his shoulders. “That’s all it says in his quirk description. Yumeno used to be a salaryman, but was fired 10 years ago due to ‘poor performance’. He was evicted a year later. His documentations end there. It’s likely the result of him becoming homeless and addicted to drugs.”Shouta took a seat across from Tsukauchi. “And his parents?”“He went no contact with them, so they were… shocked , to put it mildly, when the hospital contacted them. Currently, we can’t get a statement from them.” He slid a manila folder to him, titled Sekai Yumeno . Shouta flipped through the pages, scanning the little information they had gathered on the case, and arrived on the page about Yumeno’s parents. “Both have weak quirks.” Tsukauchi continued. “His mother’s quirk is Astral Projection, she can see what’s happening from outside of her body for a couple of minutes. His father has a dream quirk that allows him to give people dreams by shining light from his palms at short range, but they have to already be asleep. The other quirks in his family aren’t notable.” He sighed, “We don’t have anything right now.”“We’ve gotta find something.” Shouta balled his fists, brows furrowing. “When was his quirk register last updated?”Tsukauchi began typing on his computer. “When he was six.”He brought a hand to his chin as he thought. “There’s more to his quirk than what it says on his register, that’s more than obvious. Is Yumeno awake?”The detective shook his head. “He’s in a coma right now. Yumeno got a concussion after you punched the daylights out of him. Besides the quirk exhaustion, he OD’d on the way to the hospital. It’s currently unclear for how long he’ll be out of commission, but the doctors said he’ll make a full recovery. We just have to wait.”Shouta sighed, irritated. “We don’t have time to waste. Did anything come up when going through the missing persons list?”“Nothing. But-” Tsukauchi slid two pieces of paper, stapled together at the corners, across the table, “-there were 2 people reported missing in the last two days. I contained it to Musutafu and other areas where No One was active. I don’t think it’s either of them, but we can look into it. I’ll add more to the list as time goes by, in case he wasn’t reported missing immediately. But… don’t get your hopes up. His family might not have bothered reporting his disappearance, considering all the signs of abuse.”Shouta nodded, looking at the first page. The quirk didn’t match the slightest bit, but basing his search for No One’s identity on his quirk had never gotten him anywhere before. They’d just have to broaden their search, even if that meant more work.The detective looked at him, concerned. “I told everyone in the police department that No One has gone missing, and put out a notice to report any sightings of him. If he was teleported, he’ll turn up.”Shouta’s fists clenched, slightly wrinkling the paper. “ If he was teleported.”“I know we can’t rule out that possibility but… don’t lose hope. We’ll find him, Aizawa.” Tsukauchi’s face hardened with determination, his eyebrows furrowing and his eyes steeling with his resolve. “We will .”---Izuku woke up drenched in sweat and breathing hard. He didn’t know how many hours he managed to sleep, but the soft orange rays of sunlight slipping through the cracks told him it was dawn. It reminded him of the morning it all started. He wondered what happened after he disappeared.He wondered who would tell his mom.Izuku brought the blinds back up and moved to open it, but the handle didn’t budge . ‘It’s locked…’ He swallowed.He’d just have to take the slightly more risky option and go through the front door. If he was lucky, Eraserhead would still be out on patrol or fast asleep.Izuku got out of bed, the cold instantly attacking his malnourished body from all sides, no longer shielded from the chill of the room by the weighty warmth of the comforter. He quickly layered himself in multiple pieces of clothing. Muted colours, grey and black, hinted to the provider of the clothes. Once he was warm enough, he took out his pillowcase and stuffed an extra hoodie in it, before attempting to open the door as quietly as he could. “You’re up early.”Izuku groaned internally. ‘Just my luck.' “You can continue sleeping. School’s not for another three hours.”Eraserhead sat at the dining table, which provided him direct line of sight to the guest bedroom. The numerous cats that laid around the hero ran away as soon as they noticed Izuku. The man didn’t react at all, eyes still trained on him. The coffee in his hand and the deep bags under his eyes, coupled with his messy bun, made him seem more tired than usual. On the table laid multiple sheets of paper, which seemed to have an order to the mess, as chaotic as it was. Did Eraserhead not go on patrol? “I usually wake up around this time.” The earthy, calming smell of coffee made him swallow the saliva pooling in his mouth back down.Eraserhead’s eyes drifted from his face to the clothes he wore, down to the pillowcase in his hands.“Where are you going?”Izuku averted his gaze. “Nowhere… I was just going to make coffee.” Eraserhead didn’t say anything for a while, and when he looked back, Izuku saw that he was still staring at him, brows slightly pinched. He sighed. “Put the pillowcase back, I’ll make breakfast.”Izuku had no other choice but to listen to the pro hero. Once he put everything away, he returned to find Eraserhead at the stove baking an egg. Two cups of coffee now sat on the table, one still steaming hot. Izuku took a seat, warming his cold hands with the mug. The rancid smell of eggs penetrated his nose, so he brought the coffee up to wash it away. He took a sip, letting the flavors rest on his tongue, before swallowing. The coffee was a welcome respite from his gaping hunger, even with as little as it did to actually relieve him of it.He needed to find a way to get away from Eraserhead.He knew that his weak body would never let him die of hunger. The longer he stayed, the more danger he posed to everyone around him. He needed to get away from everyone. Izuku thought of his wound, not fully healed as it was even after a full day. He put his mug down and clenched his fists, swallowing hard.He chewed his lips. ‘Maybe it would work…’ “-oriya, Midoriya.”He flinched, looking up at Eraserhead, who looked at him with an indiscernible expression. “Do you want more coffee?"His mug was completely empty, so he nodded, hoping Eraserhead wouldn’t become suspicious after having caught him lost in thought. He licked his lips, expecting to taste the remnants of the coffee, but instead tasting the coppery sweetness of blood. Was he that lost in thought?His taste buds sang, making his stomach grumble loudly. The emptiness would even be assuaged with his own blood, and even though he didn’t like the taste of practically everything in the world, he started to salivate at the taste. Disgusting. Izuku clenched his fists. Monster. A plate of toast topped off with an egg and avocado was placed in front of him, the smell attacking his senses once more.Eraserhead took a seat opposite Izuku, a similar plate in front of him. He poured them both more coffee. “You’ll stay with me throughout the day. I’ve already arranged for a desk in the back of the class for you to sit at. You’ll be able to properly meet my homeroom class.”Izuku gulped. He didn’t want to see the version of himself that had everything figured out, that managed to hide the reality of his quirk and follow his childhood dream. Meeting him would make everything that was wrong with him that much more glaringly obvious. Failure. He drank his coffee, leaving his food untouched for as long as he could.“We’ve prepared a cover story for the other classes I teach, but 1A was there when you arrived. It’s up to you how much you’ll tell them. You’ll be Principal Nezu’s personal student. Try to keep the story vague and don’t make up too many convoluted lies, it makes keeping up the farce more complicated than it needs to be. After school, we can get anything you might need.”Eraserhead started eating, and Izuku took the silence that followed as his chance to say what he wanted.“I don’t want to stay with you.” Izuku Midoriya, happy hero student at UA, and everything he could never be. Eraserhead paused abruptly, placing his toast down. Izuku immediately realised his mistake. He waved his hands around, “It’s n-not that I don’t want to stay with you, I-I just don’t want to s-see him again.” Pathetic coward. “I see… Do you have someone else in mind?”Izuku averted his gaze and spat out the first name that came to mind. “P-Present Mic.” Aizawa’s intense stare bored holes into his head.“I trust that you won’t say a word about us being married.” He paused, “I’ll know if you do.” Izuku nodded, trying to assure Eraserhead he wouldn’t. The hero simply sighed after a moment, and nodded his approval. “That could work. I’ll notify him.” His eyes moved down to Izuku’s untouched plate. “Not hungry?”Izuku nodded ever so slightly, not wanting to meet Eraserhead’s eyes in fear he took offense at his lack of appetite for the meal the underground hero had specially prepared for him. “You should still try. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”He brought the toast to his mouth, mumbling, “You don’t eat regularly either, Eraserhead.”Eraserhead raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”“N-Nothing!” Izuku squeaked.He ended up eating half of his toast. Eraserhead didn’t comment further on his uneaten breakfast, instead, he gave him a banana and a flask filled to the brim with hot coffee. Eraserhead slid a thin notebook across the table. “I put a couple more in your bag in case you want to participate in the lessons, even though you might not understand all of the high school material.”Izuku moved his finger across the cover. It was the exact same notebook brand he used back at home. “H-How?”“I asked someone who knows a lot about it. Do you want a different brand?”Izuku shook his head. “No, it’s good. Thank you…I’ll cherish it.”“Go get ready for school, we’re leaving in an hour.”He took the opportunity provided by him to expel the food he had just swallowed down without getting noticed, letting the shower run and warm up to cover the noises. It had been a long time since he had had a nice, hot shower, since their cheap apartment didn’t have a water heater and they had to use a kettle instead. He spent perhaps a bit longer than necessary, but came out feeling cleaner than he had in a long while.He went through the bag with his belongings, sighing at the multitude of layers he had to mend in the upcoming future. A small piece of metal caught the light, bringing Izuku’s attention to it. He pulled it out, his black mask smiling back at him. He wanted to put it on, but he knew it would only draw attention to himself. Izuku put it in his bag, its colour matching the red of his shoes.When they were about to leave, Eraserhead turned around and pulled something crimson out of his pocket.“Almost forgot.” He said as he slid the beanie down Izuku’s hair, hiding the majority of his dark green curls. “So that it’ll be harder to make the connection between you and my student. What do you think of the name Mikumo Akatani?” Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, it doesn’t matter who you are. Why are you still alive? “From green to red.” Like his eyes . “I guess it’s okay.” He hated it . “It’s… fitting.”Eraserhead nodded, “Nedzu  thought so too.” He turned around and exited through the door, Izuku following after him. “And kid?”He turned his head to look at the underground hero. “Yes?”The hero mirrored his action. “Call me Aizawa.”---Izuku counted the tiles on their way to the classroom. They were monotonous, the same shade of blue—almost gray—the same shape, and the same lines formed when placed next to each other. Neat, routine. He liked that about the tiles; they were predictable.He sensed Present Mic abruptly stop, so he slowed his steps and halted.