CHAPTER 1: POWER TO THE POWERLESS
The day he got his Quirk (he still squeals in his mind) was the day after his fourteen birthday, of course since he was Quirkless at that time he got bullied, which led him to do what he did the day later, scream out his frustration to a wall with the most meme worth scream known to man.
The doctor had been…flabbergasted, and angry, somehow the doctor who had saw him the first time had skimmed a lot, and he means a lot of procedures that should had been done to him instead of the archaic 'watch if he has a bone no one should had' method.
Apparently that method has been disproved by the medical community as faulty, as many cases of so called 'quirkless' individuals having the toe joint were later revealed to have Quirks all along, but had obscure activation methods that it seemed that the person in Question had no Quirk at all.
Of course Izuku had to suffer the whole ordeal of examinations to prove he indeed had a Quirk and was not some sort of weird ass power that derivate from Quirks or something like that.
After three hours, it was deemed he indeed had a Quirk, an odd combination/mutation that had the doctors there wanting to make more experiments with him.
First off somehow he didn't inherited his mother's Quirk, or his father, but rather mutated, somehow his Quirk was a mutation, a complete 180 of anything he should have, which was in fact an emitter and a newly added accumulation kind Quirk.
The emitter part was obvious, when he shouted things happened, either fire, concussive forces, or affected him.
Then came the surprise, the accumulation part of his Quirk, according to the doctor, his Quirk had the characteristics of being one, if his theory was right, then it meant his Quirk would allow him to store other fictional superpowers on him for further use.
Which lead to what his Quirk was, it had taken a lot of theory between the doctor and Izuku, but as it stood up, his Quirk was pretty much an evolved version of Gamer like Quirks, just instead of getting a gaming like HUD and to juggle a lot of numbers and statistics in a RPG like manner, it allowed Izuku direct access to superpowers and unique abilities, like the Thu'um.
Of course this kind of power had special triggers, reason why it activated just now, what kind of triggers they were was still something to find out, but he had them, it was just a matter of time until he found them.
After all that, they were able to return home, his Quirk now registered, but not named, as it stood up now, he was registered as 'Quirked' not 'Quirkless' which was a sobering thought.
No longer he was weak, no longer useless, no longer…a deku.
A small smile formed on his lips, he felt…normal, not many changes from before if he was honest, the knowledge that he had always been with a Quirk made him…angry.
Well not angry, frustrated more likely, why the doctor that saw him when he was four had not done the other procedures like this one? Why he looked so uncaring during the examination? It didn't made sense, mistakes like this tend to cost, to both the Hospital for employing the doctor who caused this and the patient, for moral anguish.
He shook his head at that, that particular problem was going to get solved soon, his mom was livid during their way back home, and honestly he couldn't blame her, their former doctor, Doctor Tsubasa was going to get a file soon, for ten years of grief and malpractice, it could easily end his career.
If they could find him to begin with, the hospital had looked for him, they had provided the name to call him in, after all he had worked on that very same hospital, there were bound to be records.
There were none, everyone who worked there remembered the guy, the janitor even confirmed it, he had met Dr. Tsubasa, but when it came to finding records of his work, there was nothing, as if he was a ghost, and that troubled a lot there.
It troubled Izuku, in games that kind of plot twist was always reserved for a sinister reveal…then he shook his head, this was real life, not a video game, so plot twists like that were not possible.
With a sigh he focused on the task at hand, well two, number one, figure out the trigger to acquire more power, it sounded weird, but it had a purpose, if what the doctor said was true, then he could be selective when it came to what he wanted, which meant that his goal to become a hero was not a dream, it was a reality, and he could be any kind of hero he wanted.
A rescue type, like Thirteen, or go full underground, or go the All-Might route, power overwhelming.
Right now the sky was the limit.
Then of course there was his second thing to do, find a place to train, a place where Kacchan won't follow him or knows about it.
This was twofold, one was because the Thu'um wasn't exactly friendly with anything that was alive and it connected, he needed to learn his limits with it, how much he could shout, could he shout continuously? Did he needed specialized training in voice, like a singer to bring out the full potential of the Thu'um? Which shouts he could use? Which he could not use? Those questions plagued his mind the moment he first shouted and nearly ruined the wall of his room, and his All-Might collectives.
The second reason was Kacchan, he knew him well enough to figure out how he ticked, at least most of the time, and Kacchan hated two things above all else, one, to be looked down, as if he was inferior, his pride would not allow it, and to be lied to.
He constantly was challenging anyone strong looking, to both test himself and assert dominance, there was a reason the staff of Aldera High overlooked his actions, his skill alone would land him on UA, his Quirk had accelerated this, he was close to become the first hero of Aldera High, and the very first to be accepted by UA of that school in particular.
It would certainly help the reputation of the school…all things considered.
There was a reason Aldera High was known also a 'villain academia'
The next day…
Finding a location suitable for training was something of a chore, in a world where the need to train ones Quirk so it doesn't end up killing someone one would think that there would be a list of usable spots for such training, even catalogued for the many variations of Quirks.
There was not.
Which was disappointing, all things considering, by that time Izuku had considered in entering a gym that specialized in Quirks of all types, but those were expensive, most of them located in areas close to hero academies, to take advantage of the overwhelming amount of new and old students in these academies that would or couldn't not use the equipment within the hero schools.
But Izuku was anything but a quitter, eventually after an hour of search, and surely avoiding what seemed to be malware sites, he found what he wanted.
A wide area that was rarely visited, if at all, away of prying eyes and abandoned by society by its current state.
Dagobah Beach, at one time had been the hotspot for couples and several budding bands and their fans, alongside family gatherings during the scorching summer sun when the ocean waters were a welcome respite to the heat, it was beautiful area.
So of course man had to come and ruin it, seeing it as a free spot people, mostly companies that had no contracts to deal with their trash began to toss waste into the beach, by the end of that first year, a quarter of the beach was covered in junk, matters got worse as the ocean currents began to carry waste to the beach as well, by the second year, Dagobah beach was closed to the public due to the amount of trash in it, and a death caused by junk falling onto someone.
There had been attempts to clean the beach, mayors had tried it again and again, but Dagobah Beach had become a major spot to deposit trash that other companies cannot pay to get rid off, they would not allow their little 'spot' go and vanish because of some do-gooder.
Musutafu had lost a mayor fifty years ago, victim of an attempt on his life by a company hired villain or mercenary as he declared himself to be, paid in full to deal with the nuisance in the most visible and painful way possible, he had confessed who had hired him, after all mercenaries have loyalty to their pays, not the payers, especially when they are paid in full, the company went under investigation and eventually shut down, but its founder had escaped with an obscene amount of cash to another country, a laundry paradise with no extradition laws in it.
Well he tried, the plane he traveled in never made it to the island/country, neither he or the passengers, as the plane crashed after being caught in a freak storm, the remains of the plane and its passengers washing ashore a month later, among them the founder and his money, now useless.
That was just one of many stories of companies fighting tooth and nail, recurring to any dirty tactic to get what they want in Dagobah Beach, not caring about the heroes, and if stories were led to be believed, people tended to go missing in Dagobah Beach by some bizarre reason, so not only it was under corrupt corporate oversight, but by urban legend hearsay.
It was the perfect spot to train.
But before any training could happen, he need to figure how his Quirk truly worked, to that end, he dove back to Skyrim.
