Izuku felt like absolute shit.
He was walking home after his (former?) best friend told him to kill himself while everyone continued to mock his dream of becoming a hero.
He could take the bullying and the pity that came with being quirkless, but the fact that it never stopped was what wore him down. After spending pretty much his entire life being told he can't succeed and that he should just give up, it was starting to feel true.
His mother clearly cared about him, but he was pretty confident her life would be better without him. His father left right after he was diagnosed to be quirkless, so it wasn't hard to figure out that he was the reason that his parents weren't together anymore.
He remembered the countless tears that she shed because his father wasn't around anymore, maybe he'd come back if Izuku was gone. Maybe his mom would be happy again if Izuku was gone and his father returned from his overseas job.
He never really felt like more than a burden when it came to her and he was downright hated by everyone else. Kachan's advice was sounding pretty decent the more he thought about it. It's not like things were going to get better, quirkless adults weren't treated any better than quirkless kids after all.
As Izuku contemplated his life and if any of it was worth all of the pain he went through, a wave of sludge suddenly wrapped itself around him.
At first he started to panic when he couldn't breath then he heard the man speak.
"This is gonna hurt for about 45 seconds then it will all be over."
Izuku knew the man was trying to be intimidating, but he had to admit that the thought was comforting. Less than a minute of pain then he won't have to hurt anymore.
The main barrier to killing himself was that he knew his mother would blame herself and it would ruin the lives of the people who pushed him to that point. But, if a random villain did the work for him, then he wouldn't have to worry about that. No one would blame themselves if he drowned in sludge instead of a bathtub.
So he relaxed and stopped fighting completely. This was probably the best outcome he could think of with the fewest people getting hurt.
But then it stopped. Wait, why did he stop?
"What the fuck kid, were you just going to let me kill you?"
He didn't know how to respond other than a weak nod.
"Fuck, I know I was about to kill you and all, but why the hell does a kid like you want to die?"
What the man made of sludge got in response was a nearly incoherent string of mumbled words that barely fit together at all. But out of the alphabet soup that was technically a sentence the man figured out two things. This kid was 100% quirkless and he wanted to be a hero.
Izuku didn't know how to feel when the man responded to his rambling with a disproportionately large smile.
"Holy shit kid, I've got a fuckin crazy idea that I think would work out great for both of us. I can get you a quirk, but I'm gonna need you to help me hide from the hero chasing me so we can talk this out."
Get a quirk, how would that even work? That should be impossible, but he knows research has been done on the subject. Maybe-
"Well kid, I'm gonna take you blank stare and mumbling as a yes, because this is very time sensitive."
He watched as the sludge compressed into a comparatively tiny size, probably small enough to fit into a few soda bottles, then slid into his backpack.
Standing around completely dumbfounded and trying to process everything that had just happened, he saw All Might, the number one hero that he idolized all his life, run past him, look left and right, then continued running.
Holy shit, this villain was being chased by the number one hero. And now he was hiding said villain in his backpack.
Does that mean he just aided a criminal? Is he a villain now?
"Alright, now that he's run off, we can have a proper conversation. You can call me... uhhh, Tanaka, that's a good name. It's not my name, but it seems like a good one. What's yours, otherwise I'll have to just keep calling you 'kid'."
"Oh, um, I'm Midoriya Izuku. N-not to be rude. But, um, w-why haven't you killed me?"
"Wow, there's not a drop of self preservation in you is there? long story short I owe some bad people a lot of money, my plan was to rob a bank to pay them back. It very much didn't work. And if I go to jail with that unpaid debt they will definitely kill me. Sooooo, what I need is a place to hide, and you, the perfect hero lover that you are, are the perfect hiding place."
"Y-yeah, I think you mentioned using me as a m-meat suit or something like that. But that still sounds a lot like being killed."
"You seem like a smart kid, let's say I went with that original plan that definitely would have killed you, how long would I be able to hide?"
