"So, to be perfectly frank...no I don't think you can become a hero without a quirk.".

Those words kept repeating in Izuku's mind on a dark feedback loop from hell. His idol...former idol All-Might took no notice of Izuku's darkening mood as he slowly walked towards the stairwell of the building they were standing on.

"I can understand having dreams young man, but you have to be realistic as well. May I suggest joining the police force? They get a lot of grief for having heroes do most of the work for them, but it's a respectable profession."

And with his piece said, All Might exited the stairwell, leaving Izuku to his darkening thoughts.

Izuku couldn't help it, he let out a chocked laugh, which turned into a sob after only a moment. Tears had always come easily to Izuku, but these years felt different, more final. All Might was his last shot and even He thought you needed a quirk to be a hero...which Izuku did not have.

What was he to do now?

Unbidden, another thought rapidly entered Izuku's depressed thoughts.

'Why don't you just take a swan dive off the roof and hope that you're born with a quirk in the next life huh?'

It was 'advice' from his best friend in the world; Bakugou Katsuki. And at the time Izuku had just shrugged it off as Katsuki being well... Katsuki. He never said anything that he meant, which made dealing with him difficult. But what if he was on to something?

What if...that was literally his only option? He had tried so hard to keep his spirits up and to be strong for his mom and for himself but…

He was tired.

No, more than that. He was done. It was time to see if Katsuki's words had any modicum of truth to it.

An explosion off in the distance rang out solidly, but Izuku took no notice of it, slowly shuffling his way to the edge of the building, staring down at the edge of it dispassionately.

Did he really want to do this?

'No you can't be a hero.'

'I'm sorry Izuku! I wish things were different!'

'Why don't you just take a swan dive off the roof!'

All these thoughts and more ran through Izuku's mind and steeled his resolve. He was doing it. He lifted one foot off the edge of the building and watched it dangle over the ledge. It looked...further and more real than it did merely seconds ago.

Izuku paused for only a moment, to send a small apology to his mom before his other foot followed and Izuku plummeted to the ground. He didn't even have time to scream before he hit the ground and knew no more.

Izuku knew no more is what he wanted to say...but he actually woke up fairly quickly. Without feeling a single bit of pain, which was odd. He quickly examined his body and found it none the worse for wear, which again was strange because he had literally just jumped off a building.

He looked down, on the ground that he had initially assumed that he had been standing on, and received the largest shock that he had ever gotten in his life to date.

There, underneath Izuku, was...Izuku. Only this one actually looked like he had fallen off a building, with the scrapes and bruises to match. With some possible broken bones to go along with the visible injuries that Izuku could see. He tentatively reached a hand out...whether it was to touch the not Izuku, or to reassure himself that this was a dream, which is what he was thinking now. But his hand merely passed through Not Izuku.

Almost like...he was...he was…

A ghost?

"Hey, you figured it out! And a lot quicker than a lot of people do! You're pretty smart ya know?"

A bright bubbly voice interrupted Izuku's slowly growing panic attack. Izuku looked up to see a girl floating slightly above the height that he himself was floating at. She was fair skinned girl around his age that had a small permanent blush on her cheeks. Her eyes were large and round, and a pretty brown color with thick eyelashes. She had bobbed brown hair with two large bangs framing the sides of her face.

She was beautiful.

"I know this is a dumb question...but I have to ask; Are you okay?"

Oh man, even her voice was beautiful….wait focus Izuku!

"You...can see me? Both mes?" Izuku asked instead, gesturing at himself and the Not himself that was even now being loaded onto an ambulance by concerned citizens.

"Yeah! It's kind of my job!" The girl said, as excited as ever. "You're my first client so I'm pretty excited about it! My name is Ochaco Uraraka!"

"Job? Client…? And uh...my name is Izuku Midoriya. Would you mind expanding on that first thing you said? Am I dead? What's going on here?"

"Oh right! Of course of course!" She nodded, smile growing even larger. "Let's go somewhere a bit...quieter. Things like this...she gestured to the ambulance and the...Izuku's body and he could see what she meant.

