Chapter Text
Izuku found himself waking up in a dark abyss.
It was the night after the entrance exam. He had gone to bed fully believing that he had failed. After all, he didn’t manage to get a single point.
‘Stupid, worthless deku’ he thought. Cursing himself for failing. For letting All Might down. How could he be a hero if he couldn’t get into UA? It was his dream school! It’s where all the greatest heroes went. And he’d screwed it up.
“Y’know, Kacchan’s idea to take a swan dive is looking pretty appealing right about now” he mumbled to himself, beginning to walk aimlessly around the void. “Why see the disappointed looks from everyone who believed in me when I can just face death and save myself the embarrassment”
He was about to continue his pitiful sulking when he heard a voice yell out. “OH MY GOD ISN’T THAT A MOOD!”
Shocked, he began to frantically look around him. Trying to find out where the voice had come from. All he was met with was black.
He began to walk backwards, not entirely sure what to expect, when he tripped over something. Landing in the ground with an ‘oof’ he looked up and saw a giant chair that looked like one you’d see in a throne room.
Turning his head, he came face to face with a group of seven people and one figure made of mist. Six of them were staring at him while two stood with their faces against a wall that definitely wasn’t there before. Sucking in a deep breath, Izuku pushed himself to his feet before facing them head on.
For a moment it was silent before a man with shoulder-length white hair stood up and walked over to him.
“Welcome to bible studies, we’re all children of Jesus” they said, with a wide smile on their face. Before Izuku could even reply, they started singing “kuuuuumbaya my lord”
The other figures began to groan, some rolling their eyes while one of them told the man to ‘shut up’. Still taken by surprise, Izuku let out a small giggle. This instantly caught the man’s attention as he grabbed Izuku by the shoulders and began to shake him violently.
“Toshinori! You beautiful beast, you have picked the best successor anyone could ask for!” He yelled at the ceiling(?) it was more like the roof of the void.
“What’s- what’s going on?” Izuku questioned, stumbling to catch himself when the white haired man let go. “Who are you? Why am I here?”
“Oh right, introduction time!” The white haired man began. He opened his mouth to speak before a look of panic appeared on his eyes. “I’ve changed my mind, Second! Can you please introduce everyone? I don’t like doing it”
The man, second(?) he was guessing. Let out a sigh as he turned around from the wall and stalked towards the greenette. He stood tall in front of the boy, easily casting a shadow over him. “Him over there” he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the white haired man. “Is first. He does have a real name, but it’s easier to go by numbers for now. He’s the first user of this quirk that you’ve got. I’m second. You can probably guess why. The other one over by the wall is third. I’m sure the others will want to introduce themselves so I’ll leave that to them. You, Midoriya Izuku. Are nine. The void you are in now is pretty much the subconscious of the quirk. It’s where the user’s souls reside after their death. For some reason, you are able to enter here. Normally contacting the current user is difficult and can only be done under certain circumstances. You however, don’t fit into that.” He finished, turning around and walking back to the wall.
Izuku stood still for a moment, processing the information he was just given. ‘He didn’t fit into the normal circumstances? Why was that?’
“Anyway” a voice interrupted. He was shaken out of his thoughts by first who was now bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Let’s get you introduced to the others, then I can teach you all about the ways of the best generation that ever walked the earth!”
“No one wants to hear that first” a voice called out. Izuku turned his head to see a man with hair a similar length to first’s with three crack looking scars over his left eye. “I am Shinomori Hikage, or four. My quirk is called danger detection. It’s a pleasure to meet you nine”
“It’s nice to meet you too!” Izuku relied, giving the man a smile.
“Sup little dude, I’m Banjo Daigoro or five!” Yelled a bald man as he ran up to the three of them. Activating what Izuku believed to be his quirk. He then proceeded to try and get hold of four. “The quirks name is black whip if you’re interested.”
Izuku took note of the name before turning to see a man with short black hair. “That’s En, or six!” Five called out. “He ain’t really one for talking much. But he’ll come round to it eventually” he informed.
Izuku nodded his head and gave six a smile, before turning to the final person. She was a woman with onyx black hair that was tied into a half up half down style.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Izuku. I’m Shimura Nana or seven. Although I’d prefer if you call me Nana. I’m not as big with the numbers as our names as the others are” she gave a warm, welcoming smile. “The one beside me is Toshi, or All Might as you know him. Since he isn’t dead, it’s more like his soul is here but also not. He can’t talk but can still express things”
“It’s nice to meet you all!” Izuku said, a grin on his face.
“Now nine!” First called, grabbing Izuku’s hand and pulling him away from the rest of the users. “I have so much to teach you”
__________
The next day, Izuku awoke in his room.
He lay there for a second contemplating if the hours of ‘gen Z education’ he had received really happened. He definitely knew more about the topic. But maybe that was just some weird ideas he had made up. There was no way that a gorilla dying ‘fucked up the timeline’ as first had put it.
