Disclaimer: The following is a nonprofit fan-based parody all rights reserved to Brandon Sanderson and Horikoshi Kohei. Please support the official releases.
Izuku grunted as he placed another piece of junk in the pile he was making near the parking lot. Straightening up, he wiped the sweat from his brow and looked it over. On Sunday, the day after he had first come here and learned All Might's real name, Toshinori Yagi, he and Toshinori had established a routine for cleaning the beach on school days. Izuku would come early in the morning before school and move garbage closer to where the truck would be parked. Then in the afternoon after school ended Toshinori would come and he would load the truck from the pile Izuku had made, while Izuku ran garbage to and from the beach itself. By doing the work that way Toshinori would strain his injured body less and Izuku would get more work out of their routine. Izuku smiled and turned back to the beach to move one more load of trash. Today was Monday so it was their first day using the planned schedule. Izuku knew he had about three hours until school started which meant he had a half-hour to get home then he would have two hours to get ready before making the half-hour commute to school. As he moved his last load, which consisted of a rusted bicycle frame and an old tire, to the pile he was building, he saw Sera zip over to him.
"Find anything good?" he asked cheerily. Ever since he had started his training Izuku felt better about himself, he finally felt like he was progressing toward his goal of becoming a hero which filled him with a sense of accomplishment.
"Nah," Sera said back, a look of disappointment on her face, "Just more garbage."
"What do you hope to find?" Izuku asked as he dumped the junk he was carrying on the mound and went to grab his towel and water bottle, "We have been coming for three days now and whenever I start working, you take off and fly around looking for something."
"I am looking for something you can use to start weapons training," Sera said.
"Weapons training?" Izuku said, confused at the random suggestion, "Why would I do weapons training, I need to touch something to use adhesion so wouldn't a weapon just get in the way?"
"I can't remember the details but just trust me you will need to know how to use a weapon," the spren said, a look of determination on her face.
"Okay," Izuku relented, "I believe you. When we get back today after school I will help you look for something."
Turning from the beach, Izuku walked up the stairs to the parking lot and stretched briefly before taking off in a jog. As he ran his breath became heavier as he gasped for oxygen to fill his lungs. He did not like cardio, but he knew it was important to build up stamina. As he ran he contemplated what he would face at school today.
Two things worried him about returning to school. The first was how the student body would react to him if they knew he had a quirk. On his first day back, the day after the villain attack, no one had made any mention of it, and Izuku understood why they hadn't. Even though Katsuki was easily recognizable due to his quirk on the footage that had been aired, neither of the boys' faces had been clearly shown on the news broadcast. None of the students would assume that the glowing boy on screen could possibly be the quirkless kid that everyone thought of as a weak bully magnet. Over the weekend, however, more footage had been posted and a few of the videos that people had captured on their phones did show the faces of Katsuki and Izuku. There was no way that someone in school wouldn't recognize him now and the question was how would they react. Suddenly a constant of their lives was no more. For the students of Aldera Junior High School, water was wet, the sky was blue, and Izuku Midoriya was quirkless. Izuku figured that the best scenario would be for everyone to continue ignoring him as they had done for most of his school years. Unfortunately, there was one student who he fully expected to have an explosive reaction.
This led his thought to his second issue; Katsuki would be returning to school today. On the day of the sludge villain incident, the two teens had not had the opportunity to interact after the villain was defeated. Katsuki had been swarmed by paramedics and heroes checking his health and congratulating him on his ability to survive. Izuku had been looked over, then scolded by the heroes and police so he had left the area as quickly as he was allowed to. A part of Izuku had expected Katsuki to chase him down and scream some derogatory diatribe about how useless he had been in the situation but apparently, the boy had gone straight home when he was done being checked on, and he hadn't shown up to school that next day. With how seriously Katsuki took schooling and getting into UA, Izuku knew that the boy wouldn't let himself miss more than that. Katsuki would 100% be in class today and Izuku was certain that he would be confronted about his actions during the incident. The only problem was that he didn't know how he would react.
