Izuku gulped down the bottle of water that he had brought not because he was thirsty but because he was worried about what could happen to his own throat after he began.
He looked towards the ocean as it reflected the stars in the sky, the smallest movement because of the wind and under his boots the clean sand of the beach.
Right now it was the middle of the night and he was standing on takoba beach getting ready for the next phase of his training.
Since his friendships had already begun to grow the next thing to work on was his alibi to get into UA, since he decided that stealing the quirk that he wanted would consume too much time and it was still a traumatizing experience to him he decided for the second best option, which was forcing an awakening on a quirk.
"Are you sure this will work? Awakening a quirk is not so simple as just training with it" His father said and for good reason, quirk awakening is a still strange concept on the world even in the future there was still a very little amount of information known about it, the only thing for sure was that it was an evolution that the users quirk would go through in a stressful situation to keep its user alive.
His plan was a little dangerous but it was also the best he could do right now without putting his life on the line.
Now came the other question, what quirk would he use because he couldn't just use any quirk for his lie to hold up.
Fire manipulation or famously known as pyrokinesis.
It was the perfect lie, the combination of both his mother and fathers quirks. People may be confused about it coming so late but it was easier to explain a lie about that than trying to explain the sudden appearance of a quirk that didn't appear in his family tree.
He took a deep breath and he could feel his chest fill with heat, his throat began to shine a bright orange, he felt as if his lungs filled with scorching air similar to that of a desert.
And he let it out into the sky.
From his mouth a large flame of orange and red shot out lighting up the night, the flames only lasted a few seconds as they finally died leaving only the strange feeling of warmth around.
The quirk his father used to hide his identity with his mother.
Fire breathing.
He coughed a little as his throat felt dry and his mouth stuck the taste of ash to his tongue, the drawbacks weren't bad, just annoying.
He put a hand to his chest as he felt the warmth that it gave off, as if a small ball of heat had appeared in his chest.
After finding it inside AFO, Izuku felt a little confused about why it was there, it wasn't a powerful quirk like the others and his father could have given it up to one of his nomus, but he didn't, he kept it, did he… grow attached to it?
Oh no that's bringing a lot of confusing feelings, he needs to concentrate back on what's important.
He had the quirk so now he needed to bring the danger into the equation and what better way than the quirk that could make him explode!
He took another deep breath activating both the fire breathing and One for All at three percent making his body tremble slightly, three percent was his maximum output without any help from the other strengthening quirks but it wasn't enough.
4%
His body began to shake even more and he could feel his muscles begin to clench.
5%
He begins to pant as his body begins to tingle, the green sparks around him making his hair stand up.
6%
He begins to make small licks of fire appear around his mouth as his head is stricken by a headache and his body is hit with a bone deep pain as if his own body could break like glass.
7%
Izuku pushes through the pain ignoring all the warnings his own mind gives him as he takes a deep breath that fills his chest with a sharp pain and lets out another breath of fire this one brighter than the last before falling to his knees panting for air as his body trembled in pain as if he was being pierced in all sides.
It failed, OFA gave the quirk a slight boost but no awakening. He laid down to let his body rest and wiped the sweat around his forehead. He knew that this would take a long time to work so he didn't feel discouraged but wow did it hurt.
"Okay once more…"
…
Following the beginning of his new training the days began to blur together for Izuku.
With him slowly fixing his relationship with Bakugo his days became a lot more peaceful and quiet as the other students didn't dare approach him after one day Bakugo sat down and silently ate lunch with him.
His time at home also became much quieter as his mother now spent more time out because of her work but he spent most of his time helping his sister since they had decided to put her in online classes until she could go to school with him next year. The two of them took the time to bond even more and he had even told her about Bakugo which she had taken a lot… worse than he had expected.
"So let me get this straight, your childhood friend, who you literally treat as if he was your own family but when he found out you were quirkless he started to bully you, and nobody stopped him!?" she said, screaming in anger.
"Y-yeah, but we are beginning to fix things, we are talking things out- kind of- and we've made a lot of progres and… and you aren't listening…" Izuku stopped as he noticed that her sister began to mutter to herself saying some things that confused him like 'the moment i see him…' but the image made him laugh a little which caught her attention.
