Izuku would never forget the first time he met Sensei in person.
It was a few years after the incident with Tenko and the failed mission. Nothing had really changed, except that Izuku would wait in the bar with Kurogiri for Tenko to arrive home from the missions.
And if he fell asleep waiting, then Kurogiri would shake him awake when Tenko arrived. It was nice for all of them, Izuku thought, even if none of them really needed reminding that they had people waiting for them at home anymore.
Sensei had always been there. Quiet and thoughtful and kind. Sometimes he was quiet, and all they could hear was the soft hum of static, and sometimes he'd spent hours talking with them.
Izuku had always imagined what Sensei had looked like.
"And you were spot on- Sensei cannot be here because he has a rather... severe injury."
Every single one of Izuku's thoughts had contained the sterile smell of hospitals, the steady throbbing sound of static and scars.
He wasn't disappointed.
When Izuku first met Sensei, he was alone.
Kurogiri had warped him over and then left. Izuku's first thought that it was cold. His second thought was that it was lonely.
The walls were clean and sterile. The room had been robbed of colour and was lit only by the flickering florescuent lighting and the eerie blue glow of a computer screen.
"Hello, Izuku." Even without the static and hum of machines, the voice was familar.
"Sensei." Izuku carefully clambered his way over to where the voice had travelled from. He found himself staring at the high back of a leather chair. Wires draped over the back of the chair, like spiderwebs: thin and fragile.
There was a constant beep of the heart monitor, a morbid reminder that Sensei had been hurt and reduced to a voice cloaked in static and mechanical whirring. (Later, Izuku would wonder if the static was there to hide the heart monitor, so they wouldn't worry).
"A rather... severe injury."
Izuku wondered who had hurt someone as nice as Sensei. Sure he was a villain... But heroes weren't meant to hurt people. Heroes were meant to defeat the bad guys, not mangle them!
Heroes were meant to help people...
"In the spirit of fairness, my face is rather hideous." The voice said pleasantly.
Izuku blinked. "I-"
Before he could say anything, the chair span around, and Izuku gaped up at the man's face in horror.
It was a mess of scar tissue, warped and twisted. It looked like Sensei had nearly died. It looked like Sensei was still hurting...
"I can imagine the look on your face." The man commented drily. "I know it isn't pleasant to look at."
"W-who?" Izuku whimpered. Sensei was a villain. Sensei was one of the nicest people Izuku knew. Sensei cared. Sensei didn't deserve any of it.
Even if he was a villain... No, no one deserved to have to live with the injuries that had crippled Sensei.
"You might not like the answer." Sensei warned gently. "It's not nice."
The heart monitor continued beeping, ringing through the silence.
There was a sigh. "It was All Might."
The heart monitor continued with it's funeral march as Izuku's faith in heroes shattered.
A bright smile. A smile that meant it was okay. The idea that someone would be there to make things better, even when everything seemed hopeless. That was what All Might stood for.
"The heroes will come and save him."
The image of Sensei's face with it's stretched scars and distorted smile. That was what All Might stood for, too.
"Why?" Izuku's voice was barely more than a choked, defeated whisper.
Sensei smiled. It seemed sad. A chair materialised next to Izuku.
"Let me tell you a story, Izuku. It starts a long time ago, back when quirks had only just started appearing..."
The heart monitor continued, still. A reminder of what the heroes had done. A reminder of what All Might had done.
A reminder that despite it all Sensei was still alive, and that he still had work to do.
"So your quirk lets you give and take quirks?" Izuku asked quietly after Sensei finished his story.
He looked lost, huddled in a chair that suddenly looked far too big for him. He looked like his world had just shattered and put itself back together into something different, something strange.
"Yes." Sensei said simply. "I took an immortality quirk a long, long time ago, in case you were wondering."
Izuku nodded noiselessly. He felt numb.
All Might. All Might was the hero he'd always looked up to, the hero who always won with a smile. All Might was the strongest, the bravest- the best.
Izuku had idolised All Might for as long as he could remember, but in that moment, he couldn't muster the admiration he normally felt for All Might. Instead, his mind was flooded with memories of Sensei's voice, Sensei's laughter and the soft sound of static.
All Might was untouchable. He was a hero, he was a legend. But Sensei... Sensei was real. He knew Sensei. Sensei cared and Sensei was hurt, Sensei had been mangled by All Might.
"So now you know the whole truth." Sensei stated calmly.
He did know the truth. It wasn't pretty and it hurt. Because he'd believed that All Might was good, that he was the best hero . But that image was warped now, like the scars stretching across Sensei's face. Because All Might had done that to Sensei and Iuzku didn't care that Sensei or Tenko or Kurogiri were villains, they were his family.
"It's not what I expected." Izuku mumbled, his mind racing with thought of heroes and the battles that weren't so pretty, and the stories that didn't have happy endings.
It wasn't fair. Sensei deserved a happy ending. They all did.
