TW: Mentions of suicide, blood and violence.
[Chapter 1]
A tiny alarm rings within a tiny apartment.
In this apartment lived a boy named Midoriya Izuku, but it was not his arm that reached out at his bedside clock. A slender, petite hand emerged from under the covers, tapping the snooze button with careless ease.
The alarm clock shattered into a thousand pieces from the impact.
A frightened, confused squeal echoed through the room, and a girl sat up in Izuku's bed. Her hair was a ruffled curtain of bright emerald, blonde highlights falling across a pair of heterochromatic eyes. She stared at the ruins of the clock, gears and plastic strewn all over the floor.
Green and yellow pupils grew wide as the girl looked at her trembling hands, then at her ample bosom. Deep, uneven breaths escaped her wobbly lips, tears beading at her eyes. The girl leapt from the comfort of Izuku's bed and sprinted into the bathroom, gasping when she saw the mirror.
"It wasn't a dream…" she mumbled, poking herself in the chest and recoiling. "It wasn't a dream!"
The girl reached down between her legs and felt around, her expression twisting into one of dawning comprehension and absolute horror.
"Oh no."
[Yesterday. Fifteen minutes before The Incident.]
Izuku was a Quirkless fourteen year-old who wondered if he should die.
That's what his once childhood friend Bakugo Katsuki had been telling him for the past few months. Ever since that day in the creek, Bakugo had hated him. Izuku didn't understand. Why? Did Bakugo really hate him so much, just because he didn't have a Quirk? All Izuku ever wanted was for them to be friends again.
Why?
The bitter taste of iron lingered in Izuku's mouth. He limped a little as he walked through the lonely streets of Musutafu City, leaving wet footprints behind him. Bakugo and his cronies beat him senseless again, this time even throwing his shoes into the school's swimming pool.
Izuku sniffed. He was cold, that's all. It wasn't like he was crying or anything.
The Musutafu bridge stuck out in the distance, a monument to the economic powerhouse of Japan. Izuku walked towards it as if he was in a trance, not really feeling like going home tonight. His mother worked the night shift anyway, so nobody would be there to greet him.
So here he was, lonely little Izuku. All alone atop a bridge.
Izuku frowned and glanced down at the dark waters below, reflecting the moonless night above. Bakugo's words still rang in his head like a bell, thunderous and echoing. Useless, worthless Deku. You should just disappear. You're nothing, less than nothing. Fuck off, you piece of trash.
He remembered the fists, the heat, the smoke. How long could he keep living like this? Perhaps it was a trick of the light but Izuku could have sworn he saw his reflection laughing at him, beckoning him closer.
Just die already, shitty fuckin' Deku!
So he spat at it.
"Go to hell, Kacchan." Izuku muttered under his breath, fists clenched. "Just for that, I'm gonna live as long as I can."
If only he was brave enough to say that to his face. Naturally, Izuku didn't want to die. No matter what Bakugo said, how hard he beat and bullied him, Izuku refused to break. If anything it made him stronger.
But with that strength came introspection. Izuku knew how his Quirklessness made him an outcast, a social pariah. Even if he worked his entire life, he knew he simply couldn't match up to his explosive bully when it came to physical prowess. The reason for it was simple; as long as one had a Quirk, they were an evolved human. A metahuman.
With the prefix "meta" meaning "beyond", it was an appropriate term for the people of the new century. These new humans were leagues stronger, tougher, smarter… a far cry from the old humans of the past. Unfortunately, Izuku belonged to the latter.
Izuku sniffed again. He knew he wasn't being realistic. A Quirkless hero? Sure, there'd been one or two in the past. Some of them even fought with tech. But they trained hard for years, whereas he didn't even have the motivation to pick up a dumbbell. To be fair, it was pretty hard to do anything when you got the shit beat out of you on a daily basis. Even so, Izuku didn't want to give up. Not now, not ever. He would keep his chin up and keep moving forward.
The same could not be said for the other boy on the bridge.
[Five minutes before The Incident.]
Izuku didn't see him at first, the other boy's black gakuran school uniform camouflaging him within the shadows until the headlights of a truck flashed across the bridge's length. He was staring at the water like Izuku had been.
