What if deku had a monstrous nightmare mutation quirk

 

The playground was supposed to be a place of sunlight and laughter.

 

To a four-year-old Izuku Midoriya, the world was a simple, vibrant tapestry woven with the heroic deeds of All Might and the exciting, albeit loud, explosions of his best friend, Katsuki Bakugo. They were at the age where quirks were beginning to blossom like spring flowers. Some kids could pull their eyes out of their sockets; others could breathe small puffs of fire or manipulate the sand in the sandbox. Katsuki, of course, had the most amazing quirk of all.

 

"Look at this!" Katsuki cheered, his small palms crackling with bright, popping sparks that smelled faintly of burnt sugar and ozone. "I’m gonna be the number one hero, even better than All Might! And you guys are gonna be my sidekicks!"

 

Izuku watched with wide, starry eyes. "Wow, Kacchan! That’s so cool!"

 

But as Izuku clapped his hands, a strange sensation twisted deep in his gut. It wasn’t the familiar butterfly-flutter of excitement. It was a cold, sinking heaviness, like swallowing a stone that was slowly turning to ice in his belly.

 

He stopped clapping. The bright afternoon sun suddenly felt painfully harsh against his skin. He rubbed his arms, shivering despite the mid-July heat.

 

"Hey, Deku, what’s wrong with you?" Katsuki asked, the sparks dying down as he tilted his head. "You look weird."

 

"I... my tummy hurts, Kacchan," Izuku mumbled. His voice sounded wrong. It was deeper, rougher, like two stones grinding together.

 

Then, the shadows in the sandbox began to stretch.

 

It wasn't a trick of the light. The shadows cast by the slide, the swings, and the children themselves seemed to elongtate, creeping across the sand like spilled ink, all converging toward the small boy in the center.

 

Izuku fell to his knees, clutching his stomach. A terrifying, wet tearing sound echoed from his back, tearing through his favorite All Might t-shirt.

 

"Izuku?" one of the other boys asked, taking a step back.

 

"It hurts..." Izuku gasped. He looked up, seeking help, seeking comfort.

 

But when he raised his head, the children screamed.

 

Katsuki Bakugo, the fearless boy who boasted he would conquer the world, froze. His crimson eyes widened to the size of saucers, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. For the first time in his short life, Katsuki felt a primal, suffocating terror. It felt as though a giant, invisible hand had wrapped around his throat, squeezing the breath from his lungs.

 

Izuku’s soft, freckled face was warping. His skin was darkening, shifting into a hardened, charcoal-gray texture. His jaw cracked, unhinging with a sickening pop as it widened far past human proportions, revealing rows of jagged, shark-like teeth. But the most terrifying part was his eyes. The whites of his eyes had turned pitch black, and his irises glowed with a sickly, luminescent emerald light.

 

From his back, thick, jagged tendrils of pure, solidified shadow erupted, thrashing wildly in the air.

 

A heavy, oppressive aura slammed into the playground. It wasn't just a physical transformation; it was a psychological weapon. A passive emission of pure, unadulterated dread. The air grew freezing cold. The ambient sounds of the city seemed to muffle, replaced by a low, rhythmic thrumming that sounded like a monstrous heartbeat.

 

Izuku didn't understand. He felt bigger, stronger, but his insides felt scrambled. He reached a hand out toward his best friend. His hand was no longer small and pudgy; it was an elongated, shadowy claw.

 

"Kacchan... help me..." Izuku whimpered. But through his new, mutated vocal cords, the plea sounded like a guttural, demonic growl, layered with overlapping, echoing voices.

 

Katsuki stumbled backward, tripping over the edge of the sandbox and landing hard on his rear. Tears, unbidden and shameful, sprang to his eyes. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. His explosive quirk, usually so eager to ignite, was dead quiet, suppressed by sheer instinctual panic.

 

The other children were already fleeing, screaming at the top of their lungs, crying for their mothers.

 

Izuku looked around in utter confusion. Why were they running? Why was Kacchan crying? He stepped forward, but his new, heavy legs felt awkward. He tripped, crashing into the sand with a heavy thud that shook the ground.

 

"Izuku!"

 

A woman’s voice pierced the haze of terror. Inko Midoriya, who had been chatting with the other mothers on the nearby benches, pushed through the panicked crowd of children.

 

When she saw the towering, multi-eyed, shadow-wreathed monstrosity weeping in the sandbox, she stopped. Her breath hitched. Every biological instinct ingrained in her human DNA screamed at her to run, to flee from this apex predator. The aura of dread battered against her mind, showing her flashes of the dark, of being hunted, of the abyss.

 

But the beast was crying. And the beast was wearing Izuku's red shoes.

 

Fighting against the paralyzing wave of nightmare-inducing fear, Inko bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She forced one foot in front of the other.

 

"Izuku," she whispered, falling to her knees in the sand right in front of the terrifying creature.

 

The behemoth flinched, pulling its massive claws close to its chest, looking down at her with those glowing, toxic-green eyes. "Mommy?" the creature chittered, a horrifying sound that nevertheless broke Inko's heart.

 

Without a second thought, Inko threw her arms around the creature's thick, armored neck, burying her face into its hardened shoulder. "It's okay, baby. Mommy's here. I'm right here."

 

Slowly, the aura began to recede. The shadows dissolved into smoke. The hardened skin softened and retracted, the jaw snapped back into place, and the tendrils vanished. Within seconds, a four-year-old boy was left sobbing in his mother's arms, his clothes in tatters.

 

But even as Izuku returned to his base form, he was not the same. His teeth remained slightly too sharp. His eyes remained black-scleraed with glowing green irises. Patches of charcoal, hardened skin lingered on his forearms and the back of his neck.

 

He was no longer just Izuku Midoriya. He had become something the world would not understand.

 

A few days later, sitting in a sterile, white doctor's office, the verdict was delivered.

 

"It's a mutation quirk. A very extreme, dormant genetic cocktail," the bald, bespectacled doctor explained, pointing to an X-ray of Izuku's altered bone structure. "We've registered it as 'Abyssal Nightmare'. Not only does it allow him to transform into a massive, highly durable beast with shadow-manipulation, but it passively emits a psycho-chemical pheromone that triggers the amygdala in those around him. It literally induces the sensation of mortal terror."

 

Inko held Izuku's hand tightly. Izuku, wearing a new All Might hoodie with the hood pulled up to hide his glowing eyes, swung his legs nervously.

 

"Can... can it be cured?" Inko asked quietly.

 

"Quirks are not diseases, Mrs. Midoriya," the doctor said, his tone lacking warmth. In truth, he was sitting as far back in his chair as possible, subtly leaning away from the boy. Izuku's passive aura was faint in his base form, but it was still there—an unsettling itch in the back of the mind. "He will have to learn to control his transformations. But his base appearance... those traits are permanent."

 

The doctor adjusted his glasses, looking at Izuku with a mixture of pity and clinical distance. "I'll be frank. Quirks like this... they are often classified by the public, and sometimes by the HPSC, as 'Villainous'. He is going to have a very difficult life. People will fear him on a biological level."

 

Izuku looked up, his glowing green eyes meeting the doctor's. "But... I can still be a hero, right? Like All Might?"

 

The doctor didn't answer right away. He looked at the sharp teeth, the hardened scales, the abyss-black eyes.

 

"Just... try to stay out of trouble, kid," the doctor finally sighed.

 

That was ten years ago.

 

 

 

"Midoriya. Midoriya, I need you to read the next passage."

 

Izuku snapped out of his daze, his glowing green eyes darting to the front of the classroom. The teacher, a balding man with a quirk that made his nose incredibly long, was pointing a piece of chalk at him. The teacher wasn't looking him in the eye—nobody ever looked Izuku in the eye.

 

"Y-yes, sir," Izuku stuttered. His voice was a deep, gravelly baritone. It was the voice of a hardened criminal or a monstrous brute, entirely unsuited for a fourteen-year-old boy who collected superhero trading cards.

 

He stood up. As he did, the student sitting in front of him flinched violently, leaning forward as if trying to merge with his desk. The girl next to him visibly shuddered, pulling her skirt tighter around her knees.

 

Izuku kept his head bowed, letting his messy, dark-green hair fall over his eyes to obscure them as much as possible. He read the passage from the history textbook flawlessly, his deep voice rumbling through the quiet classroom. When he finished, he sat down as quickly and quietly as his heavy frame would allow.

 

"Thank you, Midoriya," the teacher muttered quickly, already turning back to the board.

 

This was Aldera Junior High. And for Izuku Midoriya, it was a purgatory of isolation.

 

Bullying in the traditional sense didn't exist for Izuku. Nobody pushed him into lockers. Nobody tried to steal his lunch money. Nobody dared to trip him in the hallways.

 

Because they were terrified of him.

 

At fourteen, Izuku’s mutation had stabilized into a permanent, unsettling baseline. He was tall for his age, broad-shouldered and thick-limbed, his musculature dense and heavy. His skin was pale, but large patches of it—along his forearms, the back of his neck, and down his spine—were covered in hardened, charcoal-like plating that felt like a cross between Kevlar and volcanic rock. His teeth were perpetually sharp, demanding that he keep his mouth closed unless necessary. And his eyes... they were the eyes of an apex predator lurking in the deep ocean. Black sclera, glowing emerald irises.

 

And then there was the aura. Even without transforming, his very existence seemed to press down on the people around him. It was a faint, buzzing anxiety, a primal whisper in the back of the mind that said: Danger. Predator. Prey.

 

So, they didn't touch him. Instead, they whispered. They ostracized. They murmured words like "villain in training," "freak," and "monster" when they thought he was out of earshot. But Izuku's senses were sharper than a normal human's; he heard every word.

 

The bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The classroom immediately dissolved into chaos as students began packing up.

 

"Since you're all third years, it's time for you to think seriously about your futures!" the teacher announced, holding up a thick stack of career aptitude papers. "I would hand out these future career forms, but..." The teacher suddenly threw the stack into the air. "I assume you all want to be heroes!"

 

The classroom erupted in cheers as students showed off their quirks—elongated limbs, minor elemental manipulations, animal features.

 

"Yes, yes, you all have wonderful quirks," the teacher said, placating them. "But remember, using your powers in school is against the rules."

 

"Sensei! Don't lump me in with these background characters!"

 

A loud, arrogant voice cut through the noise, followed by the sound of boots propped up on a desk. Katsuki Bakugo leaned back in his chair, a smirk plastered across his face.

 

The class groaned, muttering complaints about Bakugo's arrogance.

 

"Oh, right. Bakugo, you're aiming for U.A. High, aren't you?" the teacher noted, looking at his clipboard.

 

A hushed awe fell over the room. U.A. was the national academy, boasting a notoriously low acceptance rate.

 

"That's exactly right!" Katsuki boasted, standing up and slamming a fist into his palm, creating a loud POP of an explosion. "I aced the mock test! I'm the only one at this crappy school who has the stuff to get in. I'll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there! My name will be carved in the top spot!"

 

"Oh, Midoriya, didn't you also apply for U.A.?" the teacher asked casually, seemingly unaware of the grenade he had just dropped.

 

The entire room went dead silent.

 

All eyes slowly, agonizingly, turned toward the back corner of the room, where the hulking, shadowy figure of Izuku Midoriya sat frozen.

 

For a moment, the only sound was the ticking of the clock. Then, murmurs began to ripple through the students.

 

"Midoriya? U.A.?"

"Is he serious? With that quirk?"

"U.A. doesn't have a villain course, do they?"

"He'd probably eat the examiners."

 

Izuku sank lower in his chair, his broad shoulders hunching as he tried to make himself invisible. "I-it's... it's just a preliminary application," he rumbled softly, his deep voice carrying a tremor of pure anxiety. "They... they don't explicitly forbid mutant types from..."

 

SMASH!

 

Katsuki was suddenly there, slamming both of his smoking palms onto Izuku's desk, burning the wood.

 

Izuku flinched, instinctively raising his arms to shield his face. The charcoal plating on his forearms absorbed the heat effortlessly, but the psychological impact made him cower.

 

"Listen up, Deku!" Katsuki roared.

 

To the rest of the class, Katsuki looked like a fearless bully putting a monster in his place. But Izuku, with his heightened senses, could see it. He could see the slight tremor in Katsuki's wrists. He could see the way Katsuki's crimson eyes were dilated. He could smell the acrid scent of sour sweat mixed with the nitroglycerin—the scent of pure, unadulterated fear.

 

Katsuki Bakugo was terrified of him. He had been ever since that day in the sandbox. Katsuki’s entire aggressive personality toward Izuku was a defense mechanism. Katsuki believed that a hero should fear nothing. Therefore, the fact that he was instinctively terrified of Izuku was a weakness he despised. He hated Izuku for making him feel weak, and he combated that fear with blinding, explosive rage.

 

"You think you can stand in the same ring as me?!" Katsuki shouted, his face inches from Izuku's. "You're worse than a reject! You're a walking nightmare! What the hell can you even do at U.A.? Scare the villains to death?!"

 

"K-Kacchan, wait, p-please!" Izuku pleaded, waving his heavy, clawed hands in a placating manner. "I'm not trying to compete with you! I swear! It's just... it's been my dream since I was little. I... I just want to help people. I want to save people with a smile."

