MosesArk Reborn2000
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Chapter 2: Surrender in Flames
🕑 Added 2023-10-05 18:25:34 +0000 UTCStrange, Midoriya just had the strangest dream. He dreamt of All Might a lot, but they never had him being attacked by a villain, or breaking the rules in them. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't recall when he went to bed, and would whatever tapping his face stop?
Wait? Tapping his face? Willing himself to see and hear through the haze, he managed to make out some words.
"-y, Hey, wake up, young man!" Looking up, he saw a hulk of a man, bent over slapping his face repeatedly.
Seeing that his eyes were open and had some light to them, the number one stopped. “Thank Goodness, I was getting a little worried!”
“All Might?” Midoriya asked, his mind still not fully functional as All Might stood back at his full height, towering over the boy.
Chuckling, the man held his hand up to his face, his award-winning smile out in full. "In the flesh, sorry about this. I'm normally better at keeping civilians out of harm's way but I was so confused by the city's sewage system that I lost my way for a bit." He laughed at his joke. “But I suppose that’s bound to happen when you’re in a new city.”
It was only then that Midoriya was able to fully process the fight that All Might was before him and he promptly freaked out. “All Might?!” Scrambling, he got onto his knees before the man he looked up at him with awe, before looking at himself and trying to fix himself up even though along with the burn through his jacket, he was a mess.
All Might didn't question him on why he called him out twice and merely went the flow. “In the flesh! And might I say that you did a great job with the villain, using your quirk without a license is typically a no-no, but context is key and I would say you were well within the grey zone.” He gave the boy a thumbs up, which confused Midoriya as he looked back at the man with a perplexed look.
“My quirk?” He didn’t use his-oh. He did, he remembered the feeling, the lack of air, the panic, the fear. Fall of it came down on him like a pile of bricks, if he was standing, he would have fallen to his knees as he tried to understand what he did. “No, nonononononononono, I’m not supposed to use it, I broke the rules!’ He scratched at his head, a nervous sweat breaking out on his face as he didn’t mean to use his power, he-he hurt someone with it too!
All Might, seeing that the boy was freaking out, believed that he believed he was in trouble which was strange as he just told him he was in the clear. So, he tried the other option, praise the quirk itself as that always helped calm people down. “Those flames that I saw before, and I have to say, they were mighty powerful, the villain was still warm to the touch when I captured him, behold!” He held up the two soda bottles which he had with him, no soda was in them but instead, it was the villain. The important bits that he could fit into the bottles anyway.
Pinching himself, he did his best to calm down before he said something stupid in front of his idol. But then again, he had never thought that this day would come, that he would see All Might in the flesh. “It…it wasn’t a dream, All Might…he’s really here, right in front of me…” He mumbled as he looked at him, at how even outside one of his many hero costumes, he still struck an inspiring figure. His smile, that hair of his that had become part of his brand.
‘He looks even cooler in person!’ He screamed in his head, the inner fan-boy just barely held back by his logic from making itself the outer fan-boy.
Looking around, he suddenly realized that he had to get something to remember this, something to add to his All Might collection back home. 'A-autograph, I have to get an autograph, I think my chemistry book has spa-' His hero notebook was a no-go, he had thrown that back at school-wait, school! He should have a workbook that he could use so he rushed over to his backpack and pulled out the first book he could, only to open it and discover-“He already signed it!” Across two whole pages, the number one had left his mark in a way no one could miss.
“Apologies if you didn’t want me that particular book, I looked through your stuff to find one that had space for it. but if you have an issue, I’ll happily pay for you to get another!” All Might spoke up, holding out 10,000 Yen for him just to take, as if he could take money from the symbol of peace!
Still on his knees, he bowed to the man repeatedly. “N-n-No, it’s f-Fine! I’ll cherish it forever!” It would suck to have to change to a new book, but if it meant ensuring that nothing happened to this like what had occurred to his hero notebook, he’ll keep it in a safe buried in the woods if he had to.
“Okay!” All Might gave him a thumbs up before he turned around, placing the two bottles in his pants’ larger pockets for safekeeping.
“Well then, I have to get this guy to the police so that can book him.” He turned around and started doing some leg stretches. One couldn’t mess around with it came to pulled muscles, even the Symbol of Peace had to ensure he was ready before serious actions. “I see you on the other side of the screen, young man!” Hearing this knocked Midoriya right out of fan mode, as he looked at the back of the man.
“A-already?” He couldn’t leave, this was too short.
“Pros have many things, but time is rarely one of them.” All Might replied, finishing up his stretches as he bent low, preparing to make his exit. Hearing that, Midoriya knew that he didn’t have time, time to ask what he wanted of him, to learn what he would say about him.
