It was early February, and Midoriya Izuku was rounding out his second year of junior high. It was a day like any other, well, except for the new face at the front of the class. The smiling black-haired boy at the front of the class standing next to the teacher, that is.

"Good morning, class. Today we have a new transfer student! Introduce yourself, young man, name and quirk!"

「I am Kumagawa Misogi and I'm transferring from Weekly Shounen Jump! Ladies and gentlemen of Aldera Junior High, I hope we can become great friends!」

After a brief pause for what seemed to be anticipation, the balding man nudged Kumagawa-san, attempting to remind him of the second part. After this failed, he cleared his throat in an attention-grabbing manner, which Kumagawa-san caught.

「Ah, quirk? Yes, quirk. Don't have one.」

The moment of silence after was deafening. The ensuing laughter was cacophonous.

But that didn't matter to Izuku.

There was only one thing on Izuku's mind at that time.

There was someone else like him in this school.

It was the second day of the transfer's attendance, in the middle of lunch, and his classmates were avoiding Kumagawa Misogi like the plague.

Izuku was uncomfortably familiar with the myth. Quirklessness was practically super-cooties in primary school, and it only got worse in junior high. The quirkless suicide rate was so high, people started believing it was a terminal illness after a point, and not the product of systemic social darwinism.

No one wants to catch a terminal illness. Even if it's scientifically proven not to be contagious.

Therefore, no one wants to be around Izuku, other than to assert their genetic dominance over the unlucky teenager.

Kumagawa-san seemed to take it well, at least. The smile never leaving his face, even as he sat alone with his store-bought bento.

"Hey… um… Kumagawa-san, right?"

But if nothing else, he should at least extend a hand of solidarity, quirkless person to quirkless person.

"I'm Midoriya… um… Midoriya Izuku. Can I sit with you? Do you mind? I don't mean to bother you, I just noticed you had some space… uh… yeah."

Kumagawa stared at him, smile still unbroken.

"Sorry, I know I'm bothering you. I'll just-"

Suddenly, Kumagawa's face ran red as he burst into tears.

Izuku almost felt as if he was gazing into a mirror, for the brief moment of watery silence.

「Sorry for crying all the sudden, I was just happy because you wanted to sit with me! I've been to many schools before, but I'm usually socially ostracized within the first week… Even though I think it's only because you lost in Janken, I'm still happy to share the space with someone! There's so much, after all!」

Save for the transfer roulette that his new classmate seemed to have been doing, he was well aware of the things Kumagawa-san was talking about… the "interact with the quirkless kid" bets that somehow had higher stakes than the monetary ones, the almost-physical repulsion that people displayed when quirkless people simply existed in their general vicinity.

For the next few moments, they ate in relative silence, until Izuku realized he'd merely sat next to Kumagawa-san instead of indicating that he wanted to converse with Kumagawa-san.

"Kumagawa-san, umm… what… what were your previous schools like?"

Once again, Kumagawa stared at Izuku, and cried happy tears.

「You started a conversation with me too! I'm so happy! I'm rarely ever sought out to converse with, so I'm sorry for crying again! I'm still pretty sure you lost a Janken game, but I'm more than happy to talk to you! So, you wanted to know what my previous schools were like? Well… they were normal! I guess there was the one middle school where I got on the student council, but that didn't suit a born-loser like me, so I eventually resigned.」

Born-loser, huh. That's one way to describe losing the genetic lottery.

Izuku realized Kumagawa-san didn't ask him anything in return, so he instead opted to volunteer information on his own.

"I don't exactly know what normal means, sorry. I've been in Aldera Primary School and Aldera Junior High my entire school life, so… I don't really know if it's the same everywhere else. I'd hope it's not… honestly. Not to say I'm ungrateful for my education, or anything! I just… I wish they'd address the… roughhousing."

Kumagawa-san put a finger up to his chin and glanced upward, in an exaggerated thinking pose. 「Hmm… I guess I'd say this school is a little on the more negligent side. Free quirk use is an amazing idea, in theory! In practice, it usually just ends up being a tool for the elites to dominate the weak. This school basically allows for free quirk use, as long as they don't have to go to court over it. So, overlooked quirk use!」

"Well, I guess I'm happy that this isn't exactly normal, then. It's validating, I guess… I don't know. I kinda deserve it, so I can take it, but I'd hate to see other kids going through the same thing as me." Izuku said, with no sarcasm whatsoever.

