Midoriya had about a million and one thoughts racing through her brain as she processed everything she was being told. The revelation that she had met the real All Might years ago would be weird enough but…
The blonde sat across from her, lifting up his shirt and showing her why he looked like how he did now. It was gross, even for her. (And she exploded into gore-y bits on a semi-regular basis!)
It was also terrifying to think about how it came about.
"I got this is a big fight a few years back. No one knows about this fight, not even some of my own friends. Because… I'm the guy who's always smiling, right? I can't ever be weak… or afraid… or anything but positive and encouraging no mater what. With it, I can only do hero work for about three hours a day." The blonde said, tone almost bitter as went on. A villain who could seriously injure All Might? The greatest pro alive?
"So, kid. I told you the truth." All Might said, looking up at her. The greenette sighed as she stood tall. "Now you tell me…"
There was a beat of silence, then suddenly red tendrils began swirling around Izumi's body. Her clothing was replaced by her full body black suit, the only part not on her being the mask, which she formed in her hands. "Yes. I'm… I'm the Prototype. Izumi Midoriya."
"…"
"I….. my quirk… Unstable Bio-mass…it gives me perfect control over my own biology you could say. " She explained, lifting her hand and watching as it shifted into a giant blade that went out from either side of her elbow. "I was… I was born quirkless. An experiment, to try to evolve people like me to be the same as people with quirks was going on a few years back. It turned out the doctor in charge was a complete psycho. I'm lucky I ended up the first successful experiment or else… I wouldn't even be alive today."
"So… your quirk isn't like a regular one then…" The blonde pondered quietly, seemingly interested as he stood up. "Still, that's hardly an excuse."
Huh?
She looked up, surprised to see he almost seemed mad. 'What? But I thought…'
"Stop them? Well in all honesty, I don't stop vigilantism much. Make no mistake that I am not condoning illegal quirk use but while it may not be a popular opinion, I have something of a begrudging respect for them. There are of course those who are no better than criminals killing other criminals but some are just decent folk who couldn't become pro's for some reason."
'I thought he would be fine with me!'
She had a feeling if she actually had a heart still, it would be beating like crazy in her chest right now. "What do you me-"
"You're a child! You started how long ago?! You've been illegally using your quirk for years, potentially making things much harder on pro's!" The man exclaimed angrily, causing her to flinch back. "You are not licensed. You are not a pro. Stop pretending kid, you can't be a pro if you break the rules all the time! You can't be a hero!"
Silence hung for a moment after that. All Might seemed to shrink back as he actually processed his own words, and how they had come out. Midoriya's legs shook as she took in that message.
Even the number one hero said she couldn't be a pro….
"Wait kid-"
All Might went to say something else but it was too late as he blinked and suddenly, the greenette was gone without a trace. Blinking, the blonde sighed. "So that's what that looks like to other people… Idiot! She's a kid! She wasn't even there!"
He didn't even address the part where she called herself a freak.
Midoriya did her best to ignore the stinging in her eyes as she ran into a nearby alley, just wanting to be out of sight from everyone. Dammit, she could control everything else about her biology, why did she still have to put up with functioning tear ducts.
Ignoring the sensible part of her brain that tried to remind her she always reformed them when ever she regenerated, she started to punch at the wall, as lightly as she could. She wanted to smash it full force but she didn't need to add demolition of a private property to her record.
She gritted her teeth as she looked around, just searching for something to do to try to distract herself, knowing being stuck with her thoughts wouldn't be good. She always knew, if she ever did meet the man she'd be reprimanded for her work but… she never expected him to be so angry about it.
Not to mention crush her dreams so quick. It had gotten so easy to ignore it at school, now that she had the powers she did. They all would say she couldn't but they hadn't even tried to become pro's, they just wanted to put her down so she never felt too bad about it anymore.
Being told from someone who was a pro? Especially one like All Might…
BOOM!
Her eyes widened and she turned to see a giant smoke cloud rising from somewhere in Mustafu's market district. 'Holy crap that's big!''
She started to run forward without a thought, lifting her mask to her head. 'Better check if anyone… is…'
She stopped as All Might's words echoed through her mind again.
'You can't be a pro if you break the rules all the time.'
She looked at the mask in front of her, gripping It tight. She couldn't just sit here though!
When the world flashed, her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. Looking around however, she couldn't spot any discernible threat to herself. Shaking her head, she gritted her teeth and shoved on the mask, leaping into the air.
She didn't have time to doubt herself like this. Regardless of what he said, she couldn't just stand by if someone was in trouble.
