AN: Hi there, this is the first time I've written an AU that starts from the very beginning of a series. My other story begins a few years into canon so has some of that framework already set to fall back on. With this story there is none of that so I'm treading new waters here, hope I don't disappoint. I only mention this now because this chapter is the first major deviance from canon aside from the obvious quirk!Izuku fem!bakugo etc. Let me know what you think.
Also, I think I had a problem with long-windedness in my other story and have been trying to be a bit more concise with my phrasing in this one. If any of you have read ABE as well, please let me know if you've noticed any difference. Enjoy the chapter.
edit: There were some reviews about the silver surfer vibes from Izuku's quirk. There is indeed some inspiration drawn from the silver surfer at least aesthetically, for this aspect of his quirk. As far as the silver surfer's origins, I'm fairly ignorant, I just really like how that character looked in the fantastic four movie. Someone also mentioned a spell used in Fate/Zero by one of the Mages. Its been years since I'd last watched that series and I'd entirely forgotten about the scene in question. But its actually really close visually to what I was going for with Izuku's quirk, just airborne instead of rolling along the ground. However the way that spell works differs in several ways to Izuku's quirk, which I won't talk about any more since it's a subject that comes up in the story.
Lets just say there is inspiration drawn from countless series and media and leave it at that.
Thanks for all the support.
Chapter 3
The Turning Point
oooOo Katsumi oOooo
There were many types of anger, this was a fact Katsumi knew all too well.
There was of course the blinding, seething rage that only appeared in the rarest of circumstances. The target of that kind usually came to regret whatever they had done to earn her attention in the first place. Her reject classmates always crowding around her were more of a mild annoyance, barely classifying as anger.
But this deep-seated, long-lasting, parasite of a feeling in her gut was a cut above the rest.
The source of her ire? Midoriya fuckin Izuku of course. Who else had the abillity to leave her both apoplectic and so horribly conflicted in the same moment?
No one, that's who!
Her mother had mumbled some bullshit about a match, but Katsumi had stopped listening to her rants years ago. The woman had the audacity to tell her to not explode morons when they annoyed her. The hell kinda advice was that? That wasn't helpful at all!
That, however, didn't get rid of her current problem. Katsumi wasn't even sure what to do at this point.
For her admittedly short life, she had always tried to live at full throttle and without regrets.
She may have screwed up that second part… damn nerd was one huge regret.
Izuku had changed, and Katsumi was still baffled that she was the only one who'd noticed it.
She had expected some shift in attitude of course. Katsumi would have even welcomed a bit of bravado from the boy, god knows he could use it. The nerd was already dead set on being a hero even before that glorified mood ring of a quirk appeared. She'd known of course that once his quirk had appeared, he'd only be even more determined. But she'd remained aloof in a last-ditch effort to keep him out of harm's way. Determined he may be, but Katsumi had refused to let such a kind, brilliant mind go to waste trying to keep up with all the dangerous quirks tossed around by villains.
At least that was what she'd thought at the time.
Frankly, it seemed that the only thing about Izuku that remained the same were those same selfless qualities, and of course his utter obsession with quirks, no matter who they belonged to.
Gone was the eternal stutter, replaced with a quiet confidence. The quick-witted mind Katsumi knew from when they were young and inseparable was finally allowed to shine.
Even though she'd initially hoped the bullying would discourage Izuku from hero work, she was inwardly cackling every time he'd slip past his tormentors. The idiots always tried to corner him when the teachers weren't looking, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd actually seen someone catch him.
He'd always slip in an underhanded comment and slink away before they'd even registered his words. She swore Endo still spaced out sometimes trying to figure out some of Izuku's more creative burns.
Katsumi might not have been able to admit it to herself, but her plan was a bust by this point. Izuku had lost his timid nature, and… he just held himself differently. He walked like someone who would change the world.
She didn't hate it.
But how could she expect to just go back to how things were before she'd fucked it all up? That was even more delusional.
Now, she and Izuku had barely spoken in years let alone been on friendly terms… and the damn nerd was still going to be a hero anyway!
Yes, going to be. She had no doubt that Izuku would somehow manage to slip through the cracks, even with such a weak quirk. He'd somehow put that big brain to use and find a way.
Even as kids, he'd always been doggedly following in her footsteps, no matter how hard a path she chose.
She also knew he'd be an easy target for the millions that turned to villainy over an honest day's work. Being smart could only get you so far.
Katsumi choked down the familiar pangs of guilt that welled within her. What were all the weekends spent in solitude for? The beatings Izuku had endured in her absence? She could have protected him! She should have protected him.
