"YOUNG BOY! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP NOW!" The firm yet somehow gentle slaps to his face sting but at least it doesn't burn. That would mean Kacchan was there and if Kacchan was there then he'd have to- WAIT! He knew that voice!
Izuku's eyes spring open and he's face to face with his second favorite hero in the world! It's All Might! Izuku scrambles to get to his feet, All Might took a few steps back to let him stand.
"You're All Might! The number one hero! You saved me!? I'm so honored!" Izuku digs through his bag for a pen and dry notebook to ask for a one in a life time autograph from one of his idols. "Could you please AHHH! You already signed it!" Izuku stares down at the signed paper in the middle of his notebook. Oh this is like a dream come true! If only he didn't have to almost die for it to happen, but that's besides the point.
"AH YES! I COULD NOT LEAVE AN OBVIOUS FAN AN AUTOGRAPH! WELL IT IS TIME FOR ME TO BRING THIS VILLAIN TO THE STATION TO RECEIVE SOME JUSTICE!" All might pats one of the soda bottles filled with the slime monster, Izuku wonders how he manged that. All Might gets into a round and starts to stretch his legs to prepare to jump into the sky. Izuku can't let him leave yet! He has so many questions to ask! If he couldn't ask them all then he'd ask the one that's been burned into his mind for seven years.
"Wait! I just have one question! Please All Might! I have to know!" Maybe it's the way his voice wobbles and sounds like he's about to have a panic attack, or maybe it's how Izuku leaps in front of him and holds out his hands to plead his case. Either way All Might stops stretching for a moment and cocks his head to the side then nods his head for Izuku to ask his question. The small greenette takes a deep breath and closes his eyes to compose himself enough to get the question out. When he's gathered as much nerve as he could find he opens his eyes and looks All Might right in the eye. "Can you become a hero without a quirk? Is it possible?" He manages to get through his question but his hands are shaking and his stomach drops the moment he sees All Might's face become sympathetic. That was not even close to the reaction he was thinking the symbol of peace would give him.
All Might was hesitating in his answer. It told Izuku everything he needed to know. "I AM SORRY SON BUT-" Izuku doesn't need to hear the rest. Kacchan was right. He was stupid to have ever thought otherwise. When will he just learn that Katsuki knows what's best for him? The universe already wrote it out for him clear as day on his wrist. Why can't he just get the hint already? Just accept you'll never be a hero and move on already, Stupid Deku. "-PROFESSIONS LIKE A-"
"Thank you All Might. I'm sorry to have been a bother, I do hope you have a safe rest of your day. Thank you for saving me. I'll let you be on your way now." Izuku had to cut All Might off in his sentence because he already knows all the other professions he could go into. They've all been shoved in his face before. Being a hero and saving as many people as he possibly could was always his dream though. The dream he shared with Kacchan as a child. They were supposed to be the Super Soulmate Duo. Midoriya steps back around All Might, heading back to pick up his backpack and items that fell out in his haste to get his pen and paper. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid Deku. You finally got your answer. Now shut up about wanting to become a Hero. No one wants to hear it.
When Izuku stands back up with his bag on his back, All Might is nowhere to be seen. Figures, he needed to get the villain to the police station before he broke out of those bottles. He understood but everything hurt just a little extra right now, and All Might not asking him if he was really okay hurt more than it should have. Why did he even entertain the idea of All Might taking him into account over the villain in his pockets? He's just so stupid.
Just a stupid, worthless, quirkless Deku. That was never going to change.
He starts his walk home slow, not having motivation to do much more than to be on autopilot. His feet know the may home, he'll trust them to get him there.
How could he do that to Kacchan? Go behind his back to a pro hero to what? Double check that Katsuki had been telling him the truth? He should know by now that his Kacchan only tells him the truth. He knows All Might doesn't know his soulmate but Katsuki is going to feel humiliated when Izuku tells him what happened. He deserves every hit and burn that he knows he's going to get. How many times has Kacchan told him that he couldn't be a hero without a quirk? Let alone a PRO HERO? At least a million times. But no he just had to go and question him at every turn, doubt one of the only people that tries to keep him safe and loved.
