Summary: Izuku is in his second year of Middle School when he and his mother move. At the new school, he meets another boy, Hitoshi Shinsou, who is also rejected for his quirk status

Disclaimer: Boku No Hero Academia/My Hero Academia and its characters belong to Kohei Horikoshi

The moment that I was watching the tournament arc in the anime and Izuku blasted past Todoroki and Bakugou, I thought 'this is a look at the series we could have gotten instead.' I love the series as is but I am also a big fan of Quirkless Izuku. Huge. And I have long wanted to do a story off that premise.

This story has been swimming in my head about as long as Shattered Centers and there was one critical reason I was able to choose the other story over this one.

I could never think of a way to start this that I was happy with.

But I kept getting drawn back into it, writing sections that I feared would never be posted because I couldn't think of a beginning for the story. At least, not one that satisfied me. And now, at long last, I have a beginning. I think it might be a little quick but it'll do for me. And it also means that I have a lot of sections that are ready to roll with minor gaps between them. You can also bet that after I've got some of these chapters posted that there will be a deleted scenes 'story' for this, too. It'll be called "Unnoticed and Underestimated Unposted Scenes." If you don't want to wait that long, you can go to the "U and U False Starts" section of An Exploration of Questions: BNHA where I have started to and will continue to post the earlier attempts at starting this story.

So many false starts…so freaking many… (picture eyes momentarily glazing over)

But I've found this story's starting line at last. So please, read and enjoy.

Change Can Be Scary

Izuku fought his urge to tremble as he walked down the unfamiliar hallways of his new middle school. It was the latest in a great many 'new' things. He and Mom had been forced to move when the landlord had raised the cost of rent in their apartment. He pretended not to know but…well he supposed from the way his mom had 'believed' him when he said he his bruises were from being clumsy, neither of them were all that great at hiding things but neither would call the other out, either.

So, Mom had been forced to look for a new place to live. The place they were now wasn't bad, just different. He'd just finished unpacking a couple days ago, his room adorned with his hero collection, dominated by All Might memorabilia. That helped the room feel more like it was his. He figured the rest would come with time.

But today was the end of summer break and he was walking into a new school going into its second semester. To say he was scared was an understatement. Sure, things had been bad at Aldera but at least there, he knew what to expect.

"All right everyone, we have a new student today. He is a new transfer and I want you to make him feel welcome." The teacher gestured to him.

Izuku would have preferred to have been unacknowledged by the teacher. Not that he would have gone unnoticed by the students, anyway. New kids always seemed to draw attention.

So, since he was already here, Izuku schooled a smile for the unfamiliar faces of second year middle school students who would be his classmates from this moment on through the rest of middle school. He hoped that his nervousness didn't shine through as he said, "H-hi, I'm Izuku Midoriya."

There was a moment of silence, no doubt where he was expected to say more about himself. A very specific part of himself. Instead, he just waited for his teacher to excuse him from the front of the room.

Finally, the woman said, "You can take a seat." She pointed to a vacant spot. It was one of two, both of which were either side of a very tall, disinterested-looking boy with light purple hair that stuck up from his head. As the teen focused on his desk, Izuku noted that his irises matched the shade of his hair and that they had obvious bags under them.

Izuku also saw that all the other surrounding students seemed to have physically moved their desks as far away from him as possible without the teacher telling them to readjust their seats. The behavior immediately made how the rest of the class felt about him perfectly clear.

Well, the fact that the teacher had to be aware of this but let it happen anyway spoke oodles about their view on quirk discrimination. He made a mental note not to mention THAT to Mom. While looking for places to move to, she'd worked so hard to find a school where he'd be more welcome.

Not that he'd really expected her to succeed. Not unless she was willing to send him to one of the quirkless focused schools and they had a pretty ugly reputation in other aspects. He'd rather not got to a place where everyone had targets pained on their backs and heir education was immediately rejected except for bottom of the barrel positions.

Still, at least this school had a zero-tolerance policy on actual quirk use, which had been the real appeal for his mother's choice. Technically, all public middle schools were supposed to be that way but most weren't. Not really. And, of course, without any cameras, Izuku would have to be dependent on the staff to watch out for him—which the desk arrangement also didn't leave him feeling all that encouraged about.

Izuku took a moment to realign his desk with the rest of his row before taking a seat. Afterward, he glanced at the taller boy and smiled, only for it to fall away as the other glared coldly at him. On instinct, he curled in on himself in response, trying to make himself look as small as possible.

The lilac haired boy simply rolled his eyes and turned his attention back toward the board, dismissing Izuku.

"Smart move, you should be scared," a voice whispered from his other side, causing him to almost jump out of his chair before settling down. He found himself looking at a fat kid with light, curly hair. "Tough luck, getting put next to Shinsou. You should be careful. If you talk to him, he might use his mind control quirk on you."

