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Chapter Text

He grabbed the ruined and wet book from the fish pond it fell from and stared at it for a good while, thinking about what had happened today so far.

He should have expected this if Kacchan wouldn't hold himself back from beating him and bullying him, he should have expected suicide baiting was not beyond him.

That didn’t make it any less painful, what went wrong? What did he do to deserve all this? As soon as a Quirk failed to show itself in his childhood everyone turned their back on him.

He didn’t wrong anyone, he never did anything bad to deserve the treatment that's now routine. He rubbed the burn on his shoulder with his hands, hissing at the sharp pain.

How long was this going to last? How many times has he had to fix his uniform, lick his wounds, and pray for someone to defend him to no avail?

Things were good with his mother, as good as it could be when everyone pitied his mother for birthing a “Quirkless”. She broke under the pressure and moved to America with his father. Seemingly wanting to forget him entirely.

Thinking about it left a sour taste in his mouth.

No matter how many times he was beaten down he would never give up, that much he knows, but… Why was it so hard? Why was it so hard for others not to treat him like a flea, like an ant, like trash below their shoes?

He put the soaked book in his backpack, sighed, and walked home.

He knew not everyone was like that, he saw the looks of his classmates, the glances they gave Kacchan when the aggression kept coming, they were scared, everyone was.

Taking the shortest route home, his mind wandered into unwanted thoughts, this isn't uncommon, just something normal that came with life. He guesses, but something in the back of his mind tells him.

Not everyone experiences this. This isn’t normal.

But no matter what he thought about it he knew very well nobody would do anything about it. The teachers didn’t bad an eye after they heard about his “condition”.

Hospitals weren't merciful with Quirkless people either, he learned that after a peculiarly rough beating.

The difficulty to breathe, he covered his face with his arms. Tears and blood covered the floor. His childhood friend had gone too far, both knew it, but the bully would never admit to it.

He looked at the familiar tunnel he walked through most days.

His gut flipped, he wasn’t sure why, but before he could think about it a wet sound echoed through the underpass, sending shivers down his spine, freezing him in place.

The manhole cover flipped open quickly after, revealing a green, slimy mass that crawled out. Two perverse eyes stared at him, and the teeth in the sludge grinned wildly.

A loud laugh.

“A middle-sized cloak! You owe me one, kid! I hope All Might got lost on the sewer system…” he grumbled the last part before quickly throwing himself at the skinny and beaten green-haired boy.

The air caught on his throat, turning around to start running, but it was too late. “Help!” He screeched and screamed in panic. Before realizing there was no one in the vicinity. 

In short: he was screwed.

The putrid goo quickly encased him, halting any attempt to escape, wrapping itself around his head he felt a glop forcibly enter his mouth. “Don't worry kid” The gurgly voice said and chuckled. “I'm just hijacking your body so you better calm down and it’ll be over sooner!” they downright laughed.

His body spasmed at the overwhelming sensations, he tried to gag over and over again, but more of that disgusting liquid made its way into his windpipe, making him burn from the forceful internal scraping.

He could feel the tightness of the slime around his wrists keeping him in place, a hold strong enough to leave a nasty bruise. The ooze rubbed against his burns and previous wounds.

He closed his eyes to prevent the goo from entering but he still felt the pressure above them.

The smell was putrid, but even worse was the taste.

He heard the laughs of the villain distantly.

He felt, until he couldn't.

Until…

A loud ping filled his ears, snapping his consciousness awake, he began thrashing even harder, trying to concentrate to take a look at the noise.

It was a… A pop-up? It was red and pulsed against his retinas making an alarming sound, like a warning going on and off, this made him panic further, but after a painful and overwhelming few seconds, he finally read the text on the pop-up.

WARNING - Critical condition
Health is currently under 5 points.

What?

68 Points are currently available. 
Investing them in HP is advisable.

Was he hallucinating? He didn’t have enough time to think about it deeply so he did as advised. Spend points on Health Points! He screamed inside his brain, praying for this opportunity to be a saving grace and not a mirage.

