“Get it through your thick, useless skull, you dumbass! You are Deku! Nothing is ever going to change that!”
That was the only memory he had of whatever came before the doctor started taking care of him.
His name was Deku. Forever. Nothing could change that. Nothing would ever change that he was Deku.
So why was the Doctor trying to tell him differently? He felt like he trusted the voice that called him Deku, but he didn’t trust the doctor as much. The doctor made his body hurt. So he kept being Deku. That’s what the loud voice wanted!
And while he didn’t remember who the loud voice was, he knew that he wanted to make him proud. So even while the doctor poked and prodded and brought around the nice man in the suit to make his body change shape, he stayed quiet.
He stayed Deku.
“Doctor, how goes the conditioning of Project Ruin?”
The doctor froze as he heard All for One’s voice through the screen. Rubbing his hands together, he turned to the screen and bowed, sweat pouring down his forehead and into his bushy eyebrows.
“Uhm. I’m sorry sir. I, uh, mean. Badly, sir. I can’t seem to break the core of this boy. Where exactly did you find him? He seems to be resistant to the conditioning, somehow.”
A growl came through the TV. “There’s no possible way for that. It’s just some Quirkless brat I grabbed because I knew he would be a good base for the Nomu process. I checked with my own two hands that he didn’t have a Quirk.”
The doctor nodded quickly. “Of course, sir! I would never doubt your judgement, I just cannot promise you that Project Ruin will be 100% conditioned by tomorrow. I know Tomura had plans, but I cannot supply the Nomu properly by then.”
Silence overtook the room for a short while “That is not acceptable. Young Shigaraki will have his Nomu, even if I must step in and apply a… temporary solution to your inability to condition this Nomu. Kurogiri.”
The doctor yelped as a portal appeared behind him, and All for One walked into the room, his life-support mask over his face. Even without eyes, the doctor could tell that All for One was glaring at him, and he cowered behind his desk.
All for One approached Project Ruin, the Nomu boasting dark green skin with almost emerald-coloured scars all over its body. Weirdly, its brain wasn’t exposed, instead covered in a layer of thick green hair that fell down its back. It was large, almost on par in size with All Might himself, and was probably just as muscular.
Its physique had been changed from the scrawny little body that All for One had supplied him with to a behemoth capable of going toe to toe with All Might himself, theoretically at least.
With its [Super Speed], [Super Strength], [Hyper Regeneration], and [Shock Absorbing] Quirks, the doctor was sure that not even the so-called “Symbol of Peace” could take out his Nomu with any sort of ease.
There was only one issue with the Nomu, literally. It refused to respond to their commands without a mind control Quirk in effect. The others, while lesser in power, he was able to control them by voice alone, but this one resisted, somehow.
It was infuriating. He was the master of his art, raising people from their status as weaklings and giving them power in exchange for service to his master, but this one wouldn’t take his gift. Wouldn’t take his place as his All for One’s servant.
As All for One placed his hand over the face of the Nomu, it started to seize slightly as the commands All for One was implanting into it took hold. Both of them knew that this Quirk was temporary, but it should hold up for the next few days, long enough for it to do its job.
And after that? Either it was a failure, and they wouldn’t need it anymore, or All Might would be dead, and, well, they wouldn’t need it anymore…
As the nice man in the suit put Deku to sleep again, he pouted.
It wasn’t actually sleeping, but it was close enough for Deku. A cold feeling surrounded him, and his body stopped listening to his brain. Well, it did that a lot, doing things he never told it to, but this was different, alright?
Sorry. Deku knew he shouldn’t yell at anything. He wasn’t allowed to. He was Deku, he didn’t get to be mad at people. He didn’t get to do anything that stopped him from being Deku.
Time didn’t really mean anything when he was in this state, but at some point, he heard the Nasty Bad Touch man tell him something, and his body started to move. He didn’t like Nasty Bad Touch man, his Quirk hurt. Even if he healed, somehow, Deku still didn’t like his Quirk.
At least the loud voice’s Quirk only hurt for a little bit! The Nasty Bad Touch man’s Quirk would hurt for minutes on end. Deku wished he could go back to the loud voice and his small hurt Quirk.
Where were they going?
Deku only got a fuzzy view from his eyes when the nice man in the suit made him sleep, but he could tell that he was leaving his tube. He hadn’t left his tube before! At least, not since the doctor started taking care of him!
There was a man in a suit, but not the nice man who put him to sleep, standing in the other room. It was a lot brighter than his tube, and Deku wished he could cover his eyes, but his body didn’t let him.
The other man in a suit was fuzzier than everyone else, and he seemed to flow a little bit more than the rest. Fuzzy Suit man said something, and Deku could have laughed at how tired he sounded as he wiped down a glass cup.
Of course, he couldn’t, because his body wasn’t listening right now.
Fuzzy Suit man’s head seemed to disappear, and a big fuzzy wall of black appeared in front of Deku and Nasty Bad Touch man. With a single word, the Nasty Bad Touch man walked forward, and Deku’s body followed him.
Had he always been so much taller than Nasty Bad Touch man was?
