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Broken Dreams: Origin

Midoriya Izuku remembers, he was four years old when his dreams first shattered.

He's always had a good memory; not quite eidetic, but it never took him more than a minute to remember which journal a particular pro was listed in. He's also always been good at remembering certain things said to him, like soundbites, like playing an MP3 track.

"Sorry, kid, it's not gonna happen."

"I'm sorry, Izuku. I wish things were different."

"Your name oughta read 'Deku', it suits you better, 'cause you're useless!"

And the whispers that followed him everywhere, poorly hidden behind people's hands, "Quirkless…"

A good memory is not always a gift.

There seemed to be an unofficial rule in most hero courses to not accept Quirkless students. You could still enter General Studies, of course, or Business or Support, but Heroics was for people with quirks. Preferably powerful quirks, like Kacchan's, as so many peers and teachers seemed quick to remind everyone.

And the strongest of all, of course, was All Might.

Izuku's memory didn't even need a minute to recall most of the known facts about the Symbol of Peace. His debut thirty years ago precipitated an 85% drop in daily villain activity all over Japan. Plenty of the smarter villains just outright quit, because All Might was a factor you could never properly plan around — he could be anywhere, basically anytime, and was equally happy stopping convenience store robberies as bank heists. To Izuku, though, he'd always represented something more; something that he'd internalized growing up, reinforced by his mother using All Might to impart moral lessons, to the point that the idea of saving people with a smile, no matter the odds or the cost, was simply an indelible component of who 'Midoriya Izuku' was.

This didn't always make for the easiest childhood, especially around his cradle friend, Bakugou Katsuki — Kacchan. Izuku knew that Kacchan was also a fan of All Might, but Izuku always thought he focused on the wrong things. Kacchan loved All Might because he was the strongest, but Izuku always thought that All Might's kindness would lead him to be a hero even without that power.

If All Might was Quirkless, surely, he would still do his best to save people. Right?

"Haaah!? All Might? Quirkless? There's no way someone that cool would be like you, Deku!"

Izuku was six the first time he ran across Kacchan and his gang bullying another kid. Itou-kun wasn't quirkless, but the ability to change the color of his eyes and his hair didn't seem to impress the bullies.

"That's enough, Kacchan! You already made him cry, so back off!"

Nobody present seemed to know what to make of Izuku planting himself between Itou-kun and Bakugou, eyes watering and knees trembling, but jaw set and shaking fists raised.

"I won't let you hurt him anymore!"

Kacchan smiled, which in Izuku's opinion was always worse than his glares. "So, Deku, the quirkless wonder, thinks he can play hero, huh?" He punched a fist into his other hand, sparking an explosion, even as Tsubasa-kun spread his wings and Oshiro-kun stretched his fingers.

Izuku wasn't much for hitting back, he mostly tried to block Kacchan's and Tsubasa-kun's punches while wriggling away from Oshiro-kun's grasp, but eventually those long fingers caught hold of him and the blows started to land on his chest and face instead of his arms. He didn't move, though, and even as he sat in the nurse's office later with an ice pack over his swollen lip, he couldn't help but smile.

"I, um. Thanks," Itou-kun mumbled, later that day. "But um. If I hang around you I'm gonna keep drawing their attention." His hair flashed red with embarrassment, before settling back down to an unobtrusive mousy color. "I don't wanna get beaten up, y'know?"

"Ah…" Was all Izuku could think to say in response. Well. It would have been nice to have someone at his side, but he hadn't done it to make friends with Itou-kun, and he would do it all over again even if he knew this was the outcome. That was what a hero did. There was only one thing he could really do now.

He smiled even wider at Itou-kun, and if he pretended that his eyes were just watering because it stretched his swollen lip, who was to know any better?

Izuku was nearing his seventh birthday when he started doing serious research into heroes without flashy, destructive quirks. His dream of being a national symbol like All Might may be broken, but there were all kinds of heroes out there, and being a symbol for just a prefecture or town would be okay, as long as he could help people with a smile.

