* AN: Great thanks to my friend Skelekitty for his help in polishing this story idea.

Disclaimer: I DO_NOT own "Boku no Hero Academia". No profit is being made.

Boku no Hero Academia :: Heat Engine

Like every other kid in this world, Izuku Midoriya had had an appointment with a doctor shortly after his fourth birthday, one to see what kind of Quirk he was born with. It was then his dreams of growing up into a powerful Hero like All Might were crushed. The X-ray image of his feet that the doctor made showed an extra joint in his pinky toes, a sign that the boy was quirkless.

Sure, there were still quite a few people like that - between nineteen and twenty percent of Japan's population according to the most recent census - but they were often looked down upon due to their lack of Quirk, even by people who were 'blessed' with incredible powers like having green skin or being able to safely pull their eyes out of their sockets… And as Izuku just happened to be the only kid without a Quirk in his class, he instantly became a target for bullying. Something that a few of his teachers pretended to not even notice.

Between his dreams being crushed and the sudden partiality he was facing from the other kids and even some adults, this was the 'darkest hour' of Izuku's short life, and the green-haired boy almost gave up on everything… In the end, though, his deeply-ingrained desire to become a Hero won and, eventually, he pulled himself back together and did his best to adapt to this new status quo.

As time went on, however, people began noticing that Izuku for some reason had a noticeably higher stamina than his peers, far more so that could be reasonably be explained by his natural fitness. At first, his teachers thought that he was cheating and slacking off during his Physical Education classes - he even had been punished several times for his 'misconduct' - but once it became clear that he was doing everything as instructed, they decided that he needed to see a Quirk specialist again.

This time he was examined by a different and more competent doctor, who did the full array of tests, including taking the boy's blood and DNA samples. And the results he got were quite interesting: turns out, Izuku did have a Quirk after all. A rare case for sure, given how he still had that extra joint in his pinky toes, but definitely not a unique one. The doctor who had proclaimed him quirkless previously apparently forgot about that and jumped to a wrong conclusion based on nothing more than a single X-ray image.

As for the nature of Izuku's Quirk… It was much like a combination of his parents' Quirks and allowed him to passively gather heat energy from his surroundings and then use it to empower his body. The effect was quite weak, but it was definitely there and it was what gave Izuku his superior stamina. In theory, it was also making him a tiny bit stronger, but since the young Midoriya wasn't doing anything that would require extra strength, his body 'compensated' by becoming a bit weaker. If he were to start working out, though…

The news that he did have a Quirk after all did surprisingly little to make Izuku's classmates stop bullying him. It just changed their reason for doing so: now they were bullying him for having a useless and unnoticeable Quirk. Indeed, Izuku looked like a perfectly-normal human - no horns, no wings, no usual colors of skin or hair, nothing - and how could his better stamina even be compared to super-strength of All Might, hellfire of Endeavour or even the explosions his once-friend Bakugo could produce?

Having learned a lot about Quirks over the last couple of years, Izuku himself was quite aware that his was far from the most powerful or impressive out there. And while he had tried multiple times to think of some new ways to use his Quirk, there seemed to be none. It was a passive one, after all. He didn't let it get in the way of his dream of becoming a Hero one days, though. After all, there were a few pro-Heroes who fought against villains with nothing but martial arts training and their natural strength. And if his Quirk was going to be of little help in achieving his dream, Izuku decided, then he would train his body and mind, just like those Heroes did.

~/ *** \~

Izuku was now fourteen years old and he had certainly grown quite a bit from the little kid he used to be. Thanks to the years of training from the local dojo he now had under his belt, he now was strong, fast and skilled. And possessed a rather enviable physique. The girls at the school still kept their distance from him. Indeed, what self-respecting middle-school girl wanted to be seen together with a mumbling dorky Quirk-obsessed nerd?

