Chapter Text
For months after meeting All Might, the days could only seem to drag by. That was when Midoriya had to suffer through each day. He would tell himself to just hang on. He would think to himself that it was only temporary. He just had to get through the last few months of school and then he could move on and continue working towards him dream. He hadn’t really expected that to change, especially after having them dashed not only by his personal hero but by the only school he thought would ever help him achieve that dream.
But change it did.
Midoriya knew that applying for other hero academies wasn’t going to be enough. He had to get better. Stronger. He may be quirkless but that didn’t mean he was weak. Or at least, it didn’t have to.
Izuku has spent his whole life studying heroes. He knew there were plenty of heroes that didn’t have quirks to help them fight villains. There were a lot of heroes out there that had to rely on their own strength and mind. Heroes like Sir Nighteye, whose quirk helped him see how the fight might turn out but didn’t give him much of an advantage physically. Or Eraserhead! As cool as the underground heroes quirk was, it wasn’t much use against any kind of mutation quirk. And there were heroes like Miss Joke, who had to rely on her wit to get villains to succumb to her quirk in the first place.
Sure, these heroes still had the advantage of having a quirk but Izuku found himself finding a little hope in their success. If they could be heroes, then maybe he still had a chance.
But not with the way he was now.
Izuku wasn’t sure if the other school’s entrance exams would be as hard as UA’s but he had to assume they would be. He had a few weeks to prepare and he planned on taking full advantage of it.
There was this beach. It was on the edges of town. When Izuku was little, he could remember walking past it or visiting it and thinking it was beautiful. But overtime, the place had become an absolute dumb. People had resorted to dumping their trash and wasted items on the sandy shores. It only took a couple years for the former calming retreat became little more than a glorified landfill.
It was the perfect place for the aspiring hero to train and build up his strength without having to worry about judgment or prying eyes.
It started with research. Izuku had spent an entire night on his computer looking at training regimens, work out routines and quick but reliable ways to build muscle and agility. He looked at diet plans and how much protein he would need to be able to make progress quickly but still be healthy.
And after that he got to work.
Izuku spent ever moment he could on that beach. The first couple days had been spent just clearing out a spot in the sand where he could work. And then he trained. He ran until his legs felt like they would fall off. He distantly found himself thinking after the second week that if he ever had to do another push up, he might throw up. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t.
He had failed the U.A. entrance exam because he had been poorly prepared for it. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake with the other schools.
He couldn’t get any practical combat training but he could learn about them. When Izuku wasn’t on the beach working out, he was in his room, researching fighting styles. He watched videos of heroes that essentially fought quirkless and studied their fighting style. His notebooks, like always were becoming filled with pages and pages of notes. Except they were a little different now.
In the past, Izuku always focused on the quirks. How the heroes used them to their benefit, the special moves and anything else he could find about them. But as the days passed, Izuku found himself analyzing the opposite. He watched the heroes fight villains who had less than ideal quirks. He watched the villains find the heroes weaknesses, how they found ways around the quirks.
Izuku found the notes in journals become less about how the heroes used or could use their quirks and more about the weaknesses in the quirks. Not just in the heroes, but in the villains too.
Izuku found that there was always a way to take down a villain without using a quirk. Sure, some heroes had an easier time with it because they had a quirk to utilize and take advantage of. But for every time a quirk came in handy, Izuku found that there were times it put the heroes at a disadvantage as well.
He thought back to the sludge villain attack. There had been several heroes there, none of whom had been able to get close to the villain due to their quirks putting them at a disadvantage.
Mount Lady was a great hero but she could only operate in large spaces. Close quarter combat in an enclosed area would put her at a huge disadvantage.
Endeavor, as powerful as he is, wouldn’t be able to operate in a highly flammable area. His quirk would cause more damage than it would prevent in a situation like that.
Kamui Woods was at a disadvantage when it came to fire rescues.
Midnight’s quirk would be useless against anyone with a gas mask or some sort of ventilator.
He had learned of All Might’s weakness the day of the sludge villains attack too. He was on a timer. And the more Izuku thought about it, the more he realized brute strength could only do so much against villains.
There were many heroes and the more Izuku looked at them, the more he realized there were almost always a situation where having the quirks they did, put them at a huge disadvantage instead of giving them the leg up.
Sure, being quirkless didn’t give him the advantage in some situations but it seemed to balance out when there was no great weakness to exploit.
Izuku began to realize that maybe his greatest weakness could also be his greatest strength…
In the end, he didn’t really have as much time as he would have liked to explore this train of thought. Between his training on the beach, his research, and the day-to-day things like eating, sleeping, going grocery shopping with his mom, and getting ice cream afterward, the other entrance exams came a lot faster than he thought they would.
