Kagamito Kamen

From a young age, Midoriya Izuku idolized heroes. Everyone who knew his name had at some point heard one of his near endless rants.

Though only a handful knew about his obsession with music.

To him, his life was broken into three parts. About 49% was for heroes, another 49% was for music, and the remaining 2% was anything left. His room was a wonderful example of this, crammed with hero merchandise and any instrument or piece of music he knew, or on occasion, made himself.

The people he dared tell about his love for music was Katsuki’s mother and father, his own mother and father (before he died), and his music tutor, of course, Morini-san. He didn’t even tell All Might, when they met or any time past that. Other than that, well, it wasn’t “Izuku” who loved music. He made sure that the “quirkless nerd” no one liked was never associated with “Kagamito Kamen”, the faceless young musician, drowning in talent since their YouTube debut at five.

Kamen played the flute, piano, violin, trumpet, harp, anything they could get their hands on for long enough. People everywhere knew that their music was exceptional, and that most of it was written by the artist themself. That made Kamen extremely well-known, and for that Izuku had to turn down countless offers for public appearances, awards, or anything that could link his identities together.

No one ever heard their voice though. Everyone who’s heard them either thinks they’re mute or don’t want to be found, which neither was entirely wrong.

Izuku did want to be found. But what held him back from revealing everything was the unsettling feeling that everyone would abandon Kagamito Kamen when they found out that title belonged to a quirkless (as far as most people knew), plain-faced boy with double dreams of being both a great hero and a great artist.

With that in mind, and his custom green viola in hand, Izuku, now fifteen, slipped on the old mask of Kagamito Kamen, a green hood and a purple eye mask, accompanied by white gloves. He checked over the music one more time to catch any mistakes, but came up with nothing. (He’d run out of new songs to play that he actually liked, so he’d started making his own constantly.) Then, with nothing else left to be done, he clicked “play”, and let the camera roll, placing the bow on the string.

What came next was otherworldly, at least that’s what the comments always say.

Quick sixteenths are drawn into solitude between quarters and halves, sweet high notes curl after bitter lows ring. His whole body moved with the song, dramatizing the performance just a bit more so the eyes could be just as enchanted as the ears. The strings themselves more than vibrated, they shivered at the melancholy sound of “Awaited Winter”.

So he wasn’t the best at naming things. Sue him.

By the time he’d lifted the bow up in victory, finishing the song, he’d realized that his UA acceptance letter was visible just at the end of his scroll. He figured it was fine to leave it in the video, and it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, and if it blew up in his face, he could always fight it back, like he usually did.

Besides, he needed to help mom make dinner tonight.

He posted the video within seconds, and by the time he’d closed the door to his room, it’d reached 3K views, and gained 26 comments.

Most of which in no way were ignoring the letter in plain sight.

By the time he’d finished dinner, it was almost out of control.

Every other word in the comments was about the letter, what it meant, if Kamen was flaunting it or not, or just the fact that Kamen was going to attend UA, and how they knew they were only just getting into high school. Of course, there was the occasional comment that featured the words “Everyone calm down!” or “What about the music? Isn’t that what we’re here for?” But alas, they were few and far between.

He should’ve just redone the video, or tried to photoshop the letter out to avoid this. It took a lot of convincing to get himself to type anything out in response.

“Please, it’s not a big deal, just ignore it. I’ll do another Q+A soon, I might say something there.”

Replies came in quickly.

“We can’t wait that long!”

“Can’t you answer it now?”

“But you’re going to UA! That’s huge!”

“THIS IS A HUGE DEAL WTF”

“Kamen please you have to tell us now we’re DYING”

He winced at their rapid speed. He didn’t know if he should write something more or leave it alone, but neither option seemed to work in his mind. So he went with repeating what he already said.

“I’ll do a live Q+A in about a week after orientation, I’ll mention it there.”

After that he ignored the video comment section and threw himself into bed, forcing himself to ignore the insistent pings of his notifications, which people marked “important”.

Maybe it would blow over?

In no way did it blow over, it blew up right in his face, in the form of his classmates, somehow excluding Kacchan.