‘But…I have so many questions I want to ask, about my dreams, about you, about my quirk.’ He knew, looking at the man’s back that if he let it, this would be the last time that the two met in person.
“Now,” All Might started, and Midoriya did something stupid. “I’m counting on your continued support!” With that last word, the number one was off, having jumped so fast and high he might as well be flying.
Line Break
All Might had done this move many times in the past, and could practically leap over tall buildings in a single bond in his sleep. Which was why he was able to tell something was off with his balance. ‘Wait, why does my leg feel like it weighs more?’ Looking towards his left leg, he saw to his shock the young man he had just saved, clinging to him like a baby monkey would its parent.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,” Okay, this was strange and he didn’t have the time for this. “I appreciate a passionate fan, but this is too much! Let go!” He tried to unlatch the kid from him but his grip remained tight on his pants, so much so he risked tearing.
“If I let go now, I’ll die!” The lad managed to say even as his mouth flapped around in the air. Hearing this, All Might stopped, remembering that not everyone can handle falling from such heights with nothing more than a laugh.
“You’re right, alright then, hang on tight!” The boy did as he was told, burying his face into his leg as the man turned to look for someone he could land. He could just carry on to the local police station, but he could feel his limit coming, he wouldn’t be able to do that and still maintain his form. ‘Now I need to find somewhere to drop this kid off before heading to the pol-’ His thoughts were halted when he coughed up a little blood, wiping it away, he knew he had maybe 60 seconds left for the day.
“Shit.” He muttered before he managed to find somewhere to land, a small-ish building, no taller than maybe 6 floors but it'll do for what he needed. Coming as softly as he could, he still landed with a notable thump. Back on solid ground, Midoriya slowly unlatched from All Might's leg, falling to his hands and knees as he looked like he was about to throw up and pass out at the same time.
“I thought…I was gonna die…Why did I think that…a good idea?” He asked him aloud, and his answer was that he wasn't thinking. He had seen All Might about to leave, and just…acted.
All Might signed, his limit less than 20 seconds away as he turned to leave quickly. “Jeez, you shouldn’t just grab onto people like that, you could have lost your grip and fallen and seriously hurt yourself if not worse.” He scolded the lad for his recklessness before he gestured towards the door, the reason he picked this building as it meant there was a way down to street level, he didn’t wish to repeat the mistakes of his youth where he left people, he saved on roofs with no way off.
“Anyway, if you knock on the door, I’m sure that the people inside will let you down from here, but I must be off.” He walked towards the edge of the building, hearing this being enough for Izuku to collect himself enough to reach out to him.
"W-w-wait, All Might, I want to ask you a question!" He yelled at the man's retreating form.
“Sorry kid, no time!”
“But-!” He reached out again but stopped himself as he looked at his hands, untouched by scars or marks, practically flawless. But the same couldn't be said for his mother's, always wrapped up, because of him, because he couldn't control his urges and burned them. He needed to know the answer to his question before it burned him up from the inside out. “Can someone become like you even if they have a villainous quirk?” He asked the man, putting as much force into it as he could.
Hearing the question, All Might paused, if only for a second. “What-!” Unfortunately for him, that was a second too long as he felt his form relaxing as the pain made itself known. Despite his best efforts, he could feel it slipping away as steam started to flow off him “Crap-Not…now!" He muttered to himself, trying to win the losing battle as the steam grew in volume.
Midoriya didn’t notice this, as he was looking at the floor, trying to maintain his composure as he continued to explain himself. “I’ve…I’ve wanted to help people ever since I was a kid when I saw you saving so many with a big smile. To me, it was the coolest thing in the world." He smiled, thinking of those days when he would watch that clip over and over, never getting bored of it despite being able to recall it perfectly.
Oblivious to the growing steam cloud masking All Might from view, he continued. "But the thing is, I got a quirk people don't think it's really heroic but I know it is. People tell me that my desire to burn things is a villain's mindset but I believe that my quirk can help people, that my flames can heal people just like I've done with small animals that I've found that were hurt or sick, but I wanted to…ask…you…" Looking up, he found that his statement felt less important as the person he was talking to wasn’t All Might, at least, they didn’t look like All Might.
Where the symbol once stood, now stood a toothpick of a man with raggy blonde hair, a bony face and eyes saw far back in his skull that he could barely see them. Seeing this stranger, he did what he could.
And he screamed in terror.
It took him a while to collect himself, trying to figure out just what had happened. Why All Might had gotten so small, why did he look like death could take him at any moment, why did he give up steam like that? "Y-y-y-you deflated?!" He stumbled out, pointing at him as he pulled at his hair, no reason for this coming to mind.
