For Want of Izuku's Toe Joint

Summary: When he was four years old, the doctor showed Izuku and his mother the x-ray of the boy's foot. Since he only had one joint in his pinky toe, the doctor explained, there was a very high chance his quirk would manifest eventually. Year after year passed without any sign of it though, leaving Izuku to wonder if he could become a hero even without a quirk. Nevertheless, Izuku does possess a subtle, but extremely powerful ability - the kind that could make him the greatest hero of all time.

A/N: If a canon event is skipped over in this story, just assume that it takes place exactly as it did in the anime/manga, or at least closely enough that it doesn't make a difference. This story contains minor manga spoilers about the origin of All Might's quirk.

Izuku swung his feet his feet idly in his chair as the doctor 'hmm'ed and peered at his medical chart. The man coughed, adjusted his glasses, and ruffled a few papers before speaking.

"Well, it is of course possible that young Mr. Midoriya possesses a quirk that is yet to manifest," allowed Doctor Yamada. "The longer it goes without showing a sign, though, the worst chance he's got. According to the bell curve, the probability of developing a quirk after age eight is less than five percent."

Mom looked flustered. "But… at the appointment four years ago, you said… the x-rays of his foot! He doesn't have the extra pinky bone so that means he has a quirk!"

Izuku perked up and stared down at his feet proudly. His toes hadn't let him down yet.

"It's not quite that simple," hedged the doctor. "As you know, twenty percent of the population is quirkless. Well, a further ten percent of quirkless individuals still lack the extraneous bone. That means that although it's rare, two percent of all humans are both quirkless and single-jointed. Although it's considered impossible to have the extra joint and also have a quirk, not having it doesn't guarantee you one."

The young boy deflated a bit, but didn't say anything. His mom and the Doctor had this conversation every year at his annual checkup. And every year, the probability of Izuku having a quirk just went down and down and down. In some ways, he would've preferred to just have the pinky bone and be done with it. At least then he wouldn't have to deal with this long, drawn out agony of wondering "do I or don't I?".

"Is it possible though that Izuku has a quirk, but it's just… really subtle? Something that we haven't noticed yet?"

Doctor Yamada hummed. "You can pull small objects towards yourself, and your husband breathed fire, correct? Generally speaking, there's close to a fifty-fifty chance that Izuku would inherit one of those talents, or a combination thereof. Mutations do occur, of course, but most of the time they're at least tangentially related. Perhaps he might push objects away from him or manipulate fire another way. The further you get from the original quirk, the less likely it gets. Perhaps there's a ten percent chance he'd breathe ice instead of fire, or a one percent chance he could breathe underwater, etcetera."

"Breathing underwater would be really useful for ocean rescues, or floods," Izuku piped up. "I met Aqualady at a convention once. She can hold her breath for three and a half hours and also has a set of swimming lungs she uses to adjust her internal buoyancy to help her sink or float. She doesn't talk about it a lot, but she can also use them to deal with altitude sickness." Izuku had actually guessed that last part. He hadn't thought about it until he saw her, but once he did the idea just seemed to click in his head. When he asked her, she seemed surprised but acknowledged that she'd never felt ill, even in Japan's tallest mountains.

For some reason, Doctor Yamada paused and looked at him carefully. "You… you really know a lot about quirks, don't you?" The man exchanged a glance with his mother. Oh. Izuku was used to pity. It was just too ironic that the quirkless boy knew more about quirks than anyone else in his class.

There was an awkward silence. "Well," Yamada began cautiously. "There's still hope… but if you haven't manifested any abilities by the time you start middle school- Uh. The chances are, well, zero point one percent. And the odds that your quirk is completely unrelated to your parents', enough to be unnoticeable… It's almost negligible."

Negligible, but not zero.

"Point one percent of people manifest their quirk in middle school, you know. It sounds really low but point one percent of ten billion is ten million. That's a lot of people who don't see their quirk until my age."

"Shut up, Deku," commanded Kacchan imperiously. "I don't need you to do math for me. Get back to your homework."

"Ah! Sorry Kacchan! I didn't mean to distract you- I got distracted myself. Problem 14b reminded me of that statistic though. It's just-"

"Zip it, Deku," Kacchan said. "No one wants to hear you start muttering."

