Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: Special thanks to the writers of the game Shadowrun: Dragonfall for directly inspiring a section of this chapter. There will be a few dark moments in this chapter, be warned. Now, time to earn that Mature rating.

This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

Texts like this are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

[Texts like this] represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.


Chapter 11: Metamorphosis

Moments ago

Bakugou, Kirishima and Iida had just managed to fight their way out of the Collapsed Zone. As they were approaching the stairwell, they saw Izuku yelling in the distance and facing off against the remaining villains who were near the unconscious Aizawa.

"Hey, that's Midoriya! We have to help hi-" Kirishima said as Bakugou quickly put a hand to his mouth.

"Wait, we have to get Iida out of here first. I'm pretty sure he can see us from that angle, he's buying us time; he wouldn't do something that stupid unless he had a solid reason. We can't risk drawing the villain's attention here until Iida makes it out." Bakugou tried to state his words in a calm whisper, though his concerned expression did little to hide his intent.

"But someone else could already have been on their way! I can't just stand here and watch my friend get killed!" Kirishima exclaimed in a tense whisper.

"Even if someone had already escaped I can still outrun them to call for help faster. We're three kilometers away from school." Iida added to Bakugou's point.

"Iida's right, he's the fastest out of our entire class, you two should start running. I'll stay down here in case Deku needs help." said Bakugou as he moved to lie low near the bodies of a few unconscious villains.

"Okay, I'll cover Iida until he gets out, will be back as soon as possible." Kirishima whispered a reply, then he started to run up the long flight of stairs alongside Iida.

*BAM*

The sound of smashed concrete made Bakugou's stomach drop in fear of Izuku's safety. He turned to see the villain easily picking up the green-haired boy from the ground, and gruesomely squeezed the life out of him. It took everything out of Bakugou to restrain himself from charging in and risk drawing the villains' attention, as Iida was only halfway up the stairs at this point.

"No no no don't you fucking dare die on me…" Bakugou muttered under his breath with gritted teeth.


The purple fog villain from the entrance earlier materialized beside the slender villain and spoke with an urgent voice. "Shigaraki Tomura. We seem to have a problem."

"What is it, Kurogiri?! I'm in the middle of something!" The slender villain, Shigaraki said as he kept scratching his bloodied neck.

"I couldn't warp away some of the students, and… one of them escaped."

Shigaraki started to claw his neck with increased intensity as he growled with a grating voice. "Arhhhh! We're not leaving empty handed! Crush him, Nomu!..."


The last thing Izuku remembered seeing was the Nomu pummeling him into the ground.

And then, silence. Deafening silence.

It was not just the lack of sound, but the complete absence of any sensation.

Pitch black, no colour in sight. There was no up, nor down; only the infinite expanse of the void.

Is this… how it feels to die?

Then came the flood of white noise, incomprehensible. A torrent of information that overwhelmed his entire being, a stark contrast to the silence before.

Where am I?

[Analyzing neural datamass…]

[Error: Severe data corruption detected]

Everything here feels so… lifeless…

These… "not-memories" all feel wrong. Very wrong…

I can barely feel the echoes of what they once were…

It's like something forcefully replaced them with-

[Primary quirk factor mechanisms found]

[Neural network analysis framework optimized; Analysis complete]

Wait, this is that Nomu guy's brain!

How is this person even still ali-

[Warning: Anomaly detected]

In the hollow depths of the Nomu's psyche, Izuku's attention was drawn into something that shivered him to his core, a gaping wound in the broken mind of the abomination. As the darkness drew closer, he could just barely discern a glimmer of colour.

Somehow, buried under the mountain of mangled memories and disfigured thoughts, there's a small part of this thing that was still capable of thinking. Of feeling.

And that faint, sentient speck was shrieking in pain.

Horrified, Izuku's mind tried to back away just as a voice echoed through his head. A singular thought laced with raw agony and torment. It was a desperate message from a shattered mind that had been stripped of its body and identity, but was still very much alive.