“Don’t forget not to touch your face,” Present Mic spoke cheerily, and going by the tone of his voice, he was probably smiling. “Unless you want the makeup to rub off!” When the loud hero had arrived at the teacher’s lounge, he was accompanied by Midnight. ( “Keep it,” she said. “I get too many concealers from PR anyway.”) A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and Izuku couldn’t help flinching at the contact.“Kid…” Present Mic’s voice deepened, his tone losing all the forced cheer from before, and softening to an uncharacteristic calm. After witnessing how hard Izuku had flinched at their introduction, the loud hero made an effort to keep his volume down. “We’re going to be moving around a lot today. You don’t have to be nervous or anxious about the new people you’re going to meet. You can take it slow, and if it gets to be too much for you, like I know some kids can get, I’ll tell them to back off. Does that sound good?”Izuku nodded.Present Mic brought his hand back, and started to say something. He paused, and Izuku hoped he would quickly say what he wanted to say before it got any more awkward, but when he continued, it was evident he had changed his mind. “I’ll start by introducing you.”And with that, the pro hero turned around and opened the door, greeting his homeroom class with the same cheer from before. Loud and rambunctious, it kind of hurt his ears, even with his weakened hearing. Why did he choose Present Mic again?“-ani-kun, Akatani-kun!”Izuku flinched and looked up. Crap, he needed to get used to that name. Present Mic was looking at him now, and he nodded upwards, gesturing for him to come inside. Izuku gulped and tentatively walked inside, eyes taking stock of the tiles even though he had already lost count. He stopped when he arrived at the hero’s side, a safe distance away from him. It didn’t matter though, he felt the homeroom teacher come closer and place a hand on his back. This time he could control his actions; he didn’t flinch.“This is Mikumo Akatani. He’s Prinicipal Nedzu’s student and will be shadowing me today. Say hi everyone!”He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, dissecting him. Nothing he hasn’t heard before, but now he was new, he was a novelty all over again. Why does he look like that? He’s kinda creepy… He’s only skin and bones, he looks like a zombie. I don’t want to be near Zombie Deku. Zombie Deku. Zombie Deku… Zombie? He’s much worse than that, he’s a monste- A chorus of hello’s greeted him. He bowed quickly, and finally looked up. All curious eyes, some wrinkled noses. An approximation of a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “It’s nice to meet you.”He never did like school.---Homeroom with Present Mic turned out to be loud—as expected—and when he was done addressing the latest test scores and upcoming activities, his classroom seemed to take after him in their loud chatter. Izuku could feel their eyes on him, some tried to talk softly while others didn’t make an effort to prevent him from overhearing, as if ignorant to their volume.“Yamada-sensei didn’t mention his quirk, I wonder what it is.”“He’s the principal’s student, right? So he’s got to have some kind of intellect quirk.”“He doesn’t have to have an intellect quirk. It could also just be invisible.”“I don’t know, guys... He might just be quirkless. Don’t you think that’s why they didn’t mention it?”“That’s not the only reason they wouldn’t mention it, doofus. It’s just not that important. If you guys want to know so badly, why don’t you ask him yourself?”“It’s kinda awkward… He doesn’t look very…”“Approachable?”“Yeah, let’s go with that. Besides, what if he has a villainous quirk? And that’s why they didn’t mention it?”“Do you think he has something like mind control? Like Shi-”Izuku tuned them out. After sitting near and being around Katsuki Bakugou for the entirety of one’s school career, you learn to do that. He had to with his enhanced hearing, otherwise he might go insane. He probably already was, but that was beside the point.He stared out the window. Outside was calm, peaceful. The trees swayed in the gentle breeze, their leaves picking up with it. He could hear birds chirping their morning songs, but otherwise, outside was quiet. Empty. It hadn’t changed much since this morning, which was good. He wouldn’t have any witnesses. He just had to find a moment when a pro hero wasn’t breathing down his neck, and he could-“Hey.”Izuku turned his head to look at who was talking to him, if he was being talked to in the first place. Instead of scornful faces seeking to get a rise out of him, he was greeted by eyebags and purple hair. “What’s your quirk?”“W-What?” Shinsou raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t hear the gossip?”“Well, yeah… Why do you ask?”“Because you have the same look in your eyes that I did awhile back.” Shinsou stared at him, completely serious. “And besides, I’m curious, why else would I ask? My quirk is mind control.” Izuku already knew, of course, how could he not after having organised Shinsou's rescue from his abusive family? “And before you even ask, I won’t use it on you. It’s not very heroic, and someone told me that’s not how you start relationships with classmates. It’s bad for building trust, or something like that.”“Akatani!” Present Mic called out cheerfully. “Time to leave, bud.”Izuku picked up his bag and got up. Shinsou turned back around and leaned his head against his palm, bored. Izuku paused at his desk, prompting Shinsou to look back at him. “I have an… enhancement quirk.”He raised an eyebrow, then paused to think, “Hitoshi Shinsou.”Izuku nodded. “My name’s I- Mikumo. Mikumo Akatani.”“I know.” Izuku knew his name already too, but he couldn’t say that. He couldn’t say a lot of things. It didn’t change much.When he and Present Mic walked to his next class, the hero tried to strike up a conversation.“Making friends?”He wasn’t so sure about that. Shinsou was a lot like Eraserhead, in the sense that he didn’t feel the need to make friends. And Izuku didn’t want to get close to anyone. Making friends wasn’t allowed for people like him. Still, he answered, “Yeah… Something like that."---The end of the school day came quickly, and Izuku found himself at the sidelines, watching Present Mic’s homeroom class play dodgeball. The teacher had tried to get him to play along, but didn’t push it after Izuku declined. He shivered in the autumn air, rubbing his arms.He sat alone, the students having goaded their teacher into playing not long after the game had begun. It was better like this, less attention on his grumbling stomach and fatigued body.“You want to join them, don’t you?”Izuku’s shoulders jumped. He whipped his head around, searching for where the voice came from. With both his enhanced hearing and sense of smell, it became next to impossible to sneak up on him.“A wolf in sheep’s clothing wanting to play with the lambs? Ha! Forget about acting, you should be a comedian!”The voice came from all around him. ‘A quirk?’ He looked around, brows furrowing. “Who are you?”“Come on! Don’t act dumb, we both know that’s just for show. It should be obvious who I am.” The voice was young. It sounded familiar and foreign at the same time.“Just tell me.” Izuku spat out, quiet enough so no one from the field could hear.The voice hummed in thought. “Poor Izuku, always feeling sorry for yourself. Let’s see if you can recognize who I am.”Izuku balled his hands into fists. “What do you want?”“Jeez! Sooo many useless questions, no wonder Kacchan likes kicking you in the face. What I want?” The voice laughed, deceptively child-like for the hostility that seeped into his voice. “Oh, Izuku, you know what I want.” It came closer, whispering in his ear and suddenly much louder.“I’m hungry.” Izuku jumped, slamming his palm against his ear. He practically fell to the side, bracing himself against the bench with his right arm and whipping his head in the direction of the voice. His lungs ricocheted off his ribs as he shot a glance at the field to see if anyone had noticed his reaction. Quickly, he sat up right, pretending as if nothing was happening.“You’re so easy to rile up, it’s no fun.” The voice came from all around, then moved around him in a circle. “Your little secret. At least, not for long. They smell good, don’t they? Like beef oozing thick, dark oyster sauce it practically melts on your tongue. And pork, you used to love pork, don’t you remember? The fragrance of the sauces, the warm insides, and the crispy crust. Don’t they smell like home? Just a bite, a little taste. You’ll feel good when you let yourself go.”Izuku gulped, he could feel the water pool in his mouth, and the pangs of pain growing louder in his stomach.“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” The voice sang, “You shouldn’t play with your food, Izuku~”He bit his cheek through the pain. “They’re not my food.”“Oh, but they are. You know.” The voice paused once more to his left. “For how much longer can you fool everyone with your innocent act?”“It doesn’t matter. It’ll be over soon.” Izuku snapped.He looked to his left, and his eyes widened. His breath caught in his throat as his heart dropped to his stomach. “Did you figure out who I am, yet?”The voice was the only thing he could hear. His dark-coloured hair looked black, weighed down and sticking to his forehead. His eyes were wide and pitch black, his irises the same red as the blood that dripped down his hair and past the curve of his cheeks. The same red that stained his teeth, his wide smile more predatory than friendly. The voice was 7, drenched in blood, and carried the face that looked back at him in the broken mirror all those years ago. He narrowed his eyes, glaring with all the malice that dripped from his words like venom.“I’m not the only one covered in blood. Look at your hands, Deku. ” Izuku whipped his head back, so fast he might have gotten whiplash.Blood, blood, bloOD, bLoOD, BlOoD, BLOOD, BLOOD Nononononononono He SCREAMED. It’s everywhere it’s everywhere it’s everywhere There is blood everywhere Oh GOD what had he don- “AKATANI!” Present Mic shouted, both hands slamming down on his shoulders. His ears rang from the force of his voice. “What happened?!”There was sweat running down his face, eyebrows furrowed in equal parts concern and confusion. He breathed hard, like he had run a marathon just to get to him. A little faster and it could have rivaled his own. Some students had gathered around him as well, curious. Izuku looked past him, back at the bench he had fallen off of.No one was there.Izuku forced the corners of his lips to rise, even if barely noticeable. “Nothing’s wrong, Present Mic-san. Just a big spider, that’s all.”“A… spider?” He asked tentatively. He didn’t believe it one bit. “Then why did you scream like… that .”“I’m arachnophobic. And it was really big.” He placed his hand on Present Mic’s, intending to take them both off, but instead the voice hero stood up and offered him a hand. Even though he really would rather not, he took his hand, “No need to worry, Mic-san, it’s gone now.”He didn’t answer, the look he gave him skeptical and unbelieving.“I’m sorry for scaring everyone like that,” Izuku said as he waved off everyone’s concerns with a fake smile.“Are you sure?”Izuku paused, smile empty. “Yes, I’m sure.”“Do you need anything? Water? Food?”More than his sore throat, his stomach clenched painfully, and suddenly, he became aware of the smell of honey butter chicken. “Water, I could use some water.”Present Mic nodded, calling out for Shinsou.In his head, he repeated over and over, like a mantra, like a prayer for it to work:
‘It’ll be over soon.’