He couldn’t remember, really. He should apologise for that. He was just Deku. He shouldn’t be bigger or taller than anyone, it wasn’t his place. He might not like Nasty Bad Touch man, but even he was better than a Deku.
The loud voice with the small hurt Quirk would probably be upset that Deku was taller now, too. Damn, he was disappointing everyone today it seemed. He would have to apologise to the loud voice if he ever met them again.
Maybe he could let the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk hurt him some more? They always seemed to enjoy that, and Deku could heal now! He was even better to hurt now! Loud voice with the small hurt Quirk would love that!
Deku nodded to himself in the isolated small bit of his brain while his body stood in front of a room of fuzzy people while Nasty Bad Touch man spoke a lot about hating people.
He would find the loud voice with small hurt Quirk and let him hurt him a bunch to make up for being bigger now! What a perfect plan! He hoped that the nice man in the suit let him go through with it!
Oh, they were moving into another of Fuzzy Suit man’s black walls! He wondered where they were going this time.
This was the most movement he had gotten in a long time.
Bakugou growled as his vision cut off as the black smoke engulfed him.
All of the noise around him cut off as well, except for Kirishima screaming. A second later his vision returned and he found himself heading towards the floor of a ruined building. Righting himself with his explosions, he landed softly on the ground and caught Kirishima.
“Thanks, bro. Was gonna harden up and just like, crash into the floor but I don’t really know if that was going to work.”
Bakugou felt his anger spike at the thought of his friend doing something so stupid, but he smothered it. He took a second to let out a deep breath before talking. “Don’t worry about that. Be worried about them.”
Kirishima turned to where he pointed and yelped as a dozen villains strolled into the room, laughing and taunting as they prepared to attack the two students. Instantly, Kirishima hardened his arms and dropped into a combat pose, while Bakugou got into a runner’s position, his arms out behind him.
“Oh, the little hero brats feel like fighting… good!”
Bakugou couldn’t tell which one had spoken, but he let his hands ignite and shot forward, flipping around so that his feet were in front. They landed squarely in the face of the villain at the front, and Bakugou could tell it was a knockout.
Springboarding off of the villain, he landed and slid backwards slightly. He heard Kirishima make contact with one of the villains as well, his hardened arms doing really well against the unarmoured villains.
The fight continued on, and Bakugou was starting to feel the strain in his legs. Impacting the villains over and over again like a bullet, using his explosions for propulsion only, was very stressful to his legs, but he refused to use his explosions on people.
Not anymore. Not after De- Izuku. Not after what he had driven Izuku to. He refused to let his Quirk burn another human being.
His hesitation would cost him though, as he felt something grab him by the back of his collar and throw him through the wall, out towards the plaza.
‘What the hell is that thing?’
Deku frowned as he heard Nasty Bad Touch man yell at him.
Nasty Bad Touch man seemed to be angry at the speedy ninja man with glowing eyes as he fought the other fuzzy people Deku had seen in the room before this big open area.
“Nomu! Get him!”
His body lurched forward faster than he expected, and suddenly he was grabbing the Speedy Ninja man with glowing eyes. He was grabbing him very tightly! No! He was Deku! He wasn’t allowed to hurt anyone! The loud voice said he wasn’t allowed to fight back ever!
He banged at the cage that the nice man in the suit had built around his mind, pushing against it as much as he could. He heard Nasty Bad Touch man say something, but he ignored it as he willed himself to stop hurting the Speedy Ninja man.
There was silence as Deku’s body actually did what he wanted it to, and Speedy Ninja man dropped to the ground and grabbed the arm that Deku had crushed, darting away from him. That was fine. Speedy Ninja man could run away. He was just Deku, and he had hurt him.
Maybe he was going to go tell the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk so that the loud voice could put him back in his place! Loud voice with the small hurt Quirk loved to put him in his place!
He was Deku, and the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk made sure he knew it! He was grateful! He wouldn’t still know who he was if the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk didn’t make sure he remembered forever!
“Nomu! What the fuck are you doing?! Get him and bring him here!”
Deku’s body lurched again, but Deku held strong to the small bit of control he had and forced himself to stay still. The loud voice with the small hurt Quirk wouldn’t want him fighting back! He shouldn’t hurt Speedy Ninja man!
“Nomu! For fuck’s sake, kill him already!”
Once again, he pulled against the strings controlling his body, and this time he felt something crack inside of him. Suddenly, he wasn’t sleeping anymore! The cold was gone and his body moved how he wanted it to!
“Kurogiri! Get this fucking waste of my time working properly! I won’t let a glitch in this fucker’s system ruin my run! The dungeon boss dies today!”
Deku frowned as the Fuzzy Suit man appeared in front of him, saying something. He felt… something trying to force him back down into the cold as the words hit his ears, but he roared and forced the cold back out.
He didn’t want to sleep! He had to find the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk so he could be put back in his place! He was so much bigger, stronger, and faster than before! The loud voice with the small hurt Quirk had to put him back in his place and make him Deku again!
It was the only reason he lived! So that the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk had someone to practise with! It was all that a Deku could do to help the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk become an awesome hero!
He looked down and saw that the Fuzzy Suit man had fallen onto his butt, and was scooting away from him. Wait, had he roared for real? That was so cool!
