Chapter Text
“Why are you being so mean? You’re making him cry, Kacchan! If you keep on hurting him, I’ll- uh... I’ll stop you myself!”
Izuku is so scared right now. He’s never actually defied Kacchan before- or at least, he’s never stood his ground while doing so. But this… this is wrong, this is a whole new level of mean Kacchan had been building up towards ever since he got his Quirk.
Deep inside him, there’s a feeling that Izuku has never felt before that’s keeping him there even while his limbs are shaking, that was born the moment the boy behind him started crying. It’s small, a tiny pebble, really, but it stays firm and burns almost hotter than he can stand, miring his feet to the ground when the only thing he wants to do is run.
Even covered in bruises and dirt, Izuku has never felt so strong before.
Kacchan… he thinks Kacchan can see that, because something in his eyes shifts and there’s a weird sort of tension between them now. Something crackles in the air between them and for some reason it feels like something extremely important just happened. Then he blinks and Kacchan gives him a vicious grin, and he wonders if he imagined it.
“You want to pretend be a hero?” Kacchan smacks a fist into his other hand, letting off a miniature explosion. “You don’t stand a chance without a Quirk, Deku!”
Despite his resolve, Izuku finds himself flinching back and closing his eyes when Kacchan and his two other friends dash forward, Quirks at the ready. He braces for impact… but instead of the feeling of fists, he hears shoes scuffing on dirt and shocked yelps.
Surprised, Izuku tentatively cracks open one eye… and then they both fly open wide at the sight of short blonde hair and a small body standing in front of him.
“Three against one, now that doesn’t seem very fair. How about I even the odds?” drawled a… girl’s voice?
“Who the heck are you?!” Kacchan growled, hands held out in front of him, small pops and a thin trail of smoke from tiny explosions a visible indicator of just how mad he was.
“Does it matter? The only thing that matters here is that you’re a bully, and I’m going to stop you.”
Kacchan scoffed derisively. “You and what army? Hope you’re not counting on that Quirkless loser to help,” Izuku flinched. “Look at him- shaking like the worthless scaredy cat he is.”
The girl turned her head slightly to glance back at him and he finds himself pinned in place by the brightest blue he's ever seen in an eye. “He’s still here, isn’t he?” she said cryptically, then smirked. “As for an army….”
Then something weird happened. The girl started to shake, her face screwed up like she was in pain, and then a pair of arms shot out of her back! They pushed against her body to help pull a torso out of her, and for one particularly disturbing moment there was an entire upper half of a body hanging off of hers, before the… clone? gave one last heave and became a fully realized duplicate. All of them watched in fascination and mild disgust as she did it again, and then suddenly there were three of her standing there, all lined up to face off against one of Kacchan’s gang, with the original staring him down.
“Woah, what kind of Quirk is that?!” one of Kacchan’s friends- Giichi- exclaimed.
Izuku was literally vibrating with excitement, his mind spinning with all the possibilities. For example, why are all of the clones clothed when they are clearly a physical manifestation? How do they communicate? Are they all individuals, copies of the original that become independent as they experience different things? Are they actual people now, and if not then how long do they last? How far can they go from the original? Can they do anything else?
The original glanced back at him over her shoulder, a curious and mildly amused expression on her face. “You alright back there?”
Izuku realized he’d been muttering again. “Oh! Uh, I’m fine. Just… your Quirk is really cool!” he enthused, beyond excited. He’d never seen a Quirk like this one before!
She smiled. “Thanks, I think so too.” Turning back to Kacchan- who was looking more and more annoyed that she was ignoring him, especially in favor of Izuku- she asked, “I’ve got this handled- really my clones are kind of overkill for this, even- so you don’t really need to fight… but do you want to help out anyway?”
Izuku peered over at Kacchan and recoiled, having never seen that expression on his face before. “Uh… w-why do you have to fight? There’s no need to be violent!”
Her face went alarmingly blank. “Guys like him, they don’t listen to anything else.” She sent him a sympathetic look. “Sometimes you just have to fight, no matter how stupid it is. Some things you just can’t back down on.”
“You having fun chatting it up back there, ignoring me?!” Kacchan yelled, throwing himself at the girl with a roar.
“Kacchan, no!” Izuku cried, reaching out to pull her out of the way, or get between them, or something. He was well aware of how much damage Kacchan could do, how much a hit from him really hurt, and unless those clones of hers had some sort of special ability, she didn’t stand a chance.
Or so he thought.
The girl didn’t hesitate. In one fluid movement that Izuku had trouble following, she easily got up into Kacchan’s space and used his momentum to send him flying in a graceful arc over her shoulder. He flew pretty far too.
For a moment everyone gaped, even Kacchan. Then he lunged to his feet and threw himself at her again with an excited gleam in his eye and a bloodthirsty smile. After seeing her dispatch Kacchan so easily, his friends hesitated to engage the clones, but a barked order followed by an accusation of cowardice had them rushing forward.
