Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku was watching All Might fight the Villain Voodoo when suddenly he was picked up between two arms. He desperately tried to hold onto his All Might figurine as he was spun around.

“We are going to see what your quirk is today baby!” Inko squealed, spinning him around in the air excitedly. Green flecks seemed to sparkle but disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Izuku is four years old today and it's an exciting time for the small family of two. Izuku and Inko respectively move to the foyer and slip their shoes on, before heading out. A few neighbours looked out their doors and waved as they walked past to the elevator. Inko held Izuku’s hand as they came out into the parking lot, only letting go to open her car’s door and to strap izuku inside in a car seat. The drive to the doctors building was short and filled with izuku’s excited rambling as he continued to clutch his All Might action figure.
However after tests were taken from them Inko got the bad news from Dr Tsubasa,

“Well Midoriya-san if you’d look at the x-ray taken from Midoriya-shounen you can see the little extra joint in his pinkie toe. It has been proven that all those with an extra pinkie joint are quirkless.” Dr Tsbuasa looks at Izuku passively as Inko gasped in shock, “Sorry kid it’s not gonna happen.”

In shock Izuku’s once iron grip loosened and his action figure slipped out of his hands onto the floor. Quirks were everything! How come he didn’t have one? Questions raced through his head as he was told he would never get a quirk. His eyes glazed over and he tuned out the rest of the conversation Dr Tsubasa and his Mother had before he and Inko had to go home. That day Izuku Midoriya’s whole world had crumbled into nothing but dust by a few simple words.

The drive home was silent and uncomfortable, Inko seeing Izuku’s tear filled eyes through the rearview mirror. Izuku trudged home slowly from the apartment's parking lot and looked absolutely pitiful. A small handful of neighbour’s peaked out their doors expecting to see an ecstatic young child just to see tears. He ran straight for his bedroom, Inko following behind and got a door shut in her face. Inko’s hand hesitantly hovered, poised to knock but sighed reluctantly and left. She walked past his door around 9pm and still could see a blue light from under the door. When it opened she found him crying at the computer with All Might's debut playing in the background.

“Mama.. Can I still be a hero?” Izuku Midoriya’s watery voice called out longingly to her, for her reassurance. All she did was sigh, a lump in her throat as she thought about her next words. She tried her best and only thought about the dangers he would face.

“I-I… I’m sorry Izuku!” Tears rolled down her face as she apologised for everything, that she shouldn’t have given birth to him in this powered world.

Izuku’s world had crumbled before his eyes and continued to rot in the bottom of the barrel called life. He was picked on, left out of any activity- school or ‘friend’ related, there was just no hope for him. Barely skating by he makes it to Aldera highschool, one of the few schools where quirkless students could attend, the worst place of his miseries.

The Teacher slammed the door open, walking in with a tall stack of paper. "Good morning, Students! Now I would hand out these dream job forms but I already know you all want to be heroes!" He said enthusiastically, throwing the papers into the air. The class burst in an uproar of approval, showing off their quirks in approval. Izuku flinched at all the noise and slumped at his desk as an attempt to seem smaller.

"Hey Teacher, don't put me in the same group with these extras! They might only end up as damn second-rate sidekicks for some weird-ass hero." ‘Kacchan’ or better known as Bakugou Katsuki yelled over the chattering classmates.

"Ah, Bakugo-san! Don't you want to go to Yuuei?"

"Oh yeah! I already aced the online mock exams!" Kacchan gloated, bragging that he had already ‘passed’.

People started talking about Yuuei having a two percent acceptance rate for the hero course as it is a prestigious school and that they were oh so jealous of him.

"Hey, didn't Midoriya-san want to go to Yuuei as well?" The Teacher questioned aloud, thinking to himself with a dark smile. Everyone looked towards Izuku who was white as a ghost, as they all glared maliciously at him, laughing at the thought of someone so ‘unevolved’ and ‘stupid’ going to a school for heroes.

“HIM?! That quirkless Loser!!" Bakugou laughed. Explosions danced in his palms, throwing his hands onto Izuku’s desk, making smoke rise and leaving scorch marks on the desk atop the graffiti slurs. Izuku’s eyes watered but he pushed it down, it would only make things worse- since they all seemed to sadistically enjoy his tears.

