Chapter Text
“Woah! I’ve got mine! I actually got mine!”
Around the world, around 80% of people are born with miraculous powers known as “quirks”. However, for most people, they usually manifest around 4 years of age unless they cause an effect on the user’s appearance. These quirks allow for… well, miraculous powers. Some let you do things like fly, or sense an approaching threat, or even let you give and take these powers at will, but still, some people are born without quirks, this sets them back of course, but through hard work, these obstacles can be overcome in some places. But even among quirks… some of them are just duds… but among those duds…
“My hands! They’re glowing!”
Rests insurmountable power, that could be awakened if it were given the right conditions to flourish. Take for example, Izuku Midoriya’s quirk, as of right now, his hands glow with a flame-like aura, and he can hit very slightly harder. His quirk, in actuality, is one that allows him to channel energy through his body, and use it to perform incredible techniques.
At some point in the future, if he was able to have a strong enough energy, he could be unstoppable, but as always, fate is not so kind to everyone… for Izuku Midoriya…
“Aw… they only glowed for a few seconds… It’s still so awesome though! I can’t wait to show Kacchan at school today! I’m gonna try one more time! But make it my whole body!”
Fate decided to play a cruel trick on him…
“Aw man… I only glowed for like half a second that time…”
Izuku Midoriya’s quirk required a special energy unique to itself, and yet the amount of energy he had to use his own quirk with was practically zero, and would continue to stay at that level for as long as he lived. Meaning that his quirk, which could be one of the most powerful ones… was practically non-existent. Meaning that for Izuku Midoriya, fate had declared him functionally quirkless.
And yet… despite this declaration placed upon him. Izuku Midoriya had one hope, one that wouldn’t be stamped out.
“And then when we’re older, we’ll become heroes together! And we’ll save so many people! Just like All Might!” And yet, fate had once again dealt his hand. Katsuki Bakugo would not be impressed by Izuku’s quirk, he’d find it ridiculous that someone like Izuku could even think to be a hero. And he’d beat it into him if necessary.
“...And since it’s around that time, I’m gonna come around and hand out these career aptitude tests, so you can decide on your future careers.” The teacher prepared to walk forward, but instead stopped. “But what the hell! We all know you’re gonna become heroes!” And threw the stack of paper into the air for everyone to fight over.
“Hey, teach! Don’t you lump me in with the rest of these shitty extras!” Bakugo shouted out over the voices of the other kids in class. “After all, I’m planning on going to U.A., I’ve aced all the mock exams, so there’s no way I’m not getting in. Especially with my quirk!” Bakugo then made a tiny explosion in his hands. A quirk that could create explosions, destructive, yet with practice, elegant. And then it happened.
“Oh, Midoriya, aren’t you planning on going to U.A. too?” The teacher said, while grinning smugly, the teacher knew exactly what he was doing when he said that to Izuku, he was getting Bakugo to sic him, if you asked the teacher why many years later, he’d say it was in hopes that it would draw out the potential of Izuku’s quirk, but really he just wanted to see him get put in his place, a lot of people at Aldera barely even considered his quirk a quirk.
“DEKU!?” Bakugo turned towards Izuku. “What the hell are you doing applying for U.A.!?” The shouting sent shivers down Izuku’s spine. “W-Well, there’s no rules against those with weak quirks applying, so I figured I could still get in-” Izuku was cut off by someone slamming his desk.
“Don’t even THINK about it Deku! U.A. would never accept someone with as pathetic of a quirk as yours! You’re just gonna embarrass this crap heap of a school even more than it’s already embarrassed itself!”
“Now now, settle down. You can talk all you want after class. But don’t forget school’s still in session, so get back in your seats and pay attention!” Bakugo grunted with annoyance, but still listened anyway, but said one last thing to Izuku, “we’re not done yet Deku.”
As the day ended, Izuku began to pack up his things. He wasn’t really paying much attention to class since the teacher was pretty much just saying the same things all day that was really just about which hero schools are the best and all that. So he mostly spent most of the day taking notes about the quirks of two heroes he’d seen on his way to school that day, Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady… well, Kamui Woods wasn’t actually BRAND NEW, he’d been around for about a week or two, Izuku just hadn’t seen him in action before! His quirk seemed to be a transformation quirk that had some mutant properties, given that he could manipulate his wooden arms, who knows what he could do with that quirk? Though Mt. Lady was completely new, she debuted that day and could grow in size, it might not seem impressive, but the capabilities it could have were-
“Hey, Deku.” Izuku snapped out of his thoughts, and turned to Izuku. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“O-Oh, w-well I was just g-getting ready to go Kacchan!” Izuku stuttered out, grabbing his hero analysis notebook and putting it in his backpa-
…and Bakugo snatched it right out of his hands. Izuku pleaded internally for him to not destroy it. “Still making these hero analysis books, huh? Well they’re worthless for someone like you!” Izuku tried to butt in while he was talking, pleading with him to give it back, but Bakugo just kept going on. “Your quirk is useless, you might as well not have one at all! So I’ll do you a favor.”
And then, just like that, Bakugo put the book between his hands and set off an explosion. “There’s your favor, you won’t need that book because you aren’t going to be a hero. Now don’t even think about applying to U.A.” Izuku scrambled to try and catch it before it fell, but alas, poor Midoriya couldn’t catch his notebook in time, and it fell into the water.
“Hey, Deku. There’s some advice.” Bakugo said to Izuku, surprisingly not shouting it out. “Here’s some advice, do you want an actually good quirk?” Izuku turned to look at Bakugo. “Take a swan dive off the roof, and hope you get one in your next life.” And with those words, Bakugo left Izuku there to process those words.
And yet still, part of him felt as though that his friend from back then was still in there somewhere, but the part of him deep down that he buried knew, Katsuki Bakugo was no longer his friend. Regardless of what he thought. He got back up from the floor and went down to grab his notebook from the little pond it fell in, and shook off some fish that were trying to eat it.
