Having broken his bones so frequently in recent memory, Izuku had developed a small ritual for whenever he was able to toss aside the much hated castings that he had been enwrapped with so many times. It wasn't anything too extravagant. He didn't mark the occasion by lighting candles or playing music like some people might have done.
Really, all he did was sit at the kitchen table, and take off each casting independently, with his own hands. A symbol of the independence he would have to achieve in order to live up to the expectations All Might had set out for him. It might seem dumb to an outsider, but to Izuku, it meant the world to be able to free himself of the castings.
While he struggled getting the first one loose, due to his other hand still being imprisoned by the casts, he managed to fumble his way into tearing off one of the straps, allowing the bandages around his right arm to fall off, making a small amount cluttering noise on the kitchen table, as some of the cutlery left over from the previous night remained there. Upon his arm finally being free, Izuku stretched out his dominant arm, feeling his joints click back together after being cramped together for such an extended period of time. Slight disfigurement caught his eye when he saw his right hand, a scar cut clearly across the back of the now crooked hand. It was a serviceable hand, still capable of making a fist, holding a pencil, throwing a baseball, and everything in-between, but appeal wise, it certainly wasn't going to win any awards.
That was the price he paid for going as far as he did against Todoroki. Izuku had no regrets about it. In time, he would forget that his hand was ever normal, and he'd grow used to the slightly wonky fingers, and the unseemly scar.
Getting the casting off his second arm was a far easier task now that he had access to a posable thumb. It never took him too long to do. Unwrapping and unlatching everything, the green haired boy let out a sigh of relief when his left arm could now join the rest of his body in the feeling of fresh, clean, oxygen rich air around them.
Next came the leg cast, which he had off in about a minute. With the functionality of having two hands, getting out of a leg brace wasn't a challenge, by any stretch of the imagination.
Each of his limbs free, Izuku decided to check to go through phase two of his little ceremony. Again, it wasn't anything incredible. All he did was walk over from the dining table to the fridge, testing to see how his leg was able to handle his body weight. Recovery Girl's Quirk truly was amazing, and no matter how common an occurrence it was for the boy to end up having said Quirk used on him, he'd never say anything less about it. The incredible ability had basically healed his leg once again. It had been enough to walk on for days, but the nurse had always been very insistent on him keeping on traditional castings, to help defend his vulnerable limbs.
He stretched off his leg, feeling the click once again. It was a lot rarer of an event for his legs to get broken, since he favoured using arms to fight, but during his final leap at his opponent, he'd shattered one of his legs. In hindsight, he wasn't going to get back up after that leap, even if he had somehow won. He hadn't really been thinking that plan all the way through. Although, that implied he was even working with a plan at that point, and he himself wasn't even sure that he was.
And finally, the last stage in his ceremony - Probably the most laughable part about this entire routine he put himself through - He reached for the fridge door, and retrieved one of the many bottles of water from within. It was all a ritual to acquire bottled water. If it wasn't for the fact that he had to do these things anyway, Izuku would have found it dramatic. Now, whenever he took off the castings that had kept him pinned for days, it felt natural and liberating to finally do something so trivial, so now he treated his ritual as his return to the world, to independence.
And to his own self inserted anxiety.
He'd agreed to meet with Ashido in just a few hours.
To be honest, he was still in a state of shock that the girl had asked him to meet with her so randomly. He'd not even begun to process the information being hurled at him before she'd turned heel and bolted out the train. His phone containing the girl's number, placed there herself, had been a jolt to the spine.
He was amazed at himself for even agreeing to go. He was more amazed that he actually wanted to go. He barely knew Ashido, but what little he did know of her indicated to her being a fun loving social person who he could talk to for hours about basically anything. He saw the energy she exhibited like someone saw steam from a kettle, and it was infectious. Being around her made Izuku take a keener interest in his surroundings, in the conversations he was involved in, and the people surrounding him. He knew that she was a friendly person, and he knew she had a pretty smile. A small blush painted its way across Izuku's cheeks as he remembered this fact.
These facts aside, he knew little about Ashido. And perhaps it was partly the reason why he actually wanted to go and 'Hang out' with her. Of course, he'd rationalised it in his usual elaborate way, not that he was technically wrong. He and Ashido were both aiming to become Heroes, it stood to reason they'd be working together for the years to come, regardless of whatever Hero agency they ended up with. It would be valuable for the two of them to share a positive relationship, to understand one another, to minimise the risk to the people around them, and maximise their efficiency and teamwork. That was the correct answer to give...
But he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious anyway.
"Oh, Izuku, you already took your castings off?" His mother's voice interrupted the quiet veil of the room, shooting him straight out of his thinking, and causing him to nearly choke on the liquid that was currently making its way down the green haired boy's throat.
Sputtering and coughing for just a few seconds, Izuku managed to calm himself down. He needed to take a few breaths to refill his lungs. "Geez... You surprised me..."
His mother apologised, glancing at him with an amused look on her face, as she began to collect the castings that Izuku had just left casually tossed around the table area. Izuku felt a quick pang of guilt for not cleaning up after himself, and he began to offer to clear them up himself, when he realised something.
He hadn't actually mentioned Ashido to his mother in the slightest. For the most part, it had just slipped his mind entirely, and he hadn't even thought to tell her, instead focused on recovery, or reading what studying material he had available to him. Telling his mother about his plans for today had just totally nor occurred to him. He knew his mother would be worried about him, since he had only just removed the casts today, and she would prefer he remain at home and not go out alone. But, he'd promised Ashido he would meet with her, and he intended to keep that promise.
"U-Uh, Mom?" Izuku said, catching his mother's attention. He felt a small bead of sweat running from his forehead and down his cheek when his mother turned to face him with a soft smile, still with his medical bandages tucked under her arm. He still wanted to insist she give them to him to throw away, but at this point, she wasn't going to do that. He focused himself, however, on the actual statement he needed to make. "I uh, just thought I should probably mention, uh, I - I'm going out with a classmate today.
Understandably, and predictably, his mother's face fell at these words. His mother was a very lenient person, and she never liked to restrict Izuku's freedom unless she felt there was literally no other choice. She was very much aware that the healer at Yuuei was very talented and skilled, and while she had total faith her sons leg was fine now, her worried nature still dominated a lot of her feelings regarding the matters. "A-Are you sure that's a good idea, Izuku?"
"I should be okay... My leg feels fine now. I promised that I'd show up, and I don't want to cancel and seem rude..." He tried to make his voice sound as reassuring as he possibly could, to calm his mother's nerves. He knew her tendency to over-worry all too well.
Throwing the two-day-old supports into the garbage bin, his mother sighed, and nodded. "Be sure to be safe, okay?"
"I will be, don't worry." He gave her a smile, a comforting tug on the lips that he always gave her when trying to convince her that everything would be okay. He'd given her the same smile when he had left to take the entry exam for Yuuei, and the when he'd left the morning of the Sports Day Festival.
"So, who is it that you're meeting with? Anyone I know?"
Izuku shook his head. "Uh, no, I don't think so. Her name's Ashido-san." The inheritor of One For All suddenly couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with the look his mother suddenly gave him. A look of pure shock and something else he couldn't quite recognise that he assumed to be confusion.