"Well there's no use in trying to figure that out now, I will just have to deal with it if it happens," Izuku said to himself quietly as he approached his apartment building.
As Izuku walked into the school building he kept his head down as he normally did all his life, though now it was to hide his powers rather than his lack of them. He glanced around in the halls and for the most part, it appeared that the students were treating this like any other Monday. Every so often he would catch people looking at him then whispering to their friends but that wasn't completely unfamiliar to him being the only quirkless kid in the school. He even saw Katsuki when he entered the classroom they shared and the boy appeared to be acting relatively normal as he leaned back in his chair and watched the world with dismissive eyes. For a moment, Izuku thought he caught the boy's eyes darting towards him as he entered, but it happened so fast that Izuku disregarded it. Things started deviating during second period when he was suddenly called to the principal's office. The class erupted into whispers as he walked out, though Izuku just hunched his shoulders and left, doing his best to ignore everything.
As he walked through the halls, Sera materialized in front of him. Sometimes she liked to spend the time while he was in school floating around in different shapes, one time she had been a leaf, another a shooting start. Once she had floated around as a pencil, which was weird to see as you were taking a math test. Today she had decided to spend her time as a fluffy cloud, but now she was back to girl form.
"Why are you acting like this?" Sera asked Izuku.
"What?" Izuku responded.
"On Saturday, you stood up to that long fingers kid and were all cool and confident but now you are back to being timid and shy," Sera clarified.
"I don't know," Izuku answered, "it's different, I have been dealing with bullies for most of my life now so that situation was familiar, it let me see things more clearly so I felt like I could stand my ground. Now though, people are talking about me because I showed off powers, I don't know if they are impressed or suspicious or what, but whatever it is, it is something I have never dealt with so I just don't know how to react. I suppose I just defaulted to how I have been living up until now."
"Well stop!" Sera said curtly, "This weekend you were doing so well, you stood up to the bully, you trained, you walked tall and strong, and you are now practically best friends with All Might. You may still be a squire but you have a bond and you are trying to be a hero so stand up straight, push those shoulders back and face off against whatever comes as a hero should." Her voice then softened and she spoke more quietly as she said with a smile, "You'll do fine, I believe in you Izuku."
A smile spread on Izuku's face and he was filled once more with gratitude for his partner.
"Yeah," Izuku said as he squared his shoulders, "you're right, thanks Sera,"
A short time later Izuku walked into the principal's office,
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Izuku said with only a trace amount of nerves in his voice.
The principal was a portly man who was sitting at his computer when Izuku arrived. At the sound of Izuku's voice, he turned to the door with a slight smile on his face.
"Mr. Midoriya, thank you for coming so quickly. Please, have a seat." As the man spoke he motioned for the chairs from across his desk.
"Thank you," Izuku responded before sitting down on the edge of one of the seats his hands clasped in his lap to hide his nerves.
"Now Midoriya, I am not sure if you are aware but some interesting rumors are being spread about you and I just wanted to touch base about them."
"What rumors sir?" the young man asked.
"Well Midoriya, as I am sure you are aware the staff has been informed of your disability, and before I go on I want to reassure you that if you are ever feeling marginalized by students or staff that you can come to us in the administration for help." As he said this the principal looked Izuku in the eyes like he was trying to show off how sincere he was, but Izuku just nodded as he always did when people made comments like this. Izuku had never wanted to be given special consideration, he wanted to be treated like everyone else. After a moment the principal continued, "Yes, as I was saying, as I am sure you are aware one of your classmates Katsuki Bakugou was involved in a villain attack near the end of last week, the rumors I am referring to are those that mention that you were also involved in the attack and that you exhibited some... quirk-like abilities." The principal seemed to struggle to know just how to express himself with the last part of his statement.
After he finished speaking the principal looked at Izuku as though he were waiting for the boy to respond. He hadn't asked a question though so Izuku just looked back, unsure of how he should respond. Did he tell the principal about having powers now? Did he just play dumb and keep his abilities hidden? Izuku had no idea what the man's reaction would be if the rumors were confirmed by the way he had spoken about them. If anything the man seemed just as confused about what to do as Izuku was. Izuku peeked at Sera to see if she would offer any advice but the spren was just flitting around looking at the various pictures, diplomas, and certificates that the principal had on display.
