-Rain of Sins-

-Down the Rabbit Hole: Chapter 4-

There have been multiple times in Izuku's life when he could just tell that he was screwed, it wasn't always about something he could see either, such as just before the slime villain popped out of the sewers. It was something he felt in his bones.

"Izuku Midoriya," Inko Midoriya stood in the living room dressed in her pajamas, tapping her foot impatiently, "Where have you been?"

This was one of those times.

"Don't just stand there, say something!"

"M-Mom I-"

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

"I-"

"YOU DON'T!"

Her angry facade had barely lasted twenty seconds before her worry started to crack it from the inside out.

"I woke up to get a glass of water, only to find you gone!" She stepped forward into the lamplight to reveal a face stained with tears and eyes that were red from hours of crying. "At MIDNIGHT Izuku! I didn't know if you had been kidnapped or-or-or-or something worse! All I could do was sit and pray and think, an- and all I could do was sit there w-when I realized th-that y-you..."

"M-Mom I-I'm s-sorry I-"

Any further thought process on the situation was cut off when his mother smothered him in one of her patented Mom hugs, and started sobbing into his shoulder.

The living room was dark, only a single small lamp and the light of the moon providing any light. The sobs of a scarred mother accompanied only by the light pitter-patter of newly started rain. A glass of wine laid half empty on the table.

"I-I was so scared th-that y-you were g-gone for g-good Izuku!" She managed to get out through her sobs "Y-you're all I have l-left, a-and I thou- I thought I- that you had…" Failing to find the mental fortitude to finish her statement, Izuku's mother settled for squeezing him tighter instead, seemingly desperate to make sure he was really there.

She had been drinking to try to wash away her worry.

They stood like that for a while, with Izuku comforting his mother as she cried into his shoulder, listening to the occasional rumble of far off thunder.

Izuku could only smile sadly, he felt… well to put it bluntly, he felt like absolute garbage, making his mother worry so badly. It wasn't that he regretted his decision to go to the lab, he didn't regret that decision, he was going to go back in three days after all. Instead all of his guilt was due to how he worried his mother so much in the process. He should have waited until morning like he was originally going to, that way his mother wouldn't have been put in such a nerve racking situation.

It was as they say "Hindsight is 20/20", but hindsight wasn't helping him in this situation. What he needed to do was simply hug his mom and comfort her, soon she would get it out of her system, take a step back, wipe her face clean with her sleeve, and start scolding him. It was how it always went he did something that worried her. She would cry her eyes out, then scold him unti-

"I'm sorry."

' What?'

"I'm so, so sorry."

It was such a quiet thing, it could barely be counted as a whisper, for a moment the teen thought he had imagined it.

"I * hic* I don't know w-what I did, but * sniff* I'm so so s-sorry Izuku…"

"M-Mom?"

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. His mom was supposed to get angry with him, not… whatever this was.

"I-It's because I didn't s-support you isn't it?" She sobbed, her voice cracking. "It's b-because I didn't- because I didn't s-support you t-trying b-becoming a Hero. I-I just didn't w-want you to get h-hurt, th-that's all!"

Izuku had no idea what was going on, let alone what he was supposed to say.

"I-I'm s-sorry, I'll * hic* I'll support you, I-I'll cheer you on no matter what you d-do, I'll d-do whatever I can to h-help you b-become a Hero, j-just please," She squeezed him even tighter as she broke down, "P-please don't leave me again!"

Oh.

The realization hit him like a bombshell.

His mom thought he ran away from home.

It was why she had been drinking and crying her eyes out, instead of calling the police.

"Mom…" There were so many things he wanted to say. That he didn't run away, that he would never leave her like that, that she was an amazing mom, that he loved her. But Izuku was never good with words, and couldn't seem to find a good way to fit it all in, so instead he did the next best thing.

He hugged her, and let her cry on his shoulder.

All while the rain continued to fall outside.

-Rain of Sins-

…

…

…

"Hmmmmmm."

Ujiko was annoyed.

He wasn't mad, he wasn't angry, he wasn't about to go punch something, he was just… annoyed.

It had been three days since the kid had come to the lab, it had been three days since he had people start digging for info on the kid, three days of consecutive all nighters and lost sleep, and it had been three days of nothing!

' Well… it's not exactly nothing.' He mused as he glanced at the large stacks of paper sprawled out in front of him.

Date of birth, blood type, medical records, school grades, home address, family tree, and much more was right there, presented to him in a nice size 11 calibre font, but it was just… so… nothing !

No criminal record, no instances of delinquency, no instances of him acting out in class, no extracurricular activities, he wasn't a part of any gangs, he didn't attend any political rallies, he had no romantic relationships, it was just so…

Plain!

