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Izuku loved his quirk. It was amazing: the best thing about him. The only good thing . It hurt him, but that was okay. Everything he loved hurt him. His quirk tried to look out for him, giving him the tools he needed to be okay. If he sometimes disagreed with what he was given, well, that was because they had different priorities. Izuku wanted to be a hero, and his quirk wanted him to have fun.
That’s why Izuku had the Rules. The most important rule was simple: don’t use his quirk at school. After Izuku collapsed Kaachan into a pile of limbs he was pretty strict on that one. His quirk didn’t like Aldera. Didn’t like the teachers who ignored everything, or the students who ruined his stuff if he looked away for five minutes and whispered insults behind his back. His quirk didn’t even like Kaachan, who was his best friend! So Izuku never took the quirks Multitool tried to shove at him during the school day.
That didn’t mean he never used any quirks at school though. Izuku went through a phase of picking up a quirk every morning, and then refusing to swap at school. He’d stopped that after his quirk had given him Perfect Recall for two weeks straight. It had been useful in lessons: he still had all of his textbooks memorised- but it wasn’t worth the way he could still perfectly remember every insult slung his way, every time Kaachan had called him a villain.
Nowadays he tended to wait until the end of the school day, until everyone had cleared off the school grounds, and then take whatever Multitool was offering. More and more nowadays, it tended to be some kind of self-healing quirk. Izuku wasn’t blind as to why. Swapping quirks left part of him splattered on the floor like a macabre art project (Rule 8: keep a full water bottle and try not to swap on carpet). He was pretty sure whatever his quirk was doing to him wasn’t good for him, but he didn’t have a choice!
Today was a particularly bad day. Izuku’s homeroom teacher had announced to the class that Izuku and Kaachan were both trying for U.A., and while he had reprimanded the boys mocking him for hoping to be a hero with a villainous quirk, it hadn’t stopped Kaachan from trying to glare holes in the side of his head all morning. Then, his English teacher had insisted he leave his bag behind when he’d asked to go to the bathroom. He’d wanted to back out then, but hadn’t known what to say. Sure enough, he’d gotten back to find someone had ‘spilled’ glue all over his bag, soaking everything inside.
Izuku had waited until school was let out to dump out the contents of his bag and begin looking through it. The objects at the bottom seemed relatively intact, but several of his work books were unusable, and worst of all: his quirk analysis notebook was destroyed. He’d prepared to grab whatever quirk Multitool was offering when a hard shove drove him into his desk. He spun to see Kaachan and a couple of his friends glaring at him.
“What the fuck, Deku! You’re trying to get into U.A? That’s a joke- no one’s gonna accept someone who can just disassemble people- especially not U.A. They only accept the best of the best: like me. You’re not on my level, so do yourself a favour and withdraw your application before I make you.”
Izuku grit his teeth. Kaachan was his best friend, and Izuku knew he should be kind to him, but sometimes he just wanted to scream at him. “That’s not my power, Kaachan, you know that!”
“Oh yeah, your quirk is some magic changing quirk that you’ve never shown any of us, right? Quit lying, nerd!” leaning in, Kaachan stayed just outside of Izuku’s reach. He did that a lot, actually- Kaachan only touched Izuku in surprise attacks, ever since Izuku hurt him. Every time Izuku saw him carefully measure his distance from him it made his heart ache in guilt. He’d done that. He’d ruined everything, and if Kaachan hated him now it was exactly what Izuku deserved. “Or prove it.” Kaachan challenged.
Izuku clamped down, hard, before Multitool could shove another quirk at him. His quirk was champing at the bit to prove Kaachan wrong, but Izuku couldn’t, wouldn’t, hurt his friend again. Instead he stared at the semicircle of floor in front of him that Kaachan and his lackeys refused to enter: his touch radius.
“That’s what I thought.” Kaachan snorted, “Stop trying to be a hero.” He paused, before seeming to decide something. “Actually, I know how you can be a hero. Heroes stop villains, so how about you start with the biggest villain in our school and chuck yourself off the roof.”
