What's this? An early update? YOU BECHA KIDS. This week was a very special week for me so I'm making it a special week for you dear readers!

Also, I think many of you are hungering for a better idea of what Izuku's quirk looks like, so prepare to have your appetizer.

Hope you enjoy!


"IZUKU!" The moment he stepped inside the house his mother was upon him.

Inko's hair had grayed in some places where her usual coloring had faded, something that Izuku always somehow felt responsible for. Especially at times like this. She immediately grabbed him by the shoulders and guided him to the living room where she basically threw him onto the couch and stood over him, fretting and angry and anxious all at once.

"Where have you been? I was worried sick!"

"Mo-"

"You're not hurt are you? Was it that Katsuki Bakugo again?"

"Mom I-"

"I'll strangle that boy one of these days! Just you wait until his mother-"

"Mom!" The teenager finally broke his mother's intense, anxious focus and breathed out a slow, long breath. "I'm fine, it's fine, just sit down and I'll explain it, okay?"

Inko did as she was asked and took a chair adjacent to her son, her eyes still fixed intently on him though she said nothing.

"I- and don't freak out, okay? But I was attacked an-"

"ATTACKED!" She was back on her feet again within a heartbeat. "You were attacked!? By who! When? What happened? We need to call the police right now I-"

"Mom! Seriously!" Izuku had to put both his hands up now and a weary, but still slightly amused, smile broke out on his face. "Please! I'm fine! Sit down and let me explain."

Inko sat down again, this time with far more reluctance and with an oddly suspicious frown on her face.

"I was walking home and just, you know, minding my own business when this, I don't know, sludge villain came at me." He ran a quivering hand through his messy hair. The memory was still causing his stomach to curl in fear, he had almost died after all and that wasn't something one got over so quickly. Especially not when he'd had it almost happen before. Was death really that eager for him? Well, knowing the thing it probably wanted him to die so it could finally crawl back into whatever corner of hell it had come from.

"Sludge villain?" Inko asked cautiously, her hands tightening and untightening in her lap. "What did he look like?"

"He was like, big and green and… made of sludge." Izuku shrugged weakly. "He, erm, well, he almost suffocated me."

"Oh God." Inko's hand rushed to her mouth and her eyes grew wide.

Izuku could immediately see what was coming and he quickly pulled the collar of his shirt down. "But I'm fine! See! No marks! Just the usual ones, heh." He let his collar go and went back to looking at the coffee table as he recalled the events. Besides, he knew this next part would be the part that frightened her the most. "I, well, I had to use the thing."

The room went cold. The color utterly drained from his mother's face and her mouth hung open just slightly, Izuku could almost hear the breath escape her lungs. He swore that every time he mentioned using the thing his mother aged another year, no wonder she had grey hairs and crow's feet.

Finally, she spoke, her voice gut-achingly quiet. "Did- did anyone get hurt?"

"Well, the villain was pretty messed up, but no one, you know, died I guess." Izuku wished he could curl up into a ball under the gaze of his mother. Secretly, however, part of him hated that look, the one that simply presumed that if he used the thing someone had been terribly hurt, that automatic assumption that he had no control over it whatsoever.

What made him hate it the most, however, was that it was true.

"But I did fight him off, probably scarred him for life…" Izuku mumbled off to himself as he looked to one side, his linked fingers tightening against his knuckles. "And then- And then!" He looked up suddenly to his mother, his eyes lightening up and a grin appearing on his face. Odd how his mother seemed to again frown in suspicion. "All Might appeared! And Mom, holy crap Mom, he was amazing! Well I think he was, I got knocked out but-"

"You were knocked out?! Izuku that's really bad for you!" Inko was leaning on the arm of the chair now, anxiety and concern written across every inch of her face. "Are you sure you're feeling alright? You might be concussed or-"

"Mom, really, I'm okay! I-I think the thing protected me somehow. Anyway, Mom, All Might captured the bad guy and said I did great and just-" He paused, running a hand suddenly through his messy hair, a slightly wild, shaky smile on his lips. "I've never, I mean, the thing, I've never used it like that before. My scars don't even hurt or anything." Though he didn't mention how his entire body still ached, especially his mouth which felt like he'd been punched right in the teeth. He held out a scarred palm and flexed his fingers softly. "It- it made me feel like I could really get a handle on it, you know? Like, maybe I could really be a hero if I worked hard and-"

"Izuku." Inko suddenly stopped him with the tone only a mother could summon. He looked to her, the grin still on his lips though it faded somewhat at his mother's intense, almost clinical stare. "Can you smile for me, just for a moment?" Izuku blinked at the unexpected request. He watched as his mother got out her phone and held it up, "Just a quick smile, honey."

