"Quirkless, are ya?"

Izuku's head jerked up from where he was sitting at a bench, head bowed and hands clutching the book. The thirteen year old boy watched the woman wearing a black and white hero outfit approach him, a large folded support item on her back. She looked on the older side, probably mid fifties to early sixties, and had silver hair done up in a ponytail and Caucasian skin a deep tan like leather. She swung the support weapon off her back, resting it on the ground as she fell onto the bench next to him.

"W-what?" Izuku choked quietly, and the woman barked a laugh.

"My accent too thick for ya, boy?" her accent was thick, and from a place Izuku couldn't place for the life of him. It was like someone had mashed a half dozen accents, including Texas and British together. And she clearly wasn't a natural Japanese speaker, but Izuku swallowed.

"N-no?"

"Then ya heard me, you're Quirkless, aren't ya?"

Izuku swallowed, gripping his book tighter, and gave an ashamed nod.

"I could tell," the woman said, "You got that taste about ya."

Taste? What did that mean?

"I know the feelin'," the woman said, "The weakness, the feelin' of being different… it burns, eats away at ya even when ya don't want it to, don't it?"

Izuku glanced away in shame, then nodded.

"They tell me the word for people like you and I is "Mu Kosei"," she mispronounced both words, but Izuku got what she was trying to say, "No Individuality? That's what that'd be in English, wouldn't it?"

"I-I think so?" Izuku stuttered, "I don't speak English very well-"

"Well it's bullshit!" The woman spat on the ground, "Where do they get off in sayin' that because they were born with some small twist of nature and we weren't? Quirkless is bad enough, but to tell someone throughout their life that they've got no individuality? Like they're some sort of sub-bloody-human instead of just normal?"

Izuku stared at the woman in shock, both at the tirad and the implications of it, "You're, you're Quirkless?"

"After a fashion," the woman said, holding out a hand, "name's Drusilla, doesn't matter if you're lookin' for my personal or hero name, I never saw the point. What's yours, boy?"

Izuku slowly, awkwardly reached out and took the hand. They didn't shake hands in Japan, but this woman clearly didn't care about the customs of where she was-

Shadows gathered around Izuku as he took her hand, and deep hunger not his own appeared in the back of his mind as he crumpled forwards and was caught by Drusilla. Finally, the feeling lessened and Izuku was left gasping against the woman, a polished black crystal having been slipped into his hand during the handshake.

"Aye," Drusilla said, "that's what I expected when I approached ya, you've got the strength in ya."

"The strength?" Izuku said, "The strength for what?"

"To become like me," Drusilla said, before glancing around, "ya mind coming to my Hero agency? I don't want this getting out to pryin' ears."

Izuku swallowed, looking down at the rock and nodding.

- X Drusilla X-

Drusilla walked towards the dilapidated building that served as the Lemure's Headquaters. It was a fixer upper if there ever was one, and she could already see Arnegis, his wife and Hermine had begun to do so. Barely there for a week, and they were already putting money into a place where they might be for only a few months in the hope that this would be the last one. The last stop on the hunt she had been on since that night twenty years ago.

Just like Texas had been, and New England, and Germany, and Britain. Every stop was the last stop, every stop was the one where she took Orcus's head and they settled down. And inevitably, every stop was just another rest before they moved on to hunt him again. Where they started from the bottom of the Hero Charts and she had to slash their pay to keep them going until they made more money. And every stop her Quirkless family got up and moved alongside her.

Because in this damned world, being Quirkless was a death sentence. You were treated like a damned cripple for being born the way everyone once had been. They didn't get it, they thought being Quirkless made you weak. It didn't, it made you strong, you had to have a tougher hide to survive, even if you didn't show it. Drusilla may have been a Reaper, but she was Quirkless first and she was proud of that.

Yes, it was true their Aether was like that of dry wine, but that didn't mean it was worthless.

"Welcome to Lemure," Drusilla said to the boy, "here ya can be what we are without shame."

"What we are?" The boy said.

"Everyone here is Quirkless, or so close they might as well be. Got one member whose eyes change colors when she blinks," Drusilla said.

"Everyone?" The boy said, "Why?"

"People like us need to stick together," Drusilla said firmly, pushing open the door and grinning at Arnegis, who was talking to Oliver, "We're back."

"We're?" The blond, fedora wearing man said, pushing up his hat, "I seem to remember you going out alone? Pick up another stray along the way, did you, Boss?"

