Breakfast.

The current obstacle was breakfast.

With a bang, Ruby rushed out of her room, petals flying behind her, the chair she landed in almost falling from the momentum she carried. Her pyjama-clad family stared at her as she sat in a full outfit.

"Breakfast, now! I gotta hurry up!" she shouted, watching the two blondes who seemed unphased by her shouting. "Hero's don't take breaks!"

"Ruby, the beach will be open for the entire day. You don't need to rush there; Every. Single. Time," Yang groaned as she pushed her head against the dinner table. She raised a hand, waving to her father lazily. "Dad, make her stop."

Ruby's father turned around from the stove, plate in hand, as he purposefully strolled slowly towards the girl about to erupt, one hand behind his back as he took a deep breath before speaking.

"Well, Ruby..." As soon as he started speaking, he was subjected to her pouting silver eyes. "As your father, I should get you to eat breakfast as a family... But as a teacher, I don't think I can refuse such excitement." He smirked, pulling out a small lunch bag as he placed the plate in front of Yang. "Enjoy yourself, kiddo. I packed breakfast inside."

Ruby's smile was brighter than her future as she barely mumbled a simple 'thanks' and ran out the door.

Ruby wanted to be a hero. Frankly, more than anything. In the old world, that word apparently meant someone who did good, but today? It was a career, and one that she knew she was going to get herself into.

She nodded along, ignoring most of the world as her headphones blasted the radio into her skull. She only got about halfway to the beach before the music was interrupted by the radio host beginning to play some audio documentary. Japan's new 'education through entertainment' approach was starting to get on her nerves.

"—Those twins that started glowing in a small hospital in China. Ever since that day, supernatural abilities started manifesting in normal people, getting passed down to their kids and—"

Ruby hit the mute button as she tried to ignore the irritating information. She heard the story maybe a thousand times at this point. Everybody had an explanation for how quirks manifested and spread around, and honestly, she was getting sick of hearing it. Back in America, they claimed that it was a Russian experiment or virus. The Russians claimed it was the Americans. Everyone blamed enemies or tried to claim they made a scientific breakthrough, the only consistent thing was the glowing twins in the hospital, well and the story of how the world reacted. Because of how quirks manifested suddenly, there were wars and battles with nations. It was a few hundred years before—

"—Ending up with a population of about 90% of people with quirks. It took hard-working, brave souls to get society back up and running, and it took the work of a new career hired by the world governments. Pro heroes came on the scene, and a time of peace began. Today, the greatest hero, All—"

Ruby hit the mute button once again as she slowed her walking. She could go the rest of the way in silence. Plus she could just enjoy the view instead of the music. The sidewalk she was on ran parallel to the beach and the view was nice until she saw the trash start to increase. Unlike the docks back home, some of the beaches here were absolutely full of trash from the nearby apartment complexes. The debris soured the view as she continued her walk to the heart of the trash heap, towards the very middle. The garbage was never anything organic or smelly. It was stuff like metal, computers or wood. Ruby assumed there was a kind of unspoken agreement in the neighbourhood that nobody would throw anything that could cause a stench and force waste management to come around. Of course, Ruby took advantage of this and had an entire workbench set up with a mix of tools she was using to craft some items she was going to need. Most notably, a weapon.

Whether it was a fridge or a saw, Ruby could find almost anything she needed to get started on her armament. It would serve as a scythe and a pistol combined together. The work she put in was tiring, but she was about halfway done on the whole thing.

The main problem was that she had to get it done in time for UA's entrance exams; plus, she had to factor in training and all the other kinds of changes she would have to make, too, but the thought of herself shooting and slashing villains with her new weapon was enough to make her giddy.

Of course, all of her thoughts were halted as she saw a green-haired boy grab hold of her work table, his arms and modest muscles bulging as he picked it up and tossed the entire workbench into a large red wagon, smashing the thing and everything on it into shards as he let out a single cry of pain and exhaustion. Shouting like he just won an entire tournament.

"Are you... robbing me?!" she shouted, her voice travelling the 15 feet of distance before he turned around in shock to see the girl staring at him. Ruby's face was a mix of disbelief and anger. His face was turning a shade of red not unlike her own as he looked at the heap of a broken desk and back to the girl.

"No?"

Quirks really were incredible things. They could make you massive! Or even make you strong enough to punch away rain with nothing but air pressure! However, today Izuku learned about a new kind of quirk.

"So what's your quirk called?" he groaned as he rubbed a hand over the spot she propelled her foot into. The marking of her boot was going to be imprinted on his skin for days.

The girl seemed disinterested as she softly blew some hair out of the way and turned to peer at him.

"Petal burst." She looked back at the massive pile of metal that used to be her tools, her workbench, and her weapon.

Izuku sat there on the hard concrete steps that separated the road from the beaches, trying not to look at the girl sitting there contemplating life. Izuku remembered how his sensei talked about this beach before it was covered in the trash by the locals. His training was to clean up the whole beach himself and get in shape as he did it. After a few months, he was surprised at the amount of progress he had made. His arms felt stronger and the view was even prettier.

Of course, the view was soured a bit by the girl who was crying beside—

Oh shit, she was crying now.

