Chapter Text
Prologue: Quirkless Bakugou
Tags specific to this chapter:
Quirkless Bakugou, Izuku was born with a Quirk, minor panic attacks
_*_
Katsuki cursed as he launched himself higher, getting a better view of the area before he made his next attack. Smoke from fires, both his fault and not, clogged the air and made it hard to see, obscuring the figures darting back and forth.
A flash of green lightning caught his attention, and he looked in time to see Deku chasing after a woman, One for All leaving a glowing trail as he zig zagged closer to her.
Katsuki was about to let him chase after her on his own, but then he caught sight of her reaching up her sleeve and pulling something out - a small snub nosed revolver.
"Fuck," he hissed, changing trajectory so that he would intercept her. Deku might have gotten more skilled at using One for All as their first year headed to a close, but the nerd wasn't anywhere close to bulletproof.
He wasn't even expecting to fight that day.
A group of villains had stormed a local TV station and hijacked the newsroom, getting on TV and making demands that Katsuki didn't care to remember, he just grabbed his uniform and his provisional license and headed over to where all the action was.
Of course the villains tried taking hostages, and of course the pro heroes on scene were able to get them to safety, so all that was left was rounding up and subduing the villains so that they could get arrested. Somehow Deku also ended up in the mix, sticking his nose where it didn't belong and getting on Katsuki's nerves with his very presence.
And now he was heading for a villain who had a weapon he wasn't even aware of, and Katsuki had to intervene before he ended up with a hole through his goddamn head.
The villain didn't even see Katsuki coming - right before he was on her she glanced over her shoulder towards where Deku was gaining on her, but Katsuki was coming from directly above and slammed into her feet first, sending her flying and her weapon skittering against the ground. She landed in a sprawl, hair covering her face, and Katsuki stood over her, one hand aimed at center mass and just daring her to move.
"Kacchan," Deku gasped, coming to a stop behind them. "Where did you-"
"Are you blind or just stupid?" Katsuki interrupted, snapping at Deku but keeping his eye on the villain. "She had a fucking gun, dumbass!"
Deku let out another little gasp, probably seeing the fallen weapon. "Thanks, I didn't see that," he said, making Katsuki want to roll his eyes. Obviously. Then Deku started digging into a pouch for his restraints. "If you keep her still I can secure her for you."
Fuck no, Katsuki didn't need the nerd's help! "Fuck off, Deku!" he snarled. "I've got this, go get in someone else's way!" He knelt, one hand right behind her head while the other dug in a pouch for his restraints.
"You don't have to be so stubborn, Kacchan!" Deku snapped back, and fuck, will Katsuki ever not get annoyed by the spine the nerd had grown over their first year.
"I said go fuck off!" Katsuki snarled, taking his eyes off the villain to shoot Deku a venomous glare. He stood, walking away from her to seek out his next target, but it seemed by that point all of the action was over and heroes were leading captured villains to an area to be led off once the police arrived. "You want to do something useful?" Katsuki continued, jerking a thumb to where the villains were being led. "Take care of this for me."
Deku, glowering, opened his mouth to say something, but as Katsuki watched he sighed and knelt, helping the woman to her feet and guiding her with one hand at her elbow.
Katsuki went to turn away, but a glint of something in the fading light caught his eye, a shine in the villain's hands that wasn't there a moment ago.
A backup gun.
"Fuck," he spat, rushing towards her. "Fucking move , Deku!" he snarled, a clawed hand trailing sparks as he launched himself with the other. She had pulled another gun, another revolver, out from somewhere, and spun, pulling herself out of Deku's grip more out of surprise than any real skill. She staggered and lost her balance, falling to the ground right as he reached her, the gun still tightly clutched in her hands. Instinctively he fired a point blank shot right as she pulled the trigger, and the world exploded.
There was the sound of rapid-fire gunshots, faster than the revolver should have been capable of, more shots than there should have been in the barrel, and Katsuki felt a sensation like he was being yanked off his feet and thrown back, back, like falling down a well headfirst. There was a scream, and it might have been him, it could have been Deku, but everything was getting darker and darker and then…
"KACCHAN!"
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Katsuki woke up.
Or rather, he snapped awake with a gasp, hands extended to blast away the villain.
It took a handful of heart-thumping moments to realize that he was in his dorm room, in his bed, and that the only thing in front of him was a smiling poster of All Might.
Letting out a shaking breath Katsuki let one hand drop, the other running over his face.
What the fuck just happened?