They ended up being easier than UA’s. There was more focus on the written exam for some and the practical tests were more on physical abilities and problem-solving rather than fighting a bunch of massive robots.
Izuku Midoriya was now waiting for the beginning of his final exam. The toes of his bright red shoes nudged the edge of the start line. A race. This test was a race. He had to make it to the finish as quickly and efficiently as possible. Izuku struggled to swallow past the lump in his throat as he looked over the students beside them. There were so many powerful quirks that he would be up against.
There was a girl with vibrant blue hair beside him who seemed to have some sort of gelatin-based quirk. It was really fascinating if he stopped to think about it. The number of things she could do with a quirk like that. Her quirk would be extremely useful in capturing situations. Or stabilizing structures to aid in the rescue.
Or the boy with orange eyes. They seemed to glow brighter when his quirk was activated. Must be some sort of vision-based quirk then. Well, at least Izuku wouldn’t be at too much of a physical disadvantage when racing against him.
Izuku shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts that were rapidly escaping his control. He didn’t have time to think about the other people’s quirks. Not right now at least. If he were fighting against them, it might be a different story but right now, he just needed to focus on getting through the race.
He could hear the countdown from the referee.
Three.
Two.
One.
The blank was fired from the starting gun with a bang that echoed across the students and they were off.
Izuku ran, pushing his body to the limits. Nobody knew what the course had in store for them. He had to think quickly if he was going to succeed. The students racing in front of him were all skidding to a stop. There must be some kind of obstacle. Izuku slowed his pace to try and observe from a distance.
A large gap – about 15 feet wide – separated them from the other side of the tracks.
Izuku watched as one of the boys, this one with long blonde hair that kind of reminded him of Kaachan’s, began to stretch himself over the gap. Elongating limbs! Such a cool quirk. The uses of that were endless and –
Izuku mentally kicked himself. He was going to fall behind if he took time to ooo and ah over every quirk he was sure to witness.
He had to clear this gap. And he didn’t have the assistance of any kind of quirk. His eyes scanned over the field. There were trees lining the area. Izuku scanned the trunks until he could find – there!
A few yards off the paved course was a tall tree with wide and arching limbs. The foliage was sparse but the branches looked strong and sturdy. And they more than covered the gap.
Izuku darted over to the base of the tree. He could see a couple of other students figuring out how to cross the gap. The blue-haired girl he noticed earlier seemed to throw some of the slime she was able to produce down into the gap and use it as a trampoline. One student tried to follow suit but it seemed she had the ability to dissolve her creations at will and left no tools for other students to utilize after her.
Smart.
Focus. He needed to focus.
His thoughts managed to occupy him as he scaled the tree, using the bark to keep his grip steady. His arms burned by the time he got to the top but he didn’t have time to stop. He didn’t trust himself to stand and cross the gap using the branches so he crouched down and scooted across them instead.
When he dropped down from the branches onto the other side of the gap, he cast a glance back over. He had made across before a fair number of the other students. Some were even trying to copy his technique. But he couldn’t spare the time to see if they were successful as well. He tore his gaze away and continued to dash down the course.
A wall greeted Izuku as he continued to make progress. A quick look told him a few students were already making progress up it. He looked at the towering impediment and the confidence he had gained from figuring out a way across the ravine from before suddenly plummeted. This wasn’t going to be scalable like the tree was. The tree had bark and knots that could be used to place his hands and feet on. This wall instead was smooth.
Heavy breathing from his left signaled the arrival of another racer. He looked over to see the copper-eyed boy from before. Izuku could see the moment he came to a similar conclusion. This wall was too tall to jump up. Even with a running start, there would be no way to climb it without a boost of some kind.
Wait.
A boost.
Izuku glanced back at the boy beside him. Was it worth the risk?
Yes.
“What if we worked together?”
The words left Izuku’s tongue before he could stop them or second guess himself. He figured getting over the wall was more important than making sure others didn’t. And while he surprised himself with the realization, it seemed he surprised his opponent more.
“Work together?” The boy was skeptical. It was obvious in his tone. The bright orange eyes darted between Izuku’s own green ones and the obstacle they both faced.
“Yeah!” Izuku nodded, even more sure this idea could work. “Work together. There is no way either of us are getting over that by ourselves. Neither of us have physical quirks to aid us cause yours has something to do with vision right? That’s so cool by the way but it doesn’t help much here and the longer we wait the more behind we get and the easier it is for the people behind us to catch up. But if we work together then we each have a better chance of success.”
Izuku glanced back at the course. He could barely see the gap from earlier and more opponents were making their way across it. It was now or never. He looked back at his hopefully new ally.