And speaking of Quirks… His Quirk, 'Heat Engine', was still nothing more than a passive energy absorption that empowered his body slightly. Its effects did grow more pronounced over the years, but it was still not very impressive. His classmates, of course, didn't forget about that, but as Izuku had shown himself to be quite capable of defending himself should someone try to physically bully him, they were using only verbal taunts nowadays - something that the green-haired teen had learned to ignore long ago.

Right now Izuku walking back home from school, writing his observations about that new Heroine's, Mt. Lady, Quirk into his special notebook #12 as he went. He was passing through an underpass under a highway when there was a sudden and abnormal movement behind him: a large amount of greenish gunk flowed out of the sewers and quickly assumed a man-like shape. This creature of smile then tried to pounce on the young Midoriya, but thanks to his martial arts training the green-haired teen had great reflexes and managed to dodge the villain's attack.

"What a fantastic medium-sized invisibility cloak you are." The living sludge said as it got ready to strike again. "But even with a great body like that you can't escape me forever. Just accept your fate as my new container. It will not hurt for long." The villain taunted as Izuku barely evaded its next pounce.

Knowing that he really didn't stand a chance against a villain with such a Quirk on his own, especially in a dirty underpass he was in right now, the green-haired teen decided to run. Hopefully he'd be able to get to the Hero-patrolled street before this living sludge could take his body as its own. Alas, even with all of his training his speed still was no match for the villain's and he found himself captured by the disgusting slime before he could even reach the underpath's exit.

"Now be a good invisibility cloak and don't trash around. It'll be over soon." The slime-man taunted as it tried to force himself into Izuku's mouth.

"DETROIT SMASH!" Someone shouted suddenly, and the sludge villain was instantly blown off Izuku by the winds that attack generated. "Fear not, citizen, for I am here!" The very real All Might, though dressed in dirty civilian clothes, said as he went to collect the defeated villain into an empty bottle. "Please forgive me for being late, but I had to chase this evildoer through the sewers." Indeed, with how big he was, the number one Hero would have a lot of trouble navigating through the sewers.

"T-Thank you for saving me…" Izuku replied on autopilot, still trying to recover from being almost drowned in slime that the villain had been made of. It took him a few more seconds to finally realize that All Might was talking to him. "Uhm… Sorry… But could you…" He began while reaching for his notebook and pen. The pro-Hero, though, seemed to be in a great hurry and ignored his attempt to ask for an autograph completely.

"It's good to see that you're alright, young man. Now forgive me, but I must go. I need to deliver this evildoer to the police." And with that he disappeared in a sudden burst of speed.

"Damn." Izuku swore: he would probably never have another chance to ask the greatest Hero of all Japan for an autograph…

A couple of hours later Izuku, now dressed in casual clothes and free from the burden of his schoolbag, was on his way to the local market to buy some fresh vegetables for his mother. Suddenly there was a sound of multiple explosions coming from the nearby square, and a few moments later a trio of police car sped past the young Midoriya, one of them carrying pro-Hero Backdraft. Curious about what was going on, Izuku followed the cars and soon saw what was the cause of this commotion.

In the center of the square there was the same sludge villain that All Might had saved him from earlier today. And submerged within the bastard's slime was a struggling teen. This boy was actually the one creating all these explosions as he made one futile attempts to free himself after another.

"Katsuki..." Izuku whispered, recognizing his classmate and once-friend. Immediately, he turned his attention to the police and assembled Heroes - they just stood there, doing their best to keep civilians away from the villain and his struggling victim. None of them were doing anything to actually help Katsuki. And this sight made Izuku's blood boil.

Now, he certainly held little love for his explosive classmate - Bakugo Katsuki was one of his main bullies, after all - but he certainly didn't wish death, or maybe even something worse, upon him. And the inaction of the authorities was pushing the blonde exactly towards that fate. As someone who wished to become a Hero, Izuku couldn't stand it.

"Why is no one trying to save him?" He asked loudly as he pushed his way towards the front of the crowd.

"Our Quirks won't work on this villain. The best we can do is limit the damage he cause until someone capable of dealing with him arrives." A hulking Hero known as Death Arms replied while doing his best to help nearby police officer push the crowd away from a particularly powerful explosion released by Katsuki.

