#bnhaven

To begin: I am so sorry. Truly. I swore I’d be a writer of fluff, and yet here we are...again...whoops.

Anyways, let’s get on with it! 

So, if there’s one thing we love about our innocent cinnamon roll of a boy, aka Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, it’s that he’s willing to go beyond (plus ultra style) in order to save the day, even going so far as to break his bones to the point of disfiguration. Adrenaline helps him fight through the pain, and even then I’ve heard a lot of people talk about his insanely high pain tolerance.

Like, ridiculously high. I mean, the Overhaul fight??? Where Izuku just destroys himself so that Eri doesn’t Rewind him out of existence? Wild. It’s like, unimaginable. Even with the decade of bullying to get used to pain, it’s almost unreal for the green bean to be able to push through so much naturally.

Which is where I say: what if it wasn’t natural?

Look, some Quirks are probably hidden ones. Ones that you can’t immediately see, ones that aren’t emitter types. Quirks that just affect the wielder, not anyone else. Like Nedzu’s High Spec, for example. But what’s another Quirk that no one would be able to see?

One that negates pain. 

Now, I don’t think that Izuku would have always had this Quirk. I think it’s one that needed the right conditions to form. Like, let’s say...a really hard punch, something with an almost explosive force.

Lucky for Izuku, he has a classmate with a very painful Quirk, and a penchant for using it on those he deems weaker or lesser. Thus, when the bullying started, Izuku’s Quirk finally kicked in after one hit went too far.

The Issue: Nobody realizes that Izuku got his Quirk. Not even Izuku realizes it. Why? Well, Izuku thinks it’s just a high pain tolerance. He still feels Bakugou striking him, he just...doesn’t feel much else. He knows that he feels pressure, so he must have just gotten used to Bakugou’s hits. (And with all of the burn scars that Izuku is gaining, he wouldn’t be surprised if he’s lost some nerve endings due to the damage.)

And Izuku would definitely have burn scars in this AU (I’m not really sure if canon gives him said scars, I’ve done more reading for this fandom than watching, oops.) But no matter what happens in canon, this Izuku would have burn scars for one reason: Since Izuku doesn’t feel pain, he doesn’t cry out. Since he doesn’t cry out, Bakugou thinks his explosions aren’t strong enough to hurt...so the boy uses stronger blasts in an attempt to prove his ‘point’. (There is definitely an inferiority complex going on here, where Bakugou subconsciously worries that his Quirk is weak if ‘Quirkless Deku can stand there and take one of my hits without a single flinch’.) He pushes himself harder, lets more force into every controlled blast, etc.

So Izuku has no clue that he has a Quirk, Bakugou uses crazy amounts of explosions on the boy, neither realizing just how much damage is happening because Izuku can’t feel any pain.

Canon continues. The Sludge Villain stuff goes as usual, and All Might chooses Izuku as his successor just like always. The training montage from hell might actually be more self-destructive, not only because Izuku feels the need to catch up but also because he doesn’t feel so exhausted/sore. (Along with pain, the boy also doesn’t really feel when his muscles and body are sore, so he doesn’t realize he needs to take a breather.) But that isn’t the focus, so let’s move on!

The Entrance Exam occurs, and wow that really should have clued someone in. Because Izuku breaks his limbs for Uraraka and when he hits the ground, instead of dragging himself away he tries to stand up. He actually manages to find a 3-pointer, and breaks two more of his fingers by flicking in its direction, destroying it with a gust of air before he collapses to the ground.

But wow, everyone is just like ‘this boy is wild’ before completely forgetting about how they heard his bones crunching with every step. 

Continue on. 

Quirk Apprehension Test? Izuku doesn’t really get why Aizawa is complaining about how he shatters himself. Like, he doesn’t need to stop just because his arm is apparently broken. It’s fine, he can still use it. Still, he settles on breaking a single finger because he can’t risk expulsion, and he definitely doesn’t have the courage to talk back to a teacher. 

Hero v. Villain Fight? Izuku doesn’t even collapse after the final blast, instead walking off without batting an eyelash. Iida ends up corralling him to Recovery Girl’s room, because first Izuku protested having to leave without getting to watch the other teams, then he got distracted by the school and nearly got lost.

