Chapter 1: Empty and Broken
Since the dawn of meta abilities, the population of humans that possessed these "quirks" has risen exponentially, with the number of quirkless humans declining just as fast. "Normal" humans quickly became the minority in only a few decades.
As time passed, quirkless individuals became extremely rare, with Japan only having records of ten known quirkless people in the last 100 years.
Due to their perceived inferiority, superhuman society persecuted and mistreated many of the remaining quirkless. Discriminating against them, harassing them, mocking them, and even harming them and their families.
This abuse and neglect created hatred and resentment towards metahumans by the quirkless, causing many to lash out and perform horrible acts of terrorism and rebellion against japan's quirked populace.
Eight of the ten quirkless Japanese recorded in the nation's history had been terrorist group leaders, mass murderers, criminals, and deranged psychopaths that killed, destroyed, violated, and burned japan with their rage against the budding metahuman nation.
The others two were individuals who represented the quirkless on a national scale at two different points in the past. One was a community leader, and the other was a public defender who, at various points in history, made a career of trying to close the gap between metahumans and normals.
Both worked tirelessly to progress with reforms and change the public perception of quirkless people in their times. During the run and offices of each of these figures, they continually advocated for creating the Statute of Normal protection.
They hoped that it could help bring significant change to the world, making it a better place for all people, quirkless or not. However, both leaders mysteriously passed away before their work could be completed.
In present-day Japan, quirkless people are all but extinct, with most of society considering them an urban myth or a long-dead species.
Unbeknownst to the quirked citizens of the land of the rising sun, and for the first time in 70 years, a "normal" was born among them, a young boy who had just learned of his condition mere days after his 4th birthday.
This is the story of how that weak child grows to understand the POWER afforded to the empty.
—
It was late in the afternoon when Inko Midoriya and her son Izuku returned from the quirk doctor. The middle-aged woman was visibly distraught, unable to even look at her son as they exited her old broken-down vehicle.
Why was this happening to her?! Had God forsaken her?!
It was so unfair. No one in her family had given birth to a "normal" since the appearance of quirks, and here she was with a quirkless boy.
The mother sighed as they approached the door to their apartment. As she prepared the door key, Inko finally looked down at her son.
The boy was pale, and his eyes were glazed over, still in shock about what he'd learned about himself that day. Even while wallowing in self-pity, Inko could recognize how devastated the boy was, and she was sure that he hadn't even heard the word quirkless before today.
"Listen to me Izuku…life is going to be harder for all of us now because of you," Inko whispered. She cracked the front door open to see If her husband was home and awake.
"So don't cause problems for your father; you know how he is, and THIS will only make it worse." she finished, looking back up as she entered the house. The lights were all off, but the two could see the refrigerator light illuminating some of the kitchen.
"Oh, You guys are home." a flat gruff voice sighs as a tall, lanky man with black hair lifts his head to peer over the counter. Inko flicks on the light to see her husband, Hisashi Midoriya, standing in his work outfit. Seems like he just got home from his long shift.
"So how did it go? What's the little punk's quirk? Probably something useless like yours huh?" he barked, cracking a light brown can from the fridge and beginning to chug it.
Inko gulped, looking down once again at her son. He was still staring off into space, his eyes vacant and unfocused. She rubbed her arm, her eyes dropping down to the floor.
She didn't want to tell Hisashi the shame Izuku had brought their family.
Inko and her husband's relationship was already rocky with his short temper, frequent out-of-town work trips, and fierce drinking habit. But she knew he was expecting an answer and that he didn't like repeating himself.
"Ummmm… the doctor said they don't know yet..." she lied, shooing the young boy upstairs. "They said that he might be a late bloomer."
Inko searched the man's face for any sign that he had caught her lie, but he just continued to sip his drink.
"Damn, I guess that brat really is good for nothing." the older man spat, throwing his empty beer into the garbage before grabbing another one and making his way into the living room towards Inko.
"I was hoping he'd get something useful so when he grew up he could pay me back for all this money he's costing me." the drunk man slurred, walking past his wife and up the stairs.
"Well I'm heading to bed, I have a meeting in the morning. Night." he yawns as he stumbles up the stairs.
