He had always agreed with Bakugou when it came to how useless he was. The only thing the teen was good for was breaking apart his family. The boy was tall compared to the rest of his middle school class, being 5"11' and still growing. He had moderately short, green hair, and was pretty physically impressive, being able to lift a 35 kilogram dumbbell with ease. His parents had divorced six years prior, and made sure to let him know it was his fault. A few weeks later, the green haired boy's dad left to go to America and never contacted them again. He knew it was because of his quirk, Pyrokinesis. His father had had a complex about being stronger than others, and the young boy's powerful quirk enraged his dad. Pyrokinesis far outdid his father's Fire Breathing, being a hybrid of his mothers and fathers quirk.

It was his mother who defended the boy from his dad and who had been taking care of him since the divorce. To be frank, him and his mother's relationship was nonexistent. She worked three jobs to support them, so they never really spoke. She went to her second job when Izuku came home from school, so a quick "Hi" was all that was exchanged between the two during the school months.

However, the young, drawn in, "keep to yourself" attitude boy had a dream in the least likely place. U.A. High. And no, not the support course or general studies, but the schools prestigious Hero Course. He knew he could do it. He knew all there was to know about almost every pro-hero in Japan. He knew everything there was to know for the written exam. He melted cinder blocks with his fire, so he assumed the practical exam would go well. But still he worried. What if I studied the wrong stuff? What if all the other students are better than me? What if I freeze up in the practical exam and fail? What if I get expelled?, he wondered, thinking of Mr. Aizawa's impressive list of expelled students. Mr. Aizawa was the homeroom teacher for year one, and he was...intense.

With a sigh, he focused back on the English quiz in front of him. It would be his last assessment before the summer months, and then...U.A., he thought to himself. I just hope I fit into the school at least a little bit….

It was a few weeks before the entrance exam took place. Izuku was on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had told his mom about his plans for U.A. the night before. At first, she was livid.

"Do you have any idea how much that entrance exam costs!?", she had screamed.

"Mom, listen to me! I already have the money I need!", he yelled back.

She paused and looked at him for a few moments before grabbing her bag and checking if all her money was still there.

"I didn't steal it from you Mom.", he said, angry she would assume that.

"Then who did you steal it from? I know you didn't pull it out of your ass", she retorted

He explained that he had gotten a job at the local store and had been working there for months. At the end of his explanation, she seemed to have calmed down.

She looked at her son and thought for a moment. "I have to go to work. If you can pay the fee yourself, fine. Bye." she said as she got up and grabbed her purse. She opened the door and stopped halfway through it. She stood still for a moment, then turned her head and looked at Izuku.

"Do your best. Good luck.", she said, before leaving, closing the door behind her.

Izuku stared at the door for a moment before looking back down at the floor. It was the first time in years his mother had said something nice to him. It felt good to hear the encouragement. However, her previous statement was also correct. The entrance exam was really expensive. It cost ¥10000 just to take the test, and it wasn't guaranteed you pass. He got off of his bed and went to the kitchen to make some lunch. As he was smearing some butter on his bread, he hoped once again that his high school life would go smoothly.

He couldn't contain his excitement. It was the morning of the entrance exam, and even the introverted boy was jumping with excitement, nervousness, and dread. He practically flew out his door and ran towards the school.

It only took him 17 minutes to reach the school, and he stood at the front gates, gawking at the arch overhead. As he stepped forward, he tripped on his own foot and started to fall forwards.

He put out his hands in front of him, and clenched his eyes shut.

But no impact came.

Confused, he opened his eyes and took a moment to take in that he was floating! Confused he looked around and locked eyes with a girl next to him. She had short, brown, mushroom shaped hair and huge, sparkly eyes. She put her fingers together, and he fell down onto his feet.

"Sorry I used my quirk on you! It's bad luck to fall on exam day, right?", she said wearing a huge smile.

"Uh...right.", he said, before a quick,"Oh! Sorry! Thank you for catching me!"

"No problem!", she said with a laugh."I'm Ochaco Uraraka! What's your name?"

"M-Midoriya Izuku.", he said. Because he was pretty good looking, he had spoken to girls before, but his drawn-in attitude quickly sent them off. However, this girl seemed to not mind his quietness.

"Okay, well, I'm gonna go on to my assigned area. Good luck on your exam!", she said, bouncing away towards the school.

"You too!", he called after her, not sure if she heard him or not.

Izuku looked half dead, having just spent 3 hours taking the written exam. He felt quite confident in his answers, but there were a few that caught him off guard. Stupid logarithms, I knew I missed something when I was studying! He thought to himself. After changing into a U.A. school PE uniform, he went outside to his assigned area.

Once everyone gathered, a Pro-Hero, Present Mic, began to explain the rules of the practical exam.

"The exam is a simple one this year. You will all go into this fake cityscape and fight faux villains. These villains will be robots. There are four types of robots you will be fighting. One gives three points, one gives two, and one gives one point. The fourth is a huge robot mainly meant to get in your way, so it gives zero points. You can try to take it down, but they won't increase your score at all. You have zero minutes of prep time, good luck! Start!"

Everyone stood still for a moment, taking in what he just said.

Suddenly, like a wave, everyone took off.

Izuku pointed his hands behind him, and used a blast of fire to propel himself (a move he totally stole from Bakugou, but won't admit to doing so).

Soon, he had racked up 60 points in villains, and was beginning to sweat. Suddenly, a quake shook the ground beneath him.

"What was that!?", yelled a dark blue haired boy.

Suddenly, a huge shadow overcast them.

"It's the zero point villain!", someone yelled.