“If I boost you up on my shoulders, you should be able to reach the top edge. You can climb up and then help pull me up.”
It was risky. Izuku would have to hope that his opponent wouldn’t just leave him down once Izuku helped him get up. But it was the best chance either of them had.
His idea received a hesitant nod and a quiet “Ok.”
Izuku did his best to give a confident smile despite his nerves and moved towards the wall, hoping the other boy would follow.
It took a little bit of work but with a bit of struggle and a lot of teamwork, Izuku managed to lift the other student onto his shoulders. After a few moments. The weight of his feet was gone and Izuku watched the other pull himself up over the edge of the wall.
A few seconds passed and Izuku didn’t see him re-emerge. His heart fell. Had he just been stupid? Was it a mistake to trust some random opponent? Had he just been left here after wasting his time to help his competitor move ahead?
His thoughts were cut off when his vision was met with bright orange eyes looking down at him from the top of the wall, offering a hand.
Izuku grinned as he reached up and took it. The two of them grunted with effort but after a few moments, Izuku made it up the wall as well. He paused to catch his breath and looked over at the other boy.
“Thanks.”
The boy nodded, his eyes darting to the other students that were now catching up with them. He watched them for a few more seconds before turning back to Izuku.
“Good luck.” He gave Izuku a small smile before darting off down the course.
Izuku didn’t wait to look back at his other opponents. Instead, he got to his feet and dropped down the other side of the wall and made his own way to the rest of the obstacle course.
There were a couple of other obstacles but none that posed as much of a challenge to him. At one point he had almost gotten taken out by a swinging log but it didn’t take him long to figure out that if he timed it right, he could wait in between them and move through the alternating swings without getting hit.
There was a quicksand obstacle that was easy to figure out. He just had to figure out the pattern of the tiles that wouldn’t sink. The trick was the markings. Each of them had numbers and he found himself fortunate that he had taken the time to memorize the digits of Pi a year ago for a project.
And finally, after his lungs were pushed to their limits and his legs felt like they were about to fall off, Izuku crossed the finish line. What happened after that was a blur. He was directed to a table where they took down his name, time, gave him a water bottle, and told him he would hear from them. Izuku was then ushered towards the building and to a locker room to change.
He tried looking for the boy who he had partnered with earlier but he had either finished before him and was gone or wasn’t done yet and it didn’t seem like Izuku was allowed to stick around and wait for him. And he wasn’t sure he would have the energy to either.
By the time the exams were over, Izuku was exhausted. He barely paid any attention to what he was doing as he was changing out of the uniform given to him prior to his last exam. He changed into his own pair of sweatpants, tugged a shirt on, and shoved his feet back into his red sneakers. If there was anyone else in the locker room with him, he didn’t notice as he grabbed his backpack and made for the exit.
He had done it. He had taken every hero exam he could. He had applied to all the schools in his area. He had taken every measure he could. Plans B, C, D, E, F, who knew how many there were at this point. Izuku tried not to think about what he would do if none of them worked out. He tried not to think about the fact that there is a very good chance all of these schools would reject him the way U.A. did. He did his best to not let his mind wander to the idea that despite his best efforts, there might not be a way for him to become a hero.
But he didn’t seem to do a very good job of it. He was so lost in his own thought process and deafened by his own mumbling that he failed to notice another set of footsteps joining his in the hallway. That is until he collided with the owner of the said footsteps.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” Izuku looked up suddenly, missing when his gaze had become so focused on his shoes and opened his mouth to attempt to stammer out a further apology. He instead ended up gaping at who he had run into, words suddenly a foreign concept.
“Penny for your thoughts? Maybe a nickel? I think I might have a dime sitting around here somewhere!” Miss Joke grinned down at Izuku, apparently not concerned with being bumped into. “You seemed pretty lost in your thoughts there kiddo. Izuku Midoriya right? You worrying about how you did in the exam?”
Izuku managed to pick his jaw up off the floor and nod at the pro hero and teacher that now stood before him. Sure he had seen pro heroes before, even had a conversation with a few of them. He bitterly thought back once again to the talk on the rooftop. He couldn’t recall a hero ever smiling at him the way Joke was right now. It was nice. Especially when she put a hand on her hip and chuckled.
“I know I’m not technically allowed to say anything about the performances I saw but what are rules for if not to be broken?”
Miss Joke winked at Izuku before leaning a little closer and dropping her voice to just above a whisper.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much if I were you. From what I saw, you did pretty great. Going without using your quirk for the entire exam was a bold move but pretty darn impressive if you ask me. So was that teamwork stunt you pulled at the wall. Nice job!”
