Deku

"Well, this is new," a new, unfamiliar voice said dryly. Without lifting the pressure on Stain's arm, Izuku peered carefully around Dabi. A girl with a long bright purple ponytail was coming in from the window. She looked reasonably young, maybe around twenty-five, with a short and slender figure. Her grey eyes were focused on Stain, and she looked almost amused, a playful smile dancing around her thin lips. Underneath that, though, Izuku could see clear worry as she crossed the room to them. She was hiding it under a smile. It felt… familiar. Painfully similar to All Might. "Stendhal the Hero Killer, bleeding out." She flashed a grin at Izuku as she knelt next to him in the puddle of blood next to Stain. "Color me impressed."

"Hi, hi, hi," he stuttered in his panic, "Are you a doctor?"

"Yes." The doctor nudged Izuku aside so she could lift Stain's arm and look it over. She gently pulled the gauze away, barely even blinking when blood started gushing out of it again.

"Well, it's going to be fine," the doctor said, as she looked at the cut carefully, "because my quirk is a bitch."

Stain turned his head away and threw up. The doctor didn't even glance over at him, she was so focused on the arm.

"Don't worry, Deku. You hit a vein, not an artery, so he probably hasn't lost too much blood yet. This'll be easy to fix." She reached out two fingers toward him. "Ready?"

"For… what?" he asked, shifting a few more inches away so he was kneeling closer to Stain's head.

"The healing, of course," the doctor answered, rolling her eyes and reaching out two fingers. She lightly pressed them to Izuku's left arm and held her other bloodstained hand out over Stain's body. Her hands started to glow purple, like her hair, and she closed her eyes, focusing. Izuku watched with some horror as Stain's skin started to slowly mesh itself together, like a zipper. A moment later, it was done, nothing left but a long scar.

"You know the deal, Stain." the doctor said, purple fading from her hands as she dropped his arm. "No use of that arm for a full day, and I would recommend lots of rest for both of you for a couple days." To Izuku, she added, "He lost a lot of blood, so he's going to need a lot of rest. Make sure he gets it."

Izuku stared at Stain's healed arm. "That is… the coolest quirk I have ever seen."

"Oh, you like it?" She didn't look all too excited, but she kindly explained her quirk to Izuku, who was eagerly bouncing up and down in place. "I call it 'stitch' and basically it stitches pieces of the body back together. It's effective against cuts, bruises, punctures, detached limbs, severed arteries, set broken bones, you name it. And it allows me to do skin grafts with willing donors, which is the only reason Patchwork over there is still alive." Dabi rolled his eyes, and the doctor smirked a little. "I also have some really sharp teeth, so if someone has a bad burn or something I can rip off that part of their skin and then stitch the healthy parts back together. Pretty neat." She bared her spiky teeth at Izuku to demonstrate.

"Wow! And why did you need me?"

"It uses other people's life force. I can technically use mine too, but I don't particularly like being exhausted, so it's better if there's someone else in the room."

"Wow." Izuku opened his mouth to keep firing questions and analyze the quirk further, but Dabi cleared his throat very loudly from behind him, and he caught himself before starting a mutter storm.

"Deku, this is Fujimoto Reiki," Dabi said, apparently realizing they hadn't been introduced yet, "but don't call her Fujimoto or she'll rip out your still beating heart and eat it." Reiki didn't look all that phased by Dabi's description of her reaction to people calling her by her surname, so Izuku decided it was probably a good idea to just stick with calling her Reiki instead.

"People just call me the morally ambiguous doctor," Reiki said, standing up and frowning at the blood staining the knees of her pants. "Well, Stendhal, it would appear you've met your match."

Somewhere in the last minute, Stain had gained some semblance of sanity and was looking over his arm carefully. His words came out slurred, but at least they made logical sense now as he replied, "Yeah, we're not going to be doing any more sparring with each other. Last week he put a deep cut in my leg, and the week before that he almost broke my thumb."

"I'm sorry!" Izuku shrieked, moving to bury his face in his hands. A moment before they made contact with his face, he froze, staring at the blood all over them. He wasn't sure he liked actually cutting people, now that he'd done it to Stain a few times. It was so messy. There were other ways to fight, right? Ways that didn't require beating people up?