An explosion a few blocks down shake him out of his self loathing lecture. He knows that he shouldn't go down there to see what was going on. Knows he should get home to make dinner, but old habits die hard and he's still kind of in autopilot. His body moves before his mind can fully catch up and he's already at the scene before he can talk himself out of it.
Almost everything on the street is on fire. From the shops that line to streets to the resident housing above them. Flames engulf every inch of the street and in the middle of it all is the slime monster that just tried to kill him. But that can't be him, right? All Might had him in his pocket. He looked like he was unconscious inside the bottle, so why's he out in the street holding someone hostage? The hostage, that essentially took his place, looks to be around his age. He looks like he's tall and he's got blonde hair.
Really spiky blonde hair that kind of reminds him of his soulmate Katsuki. Kacchan was with his friends though, so that couldn't be him. Izuku just hoped that one of the six pro heroes around the scene would jump in to help the-
Right at that moment the hostage looked directly at him. Those ruby red eyes. He knew those eyes. He could never forget his Kacchan's eyes.
Izuku didn't think twice about pushing through the crowd and running to where help was needed. In fact he wouldn't say he was thinking at all. His body was just acting on instinct. Recalling page 27 of book 8, one of his many excerpts of Eraserhead, he needed to quickly find a weak spot on the villain and throw him off guard. He knew that his body was basically a slimy jello type substance so he needed to find something solid.
There! His eyes are completely open and vulnerable! While he's running he takes his backpack off and flings it forward while yelling "Over here!" to the villain. The villain looks up confused giving Kacchan enough slack to put his face away and breathe in deep gulps of much needed air. The villain looks towards Izuku confused just before getting an eyeful of pencils from his All Might pencil case. The villain lets go of one of Katsuki's arms to rub at his eye and Izuku grabs onto the flailing limb and pulls with as much strength he could find in himself.
"What the fuck Deku! What are you doing, Dumb ass?!" He's being yelled at but Kacchan still grips onto his forearm and tries to pull himself free of the villain. He hopes Kacchan isn't too mad at him.
"I just needed to help, Kacchan! No one else was!" The two boys continue to struggle in freeing Katsuki, till he's got just his left leg caught in the slime. They've almost got him free when the villain wraps itself around Izuku once more. Pulling him and his soulmate apart, red claw marks running up both of the boys arms. A vain attempt to keep hold of one another.
Izuku whimpers as the villain starts to squeeze his around his chest. He can feel his insides slowly mushing together, his ribs shifting and creaking under the pressure around the. If the villain squeezes any tighter and he thinks he'll pop!
"I recognize you! You're that brat from earlier! Almost had you too! Before All Might showed up. But he's not here now, now is he!?" The villain cackles and starts to squeeze him that much tighter.
This is it. He's going to die. He looks over to Kacchan and he looks furious. His red eyes set ablaze in anger.
"You stupid fucking Deku! Why're you so fucking stupid!?" He tries to respond but his vision is starting to get spotty and he can't draw in any air. His chest just refuses to expand. He lets tears start to flow from his eyes. Everything hurts so much. His brain is getting fuzzy and he can't focus on anything around him.
Then he's choking on air. There's too much rushing into his lungs at once. His organs shift back painfully and his lungs burn. His wet face looks around him to see what changed. What happened to the villain? Is he finally dead? No that's not it. He's being held by his arm by- "THERE'S NO NEED TO FEAR! FOR I AM HERE!" All Might! He's there to save the day once again! That giant smile of his lets him know that he's okay. All Might slowly lowers both him and Kacchan to the ground next to him. He brings the hand that was holding onto Izuku up to his mouth and wipes it with the back of his hand. When he drops it back to his side, Izuku sees blood smeared across it. There's rain coming down around them that has the blood dripping off his hand to leave no trace of it ever being there. Did All Might really change the weather? He can only assume it was All Might with his Detroit Smash. He's seen it in action before and it seems to have enough power to mess with the clouds above them.