Rather than respond to the warning, Izuku sank further down into his uncomfortable chair, not liking the tone with which this boy spoke any more than the other's glare. It was a tone of fear and disgust rather than the laughter and sneers his previous classmates reserved for discussing him but he knew that it came from the same place.

He'd hardly been in this classroom all of two minutes and already had a general idea of just what he was in for when everyone learned his quirk status.

"Speaking of quirks, you forgot to say what yours was."

The teacher chose that moment to notice the other boy was talking and tell them to quiet down so they could start the day.

As their homeroom teacher started their math class, Izuku focused on her for a few moments until he realized that he recognized the work she was teaching, having gotten through it over the summer break, while he was preparing for the transfer.

So, instead, he pulled out his notebook. This was as good an opportunity as any to start learning about his classmates' quirks.

Izuku started by taking note of unique physical features and behaviors, which could often hint at the quirks. He noticed that there were actually a couple kids with mutant quirks here. There had been very few at Aldera Middle School and even those were mild, like stone where their hair should be or something.

Here, he noticed a kid whose quirk made them look like a weasel and another that looked like a crane.

Of course, mutations weren't the only way to get hints about quirks. He noted kids with odd movements and tics, which could mean nothing or everything.

A couple times he felt eyes on him and looked up to find other students watching him. The most common of these was 'Shinsou,' although, to be fair, he was close enough to hear Izuku's mumbling, which he did start unconsciously doing a couple of times.

Still, it made Izuku nervous. He half expected someone to slam their hands on his desk, to get a rough shove from behind or even his teacher to slap him upside the head. Instead, the worst that happened was the teacher told him his mumbling was distracting his classmates, which they confirmed with quiet glances. Not pleasant but nothing near as harsh as what he was used to.

Over the course of the next couple classes, he saw other students within their grade. Whenever Izuku could, he chose a seat in the back of the room, where he could watch his classmates more carefully or near the doorway, where he would be able to make a quick getaway in the future if need be.

Not that he got choices very often; a disadvantage of coming in in the middle of the year, rather than the beginning.

Still, Izuku had to admit, it was already looking better than what he had to deal with at his last school.

It was weird, especially without Kacchan around, but it was nice. He felt a little guilty for being happy to not have him around. Even after Kacchan had pushed him away, they were still in the same classes and hallways and took the same route home. Sure, Izuku always had to be on his toes, watching for trouble, but…

Guilty or not, Izuku felt himself relaxing slightly. There weren't any desks here that showed signs of being scratched, gouged, or burned. Hopefully, that meant that things wouldn't get that bad, here.

Out of habit, he watched the rooms warily. Every class had a hierarchy, most with the same structure where the kids at the top degraded those at the bottom. He needed to figure out where the problem would come from, hopefully before they realized that he was quirkless.

He was surprised by one teacher when he called him out on scribbling his notes, rather than focus on class. Before, they'd never cared unless he started mumbling and distracting the rest of the class.

Between classes, he politely asked his classmates about the location of the next room he needed to find but restricted his interactions otherwise.

The morning was not quite what he'd call nice but it was already turning out to be the best school day he'd had in years. It was sad, especially when he knew that the new kid was supposed to have it rough before establishing themselves.

Of course, it didn't last.

Gym was scheduled just before lunch for their class. He was relieved to see that these lockers, the only ones that looked like he could fit into, actually had a set of diamond shaped holes about the size of quarters in the upper third of their doors. Getting trapped in lockers were bad enough without being plunged into total darkness.

Not that he was planning on being on the inside of one, it just had a tendency to happen to him and considering that this class was just before lunch time... He imagined he was going to be missing lunch and getting intimately familiar with their dimensions unless he set up a way to jimmy them open from within once his classmates learned more about him.

He got into his gym clothes as quickly as possible, taking a moment to slide into a shower and closing the curtain, careful to balance on the wet floor and shuffle clothes he was shifting between his hands so they would stay dry.

He knew that the other kids would talk about his being shy but that was still better than the looks he might get otherwise. He had a few scars that just screamed 'quirk abuse.' There was a first year at Aldera who had a scar reduction quirk that had been working with him but it took multiple sessions to make them go away and there were some more recent ones that she hadn't had time to treat completely. The effect had only been skin deep, anything beneath still pulling, just out of sight. Now he was stuck without even that. He'd have to be careful again, like he had back toward the end of elementary school.

When he was finished, he quickly shoved the clothes into his locker, pretending not to hear the whispers. Kids were already guessing he had some quirk that affected how his body looked or something.