But he was standing on the wrong side of the bridge's safety railing, standing over the edge precariously. His tattered shoes were placed neatly to the side. The boy's bare feet were placed against dirty red metal, one foot already dangling over the edge. Another step and he'd fall right into the river below, into certain death.
"H-hey." Izuku started to move before he even knew it. "Hey, you!"
The boy turned to look at him, brown eyes red and bloodshot. It was clear he'd been crying recently. His messy, light brown hair billowed in the wind, and Izuku took note of how small the boy was. But a middle school uniform… they had to be around the same age.
"Wait, please!" Izuku gasped, coming to a stop from his sudden sprint. "Please, d-don't jump."
"Why not?" the other boy said slowly, turning to him. "I've got nothing left. Nothing but these bruises."
Another truck barrelled down the lonely bridge, its lights illuminating the boy's face. A black eye and bruised cheek decorated one side of it.
"Nothing." he repeated, voice dead and lifeless. "Nothing left to live for. They beat me, hurt me, laugh at me… I've had enough of it all. I just want it to be over. Maybe if I jump, everyone will know."
His hollow eyes met Izuku's green ones.
"Maybe then I'll finally be something."
"I… I was called nothing too." Izuku gulped, frantically trying to stop the other boy from jumping by any means necessary. He barely even knew what he was saying. "They called me Deku."
"Like the tree?" the boy asked. "Or the wooden doll?"
Buy time. I've got to keep him talking.
"The doll. They got it from my name, you see." Izuku replied, nodding along. "My, um, my name's Midoriya Izuku. Who are you? I, um, what's your Quirk?"
The smaller boy blinked, as if he was hearing the question for the first time in his life.
"...I'm Matsuda Kenji." he said. "My Quirk allows me to make Sleeping Gas."
As much as Izuku would have liked to geek out and find out everything he knew about a new Quirk, he knew he had a responsibility to help save this person's life. He instead ran a dozen different responses through his head, picking the best one that would hopefully stall for more time.
"T-that sounds really cool! U-um, are you planning on using it for work when you grow up? I'm sure you'll make a great hero!"
Izuku was not a trained negotiator. He wasn't even good at socializing. But he was going to do his best to distract the suicidal boy anyway, using topics he was keen about.
"Aren't you gonna tell me what your Quirk is?" Matsuda ignored his question. "Everyone laughs at me for mine."
"Why would they laugh? Your Quirk has tons of heroic applications!" Izuku began, then winced and shied away. "I, um, I don't have one, by the way."
The other boy's eyes widened at that last part.
"Oh. Is that why?" His gaze focused on Izuku's own bruises and wet shoes.
"Y-yeah."
Matsuda looked him up and down, a hint of sadness clouding his features.
"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
"Not as much as you, it seems." Izuku extended his hand. "C-come on. We can talk this out. Get a sandwich or something."
The boy looked at him tiredly, then at the water below. There was no trace of anger within those eyes, just exhaustion. Izuku knew how it felt to be tired of everything, to just want it to be over so he could finally have some peace and quiet. Every time he tried to tell someone they just pushed him away. Izuku would not make the same mistake they did.
Matsuda took his hand after a long minute of contemplation, and Izuku saved his first life.
Perhaps it was nerves or the reality of the situation finally crashing down, but Izuku collapsed to his knees the moment Matsuda was safely away from the edge. The other boy actually bent down to check on him as Izuku hyperventilated, barely able to believe what just happened.
"A sandwich?" Matsuda asked, eyes still dull. "Really?"
"I-I was hungry!" Izuku exclaimed. "Sorry, I didn't know what to say."
Izuku stood up and blinked. Now that he could get a proper look at him Matsuda really was tiny, with Izuku being a full head taller. The short haircut the younger boy sported didn't manage to detract from his girlish features, and the unblemished side of the boy's face had pale creamy skin that many women would be jealous of. His school life must have been pretty rough.
"We can talk more later. Now let's—" Izuku began.
[Musutafu City, Japan. The Incident.]
Izuku heard it before he saw it. A high-pitched sound that cut through the night sky like a razor through flesh.
He and Matsuda looked off into the distance, where there was a crack like an aircraft going supersonic, followed by the same, haunting sound. It chilled them down to the bone. A sound that could make grown men cry.
