"C-c-c-come on, Kacchan, s-s-stop it. P-plea-please." A green-haired child with vibrant green eyes stood, shaking in front of 3 other boys. He wasn't being polite. He was clearly scared.Behind him, a slightly larger boy with blue hair slowly picked himself up off the ground, making sure not to irritate any of his injuries. Seeing his attacker's attention off him, he quietly snuck off. Better the freak than me.

"Why do you insist on getting in my way, Deku? You know how this ends." Ash blonde hair and red eyes of laser intensity bore into green. Behind him stood backup. Wings and Fingers. They had names, Izuku was sure, but why give them that respect?"

"It doesn't matter how it ends, what matters is that I try." Wow, I didn't even stutter that time.

The reply was surprisingly deep as the small boy growled. "You. stupid. uppity. quirkless-" Bakugo charged in the middle of his insults, taking Izuku off guard. Even if he had been expecting it, and had training, they were only 9, and Izuku was scrawny even for a child his age. The ensuing explosive (literally) punch knocked him back a whole foot before he stumbled and landed on his back, further knocking the wind out of him.

The following ass-kicking was decidedly uneven. Izuku managed to get into a ball, protecting himself slightly, though not by much as hard (but still amateur) blows rained down. Izuku grit his teeth, refusing to let them hear him in pain any more than strictly necessary.

Even as he did, he heard them. Every single thing he had ever been told in the last 5 years.

'You're quirkless.'

'I'm sorry!'

'Quirkless people can't be heroes!'

'Hopeless'

'Freak.'

'Dead end'

'Pathetic.'

'Just give up. Just GIVE up. JUST GIVE UP. stop hallucinating you worthless deku! Deku! DEKU! D̷̛̥͎͙̘̯̲͕͔̮̠͎̲̙͎͊̽͐̈̐̈̈͗̒̆͗̉͒E̷̞͓̣̟̖͇̹̯͖͈̻̺͉̬̳̅̋̓̓̋͑̎̏̉̃͠K̵̳̙̤͊̈͆͂͊̕Ù̸̢̲̼̥̥͍͓̬̂̏̀̚'

'Why? Why can't I have dreams? Why can't I hope? Why can't I TRY?'

His hands gripped the dirt underneath him.

'WHY WON'T ANYONE LET ME BE HAPPY?!'

The wind stirred.

"I WANT

Something stirred in him to match.

TO BE

He put forth a plea.

A HERO!"

The world responded.

There was the sound of three boys yelling as a wave of sand knocked them backwards. The first to recover, unsurprisingly, was the spiky-headed Bakugo. "Deku!" His quick recovery was followed by an even quicker charge back into the fray.

One could call Katsuki Bakugo many things. They would never, could never, call him a coward. If circumstances changed, he would adapt. If he was out-gunned, he would outmaneuver. If he was outnumbered, he would overpower. He fought, proudly. Powerfully. Unstoppably. Or so he believed.

Sand wrapped around his leading hand. Before he could do anything about it, the sweat that made his quirk work was absorbed into it, and the grains that were holding it shifted away. The process repeated on his other hand, the sand crawling up his arms and holding him in place. His arms were held out to his sides, the sand still, compacted, and hard now.

His would-be victim hadn't even fully uncurled from being a ball on the ground. Izuku looked at his hands in awe, not even really noticing his attacker as he wondered at the silica swirling around his fingers, embracing him like a beloved pet.

He started speaking as he rose. Whispers first, tasting the sentence that described this fundamental shift in his life. "I have a quirk. I have a quirk."

On his knees, now smiling in unbelievable relief. Louder. "I have a quirk."

Finally he stands, and gives a victorious howl into the sky. "I HAVE A QUIRK!"

"GET IT THE HELL OFF ME!"

Izuku ignored his attacker for the moment, and started muttering as he moved his hands around, wisps of sand in a brilliant wave form following "Oh my god this is so cool I can't wait to play with it I wonder what I can do with it-"

"GODDAMN IT!" The yell that broke him out of his spell before it could really start was accompanied by a bunch of muffled pops before they became a pair of powerful explosions. The sand (Izuku's sand, oh my god) was blasted off, and Bakugo was able to wrench his arms free before charging again.

This tiny playground scrap would serve as a microcosm of these two boys' relationship for most of the next 15 years.

A/N: Good Golly Miss Molly, what is up with me lately? I got the base of this out of someone's ideas bucket, maybe Kairomaru's?

I recognize this isn't a normal starting point. Most quirk!Zuku stories start at 4 and jump to 14. In between, he and Bakugo remain friends and the 2 of them temper each other. Here's the thing, though:

That's not nearly as interesting a dynamic as canon, and I don't know that our boi Beefiest Broccoli would have the same heroic spirit. It would probably be changed for a heroic drive, but I don't know that there would be a "my body just moved on it's own" moment with an Izuku that's quirked from age 4. So I gave him some of the struggle, but I've given him a lot of time to work out and be treated well by his peers. That doesn't mean Mighty Green will trust them, mind you. He's seen their truth.

I'm not saying that the bullying was good for Izuku. He's a deeply empathetic kid, and the world absolutely shit-stomped him in canon. Over a decade and a personal denial from All Might later, and the little maniac still jumped headlong into danger. For someone who spent years trying to break him. I mean, goddamn. Still though, that bullying absolutely destroyed any self-worth he may have had. If he had had a healthy interaction with society he wouldn't be totally fine with breaking limbs and just calling it the cost of using his power and helping others.

Development goes forward. Let's see if this does, too!

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