Something seemed to have gone completely wrong when God created Midoriya Izuku. Where there should have been a healthy sense of self preservation, instead there was only an overwhelming selflessness. While people should have been also to like him and accept him, all they felt was an all consuming hatred. And of course, the most obvious mistake that seemed to have been made in his creation. Izuku was quirkless. Like, not a hint of power outside of basic human function sort of quirkless.
Sure, he liked to analyze and dream of the future, but that didn't mean that he was any smarter than anyone else. He just tried a little harder. And he certainly couldn't play chess. Hero facts stuck in his mind, but the different pieces and strategies that came along with chess? He couldn't seem to get the hang of it despite the multiple times his mother had tried to teach him.
While he enjoyed games, he simply was not good at them. Except for Uno. Izuku had the most amazing luck in Uno, and only in Uno. He often found himself holding all four Draw Four cards in his hand when playing with his mother and he always absolutely demolished her, even when he handicapped himself by taking twice as many cards in the beginning.
One game that he was remarkably bad at was the game of life. Not the board game, actual, real life.
At this very moment, Izuku was in fact being chased through a local park by a trio of his bullies. Tears were leaking out of his eyes and he knew that he would be in immense pain if he were caught, which was not exactly ideal. However, he knew that, with their quirks, many of them were faster than him and he was likely going to get caught anyway.
He was about to give up and turn around to accept his fate when he was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of his school uniform and dragged upward into a tree. The bullies somehow didn't see this and continued on in search of the quirkless boy.
Izuku was in shock. One minute, he had been running. The next, he was pulled to a sudden halt and dragged into the leafy branches of a tree, staring into the face of the girl who had saved him.
She was obviously older than him and had brightly colored hair. A box of cards hung out of her pocket and she popped her bubblegum while side eyeing him.
"So," she asked, crossing her arms. "Why were those idiots chasing you?" She blew another bubble.
"Oh, I-" Izuku stopped talking, unwilling to lose any sense of camaraderie that he had gained with the girl. She had just saved him, but chances were that when he told her that he was quirkless, she would push him out of the tree.
"Spit it out," she said, poking his forehead to bring him out of his thoughts.
Oh well, he thought. It's just what I deserve.
"It's because I'm quirkless and that means that I can't be a hero," he explained quickly, screwing his eyes shut in fear of retaliation.
He peeked up at her when she started laughing. "Uno reverse card," she managed to get out between her heaving gasps. "That is legit the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"
Izuku's beliefs were suddenly turned on his head. "Yeah, that was dumb," he agree, blinking his eyes in realization. "I can be a hero, even if I am quirkless! It doesn't have to hold me back! I'm not a mistake. I'm exactly how I'm meant to be and no one can tell me that I can't fulfill my dreams and become a hero!"
The girl laughed harder. "You tell 'em, hero. Now, why don't you go talk to your mom about those bullies? Join a martial arts club, learn how to make support items, do something that'll help you instead of running away like a weakling every time."
"I will!" Izuku responded with confidence. He jumped out of the tree and ran home to begin actually working toward his dream of becoming a hero.
Even if his intelligence was around average and, if they tried, anyone could do what he did, that was the point. He was the one who put in the effort. He was the one who made it into the hero course at UA, becoming their first quirkless hero student. He was the one who stood up to his bullies, surpassing them in every way possible. He was the first quirkless hero and it was through his own hard work. He didn't rely on some dumb quirk, he put the effort in and won.
And the girl watched his journey with a smirk, knowing that she had been the one to drive him along that path. You see, his change of heart had nothing to do with him. It was actually her quirk that had changed his mind.
Yeah, it might be said that these actions were villainous, but she didn't care. Society got a true hero out of it and the quirkless boy became an inspiration for change. Sure, she changed what the kid was thinking, but it was better for him in the long run and since when did a vigilante care too much about the specifics of quirk usage?
She continued to watch Izuku from the shadows along his journey, feeling a tad responsible for sending him headfirst into the hero life. When she noticed some freaky looking dude sneaking up on him, she immediately whispered, "Uno card number 3." Three knives appeared in her hands and she restrained the man. No need to talk about the fact she was perhaps following Izuku too, she was obviously protecting him. That dude just wanted to cause trouble.
When someone started bad mouthing Izuku for being quirkless and thinking he could be a hero, she would bring out a wild card, which let her change the topic of the conversation to anything of her choice.
When she really got pissed, she'd use her draw two or draw four cards to apply from minor to incapacitating amounts of pain to the rude person, which she found to be immensely satisfying and stress relieving, but it certainly was not one of her more legal activities.
After bringing Izuku into the life of a pro hero, she wanted to protect him, but he didn't need protecting. His quirkless status didn't hold him back and he went on to be incredibly successful on his own merits.
IMPORTANT AN: Due to several different reasons, my fics will no longer be updated on this site. While I won't be updating here, what does exist on this site so far will remain here. If you want to continue following any future installments to this one shot, or even check out another fic, I will continue to update all fics on Ao3 under the same name, CheshireAsh. Thank you for all your support here!