"What happened here?"

Izuku looked around, not believing in what he saw. His wide eyes were jumping from one direction to another, seeking something that in his mind was normal. At least, a general an idea of what the world around him should look like, which he has not forgotten.

Izuku fell and clutched his head in panic.

'This is a dream, right? I'll…I'll wake up and remember everything!'

He pinched himself. Hard.

'Wake up, damn it!'

A new, strange feeling reacted to Izuku's distress. It felt like a calm wave of chill air, coming from somewhere deep inside him, and spreading through his body – calming him.

Panic quickly disappeared, and Izuku found strength to stand up.

He had no choice.

'I guess I have to figure everything out myself'

Izuku approached an abandoned car that looked mostly undamaged. It was bent in a few places – the result of hitting something, and it couldn't be a simple car accident. Dents were in different places, and there were no other cars close enough that would hit it.

On the ground next to it was a stain of blood. Izuku crouched to wipe it with shaky hands.

'Almost dry…'

Whatever happened here – it wasn't that recent, but at the same time he wasn't sleeping for weeks either. Before he stood up, Izuku noticed something strange on the ground.

'Hm?'

He looked closer.

A small…something was spreading through blood. It was very small, thin and red in color – like a vein. Izuku looked to see the other end of this vein, but it was going far beyond his vision.

Whatever, it wasn't important now. He needed leave this place.

There was no sun and no moon. There wasn't even a single cloud! Something was blocking the sky – some giant construct, and he couldn't see neither the beginning nor the end of it. It had to be built somehow, right?

…

How long did it take to build this? Izuku was certain he didn't sleep for that long. His gaze lowered back to the street.

Beside occasional fire, they were lit by street lamps. Someone had to work to make sure these lamps work. So, wherever he was, it was inside a construction that was most likely built by people, and someone has to work in power plants to keep the electricity. Which brings an obvious conclusion - there were people somewhere. Now, he needed a way to leave the city and find them. Reach them. A clear objective, but…easier said than done.

'How will I do it, though?'

He had no idea where he was. He needed to find a direction.

Izuku got into car, which wasn't locked. With all the debris lying around the road using it would be problematic.

'Map…map…map…'

He rummaged through the car and found a phone that most likely had a map installed…and it was password locked.

Damn it.

'I can't stay abandoned here!'

Slightly frustrated, Izuku got to the trunk. There has to be some first-aid kit, and maybe even a map, right? Izuku tried to open it, expecting the lid to be heavy. He applied some force, but in result tore the lid from fasteners.

"Eh?"

Holding the lid in his hands, he noticed that he barely felt it in his arms.

'Is this my quirk? Did I have some kind of enhancement quirk?'

Damn it, not remembering anything sucked. At least now he knew what his quirk was. Maybe that was the reason he could jump from fourth floor without even thinking?

'Why can I see in dark so nicely, then?'

His powers were a mystery. Maybe it was not an enhancement quirk, but some form of adaptation quirk?

Izuku took the lid in one hand and waved with it. Yes, it was too light.

Better test the quirk now. Wait, no, he needed to check the trunk first.

Once more, he couldn't find any map around here. That meant that he had to go in direction away from what looked to be the center of the city.

New tasks, then. Get some food, a backpack and start going…and, of course, test his quirk.

Izuku looked around to make sure nobody was around and readied his fist. He was gathering his strength, and noticed that his hand started turning black and something red was glowing inside. What got his attention, however…

'Why are my clothes turning black as well? What the hell is my quirk?'

He punched the car, expecting a good dent. What he didn't expect was for car to fly a good dozen of meters away…

'Woah! Definitely an enhancing quirk-'

…and crash into building, making Izuku cringe from the amount of noise he made. Izuku immediately froze and listened to his surroundings in hopes he didn't bring too much attention on himself. Hearing nothing, Izuku sighed in relief…

Only to widen his eyes as he heard a cacophony of shrieks and groans. With wide eyes and his mouth agape, Izuku quickly ran towards the apartment where he woke up as fast as he could, leaving cracks on the road.

