For anyone who loves my 'Ghoul In Our Midst' story, you'll get a kick out of this.
Let The Chaos Ensue...
PROLOGUE
He had just taken a bite of his All Might birthday cake, but the next thing he knew, he was rushing to the bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach. He would later describe it as three day old, rotting fish that had been sitting in the sun, and covered in shit.
Inko pat Izuku's back over the toilet, her husband stood in the door with a plate of cake in hand. She'd never been so insulted over her cooking.
Hisashi shook his head, "It tastes fine, honey."
The small boy looked back at his mom, sclera black and iris' red. The blood vessels around his eyes bulged. His parents jumped back, and Hisashi held his wife close as their small child looked up at them, his eyes full of tears.
"My back hurts," he said.
Cautiously, his father stepped forward and lifted his son's shirt. Out of his lower back, small green tentacles sprouted smooth and strong they wriggled around. Blood spilled slowly from where they came from his skin, poor Izuku looked over his shoulder at them and back to his parents.
…
Sitting in the ER waiting room with bandages over his eyes and a giant hoodie hanging around his shoulders.
"Midoria," the nurse called. The parents held their child as they were ushered back into a private room, as requested.
The Dr. came in and asked the matter. When the bandages came off his eyes were normal, and when they hurriedly took off the jacket they found no tentacles and no puncture wound, just dry blood.
"If you'd like we can run some tests, but I'm rather sure this could just be the development of his quirk."
"No," Inko said. "This was… this was scary. Please run some tests." Her husband nodded next to her.
Blood tests, CT scans, X-rays, MRI's and ultrasounds, and what they found scared the Drs.
"Mr and Mrs Midoria, we've discovered the… situation with your son's quirk."
The parents stared at the Dr. holding each other, Izuku was in the back with a few of the Drs. and nurses. "And?"
"The blood tests showed he has elevated RC levels, off the charts, in fact. And the CT showed an additional organ in his lower back. And while we were running the tests we saw what you meant about the eyes and the… tentacles. But what we said still stands, this is all simply due to his new quirk, which likely finished developing yesterday."
"He threw up cake, because he didn't like the way it tasted. It's cake. What six-year-old doesn't like cake!?"
"Yes, we did try giving him food, just for his time being tested, and he had the same reaction. His blood sugars were low so we did run him an IV with sugar water to improve that in place of having him eat anything."
"So what do we do?" Hisashi asked.
"I'm not a quirk therapist, I suggest visiting one of them. As for his diet, I'm going to say to just stick to water right now. Or anything he offers to eat. Don't force him to eat anything, from what he said it made him feel sick afterward."
"Okay."
"But we don't have money for a quirk therapist," Inko said, holding her husband's hand tightly. Her knuckles white.
"Well, it is completely optional, it just means you and your son will have to figure out his quirk over time."
"That's okay, we can figure this out." Hisashi nodded.
"I'll go get your son, and you can take him home."
…
With her son asleep in his bed, Inko closed the door behind her.
"This isn't that bad, so his eyes are a little creepy, and he's got weird tentacles. There are weirder quirks. He can still be a hero just like he wanted. We've just got to show him his quirk is nothing to be afraid of," Hisashi assured.
So, over the next few days they spent time helping their son figure out how to use his tentacles. They encouraged him and helped him feel not so bad about his quirk. And for three measly days, Izuku didn't hate his quirk. He didn't hate himself. And he didn't hate what he'd done to his family.
…
A month had gone by, he wouldn't drink any more water and they couldn't get him to swallow any food. He hadn't eaten anything. He'd become delusional, and he'd bitten Inko. She hated it, but she'd locked him in his room.
His screams echoed through the house, out the window and caused the neighbors to complain. Inko said not to bother him after he'd finally quieted down and she'd left to run some errands, but Hisashi wanted to take his son a fresh cup of water and make sure he hadn't hurt himself with all the thrashing he'd heard in the boy's room.
He unlocked and shut the door behind him, the room was dark, All Might merchandise was strewn and broken across the room and in the corner, his son's face turned toward him. His rich green eyes reflected in what little light the window let in. As he stepped closer, Izuku's eyes went wide and slowly turned black and red.
Hisashi's every instinct told him to run, but this was his son, his little Izuku. He wouldn't hurt him.
And just as that thought traveled through his head, his beloved child jumped his jaws clamping down around his shoulder and tearing through his clothes, flesh and muscle as he screamed out in pain. The sound of his son's growling filled his ears, the sound of him chewing his flesh. The small adorable face he knew was gone and replaced by something of nightmares as the pearly smile was taken over by blood smeared teeth.
