CHAPTER 1: MEETING THE NUMBER ONE
"Talking"
"SHOUTING"
'Thinking'
"Deep Voice / Demonic Voice"
[ Place / Time ]
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A.N.: WARNING: for the purposes of the story, Izuku will be one year older than the canon. This chapter will explain why he will still be in the same generation as Bakugo and the others.
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"Ohi~! Izuku! Wake up! Time to go to school!"
After a low groan, two tired green eyes opened in the now lost quiet of the room, looking at the ceiling for several seconds. Although reluctantly, Izuku pushed back the blanket and put his feet on the floor, trying to wake up with light pats on the cheeks while also showing his naked torso and well-defined muscles gained in recent years.
At the age of fifteen, almost sixteen, Izuku was a boy definitely tall for his age, reaching almost a meter and seventy-five, with a physique that many girls would have surely defined as ripped. Walking towards the window, he stopped just to raise the shutters, groaning again as soon as the sun blinded him momentarily but, once he took a shirt resting on the back of the chair in his room, he walked towards the kitchen.
Walking down the stairs, he took a quick look at the pictures hanging on the wall, all of them showing Izuku during his growth and the man who had been taking care of him for almost twelve years, Johnny Blaze. The older man had become a set of figures for Izuku, assuming the role of guardian but also of father, friend and older brother all for the sake of his protege and for that, Izuku was more than grateful.
"Well well, look who decided to come out of the grave." said a mocking male voice as soon as he set foot in the kitchen "Spent another night in the throes of your heartburns? Or did you spend the night going around on your motorcycle? Again."
Izuku snorted at that before taking a cup and filling it with coffee, then sitting at the table with Johnny. The heartburns were a joking definition used between them to indicate a part of Izuku's Quirk that, even after twelve years, did not have a name yet nor did they know all its effects.
Days after losing his mother, Izuku had begun to experience severe pains in his chest during different times of the day, as if something were burning inside him, but at night the pains became even stronger. No doctor had been able to discover the origins of those pains or a way to suppress them and, as the days went by, the pains had become stronger and stronger, leading Izuku to develop a strong pain tolerance. After almost a full year, the pains did not hurt him as before, but they led him to spend many sleepless nights. That had led Johnny to remove Izuku from the kindergarten for a whole year so as to be sure of his health and, consequently, Izuku had found himself in the same class as Katsuki Bakugo, a child who had made fun of him several times due to his lack of Quirk.
During their second year together they had discovered another aspect of his Quirk, namely the possibility of melting things, especially metal objects. Johnny still had nightmares about it since the first thing Izuku had melted was the muffler of an all original 1957 Harley-Davidson Sportster. The desperate scream of the man had been heard throughout the city and Izuku had had a panic attack in seeing his guardian on the ground with white eyes and foam coming out of his mouth. Although, thinking back to the episode, now Izuku could not help but chuckle.
For another two years, they had not discovered anything new about his Quirk but one evening, during a dinner with the newly promoted detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, who had become a family friend, they had come to the conclusion that, whenever Izuku felt those heartburns, a villain was at work somewhere. None of them knew how to explain it but apparently Izuku knew about it when someone was committing illegal actions, albeit in a somewhat painful way.
However, everything changed one night when Izuku was only fourteen years old...
Flash-back
[ Johnny's Motorcycle Shop / Two years ago ]
Izuku yawned slightly, flipping through the pages of an old motorcycle magazine. His caretaker's shop was empty at that time of the evening but Izuku liked spending time there, even just to look at the magazines he had read so many times.
After discovering that Johnny was a former stunt motorcycle rider, a very good one by the way, Izuku was not surprised to find out that he had decided to open a motorcycle shop in Tokyo, although not in the city center but rather close to the residential area. All his doubts about it had vanished a few days after the opening, when he had seen many customers in the store asking for things about new motorcycles, spare parts and so on. And all this had done nothing but stir up his curiosity about the world of motorcycles, leading him to ask for information from Johnny.
Now, Johnny was a lot of things and 'Encyclopedia on Motorcycles' was one of them, definitely. After almost three hours of conversation, Izuku found himself drawn to that world and, over the course of months, he had started spending more and more time there learning new things about motorcycles. He knew how they were made, how to disassemble them, how to repair them and also how to drive them thanks to Johnny's secret lessons, all he needed was a bike of his own but for that he had to wait to be sixteen.
"I see you've grown since the last time we met." said a male voice scaring Izuku to death and only out of sheer luck he did not throw the magazine in the face of the man who had spoken.
"Y-you?!" almost shouted Izuku looking at the same blond man, currently standing near the entrance with the cane in his hands.
