"I'm sorry ma'am but your son just doesn't possess a quirk, he can't be a hero."

The day those words were said was the day that Deku was born. The day those words were said was the day a young boy's dream of being a superhero were crushed. But just because he couldn't become a super hero doesn't mean he couldn't be a hero. That thought was what the young child known as Izuku Midoriya clung to, desperately, in an attempt to keep his world from crashing down around him. He would be a hero, it didn't matter that he didn't have a quirk, it didn't matter that people looked down on him, he would prove them all wrong by being the best hero the world has ever known.

A small five year old child made that vow as he felt his mother hold him tightly as she cried for his lost dreams. He vowed to always save people with a smile, because that's what heroes do, right?

-Line Break-

It's been two years sense that fateful day. Two years since he found out he didn't possess a quirk, and two years since he vowed to become a hero anyways. His mother didn't really understand his obsession with being a hero and had tried, for the first few months, to let him know it was ok if he couldn't. It hadn't worked, so she instead decided to support his dream as best she could.

Izuku had been grateful for being born to his mother. Without her constantly supporting him he was sure he would have become a timid wreck by this point. His former friends and the other children his age had been less than supportive of his dream once they learned he was quirk-less. Others had become outright bullies like his former friend Katsuki Bakugou. His betrayal had hurt the most as he was the one who gave him the nickname of Deku, which the rest of his detractors were quick to adopt.

The lack of friends to play with had hurt and had taken him a year to get used to but he had managed and now he found he preferred to be alone. It worried his mother of course but he constantly reassured her that he was fine. With more time on his hands he had taken to reading further ahead in his school work, much further ahead.

He had always been an intelligent boy, some had even said his quirk was probably something like super intelligence or mind powers before they found out he didn't, and couldn't, have one. But before he had visited that doctor he hadn't really done anything with it, not too surprising for a five year old. Instead his time had been spent playing with his friends or 'playing hero' which he had done by 'patrolling' his neighborhood and 'saving' people (mostly helping with chores or rescuing the odd bullied child).

Izuku had quickly stopped both after his doctor visit, the first due to circumstances around him and the latter by choice. It was rather illogical to 'save' bully victims when both the victim and the bully both had quirks that he couldn't do anything against. He still occasionally helped out around his neighborhood however, though that was mostly for the few elderly couples living there.

Back to the point, when he found a new pastime that took advantage of his intelligence it wasn't too much of a leap in logic for him to believe it was a way to make him a hero. He figured that what evolution had denied him, years of history and science could possibly provide. It would be a long process, most likely he wouldn't be ready in time to go to the hero academy with the rest of the people his age, but he didn't care. Being a hero wasn't dependent on a specific education or contacts, in his eyes it was simply doing the right thing and helping people where he could.

This brings us to the young boy's room, where he is currently reading a high school level biology textbook in an attempt to better understand an exercise routine he had read about. Izuku, even at 7 years of age, knew that even with potential technical means of being a hero they were useless if he couldn't physically use or keep up with them. As a result he had read about several different types of martial arts and training regimes for normal humans. Of course he hadn't understood the reasons behind certain things in what he read and, being who he was, he needed answers, hence the biology textbook.

He wanted to go to an actual dojo for training but the advent of heroes had made the vast majority of them run out of business. With so many people with quirks becoming heroes the normal crime rate had all but disappeared and the remaining criminals were Villains. That being the case no one saw the point in learning how to defend themselves from regular people when the effect would be negligible on a Villain. In addition Heroes had quirks and didn't need to learn to fight with anything else.

With that situation only a few very old and traditional schools remained, none of which were nearby. So instead Izuku was looking for a private instructor, and had sent many emails to former masters to that end. He had received replies from about half of them, all declining his request, but he still held hope for those remaining. If it didn't pan out then he'd just have to train by himself, not as effective but better than nothing.

About an hour and several different books (thank you internet for providing free copies of books) and his questions had been mostly answered. Mainly he figured out why children shouldn't do certain exercises (they stunted growth), why certain styles emphasized different workouts and what proper nutrition was and its importance. All in all he was tired of reading.

He might like learning new things and he might like reading but no matter what anyone says reading textbooks and dry information-type texts was boring. Useful, but boring, and he needed a break. His next favorite pastime after reading was watching videos of superheroes fighting, both as merely entertainment and as an intellectual exercise (such as analyzing powers, fighting techniques and how a hero could have done better). This was what he was doing when he heard the sound of a reply to one of his emails.

He didn't really pay much attention to what he was reading, as he figured it would just be another polite refusal to his request for training. Which was why, when he got to the part of the letter that said he (the former master of the Limit Dojo) would be happy to train him, he fell out of his seat in surprise.

He wasn't really sure what sort of martial arts of training the Limit Dojo had as the amount of information available on it was practically non-existent. The only reason he had contacted the former head of the dojo was because he had stumbled upon a brief article about how the members of that dojo being seen as nearly superhuman. This article was before the advent of quirks so he was naturally curious but he didn't expect anything to come from his email. At least it was a good surprise, as it was unlikely that anyone else would have said yes, so he quickly sent an email with his thanks and a request for when to meet for training. It was only after he sent the email that he forgot one crucial detail…he hadn't told his mom about any of this.

-Line Break-

His mom had, naturally, been angry when he told her he was not only talking to strangers online but requesting them for training as well. He wasn't quite sure why that last bit made her freak out so much but he was still at the age where he thought all adults were weird anyways so he put it out of his mind. Still he had eventually calmed her down and she had relented to his logical argument, although not without firmly demanding she accompany him to all his meetings with the man until she felt comfortable. He wasn't sure if his saying that the man had would train him for free had made his mother more or less upset however, though he personally thought it was a bit of both.

