"Papa, what's a Quirk?" A small voice asked.
A booming laugh echoed. "What a wonderful question, sweetheart! You see, a Quirk is something a person has that's special. Something unique to them. Some Quirks are beautiful, while some are mundane. But, the most important thing about them is that a Quirk is just an extension of the person that has it. On their own, they mean nothing. On their own, they can do nothing. There's no such thing as an evil Quirk, nor a good Quirk. Just people who use them to help others, and those who use them to harm others."
Inquisitive green eyes peered up at the man. "What's your Quirk, Papa?" The man smiled.
"My Quirk... is something that can be used to help people. If someone doesn't like their Quirk, I can fix that. Don't you think that's cool, Izumi?"
Izumi nodded enthusiastically. "That sounds really heroic, Papa! Are you a hero? Is that why you're always gone so much?"
The man knelt down and patted the girl on her head, ruffling her hair as he did. Pride was in his voice. "Something like that. And, someday, you'll be able to help people, too."
"I'll be a hero?" The girl's smile was bright enough to light up the entire room.
"No," the man chuckled. "Not a hero. Something so much... greater."
Izumi shot up in bed, her face covered in a cold sweat. A quick glance at her phone (which Hizashi had sneakily replaced her old one with) showed the time to be 2:48 AM. 'A memory... why now? Why today?' She hadn't had a dream like that in a while. Usually, her past stayed in her past, and she preferred it that way. She remembered how that memory would continue. The x-ray that showed the joint in her pinkie toe.
'She won't develop a Quirk,' The doctor had said. Her father had smiled and said thank you, and he held her as she sobbed on the way out to the parking lot.
'You want to hear a secret, Izumi?' Her father had asked her. She hadn't responded, too busy bawling. 'I have that toe joint, too. So did my brother. And we both had Quirks. It's not a perfect science. I'm sure you'll develop a Quirk. And if you don't...' She still remembered the next sentence with perfect clarity... the way he said it with absolute certainty... '... I can fix that.'
Izumi splashed water in her face, noting the bags under her eyes. They were always there, of course, but they were even more pronounced than usual today.
"I might as well get ready for the exam..." She muttered, shrugging on a shirt and tugging on her pants. She stretched, and then turned on the treadmill. It wasn't the same as going for a jog outside, but since it was the end of February, the temperature was well below freezing at the moment.
The Yuuei entrance exam was today. And she knew she shouldn't be worried- her years of vigilantism and her training with Dad most definitely made her one of the best applicants this year. But still... she tried to suppress her nerves. She would do well, because she didn't know what she'd do if she didn't.
She was one of the first ones there, mainly because she had driven in with Hizashi and Aizawa. They were both proctors, because while Ectoplasm was surely a great help in this stage, there were thousands and thousands of applicants. She sat, essentially alone in the auditorium, and waited for more and more applicants to file in, which took hours. Nobody said much to her, and she was fine with that.
Hizashi - what Present Mic had insisted she call him - gave his speech. A boy that seemed almost robotic, as well as very quick to jump to conclusions, interrupted him and had his question answered in a way that wasn't nearly satisfying enough. Izumi didn't quite dislike him, but maybe he should shut his mouth sometimes and let people finish speaking.
She checked her ticket and headed to her testing room, nerves wracking her body as she lined up outside.
"Man... I regret cramming now," a boy with spiky red hair complained to her right. He seemed to be even more nervous than she felt. "What the hell was the quadratic formula again?"
'Should I speak up...?' Izumi wondered. A sudden fear gripped her. What if she had forgotten the formula, too? "Negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four times a and c, all over two times a..." She muttered softly. The spiky haired boy turned his head towards her.
"Hey, thanks! That kinda rings a bell..." He grinned with a dopey look on his face. "What does the plus or minus thing mean, though? How are you s'possed to add and subtract something?" He asked awkwardly.
Izumi flushed, somewhat surprised he had heard her. "Well, you're supposed to make two separate equations, and then solve them both to find the potential answers."