"Hello Izuku, it's been a while."
The young boy calmed down a bit seeing him "Yeah...almost ten years."
"That long? Seems that my commitments in America took me longer than expected." said the man with a little smile before nodding to Izuku "I heard about your mother. You have my most sincere condolences."
"Thank you..." said Izuku with sad eyes at the thought of his mother, before asking "Are you here for the contract?"
"Mh, yes and no." said the man confusing him "You see, I can feel that, in the next few years, I will be forced to collect the favor with you...but I fear that coming to you suddenly might be counterproductive. After all, you have barely discovered some small aspects of your Quirk."
"About that, can you explain something? Because melting things and knowing when the villains are acting does not seem like such a powerful Quirk." said Izuku sounding a little irritated, rightly so.
"I'm sorry, but I can not explain everything about your Quirk but I can still give you the basics." chuckled the man tapping the cane on the ground "You must know that you are not the only one who has signed a contract with me and every time the Quirk that I give changes in some aspects but the base is the same. First of all, your body was too immature when you received the Quirk, so it just gave you little...tastings of its power. Now that I am here, I will make sure that your body matures quickly, so in a few years you will be more than ready to use it to the best of your ability." the man showed Izuku a little smile, making him shiver under those eyes "But tonight, since you had to endure that pain within you for ten years...I will make sure that you can eliminate the source of such pain."
Izuku looked at him with eyes full of confusion and fear but then his mind understood the words of the man "Wait! Who told you about my pai-UGH!"
A sudden stab of pain in the chest caused him to fall on his knees, his eyes now filled with pain and difficulty in breathing.
"Can you feel it, Izuku? Your power is trying to get out and it would not be healthy to keep him inside of you. You must hurry, if you do not want to suffer further." the man said with a smile, but when Izuku looked up, he was already gone.
Rising with difficulty, Izuku tried to get to the phone of the store but his legs moved by themselves, instead approaching a motorcycle not far away, a Kawasaki Ninja 400 completely black ready to go and kept on display for customers. Upon touching it with one hand, Izuku was surprised to hear the engine start up as if it had its own life and, before he could realize it, he had already climbed into the saddle with the hands clasped around the hand grips.
With a rapid acceleration, the bike moved by itself and shattered the shop window, while Izuku tried in every way not to lose the grip on the handlebars of the bike, closing his eyes to avoid the shards of glass that opened small cuts on his face. Accelerating more and more the bike drove to the edge of the residential area, bordering the industrial zone, full of warehouses and factories. Izuku then tried to turn the handlebars to change the road, but the bike slipped into a large warehouse without gates and, without any warning, braked sharply, sending Izuku forward with a somersault that ended with his back against the concrete of the floor, knocking the air out of his lungs.
Izuku suppressed a lament, his eyes closed with pain, but when he opened them again, smoke began to come out of them, alarming him. Standing up in spite of the pain that had become even stronger, he put his hands over the eyes to try to soothe that unbearable feeling of burning but, to his utmost fear, he noticed that even his hands were smoking and, looking sown, his fear grew in seeing violent flames wrapping around his feet, leaving flaming footprints every time he took a step forward despite his body shaken by violent spasms.
With the passing of seconds, the burning sensation was transmitted throughout the body and the pain became unbearable, leading Izuku to scream at full lungs as bright red veins began to appear on his hands and the rest of his body. The pain soon led to a kind of hysteria, and Izuku began to laugh and scream at the same time, looking helpless as his muscles were burned from the inside and with every little spasm of his hands, pieces of skin were charred, showing white and immaculate bones wrapped in flames.
His eyes, now completely dissolved and replaced by those very flames, looked around for something that could help, ignoring his hair as they were devoured by the flames as well as the rest of his body. The pain continued to grow but, after a last violent spasm, Izuku stiffened, looking down while the last piece of skin was burned.
He stood in that position for several seconds, then slowly raising his head now reduced to a flaming skull.
An inhuman roar echoed in the night air.
[ Tokyo's Suburbs / A few minutes after ]
"Come on, old man. We just need some cash. Do not you want to do a good deed?" asked a man with four arms and long black hair, looking at the little form of an old man with blue skin in front of him.
"I have nothing to give to criminals like you!" shouted the old man before being punched in the face by the multi-armed man. The blow made him stagger to a second delinquent who turned his right forearm into a spring, hitting him in the face and knocking him down at the feet of the third and last member of their group, who looked at the man with a grin on his face.
"You should be kinder, old man. We young people really need money, do you know? Therefore..." he made a strange noise with his throat and then spit a ball of fire that hit a waste bin, burning it in a few seconds "Give us your money or you'll be in big trouble!"
