Chapter Text
In one universe Izuku Midoriya meets All Might and becomes his successor. That is not this universe. In this universe Izuku gives up on being a hero early on. He never meets All Might and stays quirkless.
He doesn't have a vision for his future and so he chooses to go to the best school in the country...UA. Not as a hero, no simply as a Gen Ed student. And he does get in, which caused him to be in this mess at the moment, so perhaps he should have chosen a school that didn't have a genius as the Principal.
Izuku sits in front of Principal Nezu, a cup of tea getting cold in front of him. He still wasn't quite sure why he was here, as he hadn't done anything wrong. Well besides running a quirk analysis ring behind the teachers back, but he hadn't meant to do that and there was no way the Principal had found out. The Principal does in fact know about this ring, and would love to get his paws on those notebooks but that's not why he brought Izuku here.
" Principal Nezu, are you ever going to tell me why I'm here, or are you going to drink that entire pot of tea first?"
" Well, this tea is quite delicious. You should try yours."
" No thank you. It's chamomile, which makes you sleepy and more suggestible to suggestions. I'd prefer to be awake for my classes."
" Ah, very astute of you. Not many look into the properties of tea anymore." Izuku stays silent. It's obvious that Principal Nezu is just trying to deflect. Nezu's eyes gleam. This child is quite interesting.
" Well, I suppose we can start. It's about your grades."
" My grades? I have good grades, I don't understand the problem." Izuku drawls. He's missing math for this, and he'd rather be at math if he's being honest.
" You are correct, your grades are quite good. But you see, they aren't good enough."
" So you called me in here to tell me to do better?" Nezu's grin sharpens.
" No. I came to ask why you are purposely sabotaging yourself." Izuku's eyes widen minisculely but Nezu still catches it. So he's correct.
" I don't know what you mean." Izuku attempts to lie.
" Is that so? Well how is it that you have missed exactly enough questions to keep your grade average at an 84%? In fact it has not slipped once all year. I would have never noticed, I don't make it a habit of checking all of the students in my school's grades you know. But Ectoplasm, your dear maths teacher did notice. How you would explain a concept to a student perfectly, only to miss it on a test, even though he got the other questions correct. And it has repeated itself all year." Izuku mentally curses Ectoplasm-sensei and pastes on a smile.
" Well, mistakes happen. I suppose I don't check my work enough. I am only human after all." He laughs nervously. He hadn't been expecting this to come up today or ever. It's something he's done since he was a child. If he got perfect work he was accused of cheating and given a zero every time. It was easier to pretend to be dumb and be safe.
Nobody had ever cared enough to call him out on the behaviour so he never thought to become more sneaky about how he fucked his own score up. He thought even if someone had noticed, no one would care.
" Well, that is true, but you have a pattern that can be tracked throughout all of your assignments. In fact I went to the trouble of looking through all of your previous work and marked the pattern down myself. I also went ahead and gave you a perfect score on all of those assignments. It's clear you are purposely sabotaging yourself. If you hadn't purposely given the wrong answer you wouldn't have missed a question all year." Izuku is really cursing his highschool choice now.
" I'm sorry Principal Nezu. I didn't want to be accused of cheating. I'll do better next time." Izuku gives a stiff bow and attempts to leave assuming the conversation is over.
"I'm glad you'll stop giving yourself handicaps, but I'm not sure why you think you'll be accused of cheating. We can get into that later I suppose. But I've heard great things about those notebooks of yours and I'm quite interested in looking through them. So if you wouldn't mind staying for a little longer?" Nezu phrases it as a question, but it's obviously not. So Izuku sits down and hands over his current notebook. Number 54. After giving up on heroics, he'd had a lot more time to put into analysing quirks.
Nezu can feel his tail start to wag as he looks through the notebook. In front of him sits Midoriya Izuku's true genius. He hasn't seen analysis this well thought out and clever, in a very long time. More than that, most analysts have plenty of footage to watch to analyze, but if the entry on Eraserhead shows anything he doesn't need a video to be able to analyze someone. Nezu knows for a fact that Eraserhead had little to none video footage of him, or his quirk on the internet. But Midoriya has not only dissected it to a T, he has a psychological profile on him and facts not known to people other than his close friends. Like the fact that he's married to Present Mic.
Nezu looks up and begins to analyze Midoriya closer. It's clear he does some sort of workout routine if the defined muscles on his arms have anything to say. His posture indicates that he has taken at least one form of martial arts. Even the way he watches his surroundings show he has excellent spatial awareness. Midoriya should have made it extremely far in the Sports Festival if Nezu's predictions were correct, and they were. But Nezu couldn't even remember seeing Midoriya in the sports festival at all. Almost like he hadn't tried at all.
Izuku watches apprehensive as Nezu seems to go into a frenzy whipping through pages at an insane speed. Was he even reading them at this point? Eventually he snaps the notebook shut and begins to stare at Izuku again . Izuku sighs. Is the staring never going to stop? He really just wants to get back to class.
" Can I go-"
" Midoriya I would like to offer you a place in the hero course and the opportunity to mentor under me for the next two years at UA." Izuku goes bug eyed and nearly chokes on his own spit.
" What?!"
" I would like to offer you a-"
" No, I heard you. But WHY!" Nezu is quick to share his observations.