USJ? Izuku goes a little more feral, fun times.

Sports Festival? Oh honey you know things are going to get wild here. Broken bones left and right, yeehaw it’s shatter city baby!

Izuku ends up with even less self-preservation with every passing problem, basically. Since the boy can’t feel pain, he assumes that any injury that he does get isn’t that bad. After all, wouldn’t he be crying and, you know, hurting if it was bad? Izuku knows what pain feels like, and this isn’t it!!

It’s only the realization that breaking bones so often could end his career early that causes Izuku to try new approaches to the whole Quirk-using situation. Even then, the boy has no sense of when to stop, and as such pushes himself to the point of passing out from either exhaustion or blood loss multiple times.

-One such time was after getting impaled. The boy didn’t realize he had a broken pole halfway through his back until Kaminari screamed and passed out from seeing Izuku bleeding, a giant rod jabbing out of him. Izuku tried to shrug it off.

Sometime around the impalation incident, people begin to notice that Izuku has a freaky high pain tolerance. 

But nobody really connects the dots until Bakugou goes too far in training.

The bad news: his opponent loses a limb.

The good news: It is Shouji, and it’s one of the regrowable ones.

The bad news: the following dialogue occurs after school…

Bakugou: What the fuck? But that’s barely anything!

Aizawa: Bakugou. That explosion had enough force to sever your classmate’s hand off of his limb due to how you directed it. You should know to limit yourself by now.

Bakugou: But I was! That one is so weak that even Deku can walk away without flinching! 

Aizawa: There is no way that Midoriya would be able to move on without needing medical attention after a hit that bad.

Bakugou: He has.

Aizawa: ...I beg your pardon?

Bakugou: Deku fucking has! How do you think I learned my limits, huh? Deku has taken a hit like that directly to the chest and didn’t even flinch! I know how weak I am!

Needless to say, Aizawa proceeds to lose his absolute shit. He makes Izuku stay after class the next day, and questions him about whether or not Bakugou has ever used his Quirk on him. 

Izuku, a boy who is unafraid of breaking three limbs to save a girl from a giant robot, but who is terrified of teachers most of the time, cracks without too much pressure. He admits that Bakugou has used his Quirk on Izuku for years, but ‘It wasn’t bad, sensei! They were like love taps, I never even felt a thing!’

And Aizawa knows something is wrong with this, something isn’t adding up because if Shouji lost a limb to Bakugou’s hit, Izuku has to be lying...or there’s another factor in this equation.

Aizawa dismisses Izuku, and spends the night trying to figure it out.

And then he does.

The next day, he makes Bakugou and Izuku stay in the classroom during lunch. He questions them on their past. Bakugou complains about how ‘weak’ he’s always been, Izuku brushes past the concern without much thought because it never hurt, and sure there were markings but-

Aizawa: Markings?

The scars are revealed. Well, the ones on his upper body.

This is when Bakugou begins to realize that he’s fucked up.

During training, Aizawa pulls Bakugou and Izuku off to work with him separately. He

brings out machines that test how much force a blow gives off, and has Bakugou throw his ‘weak’ explosions at them.

As it turns out, Izuku should have been in crippling pain from everything Bakugou did. And then Aizawa drops the ‘I think you have a pain-related Quirk’ on Izuku, and yeah.

I didn’t really plan an end, sorry. I just think it’d be interesting, you know?

On the bright side, at least Izuku isn’t constantly in pain!!! He just got his body a whole lot more damaged than he would have, and has maybe half of the self-preservation that his canon counterpart possesses.

omg i adore your skvader au!! such a cool concept (and the dadzawa of it all kills me!) for anyone else who is interested, here’s a link to the fic- i highly recommend it!

Okay, listen. Just...just give me a second to explain myself, okay? Great, thanks. 

So I love parental All Might stories, and stories where Aizawa becomes a dadzawa for his problem child (which leads to Present Mic also becoming a paternal figure for Izuku, which is a blessed idea), and all of those. But you know what I love even more?

If all of that happens, but Izuku’s dad is actually Snipe. Yes, Snipe. 

Let me explain the story in my head, because it’s a doozy.

