It said a lot in a society dominated by those with unique abilities, that the government itself finally threw it's arms up in frustration and came up with a special clause to deal with a certain clan.
The Hibiki family were a clan of highly influential merchants and the odd martial artist. They had a knack towards finding rare or obscure items that sold at a rather impressive price on the open market, and those that practiced martial arts were all highly skilled.
The problem was that they had a family curse, one that drove outsiders up the wall in frustration. You see, the Hibiki family had the worst sense of direction known to mankind, and to date no navigational tool could make sense of their travels.
It often started young and only got worse as the children got older.
Which made it rather frustrating for the educational system to deal with, as it was hard to test a child that could disappear to another district within an hour and would take days to return.
As such, the government created a special "Hibiki Clause" for any school unlucky enough to have a confirmed Hibiki in their students.
One such student would take an entirely different path because of this, all because of a series of potentially unrelated events that happened in a short period of time.
Inko was not in a good mood. She had been unhappy for Izuku's sake that he wouldn't inherit a quirk...just not for the reasons the doctor seemed to believe.
After stumbling across her son looking very confused about being in a closet instead of the bathroom he was heading for, she sighed.
It looked like she would have to call the clan after all. She had been hoping it would skip him like it had her. No one was sure why those born with quirks in the clan could navigate like everyone else, but it had been confirmed that those without were more often than not hit hard with the directional issue the clan was rather infamous for.
Inko waited until Izuku was sound asleep before she called the clan head.
Knowing her luck, it would be at least a week or so for him to show up, if his wife didn't assist him.
Five days later...
A small black piglet arrived at her doorstep. Inko could show only relief at the headband wrapped around it's neck.
"Ryoga-sama, it's a good thing you finally came."
The piglet squealed in annoyance. Ever since he married, he had been stuck as the clan head. On the plus side, it meant he got to help hundreds of kids with bad directional sense like him.
Inko was lucky...the curse translated into her quirk and made things take the long way to reach her when she used it. Her actual sense of direction was relatively normal, if a tad scatterbrained.
Ryoga, once he was clothed again and human, took one look at Izuku and sighed.
"He's got it almost as bad as me," he announced.
"Mama, who is this?" asked Izuku. To be fair, his mind was on how Ryoga turned from a pig to a human and why water was involved.
"Izuku honey, this is Ryoga...he's the head of Mama's birth family."
Ryoga bent down to eye level with Izuku. The boy found he liked the odd man a lot for that.
"Tell me Chibi, what do you want to do in life?"
"I want to be a hero like All Might! But...the teachers keep telling me it impossible because I don't have a quirk like Kaachan's," said Izuku.
Ryoga quirked an eyebrow at Inko.
"Kaachan is Bakugo Katsuki, Izuku's friend. His mother and I were classmates," she elaborated.
"And the father?" asked Ryoga, meaning her husband.
"Died overseas shortly after Izuku's diagnosis," said Inko, her eyes flat. She was still unsure if her husband took that job because Izuku had inherited the family curse or if he blamed her for the fact their son didn't have some fancy trick.
Ryoga looked at the hidden fire inside Izuku and smirked.
"Tell me chibi, how would you like to prove those idiot teachers of yours wrong and show up the heroes in a way they can't charge you for?"
Izuku looked intrigued, so Ryoga (lead by Inko) carried him to a small clearing outside the city. One look at how Ryoga completely destroyed a boulder simply by poking it had him hooked and listening to his every word.
"This is Ki. It's a internal energy present in all living beings, but it takes a lot of hard work and practice for people to use it. The Destruction Point is very dangerous, but it can't be used against living beings...it is however very good at clearing paths and construction, which means you could get into a building where a villain is without them being able to stop you and save people. Best of all since it's not part of a quirk and is available to anyone with training, you can use it however you like so long as no one gets hurt since the laws only cover quirk use."
The government did acknowledge the existence of extreme martial artists but it couldn't regulate them like they could quirks. This was mostly due to the fact that it took a lot of training to get to that point, and most of those who did so were often quirkless people trying to gain their own edge.
Besides, after seeing the damage a few well trained martial artists (cough Ranma cough) could do against villains, the government had come up with an agreement to stay out of their madness in exchange for provisional hero licenses.
If only so they didn't have to deal with the headaches involved with regulating them.
Izuku, when told that if he trained hard enough with Ryoga and his friends would get a provisional license even if he didn't have a quirk, had agreed on the spot.
Sure, it meant he'd have to deal with people helping him with his horrible sense of direction, and occasionally getting lost as often as Ryoga had in his youth, but if it meant becoming a hero like All Might it would be worth it in his eyes.
(He would sorely regret that decision many times in the coming years at the level of hellish training he was put through.)
"Do you have everything?" asked Inko.
"Yes Mama," said Izuku, looking considerably more cheerful than if he had stayed.
Eight years had passed, and Izuku was glad for the reprieve. While the Nerima Wrecking crew would show up from time to time to test him, he had passed the bare minimum of what they considered "acceptable base standards" and was officially recognized as a martial artist by the government.
He wouldn't receive his provisional license yet, as he was still very much a minor, but he was okay with waiting three years for it.
There was however, one small addition to the family.
"Remember to keep Oreo's leash on your wrist at all time!" said his mother.