By "no one", Kacchan meant himself, since he and Izuku were the only ones in Kacchan's room. The two boys sat cross-legged on the floor, homework spread out in front of them. He and Kacchan had a complicated relationship. Even though the blonde snapped at him and called him 'Deku', he was still probably Kacchan's closest friend.

The thing was, Kacchan was really proud and ambitious, which led him to judge people either as challengers or beneath him. Thus far everyone fell into the second category, except for Izuku. Kacchan was smart enough to know that even though the chance of him developing a quirk was small, it was still a non-zero number. Therefore Izuku was stuck in an odd in-between zone, since Kacchan wouldn't dismiss him as totally useless until they were sure he wouldn't end up with an awesome quirk.

That meant that oddly enough, quirkless Izuku was the only person Kacchan judged on their merits rather than their potential to beat Kacchan in a fight. And since they often vied for the number one and two spots in their class academically, one day Kacchan had imperiously declared that he and Izuku were going to do homework together "not that I need your help!" and that was that. Plus there was that time-

"Pay attention, Deku!"

Kacchan raised a bare foot and kicked out towards him. A small explosion snapped off in his direction, startling him but not so much as scorching his hair.

Izuku yelped and windmilled his arms as he fell backwards. He shielded his face, not to protect himself but rather to hide his grin. He knew that he didn't have anything to fear from his friend. If Kacchan had actually been trying to hurt him, the other boy would've used his hands. The blonde couldn't get a decent sized blast from the soles of his feet yet.

Izuku had been the one to figure out that Kacchan even had the potential to do that. It had been a guess, just... intuition, but something in him told Izuku that Kacchan might have secondary nitroglycerin sebaceous glands in his feet in addition to his palms. Kacchan had scowled and teased him for being 'a stupid Deku', but a week later came to school in flip flops and showed off his new skill. Kacchan had vehemently denied that Izuku's suggestion had anything to do with the development, but after that he'd been a little bit more willing to listen when Izuku had something to say.

"Ugh if you're not going to pay attention you should just go home," complained Kacchan.

Izuku rolled over, hopped to his feet and started collecting his things, ignoring the disappointment that flickered on Kacchan's face for a moment. He knew that the other boy would just be mad if he realized that Izuku had noticed it.

"I have to get home for dinner, anyways," Izuku said brightly. "Thanks for doing homework with me Kacchan!"

"Whatever, Deku," scoffed the blonde, but the quirk of his lips betrayed him. Kacchan was definitely a grumpy person, but he wasn't nearly as aloof as he liked to pretend.

"See you after the holiday! Maybe my quirk will have showed up by the time you get back," Izuku chirped hopefully. He ignored Kacchan's less than optimistic response. Even if it was just a zero point one percent chance, he was still holding out for a really awesome quirk.

It was kind of ironic that Kacchan had more faith in Izuku's potential to become a hero than All Might did. Their friendship had become strained recently, since Izuku's decision to apply to Yuuei's heroics department was announced. He was still in that gray area between rival and bug-beneath-my-feet in Kacchan's mind, but technically applying to Yuuei would put the two of them in direct competition, and also threaten the blonde's dream of being the only person to get into the course from their 'shitty state-funded middle school'. Kacchan wasn't outright cruel, but he was angry, and felt like Izuku was being selfish for acting against his dream. Izuku admired Kacchan more than anyone else—except for All Might—but he was still peeved enough at the hypocrisy that they weren't really on speaking terms. Even so… the fact that the blonde boy even considered it a possibility ranked his faith in Izuku higher than All Might's. The number one hero had been entirely unambiguous in telling him that he had no hope.

In fact, Izuku was so dejected that he nearly missed the commotion entirely. Still, it was habit for him to watch villainous encounters, and he was deeply curious about what kind of quirks might be on display. As if he weren't already feeling terrible enough, the dawning realization that his utter incompetence and bullheadedness had caused the villain that All Might had captured to get free felt even worse. It was like he'd swallowed a ball of lead. God he was so pathetic, so pathetic and stupid and quirkless. He was an idiot for ever thinking that he could become a hero, and an even bigger idiot for thinking that he was going to wake up one day with a quirk despite the astronomically low odds, and an even bigger idiot for being so desperate to be reassured by his hero that he caused a dangerous villain to get free. Some innocent person was going through agony right now because of him. That was the least heroic thing anyone could ever do. Kacchan was right to discourage him from becoming a hero. Kacchan was-

Kacchan was the one being suffocated by the green liquid monster.

