Chapter Text
Top 20: Coffee Jelly Quirk
The first time Kusuo discovered his new ability was just a normal day. Like any other. After an average day at school— which is usually less enjoyable than he would've desired— he returned home and took out some coffee jelly to relieve his stress. While peacefully eating the blessed delight, the psychic held the container with both hands, can't helping his appreciation for his savior. But then, the space between his palms and the container glowed a bright white and just like that, the dessert was gone. Kusuo flailed his hands through the air in a panic, but no matter how hard he tried to will his sweet back, he couldn't find it. And it never returned.
One of the worst days of his life.
And here we are now. A few weeks later.
"I can't believe Nendou did that! That was so embarrassing!" Kaidou complained for the one hundredth time maybe on his way back from school. Good grief. If Kusuo wasn't used to loud voices in his head all the time, he would probably just jump into the nearest wall or something. "How dare he say I'm stupid?! Has he ever seen a mirror before?!" Kusuo guesses he has a point though. Both of them.
"I'm smart!" Kaidou testified, "I study, I'm good at improvising and I'm super aware of my surrounding!" he scoffed, "He's such a hypocrite." Kind of ironic for Kaidou to mention his surrounding— seeing that he's just a few steps away from falling right into an open manhole.
Kusuo sighs and catches the other teen with both hands, one on each shoulder from behind before he can take another stride that will ultimately lead him straight into the hospital. Well, he'll have to visit the sewers first.
Kaidou gasps slightly at the unexpected contact, promptly cutting off his rambling. But then, in an unexpected turn of events, Kusuo's palms start to glow. All it took was one blink of surprise from the pink haired psychic and just like that— Kaidou vanished.
Ah.
Uh oh.
Kusuo mentally berates himself. He should've practiced and explored the unwanted new ability, he knows, but he just chalked it off to some reaction when he's feeling particularly joyous or something and made a mental note to hold his coffee jellies with both hands anyway.
Hesitantly, he places both hands on his cheeks and tries to activate the power. His hands glowed but either than that, nothing happens. He waits a few minutes, tries again and again yet, nothing.
Good grief. How bothersome.
~-*-~
Shun wakes up and his head hurts. Great. He swears to god if Nendou came from behind him and hit him in the head 'jokingly' again he's straight up just going to use his right hand's powers and wipe that gorilla's face off the planet.
His vision is a little groggy, so it takes him a few seconds to realize he's in some sort of alleyway… When did he get here? And that he's lying down on his back… Welp. Time to get up!
Shun places his hands on the ground beside him just to feel a gooey, slimy sensation on his left hand. Immediately, he shoots up to a sitting position with a disgusted yelp, tilting his head to look at the gross culprit that's irritating his bandages. There, right next to him, is a half spilled container of coffee jelly. He sighs. It's still gross as all crap but it sure could've been much, much worse. He wipes his hand on his pants and takes a look around him.
Last thing he remembers… is walking home from school with Saiki…
Shun bites his lip and tucks his knees close to his chest. This place doesn't seem familiar. He groans. This must be the work of Dark Reunion! They must have hit him with some sort of beam or something to knock him out and drag him to somewhere he wouldn't recognize and planted a sneaky, icky surprise for him to wake up to.
He shakes his head. Unfortunately for them, Shun is great with directions! He just hopes that Saiki is okay.
Eh, who's he kidding? Saiki's always okay!
Shun nods, content knowing his friend is most likely safe and places a firm hand to his right, ready to stand up, just to feel another sticky substance.
"Two traps!?" he cries, looking to his side. But this time, instead of being another coffee jelly packet— or any kind of dessert, really— there's a green blob covering his hand.
He gasps, launching up (without the help of his hands this time) and gags at… whatever that is. "Gross, gross, gross!" he groans as he wipes both his hands on his uniform. Mama's gonna kill him when she sees his clothes dirty like this!
Shun glares at the green substance and scoffs. "You're going to have to try harder than that!" he calls out to no one in particular— surely Dark Reunion is here somewhere, cupping one hand around his mouth while looking up— but not too close to his face though. Because ew. And then, when Shun looks back down to glare at the pathetic attempts to sabotage him, the green goop moves.
He can't help but stare in awe as other similar goo chunks slide from the sides of the tunnel to form one, massive pile of living sludge. With a face. Shun screeches.
Okay so it seems Dark Reunion really upped their shit. Holy fuck. What the hell even.
"Calm down, kid," the goo says. Like. Out loud. Shun yells harder. "Jeez. I'm just going to take over your body, okay? I'll make it quick."