Izuku’s eyes flew up to meet Kaachan’s, who grinned triumphantly at him. “What?” He dared Izuku, who clenched his hands into fists until his nails dug little half-crescents into his palms.
“That’s what I thought.” Kaachan said, before reaching out to give Izuku a final shove and leaving.
Izuku glared at the floor for a long time, tears pricking his eyes, as he waited for his quirk to settle down. He still needed to clean his things, but taking anything Multitool was giving him right now was just asking for property damage.
Instead he took deep breaths until he felt centred enough not to start screaming as soon as he opened his mouth, then reached out for whatever Multitool was willing to give him.
His quirk was feeling sympathetic enough to try and cheer him up, apparently, since it gave him a brand new quirk. “Clean” he decided to call it, once he’d recovered enough to think, since it allowed the complete separation of two substances. Izuku used it first to pull the glue off his things and then started playing around with it a little. He noted it down in his quirk journal, and then pulled the ink straight off the page when he miswrote a kanji, before trying to pull the varnish off his pen. It worked, but caused spots of blood to well up on his fingers. He stared at his hands for a moment, where the skin was peeling up like curling sheets of paper. Sighing, he noted it in his notebook. “Overuse causes the user's skin to separate.”
Putting his newly cleaned bag down, he backed away from his desk and grit his teeth. He didn’t want to do this, but his Mom would worry if she saw his hands like this. He reached for his quirk and swapped. This time, when he could see again he was kneeling in a puddle of blood. His blood. He sighed, then took a moment to poke around internally and see what he’d gotten.
It was an old quirk, Metabolism: it healed the user but at the cost of causing them to burn through anything they ate in seconds. Already he was feeling starving, and although the quirk wouldn’t touch his fat reserves it also wouldn’t allow him to regain the weight he’d just lost swapping twice as long as it was active.
Sighing, Izuku took his bottle of water and carefully mopped up as much of his blood as he could with the tissues he kept in his desk, before shouldering on his backpack and making his way out of the school and towards home.
He was in a terrible mood as he did so: the compounding effects of his bad day and his desperate hunger exacerbating each other until he wound up and kicked a can someone had left on the ground. As the can clattered its way to a stop Izuku paused.
He could still hear clattering. Actually, it was more like a banging. He turned, to see the sewer grate bouncing on the ground. Part of him noted that that was likely what was making the noise. The rest of him was focused on the slime currently rising from the sewer.
The next few minutes were a blur of panic, and his quirk desperately shoving quirk after quirk at him in a bid to get him to take one. Izuku tried one last time to get a gasp of air, then resigned himself to it. Trying to use multitool would knock him out, which wasn’t ideal with a villain around, but was definitely better than suffocating slowly.
Izuku grabbed the next quirk he could, and the world exploded into light around him, before fading to black.
Consciousness came back to Izuku in stages, first the uncomfortably familiar feel of blood crusting on his skin, then the smell, and then a strangely familiar voice.
“Kid! Kid, are you in there or do I need to call an ambulance?”
Izuku pried open his eyelids to see a well-known face. “A-All Might!” He screeched.
The man looked nearly as shocked as Izuku felt. “You’re alive!” He exclaimed.
Tilting his head, Izuku nodded. “Why would I not be- oh, you mean because of the blood. That’s just a side effect of overusing my quirk. It’s not as much blood as it looks: my quirk kind of liquifies my body and the stuff left behind is pretty spread out but it's a thin layer so-”
Izuku cut himself off from his rambling, the hero in front of him looking a little green.
“This was from your quirk?” The hero clarified.
Izuku nodded. “Yes sir! Why?”
All Might stood, cracking his back slightly. “Ah- I’ve been chasing a villain through this area, I thought perhaps he had attacked you.”
Eyes nearly popping out of his head, Izuku gasped. “Do you mean the guy with the slime quirk?”
At All Might’s nod he continued, “He was here! He attacked me- that’s why I used my quirk.” A quick glance around showed a distinct lack of any villain. “I- I don’t know where he is now. I passed out after using my quirk to blow him off me. I’m so sorry All Might- if I’d just waited you’d have been able to catch him!”
