Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All for One fucked up.

He had started this whole farce with a plan. He should have stuck to it. Why the fuck didn’t he stick to it? Ah yes, the beautiful blonde woman that had reminded him of his old flame. Why did love have to complicate everything?

Still, as he stood in the hospital room in his disguised body, holding the small child with bright blue eyes that were staring up at him, he knew that he had fucked up big time. He was an international criminal renowned in the underworld for his cruelty, he couldn’t have loose ends like this.

His first instinct was to fake an accident and just get rid of the both of them, but that idea was quickly put to rest when the little girl in his arms - his little girl- burped, wrapping her hand around his finger.

His heart almost stopped at that, something in his mind clicking into place as she gripped his hand with all of her strength. There was no way he could just get rid of her. There was no way that he could ever allow any harm to befall this child.

“David, may I hold her please?” All for One looked up from his daughter to see ‘his’ wife looking at him with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. He nodded dumbly, not trusting himself to speak at this point.

He gave her the baby, taking a step back as she hugged it to her body and cried with joy as she blew raspberries at it. All for One had to turn his head away from the sight, faking a cough.

“Unless you have another suggestion, David, I want to name her Melissa. Is that ok with you?” He turned to her again at her question, forcing himself to look into her eyes, and shook his head.

“No, Melissa is a wonderful name.” At this, Melissa gave a small gurgle, as if approving of the name as well, her bright blue eyes flicking back and forth between her mother and father.

“Welcome to the world, Melissa Shield.”

The plan had been so simple.

He had seen Nana Shimura’s successor the day he had killed her. A young man, built like a truck, with two bangs of hair raised into a ‘V’ shape sprouting from his head. He had been taken away from the fight by that yellow menace, Gran Torino he thought his name was, while Shimura distracted him.

It wasn’t a terrible plan, he had to admit, and Nana Shimura was a far more worthy opponent than he had expected, the woman even landed a few hits on him that had stung for days after the battle.

But in the end, All for One had defeated her and turned both her and the island they were fighting on into ash with a mix of various Quirks. After a day-long recovery session -because he was evil, not stupid-, he had sent out feelers through the official channels to learn just who this new user was.

His findings had intrigued him. Toshinori Yagi, Quirkless until age 16, where he suddenly manifested a strength Quirk capable of destroying even the strongest testing areas the government had.

Going through his school files had revealed that before he had turned 16, he was quiet, an average student, but always seemed to be helping someone or other with something . He had snorted at that, this ‘Yagi’ seemed like the exact person that Shimura would choose.

After all of his research was complete, he found himself intrigued by this ‘Toshinori Yagi.’ He actually kind of wanted to see what One for All would do to a Quirkless person. All of the previous users had Quirks.

It was because of this curiosity that he had come up with a plan. Use his many disguise Quirks to make a new identity for himself, and place himself in just the right spot to become ‘friends’ with Yagi. It was meant to allow him to get to know the current One for All wielder, learn their weaknesses as only a friend could, and then use that information to crush them later on.

And it had worked, for the most part. His fake identity; ‘David Shield,’ a rising inventor with a weak Quirk, had made contact with Yagi, or his hero name “All Might” (how pretentious), and started to build a rapport.

All for One acted like the good little scientist, making costumes for the blond fool, being a good ‘sidekick’, even making him some support items (that were doomed to become obsolete.)

Doing so, he gained the information that he needed! All Might was incredibly easy to anger when Nana Shimura was brought up, and had deep insecurities about his choices, as well as if he deserved One for All.

All for One had basically everything he needed to ruin the next wielder of One for All and hopefully get his Quirk back after all of these decades of fighting.

That was when she showed up. Diana Knight. 

The reason his plan fell apart.

Diana was a teacher at a university that he and All Might had helped to evacuate because of a bomb threat.

She was six feet tall, with short, shoulder-length platinum blonde hair, and eyes the color of the ocean. All for One had been enraptured by her the moment he had seen her.

He was meant to be focused on the screens around him to help coordinate the heroes at the scene, but at that moment the only thing his brain would focus on was her. Luckily for ‘David’, nothing bad happened.

He had approached Diana after the heroes had fully cleared out the building and asked her out on a date, not even using his charisma Quirks. (He was still a little disoriented just looking at her, he 100% forgot they existed.)

She agreed to go out to coffee with him, and they hit it off fairly quickly. He hadn’t expected much to be honest, possibly for her to let him down easy, and then never see her again. It certainly would have made his life easier if that was what happened.

But no, she seemed to be interested in David Shield as much as he was in her, if their relationship progressing was anything to go off. All for One spent many years living this illusion, living a peaceful life on I-Island.

It was surprisingly enjoyable, even compared to his life as a super-villain. Sorry; the supervillain.

But even he knew that he couldn’t live this life forever. All Might had gone back to Japan eventually, but All for One had stayed on I-Island with Diana to maintain his cover. (At least, that's what he told himself.)

So when Diana announced that she was pregnant, he knew he had messed up. He had welcomed his daughter -holy shit he had a daughter- into the world, but after a while he found his anxiety growing.

Life was good for a while, he and Diana taking care of Melissa, doing their jobs, David Shield growing in popularity, etc. it reminded him of his life before he discovered his Quirk’s abilities, when he was able to live in peace with his mother and brother.

But the super-villain in him wouldn’t let him just drop everything he had been preparing for all of these years.

So he had to make a new plan.

“Breaking news from I-Island’s research district!”

There was a sleek transition, and the scene changed to show a woman, looking panicked as the building behind her burned, the microphone in her handshaking. “Hello everyone, I’m Rachel Ferstarto.”

“I’m here in the research district of I-Island to bring you coverage of this terrible accident. The lab of the renowned scientist David Shield exploded earlier today, and local firefighters have been unable to quell the blaze.”

“With no official statement by the authorities just yet about the status of Doctor Shield, we are left with many questions and little to no answers. What caused this fire? Why is it resisting our firefighters' Quirks so much? Did David Shield survive this ordeal?”

“More on this story at 9!”

“Welcome back, Sensei. I held down the fort like you asked me to while you were gone.”

All for One, now back to his original looks, nodded as Kurogiri greeted him. He heard the TV to his right playing the story about his- no, about David Shield’s- death.

His heart panged as he realized that he could never see his wife or daughter again without explaining who he really was. Honestly, it would have been easier to kill them both as well as faking his death, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

So he would just cover up the fact that he had left Japan, and never acknowledge Diana or Melissa again, no matter how much it hurt him to do so. After all, he was All for One.

He had more important things to do in life than live happily ever after with his family.

Right?

Chapter Text

“YOU TOO CAN BE A HERO!”

Izuku dropped to the ground, tears in his eyes as All Might stood over him, telling him the words he had so desperately wanted to hear his entire life. Nothing could ruin this moment! Finally, someone believed in him!

“I choose you, Young Midoirya, to be the next inheritor of my Quirk!”

This made Izuku very honoured, happy, and, quite obviously, incredibly confused. He stared up at the lanky man, and, oh so eloquently, replied to his statement. “Huh?”

The man had the decency to laugh sheepishly about it, rubbing the back of his head and smiling awkwardly. “Ah yes, Melissa did mention that I should be less direct when the time came… MY APOLOGIES YOUNG MAN!”

He looked down to see the poor boy kneeling on the floor mumbling his heart out, and All Might could almost swear that the word mutter was appearing in the air around them. “Young Midoriya?”

Izuku jolted, his head whipping up to face the man, panic on his face. “AH! YES ALL MIGHT? I APOLOGISE FOR MUMBLING! I DIDN’T MEAN TO IGNORE YOU!”

All Might was about to say something when both of them heard another voice. “Oh don’t worry Midoirya, it’s Uncle Might’s fault for dropping a bomb like that on you.”

All Might sputtered, and Izuku looked over to the voice. And froze, his mouth agape. 

