Izuku learned real quick that not all men are created equal. It was a cruel truth, but a truth nonetheless. That truth had been beaten into his head both figuratively and literally. Ever since he had turned four years old, the greenette had been bullied and ridiculed by everyone in some fashion. Sometimes it was verbal assault, other times it was adults dismissing his complaints or turning a blind eye, and sometimes he was outright attacked and physically abused for being a "defective relic of the past."
Not even home was safe anymore. While Inko Midoriya had tried to be supportive of her son, he eventually became too much of a hassle and has developed some nasty tendencies the past year. It certainly wasn't easy with his father Hisashi leaving when he was first diagnosed as quirkless, but things seemed to escalate rapidly once he entered Aldera, and for no discernible reason.
Izuku was left asking himself why he was treated so poorly as he scrambled out of the school's front doors. The words of his former childhood friend still ring in his mind: "Take a swan dive off the roof and hope for a quirk in your next life, Deku."
"I'll show you, Kaccha- Katsuki," he mumbles to himself as he digs around the puddle to find his analysis notebook. "I'll get into U.A. and become a hero, quirk or no quirk." The viridian-haired boy finally finds his book and picks it up, but he feels something brush against his ring finger while bringing it up. It's only now he notices what looks like the corner of a thick book jutting out from under the mud at the bottom of the puddle.
Having his interest piqued, Izuku immediately gets back down and digs through the puddle to expose more of the odd book. How long has this been here for it to be buried like this? He thinks to himself as he exposes the full bottom corner and starts to pull. A better question, I guess, is who misplaced it so long ag- "ACK!"
The boy tumbled backward onto his behind as the book came loose all at once. Regaining his train of thought, he picks up the book from his chest, stands up, and looks at the cover while he starts to walk home.
Upon examining the book further, Izuku has taken note of how ancient it truly looks. Weirdly enough, the language on the front is in a language foreign to him, but he was still able to understand the title as the word "Necronomicon." A bit ominous, but there's not much that could get worse. It seems to be a leather-bound tome, and that's nothing to say about its size. It looks and feels to be a thousand pages easily. Despite its appearance giving off an ancient vibe, it's in pristine shape.
"How did something manage to hold up for even more than a few hours submerged in mud and water…?" Izuku questions as he finally opens the book. He's unable to finish his thought before he's blasted by a wave of purple energy, knocking him unconscious.
/
When he wakes up, the greenette seems to be in some sort of void. Looking around, all he can see is a vast expanse of blackness with a gray floor. Weirdly enough, despite no light or heat source, the void feels warm, almost like a welcoming hug. Shaking the minor headache away, Izuku stands up and tries to explore. Where the hell am I? What is this place?
"Welcome to the Spirit Plane, young Izuku," a smooth, gentle voice calls out from behind the green-haired boy. Turning around with a start, he peers his head up to meet the gaze of a woman about a foot or so taller than him.
The voice continues, "My name is Libitina Varon, and I was the keeper of the Necronomicon before you. You're okay, dear, I promise. I placed a part of my soul within the tome so that only those who are pure of heart may claim the relic."
"I'm sorry, keeper? Claim?" Izuku responds, flabbergasted. By this point, his eyes are bigger than dinner plates, and he'd surely have sweaty and shaky palms if he could feel them. Come to think of it, he can't feel his body despite being able to see it and move around. He returns his attention to Libitina in front of him. "I haven't made any real claim to this book, I just found it and took it with me to study it." A dark expression glazed over his eyes. "B-besides, there would be way more useful people it could go to than a quirkless Deku like myself."
Without any warning, Izuku feels even more warmth. It takes a second, but he finds it to be Libitina hugging him. He didn't even hear or see her move. Was he that wrapped up in his own mind, even for a second?
She starts to whisper in his ear, "I chose you, Izuku. I've been searching through the eyes of the book for thousands of years, waiting for someone who both needed this power and was worthy of it." She pulls away and places her soft hands onto his shoulders, somehow easing all of the stress within Izuku's mind and body. "I'm sorry if this isn't something you expected or wanted, but I can feel that you were meant to have this power, the power to become the next great necromancer."
It doesn't take long after that declaration for a few numb tears of relief to drip onto the warm gray floor of what Izuku has gathered to be the Spirit Plane. "N-necromancer? D-doesn't that involve, you know… death? Killing or bringing back the dead?"
Libitina chuckled at his question. "Technically yes, but after my awful mentor passed and gave me the Necronomicon I vowed to use its power for good, and to be ethical and kind with it. Necromancy at its core is communicating with the dead and using magic that can affect the living and the dead, but it is not evil or good by nature. It is a necessary and neutral power, and the wielder of said power is what determines its purpose in the world. For millennia before me, it was almost exclusively used by evil and corrupt individuals. I changed that and broke the cycle of evil. Though I didn't like it, I wound up being revered as a goddess in a region that you call ancient Rome. I protected the world from evil forces and only rose the dead when necessary and with explicit consent from the souls I rose. When I finally died, I used a fraction of my soul to enchant this book so that only one with a pure, incorruptible heart may see it and claim the power to continue my legacy. I can feel that within you, Izuku. You are worthy of wielding the great power of necromancy to protect the world once again."
Libitina swore if this child's jaw could drop any more than it already has, it would break through the ground. Those green eyes sparkled with a level of determination she hadn't ever seen in her entire life. She also noticed the bittersweet tears start to flow as his smile wavered. This poor kid must've gone through so much more pain than she could have seen from the book outside that blasted school.
Izuku wiped his eyes and steeled his resolve more than he ever had before. With this power in hand, he now knows he can truly become a hero. He will become a hero. He will become the greatest hero the world has ever known. Looking back up to Libitina, he flashes a strong smile. "I don't know if I even could reject it if I wanted to, but I don't want to anyway. I accept this power, and I promise to do good by your name, Libitina. Th-thank you."