Did All Might get hurt saving them? Izuku was a little too focused on trying to breathe to have seen anything that happened when he was saved. So it's possible that he was indeed hurt. It doesn't make a lot of sense but the possibility is still there.
All Might turns around quickly and looks to the several pro heroes approaching them. "I'LL LEAVE THESE TWO TO YOU VERY CAPABLE PRO HEROES" was that a dig at the heroes? Kind of seems like it was "AND LEAVE THE VILLAIN IN YOUR HANDS! MAKE SURE HE'S PLACED IN A TIGHTLY SEALED CONTAINER! MY MISTAKE OF NOT DOING SO IS WHAT CAUSED THESE FIERY EVENTS!" With that he turns back around and launches himself into the air to land on a nearby building and jump off once more. Once he's out of sight Izuku turns back to the pro heroes that surround him and his soulmate.
Not a single person in this circle looks happy with him. He goes to apologize but just grips his ribs in pain. Everything still hurts so much.
"That was very irresponsible of you! You shouldn't have interfered with pro hero work! Don't ever do that again! At least you didn't break any laws and try to use your quirk. But you could have been killed kid! Just let the Pro Heroes do their job next time and stay out of it. You're not a hero and if you keep acting like this you'll never become one either!" Kamui Woods is telling him off, but it's not like he's completely wrong. He doesn't know I don't have a quirk. Doesn't know that I couldn't use a quirk even if I tried. He doesn't know that I'm completely useless.
Izuku takes some shallow breaths and tries to "I don't want to be rude sir, but can I go now? I have to get hurry up and get home before my mom starts to worry." I look up to the blue suited hero and see him cross his arms.
He sighs and tells me, "Get out of here kid. And stay out of trouble! Don't need any more pro heroes wasting their time saving you today!" Izuku bows to the pro hero in front of him and quickly turns to start making his way home. He can hear the pro heroes praising Kacchan on his strong quirk and Katsuki explaining to them about his sweat when they ask.
He just hopes that he isn't too mad at him the next time he sees him. He knows he shouldn't have jumped into the middle of things like he did! He does he swears! It's just that the pro heroes around weren't doing anything and he saw the look in Kacchan's eyes. He was terrified! He couldn't NOT do anything! He'd be an even MORE useless soulmate if he just stood there and let Katsuki die! He hopes Kacchan will understand.
Izuku slowly makes his way away from the scene, the streets becoming quiet. Filled with nothing but the sound of his feet hitting the pavement. And another set of feet running towards him from the alley he's crossing in front of? What?
"YOUNG MAN! THERE YOU ARE! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!"
"All Might!" Izuku jumps back and falls on his butt from the suddenness of the Number One pro hero sliding to a stop in front of him! He hisses in pain from the fall, his ribs still sore and most likely bruised. He's used to bruises but he'd already had a few to begin with so it just makes his body extra sore. He pushes that the back of his mind for the moment. "What are you doing here?! I saw you jump away off a building!" Izuku is so confused as to why All Might of all people was waiting for him in a darkened alleyway.
"WELL THE THIN-" blood. There is an obscene amount of blood just SPRAYING from the blondes mouth! What is happening?! "Don't scream! I'll explain to you everything, I promise! Just do not scream. Please." The thin, sickly looking person in front of him pleads with him. Is this really All Might?
With his mouth hanging wide open he hesitantly nods and lets out a little wheeze to compensate for wanting to scream his head off in surprise. It'll have to do for now.
"Thank you." The frail body in front of him sags in relief. Why does he think this is only the start of some crazy turn of events in his life?