Chapter 4 - Voices In My Head
[2% to Fusion]
This was the first time that Izuku used his quirk without Kuzui's assistance. Once his headache died down, he began to jot down notes regarding what just happened, excited beyond belief.
Eventually, as midday approached, Izuku left once again, smiling brightly at the world, happy about finally having a quirk to call his own, and a damn powerful one at that. After about an hour, he arrived at the abandoned warehouse. He walked right in, being greeted with the familiar white room, but now everyone was present. The suited lady with a bandage covering half her face was in the middle, with Doru standing next to her.
'We've got them right where we want them. Lemme at 'em!'
Izuku pointedly ignored him.
"Greetings, Midoriya Izuku. Welcome to our organization. You may call me Mistress. You have already interacted lengthily with Doru," she said. The pink-haired scientist waved at Izuku, giving a warm smile. "Our resident PR executive, Kouma, or Coma Zzz as you may know him," he said, pointing at the man with the plaid shirt and glasses. He gave a scoff, much to Izuku's surprise. "Finally, we have Boru," she said, pointing at the fat barrier-quirk user. "...And Imigaki," she then pointed at the short reflection-quirk user.
"I am happy to see that you turned out to be a fine specimen, though we could have done without your overenthusiastic friend. I trust that you have grown warier over who follows you," she said. Izuku nodded once. "Great. We would like to run you through a few tests. Nothing too severe or painful. Simply testing the limits of your strength through strenuous activity. It will be nothing like test subject 665," she said. Izuku still swallowed but followed Mistress anyhow.
"Uhm... what if Bakugou returns on his own... with assistance?" Izuku asked. Doru perked up.
"He can't report what he can't remember!" She said. Izuku looked at her incredulously.
"You injected an amnesia agent into him?!" Izuku almost exclaimed. Doru simply nodded feverishly.
"Cool, huh?!"
'Hey, gimme the controls!' Kuzui suddenly exclaimed, causing a jolt of surprise on Izuku's part.
'We still don't know what they're capable of!' Izuku admonished. Kuzui remained quiet at that.
Once Mistress walked to the end of a long corridor, she opened the door, revealing a large and flat expanse.
"Try not to cry too much," Mistress said ominously.
"About that video... with the girl? Are you going to test me like that?" Izuku asked, blanching slightly.
"She was a different case. We had almost no idea what quirk we gave her. She was also too dangerous to let loose. At one point, she almost bit my hand off. Her termination was imminent."
'Termination'. Izuku couldn't help but blanch at that.
PLUS - ULTRA
Tests.
Tests after tests after tests.
Energy usage, energy absorption, the works. Aside from Izuku's rudimentary experimentation, he had finally gotten a better grasp of his limitations as well as his current strength. Also, he finally found an appropriate name for his quirk.
Esper.
Extra Sensory Perception. Because he is capable of sensing surrounding forces and energies when in his 'energy-voyance' state, and because of his ability to affect and perceive objects outside of his physical senses.
Through most of it, only Mistress and Doru was present. The rest were out doing whatever they were doing. After about three more hours of tests, Izuku had discovered a few more things about his quirk.
His calculative speed had gone up by leaps and bounds. Izuku never really noticed as his calculative speed was never that low, to begin with, and throughout his own experiments, he hadn't encountered calculations more intense than finding the number of liters in a gallon and then converting that volume of water into mass.
Now he could calculate the square root of ninety-nine to three decimal places without even trying. Both Doru and Izuku chalked it down to the quirk requiring a lot of multi-tasking in order to work properly. Izuku welcomed the fact. God knew his math and science scores needed some brushing up on.
Finally, as the tests ended, Izuku was given a candy bar.
"Huh?" Izuku asked. The offering hand was Doru, smiling brightly as always.
"It's a gift... for being such a good boy!" She beamed. Izuku accepted the candy bar with a shaky hand.
'Aloha, snack bar,' Kuzui muttered dryly.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"It's an invitation!" She said. Izuku blanched at that.
"...I can't join you..." Izuku said. Doru pointed her tongue at him.
"Too bad. It was an order from above... besides, you still owe us something," she said, her eyes turning a shade darker.
Izuku swallowed. "That would be as good as wishing for more wishes!"
