Work Text:
Okay, so maybe hacking into the government database isn’t the best idea ever, but Izuku is kind of running out of options.
It’s his mother’s fault, really. Maybe not the best way to talk about a recently deceased relative, but Izuku knows it’s true.
After all, he wouldn’t even be in this situation if she’d just told him what his damn quirk is.
Let’s start from the beginning.
-
Izuku is five years old. His quirk still hasn’t shown itself, so his mother takes him to the hospital to ask his doctor.
The small boy sits in the waiting room, swinging his legs while his mother talks to the doctor in hushed tones. Whatever is said makes her face twist into an unrecognizable emotion. She huffs, picking up Izuku as they leave the hospital.
“Mama!” His excitement threatens to overflow. “What’s my quirk?”
His mother gives him an unreadable expression before her visage melts into a warm smile. “He doesn’t know yet, Izu. We’ll just have to wait and see!”
It’s a couple years later when Izuku accepts that his mother lied to him. He’s seven years old now, and nobody gets their quirk this late if it’s going to show up at all.
Izuku comes up with a few ideas.
- Maybe his quirk is super dangerous and powerful, and his mother is trying to keep it hidden and contained for everyone’s safety.
- Maybe the doctor had truly been unable to conclude what Izuku’s quirk is, and it’s lying dormant somewhere inside of him.
- Maybe his quirk is already active. It’s likely that he wouldn’t notice a passive intelligence or empathy quirk or something similar. Maybe he’s had it all along.
Izuku will sometimes ask, throughout the years, what his quirk is. His mother’s answer never changes.
“We’ll find out when it comes, won’t we?”
When she hears Izuku’s theory that he already has a weak and subtle quirk, she latches on it far too insistently for it to be anything but fake.
“Quirk analysis!” She exclaims. “You’ve always been good at that! I bet it’s your quirk.”
Looking back, Izuku would have been more inclined to believe her if she hadn’t said something along this vein every time he did something well.
It must be dormant
, he concludes.
That strikes out Option 3.
Of course, the kids at school don’t know this. All they know is that he never shows signs of having any sort of special ability. Thus, Izuku becomes a target for bullies.
He never loses hope, though-- he just waits for his quirk to come in. Sometimes he tries to pull things toward him with his mind, which is his mother’s quirk, or breathe fire, which was his father’s. No dice.
‘If I still want to be a hero,’ Izuku realizes as he’s being pummeled into the ground one day, ‘I need to start training to make up for my mystery quirk.’
His mother is all too relieved when he asks her if he can enroll in a gym and a dojo.
“I’m glad you’ll have a way to defend yourself,” she sighs.
“Right, just until I figure out my quirk!”
He doesn’t see her smile falter, his face buried in a hero analysis notebook.
-
On Izuku’s twelfth birthday, his mother dies. It’s a freak accident-- not a villain attack or a natural disaster, but a drunk driver who T-bones her car.
Custody of Izuku is passed to his uncle, an awkward but well-meaning middle-aged man. Izuku doesn’t have to move far, only to the other end of the city. He takes up online classes and drops out of his middle school. His uncle gives him plenty of freedom, presumably due to his lack of knowledge surrounding pre-teens and all involved interactions.
Predictably, Izuku puts this freedom to good use.
Every day, Izuku visits his mother’s grave. He tells her what’s been going on in his life, sometimes settling next to her headstone to do homework or eat something. It makes him feel more connected with her.
When he asks his uncle about his quirk, the man just tells him that his mother was trying to protect him by keeping it from him. A little more pestering makes his uncle admit that he doesn’t agree with her actions, but he still refuses to budge.
“I have a hunch,” he says. “But I don’t want to say in case I’m wrong.”
Izuku’s mouth falls open. “She didn’t tell you?”
“No. She called, ranted about the situation, agonized for half an hour, said it was better if you didn’t know, and then hung up, never actually saying what your quirk is. I can only guess.”
“Can’t we just ask? We could visit the police station and ask to look it up, right?”
His uncle sighs. “I’ve checked, and they said to go to the Hero Public Safety Commission for that information. Unfortunately, they’re all booked for the foreseeable future. I can make an appointment for their soonest available time, if you’d like.”
“When’s that?”
