The room felt chilly on Izuku's… hide? He still did not know what to call his skin yet. The final hour started twenty minutes ago, and the room was still. Well, almost, Bakugou was fuming over something, causing the air to be thick with tension. The teacher droned on and on about the same thing they had been learning for the past two weeks.

Boredom was king of the class.

Except for Izuku, he could not hear the judging whispers or the crackling of explosions. Much less the lesson; at least the teacher was trying to teach them, much better than their history teacher. The music from his headphones easily made school bearable for the last couple of weeks.

It was not his usual thing. If the room was too loud, he would usually manifest his mask. The room would go silent, either out of fear or in Katsuki's case, his explosions would get louder. He only did it if he wanted to hear what the teacher was teaching, so it only happened a handful of times. But he already knew what was being taught. Izuku already knew most of the things the teachers taught. It was chiefly due to not having friends to take up his time... or traditional hobbies that did not involve trekking across town to take notes on heros.

Izuku thought that his school life would be better after he got his quirk. That, with a quirk... people would willingly talk to him, and he would be accepted into even the smallest of groups. But, that sadly was not the case, and in some ways, his days got worse. He was still picked on, and bullies hit him. But instead of getting in trouble for starting the altercation with the bullies. He now got in trouble for them breaking their fingers on his skin. Or, in one case breaking a chair that had been used to hit him in the head.

In his walks to the Dojo, he knew he was getting followed by Bakugou and his cronies. He knew they were trying to dig up some dirt on him, to frame him for something. But they could not follow him across rooftops without using their quirks. Izuku would know, the hero's that patrolled rooftops were sticklers for quirk usage laws.

If he was eating out with his mom, he got dirty looks for what he could only guess was his eyes or horns. The horns were not all that odd; perhaps it was just his eyes. The black sclera was a bit of a newer mutation, and personally, he liked it.

The worst thing about how things have changed since Izuku's quirk appeared. However, was the heat absorption; He could not stay warm at night without a mountain of blankets. And, if there was too much heat, it caused him to overheat... it felt like a panic attack. And when he was surrounded by a crowd and overheating, sometimes it was both. He could not count the number of times he had broken down in the comfort of his bed because of how mentally exhausted he was after going SHOPPING.

But it was not all bad. Izuku had a quirk now! Izuku was part of a really friendly dojo and had people who wanted to be his friend there. It was not like he did not want to be their friend. It is just… The last friend he had left more scars on him than any villain ever could. What if they turned out to be the same? Would it be his fault for getting too close? Would it be his fault for letting down his guard for even a moment and getting hurt? Would the Nailmasters do anything about the bullying if it started? Would they watch and laugh like the teachers that liked to watch him be hurt?

There was a chance that they were good people, and he did not need to worry. There was a chance that he could have friends… But it was slim. Izuku did not know what he would do if these people turned out to be like the people at his school.

There was also another good thing that came from his quirk… And maybe because they could not hurt him as bad as they once could. His bully problem basically vanished. Other than Bakugou, Izuku was left alone by the majority of the school... well, other than them making fun of him still. And in comparison to how things used to be... Where his notebooks were taken and burned and his clothes torn. It was a massive upgrade.

—

Midnight was not a time Izuku would usually be up, especially on a school night. But the cool breeze of the night air on top of the apartment complex was soothing. So here he was, watching the slow nightlife around his apartment, with half a sandwich and one of his thick blankets around his shoulders. Thankfully it was a Friday... Well, now it was a Friday, the school day was in six hours, so staying up would not make his life as bad as if he stayed up on Monday.

It's just... Izuku had a quirk now, after nearly fifteen years of being quirkless, and it only just hit him how surreal it was for him to have a quirk. Perhaps it was because he had not had time to think because of all the tests and extra training. But what he was living the dream of all quirkless people. And his dream… Well, a variant of it.

He used to want to be a hero like All Might. He used to look at Katsuki as the pinnacle of winning and victory, following both of them as his idols… But that landed him with Quirk Amplified Depression and a fear of crowds. Was it their fault he could not help but see every person in a crowd as a threat? No, but katsuki definitely started that fear.

—

Izuku was eight when they started crowding him. It began as an intimidation technique because "How else would we figure out what scares villains if we can't test it? And who better to test it on than a Deku!"

Sure, it was not bad at first. It was kinda like a giant group hug! But the amount of heat and the constant pressure on all sides spiked his anxiety… But it was not all bad. Izuku could focus on the sky. But... then they started pinching and hitting him, all around him, every person fighting to hit and hurt him. By the time Izuku was freed from the group of bullies, he had countless scrapes and bruises. He could not help the fat tears that made their way down his cheeks as the rest of the other children went back inside to finish the school day.

He was allowed to go home under the guise that he fell into a thorny bush.

