Izuku Midoriya is quirkless. A throwback, to a time before. Not every tradition from the days before Quirks has died, though, and there are still some candles that sputter on, dogged determination driving them past the end of their natural lives. A body of experts still exist from when man had mortal bodies alone to fight against the darkness, and while their art is diminished in it's centuries of unuse, it still remains strong. Any organization that could survive for nintey-eight generations can survive a few more, even without purpose as something new took it's place.
Still, down in the dark, evil things lurk, and secrets remain. On the banks of the Sanzu, red spider lilies grow, but somewhere else, on the other side of the world, a blue variant may still bloom under the sun...
Something inside the young boy snaps at that. He starts mumbling to himself, diction fading away into nonsense noise. The mother is leaning forwards, gulping. "Are you sure?"
"Ma'am, I've got the second toe joint right here. Unless he develops a Mental-type Quirk, there's not much hope."
Sniffling, the boy moves to look at the copy of the x-ray. It's his foot, alright, complete with growth plates and the hairline fracture from where he fell off a curb and that silly little extra joint. How could something so small cause his life to be so different?
"There's nothing?" he asked, blinking. "I can't be a hero?"
"I'm sorry." The doctor says, and that's that. The rest of the day passes in a haze. Going home is a blur, dinner tastes less than dirt. Not even his favorite videos can soothe him: All Might coming to the scene in his first public operation in Japan, the Battle in Nagasaki, work in the earthquake-stricken Tokyo Tower. None of it calms the storm rolling in his gut. Finally, when he's stayed up two hours past too late, and his mother comes to get him, he asks her the same question.
"Mom? Can I become a hero?"
She cries, embracing him, and there's nothing more that's said.
The next two days are much like the first, until Izuku comes home from the playground, covered in dirt and a few small bruises from where he fought back despite being outnumbered, being quirkless, and being unable to smile. An odd pair of shoes is by the door, and a long coat with a colorful scarf. Someone's come to visit? Still, Izuku is courteous enough to remember to get cleaned up before moving to the family room. Visitors are normally important, after all!
"Mama?" he asks, peaking around the corner, face still a little red from scrubbing to hide where he hit a branch in a bush. Smiling lightly, Mama invites him to the couch, and there in the nice chair across is a man, with bright green hair, and the oddest beard!
"Hey, Izuku." The man says, smiling a sad little smile. Izuku doesn't like it; he's seen it on himself in the mirror too many times to count. "Recognize me?"
"Hisashi." Mama Midoriya says, raising an eyebrow. "You've been gone three months in four! Of course he doesn't recognize you!"
At this, the stranger blushes, and pulls a cloth out of his vest to wipe down a pair of circular glasses, before putting them in his lap to breathe a small puff of fire out. "Recognize me now?"
"Papa?" Izuku asks, and he does have to ask. His father didn't look anything like this shaggy dog of a man who didn't shave anything except around his mouth (so he didn't singe hair on his fire, why didn't he think of that? That was important!) wearing clothes that looked like a professor!
That sad smile returns, so Izuku stands up to go give his father a hug. He's been doing something, out there in the world, and as he approaches that great bristly stranger picks the small boy up to hug him close. "I'm here, Izuku." He says, pulling poor Izuku into a hug that would crack his back like fireworks if he wasn't so limber. "I'm sorry I was gone for so long."
"Papa, where were you?" Izuku asks. His father sets him on his lap, before pulling out a pipe and igniting it with a soft puff.
"I don't think I ever explained it to you, but I'm a teacher." He said, hands fidgeting in time with his words. "I teach at a school up in the north, where we help kids who have problems they can't get over without help."
"Problems like being Quirkless?" Izuku asked, a small smile forming on his face. Could his dad be a hero of some type too?
Wincing, Hisashi shook his head. "Not really. Worse than that."
"What could be worse?"
"Being deaf, or blind." Hisashi said seriously. "Imagine trying to get on a train, but you can't see. Or how you'd buy groceries, if you couldn't hear?"
"Oh. That'd be pretty hard." Izuku says, as he pales at the thought. Not being able to see to dodge, or hear to evade would make playing much harder, and how would he use the crosswalk then? Or go to the combi-mart to pick up snacks? That would be the hardest thing he could do, right now.
"Exactly. I work at a school to help teach these people things. Some of us teach how to interact with the outside world, like with sign language or Braille. Others, like me, make sure they can learn all the normal stuff in school without having to worry about their disabilities getting in the way."
Izuku nodded, and smiled. "Good! You do good!"
Hisashi laughed a little, a clean laugh of letting something go. "Yes. Yes I do. Would you like to help me?"
"What do you mean?" Izuku wondered.
"We don't just teach people with disabilities. A lot of people also come to be with friends and family to support them, or learn to help people with these sorts of problems. If you came to help me, we could enroll you in a helper course, and you'd learn to help them too."
Thinking through it as hard as he could, Izuku looked nervously over at his mother. "But what about Mom?"
"I'd come with you too, this time." Inko said, smiling lightly. "I stayed here in Mustafar when we were worried about the job not working out, and you needing help with… your Quirk…"
"Oh."
The room was silent for a moment, until Hisashi coughed lightly, a trickle of flame leaking out.
"Still, Izuku. Are you interested?"
It did not take more than a minute to respond, nods and smiles and faith. Izuku could still be a hero to someone.
-/-/-/-/-/
Katawa Shoujo OST: Wisona
Moving up to Sendai had been hard, but Izuku relished the new challenge. His old life was left behind in Mustafar, and in the here and now he had moved in with his father and mother happily. The new apartment was bigger, with three whole bedrooms, and the parks were grander. Then there was the school. Good heavens, the school.