He shoved his child off of him, scrambling to get to the door, but Izuku had the advantage, his tentacles wrapped around his feet, dragging him back, and once he was close enough, he saw his son plunge his hand through his stomach.
He wretched in pain as Izuku gripped his organs, watching in horror as he pulled them from his stomach and brought it to his mouth. Hisashi closed his eyes, he didn't want to see it. Besides, his vision was swimming, he felt small hands dig around inside his gut, gripping and pulling at anything they could grab.
He bit his tongue, bile and blood rising in his throat, he didn't want to scream, didn't want to scare Izuku.
His body seized in pain as the boy's teeth dug into his arm, tearing at the muscle like it was nothing more than cotton candy, and his skin peeled away like acrylic paint.
He could feel himself losing consciousness, and he knew he wouldn't survive. If this was a part of Izuku's quirk then all he hoped was for two things. One, that he would still become a great hero. Two, and most importantly, that he didn't blame himself for what he'd done.
His last thoughts of his wife and son's smiling faces, though even now, he wasn't able to get the nightmarish blood smeared face out of his memories.
Izuku was warm, and he felt better then he had since he ate that cake for his sixth birthday. He was comfortable too, and the room was filled with a sweet aroma. The only thing bothering him was the screaming… wait, screaming. Why was there screaming.
Suddenly he was cold, and sticky, and wet, and his mothers screams filled his ears. He pushed up to a sitting position and felt something squishy beneath his hands. Looking down, his gut twisted and all he could see was his fathers mangled body.
He'd been lying in his open devoured ribcage and was caked in dry blood. It was in his hair, his clothes, on his hands and up his arms.
He didn't understand what happened and why his dad was like this. Terror filled him as he realized what the sweet scent was, it was everything he was covered in, what he was laying in, the blood and everything about this smelled sweet.
Why though, why did it satisfy the ache in his stomach and the pounding that had been in his head for the last month?
His mom had tears running down her face as she cradled her dead husband's head in her lap, and a phone pressed to her ear.
Sniffing at his hand, and as tears spilled down his face, he licked at the dried blood and found the tangy iron crust pleasurable to his taste. He put his fingers in his mouth, digging at something stuck between his teeth, he pulled it out, and only then did he realize exactly what had happened here.
Pure horror and dread filled his small body, and from his mouth came the most devastated, disgusted, and terrified cry anyone could have ever dreamt in their worst nightmares.
It tore through the house, the building walls. Disturbing the birds outside, the dogs barked, and those passing by the building instantly ran away.
He was hyperventilating, looking at his mother's face, the carnage, the blood caked to his body, it was too overwhelming for the boy his vision swam before his body slumped into unconsciousness.
He woke in a cold shower while his mother was quickly stripping him of his clothes, she took them and left the bathroom for a moment when he heard the sound of the garbage disposal.
She came back and began scrubbing harshly against his skin, pumping excessive amounts of soap into her hands and running it through his hair. He didn't realize why until he saw the murky red/orange color seep down the drain, then he remembered his dad.
He could smell the body across the hall, just sitting there behind the closed door.
"What's going to happen to Daddy?" He asked.
His mom still had a constant stream of tears rolling down her cheeks as she shook her head. "The police are on their way, if they ask you any questions you say you were with mommy running errands. Okay?"
"But I…"
"But nothing, you were out with me and you got a donut. Okay?"
"I don't like donuts anymore," Izuku shook his head, he started hiccuping as tears mixed with the shower water. "I like this," he held out his hand dripping in diluted blood. "And I don't like it," he cried as he slammed his fist down into the water.
"I know sweety…" she said as she rinsed his hair one last time and turned off the tap. She wrapped him up in a big fluffy towel and set him on the couch just as there was a knock at the door.
"There was a 119 call to this residence, may we infer you were the one who placed the call?" He was nicely dressed, with another woman in a suit beside him. And behind her a whole team of officers.
She covered her mouth muffling a choked sobb, nodding. "My husband," she said.
Solemnly the woman in the suit spoke. "My name is Detective Ejeri Tamika, I'm sorry for your loss."
The man spoke. "Detective Eto Saburo, if you would show us where you found him."
Inko nodded and let them in, they took off their shoes one by one before she led them to Izuku's room, they saw the boy on the couch and figured he was in shock. When she opened the door, the scent of blood filled the air. And what the detectives saw on the floor in front of them, was nothing they'd ever seen before.
