Author's Note: Welcome! This is my first story that I've written for MHA, and I'm excited to put it out there! I hope that you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! This first chapter is mainly to explain how the group comes together as friends. Further chapters will have less timeskips than this one does. Plans are for updates to be every other week. I will also be cross posting this on Ao3 under the same name with the same author name. So, if you like this, I would appreciate if there was some engagement on that site as well. Anyway, one last thing, and that's text formatting and what it means:
"This is speech."
"This is thought."
This is a text.
This is a text conversation joining message.
Not all men are created equal. That's something that Izuku learned very early in life. Not everyone was lucky. Not even the man blessed with luck.
The day that Izuku's quirk manifested… He couldn't even remember. It was sometime when he was 4, that's for sure, but he never knew which specific day. The big day, however, was the day of his diagnosis.
"Well, Miss Midoriya, your son definitely has a quirk. The X-Rays for his pinky toe even prove it." The doctor said, holding up a few X-Ray images.
"That's wonderful news!" Inko looked at young Izuku, who was basically vibrating in his seat out of excitement. "What is it? I can bring small objects close to me, and my husband can breathe fire. I haven't seen him do anything like my or my husband's quirks."
"Well, Miss Midoriya, there are some times where quirks undergo mutations, a very lucky occurrence. Aptly put as well, because your son's quirk is called 'Luck'. Specifically, it is a passive probability manipulation quirk. The reason why you haven't seen your son do anything with his quirk yet is because he can't activate it, at least not yet. Right now, it just activates on its own, making it just seem closer to natural good luck. And that being said, it's not very strong right now. Very minor things right now are affected. If he trains it, though, I'm sure that it'll be able to make it much more powerful, even including making it so he could control it." The doctor explained.
And so the two left the doctor's office with Inko in high hopes. Izuku, while confused at first, now had a very good idea of just what his quirk was due to his mother explaining things to him. He was even writing things down in a notebook that his mother had gotten him as a celebration gift. His writing was more akin to vague scribbles that kind of looked like letters, albeit some of them backwards, if one squinted their eyes hard enough. He knew his quirk wasn't strong. He knew it didn't do much now. It wasn't exactly the quirk of a hero like All Might. But they said it could grow. And so he'd work on making sure it grew as much as he could. His eager excitement couldn't be broken by anything or anyone.
Or so he thought…
"Stupid Deku! You can't even do anything with your quirk! It does all the work for you!" Kacchan shouted. He and his goons had chased Izuku to the playground again. But this time, it was going to be different. Izuku had a quirk that he knew about!
"I-I still have one! I can be a Hero!"
"Yeah, you have a quirk, but what's being lucky gonna do against people with quirks like mine? You're just gonna get hurt. You won't be a hero, you'll be dead. Take this as a warning, Deku."
He focused as hard as he could on activating any part of his quirk, bracing his eyes closed. And yet, he still felt those blasted sparks upon his skin. The same burns that he always got from the kid who used to be his friend.
A few minutes and countless burns later, he was left alone again on the ground, crying.
"Today… was supposed… to be different!" Izuku said between sobs.
"Are… Are you okay?" A small voice spoke up from a few feet away from him. Izuku looked up to see a small girl, around the same age as him with short, purple hair and something coming out of her earlobes. She wore a yellow Deep Dope tank top and jean shorts as well as a pair of purple sneakers.
"I-I will be. Who are you?" Izuku asked, sitting up and wiping the tears from his eyes.
"My name is Kyouka Jirou. I'm four years old! What's your name?" The girl said, holding up four fingers proudly.
"My name is Izuku Midoriya. Wh-What are you doing here?" Izuku asked, still trying to stop the now small trickle of tears coming out of his eyes.
"My family just moved here. I don't know many people. Well, I don't know anyone here, really… And, well. You looked like you needed a friend. Those bullies look like they hurt you. You don't have to worry about me, though. I won't hurt you. I'll be your friend, too!"
"My… Friend. Okay, you're my friend!" A small smile came onto his face.
"Do you know why they were hurting you?"
"It's because of my quirk." Izuku hung his head.
"What kind of quirk would make them hurt you like that?"
"My quirk is called Luck. I change the luck of what's going on around me, but… I can't control it yet."
"That sounds really cool! A lot cooler than mine." She said, a small frown on her face.
"What's your quirk?" Izuku asked, forgetting his sadness for a bit.
Kyouka poked at the little plugs coming out of her ears. "These are my quirk. They just came in a few weeks ago, so I'm still getting used to them."
"What do they do?" His excitement was making itself incredibly apparent.
"They let me hear really good. And I can make the sound of my heartbeat come out of them if I put them in things. That's what mommy says, anyway."
"That's so cool!" Izuku's smile grew ear to ear as he listened to his new friend talk about her quirk. "I think quirks are really cool."
Blushing, Kyouka looked away. "Thank you, Midoriya."
"You can call me Izuku! We're friends now, right?"
"Right! In that case, you can call me Kyouka!"
"Okay, Kyouka." Izuku said, smiling.
"I heard you say that you wanted to be a Hero?"
"Y-Yeah, I've always wanted to be a Hero. Just like All Might. But Kacchan said that I can't be one." Izuku said
"That's really brave of you, Izuku. I think you can be a great Hero. I want to be a Hero too… My parents want me to do music like them, but I think heroes are really cool and brave."
"I think you can be a great hero too! Especially with your quirk! It's so useful, especially if you want to be a rescue hero. There are so many things you can do with it!"