"Aye," Drusilla said, stepping aside so the boy could walk in. Arnegis grinned at the boy, bowing.

"Name's Arnegis," the German man said, "Nice to meet a new member of this family of ours. What's your name, if you don't mind my prying?"

"I'm, I'm Izuku. Midoriya Izuku."

"Izuku," Arnegis said the name like he was tasting it, before nodding, "Well, Izuku. Since I'm sure dear Drusilla hasn't, let me be the first to welcome you to the family."

"I'm… I'm not sure I'm going to be part of this "family"," Izuku said.

"Ah," Arnegis nodded, "Drusilla hasn't told you much, has she? She can be a bit difficult to get information from if it isn't about one of her favorite rants. Like prying blood from a stone, it is."

"Bugger you too," Drusilla said without any heat, "I think you'll join this family in the end, Izuku. But first, we have that stone to talk about, we call it a Soul Crystal."

"A Soul-? You think he could become like you, Boss?" Arnegis gapped.

"The Crystal resonated with him when I was walkin' passed," Drusilla said, eyes trained on Izuku, "And when I gave it to him the Avatar nearly showed up. Focus on the Crystal, Izuku, imagine pouring energy into it."

-X Izuku X-

Izuku looked down at the obsidian stone, running a thumb over it as he did. A golden symbol was engraved onto the face, a… a checkmark and a circle, maybe? Wrapping his fist around it, he did what Drusilla said. He imagined pushing energy into the crystal, and the hunger that hadn't quite disappeared since he first had it shoved into his hand faded, before finally something happened.

In between the three of them appeared a giant skeletal creature, the skull missing eye and nose holes and bearing a mouth full of fangs and two sweeping bone structures ending in spikes at the top of the head. A black and green cloak hung off its frame, the spikes of bone piercing through the hood, while energy of the same color gathered around it. Izuku yelped, jumping back and dropping the crystal while Arnegis gave a whistle. The creature turned to motes of dark light on the wind as soon as Izuku let go of the crystal.

"Aye, it would look scary the first time, wouldn't it?" Drusilla said, picking up the stone and turning it in her fingers before holding it out to Izuku. Izuku slowly, carefully reached out and took the stone again.

"What was that?"

"We call it the Avatar," Drusilla said, "it's different for everyone, yours is bigger than any I've seen. It's a sign of the Pact."

"Pact?" Izuku asked, "Pact with what?"

"We call it a Voidsent," Drusilla explained, "It started with my great-great-Gran. Durin' the start of Quirk abilities, she made the first Pact to fight off an idiot who made a grab at the family farm. Grandpa used to quote the bible about it, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." We're still Quirkless, but the Pact lets us fight them. Ya take up that crystal, and ya can be a hero and Quirkless. Ya can be what ya want and what ya are."

"And what does the Voidsent get out of it?" Izuku asked warily, eying the stone.

"It gets to eat," Drusilla explained, "They feed on what they call Aether, and we get it for them. From rocks, from plants, from your enemies as you fight 'em, from yourself. It doesn't much care where it comes from, so long as it comes."

"And this will give me a Quirk-"

"It will give you power," Drusilla snapped, causing Izuku to take a step back and Arnegis to stand up straighter, "Don't mistake the Pact for a Quirk, boy. It won't change what you are, never forget what you are. What we are."

"Boss," Arengis chided lightly, stepping between them, "He's a kid, of course it'd feel like you're offering him a Quirk. I know you take pride in what we are, but you have a skewed view of things. You were always gonna have a Pact. He didn't even know the concept existed five minutes ago."

"Right, right," Drusilla sighed, "sorry, Izuku. It's a sore spot for me. We are Quirkless, that's what makes our family a family. Ones like you and me just get… let's call it "magic", to balance the scales."

Izuku nodded, fist around the gem.

"So, will you do it, Izuku? Will you take up the Pact and become like me?"

Izuku looked down at the gem, feeling the hunger radiating from it. Looking up, he nodded.

"Then do it, summon your Avatar again," on purpose,'" Drusilla said walking over to a wall where an antique looking scythe, blade worn and handle cracked sat and lifted it.

Izuku did what came naturally. He raised his hand, and gave a resounding snap of his fingers as he fed it energy. The Avatar formed above him, and Izuku felt a wild grin light up his face as Drusilla span the scythe so it was facing him.

"Take up your weapon, Reaper," Drusilla ordered, "We have training to do."