-So, to start, let me explain how I got the idea. It’s simple, really- canon hasn’t given me a reason not to get the idea. I mean, we’ve yet to find out Snipe’s real name, so it’s fair game to call him Hisashi Midoriya until Horikoshi himself rips this idea out of my cold, hopefully not dead hands. 

-We also never see his face, and the dreadlocks could either 1. Be a wig or 2. Just be his hair, but the blue-ish shade is what caused the darker coloration for Izuku’s hair. Who knows anymore, the world these heroes live in is a really weird one.

-Now, Snipe may not breathe fire, but shhh. Maybe Inko was lying to the doctor or something, because if she said, “My husband can control the trajectory of any and all of the bullets he shoots”, well, that could’ve given away the identity of her husband! Maybe the Midoriya family doesn’t want to broadcast who Hisashi is.

-Also, having a father with such a Quirk could explain why Izuku is Quirkless (or, in this case, potentially ‘Quirkless’). It’s not like Inko would just let little Izuku play with a gun to see if he could shoot as well as his dad, or anything! So boom, the little joint test is enough, brush it aside, Dad!Snipe explanation over.

Got it? Great! Now, onto the bullshit story idea I came up with, or as I like to call it:

How Snipe Accidentally Ghosted his Family for a Decade, because He is Too Goddamn Dumb Sometimes.

Buckle up folks, and hold your horses a little tighter, because we’re going for a ride.

-So Snipe goes to Texas when Izuku is just a small boy, just barely a toddler. He’s really serious about his whole cowboy aesthetic, and pulls an All Might by working abroad for what he plans to be a few years, but might become five or six if he finds a good agency to work with in the meanwhile.

-Lo and behold, he does!! Nice, nice, Snipe relays the message to his dear wife Inko, lets her know that he’ll be gone for a while- but it’s okay, he plans to call her every chance he gets, make sure she’s doing well with their little boy, and life will be good.

-Things, uh...don’t go as planned.

-Snipe blames it all on a snake. A goddamn snake that decided to hide in his goddamn boot. There was a snake in his boot, what was he expected to do?

Probably not throwing his phone at the thing, breaking it, but uh...Snipe panicked. A lot.

-No problem, right? He’s a Pro Hero, he makes plenty of money, he can just get a new phone, plug in his old number, and all of that stuff. Easy as can be.

-Haha...no. 

-Because Snipe is a fool. A fool who can’t remember any of his passwords for his phone, or the answers to any backup questions. 

-He’s a great hero, he’s excellent at marksmanship...but the man just can’t remember these things to save his life.

-He can’t even remember his wife’s phone number to call her about it (and beg for the passwords because he just can not manage to recall them)

-Snipe is just glad that Inko is the one who set up his bank accounts so he’d automatically send money to their shared account, or else he’d feel awful.

-Figuring that the best thing to do in this situation is to just keep on truckin’ along, Snipe continues working at the Texas agency until it’s time for him to head back home.

But the fun doesn’t stop here, because…

-By the time Snipe yeehaws his way back to Japan, that man realizes that he can’t even recall what his address was. 

-He ends up working at Yuuei, because he was aimlessly wandering around, trying to find Musutafu.

-By the time Nedzu finds him, he’s so embarrassed that he just...can’t bring himself to admit that he forgot literally everything he needed to get back to his house.

-The conversation for the job starts a little like this…

Nedzu: Why were you wandering around Yuuei for over forty minutes?

Snipe, unwilling to admit that he couldn’t remember if he had to go east or west to reach his house: I saw a little doggie. Very cute.

Nedzu: That was probably me, but I digress.

(For the record, Snipe had to go south to start his route home…)

-Some good news: After working at Yuuei for a few years, he finally sees his boy again!!

-Some bad news: it's the USJ attack

-Snipe bursts into the USJ, sees that green haired silhouette and just knows it is his boy, even if it’s been somewhere around a decade since he saw his little sprout and his boy is now stronger and taller.

Snipe, seeing Shigaraki about to hit his child: Villain, you just yeed your last haw 

Snipe: shoots Shigaraki in the hand.