Sighing slightly, All Might waved off his apologies. “It’s all right- although you should be more careful! I won’t report you, but if you’d been anywhere more public you could be arrested for public quirk usage.”
Izuku nodded so fast he felt like a bobble head doll. “Of course! I’m sorry again! I won’t be able to get into any decent heroics school with that on my record!”
All Might gave him a funny look at that, and Izuku’s heart sank slightly. It was a look his mother had given him often back when he’d been quirkless. “You want to be a hero?” All Might clarified.
Izuku nodded, now staring at the ground his blood was soaking into, anticipating the words even before they fell on his ears like blows.
“It’s a good dream, but if your quirk does this to you every time I’m afraid it’s probably just not feasible.”
Izuku’s heard it before- though not as often since he got his quirk. It’s a familiar refrain, a song he knows all the words to, and he knows his part by heart. The part where he’s silent, and accepting, and grateful to even be considered. He knows his part- and maybe he’s sick of this melody, maybe he wants to write his song, maybe he’s just angry enough to forget that this is All Might, but he raises his chin, eyes flashing, and says, “I’m going to be a hero. If I get hurt, well, that’s a hero's job. It means you stand between people and the hurt. No one can stop me from doing that, not even you, All Might.”
He bowed to All Might, and shouldered his backpack to walk away, leaving All Might staring after him. He felt terrible. He’d talked back to All Might- lectured him on heroism even! All Might, The Hero. He hadn’t made a good impression, passed out like that. All Might was perfectly within his rights to tell Izuku his opinion on entering the field he’d basically defined. He’d just gotten so angry. He’d had a terrible day even before the villain attack and then to be told his quirk wasn’t good enough?
Izuku loved his quirk. It was amazing: the best thing about him. The only good thing .
Still, his reckless quirk use had cost All Might the chance to catch that villain- he was lucky the hero hadn’t arrested him for illegal quirk use. He’d messed up, and-
His spiralling self-deprecation was cut short by the sound of explosions nearby. Immediately, Izuku was off, running towards the villain fight- because what else could it be?
It didn’t take him long to make it to the site of the villain attack, where a crowd had gathered to stare at the same villain who had attacked Izuku earlier that day. Seeing him, Izuku bit back a cry. This was his fault! If he’d just waited All Might could have captured the villain and stopped this from ever happening.
Things only got worse when he realised who the villain had hostage. It was Kaachan! Izuku watched the gathered heroes, waiting for them to step in, but instead they hung back. He wasn’t sure why at first, but a quick glance at the heroes present revealed the answer to him. None of them had quirks well suited for the situation.
Izuku almost reached for Multitool, but his swap to deal with the villain earlier had been pushing past his limit- if he tried to swap now he’d pass out before he was halfway through the swap.
Still, surely All Might would be here soon- he’d been chasing the guy earlier. Izuku watched as Kaachan’s struggles grew weaker and weaker, waiting. Then, his eyes met his friend’s, and Izuku moved.
Vaulting over the makeshift barriers Kamui woods had erected, Izuku darted towards the villain, internally screaming. He flung his just cleaned backpack at the villain’s eyes- the only solid part of him, causing his water bottle to explode all Kaachan’s face, giving him a few precious seconds to gasp in air.
Izuku made good use of the brief respite, covering Kaachan’s face with his blazer before the sludge could seep back over it. He was trying to grab onto to Kaachan, pull him from the slime, when the villain seemed to recover, yellow eyes blinking back open before squinting in rage.
“The brat from earlier.” He roared, “This time I’ll finish you off quickly.”
He swung, and Izuku braced for an impact that never came. Instead he opened his eyes to see All Might standing in front of him, having blocked the blow effortlessly.
After that, the fight was essentially a one-sided curbstomp, over in a matter of moments, leaving Izuku feeling more tired than he ever had before, as all the adrenaline drained out of his body.
He was operating on autopilot throughout the scolding from the assorted pro heroes, unable to muster up the energy to defend himself. It wasn’t until he was heading home that he regained any energy.