'Idiot idiot Idiot!' Toshinori berated himself mentally, for quite a plethora of reasons at this point. He had arrived at the scene of the explosion just in case, only to find it was a scene of total devastation.
The monster he had caught, the slime villain had made an escape. He'd captured someone as a hostage, the pro's couldn't fight back with whatever the kid's quirk was affecting the field and the skinny pro's time limit was up.
This was a complete shitshow!
They needed someone who could actually damage the sludge! Or something that could get the boy out. They needed….
'Idiot! Idiot! I'm pathetic! I ran out my time limit, I could do this! I…'
Sudden rapid footsteps caught his attention, and he turned to see the Prototype running at the scene with her mask on. A tiny part of him wanted to make a comment about her ignoring everything he said, it was good thing she did.
'At least she can actually hurt the villain.'
She leapt over the crowd, and for the briefest moment, he could of sworn she was looking right at him.
Izumi's mind was practically blank as she ran towards the crowd of civilians, picking up more speed. She only had one goal here, make sure no one was hurt, then leave. She could at least do that!
But… as she was running, her senses began to pick up on people talking ahead, picking out bits of conversations she wasn't supposed to hear.
"I can't believe that villain got a kid!"
"Yeah, and none of the pro's can even do anything to save him"
"Wasn't that the villain All Might was chasing earlier?"
"Well I guess slime isn't easy to fight against…"
Slime? She blinked as she saw, just past the crowd, green gooey appendages flying about. 'No! No no no! How?!'
Then it occurred to her. In her excitement to talk with All Might, to get an answer to her question, she had collided with him at one point. Made him spin around quick, the bottle the villain was in must of fell out.
She stopped running. 'Dammit, this is my fault! He was right….'
For a split second, she considered not intervening at all, for fear of worsening the situation. However, from her vantage point she could see through the crowd, into the scene of the fight and spotted the victim.
The entire world seemed to fade as she met the red, seemingly terrified eyes of Katsuki Bakugou.
"You got lucky! You caught me off-guard. Don't you go thinking your better than me, your still a worthless pebble for me to step over!"
"I'd prove it right now, but my mom's waiting. Don't even think you stand a chance of becoming a hero. A monster like you has no chance."
"It's not a damn heroes quirk! You're a freak! Those claws are something a villain uses!"
Were it not for the horror of the situation, Midoriya could almost laugh at how this had played out. As it was though, she settled for taking a breath…
And leaping into action.
She shot above the crowd, eyes briefly meeting sunken ones she was surprised to see, however she only took them in for a moment. 'Why's he here?! Well that's obvious- NOT THE TIME BRAIN!'
Most of the civilians and even the pro's saw her enter the scene, landing on the ground. Before a word could be said though, she disappeared from view, reappearing directly in front of the slime villain.
"What the- Not you! YOU CAN'T TAKE ME, BITCH!" The slime villain screamed, a slime appendage flying through the air, towards the girls right side. She lifted her arms, a solid shield forming and deflecting the blow as her other hand turned to claws, tearing a hole in.
The slime villain came down with both his hands next, however he already had lost, as Midoriya reached in and pulled out Bakugou with all her strength. "FUCK OFF, I DON'T NEED HELP! GET OFF ME-"
"OH, WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP KACCHAN!" Midoriya shouted back, not wanting to put up with this as she ran, carrying him to the pro's. She knew she'd regret I, the second he went silent in surprise. She turned back, only to see the slime villain was still coming at them.
"You think one single competent hero can stop me?!" He cried out, clearly more desperate now he lost his hostage. Suddenly, his body expanded and dozens of tendrils rose up, ready to come down on them all.
"MAYBE NOT!" A new voice called out. Midoriya grinned despite herself as she turned to see a large muscular blonde rushing forth, likely the only one who could keep up with his movements. "HOWEVER I DO BELIEVE TWO OF THEM CAN! TEXASSSSS SMAAAAAAASHHHHHHHH!"
The punch collided with the slime, and in an instant the villain exploded into pieces as a storm of wind was kicked up. Izumi shot out some tendrils around her to keep everyone on their feet.
The cloudy weather cleared up, and a bright sunny shined through, illuminating the man who had just rushed in to finish the fight. All Might stumbled back for a moment, before raising his fist to the sky.
People began to cheer, and the shapeshifter sighed in relief as she let go if her tendrils. Of course, she wasn't in the clear just yet.
