I would like to make it clear, Nox is in absolutely no way, shape, or form a good role model; he may occasionally have some good verbal advice, but he is.... nope. Just... don't.
And on that note, I completely forgot to update this Monday, sorry?
-T.A.L.A.
Abandoned like nothing once again in just a span of a couple hours, he stared, his smile wobbling weaker than ever before. This time more disparaged then they had ever been, even when Bakugo was at his absolute worst. Izuku stood by the railing of the deserted rooftop. For one glorious second he had felt hope again. He had laid himself at the mercy of the number one hero, the pillar of righteousness, justice and hope itself, and they had said the same everyone else had. They had found him unworthy. (Useless.) And everything was just sucked straight out of him. He barely even felt the near constant despair that tailed him anymore. He was empty.
Alone with his thoughts again, and like a symphony they swelled even louder than ever before. Raging in his ears.
"Why don't you do us all a favor and take a swan dive off a roof maybe in the next life you'll have a quirk."
The words seemed to echo endlessly in his head, slowing an endless amount of time into a single moment that seemed to last forever.
"I'm sorry, Izuku, I-I'm so so sorry, you won't ever be a hero."
His mother's words joined them, said to him as he, despairingly sought for any comfort in his world so recently torn apart, ripped to shreds not even minutes before. Her empty apologies fell on deaf ears. It was almost funny how so much like history, his life only seemed to repeat itself.
But a new voice joined the cacophony, "No, I'm sorry, it is challenging enough for people with great and awe inspiring quirks to become a hero. For someone completely without a quirk it would be impossible."
All might's booming voice joined the swarm, filling his head so he couldn't think, couldn't think, the railing went swimming into his vision.
Impossible. How he despised that word. How it had tailed him for so long.
I'm sorry, Izuku so so sorry
Do us all a favor and take a swan dive
Without a quirk it would be impossible
I'm sorry Izuku
Swan Dive
Worthless
Impossible
Useless
Jump
Without a quirk
Empty headed
Stupid useless Deku
Jump
So so so sorry
Dekuuuuu!
Trash
So so so so sorry
Jump
Jump, jump, jump.
jumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpju-
For a third time that afternoon Izuku moved without thinking... and he jumped. Air once more whipped past him only this time he was falling. Falling through the wind as peace finally washed over him, the voices fading into a blissful silence allowing him once more the ability to clearly think. And then realization dawned. He began to notice what he had done as the panic took over.
What was he thinking?!?! (He wasn't)
How could he just-(it had been simple really, so much easier th-)
What would his mom do (finally have more time now that she didn't ha-)
He didn't want to go, (yes, he did. He very so much did.)
He- He didn't want to die like this! (Maybe... maybe he didn't, not like this, not showing the world he had failed to even do the bare minimum, to-).
But what choice did he have? He had already made his and it was too late to reverse it.
And then... then it was over, the terror receding as he was caught, arms wrapping around him and roughly throwing him over one shoulder so his cheek hit their solid, too warm back. He was caught.
He had been caught.
Black spots danced in his vision as once again as the force of being caught knocked the breath straight from his lungs, almost as painful as the surge of relief that blocked everything else from his mind. Once again he became truly deaf to the world and his surroundings.
He woke up to a plain room. Or rather a plain nurses' office? There were only really two beds and no curtains surrounding them although there was an open window letting a breeze in, covered by a curtain. Everything in it was the bleached white you rarely found outside hospitals except a desk with an attached cabinet and drawers that was stainless steel. Nothing but a single pen could be seen on the desk.
He glanced around once more before slowly sitting up, and sliding out of the bed. His bare feet flinched back from the cold floor, although it seemed his backpack, socks, and shoes were the only thing missing as he still had his uniform on. As quietly as he could he walked toward the door; it didn't have a handle, but swung open quietly with a soft push.
Stepping from the room he was greeted with even more white. He had entered a hall with six similar doors along it. One at each end and two on each side. Unsure what to do he went to move towards the door across from him until he heard a soft sound from the farthest one. He changed direction and moved towards the one at the other end of the hall. The door openers without a sound at his push revealing to him a simple kitchen on one side with a single chair against the wall and two couches and a coffee table on the other side. A lap top sat closed atop the table. Once more in only whites and stainless steel.
Looking shockingly out of place, sitting straight, legs crossed in the stainless steel chair was a man- or perhaps Izuku should say an older teen, he couldn't have been more than twelve years older than Izuku's own seven years of life. The sound, no doubt coming from the flip of the pages, was a testament to how silent the house was. But that wasn't what made him so out of place. For starters he wore black. A long black jacket, black t-shirt, black jeans, and black shoes. His multitude of ear piercings were silver as were the assortment of bracelets and necklaces he wore. The stones on any bracelets that had them were dark blues and purples. The necklace chains disappeared under his shirt with the exception of a dark purple and blue pendant that dangled almost all the way to his stomach.
The second thing that put him out of place was his hair- which was tied back- but had flames lacing through and flickering around it. Literal flames. His nails were painted brightly to look like fire with purple or blue backgrounds and his eyes were a yellow-orange, thin rimmed glasses sat perched on his nose.
Izuku wasn't sure if he should disturb the other, despite being as silent as he could he knew the man had heard him. The house was just that noiseless. A pin dropping here would seem relatively louder than a scream in a library. He fidgeted at the door frame unsure of what to do. A page turned and still he remained unacknowledged.
Unable to bear it any longer, Izuku spoke up first, "Er, uh, I'm sorry- H-hello, uh, sir..." he trailed off leaving the sentence to be devoured into the silence.
"Hello." They didn't look up.
