Chapter 2: Lackluster

The teacher stood before the class with a packet of paper in his hands. The class shuffled nervously.

"Today I was supposed to give out these career assessment tests to help you decide what you want to do with your future." said the teacher. Then the teacher just up and tossed the papers up in the air. "But what's the point?! You all wanna be Heroes, don't ya?!"

A cheer erupted throughout the class as everyone began to display their 'Heroic' Quirks. Here's looking at you Takahashi 'Extendo-Eyeballs' Takeda~

"Alright! Alright!" The teacher said. "Settle down! You all have wonderful Quirks!"

"Don't get their hopes up!" Katsuki said, feet kicked up on his desk and a smug look on his face. "These losers would be lucky to be sidekicks to a washed up D-lister!"

Katsuki Bakugo was arguably one of the best contenders for being a Hero. His Quirk 'Explosion' was a powerful, versatile, and flashy enough to be worthy of a Hero. But… he was brash, arrogant, and had a short fuse… literally. Still… he was probably the best in class when it came to chances of being a Hero.

"Ah, Young Bakugo. You were going to try applying to UA this year." The teacher said, reorganizing his papers.

A hush fell over the class at this casual mention of the near legendary school.

"No way… UA?"

"They have like, less than a ten percent acceptance rate!"

"And they have an insane entrance exam! You'd have to be crazy to even try!"

This only seemed to inflate Katsuki's ego even more. Izuku shrunk in his seat as he saw the teacher's eyes fall on him next.

"That's right! I'm the only one that's good enough in this shitty school to even try! I'm-!"

"Oh, that's right…" said the teacher with a grin. "Young Midoriya was also gonna apply, right?"

Izuku shrank more into his seat as the class bust out laughing while Bakugo stood frozen at the very thought of Izuku Midoriya, 'Basically- Quirkless' extraordinaire, even attempting to get into UA. The sheer audacity was astronomical.

A familiar feeling of hopelessness filled Izuku's chest. Was it really that hard to imagine?

"I-I-I think I c-c-could do it! Really!" said Izuku, trying to defend himself. "They recently got rid of the rule about Quirks-!"

Izuku yelped as Katsuki let off an explosion right in front of him on his desk, knocking him back into the opposite wall behind him.

"YOU?!" said Katsuki. "You honestly think someone like you could ever be a Hero, let alone get into UA?!"

"I-I mean- technically there's a chance I-!"

"Don't make me puke! You Quirk is totally useless! Who wants to be saved by some guy covered in bloody bones?!" said Katsuki, hands beginning to smoke. Izuku felt like the whole class was looking at him like he was garbage. Or perhaps just some kind of loser… "Just give up! It's pathetic watching you struggle like a worm!"

Izuku felt the words jab into him like a knife. The whole class seemed to agree, even the teacher…

"Young Bakugo, Midoriya! Get seated please." said the teacher trying to regain control of his class. "We still have a test to do."

"Tch…" said Katsuki as he walked back. "… not worth my time…"

Slowly, Izuku got back up and sat down.

Was it really that hard to imagine?

It was later, after school, when Izuku was going over his notes for the day that he realized that people were hurrying out of the room. It was only when his notebook was suddenly snatched from his hands. Before him was Katsuki holding his Hero notebook and looking at him like a piece of shit he scraped off his shoe.

"You are still dreaming of this shit…" said Katsuki. Then in one fell swoop he set his notebook on fire and tossed Izuku's notebook out the window. Like clockwork, Katsuki's cronies moved in. "Honestly? You? A Hero? That's just all kinds of messed up. You're more cut out to be some second rate villain. You'd probably defeat yourself half the time."

Izuku looked down a familiar anger filling his chest..

Izuku just stared at Katsuki as his placed a smoking hand on Izuku's shoulder, threatening him with bodily harm. Honestly, Izuku was more worried about his school uniform. Flesh would heal, but his uniform was worth a good bit of money… And given his Quirk, clothing without rips or holes in them was kind of a limited commodity…

"I'm only going to say this once." Katsuki said with a mocking smile. "Drop out of UA or else."

