A/N: This is my take on a Quirkless Deku. I've done my best to keep things canon-compliant.

Chapter One: The Entrance Exam

It was the worst possible outcome.

As Izuku stood on the battlefield gazing at the cityscape-turned-warzone, he marveled that his dreams of entering UA would be crushed at the literal starting gate.

All around him rang explosions and the triumphant shouts of his fellow examinees. They were perhaps more at home here than anywhere else, this playground designed for the sole purpose of allowing them to unleash their full destructive potential (Bakugou was no doubt having the time of his life – Izuku was sure of it, even though they were at different locations). The air was thick with fumes and something wild. Flames littered the ground, the heat rising every time the wind blew, and even as Izuku watched, another robot exploded in a maelstrom of fire and metal as the examinee who took it down gave a loud whoop.

Izuku shielded his eyes and mourned the inherent unfairness of it all.

"Listen to me," he called, approaching a boy with red hair who seemed to be covered in some sort of armor. "I have a plan – Wait!"

The boy was already off. The noise of combat was deafening. Izuku could barely hear himself – did it even matter? He approached two others but they also ignored him, frantically charging forward in search of more robots. The test was a race. Gather as many points as possible before the time limit ran out. Every man for himself. Who would team up under such circumstances?

A failure of a test, Izuku thought bitterly. All his training, all his preparations, built on the assumption UA would create a fair entrance exam for all heroes. Only combat types excelled here. What about the intelligence-gatherers, the anti-personnel, the rescue specialists? Much less a boy who didn't even have –

"Forty-five points!"

A robot flew past him, broken up even before it smashed into the building fifty paces away. Izuku had just enough time to wonder what the point of calling out your score was before the examinee himself ran by – the boy with glasses, Izuku remembered, who earlier had criticized him for making light of the exam.

"Wait!"

Izuku grabbed the boy's arm.

"What are you doing? You're not allowed to attack other examinees," the boy snapped. Recognition dawned on his face. "It's you. The mutterer. What do you want?"

"I have a plan. We can score points, both of us."

"No thanks." He shrugged off Izuku's hold. "We're enemies here. I don't have time to waste."

"It's about teamwork," Izuku said desperately. "In the field, heroes have to work together all the time. That's another purpose of this test. They're judging us on how well we can cooperate."

The boy paused mid-step, one foot already forward for blast off. It was, of course, mere speculation, and unlikely speculation at that. Sweat ran down Izuku's face. Heavy thuds sounded in the distance. The starting area was already bare of robots. Each second they wasted was a second the other examinees – hundreds of them, maybe thousands – spent getting ahead. Part of Izuku felt guilty for lying. He didn't have a plan, not yet, but he was confident he could come up with one so long as he could get someone to listen…

"I'm Iida," the boy said at last. "What's your plan?"

"The robots have an off-switch," Izuku said with relief. "I saw the invisible girl use them earlier. If we hit it, they'll shut down."

"I can destroy them faster than looking for some switch. Unless…what's your Quirk?"

"Time dilation. It allows me to slow down my perception of time."

"You can control time? Why do you need my help?"

"I can only slow down my perception of time," Izuku explained. "I can't control anything else. I can't even use it on my body – if something's too fast, my body won't react in time even if I see it coming. Basically, my Quirk allows me to take stock of the situation and think things over."

"So you have zero combat potential," Iida said with scorn, "and you want my help to carry you through the exam."

"No! Just listen – "

Iida was gone.

Izuku reached out a hand. Instinctively, he chased after him. He managed two steps before the figure disappeared from sight.

Only silence now.

It's over, Izuku thought, staring at the literal cloud of dust Iida had kicked up – the phrase made him laugh, made him drop to his knees and stare at the sky. The countless hours he spent studying and training his worthless body just for the chanceat a prize that others could seize as easily as plucking it from the ground. The blue of the sky was cloudless and perfect. The same sunlight shone on them all. The same dust dirtied them. People were not born equal, Izuku reflected. The words were as profound now as they were eleven years ago in that doctor's room, and every day thereafter the words had rung inside his skull. He remembered it always. Everyone else certainly did. You can be a hero, All Might had told him – and for a moment Izuku had forgotten his disability and marveled at the strength of heroes.

