Chapter Text
"Yes, I see..." The man in the black uniform of Aldera Junior High reading the papers of students and their respective applications to alternative high schools spoke, discounting a few papers and set them on the mahogany office desk before him. "Alright class, it's that time of your lives when you must fill out these applications, to see what school you were to be sent to and for what purposes you will mold your life into." The man's glasses reflected the glare of sunlight coming through the large windows to his right hiding his eyes. The numerous students sat staring at the teacher, some with a smirk, some with a nervous shake, and most with bright smiles. The teacher suddenly grinned, and tossed the large stack of papers up into the air obscuring the vision of everyone into choppy scenes and dropped the serious tone he once applied. "Oh screw it, we all know you all want to be heroes!" A cheer from the students suddenly standing on their own desks, showing off their quirks. One holding the retinas of his eyes impossibly extended out of his head. Another whose hair and hands turned into rock. One even exhaling a small fire. All but two students broke out in a celebratory cheer. One with semi-spiky, ashen-blonde hair sneered as he tipped his chair in perfect equilibrium with legs crossed upon his desk.
"Hey teach, don't lump me in with these posers! We all know I'm gonna be the best hero here." The blonde gave a shit-eating smirk emanating his smugness. With his declaration of narcissism followed shouts of argumentative protests ranging from conflicting opposition to a confirmation of his superiority.
"That's right. You're going to try to enter Yuuei, aren't you Bakugou?" The teacher reminded nonchalantly, making a certain broccoli-haired student perk his head up with wide eyes. Don't say it, don't say it!
"Exactly! I'll be a bigger hero than All Might himself," The boy stated as-a-matter-of-factually, "No one will beat me! My legacy will be legendary. Coming from this backwater school of extras and rising up to become the sole student who made it to Yuuei where my talents will grow and be admired by even the best pro-heroes!" Now he is leaned forward standing with arms pillared to his desk to support himself with ruby eyes staring in front of him only to his bright angelic future pertaining to heroism without any reason to look back, except-
"Oh, that's right. Midoriya aren't you also applying to Yuuei?" The teacher inquired, watching the green hair and green-eyed boy recoil from the gazes befalling him. A roar of laughter and shouts of amusement force young Izuku to gaze back down at the paper which landed on his desk. He did not care what everyone else thought, except for Kacchan. Even now an intense and dangerous gaze bore through Izuku from next to the windows. The rest of the period went by after an eternity of quips and celebratory jokes in response to their heroic dreams. However, Izuku planned on leaving with the rest of his class once class was disbanded for the day, only to realize he ignored the ruckus too well. Only he and his torturer were left. It seemed as if hours went by that he stared at the blonde through the flooding orange glow of the afternoon sun only for his head to turn. Ruby eyes meeting those of emerald.
Crap! Izuku jerked up and swiped his things into his arms before turning towards the door, only for a strong grasp to envelop his right shoulder and shove him back against the wall. He gripped tightly onto his supplies and notebooks for his head thumped softly--but still painfully--against the vertically flat surface. Deep ruby eyes of a deeply disturbed Katsuki Bakugou filled his vision. A sensation and sudden animalistic fear that this predator will sink his fangs into and rip apart his being. A gaze only amused by the fact droplets of a leaky fluid were gathering to meet at the corners of the emerald eyes. The hateful glare of a challenged lion lightened. He's playing with his food. The dangerous eyes suddenly closed, then opened again. The rage earlier is now closed off from the world. A playful smirk dances upon Katsuki's lips. "Damn nerd. You're nothing. A nobody. A quirkless Deku. So why don't you pull your stupid submission out, and leave it?" He questioned, and his voice raising slowly in an annoyed tone as if keeping his rage in check as if he's saving Izuku from his own wrath.
"I-I...," Izuku whimpered at the burning sensation slowly growing from an ember within his shoulder. What else can he say? "I want to... be a h-hero too...." He slowly looked to his shoulder, a hole burnt through his uniform with a small black smoke drifting skyward from Katsuki's hand on it. This has been going on for so long. He's not nothing!
"Look you damn brat," the danger within the rubies flared for a moment, "I'm going to be the hero. Don't go to Yuuei. You'll ruin the legacy I'm making now."