The energy came from All Might suddenly appearing in front of him, nearly giving Izuku a heart attack.
“A-All Might!” He exclaimed, before remembering what he’d said earlier. “I’m sorry!” He blurted, “Please forgive me- I was disrespectful earlier- I lectured you on heroism! Please forgive me!” He bowed low, only to be shocked when All Might let out a booming laugh.
“It seems we have both come to the same conclusion, my boy, as I came here to apologise to you! Earlier today I dismissed your dreams of heroism because of your quirks drawbacks, yet just now you displayed more heroic spirit than any of the pros present- including myself! That’s why I’d like to make you an offer.”
Izuku stood, stunned into stillness. After a moment's silence All Might waved a hand at Izuku, then continued on. “Let me train you to pass the entrance exam. You’ll need an edge until you learn to control your quirk’s drawbacks- and I want to help give it to you. It’ll be tough, but by the time I’m through with you you’ll be able to walk into any heroics school in the country.”
Izuku pinched himself. Hard. “You- All Might, the number one hero- want to train me? Why?”
All Might nodded firmly. “Like I said, kid, you’ve got heroism in your bones. I saw what you did for that kid earlier- your body moved before you could think, right? You’ve got the right stuff, and I’d hate to see you miss out because of a lack of training. Full transparency here, though, I’d mostly just be providing you with a training plan, some gym and dojo memberships, etc. I’d pop by to check up on you occasionally but I’m a pretty busy fellow. You’d mostly be on your own. So, whaddya think? You in?”
Izuku teared up, bawling before he could stop himself. “Yes!” He wailed, “Please, All Might-sensei, teach me!”
All Might gingerly patted him on the head. “Geez kid, calm down, you’re gonna flood the street. He handed Izuku his phone. “Listen, I’m on a bit of a time crunch- give me your number I’ll message you when I’ve got your plan put together.”
Izuku rattled off his phone number and All Might carefully keyed it into his phone, which looked tiny in his oversized hands. Then he looked awkwardly at Izuku, and said. “I just realised I don’t even know your name.”
“Oh! It’s Midoriya! Midoriya Izuku.”
All Might grinned, and let out another booming laugh. “Well then, Midoriya-kun, I will speak to you soon.”
All Might left, and Izuku made his way home feeling like he was flying- he actually checked a few times on the way to make sure he hadn’t somehow managed to grab a floating quirk.
Even his mother’s anxious fussing couldn’t dull his good mood too much, and when he received All Might’s text “:)- AM” even his mother’s worry couldn’t dampen his euphoria.
Izuku spent the next few days checking his phone obsessively, caught between believing the whole thing was some fevered hallucination and allowing himself to hope. Close to a week went by before Izuku received instructions to meet All Might at Dagobah beach the next morning. The man looked tired, somehow, and Izuku found himself slowing down to examine him.
“Are you alright All Might-san? I can wait if you need to get some rest!”
All Might puffed out his chest and laughed Izuku’s question off. “I’m quite alright, Young Midoriya, I simply recently had some disappointing results from an… experiment my old friend Sir Nighteye had me attempt.”
Perking up, Izuku accepted the redirect. “Sir Nighteye? Your old- and only- sidekick? Wow! Are you two planning to team back up? I know he opened his own agency with Centipeder and Bubble Girl but-”
“Ah, no. We are not planning on joining forces again, at least not permanently, although I hope he will allow occasional team-ups once again now that I have at least attempted to see things his way.” All Might explained, looking rather crestfallen at the mention of the broken relationship. “Still, that’s not what you’re here for! You’re here, for this!” He whipped out a thick stack of papers, emblazoned on the front of which was “American Dream Plan: Aim to Pass”
Izuku stared at it- slightly daunted by the sheer size, but with a look of determination. “All of that?” He squawked, before shaking his head. “I’ll do whatever it takes!”
All Might nodded. “Good, because to be honest, this is gonna be really hard. You’ve got strength training- not too much, you don’t need to look like me, but still more than most kids, even hero students. Then there’s the flexibility training, martial arts training, and so on. I’ve even got your sleep and meals planned.”
