Chapter Text
Izuku stood on the roof of the building that All Might dropped him off on. It had been hours now since the pro hero had left, and Izuku couldn’t bring himself to leave. Between Katsuki telling him to jump off a building and pray for a quirk in the next life and All Might telling him that being a hero without a quirk was impossible, his dreams were crushed. So, he took the time and the quiet to think about what his future could be. He held nothing against the police force, but honestly, he didn’t think he’d be a good cop; he just couldn’t see himself in that role.
He knew he still had time; he was still just a child, even though middle school graduation had just happened. He had already put in an application for the UA hero course; however, maybe he could call the school and sign up for their support classes instead. If they didn’t let him switch over, then he would apply late to Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu for their support classes. Analysts were always appreciated, and the way that Izuku could analyze, even without a quirk, should be enough to get him into either of the schools.
It took him a while to get down from the roof of the building; it took a while for people to hear him yelling from their rooftop before anyone came and checked what the noise was. There were some questions from the tenants on how a random student got onto the roof, to begin with; however, he dodged their questions. All Might might have let him down, but he wouldn’t give the man’s secret away; it wasn’t his to tell anyway.
As he walked home in deep thought, he wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings. Though, when he ran into a crowd, he paused and looked around. They all seemed to be staring at something that he couldn’t see through the crush of bodies. “Excuse me, but do you know what’s happening?” Izuku asked someone who seemed to be able to see above the crowd.
“A villain got a hold of some kid; it seems like the villain that All Might was fighting earlier.” The woman explained.
“Thank you, miss,” Izuku said quietly before turning and pushing his way through the crowd.
As he made his way through the crowd, he ended up getting jostled a lot by the people watching the spectacle that was happening, and that is exactly what it was a spectacle. Pro-heros were standing by and blocking civilians from the battle while the villain that All Might had taken care of earlier before he de-transformed had escaped. He did have a kid, and that kid was Katsuki.
Thinking quickly and looking at the villain, Izuku quickly assumed that the only solid part of his body was his eyes, and then, all of a sudden, he was running. He was running towards the villain with no idea what his body was doing. He could see Katsuki screaming at him, but he couldn’t hear the words. The next thing that he knew, his backpack was being thrown with startling accuracy at the sludge monster’s eyes. Then he was there, and he was clawing at the sludge monster, getting it off of Katsuki’s face and out of his mouth and nose, which the slime monster covered when Katsuki started screaming.
The sludge was hard to grab, but if he could get enough of it off of Katsuki’s mouth and nose so he could breathe then maybe he would be able to get Katsuki’s hands-free so he would make an explosion to free himself. Then he looked up and noticed that the sludge villain was staring at him, and without thinking, Izuku jabbed his hand directly into the slime villain's eyeballs, hoping to buy some more time.
It worked, and as soon as his hand went through the villains' eyeball, one of the pro heroes that had been keeping back innocents stepped into the fray; apparently, they realized what Izuku’s goal was. In Izuku’s mind, he registered that it was Slugger, though he seemed to be having some of the same issues that Izuku was having. The sludge was just too hard to grab but with the move that Izuku had pulled by shoving his hand into the sludge villain's eyeball, it had given them some time so that at least Katsuki’s face was cleared enough to breath.
Izuku could tell that Katsuki was trying to yell at him, but he couldn’t hear him, his adrenalin was making his blood pump so loudly in his ears that he couldn’t hear anything but the beat of his heart. Eventually, he noticed Death Arms joined in and kept attacking the villain's eyes, just like Izuku originally did but with more power behind the punches. Eventually, the sludge villain released Katsuki, and Izuku looked shocked before grabbing his things and walking away.
He didn't know that he was being watched by All Might. He didn't realize that Katsuki was staring at him hard and wondering where Izuku got the balls to do what he did. He didn't notice the onlookers watching his every movement and chattering between themselves. They watched as he walked away, the heroes trying to get his attention but not succeeding.
~.~.~.~.~
It took All Might a little while to track the young boy down, but he did eventually find him. Walking slowly down a street with his head tilted down and quietly mumbling to himself. He skidded onto the street before him "I am here!" And watched as the boy he hoped would be his successor stopped in slight bewilderment at his presence.
