Chapter Text
Midoriya Izuku, better known as the supreme leader of New Japan. Villain name Deku aka 'useless'.
"It’s what I'm supposed to be according to society and exactly what I'm going to be for the rest of my life... Or Until something changes." Was what a young teen with dreams holding by shreds once said.
"Then let's change it!" his friend, Toga offered.
"It's impossible..." is what he said back then.
"What? No way! There's nothing impossible for you!"
She turned out to be right.
But. Although back in the day he was the one who initially run to Bakugo's rescue it was Toga and her near inhuman reflexes who slashed through slime with two of her notebooks and rescued both, enabling the heroes on the scene to get the situation under control.
She was complimented as savior and Midoriya was scolded for endangering everyone with his thoughtless action. Bakugo was for once the background character.
Toga realized her friend's distress too late. Back on the way home, he assured her that he was fine but needed time to think... And she took it at face value. She agreed to give him his space... Of course, she did! He's her best friend after all! One that understands and accepts her fully even if she's a little weird! So how could she not return the favor?
He went missing the very next day.
In the following months, she spent half of her free time with madam Midoriya and the other half training... In the field. By looking everywhere she could, going as far as disguising herself as an older people to ask around bars.
She missed him so terribly... And she didn’t even know what had happened…
Why was he gone? Why hasn't he said anything to her?
At the time of friendly advice she was changing her shoes so she had no idea of the 'take swan dive off roof' fiasco... But. She knew that Bakugo had something to do with it. She could see it in his ragged posture; he did something even he regretted.
She ended up stabbing him in the shoulder at one point. He didn't tell anyone; he knew he deserved it. They ignored each other for the rest of the school year.
When the day of UA exams came part of her wanted to say ‘fuck it’... to run away toward the darkest parts of the city and don't stop moving until she finds her best friend, the one person she can truly be herself with.
But because they promised to take the entrance exam together... A small part of her hoped he would show up, smiling sheepishly as if he simply was late rather than gone for months... And it was more than enough to make her come there.
He didn't.
But she held onto the hope to the very moment she was standing before the gates to the testing area. That's when the realization truly hit her; he's gone.
Her best friend is gone and she was powerless to do anything about it.
"Begin! "
She run forward with a deafening battle cry. She swung from lampposts, kicking robots' heads right off their bodies. She tore at their cables, threw whatever object she could find... At one point she bludgeoned a few of those with a road sign.
Others knew better than to come anywhere near her.
When the zero pointer showed up she didn't run at it because she noticed a girl under rubble. No. She saw an enemy too big to take down and just rushed in... Because it felt like a physical manifestation of her failure to protect one person she held dear.
She felt as if that huge robot was mocking her pain and for that... For that, it was going down.
She climbed up on it with a near inhuman speed and even though her arms were bleeding from all the scrapes and bruises, aching from electricity running through robots she mauled... She didn't stop until it did and even after it ceased its movement she still grabbed at its inside not caring for the current flowing through her veins nor droplets of blood sizzling when they met hot circuits.
But when the signal rung she immediately stopped. Most would assume tears falling from her eyes were from pain, that with adrenaline leaving her she was left vulnerable to her injuries.
They did hurt, yes… But she didn’t pay them a second thought.
"Where are you?" She whispered into the air, looking somewhere into the distance with unseeing eyes.
Needless to say, she got in. Most teachers were deeply impressed with her determination... Only the principal and gruff-looking man had noticed the deep sadness itched into her movements. The powerless anger that rung deep... So deep in fact that they could find a similar one in their own pasts.
Toga wasn't initially planning on staying in the hero course. Rather than happy, she felt bitter. But... Midoriya used to geek out so much about UA, it was full of heroes... And there's Nezu. With all those resources at hand, she surely could do more. Make them help her find her friend... And whoever dared to take him.
Because even if his things had disappeared too and the police had deemed it a case of a runaway kid rather than kidnapping she couldn't accept it. He would have taken her with him if that was the case. They are best friends after all!
The day before UA she slept in Midoriya’s house, on the futon that had been bought because of her frequent visits. Her parents let her because the boy lived far closer to the school and she could be really persuasive.
She really didn’t want to spend any more time in that suffocating place she should be able to call home.
When the school day arrived it instantly began sourly for her; the first person she spotted in her new class was Bakugo. Their eyes met and with her fierce glare and the guilt he was still feeling, it was him who looked away first. But before she could murder him with her eyes alone someone approached her, not having noticed her unfriendly expression.
"You're the cute girl that saved me from that huge robot! Thank you so much for that!" Ochaco said joyfully and right after introduced herself.
Usually, Toga would be squeaking over the brown-haired girl. She was so precious!
But. She just... It wasn't the same when she didn’t have her best friend by her side, muttering up a storm about all the cool quirks around.
"No problem, I was having a pretty bad day and just wanted to hit something... Big targets are good, no? I'm Toga Himiko... Nice to meet you."
Their teacher showed up shortly after, scaring the living daylight out of most of the class. Not Toga. She was good at spotting others even… Especially when on edge. And nowadays she’s always on edge.
They were forced to undergo quirk tests and she absolutely hated it. Not because someone would get expelled. Not because it felt unfair. No. She felt deep-rooted desperation because of a friend whose absence only seemed to grow. Even before the test truly began, at every single step she took, her thoughts went to him and her brain just wouldn’t shut up!
‘He would know what hero this hobo man is. He knows all heroes and UA has only heroes as teachers!’
‘Even without a quirk, he would find a way to not place last! Maybe he’d be able to use his analysis skills somehow?’
‘He would be so happy to note all those new cool quirks down!’
