Chapter Two: Origins

—Midoriya—

Ten Years Ago

"Kacchan... can I tell you a secret?" Izuku kicked at the woodchips, sitting at the lip of the playground area in the park.

"Only if I'm the only one who gets to know," Katsuki said. He was sitting on the swings, propelling himself forwards and backwards with little explosions from his palms.

"Well... yeah. And you can't tell anyone else."

"Stupid, it's not a secret if I go telling everyone, is it?"

"Y-yeah," Izuku put his chin in his hands, and drew his little knees up to his chest.

"Well, what?"

"So..." Izuku looked around, making sure no one was nearby. "You know how my dad—"

Katsuki groaned, jumping off of the swing and landing heavily in front of Izuku to scowl in his face. "Is this another fanboy moment? I like All Might as much as everyone else with eyes, but aren't you supposed to not be bragging about that? Your mom said that that's a secret."

"It's a different secret," Izuku shuffled his feet, burying them in the woodchips.

"Stop talking about telling me the secret and just TELL ME!"

"I got my Quirk."

Katsuki folded his arms. "So are you able to grab the TV remote without leaving the couch like your ma, or are you gonna be able to stand up for yourself now?"

"I was trying to jump up and get a snack from a high shelf in the kitchen and I couldn't jump high enough, and then I suddenly went ZOOM and knocked a hole in the ceiling with my head," Izuku rubbed a band-aid on his forehead for effect.

"Your dad's Quirk, then." Katsuki huffed.

"Kacchan, no one is supposed to know," Izuku wrung his hands together nervously. "It's such an obvious and flashy Quirk and I don't know how to use it or use it properly, and if people find out they'll start asking questions, and then maybe Mom and I will have to move away someplace or something—"

"Yain't allowed to move away!"

"I don't want to, I'm just saying that if people find out, then..."

"So no one finds out," Katsuki shrugged, and sat down next to Izuku. "You're such a scrawny little dork, and everyone else already has had their Quirks for a couple years now... you could tell people you're Quirkless. Make up some little fibs about being checked out by a doctor or something."

"But... you're always picking on Quirkless kids. Won't it seem funny if I'm hanging out with you?"

"So don't hang out with me."

Izuku's heart sank. "But you're my best friend..."

"And you're a loser – fun facts." Katsuki gave Izuku a shove. "...I have an easy enough time finding things to pick on you about as it is. It won't be hard to make your 'Quirkless' declaration believable. And we can still hang out and stuff, just not in school."

"You'd... really do that for me?"

"Isn't that what friends are supposed to do? Take care of each other?" Katsuki scowled harder. "It's not a big deal. Just don't mess it up, okay?"

Three Years Ago

"Izuku? Kacchan is here to see you."

He rolled over, pressing his face into his pillows. "I don't want to see anyone, I told you already, Mom."

"What was that? I couldn't hear you..."

Izuku sat up, rubbing his reddened eyes, and shouted at the closed door, "I said, I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE!"

"Like HELL you don't," the door exploded open, and Katsuki stormed in, slamming it behind him. He folded his arms and stood at the center of Izuku's room. "Too bad. I'm here."

I am here!

Izuku's face crumpled, and he buried his head in his knees, the tears welling up again. Katsuki seemed to realize what he'd said.

"...Fuck, sorry," he muttered.

"It – it doesn't feel real," Izuku whimpered. "He can't be gone just like that."

"No one's untouchable," Katsuki said. "Even the best of the best... in the end, All Might is mortal just like the rest of us."

"I only got to meet him once. Can you imagine never meeting your dad except once?!"

"No, I can't. No one should have to. But that's how it is – there's no point in imagining life a way that wasn't, or can't be. Imagine your future, focus on that." He walked over and sat heavily on the edge of the bed, pulling the blanket off of Izuku. "...Come here."

Izuku looked up, teary-eyed, and was surprised to see Katsuki holding an arm out towards him, a scowl still etched on his face. "Huh?"

Katsuki rolled his eyes, and scooched over, yanking Izuku and tucking him under his arm, resting the green-haired boy's head on Katsuki's shoulder. Katsuki squeezed Izuku tightly. "You just look forwards, you hear me? There's a whole world out there waiting for you once you put yourself out there... your dad's legacy is a hell of a lot to wrap your head around, but you're not gonna be alone. I made a promise, remember? I'm gonna be the top hero when we grow up, so don't worry about it."

"What if we're not together 'when we grow up?'" Izuku murmured, looking down at his red-and-blue rug.

