Here's another idea I've had. I might develop it, I might not. What matters is I put it in writing before it escapes me.
Like most of my works, it's an AU. I won't tell you much about it, but I think the first chapter captures it well enough.
For my old readers, the third chapter of Dwarf Effect is in the works. For everyone else, welcome!
"We both knew it would come to this one day, Inko. I was hoping I would have more time with you two, but..."
"Hisashi..."
"Now it's personal. Now our Izuku's safety is at stake. With a quirk like his, everyone and their dog will be after his body. And we both know who would get him in the end. No, the Association cannot have my son!"
"But what will you do"
"It'll call in a few favours, maybe get some of my old pals from the clan to help me? But one thing is certain: the way the world is today, our son will never have a normal life. The moment the world sees his quirk, he'll be in danger. He must never be seen using it."
"But... He dreams of becoming a hero, like All Might himself. What do we do, forbid it?"
"No. As much as I want him to be safe, we cannot crush his dreams. But we can discourage it. Hide his quirk from him if we have to."
"I... I'm not sure I can do that. Especially since any doctor we go to will clearly notice it."
"I know a guy who could help us with that. He'll list him as quirkless if I ask him to. I must be off now, if I want to catch the train."
"Your coat, dear."
"Thank you. I... I've left enough for you two to get by in our savings account."
"That's fine, I'll rejoin the workforce."
"No, keep it! It's only fair, since I'm..."
"Hisashi..."
"I'll call you when I get there."
"I love you."
"Right back at you. And when he wakes up... Tell him daddy loves him very much. Goodbye."
It began at the dawn of the 20th century, in Qingqing, a town in Hebei province, China. A luminescent boy was born. Soon, all over the world, more and more people emerged with extraordinary traits and seemingly unnatural abilities. Some called it a 'quirk', a disgusting mutation. Others called it a wonderful leap in human evolution. Regardless, more and more people posessed these traits, going from being called 'mutants', to 'supers', then finally becoming the norm. In the modern day, more than eighty percent of humanity posesses some quirk, as these powers came to be called.
As humanity evolved and learned to accept these new abilities, so too did their nations' governments, adapting in various ways to the emergence of quirks. When the population of the quirkful first became the majority, most of the world saw a massive crime wave. In response, a new job emerged, one only dreamed of before - that of a hero. From new military branches to private hero companies assisting the police, the way heroes were incorporated into society varied from country to country. But in the end, no matter where they were from, it was practically every child's dream to be a hero.
Midoriya Izuku was one such child. Since before he could even understand the concept of a hero, he wanted to be one. As he grew older, he only became more enamoured with society's protectors. It was no surprise that, on a sunny spring morning, instead of heading to school like a boy his age should have, he was running as fast as his lanky legs could carry him towards sounds of commotion.
"What's going on?"
"I think he stole a purse."
"A purse? He can turn into a beast and he's a purse snatcher?"
The young teenager pushed through the crowd of people and, true to their word, a villain stood above the road, on the train tracks, an enormous hairy beast. He was glancing around nervously, like a cornered animal, backing away from a hero fighting him.
"I didn't steal anything! Get away from me!" he screamed, waving his arms around, knocking over a metal support structure. It fell towards the gathered crowd. But, it was stopped, caught by a hero wearing thick metal braces on his forearms.
"That was close! Good thing I was here. These braces, made by Ōmatsu, really help my strong arms!"
The teen's face brightened. "It's Death Arms!"
"Out of my way! Here I come!" a wooden man shot past the crowd, growing his arm into a long branch to climb onto the train tracks. The crowd cheered for Kamui Woods, a rising young star in the hero business.
"Purse-snatching, disturbing the peace and stopping trafic during rush hour." he listed as he landed, facing the villain. "You are evil incarnate. I shall dispatch you swiftly with my justice, brought to you by Ykea!"
He retracted his arm and Midoriya Izuku gasped. "He's about to use his finisher!" he gushed. "Lacquered Chains Prison!" Branches grew out of the hero's arm, shooting towards his foe. "That's it," the teen said. "Once those branches surround him, he'll-..."