Inko finally releases her breath as Hisashi makes his way to their bedroom. She didn't know if what she had done was a mistake, but she had brought time for her and her son.
—
Now six years old and in grade 1, news about the young Midoriya's "late blooming" had spread around the neighborhood and had eventually reached the ears of Izuku's classmates.
Kids can be cruel, and after two years of the late bloomer excuse. Students with access to the net and rumors from their parents determined that Deku was either quirkless, useless, or both.
Regardless, they tormented him endlessly as the teachers looked the other way, not wanting to get involved with the "normal" freak.
Even the adults haven't seen a quirkless person in real life, except when they appear on TV or in a history book.
Although everyone around him treated him poorly, no one tortured Izuku worse than his former best friend, Katsuki Bakugou.
The blonde was acting like Izuku had abandoned their dream by choice. Ever since they had been friends, they planned on becoming heroes together, but if the greenette WAS really a "normal," then all those plans and dreams were ruined.
To make Deku pay for his betrayal, Bakugou made sure to beat him into the ground every day after school. And once Katsuki's quirk manifested, his daily violence grew in frequency and severity.
This caused Izuku to usually return home with numerous shallow cuts, heavy bruises, burn marks, and sometimes even a black eye if his bully felt extra generous that day.
His parents were too busy to notice; if they did, they didn't have it in them to care. In their hearts, Inko and Hishai blamed the boy for his condition, his mother fearing the repercussions that awaited them when the truth was found out.
Living through hell these last two years has caused Izuku to become docile and numb. The bright, sweet, and excitable boy was gone; now, people would describe him as sullen and silent.
The thing that changed the most about the boy was his eyes; no longer were they round pools of emerald sparkling with life and excitement. His eyes were now lifeless and void of anything, only ever glaring forward blankly, never meeting anyone else's or showing any emotion.
Izuku rarely spoke, only letting out his voice when an adult asked him a direct question. His face was always slack and downcast, and the bags under his bruised eyes were dark from lack of sleep.
At school, he avoided all his classmates, spending recess inside the classroom and eating his lunch in a different bathroom stall every day to avoid being found out. Sometimes the boys in his grade liked to commit disgusting acts to him in the bathroom to ruin his meal.
When school was over, he usually tried to leave out different exits to escape his blonde tormentor, but It rarely mattered as one of Kacchan's lackeys always found him.
They kept him there until Katsuki and other clique members gathered before taking turns using the boy as their quirk test dummy.
Today was no different.
As the afternoon sun began to set, the heavy-breathing, sweaty kids laughed as they left the green-haired boy sprawled out on the concrete.
"Hahaha Deku! If you're tired of getting your ass kicked, how bout you just jump off a bridge or something!" Katsuki snickered, letting off one more explosion onto the prone boy's face.
Recently Bakugou's quirk had been getting more powerful, so he didn't have complete control of its output yet.
Izuku learned this the hard way as the last boom slammed Izuku's slightly lifted head hard on the concrete with a crack.
A flash of fear crossed the blonde's face as he wondered if he had killed the other boy as the greenette lay still, but Katsuki relaxed when he saw Izuku still breathing.
Looking around for witnesses and seeing none, Bakugou ran off to catch up with the rest of the group.
The greenette woke up a few hours later, alone in a darkening parking lot next to the school. As he rose, he felt the welt on the back of his head, it was wet with blood, and he had a splitting headache.
This had definitely been the worst beating yet; the boy felt himself down to assess the damage he had taken. Besides the worsening headache, nothing on the boy seemed more than just severely bruised.
A smile formed under the boy's lifeless eyes, stopping at his lips and never reaching further. Izuku was continuing to put into practice the advice he had heard from All Might a few weeks ago.
In an interview he saw, the cheerful man had said that when a hero was in trouble, they should smile their brightest and that doing so would give them the strength to overcome anything.
Having nothing else to depend on, the greenette had decided to take the pro's advice and simply smile. It looked bizarre on the boy's face as his eyes never changed from their listless dead appearance.
The absurdity of his situation and the fact that he was smiling like an idiot after being beaten made the boy genuinely chuckle. Izuku felt like he hadn't so much as giggled since he learned about his condition.
