On a certain day, at a certain time, on the edge of devastation and despair, a young man might start his journey to become the hero he always dreamed of being. A chance meeting between a young man with an impossible dream, and the man who was the very basis of that dream. The boy's world would be torn to pieces, but forged anew in the fires of his own courage, compassion and will. But what if...

What if...

"Can I be a great hero, even with a useless quirk?!"

The circumstances were just a little different?

-(Earlier that day)-

"All right, as third year students it's about time you all started thinking about your futures. Now, I could hand out these career aptitude tests but," the teacher droned before throwing the test papers into the air and adopting a carefree smile, "Why bother? I know you're all going for the hero track!"

Izuku Midoriya shrunk in on himself as his classmates all started showing off their quirks. Some had potential. Like the boy who could shoot spikes out of his fist, or the guy who could turn his fists into rock, or the girl next to him who could shroud her hand in fire.

Oh, wait! Maybe he could... No, he thought slumping further, she probably wouldn't appreciate that.

Well, at least he wasn't the only one not using his quirk. Even if it was under very different motivations.

"Hey, teach!"

Oh, no. He was talking. This ego trip could last the whole day.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of these rejects. I'm the real deal. The rest of these chumps'll be lucky to be a sidekick to a washed up D-lister!"

There he went again. How many times had Izuku heard these lines before?

"UA is the only place worthy of me!"

Thirty-seven.

"I'm the only one at this school who stands a chance!"

Nineteen. Oh, he was standing on his desk now? Should that get a separate counter?

Hm. Sure. Four.

"I'll surpass All Might and be the greatest hero of all time!"

Eighty-four.

"Oh, Midoriya you were also trying to get into UA, right?" the teacher droned.

There wasn't laughter. Well, that wasn't true. There was laughter but his classmates were at least trying to keep it subtle. He understood. Bakugou could be rude and abrasive but no one could deny he had the skills to back up his bravado. There was a world of difference between him and Bakugou. They weren't on the same level at all.

And then Bakugou overreacted, as was typical, slapping an explosion on Izuku's desk and branding a new scorch-mark on it under his palm.

"Listen up, Deku," the explosive boy growled, "The trying to be like me thing was cute when we were kids but get it through your thick skull! When it comes to the big leagues you and your shitty Hot Flush quirk-"

"That's not what it's called!" Izuku tried to interrupt, "It's called-"

"I don't give a crap what you call it, that shitty quirk needs flushing just like the rest of you! Learn your place and go to some shitty fourth rate school if you wanna be a hero so badly! Save kittens from trees or some other worthless garbage like that! But stop pretending you could ever be on my level, you got that?!"

-(-)-

"A quirk like that? You could be a hero with that, sure. Sign on at someone like Backdraft's agency and you could have a respectable career."

"What if I want to be more than just respectable? What if I want to be like you?"

"I don't know what to tell you, young man. You have to know your limits. Understand what you can and can't do."

Understand what he could or couldn't do. Izuku wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that the greatest hero in the world and Bakugou gave him basically the same advice. Maybe Kacchan was closer to his goals than he knew.

Know your place, know your limits, stay in your lane. Everyone was telling him to give up. Settle for what was a realistic goal. But wasn't that the point of heroes? That they didn't settle for going with the flow and doing what they were "supposed" to do? They pushed themselves to the limit and past it to be exceptional. Was it wrong for him to want to do the same?

… All Might seemed to think so. Hard to find a better authority on the subject than him.

His feet carried him towards the smoke he'd seen from the rooftop. It was still billowing up, a black column rising into the sky. The fight was probably over but he could still watch the clean-up. Learn about firefighting. That was something he'd be good for, right? Be a D-lister like Kacchan said. No! He'd prove him wrong! He'd be a C-lister! Go beyond!

… Yeah, right.

He approached the scene, a crowd filling the alleyway entrance wreathed in smoke and flames. But as he got close, he was shocked by a sudden explosion! What had happened? Wasn't the fight over? He pushed his way into the crowd to see.