[Izuku.exe has crashed. Reboot Required]

The girl was slightly taller than Izuku, with hip-length blonde hair, and bright blue eyes, framed by bright silver glasses. She was wearing a turtleneck sweater and tracksuit pants, her hands on her hips as she stared at All Might. 

‘Woah. Surely it’s illegal to be that pretty?’

“Hahaha! Why thank you Midoriya, I do try my best.”

Izuku flushed bright red as he realised that he had just mumbled that, burying his face into his hands as he hunkered down into a ball on the floor. In his armadillo-like state, he heard All Might recover from his coughing fit.

“Melissa! What are you doing here?” Izuku peeked out of his ball to see the girl -Melissa- walking up to All Might, frowning. 

“I’m here because I saw you on the news, and had a feeling of what would be coming next after my analysis program told me who Midoriya was, as well as his Quirkless state, like me.”

Izuku perked up at that, unfurling from his ball and jumping to his feet, thrusting his hand out for Melissa to shake. “You’re Quirkless too?! Oh my god I’ve never met another Quirkless person before! My name is Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you!”

Melissa laughed, the noise sounding like music to Izuku’s ears, and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Midoriya. My name is Melissa Shield. Or technically Melissa Yagi, now. I can’t share your excitement though, I’ve known two other Quirkless people before now.”

Izuku shook his head, his smile growing. “Melissa Shield! Oh my god, you’re David Shield's daughter! You made All Might’s Full Gauntlets! I can’t believe I’m meeting you! You’ve been one of my biggest inspirations!”

The girl blushed and scratched her cheek, smiling. “That's very sweet, but I’m just a gadget maker. I’m sure Uncle Might only uses my gauntlets because I made them, not because they’re good enough for him.”

“Are you kidding?! Those gauntlets stayed together even when All Might punched Toxic Chainsaw hard enough to change the weather from a cloudy day to completely blue skies! That's an insane amount of force! Your tech is amazing!”

This went on for a little while longer, the two Quirkless people chatting easily, getting along quite quickly. Neither of them noticed All Might looking at them with a confused look on his face, wondering why he was being ignored.

‘They’re certainly hitting it off.’

“Excuse me you two, but I think it’s time that I interrupt.”

The two Quirkless teens snapped out of their conversation when All Might spoke, looking bored and a little irritated. Melissa squeaked and checked her watch, yelping as she saw that they had been there for 2 whole hours.

She blushed as she took a step away from the green-haired boy, coughing into her hand. “Uh, yes. Of course. I‘m very sorry Uncle Might. You were telling Midoirya about you-know-what, right?”

All Might nodded, smiling widely as he turned to the boy, who was looking at All Might with sparkles in his eyes. “Young Midoriya, after our talk earlier, and seeing your actions during the villain attack, I have deemed you worthy of inheriting my Quirk, One for All .”

Now that he had a bit of time to decompress stress-wise from the villain attack, his mind was a little clearer this time around. “All Might, what do you mean? I didn’t think Quirks could be transferred like that. I mean sure, there are old rumours about the Quirk giving Demon, but that's just a legend.”

He looked over to Melissa, who was watching with a smile. “Did you know about this? Wait! If you can transfer your Quirk All Might, why didn’t you give it to Melissa? You’ve been living with All Might your whole life!”

Melissa hummed, crossing her arms, and nodded. “I’ve only been aware of One for All for about 5 years now. As for why I was never offered it… I wouldn’t have taken it. I have a life that I’m pursuing now, and having a Quirk like Uncle Might’s would force me to take a different path than the one I want to.”

All Might smiled and clapped her on the shoulder, his skeleton-like hand looking small on her. “I was planning to offer it to her when she turned 15, but by that point the inventing bug had bit her hard. She’s every bit as smart as her father, probably more so.”

He then turned back to Izuku. “But enough about her. Today is about you, Young Man. I ask you, will you accept my awesome power or not?!”

Izuku dodged the spurt of blood that shot out of All Might’s mouth as he yelled that, tears forming in Izuku’s eyes as he nodded quickly, smiling. “Yes! I will!”

All Might buffed up for a moment, earning a shout of disapproval from Melissa. “NO HESITATION! I KNEW THAT WOULD BE THE CASE!”

He then deflated again, Melissa running up to him and handing him a handkerchief, smacking him on the shoulder for pushing his limits for something like that. He patted her on the head before continuing.

“My boy, please meet me at Dagobah beach at 6 am tomorrow morning! We will start on your training! You want to be a hero, and you can’t be a hero with a lanky body like that! We’re gonna whip you into shape!”

Izuku smiled, a little confused. “We?”

All Might laughed. “Yes! Melissa here told me that when the time came she would be honoured to assist me in the training of the next wielder! And since you two have hit it off so well, I doubt there will be any complaints!”

Both Melissa and Izuku blushed at that, Melissa even more so as she cleared her throat. “Midoirya, I believe it would be beneficial for both of us to get your contact details, preferably your phone number, so we can inform you if anything goes wrong, or for updates.”

All Might smirked, before stepping forward and unlocking his phone, tossing it to the boy, who caught it on instinct. “Go ahead and put yourself in there Young Midoriya. Pass yours to Melissa, she can do both of ours.”

Izuku nodded, adding his phone number to All Might’s phone (Holy cow!) as well as Melissa’s when she passed it over to him. After that he gave the two phones back he bowed to both of them a few times before running off, mumbling something about ‘no Katsudon for a month.’

Both All Might and Melissa waved goodbye to him, before they walked to a bus stop, and rode the bus to their apartment. All Might did his very best to hold back on teasing his (adopted) daughter on how easily she and Midoriya got along.

It was a harder battle than All for One ever was.

Chapter Text

Izuku groaned as his alarm went off three hours earlier than usual.

He had barely been able to sleep the night before, too alert and alive from the wombo-combo that was running into a villain attack and his meeting with All Might and Melissa. He had still been riding the high that the reveal of One for All had given him late into the night.

Pulling himself out of bed, he rubbed his eyes and banished all thoughts of his exhaustion from his mind, as he changed into some of his workout clothes (which were a few years old - he didn’t get many chances to exercise) and started jogging to the beach. It didn’t matter what his body was telling him; he had to push himself as hard as he could.

All Might had chosen him. All Might had chosen him . Quirkless, worthless Deku. There was no way he could let something as small as a tired body or sore bruises keep him from doing his absolute best to make sure All Might never regretted his decision.

It was fairly cold this early in the morning, making Izuku wish he had worn more than just a t-shirt and some shorts. But he wanted to be on time--no, he wanted to be early to his meeting with All Might and Melissa, so he couldn’t afford the time to head back.

Oh well, he would probably be warming up because of exercise later.

He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the sun start to rise, but that relief was quickly destroyed when he laid his eyes upon Dagobah beach. More specifically, when he saw the mountains and mountains of trash piled on it, his brain started to realise exactly what he would be doing.

“Ah, Midoriya! You’re early!” He turned to see Melissa walking towards him, holding a large metal box over her shoulder, and froze. She was in a black workout tank-top, with deep blue leggings, red and yellow sneakers, and her hair up in a ponytail.

“I...uh…yea…um…hi!” Izuku cursed his brain as he stuttered out a reply, doing his very best to look away, only barely succeeding as he shifted his sight to the box instead, and cocked his head to the side.

“What's that?”

Melissa smiled as she put the box on the ground. She then tapped a few buttons on the top, and the lid opened to reveal a multitude of devices. “This is how I’m going to be helping! I’m not much of a fitness buff, but my gadgets should be able to help!”

As she pulled a bunch of gadgets out of the box and laid them on the floor, Izuku moved over and sat down near her, wanting to let her explain her gear since All Might hadn’t arrived yet.

