Chapter Text
It was like a switch had been flipped.
Izuku Midoriya was only four years old when his world was flipped upside down, when he went from an ordinary boy, to possibly the most dangerous living person in the world. He had been in the living room, overseen by his mother, as he played with his action figures. All Might flew around the imaginary cities that Izuku visualized in his mind, the superpowered hero in spandex flying across buildings, punching and saving people alike. His eyes sparkled as he imagined All Might causing tornadoes with a single punch, saving a million people in a fraction of a second, and stopping a billion villains in two. Highly exaggerated, but almost not too far from how it seemed in reality.
That was when it happened. Izuku’s eyes sparkled when he played with his toys, and Izuku’s eyes sparkled when his Quirk manifested. His Sixth Sense. His Sixth Eye.
“Come on, class! You’re in your final year of High School! It's time to take your future seriously!” The teacher announced from his podium in the front of the room, “Now, I would be handing out these printouts on your desired life-course but…” With dramatic flair, he threw the papers in the air, the printouts falling through the air like leaves in the wind, “...You all want to be heroes, am I right?”
With that, with the exception of two students, the whole class erupted into cheers, their Quirks flaring out.
“Yes yes, you all have some wonderful Quirks, but you all know its against the rules-” “Hah! Sensei, don’t lump me in with the rest of these nobodies !” A voice shouted from the back, causing a sudden lull to fall into the room as Bakugou Katsuki smirked to himself, his feet on the desk of his chair as he leaned back, “You can’t compare my Quirk to the rest of these losers, I’m a whole different league compared to them.” He taunted, rabble rousing his class with his goads and taunts.
“You’ve got a big fucking mouth Katsuki!” “Yeah! Boo!” “You suck!”
The insults thrown barely even seemed to affect him, it was the equivalent of throwing pebbles against the giant mental wall. Bakugou let out a bark of laughter, “Quiet, you damn trash mobs!” He fired back, laughing. “Ah, Bakugou Katsuki. You’re planning to enroll in UA High, correct?” The teacher said, the mere mention of the top hero school in Japan silencing the whole class. With that, Bakugou jumped up and clattering up to his seat, “Are you peons done flapping your tongues?! Have you spouted enough shit today?!” Bakugou stared down the class from his spot on top, a feral grin on his face, “I aced the mock test! Perfect scores all around!” He declared, “I’m the only one from this shitty school whose worth a damn, me!”
“I’ll be the one on top, I’ll even surpass All Might, and I’m gonna carve my name as the richest person in the world-”
“What about Midoirya-kun!” A voice called from the crowd, stunning Bakugou into silence. The crowd began to mutter.
“Yeah, you think you’re so great, but Midoriya’s got you beat in everything!” “He aced the mock exam too!”
Bakugou gritted his teeth. ‘Again, its always, always always him! ’
The blond teen let out a roar as he pounced forward, an explosion striking the greenette, who seemed unconcerned. It slammed into him, a plume of smoke, “As, IF!” He roared, slamming another explosion, letting loose another plume of smoke. He reared back his arm to throw another explosion, before the teacher intervened.
“Bakugou!” The teacher said firmly, finally getting over his shock, “Stop that this instant! Any more and you’re getting written up!” He warned. The boy didn’t look at him, still glaring at the boy he’d just hit with a barrage of explosions, his arm still cocked back, thinking that it would be worth it just to hit him one more time.
“Sensei, I’m fi-cough cough- this smoke…” Izuku said as the smoke began to dissipate, waving his hand in his face as he fanned away the smoke, eyes tearing up a little. He was completely untouched, not even a speck of soot on his clothes despite the fact that his desk and some of his chair had been completely scorched. He seemed more annoyed at that rather than the fact that Bakugou had just legitimately tried to hurt him. “Sensei, I need a chair, can I go get a spare from the storage room?” He asked, a bit of annoyance dripping into his voice. The teacher just waved it off.
