Chapter Text
"Okay, this is it, Izumi!" - thought the greenette. - "This is what we've been working for!"
She looked outside of the window.
She and Toshinori were slowly approaching the UA.
At first, she was surprised when her former stepdad offered her a ride to the exam. After that fateful dinner, they didn't talk with each other—or, more accurately, continued to.
But after quick consideration, she decided there was no harm in accepting.
After all, Toshinori as All Might had to be there early, to prepare for the exam with the rest of the teachers. And taking into account everything that happened in recent months, she would really appreciate some time to clear off her mind, before the literally life-changing exam!
N̴̙̽ọ̸̍t̷̫̅ ̸̟̓l̴̦͘ḯ̸̡k̶̥͝e̶͚͒ ̵̻͊ȳ̶͇o̴̧͒ů̴̜ ̸͚̓d̸̫̾è̵ͅs̸̹͌e̸̥̅r̵̺͆v̸̬̎e̵̖̓ ̵̺̿i̶̢͆t̵͔͠,̶̨̈ ̴̰͝y̸̢̍o̸͈͆ṵ̸̅ ̸̤̈́b̵͓͐i̵̱͛t̸͙̑c̷̙̀h̸̯̏ ̵͕̃o̵͈̚f̵̯̂ ̵͎̈́à̶̱ ̵͗͜b̸͔̾ŕ̶̪ō̵̬t̶̬̋h̸̙͒ȩ̸̅r̴̨̅ ̴̞͌ķ̶̀i̷͈͆l̵̢̾l̸̨̿e̴̤̓r̷͕͌!̶̘͆
Izumi flinched slightly.
It's been so long since Izuku's death.
His body was never recovered. All of the family, and some of the friends were doing their best, but no matter how long they were searching the river and surrounding area, they've never found anything. Not even a clue.
At first, she was sad, no! Devastated.
She refused to even look at herself in the mirror. She... She was too afraid to do it.
You see, if asked by anyone, she would be the first one to admit that she was nothing short of a killer. Sure, she didn't physically push her brother from that bridge. However, her actions...
That's why she was so quick to accept her arrest when asked by Tsukauchi. It wasn't to better her shitty situation. After looking at the faces of everyone in the room, she truly realized that in this story (*fourth wall creaking noises*), she was not a hero, but the exact opposite.
She never helped Izuku when he needed it the most. She wasn't protecting him from the dangers of the path he had taken. She WAS the only danger on his path to achieving her dreams.
And the worst of all, her stepfather revealed the secret of his power.
No matter how much Izumi tried to remove it from her head, to forget that accursed information, she just couldn't.
All of those years of abuse, tormenting and psychological torture, that went from something terrible, yet "necessary" to do to the routine, turned out to be pointless.
Her brother wouldn't die, trying to be a Quirkless Hero, because he wouldn't be Quirkless!
His dreams wouldn't be impossible, because he wouldn't be that much behind everyone, maybe just less experienced in Quirk usage!
Her family wasn't naively giving him false hope, because at least a good part of it knew he was being prepared for gaining the needed power!
If she'd just decided to be his family that day in the kindergarten, instead of his archnemesis, he would be sitting right beside her, most likely nerding out about all of the wonderful Quirks he was about to witness in action... With Toshinori smiling and reminding them to be prepared, instead of blandly looking at the road...
She was not just a villain, but THE Villain. She deserved nothing but to rot in juvie, and then probably some other prison. Maybe still not the Tartarus, but given her level of control over her Quirk and some of the old, still not updated Quirk Laws, stating something about raising the Villain ranking of a person if her indirect or direct victims were Quirkless (Not like any of the bigoted assholes minded nowadays), she could still expect it to be one of those high-security ones.
Expect... That's exactly what she was doing at the time.
It was hard to explain, but one could say she wanted to be punished.
She watched her brother's video suicide note. She realized that she wouldn't ever see him again and got to apologize for everything. Not to obtain forgiveness, but at least to say sorry to his face. And she was the driving force behind it.
That's why she wanted to end up in prison. Izuku was gone and nothing could be done about it, but at least she could try and do something that she should have done years ago - respect his wishes and help him achieve what he wanted.
