I don't own Boku no hero academia. (Obviously.)

The doctor adjusted his glasses. "I'm afraid there is no hope for him." He told the mother. His face was impassive at first glance, but inside, the doctor felt sad. And judging by the look on the kid's face, he wasn't the only one.

Midoriya Inko's eyes glinted with desperation.

"No! There must be some kind of mistake? The other kindergartners have all started showing signs but…" She argued, still hopeful.

Unable to accept reality. No surprise there. She was a mother after all.

But it was a reality that the doctor already knew. The kid hasn't even started showing signs of a quirk. And he had the extra joint. All clues were pointing in one way.

So he went on explaining to the mother, telling her about the nature of quirks and the important finding that showed that people with an extra joint in their pinky toe simply didn't manifest quirks. That's just how it was. Best to give up hope now. Her child was quirkless.

It was a lie. It was unprofessional, yes, something that could get him sacked if anyone ever found out. While partly it was true, there was a research, and it did show that most people with the extra joint didn't have quirks, it wasn't a hundred percent prediction. There have been cases now and again, where people who, according to this research, shouldn't have a quirk, manifested one.

But they usually did so before their fourth birthday.

Letting the Midoriyas hope would be cruel. It's better to acknowledge the hard facts now, to get over the shock and move on. The doctor hadn't lied because he wanted to. But he knew all too well what hope could do to a person. His own son had been quirkless, yet he had never given up. He had always thought that he would one day discover his quirk. "I'll be a hero dad!" He had kept repeating. "You just wait! You'll see!"

Then he jumped off the roof.

So yes, lying was bad. But hoping was worse, especially when the chances were basically nonexistent.

Midoriya Izuku was young. He would get over it. And then, he could actually start living a life. A quirkless one, yes, but a life.

And yet, the doctor couldn't stop the pang of guilt that flared up in his heart as he looked into those wide, horror filled eyes of the kid. But it was for the best.

That's what he kept telling himself.

This lie was for the best.

And that was how Midoriya Izuku got diagnosed as quirkless.

Izuku stared at the screen. He had seen this video so many times, and yet, it still gave him goosebumps. He wanted to be like that. To save people like that. To have that fearless smile on his face, and be a hero. He wanted to be like All Might.

But could he?

He was…

Tears welled up in his eyes as reality came crashing in, reminding him of everything he was not. "Mom…" He turned around, pointing at the screen where the video was still playing. "A supercool hero like that…" his breath hitched, "that's what I wanna be too."

He was still hoping. Hoping that mom would believe in him. She would always believe in him right? No matter what.

Mom has always believed in him before.

Not this time. His own mother gave up on him, hugging him, crying, apologizing.

Desperation filled Izuku, washing away everything else he had been feeling. All the hope, gone, just like that. Only darkness remaining. He couldn't hold it back anymore, and he started crying.

Just outside the apartment, something strange happened at that moment. A crack appeared on the pavement. First, it was small, then it slowly started spreading, a lump appearing and getting bigger and bigger every second.

As if something was trying to get out from under it.

But then, inside the house, Izuku, exhausted by the day's events, fell asleep.

The concrete slumped back into its originally flat state.

The days after that, Izuku was in shock. He didn't feel anything. He still went to kindergarten, but everything was blurry. He remembered the kids flocking around him, pointing and… and laughing. They kept laughing. Their shadows fell on Izuku, and in those moments, darkness was all he could see. Their stares were burning him, and their mocking words were like knives stabbed in his heart again and again.

Izuku wasn't sure how low that went on. Maybe it was only for a few days, but it could have been weeks or even months?

But then, it all changed.

He wasn't sure what had happened. But somehow, for some reason, all the hoplessness, all the fear, the agony, went away the moment he saw it. It was Kacchan, standing above a crying child.

Izuku couldn't help it. His legs moved on their own, and before he knew it, he was standing between Kacchan and his victim, his own fists at the ready. To fight.

To protect.

All the pain forgotten.

Why?

Because the child looked like he needed help.

"Enough, Kacchan!" He said, and even though he was shaking, he stood his ground. "Y'already made him cry… Stop it!"

When that did not nothing to discourage Kacchan, Izuku took a big breath, and collected all his bravery. "I won't let you!" He shouted, not even noticing the few tears that fell out of his eyes.

Kacchan started laughing. The explosion he made when his right fist hit the left palm was bigger than the others before it. "So Deku, the quirkless wonder thinks he can play hero, huh?" He asked, mocking him with every word.

And that hurt. It hit Izuku right in the chest, and for a moment, he deflated. But then he heard a sob behind him. There was someone behind him who needed his help. Izuku knew he had no chance against Kacchan. And yet…

All men may not be born equal, but… but… he would still do all he could. Protect those he could. Even if it meant he had to get hurt in the process.

He braced himself for the hit, his whole body shaking and yet, not running away.

But then, there was a scream. The whole park froze, including Kacchan, whose fist was inches away from Izuku. For a moment, the boy was glad for the intervention, but then his eyes found the source.

The woman who screamed looked terrified, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Her knees were shaking so much, that they gave out a moment later and she slumped on the ground. But her gaze never wavered, even as her whole body shook in fear.

They followed her pointing finger with their eyes.

In the back of his mind, Izuku noted that the kid behind him screamed and ran away, and so did the two boys that were with Kacchan. That was the logical reaction, what he should have done too. But Izuku couldn't move.

