Awakening

Izuku was always different from other children. He didn't run out in the yard and play with the animals or bugs. He didn't get invited to birthday parties, since he didn't really have any good friends. That was probably for the best, though.

They'd probably be afraid of what he could do anyways.

15 years ago, Midoriya Inko and Midoriya Hisashi found a small bundle on their porch, wrapped up in black and grey cloth. It was like a scene straight out of a movie; wrapped in the tassels was a small child - a boy - and a note.

May you take care of him here, somewhere far away from that other place.

It was simple, short, and to the point, the implications obvious. Some stranger had left their unwanted child on the Midoriya's doorstep.

Following the discovery, Hisashi and Inko broke out into a nasty fight. They both knew how bad the foster care system in Japan was, considering that most of the time, the weaklings just got left behind to deal with everything from malnourishment to abandonment.

Inko wanted the keep the child; she'd always wanted a son, but hadn't quite been ready to brave pregnancy, but at the same time, Hisashi didn't want children at all.

The fight ended with Hisashi screaming his way out of the house, leaving Inko alone with the babe.

She'd been forced to sell the house and move into a small apartment in the middle of town. She worked long, hard hours while also trying her best to provide for the child.

She'd named him Izuku.

Growing up was a lonely thing for Izuku. Inko was out working from early in the morning to late at night, so he was left to the daycare for most of the day. While there, he didn't interact much with the other children, preferring solitude to social interaction, which labelled him as the outcast.

Maybe it was because all the other kids made fun of Izuku. His skin was extraordinarily pale and his hair color didn't even match his mother's; her dark green hair contrasted with his dark brown, and most people asked if he was even her son.

He knew he wasn't.

Izuku eventually asked for his mother to dye his hair green.

In kindergarten, everyone started to get their Quirks. It started with the blonde haired kid.

The loud one. Izuku was the only kid in the class that didn't faun over the the sparks emanating from his palms. Instead, he turned back to his books.

More and more kids got their Quirks as time went on. Some were relatively useless, some were flashy, and some were actually useful, although the majority fell into the first two categories. Ironically, even as he saw the variety of powers each of his classmates manifested, Izuku found himself hoping he didn't even get one for himself.

Getting a Quirk would make him stand out even more. Without some flashy superpower, he could blend into the background beter. He could get ignored easier. The bullies would pick on him less.

Coming home with bruises wasn't an uncommon occurance. After the first couple of times, Izuku's mother had contacted the school and made a complaint about the bullying, but it didn't stop anything. The bullies just got smarter about where they hit him, bruising spots that were normally unexposed, knowing he wouldn't actively show off his injuries to his mother. To their credit, they were right.

Izuku turned four and didn't have a Quirk yet, so his mother took him to the Quirk Doctor. They did a variety of tests on him, and Izuku did as told without complaint. Even when they had to draw blood, he didn't cry and scream like a normal child would. He and his mother waited in the waiting room for at least an hour, which was odd, as the doctor mentioned that the results should be out in a few simple minutes. When the nurse finally came out and called their last name, Izuku heard his mother breathe out a sigh of relief.

The doctor was sitting behind his desk, an unholy amount of papers sprawled out across his desk to the point that the tabletop underneath wasn't even visible when Izuku and Inko walked in.

"Miss Midoriya, how do I say this…" The doctor paused. "Your son is the biggest anomaly I've ever seen."

Izuku perked up. He'd been expecting the doctor to say that he was just Quirkless. Inko tilted her head as well at the doctor's statement, attention likewise held.

"Look here," He slid over an x-ray. "This is a scan of a child with a Quirk's foot, and your son's foot. Notice any difference?"

Izuku looked at the paper as well and after a moment, his mother shook her head. "No."

The doctor pointed to an empty space by the pinky toe. "Exactly. If your son were Quirkless, there would be an extra toe joint. It has to do with how we evolved, getting rid of the unneeded gene."

"So he's going to get a Quirk?" Inko asked. Izuku sat back in his chair, unsure how to feel. Whether he got a Quirk or not by this point, word would probably spread of his situation, which would once again mark him as 'unordinary'.