He could clearly remember the events leading up to him pinning down the villain, far too clearly for it all to have been a dream. But he was in bed, not even a twinge of sore muscles from the fighting.
"What the fuck," Katsuki sighed, hands clenching in his comforter.
His phone chimed.
Katsuki stared at it for a moment, wondering who the fuck would be trying to bother him so early in the morning before swiping it and pulling up his text alerts.
He didn't bother looking at who sent the message, reading; 'Where are you? Everyone has already left.'
Katsuki wrinkled his nose in confusion until he saw the time at the top of the screen, and then he swore, tossing the blankets off of himself in his haste to get out of bed. He was running late. And not just later than he liked to be - if he didn't leave right fucking now he was going to be actually late.
Rushing to get dressed he had to stop and catch his balance more than once, his body feeling weird, like it was just a size off, limbs not going where he wanted them to. Blessed with a robust immune system Katsuki rarely got sick, but he figured that may be what was going on with him. Especially if it explained him missing time after the fight. Or maybe it was just a fever dream, after all. Either way, he grabbed his book bag and rushed out the door, ignoring how everything seemed just a little bit off.
He was certain he was getting sick when he arrived at the doors of UA and he had to pause to catch his breath, winded from the jog over. His stamina was usually a lot better than that; normally he could run the distance from the dorms to the school and back several times without break. He told himself to swing by a Recovery Girl's office during lunch and see if he could get something to get over the cold or whatever he'd caught.
And to see if she knew what the fuck was going on with his memories.
What the hell happened after the fight?
By the time he finally got to his classroom most everybody was already there, gathered in groups around their desks and chatting. The chatting died down the longer Katsuki stood in the doorway, something he only distantly recognized because there was some strange loser sitting in his seat in front of Deku, half turned to talk to the shitty nerd.
Said Deku was staring at Katsuki, a strange look of confusion on his face as he slowly rose to his feet.
"Kacchan?" he said. "What are you doing here?"
"What kind of dumb question is that?" Katsuki sneered, stepping closer to glare down at the nameless asshole sitting in his seat.
"Well," Deku said, and there was something in his voice, some confidence that Katsuki was so unused to hearing that even in the midst of his confusion made him take his eyes off the strange kid to focus on Deku. Deku's gaze on him was soft, sincere, and Katsuki was so unused to seeing that look pointed at him that it took him a moment to recognize it as pity. "It's actually a pretty good question," Deku continued. "Since this isn't your classroom."
"What the fuck are you talking… about…" Katsuki trailed off, because all of a sudden he knew exactly what Deku was talking about.
It was like another life was downloaded into his brain, just laid on top of the other memories he already had, another Katsuki's thoughts and experiences and entire life.
He remembered being a small child and playing with Izuku, hunched over their All Might figures and trading cards. He remembered being four years old and watching as Izuku coughed and a plume of fire spat past his lips, and the tangled up feeling of excitement and jealousy as he watched Izuku learn to master his quirk, sending flames dancing around them both like fireflies, and later like tiny comets.
The heartbreak and fury when he sat in that doctor's office and was told that because of a tiny bone in his toe he'd never have a quirk.
The indignation when Deku still remained his friend, chasing away anyone who tried to pick on Katsuki for a flaw he couldn't help.
The humiliation of getting caught by the sludge villain and having to have Deku rescue him.
The pride of getting into UA anyway, soured by the fact that it was only in the general studies program, because they at least offered classes to students like him, while Deku easily got into the hero track.
The despair at the knowledge that he'd forever be quirkless.
"Kacchan?" Deku asked, voice soft but still startling Katsuki out of his introspection. Katsuki looked up to see not just Deku watching him with that too soft, too gentle expression, but so was the rest of the class with various levels of confusion. Though Four Eyes in the back looked on the verge of physically tossing Katsuki out. "Kacchan, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, nerd," Katsuki grumbled, mind still racing. What the fuck was going on? He knew he had a quirk, a fucking strong one, too, but suddenly he was in a world in which he grew up quirkless and fucking Deku pitied him.
It had to have something to do with what's her face, the villain Katsuki fought. The revolver. It couldn't be a regular one, it had to be tied into her ability somehow. But what exactly did she do? And most importantly, how can Katsuki get his fucking quirk back?
No. He couldn't be quirkless. Not Bakugou fucking Katsuki. He raised one hand and watching closely, tried to activate his quirk.
Nothing happened.
It was like a muscle in his hands just wasn't there any more, a tendon or flexor or something that he was used to always being there would no longer fire.