He was so unsuspicious, that it was suspicious!

The kid didn't even attend any after school clubs! In fact, the only thing that even made the kid stand out was the fact that he was quirkless. He was quirkless, but was somehow still determined to be a hero despite all the bullying he went through because of it. He had even put U.A. on his highschool recommendation paper!

The kid's father died when he was young, and he lived alone in an apartment with his mother who worked multiple jobs to support the both of them. No family pets, no grandparents, no cousins, no extended family of any note, and when Ujiko had listened into the recordings from the tracking chips, all he got was a bunch of crying.

He was honestly beginning to wonder how he had thought the kid was a threat in the first place. He wasn't threatening at all, just… sad and depressing to look at.

And it wasn't sad, as in the feeling you get when you hear some random person died on the car radio, but sad as in the feeling you get when you see an abandoned puppy on the street… who was starving… but with no arms… or legs.

But that wasn't the point!

The most threatening part about the kid was the fact he could make you depressed just by telling you his life's story. Which kinda played into his favor, Ujiko really didn't feel like killing the kid. It would just be wrong… like kicking an orphan… that was drowning… and didn't have legs.

… He really needed better analogies.

But that brought him to his current situation. Sitting at his desk with what Yuyara had dubbed "The great tower of coffee" sitting to his right- a stack of well over 20 empty coffee mugs stacked neatly in a tower, threatening to fall on him while he was busy staring at, and rereading, the monstrous amount of papers in front of him.

The biggest problem the kid provided was the fact he could reveal the lab's location. The usual way this type of problem was handled was with a specially designed memory erasing nomu, it worked like a charm, but the person it was used on, well the side effects were… their mental state was often… Well… He couldn't use it on the kid!

Plan B was just to kill whoever it was. It raised police activity, forced the lab crew to lay low until it all blew over, and overall wasn't as good as plan A. Again, he didn't feel like killing the kid.

Plan C was the back up's, back up plan. Good ol' Blackmail. It wasn't nearly as good as plan A or B because it didn't actually fix the fact whoever it was could tell someone, it only lessened the risk. Unfortunately, it was Ujiko's only option left unless he wanted to hurt the kid, which as previously stated, was like kicking a puppy.

Unfortunately the things that made the kid so sad and depressing in the first place, also meant there was almost nothing to use as blackmail against him.

No crimes, no debts, no skeletons in the closet, no nothing.

' What about money?' He wondered to himself. 'Everyone loves money, the kid could use it to pay bills, get an actual house, buy healthier food, all sorts of things. That would work right?' He stroked his mustache for what seemed to be the hundredth time, it helped him think. 'No, that wouldn't work either. A family suddenly gaining a massive income of money would draw attention, not to mention the fact that I'd have to-'

"Sir."

"Eh?" Ujiko was pulled from his musing by the lab's head scientist, who was lazily leaning on the door frame.

"You told the guards, to tell the security chief, to tell me, to tell you, when the green bean gets here."

"...Green bean?"

Yuyara sighed in exasperation. "The kid, boss. You wanted to know when the kid got here."

"And?"

"And? What do you mean, and?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?"

"Ugh," She grumbled something about 'old people' under her breath, "The kid, boss. The kid is here!"

Ujiko stared at her for a moment, his coffee fueled brain running overtime trying to understand what she said, before his eyes widened in surprise. He knew he needed to work fast, but had time really gotten away from him that badly?

He scrambled to gather all of his stuff while glancing at his watch, and sure enough h- wait a moment.

"Yuyara, what are you talking about? The kid can't be here yet."

"What do you mean he can't be here yet? Are you going senile or something?"

"I told him to be here at 5pm sharp, I still have half an hour." Ujko nodded to himself as if he’d just solved life’s great mysteries.

"Half a- what in the world are you going on about?"

"The clock Yuyara," He held up his watch, "It's only 4:30."

"Well what do you want me to do!? Wave my hand and magically speed the clock forward half an hour!? That's not how my quirk works, that's not how any quirk works!"

"No, I'm saying that no sane person would actively want to come to an underground lab disguised as a creepy old warehouse," He said as he turned his attention back to his papers, "Let alone come a whole half hour before they're supposed to be there."

"Well then congratulations, the kid's not sane!"

"Wait," He glanced back up at her with wide eyes, "He's actually here!?"

"YES!" Yuyara practically shouted "The kid is here, why is that so hard to understand?"

"Well then why didn't you say something sooner?!"

Ujiko thought he heard Yuyara swear something about "Goddamn old people" but quickly discarded it as his sleep deprived mind playing tricks on him. He grabbed a handful of documents and his coffee mug, before he paused, realized it was empty, and put it back down.