All Might was onto something, so the young Midoriya had been trying to smile when things were overwhelming or scary, though only now had it become a practiced behavior. The boy got a lot of strange looks for it, but he was used to those anyway.
Picking up his scattered things, Izuku began heading home. Judging by the sky, he would be late.
As he strides off, Izuku wonders how long he has to keep up this smile before things get better.
—
Rounding the corner to his home, Izuku heard a scuffle coming from one of the alleys that cut through the street he was on. Making his way over silently and peering into it, he saw what looked like a hero fighting a group of thugs.
The hero didn't look much like a hero; he was a young man in black, gray, and red battle gear. His whole body was strapped with knives, and he had two blades crossed on his back. A raggedy red mask around the man's eyes.
Izuku thought he looked pretty cool.
The villains surround the man, pulling out knives and iron pipes while activating their quirks. One of the six villains was a massive man with a brick-like head and a built muscular body.
"Alright HERO! Time to take you out of the picture!" Izuku could hear one of the hooded villains shout.
The hero simply reached for one of his blades and whispered something coldly.
"You fools. I'll show you how villains SHOULD be dealt with."
At this, the seven combatants begin their battle, the six thugs leaping at the blade-wielding man as he squatted down, left hand clasping his blade and right hand reaching for a pouch on his belt.
The "hero's" arm flung out numerous times toward the first approaching attacker.
Three simultaneously thrown knives swiftly pincushioned that thug; the man had passed away with no awareness of how he died. But Izuku and the other villains saw the knives plunged into his throat and eyes as his body crumbled limply to the floor.
The five others stop their advance as they stare in awe at their dead comrade. They realized that this was certainly not a hero.
Their hesitation would cost them their lives as their masked man flashed between four of the startled thugs, making quick, shallow cuts on their bodies before scaling the alley wall to latch onto a fire escape with one hand.
Glaring down at the group, the masked man smirked sinisterly.
"Cower..." the bladed man demanded as his long tongue flicked out his mouth and across his sword. Suddenly the four men he had slashed stopped in their tracks, frightened looks on their faces as they stared up at the menacing man, unable to move.
The Ninja-like man leaped from the high wall, descending on the paralyzed villains. His sword danced through the air as his jagged edge separated their heads from their bodies in four clean strokes.
He landed softly as the four bodies joined the first, scattered and bleeding across the ground.
Izuku watched in horror but also with mild fascination. This man was incredible; he was defeating all these guys like it was nothing. And his quirk is so cool too.
Izuku theorized that it must let him freeze people by licking their blood or something. Izuku began muttering, something he often did when he was alone and thinking about quirks.
The boy understood that what this man was doing was wrong and that society didn't condone murder or vigilantism.
But as far as Izuku was concerned, that same society didn't give a damn about him, so why should he care about what they think is right or wrong.
Focusing back on the fight, Izuku was studying the "hero" the boy was going to memorize all his moves and add them to his old Hero book. He could even try and use some of them against his bullies, but to do that, he would have to learn how to use a blade first.
The Brickman stepped forward, taking his shirt off to reveal his entire body covered in slabs of brick, with cracks of what looks like plaster or mortar at his joints and where the collar meets the neck.
"Cool trick ninja turtle! Now come get the ass whopping you've been delaying! Those butter knives can't hurt me!" the brick screams as it charges across the alleyway toward the vigilante. But the masked man isn't looking at the giant villain roaring toward him.
No… His eyes are looking over his shoulder at the boy he could see hiding behind a dumpster. Izuku gasped aloud as their eyes met, and the hero gave him a menacing smirk before spinning back around toward his foe.
"I'll show you something nice kid!" The masked man laughed as he lowered his stance, holding the sword parallel to the ground and shifting it behind him as he gripped it with both hands.
Just as the lumbering villain steps into the serial murderer's range, the masked man dashes forward with his sword.
"BLOODY BLOSSOM!" the "hero" said aloud as he pushed off the ground toward an alley wall, ricocheting off it and somersaulting over his opponent's left shoulder.
As the masked man soared over the man made of brick and began rotating into his flip, he used his entire body and core to swing his weapon in a downward flash aimed into the mortar connecting the villain's neck and chest.
