Chapter Text
Izuku chokes as he gets kicked in the stomach by Yubi.
“You really think you can just become a hero without a quirk?”
Izuku just remains silent. ‘Huh, this really is the worst day of my life. C’mon, I was just trying to get home, asshat.’
—~—
Akira watches from a small distance away as a child gets kicked in the stomach by what looks to be bullies. He continues walking in order to intervene, then something stops him.
‘No. No fuckin’ way.’ He thinks as a familiar feeling strikes within his heart. His ‘Joker’ mask comes on and he walks over.
“Don’t just let them win.” His voice comes out much deeper than normal.
Weird Fingers Kid glares at him, he just looks back at the kid and lets Satanael appear for a second. The Demon Lord had shortened quite a bit since the first time he summoned it, but it’s still a memorable face.
The green haired kid stands up, glaring with golden eyes at Fingers Kid. ‘Holy shit that glare is intense’ Joker tries not to laugh as Fingers looks close to pissing himself when the green kid erupts into the standard blue flames shenanigans that the weird ass quirk they have does.
Aaaand then it gets weirder when the green haired boy comes out of the fire a green haired girl. Their clothes hadn’t even changed yet! What the fuck!?
“Hm.” Is all he manages to say outwardly. Inwardly, he screams, for he has zero idea what the fuck is happening anymore.
—~—
A voice invades his mind, slightly angry sounding. “So, is this it? Are you simply going to give up and resign yourself to being a useless prey animal like these scum say? Just going to let them think that this is okay to do?”
Izuku lifts his head from the floor. A low growl escapes his throat. ‘I…’ He thinks for a second, then slowly starts struggling to his feet. ‘Never!’
Izuku stands up. Struggling to stay on his feet until a blue fire surrounds and he suddenly feels light as a feather. He hears a voice in his head as a strange mask attaches to his face.
“Good. It’s about time you stood up.” The voice says. “You have been dormant for far too long.” Her voice rings like a bell. High pitched and not at all helping his splitting migraine. “Now, I’d say it’s about time for the hunters to become the hunted, wouldn’t you agree?”
A name pops into his head. “Yes.” He grabs at the mask, seemingly glued to his face, and begins to pull, eventually finding the right angle. “Let the hunt begin, Artemis!” he shouts in a voice he doesn’t recognize as his own, tearing the mask off with a painful cry as blue flames engulf him once again.
“Then we must form a contract. I am thou, thou art I. The art of the hunt shall be your own and nobody else’s.” He steps out of the flames, feeling shorter and much more light on his feet. He pulls a bow from his back and pulls back the string, three green arrows of energy appear. “Back. Off.” He says, glaring with extreme force.
“Heh, Deku thinks he can fight back! Get ‘im!” Fingers, since Izuku doesn’t feel like remembering the asscrack’s name, shouts.
Izuku smirks as the amount of arrows on his bowstring decreases to one. “You and who else, huh Yubi?”
Fingers looks to his left and right, rather comically, Izuku admits, then turns and sprints off.
After he’s fully out of sight, Izuku puts the bow back in it’s place and looks down at his body. “… Woah.”
He just looks for a long time before actually moving.
He’s now in a black leather outfit, a dark green moon engraved on his chest.
Speaking of his chest… Well it no longer looks like a male chest. He holds up his now quite slender hands, covered in a pair of thin gloves and touches one. “… Am I a girl…?” She(?) asks.
A voice speaks up from behind him. “Um, kid?”
Izuku yelps and twists around with a fist clenched, a blade of some kind of spectral energy flicks out to where the blade tip is just an inch past his knuckles. “This is a target we should not hunt.” The voice from earlier rings in his head.
“Y… Yes?” Izuku asks after loosening his fist, the blade disappears into the bracer with a ‘shk’ noise.
A bit of cloak flows around him and catches his hand briefly. The stranger scans him up and down before stepping from the shadows with a small, mischievous grin. “I’m willing to bet that this hasn’t happened to you before…” He gestures to the getup.
Izuku also scans this man, and realization dawns on him. “Wait, you… You’re the leader of that vigilante group from 7 years back! I think the HPSC made the official decision to make you all heroes… Joker, right?”
“Well, they tried to make us all heroes. Some of us had our own fields to go into.” Joker shrugs. “But yeah, you got it in one, kid. I’m Joker. But given your current predicament, I’d say you’re okay to just call me Akira.” Joker’s outfit returns to normal, a button-up shirt hung loosely over a black tee and a pair of jeans. His big glasses obscuring his eyes slightly.
“… How do I do that?” Izuku asks, and Akira laughs a little.
—
Eventually, Izuku manages to change his clothes back to their normal state along with his body, so he takes out his phone and calls his mom.
“Hey, Mom? Yeah, I’m probably going to be late getting home. I’ll eat while I’m out so…” Izuku struggles to find the words.