"Not so fast," The doctor brought up another piece of paper. "This is the results of the blood test I had taken after I noticed the toe joint. This is a visualization of a specific part of a genome, what's called a 'Quirk Factor'. Simply put, its the part of the genome that harbors the data for developing a Quirk. You don't see a person with a Quirk without one, and you don't see a Quirkless Person with one. Now this," He pulled out another paper. "Is what we got back when we tried to run your son's genome."

The data on the paper was very similar to the one he'd shown a moment before, with a variety of lines and letters, but the new one had one key difference. There was an entire section of Izuku's genome that was blank.

"There is no Quirk Factor. He doesn't have one, which can only mean that he's Quirkless," The doctor sat back. "It conflicts with the toe joint, but it's the only conculsion I can safely come to."

Izuku let out a breath. Quirkless afterall. Maybe the kids at school would stop asking him when his Quirk would come in and finally leave him alone. He and Inko thanked the doctor and left the hospital shortly after.

Izuku and Inko were on the way back from the doctor's appointment when it happened. The everything had been going so smoothly on the lightrail. Nobody was giving Izuku weird looks, and his mother was holding his hand tightly.

Out of all the things Izuku wished to hide from in the world, his mother was his one safe haven. She was the only person that he truly felt safe around, the only person that he could let himself relax with. She knew him better than anyone and he really did love her, and the fact that she wasn't his biological mother did nothing to change that fact. She'd sacrificed so much for him and he just wanted to find a way to repay her. He knew the story of how she'd brought him in, it was inevitable, considering how differently he looked from her. He knew how much hardship she'd faced because of him, especially after her husband walked out.

She was his anchor, his guiding light.

That's why Izuku clung onto her leg for support when the tram came to a screeching halt mid-transit. Everyone onboard looked around in confusion as the doors to the train car were pried open and a few men burst through, all wearing some sort of face mask with the exception of the one in the middle, a tall, blonde man with massive, exposed muscles covering his entire body.

It was a massacre. The muscled man attacked indiscriminately and with lethal force. There was blood on the walls, blood pooling on the floor. Inko cowered to the corner, holding Izuku tightly while the boy sat, frozen in what could only be described as sheer terror. The men were killing. Killing everyone for no reason. Bodies slumped to the cold ground one by one, nobody able to leave the tram, nobody able to fight back against the men. Inko covered his eyes, but it didn't stop him from catching a glimpse of one of the other passengers having their head slammed into the wall with an explosion of brain matter and blood.

The blonde man Izuku had noticed earlier finally spotted him and Inko in the corner. He locked eyes with Izuku and licked his lips, walking over with the a nightmarish, sadistic grin plastered on his face. Inko screamed as the the punch came, but it was cut short as she fell limp a moment later. She didn't get back up. Izuku looked down at the body of his mother and all went blank.

Something snapped.

Izuku fell to his knees and gazed up at the large man in front of him. He readied himself for the finishing blow that never came. All the rustling around the cabin of the tram car ceased as the men looked to each other, then to the carnage they'd just produced. As if coming to their senses, many of the men dropped their weapons, gasping in horror. They all fled the scene mere moments later.

That left Izuku alone in the train car, a lone child in a graveyard.

Izuku cried for the first time in his memory.

Izuku was barely cognizant for the next few weeks. The police and heroes had arrived at the scene a few minutes later, and he had been taken back to the hospital with the rest of the victims. A few survived, but his mother wasn't one of them.

Izuku was kept in the hospital for a while after the attack. It could have been a few weeks, it could have been a couple months, he didn't really know, nor did he really care. All that dominated his mind was the day to day routine: the doctors would come in and feed him and do some tests throughout the day. Some days he'd go to therapy, and some he'd go stay in his little hospital bed.

Over time, Izuku realized that there were other children at the hospital as well. Some were afflicted with Quirk problems, while others had more traidionally medical related issues. The nurses tried to get him to interact with the other children, saying it would help with his recovery, but Izuku refused every time.