‘What a weird dream’ he thought as he pushed himself out of bed and went toward the bathroom. ‘Did I really speak to the past users or did I just make that up? I’ll have to ask All Might about it’ he continued his internal monologue. Jumping into the shower, he turned the heat up as hot as he could handle before he began washing his hair. He was about halfway done with washing the conditioner out when the shower curtain was pulled open.
“Hey Nine-“
“AAAAAAAAAA” he began to scream
“Stop screaming it’s just me- why do you have so much-”
Izuku grabbed the curtain, tugging it back to cover himself. He then grabbed the bottle of conditioner that was on the products rack and threw it at first. To no one's surprise it went right through him.
“Sir, this is a Wendy's” first said in a deadpan voice. To which Izuku would have laughed if it wasn’t for the fact that first was in his bathroom.
“GET OUT” he screamed from behind the curtain.
“Fine, I’m going” he heard first complain. A second later it was complete silence other than the running shower.
__________
Izuku had gotten out of the shower about two minutes later, getting changed into his clothes and brushing his teeth. Thank god his mother wasn’t home due to work. He wasn’t really in the mood to explain ‘oh I was yelling at a ghost’ without looking insane.
Entering his bedroom once again, he saw first moving around and staring at all of his stuff.
“You have a lot of All Might stuff” he said once noticing the greenette had entered. “My room used to look similar, but with anime posters and my life sized Danny DeVito cardboard cutout” he added nonchalantly. “It wasn’t as bad as my brother's room though. Any trend he saw on TikTok was instantly added to his room. LED lights, vines - and no, not the vines I told you about yesterday - at one point he even had toilet paper hanging from his fan. It made a vortex when it turned on. There was this one time we took a family trip to America when an election was coming up. My brother ended up stealing the signs from people’s gardens and proudly displaying them on his wall when we got home” first laughed at the memories. “It’s a shame what ended up happening though” he sighed
“What happened?” Izuku prompted, walking over towards first who seemed to be disheartened.
“Eight didn’t tell you?” He asked, sadness turned to shock. Seeing the confused look he got, first began to seem angry. “The whole point of the quirk is related to that asshole I call brother and All Might didn’t tell you a thing?!” He began to pace over Izuku’s floor. “Okay then, didn’t think I’d be having to say this but now I am... My brother is the reason this whole quirk exists! His quirk is the ability to take and transfer quirks. When he was younger my family made him hide it because at the time those with quirks weren’t treated well. However, as he got older he became more aware of what he could do. He used to take quirks all the time and give them out to others. He thought himself to be a god. They thought I was quirkless, but it turns out I had a hidden quirk. The ability to pass on a quirk. Only found that out after the dickhead forced a stockpile quirk onto me. I was really ill at the time, so he thought I was weak and needed protecting. He even locked me in a vault for ‘the greater good’. Believed that him giving me a quirk would make him see his ways, be stronger and completely give into his will. But nope bitch! It gave me more reason to fight against him. I passed the quirk onto second not long before I was killed in the fight. And the quirk is meant to be passed down until one of the users kills him. He had a longevity quirk that keeps him from aging y’see. Sorry you had to be dragged into this not knowing, I thought you knew” he told the boy, dragging his hand down his face and groaning. “You’d think eight would have told you this before giving you a quirk that puts are target on your back, but I guess not”
“I-“ Izuku couldn’t speak. Why wasn’t he told any of this before? It could have had a major effect on his answer. But at the same time, he didn’t regret taking the quirk. Especially if he could help people.
“Ugh, this sucks. But hey, at least you’ve got me and the other users to help you. Even though second and third are acting like dicks and not wanting to be involved in this. But it’s chill”
“So it’s too late to just curl up in a hole and die?” Izuku asked, slumping against the wall. He could feel anxiety clawing at his chest.
“Sadly yes” first nodded. “By the way, I can feel your emotions. I know you’re anxious but I’ve got a little something that will help you feel better”
“What is it?” Izuku asked, hands grabbing at his arms.
“Any time you feel anxious, this is what you’ve gotta say - my anxiety is chronic but this ass is iconic”
This prompted Izuku to full on snort with laughter. First also began laughing, to which Izuku pointed out he sounded like a windex bottle.
__________
For the rest of the day Izuku and first ended up talking about what life was like before quirks were everything.
With every reference and joke first made, Izuku could practically feel the other users sigh within him.
At one point first even talked about a game at the time called minecraft. Going on about youtubers at the time like Skydoesminecrft, DanTDM, Stampy and more. Soon explaining how it became popular again five years after everything had died down when something called the dream smp surfaced, which resulted in first demanding Izuku watch videos of the main events that occurred.
Within the week that Izuku had to wait for his exam results, he had ended up becoming extremely familiar with all the references first made. Soon enough he also began quoting them at random times. To the confusion of his mother, the annoyance of the OFA users and the utter joy of first.
Maybe having first as a mentor wasn’t too bad.