When They Noticed

Prologue

"Kacchan! Kacchan!" The little boy bounded up to his taller blonde friend. "What is it, Izuku?" "I got my quirk!" The latter's red eyes light up maliciously, awed at the fact that his dream of having a sidekick like Izuku in the future would come true. "Woah what is it??!" "It's called Glitch! It's a mutated version of Momma's quirk!! I think someone else in the family had something like it but I don't know.. wanna see??" The blonde boy's head nods furiously, nearly falling off as his grin gets wider and wider.

"I don't really know how to control it yet, but I can show you for a few seconds!" "Kacchan" nods, urging the little ball of sunshine to just show him already. This is so exciting! Izuku has a quirk that sounds really cool and powerful! Not as powerful as his, of course. Bakugou Katsuki's quirk is the best out there. But maybe Izuku's will come in a close second. "Just show me Izu!" Izuku nods, a determined look on his face as he zeroes in on himself.

Nothing happens for a minute or so, and the boys wonder if maybe the doctor made a mistake or lied. But soon bright blue and red light cuts through Izuku's arm in several places, and moves back and forth like a glitch in a video game. His arm moves strangely, like it's a pixel bugging out, and the rest of his body follows in the same motion after bright blue and red streaks of light cut through him again. Bright white light also appears in some areas, and he starts to really look like a game character that's malfunctioning and glitching out.

"Whoa!! Can you do that to other things?? Or is it just you??" Katsuki asks in amazement. Contrary to popular belief, the boy is a huge fan of video games, and to have his best friend have a quirk that makes him look like he's straight out of one was about the coolest thing he's ever seen. Besides himself, of course. But when Izuku goes to talk, his voice doesn't sound like him. "I_Th1Nk_!_c@N!1!!!1" Katsuki's smile drops and he, though he will never admit it, looks very concerned for his younger friend. Is he imagining things? Maybe it's a..what was his mom's wording for it.. placebo effect..?? because his friend is glitching visually, so he's hearing things. "K@cCh@n_wHy_1s_mY_v0ic3_@Ll_w31rD??!" Okay. So Katsuki was not, in fact, imagining it. He watches his green haired friend closely, trying to figure out what would make his voice all glitchy.

Glitchy! It's from Izuku's quirk! It's because he's glitching! "Izuku, it's okay! It's just your quirk! Your voice sounds weird and glitchy because you're glitching! I think it's a side effect!" Izuku visibly relaxes as the glitching slows to a stop. It was only then Katsuki realized that Izuku's quirk was making the swings glitch, too, due to his friend's distress. "Are you okay, Izu?" Izuku's head twitches every now and then, exhaustion apparent on the boy's face. Parts of him glitch for a split second still. Probably another drawback due to overuse. "I.. th1nk s0_??" His small voice still glitches a bit, sounding like buzzing before returning to normal.

Katsuki notices the down look on the younger boy's face. "Oi! Don't get all mopey, Izu! It's okay, you'll get control of it eventually. Besides, I can't have you being better than me. can I?!" Izuku giggles a bit as his head twitches, but less severely than before. "Yeah, you better laugh. I'm a comedic genius, so I'd be offended if you didn't!"

Izuku smiles softly while Katsuki smirks proudly. They can be heroes together! They just need to work at it.

They can be heroes!