Izuku staggered into his house after school.
On TV, professional wrestlers were going at it. Inku Midoriya, Izuku's mother, watched from a rocker in the living
room of a modest two-story home. On the television, an announcer was terribly excited.
"-three thousand dollars, one thousand per minute in the ring, payable ONLY if you survive the full one hundred and eighty seconds!" The announcer, a guy called Present Mic, cried.
Inku looked up. "Hey, Izuku! Take a look at this guy! Calls himself Muscular!"
"...don't feel well..." Izuku stammered.
"What?" Inku quickly stood and went over to him. "Dear, how was the field trip? I saved a nice plate for you in the oven, we had pot roast with-"
Izuku walked past her and headed upstairs. "...not hungry..."
"Where are you going?" Inku called worriedly.
"...gotta sleep... everything's fine..." Izuku reassured them, then his bedroom door slammed.
"Oh dear," Inku muttered. "I hope he doesn't have the flu…"
She almost headed for the stairs, but stopped. "Oh he's just being a teenager…"
Xxx
Izuku dropped to his knees in his bedroom and clutched his abdomen in pain. He gasped. "Help..."
He fell to the floor, writhing in agony. He looked at the hand All Might shook, which was now completely red and swollen. He touched his wrist, but yanked his fingers away. They were intensely sensitive.
Now drenched in sweat, he began to shake uncontrollably with chills. He managed to paw one hand up to the bed, rip the blanket and sheets off it, and dragged them down over him. He huddled under them, trembling violently, face pale, eyes black and sunken, teeth chattering.
Suddenly, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he passes out. Under the lids, his eyes flicker rapidly.
Xxx
As Izuku slept, he could hear voices, whispering about him. He began to dream.
"…much too young, what was Toshinori thinking…"
"It's this KID that will be inheriting our powers along with One for All?!"
Izuku reached out as his eyes began to clear.
They were smoke and mirrors, he couldn't see much of anything, but he could see…All Might! He was made of smoke, but the fanboy would recognize him anywhere!
Izuku tried to call out. "Aw migh wha's goin onh?"
But it was like he wasn't there.
"Maybe him being young is a good thing…he has time…time to do what we could not…"
"…a child cannot do what must be done!"
Izuku was starting to get annoyed. He found his voice. "I can be a hero! All Might told me!"
The smoke began to clear as the other heroes appraised him.
And just like that, his eyes snapped open.
Xxx
Izuku woke up, morning sunlight streaming through his window. He blinked a few times, weirded out by his dream. He hadn't moved from the position he collapsed into on the floor. But as he oriented himself, he seemed to feel better. Carefully he stretched his legs, taking a few deep breaths.
He Definitely felt better. Relieved, he threw aside the blanket and sheets-
-and gasped. A black chord was wrapped all around him and the sheets. After another blink it was gone. But what was it.
He could hear a bit of laughter but was it in his head?
He suddenly realized he was floating! Startled, he fell hard to the ground. Ouch.
There was a knock on the door. It startled Izuku and suddenly the room was filled with purple smoke. He opened the windows quickly.
"Izuku? Are you alright?" Inku asked worriedly.
Izuku feeling bad about last night, answered gently "I'm ok Mom! I'm fine. Just having... had a bad dream."
"You must be starving, you ran right past your dinner last night, so I made an enormous breakfast. How's your flu? Any better this morning?"
He staggered to his feet, trying to deal with Black Whip as he stood.
"Izuku? Any change?"
"Change! Yes! Big... change!" Izuku smirked. Wait till everyone got a load of him!
Xxx
Izuku went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He stripped off his tee-shirt and did a double-take in the mirror.
His chest, so underdeveloped yesterday, was now that of a Greek god. Nothing overdone, not a body builder's chest, but a perfect one. He checked out his arms, his calves, his thighs. Incredible.
Loser no more.
He studied himself in the mirror. Noticed something else
different.
"Hey." Izuku picked up his glasses from the counter top and put them on. He squinted, everything was fuzzy now. He took them off and it was 20/20. He tried once more- on, off. He could see.
Izuku's glasses landed in the trash can.
Xxx
The front door of the refrigerator was yanked open, hard, and Izuku started rummaging through the stuff inside, mumbling to himself.
"...mysterious power...must be some kind of strength quirk like Superman...no alien descent…"
Inku stared at him. "Everything okay?"
Izuku turned, gnawing on a piece of meat loaf.