 

The image of this hulking, demonic teenager claiming he wanted to save people with a smile was so jarring that a few students nervously chuckled.

 

Katsuki sneered, pushing himself off the desk. He snatched a notebook out of Izuku's bag.

 

"Hero Analysis for the Future, No. 13?" Katsuki read the cover out loud. He scoffed. "You're delusional, Deku."

 

He clapped his hands together, sandwiching the notebook between them. A loud explosion echoed through the room.

 

"Ah!" Izuku cried out, his glowing eyes widening.

 

Katsuki tossed the charred, smoking notebook out the open window. It fluttered down into the school courtyard below.

 

Izuku sat there, his massive hands trembling on his desk. A surge of emotion bubbled up in his chest. His quirk responded to his distress. The shadows under his desk began to writhe. A low, guttural growl started to build in the back of his throat, and his jaw twitched, desperate to unhinge. The temperature in the room plummeted.

 

The students in the immediate vicinity scrambled out of their chairs, backing away in sheer terror.

 

Katsuki froze, his body locking up as the aura of dread washed over him. His breathing hitched. But he forced his jaw tight, forced his eyes to stay locked on Izuku, refusing to back down.

 

Izuku realized what was happening. He squeezed his eyes shut, dug his claws into his own thighs, and clamped down on his quirk with all his mental strength. He forced the shadows back. He swallowed the growl. He shrunk his posture back down, making himself as small and non-threatening as possible.

 

The oppressive aura vanished.

 

Katsuki sucked in a quiet breath, his pride bruised by his momentary lapse into fear. He glared at Izuku's cowering form. The contrast between the terrifying monster and the pathetic, cowering boy infuriated him even more.

 

"You wanna be a hero so bad?" Katsuki said, his voice deadly quiet, laced with venom. "I've got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life... go take a swan dive off the roof!"

 

Izuku froze. His glowing eyes snapped open, staring at Katsuki in shock.

 

Katsuki turned his back and walked toward the door, his two lackeys scurrying after him. At the doorway, Katsuki paused, looking over his shoulder. Small explosions popped in his palm. "Got something to say, monster?"

 

Izuku just stared at him. He didn't speak. He couldn't.

 

With a final scoff, Katsuki left.

 

The rest of the class quickly filed out, giving Izuku a wide berth, whispering about how lucky they were that Bakugo was there to keep the "freak" in check.

 

Alone in the classroom, Izuku remained seated for a long time. The silence of the empty room was a heavy blanket.

 

He slowly stood up. He walked to the window and looked down. His notebook was floating in the small koi pond in the courtyard.

 

"Swan dive..." Izuku muttered, his deep voice cracking with a sudden, overwhelming wave of sorrow.

 

He didn't hate Kacchan. He understood why Kacchan acted that way. He understood why everyone acted that way.

 

It was basic biology. Humans were programmed to fear the dark, to fear the unknown, to fear the monsters that lurked in the shadows. Izuku was those monsters. He possessed a quirk designed specifically to evoke terror.

 

But beneath the hardened skin, behind the glowing eyes, he was just a boy who wanted to be like All Might. He wanted to be a pillar of hope. He wanted someone to look at him and feel safe, not terrified.

 

Was that really so impossible?

 

 

 

The walk home was a lonely one, as always.

 

Izuku took the long way, avoiding the crowded shopping districts. His very presence on a crowded street usually resulted in people crossing to the other side, mothers pulling their children close, and police officers keeping a very close hand on their holstered batons.

 

He had fished his notebook out of the koi pond. The fish had frantically swum to the opposite side of the water as soon as his shadow fell over it. Even animals hated him.

 

He clutched the damp, burnt notebook to his chest as he walked, his head down, the hood of his school jacket pulled up to obscure his features.

 

"Stupid jerk," Izuku mumbled to himself, though there was no real malice in his gravelly voice. "Don't say things like that. What if I really did it? You'd be instigated for suicide..."

 

He let out a long, heavy sigh that sounded like the exhalation of a large beast.

 

He approached a dark, enclosed tunnel beneath a bridge. It was a shortcut he often took to avoid people. The tunnel was damp and smelled faintly of stagnant water and sewage, but it was quiet.

 

I just need to keep trying, Izuku thought, trying to muster his usual unyielding optimism. I'll train harder. I'll pass the written exam with flying colors. I'll show them that I can control my quirk perfectly. I won't use my full transformation at the entrance exam, I'll just use my base strength. Yeah. I can do it.

 

He pumped a heavy, clawed fist in the air, a small, jagged smile fighting its way onto his face.

 

Behind him, a metallic clanking echoed through the tunnel.

 

Izuku stopped. His heightened senses flared. The smell of sewage suddenly became overwhelming, thick and putrid. He heard a sickening, squelching sound, like wet mud sliding over concrete.

 

He turned around.

 

Rising from a manhole cover was a towering mass of dark green, viscous sludge. It bubbled and shifted, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape. Two massive, manic-looking eyes opened within the slime, followed by a jagged, toothy grin.

 

"A medium-sized invisibility cloak," the Sludge Villain gurgled, its voice wet and repulsive. "Perfect."

 

Izuku froze. A villain. A real villain.

 

The villain lunged.

 

Izuku barely had time to react. He threw his arms up, bracing for an impact, but there was no solid strike. Instead, the heavy, wet sludge slammed into him, wrapping around his arms, his legs, his torso.

 

"Don't worry, kid. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds," the villain laughed, the sludge forcing its way up toward Izuku's face. "Then, it'll all be over!"

 

Panic, raw and unfiltered, seized Izuku's mind. The sludge was entering his nose, forcing its way past his lips. He was suffocating. He couldn't breathe.

 

In that moment of mortal peril, Izuku's conscious control over his quirk shattered.

 

His survival instincts took over.

 

BOOM.

 

The tunnel shook violently. Izuku's body rapidly expanded. The charcoal plating on his skin thickened into heavy, spiked armor. His jaw unhinged with a sickening crack, opening wider than anatomically possible, snapping at the sludge.

 

From his back, six massive, jagged tendrils of solid, pitch-black shadow erupted. They thrashed wildly, whipping against the concrete walls of the tunnel, tearing chunks of cement and rebar out with devastating force.

 

His eyes, now multiplying along his cheeks and forehead, glowed with blinding emerald light. A roar tore from his throat—a sound so horrifying, so deeply unnatural, that it vibrated the very air, rattling the metal pipes along the ceiling.

 

The oppressive, paralyzing aura of the "Abyssal Nightmare" exploded outward, filling the confined space of the tunnel with concentrated dread.

 

The Sludge Villain, who had been laughing a second prior, suddenly shrieked.

 

"What the hell is this?!" the villain screamed. The aura of terror hit him like a physical blow. The villain's eyes bulged in pure panic. He was trying to hijack a teenager, but suddenly he felt like he was clinging to a mythical demon from the deepest pits of hell.

 

"GET OFF!" Izuku roared in his demonic, overlapping voice.

 

His shadowy tendrils stabbed into the sludge, ripping and tearing. But it was useless. The tendrils passed right through the liquid body, splashing the slime but failing to grip the villain's core.

 

Izuku thrashed wildly, his massive claws scraping against the tunnel floor, tearing deep grooves into the concrete. He was a behemoth, possessing the physical strength to crush a car, but he couldn't fight water.

 

"Y-you're a freak!" the Sludge Villain stammered, terrified but desperate. "Stop moving! Your body is incredible! Once I take it over, I'll be unstoppable! Just let me have it!"

 

The sludge forced its way deeper down Izuku's throat.

 

Izuku's monstrous roars turned into gargling chokes. His multiple glowing eyes began to dim, flickering frantically. His shadowy tendrils slowed their thrashing, drooling uselessly against the walls. The overwhelming aura of dread began to weaken as his consciousness faded.

 

No... Izuku thought, the world spinning into darkness. I can't... I can't die like this. Mom... I'm sorry. I never even got to... save anyone...

 

He closed his eyes. His massive, monstrous body went limp, the transformation beginning to regress slightly.

 

And then, a sound cut through the rushing in his ears.

 

The sound of heavy footsteps.

 

A shadow fell over the entrance of the tunnel. No, not a shadow. A light.

 

"IT IS FINE NOW, YOUNG MAN!"

 

The voice boomed like thunder, echoing off the walls with an authority and warmth that completely banished the lingering coldness of Izuku's quirk.

 

Izuku forced his heavy eyelids open. Through the shifting mass of sludge, he saw him.

 

Towering, muscular, clad in a simple white t-shirt and cargo pants, but radiating an unmistakable aura of golden heroism. His blonde hair stood up in two prominent tufts.

 

It was him. The Symbol of Peace. All Might.

 

"I AM HERE!" All Might declared.

 

"All Might?!" the Sludge Villain shrieked, his terror shifting from the monster he was drowning to the god of heroes standing before him. The villain whipped a tendril of sludge toward the hero.

 

All Might simply reeled back his right arm. The muscles bulged impossibly tight.

 

"TEXAS..."

 

He threw the punch.

 

"...SMASH!"

 

The force of the punch didn't even make contact with the villain. The sheer air pressure generated by the swing created a localized hurricane within the tunnel. A shockwave of condensed wind ripped through the confined space.

 

The sludge was obliterated, blown away into a million splattering drops against the walls and ceiling.

 

Izuku was freed. He gasped for air, his massive body hitting the concrete floor. The sheer awe of what he had just witnessed overloaded his fading brain.

 

All Might...

 

His transformation rapidly retracted. The shadows melted away, the extra eyes vanished, his jaw clicked painfully back into place, and his size reduced until he was back in his base mutant form. He was still large, still covered in charcoal patches, still possessing a terrifying face, but he was just Izuku again.

 

He coughed violently, expelling the last of the sludge, before his eyes rolled back and he passed out.

 

 

 

"Hey! Wake up! Hey!"

 

Izuku's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he saw was a massive face leaning over him, obscured by shadow.

 

"Ah, good! You're awake!"

 

Izuku blinked, his vision clearing. He scrambled backward, his heavy claws scraping against the pavement. He looked up, and his heart nearly stopped.

 

Standing over him, hands on his hips, grinning a smile that could outshine the sun, was All Might.

 

"Thought we lost you there!" All Might laughed, his voice booming. "Sorry about that! I didn't mean to get you caught up in my villain hunting! I usually pay more attention to my surroundings, but I must confess, being in a new city got me a bit excited!"

 

Izuku was paralyzed. Not by fear, but by absolute, star-struck awe. It was him. It was really him. In the flesh. Three feet away.

 

"You... you..." Izuku stammered, his deep, gravelly voice cracking. He realized how he sounded and quickly covered his mouth with a clawed hand, ashamed of his own terrifying voice.

 

All Might paused, getting his first real look at the boy he had saved.

 

For a fraction of a second, the Symbol of Peace's smile faltered. His heroic instincts—honed by decades of fighting the worst villains the world had to offer—flared wildly. The boy sitting before him looked like a miniature Nomu. The black sclera, the glowing green irises, the jagged teeth visible through the boy's fingers, the patches of armored skin. The ambient aura of dread the boy emitted was faint, but unmistakable.

 

But All Might was the number one hero for a reason. He suppressed the instinctual unease instantly, his smile returning at full force.

 

"Hahaha! No need to hide your face, young man!" All Might boomed. "A mutant quirk is a mark of uniqueness! Anyway, I must be going! The villain has been safely contained!"

 

All Might patted his pocket, revealing two large soda bottles filled with the struggling, viscous sludge.

 

Izuku's mind raced. He's leaving? Already? But... I have so much to ask him. I have to know...

 

He frantically looked around for his notebook. He found it lying a few feet away, miraculously surviving both the koi pond and the sludge attack. He scrambled to pick it up, flipping it open to a blank page.

 

"P-please, All Might!" Izuku rumbled desperately, holding out the notebook and a pen. "An autograph! Please!"

 

"Ah! Of course!" All Might took the book, moving with blinding speed. He signed his name across two pages in massive, sweeping strokes. "There you go, young man! Now, I must be off! See you on the flip side!"

 

All Might turned, crouching low, his massive leg muscles tensing like coiled springs.

 

Izuku stared at the signature. It was everything he ever wanted. But as he looked up at the hero preparing to leap away, the crushing weight of his reality came crashing back down.

 

If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life... go take a swan dive off the roof!

 

The words echoed in his mind. The isolation. The fear in his mother's eyes when she thought he wasn't looking. The utter certainty of society that he was destined for villainy.

 

He needed to know. He needed the man who stood at the pinnacle of heroism to tell him the truth.

 

As All Might leapt into the air, launching himself with the force of a missile, Izuku moved on pure, unthinking instinct. He lunged forward, his heavy, muscular legs propelling him with startling speed, and grabbed onto All Might's leg.

 

The wind rushed past them violently as they shot into the sky.

 

"Hey, hey, hey!" All Might shouted, looking down in shock. "What do you think you're doing?! Let go! Your fanaticism is too much!"

 

"If I let go now, I'll die!" Izuku roared back, his deep voice barely audible over the roaring wind.

