Quirks. You all know the story: Glowing baby, sudden appearence of superpowers, rise in crime, people decide to become superheroes, etc, etc. All of that thanks to this quirk-y mutations. These powers have been the subject of numerous studies, trying to understand this genetic phenomenon. And it is funny, because there are certain cases where experts can only scratch their heads, give up and slap an 'it just works' label on the Quirk. For example, how are they supposed to ethically figure out the mechanisms behind the ability to see the future?

Another example is what happens with fourteen year old Izuku Midoriya, currently in class. Quirk: Luck. He's banned from ever participating in the lottery, and from entering every single casino in Japan. Not like he could even do the latter at his age. The doctors said that this ability most likely originated as an extreme mutation of his mother's slight telekenisis. And that's about the only conclusion they've come up with when it comes to how it functions.

What does it do? Well, the name is self explanatory. The odds always favour Izuku. He wants a twenty-sided die to always show the number sixteen? Well, it's gonna happen, no matter how many times you repeat the roll. He doesn't even have to actively think about. If something chance related can benefit him, it will.

Great for party tricks, playing cards, guessing which number someone is thinking (yes, even that). Applications for hero work, though? Yeah, not that many, everyone else told him so. He has come to learn that his Luck doesn't cause those situations where someone trying to attack him magically forgot to tie his shoes, and trips which gives him an opportunity to escape. He has Kacchan to thank for that discovery.

But! He's still gotta try! Even if he's not that encouraged by his peers, he feels as if he has decent preparation for the UA's exams, those hero analyses he's done over the years are proof of his observation skills. That's gotta count for something! He might have a chance, so he has to try.

His internal self-encouragement was interrupted by the professor speaking. "C'mon class! You're middle school seniors! It's time you started to think seriously about your futures!" Exagerated arm movements, loud voice, he enjoyed the chances he could do that, since it obviously drawed attention. Izuku was silently watching, writting about the hero he saw earlier in the day. "I'll be handing out prints of your desired life-course!"

His expression suddenly became more cheerful as he tossed said prints into the air, while making a pose. "But you all want to be heroes, don't you?" The students cheered, showcasing their Quirks, well, except for two of them. One of them because he found no need to, and the other because he had no die to roll.

Ironically enough, Izuku wasn't a betting man, but in this moment he was willing to bet that his teacher at least used to be in theatre with the performarce he just gave. That's not the point, however. In the middle of the class technically breaking the rules, Katsuki Bakugo decided to add something, in a Katsuki Bakugo manner, obviously.

"Hey, teach! Don't lump me with everybody else!" Feet on top of the desk, smirking, and clearly thinking himself superior. "Don't compare me to those losers' weak ass Quirks. Mine's on a whole other level." As to be expected when insulting an audience, he got booed. "Shut it, you extras!"

"Oh, wait..." The teacher added. "Bakugo's shooting for U.A, isn't he?" That made the rest of the class shut up for a second. It was a well known fact that said academy was only for the best of the best. The blonde teen stood up on his desk, bringing attention back to him.

"You done talking, peons!? I aced the mock test! I'm the only one here who's got a chance!" While he kept talking, the adult in the room picked up one of the prints that were still in his desk. "I'm even gonna surpass All Might as the number one!"

"Huh, now that you mention it... Midoriya also wants to enter U.A." The freckled student flinched, everyone else went still for a moment. Then, they reacted, some gave him simpathetic looks, most of them laughed.

"C'mon, Midoriya, luck's not enough to be a hero" Great. Now Mr. I-can-extend-my-eyeballs was telling him that his Quirk was not suited for heroics. Izuku swore, really swore that there was an English saying for these kinds of situations. Something about a pot.

"Eat shit, Deku!" Well, no time to remember what it was. An explosion to his desk, courtesy of his childhood friend, made him fall backwards. "What makes you think that with just luck you can compare to me, huh!?"

"W-What? No, that's not it... Hold on, Kacchan." He tried to calm down the explosive blonde, to no luck, as to be expected. "I'm not trying to compete with you, I swear! It's just... I've looked up to heroes since I can remember... And... Well..." He looked up at the rest of the class, wobbly smile on his face. "I might get lucky..."

He heard a snort, followed by a giggle, followed by laughter. That last part was not exactly what he was thinking, but he found that making those kinds of comments made people laugh with him instead of at him, for the most part.

"Tch." Kacchan wasn't ammused, but he still went back to his seat. Izuku sighed and decided to do the same.

When class ended, Midoriya was getting ready to get home. Pencil goes into the bag, eraser goes into the bag, analisys notebook goes into Kacchan's hand- Wait, that's not right, he looked up to see Bakugo, he didn't look happy.