Kumagawa-san stared at him for a brief moment, with an unwavering grin and piercing eyes.

After the moment had passed, he spoke.

「Why are you talking to me, Midoriya-kun?」 He said, with the barest hint of an edge in his tone.

"I… I'm sorry for being a burden, I can go if you want me to." Izuku said, downtrodden.

「That's not what I asked, Midoriya-kun.」 Smile, still plastered on his face, even as his tone was getting sharper. 「I asked 'Why are you talking to me, Midoriya-kun?'」 It was almost a twisted form of All Might's reassuring grin, ever-present as it is. 「There's no social gain.」

Oh.

"Well… us fifths have to stick together… I guess." Something unidentifiable flashed in Kumagawa-san's eyes. "I'm not just talking to you because you're quirkless, though that was an initial part of it. You're pretty interesting, Kumagawa-san, I want to talk to you because I feel like it, I guess. Is that okay? Sorry. I don't mean to imply you have to be friends with me because I'm quirkless or-"

「Midoriya-kun, you're pretty weird.」 He said, without any edge in it. 「I'm a fan! Us losers have to stick together, after all!」

It would be two months before Midoriya Izuku would meet his hero face to face.

It was the third day of Kumagawa-san's attendance, and he was being confronted by an annoyed Kacchan… er, Bakugou Katsuki.

"Oi, Smiles. Outta the way."

「From my perspective, you're the one in my way?」

Oh no… Kacchan hates it when people talk back to him…

"EH? Who the hell do you think you are! Think you're on my level, huh?! Get real! You and Deku over there are gutter trash, collecting at the bottom. Guess you're just as naïve as him, too!"

「This isn't my fault! You approached me! But I'm willing to forgive and forget, so, truce?」 He stuck out his hand.

Suddenly, an… utterly indescribable aura, at least from Izuku's perspective, projected from the quirkless boy.

What is this… pressure?

Kacchan shirked back.

And an instant later, the pressure stopped.

「… What is it?」

Kacchan stared. "…Tch, nothing. Go pal around with Deku, or something, freak. I don't have time to talk to losers like you." He skulked away, his entourage none-the-wiser.

Kumagawa-san was still smiling, but his eyes reflected years of… Izuku didn't know exactly what, but it hurt to look at. And in an instant, it was gone.

「We were talking about Hawks, right? Do you think his feathers have an effective range? I think that if they didn't lose power eventually, maybe he could use them for setting up traps. Like, leaving a feather behind, and attacking someone when they pass by.」

Izuku lit up. "While it's true that Hawks gets sensory input from his feathers, I think it's only in the form of vibrations, so…"

It was a week into Kumagawa-kun's attendance, and Izuku was discussing quirk theory with the second-year. He was slowly starting to get more comfortable talking to Kumagawa-kun, seeing as his stutter was gradually waning.

「Hey, Midoriya-kun, do you believe in parallel universes?」

Or, apparently, parallel universes, as… abrupt as the topic change was.

"…In a theoretical sense, or a physical sense? I mean, you can't deny it on a theoretical basis, of course. Branching paths are an immutable idea, given the butterfly effect and its impacts on how events play out over a timeline. I mean, I'd say if you didn't transfer in, I would probably be… pretty anti-social till the end of my third year, at least… so thank you…" He slightly flushed as he confessed that.

Kumagawa-kun waited for his full explanation, his smile reflecting in his eyes just a smidge more.

Izuku gazed downwards. "But… a physical sense… I don't exactly know. I'd… like to believe we live in… the single reality there is. I mean, it would be… oddly comforting, to know we exert our presences on the sole, immutable universe, and our choices are truly our choices, and not… just one of the many paths our alternate selves choose to follow. I know I'd be pretty jealous if I got a quirk in a parallel universe, I'd think, 'hey Kami above! Or whatever higher power exists! Why'd you drop me in this universe!', heh…" He rubbed the back of his head, and sighed. "But I don't think I can bring myself to believe there aren't parallel universes. I mean… I'd bet there's a quirk that interacts with them, anyways, so it's a provable concept. I guess… my answer is I'd like to believe not, but I'm logically sure there are. I don't know, I guess I'm just running away from reality, like always."