"Sorry, it's just that seeing you like that made me think that you already look like part of the family" Izuku said, causing her to pout and playfully punch him in the arm before the two began to laugh.
When night came he changed his usual vigilante outings for his training which had yet to show any progress but he was confident that it would work and if it didn't he still had more than a few back up plans in his sleeves.
The disappearance of Remnant was not unnoticed by the people as cases of random thugs or villains being less and less as the days went by after the Stain incident. This sent many people to theorize that all he had done was just to get Stains attention and take him down, others said that he might have died from the injuries of the fight but no one could reach a satisfying answer.
The most annoyed people by the news were the detective, All Might and Aizawa who after meeting Remnant was then told about All For One and One For All which only gave him a headache but still agreed to help.
Remnant had been their only lead to AFO as they weren't sure if he could still be alive, all they knew was that someone had a connection to him but the way they acted made no sense to them.
"If they really were evil, why would they go around taking down villains, it doesn't make sense" Aizawa argued to Toshinori in his skeleton form who now sat in the detective's office who was messing with the various papers on the board and a red string.
"They may be people who tried to oppose him and the kid might be their personal 'cleaner' who is just getting rid of the trash" Toshinori said, whenever they talked about this he always took the darker looks and this only caused more problems to the trio because Aizawa just couldn't agree with him.
Obviously he had dealt with kids who were villains, he never liked those cases even less now that he had a kid who had been a victim of abuse.
"What if he is controlling them? Maybe keeping their family as ransom to make sure they follow orders" Aizawa said, he couldn't help trying to the defend the kid, his small interaction with them on the phone had left a mark on him, the kid sounded fine, he even joked with him at times and if he knew his personal phone number the entire time than he could have asked for help at any time.
"Aizawa, I know that you want to help the child but if they are related to that man then it is already too late for them, All For One is a manipulative bastard, how do we know that he hasn't already groomed him into the perfect assassin?" Toshinori argued back, his expression grim.
Aizawa grit his teeth, maybe his own judgement was clouded since it came down to a child but he just couldn't help but see his own son Shinsou in that kid, someone who didn't get the help they needed and ended going down a dark path but what made him the most angry was…
"And you call yourself the symbol of peace when you can't think of anything but getting rid of a child instead of helping them" Was what Aizawa said before storming out of the room.
And in the blink of an eye, the last year of middle school began for Izuku but this time he wasn't alone like the other times as him and Bakugo had finally gotten to speaking terms even if they were just small talk.
The other reason being his sister joining his class and that sure was a day to remember…
"And now, before we begin, I have to inform you of a new classmate that will be joining the class…" The teacher said with a complex expression on their face as the other students began to whisper amongst themselves making Izuku smile as he already knew the surprise but he kept an eye Bakugo as he wanted to see his reaction the most.
"Please come in and introduce yourself…" The teacher said and the classroom door opened as a girl with green hair and two buns walked into the classroom with a mischievous smile.
"Hello, my name is Midoriya Himiko, it's a pleasure to meet you all, I hope that we can be great friends in the future!" She said with a wide smile that showed her fangs as the whole class looked at her in complete surprise before turning back to look at Izuku who was just smiling.
Bakugo seemed to be the most surprised out of everyone when he heard that his friend who he had known his entire life had a sister of the same age who he had never seen before.
Izuku held back a laugh as he looked at Bakugo who looked at him with confusion and surprise looking for an answer, if he had a stretching quirk he was sure that his jaw would have hit the floor by now.
Himiko just happily walked to her seat in the middle of the classroom.
The teacher sighed as they rubbed their eyes "With that out of the way let's begin class by opening your books at page…" the students just followed instructions as they tried to process the reveal in their heads.
By the time class ended the first one to move was Bakugo who got up and stormed to her seat "Who the hell are you?" he simply asked as he glared at her.
She calmly looked at him "Spiky hair, red eyes and a bad personality, yep just like he said, you must be Kacchan" She said with a sickeningly sweet smile which just made him more angry.
"Don't fucking call me that now answer my question fangs" He said, anger clear in his voice.
"Oh fangs huh, Izuku did say that you usually give people nicknames but I at least hoped that they would be good you know" She said with a smile still on her face as her voice dripped with sarcasm.
