Chapter Three
Mending
Sounds of people bustling. Bright lights. A room full of white.
He only caught glimpses, unsure of where he was, who he was.
A machine beeped rhythmically from somewhere to his side.
His thoughts turned to a girl, brown hair and brown eyes, in tears.
Her words… what had she said? What had she called him?
A hero? Is that who he was? What he was?
Thoughts left him, as his world turned black.
"He nearly died?! He didn't look so gravely injured!"
The doctor let out a tired sigh, massaging his temples. All Might realized that he… probably overreacted a bit.
"Forgive me, Doctor. I do not mean to yell," he said, his tone softer. "I just don't understand. When I brought him in two days ago, he wasn't in too bad a shape."
"Most of his injuries were internal. I suppose it's to be expected, but almost every bone in his upper body took damage of some form or another. If what your students said is true, then he did a pretty damned good job of piecing his skeleton back together. Unfortunately, that does little to change the fact that many of his vitals had been pierced by the fragmentation of his bones," the doctor explained.
"It's also worth mentioning that all of these incisions on his vitals had been… cauterized. As had his bones, as though to force them to stay back together. It's done a remarkably good job of doing so, but regardless. By the time he got here, he had lost a lot of blood, most of it probably being from that initial impact. We had to give him several transfusions, and that's before even considering the more… nebulous issues."
All Might raised a brow to this. "Such as?"
"I suspect they're side effects of his quirk. To put it plainly, it was as though he burned through all of his body's supply of energy. Frankly, if his body hadn't been continuing to carry out its functions, I would have thought him dead. For the first day, he was effectively brain dead. Since then, his activity has increased, and in general, he's been recovering. At the moment, he's stable and open to visitors, but he is almost certainly asleep, and probably will be for a few days," the doctor said, the bags under his eyes reminding All Might of Aizawa, who had checked out the same day he'd been brought in.
"So, about the boy's quirk…" All Might began. "You're the medical official in charge of the first case wherein Young Midoriya's quirk has been a factor. As such, it falls on you to write it up and name it, doesn't it?
"Ah, right. His quirk is certainly an odd one. It's unusual to have a quirk with such an… extreme activation requirement, and for it to be one so out of the ordinary… there are many gaps that I won't be able to fill until the boy's awake. But I've done some digging into the boy's past, and while I am unable to tell you anything specific, his quirk seems to be a mixture of his parents', but if both of his parents' quirks had been hyper-charged. For the time being, it seems that this quirk, while exceptionally powerful, comes at a cost. It burns through his energy, both mentally and physically, and leaves him in a near catatonic state for up to a few days afterward. Not to mention that this quirk seems to be triggered by catastrophic damage to his own body, which his quirk seems well suited to repair as best it can."
All Might looked at the tired man expectantly. "And the name for this new quirk?"
"Given the activation requirements, and the stories I've heard from you and the media coverage, I believe I've found a fitting title."
A moment of silence passed.
"Tell me… how does Lazarus sound to you?"
Shota Aizawa let out a sigh. His computer screen had too bright a glow for his dark room, especially given the old story he had pulled up.
It was an article from around a year ago. A house had burned down, a mother died, leaving her quirkless son alone. His father, a pro hero called Vulcan, had gone missing seven years earlier.
A pro hero with the ability to breathe fire.
The insinuation was rather clear.
The fire had been determined to have started from a quirk of some sort, but despite the best efforts of the police, they couldn't get anything out of the boy who'd survived. He'd been traumatized and was silent during the questioning outside of saying that it was an attack.
His name wasn't listed in the article in order to protect the boy's privacy. His mother's, however…
Inko Midoriya. Mother of Izuku, the boy who had saved both Shota's own life, as well as his entire class of first years.
The boy who, as it would seem, had nothing left.
Shota looked into the boy as soon as he learned his name, curious about the person who would engage in such suicidal heroism, all to save a bunch of strangers. Last he'd heard, the boy was still out, though they'd stabilized him and didn't expect any permanent injuries.
Shota brought a hand to his face, feeling the bandage under his right eye, where the glass from one of the bus's shattered windows had punctured deep into his flesh. It was the only wound he retained from the incident five days ago, all others having been mended by the healing properties of the boy's strange fire. He wasn't a fool. He knew he should be dead.