From mangled bodies of crushed buildings, to tourtured undercover heroes who didn't make it… this one took the cake.
The first and most noticeable was the gaping hole and cleaned out ribcage, then the bones of what must have been the man's arm laying around on the blood stained carpet. And lastly was the initial gouge in his shoulder.
Detective Tamika gasped, covering her mouth. "...Oh god…"
The officers behind the two detectives were much worse off, one actually ran and the sounds of him retching could be heard in the kitchen.
Detective Saburo turned to his team, "This is pretty bad, not going to lie, if you feel like you can't handle this then wait in the living room."
Only one other officer left, him and the guy who'd thrown up, sat talking with Izuku about light topics. 'Who's your favorite hero?' 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' 'What school do you go to?' Inko was thankful for that much.
Detective Saburo and his officers started chasing the scene, and Detective Tamika pulled Inko aside.
"I know this is hard and probably unexpected, but I need you to tell me what happened."
I came home and my child was asleep in my husband's mangled corpse, was what she couldn't say. So instead. "Izuku and I were out running errands and we got back, and I was in the laundry room about to put some clothes in the washer when he screamed. I ran to see what the matter was and I found Hisashi just…" her tears broke through again and she fell to sobs.
What happened?
It's all she wanted to know. Or maybe she did know, and she just wouldn't let herself believe it.
"I like this" he held out his hand, dripping in diluted blood.
Her gut churned as she realized exactly what had happened. Her sobs grew to a wail as she ran down the hall and scooped Izuku up in her arms, repeating herself over and over again. "I'm sorry! Why? Why? I'm so sorry. Why?"
…
The weeks went by and the cops couldn't find anything. Of course they couldn't, they were looking in the wrong place. And they would have never suspected the six-year-old for such carnage, let alone how he 'disposed' of it.
…
Izuku hadn't eaten anything and it had been about a month before he started getting hungry again.
She worked out a system to feed him though, or at least, for the time being. She figured he could go a month and a half without eating anything after a full meal. But she wondered if he could go with shorter quantities for shorter periods.
Inko worked at the hospital, if she did it carefully she wouldn't get caught. Organs and amputated limbs were sent to the incinerator, if she went down once her shift was over, she could gather food for her son.
And that system worked for a solid four years, and she got to the point where she could stomach knowing what Izuku ate. That was until she was fired. But not for stealing medical waste, no that went unnoticed. She got let go due to a simple slip up on a higher up's part and used her as a scapegoat.
When she worried how to feed her son, he decided at that point, it was time to take matters into his own hands.
It was on still nights like this that he could scent every drop of oil, sweat, and blood within a five mile radius. He sat on a high rooftop, scenting the air, there was a shift in the wind and he jumped from the sky scraper.
The wind rushed up at him as he used his arms to steady his fall, he landed silently on the next building down. In comparison it was tiny compared to the tall glass tower he'd come from. He took off across the roof and followed the scream that ripped through the air, and the scent of blood coming from that direction.
He unleashed his kagune and his kakugan made themself present. As he landed in the alleyway the villain's eyes widened in horror as he saw the vigilante before him.
The villain knew he wasn't going to make it out of this alive.
Five years prior, a new vigilante surfaced, merciless and unkind to those who did evil. They called him Ghoul, for the way he left his victims. No one was quite sure why the bodies were left so torn and mangled, only that they hoped they never crossed paths.
Few heroes had ever seen his form, and none had seen his face.
The kagune stretched forward grabbing both victim and villain. Pulling the victim aside and setting them down carefully behind him, while throwing the perpetrator against the wall with a meaty thud.
"You're safe now, are you hurt?" He turned his head back.
The girl was shaking, and holding her side. Too scared to speak, she nodded.
"Okay," Ghoul said. And with a gentleness that seemed impossible, he set the unconscious body down. He walked slowly toward the girl and removed the lower part of his mask, letting it hang around his neck."What's your name?"
"K-Kamiya Koma," she stuttered.
Ghoul nodded. "Where are you hurt?"
She moved her hand from her side, covered in blood.
He closed his eyes, turned his head away from the sight and took a breath. He'd have his meal, it just wasn't her.
"I'm going to bandage it, and then you can make your way to the hospital, can you do that?" He pulled out some bandages from a fanny pack and got to work.
"I-I think so." She said. "So you're not going to hurt me?"