Something snapped within Izuku when he heard this ...excuse. If these 'heroes' weren't going to save his classmate, he will! And with that thought he jumped past the like and ran towards the slime villain, an idea on how to free Katsuki already forming within his mind.

"Hey! Stop! Where are you going?!" Death Arms shouted as he tried to stop him. But Izuku was already too far away for the hulking man to catch him without abandoning his current duty of managing the crowd.

"I'm going to save you, Katsuki!" The green-haired teen shouted as charged at the slime villain, aiming to pierce through the sludge with his hand and then yank the other boy towards freedom.

"Get lost, Deku!" The explosive blonde shouted back angrily, before nearly choking on slime. "I don't need your fucking help!" Ignoring him, the young Midoriya enacted his plan. Unfortunately he had underestimated just how viscous the villain could make its body: his hand was stopped a couple of inches away from grasping Katsuki.

"Ah, my would-be invisibility cloak from earlier." The living sludge said, turning his eyes towards Izuku, who now futilely trying to pull his hand out of the slime. "But I don't need you anymore. I've found a better one. Once I get it, even All Might will not be able to stop me!" And with that it sent the green-haired youth flying away.

Izuku let out a cry of pain as he crashed onto the asphalt. Slowly pushing himself off the ground, the teen glared at the villain, who was back to trying to take over Katsuki's body. He was this close to saving Katsuki… If only he had more power… No, he must not give up! What kind of a Hero would he make if he did? Gritting his teeth, Izuku rose back onto his feet.

"I'm going to save you, Katsuki!" He promised, his mind concentrated on his classmate, who was finally starting to tire out. But what Izuku could really do? Despite what he had just boasted, he really didn't have the power to… Then he noticed that something strange was going on. His body was heating up as if he had suddenly developed a fever but the feeling of weakness that normally came from such condition was absent. Instead Izuku was feeling power unlike anything he had experienced before flowing through him.

Was it his Quirk's doing? No, right now wasn't the time to think about that. He needed to save Katsuki, and he had to do it now. Concentrating on the power flowing through him, Izuku pulled even more into his being, so much that his body was now surrounded by a thin aura of glowing greenish energy with occasional lightning arching here or there along his body.

"Give my classmate back, bastard!" Izuku yelled as he launched himself at the sludge villain again, moving at the speed well beyond he could achieve ever before. That came as a bit of a surprise for him but he quickly recovered and continued his charge at the villain. He then made another attempt to reach Katsuki, but something unexpected happened: instead of passing through the slime that was the villain's body, Izuku's hand collided with it. His body wasn't hurt by that, but it did catch the teen by surprise. Thankfully, the villain was surprised even more, giving Izuku a chance to strike again. And he did, his fist hitting the body-snatcher with enough force to throw him clean off the explosively-tempered blonde.

"Why you, bastard!" The slime-villain yelled as it reassembled itself. "I will kill you for this!" And then it tried to launch itself at the green-haired teen. Only to be stopped by a fireball exploding right in front of him.

"You will do no such thing." A mummy-like sidekick of Endeavor said as he joined the fight. "Surrender or be burned."

Now that a Hero willing and able to do something about the villain arrived, Izuku felt like his 'job' here was done and so he let his newfound power go. Only to be suddenly and violently thrown face-first onto the ground.

"Who gave you permission to butt into my fight with your shitty Quirk, Deku?!" Livid Katsuki shouted as he surrounded his right hand with small explosions. "Let me show you what happens when useless bastards like you…" He then went quiet and collapsed onto the ground at Izuku's feet as Death Arms knocked him out cold. The pro-Hero then gave Izuku the look, telling the green-haired teen that he was in a lot of trouble.

