Redemption: A 'My Hero Academia' Story

It was an honest effort.

Honestly, that was all it took.

Effort.

"Stop it!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. The three boys all flinched and turned to look at the one making all the noise, and that was all the chance the fourth boy, the one on the ground, covered in bruises, needed to skitter away, tears streaming down his face.

Katsuki Bakugo scowled as his prize punching bag vanished around the corner. Oh great, now he's gonna tell… He turned his ire on the shaking boy who had distracted him, tiny popping firecrackers lighting on his palms. "Just what exactly are you doing here, loser?!" The fiery boy snarle

Izuku Midoriya flinched, but held his ground. "Why are you being so mean?" He retorted with a huff. "You don't have to do that!"

A ridiculous statement from such a tiny child, but the boldness in the smaller boy made something akin to guilt twinge in his 'better'. "Humph." The explosive child huffed. "I do what I want because I'm the strongest!" He replied, his two lackeys echoing the sentiment. "And I need all the practice I can get if I wanna be the number one hero some day!"

"All Might is the strongest!" Midoriya chirped, flinching again as the angry gaze refocused on him. "And he goes out of his way to help anyone who is weaker! You're not acting like a hero! You're a bully!"

The chase was an epic one, and Katsuki's lackeys got bored of it rather quickly and wandered off, meaning it was only the young firebug who eventually caught the fleeing object of his ire, panting and sweating even as he rounded the corner and found the smaller boy clutching a bleeding knee, the scrape weeping crimson through the fresh tear in his pants.

"You need to learn respect for your betters!" The boy barked, even as something akin to pity twinged in his head looking down at the teary-eyed boy in front of him. "Now you gotta pay the pr-"

Izuku interrupted him even before he finished getting the words out. "You may be better than me, but at least I don't have to hurt people to make myself feel better!"

Katsuki froze as the smaller boy's words clenched his heart like an icy hand. Dumbfounded at the unexpected observation, the blonde sank to his knees and stared as the dark-haired boy sniffed, wiping his face on his sleeve.

"You really could be great you know…" It was so soft, that he almost missed it. Teary green eyes stared out from under scruffy curls as his quarry looked up at him. "You have a real strong quirk, and everyone around you knows it."

Which was true. And they told him. Often. And loudly.

"I don't have one at all." Katsuki blinked again, taken aback even as the other boy started to cry, in a whole different sort of pain.

For the first time in his short life, Katsuki Bakugo was rendered speechless. Quirkless kids weren't impossible, but they were becoming incredibly rare. To see one his own age shook something in the boy's very core. "What…?" He managed to utter.

Izuku managed to stifle his tears for a moment. "The doctor said *sniff* either I don't have one, or it's too weak to register on their tests…" He mumbled, hugging his knees in tight. "So… So maybe you should be happy you get to have a strong quirk!" Izuku shouted accusingly, pointing a shaky finger almost directly into his red-eyed tormentor's face. "You can still have your dream! Mine is DEAD!"

The pair fell silent again, only the slight sounds of the secluded park around them to listen to. Interrupted by intermittent sobs from a dark-haired young soul, crushed under the weight of his lost dreams.

It was a long time before either of the boys moved, but the sound of Katsuki standing up made Izuku flinch again. Fully expecting to be hit, he leaned away from the shadow that fell over his face. But after a moment, and remaining unstruck, he peeked out from behind his knees to find a hand offered to him.

Katsuki was frowning, and staring away from the smaller boy, but he hauled him up regardless when he felt the smaller hand grip onto his. "Either get a new dream, or work harder." He huffed indignantly. "You don't need a strong quirk to be a good hero."

"B-but-"

Crimson irises flashed as they whirled to face him. "You may never be the greatest, but even low level heroes are needed sometimes." It was probably not the nicest way to say it, but Katsuki didn't have better words to use. "So either pick something else, or prove you can do it. Or are you just a dekunobou?"

Izuku flushed with a pout. "I am NOT!"

The indignant tone made Katsuki smirk. "Whatever you say… Deku."

"HEY!"

And somehow, a friendship was born…

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Katsuki flinched and withered under the enraged gaze of his mother. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY AT SCHOOL UNTIL I GOT THERE TO WALK YOU HOME!"

The fire left her demeanour, however, when her normally outspoken and brash child visibly flinched, and hung his head. "M'sorry…" He mumbled shoving his hands into his pockets.

Mitsuki Bakugo deflated in an instant, motherly concern roaring into her heart as she knelt down beside her baby boy. "Katsuki? What happened?" She asked, noticing a tiny smear of blood on his right hand. "DID SOMEBODY HURT YOU-?!"

"NO!" The response was full of hurt, but honest as the last rays of sun in the evening. "No, mom… I…" There were tears in his eyes when he finally looked up. "I hurt somebody today…" He admitted, and the utter shame in his voice nearly broke her. "Am I a bad guy?"

The doctor frowned at the chart as he scrutinised it for the third time.

Was that tiny blip relevant?

His master would be upset if he allowed a quirk to go un-catalogued, but surely a single pixel on a single test was nothing…

He shook off his suspicion and tossed the folder into his completed pile. There was no quirk that had ever registered so low on any scan. Surely this was a malfunction of some sort. Besides, he had the foot thing.

Not worth bothering over, the spectacled man decided.

A/N: Poor baby Bakugo...

I am still alive. I'm sorry to anyone who has followed any of my other FF stuff. It really is difficult for me to get my creative engine chugging without a significant issue to 'depress' my gas pedal. So to speak.

And then, COVID.

Ahem. It's not a joke. I had it. I'm better now, but it SUCKED

Yes, I am going to try and do some work on my other stuff. If nothing else, I will admit tthat the drive is gone, and post a closing chapter outlining the major story beats I had planned

There was a LOT in my notebooks when I left the first time

This, however, won't leave my head. This is my ''but what if Deku DOES have a quirk?!" story. Don't worry it's not All for One. It's much more subtle and useless than that.

Yes. Entirely useless.

And undetectable by conventional means, apparently.

So... Yeah. Maybe there will be more. Who knows?

Uhh, I know I'm fiddling with how the boys met and where the name comes from just a bit, but hey. It's fanfic. If you don't like it, go read someone else.

Also sorry if there are spelling issues. I tried to get them all, but my keyboard is busted all to hell. I'm working on a soluting, but... Well, COVID.

Cheers. -Red