As the kids lined up, ready to begin the 'exercise room training' module, the gym teacher—a muscular, gray skinned man whose orange hair was receding from his forehead—gave them a reminder about how they weren't allowed to use their quirks either to affect their own performance or that of others. For the latter statement, Izuku noticed the man's eyes linger on Shinsou, who just stared ahead, his face an unreadable mask.

Then the gym teacher arrived at Izuku. "And of course, we don't have to worry about that with you, do we?" the man joked. "Since you don't have a quirk to start with."

Izuku felt his heart sink as he stared at the floor, where he noticed a space had already opened between his feet and those of the other students.

"Everyone get into pairs. Today, you're going to learn how to use exercise equipment properly."

The students started breaking up into pairs. In the flurry, it seemed like whenever Izuku took a step toward where a lone student was previously standing, there would suddenly be a pair or the kid he'd turned to would disappear into the crowd. After a moment, he just stepped to the edge of the crowd to wait for either the last student without a partner or to be forced into a group of three where the other two obviously wouldn't want him. It wasn't like he'd never dealt with it before.

But neither happened. He was surprised when Shinsou, who everyone also seemed to be avoiding, stepped silently to his side. Izuku looked up at the purple teen nervously.

"It's not like anyone else is going to willingly partner with either of us," the purple haired boy observed, as if it was explanation enough.

Izuku supposed it was. He opened his mouth to thank the other boy for being willing to tolerate him when suddenly, they were no longer being ignored by the other students.

A girl appeared at Izuku's side and stated, "Ambushing helpless quirkless kids now, Shinsou? That's low, even for you."

Izuku frowned. "What are you…?"

A bunch of kids were whispering something and one held out a set of pencils, the tips concealed and the erasers all lined up in a row. The other boys drew and one was obviously shorter than the others. "I want a redraw! I don't want to have to watch the villain." With the last word, he glared in Shinsou's direction.

In response, Shinsou wrinkled his nose as if he'd caught a whiff of some unpleasant scent.

Another boy said, "Someone has to. You saw him moving in on the quirkless kid, just like the villain he is."

Shinsou didn't say anything, just continued to glare, features contorted in disgust.

The girl who'd first interrupted them pulled Izuku by his arm, grabbing tightly and yanking him along.

"Hey!" Izuku cried out, upset at being pulled away without a choice. No one had wanted a thing to do with him until Shinsou approached him.

"You should be thanking me for saving you," she said. She looked over at her friend and added, "You're alright if he stays with us for today, right?"

"But you don't even want me," Izuku replied. But had the other boy wanted him either? He'd basically admitted that he was just settling.

The girl didn't acknowledge his statement but instead dragged him over to her partner to form their group of three.

Despite being his 'partners' neither girl would let him spot them and when he took his turn at something like weights, they took them from the second or third lowest settings to the absolute minimum and still told him to be careful, as if he were made of glass. Other than that, they didn't even really talk to him, not even giving him their names when he introduced himself.

He saw that as soon as the teacher had looked away, Shinsou's 'partner' wandered off again. They made eye contact a couple times but when Izuku tried to approach him, the teacher told them that they weren't allowed to swap partners, even though he'd already seen a couple of the other students do so already. So, he couldn't even properly thank the other boy for what he'd done.

Izuku just bided his time until the period ended. Luckily, since lunch was next, he could afford to wait while the other students cleared out of the room before changing.

When I start writing for a fandom, I usually come up with a bunch of ideas but ultimately toss most and keep just one or two. This is the one that ran neck and neck with Shattered Centers for me. Originally, I was torn between making Izuku quirkless or giving him a subtle quirk attraction/agitation quirk that would have become more obvious down the line but I really want a story with quirkless Izuku. I explained above why this one didn't win so I won't rehash that here. Besides, it's up now.

I also decided pretty early on while writing this that Izuku was not going to be on his own. The world is just so mean to him as a quirkless kid that I wanted to give him someone to stand with. Shinsou seemed like a good choice. Even in canon, Izuku could relate to him. He felt couldn't establish a deeper relationship because he couldn't talk about the similarities in their situations without revealing something about One for All.

So, at least in the Manga, in the first chapter, when Bakugou uses his quirk on Izuku's desk, wood chips are visibly sent flying off it. I actually have a head canon that Izuku had to keep that desk with a chunk blown out of it for the rest of the year in that class. There is also a scene in Izuku's training montage where he is calculating the amount of time he has to get into shape and a teacher uses an elasticity quirk to hit him on the head in order to get him to stop mumbling.

For the time that I focus on the school (which I plan to make as minimal as possible after the first few chapters, until the end of middle school) I wanted to hint that even if things were better, the quirk discrimination is still a major issue and things are not amazing and wonderful.

To be honest, if I can commit to my current plans, this story will probably ultimately end up being darker in the future, but that's still some time off.

I hope that you enjoy the story as it goes on.