She chewed on her thumbnail anxiously, lip curling into a grimace.
He must be sickened by the sight of her.
What kind of friend abandoned you in your greatest time of need?
Katsumi's foul mood had only worsened by the time she'd made it to school, and the sight of the dreary building ahead only loosened the girl's already tenuous grip on her sanity. It was a typical public school, lacking all the notoriety and prestige of some of the more expensive private schools around the country. It was the kind of institution that rarely saw students go on to legendary schools like UA.
"A school by extras for extras," she mused quietly, the beginnings of a sneer stretching across her deceptively fair features.
Katsumi's eyes dropped to the filthy sidewalk, littered with dried gum and trash. This was pretty much the standard here at Aldera Educational Institute. The sight of two pairs of black scuff marks streaking across the sidewalk immediately snapped her mind back to the boy she was trying to forget.
The longboard strapped to the back of his red backpack was a familiar sight by now.
The first time the nerd had come to school with that thing he'd had to go— sorry, limp to the nurse's office before class even started. What the hell was aunty Inko thinking? The overprotective mother didn't strike Katsumi as the kind of person who'd let him get away with some shit like that.
More importantly, what the hell had gotten into Deku? Longboarding? Where had that even come from. Up until this point all he'd been interested in was heroes, quirks, and pretty much any combination of the two.
As far as Katsumi knew there were no heroes that rode any sort of board, at least not in Japan, and Izuku wasn't the kind of thrill-seeker that would be attracted to that sort of thing out of the blue. Frankly, after having watched some videos on the sport online, it was something she would have loved doing. Bombing down winding hills at over one hundred kph? Sign her the hell up.
But that was the exact reason that the nerd's sudden interest was so bizarre, their personalities were like night and day, at least back when she was still his friend. Had he really changed that much in so little time? The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Whatever, she didn't care. If Izuku wanted to break his neck imitating some obscure pro-hero then that was none of her business.
Admittedly he hadn't come to school bruised and battered for a few years now. She'd even occasionally catch a glimpse of him from a distance, racing down the hills of Musutafu, before he'd zip out of sight moving way faster than she'd thought possible.
Katsumi made her way through scuffed and tagged double doors of AEI. The campus was a combination of a middle and high school divisions, located in two separate buildings. The hallways stank of underfunded public education, and she reminded herself for perhaps the hundredth time, that she'd only have to slum it for another six years.
She cursed under her breath, that was way too fucking long. Just a "mere" six years until she could take her rightful place with the rest of the eli—
"Well, well, well, look what we have here boys."
She slowed her pace and turned to the voice. Four boys stood shoulder to shoulder, one standing slightly in front of the rest. She eyed the secondary school uniforms they all wore, the pins stuck to their jackets labeled them as being third years. They all wore their uniforms untucked and without the tie of course. Wouldn't want people to think they were lame or something.
Gag.
They stood crowded around one of the hallways leading from the main plaza to the Junior high section of the campus. The bell had already rung meaning the group was waiting here for a specific reason. Katsumi didn't think it would take her three guesses for why.
Was this really happening? To her?! It was eight in the morning on her first day of middle school and she so didn't have time for this shit.
Katsumi eyed the leader with feigned indifference, noting his dramatically oversized forearms and the strange coiled mechanism that seemed to merge seamlessly into his flesh. A mutant type then?
Mistaking her silence for submission, he swaggered up to her speaking once more. "Word on the block is there's some hotshot moving up into middle school the teachers are calling a genius, that's you right?" The three other guys sneered down at Katsumi as she stared with lidded eyes, utterly uninterested.
A genius? That was a new one. Probably the least accurate of all the ridiculous titles people had given her over the years. Prodigy, Once-in-a-Generation, she'd heard them all at one point or another. But more importantly…
Were these fucking extras really pulling this shit right here? Right here by the main plaza of the school? Sure, it was a bit out of the way and in a hallway that wasn't really in direct view of the main office but still.
Katsumi felt a flash of righteous anger flood through her system. She had too much shit to figure out already to have to deal with these idiots so early in the morning.
"You see… we thought we'd do our cute little kouhai a favor and nock her down a few pegs before she got too big a head."
God damn, how long did this monkey practice that line in the mirror this morning?
"Look, why don't you cut the yakuza routine, you're just embarrassing yourself," Katsumi drawled. She turned away to find her homeroom classroom, she was already late enough.
Katsumi cursed as her foot slammed into an opaque barrier that sprung into existence in front of her.