Izuku felt a tremor of terror run through his chest. This was nothing new, but Katsuki seemed like he was serious this time… Katsuki walked to the door while his goons jeered him with words like 'loser' and 'idiot'.

"Oh yeah!" said Katsuki turning around smiling. "I thought of a way that you can get a better Quirk!"

Izuku looked up glumly and caught Katsuki's smirk.

"Pray really, really hard and then take a swan dive off of the roof!" said Katsuki. "If you're lucky, you'll be born with a better Quirk in your next life!"

Izuku stood up, his anger turning to rage.

If… If Katsuki had said that to someone else… Someone more depressed…

Izuku shot Katsuki a glare. Katsuki merely responded with making some small explosions in his hands.

The message was clear. 'Don't like what I'm saying? Fight me then!'

For a split second Izuku considered it. He knew Katsuki's fighting style inside and out he could probably take him or at least catch him off guard once or twice if it was one on one. A quick glance at Katsuki's cronies however told him that if he tried to stand up to Katsuki right here and right now, it would go down just like that time nearly ten years ago…

Especially if Katsuki used his Quirk the best evidence he could provide was a bit of soot which could have come from one out five fire Quirked people who used this class room. If Izuku used his Quirk, there'd be some blood, a bone jutting out of his arm and a slightly crying boy clutching his arm. That would great for the teachers...

Izuku looked down with clenched fists while Katsuki snorted.

"At least you got smarter." Katsuki said as he and his goons left Izuku alone with his anger. "See you later… Deku."

Izuku stared at his notebook floating in the school koi pond. They were nibbling on it…

Izuku shooed away the fish and picked up his charred, soaked, and mostly destroyed notebook. "That's not fish food…"

'For My Future Number 13' the title said.

What a joke…

He couldn't even stand up to a middle school bully let alone fight crime… Was his research truly worthless? What was the point of knowing all this stuff if he couldn't walk the walk? He kept thinking that perhaps, just maybe, he could have fought back.

But all the scenarios he ran in his head told him that the moment that he would have tried something Katsuki would have ended the fight rather quickly, and then he would have been beat up and his mom would worry.

Izuku felt a familiar anger at the world bubble up inside of him as he walked back home, but pushed it back down.

There was no point in being angry at things that he couldn't control. There was no point in being angry at things that others did. He couldn't control other people. They had their own free will to be either nice and kind or like Katsuki. He wasn't going to stop them either way.

There was also no point in getting upset that he didn't have a super powerful Quirk. It wasn't like Katsuki had been less of a jerk when he suddenly got one. And it wasn't like All-Might himself was going to show up and offer his Quirk to him, or any other Quirk for that matter… Not like the Quirk-Man…

Izuku grit his teeth.

This was life. This was just how it was. And Izuku was never going to stop fighting. So what if his Quirk hurt him whenever he tried to use it? So what if people like Katsuki existed? There was no point in worrying about it and those things sure as hell wouldn't stop him from trying to achieve his dreams. He didn't have time for that sort of self-pity… He had stuff to do…

Izuku was about to finally get home when he heard the sound of a man-hole suddenly erupting upward and slamming against the ceiling of the tunnel he was walking down.

He knew it was a man-hole cover because it bounced off the ceiling and nearly hit him from behind, narrowly missing him and landing several feet away. Terrified, Izuku turned around. Before him was a Slime person. They were covered in- er… they were a massive slime nearly filling the whole tunnel with yellow eyes.

"Sup bitch." The slime said with a smile, revealing teeth floating in it's fluid-like mouth. The green haired boy trembled but managed to get his wits about him. Just because people looked different didn't mean they weren't friendly!

Izuku swallowed. "Can I help you with something, sir?"

"Actually, I'm a woman." The slime person corrected in a flat tone. Izuku flinched.