"I could just want to apply to the other courses AND there isn't a rule of quirkless people not applying to the school!" Izuku informed them and then slapped a hand over his mouth in an effort to clam up. The classroom’s aura darkened and suddenly felt much bigger than himself as they glared at his contribution.

“Shut up Midoriya.” The Teacher hissed, giving him a whack on the head. “Or do I need to pull out the box?”

Izuku shook his head vigorously and turned back to his notes in ‘Hero Analysis for the Future, No.14’. After class finished Bakugou crept up behind him and snatched the book from Izuku with a hostile grin.

"Hero analysis for the future?... I think not." He placed the books between both of his palms and burnt it in a small but destructive explosion.
"Now look at it, scrap paper that needs to be tossed into the trash." Bakugou braced himself and proceeded to throw it out the open classroom window.

Panicked, Izuku rushed to the frame and peered out to see it drenched in a neglected koi-fish pond. ‘Hero Analysis for the Future No.14’ was completely ruined. Bakugou grabs his arm and twists him around, pushing him against the wall uncomfortably.

“All right Null, stay out of my way… or even better! Go take a swan dive off a building so you can have a quirk in your next life." He hissed. His voice, menacing as he heated his palm.

Izuku hissed as he smelled an irony, caramelised- burning pork like smell started to rise. His arm had a second or third degree burn on his freckled flesh. He collapsed to the floor and watched as his ex-childhood friend walked away from his pitiful form. He really was weak, he thought to himself.

Izuku solemnly walked through the school, head down and to the edge of the hallway until he made it outside. Green eyes stared at the paper book in the pond disheartened as he realised it was unsalvageable. Tears dripped from his eyes, he wanted to scream, to… rest. Izuku climbed through a broken window, wincing as he cut his palm but ultimately ignored it stinging as he walked back through the dingy halls. Izuku trudged up the stairs to the roof, staring past the chain link fence to the cityscape and sunset. Mourning the life he lived he slipped off his shoes, coat and jacket.

“I am sorry, for everything… for living so long.” He wept. Bleeding hands clutched the fence and heaved himself over- standing on the edge of the building his tormentors resided in from 7 to 5. Izuku sighed, enjoying the biting wind- savouring the moment. He leant forward to grasp the fleeting feeling and fell. Down. Down. Crack.

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up with a harsh light shone in his face. A white overhead lightbulb shone above him as he looked around gathering his surroundings.

“Ah the little patient is awake. Quite the fall you had there.” The bizarre doctor cooed.

“Why did you save me-” Izuku cried at the woman, looking at his scarred hand. “I wanted to die.”

“Well my quirk doesn’t give me much choice about who I mend. You were chosen because you are meant for greater things this time.” She paused. “My name is Kiki, and you are free to go since I healed most of the important things.”

“Don’t make me a chosen one, I’m completely useless.” He whispered as he left. Izuku zoned out as he made his way back home to his mother. Suddenly he was knocked onto the floor as he bumped into someone.

“A-All might??” He exclaimed. The hero turned around with a smile.

“A fan! Well my dear boy do you want an autograph?”

“Yes! But first can you answer this question?”

“SURE!” All Might cheered with a strained smile (he was running out of time, not that anyone noticed).

“Can a person with no powers become a hero?” He asked hopefully, crossing his fingers under his yellow backpack where no one could see it.

“HAHA, Why of course not. You’d be a liability on the field with no power to back you up, in honesty you would probably die. Now I’m in a hurry so I will be off now.”

“Oh.” Izuku resumed his depressive slump, trudging back home.
-
It didn’t take long to reach the door, he knocked and his mum opened the door. He lunged forward and hugged her sobbing deeply as the events caught up to him. More importantly he mourned his death- his broken dream- his world. Inko comforted her loving boy and rubbed his back. He asked for a couple days off school and she couldn’t help but cave in seeing her baby so desperate. Both tired from a long day they ate dinner in silence and retreated to bed early. Or so Inko thought.
In reality, Izuku logged onto his laptop while drinking from an open water bottle as he stayed up researching. What was he researching, why hero law of course. It was possible to sue a hero, it is just extremely difficult in these times but he was determined. Then he stumbled across quirk laws, delving into it drew him into a deeper rabbit hole each time. While drinking from the water bottle his eyes widened as he skimmed over a law-

“To be a vigilante you have to use a quirk to be labelled!” He exclaimed excitedly.