“B-but how?! All Might was right here…so you’re All Might, u-unless, you’re a fake?” Was he saved by an imposter? Maybe, people cosplayed pros all the time, he did it more than a few times, but no-it was too good a job. The fake got everything right, from the voice, the face, the smile, the hair-even the unbelievable strength. No one could just copy that...right??
All Might, in his weakened form, saw the boy's head getting ready to explode from the shock and confusion and decided to clear up the air, or more accurately, he had to. “I am All Mig-!” His statement was cut off by his mouth leaking blood like a leaky faucet, which only made Midoriya freak out even more.
“Are you okay?!” Okay, now was this imposter sick as well? What the heck was going on? Maybe he was still out, or that villain did take his body and this was just a fever dream of a dying brain.
Wiping away the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, All Might tried to give a simple explanation. “You know those guys at the pool that suck in their guts and puff their chest to look more in shape than they are?” Midoriya, pale-faced, nodded as he followed. “It’s like that.”
“H-how does that even work?!” That didn't make sense at all, All Might didn't even have a gut to suck in! Was that what the steam was, as he was like a balloon or something?
All of this was too much as Midoriya felt weak in the knees. "B-but…It can't be….All Might is fearless…he's always smiling."
Hearing this, All Might looked at his hands with a distant look in his eye. “Fearless and always smiling…” He repeated before he sighed, taking a seat on the floor with his back to the railing of the building.
“Now that you’ve seen me like this, young man. I ask that you don’t tell anyone about it, or mention it online.” He instructed the boy first and foremost, Midoriya wondered what more he could see as the man lifted his shirt, exposing his torso which made Midoriya’s pale face go white as he felt sick to his stomach. The left side of his body was an ugly mess of pink, red and purple flesh and scar tissue. It looked as if he had been struck by an industrial drill, electrocuted and given 3rd degree burns at once.
All Might didn’t react to the boy’s horrified face; he had expected this after he saw his master and old partner’s reactions to it. “It happened five years ago, during a battle with a villain. I lost my left lung and stomach. This emaciated form is the result of the repeated surgeries needed to save my life and the after-effects of the injuries themselves.” He explained, keeping it short as while the boy deserved an explanation after seeing him like this, he didn’t need the entire thing.
“Because of that, I can only maintain my All Might for around 3 hours a day.” He finished, his eyes grime as he revealed that detail, something that if got out, would lead to criminals no doubt acting up as they’ll just wait for him to use up his time, or all commit crimes throughout the day, with the assumption that he’ll tire out before he can get to all of them.
“3 hours…no way.” But…when he thought about it, it did line up. All Might had been seen doing her work less these days, but he and everyone else just thought he was getting old and slowing down before he eventually retired. He couldn’t fathom that it was due to an injury that should have killed him. “5 years ago, was it when you fought Toxic Chainsaw?”
All Might let out an amused laugh. “Good guess, but no, that punk couldn’t scratch me.” The amusement left him as he recalled who did the deed, recalled those damned evil eyes that seemed to see people as nothing but tools to use, discard or break as he saw fit. “The fight and villain that did it was never reported, I asked them to not report it.”
He could see the question on the boy’s face, so he answered it before he could ask it. "All Might saves people with a smile after all, he can't be daunted by evil." He replied, his gaze turning to the city around them, spotting some people at street level just going about their day, without a care in the world. That was what he wanted for them, for everyone. That wouldn’t be possible if people were scared, or villains thought they could just rampage. “I smile to show the pressure of heroes, and to hide the fear in my heart.”
Hearing All Might, the symbol of Peace speak in such a manner was… eye-opening. He had always seemed greater, seemingly above humanity with how strong he was. No threat, no disaster or villain could topple him, make him lose that smile that always brought a sense of relief and calm wherever he went. But…he was human.
Looking at the wound again as All Might dropped his shirt, he wondered if maybe…he could help him. his flames, they could, he knew that they could. and how many people could say they helped All Might-
The shock
The horror
The disgust
The fear.
All the feelings people felt towards him, expressed towards him when they heard what he could do, saw what he did came roaring into his heart, shutting down any attempt to move towards the number one as he shamefully lowered his hand and held his piece. What was he thinking? Burning All Might? That was a villain’s dream!
“As for your question about your quirk,” Midoriya braced for disappointment, but All Might surprised him. “I don’t subscribe to the idea that a quirk can be inherently good or bad, heroic or villainous. It had and always will depend on how you use it.” Stunned, he looked up at him and saw despite his eyes being deep pools of black, those tiny points of blue still shined much like they would in his hero form.
