Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya found out very early that not all men were created equal.
"It's best you just give up," a bald man with a gray mustache and a doctors coat sat across from the four year old freckled boy and his mother. His words cut into the boy's heart like a shard of metaphoric glass. "Ma'am, you're fourth generation correct? Your quirk I mean." At this statement, the young boy looked up to his mother, the knee he wasn't resting on was bouncing restlessly.
"Yes, I am. I dabble in attracting and manipulating small objects," she paused and thought for a moment, her hand rising and methodically running her fingers through the boy's green hair. "My husband also breathes fire from time to time, more of a party trick though." Her small attempt at humor did nothing to distract her own thoughts, nor her son's. In response, the doctor nodded without emotion.
"Although there is a chance your son possesses a complex and hidden ability, it seems more likely that little Izuku is without a quirk," he unrolled a small piece of paper and pinned it to a board. "An X-ray of his foot shows a distinct second joint in his pinky toe, an aspect that is lacking in eighty percent of today's society. The portion who possess quirks."
It was at that moment, or maybe subsequent moments, Izuku's life would be changed forever. To say the small boy was without hope would be a lie, though that fact would begin to crumble with every apology from his mother in later days. Time passed quickly, the journey out of the office to the car, the car ride home, his trudge to his room, and even his muscle memory prodding him to turn on the computer and tune into his favorite video.
"HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I AM HERE!" A booming voice echoed through a burning environment, followed quickly by similar laughter and soon followed by cheers from bystanders. Shouts and exclamations from civilians soon followed.
'He's already saved a hundred people!'
'It hasn't even been ten minutes yet! It's unreal! Unreal!'
The debut of Japans symbol of peace. A shining beacon of heroism. He called himself All Might. A towering muscular man, piercing blue eyes, blonde hair with two upright "rabbit ears," and a smile that never left his face.
"Mom?" Izuku's voice came out soft and broken. "Can- can I still be a hero? Just- just like him?" A beat of silence passed before his mother rushed to his side and began sobbing into his shoulder. The waterworks ran in the family it seemed, as Izuku's sobs would soon follow. His mothers similarly broken voice broke the wordless minute of crying.
"I'm sorry Izuku. I'm so sorry!" For the second time that day, his dream was stabbed metaphorically.
'No mom. What I wanted you to say that day... All I needed you to say- was that I could become a hero. Even without a quirk.'
The very next Monday when he told his best friend about his situation, he didn't know exactly what he was expecting. He was certainly not expecting for Katsuki Bakugou to laugh in his face and call him useless.
"Just face it, I'll always be better than you! You're just a stupid Deku!" The boy he had looked up to for his entire four years of life turned to the group of young boys behind him. "Get it? Deku? It sounds kinda like Dekunobou, 'you can't do anything!" His barking laughter echoed in Izuku's ears long after the explosions of Bakugou's quirk ceased.
A small irrational portion of his small child mind hoped that Bakugou would change his mind. He would go to school the next day and find out it was all a prank, even if the burns and bruises never felt like a prank. For a few long years, the behavior never changed. The beatings only got worse. The effects grew harder to hide. His classmates grew more distant and powerful.
By middle school, Izuku had learned to stick to himself, make himself small. It never helped, but it made him hopeful that the teachers may finally step in whenever they saw the defenseless boy getting beat to a bruised and burned pulp. The first year he would ask himself why Bakugou, "the next number one hero" in his own words, would be harming another boy so thoroughly.
While Izuku would never admit it to himself, nor would he have ever realized it on his own, his self esteem was severely lacking. He would constantly excuse his bullies no matter how often he was abused. Maybe it was the teachers drilling excuses for the other students into his head, maybe it was the power difference, or maybe it was sheer amount of bigotry he faced. The reason did not truly matter, the effect was always the same.
The first and second year of middle school would come to a close not nearly soon enough. The second year had been worse than the first, more abuse, intensifying violence, and the smell of smoke never truly leaving. The short breaks from school would come and go, and the constant muffled pain in his shoulder would finally fade. Maybe the nerves had finally fully healed both times due to not having any contact with Bakugou. Funny how that works.
The last day of break once again loomed over Izuku like the shadow of doomsday as April was quickly approaching. He had decided to at least enjoy the last of his freedom for this year outside. Okay, maybe his mother had forced him out the door to finally get some sunlight to grace his pale skin.
Quick footsteps echoed down the concrete sidewalk as he rushed toward a commotion in the distance. Smoke and debris lifted into the air as a giant figure loomed in the distance.
