It was after Friday when Midoriya had purchased a punching bag from his local sports store using the abundant allowance he usually reserved for hero (read: All Might) merchandise; and installed it by filling the base with water. It wasn't too hard, and if asked by his mother he'd simply use the excuse that he wanted some more decor in his room and to train to become a hero.
He activated Metal Knuckles, his knuckles having a copper sheen to them as he sent a fist at the punching bag. His form was messy and had a novice-like grace as the punch connected, although sloppily. He felt the copper metal give a bit, deforming by denting. He deactivated the quirk and watched as his fists turn back to normal and, more importantly, the dent disappeared, turning back into smooth skin and bones. Midoriya sighed, relieved that he wouldn't be physically deforming himself by training this quirk permanently, just temporarily.
Izuku decided to take a short break of his long, one-minute long workout and study how to throw a better punch instead of going off of instinct and memory from when Kacchan hurt him. The videos he found were very insightful, and he absorbed it like a dehydrated sponge in a bath of water, which is to say very quickly. He got up from his bed and stowed away his smartphone in his pocket and reactivated Metal Knuckles, throwing the punches with much more grace and form than before. He felt the metal give but he kept up the assault on the punching bag, fighting through the pain as he made small tears in the material.
"You get what you paid for," he muttered to himself, looking down at his fucked-beyond belief knuckles; but curiously the copper metal was shedding and showing silver undertones. He turned off the quirk and watched as his hands mended itself before turning it back on and continuing his workout.
By the end of the hour he had noticed the subtle shifting of the color of copper turning into silver, just like the original owner's, which made him eagerly write in his "History Notes" to transcribe his thoughts:
Metal Knuckles (Transformation-type): Allows the user to turn their knuckles into a metal-reinforced exterior. The type of metal that is transfigured depends on the training of the user by testing its durability. Has a regenerative aspect where the dents and dings one encounters when using it gets mended when you stop using it.
Metal Knuckles Theories:
Theory #4: Someone can break their hand, turn on the quirk, and fix it by then turning it off (untested, not about to break my hand purposely).
Theory #5: There's a scale of how strong my knuckles can become, starting at copper, then silver, then unknown (partially tested, need to train more to find out).
Theory #6: Like regular metal, the ones found in the fist when activated is conductive (untested, not about to shock and accidentally kill myself).
Okay, it was time to test out another quirk: Cracked Eyes. Midoriya turned off all the lights in his room, the room going dark. Seamlessly his eyes adjusted to the low light levels, allowing him to see as if it was midday. He did a couple of tests, such as playing with a Rubik's Cube in the dark to see if he could properly see the color (which he could) before he got bored and decided to test one of his last quirks, Sludge. Without even turning on the lights he stripped himself bare (to not ruin his clothes), activating Sludge to see how much mobility he had in his transformed state.
Turns out he had a lot! He had adhesive capabilities, which he discovered by trying to climb up a bare section of his wall, which was successful, while also leaving a residue/mess he'd have to clean up later. He tried to adhere to the ceiling with some success, but he had to keep focusing to not slip and fall, which he did several times, suffering no damage as he couldn't suffer blunt, pierce, nor falling damage in his sludge body.
All for One, his original quirk (which was so odd to think about seeing as he was quirkless most of his life), was whispering to him, telling him things; such as that he was doing a good job and to keep training, to keep getting stronger, to try new and never-thought of quirk combinations.
It was…odd, having the usual bossy and incessant voice in his head being so encouraging, but it was better than the alternative of it screaming at him. But the last part of its suggestions was interesting: Quirk combos.
How could he use this to his advantage?
"Hmm…" Midoriya hummed as he regathered himself and turned back to normal, still nude and in the dark. "That's it!" he exclaimed to himself, thankful that his mother was out so she didn't have to hear him act like a loon. He repositioned the punching bag into the center of his room and left the room and locked the door behind him, still naked. He then shifted into his mud-like form using Sludge and slipped underneath the door frame, moving slowly and creeping up on the red punching bag before he pounced and enveloped the inanimate object with himself, constricting around and squeezing it. After fake-fighting for ten or so seconds he stopped, turning back to normal as he smiled to himself. "Complete darkness plus Cracked Eyes plus Sludge? Equals one deadly sneak-up!" he celebrated. "Oh, if only I could tell Kacchan!" Izuku lamented, putting on his clothing that he was wearing before while sitting on his bed. "Maybe then he'd stop bullying me for being quirkless…actually, he'd still probably bully me for having a 'weak' quirk or a villainous one," he corrected to himself. Once dressed he went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee, to quell the voices later. In the meantime he reclined on the couch, turning on the local news for the newest hero to make a scene.
Life, while stressful and filled with quirk madness, was going good so far. Midoriya just had to find the right quirk to present to the world to be a hero and then keep the whole "I can take and give quirks" thing underwraps until the day he died.
