Chapter 1

By the time Izuku had woken up from a bed inside the nurse's office of U.A. most of the other applicants for the Hero course exam had already gone home. That is why when the train came to the station, he was one of the very few among his age to board it. Not that he really noticed, because up to this point his body was moving on auto-pilot while his mind repeated the same words over and over again.

Zero.

Zero points.

Not even a single point.

Maybe if he had gotten some points, the sense of failure that invaded him wouldn't be so overwhelming. He could've convinced himself that he had given it his best and that he just fell short. But in the end he had gotten a big fat zero, and that meant he had completely and utterly failed.

It hurt. It hurt a lot to know he had fail in such a humiliating manner. But it hurt a whole worse knowing that he had failed not only himself, but also failed his greatest hero.

All Might.

The man who was number one hero in all of Japan and his personal idol since he was 4 years old. The man who had not only put his time and effort training him for 10 months in preparation for the exam, he also put his trust in him to the point of giving Izuku his quirk, One For All.

After all that time and effort, Izuku had betrayed All Might's trust and faith. He had no idea what to say to the man who gave him so much after such an abject failure. What could he say? Heck, would All Might even want to speak with him anymore? Izuku wouldn't fault his hero if he decided to take away One For All from him, if that was even possible.

Izuku was so wrap-up in his own increasingly depressing thoughts he didn't noticed he started mumbling while staring into space with a vacant look causing his fellow passengers to notice him and subtly trying to give him some breadth, creeped out by his incessant murmuring. Thankfully at one of the stops, a woman shouldering a big heavy bag and a wailing baby on a carrier on her chest, bordered the train and the cries of the infant were loud enough to snap the freckled green haired boy from his creepy mutterings.

Without giving it a thought, Izuku was on his feet freeing the seat for the woman, who quickly took his seat while ignoring him, being more concerned with lulling her baby into sleep. Izuku didn't let this exchange bother him so much; the woman had much more pressing concerns with her wailing baby, that Izuku couldn't blame her for ignoring him. Besides, a hero shouldn't ask for a reward or recognition for doing the right thing.

The right thing.

At the end of the day, he had done the right thing, right? Back there during the exam, he had saved the nice girl from the gigantic robot that was the 0-Point Villain. He sacrificed the possibility of gaining some points in the exam in exchange of seeing no harm come to the girl, who in the end ended up rescuing him from a deadly fall. Even when he ended up failing the exam and would probably never see the nice girl ever again, he had done the right thing, right? That's what heroes do, right?

Izuku sighed. Even if he was convinced he had done the right thing in the end, that didn't help with the sense of failure that still invaded him.

Just as Izuku was about to start muttering and lose himself in more depressive thoughts, he noticed something from the corner of his eye, something that he would not have seen had he not stood up fro his seat.

Near one of the doors a man stood awfully close to a petite young girl who was wearing a middle school uniform. The closeness between the two could be explained by how full the car they were riding was, but what caught Izuku's attention was the blue cap and the long hair that help obscure the man's features alongside the folded newspaper on his right hand right in front of his face. It was as if this man was doing everything he could, save for wearing a mask, to cover his face at all costs.

Feeling suspicious, Izuku paid closer attention to the man and then he realized where the man's other hand was at.

For the third time that day, Izuku's legs moved on his own. Not even noticing the cries of the other passengers when he passed by, Izuku reached the man and forcefully pulled his arm away from feeling up the girl.

"GET OFF ON THE NEXT STATION!" Izuku shouted with unexpected conviction. The molester yelped in pain before trying to pull back his arm, yet despite the size difference Izuku managed to hold onto him; the 10 month training he received from from All Might helped him restrain the older male.

As the molester struggled against the younger boy's arm hold, the petite girl turned around to take a good look at her savior. Noticing this, Izuku turned his eyes from the molester to the girl only to be caught off-guard by the biggest, most beautiful amber eyes he had ever seen in his life.

"Thank you…" the girl said, her voice filled with gratitude.

Despite being two simple words, the sheer gratefulness and acknowledgment they carried was enough to shock Izuki still. Never before had someone been so grateful or acknowledge him in such manner. Was this how heroes felt whenever someone thank them? If so, then Izuku gained a new perspective for what it meant to be a hero and why they sought to be popular. Because to his young heart, it was one of the best feelings in the world.

