Chapter Text
It all started with one sentence.
“You know, Midoriya, if you really want to be a hero, why don’t you do us all a favor and take a swan dive off the roof. Maybe you will get a quirk in your next life.”
One cruel sentence. This time not spoken by a childhood friend turned bully, but a teacher.
The bell rang and Midoriya Izuku was frozen to his chair. He was used to suicide baits, expected them even. However, it was always his peers while the teachers watched with feinted indifference. Some subtly encouraged it, but never did any of them outright say anything. His peers cheered and left the classroom. Not even his bullies stayed to put the boy in his place after a statement like that. By next week the whole school would know and invite themself to up their own pestering now that the teachers have truly lost their last ounce of professionalism. He would be lucky to survive till the end of the month, let alone the year.
A quiet, breathless laugh left Midoriya’s lips before he finally stood up and left. His mind blank and feet moving on autopilot. He didn’t notice his other two classmates, the new ones, who weren’t used to the blatand quirkism, still frozen in their seats. By the time Midoriya reached the school gates, they both jumped up. They didn’t need to look at each other to know that they were not letting this kid out of their sight till he got home safely. In a practiced move, the boy opened the window while the girl took a run-up and jumped out. When she almost hit the ground, dark arms wrapped around her so that magnificent red wings could take her back to the sky. In a practiced move she secured herself to her friend with straps that she kept in her pockets. “Minnebo, what the actual freaking fuck just happened?”
Arakan Minnebo, her best friend, sighed: “You are adopting him right?”
“If he isn’t dead by tomorrow, yes.” She blew a stray purple lock out of her face: “Kami, Minn, we are at this school for what? Three weeks now? I’ve seen that kid get suicide baited twice on the daily. He has been getting spider lilies every Monday, been pushed off the stairs twice. He has so many bruises and last week he came to school limping! I thought the teachers would surely do something, but…”
She trailed off, never letting her eyes leave the green haired kid below them.
“I know Dai, I know.”
And Minnebo did in fact know. Daitan Takao really was the perfect heir to her parents company, Takao Industries: a bleeding heart and intelligent mind with a strong moral compass and the determination to fight every quirkist in sight. The perfect combination between her father, the owner of the most innovative support company in the world, Kisho Takao and his wife Kiyoto Yamada who made a name all for herself by starting Redemption Inc., the first non-profit organization completely dedicated to helping villains. It is really no surprise that they got a gender fluid child willing to fight God with every intention to win or die trying. Every single member of that family is a storm of nature and Minnebo could not be more thankful to be along for the ride.
He got pushed out of his thoughts as Takao wondered why it took Midoriya so long to pass under the bridge. “Do you think he finally broke down?”
“Maybe. Hard to say. His poker face is almost as good as Aizawa’s. Just different fronts you know. There is no way that that sunshine smile is real.”
“Goddammit now I want to introduce him to uncle Sho and see who’s poker face will outlast the other.”
He just knew she had this soft smile on her face that she always has when talking about her family. He really liked that smile.
“Definitely little Midori, his sunshine factor will cause the grump to go blind.”
“Nah uncle is married to a loud blond, he has a tolerance against sunshine.”
“True true, didn’t think of that.” he flew closer to the exit of the tunnel, “Anyways where is the green bean? I didn’t think that tunnel was that long.”
Takao grinned: “The tunnel isn’t but you know what is?”
“Our love and devotion to Jesus Christ?”
“No! Fuck that guy. I was talking about the number Pi!”
“Ahhh,” he rolled his eyes,”of course.”
What happened next went far too fast to properly process. Midoriya was stuck in this ugly ass blob of sludge, eyes screaming for help. Before Minnebo could move closer the lid exploded off the pothole near him. “I am here!”
All Might appeared, all muscles and armoured with this big stupid smile. With one punch he got Midoriya out and blew the dragon and his passenger into the grass field outside. By the time they had gotten up, which was a lot harder since they were still attached to each other, All Might flew off with Midoriya jumping after him and clinging to his leg.
Takao looked like she wanted to scream, but instead sucked on her lips and let out a big sight. Minnebo could just hear her think: “Sure, this might as well happen.”
She turned to him and he let her jump on his back. Quickly before they lost the kid they went in pursuit. Please let All Might fly to a hospital. Please let him fly to a hospital.
