Izuku Midoriya’s life wasn’t an easy one.
He always dreamed of being a pro-hero, even before his quirk manifested. He dreamed of having a strong quirk, one that he could use to save people with a smile on his face, like All Might!
And then, his quirk came in. He was four years old when that happened, and he was playing with an All Might figurine in his home’s living room as his mother was preparing her delicious katsudon in the kitchen.
One second he was replaying All Might’s debut as a pro hero with his toys… and the next one he was sitting in the middle of the living room that was completely ruined by the explosion.
Yes. Explosion. Between those two seconds, Izuku Midoriya exploded . If he was older or if he put his back into his quirk consciously, he would level down the whole building. Instead, he just ruined the living room and gave his mother a scare of her life.
What followed was a quirk counselor appointment. And soon, Izuku Midoriya had a basic understanding of his quirk.
It was called the Living Bomb. Whenever he wanted, he could make himself explode . For the duration of the explosion he was intangible but conscious, witnessing the explosion up close but not feeling the side-effects of being in ground zero.
Father attributed it to one of his parents back in Deika who had an explosion-themed quirk. His sister (that Izuku only met a few times and didn’t like her very much) could turn things she touched into bombs too.
There was a problem, though. A problem for his dreams. He had a quirk that was destructive. Dangerous. Not really suitable for being a hero. And, worst of all, apparently he plagiarized it from Kacchan’s quirk.
At least that’s how Kacchan saw it.
As his quirk manifested, their friendship ended and Izuku began to slide more and more into loneliness. No one wanted to stay close to the guy who was a living bomb. Still, even after his father vanished from the picture, his mother was always there for him.
***
“Young citizen, you’re safe now” All Might gives a shocked teenager in front of him a thumbs-up gesture. “While you were unconscious, I apprehended the villain and signed your notebook.”
“A-a-a-all Might!” Izuku manages to utter, completely ignoring the Sludge Villain raging around the bottle held by his idol. “I c-can’t believe that I was saved by…”
“No worries, citizen, it was my fault for letting this runt evade me for so long!” All Might gives him one of his signature smiles. “I can’t keep him in a bottle forever, so I have to deliver him to the police posthaste. Can you walk yourself back or do you need my help?”
“N-no, it’s fine! I’m fine!” Izuku quickly stands up. So many questions flew through his head. “I live close by a-a-and I promise that if I feel w-weird, mom will get me to the hospital.”
“Great!” All Might smiles widely again. “I’ll be going then!”
Unfortunately for him, Izuku has a question to ask and a tendency for acting before thinking.
***
“That was reckless, young man!” All Might starts berating him almost immediately after safely landing on the rooftop. “You could have died! What was so important for you to latch onto me like this?!”
“W-well, I…” Izuku blanks out briefly, looking at the floor. “I… I wanted to ask if someone with a quirk like me can be a hero and…”
He raises his head just to see All Might covered in the cloud of steam and then… deflating?!
“Aaa!” He jumps back while pointing a finger at All Might. “An impostor!”
“No, I…” All Might groans while letting himself deflate completely. He immediately shows Izuku a rather horrifying injury on his side. “Injury I got a few years ago. I can only be a hero for a few hours each day ever since, and after spending who knows how much time in the sewers while pursuing the villain, I’m spent. If I answer your question, will you be so kind as to not make any of this public?”
“Y-yes.” Izuku replies nervously. The injury looked horrible, and he now felt ashamed for bothering the Number One Hero while he was in this state. He should get the answer and leave as fast as possible.
“What’s your quirk?” All Might asks. Izuku quickly provides a description, as All Might nods. “I see. Well, good news for you, kid. I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t be a hero.”
“R-really?!” Izuku stares at him in shock. All Might sighs.
“Kid, one of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks has a quirk that lets them create bubbles .” He replies. “The bar when it comes to the usefulness of your quirk isn’t exactly very high. Yes, without a quirk that can be used in a fight you likely won’t manage to get promoted from being a sidekick, but ones in high profile agencies earn more money and prestige than pro-heroes from an agency in the middle of nowhere.” Then he gets an idea. “Actually, now that I think about it, there’s a method of putting out flames by using small explosions to disperse water into a mist. And Endeavor’s agency is always on the lookout for quirks that can be used to control or suppress flames. So, you can get almost as far as it goes.”
Midoriya’s face brightens up.
“Just remember.” All Might quickly adds. “Work hard at school and make sure to train your body, alright? It’s not an easy line of work. And listen to your parents, alright? If they say no, don’t invoke my words, all I know about you is your quirk, that’s not enough to say I know you and your situation. Got it?”
“Yes!” Izuku nods quickly. “I’ll do so! Thank you very much!”
***
Yes. All Might dropped the bottle. Yes, Sludge Villain kidnapped Bakugou. And yes, Izuku - still in the state of emotional high caused by what he just heard from his idol - rushed in to help his childhood friend-turned-it’s complicated.
And yes, Bakugou yelled at him about not needing to be saved, before leaving.
All Might showed up too. Congratulated him for inspiring him to go past his limit but also said that Izuku took his answer a bit too far. That he wasn’t yet a hero and should remember that.
Izuku nods, while looking down on the ground in shame.
All Might then tells him that if he wants to be a hero so much, then for as long as Izuku will promise him that he won’t charge into any active crime scene, then All Might will help him prepare himself for the hero school entrance exam.