His tilted water bottle spilled water all over the keyboard and the screen flickered green briefly. Izuku wiped the water off quickly with a t-shirt he snagged off the floor panicking that he broke his laptop. It was running fine and nothing seemed to be wrong. So he powers the laptop off, leaving it open at the end of his bed.
As Izuku finally passed out in bed, a message flickered onto the screen in green text...

‘Do you want to prove them all wrong? YES/NO?’

Waking up the next morning to find the message was a major surprise for him. Unbothered with any chore or hobby today he focused on the message. With whatever this program was running he couldn’t access any other program or app on his laptop. He was only left with the option to type answers to the program.

‘What do you mean to prove them wrong?’ He asked the program.

‘Do you want to prove to the world that you can be useful? YES/NO?’ The program’s question was pointed and drove a harsh stab to his heart. He thought for a moment, of course he wanted to.

‘Yes.’ He finally answered.
Another question was typed and left flickering on the screen.

‘Do you need power to accomplish the task? YES/NO?’ He snorted and rolled his eyes at the question.

‘Of course I do.’

‘Unrecognised command. YES/NO?’ Izuku exhaled and tapped in yes.
After pressing enter, his fingers felt like they were fuzed with the keyboard and green electricity sprung from the keyboard. Nothing else seemed to happen and before he could start panicking again his head was flung back from pain, mouth open in a silent scream. His eyes glowed a pale green- almost white as knowledge filled his brain about this power.
This ‘Quirk’ has no name, but from the images flashing in his mind it would most certainly be seen as a ‘Villainous quirk’ in this society.
He is the epitome of a Grim Reaper, he could reap souls and in exchange burn them for power. Each soul was worth different amounts of power, in this sense power would be sins and the more sinful the more power he has with the soul collected. Izuku could store souls and build up a power reserve so he didn’t need to constantly collect them.
He snapped back to reality and felt the cool buzz under his skin.

There was the distinct sound of Inko clinking pots and pans for breakfast. Izuku tiptoed out of his room and as he reached the middle of the hall he readjusted his weight making his footsteps heavier so not to scare her coming into the open plan apartment but she screamed anyway. He froze, still as a statue as she pointed.
“Your hair?! What happened to your hair, Izuku?!” She shrieked. Tears already springing to her eyes.

“Huh?” He ran to the nearest mirror, his hair had turned white for fucks sake. He sighed, grabbed a curl and concluded that it must have happened during the ‘programming’... most likely the stress of having information crammed into his brain from an outside source. He turned around with a remorseful expression.
“Mum, I think I had a forced awakening because of some things that happened yesterday.” It was a painful admission, half truth-half lie.

Most late bloomers usually show up naturally around the age of 9 at the latest (at least on record). After the age of 9 typically it will ‘awake’ because the person was put in a life threatening situation to forcefully open the quirk factor as a matter of protecting the host from danger.

“Oh Izuku...” Tears falling as she approached him, embracing him in a tight loving embrace.
This time he didn't cry, his resolve to save people still intact. He'd been through the five stages of grief and his dream was gone. Now simply there was a small tiny seed of darkness left from the vanquished light.
So we are adding one more stage...

Revenge.

Chapter Text

The next morning, it is spent preparing. He signs up for a gym membership under a false name and quirk registry. Gym clothes are thrown into a black bag with a small towel and his latest hero merchandise water bottle of Present Mic.
Everyone has at least one piece of hero merch on them, famous or not it doesn't matter- if you didn’t have one you would be seen as strange. In Izuku’s opinion, Present Mic may seem shallow but he wasn’t too bad of a hero. He studied different fighting styles and while learning was compressing them into his own. Sticking to a schedule and not quitting was hard but through pure determination and spite he continued on. Training his body and mind in the same instance.