It had been strange, adopting to the new place. New students came and left, and the electives were strange. Still, Izuku pushed himself to learn as much as he could, smiling and meeting people who were destined to drift in and out of the halls of the hallowed ground. Elementary school drifted into middle school, as the kids became more comfortable with their own lives and bodies around him. There was Shiki, who always said his hair had the texture of the curly grass it resembled so well, and Makota who thought his sign looked so neat and clean he could work for the government or give shape to sound.
Not all his classmates had lived with their demons so long, though. Every semester, without fail, there were two or three new students who had the nervous twitch of an accident or a habit that didn't account for their new bodies. The later was easy to work with and work out, as older students took the time to aid and correct as homerooms banded together to bring their one-winged birds to flight. It was the horrors of the mind that oft went without more than a shrug, or a halfhearted hug, or excused absences when fleeing the classroom.
Izuku was eleven when he watched one girl snap, screaming, before running into the woods that backed up to the hill the school was on. She was still in uniform, wearing her pimsols, and it was early spring, so much so that there was still frost on the ground when he woke in the morning.
"We're gonna have to find her." One of the teachers- Mutou- said, frowning slightly.
"I'll go." Izuku said, mouth moving faster than his sense.
Mutou stared, before shaking his head. "No. The woods are dangerous, and the old shrine on the mountain isn't a good place for the kids."
"It's fifteen hundred." Izuku replied, going back to the classroom and getting his coat. Much like his father, he wore a long, Western-style greatcoat; although his had dark blue trim. Inside were pockets for everything under the sun, from a braille dictionary and sign gloss, to a handful of common medications and a thin waterskin his mother had made for him. "It'll take at least an hour to get the heroes in town to search for her."
"You'll never find your way back." Mutou replied, before Izuku smiled a little and pulled out a mess of wires connected to a metal tube.
Everyone nearby stepped back, side-eying each other.
"Midoriya." Mutou said, stepping back with them. "What is that?"
"A flashlight I've been working on."
"How powerful of a flashlight?"
"Haven't finished testing yet, but it blew out the luminosity meter." Izuku replied, going back into the classroom to come out with a lamb battery. "So probably at least four million lumens? Just leave some lights on at the school, and I'll flash the building."
Mutou frowned. "You really expect us to do trigonometry to find you?"
"Can't be that hard if you make us do it!" Izuku japed, ducking off down the stairs.
Signing, Mutou went back to his classroom, picking up his phone. Moments later, a call went out. "Hisashi." He said, as soon as it connected. "Your son's after our runner."
"I had a feeling." Hisashi said, with the verbal lilt of a shrug. "He remember to bring a signal, or did he just bolt after her?"
"He's got his coat and a flashlight to find God with." Mutou replied. "If I didn't know he was Inko's son, this would prove it."
"The fact he's running after a girl?"
"No, the fact he stopped to get supplies, or he'd be your son instead."
Hisashi laughed. "I hate it when you're right. Here's hoping he finds her."
Unfortunately, Izuku wasn't having too much luck in the woods. He might have played in the hills around the school in the summers, but the trail wasn't going down into the hills. The girl- he didn't even know her name- had found a deer trail, and was taking it straight up into the mountains. Funataga loomed in the distance, and fifteen hundred was slipping into eighteen hundred far too fast as the sun started gracing the top of the mountain ridge. He had to hurry, but rushing would just get himself lost.
The deer trail was still his best bet, then. Grabbing a good stick to use to pull himself along with, Izuku kept pushing up the mountain. Eighteen hundred dripped into nineteen hundred, and a pang of hunger twinged between his ribs. How far had the girl run? Looking back down towards the school, Izuku had to be at least a few kilometers away by now! Still, circumstances were getting dire, so Izuku pulled out his flashlight, and set it to it's lowest setting, flashing it over the trail.
The only important thing he saw was a shred of white cloth. Taking it in hand, Izuku matched the color to his own, and muttered to himself.
"Crap."
Still, he had to push on. That was what a hero would do.
Demon Slayer OST: Nightmare
It was when twilight was escaping and Izuku had to open the top of his watch to open it and read the hands by feel that he started getting worried. With the beam of his flashlight crossing over a grove of wisteria, he squinted. Just down this trail a little further was a shrine, and people. Thank heavens- people. Not just the girl he was looking for!
"Excuse me!" Izuku yelled, as hard as he could. "Excuse me!"
Keeping his flashlight pointed at the ground in a reverse grip so the beam would slide behind him if he let his arm down, Izuku moved carefully towards them. "Miss, are you alright? I've been looking for you!"
"Ohoho?"
Jumping sideways, Izuku nearly tripped over a tree root, and just kept himself from slamming into a patch of spider lilies. Next to him, a woman in a dark purple kimono beset with faint speckling on the arms bent down, her bone-white hair motionless in her bun.
"I'm sorry, ma'am!" Izuku yelled, bowing respectfully as he made sure he wouldn't fall into the bed of spider lilies. "My classmate ran away from the school, and I went to find her and make sure she was okay!"
The woman gave a polite huff, and nodded. "Very respectable, young man, but foolish."
"I had to do what I could!" Izuku replied.
"Even if there were monsters on the mountain?"
Biting his tongue, Izuku stopped speaking for a moment, focusing on the girl he had come to retrieve. She was still sitting still on the porch of the shrine, and something was subtly off about her. "Can I see to my classmate?"
A real expression crossed the strange woman's face, now, her mask falling away. "Are you sure? She was not in good health when she came, and it has only deteriorated."
"I know first aid. I can help this much at least." Izuku replied, determination evident.
The expression turned to pain. "Child. Savor your innocence a while longer, and take a moment with me. You must be hungry after running up the mountain after her."
What had been bullheadedness to deal with obstinance firmed itself for Izuku. "Please. I have to help her."