For an hour of course.
"…I don't get it" Izuku muttered, moving the mouse away from his hand and rubbing his temples in frustration, for an hour he had tried to find what had triggered the activation of his Quirk in the game that somehow had resisted the test of time, alongside a couple hundred dozen more, but among the very few from which people still made mods to.
He had checked every single thing in the game to see what had caused his Quirk activation, was the fact he read every book in the game and soaked on its lore? Or the fact he pretty much ravaged every single opponent he came across? Got every word of power? Every spell? Every unique weapon? Had he somehow triggered a very unique glitch that broke reality and empowered him?
This was a Bethesda game, notorious for their glitches, he would not be surprised that one day a glitch so great it would happen that it would end up summoning a Deathclaw to real life.
As the hours passed, his frustration grew, not enough to lash out at anything, this was not him, but enough to annoy him, what was he missing?
With a sigh he turned once more to the screen, the game was paused, so the only visible was the options in the pause-
"Wait a minute" a small epiphany came to him in that moment, he went to the options, and began checking, until he came across the only option that mattered.
Difficulty.
He had played several games, beat them too, it had been just recently he had decided to go for the challenge and hit them on harder difficulties, Skyrim was not a game that was known for its difficulty, if anything it was generous with its difficulty setting, while other games actually tweaked the enemy AI, varying from braindead enemies in easier modes to 'I'm going to skull fuck you till you love me' enemies in harder modes, Skyrim just adjusted one single thing, damage modifiers.
In Legendary mode you hit with less damage and your enemies get to hit you with more damage, but the enemy AI it's not affected by the change of difficulty, it makes the game hard yes, but not as unforgiving as Dark Souls new game plus mode, where it gets harder as you beat it over and over and over, until you either beat the game in its hardest mode, or the game beats you and you beat yourself with the controller in utter rage.
That was one of the reasons he was able to beat Skyrim so fast, unlike the other three games he has on stand-by, on their hardest modes and getting every-
"…Can't be" he muttered in shock, of course, but of course, he had been on a full hording spree, getting anything that was important, unique, shiny and not tied to a script and therefore possible to be lost at the end of the quest, and had turned to item tables that checked your save-file and what you had and what you were missing.
The day before he shouted for the first time, he had completed the very last mission in Skyrim and claimed its last reward, therefore completing Bethesda masterpiece to at the closest of one hundred percent, as most of the items that would permit a full one hundred percent run were scripted, and therefore lost at the end of the Quest, like the Skeleton Key.
"…So my Quirk…activates when I beat a game on its hardest mode and get everything there is to get" He mused to himself, turning immediately to a notebook he had around, one that had been sitting, alone, unused for over five years, one bough for one particular task, to catalog his Quirk when he got one.
Kacchan had mocked him when he told him, because of course he would.
"Who's laughing now?" Izuku muttered with a smile as he turned the first page, took a pencil and began to write like a man possessed.
Which was kinda true, in a sense, if he was honest if Hermaeus Mora existed, and where to see him, he would either made him his champion, or cast him to Apocrypha and made his 'master librarian' or something like that, to a god like entity bend on knowing everything, a being like Izuku who pretty much sought knowledge and wrote it would be most…desirable to the Daedric prince of memory and knowledge.
But at the matter at hand, in the first page was the first lines of what his Quirk was, and what could do.
'My Quirk, name not decided'
'Emitter-Accumulation type'
'This Quirk has been active for the past ten years, but due to its unique activation requirements I had to wait for so long…anyway this Quirk its an unique emitter and Accumulation type quirk, to activate it, I require first a video game, then I have to beat the video game on its hardest setting (tested on multiple games on normal mode for over two years, I got nothing until I beat Skyrim on Legendary mode) and have a completion rate of either 95 to a 100 (numbers tentative) then it activates, granting me the unique power (needs further testing) of the character I control (needs further testing) and both unique strengths and flaws inherited by the particular skill but not limited by code but by real physical laws'
'So far I have just one power, but it could pass as over twelve Quirks due to its unique nature'
'I have decided to keep the names of the powers I get, mostly because after two hundred years only dedicated gamers with huge collections know what they are and honestly there is no plagiarism lawsuit regarding them, as most of them are free-to-play after the Quirk emergence two hundred years ago and many companies went under after it, most, if not all of them became free domain and can be used without fear of a lawsuit'
'Superpower number 1, the Thu'um, aka the Shout, origins, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'
'The Thu'um, or shout it's an ancient power granted to the dragons and later to the humans of Nirn, the dragons can naturally use the shouts as it is part of their language, two dragons shouting at one another is akin to the deadliest verbal debate in the universe, humans got it thanks to the goddess Kynareth, who bestowed the gift of the voice to fight back the tyranny of the dragons'
'As for the power in question, it is closets to ancient magic, when I shout I am basically willing something out of thin air, each shout its composed of three words of power, each enhancing the power of the shout, for example Fus Ro Dah, Fus means Force, Ro means balance and Dah means push, combine the three and you get an exponential cannon being fired at point blank at anyone and ragdolling the target at any surface, and that's just one, Fire breath or Yol Toor Shul it's another example, I do not breath fire when I shout those three words, I am basically shouting so hard that I will fire out of thin air, there is no chemical reaction involved or anything jammed at the bottom of my throat, I shout the words, fire comes out'
'Which makes the Thu'um look like twelve different Quirks jammed into one, I can shout fire, or ice, or shout a storm away, or shout a storm in, blow a person away or shout to dash at unimaginable speed, or even shout to render someone's vitality out or even their souls (I hope I really can't do that) even I can summon dragons (But highly unlikely) reason why I have to train this and learn what I can and can't do, this is a potential life ender if I'm not careful, this is not Kaachan's explosions, just one thing, I can shout a person so hard that I can tear them apart, or burn them or freeze them solid or actually rend their souls out of their flesh and become a necromancer and-'
Izuku actually took a deep breath, he went on a tangent there, but a considerable one, he knew how powerful the Thu'um was, there were very specific shouts that could literally kill someone with just a word, Soul Tear was one of them, it was a rather specific shout, but it required some items for it to word at its fullest.
Didn't mean that the damage it dealt was negated by the lack of those items.
He knew Quirks were pretty much weapons, everyone was armed with something capable of causing damage and even kill, there was reason for the regulations put by the governments regarding Quirks, despite what Destro said back in the day, those regulations were needed, humanity was not ready to have their Quirks non-regulated, and probably never would, the amount of accidents regarding Quirks was large, not even villain attacks could compare to those statistics.
They just needed to look back to the 21 century North America and the amount of deaths caused by non-regulations of guns, now everyone had a biological gun, or the rocket launcher equivalent.
With a shake of his head Izuku focused once more on his book, and began to write again.