He looked back up at Kumagawa-kun. He was still smiling, physically, at least. Izuku thought the best indicator for Kumagawa-kun's emotions were in his eyes. And…

His eyes were… sad. 「There's nothing wrong with running away from reality, Midoriya-kun… you can't help believing in what you want to be true.」

He's pretty sure any therapist worth their salt would take issue with that statement. The therapist his mom got him when he was ten told him escapism was an unhealthy coping mechanism… when he told her he wanted to be the first quirkless hero, of course.

Izuku just… couldn't find it in himself to challenge the pain echoing in his tone.

「Have you ever fallen in love, Midoriya-kun?」 It was the second week of Kumagawa-kun's attendance, and they were eating lunch on the roof.

Izuku was extremely flustered. He wasn't used to matters of the heart like this, he was a growing boy, yes, but he… mentally repressed that kind of stuff. It's not like it would be reciprocated, anyways. "I- uhm, I- uh- I… I guess I've had a few crushes? None that I've ever… acted on or anything. I don't… talk to girls often. Other than my mom, I guess, but she… doesn't exactly count."

Kumagawa-kun's grin became wider. 「I don't talk to girls often either! We're buddies!」

And then… his eyes fell. Izuku was getting used to reading Kumagawa… it took a bit, but his current method seemed to be at least somewhat accurate. 「I've fallen in love… three times.」

Izuku could tell he was waiting for him to pry, given the unexpected information drop. Sure, they talked about heroes and quirks a lot. Izuku was better at analyzing physical quirks, while Kumagawa-kun liked hypothesizing about the (very rare) conceptual quirks. Izuku was a bigger fan of limelight heroes, while Kumagawa-kun knew things about underground heroes that even the deepest of Heropedia talk pages didn't even imply. Kumagawa-kun… rarely ever gave information about himself without someone asking him first. Maybe it was a sign that he trusted Izuku? He'd humor him, of course, he was his friend. "I'm guessing… they didn't go well?"

「…you could say that, yes. Out of the three people I've fallen in love with… only one of them will talk to me anymore. And… she's not usually very happy to see me, even then.」 Kumagawa-kun, who was gazing at the sky, made eye-contact with him. 「I hope you find someone you love, Midoriya. It is truly… a wonderful feeling.」

They ate in relative silence until the passing bell rang.

It was one month since Kumagawa-kun's attendance started, and their conversations were becoming more varied. Kumagawa-kun still didn't talk much about himself without asking, and Izuku had noticed his habit of compulsive lying. Even he couldn't exactly discern whether or not Kumagawa-kun was telling the truth in a given moment, but he didn't care, because it's not like he was hurting Izuku with casual fibbing. It was a defense mechanism, and Izuku could let him have it.

Kumagawa-kun and him were walking home, when Kumagawa-kun asked him 「Why do you want to be a hero, Midoriya-kun?」 The previous conversation was a more philosophical one, so Izuku guessed he was tying it to a more personal topic.

"Well… the world could always use more heroes!" He said, trying somewhat to deflect away from the personal prying. He didn't mind it, but this topic… had some things he'd like to keep repressing in it.

「That's why Lena Oxton, hero Tracer, wanted to be a hero.」 He knew Bronze Age hero trivia? Somehow, that hadn't come up in the past. Of course, it would also be Izuku's undoing. 「That's not what I asked, Midoriya-kun. I asked 'Why do you want to be a hero, Midoriya-kun?'」 He waited for Izuku to collect his thoughts.

"Are… Are you sure you want to hear this? It's really personal… and long… and it's not like it matters…"

「Midoriya-kun, you're my friend! You're the only one in a long while who's approached a minus like me without an ounce of impure intention! If it matters to you, it matters to me!」 Kumagawa-kun reassured him. 「It's also just idle curiosity.」 He waited for Izuku to collect his thoughts.

"It's… a few things… I guess. I mean… on the surface, it's gotta be All Might, you've heard my thoughts on him already, I guess, but it won't hurt to tell you again, from… a more personal perspective? I don't know."

"When I was two, three, hell, even four, I was obsessed with this one video. You know the one. The video. All Might's debut. If it wasn't the third-most viewed video on the platform, I'd honestly claim to make up a majority of the hits on it. I watched it every day, every hour. Sometimes, I'd just leave it on repeat, and I'd watch it again, and again, and again. I'd do frame-by-frame analysis of it. You've seen my stalker notebooks, but I wrote the first one in crayon. It was mostly "So cool!" "Awesome!" and stick figure drawings of All Might saving people from the fire. I wanted to be just like All Might. Every kid wanted to be just like All Might. But… that wasn't exactly all it was for me, even at that age."