“For a quirk appointment? It’s projected to be around two or three years.”
“ What? Why so long?”
“The old director of the quirk-filing division died recently. His quirk was what helped with the system organization, so now everything is all messed up. They’re re-doing the entire system, which will take at least half a year, and they’re super booked after that. That’s just an estimation, though, it may go faster.”
Izuku sighs. “Sure. Hopefully I can figure it out by then.”
His uncle nods. “I’ll go do that.”
Izuku also takes to computers. He already spends plenty of time online-- browsing hero discussion forums, watching hero videos, and researching new heroes.
Sue him, he likes heroes.
On one such discussion forum, he stumbles into a sketchy post asking for hypothetical weaknesses of Eraserhead’s quirk.
@Vengeful61
7:43 PM: Anyone know anything about Eraserhead? The inner workings of his quirk and it’s weaknesses, for one, and how to bypass it.
Izuku has come across the hero’s name before. All he knows is that Eraserhead is an underground hero and that he can temporarily disable his opponents’ quirks.
He sucks in a breath. That’s it! If he can get Eraserhead to use his quirk on him, he can see what feels different. It could give him a few clues, and confirm or deny his current suspicions.
Deciding to browse the account of the user who’d created the post, Izuku is redirected to a shady server that looks like another layer of the forum-- a hidden server, or something, with inaccessible replies unless you sign in. It asks for his ‘code’ and contact information.
Yeah, no. Not happening.
He decides to take a different route and hack into it. It can’t be that hard, right?
Wrong. It takes a full year of online college computer sciences classes, some dubiously-legal hacking websites, and a little experimentation on Izuku’s part to figure out his way around the firewall and system encryptions and gain access to the shady site.
During this time, he still regularly attends his dojo and gym, and puts a fair bit of muscle onto his slender frame. He’s nearing proficiency in three types of martial arts, and is more flexible and agile now. His mind and body are both leagues ahead of how they were just a couple years ago.
In the server, Izuku quickly gains attention under the name ‘Futile’, which is close enough to ‘Useless’ but not as obvious as ‘Deku’.
He doesn’t mean to, but all it takes are a few vague hints that he’s good at analyzing quirks and there are suddenly loads of messages waiting for him, asking him to pick apart different quirks.
(Seeing how Izuku recognizes plenty of them as belonging to small-time heroes, he can easily deduce that most of the people that frequent this server are likely thugs, criminals, and villains. He doesn’t give away any information, but instead checks all of the accounts that sent him messages.)
One message in particular catches his attention. It’s from an account called Sneak_K .
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 10:37 PM: I’ve gotta warn you to stay away from places like this. You seem smart, so don’t get careless. There are some unsavory people here.
Curiosity heightened, Izuku scrolls through the person’s account. Something that catches his attention is that they’d posted a response to the question about Eraserhead:
@Sneak_K to @Vengeful61, 8:01 PM: His quirk activates by touch. Keeping your distance should render his ability null and void.
Okay, so that’s false. From the fuzzy video he’d managed to find, Eraserhead is able to disable quirks from quite a distance. Based on the protective goggles he wears, Izuku would guess that it has more to do with eye-contact or something related.
The question stands, does this user genuinely believe their statement, or are they lying on purpose?
He sends a quick message back.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 10:41 PM: Unsavory people… Including yourself?
The reply comes quickly.
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 10:42 PM: I hope that whatever I say, you won’t just take my word for it.
Izuku decides to be blunt and upfront. He shouldn’t be traceable or hackable right now, so he may as well try to get some answers.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 10:44 PM: There was a person asking about Eraserhead. You got a lot of knowledge on his quirk?
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 10:45 PM: Hm, I wonder. The way you worded that makes me think you disagree with what I said.
Shit, is he being that obvious?
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 10:46 PM: I’ve heard different rumors and things about his quirk, was just wondering what’s true and what’s not.
The other user doesn’t respond for a while, and when they do, it’s a sudden change of topic.
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 10:53 PM: Your profile says ‘new user’. Are you a villain like most of the people here?
After insisting that he isn’t, and that he’s just someone with too much curiosity than is good for him, he asks the same. The other user says that they aren’t, and hints that villains have no love for them.