They'd just bully and make fun of him for being different, and this time his mother wouldn't be there to stop them from going for the face.

Things hardly got better with time. Izuku started to become more aware of the world around him, starting to focus on more than just his inner dread. He got out of his room a bit more, and he started actually talking to the therapist, not that it helped much. He heard the doctor's whispers: he wasn't getting any better, and soon they'd give up, just pawn him off to some child-care facility. The last thing he wanted was to learn what those were like. Still, every time he tried to find the motivation to do anything, he failed. He just thought about how useless it would all be, if he'd be hopeless against a villain attack, just like his mother. He was Quirkless afterall.

Everything changed when a very specific video came on the television one day. It depicted a massive man with pointy, blonde hair, holding up over twenty victims with ease, carrying them away from a massive fire that lit up the background. Someone talked over the video about how he'd already saved three times as many people. When Izuku asked the nurse who is was, she just nodded. "Oh that old video? That's All Might's debut," she said with a hand wave. Then, she froze, noticing the look in the young boy's eyes. "Do you want me to rewind it?"

Izuku didn't know what had him so mesmerized about the video as he watched it again. And again. And again, and again, and again. He watched the video over at least twenty times before the nurse said it was enough. Even after the television was off, he kept replaying it in his mind, imagining the booming words from the Hero as he carried entire families to safety.

It was like...a sense of hope. An impression that, despite everything, things would turn out alright. Despite everything that had happened to his mother, he'd turn out okay if he just fought. Then it clicked. Everything fell into place.

That hero had saved those people, they'd have died without his help. They'd be like his mother, buried in the ground somewhere, cold and alone, and Izuku realized in that moment something that changed his life. If he could become a hero, he could fight for those people. People like his mother, who died because there wasn't a hero there to save her. He could save them.

Naturally, heroes become an obsession for Izuku. It wasn't like other kids' passions, where they'd play a game of soccer outside a couple of times a week. No, every moment Izuku was able to, he was researching heroes, noting their Quirks and their abilities, extrapolating their areas of strengths and weaknesses, and taking note on what kind of crime they fought.

He started making notebooks, filling them with information on heroes. It gave him something to do other than wallow in despair. It was like a coping mechanism. He'd wake up, look at hero news on the hospital TV, go through the rest of the day, and take notes again before bed.

The doctors must have noticed the progress, because in just two weeks, they released him from the hospital into foster care.

9 years later

Izuku's stretched carefully as he woke up. His space was very limited, and while his room was private - which was better than most of the other foster children got - it was very minimalistic. The foster home didn't have very much space for too many kids to have their own rooms, but after being there for as many years as he had, he got some extra liberties.

He sat up, brushing the covers off of his lap. He could smell the simple breakfast downstairs,and he needed to at least eat before he headed to school, so he threw on his uniform, grabbed his most recent notebook (volume fifteen) and stuffed it in his backpack along with his laptop. He could copy down the hero news after he showed up to class early.

Izuku was the first to class, as per usual. He didn't like to spend too much at the foster home, so he tended to arrive at school a little bit earlier than most students who weren't part of a club. It wasn't that he felt unwelcome at the house, far from it. Everyone was nice and welcoming and many of the children looked up to him as an older brother, it was just that he felt like there were better things to be doing, always somewhere else to be. He frequently didn't return home until late at night, taking walks around the local area or working on homework at the park.

Izuku was looking at news articles on his laptop when the rest of the class started to funnel in. Some regarded him, most didn't. He had a habit of trying to melt into the background whenever his classmates glanced in his direction, a leftover habit from his elementary school years. Most didn't even care about him anymore, but old habits die hard.

The class started and Izuku put his laptop away. All of his subjects were a breeze, since he was a good student in every single subject. Of course, that was because ge needed to be if he was going to get into Yuuei.

The day was long, but it wasn't any different than others. What Izuku really cared about was getting it all over with so he could go out into town and see if he could catch some hero action first hand.

Finally, homeroom came around, the last class before release.