"You better do your best to make sure that we are," Katsuki growled. "Work your ass off, get into UA – we'll be the first from our shithole of a middle school to get in. Both of us."

"I don't even know how to use One For All. How can I avenge him if I don't even know how to use his Quirk?"

"That's what UA's for, idiot," Katsuki ruffled Izuku's hair. "And you and I will start training... we can go out to the woods where no one's around and mess around until you start to get a hang of things."

Izuku turned his face towards Katsuki's collarbone, indulging in the rare show of affection and comfort, which only ever happened in private. "This is... even more reason to keep fighting on," he said. "No one is safe... not everyone can be saved – but that's why the world needs heroes, right?"

"Yeah."

—Tamashini—

Three Years Ago

"Akira... it's good to see you again."

She narrowed her eyes, blue-and-white flames wreathing around her hands. "We're not on a first-name basis, All For One."

The man laughed. "Are we not? That's too bad. You'd think that after all this time, we'd be beyond trivial social things like that. But you're not here for conversation, clearly."

She looked around at the hints of carnage beneath the rubble of the building, scattered all around them. A human limb, here and there; pools of blood welling up from between piles of plaster.

"It ends today."

"Does it? That seemed to be your belief a few months ago as well. All Might's conviction was strong and yet... heh. So now you try your luck alone."

A burst of light and fire swirled around her, and he stared into the blaze boldly as her human form disappeared into the light. A pair of opalescent wings flared and the dragon came shooting out of the visual occlusion, knocking All For One back into one of the surviving pillars.

"You said it yourself — I'm not here to talk." He heard her voice echo in his mind.

"Have it your way... Elysium."

He pressed his palm against the pillar and it crumbled to dust behind him, letting him slip out of her talons. She snapped her jaws at him, but the closed on empty air, as he leapt up above her, and swung a fist at the side of her head. Her neck whipped to the side from the force of the impact, and she roared, shaking her head from side to side. She barely managed to avoid the spear-like appendage that buried itself in the ground beside her, as All For One tried to take advantage of her brief stunned moment. Three more followed after it, and she took to the air, weaving around them.

A sudden pressure in the air forced her to the ground, as if a weight had been slammed on her back. Atmospheric Compression. She remembered the hero he'd taken it from. With limited mobility, she had to end it quickly.

All For One was floating down through the air before her, his face a mask of composure. He lifted his hand, and the rubble around them started to rise into the air, metal piping and supports tearing through the concrete as they formed a floating sphere around the two. He snapped his fingers, and the field of debris hurtled towards her.

She gathered her strength in her legs and leapt up to meet it.

Divine Dragon — Supernova.

The metal in the air was blasted away, shooting off into the sky as little more than flecks of dust. The area around them was left little more than a crater, stretching most of the way down the city block. Close to the edge, the man was on his knees. It would have wiped out any other person, but with his Shock Absorption, he was able to withstand the force... barely.

She flew to him, closing the distance in two wing-beats, and sank her claws into his chest, feeling his blood pool up, his broken body pinned under her foot. He coughed.

"So that was your trump card... a last resort, when there's nothing left to lose? You could have maybe saved All Might if you'd revealed that power earlier..."

"And have killed everyone else," she said coldly. "Your life is the only one I'm interested in taking... in recompense for the horrors you've wrought on this world."

He chuckled weakly, blood trailing out of the corner of his mouth. "How apt... and self-righteous. I feel sorry for you, Akira; you're no more than a tool to Elysium."

She hissed in his face. "I told you not to—" Her eyes widened, and she was cut off by a sickening crunch.

Sharp tendrils, glowing black and red, pierced her side, extending from All For One's fingertips. "Forcible Quirk Activation," he rasped.

The dragon was engulfed by light again, and she felt herself dwindling back down, until she was just a lithe woman, crouched over her prone enemy. A soft glow pulsed from her fingers on his chest, and incredible pain ripped through her. She screamed as his wounds knitted back together, every broken bone realigning in a series of clicks and gruesome sounds.

He drew a deep breath, climbing to his feet as she crumpled to the ground. "Such a gift, your healing powers. A pity I have no use for them – with the obvious drawbacks." He looked down at her shaking frame. She could barely see, barely held on to consciousness under the weight of the agony that he'd passed to her. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she could hear the dragon roaring her name.

She was dimly aware of him kneeling by her head, and whispering in her ear: "Can you hear me, dragon? You'll get another chance, I assume. Eventually." He chuckled to himself. "I'll make it quick, since you managed to impress me. You fought well, Akira."