"That's so much simpler than how the book said it, you're a lifesaver!" The boy praised. Izumi flushed deeper at the praise. "I'm Kirishima, what's your name?" He held his hand out.
"I-I'm Midoriya," Izumi introduced herself, slightly awestruck at the boy's outgoing demeanor. She shook the other boy's hand warily, desperately wishing she had her gloves on. Instead, she had to focus incredibly hard to not take his Quirk. She was lucky that Aizawa had focused heavily on training for the past few weeks - she was at a point where she was, at the very least, able to touch things with her bare skin when she concentrated. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was... progress.
The boy looked overjoyed. "Hey, what's your Quirk?"
"Er... Telekinesis," Izumi's mood fell slightly. She didn't like lying. Luckily, the boy didn't seem to pick up on it.
"Really? That's so cool!" He praised. "Mine's just Hardening - I can turn my body into rock, basically. But, really, it's mainly just my arms. I can't really spread it out over my body," he explained.
"That sounds really heroic," Izumi smiled at him. "Does it rely on the minerals present in your body? If you had a higher concentration of iron or calcium, would your body become more durable?" She asked.
"Uh," Kirishima got slightly flustered. "I... I'm not sure?"
Izumi deflated. "Oh... that's alright. Maybe something to look into after the exam," she half-smiled and gave him a thumbs-up, which he eagerly returned.
"Yup!" He drooped down, suddenly. "Just have to make it through two-hundred and forty questions and three essays first." It seemed like he wasn't a very academically gifted person. Izumi giggled and took pity on him regardless.
"I'm sure you'll do fine. Are you worried about the physical exam?" She questioned.
Instantly, the teen's smile returned, his spiky teeth on full display. "Naw! I've totally got that in the bag." Izumi smiled at his confidence, but before they could continue their conversation, an Ectoplasm clone (or maybe it was the original) ushered them into the testing room.
The test was a breeze. With mild amusement, Izumi noted that there were three separate questions that required the quadratic formula. At least, on her version there were. She wasn't dumb enough to assume that all versions of the test were the same. But, seriously, these questions were things she had been doing years ago online. With mild embarrassment, Izumi finally started to understand just how far ahead she was academically.
There were, of course, a few outliers. Questions where the right answer was nearly identical to a wrong answer, only separated by something minute. Those were the green-haired girl's favorites - ones where she truly had to puzzle out the intention of the question being asked.
Soon enough came the true joy of the exam - the essays. These questions were never the same, she found, and they were extremely open-ended.
Question 1) What do you think is important about being a hero?
Question 2) What do you think drives people to villainy, and how can you fix that?
Question 3) Imagine a scenario where you have in front of you a railway track. This railway track splits into two separate tracks, and on one track, a villain has tied five people to the tracks with rope. These are innocent civilians. Now, on the other track, only a single person is tied to the track - but he is your sidekick. You have one minute before a train will come to the track and take one of the two routes. You have a lever in front of you that will designate which track the train will take, and sixty seconds to make your decision. If you do nothing, all six people will die. What is your thought process?
Izumi smirked. The trolley problem. The main issue of the essays was giving something interesting without falling into a cliche - a tall task. She scribbled down answers rapidly, asking for more paper when she ran out of space on the page. Two hours later, the students exited the room, some looking more tired than others. Kirishima was drooping down, and Izumi took pity on him.
"Well, are you excited to get to the physical exam?" She asked, hoping to perk the boy up. No such luck, though.
"What's the point...?" he moaned. "There's no way I passed that test. I swear I've never seen half that stuff before."
Izumi chuckled with sympathy. "That test was rough, but as long as you passed the point minimum you won't be denied based on it. You're trying for the Hero Course, right?"
That fired him up. "Yeah!" He roared. "I'm gonna be like Crimson Riot!"
Izumi smiled. It was hard to not feel energized by the boy's attitude. "Yeah, your Quirks are similar, and your hair! Are you related to him?"
"Nope, he dyed his hair like that to feel 'manly'," a new voice interjected.
"Mina!" Kirishima smiled. "And it is manly!"