"Prototype…" A male voice called out and she turned to see Death Arms and Kamui Woods stomping towards her. "You are under arrest for-"
She had been ready to just book it and spend the rest of the day as some random man or woman at the library until the heat died down, however before she could…
"I'm afraid I can't allow that, my friends." A boisterous voice got all their attention, and they turned to see All Might walking towards them. "This vigilante is with me for now, I'm afraid it's incredibly important business. I appreciate you are just trying to do your jobs, however I must prevent you from doing so, I am sorry. Prototype…. Come along."
"Uhh… Yes sir!" She nodded quickly, making sure her voice came out deep like she always tried to do talking while under the mask, running to his side and following him through to an alley while the other pro's stared on dumbstruck.
The only reason she agreed to go with was curiosity. Why would he save her from being arrested after how he reacted earlier. They got further and further in until they hit a dead end and the man let out a sigh. "Ok, let's both change back to normal first."
As he said that, he deflated while the girl's body swirled with tendrils and she tried on a slightly different outfit, opting for a hoodie over a blouse now it had gotten colder. At the odd look the man gave her she explained quick. "My powers make wearing normal clothes a hassle, so I just create them."
"So… that's just skin…."
"Yup!"
"I.. am going to chose to not ever think about that or bring that up again." All Might said, with a frown. Shaking his head, the skinny blonde wiped away a small drip of blood that escaped his mouth. "My girl…. I wanted to apologize to you."
"Huh?"
"It is no excuse for how I acted but… that fight I told you about earlier? Following it, I learned of your debut. Initially it brought me here to try to find you, as something less taxing and more simple to get back into hero work. I couldn't, and with my only memories of you from before being associated with that fight… My anger got the better of me." He said, as he began to pace. "Still, none of that is any excuse for how I treated you earlier. Kid… I wasn't going to do anything there."
"Huh?..."
"That boy, I wasn't going to risk hurting my time limit. Then you came in… Somewhere along the way… since that fight I'd forgotten the most important part of being a hero, one you seem to embody even despite what you've dealt with." All Might smiled as he walked up to her. "You did the right thing, regardless of all other factors. You tried and succeeded in saving someone's life, even when you were told not to."
Blushing, the girl scratched the back of her neck with a smile. This was a change of pace from earlier. "It wasn't anything special…"
"That's why…You, Izumi Midoriya…. I wish to pass my quirk onto you, as my successor."
….
…
….
"Uh… kid?"
"I'm sorry, I must of misheard you." Midoriya said, with a nervous grin. "Quirks can't be passed on, so there's no way-"
"Oh but there is a way, young Midoriya! Seeing as how your own abilities came about, is it truly so hard to believe?"
"Well… I guess not." Midoriya conceded, placing a finger to her chin in thought.
"Allow me to explain my other secret if you will. My quirk…. It is called One for All. It works by being passed down from person to person, so they can cultivate the power, adding to it and passing it along. It is the great power, of seven people before me atop my own, that allows me to save those who are in need of a hero!" The blonde explained, holding out his hand that almost seemed to be glowing. This sounded like an amazing power, something that would be decisive in so many ways… "This is your choice! Do you want to accept my awesome power or not!?"
There was a beat of silence. Izumi took a steadying breath, then looked up at the man with a smile.
"Nope."
….
"Wait wha-"
"That sounds like an absolutely amazing power. Something that incredibly though, it should go to someone who both deserves it and can really benefit from it. I don't want to sound egoistical but… my quirk is already enough to be a great hero. I want to be like you but… I think I can still reach it without. Not to mention, with how my powers came to be, it destroyed my 'quirk factor' or whatever it's really called. I might destroy the power if I take it."
"A… valid concern." The lanky man said, clearly still caught off-guard by her refusal. Scratching the back of his neck the pro looked away. "Drat, that was about the closest thing I had to actually show I was sorry as well."
At that, Midoriya laughed, turning to walk away. "Hey, you don't need to give me a token of apology or anything like that. If you really want to do something though… Me and friend of mine, we both want to go to U.A."
"Ah, my old Alma Matter."
"If you would, I'm sure we'd both appreciate you giving us your opinion on how much training you think we still need to do to get in." Midoriya explained, and waited on the blonde's answer.
"Well…. Not like I have anything better to do anyways. Alright, where do you want to meet?"
"Dagobah beach, I train there a lot."
With that, the girl ran off with the stupidest grin on her face. She whipped out her phone and sent an apology text to her friend, who she had said she would meet up with ages ago.
'Trust me though, Itsuka, you're gonna love this.'