“So I’ll just be cooking for me tonight? Alright dear, but what’s going on?” She asks, concern lacing her voice.
“It’ll be easier to explain in person, so I’ll tell you tomorrow. Going with a friend to help figure this out. Love you.”
“…” Izuku can tell that she wants to ask a lot more questions, and Izuku wants to answer them all, but he also has no idea how to answer them. “Alright, I’ll trust you, just come home safe and don’t do any drugs, alright sweetie?”
“Promise.” Izuku nods.
“Love you too, by the way!” Inko says, and a short while later she hangs up, knowing Izuku wouldn’t be able to do so, probably. Izuku puts his phone away and starts following Akira out of the alley.
“So, I need you to swear a few things to me. 1. You will not talk to others about ‘the phantom thieves’ while referencing our real names, only our phantom aliases. 2. You do not reveal exactly where me and the others used to hide out. And 3. You cannot teach others our secrets unless all of us are dead or we give permission.” Akira counts them off his hands while walking next to Izuku.
Izuku nods rapidly. “Of course!” Akira’s eyes flash slightly red.
“Sorry for using my quirk without asking permission. It allows me to make contracts with people that have no loopholes no matter how they’re phrased. It’s called ‘Phantom Joker’.” Akira says, face apologetic. “We can’t have our old secrets revealed, since those that… dislike us, still have a lot of power.”
Izuku squints at him, heart still hammering on in his chest. “… You’re on thin ice, but I’ll still trust you for now.”
Akira nods. “You should keep that distrust. Learn to hide it better and it might become a powerful tool. Of course, don’t become so distrusting that you can’t see people being genuinely nice.” Akira shrugs as though a shiver went up his spine. “I’m barely 24 and I’m over here sounding like a mentor.”
Izuku continues following him and Akira takes a small breath. “So what was your quirk before this, kid?”
“… Quirkless.” Izuku mutters. “Oh, and my name’s Izuku.” He says without any real bite in it.
“M’kay.” Akira shrugs. “I was too, before the nonsense with… that guy.”
—~—
Utter. Silence, again.
Akira sighs. He really should’ve expected it from a kid going through all manner of bullying like he was.
‘I don’t think I was ever this bad… What has this kid gone through?’
Eventually Izuku does speak to ask a single question. “So how far are we going?”
“Oh, well luckily Yongen-Jaya is close to here, so not very far. Fair warning though, all of the Phantoms will be there.”
“…” The kid makes a frightened noise, but continues walking.
As they walk, Izuku’s form bursts into flames and he equips his Phantom gear.
Akira scans the area and finds no threats, so they continue walking. Izuku’s Phantom armor on without any intent to use it actually looks like a fairly cute cosplay, what with the rabbit mask and ears on his hood.
It goes from cute to intimidating when the rabbit smiles, revealing a row of sharp teeth and predatory eyes.
How does Akira notice this? The kid starts humming to themselves while walking, unprompted, then smiled brightly at a passerby they probably recognized, revealing a lot of razor sharp teeth.
Needless to say it scared whoever it was.
Akira had to resist laughing as they finally made it to the backstreets and Leblanc.
Ryuji waves to them lazily from his position in the middle booth. “Yo, Akira.”
Makoto squints slightly to his left, at Izuku.
Akira looks at Sojiro. “I flipped the sign to ‘closed’ already, Kid. Go on, what announcement do you have?”
“We have a new Phantom quirk user.” He steps back slightly to gesture at Izuku, who steps forwards. They wave nervously.
Ann instantly smacks her forehead into the table. “Come oooonn, I’m really the only girl with the goddamn Kink Wear!?” She says the last two words in english, hoping Izuku can’t understand.
Makoto snorts. “I don’t really think you’re the only one. You’re just the only one with such an obvious application. I mean, technically if you think on it, your outfit is perfectly suited to your ideals and personality.”
Ann flicks her on the nose in revenge. “That was one goddamn time!”
—~—
“… I think I may understand why I don’t really have a ‘Kink’ outfit.” Izuku quotes Ann. “I’m fluent in English.” He addresses when Ann looks confused at him, then the persona he awoke appears behind him. “Artemis is the goddess of chastity, so…”
“So you wouldn’t get something like that from awakening her.” Haru nods. “Sorry, I interrupted you.”
Izuku nods to her. “It’s fine. Also I’m not a girl… At least, I don’t really think I am.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, then his outfit changes to the Gakuran he had been wearing.
All of them stare for what feels like an eternity until Ryuji just shrugs. “I’m gonna call you they/them. Just to be safe.” A lot of noises of agreement are heard as the Phantom Thieves nod.
The quirk activates again and Izuku nods. “Fair enough.” They take the hood off and shift the mask so it sits on their head. “I have anxiety, so the part where it’ll always activate around enemies keeps happening.
“Oh god same” an orange haired girl stands up. “The amount of times I ended up in my Oracle outfit due to being around crowds is ridiculous.”
