The Quirk of Solitude by ShadowAlchemy
Author notes
I forgot to mention earlier that I work during the week and it honestly gives me much needed time to brainstorm. A chapter may occasionally show up but I am able to get more writing done on the weekend,
I also will be editing and rescinding an earlier note where I mention AFO and All Might didn't have their fight yet. After brainstorming I concluded it doesn't fit my original idea so they will be in their correct health and state as if they were in the canon timeline.
Thank you to everyone who has read and even favorited this story! I'm truly humbled and will keep trying to improve to meet your expectations
The background is done and the meet and greet is done so please enjoy the ride!
Chapter 4
Izuku almost couldn't go to bed that night. Starrk was still hard asleep inside his mindscape but that didn't stop the boy from jotting down a bunch of notes and questions to when he would eventually wake up. The most pressing question was how was he going to conceal the blue number 1 on his hand whenever it would appear next. It was imperative to keep Starrk's name and appearance a secret but Izuku had a reasonable feeling of anxiety for when the time came to reveal that he was no longer quirkless. If luck should have it, he could find out more from Starrk the nature of abilities he was going to have and perhaps they could brainstorm a believable cover story.
Morning came for Izuku faster than he cared for and he intended to act as normal at school to avoid garnering any unwanted attention. Sadly, unwanted attention made a bee line for him when he was entering the school's courtyard. Bakugou and his cronies had awful smiles on their faces and they wanted to share a bit of it with Izuku.
"HEY DEKU!" yelled Bakugou leading the group as they approached " AREN'T YOU IN THE WRONG PLACE?"
Izuku stared back with his standard distant looking eyes. He learned the hard way of what happens when you talk back to this fire cracker.
" IF YOU HURRY NOW YOU MIGHT BE ABLE STILL TO MAKE IT!" the firecracker continued pointing to across the street where a garbage truck was emptying a dumpster into its compactor bin,
The group of bullies just started laughing but Izuku still didn't respond. Half because it was ingrained not to and the other half was because he didn't know when Starrk would wake up and this would be the absolute worst time for that to happen. He started to casually keep walking towards the building while the other students in the courtyard steered clear of Bakugou and company.
"OI SHITTY DEKU! DON'T WORRY. WE'RE GOING TO HELP YOU!" shouted Bakugou with glee and simultaneously the whole group grabbed Izuku.
Suddenly being grabbed made Izuku struggle for his freedom. The group were collectively dragging him towards the newly emptied dumpster. Unfortunately, one of Izuku's flailing elbows accidentally knocked Bakugou on the side of the head and this action caused the group to suddenly stop.
"You worthless piece of unwanted quirkless trash…How dare you hit me like that…" Bakugou seethed. His cronies stepped away not wanting to be near the carnivore's wrath.
Bakugou slowly approached Izuku while popping his quirk to life in both of his hands. There were a couple burn marks already permanently scarred into Izuku's body and they twinged at the prospect of another being added. Izuku stepped back trying to hopefully stall for the tardy warning bell to arrive and defuse this bad situation.
"I'm going to remind someone as useless as you NOT TO TOUCH YOUR BETTERS!" Said Bakugou as he lunged with his right arm firing up his quirk.
The incoming palm strike was headed right for Izuku's face and he reflexively brought up his hand in front to try and catch the damage instead. Right before connecting against Izuku's left palm there was a brief rush of blue flames that interacted with the explosion canceling it out.
Bakugou was wide eyed and confused. He felt his hand make contact but there was no damage and he didn't know why blue fire mysteriously showed up.
'Oh No…' Thought Izuku as he brought his hands down and saw the confused Bakugou. Sure enough Izuku saw a gently blue flaming number 1 on the back of his left palm. Inside of Izuku's subconscious was a scowling Coyote Starrk silently observing the situation.
Shaking off his confusion Bakugou was irritated that his first attack failed and came in for another strike but with his left hand instead.
"Kid! Use your hands to block that!" commanded Starrk growing more annoyed at this assault.
Izuku did as he was told and blocked the strike with the same result. Starrk was timing the manifestation of his power at the correct times of impact. Blue flames quickly appeared to catch and cancel out the incoming explosion then faded away. Now enraged, Bakugou unleashed a barrage of strikes. Izuku tried his best and successfully counter blocked three strikes before a palm connected against his left pectoral. Bakugou's successful strike exploded Izuku down to the ground and he was clutching his newly burned chest while small wisps of smoke escaped into the wind.
Izuku's uniform top was greatly damaged and while he was clutching his new burn, the back of his left hand was revealed to Bakugou and his cronies.