“You shouldn’t say things like that Kacchan… what if I actually jumped? What would happen then? What would you do?” Izuku then went on his way home, the route he took home was long, but it was one he took just because it gave him a good trip around Musutafu. So it was worth the longer walk… though… as he was walking through a tunnel on his path… something felt… weird? Something just smelled really bad…
“Oh great! I was looking for a skinsuit!” Izuku turned around, and he saw that a sludge person was there in the tunnel with him! “Huh, a quirk that turned you into sludge… you know, that could be useful for- W-WAIT WHY AM I ANALYZING HIS QUIRK RIGHT NOW?” Izuku turned to run from the sludge villain but was swiftly caught.
“Thanks for helping me get that guy off my tail, kid. You’re my hero!” The villain said as it suffocated Izuku, forcing sludge down his throat. Meaning that unless a hero were to come by and stop the villain, Izuku’s life was forfeit.
”I-I guess this is it… my quirk can only make my hands glow slightly, I can’t do anything… I guess this is it… sorry mom…” With those last thoughts flowing through his mind, Izuku began to faint…and the last thing he heard before passing out was…
“DETROIT SMASH!!!”
“Hey… hey… kid wake up! Come on!” Izuku woke up to someone tapping his face lightly and repeatedly. What was going on? The sludge villain had him, but then he…
“A-ALL MIGHT!?” Izuku rocketed awake at the realization, All Might had just saved him! Holy crap! He had so much to say! H-He needed to get his- wait where’s his- it’s right there! On the floor from where he got up! Oh, he must’ve dropped it when he shot up, whoops. “U-Um, could you please-” Izuku looked at the page he had opened the book to again. “Holy crap he already signed it!”
“Yup! I figured you would ask when you woke up, so I took the liberty of making sure it was already done! No need to thank me.” All Might spoke with pride. His voice alone being enough to lift Izuku’s spirits, as if everything was going to be okay. ”Welp, time for me to take my leave, I’ve gotta turn these guys over to the authorities. I’ve already called someone I can trust to come back for you later, but just stay here for a second. Farewell Midoriya! And hold onto that notebook of yours next time, it’s got some very good analysis in there. Don’t want a villain to get their hands on it.”
As All Might prepared a leap to leave, one thought ran through Izuku’s mind… and muttered out of his lips ”Holy crap! All Might knew my name! Though it’s probably because it was on my notebook’s cover. He did say he thought the quirk analysis was good, though he wouldn’t know what my quirk is since I haven’t written it in that notebook… W-Wait! My quirk! I have to ask him!” When Izuku turned back to All Might and saw him preparing to jump, he did the only thing he thought would stop All Might. Grabbing onto his leg! As he was about to… leap… several stories in the air…
Meanwhile, All Might thought to himself as well. ”Kid’s analysis is pretty good. Something like that would be revolutionary. I should tell Nezu about this kid, assuming he’s going planning on going to U.A. High… huh, feels like I’ve got a little more weight than I should.” All Might looked back on the city, and the kid holding onto his pants.
…
”Kid! What are you doing!” All Might shouted at Izuku. “I-I just needed to ask you something A-All Might!” Izuku shouted in return, it was hard to make out, since the air was blowing really hard against his face, but he managed it out anyway.
”Oh, alright, give me a second to find a safe place to land.” All Might scanned around the rooftops quickly. Re-directing himself to land on one of the many buildings in the city, while making sure that Midoriya was unharmed in the landing. ”There we go, so tell me kid. What’d you wanna ask so bad?” He then looked directly at Izuku, waiting for his answer.
“U-Uh, well… I wanted to ask if I could be a hero with my quirk… it doesn’t do much… it makes my hands glow a little bit for about 5 seconds… and it doesn’t do much else… and people around me have said I can’t be a hero with a quirk like mine…” All Might started to smoke up. ”Crap, I’m running out of time… if this goes on any longer I’m not gonna be able to keep this up.” Izuku still continued. “B-But even still, I want to be a hero… who can save people with a smile on my face and make people know it’s going to be okay just because I’m there… so that’s what I wanted to ask you… All Might, can I be a hero like you!” When Izuku looked up, there was a cloud of smoke, and out of the smoke was…
“Wha- Who are you?! Where’s All Might!?” Izuku freaked out at the skeletal blonde haired man in front of him. The guy was wearing the same white shirt and green pants that All Might was just wearing, but his eyes were this eerie black color instead of white. “Is he a fake? No, then All Might would get all the credit. Unless they’re an underground hero or have some kind of agreement… no that can’t be it either, if they were underground they would have to go through the agreement, but with All Might he’s never had any sidekicks after Sir Nighteye so I doubt he’d pick one just to replicate himself.”
“Hey! Kid!” Izuku snapped out of his thoughts. “Jeez, I thought you’d never stop muttering… Though I guess it makes sense, seeing me like this. I’ll tell you all about it. Just sit down for a second.” Izuku obliged. Taking a seat near the wall, while the skeletal man sat near a fence opposite to him. “So… about why I look like this, and I promise this’ll loop back to your question. A while back, I got this nasty scar from a villain. Around 5 years ago.”
Izuku perked up at that. “5 Years ago? So if it’s around 5 years ago to now then it must’ve been sometime between the battles with Toxic Chainsaw and Radio Silent, since Toxic Chainsaw didn’t land any good blows and Radio Silent’s quirk wasn’t physical…” All Might laughed. “Wow, you know your stuff kid. Normally I wouldn’t know if I should be scared or not, but your notebook just tells me you're a real big hero fan. But yeah, between those two fights, though this one had to be kept under wraps from the general public. Especially with what he could do.” All Might then pulled up his shirt, showing a massive wound in his stomach. “I won the fight, but he left this nasty mark right here. And I was really stubborn about getting treated properly back then, so now I only have a set amount of time every day where I can be in my hero form.” All Might pulled his shirt back down. “So as for your question. No, I don’t think you could. If someone like me could get hurt, who’s to say another villain like that can’t show up again? One that could irreparably harm me, and still choosing to go after you? But if you really want to help out heroes, you should consider becoming an analyst, I’d bet you could put every other guy out of their jobs with those notes of yours.” All Might stood up and went to the door. “Young man. You have a bright future ahead of you. So don’t give up on helping people just because you can’t be a hero because you didn’t get a quirk that was good, and hey. Maybe I’ll even hire you if you want to become an analyst.” All Might opened the door to the stairs, his gaze finally turning away from Izuku as he prepared to leave, and muttered something that Izuku couldn’t hear. “Just don’t let the idea you can’t be a hero eat you alive like it did to me.”