"Canyon Cannon!"
Before the wooden hero could trap his target, another hero jumped in, kicking the villain off the rails. A giant, twenty-metre blonde heroine had knocked him unconscious... and out of the way of Kamui's attack, leaving the hero dumbfounded, questioning what had happened.
"Sorry to... butt in like this," the huge heroine said, shamelessly sticking her hindquarter to the observing crowd. "I was just there in McRonalds, having my breakfast - they have a really good deal - when I heard you were fighting a villain, Kamui Woods. I hope I didn't... bum you out."
"Mt. Lady, you kill-stealing cun-... ah... cunning woman!" the hero whose thunder had just been stolen accused, barely dodging a slip up which would badly influence the public's opinion of him. The villain was caught, he was seen fighting it and his endorsement had been heard. That's all that mattered.
Midoriya Izuku, meanwhile, had taken a notebook, entitled 'Hero Analysis for the Future, No. 13', out of his bag. "Mt. Lady. -Quirk: Gigantification? -Clear usefulness in combat, crushing weight/great body mass. Seems to be able to move with the agility of a regular sized human (stronger, more compact bones/muscles?). -Can she control which size she grows to? Can she grow smaller? Does her body heat affect how long she can stay in her giant form?" He wrote into his notebook, mottering to himself.
"Hey, kid," a person spoke to him.
"Huh?"
"That notebook. You wanna be a hero too?"
Izuku smiled. "Yes, sir! More than anything in the world!"
"I see. Good luck then!"
"Thank you!"
"By the way, shouldn't you be heading to school?"
"Oh crap!"
"Alright, class," their homeroom teacher adressed them, a serious look on his face. "You're in your last year of middle school, which means it's time for you to start thinking about your futures." he picked up a stack of papers. "The school wants me to distribute these career handouts to help you, but..." He threw them, letting them rain over the class. "Who am I kidding? You all want to be heroes anyway!"
The class laughed with their teacher, letting their quirks out. They were a varied bunch, from a boy who could pluck his eyes out to a girl who could set her hands onf fire. Izuku, however, just kept his head low, more interested in his desk. "Yes, yes, you all have amazing quirks. But remember, you're not supposed to be using them in class," the teacher warned. "There are many schools to choose from across the country, so I'm sure you'll all get into the hero course!"
"Come on, teach!" came a voice from somewhere in the middle of the classroom. "Most of these egotistical egalitarian extras*. They'll be lucky if they end up as some background B-listers who barely make enough to sustain themselves."
'Leave it to Kacchan to use 'egalitarian' as an insult,' Izuku thought to himself a few rows back, his head still low.
The rest of the class did not take the insult as well as the green-haired boy. "Hey! You're not better than us!"
"Bakugo!" the teacher warned. "What did we say about insulting your classmates?"
"Ain't no insult if it's the truth, though," the spiky-haired blonde defended his point. "There are so many heroes today, you have to be better than great to make it. Like me."
"Oh yeah, you're applying to Yūei High School, aren't you?" the teacher remarked.
"That's right! The national school, the top hero academy in Japan and one of the best in the world, right there with the Xavier Institute, Camelot School of Heroics, and the St. Petersburg Combat and Rescue Hero Forces Academy. I aced the mock tests, and the practical portion of the exam should cave to my Explosion quirk!"
"Oh, Midoriya wanted to apply for Yūei too, didn't he?" the teacher noted, causing the entire class to freeze still. Izuku slowly raised his gaze, silently asking the teacher: 'Why?'
Then, there was laughter. A lot of laughter, all directed towards the boy in question. "What, him?" one student shouted. "But he's qurkless!" Ironically, his quirk consisted of having a nose ten centimetres long and nothing else, leaving one to wonder how he had better chances at being a hero than someone with no quirk.
Izuku got up. "Y-yes, but... there's no rule against it, a-and according to the, to the Marvelite school of thought-..."