Of course, he'd never once mentioned Ashido-san to her, so confusion was understandable. He'd mentioned Iida and Uraraka many times, so she at least had an idea of who they were, but Ashido was a total unknown.
"M-Maybe you saw her throughout the Sports Festival broadcast." Izuku suggested, quickly running through the various appearance. "U-Uh, she has pink skin, and hair, sorta curly, a bit like mine." As he said this, he pointed at each one of the areas he was describing on his own body. When he mentioned her pink skin colour, he ran his fingers along his cheek, and when he mentioned her hair, he flicked a tuft of his own away from his left eye.
With no change in response from his mother, he kept going. "Uh, black eyes?" He pointed at his own wide eyes, his sclera white, and his iris green. No reaction. "Horns?" For this, he grabbed two handfuls of his mess of a hairdo, and shaped them in as close a manner as he could get to resemble Ashido's horns.
At this point, his mother's eyes began tearing up. And at the exact same moment, Izuku suddenly understood what was going through her head.
His face exploded in a dark shade of scarlet, and he began to wave his arms in front of his face as quickly as they would physically go. "N-No, no no no no no no no no no no no, I-It's It - It - It - It's not - It's nothing like that! She - She just a-asked me if I wanted to go out - N-not like a d-date go out - A-and I thought it would m-make sense since we're both t-trying to be Heroes! I - I barely know her!"
Steam could practically be seen rising from the stuttering boy's skin as his body temperature begun to skyrocket at the mere implications. At no point previously had his mind even drifted towards that way of thinking. Now that it had entered though, he couldn't get that idea out of his head...
...Which certainly didn't help when he had made his way to the Yuuei campus where he was to meet the pink girl.
He had eaten a small amount of food and had a shower, during which he needed cold water desperately to cool him down with. His appetite had been totally shattered by his mother's overactive imagination, so he'd barely eaten more than a couple of spoonfuls of cereal before he was convinced that if he ate any more, his stomach would explode.
His journey through the subway had helped him steel himself and calm himself down a bit more. He'd shoved the ideas to the back of his mind, and was determined to not let them creep back into the rest of his head for the rest of the day. If he'd managed to do that with Uraraka for the past few weeks, he could sure as hell manage it with Ashido for a day, right?
As it turned out, he'd actually arrived a bit ahead of schedule, and as such, Ashido wasn't anywhere to be seen. Izuku made his way to the front gate, where they had agreed to meet. Time had been spent over the last few days repairing said gate from the effects of someone who had a Quirk that let them destroy a reinforced steel barrier - Probably that guy from the USJ, right? - So excluding a few leftover work-tools, the gate was pretty much back to normal. It was up, as it always was during the weekends, and even Izuku's student ID wouldn't help him get access. Safety reasons.
The campus that he was outside of seemed to loom over him. When the school was open, and there were people going to and from, busy and working, the site seemed to exciting, so interesting, and it reminded Izuku what a privilege it was to be able to attend such a well renowned school, and made him thankful for every second of hard work he'd put in with All Might to achieve his dream of attending this famous institute. But without his uniform, without anyone being here, and being surrounded in total silence, the walls that surrounded the school seemed larger, and the huge building seemed impossible to get to. It suddenly intimidated Izuku, and reminded him that this was the place the legendary Heroes of modern society went to be moulded into the people they are now. Someone without a Quirk would have no chance here...
Izuku, by default, shouldn't have had a chance here.
At times, the green haired boy felt like he was lying, every second he spent in this school, felt like he was spitting at the examinees he'd beaten for his place here. People who had been born with their powers, who had done everything they could have done to get a place at Yuuei. Those who didn't have All Might as their personal trainer, and those who hadn't inherited what could possibly be the strongest Quirk on the planet.
He knew that he'd earned his place here, fair and square, and he would never let anyone tell him otherwise. He'd refused to let Kacchan even try to take this lifelong dream from him, even when he'd pinned him to a wall in an alleyway and burned a hole straight through his middle school uniform. He had earned this. This was his.
But it didn't stop him from feeling that anyone else - Literally anyone else - who had One For All could have made the cut. It almost felt like he was cheating.
He sighed, the green and black jacket he'd put on began to catch wind, and his hair began to join it in dancing alongside the sudden gust of air that was pushing against him. What the heck had brought along this thought process? Wasn't he here for -
"Midori!"
For the second time that day, Izuku was thrown out of his own thought bubble, and the rest of the world suddenly realigned itself. The walls around the Hero school suddenly shrunk, and the wind came to a screeching halt.
Izuku threw himself around and saw his classmate stood about half a meter away from him, with her eyes closed and her grin huge, showcasing her white teeth while she gave him the traditional Ashido smile. "A-Ashido-san!"
"Sorry I'm a little late. My brother hid my phone from me again. Didn't you get the message I sent you?" Her voice was full of cheer and excitement, and as she spoke, she seemed to rise onto her toes, and then back down onto her heels again, making her look like she was bouncing on the spot.
"A message?" Izuku quickly reached for his mobile phone, and unlocked the device. There, awaiting him, was a short text, filled with abbreviations and emoji's from the girl stood in front of him. It took him a couple of seconds to translate before he fully understood what the message was saying.
'Sorry, Midori. I might be a bit late. My brother is a pain. I'll be there ASAP.' At the end of the message, was a less than three symbol, and a number three just right of it. The combination of symbols for a loveheart.
Of course, the addition of the love heart caused everything Izuku thought he'd pushed to the back of his mind to burst right back into every aspect of his brain. Rational logic told him that Ashido was the sort of person who would send that to basically everyone she knew, and to calm the hell down, and Izuku heavily agreed with it, but irrationality outvoted both of them, and refused to let the Yuuei student calm down. A blush made its way onto his face once again, leaving him to figure out the rest. "O-Oh, it - its fine, d-don't worry about it!"
"You seem nervous." Ashido tilted her head slightly, and seemed to shift all her weight onto her left leg. She gave him a quizzical look, like she was trying to figure out what was going through her classmates head. She reached out and tapped his skull with her knuckles lightly, so as not to hurt him. "You didn't hurt your head against Todoroki, did you?"
"N-No!" Izuku shot his head out of Ashido's reach, and attempted to steel his nerves. 'Calm. Down. Izuku.' He took a deep breath and sighed. "S-Sorry... You just surprised me. I was um... Kind of lost in thought."
What had become a worried expression suddenly melted, replaced with another soft smile on Ashido's face. "Ah. My bad then, ehehe." She chuckled to herself. It was only now that Izuku took note of what it was that Ashido had chosen to wear.
For her torso, she had selected a black short sleeved t-shirt, which had giant, bold, pink writing that covered her chest which read 'Acid'. The shirt was a fairly loose article of clothing, exposing a fair amount of skin from the neck down, showing at least one collarbone. The neck hole seemed to lop to one side than the other, showing a fluorescent red strap, which Izuku dared not stare at for too long, or question what piece of clothing it was owned by. The shirt seemed to expose a large amount of her biceps, barely even going up to her shoulders at all. Wrapped around her waist, was a hoodie, grey in its colour, which she had brought for in case the weather took a turn for the worse. Additionally, a pair of jean-shorts that only went about halfway down her thoughts before cutting off far earlier than her school skirt would ever allow. A pair of long, black socks that reached just halfway up her lower leg covered her up a bit, but not by much. Lodged in her pocket was her phone. The only reason the boy was able to identify this was by observing a set of white earphones that left the pocket, and found themselves wrapped around the back of Ashido's exposed neck. Looking between the two of them now, Izuku, who had come in his usual green and black hoodie and a set of dark grey jeans, now seemed heavily overdressed. Or, Ashido seemed seriously underdressed, depending on your perspective.