Shit shit shit. He wasn't prepared for this. How was he supposed to help her? According to her incoherent screaming, he had just shattered five months of work, so a single sorry was just going to sound insensitive.

"Hey," his brain paused as he got her attention. He had the slightest idea of what to say, but in less than a second, the concept was wiped out by the sight of tears in the girl's silver eyes.

Why was he like this?

"I can help you remake it." His mind stopped as the girl stopped sobbing and stared at him. "I-I'm trying to clean this place up so I could help you out and bring you supplies from areas you haven't checked yet."

The girl's face went from sadness to confusion. Or maybe she was angry? He honestly couldn't tell, but she didn't seem any more upset than before. He could think a bit clearer without her sobs.

"You're trying to become a hero, right? I'm Izuku."

"Yeah I am… My name is Ruby Rose," She wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Would you mind if I helped you out? You're trying out for the UA Beacon program, right? We could help each other Ruby," The name rang in his head as the words left his lips. Her last name sounded familiar. He pushed the thought away as he moved his hand out towards her, giving an earnest smile.

The girl paused for a moment as her face moved to a more contemplative look. She reached a hand out and shook his, responding with her own smile.

"How much can you lift up?" She asked with a look of excitement pouring into her eyes.

"A lot." He sighed as he rubbed his arms.

Over the next 3 months of time, Ruby watched this green-haired monster slowly gain the ability to lift more and more objects for her. It was frankly getting crazy how strong he was getting. Briefly lifting fridges and various other appliances for parts and scrap metal. Ruby normally couldn't lift those, but with the help of Izuku, she was able to get just about everything she needed. At first, it was just to punish him but he quickly showed just how useful he was.

Apparently, he came here every single day. Because of heavy schoolwork and Ruby's advanced workload, she could only come around on weekends, but seeing the beach's horizon slowly show itself every weekend was… well, it was breathtaking.

Ruby sat on those same cement stairs. The sunset slowly fell on them both as she watched the boy stack the final massive pile of garbage, then stand atop the tower and roar. Ruby shouted with him into the sky. He looked proud of himself and Ruby would be lying if she said she didn't feel the same. She spent so much time with him watching him try and fail and eventually get the hold of things that were previously too heavy. It was pretty inspiring.

He began to make his way down. His breath shaky as he placed a foot from one object to the next before his foot was placed on some cardboard and slipped—

A burst of petals flew in the air as Ruby rushed forward and just barely caught the boy. Well, it was less catching and more breaking his fall; she almost got him bridal-style, but she slipped, leaving her falling into the sand with a yelp before she was left lying there. She stared at Izuku in her arms.

"My hero," he laughed, rubbing a hand through her hair to mess it up as Ruby laughed with him and pushed him off. She had to do some heavy lifting too. She ignored the feeling in her cheeks as she stood herself up and slapped away some of the sand off her clothes.

Izuku rubbed the back of his head, still coming down from the laugh as he walked with her towards the fixed up workbench. Now that all the trash was gone or in the last pile, it looked like the only thing out of place was the metal table holding the finished scythe-gun hybrid.

It wasn't exactly great in looks, but a few spray cans would help it along. Ruby already knew what colour she wanted it.

"So, what are you gonna call it?" Izuku asked, arms crossed as he stared at the last few months of effort. Ruby paused and looked down for a second, staring at his scars from all the sharp metal he had to carry around.

"W-Wait, I have to name it?" Her mind stopped. There was no way she could name something as important to her as this. It was like her child, and you couldn't just name a… child.

"I heard they ask for weapon names at UA, Might just be a rumour, but it'll be fun anyway." He shrugged as he waited on the girl to think of something. "Maybe name it after your uncle or something? He's the one who taught you how to use a scythe, right?"

Ruby nodded as she stared at the weapon. Its structure was simple enough. A telescopic pole that extended and 2 blades stored inside the part that folded. When opened, the two blades would fold out into a single scythe. Her favourite part was the gun attachment. Weapons had to be multipurpose, so she installed a simple pistol at the very top of the weapon. Of course, she couldn't technically use a gun, so when anyone asked them, they said it was a "pressure based microprojectile shooter." though by placing her hand at the very top and clicking a trigger, she could almost certainly shoot a bullet through someone.

She shook her head to bring her back to her senses. Her mind daydreaming about her weapon again as she thought about… a name! She got this, maybe…

"Crow's claw?" her head leaned to the side as she spoke it. From this angle, it actually made it look like a bird claw—the rings of the telescopic pole matching the name quite nicely.

"That's perfect!" he sounded happy, but his voice had almost a sharp quality to it as he found himself wishing he thought of it first. "You are seriously naming all of my special attacks if we both get in."

"We're getting in, dummy." She put her head back upright as she spoke, sounding a little upset at the reminder that they weren't guaranteed a spot. "We got a whole month to prepare, and if you can help me make a weapon with zero experience, helping you train should be a cinch."

After all, Izuku gained so much strength just cleaning up the beach. His sensei was also helping during weekdays, so it wasn't like he would be useless in combat.

Over the course of the next month, Ruby would soon find out just how wrong she was.