WHAT IF DEKU WAS THE SON OF MIRKO?

Chapter 3

Birds were chirping and the distant sound of morning traffic echoed from the streets, emitting from a closed single window with white curtains. There was a soft ticking sound of a red alarm clock that laid on a blue dresser with silver handles. The room had weights all around the floor ranging from 5 to 500 pounds. There was a light blue training mat next to a blue-covered twin-sized bed, sitting right in front of the blue dresser. Near the foot of the twin-sized bed was a workout bench, pull-up bar, and punching bag that could barely even fit inside the already cramped room. There were no posters on the walls of the room, although there were a few pictures that displayed Izuku and Rumi on many different occasions. This was Izuku's bedroom even though it looked more like a workout room to anyone else.

As light just started to creep through a small gap between the curtains the red alarm started blaring, it was making a bell-like noise that continued to shake itself on top of the dresser. A hand quickly popped out of the covers from the bed and hit the alarm to turn it off. A bump in the covers began to rise as the blankets fell off to reveal a tired shirtless Izuku dressed in plain white PJ pants. Izuku revealed an extremely muscular body even with his small and slender build he had muscles popping out that only trained athletes or professional bodybuilders had, which was a chiseled appearance.

Izuku yawned as he stretched his arms and threw off all of his covers and hopped down onto his training mat and began to do some casual pre-workout stretches. After a while of doing some stretches, his tired expression faded a bit. He dropped down onto his mat landing on both of his hands and began to do push-ups, after he was satisfied with the number of normal push-ups, he began to stand on his hands and do handstand push-ups to not only increase the difficulty but practice his balance. After completing the push-ups, he did sit-ups and then held the plank for a while. After he was done on the mat, he moved onto his workout equipment using each one to its fullest which lasted for a couple of hours until he was beginning to sweat all over.

After he completed his morning workout, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower. Completing his morning routine, he headed towards the kitchen to eat breakfast. Izuku was dressed in a black tank-top with red basketball shorts that had a white stripe on each side. As he walked into the kitchen, he noticed a note on the fridge.

It read: Sorry Izuku but I have to go do hero work in Saitama and then I will be traveling to other places to work as well. I'll be back possibly in another few months, but do not worry. I will definitely be there for your entrance exam at U.A. to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Oh, and I left a little something for you, so you don't have to worry about cooking but just for this morning. -Love Mom

P.S. Don't slack in your training or else I'll make sure you catch up when I get back!

After Izuku had finished reading the note he looked towards the counter and saw eggs and toast had already been prepared for him although it was a bit cold so he just decided to warm it up and eat it as he drank chugged a carton of orange juice.

"Whelp." Izuku said as he stood up with his empty carton and plate.

"All Might's training is today and it should start soon, so I guess I should jog there, after I clean this." he told himself as he walked into the kitchen to clean off his plate and threw away the empty carton.

After Izuku was completely done he put on the new red sneakers that he purchased a day after the sludge villain attack and started to jog his way to Takoba Beach after he had made sure to lock the apartment door on the way out. After he made it to Takoba Beach he noticed All Might wasn't around yet, so he decided to take a look around while he waited.

All Izuku could see was a continuous mountain of trash that stretched beyond the eye could see. Not a single person in sight around the once beautiful beach.

"What a dump." Izuku exclaims while walking through the pile of trash.

"Maybe All Might brought me here because no one else would want to come to this dump." he thought while still waiting for All Might.

After a few more minutes All Might arrived in his skinny form, he was wearing a dark blue shirt with dark gray pants and black shoes, he also had a black belt with a silver buckle that was in a "V" shape with a pointed end and of course all of his clothes looked too big for him.

"What's up stickman?" Izuku greeted All Might with a teasing smile.

"You can call me Toshinori!" All Might shouted while still making his way to Izuku.

As soon as All Might got to Izuku and started to catch his breath he spoke up again.

"You arrived here early. How long had you been waiting here?" All Might asked.

"Just a few minutes. So, what kind of training you got in mind... Uuh Toshinagi?."

"Toshinori." All Might quickly corrected.

"You will be cleaning up this beach and studying for the entrance exam! You have to prepare your mind and body for what's to come if you want to be a hero. By the way, that reminds me. Can you take your shirt off? I am aware that you've built up some muscles because of the amazing feats you pulled off a couple of days ago with the sludge villain, but I would like to see for myself how much you've trained your body." All Might explained and then asked.