60 Points invested on HP.
HP rose to 110!

8 Points remaining.

He felt the effect immediately, as if being magically energized he attempted to claw his way out, but the relentless assault on his lungs tired him out quickly.

So this is how he dies, after all he had to go through. After all others put him through he’s going to die such a lonely and torturous death.

He-

Someone exited the manhole with a yell, and he was finally released from the slime, but not before passing out.

…

Big hands slapped his face, forcing him to wake up.

“Ugh…” He put a hand on his forehead, and something made his way out of his stomach with a gag. A mix of green liquid and small speckles of red exited his mouth.

“Oh great!” A booming voice said. “You're finally awake, Young man! Gave me quite the scare there!” The figure laughed, where had he heard that voice?…

He lifted his head to look at the figure. A tall, muscular blond-

“A-All Might!?” He shrieked in excitement and shock.

“In the flesh! I apologize for getting you involved in this young citizen! But fear not, for the Villain is now retained… In these bottles!”  He showed a Soda bottle with slime and two moving eyes inside.

The green-haired boy Widens his eyes and covers his mouth, clearly traumatized, however, the oblivious musclehead doesn’t seem to catch his reaction. 

“It is now time for me to go!” He laughed. “A hero like me is quite busy you see…” He walked rather hurriedly out the other way of the tunnel. No!

“W-wait! I have a question!” The adolescent quickly got up, running toward the hero who was about to jump out of the scene.

“Sorry, but I have to go!” The man said, but just before he jumped, the kid grabbed his leg. They were flying through the air, the harsh wind pushing him, but he held tightly.

“What are you doing?!” All Might Screamed in a panic. “Get off !” was not the smartest thing to say when they were so high up.

“I-if I do I'm going to die!” The hero gaped for a second but caught himself. They ended up landing on a rooftop not too far away, and the dizzied teen almost immediately lost his balance but managed to stabilize himself.

“What were you thinking?!” 

The boy coughed as the hero scolded him. “I-i’m so sorry but-!”

“No buts, I'm running out of time, young man!” What does he mean by running out of time?…

“J-just let me ask you a question, please!” All Might sighed in defeat.

“Make it quick then.” He gulped nervously.

“C-can someone Quirkless be a hero too?” he asked, only to be met with immediate denial.

“I’m afraid not, Heroics is quite the dangerous job you see-” He was left in shock at that, he couldn’t concentrate on the words the hero continued to declare.

The sound muted out around him, his blood turned to ice, breath caught in his throat. He failed to notice the small clouds of smoke exiting the hero.

“-You can still be a Police officer or something of the like, those are honorable too. But without a power? No, you can't be a hero.” 

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry Izuku!”.

“Out the way, Deku!” 

“I heard he’s Quirkless…”

“Swan dive off the…”

A pat on his shoulder halted his thoughts, and he looked back as the hero went down the stairs and out of the building. He mustered his strength to follow him but when he was about to catch up he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Weird…

He looked around for a few minutes before deciding to exit the building too.

“What’s up with today…” He pointed out his bad luck, he wasn’t known for being lucky but today was especially harsh on him. First Kacchan, then a villain encounter, then All Might himself.

And all of them thought the same thing. He was useless.

He knew the hero didn’t explicitly say it, but he could see it through his eyes of both pity and… Pain? Now that he thought about it… why was the number one hero in Pain?

He must have been mistaken, surely. It just couldn’t be, it didn’t make sense. He shook his head.

Why is everyone so intent on stopping him from being a hero? “It’s too dangerous,” they say, “you won't survive,” they say, but. They're the same ones making his life so difficult.

He sighed but was cut off by an explosion not too far away. They sounded similar, he thought with a frown before it sunk in. Kacchan! Those are Kacchan’s! He ran towards the sound.

When he arrived at the scene he pushed his way into the front, and to his dismay, it was indeed his bully. He was held by the Sludge villain. Bile rose up his throat.

Teary and angry red eyes met shocked green ones. They screamed soundlessly for help. Izuku looked around, spotting the heroes.