A young girl screaming in pure agony.
They saw it high up in the air, a trail of sparkling light in the wake of a golden fireball. Two shadows chased after the miniature sun, a pair of winged demons pursuing Helios' chariot. Izuku and Matsuda could only watch, frozen where they stood as the battle happened above.
The fireball kept screaming, with Izuku not understanding what he was seeing at first. He thought it was a battle between hero and villain, but this was something else. The shadows dived down and around the fireball, clawing and biting with each pass. A pair of eagles, tearing out the liver of Prometheus. The two boys were not prepared when the trio headed for the bridge, and right at them.
A series of cracks split the air when the light accelerated, smashing into the bridge with the force of a runaway freight train. The deafening impact was mere meters away from the two boys, sending them flying backwards and rolling painfully across the asphalt. It was a miracle that the bridge remained empty, with no speeding cars that would have crushed them into paste when they landed.
From the fireball's crater and dust rose a girl. A Magical Girl. That was the first thing Izuku thought of when he saw her, the only way he could describe her. A figure from the Saturday morning anime he used to watch had come to life.
Disbelief slowed his movement, his thoughts, his common sense. A closer look pulled back the veil and reminded him of a harsh reality. The Magical Girl was broken, bleeding, sobbing. Her blonde hair was burned and torn in places, her golden dress dyed red with blood. A river of crimson ran from her eyes, nose and ears, the girl putting a hand to her belly to stop her insides from falling out.
"Nho…" she managed to choke out, voice wet and gurgling. Her jaw was broken. "Nhot like thish."
A pair of demons descended near the fallen angel, their hands and mouths bright red with her blood. Their jet-black wings blasted a gust of wind across the area, causing dust to swirl and churn around everyone like a sandstorm. Matsuda took a step back in fear, but Izuku refused to move.
That girl is going to die. She's going to die if I don't do anything.
"What are you doing?!" Matsuda hissed, now very much wanting to live. "We gotta get out of here!"
"W-we have to help." Izuku turned to him, eyes wide with terror. "Matsuda-san, use your sleeping gas Quirk on them! Knock them out!"
"What? They're villains, dumbass!" Matsuda trembled, grabbing his hand. "A hero will help her later—"
"We have to help her now!" Izuku shouted, beginning to retrieve a handkerchief from his bag. "Use your Quirk!"
In hindsight, maybe he should have just kept his big mouth shut. His sudden shout attracted everyone's attention, including the two monsters. They turned to face him, and Izuku wished they hadn't.
One of them was eyeless, completely faceless save for a thin flap of skin that served as its mouth. Beneath that skin were eight pedipalps, grasping and twitching. The other monster had too many eyes, an entire cluster of them all across its face and neck. This one hooted like a monkey, and slowly advanced towards Izuku while flailing like a madman.
Whatever they were, they weren't human. Not anymore. Both abominations had exposed brains, wet and pulsating under the dim street lights lining the bridge's edge. They charged, and Izuku screamed.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as they leapt for him, arms outstretched. In the background he could still see the injured Magical Girl from before, crying. She looked towards the sky, then back at them. Was she preparing to run? He could hear the shuffling of feet and a pair of arms grabbing, trying to pull him away. Why wasn't Matsuda using his Quirk? He should have asked him about it earlier…
A massive hand coated in jet-black skin was closing around his head, ready to crush it like an empty soda can. Was this how he died?
As it turned out, it wasn't. The Magical Girl came swooping down, a falling star in the shape of a person. Her sparkling fist cut across both the monsters' faces in a vicious right cross, dodging a hammerfist that shook the entire megastructure. The section of the bridge they were all on started to collapse from the blow, steel shrieking and twisting while concrete crumbled like plaster. She grabbed him and Matsuda to fly off the bridge in an attempt to help them escape, and Izuku couldn't help but notice how young she was. She was his age, maybe a little older.
There was no more time to think when a serrated blade the color of night burst out of the girl's chest, splashing both boys with her blood. Izuku tasted iron on his tongue. She screamed again, something in her voice snapping. The blade was an elongated arm of one of the monsters, and Izuku saw it smile as it drew closer.