She reached over to him and placed a small box on his hand, with Izuku yelping as it seemingly wrapped around his wrist, and turned into a watch. There was a small bit of pain before it subsided. He looked over to Melissa in confused and worry.

She just smiled in response. “Don’t worry! That watch is going to allow me and Uncle Might to monitor your physical state! The pain was just the receiver heading into your bloodstream so that it can track your status more easily! It’s completely harmless.”

Izuku nodded shakily, looking back at the watch to see different readings coming up onto the screen to display things like the time, his current and resting heart rate, and the composition of his blood, among other things. “Alright, then…if you say so…what's next?”

She smiled at him again, holding up various coloured…rubber bands? “These are some specialised resistance bands! I’ll be putting them on you in various places so that they can assist with muscle growth! They’ll also help with making sure you don’t overstrain certain muscles.”

Izuku hummed as he picked  up one of the bands that had an image of an arm on it, and tried to pull it, failing to make it stretch very far. Melissa saw this and smiled as she took it off of him. “Don’t worry if you can’t do it right now, Uncle Might always said that getting strong was a process!”

Izuku blushed at just how bright Melissa was being, and focused on the next device. If you could call it that. It just looked like a regular dumbbell. “What's special about that one?”

Melissa picked it up and handed it to Izuku, who was surprised at just how light it felt. She then showed him a small, handheld device with a dial on it, and lightly turned the dial up. Izuku was shocked when he felt the dumbbell in his hand getting heavier, until he had to let it drop to the floor.

She laughed as he dropped it, turning the dial back down and placing it back in its spot. “These are my adjustable weighted dumbbells! I still have to come up with a catchy name for them, though…anyway; basically, I can change how ‘heavy’ they become with this dial!”

Izuku brightened, reaching for the device. “How does that work?! Wait! Does it use magnets?”

Melissa nodded, smiling. “Yes! I sync them up to the earth's magnetic field, and the more power you put into them, the higher the pull towards the ground becomes, simulating extra weight!”

Izuku ‘s eyes sparkled. “That's amazing! They’re going to be so helpful! Instead of having to get multiple sets of weights, we can just use the one as I progress! Thank you so much, Melissa!”

She just laughed and she shook her head, a blush overtaking her face. “Don’t worry about it! I promised I’d help Uncle Might, and you’re my friend now! Of course I’d give you cool stuff!”

Tears welled up in Izuku’s eyes at that, and he quickly scrubbed his eyes, not wanting to cry in front of Melissa. “We’re…we’re friends? ”

Melissa frowned, her eyebrow raising. “Of course we are! We talked for like, two hours yesterday, and I agreed to help you get super buff! I’d say that makes us friends!”

Izuku lost the fight, tears starting to stream down his face as he smiled at her, furiously rubbing at his face as he tried to stop crying. Melissa patted him on the shoulder, looking a bit worried for him.

All Might hummed, frowning.

He had watched the two of them interact for the last little bit of their conversation, but he was also worried. He knew that Young Midoriya cried a lot, but for him to be so moved just by having someone as his friend?

All Might could remember his own school life as a Quirkless kid. It wasn’t too bad; most people just looked at him with pity, or scoffed at him when he said he wanted to be a hero.

But Young Midoriya was different. His desperate question on the roof of that building made it seem like people had been actively telling him he couldn’t be a hero, and his blatant disregard for his own safety probably pointed to some self-worth issues.

Maybe he should look into his successor's life a bit more? He was getting the same kind of vibes from Midoriya that he did when Melissa had been picked on for being Quirkless as a child.

He moved around the corner and waved to the two kids, and Young Midoriya had perked up instantly once he saw him. The boy jumped to his feet and sprinted over to All Might, who smiled and laughed, explaining what he wanted the boy to do.

After Izuku and Melissa went onto the beach to get his training started, All Might pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

“All Might! To what do I owe this call?”

“Hi Nezu, could you do me a favour please?”

Izuku noticed a few things changing over the coming months.

The first, and the biggest, change, was that Aldera Middle school was shut down without warning, and many of Izuku’s teachers either lost their teaching licenses, or were straight up arrested and sent to prison.

Izuku was moved to a different school a few suburbs over, but still kept his head down as much as possible, still not feeling entirely comfortable with people, even if he kept his Quirklessness a secret.

The second was that weekly deliveries of groceries started arriving at their house, pre-paid, and full of all the food on All Might’s plan.

That had led to a discussion with Inko about how Izuku had grabbed All Might’s attention, and how the man would be helping train him to become a hero. That night had been filled with lots of hugging and a lot of crying.

The third thing was that Izuku was now almost constantly sore, or in some kind of pain. He had talked to All Might and Melissa about it, and they had assured him that all of the pain he was feeling was normal.

With that in mind, he tried to find ways to push himself even further than All Might’s plan would, but was quickly found out and stopped when Melissa checked his vitals on the watch one morning and found him almost about to collapse.

The fourth and final change that happened was the fact that he had an actual friend for the first time since Kachaan started to bully him. Not that he told Melissa that (although she might already know, if how she talks about ‘bullies’ says anything).

Having a friend like Melissa was weird. She treated him like an equal even though she was so far out of his league that it wasn’t funny (in many ways), and didn’t seem bothered when he went into a mumbling spree, instead encouraging him to analyse things even more.

And her tech was absolutely amazing . According to All Might, the progress he had made in just 8 months was almost equal to about a year of training, thanks to the gear that Melissa had used to support his training.

And that's when it happened. 

Two months before the entrance exam that would change his life, All Might called Izuku over before he could start his daily training, and sat him down, with Melissa to the man's right, and both of them smiling. 

“Young Midoriya, I’m so proud of you. I believe that you are ready for my Quirk, my boy.”

Chapter Text

“10% Full Cowling!”

Izuku let out a whoop as he leapt into the air, the green lightning around him crackling as he bounced around the training room, a smile on his face. His smile didn’t last long however, as a yellow blur slammed into his chest, knocking him to the floor.

Izuku could hear Melissa giggling from the side of the training ground, sitting behind some protective glass, with monitors around her. He raised his head from the small crater he had made on impact, the short yellow hero that had spent the last 2 months kicking him around smirking at him.

“C'mon kiddo, get up! All Might at least took my beatings on his feet! You’re not gonna get better with One for All lying on the floor!”

Izuku groaned and activated his Full Cowling again, throwing himself to his feet and crouching down. He looked over to Melissa to see if the trackers were still operational, getting a thumbs up from the girl.

“Alright! Let’s go! Just a few more times! I think I’m getting the hang of this!”

Gran Torino smirked and crouched down, before jetting off so quickly that he blurred out of sight. The only reason Izuku was able to follow the man at all was the enhanced reaction speed that Full Cowling gave him.

He jumped to the far side of the room and started to bounce around the room as well, avoiding the strikes as best he could and attempting to give his own. He didn’t really succeed, only able to give glancing blows to the hero.

His focus was interrupted when he took another boot to the face, sending him spiralling to the ground. He raised his head as he felt the evil little gremlin of a hero land next to him, putting a foot in the small of his back.

“Ready to give up Kiddo? If this is how you’re gonna fight tomorrow, there’s no chance you’ll get into UA! Get up! Show me that fighting spirit!”

Izuku groaned, activating Full Cowling again and doing a push-up, throwing Gran Torino off of him. Why was he still here? Just to suffer?

Izuku thought back to 2 months ago, when All Might had passed his Quirk along to him.

“Young Midoriya, I’m so proud of you. I believe that you are ready for my Quirk, my boy.”

Izuku’s heart started racing immediately, his mind clearing of everything except All Might and Melissa. He almost felt like he couldn’t breathe. This was happening. This was actually happening. To him. To Quirkless, useless Deku.

All Might was giving Deku his Quirk.