"Alright class, settle down," The teacher called. "I have an important announcement. Your high school application forms are due by tomorrow. Many of you have turned in your decisions, but a few of you have yet to turn it in."

Izuku had turned his in on the day that he'd gotten it. He was going for the Yuuei hero course, and it never hurt to be ahead of the game. He needed any advantage he could get, especially since his official file labelled him as Quirkless. Not that his file was wrong, of course.

"Bakugo, you're going to Yuuei, right?" The teacher asked. Izuku rolled his eyes as the blonde snickered, sitting up a little taller. Izuku hated it every time the teacher fed into the boy's ego. It was big enough as is.

"Of course I am, teach. Who do you think I am, some extra?"

The teacher nodded. "Midoriya, you as well?"

Izuku's gut dropped as all the eyes in the room turned towards him. In the blink of an eye, he'd gone from pleasantly invisible to the center of attention. He wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to go.

"Yes," He said softly. Izuku was aware of Bakugo's angry eyes on him. He shut his own, hoping that everyone would get the clue and back off.

"Well," The teacher interrupted, clearing his throat and the awkward air that had fallen upon the classroom along with it. "That's it for today. You are dismissed."

Izuku waited for most of the class to leave before putting his things away. He'd just gotten his laptop into his bag when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the teacher leave the room.

As if on queue, Bakugo's hand came crashing down onto Izuku's desk with an explosion and Izuku jumped out of it at the very same moment, narrowly avoiding getting blasted by the other boy's fit of rage. A moment later, Izuku's shirt was wrapped up in a tight, sizzling fist.

"What are you on, thinking you'll be a hero?" Bakugo snapped/ "I'm the only one in this piece of shit school worth anything. I'll be the only one to get into Yuuei. You don't even have a quirk, you useless piece of shit."

He's right. You don't have a quirk. You're a freak, something different. Inko shouldn't have ever taken you in. a voice told him in the back of his mind. Izuku shoved aside the thoughts in favor of putting his energy into getting out of the altercation with a minimal amount of burn marks.

Bakugo must've noticed his long pause, because he continued. "Listen here, you twerp. You're not going to apply to Yuuei. Find somewhere else, freak," Bakugo's other hand, the one not pulling at Izuku's shirt, cackled with sparks right next to the pale boy's face.

With an internal sigh, Izuku caved to the temptation. He knew he shouldn't, he'd just perpetuate the rumors, but he'd been through this song and dance already. Without some...encouragement, the next thing Bakugo would do would be to use his Quirk on Izuku, leaving yet another irritating blemish that would take a week to heal.

Izuku used his Luck.

It was a tiny reserve, but it was enough. He tapped into the small well inside his consciousness, directing it towards Bakugo as unnoticeably as possible.

Bakugo eyed Izuku for a moment, before dropping him, his anger seemingly subsided, just like every other time Izuku used his Luck. "Do yourself a favor," the explosion aficionado said on his way out, tone only slightly more neutral. "Toss yourself off the building and hope you're born with a Quirk next time. Worst case scenario you join your mom in the ground."

Izuku grimaced. The jab hurt, but it wasn't something he couldn't take. Only once Bakugo was gone did Izuku let up his pressure with the Luck. He gathered his bag and headed towards the exit.

Izuku discovered his Luck a little while after living at the foster home. At first, everyone at school had given him space, respecting his loss. Then, as things do, everything returned to normal. People started picking on him again.

And when that happened, Izuku learned something. Sometimes, he had something to fight back. It was only there every so often, and it was shoddy at best, but it was better than nothing. It was 'Luck'. When he used it, the people around him seemed to get less angry. As time went on, Izuku realized they became less...well, everything. All their emotions were softer, and they were more open to listening to him.

Then came the confusion.

What was this power? What was this Luck? He was Quirkless, so he couldn't have a Quirk. He didn't even have a Quirk Factor, the ability to develop a Quirk was quite literally not a part of his genetics. It had to be something else. Some other type of power.

Another thing to make him different.

