Izuku spent his night sitting on his bed while looking over his vast array of school supplies he would be taking tomorrow for school. Dozens of fresh new journals stood for the taking and he nearly drooled at the thought of filling up each page with ink and graphite. On the hand there were his prior filled journals, he looked through them all and memorized their contents thoroughly. He was in a good mood because he managed to find that pesky journal that started his entire endeavor of knowledge.

The first journal.

Izuku had yet to open the journal that had filled him with such anxiety. He refused to look at it yet because of the implications the card on the front page could have. He also remembered the words that his quirk spoke to him…

"Being a quirk isn't easy! Learn your place! I don't want to play anymore!"

From the information he analyzed in his brain, he knew that one; his quirk was sentient of its own actions and thought separately from his own thoughts, two; while he couldn't contact his quirk, his quirk could contact him through that black space with the cards… and three; those cards were his memories, and he could trade his memories for powers….; but what were the limitations for each trade? Slowly, conquering his fear and stepping up for the action, he turned the cover of the journal over. And there, sitting right in front of him was the small game manual.

But no matter how many times he read the damn thing, he couldn't make any sense out of it. It was irritating as he read the nonsensical handwriting of short curves and slashes of kanji. He felt like ripping the paper apart as the only words he could decipher were 'trading memories, for power'. How stupid was that?!

Pushing the small scripts away he let out a frustrated sigh. He grabbed his notebook and walked out of his room. He was going to take notes… but then he stopped. His gaze softened as a figure lied against the wall of the hallway with a light blue pillow tucked behind his head as he slept.

"Nii-chan…" Izuku softly sighed as he rubbed at his temples. He let out simple mutter about his older brother being stupid before getting him a blanket from his room, it was one from when he first moved in - the All Might blanket; what a pure indicator of who had covered him.

He gotten down on his knees and gently sat close to his older brother to adjust the cloth. When Izuku tucked the blanket around his older brother's sides, he couldn't help but notice the smallest features that they seemed to share. They had the same nose, tiny little buttons that could symbolize elegance or cuteness. It seemed as if they would always be on the opposite sides of each spectrum. Izuku slowly withdrew his body from his elder brother's side, his hands leaving the blanket, only for them to be snatched in a lazy but death-defying grip.

"Don't leave….me" Shoto whispered out in a slurred breath.

'Yup. Definitely still asleep…' Izuku thought to himself softly as he was dragged back down to the ground. Using his other hand to stuff another piece of candy in his mouth, Izuku took the opportunity to take notes on his brother; he had gotten through the entire notebook and was writing on the back cover when the half-and-half boy stirred and suddenly clasped him in a bear hug and his notebook and pen skidded far away from him.

Izuku didn't know whether to curse out loudly or patiently keep his anger within. He could feel his eyebrow twitch as the rage grew in his heart. He wasn't able to finish writing his last sentence, and now that writing was far beyond his reach. Izuku had been buried into the blanket next to Shoto and had a harder time breathing under the warm sheet.

'I shall think of a way to make you embarrass yourself in front of the entire class!' Izuku mentally growled to himself as he stared calmly at his older brother with shaking anger boiling away to be let out and unleashed.

As the hours passed by Izuku eventually let his anger simmer away into nothing as he watched his brother breathe in and out. The past image of how his father viewed his brother's mother horrified him. He remembered the words that haunted him the most.

'These children are useless… Inko would have made better.'

Even though Izuku had no personal recollection of his past bullying, he often held nostalgia and reacted to the words that implied him to be worthless or useless. And hearing it again through his head that his brother was viewed the same, hurt him.

His older brother was powerful, even though his sense of morality and true maturity wasn't yet set in stone, he knew what he was driving for. Even though Izuku thought his older brother was hypocritical, even though he knew that his older brother could injure him yet again, even though his brain told him that one day Shoto would be involved in his death somehow… Izuku couldn't help but love his brother. He remembered back to when he first saw the boy when he woke up on that hospital bed.

He had been so confused to where he was at, but the figures around him were loud and fiery, the only calm force being Shoto.

The only one able to make him link all the occurrences that happened around his life was Shoto.

The one who made him remember how to fight was Shoto.

The one who remembered him, not the nightmare, was Shoto…

Izuku let out a sigh as he continuously stared at his older brother's scared face. Slowly, he reached out towards the red marr, it was a water burn, someone had poured boiling water onto him… Probably when he was young.

"I wish I could see that… See why you are so afraid to use everything you have… Why do you look so sad when you are looking at me? What's in there..." Izuku spoke softly as he used his fingers to lightly trace the red skin. Only, he was transported into a booming image - Shoto's memories of his childhood.


Izuku wanted to throw up… He had seen images upon images of horror etch themselves into his brain in a white flash of light. Breathing frantically he looked back at the sleeping figure, but Shoto wasn't there. Izuku wasn't in the hallway… he was in a different dimension. Unlike Izuku, his brother's mentality was not as sound. And in a quick turn of a events, Shoto witnessed his younger brother's death firsthand…


He stood on a rooftop to see a familiar mop of emerald locks flow in the wind. Izuku was wearing a black uniform, something Shoto was able to recognize as his middle school uniform. For some reason he couldn't fully hear the words that the boy was saying. Only the tears and emotions that flocked his body before he stood up on the rails and jumped. Waves of terror and realization flooded Shoto, but how? How was he witnessing this?

He rushed to run and grab at Izuku, to save him somehow but he was too late… He looked down frantically to see what happened, but there was nothing. Izuku simply disappeared, but a ringing tone of his voice echoed in his head. He couldn't discern what was happening as the world melted around him. That was until everything came to a halt, and a white space appeared before him. And there, he saw Izuku.

The two only saw each other in a flash, each shifting forms - Izuku turned back to his bandaged and bloodied form that fell off the roof, and poor Shoto flashed from his childhood, the bandages that were carefully wrapped around his head.

"DEKU YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
"SHOTO, DON'T BE WEAK!"

The voices of the past stirred in the air before the images before them faded away, and the two woke up.


Izuku was dragged out of the small scene first, he let out a deep breath as he took in the images that flashed briefly before him. He couldn't remember what really happened, but he knew it was part of his quirk…

But what did he trade?

Slowly his older brother woke up in a start, his eyes burst open and stared at surprise at the younger boy who he had been hugging to death throughout the night.

Izuku felt guilt rise up in his throat, but he decided to fake it and pretend to not know anything.

"Nii-Chan are you ok?" He asked gently, building up his own fears behind him to comfort his older brother who stared at him blankly.

"I-Izuku? Ah… Thank you… I-I'm sorry about yesterday." He still refused to let Izuku out of his grip. After he had seen his body fall, he couldn't help but want to keep him close. It hurt to be apart from him now… For some reason Izuku's simple smile made him forget his worries, and only made him remember the pleasant times of the past when he was with his own mother.

Izuku faked a chuckle, "You can be overprotective, can you please let me go now?" he smiled gently as he pushed at the stronger boy's arms.

"Mm… no." Shoto, although terrified, was now calmer just from his younger brother's presence… It was warm and comforting, that was until he felt a sharp jab of pain in his abdomen.

"Nii-chan~ As much as I enjoy your company, you need to learn the definition of personal space!" Izuku said dully as he got up from the writhing Shoto who he elbowed in the stomach, a lollipop resting in his mouth as he though over the previous events.


A/N:

Thank you for your guys' continued support! I love hearing your comments, they make me want to write more each time I look at them XD

Poor Izuku, he doesn't understand his quirk, no one else does either hehe. Next chapter will be the beginning of the Battle Training lesson ^-^