Fire that heals and burns as the user chooses, and powerful telepathy that can enhance physical durability… according to All Might, Midoriya's doctor had dubbed the quirk Lazarus due to the… extreme triggering conditions. If the boy could use either of these abilities at will, he would be a real force to be reckoned with.
A phone call interrupted his thoughts. Squinting his eyes, he looked at the caller ID.
Yagi, Toshinori
Shota furrowed his brow. It was well past midnight, the time for phone calls having long since ended. He considered not answering, but immediately thought better of it. He knew All Might well enough to know that, for him to call at this hour, it must have been exceptionally important.
"Yeah?" His answer was short, simple.
"Aizawa. I hope I didn't wake you." Shota could tell by his voice that the Number One was in his weaker state.
"I wasn't asleep. What do you need?"
"I just got a call from the hospital. The boy, Izuku Midoriya, he just woke up."
"Mm. I'll be sure to visit then, give him my thanks. I appreciate you letting me know," Shota said, getting ready to say farewell, when the older man's voice gave him pause.
"Aizawa, there… there was something I wanted to speak to you about."
Taking Shota's silence, Toshinori continued.
"The boy, I've been thinking a great deal about his actions, as I'm sure you have. I… I don't know how to properly describe my thoughts, I'm afraid. But he… he has a heart more heroic than most pros I know. I also… I also know you have a free spot in 1-A."
Shota smiled ruefully, thinking back to the boy he had sent home on the first day. The kid had possessed a powerful quirk, but hadn't had what it took. Shota could sense that kinda thing. He also knew very well where All Might was headed.
"Look, Toshinori. I understand where you're coming from, and what the kid did was truly a noble and selfless act worthy of commendation," Shota began. "However, nobility and selflessness alone do not make a hero. For one, we're nearly a month into the semester. He would be so far behind everyone else, and would likely stay that way."
"For two, his quirk may have an insane amount of power, but we can assume he knows nothing about it, maybe even less than we do. If your power can only be triggered by taking possibly mortal injuries, then you have little hope of being a hero. Perhaps he can enroll in a different course, but the Hero Course… the boy nearly died, it wouldn't be healthy to send him off to his death once more. Hell, we don't even know for sure if he wants to go to UA"
"He did."
The silence stretched for a moment. Finally. A long sigh from the other end.
"Katsuki Bakugo, from your class, knew Midoriya when they were kids. It was… the boy's dream to attend UA. To become a hero, even seemingly quirkless. He… he was a top student, got high marks on every test he took in Junior High. He certainly had the grades and the mentality, not to mention the intellect, to get in. Bakugo has been asked a lot of questions by the police, but he knows even less about this quirk than we do. He says Midoriya seemed to fall off the face of the planet after losing his mother."
"Be that as it may, I will not send a child to die just to make him feel good about himself. With his current quirk, it would just be his fate."
Another stretch of silence. Another long sigh. A tired sigh.
"...Shota…"
His eyes widened, just a bit. Despite Toshinori insisting his friends and comrades call him by his given name, he'd never once called Shota by his own.
"Tell me. Hypothetically, what if the boy's quirk operated differently? If he could use it at will, and not just under threat of death. Would you consider taking him?"
Shota pondered it for a moment, thrown off a bit by the sense of gravity Toshinori had given the conversation.
"It… it would still be hard for the kid. He'd struggle to catch up. Keeping pace with his classmates would be virtually impossible for a long time."
"But you would consider it?"
"Yes."
The third pause. No sigh to accompany it, not this time.
"Aizawa, tonight, you will come to know a secret that very few people alive know about. I am trusting you to keep quiet about this."
A fourth pause. The longest so far.
"It is time… time you knew the story of my quirk. The story of One for All."
Green eyes snapped open. They looked around the room warily, looking for danger. This was not the first time Izuku had woken up in the hospital room, but it was the first time he had been fully aware of his surroundings. If he had to guess, based on the morning sun peaking through the windows, he had woken up sometime last night, and had been in and out of consciousness since then.