 ---An uncomfortable silence hung over the two as they walked towards the water fountain. Hitoshi internally groaned, cursing his terrible social skills. He’d improved on a lot since the start of the school year, especially after having started training with Aizawa, but that? Unfortunately for him, lessons aren’t the only thing students pick up from their teacher.Needless to say, Hitoshi probably wasn’t the right person to ask to show Akatani where the water fountains were. But it got him out of playing dodgeball. Who was he to complain? He only had to bite through the awkwardness. Usually, he would be perfectly fine with the silence—happy, even—but there’d been a couple things bugging him ever since the clearly depressed boy had been introduced.When they finally got to the water stations, he couldn’t stall it any longer. “Akatani,” He began, unsure. He sat down on the cement lip of the basin and looked at his new, slightly unnerving (his face and concealer-covered bags didn’t help his case) classmate as he opened the faucet and bent down to drink. “Y’know, your smile gets a little wider, a little more strained when you lie. And it doesn’t reach your eyes at all.” He tried to see for a reaction, but there wasn’t a twitch on his face or a flick of his eyes to read any kind of emotions off of. He kept perfectly still, mouth gulping down the stream of water even through the tension-filled silence. “I noticed. You did it this morning and back at the field. ”He looked at the empty water bottle he held in his hands.
Blowing out candles at a birthday nobody came to. Eyes that had looked at him with a gentle softness, refusing to look him in the eye. His questions of ‘why, why, why?’ going unanswered. The uncomfortable looks sent his way, hurrying away when he made eye contact. Nobody answering when he tried talking to them, until eventually he didn’t try at all.
“Aren’t you going to fill that?” Akatani said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He didn’t have any of that forced friendliness from before. His eyes were empty. And the unnerving feeling he had gotten came back at full force. He bit it down. Shinsou looked back down at his water bottle. “Oh, yeah…” He got up and turned the faucet open, holding his water bottle under it. “What I was getting at was that I understand. It’s because of your quirk, right?”He waited for an answer, turning the faucet off and screwing his water bottle shut. But all he got was that same awkward silence. “Aka-” he looked up, finding no one there, “-tani…?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Izuku's mind was blank. It was filled with static and white noise. All at once. His legs took him where he wanted to go, his final destination, without the thought forcing room in between the clutter and emptiness of his head.He walked the halls. He walked up the stairs. If the every so often teacher and the even fewer students milling about stared at him in confusion, they didn’t stop him. Izuku didn’t register what was in front of him, he didn't even see the stairs he used to ascend the floors, or the halls he walked to reach his destination. It was like a fog that covered his eyes and occupied his mind.He walked up the stairs. He walked up the stairs. He walked up the stairs.He walked up the stairs. He walked up the stairs. He walked up the stairs. He walked up the stairs.  He walked up the stairs.  He walked up the stairs.

He walked up the stairs.

He walked up the stairs.

He walked up the stairs.

He walked up the stairs.  His hand reached for the handle of the door, pushing it down as he opened it. A gentle breeze flowed through his hair, moving it out of his face. The fog that clogged his mind, the static and white noise that filled his mind, the emptiness. It faded at the edges, replaced by something much more soothing, much more clear. It was the sound of the wind whistling in his ear, the sound of birds chirping carried by that same gentle breeze, the sound of late afternoon that was silent if you didn't pay close enough attention, and a silence you could be comforted by.He breathed in, tasting the smell of freshly cut grass and the cold in the air that stung his nose. And for once, he wasn’t overwhelmed by his senses. Izuku felt at peace.It was like he was the only person in the world and nothing else mattered. In a way, he was. And nothing else mattered.Izuku walked across the rooftop in a straight line. He didn't smile, but the tension melted off of his face from years of agony and isolation. There was a certain relief in the knowledge that nothing else mattered, not now, when he has reached the end. His end.Every step felt as light as a feather, not the heavy steps he took with the weight of his sins. It felt like he was flowing with the wind, his legs taking him where he was supposed to go without a thought.He sat on the edge, enjoying the peace and quiet. This was the end. The end of his suffering, the end of his sins. No longer was he a burden to others, no longer was he a burden to himself.It wasn’t sad. There is no one to cry for him, there is no one he would leave behind. In a world entirely unfamiliar to him, there is no one familiar to him. He no longer had a reason to live. He no longer had to feel guilt for wanting to end it this way. No longer was it a selfish want. It just was, and is. “What a nice day to ruin.”Izuku didn’t flinch, he knew the Voice, the horrible personification of his wrongdoings, was there. He felt it, in the eyes that bored into his head and the change in the air. “You can’t stop me,” he said.“Wasn’t planning on it.” Izuku shot the Voice a look, his empty eyes not at all amused by him. The voice cracked a smile and raised his hands in mock defense. “I’m not going to. Honest.”Izuku kept his gaze locked on his bloody, predatory eyes, before he looked back over the horizon. “You always do.”“It never works, but not because of me. I think you’re forgetting something, little Izuku, I can’t do anything.” He looked back at the 10 year-old boy, sat next to him and kicking his feet against the glass. “I’ve tried everything I can.”A pause.“So this is it, then?”“Yeah.” What’s the point in living when there’s no reason for you to? Burden. He had accepted his fate a long time ago, it was only a matter of time and chance. The boy hummed. “You jump, and then?”“Nothing. It’s over.”“Ah-ah-ah,” he wagged his finger. “You don’t know that. You’ve thought, hoped, that was the case every time. Who’s to say this time is any different?”Izuku’s hand went to the stab wound under his ribs. “I’m still not completely healed.”“And? You wake up surrounded by bodies, innocent people that didn’t need to die, all because you were too stubborn and selfish to control yourself. Next thing you know, there’s a bullet shot through your head and you’re put down like a rabid dog.”He balled his hands into fists. “That’s not going to happen. And besides, didn’t you want me to kill all those innocent people?”“Ah, and that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t care who dies or how many. I just want to eat.” Izuku’s stomach grumbled. “And what’s wrong with that?” “Everything!” He snapped, glaring at his younger self.  “How can you not see that?! We have to eat people! ”“So?” The voice asked, head tilted with childlike innocence, betrayed by the predatory glint in his eyes. “How are we any different than the rest? We eat to stay alive. They eat to stay alive. We eat human meat because that’s the only thing we can eat. What’s the difference between slaughtering a cow and slaughtering a human?” The boy brought a finger to his chin, humming. “Wait no, there is a difference. They don’t need to eat nearly as much meat as they do. Humans make animals suffer much more unnecessarily than we ever could them. And yet, you think we’re the monsters.”“They’re-they’re people. Human. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” He brought his hands into his hair, pulling at it. “I-I can’t, not anymore. I don’t belong here, I never did back at home. But my mom… Now that she’s gone, what am I even doing? I’m just a burden.”“Then jump.”“What?”“Jump.”Izuku paused. “You’re really not going to stop me?”“Nope.”He searched his eyes, the voice’s face that of careless neutrality. The tension in Izuku’s body melted away. “It’s really over.” He smiled, small but still there. “It’s over.”“Go on then. Head first and make it quick.”Izuku closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. The air was crisp and clean, well, as clean as it could be in the heart of a city. Thirteen stories up, he could faintly hear the birds, still chirping. He thought of his mom, how she wouldn’t ever know what happened to him. She’s better off without you. But what’s the difference between being stuck in another world and dead in your own?Maybe it was an act of hesitation, even if the most minute of ones. Izuku chose to believe it a countdown, a resolution. He gripped the concrete under his hands as he leaned his weight into the wind, letting gravity do the rest. And then he let go.It was no dive, no jump. Izuku simply let himself fall, and trusted the wind to carry him to his final destination. Headfirst, just like he said. For the first time, as he flew down the floors he had ascended just minutes before, Izuku could feel the weight of his sins truly lift from his shoulders. Even if it was the very thing that was pulling him down.Izuku closed his eyes, blocking out the clear blue sky. He listened to the bird's final call, to the wind that whistled in his ears, to the rustling of trees and the flurry of wings. His hair moved with the rush of the wind, flailing about and smacking his face and ears.They say life flashes before your eyes when you die, but he only saw two faces. What about mom? Eraserhead? In his memories, they smiled.Izuku smiled with them.He remembered his mom stroking his hair, whispering to him as he curled up in pain from another one of his stomach pains. “It’s okay. It’ll all be over soon.” Izuku had many regrets, but this wouldn't be one of them. He felt serene. His mind was no longer filled with his rushing thoughts, his nose couldn't pick up a scent without it escaping. The only thing that existed were the sounds Izuku could hear. No longer was his hunger ravenous and insatiable. It was still, like the world seemed to be. Maybe it had finally given him a reprieve of the pain.Finally, there was no one standing in his way. Not Eraserhead, not his mother, and definitely not himself. His quirk gave him rest, so he could carry it out without a single worry. 
