He didn't know when he started running, all he knew was that he was. Izuku could hear his heart in his ears as he stumbled past an unconscious villain sprawled out in the street. The man didn't look much like a villain, but he was swathed in yellow clothes. All the villains were coordinated in yellow colors, he noticed. They all must be gangsters, Izuku decided. Behind him, the hero who defeated the unconscious gangster called out for him to get to safety; Izuku ignored him.
He weaved between fish-mutant and a gun-toting gangster alike as they focused on their own fights. Izuku didn't have to worry about the villains, he realized; they were already preoccupied with the heroes. Realizing this, he could ignore the chaos of the streets and focus on the building ahead of him.
It was a two-story brick structure with a cozy balcony above the entrance. Izuku pressed himself up against the window to try and see inside- to make sure there were no customers trapped in the building. He tried to yank and pull on the front door, but it was sealed shut. Mr. Tokage must've locked all the doors and windows when he realized a brawl was breaking out in the street.
Izuku couldn't find another way in; Izuku couldn't find a fire escape and the doors were locked. He looked between the glass doors and the pieces of stone breaking off of the building. The battle was tearing the store apart. Izuku sighed.
Sorry, Mr. Tokage, Izuku thought.
He grabbed at the crumbled concrete, picking a stone the size of Izuku's fist, and chucked it through the front door. Izuku's innocent mind immediately recoiled at his brash action. He just vandalized a man's property, and without good reason. For a second, Izuku thought he might go to jail.
He crushed that thought when he remembered why he was doing this. Nobody except him knew the Tokages lived upstairs- the heroes would let the villains destroy the grocery store if it meant saving their own skins.
As he stepped over the shards of broken glass, he could feel the way the building moaned and groaned, as if the store itself could feel the scattered blows across its surface.
A bullet whizzed past Izuku's ear, scaring him to the floor. He tucked into the fetal position under the cover of a shelf, praying he hadn't been shot at intentionally. When no more shots went off near him, he allowed himself to relax. Izuku's ears rang; he only got back up when he could hear again.
It took him a few moments to process what just happened. A bullet had missed him by not even six inches. He almost died.
Much like his shame at almost giving up One for All, Izuku packed down his shock and fear into a tight ball deep in his gut. Hopefully, he'd never have to unpack those feelings again. Izuku still flinched when he heard gunshots go off down the street.
He made his way over to the register, careful not to be in the sightlines of a hero or a villain as he did so. Izuku didn't want to bring more attention to Tokage Groceries than there already was, nor did he want to distract a hero from their battle.
Izuku fumbled around in the checkout line for a moment, recalling what Setsuna had told him not two days ago.
"If you need anything else from the top shelf, ring the bell next to the checkout." Izuku muttered under his breath. Not having looked for it yesterday, Izuku struggled to find where the supposed bell was.
After fumbling around for it for about a minute, Izuku's fingers snagged on something. In his hands, he held a rope with a tiny little bell on the bottom. His eyes trailed up and down the rope, fascinated. It wasn't just a simple bell on a string, but a pulley system. There was a hole cut in the ceiling of the first floor, just big enough for a bell to fit through.
When Izuku pulled the rope down, there was a second rope that went up to the second floor. It was like a vertical conveyor belt. He pulled the rope all the way around so that the bell attached to the rope was sitting on the second floor. He gave it a little jingle.
Above him, he heard several footsteps all at once. A heavy set of footsteps, presumably Mr. Tokage, and then two much lighter steps, his wife and daughter. Izuku peered up through the hole in the ceiling. He couldn't make out anything specific, but he was sure that someone was standing right above him.
"Who's down there!?" A low, masculine voice said. It was feeble but threatening. Whoever was speaking was afraid, and Izuku knew exactly who it was.
"It's me, Mr. Tokage! Midoriya!" Izuku said. A small, girlish squeal sounded out from above him, but Izuku couldn't tell if it was Setsuna or her mother. Mr. Tokage didn't say anything as Izuku heard shuffling from upstairs. Izuku, still peering up the hole as best he could, almost jumped back in surprise when a thin eye began to peer back.