The sludge villain! The one from earlier! It must have gotten loose when he was hanging off of All Might!

The crowd were getting scared. The heroes couldn't do anything and the villain had captured someone. They wondered aloud where All Might was and why he hadn't rushed in to stop the villain.

Because he couldn't. Izuku knew. He had wasted all of All Might's time on himself. And now someone might die because of it.

The person inside was still struggling. Spiked blond hair visible under the viscous form, angry, defiant eyes.

And for a single moment-

Fear.

Izuku moved. He ran thoughtlessly, bursting out of the crowd of bystanders, between the pro heroes utterly blindsided by a lone boy rushing headlong into danger. They tried to grab him, to stop him, but too late.

Izuku kept running. Even as he screamed at himself to stop, he couldn't! So with his mind already set to whatever madness it had latched on to, he put it to work in making it turn out okay. All of the studying he had done of pro heroes, all of the work he put in to finding uses for his quirk. In the end, he only had two things.

He threw his bag, left open from earlier when he was looking at All Might's autograph. Books and school supplies scattered out of it, doing little but irritate the sludge man and catch it in the eye. It distracted him enough that Bakugou's head was freed. "What the hell are you doing, Deku?!" the explosive boy yelled even as he drew in a much needed breath.

"I couldn't just stand there and watch you die!"

Finding his scrabbling at the goo as useless as it had been when he had been trapped in it, Izuku moved on to plan B. It was the only attack strategy he had for his quirk. And it just so happened he was in the perfect environment for it!

But... Plan B was not to be. All Might came in at the last moment to save the day. It was a bittersweet moment. All Might put himself on the line to save someone, and it almost sounded like he was thanking Izuku for inspiring him? Maybe that part was wishful thinking, though. But even as his reawakened understanding of consequences helpfully reminded him that if he had used his quirk on the villain it would be a crime, he couldn't help feel like... Maybe he had missed his shot. To prove to himself that he really could be a hero.

Oh well. Too late now.

-(-)-

"Izuku Midoriya. You too can become a great hero."

An offer from the greatest hero in the world. A chance to be an amazing hero like him. To be his successor.

Was there any chance he would say no?

And so began the most gruelling year of his life up to that point. Izuku had thought he was in decent shape before. He was going to be a hero after all and they needed to be at least above average. But what All Might was looking for was something on an entirely different level of fitness. Strength training. Agility training. Flexibility training. A strict diet. Strictly regimented rest periods. And of course on top of all of that he needed to study for the written section of the UA entrance exam. Even ignoring their hero program, UA was still one of the top high schools in the country. The academic requirements for the hero course were lower than general studies (and much lower than the support and business departments) but they were still substantial. He couldn't afford to slip up on something like that.

Heroes were supposed to go above and beyond. That's the kind of person All Might had said Izuku had proven himself to be. It wasn't just something he wanted to be anymore. It was an expectation now. He had to be better. No matter the hardships, he had to push through and be victorious.

And so he had done everything in All Might's plan and then some, even going so far as to discretely exercise in class. He had fallen asleep at the dinner table once or twice. Or... fourteen times. But it was worth it! Well... Except that time he passed out and All Might got mad at him. But then he relented and changed the plan so everything would be back on schedule! Tacit approval was just as good as actual approval as far as Izuku was concerned!

So he went back to going along with the plan. And he never did extra except for those handful of times where he absolutely did extra.

And in the end, it was all worth it! The task was complete with a couple of days to spare! He could rest up and be raring to go for the exam! And he could maybe practice with One for All a little and not think about how he got it at all because it was gross. That was a bit closer to All Might than he really wanted to get.

And so there he was. On the now beautiful Dagobah Beach. A great betterment of the city that he made happen! Heroes were pillars of the community, that's what All Might said and now he was a step closer to being like them!

