Heroic Acts Performed at a Reasonable Price
Izuku Midoriya was dead.
The fact that it wasn't really his fault was a rather moot point, but it was still a point in his favour as far as most people would be concerned. He hadn't chosen to die; the cause of his death hadn't been suicide, or suicide by proxy. He had simply tried his best, and failed. The fact that he had failed so early in his journey within the hallowed halls of the pinnacle of heroic academia that was UA was tragic, for sure, but also perhaps fitting.
Izuku, for all his training with the world's number one hero, was still a boy full to the brim with self-doubt. He wasn't sure of himself in any way, about any thing. He doubted his worth most of all, whether he even deserved to be here. His own father had left him and his mother when he found out Izuku had been born Quirkless. His own mother had never tried to affirm her son's dream, only fretted over how it was her fault somehow that he could never make it real. His own best friend had turned on him, disregarding him completely at first before turning to outright bullying him, treating him like some kind of subhuman for his lack of a Quirk.
Izuku didn't care about his own life. Anybody with half a brain could tell. He threw himself into dangerous, life-threatening situations wrought with peril because he wanted to save people, true, but there was also the fact that he didn't really comprehend the value of his own life. There was only so much time one could spend being called 'useless' as a child before it began to sink in and take effect, after all. And without a full family to stabilize him, the effects had only grown worse and worse. Izuku Midoriya was a boy in grave danger from both himself and others.
Of course he was willing to drive himself to near-death in a gruelling workout under a man who didn't know the first thing about training a child! Of course he was willing to accept constant verbal and physical abuse from a boy he still called his friend despite the fact the boy himself thought of Izuku as little more than a punching bag and potential speed bump. Of course he was willing to throw himself at a robot the size of an office building with a power he didn't even remotely understand!
As far as the man observing all this was concerned, Izuku Midoriya deserved much, much better than what he was getting. So he elected to intervene, as best he could.
The man's name was Funny Valentine. He was a dead man, of sorts, having chosen to end his own life with the assistance of another version of himself rather than spin for eternity and bury himself deep in the earth. It was a peculiar set of circumstances that had led to his prior fate, believe you me. But now he had found himself in a seemingly endless hall of mirrors, with each mirror showing him different things. They were like windows into other dimensions; here a small blonde boy struggled to rise to the top of a system that hated him, using strange magic and superhuman physical abilities, all while wearing a silly orange jumpsuit. There a man in all black with one arm of metal and one of flesh swung a sword the size of a man around, killing horrific monsters to avenge the love of his life and attain vengeance against his oldest friend and most faithful enemy.
He had watched all of these, and learned, but the tale of Izuku Midoriya spoke to him in a way the others did not. Perhaps it was the boy's father, gone from his life at such a young age, or the way he fought not for himself but for an ideal he loved. Perhaps it was his dogged determination to not let the world keep him down, in spite of its greatest efforts, or his endless dedication to his own heroic dream.
Regardless of reason, Funny Valentine very much liked Izuku Midoriya. So much so he wanted to do the boy a favour. Using the power of the mirror, he rewound, right to the point where the boy was about to die. An explosion filled the air before him, his body just a touch too slow to dodge the attack. The explosion had come from a fellow student, the very same boy who had with years of verbal and physical abuse turned Izuku Midoriya into a stuttering, socially impotent mess of a boy barely able to stand up straight without worrying about people seeing him.
Then, using the power of his Stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (often called D4C for convenience), Funny Valentine stepped through the mirror, and into the fire and noise. He wrapped his coat around Izuku Midoriya in the moment before the fire hit them, and disappeared a second time, materializing back in the hall. There they stood in silence for a moment, Funny backing up and freeing Izuku from his coat.
Izuku screamed in surprise, his glowing fist sending Valentine flying. Even though he had used D4C to block the punch, the blow still rocked him and sent him hurtling skyward. He pulled off his pink coat however, and wrapped himself in it, materializing between Izuku and one of the mirrors he had nearly backed into. He let the coat fall, before tapping the boy on the shoulder and taking a quick step back.