Izuku asks if it’s because of things like feeding them incorrect information, and just gets a winky face in response.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 11:03 PM: Are you a hero? Undercover, maybe?
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 11:03 PM: In a way, I suppose.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 11:04 PM: Police officer?
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 11:05 PM: Haha, no. Far from it.
What else?
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 11:06 PM: Vigilante?
When he receives ‘Sharp’ as the only response, he can’t help but grin a little.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 11:07 PM: What should I call you?
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 11:09 PM: I go by Whiplash.
-
Izuku puts together the (few) articles that have managed to catch a photo here or a statement there, of Eraserhead of course, and pieces together that he must operate in the near area based on the locations he’s been sighted.
With his newfound hacking skills, Izuku gains access to the city security cameras, flipping through them. Since Eraserhead operates mainly at night, he’ll look for the hero during those times on saved footage.
By the end of the month, Izuku has the man’s vague patrol route mapped out. Now, to confront him.
-
Aizawa doesn’t usually mind his job. Either of them, actually.
Dealing with his class of high-schoolers is annoying, yes, but it’s also fulfilling to introduce them into the world of heroics and help them reach their full potential.
As for his night job, being an underground hero is serious work. He often has to face the darker sides of the industry, dealing with trafficking and torture cases just as much as he deals with petty criminals. At the end of the day, though, he knows that he did something to help the city.
On the other hand, between having both a day job and a night job, Aizawa doesn’t get much sleep. This often leaves him achy, irritated, and exhausted.
It’s on a night that he’s parkouring across rooftops, peering into alleyways, that this sleep-deprivation nearly causes him to miss the small figure who’s jogging his way.
He readies his capture weapon, only lowering it when the figure comes into view.
It’s a small boy, holding up his hands non-threateningly. Aizawa steps forward.
“Who are you, what do you want, and how did you find me?”
The small boy takes in his capture weapon and goggles with excited eyes.
“My name is Midoriya, and I wanted to ask you a favor, Eraserhead!”
How the hell does this kid know his name?
“First, tell me how you know who I am and how you found me.”
The kid waves his hands around frantically. “Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m just a big hero fan! Um, so I was wondering if you could try erasing my quirk? I want to test something.”
He knows his quirk, too?
“Kid, I’m going to need you to come with me. If you don’t want to talk, just know that there’s a detective stationed in this city with a lie-detection quirk. We just need to know why you know all of this.”
Unexpectedly, the kid’s eyes light up at the mention. “Lie-detection? Do you know the details? If I told a lie but didn’t know whether it was the truth or not, what would it register as? Is it based on fact, or the belief of the per--”
“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down.”
The kid slumps.
“Sorry, I just got excited. I need to know something, so I was wondering if I could tell them one of my suspicions and they could tell me if it’s true or not.”
Aizawa sighs. He can feel a small headache blooming behind his eyes.
“I can’t disclose how his quirk works, but if you’ll accompany me to the police station, you’re welcome to ask him yourself.”
The kid bobs his head. “Sure! Also, question. When you erase a quirk, can you tell what the quirk is that you’re erasing?”
Aizawa stares for a moment before sagging. “Come on, let’s talk about this when we get there.”
-
As it turns out, Eraserhead can’t tell what the quirk he’s erasing is, which is a bummer. When he activates it on Izuku, he doesn’t feel anything different. Maybe it’s a transformation or mutation quirk. If it’s a mutation, like… a bigger brain or enhanced bones or something, then Eraserhead wouldn’t be able to disable it. If it’s a transformation type, maybe the hero’s quirk doesn’t do anything since Izuku is very much in his normal form.
Tsukauchi is the detective with the lie-detection quirk. When Izuku inquires on how it works, he meets another dead end. The quirk is based on what the individual believes to be the truth, so it’s no use to Izuku. How disappointing.
“Midoriya,” Eraserhead calls. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
The hero had seemed stumped when Tsukauchi’s quirk hadn’t detected any lies in Midoriya’s explanation-- (“I’m a hero nerd! Eraserhead is my favorite, so I’ve seen every video of him out there, and read every article! That’s how I knew he was in the area,”)-- and he’d been relieved to hear no lies in Izuku’s statement that he’s not a villain.
“Oh, no, it’s alright!” Izuku insists. “I don’t live far, and I know the way.”
