Chapter Text
You can't force people to like you, nor can you force them to hate you. Everything depends on how you act, on how you look, on what you say, on how you act. To be liked, you need to lie, and you need to try to forget parts of you, because It's lame for some, weird for others.
In the end, when no one will stand by your side, when you're afraid even your shadow will leave you, the only one you can trust is yourself, and you'll wish you didn't deliberately try to forget those parts, because those crumbles of you were the ones making you human.
If this was true, Midoriya Izuku Deku supposed he was already everything but human. At only twelve, he already found himself lying about the most ridiculous things, he tried to forge himself another identity so he could be treated like the other teens.
He changed his favorite movie, his favorite meal and color, changing the All Might trilogies by some popular action movie, his mom's katsudon by fried chicken and bright yellow by a deep blue, because 'Yellow is the color of piss, it doesn't match anything.' said one of his classmates, and if his mom asked him why all his yellow clothes were stashed in a box under his bed, he just told her they didn't fit him anymore.
Even if he wasn't exactly like any of his peers, he hoped he was at least like a normal quirkless pre-teen, which wasn't that difficult since most of them were already dead. Sometimes he wondered if there was someone in the world who could understand his loneliness, who also read every article on how to make your quirk appear, on the percentage of chance to still be alive at thirty.
Before sleeping, he'd often, -mostly after rough days, when he got made fun of a bit too much by his classmates and by the teachers- get on his knees and pray for his quirk to manifest, so he could at least make his mom stop worrying about him and his future.
When he woke up, nothing had changed, he was still useless, he still wanted to save people and to make them smile, he still wanted his mother to be proud of him, he still wanted to live.
So, he got out of bed, tried to find a uniform without holes or dirt, ate the bowl of rice and miso soup his mom made him, before kissing her goodbye.
It was almost the end of the year; he wondered if he’d go to the summer festival with his mom this year too. The fireworks were especially pretty last year, they reminded him of Kacchan’s quirk, he always thought it was a great quirk, surely, Kacchan will become a great hero -after he fixed his terrible habit of yelling at everyone-.
He kept his head low as he entered the school, wishing it could make him appear as invisible as possible, he felt tired today because of the warm weather, he liked watching the blue sky in class, the way the sun rays reflected on the green leaves of the trees, the flowers slowly falling to let the fruits appear, the smell of the freshly cut grass. Everything about summer was peaceful.
He sat in his place, opening his ‘Notebook N°8 – Hero Analysis for the Future’, he had to finish his sketch of the hero with a water based quirk, he wondered if he could control the water in the body as well, if he could, it would surely impact the opponent, maybe he could even try to control a part of his body.
Could he also control rain? Water based quirks often have a distance limit, from what he saw, he could only use it on enemies close to him. Support items to increase his speed would be ideal, maybe shoes with reactors, like Ingenium’s legs? That way it would allow him to chase the enemies. A transportable tank would also help him have a bigger volume of water to use. Maybe he could even shape the water into ropes to yank himself at the villains, he would have the upper hand in hand-to-hand combats.
His train of thoughts was interrupted by the door opening abruptly, showing a furious looking Kacchan, followed by their teacher, looking too tired to ask him why he's like that. It wasn’t unusual for him to be already in a bad mood at only 8am.
The day went by slowly, at lunch he asked to some of his classmates if he could sit with them, only to be answered by a nonchalant ‘No.’ followed by loud chuckles of the ones around him, and whispers such as ‘Can he leave already… I’m losing my appetite just by watching him’ or ‘Look at him… no wonder his dad left him’.
He blushed a bit in embarrassment before mumbling an apology and quickly returning to his seat, his hands shaking a little as he held his bento.
Talking to his classmates was always hard for him, but at least he didn’t stutter that much today, he should consider it a win. He smiled softly as he saw the All Might drawing in ketchup his mom made on top of his omurice. It looked messy after sitting in his bag during a few hours, but he could still recognize him.
He ate slowly, ignoring the ones bumping into his shoulder, who acted like it was his fault. He wished the day was over already, he really wanted to go watch some hero fights, maybe his mom would let him watch the TV for more than an hour if he showed her his new grades.
He scored a 90/100 on his English test thanks to the daily radio show of Present Mic that he listened to while showering.
The rest of the day went as slowly as expected, he answered when his teacher called him, earning a few snickers when he fell after being hit behind his right knee by a classmate when he got up to write his answer on the black board.
His palms were a bit red from the impact, but at least his jeans didn’t have any new holes to patch up.
He quickly left as soon as the bell rang, mumbling a ‘See you’ to Kacchan, who replied with a low grunt, not meeting his eyes. He sighed quietly in disappointment and left the school.
Fresh air hit him when he got out, slowly waking up from his tired state, he looked up to the sky for a minute, only looking back down after being blinded by the sun. He had to go buy sunscreen soon if he didn’t want his freckles to show up too much.
As he walked to the convenience store, he felt something tugging at his shoulder, he looked and suddenly noticed it wasn’t something, more like someone, who now gripped with strength his left shoulder, now starting to ache.
“Uhm, do I know you, sir ?” He asked quietly, shivering a little when the man started to grin sharply.
“Yeah, I need you to come with me.” He answered, not letting go of his shoulder, and suddenly dragging him towards a black purplish mist behind him.
"Wha- let me go ! Can someone hear me ?! Help, please ! Someone !" He tried to wiggle out of his grasp, tears threatening to fall as he screamed for help, unable to do anything except tug at the long fingers now holding his forearm.
As a last resort, he bit the man’s hand without warning and ran toward the opposite side of the alley, towards the main street.
It didn’t take long before the stranger was on him again, this time making sure he couldn’t scream nor bite by putting a tissue in his mouth, yanking him into darkness, he hit the floor with a loud thud before blacking out, feeling warm blood slowly seeping out of the back of his head.