Seeing no help coming from her Izuku decided that if he was going to be a hero then he had better get used to people knowing about his powers. Meeting the principal's eyes, Izuku spoke.
"Sir, have you seen the high school plan papers that were completed last Friday?" Izuku asked.
The principal blinked at the unconnected question but he considered it.
"Yes, I have," The principal said, "I remember two stuck out to me, yours and Bakugou's, because both of you put down UA as your first choice.
"Yes sir," Izuku said, "You see I have always and I will always want to be a hero sir, and by some miracle, during the incident last Friday I got a quirk and I plan to make my dream a reality." As Izuku spoke he didn't raise his voice, nor did he say what he did like it was some solemn declaration. Instead, he just spoke as though he were stating a fact. He was talking about the new reality of the world, Izuku Midoriya has a quirk and he will use it to be a hero.
"Oh," the principal said in surprise before his emotion became a kind smile, "well, then good luck, and I hope you do Aldera proud."
Izuku was surprised by the principal's words. He knew that there were teachers in the schools who looked the other way when Bakugou would torment him due to the boy's impressive quirk and natural talent, so Izuku had nearly given up hope that there were any people in the establishment that would genuinely care about his well being. But the sincerity in the principal's words as he wished Izuku well made the boy rethink his opinion of the man. Being in charge of over 300 students probably made it difficult for the man to watch out for each one but he probably was doing best. Even though the principal's words didn't hit him with as much impact as Valor, All Might and his mother, Izuku still felt touched by the gesture and gave the principal a sincere, "Thank you."
With their conversation done, Izuku was dismissed to return to his class, but as he was leaving the principal made one final comment.
"I assume that we will be getting an updated quirk registry form soon."
"Quirk registry?" Izuku asked
"Of course," the principal said in realization, "you wouldn't be aware due to your history. All schools are given copies of the student's quirk registry information so that they can make any necessary accommodations for their students. If your quirk status changes then you will need to submit a form so that the change can be recorded. You should be able to get everything taken care of in the city offices"
"Ok," Izuku said, "Thank you for the information."
"You're welcome," the principal responded, and with that last exchange Izuku left to return to class
After that disruption, Izuku's day resumed its usual course with him sitting in the back of the room taking notes quietly as the teacher gave their lesson. When he had returned from the principal's office the class had watched him but that ended as soon as the teacher pulled everyone's attention back to the subject of the class. Soon, however, it was time for lunch break and again his normal routine was disrupted.
Izuku normally spent his lunchtime sitting at his desk reviewing his notes, both for class and on heroes, and today he had made no change to that. He had started doing this to make sure he was as far away from Katsuki as possible because the explosive teen ate his lunch on the roof, as to be expected of any protagonist worth their salt. Izuku had almost found it funny how much Bakugou's life mirrored the protagonists found in pop-culture, he wondered if the boy did it subconsciously or if he purposefully chose to live according to tropes. Either way, as soon as the other boy had started bullying him Izuku wanted as little to do with the other boy's narrative as possible. Ergo, he ate in the most unassuming place he could think of, at his desk. Normally he would be ignored by the other students that chose to eat in the room but today the universe had another plan.
"Hey, Midoriya,"
The voice shocked Izuku out of the focus he was giving to his hero notebook. He had noticed as he looked through it that he had never actually finished the entry on Mt. Lady that he had started last Friday. He was now taking the time to write down everything he could remember from her debut that day and coming up with questions he planned to research tonight after he finished training. He had been in the middle of writing "research quirk versatility" when the voice grabbed his attention. Looking over he was shocked to see one of the boys that sat near him turning to address him. The boy's name was Kubi Rokuro and for the most part, he was unremarkable other than his quirks ability to stretch his neck, but even though the boy wasn't particularly noteworthy he had still never associated with Izuku. Shocked that anyone would initiate a conversation with him, Izuku reflexively answered,
"Huh?"