In the beginning of his own quirk analysis, he originally thought he had some affinity with technology and began his study with hacking. Izuku thought to himself that studying his new quirk is extremely difficult when you have no idea where to start and cannot ask for help from counselors (outsiders). Soon after this thought passed his laptop pinged with the message-

‘Are you stuck? YES/NO.’ His hands hover over typing NO, believing he wanted to solve it himself.
But in the long run that would take much longer than the short timeframe he needed. So in the end he types YES. Many tabs filled with information fill his screen, overwhelmed he saves the tabs he wouldn’t be reading that night and closes them. The basic’s are left displayed on his screen.

POWER BASICS:
>Name:
Soul Reaper
>How it works:
To find ‘Souls’ one must identify ‘what is a soul’, by entering meditation and experiencing the process. Maintaining a state of calm you may manifest a weapon of choice to ‘reap’ the souls.
Souls can be transformed into energy from their lifeforce and that energy can be sacrificed for powerful moves- an example being ‘Soul Cannon’. With your status as “The Reaper” souls must obey you and your command.
>Drawbacks:
The original body will live like the dead. Very slow heartbeat and low body temperature. There is a possibility for you to enter rigamortis from lack of soul energy. To combat these conditions one must consume souls of the dead or barely living. If it is not possible to access souls ASAP then blood may delay the effects for a short while.

Reading in shock, he realised the drawbacks would be bad for such a powerful quirk but this seemed harder than he thought. Mulling it over, there were some pros about it- like he wouldn’t bleed out immediately if at all when stabbed or injured. A con would be that if he broke a bone he wouldn’t be able to fix it. Izuku writes a question about mending broken bones if he’s ‘dead’ into his quirks weird ‘chat bot’ to which it answers-
‘It is possible to mend bones and many other injuries with a soul’s lifeforce.’

Satisfied with his answer, he turns to learn how to conjure his soul weapon into the world. It takes a couple tries to grasp the concept of what he would enjoy using in combat but thinking it over why did he have to pick only one when it was malleable? Death was different for different people after all. In the end Izuku practices attempting multiple different forms while meditating. Everything was taking so long but at least he could grasp the basics quick enough in his opinion.

A thought occurred to him later in the evening, how would he train if he couldn’t locate the soul energy he needed? So he went scouring the internet for some help. Researching places where people had died tragically. The knowledge of how to feel those souls and now some places to find him, training now seemed a little easier without the impending doom of being stiff and frozen in place.

He was absolutely thrilled about having a couple of years to get ready before introducing his plans to Japan.

As a year passed and his practised hacking skills he began using those for good by sending reports with analysis of criminals and their organisations to Pro Heros to capture them. All these emails are signed under ‘Your Knight in shining armour.’ a way to subtly mock the heroes and their terrible work at capturing them. It was certainly good fun to watch the Heroes try to find if he was a villain wanting competitors dead or a vigilante attempting to help with an IQ boosting quirk. None of those are the case, he’s obviously still Quirkless on paper.

This is the time where he began dabbling with information brokering. Attempting to make his name known in the underground. There wasn’t much success in that part for the time being. Izuku only ever managed to sell a minimum of three analyses to villain organisations who have beef with each other.

The second year flew by while Izuku began to learn more about his quirk’s aspects and how to use them. His own analysis and theories filled in blanks of the information the weird ‘Chatbot’ gave him.

On a cloudy day he’d gone out to a secluded place in the forest and gathered a few souls from ghosts floating around before converting their lifeforce, just to shoot a laser beam out of his hands. Izuku collapses to his knees with a yell of victory, feeling absolutely cathartic. ‘Deku’ was no more, he had power. He was someone of importance now. This year isn’t his year of quirk mastery yet, he still had a ways to go and he had a feeling he might never uncover all of the possibilities he was capable of. This was his year of a soul weapon mastery.

The weapon he’d gained the most practice with was a tactical knife, simply. Great for throwing and amazing for close combat. Bit of a cliche but in his defence they work very well. When he felt proficient enough to fight with his knife, Izuku felt that he could finally begin to help with clearing the streets…