Unfortunately the blissful spell in which he had been caught was broken when the train sound system announced the next stop. Izuku, shook his head and kept his firm hold on the molester's arm and waited for the doors to open up.

"Kid! Let me go! I didn't do nothing wrong!" The older male kept on struggling as they exited the train, yet his skinny build couldn't help him break free from the shorter and younger boy.

"The Station Attendant Office must be around somewhere." Izuku said while ignoring the lowlife who preyed on younger girls, reprobate men like him didn't deserved a proper retort.

"You can't hand me in!" The man continued talking ,trying to weasel out of his current predicament. "They'll know you used your Quirk to detain me and you'll be in trouble." It was true, in their society where everyone had a superpower, there was a very strict law that prohibited the use of one's Quirk in public areas, with the only exception being heroes and people with provisional licenses. This rule was strictly enforced, otherwise everyone would go wild with their Quirks and with how destructive some of them can be, it would be pandemonium. And even if one used their Quirk for something noble, it was still against the law, and the police could brand you as a vigilante.

"I didn't use my Quirk." Izuku answered back showing no worry whatsoever as he pushed the man around, still feeling somewhat high from his sudden rise to action. The law against "viglilanteism" prohibited unlicensed people from using their Quirks to stop criminals, yet the law didn't cover vigilante acts committed WITHOUT using Quirks. So in the end izuku wasn't breaking any laws at all.

"Even if that were true, do you think the police would believe a brat like you can detain someone like me without one?" The man almost shouted, calling bullcrap on the boy's claim. He was an adult for pete's sake and the little brat was most likely just a middle schooler.

"I'll let them decide." Again, he wasn't worried, because even if they called his mom or his school to ask about him, the police would only hear who he was but a Quirkless boy, completely unaware that he received All Might's Quirk earlier than morning. "Besides, why haven't you tried to use your Quirk to escape yet?"

"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" And with that final bark, the man fell silent. Only grunting when trying and failing to fight against the boy's hold.

Izuku figured that the man possessed a very non-threatening Quirk like many other people who didn't or couldn't become heroes despite being the most desirable career choice, or he was by some strange coincidence Quirkless like he was before that very morning. Izuku feel somewhat nauseated by the later, he didn't want to think that someone that was born Quirkless like him could commit such a heinous act.

To Izuku's favor, he didn't have to dwell on such thoughts very long, because he had found what he was looking for, the Station Attendant Office. They would take care of this man.

(—)

"We are gonna let you go."

Izuku was aghast. Even after explaining the whole situation and having a police officer come and later call his mom to verify that he did not possessed a Quirk, his gain of one being a surprise he had for his mother AFTER coming home from the exams, they were just gonna le the molester go unpunished.

"I told you, I didn't do anything!" The man proclaim indignant, secretly celebrating his acquittal. "Just this crazy kid, acting like some sort of vigilante."

Lack of evidence was the reason why.

Because Izuku was no certified hero or had a provisional license, that meant his word alone meant squat and the man was free to go with not even a slap on the wrist. In fact, it was Izuku who was being admonished before being sent home with a warning.

So much for doing the right thing.

"T-that man was feeling me up!" A voice suddenly said and everyone inside the Station Attendant Office, including Izuku, turn to look at the new arrival only to find the same petite girl from back on the train. Just how long had she been standing there hearing them talk about letting go the man who molested her. "And this person saved me!" She declared as she walked up and stood next to Izuku.

In turn Izuku was moved by her words and actions. Not only did she acknowledged him and thanked him, now she was standing up for him and confessing on the man's lewd actions despite the embarrassment and the social stigma that may follow her for her testimony. To say his eyes were feeling watery for how moved he was, was an understatement.

"This is some sort of ploy!" Still the brave actions of the girl didn't deterred the sleazeball from trying to escape his rightful punishment. "I mean, she just happened to appear just as I was about to let go, that's very suspicious!" This casted doubt over the girl's sudden and convenient confession. "I mean look at her, are we to believe her when she is wearing such a short skirt!" He pointed at her making her flinch in unexpected shame and causing her to turn red and her eyes moisten. "It's like she is begging to be touched like…!"

