Just realised that I never included a disclaimer, though I'm sure whoever reads this knows I'm not Horikoshi. But...
I do not own My Hero Academia, the characters therein belong to Kohei Horikoshi and the respective production studios.
That is the first and last time I'm saying it, anyway on to the new chapter.
Kasai Nokage was not stupid. He might not like studying all that much and was kind of a muscle-head at times, but he was no idiot." Oi, Levi, Yama." The mentioned teens immediately started paying attention. Kasai only said their names like that when things were serious." Something's wrong with Izuku."
"You saw it too?" Yama asked calmly. Kasai nodded.
"Yeah, that smile earlier looked like it was pasted onto him."
"It was Bakugo." Kasai said, so much certainty in those words it felt hard to doubt him.
"How do you know?" Levi asked. He was by no means trying to defend Katsuki, but they couldn't just jump to conclusions.
" I could smell the smoke on Izuku, it wasn't strong enough for Bakugo to have attacked him." Kasai carefully analyzed. He walked over to the koi pond. "Izuku grabbed something out of here before he left." Izuku had really rubbed off on him, Levi thought, Kasai was never the type to analyse a situation so carefully. "Paper?" The shadow manipulator asked as he scooped a piece from the pond.
" His notebooks!" Levi realised.
Kasai gazed closer at the edges of the paper. 'Gotcha.' He thought. "Bakugo burned it and tossed it out the window." Kasai surmised. He then started running in the direction his green-haired friend had left."Hey, where are we going?" Levi screamed at his friend following him with Yama right behind him.
" To find Izuku. He needs us right now." Kasai stated, still uncharacteristically calm. The boys behind him were confused but they were still concerned for their friend.
Izuku was hurt. How could Kacchan have said something like that and meant it. Did he really hate him that much? But it wasn't his fault. He didn't ask to be quirkless, to be a useless freak. A Deku.
Izuku shook his head, trying in vain to rid himself of the harmful thoughts. He walked through a tunnel. Not his usual way home but he knew his friends would come looking for him if he went their usual way. He just...wanted to be alone right now.
Izuku's train of thought was interuppted by a wet gurgling sound coming from behind him. He turned around, curious. Then wished he hadn't.
"A medium-sized invisibility cloak, hmmmm. Yes you will do well." A villain Izuku realised. Before he could get away the sludge had jumped him and started suffocating the greenette by drowning him in sludge. Izuku tried clawing his way out but to no avail. The villain was made of sludge after all. "Don't worry, it will only hurt for about 45 seconds then it'll be all over." The villain said cackling when he finished. " Say kid ya know, you're my hero." The villain mocked. Izuku was abou to pass out. He was dying, he realized. Killed by the one thing he swore to put down. 'Sorry, mom, I won't be coming home tonight. Levi,Kasai, Yama, thank you guys, for being such great friends.'
"IZUKU!" 'Levi? Guys?' Those were his last thoughts as he fell unconcious. "Dammit, Kasai!" Levi commanded.
"On it!" Kasai used his quirk and paused the villian's movement. "Oi, ugly, give us back our friend!" Kasai screamed angrily.
"W-why can't I mo-" The living sludge was cut off a large figure entered his view behind the boys. 'Oh shit!' He thought.
" No need to fear. Why? I am here!" A powerful voice called from behind the teens. Wait?! They knew that voice. "TEAXAS SMASH!" All Might called out launching his fist forward with the speed of lightning. The pressure created by the single punch was enough to send the sludge monster all over the cave in pieces. The boys too if not for Yama using his size to protect them. " Sorry about that. Guess I should've held back a bit. I didn't mean to get you boys caught up in my villain hunt." All Might laughed, his signature smile gleaming even in the shade the tunnel provided. The boys all ignored him, running to their friend. " Eh? They ignored me?!" Wait were there not three boys he had rescued, not counting the hostage. He looked again carefully. A boy with black dreadlocks going to one side of his head and dark blue eyes, he was about 5'8. Another boy, who looked more like a man, had black hair and red eyes. About 6'0 if All Might was guessing. Then their freckled friend on the ground, unconcious. There should have been another boy.
" Bravo, All Might." The number one hero looked behind him to see another boy with a bottle in his hand containing the sludge, 'Smart.' The pro thought.The boy passed the sludge to the pro, who caught it with ease. This boy was about 5'8, he had snow white hair, cut on the sides and back much like his dreadlocked friend, it was gelled back with a single small bang hanging just over his left eye. He also had glowing golden eyes. Why did he look so painfully... familiar. " Quite the takedown, but your getting kinda slow, don't ya think. Old age mabye, no, throughout your career you've only gotten stronger. So this is something else then."
