Chapter Text
As the sun moved overhead, Izuku headed towards the beach in order to meet up with Dunk for training. He was early, as he was a bit nervous since he has never experienced actual hero training before.
However, as he approached the trash filled beach, he noticed two unfamiliar figures near the ocean’s edge.
One of them was a woman who seemed to be made of water, with her dress flowing in rhythm with the ocean waves. The other was a man sitting atop a pile of rumble, wearing what seems to be clothing fashioned out of trash. They looked to be arguing about something.
‘Are they spirits?’ Izuku thought. He had a feeling, likely stemming from his quirk, that they were. But after the encounter with Dunk, he couldn’t be sure.
Izuku peered around the corner of a pile of rumble, not knowing whether or not to approach.
“Hey Cam. I think that you should move your pile of… stuff a bit further away from the ocean.
The fish are suffering from the stray pieces that get washed into the sea.” The lady said with her left hand touching her right arm in a more timid pose.
“And how does this affect me exactly? It’s pretty common for me to lose track of a few now and then” The man replied with his hands behind his head. He leaned back slightly. “There’s no need to move it. And even if I were to, where would I even move this stash?”
Izuku felt a bit bad for the lady, ‘maybe I could help move the trash?’
“But, the fish…”
The man sighed.
“If you still have a problem, go ask our little eavesdropper over there. Maybe he has a solution for you” He responded, tilting his head slightly towards Izuku’s hiding spot.
Izuku froze, realizing that they knew he was there. He then decided to just approach them before it gets anymore awkward for him. However this awkwardness only lasted for a moment, as his excitement went back up as he was always excited to learn more about spirits.
“Hi, I’m Izuku Midoriya. Sorry about listening to your conversation but I was wondering… if you two were spirits?.” He asked, coming to a stop in front of them.
“Yes, we are. And you are the kid Skylar is watching over, yes?” The man dressed in trash replied. “Also, why are you here? Most people don’t visit places like this without reason.”
“There’s no need to be so rude.” The lady said, peering at the man with a stern look before turning back to Izuku. “You may call me River. I am the Spirit of Fluidity and Adjustment. It’s nice to meet you, Midoriya.”
“Cam. Spirit of Disposal.” He said with a nod of greeting. “Now, back to my question.”
Izuku noticed the quick changing of the topic but didn’t think too much of it at the moment.
“I’m here to meet up with someone so that I can start training for the UA entrance exam.” Izuku said with a bit more confidence than how he was actually feeling inside.
“Oh? Who?” Cam asked with a slight hint of curiosity.
“Me! Of course!” A voice that was approaching called out.
Izuku turned to see Dunk jogging up to the three of them.
“You can hear and see them?” Izuku asked, still shocked despite his earlier suspicions during their first interaction. “Are you also a spirit? or someone who has a similar quirk to me?”
Dunk tilted his head at the question.
“I thought you already knew I was a spirit.” He said after a few seconds. “I guess that’s one thing we need to work on.”
“Wait. Then how come the other people at the gym could see you and talk to you too?” Izuku asked, trying to wrap his head around this information.
“I am currently in my realization form so that I could blend in with the people better as well as physically interact with the world. All of us have two forms.” As Dunk finished his sentence, he looked to see Izuku already frantically writing in his notebook.
“Anyway, we are wasting sunlight the longer we stand here without starting our workout!” Dunk said with a clap. “I wanted to meet you here so that you could train by lifting different weights of differing shapes. Heroes must have good body strength no matter what kind of hero they want to be”
“Of course that is assuming that Cam will let us train with his…” Cam raised an eyebrow. “...interesting collection of items.” Dunk finished with a smile.
Izuku thought about the arrangement and the conversion earlier, then he came up with an idea.
“Since I will be lifting these items anyway, why don’t I help move them to another location, a bit further away from the beach?” He suggested.
River looked at him with surprised gratitude. Cam didn’t seem too against the idea either.
“Sure! And since there are 3 of us here, let’s work on the spirit sensing part of your quirk as well.” Dunk agreed with a nod. “Everytime you move 5 items, try to locate one of us nearby with your quirk.”
Despite them being dragged into a training plan that they were not involved with, neither River nor Cam disagreed with this plan. River was happy to help as Izuku is also helping her and Cam just needed to make sure that none of his stuff is lost during it.
And so, Izuku starts his long task of cleaning up the beach over the course of a few weeks, slowly building up muscle strength as well as experience with the spirit sensing part of his quirk.