Ghoul laughed. "I only hurt people, who hurt people."
"But… why? Why hurt them so bad? Why kill them?"
He frowned and replaced his mask, "You should get going."
The girl carefully got up holding her hand to the fresh bandaging and limped away. Once he was sure she was gone, he walked back to the unconscious villain and pulled off his empty backpack, and opened a large trash bag.
He grabbed the man's discarded. And cut his shirt open in the front, and with a hunger of two months without food, he plunged his hand into his gut, digging under the ribcage till he found the liver.
He once again removed his lower mask and shoved the organ in his mouth, savoring the sweet nutty flavor, chewing through the tough veins. He sat down and set to cleaning the body of his organs. They were, after all, his favorite part.
He learned that when he was six, when he'd brutally murdered his father. When he destroyed his family. When he became a monster.
Ghoul was dragged out of his thoughts when the body beneath him screamed and started scrambling to get away.
Oh right, he forgot to actually kill the guy. He released his kagune again and slit the guy's throat. He drowned in his own blood, the gurgling sound of his own death would haunt him from the grave.
His killer on the other hand, was utterly used to killing, and blood, and the many sounds of death. Tearing off his limbs, and bagging them, he stuffed them in the garbage bag and put them in his backpack. He jumped to the roof and left the organless, limbless, corpse to the designated cops.
The first case dated back nine years to Hisashi Midoria, and Ghoul stayed dormant for the next four years when he truly became active. The detectives could never figure out what Midoria had done to deserve the wrath of Ghoul.
Crawling in his window, he took off both masks and threw them on the bed. Before heading into the kitchen. His mom was in bed, asleep. He pulled out the garbage bag, and plopped it down on the table.
He grabbed the industrial roll of plastic wrap and laid it out across the counter, covering it completely. He dumped out the garbage bag and set to individually wrapping the severed limbs in butcher paper and labeling them 'IZUKU'S' before putting them in the bottom drawer of the fridge, and going to bed.
…
"Oh yeah, Midoria, don't you want to go to UA too?"
The class went silent, and Bakugou was the first to speak, slamming an explosion down on Izuku's desk. "Listen up, Deku you're even worse than these damn rejects. You think you can be a hero with your quirk, you might as well be a villain. You really think they would let someone like you in, when they could have me?"
"I'm not trying to compete against you, Kautski," he grinned. "Believe me or don't, I simply want to be a hero. You know that."
"You think you can hang with me? I've got a hero's quirk, but you? Your eyes turn black every time you use your quirk. Villain Izuku," he sneared.
Things settled back down for a moment, but when the bell rang, Bakugou was at it again. He burned his notebook and tossed it out the window. "Most first ring heroes show potential early on, I'd say the same goes for villains. People just look at us and judge our futures, and you know what that means. Once I'm the only student from this backwater school to get into UA, people will start talking about me, and realize I'm the next big thing."
Izuku stood there and took the bullie's monologue, just like always, he could take this bastard, he just didn't want to make him right.
As he left with the threats and the burn left on his shoulder, all he could do was glare as Bakugou told him to take a swan dive off the roof. He went to find his book, internal monologue playing out.
That idiot, you can't go around telling people to kill themselves, besides, it's not like I haven't tried.
He had more than a few attempts, more than a few shrinks, and more than a few pills in his lifetime. The year he realized what it truly meant to be The Ghoul. He did his best to end it more time in a year then a person has glasses of water in a day. Not that it did him any good, his quirk… it was too strong.
It made him faster, stronger, more agile, and made it so his sense of smell could practically pick out what chemical your brain was protruding if he was close enough.
He picked up his notebook and turned it's ruined pages.
His regenerative levels were off the charts, no pills, stab wound, hanging, fall or self inflicted harm had ever done his goal any good. So he stopped trying, he stopped caring that he ate other human beings and stopped considering himself human at all.
In his head, Izuku was simply a ghoul.
He started his walk home, doing his best to smile, just like All Might. He gave a forced laugh as he walked down the tunnel then stopped, as his nose picked up an awful scent coming closer, through the sewers.
He looked at the manhole cover, shrugged then walked away, but moments later, a nasty green sludge monster sprung up and did his best to devour him.
Oh geez that smells.
He struggled against it for a moment till his world went black. And the next thing he knew, All Might was waking him up.
"Thought we'd lost you," the hero said, patting his face.
"Wish you had," Izuku mumbled, sitting up and staring at the hero. "Oh god it's All Might."