And then he was gone, leaving Izuku alone on the roof. Dejected, Izuku went down the same steps that All Might had just gone down, preparing to go home. Even still, Izuku’s feet didn’t take him home. They kept wandering down the streets of the city, and stumbled upon a crowd.
“Oh, a villain appeared. I guess I just kind of wandered over unconsciously. What’s going on over here anyway?” Izuku then moved past the crowd, he got a “hey!” here and a “watch it!” there, but didn’t pay them much attention. Looking at the scene, he saw it. The same sludge villain that captured him had taken someone else hostage. 4 heroes were on the scene, but all of them were struggling. Kamui Woods was made of wood, so if he tried to get in close his wood would just end up burning. Death Arms could’ve rushed in, but then he’d get in the way of Backdraft, who was busy putting out the fires that were emerging, and Mt. Lady’s quirk couldn’t help, since it just made her grow in size, so she was too big for the alleyway. Izuku just stood there.
”I-I can’t believe it… the sludge villain… All Might said he was going to take him in, what happened? How did-” It was at this point, Izuku remembered something, a soda bottle that All Might had put in his pocket before the jump, Izuku didn’t realize until now, but the sludge villain was in there. ”I-It’s my fault… I made the bottle fall out of All Might’s pocket when I tried to ask him that question… I let the villain get away… Now Kacchan’s gonna die because of me… KACCHAN?!” Izuku looked back up at the sludge villain and his hostage. Bakugo was the one held in his grip. And before Izuku knew it. He was running at the villain.
“What the hell? You again kid?!” The sludge villain shouted as Izuku ran towards him. ”Okay, think Izuku, you’re already doing this for some reason so you gotta go all the way through! His body’s made of liquid, except his mouth and eyes. His teeth have gums, so those would be possible to hit. But the eyes are a lot more sensitive to damage, so I should throw something at them to blind him.” In what felt like years to Izuku, he managed to come up with a plan. Quickly grabbing his backpack, he threw it at the villain’s eyeball, causing the pile of sludge to be unable to attack, what Izuku didn’t expect, or notice, was that while holding his backpack, his hands began to glow blue, and when he threw his backpack, it too began to glow blue even after it was out of his hands. While the glow didn’t last for long, it did last just long enough to nail the sludge villain’s eye. While it didn’t do much, it did make the backpack hit just a little bit stronger, though due to the glow being overshadowed by the flames, nobody noticed. Even if Izuku did notice though, he didn’t have time to think about it, he simply rushed forward to save his former best friend.
Running up to Bakugo, Izuku wasted no time clawing at the sludge, desperately trying to free Bakugo from the sludge. Every time Izuku clawed at a part, more’d appear in it’s place, yet he still tried, he had to save him.
“Deku?! What the hell are you doing! I don’t need your help!” Bakugo shouted at Izuku. Izuku simply looked at Bakugo as he clawed away at the sludge. “I-I couldn’t just let you die Kacchan!” Izuku shouted back. Desperation setting in with every claw, the sludge unmoving, until his voice chimed in.
“I can’t believe that after all I said to you I was still the one sitting on the sidelines and watching…” All Might suddenly appeared, prepared to take down the sludge villain. ”I guess I haven’t been living up to my own words.” And with one punch aimed at the villain, All Might completely blew the sludge villain apart, freeing Bakugo, along with that, All Might punched the villain so hard he even changed the weather.
”Sorry for the delay folks. Got caught up with some business!” All Might said to the crowd, before he immediately got hounded by reporters. But deep down, he was glad he managed to help Izuku before he got hurt. He was going to talk to Nezu soon.
Izuku walked home during the afternoon. He got scolded by Death Arms, and Bakugo got praised by the heroes, but it was worth it, since he got a signature from Death Arms after he was done. Walking home was nice too, nothing really bothered him after it was all said and done.
“Deku! Don’t think I needed your help back there! I could’ve done fine all by myself! So don’t you dare think that I’m some kind of weakling who needs help from a loser like you who barely even has a quirk! You hear me Deku!” Just as suddenly as he appeared, Bakugo disappeared.
“Jeez, what’s his deal?” Izuku said before turning around to walk back home, but then, he appeared.
“Yo, kid.” The skeletal All Might walked out from the left side of the street ahead suddenly. Waving at Izuku. “Been looking for you everywhere. Had something I needed to tell you.”
“A-All Might? Are you sure you should be here right now? What happened to the reporters?” Izuku asked. Looking over at All Might, he seemed to be doing pretty well. Considering he was a skeleton and probably went over that limit when he saved him and Bakugo.
“Well, I just shook them off by saying I had people to save, anyway, I gotta thank you kid. You really helped spur me into action there… I’d ask what you were thinking when you did that, but I can already tell the answer. By the time you were thinking, you were already rushing down the alley to save that kid.”
All Might grinned at Izuku. “All true heroes have the same story, their bodies moved before they knew it. That’s what happened with you, by the time you knew what was happening, your body was already acting on instinct to save. And that’s why… I have to apologize. Anyone with that kind of spirit could become a hero with enough hard work, even with a quirk like yours. But you don’t have to go it alone…” All Might grasped his hand. “First, I need to tell you the truth about my quirk.”
“Y-Your quirk? Usually you always dodge the question in interviews, or make some kind of joke about things like it gives you an amazing fashion sense or indestructible hair. Most people speculate it’s super-strength, I’ve always thought it was some kind of super-strength too.”
All Might laughed at Izuku’s summary. “Yeah, most people think that, and they wouldn’t technically be wrong.” All Might opened his palm and placed it in front of him, as if holding a flame. “The true name of my quirk… is One for All… And my quirk does give me super strength, that much is true. But this strength is thanks to the generations of users before me. Their power stockpiling through their use and transferring to the next user. I am the Eighth. And you, Izuku Midoriya, should you choose to accept, will be the Ninth holder of this power.”
Izuku began to break down in tears of joy… All Might, his idol, trusted him so much that he believed that he was worthy to inherit his quirk. Izuku’s tears kept flowing, he was just so happy, he couldn’t believe it. “T-Thank you… All Might! I’ll take it! I’ll gladly accept your quirk!” Izuku sobbed out. All Might was worried about Midoriya crying, but when he saw his face, he knew that Midoriya was happy.