Though heavily wounded, she refused to submit. The girl stood tall and defiant, now with something to protect. Never had they let her get this close. She drew up strength from out of nowhere, her left hand pulling at the arm stuck in her wound while her right hand glowed with an otherworldly golden light. Both boys held on to her waist for dear life.
A thunderous crack split the air when her hand broke the sound barrier… and cored through the monster's head like a bullet through cheese. The other monster raised its fist to smash her face in, and Izuku made his move.
A pocketful of coins were hurled right at the monster's multiple eyes and exposed brain with all the force he could muster. The distraction only lasted for a split second, but it was enough for the girl to twist her hand outward and wrench at its brain. Her fingers dug into soft pink flesh like glowing hooks, the beast letting out an unholy shriek as it lost all control of its motor functions.
Whatever she did crippled it. It fell like a rock and into the river below, and so did the other monster's corpse when she pulled its arm out of her with a pained whimper. Just like that, it was over. The ending to the battle was just as jarring as the start, the chaos fading out like smoke on the wind.
Izuku's head was pounding, his breathing short and ragged. Five minutes or less. All of that, all that lunacy and madness in the span of how long it would take for him to make a sandwich. The boy nearly laughed at the absurdity of it all, or perhaps at how glad he was to be alive.
He didn't feel like laughing anymore when the Magical Girl began to fall with them still in her grip.
The girl's eyes were closed, her golden glow now flickering like a faulty lightbulb. Izuku understood what was happening at a glance. She'd been running on fumes, and that final attack used up the last of whatever was keeping them afloat. Matsuda began to howl as they plummeted, all three of them heading for the icy waters below.
No, no, no!
"Wake up!" Izuku cried, the wind roaring in his ears alongside Matsuda's terrified screams. "Miss, wake up!"
The water was a sheet of black glass, racing up at them. At that speed and height they would splatter against it like bugs on a car's windshield. Izuku saw the reflection of Mustafu City, and wondered for the third time that night if he was going to die.
No… No, mom… Back then, what I wanted you to say was…
Izuku cupped the girl's face, refusing to give in.
"You can do it!" he shouted. "Wake up!"
And wake she did.
Her eyes fluttered open, and the world tilted on its axis. The three of them were a water drop tumbling into an endless well, three in one and one in three. Izuku did not know how long they kept falling, but they must have hit the water by now.
They didn't. A pitch-black abyss surrounded the trio, swallowing them whole. They were in a lightless, sunken place; dancing shadows and clouds of fog meeting Izuku's gaze. A rainbow shone like a beacon at the very end of the darkness. His mind couldn't comprehend what was happening, and neither could Matsuda. The boy kept screaming all the way down…
He finally stopped when he turned into a swirl of purple light. Izuku looked down at his hands to find that he too had transformed, his body now a blurred cloud of glowing emerald. Between them the girl was a plume of golden-yellow flames. Izuku saw how her color mixed with theirs, green-yellow, and yellow-purple.
Power surged through him like an electric current. Power, overwhelming. Fire from Prometheus. It was from this inferno that Izuku rose, reborn. A newborn springing from the blood of a god, made in her image.
A new pair of yellow and green eyes opened just in time to see a purple streak shoot off into the night sky. The last thing Izuku remembered was a little voice who asked which way to go.
Home. Let's go home.
[Musutafu City, Japan. Now.]
"It wasn't a dream." Izuku said to himself… herself. She had a female body now. "Oh God, it wasn't a dream!"
It took everything in Izuku not to freak out and scream her head off. Her immediate thoughts were in regards to the lack of a certain something in her pants, like what any rational man would do first. Then she began breathing slowly and deeply in an effort to calm herself, staring at her new body in the mirror. Her fluffy hair was neater and so much longer, a lighter shade of green that cascaded all the way down to the small of her back.
The girl in the mirror was more cute than beautiful, heterochromatic yellow and green eyes wide with disbelief. There were no freckles on her soft, round cheeks, the blemishes replaced with what looked like a pair of black clover-shaped symbols. Izuku gave one of the symbols a cautious poke and then a little pinch, only to find that it wasn't some sort of sticker or a tattoo. It was a natural part of her skin.