Before the old man could reply, a violent roaring noise echoed in the air, surprising him and the three thugs. Sensing the origin of the sound, the three delinquents turned towards a tunnel not far from them, from which one could glimpse a light getting closer and closer. In a few moments, what appeared to be a simple light turned out to be a vehicle enveloped in flames that literally flew over their heads, forcing them to duck down so as not to be hit, before landing behind them, creating a small explosion that threw pieces of asphalt and ground into the air.
The three delinquents immediately turned to the point of the impact while the old man fell to the ground in shock, still uncertain about what had happened. With the thinning of the smoke created during the impact, a figure began to appear and the three men felt a sensation of fear and terror nestling in the deepest corners of their souls.
Standing just ten meters from them, there was what could only be described as a demonic motorbike and its rider, both wrapped in hellfire.
The bike seemed to be made entirely of black steel but with parts that looked like human bones, like the spokes of the wheels shaped like blades and the handlebars that were the horns of an infernal goat skull while the rest of the skull was in place of the headlight, with flames burning fiercely in its sockets. The engine looked like a ribcage from which protruded four iron pipes that stretched to the rear wheel, becoming four mufflers with strange glowing incisions on them. Both wheels, completely in flames, were covered by fenders that seemed to have been created by spines, with a small curved blade for each vertebra.
Sitting on the seat of the motorcycle, however, there was a flaming skeleton wearing a black hoodie, jeans of the same color and red shoes. Slowly turning his head, the skeleton stared at the three delinquents, sending another shiver down their backs. With absolute calm, the skeleton got off the bike, revealing to be lower than expected but no less threatening and, without deigning the three men of a second look, he looked at the old man still on the ground who was trembling with fear.
With a quick tilt of the head, the skeleton pointed to the houses not far away and, grasping the meaning of that gesture, the old man stood up with uncertainty, stammering a low "Thank you." before running in that direction, leaving the skeleton alone with the three men.
The one with four arms was the first to recover, immediately showing a big grin "Well, I've seen some ugly people but you're certainly one of the ugliest! Your appearance surprised us so much that the old man managed to escape! It means that you will replace him! I hope your money is fireproof because we really need it!"
Without waiting for an answer, the man approached the skeleton and tried to grab the hoodie with one of his hands but the skeleton grabbed his wrist without even looking and, with a quick pressure, broke it cleanly. The man's mind did not have time to register the pain that the skeleton hit him with a violent fist in the belly, burning his skin and making him fall to his knees. Before his two comrades could intervene, the skeleton grabbed the delinquent by the throat, forcing the man to look at him, and after raising his right hand showing a sphere of fire, he used it to hit the face of the man who, under the terrified eyes of the other two, was completely burnt to ashes within a second.
The other two were paralyzed by fear but the second delinquent ran forward turning both forearms into springs and then trying to hit the skeleton from the distance, taking advantage of the strength of his Quirk. His plan failed miserably as soon as the skeleton succeeded in grasping both the springs before the two fists could hit him. The man tried to free himself but his vain attempts ended when the skeleton melted both springs, effectively amputating the hands of the man who fell to the ground screaming in the grip of a pain never felt before while looking at the cauterized stumps he had in place of the wrists.
Not paying attention to the screams of the man, the skeleton turned to the last thug left just in time to be hit in the face by a ball of fire. The man grinned mockingly, thinking he had hurt him somehow, but his expression changed into a mask of terror as soon as he saw that the skeleton had not been minimally affected by his fire.
"You like playing with fire?" asked the skeleton looking at him "Let's play."
The man took a few steps back before running away at breakneck speed "S-stay away from me!"
The skeleton did not immediately pursue him but picked up a piece of cement from the ground that was immediately covered with red veins. Aiming at the man on the run, the skeleton flung the fragment that exploded in contact with the man's back, causing him to fall to the ground screaming in pain. Seeing the man on the ground, the skeleton took a few steps towards him, only to notice a small ironmongery. Entering the shop, the skeleton looked around until he saw a series of chains hanging from the ceiling and, after grabbing one, he ripped it off the hook.
Walking out of the shop with the chain dangling from his fist, he saw that the third man was trying to crawl away with his back completely burned and what was left of his clothes was now melted with his skin. The skeleton reached him with a few steps and, upon hearing him coming, the man turned slowly with eyes full of terror, just in time to see the skeleton stretch the chain in his hands, igniting it instantly.
"H-have mercy!"
"Sorry." said the skeleton shacking his head "All out of mercy."