Perhaps he should just start calling it a Quirk. It would make everything easier on everyone else and himself. Yet, despite the fact that it was most logical to do so, he couldn't bring himself to lie like that. Afterall, he'd been registered as Quirkless for years now, he couldn't just go back on it so far along without raising questions.

So, he just left it as it was. He didn't even try to figure out anything about his Luck, just used it when he needed to.

Izuku sighed, passing under the bridge that he went under every day on the way back from school. It had a little river running by it and a man cover that led to the sewers. Some days, there'd be some koi fish in the sewer, which was odd and also a bit concerning, considering that sewage was most likely far from the healthiest environment for fish to be living in.

Just as Izuku was about to leave the underpass, he heard the grinding sound of metal scraping against concrete. He whipped around, just in time to see something come crawling out of the manhole cover he'd just walked over.

"Oh, perfect! A disguise!" A voice said, and the blob that had just emerged from the hole started to rush at Izuku.

Izuku's fight or flight instincts kicked in. He'd been a part of villain attack before, he wouldn't have it happen again. Izuku turned heel and ran as fast as his feet would take him.

"Hey, get back here!" The thing called after him, but Izuku didn't look back. There would be heroes on the main road, if only he could just….get there. The villain, it's body a blob of sludge, was right on Izuku's heels. It was going to catch him if he didn't speed up.

Izuku gritted his teeth and willed his legs to move faster. Get away, you'll die.

Like reacting to a command, his body responded by...moving faster. His legs felt less tired, bounding further with each step and he felt more balanced, his legs didn't wobbling less as he ran.

The power of adrenaline, Izuku thought as he frantically fled from the monster. He was gaining ground, now, and soon enough they'd be on the main road.

Izuku kept running like his life depended on it, because it did, in all likelihood. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if the sludge caught up to him. Eventually, he burst out into the middle of an open street bustling with activity. He was in a crowded area now, so even if the sludge monster caught him, there would be heroes there to stop it.

Then, everything slowed down. His rush, his extra 'boost' seemed to have just...run out. Izuku stumbled as he lost his balance, falling to the ground. A few pedestrians noticed him skirting around him ungracefully. Then, a moment later, they noticed the slime villain and ran away with a chorus of screams for help. Izuku tried to get up, but found his arms and legs to be extraordinarily tired, like he'd over-exerted his body, as if he'd pushed himself beyond his breaking point.

The sludge monster was on him in an instant. Slime covered Izuku's body and forced itself down his throat. The sludge smelled just like sewage, and the slimy texture made his skin crawl. He tried to claw at his captor, but his hands sunk straight through the liquidy body the helplessly. He tried to scream, but no noise came out and he couldn't breathe.

"Finally caught you, twerp," The villain sneered. "Now be a good kid and sit still so this can be over quickly."

He tried to scrape the sludge away from his mouth again, but he found his arms and legs becoming weak as his body ran out of oxygen. As time went on, his limbs became too tired to do anything but sit uselessly under the slime. Izuku looked around the area frantically, searching for something, anything to come help him, even as black spots started to fill his vision and he ran out of air.

Then, just as Izuku was about to give up hope, a figure came running out of the crowd. Izuku recognized him immediately as the professional hero Death Arms, marked by his signature metal arm braces that resembled construction tape.

The hero ran forwards, straight towards the slime villain. He roared, throwing his arms forward to strike the sludge, only for his body to sink uselessly into the viscous liquid. The sludge villain turned, throwing Death Arms off with one powerful strike. Izuku watched as his help flew across the street like a discarded doll.

Izuku couldn't fight back, the heroes couldn't get to him, and he was going to die, oh God he was going to die. He was going to die to a villain attack, just like his mother had.

Izuku could feel his grip on consciousness slipping away and he coudn't even move his body anymore. He frantically reached inside, searching for one last boost. One last drop of Luck.

But his Luck had run out.

He was out of Luck, having used it all on Bakugo earlier. He couldn't do anything.

Izuku felt even deeper in the confines of his mind, searching. He grasped at thin air, nothing coming. He pleaded into the metaphorical void, calling for anyone to help him.

Then, he felt it.

