Chapter Text
“Without a quirk? I’m afraid it would be impossible.”
“It’s good to dream, but you need to be more realistic.”
All Might’s voice echoed in his mind as he made his way home. The more he thought about the Number One Hero’s words, the more ridiculous they seemed. Be realistic, huh? Being born quirkless in his generation was pretty unrealistic on its own. Why not defy the odds a little more? He hadn’t needed a quirk to launch his backpack into that villain’s eye, had he? True, it was reckless and not the most thought-out plan, but it wasn’t like anyone else was doing anything to help. In the end, he could have saved Kachaan’s life.
“ I didn’t need your help, Deku! Stop looking down on me! ”
And then there was the matter of Kachaan. Where did he get the idea that Izuku was looking down on him? If anything, he had spent his whole childhood looking up to Kachaan and how amazing he was. Why did he even still look up to him like that? The more he thought about his encounters of the day, the more he realised that if he wanted to follow his dream to become a hero, he would need to make some changes.
He could work out the specifics later. For now he had something to do as soon as he got home.
Izuku spun around his room and looked at its freshly blank walls. Coming into his room, he realised just how much of it was blanketed in All Might merchandise. He had carefully rolled up his limited-edition posters and packed away his collectible figurines. All Might may not be his personal hero anymore, but he was still an amazing hero who deserved respect. Also, with how long All Might had been a hero, he would probably be retiring in the next ten or so years, which would send the prices of his merchandise through the roof. No matter how angry he was, it would be a waste to trash it. This is an investment for the future , he thought as he stowed the boxes in his closet.
On to the next phase of his very rough plan: make a better plan. He had a rough list of things to research, which would surely get longer as he went along. He pulled up the notes app on his phone as he opened his laptop.
Stuff to look up
- UA practice exam
- Beginning workouts
- How to study and exercise
- How to throw knives
- Can i own throwing knives
- Meal plans for muscle gain
- Martial arts dojo near me
- Best martial arts for heroics
- Parkour for beginners
- Parkour gym near me
Time to get to work.
10 months later
Izuku let out a deep breath, coming to a stop as he approached the entrance to UA. He raised his gaze to the archway and steeled his nerves. This was it. Today was the UA entrance exam- the deciding factor of his whole hero career.
He shook himself out of that dramatic thought. There were always other hero schools, anyways. But still. It was his lifelong dream to attend the greatest hero school in Japan. At one point, his goal of attending was based solely on the fact that it was All Might’s alma mater. After their not-so-favorable encounter, he had tried looking into other schools. As it turns out, most had either sub-par hero courses or a policy banning quirkless students. Of course, if he flunked the exam, he could always go for the general education course and try to transfer in through the Sports Festival. It wasn’t common, but then again-
Izuku felt someone shove his shoulder from behind, not slowing down in the slightest. “Outta my way, extra.” Bakugo grumbled as he continued walking, fortunately not noticing Izuku.
Ah, that’s right, he was still standing in the middle of the path like an idiot. He started to walk forward again, this time determined to walk into the exam with optimism. Or at least some confidence.
His plan of having some confidence was ruined when his foot caught on the pavement of the sidewalk. Well, he thought to himself, I guess this is how I die. He did his best to accept his fate as he pitched forward toward the ground. Except- the expected impact with the concrete never happened. He opened his eyes and realised he was hovering two feet in the air, face-down, parallel to the ground.
Is this- did I just manifest a quirk!? He thought to himself, oblivious to his surroundings. Seriously? On the morning of the entrance exam? That’s so cliche! I wonder-
“Hey! Sorry about that, are you ok? You seem kinda out of it.” Came a voice out of his view. He looked in its direction to see a girl his age standing off to his side. “I didn’t mean to use my quirk on you without asking! I thought it would be a bad omen to trip before the test. Should I let you down now?”
Ah, That makes more sense. “Yeah, that would be nice.” He maneuvered himself onto his hands and knees. He felt gravity returning to him as the girl pressed her hands together and said, “Release!”
“Wow, is that your quirk?” He stood back up, dusting the dirt off his uniform. “That’s so cool! Does it negate gravity on objects?”
“Yeah!” she said, smiling at the compliment. “My name’s Uraraka Ochako, and my quirk is Zero Gravity. It’s nice to meet you!”
“Likewise,” said Izuku. “We should probably head in for the test now, don’t want to be late.” With that, he took off toward the building.
