Chapter Text
"Sensei, I have a request to make."
"Proceed."
"The noumu have been coming along splendidly, their quirks are developing as planned. However, I have a new theory. The base of the Noumu already have quirks, this leading to Noumu overloading their higher brain functions, which is where we insert the electric stimuli to induce obedience. This also means that there is a limited amount of quirks the brain can absorb before their brains have a complete and utter shutdown, and die. My theory is that if we use a quirkless base for our Noumu, we may be able to integrate more quirks into the subject, and therefore have more versatile weapons for the League. I just need one subject to test my theory."
"You wish me to find a quirkless subject for you?"
"Oh no, I already have one in mind. I just need you to retrieve him...."
"If you really want a quirk, here's some advice. Believe you'll get a quirk in the next life, and take a dive off the roof!"
Izuku stared at his burnt and sodden notebook, the pages wrinkling and clumping together, and some of the ink already beginning to smudge as it dried as he walked back to his apartment.
"Just one more year. One more year and then I can prove myself..." He murmured, ignoring the burning bruise in his shoulder, just like he ignored the sting of tears threatening to fall.
He's right though isn't he? You're not very heroic material are you? Can't even stand up to your childhood friend...
Izuku shook his head against the voice, gritting his teeth. No. Nope. He was not going to address that thought right now. He would just have to work harder, and think smarter about how he was going to do this. He was going to be a hero! No matter what!
He forced his lips upwards in a grin, pumping a fist in the air as he channeled his favorite Hero's words. "Plus Ultra!" He cried, laughing boisterously as he turned the corner to his apartment building.
Izuku smiled as he walked up to his door, his keys jingling merrily as he pushed it into the lock, turning the handle-
A fist crashed violently against the back of his skull, sending Izuku tumbling into the foyer. His nose cracked loudly against the genkan, stars exploding across his vision as he cried out. Blood splattering across the floor.
Izuku heard loud footsteps behind him, his brain frozen in panic. Trying to think through the haze of pain surrounding his face. He gagged around his collar as he felt his feet leave the ground, dangling in the intruder's grip.
A fanged maw grinned at him, a man with the face of a coyote staring at him curiously as blood dripped from his broken nose. Fear rose like bile in his throat, terror coating his insides like ice.
"A high pain tolerance. Doc'll like that!" The Coyote man laughed. He swung his arm in an arc, sending Izuku crashing into the dining room table, yelping as one of the chairs snapped under his weight. The air knocked from his lungs as bruises bloomed along his ribs. Izuku felt blood dribble down his face, doubtlessly from knocking his head against the corner of the table.
The coyote man chuckled, picking him up by the throat to smash him against a nearby wall, his head bouncing off of it painfully, and began to dig his clawed fingers into his throat, creaking against his trachea.
"Go ahead and kick for me little boy. You'll be out soon enough...."
Izuku gagged, flailing in the man's grip. His fingers scrabbled against his clawed hands, as hot, sticky blood began to drip into his eyes.
Was this it?
Was this how his life was going to end?
Choked to death by a stranger in his apartment?
Did his neighbors not hear the crash?
Had they called a hero yet?
Was no one going to check on the source of the noise?
Wasn't anybody going to help him?
Izuku wheezed, darkness creeping into the corners of his vision as he choked, the man's fingers wrapping tighter. Despair slithered into his chest, cold and unyielding.
"That's it. Just go to sleep now...." The Coyote man crooned, as Izuku gasped in his grip his struggles beginning to slow.
A soft, shuffling step.
"Izuku.....?"
Izuku's blood turned to ice.
He turned his head, seeing the figure of his mother in the doorway, her purse tucked under her arm, her eyes wide at the scene before her.
A large blood spatter marking the Genkan. The contents of Izuku’s bag spilled across the floor. His notebook covered in the crimson droplets. Smeared from where the man lifted him off the floor.
The dining room table smashed and a chair broken. Red liquid staining the corner of the table, one of the chair legs snapped clean off. Splinters littering the kitchen tiles.
Her son, being choked by a stranger. His mouth gaping like a fish as he fought for air, legs kicking uselessly. His eyes wide with terror, meeting hers in a desperate plea.
Blood, dripping from her son's face and nose. Only serving to contrast the ivory pallor his face had taken, his lips tinged blue as he fought for oxygen.
Izuku gagged, tears slipping down his cheeks.
"Kaa-san...." He wheezed, the words more mouthed than spoken, a mere whisper of air escaping the man's grip on his throat.
"Ah shit...." The Coyote man sighed, shaking his head. He dropped a hand, grinning at Izuku as he pulled something from his waistband. "No witnesses, am I right?"
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Inko blinked, slowly looking down at the three red spots blossoming across her chest, staining her sweater. She took two, three shuffling steps back before tumbling backwards unto the cold tile.
She gave a wet, painful wheeze, weakly turning her head to look at Izuku. She mouthed something, blood tinging her lips as she reached out weakly for him.
The light in her eyes flickered.
And went out.
Izuku stared dumbstruck at the blood that began to pool around her form. Spreading wider and wider.
Her eyes gazing into his own.
Empty of life.
He could faintly hear screaming, a loud, horrified inhuman screeching that reverberated through this head over and over like an agonizing echo chamber. Over and over and over and over and over-
"Shut up!" The Coyote Man snarled, releasing his throat, and grabbing a fistful of his hair, smashed it into the plaster.
Darkness engulfed him.