On orientation day, he stepped through the giant door to the sight of most of the class ranting about “One of us could be Kagamito! Can you believe it?!” or “How can we identify them? We don’t even know their voice or gender!”

He was terrified of his other classmates just as much as he was terrified of Kacchan, but for an entirely new reason.

“Oh, it’s him!”

He physically jumped when all eyes turned to him.

“The zero pointer kid!”

He then visibly sagged, mentally reprimanding himself for showcasing his nerves. The best way to remain undetected is to be completely detached from his relation to the topic. He knew this.

“Hey, did you hear? Well, of course you did, everyone knows. But Kagamito Kamen is going to UA, as of today! Do you think they’re in this class?” A pink girl leapt into his face.

“O-oh, I really can’t say. I mean, barely anyone knows anything about Kamen…”

The pink girl hummed. “True, we only know as much as we can dig up. But did you hear the video? The music was so good, it made me shiver! It’s like it was actually snowing!”

He chuckled, a blush coming to his cheeks. “You think so?”

“Of course! Honestly, Kamen has to get their butt to a competition, I can’t bear them being so detached from fame! If they’re going to UA like we all know they are, they can’t avoid it forever.”

“Oui, I agree!” A sparkly blond appeared from the girl’s left. “Such talent as Kagamito’s must be admired from a podium, not a YouTube account! Really, how do they keep out of the news?”

Izuku laughed half-heartedly. “Who knows, right? How many public appearances do you think they denied?” He knew the exact number, of course.

“Hundreds, probably,” a girl with plugs on her ears added. “I’ve seen all the ones posted under the videos, and they’ve declined every single one. Who knows how many were sent privately.”

In the last year, twenty seven, he thought to himself. “It’s amazing how they keep avoiding the press. I thought for sure someone would find them after the letter was recorded.”

“Oh, you’re the plain-faced boy!”

He turns to see the brunette he’d saved the other day. “O-oh! Hi!”

“Hey, hey, have you seen Kamen’s new video?” That pink girl really liked Kamen, huh?

“Have I? I’ve been watching Kamen for ages! I knew about them before the news found them!”

That only made Izuku’s blush worse. “B-but then you’d have to have been watching Kamen since you were, what, six?”

She grinned wider. “Nope! Five!”

“If you want to play at being friends, do it somewhere else.”

The group he’d gathered quieted instantly, turning slowly to meet eyes with the yellow mass on the floor.

“This is the hero course. Time is essential.”

Then, their day began.

708 meters.

Kacchan made the amazing feat of 708 meters by throwing the ball with his quirk, and Izuku couldn’t hope of doing anything near that spectacular.

His body broke with one use of One For All, and his quirk couldn’t help him physically.

At least he didn’t think it could. He never tested it on people, he’d only discovered it by accident and decided it wasn’t important enough to announce to the people who’d marked him as “useless”. It didn’t seem all that interesting anyway.

So he took his quirk out of the equation and tried to figure out where and how he could use One For All effectively and not wind up in Recovery Girl’s office for the rest of the day. But, after going through the 50-meter dash, the grip strength test, the standing long jump, and every other test he completely bombed, he was starting to lose confidence. The brunette got a score of infinity on the ball throw, after all.

His turn arrived all too soon, and he decided that it was now or never. The rest of the tests would be way too hard to find a creative way to use One For All in.

Just think about a song. About playing the piano. He’d already reached the overpowering sound of an angry fortissississimo, now he had to make it calm and mellow, a gentle metso-piano. Play it softer, tap the keys, make it quieter…

Fuck that though. He’d been trying the past four tests to play the song softer, to use less power, but it was obviously not working, since he was falling so far behind everyone else.

Just play the song loudly. Break the keys. Go out of tune. As long as he stayed in UA, he could fix the piano as much as he needed to until he could figure out how to play at any volume.

He pulled his arm back and up, ready to break the piano and snap the strings, before the chair was pulled out from under him and the beautiful, weak instrument disappeared.

“46 meters!”

“Ah… I was definitely trying to use it just now…”

“I erased your quirk.”

Even after his great demonstration of whatever he did, he was left standing and staring at his spot on the board.

Last place.

Number 20.