“Are you sure about this, All Might? That I deserve this? I… I just can’t believe that I would be so luc-”

Izuku was cut off when he felt a soft karate chop to his head, looking over to see Melissa looking very cross with I’m. “Are you kidding me Izuku?”

Melissa stood up, poking Izuku in the chest as she talked. “I have watched you push yourself harder than I’ve seen actual Pro Heros train fro the last 8 months! Look at you!”

She waved her hand up and down, making Izuku realise that he was still shirtless. “Uncle Might, show him the photo!”

All Might let out a little yelp and hurried to pull out his phone, showing Izuku a picture of him on the ground, tears streaming down his face. Melissa pointed at it. “Look at this picture. It was taken 2 days into your training. And now look at you!”

“You’re strong, and there is no doubt in my mind that you deserve One for All , Izuku. You shouldn’t doubt it either!”

All Might nodded, placing his hand on Izuku’s shoulder, and smiling at the boy. “Melissa is correct, Young Midoriya. As my master said to me, there is a difference between being lucky, and earning something.”

All Might then reached behind him and pulled out a bottle of what looked to be… juice? “And you have definitely earned it, my boy. You’re pure heart and drive to be a hero… it inspires me. And now… to inherit my power all you need to do is-”

All Might held the bottle out to Izuku, letting out a laugh as he buffed up, a plume of smoke rising from him as Izuku took it off of him.

“DRINK THIS!”

Izuku just stared at him, before turning to Melissa to check if he was being serious. Melissa nodded, giving him a thumbs up. “Go ahead, this is actually how it works.”

Izuku unscrewed the lid and started to chug down the orange juice, coughing as he felt something a little more solid than juice go down his throat as well. He looked over to Melissa, confusion of his face.

“What the hell was in that?! Melissa! All Might!"

What did I just drink?!”

It had been a month since Izuku had been given One for All , and Melissa had called in backup.

Apparently All Might’s idea of ‘advice’ was to ‘clench your buttcheeks and yell SMASH!’ After the first time Izuku tried that out on a fridge, splitting the ocean and demolishing his arm, Melissa had called in the retired hero.

Gran Torino, or Gran-pa, as Melissa called him, was amazing. Izuku had only seen speed like this from two or three heroes, All Might himself included. It had only been today that Izuku had finally figured out what Gran Torino was trying to make him do.

He had spoken in riddles at first, saying how Izuku was trying too hard to be All Might, and that his fanaticism was holding him back. He had then proceeded to beat the shit out of Izuku, who couldn’t really do anything, not wanting to break his arms.

He had been helping Melissa when he figured it out. She was attempting to get a drone working so she could fly it around the training ground and have Izuku attempt to grab it, and Izuku was holding it steady for her.

“Gah! Why won’t the power go to the stabilisers? The rotors can't work properly without them. Izuku, do you think you could hold that panel open? I need to get it so this power reaches the entire thing or it’s not going to work.”

Izuku reached for the panel, stopping before he could open it though, his eyes widening. “Melissa. Say that again.”

Melissa just gave him a confused look. “Uh, alright? I need to get the power to go to the entirety of the drone to make it work properly?”

Izuku gasped. Was that it? Surely that couldn’t be it. That was so simple?! How had he overlooked something so simple?!

‘You’re trying too hard to be All Might.’

‘Your fanaticism is holding you back.’

Izuku took a step back from Melissa, his hands on his head. He turned to see Gran Torino smirking at him. “Thought I was gonna have to pull out some dumbass metaphor with a microwave after you told me how you envisioned One for All .”

The hero watched as Izuku got into a fighting stance, smiling widely, green lightning coursing all over his body. He heard Melissa let out a gasp as the sensors on Izuku’s body started t go haywire, and smiled.

Izuku was shaking, the energy flowing over him feeling… he didn’t know if he could explain it. After a lifetime of Quirklessness, having this much power running through him felt… amazing.

Gran Torino landed in front of him, tapping him with his cane on a few different muscle groups. “So kiddo. You’ve got the basic idea down. You think you can move like that?”

Izuku just smiled widely, an almost crazed look of determination appearing on his face. “Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there!”

Gran Torino smiled and crouched down, before jetting off again, Izuku attempting to follow his movements. “Bring it on Kiddo!”

Melissa watched the yellow and green blurs bounce around the room, feeling a large amount of pride for her friend, and the progress he had made in such a short time. 

She also felt something else towards the boy, but she didn’t really know it yet.

“Sensei, are you sure you want to do this? Is it really a good idea?”

All for One looked up from the worktable he had been hunched over for the last few days to see Kurogiri looking at him, those golden eyes filled with worry. Putting down the welding tool in his hand, he turned to the man.

Kurogiri was holding a cheque for the equivalent of $100,000 in his hand, dedicated to the ‘Quirkless Children Protection Group’, one of the many ‘front’ companies All for One had set up over the years.

Sure, the organisation did actually help protect Quirkless children from abusive households and the like, but it was 100% a front business. He definitely wasn’t biased because his daughter and late wife were Quirkless.

‘No! Not my daughter! David Shields daughter! Stupid brain!’

“Yes I am sure, Kurogiri. If the facilities in the QCPG aren’t up to a good standard, there may be investigations into its leaders. This would inconvenience me. Take the money to the headquarters immediately.”

Kurogiri sighed, nodding. “As you command, Sensei. I will go at once.”

As Kurogiri warped out of the room, All for One turned back to the device on the table, pushing a few buttons to turn it on. It was meant to tap into the signal that his, no, that David Shield's daughter used to keep track of her own health using the watch she had patented a year ago.

He just wanted to see how she was doing, if she would benefit from a Quirk, nothing special. Wait a second. Why was there another signal on the same frequency? He twisted the dial and brought up another person's vitals.

According to the device, this person was either using their Quirk, or they were having a fucking stroke. Wait! Son of a bitch! That energy pattern! That was One for All ! And if this data was correct, it was in a 15-year-old boy, not an adult!

That bastard All Might had passed along his brother's Quirk! And Melissa was assisting them! This would not do! He would not have his, FUCK, David Shield’s daughter assisting the next generation of the biggest thorn in his side!

She was too smart! They would figure out how to use it too soon and then they would be an even bigger problem than he knew they were going to already be!

“Tomura! Go get me a shovel! And don’t fucking disintegrate it this time! I need to have a talk with someone.”

“Yes, Master!”

“Tomura no! Sensei! Where are you going?! Leaving the hide-out now risks ruining your plans! You must remain hidden to the world if our goal is to be achieved!”

All for One heard Kurogiri warp back into the room and yell that from the other side of the door. “Damn it all.”

Why did Kurogiri have to be right? He stared at the vitals on the screen as they calmed down, whoever this successor was seemed to have stopped using it for now. “Very well then. If I must remain hidden-”

“I must find another way to keep my daughter away from you, successor .”

Chapter Text

“Midoriya, right?”

Izuku shifted on his feet as he nodded to the tired-looking man in a business suit, sitting at the reception desk of UA’s entrance exam. The man hummed, looking through a small sheet of paper.

“Quirk: Superpower? That’s kinda boring… anyway. Says here you want to bring… goggles of some sort as a ‘support item.’ What reason do you have for requesting these goggles?”

Izuku lifted his head. “They’re to protect my eyes and help me see while moving at high speeds! I can go pretty fast so I need to have a clear line of sight or I might hurt someone… or myself.”

The tired official just stared at him for a few seconds before shrugging and stamping a green circle onto one of the pieces of paper. “Sounds legit to me. Good luck in there, kid.”

Izuku just nodded and quickly moved towards the auditorium, quickly finding his seat. Oh, snap, another benefit to having Aldera absolutely annihilated, he didn’t have to sit next to Bakugou! Talk about a gift that keeps on giving!

The people he was placed in between seemed nice, if quiet. Izuku also couldn’t even see Bakugou, which was nice. The last time he had seen him, Izuku had dodged a grab at the last second and made Bakugou jar his finger up against a concrete wall.