The teenager paused for a second, wondering where she was going with this, before slowly putting on probably the fakest smile he'd ever had. There was a click of a camera-phone and Inko lowered her hand, frowning at the picture she had taken. Izuku was too weirded out to be worried and he craned his neck to try and see the picture. "Mom? What are you-"

"Look." Inko held her phone out to him. "Look what it did to your teeth."

His teeth? Izuku took the phone with a shaking hand and frowned at the picture presented to him. Milk-pale skin, horrid crossing scars, uncoordinated freckles, under-eye bags that were practically designer and long pointed incisor teeth. Nothing out of the- "AGH!"

Izuku was up so fast he almost knocked the coffee table over. He rushed to the bathroom, ignoring the shocked calls of his mother as he quickly flicked a light on and leaned over the sink, opening his mouth and pulling his lips up, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain as he did so. There they were. Four new, long, fang-like teeth in his mouth. "WHAF FHE FUFK?"

"Language!" Inko shouted from behind him and Izuku quickly paled from her temper. It didn't help his approaching anxiety attack, however, as he could feel his lungs struggling for air, his mind swimming and a paralyzing panic creeping over his limbs.

Thankfully Inko was well versed in such attacks and quickly took his hand, leading him back out the bathroom and over to the couch once more. Sitting him down with a saint's patience she leaned over a little and began reciting the lines she had long since memorized. "Sweetheart, listen to me, breathe in, breathe out, come on now, big breaths."

She rubbed his back as Izuku slowly did as he was told. His heart was hammering in his chest, his hands trembling and fidgeting uncontrollably in his lap. The thing stirred, sensing his suffering and crawling through his body like a snake. His scars warmed, though they didn't boil. This wasn't unusual, his curse was all too willing to simply make itself known, to torment him just a little bit further.

"Breathe in, breathe out." Inko's voice pierced through the haze of panic and slowly but surely he began to get a grip on himself. Inko, noticing this, moved back a step. "I'll make you a drink, some tea will help, do you want a Xanax?"

"N-No, Mom." Izuku rose to his feet slowly. "I-I think I just need some sleep."

"But honey-"

"Really, Mom." The teenager turned to look at her, giving her a shaking smile. His legs felt like jelly and he was sure if he ate anything he would throw it up. He needed the dark isolation of his room, if only just to finally relax in peace. "I-I'm just exhausted, you know?" His smile even grew a tiny bit wider. "Growing new teeth takes it out of you."

A joke. He made a joke. Today really was unusual.

Inko seemed torn between letting him go or forcing his ass back on the couch. However, eventually she relented and gave a nod. "Alright, go get some rest. If you need me I'll be right here, okay?" She raised a hand to her son's cheek and returned his weak smile, no doubt a Midoriya trait. "I love you, son. Whatever happens."

"Love you too, Mom." Izuku gave her a small nod and on shaking legs he vanished into his bedroom. The moment he was alone in the dark he stripped himself of sweaty, dirty clothes and pulled on some pajama pants, then he crawled into his bed and curled up under the warm All Might covers. Exhaustion conquered worry and Izuku quickly drifted into sleep.

His mother had demanded he take the next day off and Izuku hadn't argued. Once Inko had called in sick for him she had left for work with strict orders of bed rest and relaxation. Again, Izuku didn't argue, if anything he agreed. He had just beaten his first villain, well kind of, and it had been far more of an emotional and physical roller coaster than he ever thought it would be.

How did All Might make it seem so easy? Then again, All Might didn't have a demon crawling through his body waiting to tear people apart at the slightest provocation.


The next few days droned by, only broken by one quickly booked trip to the dentist who cleared Izuku of any harm, though both son and mother had avoided questions as to what had happened to cause his odd new growths.

Even so, despite the days quickly settling back to a sense of normalcy there was something different about the young man. Izuku was no longer drifting through each day, now he spent each and every hour thinking over what had happened, the events of his almost-death being overanalyzed in his head to an obsessive degree. It was still difficult for him to keep focus of course, the medication continued to grind his senses into the dirt, but now he had a reason to lift his head.

Now he had a fire lit under him that no medication could suppress.

By the time the weekend rolled around Izuku had something he hadn't had in years. Drive.