"Midoriya, the hell're you doing here!?" Mr. Tokage asked. His eye disappeared for a second as he looked away. "Setsuna," He hissed, "Open the hatch."
Within moments, Izuku was on the second floor. He watched as Mr. Tokage slammed the latch shut and pushed a heavy piece of furniture over top of it.
"I'll ask again, Midoriya, what're you doing here?" Mr. Tokage repeated.
"I got caught up outside, sir. Do you know what's going on?" Izuku replied. Mr. Tokage shook his head.
"Not a thing. I heard a gunshot and just shut everything down and locked up for the day. Did you see what's happening?" He asked. Izuku nodded.
"There's a whole gang attack going on out in the streets. I didn't even know there were gangs around here! Anyways- the fighting is getting worse, and they're right outside. Haven't you felt all the shaking? Heard all the gunshots?" Izuku asked. From his right, Setsuna spoke up.
"Yeah. What's going on? How'd you get in the store?" She asked. Behind her, Ms. Tokage nodded.
"Are you ok?" Setsuna's mother asked. Izuku nodded at her appreciatively before replying to Setsuna.
"The fighting is being dragged close to the building by the heroes, I don't think they know you're in here." Izuku said. "Oh, and… I kind of broke in. S-sorry." Izuku said. Mr. Tokage tried to speak up, but Izuku shook his head at him.
"No, no. Whatever it is, that's not important. We need to get you guys out of here before they break in-" Izuku tried to say, but was cut off by a gunshot. He tackled Setsuna and her mother to the floor and behind a dresser as another gunshot went off, shattering two windows in the upstairs room. He glanced at the father; he had taken cover himself and was fine.
Doing his best to cover their bodies with his own, he got awkwardly close to Setsuna. She stared at him, gobsmacked, before her gaze naturally drifted to where Izuku's stub was digging into her side. Because of the bullets making Izuku's ears ring, he couldn't hear what she said to him, but he could read her lips.
"Your arm?" Seemed to be the thing she was confused about. Izuku ignored her for the moment.
Izuku rolled off of the two girls, shuffling over to a position where he could see the balcony window- the one that had shattered first.
Nothing happened for a moment, and Izuku thought the volley of bullets might have ended. For a second, Izuku considered getting back up. That idea went straight out the window as he saw a hand grab onto the balcony. Izuku pulled back into the cover of the dresser as the same hand hauled an entire body onto the second floor.
Izuku didn't have a perfect angle, but he could tell who it was. Yellow shoes and socks, with the bottoms of their shorts being yellow as well? This was one of the gangsters. Izuku shifted over for a better angle.
The man held a small pistol and had no visible mutation. His arms were bare; no Yakuza tattoos in sight. This was a small-time gangster. Izuku thought that might've made him less nervous, but it didn't. It was the man who was unconscious on the road. Or, Izuku guessed, the man who had been pretending to be. Izuku tried to stay hidden, praying that the gangster wouldn't see them and decide to leave, but he wasn't so lucky.
Mr. Tokage stood up, hands in the air.
"What're you doing in my house!?" He asked. The gangster took a step back in surprise, probably not having expected a confrontation. He slid down the bandana covering his mouth to speak. Izuku tried to memorize what the man looked like, but with him still wearing glasses and a hat, he couldn't see anything memorable.
"The fuck are you doin' up, you old man? Sit back down!" The man called out. Mr. Tokage didn't budge.
"I asked, what are you doing in my house!?" He yelled again. The man pointed his pistol at Mr. Tokage. He felt Setsuna move beside him; he put his arm on her to get her to stop moving. The gangster still hadn't spotted them.
Primal fear gripped Izuku's heart; he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he wanted to stay hidden, or at least not let the Tokage women be seen. As the gangster raised his pistol towards Mr. Tokage more threateningly, something odd happened.
Where Izuku's stub was, he began to feel hot. It wasn't unlike phantom itches or pains, but it wasn't similar either. For a brief moment, it reminded Izuku of how it felt when he used One for All for the first time.
"I need hostages, so get the fuck down old man!" The man yelled, shooting a warning shot directly into the floor. Behind Izuku, Ms. Tokage squealed in fright. When the gangster looked at them, Izuku could feel a switch being flicked on in his body.