"Ah, hello sir, I'm sorry that I made you lose track of the villain you caught earlier." He spoke quietly, none of the enthusiasm from before remained. Izuku was tired of today and hoped that he would get home without any interruptions.
"I have a proposal for you, young Midoriya!" He said loudly in the quiet street before he coughed some blood and transformed back into his true appearance. "I have been searching for a successor for my quirk, and I'd like for it to be you."
"No," Izuku stated calmly, "I don't want a quirk, I asked you if someone who was quirkless could become a hero, not how I could obtain a quirk to become a hero." He explained quietly, yes he wanted a quirk, but he didn't want this, he wanted to have manifested a quirk on his own. He wanted to be a hero on his own terms. That dream had been crushed the moment All Might said that it would be too dangerous. Now, he had his contingency plan, he'd be an analyst and help the heroes be better, help the world become better.
"Excuse me?" All Might was stunned, hadn't this boy wanted to be a hero not even a couple hours ago, he'd already proven that he was a hero already, but he didn't want a quirk. All Might was confused, he didn't understand why someone would turn down the chance to be given the means to achieve their dreams. Especially a quirk that had done so much good over the years, even if it came with an unknown target painted on the user's back.
"I didn't want a quirk to become a hero, yes they help, but I specifically asked you if someone without a quirk could become a hero and you said it was too dangerous. You said that, and now, all of a sudden you want to give someone something that shouldn't be possible. I think I'll pass, there are always strings attached to stuff like this and even if I did want all that entailed, it still wouldn't be what I want. I wanted to show everyone that even without a quirk someone could become a hero." Izuku stated clearly, and watched as confusion dominated All Might's expression.
"But you want to be a hero, and I have the means to make that happen, you showed already that someone who is quirkless can become a hero, your actions today proved that," All Might was becoming annoyed that this boy would pass up this amazing offer to reach his dream. "You ran into that fight with no quirk and saved that young man, you can be a hero. Be my successor!” All Might continued, not even really paying attention to what the young green haired boy was actually saying, he was just so happy to have found someone who had actual heroic tendencies, who wasn’t just in it for fame or fortune.
“No, because you obviously didn’t grasp the premise of my question. I asked if someone who was quirkless could become a hero. Not someone who was quirkless and then gained a quirk to become a hero.” was the very cold and very succinct reply before the younger man walked away. Yagi Toshinori, also more popularly known as All Might, was confused as he stared at the young green haired boy as he left. He didn’t understand why the boy would refuse to gain a quirk and become a hero. He would try to figure out more about the boy that had refused One for All, and keep trying to convince him.
`.`.`.`.`.`
When Izuku got home, he walked straight into his room and looked around. All of the All Might figurines and posters would be packed up and delivered to donations. He wanted no reminders of the words from earlier, ‘It’s too dangerous to be a hero without a quirk.’
“What should I do now?” He asked himself quietly as he packed up figurines and placed them into a box. Taking another look around at some of the rare merchandise he decided that instead of donating them, he would sell them, they were all in very good condition, and at least he would be able to afford the tuition to whatever school he chose to go to in the end. Especially since he would need to research schools now that he wasn’t going to be a hero. UA had been his only choice when he wanted that dream, and now that it had been crushed he would check out what the other schools offered.
Izuku was good at making plans and research, it had been a part of his hero analysis that he did, and so he would apply that to this situation. He knew that there were heroes out there that fought without use of a quirk, but they were few and far between, and in a school where quirk usage was a big thing he wouldn’t fit in the hero courses well at all. Especially if he chose a school where Katsuki went. So he paused in his packing and opened up his laptop. It didn’t take long before he had multiple tabs open of all the schools in the area and a new notebook beside him.
`,`,`,` Three Days Later `.`.`.`
With the exception of listing his All Might figurines and posters on a somewhat reputable website for the selling of such merchandise, Izuku spent the past three days researching all of the other hero schools that had support programs and those that specifically had courses for analysis. Though most of the people who have an analysis quirk generally go into that of engineering to be used to build sturdier buildings so there would be less repairs needed after hero fights.