"I ask you one last time, leave her be. Send your signal to those who did not have more courage than a boy, and let them come to do this work. I will reward you well for your work this night, but please. Stop."
There was a pressure now, a force behind her words. No names had been given, but this was now a test of wills. Only one would emerge. Weight dragged at the child that was Izuku, chains binding him down. Honor demanded he respect the woman who lived here. Her age was great, and this was her home. He should, would consider her request. Besides, she did care that he came! Izuku was being recognized, and he said all he would do was go into the mountains and signal for the rescue to come. The cold was picking up, wind coursing over the top of the mountain, making the wisteria trees shake. Her home would be warm, and she would offer hospitality.
"No."
Izuku was firm. He took a step, pushing against the wind, that weight, that pressure. The wind increased, and even his heavy canvass coat couldn't stop it. So he took another. Now it came in from the side, but he had his walking stick, and planted it. Before taking a third step, Izuku brought his light around the ground, making sure he wouldn't step on anything. Before the light died as the cables fluttered loose in the wind, though, he saw one last patch of flowers, and took a gentle step to the right to avoid them.
Passing the last bed of flowers, Izuku made his way to the porch, only to stop dead. As blood dripped to the ground, he saw the truth. A shard of glass had been taken from the shrine, long and thin and oh-so-deadly, and used to its greatest effect. This girl he had set out to rescue, was dead by her own hand.
"I told her to stop." The woman said, from behind him. "I pleaded. She couldn't hear me, couldn't see me, didn't even notice my hands on hers trying to drive her away from the shattered mirror.
Izuku was silent, and so was the wind.
"My offer is still open." The woman said, taking Izuku's hand. "You should not have seen that. I should have stopped it."
"You…" Izuku said, gulping. "You did your best. I did my best."
"We were just too late."
Izuku nodded, and didn't complain when the woman plied him with soup. Before he went to bed in the guest futon she offered, he took his flashlight, set the brightness to maximum, and pointed it down the mountain and through the treeline at the school. They could find him. He was sure of it.
When the Pro Heroes found Izuku that next morning, he was tired. His sleep had been poor, and he had seen no sign of the house he had slept in, nor did it feel like he had miso and rice last night. Still, he had maintained his vigil on the corpse once awakened, and they asked him no questions. Collecting his flashlight, he left with the heroes, walking back down the mountain unaided.
There was an uncomfortable few days after the whole affair, which had almost slipped from Izuku's waking mind (if not his nightmares) when he found the letter.
Warframe OST: This is What You Are
Son.
Nothing I can give you will take away from the pain you received at my shrine. There is little an old woman such as I can do for a young man like you, whom has left youth behind him so early. Death is an ugly thing to see when unprepared, and you did not deserve it.
I have been lax in many things as of late, none more pressing now than the identities of my modern neighbors. To seek recompense for my failings, go to the temple off the road to your school, and ask them to learn how to breathe as the tide. Go on foot, as they disdain carriages and other things that may fail you. They will press you for how you know of this; show them this letter and my signature.
Ubuyashiki Kanata
Taking it carefully, Izuku re-folded it, and replaced it in his coat. He would go on to the shrine on the weekend, then. Normally, that time would be spent with his parents or his friends, but now, with the events of the mountain still fresh in his mind, it would be best to seek a resolution.
The hike down the road to the temple wasn't short, but Izuku's red shoes made the trek with him easily enough. It was an older building, with a pair of tall tori gates along the main road, the sides of which were lined with more wisteria. As he walked upon it, Izuku noted the faint ringing of wind chimes, before an old monk came out to greet him.
"Good morning!" the monk called, smiling.
"Good morning to you!" Izuku called back. "Do you know the name 'Ubuyashiki?"
The old monk stopped in shock, before falling over like a tipped cow. Running up to him, Izuku helped him back to his feet, feeling the man still coughing a little as he tried to clear his breath.
"Kid, where the hell did you learn that name?" the monk asked angrily.
"From her letter. She sent me here to talk to you about breathing as the tide?"
"Horseshit!" the monk yelled. "That name was ancient when I was young!"
Izuku just pulled the letter out, and the monk read over it, before falling over. "Kid." He wheezed. "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"
"No!" Izuku said, grabbing the monk to help him up again.
"Well, you read the letter." The monk grumbled. "If the Last Daughter of the Corps wants you trained, I can't refuse."
With that, the monk started working his way back to the temple and his home within. Following after him, Izuku blinked. "Trained in what?"
"The same thing I had to learn, and the same thing my teacher had to learn, all the way back when we came up with the abbreviated course when the Corps ended Muzan and most of the Hashira died."
At this, Izuku stopped. "The Corps?"
The monk grinned. "Yeah. The Corps. For ninety-eight generations, they fought, bled, and died to fix the greatest mistake in the world. When that was done, there was a time long enough to finish the clean-up, and then it dissolved. There's still pockets of us left, in case some damnfool doctor manages to find the blue spider lilies again, but it's not what it once was."
Izuku listened closely as they moved to the dormitory, and the old monk made tea. "Fortunately, you're coming into this fairly young, so I don't doubt you'll pick up the training well. It'll be weird teaching someone who's not my tsuguko, but I figure I'll manage. The Core Breathing Style isn't the kindest to learn, but you'll be careful or I'll tan your hide."
Sipping his tea, Izuku asked a simple question. "What is the Core Breathing Style then?"
"A little bit of everything, but I doubt you want to hear that. You want to see it."
With that, the monk finished his tea, and grabbed a sword off a rack. Eyes widening, Izuku followed him out into the courtyard, where a wooden pillar stood, the top decorated with boughs of holly. "Um, what are you going to do?"
"Nothing complicated, just the First Form." The monk replied, grinning. "I needed to take this old pole down anyway."