It’ll all be over soon.
And finally, Izuku knew peace. --- “Class dismissed.”As soon as Aizawa said the words, everyone stood up and started talking loudly. Deku and his crowd of losers gathered together, and Hair-for-Brains immediately skipped over towards him. “Fucking finally,” Katsuki gruffed out, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder. Shitty Hair put his arm around his shoulder, droning on about some English test Katsuki would undoubtedly have to help them with. He groaned, ignoring the rest as they all flocked towards him.“Bakugou, stay after class.” He paused at the entrance, turning his head around.“Haah? What the hell, why?!” The whole class went silent, looking at the exchange. He exchanged a look with Deku, who looked equal parts concerned and curious. He narrowed his eyes.“Midoriya, Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida, Kirishima and Ashido, you as well.” Aizawa didn’t spare them a glance while he continued his paperwork, ignoring further questions from the class. Katsuki threw his bag on the ground and leaned back on his chair, waiting irritatedly for the teacher to explain. Everyone started whispering, but eventually–after one blistering glare and a “sit the fuck down” from Katsuki–the rest of the class tentatively left.Aizawa let the uncomfortable silence hang in the air, tapping the papers on his desk and neatly arranging them. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’m keeping you after class.”A pause.“D-did we do something wrong, Sensei?” Deku questioned from behind him, acting innocent even though he fucking wasn’t.The Dekusquad–what a stupid name–exchanged glances, some with wide, panicked eyes.Katsuki wasn’t stupid, he could piece together why they were being held back. And the others could too. Aizawa somehow knew about them sneaking into the recovery room of Deku’s creepy zombie clone. All Might could have told them, or Zombie Deku told Recovery Girl, it could have happened in a million different ways, but that didn’t fucking matter right now.“You didn’t listen to me, again.” Aizawa glared at them, silencing the quiet speculation. “You went against my orders. Again. You know what you did wrong, Midoriya. Every single one of you knows.” He shot a disappointed look at Deku and him. “And you two just got out of house arrest, did you miss your punishments that much? Stand up.”The chairs slid back as everyone stood up, Katsuki grumbling along. They followed their homeroom teacher in uncomfortable silence to another room. “Since you love disobeying me, we’ll be working on obedience. That means you have to listen to every demand and request of the staff, within reason of course.“Today, you’ll be helping Power Loader with transporting support items.” He handed heavy equipment and inventions to each and every one of them. “It goes without saying that you’re forbidden from using your quirks. This isn’t extra exercise or hero training. And you ,” Aizawa said as he dumped a stack of papers so tall it reached Katsuki’s shoulders in his hands. Compared to what the others had to carry, it wasn’t nearly as heavy. “I don’t want a single sheet of paper touching the ground. Or else.”“Whatever,” Katsuki shrugged. --- “How much longer…” Raccoon eyes whined from behind him, her legs trembling as she climbed up the stairs.“Hurry the hell up, Pinky! You’re holding up the whole group.” He stampeded in front of them, determined to be the first to reach their destination.Candy Cane surpassed him in that split second, taking over the lead even with the numerous heavy equipment in his hands. “It isn’t a competition, Bakugou.”“HAAH?” Katsuki exclaimed, body trembling with agitation, the papers shaking in his hands as they tensed. That fucking bastard. “You itching for a fight, Half n’ Half?!”“Bakugou.” Aizawa glared at them from the top of the staircase. “Not. A. Single. Sheet.” Katsuki huffed, listening grudgingly to his teacher. “Go to the back.”“What, why only me?!”“Now.” He grumbled again, but let everyone pass him by. Shitty Hair paused as well, continuing to walk with him and Raccoon Eyes all the way at the back. “This isn’t so bad,” he said. “We can hang out!”“Yeah!” Mina exclaimed. “Party in the back!”Katsuki just rolled his eyes as they continued chatting, bored out of his mind. He looked at Deku, who quickly looked away as if caught staring.Zombie Deku did that too, back at the infirmary. He couldn’t look anyone in the eye–and when he did, he looked defeated, as if he had lost all hope. He looked a lot like middle school Deku–timid and meek–but he didn’t have that same glint in his eyes Katsuki detested, or that annoying smile of Deku’s. All he could muster was that wobbly, empty, fake fucking smile of his.Zombie Deku creeped him the fuck out. But at the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder what happened to him. Because the Deku he knew never lost hope.“Ka. Tsu. Ki.” Raccoon Eyes sounded, breaking up his name for emphasis. “You weren’t listening at all, were you?”“Duh.” He continued walking without sparing her a glance.She shared a look with Hair-for-Brains before he spoke, “What’s on your mind, bro?” He didn’t answer, not in the mood to have a sappy fucking heart to heart, or talking about feelings, in the staircase. “Is this about… the other Midoriya?”“What the fuck? Do you think everything with me has to be about Deku of all people?”“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with thinking about him!” He glanced at Pinky, desperately pleading for help.“Yeah, Bakugou… He was kind of…” Mina trailed off, trying to find the right words to use. “It was a shock to all of us, of course you’d still be thinking about yesterday. All of us are.”“Just cut it.” He gruffed out, not wanting to continue the conversation. He stopped, making them pause as well.They shared another non-verbal conversation, before Kirishima shook his head. They continued walking as Katsuki brooded in the back, lagging behind. The staircase faced the windows, giving Katsuki the view of the outside each time he ascended a flight of stairs. The group rounded the corner as he went up the last few steps.The blue expanse of the sky came into better view.Something flew by.His eyes widened.Dark green hair, sunken cheeks, faded makeup that just barely revealed the freckles underneath. Smiling.
“Take a swan dive off a roof and hope for a quirk in your next life.”
His legs moved before he knew what he was doing. 
Deku, Deku, Deku, DEKU!!