"Grab the rest!" He shouted to Yuyara as he ran past her.

…

Yuyara blinked and looked at the desk that was covered in various stacks of paper as big as her head.

She leaned her head back against the door frame, and let out a resigned sigh.

"Guards!"

A few seconds later a pair of armed guards sprinted around the corner, guns raised and ready to fight off any threat.

"Hey guys," Yuyara smiled, "The Doc needs all that junk taken to the front." She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder.

"But miss-"

"Thanks so much guys!" She gave a lazy wave as she walked away. "Y'all are a huge help!"

-Rain of Sins-

It’d been an… interesting past few days for Izuku. After he had gotten home and had that whole fiasco with his mom, she had passed out on his shoulder after 30 or so minutes crying. He had then taken her to her room and tucked her into her bed, before going to his room and falling asleep.

He had honestly expected to wake up and it all to have been some weird dream, Mr Kurogiri, the lab, Dr Ujiko, his mom, all of it. But when he woke up he was still wearing his jacket, still had the crumpled paper in his pocket and his mom… he had brought up what happened twice, once the morning after, and once yesterday. The first time, she broke down sobbing, and the second (when he tried much more gently) she had immediately shushed him and told him not to worry about it.

But while this was important, he had bigger things to worry about right now, mainly the large metal door in front of him. His mother had told him at a young age that he should always be a bit early to important things.

' Although I don't think she meant this early.' He admitted to himself as he glanced at his phone, which was proudly displaying the fact he wasn't supposed to be here for another half an hour.

' M-Maybe I should just go home, go home and then come back at five.' He took a step back 'No!' Only to stop 'All Mig -err- a true hero wouldn't get scarred and run away just because they were a bit early!'

He took a step forwards

'But they wouldn't be half an hour early to begin with…'

He took a step back.

And so this continued for a few minutes before the quirkless boy finally worked up the nerve to knock on the door. This of course wasn't because he had found the courage to face social interaction, but instead because he had found the perfect way to sidestep the entire social problem entirely.

' I'll knock on the door, and if no one answers I'll just come back later!'

Truly it was a genius plan, it allowed him to not have to worry about social interaction at all… unless of course-

' I can do this!'

-someone actually opened the door, because then the whole plan went out the window.

Just as Izuku raised a shaking fist, the door swung open inward.

Standing in the doorway was a young woman in her early twenties, she had light mint green hair that fell down to her lower back, toxic green eyes, and a smirk plastered on her face. She wore a lab coat, custom tailored to be longer than usual, hanging down to her ankles, blue jeans, black shoes, and a light blue armband, signifying her as a person of authority.

"Well lookie' here, it's the green bean everyone's been talking about."

"I-I-I w-wa, I-I-" Izuku stuttered like a broken record, the situation having him frozen in place. His anxiety wasn't helped when the woman started to snicker at his attempts at communication.

"Sheesh kid, your shaking worse than a leaf, you catch a cold or something?"

"N-No I-I'm not s-sick."

"Relax kid," She waved her hand in a dismissive motion "I'm messing with ya, it's called sarcasm, you should try it sometime."

"O-Oh, w-well sorry!"

"Sorry?" She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, before shrugging and stepping aside "Whatever, the boss wants to see you, whether that's a good or bad thing is still up for debate."

"B-B-B-Bad th-thing!?" Izuku recoiled

She sighed and brought her palm to her face "Sarcasm kid." She gave him a blank stare through her fingers "Sarcasm."

"O-Oh," Izuku relaxed slightly "R-Right, sarcasm."

He gulped as he took a few hesitant steps past the lab head and into the building. He gulped again as he noticed the four armed guards on either side of the door, and gulped a third time when the lady closed the door behind him, locking it with an audible click.

"Hope you don't mind me being the one to greet ya," She said as she started walking him deeper into the facility, "The boss man is busy and I figured you wouldn't want a group of guards showing you in." She glanced over her shoulder at the squad of guards following them and winced. "Err- you would want someone other than just a group of guards showing you in."

"R-Right." Izuku stammered.

The two descended into an awkward silence, mainly due to Izuku's lack of communication skills performing a team up move with his nervousness around the female gender, to render him incapable of speech.

"Sooooo," The lady drawled in an attempt to break the silence, "What's your name?"

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"I-Izuku M-Midoriya," He stuttered "W-W-What's yours?"

"You want to know my name?" She gasped as she pulled her arms protectively in front of her chest. "How bold!"

Much more distressing to Izuku was that this had the "unfortunate" side effect of exemplifying her 'feminine assets'.

"S-S-S-SORRY!"

She went from "shocked" to trying to hold in her laughter as Izuku found a sudden interest in the floor, and turned red as a cherry in record breaking time.