'Strengths and weakness: my Quirk, or more precisely, the Thu'um is highly versatile when you think about it, for combat and rescue, in combat it is pretty obvious, the majority of the shouts are offensive type, and since most of them are varied and the language its not know by a lot of people, as in just me and anyone who knows about Skyrim, one can actually surprise an opponent with a shout they don't expect'
'Of course therein lays is weakness, it is too offensive, most of its most powerful shouts are also the deadliest, only a handful are useful for defense or support, Ice Breath and Ice Form are perfect for fires, where firemen can't reach those shouts can, one its pretty much a cold hail capable of causing hypothermia on the spot, the other can freeze things solid, but to detainment not so much, I would have to tone down the shout, simply using one or two words of power to prevent actually hurting the target seriously, and in hero work half-measures are not exactly a thing to be done, also most shouts work on either a target on oneself, only Battle Fury works with allies, allowing faster striking, but that is it'
'Also I have to see if my voice has been enhanced somehow, the Greybeards, masters of the Thu'um, aside the Dragonborn itself, have to speak softly, as their voices are so powerful that talking normally can make a room vibrate by the sheer power behind their voice, when they called the Dragonborn, Skyrim shook with the combined might of their four voices, it sounded like as a thunderclap, felt and heard all over a continent at the very best description, so if my voice does become like theirs I have to exercise caution, I can actually hurt someone by talking'
Putting the pencil down, Izuku began to actually get drawn into his thoughts, now more than ever, with a Quirk he could accomplish his dreams, they were not a pipe dream like others liked it to point out, he could become the hero he knew he could become, to help people and ease them with his presence and save them with a smile.
That smile didn't go down, especially when he picked his pencil again and continued his scribbling's on his notebook, this time however, he began drawing, at least to those who didn't knew what he was doing.
Izuku on the other hand was writing again, but this time in another language, curves and dots that seemed to emanate an ancient language but unless you knew what it was were pretty much scratches, but to Izuku, whose intense passion for analysis and drawing had translated into hero annotations had also evolved into some sort of lore keeper like ability, ask him anything from hero history and he would say it to you, with dates and facts.
In video games it happened pretty much the same, for someone who spend the last ten years isolated and without friends, and a lot of pent-up anger and frustrations, video games became an outlet for that, it began with a simple game, Tetris, the oldest game he had, and one of the few games that pushed the two hundred and forty years of age, and was still played, it was his first game, his first distraction of the world being unjust to him and friends abandoning him for simply lacking something.
It snowballed from there, from the cheery and innocent Ice Climbers to the gritty and brutal Doom and Quake, he played a lot, he had a console for that, but only Skyrim and Doom occupied space on his computer hard drive, and from those games he learned how to search, and how creative people were before when creating a world.
From the simple world of Doom where demons come and you shoot them in the face with a shotgun to the more lore heavy like Warframe and Destiny, where the weapons have stories of their own, but Skyrim had a special place in his heart for several reason, one of them was its language, one he learned just because he could.
The language of the dragons, the very one he was writing right now.
It was not weird, after all in North America there are schools that teach Klingon, so yeah, not weird at all.
Finding Dagobah Beach wasn't hard, in all honestly, you just had to look for the coastline filled with scrap metal and anything that didn't smell bad enough to ensure the wrath of the local populace, like biological waste, like from the hospitals.
Yet the visage was something rather…bleak, mountains of scrap and plastic materials dotted the once white sands of the beach, there were paths alongside the mountains of trash, surely done to ensure tossing the trash more manageable, but all the trash covered the sea beyond, what was once an awe-striking visage was blocked by man's greed and need to have more.
Izuku really appreciated the irony there, his Quirk allowed him power, as long he added more to it he would be powerful.
He took this as a lesson, not to be overcome by his own need for more, less he ends up like Dagobah Beach.
Making his way to the inside of the beach wasn't hard, the paths in it allowed easy access, and honestly the smell wasn't that bad, there was no organic trash tossed in there, so no putrefaction, but the smell of rusted metal and plastic exposed to the sun was still…overpowering.
Making it to the edge of the beach, where the sea meet the sand, he stood there, letting the sun kiss his skin, he closed his eyes, and breathed in the salty smell of the sea.
Then he screamed.
Mirio Toogata, also known for his hero codename 'Lemillion' sometimes wondered why patrols weren't assigned also to the first years.
Cities were vast, so much that sometimes heroes were outnumbered in terms of patrol, he knew there were areas where heroes didn't made it due to lack of manpower, and also because some of them were petty and loved the attention, going to more populated areas and leaving others un-patrolled, creating pockets of areas with possible villain activity rising without control.
Sir Nighteye was rather succinct with those statistics.
He owed a lot to Sir Nighteye, he took him in and polished his skill, taught him that weakness could be used as strength, everyone had doubted he could be in the hero course, and yet here he was, slowly but surely becoming the hero he knew he could become by the hand of a man that believed in him.
It was him who taught him a lot about the hero business, both the legal and not so legal aspects of it, how some heroes teamed up with vigilantes (yes they still existed) because sometimes they needed both the extra girth a vigilante brought and in the end helped both their goals, vigilantes was just a longer word for heroes, they did precluded the current era heroes, just that vigilantes didn't tie themselves with laws and media, they get the job done, and leave quite a mess of a villain behind.
It was him who also taught him that a pair of heroes on patrol are more of a tangible force and can discourage any villain form attacking anything rather than one.
The amount of villains that tended to attack even in the presence of All-Might and Endeavor showed that, and both did solo patrols, it was odd that average villains would risk the number one hero and the number two hero and number one fire hazard.
So this was why he wondered why he had to do patrols alone, true he was a second year, but honestly in this kind of scenarios, even if he was assigned to a low risk area was a high possibility, even if the beach area had a myth behind it and-
Mirio felt the very air shake before he heard the scream.
He actually was shocked when the air rippled and made his very muscles vibrate in shock, and while his ears were not affected by it, he certainly didn't want to be in the epicenter of the scream which oddly enough was not a scream of agony, or pain or fear.
It sounded more like a scream of…scream, scream because you want to scream, no emotion, just let it out.
He used to do that, a lot in fact, a tactic to make Tamaki come out of his shell, it usually made him go more into his shell than help him out of it, not that it stopped him, he always considered Tamaki could be more if he wasn't so shy.
Ignoring that, he decided that the best course of action, right now was to make it to the source of the scream, assess the situation and ensure that the source of so said scream, a male civilian by the sounds of it, wasn't hurt, and from the act accordingly.
With the plan set he activated his Quirk while making a run, immediately the forces of gravity took hold of his now intangible body, pulling in into the ground, when only the head remained visible, he began his special maneuver, while his Quirk, Permeation, was active, he pretty much stopped being affected by friction, allowing him to build up greater forward momentum, thus he could literally 'dash' at incredible speed with just the momentum of his initial run, and that was what happened.
With a quick command, he was already into the air, at speeds only Quirk users with speed enhancing Quirks could achieve, before he was mentored by Sir Nighteye, this would have been impossible to him, not because it was hard, because it was, but because of the nature of his Quirk in general.
It took barely two seconds before he saw who had made the scream, a boy, standing at the edge of the beach, looking at the horizon, with green hair that looked as if had never met a hairbrush, or probably did but destroy them all.
Landing softly, a skill he had to train to not alert his enemies when he wanted to execute one of his now numerous stealth based strikes, he saw how the green haired boy began to mutter, pulling what seemed to be a notebook and a pen, and began to write on it.
He was far enough that he would not be noticed unless he announced himself, but not enough to hear what his mutters were about, he knew he was muttering because he was moving his mouth, but that was it.
Then he pocketed the notebook and turned once more to the sea, took a deep breath and-
"YOL TOOR SHUL!" Next thing Mirio knows is that the boy screams once more, this time he screams a sentence, and fire comes out, a massive ball of fire that travels far to be a threat to anything in front of him, and quite a surprise if he admits.
