Author's Note: I do not own BNHA or any other elements from other fandom.

Chapter 11: Career Goals

Today marked the one-year anniversary of her family moving to the island and Keiyu felt some mixed feelings settle in. On one hand, Papa was coming home this weekend to celebrate, on another, it reminded her of how naive her pre-awakened self was when Mama had first taken her to the school to sign her up and show the teachers her homeschool transcripts. Five year old Keiyu had tried playing with the kids and they had all just stared at her before Hibiki stepped forward to invite her to a game of tag.

That had not been a good day, she couldn't catch anyone and they all managed to evade her tag in a way that ended up with her falling to the floor. Her entire face had been covered in dirt and tear tracks by the end of the day but it didn't stop her from going up to them the next day, and the day after that.

Which of course led to them having her do the 'initiation' which ended up with her falling down the waterfall and almost dying. Papa was still unaware of the fact of the kid's part in her almost death as Mama had made it difficult for her to tell him without being called a liar.

Mama's secrets were starting to get annoying and she just wished that the woman wasn't so obsessed about keeping the 'dark' parts of the island from Papa.

Why was she intent on staying on this island anyway? What was so special about it that made her so crazy?

"As we get into finals week let's talk about summer homework," that sentence and the groans following it brought her out of her thoughts and she saw Akane-sensei pick up several books.

"Those graduating to middle school, here's your book list for summer, I expect all of it to be read and all the quizzes filled out," she listed the other grades, handing out the appropriate books before coming to Keiyu's desk.

"Mumichi-san, your the only second grader so it might be difficult, but we have a little tradition on this island," 'another tradition?' she blinked up at the woman who placed a three inch thick book in front of her.

"The instructions are on the first page, have fun choosing your career Mumichi-san," 'wait, career?!' with that lack of explanation, Akane-sensei returned to her desk and resumed her work. 'Choosing my career?' she was six years old, shouldn't something like that be for older students.

"Good luck," a mean snicker came from Mao's direction but she ignored it.

She finished at the usual time and instead of going to the bookstore, she went to the junkyard and walked among the rusty cars piled on top of one another before coming to a tractor and slipping in through the right side where the door had been torn off.

Taking out her bento from the convenience store that Mama had gotten her, she opened the book and read the instructions.

There were only twenty different careers on the island and she was given till the end of summer to choose one of these careers and start studying for it in order to be of use to the island. She had to go to every single one over the summer and was not allowed to skip or choose one at the beginning, she had to do all of them.

Well, that sounded really stressful.

She went to the list of careers and looked them over.

Artisan

Bank Clerk

Cook

Dancer

Engineer

Farmer

Groomer

Harbor Master

Inspector

Jailer

Librarian

Mailman

Nurse

Office Worker

Policeman

Repairmen

Shopkeeper

Teacher

Utility Worker

Writer

Obviously some of the positions had different jobs underneath them, but that was the main one, if one wanted to become Chief they had to have been voted by the whole town.

But seriously, she couldn't see herself on this island for the rest of her life.

Might as well decide what she is going to do, because even if she is training to be an ice-skater, what should her back up plan be?

For the rest of the week she tried to figure out what she was going to do in between exercises, taking the finals, and going on the chat room.

When she told her friends about the career thing they were shocked, but when she asked after their future career goals, neither gave her a straight answer beyond 'saving people'. Which frustrated her and made her feel a bit betrayed at the fact they did not want to tell her.

Then she went to the bookstore where Mikan-san provided her with a link to his books.

"So all of your friends can read them," his Quest lit up in the corner and she sighed.

"I guess," she explained their chat on careers and he hummed.

"You'll find out what they mean in the future, they're probably not sure themselves. Don't hold it against them, okay?" she considered it.

"I guess," still didn't get rid of the hurt she felt at their reluctance.

Izuku bit his lip as he waited in the cubicle in the computer cafe, staring at his computer and wondering if DL would forgive them for not being straight with her.

But he had realized a while ago that DL had no knowledge of heroes or quirks, thinking them to be only in fiction. Mom had told him that it was possible since there are places that did not talk of such subjects because all the people on the island are Quirkless. So when he said he wanted to save people when he's older, she asked if he wanted to be a policeman or firefighter but it reminded him of how teachers and other kids disparaged him for lack of quirk and tried to push him in those areas instead.

It wasn't her fault, but if she ever did leave the island and find out about Quirks, would she think he could be a hero without one.

Another reason for him to be nervous was VioletCat wanting to meet up in real life after they both revealed similar sounding descriptions for a career choice.

What if he stops wanting to be on the chat because Izuku didn't have a Quirk? What if he sees him as nothing more than a Deku like Kacchan did?

He didn't want to go back to being alone on the chat, to trying to answer DL's questions of why VC wasn't there anymore.

"Okay Overlord, what's the first order?" a tired voice asked and he whirled around, the protest automatically coming out as it did on chat.

"I'm not an Overlord Violet!" he pouted at the amused purple haired boy wearing a cat t-shirt, eye bags under his eyes that were a bit concerning.

"How high are you on the Shogi board again?" he huffed and glared at the boy, pouting when all he got in response was a shrug.

The six year old sat down next to him and took out a pillow from his backpack.

"Shinsou Hitoshi aka VioletCat, so, I'm guessing All Might is your favorite?" Izuku blinked before a flush went up his neck.

"Midoriya Izuku, and yeah, I've watched his video over and over almost every night, I want to be a hero just like him, to be the one to save people with a smile on my face," he bit his lip and stared at his computer, "But, not having a Quirk will make that very difficult as everyone keeps telling me." the cubicle fell silent as he waited for the other boy to call him useless.