Totally not insanely impossible, totally not. He just had to hide the most overpowered quirk that could ever exist from his friends and family.
Easy-peasy, right?
"I imagine there's a reason we're meeting on a day off?" the hobo-looking teacher/hero asked as he entered the Conference Room, located within UA, seldom used except for reporters and other sensitive matters. He was called in for an emergency, a rarity nowadays, which was why he came in on an off day. He immediately spotted two of his friends/coworkers, the Rat God Nedzu and Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, sitting down and having a steaming cup of coffee nearby, but for the former it was jasmine tea. There was a mystery blonde man sitting down with them, who was rail-thin and sickly-looking in his oversized green t-shirt and baggy black cargo pants. He looked like he needed several sandwiches with how thin he was.
"Glad you could make it, Aizawa," Nedzu greeted, "Please, sit," he gestured to one of the many empty seats at the U-shaped table. Aizawa sat next to Tsukauchi, taking out a jelly pouch and drinking from it as he awaited to be clued in on what the hell was happening. "This," the chimera gestured to the blond man, "is All Might's manager, Yagi Toshinori."
"All Might has a manager?" Shouta deadpanned, surprised that oaf of a man had any time-respecting qualities to him. He put away his empty jelly pouch to throw away later.
"Yes indeed," Yagi answered, doing a stupid small wave to the tired teacher. "I represent All Might's interests when he's too busy to make an appearance."
"While that's good and all, if this emergency involves All Might then I know we're screwed. Tsukauchi," he flopped his head over to his plain-looking friend, "lay it on me."
"Blunt much?" the detective smiled fondly before coughing into his gloved hand and pulling out a stack of papers, "Before we continue you need to sign an NDA, Aizawa." He offered a black pen, seeing as the teacher didn't have one.
Eraserhead raised an eyebrow before sighing and then signing the necessary spots, grumbling about how much of a waste of time this was.
"Thank you very much, Aizawa! Now we can discuss what's the emergency. Yagi, if you will?" Nedzu asked.
"If you two trust him this much with this matter then I'm fine with it." Toshinori leaned forward while crossing his fingers together, his expression grave. "Tell me, Aizawa: Have you ever heard of the boogeyman of the underworld?"
Aizawa rolled his eyes at the childish story that he's heard ever since becoming an underground hero. "You mean about this scary man that can steal quirks? That's just a wive's tale, just seldom known outside of criminals or underground pros like myself," he dismissed, not noticing the shaking head of Yagi.
"I assure you, it's no 'wive's tale.' There was," he emphasized with certainty, "a villain who had the ability to steal and give quirks. His name has been lost to time, but his villain name, and also his quirk, was called All for One."
Shouta would've laughed if the atmosphere wasn't so oppressive, and if he was one to show much emotion. His aloof expression was replaced by a seriousness usually reserved for press conferences and other high-classed media nightmares, paying much more attention than he was priorly.
"I fought—I mean, All Might fought against such a heinous villain some time ago," Toshinori regaled, "And since his death his reign of terror has ended…until now. This week All Might was chasing a villain composed of sludge when he lost track of him. After some difficulty he finally found the villain but in his human form. The villain was hysterical, saying he couldn't use his quirk anymore and that a green-haired teen 'punk,'" Yagi airquoted, "stole it from him like the stories of old. After doing an extensive test it was discovered that the man's quirk factor was missing. Not damaged, not suppressed, but gone."
Aizawa's mouth opened a smidgen in surprise before quickly correcting it, enraptured with the tale.
"Any questions?" the blond finished, leaning back into his chair.
"Tons. A fuck ton. First, why wasn't this made public? A quirk that can steal quirks should've been publicized to hell and back," Shouta pointed out.
"The media and the people would've had a field day with that thought, practically witch-hunting anyone who had a quirk similar to it," Tsukauchi answered. "All Might's connections managed to suppress the story to this day."
"Okay, understandable. Second, some teenager now has the ability of this 'All for One?'" Aizawa asked, a headache growing at the mere thought.
"That's actually where you come in!" Nedzu giggled evilly, "The sad news of the sludge villain has been suppressed from the media by All Might's lawyers and personal connections. We believe that this child had no idea he had this ability beforehand, growing up while believing they were quirkless."
"And your evidence?" Eraserhead challenged, crossing his arms in his seat.
"A child has many times during their youth to discover their quirk by complete accident. The fact that this happened with a young teenage boy is telling and enlightening. Plus, we're sure this is his first accident due to the teenager not using a quirk to fight against the sludge villain when he was being suffocated," Nedzu explained his logic.
Aizawa winced at the thought. He knew what it was like to be asphyxiated by a villain and it was not fun.
"This teenager—"
"Technically he's a vigilante," the detective butted in, all eyes on him. "What? He used his quirk illegally," he argued.