“Kid.” Eraserhead looks so done with the world. “It’s 3 AM. Let me walk you.”
-
A couple days after that, Izuku catches wind of a drug trade operation set a week later.
One of the users on the shady server is discussing it with someone else. When they form a smaller chat server with all the involved parties, Izuku has no issue with hacking into it and lurking while keeping his account hidden.
He tells Whiplash, who asks him to keep them updated on the situation so that they can help bust it.
The two of them talk regularly, now. They’re practically-- dare he say it-- friends .
Honestly, Izuku doesn’t much care to get involved in the drug deal. He has no problems with ruining the trade, of course, but he’s really only interested for one reason: the head client’s quirk.
The guy goes by ‘Revenant’, which is just melodramatic and pretentious enough to make Izuku snort. It doesn’t even make him any more intimidating or spooky; the guy is just so easy to track down. He’s practically flaunting his IP address with his pathetic security.
His quirk, as he’s told his clients, is an emitter type that allows him to identify quirks with just a glance.
It’s perfect. Izuku needs to get his hands on this guy.
Once he has a location and time, he sends all the information to Whiplash.
@Futile to @Sneak_K , 9:25 AM: It’s this Saturday, at 10pm at the Shibui Bridge. The amount of cash being exchanged is... frankly, obscene. There are going to be at least ten people there, maybe more.
@Sneak_K to @Futile , 10:47 AM: Gotcha, thanks. Are you gonna go too?
Izuku shoots back an affirmative. They agree to meet under the bridge half an hour before the deal. He spends the next couple days keeping an eye on the multiple servers he’s in, sending some anonymous tips to the police once in a while.
(Except the upcoming drug deal, of course. He doesn’t want anyone to interfere while he… talks to Revenant.)
-
“Futile? Maybe you shouldn’t be here. What are you, twelve?”
Whiplash turns out to be a young woman, maybe in her twenties, with chin-length dark hair and plum-colored eyes. Her right iris looks like… a little compass. Or is it a clock? A scar about an inch long extends from one corner of her mouth, like an imitation of a smile.
She’s got an athletic build, with her wine red jumpsuit concealing several weapons that Izuku can tell. She carries a staff, too.
“I’m thirteen,” Izuku huffs.
“I thought you said you’re going to become a hero. Getting involved in vigilantism isn’t exactly the way to go, in that case.”
Izuku waves her off. “I do want to become a hero, and you know why? To save people. Think of this as a head-start.” At her unconvinced stare, he sighs. “I’m going to stay out of it, I promise. I’m not hurting anyone or getting in the way. I just need to ask this one guy some questions.”
She shrugs. “Up to you, kid.”
When both parties finally show up, one of the men spots Izuku and Whiplash lurking behind a nearby tree and lets out a yell. The rest of the group turns their weapons and quirks toward the pair.
Instead of panicking, Whiplash sighs. She grabs Izuku’s wrist, and her eyes begin to glow. The clock (he’s pretty sure it’s a clock now) in her right eye turns counter-clockwise a mark, and then the world rushes past the two of them for a second.
When he feels his feet back on solid ground, Izuku looks at where the group of people had emerged. There’s nobody there. A clock…
“Did you just turn back time?”
Whiplash spares him a glance as they back further into the shadows. “Yeah, one minute. Just for you and I.”
That’s such a useful quirk. There’s gotta be some backlash.
“How far back can you go?”
Izuku sees her lip curl upward in amusement.
“Now, why would I give away my secrets like that?”
-
Okay, so. Turns out the drug isn’t just any old drug, but a new strain of quirk disablers that last forever. Supposedly.
Izuku figures this out when Revenant and the other clients get hit by small capsule bullets of the stuff and can’t activate their quirks.
Are you fucking serious? There goes his best chance.
The guy who shot him is apparently yakuza. The ringleader. Because, of course he is. Can the universe just give Izuku a goddamn break? He’s seriously getting fed up. He just wants to know .
Overhaul, as he calls himself, declares that he’s going to cleanse everyone of their disease-- (he’s talking about quirks, right?)-- and then gleefully takes the money the clients had brought.
There’s not much they can do about it, seeing as they’ve all been knocked unconscious.
While Izuku takes a moment to bash his head against a tree, Whiplash follows Overhaul, saying she’s going to see where their hideout is.