And yes, a few months later it turned out All Might decided to consider him as a potential successor of his quirk due to his readiness to help people (and his body moving on its own when needed), but wanted to get a better grasp of his recklessness before making it official.
Izuku agreed.
And nothing was the same afterwards.
***
As he sees Kacchan charge at him, Izuku takes a step to the side to ensure that he was between his childhood friend and Uraraka-san. And then he takes the blast straight into his face.
One of the side-effects of his quirk was that he was completely explosion proof. It annoyed Bakugou to no end.
What a way to start the battle trial.
“YOU DAMN NERD!” Katsuki rages. “I’m going to show you whose explosion quirk is better! With those gauntlets I can store my sweat for one, decisive blast. Now, TAKE THIS!”
The explosion this time is monumental. Uraraka thankfully managed to dive behind the corner of the corridor in time.
Izuku is completely untouched. The same couldn’t be said about his clothes, Bakugou’s explosion vaporizing everything above his belt, leaving only scraps of the clothes that his mom made for him.
***
Oh my, Yaoyorozu thinks to herself as he sees the image on the screen.
Nice, Hagakure thinks while hiding her grin behind her invisibility.
Not bad, Mina thinks as she nods to herself.
Jirou gulps in the background while trying to not look at the screen. That was… errr… not bad. Not bad at all.
“Kero.” Tsuyu ribbits, cryptic as always.
“Manly!” Kirishima cries.
“How am I supposed to compete against this?!” Mineta lets out, his voice betraying how crushed he was.
Kaminari says nothing, just stares at the screen.
***
“You damn nerd!” Bakugou seethes as he stares at Izuku’s now exposed six pack. “You started to work out too?! I’m the explosive quirk user with toned muscles, find your own thing!”
Izuku blinks at him.
“Wait, you think that I’ve started to work out because I wanted to copy your thing ?” He says, staring at Bakugou in total shock. How could he even come to this conclusion?!
“YES!” Bakugou yells. “AND I’LL SHOW YOU WHO IS BETTER!”
And then, he directs his quirk… at his own chest.
***
Oh my, Yaoyorozu thinks to herself once again.
I love this school already, Hagakure grins even wider.
It just keeps getting better, Mina lets herself grin and blush a little.
Jirou realizes after two seconds that her mouth was agape and quickly closes it while praying in her mind that nobody noticed.
“Kero.” Tsuyu ribbits once more.
“MANLY!” Kirishima cries louder.
Mineta glances at Kaminari, who keeps staring at the screen.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” He decides to ask, his chances of getting laid in UA already dead and buried. He could as well focus on socializing with people and becoming a pro-hero.
“I just realized…” Kaminari replies, dragging the words, his eyes still on the screen. “... that being heterosexual is going to be an uphill battle.”
***
“Having a well trained body isn’t something that you can copyright, Kacchan!” Izuku shouts back. “And I didn’t plagiarize your quirk! How’s that even possible!” Something in him breaks a tiny little bit. “And besides, I have more muscles than just this!”
He pulls the sleeves of what’s left of his shirt up before flexing his biceps.
“I HAVE MUSCLES THERE AS WELL!” Bakugou yells back as he reveals his own biceps and flexes them as well.
“Erm.” Uraraka, now peeking from behind the corner, lets out. Then, as they both turn around to face her, she suddenly blushes. “P-please continue. I… I’ll head for the bomb.”
Then she quickly disappears, as Izuku and Bakugou face each other once more.
“WELL I ALSO WORKED HARD ON MY LEGS!” Bakugou immediately yells at Midoriya as he grabs his belt.
***
All Might glances at his very entranced class before cursing in his mind. This wasn’t how he expected his first class to look like. How was he supposed to deal with this?! Competitive public male stripping wasn’t something that was touched upon in the books about teaching he read!
But he had to do something, before those two…
“Young Bakugou, Young Midoriya.” He speaks into the microphone. “I, errr, recognize your competitive spirit, but I’d like to remind you that all your classmates are seeing you right now.”
That manages to pacify them. In a manner of speaking, Bakugou immediately proceeds to cause a giant explosion straight into Izuku’s face. Which, again, causes zero damage.
Thank God that Midnight wasn’t here to see what just happened.
***
Deep in One For All, an ancient white-haired specter does his thing. And connects Living Bomb with One For All’s stockpile. Unexpectedly, the quirk uses it to immediately evolve and become something…
Something else.
“Whoops?” Yoichi scratches the side of his head. “Well, this is going to be fun. Probably.”
***
The moment when Izuku realizes that Living Bomb no longer works like it used to happens close to the end of the USJ attack.
Tomura Shigaraki leapt at him, Tsuyu and Mineta, only to put his hand at Tsuyu’s head. She didn’t turn to ash thanks to Aizawa-sensei managing to use his quirk on the villain, only to have his head pressed into the concrete by the Noumu.
Izuku grabs Tsuyu’s hand. His quirk leaks out.
Tsuyu starts to glow, while a distinct hissing sound can be heard as she looks down at her body in confusion.
Izuku stares at her in shock. Mineta stares at her in shock. Shigaraki jumps back, yelling something about a ‘f*ckING CREEPER, EVEN THE COLOUR FITS!”. Tsuyu has no idea what’s going on but she sees Shigaraki run away from her so she leaps out of the water and jumps after him.
