LES: Lucky you guys! This week you're getting two chapters instead of one! Chapter 12 came out shorter than expected because I realized I'm dying to move onward with the story. More info at the end of the chapter...

Chapter 12

Over the last few weeks, Izuku had also made his first real friend in Iida Tenya. Back in public school, the other children definitely wouldn't have accepted his cover story about having to hide his quirk, but for Iida it was pretty normal since half the class also did not reveal their quirks.

But Iida had eventually shown Izuku his own quirk: the mutant-type quirk Engine, where he had engines in his calves that allowed him to run incredibly fast when he pushed himself. However, like most children their age, Iida was still a little shaky when it came to controlling his quirk. Specifically, when he got up to speed he had a hard time turning and breaking. Not to mention he was also prone to stalling his engines if he pushed himself too hard.

Izuku thought it was an amazing quirk, and he told Iida so while apologizing once again that he couldn't share the information about his quirk with Iida in return.

"I don't mind." Iida said. "I'll find out when we get to U.A., right? And then I'll probably even find out who your father is."

True to his word, Izuku had not said a word about being All Might's son. But he hadn't even told anyone his father's real name despite having permission to do so. Izuku knew from years of stalking that it was almost impossible to trace the hero All Might back to Yagi Toshinori, but that didn't mean that someone with better resources than just the internet couldn't do that. There were probably several pro heroes in Japan who knew All Might's real name, and could easily trace Izuku back to All Might if the information got out.

Weeks into their friendship, Izuku had not even allowed Iida to see his father, even in his far-less impressive real form. Iida knew that Izuku spent his Sundays training with his father, after Iida's first failed attempt to ask Izuku to visit his family on Sunday. But Izuku eventually got the chance to meet Iida's parents, both of them pro-heroes, and even got to briefly meet Ingenium once. In return, Iida had met Izuku's mother.

Inko had cried tears of happiness that day after Iida left to go home. Iida was the first child that Izuku had ever brought over to hang out with since Bakugou, and Iida seemed like he was far more well behaved than Bakugou.

Not only that, but Izuku had made a couple of friends in his new class. Iida was his best friend, but there were a couple of other boys in the class that Izuku enjoyed spending time with.

And it seemed like Iida largely felt the same way. The only boy was not exactly popular in the class. He was a little too serious a student to ever step out of the stigma of being a nerd, but Izuku didn't mind that at all. Sure Iida was much smarter than him in many ways, but Izuku was not stupid. He was a good student. Although neither of them could really compete with the smartest and one of the most popular students in their class.

Yaoyorozu Momo.

Like many of the students, they did not know a lot about her. All that anyone knew about her was that she was very rich from having both of her parents be pro heroes. At first, Izuku couldn't even imagine speaking to her… to any sort of girl at all! But that all changed one day when he was sitting under a tree working on his notebook.

"Hello?" A voice asked, and Izuku almost fell over when he looked up and saw… Yaoyorozu! He completely froze. "I'm sorry to bother you… Midoriya, right? I just see you working in that notebook all the time, and I was wondering what you were writing in it?"

"I, er..." Izuku began. He knew that he was being completely weird. So he stopped, took a breath, and started again. "It's a hobby of mine. I kind of like to study other people's quirks."

"Study? How?" Yaoyorozu sat down next to him, which almost caused Izuku to lose his ability to speak again.

"Well..." Izuku began, turning the notebook around to show her the page he was currently working on: which happened to be Endeavor. A rescue that he'd been a part of last night made Izuku rethink his possible highest temperature fire that he could produce, so he was updating Endeavor's page with the new possible information. "I like analyzing other people's quirks, finding strengths and weaknesses."

"Oh. So do you have some sort of copy quirk?" Yaoyorozu asked. "And you take all of these notes on quirks that you might have to use sometime?"

"Oh, no! Nothing like that!" Izuku said quickly. "I don't have any sort of copy quirk. I just find it interesting to analyze quirks."

"Well, I still find that really interesting. If you get really good at that, you could probably quickly analyze any villain you come across." She suddenly gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry… I assumed that you are eventually going to try to be a hero."

"Oh, no, that's fine. Back in my old school, every single kid wanted to eventually go into the hero track. I do want to go into the hero track myself."