"...Is there a problem with that?" Doru asked, eyes wide as she stared into Izuku's very sole. Izuku took a step back, staggering at the sharpness of the glare.
'GIMME THE WHEEL!' Kuzui shouted. Izuku could barely resist the overwhelming sense of domination that washed over him as Kuzui took over.
"Listen here, ma'am!" 'Izuku' said harshly. "I'll join ya. On one condition. You train me. I'm planning on becoming a hero, and I just got this quirk. Let's help each other, huh?"
Doru looked at Izuku appraisingly, frowning slightly. "That wasn't Izu-chan. Are you the mutation?"
"So what if I am?" 'Izuku' replied harshly. "We came to a consensus on this. I'm just relaying the message in a way that pussy-Deku can't."
"Deal," Doru said swiftly.
"It's either that or- huh? Just like that?" Izuku asked.
"Yeah! We need loyal people. You can become a hero for all we care, as long as you don't disrupt us. In fact, it'd be better to have someone on the inside."
Izuku stood there, considering the facts. He needed training. There were few places where he could train without molestation, and he needed the piece of mind for until he could get into U.A High.
"Alright, then," both Izuku's said as they shook Doru's hand. Just as they made contact, Izuku warped outside, the disorientation taking over as he began to stagger.
"I.. forgot the candy bar."
PLUS - ULTRA
The following days were eery, to say the least. The following Monday, he came to school with confidence in his gait as everyone looked at him.
"Is that 'Deku'?"
"Why's he still so happy?"
Izuku ignored the murmurs as he began to realize just how insignificant they truly were. Why would a lion care about the opinion of sheep?
As Izuku sat for homeroom, he couldn't see Bakugou. Most likely, the injuries he had sustained were too severe to have him actively go to school.
First lesson, Izuku paid rapt attention as the teacher explained a difficult math topic that Izuku seemed to grasp with utmost easiness.
Izuku scribbled down math notes onto his book, much to the teacher's apparent annoyance.
"Midoriya!" The teacher called. "Are you too busy writing those notes to participate in class?" He asked. Izuku looked at him in confusion as he looked around to see the other students also noting things down.
'Ok, now what the fuck is that guy's problem?'
Before Izuku could defend himself, the teacher interrupted. "Spare me. Come up here and complete this equation!" He said. Izuku simply stood up and walked to the board, chalk in hand as he began.
About ten seconds later, a sizable section of the blackboard was scribbled with a concise process.
"Where is his calculator?"
"Was all that mental?"
"Izuku is being good at math?"
Even the teacher was shocked. "Hold on, Midoriya. Weren't you... jotting down hero notes?"
Izuku leaned in to explain it to the teacher so no one could hear. "Actually, they were math notes... It's alright, though. I can understand why you'd assume that."
The teacher simply nodded, and with a cough, he said: "That's alright, Midoriya. Please return to your seat... and I do apologize for the misunderstanding."
'Awesome manipulation! You went complete guilt trip on him!' Kuzui commented. Izuku had to frown at that.
'Why do you always assume the worst of me?'
'I'm literally you. There's no point in hiding anything from me.'
As class ended, a few of his colleagues, who had, for the most part, ignored him, confronted him. Two to be exact. Bakugou's two cronies.
"Hey, Deku! You went ahead and got smart on us!" The extendable-fingers one said, throwing his arm around Izuku's neck in a 'friendly' manner.
"I'll say! Any chance you could..." The winged bully named Tsubasa said.
"...Do our homework?" They said at the same time.
'Okay, that's it. I'm taking off the gloves. Teach's not around. Turning on eliminate mode!'
Izuku's vision changed as all forces were visible to him.
'Wait, wait, wait!' Izuku quickly stifled his quirk as much as he could, much to Kuzui's annoyance.
"Wait, what just happened?" The extendable-fingers bully named Yubi just asked as he backed away from Izuku.
"Did... did his eyes just... change?" Tsubasa asked.
"You saw it too?" Yubi said, looking at his friend. "Deku, aren't you supposed to be quirkless. Or..." the mood suddenly lightened. "Is that all your quirk does?"