"Sir?" Nothing, he tried again, "I'm sorry to bother you, r-really I am, but- I'm sorry, you see I don't know w-wh-" the yellow orange eyes rose to meet his and he hurried to squeak out yet another apology.
Slowly they pulled the glasses off their face and set them on the nearby counter where another near-identical set already lay off to the side, moving their hand to massage the bridge of their nose as the other snapped the book closed and they leaned back. "If you apologize one more time, I will hit you." It wasn't a threat, it was said completely clinically, restrained, and with a perfect air of calm.
"I'm s-sorry."
They rose stalking gracefully over to where Izuku stood frozen, before whacking the backside of his head with the back of their hand. It was surprisingly gentle. "Clearly, you aren't." Izuku turned to keep his eye on the strange man as they kept walking, one hand stretched back to hold the door open although they didn't stop and Izuku quickly hurried through it- the door nearly shutting in his face. The hand that had held the door reached into a pocket pulling out yet another identical set of glasses to the ones they had abandoned on the counter and slid them on. "Now what I'm wondering is what possessed you to ruin my perfectly calm schedule."
Automatically he stuttered our an apology, "I-I'm sorry." He got gently whacked on the back of his head again without the other even glancing behind them.
Once more they held the door open as they entered a new room from the hall, but only for as long as their arm could reach, this room Izuku recognized as the one he had woken up in. "An answer, please, not another apology."
"S-Sorry." He got whacked on the back of the head yet again "Sorry." Again.
"This is hurting you more than it is me, I can assure you."
"Right, s-" they raised their hand with a cocked eyebrow and Izuku cut himself off, "I didn't m-mean to ruin anybody's day, sir, I was just- I don't- I wasn't thinking...."
"And what of the person who found you? Your corpse lying melded into the sidewalk wound not have been a pleasant sight, especially for first time viewers."
Izuku looked down ashamed, "I'm s- I wasn't thinking, I just- I kept hearing them, everybody's always been telling me that I can't do anything. That I'm worthless. That I should grow up and face reality and now.... now the one person who I thought might offer me just a little bit of hope crushed it."
"Clearly." He paused as if unsure how to continue, sharp eyes watching him as the stranger thought through their next words for a moment. "You jumped off of a building, but then you decided you wanted to live."
"Y-yes, how.... how do you know that? Is it your quirk?"
The other scoffed sitting on the edge of the desk prompting Izuku to take a seat on the bed he had been laying on top of. "Hardly, not everything is quirks" they made a face Izuku had never seen made in relation to quirks before, even to the lack of them, " as people seem to think these days; I have a doctorate in psychology and for a short while I took great interest in micro expressions. It makes it very easy to lie and even more difficult to be lied to; a useful skill if you care what other's believe. Now what are your oh so unattainable dreams then? Because I'm a bit skeptic if everybody you've met declares it impossible."
"I- I want to be a hero."
Yellow orange eyes observed him for a few seconds, sizing him up as they glided over him. They gave him a disbelieving look. "Then I would agree, I can't see it happening either."
"How can you say that! You don't even know what I can do!" Izuku bristled to hide the hurt. He didn't even know he was quirkless and yet still...
"You're weak for one. Not to mention look and act like a strong breeze will bowl you straight over, I mean just look at how scrawny you are. It's not exactly a comforting sight- which is sort of a requirement in the current system. And over half your sentences have an apology in it, you'd just roll over before a villain. Like a puppy. Likely you would totally rely on your quirk and get yourself killed or worse. Whatever your quirk is cannot make up for lack of inner strength."
"I don't have a quirk!"
"Even more so then, what can you do? So many people wish to be heroes nowadays hero schools don't even teach anymore they just fine tune those with natural talent and strong quirks. You have neither so; what do you have to build off of?"
"I'm smart!" Izuku was still bristling in indignation- but he knew the offense could only keep despair away for so long.
"And how will that help?" They leaned back.
Izuku fell silent, shrinking back.
They tilted their head to the side smugly, "See? You may consider yourself smart but your way of thinking is inflexible there's plenty of ways to kill someone with the correct knowledge and get away with it... although I suppose as a hero capture would be the goal instead."
"Well what can I do then?" Izuku mumbled sinking further back.
"You said it yourself; I don't know you, I was already wrong about one thing."
"What do you mean? You were right, completely right. ...I'm worthless."
"Well first, I implied you were spineless that hardly is an equivalent to worthless, it requires a true lack of resourcefulness or creativity to deem something useless, everything can be used or repurposed. And second; clearly you do have some spine otherwise you wouldn't have argued with me." They gave a wicked smile that practically said that that was the response they were hoping for before continuing on, "And I can safely assume whoever your lackluster 'last hope' was didn't know you either. If you truly wish to be a hero, then it would be best if you take the time to think about what exactly makes a hero, and then work towards shaping yourself into that. A quirk isn't needed to be a hero, the will to stand strong is, and it's up to you to decide the rest. Now, I didn't know where to take you and was hesitant about the hospital considering both your circumstances and how even unconscious you kept refusing to go back somewhere."
"Oh... why did you help me?"
The other sighed and shook their head, "It seems you and I both clearly know every kindness has a reason behind it beyond simply doing what's good and right, but this has no strings attached for you. You're stuff is under the bed if you didn't notice, feel free to leave when you like." They left the room. He didn't hear a noise despite the silence in the house and he almost thought the other was waiting behind the door if it hadn't been for how silent he had walked out of the room too.
Izuku stood alone in the room, more confused than he had been in a long time, more lost than he had ever been, and, oddly enough, more hopeful too.
It was odd, having someone believe in him.