Looking at them, Izuku suddenly knew what was going to happen. The villain's body was fluid. He would fill up Kacchan's lungs and squeeze himself into the empty spaces in Kacchan's body, and wear Kacchan like a suit. The heroes would be too afraid of hurting the boy to attack the villain but by that point it would be too late. The villain's quirk didn't keep its victims alive. Kacchan would have suffocated and died long before the monster stopped using his body as a puppet. And it would all happen while he was surrounded by heroes, by people who were doing nothing.

Izuku didn't understand why he was so sure, nor did he understand exactly when he made the decision to intervene. Before he even had the chance to finish his thoughts, he'd already cleared the last bystander and passed the idle heroes. There wasn't a thought, or even a decision as he'd previously assumed. Izuku was used to analyzing, measuring, comparing. Sometimes it felt like he couldn't even decide on what cereal to eat in the morning without a bar chart and a mutter storm. Nevertheless, this time his body just moved on its own, and it was too late to back out.

He didn't know what the hell he was doing, but… the eyes! Izuku whirled around and tossed his backpack at the villain's eye, and was rewarded by seeing it flinch. It pulled back enough for Kacchan to gasp for breath.

"What the hell are you doing, Deku!" screamed Kacchan.

"I don't know. I don't-!" His eyes met Kacchan's. "I just. I couldn't watch you die!"

He almost started grasping at the sludge surrounding his friend, but an instinct told him that it would be futile. The villain's eyes had reared back, but Izuku's gaze caught on the mouth, which was off to the right of Kacchan. Before he could think about it, Izuku swung his leg towards it as hard as he could.

"Grahh!"

The slime monster screamed and flinched back even further, freeing one of Kacchan's hands. Izuku grabbed it and pulled as hard as he could, with his entire body weight. Kacchan's upper body fell out of the villain's grasp, and the blonde immediately turned around and started blasting at it.

"Die, die, die, die!" Kacchan screamed.

Izuku leapt to his feet and braced Kacchan's shoulders and back. "Your feet! Blast them out!"

The two of them shot backwards when Kacchan directed the full force of both his hands and feet towards the villain. Izuku braced himself to hit the pavement, but impact never came. Instead he was caught by…

"All Might!"

"Never fear, for I am here," laughed the hero.

Izuku worried about the man's health, but after that it was over almost instantly. In no time, he and Kacchan were sitting under rescue blankets, watching the remains of the villain be collected. It was surreal to think that ten minutes ago he'd been fighting for their lives. Kacchan seemed to be in a daze as well, although the blonde was getting heaped with praise for his incredible quirk. He didn't look Izuku's way even once.

"Wow, kid!" Mt. Lady grinned. "That was really impressive."

Izuku looked to his left, and then his right. Oh, was she talking to- "Me?" he squeaked.

Mt. Lady laughed. "Yes you! Do you have a foresight quirk or something?"

"Oh." Izuku flushed. "Um. Actually… I was just doing what felt right. I don't have a quirk."

Mt. Lady's expression changed faster than the hero Ingenium could run. "What! Quirkless!" she shrieked. Izuku flinched. That had caught everyone's attention. "Do you have any idea how reckless you were? How lucky you got!? If your friend hadn't had such an incredible quirk…"

What followed was the most thorough reaming out that Izuku had ever received. Each hero there, with the exception of All Might, seemed to take turns telling him just how idiotic and lucky he'd been. Izuku burned with indignation. After all, he'd been the one to actually free Kacchan, while they all stood around watching him die. Nevertheless, he knew that they were right. If one single thing had been different—like if his bookbag had missed, or if the villain's mouth had been too high to kick—then he would've died immediately.

Even though it had worked, it just reinforced how dumb he'd been. Yeah, maybe he could help beat one villain, but a hero couldn't keep relying on luck like that. Without a quirk, Izuku couldn't face the kinds of villains that heroes fought every day. And it was time to admit it: he was quirkless. All he'd done was make everyone mad at him. Even Kacchan was furious, storming up to him after the fact to tell him off.