The papers flew into the air as he threw his arms up, aiming in front and behind, before breaking the glass with a massive blast and launching himself forward through broken shards. The papers flew wildly in the air from the force of the wind, some escaping through the hole he created, as he blasted himself down towards the rapidly falling boy.He squinted his eyes in the wind as shards of glass nicked his arms and face, reaching out a hand the closer he got.“DEKU!!” His throat cracked, hurt as he screamed, making the boy open his eyes in shock. He stretched further, his other palm propelling him downwards like a missile. “My hand! Grab my hand!”“What… What are you doing?” Deku was wide-eyed and panicked, staring at him as if he wanted this to be a lie. Veins spiderwibed past the edges of his eyes, red and black and wrong. “What are you doing here?!”With one final blast, he wrapped an arm around his torso. Deku screamed, panic setting into his whole body as he thrashed violently. “NO!! No no no no PLEASE!”Katsuki brought his arm down to blast them upwards instead of headfirst to the ground, but swerved harshly to the side as Deku brutally kicked and punched him. With the out of control veer of his hand, blood started to drip from Deku’s ear. “What the fuck are you doing?!” He shouted angrily.“STOP! LET ME GO!” Deku screamed as he kneed him where the sun don’t shine. Briefly, he saw stars. They dropped back into free fall without Katsuki’s blasts to slow their descent. He bit his cheek, tasting blood as he threw blast after blast to get their fall back into control, toughening out every blow Deku threw him–unexpectedly strong despite his weak appearance.“Stop fucking hitting me!” He screamed in frustration. “I’m trying to save you!!”“I DON'T WANT YOU TO SAVE ME!” Deku shouted, furiously kicking and shoving in an attempt to release himself from Katsuki’s iron grasp. The one he was slowly slipping from. Fuck.“Kacchan!” Another voice called from high above. Katsuki looked up, seeing the familiar green, panicked eyes. Deku ran down the side of the building with powerful quirk enhanced jumps, quickly gaining on them.He grinned, for the first time in his life relieved to see his dumb face. “What took you so fucking long?!” He shouted as he got closer. Deku leaped from the window, tackling them roughly mid-air. He kicked the air, the gust of wind stabilizing them.“Are you okay?” He asked Zombie Deku worriedly, tightening his grip on the both of them. “Why?! WHY!” He screamed, violently shoving at both Katsuki and Deku. Tears collected in his blood-red eyes, his face filled with anguish and despair. “No no no no!" With one look, he exchanged roles with Deku and let him hold down Zombie Deku with his quirk enhanced super strength. Katsuki slowed their descent–with carefully placed blasts now that he didn’t get the brunt of the attacks–letting them safely land on the ground.Zombie Deku shoved them off, his tears streaming down his face as he screamed. Automatically, he took a step back. And he saw Deku do the same, face full of shock.Katsuki had never heard anyone scream with so much pain and agony.

“Why?!” Izuku screamed through the tears. Why are you still alive? He wanted it to end, without his mom he has no reason to take another breath. Because that’s just what he does, isn’t it? He takes takestakestakes, why can’t he take his own life?! Why why why why why why why! Through his clouded vision, he could make out the silhouettes, the blotchy colours of blue and green and sandy yellow. He glared at his other self. Why? Why, when he knew he couldn’t stop himself any longer, is it still himself that stands in the way? He screamed, “Why?!” Through the ringing from his right ear, he made out the sound of someone laughing, starting soft but quickly growing louder and more uncontrollable–as if he couldn’t stop. It was a mocking laugh, laced with malicious, gleeful scorn. He roughly rubbed the tears out of his eyes, making the third silhouette between the other two much clearer. That same curl of his lips and a smile that bared all teeth–like the grin of an animal playing with its prey– and the curve of his bloody red and pitch black eyes, glinting with that same hostility.“You said you wouldn’t STOP ME!” He shouted in anger, betrayed by what he knew was no more real than the sweet nothings his mother whispered to him. Tears kept streaming down his face, pangs of pain like claws in his leaden heart, twisting and twisting until he gave up. The weight in his chest pressed down with a relentless force, matching the heavy, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. His heart raced with his jagged breaths, and yet he couldn’t breathe. His overwhelming emotions, more than anything he’d ever felt with his senses, anchored him in place and pulled him down, down, down. He hunched over, clawing at the packed sand until his fingers bled. He screamed, blood-curling and filled with agony, pouring all his pain in just a single word. “WHY?!”

Katsuki’s eyes widened as he took another step back. The hoodie at his back began to rise, tearing open a hole in the middle. Thin, red, whip-like limbs burst out from the opening and came crashing dow-The air was stolen from his lungs as he was harshly pulled back by a white capture weapon. “Aizawa-sensei?!” He and Deku cried out in shock. The man didn’t reply, eyes laser focused on the boy only a few feet away from them. The slender, liquid like limbs thrashed violently, slicing through the walls of the building and cleaving a lamppost in half.

Shouta failed.“No One!” He shouted, catching Midoriya’s attention amidst his screaming and crying. He looked up, face wet with the tears and snot that ran down it. The red limbs froze in the air, matching the pause of his screaming. “It’s okay. I’m here.”Midoriya’s red eyes widened, voice hoarse and cracking. “E…Eraserhead?”“Yes, it’s me.” The boy stood on wobbly legs, taking tentative, labored steps forward. Aizawa kneeled on the ground, his deep voice steady and calm. “You’re okay, everything’s going to be okay.”His steps slowed as he got closer. “I don’t…” He began, before falling over. “...feel so good.”Aizawa shot forward and caught him, breathing a sigh of relief. He held him close, tightening his grip on the unconscious boy. “You’re going to be okay,” He said as he stroked his back. “I promise.”He wouldn’t fail him ever again. --- Inko left work early. She just couldn’t do it, she couldn’t work while all she could think about was her baby. She tried, really she did. Tried taking her mind off of Izuku with repetitive, menial tasks. But it gave her too much time to think. And thinking meant crying in the toilet stalls she was supposed to clean. It reached the point that even at her waitress job, she broke down in front of the customers she was supposed to serve, and consequently got sent home.She couldn’t even work properly. ‘Some mother I am.’ She thought bitterly, hating herself more than she ever had in the years since her husband left her. Tears found her eyes once again. She pushed the palms of her hands against them in a hopeless attempt at stemming them, while bunching and pulling the hair at her fingers. “What am I going to do if I get fired?” She asked herself despondently. ‘Izuku won’t have a home to return to…’She stood up, wiping the tears away. ‘I can’t let that happen.’ She went to their small, cramped bathroom and splashed water on her face, gripping the towel she used to wipe her face with in a tight ball. ‘I…I have to have faith. The police will find my baby boy.’
“What is the quirk status of your son, Mrs. Midoriya?” The police officer asked without looking up from his notepad.

Her grip tightened on her dress. “I don’t see why that’s important.”

The man looked up, carefully reading her expression. “...Just gathering all the information I can, ma’am.”

Inko swallowed, before answering softly, “He’s quirkless.”

“Quirkless, you say.” The officer tapped his pen against his lip, before a grin appeared on his face. He closed the notepad with a snap and a flick of his wrist. “That’ll be all. I have all the information I need.”
Inko breathed deeply, remembering the way she pleaded the police officer to find her son, despite the empty reassurances that were thrown her way as the man left. Inko gripped the front of her shirt, feeling her heart begin to swell. ‘You should know better by now, Inko.’She left the bathroom, looking in the direction of Izuku’s room. Before she knew it, her legs were taking her there. It was small, smaller than hers even, and very empty. The bookshelf, a rickety old thing that came with the apartment, was the only thing filled with his belongings. Inko sighed as she walked towards the books. Izuku’s room used to be so full he didn’t have space left for other things, every inch of wall covered with hero merch–All Might especially–and reflecting her boy’s love for heroes. He sold them all once Inko started struggling with money. She tried to hide it, but the look in his eyes told her that he knew regardless.Books and notebooks lined the shelves, her finger stopping on the spine of a notebook she vividly remembered. It was the first one she had gifted him. She pulled it out, reading the title scrawled out in Izuku’s messy, childish handwriting: Hero Notes For The Future! No.1  She smiled, going through the pages. She sat on Izuku’s bed, reading through all of his hero notebooks. But once she turned the last page of the third and final notebook, her reality crashed back in. ‘Maybe… Maybe he wrote something in these pages.’ She knew she was grasping at straws. It was a desperate attempt to console herself, really, but–‘I can’t trust the police, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do something about it.’Determined, she stood up again, spending the next few hours pouring over every book, every notebook, for hidden messages or reasons why. Everything was sprawled on the floor and the bed as she set down the last of it next to her.She didn’t find anything.Her vision began to grow hazy. “I’m… I’m sorry, Izuku.”She moved her hand to wipe her tears, accidentally knocking against a book by the pillow in the process. It moved it ever so slightly, revealing something thin and black underneath. “Huh?” She wiped her eyes, before leaning forward and moving the pillow to the side, uncovering another notebook.She missed one, but it wasn’t one she recognized. Izuku must have bought it himself, like some of his other books and notebooks. But why hide it under his pillow? She opened it, the characters much neater than his first Hero Analysis notebook, but what the rows of writing spelled out left her more puzzled than before.Names. Rows and rows of names. And none she recognized.Beside each name was a location, specific locations in known suicide forests. Under them, there was a bare bones description: name, age, gender, occupation and familial relations. Inko felt her heart sink, her tears falling onto the pages and making the ink bleed. Her mind dug up a traitorous thought, one she desperately had pushed out of her head.
‘What if they’re right?’

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Blood. His hands were covered with it, dripping down from his fingertips into pants coated in red, soaked through where he sat on his knees in a puddle of blood. He looked up, and all around him were bodies, torn through, emptied of their insides until only the strings of flesh clung to their ribs, legs and arms picked clean and torn off at the joint, or bitten in places and left to rot. Izuku felt the nausea swirling in his gut. Blood and blood and blood.He looked around, seeing faces he recognized and others he couldn’t. “I—” His voice caught in his throat, eyes landing on green and blonde. Tears collected in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” He sobbed. “I’m so sorry.” He crawled to her, cradling her face in his hands as her eyes stared, unseeing, somewhere past him. He rested his forehead against hers, choking out, “Mo-m…” Izuku whispered desperate apologies through his sobs, “...I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so…”Through the tears, he saw black, right next to her.  “E-Eraserhead?” He asked in fear of what he knew. He crawled to him, made unrecognizable from left eyebrow to the other corner of his jaw. Shoulder length black hair laid under the half-eaten skull, one eye missing and the flesh ripped off until the white of the bone protruded through the red—The body shot upright and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close. His single, wide eye glowing a crimson red.