Wherever he went, he looked for little ways he could help, even if it was just picking up litter at the park, or helping an old lady cross the road, or picking up the groceries for his mom. He liked to help out at home, too, as much as he could, so his mother let him clean the lower half of the apartment, wherever his arms could reach. She also let him help her bake, or cook dinner sometimes, but she made him promise not to try to use the knives or the oven until he was older and she said it was okay. Izuku took his promises very seriously.

On days when he couldn't find anybody to help, he would sit in the library and look up more heroes. There were new heroes debuting all the time, and the classics never lost their luster if you asked him. Being a hero was about helping people, not all about fighting, whatever Kacchan thought.

There was the Turbo Hero, Ingenium, up in Tokyo; his Engine quirk let him run very quickly, and could be used to boost his jumping and punching abilities, but he admitted in interviews that he was otherwise only as strong as a regular human. He wore armour to protect himself, just like anyone else without super-toughness would do.

There was also the Space Hero, Thirteen, who admittedly did have a powerful quirk, but they were best known for rescue operations rather than combat. Their Black Hole quirk was sometimes used for getting rid of rubble or debris, but they usually coordinated with firefighters and other rescue workers. They were also a well-known Quirkless advocate, which Izuku appreciated even if he thought it was a bit unfair to treat Quirkless people the same way as people with actual disabilities.

Other rescue-focused heroes like the Wild Wild Pussycats in Nagano Prefecture were on record as having quirks like Telepathy and Search — both undeniably useful in their mountain rescue operations, but their combat strength was all their own.

And, right here in Musutafu, there were rumors of a new underground hero that nobody had gotten a good picture of, yet. They supposedly had wild, tangled hair, and wore a black tracksuit and a white scarf that acted as some kind of capture weapon. There were no good descriptions of their face, to the point that nobody was sure if it was a man or a woman or if they were even real, but Izuku had heard that some of the criminals and villains he'd caught complain that their quirks had suddenly stopped working before they were captured. Izuku thought he'd spotted the hero once or twice, which led to a habit of peering down alleyways and watching the gaps between rooftops carefully.

"Haaah!? You lookin' fer some kinda cryptid here in the back alleys, Deku? Yer gonna get caught by some villain back here, stupid! Hold him still, I'm gonna teach him not to do stupid shit like this!"

Izuku was nine and out combing through parks, looking for old Yamamoto-san's lost cat, when he made a friend for the first time since he was four.

"Akio!" he called, glancing up at the branches overhead in case the cat was chasing birds. "Here, kitty!"

He heard a rasping miaow that he recognized as Akio's, and he rushed around the corner to find the mangy tabby pouncing on a laser pointer's dot. Looking around, he found the laser in the hands of a boy sitting on a park bench who looked around his own age, with purple hair that stuck up worse than Izuku's, and wearing a jacket that was too big for him. The boy's eyes darted to Izuku the moment he came into view, and he looked ready to bolt for a second, before he dropped his gaze to his lap. In the absence of the laser, Akio had hopped up onto the bench and laid down across the kid's legs.

"Is this your cat, then?" the boy asked. His voice was quiet, and sounded a little strained, like he was very tired.

"Ah, no, he actually belongs to one of my neighbors. But Yamamoto-san is really old so I offered to look for Akio for him." Izuku came over toward the bench, but the boy seemed to tense up again, so he stopped short instead of sitting down. "Akio isn't usually this friendly with strangers, you must be great with cats!"

The boy blinked slowly. "I guess."

Well, that wasn't much of a response to build a conversation with, but Izuku wouldn't let that discourage him. His mother always told him strangers were just friends you hadn't met yet! He smiled, and the boy blinked again. "I love cats," he said. "Akio is one of my favorites around the neighborhood, but there's also a cat cafe down the road here that's really great! I run errands for the waitresses while they're busy, sometimes, and then when it's not so busy sometimes they let me play with the cats, it's great!"

Another slow blink. "That sounds nice."

Izuku grinned. "I'm Midoriya Izuku," he said, remembering his manners and bowing without getting too close to the other boy. "It's nice to meet you!"