With a wide arm movement, the skeleton released the chain behind him as a small part wrapped around his arm. Realizing his intentions, the man tried again to escape but found himself immediately blocked by the chain now tight around his chest. A loud scream came from his throat as the flames of the chain began to devour his body.
"S-somebody! Help me!"
His screams ceased when the skeleton jerked the chain, reducing the man to a pile of ashes that was dispersed by the wind. The chain went off at that moment and, with a simple gesture of the arm, the skeleton wrapped it around his chest twice, then started to walk towards the bike, ignoring the man to whom he had torn off his hands, which was still on the ground, intent to look at the skeleton with eyes full of tears and a big dark stain in his pants.
His fear, however, reached new heights when the skeleton, back on his bike, made it skid for a few seconds, pointing the front wheel at him.
"No...no...no! No!" shouted the man trying to get up but without success "I don't deserve to die!"
"Everyone says that..."
Without any hesitation, the skeleton set off at full speed and never slowed down, even when the man's desperate face was only a few inches from his bike's wheel...
[ Johnny's Motorcycle Shop / The next day ]
Normally Johnny was a calm person, playful and also quite lazy for all that was not about motorcycles but at that moment his mind was working overtime to understand what happened in his shop. Not only one of the windows was shattered, but one of the bikes had disappeared and the same could be said of Izuku!
It was the good time that he decided to install some security camera, if he did not die of a heart attack...
He had already called Naomasa to explain the situation but the detective told him that, at the time, the police station was in the chaos because of the countless phone calls they were receiving about a series of murders that took place in the city during the night.
'I hope you are fine Izuku, because otherwise I will never be able to find the courage to look at your parents in the eyes when I'll see them again...' thought Johnny when the phone in the shop rang and, after not even the first ring, he already had the receiver close to his ear.
"Who's calling?!"
On the other side of the line, he heard a faint chuckle "G-good morning..."
"Izuku?! Where the Hell are you?! What happened last night?! What happened to the shop?! The Kawasaki?! Are you fine?! Someone kidnapped you?!" shouted Johnny without thinking at his words.
"I'm fine Johnny...I'm just really tired..." said Izuku sounding really worn out "I'm somewhere in the countryside outside the city, an old man allowed me to use his phone..."
Johnny sighed with relief. At least Izuku was fine.
"Izuku, what happened last night?"
Another faint chuckle "You would not believe me..."
End Flash-back
Indeed Johnny had not believed him, at first, but the news concerning a flaming skeleton riding a demonic motorcycle, several criminals killed during the night and Izuku himself who had shown him some powers...well let's just say that they had served the purpose to convince him. Of course, despite some witnesses praising the Flaming Centaur, so he had been called by journalists, Izuku had suffered the worst blow by learning to have killed a dozen people without remorse during the night.
When he had turned back at sunrise, his memories were confused and unclear but, as the hours passed, he had remembered all the faces of his victims as they begged for mercy. The face of the man to whom he had amputated his hands before investing him with the bike was the decisive drop to make him run to the bathroom to vomit repeatedly until his stomach was left empty.
Johnny had tried to console him to the best of his ability, but his words had been useless. Only after several hours, when Naomasa was present too, Izuku had decided to tell them the whole story, from the contract with that blond man until the night when he turned into a burning skeleton. To say that they were speechless would have been a euphemism but at the end of everything, they lived in a world with heroes and villains, so that story could almost pass as normal, from a certain point of view. A decidedly sick point of view.
Naomasa had been inclined to bring Izuku to the station for some questions so as to file the incident as an "Isolated Case of Loss of Control", but Johnny immediately objected, saying that Izuku already had so much trouble with that damn Quirk and did not need the police, heroes or villains to breathe on his neck. In the end, they had decided to keep the secret, trying to help Izuku master his Quirk and that long path that had lasted for two years had given many fruits but unfortunately...
"A rapist." said Izuku sipping his coffee.
Johnny nodded with the mouth full of bacon "This month you're only at three, I'd say it's a step forward."
"If you say so..." said Izuku with a sigh "What's the point of being able to control this Quirk even during the day if at night it acts on its own?"
"I'm sure you'll find a solution. Now go get ready, because I'm not going to take you to school." said Johnny with a little grin. Izuku shook his head with an amused smile and put the cup in the sink before returning to his room to put on the school uniform.
The memories of the night just ended were still vivid in his mind, especially the moment when he was burning that rapist before he could hurt a girl. That was a big disadvantage of his Quirk because, during those two years of training, Izuku had managed to control his transformation, managing to use it even during the day, which was impossible before. However, at night, when the villains exceeded a certain limit, his Quirk acted alone, making him transform and then take him to the nearest criminal to kill him.