"Why don't I walk you to Recovery Girl's office?" Deku asked, and fuck he couldn't take that tone anymore. He wanted to scream at Deku, punch him in his goddamn face.
But instead, his mind feeling like it was whirling with a thousand thoughts at once and simultaneously like it was stalling, he just mumbled out, still staring at his own hands, "Yeah, sure."
He was only vaguely aware of Deku's hand on his shoulder, turning him around and guiding him out of the room. Once they were past the door he shook off the hand, silently, dazedly, trailing behind Deku instead.
As they walked Katsuki surreptitiously felt his arms, his belly, chest. No wonder he felt so off; he was still physically fit, nothing would apparently change that, but without Aizawa's constant physical training to push his limits further he wasn't quite as bulky as he was before. His hard-earned muscle gone like it had never even existed, just like his quirk.
Fuck, he could feel the sweat on his palms, but it was just regular sweat, nothing special about it at all, about him at all. Everything that made him the best in his class, was going to make him the best at UA, gone.
"We're here, Kacchan," Deku said. Katsuki took his eyes off his hands long enough to see that Deku was standing in the doorway of Recovery Girl's office.
"Yeah," Katsuki said, stepping inside, still feeling like there was this muffled blanket between himself and the world. The only thing he could focus on was that word, that fucking ugly word spinning around in his head; quirkless, quirkless, quirkless…
He shuffled past Recovery Girl towards one of the beds in the back and collapsed down on top of it. Distantly he could hear Recovery Girl and Deku talking, Recovery Girl asking what the issue was, Deku saying something about Katsuki being confused, and then Deku was crouching next to him.
"Hey Kacchan," Deku said. "I need to get back to class, but let me know when you're feeling better, okay?"
Katsuki closed his eyes, resisting the urge to cover them. "Sure," he said, and he could hear the defeat in his own voice. "Whatever, Deku."
There was a sudden silence, and when Katsuki peeled his eyes open it was in time to see Deku and Recovery Girl exchange a look.
"Um," Deku said, voice gentle. "Can you tell me who Deku is?"
Katsuki could just stare before he huffed a laugh, and this time he did cover his face with his crossed arms. "Just… go away, nerd."
Of course he wouldn't know what Katsuki meant when he said Deku; in this world a younger Katsuki might have made the connection between the way the nerd's name was written and the insult, but it wouldn't have stuck. He actually had a fucking useful quirk.
Fuck, Katsuki was more fit to be called Deku.
The door slid closed, and Recovery Girl stepped up to the side of the bed. Letting out a breath, Katsuki sat up to face her, useless hands clenched in his lap. He wasn't sick, he was just wrong.
"Do your hands hurt?" Recovery Girl asked.
"Huh?"
"Your hands," she repeated. "You keep looking at them. Is there something wrong?"
Katsuki felt like laughing, but had a feeling that if he started he might not be able to stop.
"They're fine," he said, squeezing his knees with said hands, his heart thudding in his chest.
She just hummed in response, but continued on, letting him drop it.
"Can you tell me what's going on, then?" She asked. "I can tell from here that your heart rate is elevated, and you're clammy. If I had to guess, you're on the verge of a panic attack."
Katsuki had to resist the urge to snort; a panic attack? Him? The absurdity was laughable. But a part of him kept his mouth shut - after all, how could he even begin explaining what was going on with him? He had never even heard of a quirk like what that villain had!
At his silence, Recovery Girl just sighed and backed off.
"I'll let you rest in here for a while," Recovery Girl said, turning away with a comforting pat to the cot. "Your teachers will be notified so you won't be marked absent. You can return to class when you're feeling better."
"Thanks," Katsuki grumbled, laying back down on the bed.
At that moment his phone chimed again. Katsuki fished it out of his pocket to see it was from the same person from earlier.
Where are you? Class is starting in less than five minutes...
Katsuki rolled his eyes and powered off his phone. He didn't know what sort of losers this version of Katsuki called friends, or even if the mystery texter was just a nosy menace, but he had no interest in interacting with any of the other General Studies students. Those memories from the other Katsuki tried providing a face to the name, but Katsuki pushed the thought away; he didn't fucking care who it was.
He cared about getting his fucking quirk back!
Which would probably be easier said than done. Katsuki never bothered to look up the rumors kids spread about how to get your quirk to manifest early, or to force it out it, you were quirkless. His Deku might have known a few methods, but the Deku he had access to more than likely wouldn't have a clue.
His hands clenched into tight fists.
If he couldn't have his actual quirk, then any quirk would do.
And he knew how he could get one.