“Good to hear it kid. And if you ever change your mind later, don’t hesitate to tell me about it. If you ever want to back out later, you can. Because I’m not giving you the quirk just yet, we need to train your body first.” Izuku’s tears stopped, and made way for confusion in their place. “You see, I’ve held One for All for 40 years, I’ve trained it a whole lot more than my predecessors. So you need to have an able body to use it. But that’s where our next stop factors in… once we get moving. Come on, follow me.” All Might started walking, and Izuku followed. The walk wasn’t something All Might did to waste time either, sure he could’ve drove himself and the kid, but he needed help. He asked Recovery Girl to pull up the medical records for Midoriya, then devise a plan to have him bulk up in enough time to inherit the quirk for U.A.’s entrance exam… of course that plan all hinged on the records being recent, which they were thankfully, only about a week old, but the actual training regimen still needed to be made. Thankfully Chiyo promised to get it done and printed within the next hour. So that’s why he took the kid on a walk.
The walk to Dagobah beach wasn’t anything special, save for All Might hopping away for a minute to grab the “Aim to Pass! American Dream Plan.” from Chiyo, he was really thankful she wasn’t busy today, or else he’d be screwed… Now that he’s thinking about it, how the hell did she have enough time to make that plan so fast? Well, nonetheless, the plan was pretty good, though he was advised to make sure Izuku didn’t try doing more than what was outlined in the plan, else he’d screw up his body.
“Well Midoriya, we’re here. Now come on, we gotta get a start on what you’ll be doing.” All Might barely gave Izuku time to think, running into the trash. Izuku followed shortly after, trying to keep pace with All Might. Eventually they ended up in a relatively clean area of the junkyard. It was practically a circle.
“Midoriya, do you see this giant fridge?” All Might buffed up into hero form, tied a rope around it, then tied that same rope around Midoriya, before sitting on top of the fridge. ”I want you to pull me and this fridge! Just so you can get a taste of the kind of strength you’ll need to be able to handle my quirk!”
Midoriya gulped, but with a determined look, declared “I’ll do it All Might! I’ll show you I can handle it!”
What proceeded to actually happen was Izuku was barely able to move the fridge, and All Might made a great demonstration of how strong his quirk is by punching a hole through the trash beach. It didn’t clean up as much as you’d think, but it still cleared it up.
Now, Izuku realized the weight of the quirk he’d needed to carry the legacy of, and how far he’d need to go to reach that height.
“All Might… I promise you… I’ll be able to live up to the legacy of the past users… I will do it!” Izuku declared with pride. “Because I am here!” All Might grinned.
“Oh, and I have to go talk to someone, but here’s one more thing, this is what I had to leave to get.” All Might pulled out the training regimen, and handed it to Izuku. “This is what you’ll be following for the next 10 months. I had a medical expert I know make this, it’s extremely rushed but it should do the job.”
Izuku flipped through the pages of the training regimen, certain months were basically threshold months, and gave new sets of things from the last set of months. “This even has my diets all planned out… they really put a lot of thought into this…”
All Might then bulked up into his hero form. ”Now, I’m gonna deliver you home, and then travel over to where I need to be! It’s important business. Also don’t worry Midoriya, this isn’t reducing my time limit since I at least spaced out the times I've used it now compared to the sludge villain incident.”
Izuku would always ask himself why All Might said that. He hadn’t even thought about it until that point, but All Might stuck to his word and dropped him off at home, so he didn’t think much more about it.
“...So, that’s why I chose the kid. He’s got the spirit of a hero, but he needs to be trained properly. I just felt like you should know since you’re the principal and all, and I’ll be teaching here starting next year.”
“Yes, he does seem to be quite intelligent, but we can’t play favorites All Might, even if your quirk is being transferred to him the day of the entrance exam, he’ll have to go into Gen-Ed if he can’t garner enough points.” The principal of U.A. said, a figure all too familiar to All Might, the creature named Nezu, a short white rat looking fellow in a rather fancy suit. Nezu moved to sip some tea. “However, if he does get into Gen-Ed, we could give him special clearance to use the gyms when he needs to, or even meet with teachers. He would especially need it considering it’s your quirk he’s getting.”
“Right, I agree. That’s why I went to you about this. You’re the one who has the authority for this kind of stuff to happen at all, thanks for hearing me out. I don’t think the kid’s gonna be put in Gen-Ed, but it can't hurt to have a backup plan.”
“I agree, it’s always important.” Nezu tilted his head to look behind All Might. “And as for you, I can’t blame you for accidentally snooping, but do try not to tell anyone about this since you stuck around. It’s not something that the general populace should know of, after all.”
…
“Ah, yes, I suppose you can have one, just make sure you don’t ask about this too often. I won’t be so generous in giving them out.” Nezu giggled, All Might thought he knew who was behind the door, but he’d have to talk to them later.
“Oh, one more thing. Since I probably won’t be able to properly train the kid in HOW to use the quirk with how well I took to using it… and also because I start to shake just thinking about the idea… Can you call someone for me? Just to assist Izuku with how to use One for All after school for the first month?”
Nezu cackled manically. “While I’m sure I could make arrangements for that, I want you to be the one to make the call. Or it won’t happen.” All Might began to shake, but took out his phone and called the number anyway…
The 10 months between then and today, the day of U.A. Entrance Exam, were grueling on Izuku, but All Might knew the kid needed the training. He was just about to see the beach one more time to look at Izuku’s progress… but when he came to that beach, he didn’t see the amount of trash he’d expected, there was even less trash than that! The kid cleaned off the entire beach in just 10 months!
“Holy… stinking… Super crap!” All Might looked to the top of the pile, the young man wasn’t too high up, but to All Might, he might as well have reached the peak of Everest. Izuku roared out in satisfaction and determination, before he began to fall down, All Might made sure to catch him. ”You really did it, young Midoriya. You really did it.”
After taking a minute to rest (and put his shirt back on), Izuku was ready to ask All Might to transfer his quirk to him. But All Might, who was back to his normal form, was already one step ahead of him.
