Chapter Text
“I cannot simply say you can become a hero even without power.”
All Might’s words rang in Izuku's head long after he’d left the roof. He’d gone straight home, muttering a greeting to his mother as he walked like a dead man to his room and locked himself in.
“I cannot simply say you can become a hero even without power.”
I can’t become a hero without power , Izuku translated as he stood in the center of his room, staring at the texture of his ceiling.
A moment ago, he’d gone on a rampage around his room, pulling down all the All Might merch. He couldn’t bring himself to throw it away, so he’d stacked it in piles outside his room, informing his mother that it all could be brought to donation. She’d looked extremely concerned, but one look at his puffy eyes and angry forehead made her just nod in acceptance and let him be.
His room was empty and bare now, almost completely devoid of color. But All Might-- the thought of All Might now made Izuku's hands shake with anger and disappointment. All Might was supposed to be a hero. It was practically his job to make people feel better about their problems, and instead All Might’s words had made Kacchan's suggestion to swan dive off a roof feel like an extremely viable option for Izuku. And then right afterwards, Izuku had jumped in to save Kacchan from that slime villain and the heroes had told him off . They told him that his actions were a dangerous and unnecessary risk, that they’d had the situation handled, but anyone who took one look at the scene would have known that that situation was far from handled. And then when they’d found out he was quirkless…
The world is too dangerous for you.
Stop playing hero.
You’re weak.
Useless.
Deku.
Izuku shook his head, eyes welling up with tears, and jammed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. I knew this was coming, he reminded himself. I knew I couldn’t be a hero. I knew that this was the only answer. So then why does it hurt so badly?
He felt his legs go weak underneath him and he crumpled to the ground, chest tightening as he sobbed into his fists.
I cannot simply say you can become a hero even without power.
“I don’t care what you can and can’t say,” Izuku sobbed into his hands. “I don’t care!”
It took him a few minutes to calm down again, but when he’d succeeded he stood up, resolve strengthening once more.
“I can be a hero,” he said firmly, clenching his fists by his side. That was a blow, but I can still do it. “I don’t care what anyone says, I’ll do it anyway.”
His words had an air of emptiness to them now, but he was determined.
Later that night, Izuku was sitting at his computer, looking into possible options for where he could go to become somebody other than a useless quirkless nobody.
His first thought, of course, one that had crossed his mind many times in the past, was the possibility of getting a quirk from someone. Once in an online forum, he’d come across a rumor that there was a man who could take and give quirks as he pleased. The idea had obviously seemed wonderful to Izuku, who had then spent several nights breaking many laws to hack into some very high security information vaults. His hacking skills weren’t the best in the world, mostly because it was against the law, and as a hero it was going to be his job to preserve the law, but occasionally he’d have a little lapse into curiosity and unearth his hacking knowledge again in order to get some piece of information or other. The point of all this being that Izuku wasn’t the best hacker, and was, in fact, pretty rusty. It took him a while, but eventually he found confirmation that the man did , in fact, exist. However, having this information was pretty much pointless, because all the leads as to where the man might actually be were dead ends.
So that was out.
His second thought was just to train really hard by himself and hopefully pass the entrance exam by a combination of luck and… no, just luck. That idea fell through quickly.
After that, Izuku had started going through lists of pro heroes who had quirks that weren’t exactly… hero-like. People like the underground hero Eraserhead, whose quirk couldn’t be used for offense, and who had to rely on actual physical skill to get anything done. After a while, he realized that even if he could find a hero like that close enough to train him, the chances of him actually being able to convince that hero to train him were extremely low, next to zero. He was quirkless, after all, and none of the pro heroes he’d met seemed to believe that a quirkless boy could ever be a true hero.
All that led Izuku to where he was currently, researching the Hero Killer, Stain. He’d already dug in pretty deep, and was once again utilizing his rusty hacking skills to look into some security cameras near where Stain’s last sighting was. The Hero Killer was mobile enough to be able to train Izuku near his home, and he had some amazing technical expertise, even without use of his quirk. He also probably would be easier than a pro hero to convince, which was kind of disgusting the more Izuku thought about it. After a long night of searching, a night that could have been much shorter if he hadn’t forgotten a few hacking essentials, Izuku was able to create a list of a few viable options for where Stain could be hiding out. He filled a backpack with his hero research, waited for his mom to fall asleep and then snuck out, dropping quietly into the night.
By the fourth location on his list, Izuku was starting to give up hope. The night was nearing its end, he hadn’t found Stain, and he still had school tomorrow. He sighed and knocked on the door. If this wasn’t it, he’d have to start all over again tomorrow, and that was going to really, really suck.
To his immense surprise, the door opened a crack and one suspicious looking eye peered out.
“Um, hello!” Izuku said bowing a little. “I’m looking for, uh--” he glanced nervously down the hallway, worried about being heard-- “someone…” he finished vaguely.
“They’re not here,” the person said, starting to close the door again.
“Oh, it’s you!” he exclaimed, eyes brightening up as he recognized the villain’s -- or maybe vigilante’s, as he wasn’t sure exactly what he thought of Stain yet-- voice from some unprofessional footage he’d found online. “I was wondering if you could train me, please?”
The door froze and then opened even wider than it had been before, revealing Stain’s entire left side, a lot of which was covered in blood.
Izuku took a step back, forcing himself to remember that he’d been expecting this. He’d need to put his morals aside for just a little bit while he got stronger and learned to fight.
“You want me to train you,” Stain said, in a tone of immense disbelief.