"Oh! I am so sorry ma'am!" Izuku said panicking. First being scared of her and then assuming her gender! Why couldn't he do anything right!?

"-And you can, in fact, help me with something…" the slime said with a bone chilling smile. Izuku trembled as she towered over him.

Izuku was choking on slime as the woman's slime form was trying to work its way down his esophagus through his mouth and nose. His whole body shuddered as the walls of his throat were expanded and the slime reached deeper and deeper into him, filling him with coldness.

His bones jutted out of his flesh, trying in vain to keep the slime woman from entering him, but the bones were totally useless against someone who was basically made of water and earth.

"Sorry sweetie…" the slime woman purred. "I would normally be a little gentler, but you see I'm in kind of a rush."

A large influx of slime pushed itself down his throat as his muscles desperately sought to expel the mass. He was blacking out and probably bleeding out… He couldn't breathe, he felt darkness closing in around him as cold slime reached into the furthest depths of his stomach.

He was dying, he realized. This person was killing him.

He was scared.

"If it's any consolation. You're really saving me a good bit of trouble here. Such a cool Quirk too. You'll be the perfect little meat suit..." The woman crooned. "My hero..."

Was it pathetic if he felt just a tiny bit happy hearing that?

All his life, he had been worthless… but even if it was helping a villain, he was just a tiny bit happy that he helped somebody…

He wished for something to happen, someone to save him…

A lone figure appeared in the tunnel.

"Never fear young man, you are safe." He said. He was tall, and covered in rippling muscles. It was…

'All-Might…?' Izuku thought as everything began to fade to black.

"TEXAS!" All-Might said dodging tendrils of slime. He was so cool…"SMASSSSSHHHH!"

"Wind pressure?!" The slime villainess said in surprised as she was blown away.

Firm hands caught the nearly unconscious boy.

"Gottcha kid…" All-Might said. "Kid?"

Izuku passed out.

Six years prior...

Little Izuku watched the video again and again as he practiced with his new Quirk. His mommy seemed to get upset whenever he used it. Little Izuku frowned.

'Mommy and Daddy were fighting again earlier…' Izuku thought.

Since his Daddy found out about his new Quirk, they had been fighting. He didn't understand but he was pretty sure it was… his fault? Especially this last time. His Mommy just kept crying and saying 'I'm sorry' into the phone. She never went on the defensive, she just accepted that it was somehow her fault.

Little Izuku didn't understand. How was it her fault? Was his Daddy happy? Wasn't his Mommy happy that he had a cool Quirk? Little Izuku hugged his knees. Kacchan was being really mean lately. Why wasn't anyone happy that he had a Quirk? Why was everything so wrong?

His Quirk hurt a lot, but it was also warm. He liked the warm feeling in his bones, helping the pain in his chest go away some. Every once in awhile he would let the warmth build up under his skin and then gently allow it to fade. His Mommy didn't like it when he made his bones pop out. It made he scared and she was worried about how it hurt him.

That made sense…

But how was he supposed to get better at it without practice? Hence his practicing with the warm feeling while his Mommy was busy.

He felt bad disobeying Mommy's 'No Quirks used inside the house' rule but there was also a 'No Quirks outside the house' rule and a 'No Quirks at school' rule and a 'No Quirks at friends houses' rule.

Izuku was getting a little frustrated. Especially since Mommy broke her 'No Quirks used inside the house' rule all the time… She usually used it to grab something from the top shelf though, so Izuku felt bad disobeying the 'You can use Quirks if the situation calls for it but not until then' rule.

Still he wasn't technically breaking the rules. He was only playing with the warm feeling… not making his bones pop out or anything.

Izuku frowned. Why was using his Quirk so bad anyways? If he did it at school nobody would know as long as he wiped the blood up… and he had only had his Quirk for a few weeks (that was a long time!) but he just felt weird not using it… It felt like it had always been part of him.