"…Shinsou Hitoshi. I can't bow with a cat in my lap."

"It's fine!" Izuku chirped. "Yamamoto-san isn't that worried about Akio so I don't need to take him back soon or anything. Where do you go to school?" There were only a few schools in the area for kids their age. Speaking of, he glanced around, but there was no sign of Kacchan. He liked hanging out in the city more than parks these days, anyway, so they were probably safe.

"I don't," Shinsou replied.

"Huh? Oh, are you homeschooled?" Izuku asked.

Shinsou seemed to shrink in his seat. "No. I… I ran away."

"Oh…" Izuku thought about that. He'd considered running away himself, of course, to get away from Kacchan, but the thought of his mother had prevented him. If Shinsou had run away despite that, his parents must not be great like Izuku's mom. That was too bad. "Are you not from Musutafu, then?"

Shinsou stared. "No… I'm from Koreria up in Saitama prefecture." He tilted his head. "Aren't you gonna ask why I ran away?"

Izuku shrugged. "Do you wanna tell me?"

Shinsou shook his head.

"Then don't. You came a long way though, did you come to Musutafu on purpose?"

Shinsou nodded this time.

"Can I ask why about that?"

Shinsou seemed to think about it. "I guess so." He leaned his head back and looked up at the branches above them, hands absently stroking Akio's fur. "I came here because this is where my favorite hero is based."

"Oh?" Izuku furrowed his brow. "Who's that? There's only a handful of heroes who are really based out of Musutafu; I think mostly because UA is so close, so not a lot of villains come near, and some of the teachers there can usually help out if they do. There's Present Mic and and Cementoss and I think I heard a rumor they're going to hire a reformed vigilante called Snipe, he's pretty cool, he's got this whole cowboy aesthetic and I think he might be American too but that's just a theory of mine. In the city itself there's Death Arms and Backdraft and Airjet… Oh! There's also Endeavor; I know he lives around here, although I've never seen him myself because he tends to work in Kanagawa or in Tokyo where there's bigger crimes…"

"Do you have an analysis quirk or something?" Shinsou asked, making Izuku realize he'd been muttering most of that out loud.

"Um. No." He blushed. "I just. Really like heroes. I think being a hero would be the greatest thing."

For the first time since they met, Shinsou smiled back at him. "Me too. One day I want to go to UA and become a hero." His eyes lost focus. "No matter who tells me I can't."

Izuku didn't think Shinsou meant to say that part out loud, but… "Yeah."

Shinsou's head jerked around to stare at him. "You… People tell you that too?" he whispered. He sounded shocked, like he'd never heard of anyone else being told they can't be a hero.

Izuku wasn't sure what to make of that. "Um. Yeah, all the time. Because I'm, um…" He twiddled his thumbs, staring at his shoes. God, but he hated the word. "Quirkless."

"…Oh." It's a sound of understanding, but doesn't contain any of the disgust or disdain he's used to hearing, and Izuku looked up hopefully. Shinsou scratched the back of his neck, avoiding Izuku's eyes. "Mine is… Brainwashing." He sounded like he hated it, the same way Izuku hates 'Quirkless'. "I can control people, they have to do what I say."

"Wha- That's so cool!" Izuku said, taking a step forward without meaning to.

Shinsou stared at him now, eyes wide, and it was blatantly obvious to Izuku that nobody had ever told him that before.

"How does it work? Do you need physical contact or eye contact or is it triggered another way, like how the 18+ Only Hero, Midnight, needs to close to people to put them to sleep? Does that qualify as an Emitter-type quirk, I guess? I've always thought that we need more than just three classifications; I tried to come up with a list once but I think it needs some refinement. But man, Brainwashing, you could do so much with that, that's amazing! You could stop robberies or villain attacks immediately, or hostage situations, and I bet it would be great for crowd control depending on how many people you can affect. I guess it must have some drawbacks but that's still super cool. You're gonna be an amazing hero one day, I bet, Shinsou-kun!"