They didn’t stand a chance, really. Izuku had never seen someone fight so gracefully in real life before, especially no one his age. Most of the girls in class were just interested in dolls and pretty dresses, and the weird girl was nothing like any of them. She moved like some of the martial arts specializing superheroes he sees on TV sometimes, and even Kacchan can’t seem to get an upper hand no matter how fiercely he throws himself at her. To his credit though, that didn’t faze Kacchan for even a second- he kept her on her toes through sheer ferocity alone, one part apoplectic rage and another part vicious glee.
But they couldn’t stay in a deadlock forever. Izuku noticed with the practiced eye of a hero fanboy that while Kacchan’s ferocity and raw strength allowed him to keep up with the blonde’s obviously well-practiced martial arts, his movements were sloppy and taxing, his building rage making him put more force into his hits than he should causing him to overextend, making it easier to unbalance him and giving her more momentum to use against him for throws and pins. She, on the other hand, wasted no movement or energy, and it seemed she had a better base stamina as well because she didn’t even look winded. In less than five minutes she had him pinned to the ground in an armbar, her breathing only slightly fast.
‘Kacchan… actually lost!’
“Y-you… bitch…!” Kacchan panted. “Let go... of me, I’m not... done yet!”
To Izuku’s surprise, she obliged, and Kacchan staggered to his feet with what looked like a supreme amount of effort, but he wobbled dangerously, lurching forward and almost falling twice just standing there. He staggered forward a couple steps, raising his fist in a sloppy and desperate straight punch… and fell to his knees again, gasping for air.
“You’re done,” she told him flatly, a hard look in her eyes, “stay down.”
“Mother… fucking… bitch…” Kacchan gasped.
She cocked her head to the side, thoughtful, then knelt down so that their faces were inches apart. “Does it make you feel strong, beating up on someone who can’t fight back? Does it make you feel powerful? Pathetic,” she scoffed. “You know, my Quirk may make more of me, but it doesn’t do anything to alter my base physical abilities. Essentially, I just fought you Quirkless- and won. I kicked your ass and I didn’t even need my Quirk to do it. You might want to think about that the next time you start spewing that ‘worthless, Quirkless’ garbage again.”
She rose to her feet and nonchalantly brushed off her jeans, then grabbed Izuku’s hand and started pulling him away. Still slightly shell shocked from the unexpected turn of events, he didn’t think to resist, and only regained control of his tongue once they were already at the playground on the other side of the park. She turned to face him head on for the first time and Izuku absently noticed with a start that one of her eyes is purple, not blue, and that there was a strange pale dot the size of a nickel right in the middle of her forehead.
“T-that- you- that was amazing!” he gushed. “Y-you beat Kacchan! You- you beat Kacchan!” He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Kacchan just always seemed so… invincible. And she was his age!
“Sure did,” she replied, as if what she just did wasn’t anything special, “I really, really hate bullies.” She smiled at him. “But what I did wasn’t really that amazing- not compared to what you did.”
Izuku’s eyes went wide. “M-me?” he squeaked. “I- I didn’t do anything, I just got beaten up.” Amazing, him? No way. “I was really scared the whole time, a cry baby just like Kacchan said.”
She shook her head and gave him a small smile. “What do you think bravery is?”
Izuku blinked, thrown. He’d… never thought about it. “Uh, it’s like when heroes fight bad guys, right?”
She shrugged. “That’s an example of it, I suppose, but not really the kind of bravery I’m talking about. No, bravery is being scared out of your mind but standing up and doing something anyway. It’s standing in front of a bully even though you know you can’t win. It’s facing down someone who hurt you and refusing to back down. It’s standing up to a friend even when it costs you your friendship because you know that what they’re doing is wrong. That's the rarest kind of bravery there is, and the most valuable.”
Izuku sniffled once, trying to push down the prickling feeling in his eyes. Then his breath hitched and he scrunched up his face in an effort to keep the tears from spilling over. Finally, when one of the drops managed to escape and make its way down his cheek, he gave up the goat and started full out crying. No one had ever said anything like that to him before, ever.
Smiling, she held out her hand. “Ah, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself- hi, my name is Ishini. You’re Dekiru, right?”
Shaken and reeling, Izuku shook her hand on autopilot. “It’s Deku- ah, I mean, Izuku, actually.”
She hummed, studying him from under her lashes. “Hmm, nope, from what I saw Dekiru suits you much better. ‘I can do it!’ Yeah, you seem stubborn like that. I’m calling you that from now on.”
“W-wait, what?! No!” he protested, before his mind registered the rest of what she said. “Hold on, ‘from now on’?”
“Yep,” she said, her lips popping the P, grin wickedly wide. “We’re going to be great friends from now on!”