His memories were disjointed and confusing. He remembered being afraid, but happy too, in an odd way. A girl, tears in her eyes and blood on her face, telling him words he had forgotten he'd needed. A boy, tall and resolute, telling him to get to safety. The odd creature, beating him again and again and again. All Might…
Izuku snapped out of his thoughts when his eyes landed on the chair beside his bed. There, curled up with her knees to her chest in the seat, was the girl who had said those words. The one who snapped him out of the void, if only for a moment. The one he'd tried to help. He had failed, remembering the blood coated to her face, but she looked to be in good health. She seemed to be asleep, her cheek pressed up against her knee as she breathed slow, deep breaths.
Something about the image made Izuku flustered, but also gave him an odd feeling of peace as he watched her. He remembered shoving her away from that… monster. Everything after that was blurry. Everything, except…
"I don't know you, I don't know who you are… but to me, you're a hero!"
He remembered everything about that moment. The shock, the disbelief, the pain. The hope, the joy… the determination to prove her right. He remembered every strand of chocolate brown hair, dishevelled and messy. He remembered every feature of her face, tear-streaked and bloody. He remembered her coffee brown eyes, terrified and hopeful.
She… she was beautiful.
Even now, he could only stare. The sun caught in her hair, looking as though it was still in the process of rising. It gave her a halo of light, making her look like an angel in a t-shirt and gym shorts. The blush on her cheeks that seemed to just be stuck there, the slight snore she had…
It was all beautiful to Izuku.
He had to snap his head forward, feeling disrespectful for staring. Confusion hit him the moment her image stopped preoccupying his mind. Why was she here? To thank him? That seemed most likely, he assumed sadly. This was out of a sense of obligation, it was the most probable reason.
...but what sense of obligation drives someone to come visit at six-thirty in the morning?
In any case, all he could do for the time being was turn his head forward and eat the breakfast meal that had been left for him. Pancakes. They seemed very Western to the young man, but he wasn't going to complain. They had already been cut for him, in fact.
Half-way through his meal, he heard stirring from his right. The girl was waking up.
She stretched a bit, Izuku having to turn away when her shirt went up past her navel for a moment, before letting out a sigh. She looked at him for a moment, half-lidded eyes meeting his with a look of confusion.
Looking back, Izuku did find a certain level of humor in the way the realization hit her.
It was slow, starting in her eyes, which widened slowly. Her natural pink blush turned red, and her words were slow, stuttering.
"A-a-ah! Y-y-y-you're aw-awake! I-I-I…" She took a deep breath.
"I'm so sorry I was asleep!" She said, her tone much chipper and more cheerful than it was. She gave him a rueful, but good-natured smile, as she scratched the back of her head nervously. "I was hoping you would wake up a bit later… I hadn't planned on sleeping in the first place, but when it hits ya, I guess it hits ya…" She followed it up with a nervous chuckle.
Izuku just stared, his own face burning. He stuttered a few incomprehensible sounds, his mind effectively blank.
...She didn't seem to mind, though.
"It is great to see ya awake, y'know? I've been visiting every day since you've been open to having them, but we finally heard that you actually woke up last night! I came here as soon as I got the call from the doctor about it! It was… well, around midnight… that's why I'm in my…" she trailed off, glancing at her very loose fitting, very informal clothes. Her face darkened a bit more. "I… uhm… I'm really sorry about my choice of outfit, it didn't even occur to me, y'know?" More nervous laughter, until brown eyes met green once again.
Izuku was at a loss. She had visited him. Every day. She came in the middle of the night, not even stopping to change clothes. This was the first person to show him kindness since… since his mother.
Damn it, Izuku! She deserves a response, at least! Anything!
Glancing down at his hospital gown, and regarding the conversation at hand, he simply said what came to mind first.
"I- oh- I… it's fine! Your clothes are fine! I-I mean, I'm kinda naked anyway, basically."
There are moments in life when you will be reminded of your own shortcomings.
Sometimes these moments come as gentle reminders. Sometimes, they were harsh wake up calls.
Sometimes you tell the future love of your life that you are naked, in the first understandable string of words you manage to choke out.
And thus, Izuku Midoriya would be reminded, for neither the first or last time, of perhaps his greatest shortcoming.