“Hold on, don’t be so eager yet. In order to get my quirk, you need to ingest some of my DNA.”
Izuku’s face grew confused. “DNA? That means I have to ingest something like your hair or your spit… or your…” Izuku grew wide-eyed and sick at the thought. Was he going to have to drink All Might’s blood like a vampire?
“W-Woah, hold on. No, you’re not gonna ingest my blood. I figured the least disgusting way to do it would be to have you ingest a piece of my hair.” All Might then plucked off a part of his hair, and doing his best way to make Izuku laugh to lighten the mood, said ”EAT THIS!”
Izuku was confused, but laughed at the hero anyway. He said it with such passion and firmness that it was hard for Izuku to not laugh at it, but when he stopped laughing, Izuku grabbed the hair strand and swallowed it.
“Uh… I don’t feel any different yet All Might.” Izuku said to his mentor, Shouldn’t he have gotten some kind of power boost? “Does it need to settle in my body or something? I-I’m really confused…”
“Well, the quirk isn’t just gonna pop up immediately. It’s gotta work around your body. It’ll show up by the time you get there though. So when you need to activate it, remember. Clench your buttcheeks and yell smash! That’s how I used it my first time!” Izuku just felt more confused on how to use the quirk now. “Well, time for me to go, young Midoriya. You should be on your way too!” All Might then buffed up. ”I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job on the exam!”
All Might leaped away. Leaving a massive gust of wind. While Izuku was left there wondering why he left so suddenly, Izuku pulled out his phone to call All Might, but he saw the time. “Oh crap! I’ve gotta go!” And he made a mad dash for the testing center.
“I-I can’t believe I made it…” Izuku huffed, catching his breath from the sprint he’d just made from the beach to the exam center. “I’m not late either… I can actually-”
“Move out of the way Deku.” Katsuki just shoves past Izuku, completely disregarding him. Thinking about it, Izuku realized he hadn’t been getting on his case nearly as much ever since the sludge villain incident.
“...Well it’s better than him beating me up.” Izuku muttered out. ”I’m actually gonna be able to become a hero! And it all starts here! I’m gonna go in there, get accepted into U.A., graduate, and finally I’ll become a hero!” Izuku walked up to the building… and tripped on his own feet. ”...or I’ll just die.” Izuku braced himself for impact, but the feeling of the pavement never happened.
“Oh, sorry, I used my quirk on you.” The brunette girl that had just saved him helped him stand up, then pressed her hands together and said ‘release’. “It’d be bad luck if you fell right before the exam, right?”
“U-Uh, r-right.” Izuku froze up, he didn’t know what to say! He barely ever talked to people who didn’t ridicule him for being quirkless, let alone someone nice enough to help him up like that!
“But geez, actually being here feels a whole lot more nerve-wracking up close, doesn’t it?” Izuku tried to come up with a response, but all he did was just stammer out words.
“Oh! Look at the time! We should get going now. I’ll see you around! Hopefully we both make it!” She waved, and then she turned around and began to hurry into the exam hall.
”I-I can’t believe I just talked to a girl! Well… not really talked, but still, I- Oh crap the time!” Izuku also began his rush into the exam hall after checking the time. He was going to be late already! How’d that even happen? Doesn’t matter, he’s gotta go, now!
The written exam was pretty tough, Izuku was pretty sure he managed to pass though. Still, it didn’t exactly matter if he failed the written exam or not if he didn’t pass the practical. Which he was seated for… next to Bakugo… well, at least he probably can’t do anything.
“ALRIGHT LISTENERS! CAN I GET A HEY!” an announcer shouted.
“Present Mic!” Izuku whispered to himself, “I can’t believe Present Mic’s the announcer! I listen to his radio show ever week! It’s so awesome seeing him in person!” It was at this point Izuku realized nobody had shouted out, Izuku planned to but was cut off.
“Wow, tough crowd. Anyway, I’m about to tell you how this exams gonna go down, ready!” Present Mic once again shouted expecting a response, and he once again got none. He looked sad, but moved on anyway. “Well, guess I’ll explain the rules! The practical puts you and your fellow examinees in a randomly chosen urban city! After I wrap up my show here, you’ll all move over to your respective arenas!”
“I see, so they split us up so we won’t work together with people we know.” Bakugo said while looking at his card. And Izuku looked at his own. Izuku had Battle Center B, he then took a look at Bakugo’s card, Bakugo had Battle Center A. Good, that meant he didn’t need to avoid him during the exam. “Yeah, you’re right, our examinee numbers are one apart but we have different battle zones.”
“Get your damn eyes off my card Deku.” Izuku felt himself shrink back into his seat at that. Bakugo then said something but he couldn’t quite hear what he said.
“Now to our next set, let’s take a look at the enemies you’ll be battling. There are 3 different types of robots, faux-villains basically. Every time you destroy a robot, you get a point. The strength of a robot determines its point value which you can see on them, but they also get stronger with higher point values, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. Your goal is to shred as many of these villains as possible to get the highest point value. But make sure to keep things heroic, if you attack another student then you’re considered to have automatically failed the exam. But on the off chance you see an injured student, bring them to the entrance so that our medical robots can send them off to recover.”
“Excuse me!” A man with glasses raised his hand and stood up. “I have something I needed to ask!” Present Mic gave the kid the stage, which meant a spotlight appearing above him. “You said that there were only three types of villains, yet the papers we were given clearly show 4 types! If this is an error then this shows an extreme lack of care from U.A., which is supposed to be one of the most prestigious hero schools! And in addition,” The boy turned to Izuku, “you with the green hair! You’ve been muttering to yourself throughout the entire explanation, stop that, you’re distracting everyone! If you aren’t going to take this seriously then leave!”
“I-I’m s-sorry.” Izuku managed to say out, as soon as he managed to say it, he could’ve sword people laughed at him.
“Now now, calm down, examinee #7111, I was just about to get to that! The fourth baddie costs 0 points, It’s a waste of time to fight it, it just tries to get in your way to distract you. You shouldn’t be all that concerned with it and just try to avoid it. I recommend my listeners to focus on the villains that matter to your score.”
The boy then moved to bow, “Thank you very much, please, continue with the explanation.”