He would be OK if he didn’t see the boy at all today.

“HEY, THERE LITTLE LISTENERS! LET’S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!”

Turning his focus to the front of the room, Izuku listened to Present Mic explain the exam and felt a sense of excitement bubble up in his chest. Robots! He was fighting robots! This was perfect!

He was wearing gloves with plastic over the knuckles to protect his hands anyway, so with 10% Full Cowling , he could probably absolutely destroy a bunch of robots! Never in his life had he been more thankful for the chaotic evil gremlin that was Gran Torino, and his absurd training regimes.

Not that the man would ever hear that to his face.

“ALRIGHT KIDDOS! GET OUT THERE! GO GO GO!”

The second that the horn went off, Izuku shot forward like a bullet. He had been placed into battle center B. The people there had some really cool looking Quirks! Although there was this one guy who yelled at him in the auditorium that was also here, but other than that it was going great.

He made sure to turn his goggles on, syncing them to his watch. This would allow Melissa to track both his vitals and see what was going on. Of course, he wasn’t allowed to stream it for security reasons, so he was just making a recording for her to review later.

He felt kind of bad for lying to the support item approval guy, but Melissa really wanted this, and she had asked with the puppy dog eyes.. and they did actually help his vision a bit, so... he was gonna wear then.

The first robot he came into contact with was a two-pointer, who let out a small beep an instant before his fist crashed into it, caving the plating in and shutting the robot down. Moving like Gran Torino showed him how to, he used the robot as a springboard and shot upwards, quickly pushing off of the wall next to him and into another robot.

Moving like this, time seemed to fly by as he bounced his way across the exam site, destroying robots. He was even able to get a few people out of danger as he did so, something that made him happy.

And then the rumbling started.

It was like the entire world around him had decided that it was time to do the Harlem Shake. He heard yelling and shouting over to his left, and he threw himself towards the commotion. That was when he saw it.

A giant robot, easily the size of a building, in fact, bigger than the building in this test site, rolling its way down the street. He did a quick check to see if anyone needed help, but there was a lot of dust being kicked up that wasn’t helping.

He shot forward and brought a boy who looked like he had a broken arm back to the front gate and sprinted back to see if anyone else needed help. With his 10% Full Cowling , it only took a few seconds.

“Ow!”

Even with the rumbling of the concrete and the sounds of the giant robot, the yell of pain weaseled its way into Izuku’s ears. His head snapped towards the noise and he was running before he even realized it.

Getting past the wall of dust, he was able to see the girl who had cried out in pain. She was stuck under some rubble, but it was easy to remove with One for All. He threw the rubble off of her and reached down, before stopping.

“Is it OK if I pick you up?”

The girl gave him a confused expression, before nodding rapidly as another bit of rubble landed nearby. “Go for it! Just get me away from this thing!”

Izuku nodded and grabbed her under the back and knees, flaring Full Cowling and sprinting back to the front gate. He dodged a bit of rubble that almost fell on him, smiling at the girl in his arms.

“Don’t worry! You’re safe now!”

As Izuku reached the front gate and set the girl down, a siren went off in the distance. The rumbling came to an end-

And the exam was over.

“Oh my goodness Izuku!”

Izuku laughed nervously as Melissa watched the first person POV of his entrance exam. She had just gotten up to the bit where he had thrown a three-pointer at another three-pointer that had snuck up behind another examinee.

She continued watching, writing things down every now and then, pausing the video, and taking screenshots of the vitals monitor with timestamps and stuff like that. Izuku didn’t understand everything, but he didn’t need to. He trusted Melissa.

Eventually, she got to the bit with the zero-pointer and hummed as the camera let her see just how big the zero-pointer was when you were fighting it. “Let me guess, you run towards the giant robot to try and help someone.”

Izuku sputtered, trying to find something to correct her with… but that was exactly what he did. “I uh. I didn’t try, I succeeded?”

Melissa just gave him the look . “Hmm. I guess if you succeeded then it’s ok. But don’t make a habit of fighting giant robots please!”

Izuku nodded quickly, placing his fist over his heart. “I swear that I will do my absolute best to not fight any more giant robots.”

He wilted underneath Melissa’s unimpressed stare. “What? I can’t know what UA will throw at me! For all we know, day one could be fighting unicorns!”

Melissa’s facade cracked, and she let out a snort. “You did excellent work here Izuku, you should be proud! I’m sure that you’ll get into the Hero Course!”

Izuku smiled at her, tears welling up a bit in his eyes. “Thank you! But how about you? Did you ace the support course exam? I bet you did! You’re ama- Your tech is amazing!”

Either ignoring or not noticing his slip up, Melissa smiled and nodded. “Hell yea! Blew everyone away! Except for Hatsume, but she brought in a literal jetpack. Very impressive stuff for something that looks like it was built with scrap and junk.”

Izuku smiled. “I knew you’d do great! I can’t wait to go to UA together! With their resources and tools, who knows what awesome stuff you’ll be able to build!”

Melissa just laughed. “I mean, Uncle Might pays for a lot of the materials I use, so it’s not like I’m lacking for stuff. High-quality tools would be nice though. Ooo! Maybe if they have a proper Quantum Discombobulator, I could make…”

She was on a bit of a ramble now. He listened to her enthusiastic explaining of all the different tools she hoped that UA’s support course had access to, eventually leading to a rant about why geology was stupid, ending with a promise to build Izuku the best hero suit anyone had ever made.

Izuku just sat and listened, smiling as much as she was, nodding and asking questions when he was confused about something. She answered them quickly and happily, smiling widely the whole time.

The gap between them on the couch seemed to get smaller and smaller as they chatted, and neither noticed it. But there was someone who did. All Might had peeked around the door frame while Melissa was on a tangent about how Hexagons were the Bestagons and snapped a few photos of the pair.

Adding them to the folder on his phone called “IzuMelissa”, he hummed to himself as he left them be. He knew that Melissa and Izuku were both very smart, but smart people usually were the densest when it came to romance.

He would need to figure out a way to get them together without forcing the issue and making them both awkward and uncomfortable. A simple task for the Symbol of Peace! He had fought villains capable of leveling cities and won!

How hard could it be to get them together in comparison?

Chapter Text

All for One growled, slamming his fists to his desk.

Why was it so hard to find out who All Might’ successor was!? He would have expected the man to have some sort of public connection to his successor, some meeting with a ‘lucky fan’, or even someone who had been training in the various gyms near Might Tower.

BUT NO!

He’d had Kurogiri personally check in on every single 15-year-old boy that frequented the nearby gyms, an unfortunately large number. But even with all of that, he still hadn’t found the damn successor!

He couldn’t find Melissa, either, but that didn’t matter. She was not his focus at the moment. Manipulating her into helping his empire could come after the next user of One for All was crushed under his boot.

The fact that All Might, the loudest and most obnoxious man to have ever walked the earth (he would know he was over 200 years old), had such a well-hidden personal life would be laughable if it didn’t piss him off so much.

“Master, your food is ready.”

He turned sharply in his chair to ‘see’ Kurogiri warping into his room, a plate of food in his hands. Seemed that Kurogiri had splurged on tonight’s dinner a bit. All for One hadn’t even seen a burrito that size before, let alone eaten one.

He nodded to his servant. “Place it on the table, I will get to it eventually.”

Kurogiri followed his order, placing the food down on the table. But he didn’t leave after that, instead, he hung behind him, wringing his gaseous hands. All for One turned back to him. “What is it, Kurogiri?”

If Kurogiri could sweat, he would be under the intensity of his master’s glare. “Sir. I know that finding All Might’s successor is important, but you have now been awake for 96 hours straight. Please, I implore you to sleep.”

All for One jolted at that, turning to look at the clock. “What day is it?”