The man couldn't finish his tirade to shame his victim thanks to a very fast and mighty fist to his face courtesy of Izuku.

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!" He shouted in rightful fury. How dare he! How dare this repulsive creep say something so vile against this poor girl! Not only did he molest her, he was trying to put the blame of such loathsome act on her. "APOLOGIZE TO HER RIGHT NOW!"

After such a loud outburst, Izuku took several deep breathes of air trying to slow down the beating drum that was his heart at the moment, and then after calming down a bit he realized how eerily silent the whole place felt. He just needed to take a quick glance at the look the police officer was giving him to know his screwed he was.

Uh-oh.

(—)

And so Izuku got suspended from school for a week.

Which will cost him greatly since that meant a week of missed lessons and Third Term Final Exams were a month away, and being the social pariah that he was thanks to his Quirkless status, there wasn't anyone who would lend him their class notes from the lessons he missed.

Then again, the Third Terms Finals were a simple formality for those who were planning to go to a Hero school. Finals only mattered for those wanting a great final grade for schools that taught normal curriculum. So Izuku shouldn't worry too much since he apply to the Hero Course in U.A. and… oh!… that's right…

Zero Points.

Maybe he should worry about his Third Term Finals, just in case he needed to apply for a High School of General Education.

Knock knock.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Izuku turn from his chair in front of his computer desk towards the door of his room.

"Izuku, are you alright?" His mom asked from the other side of the door.

"Y-Yes mom… I'm a-alright!"

"Just checking…" She tried to played it off as casual, but she couldn't help herself. "If there's anything in your mind, you know you can talk to me about it." Deep down she always worried about her only son.

"Y-Yes mom, I-I know…" If there was anything he hated was making his mom worry for him. She already had too much in her plate working all day to support the two of them, she didn't deserved the stress that failure of a son like him caused. Specially after she received a call from the police telling her about what he had done. Thankfully she didn't faint on the spot after hearing the news, but there was a lot of crying and wet tissues after she had to pick him up from the police booth he was being detained.

Luckily for Izuku the worst thing that happened to him was his suspension from school. He wasn't going to be branded a vigilante or a villain for the "assault" since he just punched the guy and hadn't used a Quirk, and it helped that the one he punched was an adult man and he was still a minor. Not to mention the reason behind the punch being in the defense of a young girl's honor and her confession of being molested by the man prevented Izuku from spending the night behind bars or having the incident marked as an entry on a criminal record.

Suffice to say, he got out with a pretty lax punishment all things considered. Even his mom hadn't deemed it necessary to even ground him since she believed he had been "punished enough" and that he had learned his lesson. The only thing she asked of him was to never do something like this again.

It's not like he planned on hitting the man's face in the first place. It had been a "spur of the moment" kind of reaction. It wasn't like him at all to snap the way he did back then. Maybe the stress of the entrance exam plus the sense of utter loss after, most likely, failing the exam and the disgust he felt for the man trying to shame the poor girl, all of it combined and started a chain reaction that resulted in such an explosive result.

Good thing that he hadn't accidentally used his newly acquired Quirk on the guy or Izuku would've definitely be branded a villain and thrown to jail.

Izuku just sighed and turned back to his computer. Despite the fact that he should be studying he instead was visiting All Might's homepage musing over whether or not he should write him a letter, apologizing about his utter failure at the entrance exam.

Frankly he was scared of what his idol would say in response, and what would feel worse: his anger? or his disappointment?

Izuku stared blankly at the computer screen in front of him, his hands trembling as the hover over the keyboard, not a single word of his hypothetical apology letter typed down. He remained like that for a whole minute, and probably more had it not been for his mother who opened the door and barged into his room without even knocking first.

"Iz…Izuku! Izuku!" She called for him sounding way more frantic than usual. For a second, he worried something horrible had just happened, but before he could even ask what was wrong, his mother continued. "T-There is a girl here looking for you! Her name is Yamato-san! Can I let her in?!"

"S-Sure…" Izuku answered out of reflex before he actually thought over what his mom just told him. A girl? What would a girl be looking for him? Was it someone from school who was sent to deliver him the homework for the day he missed? That was the most reasonable explanation, but he didn't recall someone from his class named Yamato. Even if he didn't even say a single word to any of the girls in his class, he was well aware of their names. Just who was this girl coming to see him in his room?