Izuku frowned. That 'pole' was nearly half a meter across! As the monk settled the sword and scabbard into his obi, the boy moved askew of the demonstration, gulping. Leaning down, in almost a runner's stance, the monk took the sword. One hand was on the hilt, the other on the scabbard, and a slight, faint hiss was heard. It almost sounded like steam, to Izuku's ears, and he saw the cloud the monk was breathing out mist up in the cool afternoon air.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
There was a sound like a shot, and Izuku clapped his hands over his now-ringing ears, eyes dancing from the light that had come from somewhere. Across the courtyard, the monk finished sheathing his sword, a final click sounding out.
Then the pillar fell, perfectly cut.
"What… was that?" Izuku asked. "Was it a Quirk?"
The monk grinned. "No. That was Thunder Breathing."
"How?"
My Hero Academia OST: You Can Be A Hero
The monk kept grinning, before offering a respectful bow. "My name is Oyama Shuji. When you climbed the mountain, you proved that above all else, you have determination; and that letter proves you have the soul of empathy we knew we needed to survive after our mission was completed. As for how? That is what I want to teach you."
Shock, pain, and the thoughts of a dream nurtured along a trellis in the faint, artificial light came to Izuku. Now, the sun was revealed, and the flowers could turn back to their original course. The trellis would still hold them, light from a lamp of man would nurture them, but this. This was the way.
Falling to his knees, Izuku gulped. "Do you think I… could become a hero?"
Oyama smiled. "Son, the Corps was always a place of heroes. Some great, some small; others pillars of skill or demons of betrayal. I would expect nothing less of you if you chose to study here with me."
The ground was not high up from his knees, and Izuku pitched forward to it, sobbing.
"C'mon, son." Oyama said, bending down to grab Izuku's shoulder. "We gotta get you back to your school."
Still sniffling, Izuku looked up at him.
"You agreed to this, so we both have to get ready. I want you hear at sunup every Sunday, no exceptions!" Oyama said cheerfully, ignoring his new student's blubbering. "And I'm going to have to talk your parents around on this to boot!"
Izuku started. "My parents?"
"Of course! Someone's got to make sure you do your workouts when you're not here! I'm thinking a hundred pushups, a hundred situps, a hundred squats, and ten kilometers of running up the mountain."
Izuku screamed a little.
"And that's up the mountain, you get to schedule a way down on your own time!"
Izuku screamed a little more, before Oyama patted him on the back. "Don't worry, that's not what you're starting with. Ain't what you're finishing with either, but we'll get there. I'll have to call the old man on Saigiri, though, he'll have to rebuild the obstacle course just for you!"
And so, the two walked back to Yamaku with the sun, forwards into Izuku's future.
/-/-/-/-
AN: This is explicitly a commission story, and as such updates will not be regular affairs. Each one costs between $10-$30, payable via my ko-fi, and I'll check at the end of the month to see how much has been sent. As a rule of thumb, though, one dollar buys a hundred words of update for those that want to grantee a minimum length. If I somehow roll over $30, I'll split the ammount and y'all get two updates. Best wishes, and best reading!
On the day of entrance examinations, hundreds of students moved on to the campus of UA. All of them were dressed in uniforms of some stripe; some older, some newer. A few were casual, others were fancy. There was no standardization among them, unique samples of seas meant to be blended into. Some were odd, though, unique in adaptations to Quirks or in bright colors and proud cuts.
Then there was one person who was the most out of place. A gakuran wasn't the most unusual garment to wear into this exam, but a haori over it with thin gold stripes highlighting a red and gray fish scale pattern was just a tad unusual- but far more curious, to the crowds who pretended not to stare, was the carved fox mask and the unusual case the young man refused to take off. In all other regards, he was polite, well-mannered, and had a ready smile. That was, until someone came barging in, nearly hitting him with the force of his advance.
"Deku?" the young man said, blond hair shaking in the faint wind. "The fuck are you doing here?"
Smiling lightly, Izuku closed the small booklet he'd been reading. "Waiting for them to let us in. I'm not surprised to see you here, though."
"Yeah, no shit I'm here." Bakugo said, snorting. "I'm gonna be a hero. Your quirk finally come in?"
"No, Kaachan. They figure I'm quirkless."
Bakugo's mouth dropped open. "And you're gonna take the exam to go to UA. The best hero school in the country, if not the world."
"That is the plan, yes." Izuku said, standing up. "I'm surprised you recognized me, though!"
"Not many other green-haired idiots here. Hope you like the taste of defeat, you moronic cripple."
A pale light flashed across Izuku's eyes, and he turned to Bakugo in the warm spring wind. In the distance, there was a sound not unlike a roar as one young man faced another. "I never was crippled, Bakugo." He said, stiffly.
The jeering that replied was earnest in its derision. "You're a Quirkless bastard who's first thought on coming back to the world was to fight me in these exams. That isn't just being Quirkless, that's also having brain damage from when your parents threw you in that loony bin!"
For a moment, there was a scent and rumbling of a thunderstorm, before Izuku turned and walked away. As his haori flapped in the wind, Izuku made one last parting remark, an ounce of frustration let fly to cut. "I learned what heroism was there, Bakugo. This swordsman will eagerly await someone to teach you the same lesson."
The school itself, once Izuku entered it, was titanic. Each hall and door was scaled for one several times his bulk, and even the most ungainly of Heteromorphic students could easily pass through them with their back straight and head unbowed. It was a gesture of practicality, but it also rung true for deeper symbolism to the young man of the Demon Slayer Corps. Persons going through these halls would have to live up to the expectations- no, the demands- to become titans, while those already a weight above their peers would not be beaten into the ground for who they were. Izuku appreciated the gesture on one level, but on another it was nerve-racking.
