Izuku Midoriya was ordinary. Other than his green hair, which somehow wasn't a result of a Quirk anywhere on his family line, his tendency to mumble his thoughts and the strange feeling he'd been feeling for the past few weeks, he was completely ordinary. Too ordinary, in fact, for some peoples' liking. Izuku still hadn't manifested his Quirk yet, which should have come sometime around his fourth birthday, but he was about to turn six and still hadn't shown any sign of a Quirk yet. The doctor he and Mom had gone to had said that he had a Quirk Factor, whatever that was, and that his X-Rays showed that he had the bone structure of an evolved person, but that his Quirk just needed some time to really … settle, was the word he used. That doctor was funny. He spoke about Quirks like they were alive, like they felt things and could do things other than what their user wanted. That wasn't right. Was it?

It was a Tuesday, so Izuku was at school. He liked school; he could learn so much from his teacher! Numbers, words, how to put them together, and much more. Izuku didn't really get what it meant, but Kacchan called him a 'nerd'. He had asked Mom what it meant right after Kacchan had said it to him, but she just laughed and told him to not worry about it, which just made him worry even more. Izuku decided that he didn't like it when people didn't tell him things, especially when they were about him! It just seemed so backwards to him, but he could let it go if it was Mom.

Speaking of Kacchan, there he was! Kacchan wasn't his real name, that was Katsuki Bakugou, but Izuku always got tripped up when trying to say 'Katsuki' when they had first met, so he had been fine with being called 'Kacchan'. Kacchan had never had a problem with words and names and stuff, so he could just call Izuku by his real name, which was so cool! Kacchan was Izuku's best friend, but … Izuku wasn't sure that Kacchan felt the same way. It was strange, but Kacchan had started to be a lot meaner than he used to be. Kacchan had always been a bit rude, but it had gotten worse lately, focusing on him alone. Maybe it was because his Quirk hadn't come in yet? Maybe Kacchan was getting impatient to start their training?

The two had talked about becoming Heroes together, but … what if Kacchan didn't want to wait to see if his Quirk was worthy of a Hero? They both knew that Kacchan's Quirk, Explosion, was perfectly suited for Heroics, but what if Izuku's Quirk was something that couldn't be used to be a Hero? What if he had a Quirk that could only be activated through singing? Or made him break his bones every time he used it? What if his power was to see ghosts? It wasn't unheard of for Quirks to be really different from the Quirks that made it, but Izuku didn't think he could handle all that, and hoped that he just had a kinda different version of Mom's Quirk, like the doctor had said.

"Hey! Izuku! What are you doing over there?" Kacchan asked.

Izuku looked over, across the room, at Kacchan, who was playing with letter blocks in the corner. He had been playing with them for a few days, making longer and more complicated words every time. Kacchan had made a swear once, and that had gotten him the light punishment of not getting to go outside for play time like everyone else the next day. He had been back at it the day after that, though, but had stopped trying to make words that would get him in trouble. Izuku admired Kacchan's persistence, and wanted to be more like the boy, but it had been hard when the teasing had gotten worse, and the playful half-fights had gotten more intense. If Izuku didn't know that Kacchan was his friend, he'd think that the blond was really trying to hurt him. Kacchan would never do that. Right?

"Hey, Kacchan!" Izuku said, skipping over to Kacchan's spot in the corner.

"What are you mumbling to yourself again?" Kacchan asked, kind of … grossed out? It was hard to tell sometimes.

"Oh, I was just thinking. Sometimes I think so much that my head can't hold it all, so my mouth starts to run. That's what my Mom says!" Izuku said.

"Yeah, well, stop. It's annoying," Kacchan told him.

Izuku felt his shoulders sag at that. It was always unexpected when Kacchan decided to be mean. It was like a switch was flipped in his mind, and he insulted someone. Izuku thought that it wasn't very Heroic to insult and hit people when you felt like it, so didn't understand why Kacchan thought it was okay. He had been planning on asking Kacchan why he did what he did, but had been called to the principal's office to get picked up for a doctor's appointment before he could. Well, no time like the present. Izuku had heard that phrase on television, and had heard a few Heroes use it. He thought it meant 'I might as well do this', but he could've been mistaken. Kacchan liked to tell him that he was.

"Um, Kacchan?" Izuku said.

"Yeah? What is it?" Kacchan asked, not looking away from his blocks.

"Um …" Izuku faltered.

"Spit it out, nerd!" Kacchan said, standing up to his full height, just a bit taller than Izuku.

"Uh, w-why do you hurt people?" Izuku asked.

Kacchan was quiet for a long time after that. Izuku realised that his shoulders were hunched, his eyes were screwed shut tightly, and he was shaking ever so slightly. It was what he had seen Mom do when Dad was around. He wasn't around often, but when he was, there was a lot of shouting that made Izuku feel like it was about him. He'd asked Mom about it once, but she had just said to not worry about it. He still did. Every now and then, he'd catch what they'd yell about. He knew it was him. About his Quirk, or lack of one. He had a Quirk, though! It just needed some time to fully come in. Dad knew that, so why? Why yell at Mom? Why … do the things he did when he thought Izuku wasn't looking?