"DEKU, YOU NEONATAL NYCTALOPIC NERD!" shouted Bakugo Katsuki, slamming his right hand on Izuku's desk, accompanying the motion with an explosion, nocking the boy back. "WHAT THE FUCHSIA IS YOUR PROBLEM!"
"Bakugo," the teacher warned. "What did we say about explosions, both figurative and literal, in the classroom?"
All men are not created equal. That is both our blessing and our curse. Some people can run fast, others posess great strength, some are masters of logical thinking while others are blessed by a creative mind and others still posess a talent for music. However, one cannot help if one dreams of something it posesses no talent for. Like Midoriya Izuku.
As mentioned, the boy wanted to be a hero ever since he understood the concept. He wanted to save people's lives with a confident smile on his face, just like his idol, the greatest hero of his time, All Might. Half American, half Japanese, and all hero, the man had become a Symbol of Peace for the world. His catchphrase, though cheesy to the extreme, conveyed his simple message: "Never fear, for I am here!"
Little Izuku was only five years old. He loved All Might so much, he had all the merchandise. He probably added a thousand views to his official debut video on YouChute. Yes, to the pre-schooler, he was the coolest hero ever, and he wanted to be just like him, to save people with a confident smile. Thus, it was a terrible shock to him when his quirk tests at the doctor's came out negative.
"You should probably just give it up," were the words of the family doctor, a bald man with a bushy mustache and glasses thicker than his thumb. Izuku could swear this was not his usual doctor, but he wasn't sure why his mum would suddenly take him to a different one.
"What do you mean?" his mother asked. People would tell the boy that he was her spitting image.
"How do I put this..." The doctor began. "What do you know about quirks?"
"Well, only what we learn in school. It's... been a while..."
"Then allow me to refresh your memory," he offered. "Quirks, or Propriae, are a family of fungi who survive by forming a close symbiosis with animals, most notably humans. The humans have adapted to this, being more receptive to this symbiosis, however, some still posess immune systems which would reject the quirk fungus's spores. Tell, me, what are your and his father's quirks?"
"I can pull small objects towards me. My husband breathes fire."
"I see. A child will usually receive spores from both his parents, and it would develop into a quirk similar to one of theirs, or a combination. Sometimes, children will receive a completely new quirk, usually from inhaling foreign quirk spores. However, there are still instances where a child develops the old human immune system, which rejects the spores."
The doctor paused at this. "I'm afraid the tests show that your son is one of those children."
Izuku cried heavily that evening. He was devastated. Everyone he knew had a quirk, from a guy with wings to Kacchan, who could create miniature explosions in his palms. Would he be left behind? Even without a quirk, could he still become a hero? When asked, his mom cried, apologising profusely for being a bad mother. That was neither what he wanted nor needed to hear.
Izuku was unsure why that memory came to mind as he was returning from school that day. Could it be connected with what Kacchan had said before he left? Bakugo Katsuki had been his friend since kindergarten. He was brash, his personality as explosive as his quirk, but they always hung out. Things changed when they entered middle school though; it became apparent that Izuku wasn't giving up on becoming a hero, so Katsuki started to try anything and everything to change his mind. By the end oftheir second year, it had grown into fully blown bullying. Izuku knew the old Kacchan would never had told him to kill himself and hope to be reborn with a quirk, like he had today.
The boy clenched his fist. Let Kacchan think what he wants. It'll be that much more satisfying when he does become a hero. He just needed to hold his head up high, raise his fists up in the air**, and laugh fearlessly, like All Might did!
Boy, was he glad that the suburban streets were empty, because he looked ridiculous.
Or were they? His laughter was cut short when he noticed a man walking towards him. The man stpped when he noticed him as well. Then he spoke in monotone, sending chills down the boy's spine: "Halt, civilian. Lie down on the ground with your hands behind your head."
"Uh... Is everything alright sir?" Izuku asked, backing away from the strange man, but he kept walking towards him, the stoick expression never leaving his face. His black suit fluttered in the wind slightly, as a gentle breeze passed through the underpass. The teen lifted his hand defensively, continuing to back away. "Look, I don't want any trouble."