" Midoriya you are smarter than you like to let on. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to state that you are a certifiable genius. But you sabotage yourself for no reason. More than that, it's clear that you have martial arts experience, if the bruises on your knuckles and your posture have anything to say. I would even go so far as to say you have gymnastic prowess as well. You are the perfect hero candidate, and I have no doubt had you tried in the Sports Festival you would have won. So I'm offering you the chance to join the hero course. As long as you actually start trying." Nezu adds the little joke at the end in the hopes it'd make Midoriya more comfortable. It does not work.
" No." Nezu blinks. He hadn't expected him to say no.
" No? " Izuku scoffs and crosses his hands.
" Yeah, no."
" May I ask why? This is an extremely good opportunity. Perhaps you should just join a class once or twice, see how you like it."
" I don't want to be a hero. I haven't for a long time. Not since I was ten. Why would I become a hero now? I'm happy right where I am."
" Are you?" Nezu questions.
" Yes. I am. Now, I'm missing valuable class time, and if you want me to stop fudging my scores then I should get to class. Have a good day Principal Nezu." Izuku once again bows shortly and grabs his notebook. Nezu's hand lands on his. Izuku glances at him.
" This isn't over Midoriya-san. We need more heroes like you and I am determined to convince you to join our class." Izuku snorts.
" Yeah okay. Good luck with that, I'm pretty stubborn I'm afraid." With that he takes his leave and Nezu smiles at the empty room.
" So am I." Then he turns to the computer. He has the beginnings of how he would get Midoriya to change his mind.
Class 1-A is chattering excitedly to each other and Aizawa can't help but sigh. He really does have such a problem class this year.
" Brats." He drawls from the door. The students snap to attention. At least their reaction times were getting better. He shuffles in with a stack of books.
" Iida pass these out." Iida jumps up.
" Of course Aizawa-sensei. Thank you for trusting me with such a task." Aizawa sometimes wants to beat the formalness out of that child. How is he so goddamn different from Tensei? He shakes his head. It doesn't matter. Hopefully by third year he'll have chilled out some, but he doesn't hold much hope for it currently. When Iida has passed out all of the books he begins to speak.
" Now, as you know finals are coming up, to be clear, this determines whether or not you progress to second year, so I suggest you take it seriously." He sends a glare to the more excitable bunch in his class who turn pale.
" Finals are going to test everything you have learned this year. And to do that we do a villain vs. heroes assignment." Mina's hand shoots up.
" Oh. Oh like the first assignment we did with All Might sensei right?" She squeals and Aizawa nods.
" Yes, but on a much grander scale. You will have a month to prepare and then you will spend three days in a cityscape. There will be two teams. The heroes, and the villains. The only people who will be predetermined are the leaders of the villain teams. You will find those out in a few days once preparations start. After that you can choose the side you wish to be on. Everyone will be scored individually on how well they do at what they choose to do. So if you choose to be a villain but save a civilian points will be docked. Or if as a hero you kill a villain, points will be docked for that person. And so forth, you'll find more about that in the books I just gave you." The class nods, faces serious. Good, they are paying attention. He continues.
" You will each be given objectives to complete as a team, and that will be used to determine how your team wins. If your team wins, you will receive some...special benefits and the losers will receive double training and summer school. Consider that an incentive. And let me reiterate, this is to test everything you've learned this year. It will be hard. Make sure you read the rules and come to me with any questions you might have." With that Aiwaw gets in his sleeping bag and promptly falls asleep.
Immediately the class begins to chatter.
" Oh, wow kero. I wonder who are going to be the leaders.
" Yeah I wonder what the prize is."
" Me too!"
" Hah, you shitty extras, obviously I'll be the leader of the hero team. And fucking mask over there will be the villain since he looks like one anyway. Or the bird freak." Shouji immediately scowls, though you can't tell with the mask.
" All is not well in your soul. Darkness preys on it." Tokoyami whispers. Bakugo scowls. Fucking extras.
" Well, this sounds really fun, but also really hard." Moans Mina. Denki shrugs and bumps shoulders with her.
" Aww it's okay, you can sit back and let us handle it! Then you'll pass no matter what." Mina scowls. That is not what she meant.
" I do wonder who would want to be a part of the villain team though. i mean we are training to be heroes!" Points out Ojiro. It's met with murmurs of agreement except a select few who are thinking they wouldn't mind being part of the villain team.
" Well. I suppose if your friend is the leader, they might want to be a villain."
" Yeah, but you can't just choose because of your friends." Points out Hagakure. Again nods go around.
Nezu stares at the list in front of him. Originally, he had Bakugou as the leader of the villains. But now he would be the leader of the heroes and Midoriya would be the leader of the villains.
The reasoning was quite simple. Nezu wanted Midoriya to go all out on a hands-on assignment. And as a hero he wouldn't be taken seriously as someone not in the hero course. And he would just let the hero students do all the work. But to lead the villains? Yes, it was brilliant. Nezu would give Midoriya an ultimatum and force him to do his best. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Midoriya would be more likely to accept his offer of the hero course after this.
Yes. Midoriya was going to be the Crux. And Bakugo would be the Prime. And if Nezu's predictions were correct this might be the first time that the villains ever win the assignment.