The boy seemed to be nodding at this, looking at the horizon, then took another deep breath-
"YOL TOOR SHUUUULLLL!" This time he sutained the last two words, and shockingly the ball of flame was no more, instead it was a sustained flamethrower, one the height of the boy and twice his width, and reaching twice the distance the initial ball of flame did before.
He kept that for at least five seconds if he was right, five seconds of a teen sized flamethrower with a flame of equal size that could cause some serious havoc to anyone or anything in its path, if he wanted, Mirio was no fool, as many believed as he struggled with his Quirk, he had a deep understanding of the motivation of people's actions.
For example his, his motivation to become a hero was to save lives, not to get famous, that was just an after product of it not that mattered for many, everyone assumed that becoming a hero was the easy route for easy living, no one truly understood the peril behind it, the sacrifices made for it.
Seeing this boy right now made him realize what he was seeing and what the boy was doing, he wasn't using his Quirk illegally, he was practicing in a secluded area where no civilians would be affected by its destructive force, seeing its limitations.
And he was proven right when he began to…shout was the best description, one after another, ice, fire, concussive force, purple energy, silver energy waves, then he shouted, and he was shrouded in red light, that lasted for barely a fraction of a second, there he stopped, panting, and rubbing his throat and turned around.
Mirio had to blink when he saw the boy's eyes, they were green, but the sclera seemed to be glowing red.
"…Oh" the boy exclaimed, rather shocked by what he was seeing, or rather who was seeing, there Mirio decided it was time to act.
As in doing his heroic and civic duty, "Citizen, you seem to be training" and channel his inner All-Might there and there, smile and all.
"Uh…y-yes" the boy responded, not knowing what else to say, okay that was good.
"But you are also violating several Quirk regulations" Mirio added, because it was true, the boy was violating several regulations, there were several parks in the city that would allow him training the same way, but after seeing what he had done with his shouts alone, he might be in the right on doing this, alone, and very far of everyone, but he still has to make the point across.
"U-uh" the boy seemed really conflicted by this, seemingly he knew.
"But" Mirio continued, "I saw the output of your Quirk, rather destructive, the parks are packed with people, you did right by choosing an area with no collateral involved" Mirio praised, then perked up, realizing he had spent way too much time in the area, away of his patrol if Sir Nighteye found out he would box his ears.
"Anyway, I wish you luck in training citizen, and please next time do choose an area with available heroes nearby, so if your lose control of your Quirk you can then be rescued with no collateral damage in the process, see ya" and with that Mirio moved away, fast, using his Quirk and making an exit worth of a hero.
Meanwhile Izuku remained rooted on the spot he was, shocked, "…What just happened?"
Inko Midoriya had been concerned, the moment her son manifested his Quirk she had been happy, also a little miffed he nearly blew up a wall in their home.
But then came the worry, and the consternation, aside from the malpractice his Quirk was anything but hers of her husband, the ability to copy fictional superpowers out of videogames was way far from a weak telekinesis Quirk and a fire breath Quirk, a mutation that was too different from her family's Quirk or her husband's.
Even if at one point one of their families did had an anomaly, it was not as wildly different as her son's.
Of course she kept this out of her son's mind, she didn't want to worry him with something that should be treated by experts in the matter like doctors, but considering what happened the last time she trusted a doctor fully, she was skeptical now, what could explain the fact her son now had a Quirk that deviated of everything his family had.
Then there was Izuku itself, he might not admit it, but she knew that after ten years of literal racism and utter ostracizing by his peers, there was a little, very little part of him that hated them and relished on the fact he had something that might be owed to him, and might lash out to them, to show them how wrong they were in doubting him, and might to violently.
Despite her son's best attempts, he was unable to hide much of what happened in his school, or what happened with Katsuki.
Mitsuki seemed to be the one that suffered out of them both in this situation, she always praised her how she had raised Izuku to be so forgiving and level-headed, to the point that sometimes Mitsuki wished Izuku was her son, she had confessed such thing after a call to the principal's office where Katsuki had been waiting, she always asked her where she had went wrong with Katsuki, where the kid that was friends with Izuku, loyal to the end became this 'arrogant asshole' her words not hers that looked down on anyone.
Honestly Inko blamed in on the school, whatever attempts Mitsuki and Masaru tried with Katsuki were destroyed by the teachers who wanted a hero out of their school that had produced some infamous villains, and his classmates that ignored anything bad he did and only praised his toxic attitude towards Izuku.
Inko knew there was more to Katsuki that arrogance that led him to be the boy he is today, and to be fair was kind afraid when Izuku its forced to use his Quirk in self-defense, she is not blind, she is not stupid, it's not a matter of 'ifs' but 'when' tomorrow? In a week? A month?
With a sigh she turned her attention to the work in front of her, today she felt like trying something else.
"What about…pasta" with an idea in mind and hoping that it will take her mind away of her son's woes, she began to work on dinner.
Returning home, Izuku was still reeling of his encounter with the hero on the beach, to be perfectly honest Izuku was sure he was still a student in UA, after all someone as young at that boy being a full-fledged hero would make news.
Hawks made news when he became the youngest pro in history, anywhere, not even China, the birthplace of Quirks or Britain, the birthplace of the Hero academies could boast this.
Yet even that encounter and his words could truly stop him from training and finding the limitations of his newly acquired Thu'um, which, as he suspected, had some limitations, not as bad as he expected, but he had to be careful.
For once he had no literal cool downs between shouts, meaning that he could really go nuts with how he used his shouts, and the only limiting factors were if he knew the words of power for the shouts and his own biology.
He could shout ten times before his throat began to hurt, he assumed since he doesn't has proper training with voice control, he can't use the shouts to their full potential, of course training can fix that, but he knows that if he pushes his limits he can tear his own vocal chords, so he had to be careful.
Also there were shouts that didn't worked, Call Dragon and Summon Durnehviir didn't work, as both summoned something that didn't existed, one a dragon the other a necromancing dragon trapped in a necromancing realm by necromancing gods/assholes, same applied with Call of Valor, as it summoned a hero of Sovngarde, a place that didn't exist.
Oddly enough Dragonrend worked, if it worked as a way to ground flying dragons to hit them or as it was originally intended, a hate filled shout that gave dragons a taste of mortality in their immortal souls was anyone's guess, as he was not going to use it on any Quirk user with a dragon Quirk.
All other shouts worked, including Soul Tear, Bend Will and Drain Vitality, the first was on his 'I'm not going to use this ever' list, too inhumane, too dangerous, the second was on 'I'm mad you made me do this' list, as it could defuse any situation without violence, but there was the stigma of mind control in society, so yeah, the last one was on his 'well you earned this' list, it would work like a charm against opponents with too much stamina, or that depend on stamina to power their Quirks, denied them something vital to use them.
Of course he had written all in to his notebook, safely tucked into his pockets, he didn't want anything bad to happen to it.
As he approached the apartment complex, he noted someone near the entrance, someone familiar.
"Kacchan?" Izuku asked out loud, looking at his childhood 'friend' just arriving at the complex entrance, so said boy just narrowed his eyes upon seeing him, and marched towards him.
"Deku, the fuck are you doing outside?" he growled, making Izuku instinctually flinch, "No matter, old hag wants you and aunty at our home on Thursday after classes next week" he said.