And then she explodes, leaving behind a small crater in the concrete floor.
Izuku gets hit by something soft a second later, as Tsuyu’s explosion rained some… things on everyone and everything in the area.
No. It’s not gore (thank God), Tsuyu is standing in the middle of the crater, very confused but unharmed.
Izuku raises the thing that hit him in his face and was now floating on the water.
It’s a very adorable frog plushie. There are now hundreds of them lying everywhere in the area.
What the hell just happened?
“Are you f*cking kidding me?!” Tomura shouts while throwing his arms around. “Plushies? Really?! I was scared of nothing. NOUMU! KILL THEM!”
Izuku acts on instinct. Yoichi yells in panic in the depths of his quirk as he controls said instinct to preserve Ninth’s life.
He slaps Mineta’s back, turning him into a living bomb, and then sends him flying towards noumu. Then he dives underwater.
Mineta screams in panic before exploding right in front of the Noumu. The explosion is far stronger than the first one. Noumu is staggered and covered by dozens of Mineta balls that erupted from his body when he exploded.
Mineta is unharmed. The moment he realizes that, he immediately starts running off to the side, trying to get as far away from the Noumu as possible.
“Are you f*cking serious?” Shigaraki groans as he turns one of at least twelve balls that stuck to him to dust. “First plushies, now… what is this even? Sticky rubber balls? Really? Am I the only one that’s treating this seriously?”
The rubber balls in question pick this moment to start glowing and letting out loud hissing sounds. Alongside all those stuck to the Noumu and dozens more than are scattered on the ground around them.
***
Tomura Shigaraki managed to dust the sticky explosives that were on him and teleport away right before everything around him exploded. Noumu regenerated from his injuries, but was then taken down by All Might who arrived too late to even see Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri.
The USJ was the day on which Izuku understood one thing. His quirk - the one he was born with - was so damn cool.
And he needed to test how far it could go. In the safe environment that the school was, of course!
***
“Repeat what you just said.” Eraserhead, still wrapped in his bandages, says as Midoriya finishes presenting his plea. He sounds as if he couldn’t believe his own ears.
“I’d like the school’s permission to, errr, test my quirk with the help of some of my classmates.” Izuku replies quickly. “If they agree to that, obviously.”
Eraserhead stares at him for a few seconds before finally speaking.
“Midoriya, your quirk makes people explode.” He says, staring the student down.
“Well, yes.” Izuku admits. “But it does so harmlessly.”
“That’s still dangerous.” Eraserhead replies. They barely understood the quirk’s new functionality, after all.
“Errr… and unleashing Zero-Pointers at teenagers during the entrance exam wasn’t?” Izuku asks back, blinking at Eraserhead. Who looks back at him for a few more seconds before sighing loudly.
“I concede the point. If they agree, you can train your quirk under teacher supervision in one of the training zones that’s not occupied at the time.” Eraserhead replies.
Worst decision ever.
***
Living Bomb + Kaminari Denki = explosion that also caused an EMP blast that shut down all machines in the wide radius around him.
Living Bomb + Momo Yaoyorozu = A 152mm howitzer shell appearing out of her and immediately exploding. Leaving a giant crater behind that she then had to climb out of.
Living Bomb + Kyoka Jirou = An explosion that was accompanied by an intense blast of high decibel sounds that could easily rupture eardrums to everyone within a ~20m radius.
Living Bomb + Hagakure Tooru = Invisible bomb causing an invisible explosion. In short, an utter horror that was going to plague Eraserhead’s dreams for years to come.
Living Bomb + Uraraka Ochako = A horrible, horrible mistake.
***
When Uraraka Ochako returns to existence, she finds herself in the middle of a massive crater. It’s at least twenty meters deep, and she can see ruined buildings above the edge of those.
Errr.
What just happened?
She climbs up the edge to check up on Deku-kun and the teachers that were supposed to oversee their test - namely, Aizawa-sensei and Cementoss-sensei. She finds them holding to what was left of the buildings around them or concrete things that Cementoss erected from the ground to hold them.
They are staring at her, wide-eyed.
“Uhm, what just happened?” Uraraka asks. They stare back at her for a few seconds, clearly shocked speechless. Eventually it’s Deku-kun that speaks.
“You, errr, turned into a miniature black hole and started to swallow everything.” He replies, still staring at her with his eyes wide open. “Then the black hole exploded, spitting out everything that it sucked in.” Uraraka blinks at him. She turned into… really?! “Did you remember anything? People are always conscious when the Living Bomb works, and… you were in a black hole for a while.”
“I… don’t think so?” Uraraka replies. She can’t believe that she missed it out! “Erm, maybe. I think I need a moment to sort it all out.”
“Oh, alright.” Deku-kun nods.
“I…” Aizawa-sensei finally opens his mouth, the man still lying on the ground, his legs facing the crater and resting on a concrete wall erected by Cementoss, his capture scarf wrapped around a nearby lantern. “... officially forbid you from ever using your quirk on anyone with a gravity-themed quirk.”
Oh no!
***
Living Bomb + Aoyama Yuuga = Explosion of extremely blinding light and a rain of glitter… and, for some reason, cheese rolls.
Living Bomb + Ashido Mina = Chemical explosion raining acid on everything around her.
Living Bomb + Hanta Sero = Explosion that creates a rapidly expanding cloud of sticky tape, immobilizing everyone in the area.