'Izuku, get the fuck out of my way. I'm taking over.' Kuzui said. Izuku tried to resist, but couldn't. Izuku then adopted a glare as his gaze shifted between the two bullies in front of him.
"How about instead of your homework, I do your mothers?" Izuku had a shit-eating grin.
'That's rude, Kuzui!'
'Shut the fuck up, Deku'
"What?!" Yubi exclaimed.
"That's it. Bakugou won't like us beating on ya, but he won't mind after we tell him what you just told us."
Izuku then stepped forward, much to the bullies' surprises. They tried to step back, only to be shocked as they were held still by an invisible force. Izuku placed his hands on both their shoulders. "How about you go and tell Bakugou this: He best prepare, because I, too, have a load that'll blow up on his mom."
'Kuzui! That's an awful and perverted thing to say!' Izuku blanched as he said that. Both the two boys were completely awe-struck, not expecting to be restrained, much less by something they couldn't even see.
"Listen, Fish Fingers and Buffalo Wings. I don't know why you both bullied me about how I could never become a hero. I mean, your fucking quirk is finger extension!" Izuku laughed as he looked at Yubi, who looked down in shame. "And you!" He looked at Tsubasa. "You wouldn't be such a fucking failure if you could fly for more than five minutes!"
"But it's alright," Izuku concluded. "Just stay out of my fucking way like the extra characters you both are. It'll be a breeze, considering how God doesn't even like giving you two much screen time."
And with that, Izuku left the class, unfreezing both of his two childhood bullies, who still stood there, unable to fathom just happened.
'Great, Kuzui! You just revealed the fact that we have a quirk!' Izuku grimaced as he walked down the hallway.
'Heh! Serves 'em right! They won't fuck with you anymore, that's for sure. Rejoice! You have no more bullies!'
'You said some ugly things about people that weren't involved.' Izuku complained. He could feel a sigh coming from Kuzui.
'And I'm sure aunt Mitsuki is crying her eyes out over a comment which she didn't even hear. And you don't owe that bitch shit, anyway! She mothered that explosive bastard. If she doesn't get gang-raped-'
'That's NOT okay to say, Kuzui!' Izuku plugged his ears as he continued walking, eliciting weird stares from his peers.
'Oh, but it is. We can say whatever we want in here. It's just you and I!'
'SHUT UP!'
"GRH!" Izuku grunted loudly in the middle of the hallway, holding his head, squinting his eyes as he bared his teeth in pain. His outburst caused a light breeze of wind to expel around him, causing a slight breeze.
[3% to fusion]
Now, the students avoided Izuku like the plague as they began to scatter around, not wanting to be involved in whatever mental breakdown was occurring within him. Izuku felt a warm trickle on his nose. He looked around, feeling awkward.
"It.. It happened again," he mumbled. 'Kuzui. Am I gaining control over the quirk?' Izuku asked, tentatively willing his mind to manipulate the quirk, but to little avail.
Kuzui didn't reply.
The silence was nearly deafening. Obviously, the mutation/secondary persona wouldn't appreciate that his job was slowly being taken away from him. Izuku gulped before continuing on with his day, trying not to interact with people so as to lessen the impact that Kuzui might have on him.
PLUS - ULTRA
The next day, Bakugou came to school.
He wore two slings that supported both of his injured arms. The moment the class saw him, they started running at him, peppering him with all sorts of questions. Bakugou backed up and smiled, saying something about how he got hit by a car.
Izuku knew that was a lie.
The moment Bakugou saw Izuku, and vice versa, the two locked eyes for a single pregnant moment. Bakugou adopted a wide grin as he made his way through the crowd, to Izuku's desk.
'Okay, now what the fuck does he want?'
"Hey, Izuku! Glad to see you're alright!" Bakugou said. Izuku gave him a shaky grin.
'Hey, you're not frowning right. This is how.'
Izuku suddenly glared daggers at Bakugou, throwing him somewhat off, but only for a moment before he began to smile at him, Izuku having taken control again.
'I don't appreciate having you take control over me like that!' Izuku thought crossly.
"H-hey...! I'm... glad that you're safe!" Izuku said.
"As safe as I can be," said Bakugou, raising his arms up slightly. "Hey, listen. I know I've taken to doing this quite often, but I've gotta tell you something. After school!" Bakugou said.