 

"Oh, right! Good point!" All Might grimaced. "Just close your eyes and hold on! I'll find a place to land!"

 

Izuku buried his face into All Might's pant leg, his claws digging slightly into the fabric to hold on. The city blurred beneath them, a patchwork quilt of rooftops and streets. For a moment, suspended in the sky clinging to his idol, Izuku felt completely free of the shadows that bound him.

 

With a heavy thud, they landed on the roof of a three-story office building.

 

Izuku immediately let go, stumbling backward and falling onto his rear, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath. His legs were shaking like jelly.

 

All Might brushed off his pants, looking at the boy with a mixture of annoyance and concern. "Not a very smart move, young man. You could have been seriously hurt. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must be going. The police are waiting for me to hand this guy over."

 

All Might turned toward the edge of the roof, preparing to jump again.

 

"Wait!" Izuku cried out, climbing to his feet. He reached out a heavy, charcoal-plated hand.

 

"No! I will not wait!" All Might said firmly, without looking back.

 

"Please!" Izuku shouted.

 

The desperation in his gravelly, monstrous voice was so profound, so laced with raw, bleeding agony, that All Might stopped in his tracks.

 

Izuku stood there, the wind whipping his dark green hair around his face. His heart hammered in his chest, beating against his ribs like a trapped bird.

 

This was it. The ultimate judgment. The final verdict on his life.

 

Izuku lowered his head, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears, but they leaked out anyway, sliding down his pale cheeks, contrasting sharply with his black sclera.

 

"Everyone..." Izuku began, his voice trembling, sounding less like a beast and more like a broken child. "Everyone looks at me and sees a monster."

 

All Might remained silent, his broad back turned to the boy, but he was listening.

 

"Ever since I was four years old, all I've ever done is terrify people," Izuku continued, his words tumbling out in a rush, a dam finally breaking. "My quirk... it makes people feel fear. When I transform, I look like a demon from a nightmare. Kids cry when they look at me. Adults cross the street. Teachers ignore me. Even my own mother... I know she loves me, but I know she's scared of me."

 

Izuku clutched the fabric of his ruined uniform over his heart.

 

"They tell me I have a villain's quirk. They tell me I'm destined to hurt people. They tell me I should just give up."

 

Izuku slowly raised his head. He opened his eyes, the emerald irises glowing brightly in the dimming light of the late afternoon. He looked at All Might's back, a desperate, drowning plea in his gaze.

 

"But I don't want to hurt anyone!" Izuku yelled, tears streaming freely down his monstrous face. "I want to save people! I want to be someone who brings hope! I want to smile fearlessly and tell people that everything is going to be okay!"

 

He took a step forward, his heavy footfalls echoing on the rooftop.

 

"So please... I have to know."

 

All Might slowly turned around, his perpetually shadowed blue eyes meeting Izuku's glowing green ones.

 

Izuku stood before the Symbol of Peace, a creature of nightmare standing in the light of the setting sun. He bowed his head, his tears dripping onto the concrete.

 

"Even if I look like a monster..." Izuku choked out, his deep voice breaking into a sob. "Even if my very existence terrifies everyone I meet... can someone like me... can I still be a hero?"

 

The wind blew across the rooftop, carrying the distant sounds of the city below. The silence that stretched between them felt like an eternity.

 

All Might looked at the boy. He looked past the hardened skin, past the jagged teeth, past the black eyes. He looked at the tears. He felt the overwhelming sincerity, the pure, unadulterated heroism radiating from a heart trapped within a monstrous shell.

 

All Might opened his mouth to speak.

 

Suddenly, a violent cough wracked All Might's frame.

 

Izuku gasped, taking a step back in shock as a massive cloud of steam suddenly erupted from the hero's body, enveloping him completely.

 

"A-All Might?!" Izuku cried out, waving his hands to clear the steam. "Are you okay?! Did the villain..."

 

The steam began to clear.

 

Standing where the towering, muscular Symbol of Peace had just been, was a skeletal, emaciated man. His clothes hung loosely off his bony frame, his face was gaunt with sunken cheeks, and he was wiping a trail of blood from his chin.

 

Izuku’s glowing eyes went wide, his jaw dropping open in utter disbelief. He looked around frantically, expecting the real All Might to be hiding behind an AC unit. "W-where did he go?! Who are you?! Are you... an imposter?!"

 

The skeletal man sighed, a long, weary sound that carried the weight of the world. He slumped his shoulders, looking at the monstrous boy with tired, sunken blue eyes.

 

"I am All Might," the man rasped, his voice lacking all the booming bravado from before.

 

Izuku's brain short-circuited. He stared at the frail man, then down at his own massive, heavily armored hands. The irony was almost suffocating. The greatest hero in the world looked like a dying civilian, while he, a quirkless nobody—or rather, a nobody with a quirk he couldn't use—looked like an apex predator.

 

All Might slowly sat down on the edge of the rooftop railing, gesturing to a massive, gruesome scar on his left side.

 

"Five years ago, a villain did this to me," All Might explained, his voice quiet. "My respiratory system was nearly destroyed. My stomach was entirely removed. I've had repeated surgeries, but the aftereffects have left me... like this. I can only do hero work for about three hours a day."

 

Izuku listened in horrified silence, his monstrous appearance completely forgotten in the face of this shattering revelation. The invincible god of heroes was broken.

 

"The Symbol of Peace cannot be daunted by evil," All Might continued, looking down at his bony hands. "I smile to show the pressure of heroes and to trick the fear inside of me. I am a hero because I have to be. People need a pillar to lean on."

 

All Might looked up, meeting Izuku's glowing eyes directly. There was no fear in the hero's gaze. Only solemn understanding.

 

"You asked me if you could be a hero, even looking the way you do. Even with a quirk that instills fear."

 

Izuku held his breath, his heart pounding so hard it hurt.

 

"Pro heroes are always risking their lives," All Might said gently. "Some villains simply cannot be beaten without a fight. And society... society is cruel, young man. They judge based on appearances. They categorize based on quirks. They will look at you, and they will see a villain. They will fear you, and because they fear you, they will hate you."

 

Izuku's shoulders slumped. The light in his green eyes dimmed. The answer was coming, and it was exactly what he had feared.

 

"So," All Might said, standing up, despite his frail form, he still carried an immense, undeniable presence. "Can you be a hero?"

 

All Might shook his head.

 

"I cannot simply say, 'You can become a hero.' It is a difficult, painful path. It is dangerous enough for those the public loves. For someone they fear... it will be hell."

 

Izuku looked down at his heavy boots. A tear slipped free, splashing against the concrete. It was over. The number one hero had confirmed what everyone else had already said. He was a monster, not a savior.

 

"I... I understand," Izuku rumbled, his voice thick with grief. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, All Might. I'll... I'll just..."

 

He turned around, preparing to walk down the fire escape, preparing to walk back into the shadows where he belonged.

 

"Hold on, I wasn't finished."

 

Izuku stopped. He looked back over his shoulder.

 

All Might was standing tall, a small, genuine smile playing on his gaunt face.

 

"I cannot simply say you can become a hero," All Might repeated. "But..."

 

He pointed a bony finger at Izuku.

 

"A true hero is not defined by the shape of their body, or the nature of their quirk. A true hero is defined by the shape of their heart. You have been treated like a monster your entire life, young man. You have every reason to hate this world. You have every reason to turn to villainy."

 

All Might took a step forward.

 

"Yet, here you are, weeping because you want to save people. You harbor a quirk meant for nightmares, but your soul is reaching for the light."

 

Izuku's breath caught in his throat. He turned fully around, staring at the skeletal man.

 

"You have a rough road ahead of you," All Might said softly. "Harder than you can possibly imagine. But if you have the will to endure the hatred, the fear, and the prejudice... if you have the strength to smile in the dark..."

 

All Might stood up perfectly straight. In that moment, he didn't need his muscle form. He was the Symbol of Peace, entirely through his spirit.

 

"Yes, young man. You can become a hero."

 

The words struck Izuku like a physical blow. The world seemed to stop spinning. The wind died down. The sounds of the city faded into nothingness.

 

Ten years of isolation. Ten years of being called a freak, a villain, a monster. Ten years of suffocating his dreams, of hiding his face, of apologizing for existing.

 

It all broke in a single, shattering instant.

 

Izuku dropped to his knees. He slammed his heavy, clawed hands against the concrete roof. He threw his head back, and for the first time in his life, he didn't try to suppress his voice.

 

He wailed.

 

It was a monstrous sound—a deep, booming roar of raw emotion that echoed across the rooftops. But it wasn't a roar of terror. It was the sound of a beast finally being set free. It was the sound of a boy weeping tears of absolute, unfiltered joy.

 

All Might stood there, watching the towering, demonic-looking teenager sob into the concrete like a child. The hero smiled softly, feeling a strange warmth in his own chest.

 

He has the body of a behemoth, All Might thought, looking at the dense, charcoal-plated muscles of the crying boy. And the heart of a true hero.

 

A sudden thought struck All Might. A crazy, reckless, brilliant thought.

 

He had been looking for a successor. Someone worthy of inheriting his power. He had been looking for someone with a strong heart, but One For All also required a remarkably strong vessel to contain its immense physical strain.

 

He looked at Izuku's heavy, mutated frame.

 

A mutant quirk that grants extreme durability and strength... combined with a spirit that refuses to break.

 

All Might’s smile widened.

 

Perhaps... the universe guided me to this boy for a reason.

 

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the city below.

 

The sound was massive, echoing up from the streets blocks away. A plume of black smoke began to rise into the sky, painted orange by the setting sun.

 

Izuku's head snapped up, his tears stopping instantly. His glowing green eyes locked onto the smoke. His heightened senses picked up the distant screams of civilians, the wailing of sirens, and the distinct, rapid-fire popping of explosions.

 

Wait, Izuku thought, his blood running cold. Those explosions... they sound exactly like...

 

"Kacchan."

 

All Might patted his pockets frantically. "The bottles! The villain!"

 

Izuku looked back at All Might, then down at the smoke. The Sludge Villain had escaped. And based on the explosions, he had caught someone else.

 

Without a word, Izuku stood up. His heavy boots cracked the concrete.

 

"Young man, wait!" All Might coughed, clutching his side as pain flared through his injury. His time limit was up. He couldn't transform. He was useless.

 

Izuku didn't wait. He didn't think.

 

He sprinted toward the edge of the roof, his massive, charcoal-plated legs pumping with incredible power. He leapt over the railing, launching his heavy body onto the fire escape of the adjacent building, ignoring the groaning of the metal beneath his weight.

 

He had just been told he could be a hero.

 

It was time to prove it.

 

The monster bounded down the side of the building, his green eyes burning like twin stars in the gathering dusk, racing toward the flames.

 

The fire escape groaned in metallic agony beneath Izuku Midoriya’s boots.

 

He didn't run like a normal teenager. He couldn't. His body was too dense, his musculature too heavy, burdened by the permanent charcoal-colored plating that armored his forearms, spine, and calves. Every step he took resonated with a heavy, rhythmic thud, vibrating the rusted iron grates of the stairs.

 

But what he lacked in graceful agility, he made up for in terrifying, brute momentum.

 

Explosions. Smoke. Screams.

 

The sensory data flooded his heightened, mutated senses. As he vaulted over the final railing, landing in the narrow alleyway with a force that cracked the pavement, the smell hit him. It wasn't just the acrid stench of burning buildings. It was the sickly sweet, putrid odor of stagnant water and sewage, superheated by raw combustion.

 

The Sludge Villain, Izuku thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. It's him. I know that smell. All Might dropped the bottles when... when he deflated. When he was talking to me. It's my fault.

 

Guilt, cold and sharp, pierced through the lingering euphoria of All Might’s validation. The greatest hero in the world had just told Izuku he could be a hero, and in the very same breath, Izuku’s own selfish desperation had caused a catastrophe.

 

He pumped his arms, his heavy boots pounding against the concrete as he sprinted out of the alleyway and onto the main street. He didn't care who saw him right now. He didn't care about keeping his head down or hiding his glowing green eyes.

 

Ahead of him, the sky above the Tatooine Shopping District was choked with thick, black smoke. The setting sun painted the clouds in violent shades of bruised purple and angry crimson. Sirens wailed from every direction, a chaotic symphony of panic.

 

As Izuku closed the distance, the heat washed over him like a physical wave. The entrance to the shopping arcade was a war zone. Flames licked up the sides of the storefronts, shattering glass and melting neon signs. A massive crowd of civilians had gathered at a semi-safe distance, held back by police barricades.

 

Izuku didn't slow down. He barreled toward the crowd, his broad shoulders squared.

 

Normally, the prospect of pushing through a dense crowd of people would paralyze him with social anxiety. But his panic overrode his fear.

 

"Excuse me! Please, let me through!" Izuku rumbled, his deep, gravelly voice carrying over the din of the sirens.

 

A man at the edge of the crowd turned around to snap at him. "Hey, kid, stop pushing, it's—"

 

The man’s words died in his throat. He looked up at the towering, broad-shouldered teenager. He saw the black sclera, the glowing, toxic-green irises, the patches of hardened, armored skin, and the sharp, shark-like teeth barely concealed behind Izuku's lips.