"DEKU! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" Bakugou roared, catching the attention of some of the students who already walked by them. One by the school door already rushed in to grab a teacher but nobody noticed. Glaring at the glowing blue number 1 made Bakugou's veins pop and blood boil. Bakugou had made it his own personal destiny to become an even better number one hero above All Might. To him, the universe was outright mocking him by placing a literal number one on someone so pathetic and unworthy. Either that or it was challenging Bakugou to assert his strength for the rightful place by destroying this usurper. Explosions in his hands were increasing in frequency and intensity at an alarming rate.
"How dare you…How dare you think that someone like you…so far below garbage thinks they are better than me…And then tries to make a fool of me by pretending to be quirkless…." Bakugou said through clenched teeth.
Izuku was speechless. He stopped noticing the pain of his burn and was trying to comprehend how incredibly angry Bakuguo was. There wasn't anyone in the current vicinity that had ever seen this new level of rage. Luckily before the wrath was unleashed a couple teachers ran into the yard yelling and closed the distance. When they asked what was going both Bakugou and his cronies pointed to Izuku accusing him of concealing a quirk. One of the teachers frowned and told Izuku to report straight to the principal's office while everyone else to get to their class for the start of the home room period.
Bakugou did calm down but silently promised himself that he was going to beat the literal shit or truth, whichever one came out first, out of Izuku after school. Izuku was slowly making his way to the office when Starrk finally started speaking again,
"Kid, I don't understand you. Why didn't you fight back?"
Izuku stopped mid step and froze after hearing that question. Starrk waited patiently with an angry scowl. Several excuses came to mind but he knew none of them would be accepted. He was dry mouthing some words together in an effort to answer the primera but before Izuku could respond one of the courtyard teachers from before caught up with him and started dragging him by arm the rest of the way to the office,
"We'll talk later, kid. Have fun." Starrk retorted still with his angry scowl. In the midst of the moonlit desert of the Izuku's subconscious Starrk pointed one of his hands to some sand dunes at a distance.
"Cero." he said and a blue swirling vortex of energy formed and was released into the sand dunes causing a large explosion blowing sand towards the night sky.
Then he fired another and then another until there were several sand filled craters in the distance. Starrk was irritated. He would've stepped in a heartbeat and destroyed that annoying blonde. Hell, he would've cratered the whole school if he was asked. So where was this kid's resolve? Sighing loudly, Starrk returned to the floor tiles and took a seat. He discovered earlier that when he concentrated, as long as he was on the tiles, he could see and hear through Izuku.
Of all the reprimands he had ever received, this by far was the most brutal. The principal had already notified the orphanage of this criminal act of aggression and had made it mandatory for Izuku to go back to the quirk analysis doctor for revelation before he legally allowed to resume his education at the school. He was told to look forward to some serious government interviews from the Quirk Registration Department and told him not to trifle with their time. Izuku only responded when asked a yes or no question but the principal did not believe him for a second that his quirk manifested so late. Being 10 soon to be 11 years old was like a myth.
Another old man in a different location shared that thought when Ms. Jiruga suddenly called him out of the blue informing him of the formal request for Izuku's reassessment. The school already filed this with the local government office of education and quirk registry and both were made aware of the situation. His sheer disbelief nearly made him forget how angry he was to hear that his orders weren't obeyed and this kid was still alive but he'll deal with that later. First, he had to make his own emergency appointment to discuss this with his master.
All for One didn't like surprises from the unknown too much. If something was unknown it had to be acquired or removed. This was one of costly lessons he learned after surviving his fateful fight with All Might that left him barely alive. Before the fight, All for One was known to be very open and arrogant with his plans and power. Now, it was strategy and stealth until a plan could be devised to kill that smiling oaf. So when Kurogiri informed him that Doctor Ujiko had a new important matter to discuss, he shelved his annoyance of being bothered to humor the good doctor. A black portal opened by Kurogiri let Doctor Ujiko through and quietly closed behind him.
"Master. Forgive the intrusion but I require your vast insight on an unusual matter." requested the doctor after giving a formal bow.
"Get to the point, Ujiko." All for One responded slightly shifting his life support mask
"The boy from farm alpha whom I designated for the garbage heap has been given a mandatory quirk reassessment test. A quirk has been verified by his school to exist."
That was something All for One was not expecting to hear. Even without his eyes he stared at the doctor in momentary surprise.
"Master, I have not known any case of this happening. May I indulge you for your past experiences?" continued the doctor with another polite bow.
All for One activated one his memory quirks and quickly scanned through his very long life before answering, "Neither have I…at least not without my direct involvement." Referring to moments in the past where he would make deals to give someone a quirk in exchange for something valuable in return.
