Tying Up Loose Ends

Hours after Izuku fell unconscious, he awoke to a rather disconcerting sight. He was in a small dimly lit room that was furnished with traditional japanese decorations. For whatever reason, though, the eerie glow of crimson ever-present didn't bother him as he gathered his bearings.

"Pathetic, isn't it?" Izuku recognized the voice as his own and turned around to meet the incarnation of his transformed state. "Doesn't it make your blood boil, knowing this is what we've been left with after more than ten grueling years? A whole fucking decade has passed and we've only just now crossed the threshold to reactive our Quirk."

"Um… maybe it's not the best time to ask, but are you supposed to be my psyche or something?" Izuku asked his pale and black-eyed doppelganger. Despite his circumstances, he found a strange calm when speaking to the manifestation of his Wrath.

"Not specifically, but it was a good guess. Still, for all the Quirk Analysis you've done you should be able to come up with the right answer if you deduce deep enough."

"Ok… Are you a sentient being dwelling within my Quirk?" Izuku asked.

"Now we're getting somewhere," the pale-skinned Izuku grinned as he gestured for the other to follow him to one of the paper doors in the room.

Izuku followed his counterpart and watched as he slid the door open to reveal that outside was a void of a world; nothing but darkness existed. Yet, Izuku and his pale-skinned counterpart walked past the building's nearly nonexistent foundation, down a couple of stairs, and past the darkness before turning around.

With the entirety of the building presented to Izuku, he found that it was actually a tiered pagoda. However, it was rather pathetic as his pale counterpart had claimed, having naught a third tier nor the size of a building; the largest, first tier of the entire structure consisted of just the room Izuku found himself.

"This is?" Izuku asked, despite having a pretty good idea of what he was trying to be shown. He had an innate understanding that was slowly worming its way past his subconscious mind.

"This?" The pale-skinned counterpart gestured exaggeratedly with his hands, "This is a representation of your Quirk; it's Sin Incarnate."

"Built on your Wrath," it continued whilst pointing at itself and the room they had come from, "the pagoda and your Quirk will continue to expand or grow in strength respectively, the more sin you cultivate."

For the longest time Izuku had a look of disbelief; how could he not when he considered the implications of such a claim? As an avid Quirk Analyst, he knew of all the major concepts of Quirk Theory, and if he and his Quirk by proxy were "Sin Incarnate," his case would be a massive violation of the Theory of Adaptation.

'Sin Incarnate?' Izuku thought with skepticism, 'If that were truly the case, how would I have managed to contain myself from lashing out at, well… everything and everyone, for so long? If I were Sin Incarnate, why then, have I had no problem containing every negative thought I've ever had?'

"Come on," Izuku's pale-skinned counterpart suddenly started shaking its head, "The answer is obvious. It's because you're Sin Incarnate that you have such a proficiency with handling your negative emotions. What?" it scoffed, "Did you think you had some sort of supreme willpower or something from being able to tolerate oppression from everything and everyone?

"Perhaps you might have a tempered will after the years of constant harassment, but let's not kid ourselves. You know the statistics and now you know the nature of your Quirk. Without it," it eye'd Izuku dangerously, "you'd probably have killed yourself long before that piece of human waste suggested it."

Izuku shuddered as he felt increasingly sure of the claim the longer he thought about it. Sure, it was true that twenty percent of the overall population were Quirkless in the current day and age, but the overwhelming majority of them were of the older generations. For his demographic, though, it was exceedingly rare to be born Quirkless — perhaps less than one in a thousand — and despite the fact that he wasn't truly of that category, before he managed to transform and black out hours prior, he identified as such.

The Quirkless of his generation had truly horrifying suicide rates, add to that the fact that his upbringing was arguably among the worst when his very best friend in childhood betrayed him to become his worst bully and it was a miracle he hadn't killed himself or others; even with his Quirk, it was impressive he had taken so long to finally snap.

Feeling Izuku's hatred stirred as he recalled Bakugo, the pale-skinned counterpart smirked, "It seems you've finally let go of that silly desire to restore your relationship with that worthless failure. That walking dumpster fire should be shunned and exposed for what he is. But let's ignore him for now," it said, though not before a fire of pure hatred was expunged from its eyes.