He waited until he knew he'dbe taking lunch by himself until he gathered his things and snuck out of Recovery Girl's office, not wanting the old woman to bug him or whatever; he had a goal in mind, and Katsuki was nothing if not focused on his goals.
Ever since he found out about the secret of One for All he knew that All Might could usually be found in the same room between classes and during his lunch. It was there that Katsuki found him, sitting on the couch and sipping tea, tea that he nearly spilled over himself when Katsuki threw the door open.
"All Might," Bakugou panted, stepping closer to his hero, the person he'd looked up to for as long as he could remember. The older man looked confused and mildly alarmed, cringing back from Katsuki.
"Young man," All Might said haltingly. "Can I… help you with anything?"
Katsuki paused a moment before continuing stepping forward. No wonder All Might didn't recognize him - he taught the hero course exclusively.
"All Might," he said again, and he didn't know what expression was on his face but it made All Might lift his hands, physically putting a barrier between he and Katsuki. "Your quirk. One for All. You can pass it on, right? You can give it to me, right?"
All Might's eyes grew wide at Katsuki's words, but then he closed them with a sigh. "What's your name, young man?" he asked, opening his eyes back up.
"Bakugou Katsuki," he said. Fuck, he could feel himself shaking, why wasn't All Might giving him a straight yes or no yet? He couldn't face a life with no quirk, a life watching pro heroes from a distance as a civilian.
"Young Bakugou," All Might acknowledged. "Why don't you have a seat?"
"No," Bakugou refused, anger building under the desperation. "Just… tell me if you can give me your quirk or not, okay?"
"I can't," All Might said bluntly.
Katsuki felt like he was deflating, all the air just rushing out of him. Just as quickly fury took its place. "Why the hell not," he snarled. "I'm strong, stronger than any of the other idiots out there who you could give it to! I'd appreciate it more, use it more, need it more! I can prove it to you, just-"
"I can't give it to you," All Might said, speaking louder to be heard over Katsuki's ranting. "Because I've already passed it on. I'm sorry." The last was said softly, and the shitty thing was that it actually did sound like he was sorry.
Katsuki was silent for a long moment, brain just stuck on All Might's words, 'already passed it on, already passed it on, passed it on.'
"Who?" Katsuki asked, voice shaking. "Who did you give it to?"
"I can't tell you that," All Might said, voice still soothing, soft. "I don't know how you found out about One for All, but you should know that information would make things more dangerous for both you and my successor."
Rationally Katsuki knew that; the more people that knew about One for All the higher the chance that someone unsympathetic would use that knowledge against them. But Katsuki wasn't feeling like being rational. He wanted to rant and scream and fucking blow up the world. The stretch of years filled with days where the closest he could come to hero work was behind a goddamn desk yawned before him.
Goddamn Deku for distracting him, sending him into this world in which Katsuki was fucking useless.
He collapsed, tears burning in his eyes. All his dreams were gone; there was no chance he could become a hero without a quirk. That villain had to know what she was doing when she sent him here.
A warm hand rested on his shoulder.
All Might crouched next to him, folding his long skinny limbs up to look Katsuki in the face.
"I'm sorry that I can't give you my quirk," All Might said. "But you don't need it in order to live an honorable and fulfilling life. Heroes may escort a civilian out of a burning building, but there still needs to be EMTs to tend to their injuries, therapists that can help them overcome their trauma, charities to help them get back on their feet after losing their homes in an attack-"
"All Might," Katsuki interrupted, voice low and grating even to his own ears. "With all due respect, shut up."
All Might didn't say anything after that. Instead he stayed at Katsuki's side for a long moment until Katsuki dragged himself to his feet, and watched as Katsuki silently made his way across the room and out the door, shutting it behind him in a daze, dragging his bookbag behind him.
He let his feet carry him through the hallways, not even paying attention to where he was going until he got to a doorway he never bothered paying attention to, the entrance to the General Studies course.
Lunch was just ending so not every seat was filled quite yet, but his feet took him to a certain desk, one that he just knew was his.
He sat down at the desk and stared down at the blank wood, mind still feeling like white noise, like static buzzing in his grey matter.
What the fuck.
Where did he go from there?
A pen poked the side of his cheek and Katsuki instinctively batted it away with a snarl, turning around to glare at the idiot who dared...!
Oh. Oh fuck. It was that purple haired mind fucker. Katsuki should have realized that if he was in the general studies course he would run into the asshole at some point. He still had his pen raised in a poking position, hunched over his desk and eyeballing Katsuki with a blank expression.