 

The passive aura of the "Abyssal Nightmare" quirk, even suppressed, was like walking into a freezing freezer. It was the primal sensation of being watched by a predator in the dark.

 

The man let out a strangled gasp and violently shoved himself backward, nearly knocking over the woman next to him.

 

"G-get away! Let him through!" the man stammered, his eyes wide with irrational terror.

 

Like the parting of the Red Sea, the crowd flinched and scrambled out of Izuku's path. Mothers grabbed their children and pulled them away, hiding their faces. Teenagers backed up, their bravado evaporating in an instant. Whispers hissed through the air like venomous snakes.

 

Is that a villain?

Look at his eyes!

Don't look at it, just move!

Where are the heroes?! Why is that monster here?

 

Izuku heard every word. Each one was a familiar knife to the chest, but he forced himself to ignore the pain. He reached the front of the barricade, his hands gripping the yellow police tape.

 

He looked into the blazing inferno of the arcade.

 

And his breath hitched.

 

Towering in the center of the street was the Sludge Villain. But he was massive now, having absorbed nearby water from the broken hydrants and whatever else he could find. He was a writhing, gelatinous mountain of filth, laughing maniacally as he swung thick tendrils of slime, smashing storefronts and keeping the Pro Heroes at bay.

 

The Pro Heroes were there, but they were doing nothing.

 

Death Arms, a man with incredible physical strength, was coughing, holding his arms up to shield his face from the intense heat. "It's no good! I can't get close! There's no physical body to grab, and the fire is too hot!"

 

Kamui Woods, whose body was made of wood, was completely useless, forced to stand at the edge of the flames. "I'm at a complete disadvantage! I'll ignite the second I step in there!"

 

Backdraft, the water-based rescue hero, was desperately trying to keep the flames from spreading to the adjacent residential buildings, completely ignoring the villain in the center.

 

Mt. Lady, the giantess, was stuck at the entrance of the street. "I need a two-lane road at least! I can't fit in there!"

 

They were waiting. Waiting for a hero with a more suitable quirk.

 

But there was no time.

 

Because caught in the very center of the Sludge Villain's mass, completely enveloped save for his mouth and nose, was a boy with ash-blonde hair.

 

Kacchan.

 

Katsuki Bakugo was struggling with the ferocity of a wild animal caught in a snare. His palms were outside the sludge, firing off massive, blinding explosions in a desperate attempt to blast himself free. But his explosions were only feeding the fire around them, creating a localized firestorm that made it impossible for anyone to approach.

 

"You've got a great quirk, kid!" the Sludge Villain gurgled, his massive eyes rolling wildly in their liquid sockets. "So much power! You're going to make a fantastic vessel! Just stop fighting and let me take over!"

 

"SCREW YOU!" Katsuki roared, firing another explosion, but his voice was growing weak. He was suffocating. The sludge was forcing its way down his throat, choking him from the inside out.

 

Izuku stared in horror.

 

He looked at the Pro Heroes. They were gritting their teeth, looking away, whispering into their communicators, begging for backup. They had given up. They were waiting for someone else.

 

Izuku looked back at the villain.

 

Through the roaring flames, through the swirling smoke and the chaos, Katsuki's crimson eyes suddenly locked onto Izuku's glowing green ones.

 

For the first time in ten years, Izuku didn't see anger in Katsuki's eyes. He didn't see the explosive, toxic pride. He didn't see the sneer of superiority.

 

He saw tears. He saw sheer, unadulterated, desperate terror. It was a silent plea for help.

 

He's going to die.

 

The thought echoed in Izuku's mind with deafening clarity. Kacchan is going to die right here, and the heroes are just watching.

 

Izuku's hands tightened around the yellow police tape, his sharp claws slicing through the plastic like butter.

 

What can I do? his logical mind screamed. I'm not invincible. I don't have a flashy combat quirk. My quirk is just... nightmare fuel. It doesn't shoot water. It doesn't put out fires. If I transform, I'll just make things worse! I'll terrify the hostages, I'll terrify the heroes, I'll cause a panic!

 

He remembered the doctor's words. He is going to have a very difficult life. People will fear him on a biological level.

 

He remembered Katsuki's words. You're a walking nightmare. What the hell can you even do? Scare the villains to death?

 

He remembered All Might's words. A true hero is defined by the shape of their heart.

 

Before his brain could formulate a plan, before his logical mind could list a hundred reasons why this was a terrible idea... his legs moved.

 

With a powerful thrust of his heavy, armored legs, Izuku ducked under the police tape and sprinted directly into the blazing inferno.

 

"Hey! Kid! What are you doing?!" Death Arms bellowed, reaching out, but his hand closed around empty air. "Get back here! You're going to get yourself killed!"

 

"Idiot! Stop!" Kamui Woods yelled.

 

Izuku didn't stop. He couldn't. His body was operating on pure, instinctual drive.

 

He tore off his yellow backpack, holding it by the strap. He spun like an Olympic hammer thrower, utilizing the immense, dense musculature of his mutant body, and hurled the heavy backpack directly at the Sludge Villain's face.

 

The brass zipper of the bag acted like a jagged projectile, tearing through the air and burying itself directly into the Sludge Villain's massive, bulbous left eye.

 

"GAAAAAH!" the villain shrieked, the gelatinous mass recoiling violently in pain.

 

The sudden shift loosened the sludge's grip just enough. Katsuki was able to pull his mouth free, gasping frantically for air. He coughed up thick globs of slime, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

 

Katsuki looked down and saw the towering, charcoal-plated figure of Izuku Midoriya sprinting toward him through the flames.

 

"Deku?!" Katsuki choked out, a mixture of shock and lingering terror in his voice. "What the hell are you doing?!"

 

"I don't know!" Izuku roared back, his deep voice vibrating through the superheated air. "My legs just started moving!"

 

The Sludge Villain recovered, his injured eye regenerating with sickening speed. He looked down at the boy charging at him. Recognition flashed in the villain's remaining eye.

 

"You!" the villain gurgled, his voice a mix of rage and sudden, instinctual unease. "You're that freak from the tunnel! You think you can stop me now that I've got this explosive brat?! I'll crush you!"

 

A massive, thick tendril of sludge, hardened by the debris it had absorbed, whipped down toward Izuku like a descending guillotine.

 

Death Arms screamed, covering his eyes. The crowd gasped in horror.

 

Izuku looked up at the descending mass of death.

 

My base form isn't strong enough, Izuku realized with terrifying clarity. I can't save him like this. I have to use it. I have to use all of it.

 

For ten years, Izuku had clamped down on his quirk. He had built mental walls, locking the beast away in the deepest recesses of his mind, terrified of the monster he could become. He spent every waking second of his life holding back the shadows, holding back the aura, desperate to prove he was human.

 

Right now, humanity wasn't going to save Katsuki Bakugo.

 

Only a monster could.

 

Izuku closed his glowing green eyes. And he let go. He shattered the mental walls. He reached into the dark abyss of his quirk, and he embraced it.

 

Come out.

 

The transformation was not graceful. It was a violent, explosive eruption of pure, localized horror.

 

When the sludge tendril slammed down onto the spot where Izuku was standing, it didn't crush a teenage boy. Instead, the tendril shattered against something infinitely harder.

 

A shockwave of absolute, freezing black dread exploded outward from the point of impact.

 

The roaring flames of the street instantly dimmed, the bright orange fire turning a sickly, suffocating shade of pale blue. The ambient temperature plummeted. The noise of the sirens, the crackling fire, the screaming crowd—it was all suddenly muted, swallowed by a heavy, oppressive silence that felt like the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

 

The crowd of civilians, hundreds of feet away, fell to their knees in unison. Grown men wept silently. Women clutched their chests, gasping for air as their amygdalas were hijacked by a psycho-chemical pheromone that screamed APEX PREDATOR. RUN. HIDE. DIE.

 

The Pro Heroes froze. Death Arms dropped to one knee, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. Kamui Woods stumbled backward into a brick wall, his wooden body trembling. Mt. Lady whimpered, covering her face.

 

Even All Might, who had been pushing his way through the crowd in his skeletal form, clutching a nearby telephone pole, felt a cold sweat break out over his body.

 

In the center of the street, the smoke cleared.

 

The Sludge Villain was paralyzed. His entire liquid mass was shivering, rippling in abject, mind-shattering terror. He looked down.

 

Standing amidst the pale, dying flames was no longer Izuku Midoriya.

 

It was a behemoth.

 

Izuku had grown to nearly nine feet tall. His already broad frame had ballooned into a horrifying mass of thick, jagged charcoal armor. His arms dragged near the ground, ending in massive, scythe-like claws of solidified shadow that seemed to drink the ambient light.

 

Along his forearms, his shoulders, and his broad chest, crimson eyes snapped open—dozens of them, blinking wildly, darting in every direction, glowing with a malevolent, bloody light.

 

But his face was the true nightmare.

 

His jaw had unhinged entirely, dropping down to his chest to reveal row upon row of razor-sharp, translucent teeth that glowed with a toxic green residue. From his back, eight massive, jagged tendrils of pure, inky darkness thrashed wildly, slicing through the air with the sound of tearing canvas.

 

The beast tilted its head up, staring directly at the Sludge Villain with its central, glowing emerald eyes.

 

A sound began to build in the beast's chest. It was a low, rumbling vibration that shook the glass remaining in the storefronts. It grew louder, rising up through the unhinged jaw, layering over itself—the sound of grinding metal, of screaming children, of predatory growls.

 

The beast unleashed a deafening, earth-shattering roar.

 

It wasn't a heroic battle cry. It was the wail of a nightmare made flesh.

 

Katsuki, still trapped in the sludge, went completely limp. His explosive quirk died instantly. The primal fear that he had harbored for Izuku since childhood reached its absolute zenith. He couldn't scream. He couldn't breathe. He just stared at the towering demon that had taken his childhood friend's place.

 

The Sludge Villain finally found his voice. He shrieked—a high, pathetic sound of absolute panic.

 

"G-GET AWAY FROM ME!" the villain screamed, whipping two more tendrils toward the beast.

 

The Nightmare didn't dodge. It didn't need to.

 

The beast swung one of its massive, shadow-wreathed arms. The claws tore through the air, colliding with the incoming sludge tendrils. The sheer, brute force of the impact, combined with the solidifying nature of Izuku's shadows, caused the liquid to explode into a mist of dirty water.

 

Izuku lunged. The ground shattered beneath his heavy, digitigrade feet.

 

He cleared the distance in a single, terrifying bound, slamming his massive body directly into the core of the Sludge Villain.

 

The villain screamed in agony. The icy, paralyzing dread emitting from Izuku's body was so concentrated at point-blank range that the villain's sludge began to coagulate, freezing and stiffening.

 

Izuku plunged his massive, clawed hands directly into the villain's mass. He ignored the stinging sensation of the acidic sludge. He felt around frantically, his glowing green eyes locking onto Katsuki's pale, terrified face.

 

Izuku's internal mind, buried beneath the monstrous instincts and the roaring of his quirk, was weeping.

 

I'm sorry, Kacchan, Izuku thought frantically. I know I'm scaring you. I know you hate me. But I'm not going to let you die!

 

Izuku's claws found the collar of Katsuki's school uniform.

 

With a guttural roar, Izuku braced his massive legs against the pavement and ripped his arms backward.

 

The sheer physical power of the Abyssal Nightmare quirk was astronomical. With a sickening, tearing sound, Izuku forcefully ripped Katsuki out of the villain's gelatinous body. The sludge clung stubbornly, but the shadowy tendrils on Izuku's back whipped forward like jagged spears, slicing the remaining connections away.

 

Katsuki tumbled backward, landing hard on the pavement, gasping for air.

 

Izuku stepped over Katsuki, positioning his massive, nine-foot-tall, heavily armored body between the boy and the villain. He spread his arms wide, his shadow tendrils flaring outward like a demonic halo, his unhinged jaw snapping aggressively at the air.

 

He was the shield. A terrifying, monstrous shield.

 

"Y-you... you freak!" the Sludge Villain wailed, trying to reform his mass, but he was too terrified to attack. The aura of dread was overwhelming his nervous system. "What are you?! You're no hero! You're a monster!"

 

Izuku didn't speak. He couldn't speak in this form. But he took a step forward, his heavy foot shaking the ground, his dozen crimson eyes glaring into the villain's soul.

 

The message was clear: Take one more step, and I will rip you to shreds.

 

The villain recoiled, attempting to slither backward into the sewer grates, his will to fight completely broken by sheer terror.

 

But before he could escape, the air pressure in the street suddenly changed.

 

The oppressive, suffocating dread that Izuku emitted was suddenly met by a counter-force. A wave of intense, blazing heat and golden light.

 

Izuku’s extra eyes blinked, darting to the side.

 

Standing at the edge of the cratered street, towering just as high as Izuku's Nightmare form, was All Might. The hero's muscles were bulging dangerously tight, steam rolling off his skin. His face was set in a grim, furious scowl, but blood leaked from the corner of his perpetual smile.