"Our time here is quickly coming to a close, so let's quickly cover the remaining information you should know about your Quirk." Having earned Izuku's full focus, it continued, "Like I mentioned earlier, this place is a representation of your Quirk; which we might as well start calling "Sin." So far you have only managed to manifest me, the foundation or first tier of your sins as Wrath, and the second tier as Pride.

"I have the power to embody and focus your intent, and until you manage to master your own control over Wrath, I will only be summoned under intense stress of hate. I'm calm and collected now, because we have no reason to be stressed, but make no mistake," it warned, "If I am summoned once more, I'll act with your subconscious instincts dictating my every move; that is the power of your Wrath.

"Pride, however, is a power I more or less manifested for you while I was in control of your body. While you awakened me out of the intense hatred you felt for yourself and just about everything about the situation presented to you, I manifested your Pride out of inexorable confidence in myself and my ability to reverse any situation. Your power of Pride, then, was revealed to me to be Kinetikinesis or the ability to manipulate kinetic energy.

"Continue to cultivate your most negative emotions if you want to make the most out of you Quirk and try not to summon me outside of training if you can h—" The conversation was promptly cut short as Izuku was pulled from that world.

…

In the world outside Izuku's subconscious, his eyes snapped open as he woke up completely alert. He made eye contact with the man who had presumably used his Quirk to wake him up so suddenly and despite lacking any trace of ill will, the man jumped away in fright.

"Hmm," Izuku grumbled as he tried to sit up only to find his hands and legs cuffed with Quirk Suppressants of the highest caliber.

"Okiru-san, thank you for your work. Now, please exit the chamber." Following the voice that came from speakers attached to the walls of the room, the man Izuku presumed to be Okiru left with the urgency of a man running for his life.

"As for you," the voice intoned, "why don't we get started with you telling us who you are and what your Quirk is?"

Feeling his eye twitch, Izuku asked, "Really? An interrogation? I resolved the hostage situation and put out the fires, yet I still get treated like this?" Having already manifested an anima for his Wrath, he found it easier to speak the feelings and thoughts he would otherwise have bottled up.

"You ignored direct orders from pro heroes, interfered in a hostage situation which could have put other's lives at risk, destroyed public and private property, and have more than a dozen potential cases of battery and assault for popping eardrums with a pressurized wind attack."

"Is that really how you want to spin this? First of all, neither I nor any civilian is under legal obligation to follow the orders of pro heroes. Maybe a case for that could be made if a law enforcement officer like, I don't know, the police had been there, but they weren't; at least not before I had already fixed the problems the idiots at the scene couldn't," Izuku said as his annoyance grew.

"I interfered with a hostage situation which could have put other's lives at risk, you say? I think you meant to say that I single handedly and peacefully resolved a hostage situation and most likely saved the idiot hostage before the villain had a chance to invade his body or whatever its plan was. The only life I put added to the risk of the situation was my own, and exactly how much of a risk was it when more than a dozen bystanders watched me fix the problem without so much as getting a scratch?

"I destroyed public and private property and have cases for battery and assault? You mean as a consequence of collateral damage, right? The kind of collateral damage that can't compare to what would have happened if i just let the surroundings continue to burn? The kind of collateral damage that pro heroes like All Might or Present Mic can't help but create with their overwhelming power, huh?

"But I'm just a no name fourteen-year-old without a piece of paper approving of the potential collateral damage I can cause when I help you "pros," so I guess you can just ignore all the positives of my actions and just show the negatives," Izuku hatefully spat, truly tired of the treatment he received.

"Are you done?" The voice from the speaker condescending asked, "Until you answer my questions, it won't matter what excuses or lies you make up. So, I'd appreciate it if you stopped wasting my time."

For the slightest moment, Izuku showed signs of transforming with the power of his Wrath once more. As he dwelled on the insufferable indignation sourced by the uncaring speaker and a red glow started on his figure, though, the doors to the chamber opened once again and in came All Might. The titanic hero managed to surprise Izuku out of his transformation before it could be completed.

"Young man, ignore him for a moment and think about things from our perspective," All Might said as he opened a file for Izuku to see. "Besides our talk earlier in the day, I read the file created on you for the police report and the very first thing we learned about you was that you were supposed to be Quirkless.

"To have gone so long without a Quirk and suddenly manifest one… And one the emits such negative energies… Needless to say, it's a very real possibility that you're not Izuku Midoriya but someone who's either impersonated or hijacked his body," All Might said.