"You idiot, Deku! I was fine," snarled Kacchan. "I didn't need your help. You don't… you don't get to die trying to save me, okay?" Kacchan was as close to crying as Izuku had ever seen him. "I'm the hero! Damnit, Deku! You could've-"

Kacchan cut himself off, shoving Izuku away from him. The blonde spun around and skulked away before Izuku could even respond. What? Had Kacchan been… worried about him? Before he could fully process that revelation, All Might jumped out in front of him. Their conversation was surreal, capping off an already unbelievable day. Nevertheless, for the rest of his life, there was one sentence that he'd never forget:

"Young man," All Might said. "You, too, can be a hero."

After that, Izuku and Kacchan's friendship was strained. Once Kacchan finally accepted that Izuku was going to apply to Yuuei regardless of what he demanded, they stopped speaking altogether. Izuku wished that he could do something to fix things, but quite frankly he was too busy with All Might's training regimen. In every bit of spare time he had, including during school, Izuku was working to strengthen some part of his body.

Therefore, he was doing his best to enjoy the brief respite the hero was giving him. Izuku lay flat on his back in a clearing in the rubble at Dagobah park, panting as he caught his breath. They were done for the day, but All Might wanted to pause and work on his flexibility. It was convenient, because Izuku had been trying to work up the nerve to ask the man a question for a couple of weeks now.

"Um."

The blonde man looked at him. "Yes, my boy?"

Izuku immediately averted his gaze, finding the sand beneath him extremely interesting. "Oh! N-never mind."

There was a pause. "You know," mused All Might, "A hero should never back down out of fear."

"No!" His green curls bounced as his head snapped back up. "I mean… It's not that I'm afraid, uh, exactly. It's just- um. Kind of rude."

"Well, go on," All Might encouraged him. "I doubt you'd say anything truly rude so it can't be that bad."

Izuku blushed. "Uh. It-It's just that." He took a breath. "One for All is a stockpiling quirk!" Izuku immediately ducked his head and tried not to tremble. The silence lasted long enough that he dared to peak through his fringe. All Might was gaping at him!

"You- you mean I'm right?" squeaked Izuku. He, well, he'd known he was right. He had an excellent intuition for quirks. Still, the secret about All Might's quirk was one of the greatest mysteries of modern heroics.

Finally, the man spoke. "What makes you think that?"

All Might's encouraging tone made him feel a bit braver, so Izuku raised his head again to meet his mentor's eyes. "Well," Izuku began tentatively. "It's just that… everyone says you can't have a stockpiling quirk, because you don't show any of the weaknesses of one. A stockpile… well, it runs out, and your energy never does.

"But they don't know what I do!" Izuku was on a roll now. He was a hero fanboy of epic proportions, and he rarely had an audience as intent as All Might was now. "You said that One for All was passed down from user to user, getting stronger and stronger- Um. I mean, a stockpile is just a bank of energy, basically, so it always runs out. Even if it's got a multiplier or an interest rate, heroes can't afford to hold back often, and the way you throw around superpowered punches left and right should exhaust a stockpile pretty quickly… Unless you've hit the critical threshold."

"The critical threshold?" All Might questioned. Izuku had a feeling it was rhetorical, but he was too excited to hold back.

"Yeah! It's like… the stockpile is a bank, and like any bank it has an interest rate. If you've got 100 'energy dollars', and a zero point one percent daily interest rate, then you wake up with 100.1 dollars. It doesn't sound too impressive, but if you've got a million dollars, then you get a hundred bucks every day. The critical threshold is when you have some withdrawal limit. If your withdrawal limit is 100 dollars a day, then the bank account is functionally infinite! Your account never loses money.

"And that's what's so sneaky about One for All! A normal person with a stockpile quirk is limited by the amount of energy they have in their stockpile, not the amount that they can take out. But the whole reason we're training like this is to prepare my body to handle the quirk. That means there's more energy in One for All than I could possibly use… maybe even more than you could possibly use. That's why your strength seems infinite; the previous wielders put so much energy into the stockpile that your withdrawal limit—the amount of energy your body can handle—never exceeds the interest rate!"

Plus, All Might was an enigma. He was singular. If there had been a whole line of people just like him, everyone would know. Instead, he was a hero that just appeared one day and changed the whole world. It didn't make any sense- unless All Might himself reached the critical limit. One for All would have been powerful before hitting the critical threshold, but nothing like the unlimited energy source it became afterwards.