"Hello, Izuku Midoriya." Funny greeted, nodding at the much smaller boy. He had known Izuku to be short, but even Funny at his rather average five-ten towered over the boy. "I am Funny Valentine, former president of the United States of America and now... well, I'm not wholly certain what I am. Some sort of omniscient watcher of sorts, I suppose. That doesn't really matter, however."
Izuku was staring at him, and it disturbed Funny to see that in spite of the fact that his right arm was broken in approximately nine places, the boy wasn't even whimpering. His jaw was clenched and his breathing short and hurried, but it was obvious that the extreme pain was nothing truly special to him.
Funny had been on the receiving end of some truly vicious attacks; he had been shot, stabbed, burned, choked and even very nearly died of thirst once. But usually these things had simply killed him, and another version of himself had entered his prime reality using the inherited power of D4C. This boy was suffering and not even a single sob or whimper escaped his lips regardless.
Funny was dually impressed and concerned. Impressed with the boy's resilience, and concerned because of the boy's age and lack of any professional training. He offered the boy a hand, gloved in purple velvet. Izuku stares at him for a moment, before trying to take it in his own shattered right hand. Funny realized his mistake and switched hands before Izuku could damage himself any further, taking his left hand and shaking it.
"Where am I?" Izuku asked, voice soft, and Funny nodded again. "W-what happened to K-Kaachan? W-where is... everybody?"
"I am afraid you are no longer in Japan." Funny declared, shaking his head. "Nor are you in any material world at all. Welcome to the Mirror Realm, my personal afterlife of sorts. I brought you here, young Midoriya... because I wish to give you something. A gift, of sorts. That is, if you are willing to accept?"
Izuku looked the man up and down, eyes narrowing. His thoughts were alive with all sorts of observations and theories, trying to format a survival plan. The man didn't seem outright hostile, but some villains were so skilled at disguising their evil intent they could fool even the most observant heroes into believing they were innocent. Izuku wasn't sure what exactly to think of this Funny Valentine man; he had seemingly saved Izuku's life, but he had also pulled him into some strange place using a Quirk the likes of which Izuku had never seen before.
The young man was unsure of this, if he was completely honest. And yet this Funny Valentine did not seem dangerous; if his Quirk truly was of the Warp variety, he likely could have killed Izuku by now. Instead he seemed to want to help Izuku, apparently by giving him a gift of some kind. Izuku wasn't sure what sort of gift a former American president in a pink suit would give him, considering his prior lack of association with former American presidents in pink suits. He was however quite certain it would be something interesting, at the very least.
So Izuku swallowed back his concern and nodded once.
"Wonderful." Funny Valentine nodded once in return, before offering Izuku his left hand again. When Izuku took it, clasping it tight, he smiled.
"In that case, by the power invested in me by fate and my own great fortune, I give you this gift; Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap!" Funny declared with a grand gesture of his free hand.
Something overcame Izuku, a sudden wash of heat pouring over his whole body originating where his hand met Funny's. He gritted his teeth and bore it, however, wondering if this was perhaps some sort of attack. Until the heat stopped and he dropped to his knees. Funny Valentine, standing over him, blinked once in surprise.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap had not appeared over him, nor had it seemingly done much of anything at all. Funny attempted to manifest his Stand. It failed to appear. That meant he had successfully passed it on; Izuku simply hadn't triggered it. Or perhaps... perhaps it wouldn't work on him, due to his being from an alternate reality? His world bore seemingly no similarities to Funny's own, now that he thought about it. Not a single mention of Stands or Stand users, nor the Holy Corpse, or even Funny's own name. Perhaps Izuku was incapable of using a Stand?
Little did Funny know that he had very much succeeded in passing on his D4C; simply not in the way he had intended. When exposed to Izuku's very different form, it shifted to something very different. No longer was D4C a Stand; it had become a Quirk, one that interfaced with Izuku's Quirkless body quite well. Izuku's whole body tensed, his muscles humming with energy for a moment as it synced up with the One For All that All Might had given him.