"So, is it true?" the boy asked, leaning closer as he spoke quietly.
"Is what true?" Izuku asked, though he had a pretty good idea of what the boy was asking about.
"Was it you that saved Bakugou in that video?" the boy said.
"All Might was the one who did the actual saving," Izuku said, trying to deflect the conversation away from himself.
"So it was you!" the boy said now loudly enough for the rest of the people in the classroom to hear. "Dude, you were awesome, you were like doing flips and stuff and you literally threw the slime guy like twenty feet."
"Yeah and you were like totally shining the entire time," another student chimed in from the other side of him, a girl this time.
Soon everyone in the class was crowding around him asking him questions.
"How did you get a quirk?"
"Can you fly?"
"Can you shoot laser beams?"
"Are you radioactive?"
Izuku shrank into his seat and covered his face, overwhelmed by all of the attention. Eventually, the crowd calmed down when they saw that he wasn't answering. Once they were silent one last request was made.
"Turn on your quirk," Kubi said, his eyes alight with excitement.
The rest of the class all agreed with the request.
"Umm," Izuku said his face red with embarrassment, "I c-c-can't easily turn it b-back off so if I were to activate i-it I would be stuck sh-sh-shining for the rest of the day, a-and I-I don't w-want to g-get in t-trouble w-with the teacher."
"Aww, come on Midoriya," one of the girls in the crowd said pouting cutely at him.
His face somehow got even redder at how close she was getting, but before anything else could happen a voice cut through the crowd.
"What are you doing?"
Everyone in the classroom froze and turned to face the door. Katuski had just arrived, trailed by his usual entourage including Nagai Yubi who was glaring at Izuku over Katsuki's shoulder. Everybody was used to Katsuki being loud, that was his default setting after all, but when he spoke quietly, that was when you needed to tread lightly.
"Hey Bakugou, lighten up, we were just asking Midoriya about the video onl-" Kubi froze in his attempt to lighten the mood as Katsuki pinned him with a burning stare.
"Everyone to their seats," Bakugou commanded, his voice rising just enough to be heard by everyone in the room, "you don't need to know anything else about what happened at that incident, nothing has changed. Deku is still just as worthless as he always has been, and always will be."
As rude and mean as Bakugou could be, he was mostly harmless to the average student, sure he may yell and try to intimidate you but he avoided getting violent with anyone. Even Izuku had never been truly beaten by him since they had left elementary school. In their final year before middle school, Bakugou had gone overboard and used a full power explosion on Izuku which had left a burn mark on him. Bakugou had seen the burn mark and called Izuku worthless again but had never gone all out on the boy since that day.
When he spoke with this tone, however, the students knew not to mess with him. In their second year of junior high, a new student had moved in from another school and had tried to establish himself as a delinquent. The boy had quickly realized that Bakugou ran things and challenged him to a fight to prove who was strongest. Bakugou had laughed in the boy's face and told him to beat it before he got beat but the boy had persisted and called Bakugou a weakling and a coward for not accepting. That is when Bakugou got quiet. They fought that day after school and according to the witnesses Bakugou won without using a single explosion. Within a week the boy had transferred out of the school.
Quietly the class dispersed all taking their seats and waiting silently for lunch to end and the teacher to return. When the teacher entered the room he stumbled slightly at the sight of all the students already sitting quietly without needing to be calmed down after lunch, but in the end, he thanked them and began his lesson. In the back of the classroom though, Izuku trembled in his seat. He had seen something in Katsuki's eyes when the boy had looked at him: rage. An inferno of anger that was entirely focused on him. Izuku knew that right now a storm was brewing in Katsuki and all Izuku could do was brace for impact.
When the final bell rang, Izuku quietly began packing his things, but he wasn't surprised when a shadow fell over his desk.
"Deku, get your things and follow me." It wasn't a suggestion.
When he finished packing, Izuku stood. Nagai and Katsuki's other usual follower fell in behind Izuku to prevent him from running.