-After USJ, we have more fun, with some lovely dialogue I came up with like:

Snipe, sitting with Aizawa: So, hypothetically of course, if I was to say something like, I don’t know… ‘You’re in charge of my long lost child, who I couldn’t get in contact with ‘cause I couldn’t remember mah wife’s phone number’...how would you recommend starting the conversation with him?

Aizawa, mummified, tired, and already realizing that this child is the problem childTM: I need a drink.

Snipe, a fool: Are...are ya sure I should start off with that?

-Despite this totally hypothetical conversation, it isn’t until finals that Snipe brings it up. 

-Nedzu pits Snipe against Izuku and Todoroki, and it’s beautiful.

-Snipe pulls an ‘I am your father’ moment like in Star Wars, both Izuku and Todoroki promptly flip their shit.

Snipe: Izuku, I am your father.

Izuku: I thought you were dead!

Todoroki: I thought you were All Might’s child!

-Needless to say, the fight ends quickly, because Izuku goes a little feral. 

Izuku, pinning Snipe to the ground: What excuse do you have for ghosting mom for years, huh?

Snipe, sobbing: I forgot my phone number!

-Izuku drags Snipe back to the house once finals are over. 

-Inko...isn’t even surprised when she hears what happened.

-She just sighs and goes, “Do I need to tattoo my number onto you, Hisashi?”

-Snipe wonders if it’s worth the potential security risk, he doesn’t want her getting tracked down and hurt after all.

-There’s a long conversation about microchipping Snipe, so if he disappears again, Izuku can just hunt him down and drag him back home again.

-And voila! Snipe is reunited with his family, the dad fluff can commence.

Snipe: I’mma give him a gun.

Inko, tired: At least he’ll be hurting others instead of himself for once.

-1-A is horrified.

Their precious green bean, wielding a gun?!?!?!?

-It’s made worse when he’s a natural at it, just going feral and having fun with his dad.

-Finally, because I promised more parental figures along with actual, biological Snipe, please consider:

-All Might getting upset because Snipe is stealing ‘his boy’.

Aizawa, trying to be reasonable: All Might, Midoriya is literally Snipe’s child.

All Might, petulantly: But...but he’s my boy.

-For extra humor, make Aizawa also feel like the problem child is his problem child for extra parental jealousy.

-Need more chaos??? Yamada thought he and Aizawa were adopting Izuku for some reason.

Don’t ask how Yamada came to this conclusion, but he is heartbroken when he finds out his almost completed adoption forms were for nothing.

Yamada, sadly: I thought Inko was his older sister...and he didn’t even have a dad!

-Just...Izuku having a dumbass dad and the other potential dads being put off by the realization that Snipe, Snipe, gets actual Dad Rights but somehow lost contact for like...10 entire years.

Because fuck yeah, that’s why.

(Warning: I came up with this back in July, so it’s kind of all over the place.)

Okay so all three of these lovely boys have dealt with backlash (social and physical for ⅔, all of them if you consider Shinsou’s exhaustion to be partially caused by his Quirk being a mental one). 

-Izuku was mocked for not having one, hence the nickname ‘Deku’, and now he has one but it breaks his bones and is hard to use.

-Denki is made fun of for how he short-circuits, which isn’t???? Funny??? That must be terrifying, to be quite honest. (Maybe Denki copes with his fears + trauma by using humor to laugh it off? Imagine being told that you have a Quirk that could potentially render you brain dead if you lose control of it- because Denki probably has been facing this truth since four years old.)

-Shinsou was dubbed a villain due to his Quirk. 

So with that information stored in our heads...let’s make an AU where all three were put in the same testing center!

At some point in the beginning, Izuku manages to get Hitoshi out of the way of a robot, which leads to Hitoshi saving a few others, including Denki. Because Hitoshi saved those people, he ends up getting enough Rescue Points to get into 1-A!

The three end up recognizing each other from the testing grounds, and make friends with one another fairly quickly. Somehow, the talk of Quirk-related trauma comes up.

Boom, just like that, the Trauma SquadTM forms. 

(Sorry to Iida and Uraraka, they’re wonderful but they’re being cast aside.)

Anyways, I feel like the Trauma Squad boys would boost each other up so fucking well???

-Izuku helps them get the most out of their Quirks, analyzing them to help mitigate weaknesses and figure out support items. 