In a flash, the burning sensation in his nub spread through him. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew one thing. The only thing he wanted was to not be seen.
In a moment of pure chaos and confusion, Izuku's pores opened and smoke exploded out of him.
It burst out of him like a tiger being freed from its cage. Izuku and everybody else in the room screamed as the smoke expanded out of him and covered the whole room.
The man with the gun gagged, surprised, and shot blindly into the now completely gray-white room. Izuku felt pain flare-up in his leg, but he paid it no mind. Despite his utter confusion at the situation, Izuku didn't give up a second.
He jumped up off the floor and onto the dresser before springing off the furniture towards where the gangster had been standing a moment ago. Arm spread wide, izuku collided with the gun-wielding man and brought him down.
He was much, much weaker and weighed nothing compared to the man, but Izuku didn't need to overpower him. Still emitting smoke like a hearth full of pine, Izuku's skin was blowing out gas like an air hockey table; it made him slippery. He could shimmy out of any hold the man tried to put him in, before finally kicking the man's wrist and forcing him to let go of the gun.
Izuku couldn't see anything in the room on the count of the smoke, but he heard someone grab the gun, assumedly Mr. Tokage.
Distracted, Izuku was flung off of the larger body into the wall beside him. He still couldn't see anything, but he heard the gangster, now gunless and presumably without a quirk, get up hastily and scurry on out towards where he broke the balcony window.
"Get the hell out of here!" He heard a feminine voice scream; Setsuna, he mentally noted, before the sound of the pistol going off rang. The blind shot hit nothing but wood, but Izuku heard the gangster scream in fear as he jumped off the second-floor balcony.
Recovered from being thrown into the wall, Izuku called out to the Tokages.
"Where are you guys!? I can't see!" Izuku shouted. Two coughs from the other side of the smoky room confirmed their location, and the sound of a gun being dropped told him where Setsuna was. Izuku felt sweat roll down his back as his body, still heated up uncomfortably, began to ache. He stifled a coughing fit before running into the excess smoke and grabbing at where the Tokages were, doing his best to guide them out into the sunlit balcony where the smoke was less thick.
"Turn off your quirk, Midoriya, I can barely breathe in here!" Mr. Tokage called during a coughing fit. More sweat began to roll down his face as he tried his best to turn off whatever was going on in his body, but he couldn't do it.
"I-I can't! I don't know what this is! S-Setsuna, can you check the alleyway next to us with your quirk? If it's safe to run down there, we can get out of here and out of this smoke!" Izuku said, coughing himself. Despite the access to the open air, even the balcony was beginning to become too covered in smoke to breathe properly. He couldn't see her nod, but he knew she agreed when her head flew past him.
Izuku continued to try and smother whatever fire beneath his skin that was causing the smoke, but no matter what he tried he couldn't get it too slow. Thankfully, Setsuna's head returned within the minute.
"The garbage alley is clear!" Setsuna called out to them. Izuku didn't have time to say thanks, because as soon as Setsuna's head was back on her shoulders, she was already jumping off the balcony. Izuku watched as, one by one, the Tokages cleanly slid off the balcony with practiced ease. Despite it being a ten-foot drop, they didn't even seem to mind. For a brief, odd moment, all Izuku could think about was fire safety.
Eventually, he joined them in the alley. The fighting seemed to have died down, with the only fight still actually going on being between Nighteye, several rookie heroes, and one beefy and mutated villain who had been throwing cars like frisbees.
The aches that had begun flashing through Izuku's body had evolved into pulses of agony, forcing him to take a break every few steps.
At one point when he stopped entirely, he felt a soft hand grab at his own and pull him to his feet. A splitting migraine stopped him from being able to see who it was, but he thought it might've been Setsuna.
By the time they got to the other side of the street the ally was on, Izuku couldn't move anymore; his skin just wouldn't stop smoking. Eventually, he stumbled to the floor, letting go of the hand that had been pulling him.
"Midoriya!" He heard someone call off in the distance. He couldn't bring himself to check who had done so. His ears felt like they were ringing just as, if not harder than when he was almost shot in the skull. All sensation slowly fell away as he laid on what he thought might've been concrete. No noise, no sight, no smell.