Maybe he could say other things?!
Aizawa ignored the throbbing pain in his arm as he watched the villains ‘bioengineered weapon’ seemingly have a fit.
The villain made of black smoke, Kurogiri, had said something to it that seemingly angered it, and was currently moving out of its reach as it flailed around, roaring every now and then.
The roars had scared most of the other villains away from the plaza, leaving Aizawa with just the two main villains and the thing they called ‘Nomu’. Not even erasing its Quirks had stopped it from crushing his forearm, so he was nervous about the fact that it seemed to be unstable.
He was about to start backing away when he heard a yell. Looking to his right he could almost feel the vibrations in the ground as Bakugou landed in the plaza. The boy let out a yell as one of his shoulders seemed to pop out of its sockets.
A streak of blue followed him out of the hole he had made in one of the ruined buildings, but Aizawa erased the villain’s Quirk and wrapped them up in his scarf, slamming them to the ground.
Bakugou glanced up at Aizawa and nodded as he got to his feet, resetting his shoulder with a grimace. “Get out of here, kid! Back up the stairs!”
Bakugou shook his head, growling. “No way! Look at yourself! You’re a dumbass if you think I’m leaving you alone with that kind of injury!”
Aizawa glared at the boy, but he didn’t back down. That was at least until his yell reached the villains. Almost instantly, the Nomu stopped what it was doing and turned to them. Aizawa shivered as its once dead-looking eyes focused right onto Bakugou.
Shigiraki was still yelling, complaining about a ‘glitched system’ when the Nomu roared again. But this time, it spoke.
“I AM DEKU!!!”
Bakugou’s world stopped.
What?
It… it couldn’t be.
Right?
He didn’t get much time to think before suddenly the monster was standing right in front of him. Bakugou instinctively dived backwards, hitting the floor. The Nomu stopped as he did, and fell to the ground as well.
It seemed to be trying to make itself as small as possible, something that… something that Bakugou had seen Izuku do so often before he disappeared. Could it really be—
“Loud voice with small hurt Quirk! I finally found you! Please make me Deku again! I apologise for being bigger and stronger now, but I heal very well! Please put me back in my place again! I want to be Deku again!”
The monster’s voice was raw and quiet, scratched as if it hadn’t spoken in a very long time. Bakugou’s head was spinning. He—he couldn’t—what? His hand moved forward to reach out for Izuku, or whatever this thing the boy had become was, and instantly he curled up, nodding.
“Yes! Please use your small hurt Quirk so that I can be Deku again. The doctor and the nice man made me big but I want to be small again so I can help you practise being a hero!”
Bakugou backed away instantly and turned his head as bile shot up his throat. They… this had to be him. De—Izuku… someone had turned Izuku into this thing… or at least tried to…
Bakugou threw up.
Why wasn’t the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk hitting him?
Why? Had he done something wrong? Or did the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk not want to practise on him? Had he found another Deku, because Deku had gotten bigger and stronger?
No! He was Deku! Only him! Only he could help the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk become a great hero! That was all he was good for, he wouldn’t let that be taken from him too!
“Please! I’ll be a good Deku. You can put me in my place. I won’t hurt anyone, and you can practise your Quirk on me! Please, I’ll do anything I just want to be Deku again!”
The loud voice with the small hurt Quirk didn’t respond, so Deku looked up and saw him throwing up. He reached out and patted the loud voice with the small hurt Quirk on the back, relishing the fact that he got to see him again.
The loud voice with the small hurt Quirk had spiky hair and red eyes! They were so cool! People were going to love him when he became a hero! And his outfit! It looked like the hero suit that he and Deku had drawn when they were very small! Even smaller than when he was Deku! Before he was Deku!
Loud Spiky Red Eyes looked up at him as Deku patted him on the back, and Deku flinched at the sadness in his eyes. Loud Spiky Red Eyes stared at him for a moment before Deku heard him speak.
“Izuku. I’m so sorry.”
Who was Izuku? Why was Loud Spiky Red Eyes sorry? Loud Spiky Red Eyes was going to be a hero! He could do no wrong! Deku wouldn’t trust anyone who could be a bad guy! He sat down next to Loud Spiky Red Eyes, the ground thudding as he did so.
“You Loud Spiky Red Eyes. You no need to be sorry! Don’t know who Izuku is, but he doesn’t need apology! I’m sure! Loud Spiky Red Eyes is the best hero!”
Hmm. Loud Spiky Red Eyes didn’t seem to agree. Why was Loud Spiky Red Eyes Crying? He couldn’t remember Loud Spiky Red Eyes doing that. That was Deku’s thing!
He was about to speak again when he heard a loud BOOM from up behind him. He thought he recognised the shout of the really buff man on top of the stairs, but his head was fuzzy, and he could only really focus on Loud Spiky Red Eyes.
Nasty Bad Touch man and Fuzzy Suit man were gone, apparently, they had used Fuzzy Suit man’s black wall to run away, but Deku didn’t care. He had found his Loud Spiky Red Eyes, and he was ready to be Deku again.
He couldn’t wait to be Deku again.