That kid almost choked to death and All Might sure as hell did not have the time or education to properly assess the damage that the villain could have done to Midoriya. Damaged lungs were so very dangerous. However, he didn’t, but rather landed on the roof of an abandoned building.
Takao and Minnebo sat themselves down out of view on top of the little staircase building. Midoriya was desperately trying to keep All Might from leaving.
“Do you think- even without a quirk can I still be a hero? Can someone quirkless still become a hero?”
Now, you would expect that the number one hero, the one who tells every reporter that is willing to listen (and aren’t they so willing to make that sacrifice) that everyone can be a hero, would surely tell the same to this desperate kid. Not this bimbo, not in this story.
Instead he reveals the national secret of his true form, caused by an injury 5 years ago. If he barely survived, how could this kid ever without a quirk? Minnebo rolled his eyes. As if the only villains heroes fight with are the big, scary, powerful beings everyone sees on tv.
And All Might didn’t stop there. “Maybe you could go into the medical field or become a policeman,” he offered. Takao scoffed quietly and even Minnebo found this hard to believe. Did All Might truly not know that the quirkless are banned from entering most hospitals and from taking the entrance exam to a police school in Japan or did he say impossible things on purpose? And as if he hadn’t just crushed a kid's dream like it was nothing, he left.
All Might was clearly still the asshole they had met four years ago at I-Island that didn’t think that Akihiro, Minnebo’s older brother and most highly regarded upcoming brain at Takao’s industries, could possibly be the quirk scientist he was supposed to meet because of his age and quirklessness. It was a stupid argument, especially since Takao and Minnebo saw him reveal his true form and he didn’t even notice. David Shield was still waiting on his thank you basket for making sure his secret didn’t get out after such carelessness.
Midoriya had walked to the edge of the roof and definitely needed someone now. Minnebo quickly jumped out of their hiding place and let a tail grow to whisk him away from the edge. Midoriya let out a surprised squik and fell on his ass.
“Listen up, green bean,” Takao started harshly,”All Might only knows a thing about being the number one hero and with how quirkist Japan is, he is right. You won’t ever be the next number one hero. However, he knows shit about any other kind of heroics. I do. So ask me if you can be a hero.”
It took a moment to let the words sink in and hesitantly Midoriya did: “Can a- Can a quirkless person become- ome a hero- hero?”
“That depends on the person.” she answered honestly,”I will give you the same answer I would give a quirked person. If you become a hero, that depends on three factors:
1. Your own determination and willingness to work
2. What kind of hero you want to become
3. The country you live in.
Do you know the quirk of the number one hero in Belgium?”
Midoriya shakes his head.
“She calls herself Zonnegloed and she is quirkless. The same goes for Féidir, the number 9 hero of Ireland, also quirkless. Or did you know that the avengers, the most popular hero group of The United States has not one but three quirkless members! All over the world there are quirkless heroes except for Japan, because they are too focused on quirks to see actual potential. That does not mean it is impossible.”
“You won’t be able to become a top 100 spotlight hero. To be a spotlight hero, how good you are does not matter. What matters is how much the hero commision likes you and how effective you are. Endeavor and Firefly have almost the exact same rating in effectiveness and public favor, but the commision likes Endeavor more since he is willing to do what they want without question so he is number two and they are number twelve.”
“A hero without a quirk? The commision will hate it. Your best options would be to become an underground hero or go twilight so they have as little say over you as possible. Rescue might work too, but you will have to make the commission tolerate you. You will need to work incredibly hard,” she softened her voice and put extra emphasis on this last part:”but it is not impossible.”
In a whirlwind of green Midoriya had her trapped in a crushing hug and was crying on her shoulder, mumbling words of thanks. Not expecting such a reaction she looked at Minnebo, but he just grinned at her while she slowly melted into the hug. They could both use some more hugs. However, the touching moment got interrupted by explosions shaking the building. Midoriya’s eyes went wide: “Kacchan…”
Before they knew it, Midoriya was dashing off the stairs towards the explosion.
“For fuck sake” muttered Takao before she took off to followed their newly acquired problem child. Minnebo rolled his eyes and let himself fall off the building. No way that he was taking the stairs when he could fly.