"As if I could run," Izuku thought ruefully.
Izuku had known that this was coming. Izuku couldn't claim to know Katsuki perfectly, they hadn't been friends in years, and since their friendship ended their interactions mainly fell into two categories, Katsuki dismissing Izuku, and Katsuki being angry at Izuku. And after the events of the sludge villain incident, the chances of Katsuki dismissing Izuku were microscopically tiny.
Soon the group of young men had exited the school grounds and were walking to a park a few blocks away. Izuku sighed, whenever he entered a park with Katsuki things never ended well. The group walked a little way into the park, near a copse of trees that was shaped like a crescent with an area in the middle that was obscured from the nearest road. When they finally stopped Izuku waited to see what would happen.
"Turn it on," Katsuki said.
"What?" Izuku asked.
"Don't play dumb with me!" the boy said, his voice rising. "Turn on your quirk, right now!"
"Kacchan I do-" Izuku was interrupted by the explosive teen roughly grabbing his collar.
Izuku heard rustling from behind him like one of the other two young men present was planning to join Katsuki but the explosive teen stopped whoever it was with an outstretched hand.
"Don't come any closer. This is between me and Deku." Turning back to Izuku, the explosive teen continued speaking, his voice going quiet again. "Do you think you're better than me? Did you think I wouldn't catch on that you had a quirk this whole time?"
Now Izuku was genuinely confused, "What do you mean Kacchan? I didn't get my quirk until that villain fight."
Katsuki gave Izuku another shake as he shouted, "Liar! You must really think I am stupid if you think I wouldn't recognize it when you stuck me to the ground." With a shove, Izuku was sent toppling down. "All these years when my shoes would randomly stick or I wouldn't be able to pick up my pencil. You thought I wouldn't remember each time you used your quirk on me?"
Izuku's eyes widened as he remembered all the times that Sera had stood up for him, pranking his bullies in retaliation.
"I do have to hand it to you Deku, you certainly know how to tell a story. The quirkless loser, looked down on his whole life then suddenly he pulls some amazing power out of his ass the moment all the cameras are rolling, good show!" He punctuated his rant with several pops from his palms.
"You've been hiding this whole time laughing at me, biding your time, thinking your power is better than mine, well then let's see it. Come on Deku, light it up!" He shot his hand forward and launched an explosion so that it blasted the ground to Izuku's side. "Turn it on you worthless loser, I will prove that I am still the best and that a cowardly, conniving, weakling like you will never be anything more than a Deku!" Another explosion went off whooshing past Deku's other side which also happened to catch Izuku's bag that had fallen from his shoulders and blew it a few yards away. Izuku began inching back as Katsuki approached. Suddenly, Sera zoomed up to him.
"C'mon Izuku, stand up and let's take this guy," she said,
"What? No," Izuku whispered back, "He isn't thinking straight, getting into a fight like this could jeopardize both of our chances to get into UA."
"Are you serious Izuku," Sera said back in disbelief, "Right now this guy is only acting like a villain. You are well within your right to stand up for yourself."
"No," Izuku said, "It wouldn't be right. It would put him in danger of losing his chance to be a hero."
Sera stared at Izuku.
"What are you muttering about now, nerd," Katsuki growled out as he watched Izuku on the ground, the green-haired boy still wasn't shining like he had seen on that day so he decided to push harder, "Fine," Katsuki said, "If you won't turn it on yourself, I will make you turn it on." Stretching out his hand directly at the boy's face it started to glow orange as an explosion charged similarly to how it had the day of the sludge villain incident. Izuku watched, fear building in his eyes before Sera flew directly into Katsuki's face and started screaming.
"Stop it you bully!"
Katsuki's eyes widened and his hand shot straight up so that the explosion launched into the air.
"Huh?" Katsuki said in shock at the appearance of the small blue girl.
"You're wrong," The spren continued, "I am the one who did all those pranks to you, Izuku had nothing to do with it. He is telling the truth that he had no control over his powers until that day."
