A/N: And we are back with the second half of our story's prologue! I'm actually surprised that I was able to get this chapter out earlier than I expected. But here it is, and it's time for a quirk manifestation! Let's see how that goes, eh?
DISCLAIMER 1: I DO NOT KNOW WHEN WILL UPDATE THIS STORY! I DO NOT HAVE A SET UPDATE SCHEDULE, SO DO NOT HOUND ME WITH MESSAGES AND REVIEWS ASKING ME WHEN I'M GOING TO UPDATE! OKAY? OKAY. THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING.
DISCLAIMER 2: I STILL DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS TO MY HERO ACADEMIA OR POKEMON!
A Psychic Knight's Awakening!: Part 2
"Now that we're away from the media vultures, we can address what you just asked me." Mt. Lady said. "And I think that begins with a proper introduction. You already know me as Mt. Lady, but when I'm not in my hero persona I go by Yu Takeyama. Nice to meet you."
Izuku seemed to shrink in on himself as he replied, "I-I'm Izuku Midoriya… and I'm quirkless…"
A few minutes of silence remained between the two as Mt. Lady, or rather, Yu Takeyama, tried to think of the best way to go about this conversation. She knows that people with weak or 'villainous' quirks have it rough, and she can't even begin to imagine how bad it must be for quirkless people. And she didn't want to sound rude or condescending.
"You really don't have a quirk?" Yu asked.
Clenching his hands until his knuckles turned white Izuku timidly replied, "No… No, I-I-I don't have a quirk. The quirk doctor my mother took me to when I was four said so. Said that I have the second toe joint and everything.".
"And all of your other tests for a quirk came back negative, too?" Yu asked with a raised eyebrow.
To which Izuku asked back, "There are other tests?".
"I'll take that as a no." Yu said with her eyebrows knitted together as she explained, "While it is true that the toe joint X-ray is one of the primary tests to detect if someone will manifest a quirk and was used a lot during the dawn of quirks, it's not the end-all-be-all. As medical science has continued to advance and our own understanding of quirks has increased over the centuries, doctors have come up with a bunch of additional tests that are used to detect if someone will manifest a quirk. Blood tests and brain scans, for example."
She rubbed her temple as she groaned while saying, "And judging by your lack of knowledge of these tests, whoever did your quirk test only took the X-Ray and figured that was all they needed to determine if you'd get a quirk or not."
"So… you're saying that… my quirk test is incomplete?" Izuku asked, eyes wide in disbelief.
He never knew that there were additional tests for quirk manifestation. Nobody had ever told him that there were until now.
"I'm saying that whoever was your doctor ten years ago botched your quirk exam and is a total quack who should have their license revoked!" exclaimed Yu before she said, "I actually have some friends who manifested quirks even though they have two joints in their pinky toes. They never had any desire to go into heroics, but the point is they got quirks even with the extra toe joint."
Izuku sat there in disbelief. There are actually people out there, REAL PEOPLE, who have an extra toe joint and still manifested a quirk? Does that mean that the same could be true for him? But that shouldn't be possible, he's never manifested a quirk in the ten years since that test! So, he can't have a dormant quirk!
…Can he?
"If you don't mind me asking, what kind of quirks do your parents have?" Yu asked.
"Nothing grand, if you're asking about that. My mom can attract small objects to herself so long as they're small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. And even though I barely remember him, my father can breathe fire." Izuku replied.
Yu stood up and turned to Izuku with a reassuring smile.
"Well, I'll tell you what, why don't you come with me to visit this quirk doctor I know. She's the nurse at UA High School, and she's done these tests thousands of times before. Not to mention she always triple, even quadruple, checks her work on these tests." She offered.
"The UA school nurse? You know Recovery Girl?" Izuku asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
"I sure do! I mean, I was a UA student, too, once upon a time." Yu replied with a smile of her own.
She couldn't help it. When he's not all shy and withdrawn, Midoriya's positive energy is infectious.
"And if you're worried about school, don't bother. I'll escort you to your school afterwards and tell your teachers that you were with me at UA." Yu reassured.
Izuku suddenly panicked and said, "Ah, tha-that won't be necessary! Really!".
"Oh, nonsense! Come on, it'll be fine!" Yu said as she dragged Izuku along by the back of his blazer collar.
The green-haired boy was too stunned to stop her. And he was also too fearful of what his tormentors would do when they found out about him actually getting to go to UA High before even taking the entrance exam. And accompanied by a beautiful woman who also happens to be a pro hero, at that!
'I am so dead when Kacchan finds out about this.' Izuku mentally whimpered.
~Hours Later~
"Midoriya didn't come to class at all today."