Wait! His Room?!

Was his room adequate to let a girl in? Looking around, there wasn't any trash on the floor or anything that looked overly messy, but his room was filled with All Might merchandize all over. If a girl saw this, they would label him an even bigger Otaku than her was already known for!

"P-Please tell her to wait a minute!" Izuku called out as he made a grab to a 30cm figure of All Might he had on his desk, looking around for more stuff to grab and where he could hide them for the time being.

"Um, actually…" A soft voiced made itself known, attesting that his attempt was all for naught. "I'm already here though…" Izuku turned to face the newly arrived girl only to stop in shock when he found the petite girl he had helped the day before. Being too distracted by this revelation, he didn't noticed the shy look on her face as she gave him a short and small bow. "Thank you so much again, for what you did for me yesterday…"

There she was again, acknowledging him with those big, expressive eyes a of her showing deep appreciating and gratitude. And once again Izuku felt like he was on cloud nine, floating without any burdens to keep him grounded unto a cold, unfeeling ground. He could almost swore his vision turn a shade of pink, brightening his whole room while just a single phrase passed through his mind.

'She is so cute.'

His state of near-Nirvana receded when the girl, now known as Yamato, spoke again bringing to his attention a bag she was carrying. "Ah. Here. I brought this for you… There's enough for a few people, so…"

Turns out that Yamato had brought cake, cheesecake if Izuku wasn't mistaken, as a thank you offering for having help her. Such deed was one of the nicest things anyone, besides his mother of course, had ever done for him in his entire life. It moved him so much he felt he was about to burst out crying out of pure happiness.

Mistaking the look on his face, Yamato started fidgeting thinking she had committed some sort of mistake. "Do you not like it…? Or was it creepy of me to just show up out of the blue like this?" Making the boy who saved her uncomfortable was the last thing she wanted. She continued talking getting progressively more and more nervous. "Sorry! I asked the station attendant yesterday about you and…"

Finally noticing that his reaction was upsetting the girl who graciously awarded him such nice gift out of the kindness of her heart, Izuku quickly corrected himself. "No. It's fine! I love cake!" his declaration put Yamato at ease and she gave him a small.

"Thank goodness."

(—)

Not having a proper place to eat inside his room, Izuku showed Yamato back to the dining table where the both sat to enjoy the cake she brought. His mother, ecstatic seeing her only son talking with such a cute girl decided to leave the two of them alone so they could "get to know each other better". The two teens turned red after hearing those words, yet they both didn't noticed the other's sudden reddening, too embarrassed to look at each other for a couple of seconds.

After finally settling down with everything they needed, Izuku and Yamato properly introduced each other, learning that their full names were Midoriya Izuku and Yamato Rinko respectively, before giving thanks for the food they were about to eat.

It was no exaggeration when Izuku told Yamato it was the most delicious cake he had ever eaten in his whole life, delighting her by unknowingly complimenting her ability to prepare baked goods. It was so delicious he ate half of it, having grown these past 10 months to sizable portions of food. He would've eaten more but he remembered ought to leave some for his mom for later. For her part, Yamato only had a small slice of cheesecake, happy to see Izuku enjoy it so much.

They remained like that for a while having only the faintest of small talk, both being too shy around one another to really have a meaningful conversation. Soon, as always as when people are having lots of fun, time passed by like a bullet and Izuku's mother made her presence known again reluctantly interrupting the teen's moment announcingg she had to prepare dinner.

"I should head back home." Yamato said excusing herself readying to depart the Midoriya household.

"Won't you stay for dinner, Yamato-san?" Inko, Izuku's mom, tried to convince her otherwise.

"I don't wish to impose." Yamato politely decline as Japanese Norm dictated. "I should head to the bus stop before it gets too dark."

"Well, I'm sure Izuku would be happy to accompany you." Inko eyed her son telling him with her gaze what he ought to do.

"Y-Yes…I'll be happy to…" Izuku agreed somewhat shyly, his head feeling light at the idea of walking next to a girl. Especially one that was so kind and cute like Yamato.

"N-No… I couldn't…" She said waving her hands in front of her to disuade them from such actions, unintentionally squeezing Izuku's heart for a bit. Was there something wrong about him accompanying her to the bus stop? "He already done so much for me."