What did he expect? That one good try at getting a high score would instantly keep him in the hero course? That he could actually get to be a hero when he had another dream he could follow so much easier than this? That just suddenly having a strength enhancing quirk that destroyed his body would get him a one way pass into the hero world? That-

“By the way, I was lying about the expulsion.” Aizawa grinned wildly when everyone looked at him, shock vivid on their faces. “It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your quirks.”

His thoughts spiraled around aimlessly. Oh my god. Oh my god. That’s good, right? He just said it to motivate us? He couldn’t mention any of that day to his fans, since the brunette (Uraraka, he reminded himself) could connect the dots and figure him out, and she was just becoming his friend. Could he manage not saying anything about orientation day? Since he wasn’t even at orientation, he wouldn’t know what to say about it, so he might as well keep the details to a minimum. A very low minimum. He knew people who were in UA listened to him, so he couldn’t fake what he experienced that day. How many people were looking for who he was? Has anyone figured him out yet? Was he saying this all out loud?! Oh thank god, he wasn’t-

“Midoriya,” Aizawa called him out of his head. “Have the old lady fix you in the nurse’s office. Tomorrow will be packed with even more rigorous tests. Prepare yourself,” he warned lazily as he stepped away.

He got through it then, but there was too much he couldn’t do. He was starting from last place. He had a lot to learn from then on, in order to become what he dreams of being.

God, he was tired.

Recovery Girl’s quirk only sped up a person’s natural healing process, which sapped their energy. If he wasn’t careful, he could die.

A hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to meet the stern, blue haired kid. “O-oh, hi! I, uhh, I don’t remember your name.”

“Iida Tenya. Is your finger healed?”

“Oh, yes, thanks to Recovery Girl.” He held up the bandaged finger. He was lucky he didn’t have to play anything for a little while. It only reminded him of how he couldn’t keep getting help from others, and he had to get this quirk under control.

“I was really taken by Aizawa-sensei. I even thought, “This is the best of the best” and such. I didn’t think a teacher would encourage us with a lie.”

So, he wasn’t really scary. Just… earnest.

“Heeeey! You two!” Uraraka’s voice rang as much as his quirk made his. He turned to meet her gaze. “Going to the station? Wait for me!”

“You’re the infinity girl,” Iida stated.

“I’m Uraraka Ochako. Um, you’re Iida Tenya, and you’re Midoriya Deku, right?”

“Deku?!” Izuku exclaimed. Where did she hear that?!

“Huh? But during the fitness test, the boy named Bakugou said, “Deku, you bastard!” Right?”

“U-um…” How does he say this? “My real name is Izuku, but D-Deku is what Kacchan calls me to make fun of me…”

“An insult?” Iida sounded offended.

“Oh, is that right? Sorry! But I thought it sounded like, “You can do it,” you know? I kinda like it, it reminds me of our hidden idol!”

“Hidden idol? You mean Kagamito Kamen, don’t you?” Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin at their words, for many reasons.

Uraraka nodded to Iida. “Mhm! Oh, I can’t wait for their upload tonight, I’m dying to know how their orientation went!”

Izuku chuckled lightly. “I can’t either! Are you going to ask something?”

“Oh, no, I can’t. They’re too popular, I don’t think they would ever notice my comment.”

He hummed. “What’s your account name? I’ll be watching too, so I know I’ll see your question get answered. Well, unless Kamen can’t answer it.”

She paused. “Well… It’s GravityGirl. But I won’t get noticed.”

He hoped his grin didn’t give him away. He remembered the day so long ago when a notification popped up, saying he’d gotten his first subscriber, named just that. He was so excited he drew a picture of it, and he still had it hanging on his wall. “Not unless you ask something. Just try, other people get their questions answered, why can’t you be one of them?”

Her eyes sparkled, and he knew he would be searching for her username throughout the entire video. “You think so?”

“You only have to try!” Iida chimed. “You can’t get anywhere if you fail at attempting your goals!”

She giggled. “Then I will! But, what should I ask?”

His blushing grew a bit more. “Anything.”

Later that night, after cleaning up dinner and doing his push-up sets, he set himself before his camera, hood already up, covering part of his purple mask. He pulled his gloves on and took off the cap of his pen, setting another aside just in case.