He knew Ashido was very casual when it came to her clothing - She was one of the only people who completely disregarded Yuuei's grey jacket and tie whenever she could get away with it - but this was a whole new level! Did she always dress like this?!
"So, we gonna stand here all day, or are we gonna go do stuff?" The girl suddenly asked, having walked past Izuku and making her way into the city, with a happy spring into her step as she put each foot in front of the other.
Izuku couldn't stop himself from letting out a half happy, half embarrassed sigh. This was looking to be a long day... But not one he could say he was regretting signed up for.
One thing he had to give Ashido due credit for, was the sheer variety of places that she knew around Tokyo. Izuku had lived in this city for his entire life, even if he was in the more residential area, but Ashido was taking him to areas he never even knew existed. He'd been to the Nakano ward of the city before, but only fleetingly, while Ashido seemed to know everything about this ward inside and out. He had to wonder, just exactly how much time did she spend just wondering around the city, and getting her bearings on where everything was. Her zeal proved to have a practical use after all.
Both of them had managed to engage in conversation once again, with Izuku managing to formulate sentences without tripping over and biting his own tongue. He was able to keep his stuttering to a minimum as the two of them spoke and explored. It was like they had talked on the train ride a few days ago, only with far more broad a pallet of conversational subjects.
Ashido brought up the subject of his arms and his leg, which he assured her were perfectly fine, if slightly numb, even now. Normally, he never wanted to mention the ritual he acted out each time he got rid of those castings and bandages, but with Ashido, he was able to casually talk about it, and smile when Ashido found herself unable to control her laughter. Not laughter directed at him, but rather, with him. He couldn't even help himself chuckling at the absurdity that was his casting ritual. Ashido shared a few things about her home life, including her many siblings, and their unending quest to piss her off. Izuku mentioned that he'd often wondered what life would be like with an older or younger sibling, to which his classmate assured him that it would be far, far more difficult. Eventually, they were able to toss questions back and forth, answering appropriately, and laughing at the various silly traits the other one had.
One such question Izuku found himself asking was just how Ashido even knew about what there was to do in the Nakano ward. He brought it up casually, to fill in a lull in the conversation, as Ashido attempted to recall her way throughout this particular section of the city. Both were at down on a bench out of the way of the passing commuters, when he asked.
"I just sort of wondered in here one day and found all this cool stuff." It was a blunt but totally honest answer, and one Izuku couldn't say he hadn't seen jumped slightly when Ashido suddenly slammed her first into her open left palm. "Ooh, I know!"
"Wh - What is it?"
"There's one of those old school style arcades not far from here, I have an idea!" Before her classmate could question further, Ashido had grabbed hold of his wrist and was leading him through the crowded streets, and skilfully navigating their way through the hundreds upon hundreds of passers-by, somehow not managing to crash into one of them.
Izuku had barely even had time to figure out that he was being dragged along before he suddenly found himself overwhelmed by loud noises, colourful lights, and blaring music. He almost felt like he was going to become, deaf, blind, and photosensitive epileptic all at once. Filling the room were old arcade machines, and a few slightly newer ones, but none of them were any younger than twenty years old, at the very least. Home entertainment systems had practically killed arcade machines, so it surprised Izuku that this place even existed. He couldn't deny his impress at the sheer number of the old devices here. Some were imported from American or German developers, and had terrible Japanese translations that bordered from functionally bad to downright hilariously awful.
He'd only managed to come to his senses when he found himself being placed in front of a two-player machine, that had two fairly large plastic guns in a metallic holster, located on his right hand side, Ashido on his left. The game that she had apparently selected for them was called, 'Time Bandits 2', a game the student had never even heard of.
"Challenge!" Ashido declared, her fist suddenly punching the air above her, and a grin on her face that gave Izuku a bad feeling about this game.
"Wh - What?"
"Person who gets the most points wins! The winner gets to make the loser do something, whatever the winners wants, just so long as it isn't dirty, 'kay?" She winked at Izuku, which sent the boy into a red mess.
"Y-you're kidding, right? I - I don't even know how this thing works!"
"Haven't you been to an arcade before, Midori?"
He hadn't. This was the first time he'd even come to such a place, and he had absolutely no idea how this sort of device even worked. He'd played a few video games, sure, but he wasn't exactly an active gamer. He'd play a few on his computer at home occasionally, but predictably, nearly all of them were Hero themed. He shook his head, indicating that he'd never done so before.
"It's easy. I'll explain it to ya." The pink girl pulled out the make-believe weapon from Izuku's side of the machine, a plastic assault rifle, modelled after the American M16, and threw it at him. "Catch!"
He tried, but instead, what should have been a smooth grab, ended up being him missing the weapon at the last second, and awkwardly bringing the gun into a hug, the butt of the rifle smacking him in the face. Ashido just laughed.
Izuku fumbled with the device, until he was holding it the right way, the shoulder guard pressed against his right shoulder, his finger around the trigger, and his left hand on the grip holder that was located further down the body of the weapon. "Okay, its real easy, Midori. Just point at the guy you wanna shoot and pull the trigger on your gun."
That sounded simple enough. The machine used motion detection software to track the movements of the rifle, and the trigger acted like a mouse button on a computer did, each pulling of the trigger being the equivalent to clicking the left mouse button to open up a new page. "Okay..."
"Okay, now, you see the metal bar by your feet?"
Looking down, Izuku saw what Ashido was referring to. It was a rectangular slab of metal with a foot inscription placed on it, shaped like that of a shoe. Multiple scratches across it indicated that the device had seen plenty of use over the course of its life. "Yeah?"
"You push on that with your foot to take cover. Take your foot off again to come out of cover. You avoid damage by taking cover, and the less damage you take, the more points you get. Got it?"
"I think so?..." It sounded a lot more like a question than it did confirmation that Izuku had even the slightest idea what he was doing. It sounded simple enough, but for someone who barely even knew about video games, it might as well have been spoken to him terribly cheesy English that the game was apparently written in.
Ashido inserted a few coins into the machine, and the starting screen faded and begun to play a small cinematic for a few seconds. From what little he was seeing, apparently the story was about either a drug cartel, a paramilitary, or a terrorist group, he honestly could not tell what they were supposed to be. Halfway through a line of dialogue though, Ashido mist have gotten bored and triggered the cut to gameplay. They'd suddenly gone from being in a warehouse to brightly coloured people shooting at them in the streets, and a car was being thrown at the two players! What was happening right now?! His floor slammed on the cover bar so hard for a second he thought he'd broken it.
Ashido was already racking up points, and lighting up pretty much anything that came up on screen! She was letting out a continuous yell, alongside a grin. She didn't seem to think much in terms of making her character take cover, instead relying on speed and her impressive reflexes to just batter through basically anything that came at her. Tactics and actions that Izuku would expect from someone like Bakugou, but it seemed to be working here.
Not wanting to lose the challenge that Ashido had declared, Izuku ran through what little he knew about the game. Point the gun at the enemies on the screen, and pull the trigger of the device in his hands. Avoid taking damage, and keep your score maximised.