“No no, just swap with someone else.” he said, turning back to the board, ignoring the leaves of paper on the floor.
And so, class continued, with Izuku happily writing note on his unscorched desk and chair, while Bakugou groused with his very destroyed desk and partially burnt chair.
The rest of the day went by, just as uneventful. Of course, “uneventful” just meant nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the day was just spent ignoring Bakugou as he tried his best to harm Izuku, or goad him into a fight he would’ve most certainly lost. By the time the last bell ended and Izuku used his Quirk to displace his location in space and teleport away, he was a little tired, as he always was getting home from school.
He scratched his thick head of hair, taking off his black sunglasses and wiped some of the soot and smoke off. He needed the glasses to deal with his Six Eyes, since having to perceive everything all the time was annoying. Even that brief moment without his sunglasses was starting to cause a dull thrumming beat of pain, a headache building up every second. He placed it back on, taking in a deep breath as he felt the on-coming migraine dissipate. That was better.
He began his trek home, pulling his phone out and deciding to do a little scrolling while walking. He could’ve just teleported home, sure, but he liked walking to places. He only really used his teleportation if there wasn’t any other choice. Izuku smiled softly at the news article on his screen, seeing a report on the recent crime statistics. Of course, it was as low as it had always been. Of course, that was because of All Might. He admired that man a lot, ever since he was a kid. Most admired his strength, some admired his confidence, but Izuku? He admired his dedication to save others. Though, he had some… issues with how he went about the way he conducts his duties.
A singular pillar to hold up the world? That was… really stupid, Izuku was going to be honest. It's incredibly cool that the man even managed to do that in the first place, but it was a disaster waiting to happen. Most people haven’t seemed to get it through their thick skull but All Might wasn’t immortal, the man was going to die someday, and when the only pillar is gone, the whole system crumbles.
And when he was gone… who would take his place?
Izuku looked down at his hand, and he could feel the thrumming of Infinity coming to life as he willed it into existence. He perceived it as a faint blue glow around his body, but to others it would’ve been invisible. Amplifying the way Infinity expresses itself in reality, giving it the ability to attract. Izuku sighed. With his current abilities, he was pretty much set to be at least in the Top 10 at this point, since his Quirk was just that overwhelmingly powerful. With the addition of his Six Eyes? Well, that was just overkill. He felt blessed, though, that he was bestowed such strength.
What did the doctor say about it? Izuku tried to remember the memory…
“Your eyes seem to be a mutation, but yet its almost like a secondary Quirk.” The pudgy man said, displaying a retina scan of Izuku’s eyes on the screen in the hospital room, “Young man, you said you could see… energies, right?” Izuku nodded at the doctor’s question. Indeed he could. Not only that, but he could see… he could see everything. It was too much, and Izuku couldn’t handle it, he threw up, and had spent the whole car ride covering his eyes before Inko finally realized she had a pair of sunglasses in her bag and handed it over to him. They were too big, but they were a godsend.
The doctor nodded, “Yes, that is what it seems to be. You’ve gotten yourself a secondary Quirk, of sorts. Its been increasingly common among your generation, albeit there's only been about 10,000 reported cases within the last 10 years, and none of them seem to be as… potent, as your eyes are. In tandem with your main Quirk, it could be incredibly powerful.``
And they really were, but at the same time they were annoying as hell.
Like right now, when he was supposed to be looking down at his phone, Izuku’s eyes couldn’t help but pick up the slight rattling of the sewer grate in front of him. The boy stopped, annoyed. “I can’t catch a break…” He muttered, putting his phone away and dropping his bag, “First Bakugou, and now this? I guess the saying was true, then…” Izuku watched boredly as green sludge began to rise from the holes of the sewer grate, followed then by eyes and what vaguely seemed to be a mouth, “...God really does give his strongest warriors the greatest challenges.”