He nodded weakly. “W-well, I was originally going to go to a pro hero,” he began explaining in a low mutter, “but then I realized that none of them probably had time, and I don’t really have any leverage or way to convince them that I’m worth training, especially since I don’t have a quirk, and so I was looking for other ways for me to learn and your name came up, and while I’m not really all that excited about your whole killing rampage, I still thought I’d--”
“Kid,” Stain interrupted. “Slow down, I have some questions.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“Are you with the police?” he asked bluntly, hoping to put everything out in the open right away.
Izuku shook his head. “No, they’d have to be pretty desperate to send in a fifteen year old to catch a--”
“Here’s a free lesson for you,” the Hero Killer said, interrupting him again. “When someone you don’t know you can trust asks you a question, answer it in as few words as possible. When you ramble, you reveal too much information about yourself. Got it?”
Izuku nodded, already making a mental note to put in his notebook later.
“Now did you say you’re quirkless?”
“Yes, I--” Izuku cut himself off before he started to ramble.
Stain smirked a little at his attempts to keep his replies short. “And you found me all by yourself?”
Izuku nodded, lips pursed together.
“And why do you want training?”
“I want to be a hero,” he said with conviction. “But everyone told me I can’t because I don’t have a quirk.” He opened his mouth to say more, but then, remembering Stain’s lesson a moment ago, closed it again.
“Why do you want to be a hero?” Stain asked, folding his arms. Izuku could sense that one misstep here and it was all over.
Izuku's eyebrows furrowed together and he set his jaw in determination. “I want to be a hero who saves people with a smile. One who runs in and helps people no matter the danger they’re in. I want people to feel safe when they see me, and know everything will be fine, because I’m there.”
Stain flat out stared at him, and Izuku couldn’t tell if he was impressed or angry, so he stayed quiet, pursing his lips together.
“Why don’t you come in and we can finish this conversation?” Stain suggested, pulling the door open all the way.
“U-um.” Izuku hesitated, looking into the dark room behind Stain. It seemed like a really bad idea to just walk willingly into a villain’s lair. “Is this a test?” he asked nervously.
Stain chuckled. “No, but if it was, I’d be very impressed with you for hesitating.”
Izuku planted his feet in the hallway. “Then, I think I’d like to continue this conversation here, until we come to an agreement.”
Stain laughed, a sound almost like a low throaty cough. “Smart. My last question, then. If I help you, what’s in it for me?”
“Ah,” Izuku looked at his feet, checking to make sure he actually wanted to go through with this. After a moment, he nodded to himself, deciding this was going to have to work, and brought his backpack around to his front.
Stain watched curiously as he opened his yellow backpack and removed a stack of notebooks.
“I take notes on all the pro-heroes I find interesting,” Izuku explained, holding up the top one to demonstrate. “These notebooks have their quirks, strengths, potential weaknesses, and potential improvements all listed, although I don’t know how you’d use that one.”
Stain plucked the notebook out of the kid’s hand, flipping through it with some interest. After a moment, he looked back up at him, impressed. “You did this all yourself?”
Izuku nodded, reaching out to take the notebook back. “I do have one condition, though,” he said, pulling it from Stain, who was clearly very reluctant to let it go.
“And what’s that?”
“You can have all my notes (photocopied, of course, not the originals) after, and only after, I’ve finished training with you,” Izuku said. “I don’t want a direct hand in any of your… ah… business,” he continued, throwing a glance down the hallway again, “and I would strongly prefer it if nobody died while I’m out training with you. If you get my drift.”
Stain nodded slowly, considering the kid’s condition. “Very well,” he said slowly. “And when do you intend to finish?”
“Ten months,” Izuku said immediately. “That’s the-- uh…” he cut himself off again as he remembered what Stain said about not revealing too much about himself. He’d been about to say that in ten months, the U.A. entrance exam would be taking place, and everything would be decided, but that was too much information right now. “That’s when I’m going to high school,” he finished vaguely.
Stain smirked. “Deal,” he said, disappearing into his room. “I’d assume we have to work around your middle school classes too. Which one do you go to? Aldera?"
Izuku was almost surprised Stain guessed that on the first go. Maybe there was some cool vigilante thing he'd learn about scouting new territory or something! That could be really cool. He nodded absentmindedly.
"It's not rocket science, kid," Stain said, looking amused.
Ah, he'd been muttering again.
"It's a good practice to spend a few days going over every inch of a city before you start committing crimes there," Stain said, leaning against the doorframe. "Lowers your chances of getting caught. Aldera has some dumpsters in the back that are completely secluded from security cameras."
Izuku knew that, yeah. He knew that. That's where all the bullies went. Lower chances of someone catching them if they beat people up back there.
"Anyway," Stain said, pushing off the wall and disappearing into his temporary home again, "just wait outside today after school, and we’ll begin.” He slammed the door in Izuku's face.
Izuku stood in shock in front of the closed door. He was going to train under Stain. This was either the worst or the best decision he’d ever made, it was hard to tell which. But, either way, he was going to train with the Hero Killer, who was arguably the best at hand to hand combat in Japan. He was just starting to turn away, shaking off his shock, when the door opened again and Stain poked his head out.
“Hey, kid,” he said. “What should I call you?”
“Uh… you can keep calling me ‘kid’ for now, I guess,” Izuku said, suddenly understanding what Stain had told him about not rambling. There was always a chance he’d tell the wrong information to the wrong people, and everything would go south.
Stain’s lips curled up in a smile. “Kid. You learn fast.” The door closed between them.
Izuku gave the door a resolute nod, and started down the hallway. Later today he’d have training, but for now, he had to get to school.