He took his foot off the pedal, and took a few shots at the nearest target. All of them completely missed, but it gave him a better idea on the sort of accuracy that the weapons had. They were slightly skewered in terms of their line of sight, which made the shots lean to the right by about three centimetres. This information gathered, Izuku slammed his foot on the cover bar again to avoid taking damage.
By the time he'd done this, the camera of the game began to pan out onto the next area. Ashido had totally cleared the zone on her own! Her points were well over a thousand, while Izuku was still firmly on zero points! At this rate, he was bound to lose!
Deciding that he had to take action, he began to jump out of cover more and more, taking shots at whoever he could see, only firing off a few rounds before he ducked down again. His points began to slowly rise, catching up with Ashido's steadily.
All of a sudden, half of the screen became blood red, and a countdown timer began to count backwards from ten.
"Damn!" Ashido muttered, and slammed the start button again with her other hand. Izuku quickly realised that she had taken too much damage and her character had run out of lives. This resulted in a point penalty, which cut her score in half.
Their game continued like this for some time, Izuku playing tactically and being smart about what he did and when, only firing in short bursts to avoid taking too much damage, while Ashido was just going full on Rambo, and kept losing all of the lives that they shared. When Izuku finally took too much damage, he wasn't able to revive his character, since Ashido had used up all five lives that they had.
The final result revealed that, despite never having used one of these machines in his life, Izuku had won, by about two and a half thousand points. He was as surprised as Ashido was, his mouth dropping when he realised that he'd utterly crushed her score, and then some. His score even got onto the leader boards, placing in at rank seven.
"Damn, nice work, Midori." Ashido whistled. "Didn't expect that from you."
"Did - Did you pick this game because you thought you'd have a home field advantage or something?" Izuku questioned as he placed the device back into its place. A sly look from Ashido confirmed that she had indeed chosen the game expecting to utterly obliterate the awkward teenager. "That's a little... Dishonest."
He made a tone that couldn't decide if it was disappointed in Ashido's craftiness, or amusement that he'd beaten her at her own game. Despite the ulterior motive for having picked this game, he wouldn't deny that he'd had a ton of fun. For one of the first times in his life, he didn't feel like weak, pathetic, Quirkless Deku. He was just having fun!
"Well, a deals a deal." Ashido said, stretching her arms forward. "You beat me, fair 'n square. What's your favour?"
Blinking twice, Izuku remembered the bet Ashido had declared, that he'd never actually agreed to. He'd managed to forget about it during the rush of gameplay they had experienced. Since he was victorious, according to the rules set by his classmate, he had the power to ask Ashido to do one thing that she'd have to comply with.
He had an idea on what he'd want... But was unsure to ask of it. Was it really fair to ask her? Izuku was the kind of person who disliked the prospect of causing inconvenience to other people wherever he could help it, so a big part of him didn't want to ask... But...
"...So... You have to do whatever I ask?"
"Just so long as you don't plan on taking advantage of me~"
Ignoring her comment, he bit his lower lip lightly. "I kinda wanna -"
Before he could finish the statement he was making, both the ground and the floor began to shake, like an earthquake was going off, but to a far more limited degree. Lights dimmed and brightened periodically, and the metallic clanking of the decades old machines could be heard, as multiple people attempted to duck and cover. The sudden vibrations throughout the ground caught both the Yuuei totally unaware, and both of them lost their balance. Izuku was able to catch hold of the arcade machine that they had just been playing on to stop his fall, whereas Ashido was less lucky, and wound up being knocked straight onto the floor.
"Ashido-san!" Izuku disregarded the tremors, although they were now less violent than they had been just a few seconds ago, and went to help Ashido up, grabbing her hand and pulling her upright. "Are you alright?!"
"I think so... Was that an earthquake?"
"I don't think so, they normally last longer..." The formerly Quirkless boy disagreed with the suggestion of the pink girl. He took his hand from hers and bit down on his lower lip as he contemplated what possibilities existed. An earthquake was illogical since, by Tokyo standards, it was incredibly tame, and lasted such a short frame of time, and he outlined construction work because they would have had to inform any people or establishments about the tremors so that they could warn their customers. Therefore... "I think it might have been recoil from an impact of some kind!" As he spoke, he was already making his way out the door to the arcade corner, wanting to get a better look at the effects that the quake had had on the streets.
A scene not abnormal to Tokyo, but still a concerning one, awaited Izuku and Ashido once they threw the doors to the games corner aside.
In their society, people who had no idea how to control their Quirks, the mentally unstable, or just the plain crazy, would occasionally lash out at their fellow citizens, causing untold damage to the city and the population. This was just another example of a person letting loose with their powers, not at all an uncommon thing in the country's capital city. This one was a bit different however.
Izuku recognised the aggressor.
That day that he and Ashido had been on the train together, he had been casually browsing his phones news application whenever there was a lull in the conversation. One of those articles had focused on a Villain who had eluded capture from the Heroes and Villain Custody Force due to a Quirk that made his body into grass, and allowed its user to control said plant life, extending his limbs and using them to enwrap objects around him, constrict them, and various other uses that such an unusual ability would allow. The media had taken to calling him 'Overgrow'.
And right now, he was going on an absolute rampage. For what reason that was, Izuku couldn't guess, but the reason wasn't important.
What was important was the fact a grass-man was totalling a street right in front of him and Ashido. That was the issue here.
The Villain had an eerie arrangement of dead grass, and bright, very much alive grass inter-winded and sticking out, creating one of the most terrifyingly creepy smiles that either of the students had ever seen. The limbs he had were flexible, and apparently incredibly strong, despite inherently having no muscle structure whatsoever, as he was able to lift a car into the air, and toss it aside like a toy rattle for a young child, and seem to have about as much difficulty as one. Said car wound up through the window of an apartment complex which was, hopefully, uninhabited at the current time. "Come and get me, Heroes!"
Either the guy was escaping Heroes, could not handle the power his Quirk gave him, or he was completely insane. Those were the only options Izuku was seeing here. There was one detail in this scene that lead the Hero admirer to the latter conclusions.
There wasn't a single Hero to be seen. Anywhere. Everyone was either running away in a blind panic, had already gotten away in the initial rush, was hiding, or was the Villain.
As far as Izuku could tell, the closest people to Heroes here...
Were him and Ashido.
"Midori!" Suddenly, Ashido's voice interrupted the analysing student, breaking him out of his observations. He could tell by the look on her face that she was uneasy about the current situation, which was understandable. Anyone who had no experience with Villains would be terrified, and rightly so. But they had. She wasn't scared, but uncomfortable. He'd pulled him behind a car, keeping them out of the line of sight of the destructive plant creature. "We should go, let the Pro's deal with this guy!"
A part of Izuku did agree. This guy in particular seemed to be in possession of an extraordinarily strong Quirk, and to top that off, he was just lashing out, which indicated towards mental instability, or Quirk mentality. Against someone like this, their chances weren't exactly great. Not to mention, without an official source allowing them to act, they could be tried as criminals for acting outside the law. But the bigger part of the green haired altruist refused.