"A-aunty wants us at a dinner, w-w-what for?" Izuku asked.
"Some fuckers from pops work are coming, so the old hag doesn't want to suffer alone" Izuku sighed, this was pretty much his aunty way of saying I want someone to bear this nightmare with, and only Inko can help me.
Izuku sighed at this, again, he knew about these dinners, uncle Masaru's work being a designer pretty much meant that he had to cater to individuals in the industry, either to push his work onward or because they were pretty much in love of his work and wanted to meet the man behind the work.
Of course this also drew aunty Mitsuki, as she once modelled, and not one of her husband's guests would resist try to woo Mistuki Bakugou back into the world of modeling, especially considering that unlike many models of her age, she hasn't shown sign of age, thanks to her Quirk, her skin has remained as youthful as if she was still twenty, unlike others that showed signs of age.
As a result she needed someone to keep her away of that world, she did modeling true, but the way she described it, that world seemed more cutthroat than the villain underworld, as a result Mitsuki latched on his mother Inko for support and also a wall that others had to climb in order to talk with aunty Mitsuki.
Only uncle Masaru could freely bypass the invincible wall that was his mother without problem.
"O-okay Kacchan, I'll tell mom, she'll be thrilled" Izuku answered, this was pretty much a tradition between the families, one that hasn't changed much in the years to come and his deteriorating friendship with Kacchan, something that pained him, he had tried to fix it, but Kacchan was simply not having it.
With that said, Katsuki huffed and walked away, not even sparing a 'goodbye' as he left, then again he didn't spared an insult too, that meant he was rather mellow now, which was odd.
Seeing his 'friend' walk away, Izuku simply sighed, again, and turned to the complex, wanting to return home.
It didn't took five minutes to make it to his home, and once he opened the door, he was assaulted by the smell of salsa.
"Mom, I'm home" he called/whispered as he entered, leaving his shoes behind, "What smells so good, please tell me its pasta" he added with a small smile as his mother appeared from the kitchen with a smile.
"It is Izuku, I felt like doing something new" Izuku licked his lips, after Katsudon (the food of the gods) Pasta was his second favorite dish, especially since his mom made it with such care, and the salsa, don't get him started with the salsa she makes, it is simply perfect, an assault to the senses he welcomes every time.
Inko for her part giggled at her son's look, then slightly frowned, noticing something, "Izuku, you spoke softly, did you hurt yourself?" she asked, making Izuku blink, then shake his head.
"N-no, its related to the shouts but no, if I raise my voice more than I am speaking now, I might cause the room to shake" he said with a frown, making his way to a chair.
Inko's frown deepened at that, "Is that normal, Present Mic is loud, but only when he uses his Quirk, and has speakers for a collar" she added, looking at her son expectantly.
"No, it is related to the lore behind the shouts, basically I am becoming a Greybeard, minus the beard, my voice will become too powerful, I'll have to whisper to talk normally otherwise i-I can hurt someone by talking" he added while Inko blinked, her frown still in place.
"That can't be right, never heard of a voice based Quirk doing that" Inko said as she turned back to the dinner.
"I-it is happening, I-i screamed at Dagobah Beach, I shook the place, I felt it, when the Greybeards summoned the Dragonborn they screamed to the heavens…Skyrim as whole shook, by their voice alone, granted they were in a mountain and had great acoustics but the point stands, it is happening to me" Izuku said, or rather whispered, despite the fact he whispered, Inko heard him as clear as he was at her side.
"I guess this is the complete package of my Quirk, I get powers no other Quirk user has but with those specifics weakness tied to that power" he added, "Gotta be careful with what I get…never imagined those words coming out of my mouth" he added with a raised eyebrow.
On the kitchen Inko sighed, not entirely used to the conversation she was having with her son regarding his Quirk and his possible weaknesses, as in plural, she knew it was just a matter of time before he started adding more to what he had now.
She knew her son wasn't being greedy, just cautious, if he wanted to become a hero then-
There she stopped, coming to a realization that didn't came before, after all this time, he had wanted to be a hero, even when he was 'quirkless' she had pretty much stopped supporting him in that idea, afraid of what might bring to him future wise, but let him dream, mostly because she was afraid.
Afraid that he would end up like most quirkless individuals of the world, either in the underworld of villains, bitter to a world that rejected him and hateful with everyone living in it, or depressed enough to kill himself, seeing as there was no reason to keep on living.
It was those very same reasons that had motivated Inko to keep feeding his dream, despite she didn't believe he might achieve it, just because she didn't want to lose him into those very same worlds where there was no return, the horror stories of the villain underworld was enough to send chills to her spine.
"Oh, I met Kacchan on my way here" Izuku commented soflty, snapping Inko of her thoughts.
"Really, what he wanted?" she asked, hoping, really hoping that her son didn't end up bullied by Katsuki, again, by just being around.
"Well, more like what Aunty wanted" Inko blinked, then sighed with a smile, but of course.
"Let me guess, dinner with her husband business partners?" he nodded at her question, "When? I really hope it's not tomorrow, that's too close of a time, and highly irresponsible of Mimi" Inko muttered, using the childhood nickname of Mitsuki.
"Actually, its next week, on Thursday" Izuku said, making Inko sigh, but this time with a small smile, the last time Mitsuki had asked them on a dinner had been with just a day of preparation, Izuku had a doctor's appointment that particular day, and after the dinner she had let Mitsuki know what she exactly thought about that particular stun.
Suffice to say it hadn't happened again.
"Well, I suppose we can make some time" Inko teased, making Izuku to roll his eyes, despite everything that has happened between their sons, Inko and Mitsuki had remained steadfast friends throughout the years.
If only he and Kacchan could have that too, a solid friendship.
Shaking his head, Izuku focused on what lay ahead now, true his training was fruitful, if weird thanks to that hero that appeared out of freaking nowhere, and had learned a lot of what he could and could not do, but if he wanted to be a hero, and effective hero and help people whenever he could, he needed to add some more into his arsenal, maybe screaming works for Present Mic, but Mic its called for crowd control most of the time, and his screams usually work on bigger targets, targets with bigger ears, bigger targets to fell, there is no true protection to sonic based attacks, covering your ears barely cuts it.
The question was, what to add, if his Quirk was that specific with adding powers from characters he directly controlled and with a difficulty setting and completion rate, then the number of games and powers at his disposal, while large, was also limited.
For instance Crysis, the powers of the character in question, while versatile, were only available to him because of the nanosuit, invisibility, bullet proof and super strength, alongside an advanced AI suite that analyzed the area and provided tactical for the best route and targets to take out, something that while it existed in current times, did not existed in the same way as the nanosuit, and advanced piece of gear no thicker than a SWAT officer's own uniform but far more advanced than anything I-Island could dream to produce.
Yes, he went there, I-Island it's the paragon of technology on the world but until he actually sees nanotechnology like the nanosuit he isn't budging, chance his mind.
In terms of powers, there were many, a lot, what he didn't knew was how much he could have, did he had a limit of how much he could obtain? Or there was a limit, a Quirk like his was a novelty, and as a result not widely known in most of its strengths and flaws.
There were gamers like Quirks, but his was unlike any of them, it depended of games yes, but not of game mechanics, his Thu'um already proved that he was not tied to the hardcoding and engine limitation of the game in question, he didn't run the danger of 'crashing into desktop' if he used too much the Thu'um, could use it as much as he wanted, and its only limitation was him.