"Oh nooooo." she groaned, twirling about in her pajamas. "Oh nonono, this can't be real…"
But it was. The new body was nothing like her old one, and Izuku felt as though a veil had been lifted over her eyes. Her reflexes, senses, and strength seemed to be a hundred times better than what she had before. Just tapping the alarm clock earlier was enough to smash it into pieces. Izuku wondered what would happen if she punched something with all her might.
On the bright side, she was very pretty. Izuku blushed as she faced her reflection once more, hardly able to believe it was her. She looked like the kind of girl boy-Izuku would have a massive crush on yet wouldn't dare to talk to, all sugar, spice, and everything nice.
Izuku shook her head rapidly. Focus, dummy. Her thoughts drifted back to the suicidal boy on the bridge. She remembered him screaming, then transforming into a ray of dazzling purple light. There was a rainbow—
The girl held her head, a sudden, throbbing pain squeezing through her temples like a vice grip. Everything went fuzzy when she tried to think about the rainbow. Izuku groaned, searching for her phone. She found it placed neatly on her desk like always, as if the events of the night before had never even happened.
The fact that she was wearing her male form's All Might pajamas didn't escape her. Had she just flown home, changed, and went to sleep subconsciously? The thought of it scared her to the core.
Shaking fingers typed the words 'Musutafu Bridge' into the smartphone's search bar and Izuku was rewarded with a series of news articles reporting about last night's incident.
All of them were inaccurate. Izuku soon found out that no one knew of what truly transpired, with the majority of faraway eyewitness accounts detailing the battle as just another fight between three unknowns, a vigilante and two villains. The reports mostly detailed the collapse of the bridge's central section, the fight itself a mere footnote. There wasn't any news about a missing boy either, so Matsuda must have gotten away. He had to.
"Izuku?" a woman's voice called out, knocking at the bedroom door. "Are you in there?"
Oh no.
Izuku wasn't thinking when she flung the windows open and jumped out, barely even realizing what she was doing. Her hands were cupped against her mouth as she inexplicably hovered just above the window, eyes wide while Midoriya Inko walked into her son's room and looked around.
"Huh. I could have sworn I heard something…"
Only when she left did Izuku look down at herself in amazement, finding emerald particles sparkling around her. It was a veil of light that shimmered atop her skin, a coating of fairy dust that kept her afloat.
"I can fly?" Izuku whispered.
She proceeded to shoot into the morning sky, leaving a trail of twinkling green in her wake.
"I can fly!"
The young girl soared, all fears and worries temporarily pushed aside in the face of exhilarating joy. Izuku had been powerless all her life, but now she felt as though she had all the power in the world. Somehow the Magical Girl's power had been passed on to her, an intoxicating gift that was far beyond her wildest dreams.
Thinking about the girl that saved her life caused a shift in the air, a brilliant glow suddenly overlapping her clothes. Alarm surged through her at first, only to be replaced with confusion when the glow solidified into a flowing green and white dress.
"Oh wow…" Izuku whispered. She wondered if this was her Quirk which finally awakened, the power to mimic another person's looks and abilities.
She glided above the river that led to the Musutafu bridge, admiring her reflection in the water. Besides the dress a pair of emerald and gold earrings now decorated her cute little ears, a dull golden brooch shaped like a flower styling a portion of her voluminous hair into a ponytail.
Izuku's giggling turned into a rapturous cheer as she rocketed upwards, pure joy thundering through her veins while she spun and danced in the air. The dream of a Quirkless, useless Deku had finally come true.
Soon she reached the bridge from yesterday, glancing around for any sign of the other Magical Girl. Repair crews and their construction bots were carefully milling about the edge of the damaged segment, but there was no trace of the girl or the monsters that attacked her. Izuku even did a quick search of the riverbank below, and still found nothing. She hoped she managed to get away safely. The only proof that the entire incident even happened was her new body.
Izuku's thoughts turned to her old, Quirkless original body and wondered how her new power worked. One of the things she discovered was that the twinkling particles around her were actually some sort of forcefield, shielding her from the wind whilst she flew atop the city at the speed of a fighter jet. It must have been what allowed her to fly too, seeing as the golden girl had a similar glow around her body.
As for her male form, there had to be a way to switch back. That was how it worked in those shows she watched as a kid, so her new powers should work the same way.
Hopefully.