“Welp, that’s all I got for you today folks, now how about I sign off with a little bit of our school motto, let’s hear it, Go beyond!” Present Mic’s hands raised up, as if directing eyes to the ‘Plus Ultra!’ sign on the screen. Nobody said anything still. “Geez, the crowd's a real downer today.”
Stepping off the bus, Izuku saw a massive gate leading to a mock city in front of him.”Well, this is it. Time to put 10 months of training with All Might to the test. I won’t let you down All Might, and I won’t let myself down either, I promise. I will become a hero!” Izuku clapped his face and took a deep breath. And looked at the other examinees. “Jeez, these guys seem so confident, I guess it makes sense, since they’ve had their quirks for a while… I wish I could break down some of these guy’s quirks, but I don’t have the time for- oh!” Izuku’s eyes locked onto a brown haired girl wearing a blue and white jacket with blue pants. ”That’s the girl who helped me up! I-I should go and say thanks for that.” Izuku started to walk over to the girl, but jumped as a hand touched his shoulder. And when he turned around, he got even more scared.
The blue haired boy that called him out at the entrance exam had grabbed him, and was looking at the girl too. “She looks like she’s trying to prepare herself for the trials ahead.” He then moved his head to Izuku “What are you attempting to do? Are you going to distract her and ruin her chances of succeeding?”
Izuku jumped out his grip “N-No! I-It’s n-not like th-that! I-I was j-just-” Izuku was cut off by Present Mic. “Right, let’s get started!” Izuku turned to the gates, they were open! Nobody noticed yet! He started running as fast as he could into the city. “That kid’s got the right idea! Come on, move it! There’s no countdowns in a real battle!” And with that, everyone began to run into the city.
Izuku rushes through the streets of the city, trying to find a single robot that he can destroy, even if it’s just a one-pointer. ”I don’t know how many points I need to get to pass, but I have to take them down. And if I can’t use One for All, I’ll have to find another method. There must be some kind of Off-switch for those without offensive quirks. But the robots don’t really seem to have any clear spot for them to be on considering their differences.” Izuku turned down streets, trying to find a robot. And he did. A one-pointer, not much, but still helpful. “O-Okay, I-I found o-one. I-I just gotta activate the q-quirk All Might gave me.” Izuku clenched his buttcheeks, but he couldn’t feel the quirk working. Why didn’t it work? Was he not able to use it yet? Had it not fully settled in? But then how is he going to destroy the robots? He couldn’t see anywhere the switch could be even up close? So how…
How was he…
…
The word echoed through his mind so easily, as if it were second nature. Izuku pointed at the robot.
“...Dismantle.”
The robot was slashed in two, clean across the middle. The wheel rolling a little bit as the main body toppled to the floor. Izuku looked at his arm.
“H-How did I do that? I-I… w-what? H-how did I?” Another one-pointer snuck up behind him, Izuku pointed at it once more. “Dismantle!” The robot cleaved in two once more. “I-Is this… my quirk? I-I thought my hands just glowed?” Izuku activated his innate quirk in his hands. They were glowing, but another thing happened. Izuku felt reinforced, like he could be hit into a wall and come out unscathed. “Did One for All… did it boost my quirk along with giving me a new one? I can’t believe it! My quirk’s stronger now! S-So that means even if I can’t use One for All, I-I have a chance! I can’t waste this!” Izuku ran more throughout the city. “So, right now I know I can fire off slashes by pointing and shouting…” Izuku turned his head, A black-haired guy dressed in all red was trying to help another participant, Izuku couldn’t tell what happened, but what he did see was a 3 pointer sneaking up behind them! A shout of “Dismantle!” cut the robot right in two, Izuku could feel that the slash almost hit it’s max range, but he still cut through it. The uninjured examinee turned around as Izuku ran up to him. “H-Hey, a-are you alright? That 3-Pointer almost got you”
“Yeah, I’m alright, thanks man.” The guy replied. “I didn’t even see that thing coming. This guy sprained his ankle and I was trying to get him to a medical tent.” He said to Izuku.
“I-I’ll go with you then! We can get him out faster if we’re together!” The boy grinned at Izuku. “Manly dude! Come on, let’s get this guy to the entrance.” The two boys began to carry the injured examinee to the entrance. Other robots still tried to attack, but Izuku and the other kid handled it, Izuku took out any three pointers that they saw, which wasn’t very many, maybe around 4, while his fellow examinee took on the one and two pointers. They also helped out some other examinees that had robots sneak up on them, but neither of them really counted their scores. But regardless, they made their way to the entrance and a medical bot picked up the other examinee.
“Thanks man, not many people would sacrifice time on the exam for that.” The other guy patted Izuku on the back, Izuku flinched a bit but took the gesture in good faith. “Name’s Eijiro Kirishima, what’s yours?”
“I-Izuku Midoriya. Th-That’s my name.” Izuku said to Kirishima nervously. “Chin up dude! There’s still time in the exam. And besides, even if there wasn’t time, if I made it in and you didn’t I’d probably just end up finding a different hero course program. I mean, the way you stepped in even when you didn’t need to was so manly.” Kirishima gave him a nudge. “Now come on dude, let’s do our best with the last of the time we’ve got!” Kirishima ran back into the city. Izuku followed suit, feeling pumped up from Kirishima’s pep talk.
“It’s clear that the examinees have no idea how many targets there are or their locations. They have a limited time, have to cover a large area, and need to hunt down every last target.” Camera feeds of each examinee covered the screen, the only source of light in the dark room. The camera feeds focussed on a person whos arms stretched out into 6 ears. “Some use information gathering methods to plan out a strategy.” The feed switched again to the blue-haired boy that had called out Izuku drifting to face a robot. “Others rely on their speed to pull ahead of their peers.” The feed switched once more to a boy with a large belt and blonde hair firing a laser out of his stomach. “Of course, remaining calm under pressure is also important.” The camera switched again to Katsuki Bakugo standing among piles of robots, “as can pure power and combat ability.” The feed switched to Izuku Midoriya, running around the city and using his new-found Dismantle whenever possible, which wasn’t very often since he had bad luck with robots, but still useful. “But being able to adapt to an unexpected turn of events is also an extremely important skill.”
All Might smiled at his successor on the screen, ”Young Midoriya, I knew that One for All boosted your innate quirk, but I didn’t expect it to be like this! When did you get so cool!”