All the other students couldn't help but watch in awe at the girl that openly challenged and mocked the most feared student in the school, at this point Izuku felt that things could get out of hand.
"Hey Kacchan let's all just calm down and I will explain everything he said as he got in between the two trying to stop a fight from happening but even he was surprised by the sudden change in his sister's attitude.
"Well you better and I hope it be a fucking good explanation nerd because you don't just get a sibling out of nowhere" Bakugo said now glaring at him.
"Hey, don't call my brother a nerd you bitch" Himiko said, catching the two boys' attention.
"Himiko no!" Izuku said in surprise at hearing his sister curse for the first time.
"Oh you wanna fucking go cat eyes?" Bakugo said with his hands sparking a little.
"Kacchan don't encourage her!" Izuku reprimanded the other boy.
When he thought he could see the two just about to get into a fight he acted first and grabbed the two of them by the back of their clothes and dragged them outside with ease.
The teacher just sighed as they laid their head against their head already feeling a headache coming in.
--
"So... you were recently adopted by the Midoriyas from your abusive family and since it was in the middle of the school year, they kept you in online classes until this new year started to finally sign you in, am I missing anything?" Bakugo asked as he made a quick resume of what the two siblings had told him.
They both shook their heads, in the story they gave him they had decided to skip the more… gruesome details of the story.
"Okay, but I do have one question… Why the fuck did you never think of telling us!?" Bakugo asked, both of their families were close and even if they didn't talk about it both of their mothers were close friends so he had expected at least his mother to tell him but it seemed like she was also out of the loop.
"Well, Izuku was busy with his training and studying to get the time to tell you and Mom has been really busy with her job so telling your family probably slipped her mind" Himiko explained which was mostly correct because she didn't know that Izuku didn't tell him on purpose since he wanted to see his friends reaction.
Oh don't judge him, if he was going to mess with time he could have a bit of fun with it now and again.
"Wait auntie Inko is working now, what does she even do?" Bakugo asked.
"She's a lawyer now" Izuku answered to the surprise of his blonde friend.
The three of them continued to talk before Bakugo said…
"You said something about training right?"
Izuku nodded wondering where this was going.
"Tell me where it is and I'll join you" He said, surprising the two greenettes.
"Wait, you want to join, really?" Izuku asked.
"After seeing first hand how much of a mean left you had I thought that what you are doing can't be that bad" Bakugo said.
"Wait, if he is joining then I want to join too!" His sister said, looking at him expectantly.
"Well, if the two of you want to join then I won't say no" Izuku said with a smile happy by the idea of training with them.
Their conversation continued without anything interesting coming up again except for the times when Himiko and Bakugo kept butting heads with each other only confusing Izuku as he tried to stop a fight between them.
On the walk home Izuku couldn't help but ask "Do you have something against Kacchan?"
"Whaaat, noooooo, what makes you say that?" she innocently asked, giving him a smile.
He sighed and patted her head making her giggle "It's just a hunch"
--
10%
Izuku was on the floor writing in pain as he gasped for air but couldn't get anything in.
His muscles locked in place leaving him frozen on the cold sand, his ear ringing only making the headache he had much worse.
The only warmth he felt was the one of the blood that came from his nose, the cold air sending shivers through his body and the sparks around his body felt like he was being struck by lightning over and over again.
His vision, already blurry, began to spin as he could feel his own body shutting down.
Just a little more…
Just… a little…
As if a matchstick had been thrown on him his body suddenly was covered by flames of a deep violet which illuminated the beach making him look like a human torch.
Izuku quickly turned off One for All when he felt the fire burn through his skin as it began to make his own skin fall off exposing his own bones to the cold night sending even more jolts of pain through his body.
The heat was so powerful that the sand around him began to melt and turn to glass in seconds.
Izuku quickly activated all of the healing quirks he had as he kept panting on the ground, his body regenerating the lost flesh back into his body.
He closed his eyes as he just listened to the soft sounds of the ocean as he waited for the sudden rush of adrenaline in his body to disappear.
The heat that once stayed focused in his chest now spread through his entire body as if it flowed through his veins, he opened his eyes and with a little concentration made a small orange flame appear on his fingers.
He had done it, he finally had the quirk the world had refused to give him.