"Fuck off," Katsuki muttered, turning back around.
"You haven't been in class all morning," Mind Fucker said blandly. "That's not like you."
Katsuki flipped him off over his shoulder. He was not in the mood to deal with him.
The back of his head was poked again, and Katsuki seethed.
"You skipped breakfast, too," he continued. "You missed Kimi burning her eggs on the good skillet."
Katsuki's hands curled into fists.
"Everyone was curious about what happened to our resident Quirkless Wonder," Mind Fucker drawled.
Oh that was fucking it.
"What the hell did you say to me?!" Katsuki roared, spinning to face the purple haired bastard, who was leaning back in his seat and grinning at his reaction.
"That's more like it," he drawled, impassive in the face of Katsuki's fury. Of all the fucking things to not change… "I was starting to wonder if you'd finally snapped."
"Fuck you, you creepy bastard," Katsuki snarled, and fuck, if he had his quirk he bet his hands would be sparking. "I'm not that goddamn weak!"
"Good," the asshole said. "I'm counting on that."
Katsuki just sneered at him before turning around. Shinsou's easy agreement took the wind out of his anger and he wasn't quite sure how to react to it. Instead he settled for ignoring the purple haired bastard, letting his chuckle go in one ear and out the other as he opened his notebook to a blank page and got a pencil out.
The rest of the day passed surprisingly normally, with the subjects the same as what was being taught in the Hero course. Katsuki didn't let himself dwell on his quirkless state, instead focused on his coursework to the exclusion of anything else, telling himself that he could worry about it later.
Later came after the bell rang, and he gathered up his supplies to head straight to the dorms, not caring that he shoved his books into his bag so hard that he was probably winkling pages and fucking with the binding.
He marched out of the classroom, shouldering people aside.
As he walked, he couldn’t help but look around him at the press of bodies all around. Chances were every single person there had a quirk that could kill him. Every single one of them had something he didn’t, something that he couldn’t achieve, and it pissed him the fuck off. He was fucking vulnerable, even worse than a fucking civilian because even your most basic civvie could use a quirk when it came down to it, but he couldn’t. He fucking couldn’t.
"Hey, wait up," Mind Fucker said, hurrying after Katsuki.
Katsuki didn't bother slowing down, and Shinsou huffed as he came abreast to him.
After a little while of Katsuki ignoring him, Shinsou said, voice low, "You know you could tell me if anything is wrong." He kept his tone steady, making it a statement rather than a question.
"Nothing is wrong," Katsuki growled, defensive. Despite the fact that everything was wrong.
"Sure," he agreed easily, and why did that piss Katsuki off even further? "But you can tell me even if it wasn't."
"Whatever," Katsuki said, glaring at nothing.
He almost turned off at the wrong dorms, feet stuttering before remembering that he wasn't staying at the Hero course dorms. Shinsou didn't say anything, but Katsuki could see the way his eyebrow raised.
Katsuki headed straight for his room as soon as they got to the correct building, though Shinsou didn't try to follow him, apparently sensing that Katsuki wanted to be alone.
For the first time in years Katsuki didn't bother with his homework as soon as he got in. Instead he tossed his bag to the side as soon as he closed the door behind him and bee-lined for his laptop. As soon as he had it booted he pulled up the search engine and started browsing.
It was some time later he had a beginning of an answer.
The Multiverse Theory. The idea that there were an infinite number of alternative universes that may only differ from each other in small, sometimes even unnoticeable ways. Somehow that villain was able to send Katsuki to another universe, one where due to a fluke in genetics Katsuki was born without a quirk but Deku was.
The problem was that according to his search the possibility of someone having that quirk shouldn't exist.
It wasn't like the internet had a publicly-accessible registry of every quirk out there, but there was more than one article talking about the impossibility of such a quirk existing.
Worse, there was a general agreement that even if such a quirk did exist, it would be near impossible to ever return to your original universe.
Fuck. That.
He continued studying even as the hours passed, ignoring knocks on his door, requests to come join the rest of his class for dinner. When Deku started texting him he turned his phone off and put headphones on.
He only looked up when a wave of exhaustion hit him. Blearily he looked at the time, muttering a curse under his breath. It was just about midnight and he was nowhere closer to finding an answer than he was when he started. And nowhere closer to getting his fucking quirk back.
Another wave of tiredness, and Katsuki muffled a yawn as he slumped in his chair.
It was long past the time be preferred to go to sleep at. He just needed to close his eyes for a couple minutes.
Just enough to rest his eyes.
He fell asleep.