Chapter Text
01
He was cursed. Everyone had said so, engrained it in everything that he did and in every breath he breathed.
Izuku is Quirkless and cursed.
Mutations muted at a touch, explosions in his face leave him unblemished where not even soot clings to his skin.
He has no Quirk and no Quirk in existence wanted to be near him.
This was a truth he'd been told for years.
By the time they were in their last year of middle school, the boy suddenly vanished.
Transferred, the school stated.
Missing, his classmates whispered.
Dead, some of the teachers offhandedly suggested without any care.
Bakugo Katsuki knew them all to be false. His only evidence, Midoriya Inko was the same as ever.
02
In the underground of society, therein lies a system of rules that follows no formal declaration or written form. Everything you can know about something or someone all comes from word of mouth. The world when the lights go out is a macabre shadow of the daylight.
You never know who you run into, who you might want to avoid, who claims which street or area as a whole.
It's why information brokers are in demand.
Resources that you need to survive this deep in the dark all depend on information and pure luck. If you have the wrong info then, you'll have to pray luck gets you out alive at the very least.
Among the most valuable resources in the underground is medical service. The cheap ones are shady and most likely to get you down a kidney. The high grade ones are in deeper pockets and far more likely to get you killed at best.
" Alright, your injuries are rather minor but I wouldn't recommend aggravating it." He inspected the handiwork of neat bandages that ran along his arm. " Please try not to get it dirty before you see your doctor tomorrow."
He sits up straighter, a little lightheaded from the concussion he suffered while restraining the villain currently hanging underneath a light pole. He looks back at the kid, dressed up in a silver tracksuit with a green oversized jacket that puffed up with the number of medical supplies hidden underneath it. The kid smiled at him, wearing fully shielded sunglasses that hid his eyes relatively well.
" You do this often, kid? Patch up strangers in the middle of the night?" Eraserhead asked sarcastically.
" Yes."
The kid leaves before the cops arrive, disappearing into the shadows without a sound. One year before the U.A Entrance Exams, a ghost had appeared in Musutafu.
03
Word was getting around of some kind of medical vigilante, one with a big magical hoodie with all the cures to your ailments.
The underground named him Gin, or Gin-Tonic because he apparently carries the stuff around inside his giant hoodie alongside a dozen other items of questionable origin. He's hard to spot on your own and only makes himself known at the chance of a villain attack or someone is in need of medical attention.
He's fast, careful and only steps in on villain attacks when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, he would have gotten a hero in the area on the scene.
It's the kind of scene Mirko walks into, following her senses to reach the distressing civilians and turned the corner. Just in time to see this kid, in this oversized jacket and bright red shoes, stand right in front of some blast from the villain's quirk to protect the civilian behind him.
The beam hits the kid square in the chest and... Nothing. It didn't tear a hole through his guts or cause any outward changes she could see. It didn't look like it was blocked or deflected.
" An emission type, yellowish light indicating a level of heat. Some kind of heat ray? The direction is clear and didn't disperse, so a lazer..." The kid muttered. " Oh, sorry ma'am." He turns around to the civilian. " Are you alright?"
" What the fuck?" The villain says exactly what they're all thinking and readies another blast.
She doesn't waste another second diving into action, immediately apprehending the villain and restraining him quickly with the cuffs she had on her person.
" That was some real brave bullshit you pulled, kid." She says as she turns back to them, but the kid is gone. " Where did- Hey!"
The figure over the fence flinched, nearly losing his footing. He looks back for half a second and jumps over the chain link fence.
" Get back here!"
04
She doesn't catch the crazy little shit, somehow the kid was fast enough to outrun her. Her mind goes over what she saw. How the kid moved in front of danger without hesitation, it was a reckless move even if he did walk out of it seemingly unscathed. He had no fear in his gait, he knew what was happening and took it on headfirst. On top of that is his brief analysis of the villain, he was right about the guy having an emission type quirk, he's able to make lasers blast out of his palms.
Looking up vigilante forums gave her the name to this son of a gun.
The Benevolent Ghost of Musutafu; Gin-Tonic.
Weird name but an apparently good source of medical service if you're in a pinch on the streets. He's described as small, silent and completely invulnerable. Not in the way one would clench their fist and keep standing after an attack unscathed. But in the way one would throw a paper airplane into a space with no wind or throw a stone into an endless well to see how deep it is.
Useless.
She'd ask around for any information but like most investigations regarding the vigilante since the past year, she found nothing other than what was already known. The hero heading the investigation of said vigilante at large is Eraserhead interestingly.
Mirko looked up the official contacts for the man, only to be redirected to U.A. to speak to their principal which is somewhat irksome. She just wanted to learn a bit about the kid, not get offered a teaching program.
05
On top of first aid, the kid's got an eye for detail. Some people tend to panic and to keep people calm, medics would talk to patients. Gin-Tonic loved talking about quirks, he'd ask his patients all sorts of questions most wouldn't consider and even give them advice. For Heroes, he's given pretty solid pointers on improving their skills and tactics, most of the underground seem to have taken a liking to him.
Still, he was extremely elusive and outright impossible to catch. On the off chance they were able to bait him out with an injury, he managed to slip past all their cameras and sensors without a sound once he was done with treatment.
What really surprised them is the day he rescued Eraserhead from an abduction by a yakuza clan. The kid came out of nowhere, tackling one of the assailants that got on Eraserhead's blind side. The kid's fast, dodging hits and seamlessly adjusting his movements to coordinate around Eraser's. However, he's a little lacking. No proper form and some of his moves don't seem to fit him very well, like he's mimicking someone else. Someone who is much taller and moves far faster.
Suddenly, the kid diverts his course, grabbing hold of the capture weapon and pulling Eraser down. Just in time to see a wall of blue flames charge towards them. It's too bright for Eraser to use his quirk against a holder he can't see. A shadow steps over his form and the flames go over him as the kid shields him with his whole body.
" Damn. You're a real fucking ghost, huh." The villains step back as Eraser gets back up, hair raised up and eyes glaring at them. He spies the kid's shades on the ground, half melted beyond saving.
" A fire quirk, hm. The power itself is pretty destructive but it looks like you can't handle it either." The kid walks towards the fies user. " Tissue scaring and skin grafting, staples...points of emission."
Blue fire lit up the area but the kid continued walking through, muttering under his breath until he was only a step away. The clothes he wore are barely singed, his hair has a sickly greyish tint to the green pigment and his eyes, big as they were, are absolutely blank. Like someone forgot to add the colouring he required to shape the pupils and irises. The villain throws a punch but the kid catches his hand with a surprising amount of strength. He hummed, blank eyes staring at the scars as fingers wrapped around the man's wrist.
" I would recommend trying this cooling if it wasn't still in the experimental phase." A tube of some sort of paste is shoved into the villain's hand. " Your body is more adapted to cold temperatures so the drawback from your quirk is extremely severe. I've yet to develop the foaming agent to go with it but we'll get there eventually."
The villain blinks out of his stupor, prying his hands out of his grip and stepping back with a wary look. " What the hell are you?"
The kid only smiled. " I'm nothing."