A spiral spray of crimson spews into the air as his razor-sharp edge tore into the brickman's clavicle in one fluid motion; the force from the hero's spin and the angle of the blade allowed the heavy slash to cleave through multiple bones as it tore through his left lung and heart.
The silver weapon carved a jagged crescent arc through the hardened flesh as the hero twisted through the air violently.
The spinning spray of ickier flying around the still-rotating vigilante looked like a blood-red flower blooming in the moonlight as his body twirled over past the villain.
Izuku gasped; the hero's spiral slash was awe-inspiring. The boy had never seen something so grotesque yet beautiful.
The brick boss's body continues to charge past the man while a geyser of viscous fluid spurts out from his neck. He stumbles down the alley, trying to escape into the street.
Blood rained to the ground as the hero landed perfectly and flicked the blood from his sword, just as the still-moving corpse of the brickman slumped against one of the alley walls, finally coming to rest and going limp.
Izuku stared at the masked man as he slowly walked toward the boy; the greenette couldn't move. His listless eyes watched as the menacing man approached him, blade in hand.
Was he going to die?! Was this guy gonna kill him?!
As those thoughts racked Izuku's brain, the man made his way closer and closer, casually stepping over the hill of bodies he had created a moment earlier.
As he stood right in front of Izuku, towering over him, the young boy pissed himself. His body released his bladder all down the front of his pants. His fear kept him from feeling embarrassed.
The man glared into Izuku's eyes as he slowly lifted his blade. The boy still showed no emotion as he watched the shining blade lift above the man's head.
This was it, Izuku thought, "I'm dead."
Remembering his hero's advice, the boy plastered a huge All Might smile under his dead eyes. If he was going to die, he wanted to die like his favorite hero would, with a big smile on his face.
As he inspected the boy, the masked man's hand stopped over his head, his glare turning from murderous to curious. A cold raspy voice escaped the man's mouth as he addressed Izuku.
"I raise my hand to smite you and you smile?!" the man questioned, his voice sounding both confused and amused by the boy.
"You have quite an interesting look in your eye as well, I can see that you have known true pain, even as young as you are. Tell me child, what is your name." he whispered to the boy, crouching to meet his eye.
Izuku gulped as he held his smile, "Its Izuku Midoriya Sir," the boy paused before working up the courage to continue. "Can I ask you for your name sir? You were amazing back there!" he beamed as his smile became more genuine. The boy was beginning to feel like he was talking to a real live hero.
The red-masked man chuckled before standing, "Izuku Midoriya is it!? I will spare you today but I will remember your name, you do the same with mine." he said before walking off.
"I AM, STAIN! AND I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL ONLY PURE HEROES WALK TO STREETS, AND EVIL IS ABOLISHED!" the man declared before skipping up the wall and disappearing into the night.
Izuku stood stunned for a bit before he continued home.
Stain huh?!.
—
As Inko opened the front door for her son, she was surprised to see him standing in the doorway with dead eyes and a wide-plastered smile. She found the boy's facial expression off-putting, to say the least. Why was he smiling when he was covered in dirt and injured?
Izuku only nodded as he pushed past her into the house, grabbing an apple off the counter before heading straight to his room. He spent most of his free time locked away in his All Might-themed sanctuary.
As the boy sat on the corner of his bed, he dropped the smile he had been holding. He quickly showered and returned to his room, reaching into his desk to pull out a small journal.
With no friends and no real, meaningful interaction with his parents outside of meals, Izuku spent most of his time filling his notebook with quirks that he's seen.
Ever since he learned he wouldn't get one, the young Midoriya had become obsessed with documenting and theorizing about any quirk on which he could set his eyes.
Izuku was incredibly perceptive and intelligent even at his young age, so his scribblings were less like those of a six-year-old boy and more like those of a young quirk specialist or researcher.
Today he wrote for hours about the quirks of the group that attacked him, spending the most time on Bakugo's explosion quirk. He also wrote at length about his interaction with Stain and the "hero's" quirk.
The boy detailed as many observations as he could when describing Stain's fighting style and his "Bloody Blossom" finishing move. The boy even tried replicating what he saw with a ruler as his blade, though most of his attempts failed.