School was officially out for the day and a group of teenagers, all boys who are around fourteen to fifteen years old, were walking home after another day of boring classes. And unlike Izuku, they all had quirks and have had them for years. One boy can extend his fingers, another has stretchy eyeballs, but the most prominent one is a boy with blood red eyes and spiky ash-blonde hair with a scowl on his face.
[Katsuki Bakugo! Quirk: Explosion! He sweats a nitroglycerin-like substance from his hands which he can detonate at will to create powerful explosions. He's been shown to be able to control the power of these explosions to a degree ranging from small pops like firecrackers to the same level of destruction as a cluster of TNT. He's also got a remarkably short fuse.]
The three boys were just hanging around and looking for something to do, as teenagers usually do, but their minds weren't on getting into a hero school or even what to do to pass the time. They were actually talking about the lack of presence of a certain green-haired quirkless boy whom they torment day after day. That's right, they're talking about how Izuku Midoriya never showed up for school that day.
"You think he cut class?" asked the boy with stretchy eyes.
"Nah, the guy may be a quirkless loser, but he's not the type to cut classes and play hooky." denied the boy with extending fingers. "He doesn't have the backbone to do it."
Stretchy Eyes laughed and jokingly suggested, "Hey, maybe he finally kicked the bucket in one of those villain fights he likes to watch, eh?".
"Dude, don't even joke about that!" snapped Extending Fingers. "If someone hears you even joking about something like that, we can kiss our careers as future heroes goodbye before they even begin!"
"Sor-ree." said Stretchy Eyes, though he wasn't the least bit sorry.
However, Katsuki wasn't joining in on the conversation. He, too, had noticed the absence of his favorite punching bag and it did little to soothe his already explosive temper. No pun intended. Even thinking about Izuku was enough to make the explosive blonde angrier than he usually is. He just scoffed as he listened to his two henchmen bicker back and forth.
'Doesn't matter what the fucking nerd does. He's just another pebble on my path to greatness. Not even high enough on the pecking order to be considered an extra.' Katsuki angrily thought. 'He can go ahead and fucking die for all I fucking care! The damn quirkless freak should have just given up being a hero years ago and stopped looking down on me! ME! THE FUTURE NUMBER ONE HERO WHO WILL BE MORE RICH AND FAMOUS THAN ALL MIGHT!'
He was broken from his thoughts when he heard Stretchy Eyes suggest that they go kill time at the arcade to which he replied with a simple "Yeah, whatever.". At least, that is until Extending Fingers suggested that they go to a bar and try to 'pick up chicks'.
"YOU FUCKING DUMBASS! IF I GET CAUGHT IT'LL GO ON MY RECORD, AND THEN I'LL NEVER GET INTO UA! USE THAT PEA SIZED THING IN YOUR DAMN SKULL THAT YOU CALL A BRAIN!" yelled Katsuki as he rounded on Extending Fingers.
But his angry expression was replaced by one of confusion when he saw his two 'friends' cowering as they stared straight ahead. They appeared to be frozen with fear.
"The hell's wrong with you?" Katsuki asked.
But they didn't need to answer as he quickly realized that they weren't looking at him. They were looking at something that was directly behind him. That's when he froze with fear as he heard a distorted cackle behind him and slowly turned around as a shadow fell over him.
"Such a burning personality. Yesss… you'll do perfectly for a skinsuit!"
~Elsewhere~
"I am sooo sorry, Midoriya! I didn't think the tests with Recovery Girl would take that long, and I didn't expect the principal to run tests of his own!" said Mt. Lady as she bowed apologetically to Izuku.
Getting to UA hadn't been a problem, and neither was getting in. After getting there the two had been escorted to Recovery Girl's office by the 18 Heroine, Midnight, where the elderly heroine was quickly brought up to speed with Izuku's situation. So, she agreed to run the necessary tests to see if he truly was quirkless. And while doing so, both she, Mt. Lady, and Midnight had noticed the many signs of abuse that Izuku had gone through as a result of his possibly being a false negative. Once the tests were over, Recovery Girl had insisted on giving the boy a proper physical to make sure that he was healthy.
It took some time to coax him into removing his shirt for the physical, but when he finally did, the three heroines were absolutely appalled by how many scars littered the boy's torso! Some were jagged, some looked like they had been made by blades, and some appeared to be from chemical burns. But the most prominent scars were those that looked like blackened, starburst-shaped burns surrounding a handprint. They tried to inquire as to how he got the scars, but Izuku had stuttered out that he didn't want to talk about it while being on the verge of a panic attack. After getting Midnight to use her quirk on Izuku to help him calm down a little, they decided to drop the issue for the moment and focus on the boy's physical examination.