"I'm just messing with you kid," She chuckled at him "The name's Yuyara Ito, and you better remember it!" She smirked.

"And speaking of things to remember, here we are!" Yuyara exclaimed, bringing their march through the stale white hallways to a close.

Drawing his attention back in front of him, Izuku couldn't help but gulp nervously.

In front of Izuku stood a very intimidating door.

It towered over them… by a foot at most.

It was a very vile shade of… steel gray.

It moved by itself… upward because it was an automatic sliding door.

It- ok look just because it looked literally just like every other door in the building, doesn't mean it couldn't be intimidating!

… just ignore the fact that everything was intimidating to him right about now.

' T-They're leading me to whatever's behind this door!' He stressed. 'Is it Dr Ujiko? Is he angry at me? Am I in trouble? Did I-'

Oblivious to Izuku's inner turmoil, Yuyara gave a quick flick of her ID across a panel to the door's left, breaking Izuku out of his thoughts with a hydraulic hiss as it slid upward.

Izuku gulped as he nervously looked inside.

It was a moderately sized room, only about a hundred or so square feet, completely empty except for a desk and its accompanying chair in the center. But it being so empty also had the side effect of making the room seem much larger than it was… or maybe that was just Izuku being Izuku.

"What are you waiting for? The mailman? A hot date? A good luck card? Go on in!"

"O-Oh sorry!"

The green haired boy nervously glanced around as he entered the room but he couldn't see anything else of note. 'She said to go in, but is this the right room? Am I supposed to meet someone? Am I supposed to be waiting for something? Is there something tha-'

Fwump.

If you asked Izuku later, he would tell you that he most certainly did not jump and yelp like a girl when the door closed behind him, no matter what story (read as gossip) Yuyara told in the break room.

Face burning red from embarrassment, Izuku smoothed out his shirt from the jump that he most certainly did not take, and walked towards the desk. As he got closer he noticed that the desk had a large drawer built into it and that, more importantly, it was open by a few inches. Being the very responsible teen he was, Izuku did what any responsible person would do.

Stand next to the desk for a few awkward seconds before giving in, and taking a peek inside.

Inside, in organized lines, were three pens, three pencils, three mechanical pencils, a small stack of notebook paper, and a thick stack of neatly printed paper with a sticky note labeled For Mr Midoriya .

Pulling the stack out for a closer look, Izuku was surprised to find it was some kind of written test.

His brows furrowed as he flipped through the stack, if it wasn't already obvious, then this proved that this wasn't anything like the tests he took regularly in school. It had well over 300 questions, most of which were free response, and was clearly divided into different sections, each covering a different subject. There was Biology, Genetics, Quirkology, an entire part dedicated to human anatomy, and Chemistry. Izuku winced as he read that last one, he hadn't studied for any form of test, but due to his research he was reasonably confident in his knowledge on the other sections. And since that research hadn't involved anything even remotely related to chemistry…

When he got to the back however, his frown faded. An almost completely empty page greeted him, with ten blank pages for work following it. On the page there were two things, an open ended question was at the top, and right next to it in cursive handwriting.

Go nuts kid, we're scientists, we understand a lot more than your middle school teacher

-Dr. Ujiko

Izuku couldn't help but smile at the jab at his biology teacher.

' I must have rambled about it last time I was here.' He reasoned as he flipped back to the front of the papers. Taking a moment to collect himself and take a deep breath before beginning to work. And as he started on the first question, he was mulling over the final open ended question in the back of his mind.

1. What do you think a quirk is?

-Rain of Sins-

Doctor Ujiko sat comfortably in his chair located in the center of the (temporarily re-purposed) surveillance room.

While the monitor-filled room was normally staffed by a team of 15 or so guards, with all the screens displaying camera feeds, local hero activity, police patrols, and such. Today, it was full of almost 20 or so of his top scientists, and the screens were displaying fast moving data instead of reports or camera feeds… well, all except for one.

The giant screen that took up the entirety of the northern wall was displaying a live feed of a person of very high interest.

Izuku Midoriya.

"Yuyara…" He started without looking up, "Why were you at the entrance with the guard team?"

"Meh, no real reason," She shrugged while walking through the door, "I just wanted to see the kid myself, find out what everyone's been talking about."

"What do you mean?"

"Boss, you're kidding right?" She stared at him. "How have you not heard any of the stuff people are saying? It's like," She gestured weakly, "The only thing anyone's been talking about for the last few days! I swear, I can't even wash my hands without someone asking me 'Is it true a kid got in?' or 'Why'd they let him leave?' or even, and you're gonna love this one boss, they asked if the kid was yours!"

"...Seriously?"