This time he was broken out of his muttering when he heard Shinsou sniffle. Izuku jumped back, alarmed, and was already waving his arms in apology when he noticed that, while Shinsou's eyes definitely looked wet, he was wearing a smile to rival All Might's. He swiped the sleeve of his huge jacket across his face roughly, and hiccuped, "Th-thanks, Midoriya-kun."

Moving slowly, Izuku sat down on the bench beside Shinsou, who didn't flinch this time. "So, you never told me who your favorite hero is, who's based here?" he asked, hoping that changing the subject will cheer up his new friend.

Shinsou sniffed again, but went back to petting Akio. "It's Eraserhead. You didn't mention him before, but you seem like the kind of guy who would know him."

"Oh! I didn't realize anyone outside of Musutafu even knew about him, he's really underground. I've seen him a couple times, I think, but… well, like you said." Izuku scratched his cheek, blushing a little. "He's one of my favorites too, after All Might, because his quirk doesn't help him fight at all. But it's so hard to find anything about him! Did you come here to find him?"

Shinsou kicked his feet. "Not really," he said finally, voice small. "I didn't actually come here from Saitama. My parents took me into Tokyo to…" he trailed off, taking a deep breath.

"You don't have to tell me, Shinsou-kun," Izuku said firmly. Neither of them noticed a man in wraparound sunglasses, wearing a black, long sleeved cotton shirt and sweatpants, ambling down the walking path behind them.

But Shinsou shook his head. "I want to tell someone," he said. He took another breath, then said in a rush, "I found out last week that my parents are… are villains." Unseen by both of them, the man in the black clothes paused as he passed behind them. "They brought me into Tokyo and left me in a daycare while they went to meet with someone. Yakuza, I'm pretty sure. And I just. Snuck onto a train to here. Used my quirk to make the person at the station give me a ticket. I saw the sign at the station and thought maybe I'd find Eraserhead." Neither of them noticed the man in black suddenly stiffen. "And he'd save me from having to go back to my stupid villain parents." Shinsou dropped his face into his hands. "I don't know. It was stupid and I know I shouldn't have run away but-" He started to tremble again. "You can't help what your heart longs for. No matter how much it looks like that dream is shattered. I want to be a hero so badly. And it's bad enough I already have this villainous quirk. How am I supposed to be a hero if my parents are villains, too?"

Before Izuku could think of a reply, they were interrupted by a gusty sigh from behind them. Both boys whipped around to see the man in black pushing his sunglasses up to his forehead and rubbing tired-looking eyes. "True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat," he recited dully, apparently to himself, before dropping his hands to look at the boys and cat on the bench. He dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a small card whose gold backing both boys recognized at once — a Professional Hero license! He then turned the card over so they could both see the front.

There was a picture of the same tired-looking man, his lower face buried in a white scarf, and his eyes covered by gold-colored goggles. His name and licensing date were quickly skimmed over as both their attention was caught by the hero name printed boldly at the bottom: Eraserhead

After a moment, when both boys looked too stunned to speak, the hero said, "I'm sorry to have eavesdropped, but I'm going to have to ask you both to come with me to the police station. It sounds like you might have some information that could help stop at least one crime, and if you're potentially in danger we'll provide all the help we can. And…" he seemed to hesitate, his eyes searching Shinsou's face in particular, but he finished, "Who your parents are, or whether you have a combat-oriented quirk are irrelevant. What's important is the desire to improve, both yourself and the world around you. Live by that…and you can become a hero."

Izuku had turned ten the next time he saw his friend, coincidentally at the very cat cafe he had told the other about on the day of their first meeting. He was here picking up some cupcakes for Mitsuki-oba-san, Kacchan's mother, when he noticed a head of purple hair staring out the window with no less than four cats in his lap.

"Eh… Shinsou-kun!?"

The head in question turned slowly to face him, one eyebrow raised skeptically apparently on reflex, before the other boy seemed to recognize him as well. The other brow shot up to join it.