"When I was two… I met Kacchan… you talked to him earlier… er… Bakugou Katsuki." He preemptively braced for a negative reaction, but was only met with the inquisitive eyes of his friend. "I know! I know he seems really… you know… Kacchan… um, I really don't have another word to describe it… help me out here…"

「Arrogant? Cocky? Plus? Elitist? Quirkist? Quick to anger? Short-fused? Like a bully? Oddly clingy? A weird mix of a superiority and inferiority complex that he takes out on his childhood friend because he's decided that they're lesser but are also greater in a weird psychological superposition? If yin was self-loathing and yang was narcissism and yin-yang was a need to see a therapist and find a healthy coping mechanism? Like a Shounen rival? If Naruto was the antagonist? Toxic? Obsessed? Tsundere? Explosive?」

"Explosive… yeah. Explosive would be a good descriptor." Izuku said, ignoring the rest. "Well, he's always been explosive. But… it was like… a firework, instead of a grenade. He was just so… motivated. He is just… so motivated. It's why he'll make such a great hero. He can accomplish anything he sets his mind to… So… I guess a layer deeper is… I want to be like Kacchan. I want to have his drive, his purpose. I want to help people along the way… and… then my motivations start to get a bit more… selfish… I guess."

Kumagawa-kun signaled for him to elaborate. "When I went to the doctor when I was four to get my foot x-rayed, my entire life shattered. I was already Deku… don't get me wrong. I was the kid who pathetically clung onto the only thing emanating an actual sense of direction. I was the kid who relegated himself to being a hanger-on. I was the kid who cried at everything and anything. I was weak. I was the kid who always lost." Kumagawa-kun flinched. He'd never seen so much… visible emotion on his face. Izuku guessed he touched a nerve. "But when I went to the doctor that day, everything I already knew deep down, everything that everyone insisted was true, was confirmed. My quirklessness. The change was immediate. Instead of being the awkward kid who could just have been a late bloomer, I became the quirkless kid. Fragile, can't play heroes with the kids because his quirklessness might get him injured. Weak, can't hang out with those future heroes, his quirklessness might be contagious. Delusional, still believed he could help when his destiny was to die in a ditch, of starvation, of thirst, of hypothermia, OR JUST ENDING IT ON HIS OWN TERMS SINCE THE REST ARE INEVITABLE ANYWAYS BECAUSE THE QUIRKLESS ARE TREATED WORSE THAN ANIMALS!" He didn't notice when he started yelling. He didn't notice when he started crying. It wasn't the usual waterfall, it wasn't even a steady stream, just the occasional droplet from his battle-worn eye-sockets. All he knew is that he'd opened the dam and he couldn't close it until it ran dry.

"JOBS THAT EXISTED PRE-QUIRK REQUIRE QUIRKS TO APPLY! NOT RELEVANT QUIRKS, NO, JUST A QUIRK! ANY QUIRK! MAYBE NOT A VILLAINOUS ONE, WHICH, I MEAN, IS ENTIRELY BULLSHIT TO CLASSIFY, BUT AT LEAST SOME JOBS ACTUALLY LET THEM APPLY! I'M NOT EVEN SURE HELLO WORK WILL TAKE ME, AND HONESTLY I'M TOO SCARED TO CHECK! WE'RE LEGALLY SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS! I HAVE A BIG, FAT, RED QUIRKLESS ON MY ID THAT LETS EVERYONE AROUND TO SEE IT KNOW I'M AN ACCEPTABLE TARGET! HALF THE TIME, EVEN GAS STATIONS 'DON'T SERVE YOUR KIND'! AND I'M SICK OF IT!"