Other gamers Quirks, if he is being honest, were one of the hardest Quirks to master, most of them came of Korea, by some reason, and were as headache inducing as you expect them to be, tied to RPG mechanics and perk system and stats and the like, with a HUD like screen that stays on, forever and a quest like system that provides experience for leveling up. true you do get stronger as you level up and add perks, like the pixel maniacs, a gamer hero team of Korea, they all had different gamer like Quirks, but it was the same.
His was all the raw power the main character got by some reason, no perks, no leveling up, no cooldowns, no coding that limited the power in question.
With that in mind, Izuku stood up from where he was, "Mom, how long until dinner's ready?" he called.
"Half an hour, I'm making pasta with the salsa you like so much" Inko answered.
"The one Aunty Mitsuki it's willing to sell Uncle Masaru for?" he called out.
"The one and the same, she'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands" his mother called with determination.
Izuku smiled as he went to his room, entering he went directly to his desk and opened his notebook, it was time to work, with an idea in mind he began to make a list.
There were a lot of games, that was true, but you had to really look for the cult classic ones, as many of its following had died two hundred years ago, and those who still played those games were small numbers at best.
Warframe, Destiny, Mass Effect, World Of Warcraft, Overwatch, Doom, Call of Duty, Pac-Man, Tetris, Contra, Ice Climbers and Super Mario, those names carried a heavy weight back in the day, any child could say their favorite game and anyone would recognize it, but in this day and age that was different.
He wasn't joking when he figured only a handful of people on the globe knows the language of dragons in Skyrim, it practically is, it took him a month to download Skyrim, as the seeders of it were very, very few.
Destiny and Warframe had similar histories when it came to those who play it, drew by the heavy lore the games had a small following pretty much brought the games back from the dead, using custom made servers to host them, luckily the administrators of those servers weren't tolerant of cheaters, and hit them hard, again the number of players in each game was small, true it was larger than the now defunct World of Warcraft, thanks to a bitter fan and a virus that tore the servers apart and a worm that hunted for every line of code of the game, in any computer in the world, the game was officially dead.
Single player games were harder to get, more because very few survived the fall of many companies and the pass of time, the original codes used for their creation lost along the fall of such companies, you were really lucky if you had the original Resident Evil on your computer emulator, and you should really consider making the lottery if you had Contra and Tetris along that game, those games were old.
Doom, oddly enough had pretty much done what its protagonist did to the hordes of hell, survived with a bloody grin in its face, it was one of the very few games that was everywhere, and he meant it, everywhere, it still caused outrage, but not as bad as before, at long last they figured this was the most holy game ever, you go to Hell and fill every demon there with white hot lead fired of a minigun.
The remake made it out as well, along the sequel, both the original and the sequel of the remake.
That alone limited his selection, what he had, how fast he could get it and how fast he could complete it for his Quirk activate for usage.
Obviously games where powers came out of objects, like super suits or magical weapons were out of the question, it was obvious his Quirk affected him to the biological level, or a deeper metaphysical level, as shouts while available to anyone in Skyrim (in theory) were natural for the Dragonborn, the player's character in question.
That meant that his Quirk affected him to a metaphysical and biological level, he could get genetic based powers, and 'magic' based powers, and he's skeptical with the magic part, more like powers using exotic energies that his Quirk could mimic.
That meant a lot, and with that in mind he began to comply a list of what games he had with those exact perquisites.
Turns out he is quite a cult gamer, he has very old games that fit the categories he is looking for, now came the hard part, beating them with the Quirk's prerequisite in place.
In its hardest mode and with a completion rate not below 95 and above 99, that was his margin of error, either close to perfection or perfection.
And he had just the game to test that theory.
Destiny 2, made by Bungie, back in the day makers of first person games that made you felt powerful and worlds you fell in love.
Now they make clothes mostly, custom made clothes of course, they were among the very few companies to survive the Quirk emergence in 2020 and the legislation of companies in 2040.
The game in question was shrouded in controversy, something most, if not all games of the late 2010 seemed to share, made by Bungie, but Activison put the money for its production and distribution, at first it…didn't came well, Activison had made sure the game would harken to a more casual audience instead of its hardcore fanbase, as a result its first year was…troubled, the second year not so much, its expansion of that time, coupled with the Bungie/Activison divorce meant Bungie retained the game and made it back into the vision they had in the first place, and they did it, for a time.
Then came Quirks and the rest its history, the servers were shut down in 2022, after a dwindling fanbase got Quirks and the power fantasy was taken thanks to so said Quirks.
Why play a game where you're powerful when you have superpowers in real life.
That was pretty much the history of many games, companies and developers worldwide during that time, and that was just one area, the political climate of the 2020 was akin to a depressed teen having access to the world's nuclear arsenal, all it took would be a mood swing and everyone would be dead.
The game in question was pretty much humanity versus the universe trying to kill them, and the only thing between that was a bunch of ultra-powered beings that obsessed with loot and dance-offs. And killed gods in their spare time and couldn't die properly.
It was the Destiny history in a very short nutshell, the complicated version was worth and essay and the real deal at least three books.
The reason he chose Destiny over Warframe was because of their powers, in all honestly Warframe had more content than Destiny, by a long shot, but when it came to powers Destiny was less complicated.
The powers in Warframe were tied to the void, which in turn were manifested on an individual, an operator, however they were at their deadliest when they linked with a Warframe, a biomechanical combat suit that was remotely controlled that used the void that the operator had to power up a myriad of abilities, with over forty Warframes to choose, it was more a player's choice what to play, there the appeal of the game, the selection, operators on the other hand were limited to a choice of abilities all had, Void Blast, Void Dash, Void Beam and Void Mode, every player that handled an operator knew this limited them, and Izuku knew this as well.
The Guardians in Destiny were tied to a power called The Light, it allowed them to do the things they do, but their main ability, the ability to be resurrected, even after their bodies were turned to ash, was exclusive to their Ghosts, small intelligent drones that chose their Guardians from the dead and rose them from their 'first death' to fight the Darkness, both the Light and the Darkness were paracasual forces, in a broader meaning those forces were impossible to predict in any way, shape or form, there was no mathematical formula that would allow this, no divination, those who used the Light or the Darkness were masters of their fates.
The Guardians in question were classified in simple categories, unlike the Warframes, the bulky Titan, the nimble Hunter and the wise Warlock, the three classes, overall had no much of an effect in gameplay, the Titans could take more damage than the other classes, the Hunters were masters of tricks, and would use any dirty trick available to win, and the Warlocks were pretty much the glass cannons, could cause colossal damage to their opponents but they could not take the punishment as like the Titans and Hunters could, sometimes.
The reason he chose Destiny 2 and is assemble of powers as his possible second power-up was how it interacted with others, or more precisely with allies and enemies.
Hunters had their Nightstalker bow, once the bolt was launched it would land in either the target or the floor, and there it would tether any hostile target in the area, immobilizing them and weakening them, perfect for mob control.
Titans had the Sentinel Shield, both offensive and defensives as offensive it was pretty much going Captain America, throwing shield and all, defensively it created a frontal wall that could tank pretty much anything throw at it, those standing behind it could also attack from a distance, and even those attacks would be enhanced by the Sentinel Shield, and if it wasn't enough, the Titan could create instead of a portable shield called the Ward of Dawn, create a bubble of pure void energy that could tank attacks from every angle.