Nobody was doing anything. “My quirk isn’t suited for this!” he heard, and fright ran through his veins. What? Were they really… Doing nothing to save him!?

He clenched his fists and teeth before breaking into a run toward his struggling ‘friend’ and monster. Heroes yelled after him but didn’t pursue him further.

Grabbing the strap of his backpack he flung it with all his strength in the direction of the villain’s eye. The goo winced in pain and Izuku kept running, only to be stopped by a bullet hell of green tentacles.

He dodged as best he could before finally reaching the blonde.

Digging out the goo, he managed to grab the struggling teen’s hand, pulling as hard as he could. Sadly for them. The villain hadn’t given up yet, far from it.

Kacchan could take a small breath but was encased once again soon after. In its angered state, the villain lashed out, the putrid slime uppercut him on his stomach, sending him staggering backward.

He got up again, but before he could continue his efforts, All Might arrived at the scene.

"A 'hero i am..." The man punched the slime, the strength of the punch sending a huge shockwave, enough to move the clouds and change the weather.

A small burst of rain showered from above. 

Before he could properly react, the Powerful Hero fled from the press, and he was left at the mercy of the judgeful eyes of the so-called heroes at the scene.

They all gave him a sermon and scolding, but it sounded more like them shouting out their frustrations at the teen. He wasn’t quite there mentally, but he still saw the aggressive and frustrated look they had.

Tears bubbled up and he ran home on the shortest route possible. Oblivious to the hero looking for him.

Strangers shoot weird looks at the dirty and rugged teen as he sprints home, unluckily for him (seriously what’s up with his luck?) he stumbled with the explosive blond. No… No no no no!

He wanted to be left alone, just for once. He couldn't keep it together today, he just couldn't.

“Hah?!” his breath sped up when those familiar and cruel eyes spotted him.

“K-kacchan…” Izuku warily greeted, knowing all too well the incoming outburst.

“The hell do you think you are, Deku?!” He took a step closer, the smaller teen a step back. “You looking down on me or what Huh?!” he sneered, the greenette could smell the burnt caramel coming from his hands.

“That’s not it!”

“Shut it, nerd! I didn’t need saving, especially from you” he emphasized with a shove at his chest, throwing him off balance. “What would a Quirkless, useless, loser like you do?! Huh?!”

“But…”

“Do you need another beating to understand?!” Kacchan shouted, and the words rang in his ears. “Give. The. Fuck. Up.” 

“I can-” he bit his lip in frustration.

“Can what? Get yourself killed?” Rich from someone who told him to end his life, but he digresses. “UA wouldn’t accept someone like you, only the best of the best! I'm going to be the only one going there, you hear me?!”

“…”

“Did you fucking hear me?! Don’t you dare ignore me.” He growled.

“Y-yes I h-heard you, Kacchan.” clenched fists, he nodded looking at the floor.

“Good! So don’t you even dream of going there!” crimson eyes, those pressuring eyes plagued his nightmares. He didn’t dare look up. Only waiting for the intimidating steps of his classmate to fade out into the distance.

Sigh.

As soon as he got home he sat on his bed, trying to forget all that happened today. He didn’t want to move, think, or feel, he wanted to be alone, alone from everyone.

… Wait

What happened when he was in the sludge? Was that real? Could it be?… He shook his head but as he thought more about it, it felt too real for it to be fake.

It was a pop-up, right? He’s pretty sure it said something about Health Points, just like in a videogame, and the way he spent those points… was it like an RPG? Was that even possible? He hasn’t heard of any quirk like that.

He wasn’t exactly a gamer or anything like that, but he tried to figure out how to summon that screen window. 

“S-status window?…” Ding! It immediately rang out. A glowy window appeared in his vision, looking around he noticed it was fixed to where he looked.

He squinted to read the text. 

Midoriya Izuku
Stats

Health 110
Stamina 25
Speed 30
Attack 1
Defense 5
( Luck -10 )

-10 luck? Checks out…

Wait.

