Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya
Izuku wished his school would close on days when it snowed. He had never experienced a snow day, but missing school for any reason was great. It was early January and the first week of the new year, so he supposed the school did not want to waste time.
Supposedly the school had never missed a day in a decade, but Izuku had heard that from the girls gossiping in the corner of the frigid classroom. They were the same girls who said that Izuku was secretly hiding a quirk, and that was obviously false.
All Might had been training Izuku for about nine months now, and Izuku was almost strong enough to receive All Might’s quirk. He would mentally go over his training regiment and positive thoughts in between classes.
His mentor had taught him a lot of things when it came to stamina and physical strength. Izuku was forever grateful for his teacher’s wisdom, but he lacked a certain battle sense that would come from experience. Upon asking the number one hero if he had a plan for teaching Izuku battle instinct, All Might somberly explained that he too lacked what Izuku was seeking. Even watching someone else would improve his instinct wonderfully.
And so, his thoughts once again returned to the trash beach and the layers of snow upon the frozen trash. Izuku didn’t have gloves, but he had enough experience to know once he got started it would be too hot to have gloves on.
Bakugo almost growled at Izuku as he passed Izuku’s desk, “Keep your freak mumbling down. It’s annoying.”
Izuku blinked at Bakugo’s subtlety. Ever since the sludge incident Bakugo refrained from his normal harassment and had instead become sulky. It made Izuku on edge every time he was near his childhood friend. Izuku was terrified at the idea that it could be his fault that Bakugo was like this.
The final class was released without much ceremony for the last class of the week. Izuku snuck past Bakugo’s former posy by hiding in the bathroom. He successfully done this for a few months. Hide, run, and report for training.
As he set his bag down by the beach, he was ready to move the trash. Maybe All Might would have some wisdom concerning his predicament. They could learn together! Then Izuku felt a little weight drop in his stomach. Would the number one hero feel bad about learning with a beginner?
“Young Midoriya? Are you alright?” All Might boomed.
“Oh. Sorry, All Might! I got lost in thought.” Izuku apologized.
All Might pat Izuku on the back who spluttered slightly at the impact, “You’re fine my boy! If you’re ready let’s start today with the section, we left off yesterday!”
“Yes!” Izuku said.
Training was always hard, All Might made sure it was never easy, but today’s challenge was mental fortitude. All Might would yell something to distract him while Izuku was giving him a piggyback ride.
A trash stuffed fridge was the first trash pile in the session for the day. The most interesting item that day was a neon pink couch that had metal, soft spikes on its surface.
Izuku forced himself to keep walking. All Might had quickly learned that Izuku had random depths of knowledge that would not normally apply in normal life. On the one break they took Izuku caught himself rambling about how fast fashion broke many human rights. That conversation ended with Izuku realizing he was still talking as he lifted the cooler stack. It was always harder to talk while lifting something.
Izuku felt good about being able to clear an entire section of the trash beach and then some. It was good training, and he was also able to help decrease pollution and sanitary concerns that the beach had. The end of training ended with Izuku running a mile to outrun All Might who wanted to take a picture as a joke.
All Might took a picture of Izuku starfishing on the sand catching his breath, “You’ve improved a lot today young Midoriya! You only stopped a third as much as you used to.”
“Thanks All Might.” Izuku breathed.
Walking home he was sore and walking up the stairs to their apartment was a chore. Though each time he came home he wiped it was easier to repeat it the next day. Key in the lock Izuku entered his and his Mother Inko’s apartment to find it empty.
Inko had not been able to come home that night. Mother or not her nursing job had held her for overnight overtime again, and Izuku had to make himself dinner. He did not mind cooking, but he was not the best at it and missed his mother’s food. The last thing he did that day was his long and over convoluted homework packets.
They had been reading a book about a caterpillar that changed into a butterfly. Themes of the book were obvious but not obnoxious and Izuku thought about how things change. He wrote as much in his essay even if the teacher did not read it Izuku believed it deserved his full effort.
Lying down trying to sleep he thought about how much things had changed. As Izuku thought about it, nothing had changed much. All Might taught him how to build muscle, properly lift things, and to have stamina mental or not. But Izuku’s life had changed little.
Still tormented by other people in his school, Bakugo still hated him, and his mother still had work too often. He may have been able to tap into some hidden power, but it did little to change what hurt him inside. If he becomes a hero, will he be able to make other people smile like All Might does?
Would being a hero make the difference? He needed experience first and someone to learn from. All Might’s strength was physical strength and his way to win a fight was to punch harder than his opponent.
All Might had changed Izuku’s world for the better but in essence life itself had not changed.
Izuku stared at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and whispered, “Could I change my world? Like you did All Might?”
It had to. Izuku did not know what he would do if he could not change things. Life would become unbearable again, and he would hate existing without purpose.
Number 13 Chikara
“Get back here! We’re not done here.” Cheet yelled.