 

I am pathetic, All Might thought, his heart roaring in his chest. I lectured this boy. I told him the path of a hero is hard. And yet... while I stood by, making excuses about my time limit, this young man—who has been rejected by society, who is terrified of his own power—threw himself into the fire to save a life!

 

All Might gripped his left side, feeling the torn muscles screaming in protest.

 

If I cannot push past my limits when a young boy sets the example... I am no hero at all!

 

"PRO HEROES ARE ALWAYS RISKING THEIR LIVES!" All Might boomed, his voice shattering the lingering silence of Izuku's terror aura.

 

All Might dashed forward, moving so fast he was nothing but a blur of golden light and blue fabric. He bypassed Izuku completely, charging directly at the retreating Sludge Villain.

 

All Might reeled back his right fist. The air around his arm seemed to warp and distort under the sheer pressure of his strength.

 

"DETROIT..."

 

The villain looked up, his terror shifting back to the Symbol of Peace.

 

"...SMASH!"

 

All Might threw the punch directly downward into the center of the villain's mass.

 

The impact was cataclysmic. It wasn't just a punch; it was a localized hurricane. A shockwave of condensed, spiraling air pressure erupted from All Might's fist, expanding outward with the force of a bomb.

 

The Sludge Villain was instantly blown apart, scattered into a million microscopic droplets that plastered against the brick walls of the alleyway. The flames burning in the storefronts were snuffed out in an instant, starved of oxygen by the sheer vacuum created by the punch.

 

But it didn't stop there. The pillar of air pressure shot upward, tearing through the smoke-filled sky. The dark, bruised clouds swirling above Tatooine Station were violently dispersed, blown away to reveal a clear, twilight sky.

 

Rain began to fall.

 

It started as a light drizzle, cooling the superheated pavement, before turning into a steady downpour. The storm clouds had been forced to drop their moisture by the sheer change in atmospheric pressure.

 

The street was silent, save for the sound of the rain.

 

All Might stood panting in the center of the crater, his fist still planted on the ground, steam rising from his overheating body.

 

A few feet away, Izuku remained in his Nightmare form. His heavy chest heaved. The adrenaline was fading, and the immense mental and physical strain of holding his full transformation was crashing down on him.

 

Izuku looked down at his massive, shadowy claws. He looked at Katsuki, who was sitting on the ground, staring up at him with wide, trembling eyes.

 

I did it, Izuku thought, a strange, profound exhaustion washing over him. I saved him.

 

Slowly, the beast began to shrink. The jagged shadow tendrils dissolved into mist, evaporating in the rain. The crimson eyes scattered across his body snapped shut and vanished beneath the hardened skin. His jaw clicked painfully as it hinged back into its normal place. The thick, spiked armor smoothed out into the familiar charcoal patches.

 

The oppressive aura of dread dissipated instantly, like a suffocating blanket being lifted from the world.

 

Within seconds, the nine-foot-tall demon was gone. In its place stood a fourteen-year-old boy, kneeling on the wet pavement, gasping for air, looking exactly like his baseline, unsettling self.

 

The crowd, finally freed from the paralyzing terror of Izuku's quirk, collectively gasped. Murmurs began to rise, turning into shouts of awe as they looked at the sky.

 

"He changed the weather!"

"Did you see that punch?!"

"All Might! All Might is here!"

 

The Pro Heroes, shaking off the lingering effects of the fear aura, rushed forward. Kamui Woods began wrapping up the scattered globs of sludge, while Death Arms and Backdraft ran toward the boys.

 

Izuku barely registered them. He was so exhausted he could barely keep his glowing green eyes open. He looked up, expecting to see a hand reaching down to help him up.

 

Instead, a heavy hand grabbed him by the shoulder and roughly yanked him to his feet.

 

"What the hell were you thinking, you foolish brat?!" Death Arms roared, his face inches from Izuku's. The Pro Hero wasn't looking at Izuku with gratitude; he was looking at him with intense, lingering fear and profound anger.

 

Izuku flinched, his heart sinking into his stomach. "I... I just..."

 

"There was absolutely no reason for you to put yourself in danger!" Kamui Woods scolded, marching over, his wooden brow furrowed in anger. "And your quirk! Are you out of your mind?! Unleashing a quirk like that in a crowded civilian area?! Do you realize how many people you just subjected to severe psychological trauma?!"

 

"It was a localized panic!" Backdraft added, pointing an accusatory finger at Izuku. "We couldn't move! You nearly cost us the situation! That is a villainous, dangerous power, and you have no right to use it recklessly!"

 

Izuku shrank back, his broad shoulders hunching forward. He looked down at his heavy boots, the rain plastering his dark green hair to his forehead.

 

They're right, Izuku thought, the tears mixing with the rain on his face. I didn't beat the villain. I just stalled him. And I terrified everyone in the process. I'm just a monster who got in the way.

 

"I... I'm sorry," Izuku rumbled softly, his deep voice cracking. "I'm so sorry."

 

"You better be! We're writing you up for illegal quirk usage. You're lucky you're a minor, or we'd be pressing charges for public endangerment!" Death Arms scolded, turning his back on Izuku in disgust.

 

Izuku stood alone in the rain. He felt completely hollow.

 

Across the street, the scene was entirely different.

 

The Pro Heroes were crowding around Katsuki Bakugo. They weren't scolding him for using his explosions or getting caught. They were praising him.

 

"That's an incredible quirk you have there, kid!" a police officer said, handing Katsuki a towel.

 

"Yeah, you held out for so long against a villain like that! You've got real potential. When you become a Pro, come to my agency!" Death Arms offered, flashing a thumbs up.

 

Katsuki sat there, the towel draped over his shoulders. He didn't look proud. He didn't look arrogant.

 

He was staring directly at Izuku.

 

Katsuki’s crimson eyes were unreadable, a turbulent storm of conflicting emotions. Anger, humiliation, confusion, and the lingering residue of absolute terror. He had been saved by the one person he deemed lower than dirt. He had been saved by the monster he feared the most. And while he was being praised for his flashy power, the monster who actually saved his life was being treated like a criminal.

 

Izuku met Katsuki's gaze for a fleeting second, before looking away in shame.

 

Izuku turned around. He picked up his ruined, sludge-stained backpack from the pavement. He didn't look back as he began the long, quiet walk home, slipping away into the darkening streets, completely ignored by the cheering crowd chanting All Might's name.

 

 

 

The walk home felt ten times longer than usual.

 

Izuku’s muscles ached with a deep, throbbing soreness. Using his full Nightmare transformation always left him feeling like he had run a marathon while wearing a weighted vest. His mind felt fuzzy, drained of all adrenaline.

 

The scolding from the Pro Heroes played on a loop in his mind.

 

Villainous. Dangerous. Psychological trauma.

 

"I guess All Might was right," Izuku muttered to himself, his gravelly voice sounding pathetic in the quiet evening air. "Society... they really will just see a villain. No matter what I do."

 

"DEKU!"

 

The explosive shout shattered the silence.

 

Izuku stopped, turning around.

 

Katsuki Bakugo was jogging down the street behind him, panting heavily. The ash-blonde boy stopped a few feet away, his chest heaving, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides.

 

The streetlights flickered overhead, casting long shadows.

 

Izuku tensed instinctively, his glowing green eyes darting around. "K-Kacchan? Are you okay? The sludge didn't..."

 

"Shut up!" Katsuki snapped, though his voice lacked its usual explosive bite. It sounded strained, almost desperate.

 

Katsuki glared at the towering, terrifying boy in front of him. He remembered the feeling of being suffocated. He remembered the sheer, god-like terror of the towering demon that had ripped him free. He hated it. He hated that he had felt so small, so weak, so entirely at the mercy of something else.

 

But most of all, he hated that it was Deku.

 

"Listen to me, you freak," Katsuki growled, taking a step forward, forcing himself not to tremble under the faint, ambient dread Izuku emitted. "I didn't ask for your help! I didn't need it! I was doing just fine on my own! I would have blown that bastard to pieces if you hadn't gotten in my way!"

 

Izuku just stood there, looking down at his childhood friend.

 

"Don't you dare think you can look down on me!" Katsuki shouted, pointing an accusatory finger. "You're a monster! You're a walking nightmare! You're nothing but a reject who makes everyone sick! So don't think you're some kind of hero just because you jumped in! You didn't save me! Got it?!"

 

Having said his piece, Katsuki turned on his heel and stormed off into the night, his fists still clenched tight enough to draw blood from his own palms.

 

Izuku watched him go. He didn't feel angry. He just felt an overwhelming sense of profound, isolating sadness.

 

Kacchan was terrified of him. Even after he saved him, the fear was the only thing that remained.

 

"Yeah... I know, Kacchan," Izuku whispered to the empty street. "I know I'm a monster."

 

He turned back around to continue his walk home.

 

"I AM HERE!"

 

A massive figure suddenly shot out from a side alley, sliding across the pavement and striking a dramatic, muscular pose directly in front of Izuku.

 

Izuku yelped, stumbling backward, his heavy boots scraping the concrete. "All Might?!"

 

The towering hero flexed his biceps, his golden hair shining under the streetlights. "Hahaha! I managed to escape the press! The police wanted to interview me, but a true hero always leaves the scene gracefully! Now, I must speak with you, young—"

 

POOF.

 

A massive cloud of steam erupted from the hero, and All Might instantly deflated, coughing violently, a fountain of blood spraying from his mouth.

 

Izuku panicked, waving his clawed hands. "Ah! All Might! Are you okay?! Do we need to call an ambulance?!"

 

All Might stood up, wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his skeletal hand. He coughed a few more times, waving Izuku off. "I am fine, young man. It's just the usual."

 

The frail hero straightened his posture, his sunken blue eyes looking deeply into Izuku's glowing green ones. All the bravado was gone. The street was quiet.

 

"I came here to thank you," All Might said softly. "And to apologize."

 

Izuku blinked, utterly confused. "Apologize? To me? But... I got in the way. The Pros yelled at me. I just made things worse by scaring everyone."

 

"If you hadn't been there," All Might corrected firmly, "if you hadn't told me your story, and if you hadn't rushed into that fire... I would have been a worthless bystander watching a boy die."

 

Izuku’s eyes widened.

 

"You pushed past the fear," All Might continued, taking a step closer. "Not just the fear of the villain, but the fear of yourself. You unleashed a power you hate, a power you know the world despises, entirely because it was the only way to save a life."

 

All Might placed a bony hand on Izuku's broad, charcoal-plated shoulder.

 

"The Pro Heroes were fools to scold you," All Might said, his voice laced with absolute certainty. "They lacked the courage to act, and they blamed you for exposing their cowardice. Of all the people there today... it was you, the boy they called a monster, who acted with the truest heart of a hero."

 

Tears pricked the corners of Izuku's dark eyes. He stared at the skeletal man, unable to comprehend what he was hearing.

 

"Top heroes have stories about them from their school days," All Might smiled softly. "Most of their stories have one thing in common. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think."

 

Izuku's breath hitched. He remembered the feeling. The terrifying, instinctual drive that forced his legs to run into the flames.

 

"That was true for you today, wasn't it?" All Might asked.

 

Izuku couldn't speak. He just nodded, the tears finally spilling over, rolling down his hardened cheeks. He fell to his knees in the middle of the street, clutching his chest. He cried, great, heaving sobs that rumbled in his chest like thunder.

 

He had spent ten years waiting to hear those words.

 

"You can become a hero," All Might declared, his voice carrying the weight of destiny.

 

Izuku cried until he had no tears left. He cried until the heavy burden of ten years of isolation felt just a little bit lighter.

 

When he finally looked up, sniffing loudly and wiping his glowing eyes with the back of his arm, All Might was looking at him with an intensely serious expression.

 

"I deem you worthy," All Might said quietly. "Worthy of inheriting my power."

 

Izuku froze. His brain, which had just experienced emotional whiplash, completely stalled. "Inheriting... your power? What do you mean? Wait... I thought your quirk was super strength! Are you saying quirks can be transferred?! That's impossible, scientifically speaking—"

 

"Hahaha! Stop your muttering, boy!" All Might laughed, though it dissolved into a cough. "I'm not talking about magic. I'm talking about a very specific, very hidden quirk. It is a sacred torch, passed down from generation to generation."

 

All Might held out his hand, the palm open.

 

"It is called... One For All."

 

"One... For All," Izuku repeated, the words tasting heavy on his tongue.

 

"Yes. One person cultivates the power, and passes it to another, who cultivates it further, and passes it on," All Might explained, his eyes burning with an inner light. "It is the crystallization of power, born from the desire to save others. I am the eighth wielder. And I want you, Izuku Midoriya, to be the ninth."

 

Izuku stared at the outstretched hand. He looked down at his own body. He looked at his sharp claws, his armored skin, the dark shadows that naturally clung to his form.

 

"But... why me?" Izuku asked, his deep voice trembling. "I'm already mutated. I already have a quirk. A terrible one. And... I look like a villain. The Symbol of Peace is supposed to be a shining beacon. I'm... I'm a nightmare."

 

"A beacon can be many things," All Might countered gently. "I shine like the sun, yes. But sometimes, people don't need the sun. Sometimes, they need a protector in the dark. Someone who can terrify the wicked and shield the innocent."