"We ain't done yet, Deku"

His friends came closer, curious about the book that was now in the blonde's hand, they were amused when they read the cover. "Notes for the future? Really, Midoriya...?"

"Hey, give it back!" He reached for it, trying to snatch it back, only for Bakugo to clap it between his hand, charring the notebook with an explosion. "You...!" Cherry on top? He threw it down the window, nonchalantly.

"You know what they say? What all the top heroes have in common? They can all say this about their high school years: I came from a municipal middle school, I was the first, the only!" He paused, and stepped closer towards the green haired trembling boy. "And, see, I'm a perfectionist, I wanna make sure the same applies to me" Bakugo's left hand clasped Izuku's shoulder, smoke came out along with heat. "What I'm saying is... Forget about U.A."

Having made his point, Bakugo started to leave, Izuku too scared to say anything, something the others took notice of. "Man, he can't talk back." The one who said it paused for a moment. "Kind of unlucky, don't you think?" That got a small laugh of the group. Even if by all definitions, luck wasn't even a factor in that.

"But, Deku, maybe you'll get a better Quirk in your next life. All you have to do is take a swan dive off the roof." That made Izuku determited to answer back, sadly, all that determination died when he saw Katsuki, making small explosions in his hand. "You wanna say something?" He could only stare a the floor for a while, waiting for the group to go away.

Once they did, he quietly headed down where his notebook was thrown, it fell just on the border of the fish pond. How lucky. "Seriously... If I did that you'd be instigating suicide..." He picked it up and opened a random page. It was still legible, somehow. Well, now that was over at least his day wouldn't be getting any worse.


Let's see. Almost died at the hands of a villain. Saved by All Might. Got an autograph from All Might. Grabbed All Might's leg right before he jumped out of reach. Landed on a rooftop. Found out that All Might is in an incredibly injured state, seriously, how does one live without a stomach, let alone work as a hero?

His day technically got worse, but, hey, at least he got an autograph out of it. All Might decided enough time happened for this fan to process all that information, so he continued talking. "You said your Quirk is luck, right? It doesn't seem suited for heroics." Izuku's fist clenched, he was starting to remember similar words told by his classmates. "However" He looked to the skeletal man, who had a small smile on his face. "If you train hard enough, maybe you'll make it work. Now if you'll excuse me..." He showed the bottle containing the villain. "I got to give this guy to the police." With that, All Might started to leave, closing the door of the roof.

Izuku stood there for a moment, his vision was starting to blur. Oh, right, tears. He wiped them using his sleeve with a wobbly smile. All Might said he could do it! He had to try! He paused and looked at his hands. He also said he had to train. And he now felt dumb for not even attempting to do that before.

He blamed it on tunnel vision, he was stuck on an if. He was so busy asking whether someone like him could be a hero that he forgot to ask himself how to do it. He shook his head, it was not the time to look back at what he didn't do. Maybe he could ask his mom for some training equipment. Perhaps he also had to take a diet. Those helped, right?


Ten months later, a more fit Izuku stood in front of the gates of U.A. It was time to take the exam, he trained hard for this. He'll do it! He repeated that phrase in his head, it somehow felt like if he thought it hard enough it would become true. He took a step forward, determination clear in his face. The thoughts in his mind quickly being filled with memories of his training, his ideas on equipment that could compliment his Quirk. If he got in he was definetly using those.

A hand on his back snapped him back to reality, ope there goes gravity. He was floating, face closer to the ground than he was comfortable with. "You alright?" A girl with a bob haircut asked, she seemed cheerful, and Midoriya seemed confused. After making sure the freckled boy was alright, she touched each of her fingertips together, making gravity affect him once more. "Sorry for using my Quirk there, I'd be bad luck if you fell before the exam."

Izuku was a great contribution to the conversation, those confused noises coming out of his mouth were truly the height of eloquence. Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to mind, she was just happy to see someone else who was nervous about the exam. Smiling, she waved him goodbye as she headed towards the building, a little more confident about herself.

The green haired teen stood there for a while, he also felt ever so slightly more confident, he did (not) talk to a girl, after all! He once again stepped forward, this time without falling. He'll do just fine, he doesn't have to worry that much.


On second thought, maybe he did have to worry a bit, at least with the exam's explanation. Not only did he sit next to Kacchan, he obviously wasn't happy with his presence, but he also got reprimanded by some glasses wearing guy, doing robotic gestures. Izuku just mumbled, that wasn't as distracting as someone moving his arms like one of those karate toys!

Now that he was actually gonna take the exam, he felt somewhat underwhelmed. Why? Well, just look around him. The rest of examinees were visibly nervous, a distint contrast compared to Kacchan and rules-lawyer, some were even more nervous than himself! Now that was hard. There was one in particular, who once he looked at the scale of the city, looked ready to pass out. That made Izuku feel better, everyone was nervous. He could-

"Aaaaaand go!" Present Mic's yell interrupted his thoughts, everyone looked towards the source of his voice, they didn't seem to get the message. "Hey, what's happening? There's no countdowns in a real battle! Just run! Run!"