Really…
Katsumi kicked at the air experimentally. Her boots tapped audibly against a surface, despite nothing physically being there. She found the barrier solid even after reaching out to touch it at eye level. Her exit was thoroughly cut off.
Deep breaths Katsumi. Don't explode the extras.
She exhaled heavily out of her nose, turning back to the group of four with pale eyebrows narrowed over crimson irises. The goon standing to Fat-hands' left held his palms together like he was praying or some shit. Either he was scared as fuck for his friend or it was a part of his quirk. Katsumi couldn't quite tell but it looked like the boy might be holding his breath as well.
Her lips curved into a subtle smirk, Izuku would probably have been raving about all the ways spawning barrier walls could be used to save people, but Katsumi's mind ran on a bit of a different wavelength.
She picked apart the weaknesses of such a gated emitter type, estimating the kind of cooldown someone with such an ability might have. Would he be able to spawn a second shield? Was there a time limit?
Their vulnerabilities.
The leader's first step towards her was heavy with implication, his grin as large and as fake as the gold chain that rattled around his neck.
A familiar tingling sensation arced across Katsumi's palms, her quirk yearning to be unleashed, but she clamped down on the urge. Not quite yet.
She saw the wide left swing coming from a mile away, telegraphed and clumsy. If any of her opponents had seen the grin that split Katsumi's lips at that moment, they might have reconsidered their plans.
"All right, assholes, since you were kind enough to throw the first punch…" Katsumi ducked into the larger boy's swing, throwing an elbow strike to his solar plexus. The older boy reflexively doubled over in pain, and Katsumi let loose a devastating explosion aided open-palm uppercut to his jaw. "Just die already!"
Finally, she had an excuse to blow off some steam.
"Ikai! You alright man!?" called the third guy in their group seeing his leader slumped over in pain. He was thin, and had long, blue grey hair that fell to his shoulders. The boy was sweating and had an anxious look on his face. Kid probably hadn't even wanted to be here in the first place.
Katsumi smirked, she wouldn't want to fight her either. She let out a huff of air turning to the others of the pitiful excuse for a gang, no reason to let them regroup, it's not like this was a manga or something.
With a carefully applied explosion of all force and minimal heat Katsumi burst across the distance between them, planting a fist in the gut of the idiot with the barrier quirk. If he thought she was just going to let him sit there blocking her only exit then he was dumber than he looked.
Not that she had any intention of running.
Katsumi ducked to the right, rolling out of the way as a rumbling surge of power echoed throughout the hallway. She turned, seeing the scuffed-up ground where she had been standing moments earlier. Crouched with his hand raised toward her was fat-hands, dark orange hair plastered to his brow with sweat. A faint blue glow from the mechanism in his arm reflected off the deranged look in his eyes.
Sound waves huh? Probably strong short to medium range, and a fairly slow projectile speed if she'd been able to dodge it instinctively.
It really was too early for this shit.
She sighed heavily. It didn't really matter; this kid wasn't even a pebble on the side of the road to her. He was an afterthought really, in the greater scheme of things.
But he'd made the mistake of challenging her directly. What would people think if she didn't live up to all their wonderful expectations?
She rushed the leader with an explosion for speed, leaning her weight back with bent knees as she slid under his weak right hook. Capitalizing on the larger boy's hesitation, Katsumi delivering a powerful blow to his kidney. All it took was a textbook leg sweep and he dropped like a house of cards.
The nervous-looking boy who had spoken up earlier had turned tail in the confusion, leaving the only remaining crony approaching with blind anger in his eyes. Katsumi made short work of the boy, his mutation quirk that gave him the legs and tail of a lizard only affording him a bit of extra mobility. Perhaps the claws would have posed a threat had Katsumi given him an opportunity to even use them.
Would his tail grow back if she exploded it off? No... not worth the trouble, plus someone would have heard all that. Katsumi glanced at the scorched walls of the hallway and the whimpering forms of the downed upperclassmen.
"Shit…"
Hopefully these idiots would be too fucking embarrassed to rat her out. She could already hear the lecture from her mother if she was busted for fighting at school. As much as the teachers groveled at her feet, even she might not get away with brawling in the hallways. They usually came down hard on unlicensed quirk usage in a fight.
Just as she was about to walk off to finally make it to class the walls of the hallway lit up with an arctic blue glow. She turned in time to catch sight of a beam of energy rushing towards her. Her feet were mid-step making it awkward to dodge, so Katsumi shot off an explosion from one arm in a last-ditch effort to avoid the blast.