Chikara slid into the alley dodging the rock attack Cheet had sent her way. The training exercise today was a quirk version of tag. It had just so happened to be that Chikara was the last one standing, another five minutes and Chikara would pass the exercise.
She sprinted to the ladder of the brick side of the building. Rung after rung she ascended. Once on the roof she noticed she was surrounded. The other cadets were on the rooftops surrounding her, and Cheet was smirking at the bottom of the ladder.
Chikara bit back a curse as she assumed a strong foundation. No rooftops were available to jump onto nearby and the ladder was not accessible. The building was at least four stories tall. She was cornered.
“You going to give up? Makes sense you always were a coward.” Azumi said taunting her from the closest roof.
Chikara ignored her and ran to the opposite side of the building. Cheet had climbed the ladder and was stalking toward her, his long brown hair smacking him in the face. The plan that had come to mind was risky, but it would be flashy. Chikara hated bringing attention to herself, but it would distract the other participants for a moment. Which would be long enough to escape for a while.
“Don’t make this hard for yourself. I won’t even fight you.” Cheet said, as he activated his quirk stones spiraling around his hand, clearly lying.
Chikara stepped onto the ledge. She resisted a smile at the gasps her fellow cadets gave at her position. She was now balancing on her toes waiting for someone to throw an attack her way.
“Are you crazy?”
Chikara leaned back and fell. Spinning around to face the ground she released her quirk and opened a void a few feet below her. Rolling on the surface she crashed into the window of the neighboring building, protecting her neck with her hands.
Now was not the time to slow down. She ran through the empty floor and started the trek down the many stairs. One more floor to go, and Chikara paused as she heard her fellow cadets talking at the bottom of the stairs.
“She should be down any second.” Azumi said.
Turning around she exited out of the staircase and onto the second floor. Opening a window, she jumped out onto a tree that caught her fall. Climbing down she rubbed her hands on her uniform to get the dirt off. Thirty seconds left.
She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and grabbed them to flip them onto the ground in front of her. Frozen, her hand was on top of someone else, and Chikara cursed in her head. It had been a trap.
Ritsu removed his hand and walked into her vision, “You lose.”
Still in the effects of Ritsu’s quirk Chikara’s angry expression was frozen on her face. She had to move. The only thing that would allow her to move again would be pain or Ritsu’s quirk releasing.
“Yeesh. Did not know you could make that expression outside of a fight.” Ritsu walked off presumably to get the others.
Chikara had lost the exercise. Ritsu knew that she was going to exit using the tree and was now going to gloat with the others. Her fears were confirmed when the others came around the corner laughing.
“Heh you were right. She’s got the punchable look.” Azumi laughed.
“You want to?” Cheet smirked.
“And get in trouble with our instructors? She’s not worth it.” Azumi said.
“I’m going to.”
Cheet walked up and Chikara and Cheet round house kicked her in the face. Mobility now available to Chikara, she kicked Cheet’s legs out from under his stance. She got up again spitting the blood streaming down her face out of her mouth.
“Cadets. Ten laps now.” The P.A. system called out, “Number thirteen report to instructor Alastor.”
Unbothered, the other cadets groaned as they started to run laps. That punishment had long since lost its effect over the cadets, but Chikara also knew they did not have Alastor as an instructor. Training ground behind her Chikara pinched her nose and tried to not wince at the stars the action brought.
Alastor opened the door to his office before Chikara had the chance to knock, “Thirteen. Why are you always bleeding?”
Chikara ignored him and grabbed the offered tissue as she sat down across his desk. Alastor was this instructor’s real name and pro hero name. It was strange but not unheard of, and Chikara could not find it in herself to care about it.
“Want to debrief me?”
Chikara coughed and gave Alastor a skeptical look. She knew this was going to be lecture, and Alastor loved making things about him.
“Or… do you already know what went wrong?”
Alastor gave her a disappointed look, “You fought your fellow cadets after the exercise. I thought we’ve discussed this.”
Chikara swallowed the sassy remark that had formed in her mind. Her instructor had seemed to forget that Chikara had stated before that the other cadets hated her. There was no point in trying to make friends with people who had declared her their enemy.
“If you really want them to get into trouble you need to stop fighting back.”
Chikara looked away. It was not like she did not want to be friends with them. They gave up on wanting to be friends with her long ago.
“Ok I see you’re done. Get ready for patrol.” Alastor said shooing her with his hand.
Patrol was easy enough with a pro hero following her around. She had not been given a mission today and was just patrolling to get a sense of the feeling of working around others. Again, the problem was who she was working with not working with others in general.
The hero she was shadowing today was Fat Gum, “You ok kid?”
Chikara thought that Fat Gum was an emotional person for a hero. Though the mugger she helped Fat Gum defeat might have had a different idea. Fat Gum could be serious when the situation called for it.
“Hmm? Yeah, I’m fine.”