Chapter 4

.:. Five Years Later .:.

"Bye mom, I'm off to school!"

"Alright dear, have a good day!"

Izuku waved to his mother as he headed to the door, buttoning the last button on his gakuran jacket and tugging his backpack over his shoulder. The second he opened it he froze though, finding himself greeted by a heavy sheet of rain beyond the walkway leading to their apartment. "...Mom, I think I need an umbrella," he called.

"Kiyomi-chan again?" his mother called, sounding faintly amused, and he sighed as he nodded. His mother soon appeared holding an umbrella and a clear plastic poncho, helpfully tugging the latter over Izuku, bag and all. Now properly equipped to brave the rain Izuku ventured outside once more, his mother waving all the while.

When he reached the first floor he found a haggard-looking Yumamori-san, one of their neighbors, standing next to a sulking little girl. Seven-year-old Kiyomi had a rather adorable Quirk called Mermaid that gave her shimmering scales of many colors along her limbs and neck, along with gills to breathe underwater.

As of three months ago, she had also developed a second Quirk, which as far as they could tell created small, centralized rainstorms when she got upset.

"Rough morning?" Izuku asked with a smile, and the girl's mother smiled tiredly.

"Kiyomi-chan really doesn't want to go to school," she explained with a tight laugh, and Izuku shot her a sympathetic smile. He felt a bit bad for the woman, as Kiyomi's tantrums had caused her to miss more than one day of school since the storms could happen indoors too. He'd seen a lot of furniture come and go since the second Quirk manifested, and naturally her school wasn't too keen on her ruining her classrooms.

"Hang in there," he said, and headed away from the storm with a small sigh. The radius is a bit bigger today, he noted, as the rain covered part of the neighboring building as well. Either Kiyomi's Quirk was getting stronger as she matured, making it harder to control... or she had zero control issues and was doing it on purpose. It could go either way with that girl. At least it got lighter once you moved away from the epicenter.

He ditched the poncho a block later and put it in a plastic bag he'd started carrying just for Kiyomi's storms, glad to have shielded his backpack. The year had only just started, but he'd already gotten a major paper assigned that he'd spent hours on last night. He'd rather not have it ruined. He still felt embarrassed remembering having everything ruined the first day.

Izuku didn't dwell on it long, as halfway through the walk to school a familiar voice called out. "Midoriya-senpai, wait up!" He felt himself smile as he turned to see another boy with red hair and a white headband with a honeycomb pattern racing towards him, waving excitedly.

"Hey, Hachinose-kun," he greeted. "Rare to see you in the morning. You usually get to school first, don't you?" The other boy grinned and folded his arms behind his head, matching Izuku's pace as they continued to Aldera.

"Yeah, but my mom overslept. Do you have any idea how hard it is to wake her up?"

"Not really...?" Izuku replied, and the other boy paused.

"Oh right, you've never met her," he realized aloud. "Anyways, she's like impossible to wake up. We used to joke she had a secret second sloth Quirk back before, y'know." He shrugged vaguely, and Izuku nodded, his smile just a little tighter as he turned forward.

"Yeah." It had now been five years since the Second Quirk Boom. Even now, no one understood just what caused so many people to suddenly spawn a second Quirk, and why so many others had turned into monsters that day. The only things people knew for sure was that it only seemed to impact people in Japan that day, and that for the most part, children or people with "weaker" or more passive Quirks were more likely to get one.

Overall, not many people got directly impacted by the boom though. It was estimated that all across Japan a little over two thousand cases existed total, including the people who became monsters and villains who didn't report it. An exact number hadn't been found, in part due to the fact that some people only manifested the second Quirk later. Honestly, the original estimate had been closer to half of the current one, but over the past five years it seemed that the second Quirk was just dormant in some people until some stressful event made it manifest.

That was how Izuku got to know Hachinose Rikuto, his underclassman. The boy had been nervous about starting at Aldera, his family having moved to Musutafu all the way from Hokkaido for his father's work. The stress of starting middle school in a new place surrounded by strangers had caused his second Quirk to activate. Carapace, as they came to call it, was a transformation-type Quirk that caused his skin to shift into a crab-like shell.