Kurogiri just gave him a deadpan look. “Its… it’s Saturday, my lord.”

He stood up quickly. “SATURDAY?! SHIT!” he used one of his Quirk’s to dress himself instantly, allowing a suit jacket to appear over his shirt, and ceremonial mask to appear on his head.

Kurogiri held his arm up. “Where are you going?”

All for One tapped his forehead. “Interrogation site 3-C please, Kurogiri, there is a man I wanted to interrogate yesterday that should still be there.”

Kurogiri sighed, knowing that his master probably wouldn’t sleep until this was done. Opening a portal to his destination, he allowed All for One to walk through before closing it.

“KUROGIRI! THE WIFI SHUT OFF AGAIN! GO TURN IT BACK ON!”

Kurogiri let out a tired sigh, taking a moment to run his ‘hands’ through his ‘hair’. He then warped back to where Shigaraki was sitting, waiting for Kurogiri to break into the node again and replace the cord to the building.

“As you wish, Shigaraki.”

All for One pulled on one of his suit’s cuffs as he walked into the room.

Sitting in the middle of it was a man chained down to a chair, dried blood caked on his chest. All for One walked over and woke the man up with one of his Quirks.

“Terribly sorry to keep you waiting, but I had, uh… some personal issues to deal with.”

Letting out a cough, the guy in the chair nodded slowly. “No... problem, I wasn’t, ah,  planning on going anywhere, you know?”

All for One smiled under his mask. With a waved of his hand, a gout of flame appeared in his palm, focused and white-hot, like a welding tool. “How wonderfully polite a guest you are. Now.”

“Why don’t we continue from where we left off?”

Melissa was not enjoying her first day at UA so far.

Well, that was sort of untrue. She enjoyed meeting Izuku at the front gate and walking with him to the floor that their homerooms were on, but then she had to leave him behind to face the yelling of Bakugou Katsuki.

Every instinct in her body had told her to go in there and punch the asshole right in the face, but she was sent off to class by a large yellow caterpillar-man-thing before she could.

And then, after that, she was stuck at this incredibly long welcome ceremony. She checked her watch, groaning as she saw that Nezu had been on this tangent for almost 20 minutes now. And this was the second tangent of his speech.

The last one had lasted 40 minutes.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I seem to have lost myself again for a moment there. My apologies. Now, I know that you are all wanting to get out of here and get to your classes, so I will finish up.”

It was then that it happened. All of a sudden, there was the sound akin to a gunshot going off to their right, and everyone’s head’s turned to it, including the teachers. They couldn’t see the object, but they could definitely see the trail it left.

Streaking through the air was something small, probably a ball or some kind, flying over them like a bullet, cleaving the clouds in half and dispersing them. Melissa didn’t know how, but she could tell that this was Izuku’s doing.

The people around her seemed to be panicking slightly before Nezu coughed into the microphone.”Ah, please ignore that, class 1-A is participating in their initial Quirk assessment currently.”

The panic died down a bit, replaced with grumbling from some of the students. One especially loud one. “Wow! Does 1-A already think themselves above joining us? What arrogance!”

Nezu flashed the speaker a glare. “This was the teacher’s decision, not the students.”

Melissa just huffed, glad that they weren’t being attacked by a villain or something. But then, who would be stupid enough to attack UA? They were practically a fortress designed to keep villains out no matter what.

Nezu eventually finished up his speech, sending them off to their classrooms. Melissa chuckled to herself as she saw Hatsume launch herself towards the building at speeds that seemed impossible for a non-speed Quirk.

Melissa was excited too, but she didn’t have the manic energy that Hatsume possessed. All the same, she couldn’t wait to start tinkering in the design studio.

She had a suit to finish up, after all.

“HELLO!”

Melissa yelped and jumped a few feet into the air, grabbing onto the ear that had just been yelled in. When she landed, she turned her head to see Hatsume standing there, the biggest grin Melissa had ever seen (and she lived with All Might!) on her face.

She shook her head, putting a smile onto her face. “Hello! Hatsume, right?”

The girl’s smile got even wider if that were possible. “Yepperooni! The name’s Mei Hatsume! Future #1 in the support tech industry! Who are you? I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I don’t know anyone!”

Melissa laughed. “You probably knew my father. I’m Melissa Shield, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Hatsume was on her in an instant, hands on her shoulder, gasping, her mouth in a large ‘o’ shape. “You’re MELISSA SHIELD?! As in, David Shield, the best support technician in history’s daughter?!”

Melissa frowned slightly at the mention of her father but nodded. “Yep, that’s me! And I plan on giving you some competition for that #1 supporter spot.”

Mei stuck out her hand to for shaking purposes. “Finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle shall be legendary!”

Melissa chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure it will. Now, was there something else that you needed? I really do need to get back to this suit.”

Mei’s eyes sparkled as she sat down next to Melissa. “OOO! You’ve already got a suit to consult on! Who’s is it? Is it All Might's? Is it?!”

Melissa shook her head. “No, it’s my friend’s suit. He said that he ‘trusted me’ to design it so I’m not letting him down.”

Mei leaned over and grabbed the sheet of paper that had all of the requirements that Melissa had listed down for the suit, and did a quick scan. “Quirk: Superpower.. That’s kinda boring… anyway. Potential for massive amounts of strength, but going over limit breaks his bones.”

Mei let out a whistle. “There are the numbers for his strength at what, 10%? This kid is gonna be absurdly strong!”

Melissa smiled. “Yea he is! I have no doubt’s that he’s going to be the next Symbol of Peace. He’ll be a wonderful hero.”

Mei nodded, her fingers going to her chin as she nodded sharply, her goggles falling over her eyes. “He definitely will be with both of us working on his suit!”

Melissa’s eyebrows rose. “Wait what? You want to help with his suit? What happened to our legendary rivalry?”

Mei let out a pfft, waving her hand at Melissa, and grabbing a fresh sheet of blueprint paper. “Everyone knows that two rivals cooperating gets the most attention! Like Ben 10 and Kevin Levin!”

Melissa yelped as Mei dragged her over to another bench. “I have no idea who those people are!”

“I can explain later! Let’s get to making this suit!” Mei cackled, rifling through various tools. Melissa didn’t really know what had just happened, but she guessed she had a lab partner now.

Neat.

Chapter Text

“I AM HERE! COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!”

The energy of the room instantly became electric. All of the students, barring a few, had smiles on their face as All Might entered the room, but none as large as Izuku’s. Quite literally vibrating in his seat, he listened to the man intently.

“TODAY WE WILL BE DOING A BATTLE LESSON AT TRAINING GROUND BETA! AND! YOU WILL GET TO WEAR THE DESIGNS YOU SENT INTO THE SUPPORT COMPANY!”

At the push of a button, the wall beside him hissed, revealing 19 metal cases, numbered 1-20, but missing the one that should have been marked ‘18’.

The silent excitement of the class grew into cheering at that, with even the most sullen of students (- cough- Todoroki and Tokoyami -cough- ), getting hyped up for their costumes. But before All Might let them go grab their costumes, he turned to Izuku.

“YOUNG MIDORIYA! YOUR COSTUME IS CURRENTLY DOWN IN THE DESIGN STUDIO! YOU MAY GO GRAB IT NOW, BUT BE QUICK! DON’T WANT TO BE LATE NOW, DO WE?”

Izuku shook his head, standing up and grabbing his bag, before summoning his full cowling at a comfortable 3%. “No I don’t, All Might sir! I’ll meet you there as soon as possible!”

He then sprinted out of the room, ruffling the hair of those that he passed, ignoring the feeling of the angry stare that he could feel on his back. He knew that Kachaan was furious with him for having a Quirk, but weirdly, he hadn’t even attempted to attack Izuku like Izuku had been expecting him to.

He had only really yelled at him, not even attempting to use his Quirk on him.

It was weird.