"Deku, what is this?" Katsuki demanded.
"She is telling the truth, Kacchan. This is Sera, she is part of my quirk and she has a mind of her own. I really did have no idea I could make use of her powers directly until after I ran in to help you last Friday."
"You didn't help!" Katsuki yelled, "I was doing fine on my own and you just said so yourself that you ran in with no powers, you were lucky that you could control your fairy here. You got that?"
"Right sure," Izuku quickly agreed.
Katsuki stared at Izuku on the ground and the small blue girl that was glaring at him in the air before clicking his teeth and walking back to where he had dropped his bag.
"Whatever," He said as he collected his things, "You still shouldn't even try for the UA exam, your power is weak and you are useless. I will be the only one from this crap school to move up to the big leagues!"
Izuku sat silently for a moment, his eyes shadowed as he looked down, before he spoke quietly.
"You can't stop me."
"Huh? What are you mumbling about?" Katsuki said.
Standing, Izuku looked at Katsuki with determination in his eyes.
"I said, you can't stop me, Kacchan." Izuku said more loudly, "I am going to train harder than ever over these next ten months and when we go up against each other during the exam you will see that I will be just as strong as you, stronger even."
"Don't even try Deku," Katsuki said threateningly, "if you try to approach me, then I'll kill you," again he punctuated his sentence with a few pops from his hand.
Izuku just stared back resolutely.
Eventually, their staring match ended with Katsuki turning away and beginning to leave the park. One of his followers grabbed his things and made to follow but Nagai looked livid.
"What are you doing Bakugou," The long-fingered delinquent said, "There are three of us and only one of him, let's just beat him down and remind him where his place is."
"Shut up extra, or I'll kill you too," Katsuki said dismissively and began walking from the park.
Nagai looked like he would argue before he grit his teeth and grabbed his own bag to follow the explosive teen.
As soon as all three of the other boys were no longer in sight the strength drained from Izuku's legs and he fell to the ground,
"I'm alive," He said in relief with a hint of disbelief thrown in.
"And who gets credit for that," the haughty voice of Sera said from beside the boy.
"You do," Izuku said. "You were amazing Sera. I can't believe you stood up to Kacchan like that."
Sera turned angrily to Izuku, "And I can't believe you didn't. You can't rely on others to save you all the time Izuku, you are always ready to jump in headfirst for someone else but when you are in danger you just roll over and take it. That has to change and as punishment, you have to work twice as hard today during training, understood?"
"Fine," the boy said in a contrite voice before he got up, walking over to get his bag. Once all his things were collected, he and his floating blue companion made their way out of the park. Neither noticed, however, that another figure followed them as well.
Soon, Izuku was once again looking over the trash heaps of Takoba Municipal Beach Park.
"Ok," Sera said, catching Izuku's attention, "as penance for your attitude today you are going to be moving three washing machines today, got it." She punctuated her statement with a threatening swing of an oversized paper fan. She didn't do it often but sometimes she liked to copy things she had seen in anime and today she had decided to take the form of the stereotypical training coach.
Izuku laughed nervously but he knew that it would only get worse if he argued so he simply said, "I will do my best," and began moving toward the parking lot and the stairs down to the sand.
"Let's get started, we still have an hour or two before Mr. Yagi will arrive so I can add some more to the pile, and maybe we can look for something for weapons training like you mentioned this morning." A part of Izuku hoped that by mentioning it he could distract Sera from trying to force him to move three washing machines.
"Not surprising you came here Deku, after all trash belongs at a trash heap."
Izuku froze at the sound of the voice and turned sharply to see Nagai Yubi walking up to him.
"Yubi?" Izuku asked in shock, "W-what are you doing here?"
The other boy stalked toward Izuku threateningly, smirking nastily at the sound of the boys stutter. Ignoring the question the boy elongated his fingers as he walked.
"I don't know what Bakugou was thinking letting you walk away without a proper punishment, but don't expect me to be so kind. You have been getting uppity ever since you started getting internet famous so I think I need to remind you just how much of a loser you actually are."
