MHA: Ground Zero

Katsuki closed his eyes as he waited for the signal, the moment that would define the rest of his life was coming.

He was ready.

He didn't care what these people thought about him. What they wanted from him mattered even less, the only thing that mattered is they were in his way.

They wouldn't last long.

His first memory was of death. He didn't know how, but he knew he'd died, slowly. With no one to help him. His second was opening his eyes and seeing a blonde woman with red eyes.

His mother… though it would take four years and one screaming match, turned tear session for his parents, for him to finally stop feeling like he'd stolen their son from them. She was aggressive in all things, even her kindness and love for her family. She would have done anything for her family, and even at his worst, that spark of affection in her eyes had never dimmed for him.

His father… was a gentle and caring man. Someone who would make time any day of the week for a complete stranger if they needed help, it was how he'd met his future wife back in highschool they'd told him. He'd never once raised his voice, threatened any type of punishment, and had never looked at him with anything other than gentle affection.

It had taken years of pushing himself beyond his body's limits for it to stop making him feel sick just to exist… almost ten years before he felt comfortable in 'his' skin to finally relax just a bit.

He exhaled as he tuned out the extra's jabber, they were nervous; trying to either psych themselves up or each other down, though he'd kindly thank whatever deity was out there that they all made the decision to give him a wide berth.

It was the only reason he was tolerating them so far.

His friends… were the only reason he'd gotten to this point.

Auntie had never once cared for him as anything other than a son. She'd been understanding when he'd had to cut her hugs short because they made his skin crawl with ants, and had instead taken to expressing her care through short and gentle squeezes and being near with her daughter when he couldn't take even that.

His first friend. The first person to make him feel like he wasn't just a monster. That he hadn't stolen something, someone, from. And then there was another. Two people who made the world feel okay.

It was enough.

His hands and bare feet began to steam slightly. Every pore of his body generating a microscopic amount of nitroglycerin, just waiting for ignition. All it would take now was a spark to light the world up. To detonate countless explosives all across his skin and send him on his way.

He reached inside of himself, feeling the void that represented him. The part of himself that came into existence the moment he was born. The endless void that left him floundering for anything to fill it after he'd been born.

When he came to be, there had been nothing inside; he'd been hollow and the world absolutely refused to ground him as it did for everyone else, leaving him alone to rot with no sense of direction or purpose until he'd allowed his family to truly connect with him and accept them as his parents. He'd been left drifting, weightless because of the planet's rejection. No more though. Chains now held him firmly to the earth by his arms, by his legs, and by his heart.

This world wouldn't, couldn't allow him to call it home, so he'd made his own home from its people. His two friends grounded him in a way nothing else could… but they were at a critical moment now.

They wanted to be heroes; one desired the strength to reach out and hold the world, and the other just wanted to make a difference.

He could feel them now, their chains wrapped tight around his heart to anchor him to reality; one a livewire of endless potential, and the other a deceptive and rhythmic pulsing rattling down its length.

Thanks to the void inside, he always knew where his family was, and for the most part they kept together. It's just these two who were going out into the world to start their journey to the top.

And him?

He was just here because there was no one else he'd trust to watch their backs as they turned the world upside down.

And besides… he'd made a promise to all of their parents to keep them both safe, and if he had to become a hero to do that?

Then all of these worthless filler characters would have to learn their fucking place.

And he was just the man to put them there.

"GO!"

The scream from the blonde radio host Izu and Kyo loved and hated so much forced his eyes open. The world slowed to a crawl for him as confusion began to fill the eyes and faces of the nameless crowd, his lips twisted beyond his usual apathetic line and allowed one lonely spark to breach the surface of his right palm.

After all, he'd learned the strongest infernos always began with the smallest sparks.

Now if only those fucking pests would stop looking through Izu's chain at him everything would be perfect.

XXXXXXXX

Click.

"Ah, Toshi. I was beginning to believe you'd gotten lost." A small white marsupial like creature said as it gently sipped at a teacup full of a dark red substance.

The symbol of peace was quiet as he walked in under the scrutiny of UA's faculty, he wished to get a measure of them in his true form and no one disappointed.

Concern. Acceptance. Resolve.

The same look he has seen in the mirror every morning since his master's death. It comforted him as much as looking into the beaming face of his successor.

"Apologies, my colleagues. A few accidents occurred this morning and I was forced to intervene." Understanding nods came from the teachers as they scrutinized the prospective students. He was proud to note the steadily rising number of villain and rescue points under the monitor for young Midoriya and young Kyouka in city D. The top two rankers for their area.

"Luckily, we have only just begun. How are the potentials doing, Aizawa?"

" Most of them are pathetic." His dead eyes flashed red for a moment, staring at a few particularly… nasty kids using their quirks against other contestants as well as the robots, automatically disqualifying them. No one would escape the eyes of Ectoplasm's clones situated at dozens of different monitors.