Another well of power. It was familiar, like his Luck, but also different in its own way. Izuku seemed to gravitate towards it, and with one, frantic leap, he grabbed ahold of the source.

Translucent blue lines shot out from Izuku's chest, springing out towards around him seemingly at random. Not knowing what he was doing, Izuku grasped at them, hoping something would help.

Suddenly, he felt a force run through him, like he was being compressed from a thousand different directions. He screamed despite the sludge in his throat as everything around him distorted. The lamp posts bent, street signs were blown from their bases, nails that held together merchant stands tore out of the wood, and the steel rebar in the concrete tried to shoot away, causing the pavement to crack. With one last effort, Izuku reversed his endeavor, reflexively pulling on all the blue lines instead of pushing. Everything stopped for a lasting moment before it all started to come right back. Thousands of pieces of metal shot directly towards Izuku and the sludge villain. Whatever power he'd drawn upon dissapeared and the blue lines went with it, as did the tension pulling his body apart. The power was gone, but the damage had already been dealt. A spare nail soared, striking the sludge villain through the eye and the monster recoiled, dropping Izuku on reflex. The boy barely had time to hit the ground before giant masses of debris shot through the air to where he'd been just a moment before. A street sign tore through the sludge villain's liquid body just as hundreds of tiny pieces of debris shot through the form.

The villain was reduced to tiny globules of slime in a mere moment.

The last thing Izuku saw before he lost consciousness was a figure running through the crowd towards him.

Everything went black.

When izuku awoke, he was laying down on some kind of soft bed. He opened his eyes, searching for clues as to what had happened. Only then did he realize he was in the back of an ambulance on a stretcher. He tried to sit up, only for his entire right side to flare up in an intense pain, and with a gasp, Izuku laid back down on the stretcher.

"Oh, he's awake!" a voice called from somewhere nearby. Izuku heard the sound of footsteps, quiet at first but ganing volume as he their owner approached. Someone stopped right behind him and a couple seconds later he was sitting upright, pushed up by the stretcher. Izuku's side burned slightly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when he tried to sit up on his own.

"What happened?" Izuku said groggily, rubbing a hand through his hair. He had a horrible headache. The man that had sat him up smiled, his parademic uniform glistening in the artificial light of the ambulance.

"You passed out after the fight with the villain. You've only been out for a few minutes. I missed the fight, but, judging by the aftermath, you did a good job, kid." The paramedic said it with a hint of...awe in his voice? No, that couldn't be right.

Izuku vaguely remembered the incident. He'd been acting on instinct the entire time, just trying to get away from his attacker. He remembered getting caught, then blue lines, then nothing.

Suddenly, Izuku realized something frightening. Something far more frightening than even the villain had seemed.

The foster home can't afford a medical bill like this! Izuku thought frantically, forcing himself to sit all the way up. His side screamed in protest, but he ignored it. I have to get out!

The paramedic placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, "Woah there, slow down, bud! You've got a couple of cracked ribs!" Izuku shook his head, getting onto his wobbly feet.

"I'm fine, really!" he said through gritted teeth. It hurt, but another medical bill was not something the foster home could afford. "I'll be going. Thanks for all the help."

The paramedic moved to stop Izuku, but he didn't have to do very much. As soon as Izuku opened the back door, he was met with the form of a very familiar hero and he froze on the spot when he noticed the tell-tale blonde spikes of hair.

"A-All Might?" Izuku blurted out, all of his worries trumped by the sheer power of shock. The hero seemed to have been in the middle of conversation with a detective, but he turned towards Izuku as soon as he heard his voice.

"Ah!" All Might turned away, facing Izuku fully. "You're up!"

"He shouldn't be…" The paramedic grumbled behind Izuku.

Izuku, however, was completely flabbergasted.

"Wha-how, when? Why is," he sputtered. "Why is All Might here?" He'd hoped to one day meet his hero. It was his dream to work with All Might as a hero one day, but still, the last place he'd expected to see him was, well, here.