Nakajima-san, the waitress that Izuku usually ran errands for, looked over curiously. "Ah, do you know each other, Izu-chan?"

Izuku paused, not really sure how to answer that. They were friends, he thought, right? But could you really be friends with someone you'd only met once, almost a year ago, and never saw again? He'd been worried about Shinsou, afraid that after the police had dismissed him to go home along with Akio that Shinsou would be sent back to his birth parents despite what Eraserhead had said. He hadn't seen the underground pro since that meeting in the park either, although that wasn't quite as unexpected. He'd updated his journal entry on Eraserhead with a sketch of the man's face based off his hero license, and made some guesses at the purpose of the scarf and goggles, but regrettably he couldn't remember the hero's real name. He knew it had been on the license, but he'd been too distracted by the hero name! But anyway, Shinsou hadn't ever gone back to that park, so he had decided to just hope for the best, that he'd found a better family to take care of him, and that hopefully they would meet again in UA–

"Izu-chan!" Nakajima-san swatted him gently on the head with a menu. "You're muttering like crazy and it wasn't a hard question. Do you know Hito-chan?"

"Ah, sorry!" Izuku scratched the back of his head. "I met him at a park last year, but I haven't seen him since then."

"Well then, go and say hi!" she shooed him over to the table. "Mitsu-chan called ahead and told us what she wanted, so we'll get them ready while you two catch up." She steered him into a chair opposite Shinsou and promptly dropped a kitten in his lap, before bustling off into the kitchen.

Shinsou eyed him carefully for a moment, before nodding in greeting. "S'been a while," was all he said.

"Y-yeah," Izuku stammered. "Are you… Doing okay?"

Shinsou nodded, gaze moving back to the window.

"Are you living here in town, now?"

Another nod.

Izuku remembered that it had taken the boy a while to warm up last time, too, so he didn't let the silent treatment discourage him. He smiled. "I'll still see you at UA in a couple years, right?"

Shinsou studied him carefully again. "Yeah," he said finally. He glanced around, then lowered his voice. "Eraserhead helped get me away from my parents after they were arrested." His tone came back to normal. "He also helped make sure I didn't get lost in the system and got adopted pretty quickly."

"And his new dad is soooo handsome!" Nakajima-san put in, setting down a mug of hot chocolate for Izuku and a bag that presumably contained Mitsuki-oba-san's cupcakes.

Shinsou sighed. "Nakajima-san, I keep telling you, he's married."

"I've never seen a ring~" she trilled, smiling as she turned to take another table's order.

Shinsou planted his face in his hand.

"She's just playing, you know," Izuku said. "Nakajima-san doesn't mean anything by that."

"I know," Shinsou grumbled. "I've just told her a hundred times…" He shrugged languidly. "Who's that for?" He nodded toward the bag.

"Ah, I'm running an errand for Mitsuki-oba-san. Well, she's not really my aunt, she's one of my mom's friends, but I've known her forever. I used to be friends with her son, but–" Suddenly embarrassed, he cut himself off to take a drink of his cocoa.

"But?" Shinsou asked leadingly.

Izuku sighed, but he remembered Shinsou opening up to him before, so… "Kacchan was one of the first to turn on me when I never developed a quirk," he mumbled. "He's got a really strong one, and everybody says he's gonna be a great hero, so they turn a blind eye when he bullies people. Mostly me." He scoffed, uncharacteristically bitter. "I guess they don't care if a Quirkless kid gets bullied, really; it's not like he'll ever amount to anything, right?"

"Don't say that." Shinsou leaned forward, scowling, and held Izuku's gaze. "Don't ever say that about yourself again. Not even sarcastically."

Izuku blinked, a little surprised, and Shinsou blushed.

"My- My dad," he seemed to trip over the term a little, "He said that by even acknowledging the crap that other people say, you validate it. When you repeat it, it's like you're accepting it. And that's not something you should ever do to yourself. Don't let anyone tear you down. Don't let anyone make you tear yourself down."

