Hello! It's the author! This was rewritten and edited a day after the information chap was sent out! Not beta-read, if you find any confusing ways of wording or misused words (EX: tails and tales) please tell me!

Disclaimers: eventually lots of cussing. And mental trauma and bullying… but that's normal in most MHA fics.

Have a nice day/night and I hope you will consider joining my discord!

/Uu8xBKUkJq

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"I… I know that sometimes you can't speak to me. Whether it is from the thought that I would not or could not do anything- anything to help with the bullying but. But I wish you had come to me! I-I could have home-schooled you… I-... I could have done something to help you. Y-you, do know that… right? You didn't need to hide everything f-from me." Izuku… did not know what to say. He didn't want to burden his mom with his problems. He did not want to put her under unnecessary stress. And yet here he was, causing more than he ever wanted.

"I… I'm so- so sorry... I- I just didn't want to burden you with my problems… It felt wrong to lie to you. To tell you everything was fine. But I thought it was better than telling you. I-I-" once the words started coming out, they didn't stop. The pain from years of social, emotional, and physical abuse from his schoolmates… from his teachers. Like a dam bursting from pressure, painfilled sobs filled the once silent apartment. The pain of nearly a decade of constant pain and hate fell from Izuku's lips.

—

Once the conversation ended, Izuku was emotionally exhausted. In the last few years, he had kept everything bottled up, stowed away, so he never had to see it. But now that he had released most of it? He… kind of just felt hollow. The pain in his chest had been his anchor to the world around him. Where he once felt a bubble of happiness, felt empty. His mom had made katsudon. But even the joy from his favorite food felt mute in comparison to how his memories portrayed joy.

After the filling meal and highly emotional experience... it was time to sleep. It's not like Izuku had anything better to do.

His dream of the night was odd. It was like he was suspended in darkness. The only light shone from a small sampling of a tree. Well… the tree itself was not glowing, instead, it held glowing orbs in its branches. A few had gone out, shattered, and their shards were thrown around the darkness. Now only emitting an ember of light. On one of his hands, he had a pin. It seemed to be a part of his hand in a way. It was an incredible shade of black, and its eyes were much like his masks, except white.

It was a dream, so Izuku wagered that touching the glowing spheres really couldn't hurt anything. However, the moment his hand made contact with the glowing orb, it shattered. Shards of the glass-like substance shot through his hand; the pain was overwhelming. However, it was not done a second after the first broke two more followed suit to explode. The shards from the orbs carved deep into Izuku's skin. It burned worse than any burn Bakugou had ever given him. It was worse than any cut or bruise Izuku had ever experienced. He wanted to cry out! Plead for the pain to stop!

And suddenly… Izuku woke up. His hand burned as he got up slowly. The dream must have caused him to fall off his bed… he could guess this, mostly because he was on the floor. Checking his hand, the pin from the dream was still there. Whether it was a manifestation of his quirk or some ruse Bakugou was putting him through, Izuku couldn't tell.

Quickly grabbing the charm with his other hand, he felt the charm pulse with energy. And suddenly, he was back in the void from his dream. Only this time where sampling with three unbroken spheres stood, now a much taller small tree stood. In its budding branches, tens of the spheres floated. Some were wrapped tightly by the tree and others almost floated freely. The tree itself wasn't the only part of the dream that had changed. The empty void where the tree once floated a dark soil now held the tree in place.

As Izuku was admiring the changes, it became apparent that the wounds from before had NOT disappeared in the dream. The shards were still embedded in his skin but, now they were much smaller, seeming to melt into him as the minutes passed.

"What had caused this tree's appearance? Was it my quirk? Has my quirk evolved slightly as time has passed? Children when they first get their quirk sometimes have three or four mutations to their quirk genes as time passes… But they were usually small, so how the hell does a tree make any sense for my quirk?"

And then suddenly he was back in his room. Seated on the floor, woundless and treeless.

—

The day had gone slow after the odd dream. No matter what he did, the pin seemed to reappear on him. The charm seemed to appear almost thirty seconds after it had left his person. Whether it appeared on his clothes or in his hair.