It hadn’t even taken a second. The sludge villain charged forward, blabbering on about something, before hitting the Infinity between them. In that moment, Izuku used Blue to throw the sludge man around for a bit before sucking him into his water bottle. The most annoying part about this encounter was the fact that he lost his water bottle, because he definitely wasn’t going to be drinking out of something that this loser ever touched. Izuku was just about to pull out his phone to call the police to come and pick up the sludge man, when a figure burst from the open manhole.
To anyone else, it would’ve been like he just appeared. But to Izuku’s enhanced perception, he could see the man jump out frame by frame, and each time it jumped, Izuku got more and more hype.
“Never Fear, for I Am H- ” “All Might!” Izuku cried out, setting the bottle down and quickly rushing over to the man, giddy as he held his notebook in his hand, “I’m a big fan of your work! I read the statistics everyday and feel grateful that you’re the reason why its so low! Please, sign this!” He said, offering his notebook in a perfect 180 bow. The man was a little confused, looking around the area for the villain, “ I apologize young man, but I need to find a villain. I hope you hadn’t encountered him, but if you have, may you point him out to me?” The hero said urgently, getting Izuku to look up.
“Oh, him? Whatever, I put him in that bottle over there, but about my notebook-” Izuku said, trying to shift the subject back to signing his notebook.
While Izuku rambled on, All Might was a little surprised. That was a B-class Villain at the minimum, responsible for several murders and muggings, only getting away with his ability to steal bodies. Yet, this young man managed to deal with him with apparent ease?
All Might was in thought as he took the notebook and pen from his hand and quickly scribbled down his signature. He gave it back to the giddy boy, who smiled happily at his signed notebook, quickly and carefully putting back into his bag like it was precious cargo. “Hm… young man, pray tell, but how did you do that?” All Might asked. He wasn’t doubting the kid, he knew that each generation was getting slowly and slowly stronger, but he was just curious. The boy jumped out of his happy place, before quickly clearing his throat, smiling. All Might couldn’t see his eyes through the sunglasses, but the boy seemed to be eager to spill his secrets to the hero.
“Oh, my Quirk?” He said, raising his hand, “I call it Limitless, it basically allows me to take advantage of one of Zeno’s paradoxes. You do know who that is right? I’d be happy to explain it, if you would like.” The boy said accommodatingly.
“I’m familiar, ” All Might said, and if he were to go off that name, ‘ Limitless ,’ Then… it can’t be, right? “ Is it associated with Achilles and the Tortoise?” All Might guessed, and it seemed to be proven correct when the boy’s eyes light up.
“That's right! I’m surprised you know about it, I usually end up losing people in the explanation, but yeah. My Quirk lets me manipulate space through the paradox… Oh! Here, reach you’re hand out!” The boy said, excitedly raising an open hand.
The situation had piqued All Might’s curiosity. While he wasn’t exactly a mathematician of any sort, having to deal with All For One meant having to face several different theoretical Quirks. Of course, he wasn’t expecting anything like this boy’s Quirk among his arsenal, but research had naturally led him to this and… well, there was no harm in trying, right?
All Might reached out a hand, getting closer and closer to the boys hand, before… “It stopped.” He said, a wondrous tone in his voice.
“No no,” The boy quickly said, correcting the hero, “I don’t stop anything, this is just the convergence of an infinite series and comes straight from the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. Akin to the way Achilles will never catch the tortoise due to the potential, infinite amounts of finite space separating them or how the real number one will never touch the real number two due to the infinite amount of fractions that separate them, the opponent will never touch me due to the infinity between us.” He explained, and that truly put it into perspective.
The man let out a breath, having just met a walking paradox. “Jeez, that's one hell of a Quirk.” He sighed, rubbing his temples. The boy laughed, scratching the back of his head.
“Thanks! It… took me a while to learn how to do something like this, and I can’t keep it on forever since it’ll fry my brain.” He said, putting his hands back in my pockets, “I can decide what can and can’t go through, though, so basically,” The boy spread his arms out, grinning, “As long as I can keep up Infinity, I can’t be hurt. At all.”
