Chapter 1

Clothed in Burning Blood

How many times has he done this now? Thirty? Forty? 4th-grader Izuku Midoriya has lost track now. But he just can't help it. Any time a kid is victimized in front of them, he sees himself. He sees someone who needs help. The kind of help he never gets. He just wants to spread compassion and heroism, quirklessness be damned.

This time's different, though. Usually, it's just a kid in the schoolyard, with Kacchan and his friends bullying them. He could handle those bruises and burns just fine. But not this.

Not the man who just starts assaulting his mother in the middle of the grocery store.

The villain with a scorpion tail and a temper shorter than Kacchan's own fuse. Just an everyday bag snatcher, but he's clearly not afraid to seriously hurt someone in the process. May have been a former bigger villain who got out on parole recently and was too down on his luck to survive without petty theft, for all he knew.

The only thing Izuku knew was that he couldn't stand by and watch his mother be hurt. That's all that mattered. Just being a hero.

That stinger hurt like hell. He thought he knew pain before, but this was different. It was deep and burning. His guts were on fire instantly, and it numbed his mind to the point he could barely register the heat flowing through his veins.

But what was even stronger was his hate for the man when he slapped his mother with his tail afterwards. Inko went sprawling across the floor, trying to crawl to her injured son to help him. The red he'd been seeing was instantly overtaken by the desperation in her eyes.

That was when the burning in his blood turned outwards, and his whole world changed.

The incident was kept under wraps. Nobody at his school ever knew. Nobody saw it clearly enough, besides the man who was promptly sent back to prison, and his mother. It remains a secret until five years later, as he stands atop a roof with his idol.

It was yet another freak incident. A slime-like villain popped out of the sewers and tired to invade him. That was... uncomfortable to say the least, and a bit traumatizing. His own power was sadly useless in this instance, and until All Might arrived, he was sure he would die there.

Now, on the rooftop, he finds out his hero is not the infallible juggernaut he's always displayed as. He's human, and hurt in ways he will never recover from. But that inspires Izuku. His question… "Can I become a hero with a quirk that relies on other quirks?" It wasn't answered yet… but he now slowly raises his shirt and shows the scar from when he'd been stabbed with a giant scorpion tail.

"My liver took a pretty heavy blow. I was told I'd never be able to handle alcohol and poisoning is a huge risk for me… but I don't regret protecting my mom that day. Or finding out that I had an invisible quirk."

All might's haunting visage narrows his eyes on that wound. "An invisible quirk? So you couldn't find out until you were harmed that day?"

Izuku nods and leans against the wall of the stairwell. "I need a genetic sample of another quirk in my circulatory system for it to work. It's temporary, but versatile."

All Might drags his hand across his face and framed his pointed chin with forefinger and thumb as he thinks. "I see… A rarity, and a very limiting one." He sighs deeply as he stands. "… I'm sorry, kid. I can't tell you if you can be a hero with a power like that or not. If you need to injure yourself and be aided in order to use it, it's just too risky." He brushes his pants off, keeping his head down as he finds he just can't manage to look the young man in the eyes. "But don't entirely give up hope. You have a heroic drive, and I think you'd make an incredible police officer, or a detective. One of my best friends is a detective, and I'm sure the man would like you." He sighs as he heads for the door. He still can't look, but from his peripherals, from the silence, he knows just how crestfallen the boy must be. "… Think long and hard about your future, young man. It's never quite so easy to figure out. Even if you have a direction, it's always vague at first." Having given the last of his advice, he slips through the door into the stairwell, leaving Izuku behind. While All Might is realizing the lack of his villainous cargo, Izuku stands atop the roof, staring out over the city with hazy eyes and a mind plagued with thoughts he's always been plagued by, but only now been unable to suppress. His thoughts are broken as he looks to the small spattering of All Might's blood left on the roof, some of what he'd coughed up.

All hell broke loose a few minutes later.

Bakugou had been captured by the same slime villain, tormented with repeated attempts at invasion and possession, and flames born of his explosions spread from building to building as he desperately fights back against the festering fluid. He's running out of juice quickly, and his explosions don't quite have the kick necessary to fight him off. All the force disperses through his body too quickly, shaken off with ease and chided with snide remarks on how fun it will be to control his corpse.

That struggle drew the attention of a small group of local heroes, but few could act. Backdraft could only hold the line and put out as many fires as possible. Kamui was working on evacuation, but the fire was getting risky, and he could only focus on buildings Backdraft had already gotten or that the fire has barely spread to. Death Arms attempts to get a hit or two in, but only manages to get bitch-smacked back barely caught by Mt. Lady. The situation looks more dire by the moment as Bakugou struggles to keep the slime away from his mouth, and inevitably begins to fail.

All Might watches from the sidelines in horror, overwhelmed by his own weakness, his constant limitations in the wake of his greatest failure. He grips his wound and the lamppost ahead of him as disgust in himself wells up and overwhelms his mind.