“Your quirk had something to do with fire, right?” Midoriya could do nothing but nob as the man hummed in response. “Well, by that metric, Endeavour should be a villain as he has his quirk, Hellflame, right? Yet he’s the number two hero, he’s even solved more cases the me at this point.” He laughed there, as despite his best efforts, he could never get the man to like him. but he could respect his drive to succeed and how many people he’s saved doing it.
Midoriya's composure started to break. He had expected worse, he had always gotten worse, but All Might…All Might believed in him, and the man wasn’t done as he could tell this kid had issues revolving around his quirk and he wouldn’t let that stand. “Gang Orca keeps getting in the top 5 pros that look like they should be villains but I can tell you right now, he’s an honourable man and between the two of us, he’s a sucker for kids.” He pretended to whisper at him, with Midoriya laughing even as the tears started to fall from the feeling of joy in his chest.
And then, he went in for the kill, standing up and despite the fact he was much smaller than normal, he still struck a heroic stance which awed the boy as he approached him and placed a fatherly hand on his shoulder. “Young man, if you’re willing to put in the work, then yes, you can be a hero.”
Hearing those words that he sought for so long, that he wanted to hear someone tell him was too much as he broke out in tears, smiling as his heart felt lighter than it had been in years. “Thank you, thank you,” All Might just rubbed his back, letting him have his moment. Despite the fact he had used up his time for the day, it was moments like this, helping people that reminded him of why he did this, of his master’s words on what a hero was meant to be, and it was truly rewarding.
It took some time for the boy to calm down, but he did as he backed away from the pro, rubbing his face to clear away the last of the tears and snot. “Sorry for wasting your time, All Might.”
All Might waved it off. “None of that, heroes are there to help people, not just save them from some villain.” Midoriya smiled at that before he left, taking the stairs down. As he walked, he heard a blast in the distance, seeing as there was a window close by, he could see where it was coming from.
“An explosion?” That was strange, they already had the giant villain that morning, and he was attacked by the sludge villain, was there another incident already? That was more than what they expected in their relatively quiet part of Japan. He wanted to rush on over, to see what the heroes would do, but there was an issue with that. ‘Explosions…means they could be fire…but, but people could be in danger.’
He knew that his mother's rules restricted him from being anywhere close to fires but…All Might believed in him, and he was the number one. He knew he wasn't bad, and it wouldn't hurt him if he learned ways to handle fires from watching the experts in action.
For that reason, he took off as fast as he could.
Back on the roof, All Might had decided to take some time to rest before heading to the police station and got a much clearer view of the explosion and rising smoke. Knowing that he wouldn't be of much help, he had to leave it to the local heroes to handle it, right now he had-
Tapping his pockets, he didn't feel the plastic bottles. Looking down, he saw that they were gone, nowhere to be seen on the roof before a startling realization hit him. That blast, the smoke, it was in the direction that he had come from. "Don't tell me."
Line Break
At the scene, things were a complete mess. Before when the purse snatcher had grown into a giant and attacked, people still formed a crowd and didn’t fear too much for their safety as they trusted that the heroes would handle things. But now,
Most of Tatooin shopping district was absent as people ran for their lives, with continued blasts occurring randomly, shattering windows across the place while fires were spreading from the back street that the pros were trying their hardest to keep contained. It was this, along with the building smoke that lured Midoriya in, the idea of seeing a fire that big made his heart sing, beg for him to go there even just to watch, to feel their warmth, to see their light, to help people through the flames just like he always wanted.
As he got closer, his mother’s warnings, her rules which he had lived by for years slowly kept repeating in his mind, but they grew softer as the distance decreased, replaced with a simple desire to see it, to express himself as his excited heart kicked up in his chest. What he didn't know was that this body was starting to heat up again.
With the heroes, Death Arms and two others had just arrived on the scene and could immediately tell that things would be a challenge for them. “Dammit, things are gotten out of hand.” Death Arms muttered before he turned his gaze to the villain, not that his entire body seemed to be made from a sludge-like slime, but he seemed to be revolving around something, no-someone as he saw a head of blonde hair.
“He has a hostage!” The pro next to him called out to the others, as he ground his teeth and slammed his fists together before rushing the villain, moving far faster than a man his size should be able to.
Jumping into the air, he reared his fist back. “You coward!” His strength was enough to break through concrete, stone and steel in equal measure but upon impact, there wasn't a thud or even a splat, instead his first sunk into the slime of the villain's body.
He tried to pull back but found that the slime was keeping a grip on him, even when he used his other hand to try and break free. “What isthis?” He stated. “It’s body-I can’t get a grip!” The villain smiled at him with those crooked yellow teeth of his before he formed some tendrils and sent them flying towards the pro. Death Arms saw the attack coming and blocked with his free hand, but he was still dislodged from the villain and sent into a store's steel shutters, crumbling the material with his body.