Izuku paused for a moment to think "Well, even if no one noticed the difference between us, I'm guessing my body would still rot. So maybe a day or two before the smell was obvious?"
"You got it, if I straight up murdered you, I've got a place for a little bit. But if you're still alive, I'll have a place to hide forever, and you can pretend that I'm actually your quirk."
"Sorry. I think I'm a little confused. How does living inside my body not kill me?"
"Oh that's easy, I'll just rip out your organs and replace them with me. And since your whole body will be filled with super compressed slime I control, we'll be hella strong and all that good shit."
"Have you ever done that before?"
"What of course not, I'm making this shit up as I go, but I'm like at least 40% sure I can pull this off"
"U-um, can you maybe clarify what 'and all that good sh-shit' actually means?"
"Fuck yeah, well since you wouldn't have organs you'll be super hard to kill, plus you'll always be able to vomit out part of me so I can kick ass while still being your organs and shit"
"I-I'm not saying I agree, but if I did, how would we convince people you're a quirk and not a villain hiding in my body."
"That's an easy one, you jump off a building like the suicidal punk you are when you hit the ground. I do the ol' organ switcheroo and we say the stress of nearly dying made your quirk show up."
"Ignoring the phrase 'organ switcheroo', that's not a terrible plan. Forced quirk activation is rare but not impossible."
"I'll be straight with you kid, I think it's alarming that you didn't even comment about the part of you throwing your body off of a tall building. Like, if we're sharing a body, if one of us dies I'm pretty sure the other one goes too. So I'm gonna need you to really learn how to love life if we go through with this."
He waved off his concerns on the matter "That's not important right now, would anyone know that you can do this and figure it out?"
"I disagree, but whatever. Um, probably not, especially if I took a shower. Running in the sewers so much lately has straight up turned me fucking green, so I'll be more clear and shit if I clean up first."
Izuku nodded as he thought through the logistics of this plan "Ok, do you need to keep your face when you do this, or can we leave it behind?"
"Why the fuck do want to throw away my face?!"
"You have a pretty recognizable one, and if I'm expected to throw away all of my blood and organs, you can live without eyes and a mouth." Tanaka watched as Izuku's hands moved as if he was writing on an invisible notebook as he worked through his thoughts. "Plus, with how I understand your quirk you should be able to see through my eyes if this works. Your biology is really interesting since your entire body, except your face, is exactly the same, meaning every cell can do every biological function. I wonder if that means you are entirely made of stem cells or if it's a different method to have these omni-functional cells-"
His rambling was cut off by Tanaka's laughter.
"You are one creepy ass kid and I respect the hell out of that. So, what's the game plan, take a shower, throw away my face, throw you off a building, ditch your organs, become pro heroes?"
"W-well, I think there are some other steps in the middle there, b-but yeah? basically."
"This is fucking insane and I love it, where are we headed to pull this off?"
Izuku paused and thought for a moment, definitely mumbling. "Well, we need a location that has access to a shower, a high height, and in an area with at least some foot traffic, because this is pointless if no one is there to see this and confirm that you're my organs." Maybe Kachan had the right idea after all. "Tanaka, we're heading back to school."
"Hell yeah, get that education. I'm assuming you mean to jump off of it rather than to like, learn shit, because I'm terrible at learning things."
Izuku sighed deeply, "Please just get in my backpack so we can go"
Tanaka shrunk back down and got in "Yeah, yeah. Sorry to hold you up mister-eager-to-launch-himself-off-buildings."
"H-hey. I-I'm not eager a-about that part. But is it s-so wrong I'm excited to h-have a chance at being a hero?"
"Whatever kid, just don't get mad at me if this doesn't work and we both die, organ removing is not exactly a science. Or at least I hope it isn't, because I dropped out of highschool and I know zero fucking biology."
They made their way to the middle school, which was locked since everyone had left already.
As Izuku mumbled about how to get in, Tanaka subtly grabbed a rock and threw it through a window.