What was this kid playing at, was he villian in disguise mabye? No, if was he would have either attacked or run away when he showed up.
"What are you talking about young man-" All Might was interuppted by...squealing? He turned around to see the emarald haired boy had woken up. Good.
"ALL MIGHT?!" The young man all but screeched. How couldn't he? His idol was standing in front of him!
The pro grinned at the boy's enthusiasim. "In the flesh, young man." Kasai and Yama seemed to have just realize he was here too, staring with wide eyes.
"I-i-i-it's a-an ho-honour to m-m-meet you s-sir!" The teen said bowing frantically in thanks to the giant. He then picked up his notebook. "Will you please sig-IT'S ALREADY SIGNED!" The young man shouted in amazement showing his friends.
"HAHAHAHA. Alright, thank you, young men for helping me out, however," All Might crouched down preparing to jump away. " I must be going now. I hope for your continued support!" And with that the Symbol of Peace was gone.
" Man, he's so much cooler in person!" Kasai said excitedly. All Might wasn't his favourite hero but it was still really cool to meet him.
" He's shorter in person." Yama said looking at the spot where All Might had dissappeared. " What do you think, Izuku?" Yama looked over to his friend...only to see nothing. " Izuku? Izuku?!" He called for his friend.
"OI! IZUKU?!" Kasai yelled, being unnecessarily loud. Yma winced slightly at the volume.
" He's with All Might." Levi said pointing up, he was eating a packet of chips that he had gotten from...somewhere?
" Where did you get that?" Kasai asked skeptically.
" Your bag." Levi said shrugging and walking away.
"Dude, I was saving those for later! What the actual fuck?!" Kasai was sreaming hysterically. Levi was ignoring him that whole time.
Izuku stood on the roof of the building he and All Might had landed on staring dumbfounded at the afformentioned man. All Might had told him about the crippling injury he had gotten from a villain five years ago, how it had reduced him to this- a deathly skinny shadow of his former self- which had affected his job as well.
"Young man," All Might spoke in a deep, yet withered voice, breaking Izuku out of his stupor. "I believe you had a question for me. Come on then, spit it out."
Oh right.
U-um, I uh, w-wanted to a-a-ask," Dammit he just needed to ask a simple question. Why was he so nervous all of a sudden? Was he afraid of the answer? If this went how he thought it would then already knew it. But was it because of the possibility that this wouldn't turn out as planned? He steeled himself and spoke again. " I wanted to know if you think someone could be a hero like you, even without a quirk."
" No, I should think not." Came the response after a few tense seconds of silence. "Being a hero is a hazardous occcupation- we are constantly running into the face of danger. A quirk, however small, can give reassurance to not only the hero, but the people as well. Who knows mabye that small quirk can make all the difference. Small yes, but a quirk non the less. So no, without a quirk to help you out, you cannot become a hero. If you really want to help others, you could always become a doctor or a policeman-they are both heroic on their own ways. I'm truly sorry, young man."
Well, that was just how he imagined it would go, but he didn't know why he felt so...broken inside. He had expected All Might to say that so...why did it hurt so much?!
He left the roof soon after All Might did. Broken.
Yama would be lying if he said he didn't feel anything. He always felt it when Levi punched him, he punched pretty hard. People often said he was emotionless- mostly becuse he always wore a blank stare on his features. Though that wasn't entirely true, he had just learned to keep his emotions in check, never letting anything get to him. This way, even in stressful situations, he always made rational decisions.
That didn't mean it always worked though. Sometimes he would crack a fond smile at his friends' bantering, or chuckle- albeit very softly- at a stupid joke his friends made. He was never completely indifferent, he had let the little slip-ups go cause he figured it was good for him.
Right now he was having a minor slip-up. He had felt really weird whenever something happened to one of his parents- like when his mom once got a cut, he had felt the urgent need to check on her, and when his dad had a bad day at work, he would just go over and talk to him or give him a hug. The feeling had developed with his friends as well, Levi explained it was because they had formed a familial bond-they were brothers in arms.
His brows were furrowed and his mouth was slightly frowning. Something was definitely wrong, but Kasai and Levi were both fine, arguing about whether Levi was secretly taking Kasai's lunch during recess...'Weirdos' .Back to his former thoughts, the quiet giant deduced something was terribly wrong with Izuku.
He got his answer when they spotted the greenette walking up ahead. He looked so...wrong though, so depressed, defeated. Levi was about to call out to him when the emearald teen looked up, they looked that way as well spotting a crowd gathering there. Probably another villain attack.