“Death Arms!” The others saw this, but couldn't move to help as they noticed that the tendrils hadn't disappeared, but were coming right for them, forcing them to dodge. “Crap!”
Seeing that the heroes couldn’t approach him, much less harm him, the villain laughed. “None of you can even touch me!” He was one lucky bastard, having somehow escaped from the number one, if not for this kid kicking the bottle which got the cap loose, he'd been trapped, it was made all the better as he had a powerful quirk.
Bakugo didn’t share his joy a she continuedly to struggle against the villain, putting up a good fight even if he wasn’t making any real progress, one he was never one to just give up. "Like hell, I'm letting you rotten sewage beat me!" He fired off blasts from his hands, bigger than the ones he used before in an attempt to free himself from the villain and turn around and blow him straight to hell.
However, even with the strength of the blast which kicked up more wind and shattered whatever windows were left, when the smoke cleared, he had made no progress. The villain's smile only grew at that lack of result as this boy was different to the other one, that one felt like he was trying to climb into a steam engine boiler and would have most likely ended painfully for him, but this one? His quirk did not affect him, and he could use it to get back at that runt that nearly burned him.
“This quirk, oh yeah this one I can manage, a powerful one too!” Bakugo didn't know who he was talking about and didn't care at the moment as he was more concerned with getting out of this mess.
Seeing that his quirk was ineffective at the moment, Death Arms turned to the other pros for aid. “I little help would be nice!” His eye landed on Backdraft, but the man was too preoccupied trying to contain the fires.
“Sorry, I got my hands full with these fires!” Backdraft called back, keeping his attention on the flames lest they spread to a gas line. Where were the fire trucks? They should be here by now!
Death Arms turned to the other one, the rising star of the area but Kamui Woods was also occupied as he used his quirk to grab as many people as he could and get them out of the fire’s way. “I’m not good with explosions!” Fire, he could handle, he trained for situations involving it, but explosions? His wood wasn't good for that and no one wanted hundreds if not thousands of wooden shrapnel flying around.
Feeling the ground thud, Midoriya arrived on the scene at the same time as another mountain of a hero. “It’s the rookie hero, Mt. Lady!” One of the people in the crowd called out as Mt. Lady jogged up to the scene, but the woman's face dropped when she saw the scene, more accurately, the size of the area.
“Wait, I need at least two lanes to move, this place is too small!” She could barely fit a foot into the place. If the villain was by themselves, maybe she could just step on them, but with a hostage involved, she was very limited in her options.
"Dammit, we just have to wait till someone with a more suitable quirk gets here." Death Arms hated it, but that was the best he could think of at the moment. Midoriya wondered about that, as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd, with some moving away from him, telling him he was hot to the touch. His heat made it easy for him to get to the front as people started to move away from him, allowing him to see what the villain looked like and gasped from recognition.
“Is that…” He asked himself. ‘Wait, if he’s here that means…he got away from All Might!’ He was there, he saw it happen.
‘But that’s impossible, he was out, I saw him, he-’ There was no way that All Might would have lost hold of him, he never would but then he remembered where he placed the villain, and how he grabbed onto him. doing the math in his head, the underpass was in this general direction, relative to the building where All Might intended to drop him. ‘I did this…this is my fault.’ He escaped All Might because he accidentally freed him from the man’s pants, and kept him too distracted to notice till his time had run out.
He did this…the villain was out because of him.
How could he call himself good when he aided in this?
As the guilt chewed away at him, his eyes went to the flames, focusing on them above all else. His mind went into a daze. He could hear them talking about a hostage, and he could even see a head sticking out of the slime, but all of it was second priority to the flames, to the smoke, and the smell of so many things burning. All of it was so…enticing, inviting as he could almost hear the flames calling to him, to approach them, to embrace them, to love them as they do him.
He didn’t know it, but his already warm body only got hotter as his quirk, for the 3rd time that day acted out, as his control over it slipped looser by the second, but…he didn’t want to regain that control. Would it be so bad if he just expressed himself, all of himself, just once? Why did he have to hold back where others didn’t? Steam started seeping out of his nostrils and mouth again, building in volume and heat.
Another blast knocked him out of this daze, shaking his head and clearing his vision, Midoriya was now visibly sweating and short of breath as regained himself. Shaking his head further, he tried to keep a lid on it, on those villainous urges. He wouldn’t let them win, not now when this situation was all his fault. With this turmoil of the soul, he could hear it, all of it. all the times he was denounced, all the times he was mocked came screaming back into his head.