-Denki boosts their confidence and reminds them that it’s okay to laugh once in a while.

-Hitoshi is there to make sure the boys rest, even if ‘rest’ is just staring at cat pics for twenty minutes.

The Trauma SquadTM slowly begins to grow more powerful as time goes on. No one really keeps too much of an eye on them, mainly because they’ve grouped together and tend to stick to one another at all times- or are, more likely, so wrapped up in overcoming their weaknesses that they’ve ended up ignoring their peers, oops. 

So it comes as a surprise when 1-A realizes that the three boys that they deemed as rather mundane end up as a trio of powerhouses. 

Because listen.

Listen.

You know these three are going to be strong.

-Izuku learns to use Full Cowl before the Sports Festival. Why? 

Because Denki uses his power throughout his body, and asks Izuku why he doesn’t do the same.

Boom. Full Cowl is created.

And Hitoshi is drilling it into him that he needs to keep a level head + tone down the sacrificial streak, so he’s not as scared. 

-Denki is also being reminded to be rational from Hitoshi, and Izuku helps him come up with strategies and designs for support gear that can aid him in his Quirk even more.

-Hitoshi, our poor lad, ends up going through a toned down version of All Might’s training plan, coached by Izuku. So he gets his strength, too!

Random Bits I Found While Typing this Up:

Bakugou, who grew up being told he had the perfect Quirk: How is our ‘Big Three’ a Deku who breaks his limbs, a dunce who fries his own brains, and a useless insomniac who can’t do anything physical???

The rest of the class, who has seen the changes and is in awe and fear: :000

-Now, I love seeing Izuku beating Katsuki in a fight. It’s got passion and motivation behind it.

-And Hitoshi beating Katsuki is beautiful because it’s a show of the ‘villainous’ Quirk overpowering the so-called ‘perfect hero’ Quirk.

But I offer you

-Denki, decked out in support gear and aided with the knowledge of Izuku and the dirty tricks of riling opponents up and making them lose focus that Hitoshi has learned over time, beating Katsuki into the dust.

And then saying something like, “Didn’t think a dunce face could do that to you, huh Kacchan?”

Because Denki is the only one I know of who has canonically picked up the nickname. 

Kaminari: Looks like an idiot, could kick your ass

Shinsou: Looks like he could kick your ass, could kick your ass

Midoriya: Looks like a baby, can kick your ass

Also all three can have dad figures.

Izuku with All Might.

Hitoshi with Aizawa.

Denki with Present Mic. 

Alright, so I’m sure that, by now, a lot of people have heard the whole ‘Izuku must have a Quirk that attracts villains’ joke, right? (Actually, I’m not sure how popular that joke/semi-theory is…) If you haven’t, it’s a pretty straightforward idea: With how often Izuku gets attacked by villains, some of his peers/teachers joke that he has a Quirk that pulls villains to him. Most of the time it’s just that- a joke.

But what if it wasn’t.

His mother’s Quirk is attraction, and she has the ability to pull small objects to her. I could see this Quirk mutating, until- in a bizarre way that can only be explained by this whole world being fictional- Izuku is left with a Quirk that pulls small-time threats to him. People who can bring harm, but aren’t the big bosses of the underworld like a certain megalomaniac who comes into play later.

Let’s assume, too, that Izuku can not control it. Perhaps it is just a constant aura, pulling on thieves and schoolyard bullies alike, or perhaps he lost his control because he was so determined to keep others safe. (Which very well could have happened. After all, we saw how Izuku stood up for the other kids back when he was young, turning the bullies’ attention onto himself instead of others. It may have been almost instinctual.) 

So Izuku has a Quirk that, in the simplest terms, is constantly attracting bad people to him. Izuku does not realize that this is happening. He assumes that the bullying only became so bad because 1. He is Quirkless and 2. He constantly got in the way of fights, so it only makes sense that the bullies have all focused on him by this point. He is simply Quirkless, and doesn’t really think past that. 

As for the minor villains, well, Izuku has gotten surprisingly lucky. Heroes are plentiful, and any villains that got pulled into range would get sidetracked when a hero confronted them. 