“It was really hard not to suddenly end up activating ‘Panther’ when I was in the school we all went to.” Ann says. “Especially when I wanted to hurt someone.”
Izuku’s eyes suddenly sharpen and they clench a fist, the hidden blade pops out as they glare at the door.
“Holy shit…” Ryuji says, the action startling a laugh out of him.
A red head bursts through the door. “Sorry I’m late!” She closes the door and slumps into a stool with her head on the counter. Izuku looks around and nobody seems agitated or scared of her, so the blade disappears back into the gauntlet as they unclench the fist. “Practice ran long… again”
Akira smiles. “It’s alright. We’re still technically waiting on one more.”
“So I’m only technically on time.” Redhead says, then looks at Izuku. “Ah, new Phantom?” She asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Yep.” Izuku answers at the same time as Akira, causing a few subdued laughs.
“I’m Sumire Yoshizawa.” She introduces with a short wave and nod. Then she laughs slightly. “Sorry I can’t bow right now. My legs are dying.”
“Oh, Izuku Midoriya, and it’s fine.”
The bell above the door chimes a final time when everyone finishes introducing themselves. “… Sorry I’m late.” A brown haired man bows slightly to Izuku. “Takuto Maruki. Psychologist and the person that deals with quirk change forms for those with ‘Phantom’ abilities. I assume you’re the new one?”
“Izuku Midoriya, and, I guess?” Izuku says, and Maruki snorts a little.
“Pardon me, I just think it’s fairly obvious given your outfit. I assume you have no idea what this quirk does?”
Izuku shakes their head. “No, just know that I have a bow with energy arrows and a knife built into my… bracer?” they ask, holding up the arm and clenching a fist, the knife flicking out when they do.
“Well, I guess we have to test that out then…”
— A Week Later —
Izumi smiles viciously as she walks into the school building, well, tries to walk into the school building. Her outfit changes before she can even open the door. She rolls her eyes and continues walking, skipping the lockers due to not being able to change out of the boots she’s wearing. She pulls off the hood and adjusts the mask so it sits on her head as she walks straight to the classroom she hadn’t been in for the week of figuring out her quirk. And her gender.
A lot of tears were shed that week. By her and her mother.
She sits in her desk without a care and rests her head on her hands, humming while smiling a sharp grin.
Katsuki walks in a short while later and she waves to him with an even more predatory grin.
She remembers part of the conversation she had with Artemis.
—
“I am your Persona. Another you that exists somewhere in your soul. I shall be around so long as you do not lie down like a complacent prey again.”
—
It was slightly vague, but Izumi thinks she gets what Artemis was trying to warn her about.
‘I am done being these people’s easy target.’ She thinks as the teacher finally enters. He looks at her, jumps slightly, then goes about the usual early morning things.
“Midoriya, deactivate your quirk.” The teacher says.
“Sorry, as long as I’m around people considered enemies it doesn’t turn off.” Izumi says, unapologetic even as she says ‘sorry’.
“We aren’t your enemies.” Teacher says, and Izumi snorts harshly.
“You all bullied me for nearing four years. Don’t even pretend for a second that you aren’t.” Izumi says. “I couldn’t even walk in the door without Huntress activating.”
“…” The teacher snarls, finally showing his true colors, and Izumi rolls her eyes. “Midoriya Izumi”
“Present.” She raises a hand with a lazy smirk.
The teacher grits his teeth. “Would you like to explain exactly what happened and who you are to the class?”
Izumi fakes a thinking face before saying “Nah, I don’t owe any of you an explanation.”
Everyone looks at her, stunned, and her grin is predatory. “However, if I do see any bullying, I won’t hesitate to put a stop to it, unlike the shitty teachers at this school.” She glares straight at the teacher, eventually class moves on to the next topic.
—~—
Around 12PM Inko gets a call from the principal of Izumi’s school.
She knows because the number is labeled ‘Shithead #3’ in her phone. She debates leaving it on ignore until eventually the ringtone gets too irritating for her to ignore, but that might just worsen her already annoyed state from having to deal with the bastard.
She answers “Yes?” She asks.
“Hello, this is the principal of Aldera Middleschool, calling about your son-”
“Daughter,” Inko says, her quirk flaring and almost dragging a cup out of a cupboard in the kitchen.
“Daughter, Midoriya Izumi.”
“What about her?” Inko asks, knowing full well that Izumi was going to wreck shit there.
“She refuses to turn off her quirk and actively argues with her teachers.” The Principal says, rather grave sounding despite the voice saying it with a victorious smile.
“Refuses, or can’t? If she’s in the same room as someone that her quirk marks as a threat to her safety her quirk will not turn off no matter how much she tries.” Inko says, completely ignoring the teacher stuff.
“Well… she says she won’t.” He says.
‘Really? Lying to a lawyer and mother, through your teeth?’ Inko asks in her head.