"Then that hobby could be a great help for you." Yaoyorozu said. "I have a quirk where I have to study a lot for it to work its best, so I suppose I understand having a hobby just for eventually making yourself a better hero. Anyway, thanks." She stood up and waved as she left.

Izuku stared after her for a few seconds before his brain kicked into gear again. Oh my god… I talked to a girl!

That had certainly never happened before. And, at first, Izuku thought it was just a one-off thing. But then Yaoyorozu found him and Iida the next day, much to Iida's surprise. "We are pleased to have you in our group, but won't your friends miss you?" Iida asked.

"Sometimes friendships don't work out." Yaoyorozu said, sitting down next to the two boys. "I'm the child of two highly ranked pro heroes and very wealthy because of it. I just found out that many of the people who used to talk to me only did so because of my parents or how rich I am."

To be honest, Izuku had no clue how wealthy All Might was. The Number One hero was naturally tight-lipped about his finances, but Izuku could make guesses that he was probably very wealthy but also pathologically unable to spend any of that money on himself. After all, his house was very modest and almost spartan when it came to decoration. Despite spending almost nothing on himself, he completely made sure that Inko and Izuku had plenty of money to live on, and he continued to donate vast sums of money to various charities. So Izuku knew that his father was pretty wealthy, he just had no idea how much, nor did he ever experience what some might call the wealthy lifestyle.

And while Izuku had no first hand experience with people trying to befriend him only for money or because of who his parents were, he could imagine how upsetting it would be. He would not be able to hide the fact that he was All Might's son forever. And when the day of his exposure came, would the friend that he had right now leave him? Would he be flooded with a bunch of fake friends only looking to get closer to All Might?

"I have… experienced that before." Iida admitted. "I'm sorry that happened to you, Yaoyorozu."

"I'm sorry, too." Izuku said. "I haven't experienced anything like that, but I probably will when I can speak openly about who my father is. I suppose the only thing you can do is hope that you pick the right friends. Friends who are there for you because they like who you are, rather than how much money you have or who your parents are."

Three young children, all facing the same burdens and obstacles on their paths to becoming heroes. All three of them singled out from their peers by the expectations of high ranking pro hero families. And all three of them with the innate understanding of the challenges they faced on that journey to become heroes… a journey that will be filled with pain and blood and hard work. These three knew that the journey ahead would be hard, but they could support each other, and support themselves along with way.

LES: Despite being probably the shortest chapter, this one was probably the hardest to write. Not in finding time, but in finding ideas. To be frank, I'm going to do a time skip next chapter. We are going to skip forward in time to about the time that the anime started: 10 months before the U.A. entrance exam. Here's some small tidbits from the time skip that are not worth whole chapters:

1. Despite going to the same elementary school, Izuku and Todoroki never ended up in the same class. As one of my reviewers pointed out, Endeavor would probably check the backgrounds of every single child in Todoroki's classes, and probably would have forcibly found out about Izuku being All Might's son. He probably would have told his son to set up their rivalry. And, to be frank, I want to preserve the "Are you All Might's secret love child?" scene, because that's a riot. (Do I need a better reason than this?)

2. Izuku, Iida, and Yaomomo all went to the same middle school, which for the sake of convenience will be Somei Private Academy. I've had one reviewer ask me if I remember that Iida went to this academy, and from the written tone I can only assume that this a real school and messes up my limited geography about Japan/Tokyo. And to that, I say… fictional world and AU of that fictional world. This Somei Private Academy is in Tokyo, along with U.A. itself. After all, we know that MHA is not a perfect reproduction of the real world Japan. There is probably no Kamino Ward or a Dagobah beach, after all. Why I don't think that U.A. is in Musutafu? Because Izuku says its a forty minute train ride from his apartment in Musutafu to U.A. I guess I could be wrong in this assumption. We're not that big on trains here in California. Someone in New York City could probably say if a train could take 40 minutes going from one side of a city to another, but it's just not something in my experience.

3. All Might started the process of joining U.A. as a staff member a little earlier than he did in canon, but not as a teacher. He started off as a guest lecturer. His time has decreased like it does in canon, so he's having a hard time maintaining himself as a pro. He knows he's going to have to retire soon, and has decided to eventually move into being a teacher for all young heroes. Izuku's first year will be his first year as a full-blown teacher rather then just a regular guest speaker.