"KILL ME"


[Operator condition critical]

[Prioritizing Operator survival; System override: Activating all mutations…]

Emerging from his brief trance that felt like forever, Izuku opened his eyes to a rush of sensations as clarity rapidly returned to his mind.

Right above him, the Nomu continued to punch and slam its fists onto his body. His Hardening had faded away moments ago, his flesh full of tears and rips after it cracked under the villain's blows. On top of that, he was completely caked in a muddy mixture of his own blood and concrete dust.

A new wave of pain hit him like a truck as the combined injuries of his crushed torso, mutilated skin and torn arm registered at once. But this time, Izuku didn't flinch.

This was nothing compared to what the Nomu was going through.

Immediately, Izuku felt every cell in his body squirm and wriggle as his shredded skin weaved itself back together, his mangled torso and torn arm regaining their shapes with the creaking of bones, all while the organs underneath repaired themselves at an unnatural pace.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

That's Kacchan's voice!

Amidst the flurry of blows, Izuku could barely hear Bakugou's Explosions somewhere behind the Nomu, then a searing inferno briefly blasted over the crater as the Nomu's upper body was completely charred.

The Nomu shrugged off the injury and increased its assault on Izuku, accelerating its punches to an intensity that could rival All Might's. However, the sounds of the impacts are only getting duller with each strike.

Izuku grit his teeth and tried to rise to his feet, but the sheer force of the punches were keeping him down.

"KACCHAN!" Izuku tried to scream from within the crater, but his warning was drowned out by the thunderous barrage above him.

[Analyzing optimal course-

The sound of a chill breeze and the crackling of ice glaciers interrupted Izuku's thoughts as frost enveloped the Nomu's entire body, leaving only its head exposed. The Nomu was caught off-guard, as it stopped its attacks and gaped at the ice creeping up along its body.

Seizing the initiative, Izuku tried to hop out of his shallow crater towards the commotion. The force of the jump caught him by surprise, as he hurtled uncontrollably through the air towards the clash between Bakugou, Todoroki and the two other villains.

To his dismay, he landed face first right in front of Shigaraki.

Before the other three could realize what just happened, Shigaraki lunged down towards Izuku as he screamed in disbelief. "What?! That's impossible! You should be dead!"

I would, if it wasn't for all those quirks you forced into that Nomu, you sick fuck…

Izuku raised an arm to block Shigaraki's palm, and the villain gripped hard as soon as he made contact. Izuku then reflexively thrust out an Air Cannon shot with his other hand, right at Shigaraki's midsection.

This time, Izuku didn't compress it like he usually did out of haste, yet the burst of air resulted in a massive gust that launched the villain towards the lake behind him.

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri exclaimed with concern as he teleported to the Flood Zone.

Whoa! I just wanted to knock him off balance…

I didn't think my new strength would boost Air Cannon this much…

Izuku then studied his partially disintegrated forearm as it healed in seconds.

[Analyzing event data…]

Looks like Regeneration isn't immune to his decaying…

I still couldn't get a good read on that quirk…

But now I'm pretty sure the rotting begins only after all five of his fingers touch…

Well, no point trying to learn his quirk then…

Same goes for that smoke guy, since he's basically intangible…

"Deku?! What the fuck! You're alive?! I saw you get pulverized!" Bakugou rushed to Izuku's side and anxiously examined him for any injuries.

Todoroki was baffled at Izuku's condition too. Seeing as the class president of 1-A was fully covered in dirt and gore, yet he seemed unscathed under all that grime, even after getting brutally beaten by a villain that supposedly could kill All Might.

"I'm fine, Kacchan. Go grab Aizawa-sensei and get out of here! I can handle them!" urged Izuku as he rose to his feet, but the stubborn blonde was not showing any intentions of backing off.

"I'm not fucking leaving you! How the fuck are you going to fight something like that alone?!"

"Bakugou's right, Midoriya. We have to work together until All Might arrives." Todoroki added.

"No time to argue! Just go!" Izuku said as he grabbed both Bakugou and Todoroki by their waists, and carried them to Aizawa's unconscious body at full speed. He then lost his balance while trying to decelerate and caused the three of them to tumble to the ground. "Agh, crap! Sorry!"