'Fuck off'
"Fu-Sure!" Izuku stopped himself in the nick of time.
'Why are you contradicting me, Deku?'
'Maybe because Bakugou is a changed person! I should forgive him'
'You really are an idiot!'
Izuku clamped his hands together, his right pressing his left and vice versa, almost like the two hands were having a battle of wills.
'Spare me. I'll teach you goodness if it's the last thing I do.'
"You... okay, there?" Bakugou asked.
'WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING FRIENDLY?! DAMMIT, THIS IS CONFUSING!' Kuzui shrieked inside Izuku's head, eliciting a light trickle of blood from his nose, causing more alarm in Bakugou.
"I... I think it's best you should leave... I'm having these m-migraines..." Izuku explained with a diagonal frown. Bakugou arched an eyebrow.
"Oh... uhm... you're bleeding... you want to go to the infirmary with me?" Bakugou asked. Izuku felt above his upper lip, just below his nose, feeling the slick surface, the iron-y smell having just now become apparent. Izuku shook his head.
"I think... I'll, uh, go alone!" Izuku said, standing up from his chair as he began to walk out of the classroom. "Please inform the teacher of my absence while I'm away!" He said as he continued to run.
"What's with that Izuku?"
"What's going on between those two?"
The crowd began to murmur, unable to fathom why the two seemed so close after the intense bullying that one had put the other through.
Izuku continued to walk through the hallways, utterly torn between his two personalities.
'You should listen to me! I'm the original!' Izuku yelled in his mind. Kuzui replied with a laugh, causing his physical body to grin, too.
'Listen here, you little shit. What makes you any more real than I am? I have rights, too. Why would I just let my host body go through all this humiliation?!' Izuku jerked to the side as another bout of migraines just set in, causing his nose to bleed more profusely.
'You are... a damn vermin!'
'Oooh, didn't know you had it in you!' Kuzui mocked. 'I might be the vermin, but you're a fucking bug. I'm not allowing myself to live in the shoes of a bug!' Izuku jerked again, pushing the wall for support. His knees were buckling as he pressed his forehead against the wall in pain.
Though the pain was potent, it was nowhere near what he experienced in that dreaded laboratory.
'You.. need... to... listen!' Izuku grunted, headbutting the wall, causing a deep indentation to form. His forehead was unscathed, however.
[5% to Fusion]
'Or what...? Nothing!' Kuzui mocked. Izuku grunted, his facial expression reverting from a grinning maniac to a frustrated and possessed teenager. 'Okay, listen. Suppose I did let you walk with Bakugou. What would happen, then? Would you make friends with him just like that? Forget everything he's ever done to you-'
'What's wrong with that?!' Izuku's breathing was heavy as more blood poured out of his nose. 'What's wrong with being magnanimous?! I'm going to become a hero, dammit! I should have it in me to forgive and forget!'
Izuku stood up and walked towards the infirmary at a steady pace. 'You're not being magnanimous or heroic. You're just being a pussy. If you were that much of a hero purist, wouldn't you have shied away from obtaining a quirk the way you did?'
'That... that's-'
'Not different at all, Izuku. You're a fucking hypo-'
Izuku threw a punch at the wall so hard that he indented the concrete, bloodying his knuckles, most likely breaking them. The pain was just enough to ignore Kuzui. 'It doesn't work like that. If you try to ignore me, I'll just become louder!'
Izuku's heart rate increased as he stood still in the empty hallway. He was at his breaking point.
'Kuzui... I was ready to die to get a quirk. Do you think I'd hesitate to have you removed from my head? I can master this quirk without your assistance at all. You're expendable.'
'Hahahaha! Are you threatening me, Izuku?!' Kuzui sneered. Izuku simply punched himself on the cheek, almost loosening a tooth. The punch was full-power and no-holds-barred as evidence of how he was bleeding in his mouth.
'I'm threatening us. Only thing is... I don't care much about 'us''
'You're one crazy motherfucker, Izuku! You're becoming just like me. A sociopath!'
'DON'T SAY THAT!' Izuku shuddered, causing a wave of force to emanate from him, pushing the ceiling upwards, and the walls sidewards as they began to make way for him.