"Move, boy!" the teacher yelled, as another slobbering plant crawled out of an air duct. "If you planted your feet any harder, Niwashi would think you were part of his Quirk!"
"I'm trying!" Izuku yelled, another vine shooting around his ankle, before being pruned by the training sword in his hands. "There's too much space to- ack!"
As the sapling caught him in the stomach, Izuku wondered once again why on earth he had volunteered to spend summer vacation at the Demon Slayer Corps school in Kagoshima. That wonderment faded off, though, as he finally managed to flex his chest right, taking a proper Breath to launch into Sixth Form. The water in the air, in the plants, in the sweat on his hands; it wasn't enough to make the Whirlpool the true terror it could have been, but it was enough to buy Izuku a minute to start running as his brain spun.
His challenge was to get out of the building, but that seemed harder by the minute, as the wealth of plant life fought him, tangling and dancing and making him stumble over his own two feet-!
As Izuku plummeted towards the ground in his memories and in real life, a helping hand reached out to grasp him, just scraping his arm. That was enough, though, to arrest his downward motion, although the heavy case still hit the ground with a distinct 'thunk'.
"Are you alright?" she asked, looking at Izuku, eyes nervous and wide.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you." He replied, slowly windmilling himself upright before the girl broke her Quirk's hold with a simple palm-press and 'release'. "That's an interesting Quirk: I haven't seen a force manipulation like that before!"
The girl blushed. "Thank you! I call it Zero Gravity!"
Izuku squinted, pulling a notebook out of his haori and an old-fashioned cartridge pen. "Slightly erroneous naming, since if it was actually nullifying gravitational forces I still would have hit the floor from inertia, but the quirk didn't cancel out the later applied forces that I used to return to an upright position; possibly an inertia canceller as well as providing acceleration resistance? No, then I'd fly off into space, which I'm not, therefore it still has a limited frame of reference to cancel accelerations and inertia relative to, but that sort of quirk-outside factor interaction usually requires heteromorphic organalles- hm."
"Er…" the girl said, caught off guard by the theorizing and note-taking.
"Have you ever had a CAT scan?" Izuku asked, before hitting himself in the head. "Ah, I'm sorry! Asking that before I even know your name!"
"It's Uraraka Ochaco; and you?"
"Midoriya Izuku, of the-" Izuku said, before cutting himself off. It wasn't like he was supposed to share the fact he was part of the Demon Slayer Corps! People got panicky when a fairy tale only whispered of at backcountry shrines came to life in their midst!
"Of the what?"
Quick, Izuku! Do what you do best, and redirect with heroics! "Of the… Yanmaku Schools Division. I wanted to prove anyone could become a Hero!"
"I've never heard of that school." Uraraka said, smiling. "It sounds specialized, though."
Izuku blushed a little. "It's Japan's foremost school for children with disabilities. The elementary through high school curriculum focuses on teaching and therapy to adapt to the world, while the college teaches the… well, everything. I learned a lot there: reading and writing braille, Japanese and English sign language, a lot of PT, some therapy assistance stuff. My dad's a teacher there."
"But, um, what about you?"
"Oh, I'm only Quirkless."
A pin could have dropped between the two of them and been heard in the Principal's office.
"Good… good luck on your exam, then!" Uraraka said, before moving away. Izuku just nodded, waving as he moved away. It took some small amount of time to find his examination room after that, an amphitheater filling with students. It wasn't long after the tests came out, leading with the standard tests first. Japanese, math, English, science, history- and then, a more esoteric test.
Why do Heroes perform public patrols? Asked one question. What times are Quirk Crime most common? What times are Quirk-Enhanced Crime most common? When does a crime become Quirk Enhanced?
The questions continued, growing in oddity, until a final one reared its head. Staring at it, Izuku took a breath, before blinking at the moment of oxygenation of the Universal Breath Style coming over him. Shaking his head to settle it, he stared at the question again. 'Why do you want to become a Hero?' it read, and needed to be answered in 500 words or less. Closing his eyes, one hand carefully pulled out a new cartridge of ink for his pen, while the other unscrewed the barrel, letting him slot it in. This would be complicated to answer.
The question I need to answer is not 'why do I want to become a hero'. In the minds of my friends and my previous school, I am a hero already, just a small one. I illuminate the world for the blind, speak clearly for the deaf, and grant hands to feet to the cripples. The question I need to answer here is 'how can I become a hero for everyone'; and the answer is 'by coming to UA'. Here, I can learn rescue techniques, damage mitigation, and first aid more advanced than simply staunching bleeding and crying for help.
There are a number of methods to achieve a License of Heroics, but that is not what this question asks, nor is it what I desire. It is the knowledge and the ability to act on it that I need, and it is here that such is in best supply. Growing up with my parents and the students of Yamaku taught me the people of the world need the lesser heroes as well as the greater. For every evil demolished, there are a thousand pieces of rubble that might still create chaos in the world, and it is the understanding of this small heroism that brings me here. I want to learn two things in becoming a hero: first, to resolve such issues so that there's less collateral for the people I need to help; and second, that I might learn to ensure that my own heroic actions cause the least harm possible.
A long time ago, I dreamed of becoming a hero. Every day, as I realize that dream, I realize I have so much further to go. Please, help me reach this goal, for everyone who will need my help to keep going.
Complete in his test, Izuku leaned back in his seat, one eye slipping closed without resistance. The moments passed, calm, until it was time to collect the papers and be tasked on the field trial. UA was unique in this, but their uniqueness was tempered by the need to explain. One point for one unit, two points for another, three for a third. They were robots, though, and in his mind Izuku changed his equipment carefully. The boken would be staying in the case, today: now, he knew he could afford to bring the proper tools to this event.