Needless to say, it had been a traumatic experience for the younger boy. Izuku happened to be passing by the stairwell where he'd hidden, and had ultimately talked him through his panic attack. Since then they hadn't necessarily become friends, but they occasionally spoke at school and Izuku helped him figure out how to use Carapace as well as Hexagon Shield, his original Quirk.

Right now, Hachinose was one of only a handful of students at Aldera to spawn a second Quirk. There was a girl in his class who could control the length of her hair and now had the added ability to trace bioluminescent patterns in her skin. There was another boy in his year who could see in multiple color ranges, including in infrared, and then got the ability to burp rainbows (Izuku had already filled three whole pages debating with himself about whether the two Quirks were somehow related). It was weird, but neat.

Last year they'd also had a boy who could breathe in any environment, and then got one that let him basically realign and move his bones whenever he wanted. That had been interesting, though most of Izuku's classmates disagreed. Izuku missed him, he always smiled and was friendly to him. Probably because Izuku was one of the only kids who didn't treat him badly.

In any event, Hachinose stood out at their school as the only kid whose two Quirks could actually be pretty good for Heroics. For that reason, he had become fairly popular so they didn't hang out too much. But Hachinose always went out of his way to smile and say hi, since Izuku had been the first one to help him understand his Quirks.

Even now, Hachinose excitedly chattered about some of the progress he'd made since the last time they spoke. "Look, I can make them bigger now, see?" he said, rolling up his sleeve to show the hexagon tiles printed on his arm. He grabbed one and peeled it off, the marking filling with a translucent reddish-orange energy, and Izuku perked up as it expanded to roughly the size of his head.

"Wow, it really is bigger!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Last time it was closer to this size!" He made a gesture with his hands to show the original size, slightly smaller than the current tile, and Hachinose grinned.

"Yeah, it's awesome! I still have trouble making multiple hexagons though, it feels like if I make them bigger I'm limited in how many I can make." Hachinose's original Quirk, Hexagon Shield, allowed him to pull off the hexagon markings and basically use them as shields. The shields could float freely, and he could connect more tiles to make them larger.

To that end Izuku suggested helpfully, "Maybe instead of making them bigger, you should try to remove more at once then? They'll all connect in the end anyway, so you might be able to cover more space." That had Hachinose perking up.

"Quantity over quality, huh?" he mused, and beamed. "Yeah, I'll try that later! Thanks, Midoriya-senpai!"

"No problem," Izuku replied, and the two fell into a companionable silence as more students came into sight. Soon enough some of Hachinose's friends appeared to usher him off, leaving Izuku to finish the walk to Aldera alone. His smile faded slightly as he adjusted his grip on his backpack's straps, stepping through the gates with a slightly heavy heart. As he got closer to the classroom he could hear more and more whispers, but he did his best to ignore them.

The Second Quirk Boom had left an indelible mark on everyone in Japan, whether it impacted them directly or not. In the case of the Midoriya family, it stood out for two reasons. First, Inko had developed a second Quirk they later dubbed "Burst Dash" which allowed her to launch herself forward short distances with a destructive momentum. It also came with added durability, which was good news considering what happened when she first manifested it. Even now, they still called it "Crash" sometimes.

Second: Izuku had not gotten a Quirk.

It had been disheartening to realize that even now, while several other Quirkless people had reported gaining a Quirk that day, he had not. His classmates had been less than pleasant after realizing this, mocking him even further. Izuku tried not to let it dishearten him too much, but for a while he'd been particularly despondent since his dreams of being a Pro Hero seemed to be even further out of reach.

Still, he didn't let himself lose hope. The rise of people discovering their second Quirks later gave him silent hope that his might just be another late one. The fact that Hachinose, who was already in middle school, could develop one then seemed to encourage the fact. Even Kiyomi had only manifested hers this year; it wasn't impossible that his might be there right now, waiting for the right moment to make itself known.