The hero was saying stuff but his mind was too filled with questions for the hero to concentrate, he found his notebook and discovered All Might's signature scrawled across two pages, he thanked the hero. And as he spoke that he was going to leave, Izuku did the most rash thing in his life.
"Let go, I love my fans but this is too much!... Bang on the door for a while, someone will let you in…I don't have any time."
"Wait, don't go yet…" Pictures of his father's mangled body flashed through his mind, his Kakugan in the mirror staring back at him, his countless attempts at suicide. "...I have to know…"
Sometimes I do feel like a villain, like there's no hope for me, but I'm not going to give up on being a hero, ever.
"Is it possible to become a hero, even if I have a villainous quirk?" This gave the hero pause. "All I've ever wanted was to be someone like you, but I've been cursed with an evil quirk."
Even if I have a villain's power, even if everyone thinks I'd be useless as a hero, despite everything, I still dream of being a hero.
Izuku didn't notice the smoke rising from the hero's body as he spoke. "My class mates make fun of me, but that makes me want to prove them wrong. Saving people from things they can't control, that's the coolest thing to me. I want people to see me, and know they'll be okay, the kind of person people can look to for help. Just like you…"
He looked up and there was a skeleton of a man in All Might's place.
"You deflated…"
He explained what happened. "I'm supposed to be the guy who's always smiling, right? I'm the symbol of peace. People everywhere have to think I'm never afraid, but honestly, I smile to hide the fear inside. It's just a brave face I put on when the pressure is high. This job isn't easy. Pro heos are always having to risk their lives, and be there for the public to look to for safety. So can you be a hero with a villainous quirk, sure. But It won't be easy.
"People want hero's who they look like they can trust… So I don't advise it. If you want to help people there are plenty other ways to do it. Police officers, they get crap because most of the heroes capture the villains, but it's a fine profession. It's not bad to want to be a hero, just make sure it's something reasonable. Understand?"
He felt like his dreams were dashed, not even his hero, the hero believed in him. Fuck it. He'd still be a hero, screw All Might.
There was an explosion in the distance, and he immediately activated his quirk, flinging himself from the rooftop. He recognized the scent from the epicenter of the explosion, it was the sludge villain. He landed in the crowd, the heroes taking turns saying they'd let someone else handle it, because their quirk wasn't right for it.
It was when he realized that Bakugo was the one being held hostage that his legs moved of their own accord.
He tossed his backpack and released his kagune, grabbing Bakugo and getting him out of the villain's grip. The sludge advanced on them, and it was at that point a blast of wind came from behind, sending the villain flying as he braced them.
Afterwards the heroes started to lecture him, and when he got fed up he forced his eyes to change color. "Yeah, actually, I do have a death wish. And besides I couldn't sit there and let my friend die, like you were!" The heroes were taken aback and let him off with a simple, don't do it again.
Izuku had wanted to apologize for letting the sludge villain get away from All Might, but he was swarmed by interviewers. He was surprised however, when Bakugo ran up behind him.
"Deku!"
"Kacchan?"
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why'd you do it," he yelled. "Why'd you save me?"
Izuku scoffed and shook his head. "Do you know what it means to be a hero?"
"Of course I do, it's being the best!"
"No, it's saving people, and until you understand that. You'll never be a hero." He turned and walked away. Unexpectedly running into All Might.
"Young man, I came to thank you, and also discuss your question from earlier…"
"Why bother," he cut him off. "If you don't think I can be a hero that's your problem. But I've been doing it now for years. In the shadows. I can be a hero. And I don't need your approval."
"I'm not done," All Might said. "I was calloused and rude. You told me your dreams and I disregarded them. When I saw you run in, it inspired me to act too."
That caught his attention.
"Most great heros have one thing in common, they meddled in things that weren't their business, and that's the essence of being a hero. And today you proved yourself worthy."
Izuku lifted his head.
"Young man, you too can become a hero."
After All Might explained his power the boy spoke. "All Might, I looked up to you, then you were a complete bastard to me." the hero lowered his head, embarrassed. "I'll accept your quirk on a few conditions, you work on your attitude and you decide to give me your quirk after you see mine. Deal?"
The hero was gobsmacked. "I just offered you the second most powerful quirk in history, and you're throwing out ultimatums?"
"We'll say third and just go from there, and yes. I'll accept your quirk but you're a jackass and I just want you to know that."
My name is Izuku Midoriya, and this is the story on how I fucked up every villain's life ever.