"Send this boy directly to me when he gets to your office. Prepare to scrub the farm at a moment's notice. It was careless to let this boy live and now have government agencies awaiting this result. I can't afford to reveal my hand yet…" he wheezed out, grabbing his mask and sliding it back up.
"Yes my master, if this failure is at risk of bringing the government's sniffing dogs I will do what is necessary to rectify it. I take my leave, master." The doctor answered in a loyal demeanor and nodded at a Black mist figure with bright yellow eyes and wearing a bar tender's uniform at the far side of the room.
The figure, Kurogiri, returned the nod and opened a black mist portal for the doctor to return to his quirk analysis office. All for One sat lost in thought and was reminiscing about his beloved younger brother who, by his hand, accidentally birthed the quirk that was his continued bane to his own existence to this current day.
Aldera Junior High had driven Izuku to the quirk analysis office under the escort of a couple teachers. The drive took nearly a half hour and was silent nearly the whole time. They dropped him off unceremoniously and told him to phone his orphanage for a ride home. He had his school bag and was still wearing his very much destroyed school uniform. They blamed him for the fight and forced him to continue wearing it as a shameful reminder of his actions.
In cruel irony, Izuku did not find going to the same quirk doctor to be exciting like he did the first time. Truthfully he was dreading to explain anything and was trying to come up with the shortest believable reasons he could muster. Nothing made sense: What on earth could explain having a blue flaming number 1 on my hand?
The coverstories ranged from flat out denying any kind of knowledge to some wild fabrication that it was a countdown timer for something else to appear. The danger involved saying stuff like that is that the government will press even harder for answers and are rumored to have lengthy and stress-inducing inquisitions. If there was any possibility of a threat to them or the society at large he might end up as a living test subject for the rest of his life. Shuddering at the idea of permanent confinement, Izuku had to gamble that the doctor would have some sort of plausible hypothesis that he could run with.
In the meantime Starrk was so bored and still annoyed from earlier that he decided to take a daytime nap and leave Izuku to his thoughts. When pressed for help Starrk said he wasn't good at this type of stuff and left him hanging in the wind. I forgot he sometimes has a lazy streak. Coincidentally Starrk scoffed during his nap when Izuku remembered Ujiko entered the patient room, bowed, and greeted,
"Hello young man. What an incredible opportunity to see you again. I can promise this time you will be leaving with much different results!"
The same scans and blood drawn were conducted and internally Izuku was incredibly grateful that he was not asked any probing questions yet. In the back room where the lab equipment was analyzing Izuku's DNA, Doctor Ujiko was making preliminary notes like a mad man. On the physical scans there seemed to be no visible change yet the boy's left numbered hand seemed to be radiating some power. Ujiko knew that his master wanted the boy to be sent to him but he technically didn't say right away. Moments like this is what the doctor lived for: discovery and analysis of the unknown. He couldn't let such a rare specimen potentially become a Noumu without at least being able to read the lab results!
Data was pouring from the analyzer straight into the computer's hard drive while the printer was automatically beginning to create the paper report. Fascinating. I've never seen someone's quirk DNA reforge itself like this into something new. This is a scientific breakthrough!
Satisfied with the collection of data, doctor Ujiko composed himself but kept an incredible grin. Even if his master takes this young man's quirk there is enough treasure here to make every quirk university jealous for the next century. At the apex of his thoughts he briefly texted a message and moments later a black misty portal appeared in the room. Clumbering out with its signature unblinking eyes, its fairly muscular frame and exposed brain was a gray Noumu.
"When I say so, collect the green haired boy from the next room." The doctor ordered and the creature grunted a response.
Ujiko figured already had what he wanted, but he might as well lull the kid into a false sense of security. He was still thinking how the young man was full of anticipation from the previous visit. Entering back into the patient room with the paper report, the doctor was slightly confused why the boy was nervous and not looking excited at all. He is probably terrified at the punishment he will be receiving back at the farm. Lucky for him he won't ever have to worry about going there ever again.
While the doctor was guessing Izuku's most probable thoughts a different conversation was being initiated by Starrk. In the endless night desert of Izuku's mindscape he woke up because something wasn't right. Checking the kid's senses there was no visible danger but that didn't mean anything to Starrk. Taking a kneeling stance and maintaining his palm contact with the tiles underneath him Starrk uttered the word,
"Pesquisa."
Izuku felt like a bucket of cold water was poured up his spine and shivered but Starrk had a much more shocking revelation. The ability detected life signatures in a focused area. It pulsed like a sonar but was completely undetectable to whatever it pinged, and what it just pinged made Starrk stand up in an urgent panic. There was a strong pulse detected for Izuku, an average one for the doctor, and a strange conglomeration of pings on something waiting in the hall behind the doctor. Starrk had no clue who or what it was, but it had several if not dozens of small micro pings that echoed all at once. Whatever the case, they needed to leave. Now.
