This AU follows Izuku Midoriya who never meets All Might or saves Bakugo from the sludge villain. He has grown through high school and still does not seem to have a quirk. Class 1-A and B have continued training and the LOV has proceeded to attack just like in the manga. However, everything that happens during the Overhaul arc has not occurred yet. The characters are just older and time has shifted. It's time to find out what Izuku's been up to all these years...

There will be OC's introduced, special chapters dedicated to other characters, but most of all, Izuku's journey to becoming a hero in his own way. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Eleven: The Morning After

"So? What's your point?" Snipe asked.

"He smashed a hole in a fucking brick wall. I don't think anyone who's quirkless could do that," Midnight protested, nearly jumping out of her seat.

"Yes, but we already had Eraser Head check him while he was unconscious," Vlad King commented, looking over at Aizawa who had been strangely quiet after returning from the hospital wing where the green-haired kid was resting.

Aizawa simply shrugged.

"Then make him check again!" Midnight slammed her hands on the desk, causing Nezu's coffee mug to spill everywhere.

Suddenly, there was a knock.

"Hello? Am I interrupting something important?" Toshinori poked his head inside the room. He had just come back from watching Class 1-A and B train. Toshi had really taken Nighteye's words to heart and had already started planning out how he would pick his successor. It was going to take a little longer than he had promised Nighteye, but Toshinori was confident about his plan. By the end of the year, no by the end of September, he would choose a successor. He was sure of it.

Now, he just needed to contact an old friend and get everything ready.

"Oh, Toshi, you're just in time. We have a dilemma and would really like your expert opinion on the matter," Nezu smiled, his nose twitching. Aizawa rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Toshinori laughed. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I might be able to help. What's going on?" He noticed that most of the UA staff was sitting around the table and frowned.

"Is everything alright?" he stepped into the room and Present Mic gave a small shrug.

"There's a kid who broke a brick wall sleeping in our medical wing and we're trying to figure out what his quirk is!" Mic exclaimed. He sounded a little too excited.

Aizawa groaned. "I already told you he doesn't have a quirk, Mic. I couldn't find anything to shut off. Now drop it and let him go home when he wakes up."

Midnight gasped. "That's it! We just have to wake him up and ask. I'll go do it," she grinned mischievously, but Aizawa stood up and blocked her path.

"He doesn't have a quirk. How many times do I have to tell you that?" he frowned, but Midnight just pushed past him.

"You're just mad because your quirk didn't work on him," she smirked and then stepped outside, taking the sickly sweet scent of lavender and roses with her. "I'm gonna go grab some lunch. If he's not up by the time I'm done, I'm gonna go wake him up myself," she called before heading out the door.

Toshi watched her go and blinked. "Um, sorry. I'm a little confused. Does he have a quirk or not?"

Nezu hopped off the seat and walked up to Toshinori, handing him a skinny file. "Apparently not. He actually applied to UA four years ago and got rejected."

"Yeah. Because he was quirkless. We established that already so there's no need for any of us to still be here," Aizawa said as he squeezed eye drops into his eyes.

"Hm," Toshinori took the file and looked over it carefully. The boy in the picture had puffy green hair and tiny freckles on his cheeks. He was smiling awkwardly at the camera.

"Izuku Midoriya"

DOB: July 15th, 2005

Category: Quirkless

Status of Exam: Failed

"How long ago was this?" he asked.

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. You don't actually think he could've developed a quirk in four years?"

Developed? No. It's impossible, especially at his age. But what if he was given one? Toshinori thought with a frown. He had no reason to suspect the boy of being involved with All for One, especially since he was still locked away, but nowadays he wasn't sure who he could trust when the League was so active.

"It's statistically impossible. But that's what makes it fun!" Mic beamed from across the table.

"Well, what do you think Toshi?" Nezu asked curiously.

Toshinori handed back the file. He shrugged, forcing a smile and pushing his suspicions away. "I don't know. It's definitely interesting, but we won't know the truth until he wakes up and tells us himself."

"Ugh, I'm leaving," Aizawa grumbled, taking the entire coffee pot with him as he left the room.

Toshi sighed and watched him go. "Is the boy, this Izuku Midoriya, okay at least?"

Vlad King nodded. "Yes. They had to bring him to our hospital so Recovery Girl could help him because his wounds were really severe. He had third-degree burns, a broken back, some ribs, his arm–"

"Third degree? What the heck was he doing?" Toshi asked, sitting down in an empty seat next to Snipe.

"I think the girl who came with him told us he's a teacher for an elementary school. Apparently, the building caught fire during their morning class and he stayed behind to rescue one of his students," Nezu explained.

Toshi blinked. "And you said he's quirkless? How did he survive that?"

Mic whistled. "That's what makes it so rockin'! I told Shota it sounded like a really cool hero origin story but he said it sounded stupid."

Toshi chuckled quietly. Hero origin story? If the boy had risked his life for his students, then maybe he wasn't affiliated with All For One after all. Toshi let himself relax.