[10% to Fusion]
'Yes, yes... Bakugou is the sociopath! Remember that!' Kuzui said. Thus, he went silent. Izuku could do nothing now than to simply ponder those words with little enthusiasm as he made his way to the infirmary to patch himself up.
'I'm... going insane...'
'You bet. I mean, you're talking to yourself.'
Izuku trudged on.
How did he deal with the Bakugou dilemma? He smiled and nodded, then did whatever he was going to do anyway. The talk with him was pretty straightforward.
"You can't become a hero without a quirk, but you can still work for other heroes, or you could pick a job at the government at a branch focused on heroism. Use your brain. You've always been smarter than me. I'll admit that my bullying you was mostly for self-validation, which just goes to show how valuable you are in your own right! Go for it, Izuku! You can do it!" Bakugou said. Izuku simply nodded and smiled.
"That is so nice of you. I'll consider it. Thank you, Kacchan," Izuku said.
"Anytime," Bakugou said with a smile before taking off.
'Ew what the fuck?!'
Thus commenced the internal warfare. Izuku was at the point where it was physically cumbersome to speak to others. He even kept interactions with his mother to a minimum as Kuzui always had something to say about everyone. The worst part?
Izuku listened. Or at least a small part of him did, but that's more than he'd ever care to admit considering the vile things that he'd spew.
Over the weeks, Izuku would discover more things about his quirk and add them to his notebook. His energy manipulation and absorption was at a point where he was able to absorb about fifty more kilojoules of energy, and this thermal-to-kinetic energy conversion became more efficient. Now, a whooping 1% of all of his thermal energy can be successfully converted into kinetic energy in order to lift objects. By pushing himself in order to increase his energy usage and efficiency, he'd incur headaches and become fatigued, but that didn't matter. He had to become stronger, and besides...
Izuku had experienced worse pains.
A little migraine wouldn't be enough to stifle Izuku's growth. In the admission exam, he was going to compete against students with over ten years of experience on him. He had to train day and night. To that end, Izuku stopped using his body where he could and manipulated objects with kinetic energy for almost everything.
Eating was challenging, but once his mother stopped staring at the floating spoon, it became much less awkward for Izuku. In school, he still had to act like he was a quirkless. Another curious development was the 'Izuku-wall', a metaphorical wall which he would project whenever anyone approached him, making him seem unavailable and too busy for interaction. Bakugou saw that as a sign that the boy was healing, and gave him peace of mind by leaving him alone.
Another thing was... the fusion, which Izuku would come to dub it.
To keep it simple, Izuku understood it as this.
Izuku still hadn't fully fused with his Esper quirk. He was getting close, but he was still nowhere there yet. Kuzui still had to act as an intermediary, but nowadays, Izuku became more and more attuned to his power. He felt he had at least a tenth of the control of his quirk than with Kuzui's assistance. The only problem was that he still didn't know how to increase this fusion.
Izuku chalked it off as something that would develop over time, and thus left it.
Thus, on a regular day, and one that didn't promise much excitement, Izuku headed home. As he closed in on his apartment block, he could see smoke coming from it. His face grew ashen as he ran as fast as he could.
Then, he saw it.
His apartment building was aflame. The fire brigade had already rolled up, doing whatever they could to put out the fire.
From the distance, Izuku could hear something that froze his veins.
"Among the tenants that are yet to be evacuated are... Midoriya Inko..." Among the names, his mother's sounded loudest. Alarms rang in his head. His mother could be dead for all he knew.
Izuku would have none of that.
Without even a thought, he ran. He got past the firefighters who tried to grab a hold of him. He dumped his backpack as he sent a surge of energy straight through the main door, crushing it instantly. Then, he ran up the stairs as fast as he'd ever done before.
I think I'd have enough OCs by the time the fifth chapter comes out. If you still want a piece of the SYOC action, send an OC my way, through either a review or PM.
Also, please don't go to Google Translate and translate random phrases into Japanese thinking that it's a decent pun for a name for your OC. I'd rather have palatable names than Japanese puns that 90% of the audience wouldn't get anyways.
Needless to say, I'll be doing quite a lot of editing of names. Don't take it personally. It's my fanfic after all.
Also, thank you so much for all the follows and reviews! You guys are just amazing!