She offered her hand for Izuku to grab, and when he did she lifted them up higher and higher into the sky until they were nestled in the clouds. Izuku wanted to ask what was going on or even to question how all of this was going on, but he figured it was better to wait for this girl...Uraraka to speak before he started asking questions.

"Well," Ochako said, clapping her hands before starting. "Like I said, this is my first time doing this on my own, so bear with me! My name is Ochaco Uraraka, and I'm your grim reaper. Unfortunately, you came down with a bad case of death, so I'm here to help get you settled!"

He died! He actually died! Wait that was what he had intended to do so why was he freaking out? He had expected that...well he didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn't this.

"But...there was a complication."

"A complication? How? Death should be...fairly straightforward right?" Izuku couldn't help but ask.

"Ordinarily yes! But...you weren't actually supposed to die here. Our records didn't have you walking off any buildings or anything like that...at all! And as a result...we don't actually have a place for you yet! But that's a good thing!"

"That's a lot to unpack...but why exactly is that good thing Ochaco?" Izuku asked. He was starting to regret his deciscion to end his life, but he couldn't for the life...death of him figure out how any of this was a good thing.

"Well, since we didn't have you dying at this age, we don't have a place for you. And since we don't have a place for you in the Spirit world...that means that you can go back."

"Wait. Wait. Wait. I can go back? That implies that there is in fact life after life which means death is meaningless, so if I die without a quirk I would just be a ghost without a quirk, but if ghosts can't touch each other and we all can fly then that renders quirks useless so is it just living a normal life only with the ability to float and and and…"

Izuku trailed off as he noticed Ochaco staring at him blankly. "I'm not going to lie, I don't know how to respond to that." She quickly brightened up though. "I had...a similar experience to yours so I have an idea of what you're going through. But...I took the chance offered to me...and I haven't regretted it since. And I know I just met you...but I don't think you will regret it either."

She paused here, before frantically waving her arms back and forth. "And I'm not just saying that because you're my client and I have to help you! I really think you don't want to be dead!"

Izuku hummed thoughtfully as he considered what he was being told. Now having seen the afterlife and knowing that it wasn't just starting over, but rather...something else entirely had...to be honest frightened him. And knowing that whenever his mom eventually passed he would have to explain himself to….

Oh crap his mom. How could he do this to her? He was so wrapped up in his misery and what All-Might had told him that he had forgotten all about her! How could he have been so selfish!

"You're right. I shouldn't have done this. I've hurt my mom...something that I've never wanted to do. What do I have to do to fix this?"

Izuku did not think that the afterlife would be so...plain. I mean it was a three story japanese style mansion with a large spelled incorrectly welcome sign. Ochaco led him along, bypassing the line of...spirits? Balls of fluff? Clouds? Whatever they were, they were numerous and never ending.

"So, all of these clouds are spirits?" He asked Ochaco for clarification. She was fiddling with this golf cart type thing that ran on...Izuku didn't know and Ochaco wouldn't tell him. He didn't even know that the spirit world HAD golf carts. He was learning a lot today.

"Yeah! Aren't they cute?" Ochaco responded, finally finishing fiddling with the cart and turning it on. It sputtered to life with some concerning noises but then it began to purr like...normal car. Or how Izuku assumed a car would run. Within moments they were off, driving down to the mansion.

"How come they don't have bodies and I do?" Izuku asked her as they drove along. It was...unsettling the more Izuku thought about it. All of these people...were dead. Just like him...

"Oh that's easy. Like I said earlier, you didn't die on schedule like all of these people did. So as result, King Yemma has an offer for you that most people don't get. They didn't keep their bodies when they passed on so they come here as spirits. You took your body with you, so you don't!"

"Wait. This is my actual body? Well, why isn't it injured?!" Izuku asked, frantically checking his body for any lingering injuries that might exist from the fall that he had taken.

"Well, why would it be? This is the spirit world, all the damage that you had sustained in the physical world has been fixed. I wouldn't recommend damaging it any further though! From this point on, you'll have to heal the old fashion way!" Ochaco cheerfully warned him.