Well, with the way society was run, Izuku wasn't so sure.

"Yeah don't touch your face," Reiki advised, smirking.

"Your mommy wouldn't want to see you with bloody handprints all over your cheeks," Dabi said in a mocking tone.

Izuku turned to him and solemnly flipped him off. Dabi choked on empty air as he started to laugh. Reiki crossed the room and slapped him on the back with a bloody hand as she crossed to the window. He spluttered indignantly.

"Wait--" Izuku started, watching her leaving. She paused halfway out the window and looked back at him. "Um, I… I, uh."

What he wanted was another friend. Now that he had experience with having friends, he wanted as many as he could get, and he definitely wasn't going to get any in school. It was so nice, having people that actually cared about his well-being. And Reiki was so amazing! She had such a cool quirk! Someone with a quirk like that must be really great to have as a friend…

He hesitated as she waited for him to finish.

"If your worried about the aftereffects of my quirk," she said, eyebrows twisting up with something bordering compassion or concern, "I can look up your medical records from the hospital and--"

"No--" he gasped, shaking his head. He didn't want her looking at his records, because if she saw his records she'd also see he was quirkless, and that wasn't exactly information he wanted floating around. "No, I-- I, um, I was... uh..."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Deku," Dabi said, with a heavy sigh. "Repeat after me: 'You seem nice and I would like to have your contact details.'"

Izuku blushed bright red as Stain laughed weakly behind him.

The words fell out of his mouth all in a rush. "Um, you seem nice and I would like to have your contact details so we can maybe stay in touch and maybe be friends but I totally get it if you don't want to because I know you don't know me and I'm annoying and--"

"For the last time ," Stain growled, "you aren't annoying."

Izuku tipped his head to the side. "But I am?"

"No! No you are not!"

"I don't think you're annoying," Reiki said pointedly, coming back inside from the window while fishing her phone out of her pocket. "And sure! We can stay in touch. I don't really have any friends either, and Dabi needs healing like every other week--" Dabi flipped her off with both hands, "so I'll stick around until he decides it's time to care about personal safety. Have discord?"

"Mmmmh! Yes!"

"Alrighty then."

They exchanged contact details and Reiki promised to come back the next day to check up on Stain. Then she left, explaining that Stain, unfortunately, wasn't the only person to get hurt in the dark hours of night, and she had other people to help.

So now Izuku had another new friend, courtesy of training with Stain. And they were going to need to find a new way for him to continue that training, because he was now almost equal to Stain's skill.

Izuku didn't really like the solution his mentor came up with.

Chapter End Notes

IS THAT A CLIFFHANGER? Yes. Yes, it is.

So I hope you can see the hypocrisy Izuku has here… I might openly point that out in the next chapter, because Izuku is also obsessed with quirks before personality. But he's gotta realize it for himself before he can fix it so… PLOT.

Now, I am not a doctor, so if any of the story seems inaccurate, I apologize!!! I did do a lot of research, but as I've said before, I can't research everything and as much as I hate to admit it, I do make mistakes occasionally… sometimes… often…

FIRST AID TIPS FOR YOU (TW FOR BLOOD): Severed veins can be VERY DANGEROUS, and while not as bad as severed arteries, can still be lethal. If someone around you has a severe cut, make sure to apply pressure and use gauze to try to stop the bleeding and help their blood clot. If it bleeds through the gauze, add more gauze (DO NOT REMOVE THE GAUZE, YOU'LL DISRUPT THE CLOT). If someone bleeds longer than 10 minutes or starts going into shock, it's time to call 911 (or whatever your phone number for emergency services is).

A severed artery will spurt blood out and a severed vein will ooze or gush. Severed arteries are really, really, really dangerous, and if someone has blood spurting out of their body then you need to call emergency services immediately.

Please be safe, please don't spar with real swords, please do not use my fiction as a rulebook for first aid situations because in real life Stain absolutely should have gone to the hospital.