Once inside, he locked the door and leaned against it. For some reason he expected himself to be tired from such a sprint. He instinctively started breathing harder, but quickly realized he wasn't winded at all.

Izuku quietly got to a window in the kitchen and peaked on the street.

Something was already walking around the car he accidentally sent into someone's house. Then a second person appeared, then third…and then they just didn't stop coming, it seemed. Izuku noticed that they were moving quite strangely – either limping, using all four limbs, some even crawling. Their covered in blood faces were full of rage, but they didn't show any intellect. Some had claws, some looked like reptiles and other animals. Izuku could see at least one person that looked way too much like a hero, with spheres of fire rotating around him – considering how close he was to other…others, he was burning their flash with his fire, to which they barely responded.

'What the hell?'

They looked like humans, but certainly didn't behave that way.

Some of those creatures were different from others - they were so ugly Izuku felt like throwing up. On their heads they had boils large enough for Izuku to notice even from such distance – that covered almost half of their faces. One of their arms were deformed – the original, relatively small human hand was broken with bones sticking out of the skin. However, that human arm was just a small part of a larger hand, made of red flesh, and had large claws.

The chilling feeling washed over Izuku again, calming him down. Izuku got away from the window with a sigh. With all the destruction, blood and lack of any bodies around – there was only one logical choice.

'I should avoid these things'

Hiding inside, Izuku decided to check the apartment again. It wasn't empty – the fridge was still working, and the cupboards were scarcely filled with food.

Returning to the room where he woke up, he carefully looked through the desk. He found one more phone, but once again it was locked with a password. The same with PC. That only left him with school belongings, and a backpack he needed.

There, among the notes and books he found a burnt journal that was signed.

Midoriya Izuku.

"This is mine…"

He was sure of it. That was his name, after all. Right?

Izuku looked around once again, and saw similar notes on shelves.

"This room was mine"

So it was his home, after all. Did he live alone? There was another room, so the answer was most likely no. He didn't even want to go and check it – despite the strange chilling feeling that calmed him, he was afraid to know for sure that he, at some point, wasn't alone. If they were fine, they would be there when he woke up.

What happened to them? Did they turn-

Stop.

Don't think about it.

Don't.

Izuku sighed and sat near the window in his room. Only the sounds of working fridge and a crowd of human-like creatures were interrupting the silence.

He got a knife.

Obviously, it wouldn't be way too useful in a fight…certainly not better than his own hands. However, one strange moment was worth examining for sure.

Izuku clenched his fist as if preparing to punch, and felt how his hand felt stronger with every moment. Once at its peak, its color turned into black with slight red glowing beneath it.

'There!'

For some reason, not just his hand, but the sleeve of his T-shirt was turning black along with his arm.

'So I didn't just see things. It did change color!'

Was it because his clothes were made from his hair or…

"Ouch"

Izuku tried to slightly cut the t-shirt…and felt it. He felt everything T-shirt touched. Once again, with wide eyes, Izuku was at loss of what his quirk is supposed to be.

'This shirt is part of me? This is nonsense!'

Izuku ran through his notes on quirks, but all of them were straightforward. Their concept was obvious and understandable.

But his?

Strengthening powers that were on level of people who trained their quirks. Perfect eyesight even in darkness. Chilling, calming feeling. And now even his clothes were part of Izuku. What was his quirk? What will he say once people ask him?

'Why didn't I leave any notes on MY quirk here?'

*BOOM*

Izuku heard an explosion and quietly approached the window. He noticed that those creatures were quickly getting to the area where the explosion occurred.

After waiting a minute, Izuku got his backpack with some food and left the place.

The streets of the residential area weren't exactly hard to navigate. The buildings weren't high enough to block the view of the city center. However, walking such big distances wasn't exactly pleasant. Now the area didn't feel as quiet – Izuku started to pay a lot of attention to every sound around him. Since there was no visible sky, he couldn't understand what time it was.

How long was he walking, exactly? Minutes? Hours? He should have taken the phone – this way, he would at least now the time.