The long-fingered boy's quirk, from Izuku's limited understanding, caused his fingers to lengthen by growing new joints on the ends. As they grew they also developed additional muscle essentially giving the boy five prehensile tails on the ends of his hands. They could also reach lengths of up to four feet letting the boy easily grab his targets by the wrist or ankles and once he had his fingers wrapped around you tightly enough, it was rather difficult to escape.
"Yubi, I am not trying to get popular, I just want to be a he-" Izuku's explanation was interrupted by a back handed slap from the other boy, who had just entered the range for his fingers to reach Izuku. The attack made Izuku back up in shock and fall to the ground. Izuku reached up and felt at his cheek, his hands coming away wet from where the other boy's fingernails had scratched his face.
"Shut up, I don't care about any of that hero crap, feel free to go fail the UA entrance exam all you want. What I care about is that you annoy me, and that on Saturday you disrespected me in front of the whole class."
Izuku was shocked at the other boy. Katsuki was Izuku's main bully, so Izuku was used to facing the boy's goal centric view point. As he explained, Katsuki wanted to be the only one from the school to join UA so that he would stand out more in his hero career, and he saw Izuku's effort as a threat to that plan. Now, Izuku was facing Nagai and apparently the boy just wanted to hurt him. When Izuku had stood up to Nagai on Saturday he hadn't felt such malice from the boy, but now he was reminded of the feeling he got from the slime villain, there was no reason for the boy's actions other than the desire to see someone else get hurt. And once again Izuku was stunned and not sure what to do. Sera however acted right away and flew at the boy's face.
"Leave him alone," she said, hoping to catch the boy off guard and stall him.
Nagai, however, had already seen the small blue girl at the park so he just waved her away like he would a cloud of smoke.
"Hey," Sera said, indignant at the treatment. While her attempt to help was ineffectual, the cry she made triggered the protective instincts in Izuku causing him to move.
Izuku wasn't a practiced fighter by any means, the grace he had shown during his battle against the slime villain came from the supernatural balance and agility granted him by his bond with Sera. So since he didn't have any light in him now, all he could do was clumsily push himself to his feet and attempt to tackle the other boy. Nagai however was a practiced street fighter, so when Izuku attempted the tackle he reflexively stepped back allowing him to lower his center of gravity and stay upright. Then, rolling his fingers up so that he could more easily form a fist, he punched the green-haired boy in the side of the head. This stunned Izuku enough that Nagai was able to push him back and use his other hand to grab the bottom half of Izuku's face.
"See, Deku," Nagai gasped out, the adrenaline of the scuffle making him breathe more deeply, "this is what I was talking about, you used to be so easy to push around but now, just because some of the other kids fawned over you, you think you can do whatever you want. I am just trying to remind you about the reality of things. Bakugou is on top, I am just under him, and you are the useless loser that sits at the very bottom of everyone. You are nothing, and you will always be nothing."
The boy's taunts reignited the anger that had sparked Izuku to action on Saturday. What right did Nagai have to say that about him when so many people now believed in his dream of being a hero. With the long-fingered hand covering Izuku's mouth he acted on a natural-born instinct and opened his mouth wide before biting down, his teeth digging into the flesh between the other boy's thumb and forefinger. Nagai shouted in pain and tore his hand from Izuku's mouth then pushed him away.
What neither boy had noticed was that during their scuffle they had moved close to the edge of the retaining wall that separated the beach from the road. The push that Nagai gave Izuku was enough to cause the green-haired youth to topple back over the wall and begin to fall down to the sands below. Izuku's face showed confusion when he stepped back and found there was no floor to support him. Then the confusion morched to shock as he began to fall. For a moment the world seemed to move in slow motion and Izuku could see Nagai's own face morph to shock at the sight of his opponent falling out of sight.