"I-I can go into the General Education Department! They have the best educational programs too! Maybe I-I want to go into that..." Izuku desperately began to murmur to Katsuki and halfway to himself about how Yuuei is the best before being stopped cold by one of his precious notebooks leaving his protective and meticulous grasp. "W-wha- hey!" He began to reach out before another glare threatened him into inaction. The notebook had the number thirteen on the top left corner of the front. It was his Thirteenth Hero Analyses Book for the Future. With desperate tears and a vain hope, Izuku expected him to just throw it away or crumple it up. He didn't expect his hard work going up in flames... or smoke.
"'Hero Analyses Book For the Future'? Seriously? The hell is wrong with you?!" The blonde began to raise his voice once more with a cacophony of straining chords within it. A voice of rage without restraint. "Just stop Deku! Why can't you get it through your stupid green hair that you won't become a hero!? Huh!?" Katsuki released him from his harmful touch and stepped back.
"W-wait, Kacchan! Give it back I'm sorry! I-It helps me to know th- " An explosion deterred Izuku from his current thought, watching as his notebook was engulfed in Katsuki's explosive grasp. The closest area around his grasp suddenly charred black. Izuku's eyes widened at his ruined notebook. "KACCHAN STOP!" Unfortunately, the ruby-eyed bastard did not stop. He walked over to the window next to his seat and threw the black notebook out the window allowing a few damaged pages to flutter about in the open air, free of any restraints. Yet, just like his dreams, the pages were eventually brought down to the earth and out of sight like the blip of existence he is on the radar of life. There one moment and gone the next.
"N-no...," All of the sudden energy Izuku desperately summoned to reach in vain for his notebook has dispersed, "I... I needed that...." His hand slowly lowered back to his side, eyes glossing over in frustration. Frustration at Katsuki. Frustration at the world. Frustration at the cruelty of whatever birthed him quirkless. Izuku's head bowed downwards with clenched fists. A weak voice croaked angrily from his mouth without his consent. "It's not fair... It's n-not fair...! You and your stupid explosive quirk. Everyone with their quirks hates me and keeps trying to deter me from becoming a hero. Every day I have to suffer through just living. Why? Why do you all feel the need to make me hate life? Why Kacchan? Why?!" Izuku's body shook violently while glistening droplets began to pool upon the floor with his gaze. He continued to cry out but through his varnished shell and the hiccuping, he could not hear his own voice anymore. He was only stopped by a sharp external pain in his gut, exhausting any airflow he could have used to sputter out any coherent words. What happened? Izuku doubled over holding his stomach from the sharp blow, falling to his knees. A green orb looking up at Katsuki though the water in his eyes warped his sight in unbelievable ways.
"Shut the fuck up Deku," the blonde began, his own form shaking in the tearful eyes of the green mess. Stupid Deku. Why can't you just shut up and accept your place? Katsuki's eyes fade of any light before his signature growl escaped his throat but his words of a terrifying strain sounding almost raspy coming from his throat. "I would just love to see you take a swan-dive off the roof. Fuckin' nerd." With that last, degrading statement stabbing Izuku with a twist of his metaphorical knife, the taller male turned on his heel and walked out of the classroom leaving the green, disheveled hope cracked and falling apart.
Izuku clutched his stomach tightly, not sure if his chest expressed more pain than his stomach but it didn't matter in the long run. Why was he so stupid? Why so useless? Why does Kacchan hate me? Why does anyone hate me? Oh, right. He thought, quirkless. I get it. Not all men are created equal. Not anymore. Of course, there is no place to dwell on it, he decided. With a struggle, Izuku lifted himself to his scrawny height and made his way out of the room as well to retrieve his hero book. The longer he waits to understand and comprehend the cards dealt to him, the further away the light fades from him. In turn, he learned to look past his setbacks when making the first step towards becoming a hero. What was he thinking? If he keeps letting the world consume him and understand his place, the time will pass and so will all the opportunities given to him. Izuku Midoriya, a quirkless child living in the world of the quirked, will struggle. Izuku dismissed everything Kacchan said and even forced a smile to replace his misplaced tears. I'm lucky enough to not have my determination ripped from me, how ironic.
The sun just beginning to set, as indicated by the subtle changes of light against the scattered clouds tinging the sunward faces a faint orange. I guess I was dealing with Kacchan longer than I thought. Izuku thought solemnly and smiled at the coming dusk before walking around the school's infrastructure. A small girl was sitting on the edge of the school's pond that was simply decorum, with a few fish swimming about lazily within its stony confines. The girl looked up, holding the semi-dried notebook in her grasp, open. Izuku's emeralds meet those of azure. "A little late aren't ya?" The girl scolded playfully, disregarding the hole burnt into the left shoulder of his black uniform with buttons of gold, along with his puffy eyes.