"Woah! That quirk is so cool!" Izuku whipped out his notebook from a small bag he carried attached to his jeans. It read 'hero notebook for the future #11.'
"It seems like he has some sort of growth quirk, his head is sort of pointy so maybe he has a muscle hardening quirk instead? Of course that could just be the angle I'm at too... His hair doesn't look like its the same as the rest of his body, but maybe he doesn't affect his hair if he does have a hardening quirk. Maybe its just a transformation quirk instead, that could work, but it also begs the question of why he would be committing crime instead of just becoming a hero like anyone else would want to-"
"Quite the quirk fanboy aren't you?" A gruff voice broke Izuku from out of his muttering storm.
"A-ah sorry! I- I didn't realize I was muttering again." The man laughed in response.
"Don't worry about it kid, we're all here to watch the heroes at work-"
"Laquer Prison!"
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear!" The gruff man continued.
A man that seemed to be dressed in an outfit made of wood shouted from the rooftop of a nearby building and flung his arms out at the villain. A few moments later, wooden beams shot out from his hands and began to wrap around the giant man.
"GO AWAY! LET ME GO!"
"You're being charged with an unlawful use of your quirk, battery, and robbery! Stand down."
Izuku was nearly vibrating in place as he watched the hero fight the large man. This was so cool, he was seeing a hero live! He was seeing...
"It's that rising hero! Kamui Woods! He's so cool, not to mention his quirk!" His voice was loud and unrestrained as he processed the fight and committed the entire thing to memory. His mother sometimes joked that he had a perfect memory when it came to quirks, maybe she was right, but how could he forget something that was just so cool?
"Yeah, beat his ass tree guy! Show us whatcha got," the man beside him spoke once more, supporting the hero in his own way. The fight was just winding down as the villain was finally beginning to tire when-
"CANYON CANNON!" A woman nearly double the size of a nearby building slammed into the villain and promptly destroyed the bridge they were fighting on. The giant hero woman rose slowly from the results of her flying dropkick and looked back at the crowd of people.
"My name is Mount Lady, it's nice to meet you all! Just leave the rest to me!" Her voice was sultry and sweet, clearly directed at a certain demographic, and clearly aimed at gathering popularity from said demographic.
The situation would wind down soon after as the villain had been knocked out on impact. He had shrunk back down as he lay unconscious, with Mount Lady and Kamui Woods arguing over his body. The police took him into custody soon after, ignoring both heroes. The press would surround Mount Lady soon afterward and Izuku would realize exactly why she was a hero. Fame. Fortune. Helping people was just a byproduct for her. He would probably put her in his notebook anyways, but he didn't plan on attaching one of his drawings. He had already begun doing so in fact.
"You're writing notes to be a hero?" The man beside him looked over and read a little of what he had written. "Nice! Good luck kid." Izuku beamed.
"Thank you sir! I will!"
The fight had lifted any of the remaining negative thoughts from his mind as he made his way down the sidewalk once more. He felt his stomach grumble as he passed by a nearby building under construction, not that the two were related. What was related however, was the uneven slab of concrete that he had just rammed his foot into at full walking speed. His thoughts of 'maybe I'll grab some food!' was replaced with 'or maybe I'll just die.' He shut his eyes and awaited the sensation of concrete slamming into his nose at terminal velocity, though it never came.
"Hey, are you alright?" Ignoring the voice that rang in his ear, he was freaking out. He sputtered and flailed his limbs as his eyes shot open and he noted himself to be floating off of the ground.
"Oh gosh, sorry! I'll let you down now, be careful." The voice rang out once again as he heard them say, "release," before his feet touched the ground seamlessly. Izuku let out a small confused squeak before his eyes finally fell on the person who had helped him. A girl who looked to be his age stood awkwardly at his side, a hand placed on his shoulder with her pinky raised above it. She had brown shoulder length hair, small and visible pink circles on her cheeks, and large brown eyes. She was looking at him with a very concerned expression.
"I'm Ochako Uraraka, glad you're okay!"
"I- I'm Izuku Midoriya." He paused, cutting himself off awkwardly. As his brain scrambled to find something to say, his mind wandered back to her quirk and how she still held her pinky away from his shoulder. His eyes visibly lit up as he easily began to find words.
"Does your quirk make people float? That's so cool! Judging by your pinky it probably requires all five fingers to work? If you pressed two fingers on one hand and three on another would that activate your quirk? Is there a weight limit? Is it just for people or does it affect objects?" His muttering storm took Uraraka off guard, the awkward and timid boy had been replaced with a glowing and overenthusiastic quirk nerd. A small smile crossed her face as she removed her hand from his shoulder and held both hands out in front of her.