What are these stats!? And why is my HP so huge- Ah right, he used up 60 points on it… 

Points…?! Like the ones you get when you level up? “Uhm… What’s my level?” he asked the screen, but nothing came up. No levels then?

How does he get those points? He asked so but was met with no answer again. Weird… As excited as he was to find he in fact had a quirk… or at least some kind of ability (question mark) that didn’t negate the feelings that had been building up.

Tears fell, for the hundredth time that day. Could he become a hero like this? He could- no, he needed to find a way to get points, no matter what.

I'm going to show them what I'm made of… He thought with a sour smirk.

Chapter Text

After quite a bit of digging through the internet and reflecting on information in his notebook, he found out that the most common ways to  ‘level up’ or ‘obtain points’ in RPGs were:

Defeating monsters; is quite self-explanatory, but he wrote down every important aspect of it in one of his notebooks. On the subject of defeating monsters or, well… Bad guys in general, it commonly included weapons and a leveling system.

Then, Completing Quests, you get told to do something (like defeating a villain, fetching an item for an NPC or exploring the map) and you achieve it to the best of your ability. That wouldn’t be too hard compared to the whole monster thing.

He means, have you seen his noodle arms?

Another somewhat common way to get points is engaging in a certain activity to improve it, this one would tie pretty well with his stats, since all he did was run away from bullies and weep like a baby, his highest stats being Stamina and Speed make quite a bit of sense.

However, he couldn't confirm anything until he tried, so back to the drawing board, it was.

The first thing he wanted to try was the most obvious, but how, and when? Surely finding a monster to fight with couldn’t be that easy. He scratched his chin.

Maybe he could try to find some kind of… Mugger? Robber? A bad person who takes advantage of those unfortunate enough to go outside at night.

This was the stupidest option by far, but with him basically vibrating on his seat to learn more about his quirk, he got to work.

1st Theory

After a long day of school, which included the isults and occasional shove on the hallway he put his plan into work.

Coming back home he grabbed a kitchen knife, surely a petty criminal would underestimate a gloomy teen just being out and about at night, nothing suspicious going on there, and then BAM!

No more bad guy.

 Every passing second that he thought about his stupid plan it sounded more and more scary and idiotic. He probably would end up getting killed-

No! Bad Deku! Don’t listen to what Kacchan said, he may be strong, and better in every way, and- you get the point- but that doesn’t give him the right to stop him from following his dreams.

He was decided.

Actually being out at night was way worse than it sounds, but what could he do? He stiffly walked through the street with his shoulders almost up to his ears and every small sound made him flinch, oh well.

It didn’t take too long before the first encounter.

A junkie came out of an alleyway almost giving him a heart attack.

“Hah! Easy bait!” the man laughed. “Give me all your money, or else!” they pulled out a knife, shit! Why didn’t he think about it?!

Did the discovery of his quirk make him extra suicidal and oblivious?!

“Hurry up!”  

“Y-yes sir!” he stuttered out in a higher tone than he would like to admit, digging through his pockets for a few seconds before a fact sunk in. He didn’t have any money by himself!

“I-i uh-” 

“What?!” Izuku could almost smell the alcohol on their breath, yuck yuck yuck. He held back a gag.

“I don't have any money, sir!” He could almost cry and curl up into a ball dissipating from existence, but that would be the best-case scenario, and he knows the world isn’t merciful, especially toward him.

“Say what now?!” they screamed. “I need money! Fuck!” was that man having an alcohol-induced tantrum? “Oh, I know..” a chuckle.

“Your organs would probably be worth a fair share of money!” a laugh. Oh, Mary mother of our saviour Jesus Christ.

“N-no!-” he stepped back, ready to run away, but the man stopped him before he could, grabbing him by the wrist and painfully dragging him to the alley they came from.

“Help-!” A hand on his mouth kept him from screaming.

“Shh! Shut the fuck up for a second!” the man hissed in a low tone, sending shivers through his spine. He kept thrashing around until a knife was put close to his neck in an obvious threat, he closed his eyes shut.

The sharp object got closer, and closer to his neck, but in the last moment. 

Crash!