The Warlocks had the Dawnblade, or to be more precise, the Well of Dawn, think of the Ward of Dawn, but take the shield around it, add a buff that heals all allies inside, doubles their attack power, grants them a constant overshield, and with the proper equipment you could make sure that weapons fired inside constantly reload, without the need to trigger the animation.
Any of the powers of the three classes would be perfect for pretty much anything, even at their most basics Guardians had several basic abilities they all shared, they could either, glide in the air as gracefuly as a leaf and even gain more height bug lidding more, in mid-air, or simply lift themselves off, defying pretty much every single law of gravity that existed, or they could double jump, yes, also they had signature melee attacks, Warlocks gave the most epic and painful bitch-slap (as in disintegrate you bitch slap) Titans punch really hard (as in they punch you into molecules) and the Hunters…well, they trade their knife melee with either a toxic smoke bomb, or get hit just to hit harder, or they just stab you with a knife with a hooked end, on the tip.
They also had self-regenerating grenades, Bungie was never clear if the grenades regenerating after a while was a Guardian thing or a Ghost thing, but he chalked up to the Light in them, they toss balls of pure ionized energy that can kill a normal person and leave nothing behind in a second flat, and that's the arc grenades, the Solar Grenades were pretty much tossing a miniature sun.
Anything they would provide would be awesome, hell if he somehow could make a Warframe and a way to control them like in the game, he would use both the Light and the void to help more people, a light enhanced Warframe that can switch between any of the elements of fall back into its basic skills, which were obscenely powerful in their own right, oh yeah, the power trip is real.
Or as real he can make it, but not now, Warframe was vast game, so vast that he uh…has yet to finish the War Within, and Destiny 2…well he was incredibly close to compete everything, including the seals, most events, including solstice of heroes and Iron Banner were still on rotation, but there was one event he had yet to complete.
The Shattered Throne, or to be more precise, beat the Shattered Throne, alone, wearing full gear of the Dreaming City, while ascendant, and don't die.
Or something like that he is not sure he hasn't exactly touched the game in a while, he was more focused on Skyrim, and once in a while Tetris, a game for intellectuals and quite literal time eater, no kidding you actually lose track of time in it.
In any case for the moment, the Light of the Traveler was out of his reach, he would have to wait two weeks, when the curse of the Dreaming City its in full effect to attempt the solo, flawless Shattered Throne.
That didn't meant he didn't had other game to try his theory that he acquired powers and were adapted to a biological or metaphysical level.
It is a game his mom…kinda hates, mostly by the violence, which is odd, before Quirks Japan was not known for its level of violence, heck things that happen nowadays would be frowned upon by the Japanese back in the day, after everything that has happened to the country as a whole violence was the very last resort, heck even Yakuza knew this, choosing subterfuge and a lot of bribery over violence, knowing that violence would gain them unwanted attention.
The game in question was violent, over the top violence, weird considering that the game didn't had that before, this game was a deviation of the saga in on itself.
Metal Gear Revengeance, a game so way out of what it was before, but somehow not as crazy as the other games in the series, and actually really good, unlike Survive (ugh).
What he was looking here was to prove his theory, the powers of the main character were directly tied to his cyborg body, the usual sort, super-speed, super-strength, enhanced reflexes you know the usual suspects.
But what he was looking here was if he would get one of the signature skills of the main character, Raiden.
Blade Mode, the game hinged on this particular gimmick, you can slice and dice pretty much everything, from the environment to your opponents, to make cuts so precise that were utterly inhuman, or just go nuts and see in how many meaty squares you can cut a person.
Obviously it made his mom queasy when she first saw it happen, but he was interested in the ability in on itself, Blade mode's main ability was to basically reduce the perception of time of the user to a crawl, all while increasing the reaction time of the user, to anyone seeing it, it would be like a blur of movement, but to the user it would like if the world stopped and he had all the time on the world to attack.
To a hero, reaction time its paramount, the top ten heroes were not only strong, but also fast, Miroku's reaction speed its insane, almost on par with All-Might, the only reason she is number five it's because of her ultra-boastful, ultra-confrontational and ultra-cocky attitude, also she hated the press, insulted them and told them to fuck off, on live TV, on prime time.
With a superior reaction time, he could literally plan while on the spot, look for weaknesses, and strike that weakness, even before the opponent can even think what happened.
Of course if it worked, he wasn't sure if it would work, all depended if his Quirk would allow it to happen, and how.
"One way to find out" he muttered as he turned to his TV and the console in it, he was pretty advanced in this particular game, having challenged himself to beat the game with an S ranking and no hits on himself, on its hardest difficulty, he had been playing parallel with Skyrim, something different, Skyrim was…well, slow paced compared to Revengeance, which was pretty much if you switched to drive a formula one car after driving a scooter.
It all hinged on his Quirk now, if it would allow it to happen, to get it.
"Okay, Senator Armstrong, you're going down" with those words said, Izuku grabbed the controller and began to work, he had half-an-hour to get this right, and unlike in video games, real life doesn't have a pause button to stop time, as much as everyone wants it.
The world had changed in the past two hundred years.
Technology wise things were different than two hundred years, now everyone had a smartphone, they were affordable, and even if you could not afford one, you could buy a foldable phone that had a smartphone had, but slower, and obviously not a smartphone.
Cars used a new solution of fuel, it was artificially made in the Middle-East, the guy who discovered the formula had been quirkless at the time, now his descendants were filthy rich, the same formula of gas was used for planes and heavy duty vehicles, it lowered the damage done to the environment incredibly, but the damage was done nonetheless.
Politics changed, somewhat, despite the rise of Quirks, politicians clinched to their seats of power in whatever means they could, some used laws to ensure they would, yet they were afraid, every person in the world now were armed to fight them if they messed up, now politics were used to regulate Quirks, but a single mistake and not even All-Might will be able to stop the tide that will come.
Space travel…had been on a stagnant point, missions were only send to ship more satellites, most, if not all space programs in the world were defunct, only NASA had a program, and it was barebones, barely sending a crew of quirkless astronauts to fix whatever satellite they still had in orbit to explore the vast cosmos.
Biology was the same, Quirks were a phenomenon that defied all logic, biologically speaking the Iidas should be in untold agony because they have engines on their limbs, yet they live normally, mutations, the ability to summon fire, biologically speaking, Quirks should had killed humans at the first manifestation, yet they didn't, and that drove scientists mad, really mad, so much that regulations had to be made.
I-Island very existence was to study the Quirk phenomenon, the advance they had made was…slow to say the least, but not by choice, but by actions of others.
Because I-Island was not the only mobile fortress around, Quirks provided gateways for many whose delusions of power could not be achieved before, now however, things were different.
The world had changed, and some may say, not for the better.
Monday…
Monday, kids across the world hated it, adults wished the day could just go and die in a ditch.
Izuku was among the very few who in fact didn't hate the day, after all why hate a day? It was kinda stupid.
Izuku always saw Mondays as a new page in a book, new things to happen, true before there was little to be excited about, all things considered, but he soldiered through it all, the world would come down first before he does.