"Yes seriously." The lab head huffed as she slumped into the chair next to him. "It's like they expect me to know everything that happens here just because I'm the lab head!"

"Yuyara," He gave a sideways glance at her, "I put you in charge of both this facility and the research conducted here, the security chief reports to you, the research teams report to you, you have access to the entire building's surveillance system- Which I know you watch in your free time for your gossip!" He quickly stated, cutting off her rebuttal. "And the only person of higher authority in the building is me whenever I stop by. For all intents and purposes, you do know everything that happens."

"But boss-"

"Now be quiet, I'm busy." He turned his attention back to the screens in front of him, ignoring how one of the top minds he currently had employed, crossed her arms, huffed, and pouted like a teenager.

The test he had given the kid was difficult, so difficult that it straddled the line between "stress hair graying" and "actually impossible" as if it were walking a tightrope. He should know, he had made it himself, it was made to be hard enough that it made someone's brain work overtime, but not hard enough to make them completely give up, and it was made that way for a very specific reason.

It created the prime environment to monitor someone's brain activity.

But Ujiko would be a fool if he just used this opportunity to monitor that.

Brainwave activity, heart rate, facial expressions, body language and even things as simple as which hand he wrote with. Everything was recorded, analyzed, and cataloged.

The test itself was just another way to gather info, the most obvious of which was the entire front page, which was a survey page. It asked for mundane things such as your full name, initials, and age. As well as very specific things, such as levels of education, jobs worked, social status, medical issues, past crimes, enemies, etc. These questions weren't much themselves, but with his brain activity monitored, not to mention the plethora of nomu in the room adjacent to him, all with specialized purposes such as being a perfect "Lie detector", the real gems would come from what he either lied about, or didn't feel like answering.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg, it went all the way down to the writing utensil the kid picked and how he used it. A recent survey showed kids that most children in japan used mechanical pencils, however when you broke that up into school regions, the high end private school had the highest use of pens (usually custom made), the middle class public schools tended to use mechanical pencils the most, and the poor schools in the run down parts of cities used almost exclusively wooden pencils the schools provided. He would subconsciously gravitate to whichever felt more familiar to him, and how he wrote was just as important as what he wrote with. For example, high class children were taught to hold pens a certain way, and were schooled on their handwriting.

Everyone can lie about where they're from, but the things you’re taught as a child are ingrained into your subconscious, are much harder to cover up. Professional agents have to go through years of training to achieve their expertise, years of training that the kid most certainly didn't have.

One way or another, Ujiko would have all the information he needed to decide on what to do with the kid.

All they had to do now was wait.

-Rain of Sins-

' Can I just hand this whole thing off to my secretary? No, I don't have one. How about whoever's second in command of the lab, would that work? Wait, that would be Yuyara, and as such, an all around bad idea. She'd just do something stupid to annoy me, like dress him up as a maid and hire him to hand her things, so she doesn't have to get out of her chair.'

Ujiko sighed as he took another sip of coffee, trying to kickstart his brain.

The kid had finished the test about half an hour ago, and even though the test was a sham and there was no real reason to grade it, Ujiko had handed it off to a few of his scientists to do so anyway. (He was curious ok?)

He had honestly expected for something to slip, for one of the brain activity monitors to show the kid had been lying, or for the DNA test they ran on the strand of the kid's hair to show he was related to someone of note, something that let him get rid of the kid with a clear conscience, because he did have a conscience. He was a scientist not a killer, and while his master was the latter on occasions and Ujiko's morals had slipped a bit over time, the doctor had sworn to follow him as a man of science, not a man who killed innocent children.

All for One was the one responsible for the bodies and other less savory paints he used to create his artwork, all Ujiko did was provide his finished creations to his master. His conscience started and ended with his work, where and how his master got him his supplies or what he decided to use the finished product for, wasn't on Ujiko's conscience.

But the kid's life was.

And despite his numerous attempts to get it off, he couldn't.

Here was a kid who had been put down his entire life for something he believed in, but despite this he continued to believe in it… even when no one believed in him .

… and that hit a little too close to home.

The doctor was currently leaning against the wall of the break room, he was still peeved about how they spent the time to put a TV up before they finished the security system, and watched the interaction between his most annoying lab head and his most annoying headache.

After the kid finished the test, Yuyara dragged him to the break room, hellbent on interrogating the kid for gossip and the such, and Ujiko had been compelled to tag along. Stupid morals .

And of course, his life being his life, almost immediately after the two sat down, their conversation had drifted to things that made the kid such a hard spot to wipe off his conscience in the first place.

"I-I know that it may seem impossible, and I know it'll be extremely difficult, but…" Izuku looked the lab head straight in the eye "I refuse to give up!"