 

All Might looked Izuku up and down, a calculating gleam in his eye.

 

"And practically speaking," All Might added, a grin spreading across his face, "your mutation might just be the greatest stroke of luck in the history of One For All."

 

Izuku blinked. "My mutation?"

 

"One For All is a terrifyingly powerful quirk," All Might explained. "If I were to pass it to a normal, unconditioned human, the sheer influx of stockpiled energy would blow their limbs completely off their body. They would explode."

 

Izuku gulped, looking horrified.

 

"I was planning to find a successor and train their body for years just so they wouldn't die upon receiving it," All Might admitted. "But you... look at you, young Midoriya."

 

All Might tapped his knuckles against the thick, charcoal-colored plating on Izuku's forearm. It made a dull, metallic clink sound.

 

"Your 'Abyssal Nightmare' quirk is a transformation type, but it permanently altered your baseline physiology," All Might analyzed, his eyes wide with excitement. "Your muscle density is extraordinary. Your skeletal structure is reinforced. You possess natural, hardened armor. You are incredibly heavy, incredibly durable, and capable of withstanding immense physical strain."

 

All Might pointed dramatically at Izuku's chest.

 

"Your body is a fortress, Midoriya! You are practically a tailor-made vessel for One For All! What would break a normal human's bones might barely bruise you. With my strength layered over your terrifying resilience... you wouldn't just be a hero. You would be an unstoppable force of nature!"

 

Izuku sat there, overwhelmed.

 

The very thing that made him an outcast—his heavy, armored, monstrous body—was the exact reason the greatest hero in the world thought he was perfect. The universe was offering him a chance to turn his curse into a blessing.

 

"Of course, it won't be easy," All Might cautioned, his tone turning serious again. "Even with your durable body, you are not ready yet. One For All requires absolute physical stamina. Your body is strong, but you need to temper it. You need to learn how to move, how to fight, how to handle the sheer recoil of the power."

 

All Might extended his hand once more.

 

"I will train you. I will teach you how to be a hero. But the choice is yours, Izuku Midoriya. Will you take my hand? Will you accept this burden, and become the hero the world needs?"

 

Izuku looked at the frail, skeletal hand offered to him.

 

He thought about Katsuki's terrified, resentful eyes. He thought about the Pro Heroes looking at him with disgust. He thought about the decades of isolation, the whispers, the fear.

 

They will look at you, and they will see a villain. They will fear you, and because they fear you, they will hate you.

 

Izuku clenched his massive fists.

 

Let them fear me, Izuku thought, a newfound, unshakeable resolve crystallizing in his heart. Let the villains tremble. Let the world call me a monster. If it means I can save people... if it means I can be a shield... I will be the most terrifying monster this world has ever seen.

 

Izuku reached out. His massive, charcoal-plated, clawed hand completely engulfed All Might's skeletal one. The contrast was striking—the frail man of light, and the towering boy of shadow.

 

But their grip was equally firm.

 

Izuku looked All Might in the eyes, his own glowing emerald irises burning with fierce determination. His sharp, jagged teeth parted into a fierce, unsettling smile.

 

"I'll do it," Izuku rumbled, his deep voice echoing in the quiet street with absolute certainty. "I'll be your successor, All Might. I'll make you proud."

 

All Might smiled back, a genuine, radiant expression that banished the shadows of the alley.

 

"Excellent," All Might declared. "Then rest up tonight, young Midoriya. Because starting tomorrow, we have ten months to forge you into the greatest hero U.A. High has ever seen!"

 

The monster had found his purpose. And the world of heroes was entirely unready for the nightmare that was about to awaken.

 

The salty breeze blowing off the coast of Musutafu used to be refreshing. But at Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, the wind carried the distinct, suffocating stench of wet rust, rotting seaweed, and decades of forgotten garbage.

 

Izuku Midoriya stood at the edge of the concrete seawall, his heavy, charcoal-plated boots sinking slightly into the sand. Before him lay a mountain range of refuse. Refrigerators stacked upon rusted-out pickup trucks, microwave ovens buried beneath piles of shredded tires, and twisted metal that looked like the skeletal remains of mechanical beasts.

 

"This," All Might declared, gesturing broadly to the sprawling landfill with a skeletal hand, "is your new training ground, young Midoriya!"

 

Izuku blinked his glowing green eyes, adjusting the hood of his oversized sweatshirt. "A trash dump?" he rumbled, his deep, gravelly voice echoing slightly in the quiet morning air. "I mean, I knew the beach had gotten bad, but... how is this training?"

 

All Might, looking remarkably frail in his baggy white t-shirt and cargo pants, pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket with a dramatic flourish. "Because you, my boy, are going to clean it! All of it! Before the U.A. Entrance Exam in ten months!"

 

Izuku’s jaw dropped, revealing rows of sharp, translucent teeth. "Clean all of this? In ten months?! That’s impossible! There are hundreds of tons of metal here!"

 

"Not for you," All Might grinned, his sunken blue eyes twinkling with anticipation. "I told you yesterday, your mutated physiology is practically begging for One For All. But even a fortress needs a solid foundation. If I give you my quirk right now, your body might not explode, but your muscles would tear themselves apart from the sheer recoil. You need to temper your body, build stamina, and most importantly..."

 

All Might pointed a bony finger at Izuku's chest.

 

"...You need to master the beast inside of you."

 

Izuku flinched, instinctively crossing his thick, armored arms over his chest.

 

"Your 'Abyssal Nightmare' quirk is a transformation type of the highest order," All Might explained, his tone shifting into the serious cadence of a seasoned Pro Hero. "Yesterday, you held that form for only a few minutes, and you were completely drained. From what I observed, your quirk isn't just a physical change; it actively alters your psychology. The aura of dread you emit... it affects you too, doesn't it?"

 

Izuku looked down at the sand. He dug a clawed toe into the dirt. "Yes," he admitted softly, the deep bass of his voice barely a whisper. "When I transform... it’s like diving into freezing water. The longer I stay in that form, the harder it is to think like... like a person. My brain gets foggy. All I want to do is roar, and thrash, and... hunt. If I stay in it too long, I'm terrified I won't be able to turn back. I'm scared I'll just become a feral monster."

 

All Might nodded slowly, understanding dawning on his gaunt face. "The quirk is fueled by primal instinct. You’ve spent ten years suppressing it, chaining it up in the dark. No wonder it goes wild when you let it out. But a hero cannot afford to lose control in the field, young Midoriya. You must learn to coexist with the beast, not just cage it."

 

All Might unfolded the paper in his hand, revealing a meticulously detailed, color-coded schedule.

 

"This is the 'Aim to Pass: American Dream Plan'!" All Might announced proudly. "Modified specifically for a teenager with the strength of a small tank. We are going to push your transformation to its absolute limits. You will use your Nightmare form to clear this beach. You will lift, you will pull, and you will hold that form until you can think clearly through the haze of your own instincts."

 

Izuku stared at the daunting schedule. It mapped out every hour of his life for the next ten months. Sleep, diet, school, and grueling, agonizing labor on the beach.

 

He looked out at the mountain of trash. Then, he looked at his own heavy, clawed hands.

 

"Ten months," Izuku rumbled, a jagged smile slowly forming on his face. He clenched his fists, the charcoal plating on his knuckles grinding together with a metallic sound. "I can do this."

 

"Show me what you've got, kid!" All Might cheered. "Give me the Nightmare!"

 

Izuku took a deep breath. He closed his glowing eyes and reached into the cold, dark abyss of his quirk. He didn't just crack the door open this time; he kicked it down.

 

BOOM.

 

The sand around Izuku's feet exploded outward in a shockwave of displaced air. The transformation was instantaneous and violent.

 

His body expanded rapidly, muscle and hardened armor tearing through his oversized sweatshirt until he stood nearly nine feet tall. His jaw unhinged with a sickening crack, dropping to his chest. Dozens of glowing red eyes snapped open across his broad shoulders and forearms, blinking erratically. From his back, thick, jagged tendrils of solid shadow erupted, thrashing against the rusted metal around him.

 

The temperature on the beach plummeted. The air grew thick and heavy, saturated with the paralyzing, psycho-chemical pheromone of pure dread.

 

All Might gritted his teeth, feeling the instinctual chill run down his spine. Even knowing the boy’s heart, the sheer predatory aura of the quirk was a biological nightmare.

 

Izuku—or rather, the towering behemoth of shadow and armor—let out a deafening, overlapping roar that shook the very foundation of the seawall.

 

"Start with that pickup truck!" All Might shouted, pointing to a rusted, half-buried Ford. "Pull it out of the sand!"

 

The beast turned its multiple glowing eyes toward the truck. It didn't walk; it lunged. The heavy, digitigrade legs propelled the monster forward, crossing the distance in a single bound. Izuku sank his massive, shadowy claws into the rusted frame of the truck.

 

With a guttural grunt, he pulled. The metal shrieked and groaned in protest. The truck, weighing roughly two tons and buried in wet sand, was wedged tight.

 

Izuku’s shadow tendrils whipped forward, wrapping around the front axle for added leverage. His hardened leg muscles bulged, the charcoal plating shifting and grinding. With a final, explosive roar, he ripped the truck entirely out of the sand, hoisting it over his monstrous head.

 

"Excellent!" All Might yelled, though his voice was swallowed by the sheer volume of Izuku's roars. "Now carry it to the drop-off point!"

 

Izuku took a step. Then another. The weight was immense, but his mutated body could handle it.

 

But as the minutes ticked by, the true battle began.

 

The cold abyss of the quirk began to seep into Izuku's mind. The logical, analytical boy who loved hero notebooks was being drowned in a sea of raw, predatory adrenaline. The world began to look different. Colors faded, replaced by stark contrasts of movement and heat.

 

Heavy. Angry. Crush.

 

The intrusive thoughts bubbled up, echoing in his mind in a hundred overlapping voices. His jaw snapped aggressively at the air. His extra eyes darted wildly, looking for a threat, a prey, something to tear apart.

 

After twenty minutes of hauling appliances, the burden of the transformation became too much.

 

Izuku dropped a massive refrigerator into the sand. He fell to his knees, clutching his head with his massive claws. He let out a tortured, wailing sound, a terrible mix of a human cry and a beast's roar.

 

"Midoriya!" All Might called out, running forward.

 

The beast snapped its head toward All Might, its central green eyes blown wide and feral. The shadow tendrils on its back flared aggressively, arching like scorpions ready to strike. The aura of dread spiked, suffocating and violent.

 

For a terrifying second, All Might saw absolute murder in the boy's eyes.

 

"Midoriya, listen to my voice!" All Might commanded, forcing his frail body to stand tall, radiating his own invisible aura of unyielding heroism. "You are not a monster! You are Izuku Midoriya! You are a hero! Reign it in!"

 

The words pierced through the freezing fog in Izuku's mind.

 

Izuku gasped, his claws digging into the sand. He squeezed all his eyes shut and violently ripped the quirk away, cutting off the power.

 

The shadows evaporated. The extra eyes vanished. The massive, nine-foot-tall behemoth shrank back down into the fourteen-year-old boy.

 

Izuku collapsed onto his hands and knees in the sand, violently dry-heaving. His lungs burned, and his head felt like it had been split open with an axe. He was drenched in cold sweat, his baseline charcoal skin pale and clammy.

 

"I... I lost it," Izuku gasped, his deep voice trembling with fear. "For a second... I didn't know who you were. I just wanted to attack."

 

All Might knelt beside him, placing a comforting hand on his armored back. "Twenty-two minutes, young Midoriya. That is a massive improvement from the three minutes you managed yesterday. You are fighting against your own biology. It will take time."

 

Izuku looked up at the towering pile of trash. He wiped his mouth with the back of his clawed hand. The fear of his own quirk was a heavy chain around his neck, but the burning desire to be a hero—to prove he was worthy of One For All—was stronger.

 

"Again," Izuku rumbled, forcing his heavy body to its feet. "Let's do it again."

 

 

 

The seasons changed, and the grueling cycle of the American Dream Plan consumed Izuku's life.

 

Summer faded into autumn. The oppressive heat gave way to chilling winds, but Izuku barely noticed. He spent every morning before dawn and every evening after dusk on the beach.

 

At school, the isolation continued, but Izuku’s reaction to it had fundamentally shifted. When Katsuki glared at him, or when classmates whispered about the "freak," Izuku didn't cower as much. He was too exhausted to care. His body was perpetually aching, his mind entirely focused on mastering the beast within.

 

By the fourth month, he could hold his full Nightmare transformation for a full hour before the feral instincts began to overtake his logical mind. His physical strength had skyrocketed. The dense, mutated muscle fibers beneath his charcoal plating grew even thicker, granting him a terrifying baseline strength even when he wasn't transformed.

 

By the seventh month, winter had frozen the beach.

 

"Come on, Midoriya! Push through!" All Might cheered, bundled up in a thick winter coat, sitting atop a pile of cleared refrigerators.

 

Down in the sand, a massive, shadowy titan was dragging a rusted-out bus across the beach using only thick ropes of solid shadow. Izuku’s mastery over his extra appendages had grown exponentially. He didn't just flail them wildly anymore; he used them like extra limbs, with precision and deadly force.