"The civilian will submit," the man spoke again. "If the civilian does not submit, this unit shall be forced to use lethal force."
Izuku suddenly tripped, falling on his backside. The strange man kept approaching. The teen gazed into his black eyes. He could have sworn he saw a flash of red in them. The man retracted his arm, preparing to strike. The boy flinched, looking away, shielding his head with his arms. But the strike never came. He heard a whoosh, then a strike of flesh on flesh. The boy looked again.
Between him and the assailant stood a man in a skin-tight black suit, a black mask concealing his face. A red belt was tied around his hips, with several holsters hanging from it, and a matching red bandana. The katana he held in his right hand glistened in the sunlight, his left returning to the grip, from the punch he had delivered to the assailant's shoulder.
"The civilian will lay down his weapons and submit," the strange man said to the swordsman. "Otherwise this unit will use lethal force."
The swordsman did not comply. Instead, he raised his sword above his head, preparing to attack. "Stand back, young man!" he warned. "It's a rogue android!"
Izuku froze. There was little public knowledge surrounding androids, only rumors and conspiracy theories. It was speculated, though, that there were many military androids in Japan, due to her proximity to the Red Dragon, China. If this was a military android gone rogue...
The swordsman engaged the android, slashing at it, but the machine caught the blade in its hand. The masked man pulled a gun from his belt, firing at its torso. The machine, as if completely ignoring the shots, punched the swordsman with its right. The man was knocked back several metres, barely landing on his feet.
The sword, however, remained in the android's left, and it grabbed the grip, turning it on its owner. Then, it lunged at him at an incredible speed, slashing at him. The man moved out of the way, firing at the machine, to no apparent effect. The android kept trying, but the masked man was quick. However, the android quickly adapted its fighting stile, and managed to kick the gun out of the man's hand, then his feet from under him. It prepared to stab him through the heart, finishing him off.
Suddenly, the rogue android was knocked off balance. Izuku had thrown his bag at it. He was charging towards it. The boy questioned what he was doing as ran into the machine. His actions once again preceeded his thoughts when he tried to knock the android over. They only caught up to him when he found himself lifted in the air by the neck.
Izuku struggled, clawing at the android's left hand cluching his neck, his legs dangling in the air. His body demanded air, yet no air would enter his lungs. Then, he felt a sharp pain in his gut - the machine had run him through with the sword. He was thrown on the ground, bleeding through the hole in his stomach. 'This is it, huh?' he thought.
The android turned back around to the masked man, only to find him gone. Its head darted around, trying to locate him. It detected a soft sound behind itself, but wasn't quick enough: a knife was rammed into its head, damaging the central processing unit, shutting the machine down.
"What a waste..." the man said, removing his mask. A rough-faced, middle-aged man he was, with a long, shallow scar running along his left cheek. He checked the android again, confirming its destruction. Then, he turned to Izuku, who was lying on the ground, cluntching his stomach. He was covered in blood, with a small puddle under him. He was moaning in pain.
"Let me see that," the man said, crouching next to him.
Izuku didn't react. He was still in shock. So, the swordsman grabbed his hand and quickly removed it from the wound. The boy struggled as the man felt his stomach.
"No wound? Do you have a regenerative quirk of some sort?"
Midoriya stopped strugling. "Huh?" He looked at where he had been stabbed. True to the man's words, there was no wound. His school uniform was stained with blood, there was a hole in it... but no hole in his stomach. 'What? How?'
"But... I'm quirkless. I have no quirk."
"Well, evidently you do."
"No, you don't understand! I'm quirkless! The doctor said so."
The man got up. "I saw a vending machine not far from here. Want a drink? You can tell me all about it."
"I... some green tea sounds nice."
And so it was that Izuku told a complete stranger of how he was quirkless, and how he wanted to become a hero. Well, they weren't complete strangers anymore - they did just fight a rogou android together and survive the ordeal. That had to count for something. As they sipped the cold tea, the man in black listened attentively.
"So, you desire to be a hero, but believed your whole life to posess no quirk," the man summarised.