The feeds then split out once more to all of the students. “The most successful students use a combination of all these tactics, they’re the ones that manage to pass the exam and rack up the highest scores.”
Two other voices in the dark room began to talk. “I’d say this years group looks promising” A female, sultry voice said. “There’s still plenty of time before it’s over.” A more gruff male voice said, as a glass lifted over a red button. “Let’s see how they deal with the 0 Pointers next.”
“O-Okay… Okay… I don’t know how many points I have but… I think I’m running out of steam now…” Izuku felt Dismantle getting weaker and weaker with each subsequent use. “I… guess I have some kind of limit on how much I can use…” Suddenly the ground shook… no, the whole center was shaking! Izuku tried to find out where the shaking was coming from, and he saw it.
The zero pointer, it was bigger than some of the buildings. It towered over everyone. No wonder Present Mic called it an obstacle. Izuku prepared himself to run, he had to get out of there, he couldn’t take that thing with just his quirk, and One for All hadn’t awakened, so he had to just ru-
“Ow…” Izuku heard a voice and turned back around. The girl who saved him at the entrance exam was trapped under a rock. The zero pointer showed no sign of stopping. Reason left his mind at that moment, all he cared about… was just making sure that girl made it out alive. One for All surged through his body, and Izuku leaped.
“DETROIT!” Izuku yelled as he ascended up the skies, face to face(?) with the zero pointer, and driving his fist into the robot. “SMASH!” The robot took the punch and was destroyed with a single hit. Falling to the ground… and so did Izuku.
“T-That was One for All! It felt so much different to my quirk, w-wait, oh crap! I’m falling! O-Okay, I can’t reinforce myself enough to take the impact, so I have to use another smash, but if I time this wrong, I’ll splatter on the ground… okay, 1…” Izuku poured One for All into his arm. “2…” Izuku rolled his arm back, “3-” Izuku felt himself get slapped and then slowly fall to the ground. He didn’t even have time to use his last arm before he landed softly on the ground.
“Release.” Izuku turned to see the girl he tried to save had managed to get herself unstuck… and she was vomiting rainbows. “Oh! She said ‘release’ and I felt myself get slapped, did she use her quirk to save me, maybe vomiting like that is the blowback from her quirk, a weight limit maybe? Or maybe too many objects at once causes it, or maybe both?” Even when injured, nothing could stop the Midoriya muttering. Or maybe it was just that the pain didn’t kick in from the adrenaline. Izuku wondered where Kirishima went when the robot was active, he must’ve been pretty far away since he didn’t try to help the girl.
“That kid really went all out on the zero pointer, huh?”
“Yeah, but it’s just a waste, he doesn’t get points from doing that, so he was pretty much just showing off.”
”What are they talking about, didn’t they notice the girl? He didn’t do that just for show, he was trying to protect someone. If this wasn’t an exam… I would’ve done the same thing!”
Wait, the judges. They saw that! They watched him put himself on the line for her, he must’ve known that and wanted to prove he would do whatever it took to save people!”
“Alright, alright, settle down now.” An old lady began to walk up to Izuku. “Hmm… you’re banged up pretty bad. Here, have some gummies.” Izuku grabbed the gummies with his free hand and ate them as the old lady kissed him. He started feeling tired… that must’ve been the youthful heroine, Recovery Girl!
A horn blew out into the battle center. “Attention listeners! The exam is now over! Everyone please hop back on the bus you came in on and head out. Present Mic, signing off!”
Izuku was just glad he saved the girl. Even if he didn’t get in.
“Well, it seems as though two students tied for the last spot, so you two are going to have to choose between 41 students this year.” Nezu said in a dark room, the only other people were Eraserhead and Vlad King. “I do like the ominous lighting in here, it makes it feel sinister to anyone wandering in.” Nezu giggled. Eraserhead and Vlad King read through all of the student’s profiles.
“Well, first thing’s first. You can take my daughter Aizawa, she’d be better suited for Underground Heroics with her quirk, and that’s your specialty.”
“Right, but I’m also taking the Midoriya kid. You saw how his quirk damaged himself because his quirk suddenly boosted itself, I can disable his quirk in case he does anything reckless like that again.”
The rest of the time was spent debating on who’d get what students, eventually 3 students were left, one would have to get cut from the crop.
“I’ll take these two.” Aizawa grabbed the folders for a boy with purple hair and a much shorter boy with grapes for hair. “This kid right here… his record feels too clean. On the exam he definitely groped a female examinee. And his previous schools had reports of sexual harassment by a student. If he’s expelled by me rather than not enrolled at all, it’ll bar his chances of getting into any hero course.”
“I’m alright with that. Just means I don’t have to pick between two students.”
And so, the class rosters were made. 21 Students in Class 1-A, and 20 Students in Class 1-B. Two recommended students each. Nezu recorded the class placements then got ready to record the acceptance letters for the examinees.
It’d been a week since the U.A. entrance exam. Izuku was nervous about how he did, but at least he recovered fine. Still though, he worried so much he realized he hadn’t even practiced with his quirk or One for All since the exam! So he was training them now after lifting some weights he’d bought.
“So One for All’s similar to my own quirk.” Izuku poured One for All into his arm, then poured his own energy into the other, He could only manage to use one type of energy at a time. “Okay… I should try to handle One for All first.” Izuku imagined the feeling of how his energy felt when he put all he could into his arm, then as little as he could muster. Then tried to replicate the feeling with One for All. Izuku noticed differences pretty quickly.
One for All felt more volatile, like a fuse flipping on then pulling a breaker switch, while his own energy felt more like sliding open a gate to let water in. Izuku poured One for All in again and tried to imagine himself slowly lowering the switch. And felt One for All growing weaker, but the strain more and more manageable until it was gone, then slowly moved the switch back up, and the strain returned. Izuku did this a few more times, and soon enough it felt like second nature to control it. Just like his own energy.
Next, Izuku tried to pour One for All across his whole body. Same as before, he used his own quirk. He still couldn’t put it across his body as much as one limb, but it worked. Izuku found it hard to describe the feeling this time, but still tried to compare it to his own energy. He couldn’t come up with anything though, eventually, he had to eat something.
