be kind | my hero academia

decision

A truly stunning view met the young boy's eyes as he stood, solitary, silent in his vigil. The light breeze added a slight chill to the otherwise warm day, almost as if the weather matched his mood perfectly. A clear sapphire sky, marred slightly by a few lingering clouds that hadn't been cleared earlier that afternoon, surrounded his town like a blanket, though it seemed almost suffocating now.

It was more than safe to say he was in deep, desperate mourning. Mourning his hopes, his dreams, the shattered looking-glass of his perception of his hero and idol. It was rather fitting that he found himself faced with the choice Katsuki gave him, the option of the coward's way out.

Izuku was no stranger to rejection and cruelty due to his supposed 'condition', his 'disability' in the eyes of society. He'd faced it endlessly since that day at the hospital, head hung low and heart hopeful, but now there was no hope left. All Might, of all people, had told him that he couldn't do it. After all, a quirkless person would just be a liability, right? They'd be the one in need of rescue if fighting villains, they'd be useless in a rescue situation and they'd have no way to relay information in reconnaissance.

A quirk was everything in this world, and without it, he was less than nothing.

He'd been pondering his options for quite some time now, to the point where the sky was streaked with rouge and gold and a deep indigo, a truly ironic combination. The time for going home was long past, and he had no doubt in his mind that his mother would be looking for him.

He knew that he was lucky, that he should be grateful, that many other people lacking quirks had no family or shelter when he had a loving mother and stable home, but he wasn't blind. He knew his mother had a difficult job, he knew that she was exhausted; he could see the shadows under her eyes, hear the tension in her voice, feel how rough her hands had become. He knew that she had to do it for his sake, because no hospital was willing to treat a quirkless individual without piling on additional costs for 'special treatments' that couldn't be avoided. The relentless harassment he faced at school, the numerous slashes and burns he'd come home with, were taking their toll, after all.

They say that with death comes opportunity; opportunity to come together, to rebuild old relationships, heal wounds, grow. The death of Izuku's dream could be just what their little family needed to improve, and the first thing he needed to do was to come clean with every piece of evidence he had of everyone who'd wronged him. Once he could sever his connection to Katsuki, once he could be free of Aldera, they wouldn't need the money for his hospital bills, which would free his mother from her burdens.

He'd been collecting, for years, when he still longed to become a hero; he'd planned on reporting the school because maybe they'd listen to him then, perhaps he could save others before the abuse even began. He'd recorded every injury, noted every hospital trip, every incident of harassment, all in a little notebook much like his analysis for the future. He'd even carried a small camera on his person for the last two years, just in case someone ever reported it to the police and the school tried spinning the situation differently with their own toxic threads. All he needed to do was compile it all, with the help of his mother.

That brought him to his first task.

There was an old saying that Izuku had kept close at heart for many years - "In a world where you can be anything, be kind," - and he'd been using that as an excuse to be complicit in everything that was being done to him. He'd confused complacency with kindness, when the truth was that all he'd been doing was hurting people, and hurting himself.

He was hurting Katsuki's future by not reporting his behaviour early, before it'd gone too far.

He was hurting his mother by not reporting the situation at school before it began to take its toll on her emotional, physical and financial health.

He was hurting himself by not freeing himself from his abuse.

He needed to come clean.