Now, that, they seemed to understands, everyone ran towards the city, except for two of them, who... tripped? Midoriya saw that, stopped and helped them out, almost scared that his Quirk was somehow responsible for that. He knew that wasn't the case, but still! And now thanks to that generous action, he was behind the rest of the group. He ran once again towards the city, he had to look for those robots, he just hoped the rest wouldn't take them all, he knew they were limited.

Five minutes later, Izuku had accumulated what he assumed was a decent number of villain points. Twenty to be exact. It was scary, he almost fell back onto his cowering habits, however, once he figured out these robots had some weak spots, it became easier to face them on. He looked towards the others, he wanted to have an idea of how well he was doing.

"S-Seven..." What? "...Eleven..." "Five." "Two..." Now that he payed attention... They all seemed out of breath. Badly. Sweating bullets, and not thanks to some Quirk, it seemed. He was the top scorer here? That... That doesn't seem right. Maybe the rest of the top scorers were elsewhere? It's possible that he just got lucky enough that the ones in this area weren't that skilled. Then it clicked. Lucky enough.

It was no secret that people failed the U.A exam, hundreds participated, yet only fourty students or so got accepted. Aside from making sure that participants from the same school weren't placed together, everything about how the applicants were distributed was random. His Quirk not only was aware of that fact, it somehow knew which ones were the most incompetent and placed them all along with him. He understood his Quirk's logic 'If you can't alter the game in order to win, why not change the players?'

He actually was the top scorer in this site. That didn't make him feel all that great, he knew his Quirk wasn't affecting them, he knew all his Quirk did was to put them all in the same place, but still, it felt wrong... Scowling, he decided to do something.

After the exam was over, Izuku went back home, a blank expression on his face, his mother was worried, even offered to make katsudon to cheer him up. He just said that he needed to rest. Once he entered his room, he fell face down onto his bed, burying his face on his pillow.


What was he thinking!? If he kept going at the same rate, he probably would have scored higher than twenty-three! He just had to help the rest, telling them how to deal with the robots, giving them pointers, even letting them deal the finishing blow! He thought it wouldn't matter that much, there was still plenty of time left but then the Zero Pointer appeared! He was pretty sure the Zero in it's name actually meant 'Zero chance you ever gonna take this one down'. Yeah, yeah, it's called like that because it's worth Zero points, but let him vent his frustrations.

He just hoped that was enough to pass, he'd hate to have failed just because he felt the need to help the others. They reminded him of, well, himself. He'd been like them had he not met with All Might. They all had potential, but... They didn't nurture it. Sad to say, it was impossible for them to pass, even with his help. The highest score he heard was thirteen. Thinking about that didn't make him feel good about his own chances.

He turned his head, looking at his weights and gripper. Some training wouldn't do bad right now.


Meanwhile, at U.A the teachers were reviewing footage of the exams, they were particularly looking at Midoriya's performance.

"When there's only one examinee with a decent grade in a site, it's normal to be suspicious, it wouldn't be the first time it happens." The bear-mouse-director said, teacup in paw. "However, it would appear that this is the first time someone achieves that not only without ever recurring to sabotage, but while helping anyone he encountered."

"Yeah!" Present Mic felt the need to add his commentary. "I don't know what came over the guy, but when he started to team up with the others I wanted to cheer him on!"

"He only started to do that halfway into the exam. I think he got confident when he noticed he had the most amount of points between his peers." Aizawa's voice got the attention of everyone, also the fact that he was holding up the sign that had the number two written on it. "His help was unneeded. No one was endangered. A waste of effort."

"Who cares? I like him!" It seems that Eraserhead's judgement didn't affect Hizashi at all, as he showed a sign with a ten written on it.

The rest of the judges each gave their own votes. In the end, it was decided. Izuku Midoriya: 23 Villain Points. 49 Rescue Points.


A/N

Well, I have mixed feelings about this. Essentially I wrote this because I couldn't get the idea out of my head, and found myself constantly imagining scenarios where Izuku had incredible luck. Why? Wish I could tell you.

I'm publishing it because I might as well, if I'm gonna do it, it's better to get some feedback on it.

Something I'm not happy about it's my use of canon scenes, I feel as if I'm way too dependent of them, yeah, I might have changed stuff here and there, but I don't know, I feel like I could have done better. Yet I didn't know how. Actually, I still don't know. Well, better wrap this up. If you liked it, great! I'm glad you did. If you didn't, well, I'm sorry, I'm trying, could you please write a review so I can know what I did wrong?