When Izuku finally lost consciousness, he saw the eight stars, one shining brighter than all the others.
[x]
Izuku woke up in an odd place. He wasn't sure what he expected; maybe he'd be in a hospital, or maybe in his own bed. But no, he was sitting right at the seat of an empty throne of some medieval European castle.
He begrudgingly got up and shuffled out toward a window. Once again, his expectations were averted when instead of seeing a traditional European landscape with forests and plains, he saw a black void.
He stumbled back, surprised. He looked up and realized that the castle didn't have a roof, as if the ceiling had been torn off by some ultra-powerful siege weapon. Behind him, he heard a feminine snicker. He swiveled around, only to be greeted with a sight even stranger than the destroyed castle or the void itself.
A large round table with 8 grandiose chairs circling it, all of them full of people who looked nothing alike. All of them, except for one, that is. The chair closest to Izuku was empty.
He tried to call out to them, only to realize a moment later that he didn't have a mouth. Or a nose, ears, legs, or a torso. Izuku's body was made up of wispy smoke that circled around him like a humanoid tornado. For a moment, Izuku thought whatever power he had awoken in the Tokage's apartment had fully transformed him into a smoke monster.
He still had eyes, though, and a… left arm. Surprised, he tried to flex it and feel the lost limb, but he didn't have any sensation. As he tried flailing his arm to try and get his blood flowing, he heard the same female snicker. He turned back to the people he didn't recognize and saw that a brunette woman with a strong build was giggling at him. When she noticed that he saw her, she waved.
"Hey, Ninth. You're here early." The woman said, smiling wide. A handful of the other people around him also gave a wave but didn't say anything.
He wanted to ask so many questions. Where was he? Who was she? Why was he here? And so much more, but without a mouth or lungs, he couldn't. The woman must've understood he was frustrated through his eyes, as she got up from her chair and walked over to him. She put a hand on his non-existent shoulder, simultaneously motioning one of her companions to join them.
"Hey, Kiddo. I know you're confused right now, but rest assured. When you wake up, you'll be back with Sorahiko and your mom. En, can you come over and explain what happened before he wakes up, please?" The woman asked. The man, En, walked over. He was somewhat short for a fully grown man and wore a high collar jacket that covered everything below his eyes. He had short black hair messily parted away from his snake-like eyes.
"Hey, kid. I'm Six." En introduced. Izuku suddenly remembered how the woman had greeted him; she had called him the Ninth. Was she talking about One for All?
"Sorry about the scare earlier. Quirk exhaustion sucks, I know. What you did back there-" En gestured to the void, "was tap into my quirk, Smokescreen." En said. Izuku didn't know what to do or say. He stared at En for a few seconds before trying something.
He dropped to his knees and cleared the ground of dust and rubble. With his fingernails, he cut into his palm. He was glad to learn he could bleed in this place, even if he couldn't feel anything.
He smeared one word into the floor between himself and En with his blood.
How?
En knelt down beside him to read what he wrote. The man tilted his head back up to look at Izuku before he began speaking. Because of the angle of his collar, Izuku could see the man's full face and was somewhat disappointed to see that the collar wasn't hiding a cool scar.
"Good question, Nine. This has never happened before. You're the first who's ever been able to do this. You're also the youngest person to hold the quirk by far, so that might also affect it." En said. Izuku cut into his hand a little deeper for more blood. It didn't hurt because of the lack of sensation, but it was odd seeing himself bleed but not feel it.
OFA? U Holder?
"Yeah, Kiddo. We're inside One for All right now. Don't ask me how it works, because I don't have a clue. Maybe ask One the next time you're here. Anyways." En said, glancing at a watch on his wrist. Izuku wasn't sure a watch could work inside a quirk, but he wasn't about to question it. Izuku began to feel dizzy.
"We're running out of time, and we have no idea when you'll see us again, so try to remember three things: You need to start training our quirk immediately, don't use my quirk so much that you can't see, and All for One, our progenitor, is still alive." En said, his voice slowly fading into the distance.
