Prologue
Death sat near an alleyway, pretending to be in tremendous pain. He found it pretty easy, to be honest, especially with a couple thousand years watching over a realm of endless tormented souls under his belt. You kind of pick up on behaviors after a while of watching them.
But before we get carried away, Death would love to let you know that there was a definite reason he was pretending to be in tremendous pain! No, he did not just up and decide to prank a small portion of humanity (like Life seemed to think, the idiot), but was, in fact, looking for a reaper.
That’s right, folks, you heard the man. He’s looking for a fit reaper by taking the form of a distressed young man bleeding out near an alleyway in the heart of Musutafu City.
It was at times like these when Death truly marveled at humans. No matter how long he wandered the realms, as a man, woman, child, animal, even a blobfish once, he never ceased to be amazed by the sheer selfishness of humanity.
Even now as he lay, his face contorted in a meticulously crafted pained grimace, he watched the humans walk quickly past, expertly avoiding eye contact, speeding up near him, pretending not to see the thin man bleeding out all over the sidewalk.
Death was just about to call it a day and go visit Fate to complain about yet another failure when a clatter down the previously mentioned alleyway caught his attention. He heard a couple of muffled yells that sounded like they came from children, before a small green-haired child skidded around the corner of the alley and promptly face-planted.
A couple of other kids around the same age turned the corner and laughed at his predicament before one of them, probably their “leader,” stepped forward, grabbed the little broccoli’s arm, called him “Deku,” and then blew up his hand.
The mini thugs laughed pretty stupidly before suddenly noticing Death who was still covered in blood. They screamed and ran off, followed quickly by explosion baby, and then Death was left with baby broccoli.
The child slowly raised his head to take in the situation. His eyes scanned over the blood covering the sidewalk, wandered to the knife wound in Death’s side, before they finally settled on the man’s eyes, and Death finally saw baby broccoli’s face.
His bushy green curls framed an absolutely adorable , yet extremely plain and forgettable face. ( that could be useful, thought Death. ) his eight perfectly symmetrical freckles, four on each side, were just adding to his whole charm. But the child’s most noticeable feature was his eyes.
They easily took up at least a third of his face and seemed to hold all the secrets of the universe, even the ones Death himself did not know. The green depths ( the color of life, Death noted ironically ) were almost inviting him to get lost forever, searching for answers, and the tears welling in them resembled a lake, glassy and--
Wait, tears?
It seems that Death had forgotten that he was “bleeding out” on the sidewalk in front of an injured child. He lamented not bringing earplugs to his trip to the human realm and prepared for the brat to start screaming, but the kid… didn’t?
Instead, the baby broccoli wobbled over to him, kneeled down next to him, and with a worried expression and shining eyes asked the most unexpected question of all.
“Do you need help, mister sir-san?”
Death stared. Broccoli squirmed before deciding to ask something else.
“Can you speak?”
“Yes, sorry kid,” Death almost choked out, breaking from his stupor. “I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?” The brat worried.
“Uh-huh, I mean, uhm, yes.” Death mentally kicked himself. He was supposed to be a cryptid or something!
“Okay!” the kid chirped before examining the man for a moment with surprising intelligence. He obviously judged him to be trustworthy because a moment later he opened his mouth again.
“I’m Midoriya Izuku, and I’m this many!” He held up five fingers, and Death could’ve sworn he had a heart attack. “What’s your name, mister sir-san?” Izuku tilted his head.
Yes! Back to the task at hand. Izuku, with his heart apparently pure, was sure to become a fine reaper.
“I’m Death,” he told the child, “and I have a job offer for you.”