And if he didn't get one... Well, he'd become a Pro Hero anyway. Izuku had his heart set on that goal for as long as he could remember; he wasn't going to give up just because he might not have a Quirk.

As he slid into his seat and got out his notebook, he couldn't help the curl of longing in his chest though. With the advent of the Second Quirk Boom, Izuku's fascination with Quirks hadn't just grown stronger. It had been allowed to bloom and reach new levels, his hobby reaching near-professional levels of expertise by the time he started middle school.

There had been a lot of people who suddenly needed Quirk counselors, which led to a long wait time. Izuku already had a reputation at school for obsessing over Quirks, so it hadn't taken long for some of his classmates to approach him for an opinion for themselves or affected family members while they waited to meet actual professionals. It was a nice reprieve from the constant isolation and bullying, so he'd been more than eager for the opportunities.

The collection of notebooks once titled "Hero Analysis for the Future" had been redubbed simply "Quirk Analysis" to reflect the new variety of Quirks featured inside. After speaking to so many different classmates, neighbors and other people's Quirks, he had already reached Volume 20. Even some of his classmates who didn't get a second Quirk had come to him for an analysis of their own Quirks. Beyond just being given more opportunities and information to practice with, people actually relying on his skills for once had also gotten him to brush up on a lot of the actual academic and medical research behind Quirks, at least what was freely available online and at the library.

It didn't change the fact he was alone though. At the end of the day he was still the weird Quirkless kid who mumbled to himself all the time. Some people might be a little nicer now, but they weren't friends. And Kacchan made up for any leeway he might have gotten from his other classmates.

The blond stalked into the classroom with a scowl like always, but this time he seemed a bit angrier. Considering he was partially drenched, it wasn't surprising. Izuku winced, realizing he must have crossed paths with Kiyomi and her mother. Usually Yumamori-san took the seven-year-old to a candy shop to try to calm her tantrums, and that shop intersected with Bakugou's route to school.

He shrunk back as Kacchan stalked to his desk, dropping the backpack on the floor with a wet squelch before plopping into his chair. Thankfully his ire didn't seem to be directed at Izuku this time, more just directed at the world as a whole. That, and moving a lot in a wet uniform would be annoying. Still, by the time lunch rolled around he would be dry enough and probably take out some of his frustration on Izuku.

The thought made him bite his lip. Once, he and Bakugou Katsuki had been best friends; even now he still considered the other boy one of his only friends. But after Izuku got diagnosed as Quirkless while Kacchan manifested the ever-flashy Explosion, a rift had grown between them. Bakugou had taken to taunting and bullying him, getting harsher and harsher over the years.

Most of the bullying took the form of verbal abuse, with some shoving and fighting here and there. Occasionally he'd make an explosion in front of Izuku to startle him, and sometimes he'd burn some of Izuku's stuff. Fortunately Bakugou never used his Quirk directly on Izuku outside of a few instances as children, mainly because he understood how dangerous and volatile that power could be. Kacchan might've been… well, an asshole, but he wasn't a villain.

Izuku quietly sighed to himself as the teacher arrived to call the class to order. Today was probably going to be stressful.

Izuku was right: today was stressful.

Surprisingly Bakugou hadn't bothered him at lunch, but some other kids had instead. The bento his mother had painstakingly made had been spilled on the floor, the contents inedible, and Izuku had to get food from a vending machine instead. At least that paper for literature was safe and dry. Bakugou had actually exploded since his own paper had been ruined by the water.

On a brighter note, Bakugou had decided to vent his frustrations on Hachinose instead.

Normally "venting out his frustrations" would be a bad thing, but in this case it was honestly more amusing than anything. Hachinose's second Quirk had made him a bit of a celebrity overnight at Aldera, the combination seeming to guarantee him a one-way ticket to heroics. Previously only Bakugou had been a clear contender, so to have an underclassman steal his thunder had sparked his competitive side.