Mina, a girl with fuzzy horns and pink skin, as well as black eyes, chuckled. "Didn't say it wasn't. Nice to meet you, I'm Mina Ashido!" She stuck a hand out. "You've already met Kirishima, and as soon as he finds a friend, he'll protect them with his life, so no point in resisting," the girl stuck her tongue out and winked.
The green-haired teen took it after a moment of hesitation. "Nice to meet you, Mina-san!" She concentrated, making sure to not steal the pulsating Quirk that she could feel drumming within the girl's veins. "I'm Izumi Midoriya."
"Just Mina is fine," the pink-skinned girl replied. "You guys ready for the physical exam? I'm in Battle Center Seven, what about you guys?"
Izumi checked her ticket just to make sure. "Battle Center Four."
"Damn," Kirishima complained. "Battle Center Two. I was hoping we could team up together."
"They separate students who went to the same middle school," Mina shook her head. "What middle school did you go to, Midoriya? Kiri and I both went to Mustafa."
Izumi was caught off guard at the sudden question. "Eh? Oh, I was... homeschooled." She said. It was easier than explaining it all.
"Aw, lucky," Mina grumbled. "I hated that damn uniform. At least the Yuuei uniforms are kinda cute."
Kirishima smiled with his spiky teeth. "You modified the heck outta it, whatcha complaining about?" He let out a deep laugh.
"And I'll modify this one, too!" Mina declared. Izumi chuckled. In truth, she hated the idea of the uniform. Mainly because if there was a lack of sleeves, her scars would be on full display, and that would lead to questions. Questions she didn't want to answer.
At the very least, the noise of Ashido and Kirishima's chatter was nice to block out the boredom inside her head. As they travelled to the Battle Center area, Izumi occasionally interjected with small talk or a response, but she mostly stayed quiet. Robots... she was lucky that she had Telekinesis, or else she'd be absolutely screwed.
After just a few minutes, they had to split up. "Good luck, guys!" Izumi wished with a smile.
"Thanks, you too!" Mina sent a peace sign her way.
Kirishima gave a double-thumbs-up. "Robots are so manly!" He declared as he rushed to his Battle Center. And just like that, Izumi was alone again. She wasn't sure if the silence was better or worse than the filtered noise from before. As she walked into the Battle Center, she noted that it was... huge. It was difficult to describe it - she could only assume that Yuuei had had one of their teachers, Cementoss, help create it, or else the costs would be unimaginably high for the amount of Centers they had. (Thanks to her online reading, Izumi knew the total number was 12.)
Izumi glanced around the prep area at the other applicants. Among them was the uptight boy that was somehow not embarrassed at his outburst during the information session held in the morning, who seemed to be doing stretches. Curious, the green-eyed girl made her way over to the boy and held a hand out. "Hi! I'm-"
"Please do not interrupt me while I am doing stretches!" The boy immediately hopped up into a standing position and waved his arms mechanically. "It is unbecoming to try and ruin other applicants chances!" Izumi stood still for a moment, frozen, as the boy immediately went back to stretching.
'Never... again...' Izumi thought to herself, still frozen with her hand out. She was already introverted enough to start with, so this was just some more reinforcement that the right way to do things was not with other people. The boy apparently finished stretching, as his head popped back up.
"Hello! I'm Iida Tenya! It is my dream to get into Yuuei and become a Pro Hero!" His arms waved in chopping motions, Izumi slightly swaying to dodge the flailing appendages even though they posted no threat.
"Eh... Hi...?" She spoke, confused by the sudden change in demeanor. "I'm-" She was cut off by a sudden alarm blaring and the sound of the massive stone doors to the faux city opening.
"Go, go, go!" Present Mic's voice came over the speaker. "The exam has begun! Real villains won't wait for you in a fight!"
All around her, footsteps rushed towards the city. 'Oh no, I'm already behind!' Izumi thought, willing her feet to get moving. But, all of the sudden, she decided to change her perspective and a grin spread across her face. 'All the better for when I come out on top.'