"But some of them have potential." His eyes were now fixated on a purple haired girl launching waves of sonic attacks and sweeping the mock villains away.

"Indeed there are some interesting prospects this year, wouldn't you say so my dear?" The small mammals question was meant for the apathetic woman seated within the shadows of the room. The same woman who only had eyes on city B however.

His eyes glanced over to the screen and he grimaced just a bit as he saw the contestant that caught the stoic woman's eyes.

Young Bakugo.

A rather interesting young man whose only priorities lay with the small family his successor was part of.

Young Midoriya had point blank refused to become his successor unless he told her small family the truth, along with her two friends. He didn't have the heart to tell her no when she looked up at him with the same resolved teary green eyes that had made him see her potential after watching in silence as she used nothing but her school bag and a pencil to subdue the slime villain that had managed to escape his pursuit for a small time.

Her earnest question on the value of being a hero regardless of quirks had moved him, but it had been the selfless desire for peace in her eyes that had cinched it for him.

The elder Ms. Midoriya and the Bakugo's had been rather… shocked of course. But had been understanding of the situation, or at least they had been when the young girls two friends were brought up to speed by young Midoriya. Something about a promise young Bakugo had made to the three adults? He'd never managed to get any type of confirmation on that.

But the blonde boy and punk girl had proved a godsend in pushing his successor, both girls pushing each other forward chasing after the sheer competence the young man exuded as naturally as breathing had molded them into exemplary hero potentials, all he'd truly had to do was give them a reminder of the roots of heroism through charity in the form of community work.

It had taken the three teens little less than four months to clean up the Takoba Municipal Beach Park. And it had been five months since quirk training could truly begin.

He'd had a rather interesting reaction when they finished her conditioning to receive One For All only a handful of months ago.

In hindsight, telling her to clench her butt cheeks and yell smash in her heart as she threw a first at the air was rather misleading as an instruction for using a power that can and would shatter every bone in her body if left unchecked.

The young man had pointed out several dozen different ways that what he said could go wrong, and had proceeded to verbally and mentally skin him alive in the most monotone voice the number one hero had ever heard. Only after he'd been nearly reduced to shame filled tears had he lost the explosion user's attention.

Then he'd taken over the young girls' quirk training.

It took him less than an hour for Bakugo to have Midoriya capable of using the quirk without hurting herself. It had taken the three teenagers two weeks to get her used to moving around at superspeeds. And another month to work out a fighting style that suited the ninth wielder of One For All.

He said she had a bad habit of believing every part of her body was capable of handling the same amount of power, and had been quick to point out how much stronger her legs were than her arms.

He'd said that layering a constant flow of energy over her body was a good start to gaining control over the power, but using it at different intensities on different parts of herself at the same time would push her farther and faster than anything else, if she could keep up.

She'd taken that personally.

After that was corrected, he'd turned her attention to how limiting thinking of her power as a percentage truly was. No quirk was as flat as that, some days you were capable of more than you thought possible, and then there were days when you could barely keep up. Thinking of her quirk as something as static as a number would lead to a cycle of confusion and pain as she pushed herself in all the wrong ways to keep up a steady pace.

They'd found a better analogy was that she was an empty fragile cup, and One For All was the water shee needed to keep contained inside of her skin. It had done wonders for her ability to control the amount of One For All coursing through her being.

She needed to find the absolute limit she could handle at all times and slowly push past it without destroying herself.

She'd taken to the training of what he knew was her dearest friend with all of the zeal his own teacher had taken to whipping him into shape.

The wide grin she sported after every training session made his knees knock together when no one was looking, too absorbed in remembering his own hellish training to offer much input.

When Midoriya had asked innocently what to do if she were forced to use her power at its fullest, despite the consequences, the young man had waded into the beaches shores, thrust one hand into the water, and let loose with an explosion capable of knocking back the tide.

He'd turned around under three sets of wide eyes and walked back up to them, offering her the bloody palm and shredded forearm he'd sacrificed to produce said explosion.

The two young girls and one pro hero had frozen, until he'd asked the superpowered girl if she wanted her mom or Kyouka to feel what she was feeling at the moment when she went all out.

She had managed a small no, and the boy had apparently been satisfied enough to walk his way to the hospital.

He'd offered the girl some advice on his way; 'If you can't beat your opponent without destroying yourself, then ask for help. If you can't do that then find a way to drag them down to your level. Your win condition isn't ever going to be as simple as overpowering your enemies. The world doesn't work that way. Do what you've always done and use your brain. Think your plans through before you move if you don't want to make mistakes.'

To be honest, the young man unsettled him.

Just a tiny bit.

Something about his nearly feral apathetic eyes, monotone yet rough voice, and ridiculously honed vigilance screamed familiarity and vertigo all at once.

He wished the silent woman luck if she desired to unravel the young man's intricacies.

For now, he allowed himself to relax as well as he could in his condition, and take in the hero hopefuls that he'd have the privilege of teaching alongside his successor this coming semester.