"Look, Green, that's admirable and all," Yuyara consoled "But you have no idea if it's even feasible, couldn't you at least take the time to make a backup plan for if that falls through?"

Ujiko, deciding to give his mind a break from his moral dilemma, pulled his head up and looked at both of them.

Yuyara was on the edge of the couch, her head resting on her fist, which was supported by her arm, which in turn rested on the armrest. She was smiling but her hand was rubbing the bottom of her lab coat, an unconscious action which he had learnt meant she was nervous, and judging by her tone of voice…

' Sympathetic, Caring, and Worried.' He concluded with a slight hum ' The kid's growing on her, although from both of their profiles, it's not too surprising. He's shy, but naturally draws people to him, and Yuyara…' His mouth thinned to a line. 'He's reminding her of her little brother.'

Ujiko filed that away for later, and turned to Izuku.

The aspiring hero was sitting perfectly straight in a chair directly across from the couch, his hands here gripping his knees, and his eyes…

' Determination.' Ujiko sighed as he closed his eyes. 'The kid's got nothing but determination, the kind that doesn't listen to logic or reason, this argument isn't ending until Yuyara gives up.'

"I understand what your saying, and I know you only mean good, but I can't do that."

"But why not?" The lab head pleaded "I'm not saying to give up trying to be the first quirkless hero, I'm saying just to have something to fall back on if something happens that you can't control."

"I can't do that!"

"But why not?!"

"Because!" He gripped his jeans "If I do that then I'd be admitting that there's a chance I might fail, and I don't have that kind of luxury. If I want to succeed then I need to put 100% of myself into trying!" His eyes steeled "I can't allow myself any doubt!"

Ujiko's attention was drawn to the opening of the door, though the two green haired occupants were too caught up in their argument to notice.

Through the door slipped a scientist carrying a stack of papers, he made his way to Ujiko, the doctor meeting him halfway, and handed over the now graded test. The test, do to not being intended to actually be graded, didn't have a grade on the front or any form of score. What it did have however was a top of the line scientist's opinion on whether or not the kid got the answer right, giving a quick explanation for why he was wrong or why he wasn't entirely right, when they had to. A benefit of this was that it wasn't as black and white as "right" or "wrong", there were several questions that the kid had gotten mostly right, but was missing a few details he wouldn't have known unless he decided to major in certain fields.

' Huh, not half bad, kid.' He mused 'There's a lot less red than I thought there'd be, wonder where he put it all,' He sarcastically joked before wincing as he passed by the Chemistry section, 'Ahh, there it is.'

But all joking aside, Ujiko was honestly surprised. He had expected the kid, a Jr High Student , to completely bomb it, to have missed the questions so wildly that his scientists would laugh at them. Instead, the kid once again went above and beyond. Now it wasn't perfect by any means, not even close, but if the test were scored by normal standards, Ujiko would wager the kid would be passing.

He was impressed.

And that was a difficult feat to accomplish.

Turning to the last page, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He had put "What do you think a quirk is?" as a way to make the kid really think, really get his brain working to get good readings, and he had expected the kid to go overboard on the question, but this…

The scientist could only run his fingers over the page in awe, ignoring the rising shouting of Izuku and Yuyara. For a brief moment Ujiko had thought his men had gotten a group of his own notes mixed in with the batch.

There was a huge gap in ability between someone who had no experience with a subject when compared to someone who at least had the basic ideas behind it down. When put up against one another the one with the basic understanding would win almost 100% of the time. Now compare that to two people who both knew what they were doing, but one was more experienced than the other by a year or two. The more experienced one would be more likely to win, but there's still a reasonable chance that the underdog could come out on top- there are entire movies based off the fact.

There is this massive jump in ability when you learn the basics of something, but then everything afterwards is incremental. You can become more skilled by going up incrementally then you ever did from your original jump, but you'll never have a comparable jump in ability like that again.

At least most people won't.

There was a second jump that came when you thoroughly understood something, not many people were able to reach this depth of understanding, but it's what sets the Albert Einsteins apart from the rest of the pack. And when you reach this level of understanding, you're able to use what you know to predict what you don't.

To dumb this down, it's like if you wanted to know where a ball came from, normally you would just have to guess, but if you know how it got there, if you knew it fell from somewhere, you can make an educated guess instead of a random one, in this case: that the ball came from the roof.

A grin spread across the doctor's face as he read through the paper. The kid didn't know everything, and several of his hypotheses had holes in them, but Ujiko could just tell , the kid could make that second jump.

And the proof was the large red question mark the grader had put in the middle of the page.

It was at that moment that Ujiko had a realization, the same realization All for One had with Tomura all those years ago.