"Well now, young man! You pulled through with your training and you've inherited my quirk! Now, let's see how you handle it!" All Might in his pumped up form said boisterously. "One for All is a power that enhances every part of you! It is stockpiled power! It makes you more powerful in every way imaginable! Your strength, your speed, even your own quirk!"

"My quirk?" Deku asked.

"Indeed! And since the physical aspects might have a dangerous backlash, we're going to start with your quirk. Behold!" the hero announced as he used his incredible power to... Build a bonfire. The speed he did it was impressive but that use of his power was incredibly mundane. "You said when we met your quirk gives you the power to attract hot things, yes?"

"Yeah? It's called Heat-Sink. It's not exactly that useful..."

"I think you underestimate what can be useful to a hero! Power and versatility can be a boon, that's true! But whether you're small time or one of the Top Ten, it's all about leveraging what you have for all it's worth!"

"If you say so, All Might."

The hero let out a disapproving "Hmmmm," at the fanboy's noncommital response. "What was the range you could pull from?"

"About three meters."

"Good! We'll start at five! Pull with all you got! Dig deep for that power and yank this", he presented a metal plate and planted it in the bonfire, "towards you!"

Izuku got into position about where he thought five meters was and stretched his arm out, tentatively pulling on the plate with his quirk. As he had done when he practiced with it growing up, he felt a connection form with the heat, a kinship with it, and he began to draw it in. The plate twitched a little in response.

"No, no, no!" said All Might, aggressively chopping the air, "You know how this goes, fanboy! You wanna go to UA?! You know how this goes! Don't just pull! HEAVE!"

"AHHHHH!" With a desperate yell, Izuku reached out with his power working harder than it ever had, something seemed to swell within him, something new. The connection pulsed, widened, twisted, strengthened, and this time when he drew his arm in to pull the plate, the plate came to him. It didn't just come to him, it flew to him! He had to duck out of the way as it whizzed past his head.

It wasn't alone.

The entire bonfire came apart and launched in his direction, flaming logs bowling him over onto the sands, lighting him on fire.

"Shit! Don't worry kid I got you!" All Might shouted as he swung an arm to put out the flames with air pressure.

"Wow!" Izuku marvelled as he sat up, knocking a log out of the way, though it seemed to stubbornly cling to his hand. "That was something else!"

"Yeah," the hero agreed, literally deflated, looking at the plate still spinning off into the distance before gravity took a toll on it and it plummeted to the ground. "Maybe your way was better. Let's take it slow, okay?"

And so they continued, the training taking on a slightly different tone. Giving your all was all well and good but they mutually decided it was better to know your limits before trying to break them. They worked to find the limits of his power where they could predict the results. It was slower, but gave some tangible benefits. For one, Izuku's range and power with Heat-Sink had increased dramatically to the point they had trouble finding a hard upper limit. On the physicality side of things, he could power up his punches and kicks a certain amount. They very quickly found the upper limit for that as it started to cause him injury. Even still, it was a significant boost to his strength and speed.

They also found... Something of a downside.

He couldn't turn Heat-Sink off anymore.

The log that stuck to him like glue wasn't a fluke. It was only at a very close range and he could get them off with a bit of effort, but objects of a sufficient level of heat would just passively stick to him if he touched them.

What was strange was that what his power considered hot seemed somewhat arbitrary. Before One for All, his power seemed to have a firm minimum of around eighty degrees Celsius. The kind of temperature that would probably cause burns for most people (Heat-Sink gave him a somewhat higher tolerance for it). But after? It seemed to be all over the place. Cooked food counted, but cooled to room temperature it didn't. In-use cookware counted. But cookware around his previous minimum temperature didn't. Even rapidly melting but room temperature ice cream seemed to count!

"I just don't understand how this works!" Izuku complained as he tried to shake off a dollop of ice cream slush. "It doesn't follow any rules!"

"Patience, young Midoriya! These tests have provided valuable insight into the changes to your quirk!" All Might said, in his shrunken form but still making sweeping hand gestures as though he was still buff. "Now, let's try to figure it out together! The cookware was hot for the first test!"