“It’s your fault.”
Izuku’s mouth opened and he SCREAMED. He kicked forward in a desperate attempt to escape the horrid image of his only friend, of what he’d done to him, but he couldn’t back away any further when he met wall and something soft. “Heyheyhey—” a deep voice rushed, trying to console, “—It’s okay.” Pillows, a blanket he’d kicked off. ​​Ringing in his ears. His heart pounded in his chest, breaths shallow and racing like a terrified rabbit running for its life. A hand landed on his shoulder—jumping in surprise as he flinched—and his head snapped in its direction. Flesh peeling off bone, a glowing red eye and a gaping hole, teeth uncovered without skin to hide it. “Are you okay, Midoriya?” He blinked, the image fading, instead replaced with black hair untouched by blood, slightly pinched eyebrows and two black eyes. His voice was slightly muffled, like someone spoke through a layer of cotton, as if he covered his ears and listened through his hands, the words softened and blurred at the edges. Eraserhead, he wanted to say, but the words tasted wrong on his tongue—different, somehow. Instead, he whispered tentatively—“...Aizawa?” “Yes, it’s me.” His gaze was steady, his eyes sharp as they traced Izuku’s face. “Nightmare?”Izuku bowed his head, looking to the side and seeing Recovery Girl’s desk. His throat was scratchy and sore, raw, as he asked. “What am I doing here?” Again, he winced.“We brought you here after…” Aizawa trailed off, Izuku meeting his eyes again. “Your attempt.”“Oh.” He swallowed, heart rate spiking and anxiety pooling inside his chest. No one cared enough to notice him breaking apart before; the amount of times he’d nearly died being lost to the wind. They didn’t see the quiet ways he’d started to fall apart—the sleepless nights, the quivering in his hands when the cold and something else settled deep in his bones after nights gone almost wrong.And he was fine with that. It was familiar. Safe.But—because there was always a but— a selfish part of him, one he’d tried so hard to ignore, had always wanted someone to notice. So now, when someone did notice, when more than one noticed, how was he supposed to react? He felt as if a flaw under a microscope, his scars and bloodied hands laid bare for all to see. He swallowed thickly, feeling the piercing eyes on his head as he cast his eyes back down. Did he want an explanation? He clenched his fists, the blanket bunching between his fingers.Aizawa sighed.“You don’t have to say anything right now,” he began, "but you’ll be under constant supervision." Aizawa spoke evenly, though his voice held an edge of something Izuku couldn’t name—worry, maybe. "That means you’re not leaving my sight. No knives, razors, or anything you could use to hurt yourself."Izuku nodded minutely, the exhaustion seeping into his quiet voice. “Okay.”The door clicked open, and Recovery Girl stepped into the room. She smiled gently. “I see you’re awake, dear.” She walked towards them, sliding with her desk chair forward. “One last check before you’re good to go.” She checked his vitals and injuries, redoing his bandages and taking out his IV. With a muffled voice, softer than Aizawa’s, she asked, “Can you hear me clearly, dearie?” A pause. Izuku repeated the words in his head until he could make sense of it. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied.“That was a trick question.” She said more loudly than before. Her gentle smile turned hard, eyes suddenly much more serious as she frowned, brows pinching. “Are you aware that your ears were bleeding? I’m here to help, and I can’t do that unless you’re completely honest with me.” She brought a finger to his right ear, three quiet snaps sounding out. “Did you hear that?”Izuku swallowed his reflexive assuages of his health, of denying anything being wrong with him. He rubbed his arm. “Yes, but softly.”Recovery Girl hummed. “As I expected, you have hearing loss. We’ll do some tests to determine the extent of the damage, is that alright Midoriya dear?” He nodded slightly, before clearing his throat awkwardly to give her a proper answer. “Yes, that’s fine. Thank you, Recovery Girl.”She smiled. “Thank me once you’re out of my office for good.”The tests revealed total hearing loss in his right ear, the one closest to Bakugou’s blasts, and partial hearing loss in his other. Aizawa waited all the while, speaking up once Recovery Girl finished.“Bakugou and the other Midoriya are waiting outside.”Izuku’s eyes widened. “What?”“They wanted to wait.” His expression didn’t give anything away, perfectly neutral, almost indifferent, and perpetually tired. But the glint in his eyes held a quiet intensity– sharp and focused, undercutting it with a seriousness that betrayed his calm exterior. “Do you want me to send them away?”Izuku chewed his lips, turning his gaze down and away. He didn’t want to see them again. Their pitying looks thrown his way, questions of why going unanswered. What’s wrong with you? He just couldn’t. Standing next to his perfect other self, the one who didn’t try to kill himself, the one who had everything figured out and lived a life he didn’t dare dream about, the one who didn’t hate himself, the one who smiled so freely and openly without a thought, and managed it all with the very same secrets that destroyed Izuku. Failure. Failure. Failure. He didn’t want to see him, them, ever again. Not Kacchan, someone who was never supposed to find out about his quirk, someone who would never jump after him, but would rub it in, his moral superiority and an assumed debt held over his head. And never his other self.A sharp pang stabbed him like a knife, making him curl up and stealing his breath away. He brought a hand to his side, trying to squash the need to eateateat– He bit his tongue. “It’s fine,” he said, tasting the delicious iron tang of blood. Doesn’t she smell delicious? I haven’t tried aged mea He squeezed his eyes shut. He had to do something before his nightmares came true. This way is easier, he told himself. No matter how much he didn’t like it. It didn’t matter, he tried to convince. Izuku would have to face himself eventually. “I’ll meet them.” He got out of bed, his bones protesting with the same exhaustion that felt like lead on his shoulders and eyelids. A hand hovered in the air and was pulled back just as quickly as he’d noticed it, shoved into the dark pockets of hero clothes. Aizawa picked up the crimson bag he’d left on the rooftop as he stood up, his face betraying nothing and making Izuku wonder if he really had gone crazy. They walked to the door and Izuku thanked Recovery Girl, softly and timidly, bowing to express his gratitude. She laughed and patted his head. “I don’t want to see you here again. It’s two for two.” She made a waving motion with her hand. “Now shoo.”With that, Aizawa opened the door. From behind his back, Izuku could see the row of chairs that lined the hallway. Aizawa stepped to the side, revealing a thin, skeleton of a man who looked like he would fall over if a wind blew too hard. A mop of green hair above round, hopeful doe-eyes (he ignored him, but it was difficult to block him out completely when he sat squarely in the middle) was revealed, aswell as spikey blond hair with red eyes under scrunched eyebrows. Thin nicks and plasters were littered across his body from where glass sliced his face and arms, while a huge purple bruise covered one of his high cheekbones. There was a slight tug at his lips, and what could be mistaken for a glint of concern–his eyes were deceiving him, he knew. Why was he even waiting for him to wake up?He had a plan, one he wouldn’t let go the same way as the last.Izuku swallowed the rising bile from his empty stomach.--- Izuku didn’t know what to think. He wanted to help, he really did, but every time his thoughts trailed to the boy–his tired, sad eyes and the air of pain that surrounded him–and tried to think of what to say, play through every scenario he could think up, his soliloquies would be met with silence and a sudden halt in the sequence of events. He knew what he wanted to say, the questions he wanted to ask, yet not how his other self would answer. Despite being the same person, technically , Izuku didn’t know him at all. He didn’t know what shaped him as a person, what caused his steps to be heavy and laboured, a struggle, and the reasons behind the turmoil he concealed beneath his sunken eyes.When Kacchan had sprinted through the hole he blew up in the windows, his heart rate picked up as he ran after him, peering over the sharpened edge to see his reason for throwing himself out of a building from 11 stories high (made even taller by the height of each floor)—because there had to be a reason.So when he saw whipping green hair in the wind and terrified green eyes, he didn’t see a reason to hesitate in jumping after his childhood bully, now turned rival and tentative (he could only hope) friend.A strong grip on his arm had held him back. A single, “Don’t.” And piercing red eyes lagging his judgment.His eyes had steeled in his resolve. “I have to help.” He ripped his arm free from his teacher’s hand, missing the widening of his eyes and the even deeper furrow of his brows.And then he jumped. It wasn’t so much a swan dive as it was a slightly panicked, hapless attempt at a controlled descent without his quirk. His mind was screaming at him for dooming him to their death as he tried to get a foothold on the rapidly descending and slippery glass. To his eternal relief, his teacher’s glowing red eyes had been but an empty threat, and his quirklessness was very soon lifted from him with an exasperated sigh and a swift turn back into the building.Izuku was laser focused on the two plummeting bodies beneath him, rushing, hoping, praying to GOD he’d be on time to save them from colliding with the ground. The screaming, shouting and rapid bursts of explosions hurt his ears, but he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as he reached them, even as his heart still raced.  