Quirks and magic

Chapter 1: A Dare Gone Wrong

"What's the matter, Deku?" Bakugo said with a sneer, his voice laced with vehemence and contempt as he uttered his favorite insult toward the green-haired boy that he tormented so frequently. The explosive blonde stood front and center, his arms crossed as he glowered down at the Quirkless boy before him. His entourage of friends—sycophants, really—stood behind him, mimicking his posture as best they could, as if they were hoping to capture even a fraction of the charisma and coolness that Bakugo exuded in their eyes. "Don't tell me you're scared?"

Izuku shuddered as all eyes were on him; he had followed Kacchan with an uncanny reverence for years despite the humiliation that was reaped upon him day in and day out, but he hated being at the center of attention like this, in front of more condescending glances than usual. It usually meant Kacchan was going to degrade him worse than he normally did.

It helped that they were in the middle of the woods, though. Slightly, anyway. Izuku knew that at least if he ended up crying—which he was apt to do—he wouldn't be made a spectacle of in the middle of the park or the schoolyard, which is typically where Bakugo reveled in his bullying of him.

Still, Midoriya shrunk under the gaze of Bakugo and his gang of followers; he always felt so small and beneath them all, especially Bakugo, but wasn't that why he always followed after them all—followed him—in spite of everything? So long as he followed the boy who he always thought was a model case of victory and strength, couldn't he, too, a Quirkless weakling, become strong as well?

"I-I'm not scared!" Midoriya stammered in the face of their malicious smirking. His shaking body said otherwise, though, and Bakugo knew it.

"Oh?" Bakugo said with a sickeningly sweet tone. "Then what are you waiting for? Get to it Deku!" Bakugo stomped toward Midoriya, gripping his shoulders and whirling him around before giving his backside a rough shove.

Midoriya caught himself before he could face-plant into the slick, mossy ground beneath his feet, a loud creaking noise causing him to stare up with trepidation at the looming, decrepit mansion rotting forlornly before them. The abandoned mansion was the entire reason Bakugo brought him and the rest of his gang out into these woods in the first place.

Midoriya glanced all over the decaying outer husk of the building: brown and white paint particles were flaking off unceremoniously, rotted wooden planks on both the walls and the front porch looked as if they were forcibly rent and twisted off by turbulent, stormy winds, vines—alive and dead—had victoriously covered and consumed huge swaths of the walls and roof (which also had gaping holes in it), and what windows remained looked cracked beyond repair.

All the kids in the neighborhood knew it colloquially as the Haunted Mansion, and it wasn't uncommon for kids to dare other kids to go inside and creep around, much to the chagrin of parents and local authorities alike, who had deemed the building unsafe and off-limits for years, long before Bakugo and Midoriya were born, even.

"You want to do something fun?" Izuku thought back to Bakugo's words from earlier. "How about we go check out that haunted mansion before the storm hits?" A chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' followed, as if Bakugo's suggestion was scandalous. Midoriya went along with it, as did everyone else, but he hadn't picked up on the snickering and the nefarious glances being cast his way as they traipsed through the darkened woods. Now the boy knew: Bakugo waited for a soon to be stormy day like this to goad him into exploring the haunted mansion. Alone.

A sudden drop of precipitation landing on his shoulder rocked Midoriya out his thoughts. He slowly tilted his head up at the dilapidated building towering above him. He hadn't even entered yet; he was standing on the torn up porch, hesitating directly in front of the foreboding door.