Thank you!!! Byeeee

Philosophy

Chapter Notes

OKIIIIII we're back to end the agony of the cliffhanger (I know, it wasn't that bad.)

Tw for um... minor violence, mentioned rape/assault

Here we goooooooooooo

Stain watched Deku carefully as the kid balanced on the rail of a fire escape, surveying the alley below them with a bewildered gaze. He was in a green hoodie and dark grey pants with his typical red shoes on his feet. A black medical mask hid his face, two katanas were slung over his back, several knives were in holsters around his thighs, arms, and hips, and he was carefully holding his bo next to him in one hand. After a moment, the kid's eyes lifted and met Stain's, puzzled expression overwhelming the rest of his features.

"What are we doing here?" he whispered.

"We're going to be vigilantes tonight," Stain announced, grinning as Deku's face contorted in panic and stress.

"What?" he whisper-yelled, clearly freaking out. "Why?"

"Because, Deku, if you recall, two days ago you cut open a vein in my arm," Stain responded dryly. The kid's freckled cheeks flushed and he returned his gaze to the ground as Stain continued, "So we need some new people for you to gain battle experience with, and why not use real villains? Don't worry, we'll start slow. Now, as for what we're doing here specifically…" he tipped his head to the side. "This is one of the worst areas of town, so crime rates are high. Heroes rarely patrol this area at night because they don't see the point in it, since there aren't any cameras. The only hero we'd maybe have to worry about running into would be Eraserhead, but I've memorized his patrol schedules and I'll help you steer clear of him. Now, let's find a mugging!"

Deku released a heavy sigh and hopped from the fire escape to the roof of the next building over, landing perfectly. Stain stifled a laugh. The kid was such a fast learner. He definitely wasn't an expert, and he certainly wasn't at Stain's level of skill yet, but he was learning much more quickly than Stain would expect from anyone. Being able to land a hit on Stain, and doing it multiple times, no less, was no feat to laugh at, and the speed at which Deku had progressed to that point was unbelievable. It suddenly crossed Stain's mind that one day, probably soon, Deku would become better than Stain, and an invisible shudder ran through his body. He'd need to make sure to stay on the kid's good side, then.

He jumped after the kid, landing easily into a run for the next roof. "Keep your ear out for trouble," he called as he ran, Deku begrudgingly keeping up. "Eventually you'll be able to hear what a crime-in-progress sounds like, but for now, just listen out for everything you think sounds suspicious."

Deku rolled his eyes as he sprinted in preparation for another jump. "I'm not going to be a vigilante, Stain," he muttered, quietly enough that Stain almost didn't catch it.

"Okay," he responded, not believing him for a second. It was hard to come back from the thrill of being a vigilante. Something had to be said for the feeling of saving people and running from the law at the same time, like a never ending, very stressful joy ride. It came with a certain kind of freedom that being a villain or a hero just didn't have. The freedom to choose exactly what to do with the power one had, instead of following with whatever society wanted. The freedom to choose who to save and who to fight.

Plus it was good exercise.

There was the distant sound of a scream. Deku stumbled a little, head already turned in the direction of the sound. Stain slapped him on the back as he ran past. "No hesitations," he barked, jumping down into the alley, "or people will die."

"No hesitations," he heard Deku repeat, sprinting alongside him from the top of the building. They ran like that for a while before Deku finally dropped down to join him in the streets. After a few more blocks, Stain glanced down an alley and froze, shooting his arm out to stop Deku from turning the corner.

"They're down there," he murmured, keeping his voice as low as possible so the three people down the alley and the person they were probably raping or at least mugging wouldn't hear him. Deku nodded, taking a moment to catch his breath and hold it before poking his head around the wall to look.

"Oh, fuck," he breathed.

Stain flicked his shoulder. "Language."

"Oh, shit," Deku corrected.

Stain sighed. What had he been thinking when he'd decided to introduce the kid to Dabi? That was a terrible idea. "So what's your plan?" he asked casually, leaning back against the wall.

"Run and get a hero," Deku said immediately, looking around as though expecting one to just be standing there.