"Fine, this vigilante used his quirk probably by mistake or out of desperation, a form of quirk awakening, if you will."
"You're telling me you think a quirkless boy, who wasn't really quirkless, got the strongest and most dangerous quirk in the entire world due to being in a life or death scenario?" He got nods from all three of them. Aizawa sighed, taking out another jelly pouch that was caffeine-infused and downing it in five gulps. "Why tell me? Why need me?"
"You have the uncanny ability to attract vigilantes, Aizawa. You're also good at talking down teens, getting them to drop their guard. We need you to go on the prowl for this teen, this vigilante," Nedzu clarified.
"So you can just throw him in jail, right?" the tired teacher shot the barb, seeing his detective friend wincing and Yagi looking downtrodden.
"Until we can assess his danger level he'll be kept under lock and key, under heavy surveillance at all times," Toshinori answered, looking like he aged several years at his admittance. "I wish there was a better way, I truly do, but we can't risk another All for One."
"You don't even know what's going through his mind," Aizawa stated, raising his voice. "Think about it: A quirkless kid getting the most overpowered, most broken quirk in existence. He's going to be scared, he's going to be terrified—"
"Until it evolves into elation, into joy," Yagi shot back, his features stony and hard. "The ability to steal his potential tormentors' quirks from picking on him because he was quirkless for most of his life? What kid wouldn't want to abuse it? He's probably going around, collecting quirks by the handful as he grows more and more delirious with power."
"You don't know that."
"'Absolute power corrupts absolutely,' ever heard of that?"
"He's just a kid!"
"He's going to be much more than that if we don't stop him in time!"
"Gentleman!" Tsukauchi interrupts, slamming his palms onto the desk to get the bickering men under control. "Aizawa, Yagi is right, the vigilante needs to be stopped before things spiral out of control. But Yagi, Aizawa is also right. The kid shouldn't be guilty until proven innocent, he may very well be scared of his newfound power."
Toshinori scoffed at his wording, "I think you mean newfound godhood. All for One isn't a run of the mill quirk that can be stopped by any pro. It can allow the user to have a whole litany of quirks, each one being diverse enough to need a team of well-trained, top ten heroes to handle even one of them. Hell, All Might himself had trouble defeating the original. What's to say the new one isn't worse?"
"See? That, right there, prejudiced before you even meet him," Aizawa bit out before standing up abruptly. "Nedzu, Tsukauchi, where did the incident occur roughly?"
"In Musutafu, but—"
"Noted, I'm going on patrol early today," Shouta told them before leaving them.
"That could've gone better…" Nedzu commented as he sipped at his tea, gauging his friends' reactions. "But not wholly unexpected."
Yagi took out his smartphone and searched up a word into the search engine. "Prejudiced means 'preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.' I have plenty of reason and actual experience on it, since I fought the bastard," Yagi told them.
"Yagi?"
"Yes?"
"Please just drop it."
"…okay."
It was night once more, and with the urging of his quirk, Midoriya Izuku departed his home and roamed the red light district of Musutafu city, looking for (unwilling) candidates. He had his shoulders hunched, back arched, looking nervous and vulnerable.
That's because he was those things. He wasn't some hardened vigilante, he was a fourteen year old teen with an overpowered quirk and quirk madness screaming in his head. The adults that walked by him while he wore (like last time) a black and red hoodie and ripped denim jeans again gave him a passing glance before scoffing that he was even wandering around so late.
He wasn't going to get lucky like last time and find an easy candidate and a corpse, as getting lucky like that twice was unrealistic. He'd probably would have to sneak attack someone and knock them out, stealing their quirk while they were unconscious. Izuku looked around before darting into a nearby alleyway and activating Sludge all over his body, hiding his soaked clothes inside of himself as he disguised himself as a mess on the floor.
The greenette waited for a full hour before two odd people came into the alley on opposite sides, meeting in the middle. One of them (closest to Midoriya) was wearing regular clothing, like you'd see on any bloke walking down the street. The other guy…wasn't even a guy at all; it was small, primarily black toy doll that had a white plague bird mask sewn into it where the face would be.
It was unsettling, to say the least.
Did the doll have a mutant-type quirk that made them look that way? Was the doll actually sentient or was it being controlled remotely by science or a quirk? What if—
"You've got the cash?" the doll asked, tapping its foot on the pavement impatiently, not knowing it roused Midoriya out of his thinking. The doll was carrying a small suitcase in its right hand, for some reason. Maybe this was a drug tradeoff?
"Yeah, got it all right here," the regular man said, handing it over to the doll. From this distance it looked like the man's tongue was stained black, but it must've been the trick of the light.