What made it amusing was that Hachinose didn't know who Bakugou was. Izuku had tried to explain it to him multiple times, but it never seemed to click with the younger boy. Hachinose vaguely recognized Kacchan as "that upperclassman who always challenges me" but never retained why. Izuku honestly couldn't tell if Hachinose was genuinely forgetting, or just messing with him.

Every time Kacchan challenged him to something, it ended with the blond yelling in frustration regardless of the outcome. Even today, after winning a speed eating contest at lunch, Kacchan had been left fuming when Hachinose congratulated "Bakuno-senpai" on his victory. Izuku thought Hachinose just enjoyed all the free food offered by their classmates.

It had been a funny break in an otherwise long and stressful day. Eventually the day came to an end and Izuku headed home alone as always, though before he left he found some tacks in his shoes. It wasn't often people targeted his stuff like that—Kacchan actually got pissed whenever it happened because it was so "cowardly" in his view—but Izuku had gotten in the habit of checking just to be safe.

After pouring the tacks onto the floor and getting some startled and concerned looks from the other kids around him, Izuku had decided he'd earned a treat.

One text to mom to let her know he'd be late and half an hour later, Izuku sat at a small bakery eating a slice of chocolate cake. On days like this he felt it important to treat himself so his mood wouldn't get too low. He browsed hero forums on his phone idly as he ate, snorting at all the memes and clicking every discussion or analysis that seemed interesting.

While scrolling down the page one title caught his eye and Izuku nearly choked on his cake when he read it: 'All Might in Musutafu?' He quickly jabbed the link with all the force he could muster, and found a thread discussing rumored sightings of the Number One Hero in Musutafu starting this morning. Izuku nearly squealed with delight as he read each post, a few people chiming in to claim they'd seen him firsthand.

Why would All Might be in Musutafu? The man traveled all over Japan fighting villains, but Musutafu wasn't a crime hot spot or anything. If anything, the proximity to UA made it one of the most well-patrolled cities in all of Japan, if not the whole world. When you had dozens of Pro Heroes all taking a day job at one location, they tended to like patrolling nearby to keep the commute short.

Maybe if he got lucky, All Might would be here for a few days, and he'd be able to see All Might in person? Actually, what if All Might was patrolling right now? His body began to thrum with excitement at the thought, and he nearly inhaled his cake in a rush to finish and go searching for his idol. In his rush, he ate a little too fast though, and nearly choked on it for different reasons than before.

As he choked a heavy hand patted his back a few times, helping dislodge the sweet from his throat. "Slow down, kid!" someone chuckled behind him. "I know the cake's good, but you should savor it, not try to eat it all at once!" Izuku took a few breaths to make sure his throat was clear before turning in his seat with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I guess I got a little excited," he said with a half-hearted laugh. "I just found out some really great news, and I wanted to hurry up and go." The man who'd patted his back merely smiled, seeming more amused than annoyed. He was incredibly tall for someone without a mutation Quirk, with shaggy-looking blond hair and bright blue eyes that contrasted his lightly tanned skin. He had a rather lanky build, not too thin but still less muscular than he'd expect of someone of that height.

"That's alright, but don't rush or you'll choke," he warned, and Izuku nodded.

"Right, thanks." He turned back to finish his cake at a more sedate pace, after which he dumped his trash and hurried out to go find All Might.

Unknown to him, his hopes would be in vain and also had already been half-answered. The man he wanted to see had just left the same restaurant Izuku had, his work already done for the day before Izuku even saw the post. It was an unremarkable encounter, one neither would have reason to remember.

However, in a mere twenty four hours they would meet again.

And when they did, nothing would ever be the same.

Fun fact: the stranger who saved Izuku from choking accidentally got a hair on his cake, but Izuku inhaled it all so fast he didn't notice.

Also to anyone who's worried about Hachinose being a main character and taking over the story like a lot of OCs tend to do, don't worry. He's a recurring character, but he's also an underclassman so he won't appear too much, especially after Izuku gets into UA.

Very slow chapter overall, bit of a transition, but next time is when the action REALLY kicks off.