“Really?” Inko asks in a tone that betrays her inner thoughts, she quickly clears her throat. “Well I’ll have to talk to her about that when she gets home then. Is that all?”
“No, she still keeps arguing with her teachers and even insults her classmates.”
“Well from what I hear from her, that’s a common occurrence within your school so you should be able to handle that just fine.” Inko shrugs. “Her quirk gives her a confidence boost, especially around those it considers prey. Normally, as in when she’s not around prey, she just seems overall happier, but when prey get within her vicinity she becomes vicious.”
“Well, I’m afraid your daughter is not a good fit for our school anymore. Starting tomorrow she will no longer be a student of Aldera Middle School.”
“Oh no… whatever shall I do?” Inko asks, rolling her eyes. Ever since her and Izumi worked things out it also boosted her confidence to know her baby was finally standing up for herself.
“You…” The principal snarls and Inko laughs lightly, finally free of dealing with this stupid school.
“I’ll see you in court next, Principal. I’m suing for mental and physical damages to my daughter over three years.” She says, before abruptly hanging up without a measure of a shit given.
—~—
Izumi gets a text on her phone during lunch and smirks as her mother recounts the encounter with the principal. She eats the sandwich she got from the lunch line in one hand without even sitting down. Too much prey around is making her quirk give her a lot of energy she doesn’t need. She finds the bread a bit difficult to get properly chewed, so she takes a toothpick and starts pushing it out of the spaces in her teeth.
She actually started keeping a pack on her after the first time eating at Leblanc. She may have a carnivore’s teeth now, but Sojiro’s curry tastes too goddamn good to pass up.
—
As she started eating with the same pace as Yoshizawa, allbeit with a smaller portion, the thieves chatted amongst eachother, even asking her questions from time to time.
“So what’s gonna be her code name anyways?” Asks Ann.
“Bunny?” Ryuji suggests, getting an offended glare from Izu. “What? Your outfit has a bunny motif!”
Izuku asks a different question in lieu of a response. “Why am I even getting a codename? It’s not like I’m gonna be doing your ‘Phantom Thief’ activities.”
“It’s how we named our quirks,” Haru, the calmest of the group, answers. “My Quirk name is ‘Phantom Noire’ despite it’s actual use being completely unrelated to the color black. I can grow plants anywhere I want and lift heavier things than the rest of the thieves can. The names of our Quirks are just ‘Phantom’ and our code names.”
Akira being the best namer in the group, looks them up and down for a bit before snapping his fingers. “How does Huntress or Hunter sound?”
Izu nods after a bit of thought. “Sounds good. Huntress, because I get turned into a girl and I literally felt compelled to say ‘let the hunt begin’ when I first summoned Artemis.” Their hair falls in front of their face as they go for another bite and they sigh. “Yoshizawa, can you like, help me tie up my hair?”
Yoshizawa huffs a laugh. “Ann might be a better help with something like that. I doubt you want your hair tied the way I do it.”
Takamaki, who had already snuck up on her, holds up the newly-named Huntresses hair. “Just keep eating, I’ll take care of it.” She grumbles.
“Thanks.” Izu says, blushing slightly at the feeling of hands in their hair.
“No problem.” Takamaki replies with a small smile.
After they all had finished eating and stuff, Izu had felt something in their teeth, so they asked for a toothpick, revealing to the thieves that they have teeth used more for tearing meat apart than plants. Futaba snapped a picture and sent it to their phone, to which they saved it to send to Inko if they somehow couldn’t manifest the form that day.
“Like, dude, you could totally use those as a weapon if you wanted!” Ryuji said after Izu finally finished off the stuff in their teeth.
“I prefer my food cooked, thanks.” Izu replied, slightly jokingly. The air around the shop helped them come out of their shell quite a bit. Ryuji laughs lightly.
“Your form would make an excellent painting!” Kitagawa says. “A prey animal turned predator! I can practically feel the inspiration!”
“… Okay, dude… I mean, if you want to make one based on my appearance I won’t complain unless you sell it without my permission, but I don’t see that working out.”
Kitagawa’s expression morphs sharpish. “And why is that?” He asks.
“I’m not saying that you won’t make a good painting, I’m saying my ‘form’ would probably ruin any chances of it being good in other’s eyes. Nobody wants to see ‘Deku’ and pay real money for it.” They shrug.
These words only make multiple people’s expressions turn sharp as knives, and somehow Izu could tell it wasn’t aimed at them. “Exactly why do you think that?” Kitagawa asks.
“… Because I’m me? The Quirkless thing might not be true, but I’m still the same useless, idiot Deku that everyone hates.”
“… Well I certainly don’t hate you.” Kitagawa says. “And I doubt anyone else here does either.”