It worked to some degree, but the shot from her blind spot had proved too hard to sidestep completely even with her animalistic reactions.
It clipped her left side, knocking the breath from her lungs and tossing her across the hall. Katsumi tumbled to a heap wheezing as she tried to regain her breath. The pain was negligible. What wasn't however…
That fucking bastard did not just shoot her in the back with his bootleg present mic bullshit.
Katsumi saw red.
Before he had even seen her move, she was crouched before him, a palm smoldering a devilish crimson. The first blast flung the ape that even tried to challenge her into the filthy hallway wall, spittle flying from his mouth as flesh met unforgiving concrete.
She blast-jumped after him, lost to the frenzy of battle, a right hook humming with explosive firepower swinging towards the defenseless upperclassman.
Her quirk yearned for retribution.
Katsumi's eyes picked up movement in her peripherals before the attack connected. The explosion was blinding in its intensity not to mention the boom that echoed off the enclosed acoustics of the hallway.
Hell yeah! Even her ears rung from that one.
But something was wrong, Katsumi's application of Explosion was incredibly fine-tuned, the product of years of practice and research. The amount of chemical she had released for that attack should have resulted in a significantly bigger bang.
The smoke cleared, and one of her questions was answered, but so many more came to mind. Before her stood none other than Midoriya Izuku, kind, green eyes narrowed and burning with a fire she had only seen from him on rare occasions.
But wait… Izuku had just tanked one of her stronger explosions barehanded!
No... that wasn't right, his hand wasn't bare, it was shiny and meta—
Oh no.
"I think that's enough Kacchan."
Katsumi's stomach plummeted. She knew what this probably looked like, of course he would show up at precisely this moment. When it looked like she was mercilessly beating down the defenseless. It wasn't exactly her first schoolyard fight after all.
But his eyes didn't hold any of the scorn she expected, only that infuriatingly gentle, disgustingly gentle look he always got. Honest eyes pierced through her as if none of the walls she'd packed around her for years had meant anything. Katsumi's jaw tightened as she scowled reflexively, breaking eye contact before him for once.
Izuku just stood there, the glossy surface of what she assumed was his decidedly not-useless quirk reflected the sunlight peeking into he hallway.
This is where he would tell her that he was disgusted with her, Katsumi just knew it. He would berate her for the years she left him alone, before leaving her alone
Just like she deserved.
Ignoring the rational part of her mind that told her the boy before her wasn't capable of such cruelty, she followed her body's instinctive response to vulnerability. Her legs had started moving before she'd even registered it herself.
Katsumi made it through the School entrance before he could see the first tear fall.
oooOo Izuku oOooo
Five minutes earlier-
Oh god he was so freaking late!
The previous day, Izuku had caught wind of a curious rumor on one of the forums he frequented. Someone had said that All Might would be making an appearance at a 5k charity run in the business district of uptown Musutafu early this morning so Izuku had chanced riding into town to scope the place out before school.
The All Might was a lie! How cruel…
It had all turned out to be just that: a rumor. There was indeed a charity event, but instead of the Symbol of Peace there was an appearance by a well-known local hero instead. Izuku had nothing against Crimson Riot, but he was no All Might.
Then again, was anyone really All Might? Had anyone even come close? That might not be the best scale to judge a hero by. Did All Might seem so inhumanly powerful to the other top heroes as well? There really was only one way to find out, but attaining that level was a far-off goal for the green haired youth.
Regardless, he was now frighteningly late, bombing down the last hill before AEI at close to eighty kilometers an hour.
He torqued his core around halfway down the slope, whipping his board ninety degrees into a slide. Izuku reveled in the familiar loss of traction, letting his momentum practically float him over the asphalt. He let out a shout, a confident grin plastered across the young boy's face as he drifted into the last turn at the bottom of the hill, turning onto Aldera drive.
Izuku rarely had to use his quirk to correct his balance anymore, only protecting his palms while hand-sliding. What had started as a glorified training exercise had turned into a genuine hobby, not to mention his main mode of transportation, and Izuku couldn't get enough of it.
He uncharacteristically cursed under his breath as the echoing ring of the first warning bell sounded from off in the distance. And on his first day of middle school too! His obsession with heroes may be getting a bit out of hand. To think that he'd let himself be late on such an important day.
But it was All Might though…
He rolled up to the main building, hopped off his board and seeing that no one was around, snatched it off the ground with a tendril of quicksteel, already sprinting up the steps and taking the first turn down the left hallway.