He also got to know Dunk, River and Cam better as they chatted during his time training. Of course, not all of them were there all the time. Sometimes only Dunk and River was there and other times Cam would be there instead of River.
However, there was one time that stood out to Izuku.
‘Hm, he should be just around this pile.’ Izuku thought as he rounded the corner, following his quirk’s intuition.
He came to the unusual sight of Cam seemingly looking around searching for something. Cam noticed his presence quickly.
“Oh. It’s you.” he said with only a quick glance toward Izuku before returning to the search.
“Could you not find the other two? Well, I guess you found me. You can go now”
“What are you looking for? Maybe I could help?” Izuku offered.
“It’s none of your business. Shouldn’t you be getting back to your training?”
“Well, a hero should help those in need so this can count as part of my training too!” Izuku insisted.
Cam sighed, then gave in.
“I’m looking for my friend, a raccoon named Scraps. I haven’t seen him in a while so I was wondering if something happened to him.” He admitted. “He seems to have left the beach or else I would have found him by now with my ability, Categorization”
“Well, two people searching will always be better than one.” Izuku said. “I will start looking around those bushes over there and keep an eye out for him. Hopefully, he hasn’t gone out too far yet”
He tapped the side of his glasses and reached out with his quirk, the white strings flowed towards it quickly. Familiar energy answered him as a pink glowy bracelet formed around his left wrist.
He closed his eyes and reached into the link, activating Skylar’s Thermal Sight once again.
As he did that, he failed to notice Cam’s surprise at his actions. He was sure that Izuku would just say that he would keep an eye out and forget about it but he actually chose to actively help search without anything in return.
‘I guess you’re not so bad, Freckles’
After a while, with Izuku activating Thermal sight on and off, he finally found Scraps hidden behind boxes near a back alley. He wasn’t sure how to approach the little critter so he called Cam over. The raccoon jumped into Cam’s arms immediately upon seeing him. They headed back to the beach as the sun went down.
“I- Thank you for finding him. I guess I owe you a favor” Cam said, petting Scraps.
“No problem. It’s what a hero should do!” Izuku said with a smile.
“Yeah, you would think that’s the case but as the Spirit of Abandonment, I’ve witnessed more than enough of the opposite.” He said with a small hint of strain in his voice.
Izuku’s smile dropped a little.
After that, they talked a bit more than before in the following days.
“Congratulations! You finally finished!” Dunk said excitedly.
Izuku finally finished cleaning the whole beach after many weeks of work. This was just in time for the UA entrance exam.
River clapped politely in the background and Cam gave a lazy clap as well.
“Thank you very much Midoriya. I owe you a big favor.” River said, being grateful for the help as being helpless against the suffering of the ocean was eating away at her slowly.
“I’m happy to help! I should actually be the one thanking all of you for helping me train instead.” Izuku replied.
“We didn’t really do all that much, mostly just supervising you, you did all of that yourself!” Dunk said. “I wish you luck in the entrance exam! If you ever need help, feel free to call upon me!”
As Izuku said goodbye to the three, he took a deep breath in preparation for what could be his new beginning.
The UA building was a lot larger than he thought it was.
‘I can’t believe that I’m here right now! This is my first step in becoming a hero.’ Izuku thought, standing in front of the UA testing building with his hands on his backpack straps.
“Hey, that purple haired boy over there seems quite down compared to the rest” Reggie commented.
Both Skylar and Reggie have decided to accompany him to the entrance exam, having made a brief deal with each other to not argue when they are with Izuku.
He glanced around and found the boy Reggie was referring to. He looked tired with eyebags around his eyes.
One thing that caught his attention, though, was his necklace with a lock charm that peaked over his shirt. His intuition told him that it was not ordinary.
‘Is that a Marked item?’ Izuku thought ‘It can’t be right? What are the chances?’
Then he realized that he was staring a bit too long and turned away.
‘Focus. Today is important.’
Shinsou glanced at the green hair boy that quickly averted his eyes.
‘I hope everything goes well today.’
He touched the locket one last time as if it would disappear at any moment.
Entry #4
Dunk
Spirit of Sportsmanship and Determination
Symbol: Any sports equipment
Abilities: ???
Entry #5
River
Spirit of Fluidity and Adjustment
Symbol: Any form of water
Abilities: ???
Entry #6
Cam
Spirit of Disposal and Abandonment
Symbol: Trashcans, including recycling bins
Abilities:
Categorization (Can gain the information of the type of items and where they are in a certain vicinity of the user. Like sorting different types of trash, you can tell which section is what)