"Alright." Izuku said as he stripped off his tank-top and exposed his chest. All Might's jaw dropped. For a 14-year-old to be built like a professional athlete, he had to of been training for almost his entire life.

"H-how long have you been training kid?!" All Might asked in a shocked and amazed tone.

"Ever since I could comprehend basic instructions, my mom had taken it as her personal goal to make sure I was in perfect shape, body, and mind." Izuku responded with a proud grin.

All Might squeezed the bridge of his nose. 'This is not normal at all, seriously Mirko what have you been teaching your kid!? I'm going to need to talk to her one day. It's too bad he didn't choose to accept One for All though, he would have been able to use it immediately with his body like that and he has shown that he is more than capable of quick decision making as well as strategy.' All Might silenced his thoughts and began to speak again.

"Well, I was going to have you clean this beach up in 10 months' time, but now I see that would be too small of a task for you; so, I will give you 5 months instead while I think of something else for you to do for the rest of the 10 months. I will also give you a study schedule for the U.A. entrance exam that you will need to stick to. Can you do that?" All Might asks.

"Hey, Toshinabi."

"Toshinori." All Might corrected again.

"Yeah whatever! I think you're underestimating me. I won't clean up the beach in five months, I'll do it in one!" Izuku says as he punches his right fist into his left palm to psyche himself up.

All Might was surprised to hear this answer. He wasn't expecting this at all but it put a smile on his face nonetheless. All Might knew this boy was truly going to be a great hero that would accel in all things he does.

"All right then, if you think you can do it within a month, I won't stop you but now I'll have to come up with something for you to do even faster." All Might said as he scratches the back of his head in thought.

And so Izuku began his training. Every day he would keep up with school work while doing his normal workout routine, moving trash, studying for the U.A. entrance exam, and training his quirk by practicing different moves. Since his quirk was always active due to his mutation, he could easily get away with crushing and hauling away trash with his enhanced strength. He pushed his muscles to his limits every single day until the month was over.

All Might was walking to check on the progress of Usagi but when he got close enough to peer over a hill, his jaw dropped. What he saw was a completely clean beach with not a spec of trash on it and even the areas that he didn't tell Izuku to clean were also completely barren. All Might broke out of his shock as he started snapping his head left and right to search for Izuku. He spotted Izuku sitting on the beach with a book in his lap and a bag of something lying next to him. All Might buffed up into his muscular form and shot over to Izuku.

"AAHAHAHAH! Well done, young Usagi! You did exactly what you said you would and cleaned the entire beach within a single month! I am very impressed!" All Might said as he patted Izuku on the back.

"Huh?" Izuku said as he snapped his head around. He had a carrot halfway inside his mouth and the book he was reading was a math book that was probably his homework. Izuku was extremely sweaty and dirty but it didn't seem to bother him at all. Izuku finished up the carrot that he was working on and then spoke up.

"Oh, All Might. I was waiting for you to get here. Want one?" he asked as he pulled another carrot from the bag that was sitting next to him.

"Uh, no thanks." All Might replied.

"Oh good, because I want it." Izuku says as he eats one more carrot and then stands up.

"Oh yeah, All Might. I think I know what we can do since I completed this first task." Izuku said while stretching.

"And what might that be young Usagi?" All Might asked with a brow raised.

"I want to spar with you." Izuku replied with a smirk as he continued with his stretching.

"What!? Are you sure?" All Might questioned in surprise as he sweatdropped at the idea of injuring a 14-year-old.

"Yeah, I've been itching to spar with you ever since I met you. I've never fought someone beyond my mom's strength. So, this is a rare opportunity to learn how to counter someone who has way more strength." Izuku explains as he rolls his head to either side of his shoulders to create some satisfying pops.

"But you just finished cleaning up all of that trash. Do you think it's wise to continue after you already exhausted yourself?" All Might tries to convince Izuku from fighting him as he sweatdrops again, knowing that it probably won't work.

"I still got plenty of stamina left. It'll take a lot more than that to wear me out. Now, are you ready?" Izuku said as he got into a runner stance.

All Might was thinking this was a bad idea but then an idea popped in his head that he could do. All Might smiled as he thought of a proposal.