Villian
The problem child
Freak
Pyromaniac
Deku
It felt like his head was going to explode, his body was only getting hotter as people in the crowd started to notice him and started moving away, pointing and calling out, but he didn't hear any of it as the steam leaving his body only increase, escaping into the air as little embers of ash and smoke filtered through as he could feel inside burning up. Trying to regain control, he looked through the fire and smoke, he saw the face of the hostage.
He saw Bakugo and, at that moment, he was terrified.
At that moment, all of it fell away. The heroes, the noise, the crowd, even the very earth and sky. None of it mattered as he looked into those eyes. The eyes of a person who had done nothing but torment him belittled him and told him to jump off a roof not even 2 hours prior. Those same eyes that normally would hate and mock him, were now scared, pleading for help. From the corner of his mind that he did his best to ignore, to shut away, he heard a simple message.
Surrender to the Flames
And he did.
With no plan or hesitation, he broke from the crowd, everything falling back into place as his 5 senses came alive, allowing him to hear Death Arms yelling for him to stop, but he didn't. He couldn't, not when Bakugo needed help and he could offer it. As his feet carried him closer to the villain, his body was burning up as steam was replaced with smoke and his eyes, even while they started sizzling and catching fire, were flickering between their normal green hue and a glowing bright emerald.
Seeing him approaching, the villain instantly recognised him. “You again? Not this time, brat!” The villain used its control over Bakugo to aim his hand towards the boy, an explosion primed and ready which the heroes saw.
“Kid!” Mt. Lady called out to him right as the villain brought its hand down on the boy, an explosion kicking up dust. There was silence for a moment, as the people present along with the heroes thought that just witnessed a murder, but that moment passed as there was another explosion, this one coming from where the boy had just been, where the villain’s extended hand was. An explosion of green flames and smoke.
The blast was stronger than anything that had happened till then, hotter as well as the villain screamed out so loud that some present had to cover their ears. The reasons for this were made clear as the villain quickly pulled back his arm, or what was left of it as the entire hand-like potion was gone, burned to nothing as even the very stump, in its sludge form was still burning as green flames licked at it. “It burns! Sweet heavens, it burns!” He screamed out, feeling more pain than he had ever had while Bakugo looked on, wide-eyed that Deku managed that. 'He burned through my tendril-how?!'
In the smoke, they could make out a figure, but it didn't appear to be the boy from before, as even with the dust and smoke blocking him from view, they could see a faint outline, it was as if he was on fire. As the scene cleared, revealing Midoriya to all, the civilians, the heroes, and even Bakugo could have only described what they saw with two things. The first would be awe, but the second emotion that came after that would be fear.
Standing completely unharmed by the villain’s attempt on his life, Midoriya’s entire body had gone through a radical transformation from flesh and blood to a being of rock, magma and fire. His skin had vanished, burned away and in its place, were purple stone-like scales, with the spaces in between glowing with green flowing magma-like blood, causing his body to be so hot that they could feel it even from a distance. His fingers had lengthened, gaining stone line claws with the tips also glowing from the extreme heat.
His head was covered by a flaming cobra-like hood which formed from his back and shoulders, atop of it were two green and white spots that resembled eyes so much that one could get lost in them, especially with his head angled just even a little down made it impossible to see his true eyes. When he raised his head to the villain, he felt his heart freeze from the fear as the boy's face was gone, much like his body, it had burned away, and in its place was a stone-like mask designed to resemble the face of a snake, green flames leaking out of the line that was meant to be his mouth as well as the two holes that forms his 'eyes'. That line opened, revealing that the green stone that made up his mask was segmented.
Around him, the flames that had been burning through the market flowed, as if bits of metal to a magnet, the fires that had been keeping the heroes so busy flowed and jumped right for Midoriya, the boy unhinging his jaw to accommodate the large volume of flames rushing into his body before with a heavy thud, his jaws sealed shut, leaving not even a spark of the flames behind.
“I’ll save you, Kacchan.” When he spoke, his voice took on a mix between a roaring fire and serpent-like tone, smoke exiting with smoke as he hissed out his 's' sounds. The villain didn't even have time to respond as Midoriya rushed him, far faster than before. He wasn't able to try and attack him as the boy closed the distance between them, but he didn't attack him, but instead reached a hand towards Bakugo, grabbing him by the arm, and ignoring him yelling in pain from the burning grip he had on him, he pulled.
With that simple action, he freed the boy and threw him back towards the heroes in the same motion, Death Arms being quick enough to catch him before doing a quick inspection of him, seeing that where the walking inferno had touched him, he had burned through his school's jacket as well as the skin, leaving a nasty burn as the Bakugo flinched from the pain of it, but also from the confused fer of what Deku had become.