That was why, a week later, he was being driven by his mom to one of the traditional manors on the outskirts of the city. It was both a long and short drive. Long because Izuku was incredibly anxious to meet his future Shishō and short because it only took about twenty minutes to get there.

The mansion, as that seemed more appropriate for the home than manor, looked to be extremely well kept. It was located right next to a rather scenic mountain and a stream with a small waterfall running down from somewhere in the hills. It was also incredibly quiet; as if no one lived there, which likely did little to ease his mother's worries. .

It seems like someone was watching for us because as soon as the door was knocked, it opened up seemingly by itself. Personally Izuku thought the guy just liked to be dramatic but he could tell his mother was about ready to leave. Luckily she didn't get the chance as a voice suddenly welcomed them.

"Hello, you must by Izuku Midoriya, which would make you his mother. My name is Naoto Takanawa, former head of the Limits Dojo and master of the Traversing Heaven style of martial arts. While I'm surprised at your age I'm happy that you wish to learn from me none the less."

Following the voice was an old man of about eighty years. He was short at only five foot three inches and had either lost all of his hair already or had chosen to shave it. He was no facial hair beyond stark white eyebrows over his dark brown, almost black, eyes and his face was a mass of wrinkles. The man, Naoto, wore what looked to be a traditional judo or karate outfit, Izuku wasn't really sure, and though he was hunched over from age carried himself with a lethal grace that Izuku mistook for that of a dancer. All in all he fit the young boy's image of an old martial arts master to a T.

Before he could respond his mother stepped forward and replied for him.

"You would be correct, my name is Inko Midoriya. I hope you're not offended but I have my reservations about this whole thing so I'll be staying here to watch my son's training."

"Of course, of course it's no problem. Now come, let us go to the dojo where I will explain the heart of my style and what will be expected of you for your training."

The Midoriya family followed the old man through his home and both were impressed by what they saw. The interior wasn't expensively decorated, indeed the interior could even be said to be sparse, but it was clear that the home was lovingly maintained and the few decorations they did see gave a warm, welcoming feeling. The walk to the dojo did not take long and soon all three of them were seated inside, although Naoto and Izuku were sat face to face while his mother hung by one of the walls.

"Now, as a bare bones description of my style I ask of you a question. Do you know how much of their total strength a human uses at any given moment?"

The response was immediate.

"No, I don't know. I do know that we only use a fraction of our potential strength but it was possible in certain circumstances, before quirks became common, for someone to do so. There wasn't much information about it however and I didn't really get that into it."

"That's better than most know. You see humans, normal, quirk-less humans, only use a fraction of their total strength at any given point. The reason was that our body set up a limiter of a sort to keep us from doing so as using our full potential is damaging to the body. The only time this limiter was off was in extreme emergency situations for only a single moment. When using their full potential however they could perform superhuman feats of strength, at least by the standards of a society with quirks. What my style of martial arts is aimed at is the unlocking of that limiter, to let a practitioner use their full strength on command."

"But wouldn't that damage the body a lot? Also if you can train to do so why don't more people try? Why don't heroes practice your martial art, wouldn't it be extremely useful to them?"

"To answer your last question first, they can't. I'm not entirely sure as to the science involved so all I know is that those with quirks can't unleash that limiter at all. I think it had something to do with the quirk being scene as trumping such an ability. As for your other questions they are related. Yes it damages the body and that's the reason why more people don't train in my style, after all who likes to be in pain."

Izuku's mother couldn't keep quiet at that point and spoke up.

"How much damage are you talking about, and how dangerous is your so called training."

Staring straight at her Naoto replied calmly.

"The training is the hardest, most cruel thing one would ever go through. He won't die, I'll make sure of that, but sometimes he might wish he had. A worst case scenario would him injuring himself to the point that he permanently loses the ability to use one, or even all of his limbs."

"Then I'm sorry to say my son won't me learning from you, come let's go Izuku."

"No…I have to do this."

"What are you saying, this is too extreme. What could you possibly need to learn from him for? It's fine if you just learn some other martial arts, something normal like karate right?"

"For my dream."

At his quiet whisper Inko fell silent.

"This is what I need if I ever want to become a real hero. I'm not afraid of pain, I'm not afraid of failure. What I am afraid of his giving up without even trying. So please let me learn from him mom."

The room was quiet for a few minutes before Inko unleashed a tired sigh before finally speaking.

"I won't agree with your reasons, I can't agree, but I also won't obstruct you. You're my son and I don't want to see you hurt, and you don't need to be a hero for me to be proud of you. I know I raised you with stories of your dad being a hero and how much I would love to see you follow in his footsteps but I don't want you to feel obligated to do so. …I can't lose you too."

"I know mom, but I want to be a hero, I might be young but I know what I want to do. That is why I'll do my best not to worry you but I'll still accept his training."

Inko remained quiet but gave her son a small nod in response. Seeing that they were done talking Naoto spoke up.

"Now before you finalize you decisions I want to make sure you know what I'm offering. The training will be painful beyond what you can imagine, and it will take years for you to even get close to my level. You will also never be as strong as someone with a physical quirk; you'll only be stronger than a regular human. That being said are you still willing to accept me as your master?"

"Yes, I am."

For the first time the old man smiled, showing off his perfectly straight and white teeth.

"Good, then let us begin with the basics."

AN: That's the chapter. The idea of this story just suddenly smacked me upside the hide with its proverbial….lower appendage and I had to write it. This is going to be a quirk-less Izuku story where he will really on his regular body and technology to be a hero. There will be no pairing in this story. Despite what some might think he will not be OP, like at all. The whole limit breaking training thing will help him stand on a slightly more even footing and he will learn how to fight as well but that's it. That being said let me know what you think of my idea.

Thanks for reading,

Ren