"What the hell did possess you to attack the villain?!" Death Arms yelled his questions as he slammed his giant hands onto the table, causing Izuku and the two policemen sitting around that table to jump in their skins. Even other two Heroes in the interrogation room winced as their hulking colleague questioned the teen. "You have performed an act of vigilantism and used your Quirk without a permit in broad daylight and in front of several professional Heroes already handling the case. What the hell were you thinking?! Be thankful that you are underage because if you were not, your act of stupidity would have earned you a stay in prison." Izuku couldn't help but wince upon hearing that. "Explain yourself, now."

"Death Arms, stop trying to interrogate the kid like he's a seasoned criminal." One of the policemen, detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, chastised the hulking Hero. "He won't say a thing if you strike such terror into him." He then turned to Izuku: "While he should've phrased it better, Death Arms is correct, Midoriya-san. What you did was both very dangerous and against the law. Please explain yourself."

"Katsuki-... Bakugo-san, I m-mean, was about to d-drown in slime and no one else was trying to save him. We might not… be f-friends, but I couldn't let him d-die." Izuku replied.

"So you decided to go at the villain yourself, interfering with Heroes already dealing with him, and breaking the law about Quirk usage?" Death Arms asked, glaring at the green-haired teen.

"Well…" Izuku began. "Until t-today my Quirk never did anything l-like that. As long as I h-had it, it was a passive Quirk that enhanced my stamina. T-this super-strength t-thing had never happened before." The hulking Hero gave him a 'are-you-serious' look.

"He is telling the truth." Detective Tsukauchi said. Death Arms let out a heavy sigh: the detective was a living lie detector, so it he was saying that the idiotic teen in front of him was telling the truth, he was indeed telling the truth.

"I see… I guess, your usage of Quirk without a permit can be overlooked then." He said. "But you still performed a very public act of vigilantism. What do you have to say about that?"

"B-but I was just trying to save my c-classmate! Something that you were supposed to do." Izuku protested. "B-but you were just standing there and watching him d-drown in slime! What if he died?" His question carried the implication that had that happened, the Heroes on scene would've essentially become accessories to murder through their inaction. And Death Arms wasn't stupid enough not to pick that up.

"How dare you!.." The hulking Hero exploded.

"The boy is not wrong." Kamui Woods, the second pro-Hero present in the room, said. "I might have not done much because I had been patrolling another part of the town when Bakugo-san was captured by the slime villain. But you were right there. And all you did was crowd control. As Heroes, it is our job to save those who need to be saving. But you didn't even try." Pausing for a moment to take a breath, he turned to look at Backdraft. "The same goes for you too." The fireman-themed Hero had the decency to lower his gaze in shame.

"The boy still broke the law." Death Arms countered. And he was technically right. But he was more or less the only one in the room to think that giving Izuku the real punishment was the right thing to do.

"So, you're saying that we should put this young man into prison for selflessly trying to save his classmate? For acting like a Hero should when you didn't?" The wood used said agitatedly. "Do not dare to ruin his future for being a hero. If you still try to have him punished, I will personally defend him until his name is cleared."

"The law says that what Midoriya-san did is wrong..." The detective began. "But I can't in the right mind give him a real punishment. He acted like a Hero should and if he wants to become a professional Hero in the future, there should be nothing standing in the way of his dream." He then turned towards Izuku. "That, young man, doesn't mean that you are get scot free, though."

And thus Izuku was 'sentenced' to writing a really long essay about personal safety during villains' attacks and why an untrained civilian shouldn't attack one, as well as sixty hours of community service around the police station - things like sweeping the parking area, washing the cars and helping in the cafeteria. On the bright side, the detective promised to keep the black mark of lawbreaking out of Izuku's public profile as long as he served this 'sentence' earnestly and didn't break any more laws.

~/ *** \~

Much to Izuku's surprise, Kamui Woods actually responded to his request for some help with his Quirk. Of course, the wood-user had an entirely different powerset, so he could offer little in terms of actual teaching - someone like Death Arms with his strength-enhancing Quirk would have been a better choice here, but there was no way Izuku would contact him after what had happened at the police station - but the man did help him with the legal side by essentially hiring him to clean up a section of the Musutafu seaside park and getting him an official permit to use his Quirk for that.

