Chapter Text
“General Education? Are you sure?”
The first weeks after returning to the Midoriya household were both a challenge and awkward as f*ck, especially for Kenshi. The first week started with self isolation, then it (luckily) evolved into spending a small time in the same room, even if in silence. It took him over a month to be able to freely speak to them. His family (thank god he can say that without feeling guilty now) has been more than understandable and patient with him, and he’s thankful for that.
He was out with Izuku buying the groceries that day. One problem with his not-so-human body is that his metabolism is f*cked up, needing to eat a lot to use his powers. Almost 3 times what a normal person will eat, 5-6 times if he overused them but he hasn’t actively been using them since he returned. The money wasn’t a problem, at least for him, he has a good economical record and a good 401k.
(“Where did you get that money?” “Dont worry about it.”)
Izuku had just told him about his plans to enter UA’s… general education department. With how much of a golden heart Izuku’s is, Kenshi thought that he would join the hero course even without having a quirk, he was him after all, and they never give up that easily.
Stubborn as f*ck Church had said once.
“Yeah, it’s a more reasonable option than trying the hero course. Even if I try, there’s no way I could ever be a hero.” Izuku said, and Kenshi’s weathered big brother’s senses were detecting the last thing he wanted to see on his brother.
An unhealthy mix of self-loathing and self deprecation.
He wouldn’t allow his brother to go down that road. Not on his watch.
“Well, I think you could be a hero. A really good one.” Kenshi said honestly. He may not like heroes a lot like he did in his past but he still believes that Izu could be a decent one.
A small spark could be seen in his eyes, but the boy quickly turned it off. “You’re just saying that because you’re my brother.” He said with a shake on his head.
“I’m not, I’m serious. Look, I know that I’ve been absent the past 8 years, but I know what you’re capable of. If anyone could be the first quirkless hero, that would be you.”
The green boy just shook his head harder. “Look, just forget it, ok? Let’s go home.” He says as he walks a bit faster and ignores the hurt expression on his brother’s face.
Kenshi sighted, he knows he f*cked up not being there for Izuku all this years. Without anyone to give him positive reinforcement, it let his insecurities bet the better of him. Even though he doesn’t blame him for his father’s death and he understood why he ran away, he was still angry and hurt because of Kenshi abandoning him.
“Hey, don’t blame yourself for that.” Theta, the Trust AI, said as he appeared on his shoulder. “It will be a long way to win his trust again, but you gotta be positive about it. He doesn’t hate you, he’s just angry and hurt. Being there for him will help him to understand that he isn’t alone.”
Anatawa Hitorijanai. “Yeah, you’re right, thanks Theta.” He remembers the lesson he obtained from his friends a few months ago. Picking up the pace he caught up to Izuku, whose mood got a bit better. Kenshi manages to distract him by talking about a hero battle that happened a while back.
If Kenshi could count on something to make his baby brother happy, it was about heroes and quirks.
——
“…So, you were kidnapped.” Hound Dog said after a moment of shocked silence. His newest patient’s revelation was something different from other students and heroes who needed help to understand the events they had lived through. “Who kidnapped you? A villain?”
“Worse, interdimensional pirates.” Kenshi said with a humorless laugh.
“Interdimensional… pirates…” said the pro hero with disbelief.
“Yeah, they wanted my powers apparently,” Said the young adult with a scoff. “In order for you to understand this, I need to explain what Entharium is, along with the fact that I can create it.
“Entharium is a type of energy used to fuel interdimensional dispositives, like portals. You could use another type of fuel but it will be inefficient. Many things could go wrong. So Entharium is your best bet. You could buy it like it’s gasoline, but it’s not easy to extract it, principally pure Entharium.”
“Pure Entharium? I presume that’s like petrol?”
“Exactly. Pure Entharium is too dangerous to be used by itself, it has to be refined first if you don’t want to blow up. Selling pure Entharium can make you really rich.”
“So, these pirates discovered that I could generate pure Entharium… And well, they only saw me as a cash grab.
“But they knew that I wouldn’t comply. So they attacked my weakest point, my sympathy… And why not by using another me?”
——
“… mom? What is this?” Said Izuku looking at the envelope on the table. It was a letter from UA, sent two months before the entrance exam. The mere existence of said letter sent his anxiety spiraling downwards, why would they send this? Did they change their minds about letting quirkless people apply for the exam?! Of course, the quirkless inclusive was more of a PR initiative! Where will he go? What will he do?
“Izuku, are you ok?! What happened sweetie?” Asked the overwhelmed mother.
“Izu, breathe with me. Panicking will not help anyone.” Said Kenshi, trying to calm him down.
“Is he dying? Should we call an ambulance or the morgue?” Joked Church, a small holograph appearing nearby
“Church! You’re not helping.”
The small banter between Kenshi and the AI helped to pull Izuku out of his anxiety spiral… for now.
“I-I don’t know. I haven’t opened it yet,” he said, almost on the brink of tears. Inko gives him a small, reassuring smile and hugs him while Kenshi opens the envelope. Inko feels bad for giving his son an anxiety disorder instead of a quirk, but with the help of Kenshi and Delta (green AI representing the logic) she can help him to get his anxiety down.