Now, Izuku did not kill with pleasure, preferring to use an aspect of his power that he had named Penance Stare, which did not kill but condemned a person in a coma while the mind suffered all the pains that the villain had inflicted on his or her victims, for the eternity. The government had even created a new wing for a hospital in Tokyo where the victims of his Stare were hospitalized.
This led Izuku to think of the worst thing that had happened to him since the first transformation two years ago.
He had become a vigilante and also a fable to scare children.
After the first night in which he had killed at least a dozen villains, the police and the heroes had issued an announcement for Flaming Centaur, the pseudonym with which he was still known, stating that he was wanted for improper use of his Quirk and other things related to doing justice alone, labeling him as a vigilante since he had only killed criminals and not innocent people. Which was not exactly comforting from Izuku's point of view.
Unfortunately for him, after a year his victims had risen to seventy, with only five cases of criminals ended up in a coma. In the second year, however, Izuku had managed to master his Quirk, bringing the number of criminals killed to ninety with over fifty victims ended up in a coma. Only during the second year the Flaming Centaur's fairy tale was born to scare off bad kids at school, and Izuku didn't really know what to think of that fable...
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Izuku put on his uniform jacket and headed for the front door.
"I'm going out, Johnny!"
"See you this afternoon!" shouted Johnny from the bathroom.
Izuku then looked at a photo placed near the door, taken when he was only three years old with his mother. Smiling at the photo, he whispered "I'm going out, mom..."
[ Somewhere in Tokyo / That afternoon ]
'Think about our future, huh?' thought Izuku while looking at the career aspiration document that the professor had given him at school 'If everything had gone on as usual, I probably would have raised my hand to the idea of becoming a hero...'
For those who really knew Izuku, his mother's death had changed him almost drastically. If before he was practically obsessed with heroes, having a Quirk and, above all, All Might, now he almost never stopped to observe the fights between heroes and villains, and didn't even have the aspiration to become like them, especially after the last two years. Obviously some things like his admiration for All Might had not vanished but they weren't as before.
Probably the best idea would be to go to work in some factory that needed to melt materials, that was one aspect of his Quirk that Izuku controlled better. After all, as many had shown, having a Quirk did not necessarily mean to be a hero, an example was Johnny with his Quirk 'Second Chance' that, once a day, allowed him to nullify the damage received in an accident or things like that, very useful during his career as a stunt motorcycle rider.
With a sigh, he walked into a small tunnel that would take him home but then he felt a burning sensation in his chest.
'Not again...'
At that moment, a large amount of dark slime wrapped him from behind "Invisibility cloak...size L..."
Izuku turned his head just a little to be able to see two big eyes and a series of teeth attached to that slime, while the villain talked about things like hiding for a while and why he was in town.
'He's trying to take control?' thought Izuku having already fought against an enemy like this, months before. The slime seemed not to notice the eyes of Izuku as they began to burn as well as his right hand 'You've been unlucky, right now I do not really have the patience to deal with you!'
"DO NOT WORRY, KID!" shouted a deep male voice as a manhole was thrown into the air by a fist "BECAUSE I'M HERE!"
This time, Izuku widened his eyes in surprise seeing All Might come out of the manhole and, before he could think of anything, the hero had already charged his right fist.
"TEXAS SMASH!"
With the movement of his arm alone, All Might generated a violent shock wave that swept away the slime but also had the effect of knocking Izuku to the ground, causing him to lose consciousness. Only after a few minutes he woke up with some light pats on his cheek.
"U-uh? A-All Might?!"
"Thank God! You seem to be doing well, this is the most important!" said All Might with the smile always present on his face.
Izuku looked at him speechless, having not yet realized that he was in the presence of his idol, the hero who more than anyone had inspired him when he was a child. Looking at him, he could not help but think 'He's always smiling...'
"A-All Might, can I ask you something?"
"You know, pro-heroes must constantly fight against time and evil." said the hero bending the legs as if to jump while Izuku took a few steps forward "With that, I'm counting on you to continue in the future to support me!" and with that, he jumped into the sky, reaching an incredible height in a few moments, but he wasn't alone. Feeling a weight on his legs, All Might turned slightly his head and saw Izuku hanging from his ankles "Uh?! No, no! What are you doing? Are you crazy or something?!"
"I have to ask you something important!" shouted Izuku trying not to lose his grip while his eyelids and cheeks were about to be torn off by the wind.
"OKOK, I understand! Close you eyes and mouth now!" said All might with a little sweatdrop before coughing up a few drops of blood 'Shit!'