The first month had been really slow as Izuku had absolutely no idea how to reactivate the full power of his Quirk. And once he managed that for the first time, it took him another three weeks to learn how to do that both consistently and in an instant. Once he succeeded in that, though, clearing the park became a rather easy task.

Indeed, while fully-active - a mode Izuku decided to call 'Overdrive' - his Quirk greatly enhanced his physical strength and durability and granted him essentially unlimited stamina. Of course, it didn't come without downsides: the more energy Izuku drew through his 'Heat Engine', the hotter his body ran, and should he try to reach All Might's level, he would cook himself from the inside in a second. Even if he didn't push himself anywhere that far, he still needed to drink a lot of water to compensate for the sweat he shed as his body tried to get rid of the extra heat.

Anyway, thanks to finally getting a hang on his Quirk, Izuku managed to clear the seaside park in just half a year. Kamui Woods was actually impressed by his efforts - he had expected that the teen would need the whole year if not more to complete the task he had set before him. The boy certainly had the drive and the Heart to become a Hero, and if that was what he wanted, Kamui Woods felt obliged to offer his assistance.

Of course, their Quirks were still radically different and he could only offer general advice on how Izuku should proceed with improving his 'Heat Engine'. He also didn't have much free time as being a Hero without sidekicks, he had to do everything - paperwork included - on his own. Plus Izuku was still a middle-schooler, so he couldn't even be taken in as an intern. Still, he was within his rights to allow the young Midoriya to use his training facilities, at least while he was there to supervise him.

One thing that Kamui Woods absolutely refused to do - not that Izuku was asking for that - was giving him a recommendation or some other form of shortcut to entering a Hero school. The boy needed to earn his spot there on his own.

~/ *** \~

Ever since the sludge villain incident, Izuku's relationship with Katsuki had deteriorated to the point where the school administration decided that for everyone's safety they should just be in different classes. Thus, Katsuki never learned that Izuku intended to take U.A.'s Heroics Department entrance exam and never tried to threaten him into abandoning that idea. Between that and the confidence boost he got out of his training, first at the local dojo and then with Kamui Woods, Izuku was only as stressed as any other teen who was about to take an entrance exam into the most prestigious Hero Academy in the country would be when he walked through U.A.'s gates.

The written exam was quite a hard one - as was expected - but the young Midoriya was pretty sure that he did alright there. Not a hundred points, but still enough to get him in if he did well enough during the practical exam. And speaking of that: he and other applicants were to go into a mock city and hunt down various models of robots for points. This test clearly favored those with combat-oriented Quirks, but, thankfully, his 'Heat Engine' in 'Overdrive' mode was easily good enough for that purpose. And soon as the test began, Izuku rushed into the fake town.

Alas it looked like he was having bad luck as he barely came across any robots to destroy. The test was a little more than three minutes away from the end, and he only managed to acquire nineteen points, including seven he got while saving a couple of boys who clearly had been over their heads when they tried to take on a three-pointer flanked by a couple of two-pointers.

Then, just at the three minutes mark, the whole area shook as a huge robot - easily thirty meters tall - made its appearance. It must have been the Zero pointer that President Mic told them about during the pre-test briefing. Right now that gigantic machine was too far away for Izuku to be concerned about it, but he would likely have to cross its pass as he returned to the testing area's entrance. And since his chances to get past that monstrosity would be significantly lower if he were alone, the green-haired teen decided to head back now.

He managed to take down another two single-pointer robots on his way, but aside from that nothing notable had happened until he reached the 'central street'. Just as he was entering the area, the zero-pointer attacked something, causing a mini-earthquake. It caused one of the examinees trying to flee it, an adorkable brown-haired girl, to trip over and fall onto the ground. The robot, meanwhile, unleashed another attack, once again shaking the neighborhood and causing some loose pieces of debris to fall off the roofs. A few of those pieces landed onto the downed girl. A few more pieces narrowly missed her back and her left hand. It didn't look like those were big enough to seriously hurt her, but she was still in a lot of pain and in no condition to continue running from the rampaging robot.