"What? Why did you do that?"
"Well, you needed to get inside, and the door was locked. So we're going through that now open window." Seeing how upset Izuku was about the vandalism he continued "Are you serious? You're ok with replacing your lungs with a wanted fugitive, but draw the line at breaking a window?"
"O-ok. Just please don't break the law with my body."
"How about this, once we share a body, I don't commit crime and you make sure to check yourself before you wreck yourself, at least not without the other's permission."
Izuku nodded and went into the school. They made a stop by the locker room so the sludge villain could look, and smell, less like a walking sewer.
It took over an hour for him to not be a living biohazard, but now looked mostly translucent rather than sickly green, which was a major improvement.
"Come on, we've gotta get moving. That took longer than I thought and there's a possible chance they're looking for you by now."
Izuku muttered "That's not super likely. My mom might be worried, but probably won't actually do anything about it. Inaction is her favorite action."
"Oof, that's rough dude. I'm guessing no dad in the picture?"
"Nope, he left the country once he found out I was quirkless."
"Man, no wonder you're a mess and a half. Well, this is pretty much the last chance to back out. No shame in it if you don't want to do this, because there's not really any take-backs once we do this. We'll be stuck together until we die, which might be like in 30 seconds if I fuck this up. But hey, dying by falling is better than whatever the Yakuza will do to me."
"True, but I can't think of a better plan. I'm tired of being weak and helpless. So, um, if you still want this then I do."
Tanaka nodded and lifted up the grate in the shower and let his eyes and mouth wash away into the sewers.
They made their way up to the room in silence. When he spoke it came out slurred since he didn't have teeth anymore
"Great, now remember, you're gonna want to go face first, because I can't do shit about a broken spine. I'll protect your head as we go down, but everything else is probably gonna get real wrecked"
Izuku nodded and stepped to the ledge of the building, and placed his things down on the roof.
Tanaka laughed, "I guess til death do us part you crazy fucker" and compressed himself down into Izuku's lungs.
Everyone passing the building stopped as they saw a middle schooler stand at the ledge of the building, clearly preparing to jump. Well, everyone except for one.
One person wasn't standing still and watching. One person was sprinting with all their might towards the building as a small green haired teenager fell from the roof.
He was too late. Bakugou got there barely a second after that gut wrenching sound filled the air when he hit the ground.
There was blood everywhere and Izuku was way too still.
He fell to his knees and screamed and sobbed at the broken boy. "Why the fuck did you listen to me?! You never listen, why'd you have to start today!? I didn't mean it. I didn't fucking mean it!"
Then his body started to move, and Katsuki felt a glimmer of hope. Izuku's face turned to the side, and he opened his mouth. His eyes weren't open but the explosive boy feared that these were his last words or some bullshit like that.
But what came out was not words. It was blood. It was so much fucking blood.
But if that wasn't bad enough, in that torrent of crimson entire organs started to come out as well.
What was happening? Why did he just vomit out his liver?!
When he finally stopped convulsing and vomiting organs into a horrifying puddle of gore on the sidewalk, something super weird happened.
All of Izuku's limbs seemed bent at wrong angles and covered in gashes. But they started to pull themselves into the right shape and the open wound on his chest sealed itself closed as some weird goo pulled everything back together.
An ambulance finally showed up and looked in horror at Katsuki who was covered in the blood Izuku was spraying like a macabre fire hydrant.
Bakugou turned to them, but couldn't make the words come out. So they just took Izuku away while a second one came and took him. He heard some words around him like "shock" and "trauma" and "quirk", but it felt like he couldn't make sense of any of it.
Nothing made sense and all he could think about was that fucking sound. Of bones cracking and blood splattering as he hit the ground. He was so fucking close, if that idiot had waited just a couple seconds before jumping he would have made it in time. He could have caught him and maybe broken his fall.
This was all his fault. He told Izuku to jump and he did.