Eventually Izuku landed on the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper to do a little experimenting, half out of necessity and half out of worry. If she couldn't change back to boy-Izuku, she'd be living like this for the rest of her life. While not a particularly awful fate, she wasn't sure if she wanted that. For one, what would her mother think when she realized that her son was now her daughter?
Knowing her, she'd probably faint.
"Okay…" Izuku took a deep breath, trying to ignore how sweet her voice sounded. "Okay, I can do this! I just have to focus!"
She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating with all her might. An emerald pupil peeked open half a minute later to see if it'd worked. Nope, she was still shiny and pretty.
"Eh. Um, maybe there's a device that allows me to transform?" Izuku looked around, then started patting herself down and checking her pockets. The frilly dress didn't have any, and she turned bright red after glimpsing an equally frilly bra beneath the cloth. "O-oh. Sorry."
She fiddled with her earrings and brooch, expecting there to be a button or something. She even held them up and did a little pose, wondering if it'd work that way. Unfortunately, nothing happened.
"There's got to be a way to change back somehow… Maybe if I focus on the idea of turning back into a boy?" Izuku began mumbling, dozens of theories and ideas coming to mind. "U-um, change!"
She felt ridiculous as she held her hand out, wriggling her fingers awkwardly.
"Reverse! Transform?"
She tried various other words and girly phrases. Still nothing. Izuku was getting really worried now. Maybe saying it and posing would work? This Quirk, or whatever weird power it was, seemed to work based on those old TV shows for children. No harm in trying. Izuku struck a pose, mimicking a famous masked hero from the Golden Age.
"Henshin!"
The rooftop was bathed with a sudden flash of light, a loud bang resonating from where Izuku once stood. When the radiance faded the pretty magical girl was no more, and standing where she stood was weak, freckled, plain-faced Izuku who was still in his All Might pajamas.
"I'm back…" Izuku whispered, staring at his hands with relief. "I did it. I did it!"
He could still feel the power thrumming within him, just waiting to be unleashed. Izuku smiled like a child on Christmas day, tears starting to bead at his eyes. He wasn't useless. He wasn't nothing. He wasn't a Deku. With this new power…
He could be a hero.
"Wait, how do I get down from here?"
[x]
Izuku naturally kept his new abilities a secret from everyone, even his own mother. He wasn't planning on telling anyone except maybe the other Magical Girl from yesterday, just to give her his thanks. If he ever found her, that is. There was still no news of her despite him trawling through the internet, so he really hoped she was okay.
The next day arrived, and it was time to go back to school.
Aside from Bakugo and his cronies, most of the class tended to ignore Izuku out of fear that they'd end up like him. Sure, they laughed when Bakugo laughed, but none of them outright targeted him like the blonde boy did. They were content to leave him alone to his mumbling.
As for Izuku he was busy taking down notes in Hero Analysis for the Future, sketching girl-Izuku in her dress while speculating on what she could and should do. He still hadn't picked a hero name for her yet. 'Clover', because of the markings on her cheeks? 'Luminous', because of the sparkling aura around her? He'd have to do some more thinking.
Unlike all the days he spent in Aldera Middle School, Izuku was smiling today. He grinned dumbly throughout the entire school period, not even daunted that his classmates mocked him after their homeroom teacher mentioned how Izuku wished to enter the infamous U.A. High School after graduation. He just ignored them, keeping his head down when they laughed and jeered.
His cheerfulness soon faded when Bakugo strode up to his desk after class, two of his pals following behind.
"Oi, Deku." Bakugo growled, crimson eyes narrowed with hate. "What the fuck do you think you're smiling about, huh?!"
He tore the notebook out of Izuku's hands, glancing at the title.
"What's that, Bakugo-kun?" one of the nameless extras asked. "Hero Analysis for the Future. Seriously? How lame!"
"C-come on, give that back!" Izuku stood, his lower lip trembling.
Bakugo said nothing, not even bothering to open the notebook as he placed it between his palms. There was an explosion and Izuku's heart sank, his neat little book now scorched and smoking.
The blonde bully casually tossed Izuku's hard work out the window, glaring at the boy he once called his best friend.
"I'll be the first and only hero from this shitty public school. Get that through your fucking head." Bakugo's expression twisted into a malicious grin. "In other words… don't even think of applying, shitty Deku."
