Chapter Text
At the age of four, every child expects to receive a quirk. When that time inevitable comes, every child can be observed brimming with glee and excitement for a bright future it will certainly provide them. And just like any other child, Midoriya Izuko is no different.
And just like any other child of her time, she dreams of being a hero. Just like any other person in this age of heroes, she admires this era's greatest hero, All Might.
Yes, Midoriya Izuko is just like any other child, filled with hope and dreams of a future with heroics.
However, this child's destiny, is not like any other's. But rather, her fate turns out to be far crueler, and more tragic than anyone else's.
And it all starts, when her quirk failed to manifest.
Izuko turns four, and waits for her quirk to appear. A day passes, and she still waits for it. Then two, then three, and fourfivesixsev-
She waits a week, but it never comes.
So she once again waits, and waits, waitswaitswaitswaitswaitswai-
More time passes, and it still shows no signs of manifesting, at all. So in the end, her mother takes her to the quirk doctor, in hopes of figuring out what's wrong.
It is there, in that doctor's office, that her entire world comes crashing down.
Quirkless
She sits in the dark, staring blankly at the screen of her computer, unable to comprehend what she had just been told.
QuirklessQuirkless
She watches All Might on repeat, of him being a hero when it all seems hopeless. Of him using his quirk to make the impossible possible, to save and protect lives. Izuko just sits and watches a mighty hero over and over again, starring and facing a reality of what she doesn't and can't have. Of a path that is most certainly lost to her.
QuirklessQuirklessQuirkless
There is tears in her eyes, when she asks her mother if she can be like All Might and make the impossible possible. If she can defy the world, and accomplish her dream despite the immense improbability of it. The only response she gets, are more tears and regret filled apologies.
QuirlessQuirklessQuirklessQuirklessQuirklessQuirklessQuirklessQuirklessQuir-
That night, she dreams of improbable futures and shattered hopes.
It was shortly after her fourth birthday, that her life went downhill. She had become the quirkless, the outcast, the freak, the deku.
She was mocked, and harassed, and beaten by her peers, the teachers always did nothing at all. They didn't encourage it, but they didn't disuse it either.
They turned a blind eye to it all, while of one of their charges was being isolated and hurt in more ways than one. Her only companions in the classroom being Kacchan and his friends.
They were also the instigators of her everyday torture.
Her real ally in all of the hurt and barbarism, was her mother. She noticed, she always did, when she'd come home more broken than when she left. The cuts, the bruises, the burns, the torn belongings, and most of all, her slowly decaying spirit. Her mother always saw and knew that something was wrong, that her child was going to school and coming back like a soldier who had gone to war.
That her sweet baby girl was slowly dying in front of her very eyes, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. For even if she knew, Izuko would explain it all away. She'd spin stories of how her clumsiness had caused her skin to be painted black and blue and red, of how some harmless roughhousing had gone a little too far and left her dirty with ripped clothes, of childish pranks that had accidentally ruined her property rather viciously.
Even if her mother did not believe a single word of her tales, there was nothing to be done if she herself did not speak up. Because at the end of the day she was a child, one who wanted desperately to be accepted, to have her old friends back and make new ones along the way. She didn't want to be alone anymore, she didn't want to be hurt further than she already has.
Yes, Midoriya Izuko was very much a naive and innocent child. So in the end, she kept her silence.
(Years later, as she reflects on her life, she'd realize not just her mistake, but just how truly disturbing the situation really was. For even if she came forward, she would still be quirkless. And no one cared for those like her, so she would have been silenced either way.
It would have changed nothing, nothing at all)
One day in the park, Midoriya Izuko learns two very harsh lessons about life.
She learns the first one as she tries to protect someone else from her friends, from Kacchan, and is burned and beaten into the ground for her efforts.
Not Everyone Is Born Equal
Afterwards, she is left behind in the dirt, with cruelly severed bonds. In the aftermath of this display of cruelty, Izuko is left completly alone.
She learns the second lesson shortly after, when a stranger with too ancient eyes and a bitter smile appears.
The man stands before her, and from his lips spills out an inquiry.
'Do you want to be a hero?'
A question that was so simple, but one that made all the difference. And it is that question, and her reply to it, that end up teaching her a lesson far crueler than the one before.
Be Careful For What You Wish For