Dark Light

The Origin Of Izuku Midoriya

He'd always known that not everyone was born equal, he'd known it since he was four.

"That's mean Kacchan!"

Izuku Midoriya known as the only boy in his class who hadn't manifested his Quirk stood before his childhood friend Katsuki 'Kacchan' Bakugou and his two cronies. Behind him lying on the ground was their recent bully victim.

"Look, you made him cry…I-I won't let you hurt him anymore!"

He knew it was stupid, hopeless even. At least the boy behind him had a means to protect himself, even though it proved fruitless but him…

Katsuki laughed and punched his palm creating a miniature explosion "you playing at hero Deku!? You don't even have a quirk."

He had nothing and everyone made sure to remind him of it every day, his so-called friends whom he admired because they had what he hadn't. They had no qualms with beating him down despite his 'handicap.'

Today was no different he thought bracing himself for the inevitable. Extended fingers grabbed his head and his arms were grabbed.

Katsuki reared his fist back "you should really learn your place, Deku!"

In another time Katsuki's fist would have hit causing a bruise to form on Izuku's cheek. When asked about it by his mother he would have passed it off as an accident happening while he was playing with his friends. His mother would be none the wiser as to the further physical and psychological abuse her son would face in the oncoming years.

However at this time, at this place something else happened. The moment Katsuki's fist impacted his cheek there was a blinding light that enveloped all five of them and the street itself. All three of the bullies were roughly tossed aside, 'extended fingers' slammed into a wall, 'dragon wings' flew so far into the air he was lost in the skyline and Katsuki ended up overturning some trashcans.

The light subsided leaving a bewildered Izuku and bullied victim.

Blinking a little Izuku staring at the receding light on his palms until he remembered the boy and turned around "are you okay?"

The boy who was speechless could only nod, his tears temporarily gone.

"Uhh~"

Two heads turned to see Katsuki pull himself up with a groan "what the…" he stared at the boys then his fallen followers and put two and two together "DEKU!"

Said boy turned "run I'll hold him o-OOF" before he could finish Katsuki tackled him to the ground.

Izuku desperately tried to summon the power from before unfortunately nothing happened

*Smack*

\

For the next few months Izuku tried time and again to summon his unknown Quirk with no progress. He didn't even know how he did it in the first place but what he did know was that it happened when Katsuki was bullying him, so it might appear in times of stress.

His cronies had already spread the word about the power of Izuku's mysterious Quirk but so far no one has seen it. Katsuki took this as a personal insult as he thought 'Deku thought they weren't good enough for him to show them his Quirk' and so went on a one man crusade to get him to use it again.

The bullying began to become more frequent and outright dangerous. For a time Katsuki was hell bent but after several months of nothing everything went back to normal and Izuku's 'Quirkless' status was reestablished with the passing of the singular event. No one cared anymore that technically Izuku had a quirk, as far as they were concerned, out of sight, out of mind.

Unknown to everyone else Izuku never stopped trying to manifest it, he may not have been able to cause a 'light wave' as he did the first time but he managed to take stock of things happening to his body, things only he could have noticed. Things such as through his numerous beatings how his wounds practically healed overnight, how his stamina was a lot greater than before.

And most importantly it was how he felt when he was outside, more specifically when he was exposed to the sun. It wasn't anything special at first but as Izuku began obsessing with his mysterious Quirk, both to show everyone he had one and to study it himself he took note of almost anything out of the norm.

Needless to say he picked up on it rather quickly.

After the incident he started waking up literally at the crack of dawn, when that ray of light would pass through the blinds to shine on his face. He never flinched away from the contact with the sun's rays, in fact he embraced it. He always felt gloomy on a cloudy day and he would smile more, particularly in the summer.

At one point he even did an experiment using a bruise he got from Katsuki the day prior, he exposed it to the sun and after a few minutes he watched as it clear it leaving radiant skin. After compiling his evidence he came to the assurance that he did indeed have a Quirk but the thing that irked him was not knowing what that Quirk was.

Al he knew was that it had something to do with the sun and light. How was he supposed to be a hero when he didn't even know what his Quirk was? So after pleading with his mother she opted to take a little time off and take him to specialist.

\

Izuku stared down at the grinning action figure of his idol All Might. His mother sat beside him patiently waiting for the doctor to arrive with the results. Quirk tests were conducted for nearly every new and/or mysterious Quirk manifested in a child. It did well not only for the parents to know (in case they need to take any precautions) but the government likes to categorize all types of Quirks.

He finally looked up when the doctor came in with a few documents, his mother also looked to him expectantly. As for the doctor he looked equal parts excited and thoughtful.