He drank from his mug. "He starts in with it anytime I say something about turning out like my- my birth parents. Or if I repeat anything the kids at school say about my quirk. He absolutely refuses to listen to any of it, and I'm not allowed to say it even to myself."

He shook his head. "Honestly, it seemed silly to me at first, but since he started coming down hard on that rule… I've found myself dwelling on it less." He smiled crookedly, and Izuku grinned back. "So don't let me hear you saying stuff like that. We're gonna take UA by storm together, right?"

Izuku knew his eyes were swimming with tears, but he smiled his biggest, happiest, All Mightiest smile. "Yeah!"

And he felt as if the dream that had shattered when he was four was finally starting to come back together.

That was the real start of their friendship. They mostly only saw each other on weekends, since they went to different schools, but they exchanged home phone numbers, and their handles on the hero forum they both frequented, and kept in touch as best they could. On Shinsou's eleventh birthday, Izuku got him a bootleg Eraserhead action figure (there were no official ones). They both agreed it looked almost nothing like the hero, but Shinsou treasured it anyway. Two weeks later it was Izuku's birthday, and Shinsou got him an equally bootleg All Might. Izuku was delighted.

When middle school rolled around, they both got mobile phones and traded numbers immediately, beginning a basically unending chat about everything from heroics to costume ideas to the games they were playing to the memes they'd run across that day. Both of them went over their monthly data limit just talking to each other three months in a row, and both were promptly given extra chores to offset the cost of moving them to an unlimited data plan.

Both of them agreed this was absolutely worth it, and agreed to a given-name basis with each other.

Izuku was going on fourteen when he realized Kacchan was finally starting to lose interest in him.

This was nominally a good thing. They weren't really friends anymore, since Kacchan stopped being nice when Izuku never developed a quirk. He and his friends chased Izuku a lot, but that just led to Izuku getting better at running, and most of the time they couldn't catch him even with their quirks. Kacchan had the best track record, but Izuku was also good at hiding, and Kacchan's quirk was no good for that. If anything, the little explosions Kacchan let off involuntarily when he was mad helped cover up any noises Izuku might have made, and their flashes would ruin Kacchan's and his gang's night vision whenever they were out after dark.

Hitoshi had told Izuku the previous year that his dad was starting him on a training regimen that would ramp up throughout middle school, in preparation for the UA entrance exams, so Izuku had done the same as best he could, substituting his freerunning away from Kacchan for the cross-country club that Hitoshi complained about daily. They were in their second year now, and Izuku was trying to figure out a good way to work out properly without free weights.

Unfortunately, losing interest in Izuku meant that Kacchan's attention turned to other kids, and Izuku's altruism wouldn't let that stand. It wasn't the first time Izuku had to step between Kacchan and some smaller kid — far from it — but it hadn't happened all that often lately, because Kacchan always took it as a challenge when he couldn't catch Izuku, and that usually kept him from finding new targets.

Nothing would ever stop Izuku from stepping in between Kacchan and his new mark, just like he'd done for Itou all those years ago, but regrettably there wasn't really a dojo nearby he could conveniently master martial arts at, so doing so still mostly resulted in him getting pummeled. Not wanting to get in trouble, Izuku still rarely hit back, mostly doing his best to dodge, block, or deflect the hits from Kacchan, Oshiro-kun, and Ishikawa-kun, who had taken the place of Tsubasa-kun when the latter moved away the previous year. He didn't bother to say anything — he hadn't actually spoken to Kacchan since the start of middle school, and was planning on keeping it that way. He just smiled, which of course only served to enrage his former friend.

Izuku went home that day with a black eye and tissues stuffed in his bleeding nose, but with a smile on his face that Yoshida-kun hadn't gotten hurt. With Kacchan already finished with him for the day, he'd have to do his parkour later, but first he wanted to head home and get some ice for his eye. Hopefully he could meet up with Hitoshi during the summer break, maybe for his birthday next week.