"Kid. You need to run out of this office now!" Urged Starrk not explaining his findings.
Izuku was caught off guard by the sudden command given by Starrk and started to have the nervous shakes that Doctor Ujiko was seeing.
"Ahem. Forgive me for interrupting your train of thoughts young man." Ujiko bowed with his report in hand "I have come to make good on my earlier promise and am honored to officially remove your quirkless diagnosis!" The doctor had a fake smile but he has had decades of practice using it. He found it very odd the young man in front of him was pale and giving him a look of terror. Does this new unknown quirk of his give him some type of premonition, foresight, or instinct? He mused quietly but excited at all the experimentation that will be conducted later.
"KID! GET UP AND RUN. NOW!" Starrk was screaming at him with an urgent panic and was getting frustrated at his lack of response.
Izuku may have had hardships of almost every variety but he never once was told his life was in peril. He wanted to obey Starrk but he was muddling himself down with his own thoughts:
Where am I going to run?
What if he calls the cops to chase me?
How would I survive if I got away somehow?
Starrk was repeating himself getting angrier at each attempt when Doctor Ujiko continued to speak,
"If you are worried about your school or caretakers punishing you from your little scuffle earlier today you have nothing to fear."
Izuku didn't even think about the punishments that he would definitely receive from them so that statement successfully got his attention.
"Your punishment or reward will be decided later based on the usefulness of the results you'll show. Noumu. Collect him."
The doctor stepped into the hallway and through the same door entered the Noumu. Both Starrk and Izuku failed to come up with an appropriate word for such an abomination. It hulked towards the seated Izuku with one of its large arms looking to grab him. Izuku tried to get up and run but was easily caught and was beginning to be dragged to follow the doctor.
"KID! PLEASE LISTEN—-WILL YOU JUST—" but everytime Starrk shouted something Izuku wasn't paying attention. He was terrified, trying to flail himself free and in pain from Noumu gripping his arm in a vice-like grip.
Starrk's instinct was telling him that this will not end well for either of them and the kid was at his wit's end incapable of making any decisions. Out of options.
"I'm sorry for having to do this kid. Your body isn't trained and we haven't had time to synchronize our minds, so this will probably hurt like hell in the morning."
Starrk began to focus his full power. His electric blue power roared out of him like a beacon and started channeling into Izuku. When he did this, the blue number 1 on Izuku's hand pulsed with a surge of energy and blue flames gushed out enveloping his entire body. For a moment there was no resistance and the Noumu turned its head to check if the boy was dead or not. It was met with a powerful CRACK to its mandible and accidentally released the boy as it skidded back a few feet away with its head positioned at an unnatural angle.
Doctor Ujiko heard the sound from the back analysis room and curiously made his way to check the hall. His glasses drooped down the bridge of nose threatening to jump off at the completely shocked expression he was now wearing. Noumu was slowly realigning its head to the correct position with sickening bone and cartilage snapping sounds and further down the hall was the young man. Izuku was completely enveloped in blue fire that pulsed like electricity. His eye sockets filled with endless torrents of energy and there standing right above him like a ghost was Coyote Starrk giving a very angry expression.
Izuku and Starrk were in an identical fighting stance. As Starrk brought his left hand up into a fist, Izuku's body was doing it at the same time. Starrk had temporarily taken complete control of Izuku's body while Izuku Midoriya was somehow watching this happen from an unknown location filled with moonlight and an endless desert.
"Noumu. Subdue him using any method." ordered the doctor while wearing a maniacal grin.
Starrk internally frowned. That smile reminded him too much of his previous comrade the Octava Espada. Noumu, with its head back on straight, gave a high pitch roar and charged at Starrk who easily sidestepped and gave it a hard strike into its ribs. With another loud CRACK the Noumu was blown into the side of the wall and skidded back several feet spiraling the whole way. Its lower left ribs were shattered but it still staggered back to its feet. The left hand of Izuku which was used to deliver the punch was purple but slowly regained its normal color.
A quick internal relief spread in Starrk. He could use his accelerated healing to fix the kid but he was still at a bad disadvantage. Izuku was scrawny and the body could only be forced to exert so much force. If he took a hit from that beast it could spell disaster and Starrk realized another huge disadvantage: time. If Izuku was using the powers it would be one thing but Starrk forcibly manifesting himself and fighting was rapidly depleting his energy. Drops of fatigue hit Starrk's mind but he quickly shook them off. Even if he could kill this thing they still were in danger of more showing up or the doctor doing something to trap them.
