The Quirk of Solitude by ShadowAlchemy
Notes from the author:
Hello my friends! This story is going to be my first ever project of fanfiction! I have been reading or listening to several MHA stories and it is amazing to see how many talented writers are here. Personally, my favorites are the villain or vigilante Deku stories and I was inspired by those stories to give it my own shot.
First as always the disclaimer: I do not own MHA or Bleach and they belong to their respective creators and publishers. I will not use their material for credit nor will ever sell anything regarding their materials for any type of monetary gain. Fair use.
I have a story in mind that I have not seen on this site (that I am aware of to be fair) and I want to contribute by producing something enjoyable to read for free without any paywalls.
This will be a MHA with a single piece of Bleach crossover and I will give you, the readers, a synopsis to gauge if this is something you would want to read.
Story synopsis:
Izuku will be developing a quirk based on Bleach's (as well as my favorite) Primera Espada: Coyote Starrk.
The theme of this project will revolve around Izuku's isolation aka solitude. Receiving and developing some of Starrk's abilities and other stuff but no, Izuku will not be turning into an arrancar nor will he be powerful from the get go.
I do have some mechanisms in mind to have this happen. It definitely won't be canon and some people will be out of character but please humor me. Any original characters will be there for a situational need for plot and will have minor parts to play. Kudos to anyone catches any easter eggs with the names or descriptions...
I don't know how to rate this fairly but I will try to keep an eye on the language used and the description level for violence, death, and potentially sensitive topics such as bullying, abandonment, grief, death, and depression. So there is your fair warning before proceeding.
Izuku will not be the inheritor of OFA. I am leaning towards a vigilante route but that could change. There is no consideration for a relationship or anything sexual. Currently there is no honest justification for it given the intended theme.
Please give me feedback regarding pacing and attention to detail. I enjoy the growth and discovery periods of the stories I read and will try to be like that.
Prologue
The sun was starting to rise over the horizon. Warm glowing rays cascaded and began to illuminate the still sleeping city of Mustafu. City lamps turned off letting the natural light do its job with no protest. Some of the city's early risers welcomed the warmth and indicator of a fresh new day except for one green haired woman named Inko Midoriya.
She was still fairly young in her late twenties and could be seen holding her son in his travel rocker while standing at the gate entrance of the Mustafu Orphanage. Her face was reddened from the gallons of tears that she cried from the preceding night. A lot has happened in her life in such a short period of time and it was understandably overwhelming. Her thoughts kept replaying her concerns with no respite in sight:
Where is my husband?
Why hasn't he tried to contact me?
Is he in trouble?
Did I do something wrong?
Did we have our son too early in our marriage?
How can we raise him with our measly paying jobs?
How could I do this to my precious son?
I don't want to do this but how else can I give him the chance for the future he deserves?
On and on the questions weighed and compounded on her panicked mind and gentle heart. Unbeknownst to her a supervillain named All for One sought out Hisashi Midoriya, her husband, and took his quirk for his collection and ended his life for the sake of keeping him silent. Inko's thoughts never would've guessed that could ever happen and instead stuck to her unhealthy tendency to blame herself and started to believe it.
A small chime from the building in front of her knocked her from her train of thoughts and she steeled herself for her unmistakably hardest decision and action she had and will ever take. Located next to the gate was an intercom speaker and it crackled before words came out:
"Good morning, how may we assist you?" the feminine voice said, sounding like someone who is aged and has experienced this kind of encounter several times.
"Ah, uh, yes. Um…" Inko replied and gave herself a full breathing inhale and exhale before continuing "I would like to speak to someone to discuss the best future interest of my son."
Speaking those words hurt her beyond any physical pain she ever experienced. Given the choice, she would've gladly had her best friend and long time classmate Mitsuki put her in her legendary headlock and be given the head noogie of multiple class graduations.
The gate began to slide on its rails to allow Inko to enter.
"Very well. Enter with your child and I will meet you at the front door." The same intercom voice declared.
Inko didn't like how lacking in emotion the voice seemed to be sounding. Maybe it was the audio equipment. Maybe it was her guilt looking for reasons to convince herself to change her mind. Whatever the truth was she was at least inclined to meet and divulge her concerns to this person. As she walked to the front door, sleeping baby Izuku in his travel rocker in hand, Inko couldn't help but deeply pray that this person who she was about to meet would give her the badly needed encouragement to turn around and show a way to raise her son without needless concerns.
Her prayer went unanswered. After about two hours of discussion Inko was leaving the orphanage without Izuku and instead had a grim and guilty mindset. The person she met, Ms. Jiruga, was very polite, professional, and almost seemed like she had her words spoken out of practice and not of concern. The answers and information Inko received did nothing to quell her deep feeling this was a mistake but focused solely on two points:
First, Izuku would never have to worry about food, shelter, or education which is more than she could ever guarantee at this point.