Just as he was about to take the right turn from the main plaza of the school his classroom in the junior high building, he heard a disturbance from the hallways leading between the two main wings. Curious, and resigned to being late anyway, Izuku peered around the corner, only to flinch away as a blinding flash of light bathed the hallway in orange, searing his eyes in the process.
The sound followed a millisecond after, a harsh boom that Izuku could feel hit his chest. He had reflexively thrown up a concave shield of quicksteel in response to a potential attack, but it never came. He turned back in the hallway, eyes searching for the reason Katsumi had set off such a large-scale attack, for who else could be the cause of such a blast?
His eyes widened as he took in the scene. He marked the two downed upperclassmen in his head, one clutching his stomach in pain, and the other on his back, reptilian legs twitching as he struggled to get up.
Katsumi practically blurred as she rushed towards the third, who was currently splayed spread-eagled against a grey wall. This was the most likely victim of the explosion from earlier.
Judging by the sparks trailing Katsumi's palm it wasn't to be the last.
Izuku's legs moved before he knew it, launching himself in between the two fighters as quicksteel molded over his right hand and halfway up his forearm. He felt the impact of the blow immediately and once again was reminded of how absurdly powerful this girl was. Even with his telekinetic control over quicksteel reinforcing his natural strength he was almost blown away from the force. The heat washed over him uncomfortably but not to dangerous levels. He'd managed to redirect most of the blast up and away from him and the boy cowering at his ankles.
What Izuku didn't expect however, was the wave of fatigue that washed over him.
What could that have been? It had never happened before while using his quirk, not even hauling fridges down at Dagoba beach. Did quicksteel struggle with kinetic force? That would pose a problem for hero work, but there was also the heat of Katsumi's explosion to consider. Such a limitation could be problematic, but it was something he could work around.
The smoke cleared and Izuku saw Katsumi's eyes widen imperceptibly. Her brows shot up as soon as she identified him, reasonable, considering the times Izuku stood up to her in their childhood could be counted on a single hand.
"I think that's enough, Kacchan."
The tension of the situation leaked into his tone, and the words came out a bit harsher than he had intended. This was the first true interaction he'd had with the girl in years after all, and he found her about to throw away everything she'd worked for? Izuku simply couldn't let her go through with that.
But this wasn't the reaction he had expected at his intervention. Anger was expected. Anger would have been normal. This guilt and… regret that shone so evidently in her eyes, that wasn't the Kacchan that he knew at all.
Why was she looking at him like that? Like she actually gave a shit. She rarely looked at anything like that anymore, let alone him.
Before he could ponder the enigmatic blonde any further, she broke the eye contact with a clenched jaw, teeth practically cracking under the pressure.
Was she angry after all?
However, in another moment Katsumi was gone, the distant cracks of her quirk the only indication that she had even been there in the first place.
Well… that, and the three older students lying in their own drool… and the scorch marks on the walls…
He licked a finger and pinched out a small flame that clung to his school uniform with a sigh.
"Shit."
Izuku started at the sound of approaching footsteps, most likely a teacher sent to investigate the explosions. After deliberating for a moment, as much as his studious nature screamed at him to go to class, he followed instincts and rushed after the fleeing blonde.
His dark red chucks tapped rhythmically against the linoleum floor as Izuku raced down the halls. Taking a deep breath, he meticulously shaped the full volume of his quicksteel into a sleek, pin-tailed board, letting it hover at his side once he was satisfied with the length and shape.
Something about that look on Katsumi's face as she'd run told him he'd regret letting her go. The worst she could do was tell him to leave her alone. Well… not really, but she'd never hurt him.
Right?
Izuku hopped along comically as he tried to yank off his shoes and socks while running. He finally succeeded as he rounded the corner and bolted out the front door. Izuku took a running leap off the front steps without a second thought.
That brief moment of weightlessness as he hung in the air was immortalized in Izuku's mind. The shining spring sun, beating down on his hair and slowly warming the cool morning air. The distant noises of construction on the breeze. The familiar weight at the edge of his mind that was always there, the mass of quicksteel that was his to command.
He glanced down, and his own face, split into a joyful grin stared back. The smooth surface of the board almost like a mirror as it floated below him.
Izuku's bare feet met the frigid surface of the quicksteel, his control becoming more fine-tuned with the skin contact. A faint thrumming sound vibrated throughout his body from where his feet met the board. It was a minor indication of whenever he was particularly forceful with his quirk.
A burst of displaced air, and he was off!