But, yeah. Izuku Midoriya goes through the first four years of his life waiting for a Quirk, unknowingly gets one but spends the next decade being belittled for his Quirklessness (with his own Quirk only making the pain worse), and then meets All Might and finds out he can be a hero with One for All.

[Little does anybody know, One for All boosted Izuku’s original Quirk...now, instead of getting the attraction of little threats, he’s also going to have more dangerous villains after him.]

And everything goes on as normal. Izuku smashes through the Entrance Exam (or, well, just the zero pointer but y’know…), USJ sucks, the Sports Festival means more broken bones, Exams are wack, and his summer is one he’ll never forget! Shoot, throw in the Provisional License Exams and School Festival as a treat!

Sometime after this, the moment of realization happens, because I said so.

It’s just a normal day. And as such, that means there’s a group of villains to deal with.

It’s chaos. Aizawa had taken a few of his students grocery shopping, because at this point he can’t trust them to go half a block without getting attacked, and suddenly they’re ambushed by like half a dozen or so bad guys. 

And, at some point, Aizawa ends up using Erasure on Izuku. 

It’s like the fight freezes mid-battle. Almost like someone paused a movie mid-scene, except...except only the villains hesitate.

And then, for some reason, they just...start to walk away.

Aizawa blinks. The villains resume fighting. Aizawa uses his Quirk again, but holds his

gaze on Izuku the entire time. Lo and behold, the villains realize that they’re fighting multiple heroes-in-training, and promptly book it to safety.

Aizawa, in typical Aizawa fashion, simply sighs and herds his students back to the dorms, keeping a close eye on the Problem Child.

A short time skip and some tests that may be a bit unethical (throwing Izuku into a city and seeing how long it takes villains to come to him, just for Aizawa to use his Quirk might be a teensy bit unethical, don’t you think?) later, and the truth of Izuku’s Quirk comes to light. 

Aizawa marches the boy to the nearest registration station, and declares Izuku’s Quirk’s new name. The form reads a little like this:

Izuku Midoriya

Quirk: Problem Child

Description: He has exponentially high strength, and can enhance his speed and power drastically, to the point of breaking his own bones. 

-He has also gained a heightened pain tolerance, though it is unclear whether this is a part of his Quirk or due to his past.

Secondary aspect of Quirk: Attracts villains to his area. Seems to have spiked in strength in the past year.

Izuku couldn’t really fight the new Quirk name. 

Sadly, Izuku also could not fight the new guilt that would well up in him when he realizes that every major villain attack this year was likely his fault.

And he means every.

Because while Katsuki is blaming himself for All Might’s defeat, Izuku knows better now.

His Quirk, his hidden Quirk that he'd never known of, was the reason his teacher was broken and scarred and had his Quirk damaged. His Quirk was the reason his peers got attacked, the reason his classmates were exposed to real villains and risks far too early. His Quirk was the reason his friend-bully-rival-classmate got kidnapped. His Quirk was the reason his mentor's career and future was cut short. His Quirk was the reason a Pro Hero lost his life, and a future Pro Hero lost his Quirk before he could even graduate.

Izuku blames himself for each and every one of these consequences. And the worst part? Nobody knows which of these fights would never have occurred if he simply had not been there. 

And it gets worse. (And if you only watch the anime, I suggest not reading further because I'm getting into spoiler territory.)

It gets so much worse for poor Izuku.

Because the Joint Training Exercise happens. And it goes about as well as it does in canon. 

Izuku gets Black Whip, and a whole new revelation.

One for All stockpiles not only the predecessors' raw power, but also their Quirks. 

It's heart-wrenching, almost bittersweet. It's the first time that Izuku finally accepts that One for All is his Quirk now, because he has made it so awful that he can no longer consider giving it away.

And I don't just mean Izuku passing it off to Mirio, or some other 'more deserving' peer. No, Izuku realizes that he has tainted this Quirk, has put an even larger target onto its back than it originally had due to All for One...and Izuku decides that he will never pass One for All on. It will die with him.

Because Izuku can't bear the thought of passing on such a Quirk to a successor. He doesn't think that anyone deserves to suffer in such a way, and so he decides that he will take the Quirk to his grave.

Then he spirals further.