Flicking his shoulder again, Stain shook his head. "Remember what I said? No heroes patrol here at night except Eraserhead, and he's not over here."

Deku kneaded his forehead, scowling. "Okay, so…" he stuck his head around the corner again. "Um, quirks look to be uh… some sort of size quirk, hmm, it doesn't look like he has much range so it's not going to be very useful in a fight. A porcupine quirk, avoid the spikes… and that person doesn't have any visible quirk effects so I'm not sure about them. Okay, I can do this." He climbed up the wall next to them and Stain followed shortly after, tailing him as the kid ran lightly along the top edge of the building. Deku suddenly turned and dived head-first off the building, landing directly onto Size Quirk's shoulders, and effectively flattening him to the ground. Immediately, he turned and slammed a fist into Porcupine's solar plexus, and then whirled around to execute a perfect tornado kick into Unknown's shoulder. In an instant, his bo was extended, held easily out to attack. Before he could do any real damage, both Unknown and Porcupine fled from the alley. Size Quirk was out cold.

Deku dropped his hands to his side, loosely holding his bo in one, and looking almost disappointed. "They ran away," he said, sounding almost hurt as Stain started dropping down into the alley.

"That does happen a lot," Stain admitted. "It means they think you're too big a threat to fight."

Looking a half-second away from falling into a full-on pout, Deku turned to look at the fourth person present, the victim. "Are you okay?" he asked, suddenly looking very concerned.

Stain grabbed the back of his shirt before the person could answer and dragged him, protesting, out of the alley. "We don't ask that," he explained shortly. "We don't stick around to ask questions. We stop the crime and we leave."

Deku twisted under his arm, forcing him to let go. " You might not, but this is my vigilante academia, and I want to make sure people are okay." He ran back into the alley. Sighing, Stain waited at the entrance of the alley while Deku helped the victim and encouraged her to call the police while he started "fixing up her injuries."

Stain turned and pressed his forehead against the wall. Deku's big heart was going to get him killed. Vigilantes don't hang around the scene of a crime because when they do…

Police sirens in the distance.

Dammit.

"Kid, we've gotta go!" he yelled, sprinting down the alley. Deku finished tying off some gauze around the girl's arm and jumped for the fire escape, following Stain without question for once. Maybe because he could hear the sirens too. They ran over the rooftops as quickly as they could, until Deku stopped abruptly, head turned toward a clattering noise to their right.

"Crime?" he suggested, changing directions and heading for it.

It wasn't a crime, Stain knew it wasn't, because there was a difference between the noise of a cat knocking over a can in an alley and a person getting thrown into a dumpster. But this was Deku's vigilante academia, so he followed him down to the alley where, sure enough, an innocuous cat was sitting, licking its paws over a bunch of fallen cans. Deku wilted as Stain laughed at him.

"Okay, okay! I'm not any good at this," he said, glaring. "I get it."

With an annoyed huff, he jumped for the roofs again and ran off.

After vigilante training with Stain, which was surprisingly fun but very illegal, Izuku briefly considered going home, before changing directions and going straight to the bar where he'd met Dabi. He'd been here a few times since then, but always with supervision, so this was his first time going in alone. But he wanted to talk to the morally ambiguous doctor, because he figured she'd have answers to his morally ambiguous questions. So, tired body protesting, he pulled himself through the window and slipped in.

He'd discovered there was an art to not being noticed in here, and he'd somehow gotten very good at it. Only a few people looked up as he padded through the room, and they all lost interest quickly.

Spotting Reiki's purple hair across the room, he slid into the chair across from her and set his elbows on the table. She raised an eyebrow.

"I have a question," he said.

She blinked, eyebrow still raised. Izuku took that as a cue to continue.

"Hypothetically speaking, if there was a person in a position of power who, uh… helped a lot of people for their job but outside of their job was as morally corrupt as they get… Is it better to destroy their lives or leave them alone?"

Reiki's eyebrow dropped and her nose wrinkled up a little. "Ugh, philosophy late at night, just what I always wanted." She sighed. "Let's go to the roof, 'kay?"

