Chapter Four

Homecoming

Mustafu - Outside The Midoriya Family's Apartment

Clad in his Aldera Junior High School uniform with his Green Lantern power battery safely concealed in a cardboard box that he'd found upon his return to Earth, Izuku knocked twice on the door of his and his mother's apartment. After spending weeks on Oa in order to become a Green Lantern (which was very much going to be his hero name), and though he was right now just a Junior Lantern, it was admittedly jarring to learn that only a few days had passed since he'd been whisked away by his ring. He supposed this was going to be something he would just have to get used to in his new line of work.

Almost immediately, the door was flung open and Izuku found himself being wrapped up in a hug by his mother. Tears were pouring out of her eyes, the plump middle-aged woman with long dark green hair continuing to cry as she wailed out, "Oh, Izuku! I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Mom! Crushing! Ribs!" gasped Izuku, prompting Inko to let him go, her eyes now going wide as she saw how her son had changed.

"Good heavens! You've gotten so tall!" Inko happily said, "And you look stronger too…" Her smile faded as a worrying possibility popped into her head. "Those aliens didn't…experiment on you, did they?"

Izuku laughed, a smile forming on his face as he shook his head. "No mom. They didn't experiment on me." He then followed his mother back into their apartment where the smell of his favorite food, katsudon greeted him. "Turns out, that's illegal even for aliens."

"Well, that's a relief," Inko sighed before she noticed the box Izuku was carrying. "What's that?"

"Oh this? It's uh…this is pretty much how I keep my Power Ring, and therefore my 'Quirk' supplied with energy so I can keep using it," Izuku replied with excitement in his voice as he pulled his shining green lantern-shaped Power Battery, "As long as my ring still has enough charge left in it, all it takes is a good dose of bravery in the face of overwhelming terror and a little imagination, I can do just about anything with my ring." Inko turned her eyes to the ring, blinking as he continued, "The ring can let me fire energy blasts, create energy fields to move things or people, create hard light constructs of anything I can imagine, fly… my ring's potential and versatility is virtually limitless, more so than any Quirk I have ever researched or could ever imagine existing."

"I…see." Inko slowly responded, trying to follow her son's ramblings.. "But I do have to wonder…why lanterns?"

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. "I…honestly have no idea why the Guardians or anyone else picked lanterns for their aesthetic. I'll have to ask someone sometime."

Their evening soon continued, Izuku telling his mother more about the Green Lantern Corps and what his new line of work entailed (in addition to eventually becoming a Pro Hero after graduating U.A., of course) and the two soon sat down to eat dinner. And as they did this, Inko couldn't help but notice a marked change in her son. The aura around him seemed to radiate confidence and strength, something Inko always knew her baby had inside of him, but she had never seen it this much. She knew how hard he worked in his pursuit of his dream of becoming a professional hero…and now he could turn it into a reality.

Not only that, Izuku also seemed far less of a nervous wreck than before. There was pure confidence in his form, the sight making her so happy as she saw how he had changed so quickly. She always hated how he would come home from school looking like he was ready to jump out of his skin at the nearest sudden movement. Not to mention the bruises Izuku didn't know she'd seen, and the faint smell of soot that sometimes lingered whenever he passed by her on his way to do his laundry. The very sight made her feel even more helpless since Izuku would never tell on Katsuki for what he did to him, seemingly on a daily basis.

Speaking of Katsuki, something about how that boy had gone from being Izuku's best friend and brother in all but blood to a bully that made her son's life absolutely miserable had always seemed off somehow. She knew neither her best friend Mitsuki nor her husband Masaro would ever raise their son to be a quirkist bully. So that begged the question, what happened? Why did Kacchan become such a cruel person filled with so much anger and rage that he would assault his former best friend on a daily basis? Inko could hardly guess the answer, and to be honest, she wasn't certain she wanted to know. She hated seeing the boy who was her entire world after her ex-husband threw them both away like trash after Izuku was diagnosed as Quirkless, suffering so much pain in silence. But because Izuku never spoke up, she could do nothing. That and the school seemed less than willing to get Katsuki to stop.

Now though, Inko had a funny feeling that things in her baby's life were about to change for the better, all thanks to that ring these Guardians had given him. Her little Izuku had finally gotten the power he'd always wanted, the power to make his dreams into reality and become a hero. It just came from something not of the people of his home planet, but to the myriad of beings in the cosmos. That fact reminded Inko of something though: After he got back from school tomorrow, she and Izuku needed to get his "Quirk" registered with the government and get things squared away with his U.A. application.