Living Bomb + Mezo Shouji = [REDACTED]
Living Bomb + Koji Koda = Every single animal under his control turns into a short-fused bomb. And yes, they’re unharmed by it. Just very confused.
***
Koda reacts to his explosion by quickly gesticulating something while pointing at a nearby rat (very confused by just exploding and yet being fine) before wrapping his arms around himself and suddenly spreading them around.
Izuku can understand the last part as him pantomiming an explosion, but the rest? What did that just mean?
He glances at Aizawa-sensei. Who, at this point, was wearing ballistic goggles and a helmet that he got who knows where to deal with potential shrapnels.
“He signed ‘I am inside your walls’.” Aizawa-sensei replies before sighing loudly. This was rapidly becoming a pain in the ass.
***
The side-effect of the tests is the discovery of more and more things about the Living Bomb. First of all, the scale of the explosions could be controlled by the person who was turned into a bomb.
It was thus entirely possible for the bomb to be downscaled to a non-lethal level. And just stun people. Or…
Go the other way.
“No, Yaoyorozu.” Aizawa sighs. “You cannot use Midoriya’s quirk to change yourself into the Mother of All Bombs. No, I don’t care how ‘cool’ it would be. Thermobaric bombs aren’t allowed on the school grounds.” He then immediately decides to correct himself, because he doesn’t like the look on her face. “Or in Japan. Or outside of it. Unless you’re the government.”
Second discovery is that the explosions can be consciously delayed. And the third discovery is that explosions of Living Bomb do not injure people who are already under the influence of the same quirk.
At least, they don’t harm them. There’s still some impact that pushes people back, but they aren’t injured by it or by whatever they hit when they’re sent flying.
“No, Asui.” Aizawa sighs. “You’re not allowed to use your classmates’ explosions to perform a ‘double jump’. I don’t care how tall the wall you’re dealing with is, it’s not safe and can cause it to lose stability.”
“Can I at least use it to entertain kids at my brother’s birthday party, kero?” Asui asks back. “I think that carpet bombing the guests with plushies will become a legend among his friends.”
“No.” Aizawa sighs again. Why does he even have to answer those questions? “No explosions around preschoolers. Or children in general. Actually, no explosions outside of school grounds. And without teachers’ oversight.”
He started wearing a bulletproof vest while on UA after that, just in case of unexpected shrapnels.
***
Living Bomb + Tenya Iida = Miniaturized Orion Drive, propelling him even faster by causing explosions right behind him that send him forward. While being pretty damn devastating on their own.
Living Bomb + Fumikage Tokoyami = Explosion, but in black. Extremely confusing and weird, but Tokoyami thought that it looked cool.
Living Bomb + Eijirou Kirishima = Explosion with a lot of hardened shrapnels. Extremely devastating against non-armored targets.
Living Bomb + Rikidou Sato = Explosion. Just… explosion. Or so they thought. This lasted until the discovery that his explosions made sugar cubes within the radius explode on their own, potentially creating a chain reaction.
Living Bomb + Mashirao Ojirou = When he slaps something with his tail, the thing explodes. Thus making him the most lethal close-quarter combatant if he was ever forced to fight to the death.
***
The sports festival is… wild.
Izuku ends up actually winning it. He lost the cavalry fight, but not enough to get kicked out of the tournament, and for fighting one on one… well, Todoroki didn’t use any explosive finisher and that was his downfall.
***
Then, Hosu happens.
“Uhm.” Izuku stands up from the ground, staring for a few seconds at Stain. The Hero Killer hit the wall ten meters away from him and slumped to the ground, clearly unconscious. “I, err…”
He turns his head around to look at Iida-kun and Todoroki-kun.
“Please, don’t tell anyone.” Izuku says quickly.
“About what?” Iida says as he looks to the side, clearly pretending that he already forgot about what he saw.
“About Midoriya-kun charging at Stain while yelling All Might’s hero name before exploding.” Todoroki doesn’t understand the social cues and does answer his rhetorical question. “Which made him look like a suicide bomber worshipping the Symbol of Peace as his God.”
Midoriya falls to the floor and curls up while starting to sob quietly.
“You just lost your instinct-influencing privilege.” Nana says in the depths of One For All as she slaps the back of Yoichi’s head. “I get it that you love All Might for punching the face off your brother and that you made him a shrine in the deeper part of this quirk, but there’s a limit to that.”
“Y-yes.” Yoichi stutters while looking at his feet..
***
Noumu tries to grab Izuku and fly away.
Worst decision ever.
Stain wakes up and quickly runs to catch him after he explodes the noumu. He then delivers his speech to the group of shocked heroes about the only hero being allowed to defeat him being All Might.
“AND THAT ONE!” He then adds while pointing at completely frozen Izuku. “I LIKE HIS GUTS AND THE COMPLETELY REASONABLE IMAGE OF ALL MIGHT THAT HE KEEPS IN HIS MIND AND SOUL!”
Izuku doesn’t even wait for the speech to finish, he just curls up on the ground and starts sobbing again.
***
“I can’t believe Aizawa still doesn’t let you use your quirk on me.” Uraraka sighs a few days later. “Why?! Surely, creating a miniature black hole isn’t that much worse than what, say, Yaoyorozu-san is doing!”