Izumi was well past five years old, and her Quirk still hadn't developed. The rest of the children at school weren't really caring about waiting anymore. The bullying had started, and teachers were no longer caring to stop it. She sniffled as she watched a video of All Might saving people on YouTube, alone in her dark room. A soft knock on her door resounded through the room, and a few seconds later, it opened, revealing her father.
Her father had never really liked All Might. When he was asked once, he answered that the hero reminded him of his brother. Izumi didn't really know what that meant. She had never met Papa's brother - she didn't really know what he was like, and he didn't talk about him too much. "Hey, Zuzu..." Her father greeted as he walked into the room.
Izumi finally turned her head towards her dad, tears streaming down her face as she sniffled. "Papa... How can I save people if I don't have a Quirk?"
"Izu... you don't need a Quirk to save people," her father walked over and paused the video. Izumi already had it memorized by heart after watching it so many times, so it didn't really matter as she continued playing it in her head. "Do you want a Quirk?"
Izumi nodded and sniffled, rubbing her runny nose. "I jus-just wanna be a hero, Papa!"
Her father picked her up and hugged her, his white curls tickling her face, and his warm eyes staring at her. "I think that tomorrow, sweetheart, you'll wake up with a Quirk... one that's a lot like Mommy's, okay?"
Izumi stopped sniffling and looked up into her father's face. "Pw... Pwomise?" Her green eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she looked for reassurance.
There was nothing but love and care in Hisashi Midoriya's face as he smiled down at his daughter. "I promise."
Izumi was making short work of all of the robots that she encountered. She had to pace herself, though - in order to defeat them, she had to use Telekinesis twice at the same time - once to pull something important, like a motor, towards her, and once to push everything else away. She found that if she didn't, the robots were built solidly enough to remain intact. So, after eight minutes, she stood at a respectable 42 points. That was nowhere near bad, but... Izumi grit her teeth. It wasn't enough to secure her first place, either.
Part of the issue was that she kept taking time to help people. And that was exhausting her almost as much as the robots were, because trying to pull a 60-80 kilogram person was a bit more taxing than a five kilogram piece of hardware. Everything was about to change, though...
A rumble started to reverberate throughout the ground. Izumi tensed up. Was this someone's Quirk? A loud crash drew her attention as a cloud of debris filled the air, and her eyes widened. 'That thing's huge!' Izumi thought to herself, then mentally kicked herself for thinking the obvious. This was the zero pointer, of course. She would just have to run away and get some more points as the robots were funneled in.
And, like all good plans, that's where everything went off rails - when you try and do it. All thoughts of 'first' or 'points' were pushed from Izumi's mind as she stared at the lone figure tugging on her leg, trapped under a pile of debris... and the robot rumbling straight towards her. In fact, everything leapt from her mind as she darted forward, her eyes darting around as she latched onto as many pieces of debris as she could, her teeth straining as she picked up the metal truss that was pinning the girl's leg.
"Go!" She yelled, then clamped her teeth shut. She began to twirl as the other applicant, a short, brown haired girl, limped to safety, her entangled objects picking up momentum as she did. She hadn't tried this much before - each one of her fingers was latching on to an individual object, and the overall weight was almost near her maximum. In fact, it should've been over the amount she could carry, considering how heavy the truss was, but for some reason, it felt as light as a feather.
The robot slowly rumbled closer and closer as Hizashi announced "30 Seconds" over the loudspeaker. Izumi's eyes strained to stay open until she knew she wouldn't be able to hold the weapons any longer... and she released. Nine of the ten projectiles shot towards the zero-pointer. The first one missed, while the next three lodged themselves in the robots' arms, and the rest littered the wheel track and the body. Taking a few more spins, Izumi finally released the metal truss at the robot.
Like a shot out of a railgun, it soared upwards with insane speed, hurtling towards the robot's head. A sickening crunch echoed throughout the Battle Center as metal met glass, metal, and then glass again. Izumi panted as she stood, frozen, glaring up at the robot. Time ran out, but she hardly noticed. Black was starting to color the edges of her vision as Quirk Exhaustion set in, and the last thing she said as she stared at the hole she had punched through the robot's head...
"Dad's gonna kill me."