' The kid's rough around the edges,' The doctor conceded, 'He doesn't have all the education and specialization that I usually look for, but that doesn't matter,' Things were clicking into place in the mad scientist's mind, 'Those can be provided in time, no, the kid has something much more valuable!' His smile warped and his eyes darkened. 'He has the potential to be more than anyone else could ever be, and even better-'

"It doesn't matter how many times I get knocked down! I'll always, always get up and try again!"

Izuku's emotional outburst deafened the room, his argument with Yuyara reaching it's explosive conclusion

' He has passion! '

A chuckle cut through the stunned silence like a metaphorical pen drop.

"Pfwhooho"

"M-Mr Ujiko?"

"Boss?"

They both looked at him, bewildered.

"HoohaHahahoohahahooahahoahaah!"

"Oh great" Yuyara mumbled "You broke him"

"Bwhoohahahahohahahahohehahohahhahehohahahoohahehehahahooha!"

"M-Mr U-Uji-"

" YES! "

"Wh-wh-wh-wha?" Izuku recoiled

"Yes!" The mad scientist declared. "That right there!" He pointed at Izuku "That was the perfect answer!"

"I-it was?"

"YES!" The doctor exclaimed as he approached Izuku.

"Never, NEVER, give up on your passions!"

"Yes!" He looked Izuku directly in the eyes, his grin feral. "You have what it takes, you will be my greatest masterpiece! HAHA!" He laughed, the shadows highlighting his Cheshire grin in all the wrong ways. "You are to be my successor!"

"W-What?!"

"Boss?!"

"Quick!" The mad doctor shouted, ignoring their protests "We haven't a moment to lose! We must start getting you up to task immediately!" He began to run off before slapping his forehead and stopping to pull out his phone. "I need to make calls! I need to get my other lab heads here to tutor you!"

"U-Uh excus-"

"No wait! It's much more efficient to learn hands on and through experience- oh but then you wouldn't learn the theoretical side of things in as much detail- oh wait! Yuyara!" He yelled, pointing at the woman who could be confused with an owl, with how wide her eyes were. "This lab is the closest to where my successor lives, you are to provide tutelage when I'm not here, and allow him to watch and help with your research department's work." The doctor began to pace back and forth, his mind going a mile an hour.

"E-Excuse me?"

"Oh there's so much to do! Not to mention this lab isn't even fully set up yet, and that won't do, my successor must have access to the highest end of resources, I'll have to get a construction team out here asap to-"

"EXCUSE ME!"

Ujiko stopped, blinked, and turned to his newly named successor.

"I-I-I-I w-wa-w-"

"Spit it out kid!" Ujiko barked, still grinning madly "No successor of mine stutters! It wastes time that would be better spent sharing hypotheses or research!"

"D-Dr Ujiko I-I-"

"Ah, ah, ah, what did I just say kid?"

"I-" Izuku took a deep breath and steadied himself. "What's going on?"

"Well isn't it obvious my boy?" Ujiko grinned. "You've impressed me, and I'm making you my successor!"

"B-But sir, I-I can't..."

"What?" Ujiko blinked, taking a moment to process what he just heard "WHAT!? Why not?"

"I-I'm honored sir, b-but I can't give up on my dream of U.A. and besides…" The boy looked down dejectedly

" No. You can't be a hero without a quirk"

"I don't have a quirk." He clenched his fists as All Might's words came back to him "I-I don't have an intelligence quirk, I can't make myself learn things at an accelerated rate, or multiply my IQ by drinking tea. So I'm sorry sir!" He closed his eyes as he finally accepted what he'd refused to for so long "But I don't have a quirk." and he never would.

A pregnant pause filled the air, Izuku waiting for Ujiko's reaction with his eyes clenched shut, and Yuyara staring wide eyed at the two, trying to understand what happened in the last 30 seconds.

' I really am a Deku aren't I? ' Izuku halfheartedly chastised himself 'I know I can't do anything without a quirk, but I'm still going to try for U.A.?' Izuku felt sad weight settle in his stomach while a much larger one slipped from his shoulders, as he brought himself to accept his situation. He would never truly be anything without a quirk, but at the same time, he refused to give up on his dream. Two unchangeable realities that would forever but heads, and forever hinder him, for Christ's sake, he was only 16 and look how much their clash had messed up his life so far.

"So, I'm sorry sir," He restated and bowed his head, "But I'm quirkless." A sad smile graced his face, he wasn't happy with his new realization, but finally accepting it brought him a calming sense of peace.

"So?"

Only for Ujiko's reply to shatter said peace.

"W-What do you mean?" Izuku frantically questioned

"I mean does that really matter?"

"W-Well of course it matters!"

" Ha! The quirkless kid wants to be a hero, what a joke!"

