MHA Stories i find on Ao3

Reformation

By: LocalCryptid7

Kacchan's words kept repeating over and over again in Izuku's mind.

"  If you wanna be a hero so bad, why don't you make it easier for  yourself and take a swan dive off the roof? Maybe you'll have a quirk in  your next life! "

Izuku's stomach twisted as he clutched  his notebook to his chest, the wind whipping around him and ruffling his  hair, his clothes billowing. Flipping through the pages, he found the  page All Might had signed.

Even All Might, the person Izuku  looked up to most in the world, had told him he couldn't be a hero. Even  when Izuku had run in to save Kacchan from the Slime Villain, they'd  all looked down on him. All the heroes, even All Might, had scolded him  for getting involved. Then at school the following week, Kacchan had  attacked him, going as far as to set off some small explosions against  his skin, leaving burns. His classmates had laughed, saying it was  pointless for him to have tried to do anything to save Kacchan.

Izuku  thought maybe things would get better in high school. He applied to UA,  trying for the Hero Department. But on the day of the exam, while he  handed in his forms, he was turned away at the door by a member of the  administration.

" Quirkless? It'd be far too dangerous for  you to be in the Hero Exam. You would be a liability not only to  yourself but to the others in the exam. If you would like to apply for  the other programs, you can, but I simply can't let you apply for the  Hero Department. "

But what was the point of going to UA if  he couldn't be a hero? So he applied for a school closer to home, hoping  that he would be able to stay under the radar and avoid the bullies.  Kacchan would be going to UA, so maybe the others would leave him  alone.

On the first day, it became evident that a power vacuum  had formed in Kacchan's absence. His old cronies were vying for  the  position of top-dog and the easiest way to do that was to go after  Izuku. They picked on him, becoming crueler and crueler to prove  themselves. They eventually sorted themselves out and Izuku found  himself at the bottom of the pecking order. He was the butt of every  joke and the odd man out.

At home, it wasn't much better. Not  that his mother bullied him of course. His mother was kind, but she did  not understand Izuku sometimes. She couldn't imagine him as a hero.  Every time something bad happened at UA, like the USJ attack or the  attack at their summer camp, she would remind him about how it was a  good thing that he didn't get into his dream school, that it was better  that he avoided heroics. Then he would hear her calling Mitsuki Bakugou  at night, praising Kacchan. Saying how it was amazing that Kacchan was  near the top of his class and how it was amazing that Kacchan managed to  narrowly avoid being kidnapped at the summer camp. She praised how  aggressive Kacchan was, not only against the villains during the  attacks, but also against his classmates at the sports festival. All  Izuku ever heard was how amazing Kacchan was and how he was going to be  the Number One Hero one day. And maybe Kacchan could be a good hero, but  he wasn't a good person; that much was clear. He needed to grow up  before he could be a great hero. Yet he got all the praise and Izuku was  looked down on. He was called weak by everyone, if not in words then in  actions, like how his mother treated him like he was fragile.

And  so, after a particularly bad day at school, Izuku took a walk. Somehow,  he managed to find himself back at that building where he had spoken to  All Might all those months ago.

He took one last moment to look  at All Might's signature before he went back to flipping through the  pages. Izuku kept going until he came to a blank one. Riffling through  his backpack, he found a pen and wrote a short note to his mother,  telling her he was sorry for everything, before bookmarking the page and  putting it into his backpack. He swung the bag onto his back, figuring  that the notebook would be safe in there and would be easy to find.