That all stops when he notices Izuku across the crowd and staring down the villain with a combination of terror and determination he's seen in so many before. Always young heroes throwing themselves into something over their heads.

That disgust is overthrown when he sees that Izuku has a drop of blood- surely his blood- on his thumb.

Izuku visibly bites his cheek and draws blood, but All Might understands the true purpose of that instantly. He needs genetic material with a quirk in his circulatory system.

He wipes All Might's blood on this inside of his cheek, across the wound, and within a second, he's burning with power. He rushes through the crowd and ahead into the fray without a word. Death Arms calls out to him on sight. "What the hell are you doing, kid?!"

Izuku crosses his arms as he starts to steam. "SUIT UP: ALL MIGHT!" Suddenly, a teal-green organic mass bursts from his skin tearing parts of his school uniform as it forms up around him, lightning sparking off it as each piece seals together and becomes a full suit of leather and spandex-like armor, with dense metallic bones forming greaves, bracers, a chestplate, and helmet. The color suddenly changes, channeling several other colors through veins in the armor, becoming a rainbow of power flowing into the visor and pumping from a circle over his heart. Suddenly, as it reaches his visor, the short horns atop it bursts upwards and take on the same shape as All Might's hair. Izuku starts to stumble as the suit bulks up and flexes repeatedly, but then suddenly unloads an incredible amount of steam out of several rips that form in the suit. "GAH! Can't handle that much power!" He grits his teeth as he feels his suit venting all the force it can't handle. "Fine… this much will be enough!" He punches one hand into he other and channels extra force into his legs, suddenly taking off at shocking speeds.

All Might's jaw drops as he watches the boy leap into the fray with a fraction of his own power. "That… shouldn't be possible! One for All won't pass on without consent! What kind of quirk is this? How are you so damn cool?!"

Izuku pants as he feels his body struggling to keep up with his suit's enhancements. "This power is amazing! I can't even channel much of it at all, and I still feel like I could do anything! But it's sure as hell going to hurt later- my body can't keep up with it, and my suit's not reinforcing me enough to prevent the backlash!" He leaps to the left to avoid a sloppy swing of one of his foe's sludge limbs, skidding across the tarmac on his toes for a moment. "And I'm already burning out fast, I need to finish this NOW!" He rushes past their overextended limb and jams his fist straight into their eye. "WASHINGTON SMASH!" He had his notes ingrained deep enough to recognize on sight that an amorphous foe like this would always have solid core sensory organs to target. With him blinded and reeling back, Deku reaches into the slimy mass and grabs Bakugou by his shirt. He can't speak just yet, but the rage and confusion in his eyes is more than enough to get the point across, not that he cares at the moment. With a sudden twist, he rips Bakugou out and backs away as quickly as his enhanced legs can carry him.

Bakugou stumbles and struggles to regain his footing, coughing and sputtering for air until he looks up to Izuku and sets off a few wild blasts in his hands. "What the FUCK, DEKU?! THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

"My quirk. I know, you thought I didn't have one, it's not exactly easy to use!" Suddenly, its power cuts out and his suit starts to crack and crumble, the organic spandex sloshing to the ground and dissolving. "Oh god…" He looks up to see the slime villain's arm raised above them both. "OH SHI-"

"ON THE GROUND, YA DAM NERD!" Bakugou pulls Izuku to the ground before aiming up and unloading as strong of a blast as he can manage. Out in the heat of the flames he'd been spawning rather than cooled and diluted by the slime, his explosive sweat is far more productive and potent. The result rattles the villain's arm and flings it back, but does no visible damage.

"Obnoxious brats…" He brings both arms up and binds them together into a hammer fist to bring both down. "Fine, you can't fight me taking your body if it's too broken to fight back!" He swings down to crush them both-

The asphalt in front of them cracks as All Might lands there and his eyes light up with the same radiance Izuku had just been channeling. "DETROIT SMASH!" A single punch unleashes such intense wind pressure that the man is blown apart into dozens of individual stains scattered across the block and splattered across walls. Just as the gale dies down and Mt Lady no longer has to guard the civilians from being blown away, a gentle rain begins to fall and put out the remaining flames- what little hadn't been blown out by his punch. While the crowd begins to ramble and cheer, All Might peeks back to Izuku with a somehow wider grin than usual. "So you call that quirk Suit Up, eh? I like it. And you, young man. Your explosion just now was impressive. Reminds me quite a bit of my runner-up in the rankings, and some friends from back in America." He slowly drops his fist and gives them both a thumb-up. "Keep it up, kids."

Izuku sighs shakily and returns his hero's grin with a teary-eyed smile of his own. "Thank you, All Might!"

Bakugou sputters for a few moments. "Holy shit, it's actually you."

All Might laughs off the boy's rambling. "Don't freeze up too much! I insist you both head over to the paramedics and get yourselves looked over. I'll be deal with cleaning up this mess and giving the other heroes here a few pointers on everything they mishandled in this incident."