You have no idea how to talk to people, you dolt!
Izuku opened his mouth to respond, but no words escaped him. His face was burning, his eyes were as wide as saucers, and he couldn't even bring himself to face her.
A moment of silence stretched out, neither speaking.
Then a very not girlish snort came from the girl.
Izuku glanced over in surprise to see her doubled over, shaking with barely contained laughter, her eyes squeezed shut, desperately trying to hold it in. Then, the dam broke.
That was how Izuku came to realize that, despite her snort, Ochako had a really, really girly laugh. He found that he loved it, even if the first time he heard it was, more or less, at his expense. After a moment, he cracked a bit too, a small laugh escaping him. It was… surprising to him. He hadn't laughed in a long time. A very long time.
After a moment passed, she looked back at him, taking a moment to regain her composure, before giving him a soft, kind smile.
"Why don't we just start over?" She said, before perking up. "My name's Ochako Uraraka! And you're Midoriya, right? Izuku Midoriya?"
Thrown a bit, he nodded stiffly. "Y-yes, I am. How… how did you know my name? Do the doctors know?"
Ochako nodded. "One of my classmates ID'd you. He said you two knew each other as kids? Katsuki Bakugo?"
"Tell me, Deku, does it burn?"
"Ka-Kacchan!"
"Does it? DOES IT?!"
"K-Ka-... Kacchan! Pl-... please stop! You're g-going too far!"
"ANSWER MY QUESTION! DOES IT BURN?!"
"YES! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"
"Dek-... Midoriya?" A soft voice called him back to reality. He fluttered his eyes a few times, the memory still fresh in his mind. He looked to Ochako to see her watching him with concern.
"A-ah, sorry!" He gave his best attempt at an assuring smile, though it didn't seem to do the trick. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised Kacchan got in to UA."
"Kacchan? That's so cute, you gave him such a cute nickname?!" She said, her eyes lighting up.
"W-well, y-y-yeah… we were friends, after all."
"Awwww! So, is that where Deku came from, too?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Ochako realized she had made a mistake. Izuku stiffened, his eyes falling to his lap. She didn't quite understand, until she considered the implications of a quirkless boy being nicknamed Deku. Weak, defenseless… useless. It was the kind of thing Bakugo would call a person like Izuku. Ochako went to apologize, before being cut off by Izuku's voice.
"I'm… I'm quirkless, you see. I-I… uh… it's just that when Kacchan fo-found out, he… well… you know how he can be, I suppose," he didn't meet her eyes, his words soft and quiet.
"Quirkless?" She asked, her mind flashing images of the boy shrouded in green flames. Suddenly, her tired mind recalled Katsuki's words.
"He didn't have quirks back then."
"Y-yeah… I always wanted to be a hero growing up, just like Kacchan did. I… I think in some way it kind of frustrated him that we wanted the same things, when he had the tools to get there and I… didn't…" Izuku said. "I… I'm s-sorry…"
His sudden apology caught her off guard. He sounded far too genuine. As though his mere existence was something worthy of being apologetic for. And the way he talked about himself, the way he said the word quirkless, something about it struck her deeply. A thought occurred to her.
"Midoriya, how well do you remember what happened, after you… saved me?" He made a face at that.
"Not too much, I guess. I remember All Might, and you helping me after I'd been injured. You had blood on your face though… guess I didn't do a great job at saving you," he said, an apologetic look on his features. Ochako stared at him, as though she were conflicted, unsure of what to say.
"Midoriya… I uh… I think I should go find your doctor… you have a lot to talk about."
Katsuki Bakugo had always been kind of a dick.
He was always okay, secure in knowing that about himself.
A shove here, an insult there. Most of the kids around him had been easy prey.
...One had always been easier than most…
At some point kids became kid. Only Midoriya was the target of his eire.
At some point, shoves became punches. Punches became sparks. Sparks became burns.
At some point, insults became shouts. Shouts became… something worse.
"Take a swan dive off the roof."
Katsuki remembered the day. The day he heard about the fire. The day Auntie Inko died.
The day Deku left his life forever.
...Until five days ago, when Katsuki watched the broken boy he once knew piece himself back together, bit by bit, bone by bone.