"There aren't any Pro's nearby, and I don't think they're gonna be able to get here before this guy hurts someone." Finding his hand had already made a fist, he realised that once again, this was a case of his body having made the move before his brain had even sent the signal to it. He'd already had his course planned out before he'd even thought of a plan. He slipped himself out of his jacket, tossing it to the side of the pavement where it hopefully wouldn't get damaged.
"What're you, suggesting we do something about this?!" Shock evident in the girl's voice, mixed with disbelief, and just a hint of admiration. "H-How the heck would we even do anything?!"
"His body's made up of grass, and plant life..." As Izuku said this, the Villain Overgrow lashed out at a nearby gaggle of civilians, just narrowly scratching one of them with a blade of grass that could be called his left hand. "His body constricts, and lets him extend up to ten meters... In the moments his body's extended, the rest of his body is acting like a spring, straining meet the requirements to allow the body to stretch the way it does... If there was an additional force applied to that spring, or something weakened the body, it wouldn't be able to hold its form. It'd either try... Or it would snap." He muttered basic physics to himself as he revised what his options were. He had One For All, and Ashido had her Acid. He had a plan, but... "Ashido," In the heat of the situation, he completely forgot to add the 'san' to the end of her name, "I have an idea, but I need you to help."
"Just tell me what you need. I trust you." Ashido nodded, letting him know that she was ready to help him out.
"If I use my Quirk, there's a huge risk I'll damage myself. Since this guy has a plant-like body, any damage I do to that state could be absorbed, or he could at least negate most of it. So I'd be out of commission and I wouldn't have been able to do anything." The sound if another car shattering into another window, this one far closer to their location, made Izuku press the matter faster. "I need you to hit the guy with your Acid - As much as you can! Doesn't matter where, I just need you to weaken him! Once you do that, I should be able to hit him and make it count!"
"Okay!" There wasn't any hesitation in her voice, nor way there any worry. She meant it. She trusted Izuku. She trusted that this plan would work, because from what she'd seen, and what she knew of him, he wouldn't let her down. She built up acid in her palms, small droplets dripping from his fingers and eroding into the tarmac road.
Plan ready, and the pieces put together, Izuku peeked at the grass Villain, who he found himself referring to by his media name in his head. Overgrow was smashing a hole into a wall of some description, belonging to what looked to be an advertising company. 'Insane then. Alright...' Regardless of that, he was distracted. It was a good time to attack!
"Okay, Ashido! Quickly, go now!"
Despite what her appearance may deceive someone to think, Ashido was, in actuality, rather fast on her feet, even without the use of her Quirk. Her legs were toned, a clear result of her hours upon hours of exploring every nook and cranny of everything around her with her contagious enthusiasm and curiosity. Combine that with her ability to utilise her acid in a manner similar to that of ice skating, and she could take off like a bullet, even without a running start. She'd kicked off the shoes and socks she'd worn, and made a beeline straight for Overgrow, her arm practically covered in her highly corrosive liquids.
Unfortunately, she wasn't in the least bit camouflaged. Her clothing helped, but bright pink against the greys of the urban landscape did nothing but contrast, making her incredibly easy to spot to someone with even limited peripheral vision. Overgrow spotted her coming about three seconds after she'd darted out of cover. Since her Quirk was equally as unsubtle, the Villain was quickly able to deduce her goal. He wasn't mentally stable, but that didn't make him stupid by any stretch of the imagination. "Not happening, Pinky!"
"Ashido!" Izuku called out, already running out of cover to follow her. "On your right!"
Reflexes akin to a cat, Ashido's eyes shot in the called direction, to see three separate vines, all dark green in their colouring, approaching her at high speeds. The girl reacted quickly, her arm throwing an uppercut filled with acid at the vines. Upon contact, they withered away and died, dissolving into nothingness.
Not that the barrage ended with those three. Next up came a salvo from up front, with more vines coming each with a different target - One for the head, another for the arm, and two for each of her legs. It was now a display of skill for Ashido, whom ducked deep when one came swinging for her head, and skidded right underneath it like a high speed game of limbo. Skiing left, she avoided a swipe for her arm, and then leaped up high, avoiding the collective four vines trying to trip her up, and as she gained height, she managed to use her momentum to perform a backflip mid-air, while still building up a concentration of growingly corrosive acid.
Izuku had to give full credit - That was incredible.
Her hand was now full of the dangerous substance her body secreted from her skin, and as she fell, she threw the acid at Overgrow, at the fullest force her body could muster. Her hit ended up injuring the main meet up point of all the grass, so it had to be the body. The reaction she got from the Villain made her grin in satisfaction, for a few brief, glorious seconds. "Guuuh! You little bitch!"
Those short but sweet moments were cut short by a vine striking out, slamming itself right into Ashido's stomach with the force of a baseball bat. The strike knocked the air right out of her, causing her to gag, before being propelled down the street, tossed aside like a rag-doll.
"Ashido!" Izuku wanted to stop charging, to activate One For All, to spring to grab her, and to make sure she was okay, but he knew unless he fulfilled his part of the plan, their efforts would have been an absolute waste. She'd cleared the path for him, she'd done her job, more than he could have asked her to do. He had to make sure that this work didn't go to waste.
Moving as fast as his legs would allow him to, Izuku darted past the vines that attempted to rectify themselves, to no avail. He followed the acid trail Ashido had left for him, even leaving him a cleaned route to follow, before he would up right next to Overgrow, the rampaging madman not noticing him until it was too late to do anything about the boy. "Damn!"
The power began to surge straight through Izuku's body, the feeling of eight wielders of this awesome power adding their own strength into the mix, combined with his own physical prowess, run straight through the veins of his left arm. The sheer power tore apart the left side of his t-shirt, causing a huge tear from his arm hole to his neck hole, revealing his impressive array of muscles.
No time to focus in on his finger. This was all or nothing.
'Remember the adhesion test!' His brain screamed at him. 'Remember the egg in the microwave! Put the two together, and you'll get...' He steeled himself, his open palm reaching, reaching... And by just a hair, he felt his middle finger, his longest finger, press against the grassy body of Overgrow. 'Now!'
"Oregon..." His arm was now straining against the distance between him and his limb as he took a step forward. With a final yell, he swing him arm around, like he was throwing a hook, only with an open hand. "...Smash!" Izuku roared the name of the technique he used, mimicking All Might to a rather accurate degree, and forced every inch of the power he could muster to expel from his hand, and send a ginormous shockwave into the Villains body.
The grassy body was not dealt to deal with such sheer power from such a Quirk. With his body weakened thanks to the effects of Ashido's Quirk, the spring analogy came full in its entirety, as the body that Overgrow had simply could not withstand the impact.
Much like a spring, his body snapped, and exploded, sending mulch and compost like remains everywhere, along the roads, stuck to the sides of buildings, and the grassy limbs that once made up Overgrow's main attacking methods slumped down, leaving Izuku the only one standing.
It stung, but Izuku's arm hadn't broken, and how this was, he couldn't even begin to guess. The first time had been at the USJ, and it had happened again against Todoroki, and now here...
He didn't focus on this fact for too long, only noticing it when a gust of cold wind shot up the left side of his body. One of the green haired boy's favourite shirts now was essentially ripped in two, but he didn't care right now. He looked around rapidly, before he spotted the girl he was supposed to be here with. "Ashido-san!"
She'd propped herself up against a wall, clutching her stomach. She was winded, but there wasn't anything majorly wrong with her. Looking at her classmate, she was able to smile, and give him a breathless thumbs up. 'Knew you'd win, Midori.'