If you thought his self-sacrificing nature was bad enough before, well you haven't met Izuku 'my Quirk is ruining innocent peoples' lives and I can't turn it off' Midoriya.

Because when Izuku decides that he is ending One for All's legacy, he realizes that he needs to end the fight of All for One and One for All once and for all. He has to do as much good as he can before he takes this Quirk from the world.

Basically, Izuku goes full Atlas, but he's the one forcing the punishment onto himself.

And take a moment to think about this...if Izuku was willing to do so much for one person, like Kouta or Eri...how far will the boy go when he believes he must protect the entire world?

The answer? As far as he must, even if it means breaking his own morals.

We start to watch Izuku go from a smiling, chaotic good hero to one who is morally gray and will go as far as to kill if he believes it will prevent future problems.

All for One is killed. Shigaraki is killed. Any other people who hold a copy, or were too involved with All for One, are potentially killed as well. 

Izuku hates killing. It makes him sick, but prison clearly isn't enough. He's learned that much from All Might, at least. You can't be safe until you've made sure your mortal enemy is torn to shreds and doesn't have a Regeneration Quirk to fix himself up.

(And just to be safe, Izuku burns the remains and keeps the ashes in a Quirk-suppressant box.)

Our boy breaks. He is ruthless with the worst villains, and while he'll never bring harm to a civilian he can't say the same for his enemies. He feels guilty for ruining the legacy, for becoming a mockery of everything All Might asked for, for causing those he cares for to be put in harm's way.

But hadn't he always wished for a Quirk?

Sometimes, it's better not to wish at all…

Everyone talks about how creepy Izuku Midoriya’s mumbling is, and how his muttering scares people.

But consider how terrifying Izuku would be if he didn’t mumble.

There’s just this...this quiet child. This quiet child who is somehow one step ahead of you constantly, who will see you do a cool supermove and recreate it two seconds later, and just always seems to know how you work but never explains how.

*Because I am god awful at naming things!!!

-So basically, this is an AU where, for whatever reason, Katsuki Bakugou does not pass the Yuuei Entrance Exam.

-There are a few potential reasons for this, and I’m not quite sure which I like the most, but the causes I’ve come up with are as such:

There was an open answer question about Quirklessness and/or weak Quirks that Katsuki showed his true opinion on. This answer either: a. Caused the Yuuei staff to realize ‘this kid isn’t thinking very heroically/clearly isn’t the ‘perfect student’ his file makes him out to be’ and rejecting him at the first realization that he’s a bully or b. Lost him just enough points for Katsuki to fail the written portion.

The other powerhouses we know and love are there. (Perhaps including Inasa, who might have come to the normal exam to give Yuuei a second chance at wowing him? If Katsuki is there, his temper might be the reason Inasa decides to go to Shiketsu in the end despite passing twice.) Either way, these super strong opponents snatch so many robots, Katsuki can’t get his hands on enough of them. (He either misses the cut-off by a few points, or is stuck with all of the speed demons and never gets more than, like, ten. Either way, it pisses him off.)

A very unlikely option, but...Shinsou feels spiteful as he realizes just how biased the Entrance Exam is, sees Katsuki and his strong Quirk, and just...brainwashes Katsuki right as the Exam starts, leaving the boy standing there, out of the way and just...not gaining points.

Someone accidentally knocks him out with their attacks at the very beginning. Might be Kaminari, we don’t know. 

-Whatever it is, Katsuki doesn’t get into Yuuei. And there’s no way someone as great as him will be stuck in the lowly Gen. Ed., so he applies to other schools….albeit really angrily.

-Here, we have two options. Either we put Katsuki in Ketsubutsu, or he goes to Shiketsu High. Guess which one I went with in the end?

-Surprise, surprise, it’s Shiketsu!!

-Shiketsu has some really strong students, like Inasa (who, in the end, decided he wasn’t up for dealing with Yuuei, and wants to prove that there can be strong heroes from other high schools) (and really, really hates the Todoroki family)

-but! Shiketsu also has hero students with not-so-powerful Quirks. Like Camie, whose illusions can’t deal damage, or Seiji and his Meatball Quirk!

-And this is important, because as time goes on, Katsuki starts to realize that strong Quirks aren’t necessarily everything. It’s not always about the Quirk that you have, but what you can do with it.