His tongue poked at his new fangs as the sea breeze rustled his hair and Izuku listened to the peaceful sound of waves lapping on sand until it splashed against rusting metal.

It used to be a beach, though these days it was more like an old junkyard. Old refrigerators, TVs, rotting wood cabinets, even some cars littered the shore. The smell was terrible, though Izuku had long since learned to simply get used to it. There wasn't much he could do to stop it after all.

He had heard people complain about it before. An eyesore that really the local government or some hero agency should do something about and what were they paying their taxes for if they couldn't even clean it all up?

To Izuku it was a haven. Katsuki never came here. No one ever came here. It was broken and ruined and Izuku, despite the eye-rolling nature of it, somewhat felt a kinship with it all. Why not? It was here, amongst the discarded and fallen that he found peace. He was just another broken thing amongst all the other broken things.

He was sat in his favorite spot, part of an old truck cab that had somehow found its way on the top of a small mountain of trash. It never got wet enough to become soggy and the seat was still comfortable enough. He could sit for hours and listen to podcasts or simply watch life crawl by. Sometimes he even saw demons and monsters moving through the ocean waves, vast and incredibale. Oddly, they never did seem to bother him here.

His tired eyes looked to his open palm and for a moment they traced the lines of burn scars that wove their way over his skin. Monday had taught him a lesson. He had to learn how to use the thing. Not push it down, not ignore it, actually learn to use it.

Right. Use it. No problem.

… had he ever willingly activated it? The very realization was such a shock that he almost slipped out of the cab. Did he even know how to switch the damn thing on?

Another long moment of looking to his scarred hands and he came to the heavy decision that he would never know until he tried. How did the old saying go, curiosity killed the cat? He gulped and forced his anxiety down, or at least shoved it inside some inner bottle where it could sit until it bubbled over and flooded into his head once more.

Izuku took a moment to take out his phone and text his mother, telling her he was fine and would be home in a while. She had been far more cautious about him lately, far more watchful. Izuku almost felt like she thought he was doing drugs or something. It was even becoming a little oppressive, though he knew she was just looking out for him after such a volatile start to the week.

After shoving his phone into his pocket Izuku crawled over a number of old appliances and ruined pieces of furniture before finally arriving in a small opening that afforded him just enough space to move while making sure no one could easily spot him. Once he was absolutely sure no one was around he removed his hoodie and gave a quick stretch. He was wearing sweatpants, trainers and an old t-shirt, figuring that for practice he needed to keep his clothes simple and loose.

He had spent the last nine, almost ten years suppressing the thing without even considering the thought of ever using it properly, simply acting on some vague assumption that U.A. would solve all those problems for him. Now, however, he knew he had a lot of catching up to do if he was even going to make it into U.A. and, as All Might had mentioned, time waited for no one.

"Alright, let's do this." Izuku breathed to himself as he shook his hands and hopped up and down in the center of the opening in some mild, amateurish attempt to warm himself up. His stomach was flipping and his whole body seemed shaky and weak and voice in his head kept telling him to go back, give up, do it tomorrow.

He silenced it with a deepening frown and gathered his courage. He could do this, he knew he could, one step at a time.

"Okay, nice and easy, I'll just summon it to my arms and… yeah." Izuku took a slow, deep breath, gulped, then threw his hand out and shouted, "ACTIVATE!"

There was, of course, nothing. Hell, it didn't even stir within him. If anything, Izuku was sure he could hear a distant laughter, though that might have just been his schizophrenia acting up.

Frowning to himself he gathered his already shaky confidence and tried again, this time widening his stance and trying to will the thing to emerge. "ACTIVATE!"

A breeze blew through the open car windows, somewhere a seagull cackled, an insect buzzed by him.

"Are you kidding me?!" Izuku threw the insult out like an angry child and kicked a piece of trash out of his path as he ranted. "All my life, all my fucking life, you've tormented me and now the one time I actually try to use you and you don't fucking work! What kind of stupid-ass thing are you?"

The thing didn't reply.

"UGH!" Izuku sat down on the bonnet of a ruined car and sulked. He had never been this disappointed to not feel the hot rush of burning power along his scars. What was he doing wrong? His tongue once again poked at his fangs as he thought on just why this wasn't working. The answer, of course, was obvious. He wasn't in any actual danger. Every other time the thing had sprung into action he had felt like he was about to be hurt or worse.