All Might boomed with laughter and even that simple action seemed to resonate throughout the entire area. Izuku didn't even need to be pushed back into a sitting position by the paramedic. He fell down on his own, rather ungracefully.

"You did a good job dispelling that villain, young man," All Might said. "By the time I arrived on the scene, he'd already been...taken care of. Though, I caution you to be more careful about the surroundings in the future. Quite the damage you caused!" At this, All Might boomed with laughter again.

Izuku tilted his head, slightly recovered from the shock of seeing his hero, "Damage?'

All Might gestured for Izuku to stand, and he followed, ignoring the pain in his side. He stepped out of the metal confines of the ambulance and onto the very same street that the slime villain had caught up to him on.

The good news is that it looked like everyone had cleaned up the sludge. The bad news is that the entire area was in shambles. Entire streelamps were bent sideways, street signs were torn from the ground, and all the merchant stands had either been knocked over or broken, the nails scattered throughout the entire street. The concrete was cracked, and in places, the steel rebar stuck out of the ground like a broken bone poking out of someone's leg.

Izuku stared at the carnage in a mix of horror and awe.

I...did this? It didn't make sense. All he'd been able to do up until now was push a little bit on people's emotions, making them less likely to hurt him. Where did all this power come from? He was Quirkless! He had to be Quirkless! None of this made sense.

"That is some power, Young…" All Might paused. Izuku tore his gaze away from the street, looking up at the great hero. The older man was looking at Izuku expectantly.

My name! He's asking for my name! He realized.

"Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku." he said. He'd kept his mother's last name after she'd died; It wasn't like he knew who his real parents were anyways.

"Well, Young Midoriya, this is an impressive display of power, if I've ever seen one. Are you trying to enroll in any hero programs?"

Izuku nodded nervously. "The one at Yuuei, sir."

All Might smiled. "I believe you'll do fantastic."

Izuku's heart almost stopped. All Might, the symbol of peace, was telling him he could make it. He didn't know what to say, so he just stared back at the hero with a blank expression. All Might boomed with laugh once again.

"Well, I believe the ambulance can give you a ride home," All Might patted Izuku's shoulder. "I need to be going."

Izuku panicked. He couldn't get on the ambulance. They'd just charge him the medical bill. He'd never be able to pay it off.

"No, it's fine, I can walk!"

"Nonsense. You've been injured, the least we can do is help you out a little," All Might said, nudging Izuku towards the ambulance.

"No, seriously, I'm fine," Izuku said, trying to sidestep the large hero. When All Might didn't let him go by, Izuku felt for his Luck. There was a tiny bit left which didn't make sense considering he'd been out when the silme villain attacked, but he had some now which is what mattered.

Izuku nudged the last of his Luck onto All Might. Izuku saw the change in his facial features as they grew softer, less determined.

"I really can make my own way home," Izuku tried to push past All Might just as his Luck run out. All Might, to Izuku's surprise, still didn't let him go. Despite the emotional push, All Might hadn't been convinced.

"My boy, there's no harm in taking the easy way home," All Might said, his voice softer. He crouched down a little bit so that he was on eye level with Izuku. Izuku let out a defeated sigh. He was too emotionally unstable for this. He just wanted to get away, to crawl back to his room and hide.

"I can't afford it," Izuku whispered, voice barely carrying to All Might's ears. The hero looked between Izuku and the ambulance, realization dawning on his face. The hero stood, waving the paramedic over.

"If there is any charge for his treatment, pull it directly from my pay for 'stopping' this incident. The boy was the one that really did the work, and he needs it more than I," All Might said. The paramedic nodded in understanding.

Izuku gaped at All Might. Nobody was that generous. Nobody would give up that, especially for someone like Izuku.

Nobody except for All Might.

"Now, I really must be going," All Might said, crouching. When he left the ground, a burst of wind followed him and Izuku watched the hero fly away for a few moments before turning to the paramedic.

"We'll get you bandaged up and back home, buddy." The paramedic waved Izuku forwards. This time, he followed.

As soon as Izuku walked in the doors of the orphanage, there were at least three pairs of arms wrapping around him affectionately.