She nicked the highest boy – the ones with multiple hands – since she could somewhat use mutation quirks.
‘And you figured it out thanks to Izuku’
She apologized with a sugar-sweet smile for the scratch and the boy assured her it was alright. She took his form on the grip strength test, using the additional limbs to get a better score.
“Wow! That’s so cool! You can shapeshift?” Ochaco asked her afterward when the teacher’s attention was on getting the next part ready and done with.
“Pretty much, what about you?” the blonde answered, so used to being the brave one inquiring about others' quirks for her friend that it would feel weird not to do so. Even if it made her sad the second words left her mouth.
Well… He would have probably already figured out what this girl’s power is anyway…
“I can make things weightless!”
A boy of name Mineta Minoru ended last and got expelled which was good for everyone involved because Toga saw how he gaped at her. It made her skin crawl and wish she had a knife with her to make him close those disturbing eyes forever.
The next day they had a practical exercise. When All Might entered, her stupid, stupid self glanced behind her but instead of familiar green, she saw her frog-like classmate. She instantly turned around again, blinking so as not to shed tears.
Izuku was so happy when All Might saved the two of them from the sludge villain! She was too because seeing her best friend so bright made her so joyful she kind of wanted to stab him! Not that she would, if she asked he would give her his blood anyway. And then when the hero said he doesn’t have time to answer questions and jumped away with Izuku grabbing onto him…
She shook her head and went to change into her hero costume. It was a cute school uniform with a yellow cardigan and shorts-skirt. It had a lot of knives hidden under folds and she had a pretty massive mask-like bandana with a picture of sharp teeth smiling printed on it.
It’s her idea but Izuku’s the one who drafted it for her so rather than changing anything… She gave that exact sketch to whoever was making her costume.
“Wow! It’s so cute and fits you very well! Mine is a bit too tight…” was what Uraraka greeted her with.
“Thanks… It looks good on you though!”
She ended up paired with her against Bakugo and Tenya. She, of course, went for the blond who surprisingly enough stayed with his partner near the bomb, the two protecting it together.
Toga waited so long for a chance to hurt him. Not just a little stab like she had done in Aldera – she would have killed him was she not worried about the police; what if Izuku suddenly returned? She couldn’t be in prison then! – but a deeper one. She wanted his bones exposed.
“What? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly scared now!” she provoked, dodging his well-timed blasts and waiting for her moment to strike while Uraraka and Iida were at an impasse; the latter grabbed the bomb and with his speed managed to dodge the girl every time while she had no ammo to use her quirk on.
But. Toga isn’t just out for blood. She knows just how much worse mental pain can be than physical one. Rather than simply killing, she rather break the ones she hates piece by piece…
She doesn’t know why Izuku is gone. She doesn’t have a face to blame… But the closest one to that is Bakugo. And as such... Because he stood in the way or even completely destroyed her future with someone she cares about so much… She shall break the blond. Little by little.
All the pains her friend was ready to let go of and made her forgive too? Now that Izuku was gone so was her mercy. She was going to make this asshole pay.
And she doesn’t even need to use her quirk for it.
She let him get a hit, gritting her teeth and pulling through the pain of the clear shot at her shoulder. She grabbed his arm and threw him a few feet before Iida, hoping to make the boy trip. Since Bakugo used his sweat in the attack – that dislocated her shoulder, by the way – he didn’t have enough to change his line of flight while the other boy didn’t notice the incoming projectile and ended up hit with his partner.
Uraraka took this chance to touch the bomb and send it flying.
“Hero team wins!”
They returned to the room everyone was gathered in and Toga was chosen MVP for her risky but effective move. Bakugo was angry but more than at anything or anyone, he was furious at himself. Lately, everything seemed to be going to shit for him...
They were about to finish the conversation of this pair when Iida raised his hand.
“I’m sorry but I find it quite bothering… Why did you not use your quirk in the exercise? It is highly risky to go fight villains without using it!” the boy stated.
Past Toga would find a way to answer that without giving away not-very-liked information about how her quirk worked. She wouldn’t want others to dislike her because she was ‘weird’, because she consumed blood and found it absolutely fine… Amazing even.
But you know what? She didn’t care.
“I need someone’s blood to transform into them. There was no time for that.” She said with a shrug as if that was the most normal thing ever.
She wasn’t met with the reaction she expected, mostly. There were a few grimaces here and there but people stayed quiet about it and moved on to the subject of the next pair quickly and Uraraka, surprisingly, stayed at her side. She didn’t mention the newly learned detail of her friend’s quirk but rather chattered about the exercise.
It was… Nice.
But after the lesson, All Might asked Toga to come to talk to her in the teacher lounge and she couldn’t help but expect to get scolded for some reason.
It wasn’t what had happened. Instead, she was given two huge secrets. The first, about the hero’s small form, and the second of a powerful quirk given from person to person…
She had been given the secret of One For All and an offer.
“…I want you to be my successor!” the man said, in his small form, putting his hand forward as if for her to take.
‘Why couldn’t you choose Izuku? With this power… He wouldn’t have been gone…’ flashed through her mind but she accepted without a second thought.
“Of course, I will! No matter of danger!”
“Haha! As expected! You’ll make a fine hero!”
He had no idea that at that moment what she was thinking of was not saving people but rather finding whoever took Izuku from her and tearing them apart, limb from limb. Of gathering all their blood, such beauty not belonging with such vile creatures, and spraying it all over the city... Painting a welcoming parade for the return of her friend or drowning the land in grief if he was- No he couldn’t be. He’s too strong to be truly gone.
Indeed, how right she was…