Izu hadn’t noticed it before, but the room went quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Ryuji, eloquent as ever, speaks first with a sigh and rubs the back of his neck. “My quirk, before all of the Phantom stuff, was called ‘Flame Skull’. When my head was moving fast enough, it would light on fire and my face and everything else would disappear, only showing my skull. It was… Well it was a pretty bad quirk. I liked it though, because I could burn someone and give them a helluva headache when I headbutted them.” He shrugs. “Now I’m a hero, and my Persona likes headbutting people while I electrocute them with ‘Charged Skeleton’, the new derivation of my quirk.”
“My quirk gave me increased flexibility and speed, but not much, so they called it ‘Panther’. Every time someone heard that name they would instantly say something like ‘Ah, so you’re a slut?’” Ann snorts. “Like, that’s ‘Cougar’, dumbasses. I don’t have as much trauma as Akira or Ryuji, but yeah. Teachers would come to me with ‘Expectations’. Fucking pigs.”
“I didn’t have a quirk. At all.” Kitagawa shrugs. “I was fine, though, I had my ‘Father figure’, and that’s all that mattered, until I realized he sentenced other people, people I made friends with, to suffer when they left his wings all because he couldn’t sell their art as his own anymore.”
Makoto waves a hand. “My Sis has essentially a more powerful version of my quirk. She got so much pressure that she manifested a palace and became a terrible person so she could live up to every expectation set for her.”
Futaba shrugs. The only one who doesn’t see much wrong with her abilities before gaining her ‘Phantom’ skillset, then she realized they were talking about big traumas. “Oh, y’know, government assassins killed my mom and blamed me for it. Fun times. Now I work with hero agencies as an investigator and on occasion as on-site support during raids.” She shrugs again, not really wanting to bother with outing her power set.
“My quirk was called ‘Green Thumb’, which let me grow plants faster than usual. My Dad thought it was useless, so he essentially almost sold me off to some politician’s son when he wanted to make his food chain gain clout in the political space. He was killed by someone we called an ally in the end.” Haru giggles slightly. It’s a bit more of a sullen thing than a full giggle.
“I was basically considered Quirkless until my sister died, then we found out exactly what it was. I can possess twin personalities of people I know. For the longest time I hid away, letting Kasumi pilot. Kasumi had the ability to change her name in people’s minds seamlessly, and since we’re really close in genes I was able to emulate the quirk with the assisstance of Doctor Maruki’s own Quirk.” Yoshizawa smiles sadly at Maruki.
Maruki waved nervously as Izu’s attention changed to him. “I… am able to change the mental states of people, just slightly. I used it in my psychology practice to give people a bit more confidence for a short time so they could have a small amount of assisstance in getting over their issues. When my wife’s parents died and she fell into a near-catatonic state of grief I managed to contact my Persona, albeit unwittingly, and I altered her mind enough that she now lives her life peacefully, unaware that she was once married. Over the years my quirk kept getting stronger and stronger, so evidently, I was able to do a lot more to the human mental state than should be possible.”
He takes a sip of his water. “Now I can’t, because I developed a ‘Benevolent Ruler’ God complex and the Phantom Thieves had to rip my persona off me, as it was corrupting my sanity by giving me so much power. The world is based on Cognition, so altering the public consiousness allowed me to change the world in ways that should not have been possible. I brought people back to life, destroyed people’s existencies, even entirely altered personalities of people, all to make the perfect world, which would not have been possible anyways.”
He chuckled sadly after taking a sip of his coffee. “But now everything’s back to normal, and nobody remembers a thing I did. For a while I almost wanted to walk to a police station and have them cuff me. The Phantoms here convinced me I was needed elsewhere. So now I give them counseling sessions as well as therapy along with Quirk counsel for those that end up gaining the ‘Phantom’ powers. And since I have the license to give Quirk Counseling I can also handle the paperwork to change a quirk status.”
Izu sighs. “Wow, you guys have been through some stuff.”
This causes most in the room to laugh, even the strange cat, Morgana, somehow seemed to chuckle.
—
After that, they discussed lighter subjects and scheduled a time for Izumi to attend Quirk Counseling with Maruki. It extended into a therapy session because both of them bounced back and forth until the subject fell on something Izumi wanted to talk about but didn’t have anyone she necessarily trusted enough to talk to about aside from Maruki, who assured her anything not pertaining to her quirk would be revealed to anyone else unless she gave permission or was becoming a threat to herself or others.
They wound up talking about Gender.
—
Izu had just finished a bunch of intense exercises to figure out how to control her quirk’s abilities and was sitting down next to Maruki in a gym specially built for Quirk Counseling sessions.
“… What is Gender to me?” Maruki asks with a brow raised. At Izu’s nod, he places his chin between his thumb and forefinger in thought. “Well, during the time at Leblanc, we mentioned all that we know about the Metaverse, right?” Once again, Izu nods. “Well, I personally think Gender is a construct made by cognition to put yourself in one box or another when you really shouldn’t need to, but also I think that it’s your soul yearning for some kind of label. For some it’s necessary, for others it isn’t. Some even view it more like an ocean, high tide, you’re female, low tide, you’re male, the inbetween state? They/Them, sometimes there’s only high or low tide, no inbetween, sometimes there’s more than three tide states. For me, my cognition firmly solidifies as ‘Male’. If someone called me by She/her I’d correct it and be a slight bit irritated, same if they called me they/them if they actually knew my gender.” He takes a sip of water.