"Run!" There were students running in all directions away from the giant villain.

What the hell!?, Izuku thought. I could never take on something that big and be okay!

"Help!" Izuku froze as he heard the cry. He turned his head to see Ochako, the girl who caught him earlier, trapped under rubble. The faux villain was getting ready to attack her.

Before he knew what he was doing, he ran towards her. His legs moved on their own, running, flying towards her to save her from the attack. He landed just behind her, in between her and the robot

"Midoriya!? What are you doing!? It's gonna hit you!", Ochako said, surprised to see him protecting her.

Izuku raised both his arms towards the villain, and prepared himself for the pain he was about to inflict on himself.

Just before the villain hit them, he let his arms erupt into as much flame he could muster, and aimed at the giant villain, and fired. A huge beam of fire burst forward, slicing right through the large robot. The rest of the robot melted from the sheer heat of the beam. After 10 seconds, the flame finally died down, leaving everyone, even the examiners, awestruck and frozen in place.

"T-Time is up!", yelled Present Mic

Everyone still couldn't move, staring at the green haired boy. Izuku fell to his knees, the side effect of overusing his quirk causing extreme pain to him. His arms were burnt beyond recognition, looking like two branches just used in a campfire.

"That was quite the show, boy.", an old sounding voice said.

Izuku opened his eyes and looked at an old lady walking towards him. He couldn't speak because of the pain. The old lady walked up to him and her lips extended towards him, planting a kiss on his forehead. Immediately the pain started to ease. He watched in awe as his arms healed back to their original form. This must be the Pro-Hero, Recovery Girl, he thought. Once healed, the old lady retracted her lips, and he stood up.

"Thank you for healing me.", he said quietly, bowing politely.

"You shouldn't use that much power like its nothing!", scolded the old lady. "One day you're going to permanently hurt yourself doing that, and even I won't be able to fix it."

"Yes, ma'am." he said quietly.

The old lady looked behind him. "Are you all right, young lady?", she asked.

Izuku quickly turned around, realizing the heat from his attack might have harmed her. Heat might not affect him, but others…. He let out a breath, she was okay.

"I-I'm fine." she said meekly, still starstruck by the power of Izuku's attack.

Izuku pulled the rubble off of her before deeply bowing to her. "I-I'm so sorry! I saw you were in trouble and...well...I-"

"It's fine!", she said, giggling. "If anything, I should be apologizing for making you do that to your arms."

Before Izuku said anything, Present Mic's voice boomed over the testing area. "This concludes your entrance exam. Please go home and you will receive a letter from U.A. regarding your scores, and whether you passed or failed."

With that, Izuku went home. Once at his apartment, Izuku changed, showered, and jumped into bed. He found himself thinking of Ochako, passed it off as just thinking about how he got to save someone, and drifted off to sleep.

A few days later, Izuku was getting the mail when he noticed an envelope with U.A. on it. He ran back to his room, screamed into a pillow, and looked at the envelope. For 40 minutes he paced his room, thinking what the letter could possibly say. This is getting me nowhere, he thought. He grabbed the envelope and opened it. Inside was a disc. At first he was confused, but when he placed the disc on his desk, a hologram popped up. He recognized the tired face of Mr. Aizawa.

"Hi, uh-who is this too again? Midoriya Izuku? What was his score agai-", the video cut, as Aizawa kept asking the person behind the camera questions.

"Right. Midoriya, I'll start with this: you passed."

"Yes!", he screamed, his excitement getting the better of him. I did it! I really did it! I passed!

The hologram continued. "You earned 60 total villain points, but that isn't all. Hidden points, or Rescue Points, are added up after the exam. These points are measured based on if you save someone, and how well. Saving a fellow student, Ochako Uraraka, from the zero pointer, gained you 60 total Rescue Points. This brings your overall points to 120. This score puts you in first place of the exam, with a lead of 40 points. Congratulations." The hologram cut off and disappeared.

Izuku was frozen. Did he say...first…? First place? Out of everyone? Even Bakugou?

There was no way. There had to be a mistake. A miscount of points. Something.

His mother opened the door, hearing his earlier scream. "I'm assuming you passed?", she said, wondering why he looked like he had seen a ghost.

"First." He whispered.

"What?"

"Mom, I got first place." He said to her, not completely believing his own words.

Now his mother looked like she had seen a ghost. My son? First place? Him? Introverted, quiet, not-very-outgoing-at-all Izuku?

His mother's face told him she doubted this as much as he did.

"Oh...well, good job.", she said, not moving. She didn't know what to say. Neither of them did.

Then, a tear rolled down her face.

Izuku's eyes widened. "M-Mom? Are you okay?"

She fell forward and pulled her son into a fierce hug."Izuku, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I've been a horrible mother! I haven't done anything for you, haven't spent any time with you, haven't been a mother at all!" she cried into his shoulder.

He couldn't move. Tears started streaming down his face. He lifted his arms and returned the hug, with the same force as his mothers. They sat there, crying, for a long time.

Authors Note:

So...this is the pilot chapter of Unlikely Hero. I know I'm pretty bad at pacing things, but I think it's pretty okay for the first story I've ever written. About anything. Yeah.

I'm not entirely sure who I want to pair with Izuku for this story, so I'm open for suggestions. (No yaoi for this story, but I definitely want to do one of those in the future.)

I'm also not sure how long this will be either, I'm still figuring out the roadmap for the story.

I'll try updating at least twice a week, but that'll probably go out a window in two weeks. If so, then once a week will have to do. Or once every two weeks. We'll see. This took me about two hours to write, so I think twice a week is good.

-Walnut