"What will you do now?" The question was spoken gently, as though Sensei felt sorry for him. Izuku tensed all the same, as though he'd yelled.
"People make mistakes all the time."
Izuku thought about everything he knew about villains. They hurt people. They were cruel, they were the ones he was meant to be scared of, they were wrong.
Izuku thought of Tenko's smug smirk, of Kurogiri's quiet fretting and Sensei's static and concern. They were villains, but they'd taken him in, they'd given him an education... So he could walk away if he wanted. They'd cared when he was nothing and nobody. They were the first people to believe that he wasn't useless because he was quirkless.
He thought of pain, next. Of Kacchan's cruel smile, the sound of explosions and children laughing. He thought of the smell of alcohol and smoke and yelling that wasn't quite muffled by the walls. He thought of being cold and scared and hungry, and the heavy knowledge that everyone else had just one more weapon that would help them survive, when he had nothing.
He thought of All Might's plastic smile, and Sensei's smile, twisted by scars and pain and memories.
"I don't want to hurt anyone." He decided. He didn't want to be like Kacchan, or the other kids he'd had to hide from. He didn't want to be like All Might. Sensei didn't say anything, he looked almost resigned, and Izuku wondered if he had known if this was how it would end up the entire time.
"Your name can be read as Deku. It means useless. Just like you."
But his entire world had crumpled because people were cruel. And there'd been a time when he knew that if he had the power, he would have been cruel, to fight, to survive.
Because even innocent people would have to fight if it was their only choice. Even innocent people could kill, could be turned into villains if the heroes didn't save them in time.
And heroes didn't save villains. They attacked them and locked them up.
They hurt the villains, like they'd hurt Sensei. They might even hurt Tenko like that, too.
Yet... Tenko had saved him, and Sensei had saved Tenko. They were heroes in their own ways, even though they were called villains. Villains could save people, too.
"But... But I want to help you, if I can. I want to follow in your footsteps and try and change the world... If I can... I just want to help!"
Sensei beamed.
It was nothing like All Might's smile, but Izuku was sick of All Might's smile. Sensei's smile looked like it hurt, but unlike All Might's smile, it looked real.
"Izuku, you are certainly welcome to try and help us change the world! We told you once that it didn't matter if you were quirkless, and that still stands true..."
Izuku froze. He knew where Sensei was going with this.
"I have no doubt that your assistance will be instrumental to our success regardless of whether or not you accept the quirks I am offering you, but I think they'll be useful."
Once upon a time, he'd dreamed of being a hero. He'd dreamed of having a quirk that could save people. He'd dreamed of being useful and being able to save people.
And he still wanted that... He wanted to help the people that the heroes had hurt. He wanted to help the people that had become his family.
He reached out and accepted Sensei's outstretched hand.
The last thing he saw before his world went dark was Sensei's proud smile.
Izuku decided that he really liked his new quirks.
He was still giddy from the idea of having a quirk. Not just one, but two! They were both really useful, they could both be used to help people, and they were both his.
He wasn't Deku anymore. He wasn't powerless anymore. He wouldn't run away anymore.
But he wouldn't fight, either. He'd find his own way to make things better, to make people smile again. He'd heal.
The first quirk he'd been given was simple. He could heal himself and others with a touch. He was already beginning to analyse the quirk: whether it was his own stamina that impacted it, whether or not he could use alternative energry sources, whether his diet would impact it...
Tenko had already helped him start planning. In fact, Tenko had been thrilled that Izuku had a quirk and they had already started analysing it and its potential uses.
And his second quirk... He'd discovered it solely by accident, when he'd tripped when running over to help Tenko with his game and just kept on falling.
He hadn't realised what had happened, the world appeared to have turned upside down and he was disorientated, trying to deal with the jarring loss of direction. Then Tenko had taken an uncertain step forward, looking confused, and Izuku's world had jolted.
A mere two seconds later, a shell shocked Izuku had emereged from Tenko's shadow, pale and trembling.
Kurogiri chuckled. "I hadn't thought you'd get that quirk. It's been a while since I've seen the ability to walk in shadows."
Tenko blinked. "The ability to walk in shadows? That's pretty cool!"
Izuku smiled shakily, still staring warily at the shadows stretched out in front of him. "It is." He agreed.
Kurogiri's eyes glinted in the way that meant he was amused. "I'll help you with using your quirk, if you'd like. I imagine that entering and leaving shadows will have a similar affect to opening and closing warp gates."
Izuku beamed. "Thanks!"
Somewhere dark and lonely, screened by static, Sensei smirked.
A/N: Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the longer than usual wait for a chapter: I just haven't had the time to write anything for a long time, so the poorer quality of this chapter is also owing to the time I spent away from the plot.
Unfortunately, my schedule will only become busier and more stressful for roughly the next three months, so I have no choice but to delay updates in that time. By no means is this discontinued: I do have a plot planned out and I do intend to finish this, but I will not have the time to do so in the forseeable future.
Sorry! :'(
