Guidance, or To Help (those in need) by orionchildofhades / shwwmf

3. not quite as useless

Okay, maybe faceless was a bit too much, surely not very nice, but some features were definitely missing.

Even sitting, the man in front of him was very tall, imposing. His aura was strong, dark. Izuku felt uncomfortable immediately and his nausea increased.

A huge scar covered his face. From up his nose to behind his head as far as Izuku could see. It was ragged and quite honestly, hideous. The face was eyeless, hairless, noseless almost. The man had no ears, all it still had from a previous human shape were the shadows of eye sockets and a crooked and cruel grin. He was connected to a bunch of devices and monitors by wires coming in and out of his skin.

Izuku wouldn't even dare imagine what could have caused all of this.

But he did. He wondered how could the man hear, how could he see, what caused all of this and were all of these machines keeping him alive? If so, how? He didn't even ask about the mist-man quirk, even if it seemed fascinating, or about how the man knew those things about All Might? How could Izuku know it was true?

All he said was "Did All Might do this to you?"

Because it all linked together. The terrible fight All Might must have gone through to end up with such an injury was a reflection of the fight this man must have endured as well.

Izuku knew that fighting, sometimes to death, was part of the hero's work, but he couldn't imagine leaving a man in this state. What could he even do? With all this stuff around him, keeping him alive. Sitting on a chair all day probably, blind and deaf.

"That would be him, yes. Five years ago we battled. Each of us ended up with quite the injury. He left me for dead, and I believe he still thinks of me as such."

The man's fingers were tapping a steady rhythm on his armrest.

"I would rather like to know what kind of impact our fight had on him. As you can see, I didn't heal very well. I'm still having to fight the effect of this fight. I would be very grateful if you could share what All Might told you."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Why? It wouldn't be fair now, would it? Me asking a bunch of questions but never giving anything back. That doesn't seem like a nice deal. But you don't have to answer my question about All Might if you're so strongly against it. I can find another question to ask if you'd prefer."

This seemed like a trap. But it strangely made sense, this exchange of information. Surely not anything someone would expect from a villain who decided to kidnap them but the idea was there. That someone, a villain nonetheless, would be willing to exchange, was so foreign to Izuku. Because no one ever wanted to exchange with him, he would consider himself lucky if people would simply talk to him. He could nerd out on the internet with people who had the same interests as him (and thankfully who didn't know of his quirk situation or lack of therefore). But all he had were bullies if he was honest with himself. And now this terrifying man wanted to be all nice to him and even if it was solely to learn the information Izuku had, it had no right to feel this nice. What kind of world did Izuku live in to end up feeling some sort of happiness after living what might have been the worst day of his life, just because a villain was trying to have a civilized chat with him?

"Tell me, Izuku Midoriya, how does it feel to live quirkless?"

Oh.

There was the catch.

"Let me guess. You were born in a society where quirks are what define you. And you don't have one. Quirkless are nothing anymore. You're nothing. People disregard you, pity you, ignore you. Bully you, probably. They don't listen to you, they don't like you, they avoid you at all cost because you're less evolved , you're just less than them. They don't see you. At school you're being laughed at, publicly shamed for something you have no control over. Isn't it hard? To live in a world where people just refuse to include you? Teachers must not even be helping because whatever will happen to you it will be far less important than what can happen to those with powers, perhaps even students with powerful quirks. One could even be a hero and why would they risk the kid's career for someone like you?"