Izuku tried to reach out to the others as he was sucked away from the throne room and into the void. The last thing Izuku saw before succumbing to the void's call was a single blonde man hiding behind the empty chair Izuku saw earlier.
[x]
The first thing Izuku noticed when he woke up was a searing pain in his right leg, midway through the thigh. Izuku groaned as he sat up, the pain in his leg flaring up as he did so. Somebody grabbed his arm as he tried to roll out of bed.
"Hey, hey, it's bed rest for you only!" A woman said. Izuku blinked at who was holding his arm; it was a nurse, he realized. He was in the hospital.
"What… happened?" Izuku asked, his throat dry. The nurse smiled as he settled himself back into place, no longer trying to escape.
"Do you want your mother here? We can talk about it with her if you want; she's just down the hall getting food." The nurse said. Izuku shook his head. He was confused and wanted to know why he was in the hospital and what happened now. The nurse sighed.
"You're in here for two reasons. Your leg," The woman gave his leg an angelic touch, so much so that it didn't hurt, " and for severe quirk exhaustion." For this, the nurse just gestured toward him in his entirety.
"Oh." Izuku said. It all came back to him in a moment- the dream, the smoke, the Tokages, and ohgodhewasshotintheleg.
"I don't know the details of your injury, but I know you were shot in the thigh. How does your leg feel?" The nurse asked.
"Hurts. Can you go get my mom?" Izuku asked. The nurse nodded and went to fetch his mother. He used the time to comb through his memories for when he got shot.
He doesn't think it was after they escaped the apartment, and he knew it wasn't before he broke into the store, so… Oh yeah, Izuku remembered. Adrenaline had kept him going, but now he distinctly remembers his leg getting shot after his skin exploded into smoke.
Izuku stirred in his thoughts for a few minutes as the nurse was away, thinking about all the things he didn't want to. Lucky for him, the nurse and his mom returned after a short time.
"Excuse me, I'll be back in a few minutes, but I'll let you have some alone time." The nurse said. Before she left, she gave Izuku another dose of painkillers for his leg and scampered on out.
Inko looked at him with wide eyes brimming with tears. Her eyes were filled with love, anxiety, and a small amount of pride.
"My baby boy…" She whispered. Izuku felt tears well up in his eyes.
"Mom…"
They cried together.
[x]
Nighteye decided it was awkward. A week had gone by since Midoriya had woken up, and now they were in a car together again. The last time they were here, Nighteye had been wound up so tight he had actually dared scream at the boy. He had demanded to know why this boy, a child, was being so selfish. Nighteye had been the selfish one that day, he realized. He had been so stressed out that he began to think that the only way to solve all the world's problems was to give some rookie, who he barely knew, the greatest power in the world.
He had dared to think that Izuku Midoriya wasn't worthy of One for All.
He wasn't one to admit when he made a mistake out loud, but he would certainly internalize it. It was his greatest fault.
But this was a special occasion.
"Midoriya. I'm sorry for the things I put you through last week. It was rash, foolish, and out of line. Please do not forgive me." Nighteye said, in all seriousness.
Izuku was worthy. He proved himself after he saved that family. Nighteye didn't have to be there to know- that little family of three Izuku saved had spoken so highly of him when the ambulances arrived that Nighteye had been shell shocked.
His world had practically collapsed in on itself once the dust had settled. He'd brought a little boy, not more than a child, into live combat to prove a point. Not only that, but he'd been so negligent that Izuku had been able to sneak into the fighting to help. That shame by itself was nearly enough to push him over the edge, but Izuku had gone beyond all expectations.
Any doubt he had for the boy's worthiness was snuffed out when he learned Izuku had used a previous user's quirk. If the quirk itself accepted him, then it seemed the only one in the equation with objections was him.
"Y'know, when we were in here last time, I almost gave up the quirk." Izuku said. Nighteye nodded, he remembered. To crack under all those emotions… He doesn't blame Izuku a single bit.
"It's fine. We have bigger issues anyway." Izuku continued, still facing forward. Nighteye's gaze darkened. Ah yes. Among Izuku's marvelous display of an old user's quirk, he had also relayed information that made Nighteye's blood run cold.
