Denial

Denial, the first stage of grief.

Its a common thing, more common than it should be. Especially for Izuku Midoriya, one who constantly denies the threats his tormenters give him.

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"You'll never be a hero!" A loud voice, clearly agitated, rang through the hallways of a small middle school. A blonde boy was angrily beating another kid. Stomping, grabbing, slapping. Every range of motions that inflicted harm was used.

"You useless Deku! Forget about being a hero! You and your shitty skills won't go anywhere!" The blonde kid screamed while sending another punch to the other kid's face.

"T-there's nothing wrong with trying!" The beaten kid finally managed to get out, before he was punched in the nose again. Blood splattered on the floor, whether it was from the beaten kid's nose, or the blonde kid's fist is unknown. All that is known is that the fight is completely one-sided.

"I just want to help people!"

There it is again, denial. The beaten kid, constantly denying the truth that he cant be a hero. It has been going on ever since the kid turned four.

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"You might want to give up." The doctor said, slumping in his chair. The man obviously didn't care much about the patient's feelings.

The older woman, looked at the doctor with worried eyes, "Is there something wrong? Does he have a bad quirk?"

To which the doctor replied, "Its not that he has a bad quirk, it's that he doesn't have one at all. The kid's quirkless."

Almost immediately after that statement, a gasp, along with the sound of a toy dropping could be heard in the doctor's office. The older woman looked at her child, with teary eyes. She had so much to say, she wanted to comfort her child, but some part of her was repulsed by the thought of it. "I'm sorry Izuku!" were the only words she managed to get out. Seemingly adding to the heavy atmosphere.

The young green-haired boy looked devastated. His eyes gazed at the floor, at a loss for words. His mind was in chaos, his heartbeat was raising rapidly, his breathing was speeding up. He began hyperventilating. 'No! That can't be right! This is a test, yeah. It's just a test, I'm not really quirkless, I just need to wait more!' The boy thought, trying to make hope when he had none.

So he waited, and waited, and waited.

For years, while his mom distanced himself, he waited. He waited for his quirk to appear, so his mom would come back to him, so he could be happy again.

So he could be a hero.

But the time never came, his quirk never appeared, he kept getting bullied, his mom talked to him less and less. All he had left was heroes. All he had left was to look up to people like All Might. It was all he could do.

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Returning back to Izuku. He was cleaning up his uniform when the bell for class rang. 'Great', he thought, him being late meant another scolding from his teachers. Another problem to deal with.

When he finally got to class, the teacher looked at him like was trash, less than human. "Why are you always late?! Detention for three days!" The teacher screeched at him. The class snickered, like it was usual for them, and it was. This has happened more than Izuku could count.

The day went by painfully slow for Izuku, getting beatings in between classes, leading to him showing up late for all of them. Which only meant more scoldings, more beatings. It was an endless cycle. One that Izuku was sick of.

When the day finally ended, Izuku was packing up to go home when a random kid pushed him out of his chair onto the floor. With no words, the kid started to beat Izuku. After the twelfth or so punch, the kid started to strangle Izuku.

"Why don't you just die? The world has no need for things like you!" The word things was filled with venom, hinting that Izuku wasn't even human, he wasn't worthy to be called a human. Not worthy to be called a person.

After a while the kid started using his quirk, a transformation type, that turned his finger nails into knives. He carved the word 'useless' into Izuku's left arm, and the word 'die' into his right. So whenever he wrote, tied his shoes, or did anything, he could be reminded that no one wanted him alive.

When the kid finished writing the last stroke, he got up and left, but not before kicking Izuku one last time.

Izuku stayed that way for a few minutes, before he forced himself up. 'I can't be late home, mom will get mad again' Izuku thought to himself. While applying pressure to his arms by rolling his sleeves up, Izukus slowly made his way to the bathroom, where he washed off the blood and dirt from his cuts and used the bandages he kept in his backpack to wrap them up. 'I'm so glad I bought these, I would be long dead without them' Izuku thought to himself before wincing in pain due to his injuries.

When he finished, he slowly left the school and made his way home. It took him almost thirty minutes due to his injuries, which caused him to periodically stop. When he reached his front door he reached his hand out to turn the knob, but all of a sudden the door opened, and there stood his mom. Angry.

"You're late again?!" His mom yelled.

"I'm sorry" Izuku let out, in little over a whisper. His beating and slow walking made him late by five minutes, he could only curse his bad luck.

"Go to your room! No food for three days, and don't think about coming out for anything other than school!" His mom ordered.

Izuku whimpered but nodded his head while whispering, "Yes ma'am". His mom had told him long ago to stop calling her mom. Even though he said it in his head, he was nowhere near brave enough to say it out loud.

When Izuku got to his room, he closed the door silently and broke down crying. He wasn't only crying out of sadness, he was crying out of anger. Anger towards his mom, anger towards his school. Anger towards Bakugou. 'Why? I never did anything wrong' Izuku asked in his head. 'Oh, maybe being born was the wrong thing?'

Izuku, despite what he was thinking, was livid. He wanted to do nothing more than fight back, he wanted nothing more than to yell at his mom. He wanted nothing more than to be a hero.

So why, why couldn't he just help people?

He thought and though, and nothing came to him. He started screaming in fustration. "Why!? I can help people just like everyone else! So why is it only me?" Izuku kept yelling questions, left and right. No one answered his questions, they were only ignored.

"Shut up!" His mother yelled from the living room. "Or do you want to stay there for a week?!"

Izuku immediately shut up. He might be angry, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't make his mom mad for no reason. However, he could no longer scream to vent his anger. So, he grabbed a pair of scissors and slashed hard against his forearms. Over and over, covering the 'useless' and the 'die' with tens of cuts. When he opened his eyes, he could see the mess his arms became, and instantly cleaned and wrapped them up so he didn't die of blood loss.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have done that." Izuku regretted cutting, however much it helped sate his anger, dying wasn't worth it.

Izuku was still angry, however it was washed down from the stench of metallic blood in his room. He broke down crying again, but this time, he was crying tears of pain. Todays events came tumbling down to him like a landslide, all in the form of tears. He wanted nothing more than to stay in his room forever, and to not have to return to school.

However, his mom wouldn't allow it, it would raise suspicion.

He wanted nothing more for tomorrow to be better than today

But he knew tomorrow would be just like today, if not worse.

Oh how wrong he was.

It might end up to be the best day of his life.