"How about this young Usagi! If you manage to land a single hit on me. Only then will I spar you!" All Might says to Usagi while putting his hands on his hip to do a classic superhero pose.

"Alright then! I accept your challenge!" Izuku grinned. He would rather spar with All Might, but if he couldn't even hit him then it made sense that he wouldn't be able to spar him yet.

"Then come at me young Usagi!" All Might says with a wide grin.

As soon as All Might finished his sentence, Izuku leaped off of the ground kicking up a large cloud of sand as he soared towards All Might. Just as expected All Might dodged to the right, but Izuku wasn't going to simply keep flying forward into thin air, so Izuku slammed down his foot and used a fluent twisting motion to throw his body towards All Might once again while still carrying most of his previous kinetic energy with him.

All Might was taken by surprise by how fast Izuku changed his direction and didn't slow down at all by maneuvering his body in one fluent motion, however it wasn't enough to hit All Might as he just moved to the right again to dodge the kick that was coming his way. Izuku saw that he was still too slow to attack All Might and he didn't have any platforms he could just use to increase his acceleration and build momentum for his attacks, so he had to come up with a different strategy. Izuku skid to a halt in the sand giving All Might a calculating stare.

"What's wrong young Usagi? Giving up so soon?" All Might antagonized Izuku.

"Hah! As if I would do something so cowardly!" Izuku said in a scoff.

Izuku looked down towards the sand and then towards All Might and smirked. He had come up with a plan. Izuku used his legs to kick up sand at All Might's face, which made All Might reflectively block his eyes. Izuku took this opportunity to attack All Might while he was open. Time seemed to slow as Izuku was gliding himself towards All Might with his right foot outstretched ready for a kick, however when he was mere inches away, All Might managed to catch the kick and fling him away at a speed which Izuku's eyes could barely even keep up with. As soon as Izuku started to fall he readied his legs and pushed them down to hit the ground and absorb the impact of the fall at the perfect timing.

"Your skills are impressive young Usagi! But even so, how will you fight a villain with way more power than yourself as rare as they might be!?" All Might says with a somewhat taunting grin.

'This bastard' Izuku thought as he changed his smirk to a grin that belonged to a predator. 'All Might doesn't even have much fighting technique but he has so much raw power and experience that it doesn't even matter. The last trick almost worked but it's not just his physical speed that's fast but also his reaction time. If that's the case then I will need to blind him for long enough so that he doesn't know the general direction I'm coming from.' After Izuku had finished his thoughts he raced towards All Might.

All Might prepared himself to move in any direction needed to dodge Izuku's attack but he was surprised when Izuku veered off to the side and started to hop on all fours and circle him. All Might pondered why Izuku was just hopping in a circle but he still kept his eyes on the rabbit boy as he circled.

Izuku began to pick up his pace as he darted around causing the sand around All Might to swirl upwards into a vortex. The sand began to move even more violently when Izuku picked up his pace once again making a small twister of sand around All Might; effectively cutting off his vision to the outside world. All Might had figured out what Izuku was doing but he was already caught in his trap. All Might began to search around for the rabbit boy once he had lost him in the wall of sand that had surrounded him, but he couldn't spot him anywhere.

As All Might looked around for Izuku, red eyes shined by the reflective light of the sun within the wall of sand directly behind All Might. At that moment Izuku leaped out of the dust and sent a kick towards All Might's back. All Might's years of fighting villains had paid off however, as he managed to predict where Izuku was going to appear just in time to block his attack with his arm after turning around in a flash.

After Izuku had failed to hit All Might he pushed off of his arm and back into the swirling sand. A moment later Izuku had jumped in again but at a slightly different angle this time but was blocked in time again. This began to continue as Izuku kept re-charging the sand vortex by running in a circle around it while keeping All Might inside by continuously attacking at different angles to keep him guessing and on guard.

All Might was ready for another attack as Izuku seemed to relentlessly go after any opening he could find but there was no attack coming his way for a while. All Might started to wonder if the boy had finally started to tire out. The sand that was swirling around began to subside. All Might looked around but couldn't seem to find Izuku anywhere. Once the sand completely stopped moving around All Might suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

"Is that a hole?" All Might asked himself as he noticed the displacement of the sand in front of him looked like someone had been digging there. All Might then began to question himself whether it was there the whole time and he just hadn't noticed it earlier. But suddenly All Might's thoughts were interrupted by a shocking revelation.