A small frown and confused face appears on his face the more he reads the letter. “…I may be hallucinating again, but could you read this?” He says as he gives Inko the letter.
“…Izuku, they’re calling you to take the recommendation exam.”
“…what?” Said the greenet in disbelief.
“Congrats?” Say the brother while Theta created digital confetti with a party noise.
“But, guys. The recommendation exam is for the Hero course. And someone has to recommend you. But who-“ the green bean pauses as he processes new information and mutters. “Wait, that can’t be right… but then why… they wouldn’t…” after a small moment of silence he excuses himself and goes to his room.
The mother looks worriedly at the letter. This… A single piece of paper could put his baby in danger again? Should she…
“…I think we should convince Izuku to look for another school,” Inko said, her thoughts clouded with worry.
“What? Why do you think that?” Says Kenshi. He tried not to show the slow, boiling anger that was rising. He hoped that he heard wrong or that Inko would back up on her words. But he knows better than to raise his expectations.
“I mean that it would be too dangerous for him. He couldn’t be a hero, you know that.”
“No, what I know is that Izuku could- would be a great hero if people could give him the chance. Something that not even his own mother did.” At this point Ken let his anger and disbelief show to the woman. A small growl could be heard… if that growl was the combination of one of a territorial wolf combined with a concrete drill and the rumble of moving rocks.
“OH MY GOD!” A scream could be heard from the 14 year old’s room, drawing the attention of the two adults.
“I’ll see what that was, you make sure the rice doesn’t burn.. But this conversation is not over,” Kenshi said as he went to his brother’s room.
Upon entering, he could see his brother panicking, keysmashing his laptop’s keyboard, a chatroom open with the other heroes. “Izu, are you ok?!”
“Y-yeah, yeah… It’s just… All the heroes of the meeting recommended me, of all people. W-why? I-I…” Oh god, his brother was really spiraling.
Cutting off the distance, Kenshi grabs his shoulders and sits him on the floor. “Izuku, breathe with me.” He says with a calming voice. He then levels a hand and points five fingers. “In…” Then he slowly lowers each finger. “...and out.” Then levels them back again. A breathing technique he learnt. He repeated the technique five more times until his brother was calm enough to talk.
“Look, I don’t know what happened these past years or what people told you… But you can be a hero. Don’t!“ He stopped, pointing a finger the second his brother was about to argue. “Let me finish. Izuku, you’re a more capable person than you think you are and I fully believe that you can be a hero. Hell, you’ve impressed at least, like, 14 heroes enough for them to vouch for you? That’s something that no one has ever done before.”
“B-but, didn’t you mention that you hate heroes?” Says Izuku with tears in his eyes. That was the moment when Kenshi realized why Izuku hadn’t listened to him that morning: he was afraid of being rejected. Hugging him in a hard embrace, he apologies for the misunderstanding.
“I’m sorry that you thought that, but I don’t hate heroes. I hate how society treats them, how they’re forced to strip down all individuality in order for ‘the greater good’. But I know you will never do that. Hell, even if I hated heroes, I’ll never hate you. That idea is too horrifying to even consider. I love you bro, and if you want to be a hero, I’ll be there at your side.”
Izuku felt a weight being lifted from his shoulders, a relief that his brother will not leave him again. Cleaning the tears from his face, he remembered that he was in a chat with his friends. People who he had left right out of the blue with nothing but a keysmashing. People who probably didn’t know what a keysmashing is.
After an apology, a ‘please do not come to my house, I’m fine’ was left to his friends. Sharing the news, the family ate dinner together, Inko smothering Izuku in hugs. The tension in the atmosphere was, however, far from gone. Once everyone was done eating and Izuku went to bed, the adults of the house sat down by the table across from each other, Inko drinking tea and Kenshi crossing his arms.
“Explain to me, why don’t you want Izuku to attend the hero course?” Asked Kenshi with a serious look on his face. Inko didn’t quite meet his gaze, nervously playing with her hands.
“Because it’s a dangerous job. He doesn't have a quirk and… I’m worried about his safety.” Answered the woman after a moment’s hesitation. Kenshi just sighted.
“And what about his happiness? What about what he wants?” Inko seems confused by this, so Kenshi continues.
“Shouldn’t a mother care about her child’s happiness and about what they want to accomplish? Support them no matter what? Even if it’s scary?”
With a disappointed sigh, he stands up and leaves for his room.
“I know this is hard for you, but if you’re worried about him getting hurt, that won’t happen. I’ll make sure of that.”
——
So, it turns out that Kenshi wasn’t the only one who wanted to train Izuku. They were in a private gym, meeting with four heroes: Eraserhead, Ms. Joke, Sir Nighteye and Rogue. Apparently, they all wanted to help Izuku get into the hero course, just like Kenshi did.