…

He stood there shaking but after a few seconds of the pressure over his neck not being there, he opened his eyes. The sight wasn’t pretty.

A brick had fallen from a house above them, right onto the head of the organ trafficker wannabe, it entirely obliterated the man, parts of their brain were all over the floor.

He gagged.

this had been a total fail, he exited the alley before vomiting his guts out. Yeah, maybe he wasn’t quite up there to defeating monsters. He ran away from the scene.

“Huff…” He was panting from the minutes of unplanned exercise, he sat on the floor covered in sweat.

“Meow.”

“Huh?!” That made him jump, humiliating if he said so himself but his fight or flight reaction hadn’t completely disappeared just yet.

Oh, it's just a cat. He sighed In relief.

Wait, what if animals were considered monsters by the system? He looked at the cat, then at the knife in his pocket, then back at the cat, and so back and forth.

He frowned.

…

No way he was doing that, he petted the cat for a while and returned home, what an eventful night…

2nd Theory

He took a bath before going to School, yes, it was a cold shower, because hot showers were for the weak. (He saved money by not paying the gas bills.)

Looking for quests was supposed to be easier, but as it turns out, nobody trusts him enough to let him buy them lunch.

“D-do you need anything by chance?” He asked around the school but was Met with different kinds of reactions.

For bullies;

“Huh? Since when do you act like that.” Suspicion.

“I don’t need anything from you, Deku! What is your useless ass even supposed to do?!” Fair enough.

And Nonbullies aka people who didn’t really care;

They either ignored him like the plague, not wanting to deal with the Pomeranian, or politely and non-politely denying his question. Sigh.

Total failure, he better get used to this, until his less favorite and only childhood friend gave him an idea.

“Hah?! All you're good for is crying like a child and being a nerd, why the question anyway?! You look down on me?!” he should have expected that.

One of the first things he thought about when he heard Nerd, was studying, and studying > the library.

Maybe he could get a quest there!

To the library!

He was greeted by a nice lady as soon as he entered. She wore a tight bun, with white hair from her age.

“Oh, you’re back, dear! I haven’t seen you here since forever!” She smiled, though he didn’t comment on the fact that he went here last week.

She treated him like a son, since her’s had left for the United States, where she came from before moving to Japan.

“O-oh good evening Dorothy!” He was getting flustered Over her worry.

“How was school? I know teens can be mean.” She cooed, pinching one of his cheeks.

“I’m okay! I was… i was wondering if you needed anything.”

She put a finger on her lip. “Hmm.. I'm not sure- Oh wait! The Janitor couldn’t come today, so we need someone to sweep the floor, nothing through of course! Wouldn't want to take time from your studies… I know how important they are for you!” 

After casual chit-chat, he got to work, grabbing the broom and dust pan Dorothy gave him.

It took a while, and it was far from perfect, but after a couple of hours the Library was noticeably cleaner. It was boring, yes. And it didn’t give him any points, but it wasn’t a total loss, maybe, probably, perhaps.

Though he wondered by she had bricks close to her desk.

It's probably nothing.

3rd Theory

He saved this one for last because he was a proud hater of working out, it left him sweating and full of regret and bad thoughts overall, but if it was for his quirk... He had to do it.

First, he went running around the neighborhood, not without comfortable clothes and a bottle of water of course.

He had a slow but consistent pace, it was going well and good until he saw people from his school pass by, having to take unexpected turns.

He seriously underestimated the willpower needed to jog for 10 minutes, but after a good 30 minutes (not counting rests) he was left huffing and puffing his lungs out.

“Hah…” he heaved, that didn’t exactly work, but to be fair maybe he wasn't trying hard enough and he hadn’t been working out for long, so with a bit of self-discipline he decided to keep going.

After another 30 minutes of jogging to no avail, he tried doing other exercises.

Again, nothing, he had worked out for 3 hours now and absolutely nothing had happened. He grumbled under his breath.

“Gosh darn it… The online tutorials make it look so easy!” He chugged the last bit of water left in his bottle. “This sucks!” so much for a protagonist complex.