Izuku leaped out of the sand and landed an uppercut directly into All Might's chin making the pro hero stumble back in surprise.

"Rabbit Burrow!" Izuku shouted with a proud grin on his face when he delivered the blow. Once Izuku had landed back onto his feet, he was panting heavily and was covered in sand and sweat from head to toe. He had made up that move on the fly but it seemed to work. Even Izuku didn't know if it was a smart idea or not, but against All Might he couldn't think of anything in time and he was running low on stamina, so he went with it.

After All Might recovered from the sudden surprise of being punched from seemingly out of nowhere he began to laugh loudly with his hands on his hips.

"AHAAHAAHAA! WELL DONE MY BOY! YOU MANAGED TO LAND A HIT ON ME! AND NOT ONLY THAT BUT IT WAS A SOLID UPPERCUT TO MY CHIN! I CAN SAY FOR CERTAIN THAT I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT MOVE! AAHAAHAAHAA!" All Might laughed and praised Izuku with a booming voice as he walked over and patted him on the back for a job well done.

"People seem to forget that rabbits are expert diggers. However, I was only able to dig so fast because you were still distracted and this sand was soft enough. I doubt I could ever use that move again, but it could be useful in the right situation." Izuku explained breathlessly and holding the fist he had punched All Might with. He normally wouldn't use his fist to fight against a powerful enemy who could take such a blow, especially someone like All Might, however, he needed to use enough force to burst out from the ground and didn't think he would have the time to adjust his body for a kick since every second counted and all he needed to do was hit him.

"Can I also ask how you managed to constantly pinpoint my openings even when you were shrouded in sand?" All Might asked curiously as he deflated into his small form.

"I closed my eyes when I was inside the sand vortex and used all of my other senses to detect your movement, then when I found out where your location was, I would attack and open my eyes the moment I got through to the inside of the sand vortex to make my kick more precise. Each time I failed my attack I would push off of your arm back into the vortex to restart the process and try to come up with a better plan after I knew my current one wasn't working." Izuku explained.

"Amazing! Those skills are far better than most veteran pros! Speaking of which... I have an idea of who can teach you better than I can! He even has a similar fighting style to yours! Although... I have to warn you, he is really scary..." All Might shivers as he finishes his sentence.

"Really? Who is it? I could use any training I can get before I start U.A." Izuku asks as he finally managed to start breathing normally and wiped some of the sand off of his face.

"Well... he's my old master. I could possibly bring him here in about a month. I'm sure he will take an interest in you. While we wait for him to arrive, we can spar 1 hour a day to try and increase your endurance, reaction speed and maybe train your fists so that they will be able to handle hitting tougher opponents rather than just relying on your feet to deal with every big hurdle." All Might explains.

"Yeah! That sounds good to me!" Izuku says with a grin.

After that Izuku headed home to take a shower and rest. He hadn't been this tired in forever. After his mom had constantly drilled every aspect of physical training into him, he felt as if he could never get tired again, but clearly, he was wrong.

For the next whole month Izuku had sparred with All Might. It was hell, each hit from him felt like a truck running him over, and each attack Izuku delivered seemed to barely phase the towering pro. He also kept up with his schoolwork and studying for U.A. as well. He came back home with bruises all over his body from getting pummeled by All might but his reaction time and fighting with his fists were getting better. Each time he punched All Might with his fists it felt like he was punching a brick wall, but it was toughening up his knuckles and allowing him to punch harder each time.

Izuku had just got home from school. All Might had told him that something had come up, so he wasn't going to be sparring with him today. Izuku was putting up his school stuff and throwing some clothes on for another workout out that day when he suddenly heard the doorbell ring.

"Huh? Is mom back early?" Izuku asked himself as he walked over to the front door. Izuku peeked through the peephole to see who was there but to his surprise there was no one there.

"What?" Izuku exclaimed but then heard the doorbell again, so with reluctance he decided to open the door to see what was going on. Izuku was startled to see an old man who was even shorter than him staring back at him.

The old man was wrinkly with a scrawny build. He had a light complexion and brown eyes. His hair is grey and spiky, styled short with some bangs hanging forward and a trimmed beard. His hero costume consists of a full-body monochrome suit along with a yellow cape, a belt with the letter "G" on it, very thick yellow gloves and boots, and a dark domino mask that resembles two diamonds.