It took three hours after he woke up to call the number the detective had given him. The person on the phone sounded tired, but after hearing the specifics of his quirk, the man had told Izuku to head to a building near the shopping district… which meant people. At least he was going to a quirk gym.

The building itself was old-ish, it was worn but more by age than neglect. After Izuku quickly knocked on the door, it was suddenly flung open. In front of him was a... homeless ninja? He looked exhausted, almost like the man on the phone sounded like. On this man's neck was a scarf thick white cloth that contrasted with his all-black clothing. It kind of reminded him of the weapon Izuku had seen a hero use once.

The moment the door had opened completely, the man waved for Izuku to come into the building. The interior was completely bare, and there were cracks in the concrete floor. All the walls looked as if people had been flung through them... and it made Izuku uneasy.

"You are Izuku Midoriya, right? I have a couple packets for you to look through." The man said, exhaustion clear in his voice as he grabbed a couple packets from the only table in the room. "After you look through these we will conduct some tests to determine the extences your quirk has on your physicality."

A quick look at the papers, he saw a lot of exercises and meal plans. As well as a three-month membership to a gym. The gym membership allows its patrons to use their quirks using the equipment. Which was a plus.

"The first test we will conduct is an all-around test... prepare yourself." The man stated as he pulled on his cloth. Before Izuku could react, the scarf was flying at him. It trapped his limbs before he could do anything. Then he was suddenly flung into and through the only non destroyed wall in the building.

"Is that all you got kid? I am missing sleep to help figure out your 'special quirk' and you let that happen to you?"

The boredom lacing the man's voice made Izuku mad. It reminded him of how teachers never listened to him, considered him more of an annoyance than a student.

"You just going to lay there or-"

The man did not have time to finish his speech as Izuku rushed at him. Izuku was not versed in hand-to-hand, but he had been a punching bag for years. So he could at least copy what he had seen. The… ninja hobo, on the other hand, dodged every hit Izuku had thrown as the battle had continued around every room in the building. Sometimes even hitting Izuku through a wall a couple of times. At points in the fight, the man's hair raised, and everything got warm for Izuku. Like his quirk stopped or something.

Eventually, the first floor of the room looked like a wrecking ball had blown through. What was left of the walls and the small amount of furniture had been crushed, and the floor had Izuku sized craters cracked into them.

The man after the 'test' had given Izuku a card. The card would make any accidental activation of his quirk in a public space passable by law. However, if it was ever to be used on purpose, the card would be revoked. The hobo had also given him a small packet on ways to figure out more on his quirk. And then he left… they had just destroyed an entire first floor, and this guy just left… that fucking ninja hobo just left him alone in a destroyed building...

—

"Three months since the villain and the duo of douchebaggery."

Drip... drip... drip...

With every drip, the black-colored pool under Izuku grew wider. His face, forced into a silent scream of agony as he cracked the mask guarding his face more and more... until finally, it gave way.

The snapping of the bone that protected his face broke the silence of the night, the shards falling to the ground, mirrored by more of his dark blood and tears. At first, he thought it to be a coincidence his mask could take more of a beating when it regenerated... But it would need to be broken first.

So he started his newest training regiment. A couple hours after his mom would go to sleep, Izuku would head into his bathroom. And then for the next couple of hours. He would sit in the tub and forcefully break and regenerate his mask over and over again. At- At first, He had to take breaks between every crack and shard... but now, sometimes he could not stop. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, he would recall how weak he is. How useless he has been for the last ten years of his life. And then he would dig his fingers deeper into the cracks and pull harder. He could be more powerful now! He can be! But first, he would need to break a bit more. Work a lot harder than he had before! S-Sure he would sometimes go too far. When his fingers dug too deep into the raw bone of his mask, he would sometimes freeze up. And every once in a while, he would push his regeneration too far. Making him have to go through days with the nauseating ache under his skin... But he could take it! He- He had too. He needed to get stronger.

Or... or else all he has done is for nothing. Worrying his mom... getting her caught up in Katsuki's anger. All those years of studying and trying his best to push past all the hate directed at him. If he does not become a hero, then what would he do? Become a vigilante? a villain? Then what, be the useless little shit he was always thought to be and be an inconvenience to more than he already is?

He NEEDED to become a hero.

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