Yet there was apprehension, the registration of his yet to name Quirk was done in the matter of minutes, it was a painless process, and very barebones, only governmental agencies had the full details of a person's Quirk, and that person had to be either a hero or a registered villain.
Izuku obviously was nervous, his Quirk was not noticeable, only if he allowed it to, and his whole shy personality would help him, keeping a low profile and a low tone of voice, expected of him, would allow him to hide his Thu'um, and not use it, as he knew beforehand that he could kill someone if he wasn't careful.
So that meant not 'taunting' Kacchan, which was easier said than done, as it appeared that his very existence taunted him.
Arriving to the classroom he took his seat, and pulled the book for the day's lessons, all while pulling his hero notebook and began to review what he had written in the past days.
"There he goes again, writing on that creepy book of his" one of the girls in the class whispered.
"Creepy" the other nodded at her friend's words, Izuku honestly didn't pay them mind, it was true that words tended to hurt, like the ocean carves rock with relentless assaults, but Izuku had come to ignore their words, after all they weren't to do anything, they wanted to be heroes, like everyone else, but only the determined would reach their goal, they weren't.
So Izuku paid them no mind, as their opinion didn't matter.
Didn't meant their words didn't hurt.
Shaking his head he concentrated again on his notebook, there were not hero/villain fights on his way to school, which was odd, but welcomed, no traffics jams or anything at all, just a smooth ride to school.
He didn't register the arrival of Kacchan or his 'friends' and obviously Kacchan didn't care about him enough to bother him now, especially when the teacher arrived just scant seconds after Kacchan arrived, which was odd, again, the bell hasn't sounded yet.
"Okay class settle down I got an announcement to make" their sensei began, making Izuku frown, but listened nonetheless, pocketing his hero notebook into his backpack.
"This might sound irregular, and it is, but last month one of your classmates left to Europe, leaving a spot open" Izuku mentally nodded at that, the student in question had left because of his family line of work, it was normal in most schools.
"As a result we had a free spot, but considering we just started the school term, all spots had already been taken" the teacher added, "Last week however we got a new student" he added, making everyone perk up.
"She from North-America, arrived a month ago, has passed all aptitude tests, and she is quirkless" he added without a second thought, making Izuku actually blink.
"Oh my god…what the hell" Izuku thought with some apprehension, not believing what their teacher had done.
"So please handle with care" he said as he walked to the door and opened it, poking his head to the hall.
"Handle with care? You…asshole" Izuku thought again with anger, he risked a glance to a student to his right side, the student was giving him the same 'did I just hear this right?' look to him.
Then the professor entered, trailing behind was a girl, just their age, her hair was black as night, cut above her shoulders and framed her fair skin, light brown eyes gazed around with…what Izuku assumed was defiance, like if she knew what was told by the teacher and dared anyone to say something about it, then she stood up in front of the class.
"My name is Mikaela Johnson" she began, her voice strong, but soft at the same time, it reminded Izuku of how leaders should talk, affirm dominance but without compromising how approachable one could be in that position.
He was also surprised how fluent her Japanese was.
"I come from New York, and yes I'm quirkless, does anyone has a problem with that?" she added with a challenge.
Every pair of eyes in the classroom zeroed on Katsuki Bakugou, the brightest of the class, both in Quirk and notes, he was among the 5% of the school to have perfect scores, and his Quirk, Explosion was very versatile, Izuku knew, he had studied and had been on the receiving end of it for over ten years, on both accounts.
Also Bakugou never backed from a challenge, and this was one, as clear as the glass on the classroom.
After all for over ten years, Katsuki Bakugou had been telling that quirkless people were useless, then again he said that of everyone, his ego had been fed to the point that Izuku was really afraid what would happen if his pride got actually trampled on.
As the challenge was issued, just as Izuku (and pretty much every student in the room) feared, Kacchan stood up, slowly.
"Oh my god" Izuku thought, already preparing to blow the cover on his Quirk just to save the new girl, he had been on the receiving end of Kacchan's Quirk for so many times that he knew the damage it could make, not to mention Kacchan's words, the words of the other students don't hurt because pretty much they don't meant it, more compelled by mob mentality.
Kacchan tends to mean every word he says.
"I actually do" Kacchan began, Izuku began to mentally work on what shout would work and which one with the less collateral damage.
He didn't notice that the rest of the class was thinking the same, but with their quirks, the teacher was…as usual not caring one bit, as long Kacchan didn't mess that bad.
"Oh do tell" Mikaela said, actually making her way off the front, slowly, towards Kacchan, like stalking.
"Oh my god" the class thought at the same time, preparing for a fight.
"Yeah, you see, quirkless are useless, they add nothing to society"
Mikaela took another step forward.
"They are weak" Mikaela added another step, and Izuku gulped, getting ready to actually use Unrelenting Force on Kacchan, it was either pancake him to a wall or let something really bad happen.
"And like fucking Deku on the back" Izuku resisted the urge to flinch when Kacchan mentioned him, "They have aspirations they can't achieve, become a hero" Mikaela another step, "Be someone in this world" another step added.
"They are wasting your time in a world were without power you are nothing" he added as Mikaela stopped just in front of him, way into arms reach.
"Hmm, interesting argument" she began, staring right into Kacchan's eyes, Izuku was already up, lungs ready to unleash Unrelenting Force.
"Here's my counter-argument"
BAMM!!
The words of power simply failed to come out of Izuku's lips as he saw the new girl, in less than five minutes, state her intentions as clear as day.
By headbutting Kacchan, in FRONT OF THE FUCKING CLASS!!!!
As he saw Kacchan fall to the ground, on his butt, holding his nose in pain, he noted how Mikaela turned to their teacher, and actually scoffed, then walked to an empty desk, and sat.
To Izuku, the message was more than clear, perhaps not to the others, but to him, Kacchan and the teacher, it was clear as day.
Mikaela had done this, not caring one bit about her reputation, after all she is quirkless, what's the worse they can do? To her nothing was worse to her, and this was obvious by what she did, challenging anyone who dared to refute her, in front of authority figures, and not caring for the consequences, for someone like her, there were no consequences.
But Izuku knew better, what she did was far worse, Kacchan was an exemplary student, in terms of grades, attitude wise there was much to desire, but the teachers covered for him in that regard, to enter UA he needed high grades, and an almost spotless record, having a spotless record was kinda not possible, especially in this era where there was a very real possibility that you had an annotation for Quirk usage.
But Kacchan wanted to be the first one of the school to make it with a flawless record, and in order to do that, he had to work hard and pretty much kiss the teachers collective asses to not get annotations for using his Quirk.
And what Mikaela, without knowing or actually knowing, taunted him in the only way Izuku knew would irk Kacchan into attacking the taunter, but couldn't, he could not even insult her now, not without getting an annotation for quirk usage, and the aggravator being an attack to a quirkless individual.
He knew the teachers would turn a blind eye if it had been him (they seem to take umbrage in the fact he wants to be something more) but the new girl…who just announced what she thinks right now, of everyone, included the teacher…
"Ugh…this year's it's going to be a pain" he thought, not trusting his voice right now and making his way to try and help Kacchan up.
Try because Kacchan hates being helped, especially by him, even if his nose seems…
"She broke his nose…she drew blood…oh my god why she did this…he's going to be a pain today!"
Izuku didn't knew it, but the rest of the class shared his sentiment.