-3 days before the start of UA’s semester-

Nezu smiled as he entered the room, but his stare was cold, like a predator’s. “Welcome Young Bakugou! Thank you for coming in to talk with me.”

Huffing, Katsuki slipped into the chair across from Nezu and crossed his arms. “Not like I had much choice, you said that I’d be denied entry to UA if I didn’t.”

Nezu chuckled. “Ah, yes I did! Silly me for forgetting. Now, here’s what I wanted to say to you. I know about what happened during your childhood, and your treatment of Midoriya Izuku up until last year, when Aldera Middle School was shut down.”

Katsuki bristled, going silent, his jaw clenching up as he straightened in his seat.

Nezu blinked, nodding to himself. “As I thought. Here are my very simple instructions for the coming school year. A single instance of you attacking Midoriya outside of supervised training, or of extreme force not warranted by the situation, and you will be either demoted to General Studies or expelled altogether.”

Katsuki’s jaw dropped, his brows furrowing as he felt his anger spike. “WHA-”

“I’m not finished.” Nezu took a sip of some tea from beside him and continued. “You will also be taking therapy and anger management sessions with Hound Dog every two days at lunchtime. Failure to attend these meetings will result in similar punishments.”

A sickly sweet smile on the rodent’s face, he stood up in his chair, ignoring the look of pure rage on Katsuki’s face. “You may go now. I will see you another day, Young Bakugou. Do not make it because you messed up.”

Bakugou left the office swiftly, not looking at the Principal, and therefore not noticing the smug grin the rodent had on his face.

“Melissa! Are you in here?”

Melissa found herself being pulled from her conversation with Hatsume almost instantly as she heard Izuku’s voice, a smile forming on her face as she saw him in the doorway to the design studio. “Yea! Just over here!”

Izuku’s grin when he saw her made her even happier, and he sprinted over to her, looking surprised when he saw Hatsume leaning over the desk drawing on blueprint paper. “Uh, hello! Who are you?”

Hatsume glanced over at him for a moment before looking back to the sheet of blueprint paper. After a moment, she did a double-take. “Ah! You’re the one Melissa’s making a baby for!”

Melissa sputtered and went red, whipping her head around to look at Hatsume in shock. Which admittedly, was a better response to her statement than Izuku’s was. Melissa turned back around when a ‘ CRASH ’ echoed through the design studio.

Izuku was currently stuck in the roof, his full cowling activated as he legs flailed about, the only bits visible to Melissa and Hatsume. The pink-haired girl just looked up at him in confusion. “What’s wrong with him? Did he not know that you were making him a baby? Oh! Did I ruin a surprise?!”

Melissa was waving her arms in front of her at almost light-speed. “No! It’s just. I’m not making him a ‘baby’, I’m building him a suit! You have to be careful with stuff like that! People might get the wrong idea!”

After a few moments of squirming, Izuku fell back down to the floor, his face pure red as he stammered and mumbled. Seeing him, Melissa sighed and knelt down to help him up. “Izuku? Are you alright? You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”

He was silent, but he shook his head, and Melissa nodded, relieved. “Ignore Hatsume, alright? She refers to inventions as ‘babies’, sorry about that. I should have warned you.”

After a few moments, and some deep breathing, Izuku seemed to have calmed down enough for him to nod, and stand up. He rubbed his hands together, shaking his head to get rid of the dust in it. “Sorry for breaking the roof. I didn’t mean to use my Quirk…”

Melissa just laughed. “Are you kidding? That was hilarious! You jump when you get spooked! Like a bunny! Honestly, it was adorable.”

An awkward silence wedged its way in between them at that, neither of them knowing what to say next. Luckily, Hatsume barged her way into the conversation. “Melissa! Show him the suit! C’mon! Do it! “

Melissa jolted and started smiling, rifling through the pile next to the desk, searching for Izuku’s suit. After a few moments, she resurfaced, holding onto a costume case marked ‘#18’. “Here you go, Izuku! One custom made suit, ready for your use! There is a changing room back there if you need it.”

Izuku smiled and grabbed the case off of her, sprinting towards the changing room. After about a minute of waiting, Izuku came out of the changing room, a pop in his step that she hadn’t seen before. 

Doing some basic stretches, Izuku adjusted his gauntlets and smiled shakily at Melissa.  “So, uh… how do I look?”

Melissa knew she had made a good suit, but damn she wasn’t expecting Izuku to rock it as hard as he was. Pure black with green highlights, the suit made him look badass, ready for both street Hero work and sneaking his way into a villains hideout.

As she watched Izuku go through his stretches, Hatsume was beside her in an instant with a clipboard, writing things down while her eyes zoomed in and out on the various bits of his suit.

After a few moments, Melissa pulled herself out of her staring and smiled at Izuku. “You look great! Black works well on you!”

Izuku pulled at the suit and hummed. “Really? That’s good. It’s a little tight though, is it meant to be like a compression shirt?”

Melissa nodded, “Yep! It’s meant to help keep all of your muscles all squished up and harder to damage. I can add a little armour to the front if you think you’ll need it?”

Izuku gave his chest a light punch and shook his head. “I don’t think so, at least not for now. If it becomes a problem later, I’ll definitely tell you! Is there anything else or can I get to class?”

Melissa held a finger up, signalling for him to wait, and once more ventured into the tech pile. “Just one more thing! Remember those goggles I gave you for the Entrance Exam?”

Izuku nodded, smiling. “Yea! They were awesome! Are they a part of my suit as well?”

Melissa beamed as she handed him the goggles, and Izuku immediately noticed a difference. They were sleeker, made in the same black and green colour scheme as the rest of the suit, and after Melissa pushed a button on the side, Izuku saw what looked like a HUD appear in them.

Melissa walked him to the door and explained. “So while we weren’t allowed to stream the entrance exam, there are no rules that say I’m not allowed to help you out while you train! These will be streaming back to my computer, meaning I get to watch what goes on during your training in real-time!”

Izuku smiled putting the goggles on. He was surprised for a moment when he felt them automatically adjust themself to be comfortable on his face, he could feel the care that Melissa had put into them.

Izuku then yelped as he noticed the time in the top right corner of the HUD, and activated his Full Cowling, preparing to sprint off to class. “Thank you so much, Melissa! I’ll find a way to repay you for this, I promise!”

Then he was gone in a flash of green, and Melissa couldn’t make the smile on her face go away. Knowing that he loved the suit that much made her feel… happy. 

Yea, she’d go with happy.

Hey guys! If you can't imagine it from my descriptions, Izuku's hero suit is basically the one from the teaser about the 3rd MHA movie!

Chapter Text

By the time Izuku made it to the training grounds, All Might had already started.

He nodded to Izuku as he slipped into the crowd of students, hanging near the back to not cause distractions. All Might finished explaining how they were going to sort the class, holding out two buckets filled with plastic balls.

“ALRIGHT, KIDS! LINE UP, PLEASE, SO WE CAN GET THE TEAMS SORTED!”

Izuku couldn’t help but grin as he stepped into the line, adjusting his goggles onto his face before turning them on. Words rush past his eyes faster than he can read, most likely some activation stuff he doesn’t know enough about coding to understand.

Then there’s a ‘ding’, and he has to check quickly to make sure no one else heard it. But Iida, who was in front of him in line, and Tooru, who was behind him, both seemed unaware of the noise.

“Testing, testing, 1 2 3! Izuku, can you hear me?”

Izuku jumped as he heard Melissa’s voice, Full Cowling activating on instinct. Because of this, he got about a second of air-time, before landing, a blush coming to his face as the rest of his classmates stared at him.

“HA HA HA! I APPRECIATE THE ENTHUSIASM, BUT PLEASE! NO QUIRK USE UNTIL YOUR MATCH HAS STARTED!”