Kacchan was relieved to see him as well, he could tell, if the tension slightly melting away from his body, blazing red eyes and victorious smile were anything to go by. Izuku acted as a meat shield for him on the descent, taking every blow, every kick and powerful punch thrown his way. He had to suck in a breath through clenched teeth when his panic-stricken counterpart hit a particularly sore spot, still healing from his fight with Kacchan only a couple days prior. He knew he’d be feeling it for days to come, his skin peeled back and dripping blood from where nails got under them, but it didn’t matter.His heart was in his throat when Izuku, the other Izuku, screamed at him in agony, a question that would keep him lying awake much like the bruises that littered his body– why? His heart was in his throat, tears stinging his eyes and nose, as the boy he’d wanted to desperately help came apart at the seams that struggled to hold him together. He clawed and hit the floor when he hunched over, trying to hurt himself more than his mounting agony. And with one ear-splitting, horrific scream of despair, two red tendrils broke out from his back like the rushing crescendo, whipping back down in a strike so fast it was only the powerful pull of his teacher’s capture tape, winding him in the process, that got him and Kacchan away from the spot where it dug deep gouges into the ground. Its razor sharpness, a confusing contrast to its fluidity, was proven further when it sliced through bullet-proof glass, fortified concrete and a nearby lamp post like butter.The tension in his shoulders only released when the boy fell unconscious into the arms of their teacher, exhausted and burned out. Izuku panted harshly, as if he had run a marathon, and looked at Kacchan at the same time he did. He was breathing just as severely, but his victorious grin from before was wiped from his features, his face stunned, mouth slightly parted and eyes searching. He’d only seen that face once before, when they’d fought on Ground Beta.The hours it took for his other self to waken from the depths of unconsciousness was carried on in silence between them, the skies a golden orange darkening with a misty evening blue. All Might had joined as soon as he had heard, panicked and stricken with worry. Quiet words were exchanged between the two of them before the silence and trepidation took them once more. He had thought of what he’d say to his other self, before this disastrous day, before he knew how deep the pain cut into his other self. He tried again, rehashing every previous scenario to include their most recent, bitter interaction, but he didn’t know what the right words were to say. He didn’t know him. He didn’t know him at all.He tried again. Starting by apologising was the only thing he could make up his mind about. Yet he would do it again, no matter how many times he had to. He hadn’t regretted a thing, so his guilt-ridden words, disingenuous and empty, waged a war in his mouth as he faced the imaginary Izuku yet again. He wanted to ask, -why? Why had he jumped? Why was he hurting so badly he felt like that was his only option, like that was his best option? And why had no one helped him from getting to that point? Just- why?The door opened, and he shot up out of the plastic, uncomfortable chairs. From his peripheral vision, he saw All Might do the same, sporting a similar face of concern and worry.Aizawa moved to the side. His other self had deep bags under his eyes, even darker than he’d remembered. It seemed like the pits that carved out his cheeks grew deeper as well, and the heavy weight with which he stood brought an oppressive tension in the room. He didn’t move a lot, tired green eyes languidly moving from one face to another. His face was perfectly blank, the slight twitch from his brow and the barely there furrow betraying the facade. “I-” Izuku opened his mouth, trying to remember the countless scenarios he played and replayed in his mind. He bit his cheek, swallowing the empty words that got stuck in his throat.What was he supposed to say?“Are you alright?” All Might questioned. The boy with green hair, weighed down and slightly longer than his own (he wondered how it didn’t prick his eyes), snorted at the question, letting out a deprecatingly amused breath through his nose.It was quiet once more, his other self ignoring the question.After a moment stifled with tension and words that went unsaid, Kacchan broke the silence.“Why did you do it?” His voice was quiet but clear, and turned every head towards where he sat hunched over, eyes to the floor. He looked up, steely red eyes and furrowed brows unwavering as he asked again, louder this time, “Why did you jump?”His other self stared back, unflinching, and held his gaze in silence. He didn’t back down, keeping his lips firmly shut. But Kacchan wasn’t one to back down either, he never did, so when the silence carried on, the slight tightness in the features of his other self relaxed, conceding his defeat in the stand-off.He glanced at Izuku, and suddenly it struck him that this was the first time his other self looked at him, where before he was part of the wall; the painfully familiar feeling of being the air in the room. The weight behind the thin boy’s piercing gaze made anxiety pool in Izuku’s stomach. He didn’t know the reason behind it– why look at him like that, when before he was being ignored? –leaving him more puzzled than Izuku had been a second before. And just like that, the moment had passed. He looked back at Kacchan. A beat, a breath through his nose. “I wanted to.”Maybe he didn’t mind sharing what they already knew, or maybe it had to do with who was asking. It seemed like no matter what, Kacchan and Izuku could alway force the truth out of one another, for better or for worse.His tired, other self slowly opened his mouth, preparing to continue when–A phone went off, buzzing rhythmically.Aizawa’s hand went for his pocket after a slight moment of hesitation. He answered, a voice on the other line saying something too soft for Izuku to hear. “Understood,” Aizawa replied to the muffled voice. “One moment.” He muted his phone as he lowered his hand, looking squarely at Izuku. “The police called. They’ve found Osamu Tanaka.”Dark green eyes widened, a light that had previously vacated them returning once more. He sucked in an audible breath before pausing, eyebrows knitting in an emotion Izuku couldn’t identify. “I..can go home?”The underground hero didn’t reply straight away, examining the multitude of varying emotions that flashed across his face in the fraction of a second. “...I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” he said slowly. “They’re asking me to join a raid of one of the suppliers of trigger. He was among the list of villains on site. Apparently, Sir Nighteye’s been investigating Overhaul and the Chie Hassaikai for awhile now.”Izuku sat up straighter at the mention of All Might’s sidekick, glancing to his right to see his hero already looking back. “I’m going to be interning there next week...” He added without thinking.His teacher sighed. “If I knew they were handling such a big case, I would never have approved your internship.” He looked back at Izuku’s counterpart. “The raid happens tonight.”“Aizawa-san, you don't have to go, right?” All Might piped up, a concerned look gracing his features as he glanced at Izuku’s other self.“I wasn’t planning to-”“No.” Other Izuku cut off, gaze steely and determined. “This-” He broke off, eyes wavering before shutting them closed, taking a moment, a breath, to compose himself. He held Aizawa’s gaze. “This changes things. You have to go. I… I want you to go.”He stepped forward, standing in front of Izuku and All Might. “I’ll stay with them.”Aizawa shot All Might a sceptical look. “All Might can’t-”“I’ll do it!” All Might exclaimed, perhaps a little too quickly. “If it solves this problem, I’ll watch over the other young Midoriya. He won’t leave my sight.”Aizawa glared, giving All Might his best unimpressed look. “You lied to me about my students visiting Midoriya, and even let them stay, causing a mess I had to clean up. Again.”All Might wilted in place, unable to refute. Kacchan cut in from his seat. “All Might and Zombie Deku can stay with us until you’re back.” He stood up, hands in his sagged pants, looking for all the world as if he didn’t care—even though Izuku could see from the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice that he did. “Twenty-one pairs of eyes are better than one.” Aizawa looked back at the boy standing in front of him, raising an eyebrow meaningfully. A question went unspoken between the two. The other him was quiet, the slight apprehensiveness to his determination softening at the edges, the corners of his mouth raising minutely and the ghost of a smile appearing on his lips. “I don’t mind.”---Seeing the building, Height’s Alliance, that was built for the protection of the students was different than being told about it. It underscored the severity of the villain attacks that happened in the past, would happen in the future, and so Izuku made a mental note to do more research about it.That was, if he actually was able to go back home.Izuku hoped the world wouldn’t betray him once more, wouldn’t fool him and laugh at him for falling for it again and again. He knew he was only looking for someone to blame, point fingers at so that it wasn’t all. his. fault. And yet, he still hoped. Even knowing disappointment was all that awaited him. Because—why else was he here?He glanced at the people that walked him—escorted, like a criminal to their prison—to the massive front of the building, where two renaissance pillars framed the towering glass doors, made larger and more engulfing by his small frame.The short walk had been absent of even small talk, covered in an uncomfortable silence only broken by the sounds of brown leaves crunching under foot. And Izuku saw no reason in helping the awkward opening and closing of their mouths, nor the glances they shot at each other and the stares they sent him when they thought he wasn’t looking. Kacchan, on the other hand, was ignorant of their distress as he led them to the building, his hunched shoulders foreign to the image of him he’d always known.The door opened with a slight squeak, and the heads at the dinner table near the back (they’d placed two next to each other) shot up at the sound. A look of surprise crossed their faces, if you could count the slight widening of the eyes of the red and white haired guy. He recognized him from the shocking meeting with his other self (something about All Might?). In fact, he recognized all their faces. They got up in a rush, but made no move towards the doors, as if frozen in place. With a glance to his left, he saw the reason why, catching the tail end of a shake of freckled, perfectly