"Ghrk"

Izuku widened his eyes and turned to the source of the sound, ready to run. In a few meters away from him was one of those human creatures. It had no legs, but was still trying to reach for Izuku, making barely hearable noises. Why wasn't it crouching towards him, though? He saw some of them doing this already.

The chilling feeling calmed Izuku down again – he really needed to understand the reason behind it. But not now.

Izuku slightly approached this creature from behind. The fingers of the creature turned into large blades, but Izuku was far enough from the thing to not be in danger.

'Is it this person's quirk? Or is it something that is common for those creatures?'

It didn't look like the claws of those strange bulkier creatures, so it was a quirk, then.

Now he could see the reason the creature was immobile – its lower body was rooted by those red veins Izuku saw earlier.

Izuku was about to get away from it when…

DEVOUR

Izuku felt pain spreading through his body...Or not. Was it even pain? The feeling was strange – as if he hungry and had a bellyache because of it…only to feel this bellyache with his whole body. Izuku fell on his four.

DEVOUR

What's happening? Something inside him was trying to get out, something he couldn't understand yet.

This creature on the floor. It looked so defenseless despite the claws. So weak.

'What is happening to me?!'

DEVOUR

The creature was trashing in place, still trying to get to him. Izuku succumbed to the feeling he had no idea how to resist.

He watched with horror as black tendrils shot out of his body, reaching the creature on the ground and breaking it. It was still trying to resist, but in a matter of seconds it was wholly absorbed into Izuku.

Izuku couldn't adverb his eyes from now a wet spot on the ground that was at one point a human.

Then, a flash in his eyes blinded him for a brief moment and he shut his eyes.

"** could l**e close t* th* *ea!"

…

"It* * *oy!"

…

"**u're fi**d! G*t o*t!"

…

"Urgent news: A red **ue started-"

…

"Run!"

…

"AAARGH!"

Strange visions filled Izuku's mind.

He saw a woman, a house close to sea, a newborn son…

Urgent news about something red. Screams. Panic.

Izuku concentrated on them, and felt like he could find them somewhere in his head. Like, he could access them at any point.

No, those weren't just visions. It was memory! Memories of the person that was in front of him. It was corrupted, damaged, like a disk that was thrown out of the window and then plugged inside. He could see glimpses of it, but not the whole picture.

When Izuku opened his eyes, he stared at his arms…

Which now looked like they have grown a layer of black unruly flesh…and all his fingers turned into large blades – almost half meter long.

It was the same power that the absorbed creature has shown.

"Enhancement quirk, my ass. What the hell is my quirk?!"

Izuku stared at the place where he found the creature once more. There was no sign of it. Only red veins spreading through the blood, absorbing it. Izuku covered his eyes and gave out a hysterical laugh.

"So I actually did it. I…I killed it…He had a family! I c-could see his son in his memories and-"

Izuku already expected that chilling feeling to calm him down. He hoped it would dull everything he felt at the moment.

What he didn't expect was for the feeling to be several times stronger. What was chilling and pleasant now was freezing him from inside.

Izuku's face lost any signs of emotions, and his eyes lost its bleaks. It didn't look like a face of an alive human being.

He stood up and stared at blood.

'Whatever it was, it was not a human.'

This feeling was not going away – that creature left a bad taste in his mouth. Literally. For some reason, Izuku knew that a normal human would feel different.

'How do I know this?'

These creatures were hyper-aggressive, and could survive loss of half of their bodies…and they could use quirks. In his emotionless state Izuku knew he will have to kill them in self-defense.

Luckily, he had a new set of tools for it.

Izuku stared at his new arms. He flexed his fingers a bit, giving up the idea of figuring out his quirk. He will have to find out about his abilities on the way – at least for now. It seemed that in addition to everything he could do before, now he knew he could absorb those human-like creatures and imitate their quirks.

With a mental signal, the black flesh on his arms retracted into his body along with the large claws.

Now, his hand looked like normal…

…or more human-like?

Izuku wasn't sure what to think.

"What am I?.."

Hot wind and growls in distance didn't answer.