"Don't hurt myself…got it." He gulped despite himself. How hard would it be to honor that promise to himself? He stopped worrying as another thought occurred to him. "Wait, if my body is here…then what's in the ambulance?"

Ochaco waved her free hand nonchalantly as she drove with her other one. "Oh that's a body double designed to keep your family nice and calm while you're out doing stuff! Or ya know…being dead. I use one all the time with my parents!"

That was an interesting bit of information. "What do you mean? Are you, the grim reaper…not dead?" And aside from the fact that Ochaco looked and acted nothing like what Izuku thought and assumed the Grim Reaper looked like, she was alive/dead too? Like he was? Or would be?

This was all confusing.

"Yeah, my parents run a construction company and times are hard you see? So when my quirk came in I thought that we had gotten really lucky and that with my quirk, all of their money troubles would be over!" She started, having stopped the cart to look Izuku directly in his eyes as she talked.

They were very very brown.

"So, in my infinite wisdom I decided that I was going to train my quirk, and when I was old enough, I would swoop in and fix everything! Saving my parents a lot of effort and time and ya know, being their hero! I was twelve when I made my first, and last attempt at the construction site." Here she paused to grimace and chuckle ruefully. "It didn't really go so well. I actually died, in fact."

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry!" Izuku said, bowing to her, and muttering apologies as fast as he could. This wasn't a nice subject and he didn't want to open any old wounds if he could help it. Curse his curiousity!

She shrugged. "It's not a big deal. I actually wasn't supposed to die at that particular time, so I had the option to come back. Just like you! I was actually supposed to be doing something in the real world for the spirit world, but King Enma didn't like the thought of me doing all the stuff they would have me doing by myself! So instead, I would be a sort of…welcome committee for any of the recently deceased. Until someone like me came along!"

"And that someone...is me?" Izuku couldn't help but ask, pointing to himself.

"Yep! So what do you say? Do you want to be partners! Me and You! Izuku and Ochaco vs the world!"

Izuku couldn't help but grin at that. He liked the sound of that. He really liked the sound of that. But there was something he had to let her know. It would be wrong not to.

"That sounds really amazing and I would love to partner up with you with…whatever we would end up doing, but I should let you know. I'm quirkless." He closed his eyes and looked down on the final words, he didn't want to see her face when she realized that he was in fact, useless.

"Yeah…so?"

"So?!" Izuku cried, looking up into her face again. There was no scorn or anger, or disgust, or any negative emotion…

Just…Ochaco.

"Izuku, you know I read your file right? I know you're quirkless...or that you were quirkless."

And if that didn't catch Izuku's attention like nothing else she had said today had.

"What do you mean 'I WAS quirkless?" Izuku asked, before he could unpack the sheer magnitude of having someone, anyone believe in him.

"Well…how should I put this…?" Ochaco trailed off, putting a finger under her chin in thought. "When you die, and you come back, you don't come back the same. I mean, you're still you and everything! But your body produces…I guess you could call it spirit energy? And it synergizes with your quirk and body and sort of upgrades it! Before I had died I could only manipulate the gravity of the things I could touch with the pads on my fingers!" She explained, showing the pink pads on each finger for emphasis.

"Now? I can manipulate the gravity around me to any extent that I want! Of course I still have the same limitations of what I can lift, but my range has greatly extended! I just need to practice and train more! And I'm sure that there's more that I can do that I haven't touched on! You can do a lot with gravity!"

Izuku blinked at her, processing everything that she had just told him. So when he came back, he might have a quirk? Something to call his own, something that would ensure that he could in fact be a hero and save people? This was the chance he was waiting. He had to take it. Even if he didn't end up with a quirk, he could boost his body with the spirit energy and call that a quirk.

Theoretically.

"Well in that case…I accept your offer to come back to life, and your partnership Ochacho." Izuku said with a watery smile, offering her his hand. She grasped it firmly, giving him a confident grin.