Midoriya continued to stare at the older woman as she talked, trying to figure out a way to loosen his tongue. She had been watching the exam? Of course. It made sense. The last exam Izuku had to take was Ketsubutsu’s. She was a teacher there. Of course, she would be watching the exams to help choose who she would be teaching.
Wait.
Did she think he had chosen not to use a quirk? He held his hands up and shook his head.
“Oh uh thank you but it uh – it wasn’t exactly a choice you know? I just uh- I just didn’t use a quirk because I don’t I- I don’t have one.”
Izuku barely managed to get the words out before snapping his mouth shut so quickly his teeth clicked. Why did he say that? He might have had a chance at getting in if he hadn’t. She seemed to think it was a personal choice and therefore might have been considering accepting him into her class.
But that just didn’t sit right with Izuku. He didn’t want to become a hero based on a misunderstanding or lie. He wanted to do it right. If he was going to be accepted into a school, he was going to get in because he earned it. Not because teachers thought he had a quirk he just wasn’t using.
Despite that, there was still a voice in his head screaming at him for letting the words slip off his tongue. He might have just ruined his chances of getting into any hero school. Will Ms. Joke still consider him as a student now? He hoped not and he found more words flowing out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m weak or anything. At least I don’t think so. It just means I have to work a little bit harder than everyone else. But I want. And I’m going to. At least, if I can. Nobody seems to think I can be a hero but I still had to try and this school was my last chance and the only one that could still admit me so I came and I took the test because you are my last hope so, please just- “
He cut off as his throat thickened and he had to fight off the tears that were begging to be shed. He wouldn’t cry now. Not when he was trying to prove that he was strong and could be a hero. He refused to cry in front of the one person who might be able to give him a chance to achieve his dream.
He dared to glimpse back at Ms. Joke and was surprised to find that she was still smiling at him, if not even brighter than before? Her other hand joined the first on her hips and the hero continued to beam at the small student before her.
“So you want to go to Ketsubutsu and be in the hero course? In my class? You think you have what it takes?”
Ms. Joke shifted to bend down a bit and place a hand on Izuku’s shoulder. Her gaze softened even more and while her smile was still bright, it became more comforting as she gave the young boy’s arm a small squeeze.
“You know it won’t be easy. You said it yourself, you are going to have to work twice as hard as everybody else. Do you think you can do that?”
Izuku couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. She wasn’t automatically writing him off as useless. Her gaze, while comforting, wasn’t full of pity. In fact, Ms Joke almost sounded like she was giving him a chance. Like she believed in him. But that couldn’t be true. Nobody believed in Izuku. That was a fact. Just like how the sky was blue, pigs don’t fly and Izuku Midoriya was quirkless.
But… it was close. It was a chance. And Izuku was going to take it.
“Yes!” He winced at his own enthusiastic shout but didn’t back down. “I’ll do anything! I’ll work as hard as I have to. I don’t need to have a super strong quirk, or any kind of quirk. I’ll train hard and study hard and get stronger and smarter. I’ll do whatever it takes! I’m not stopping until I become a hero. I can’t. I won’t.”
Izuku found the tears a little easier to hold back when he made his promise, the resolve palpable in his words. And he meant each and every one. He didn’t care how hard it was going to be. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy. That didn’t matter to him. He was going to be a hero. He was going to save people with a smile one day. He was going to make a difference. It didn’t matter how long it took or how hard he had to work. No amount of training was going to keep him from achieving his dream.
Izuku watched as Ms. Joke’s smile grew once more as she leaned back, away from him. Her hands retook their place on her hips and there was a glimmer in her eye that Izuku couldn’t quite make out.
“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing you’re going to be in my class next semester so I can keep an eye on you and hold you to that.”
Wait.
What??
He didn’t have any time to process before Ms. Joke continued.
“Now do me a favor and keep that between us for now yeah? As I said, I’m not really supposed to say anything before the letters go out but I’ve never been one to like rules much”
She gave a little shrug with a boisterous chuckle.
“Now take care of yourself Midoriya. I’ll be seeing you in my class at the start of term.”
And with a small wave, Ms. Joke practically bounced down the hallway and out of sight, leaving Izuku, standing in shock and awe, to process what he had just been told.
He… He did it. He had passed an exam? And was being admitted to a hero school? In the hero program? He couldn’t believe it.
He had been given a chance. Ms. Joke was taking a chance on him. On the quirkless kid. She thought he could be a hero. He was going to be a hero. Never in his life had his dream seemed so reachable.
As Izuku made his way home that night, he felt lighter than he ever had before. In his head, he replayed the things he knew about himself to be true.
Izuku Midoriya was quirkless. Izuku Midoriya was a student in Ketsubutsu’s hero course. Izuku Midoriya was going to be a hero.
He liked the sound of that.