It wasn't long before the locker rooms opened after that, and it was time to begin preparations. Adjusting his garukan, Izuku sat down on the bench and pulled out a key. It unlocked two positions on the case, both with heavy, overtensioned thunking sounds, and unlocked a cover on the top. Flipping it all the way open, Izuku then placed his hand on it, letting the palm-print assure the case it was its owner, and then a second key went in. Thus, his armory was opened.
It had taken the better part of last year to do the paperwork necessary to gain the exceptions to the weapons laws for Izuku to carry this case and its contents. Inside was a full daishou; both the katana and wakizashi made by the Swordsmiths of the Hidden Village. Legally speaking, these were two reproductions of relics that Izuku was licensed to transport and use for demonstrations purposes. To the Corps, these were two pieces of apprentice work that had less than a gram of Nichirin Steel in their makeup, and were perfectly fit for an unblooded apprentice to carry for mundanities.
To the rest of the locker room, watching a green-haired young man pull out two swords, check them over, and casually tie both into his white canvass belt was interesting- and to some, concerning.
"Excuse me!" one of the students asked, blue hair stiff. "Are those swords?"
"Yes." Izuku replied, calmly setting the frogs and pulling his haori back on. "Why ask? They're just support equipment."
"They're weapons!" the student sputtered, waving his hands mechanically.
Shrugging, Izuku took the time to adjust his shoes and the red ankle wraps that held his pants legs shut. "Well, yes. Do I need to get my permits?"
The movements of the student came to a slow, grinding halt, as the realization came to rest. "You have permits?"
"So many permits." Izuku moaned, before pulling out the card-binder from his haori. As the string of documentation trickled downward, he just rubbed his head until his conversational partner nodded.
"I retract my objections, then."
"Thank you."
And from there, all that was left was walking to the testing areas. It was a calm walk, the day soft and warm, with plenty of time to let cold and stiff muscles stretch. The peace would be shattered soon, that much was clear, but it was alright to take this time to stop and smell the roses. Everyone was cooling down, the giant control walls and towers providing a sense of security as the small gardens under them bloomed with simple flowers. For one moment, there was serenity.
"GOOOOOOOOD MORNING, EVERYBODY!" Present Mic shouted from the top of his watchtower at the field, grinning like a loon as the gates to the testing arena opened. In less than a moment, peace was gone as the gates whined open. Through them, a cityscape stood, open and familiar to anyone who cared to look inside. Bare seconds slipped by, with only the wind rolling an empty trash bag to break the silence.
"C'mon little listeners, nobody's gonna tell you to start in the real world!" Present Mic cried. "Clock's ticking, get in there! Go, go, go!"
Protomen: The Will Of One
With that, the horde was off. Branching off from the main group quickly, Izuku started spotting for robots, looking for silhouettes and track sign. A sixth sense pinged quickly, though, stopping him in his tracks as he took a moment, feeling the air around him. One of the students following him, a guy with red hair and track pants, raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"You see something?" he asked, moving up to Izuku.
Izuku nodded, before breaking for the side of the street and put his hand over his sword. "They're coming-"
-which, apparently, was the signal. In eerie synch, the facades of three buildings rolled up, letting out a small group of enemies: six one-pointers, three two-pointers, and one three-pointer. Moments before they got moving, though, a small voice came through a shop's speaker.
"Oho! It seems some lucky contestants found a spawn-in location!" the voice squeaked, before chuckling darkly. "But beware- these machines are cranky if you wake them up!"
"We may be outnumbered." The redhead said, grinning. "But we're never going to give up! Like hell you'll make us run!"
"Just what I want to hear!" the squeaking voice said, before a burst of static came in.
"You take left, I take right?" Izuku asked as the one-pointers began advancing. All he got was a nod, and ever so gently he pulled out his sword. This was going to be rough: First form wouldn't help, second and third were parrying forms, seventh form was right out-
-and then there was a robotic fist coming at him. A half of a half of Honorable Shadow Plumb kept the fist from his face, and Izuku had to breathe. Perfection was the enemy of good enough, now, and there was one form that had been rigorously drilled into him to be good enough at everything.
"Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!" Izuku yelled, jumping around the next punch before slicing down to cut off the arm at the elbow. Still, it wasn't time to stop yet- the robot still had a head, corrected with another two steps and a perfect high sweep. There was still energy yet in his wave, though, as he leaped up and took two steps across the façade of a building to dive down from above on a two-pointer. The strike to the neck was imperfect though, failing to sever. That was fine, though. Splashing Water Flow was forgiving like that, and rolling with the downstroke Izuku pushed his breath higher.
The Universal Breath Style had been composed of every Breath that could be taught after Muzan had died. In the past, changing Breaths had been stressful, a strain on mind and body. Five hundred years had improved their techniques, though, and the ten million snags that had plagued the Universal Breath had been worn smooth by the river of time and the diligence of the Corps. In the day of Muzan, transitioning from Water to Wind mid-cut could stagger many less practiced swordsmen.
Now? The transition into Rising Dust Storm was smooth, droplets of oil from the missed cut met by flecks of graphite powder as the next attack struck home. With a clean follow-through, Izuku let the head dip down, before jumping and twisting himself into a strong, powerful Water Wheel to bag one of the other two-pointers. Coming to a stop on the pavement, he panted, sword loose in one hand. Just a short way away, the redhead growled, blocking a strike from the three-pointer on crossed arms.
"You know, it's one thing to fight tough-" he said, before stiffening up as a one-pointer tried to take a shot at his kidney. "-but if you don't want a manly fight, then I guess I can oblige!"
Blocking another hit, the redhead grinned and grabbed the two-pointer behind him, stepping forward with a roar and a shoulder throw. As robot hit robot and steel struck steel, he was on them like a hound, hands ripping seams out and plates away to kill the mechanical beasts. It was fast, gruesome work as fluid sprayed and heaps of computational molycirc were scooped and shoved away. Standing up the redhead sighed, pawing at a streak of blue fluid that stained his hair.