Izuku skidded to a halt next to her, to see what was wrong with her, the concern for her clear in the actions he took, the ways his face was, and how gentle he was when he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Ashido-san, are you alright?!"
"I-I'm fine, Midori... Just... A little.. Hard to breathe right now..." She struggled to keep up her chipper attitude, but she did so with a brave face indeed, still showing a pained grin.
What was a surprise to her, and she made sure she took note of it, because hot damn - was that Midori was freaking well built! With his shirt half destroyed, she was able to glimpse at about half his torso and chest since he hadn't bothered to cover them up before making his way over here. She knew that he was stronger than he appeared, and while she accepted that, she had no idea that he was this well-toned! He was freaking ripped! The sheer number of muscles that he had, and that he somehow still managed to look so innocent, so universally bland otherwise... It marked the first time all day Ashido had genuinely blushed. "I-I just need a minute..." She took advantage to sketch the image of this into her mind, because holy crap, was this something she needed to remember, if only to remember what the physical personification of contrast was.
As the two spoke, Izuku trying to help Ashido to her feet, and Ashido still trying to fill her lungs with much needed oxygen, they hardly paid any attention to the remains of Overgrow, the dirt, the compost, and the grass, all moving, recollecting itself into one pile, not too far away from the location of the young students. Small bit by bit, the Villain's body began to repair itself, each segment coming back to life with each chunk of mud and dirt that joined the amalgamation of grass and compost.
Neither of them noticed before they were in a position to not do anything about it.
"You sure you're alright?" Izuku asked as he and Ashido walked, allowing her to have her arm wrapped around his neck to use as support. Normally, this would have embarrassed him to no end, but with the adrenaline still pumping, he was numbed to it, instead focusing in getting a regular breathing pace going again.
"I'm fine... Don't worry." Ashido told him for the third time with a small laugh, amused by the concern he was showing.
"You should worry!"
The rebuilt corpse of Overgrow burst from its hiding spot, having fully repaired the damage previously done to it. The Quirk Overgrow had was called Compost, which allowed his body to act in a way similar to that of a sentient pile of said Quirk, including the ability to not be defeated by simply being shredded apart.
Now, he towered above Izuku and Ashido, his body fixed, and his weapons primed, he came crashing down upon them, ready to rip them apart, limb from limb. The pair looked on in abject horror when they saw the incoming attack, with no way of dodging, or getting out of the way, or countering in time anymore - Overgrow was in just too close! "What now, you little bastards?!"
Had he been one second earlier, he would have crushed the two of them.
"Lacquered Chains Prison!"
A split second later, a huge slab of perfectly refined wood began to entrap Overgrow, suddenly bursting out from each and every direction around the Plant Type Quirk user. "No!"
Shooting his vines in all directions, hoping to make some sort of escape, was a desperate last bid for freedom, but not one that proved to be fruitful in the slightest. The vines were utterly crushed, stopping any prayer that they had of grappling the now totally trapped Villain away to safety.
"Unauthorised use of Quirk during the work hours, endangering of civilians, and huge damage to public property." A Hero Izuku recognised, who he would have previously begun to gush over, revealed himself from behind the newly created wooden prison. Kamui Woods, the young, and relatively new Hero who had already built up a huge name for himself for his tenacity and dedication to the public good when Izuku first saw him in action. Over the past year, he had continued to cement his name in the minds of the citizens of Tokyo. He threw an insult to Overgrow while he was trapped. "You make me feel disgusted at myself for even sharing a Plant Type Quirk with you."
Their knees weak from relief, Izuku and Ashido both collapsed to their knees once again. That had been close. Way, way too close. In spite of that, Ashido was able to laugh, while still letting tears of sheer relief roll down her cheeks. How she was able to keep her spirits so high amazed Izuku, who couldn't help but join her in her laughter.
"You two kids alright?" The Lumber Quirk user asked, as he separated his body from the prison he had made, leaving Overgrow to be taken away as soon as the Villain Custody Force arrived. Now, he would do damage control, and make sure the civilians around him were okay, starting with the two right in front of him.
"We're - we're fine, thank you!" Izuku would have bowed to show his gratitude, but had to settle with nodding his head, since he couldn't stand upright. Ashido gave a thumbs up to the Pro Hero, signifying her well-being.
Normally, Kamui would have left it at that, instructing them to vacate the area and seek medical attention if required. But he recognised Izuku, and was suddenly armed with a list of questioned as long as his Lumber Quirk would reach. "You again!..."
"H - Huh?!"
"You're that kid who ran at the Sludge Villain a year ago, aren't you? I would have thought you'd learned your lesson after that, but apparently you've started making a habit of it." Kamui would have torn into Izuku right then and there, berating him on how civilians, especially ones who lacked any power whatsoever, shouldn't be charging at Villains they would only endanger their lives against by trying to stop them, but this was before he noticed the tear in Izuku's shirt, the vary of muscles, and a slight bruise to his arm. "What happened to your arm? Were you injured?"
Izuku followed the Pro Hero's line of sight, and shook his head. "N - No! T - This is... This is from my own Quirk."
Kamui suddenly cocked a lodge of wood around his eye up, to look like he was raising a quizzical eyebrow at the stuttering boy. He had a very good memory, and he remembered the day that Izuku had charged at the Sludge Villain well. Though he had been on rescue duty, keeping the civilians safe from the flames let loose by Bakugou's Explosions, he had joined the other Heroes in berating Izuku for his foolhardiness, and he remembered what Izuku had answered when asked exactly. "I thought you said you didn't have a Quirk?"
'Crap!' Izuku shot a glance towards the classmate knelt by him, who was looking at him with a look he couldn't describe. Confusion? Intrigue? Damnation? Pity? He didn't know. But this was bad.
"I - I meant that I - I - I couldn't use my Q - Quirk, s - since if I did, I would - would have just injured myself! I - I didn't want you Heroes to have to worry about me being injured a - and in your way, e - even if I sort of was in your way anyway, but - "
"Okay, alright, okay." Kamui looked around the area, seeing the damage caused, not a single doubt that it was all caused by the Villain he had just imprisoned, judging by how many vines, blades of grass, and leaves covered the area of impact. Yet on closer inspection, he was able to see the effects of Ashido's Quirk, melted tarmac, droplets eroded holes around the place, and singed cars. Had these two not interfered, the damage could have been worse, and Kamui knew this perfectly well... "Technically I should be arresting both of you for acting without a Provisional License... But considering that the damage would have been worse if you didn't act, I'm willing to let this slide, but you should leave the area. Immediately. This is now a crime scene."
The warning to leave before more Pro Heroes or the police showed up came clear as crystal to both Izuku and Ashido, whom thanked the man quickly, and, once Izuku had run to grab his jacket so as not to be wandering the streets exposing half of his torso, dashed off into the crowds of Tokyo, blending in with the rest of society, whom would never know what they had just done, and how a Hero had let them get away with it.
There wasn't really a way to go back to normal after what they had just gone through an hour earlier. They'd tried to continue as they would have, Ashido showing Izuku a few more places around this particular section of the largest metropolitan city in the world, but the reality was, neither of them could get into it that much. After fighting a Villain, narrowly avoiding arrest because they ran into one of the few Pro's who would let them get away with it, everything else throughout the day felt just less. Less exciting. Less impressive. Just less.