"Uh huh."
"Something you want to tell me?"
Izuku stopped chewing for a second, thought to himself. How exactly do I word this? Answer- I don't.
"Nope!"
Xxx
Izuku walked to his bus stop, ravenously eating a chunk of leftover steak. He saw Kuri, walking down the other side of the street.
Izuku muttered "Talk to her, talk to her, talk to her, talk to her...
Feeling emboldened today, he raised a hand and waved.
"Hi!"
She smiles, waves back. She stopped and said something, but a car driving between them made it impossible to hear. He cupped a hand to his ear, can't hear you. She said it louder, still couldn't hear her. Curious, Izuku stepped off the curb-and into the path of a speeding delivery truck. The horn wailed.
Kuri screamed. Izuku looked up, the truck's grill was right on top of him and bearing down fast, there was no way he would avoid being hit, unless of course he jumped.
Instinctively he bent his legs three times, and then jumped. Twenty feet, straight up into the air. A building was rushing up fast—Blackwhip shot out and grabbed it, shooting him onto the roof.
Izuku stared down at the ground and realized he was floating again. "Whoa."
Kuri stared in horror as the truck cleared her line of vision. Izuku had vanished.
She looked down the street, as the truck slowed and turned a corner.
No body stuck to the grill. And no thud, either. That was weird.
Another horn jarred her from her reveries. It was Bakugo and his squad, come to give Kiana a ride to school in a very expensive car. She watched as her younger sister climbed in the back and it pulled away. Kuri got back on her Vespa, still puzzled.
On the roof, Izuku stared down. He was unsure if he could float all the way down, and he couldn't exactly control Blackwhip. But there were no stairs and he was gonna be late, so he stepped off the roof, plummeting straight toward the ground.
Where he floated down slowly and landed with catlike grace.
"Damn!" Izuku said.
He looked around him. Nobody's watching, so he tried it again, bending his knees ten times this time. He jumped, soared, straight up into the air-and landed on the roof of the three story building. Teetering for balance, he reached out and grabbed hold of a drainpipe-and the metal crushed under his grip. He laughed, giddy, thrilled beyond belief. He grabbed another pipe, this one galvanized steel, and squeezed it with the other hand. Same result.
Completely freaked out, Izuku walked to the edge of the building and looked down, then across at the even taller building across the alley.
He concentrated and move his hands around until he managed to bring Blackwhip out—but it wasn't very obedient yet. Finally after some fighting, he started to get it across, but his aim sucked.
Eventually it flew across the alley and stuck to the side of the other building.
Izuku tugged on it. It was pretty tough. He pulled harder. Couldn't break it. He wrapped both hands around it and yanked as hard as he can. He didn't break the webbing, what he did was pull himself right off the roof of the building.
Izuku screamed as he sailed through the air, but he kept his grip on Blackwhip, and the result was that he swung across the alley and landed on the wall of the building opposite, floating slightly as he held on.
He turned, almost instinctively, floated down the side of the building, and landed on his feet in the alley.
He turned and looked around. Nobody saw him. He laughed. Stopped.
Freaked out.
He needed to find All Might.
"Oh boy."
Xxx
At school, Izuku reached his locker and starts dialing a combination. Suddenly his brow furrowed, he put a hand on his forehead.
"Weird sense... danger..." Izuku muttered.
Reflexively, he whipped around in defense posture, in time to see a fist that was headed straight towards him.
Lightning-quick, he darted to the side, a split-second ahead of Katsuki Bakugo's thrown punch, which banged into the locker where Izuku was standing.
"Couldn't keep away from her, could you?" Bakugo growled.
Kirishima and Kaminari hurriedly closed the classroom doors on either side of the hallway, to block the view of the teachers within.
"I don't want to fight you, Kacchan." Izuku said. He meant it. He had no idea what his new powers would do to his childhood friend.
"I wouldn't want to fight me either." Bakugo snarled.
A crowd quickly formed around them. Bakugo took two more swings, but again Izuku ducked them- and fast. Bakugo was puzzled. He was smart, he knew something was different—but what?
Sensing an attack from behind, Izuku suddenly ducked. Kirishima, who was sneaking up on him, was left grabbing air.
Izuku stood, flipped the guy off his back.
A crowd formed to watch, Shoto Todoroki among them.
Enraged, Bakugo roared and lunged at Izuku. Izuku ducked one, two, three, four punches, never even having to move his feet, just darting his torso around so fast he created a motion blur.