full and healthy cheeks.Izuku swallowed the bitter taste on his tongue, looking back at the crowd, anxiously awaiting them as they walked towards the long dinner tables. The red, spiky haired guy shared an uneasy—he always managed to cause that—look with the pink skinned girl, but when they looked back at him they didn’t say anything. The others shared similar looks of apprehensive, tentative curiosity. All Might sat next to a guy with glasses, immediately giving up his seat (and dwarfing him with his size) while pointing him towards it with both arms. They both looked up at him expectantly, even the brown-haired girl to the right of the open seat joining in. And so, with no small amount of reluctance, did Izuku take his seat between the heroics students of the most prestigious hero school, and their most famous alumni.Only once he sat down did the tall guy take his own seat at the far end of the table. His other self sat next to the boy with two toned hair, and Kacchan grabbed a chair to sit at the head, next to him. Izuku wondered why he even wanted to sit so close to this version of him in the first place.He quickly looked away before they could catch him staring. Izuku could see the TV from where he sat, the bright colours of the racing game offering a fleeting distraction from the room’s heavy atmosphere. Laughter and lighthearted jeers echoed from the group clustered around the TV. “You’re terrible at this!” A blond exclaimed, leaning against a guy with black hair as a car careened off the virtual track. “Did you even try to drift?”"Shut up! I’ve got it this time!” A high-pitched voice retorted playfully. He couldn’t see who said it, but Izuku noticed a controller floating to the right of the blond. The bickering was casual, carefree—a stark contrast to the stifling awkwardness that surrounded the dinner table.At the table it was quieter, the air thick with unspoken tension. As if they were scared to speak. They exchanged subtle glances, each clearly trying to gauge how to proceed. Between their hesitance, the boy with two-toned hair was the only one to speak. “My name is Shouto Todoroki.” He said by way of introduction, a small, polite smile appearing on his lips. He glanced at his other self, awkwardly sitting next to Todoroki, before looking at Izuku straight in the eyes. His face was filled with determination, stone cold yet not unfriendly. He stretched out a single hand between them from across Izuku. “Midoriya-san is one of my best friends.”Izuku hesitated, scrunching his eyebrows as he stared at Todoroki’s outstretched hand. A pit of jealousy settled beneath his chest. Of course he would have friends here. His gaze flicked up to meet Todoroki’s mismatched eyes, which were calm but piercing in their intensity. Red hair and a blue eye. He recognized the name too, Endeavor’s son.His fingers twitched in his lap, and for a moment, he debated not responding at all. But the weight of the silence pressed down on him, thick and suffocating. More than the satisfaction he could get from ignoring Todoroki (that perfect version of himself’s best friend) out of childish pettiness, he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself. And so, with stiff, awkward movements, he reached out and shook Todoroki’s hand.“I… uh, nice to meet you,” he mumbled, his voice hoarse and barely audible (he couldn’t hear himself and god was that weird). He quickly withdrew his hand, retreating back into himself. His gaze dropped to the table, refusing to look at Todoroki—or anyone else—for more than a second. He raised the red beanie in his hands, sliding it over his mess of dark curls and covering his ears. “You can call me Akatani.”The rest took this as their opportunity to introduce themselves, and when Izuku snuck a glance to Uraraka--the girl sitting next to him--he could see in her warm eyes the tension slightly melt away. He didn’t deserve to be looked at so kindly. He could feel everyone staring at him as he kept his eyes firmly locked on a whirl in the wooden dining table. A nagging feeling made Izuku wonder if they knew, but he quickly dismissed the idea. It was better this way, the less people knew, the less like a failure he’d feel.He rubbed his fingers, anxious, and bit his lip when another pang of pain pierced through his body. Everyone was staring at him so intently, so kindly, so ignorant. He needed to get out, he needed to escape, he needed to eateateat— A hand on his shoulder made him jump, his own hand smacking it away as his head whipped around to assess his attacker.“Woah! Didn’t mean to scare you there, Midoriya-kun!” The blond he’d seen playing the racing game raised his arms, trying to reassure him of his harmlessness. Izuku saw his other self perk up at his name, and suddenly, everyone from the TV was surrounding him. He shrank in his chair. The blond guy brought a finger to his chin, looking away in thought. “Wait...I can’t call you Midoriya. We should totally give you a nickname! How about, Broco—”“Mikumo Akatani. That’s the name Aizawa-san gave me.”“—li Boy…” The words died in his mouth.The black-haired guy next to him laughed—at Izuku, his insecurities whispered to him—before shaking his head in amused exasperation. “You suck at giving nicknames, Kaminari.” He stuck a hand out, mirroring Todoroki. “Sero Hanta. It’s nice to meet you, Akatani-kun.”“We have sooooo many questions!” That same high-pitched voice from before exclaimed, clothes bobbing up and down in excitement.Another girl, with dark green hair and big eyes—she reminded him of his mom, a wave of sadness making his chest hurt and his shoulders sag—joined the conversation. “I’m curious too, kero.”“Is everything exactly the same over there, or is it totally different?” Kaminari paused. “Wait, do I have a different quirk?”Sero nodded along, his curiosity piqued. “Yeah, like, do you have the same quirks as people here? Or—” he glanced at Izuku across the table—“are there different versions of us, too?”Uraraka gave him a worried look as he shrunk more and more in his seat with every question. “Guys, maybe we should—"“Do I have a girlfriend?”“How did you become a vigilante?” The girl that reminded him of his mom asked, completely ignoring the head of purple balls that tried to squeeze through the crowd. “I’ve never met one before, kero. And you can call me Tsu.”His shoulders hiked up and up, his fingers picking away at the skin around his nails.“And your regeneration quirk." A girl with black hair tied up in a high ponytail cut in before Izuku could respond. “How does it work? Do you have to eat before you heal? Or is it based on stamina?”"Give him some space gu-" Kirishima tried to interrupt, but his voice was drowned out by the rapid-fire questions.“Do you even have a limit?” The floating shirt asked, voice thoughtful.“Is All Might the same in your world?” A girl with dark purple hair asked, leaning back in the seat she took. All Might stiffened next to him at the mention of his name. “I mean, since you know him here, right?”“OI!” Bakugou’s sharp voice tore through the room, his anger cutting through the chatter like a blade. Izuku flinched instinctively at the sudden outburst. “Does it look like Zombie Deku wants to sit here and get grilled by a bunch of morons? Cut it the hell out already!”He stood up, his chair screeching as he did, and glared them down before angrily walking away. The room was enveloped in an awkward silence immediately, watching stunned as he left the room.“I’m so sorry, Akatani-san.” The girl with the pony-tail apologized, bowing deeply. “We should have never bombarded you with questions like that.”Startled into realization, the rest followed suit, apologies pouring out of everyone’s mouths.Izuku stood up from his seat, his eyes fixed to the floor. All this attention was just… too much. “Yeah, I’m just—” His voice broke, and he coughed, clearing his throat. “I’m just gonna—" He pointed behind his back, in the direction Kacchan stormed off in.“…go.” He said quietly—painfully awkwardly—and quickly left, feeling everyone’s eyes on him. He might have spiraled into a full-blown panic attack if his hearing were normal. Small mercies, he thought relieved.His stomach twisted, the pain shooting through his entire body.He needed to distract himself from the nerves that were eating away at him and the stomach that was eating him. He chewed his lip again, only stopping once he saw the gap in the counter wall he’d noticed before. Cooking in the kitchen wouldn’t do much about the staring, but it’s the most he could do right now. He needed to do something, and All Might wasn’t allowed to leave him alone anyway.He looked up, and immediately froze, turning around as quickly as he could.“What do you want now,” Kacchan asked exasperated. His eyes were laser focused on the carrot he was cutting, not even sparing him a glance as his brows scrunched in irritation.Izuku flinched again, turning around mechanically. “S-Sorry! Didn’t know you were coo-““Zombie Deku?” Kacchan put his knife down on the chopping board, eyes a little wider than normal. Izuku’s fake smile—reflexive by now—tugged down in a frown. Kacchan’s eyes sharpened, asking more carefully, more measured, “What do you want…Deku?”He twisted his fingers as he glued his eyes back to the ground. “W-Well I thought I sh-should help cook butIseeyou’rebusyrightnowsoI’lljust—”“You’re mumbling.” Kacchan snorted.Izuku’s voice lowered into a whisper, meek.  “I wanted to help…” He looked up tentatively, Kacchan’s watchful gaze pinning him in place as he crossed his arms. He’d never seen Kacchan look at him like that. “...What?” Izuku asked, biting his cheek immediately in reprimand. He knew better than to stoke another fight with Kacchan, and this time he wasn’t sure if his quirk would keep him from dying.“I’m surprised.” He said, an amused tilt to his lips.“Surprised?”“You can cook. The other nerd can’t cook for shit.”Izuku paused, confused at this version of Katsuki’s reaction. “Oh.”“Well come on.” He said, gesturing him inside the kitchen with an upwards nod of his head. “You said you wanted to help cook?”Izuku tentatively stepped inside, feeling as if he was walking into a trap. “Y-yeah...”“All those lazy fucking bastards can do is watch,” he said as he threw another paralyzing glare over his shoulder, “and they wonder why I never want to cook for them. Now,” he grinned as Izuku stepped next to him, handing him the knife. “Let’s see what you’re made of.”