It was the lack of friction that was so hard to get used to the first-time round. The concrete scraping under fast moving wheels, speed wobbles, the momentum gained by drifting into turns. These were all things he used to measure and adjust his weight and balance while riding.
But in the air, and moving the board with his mind, he had none of that information to go off. He essentially had to relearn how to balance, something that had initially seemed impossible.
He'd figured it out eventually.
Izuku crouched into a speed tuck to maximize aerodynamics as he accelerated with his mind. Multitasking between controlling the board and balancing his own weight was another problem he ran into, but at least with that he'd already had practice moving his quirk in other ways. It had taken longer than he'd admit, but he'd eventually figured out how to feel the location of the board in space, and use that information to balance. It had taken years of practice, but Izuku finally felt comfortable enough to move at speeds comparable to his regular longboard.
But that was when he was on the beach! Over delightedly soft, definitely-not-concrete sand. Unfortunately, the hard planes and sharp angles of urban Musutafu were quite a bit more unforgiving, and even his helmet wouldn't really do much if he fell from even a couple feet off the ground.
But he needed the aerial view to see where Katsumi had gone! He wasn't sure what he'd say when he caught up to her, but he'd seen that look before. For months he'd had to look at it in the mirror every day.
But he'd worry about all that after he found her.
oooOoOoOooo
Izuku let out a whoop of joy as he zipped through a highway overpass skidding the tail end of his board against the sidewalk. The shower of sparks that was unleashed illuminated his face with a strobe-like orange light, but the whining, buzzsaw-like sound that echoed off the cement walls took the fun out of it pretty quickly. He zipped out of the tunnel and the world was bright with sunlight once more.
Izuku took to the skies, his heart pounding in his chest as the biting wind whipped his hair into his eyes. He kept the curly mess a bit longer than when he was younger, though he really wondered why. It was horribly impractical, especially for him.
Once he'd stopped worrying about being so high up, Izuku had taken to surfing through the air, or skyboarding as he'd been internally calling it, like white on rice. Izuku already had the instincts after all, he skated every single day.
After not finding Katsumi in the general vicinity of their school, Izuku resigned himself to missing the first day entirely. The situation might have been funny in any other context, both he and Kacchan's perfect attendance records would be broken on the same day.
Where could she have gone?
Not having any better ideas Izuku started checking all the places they used to hang out as kids. She might have gone home, but generally the girl didn't like talking to her mom when she was upset, not to mention having to explain why she was home so early on a school day. That discussion would come in time, but Izuku knew Katsumi would put it off until the very last minute to avoid the wrath of the Bakugo Matriarch for as long as possible.
He checked the playground that was the stage of many of their adventures together as children. It was within a few minutes walking distance of their house, but he found it abandoned save for a couple entertaining a young toddler on the swingset. Izuku grinned as the kid pointed and waved at him with a look of awe as Izuku flew overhead, his parents unaware. Gliding along the path that ran parallel to a shallow stream Izuku began to reminisce about all the time he'd spent chasing his friends up and down the massive park.
Back when he had them anyway.
He meant park in the loosest sense of the word. The sheer size of it was massive. Even looking from an aerial view as he was now, the grounds sprawled on for miles. It was the kind of place that could be both wonderous and terrifying for a child that age. They used to get lost for hours exploring every nook and cranny of the place. Every day brought a new adventure, all guided by the whims of a group of four year olds.
The grassy slope that lead to the stream grew sheer as Izuku traveled further into more overgrown parts of the land. He came across a rotted wooden bridge that crossed the stream and lead into a deeply forested area, the trees knotted and branching every which way.
Izuku had a good feeling about this next spot. He slowed to a stop, willing the board to the ground once more. Stepping back onto solid ground, Izuku wobbled on unsteady legs for a moment.
"Guess this is what sailors mean by 'sea legs' huh?" He took an uncertain step forward, following it up with another when his legs remained steady.
This spot was particularly familiar to the boy. He remembered vividly the day that he and Kacchan had first come here with some of their friends from school. She'd been dared by one of the boys to climb one of the tallest trees in the place. This was before she'd gotten her quirk too.
Katsumi had done it in a heartbeat of course, always one to rise to a challenge even at that age. It was the first of many times they'd come back to the same tree. Even after Katsumi developed her quirk, Izuku knew for a fact she'd been back. He'd come from time to time as well, though they'd never gone together again after that day.
That's why he couldn't let her leave while looking so defeated, not if he could do something about it.
Making his way through the trees, his quicksteel orb bobbed behind him idly. Izuku cut a familiar path through the undergrowth coming out to a clearing dominated by a massive oak tree. its branches were full of foliage and stretched across nearly the entire area.