He stared over at the form, curiosity beginning to grow inside him. Mic had it in his hands now and was using his freckles as a connect-the-dots game with his pen.

"We've decided to give him some time to wake up and then ask him questions. Unfortunately, if he does end up having a quirk, the police will become involved. Since you know, he doesn't have a hero license. They're already looking into the incident anyway," Nezu explained.

Toshi raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Apparently, the fire wasn't an accident. Someone did it on purpose."

—

Izuku opened his eyes to the sound of a distant beeping. He frowned and lifted up his head, looking around in confusion. The last thing he remembered was jumping from a two-story building with…

"Kota!" Izuku shouted.

"Well would you look at that, Sleeping Beauty finally woke up," Kiho grinned as she stood up from the chair next to him.

Izuku blinked, frantically looking around. Where was Kota? The school? The fire? Where were the others? Were they okay? He seemed to be in some kind of hospital room and his whole body was connected with wires. There were bandages wrapped around both his arms and he could feel one underneath his chin. The beeping was coming from the heart rate monitor next to him.

"I'm alive," Izuku breathed out. He flexed his fingers carefully and tried to move his stiff neck. He felt like he should be in pain but his entire body just felt numb.

"Barely. How are you feeling?" Kiho asked tenderly.

Izuku nodded slowly and gave her a weak smile. "Good… I guess?"

"Great. Then that means I can finally do this–" she frowned, slapping him hard across the face.

Izuku blinked, looking back at her in shock. "Ow?! What the hell was that for? I said I was feeling better, not that you could slap me!"

"What was that for? For making me worry about you, you idiot! You could have died back there," she crossed her arms over her chest.

Izuku opened and closed his mouth, sinking into the pillows behind him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled quietly. He deserved that slap. He had behaved recklessly and foolishly. Izuku should have waited for someone else to rescue Kota. He knew the limits of his own body and yet he had been prepared to throw everything away. He stared down at his hands in disappointment.

Kiho sat at the foot of his bed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Ugh. You make it so hard for people to be mad at you, especially when you make that face," she groaned.

"You're right though. Everything I did was stupid," he said after a while.

Kiho frowned. "Not everything."

Izuku looked up. Their eyes met and neither of them looked away.

"You saved his life," she whispered.

Izuku swallowed, processing her words inside his head.

You saved his life. You saved Kota's life, Izuku.

Slowly, the memories of the incident started creeping back into his mind. The way he had rushed to pick Kota up and punched through the wall, how he had felt no pain, and the way his thoughts had become so clear. At that moment, he had truly felt… invincible.

Izuku's eyes widened and he sat up suddenly. "So Kota's okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. The brat's doing fine. He's got a broken arm, but nothing like what happened to you," Kiho turned away and clicked her tongue.

"To me?" Izuku gulped.

"I don't even think I could count the number of bones you broke on two hands," Kiho sighed. The more Izuku stared at her, the more he noticed the bags under her eyes. She looked tired and her eyes were really red. Had she been crying?

Izuku stared back down at his bandages and shivered. "What about everyone else?"

"They're all fine. You were only brought here because of Recovery Girl. It was the only way to save your limbs," Kiho explained.

Izuku sat up slowly. "Wait, 'here'? Where exactly are we?"

"UA. We're in one of their hospital rooms," she added.

I'm at UA, Izuku thought, looking around the room with a fresh perspective. Who would've thought he'd ever make his way here.

"Hey, hey. Don't start fading out of consciousness again," Kiho waved her hand in front of his face.

"Again?" Izuku stammered.

Kiho nodded. "Yeah, you did that a lot yesterday. It was kind of hard to sleep when you kept jolting awake every other hour. I finally thought you were conscious, but nope. You'd fall back down and pass out. It was kind of creepy," she scrunched her nose up and frowned.

"Wait, how long have I– 'kind of hard to sleep'? We… slept together?" Izuku asked, his whole face turning red.

Kiho rolled her eyes. "Slow down, idiot. Don't get ahead of yourself. I only spent the night in your room because the questioning took longer than expected and they said it wasn't safe for me to go home. And it's been a couple of weeks," she added casually, checking on her nails.

Izuku's eyes widened. "Excuse me? A couple of weeks?"

Kiho laughed. "Gullible as always. No, Midoriya. It's only been one day. Calm down," she flicked his forehead and then stood up, walking over to his desk and grabbing a pudding cup.

"Is that mine?" Izuku asked, his stomach grumbling.

"Not anymore," she licked the spoon and smirked.

Izuku couldn't help but smile back. At least Kiho seemed to be doing okay, better than him anyway. Then he frowned again. "Wait, what do you mean you were questioned?"

Kiho nodded. She was about to explain when Lemillion's face appeared on the door as if it was floating. They both screamed and Kiho dropped his chocolate pudding all over the floor.

"Problem child, you're alive! And… oh. Am I interrupting something? I didn't know you had a girlfriend," Mirio smiled as his face disappeared and he entered the room with a bunch of balloons and a giant teddy bear.