Izuku nods. They were in their class, waiting for Aizawa-sensei to arrive. It was usually taking some time due to Eraserhead wearing more and more protective equipment the longer he was around 1-A.
“Can’t you appeal to Nedzu?” Izuku asks back.
“I did it already!” Uraraka replies while grinning wryly. “Send Nedzu a written appeal multiple times! Eventually he’ll give in and make Aizawa-sensei change his decision!”
***
“Ha, as if.” Nedzu laughs to himself as he continues adding finishing touches to the AI that will automatically generate negative answers to her emails while answering each and every of her arguments in a way that will leave her unaware that she wasn’t dealing with the real him.
Look, he has standards, okay? No black holes (minus Thirteen’s quirk) on the school grounds. It really shouldn’t be a high bar to clear.
On a side note, he absolutely loves being the reasonable one nowadays. It’s such a new and delightful feeling!
***
“Oh, man.” Mina grins as she looks at Uraraka and Izuku talking cheerfully about the black hole ban in the classroom. “Two people wanting to be together, and yet some uncaring authority stopping them from doing that. It’s… it’s like a Romeo and Juliet story!”
Hagakure glances at the two, before looking at Mina again.
“More like Bombeo and Boomiet to me.” She replies.
***
“I hope this forest of yours is insured.” Eraserhead says right after the Wild Wild puss*cats finish sending the students down the cliff.
“Huh, why?” Mandalay asks as she turns her head towards him.
That’s when the explosions start. By the time the kids reach the training camp, they leave behind a long line of craters and broken trees.
Eraserhead doesn’t like the looks that the puss*cats are giving him afterwards. Look, it’s not his fault that they underestimated the threat of explosions that he made sure to describe in detail in the letter to them.
***
The Training Camp gets attacked by the League of Villains. The League of Villains ends up regretting that move immensely, even if they did manage to achieve their goals for the night.
Twice and Mr. Compress ended up complaining about ringing ears for days afterwards, even after Kamino.
Kamino, in the meantime… well, that was definitely something to remember.
“I hope he has a plan.” Eraserhead says as he watches the battle on the TV. He has no idea who All Might’s opponent was, but it was clear that the two of them were evenly matched. And when the Symbol of Peace ended up facing his match…
It was bad news for everyone else.
“Oh, I’m sure that he has a plan.” Nedzu agrees with him. “Although I have to admit that I failed to figure it out. What a delightful conundrum!”
Eraserhead opens his mouth to answer but this is when All Might violently explodes.
Oh for f*ck sake.
***
Living Bomb + All Might = A massive explosion of golden light that appears to be completely harmless to innocent people. While being extremely harmful to people who definitely weren’t innocent.
All for One was hospitalized in Tartarus without managing to cause any notable injuries to the Symbol of Peace, who still ended up announcing his retirement. The explosion took out all the embers of his quirk to empower itself further.
Eraserhead gets Nedzu to officially forbid making teachers explode. He can’t believe that there has to be a rule against that.
After Kamino he began to come to his classes wearing an Explosive Ordnance Disposal suit. It was large, bulky and uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time but it made him feel safe.
Well, mostly safe.
UA was rapidly turning into a madhouse that was given access to heavy ordnance, and he was trapped in the middle of it.
***
Since Uraraka-san was still feeling bad about not being allowed to turn into a black hole again, Izuku decided to ask his mom for some of her super-delicious mochi and brought it to school so that he could cheer his best friend up.
They ended up eating it together in the corner of the common room of their dorms, chatting happily until everyone but the two of them left.
“So…” Izuku decides to ask that question. “Why are you so serious about being allowed to turn into a black hole again?”
“Well, you know…” Uraraka replies nervously while looking down on the table. “I love astronomy. Celestial bodies and so on are such an interesting subject. And your quirk let me become one, even if for a moment.”
Huh.
“So, you do remember something from it.” Izuku replies, Uraraka nodding back quickly. “Really?! What exactly do you remember?”
“Everything.” Uraraka replies.
Her eyes lock onto his. In them, he can see eternity.
“I have seen the things that exist beyond the event horizon of the black holes, beyond time and space as humans understand it.” Uraraka says in a monotone voice, Izuku’s entire body freezing completely in some primordial, hard to explain dread. “I have seen the beginning and the end. I have seen hands of God finishing to mold everything that is. I have seen them removing what is left at the end of time.”
Izuku keeps staring back at her endless eyes the color of the Galaxy. He can feel… pressure. Everything is pressing against him, keeping him in place, making him unable to move, to speak back.
“I have seen the things that exist on the other side.” Uraraka continues. “I talked with the king and queen of the Land That Doesn’t Exist, and they were us from the future, for in that place what was will be and will be was. I have met our progeny and the progeny of our progeny that are living there, awaiting the time when the stars will grow cold and the black holes will be all that remains, awaiting the time when they’ll inherit Existence. And we will be there to lead them.”
Silence. Izuku can’t break eye contact with her, can’t move, can barely think. But that’s when Uraraka suddenly smiles in her usual bright way.
“And that’s why I want to become a black hole again, Deku-kun!” She says, grinning widely. “Can I have the last mochi? They are absolutely delicious, your mom’s a great cook!”
“Oh, errr, sure.” Izuku replies, still feeling shivers from… that. No, not from Uraraka-san pulling a really strange (but extremely cool) prank on him by all that… acting. No.