“For some their cognition is that they need to be one gender when they just are another, which results in Transgenders or Transsexuals who build upon their personalities mostly based on popular media rather than what is actually going on inside their heads, often creating a defensive ‘barrier’ of sorts to keep the thoughts that would potentially point out the issue for what it is at bay. Boy born in a girl’s body, girl born in a boy’s body, and in some cases, Non-Binary born in either. It results in depression and anxiety, oftentimes. And, quite frankly, it sucks. And even once they get around to breaking that wall down, they often fear they’ll be an outcast for potentially years, so they don’t open up, and it only worsens the strain on their minds.”
After a while of talking about the complex way he views Gender, he looks them in the eyes. “I’m assuming you asked this with more than just a little curiosity on how I view it, correct?”
“Yeah… I think I might be Trans…” Izu nodded. “Female, I-I think.”
Maruki heaves a deep breath out through his nose. “Well, that’s good, I think.” She looks at him weird, a ‘What can possibly be good about this?’ kinda face. “The picture you showed your mother to help explain where you were had me sitting in the background. She’s actually one of my clients. Started coming to me after the whole ordeal with wanting to rule the world or whatever. She told me if you asked to feel free to tell you that. She also confided something about you that was worrying her and wanted help. You spent all your time at home in your Huntress mode without even thinking, and when you turned back to go outside you complained about a lot of your looks, also probably without thinking. I told her that you might be trans. I emphasized the might because I didn’t want her jumping to conclusions, then I told her that you’d have to figure it out on your own or… well, go to therapy. And since I’m licensed in basically all forms of counsel, technically, you have.” He laughs dryly.
“… You tricked me into therapy.” Izu snorts. “Well I planned on asking to talk to you about this kinda stuff more often, if that’s okay?”
“Of course! You actually helped me a little… I haven’t had to put exactly how I think of gender into words before, so now that I know it, I can probably help more patients!” He then slaps a hand over his mouth. “Though I do have a habit of rambling… Sorry about that.”
Izu smiled “It’s no problem, I tend to do that too, but less understandable as I don’t do it at a volume others can hear, and what you said was so interesting!”
Maruki stands and stretches his back. “Well, I think it’s about time we got back to work.” He hits a button and three targets appear. “I want you to hit all three of these targets with one draw.”
Izu huffed as she also stood, drawing her bow with a flick of the wrist, as her persona had instructed, she held it left handed and drew it with her right. Three arrows appear and she looses them. All three hit. “Again.” Maruki says, so Izu does it again.
After a while of this Maruki stops her. “Alright, so that’s around 30 arrows before you get exhausted.”
—
As Izumi is reminiscing, a ‘skirmish’ breaks out.
It’s what the school calls a onesided fight between two quirked people and one Quirkless. She places a ‘Stalk’ on the Quirkless one and sneaks up behind the other two, then she taps one on the shoulder, and with a flick of the wrist, the hidden blade enters his head and exits as fast as a whip. The other looks at his ‘pal’ with confusion, as Izumi had quickly shifted her target for Stalk onto him, then passes the blade through his throat. Both fall to the ground, knocked out.
She can practically feel Artemis purring in the back of her mind. “Good job” She says. “I was getting restless with all of this prey walking around like they own the place.”
Izumi shrugs and grabs the both of them by their shirt collars and starts dragging them to the nurse’s office, waving with a closed-mouth smile to the Quirkless student.
—~—
The Principal grins as he looks at the security footage. “Good, we can finally send that brat home. Illegal Quirk use is a very serious crime…” He laughs darkly, then hits the intercom button. “Midoriya Izumi to the Principals office, please?” he says, and the door to his office busts open a short while later from a booted kick.
“I was already expecting you to call me here.” Midoriya Izumi shrugs and sits across from him. “And no, I won’t be going home. Not until the end of the day. After all…” she pulls out her phone. “I’m willing to bet you want to use illegal quirk use as means to get me out of here?”
The pressure the teen exudes while just scrolling through her phone is intense, still, not one to be cowed by a child, the Principal nods.
“Well it’s a good thing that this school seems to have no rules against quirk use. As seen in some of your security footage.” The holographic projector on the back of the girl’s phone activates, and the feeling of being eaten alive increases.
The footage shows the inside of a classroom, specifically the one Izumi attended this last year. The blonde sitting up and to the left of her suddenly leaps from his seat and explodes her desk, causing the naturally nervous ‘Izuku’ to fall out of his seat and get as far away as possible. The girl in front of him presses another button and the clip ends. “None of the teachers sent him home. You didn’t even bother calling him down here, so, unless you want even more evidence as to this school’s prejudices to come to light in your upcoming trial, I’m not going home until the last bell rings.” Izumi smiles, showing off her very sharp teeth that could tear off a limb, and her eyes remain open and settled on him.