She climbed out of her chair, giving a tired wave to the bartender as she passed on her way to the window. Once there, she climbed up the fire escape and jumped to the roof, Izuku following much more gracefully behind her.

"So you're asking what I would do, between those two things?" Reiki asked once he'd gotten up, sounding almost puzzled as she crossed the roof, stopping just in front of the railing around the perimeter.

Izuku nodded, tailing her over there. "Yes."

Reiki scoffed a little. "Oh, I would burn that bitch. Villains don't deserve to hide behind reputation. If you're going to be a villain, you gotta admit to it. It's like… a code."

Eyebrows twitching together a bit, Izuku repeated, "A code."

"Well, not like, officially," she amended, leaning against the railing and looking out over the city. "But like, it's… in the villain community, villains like to know who other villains are. So people who pretend to be good-- no one likes someone like that. Especially if they're selling out other villains. Look, it's like…" She huffed a little, turning around and leaning backwards against the railing so she could look up at the sky. "It's like, if you're going to be a villain, you have to own it. Hiding just isn't cool. Unless you're a spy hired by someone, then that's different. But yeah, like if a big name CEO was secretly like, I don't know, doing quirk trafficking or some shit, then yeah, that guy deserves to die."

Izuku blinked. Death seemed harsh.

"Figuratively," she added, winking at him as she caught his discomfort.

He breathed out a relieved laugh. "Right. So do you…" He frowned, pressing his hands into the railing as he thought through his question. "Do you think of yourself as a villain?"

"Oh, sure," she said dismissively. "I mean, I help villains succeed, which is pretty much the same thing, by society's definition. But… I think it's possible to be a villain and a hero at the same time. I mean, I'm still saving people and usually greatly improving their quality of life. It's just that I'm helping the people society has chosen to hate. That's what makes me a villain."

Izuku tipped his head to the side, looking at her thoughtfully. "That doesn't seem to bother you."

The corners of her eyes crinkled up as she laughed in the most genuine way Izuku had yet to see. "Why would it?" she asked, grinning. "The word villain is just that, a word. It's a label, and yeah, it applies to me. I'm fine that, with who I am-- I've sacrificed everything I have to save everyone I can. I think that's something to be proud of, you know? Like, yeah, maybe it's not what everyone wants from me, so what? I'm doing what makes me happy. And I don't get to do that in real society, so it's sort of like a big 'fuck you' to everyone who's expected me to be someone I'm not."

"Wait…" Something about that didn't sit right with Izuku. He thought back through her words, trying to figure out what it was that bothered him. After a moment, it hit him. "You said… you said people want you to be doing something else? What else would they want you to be doing? Your quirk is perfect for this!"

Her smile dropped away and she sighed, eyes dropping to her shoes. "Yeah, my quirk is perfect. It's a little too perfect, actually. My day job is, uh… I'm a hero healer."

Izuku's eyes widened. "Wow, that's so cool! Hero healers are some of the coolest heroes because they care for the people that care for everyone else! Your quirk is so perfect for being a hero healer, although I wonder if you have to have self defense lessons too because your quirk is…" he trailed off in his mutter storm because Reiki had a sad look in her eye as she watched him begin enthusing about her quirk.

A silence fell between them, Izuku watching Reiki curiously and Reiki looking pensively at the building in front of her.

"Everyone always says it's such a good quirk," she said quietly. "But I didn't go to medical school so I could help heroes. Actually, I've always wanted to be a lawyer. Social justice is just the most interesting subject, I think, and I want to make a difference in the world. I want there to be social change, and I want people to be able to be treated equally, no matter what they look like or what their quirks are. But… I went to medical school because from the time my quirk manifested on, everyone's been looking at me. Everyone wants me to be a healer. When I would talk to people about my passions, they'd look at me weirdly because it didn't match my quirk. They would say I was an awful person for 'wasting such a good quirk.' They'd tell me I was selfish for wanting to make a difference without using my healer quirk. So I went to medical school and I became a doctor. I've never had any control over my life, really. I never get to choose who I treat, or who I get to save. And I don't want to heal heroes."