Aldera Middle School - Izuku and Katsuki's Home Room - The Next Day

Though he was prone to let his emotions override his cognitive functions, Katsuki Bakugou was far, far from stupid, as his grades and test scores can attest. Despite that, he didn't need to be such a high ranked student to realize that, far from being out sick, something had quite obviously happened to Deku. He came into the class today and somehow he had gone from being the size of a green bean to the size of a twig of asparagus…stalk of asparagus…? Whatever. Point is, Deku was much taller than the last time Katsuki had seen him. Not only that, but Deku had buffed up quite a bit. Not quite All Might-level bulk, but still quite clearly physically stronger.

Now, Katsuki knew that it was impossible for these changes to Deku's physical build to have happened in just a few short days. If he didn't know any better, Katsuki would think Izuku had resorted to using performance enhancers, namely of the physical, non-Quirk-based variety. Wings had mentioned there was a new one making its way around the professional jocks, something that made you super buff, but also made you super stupid. Too much risked your muscles crushing your skeleton into powder, and made you really want milk and cheese…what was it called? Poison? Toxin? Cobra? Eh, whatever. However, Katsuki knew that Izuku would never stoop as low as that, and for that matter, neither would he. Heh, guess that still had that in common with the shitty nerd, if only that.

Regardless, the question remained on how Deku got so jacked so quickly. Not only that, as the day began, being around the shitty nerd felt different. Deku radiated strength, confidence, power…all things that Deku clearly did not have just a few days ago, when he blew apart the shitty nerd's creepy notebook.

It was here that a certain, awful thought entered Katsuki's mind. Could it be possible? Could the shitty nerd have, by some miracle, actually developed a Quirk? What if the Sludge Villain incident was some sort of trigger that Deku needed to awaken his Quirk, and that's why he was out of school the last couple days?

lf that's the case, then maybe…they could be friends again? Go back to the way things used to be when they were kids?

Katsuki strangled that thought immediately. There was no way in hell that shitty nerd actually got a Quirk. True, there was such a thing as a late-bloomer, people who had gotten their Quirks later in life, and those Quirks were stupid powerful to the point you could feel the power radiating off of them. But that only happened to kids about to become teenagers! Deku would never get that kind of power! He didn't deserve it. After all, if Katsuki remembered correctly, the oldest ever recorded was about twelve, and he was skyrocketing through the Pro Charts, to the point where it was speculated that in a few years, Endeavor would be demoted to Number Three. If Izuku had gotten his Quirk at fourteen, almost fifteen then…he'd be a literal God among mortal men, and Katsuki could kiss his destiny of becoming the greatest and richest hero who ever lived good-bye.

The mental image of Deku lounging on a golden throne dressed in an expensive three-piece suit surrounded by mountains upon mountains of Yen with two hot chicks draped over him all seductive-like while he was barking at his butler to grab a shovel and get rid of the money blocking the front door of his mansion filled Bakugou with no small amount of pure, unbridled rage.

When school was over for the day, Katsuki was getting answers out of the shitty nerd.

After School That Day…

Izuku suppressed a groan as an all-too-familiar hand slammed itself against the locker next to his own.

"Start talking, you shitty nerd! How'd you get so tall and buff all of a sudden?! Where the hell have you been the last couple of days, huh?! And don't you dare tell me you were out sick, I'm not buying that bullshit!" Katsuki roared as he got right up in Izuku's face.

"It's called puberty, Kacchan. It happens when people grow up and mature. You should try it sometime, instead of getting in people's faces and screaming at them, beating the tar out of them, or using your Quirk on them, which you're not supposed to do by the way. Then again, you are the special boy, and as such, you get special treatment, don't you?" Izuku said coldly, a hard look on his face that actually made Katsuki falter.

Suddenly, the red flags that had popped up when the shitty nerd had entered class that morning abruptly became air raid sirens. Deku, actually making snarky comebacks and talking back to him? Okay, something definitely happened to him after the Sludge Villain incident. And Katsuki Bakugou was going to get to the bottom of it, one way or another. Izuku on the other hand, had to admit that it felt pretty good to not be afraid of Kaachan for a change, even if only because of his Green Lantern training. Fear was something he was now trained to combat against. He didn't have to be reduced to a cowering, whimpering, barely coherent mess anymore. Gone were the days he lived in fear of his former friend, gone were the days of being a Quirkless, worthless Deku. He was a Green Lantern now. And a Green Lantern knew no fear.

"Deku…what happened to you after All Might stopped that Sludge Villain?" Katsuki hissed, surprising Izuku with the touch of genuine concern in his voice.

However, Izuku just shined a small grin, "You know Kaachan, if we were friends, I might be inclined to tell you…but we're not, so I won't." Izuku then turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Katsuki gaping speechlessly like an idiot.

And as soon as he got outside the school building, a huge grin spread across Izuku's face as he fist pumped the air in celebration. "Oh that felt good! Finally, a day where I get to go home not beaten up or blown up!" He looked down at the ring on his finger, "I think this Green Lantern thing is gonna work out just fine after all!" he cheered before placing a big kiss on the ring, the teen soon starting his way home.