 

He didn't lose his mind in the transformation anymore. He had learned to build a mental dam, letting the aggressive instincts flow just enough to fuel his strength, but keeping the core of "Izuku Midoriya" protected on the other side.

 

He was still terrifying. He still emitted a psycho-chemical wave of dread that kept seagulls from flying within a mile of the beach. But he was in control.

 

When the morning of the U.A. Entrance Exam finally arrived, the spring air was crisp and clear.

 

All Might arrived at Dagobah Beach just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. He stopped at the seawall, his jaw dropping in utter astonishment.

 

The mountain of trash was gone.

 

Every single rusted car, broken appliance, and shredded tire had been moved. The beach was pristine, the golden sand stretching out to meet the gently crashing waves.

 

And standing at the very edge of the water, silhouetted against the rising sun, was Izuku Midoriya.

 

He was in his base form, but he looked radically different from the boy All Might had met ten months ago. He was taller, broader. His charcoal-plated skin looked polished, resembling dark, indestructible armor rather than mutated scabs. The dark green hair blew gently in the wind, framing his pitch-black sclera and glowing emerald irises.

 

He looked intimidating. He looked dangerous. But as he turned around and saw All Might, his terrifying, jagged teeth parted into a wide, genuine, completely pure smile.

 

"I did it, All Might!" Izuku yelled, his deep, gravelly voice booming across the empty beach.

 

All Might descended the stairs, shifting into his massive, muscle-bound form with a burst of steam. "Oh my... goodness!" All Might laughed, sweeping his arm across the vista. "You didn't just clear it, young man, you completely terraformed the place! You even cleared outside the designated zone!"

 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, his sharp claws clicking against his armored skin. "I... I got a bit carried away in Nightmare form last night. The feral instincts were trying to act up, so I just channeled it all into cleaning."

 

All Might walked forward, placing a massive, heavy hand on Izuku's shoulder.

 

"You have conquered the darkness within yourself, Izuku Midoriya," All Might said, his voice filled with overwhelming pride. "You have built a vessel capable of holding the world's greatest power. Look at this beach. This is the first step of your legend."

 

Izuku’s glowing eyes shimmered with unshed tears. He had done it. He had actually done it.

 

"Now," All Might said, his tone shifting to something deeply serious. "It is time for you to receive your reward."

 

All Might raised his hand to his head. He plucked a single, golden strand of hair from his prominent bangs. He held it up to the morning light.

 

Izuku stood at attention, his heart pounding in his chest. This was it. The sacred passing of the torch. The crystallization of power. The legacy of eight generations of heroes.

 

All Might thrust the hair forward.

 

"EAT THIS!"

 

The dramatic tension shattered into a million pieces.

 

Izuku blinked, his glowing eyes going wide. "...Huh?"

 

"To inherit the quirk, you have to ingest some of my DNA!" All Might explained, his booming smile unwavering. "It doesn't have to be hair, but this is the easiest way! Come on, we don't have much time before the exam!"

 

Izuku stared at the single strand of hair. He looked at All Might's expectant face.

 

"I... I have to eat your hair," Izuku deadpanned, his deep voice carrying a tone of absolute bewilderment.

 

"Yes! Eat it! Consume my DNA, young Midoriya!"

 

Izuku grimaced. His jaw unhinged slightly, revealing the rows of shark-like teeth. He leaned forward, pinched the hair between his thick, charcoal-plated fingers, and dropped it onto his tongue. He clamped his mouth shut, swallowed hard, and nearly gagged.

 

"It... it didn't taste like anything," Izuku muttered, coughing slightly. "Did it work?"

 

"It will take a few hours to process through your unique biology," All Might said, shifting back down into his skeletal form with a sigh of relief. "You should feel it activate just in time for the practical exam. Remember, young Midoriya, you are now the ninth wielder of One For All. Do not let the power consume you."

 

Izuku looked down at his massive hands. He didn't feel any different yet. But he felt a warmth blooming in his chest that had nothing to do with his mutation.

 

"I won't let you down, All Might," Izuku rumbled.

 

 

 

The sheer scale of U.A. High School was staggering. The massive, glass-fronted H-shaped building towered over the surrounding city, a monument to heroism and the pinnacle of superhuman society.

 

Izuku stood at the front gates, wearing his black middle school uniform. It was custom-tailored to fit his broad, heavily armored frame, but it still looked slightly too tight across the shoulders.

 

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart.

 

Okay, just keep your head down, Izuku told himself, pulling his collar up slightly. Keep the aura suppressed. Don't look anyone in the eye. Just be normal. Well... as normal as a charcoal-plated demon can be.

 

He took a step forward, joining the river of students flowing into the school grounds.

 

Almost immediately, the river parted.

 

It was an automatic reaction. The teenagers around him, excited and chattering nervously, suddenly fell silent as Izuku walked past. They gave him a wide berth, their eyes wide with unease. Izuku's baseline dread aura was suppressed, but his physical appearance was more than enough to trigger alarm bells.

 

Look at that guy...

Is he a villain? Why is he taking the hero course exam?

He looks like a Nomu.

Don't make eye contact, he might eat you.

 

Izuku squeezed his glowing green eyes shut, keeping his head pointed firmly at the pavement. He was used to the whispers, but it still hurt. He just wanted to blend in.

 

"Outta my way, Deku."

 

The voice was low, dangerous, and completely lacking its usual explosive volume.

 

Izuku opened his eyes and looked to his right. Katsuki Bakugo was walking past him. Katsuki didn't look at him. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, his shoulders hunched tight.

 

It had been ten months since the Sludge Villain incident. Katsuki hadn't bullied Izuku once in that time. He had completely ignored him, treating Izuku like a ghost. But right now, as they walked side-by-side toward the entrance exam, Katsuki’s posture was rigid.

 

Izuku’s heightened senses could smell it. The faint scent of nitroglycerin mixed with cold sweat. Kacchan was still terrified of him.

 

"G-good morning, Kacchan," Izuku rumbled politely, his deep voice vibrating in his chest.

 

Katsuki flinched slightly at the sound of the monstrous voice, but he forced a scoff. "Don't talk to me, you freak. I don't know what kind of trick you're pulling, showing up here, but I'm going to be the only one from our crappy school to pass. Don't get in my way, or I'll kill you."

 

It was a standard Bakugo threat, but it lacked conviction. Katsuki sped up, quickly distancing himself from Izuku, eager to escape the suffocating presence of the boy he feared.

 

Izuku watched him go, letting out a heavy, rattling sigh. Someday, Izuku thought. Someday I'll prove to him that I'm not a threat.

 

Distracted by his thoughts, Izuku didn't notice the slight unevenness in the brick pathway. His heavy, armored boot caught the edge of a brick.

 

With his immense, dense weight, a fall wouldn't just scrape his knee; it would likely crack the pavement.

 

Oh no, Izuku panicked, his arms flailing wildly as gravity took hold. I'm going to smash the walkway on my first day!

 

But the impact never came.

 

Instead, a strange feeling of weightlessness washed over him. He was hovering, suspended halfway between standing and falling, floating a few inches off the ground.

 

"Phew! That was close!"

 

A cheerful, bright voice broke through Izuku's panic.

 

He slowly twisted his body in mid-air. Standing beside him was a girl with short, bobbed brown hair, permanent pink blushes on her cheeks, and a warm, bubbly smile. She had one hand pressed lightly against his heavy backpack.

 

"Are you okay?" she asked, her round eyes wide with genuine concern. "It's my quirk! Sorry I used it without asking, but it'd be bad luck if you fell right before the exam, right?"

 

Izuku stared at her. His pitch-black sclera and glowing green irises locked onto her face.

 

He waited for it. He waited for the flinch. The gasp of horror. The sudden backing away as she realized she was talking to a monster.

 

But the girl just smiled brighter, pressing her fingers together. "Release!"

 

Izuku dropped the remaining few inches to the ground, landing with a heavy, metallic thud that shook the bricks.

 

The girl blinked, looking down at his boots, then back up at his hulking, broad-shouldered frame and charcoal-plated skin. "Wow! You're really heavy! And tall! Your quirk makes you look super tough! Are you aiming for a brawler hero type?"

 

Izuku's brain flatlined.

 

She wasn't scared. She didn't look at him like a villain. She was looking at him with genuine curiosity and friendliness.

 

"I-I-I, uh, I mean..." Izuku stammered. The contrast was absurd. From his terrifying, sharp-toothed mouth came the panicked, high-speed stuttering of a nervous teenager, filtered through a deep, demonic baritone voice. "Y-yes! I mean, n-no! I mean, t-thank you! F-for saving me! You didn't have to, but you did, and that's very heroic, and I'm very grateful, and—!"

 

Izuku, in his panic, bowed forward at a perfect, rigid ninety-degree angle, his massive form folding in half.

 

The girl giggled, a bright, chiming sound. "You look super scary, but you're actually just a big ball of nerves, huh? I'm Ochaco Uraraka! Nice to meet you!"

 

"I-I-Izuku Midoriya!" he rumbled to the pavement, still bowing.

 

"Well, Midoriya, let's both do our best today!" Uraraka waved, turning and skipping off toward the entrance doors.

 

Izuku slowly stood up straight. He placed a heavy hand over his chest. His heart was beating so fast he thought his ribs might crack.

 

I... I talked to a girl! Izuku thought, a jagged, terrifying smile spreading across his face, though he was crying tears of absolute joy. She didn't run away! I love U.A.!

 

 

 

The written exam was a breeze for Izuku. Ten months of analyzing quirks and studying hero tactics had prepared him well.

 

But the orientation for the practical exam was a different story.

 

The massive auditorium was packed with hundreds of prospective students. The lights were dimmed, and at the front stage stood the Voice Hero, Present Mic.

 

"CAN I GET A HEYYY?!" Present Mic bellowed, his voice amplified by his quirk.

 

Silence.

 

"Wow, tough crowd!" Present Mic laughed it off. "Alright, examinees! Let me explain the rules of today's practical test! You'll be conducting ten-minute mock urban battles! You've all been randomly assigned to different battle centers!"

 

Izuku looked down at his examinee ticket. He was in Battle Center B. He glanced over at Katsuki's ticket, seeing an 'A'. They split up students from the same middle school so we can't work together, Izuku deduced.

 

"Three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle center!" Present Mic continued, a graphic appearing on the massive screen behind him showing robotic enemies. "They are worth one, two, or three points! Use your quirks to disable them and rack up the score!"

 

Izuku pulled out a fresh notebook—Hero Analysis for the Future, No. 14—and a pen. His anxiety began to bubble up.

 

Robots, Izuku muttered under his breath. That makes sense. They wouldn't use real people. But how durable are they? If I use my Nightmare form, will my shadow tendrils be able to crush metal? My base strength is high, but if I don't transform, my mobility might not be fast enough to compete with speed-type quirks. But if I do transform, I might trigger a mass panic and get disqualified for psychological endangerment. I need to balance it. I need to use just enough aura to buff my strength without paralyzing the other examinees...

 

The problem was, Izuku's muttering wasn't normal.

 

When a normal teenager mutters, it sounds like a bee buzzing. When Izuku Midoriya muttered, it sounded like a demonic incantation being chanted in a deep, echoing cavern.

 

The students sitting in his immediate vicinity were visibly squirming. A boy with elbows shaped like tape dispensers was leaning as far away from Izuku as physically possible, sweating profusely.

 

"Excuse me!"

 

A loud, booming voice interrupted Present Mic.

 

A tall, broad-shouldered boy with glasses and meticulously combed blue hair stood up near the front. He pointed rigidly at the stage.

 

"On the printout, there are four types of villains! If this is a misprint, then U.A., the top hero academy in Japan, should be ashamed of this foolish mistake!"

 

The boy then turned completely around, his arm snapping to point directly at the back of the auditorium. He pointed straight at Izuku.

 

"And you! In the back!"

 

Izuku froze, his glowing green eyes widening in shock.

 

"Your incessant, terrifying chanting is distracting everyone around you!" the bespectacled boy declared loudly. "Furthermore, your aura is highly oppressive! If you are here to intimidate your fellow examinees and act like a villain, then you should leave this premises immediately!"

 

The entire auditorium turned to look at Izuku.

 

The spotlight was suddenly on him. The whispers started immediately, exactly the same as always.

 

Izuku felt his face burn with intense shame. He shrank down in his seat, desperately trying to make his hulking, charcoal-plated frame look small.

 

"I-I'm sorry," Izuku rumbled, his deep voice carrying a pathetic, trembling tone. "I didn't m-mean to... I was just... thinking out loud. I'll stop. Please excuse me."

 

He bowed his head, clasping his massive hands tightly in his lap, looking thoroughly scolded.

 

The bespectacled boy, Iida, blinked in confusion. He had expected the terrifying, hulking brute to snap back, or glare, or show some kind of aggression. Instead, the "monster" had apologized like a scolded puppy. Iida slowly lowered his arm, coughing awkwardly, suddenly feeling like he had just kicked a very large, very scary-looking dog.

 

"Right, well..." Iida muttered, sitting back down.