"Huh? Can I help you..?" Izuku asked in a confused tone.

"Where am I?" The old man asked.

"Huh!?" Izuku said in confusion. This old man was obviously dressed up as a hero but was definitely retired, even so, was this old man really this senile? Izuku was contemplating on what to do until suddenly his instincts screamed at him to dodge and so he allowed them to take control and barely managed to dodge a kick from the (Senile?) old man.

"What the hell ye old geezer!? You attacked me out of nowhere!" Izuku yelled. Not that he wasn't already used to it.

"Oh? It looks like you've been attacked by surprise many times before. Whoever trained you had really done well by training your instincts." the old man said as he analyzed the young boy and stroked his beard in thought.

Suddenly Izuku had put the clues together on why this old man had attacked him out of nowhere.

"Your Gran Torino aren't you!" Izuku said when he came to a conclusion.

"Oh! You figured it out eh!?" Gran Torino said as a rhetorical question. He began to analyze the boy even more now with a hardened but curious gaze. Izuku was not letting up his guard despite knowing who he was now.

Gran Torino smiled at the boy for still not letting his guard down. He was clearly ready for more attacks and there was no possibility of getting the jump on him.

"Well, boy let's see just how good you are." Gran Torino said as he began to bounce off of the walls of the house. Izuku was about to object but the old man came barreling towards him with a kick. Izuku dodged the attack and jumped back into the living room. Inside the living room, it was mostly barren, however, there was a wooden coffee table in the center, with 4 wooden chairs and a soft white carpet underneath it. There was a 50-inch T.V. that was nailed to the wall across from the couch and two windows were present inside the room, both were covered with white curtains that matched the walls of the rest of the apartment.

The two people that were in the room were leaping from the walls. Gran Torino was running away and Izuku was right behind him with every jump. Gran Torino smiled at the boy's persistence when he noticed he was keeping up with him but he was being careful not to break anything.

"So Toshinori was right! You do have a similar style to me! Must be that bunny lady that's been teaching you!" Gran Torino says to Izuku.

"She's, my mother! And her hero name is Mirko! Also, if you break anything, she is going to kill both of us!" Izuku shouts with a half annoyed/ half frustrated tone. Gran Tornio smiled; he could tell that the boy was obviously afraid of his mother's wrath by the concern in his face. This made Gran Torino wonder what kind of person she was since he had never met her before and wasn't much for watching the news. But he still was aware that she was the number 3 hero from what Toshinori had told him.

"If you don't want anything to be broken, then you will have to capture me without breaking anything yourself!" Gran Torino challenged Izuku.

Izuku scoffed in reply. He knew he was faster than the old man, but in order to catch him he would need to speed up and he could potentially damage the walls in that way. He knew his mother could do it, she somehow had learned the ability to control her jumps enough to be able to shatter the ground on command or not too, since in her earlier days she got a lot of complaints about property damage. She had never got to teach him how to soften his impact and lift-off since she's been gone for much of his life due to her traveling across the country for hero work.

'If I miscalculate on how to soften my landing then I would make a hole in the wall and my mom would be... pissed.' horrific thoughts flooded his mind as he thought about how she would react if she found out and a shiver went down his spine.

'Well, I'll just live by her example! No regrets!' he steeled himself as he hardened his resolve and thought back on the way his mom had moved and positioned her feet. He examined his memories intently and put his analysis skills to work. He could picture the moment she leaped off of something or had landed and negated her kinetic energy, then he decided to act on it.

"Here it goes! He said as he mimicked the motion his mother used when she negated her impact; it worked! He managed to leap with more force without causing any damage.

Gran Torino noticed this and decided to pick up the pace. He was smaller and weighed less than Izuku so he could jump without hitting the wall too hard, but Izuku was already getting the hang of this new technique and caught up to gran Torino in no time to grab his foot.

"Well done! You are a promising student! Much more promising than Toshinori was at your age! But don't get your hopes up! Your training will only get harder from here on out!" the old man said as he dangled from Izuku's hand.

"Bring it old man!" Izuku responded.

"Good, you've got spunk kid! But could you put me down already!" the old man shouted.

And so Izuku's rigorous training on the road to U.A. began by Gran Torino began.

END OF CHAPTER 3

The Audio Book version for this chapter is available as a URL link on my profile.