He had to get something to drink, so he settled on going to a vending machine, lucky him there was one not too far away. 

He payed for a can of soda (not the most refreshing thing, but he needed some carbs in his system) only for it to get stuck. “Why?!” he could almost cry.

After some tears, he paid for another one, who thankfully didn’t get stuck.

He chugged it down in record time, grumbling curses under his breath.

After trying to crush the can as a way to destress himself he found he couldn't, so he pulled his arm back and closed his eyes to throw it with all his strength.

…Without knowing it would bounce back.

“Ow!” he put a hand to his forehead as the sharp part of the can meet his face harshly. He was about to scream in frustration and hit whatever was closer to him but a noise stopped him.

Ding! A window appeared In front of him.

You have obtained 1 Point.

What.

You now have 9 Points available.
You can spend them to improve stats, Do you choose to do so?

Yes - No

Huh?!

What even happened?! He hit himself and obtained a… Something clicked, he really must be the unluckiest person on earth, what are the odds?

This quirk is pure- excuse his language- bullshit. If he understood right, he had to take damage to get points, isn’t that cruel?

He means… it's good he finally figured a part of his quirk out but… wasn’t it unfair?! He wasn’t in the right mindset to think about it, needing some time to think.

“Y-yes, I want to spend points…” He whispered, looking around to see no one around, at least nobody saw him acting like an idiot.

He flinched when the screen appeared once again in front of his face.

What do you want to spend points on?

Health 110
Stamina 25
Speed 30
Attack 1
Defense 5
( Luck -10 )

Izuku stared at it for a while, what did he want to be? Most RPGs had mages or some kind of magic system, but that doesn’t exist here so a lot of classes go out the drain.

He wondered absent mindedly what would happen if he spent all in luck, isn't ‘Luck’ some kind of magic cheat skill anyways?

It’s always been a dream of his to be powerful, but it was childish, he could never be someone like All Might, he had to be ‘realistic’, though that word left a sour taste in His mouth.

His attack

was the lowest stat he had, and it would take forever for him to become an actual Warrior. 

Being a Shield sounded slightly more feasible, he could be some kind of support, he wasn’t a fan of it either but an option’s an option, he guesses.

Then, a Speedster, also called thief, is not the name he wanted to associate with himself but he digresses. It was the best option taking into account his stats.

Could he be some kind of informant? That certainly was a needed but underated role on Hero society. What about some kind of ninja? It was frustrating how most roles required for him to have more than an ant’s amount of Attack.

He really should work on that.

Sigh. “It would be so much easier if i could just swap Points as i want…” he sulked for a bit, but another screen popped up.

Option Unlocked: Point Swapping.

Can be used once a day to swap points between 2 stats.

Holy wacamoley, maybe God was merciful, I’m sorry for doubting you, lord from above, Izuku apologised.

This brought a lot of options to the table, if he didn’t like how one strategy worked, he could just swap it out the next day, isn't that overpowered?

He really, really wanted to indulge into his childhood dream. He couldn’t help it.

“Spend 9 Points in Attack.” He demanded.

Attack rose to 10!

He could test it out now, he grabbed the can on the floor and tried to crush it. Crunch! It wasn't easy to make it into a ball, but all things considered, it was pretty good. Now…

“Uhmm… Swap 70 HP points to Attack… pretty please.” He whispered that last part.

Health lowered to 40.

Attack rose to 80!

Now for the moment of truth…

The can wasn’t in shape to take another crushing so he looked around to find another object to test on. Voila, a stick, a thick one at that.

He smiled, walking over to grab the stick.

And with a little bit of force. Crack! The part where he held the stick crumbled, he couldn’t help but gape at his hand, then at the stick, then back and forth.

He immediately noted this on his book (who came out of nowhere) , he couldn't forget about discoverments like these!

He held a wide smile on his face, unable to keep the excitement at bay. He happily walked his way home, ready to overcome anything that came his way with the newfound strength.

Maybe then nobody would keep him from being a hero!

…

Wait…

How is he going to explain this to Kacchan?!