The boy he'd made fun of for being powerless, just to come and find that the kid had the power of a god.
He told the police everything he could, but he knew little. Deku's new… quirk, it perplexed him. Terrified him.
After everything, Katsuki was weaker than the child he had tormented for being weak.
The irony was not lost on him.
Ochako sat quietly, watching the green-haired boy as he stared at his hand, his eyes processing. The doctor had only just left the hospital room, showing the boy eye-witness footage of him using his power, his quirk, and explaining what exactly they thought it was.
She couldn't brush off the fact that Midoriya had looked… almost scared of the footage. Especially once the flames started.
"Midoriya?" She called out. No response. She leaned forward, touching his shoulder lightly. He flinched under her touch. Badly. The look of fear in his eyes multiplied for a moment before settling back down.
"Ura-Uraraka, sorry… It's just… kind of a lot to process, I g-guess…" he said, his eyes turning back to his hand.
"I imagine," she said, an apologetic look on her face. "I can't pretend to understand fully, Midoriya… I just haven't been through what you have. But even so, if you need to talk…" he glanced at her face as she trailed off. She offered him the brightest smile she had. "If you need to talk, I'm here to listen!"
This threw Izuku for a loop. She… she seemed so genuine. Izuku didn't necessarily have trust issues, but he was completely alien to the idea of strangers reaching out to him. Even so…
"I… um… I don't want to cause any… any trouble…" he said, his eyes falling low once more.
"It's no trouble at all, ya goof. If I can do anything to help, then I want to do my best!" Ochako said, her smile softening.
"It's just… you know that you don't like… owe me anything, right? I didn't… I didn't do what I did to indebt you or anything… I just-, I don't want you to feel obligated to do anything for me just because I saved you. I… didn't even do a good job, your face got all bloody," Izuku said, dejectedly.
"Midoriya…" Ochako began, but trailed off, searching for the right words. She gave a long sigh.
"Listen. There's a lot I have to say," a short breath in. "You saved my life. You spilled your own blood for me, and some of it got on my face. I wasn't hurt. You only helped me, you didn't cause me any pain." Midoriya was looking up at her now. "You saved more than just my life, y'know. It was me, my friends, my classmates, my teacher. You saved all of us. I meant what I said, when I told you that to me, you're a hero." Tears had come to his eyes. "You saved me, when you didn't even know you had a quirk. You had every intention of dying for some girl you didn't even know the name of. You saved the lives of a class of students, it's because of you that the school even knows about it. Izuku Midoriya, you said you always wanted to be a hero, but you're completely oblivious to the fact that you already are!"
Izuku broke down into tears at this, holding his face in his hands. After… after so many rejections, so many people telling him that he could never be what he wanted to be… it was hard to fathom that someone truly believed him to be such a thing. Distantly, he recalled the words of the woman he had loved most.
"I'm sorry, Izuku."
She would never see.
Tears of joy, at this stranger affirming him, and of pain, at his mother not seeing his development, streamed down his face together. His sobs were cut off by a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Ochako standing over him as he sat in his bed, a sad smile on her face, matching tears in her eyes. All at once, he stiffened, as she pulled him close to her, into a soft hug. He shook as he sobbed, trying to relax into the unfamiliar embrace, but something kept him from it. One of her hands wrapped around, bringing his head into her stomach as he cried.
"After you saved my life… my friends' lives, a thought occurred to me." Her hand tussled through his thick hair comfortingly. "We are all indebted to you, Midoriya. We can never repay you. But this isn't about debt, or who owes who. All I know is what I want." Midoriya pulled back a little. Ochako had a slight blush from the closeness, but the determination burned like fire in her eyes. "Bakugo… he told us about you. He told us that you… didn't have many people. That you don't have friends." She took a breath. "I… I want to be your first!" Izuku was pulled back in, closer and tighter this time, sobs coming out harder than before now as he relaxed into her arms.
A friend.
He had a friend.
Izuku Midoriya would look back on this moment often, even decades later. This woman, who had known him for thirty minutes, turned his life around.
And he knew, there and then, as he sobbed his broken heart out, that Ochako Uraraka was the best thing to ever happen to him.