But it wasn't. It still hurt him a lot to use and even though he was getting better at controlling where the warmth went, but he still had a long way to go.

The Quirk-Man had given him this Quirk, and he was going to learn how to use it. He just needed to get the right movements…

Present...

Izuku woke to the feeling of someone smacking his cheek firmly, but soft enough not to actually cause damage. Izuku opened his eyes blearily and the light smacking stopped. The tired and aching boy slowly came to his senses.

"Hello there young man! Thought we lost you there!" All-Might said raising a hand in greeting.

Izuku rubbed his eyes. Was this what heaven felt like? He felt like crap… but hey! At least All-Might was here and-

Izuku's eyes snapped wide and he scuttled backward in panic. It was him! It was really him! All-Might was standing right in front of him!

'Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh-!' Izuku thought articulately before his thoughts were interrupted by a big hearty laugh he had never heard in person. It was even cooler up close!

Izuku kept muttering under his breath how cool the Hero,(No! The Symbol of Peace), was up close and in person. Seeing the young man fanboy, made All-Might decide the boy was probably okay.

"Glad to see you're alright!" All-Might laughed. "I'm sorry to have gotten you involved in my Villain catching, but you were a big help! Thanks!"

Wait, he helped All-Might? When did that happen-?

"W-wait where did the Villain go?" Izuku asked in a fearful tone, looking around wildly for the slime woman that tried to possess his body and lay eggs in his stomach or something!

All-Might held up two, two liter bottles triumphantly. The slime woman was groaning softly, she looked extremely dizzy.

Izuku cocked his head. That's how big the villain was? Huh… the boy was pretty sure she was bigger coming out of the sewer- oh!

The green haired boy fumbled around trying to find his backpack. He usually had a spare bottle around somewhere- there it was! Izuku pulled off the cap and grabbed a couple pills.

All-Might coughed. Izuku looked up.

"I'm assuming that's some kind of medication?" All-Might asked. Izuku looked down at the pills and up at All-Might again mortified.

All-Might thought he was doing drugs?!

"I-it's my antibiotics!" Izuku explained quickly. "I um… I have a Quirk that requires that I be careful with that sort of thing…"

Namely because blood, when you get right down to it, was rather filthy and when he was using his Quirk he was basically one giant open wound. A direct conduit for disease... Diseases and very serious viruses were present in blood and other junk that could get into his bloodstream and Izuku was rather keen on not acquiring any.

Izuku was immunized against most of the traditional STIs and STDs as a basic precaution and he had to go get new immunization shots every once in a while to help immunize himself against new strains. The anti-biotics were just an added precaution prescribed by the doctor.

"Very well! I still need to take this guy to the police!" All-Might said preparing for take-off. "If that's all then I really must be off! Crime never sleeps and all that!"

Izuku watched as his Hero began to crouch and in his heart clenched. He wanted to stop him. He needed to ask! He needed to know!

"Wait!" Izuku said suddenly grabbing the Hero without thinking. "There's something I need to ask yyyyoooouuuu!"

"Thanks for your continued support!" All-Might said, taking off with a mighty leap. Wind roared through the man's hair and rushed past his face. A perfect take off-! Wait… No, he felt a little drag there… Hmm… Where did that come from?

'Wait…' All-Might thought checking behind him.

Izuku's lips were flapping, and the sheer air pressure were peeling his eyelids back and chapping his eyes immensely. All-Might recoiled at the sight.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" All-Might said finally noticing the boy and instinctively tried to pry him off of his leg. "Look, I love my fans, but this is too much! Now get off!"

"Wait! We're flying! If let go I'll die!" Izuku shouted in panic as All-Might tried to peel the fanboy off of himself. Thankfully, All-Might somehow seemed to hear him and stopped. Izuku couldn't hear a thing, his ears not used to the pressure. Never-the-less Izuku raised his head and spoke his wish.