"What?!" Shun screams, mind booting up again, "No, no! I don't think you will!" he declares with fake confidence. How did they even do that?! Is it even alive? Remote controlled? No— this isn't the time to think about this! Shun reaches down to his red bandages, ready to release all his strength on this unsuspecting fool. With only slightly trembling hands, he starts to unwrap the cloth surrounding his hands, starting from his wrist. But it only takes a moment for the sludge to lunge at him.
And then Shun can't breathe.
~-*-~
Izuku sighs, flipping through the damage Kacchan caused his notebook. He should really be careful about what he says to others. What if Izuku really would've taken his 'advice'? That just wouldn't be good— Izuku knows that much. Besides, he can't let mom down. He shakes his head. He knows Kacchan didn't really mean it but he should still be cautious.
"Hmph!"
Izuku startles and looks up from his burnt notebook to the alleyway right ahead where the strange noise came from. As soon as he figures out what's happening in the dim tunnel he freezes. There's some sludge villain engulfing and choking a young boy.
Without thinking, Izuku bolts to the scene. He flings the notebook that was in his hands to who knows where and strikes the sludge with his backpack, giving the other boy a second to breath before all his face holes are being suffocated again. Clawing at the villain uselessly, distantly from his pleading screams and frantic thoughts, Izuku is aware he's crying. He's always been a crybaby. And he really, really doesn't want to see someone die right in front of him. Especially if he could've done something about it.
"Please! Let him go!" Izuku screeches. The villain ignores him like he's harmless. Nothing to be worried about. Useless. Izuku cries, trying his best to reach the struggling boy's wrapped hands but to no avail.
Of course he can't do anything. He's Quirkless, after all. He can't be a hero. He's just a Deku. And he can't do anything to save this kid.
The boy notices him only then, Izuku's screams apparently also meshing with the boy's mind that must be running miles a minute and his eyes go wide. A second later, the boy manages to get a solid inhale and he turns his head as much as he can to look at the greenette straight in the eyes. From behind Izuku's fat, wet tears, he can spot pointed messy hair, untied uniform and sharp eyes that're also shedding tears; red that pierce through Izuku in a too familiar way. The teal haired boy opens his mouth to scream,
"Run! Save yourself! Don't worry about-" He cuts himself off just before taking a deep breath of air, bracing himself for another round of clogging that comes in no time.
Izuku sobs hard enough his nose stings and a wet snort breaks loose. His heart does a few weird squeezes and for a split second he panics a little more, wondering if the sludge had starting choking him too, but realizes it's his own fault and forces himself to breathe and try to think rationally. The actual goo part of the villain is too slippery, not solid enough and Izuku can't manage to get anything through it.
Useless.
No, no, no! This isn't the time to be thinking about himself! He needs to save this boy! He takes a step back to assess the situation more clearly. The choking teen is flaring his hand around, too fast for Izuku to catch, and he's staring horrifyingly into the sludge's eyes.
Eyes…
His eyes! The villain's facial features are solid!
Quickly as he can, Izuku thrust his hand through the goop in the direction to one of the closer eyeballs. The slime stops his momentum though, and he only achieves the slightest scrap of his finger against his eye, which is apparently enough to startle him enough for the teal haired boy to get another gasp of air. Which Izuku is grateful for.
The sludge villain raises a goopy hand and strikes Izuku with it, hurling the greenette a few meters away from them. The smack sends him rolling even after already colliding into the ground until his neglected bag cushions his stop. Now Izuku's scrapped all over his body from rolling on the hard pavement but he can barely feel it under all the adrenalin and he still gets up on two legs as fast as he can, wiping away snot and tears.
He can't let this kid die! He can't! He just can't! How is he ever going to be a hero if he can't even save one person?
In a frantic moment of panic mixed with determination, Izuku fiercely undoes the straps of his bag and rummages for anything that might be useful. He yanks out his pencil case and empties all the contents of it on the ground. In some ditch effort, he throws his All Might themed eraser at the villain, which doesn't help much but it does give the boy another millisecond to breath. All the time he can get. Izuku glares down at the items scattered on the pavement and lunges for the ruler— just what he needs! It takes him a couple frustrating tries to pick it up since his hands are still slippery and the ruler is lying flat on the ground like most rulers do but he manages to pick it up after a moment. With a cry of relief, the greenette sprints to the villain as fast as he can and thrusts the ruler into his eye.
Instead of injuring it like he had hoped, the wet eyeball just slips away on account of Izuku not being close enough to get a solid hit since he's too afraid and cautions that if he gets too close with his face the sludge will try to kill him, too. The villain is just too slick.