Escape and recovery was paramount but he would only have one chance to prevent being followed. Noumu, with its ribs completely healed, roared again and came in with a wild haymaker. 'That will do.' He ducked under the punch and heard it go through the drywall. That left Noumu momentarily stuck while Starrk used the brief advantage to counter attack. He pointed his left finger right at the center of the beast's upper torso and simply spoke,
"Cero."
Quickly a massive vortex of blue energy converged at the tip of the outstretched finger and was released in a violent directed attack. The cero blasted clean through Noumu completely incinerating its upper half, the patient room behind it, the front door behind that, and finally traveled a bit into the afternoon sky before dissipating. The massive light and blast caused the doctor to instinctively shield his head and when he looked up the young man was gone. Noumu wasn't regenerating itself and the remaining lower half smoked a bit as it lay on the floor.
Panicking, the doctor turned and ran to his office computer and initiated a complete data purge after he took the jamming device and main external hard drive. He could hear the faint sound of emergency vehicles heading in this direction and they would no doubt have heroes on the scene in minutes. With the important material in hand he sprinted into the still waiting black portal. On the other side he barely got through when he urgently shouted,
"Kurogiri! Recover the Noumu remains at the analysis office then immediately initiate farm purge protocol!"
Without saying a word the black mist portal man vanished to begin his newly assigned tasks while Ujiko was trying to catch his breath.
"Doctor." Said the booming voice of All for One who was not in a good mood seeing the greatly fatigued man in front of him " I demand an outstanding explanation."
Doctor Ujiko turned to him with a bright evil smile and excitedly replied, "Oh yes my master I have one!"
FROM THE PART WHERE STARRK UNLEASHED HIS CERO
As soon as Starrk's attack was complete he dashed quickly forward towards the newly enlarged exit door. Not paying a second glance to the face shielding doctor or the half roasted Noumu. Once in the parking lot Starrk quickly looked around and concentrated his view on the roof of the closest highest building. With a loud BZZT Starrk used his Sonido to appear where he wanted. He panted heavy and gripped his face with one hand. Not yet. Can't pass out until we get to safety. But where was that? He knew they had to go somewhere new and unexpected to have a prayer not getting caught. Looking around from the rooftop it still wasn't high enough for a good decision. Cursing to himself, Starrk looked and found the highest looking flat top building in the city. There were a couple taller buildings, but they wouldn't be a good use of the waning time and energy he had left.
On this new roof Starrk was breathing even heavier and was grabbing his legs. Izuku's legs were screaming in protest at each use of sonido and the immense fatigue was rapidly building. He quickly scanned the city and its border and could see a coast on one side. The beach was a desperate gamble. Maybe he could create a small sand cave to remain hidden but he had to move fast.
10 seconds. Starrk sonido'd in the beach's direction trying to use the smallest length of teleporting. 9 seconds. Shorter sonidos were less stressful on the kid and Starrk didn't want to risk permanent damage or a failure mid teleport to go crashing to the ground. 8 seconds. The buildings roofs were staying at a pretty even height and some could be jumped across without using it. 7 seconds. Starrk could hear the rustle and bustle of all the city's inhabitants underneath him. 6 seconds. An occasional random person would hear the buzzing noise of his sonido but had no idea what it was. 5 seconds. The beach was very close and Starrk didn't know why there was so much garbage. 4 seconds. He didn't need to care why it was there, maybe there was something suitable for a night's dwelling. 3 seconds. There was a school bus with cracked glass windows and sitting on cinder blocks. 2 seconds. One last sonido and he used his last bit of strength to punch the emergency exit open in the back. 1 second. He jumped in and sat on the closest seat propping his head against the backrest and outside window. Out.
The flames and energy suddenly disappeared and the desperate panting image of Starrk went with them. Izuku's body went limp and into an incredibly deep sleep and was starting to snore heavily. Back inside the desert mindscape of Izuku's subconscious Starrk was laying on the tile floor completely drained. He was so tired that for a few moments he wasn't able to sleep.
"Hey Starrk?" asked the voice of Izuku but sounding a little different than what he was used to.
"Yeah, kid?" Starrk replied with his eyes closed waiting for sleep to take him.
"Thank you for saving my life. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." said Izuku with some sadness and regret in his voice.
"That's what I'm here for kid…" Starrk answered not really caring how bad the situation could've been.
"And Starrk…one last question. Where are we?" said Izuku
Starrk didn't respond. Sleep finally took him before he could process that right now in the middle of the moonlit desert nightscape of Izuku's mind: they were both somehow there together.