"My Quirk is called Brainwashing and I've been labelled a villain since everyone found out. I want to become a hero to prove them wrong. So I guess we both need to prove our worth as heroes to people, Quirk or not Quirk," Izuku's eyes watered and Hitoshi twitched as the green haired boy literally cried waterfalls at his reply.

"Hey Overlord, might want to stop before you short circuit the computer," the tears stopped and now instead he was back to glaring.

"I'm not an overlord," he mumbled, Hitoshi rolled his eyes.

"So, how are we going to talk to DL without letting on about Heroes? It sounds like she was asking for advice but we weren't very helpful because she wouldn't know about becoming a Hero as a career," Izuku thought about it.

"Isn't it weird that they're having her choose at six? Why not when she's ten?" It's two weeks since their last chat and he was concerned at what was going on and worried that she didn't want to go on the chat anymore.

"Yeah, there's something strange about that island, I asked Mom about it once and she full out shivered and muttered about cost and broken economy before not saying anything else." Izuku looked at Hitoshi with a raised eyebrow.

"Just how obsessed with money is your mom?" his sheepish look had Izuku shaking his head before another thought hit him.

"Oh, did you start reading the books she sent to our emails? I'm already on the second one," his eyes shined, the storyline had drawn him in and he had chosen to read it in English because it was easier than reading kanji at the moment.

"Yeah, it was rather weird, some of it reminds me of Quirks but imagine such an organization actually existing? I'm on the third one, insomnia comes in handy" Hitoshi pulled out a tablet and turned it on to show text in Italian.

There were ten books total in the whole series and from how the first three books went, he was really curious about the rest.

'Catalyst: First Initiate' had started out with an 7 year old Russian orphan who was a thief in downtown Japan, trying to earn a keep and survive in a world where psychic powers were everything and having none lowered you on the food chain. Having sneaked onto a ship headed to Japan to find someone his parents had known, he runs into various guardians (high level psychics who use their abilities to protect civilians.) who don't take kindly to his appearance and try to arrest him. He evades them and loses the trail of the man he had been tracking. The boy himself had no psychic abilities, at least, not ones that had awakened at the age of five like they should've. However, when a man cornered him in the alley and used an ability that caused the bars on a window to shoot out and impale him, his ability activated. The bars disappeared and the boy's wounds were gone, he ran passed the man who went to grab him, only for the bars from before to shoot out of the boy's hand and through his head, killing him instantly. Afraid of getting into trouble, the boy ran from the scene but was picked up by some government officials before the guardians could get a hold of him. They took him to a facility and told him about those like him who woke their psychic ability under duress, those whose ability are overlooked by others, or those who are pressured because of it. That they have careers barred to them like the guardians because of killing someone in self-defense or on accident. There are people whose powers go to their heads and have designs for the world that do not end well for others. That there is so much about these abilities that no one knows about, about the marks they have left and if the boy would like to be trained to help this organization deal with the threats. Faced with a life of being homeless and chased by guardians, or staying with these people, the boy agrees and is shuttled off to a physical exam before his training begins.

"The first book was great! The second one is interesting as well, though the blonde friend of the telekinetic reminds me of Kacchan's mom," Hitoshi gave him a look.

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Izuku thought about it.

"A good thing," he decided after a moment, Hitoshi snorted.

The beeping caught their attention and they turned to see that DL was back online, the girl was already sending paragraph after paragraph about what had been going on the past two weeks.

"Think she's had coffee?" Izuku shot his chat friend a look who gave him an innocent one back before pulling up the chat on his tablet.

DakoxLeon: Guys! I totally figured out what I wanted to do with my life! I was totally inspired by Book Five of the book series("She's already on book five? She must've not slept at all," "Shush Hitoshi,".) I decided I want to do what those characters start training for in chapter 10, I won't spoil it for you! Anyways, I've already chosen what they wanted on the island, even if they won't let me put in the choice till the last day *groan*. I've had to go to all of the stores on the island and even to the dam and harbor. Dancer is what I chose, though Akiko-sensei told me that Ice-skating is under that category so it works! I've decided that I'll advance in Ice-skating enough to go to the Olympics! Though apparently it is not all that popular of a career despite almost all the girls being in the ballet class, they're only there for the exercise their parents insisted on. They see it is not contributing to the island itself and I was warned about choosing a different one instead. But I've already made up my mind!"

Violet Cat: And I thought GM was bad at rambling. (He ignored Izuku's betrayed look.)

Green Might: I don't ramble! But it's great that you figured out what you wanted to be, I don't suppose you can give us a hint so that we don't skip to that book to see?

DakoxLeon: It's listed as the Chapter Title so no worries! And it's Chapter 10

Hitoshi was already on the file scrolling to that book and Izuku spent some time talking to DL about some of the things they had her do for the different careers and smiled at the rant she put about being told how to wash her hands properly when she already knew.

A choking sound had him looking at Hitoshi who was staring at the tablet with a disbelieving look.

"What? What's wrong," Hitoshi turned the tablet around and as soon as he saw the title, Izuku winced.

"Oh," should, should they tell DL that this occupation is extinct? Maybe she should stick with being an Olympic ice skater?

Then his eyes met Hitoshi and an understanding came to him, no, if she wanted to, then it wasn't impossible. It wasn't like the career itself was banned, just lost interest a bit, after all, as soon as Quirks came around, the desire for people to go into space died out.

No one's gone into space for the past one hundred years.