They followed after Izuku when he started walking towrds the conflict, out of habit, they assumed. They soon reached him. "Oi, dumbass, don't go blasting into the sky without telling us first! What were we supposed to tell your mom if you fuckin fell, 'Oh hey aunt Inko we found Izuku all over the pavement on our way home, yeah looks like he fell outta the sky!'" Kasai said sarcastically. He was slightly worried when his friend didn't respond and kept gazing foward, eyes wide in what looked like fear? Kasai followed his gaze...and instantly wished he hadn't.
'How? How did he get out?! Didn't All Might have him so HOW?! He could only have gotten away if All Might...dropped him. When I latched onto him, the villian must have...oh no. Please, hang in there someone will come to save you, someone will come, someone will-'
Izuku's train of thought crashed when, through all the sludge that had escaped, a single crimson eye met his with fear and desperation to live, present witin it. 'Kac...chan.' Izuku didn't know what to do. Part of him wanted to leave the bastard so that he would get paid back for all he did. But the other screamed, pleaded with him to save his former best friend.
But all he could think to do in that moment, was run.
"IZUKU!" Levi screamed when he saw his friend running away from them, he followed after him intent on keeping his brother safe. But the idiot kept on running. Levi grinned in both glee and nervousness when he realized what was going on. "Alright, boys. Time for the Gamma Formation, ready?"
"Aw, hell yeah!" Came the excited answer. Yama just nodded and they were off.
Izuku had caught the villain's eye with his bag, a much needed distraction. Yama had activated his quirk and cancelled the fires that had broken out. "Man, we gotta stop meeting like this, bud. if your that thirsty for my attention you coulda just said so." Kasai snarked at the villain freezing him in place with his shadow paralysis. " I mean I know this is just Baka-go, but even killing him is evil. The fans would kill the author if he just went and killed off one of the MCs like that." The villian looked slightly confused at that last comment but continued to struggle, putting strain on the teen.
"You okay?" Levi asked calmly as he pulled Katsuki free of the sludge.
The other boy cougged violently before answering between deep breaths. "Yeah, don't know why you think I needed your help though, I had it under control."
"Oh, I know," He remarked sarcastically. "But something told me you couldn't control your own body if you had a brain in your thick skull." Levi shot back while dragging the other boy to safety.
"Shit!" Kasai swore as he momentarily lost his grip, resulting in the sludge's escape.
"DIIIEEE!" He howled as he lunged at the stunned teen.
"No, I don't think he will." The Symbol of Peace said with power brimming off of him, blocking the strike sent by the monster. "You kids are gonna put me out of business if you keep acting so damn heroic. Especially you, young Midoriya. It would seem I was mistaken- you already are a hero." All Might addressed the boy while cocking his fist back, his weapon of choice radiating pure, unbridled power. "Now it's time I put you in prison. Detroit... SMAAASSHH!" All Might launched his fist forward faster than they could all blink. The villain had been defeated and with it came a testament of the pro's power when it started raining.
" It's raining, no way."
" He changed the weather with one punch."
"Man, All Might is frickin' OP!"
"That's the number one hero for ya."
The crowed cheered for their Symbol. He was there, everything was okay now.
After getting berated for illegal quirk usage, self-endangerment and a ton of other things that seemed completely unnecessary, the boys left, not after some of them spoke their minds.
" Ya know, if you actually did something, we wouldn't have had to save Baka-go. If your gonna tell us not to endanger ourselves at least do yor damn job right so that we don't endanger ourselves doing it for you dammit." Snapped kasai at Death Arms.
"Kasai is right, if you actually bothered to think of someting like using Backdraft's quirk to see if he could wash the villian away, you wouldn't have had to wait for someone with a better suited quirk. Heroes are supposed to adapt to different situations, not wait for the situation to adapt." Levi coldly deduced, making the pro wonder whether these were actually middle schoolers- their execution of that rescue plan was almost pro-level.
After that they had left walking to where Izuku was closest to his home so that they were sure he wouldn't run into more trouble. They all went their seperate ways afterwards.
Levi stopped when he heard a screech and turned to see All Might talking to Izuku after deflating. 'Ah,' Levi thought. 'Not bad Yagi-san, not bad at all.' Tomorrow would be an interesting day.
Alrighty, I had been meaning to get this chapter out for a while now, but exams are on monday and I really wanna pass the 9th grade.
Anyway, after this chapter, we will finally be getting to the training montage. I can't wait for that.
Pls, like, review, even if it's just to tell me how bad you think this is, remember you're only making me wanna write more :)