"Oh, hey Aki-chan. Sorry. I got caught up with Kacchan again." He nervously rubbed the back of his head running a hand through his messy green curls recalling his encounter only briefly before she continued.
"Oh relax, I'm just tugging your chain." The girl shoved one hand into the pocket of her light grey hoodie which was maybe a size or two too large--then again, she's always been rather small. Akira smiled at him letting the corner of her lips curl into a smirk on one end. "You never change do you?" She then questioned, and let her eyes squander around the tainted pages of the beat-up notebook.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you never grew out of that serious tone. Loosen up." Snapping the notebook shut and offering it up to the taller boy, he took it. "It's damaged, but most of it is salvageable. It fell in the water while I was waiting. Judging by the smears and smudged pages, your recent work is kind of gone"
"Ah, thanks. I still have the information anyway." Izuku simply put, and his mind raced through the little debacle he had left inside the school. "Hey, Akira?" He looked down at her with a furrow of his brows.
"Yeah?"
"What high school are you planning to enter?" She was caught off-guard by the question, so she scratched her cheek with her index and gazed up at the building, revealing a hidden cache of hair stuffed into the hoodie's hood and torso. He surprised her, and he was rather relieved he could still surprise someone around here. He actually did not know what possessed him to ask her the question, but he decided to roll with it.
"Uh, well... I have no clue. Dad's been having me do some deliveries to help out with the family. No clue what else to really do other than just float around doing odd jobs." Akira's arms folded as she began to ponder what the world could even offer her in her position. After all, her financial troubles are almost constant--just a little worse than Izuku's family which has Inko-san working with bits of money coming in from what Akira assumed to be his father from another area. Wait, if he's asking me and we're in similar situations, then he must have some type of idea I could use, right? She turned her gaze back to the broccoli haired giant. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I'm going to try to enter Yuuei. For the hero course!" He beamed a brilliant sun at her. It was too much, for she recoiled and offered to shade her eyes with her hand as one does at the beach.
"Geez, too bright. But I can get behind that I guess." Offering him a smile while stretching her arms toward the orange and pink sky littered with cotton balls, she groaned in relief. "What kind of school is it? I know it can't be too expensive if you're going." She looked at him quizzically while scratching her cheek. However, she caught his face flush a red hue for a few moments while he stuttered, rubbing his head.
"Y-yeah I know. I mean, Yuuei has a um, p-program for those who get into the school in the first p-place since it's so difficult to get in! They send a bit of money to their recipients to help out and keep the students there. For people like us. Since you know, it gets a lot of money due to many people donating to it." Actually, saying that makes me feel like I have a one in a million shot at getting in. I know Kacchan's going too so that won't be pleasant if he sees me even near that building. He wanted me to quit because I don't have a chance and won't become a hero, but how will I know if I don't try? I mean if I try and fa-
A clap of the hands in Izuku's face startled him out of his inherited murmurous trance and saw Akira smiling up at him. "You're doing it again, and you'll do fine. Even if you fail you'll just struggle and claw your way up to being a hero, right? Doesn't matter what anyone else says. If you want it, just do it. You can't fail if you don't think about failing. Also, yeah, sure. I can get behind Yuuei I guess. I mean if I make it they basically pay me, right?" Akira thought about that idea. She would be getting paid to go to school. That is a hell of a deal if she's ever heard of one. She'll have to ask her dad.
"R-right!" He smiled nervously and gave a confirming nod of acknowledgment and delegation. "Let's do our best!" He punched into the air energetically, which had Akira rolling his eyes.
"Come on. Let's get some ice cream." Akira stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and began walking, hearing Izuku's footsteps catching up to her.
"Ice cream? Isn't it a little late for that?" He's not wrong, but he didn't stop following along. She seldom ever ate ice cream either.
"You're getting ice cream. I'm getting shaved ice. Besides, it's a Friday afternoon; it's not like there's no time to chill. "So, tell me more about--Yuuei was it?"
Oh yeah. I forgot the weekends exist. The freckled boy smiled whilst nodding and beginning to babble about Yuuei, leaving him excited for Akira's interest and potential companionship in Yuuei, leaving him with only one question in which he belittled himself; a hidden dread to stew within his stomach--a stew of doubt and self-consciousness bubbling slowly and demanding more and more attention as time passes: Can I even be a hero?