After a second, he tilted his body and then swooped down onto the roof of a building, managing not to damage the roof.
"That was really creepy..." said Izuku on his knees. Driving a motorcycle was one thing, but flying hanging from a hero's ankles was something completely different. Shaking his head to recover, he saw that All Might was about to leave again "Wait...!"
"No! I can't wait!" without looking at him and so, Izuku simply asked "Why do you always smile?!"
"Why do I always smile?" repeated All Might looking at him before feeling a strange sensation inside him as smoke began to escape from his body 'Damn it, not now!'
"I know it sounds like a rude question...but I wanted to know. You always save people with a smile on your face, no matter what you're going to face..." Izuku, who had held his head down until then, slowly raised it "Years ago I wanted to be just like youuuuUUH?!" only to find himself in front of a very thin man with hollow cheeks and eyes sunk in their sockets "W-what the...?! You shrunk! Are you some kind of clone or fake of All Might?!"
The man stared at him for a few seconds in silence and then opened his mouth, throwing up a lot of blood "I am All Might."
"What?! Your voice has even changed! You can't be him!"
"Think of those people in the pool who hold their breath so as to look more muscular. More or less it is the same thing." said All Might with a calm voice.
"This is even more absurd!" shouted Izuku trying to think about something, anything to say!
Sighing, he sat down on the roof "Why I always smile, huh? Well, as you can see, kid...what is written on the internet is not necessarily true, you know?"
"But...you..."
All Might raised his shirt, showing a horrible scar on his left chest, surrounded by scar tissue and sutures "This is a wound I got five years ago by the attack of a villain. The result? Semi-destruction of my respiratory system and total removal of my stomach. My face is emaciated and haggard while my eyes are a side effect of repeated surgeries. Currently I can't work actively as a hero more than about three hours a day. That's my limit."
Izuku looked at him without knowing what to think, but then his mind focused on some words spoken by All Might "Five years ago...? When you fought against Venomous Chainsaw?"
"I won't let them get me like that, anyway!" said All Might raising a fist before looking down "What I just told you was never publicly disclosed. I will therefore ask not to reveal to anyone, please." when All Might looked at him again, Izuku felt the huge pressure of his gaze "The 'Symbol of Peace' who saves people with a smile...absolutely can't afford to bow to the forces of evil."
Seeing Izuku's face, which showed understanding and alarm, he added "The reason why I always smile and laugh is to fight the fear and pressure that crush me every time I perform a heroic action, as well as instill courage and trust in people who need a symbol of hope."
Izuku stood there for several seconds, looking at the roof "I...I see..." he then bowed "I'm really sorry to have bothered you and discovered your secret. I promise I will not tell anyone."
"I can say that you are a good kid so I have no reason to worry." said All Might with a nod before asking "Why did you want to know why I always smile? My fans usually want to know the secrets of my Quirk and the like."
Izuku suppressed a shudder at the question, preferring to look elsewhere "When I was four, I discovered that my mother was sick. Quirk Cancer. I was very young but also very smart, so I looked for information about it and found that the cancer was deadly and incurable." Izuku walked up to the railing of the roof, watching the city as All Might followed him with his eyes "I had also recently discovered that I had no Quirk so I was desperate...but then something happened and my mother healed within a night, defeating the cancer."
All Might widened his eyes in surprise, before asking "Your mother was Inko Midoriya?"
This time, Izuku was the one surprised "Did you know her?"
All Might shook his head "Never met, but I know she was one of the victims during a terrorist attack, about twelve years ago. I remember her name because I was one of the heroes to take care of the villains, moreover I remember her because, when some of her belongings were withdrawn by the police, it was discovered that she had defeated the cancer thanks to the data obtained from a medical device that she used every morning. Unfortunately, due to the explosion, it was not possible to recover the body so as to discover a possible cure."
"I was there..." whispered Izuku catching his attention "The last memory I have of her is her back that moves away before being hit by the explosion. I tried to get close, thinking of being able to find her, but I was stopped by Death Arms and then delivered to the police, and from there to the hospital where I met my current guardian. He knew you were my idol and that you had something different from all the other heroes." Izuku showed a little smile "That you always smile. He also told me that the people who can smile in the most difficult moments are the strongest but, despite his words, I never managed to find my real smile. Yes, sometimes I smile but never like when I was four and watched your old videos on YouTube..."
The two remained silent for a few seconds, then All Might asked "Do you hate me?"