"Well little Izuku's Quirk is certainly a rare one…" he began.

"What is it!?" Izuku shouted, the suspense was killing him.

His mother was more genial though she too would like to know "is there a reason why he can't manifest it at will? I know it should be difficult at his age but all the other students can at least do something."

"Ah but that is the thing" he said a matter-of-factly "his Quirk has been active all along, even now, at this very moment his Quirk active."

That caused the mother and son to blink "what exactly is his Quirk?"

At this the doctor smiled "solar radiation absorption."

Izuku tilted his head "huh? What's that?"

"Basically Izuku you are a solar battery, your body absorbs solar energy, eh that is, energy from the sun, and uses that energy as a buffer for your bodily functions. You said that when it manifested there was an explosion of light correct?"

Izuku nodded "yeah, there was like a really bright light and Kacchan was flying."

The doctor nodded "I see, well that should explain why you haven't been able to manifest it like you did before and for just how long has his 'Quirk' has manifested."

Inko looked at the man in confusion "what do you mean?"

"I mean, that explosion of light is the result of months? Possibly years of solar powered absorption being released" he took out an x-ray chart of his diaphragm "as far as I can tell the Quirk is mostly passive, you'd never notice he'd even had it unless in extreme instances such being wounded."

Izuku began nodded frantically "yeah, yeah."

"Well I guess that makes sense, Izuku has been healing faster than normal from his accidents" a frown came across her face at his, at one point, frequent accidents.

"It is also possible for him to have endless stamina when exposed to the sun" the doctor mused while stroking his chin.

"Can I be a hero!" he jumped right to the matter.

The doctor looked pensive "I honestly don't know" he shrugged

Izuku's smile froze "huh?"

"This is the interesting part a to be honest even I am not certain if this will be the full extent of your Quirk, whether it will evolve with time or will stay as is" he shook his head "it could go either way. Please visit again if any new developments occur, I've never actually seen a Quirk like this before."

Inko bowed lightly "thank you doctor."

After they left Izuku was oddly silent, contemplating what the doctor told him. The truth is he didn't really care what his Quirk was, heck he could be Quirkless and that wouldn't stop him from pursuing his dream. The problem was that to be like All Might he needed to be strong and right now he was anything but.

'Kacchan is going to be a hero, I need to do my best'

Inko felt Izuku squeeze her hand and almost did a double take at the fiery determination on her son's usually cheerful (or tearful) face. It almost brought her to tears how much in that instance he's grown.

\

The next two years were filled with mostly experimentation and research along with everyday things for Izuku. When he was allowed to, along with watching videos of his idol he started searching for any other heroes (or even villains) with a similar Quirk to his own. He didn't make much progress on the latter front unfortunately.

As for the former, Izuku started to carry around a notepad to further record anything of value though due to his age and limited vocabulary, it wasn't much but that would change in time. After two years he could at least force his palms to glow for a few seconds though. It never occurred to Izuku to try out the light wave since he had no idea how that happened in the first place.

As a consequence of his research he started paying less attention to Katsuki, since he had his own Quirk problems to deal with he couldn't be bothered to follow him around anymore. Also due to his uphill struggle with his own Quirk Izuku felt a little vindictive jealousy towards the boy and classmates who had it better due to how easily their Quirks came to them.

He respected his friend whom also shared his love for All Might and while Izuku wanted to become like his idol, he admired his friend for wanting to surpass the legendary hero. He did not, however, admire Kacchan for his attitude (specifically towards him) and his almost constant use of his literally explosive Quirk against him.

In the end Izuku distanced himself from him while trying to maintain what's left of their friendship. Though for reasons sometimes unknown to him, there was always that bitter resentment towards his friend, for treating him so badly, for having people praising him just for what he could do naturally, for people overlooking his rotten attitude in favor of his Quirk.

That was also the reason why he wanted to distance himself from Katsuki. Izuku had never hated anyone before and he'd prefer not to do it now but he was close. It was something he didn't understand, he never thought he could dislike someone especially his friend but he was getting close.

And Katsuki was doing nothing to make it easier. All of Izuku's work to distance himself was met with a physical altercation or mocking words and every time Izuku's dislike grew more. By the time they were nine Izuku had acknowledged the fact that they couldn't, wouldn't be friends. He recognized that Kacchan's arrogant nature along with his superiority complex would never allow Katsuki to truly be his friend.

\

To most Katsuki had seemingly given up trying to solve the mystery of Deku, they were wrong. He still kept an eye on him to try and figure out what his Quirk was, that incident happened years ago and was surely forgotten by the other two but it was always at the back of Katsuki's mind, raising questions throughout the years.

What was his Quirk?