"Really?" Izuku snorted as a smug grin carved his lips, "Well, tell the idiots in charge of researching my background to learn to do their jobs properly next time. Quirkless? Me? All it would have taken was a look at my medical records or a talk with my mother for it to have been revealed that I manifested my Quirk when I was four, but never managed to tap into it afterwards which is why I've identified as Quirkless ever since."

As All Might gave a signal to the people overseeing Izuku's interrogation to validate his claim, he said, "While they amend your information, can you tell me more about your Quirk?"

Bluffing, Izuku scoffed, "Did our entire conversation earlier before the villain's second attack go over your head? I even repeated not ten seconds ago that since my Quirk activated when I was a child it has yet to reactivate until now."

"So it's safe to assume your outburst was all done unconsciously? No… That wouldn't explain your previous words, defending your actions," All Might reasoned.

"I remember what I did, yeah. But, that doesn't magically mean I understand how or why." Izuku said. He hesitated for a second before deciding to throw the man a hint before their relatively civil rapport broke down, "I only remember feeling angry at everything about the situation before my body started moving on its own."

"Care to elaborate a bit more? From the choice words you directed at him, anyone can tell there's a history between you and the other boy you saved," All Might asked as his voice softened.

"That… boy," Izuku's eyes narrowed, "used to be a friend of mine; before we got our Quirks, I mean. Once we finally did get our Quirks, his turned out to be those Explosions, while mine was apparently just a one time light show. I was pretty much Quirkless, and with the world at large inflating that asshole's ego, he's been using me as his personal punching bag ever since.

"I won't lie to you, All Might," Izuku's ever-increasing negativity was pulling him towards an even worse position, but he could stop himself even if he wanted as he continued, "when I saw that he been taken as a hostage, I was happier than I've felt in years. The thought of him suffering… dying… Hell, I wished for it!"

All Might could see the smile on Izuku's face increase in intensity as he spoke. He wasn't so much disturbed as he was curious, seeing what he had judged to be careful and defensive interogee suddenly say all these incriminating statements. Once Izuku stopped, All Might asked, "Why'd you help him, then? If you hated him so much, you could have just let him suffer a bit longer. He might have even died of asphyxiation if a hero with a Quirk that was effective against the villain didn't arrive on time."

"Why? I wasn't thinking clearly, obviously," Izuku rolled his eyes. "When I took in the situation, it just made me so angry… The fact that it was my fault it was even happening," he intoned as he gave All Might a look that the pro hero immediately understood, "The fact that the pro heroes were dividing their focus so poorly.

"I still can't fathom how Backdraft didn't realize that if he took a moment to use his Quirk to splash the villain's sludge from its hostage, there wouldn't have been so many fires in the first place, and the asshole wouldn't have had to suffer for as long as he did..."

Getting off that tangent, Izuku continued, "I hated how useless I felt, not having the power to fix the problem I started, and the fact that I put someone else in a position I had been in earlier in the day and shouldn't have wished on my worst enemy. But most of all, I hated the sickening schadenfreude that came as my primary reaction.

"That's not how a pro hero should be. So... I acted how I thought I should act, and like some cliche shonen protagonist, my Quirk reactivated and gave me an easy way to resolve the problem."

"I see," All Might said, entirely neutral as he sighed before he added, "I think that's all we needed to hear."

After a couple seconds passed, he received a go-ahead from the person operating the chamber's speaker and unlocked the Quirk Suppressing Cuffs that chained down Izuku hands and feet to the bed he had been resting on. From there, Izuku was taken to complete some paperwork, but in the end, he left the police station without any legal problems.

All Might took responsibility for his actions during the sludge villain incident and the only thing Izuku owed the government was an update to the information on his Quirk Registry file.

He left the police station near noon of the day after the incident with his mom and though it pained him to see her worried and exasperated over his actions, he put aside his own feelings of shame and fear to tell her he would like to talk to her after they got home. She agreed, making the car ride to their apartment one of the most torturous experiences Izuku had felt thus far in his life.

…

"Mom," Izuku said having mustered up the courage to look his mother, Inko, in the eyes and say, "I want to transfer schools."

For a moment, Inko didn't know how to respond. The two had long since returned home and she had even prepared some tea before they sat down for Izuku's talk. Of all the things she expected her son to talk about, transferring schools wasn't even in the top twenty posible ice breakers.