Two inherited powers, in one body. Had Izuku already possessed a Quirk at birth, the strain would likely have killed him. As it was, it merely hurt like the Devil himself for a long moment, before he fell still, chest heaving. His arm was still broken, but the pain was negligible compared to the agony his body had just been subjected to. He lay still on the ground, before slowly sitting up.
Funny Valentine stood over him still, but upon seeing the boy stir he breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive, at least. He offered Izuku a hand up, which Izuku accepted, and upon regaining his feet Izuku blinked away the last spots from his eyes and looked up at Funny again.
"Um... d-did it work?" he asked.
Funny just shrugged.
"I cannot say." he replied. "My D4C has gone somewhere... do you feel any different?"
Izuku felt around for the power he apparently now possessed; he felt the constant surge of One For All, an endless wellspring of power. But beside it there was something else, something new. He reached for that, and felt a strange rush of energy. He heard Funny make a sound of surprise, and when he looked at his hands he saw... something. A strange ghostly after image, of bizarre leather-like armour covered in stitching. He touched one hand to the other, but felt nothing.
"D4C..." Funny breathed. "Of course. In your world, Stands are an aspect of your own bodies, not of the soul. So it bound to your physical form..."
Funny suddenly reached down and grabbed his jacket where it lay discarded on the floor, before throwing it over Izuku. The jacket fell to the ground, Izuku's body disappearing and when Funny lifted it there was no sign of the boy's presence at all.
"Valentine-san?" he heard, from behind him. "Is... is this supposed to happen?"
Valentine turned, to see Izuku's upper body sticking out from between two of the mirrors, his lower half nowhere to be seen. The boy was panicking, flailing his broken arm, and Funny quickly moved to the boy's side to help him out of his little jam.
"Yes." he confirmed, as he took Izuku's left hand and pulled him, letting the boy slide the rest of the way out of the space between mirrors and land on the ground. "This is the power of my... or, your D4C. It allows you to move between dimensions and points in space when you are between two objects. You can also apply this effect to others, moving them to other dimensions as well. If you can locate another version of yourself, you can pass on your power to him, and send him back to your dimension. This means you can survive any injury if you can shift dimensions fast enough."
Izuku looked at his hand, willing D4C back into existence. He admired the design of his new ghostly armour, apparently the essence of his Quirk, or Stand or whatever. He closed his fist, and then looked back at the space between mirrors. He looked behind him to another pair of mirrors and then reached between the two mirrors. His hand emerged between the two behind him, vanishing from sight at the end of his arm. He kept pushing it through, more and more of his arm moving through, until he saw his own back when he pushed his head through.
"Th-this is incredible, V-Valentine-san!" he declared, stepping the rest of the way through the objects. "I-I... I've never seen anything like this? Most Quirks are usually very simple, obeying the laws of physics to some extent, but this is... I mean, unless it's somehow disassembling my atoms and shooting them off to the other location at light speed or something, I don't understand how..."
The boy fell into a mumbling rant, his train of thought accelerating to dangerous speeds. Valentine just watched for a little while, leaning back against one of the mirrors and relaxing. Without D4C, it seemed as though he was no longer able to move through the mirrors into the worlds beyond. He lamented the loss for a moment, before Izuku looked in awe at his own hand again and he was reminded that it was now in good hands.
"Izuku." Valentine said, drawing the boy's attention again. "There is something I must warn you about. D4C is powerful, but whatever you do, you must never move anybody but yourself between dimensions. Especially if you want to protect them. If two versions of the same person meet each other in the same dimension, they will merge, killing them both instantly. This can be a good way to dispatch of your enemies, but it means moving your friends and allies between dimensions is an extremely dangerous endeavour."
Izuku nodded rapidly, clearly understanding the instructions and warning. Funny sighed in relief; the boy was not ready. But at least he understood; and it was time to return him to his home dimension. But first...
"Every other version of yourself now knows of D4C." he explained. "When you appear before them, they will be ready to accept it and carry on your mission. If you wish to heal your broken arm now, you need simply travel to another dimension and give it to one of your counterparts."