He wrote something out quickly, started playing a set of his music he’d put on CD, and started the camera. He waved, smiling as the viewers piled up.

Once the number started to slow down it’s counting, he flipped the paper over, showing what he’d written. “Hi everyone! Again, it’s me, Kamen. You probably don’t need me to tell you, but start asking questions! I’ll try to answer as many as I can.”

He picked the first one that showed up, wincing mentally at it. “What class are you in?”

He wrote quickly. “I don’t feel comfortable saying what class I’m in, but I’m training to become a hero.”

He checked the next. “What’s your quirk?” Again?

“My quirk is a bit personal. You could identify me with it.”

He thought for a moment before he continued the answer. He could tell the viewers waited impatiently for him to flip the paper over. Kamen smiled.

“But I’m feeling generous. My quirk is called Angel’s Voice, and if I sing or talk while using it, anyone who can hear me pays attention. I can sometimes get people to cry if I’m feeling sad, so there might be some forced empathy in there too.”

The comments exploded with praises and words of amazement. Not very many were questions, so he addressed the masses before the individuals.

“Thank you… You’re all so kind, thank you! But on to the next question.”

“If that’s your quirk, how did you get into UA’s hero course?”

He smirked. “It’s not the entirety of my quirk, you know.”

“How did you first figure out your quirk?”

“I sang a song in the street and everyone stopped moving and stared at me. It was kind of unnerving.”

“When’s your birthday?”

“I shouldn’t say, I don’t want to reveal myself.”

Then he found it. GravityGirl, such a simple name that he’d managed to keep safe in his mind from when he was five, but he finally knew the face behind it. Uraraka asked, “You’re so famous, so why do you want to keep hiding?”

He remembered how hard it was to help her find just the right question to ask, and how they’d agreed with Iida that it was the best choice. Simple, but important. Not many people ask why.

He grinned as he wrote. “Hi, GravityGirl. I remember that you were my first subscriber. Thank you for liking my music. But to your question, I avoid attention because I’m scared people won’t like who I am under my disguise. You might not remember, but when I first started out, my first few Q+A videos were deleted the day after they were posted, because I thought my bullies would recognize my voice. I only started writing responses after I realized I could. I’m still scared no one will like how I am normally, so I’m sorry if my secret keeping bothers anyone. But I’m glad you’ve finally said something.”

Then, through the stunned silence he’d created, he added in one more line. “And sorry again, I also overheard you say your username while leaving school, but it’s nice to finally put a face to your name.”

Her comment came quickly. “You heard me?! That’s so embarrassing…”

Other viewers started talking to her excitedly, and he read their interactions gleefully. At one point someone asked her if she knew who he was, and he laughed, lifting his gloved hand to his lips.

Wait.

He laughed.

Audibly.

Hell.

“Your laugh is so sweet! Can you say something, please?”

“Oh my god, you do sound like an angel!”

“I still can’t tell if you’re a girl or a boy…”

“You should sing too, your voice is so pretty”

“You just turned me bi”

… Okay maybe it was a bit more pleasant than hell. But the point still stands.

He quickly wrote something in response. “I’m still nervous about talking, but if I get over it, I promise I’ll sing. What other questions are there?”

He continued through the night, answering as many things as he could without completely revealing himself too much. By the end of the video, he’d even gone as far as to tell his hair color, which scared him a bit with knowing Uraraka and his other classmates were probably watching, but he wasn’t the only greenheaded first year, after all. Even the froggy girl had green hair.

So he wouldn’t reveal himself yet. Someday, maybe, but not yet.

The first day was… surprisingly normal, considering where he was.

Required classes like english, math, and history were taught in the morning, being a little more boring than he thought. He’d looked around for a music club before lunch, just for fun, but came up with nothing. Even if there was one, if he wanted to join, he’d have to make it a point he wasn’t a music fanatic, and he was there for fun.

But alas, UA didn’t have a music club. How he wished it did.

When he’d gotten to the lunch room, everyone seemed to be on high alert. Eyes darted every which way, glancing over any person they set on and moving to the next without another thought. He tried to ignore it, before he noticed some eyes lingering on him. He turned his shoulders inward, making a beeline for where Uraraka and Iida sat.

