Over the next few days, I had settled into the rhythm of school again. I tried to convince the teachers to let me sit in the back, but it only worked after I had aced the tests. Before my Quirk, I had to study and hope the information would stick. Now, my Quirk can tell me the answer to every question. If I focused hard enough, everyone else's answer sheets appeared in my vision and I could pick from someone else to copy. All of the answers can appear on the paper layered on top of each other, and once the test is finished, I know everything from the lowest score to the standard deviation.

I found Midoriya at lunch. He was shunned away from everyone else, probably because he didn't have a Quirk. We made our way past the crowded lunch tables and into the hallway. We sat near several trash bins so we wouldn't be seen. Specifically, I didn't want to be seen.

"Wah! How long have you been following me?" He spun around to see me holding a large plate of cafeteria food.

"One minute and 13 seconds." And I didn't have to use my Quirk either. "Why are you sitting here?" I asked just to make sure.

"So, what's your Quirk?" Midoriya asked.

"It doesn't have a name," I replied. "I can access all of the data in the world and project it onto objects that I can move with my mind. I can't use the projections consistently yet."

"Oh. So what do you know about me?"

I recited his family members, his address, his height and weight, and a bunch of other details that otherwise should have been kept secret. Upon seeing his shocked expression, I added, "It's okay to be Quirkless."

"No, it's not that. I'm used to people making fun of me for that for probably my whole life. I want to be just like All Might. You see him on the news, right? He saves people with a smile on his face, no matter how grim the situation is. That's why I want to be a hero. That's why I'm going to UA High." He looked calmer, that he had been waiting to tell someone else about this.

"Can you tell me how to get in?" I was more interested once I had a goal of my own.

"Sure..." He took a bite out of his sandwich. "There's a written exam and a practical exam. I don't know how I'll do in the practical exam, though."

It was nice just to have someone to talk to, and now I kind of knew what the glowing man wanted me to do. The world of my bedroom and insomnia was literally a universe away, and I was lost in my thoughts and memories.

"Hey. Hey!" Midoriya was getting my attention again. "Well... I still don't know your name."

"It's Bunseki Shiraseru. It was nice talking to you." The bell rang and we had to go to class again.

Midoriya went home again feeling a little better. After doing some sketching in his notebook, he had finished another hero profile to add to his already vast knowledge of heroes and their Quirks.

Along the deserted street, he asked All Might if he could be a hero despite being Quirkless. All Might said yes.

That meant the world to him. But it didn't stop there.

"I deem you worthy of my power. Your Quirk is mine to inherit."

No matter what happened, Midoriya couldn't stem the flow of tears coming from his eyes. Finally, his goal was possible. Finally. he wouldn't be ridiculed as much. Finally, he could be a hero.

"What if I do something wrong? What if I can't live up to your legacy?" Midoriya looked at his favorite hero in a way that he had never done before.

"I know you will." All Might's eyes narrowed, his small pupils seemingly penetrating into Midoriya's mind. "You, out of all people, chose to save that boy when we heroes stood idly by. You may be a Quirkless fanboy, but you acted like a hero that day."

From that moment on, every moment of his life was devoted to training. The schedule barely gave him room to sleep, but Midoriya didn't care, as long if that meant he would excel in the preliminary exam.

Every day at 4:30 AM, he forced his alarm clock off, dressed, and hurriedly ran to the beach.

"All Might!" His idol was here to help him train.

"Hello, young Midoriya! How are you feeling?" All Might's muscles flexed impressively as he waved to him.

"Great!" About as great as five hours of sleep can be, thought Midoriya.

"Okay then. We'll start over here." All Might pointed to a heap of trash that contained several heavy appliances. Different types of trash trained different muscle groups, which would be essential to Midoriya if he wanted to inherit All Might's Quirk. He shuddered as he remembered All Might's warning.

"Remember, my Quirk was passed on from someone else. Do you think I would get to be the symbol of peace without training? Absolutely not! If your body isn't prepared to harness One for All, your arms and legs would explode."

Months passed. Midoriya could feel stronger. Weights that he felt were impossible to carry once he began didn't seem that difficult anymore. While he was at home, he stuck to his meal plan and continued to take detailed notes for his hero analysis. Even at school, he clutched a grip strengthening device in his left hand.

One day, he was so tired that he felt that his heart and lungs were going to explode. He suddenly stopped pushing the truck and fell to the ground.

All Might clapped his hands twice. "What, you're going to give up that easily? Come on, let's get going."

"No matter how hard this is, I'll keep going." With great effort, he pulled himself up and began to push even harder.