His smoking palm landed on Izuku's shoulder, and crushing fear spiked into Izuku like a thousand barbs. But beneath that fear was something new, a tiny little ember that grew within the green-haired boy. A flame of courage. Izuku looked right into the blonde's eyes, hands curling into fists.
"Go to hell, Kacchan." Izuku spat.
Bakugo blinked, clearly surprised at the sudden retort. Then the words sank in and his face twisted with rage, and before Izuku knew it an explosion bloomed across the right side of his face. The boy fell with a yelp of pain, ears ringing, vision blurred.
A brutal kick lanced into his gut, Izuku gasping as the air was driven from his lungs. Bakugo snarled, stomping on him while the poor boy curled up into a ball in a desperate attempt to protect himself.
"What was that, huh?! Did you finally grow a backbone, you little creep?!" Bakugo sent an explosion down at him, the heat so strong that it scorched his clothes. "Guess what, you're still nothing. You're just a worthless, Quirkless, Deku!"
The blonde placed his shoe on Izuku's head, grinding his heel down to drive in the point.
"Don't you ever forget it, nerd. You wanna be a hero so bad?" Bakugo kicked him one last time, his cronies snickering. "If you think you'll have a Quirk in your next life, go take a swan dive off the roof!"
Bakugo and his bullies soon left, but not before they hauled Izuku's backpack into the air and dumped its contents out the window. Izuku sniffed as he got up unsteadily, limping his way down the corridors. His fists were still held tight in resentment.
"Oh, Midoriya-kun."
His homeroom teacher from earlier blinked, then looked away when Izuku made eye contact. He'd clearly seen the state the boy was in, the bruises, the burns. Yet he still looked away. He always did, no matter what Izuku said. Eventually, Izuku just stopped speaking to him.
"...Try not to fall down the stairs again." the man grumbled and walked away.
Izuku glared at his back, fury roiling in his heart. His teacher clearly cared more about his paycheck than his students, more concerned about how the school would get a reputation boost if Bakugo actually did get into U.A. The little ember in his chest cried out at the injustice, and Izuku swirled the blood in his mouth before spitting it out at his feet.
The boy ventured to the back of the school, gathering his belongings that were dropped from the fifth storey. He eventually found his notebook floating in one of the fish tanks, nibbled at by hungry koi.
"That's not food, dummy…" Izuku sighed, pulling out the book. A drop of blood ran down his nose and fell into the tank, one of the large fishes gulping that down instead. "Ew."
Izuku cleaned himself up to the best of his abilities, not wanting to make his mother worry. He decided to turn his thoughts away from Bakugo and towards his new powers, still wondering what he should call her. He hadn't even come up with a name for his Quirk yet. Was it even a Quirk? Or was it actually the other girl's power that she had somehow transferred to him?
Izuku scoffed. A Quirk that could be passed down to others? How ridiculous.
Whatever. He continued to walk home, heading into a tunnel. A name, a name… it had to be cute. Catchy! A Hero's name reflected what they wanted to be. What did Izuku want to be? A hero who always saved the day, just like All Might. Someone who inspired hope in others whenever they appeared. Someone people could call a—
"—medium-sized body to hide in."
Izuku froze, head swiveling about. Behind him stood a tidal wave of dark green mud in the vague shape of a man, sickly yellow eyes with red pupils boring into the boy. Izuku took a step back, but it was too late when the wave crashed down on him, the revolting green sludge invading his mouth and nose in a matter of seconds.
A villain?!
"Don't worry, I'm just hijacking your body." the sludge villain gurgled, coiling around Izuku's thin body like an anaconda. "It'll only hurt for about forty-five seconds, then it'll all be over. I'm saved.. You're a real hero, kid."
No! Izuku panicked, clawing at the sludge only for his fingers to rake through it harmlessly.
"I'm fluid, kid. Just give up already…"
Izuku refused to. He would never give up, not now, not ever. Beneath his feet his notebook fluttered open, the page displaying the sketch of his alternate Magical Girl form. The boy clenched his teeth, and managed to say a single word even with his mouth choked with sludge.
"Henshin!"
He exploded in a flash of light and sound.