He was distracted from his thoughts (had he been muttering?) by All Might's booming laugh. "Young Midoriya, I constantly find myself surprised by you. Your perceptiveness is an incredible pleasure."

Izuku's blushed, but it was quickly tempered when All Might's gaze turned solemn. "I planned on waiting to tell you this, but since you've guessed so much of it already… You see, long ago, when quirks first graced this world, there was an incredibly powerful, yet incredibly terrible man. He had the ability to take away others' quirks, and bestow them upon those he deemed worthy. We do not know why—whether it was an act of kindness or a bribe—but the man decided to give his quirkless brother a simple stockpiling ability. What he had no way of knowing, however, was that the brother was not in fact quirkless. He just had an ability that was subtle, and would never have shown itself otherwise: the ability to pass his own genetics off to others. His native quirk merged with the one gifted to him, and One for All was born."

Izuku pondered what he'd been told. It made sense. More than that, though, it just felt right. "All Might?"

"Yes, young Midoriya?"

"Do you… do you think maybe I'm like the brother? I don't have the pinky bone that quirkless people have. What if I had a quirk and never knew it?"

All Might hummed, considering the question. "I think, my boy, that it doesn't matter. I didn't choose you as my successor for any skills or attributes you may or may not have. I chose you because you have the spirit of a true hero. It makes no difference to me whether or not you have a quirk, subtle as it may be. All that matters to me is in here."

Izuku stumbled backwards as All Might tapped him on the chest, over his heart. He worried his lower lip, trying to suppress both his smile and the tears that threatened to spill. No one had ever told him that he mattered, that there was something intrinsic to him that mattered more than any quirk. All his life, it had just been a challenge to be seen beyond his lack of a quirk. But All Might—his greatest hero—had done so, and had seen something in him so admirable that he wanted to make Izuku his successor. It was almost overwhelming.

"I swear, All Might… I won't let you down! I'll work harder, twice as hard, until I'm worthy of One for All! And then, I'll be the best hero ever!"

All Might smiled at him, but it was different from the grin Izuku had seen countless times on the TV. Those other smiles didn't look half as proud. "Of that, my boy, I have no doubt."

His days passed in a haze of sweat and hard work, and before he knew it, Izuku was standing in a fully cleared beach, readying himself to receive All Might's power. After swallowing the hair (ugh, gross) Izuku could almost immediately feel a difference. It was like a fluttering sensation in his stomach that was slowly spreading out through him.

"I feel it," mumbled Izuku incredulously.

"You do?" asked All Might. "It should talk a couple of hours at least- just enough time to work its way through you before your exam."

Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, I don't think I could go punching down mountains or anything, but I feel different. Like I'm changing."

All Might scrutinized him. "Indeed you are, young Midoriya. Now, there's not much time! Go eat breakfast and prepare yourself!"

"Yes sir!"

With that, Izuku set off back home. His mother was fluttering around the kitchen and hovering by him nervously. Normally that would set him off but he was too distracted by the energy within him. It was kind of like… well, a fart. It was a sensation that kept building and building, like a dam ready to be released. It didn't feel painful, but it was unmistakable and impossible not to notice. Izuku didn't understand why All Might thought he wouldn't feel it. Thinking about it, turning his awareness inwards as it spread from his stomach to the crown of his head and the tips of his toes, occupied him until he reached Yuuei. In fact, he was so distracted that he nearly tripped over his own feet. Luckily a kind girl used her quirk to save him.

Izuku was so absorbed in his thoughts that he wasn't even worried about sitting next to Kacchan, and he was only a little bit embarrassed about having his muttering called out in front of everyone. When he finally lined up with the other contestants in front of the gate (noting that Kacchan got sent to a different arena), he felt… excited. One for All had reached every corner of him. Izuku felt that he could use it in an instant. In fact, it was harder not to use it.

Once the doors opened, all his competitors rushed in, but Izuku walked distractedly, looking down at his hands. To his awe, they started glowing, threaded with lines of energy that must be One for All. The power built and built and built until-

"Whoa!" he cried.

It felt like his arm was about to explode. Izuku yanked back on the power and the glow subsided. Right, he had to be conscious of his limits. The stockpile had enough energy to immediately rip him to shreds from the inside, like a firecracker going off internally. He had to be careful not to surpass his threshold. (Also, Izuku clicked his mouth shut. Mumbling was a habit but he probably shouldn't talk about One for All's secrets out loud).