He both figuratively and very, very literally had blood on his hands.
How could he be a hero when he just killed someone.
He was a killer.
He just killed Deku. No, not Deku, Izuku.
There was no way he survived that. His organs were on the fucking sidewalk.
People were talking around him but none of it registered. His thoughts just kept spiraling and he was barely even aware that they had moved locations.
They were at a hospital now. He's pretty sure someone wiped most of the blood off of him at some point.
Oh, someone was shaking him.
He looked up and saw his mother who apparently had been shouting at him but he didn't notice.
"They told me what happened. Apparently they expect him to pull through."
That didn't make any sense. "Don't lie to me. I saw him die."
"I'm not lying you brat. Apparently he got a quirk and he survived the fall"
He shook his head. Everyone knew he didn't have a quirk.
"I don't know the science of it. But it's called forced activation or something like that. Basically his organs got replaced by some goo, which is the only thing that kept him alive"
He was alive.
Dek- Izuku was alive.
"We don't know when he'll wake up, but he should be able to recover"
His mom looked at him in alarm as he started to laugh.
That nerd took his advice, and it fucking worked. He jumped off the roof and got a quirk.
In a sick way the irony was hilarious. The suggestion of killing himself to get a quirk shouldn't have been taken seriously, and it certainly shouldn't have actually worked.
Izuku woke up slowly. Everything hurt and he felt so tired and weak.
It took him a second to remember exactly what happened for him to end up in a hospital and in a lot of pain.
He whispered under his breath "Holy shit, I'm still alive."
Then he heard a whisper, like someone was talking directly into his ear.
"Oh thank fuck. You've been unconscious for nearly a week and I was getting nervous I'd be stuck in some coma dude."
He looked around for a second,"Tanaka?"
"Yeah kid, I'm basically all of your blood and organs, so I'm talking to you through the blood in your ear."
Tears began to flow down his cheeks "It actually worked."
"Hell yeah it did. Now, you probably shouldn't talk to me when other people are around or else you'll look super crazy."
He nodded and pressed the call button on the bed so that a nurse came rushing in to see he was finally awake.
He had a lot on his mind and mostly zoned out while the doctors ran all kinds of tests to make sure he was ok and didn't suffer any permanent damage. Apparently he was in so much pain because he broke a lot of his bones in the fall, which was not great.
Then, the person he really didn't want to face came in. His mother. He knew she would blame herself and there was nothing he could do about that.
"Izuku? Are you awake?"
"Y-yeah."
She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight "I'm so sorry. I should have realized something was wrong."
"It's ok mom. It's n-not your fault."
Tears ran down her face as she looked him in the eyes. "It is not ok. This is the opposite of ok. I promise I'll be there for you and do more to make sure you're feeling alright."
"...I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize. Just… please never do that again. You're my only child and I can't lose you."
Does that mean she would have been ok if she had another child? "I-I don't know what to say."
"Could you at least tell me why?"
He couldn't think of an honest answer that wouldn't get someone in trouble, either Kachan, Tanaka, or himself. So he just shook his head.
"Ok… Please talk to someone, even if that someone isn't me."
They talked for a little longer, but he just didn't have it in him to say much. He was so tired, everything ached, and he was so emotionally drained. All he wanted to do was sleep until he could leave.
Between the dozens of different tests and assessments, they did a quirk evaluation. He now carried the strength of himself and Tanka combined. And as he bent the steel bar in his hands he felt a glimmer of hope. The road to being a hero would be long and difficult, but at least he'd finally made it to the starting line.
I hope you all enjoyed this very weird story. I had been going back and forth on whether or not to work on this particular story idea since the premise is admittedly weird as hell. But then my story that replaces Izuku with a rabbit did well, so I thought that maybe you people would appreciate the more weird ideas.
So, depending on the response I get from this first chapter this will probably become a fully fledged story.
So if you want to see more of this nonsense please let me know.