"Yeah, but if a person touched it it would probably burn them for either one of them."

"Mm-hm," All Might agreed, grasping his pointed chin. "The cooked food counted even though it was below your old limit."

"But at room temperature it didn't," Izuku continued. "But then the room temperature ice cream counted."

"Was the ice cream hot?"

"Well, I guess for ice cream, room temperature is pretty hot-" something clicked into place in the boy's brain. "Wait, could that be it?"

"Oh? Sounds like you have a theory!"

"Maybe... What if my power recognises when something is at an unusually high temperature compared to the norm for it? That would explain the ice cream... No, it doesn't match with the cookware or the food. The cookware at least would be considered hot even at eighty degrees since it's normally at room temperature. And the food is normal at either, though I suppose it could be considered the upper end of the scale when it's fresh out of the oven. And even if that fit every test, that would mean my quirk somehow had an encyclopedic knowledge of what constitutes a high temperature for every type of object. I mean that's theoretically possible if it were drawing that kind of knowledge from me- Wait! Maybe that's it! It's not just based on what is hot, it's working based on what I consider to be hot!"

"Oho!" said a now suddenly buffer All Might as he wrapped an arm around a slumped and muttering Midoriya. "That would fit all of our criteria. Hot food works, but room temperature food is cold. A stove is hot when it's cooking but not when it's still heating up, not to mention someone like you who could take that kind of temperature wouldn't consider it hot on its own! And then the ice cream was so hot it was ceasing to be ice cream! For ice cream, that's pretty hot!"

"That must be it..." Izuku breathed as everything slotted into place.

"Wait."

Well... Almost everything.

"How did your quirk completely change how mine works, All Might?!"

"Ah, well, you see," All Might stammered, "That's not important! What's important is, are you ready for the entrance exam tomorrow?!"

"Oh, right! I need to go home and rest! Okay! I'm gonna ace that exam and take my first step to becoming a hero!"

As the green-haired boy jogged home, All Might let out a breath of relief. "Phew! Nice save, All Might!"

-(-)-

Izuku couldn't decide if he was having the best day ever or the worst day ever. Though thinking about it, he could say the same about the day of the sludge villain attack. He'd had a lot more confusing days like this one since meeting All Might.

Made a fool of himself before even getting into the exam, talked to a girl for the first time. Did pretty well for himself on the written exam, kept getting glasses guy mad at him. And then he missed the signal for the start of the practical exam! He was already lagging behind!

At least he had a plan in mind. They were fighting robots! So in this exam he had a little more of an advantage than he thought he would! All he had to do was leverage his new abilities in the right way and he had a really good chance of making it!

Catching up to the other applicants, he found himself in a free for all battle between would-be heroes and mechanical faux villains. It was amazing! Much as it was terrifying, he'd been in worse situations and he'd had plenty of time to psych himself up for this. He was going to prove his worth and secure a place at the best hero school in the world!

And it would all start with this, he thought, as he reached out with one hand in the direction of the first robot he saw. He yanked his arm back and the robot, dragged along by its inner circuitry that was absolutely running hot, followed the motion, narrowly avoiding a vibrant beam of blue light. Izuku meanwhile, turned his pulling motion in into a haymaker charged with just a miniscule fraction of All Might's power. Enough to give an ordinary punch the power to, as it landed on the out of control robot, crater the metal chassis and cause the head unit to pop off.

One point. Just a single point.

But it was a single point that meant everything. He could do this. He belonged here with these hero hopefuls!

And so that one point, became two points. Then five. Seven. He made use of his enhanced range to pick prime targets. Ten. Thirteen. There weren't any big ones left that he could see, so he moved in great strides powered by bursts of One for All in his legs, taking a route that took him past some low value targets. Fourteen. Fifteen. Seventeen. Another three was round the corner. Twenty. No more threes so he went back to cleaning up the smaller ones. Twenty-two. Twenty-three. One of the people who were talking bad about him before the exam was about to be blindsided. Izuku took a detour, yanking the robot away from its target before slamming it into the ground.