Izuku tried to focus the energy to his arms again, but he had the same problem. Frowning, the boy focused on his issue. It was like… by trying to empower his arms, he was creating a bottleneck of energy. All the power in his body was flowing towards his hands, as if even the energy in his torso and legs was shifting upwards to compensate. That created a sort of back pressure that made it incredibly difficult to modulate his strength. Reinforcing his shoulders didn't help either, because then he had to strengthen his chest, and then his core, and so on. Everything in his body was connected, after all. Maybe if he enhanced his arms and his legs at the same time, it would prevent the back pressure from being so bad? But then, why not enhance everything?

"I've got it!" Izuku cried.

The problem was that he was trying to reinforce one part of his body, but his quirk encompassed all of him. One quirk for All his body, duh. Izuku could see that he was glowing, like a cowl of energy surrounded him. It was just in time too, because at that moment, a robot with the number "1" on its arm leapt out in front of him.

Izuku's body moved faster than he'd ever imagined, and almost before he realized what was happening, his fist punched through its head.

"Ha! Yes!" he shouted gleefully. There was a sting in his knuckles, like he'd punched a tree or something, but otherwise he was fine.

"Six minutes and two second left!"

"Wuahh!" cried Izuku. He immediately set off at a sprint. It was incredible how fast he could flit around the mock city. It didn't take long for him to encounter another robot, this time worth two points. Remembering the sting in his hand, Izuku decided to try kicking it instead since his shoe would pad him somewhat. It worked equally as well, maybe even better considering that his legs were stronger than his arms.

Izuku quickly set upon other targets, sometimes poaching them from other examinees (much to their chagrin).

"Sorry!" he called over his shoulder. Izuku felt bad about it but there just weren't enough enemies for everyone to get them. He was up to eleven points, but his arms and legs were seriously starting to sting. Hm. Izuku wondered if he could split his focus, using a portion of the energy to enhance his strength, and another portion to act as a sort of cushion for his body.

"Ah!" Izuku yelped as he unexpectedly shot forward at an even faster pace. Oops. He forgot to account for the fact that cushioning himself meant that he could tolerate further enhancement. Suddenly a robot rounded the corner, directly in his path, and he smacked into it head first.

"Ow!"

Izuku rubbed at his forehead. The blow stung, but not as much as his previous attacks had. Plus, the robot lay before him, incapacitated. "It worked!" he cheered.

"Damn it!" a voice cried.

Suddenly, Izuku realized that there had been a whole crowd of kids following behind the enemy he just felled. Oh. It was a three pointer. They'd all been chasing it and he managed to defeat it by pure luck. Izuku chuckled awkwardly. Oops. Nevertheless, he was up to fourteen points now. The crowd grumbled at him but there wasn't any time to spare so everyone dispersed quickly.

They were almost out of time. Izuku sprinted around the arena, trying to find any opponents. He stumbled across a two pointer. This time, Izuku was expecting the greater increase in strength, and it was child's play to shoot forward and punch at it, making sure to reinforce his arm. There was still a sting when his knuckles made contact, but it was more akin to hitting a punching bag than a tree or a wall. Sixteen points!

Only one minute left! There was a commotion off to his left and Izuku's jaw dropped. The zero-point enemy had made an appearance and it was no joke!

"Whu-what! They expect us to fight that thing! No way, it must a trick. We should probably..." Izuku was so distracted by his mumbling and hypothesizing that he almost didn't see the girl stuck underneath the rubble. It was the same girl who saved him before the exams!

He ran forwards, but he could tell that it was no use, even with his quirk propelling him. He'd never reach her before the enemy. But maybe... if he used his full power- No! It would tear him apart.

Izuku remembered what All Might told him after the incident with Kacchan and the slime monster. A true hero puts his body on the line, no matter the cost! If he hesitated now, if he let someone get hurt because he was too afraid to be hurt himself... then he could never call himself a hero!

Izuku finally stopped holding back. His power was like a massive river held back by a dam, and Izuku threw the flood gates open! He did his best to shield himself from the backlash but it was like trying to kayak on a raging river. He could barely keep himself afloat.