"Damnit, I did it again. Now how am I supposed to not scare people?"
It took a minute for Izuku to process the words, but when he did, he smiled, before laughing a minute. "You look fine, though!"
"Yeah, right up until I activate my Quirk again!"
Pulling out a cloth, Izuku tossed it over, before wiping his sword on another handkerchief before sheathing it. "Then take a minute to clean up, and let's get going. I only got four points, and you got five. We should each be shooting for twenty."
"Twenty!" the redhead yelled after he wiped his face down. "Then we have to run!"
"Towards the center, then!"
As the two took off at a steady jog, Izuku's impromptu partner grinned. "Thanks for the help- I'm Kirishima Eijiro."
"Midoriya Izuku. Get ready- I think I hear more coming!"
Turning the corner, a pair of the tall three-point robots rolled out to meet them. Blitzing in with his whole body hard enough to cut glass, Kirishima started ripping and tearing at the first, while Izuku just leaped past, only taking the time to breath as he struck down in a devastating application of the Water Wheel cut. From there, the move to slice off the robot's head was habitual, almost unnecessary at this point as the remains of the robot fell down.
The pair were running for the city center, bent hell for leather, when there was a rumble or two. As handfuls of two-pointers came out, hydraulic oil started to paint the ground, while the rumbling increased.
"Nine points!" Izuku yelled out, parrying a lunge from one machine into another, grinning like a madman.
"Hah! I'm on ten!" Kirishima yelled back as he ripped a bundle of wires out of another.
Of course, the rumbling continued, until something began to emerge from the middle of the city. Titanic and green, much like the standard robots they'd hunted for score, this was a monster that towered over the city.
"Holy shit." Kirishima muttered. "Hope that thing doesn't look at us."
Izuku, though, was shaking. "You have got to be kidding me." He muttered, wiping the dark purple robot blood off his sword. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."
"What? Why?" Kirishima asked, turning to his new friend.
"One of my teachers told me that if I could kill a mountain, this test would be a piece of cake." Izuku said, bending down to tighten his shoes. "I thought he was joking. Joke's on me, though, because Onekei never could stop telling tall tales."
"Who're they, then?"
Izuku grinned. "Old mentor, taught me most of my Wind Forms. Try and keep up- I've got a mountain to kill."
"Hah! As if I'd let you steal all the credit!" Kirishima boasted. "They always try and trick us by calling it a zero-pointer, but I'm not going to fall for it- there'll be plenty of zeroes behind the leading digit for the points it'll be worth!"
Grinning, Izuku nodded, and started running. There might have been a few targets of opportunity along the way, but such was his focus that they passed behind him without real notice. Still, the question remained- how did he even kill a mountain? The Water breaths and sword techniques he knew would be useless; this wasn't a situation where he could build up the momentum to use their power. Insect and Flower would be useless in their defensive forms. Wind wouldn't be able to let him reach. Stone couldn't match strength to strength here: Izuku's arms would cleave from his body first.
Skidding out of the way of a piece of debris, Izuku nearly collided with a girl who was heaving, trying to buy space from the monstrous machine. It would have been a chance encounter, before she grabbed his shoulder, first finger curled in.
"You're nuts, just help me get everyone else out of here!" she yelled, cheeks flushed. It took a moment to recognize her- Uraraka, from outside the entrance. She looked different, now, in a tank top and sweats, open-faced hoody framing her world in blue.
"Someone has to handle that- you think we can just run away?" he yelled back.
"It's not running if we're making sure nobody gets left behind!" she said, muttering a foreign curse. "Fine, just tell me your plan."
"Get on top of a building, jump up to the neck, remove the head." Izuku said calmly. "Then ride it down."
Urarraka thought to herself for a moment, before nodding. "Your quirk enough for that?"
"I have a sword and a lot of practice."
Making a show of thinking about it, Uraraka laced her hands together, stretching them out before glaring at someone screaming in fear. "I'll give you a hand." She decided. "If I cancel your gravity, can you get up there faster?"
If gravity wasn't slowing him down… oh yeah. That would work. That would definitely work. "Yeah, I can probably get that thing in one shot."
"Good." She said, pressing her hands together. "You've got fifteen seconds before I turn the weight back on, and remember: if you end up seeing Inazuma, tell her I sent you!"
Demon Slayer: Zenitsu's Theme/ Thunder Breathing
With that, Izuku took his drawing stance, received a slap on the back, and smiled as ozone started to fill the air. Gravity was a suggestion. Air resistance was negligible. Distance provided protection, once. Now, however, everything started to boil down to simple artistry, and this robot was lacking. As a giant hand slammed into a building, sending more debris everywhere, Izuku felt the last iota of his lungs fill.
Everything from a near-forgotten art sprung from this one movement. The First Form of Thunder Breathing, and now the First Form of the Combined Breath. A thousand years of tradition and combat, collapsed into one single moment that echoed across all of history.
"Thunderclap and Flash!"
Rocketing upwards, gravity held no sway on Izuku as he flew higher and higher. His leap had been well-decided, but without weight to tie him to earth, that speed was now as much foe as friend. Instead of a graceful parabola, he was a streak of lightning to meet the heavens, and there was but a single robot to interrupt him. No matter. All this needed was one perfect strike, and the Thunderclap and Flash was that perfect strike and all that came before.
Blade flying free in the draw, Izuku kept his nerves steady. One cut was all this was, and all it would be would be the cut. It wouldn't be a perfect decapitating strike, as the speed and angles were wrong, but the head of that robot would not be attached for much longer. As sword met first plastic, and then inferior steel, everything continued as it should. Then, amidst the cut, something struck foul. A brace of something, a member uncut, perhaps even mild steel shifting as it failed to control the load upon it. The sword bound.