“Alright kid, you’ve got a month until the recommendation exam. If any of the participants don’t manage to get in, they also have another month to prepare for the standard exam. Your best bet, however, will be the recommendation one since it focuses more on agility than it does on strength, so we have to focus more on that. We’ll have time to work on your strength later once you get in,” Eraserhead said with his usual frown.
“You’ll be working on different things with each of us: fighting and stealth with Eraser, parkour and agility with Joke, strategy with Nighteye and weapons and gadgets with me. We also would have more time to train most of the details when you get in thanks to internships, so we’ll focus on the basics for the moment,” said Rogue.
Finding information on this hero had been a bit harder than he had initially thought, since the man rarely revealed his face to anyone. Kenshi could respect the use of a secret identity; having your face on a poster is like asking to get your family killed, which is why he prefers underground heroes over daylight ones.
“Weapons?” Asked Izuku. Now, anyone that has ever met Izuku Midoriya would, at first, describe him as your classic, pure-hearted green bean that you would kill everyone in a room and then yourself for if something were to happen to him. They would also think that he might be against using weapons or hesitant at first, thinking that he wouldn’t want to hurt anyone.
But, they only met the surface of Izuku. Remember that he’s both a younger brother to and raised by Kenshi. So in other words…
“Can I get a sword?” Said a bit enthusiastic, giving whiplash to the heroes.
…A little sh*t.
“...we’ll see about that later,” Rogue replied. Chuckles could be heard from the Midoriya twins.
And so the next month went flying. Izuku took everything he was taught as if he was a sponge. Sometimes they couldn’t teach him due to their obligations as heroes, but luckily his brother could fill the gaps. True to his word, Kenshi was there for him all this time, teaching him and motivating him.
Due to his enhanced agility and speed (Kenshi was still mad for disobeying him and subject himself to small body augmentations when they were on the run. People sometimes confused his abilities with a minor speed quirk, but they usually dismissed it because he’d always been known as the quirkless Deku), he took his lessons on parkour like a fish in water.
When the day of the exam arrived, he couldn’t have been both more excited and more terrified.
——
“When I woke up, it was to the worst headache of my life. And a strange feeling in my neck,” Related Kenshi to the therapist, “It turned out it was a chip.”
“A chip?” Asked the hero.
Kenshi turned his back towards the other man and lifted his hair from his neck, revealing something there. On his neck there was some kind of implant, it was small with a blinking white light.
“This…” pointed Kenshi to the chip, “… is a neurological implant, also known as an AI implant. It allows an AI to have a better connection with the user, so it’s connected directly towards the brain. Mine has a connection to a point where all the nerves of my body can be located at the same time, allowing Church to have complete control over my body. The downside is that it’s dangerous, letting the AI a complete open door towards the user’s brain, it could lead to the AI to mess with one’s memories and brain activity, with the danger of damaging it,” the young adult explained somberly, now sitting in a way where he could get a proper look at the older adult. “The implant actually becomes my Achilles heel, one wrong hit or even touching it and it can do literally anything to me, from deactivating my taste to even making me a vegetable.”
“Then why not try taking it off?” The therapist offered. “If there was technology to put that on you there must be some to take it off.”
“Yeah, but I actually need it. Because my main power, Breach, is unstable and Church manages to stabilize it so that it doesn’t destroy everything.”
“But back on track. Because of what my powers can do, they kidnapped me to exploit the Entharium I could produce. They also kidnapped Church from another universe because surprisingly, he’s one of the most advanced AIs from there.”
“And how does young Midoriya play into all of this?” Wondered Hound Dog.
“As I said before, my sympathy is my weakest point, so they kidnapped Izuku to use him as leverage so that I’d do what they told me to do. Church also didn’t want to obey, but they used some kind of program to make him more obedient, so he couldn’t do anything either.
“Izuku didn’t have an implant, instead they used an electric collar on him. The first time they turned on the collar and shocked him, it was at a high voltage, so it would cost him a lot of pain just so they could prove a point. They didn’t shock me, or at least not a lot. I was more valuable to them than Izuku was, ” He clasped his hands at the memory, “I begged them to stop, that I would obey and they would turn it off. They had such a stupid, smug smile… There was no remorse on their actions whatsoever, they were just happy to have total control over us. Any time they used the shock collar on him afterwards, it was set to a lower voltage, not causing as much pain as the first time, but that was enough to make me compliant.” He took a breath to calm down, trying not to let Omega, the Rage, come to the surface.
“Izuku doesn’t remember much of it. The scars and marks on his neck all healed a long time ago but his brain has blocked most of the bad memories. Please, don’t bring it up with him around, I know it’s not good to have those memories blocked from you but I prefer him to be able to be a happy child rather than a haunted one,” He pleaded, to which the older man just let out a sigh.
“…we’ll see about that. What else could you tell me?” The hero wanted to stop, this was a lot to process. Cases similar to this were extremely rare thanks to All Might’s influence on the world, but he had a feeling that Kenshi wouldn’t be able to open up much more than this in the future, so it was better to rip off the bandaid right now.
After all, he needs help. And what kind of hero would he be if he didn’t help those in need?