And in his final moments, Izuku apparently wanted nothing more than to take them all down with himself.
But then, the whole Commission thing happened and... If that was even possible, everyone started to despise them even more, like it was their fault that the HPSC decided to get involved with their case!
In reality, they just woke up one day, some more or less ready to face their punishment, got pulled out of their cells, and then were told to follow some people. Next thing they know, they arrive at the UA, get attacked by Izumi and Izuku's bio father, witness him getting knocked out by some high-tech stun baton, and finally get called to Nezu's office, where the principal himself glares at them and looks like he's calculating how much trouble would he get into if he decided to punish them accordingly...
It was frustrating, to be honest. Izumi was many things but had enough brain to comprehend that going into cahoots with the Commission is the real-life equivalent of selling your soul to the devil... along with your basic human rights.
And it's not like she was the only one! Iida's family has been in the Pro Hero business for ages and they could share their fair share of stories about the corruption in the system!
But it's not like any of that really mattered anymore...
Her mother's words were a wake-up call for her.
It's true - despite the way the chance came up, she got an opportunity to redeem herself.
No matter how much she didn't deserve to be here, she was given a chance to try and be the heroine, like she always wanted!
Except this time, her motivation for it was different.
At first, it was all about how cool Pro Heroes were in her eyes - her grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles.
Then, when she got older, money and fame were added to the equation. With her quirk, she would go up in the rankings in no time, which meant a comfortable life for her.
But now...
She wasn't taking this exam to become a Pro Hero.
She was going to try and become the Hero.
Izumi saw the injustice of this world firsthand - in her very own actions. The injustice, that cost her one of the most important people in her life, whom she'd just thrown away like trash.
She will never bring her brother back to life, nor will she experience the proper punishment, that would at least give her some closure - knowledge that her brother can rest easy, with her getting what she deserves.
But what she can do is to try and not only be the better person but to make sure that no one will ever make the same mistakes as her.
Her brother died with disappointment in his heart, thinking he was mistaken about her. So now, it was her duty... NO! Her responsibility to prove him right, by becoming the wonderful heroine and person that he saw in her through all these years!
And then, if the afterlife truly exists, she will find him and apologize for everything from the bottom of her heart.
Maybe, just maybe, she will even manage to earn his forgiveness... But that thought was too bold for her to ever dream of...
- Izumi. - Toshinori's voice finally caught her attention. - We're here.
She looked around and saw that they had reached their destination.
Hastily, she had undone her belt and got out of the car.
She got a good look at her father. He was in his skinny form and wore his yellow suit, the one capable of stretching to fit his muscular form. Not like he necessarily needed to transform, of course.
Mr. Yagi was a well-known teacher here in the UA. Whenever All Might spent all of his muscular time, Mr. Yagi would kindly step in and take care of his classes. Students never questioned it - they adored their substitute teacher! He was friendly, helpful, and always ready to talk with them if something was wrong. Like an everyday version of All Might, with the difference that you could relate to the man, instead of seeing him as a Godlike being.
Izumi was just about to leave when she heard Toshinori whisper:
- ...Good luck.
She turned around in surprise and looked at him.
He just stood there and looked her in the eyes.
- Don't get me wrong. I will never forgive it, nor forget it. - His gaze hardened temporarily, but then it softened a little. - But I know that condemning you won't get us anywhere... - he paused for a moment. - I just think that what I want to say is... I, somewhere deep inside, want you to get redeemed. To be able to look at you without hate and see something more than a brother killer, but once again a daughter that I had for years... That's why I hope you will get in and manage to somehow redeem yourself. That is all.
And with that, he left.
Izumi just blinked at that. She wanted to be happy that deep inside her father hadn't completely given up on her, but...
She was almost sure that she didn't deserve it yet.
Things would never be the same again, and she didn't want them to be such.
She genuinely hoped she would change and have a family once again.
But for that to happen, a long and difficult way was in front of her.
Toshinori's words sparked a bit of hope inside of her, but it was up to her now to make it come true...
One more good reason to work on herself and possibly make that a reality.
So with that newfound determination, she headed for the entrance.