With the hostage free and out of the way, the villain prepared for a follow-up attack, but Midoriya didn't do that. "You...you need to improve; you need to be made better and that can only be done through the flames.” Seemingly at his command, the fires around them, that had long died out came roaring back to life, greater and hotter than ever. The pros were forced back even further, having tried to get closer now that things had calmed, with the crowd crying out in shock and fear as the heat from before had intensified.
Around Midoriya, his newly conjured flames took on a green tint, the same as his own. Seeing that he had no chance against this monster, the villain tried to flee but turning around, he found his exit cut off by a curtain of fire. If it was normal stuff, he would take his chances and just rush on through it, but these flames could burn him in seconds. Turning back to the monster, he could only beg as he saw him approaching him, each step heating the pavement in those few seconds of contact.
“Pl-Please, mercy, don’t hurt me!” Midoriya didn’t stop his approach, but his face mask did shift as his mouth opened just a little in mockery of what his smile would look like. Spewing out small puffs of flames and smoke with every word, he replied.
"I don't wish to hurt you; I wish to help you. You have nothing to fear from the flames. The fire can guide you in the dark, warm in the cold, make you better than you yesterday," Again, no one present could tell what Midoriya was talking about, or why he chose now of all times to say what he did, but the heroes could tell something was off, but acted too late.
"All one needs is to embrace it." Without warning or hesitation, Midoriya's jaw shot open and from it, came out a torrent of swirling green flames that engulfed the villain whole, causing him to scream in pain as it felt like every part of his being was being cooked alive before it become too much and he lost consciousness, falling to the ground with a splat as he’s still steaming slime body lost all cohesion or sense of control. Midoriya was confused by that, wondering why the villain screamed like he was dying, it was only some fire, nothing to write home about.
Before he could understand that, his back was hit with a double burst of water from Backdraft, dousing him if only a little and filling the space with heated steam as Midoriya cried out in pain and confusion. Why were the heroes attacking him, why were they trying to douse him? Turning to the heroes while increasing the heat of his flames, he saw Death Arms, nearly on top of him with his fist reared back.
He was too slow and disorientated to react to the punch that hit him right in the face, severely cracking his face mask and spilling superheated magma-like blood on the floor, where it sizzled like water dropped onto a hot stove. "Why are you attacking me?"
Death Arms couldn't believe this kid, after what he did, he had the gall to ask such a question, but if he wanted an answer, he'd get one. "You can't be serious! You just killed a man!"
Cocking his head to the side, Midoriya wondered just what the man was talking about. “Killed-no I helped!” He gave another smile, not noticing how unnerving it was while Death Arms saw how the damage, he managed to land at the price of burning his fist was healing, the stone shifting back into place and sealing up as if his attack never happened. “Right?” Midoriya looked at the crowd, and what he saw wasn't hope or relief, it was fear.
The exact opposite of what All Might brought. Seeing this, messed with his head, made him question himself and his actions as his flames burned bright. “Nonononono! I’m good. I know I am! My fire helps people, I helped people!” He started rambling, but it was loud enough that the others could hear.
"You're insane, kid. You didn't help that kid or the villain." Death Arms pointed back towards Bakugo, who was being seen two by two heroes, and then back to the villain, still out and unresponsive on the floor a ways away from the two. Seeing this, seeing the burn on Bakugo's arm caused even greater confusion and imbalance in him.
Gripping his head, his stone-like claws dug into his skull, causing more of his magma blood to pour from the wounds as his mind started unravelling as what he thought and what he saw was contradicting what he wanted to do. “No,no,no,nonononono! I’m not a villain, I’m not! I help people, I do! Like All Might, he brings smiles, I bring smiles, that I want, that's why I act!" His apparent mental breakdown terrified those who saw it, more so as his flames seemed to increase in power with his emotions and insanity. Hissing out, his body heated up even further than it was already, the magma flowing between the many scales that covered his body glowing brighter, the stones themselves taking on a glow as they absorbed more of his ambient heat.
“I’m good, and I’ll prove it!” Around him, flames shot out from his body, growing to encompass most of the space as people started to run away from him, his eyes burning emerald looked at them, at all of them as his flames consumed everything they touched, turning the pavement below him to melted slag as the pros had to retreat even further with Back Daft putting his all into combating the flames, but his water evaporated long before it could even touch the boy.
Through the crowd, he saw it. All Might was there, in his weakened form, watching him, holding his injured side.
And he was appalled.
