Chapter Text
Izuku is eleven when Nedzu decides that it’s time for him to learn how to actually fight. Up until then his mentor has made him focus almost entirely on schoolwork and analysis, with just enough fitness training to put him in good shape.
He’s eleven and a half when he asks Nedzu when he’s going to learn how to use a weapon.
The rat is still in the middle of correcting his form, and for a second Izuku thinks he sees a flash of fear in his eyes. But it fades quickly and is replaced by a smile that Izuku has long learnt meant that somebody was going to be in a lot of pain, very, very soon.
“Well Izuku, I’ve actually been meaning to meet up with an old friend of mine for a while. I’m sure that she can probably get you hooked up with something” There’s something in Nezdu’s eyes that makes his student start to fear for his life.
But the principle of Yuuei hasn’t hurt him in the past, and Izuku has no reason to believe that he’ll start now.
A week later they’re standing outside what looks to be an empty warehouse, Izuku sees a startling amount of warning signs hanging on the (Barbed Wire??) fence that surrounds the building, and finally understands what the look of fear in Nedzu’s eyes came from.
After all, he’s pretty sure that anybody who needs a warning sign saying “trespassers shall be used as nuclear weapon target practice,” is probably somebody to be afraid of.
Izuku’s just about to turn back in retreat, when he hears an explosion come from inside. A second later, a pink haired girl about his age steps out coughing as smoke streams out of the door.
Then out of the ash, a purple and grey blur races out to scoop up Nedzu. “Nezzy!!”.
Izuku blinks.
And blinks some more.
When the sight doesn't disappear, he’s faced with the realization that a lady covered in ash is hugging Nedzu.
And Nedzu is Hugging her back.
Trying to avoid an existential crisis, he turns to look at the pink kid who came out a moment before the problem.
Only to find her about an inch away from his face. Izuku, of course, screams.
“Welcome Guinea Pig!” She exclaims, dragging him inside and forcing him to sit down on a steel chair. “What’s your quirk, and how can I help?”
The lady who was hugging Nedzu earlier enters the room, the rat-bear perched on her shoulder. “This is Izuku Midoriya, he’s quirkless, and is in need of some weapons to make up for that fact,”
The pink haired girl stills for a moment, and Izuku feels fear rise up. Was he about to be cast out or beaten up? He knows Nedzu wouldn't allow that to happen, but after years of bullying and similar situations, he can’t help but panic.
“You’re quirkless, like zero quirk at all” She asks him with a dangerous gleam in her eyes
“I’m one hundred perecent quirkless” as he responds he starts to brace himself for an oncoming blow.
Only for one to never occur, instead the pink girl leans over him and grins, “I think you and I are gonna get along great.”
Somehow Izuku is only more afraid by that statement.
An hour passes and Izuku has been poked and prodded in a thousand and one ways. Yet he’s never felt more alive.
Mei only saw his quirklessness as an advantage, saying that he’s a clean slate for her inventions to be shown off on.
He doesn’t quite know how he feels about being called a “human billboard” though. Although if it means that he’ll have access to the Hatsume family lab, he’ll make it his goddamn hero name.
Because damn, it’s a wet dream. The walls are lined with patents and pictures of inventions, and there’s tools and scrap metal scattered around, yet it seems oddly organized. Izuku never wants to leave.
He’s drawn towards a long black staff in the corner, and Mei picks up on his interest fairly quickly. “That’s my baby Bocrisma. She’s a bo staff that can separate into separate escrima sticks, and she’s packed with enough electricity to down a water buffalo,”
He picks it up and finds that with a simple press of a button, it does indeed separate into separate sticks. While waving it around trying to test it’s balance, he accidently hits a small button on the base, and a jet of flames comes out the other end.
Mei grins proudly, “She’s also capable of shooting flames up to 10 feet away!”.
Izuku carefully sets it down and backs away, maybe he should start with something a bit easier and safer. Like a normal bo staff, or erisma sticks.
He tells Nedzu as such and the principal directs him to Yasui, Mei’s mother, who hands him a pair of short metal sticks.
“These will probably be your best bet for beginning, due to Nezie’s requests, I’ve kept Mei away during the majority of the construction”
Izuku’s brain short circuits once more at the thought of Nedzu, the principal of Yuuei and one of the most powerful creatures on this planet, being referred to as Nezzie.
Unknowing of his internal meltdown, Yasui continues proudly, “It doesn’t have as many features as I would have liked, but it's still pretty fancy”
She presses a small button on the end of one of the escrima stick, and screws them together, forming a bo staff, “it’s a two-in-one weapon, similar to Mei’s baby you just saw, but this one doesnt have any electricity, or fire” She smirked evilly and continues, “but if you press a few buttons, then it will release a fast acting knockout gas, so I’d recommend picking up a gas mask or two”
Yasui turns towards Nedzu once more and in a not-quite whisper she says, “I suppose there was that thing you wanted to speak to me about. So Mei, how about you go show Izuku around, I heard that he was interested in learning a bit about engineering”
Mei perks up when her name is called, and as a large grin slowly takes over her face, a wave of complete terror washes over Izuku.