Disclaimer: This was inspired from the fanfiction My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra! by Sora 101. I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime or tv shows used in this story.
Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.
Texts like this are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.
[Texts like this] represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they are merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.
Chapter 1: Activation
Izuku, age 4
"I'm afraid there's no hope for him," said the doctor.
That night, Midoriya Izuku kept watching the video of All Might's debut, over and over again. Despite his tears streaming down his face, he gritted his teeth and told himself:
I will never give up on being a hero.
I don't care what anyone tells me otherwise.
[Operator directive: priority added]
"Huh?" Izuku exclaimed, confused by the strange yet affirming thought that seemed to calm down his emotional state for a moment. He tried to recall that thought again by concentrating really hard, to no avail.
Maybe I'm just too tired, I guess I should go to sleep.
A week later, at the neighbourhood playground
"Enough, Kacchan!" Izuku screamed as he trembled with fear, imposing himself between three bullies and their victim.
"Y… you already made him cry! Stop it!" cried Izuku as he tried to muster up an imposing stance, still trembling.
Bakugou Katsuki, the leader of the trio, punched his own palm to show off his Explosion quirk. Two other boys flanked behind him, Bulk with a Bat Wing quirk, and Skull with a Stretchy Fingers quirk.
"So Deku, the quirkless wonder thinks he can play hero, eh?" mocked Bakugou, as the three bullies grin and approach Izuku.
Crap, what do I do?! I don't have a quirk, how do I even protect myself?! I'm so screwed!
[Distress detected]
Huh?
[Assessing situation…]
[Assimilating memory data…]
[Constructing spatial and kinetic parameters… complete]
Before Izuku could even ponder what was happening, Bakugou lunged at the green-haired boy with his right arm cocked back.
[Incoming threat vector, Redirect impact]
Izuku's left arm moved to slap Bakugou's right swing aside as if out of reflex, causing the blond boy to lose his balance and stumble.
[Target balance reduced, Exploit opening]
Suddenly, Izuku knew exactly what to do as he widened his stance, tripping Bakugou's right leg to make him fall. At the same time he turned to look at the two other bullies.
[Target assessment: Neutralize]
[Bulk, aerial mobility, able. Fix: Disable mobility]
[Skull, long reach, able. Fix: Exploit finger length]
[Kacchan, explosive palms, prone. Fix: Exploit aggressive behavior]
No wait! What am I thinking?! I don't want to hurt them!
[Directive added: minimal damage; Reassessing options…]
Meanwhile, the two other bullies only saw Izuku make a few small movements and Bakugou was already on the ground. The grins on their faces disappeared as they looked at Bakugou at a loss.
Bakugou sat on the ground in disbelief for a moment, before getting up and charging at Izuku. "What the hell? You're just a quirkless little shit!"
Another lunge at Izuku caused him to back up in fear and fall onto his butt.
Ow! That hurt! Good thing this playground is covered in sand…
[Position: vulnerable, Risk: high, Tactical advantage required. Searching…]
[Found: Sand, minute particles, adequate eye irritant, minimal trauma]
Automatically, Izuku grabbed a fistful of sand beside him before another thought stopped him.
[Delay attack, Higher success rate at shorter range]
[…]
[…Now]
Izuku proceeded to throw the handful of sand into Bakugou's eyes, right before the bully could stand over him. "Sorry, Kacchan!"
Bakugou cried out in agony as he hunched over from getting blinded.
[Targets temporarily occupied, Escape window available, Plotting optimum escape route…]
Immediately, Izuku went to grab the other crying boy's hand to pull him up, and ran at full sprint away from the bullies and the playground. "C'mon, now's our chance!"
Still bewildered by the turn of events, the two other boys simply stood and watched Izuku run away with their newest victim. Meanwhile, Bakugou barely managed to recover, frantically searching his surroundings half-blind while swearing aloud. "Get back here Deku! I'm gonna kill you!"
[Retreat: success, Status: secure]
Evening
"Mom, I'm serious! I think just found my quirk!" Izuku said excitedly through a mouthful of rice at the dinner table.
Seeing her son smile again after a week of watching him being depressed was a great relief for Midoriya Inko.
"Alright, alright, Izuku dear. I'm just glad nobody got hurt, but are you really sure it's not just my baby boy being super smart?" Inko said with a giggle as she tickled Izuku's cheek.
"No, Mom! It doesn't feel the same as when I'm thinking about hero quirks and writing them in my notebook you know? It felt different! It was, uhm, almost like I just knew what to do!" Izuku replies as he spattered rice onto the table.
"Izuku dear, whether you have a quirk or not. I want you to know that I'll support you no matter what, okay?" Inko didn't want to give any false hope to Izuku, not after what her son just went through. Then, she turned her attention to the kitchen counter behind her to grab a small vial of soy sauce with her Attraction of Small Objects quirk.