Izuku supposed that was what this was really about; Dad. Kacchan was kind of like a proxy, in that regard. Izuku had learned that word recently; proxy. He liked it, and used it wherever he could, which wasn't a lot, he'd found. Kacchan didn't like when Izuku used words that he didn't know. Izuku forced himself to focus. He had to find out why Kacchan liked hurting people, not just with his words, but with his Quirk and fists, too. Maybe it would explain some things about his parents' relationship.

"I'm just putting people in their place. They're the ones pathetic enough not to fight back, so it's really their fault. Why?" Kacchan finally answered.

No. That couldn't be right. No way. You shouldn't hurt people just because they deserve it, even if they do. That's something a Villain would do, not a Hero! It was … impossible that someone as great as Kacchan could even think something like that, let alone believe it. Izuku had to get some air. He had to … to …

Why was everything so loud? No, it was quiet. Izuku didn't know what was going on. It was like someone had put a rubber band around his chest; he couldn't breathe! He looked around, pleading with his eyes for someone to help. He locked eyes with Kacchan, who just looked at him strangely and turned away. He probably thought Izuku was just being weird, like always.

Izuku turned to his teacher, Mrs. Nikko; she was always nice and helpful. He walked toward her, feeling an odd feeling in his chest. It was like the suffocation Izuku was feeling, but a bit different. It was like he was going to explode. A pressure was building inside him, and Izuku felt like he was going to burst if he didn't release it somehow. It was like when he mumbled, except a hundred times worse.

Nikko looked over at Izuku, realising that he was coming over to her, and immediately dropped to the ground in front of him, checking him for injuries. Izuku wondered if his pain was really that visible on his face, but then felt that he was struggling to keep his eyes open and was clutching his hands around his throat, so yes. It was. Izuku let his teacher check him over, vaguely noting that the class had stopped what they were doing and were now staring at them. Once Izuku's body was clear of injuries, Nikko looked up at him and tried to get him to focus on her, but it didn't work.

"What's wrong, Izuku?" Nikko asked.

"I … can't … breathe!" Izuku managed to gasp.

"Did anybody see what happened?" Nikko called out to the class.

Izku wanted to tell her. The words were right there. Kacchan said something horrible, and now I feel sick. They wouldn't come, though. They were stuck with the vomit that was trying to make its way up his throat, that he was barely holding back from releasing. He settled for pointing at Kacchan with a weak, shaky finger.

"What? Don't look at me, nerd! This isn't my fault!" Kacchan yelled.

"I know, Katsuki. This isn't something your Quirk can do. Did you see what did happen, though?" Nikko asked.

"Izuku asked me a question, and then he just started choking or something. I don't know. If the weirdo can't even breathe properly, I say let him die," Kacchan said, grinning like he had just won the Olympics.

Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. Kacchan wanted him to die? They'd been friends since he could remember! Why would he want Izuku to die? That was like wishing for his mother to die! It was disgusting. Vile. Villainous. Izuku curled in on himself, the aching feeling of the pressure building inside him intensifying as he went further down the rabbit hole in his brain. He was beginning to feel a little more used to the aches now, but they were only growing more intense; and painful.

"Katsuki! Go wait outside! I'm going to be having a talk with you about your behaviour!" Nikko said, a stern look on her face for possibly the first time.

Kacchan looked like he had just seen a ghost, which may as well have been accurate. As far back as Izuku could remember, Kacchan had never faced any consequences for his actions, like pushing other kids around and saying mean things. Even in front of adults like his parents, Izuku's parents and even strangers, no adult seemed to bat an eye when Kacchan did something wrong, but if Izuku couldn't do something on the first try, they immediately began to harp on him like he had killed their dog. It was a morbid analogy, but it was fitting for the look of disgust and betrayal on the faces of people who found out that he was functionally Quirkless.

He hated that look.

As Kacchan slowly made his way toward the door, Izuku felt something inside him change. It was like the pressure had shifted, somewhat, like he was able to … control it. Instead of building from his chest, the pressure was now flooding through his arms, pulsing with his heartbeat. Maybe this pressure wasn't a panic attack, like he had learned about from his mother, but … what if this was a Quirk? Mom had a Quirk in her hands, so it would make sense that, if Quirks were passed down from parent to child, his would be in his hands as well. The few times that Dad had described his Quirk, he had said it was like a heat rising from his chest and out of his mouth, so that explained the building pressure. So, what? What was this pressure leading to?

The door closed, and that brought Izuku back to the current situation. He held onto Nikko tightly, crying into her as his hands throbbed painfully. The pressure was still building, and it reached a breaking point as Izuku wished for it to stop, no matter how. He didn't care if he had to drink Quirk-suppressants for the rest of his life, he just wanted this to end.

Then, it ended.

Then, Nikko started to fall apart.

Izuku watched as cracks started to spread over Nikko's body, spreading from where he was holding onto her. She saw what was happening, the spiderwebs of pain and blood spreading over her entire self, before she smiled at Izuku, a part of her lip having a crack on it and bleeding down her face. She must have seen how afraid Izuku was, because she put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him in for what she knew would be the last hug she'd give.