[Optimizing…; Comparing performance data…]

Okay, I'm starting to get used to this now…

Looks like I only have about 20% of that Nomu guy's strength and speed…

Probably because I don't have his levels of muscle growth…

[Analyzing optimal course of action…]

"Whuh?! Did you-" Bakugou mumbled as he and Todoroki both scrambled to their feet from the sudden disorientation.

"Save it for later! You two get Sensei out of here!" Izuku said sternly as he went to Aizawa and applied Recovery onto his injuries, then he moved to briefly grab Todoroki's right hand. "I'm going to need your ice quirk for this, sorry! Now go!"

[Quirk: Frost; Assimilation complete]

"Argh, fine! You better not fucking die again, ya hear me!" Bakugou yelled with gritted teeth as he and Todoroki reluctantly carried Aizawa towards the stairs.

"Don't worry, Kacchan. I won't. I just have something I have to go take care of."


Izuku walked back towards the Nomu in the distance. It laid on the ground in a rubble of broken ice, its head and torso were still intact, while all its other limbs had broken off from frostbite. But Izuku knew it would recover from it, just as he himself would.

And Izuku knew its pain as well. All too well.

The pain of having its body and mind robbed away, forcefully replaced by something unnatural.

The pain of losing all of its memories, reduced into an empty, obedient drone.

The pain of being trapped with no sense of time, not knowing when the torment will end.

Whoever you were, I'm sorry this has happened to you…

Your memories are completely erased, no amount of regeneration will bring them back…

I wish there was a way to heal you…

Maybe All For One knows how, but I doubt he would ever allow that…

But I won't just walk away after knowing the suffering you're going through…

As tears started to well up in his eyes, Izuku walked with a calm conviction towards the Nomu, steeling himself for what he was about to do.

Now with its limbs fully regenerated, it dashed towards the green-haired boy to carry out its last command.

Izuku couldn't perceive its blinding speed, but he expected the outcome. The Nomu was created to shrug off impacts dealt at strengths equal to the number one hero. And now, so can he.

The almighty punch struck Izuku's face and torso head-on, as a shockwave reverberated across the entire plaza. The hurricane-like wind caused the trees around the plaza to bend in submission, while the nearby lake rippled with violent waves.

And the boy stumbled half a step backwards.

Sparing no hesitation, Izuku grabbed the massive fist with both hands, and unleashed Frost across the Nomu just like Todoroki did.

[Scanning…; Structural weakness found]

Then, Izuku jabbed once in each of its frozen arms and legs with a fluid grace, breaking them off easily with his enhanced strength as it fell to the ground limbless once more.

Izuku stood over its head, two wet lines now trailing down from his eyes as he met the Nomu's lifeless gaze.

"Everything will be over soon, I heard your message. I'm going to take away your pain now." Izuku said in a gentle voice as a puff of cold vapour escaped from his breath.

The Nomu groaned, a cross between a beastial growl and a harrowing cry of misery. Was it a meaningless primal response? Or an acknowledgement of gratitude? Izuku would never know.

He knelt down and put a hand over the Nomu's exposed brain, then he released a spray of Acid so corrosive it quickly melted away the centre of his palm. The liquid rapidly dissolved through all of the brain tissue, melted away the top portion of the Nomu's skull, and even burned a small hole in the concrete underneath.

Izuku's palm Regenerated, but the Nomu did not. Whatever abomination that Shigaraki brought with him to USJ was no more.

*BAM*

Izuku turned to see the doors to USJ being blown open as a booming voice echoed throughout the plaza. "Have no fear, students…"

"…BECAUSE I AM HERE!"


Updates will be much slower for the next 3-4 months. Don't expect the next chapter to come out anytime soon. Busy with real life and stuff, you know the drill. I have to finish an important project that I can't fuck up, but I'll have plenty of free time after that. I'm definitely not going to give up on this story though, I've already got rough drafts all the way up to the Internship Arc.

Thanks for reading, and see you on the next chapter!