To Ashido's credit, she still tried, announcing the names of stores and locations that could only be matched if fanfare was released each time she spoke. And Izuku did try to be enthusiastic, he listened to what she had to say about each store and sight, and he did whatever Ashido suggested... But neither of them could really muster the real energy for it.
By the time they had decided that maybe it was time to call it a day, it was about five in the afternoon. They'd spent a collective four hours together, and ran into the Villain by the second. At least it was an even split between genuine enjoyment and a forced march to try and go back to normal.
Both of them made their way to the subway station once again, where Ashido declared her intention to go with Izuku to his stop before catching the train from there back home. Their spirits raised a bit, they were able to at least laugh about the Villain encounter a little.
"Oregon Smash!" The pink girl loudly yelled, mimicking Izuku's move. To an outsider, she looked like an All Might admirer who wasn't afraid to flaunt her obsession with her idol, even if that wasn't the truth here. "Ha! You copied All Might for that move, didn't you!"
"I - I just thought it would work..." Izuku nervously laughed.
"Don't be modest, Midori! Even if you did steal All Might's move, it was still awesome!"
"I - I didn't steal it!"
"You sound defensive for someone who didn't steal anything!"
"I - !"
"No way. Deku?!"
Hearing that name, that demeaning name from anyone other than Uraraka, filled Izuku with dread, replacing the joy he was feeling. He recognised that voice, even if he hadn't heard it for a few months. He'd hoped he wouldn't hear it from any of those voices again, dealing with it from Bakugou was bad enough.
Turning his head to face them, sure enough, there the two of them were. Two of the worst culprits of his bullying throughout middle school.
Hitokura Kokeha, and Yuhando Kemuri. Both were dressed in the same school uniform, them both attending a school that was locally found around this ward of Tokyo. A step down to their goals of entering Yuuei. That was definitive. Their clothing was nearly all black, not too unlike their middle school ones. Hitokura's hair was still a black mess of a do, bordering curly and spiky at the same time, and from what little glance Izuku could get, his teeth still sharper than kitchen knives. Yuhando's blond, straight hair was still parted and both sides, keeping his lazy looking eyes clear, and his massively extended fingers still swayed side to side, as was his habit.
Both of them, along with Bakugou, had been the absolute hell of Izuku growing up. Had he lived an ideal life, Izuku would have never run into the two of them again, for as long as he lived, and even beyond that if possible.
"Holy crap, it is Deku!" Yuhando was clearly as surprised as Hitokura was, his eyes wider than they normally were. He waved over to the green haired former classmate, in a manner that could even be considered friendly. "Hey, Deku, over here!"
Izuku shot glances between the two, and then to Ashido, who was looking confused, and rested her hand on her now cocked up hip. He didn't want this to become an issue, a concern, anything that involved Ashido in something that she didn't need to be involved in. He bit the bullet, swallowed hard, and made the most awkward motion that could be considered a wave he'd ever done in his life. "H-Hi guys!"
"They friends of yours?" Ashido asked.
"Old classmates." He replied. These people were in no way his friends. Right now he was steeling himself for one of the most horrible encounters of the day. Could he go back to Overgrow? He'd prefer dealing with Overgrow.
Both the students walked over and proceeded to playfully punch Izuku's shoulders, which did make him very clearly flinch, but the action left him feeling very, very confused. Hitokura laughed, his Sharp Tooth Quirk making the sharp teeth Eijirou had look blunt in comparison. "Hah, still jumpy as ever, eh?"
"I - I guess so."
"You actually got into Yuuei with Bakugou, didn't you?" Yuhando inquired, one of his extended fingers going past Izuku's shoulder and pointing towards Ashido. "That where the girls from? I feel like I recognise her..."
"I'm right here, you know." Ashido responded, not impressed that she was just being completely overlooked in the conversation. Bad enough she hadn't been introduced, worse still that they hadn't thought to speak to her when she was right there. "Yes, I'm from Yuuei. Ashido Mina. I'm one of Midori's classmates."
"Midori?" Hitokura smirked at the nickname, and muttered something quietly to Izuku. "Damn, first you get into Yuuei, and next time we see you, you've got a girl? I underestimated you, Deku."
"That - That is not w - what this is!" Izuku insisted furiously, pushing past the two of his former classmates, convinced that this was some sort or plan to mess with him. "A - Ashido-san, if we don't hurry we're gonna miss our train!"
Although she honestly had no clue what was even going on anymore, she took the hint, and quickly made her way around the two teenagers and re-joining Izuku's side.
They would have been able to get away, and Izuku would have quickly begun answering any and all questions - Far away - that he knew Ashido would be armed with, if he hadn't been called back.
"Hey, Deku!"
"Y-Yeah?"
"I'm sorry."
A pause. Izuku blinked twice, processing what he'd just heard Hitokura say to him. This actually caused him to turn a full one-hundred-and-eighty degrees to see the Sharp Tooth Quirk user with his head bowed, Yuhando'a also lowered in what he could only describe as shame.
"Wh-What?" Words weren't coming to Izuku's brain. Communication suddenly became lost to him, and he had no idea how to speak. "Wh-What for?"
"Middle school. Bakugou. I'm sorry. What we did wasn't right. We shouldn't have been such jerks to you just 'cause you were Quirkless. We saw you during the Sports Festival, and you were freaking awesome, and we're stuck in some garbage high school a few miles from here, while you're at Yuuei."
"Plus, your Quirk is awesome. I dunno why you wouldn't use it against us. I kinda wish you had done." Yuhando added on. "We were terrible to you. Really, we're sorry."
Maturity. A willingness to accept their faults, and a desire to apologise for what they had done made Izuku honestly forget everything that they had done to him. He just really, really, really wished Ashido hadn't heard that. The look she gave him made him sweat buckets, and he stammered, bit his own tongue, and forced out whatever sentences he had to get this topic the hell out of her head. "It - It - It's totally fine! D-Don't worry a-about it, really! B-But we r-really do have to get going now! B-bye!" He grabbed Ashido by the wrist and began sprinting away from his former classmates, leaving them totally bewildered.
'I thought you didn't have a Quirk.'
'We shouldn't have been such jerks to you just 'cause you were Quirkless.'
These sentences rung though Mina's head, over and over and over, like a gong had just gone off in her head. Izuku hadn't spoken a single word since he'd grabbed her by the wrist and began to lead her away.
She knew something wasn't right. And she wanted to know what it was. But at the same time, she knew it wasn't her business. If Midoriya has things he wanted to keep secret, then it was his right to keep them secret... But... No. Mina wanted to know. she wanted to know why her friend was lying to her.
Waiting until there was no one around, Mina ripped her wrist from Izuku's grip. 'This place will do.'
"O - Oh! S-Sorry, Ashido-san, I-I've been dragging you all this time, huh? I-I'm really sorr-"
"Midoriya." Mina firmly stated his full name.
Izuku froze. What had happened to Midori?
"I didn't want to bring it up since I didn't think you were comfortable with the subject... But Midoriya, I need you to explain something to me."
"Wh-What?"
"Bakugou. Kamui. Those two people who you used to go to school with... Why did they all call you Quirkless? I mean, you clearly have a Quirk, and it's a freakin' incredible one!"