There was a skeletal hand sticking out of the ground, grappling for something it can hold on to. Not a moment later, the boney fingers dug into the ground, and started pulling. Slowly, the rest of the arm emerged. It was an arm completely made of bones.

"The hell? A zombie?" Kacchan sounded almost… fearful? No that's not possible. Kacchan was never afraid. Ever.

And then the smell reached them. The smell of decay and death, something that Izuku has never encountered before, and yet, he recognized immediately. But he still wasn't scared. Sick to the stomach, but not scared. Instead, he watched with weird fascination as the rest of the body emerged from the ground. First, a skull with glowing green eyes, then the other arm, followed by the torso of the skeleton. Then the skull snapped up, its hollow green eyes finding Izuku immediately.

And then suddenly, it was slowly crawling towards them, even as his legs were still underground.

"You… You wanna fight?" Kacchan screamed, taking a fighting stance, one very similar to what Izuku's looked like just a moment before. Of course, it hadn't worked for Izuku, but KAcchan wasn't a Deku, was he? And yet… a zombie?

Izuku knew he should be scared. Everyone else was. The park was in chaos, people screaming and running around, the sound of sirens echoing in the background. And the smell… it was horrid, making his stomach churn.

But still, as Izuku stared into the green eyes of the skeleton, he wasn't scared at all. He felt almost…. Safe?

Protected?

The skeleton's legs were free now, and it stood up, his ever smirking skullface never turning away from Izuku. Immediately after finding its balance, it started walking towards the boy, going around and completely ignoring Kacchan who was shouting taunts at it with shaky voice.

Izuku didn't move. Didn't try to run. He was frozen in place, staring back at the skeleton. His four years old mind had no idea what was happening, couldn't rationalize the events. So he didn't even try. He listened to his guts. And for the first time in his life, instead of the urge to run, he felt secure where he was. He felt powerful

Then the skeleton reached him. His arm reached out, one skeletal finger touching Izuku's forehead. "Pro… tect…" it uttered, although it was more of a clatter of bones than an actual word.

Izuku felt a lot of things at that moment, starting with the coldness of the bone on his forehead. A shiver ran down his spine, and his stomach was still churning. But there was an emotion that was stronger than any other. It was like a fire, burning in his chest.

It was something the four year old, small, weak, bullied kid has never experienced before. It was the feeling of power.

And then, the skeleton collapsed on the ground, the bones scattering and sinking back into the ground.

9 years later

Izuku never gave up. Using his quirk for being a hero seemed impossible, yes, but he refused to accept that there was no way. Which was why he kept taking notes, looking at and analyzing other quirks, hoping that if he could find an application for every other quirk, then one day he would find one for his too.

He never told anyone about it. That day in the park was written off as a quirk going haywire, but since nobody was hurt, the whole thing was quickly forgotten. Just one freak accident among many in the world of superpowers. Who cared about a skeleton when there were giants running around?

But Izuku knew the truth. Well, the public wasn't that wrong, it really was a volatile quirk, but not just anyone's. It was Izuku's quirk. He could feel it that day, and he knew it now. He has experimented with it a few times before, but… He could never…

The quirk was simply unnatural. It could reanimate the bones of the dead, and call them to Izuku's aid, and the older Izuku grew, the stronger the skeletons became, and the more of them crawled out of the ground every time he tried.

The funny thing about his power was that Izuku didn't actually know where the skeletons came from, as he could summon them wherever he was. He had a few theories though. Maybe he could summon them to himself, and they approached underground first, and then from there they climbed out? Izuku had no idea, but he was unwilling to experiment further just to find out.

Because even though Izuku never feared the skeletons, that didn't mean he accepted his quirk. Every experiment ended with him throwing up and not sleeping for days, his eyes seeing the lifeless green eye sockets even as he dreamt. They were always accompanied by the clatter of bones. And then, there was the smell. The horrible smell of decay that he could never quite forget. It seemed to linger in the air for a long time after the skeletons had disappeared, following Izuku around.

It was truly horrifying.

But it wasn't the worst part. Every time Izuku used his quirk, he would get this feeling of power, like he could do anything he ever wanted. Like he was holding the world in his hand, his skeleton army waiting at his command.

The feeling of wanting to fight. Craving a challenge, craving chaos.

And that? That scared Izuku more than anything before. All he ever wanted was to become a hero. To help people. So why did he feel those feelings every time he used his quirk? Wasn't it horrifying enough already?

The simple idea of using the dead bodies of other people just felt so utterly, horribly wrong and disrespectful, he just couldn't. He was ashamed, and he was terrified. Terrified what would happen if people found out that his quirk was controlling the dead.

It was a villain quirk. No. Worse than that. It was a quirk unfit for a human. A quirk that anyone with the slightest of humanity would find truly revolting.

And yet Izuku never gave up. He had decided to keep his chin up, and keep fighting. He would become a hero. Even if he had to do it quirkless.

But then everything changed. Izuku met All Might.

And then, he inherited One for All.

I feel like I need to explain? Izuku just reminds me of Nico from Percy Jackson so much, I can't help it. I mean look at that hero adoration. So for some reason, I felt the need to write this? But i didn't want to actually involve greek gods cuz bnha has enough plotlines as it is, so weird death quirk it was.

Also, fair warning to you all, I don't know how often I will be able to update, since my university is like the worst hell ever. It will probably be the end of me. Oh well.

So anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to criticise.