He feels like if he missteps he’ll get chewed up and spat out like a bad-tasting gumball. He swallows again, and gestures to the door, not trusting his voice enough to speak. He doesn’t even bother asking how she knew this information.
—~—
Artemis makes a noise of elation from the back of Izumi’s mind as she leaves the Principals office. Izumi feels her smile. “Yet another hunt in one day… Exactly how many Prey will fall today I wonder?”
She snorts and sends a quick thanks to Futaba for sending the footage before heading to class. She adjusts the mask so it sticks to the side of her head as she gets settled in her desk.
“Ah, Midoriya, how nice of you to join us.” The teacher says, a few snickers float about the classroom, two noticeably empty desks at the front. “Now, as I was saying…” He continues as Izumi blatantly ignores him in favor of adjusting her cloak so it isn’t on the ground. “Since you’re all third years it’s time for you to think seriously about your futures. I’ll pass out your handouts for your future plans now, but… You’re all pretty much planning on going into the hero course, right?!” He tosses the papers up into the air and the kids all start using their quirks with a resounding ‘Yes!’.
Izumi starts laughing. under her breath, she wants to see how this goes.
“Sensei!” Katsuki says the first word Izumi’s heard from him since the day started. “Don’t lump us all in the same group. I’m not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects.” He looks up from his position, which does not look at all comfortable from Izumi’s perspective.
‘… Hmm, I think there’s a more opportune time to strike than this…’ Izumi hums in her head, soothing Artemis’ growing energy a little. The rest of the room retaliates, Izumi doesn’t bother, it’ll just stoke is ego more if she got angry.
“You all should shut up like the extras you are!” Katsuki says, sounding like a chain smoker.
“Oh, if I remember correctly, you want to go to UA High, right Bakugo?”
‘Ooo… I know this teacher well enough to know he’s going to do something that’ll start my hunt…’ Izumi smiles wide, covering it with her cloak after she licks her lips unconsciously.
The rest of the room reacts incredulously to that declaration. Katsuki replies to their incredulity with a lazy “That’s exactly why you guys are all just extras!” he jumps and lands on his desk. “I aced the mock test! I’m the only one at this school who could possibly get into UA. I’ll definitely surpass All Might and become the top hero! My name’ll be inscribed on the list of top earners!”
The teacher, looking down at his list, announces “Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to UA too, right?”
Izumi leans back in her chair with a grin. “That’s right, teach. Though, I could get you arrested for telling them all that.”
The room stares at her for a long time before suddenly bursting out into laughter. Only a few don’t, including the guy that sits next to her. She rolls her eyes and lets her cloak fall to the floor as she stands up. She notices Bakugo turning to her like a door on rusted hinges, then smirks, and places a Stalk on him, completely disappearing from his senses.
The rest of the room keeps laughing. “What can your quirk do other than turn you into a Tranny!?” Fingers shouts, and immediately she drops Stalk from Bakugo and places it on Fingers. “Where’d ya go, huh Fag!?” she quickens her pace over, lifts her hand up so it’s level with the side of his head, and flicks her wrist. A hidden blade pops out and stabs him in the brain, knocking him out instantly. She adjusts his fall so he slams straight into the ground, rather than his desk. The smack of his head hitting the ground is punctuated by utter. Silence.
“The first thing my quirk does is mark a person as something depending on how they view human suffering.” She looks about the room and snickers. “There are maybe… three of you, who might become heroes in the future. The rest derive actual pleasure from human suffering. To my quirk, all of you are prey. Every single person in this room aside from me. Even Bakugo. Now you must be wondering; what exactly denotes a ‘Prey’?” She walks to the front of the room and grabs chalk. The teacher moves to stop her but she simply smiles like she’ll eat him alive. “You are marked as Prey as well, sir, I’d recommend not touching me or even being near me while I do this.”
She picks up the chalk and writes on the board.
“Prey denotes a person that likes and enjoys human suffering.” She says. “All of you are Prey. The two that aren’t here? I knocked them out because they were bullying a Quirkless kid in the cafeteria.” She writes another word. ‘Hunted’. “Hunted are people that are hurt by my ‘Prey’.” And finally, she writes down the third word. “And ‘Fellows’ are people like me. People that see human suffering, and become enraged, wishing to hunt down every single ‘Prey’.” She shrugs. “Normally, I can control the urge to hunt. Normally it’s a dull thud in the back of my head. But my quirk practically forces me to stand up for myself and others. If I didn’t knock out Fingers there, Artemis would’ve shot him, and most definitely would not be so nice as to only knock him out.”
Spike-Teeth guy starts laughing again, “What can your pathetic quirk do other than knock people out, hah?!” She disappears from his sight and everyone watches as he looks around in confusion and slight panic as the feeling of eyes on him intrudes in his thoughts.