She gave Izuku a sharp look when he made a quizzical sound. How could anyone not want to heal heroes? A lot of them were so amazing!

"Heroes can afford the best healers in the world," she explained, voice hard and cold. "They have so much money, and they can throw it around wherever they want to. They don't need my quirk, not when there are hundreds of healers available." Her expression shifted into a full on glare, and she pushed off the railing, walking a few steps across the roof, hands clenched up. "There are people out there who don't have access to healers." She whipped around, a fire in her eye. "There are people out there who can't afford it. And who am I to heal people for millions of dollars, when it's something as easy for me as just sitting still? I am here because I want to save people." Her voice was firm and steady, and Izuku got the impression that she was determined about this, that she had conviction. "I'm here because I want to save people who can't be saved. Heroes get saved every day and they're such egotistical asshats that they don't even realize it. They don't see how lucky they are. There are people out there who don't get to be saved, because no one looks twice at them. Do you know the assault rates on quirkless people, Deku? Do you know how many quirkless people die in the hospital because no one would treat them and they didn't have jobs to pay for it anyway ?"

A shiver ran down Izuku's spine. He did know. He knew so well.

"I don't want people to die, Deku," Reiki said firmly. "I want people to live and live and live until they're sick of it. Heroes aren't the only people that matter." She waved her arms around, demonstrating everything around them. "There is so much in this world besides heroes, and people don't notice it because they're so busy looking up that they forget to look around. Look around , Deku! Everyone deserves to be saved. So I'll save them. No matter what my stupid handlers have to say about it."

Evidently done with her speech, she returned back to the railing with an annoyed huff. They fell back into silence.

So that was why Reiki did what she did. She wanted to save the people that no one else would save, that no healer would even look at or touch. And she did it for as little as possible. From what Stain had told him, Izuku knew that Dabi had gone to Reiki countless times to get his burns fixed up. And Izuku also knew that Dabi absolutely would not have been able to afford that if he'd gone to a normal hospital. Reiki probably charged something, but it wouldn't be an exorbitant amount, and Izuku got the distinct impression that if she found someone who couldn't pay, she wouldn't mind healing them anyway.

Reiki healed people who couldn't get healing from others. People like Izuku, who no one wanted to help.

Somehow, there was something heroic in that. Even if it meant she ignored all laws and was, technically, a villain. But in Izuku's mind, she was much more of a hero than a villain. She was, in all truth, a morally ambiguous doctor.

"Um," he said eventually, breaking the silence. "I understand what you said, and I think… I think I agree." He shook his head. "But I need to think about what this means for me. Um…" he cast a glance over at her, making a split second decision to let her in on what was quickly becoming the biggest secret of his underground existence. "My real name is Midoriya Izuku. Don't tell anyone, um. But when you get a chance, you can... you should go find my medical records, uh, because, uh, there's stuff in there you should probably know that I don't really want to explain." More like, he didn't want to see her facial expression when she found out. "Okay?"

She nodded, a faint smile tracing her lips. "Midoriya Izuku. Sure thing, kid."

He gave her a stiff nod and then climbed over the railing and started home. He did need to get some sleep, after all.

And he had a lot to think about.

Undercurrent

Chapter Notes

I'd just like to say thank you for all your lovely comments! I really like getting comments, they make me very very happy :)

Ah okay also-- so remember when I was ranting about not having a consistent update schedule?

Well.

I've decided to follow a consistent update schedule.

Why? Because with college starting I need to learn some time management skills. So! From now on I'm going to make an effort to update Entropy on Thursdays and, for those of you who follow it, Eri's Adventures with Deku on Sundays (America time, specifically MST but who cares about specifics). Fair warning I probably will miss that deadline sometimes because, like I said, I don't follow update schedules for a reason. But I think this will help me try as hard as I can to keep writing around homework.

Okay! TW// mentioned assault, mentioned blood, mentioned violence, implied/mentioned attempted rape, some very blatant abuse from a teacher

See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku was sore .

Training with Stain naturally usually left his entire body exhausted, but this was different. He was really sore. Being a vigilante apparently took every muscle in his body and pushed them all past the breaking point because wow. His whole body complained every time he so much as twitched.