The monster reeled back with a screech of pain, parts of its sludge body burnt and smoking while the sections closest to Izuku had been vaporized completely. Izuku growled and wound up a fist, a furious yell building up in her throat.
Her arm lanced forward in a haymaker, splattering the villain all over the walls of the tunnel with a wet, disgusting pop when he burst like a soap bubble.
"Eh?"
Izuku blinked and looked at her gloved fist, then at the walls covered in villain. After a moment she raised her arms in victory, yelling with triumph.
"Yeeeeeaaaahhhh!" Izuku cheered and pointed at the unconscious pair of eyes on the ground, the villain knocked out by her punch. "That's what you get! Woohoo~!"
The manhole cover behind her exploded off the road and hit the ceiling with a deafening clang, a muscular arm hauling an all too familiar figure through the cavity.
"Have no fear!" All Might announced, his smile wide as ever. "I AM—"
Izuku froze, staring at the number one hero. All Might stared back, halting in surprise once he noticed how his target was already defeated.
"—here. Huh, that's new." All Might coughed, then straightened. "It seems that you've already taken care of this brute in self-defense, young miss! For that, you have my gratitude! Apologies for getting you involved in my villain hunt, but he was quite the slippery one!"
"W-w-w-wha…" Izuku's eyes widened with awe, ignoring the pun. "You're All Might! The number one hero!"
"Yes! It is I." All Might flexed his massive arms, dressed in his civvies instead of his hero outfit. The trademark All Might smile and flex! "Now don't you worry, I'll clean this up in a flash!"
So he did. All Might zoomed about for a few seconds and the villain was successfully stuffed into a large bottle which the hero then shoved into one of his pockets. Izuku couldn't stop squealing in excitement, having finally met her idol in person.
"All Might, it's really you! I-I'm a big fan! Huge! Super-huge! I've got almost all your posters and collectibles and… Oh, I need an autograph! Um, w-where…" Izuku stammered, searching around for her backpack until she realized it vanished along with her male body. Her notebook was still on the ground so she quickly grabbed it, opening it only to find the hero's signature already there. "Uwaaaa, you already signed it! Oh my gosh, thank you so much~!"
"No problem, young miss! That's a very nice cosplay, by the way." All Might gave her a winning smile and a thumbs up. The trademark All Might thumbs up! "Or are you an aspiring hero, young lady? I never got your name."
"O-oh! I'm…" Izuku looked around, red from embarrassment. "I'm, um…"
As if by fate she happened to see an advertisement featuring the Snake Hero: Uwabami, the supermodel tossing her lustrous hair back while promoting the bottle of shampoo clutched between her head-snakes.
'All new Black Mamba shampoo. No more frizzles, no more split ends! Absolutely miraculous!'
"I'm Miracle!" Izuku announced with confidence. "It's a real honor to meet you, sir!"
"The honor is all mine, Miss Miracle! Keep up the good work!" All Might laughed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must bring this fellow to the authorities!"
"W-wait, that's it?"
"No time for a meet-and-greet, I'm afraid." All Might crouched low, tensing his legs to jump. "A pro hero battles not only evil, but also time. Until next time…"
Then he leapt into the sky, the force of his jump generating a blast of wind so strong Izuku had to quickly hold her skirt down.
"...Thanks for your support!"
The number one hero was gone, now a dot in the distance. Izuku stared blankly at it, then turned her attention to the man's autograph in her notebook. All Might's autograph.
She hugged it close to her chest, letting out another happy little squeal. She got to meet All Might, talk to him, and even got his autograph!
This is the best day ever!
[Chapter 1 End]
Thank you for reading!
There'll be some changes from canon, since the sludge villain does not escape All Might's grasp. Also, there's no shipping in this fic. At least, I don't think so. The kid from the bridge, Matsuda, is Mustard from the League of Villains before he joined. He doesn't have a canon name so I had to make one up.
Izuku's girl form is really cute. You can see what she looks like on the title/cover or here on my deviantart: [ tealeafcustom/art/My-Hero-Academia-Magical-Miracle-Midoriya-927221335].
Also, this fic is rated T for now but will be subject to change due to dark themes and heavy violence later on. Just a heads-up.
Hope to see you in the next chapter.