He took a second to breathe… recollect himself. He… was repressing a lot… it seemed. "I'm… I'm so tired. You know, pre-quirk era, eugenics used to be considered a bunk philosophy. The idea that the 'genetically impure' were somehow less intelligent, less human, less worthy to exist was SYSTEMATICALLY, RETROACTIVELY SHUNNED AFTER IT LED TO A FUCKING GENOCIDE! Now… it's the mainstream perspective… and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of everyone doubting me! I'm sick of being treated like my existence is lesser! I'm sick and tired of being everyone's punching bag! SO MAYBE I WANT TO PROVE EVERYONE WRONG! MAYBE I WANT TO ASSERT MY PRESENCE ON A WORLD THAT THINKS I'M EITHER GOING TO GO POSTAL OR OFF MYSELF BY THE TIME I'M DROPPED INTO THE REAL WORLD! IS THAT SO BAD?! MAYBE I WANT TO BE THE WINNER ONCE! And then… maybe, just maybe, I can look at everyone who doubted me. My mom, Kacchan, Dr. Tsubasa, my classmates, my teachers, everyone who's looked me in the eye and told me that I don't deserve things because I'm a waste of space who will exit this earth with a whimper, and say I fucking told you so. I told you I'd be better! I told you I'd be worth your time! I told you I'm human, I exist, and I am going to be a hero, and I DID IT! EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE ME, I DID IT! I DID THE IMPOSSIBLE! I BECAME A HERO! AND I REFUSE TO BE LOOKED DOWN UPON ANYMORE, BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO, AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN, AND LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE NOW! I'M OUT ON THE FIELD, SAVING LIVES! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!"

He didn't realize when he stopped moving. His voice was hoarse. His eyes burned. He was just… so angry. "It's nothing as noble as stopping quirkless discrimination. I'm just one person. Even All Might can't stop something baked into the superstructure of society itself. I just want to prove that everyone was wrong about me. I just want to win. I just want to be able to look back and say I made an impact on the world that no one thought I could do. And it can't be through villainy. Everyone half-expects me to pull out a semi-auto, from whatever back alley black market they think I go to when I need a breath of fresh air, in the hallways and start mowing down my classmates already. I'd just be proving them right if I turned to breaking the law. It has to be through heroism. I'm such a deku. I can't even be a hero for the right reasons. I'm so… so selfish. I'm sorry." He couldn't take it anymore.

He curled up, and shut down.

For a time, he knew nothing. Not the comforting presence of Kumagawa Misogi, not heroes, not quirks, nothing. Just wretched, long-suppressed sobs for his long-twisted dream.

And then, after a time, he came back to. He didn't know what time it was. It felt like forever, crouched down, seeing nothing, processing less. But he stood back up.

「For what it's worth… Izuku… I think you'll be a great hero.」

He cried again.

It was an unknown time, in an unknown pocket dimension linked to two realities not its own, and Kumagawa Misogi had died on his midnight patrol.

The empty classroom. A welcome sight, this time, if he was being honest. He had to talk with its sole resident.

"Back again, Misogi-kun? You've only left me alone for… two months. Shame. I thought I had finally rid myself of your disgusting presence."

「You missed me that much, Anshin'in? I'm so flattered!」 He said, insincerely.

"You know I can't look into that second-rank manga unless I'm physically there, and that's boring. So… what killed you this time? Fire? Water? Both? Crushing? Stretching? The ache in your heart knowing you were but a single academy crush away from meeting your long-lost first love Medaka-chan? Did All Fiction do a delayed monkey's paw on your self-inflicted age reduction causing it to rebound on you? I know you're a chuunibyou, but that didn't mean you literally had to become an eighth-grader again. Did you get nostalgic for Hakobune? I'm curious. Ooh! Maybe that story got tired of you too, but instead of putting you on a bus to cameo in another battle manga, you're just stuck here until I choose to erase you. That'd be… predictable."

For the first time in a while, Kumagawa Misogi, the Minus born under the loser star, had genuinely smiled. 「Anshin'in… I think I've found your answer.」

For the first time in a while, Ajimu Najimi, also known as Anshin'in to associates, was interested in something. "Intriguing. Tell me more."

It was the last day of Izuku's second-year, and he finally obtained Kumagawa Misogi's contact information.

He said he had finally settled down, that he thought he had found what he was looking for when transferring across the country, but Izuku didn't exactly trust him. He was known for his insincerity, after all.

(He'd be lying if it wasn't so they'd keep in contact during break.)

A/N: this is an alt story to Plus-Minus where I go the more traditional Isekai route that I wrote to distract from the inevitability of... ugh... having to write the battle trial in Plus-Minus

aka i've hit a block and this is the only way i can vent my creative energies while i seethe about how im going to- you know what, fuck it, I'll just go the easy route and not use it for subtle foreshadowing of a planned character development i just realized I could do that and you can't stop me because i don't know how to write it otherwise... but I still wrote this so here you go expect this to be updated at an erratic rate.

also if the tags seem odd they'll explain themselves eventually.