Lowering his head and mumbling out something that he was fairly sure was an apology, he placed the lower part of his mask onto his face, clicking it into place around his ears and mouth.

“Melissa? Why can I hear you?”

Laughter came through the other line of the call, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t be chatting in your ear for very long, just wanted to see that the communications device I designed was working properly! This channel should be secure to anything less than Quirk-based hijacking.”

Izuku hummed. He wanted to talk with her more about this because he knew that if she was making that claim, it was most likely true, and that was awesome, but he was also approaching the front of the line.

“Hey, I can hear you mumbling. Don’t worry! We can talk later if you like. Focus on your class. You may have you know what now , but don’t underestimate your classmates! They’ve had their Quirks much longer than you have.”

Izuku’s worried expression softened. “I wasn’t planning on underestimating anyone. There are some really cool Quirks in this class!”

“Ha! I’m sure there are. Why don’t you tell me all about them after school?”

“Will do!”

“Midoriya, right?”

Izuku smiled, nodding his head. “Uh, yep, Yes I am Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya. You’re… Tokoyami?”

His partner on ‘Team E’ nodded slowly, his eyes closed. “Indeed. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Midoriya. Let my bottomless darkness and your emerald light work in tandem to defeat our enemies.”

“Ignore the edgelord! I got a bottom right here!”

Izuku had to quickly duck out of the way as Tokoyami’s Quirk shot out of the boy’s shoulder, shaped very much like a butt. But almost as fast as it had shot out, it was reeled back in. “Pest! Do not conduct yourself this way in front of my classmates!”

Izuku tapped his index fingers together as Tokoyami seemed to have an argument with his own Quirk, something that both interested and amused Izuku. Dark Shadow was mid-way through saying how unfair Tokoyami was being when All Might yelled out.

“ALRIGHT, STUDENTS! FOR OUR FIRST MATCH, CAN TEAM A AND J PLEASE HEAD TO GROUND ALPHA!”

Izuku glanced around to see who had been called up. It seemed like the first match would be Jirou and Todoroki vs Yaoyorozu and… Kachaan. Izuku almost physically sagged in relief. While Kachaan had been weirdly tolerable today and yesterday, Izuku really didn’t want to fight him.

But with it confirmed that he wouldn’t have to, at least not today, Izuku was able to calm down a bit and pull out his notebook and pen. He knew that this was going to be a very interesting match.

“YAOYOROZU AND BAKUGOU WIN BY RUNNING DOWN THE TIMER!”

Izuku hummed as he watched the screen, his eyebrows furrowed as he wrote notes on both teams’ strategies. Or, in Team A’s case, lack of one. Todoroki seemed to have fully believed that his Quirk was going to end the match in a single move.

But the ‘villains’ had spent their prep time well. Yaoyorozu’s Quirk, Creation, was one of the coolest Izuku had ever seen, and he had One for All. The tower heaters that she had spread around the floor the bomb was on had quickly taken care of the ice Todoroki had created.

The bomb room itself was full of traps to an almost home-alone extent, with Momo herself manning a net gun near the ‘bomb’. But while she was on defence, Kachaan was all-out offence, just like Izuku expected.

His explosions had propelled him through the air long enough to not get trapped in Todoroki’s ice, and from there, he was able to slide around with incredible speed on the ice, taking Jirou out.

Todoroki had gotten past him for a moment after Kachaan over-propelled himself, sliding past the boy, and got onto the bomb floor. But with the heaters cranked up to full, his ice wasn’t as effective as it could have been, allowing Kachaan to overwhelm him, the heat actually increasing his effectiveness instead.

All in all, it was an amazing match. If all of them were this cool, Izuku knew his notebooks would be half full by the time they finished for the day!

“WELL DONE TO YAOYOROZU AND BAKUGOU! NOW, WHILE THEY’RE ON THEIR WAY BACK, CAN TEAM B AND TEAM I HEAD OUT TO THE GROUND BETA?”

The second match was less intense, with Kaminari and Asui vs Mineta and Sero.

Unfortunately for the ‘heroes’ the two boys Quirks synergised wonderfully, creating entire floors worth of traps over every surface, meaning that not even Asui’s ability to wall climb was able to get around them.

They both ended up getting stuck at different points, Kaminari to one of Mineta’s orbs after trying to dodge out of the way of a hanging piece of tape, and Tsuyu getting caught by Sero himself, being forced into a corner by the copious amounts of traps in the bomb room.

It was unfortunate for the ‘heroes’, but ultimately it made sense, having two people with trap-based Quirks on defence was an incredible stroke of luck. Although Mineta seemed to be quite upset about something when they arrived back at the viewing station, muttering something about ‘getting the wrong one’.

Izuku didn’t really understand, but he had a feeling that he didn’t want to.

None of the other matches was much different, usually, one team doing something the other had no counter for due to their lack of experience, but words still flew onto the pages of Izuku’s notebook.

He also played around with his suit a little bit, making sure he knew where everything was in case he needed it. Melissa had done a great job with it, and he wanted to perform well in his first lesson wearing it.

“Midoriya.”

Izuku jumped a bit, his hand almost getting snagged on the clip to one of his belt pouches as he yanked it out as he turned to Tokoyami. “Yes! Uh, what do you need, Tokoyami?”

The bird-headed boy sat down next to Izuku, having returned from talking with some of their classmates, and crossed his legs. Dark Shadow Manifested from his stomach and curled up like a cat in Tokoyami’s lap, and it took all of his willpower to not reach over and pat it.

Tokoyami hummed. “While we got to see each other’s performances during the Quirk Apprehension test that Mr Aizawa put us through, I think it would be prudent of us to actually explain to each other the extent of our Quirks, less there be some miscommunication built on an unfortunate assumption.”

Izuku blinked, the wordy sentence playing in his mind as he broke it down, a smile forming on his face as he realised he was about to get a first-hand explanation of Dark Shadow from Tokoyami. “Oh! Ok, yes! Mine is fairly simple, so you can go first if you want?”

Tokoyami nodded slowly, and Dark Shadow grumbled as it rose into the air. “My Quirk is Dark Shadow. Within me lies a creature of pure darkness, that I may call forth and command, so long as my will is strong enough.”

Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed, a frown forming on his face. He didn’t want to write that down in his notebook. Sure it kinda gave him an idea of what Dark Shadow was… but it still left a bunch of questions.

“So, Dark Shadow is sentient, right? Is that why your ‘will’ needs to be strong because otherwise, they might not listen to you?”

Tokoyami rolled his shoulders, and Izuku couldn’t help but picture a bird ruffling its feathers. “That would be correct. Dark Shadow is powerful but unruly, even more so in the dark. While in the light, he is easier to control but ultimately weaker.”

Now that was helpful info! With a smile on his face, Izuku scribbled in his notebook quickly as Tokoyami went on a long spiel about the ‘difficulties of harbouring an agent of the void within his very soul’. 

But even though Izuku didn’t understand much of the stuff he was talking about, he clapped softly when Tokoyami finished up, and the boy preened. After a moment of smugness, he tilted his head towards Izuku. “And now, what is your Quirk?”

Izuku swallowed, very nervous about not messing up the very first time someone asked him. “Superpower! I have energy that I can spread throughout my body that increases my strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina. The problem is I have too much at the moment, and if I go over 10%, I start breaking bones…”

He realised that Tokoyami was staring at him, the bad boy’s eyes wide open. He started getting really nervous about not being believed when Tokoyami schooled his face and nodded solemnly.

“I was right to befriend you, a fellow wielder of a cursed power. To have so much power that your human vessel cannot contain it without breaking… truly, we are birds of a feather.”

Izuku had to stop himself from laughing out loud at that, and with the way Tokoyami was grinning while staring at him, he had totally done it on purpose. After that, they watched the rest of the matches before theirs in silence, but a comfortable one.

Izuku couldn’t wait for their turn!