Shoto shook his head, impressed, gave a look to the person standing next to him, who happens to be Reiko. She returned the look. Shoto looked back at the fight, then did a double take back at Reiko
Whoa, she's hot...
Back in the fight, Izuku clenched his hands into fists to go on the offensive. He wound up—
Off to the side, one of the classroom doors opened.
Izuku pulled back to throw a punch, just as Aizawa stepped out of the open door.
"What the hell is going on out here?!"
Bakugo turned at the voice, but it was too late for Izuku to pull the punch. It landed solidly on Bakugo's jaw and snapped it, sending him sailing back against the lockers, hard. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Izuku gasped, shocked at his own strength.
"You shit, he wasn't even looking!" Kaminari shouted.
"Bakugo was just standing there and Midoriya sucker-punched him!" Kirishima defended.
Aizawa was skeptical. "Midoriya? Sure he did."
Izuku grinned, proud of himself. "I did! Really!"
Kirishima lunged at Izuku, more Teachers streamed in to hold them back, and it all dissolved into chaos.
"I SWEAR I DID! ASK 'EM! I ACTUALLY DID!" Izuku was too proud of himself to realize he was in serious trouble.
Shoto turned to Reiko, grinning. "I'm starting to like the little spazz."
She smiled- friendly, shy, demure, leading- a proven-effective combination, and it was not lost on Shoto.
"By the way, my Name's Todoroki." He grinned, proud of his name.
Reiko laughed. "By the way... I know."
Xxx
An expensive car pulled over, loud music playing from inside. Shoto Todoroki at the wheel. A laughing Reiko Hikawa climbed out, to the raucous good-byes of Shoto and his friends.
Always a party somewhere for the Hikawas. As the car pulled away, a shouted curse drew her attention to her house, a lower-middle class home just like Izuku's.
Through the living room windows, she can see her Grams and her older sister Kuri arguing, plainly visible out here, their voices way too loud. Reiko raced up the steps and went into the house. Her voice now added to the shouts. Reiko pulled the blinds, but the silhouettes were still visible inside. A child began to cry, which only seemed to inflame the old woman more. Grams speech slurred, she was unsteady on her feet, she was much too loud.
Kuri banged through the screen door, coming out on the porch.
She glanced to the side, to the house next door. It's Izuku Midoriya's home, right beside hers, maybe eight feet away, across a narrow driveway. She saw Izuku, also out on his porch, with a man she didn't recognize. His dad maybe? Boy was he buff!
In contrast to her own situation, Izuku and the man seemed to be having a quiet, thoughtful conversation. Kuri watched them, envious. To have someone older, wiser, someone who truly cared...
No eavesdropping. She headed back inside quietly, headed for the refuge of her room.
xxx
Meanwhile Izuku was listening to All Might. To his horror, the hero had found out about the fight.
"I won't ask what the fight was about, that's your business." All Might said, but he sounded disappointed. "You're changing, and that's normal. But this power isn't meant to be used for personal gain. It's meant to protect the innocent. All I'm saying is to be careful who you change into. Alright Young Midoriya?"
"I'm trying, All Might, I am." Izuku couldn't help but use his hero name, and All Might didn't correct him. "I feel all this, this power, but I don't know what it means, how to control it, even, or what I'm supposed to do with it."
"You'll figure it out. You are the one I chose." All Might assured him. "You saved your enemy. You have the instincts of a hero. And now the power of one. But with great power comes great responsibility. Remember that. "Of those to whom much is given, much is required." Much more than hallway fist fights."
Izuku nodded, thinking, amazed at how insightful his hero's words were. "All Might, I think you're about the best mentor a guy could ever have.I wish there was some way I could help you the way you helped me."
"Young Midoriya," All Might put a hand on his shoulder. "All you need to do for me is be the best hero you can be. The new Symbol of Peace."
And then All Might was gone. Izuku sat there for a while, musing over what he had said, then went inside.
His mother was sitting in the rocker asleep with the TV on. Izuku put a blanket on her and then went to turn off the TV.
Hey, guess what's on- wrestling. Izuku stared at the screen.
A smile spread across Izuku face as an idea takes shape. This is what he could do, for now.
He could help his mother pay the bills, and practice his powers in a safe space.
He jumped to his feet, ran upstairs, and, hooting in excitement, shot up into the air, did a flip, and landed on the bed, grinning madly.