The sight caused Izuku to stop and assess the situation. The girl was clearly in danger and none of the examinees next to her had even stopped to think about whether she might need their help. And she did need it. Letting out a small curse under his breath, the green-haired teen headed to the girl's rescue as fast as he could. Alas, he was way further from her than the zero-pointer when he started and he couldn't even be sure that moving the girl wouldn't make her injuries worse… It looked like his best option for protecting her from the zero-pointer was to destroy it!

But how could he accomplish that, even with a Quirk as powerful as his 'Heat Engine'? The robot was huge and its body was covered in thick metal armor. It might not have actual ranged weapons, but it didn't need them - it's monstrous power was more than enough. At the same time, the robot's size was also its greatest weakness: machines couldn't have any Quirks to counteract the square-cube law, so the bigger ones were relatively more fragile. And while the zero-pointer had a heavily-armored body, the joints were more-or-less exposed to enable the thing to move. And that was where he needed to strike.

His plan made, Izuku drew as much power through his Quirk's 'Overdrive' mode as was safe and dashed towards the zero-pointer. Once he got close enough, he waited for the machine to initiate an attack, before swiftly dodging it. He then jumped at it's right leg and delivered a powerful kick to the right hip joint.

His attack clearly caused some considerable damage to the robot, but it wasn't enough to completely break its knee and cause it to topple over. And as gravity was already pulling him downwards, Izuku couldn't strike the weakened joint again. That didn't mean he had no way to cause any additional damage right now: flipping in mid-air, he delivered a devastating dropkick to the threads that were the robot's right foot. And not only that left a sizable dent in the armor, it also sent a tremor through the zero-pointer's body, finally breaking whatever machinery that allowed the hip-joint to work.

With one of its legs no longer supporting its massive weight, the steel colossus couldn't remain upright and after a few seconds it fell to the side with a thunderous crash. Its head landed on a particularly-sturdy building and broke away under the force of the impact, completely disabling the monstrous machine.

"Are you injured?" Izuku asked as he approached the downed girl.

"My legs hurt, but it doesn't look like I have any broken bones." She replied. After a second of silence she hastily added: "And thank you for saving me."

"You're welcome." The green-haired teen replied as he picked her up and began carrying her towards the training area's exit. "Let's get out of here. The exam is almost over." And just as he said that, President Mic announced that their time has indeed run out.

At the gates they were greeted by the Youthful Heroine Recovery Girl, the Academy's nurse.

"Are hurt anywhere, children?" She asked.

"I've had some debris fall on my legs after I tripped and fell down." The girl replied. "I don't think I broke anything, but..."

"Let me take a look." Recovery Girl said. "I swear, this exam is getting crazier by the year..." She muttered under her breath as she examined the girl's legs. "You, young lady is very lucky. You were right and none of your bones were actually broken, but there are a few fractures and a lot of bruising. Here." The Youthful Heroine said before giving the girl a smooch. "Your legs should be perfectly fine within an hour. Don't worry if you feel extra tired - your body will be spending a lot of energy to quickly heal all damage." Done there, she turned to Izuku: "And what about you, young man? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine." Izuku replied hastily.

"I'll be the judge of that."

~/ *** \~

"We had many promising candidates this year." The Headmaster of U.A. said as he opened the staff meeting, a large screen behind him showing footage of the most outstanding examinees as they fought robotic 'villains'. "Though, I'm afraid, some of them are going to prove rather handful." The screen was now showing a blond teen with explosive Quirk. "This is Bakugo Katsuki from Aldera Junior High." The super-intelligent rodent continued. "As you can see, he possesses a powerful Quirk and is quite skilled in using it. He is also the only one to pass the practical exam without earning even a single Rescue Point."

"This indicates an extreme lack of cooperativeness." A Hero dressed in a spacesuit replica said. "A terrible quality for someone who aspires to join the ranks of Heroes."