“I can also ‘Stalk’ my Prey.” She says, and to Spike Teeth it comes from all around him. “It makes me invisible to one person, but makes my presence seem like it’s all around them at the same time. I could beat everyone in this class just by using this on Katsuki… Speaking of Katsuki.” She stabs the hidden blade into Spike Teeth's jugular and lets him fall onto his desk. “The only reason I made fingers fall on the floor was due to his insulting of other people.”
“Stop this! You cannot expect me to just watch while you harm your fellow students!” The teacher shouts from the front of the room, still too afraid to actually move to stop her.
Izumi blandly stares at him, then looks down at Spike Teeth, holds up his head to look at his neck, then lets him smack back down into his desk. “No marks, must be fine.” She practically quotes the man.
He stutters and searches for words while Izumi rolls her eyes and moves on to Katsuki.
—~—
As Izumi’s eyes settle on Katsuki, he feels something permeate his bones. Her eyes are stone cold and hungry. She smiles too wide for her face, and speaks.
“If this dumbass believes he can become even half as good as All Might then he’s ten times as delusional as the rest of you. He won’t even make it into UA at the rate he’s going. After all… Bullies aren’t heroic.” He opens his mouth. To speak, shout, scream, apologize, something… but nothing comes out, as Izumi doesn’t let him say it. “And before you even think about harassing me for trying to compete with you, I’m not. I could not give less of a shit about the popularity contest. To me, it’s about saving people. Which it should be.”
She looks him in the eye with a cold, angry expression. He’d never seen a Midoriya with that kind of face. Her eyes were consuming him alive as she bared teeth that looked like they could actually do so. “Being a hero should be about saving people, not some stupid ego-stoking contest or a way to get your rocks off by beating people down.” She restates, and disappears from Katsuki’s vision.
A fraction of a second later he feels a cold pressure softly press his brain, and he exhausts to the point of falling asleep. He was too stunned to even say a thing.
—~—
“I’ll be leaving early, sir. I’ll take them all to the Nurse’s office before doing that though.” Izumi bows to the teacher politely and grabs all three prey hunted by their shirt collars and starts dragging them out. Muscles Guy walks over.
“Mind if I help you?” He asks. “Specifically with Fingers.”
“Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one who didn’t actually know his name!” Izumi laughs. “And yeah, go ahead, but don’t go throwing him down the stairs or something.” She drops his shirt collar so Muscles can grab it.
“… That’s his actual name y’know.” Muscles says, grabbing Finger’s ankle and dragging him. “Kinda like my name is literally just ‘Beefy’.”
Izumi sighs as they get out into the hallway. “Goddess, you all have terrible parents.”
Beefy snorts, then hums. “So who even were the three that could actually make it as heroes potentially? If everyone in the class was marked as prey…”
“I can kind of tell exactly how far someone is in being prey. I’m not gonna just reveal who they all are, but if you’re asking, you are one that can. Plus me saying everyone is prey was actually just dramatic effect. A few were just trying to fit in.” Izumi shrugs. “Why did you even want to drag Fingers?”
Beefy picks him off the ground while they walk. “One of my sisters is trans. Plus he’s been a dick to me in general.” He starts walking normally again, Fingers’ face dragging on the floor. “Your new personality notwithstanding, I figured you wouldn’t be the type to punish someone beyond a headache when they wake up.”
The blue fire of her quirk turning off suddenly hits as they finally make it to the nurse’s office. Izumi in the black Sailor uniform with much shorter hair just keeps walking as though nothing happened.
Beefy smiles slightly. “So does this mean you don’t view me as an enemy?” He asks, cheekily.
“Little bit, yeah. Sadly I’m getting kicked out after today, so this was kinda my final fuck you to this shithole of a school.” She says, pulling out her phone. “Wanna give me your number?”
His body buffs down and he grabs the phone, taps his number into a new contact, then gives her back the phone and buffs back up to fling Fingers onto a bed haphazardly. He walks out of the nurse's office and gives her a wave while walking back in the direction of class. “I guess I’ll see ya around then, Izumi.”
“Later!” Izumi waves with a close-mouthed smile. She learned during quirk counsel that showing her teeth made people freeze up like a deer in headlights. She does not yet know if it’s mood-based or not. She shoots the new contact a quick ‘Hello! This is Izumi!’ and walks outside, where an old-fashioned yellow car waits for her in the pickup line.
She sees Sojiro in the Driver’s seat with Futaba in the passenger seat. She sits in the backseat after Sojiro signals her to get in.
“I already grabbed the stuff I need for the case. Where do you wanna go?” Futaba asks, shuffling her laptop back into her bag.
“…” Izumi sighs exhaustedly. “Home, if you don’t mind, Sojiro.”
Sojiro chuckles. “It’s alright, kid.” He starts up the rustbucket of a car and starts driving away.