"Arf!"
Oreo was a black and white mixed breed that was specially bred by the Hibiki clan to help younger members reach school and home in a timely manner. They were trained to lead their humans without fail, and it had shown marginal success in allowing them to attend school regularly.
Officially they were registered therapy animals. Unofficially they were just there to help the Hibiki clan's horrible sense of direction.
Izuku slipped Oreo's leash around his wrist. It was specially reinforced due to the increased strength he had, and against potential villain attacks.
"Have a fun day, sweetie!" said Inko. Izuku looked so much happier than he had after the diagnosis.
"I'll try, Mama!"
In the school
"Everyone, this is Hibiki Izuku. He'll be starting class with us today. Due to certain circumstances, he may need a minder to get to school," said the teacher.
Izuku's eyes landed on Bakugo. He had done a bit of scouting, thanks to the scrying Kon Lon had taught him, and he knew Bakugo's ego was running rampant without a proper rival. He needed a reality check, before his actions made him a villain rather than the hero they were expecting.
Everything was relatively boring...right up until the PE class. As a Hibiki who specialized in martial arts, he was automatically exempt from class.
"What's the matter, Deku, are you too pathetic to handle a simple PE class?" sneered Bakugo. "Then again, a quirkless loser like you wouldn't amount to much anyway!"
Izuku gave him a flat look.
"Sensei, would it be alright to show everyone why I'm exempt from class?" he called out.
The teacher looked around and found a suitable demonstration. He pointed at the nearby wall which was easy enough to fix once destroyed. Izuku calmly walked towards it, with Oreo's leash still attached to his wrist.
Bakugo and the others watched, most of them with a superior look because Izuku's quirkless status was well known thanks to the blond, as Izuku calmly took a stance.
What happened next shut most of them up about how 'weak' and 'useless' Izuku was.
Izuku calmly gathered his Ki...and used the destruction point to completely obliterate the section of the wall.
"What...the fuck," said Bakugo, staring incredulous.
"Thank you for limiting the destruction, Hibiki-san," said the teacher.
"What the fuck?!" said Bakugo.
"Little know fact, those of the Hibiki clan are automatically exempt from physical education classes if they're registered as martial artists. It was one of the concessions the government made since 'extreme' martial artists would make normal school competitions look like an absolute joke...especially since the majority of them don't actually have quirks," said Izuku smiling. "Mostly so the schools in question can't bring out an extreme martial artist as a dark horse and sweep the competition unfairly, or worse, instigate the madness certain styles bring."
"You're still a quirkless loser!" snarled Bakugo. Seeing that sort of strength from someone he had learned to dismiss thanks to the adults around him shook him to his core.
Before Bakugo could even react, he found himself flying before a hard painful thud on the ground. Everyone was quiet.
"You treat everyone like trash because you have a fancy trick that the adults praise to ridiculous levels. You don't even bother to train it correctly and use it whenever the mood suits you so long as the adults around you turn a blind eye. Well I've come back and I'm here to remind you that you are in fact human, and that there is always someone stronger than you are waiting in the wings," said Izuku calmly.
Bakugo was visibly pissed. He had become so used to the idea of being the top dog in his limited world that the idea of someone without a fancy ability like his own coming in and taking over had never occurred to him.
Only time would tell if he would come out stronger for this, or become something far worse.
Two weeks later...
"Where the fuck is Deku?" demanded Bakugo. And why wasn't the teacher calling him out on it?
"Hibiki-san will be unavailable for class for a few days," said the teacher.
"Why, is he sick?" asked one of the girls.
Izuku's popularity went up exponentially for putting Bakugo in his place, and the fact he wasn't a complete ass like the blond. It never ceased to piss Bakugo off either.
"No, he's a Hibiki. It seems he went to use the restroom and forgot to follow the guideline," said the teacher tiredly.
Dead silence.
"How does him going to the bathroom result in him being excused from school for several days?" asked another student, baffled.
"The Hibiki clan are notorious for having a terrible sense of direction. As such the government has certain rules in place so that they might graduate on time," explained the teacher. "His dog is actually there to insure he makes it to school without getting lost. They usually show up on their own sooner or later."
Everyone stared at the teacher incredulous.
"Exactly how bad is their sense of direction that the government has to step in?"
With Izuku...
"Where am I?!" he moaned to himself.
"You're in China. I thought you completed the bare basics of training?" said Kon Lon.
Izuku flinched at her voice. It was a reflex, really.
"Great...which means I'll need at least three days to get home," sighed Izuku in Mandarin.
Due to his age, Izuku learned Chinese relatively fast, and Kon Lon had insured he would become something of a natural polygot, if only to make sure he never fell into the same mistakes Ranma had due to the fact he only spoke Japanese in his youth. He eventually learned Chinese, but a lot of things could have been avoided had he understood the language around him.
Considering he would likely end up traveling quite a bit due to his family's curse, teaching him as many languages as possible was simply common sense.
Kon Lon had a slightly evil expression. Izuku felt chills go down his back at the sight of it.
"In the meantime, I can test your skill level. It wouldn't do for an honorary Amazon to give a bad showing, now would it?"
Izuku did something that would have his mother appalled.
"Fuck..." he said out loud. Kon Lon cackled at his expression.