"Izu!" One of the foster children screamed, grabbing onto his left leg. Her name was Akira, only four years old. Almost the same age Izuku was when he first came to the orphanage.

"Izukkun! I saw you on TV!" Another child screamed from the couch. "You were saved by All Might!" Izuku let out a breath. Apparently the news had arrived on scene only after Izuku had destroyed the area, and they all presumed it had been All Might who caused the carnage.

Izuku set down his bag, sitting down at the table. Akira was still attached to his leg, and seemed to be refusing to let go.

"Good evening, Izuku," said Miss Sakura, the caretaker of the foster home. "I'm glad you're okay." She walked over and set down a bowl of rice and chicken.

Seems I missed dinner.

Izuku gave her a smile back. "I'm glad I'm okay, too. Didn't come away without some damage, though." He lifted his shirt, revealing the bandages wrapped around his abdomen. Miss Sakura gazed at the bandages before letting out a sigh.

"Izuku, are you really planning on going for the hero course?" Miss Sakura asked, blunt as ever. She didn't sugarcoat anything she said, not even to spare a child's feelings. With raising over ten children at a time, she didn't have time to play with formalities.

They'd also had this conversation before.

"Yes, Miss Sakura," Izuku said, a hint of exasperation in his voice. One would think it harsh not to comfort Izuku after the villain attack, but Miss Sakura wasn't that type of person. She was more...practical than that. She probably saw that he'd been the victim of a villain attack and thought to use it as a tool to pressure him into staying away from the hero course.

Little did she know, this night had done the opposite of discourage him. He was more encouraged than ever to get into Yuuei's hero course. Not only did All Might have faith in him, but he'd personally defeated a villain.

Most importantly, he'd figured out that there was far more to his abilities than he'd originally thought, that was the most urgent thing to figure out. He needed to find out how his abilities worked, what he could do with them, and most importantly, how he could keep it secret.

"Izuku, are you sure?" Sakura pressed, her tone sharp but filled with concern. "After today, and with your Quirklessness..." She trailed off.

"My Quirklessness won't stop me from trying," Izuku said, taking his bowl of food from the table. "Thank you for the food."

Izuku patted Akira on the head and she released herself from his leg, at which point he walked up the stairs to his room, spooning the rice and chicken into his mouth as he walked. The silverware was old, used for years, and considering its age, it wouldn't be far fetched that it was pewter or steel. They used to make silverware utensils out of those metals nefore the world switched over to aluminum.

Izuku shrugged the thought as he turned around and shut his door behind him, heading to his desk and pulling out his laptop from his backpack. Even though he had hoped otherwise, the computer was completely broken - the screen shattered. If his sudden manipulation of the metal in the area hadn't broken it, him being thrown around like a ragdoll did.

Izuku scowled. That laptop had been not only expensive, but he'd been lucky to get it in the first place. It was his main source of hero research, and now it was completely useless. With a heavy sigh, he placed the broken computer on his desk and sunk into his chair. He knew he should be getting to sleep; he'd had a long and hard day and he needed to rest. Yet, he couldn't find the motivation to crawl in bed and sleep. Not with so much on his mind, and definitely not with so much to do.

He needed to understand his power, that was the first step. Whatever his power was, it was dangerous, that much was evident. It could also be his ticket into Yuuei. He needed to figure out how his abilities worked and quickly.

Honestly, I'm stupid for ignoring it for so long.

Still, he had no idea how to start, and he did need sleep. With a sigh, Izuku took off his clothes, being careful not to stretch his side unnecessarily, and clambered into bed. With one last attempt before closing his eyes, Izuku felt for his Luck once again. As he suspected, he found nothing, but that didn't stop him from getting disappointed.

Izuku let out a huff and rolled over onto his uninjured side. He drifted into sleep quickly, his tired body needing the rest.

So for now, know this: Izuku's 'Quirk' Shouldn't make sense for now. If you're confused, don't worry, that's intentional.

Inspired by the "Mistborn" fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson

EDIT: Updated and proofread on 5/24/2020