The doll snatched it up and quickly counted it before confirming, "Good, you're smart not to stiff me. Here you go," the doll handed over the suitcase. The regular man opened it, and from Midoriya's eyesight it was three red vials of some designer drug he probably didn't know about. "Next meetup is in Naruhata, the details will be—"
"Wait, what? Dude, that is totally too far for me to go to get this shit!" the man argued, his face distraught.
"Do you like the product?"
"Yes…"
"Are you willing to pay for the product?"
"Yes…"
"Then there's your answer. Check your email for the drop off point next week," the doll told him, ready to go their separate ways.
But of course, things couldn't be so easy.
Midoriya's heroic side was bleeding through, telling him to get the attention of a pro hero and arrest these two criminals. They obviously doing a drug tradeoff, of what kind Izuku wasn't sure, but it had to be no good. He wasn't sure if he was strong enough to stop these two criminals, but he had to try.
He decided to pounce, jumping off the ground and around the regular man's head, suffocating him with his sludge while simultaneously doing two things: One, taking the man's quirk, it slotting into place and activating immediately (Midoriya had no idea what it did, he'll trial and error it later); and two, making sure the suitcase the man was holding wouldn't fall to the floor, alerting the doll who was steadily getting further and further away. The regular man clawed at the sludge to no avail until he finally passed out. Midoriya made sure to cushion the man's fall before racing on the ground, still in his sludge form, to the doll who he lost sight of.
It took a full minute to find and locate the doll, who was currently alone while playing with the fat wad of cash he acquired. Like a tidal wave Midoriya captured the doll in his sludge, constraining the thing as it fought against him. Izuku realized that the doll wasn't breathing, and that something off was happening inside of it.
Without warning a bodybuilder's arm, all muscular and strong-looking, came out of the doll and tried to get Midoriya off of him. Acting quickly the greenette enveloped the arm with his sludge and took his quirk, causing the doll to explode and release the man hiding within, which also caused Midoriya to fly everywhere on the walls and ground, separated.
Izuku regathered himself quickly, idly wondering how he was able to recoup himself and vowing to write in his History Notes later, and reconnected himself, finally able to see the man. He was well-built and tall, having spiked tanned hair and a spiked nose. He was wearing a pinkish beige dress shirt and pinstripe pants, along with suspenders. He had a look of consternation and fear on his face.
"What the hell did you do to me?!" the man exclaimed, grabbing a nearby table leg on the ground for protection.
"I'm sorry! I can't help myself!" Midoriya answered before rushing over the stranger's body. He got hit, hard, in his sludge, it doing nothing to stop him from and suffocating the well-built man's head, him fighting all the while. After a good minute of struggle he was knocked out, Izuku returned to normal and tried dragging the unconscious man's body over to the other one.
Tried, mind you.
Indeed, the man was very heavy and Midoriya was unable to do so. He tried activating Metal Knuckles to test to see if he got a slight strength power-up, and to his utter delight, it worked and he was now able to drag the man to the regular guy. Looking around he found a discarded shirt, tearing it into sheets to restrain the men, both their arms and their legs. He searched their pockets and found two phones, one of them being a flip phone. He used the latter and called the police.
"Hi, I'd like to report a drug tradeoff happening nearby here, please trace this phone for the location," Midoriya told the operator, leaving the flip phone on their bodies. He then ran as far as he could back home, his Cracked Eyes quirk coming in clutch as he navigated the darkened alleyways and side streets.
Midoriya finally made his way home, tired from the run. He made himself a cup of coffee and, while being quiet to not awaken his mom, decided to write in his History Notes about the newly discovered aspects of Sludge.
Sludge Theories:
Theory #6: This quirk allows the user to separate into many different parts that the user can control (semi-tested while going out candidate hunting).
Metal Knuckles Theories:
Theory #2: Activating the quirk gives the user a slight strength power-up (tested while dragging a heavy man).
He finished writing the short theories while sipping on some black coffee, hating the taste but thanking the gods above that All for One wasn't screaming in his ear anymore. If he had to describe its current state of mind, if quirks can have that, it'd be satiated, not wanting him to take more quirks for the moment.
Izuku had mixed feelings on the person he was becoming. He was a thief, a larcenist, a stealer of quirks; and yet he didn't mind it. It scared him, the fact that he couldn't give two shits about stealing quirks. He had strong moral beliefs before he got All for One, and he decided right then and there to make sure he followed a rigid modus operandi, to not lose himself in his newfound powers and decaying morals:
He will not, under any circumstances (except one), steal quirks from heroes, regular people, and children, unless they were dead prior to him discovering the corpse. He can not kill heroes, regular people, and especially children under no circumstance. Villains were fair game, but he's not allowed to kill them at all; he can not take from villains if they're minors like himself and/or being forced to be a villain.
Midoriya hoped he could follow this, and if he couldn't…no, he must follow his new rules, to make his past self proud.
Failure was not an option.