His eyes widened, and his heart slammed against his chest faster. 'Crap.'
"I can understand Kamui thinking you were Quirkless. Your reasons for not using your Quirk in that - Sludge monster thing? That's a whole other question - but that logic was solid. I never understood why Bakugou called you a 'Quirkless Runt'. Every time someone even brings up your Quirk, he goes ballistic. But again, I accepted that because you'd know him for years. I just assumed you never showed him, and he thought your Quirk was just having six toes or something... But your old classmates... They apologised for bullying you 'When you were Quirkless'?..." Looking at her now, Izuku could see that Mina wasn't judging him. She wasn't making fun of him. She was genuinely, honestly hurt. It looked like tears had been stung with the droplets of tears, shimmers once again in her black sclera, but this time, from sadness. What had caused such concern? Why did she care so much?... "And when I think about how strange your Quirk is, how it breaks you when you use it... How you avoid using it whenever you can, like it's a last resort... But how it sometimes works?... I... We're friends, aren't we, Midoriya?..."
He blushed lightly, but he nodded. He liked to think he was a friend to everyone in Class 1A. He wanted to be friends with everyone there. He was even fully prepared to be the shoulder Bakugou cried on if he ever needed it. He liked Ashido, and he did consider her to be a friend.
"Then please... What's going on?"
He could lie.
And he knew that really, he should lie to her. To insist that he'd just hidden his Quirk, that Bakugou was telling the truth when he said he'd hidden it from the Explosive boy, and every one of his classmates. To insist that his Quirk just naturally broke his bones, and that was why he didn't use it as leisurely as everyone else in their class did. To turn back around and walk away.
But he didn't want to.
Ashido was stood right there, and had asked him the question that no one else had, and was doing it with tears in her eyes, despite barely even knowing the guy. She was showing such real care for him, and wanted to know the truth about Midoriya Izuku.
She'd know he was lying if he did. And he doubted that she'd forgive him if he did. And part of him wanted to tell her. He was tired, tired of hiding this secret from other people, tired of having to lie about the origins of his power. He hated doing it. He felt dirty every single time he lied through his back teeth to his friends, to his mother, to every single person he met.
But he'd promised All Might. The person who this power belonged to. The person who had given him the ability to achieve the dreams that had been out of reach, unattainable, for so, so, so long" the man he admired and respected. His Hero.
And he wouldn't break that promise.
He found himself torn, between the man who was the symbol of what Izuku wanted to become, and the girl in front of him who was begging to know.
He couldn't tell her the truth... But he wouldn't lie to her either.
"...The truth is... When I applied for Yuuei... I did actually think I was Quirkless... In fact... No, I was Quirkless." When Mina looked up at him, he continued. "That Sludge Villain was someone who had hijacked Kacchan's body... And I ran out to save him... But I didn't have any powers. No fire breath. No Telekinesis. No Acid. No Tail. No Explosions... No sixth toe... Just plain me. I hadn't felt a surge of my power in... My entire life. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to activate it... I was just... Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless Runt. When Kacchan calls me that... He wasn't wrong... Isn't wrong."
He'd thought he'd managed to get those ideas out of his head, that he'd earned his place at Yuuei, that he wasn't the Deku who was a punching bag... But he knew the real truth. That he wasn't there because of his own strength. He was only there because of his borrowed strength. Suddenly, his insecurities, his worries, his guilt they all came tumbling out before he could catch his jaw to stop them. "When the written test finished, and we started the Physical test... I didn't get a single Villain point. I couldn't. How could someone like me... Worthless 'Deku'... Even get a single point? You know how tough they were... But... I was in the same testing grounds as Uraraka... And she got stuck... Those huge things, the Zero pointers... One of them was gonna run her over.
And then... The next thing I knew, I was fifty feet in the air, with two broken legs and a broken arm, and the Zero pointet had a gaping hole in the front... That was... Is, the only reason they even let me into Yuuei."
Mina almost looked like she was about to what, Izuku couldn't tell. "Y-You're telling me... You actually applied to the biggest Hero Academy in the country, knowing how brutal that the entry exam was... When you were... Quirkless?..."
Izuku nodded, trying to weakly smile. "Kacchan, Aizawa-sensei... Even... Even All Might said that I shouldn't be at a Hero Academy... And... They... They're right." Tears were forming in Izuku's hyperactive ducts, particularly when he remembered how All Might had told him he hadn't thought he could be a Hero in their first meeting. Sure, he'd changed his mind about that, and bestowed his Quirk onto him to make it happen... But the memory of the initial rejection was still a wound in Izuku's mind. "I haven't had long to learn how my Quirk works... I was just lucky. Stupidly, stupidly lucky.."
"...Back there, with that Plant Villain... That was you, Midori." Mina told him, adding on her nickname for him again. "It doesn't matter how long you've had your Quirk... You're using it to help people. That's what we're learning to do, isn't it?..." She couldn't help but smile, and dry her eyes. "You went to apply for Yuuei even when you didn't think you had ny powers! You still wanted to try! That just... Incredible in itself!... You're gonna be a great Hero, Midori! You're gonna be the best!"
Hearing those kind words, Izuku lost it, and had to block his eyes from sight and allow his jacket to absorb the tears that would have rolled down his face. He hadn't even known Ashido for that long... And she was telling him the words he'd only ever heard from one other person. The words he longed to hear. He had to apologize for losing his composure in front of her, he quickly realized. "S-Sorry... Ashido-san, sorry..."
Mina shook her head and smiled. "I guess it explains why you wound up being so timid with a Quirk like that." She waited for him to compose himself, and suggested that they made their way to the train station, so Izuku wouldn't have to awkwardly stand staring at her with red eyes. "That reminds me, actually, Midori... You never told me what your favor was."
"My - My what?"
"For winning the challenge at the arcade. We got interrupted by that Villain before you could tell me what you wanted from me."
Izuku sniffled and blinked. He'd totally forgotten about that. Originally, his favour had been to play another game with her, since he'd been enjoying himself to much during that session, but that moment had long since passed... But it didn't take him long to think of another.
"O-Oh... Um... I know!"
"Go for it."
"M-My favour... I... I want us to do this again sometime. I-I had.., A lot of fun today... A-And I'd like to keep doing that..."
Mina just smirked, and faced forward, away from Izuku.
"I-If you're... Okay... W-with that I mean. I-I don't want to inconvenience you, Ashido-san s-so if you don't want - "
"Wellllllll, I don't have a choice, do I?" Mina giggled to herself, playfully punching Izuku's shoulder. "Sure, we can do this again. We kind of got our day interrupted earlier, didn't we?" Not even bothering to keep it a secret, Mina was so happy to heard her friend's request, she would have done a small dance if she hadn't needed to correct him on one thing. "By the way, Midori, just one thing!"
"Y-Yes?"
"Do something for me? Open up your phone?" After looking at Mina like she'd grown an extra head, Izuku reached for his phone, which had remained untouched for the entire day, inside his jacket's pocket. "Go into your contacts?" He did so."Now, what do you see?"
"...My contacts list?"
"Any names specifically?"
"Y-Yours..."
"And what's it named as?"
"Mina..."
She patted his shoulder and gave him her trademark smile. "That's my name, not 'Ashido-san'. Call me Mina, 'kay, Midori?