Chapter Text
Betrayal was an old friend of his. Near constant in his maturing years that it became easy to identify. An old, fated enemy that he was to face throughout life, no matter the situation. Young, bright-eyed, innocent Midoriya Izuku would never be able to imagine the way his life would go after he didn't manifest his quirk. He was exactly like all the kids his age, awaiting an ability to put him above average and secure his place among hero-aspiring hopefuls. Yet, that was never meant to be.
"Keep dreaming, kid."
Dreaming. That was all his aspirations came down to, dreams. Once diagnosed, as if his "condition" were a disease, as Quirkless, all of his goals became unattainable. He was expected to never amount to anything. Never be something in the world. He was a pebble to be trampled upon on pavement, kicked to the side. Insignificant in the well-oiled machine that was Hero society. No one believed him. Not even his own mother, Inko Midoriya, the person meant to keep his hopes up and convince him to keep moving forward in spite of the difficulties shoved onto his shoulders.
"I'm so sorry!"
All he got were apologies and tears. Unhelpful and demotivating. The way she had clutched him gently, as if he would shatter if she even thought of increasing the pressure of her grip. The tang of salt on his tongue as he cried and bawled, wailing his hopes and aspirations into the silted air of the room for someone, anyone, to hear him and tell him 'It's alright' or 'you can do it' or 'I'm here for you.'
Not even All Might's cries of 'I'm here!' had the ability to cheer him up. The screen that repeated the number one Hero's debut failed to inspire him like it usually did. All it did was fill him with dread. Dread and fear on how he would be able to crawl himself out of the hole society created for him as soon as he was declared useless. There was nowhere in society for him anymore. Four years old and already outcasted.
"Become a hero? You couldn't even amount to a two-beat sidekick!"
"How stupid! You think you can roll with the big dogs?"
"Who do you think you are? Looking down on me?!"
"You're useless! Just a Deku!"
What he thought were his friends turned out to be nothing but bullies. He wasn't Midoriya Izuku to them anymore. Not Izu-kun or Zuku. All he became to them was 'Deku.' A useless waste of space that couldn't go far in life, destined to die early or be stuck in an office job where he'll likely be killed by one of his coworkers. A victim in the making and someone meant to be the gum under the shoes of the greats. Those with desirable quirks.
Bakugou Katsuki, his best friend since diapers, changed. While Izuku was belittled and put down, Katsuki was praised for his wonderful, flashy, heroic quirk that only manifested as firecrackers. Bakugou Katsuki was going to go places, Midoriya Izuku was not.
"Your father doesn't have enough time for you." His mother said one day after he inquired about his father working oversees. The man he adored and looked up to for his whole life. Yet, it seemed like, from his mother's words, that he wanted nothing to do with him.
Smart, observant Izuku who obsessed over analysis didn't believe this. His father and him had just had contact the week before. A video call late into the night filled with giggling and smiles, his father not once mentioning his diagnosis while still keeping him locked in conversation about his favorite hero fight he saw that day. His father, Midoriya Hisashi, didn't stray from the topic of heroics like his mother did. His father encouraged him, his mother did not. So, don't take it the wrong way that he didn't believe in his mother. What could a five-year-old child do but hold onto hope that his father still cared about him.
His father still cared about him. He knew it.
And that was Izuku's first desperate dive. His first flight from his mother's suffocating, brittle embrace. It was the first time Izuku realized that adults lie. He learned that lesson swiftly from his mother's claim. Hiding his tablet, the one that Kacchan had lent him only to never take it back, and keeping contact with his father. Early, Izuku learned that his mother's intentions weren't always with him in mind. She still cared for him, yes, but she wasn't fully present.
While keeping contact with his father was difficult, and he had to dance around where he got things ("Kacchan gave it to me Mama!"), he finally had some semblance of normal. He learned what real love looked like, not coddling. He learned what it looked like when someone was telling the truth, not skating around it. He learned the difference between wishing for his safety and being unwilling to let him escape into the "dangers" of society. He learned how a parent should react to his wounds; not acting like it wasn't there and actually guiding him on how to treat the injuries. He learned that Midoriya Inko wasn't the ideal parent.
With Hisashi, Izuku could gush about the newest hero and share his analysis. With his mother, he could only stand around quietly and await a scolding of being too rough with the other children (that he shouldn't play with them because he's "too fragile") alongside the multitude of calls from his school.
Life continued on.
Izuku, growing bitter with the treatment society put him through but still aspiring to become the first Quirkless Hero, marched forward. He didn't care that he had to repair his uniforms on his own. He didn't care that he had to treat burns that smelled like caramel, cuts from sharp nails, brush off nausea, ignored the way his senses were shifted daily by a quirk to make him feel more agony by each hit, each broken bone, each black eye. He didn't care that his work was unfairly graded and that he was accused of cheating on multiple occasions. He didn't care about the jibes and jeers tossed his way, the sharp advice that he should 'kill himself already.' He was surviving. He pushed on.
Even though he was unfairly priced by those that recognized the bright red, primordial shoes specifically designed to out those as Quirkless. Even when Heroes and Police Officers alike turned the other way when he was beaten in the streets, robbed, or pushed dangerously close to traffic. Even when people actively avoided him and gave him a wide berth, as if he could infect them with his Quirklessness.
He was alive, he was present, and he wouldn't let the world drag him down.
"If you want to be a hero so bad, take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in your next life!"
Then he was attacked by the Sludge Villain and his world twisted on its axis, sending him scrambling to catch up. He was saved by his hero, All Might, and idiotically grabbed onto his leg to ask the million-dollar question. Only, his question of 'Can I be a hero like you?' was answered with 'Be realistic' shortly after the powerful hero exploded into a puff of smoke and revealed his grievous injury, claiming that if the Symbol of Peace could receive such an injury, Izuku was better off becoming a Police Officer. A profession the man didn't know barred the Quirkless from even thinking about applying.
He was left on the roof to contemplate the national secret carelessly tossed onto his shoulders. Dreams crushed and Katsuki's words swirling around his mind, he was only knocked from his stupor from an explosion. And.. well.. you probably know where it goes from there. Midoriya Izuku, desperate and clawing for purchase, found a lifeline in the form of a transferable quirk. Something thought impossible, yet something he couldn't deny.
Because, as they say, desperate people do desperate things.
Everything was going well. He was a hero-in-training, he had classmates that accepted him, and Katsuki had even begun to warm up to him again (though, he could only assume that was due to his quirk). Yes, they were attacked by villains a few times and subjected to horrors normal fifteen-year-olds should never experience. This didn't discredit his accomplishment. He was training to become a hero! The thing he wanted to be since he was able to comprehend the word. While he had to do it with a quirk, that broke his bones often, he was still in the process of making his dream a reality.
He should've expected the other shoe to drop. As said in the beginning, betrayal is an old friend of Midoriya Izuku. He never expected betrayal to feel so cold.
"Midoriya Izuku, you are under arrest for first degree murder and affiliation with the League of Villains."
Desperate people do desperate things. That was another lesson Izuku would learn swiftly.
And he is a desperate man.