"Yes," the boy confirmed. "But now, it seems I do have one."
The man hummed. "Tell me, boy... What is your name?"
"Izuku, sir. Midoriya Izuku."
"Midoriya? Could you be related to Midoriya Hisashi?"
"He's my dad."
"So, you're Hisashi's boy then. And I'm guessing Inko is your mother. She must be, you look a lot like her. How curious."
"How do you know my parents?"
"Oh, we go way back. We moved in the same circles, before they decided to settle down and have you. Haven't seen them in... fifteen years. How are they?"
"I... mom's doing good. She does some oddjobs from time to time, mostly work from home, but we have enough money to get by for years. Dad... left when I was four or five. He calls us weekly, or on special dates, but... won't say where he is or what he's doing."
"I see. I'm sorry to hear that."
They were silent for a while. Then, Izuku asked: "So... what's your quirk?"
"Excuse me?"
"You fought that android so... well, it was great," he gushed. "You must have an amazing combat quirk, like heightened reflexes or senses or-..."
"I have a forked tongou and pointy ears," the man cut him off. "As far as I know, it gives me no superhuman capabilities, beyond aesthetics."
"But... the way you fought..."
"I guess I could tell you," the swordsman said. "I come from a family that has, for generations, been affiliated with an organisation that can track its roots way back to the 14th century. We are trained in both armed and unarmed combat, as well as survival and covert ops, and then sell these skills as mercenaries. The android?" he pointed at the dead machine. "A client wanted it dead before it could cause too much damage."
"So... you're a shinobi?"
"We prefer ninja - it's more marketable - but yes."
"So, the rogue android... You didn't need a quirk to beat it, just skill."
"Well, some luck as well, it seems. I attacked it slightly unprepared. If you weren't there, I might have died. It was cocky of me. But yes. I've been trained since I could walk."
"Martial arts..." Izuku wondered to himself.
"Tell you what?" the ninja said, getting up. "I owe you for saving me back there, not to mention I still owe one to your father. Why don't I show you. Come to Dagoba beach, Saturday morning."
"Show me?"
"You want to be a hero, don't you? You'll need more than just a quirk to get into Yūei."
"You-... You think I can become a hero?"
"Anyone can become a hero. But most people choose not to put their minds and bodies through the work needed to do so. So, boy... You too can become a hero. So, what do you chhose?"
Tears welled up in the teens eyes. That was the first time anyone had told him that his dream was achievable. Even his mother apologised instead of anwering. Even Kacchan - before he changed - told him to just become a police officer. But this man believed in him, and offered to help him. How could he refuse.
"Well, I'd better report in with this android," the ninja stated, slinging the machine over his shoulder. "Dagoba beach, Saturday morning."
"Wait! You never told me your name."
"Hagakure Saki."
Meanwhile, in a run-down bar in Koribanu's undrebelly, there was a knock on the front door. A shadowy man of black mist, dressed in a suit and tie, went to open it. In front of it, he found a slim man, in black pants, a black v-neck and red sneakers, with fourteen disembodied hands holding onto his arms, chest, neck, one covering his face.
"Aha, you must be the new leader of the Japanese branch?" the shadowy man presumed.
"Exactly. Shigaraki Tomura, level 20 branch leader, evil playthrough." He offered his hand, showing the mist man the ghostly complexion of his skin. "And you are?"
"Call me Kurogiri, sir. I'll be your advisor and second-in-command." They shook hands.
"Good. I already have some evil schemes that I need you to get on."
"You can save that for later, sir. First, I'd like to show you around our hideout, if you wouldn't mind."
"A tutorial? Really." Tomura sighed. "Fine."
"Very well, sir. Before we begin, do you have any questions regarding me?"
"Have you heard of the High Elves?"
*Since Kacchan likes to excesively use profanity, I, the author, have decided to keep the age-ratings down (and add a little humour) by following the example of the Belgian author Hergé. After all, what better way to curse or insult someone than by using words that wouldn't be censored on television!
**Play Metal, louder than Hell!