By the time his mom called him for dinner, it was dark outside, and he didn't know how long he had been writing. Clutching his notebook with him, he makes his way downstairs.
The two Midoriyas ate in silence, Izuku picking at his slowly, not wanting to upset his injured stomach. Inko noticed this, sighing loudly.
"Izuku stop playing with your food, just eat it," she demanded, looking expectantly at her son. The boy just nodded and quickened his pace, stuffing food in his mouth while hiding some in his napkin for later.
Multiple thuds batter against the front door; it sounded like someone had fallen against it.
"Yo Inkochi ofen the fucken doar." a voice hiccups on the other side of the door.
The voice sounded drunk, and it sounded like her husband. Inko speed walked to the door, whipping it open to see Hisashi leaning heavily on the railing, spinning to look at her as the door opened.
"Move!" he grunts, shoving her aside as he strides into his home, not even stopping to take off his shoes. Inko locks the door and dashes after him, grabbing his arm.
"Dear, what's wrong? Why are you so drunk your shift hasn't even ended yet!" the woman questioned, touching her husband's face as he tried to push her off.
"What's...wrong? WHAT'S WRONG!" Hisashi snapped back, grabbing Inko's wrist and collar with both his hands. She could smell the liquor on his breath as he glared at her with wild, angry eyes.
Izuku was still at the kitchen table eating his remaining food when his mother came tumbling through the kitchen door and crashed into the table, knocking it over and sending everything on it, scattering to the floor.
As his mother groaned on the ground, Izuku stood stock still, afraid to move, as his father stormed into the room after his mother.
"YOU LIED TO ME YOU TRAMP! YOU SAID HE WAS A LATE BLOOMER! My JOB CONTACTED THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE, AND THEY TOLD THEM THAT OUR SON WAS QUIRKLESS!" Hisashi was livid; fire crackled out of his mouth as his anger flared.
"IN ORDER TO GET MY PROMOTION AT WORK, MY JOB HAD TO CONFIRM INFORMATION ABOUT MY FAMILY…" the older man was starting to tear up as he screamed out, releasing flames into the ceiling.
"YOUR LIE COST ME MY JOB! MY LIFE!"
"THEY FIRED ME BECAUSE THEY DETERMINE THAT I HAD GIVEN FALSE INFORMATION ON A GOVERNMENT FORM." he continued before he turned and leaped toward his wife. Hisashi's body slammed down on her, putting his face right up to hers. She was trying to crawl away as she used her quirk to reach for her cell phone that was a few feet away on the floor.
"You and that quirkless brat have been nothing but trouble! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE STAYED AFTER I KNEW YOU WERE PREGNATE!" he hissed through gritted teeth as he grabbed her throat with both hands, beginning to choke her violently.
"I'LL FIX MY MISTAKE RIGHT NOW!"
Inko couldn't breathe as she tried to scream and kick, but Hisashi was too strong, and his grip was too tight. After all, he had trained to be a hero, even though he was eventually cut from UA's hero course.
Still, the woman tried to fight. Looking around as she tried desperately to pry his fingers from her neck, she spotted one of the knives she had used to prepare dinner.
Grasping it with her quirk, she yanked it toward her hand, wrapping it with her tiny fingers as it skipped across the ground into her grip.
She slashed it out at her husband, catching his stomach as he jumped back to avoid the knife, releasing Inko's throat and allowing her to cough and gasp for breath.
"Y-Y-YOU BITCH!" the man shouted as he felt the blood spilling from his shallow cut wound. Hisashi inhaled deeply, his face twisted and red with anger and adrenaline.
"YOU'LL BURN FOR THAT!" he roared as a hot flamethrower-like fire erupted from his mouth and encased Inko, causing her to scream and writhe and causing her weapon to scatter across the ground.
Izuku could only watch as his mother's blood-curdling screams were quickly drowned out by his father's psychotic laughter as he continued to eject flame at his now silent wife.
After a few moments of only crackling flame and his father's laughter, which eventually turned into intense sobs, the fire stopped.
Looking up from his cremated lover, Hisashi turned his teary eyes to his son, only to be met with the child's listless look. But as they glared at each other in silence for a few moments, the boy broke into a strange wide grin.