Seeing his idol look at him like that broke something in him, and with it, his flames died out as quickly as they emerged as he fell to his knees. "I'm not good…I was never good." He whispered, speaking as if it was a truth of life, a bitter pill as he felt like crying as he accepted that fact.
Looking at his hands, he couldn't stop shaking as his emotions got the best of him. "What have I become; I broke the rules…I…I." Why did he come, why couldn't he just listen to his mother, to his teachers, to everyone who knew him? He couldn't be a hero, he wasn't made for it, how could he when his mere presence could scare even the number one?
Losing all sense of composure, he started crying but with no tears as his body continued to lose strength as he cried for forgiveness.
Line Break
All Might had been involved in hundreds if not thousands of incidents, and he could say that none of them were anything close to this.
He had arrived just as Midoriya had shifted forms, and had seen him save the boy, but then he saw him try and kill the villain. He very well has might as no one could check on him. All while speaking as if fire was nothing more than air, or as beneficial as a trip to the doctor. He seemed confused, as if he couldn't understand why what he had done was wrong, and in that moment, he thought back to the roof, when the boy had explained his dilemma.
For the first time, he wondered if he was wrong, and some quirks seemed to destined one to horrible fates as he understood that whatever this boy's quirk was, it messed with how he saw the world to the extent that fire and burning weren't bad things but rather were beneficial. And when he was confronted with that error, he started to spiral and in doing so, become an even greater issue than the villain could ever hope to be.
When he created that massive pillar of fire, he had been stunned, having not felt flames so strong, even when he would on rare occasions, work with Endeavour. He had been about to step in, to end this even if it meant pushing his limit but then the boy and him locked eyes…and something died in those burning emeralds.
As if by snap of the fingers, the boy fell apart, his attack, his fire-all of it vanished as he was reduced to what he was now. Not a monster that needed to be defeated, not a villain that needed to be jailed, not a threat that needed to be worried about.
But a boy in need.
Taking a breath, he willed himself past his limits, changed back into his hero form and approached the boy. He ignored how the crowd that remained turned and awed at him, or even as the other heroes moved aside for him, keeping his focus on the boy who was at his lowest. "My boy."
He couldn’t have known that he had just the wrong thing.
Line Break
“My Boy.” Midoriya felt his soul turn to ice at that, he knew he scared All Might, he didn’t need to tell him, he didn’t want to hear it anymore then he was already hearing that and so much banging around in his head. His mother, his father, his teachers, his old friends, they were all in his head already. Looking up, he didn’t see All Might or the other heroes. He just saw shadows, shadows that meant him harm. He didn’t want to get hurt, but he didn’t want to hurt them.
So he chose option 3 and screamed, what came out of his jaws wasn't a human scream, it wasn't even an animalistic one, what he screeched was closer to the sound of rock being superheated to the point of evaporating near instantly, the sound that would be heard at ground zero of an atomic blast. With that roar, fire comes flooding out of him like a broken dam. The hero heroes held their ears, one falling to their knees from the pain of that horrific sound while All Might ground his teeth and took it, seeing the flames and decided he needed to deal with that as he wound up for another punch.
“Texas Smash!" Just like before, when he defeated the slime villain, the air pressure generated by the attack blew away the flames, leaving the place a burnt and melted mess, including a massive hole in the pavement, having been melting through to the sewers, which was now puffing out steam from the water being heated to boiling. Seeing that, he realized what had just happened.
Midoriya had fled.
Line Break
Hot damn, that was much longer than I wanted it to be, but I just couldn’t find somewhere to cut things that wouldn’t have come off as strange as I wanted this chapter to end like this, in a sort of bad reflection to the real episode 2 where All Might saw him, realized he was just what he was looking for, and also encouraged the boy to follow his dreams. Here, well things went to shit for several reasons.
As the chapter and the previous one make clear, Midoriya like Toga, has a warped sense of mind due to their quirk, but it didn't make him a villain, he was just told horrible advice and surrounded by morons who fed into that bad narrative, so he held himself back and never truly expressed himself till now Toga, he snapped. However, the difference between the two is that we don't know what Toga wanted to do because she up and cut the boy up, Midoriya has retained his desire to be a hero, which makes his situation worse as his desires conflicts with what he was told were villainous urges which just made things worse.
Again, the Midoriya we have in the canon is someone with extremely poor self-esteem and no sense of self-worth, which he still had in season 6 when he saw himself as nothing more than the vessel for OFA and disregarded his health and well-being as in his mind, it didn't matter. Here, that insecurity and lack of self-worth mixed with a fear of being a villain which is why seeing All Might give him that look broke him, as it took what was already built up by years of bullying, terrible teachers, guilt and just advice from Inko and capped it off.