 

"Okay, okay, settle down!" Present Mic intervened. "Thanks for the catch, Examinee 7111! The fourth villain type is worth zero points! It's an obstacle! A massive gimmick that will rampage through the tight spaces! I recommend you all run away when you see it!"

 

Izuku took a deep, shaky breath. Don't transform, he told himself. Don't scare anyone. Just use your base strength. You can do this.

 

 

 

Battle Center B was a massive, sprawling fake city.

 

Izuku stood near the back of the massive crowd of examinees gathered before the towering gates. He looked around, spotting the nice girl, Uraraka, stretching near the front. He wanted to go over and wish her luck, but after being called out in the auditorium, he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself.

 

He looked down at his hands. He clenched them into fists.

 

Where is it? Izuku wondered. All Might said I would feel the quirk activate. I don't feel any different. What if my mutation blocked it? What if I didn't digest the hair fast enough?

 

"START!"

 

Present Mic’s voice boomed from the hidden speakers.

 

The gates flew open. The crowd of examinees surged forward like a tidal wave.

 

Izuku was caught off guard, stumbling forward as the mass of teenagers sprinted into the city. "W-wait! The countdown—"

 

"There are no countdowns in real battles!" Present Mic shouted. "Run, run, run!"

 

Izuku snapped out of his daze and sprinted after the crowd. His heavy boots thudded loudly against the pavement, but he was fast. Ten months of hauling trash had given him explosive leg power.

 

He rounded a corner and came face-to-face with his first target.

 

A One-Pointer robot rolled out of an alleyway on tank treads. Its single red eye locked onto Izuku. "TARGET ACQUIRED."

 

Izuku took a fighting stance. Okay! Just a punch! Base strength!

 

He stepped forward, rearing back his heavy, armored fist.

 

But before he could swing, a blinding laser beam shot past his ear, blowing the robot's head clean off. The machine exploded into a shower of sparks and metal.

 

A boy with blonde hair and a sparkling belt flipped gracefully over the wreckage. "Merci for the distraction, mon ami!" he winked, before dashing off.

 

Izuku stood frozen. "That... that was my point."

 

Panic began to set in. He resumed running, desperately searching the streets. But everywhere he went, the other examinees were already tearing through the robots. A boy with engines in his legs—the same one who had yelled at him—was kicking robots to pieces. Uraraka was touching machines and dropping them from the sky.

 

"Six minutes left!" Present Mic announced.

 

Izuku had zero points.

 

He finally cornered a Two-Pointer in a deserted intersection.

 

"Okay, this is it!" Izuku shouted.

 

He lunged forward. But hesitation gripped him. If he punched it with his full base strength, the metal might shatter and create shrapnel. He didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone who might be running around the corner. He pulled his punch at the last millisecond.

 

His fist connected with the robot's chest plate. The metal crumpled inward with a loud crunch, and the robot was sent sliding backward, but it wasn't destroyed. It raised its mechanical arm to retaliate.

 

Before it could, a stream of acid flew over Izuku's shoulder, melting the robot's internal wiring.

 

A girl with pink skin and horns slid past him on a trail of acid. "Thanks for softening it up, big guy!" she cheered.

 

Izuku fell to his knees. Zero points. Three minutes left.

 

I'm going to fail, Izuku thought, his heart sinking into a black void. I have all this strength, and I can't even score a single point. I'm holding back too much. I'm terrified of my own power. I'm pathetic.

 

Deep within his mind, the beast growled, rattling its cage. Let me out. Let me rip them apart.

 

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the internal pull. No. I won't be a monster.

 

Suddenly, the ground beneath his knees began to vibrate.

 

It wasn't a small tremor. It was a rhythmic, earth-shattering earthquake that sent cracks spiderwebbing through the asphalt.

 

Izuku looked up.

 

At the end of the main street, a towering skyscraper seemed to shift. But it wasn't a building. It was a machine.

 

The Zero Pointer rolled forward, crushing an entire building beneath its massive treads. It was easily the size of a mountain, a colossal titan of dark metal and glowing red optics. It raised a hand the size of a football field and slammed it into the ground, sending a shockwave of debris and dust tearing down the street.

 

"LESS THAN TWO MINUTES!" Present Mic yelled.

 

The examinees didn't fight. They ran.

 

A tidal wave of screaming teenagers sprinted past Izuku, fleeing in absolute terror from the mechanical leviathan.

 

Izuku stood up, his instincts screaming at him to join the retreat. It was an obstacle. Present Mic had said to run away. There was no point in fighting it.

 

He turned to run.

 

"Ow... my leg..."

 

The voice was faint, barely audible over the roaring of the machine and the crashing of concrete.

 

Izuku stopped dead in his tracks. His heightened, predatory hearing zeroed in on the sound.

 

He whipped his head around, his glowing green eyes scanning the chaotic street through the dust.

 

Near the base of the approaching Zero Pointer, pinned beneath a massive slab of shattered concrete, was Uraraka. She was reaching out desperately, tears in her eyes as the gargantuan treads of the robot rolled relentlessly toward her.

 

Nobody else saw her. The other examinees were too busy running for their lives.

 

Izuku stared at the girl who had saved him from tripping. The girl who had looked at his terrifying face and smiled.

 

Pro heroes are always risking their lives, All Might's voice echoed in his mind. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think.

 

The fear evaporated. The hesitation shattered.

 

Izuku didn't think about his score. He didn't think about his appearance. He didn't think about the consequences.

 

He closed his eyes, reached into the darkest depths of his soul, and ripped the cage completely open.

 

"COME OUT!" Izuku roared.

 

The transformation wasn't just violent this time. It was apocalyptic.

 

The air pressure in the street instantly imploded. A shockwave of pure, freezing black shadow erupted from Izuku's body, shattering the windows of the remaining buildings.

 

Izuku shot upward, his body rapidly expanding past his usual nine-foot Nightmare limit. The adrenaline and absolute desperation fueled the mutation, pushing it into overdrive. He grew to fifteen feet tall. His charcoal armor thickened into massive, jagged plates resembling obsidian dragon scales.

 

His jaw unhinged, splitting down the center and peeling back to reveal a horrifying, multi-layered maw of translucent teeth. Dozens of glowing, blood-red eyes tore open across his chest, arms, and back, glaring with unadulterated fury. Eight massive, whip-like tendrils of solid shadow erupted from his spine, thrashing wildly, tearing deep gashes into the concrete buildings around him.

 

The psycho-chemical aura of dread exploded outward like a nuclear blast.

 

The fleeing examinees at the end of the street collapsed. Iida tripped over his own engines, hitting the ground hard, his breath completely stolen from his lungs. The pink-haired girl burst into tears, paralyzed by a biological terror so profound it overrode all rational thought.

 

Even the judges watching in the observation room felt a cold sweat break out on their necks as they looked at the monitors.

 

But Izuku didn't care about them. His central, glowing emerald eyes were locked onto the Zero Pointer.

 

Deep within Izuku's chest, a spark ignited.

 

It was the quirk he had ingested hours ago. One For All had finally metabolized, and it responded to the sheer, explosive output of Izuku's Nightmare form.

 

Clench your buttocks, All Might had told him, and yell SMASH from the bottom of your heart!

 

Izuku felt the golden power of One For All flood into his veins. It didn't replace his darkness; it merged with it.

 

Violent, crackling arcs of emerald lightning erupted around Izuku's colossal, shadowy form. The lightning danced across his dark armor, illuminating his terrifying silhouette like a demon forged in a thunderstorm.

 

The power was agonizing. He could feel his dense, mutated muscles straining to their absolute breaking point, tearing and healing in rapid succession beneath his armor.

 

With a deafening, demonic roar that shattered every piece of glass left in the Battle Center, Izuku crouched down. His massive, digitigrade legs cracked the pavement, sinking knee-deep into the earth.

 

He jumped.

 

The force of the leap was so immense that a massive crater was blown into the street. The sonic boom shattered the air.

 

Izuku rocketed upward, defying his immense weight, launching himself directly into the path of the colossal robot's face.

 

The Zero Pointer's optics locked onto the incoming anomaly.

 

Izuku reeled back his right arm. The arm swelled, the charcoal plates shifting to accommodate the sheer, unnatural mass of One For All flowing into it. The eight shadow tendrils on his back spiraled together, wrapping around his right arm like a jagged, drilling gauntlet of pure darkness, crackling with blinding green lightning.

 

He reached the apex of his jump, hanging in the air directly in front of the robot's face.

 

Izuku looked into the machine's red eye.

 

"NIGHTMARE..." Izuku's deep, layered, monstrous voice boomed, echoing across the entire U.A. campus.

 

He threw the punch.

 

"...SMASH!"

 

The impact defied physics.

 

When Izuku's shadow-wreathed, lightning-infused fist collided with the solid steel face of the Zero Pointer, the metal didn't just dent. It vaporized.

 

A shockwave of condensed air pressure, dyed black by Izuku's shadows and crackling with green electricity, blasted through the robot's head. The force ripped down the length of the machine's spine, blowing its internal components out through its back in a massive eruption of fire and shrapnel.

 

The sheer concussive force of the punch parted the clouds above the city.

 

The massive, headless body of the Zero Pointer groaned, tilting backward, before collapsing into the ruined city with an earth-shattering crash that shook the judges' room miles away.

 

In the observation room, there was dead silence.

 

The Pro Heroes stared at the monitor in absolute disbelief.

 

"What... what kind of quirk is that?" Midnight whispered, her face pale.

 

"It registered as a mutation/transformation type," Present Mic said, his voice unusually quiet. "Abyssal Nightmare. But... that strength... that wasn't on his file."

 

Aizawa Shota narrowed his eyes, staring at the monstrous, falling figure on the screen. He didn't just destroy it. He annihilated it. But he's out of control.

 

In the sky, the adrenaline faded, and the recoil hit Izuku like a freight train.

 

His right arm, from the shoulder down, was completely pulverized beneath his charcoal armor. The bones were shattered into dust. The dense, mutated muscle fibers that were supposed to protect him had been shredded by the raw, unfiltered output of 100% One For All.

 

The agonizing pain shocked his brain out of the Nightmare form.

 

The shadows evaporated. The extra eyes vanished. The massive, demonic armor retracted, shrinking back into his base form.

 

Izuku, now a heavy, fourteen-year-old boy in a ruined school uniform, began to free-fall toward the concrete hundreds of feet below.

 

My arm is ruined, Izuku thought, the wind rushing past his ears. His right arm flapped uselessly at his side, bruised dark purple beneath the charcoal plates. Even with my durable body, One For All broke me. I can't catch myself. I'm going to die.

 

He looked down. He saw Uraraka, safe on the ground, staring up at him in awe.

 

At least... I saved her, he smiled softly, closing his glowing green eyes.

 

Suddenly, a sharp pain blossomed across his good cheek.

 

SLAP.

 

Izuku's eyes snapped open.

 

Uraraka was floating right next to him. She had used a piece of debris to launch herself upward and slapped him directly in the face.

 

The sensation of weightlessness washed over Izuku. He stopped falling, floating gently in the air just feet above the jagged wreckage of the street.

 

Uraraka pressed her fingers together. "Release!"

 

Izuku dropped to the ground, landing on his back with a heavy thud.

 

A few feet away, Uraraka hit the ground and immediately threw up onto the pavement, completely dizzy and exhausted.

 

Izuku lay there, staring up at the clear sky. His right arm was screaming in agony. His body was completely drained.

 

"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic's voice echoed through the center.

 

A siren blared, signaling the end of the exam.

 

The paralyzing fear aura that Izuku had emitted completely dissipated. The other examinees slowly began to stand up, shaking off the lingering terror. They walked forward, forming a wide circle around the crater where Izuku lay.

 

They stared at him. They stared at the destroyed Zero Pointer.

 

"Did... did he do that?" Iida whispered, adjusting his glasses with a trembling hand. "That monster... he destroyed that behemoth with a single blow."

 

"But... look at him," the pink-haired girl pointed. "He's completely broken."

 

Izuku didn't hear them. He rolled his head to the side, looking at Uraraka. She was safe. That was all that mattered.

 

"Well, well, well. Let's see what we have here."

 

The crowd parted as a tiny, elderly woman hobbled forward, using an oversized syringe as a cane. Recovery Girl.

 

She walked up to Izuku and tutted, looking at his pulverized arm. "You have a remarkably durable body, sonny, but you treated it like a cheap toy. Pushing past your absolute limits on the first day?"

 

She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

 

Izuku felt a sudden, massive drain on his remaining stamina. His heavy eyelids drooped as his body’s natural healing factor was kicked into overdrive by her quirk. The shattered bones in his arm painfully knit themselves back together beneath his armored skin.

 

"That's all the healing I can do for now," Recovery Girl sighed. "You'll need a lot of rest. Let's get him on a stretcher."

 

As the medical robots loaded Izuku onto the stretcher, he looked around at the other students.

 

They weren't looking at him with disgust anymore. They were looking at him with awe, fear, and profound confusion.

 

Izuku closed his eyes as the stretcher rolled away.

 

I didn't get a single point, he thought, the exhaustion finally pulling him into unconsciousness. I failed the exam. But... I don't regret it. I'd do it again.

 

He was the monster who had saved the day. And for Izuku Midoriya, that was enough.