Izuku gulped, flicking through the detailed plans. “This is a lot. It looks like it starts out based on where I’m at currently though, correct?”
Beaming, All Might shot him a thumbs up. “Yup! It should turn you from a soggy green bean to a hero student in time for the U.A. entrance exams. Er- you want to go to U.A. right?”
Nodding furiously, Izuku agreed. “Of course! It’s the best hero school in Japan, probably in all of Asia! Not to mention it’s where you went!”
“Perfect!” All Might said happily. “Now, like I told you, you’ll mostly be doing this alone, but if you take a look at the fortnightly weekend training sessions you’ll see-”
“Quirk training!” Izuku cut him off, round eyes shining like stars. “With you?”
“Right!” All Might agreed. “You can work on dialling back the power of your quirk, and hopefully the backlash, with a teacher you don’t need to worry about hurting. Speaking of, what exactly is your quirk? Some kind of force explosion?”
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe that one was? I didn’t really get to see it- I passed out almost as soon as I grabbed it.”
All Might stilled. “What do you mean, that one?” He asked, tone guarded and his smile faltering slightly.
“Ah, my primary quirk is called Multitool. The quirk specialist's best guess is that it’s a long ranged copy quirk, which can modify the quirks it copies. It’s pretty neat, but it comes with some drawbacks.” He felt multitool shove a quirk at him. He was pretty sure his quirk would be flipping him off if it could- it didn’t like him implying it was anything other than perfect. “My quirk’s a bit sentient, it picks what to copy and offer me, I don’t get a choice, or even know what it is until I accept it. And it rewrites my DNA on the fly, so using it hurts a lot, and if I try to use it too much I pass out.” He paused, thinking over if he had missed anything out. “It has a few quirks it tends to give me a lot, but I think that’s probably because I tend to keep getting myself into similar problems.”
Izuku glanced up to see All Might looking a lot more relaxed. “Well, that is certainly a very useful quirk for heroics- if you can get the drawbacks under control I wouldn’t be surprised to see you in the top ten within a few years. It’ll make you the perfect hero to have in any situation. I’ll need to rework some of the lesson plans to better fit your quirk, but that’s probably good practice anyway!”
Quirking an eyebrow, Izuku asked, “Good practice for what?”
All Might slapped his palm against his head. “Whoops! Well I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, as long as you keep quiet about it. Principal Nedzu has agreed to let me teach heroics at U.A., starting next year.”
Izuku stared starry eyed at the man. “That’s amazing! You’re going to be mentoring the next generation of heroes, ensuring the age of peace you started carries on for generations to come!” He stared down at the binder in his hands. “Now I definitely have to get into U.A. and not anywhere else!”
“Let’s get started then, Midoriya, my boy!”
If asked in the future about the ten months Izuku spent training to get ready to take the U.A. entrance exam, Izuku would have a multitude of stories to tell: from hauling increasingly large pieces of trash on the beach to attempting to contort into a human pretzel to being put on his ass by martial instructors daily. Mostly, though, he would have to confess to spending each day utterly exhausted, never seeming to become less tired, until one day he realised he was carrying a fridge, and was so startled by the evidence of this progress he proceeded to drop it on All Might’s foot. The man was fine, Izuku had to take a break to rehydrate from all the crying.
Before he knew it, though, it was time for the U.A. entrance exam. Izuku had cleared a good half of Dagobah beach completely, and his efforts had inspired other members of the community to start coming by and clearing away small amounts of trash at a time.
On the morning of the exam, Izuku met with All Might, and thanked him again for all his help.
“My boy, all I did was provide some instruction- you earned this on your own merit. You did all the heavy lifting. If you need to thank me, though, you can do it like this: become the best hero you possibly can be.”
Izuku bowed. “I won’t let you down!”
“I don’t think you could.” All Might told him, before reaching out and hugging Izuku, who froze for a long moment, before cautiously wrapping his arms around the other. “Now get going, you zygote! You don’t want to be late for your exam!”
“Ah! Yes All Might!”