For the most part, he was perfectly healthy for a boy his age, but nowhere near where he should be if he was serious about becoming a hero. Still, they chalked that up to him not having access to the proper facilities due to his possible quirklessness. While they waited for the results, Principal Nezu himself had arrived and offered to give Midoriya a tour of the school, seeing as it was his choice of hero schools, which the lad was ecstatic about. He was even MORE ecstatic at the opportunity to meet so many heroes in one place! He had already met Midnight when he and Mt. Lady had first arrived and Recovery Girl for his quirk tests and checkup, but he also met Present Mic, and Ectoplasm, and Lunch Rush who also asked Midoriya for his opinion on a recipe for Louisiana gumbo that he'd been trying to perfect(Izuku had suggested that he add a little tabasco sauce to give it a little more of a kick, which Lunch Rush found made it perfect.), and he even met Vlad King, Hound Dog, and his favorite Underground Hero, Eraserhead!
As a hero fanboy and quirk nerd, Izuku was in his own personal heaven.
But then came the moment he was dreading. The results of his quirk tests. Despite the fact that he was sure that he didn't have a quirk, Izuku held on to some measure of hope that he might, in fact, be a false negative.
And he was right to do so as Recovery Girl revealed that, despite having two toe joints, young Midoriya does indeed have astoundingly high quirk factor! Which means that there's still a chance for him to manifest a quirk! Izuku had just stood frozen as tears of joy had slowly begun falling from his eyes, but it was Eraserhead who had asked the question of why he hadn't manifested a quirk in the past ten years if he was able to.
Nezu and Recovery Girl each had a theory, but nothing concrete. Nezu theorized that someone at the hospital who may have had a personal vendetta against the boy may have used something to completely block his quirk so that, no matter what, he would be unable to manifest his quirk after that appointment and would live his life quirkless, hoping for the boy to eventually take his own life. And Recovery Girl believed that Midoriya had developed mental barriers after learning such devastating news as a young child. It caused him to put up mental blocks that prevented him from manifesting his quirk because he believed so strongly that he was quirkless.
By the time all was said and done, and Recovery Girl had given Midoriya a copy of his new test results to show to his mother, whom Nezu had personally called to explain the situation, school had long since let out and Mt. Lady was now escorting the young Midoriya home. Which also explained why she was apologizing so profusely to him.
"Hey, it's alright, really. It's not your fault that the tests took as long as they did. Besides, at least now I know that I was a false negative the whole time, so it's not all bad." Izuku reassured.
"And the fact that you got autographs from every UA teacher had nothing to do with it?" Mt. Lady asked with a knowing grin.
To which Izuku just looked away whistling innocently while hiding his hero analysis notebook behind his back making the blonde heroine giggle at his response.
"By the way, about your scars," Mt. Lady said, causing Izuku to tense up, "I know you don't want to talk about it, but I have a pretty good idea how you got them."
Izuku inwardly cursed his own bad luck. He should have known he wouldn't be able to keep something like this a secret from a hero, especially since she had seen his scars.
"All heroes are trained to spot the signs of someone who is being neglected or abused, and I don't need to be a psychiatrist to know that abuse is exactly what you went through. I won't force you to tell me your story, but I want you to know that you can be free from your tormentors. Don't let them have any more power over you, because that's how bullies get their satisfaction. They beat down those they see as weaker than themselves and do all that they can to make them feel hopeless. But when their victims stand up for themselves, that rips their 'power' away. So, ask yourself, are you going to keep giving them power over you? Or are you going to choose your own destiny?" Mt. Lady said.
Izuku paused and looked down. He had never thought of it that way. Sure, he had tried standing up for himself and others in the past, but Kacchan and his gang would just gang up on him and use their quirks against him. Add in the fact that Izuku is a kind and gentle boy who doesn't like to fight for the sake of fighting, and it was just a recipe for disaster. But before he could ponder on it more, he noticed something off in the distance. Something that looked like…
"Hey, is that smoke?" Izuku asked.
Mt. Lady followed his line of sight and saw a huge plume of smoke billowing up from an ominous orange glow.
"Looks like a fire's started downtown! Time for me to get back to work!" Mt. Lady said before asking Izuku, "Are you coming?".
"Wait, you want me to come along? Won't I just get in the way?" Izuku asked.
"Not at all. Besides, there's a good chance that we'll need your analytical mind if things get hairy." Mt. Lady replied.
With his confidence boosted by the words of encouragement, Izuku nodded and climbed onto Mt. Lady's palm after she grew to giant size and started off towards the fire.
Meanwhile, at the site of the fire, it was pure pandemonium as Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and Backdraft struggled to save a student from a villain with a body made of sludge. Death Arms tried to punch the villain with his immense strength, but that failed and he was easily swatted back.
"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING FREAK! LEMME GO!" screamed Katsuki as he tried to use his explosions on the villain.
But that failed and all he succeeded in doing was making the fires worse for Backdraft who was already having a hard enough time fighting off the fires.
"Where are those firefighters?" Backdraft demanded.