"Yeah, that's the spirit! You won't regret this I promise!" She quickly let go of his hand and went back to fiddling with the cart they were on. "Now that you're on board we really have to hurry and get this show on the road! You want to get into UA right? That leaves us…ten months to whip you into shape!"

She gunned the cart, making Izuku clutch his seat as the cart sped forward with all the speed she could force out of it.

"C'mon! I'll take you to meet my boss! You'll love him!"

King Enma was big. And red. And big. Did Izuku mention he was big? Was that because of a gigantifcation quirk? No that wasn't possible because, why would he have it active at all times? It had to be a mutant type quirk since it seemed kind of odd to have everything giant sized to accommodate him...

"This is not a quirk Mr. Midoriya. I'm just large." King Enma's voice boomed, making Izuku squeak in embarrassment. Oh no, did he say that out loud?

"You did." Ochaco answered, patting his back sympathetically. "It's cool though. Hi King Enma!"

"Hello, Ms. Uraraka. It looks like you've finally managed to nab yourself a partner. May I offer a congratulations?"

She nodded. "You may. We would like to try the snake way challenge sir!"

King Enma blinked, ruffled some of his papers before looking back at them, eyeing Izuku in particular. "Snake Way? Are you...certain about that?"

"Yes sir! We need to get stronger in a hurry, and I feel like Snake Way is the best method to go about it!" King Enma sighed, before pulling out a separate form and started to fill it out, no longer looking at either Izuku or Ochaco.

"His pen is bigger than both of us..." Izuku mumbled to himself, but neither Yemma or Ochaco paid him any mind.

"Ms. Uraraka...do you even know what's at the end of snake way?"

"No sir! But I know that we need to get stronger in a hurry for whatever assignments you're going to give us, and I feel like Snake Way is the best way for us to accomplish that!"

"His desk is bigger than the entirety of downtown..." Izuku muttered, but neither one paid him any attention.

"Well...if you're certain that this is the route that you want to go..." As he said that he stamped what Izuku assumed was his seal of approval for the paper, it started to spin and glow. The sheet of paper started glowing brighter and brighter and Izuku was forced to shield his eyes. And when he finally was able to open them, the building they were in was gone.

In fact, everything was gone. All Izuku could see was an endless vast of yellow clouds, and...that was it. Oh wait, now that Izuku was looking closer and scanning the surroundings, he could see a long, winding pathway that led all the way to...a giant snake head?

Something about this was making Izuku feel...very uncomfortable. But he couldn't quite put a finger on what.

"This! Is Snake Way! It's a long, winding path that's directly above Hell! It's the only method of getting to..." She trailed off uncertainly.

"Getting to...?

"I'm not actually sure, but I'm sure whatever it is will be worth it! And there are benefits to traveling it too!"

"Are they?" Izuku couldn't help asking.

"Yeah! A step over the Snake Head brings you immediately into ten times normal gravity! The air gets denser, the temperature fluctuates, the further along the path you go. There's a some time dilation going on here...which will help because this path is either...four hundred and fifty thousand miles or ten thousand miles long and I'm not sure how long it will take us to traverse it!"

"Well, if everything that you say is true, then at the very least it should condition our bodies to the extreme, especially if the temperatures fluctuate as drastically as Ochaco described. And that time dilation is extremely interesting..."

"You really need to work on that Izuku..." Ochaco said, hopping up on the top of the snake head that was the entrance of Snake Way. She grunted, before scrunching her face and taking a slow tentative step. "This...will be harder than I thought."

That didn't bode well for Izuku. But nevertheless, he climbed up the snake head next to Ochaco.

And immediately crumbled into a heap.

Ochaco burst out laughing and scrunched her face again, and suddenly Izuku felt lighter. "I'm using my quirk to lighten gravity around for us a bit. That should help us out a lot until we can handle the gravity here better."

Izuku picked himself off the ground, and took a cautious step forward. The gravity was certainly heavier and Izuku struggled with more than he would like, but he was still moving!

"Izuku and Ochaco, off to a great start!" He said, beaming at Ochaco.

"The best!" She responded, giving him an equally bright smile.