Izuku didn’t HAVE to follow the plan to the letter anymore. So he could eat what he wanted mostly, he grabbed a frozen pastry and put it in the microwave, it’d be a side part of a more full meal. So Izuku watched the pastry turn and turn…
“...That’s it!” Izuku realized as the pastry turned. “When I summon One for All, it’s only where I want to be in that moment, but I shouldn’t be doing that, I should flip all the fuses on and let the power just flow through my body!” Izuku felt One for All flow through him, red streaks emerged across his body as electricity cackled across him. Izuku felt himself strained even with the lowest he could output that technique though. “I’ve gotta practice with One for All more before I can use that. But I can start thinking about what I can do!”
Izuku quickly rushed to his room and pulled a notebook off the wall, grabbed a pen, and sat at his desk. He hadn’t used this notebook yet, so he started writing on the cover. But he stopped part-way through. “Right, I need a name for my quirk. Glow doesn’t really work anymore. And Dismantle is just an aspect of it.” Izuku let his energy flow through his body. One of Izuku’s teachers once said his quirk was like a curse, since he couldn’t use very much of it. But he was always proud of his quirk! Even when he got One for All!
“Wait…” Izuku back-pedalled his thoughts, that’s it! Izuku wrote down his quirk’s new name on the cover. Hero Analysis for the Future: One for All & Cursed Energy. He started writing down what he knew for sure, and some theories. Like if his quirk reinforced body parts, did that mean if he used the energy right it could be able to heal? Could he infuse it into objects, things like that.
Izuku stood up and left the book on the table, but kept the pen. Izuku thought to himself, he had his pen… he could test one of those theories now! Izuku tried to put his energy into the pen, it worked! He cut the flow, but the pen retained a little bit of energy for a little more time after he stopped putting it in. Izuku put the pen down on the table and took a deep breath in. “I can't believe I can do any of this with just my quirk…”
“Izuku! It’s here! It’s here!” His mother ran in with an envelope. That’s his U.A. entrance exam results! “Here. I don’t want to pry. I hope you know that even if you don’t pass, I’ll still be proud of you.” Inko left the room and gently shut the door. Izuku closed his eyes and slowly opened up the letter.
Izuku heard metal tapping the floor and opened his eyes. “A… disk?” The disk began to play a projection of All Might! ”I am here! As a projection!” Izuku began to freak out. ”Izuku Midoriya, my boy. I’m proud to say that you aced the written exam and passed with flying colors! Even the trick question that Nezu put in there!” Izuku didn’t even notice there was a trick question. “But of course, that’s not the only part of the exam! On the practical, you scored 26 Villain points with those slashes of yours! That alone would be enough to just barely get into the hero course. But of course, what kind of hero school doesn’t take into account acts of heroism! By working with your fellow applicant to save another, and making sure to cover them for villains they couldn’t hit, you earned 20 Rescue Points! So with a total of 46 Points, you’ve earned a spot in the hero course!” Izuku teared up, he did it. He made it in to U.A., he was actually going to-
”However,” Izuku tensed up, ”none of that takes into account the REAL big thing here.” The feed cut to a room with a girl walking in. “Um, excuse me… I wanted to give some of my points from the exam to the boy who saved me, I just want to be sure he gets in.” The footage paused as All Might cut in again. ”Your actions in the exam saved someone who, were the exam real, would have well and truly died. How could an institution such as U.A. just overlook that?” The footage resumed again. “No need to worry, listener. The kid made it through the exam just fine!” The footage cut back to All Might. ”And so, the judges awarded you an extra SIXTY RESCUE POINTS! And if you’ve been keeping track, that makes a total of 80 rescue points! And do you know what that means?!” The footage cut to two scores on the screen, one name was his own, the other he didn’t recognize.
#1 - Toshinori Yagi - 55 Villain points - 50 Rescue points - 105 Points total
#1 - Izuku Midoriya - 26 Villain points - 80 Rescue points - 106 Points total
”It means that by a single point, you beat the record I set when I first took the U.A. Entrance exam myself! Words can’t express how proud of you I am, young man!” A voice Izuku couldn’t hear talked to All Might off screen. ”Wrap it up? Why? Nezu has to do how many of these? Okay, give me a second.” All Might turned back to say. ”So without further ado, it’s time I welcome you, Izuku Midoriya, to your hero academia! And start packing your things! You’re moving to the dorms on campus with the rest of the students! Else you won’t be allowed into U.A. classes!” The footage cut out. Izuku felt tears roll down his face… he was just… so happy that he managed to get in…
“...Wait did he say dorms?! Oh crap! I gotta choose what hero stuff I can take!” Izuku looked through the envelope and found something describing the dorm room’s size. And also the earliest day they could move in, being in about 2 days “Okay, I can work with this.” Izuku settled on only taking one All Might poster, his younger self would consider it blasphemy to not take it all, but Izuku knew that if he tried to take any more he’d just have All Might all around him. Izuku ended up settling on taking one piece of every hero’s merch that he could gather. Since he had merch of most heroes who had merch (except Mirko, which kinda annoyed him. He’d complete his collection of Top 10 Pro Hero posters eventually, even if Mirko’s posters were super skimpy.) So Izuku put everything he was taking on his bed, then ran down.
“Mom! U.A. uses dorms so I gotta pack up, do you know where the suitcases are?” Izuku shouted to his mother. “They’re in the closet in my room, Izuku!” Inko shouted back, before going over to hug him. “Did you not know that they had dorms? They sent a letter to anyone who applied that they were phasing in a dorm system this year.” She didn’t ask the question of “Did you pass?” Because she already knew, he’d passed.
“N-No, I didn’t. Sorry mom.” Izuku said to his mother. Izuku then hugged her, “I love you mom. I’ll try and visit whenever I can, okay?”
“That’s okay with me. Just don’t forget to answer your dads calls. You know how overseas work can be.”
“I’ll remember, don’t worry. Now I’ve gotta go pack up so I’m not scrambling to do it tomorrow night” Izuku then ran to grab the suitcases, and packed up his stuff. “Alright, done, I should get some rest so I’ll be ready… Oh man, I can’t believe I actually made it in.” Izuku crawled into bed, and closed his eyes.