He had narrowed his choices down to Ketsubutsu Hero Academy or to Shiketsu Hero Academy out of the six available schools that have support programs. UA might be the best hero school and pump out the most hero gear; however, the rest of the support classes were seriously lacking. Yes they did basic analysis but other than that there wasn’t much beyond that for those who would like to help out and had the skill. It was more a learn as you go sort of mentality it seemed. Which was a bit of a let down in Izuku’s opinion. Though he hadn’t planned on attending UA to begin with, he did want to see what courses they offered.
Now he just needed to sit down with his mom and have this conversation about why he didn’t want to be a hero anymore, and why he was changing his top pick school. That was going to be hard for both of them, just because of the level of familiarity that the Midoriya family had with the Bakugo’s. Izuku really wasn’t looking forward to this conversation but at least he had a while before anyone noticed that he wouldn’t be attending the UA entrance exam. He also knew that Bakugo Katsuki would think that he won and finally had shaken the green haired boy.
It took several hours before his mother came home and Izuku used that time to clean, package some of the figurines for shipping the next day, cook dinner, and gather his courage to have the conversation that he was dreading. As he was setting up the table Izuku heard the key turn in the lock and the door open before a quiet “I’m home” echoed through the apartment.
“Welcome home, I made dinner and uh,” Izuku paused nervously, “can we talk? I need to talk to you about some things and maybe go over options for schools?”
“Ah yes, and thank you for making dinner honey, it smells delicious.” Inko Midoriya said, placing her keys on a hook near the door, and taking off her shoes to put on her house slippers. “I thought you only applied to UA?” Inko asked, she already knew that her son had been so set on becoming a hero that he hadn’t looked at any of the other schools; although, now it seemed that he had changed his mind.
“I…” Izuku paused, gathered his thoughts and took a deep breath, “I’m not going to be applying to any hero courses, I’m going to become an analyst and support heroes that way. I met All Might, and when I asked him if someone who is quirkless can become a hero…” Izuku’s breath caught slightly, “He said it was too dangerous, and while I know that there are some heroes that fight quirkless they do still have quirks that aid them in some ways. Eraserhead is probably one of the more prevalent cases of such that I could find, but as I don’t have a quirk at all I don’t even have that little bit of an advantage.” Izuku rambled, and Inko watched her heart-breaking for her son who’s only dream in life was to be a hero.
“How did you meet All Might, baby?” Inko asked, extremely curious about how her son met the number one hero.
“Ah, so on my way home I was attacked by a sludge villain, he tried to take over my body and All Might appeared and saved me. I, uh, asked him then, before he left and he told me then.” Izuku explained, “Somehow the villain got free and caught Katsuki and as I passed by no one was helping him. The next thing I knew my body moved without my say so and I threw my bag at the villains eyes and then some of the Pro-heros that were at the scene keeping civilians back started to jump in. They eventually got Katsuki free and I walked off when they got him free.”
“Why are you calling Kaachan, Katsuki? I hope that you didn’t get into another fight with him,” Inko stated and then watched her son's face. The range of emotions that passed over his features made it feel like ice passed over her spine.
“I would have called him Bakugo, but seeing as there are three with that name I didn’t want there to be any confusion. We haven’t been friends for a long time now mom, and it took me a long time to realize it, and so I figured a more formal route would probably be best from now on, at least from me.” Izuku glossed over, he didn’t want his mom to alienate some of her closest friends just because their son liked to bully the quirkless kid. He would also keep Katsuki’s last words to himself, no need to tell anyone else that he had been told to commit suicide by the blonde.
“I’ve been looking at other schools and so far I have narrowed my choices down to Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu academy. Those two have the best support departments that I’ve seen and also offer more courses on analysis than the others. Though they don’t say if it’s quirk or structural analysis, so I would have to contact someone from the school and ask. Though at this point I think Ketsubutsu would be the better choice just because Shiketsu is both farther away and more expensive.” Izuku went on a small tangent, and Inko kept up with him from all of the tangents that Izuku would have over the years.
“Alright, how about you show me everything that you’ve gathered about the two schools and we’ll go over it all together.” Inko said, while she was relieved that her baby boy wouldn’t be putting himself in danger by becoming a hero, she was also upset to see that his dream had been crushed in such a way. No matter what happened from now on she would support her son, support him like she hadn’t when he had first been diagnosed quirkless. When they were done discussing schools and which choice would be the best for what he wanted to do, she told him that no matter what he did; including being a hero, that she would support him because she loved him.