"Everyone is born with a quirk, a power that makes them unique and strong,"

" Listen Nerd, I'm the only one from this school who's hero material, YOU GOT THAT!?"

"I was born without one, and because of this no one would believe in me,"

" I'm so sorry sweetie"

"But if everyone else is naturally born with a huge advantage over me, are they wrong to not believe in me? Are they wrong when they say that I'll never be as strong as someone with a quirk?"

" No. A quirkless person can't be a hero."

' A quirkless person can't be anything' He finished in his head.

…

"So that's it huh?" Ujiko questioned

Izuku gulped and braced himself.

"You can't accept it because no one believes in you?"

"Wha- n-no I-"

"Well that's an easy fix." Using the fact Izuku's bow made Ujiko the taller one, he ruffled the kid's hair "I believe in you. See? Easy fix. Now be my successor!"

Izuku had only met Dr Ujiko a few days ago, the man was still a relative stranger, so hearing him say that he believed in him shouldn't mess with him so much, but…

"I-I believe in you too Gree-uh-kid-er-boss" Yuyara chimed in, her shot mental capacity going Ujiko=Boss, Green=Ujiko's successor=future boss=need good impression.

"G-Guys..." Izuku stuttered, blinking away tears

"And besides," Ujiko continued, his grin still in place, "Who cares if you have a quirk? I mean really, quirks are meaningless when talking about potential!"

"Wh-what do you mean sir?" Izuku snorted as he wiped his sleeve across his face

"What do I mean? What do I MEAN!? HAHA!" Ujiko threw the stack of papers up in the air, the binding coming undone and causing it to fall like leaves around them.

"I'm Talking about your question, my boy!" He exclaimed. "What are quirks?"

"Young Mr Midoriya, do you know why it doesn't matter if you have a quirk? It's because quirks don't measure what you can or can't do!"

Izuku felt his chest tighten.

"It's because quirks don't determine your destiny!"

He felt his eyes water.

"It's because what quirk you're born with doesn't determine anything!"

He felt his hope, beaten and battered as it was, find a small spark.

"It's because what quirks are, all quirks truly are, is clay! "

"HAHAHA!" Ujiko cackled at the heavens.

"Quirks are nothing more than clay that we scientists must shape to create our art!"

And so began a story that was never meant to be, a fable that would forever leave its mark on history. A tale of pain, struggles, hardship, growth, redemption, and loss.

Say it was fate, say it was luck, say the powers that be had given a hopeless boy the chance he never had, or that it was simply "wrong place wrong time", it doesn't matter how it started, only that it did. And now the world would be forever changed.

… And it wasn't prepared.

-Rain of Sins-

Sir Nighteye's eyes bolted open as he gave out a startled gasp. Taking a moment to compose himself and steady his breathing, he tried to gather his thoughts.

"Sir! Are you alright?"

The pro hero glanced up at Mirio Togata, the hero in training he had agreed to spar with after nearly a week of pestering.

"Y-Yes I'm fine, unfortunately I'm going to have to postpone this until tomorrow." He replied, running a hand through his hair as his memory came back to him

"What? But Sir, we haven't even started!"

"Yes, I know, but I just remembered I need to make a call."

"B-But Sir!"

Leaving the boy behind in the training room, Nighteye pushed his way out the door and through the hallway, not stopping until he reached his office. He then promptly locked the door and slumped into his chair.

Miro had been pestering him for a true spar for well over a month now, and he had finally relented. He was planning on going all out to show the boy how far he had to go, inspiring his drive to improve while stomping out any overconfidence that might have started forming at the same time.

That had been the plan.

It hadn't lasted very long.

The pro had used Foresight on Mirio the moment the fight began, having patted him on the back right before to meet the requirements, he was going to use it to look into the future for the next hour to predict all the boy's moves.

But he hadn't gotten just the hour glimpse he had been expecting.

The Hero pinched the bridge of his nose as he recalled his vision.

A stadium made of solid stone melting, grotesque creatures with exposed brains marched alongside fallen angels with faces of skulls, raindrops as thick as sludge and as black as oil rained from the heavens, and in the center of it all stood a man. His arms were spread lazily into the air and his face was turned towards the sky, simply enjoying the moment.

It was clear, too clear. His visions of the far future were always snippets, brief moments in time with a hazy foam surrounding them, but this was different, he had not only received visual feedback, but audio as well…

Nighteye sighed as he fished his phone out of his pocket, he had several calls to make.

And as the phone rang, the words of the man rang in head.

" Revenge? You could call this revenge, you could also call me a Villain, but this… this is so much more . This is Justice, and I… I am the rain that has come to wash away the sins of the world… even if I must purge it in fire to do so..."

-End Chapter-

-Arc: Down The Rabbit Hole: End-