There’s a woman who was with Overhaul who stays behind. Izuku watches, eyes widening when she pulls out a handgun and aims it at Revenant's limp body.
“This is for my brother.”
Before she can pull the trigger, Izuku is running up and kicking the gun out of her hand.
“Wha--”
Before she can react, Izuku wraps an elbow around her neck, swinging around to her back and tightening the choke hold until she’s unconscious.
Huh. He didn’t really want to get involved, but there’s no way he’ll just let someone get murdered in front of him.
He leaves the gun in a bush. He probably shouldn’t take it with him.
Twenty minutes later has Whiplash returning, carrying a small girl with terrified red eyes.
“Wow,” says Izuku. “You certainly work fast. Who’s the lucky guy?”
“Cheeky brat,” she mutters. “This is Eri. She’s been… under the ‘care’ of Overhaul.” She spits the word ‘care’ with enough vitriol that Izuku can pick up on the real meaning. Abuse.
“Hey, Eri. My name is Futile. It’s nice to meet you.”
Eri mumbles something quietly, and he looks to Whiplash, who sighs, presumably answering whatever Eri asked. “He’s safe, too. He helped me today.” Debatable, but okay. Eri gives him a slow blink.
Izuku opens his mouth but shuts it as a figure shifts in the shadows. Izuku whispers to Whiplash for a moment, then slips away. Hopefully the person hasn’t noticed him yet.
As he slides into the man’s blind spot, he sets his feet down lightly to stay silent.
Izuku reaches the man’s back, shooting out a hand lightning-quick to chop him where his skull meets the top of his neck. The man collapses.
He sends mental thanks to his instructor at the dojo.
Toeing the limp body, Izuku makes sure that he’s unconscious before making his way back to Whiplash and Eri.
“Sorry,” he says. “I think you missed one guy.”
Whiplash quietly tells him about the Eri’s quirk, and he lets the implication of that, paired with the quirk-erasing bullets, sink in. He doesn’t like that at all. He wonders if maybe knowing that Whiplash has a similar quirk is comforting to Eri, especially since she can rewind time to prevent Eri’s quirk from rewinding time. Woah. That hurts his brain.
Izuku turns to Whiplash. “So… are you gonna drop her off somewhere? Police station?”
“Probably. We can figure that out once we get out of here.”
She sets Eri down, grabbing her hand. Izuku leans closer to Whiplash’s ear.
“What happened to Overhaul?” he whispers.
She gives him a little smile, extended by her scar. “Don’t worry about it.”
-
The first time Izuku runs into Shinsou is at a corner store at 1 AM.
He’s there to get cup noodles, because cup noodles taste best at night, and his uncle doesn’t have any.
Because the universe has it out for Izuku, there’s an attempted robbery. It’s quickly shut down by a boy with fluffy purple hair and eye bags as deep as Eraserhead’s.
After brainwashing (how cool is that??) the robber into turning himself in, the boy tries to sneak out of the store.
Izuku follows him, striking up a conversation. Well, he tries. The boy is rather uncooperative.
“Why would you follow me into a dark alley?”
Izuku shrugs. “I know how to street-fight.” It’s true, Whiplash has been teaching him on the weekends. “I also have a knife.”
“Woah woah woah, why do you have a knife?”
“I followed you into a dark alleyway,” Izuku points out.
“Look,” he sighs, “I don’t know what you want from me. I promise not to use my quirk on you if you just go away.”
Izuku practically pounces. “Can you use it on my uncle?”
The boy does a double take. “What?”
He finds out the boy is called Shinsou, and that for some reason he doesn’t really want to brainwash Izuku’s uncle.
“Come on, please? I just need to know his hunch! I’m going to apply to UA soon and I need to fill out my forms, which ask for my quirk, which I don’t know .”
Shinsou relents after ten minutes of badgering, leaving Izuku with a proud smile.
“Alright, this way!”
Shinsou narrows his eyes. “Absolutely not. We aren’t doing this right now. It’s nearly 2 in the morning.”
Izuku sighs. He guesses he can wait a little longer.
They exchange numbers, agreeing to meet the next day.
Izuku’s uncle seems happy that he’s going to invite a friend over, but also seems vaguely uncomfortable. “I can leave if you two want…” He’s clearly the one who wants that.