Then he snapped her neck, and left her on the street.

Present-Day

Kaida bolted upright in bed, clutching the sheets to her chest. Damn it. That same nightmare again.

It was never as vivid as the night her mother died, and she relived the whole scene as the dragon's spirit passed on to her, but the images were still horrible and haunting.

"Peace. Leave the dead to the past."

If you would give me a moment's peace, I'd appreciate that, she snapped back.

She felt Elysium's irritation at her attitude. "There will be peace when you've earned it, Tamashini."

Kaida threw the covers aside and swung her legs off of the side of her bed, grinding her teeth slightly. The hardwood floors were chilly, the metal doorknob even colder. She went down the hallway to the bathroom, staring sullenly at her reflection in the mirror as she washed up. As she ran a brush through her long hair, she heard the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway. She glanced at her phone — the time was 10:13. Shit. I need to hurry.

Dressing quickly and heading downstairs, she met her father as he was coming through the front door, multiple bags of groceries in both hands. "Good morning, Kaida," he smiled, and dropped them all to give her a hug. "I wasn't expecting you to still be home."

"I wasn't expecting it to be so late," she returned his embrace, and bent to help him with the bags. "Could you give me a ride? I won't make it on time if I call for the driver."

"Of course. Let's get these into the kitchen, and we'll head out. Wouldn't want to keep Enji-san waiting." He lifted his hands to the remaining bags on the ground, and they floated over to his open palms.

Shinji Kirisaki

Quirk: Recall
He can telekinetically draw any object to him that he has touched in the last minute. Only works over short distances.

"...'Enji-san?'" Kaida gave her father a dubious look as he started throwing things haphazardly into the refrigerator. "Does he know you call him that?"

"Of course not, he'd never let me interact with him so informally," he laughed. "But didn't you mention he's moving your training sessions to his estate? Seems like a personable move. Inviting you into his home, and whatnot."

"It's not like I'm going over for brunch, Dad."

"Still! And didn't you mention you're classmates with his son? Moving this relationship in a cordial direction can't hurt anyone."

Kaida sighed, and folded away the grocery bags before going upstairs to get her bag. "Sure."

The drive over was short and uneventful, traffic being light and the weather amicable. Her father pulled up the grand driveway to the traditional-style Japanese mansion, and whistled. "Should we remodel like this? It's quite impressive."

"We don't need a house like this, Dad," Kaida pulled the car door handle and slung her bag over her shoulder. "It's just the two of us. They're a pretty big family."

"Mmm, I suppose." He stuck his head out the window and gave her a thumbs-up as she exited the car. "See you tonight!"

"Drive safely."

She watched as he drove off, reversing a bit before turning the car around and rolling out of sight. Then she turned and looked up at the towering mansion before her, drew a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

The sound of bare footsteps on tatami approached before the door opened, revealing a timid-looking woman with red-streaked white hair. She pushed her glasses up. "Oh you must be Tamashini-chan. My father's been expecting—"

"Thank you, Fuyumi, you can move along now." The door opened fully, a burly man dominating the frame. He looked down at the woman and she scurried off without another word. Kaida gave him a small bow.

"Endeavor-san."

"Come in," he beckoned her inside, and she took off her shoes and followed him down the hall. The interior was minimalistically decorated, but still gave off the same grandiose air as the estate from the outside. "I thought it best we start training here instead of at the other location to save you some travel time, now that your studies have started."

"I appreciate your consideration," Kaida murmured.

"My training room here is well-equipped and spacious enough for our needs... and thoroughly fire-proofed." He stopped by a large set of double sliding doors, and pressed a button on the wall to open them.

The room beyond was huge, with a vaulted ceiling and spanning easily the entire length of the back of the house. Rows of thick wooden pillars were arranged in a familiar circular formation on one end of the room, while the other two-thirds consisted of an open area.

Endeavor clipped on his gauntlets and pulled his gloves over his hands, and Kaida set her bag down by the side of the door. "We'll begin with more work on your flame control in your current form, before we move on to some endurance training." He looked over at her. "How long have you managed to hold the dragon form in your work at UA?"

Kaida grimaced. "I... haven't used it yet at school. I didn't feel like the first week's assessments called for it."

Her mentor scowled. "You should be taking every opportunity that you can to condition yourself, Tamashini."

"We're supposedly starting combat training next week," Kaida stretched her arms behind her back. "There won't be much of a way around it then."

"Good. We'll push you today — let's try for an hour and a half. Then we'll work on pain threshold for your healing aura."

Kaida closed her eyes. "...Alright."