“Wait!-” Uraraka cried out, but the boy was already gone. “I never got your name,” she said, though he was already too far away to hear her.
Izuku shuffled onto the bus to the training ground where the heroics exam would take place. Fortunately, Bakugo was headed to a different area, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that. He thought he’d done well enough on the written exam, probably enough to get into the Gen Ed course, but there was still the matter of the robots. Would he be strong enough to beat them on his own? He wasn’t sure, but-
“Mind if I sit here?” A tired-sounding voice came from the aisle, snapping him out of his rambling. That seemed to be a pattern today, didn’t it?
“Sure, go ahead,” he responded. He figured he might as well make small talk. “My name’s Midoriya Izuku, how about you?”
“Shinsou Hitoshi, and my pronouns are they/them.”
“Cool, mine are he/him. What’s your quirk?”
He noticed Shinsou seemed to freeze up for a second. Ah, touchy subject. He could relate. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” they replied. Oh, that was a relief. “If we’re going to be in the hero course together anyways, you’ll find out eventually.” Izuku almost said something about their bold assumption, but they averted their eyes before they continued, “It’s brainwashing. Verbally triggered. It’s alright if you don’t want to talk to me anymore.”
There was a beat of silence, and Shinsou feared they would be rejected yet again. They said it was fine if Midoriya didn’t want to talk, but they really just wanted a friend. They looked back up toward their seatmate, expecting to see hatred, or fear, or disgust. Instead they saw Midoriya’s eyes sparkle with curiosity. Was the bus hitting a bumpy patch, or- nope, just Midoriya vibrating with excitement.
“That. Is. Amazing.” he said, in a hushed, almost reverent tone. “Do you know how many applications that could have in hero work? You could capture solo villains instantly, before there’s even a fight! You could end hostage negotiations in a second! How many people can you use it on at once? How complicated can the instructions be? Could you take advantage of subconscious mental blocks to make someone stronger while under your quirk’s influence? I have so many questions!”
“I can tell,” Shinsou replied sarcastically.
“Oh. Sorry,” said Midoriya, cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to creep you out. I need to get better at that.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine!” Shinsou asserted. “I’m not creeped out. It was really cool how fast you did that analysis, though. I’m not entirely sure about my limits, given that no one wants me to use my quirk on them, but y’know,” he shrugged, “I’ll find out once I get to UA.”
“Wow, you’re really confident!”
“Thanks, it’s either that or have a nervous breakdown every ten minutes.”
“Mood.”
“So anyways,” Shinsou said, “what’s your quirk?”
Midoriya froze. He hadn’t expected having to tell Shinsou that he was quirkless. He should have considered the possibility, given that he was the one who brought it up in the conversation, but here he was, entirely unprepared. He could dodge the question, but like Shinsou had said, what was the point? If they both got into the hero course, they’d find out eventually. And in the likely event that he didn’t make it, they’d probably never see each other again so really it couldn’t hurt.
Hitoshi regretted asking the question. They thought no quirk could be worse than theirs, and with the ice already broken, Midoriya would have no problem sharing. But no, he’d developed into a storm of incomprehensible muttering. If the occasional snippets of words he caught onto were anything to go by, Midoriya was debating the pros and cons of telling them about his quirk. Just as Hitoshi was about to wave their hand in his face to get his attention, the muttering cut off.
“I’m quirkless,” Midoriya nearly whispered, as though if he said the words quietly enough they wouldn’t be true.
Oh. They stood corrected.
“Huh. That’s- that’s neat, I guess.”
Hitoshi’s brain froze up as it dedicated all of its energy to internal screeching. Neat? Neat?? You guess??? What were you thinking? Externally, they held their same impassive expression. Come on, continue the conversation. Don’t just chicken out because you said something stupid.
“That you’d try for the hero course, that is. I know they only just changed the rule recently. Really shooting for the top, huh?”
Nailed it.
“I guess we have that in common,” Midoriya replied, snapping Hitoshi out of their mental congratulations.
“What do you mean by that?” they responded, somewhat confused.
“We’re both aiming to do better than what’s expected of us because of our quirks.”
Yeah, Hitoshi could agree with that. They nodded in agreement. The next few minutes passed between them in comfortable silence. Just before Hitoshi could start to doze off, the bus rolled to a stop. They had arrived at their destination.