"Yes. One for All's nemesis, All for One." Nighteye muttered. Izuku nodded and began to whistle a simple tune. Nighteye turned to him, taking his eyes off the road for a moment.
"Whistling? When you're in mortal danger? All For One being alive without All Might is practically a doomsday scenario." Nighteye asked, concerned. Izuku shook his head, an alien calmness over the boy the likes of which Nighteye had never seen before.
"Unlike you, I saw what All Might did to that poor man. He'll be on life support for the rest of his life." Izuku said. "If he ever starts to make moves again, it'll be after I've had time to catch up." He said.
A guilty sort of pride wormed its way into Nighteye's heart. He'd done nothing but put the boy down since Sorahiko had insisted on him training him. In all honesty, he'd only hindered the boy up until this point. Still, he felt proud. Perhaps, logically, One for All should go to Thunderstrike, or someone else ready to take the world by storm. Maybe, logically, Izuku was the single worse choice Nighteye could've thought of two weeks ago. The thing is, he realized, things like logic didn't apply to people like Izuku.
He remembered being young and dumb, forcing himself into All Might's inner circle just because he adored the man. He'd spent months chipping away at All Might's resolve, using every manipulative technique he could think of to convince the man he was vital to his heroism.
Still, after months, All Might had never broken. He didn't want to risk someone's life just to make his easier. Nighteye lobbied to be his sidekick day and night, yet All Might held strong against it. They'd been the most frustrating months of his life.
But one day, the man, not All Might, Toshinori, sat him down. He told him the truth: of his life-long struggle with All for One, of his dream of a world where everyone smiles, and of the crippling loneliness that comes with being the best.
He told him of the present, how his life was, the fear that gripped him, and the stress of the job. He told him of the past, of wanting nothing more than to help people, only to be outcasted because of his disability. But when Nighteye asked about his future, Toshinori had smiled.
"I've been thinking, young Sasaki, about that. Truth be told, I'm scared. I've dedicated my life to my base instinct, service. I'm hot-blooded and rarely think about the consequences of my decisions. I help people because I must, not because I desire it. I guess you could call me a train, set to only move in one direction as fast as possible. When you look out my window, it's all blurry, but I've recently begun to think of that far-off world of tomorrow." Toshinori said, only pausing to sip his tea. Mirai Sasaki had gulped.
"I'm not so arrogant to think that I'll live forever. All for One grows stronger every day, I might not have to worry about old age with him around! Haha… But I'll need a successor. Someone fundamentally like me, but preferably smarter. It'd be nice if they were smart. I've laid the groundwork; a society where children and adults can smile all the time, but I have no idea how tall this castle will be when it's all over. I'll need someone by my side who can look to the future, someone who can make the tough calls today so the world tomorrow will be easier. I need someone to balance me; someone who can invest in the future."
Sir Nighteye glanced at Izuku as the boy fiddled with the archaic window swivel, a tranquility to his expression that betrayed the gravity of his position. He glanced at the boy's stub. He'd not ideal, logically. He's crippled and tiny and ignorant. Every day that passes without the Symbol of Peace is a day an innocent man gets hurt.
But people still smile, even if life is hard. They remember the good times and will weather the bad until they return. They make hard choices for better futures.
The boy was broken, but he would heal—given time. Time. Nighteye checked his watch reflexively. It was an early line of All Might merchandise, something only a superfan could've gotten his hands on during the Silver Age. Toshinori's beaming smile stared back at him from behind the clock's hands. To invest in the future, to nurture and better it. For a better tomorrow. To do what All Might never would—or could, now.
"I guess I'll have to actually start teaching you, huh?"
[x]
AN: hey. I was a little lazy with the editing, but I was generally happy with the chapter. I like the hopeful tone of the last section.
The story is unfolding in front of my eyes the same way it is with yours. The only consistency is that I'm taking inspiration from other fics. Right now, my favorite is Midoriya Plus Three-Sixty-Five, but I'm also considering incorporating pieces like the fic where… well, you'll find out. Or maybe you won't, who knows. (8/4/22, I'm pretty sure that fic is only on AO3. It definitely rivals things like Viridescent or Torchbearer.)
Review!