He was lucky it was a weekend.

As it was, Stain had been… well, Stain had been right about how much Izuku would love being a vigilante. There was a certain amount of… excitement that came with saving people who wouldn't otherwise be saved. And also, as much as he hated to admit it, there was a certain thrill he got from going against what the heroes and the police wanted-- hell, from what the world wanted, since everyone had told Izuku he couldn't do it. If they didn't want him saving people, though, then they needed to step up their game. Because he'd insert himself into the areas they'd missed, and he'd save those people for them. He'd be like Reiki, saving people who no one else wanted to.

A distant knock hit the front door and Izuku sighed. Probably a door-to-door salesman or something. Who else would come over? Not Kacchan, that was for sure.

The sound of a female voice drifted down the hallway, but it was too quiet for Izuku to put any effort into figuring out who it was, and anyway, the chances of him knowing who it was were very slim. The door closed and he sighed, trying not to move as he frowned at his open U.A. application. He needed to input his quirk information and he was trying to figure out how to do it. How could he euphemize 'I don't have a quirk'?

A knock came at his door and he turned slightly, frowning. "Eh?" he called tiredly. Anything else would be too much of an effort.

His mother opened the door, looking a little confused by something, but also very pleased. "Honey, your friend's here to see you."

Izuku felt even more confused than his mom looked at this point. "Who?"

The door opened a little bit more and he caught sight of a flash of purple hair. He was out of his chair in an instant, immediately regretting the decision to stand as his body protested angrily.

"Reiki--" he gasped, falling back into the chair and clutching at his abs.

"Wow, Stendhal did a number on you," she laughed, brushing past his mom and stepping over to him.

"Ste… oh." Izuku winced. "Yeah."

She put a hand over his stomach and let it glow purple. A moment later, Izuku felt much better.

"What did you do?" he asked, kneading his fingers over his shoulders, which had been very sore a moment ago.

"Stitched your muscles back together," she said with a shrug.

"I'll leave you two alone…" Izuku's mom said, backing out of the room with a small smile and gently shutting the door.

Reiki turned to Izuku with a very serious look. "Midoriya Izuku, age fourteen, diagnosed as quirkless at age four," she recited. Eyes filled with compassion, she finished in a soft voice, "And yet still wants to be a hero."

He pursed his lips together in response.

"How would you like to be recommended to the U.A. hero course?" she suggested, sitting on his bed and facing him.

His jaw dropped.

"Seriously?"

She shrugged. "Sure. Or I can change your medical records to look like you have a weak quirk if you want. Your chances of getting a job will go up by at least thirty percent."

" Seriously ?"

"Yeah."

"U.A. recommendation exam…" he repeated, feeling light-headed suddenly. "You'd really do that?"

"Of course," she said, with a grin. "Do you know how goddamn cool it would be to have a quirkless hero? I mean, come on! Think of all the stuff you could do! All the people you could save! The inspiration you would be to people who are used to getting beaten down because they have a weak quirk! You would be the best hero ever , no joke."

Izuku wanted to cry. The words he'd wanted to hear his entire life, the words no one would ever tell him for fear of him getting hurt or killed, and now he was hearing them… from a villain. This world was twisted as fuck.

"You would recommend me… for the recommendation exam…" he repeated one more time, still trying to wrap his mind around the suggestion. Getting into U.A. through recommendations was hard, sure, but the odds of someone getting in through recommendations were much, much higher than those who took the general exam, especially for people who had non combative quirks. Izuku had the experience and skill to get a reasonably good score on the U.A. general exam, but his odds on actually getting into the school were still very low. If he got recommended to U.A., that entire story would change. He would be presented to a panel of judges and he would be able to show them exactly why he could be a hero. All that would be needed after that would be for them to not judge him because he was quirkless. But surely that wouldn't be a problem, when they saw what he could do?

"Please recommend me," he said, eyes wide with excitement. "You don't need to do anything to my records, just… please, recommend me to the U.A. exam."

She smiled.

"Sure thing, kid."