"Hey, hold on- I can't answer all of your questions at the same time," Izuku shrunk slightly as a sheepish smile replaced his blank stare.
"S-sorry, I get a little carried away when talking about quirks," his voice had returned to the uncertain and skittish quality it had retained before. Uraraka waved her arms in a disarming motion to reassure him.
"It's okay, I promise! I won't judge you, I just can't respond when you're speaking so fast," she spoke with a comforting tone, trying to calm the increasingly anxious boy in front of her. She briefly wondered what had happened to make him so easily nervous in front of others. After a pause, she brought a hand to her chin and pursed her lips in thought.
"Let's see... My quirk is called 'Zero Gravity.' It allows me to remove the gravity of anything I touch with these pads on my fingers," she glanced up briefly as she paused in her explanation only to find him writing in a notebook. "You take notes on other peoples quirks?" His eyes shot up, slightly widened.
"I do, I like to look at other peoples quirks-" he paused, his voice breaking and his face growing increasingly pale. "Since- since I'm quirkless." His eyes fell quickly to the concrete as he stopped writing. "I get it if you don't want to talk anymore, but I look at other peoples quirks so that I can understand them and maybe even become a hero! Even if it sounds stupi-" he was cut off by an enthusiastic cheer from Uraraka.
"That's so cool! Well, not being quirkless I mean- Not that there's anything wrong with being quirkless! Wanting to be a hero anyways is amazing!" Izuku's eyes widened and his complexion returned to normal, albeit with his ears being slightly reddened.
"R-really? You think so?" In response, Uraraka nodded vigorously, stepping closer and grabbing him by the shoulders while leaving her pinkies in the air.
"Hold up, sit over here with me. I really wanna read what you have in your book now!" Even as Izuku's self doubt tried to protest inwardly, he allowed himself to be dragged to a nearby bench where she stole the book and began to flip through the pages. The moment she looked at the first page, one that ironically had her favorite hero on it, she gasped and lit up.
"Oh my gosh, you drew Thirteen perfectly!" Uraraka brought the notebook closer to her face as she studied the page further. "And her helmet looks so realistic here," she pointed to the second drawing of the heroes costume. "It's like you took a picture and pinned it to the page!" He smiled at the praise, embarrassed. He was very taken aback when, after a few minutes of her scrutiny, Uraraka pulled out her phone and pushed it toward him in a hurry.
"Wha?" She giggled at the look of surprise on his face.
"I need to get back to my parents, but I wan't to see more of your notes," she further pushed her phone toward him. "Put my number in your contacts!" After a few moments of struggling to form words, Izuku squeaked and managed to shakily add her contact to his phone, sending her a quick greeting. She grinned and started to rise. He panicked and fumbled with his phone before shoving it back in his pocket and offering the notebook to her.
"If we're going to talk again, w-why don't you just borrow it? M-my notebook I mean," he paused as she turned her body to fully face him, after a moment a huge smile took over her face.
"Thanks Midoriya! I guess I'll be seeing you later then!" She gave an enthusiastic wave as she ran off toward the construction site, only pausing to place the notebook in a pink and black backpack she wore. Izuku now stood by the bench in shock at what had just happened.
"I just talked to a girl!" Little did he know, this wouldn't be the last time either. The following minutes felt surreal to Izuku. He would see a multitude of heroes or interesting civilians passing by on the street as he walked, which of course made him reach instinctively for his notebook... Which wasn't there. He shrugged, number eleven was nearly full anyways, he'd break into number twelve whenever he got home.
The nearest restaurant, a family owned burger joint, was the place he'd decided on for lunch. A simple cheeseburger was eaten, he paid, then he left. Nothing of note really occurred on his walk home either, or maybe he just didn't notice anything. His mind was still stubbornly stuck on the images of the girl, Uraraka, whom he'd just met. Her quirk was super useful and had saved him from slamming face first into the hard concrete, which he was incredibly thankful to have avoided mind you.
As a storm of thoughts and images flooded his brain, he failed to notice his approaching front door as he arrived at his apartment. His nose wouldn't be spared from blunt force trauma after all as he slammed full force into the door. He yelped and leapt back as he rubbed his now aching nose. As he walked into his the apartment, this time avoiding a collision with the door, a single thought ran through his mind.
"Maybe today wasn't so bad after all."