Why didn't he tell anyone?

Why doesn't he show it?

What is he hiding?

Does he think he's better than me?

Whenever someone gets a Quirk its usually all they could talk about, so far he knew everyone's Quirk, except for Deku who goes by the title of Quirkless. Katsuki knew the truth though, he wasn't dumb enough to think that Deku's sudden change of demeanor back then didn't have something to do with it.

Hell he even knew what his Quirk was after asking his mom but seeing is believing and he wouldn't be satisfied until he actually saw Deku's Quirk. So far the only other hero he had to compare with Deku's supposed Quirk was an American hero who could absorb sunlight and even fire beams of radiation from his hands.

If Deku's Quirk was like that then he'd definitely have to know where he stood with him. His pride refused to allow Deku of all people to be better than him and if that idiot wouldn't willingly show them his Quirk then he'll force him to.

Surprisingly it was easier said than done as Deku took his bullying like a champ. The injuries seem to roll over him and he would be fine the next day. Katsuki never injured to last as he's almost certain Deku was covering for him but if his mom started asking questions then fingers would get pointed and the last thing he wanted was to screw up his relationship with her.

He didn't like Deku but Inko was like a second mother to him, sometimes even more so than his own.

He's been trying for years now and all he got was to further alienating his 'friend' not that he missed his 'friendship' but eventually he started seeing less and less of the boy he grew up with. Not to say he wasn't the same, he was still bright eyed when talking about heroes, still mumbled to himself when he thinks too hard (which was downright creepy sometimes) and he kept his nose in a notebook for half the time he was seen.

It was always the same book too which made Katsuki curious, so curious in fact that he didn't even notice one of his followers calling out to him.

\

"Yo earth to Katsuki?" when the boy didn't even acknowledge his presence he followed his gaze to see Deku scribbling down in that notebook.

It's been a while since they ever talked to him, Katsuki left him alone for a few days now and despite the guy glaring holes at him, Deku was so preoccupied with whatever he was doing he didn't even flinch. Now the guy was curious about what he was doing, he looked at Katsuki still glaring at him and his lips curved in a sly smile.

It's not like Katsuki has a monopoly on the guy.

So without any preamble he went over to Deku and swiped his book mid writing "watcha got here Deku?"

Izuku shot up "give it back!"

Startled at the steel in eyes the boy relaxed once he saw the subtle shaking on the smaller boy's form "oh yeah and what are you gonna do Deku?" at the last word one of his fingers extended like a spring and poked him in the forehead so hard his head jerked back.

At that instant something happened, something unexpected, something unseen to the boy in front but visible to Katsuki. Though even he wasn't sure what was happening. Izuku slowly set his head down, a foreign pressure permeated the room, Katsuki's eyebrows shot up and the boy trembled despite himself.

When Izuku spoke a chill crept up their spin "it's mine, give it back"

The boy froze wide eyed, Izuku had his back to Katsuki so the latter couldn't see exactly what the boy saw when he looked him in the eye but it was enough for the boy to freeze. At this point any chatter going on was stopped as everyone's attention turned to the seemingly overwhelming alien presence. Before anyone could do something though, the teacher walked in creating a distraction.

During that split second distraction Izuku grabbed his book and sat down, deftly ignoring everyone's stares and whispers.

"What just happened?"

"Scary"

"Did you see his eyes?"

"I think Ryuugi almost wet himself"

"Think that was a Quirk?"

"Couldn't be, he's Deku. He doesn't have a Quirk"

"Then what was that?"

That last question was what Katsuki was wondering too. He never got a chance to confront him about it since he bolted from the room the moment the bell rang, not even listening to the teacher who was giving his last remarks for the day.

\

Izuku hurried passed his mother, muttering some greetings as he went and locked himself in his room.

'What was that?'

At that moment Izuku didn't feel completely in control of himself, it was like he was a spectator to his own action. He could see himself, how cold and malicious he was towards the other boy and more importantly how hollow he felt.

'Is this part of my Quirk?'

No, that doesn't make any sense, how would whatever that was have anything to do with absorbing solar energy?

As he asked this there was a knock on the door causing him to jolt but calmed down when his mother's concerned voice called out "Izuku are you alright?"

"…yes mom"

The doorknob jiggled "did something happen at school?"

"N-no I just…wanted to practice with my Quirk."

'…O-oh, well dinner will be ready in an hour.'

"Okay…I love you mom" he added for good measure.

"I love you too Izuku."

He heard her footsteps receding and felt horrible, he didn't like lying to her but knowing his mother she would blow everything out of proportion. Before that happens he'd at least like to see if he could maybe figure out what was going on. Izuku didn't like to brag but he was smarter than most people his age, especially when it comes to analyzing things.