Not long after that Izuku went shopping with his momma to get some groceries. The train ride was nice. It was open, and he had room to move his little feet and stare wide-eyed at the passing building. But when they exited the contained environment, when they stepped into the large crowd, and Izuku's hand slipped from his momma's? He froze. He was surrounded, but it was not by the kids at school. He knew that but, what if? What if these people found out he was quirkless? Would they hit him too?

In his frozen state, he was pushed by someone farther into the moving crowd. Izuku's tiny frame was lost in the sea of what-ifs and fear. It turned out that one of his school bullies had distracted his mom while another pushed Izuku deeper into the crowd, pinching him as they went. And what was he going to do? The other kid's skin turned into crystals, and he was a full head taller than Izuku.

When his mom realized that she had lost Izuku, most likely thinking he was still around her as she gave directions to one of her son's friends… Well, she freaked out. Searching for nearly half an hour for her baby. But probably the worst part of how she found him was how he was just curled up on the ground crying in fear. Why hadn't a single person yelled out? Try to get the CHILD to safety from the colliding feet of the crowds?

That was the day Izuku had to have a cast for his leg and right hand. It was also the day that he was diagnosed with agoraphobia.

—

Hospitals. Inko had been in them her entire life. Her stepmom never could find babysitters when Inko was younger, meaning whenever she was called into a hospital, Inko followed. But this was probably the first time Inko had ever been stressed out in one… Okay, the second time, the first time was Izuku's quirk doctor appointment. This time they were there to get Izuku checked out for both his quirk and his emotions… disconnect since he got his quirk. It was likely QAD or Quirk Amplified Depression. She had seen it in many patients with limited physical drawbacks with their quirks. It was like depression… obviously, but it just hit harder. It was like depression kicked to anywhere from eleven to fifty. It was harder to keep in a manageable state. Some cases of QAD even simply got rid of a person's emotional range. And medicines that were used to kick depressive symptoms hardly ever worked. And in some cases, amplified it. Only in recent years have even slight advancements in QAD medicine happened.

"Okay, so we have run the blood tests and have your son in with the psychologists, but the moment your son entered the room the Shell's hair turned black… You do not need me to tell you what that means, do you Chief Resident Midoriya? You've worked with Shell before."

She did not. The psychologist Shell's quirk was Emotional Hair. It was an empath quirk that told her the emotions of whoever she was focusing on. The overall spectrum did not matter at the moment. Depression was grey… but black was QAD.

Inko texted everyone who owed her favors. The list was quite extensive, pharmaceutical scientists, heads of the Medical Board of Japan, leading QAD researchers. Everyone.

She needed to know the best QAD medicine on the market, and she needed to make sure it worked. Because she could not take the lack of emotion her son showed, and she would be damned if she didn't try and help.

—

At first, Izuku did not want to take the medication. They were huge and dried his mouth out. But after a week of not being able to sympathize with his mom's emotions. And feeling sluggish and unmotivated, he agreed. The medicines came in sets, one set a week to test out the effects. And since quirks in the medical field nearly eliminated the side effects of medical drugs, it was a safe process.

The first sets of medicines did little to chip away at the haze that clogged Izuku's mind. He could think clearly and, if anything. He could think sharper than he had ever in his life. The lack of… well, any emotion made it hard to not think clearly. It was disorienting. Not even a month ago, he had all the emotions he could ever want, even if most of them were bad. The only thing this set of medicine did was give him a headache for a few minutes.

The second set helped… kinda. He could feel the emotions. They were there, but they just were not tangible in any way. The sadness at his mom's teary eyes just did not get him nearly as close to tears as it used to. Anger? It was there, burned as it should. However, it was dull. But he could not tell where it was pointed. At himself? The medicine? He could not tell.

After a month of different medicines, emotion struck. On week six of the sixth set, something happened.

Izuku woke up like usual a couple seconds before his alarm, the comforting warmth of his heated and quilted blankets trying their hardest to keep him asleep… and then his alarm went off… and he threw it out of aggravation. It was not the first emotion he expected to hit him like a truck. But it got the day going.

After making a less than average breakfast because his mom was working early, Izuku headed to school like usual. It was most likely a bad idea, with him actually able to feel his emotions. And, they trigger responses as they used to... well, he might hurt Bakugou. But it was a risk Izuku was willing to take.

One thing he did not miss from his emotions, however, was his agoraphobia. It was nearly nonexistent without the medication, but the crowd outside the school made a pang of fear shoot into Izuku's heart. Thankfully the back entrance to the school was open, and by the time Izuku made it to class, the rest of said class had made it to.

Izuku was not given nearly enough time to prepare himself for Katsuki. Because the moment Izuku saw his bully's angry scowl, the urge to punch him quickly grew.

Izuku was sent home for the day after knocking out Katsuki within the first minute of class.