However, right now he wasn't willing to go wandering into some crime-ridden drug den just to ask nicely if one of the meth-heads could come at him with a knife. You know, just to see if he could get his horrifying, hell-born curse to activate, oh and it might just slaughter everyone there, no big deal though.

He had to think of something solid, something he could use here and now and, supposedly, in any future situation. Izuku breathed deep and focused as much as he could on the issue, willing his foggy brain to do some actual work for once. His mind wandered to the events of Monday, the feeling of the slime around his mouth, the burning of his lungs, the death that had been tugging at his heart…

Anxiety shot through him and his scars heated up.

He quickly looked to his arms. Was that it? Was that the key to using it? Every time he wanted to activate the thing he would just have to picture himself almost dying? Oh God, would that even make it worth it? For a moment he looked to the burned, jagged lines of skin on his arms with his eyes wide before wrapping them around himself. "Well, if this is what it takes to be a hero…"

He stood up, this time with renewed determination on his face which manifested as an incredibly unsure smile. Walking back to the center of the opening he stood silently, arms at his sides and his eyes closed. Taking one last deep breath he let his mind drift back to the sludge monster, to the threat of imminent death, to all the horror and fear that had come with it.

The power rippled through his body and air around him grew hotter, supercharged with the raw infernal power of the boy's quirk. He could feel it, like furious lava flowing along his scars. Desperately Izuku reached out to grab more of it, anything that he could, almost demanding the thing to rush through his system.

This time, however, he was prepared, or rather as prepared as his razor-thin nerves would allow him to be. He felt the boiling shadow of the thing's power flood into his arms, and the second it did so he threw his palms forward, summoning everything he had to focus on forcing the thing outward.

Incredibly, it obeyed.

For a split second, he could feel it. The thing reshaping his muscle, skin, and bone with white-hot fury as it rushed through his arms. Just for a split second. Then the world around him exploded as blue fire erupted from what was now his palms with an ear-splitting boom.

The force was so sudden and so great that it threw him backward and within half a heartbeat his back collided with the side of an old refrigerator. Izuku bounced off it with a yelp of pain and landed onto the floor in a collapsed heap.

The world span and he could feel his entire body burning with the force of the thing's activation, though it was a creeping, stinging heat, not the boiling, oppressive fire that he was so used to. One eye opened slowly and before him he could see the black stain that blanketed his arm up to his elbow. A leathery hand now ending in talon-like claws that remolded and reshaped back into the hand he knew was his own, the shadow that had coated him simply flaking away like ash in the wind.

He fought off the urge to throw up and slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, falling back against the refrigerator and panting heavily. He should have brought some water, he should have laid out some mattresses, he should have-

Izuku's eyes widened. What had once been a small hill of discarded trash was now nothing more than a smoking hole. Pockets of blue flame licked away at whatever was flammable, gradually dying in the strong breeze which now rushed through the opening.

He had done that. All of that. With one blast.

Izuku looked at his shaking hands, his entire body sore as he took gulping breaths, knowing that he'd probably bruised all his back and would ache for weeks. But even so…

"I did it." His voice was barely a whisper above the sound of licking flame and roaring wave, but even so, a big, wobbling, toothy grin broke out on his face and tears began flowing down his cheeks. "I DID IT!"

It took several minutes of relieved sobbing before the teenager finally came to his senses, the warmth that had flooded across his scars slowly fading away as he did so. He patted himself down gingerly, looking for any new sudden growths on his person and, thankfully, finding none.

Cautiously, with a lot of wincing and hissing through clenched teeth, he picked himself up and began moving towards the exit. This was enough for one day, but he knew the moment he stopped feeling like deep fried garbage he would be back to try again.

And again, and again.

As he walked, his step weaving just a little as his mind sluggishly considered what he'd just done. His body wasn't strong enough, he knew that at the very least. He couldn't go into the exam being able to fire once and be done, that would certainly result in a fail. He would have to train himself, make his body stronger so that he could handle the thing better.

As for the thing... he looked again to one hand which had for a second had released blue fire with the force of a missile and, just for a moment, he could almost see the monstrous, black-leather skin and scythe-like claws that it had become. He closed his hand and sighed. Maybe he could just contain it to his hands for now, everything else could come afterward.

One step at a time.


Huzzar! He's learnin' things! Also hope you guys enjoyed or at least tolerate the little tooth development. That, like many things, will eventually be explained. Will there be more future additions to Izuku's anatomy?

... perhaps.

Hope you all enjoyed, tell me your thoughts and I'll cya in two weeks for the U.A. entrance exams!