He can feel that sting in his eyes meaning he's going to start crying again as he steps back, lost on what to do. Nothing. He can't do anything. He's useless. He-
Crunch!
Izuku frowns with a sniff and looks down to see what he had stepped on.
It's an old, empty container with 'Coffee Jelly' written on it.
Huh.
In a surge of brilliance, Izuku picks up the container from its bottom with the hand that isn't wielding the ruler and takes a few more steps back from the creature to get a leading start. This is his only chance!
With the cries of the other boy and the last sliver of hot flaming hope coursing in Izuku's veins posing as motivation, the aspiring hero dashes into the scene once again. If he fails this, he's highly risking getting himself brutally killed as well by jumping right into the action. The moment his feet leave the ground in the highest jump he can try, Izuku uses the container to pull the eyeball he was aiming for towards him. Because of the round plastic parts that are meant to hold the coffee jelly in place— like a container— the eye gets caught inside it and the moment his hand exits the gooey blob, Izuku thrusts the ruler into the captured eye and it pops, spilling whatever it's made of onto the street below him, accompanied by a wail that thankfully isn't one of the boys'.
The villain at long last drops the teal haired teen onto the floor with a string of very colorful curses as he finally pays attention to the greenette with its one remaining eye but Izuku still holds his ground with a strong scowl.
None of them say anything for a few tense beats, the only sound interrupting what otherwise would have been a gnarly scene being the other boy's wet coughs and heaving. After another moment, the sludge scoffs, turns around flees the area. Immediately when the criminal is out of sight Izuku collapses onto his knees and tries to steady his breathing.
He did it! He saved someone's life!
But.
He let the villain go… And who knows how many people it's going to hurt now. If only he could've done more, stop it from hurting anyone else… Izuku sighs, looking at his right hand that's holding a container filled with eye… parts. He shudders and tosses it away from him. He should probably do something about it. But maybe later. He should also probably get a new ruler. He tosses that away too.
He wipes his eyes with the back of his wrists, looking around at the aftermath. The teal haired boy is still hunched over himself where he was dropped, knees and forehead pressed to the ground, covering his obviously still crying face, hands clutched around his shivering middle and green goop piled underneath the arch his body is making and Izuku has to stop himself from sobbing again just from the sad sight.
Cautiously, he inches closer to the other on his knees. "Hey…" he approaches sympathetically like how his mom greets him when he's sad and crying. But seemingly it gives the opposite effect because the boy flings his head back and upright to stare wide eyed at the other teen so fast Izuku wonders how he isn't puking again. The teal haired boy scrambles to get up then and the kneeling greenette holds his hands in front of him in swift concern, trying to show he doesn't want to harm the other, "I'm not-" he cuts himself off when the other teen bows down so deep he almost slams his head against Izuku's. Oh… He… he wants to thank-?
"I'm so, so sorry!" the boy all but yells. Well. That was unexpected.
"No, no! I'm sorry for wasting so much time-" Izuku tries to deflect greatly as he waves the hands that were in front of his face, cheeks heating.
"No, I shouldn't have let you get roped into Dark-"
"Please don't apologize! You're the victim!"
"But I should've been the one-"
"You did all you could and you did great! I'm to blame for just being too weak-"
"But it's all my fault-"
"NO!" Immediately after screeching that, Izuku clasped both hand on his mouth. He just yelled at person who was seconds away from dying! This kid most likely went through what easily could've been the most traumatic experience of their life and of course he had to make it worse. He looks down at his own shoes and dirty uniform in shame, not really sure when he got up from kneeling.
"Well. If you're so adamant, then…" Izuku looks up, yet unable to search the boy's eyes because he bowed down again, just as low, "Thank you so much! I, Kaidou Shun, am forever in your debt!" The greenette felt as if his eyes were about to pop right off their sockets.
"I-i-it's nothing! I-I just did what anyone would've done…" he blushed and waved his hands franticly around himself. Again.
"No, it's not!" The boy— Kaidou— straightened up, drool, vomit, goop, dry tears and snot staining his face but Izuku could still see clearly that he was also flushing, "You saved my life! You're my hero!"
"W-W-WHAT?!" H-HERO?! He must be kidding, right? All he did was play with some school equipment. He's in no way a h-hero! They barely know each other! "H-how am I a hero?" he asks, jumpy.
"You saved my life! Of course you're a hero!" and at that moment, when Kaidou was staring at him, face nervous with a light blush and a pout and starry eyes, Izuku felt something he never felt. A feeling he always dreamt of. He felt his eyes tearing up. Again. Eh, whatever.