Izuku intently watched his mother use her quirk, seeing it in action never gets old for him.
[Point of interest; Analysing…; Insufficient data, Inquire more information]
"Oh! Mom, can you explain your quirk to me again? In more detail if you can, pleasepleaseplease?" asks Izuku as he puts down his empty bowl and chopsticks.
"Hmm, I don't know what else to tell you. As you know, I can drag items and make them float towards me. The size of the item is limited to anything that can fit in my palm and light enough for me to carry with one hand. Oh, I probably forgot to mention this one, I can always pull them to about the length of my hand. If something is farther away, then I have to pull multiple times for it to reach my grasp."
[Multiple force application on target object required if exceeding reach]
[Assumption: target object must have periods of acceleration and deceleration]
[Deduction: target object must have zero velocity at arbitrary point in movement vector]
Oh! I remember now, the objects always have to move and stop repeatedly before they reach her hand. Then that means….
"Mom, wouldn't that mean you can hold a small object in mid-air without it moving?" asked Izuku
"Now that you mention it, I've never thought of it that way, let me try. Hmm…" Inko replied, as she focused on the soy sauce vial again that is now in the middle of the table. She reached out to pull it towards her, and then tried to hold it in the air before it reached her grasp.
The object stopped in mid-air, and for a split second it almost seemed like it would actually stay there as Inko's outstretched palm started to tremble. She lost her grip on the vial as it fell onto the table, spilling some soy sauce.
"Oh dear, I almost thought that worked! Now I've made a mess..." Inko said as she started to get up from her chair.
[Analysis near complete, physical inspection required]
"Mom, let me see your hand." Izuku said, as he held his mother's hand and looked at it intensely.
"Izuku? Why are you staring at my hand like that? Are you alright?" asked Inko with a concerned expression.
[Data acquisition complete; Assimilating…; Optimizing…]
Whoa… what is this feeling? I feel like I know exactly how mother's quirk works now!
Wait, how is she not using it properly? Shouldn't she know bet…
…Oh.
Inko watched her son anxiously as Izuku stared at his half-empty rice bowl for a solid thirty seconds or so. "Izuku, Izuku? Stop messing around, I'm starting to get worried…"
"I know how it works now!" Izuku yelled as he suddenly sprung to life from his blank stupor, making his mother yelp.
"Don't scare me like that! I was really worried that you're…"
Izuku stood up on his chair and stretched his palm towards the vial, and the vial shot straight towards his palm without stopping.
Both mother and son looked at each other with their jaws slack for a moment.
"Aaaah my baby has my quirk! I'm so proud of you!" exclaimed Inko as she started crying fountains of tears and pulled Izuku into a tight hug. "Your quirk's even better than mine too! Izuku, you're going to be such an amazing hero, I just know it!"
I knew it! I'm not quirkless at all! I can't wait to be a proper hero with this quirk I just learned.
Wait, 'learned'?
Is this how quirks are passed down from a parent? That doesn't make sense.
[Insufficient data]
"Uhm, Mom? I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like I just learned the quirk from you, it's not actually my own."
"Alright, how about we go to the clinic again next week, I'm sure the doctor would be able to help us figure this out." Inko cleaned up the dinner table while humming to herself, obviously being in a good mood.
The following day
Izuku was playing with his toys in the living room, as he tried to pull his favourite All Might action figure towards him from the sofa using his new quirk. This time he did it just slow enough that the item would not fall to the ground.
The All Might figure was pulled slowly, bit by bit towards Izuku. "Now, if I do it faster…"
The toy sped up even faster than before and flew into Izuku's grasp. It made Izuku flinch since he was unprepared for that speed. It bounced off his palm and fell towards the ground.
No! All Might! It's going to break!
Izuku reached out with the quirk again and the toy briefly stopped a few inches above the floor.
Hey, that's funny, this feels like playing with a yo-yo.
What if I use the quirk at just the right intervals when I'm pulling from above?
The All Might action figure simply wobbled in the same spot mid-air. As if dangling from an invisible string.
[Quirk: Puppet String, Assimilation: Complete]
Izuku won't be getting One For All in this AU, I feel like the potential of his own quirk is already powerful enough on its own. His quirk is still just in its stages of infancy, so there will be more developments as my writing progresses.
Izuku's quirk allows him to intuitively understand the structure and operation of complex systems without special education or training, including learning someone else's quirk, inherently 'teaching' it to his own body if given enough understanding of it. Basically, it's Sylar's ability from the Heroes TV series, but with some of my own changes, since I have no plans on making Izuku walk the villain path.
Feel free to leave a review. This is my first time writing a story, and I'd love to know what I can improve on. Thanks!