He figured whatever happened to him in class had to do with his Quirk. The problem was that he had no idea how that happened which frustrated him. It was just like that incident five years ago with the light bomb. It was spontaneous and happened when he was feeling…well if Izuku was being honest he felt very angry.

Izuku spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out what happened but again his endeavors weren't rewarded. He kept thinking back to that moment when the boy called him 'useless Deku' and poked him with his Quirk. It was as if something snapped in him, that had to be it and as much as he wanted to find a way to try and control he was naturally reluctant to do it. in the end he chose to forget about it for now.

\

The final days of elementary following that incident saw the weather reported overcast skies and Katsuki's attention on Izuku again. It wasn't anything particularly new to anyone else but for Katsuki and Izuku they could tell something was different. Izuku was becoming clearly aggravated with his bullying, something that was new to them and while Izuku was trying to prevent things from escalating Katsuki took it as a sign of him finally breaking Izuku.

Not that it was easy and for the next few months he pressed on with Izuku showing more and more signs of uncharacteristic resentment. Most notable was his dark glares replacing his fearful stares, instead shaking from fear, he shook from very controlled anger and on more than one instance he looked ready to attack Katsuki.

Yet he would always reign himself in at the last minute and walk away anticlimactically. There was no doubt on anyone's mind that Izuku was like a time bomb and even with his status as 'useless Deku' there was an undercurrent of fear towards the boy when tensions became high. By the end of elementary school Katsuki was the only one who bothered to bully him and he was only made fun of in large groups.

He never paid them any mind though, he'd gotten good at ignoring his peers unless it was necessary. Soon enough Izuku became the class outcast, at least more than he was anyway, the only difference being that he was more reclusive, kept himself at the back of class on the farthest side from the window.

Everyone including the teachers were a little perturbed by his behavior if only because of the novelty of it and it only increased their worries because they couldn't pinpoint the cause. It's as if one day he was normal the next he wasn't. Not even his mother could say the change was very spontaneous and worrying.

That didn't sit right with Katsuki who overheard her conversation with his mother.

"I don't know what to do" Inko half sobbed "he doesn't talk to me anymore, I don't see him so much as smile and he spends most of his time in his room."

Mitsuki Bakugou was at a loss as to what to do "want me to talk to him?"

"No!" Katsuki didn't hate his mother but her brand of parenting left much to be desired and she isn't completely oblivious to how he acts "I'm just being a worry wart, it really isn't as bad" she sobered a little "I-I think it may have something to do with his Quirk."

Mitsuki raised an eyebrow "how so? I thought he could only absorb sunlight or something."

Inko sighed "I know but…I think there's more to it than that. I just know it."

It ticked him off just knowing that idiot was causing trouble for Inko so it would do some good to knock some sense into him, literally.

\

Izuku was having an off day, then again all his days were off and he'd long suspected why. He looked up to the sky which reflected how he felt. He knew he'd sort of relied on sunlight for years now but he'd never thought its absence would affect him this much. No even in the past on cloudy days like this he'd never felt so…lousy. There was something going on with his Quirk but why would it start now of all times? It must have really showed considering even his teachers were worrying about him.

'They never cared about me before.'

He had to shake those pessimistic thoughts from his head, he'd been having them a lot lately and it's the other reason why he acknowledged that he was acting weird. Just as he was pondering his situation, mumbling under his breath as he did so he was pulled aside, literally, and slammed into the wall.

"Oi Deku!"

No

"K-Kacchan…"

No, no, no

"What the hell are you doing?"

Izuku really didn't want to deal with this today, not now, not ever.

"Wh-what d-do you mean?" he answered distractedly while trying to find an escape route "I have to get home"

That plan ultimately failed when the ten year old grabbed him by the collar "you're not going anywhere Deku!"

Izuku trembled "…do..ll..ha…"

"What?"

The trembling increased and he lowered his head "I said don't call me that! My name's Izuku not Deku!"

There was a beat as Katsuki looked at the boy trembling like a leaf, who couldn't even make eye contact and laughed in his face. Izuku still with his head down tried to move pass him, not that he went far as Katsuki shoved him back onto the wall.

"Let's get something straight here" he raised his palm creating miniature explosions "I'm the one with the Quirk here and you're the useless Deku!"

At that moment the small lightshow afforded by his Quirk made an almost artistic contrast against Izuku's face when he gritted his teeth and glared at him, however instead of terrified, soft or even hardened green eyes Katsuki was greeted with cold, hollow and pitch black eyes that seemed to swallow the light shone on them.