"Recovery Girl can... fix this." Izuku replied, shaking his head. "I-I-I'll only use that power if I... if I have to."
"Very well." Funny nodded once, offering the boy his hand to shake again. The two did so, before Funny handed him his pink coat. "Then go forth, Izuku Midoriya. And be a hero. I, for one, believe in you."
Izuku sniffled, and Funny wondered if perhaps he would cry before going. But the boy swallowed down his tears, and shock at being informed that there was someone who believed in him, and reached out to touch the portal. The glass parted around his hand like water, and he stepped into his own world once more.
Katsuki Bakugou's monstrous explosion rushed forward to engulf him, and Izuku threw Funny's coat over his head. He faded away, and re-emerged behind Katsuki, between two steel pillars. The blonde boy was looking down the hall, waiting for the smoke from his monstrous explosion to clear, and Izuku lunged for him.
He chopped his hand across the back of the other boy's neck, knocking him out with a single blow. He didn't even have to enhance his strength with One For All; the attack was textbook perfection, and completely unexpected. Izuku heard All Might's shock over his earpiece, before raising his unbroken hand to his head and pressing a finger to the device.
"Uraraka, I'm on my way!" he declared, before turning toward the stairs and making a break for it.
Up the stairs and down the hall he found Uraraka locked in a stalemate with Tenya Iida, whose metallic armour made him resemble a cross between a knight and a Gundam. Izuku took in their locations, blinking rapidly as he scanned the room. Uraraka looked at him, startled by his shattered arm, and Izuku turned to her and nodded.
"Uraraka, I'm going to go for the bomb." he declared. "But I need your help."
"Sure thing!" Uraraka gave him a thumbs up, before looking at his arm again. "But, Deku... what about your arm?"
"It's nothing." Izuku said, shaking his head. "Recovery Girl can fix it after the exercise. I... I hope."
Izuku bit back his doubt, before taking a step back. He then grabbed Uraraka from behind and pulled her toward him, sandwiching himself between her and the wall. He triggered D4C as he did so and emerged from the space between the bomb and the far wall, which were just close enough together to allow him to appear. He heard Iida gasp in shock, but ignored it in favour of touching a hand to the bomb.
"Weapon secured!" he declared, before leaning against the giant weapon, apparently a fake made of paper mâché, and took a long breath.
Iida stood stock still in shock. Midoriya, who he knew to have a strength enhancement Quirk of some type, had just teleported across the room, from behind Uraraka to the other side of the room behind the bomb. Uraraka was also in shock, half from the teleportation and half because Izuku had grabbed her and pulled her up against himself and she wasn't sure she was quite ready for that kind physical contact with a boy yet, especially not one as cute as-
She cut herself off and made a bizarre groaning sound before realizing that she had won. Then she punched the air in excitement.
All Might declared the heroes the victors, once he too overcame his shock at young Midoriya's sudden display of some strange kind of warp Quirk. The rest of class 1-A also recovered in time for them to spout all sorts of lines about their classmate's show of power.
"Could he always do that?" wondered Momo Yaoyorozu aloud, touching a finger to her chin.
"That was sick!" declared Denki Kaminari, who had one hand in the air like Uraraka.
"That was weird." replied Kyoka Jiro, whose hands remained in her pockets.
"I wish I could touch Uraraka like that..." drooled Mineta Minoru, moments before being stabbed in the back of the head from one of Kyoka's extendable earphone jacks.
Outside UA, it started to rain. None of them noticed, too busy were they speculating on the topic of their classmate's amazing new ability. But to one young man, standing in the newly falling rain in a black coat, with an umbrella over his shoulder and a blonde ponytail sneaking out from under his hood, it was quite important indeed.
Now he could find his master with much greater speed, after all.
Author's Note:
This idea came to me as a result of a review on my other crossover, and it just wouldn't leave my head. The idea was simple; 'What if Deku got D4C?' Then I realized both of them have bunny ears and things just kind of escalated.
Well… here we are. Hope you enjoyed it!