-Because holy shit, a girl with illusions is also a girl who can kick his ass, and Katsuki doesn’t think his ass is one easily kicked.

-So Katsuki, over the course of his first semester, slowly learns that hey, he’s a bit of a grade-a asshole, and wow he was shit to Deku. And the best part is??? He learns this lesson without having to get into twenty million fights with Izuku. 

-We also get to see Katsuki and Camie interacting more, and more Inasa and Katsuki time. I think it’s a win any way we put it. 

-Bonus: Katsuki tries making Inasa his rival. Camie overthrows this plan and becomes his rival instead, and manages to teach Katsuki about respect and not being an asshole, and a lot of outdated lingo. 

-Meanwhile, Izuku gets to Yuuei. 

-Everyone is so confused at Aldera. Katsuki because he failed, so how did Deku pass? His teachers because Deku is Quirkless. Izuku because ‘how did I get in and not Kacchan?’

-Everyone is so fucking lost. 

-But fuck that, let’s hop straight into the good stuff.

-Without Katsuki around??? Izuku flourishes, man. 

-Like fuck Dekusquad and Bakusquad, we only have Dekusquad and it’s the entire goddamn class, thank you very much.

-Izuku gets all of the love and support he needs, and then some. While he doesn’t make quite as much of a statement during his Heroes v. Villain fight, he’s still impressive and kind and everyone just ends up flocking to him.

-Izuku actually ends up admitting that he’s a ‘late bloomer’ to the class very early, like after USJ but before the Sports Festival early, because he has people like Kirishima supporting him and giving him the confidence he needs to admit it to both his class and his homeroom teacher.

-Is this an excuse to get some good old dadzawa in here? Oh of course, but also Izuku deserves to not break his hand irreparably so...here we go!

-The Sports Festival goes a bit differently, of course, but I’m not going to get into that now because I don’t have it plotted out perfectly, plus I’d need to decide how much change Izuku can make in two weeks. 

-Full Cowl would be developed by then, simply because Aizawa would take one look at Izuku during an extra, one-on-one lesson, and go, “What happens if you spread your power throughout your entire body?”

-Izuku just goes: Huh, don’t know….let’s find out! 

-And just like that, Full Cowling has arrived.

-So, Sports Festival. Neat. Stuff happens, months pass. 

-Izuku gets to be more confident and happy. 

-The boys don’t meet again until the Provisional License Exam. 

-By now, Katsuki has realized he isn’t God’s goddamn blessing to the world, and Izuku has blossomed into a strong, confident boy with friends (and a lot of new father figures, because I think a more confident Izuku would snatch his teachers as dads without much hesitation)

-Katsuki never watched the Sports Festival, because he was still pissed off when that happened and he just...never wanted to see how it went.

-So when the exams start, and Katsuki sees Izuku? Well, it goes a little like this:

Katsuki: Is that Deku? Fuck, I gotta apologize to the Quirkless nerd. (Or Camie might just beat the shit out of him, again.)

Izuku: nearly gets Katsuki to fail during the first stage, green lightning and all.

Katsuki:

Katsuki: F u c k.

-Katsuki still fails the Provisional License Exam, because wow he’s a little less abrasive but he still doesn’t know how to be gentle with kids and hurt people, telling them to get up and walk it off. Afterwards, he’s just reeling because Deku has a Quirk???

-They don’t talk. But they see each other, and they see the differences. And that does things to both of them. 

Izuku feels more confident, proud that he could pass where Kacchan failed. 

Katsuki, meanwhile, is wondering why Deku hid his power.

-He ends up hearing the late bloomer story somewhere, I don’t know how yet, and just...accepts it. 

He does a little research, makes sure late bloomers are actually a thing, and after finally watching the Sports Festival, shrugs and moves on a bit. 

-He basically goes ‘okay, I can see why he never got it before. I mean, if it’s so strong he’s breaking his bones, what the fuck would have happened if he got his Quirk earlier?’

-He feels a bit guiltier, realizing that the thing he judged Deku for wasn’t actually a valid excuse at all...even though bullying Deku for his Quirklessness also wasn’t a valid reason.