Seated on a gnarled branch around twenty meters up the aged trunk was Katsumi. The little sun that made it through the canopy overhead speckled her platinum blonde hair with morning light.
"Couldn't keep your nose to yourself, eh Deku?" Her voice was hoarse, barely audible to the boy and lacked all the heat he knew she was capable of.
"You haven't called me that since the very first time, Kacchan, if you want me gone then you're going to have to do better than that."
She didn't answer, and the distant sound of a cicada chirping cut the silence like a sharpened blade.
"Can we talk?" he called up again, the words awkward after so many years silence.
She seemed to think for a moment. "Do what you want, but…" a bit of the familiar flare came to her eyes as she shot him a challenging smirk, "only if you come up here, Nerd."
Ah, so that was her angle. In the past Izuku would never had dared to climb so high up, often choosing to sit on a branch several meters below the much more daring girl.
A grin stole across his freckled face, if Kacchan thought that that would stop him now then she was in for a surprise. Silently, quicksteel molded itself into a disc, like the very first time he'd tried all those years ago. It lacked the streamline design of the board he'd ridden to the clearing but would serve to prove a point just as well as anything.
Izuku stood on the metallic platform, feeling it stiffen under his still-bare feet. He willed it to rise silently through the air, slowly coming to a stop once he was eye to eye with a wide-eyed and speechless Katsumi.
"You—your quirk…but—"
"I'm supposed to be the one with the stammering problem Kacchan," he said, chuckling lightly.
She turned away, that same look from before coming to her eyes. And… was she blushing? What the hell? "Will you tell me what's wrong?" Izuku decided to be blunt about it, people beating around the bush usually only annoyed the blonde.
She'd seemed surprised at that, stiffening slightly before glancing suspiciously in Izuku's direction. Her eyes lingered on the silvery platform holding him nearly twenty meters in the air, marveling at his ability.
"Your quirk, nerd… it's gotten stronger," she said, ignoring his request.
"Yeah well I've been practicing… a lot. And its been a while since you've been around, plus it took me a while to really figure it out myself. I'd liked to have had a few more years before you got to see but but…" he trailed off, rubbing his arm nervously. Jeez, talk to her for two minutes and he's already rambling like he's four again.
"Wait, back the hell up," Katsumi's voice cut through the self-chiding thoughts. "Why would you want me to see it,"
"Oh well I didn't really mean any—"
"You said 'you' specifically," she insisted, like a dog with a bone, "why?"
Izuku hesitated, he knew why- of course he did, but admitting that to her? That after all these years of her ignoring his very existence that he still yearned for a sliver of that simple, easy friendship they'd had so long ago? That he still missed her every day?
That would be a nightmare.
But that didn't change the fact that, here she was, talking to him like he'd asked her to, just like he'd imagined for all those lonely years, and she was expecting an answer. He couldn't lie, she'd know immediately; she always did, not that he'd had many occasions to lie to her in the first place. He couldn't run, as that would defeat the point of having chased her all the way out here in the first place.
So he was left with one option.
"Its just… I guess I sort of held some hope that I showed you I could be strong that… you might finally acknowledge me, and we could maybe, be friends again?"
The silence that stretched between the two was agonizing for Izuku.
Izuku looked up to meet her eyes once more only to blink in shock at something he had never seen before.
Katsumi sat with despair written across her disarmingly delicate features, and tears, actual tears pooling in her eyes as they returned to staring at the forest floor, meters below.
"No! don't you get it!? You're supposed to hate me! Yell at me, kick my ass like I deserve! You probably even could now right?!" She shouted, head still bowed. "I left you alone! You're not supposed to want to be my friend! The hell is wrong with you?" She lashed out with a blazing palm, but Izuku deftly ducked under the blast. It was a surperficial attack at best, zero power or intent behind it.
Izuku had no idea what to do, this was a side of Kacchan that he'd never seen before. The anger was expected, but the wetness streaking her cheeks?
Yeah, that was a new one. Though he'd had a lot of experience with crying women from his mother, he was fairly sure that what calmed Inko would only serve to enrage the younger girl. What could even quality as the appropriate response here? He'd be the first to admit that he was way out of his depth with this one.
He stepped off his platform taking a seat on the branch next to his distraught friend. They merely sat in silence for a moment before he spoke up once more.
"I'm sorry that happened to you earlier," he said.
"The hell do ya mean, nerd?" she muttered under her breath, the change of subjects taking her by surprise.