"I…! Have…! Something…! Too…! Ask you!" Izuku tried saying as his lips and tongue battled against the wind and his eyes teared at dryness in his eyes probably making him look like some rubber mouthed freak. It hurt so much!

"Okay! Okay! I get it!" All-Might grimaced. "Just close your eyes and mouth until we land! Keep your face down!"

Then something happened.

Izuku couldn't really hear All-Might due to the wind rushing past his ears and had to decipher what he was saying, but in the time it took to do that, All-Might, the great Symbol of Peace coughed up a bit of blood.

Something was happening to All-Might. The powerful frame was hacking and wheezing and the stance that once spoke nothing, but power and security was now doubled over in midair in weakness. He was bleeding! Izuku cursed whatever gods were responsible for this terribly contrived situation. This was just ridiculous!

Trying to think of a way out of this mess, Izuku did some mental gymnastics.

All-Might can't actually fly, but he can leap tall buildings in a single bound! And since he said he was going to drop off the bottles at the police station that meant that they were probably heading in a slight thirty degree angle, to the right! Right?! And All-Might would then normally find them a safe spot to land, or possibly a point to bounce off of. Izuku grimaced at the implications of the second option.

If he didn't take control of the situation then both of them would go splat on the corner of some huge building! He had to-

POOF!

Izuku nearly fell off as he was now suddenly holding onto the leg of a small, thin, skeletal man hundreds of feet in the air going untold speeds towards something that was a fifty percent chance of being a 'bounce point'.

'Oh! Come on!' Izuku thought desperately at the new development.

The man was flapping in the wind like a rubber chicken just like him. He felt the trajectory slow due to the lack of sufficient mass and his heart pounded at nearly a million miles an hour.

'I have to slow us down further or we aren't going to make it!' Izuku thought. Taking the man into his arms and braced his body for impact, tapping into the warm feeling and allowing his bones to grow painfully through his uniform. It was basically ruined anyways.

His eyes watered as the bones broke through his flesh creating small 'branches'. He needed to protect All-Might!

Izuku then felt the skeletal man that was once All-Might brace himself and say, "Texas… Smash!"

Elsewhere…

"Come on Katsuki! Let's go down to the arcade!" Stretchy Fingers said. Bakugo had kinda forgotten his name again at this point.

"Nah, let's go scoutin' for hot chicks!" The Fat One said. Bakugo wasn't sure who he was either, but extras like these two losers seemed to follow him just about everywhere…

Finally, Bakugo put his foot down.

"Morons! I'm going to cram school!" Bakugo said glaring. "I gotta get my grades up if I'm going to make it into UA!"

That was his dream. Get jacked (check), get into UA (in the bag if these morons would let him get to cram school), and become the best hero of all time (pretty much in the bag, let's be honest.)

Nothing would stop Katsuki Bakugo from getting into UA and becoming the greatest Hero in the world. All the fame! All the respect! It was what he deserved! He took a pretty shitty quirk to be born with, mistakes were made early on, and made it a freaking masterpiece. He did it all by himself too! Stupid hag and weak-ass dad did help him with shit!

He finally got the recognition he deserved! He was amazing! His shit was made of gold to these pukes! He was going to be the best Hero in the world dammit! And then nobody would ever dare look down on him again!

'Are you okay?'

'Kacchan! Stop! Can't you see he's crying!?'

'I really think I could do it!'

'Stupid ass nerd!' Bakugo thought. 'Who does he think he is anyways!?'

Bakugo grit his teeth and kicked a stupid-ass bottle that was in his way. He'd make sure everybody knew that he was the greatest. He'd be the strongest! And he'd do it his way!

He paused no longer hearing his usual ensemble of praises from his two tag-alongs. Turning, he saw the reason.

Some kind of weird slime monster. Bakugo snarled as tendrils of shitty green slime and a huge gaping maw of teeth opened up in front of him.

Sparks crackled in his palms. He was the best. The greatest ever. There was no way in hell he wasn't going down without a fight!