"It's…no bother…really…" Izuku insisted a little more hesitant. Maybe he was reading a bit too much into it. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong about him per se; seeing first hand how kind and cute she was, Yamato probably already had a boyfriend and it wouldn't look good for him or any other male to walk to closely with her. Probably this was her courteous way of sparing him an ass kicking from her plausible boyfriend who most likely was the most popular guy at her school and had an awesome Quirk.

"No, that's okay. Really!"

Honestly, this was the best he gonna get; a courteous visit and a small thank you gift. All in all, it was no doubt better than he deserved.

"Thank you for welcoming into your home, Midoriya-san" She respectfully bowed towards his mother.

"If that's what's best…" Inko said somewhat hesitant, but had no other option but to agree with Yamato's wishes. "It was an honor to have you as our guest. I hope you can visit us again." she returned the bow. "And please call me Inko, if you will, Yamato-san."

"T-thank you for your visit. And thank you greatly for the cake, Yamato-san" Izuku also returned the bow while addressing her as it was proper.

"Thank you so much for everything, Izuku-kun." For a second, he was happy to hear a girl dress him by his first name, but the feeling didn't last when he realized she probably called him like that just distinguish him from his mother, whom she called by their family name. "See you later."

"See you later." Izuku repeated what was most likely another societal formality as he waved her goodbye and watch her leave. Doubtlessly this would be the last he would ever see or heard of Yamato Rinko.

Well, at least he got a cake out of it. And it was really good.

'I guess this is okay.'

Izuku silently made his way back to his room while his mom went to prepare dinner. He sat back down on his chair in front of his computer desk, monitor turned off a long time ago because of the inactivity. He made no move to turn it back again and go back to work in his apology letter to All Might, his mind to busy thinking about the unexpected yet pleasant visitor.

Knowing that a nice girl like her acknowledge him, no matter how short the moment, made him feel somehow stronger. He felt like he could at least face the happenings of the days to come, wether good or bad, with more confidence now. Helping a girl that turned out to be so kind gave him the strength to face tomorrow.

That was the End of this story.

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(—)

An hour later once he already had dinner, Izuku was seated at his computer, doing his routine check for news in Hero blogs when a strange melody snapped him out of his routine. Looking for the source of the strange yet pleasant melody, Izuku found a pink cellphone on the floor of his room.

"Is it mom's?" He wondered if she had somehow lost it when she came barging into his room earlier that evening. Hearing that Mom was busy taking a bath at the moment, Izuku answered the call thinking it might be urgent they were calling this late. "Hello."

"Oh…! I knew it." said the voice, that Izuku instantly recognized as Yamato's, on the other side of the phone. "Sorry, Ieft my phone there… I'm Yamato. I was just over at your house." Such greeting was completely unnecessary in Izuku's opinion since he doubted he could ever forget her voice, specially so soon after he what he thought was the last he would see of her.

"Yes, I have your phone right here with me!" He assured her, ignoring the redundancy of his affirmation, since she was calling to her phone and he was answering it.

"I'll come pick it up! Are you free now?" Technically he was, since his mom hadn't grounded him for his misdemeanor of yesterday. Still it would be ill-mannered to force her to come all the way back from her house to his, just to pick up her phone, specially this late.

"No need." He assured her. "Just tell me where you are and I'll bring it to you." As a man, that was the right thing to do.

"Huh? Well, we should meet up then?" She said sounding somewhat surprised. "I go to the Takodana Girls Academy, how about we meet in front of the fountain in Yaveen Park!?"

"Y-Yes." Izuku answered, floored by the idea he was going to meet Yamato again.

"Would tomorrow be ok?"

"Yes."

"After classes, after 3:00 PM. Is that good?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Izuku-kun."

"Yes."

"Bye!"

"Yes… I mean… bye!"

And with that the call finally ended, but…

"The story hasn't ended yet." Izuku murmured with a smile.

That night Izuku slept peacefully unburdened by thoughts of his apparent failure at the U.A. Entrance Exam or the disappointment he brought out of All Might. No instead, he dreamed of his meeting with Yamato the very next day.

A.N.

Small update, I changed Yamato's school from Nabu to Takodana.