This power was incredible!

Twenty-four.

Was he doing enough? What was even a good score in this exam? He didn't know. He did notice how the exam worked though. It was pretty simple. It was testing how quickly and efficiently they could take down targets. The robots barely fought back, they were just meant as a slightly active threat. If you couldn't do enough damage to take one down or use your power in a way that disabled them, you failed. He'd seen one boy fusing robots into walls so they couldn't move. It didn't damage the machine but it shut down anyway, so non-destructive methods were fine too.

Of course they were. If you could stop a villain without even hurting them, that was even better, right?

Twenty-six.

Twenty-seven.

There was a rumbling sound. Deep. Foreboding. So heavy they could feel the sound through the ground.

The "obstacle" had arrived.

Izuku had a feeling he... probably couldn't drag this six story monstrosity around so easily. But it wasn't worth points and Present Mic told them to just ignore-

"Owwww!"

… That girl. The girl that had saved him before was stuck right in the path of the giant robot, her leg trapped under some rubble!

He found himself having kicked off the ground, hard. Enough to hurt himself. He felt his bones and muscles protest against the pressure he put on them, but he got over to the girl in a single bound, stumbling and falling next to her as he landed. He didn't waste a moment, already lifting the rubble and allowing the girl to free herself. "Thanks!" she said as she got to her feet but quickly regretted it as the one under the rubble reminded her of the injury. Deku followed her example but found himself in a similar position. Hot lances of pain shot through his legs with every aching step.

"Come on, let's help each other!" the girl shouted, "We have to get out of that thing's way!"

"Right!" Izuku nodded, taking her shoulder as she took his, each supporting the other's weight when they needed it, pushing each other to keep moving and get out of the path of the giant robot as it trundled along behind them.

"And that's it. TIIIIIIME'S UUUUUUUP!" Present Mic's amplified voice sounded over the exam site. A siren blared to make sure everyone got the message that the exam was over. The giant machine seemed to sag as it powered down behind the two injured hero aspirants, causing them to simultaneously release sighs of relief. They both sank to the ground leaning against a building as the adrenaline started to wear off and they realised how much their injuries hurt.

"You know, you're really warm," the girl noted as they continued to lean against each other.

As he noticed their close proximity now that the dangerous scenario had passed, Izuku's face flushed tomato red. "Ah, y-yeah, it's part of my quirk, I guess!" he fibbed.

"It's kinda nice."

Thankfully, the school nurse Recovery Girl came along pretty quickly and fixed them both up with little trouble. They felt exhausted but that was a fair bit better than constant pain. Ochako found herself having trouble standing and Izuku, noticing the cause and trying not to think about what it meant right then, pulled himself away with a little more force.

"Thanks for the save!" the girl said as she waved goodbye. "Hope to see you at school!"

Izuku couldn't wipe the grin off his face if he tried. He did well in the exam, sure but the most important part– "I got touched by a girl!"

Recovery Girl, still nearby tried to hold in her laughter. "I'm flattered sonny but I think you're a little young for me!"

-(-)-

All of the waiting was keeping Izuku Midoriya on tenterhooks. All Might hadn't contacted him since the exam. Was that good? Bad? He had no idea. He thought he had done okay for himself. He probably wasn't going to be at the top of the ranking or anything (he had to admit Kacchan probably would, stupid jerk being good at things). But he thought he had a good shot at getting in based on his performance.

And then the results came. In a letter with an honest to gods wax seal of the school's emblem. The moment of truth, he realised as he stared at the letter on his desk. Nervous fingers fumbled with the envelope until he lost patience and tore along the side letting the contents fall out.

A... mini-projector?

"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION NOW!" boomed All Might wearing an honestly pretty snazzy suit as he stood on what looked like a game show set. "I know it's been a while but with great power comes an even greater amount of paperwork! The truth is I didn't just come to this city to fight villains, I came to this city as the newest UA faculty member!"