The Sludge Villain just cackled at the heroes' misfortune.
"This is perfect! A skinsuit with a ton of attitude and a powerful quirk to boot! With your power, kid, I'll be able to destroy All Might with a single shot!" gloated the Sludge Villain.
As Death Arms and Kamui Woods were reduced to crowd control, the Punching Hero could only internally curse.
'Sorry, kid. You're gonna have to hold out a little longer. At least until someone with a more suitable quirk comes along.' he mentally said.
That's when Mt. Lady arrived on the scene with Izuku. Both were in shock at the sight of such destruction in a small area and wondered how this happened. That's when Izuku, even from the height he was at, heard someone in the crowd say that the villain has captured someone. He looked down, squinted, and slowly but surely he saw that it was none other than Katsuki Bakugo in the grasp of this villain.
"Kacchan!?" he gasped before saying to Mt. Lady, "Hey, I know that guy! That's one of my classmates that villain's got!"
"Why aren't the others doing anything about this?" Mt. Lady asked.
"Kamui and Death Arms can't get close enough to that villain and Backdraft is busy trying to contain the fire! So they're waiting for another hero with a better quirk!" exclaimed someone else in the crowd who heard Mt. Lady.
"Are you kidding me!?" Mt. Lady asked incredulously.
"There's no time for that!" exclaimed Izuku.
He rapidly looked around as he desperately tried to come up with a plan. He felt utterly useless as he could only watch on. He knew that Mt. Lady couldn't shrink and grow very quickly, at least as far as he knew, but he had to do something! Katsuki may be a bully to him, but he was still his friend at one point in their lives! Screwing his eyes shut he remembered the good times when they were kids, and even the bad times when Katsuki got his quirk and Izuku's never came in because of an old man who didn't know what he was doing!
'No…'
A memory flashes of Izuku and Katsuki when they were three playing heroes and villains with their mothers, both of them wearing All Might onesies.
'No…!'
A memory flashes where Izuku praised Katsuki for his quirk and said that it was super cool and flashy with Katsuki soaking up the praise like a sponge.
'No!'
A myriad of memories flashes before Izuku's eyes as he remembers how Katsuki broke off their friendship. Every insult, every punch, every time he used his quirk on him and nobody stopped him from doing so!
'NO MORE!'
Then he heard Mt. Lady's words to him earlier that day.
'Are you going to keep giving them power over you? Or are you going to choose your own destiny?'
Izuku's eyes snapped open and seemed to slowly change from green to blue as small blue flames literally ignited within them.
'My destiny is my own! And I won't let anybody die as long as I'm around!' Izuku roared internally.
Out loud, he said to Mt. Lady, "Quick, throw me at the villain!".
"Say what now?" exclaimed Mt. Lady.
"Just do it! Then I need you to go to the nearby dock and scoop up some water! Then wait for my signal! I have an idea!" said Izuku.
Mt. Lady was apprehensive, but reluctantly decided to follow his plan.
"I sure hope you know what you're doing." she said as she reared back her hand.
And with great force, she threw Izuku at the perfect angle towards the Sludge Villain! Everyone gasped as he flew through the air which caused the Sludge Villain to look up.
"Huh? What the?" he gasped.
'Deku…?' thought a barely conscious Katsuki.
At first everyone thought that he had a death wish. That is until Izuku spontaneously combusted into a raging ball of flames! He hit the Sludge Villain dead center, which caused him to essentially spit out Katsuki who rolled to a stop at Death Arms' feet. As Katsuki started puking out the sludge that had been forced down his throat everyone looked on at the cloud of dust that had been kicked up from the impact.
As the smoke cleared, they were left in shock.
Gone was the timid boy with green hair and freckles. Standing in his place was a creature that was vaguely humanoid, but clearly something entirely different.
It was a bipedal, humanoid creature. Its body is primarily black with red colourations on its cylindrical legs and hands, the latter resembling oven mitts. Its head is also red, with yellow sharp 'ears' protruding from either side. The top of its head is yellow and has a fire burning on top, resembling the plume on a knight's helmet. Its face is covered with a black mask with three holes at the center, and its eyes have blue irises and wisps emanating from its pale blue pupils. The creature's torso and shoulders are covered by what appears to be an old set of yellow and red armor, along with levitating large yellow pauldrons over its shoulders.
Mt. Lady stared in shock at what had happened to the green-haired young man she had met not too long ago.
"Midoriya…?" she gasped.
The creature turned its head to look up at her and gave her a nod as it said a single word.
"Armarouge."
***...To Be Continued…***
Ending A/N: And that concludes the second half prologue! Izuku's quirk has finally manifested and he has become the mighty Armarouge! What, you were expecting Victini? In another timeline, maybe. Just how will he adapt to his new form and power? You'll have to tune in next chapter to find out! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time, my hatchlings!