"I don't!"

"He doesn't!"

Izuku and Kiho yelled simultaneously.

They both turned red and Kiho walked over to the door. "You're Lemillion. My dad's a big fan, but I have to go. I'll be back later. Make sure Midoriya doesn't do anything stupid," Kiho yelled over her shoulder as she rushed out, hiding her face.

Mirio blinked. "So, are you two dating or..?"

Izuku laughed nervously and shook his head. "Yeah, no. It's complicated," he confessed. He still hadn't apologized or given Kiho an answer, but Izuku couldn't even think about that after everything that had taken place. He just wanted to go back to sleep after he made sure everyone was okay. His body was tired.

Mirio laughed. "You're so funny, Midoriya."

Izuku shrugged, a slight smile on his lips as he watched Mirio set the huge bear down on the chair, tying the balloons to his heart rate monitor.

"Hope it's not too much. I just felt extra bad since… well, that's kind of what I came to talk to you about," he sighed.

Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. "If it's about Eri then–"

"I know, I know. You don't want to hear it. But it's not. It's about you. And what happened yesterday," Mirio's face turned serious.

"How'd you find out what happened to me?" Izuku asked curiously.

Mirio looked away. "See… here's the thing. We kind of already knew…"

Izuku frowned. "We?"

"Remember when Nighteye saw your future?"

Izuku nodded.

"Well, he didn't want to tell you what he saw because he saw your death," Mirio finished quietly.

Izuku stayed quiet. Nighteye predicted that I was going to die? He felt a cold sensation run through him at the thought of escaping death.

He looked back over at Mirio and his frown deepened. "But… that doesn't make any sense. Did he get the time wrong? The date? I'm obviously still here, right? Unless you're a ghost. Wait, a minute… WhatifI'mactuallydead? Oh no. IreallythroughtImadeittoo," Izuku started rambling as he went over the possible scenarios in his head. He placed his hand over his chest trying to feel his heartbeat and the monitor started going crazy.

"Ah! No, no. You're alive, Midoriya. You're alive!" Mirio waved his hands in front of Izuku's face until he calmed down and the machine continued to beep normally.

Izuku let out a long sigh in relief. "Sorry. It's just that… I've never heard of Sir Nighteye being wrong before," he shook his head. It was a lot to process. Izuku still wasn't sure how he had survived himself. While he remembered grabbing Kota and punching through a brick wall, there was no way those things could have actually happened, right? Had the fire made him delirious? He remembered that strange sensation running through his body and wondered if it had anything to do with the burns he had received.

Mirio watched him carefully. "I know. He knows that too. He would've come to see you but… he thought you'd be mad at him," Mirio bit his bottom lip.

Izuku shrugged. "I did say I didn't want to know," he mumbled. If he had known, could he have tried to prevent it? Maybe he would've been able to keep Kota away from danger. But apparently, none of what Nighteye had predicted had even come true. So what did it matter now?

"But we can talk about that later. I don't want to overwhelm you. Plus, I'm not the only one who wants to speak to you," Mirio sighed.

Izuku furrowed his brows. "Who else wants to talk to me?"

"Um… just a couple detectives… from the police department," Mirio added the last part quietly and Izuku felt like passing out all over again. He expected the investigators to be the ones that knocked next, but then the door burst open and all of his students rushed in, Principal Mori behind them.

"Midoriya-sensei!" they cried, running up to his body and grabbing at him with their small, sticky hands. Izuku laughed and tried to ignore the pain whenever one of them brushed against his injuries.

"Hi everyone!" he grinned. Mirio stepped back and a couple of the students gasped. "Oh my gosh, it's Lemillion…"

Izuku expected them to all leave his side and run up to Mirio instead, but they didn't move.

"Wow, I can't believe Lemillion knows our sensei!" they giggled.

Izuku laughed in surprise and Mirio winked at him. "Yep. Your teacher is a really cool guy," he smiled.

"No, actually, he's a hero," Mirio corrected. Izuku turned to look at him in surprise.

"Midoriya-sensei saved us! Midoriya-sensei is a hero!" the kids laughed, as some of them started jumping on his bed. Izuku didn't have the heart to tell them to get down, and if he said anything now, he would start to cry, their words echoing throughout his head. So instead, he stayed quiet and decided to enjoy the moment.

Hero. They thought Izuku Midoriya was a hero.

—

Oh my gosh, everyone, the website is working again! Woohoo!

I had a lot of fun reading your theories about Izuku's quirk in the comments, please keep leaving more, and go catch up with the chapters I posted last week if you haven't done so already. Also, I just realized there's an option to reply to reviews and I just want to thank everyone who has been really supportive so far. I had no idea I could personally respond to any of you but I will try to answer any important things that come up in these little notes at the end of every chapter.

The story will definitely begin to pick up now that Izuku has "awakened" his powers. I'm not going to say anything about the theories but some of them are really cool. The next upload will either be tomorrow or Sunday. See you soon!