"Whaddya mean wrap it up?" All Might asked as a hand appeared in the corner of the projection making gestures. "I have to do how many of these things?! Hahhh. So!" the greatest hero said as his tiff with the producer seemed to be over. "Moving on! First things first, you passed the written exam. For the combat portion you earned twenty-seven points. Not a bad showing! But I'm afraid with combat points alone, you did not pass the exam."

"... What?" Izuku asked as he numbly stumbled backwards, his chair catching him. He felt tears well up as he realised, "After everything I did... All that hard work and everything you did for me... I failed?"

"However..." All Might continued. "Fighting villains is not all there is to being a hero! Heroes are there for the people! To lend a helping hand when they need it most! That's why we have rescue points! Points awarded for heroic acts of defending and supporting others! A panel of judges watch the exam and award points based on the examinee's performance! So for you, Izuku Midoriya! Thirty-eight rescue points! For multiple examples of going out of your way to protect others, even putting yourself in danger and causing yourself injury to do it! Good show, young man!"

The view on the projection changed to a scoreboard, showing the top ten applicants and their points breakdown. He had scored twenty-seven in combat and thirty-eight in rescue for a total of sixty-five points, putting him in- "Fourth place?!" Izuku yelled incredulously. Sure, Bakugou placed at the top but Izuku was only three places behind him, tied with someone named Itsuka Kendo. "Fourth place..." he repeated, having never dreamed he would do so well.

"Congratulations, Izuku Midoriya. UA is your hero academia!"

The tears that had threatened to fall before flowed freely as he realised all of his work had paid off and he would be going to the school of his dreams, to pursue the career that only a single year ago was barely even a fantasy. "Thank you, All Might."

-(-)-

What came next was a rush of activity as Izuku got ready for the new school year. He had managed to meet with All Might again face to face, the hero assuring Izuku that he didn't throw his weight around and wasn't on the panel of judges, that Izuku got in all on his own. As if Izuku ever thought otherwise, All Might would never stoop to doing such shady things! He was All Might!

Then there was the confrontation with Bakugou, giving him grief for getting into UA when the bomber thought he should be the only one to get in. Kacchan could say whatever he wanted, though. Izuku's results spoke for themselves and he was proud of his accomplishment.

But there was one minor or not so minor wrinkle with getting accepted into UA. He had to update his quirk registration form. All Might told him it wouldn't be a problem and people had to do it all the time but they had to work out together what the new version should say. Attracting high temperature objects wasn't really accurate or complete anymore but also they had to include how to explain away the physical power of One for All.

In the end. This was what they came up with.

Quirk: Heat-Sink

Description: Allows for thermokinesis only in the direction of the user to absorb heat and turn it into physical power.

They honestly could have worded it better but it was an awkward power to describe. The registration office didn't seem to mind, having probably seen worse. With the registration done, he sent off his costume design submission and started counting the days.

In less than two weeks, he would be a real hero in training.

-(-)-

A/N: Alright! I wrote this a couple weeks ago while working towards my NaNoWriMo goal (which I completed, hooray!). It's probably going to be pretty indulgent. Basically the premise came from a meme about what Deku's actual quirk would be and that it would "attract hot things"... and then pictures of Ochako and Mei.

… Yeah. It's probably going to be that kind of story. Though naturally I'll endeavour to make it a real story on top of that.

And yes, I'm going with the interpretation that OFA enhances natural quirks too because it has yet to be confirmed whether it does that or not. So the very first time Izuku uses his own quirk and activates OFA it sends his quirk into overdrive and basically puts it at endgame levels. It's as strong as his quirk could ever get which for that quirk... Isn't very strong at all. But supplemented by even minimal physical boosts it makes him a contender.

And to be clear, this isn't going to be an OP Izuku either. He has weaknesses that you might have cottoned on to in this chapter. And he has one specific limitation that canon Deku didn't have that will come up in chapter 3.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.