Izuku nods shakily and bows to thank him once more before stumbling over to the ambulance with Bakugou in tow. Looking himself over, he can feel a few mild burns near where the suit had vented excess power, and his muscles felt torn to shreds like he'd just done a six hour workout in just a few minutes. It would take a few days before he'd be able to recover from this mess, at least. Probably more.

He's interrupted from his musings when he hears Bakugou's gravely, hushed tone. "What the hell was that back there, Deku? You had a quirk like that this whole time, and never used it once?"

He sighs deeply. "I did use it once… and I nearly died that day. I have to get the genetic code of someone else's quirk in my blood stream for it to work. Not exactly and easy thing to do without being a creep and stealing people's blood."

For now, Bakugou leaves that argument as it is. He can't argue that logic, but he still can't yet register how Izuku could have had such a cool quirk all this time.

Long discussions with paramedics, cops, and heroes keep them both held there for another hour. Bakugou is of course encouraged, his bravery and strength praised in spades for having survived the villain's torment for so long. Despite his success, Izuku is repeatedly berated, saying he easily could have gotten into deep shit if he'd caused any serious injury to the villain, or gotten himself killed out there if All Might hadn't stepped in. He knew it to be true, but the whole time he wanted to throw their own unwillingness to put their lives on the line today in their faces.

Soon enough, he and Bakugou go their separate ways, headed home with heads hanging as they consider their various failures. Bakugou had failed to defeat his first villain, becoming nothing more than a victim. Izuku had been diminished by his idol, and he failed to save his friend on his own even with All Might's quirk channeled through his own.

Of course he couldn't handle that kind of power. Even All Might himself said it. His quirk isn't enough to make him a hero. It's far too situational. He sighs deeply and shakes his head. "Well… time to find a new path in life, I guess…"

With no warning, the khaki and white-tee clad All Might skids to a stop in front of him. "I AM HERE!"

Izuku stumbles back in shock. "W-What- All Might?! But… weren't you just swamped by paparazzi?!"

"HA!" He wags a finger at Izuku. "No paltry reporters can hold me back when I see my duty ahead of me! No…" He drops his arms. "Speaking with you now is far more important than sating their greed for headlines." That said, he steams and shrinks back down to his natural form. "My dear boy… I have a few critical words for you. First and foremost, an apology."

"A-An apology for what?" He looks away. "I got in the way of real professional heroes out there and almost got Bakugou and I killed."

"Young man, if you hadn't acted, he would have suffocated before anyone else got to him. And if you weren't there…" He looks to his own hand. "… I wouldn't have been able to act."

Izuku raises his head in shock and locks eyes with his idol to find humility and honesty in his eyes. "W-What do you mean?..."

"Midoriya Izuku… I had berated and belittled you on that rooftop, saying heroes must be prepared and capable of putting their lives on the line at any time, and that your quirk doesn't allow for it." He clenches his fist and shakes his head. "But I stood idly by, wallowing in self-loathing at my own weakness until you came along and proved me wrong." He looks up into Izuku's eyes. "You went out there with a quirk I told you wasn't capable of hero work, and not only proved me wrong, but you were the biggest hero out there by far. More so than me."

With every word, Izuku finds that he's starting to shake. His legs are about ready to give out, both from physical exhaustion as well as anxiety and even relief-driven euphoria as he realizes what these words mean.

"Midoriya… you barely even thought before you acted. You saw someone in need, and became the hero you've always been, beneath everything else. I was wrong this afternoon, child. Indeed…" Just as Izuku drops to his knees and hunches over, tears streaming down his face, the sun drifts into the background and lights up his hero's silhouette. The winds of change blow through as Izuku feels his entire future rearrange into something incredible. "… You too can become a hero."

Izuku breaks into helpless sobs as he's overwhelmed with relief and joy. All of the pain he'd been ignoring for so many years and much of the day finally floods free, and his life is set to change for the better.

"Izuku Midoriya… it's time I entrust you with my greatest secret. Young man, to make your quirk complete, I've chosen you as my successor, to receive my power!"

Silence fills the street for a moment as Izuku raises his head and stares in shock. ".. w-wha..?.."

.

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A.N.: SURPRISE! Hope you're all having a wonderful evening, or whatever time it is for you. Yes, I have indeed started a new project, and this is just one little surprise for you all. You see, although there's notable flaws in my fanfiction work, that's because I write this up for fun and to break monotony between my other writings, in just one draft. So, that may make you wonder what happens when I do 17 drafts. Well, this Friday, you just might find out! Stay tuned, and be ready for the premiere of my website, and my book!

As for this Hero Academia fic- yes, this is indeed inspired by henshin hero series the likes of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. You'll be seeing a lot of influence from two specific Kamen Riders: Ghost and Build. If you know them, I'm sure you can already see where this is going, and it's going to be one hell of a ride. So, until next time, keep reading, keep reviewing, never lose that heroic spirit because we sure as shit need it right now with the world on the verge of collapse, and I'll see you all again soon!