It’s about Uraraka-san speaking of them as the king and queen and… about their progeny. T-there’s no way that she was implying that she… and him…
He blushes sooo much after this, whenever his mind drifts back to this moment.
***
“So, uhm…” Mineta whispers to Kaminari a few days later. “I think I’m growing worried about Uraraka-san.”
“Huh?” Kaminari blinks back at his friend. “Worried about what? She seems to be doing perfectly fine.”
“Yeah, but…” Mineta gulps loudly before taking a deep breath, as if gathering up the courage to say or do something. “... I saw her outside the dorms last night, from my window. She was talking to the night sky.”
“That’s… a bit odd.” Kaminari admits. “But she’s into astronomy, right? She might have just been talking to herself while observing the stars.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing.” Mineta replies nervously while somehow managing to shrink. “I swear that I heard the stars answer. ”
Kaminari looks at Mineta for a few seconds before deciding.
“I think that you should consider having a talk or two with the Hound Dog.” Kaminari decides to say it as softly as possible. “Stress is a mind killer, you know.”
***
“I’m leaving the school.” Eraserhead tells Nedzu a few days before the Provisional License Exams. “I’m done with this. I’m done with the explosions, I’m done with wearing EOD even to the toilet. There’s no amount of blackmail that can make me keep working in this madhouse for a minute more.”
Nedzu looks at him over his desk for about three seconds before pressing a button.
The screen behind him displays a picture of Eraserhead in a cat cafe. Having fun. Smiling. Laughing, all while holding a cat.
Beneath it are Ms. Joke’s contact details.
“Oh, screw you.” Eraserhead groans. “At least give me a raise.”
“This can be arranged.” Nedzu nods. Good ol’ carrot & stick. Always works.
***
Living Bomb + Shoto Todoroki = Flashfreeze Heatwave but without having to charge it. Somehow.
Living Bomb + Mei Hatsume + lack of Power Loader to stop that from happening = No explosions. Just, none of them. Nothing explodes. It just doesn’t work.
It is extremely confusing.
***
“Errr…” Ms. Joke stares at him just as all other teachers gathered up to watch the Provisional License Exams are. “Are you… are you alright?”
“I forbid my students from blowing up the stadium.” Eraserhead replies as he tries to sit down while wearing a full bomb disposal suit. “But I don’t trust them not to do that accidentally.”
Somehow they managed to not cause any explosions for the whole exams. Aside from the ones that Bakugou caused, but for Eraserhead hearing him shout and cause explosions with his hands was almost soothing.
The volume was extremely low when compared to some of what the others were capable of.
***
Izuku once again acts on instinct when he ends up touching Eri’s arm. Overhaul almost immediately pulls her back. The area is completely messed up, courtesy of the recent brawl between Overhaul and Lemillion.
The raid on the Shie Hasseikai headquarters was messy.
“Wait, why the hell is your horn hissing?” Overhaul says as she stares down at the traumatized girl. “And what are all those sparks around it? It looks like a lit fuse now that I think about it, and…”
Eri explodes.
Overhaul is killed in the explosion, only for it to be rewinded a moment later.
“A-aa!” Overhaul shouts in shock as he takes a step back. It seems that he felt what the explosion did to him. Every excruciating detail of being torn to shreds. “What… what was that?!”
Eri looks up at him and Izuku can practically see the gears turning in her head. And then, she runs towards Overhaul.
And somehow she manages to explode again. Was she… rewinding herself to reapply the Living Bomb to herself?! Her quirk could do that?
The explosion is rewinded again. Overhaul screams and starts running away, pursued by Eri who does her best to catch up so that she can explode again. Unfortunately, Overhaul has significantly longer legs and can run faster. Especially when terrified out of his mind.
This doesn’t stop her from doing her best, at least until Izuku wakes up from the shock and runs after them before properly arresting the completely terrified Overhaul. And gently persuading Eri to let him go.
That was definitely not how Izuku expected the battle to end.
“I can’t believe it.” Daigoro Banjo says in the depths of his quirk, Hikage Shinomori shaking his head behind him. “I thought you were the reasonable one, Shimura!”
Nana Shimura mumbles something about children being mistreated and Overhaul being a dick, before looking away.
And promising no more ‘instinctive usages of Ninth’s quirk’.
***
“Mr. Deku.” Eri says some time later, as they are waiting outside. All around them, police and paramedics were dealing with the aftermath of the battle, Izuku told to wait around and take care of her until someone would figure out what to do with her.
“Yes, Eri?” Izuku asks while looking down on her. She looks… excited?
“I think that explosions are awesome.” She replies, stars in her eyes.
In his quirk, Nana Shimura stares at the wall, avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room.
***
By the time the Paranormal Liberation War starts, they manage to notice another thing about the Living Bomb. When Izuku touches someone and applies the quirk to them, it creates a stockpile of energy for the Living Bomb to draw upon.
Touch someone enough time, and the stockpile becomes a part of them. Altering the quirk that they were born with, and making the explosion a permanent functionality of their quirk, even if the explosion will be much weakened without a new burst of power from being touched again.
This opened up a completely new level of chaos. Eraserhead was rapidly approaching his mental break.
No, he actually did break. He asked Midoriya to use his quirk on him. He hoped for an anti-explosion. What he got instead was an explosion that generated a pulse of some sort of anti-quirk energy that briefly deactivated every quirk in the city surrounding the UA.