"B-but… how can I be a hero when I don't have a- uh, when my Quirk isn't that useful?"
"Quirk?" Kaidou made a face, "I don't know what you mean, but as long as you save and help people, you're a hero. Isn't that, like, the definition…?" he trailed off when he saw the other full-on cry. Izuku can't help it. No one, in his entire life, said he could be a hero— let alone is one. That he can accomplish his biggest dream. "Oh, I see." Kaidou says, tone shifting and the aspiring hero had to hold himself from squirming. Did he figure out he was Quirkless? He's going to go back on his word and tell him to back off, right? Izuku sniffed, ready for rejection.
"You want to be a hero but no one believes you, is it? Well, let me tell you a story about myself." The freckled teen watched curiously as the other raised his right hand, "I have this super strong power in my right arm that I have to put these-" he points with his other hand to the red bandages, "-to seal them. Don't tell anyone but," Kiadou leans in, speaking more quietly now, Izuku latching to every word like he's climbing the side of a mountain and they're the grooves, keeping him up from falling, "There're these evil people who want to steal my power and use it— they're just that great!"
Izuku gasps. Kaidou must be going through so much; his Quirk is so strong people wish to steal it, but he's still taking the other seriously, even though he barely knows him. "That monster didn't give me time to take these off." He gestures again to his hands. "Now, believe it or not, a lot of people don’t believe me about my power! They say I'm just a coward and a liar and make fun of me. They think I'm even lying about the evil organization. But then, this one time this killer snake made its way to our classroom and lunged at this girl and I managed to save her!" he smiled proudly and Izuku couldn't help but stare at awe. This guy was so brave! The story seemed somewhat farfetched but he looks so genuine. Seriously, look at him! How can you not believe him? "Now let me tell you a secret, okay? I had no idea what I was doing— I thought I was gonna die!" Ah.
"And I felt so proud of myself when I took it down regardless!" Kaidou placed a firm yet gentle hand on Izuku's shoulder as he felt his lip tremble, hinting at another crying fit. "You're just like me! It doesn't matter what people think or say. Being a hero is all about your actions! And going by your actions you just made…" he looks him right in the eye as he gestures with his other hand at some of the green goop that stayed behind…
Kaidou looks so much like Kacchan, Izuku noticed. From the way he wears his uniform— even with the bonus of the sliced edges to his collar, cuffs and bandages that Kacchan doesn't even have— to his hairstyle which looks kind of like a mixture of Izuku's and Kacchan's but with Kacchan's light color and to those, sharp red eyes. He really does looks like him. But. Well. He's shorter and with a Quirk like his, it's really a wonder how he isn't treating him like the blond would in this moment. Instead of telling him he didn't need his help or asking him how he did it, the boy promptly went to blame himself, thinking it was his fault for not using his strong Quirk. And then he went to thank Izuku. If anyone's a hero, it's Kaidou. But the greenette held his breath, waiting for Kaidou's final blow,
"You totally have potential of being a hero!"
The dam broke. Izuku curled into himself, clutching at his sides and watching the ground as tears hit the concrete. His nose stings from sniffing so much and his eyes feels sore but. This. This is what he wanted— needed to hear all his life. And he never in his wildest dream would've guessed it would come from a random teenager from a different school he saved after he got suicide baited by his childhood friend. He shakes his head, staring blurrily at the ground.
It's not about how brave you are or how powerful your Quirk is… it's about trying until you succeed, isn't it? Izuku folds until his chin hits his chest, loud sobs and whines escaping his form. He knows— he knows! That Kaidou is just one kid; someone he doesn't even know. And Izuku still isn't confident in himself one-hundred percent yet. He knows this is going to be hard. That he's going to have to try harder than anyone else. But this is the first person that had told him that he can. He can be a hero. And maybe Kaidou will regret saying that if or when he learns the truth about Izuku's Quirklessness, but for now he'll try his best to trust what Kaidou says. From a different person who has lots of potential to be a great hero to an aspiring one. And Izuku thinks his first step should be getting supportive friends.
"Oh. You're crying… What am I supposed to- uhm uh please don't-"
"I'm fine." Izuku tilts his head to give the concerned boy a sloppy smile underneath the fountain that is his face.
"Okay, good." Kaidou huffs, "Uhm. I think I should go check up on my friend, so…" he turns to leave.
"W-wait!"
"Hm?"
"C-can I- uh. We- can we exchange phone numbers?" he croaks.
Kaidou raises his eyebrows for a moment before smiling kindly, red eyes that resemble ones that always used to alarm him shine with understanding, "Sorry," Kaidou says, "Mama told me not exchange numbers with strangers."