Izuku felt like he was falling forever until suddenly he wasn't as his back collided with the earth his breath left him in a single gasp and for some reason he wasn't able to inhale. He collected himself and looked down to see why he was having trouble breathing and when his eyes focused on his chest he saw that sticking out of his body was a rusted length of metal pipe, glistening red with blood. While some of the space next to the retaining wall was empty sand, in other areas, like the one he had fallen into, there was scattered garbage and junk. The shock Izuku felt at seeing that he had been impaled held back the pain, but eventually it came in a flood. The fact that he had no air in his lungs kept him from screaming however. Looking up, Izuku saw the form of Nagai peering over the ledge and their eyes met. Weakly Izuku reached out toward the other boy wordlessly asking for help but the long-fingered boy stood frozen, his eyes wide, as he looked at the grisly scene. Finally, he turned and disappeared from Izuku's view and didn't return.
Izuku felt abandoned and alone for a moment before suddenly Sera was there frantically screaming his name. His ears seemed to be pounding with blood but as he focused her shouts became clear.
"Izuku, use your power, hurry!" the spren called.
Unable to think clearly, Izuku latched onto the command from his friend and burned food to fill himself with light. Every time he had used his power since activating them he had only burned a small amount, mentally holding himself back so that he wouldn't be left feeling as hungry as he had after that first experience. Now, in his desperation Izuku burned everything in his stomach and was filled with so much light that he shone like a beacon. Suddenly the feeling of suffocating due to their being no air in his lungs disappeared. He felt rejuvenated and sat up, his eyes wide in shock at the relief he felt. Reaching up he grabbed the pole sticking from his chest and pulled. Luckily it was uniform so nothing caught on his flesh or obstructed his pull as he extracted the metal from his chest. As soon as it was pulled free, Izuku felt his organs, muscles and bones knit themselves together and in moments Izuku looked through the hole in his shirt to see unblemished skin. Once he saw that, Izuku inhaled deeply filling his lungs with air and, looking to Sera, couldn't hold back a laugh of relief that bubbled up inside of him. He grinned brightly and leaped to his feet once again filled with the feeling of lightness that came with his powers being active.
"I'm okay," Izuku said as he laughed.
Sera's face matched his own as she grinned, "Yep, the light can heal you from nearly any injury as long as you have enough."
Paying attention to her words Izuku felt inside of himself and took notice that his store of light had dipped noticeably at the amount of light he had used to heal himself.
"Ok, so I am not invincible," Izuku said, "If I get hurt regularly for long enough I would run out of light and no light means no healing. I will have to take note of that." Once he finished his analysis however Izuku looked up to the top of the wall. "While I have this light, though, how about we use it."
Running toward the wall Izuku launched himself up and the enhanced strength let him easily reach the top of the wall in a single jump. Looking around, Izuku didn't see Nagai anywhere, and figured that the boy must have run away in fear of being blamed for the death of a classmate. A part of Izuku wanted to take off and chase the boy down, to continue the fight they had been having. The desire made Izuku pause, he hadn't been filled with this much light since the day he formed the bond with Sera and he now felt that while the light filled him it gave him a sense of confidence and a desire to move and act. It was like a caffeine high turned up to eleven. Izuku thought for a moment and realized one of the reasons Katsuki had been so mad at him was probably because he must have come off as rather cocky when he had been in the middle of fighting the sludge villain.
Taking another calming breath Izuku reigned in the impulsiveness he was now feeling. Luckily the feeling was manageable but that was probably because he had used so much light to heal from the wound he had received. Izuku would have to be careful about how much light he filled himself with, both because of the hunger he was sure to feel when he used it up, as well as the lowered inhibitions it seemed to give him. Turning back to the beach, he saw Sera watching him curiously, but he smiled reassuringly at her.
"What was that punishment you gave me again? Three washing machines?"
Sera smiled back at him, "Now that you are using light that won't be challenging enough, you will need to move four washing machines and a fridge."
Izuku smirked back, "Easy," he said before jumping back down to the beach to begin working. As he started looking for appliances to bring to the stairs Izuku couldn't help but think to himself. "School tomorrow is going to be even more awkward."
Special thanks to ACreativeMindAtWorkHere for being the beta reader for this chapter.