The result of Eraserhead’s sanity reaching an all-time low was a creation of a short-lived apocalypse cult on the internet that claimed that ‘Shizuoka De-quirking Incident’ was caused by quirks as a concept malfunctioning, which was a sign of them coming to end, and once they break, so will Reality itself.
They’ve then gotten mixed in with a worship of some pair of weird deities they’ve called the Timeless that supposedly live on the other side of black holes and will one day remake the universe in their image.
When they did that, everyone stopped taking them seriously.
***
The Paranormal Liberation War was going pretty well until Shigaraki woke up and Gigantomachia began to move.
“This time, I came prepared.” Shigaraki grins over the ruined landscape, his eyes drilling a hole in Izuku. Endeavor was already defeated despite trying his best, Shigaraki turned into a harbinger of armageddon through some mad science. Eraserhead was suppressing his quirk despite missing a leg, and that was the only thing that kept them alive. “I have the finest anti-explosion quirk in Japan! No explosion can hurt me!”
Wait. So many people he had to fight, the entire Hero Society in fact, and One For All among them, and he… prepared for explosions in particular? Did USJ traumatize him this much?!
This time, Izuku can feel the gears turn in his own head.
“What about an explosion squared?” He asks, defiantly looking back at Shigaraki. Who promptly bluescreens for a few seconds.
“Wait, what?” Tomura eventually says, staring at Izuku with pure confusion on his face.
Izuku wraps Blackwhip around Bakugou’s ankle while applying Living Bomb to him, before throwing him in Shigaraki’s direction. To Bakugou’s extremely loud and expletive-filled disapproval.
Turns out that Living Bomb + Bakugou Katsuki = shaped charge that concentrated its entire power in a single direction, perfect for melting through armor. Or quirks.
Shigaraki has his arm blown off completely and roars in absolute fury, right before the strain of his not yet fully synchronized quirks kicks in and forces him to flee.
***
As Gigantomachia marches on with the leftovers of the League and Shigaraki’s broken body atop of it, Momo Yaoyorozu finally has enough. Her sanity - slowly drained by months of being surrounded by explosions - finally gives in.
Sedatives? Oh, hell no. No more velvet gloves. It’s time to fight seriously.
She creates a giant barrel. A person could fit in. There is just enough foundation beneath it to be able to move the barrel to the sides and aim it at the target.
“Alright.” She says to the students gathered up around her, exhaustion, determination and rage visible on her face. They all look extremely confused by her newest creation. “Satou-kun, please get inside the barrel. Mineta-kun, please step on his shoulders. Make sure to explode when you’re close to them.”
Silence in their group.
“Wait, are you serious?” Mineta replies, staring at her wide-eyed. “You’re trying to…”
“Even if you shoot past it, you’ll be unharmed when impacting the ground, because that’s how the Living Bomb works.” Yaoyorozu replies. “It negates all injuries caused, even indirectly, by the quirk itself.”
Silence.
***
“What a mess.” Mr. Compress says whole holding to Gigantomachia’s back as the giant walks through the forest. “How’s Shigaraki doing?”
“Poorly.” Spinner replies. Close to him, Skeptic is working on his laptop on the next bit of their plan. The edited scene of Hawks killing Twice that they’ll release to the public alongside Dabi’s announcement of his… family situation. “He isn’t conscious right now and…”
An explosion thunders above their heads, all of them except for Skeptic diving behind whatever cover they could find on Gigantomachia’s back. The scars from the Training Camp run deep.
Behind them, a large chunk of forest is decimated by a hundred or so of small explosions. What the f*ck just…
***
“LOAD ARMOR-PIERCING!” Yaoyorozu yells as she finishes assessing the state of the cannon and correcting the aim. When all she gets is confused looks, she decides to specify. “KIRISHIMA, GET INSIDE AND USE UNBREAKABLE!”
“YES, MA’AM!” Kirishima shouts before climbing into the cannon and standing on Satou-kun’s shoulders. “Oh, man, this gotta be the manliest thing I’ve ever done!”
***
This time they do get to see someone flying past them with extremely fast speed, holding his arms forward as if he was a Superman.
The projectile missed by a few meters.
Spinner is the first one to notice the cannon in the distance.
“Oh, f*ck!” He shouts in complete panic. “Gigantomachia, move faster! MOVE FASTER OR WE’RE ALL DEAD!”
Gigantomachia doesn’t listen to him. He only listens to Tomura Shigaraki. And Tomura Shigaraki is still mostly unconscious.
***
“If only Tokoyami was here, he could use Dark Shadow’s wings for course correction.” Yaoyorozu clenches her teeth. So close to perfection. “Is Kaminari here?!” With people scattered all around, keeping a distance from the cannon to preserve their hearing.
“He’s here, just kinda fried!” Jirou shouts from the back. He joined them again after helping the heroes in the main attack it seems. “But I think he can do it!”
“Get him inside!” Yaoyorozu shouts back. “Satou-kun, can you fire again?”
“I think so!” She hears him shout back from the bottom of the barrel. “But after this one, I’m spent!”
Thankfully, they have replacements waiting.
***
Another near-miss, an explosion occurring mid-air twenty meters away from the Gigantomachia as the projectile flew past them.
“sh*t!” Skeptic shouts. “MY LAPTOP JUST BROKE! I CAN’T EDIT THE RECORDING!”
“THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!” Spinner shouts back at him. “BRACE FOR IMPACT!”
***
“We had Midoriya touch every single one of us before the departure!” Itsuka Kendou shouts towards Yaoyorozu, her hearing likely not doing very well after all those blasts. “We have just one shot at it, so make it count!”
Yaoyorozu immediately has an idea.
“KOMORI-SAN, YOU’RE NEXT!” She shouts. “MONOMA-KUN, YOU’RE THE PROPELLANT!”
Some light biological warfare shouldn’t hurt, right?
***
This time, while the explosion missed, it didn’t really matter.
Whatever person those demon students used as ammunition flattened half of the forest behind Gigantomachia. The explosion was insanely powerful, the blast of wind almost throwing them all from Gigantomachia’s back.
“OH, f*ck!” Dabi yells as he is holding Machia with every ounce of strength his body could muster.. “WHO GAVE THOSE KIDS A f*ckING NUKE?!”
Behind them, a mushroom cloud is rising from the destroyed forest. It’s not as large as it should be for an explosion this size (and no, mushroom clouds can be caused by sufficiently powerful normal explosions), but it’s still intimidating as f*ck.
Too much in fact.
“I did NOT sign up for this!” Mr. Compress yells before leaping off Gigantomachia and grabbing one of the trees nearby before starting to slide down on it. “SEE YOU LATER, FOLKS!”
“Compress, you f*ckING TRAITOR!” Dabi screams at the fleeing villain. He doesn’t try to attack him, he’s too busy holding Gigantomachia with all his strength, just in case of another blast coming.
“We have to get off, we’re sitting ducks up here!” Spinner shouts at the others. “Someone help me with Shigaraki, we have to…”
The next projectile is Tetsutetsu. Propelled by Itsuka Kendou. And this time, Yaoyorozu aimed true.
Tetsutetsu slams into Gigantomachia’s shoulder. And, of course, he explodes on contact. Gigantomachia staggered, everyone aboard him screaming in shock. Skeptic falls off, his own terrified scream cut short.
They discover later that Compress moved fast enough to marble him before he hit the ground, but back then they thought that he died.
Toga is lightly injured by the metal shrapnels. Which is super duper not cute. Yeah, no, she’s leaving this party too.
They all did, in fact. By the time Gigantomachia approached the heroes, he was alone, completely unaware that Shigaraki wasn’t on top of him. And without him to order him to free himself, Best Jeanist with the help of several other heroes managed to stop him, even if the fact that he wasn’t sedated made it a serious battle.
On the other hand, Dabi failed to reveal himself to the world, and there was no recording of a hero killing Twice. As a result, while the battle was a disaster for Japan, it wasn’t as bad as it could be.
Finding all the students used as artillery shells took them a few hours. It would be much worse if the cannon didn’t break after Tetsutetsu and Yaoyorozu was too spent to make a replacement. But at least they were all perfectly fine.
Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were extremely excited and once recovered, they immediately asked if they'd ever be able to do the same thing again.
***
All for One tried to remotely detonate Lady Nagant when Izuku made her resolve waver. Izuku didn’t like someone having the audacity to use explosions against him. So, he grabbed her arm right before she was torn to shred.
The explosion was still there, but it ended with extremely confused - and completely unharmed - Lady Nagant.
“I’m starting to hate explosions as a concept.” All for One says bitterly in his distant hideout.
The thoroughly traumatized villains around him can’t help but agree. Explosions suck. Big time.
***
No amount of explosions could let Izuku save Star and Stripe. He was just too far from it when it happened. But the time Cathleen Bates bought them was more than enough for them to make preparations for the final battle.
“I need to ask you a very important question.” All Might says to acting president of the HPSC, Yokumiro Mera, a day after Star and Stripe’s death. “Are we, purely hypothetically, alright with All for One and Tomura Shigaraki dying, alongside an unknown number of their lackeys?”
There weren't a lot of those left, at least from the ones that they were used to dealing with.
Mr. Compress turned himself in. Too many explosions, he said. The police officers mentioned that they were planning to involve psychologists with him, since the man seemed to have PTSD. A severe one, in fact.
Toga sent a postcard to UA (addressed to ‘Izukun’ and ‘Ochakochan’) from an unknown location, claiming that she was done with the League and if they want to go on a date once it’s all over, she’s always ready for them. And she would contact them after the battle.
The chances of the date occurring were rather infinitesimal, but at least it left one more villain out of the picture for the final battle. More than one, actually, as Toga also claimed that Spinner had an argument with Shigaraki concerning All for One and left him too.
It was pretty much just Dabi and the Tartarus escapees, plus Skeptic.
“Do you have a plan?” Mera asks. He is done playing nice as well.
***
“Using Kurogiri’s quirk to scatter us so that you can fight us separately.“ All for One huffs as he emerges from the black cloud. “How sly of you, Toshinori. But you should…”
He then pauses as he sees Tomura Shigaraki emerge from the cloud right in front of him, looking thoroughly confused. What? Why did they send away everyone else, but keep the two strongest enemies together? They could take down Midoriya easily when they weren’t separated.
And then they realize they aren’t alone. There was someone standing right in front of them, with only them and an endless forest in the middle of nowhere that they can see.
“Sup, bitch.” Uraraka Ochako points finger guns at them while grinning. And then she explodes.
And thus, the story comes to an end.