While he was flying through the air, Izuku was in agony. He'd probably broken his legs in multiple places, but at least they weren't blown off of him entirely. Focus! He'd have time for pain later. As he neared the robot's head, he gritted his teeth and reared back his fist.

"Smash!" screamed Izuku, thrusting his arm forward.

Even through the pain, Izuku was in awe of his new power. The zero-point bot was forced backwards, its head a mangled mess. Izuku had a brief moment to feel pride before the pain and gravity set in. As he was falling, Izuku tried desperately to come up with a plan. His arms and legs were broken, but maybe not completely unusable. And he still had one fresh arm. The ground approached rapidly, but just as he was going to attempt to stop his momentum, the pink haired girl from earlier slapped him. His body suddenly became weightless and floated above the asphalt. Oh right! Her quirk was zero gravity.

The girl made an odd symbol with her hands and Izuku hit the ground with an oomph while she leaned over and retched.

"Time's up!"

While he'd like to say that he bore his pain stoically and manfully, in actuality he pretty much laid in a heap, groaning, until the nurse lady literally kissed him better. Although his physical pain was gone, it was almost worse to walk out of the examination area, hearing the other kids talk about their points. Many of them had far more than sixteen. Even with the unbelievable power that All Might had given to him, Izuku had still been outperformed by way too many examinees to be comfortable. Maybe his less than impressive practical score would be offset by the written examination. Izuku just had to hope that it would be enough.

The inclusion of rescue points was kind of obvious, in hindsight. There was more to becoming a hero than just being able to destroy some villain-bots. Still, Izuku wasn't ashamed to admit that he cried more than a few tears after All Might's video. Plus, his sixty rescue points put his total practical score at seventy-six, second place by one point to Kacchan. It was a pretty familiar spot for Izuku. Even though Kacchan gave off the airs of a guy who was all brawn and no brains, he was consistently at the top of their class in academics. Only Izuku had ever managed to beat him, and even then only rarely. If he'd had even another hour with his quirk to work out the kinks prior to the exam, maybe he would've gotten a better score than Kacchan!

Their middle school principal was ecstatic, of course. Not one, but two of his students had been accepted to the most prestigious high school in the nation. Izuku listened to the man gush with one ear. The rest of his focus was on Kacchan who seemed pensive. Izuku would take pensive; that was better than angry. When the principal let them go, he and his friend walked side by side out of the building, though no words were exchanged. Izuku couldn't help but vibrate a bit with nervousness. Kacchan's reactions were always hard to predict. It had been a long time since he reacted universally with rage, at least when Izuku was involved, but this was serious business. Plus, ten months of silence was a long time for his friend's personally to change a little.

When he couldn't handle the silence any longer, Izuku blurted: "A-are you mad at me, Kacchan."

The blonde didn't look at him or stop walking. "I did tell you not to apply to Yuuei, Deku." Surprisingly, the words weren't barked or strained. Rather, it was almost as if Kacchan was talking about the weather. Izuku ducked his head. He couldn't think of anything to say in response. He couldn't say sorry, because in truth he wasn't sorry. Not at all. Eventually, Kacchan stopped and turned towards him.

"Your quirk finally showed up."

It wasn't a question. Kacchan wasn't stupid. He must know that there was no way quirkless Deku could manage to beat enough villain-bots to get sixteen points, let alone sixty rescue points. Izuku raised his eyes to meet Kacchan's gaze. He was going to be a hero; he could have one awkward conversation without flinching.

"Yeah," agreed Izuku. "It's an enhancement-type quirk. I get physically stronger, but if I over enhance myself I end up breaking bones. That's why I've been working out since- uh. For a while. My main limitation is the strength of my body. I got my rescue points by beating the zero-point bot to save someone, but broke both my legs and my right arm."

Kacchan stared at him stoically for a moment. "That's nothing like either of your parents' quirks."

Normally, that statement would fluster Izuku quite a lot. He wasn't exactly the coolest cucumber in the grocery store. However, that was one observation that Izuku was well prepared to answer. He expected that he'd get that question many times throughout his life. Famous heroes had biographies written about them, after all.

"The chance of getting a quirk unrelated to your parents' is small, but not as small as developing it in middle school."

"Hm," mused Kacchan. "You started working out so much right after that slime villain thing. So it developed right after that."