Of course, there had been training to handle that. Not every cut was perfect- the target did have a vote, after all. So, Izuku did the reasonable thing, and let the blade pivot for a brief moment- and disaster struck. The energy applied to the lever of the sword had to be constant, steady, and most of all, unified. Coming from the speed of the leap, it was pure. Now, the angle confused it, the binding held it, and the drag snapped Izuku right into the side of the head of the robot as his blade shattered.
It hurt, yes, but catching a log with your stomach hurt on the obstacle course, or falling into a pit trap hurt, or failing to block a blow correctly when learning the Stone forms hurt. Pain was a teacher, and right now it was teaching that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Hands scrabbling to hold on to the head, Izuku watched as the life slowly left the robot's eyes and it tilted forwards. The robot was falling now- and so was he, gravity returning in a comforting embrace as the monster started to sink back down into its haunches, falling apart as thousands of electronic signals it needed were disrupted by massive damage.
Still, death had not come for it yet, as an unseen voice box spoke up. "From Hell's heart…" it cried, belabored 'breaths' running down. "I strike at thee!" With that, a fist came up to it's shoulder, for all the world acting as if it could brush away Izuku. There was only one sane option left to take- to jump from it.
So he did. Running forward with a leap, his haori snagged on parts of the armor, jagged and damaged from where other quirks had hit it, while his pants started to smoke after a minute from the friction of sliding down the glacis. The only option from here was to adjust his trajectory, and with only the broken blade of a sword to do it with, Izuku only had so many options. Still, aiming for the pseudo-shops and their awnings was, theoretically, his best bet.
With a leap, he went sailing towards them, hoping, praying he could make it.
Instead, Izuku felt a familiar hand slap his leg, and the sensation of gravity leaving him, as well as a great deal of momentum. Looking back, he saw the girl- Uraraka- on a lump of levitated stone, smiling at him with bloodlust in her eyes. The problem with looking back, though, was that it made it impossible to stick the landing- and falling off a sixty meter high robot needed a very good landing!
The pain of smacking into the side of the robot's head hard enough to leave a dent was one thing, but this was another entirely. Bones cracked, flesh bruised, and joints popped hard enough to leave the green-haired young man crying. Still, as Izuku opened his eyes, he forced a smile out. The machine was dead. Then, he promptly closed his eyes again, as his compatriot in arms stumbled next to him before vomiting on his boots. As she cleared her mouth out with a spit and a chuckle, she slumped against the wall crossways of Izuku and his landing place, back against a trash can.
"Holy crap." Uraraka muttered. "You actually killed that thing."
"Yeah." Izuku forced out. That certainly felt like a dislocated jaw, now that he'd tried talking through it. Better keep it short and sweet, then.
"Well, that won't hurt our odds on getting in." Uraraka muttered, before pressing her hands together again before turning over to hurl. This time, it didn't land on what was left of Izuku's haori. "Hell of a Quirk you've got there."
"Isn't a quirk." Izuku complained. "Just practice. Lots of practice."
"I'm certain you had plenty of experience getting hurt, if that's your idea of a good stunt to pull on an entrance exam!" a voice said from next to the pair, older and annoyed. Soon enough, an ancient-looking heroine in a doctor's costume came up, staring at the pair. "I'm Recovery Girl, and both of you should hold still."
"Not gonna tell me it won't hurt a bit?" Uraraka asked, trying to grin around the vomit trailing the side of her face.
"I don't like lying to my students." She said, before pulling out a bottle of water and a pack of gummies. "Here, eat this. You can wash your mouth out first, but don't waste too much: this exam already has most students courting dehydration, and you've puked up at least a liter of water, possibly two."
Turning to face Izuku, the brusque nature turned downright scathing for a moment. "Leaving aside your bright idea to risk a Quirk Interaction fueled disaster there, I'll need to set your legs and re-socket your shoulder."
"And my jaw."
"And your jaw, which will now happen first since you're going to probably clench when I do the rest." Recovery Girl said, slightly more amicably. "You do know what you were risking there, right?"
"Didn't want anyone to get crushed." Izuku muttered, before Recovery Girl did a quick poke-n-prod as a prelude to setting his jaw. "Oh, that feels so much better."
"Good. Now, the rest of this is going to hurt like the dickens, but you seem to know that already. Think it was worth it?"
Looking over at Uraraka, and then back to Recovery Girl, Izuku nodded. "Absolutely."
\\\
AN: I count part of my usual editing commissions towards the pay-in for this fic, and since I've got a many hundreds of dollars editing commission sitting in the 'working' pile, this story is pretty well funded for the foreseeable future. However, update speed... that, that can get hastened with the usual condition of a kick-in to my ko-fi. Just leave a note it's to get this moving, and I'll see what I can do.
Quite light on the Katawa Shoujo for now though, not that I'm complaining. Honestly would just be happy to have Izuku with just the Demon Slayer powerset but if there's juicy relationships to add on top it'd be like a cherry on top. The way he answered the question on the exam is just so endearing.
Quite light on the Katawa Shoujo for now though, not that I'm complaining. Honestly would just be happy to have Izuku with just the Demon Slayer powerset but if there's juicy relationships to add on top it'd be like a cherry on top. The way he answered the question on the exam is just so endearing.
It shows up when it needs to. One of the running things I like doing with MHA is spending more time to focus on the noncombat portions of heroism: Hoshikori tries, bless him, but the man doesn't know shit and he knows he doesn't know shit. As such, the actual manga is pretty light on that stuff, which is fine. I do know shit, however, so I don't need to scrimp those scenes as much.