“Midoriya-kuuuun! Over here!”

He swallowed down his laugh, remembering his slip-up just last night. She slid over for him, and he took his seat gratefully. “You can call me Deku. It sounds nice, coming from you.”

She giggled, and he noticed how she held her pinkies up. How cute. “Okay, Deku-kun! But you were watching the video, right? Kamen said they remembered me! Can you believe it?”

“No, it’s amazing! They have such a great memory. Didn’t you say you started watching them when you were five?”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember being their first subscriber. I thought for sure I was just another person in the jumble of names they’d seen.”

“You’re GravityGirl? Do you have any idea who Kamen is?”

An upperclassmen to her right called her attention, while taking a glance at Izuku. “Huh?” she said mildly.

“I can’t believe it, Kagamito knows you!” another girl called, eyes following him again.

“That means they’re here, right? They saw you at the gates, so they’re sure to have seen you here already!”

“Holy fuck, I’m in the same room as Kagamito Kamen.”

Izuku squirmed in his seat, telling himself that the attention was not for him. Well, at least not completely.

“Hey, you, what’s your quirk? We need to know if you’re Kamen or not.”

A blue-haired girl pointed at him demandingly, sending shivers down Izuku’s spine. But he had a cover, and it was true, in a sense.

“Why do you need to know?” Iida pressed, straightening his posture. “Even if they wanted to be found, which they don’t, Midoriya-hun has a strength enhancing quirk that breaks his bones when used, so he isn’t Kagamito.”

The girl pulled a face as she stared Izuku down, leaning closer as she examined him. “I-I really do! Just yesterday I went home with a cast around my finger! I’ve gone to Recovery Girl too many times already this year, she could tell you!”

“Oh, come on!” Uraraka groaned, hiding her face in her arms. “We don’t want this much attention, just ignore us!”

With a bit of reluctance, the crowd slinked away, leaving the small group be. Izuku sighed when the girl left with only a slight glare. “I’m sorry, Uraraka-san.”

“What for? It’s not your fault Kamen called me out, and even if it was, I’d be incredibly grateful. It’s not your fault they came to pester us either.”

“Umm… Well, I’m sure they noticed my hair color, and since everyone was watching me, they heard you too…”

She huffed. “That’s still not your fault, you know. They’re just nosy and jump to conclusions. Kamen’s hair could be neon green and half shaved, for all we know.”

He laughed at that, touching his fingers to his lips. He stiffened when he realized what he did, glancing around nervously until he convinced himself no one recognized it. “I, uh, really can’t picture Kamen as anything but someone wearing a green hood and purple mask.”

Iida intervened. “Can anyone, really? The only reason any of this is happening is because they were in an exceedingly good mood, and decided to reveal information to us. We shouldn’t take it for granted or force anything. Kagamito will reveal themself when they’re comfortable enough to do so.”

“Woo, go Iida-kun! Preach!” the red headed boy who was hanging around Kacchan yelled, cupping his hand next to his mouth to yell dramatically. They were only a few tables away, after all. Iida blushed under the positivity, stiffening in his seat.

Uraraka chuckled, restarting the conversation to something Izuku could handle more, and they carried on through lunch.

He still wished there was a music club somewhere.

After lunch came Hero Basic Training. Before All Might burst in wearing an old hero suit, the class talked excitedly about Kamen in hushed voices. Honestly, he wished he was less popular in times like these. Of course, All Might’s appearance blew the topic far away, and he didn’t hear his pseudo name once while changing into the jumpsuit his mom got him.

He ran out last of the group, of course, not wanting to be the center of attention and just sneak in behind everyone else. Uraraka had a… well, an embarrassing outfit, to say the least. She said his looked Kamen themed, and he realized he shouldn’t’ve put the hood on.

They ended up picking teams randomly, and he found himself paired up with Uraraka. He thanked his few lucky stars that he wasn’t with Kacchan, but apparently they weren’t really looking out for him that day.

Because, what’s the one thing that’s worse than being paired up with the only person who scares the crap out of you? Being pitted against them, of course.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Yay…