"Indeed. Furthermore, throughout the exams Bakugo-san had displayed very short, explosive temper. He also appears to have a superiority complex and had been observed calling other examinees around him 'extras'." The miniature Headmaster said. "Still, he aced the written exam and managed to achieve the second rank in the practical exam with seventy seven Villain Points. With results like that we will have no choice but to admit him into the Heroics Department."

"He sounds like a problem child. What are we going to do about him?" Someone from the far end of the room asked. After a brief pause, the Headmaster replied:

"Traditionally, those with odd rankings in the practical exam are placed into class A and those with even - into class B. I however feel that this time it would better to place Bakugo-san under you care, Aizawa-sensei. You are much better suited for controlling and guiding this child." The sleepy man with shaggy black hair gave him a brief nod of agreement.

"Does that mean I'm getting the number one, Midoriya Izuku was his name, as my student?" A while-haired man sitting next to Aizawa asked.

"Indeed, Kan-sensei." The Headmaster replied, while the screen behind his back switch to the footage of a green-haired teen surrounded by a greenish aura attacking the zero-pointer to protect his fellow examinee. "Midoriya Izuku, surprisingly also from Aldera Junior High. He managed to achieve only twenty one Villain Points during the practical exam, but his heroic actions had earned him fifty eight Rescue Points."

"That boy has the heart and the drive of a Hero." The newest member of the staff, the famous and infamous pro-Hero All Might commented.

"You know this boy?" One of the teachers asked.

"I've met him once, and later saw him on TV, jumping to rescue his classmate from a villain, when Heroes on site weren't doing anything." The Japan's top Hero answered. "I've also heard from my friends in the Police that Midoriya-shounen managed earn respect of Kamui Woods and essentially became his apprentice." After thinking for a moment, he added: "And while I have no proof, the rumors are he had cleaned the Musutafu seaside park all by himself."

"So that was him?" The homeroom teacher of the future class 1-B asked. "If it's true, I gotta thank him. That place used to be an unsightly dump, and he turned it into such a nice and lively place. I often walk my dog there in the evenings nowadays."

"It is settled then. Midoriya Izuku will be assigned to class 1-B and Bakugo Katsuki - to class 1-A." The Headmaster said. "I see no reason not to follow U.A.'s tradition with the rest of our new students, though. That said, there are a few more problem children among them, and it is our duty to ensure they don't stray from the path of Heroics they chose to follow. For example..." And so he began telling his staff about the other new students that would require extra attention.

~/ *** \~

At long last the day had arrived. From today on Midoriya Izuku was a student of Heroics Department at the U.A., the most prestigious Academy in all Japan. According to the letter he had received a week ago, he had been enrolled into class 1-B. Izuku was a bit curious why it was so as the same letter also stated that he had achieved the highest score in the practical exam and got a nearly-perfect results for his written exam as well. But, in the end, did any of that matter? He was now one step closer to realizing his dream of becoming a Hero!

Finding the classroom turned out to be a bit harder than expected - U.A.'s main building was absolutely huge - but thankfully he had arrived early enough that getting lost a little didn't cause him to be late. And, wow, those doors were huge. The Academy really was accommodating for people with all kinds of Quirks.

Taking a moment to steel his nerves, he knocked on the door and opened it.

"Hello, this is class 1-B, right? I'm Midoriya Izuku, it's nice to meet you." He greeted his new classmates.

.

Izuku's Quirk: Heat Engine (Emitter type)

* Passive effect: absorbs minute amounts of ambient heat energy from the surroundings. This collected energy is then used to boost Izuku's stamina and - to a much lesser extent - physical strength.

* Active effect (Overdrive Mode): absorbs ambient heat energy much more rapidly and grants significant boosts to Izuku's strength, stamina and durability while also raising his body's temperature. These effects become more pronounced the more heat energy is being absorbed. There is no actual limit to how far his Quirk can empower Izuku, but his safe limit lies somewhere around 5% One For All - if he goes further, he risks system-wide organ failure due to overheating and heat-induced breakdown of life-essential chemicals.