“No, no! You should stay. I want you to meet him,” Izuku lies through his teeth.
He tries not to feel too bad. He really needs to know, even if it’s just a hunch.
When Shinsou arrives, he thanks Izuku’s uncle for having him, and when the man responds, his face goes blank.
“Alright,” Shinsou gestures, “do your thing. He’ll only be able to tell you what he thinks, not what’s actually true. He can’t tell you what he doesn’t remember, either. Keep that in mind.”
Izuku nods.
“What do you think my quirk is, and why? Tell me why you’re being so secretive, too,” he orders his uncle.
“Your father didn’t just have a fire-breathing quirk,” the man drones, “and he’s not dead, either.”
Izuku blinks.
“He had a quirk that could take others’ quirks for himself, as well as give them away. My guess is that seeing that he became a villain, your mother didn’t want you to discover that you have the same quirk and be hated and feared like your father. Nobody feels comfortable around someone with that type of quirk.”
Woah, that’s a lot to unpack. So, his father isn’t dead, but a villain, and Izuku may have his quirk?
Shinsou tells him that his uncle shouldn’t remember what happens while he’s under his control.
Izuku takes the time to touch his uncle’s arm, closing his eyes and concentrating. He has a weak telekinesis quirk that allows him to push things away, the opposite of his sister. Izuku searches for… well, he doesn’t know. Whatever a quirk feels like, he guesses.
Nope, nothing.
After a minute, he gives up and Shinsou releases the quirk as they head inside the house.
He tries to take Shinsou’s quirk too, after a bit of persuasion, but Izuku doesn’t feel anything.
So… he probably doesn’t have his father’s quirk, then.
Well, it was worth a shot.
-
Alright. Here’s the thing.
Izuku has tried. He really has. He’s tracked down the elusive Eraserhead, talked with a head detective, hacked into a server for villains, made friends with a vigilante, crashed a drug trade, became an accomplice to possible assault or murder or whatever is it Whiplash did to the yakuza, helped rescue a little girl, and brainwashed his uncle.
And yet, here he is, still with no idea of what his quirk is. Normally, he’d be okay with that. He’s survived this long, after all. He’ll figure it out eventually.
But the thing is, UA applications are due soon.
He looks at his form, where the ‘QUIRK’ section glares at him. He glares back.
It’s time for drastic measures.
Hacking into the government Quirk Registry is nothing like getting into the city cameras through a backdoor. There’s far better security, and it takes him several days to sneak in. Even then, he’s sure the security measures will catch him eventually, so he needs to work quickly.
As he navigates to the section under M, anticipation builds in his chest.
This could be it. No more wondering.
Izuku scrolls down.
K, L, M… MA, ME, MI... Midoriya. There.
He blinks, and then blinks again.
Midoriya Izuku
Quirk: N/A
N/A? Not applicable?
So his mother didn’t register his quirk?
No, then it would say ‘unregistered’.
Why’d she say that he’s quirkless?
Unless… wait.
No way.
Izuku’s… quirkless.
Actually quirkless. As in no quirk, no power, no special ability, no mutation, no secret weapon.
He takes a minute to process. All of that? He did all of that to find out that he doesn’t have a quirk? So... by "protecting" him, his mother just decided not to tell him? Izuku wonders if she ever would've told him, if she hadn't died. What was she planning to do when he figured it out?
He sits back, exhaling. The reason he wanted to know was to fill out his UA application form. He was sure that he’d have something to show, and that it would help him become a hero.
But…
He doesn’t have a quirk. His first thought is, ‘ There goes my dream,’ but then he thinks about it more carefully.
All that he’s done these past years… His physical skill, his hacking, his analysis…
He did all that himself, didn’t he? He trained, and he built something for himself. He'd even helped the police catch criminals with the information he'd gotten from the shady server. He’s strong, smart, logical, and determined. Above all, he never stopped wanting to save people.
Why should he devalue himself for something that’s always been true, that he only just realized?
He smiles as he fills out the ‘QUIRK’ section of the form so that it matches what’s in the Registry.
UA would be dumb not to accept him for the sole reason that he doesn’t have any superpowers.
After all, it’s not like he really needs one.