Two, with the couple dozen kids ranging in age range from Izuku being the youngest to fourteen year olds looking at highschool options at least he probably will surround himself with these surrogate siblings or friends and would never have to be alone…
The sun glowed right into her face, blinding her briefly before she covered her eyes. Feeling the warmth hit her, Inko was reminded a bit of her husband. She smiled softly at a fond memory of Hisashi doing his famous and cheesy party trick to gain her attention and impress her. An old memory of them in college where Hisashi first would eat something spicy and then use his flame breathing quirk to comically drive home how spicy it was while pretending to waft his face for air. Then as a clincher, he would drink a glass of cold water or whatever beverage nearby and repeat the same actions.
'That idiot' Inko thought while truly smiling for a moment. He loved to make people around him laugh and be happy. That's why his unexplained disappearance and silence didn't sit well with Inko. That is not like him at all, but the police have been keeping an eye out on his case for almost a year now with nothing to show for it. Izuku was born, two weeks later Hisashi left for work and never came home. It's like he vanished into thin air.
'Come home soon dear wherever you are. Then we can be a complete family again' thought Inko and heaved in a large breath and exhaled it. First things first. I need to get settled and work enough to keep myself afloat and anything extra will be either for Izuku's education fund or hiring the best private investigator to look into my husband's disappearance.
However she failed to notice she was being followed. The same supervillain that took her husband from her knew of her police report she filed and how she always kept tabs on the investigation making sure it never became a cold case. This was a slight annoyance to All for One, but one he could not afford to come back and bite him. His real annoyance and threat was the number hero All Might and AFO couldn't afford to give that smiling fool any breadcrumbs to his whereabouts or activity,
In order to cover this potential loose end, AFO would take no chances and anonymously hired an experienced assassin to eliminate Inko and make it look like some believable tragedy. It was painless. The hired killer discretely used his quirk to slowly change the air mixture that Inko was breathing.
Quirk: Air Alchemy
With an area being intently focused on the user can recognize and reposition air molecules. Easiest example is taking the carbon dioxide a fire produces and feeding it back to the flame eventually snuffing it out. It does not command airflow only its composition and the quirk user can only target one specific area within about 10 ft of their current position. The closer the more molecule ratio can be affected
The assassin, who went by the name Monoxide, increased the carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio that Inko was breathing in until she suddenly felt tired and fainted from lack of oxygen. He walked closer until he was standing right above her and only allowed a 98% carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio into her lungs so she did not wake up from her sudden slumber.
Strategically, he waited until she was close to her parked vehicle and had no trouble gently moving her into the driver seat. Monoxide positioned her body carefully to make it look like she declined the seat to take a nap and had one last touch to deliver. A bottle of incredibly strong sleep pills was put into her purse but not before Monoxide took a couple pills and dissolved them into a bottled water that he found in the same purse.
When the pills were completely dissolved, Monoxide carefully poured it down Inko's throat slowly to ensure it would go down without spilling. This was one of his favorite tactics to throw off investigators. The pills were not over the counter sold but were still easy to acquire. Usually a prescription is needed for such strong stuff and there have been more than one accidental deaths to overconsumption or mixed with alcohol. Police would never be able to hard prove this was Monoxide's handiwork or just a tragic mistake from an extremely stressed out woman whose husband went missing and gave up their son to an orphanage.
Finally, he was satisfied and confident there was no reason to suspect him and he got out and closed the car door before casually walking away. Monoxide didn't know why his employer put this woman on his target list, but it's never a good idea to second guess the people who pay you. Using his cellphone, he texted a code phrase to a single contact number and started walking down the hill towards a deeper part of Mustafu. Back into the dark underbelly of society where people like him hid and made their livings.
In an unknown location All for One was pleased at receiving a code phrase on a burner phone before literally burning it into fine dust particles. With a cruel sense of irony and humor, he gently chuckled at the realization that this woman unbeknownst "donated" her kid to one of his quirk farms that are sometimes called orphanages. He grinned evilly at the possibility of this kid developing his quirk only to potentially add next to the kid's fathers quirk already collected in the AFO arsenal. The man schemed briefly in this hypothetical scenario before turning his attention back to one of his many monitors with other more devious machinations underway.
A little time had passed and other orphanage visitors and staff members saw
Inko and napping position and didn't think twice until a courtesy officer was called per protocol by the orphanage. An ambulance and a couple police vehicles arrived on site and with a morose expression took Inko away after declaring her deceased. One officer wearing gloves carefully took Inko's belongings and put them in a sealed bag before allowing a tow truck clearance to pull the car and take it to the investigation lot. Another officer went into the orphanage itself and took statements from Ms. Jiruga and anyone else who saw Inko there.
On the surface level the report was solid. They knew when and why Inko was there and after looking up her profile the police could reasonably understand the potential stress levels she was going through. However there was a recently promoted detective at the station that found the whole situation a little suspicious. Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi didn't like the fact that this poor woman filed a missing persons report nearly a year ago on her husband and NOTHING was to be found. The detective narrowed his eyes on the coroner's report in front of him and compared it to Inko's profile. I don't like this. He thought. There was something nagging him that there's something foul here but he would need to figure it out.
The detective sighed and was going to get ready to begin his preliminary report of why he thinks there is foul play when the words under Inko's profile listed a son by the name Izuku briefly got his attention. He paused and closed his eyes before mentally motivating himself. I hope to meet you one day ready with the answers you deserve. Be well young kid.