—Todoroki—

The manifestation of Quirks is thought to originate from the rising primordial forces as a result of the battle between the celestial dragon, Elysium, and the chaos dragon, Erebus. Ultimately, Erebus was defeated, his essence sealed through the full extent of Elysium's power – causing such a disturbance in the natural forces that mutations in humans began to appear, starting with the glowing baby recorded in

"That should be a comma, not a dash," Fuyumi peered over Shoto's shoulder, pointing at his screen.

He stared at his sister, mildly irritated, and made the edit. "I told you I'd ask for proofreading help when I need it," he muttered.

"Is this essay due tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Shoto kept hammering at his keyboard. "It's not so bad. Writing about an interesting topic makes the process more tolerable."

"Mhm," Fuyumi nodded. "Well, at any rate, I came up to let you know dinner's almost ready."

"Oh. I'll help you set the table." Shoto stood up, saved his document, and turned off his monitor.

Fuyumi headed downstairs, Shoto close behind, but he paused in the hallway on the way to the dining room, looking down the hall at a bright flash of light through the training room door. He frowned. "Doesn't Dad go out to work on Sundays?"

When he didn't get a response, he saw that Fuyumi was already rounding the corner into the kitchen. Curiosity tugged at him, and he went the opposite way, opening the door to the training room.

He saw his father standing in the center of the room, arms folded across his chest as he looked down with a condescending expression. At his feet, a girl was on her hands and knees, visibly trembling. Her black hair fell like a curtain over her face.

Endeavor bent down and pulled her upright roughly, and she swayed dangerously before slumping back to the ground. "Hmph," he sighed. "I suppose we're done for the day, then." He looked up and saw his son standing bewildered in the doorway. "Shoto. Help her out, I'm going to get changed."

The girl looked up, and Shoto recognized her face as his father brushed past him. "Kaida...?" He gave Endeavor's back a venomous glance as his father disappeared down the hallway, then turned and went to Kaida's side. "What are you doing here?"

"I... I've been training with your father for a while," she breathed heavily, and sat back, eyes half-closed. "Since before classes started, and now just on the weekends."

Looking at her, weak and exhausted, Shoto had a flashback to his own time in that very room, from his early childhood, and he felt old anger bubbling up within him. "He's working you too hard," he muttered.

"No... I need this," she shook her head, and stood, with great difficulty. Shoto grabbed her arm to steady her. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," he said disbelievingly. "Is someone picking you up?"

"I can call my driver," she looked over at her belongings in the corner, where her cell phone rested on top of her bag.

"Sit back down for a while," Shoto tugged her slightly, and she obsequiently slid back to the floor. He brought her things over to her, and she murmured a word of thanks before dialing a number and lifting the phone to her ear.

"...Yeah, I'm ready. Ten minutes? Okay. I'll be waiting outside."

"It's raining," he said as she hung up.

"That's fine," she shrugged, and got up again. He grabbed her bag for her before she could fall over trying to pick it up. "I need the fresh air."

"...I'll wait with you, then."

Soon, they were standing outside the estate's large gate, as Kaida leaned heavily against the wall and Shoto held a large umbrella for both of them. She stared silently at the ground, her usually luminescent eyes dull and empty.

"What kind of training do you do?" He asked, cautiously.

She looked up at him. "...some simple things, like controlling the breadth and intensity of my flames. And more importantly, he's helping me condition my fortitude to withstand the transformation... I can't hold my alternate form for very long. I don't know if my mother had this problem, but manifesting the dragon form seems to drain me."

"Drain you? How?"

"Exhaustion, mainly. On bad days, I've passed out. Ended up in the hospital once."

"Are you kidding?" He gripped the umbrella roughly. My father shouldn't be the one working with her... he's going to drive her past her limits.

"That's why I chose to work with Endeavor," she said, addressing his unspoken thoughts. "Aside from being the number one hero... he's known for his ruthlessness. I spent two years after acquiring the larger part of my power barely able to use it, but since I was accepted to UA, I decided it's time to make a change."

"Trust me, I know firsthand how brutal he can be," Shoto muttered. "...You should be careful." Kaida didn't respond.

A black car pulled up, and Kaida lifted a hand towards the driver, who nodded at her. She hauled herself off of the wall, and Shoto passed her the bag as she climbed into the car. She paused for a moment, and tipped her head in a small bow towards him. "Thanks, Todoroki. See you tomorrow."

Next Chapter: Primer

Hopefully this clears some things up about the AU ^^; Thanks for reading, leave a review!