"Those three guys from before? They—"
"Four."
"What?"
"There were four of them, one ditched the other three halfway through the fight, if you could even call it that." She scoffed, absentmindedly snapping a twig off a nearby branch. The show of confidence had Izuku feeling optimistic at the direction of their conversation.
"Right, four," he conceded. "I'm sorry you were ambushed like that."
The sound of fabric scratching against bark had him turning to meet crimson eyes staring back in shock. He let out a short bark of laughter. "What? Kacchan, give me some credit did you think I'd report you for bullying or something? I know you better than that." He winced as the words slipped past his mouth, unintentionally bringing up a sore topic for the both of them. Katsumi turned to face forward again, hanging her head.
"I know you were never part of it you know, the bullying," Izuku said quietly.
"I never stopped it either!"
"I learned to stand up for myself," he said simply, a smile tugging at his lips.
"You shouldn't have had too…" Katsumi whispered, her shoulders slumped. "Not alone."
He didn't really have an answer to that. Izuku wouldn't lie, losing her companionship had stung more than any of the name-calling or even the rare instances of physical abuse. No, the crushing sense of loneliness was certainly the sharpest weapon in that period of Izuku's life. The sounds of the forest filled the silence once more, life for the flora and fauna surrounding them so much simpler than the intricacies of human emotion.
"Was there a good reason at least?" Izuku asked. Of course, this was always something that tugged at the back of his mind in his rare moments of idle thought.
Why?
Why was he denied the company of his best friend for so long? Because he didn't have a quirk? What about after he did? Was he not good enough? After nearly a minute of silence, he thought she wouldn't answer.
ooOo Katsumi oOoo
Was there a good reason? She had certainly felt like there was at the time, but hindsight had proved her plans to be little more than the ill-conceived delusions of a child.
"I was trying to keep you alive," she finally choked out, ignoring his wince at the broken tone of her voice. Selfless to a fault, even when he should hate her guts. "But… you tanked one my hits nerd. Mine! And you can fucking fly!" Her voice rose as her mind finally registered how he'd gotten up there in the first place. Katsumi had nearly had a damn heart attack when she opened her eyes and he'd been standing face to face with her.
"What do you mean you were trying to protect me?" Figures that this was the part he had latched onto immediately.
She looked away guiltily, but when she spoke, it was with conviction. This was the part of her argument that was entirely sound after all. "We watched hero videos all the time when were were brats, All Might never loses, but not everyone can be All Might, right?" She had worked herself up as she spoke, giving impact to her words with explosive gestures. "Heroes die every day and that's with a powerful quirk. And for a while we thought you didn't even have one! How could I let you run off to get yourself killed?!"
But as sudden as it came, all the energy left her, and she deflated like a punctured balloon. "That's what I thought at the time at least, I thought you'd give it all up if everyone was telling you it was impossible, but I should've known better." Her eyes met his own with something she'd always tried to hide behind a mask of indifference: admiration. "You would've found a way to be a hero even this thing hadn't ever showed up, wouldn't you?" She sighed with fond exasperation, though her eyes narrowed at the seemingly innocuous glob of metal floating overhead. She frowned as it halted, vibrating in place aggressively. That usually meant-
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't assume what's best for me without asking Kacchan."
She broke her observation of the metal hearing the heat in Izuku's tone, only to flinch at the sight of his clenched jaw and the tears welling in his eyes.
She'd done that. Brought the kindest person she knew to tears with her actions. Platinum blonde bangs fell over her eyes as her head dropped once more in shame. God she was acting like a fucking wimp today.
Right as she started contemplating taking a leap off the branch in the hopes that the ground might swallow her up whole, she felt a warm pair of arms wrap around her comfortingly.
"You overlooked something in your plan." Izuku mumbled, breath tickling her neck. Katsumi almost didn't register his words, so overwhelmed was she at his casual display of affection. "You never told me I couldn't be a hero."
Katsumi froze. So he'd forgive her just like that? After all these years—
She had forgotten for a moment who she was talking about. Forgotten that being selfless and forgiving came as naturally as breathing for the boy before her.
For a moment she'd felt like it would be taking advantage of his kind nature by accepting Izuku's easy forgiveness, but decided even quicker that she didn't care, indulging quietly in the comfort of the embrace.
"The hell said you could hug me?" she muttered halfheartedly. He didn't comment on the fact that she hadn't pulled away in the slightest. "You're going to be a great hero… Izuku."
He stilled. "Not number one?"
Cheeky bastard.
"Nah, that spot's still mine, nerd."