What would All Might think, seeing him crumpled on the ground at the first obstacle? Getting into UA wouldn't be easy – hadn't everyone told him that? Hadn't he understood the impossibility of his dream? Slowly, he picked himself up, wiping away the tears until the world came into clarity once more. Four minutes had passed. Six minutes remained. He was alone.

The starting area was deserted save the corpses of broken robots, melted robots, electrified robots, burnt robots. The other candidates, too, were giving their all – even if they weren't quite Bakugou's level, they certainly were a step above the students at Aldera Junior High. The test was almost halfway over and he had zero points. He would never pass using conventional methods, and he couldn't rely on gathering allies as he had initially planned. Think. The solution lay somewhere outside the box…

Izuku turned around.

The entrance stared back, a metal gate that looked as if it lead to another world. On the other side lay the flat open grounds they drove on to get here. Each testing area was a large square maybe half a mile across, enclosed by walls as tall as trees. There had been seven testing areas in all, he remembered, branching off a central building like spokes on a wheel. Several mechanics had lingered near the building. There were no other facilities in sight. That central building must've been the nucleus for the testing areas – the cityscapes would need tremendous setup before every exam and even more repairs after, especially the robots.

Izuku pushed against the gate. His arms strained and burned and threatened to tear, and a year ago the gate would've stayed closed. It wasn't all a waste. The gate shifted open just enough for him to slide through. He raced down the road. The strength of his legs buoyed him, put to use at last. It was a last-ditch gamble, and whatever examiners who were watching were probably laughing to themselves (The boy's too scared to fight!), if they hadn't already sent someone to stop him. But the air was fresh and clear. The weather was warm. Rain had fallen earlier, and the smell of dew rose from the grass. As Izuku ran away from the testing area, fourteen years of dreams ran with him, and soon they would all crash down or come true.

Izuku finally burst through the door of the central building, the clang ringing through every corner of the hangar, and he didn't notice his lungs burning, or the mechanics staring at him, or the clamor of machinery that ground to a stop.

The hangar was filled with robots. Rows and rows lined up like dolls, one-pointers and two-pointers and three-pointers and many more types unlisted. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Aren't you a student?"

The robots were dead – turned off. He flipped the switch on, and it came to life with a rumble of gears, its single red eye scanning the room as it raised its canons. Several people screamed. He flipped the switch off. It died once more.

"Three points!" he shouted at the wide-eyed mechanic. "Three points!"

He raced along the platforms, on and off, on and off. The rumble of gears rose and fell. It was only later, when he was back in the comfort of his home, that he realized what a ridiculous scene he must've made – a boy who came from nowhere, covered in sweat and dirt and desperation, laughing wildly as he ran between the robots like a child in a toy shop. No doubt the mechanics thought him insane as they chased after him, but they were slow and their Quirks were slow – what else did you expect from civilians? – and Izuku felt as if he actually could slow down time. It was not until the horn sounded in the distance and Present Mic's voice (resounding even here) announced the end of the exam, that Izuku relaxed and let a pair of twisting metal beams wrap around him.

"What the hell are you doing!" the mechanic shouted. "Are you crazy?"

It's over, Izuku thought. He didn't know how many robots he managed to get, he didn't know if it was enough to past the test, and he didn't know if what he did even mattered. It broke every rule the other examinees followed. In a conventional school, he would no doubt have been disqualified the moment he set foot past the gate. But UA, he thought, would place greater emphasis on results. After all, Present Mic had given them surprisingly little instructions. Disable the faux villains and earn points – that had been the entirety of the ruleset. And what better way to root out villains than at their own hideout?

As the mechanics carted him out of the building to await Present Mic's judgement, in full view of the returning students who stared and snickered at the strange boy bound by metal, Izuku Midoriya felt the lightest he'd ever felt.

A/N: The testing area really is set up as described, though it's my speculation whether such a central building exists. The "robots have off-buttons" theory is a widespread fan theory to explain how Hagakure passed the entrance exam.