Hisashi's tears dried instantly as his fury retook him!
"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, BOY!? THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" the boy's father screams, standing up and stumbling toward him.
Izuku didn't think it was funny. Seeing his mother burned alive by his father sent him into a state of shock. His practiced behavior showed itself as his negative emotions forced him to smile; his father seemed to mistake it for laughter or happiness.
The boy didn't move as his father charged at him; the older man pulled his foot back like he was about to punt the boy in the face. Izuku planned to let him; he hoped that If he didn't fight back, his father would just kill him quickly.
As Hisashi's foot swung towards the young boy's face, his natural instincts forced him to dodge to the side, tumbling over some shattered plates and pots from dinner as his father's foot planted itself into the wall close to where Izuku's head had been.
The shards of porcelain shredded the boy's forearms as he fell face-first to the ground. He hissed as the cuts stung, as he realized what he had just done.
Oh no! Why had he dodged?
The boy was in disbelief that a part of him still wanted to survive. It would be so much easier if he just died.
Izuku looked up to see his father's face twisted with malice and murderous intent as he pushed against the wall trying to remove his foot. The boy stood up again, looking around the room for an escape, something that could get him out of this situation.
He spotted the kitchen knife lying a few feet away, still covered in some of his father's blood. Just as Hisashi broke away from the wall, Izuku dashed for it, scrambling to wrap his tiny hands around the medium-sized weapon.
The boy pointed it at Hisashi as the older man approached him, snickering aloud. "What are you gonna do with that punk? A normal can't do shit to an ex-hero candidate like me!" he sneered, looking down at his son.
There were about ten feet of distance between the two.
"Put it down now, and I might not burn you to death!" the bleeding dad yelled at his son, still holding his gushing stomach. It seemed Inko's gash was deeper than he thought, and all his movement was causing it to leak faster and faster.
Izuku didn't listen to his father's words; the boy just kept the blade pointed out toward him, shaking in fear.
"FUCK YOU, YOU LITTLE QUIRKLESS BASTARD!" Hiashi roared before rushing toward his son, his throat was glowing, but the angry man knew he couldn't shoot another gout of flame. His blasted quirk took too long to charge back up, which was one of the reasons Hisashi didn't cut it in the UA Hero Course, along with his detestable violent streak.
So the man rushed toward Izuku, one arm stretched forward to grab the brat's wrist, and the other reared back to cave the boy's face in with a punch.
Izuku's world slowed down as his dad barreled toward him, his vision flickering as, for a moment, he was back in that alley watching the brick villain bare down on the much smaller Stain.
Reflexively Izuku dropped his stance, shifting the point of the knife behind him as his father charged right toward him, stepping right into range.
Izuku's mind flashed again to the alley where he and the hero had met.
"Bloody Blossom!" the kid screamed as his body forced him forward, leaping his minuscule frame onto a fallen chair to spring up towards his father's neck.
The older man had no time to react as all his momentum was shooting forward right into the blade as Izuku soared over his shoulder and plunged the weapon deep into his clavicle.
The boy had to leave it stuck there as he thudded hard to the ground behind him.
Hiashi's scream was gargled and muffled by the blood filling his throat and lungs as he dropped to a knee, holding the knife and his neck where his son had stabbed him.
The man could only turn his head to look at the boy sprawled out behind him; the child was covered in both of their blood.
The young boy slowly rose from the ground, and as he turned to face his dying father, Hisashi swore he could FEEL Izuku's haunted gaze look through him as their eyes met.
As the man fell to his face, he kept his eyes looking up at the six-year-old, who was still staring down at Hisashi with wide, unfeeling eyes.
The last thing Hiashi Midoriya saw as his body went cold and his eyes closed was the slow spread of a curled grin across his son's lips.
A chill ran down the dying man's spine because this time...
He could tell that this smile was genuine.
"M-M-Monster…" Hisashi wheezed out before he expired on the kitchen floor. Leaving a blood-covered 1st grader in a messy blood-soaked kitchen, smiling chillingly to himself.
"All Might was right!" The boy thought as his grin split his bloody face, "A hero's Smile really CAN help them do anything."