Izuku arched an eyebrow "Why should I hate you? Because my mother died, and nobody could save her?" he shook his head looking back at the city "Perhaps once I hated all the heroes indiscriminately for that reason, but growing up and becoming aware of the dynamics of the terrorist attack, I realized that it made no sense to point the finger at you heroes. Nobody could know, it happened too fast. I know there is a hero, Sir Nighteye..." here he missed the wince from All Might upon hearing that name "He can see in the future but his power must have different non-public limits, otherwise he could have foreseen it but it did not go that way."
All Might looked at him seriously "You're really mature for your age, I'm sure you'll do important things when you grow up, even without a Quirk." and, missing the face of Izuku who wanted to correct him, he walked toward the door of the roof "Good luck kid and, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for your mother."
Izuku looked at him with a little smile, forgetting about what he wanted to tell him "Thank you."
All Might nodded and walked away, closing the door behind him 'Well, I gotta hurry and take...!'
Patting his leg, the hero noticed the absence of the two bottles where he had imprisoned the slime and, at that moment, he saw an explosion in the distance from a window 'This is not true...!'
[ Not far away / A few minutes later]
Still in his skinny form, All Might reached the back of a large crowd, noting the slime he had defeated before destroying the surroundings while trying to absorb the body of a young boy, all while other heroes tried to contain the damage without being able to attack him.
'He must have fallen at that time!' he thought recalling the moment when the young boy with green hair had hung on his legs and he had been forced to land 'I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I didn't see the time pass! What a mistake on my part! All this because I was talking with a fan! I'm pathetic...!' he clenched a hand on his scar 'So pathetic!'
"Anyway, this villain..." said someone in the crowd "Isn't this the one All Might pursued earlier?"
All Might almost chocked in his own saliva 'Shit...'
"All Might?! Seriously?! Do you think he will come?!"
'Shit!'
"I've caught a glimpse of him before."
'No, you didn't!'
"Well then, why is he taking so long to get here?!"
'I'm right here, you know?!' All Might clenched again his scar but, when he looked again in the direction of the slime, he saw a green blur running towards him, shocking him 'What the Hell is he doing?!'
'What the Hell am I doing?!' thought Izuku running toward the slime that had captured his classmate, Katsuki Bakugo 'He is not my friend, he bullied me whenever he could and insults me every time he opens his mouth. So why am I trying to save him?!'
Izuku dodged a tentacle made of slime, throwing his schoolbag so as to hinder the sight of the villain before jumping on him, grabbing a wrist of Bakugo.
"Deku?! What are you doing here?!" shouted the blond boy looking at the older boy.
"My legs moved by themselves! I really don't understand why!" shouted back Izuku trying to free him "I have no reason to help you...but it will be a cold day in Hell when I'll let someone die under my gaze without doing anything!"
Having removed the schoolbag from his face, the slime tried to hit Izuku with a huge hand but the boy saw him and raised his free arm to counterattack. Flames began to wrap his arm as Izuku glared at the slime 'I do not care if I get in trouble but I will not let you kill an innocent!' but, just when he was about to hit the slime, a hand grabbed the wrists of both boys.
"Well spoken! I could not have said it better!" shouted All Might with smoke rising from his body.
'Right now, I was scared! I feared for my life! How pathetic!' thought All Might raising his right fist "Heroes put their lives all the time in the game!"
With all his strength, All might hit the ground screaming "DETROIT SMASH!" and thus destroying the slime again which ended up on the neighboring walls and on the asphalt.
As All Might was immediately surrounded by the crowd, the other heroes began to retrieve the pieces of the slime. After almost twenty minutes of work, Izuku found himself faced with an old acquaintance intent on screaming at him.
"What went through your head! You almost died! I can not save you every time you get close to danger!" shouted Death Arms while Izuku tried to ignore him.
"Yes yes I know, can you stop screaming, please?" asked Izuku making him even more angry.
"Why you...!"
Meanwhile, Bakugo was being praised for the strength of his Quirk but seemed to ignore the words of the heroes, just as Izuku was ignoring a second outburst by Death Arms. Fortunately for him, after that outburst he had the go-ahead to go home. Finally!
'What a day...I just hope I was not seen by the cameras. All we need is for Johnny to reproach me...' thought Izuku with a grim look before hearing a loud "Hey! Good for nothing!" behind him and, upon tuning, he was surprised to see Bakugo standing a few meters from him 'Don't tell me he really wants to thank me...!'
"I never asked for you to come help me!" hissed Bakugo clenching his teeth "I didn't need to be saved! I could take care of myself, okay?! I do not need to apologize or thank a Quirkless person like you!" and with that, he walked away shouting a last "Fucking bike-nerd!"
Izuku couldn't help but sweatdrop at him 'He definitely has a problem controlling his emotions...' before shaking his head 'Better go home before something else hap-!'