He felt his feet hit the ground as he fell through what remained of Nikko. It was … Izuku couldn't look. Nikko had separated into a variety of differently sized chunks of meat and bone and blood. The chunks fell around Izuku, surrounding him in a giant puddle of blood. He knew that some of the blood had sprayed him in the face, but he wasn't really registering physical sensations. His mind was more than making up for it, though.

Izuku cried, trying not to look at the remains of Nikko's body. He couldn't get the sounds of squishing meat and wet impact sounds out of his mind; along with the look of understanding Nikko had given him, along with her sweet smile, before she had fallen apart. It was like his brain itself was undergoing the same thing she had, focusing on so many different things about this situation at once that it was ripping itself apart with the effort.

He looked up at his classmates, realising that most of them were crying, screaming, and trying to run away. Some were just sitting, clearly in shock, unable to do anything but stare at the body. Izuku stood up, but immediately felt weak, and collapsed back onto the floor. He braced himself with his hands, and it happened again, only bigger.

From the point where Izuku's hands touched, what seemed like a thousand cracks and lines spread across the ground, growing and splintering off to cover the entire floor of the classroom. He looked at the cracks with a sort of morbid curiosity, wondering what the biggest thing his Quirk - if this even was a Quirk - could affect. It took him a moment to realise that, as well as crawling up the walls, the cracks were also spreading across the other kids, making them cry as their legs slowly fell apart as they tried to run away from the quickly disintegrating floor.

Izuku looked around the classroom, seeing the different kids he had been in class with peacefully just that morning rip themselves apart trying to escape this new power. He knew that the pressure in his arms was decreasing, pulsing less harshly in his arms, giving way to dread as he realised that the same thing that happened to Nikko was happening to them. They were dying! He was causing it! He had to do something! Izuku knew that this power, this death, was coming from his hands, so he quickly lifted his hands off the ground and looked back up.

The spread of the destruction had stopped, but the damage had already been done. The floor was a sheet of loose pebbles, ripped apart by his new power. The walls had started to crumble, but he had managed to stop it before it got serious. Izuku looked over the damage he had done, and counted that about half the class was dead. They were in piles of themselves, meaty heaps that were slowly leaking out blood and other bodily fluids. The other half of the class all had some sort of injury. Some legs had been destroyed, some arms, but everyone had at least one limb that had been ripped apart, except for Izuku. He was perfectly fine.

With a sense of sick satisfaction, Izuku noted that the odd feeling he had been trying to identify for the past few weeks had vanished. He figured that it was his Quirk, trying to activate itself, but Izuku had just pushed it back with anxiety medication and nausea pills. Izuku chuckled, but caught himself before he could actually start laughing. He wasn't enjoying this. He wasn't.

Just then, the door opened again.

Kacchan walked toward the classroom floor, or what was left of it, but paused when he saw what had gone on while he was outside.

"What the fuck happened?" Kacchan asked, staring at Izuku's unharmed body in contrast to the various states of disintegration.

"Kacchan!" Izuku called out, his throat drier than it had ever been.

Kacchan's face twisted from confusion to disgust to anger. Izuku wondered if he had connected the dots that fast, but it wouldn't have been hard to guess that the only person still left standing in a room of death and amputation was the sole culprit. Izuku stepped toward Kacchan, only to have the boy step away, steering clear of him. Izuku let out a choked sob, letting out some of the mix of emotions he'd been holding in.

"What the fuck did you do, Izuku?" Kacchan asked.

Kacchan's eyes darted to the small crater where the chaos had spread from. Izuku knew that the room was in bad shape, which was definitely an understatement, but where Kacchan looked next was what confused Izuku. His head. Not his face. Higher, in his hair. Izuku reached up to touch it, and felt that it was dry and tangled in itself. That would be tough to comb out. His hand dropped to the side, but Izuku's eyes caught that a few hairs had ripped from his head with it.

The hairs were a pale, washed out blue colour that made him drop the hairs immediately.

Izuku stepped away from the hair, which he had accidentally dropped in a pool of Nikko's blood. Blood wasn't the best for use as a mirror, Izuku found out, but it reflected enough to let Izuku see that he had a much lighter tone of hair than he had before, which meant that blue-ish grey colour was now his natural tone. He gripped his hair, trying not to think about all the lives he had ended with this power, just for it to give him a bad dye-job in return. He wished for whatever this was to just kill him, too, but it never did. It just left him to feel the pain of having ended all of those lives, killed all of those kids. None of them had deserved a thing, but the universe had decided that he just had to suffer.

That day, Izuku Midoriya learned a new word. It would turn out to fit this new Quirk perfectly. It meant 'destroy', but with much darker implications that just 'break' or 'crush'. The doctor had said it offhandedly, but the more Izuku learned about his Quirk, the more it seemed to line up perfectly with what he was capable of. A week later, when Izuku and Mom went to the Quirk Register to get Izuku's power registered, they put that word in as the name.

Decimation.