Stopping at the street corner, he dug out his phone and opened their preferred messaging app.

small might - 'UA? More like Yuu-eyyyyy!' | Friday, 16:34

‹small might› stopping a bully:

‹small might› feelsgoodman dot jpg

‹catnap› gdi zukkun

‹catnap› what happened

‹small might› I stopped a bully.

‹small might› why don't you listen when I talk, Hicchan?

‹catnap› because the last time you stopped bakujerk from beating someone up you got your nose broken and didnt tell me for a week

‹small might› …suddenly, I can't read

‹SueStormStan› DDD: Smol! Take care of yourself!

‹G-note› You do have a somewhat alarming disregard for your own health and safety, to hear catnap tell the story.

‹small might›

‹small might› it's true, but you shouldn't say it.

‹Hardly Noticeable› That's so manly SM

‹Hardly Noticeable› Not the hurting yourself part but the standing up to a bully

‹Hardly Noticeable› I couldn't do that but I admire you a lot for it

‹small might› ahh, come on HN what have we said about being so hard on yourself?

‹Hardly Noticeable› …It's hard, man

‹catnap› buh dum tish

‹Hardly Noticeable› lol… But seriously, like

‹Hardly Noticeable› I saw something like that going down last month

‹Hardly Noticeable› Some third year students were picking on an underclassman and I wanted so badly to say something, but my legs just froze up

‹Hardly Noticeable› This other girl from my class stopped them while I was still yelling at myself…

‹SueStormStan› Ooooo~ Was this the same girl you ha crush on last year? ( ͡ºั ͜つ ͡ºั)

‹catnap› sue comin in to spill the tea

‹Hardly Noticeable› Aw, come on S, I told you that in confidence…

‹Hardly Noticeable› Anyway I don't think it was really a crush, more like

‹Hardly Noticeable› SM what do you call it when it's like a crush but you don't really want to date you just really want to be friends with someone

‹small might› that's a squish!

‹Hardly Noticeable› Yeah! She just seemed really cool and I wanted to hang out

‹Hardly Noticeable› And then this happened and now I KNOW she's really cool so, hah

‹Hardly Noticeable› No chance of that now, right

‹catnap› oi quit with that

‹catnap› second strike today hn

‹catnap› youve really gotta get outta this self deprecation spiral

‹catnap› youre great and i bet shed be your friend if you mcfreakin said smth to her

‹catnap› youve even got an opening

‹catnap› hey i thought it was gr9 how u stood up 2 those jerks

‹G-note› Your typing never ceases to hurt my eyes, but I must concur with the sentiment you express.

‹catnap› look

‹catnap› youre all about manliness

‹catnap› heres a lesson on masculinity straight from my dad

‹small might› ooo I'm tuning in too, secondhand stories from Hicchan's secret dads are my only source of fatherly advice

‹catnap› my dads arent secret they just both work a lot

‹small might› we have been friends for four (4) years and I haven't met even one of your dads

‹small might› and you have two (2) dads to meet!

‹small might› if my mom hadn't talked to at least one of your dads on the phone I would be half convinced you were still dadless

‹catnap› ANYWAY

‹catnap› heres a lesson on masculinity straight from my dad, hn

‹catnap› and ill even use proper grammar so g will get off my back

‹catnap› You don't need to run your mouth off to prove how macho you are. Just be confident, put your all into what you do, and always strive to be the best version of yourself, and people will fill in the rest themselves.

‹Hardly Noticeable›

‹catnap› funny side note, zukkun, he told me that after i relayed one of your stories about bakubaby

‹small might› aksldfjaszxjckvl…

‹Hardly Noticeable› You know what

‹Hardly Noticeable› Okay

‹SueStormStan› Okay? (✿ó ꒳ ò)

‹Hardly Noticeable› Yeah

‹Hardly Noticeable› I wanna be the best version of myself

‹Hardly Noticeable› It's summer break, I'm gonna reinvent myself

‹Hardly Noticeable› I bought some hair dye last week, I've been trying to psyche myself up to use it

Hardly Noticeable is now known as Riot in Red

‹small might› oh, nice!

‹small might› I know my boy is a Crimson Riot stan so I'm digging it!