"Ok? I'm completely fine with that if it'll make you comfortable," Inko said as she gave a stressed smile.

"Trust me, mom," Izuku shook his head as he gave his own helpless smile, "The last thing I've factored in this decision is how comfortable it will make me. I just..." he broke eye contact, "I just can't trust myself around Bakugo."

Inko just stayed quiet as she gestured for her son to continue.

"My Quirk..." Izuku said with palpable hesitation, "I didn't so much lie at the police station as I did decide not tell them how much I truly know about my Quirk. But the truth is..." Izuku took a deep breath, "my Quirk runs on negativity and the cultivation of sin."

He looked to see his mother give him a confused look, which he half-expected; he knew exactly how clinical his descriptions and thoughts were. "I'm sure you've seen footage of what I did during the incident." Seeing Inko nod, he continued, " And you remember the description of what my Quirk looked like when it manifested when I was four?"

"It was something like a rainbow, right?" Inko asked as she tried to recall.

"Right… Well, my guess is that each color of that rainbow is actually a different type of sin; you know, like from the seven deadly sins?" Inko nodded, confusion still evident on her expression. Thus, Izuku continued, "The transformation, where my skin blanched white, my eyes blackened, and I started glowing red… That was the result of me using Wrath.

"As for the green wisps that flecked off my body when I instantly appeared before the sludge villain to pull Bakugo out, when I touched the villain's body and turned it to splattered sludge on the floor, and when I flicked hurricane force winds to stop the fires… That came from me using the energy of my Pride."

"My point is," Izuku's voice quieted down sharply, "I plan on learning how to use my Quirk to achieve my dream and become a pro hero. As you can imagine, with the fuel my Quirk requires, I might make mistakes while learning, especially when I begin."

"Mom, I've never told you this, but the truth is Bakugo's been bullying me since we learned about our Quirks." Despite seeing his mother flinch, Izuku continued, "I want to put our past behind us, but with the nature of my Quirk and his abrasive personality, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to tolerate him from now on."

"The power of my Pride seems to let me manipulate kinetic energy, and I'm not sure I'll be able to resist the urge to launch him into the stratosphere if he decides to keep taunting me should I return to school with him," Izuku said.

After a long period of silence, Inko said, "If that's what you want, sweetie..." She had so much she wanted to say, but unlike Izuku, she didn't get the passive benefits to her confidence that he did by virtue of holding power over his sin of Pride; without it, he'd find it impossible to speak for as long as he'd started doing.

"Are you not… Disappointed? Disgusted? Or even just Angry? My Quirk is literally made to make me an evil person," Izuku blurted out. He could tell his mother had a lot to say, but was struggling and he assumed the worst.

"What?! No," Inko said as she stood up and smashed her hands on the table, rocking their cups of tea. Walking over to him, she hugged him from the side and said, "You're my son... I could never feel that way towards you.

"It's just… I should have done something for you earlier," Inko said. "For years, I had a sneaking suspicion when you started coming home with burn marks and tattered clothes, but you kept telling me not to worry about it and it looked like whatever was troubling you started to go away. You stopped arriving home, looking beaten up… But I should have known better. I should have supported you earlier… I… I'm a terrible mother."

"Don't say that," Izuku said as he returned the hug. "You've been the only one who hasn't given up on me. You've never treated me any lesser, even after I had to live for over a decade like a Quirkless. You didn't give up on me when my biological father did… and you stuck by my side despite that piece of fu—" Izuku stopped to calm himself, "—sorry, you chose me over him."

Looking his mom in her tear-stained eyes, he smiled and concluded, "You're the best mom I could have asked for." He meant it.

The two comforted each other as they continued their talk and after another hour or so, they finalized their plans. By the time evening started to settle into dusk, Izuku had already completed all the paperwork required to transfer schools. He got his mother to sign any required documents and the next day, his transfer to a school one prefecture over in Saitama was finalized.

As it was Saturday, he would be starting the next Monday. So, with what remained of the weekend, Izuku decided to follow through with his Wrath incarnation's suggestion and start cultivating his powers. He was eager to learn what he could do, what the rest of the energies that made up his Quirk were capable of. So, regardless of the potential for danger, he began searching for an isolated place to experiment with his Quirk.