Izuku stayed quiet. It wasn't exactly right but it was convenient. Even if he didn't get One for All that day, that'd been the moment that changed the trajectory of his life, so it was almost the same thing.

"Tch. Typical. I was supposed to be the only one from this shitty middle school to get into Yuuei. It was going to be my hero origin story. Instead, you fucking trying to save me from that dumbass shit of a villain awoke your quirk. I'm just the fucking damsel in your origin story."

"Kacchan," protested Izuku weakly. Smoke was starting to drift up from Kacchan's palms. The blonde's gaze was intense.

"Listen here, Deku. I am no one's side character. I beat you on the entrance exam, and I'm always going to beat you at Yuuei, so don't get your hopes up."

Izuku stood dumbfounded while Kacchan stalked away. After about twenty meters, the blonde turned back and scowled at him. "What the hell are you dawdling for, Deku?"

Startled, Izuku found himself jogging forward before considering what the heck he was doing. "Um. Aren't you… mad at me?"

Kacchan scoffed. "I'm fucking furious, nerd." He glanced at Izuku before muttering grudgingly: "But you've always been a decent challenge in school. Keeps me sharp. I don't see why that should change in high school."

Izuku grinned, turning away so that Kacchan didn't see his pleased expression. He was pretty good at translating Kacchan-ese, and that statement meant something along the lines of "It wasn't my plan, but you're my friend and if anyone had to get into Yuuei, I'm glad it was you." Maybe he should just count his blessings and let it go, but Izuku had no intention of being in Kacchan's shadow forever.

"Kacchan," Izuku said. "You need to understand…" He slowed to a stop, looking Kacchan in the eye so that the other boy could see how serious he was. "My dream… is to be the number one hero! You- you're amazing, but my goal is to beat you." Izuku raised a clenched fist. "And I'm going to keep working harder and harder in order to win. So… you'd better watch your back, because I'm not going to slow down!"

If he thought his words would enrage Kacchan, then he was mistaken. Instead, the blonde grinned, though the smile had a vicious edge to it. "You can try, Deku. You can try."

A/N: My explanation for Katsuki and Izuku's friendship, if it wasn't clear enough in text (this has manga spoilers btw): In the manga, Katsuki says unambiguously that the reason that he always hated Izuku is because Izuku never stopped challenging him. He said that he felt like Izuku was looking down on him, as if he thought that Katsuki was trash. This becomes understandable when you realize Katsuki's mindset. He isn't like Izuku or the others in 1A; he doesn't think in terms of "good" and "bad" (this is why he's so attractive to the villain alliance). Instead, he only thinks in terms of victory and defeat. In the flashbacks, we see that All Might inspires him because All Might never loses. Katsuki wants to be a hero because heroes always win, and he always wants to be a winner. Therefore, he doesn't have the capacity—especially when he was a child—to see Izuku standing up to him and thinking "Izuku is doing this because he thinks I'm wrong". When someone stands up to him, in his mind, it's a challenge. They're trying to usurp his place as the top dog. Therefore, he interprets Izuku fighting him as Izuku basically saying "Yeah, I'm a quirkless loser, but I can still beat you". In canon, Katsuki calls Izuku a stepping stone, a nothing. Therefore, if a nothing loser is saying he can beat Katsuki, he must think that Bakugo is a nothing loser too. And Izuku does it again and again and again. According to Katsuki, Izuku spends their entire childhood looking down on him and calling him a loser. Remember, Katsuki isn't the one to start a fight with Izuku; Izuku steps up and defends someone else. In Katsuki's mind, he's just going around showing the playground who the top dog is, and one of his best friends spits in his face (and continues doing so for the next decade).

In this story, maybe Izuku stands up to Kacchan, but the critical factor is that he's not quirkless yet. Katsuki thinks of everyone as either a challenger or beneath him, but Izuku's the exception. In his mind, until Izuku gets his quirk (or definitively doesn't) it's too early to put Deku into one of those categories. So instead, Izuku goes in no man's land. And while he's there, he becomes the only person who Katsuki judges by factors other than "can I beat this kid in a fight". He realizes that, hey, this Deku kid is pretty smart, etc. Izuku is basically the only person that Katsuki sees as an actual human being, rather than just a rock beneath his feet. And somewhere along the line, they become genuine friends (even though Katsuki will always be something of a dick).