The boy pointed a finger, a cheeky grin, “Which means, with that alone, I have the potential to surpass you.” He said, chuckling, and All Might couldn’t really refute that. He really did.
The man laughed, and laughed, and laughed. “You’re one hell of a kid. Whats your name?” The man asked, not helping the smile that grew on his face.
Izuku grinned back, putting out a hand, “Izuku Midoriya.”
And with that, they shook hands.
When Izuku had walked through the door, the first thing he saw was his mother rushing up to him for a hug. He smiled, bringing in his mother for a tight embrace. “Hey mom,” He said, taking off his shoes and walking past her.
“How was school today Izuku,” the woman asked, smiling back as she went back into the kitchen, the smell of fried pork making his stomach rumble.
“Alright, same as usual. The food is smelling great, the same as usual.” He called out, walking upstairs and into his room.
He quickly ran through his homework, finishing all of it in 20 minutes, before sitting cross legged on the floor, his sunglasses to the side as he sat, wide-open, a grimace on his face. The information being taken in through his eyes was painful, but he needed it to train. Infinity currently had two modes that Izuku could do. He needed to see the flow of Infinity to effectively train. So, as he tried his best to push through the rising headache, he focused on Infinity. Currently, it was in its neutral state, represented by a translucent sheen over him, nothing, empty space folded over and over infinitely until the gap between him and whatever he touched was… well, infinite.
When Izuku was 7, that was when he first learned of Zeon’s Paradoxes, and when he started to begin getting a grasp of his Quirk. He raised a hand, creating a small sphere of negative Infinity in his hand, the result of reversing Infinity, creating an infinite amount of negative space, forcing real space to compensate and fill in the area by drawing everything toward the impossibility. This is what let him use Blue.
However, a singular roadblock had been stumping him for the next 8 years. Amplifying his Infinity, reversing the effects of Blue and creating a pushing force. Theoretically, it was possible… but, he just couldn’t get a hold of it. No matter how many times he tried to do it, no matter how many ways he tried to do it, it just couldn’t stick. He couldn’t understand. How do you amplify the concept of infinity? Sure, theoretically it was possible, but was it actually? How would you even start?
“Izuku? Dinners ready!” His mother called from downstairs. He sighed, shutting his eyes and putting his sunglasses back on. He’d deal with this later, right now, there was a bowl of nice hot Katsudon with his name on it.
The frustration of his failure was forgotten, as the night was spent talking, laughing, and eating dinner with his mother, before eventually going to bed.
A yawn escaped Izuku’s lips as he rose from the covers, taking the sleeping mask off and rubbing his eyes. The early morning light shone through the blinds, making Izuku’s currently sensitive Six Eyes burn. He grimaced, putting the sleeping mask back on and got up, giving up on actual sight and instead got around by using the energy around him to see without actually needing to see. He stepped out of his room, scratching the back of his head, then walked down the stairs. He could smell and hear his mother cooking breakfast.
“Good morning Izuku, how was your sleep?” his mother asked, a smile in her voice as Izuku heard a plate being placed in front of him. He grabbed the chopsticks and did a quick prayer before eating.
“Good.” he said through mouthfuls of food. His mother chuckled as she watched him scarf down the food. She suddenly remembered something, putting a finger up to her chin as she took care of the fried fish on the stove.
“Oh, right. Izuku, theres mail for you waiting on the table. Someone came by today and dropped it off.” She said, and Izuku rose an eyebrow. A letter, for him? He sighed, getting up reluctantly and walking over to the living room table. He took off his sleeping mask, before remembering belatedly that he’d forgotten to bring his sunglasses with him down. Setting it aside, he opened the letter and read over it.
‘Dear, Izuku Midoriya.
We are happy to inform you that you have been recommended to the U.A University’s recommendation test-’
That was when Izuku stopped reading. The letter fell out of his hands, his mouth agape, the throbbing pain beginning to rise in the back of his skull forgotten entirely.
“.... wat.”