"I'M HERE!"
"All Might?!" shouted Izuku with wide eyes "What are you doing here? You were surrounded by a horde of reporters!"
"I can avoid them if I want to!"said All Might pointing at the sky"After all, I'm All *cough* *bleargh* Might!"
"Can not you do something for the blood?!" shouted Izuku looking at the slim form of his idol.
"Kid. I came to thank you and make some corrections...and I also have a proposal for you." said All Might looking at him with serious eyes "If you hadn't been there and if I didn't hear your personal story...I would have risked doing nothing, letting that poor boy die. For all that, I must thank you!"
"Don't...I did something stupid, putting Bakugo's life at risk, when the other heroes were deciding what to do." said Izuku shaking his head.
"About that!" shouted the blond skinny man catching his attention "At that time, no one could act. You're the only one who did something, you! A simple boy without Quirk! And that really touched me!"
'Does he still think that I do not have a Quirk?' thought Izuku wanting to interrupt All Might to tell him that in reality he was not Quirkless, but out of respect he let him talk.
"Do you know how some heroes were born when they were just students?" All Might took a deep breath "They were born with the phrase: my body moved by itself!"
Izuku looked at him carefully, feeling the energy in those words as well as something moving inside him.
"This is what happened to you too, right?!"
"Yes..." Izuku answered, thinking back to some words he thought he had buried in his mind.
'Mom! I can be a hero too! I can get a Quirk!'
'I'm sure you will succeed, honey.'
"Kid." said All Might with the most serious look he could master "You can be a real hero."
Izuku felt like he was struck by lightning when he heard those words, memories of when he was a child began to crowd his mind uncontrollably. Wanting to get a powerful Quirk, wanting to become a hero, wanting to become like All Might...those had been his dreams. However, a more recent memory became vivid like no other, reminding him of the sad reality.
"All Might...I..." Izuku clenched his fists, searching for the courage to answer him. He could have told him many things, he wanted to tell him many things, but a few simple words came out of his mouth.
"I don't want to be a hero."
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 2: MEMORIES AND DREAMS
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it! End of the first chapter!
Did you like it? Did you hate it? Let me know! Now, speaking of the chapter itself, we saw the first transformation of Izuku as well as his growth over the years, albeit in a fast and undefined way but I preferred to manage its past in that way. As many of you may have already guessed, Izuku will be a mixture of the different Ghost Rider appeared (comics, movies, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., etc...), both in terms of powers and personality, and so on.
Since fighting only at night would be decidedly disadvantageous, Izuku already has the ability to transform at will but at night, when the evil reaches a certain level, the Ghost Rider's power will act alone. Also, as you may have noticed, Izuku is more mature and less lively than his original character. He will not get a grey personality, but it will not even be a Spider-man thing or any other character of that kind.
I hope, however, that it does not bother you that he is older than the others, even if you could simply do so by moving his birth date in the same year, so that he would do the years before everyone else. I did this because of the drive license in Japan, where to drive some bikes you must be at least sixteen.
In the next chapter we will find out why Izuku does not want to become a hero and do not worry, the story will not end this way!
Now, as for the pairing, some in the reviews have expressed their preferences and we have reached this point:
- Izuku x Mina (2 votes);
- Izuku x Kyoka (1 vote);
- Izuku x Harem (1 vote);
- Izuku x Momo (1 vote);
- No Harem (1 vote);
If you have any preferences, let me know! Now, let's move on to the answers to the reviews!
- kaijin36: Glad to hear that!
- Feel The Void: Here's more!
- Guest: We will see how the pairing issue will end. Also for the idea of the vigilante I have something in store for the future.
- HotSoup2017: I hope to live up to the hype! No, in this story Johnny will be a "simple" human but I did not want to make him disappear altogether. We will find out his alignment in the next chapter!
- Guest: Glad to hear that!
- Anthony Altamirano: We will see how the pairing issue will end, and I'm glad you enjoy this story!
- Howler66: Here's more!
- Divine above question: I will try to complete it!
- Dragontitan: We will see how the pairing issue will end!
- Yuri-sage: We will see how the pairing issue will end! I hope to live up to the hype!
- Guest: Here's more!
- Johnny Spectre: We all hope so!
- Lightningblade49: In the future, yes!
- Izuku1215: Glad to hear that and here's more!
- 1stGenAgainstAllOdds: I'm not a huge fan of that Ghost Rider, but I've already added two quotes from the show!
- Little Lone Wolf115: Here's more!
- WolfDragon: He definitely came in this chapter!
And done! Hope you'll still follow this story in the future!
See you around and have a good day/night!