‹Riot in Red› Yeah

‹Riot in Red› Thanks guys

‹small might› this is so great, I don't know why I'm crying in the club right now

‹SueStormStan› Σ（・□・）smh I can't believe you'd hit up a club without calling ya girl!

‹small might› lol actually I'm sitting on a tipped over washing machine at Dagobah beach

‹G-note› What.

‹catnap› isnt that beach a literal garbage dump

‹small might› Yeah I'm halfway down the shore and I literally can't see the ocean past the trash

‹small might› I remember when I was little this place used to be gorgeous

‹small might›

‹small might› I'ma clean it

‹catnap› wait what

‹catnap› all of it

‹small might› yeah! I've been trying to figure out what to do for strength training the next year and a half or so, and I think this'll work!

‹small might› there's tons of heavy stuff here, and hauling it to the dump every day will make a great workout!

‹catnap› izuku no

‹small might› Izuku Yes

The next year and a half of middle school went on in much the same way. The three bullies of his cohort hadn't caught him at all since the previous summer, and since hearing that Izuku was also aiming for UA at the beginning of this school year, Kacchan had been focused exclusively on him, neglecting to bully anyone else.

By the last day of middle school it was a matter of routine: He ignored Kacchan telling him to jump off the roof and pray for a quirk in his next life, he snatched his notebook back before it could be exploded, he dodged away from Oshiro-kun's fingers, he kicked Ishikawa-kun in the shins as he slipped by, and he bolted out of the school for his final parkour practice of middle school, determined to end on a high note by losing Kacchan and his gang quickly so he could hurry down to finish cleaning the beach.

Izuku had come a long way from the tiny, scrawny kid with no friends and impossible dreams. Years of parkour-running away from bullies had given him great stamina, and just over a year of hauling progressively larger and heavier refuse off Dagobah Beach and down to the actual dump gave his admittedly still-short frame a musculature that he thought he could be proud of.

Hitoshi, who had more of a runner's physique from years of cross-country, had goaded him and Riot into comparing shirtless post-workout selfies. Their competition ended in a draw after both their judges forfeited: SueStormStan's only response to each picture was an admittedly-flattering 'humina humina', while G-Note simply sent that they were all in better shape than him and logged off.

He had a best friend in Hitoshi, and some decently friendly acquaintances online that he was hoping to meet in person when they all, knock on wood, got into the UA Hero Course.

Of course, he and Hitoshi also had a backup plan: Hitoshi's dad, a teacher himself, had told him (and thus Izuku) that while it was perfectly possible to get into General Studies with just an academic test, the UA Heroics Course Entrance Exam also had a physical combat portion that was rather blatantly unfairly weighted in favor of examinees with powerful, destructive quirks. He had also hinted that there was more to it than met the eye, but refused to say any more.

His other dad had also mentioned to him a little-known and rarely-exercised loophole: students from outside the Heroics course who had top grades and performed well in the UA Sports Festival had an opportunity to request relocation into the Heroics course.

Neither of them were worried about the written test, having aced the mock exam, so they were likely both shoo-ins for General Studies. But they both signed up for the Heroics Entrance Exam anyway. If nothing else, they'd both be able to say they reached for their dreams with both hands, repairing the shattered edges with shining gold hopes.

A/N: It's been a minute, huh? Hmm. What's that? Scheduled updates? I don't know her. I've been losing follows, which isn't that surprising considering I've updated…what, twice? In the last year? Bleh.

Honestly, I think I let myself get hyperfocused on the update schedule, and it broke me down whenever I didn't feel like working on whatever story was supposed to be up next, so I'm trying something different. I'm going to attempt to get back into the habit of writing at least something every day, though I'm not even going to lie to myself about updating more.

Have an eye on my Tumblr and the other sites (same screenname everywhere); I'm working on some updates to those to hopefully help me start in a better direction.

Kintsugi, literally "golden joinery" is the art of repairing broken pottery with a lacquer mixed with powdered gold. Philosophically, it treats the breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.