Katsuki actually recoiled slightly at the sight of such intense empty eyes but that was all the smaller boy needed. He pushed him off and did something that shocked them both, he punch Katsuki across the face. Reeling more from the shock than the impact Katsuki fell on his rear, clutching his teeth.

Admittedly it was the first time Izuku had ever thrown a punch and so he miscalculated and cut his knuckles on Katsuki's teeth. He cradled his hand with a brief look of pain crossed his features, he managed to force down the tears to glare hard at the still shell shocked boy.

"My name is Midoriya Izuku, not Deku" with that proclamation he briskly walked away.

Katsuki stared at his retreating back, the actions slowly registering and as it did a snarl came across his features.

Izuku's heart raised 'I-I did it! I stood up to Kacchan'

His silent victory was short lived however when an explosion directly behind his back pushed him face first into the ground, he didn't know which one hurt more.

He turned around to see an irate Katsuki stalking towards him with continuous explosions going off in his palms.

"You bastard" he sneered "you think I'm gonna just let you get away with that!?"

Instead of answering Izuku palmed a clump of dirt and threw it in Katsuki's eyes.

"GAH! DEKU!" he wiped it away and slightly reddened eyes glared at Izuku's sprinting form "YOU'RE DEAD!" he ran after the boy tossing explosions every chance he got.

Izuku ran to the back of the school and into the school supply shed which was thankfully open. Katsuki ran in a few moments after and looked around, the relatively small storage area made smaller due to the sporting equipment stored inside.

"SHOW YOURSELF DEKU! GET OUT HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!"

In response the door behind him slammed shut causing Katsuki to spin around thinking he was locked in. To his credit Katsuki was only half right, he was locked in but standing before the locked door was a panting Izuku, his eyes still a perfect color of pitch. Katsuki's hands lit up again but before he could get a word in Izuku went over to the conveniently placed light switch.

"Lights out"

*Click*

\

No one could say for sure what happened inside the storage shed. The door was blown off its hinges, the equipments had seen better days, either completely obliterated or mangled and battle scars littered the area, a clear sign of a destructive Quirk or Quirks.

As for the boys, they were both found by the groundskeeper passed out from exhaustion and covered in wounds. It wasn't anything new to find children injured due to misuse of Quirks, though it is up to the parents and teachers to warn them against such misuse. What made this different was the extent to which they were injured.

Izuku was covered in burn marks, some doing irreparable damage to his skin, his clothes was burned and he was covered in soot. As for Bakugou his body was covered in cuts and bruises some of them leaving permanent scars on his body. Neither of them were very forthcoming about what exactly happened between them but one thing that was clear was that they had an intense dislike for each other.

The fallout of the fight resulted in a rift between their families and just like the scarring wounds on the boys' bodies the relationship between their families was irreparable. Inko being the woman she was decided not to fight Mitsuki on it and instead moved on, both figuratively and literally.

And so the fragile friendship between Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou ended.

\

A few days later Izuku was sitting in his new room with bandages over his arm, leg and chest. Despite this, he had a smile on his face, he had stood up to Kacchan, something of a lifelong goal for him and while he didn't win, he knew that Katsuki will always remember and he will never underestimate him.

Barring that there was also another development.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground his palm shone with self-composed light a moment later the light was snuffed out and nothing else happened. Looking up, his smile widened when he gazed upon his shadow writhing across the wall seemingly of its own accord.

"Awesome"

The End…?

Author's Notes: Hello all, first entry into this fandom which is kind of surprising (considering I can't remember half the characters' names) but there is always something about an underdog protagonist that always gets me. Funny thing the first idea I had off the bat was to make Izuku a katana wielding badass but Swordslinger already has that covered.

In the end though I chose to give Izuku a rare (though not OP) Quirk which I admit based off of a certain comicbook superhero (care to take a guess?) and see where it will go from there. Oh yes there is more to Izuku's Quirk than meets the eye and I'll be exploring that next chapter.

Anyway I really hope I got the characters right here, especially since Izuku's (earlier) canon attitude is my Achilles heel. Just like how Katsuki's attitude grinds my gears and his 'friendship' with Izuku pisses me off. Seriously Izuku must have some serious dependency issues if he considers that guy to be his friend.

I apologize for the constant time skips, I'm not familiar with the Japanese school systems so if the age and school don't check out, just think of the latter part as the semester before the start of middle school.

I may or may not have an idea to continue this so if you guys want a follow up chapter leave a review but I'll mostly be paying attention to the number of people interested in a sequel so follow and favorite because I know some people just don't review. And if you don't like it or have and grievances then give constructive criticism, I hate when people flame a story they don't like without a proper reason than "because…?"