"That's the spirit!" All Might laughed. "We can't rush progress here! You're already doing great!" He pulled out his phone and pointed at the screen. "This is you, two months ago, crying. Things have definitely changed, right?"

"Right."

UA High sounds like a nice school, and I've done my research. It is insanely hard to get into, even compared with some of the most demanding colleges. Out of 1000 applicants, only two get in.

Midoriya's advice stuck with me. He was Quirkless, and yet he had already done a lot more work to research Quirks than I did. I had to get moving.

The first thing I realized was that without adrenaline, I wasn't able to move heavy objects with my mind yet. The first part of my Quirk training was to slowly pick up bigger and heavier objects, starting with the pile of towels in my apartment. I concentrated hard and looked at them. It didn't budge. I removed one of them and tried again. There was no reaction. Rinse and repeat until there's only one towel left in the pile. Even after feeling the steady throbbing inside my skull, I could only move it across the counter before feeling exhausted.

With all my energy spent, I opened the window and looked at everyone passing by, letting the statistics wash over my eyes again. I spaced out again, and decided to stop when I looked at my room, completely confused.

Because I had lost my grip on my Quirk's control, illusions had started to appear on my room. They weren't structured at all; geometric shapes randomly floated around the table. When I blinked to focus on it again, they disappeared, though I wondered why they didn't manifest at school.

Another task, which was probably harder in other regards, was making my apartment feel less depressing. Using the data I had written down in my notebook from school, I found the best shops around town and bartered my way through every purchase. Tables, chairs, and furniture now filled my apartment. Even though I was the only person living there, it did make me feel less alone.

There were times when I didn't control my illusions properly in public, and I hated explaining my Quirk to other people. It was especially frustrating because after all this time, I still hadn't bothered to name it. After one particular sleepless night, my head rested on the palm of my hand and I started to daydream. I was woken up when people were shouting that people had appeared out of nowhere. I woke up and realized that I had created projections of my parents in front of my house. It was like a giant mural that extended across the wall of the classroom. I could understand the classmates' concern; there was no way to tell between the illusion and real life.

Things did get better, though. I discovered creative ways to use my telekinesis, mostly by accident. I could stand on a piece of wood and launch the wood forward, moving me where I wanted to go very quickly. (There's no way to do that to myself, though.)

Stealing is now a viable option for me, but if I use it, All Might would probably Delaware Smash me into next week. It still is a good exercise for moving small objects undetected, and I practiced it by using the same pieces of sugary bread that I could afford now.

I first used my Quirk in front of others intentionally by getting Bakugo to stop beating Midoriya into oblivion. "Leave him alone." I carefully approached him.

"What are you going to do about it, nerd? You're probably a Quirkless weakling like Deku here." Bakugo kept his hand pinned to Midoriya's throat.

"Katsuki Bakugo, I am telling you to drop it." He made a small noise in his throat, like he wasn't expecting me to know his first name. "There are better ways to solve your conflicts."

I tossed what appeared to be a book to Bakugo. When he tried to get a closer look, it was actually a cardboard box. "You damn nerd!" He roared, throwing a punch that was supposed to land on my face. I thought this out, and I had already made myself disappear. While I was walking away, I turned around and looked at the two of them.

"I don't know how you did it, but you have another friend now." Bakugo pushed Midoriya into the wall for one last time. "Be careful, Deku. You're still Quirkless trash."

This wasn't the best way to end the argument, but given the condition that Midoriya was in after most arguments, I considered ourselves lucky. I made a point to apologize with Midoriya afterwards. "It's fine, really!" He laughed and brushed it off like nothing happened.

"I've probably heard you say that over a thousand times already. Really, if you need help, just ask."

With a few weeks before the entrance exam, I was really getting nervous. I wasn't concerned about the written exam. As far as I cared, the statistical part of my Quirk was undetectable, and I could just cheat and pass. Learning was no problem for me; any new facts were transferred into my brain instantly so I could use it later. With little time, I did math problems over and over again to train my speed. This method could also be applied to people, where I looked at photographs to glean as much information as I could about them.

Out of the corner of my eye, a timer was ticking. 23 days, 21 hours, 16 minutes, 4 seconds until entrance exam. I had ran out of things to do besides Quirk training, eating, or reorganizing stuff in my room. I couldn't wait until the exam; even if I failed, I could still go to another high school and still hopefully become a hero, just with slightly worse education.

Until then, I hoped that the exam would be easy.

Until then, I hoped that all the other entrants would have Quirks that would be easy to deal with.

Until then, I hoped that I didn't have to worry.

I was wrong.