"Thank you, Izuku…" Kyouka said, blushing slightly. A few moments of comfortable silence passed before Kyouka spoke again. "Where do you go to school?"
"I go to Aldera Primary School."
Kyouka's eyes widened. "That's where I'm going to start going!"
"Then, I'll see you tomorrow there? I… I don't want to leave, but I don't want my mom to worry." Izuku got up and dusted himself off.
"I understand! I'll see you tomorrow, Izuku!" Kyouka waved to him as he walked back to his house.
True to their word, they both saw each other the next day, and throughout the next few years, they both grew up in the schools together. Whenever they got their first phones, they were each other's first contacts. They spent most of their days after school together and working on homework.
After a few years, Izuku and Kyouka went to start training in basic self defense, since both wanted to train to be heroes, but neither had the most physical of quirks. Around the time that they started, Kyouka and Izuku had learned how to somewhat defend themselves from the bully Bakugou. Eventually, he moved on from the two of them, still insulting Izuku from time to time, but no physical confrontation anymore.
Not even a year after that, they moved onto mixed martial arts with both of them starting to study Kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu, Kyouka studying Judo - upon Izuku's request, specifically due to her quirk being useful with grabbing hold and flipping - and Izuku starting to study capoeira a bit later - he found that the kicking style looked fun, and the flow of everything seemed to be great for mixing up any opponents he may have to fight. He was already learning how to punch with Kickboxing, so he could have his homage to All-Might with those. He wanted to have a bit more, though.
Izuku's quirk continued to develop, affecting more and more things around him. He even managed to start focusing on small things and deciding to influence those things with his luck. Once his active luck started to affect things, he found he could influence bad luck. One time in training, Izuku was able to directly affect Kyouka's luck slightly enough that her footing slipped just enough for Izuku to take her down.
"Oooh, bad luck, Kyouka." Izuku said, smirking.
"Wait, that means… You did something?"
"I focused some bad luck on you, and you slipped." Izuku said, smiling. He was excited. This was the first time something like this had happened.
"You asshole!" She laughed. He saw her punch coming long before he felt it, but he did feel it. Her first hit his shoulder with surprising force. She had been training well. Her vocabulary, on the other hand, had of course been influenced by her parents and her music taste, but Izuku found it endearing, even for a nine year old. She then immediately embraced him. "That's so exciting for you! You're making great progress on becoming a Hero!"
His mother was just as happy that he was making progress with his martial arts training as well as making progress with his quirk… as well as getting closer to a girl, something she wouldn't admit she was worried about when he was younger.
On the day of Kyouka's 10th birthday, their dynamic changed. Slightly. Just slightly. When Kyouka was sitting in her dining room surrounded by her family, Izuku, and his mom, there came a knock on her door.
"I think one of your birthday presents just got here, honey." Mika said from the door. Shortly after, a young girl around Izuku and Kyouka's age, pink hair, cargo shorts, a black tank top, and goggles adorning her small form, came bursting through the hallway and into the dining room.
"KYO!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.
"MEI? OH MY GOSH!" Kyouka lept from her seat, and the two immediately embraced. "How long has it been?"
"Years! The last time I saw you, you were moving… Well, here to Musutafu!" Mei said. "I missed you!" Mei hugged Kyouka once again before looking at the stunned Izuku. "Oh, I don't think I've met you."
"Oh, sorry, Mei! This is Izuku Mirdoriya. He was my first friend after moving here. He's… Well, he's pretty much my only friend here, but it's been good! He's helping me be a Hero! We're working towards going to UA for high school!"
"EH? UA? I'm gonna go there, too!"
"Wh-What's your quirk?" Izuku asked sheepishly.
"Izuku, come on, I thought we worked on your confidence. Sorry, he can get kind of shy with new people. Also, don't let that be the first thing that you say to people. Introduce yourself first."
"No, it's okay. My quirk is Zoom. It lets me look at things really closely, even from far away. My limit right now is 4 kilometers, but I'm sure it'll get longer with time."
"That would be really useful for a hero to have." Kyouka said, smiling.
"Oh, I'm not going to be a Hero."
"You're not?"
"Nope!" Mei said, popping the 'p'. "I'm going for the support class. I need to make lots of babies!"
At this point, the woman that Izuku and Kyouka could only assume to be Mei's mother, stepped forward and spoke up. "Now now, honey. Maybe explain what they are instead of just calling them that, okay?"
"Fiiiiiine." Mei whined, looking back at her mom before turning again to look at Izuku and Kyouka. "A few months after you left to come here, I started making things. And I've kept making things ever since. My quirk is really useful for that. I call my inventions my babies!"
"That's really cool! Oh, wait! Here, let me get your contact info." Kyouka said, getting her phone out. The two swapped information, and before Izuku knew it, she had made a group chat with the three of them together. "There! Now we can all know what's going on with each other. Even when we aren't all here together." She smiled at the two of her friends.
Best Friends
Kyouka Jirou has joined the chat
Mei Hatsume has joined the chat
Broccoli Head has joined the chat
"Broccoli Head?" Izuku asked out loud.
"Yeah, that may or may not be my contact name for you, and I may or may not be sorry for it." Kyouka said with a smirk.
"Oh, that's a good idea! Can I add my friend from back home? He wants to do the Hero course at UA, too."
"The more the merrier, I say!" Kyouka said, giving a big smile and a thumbs up.
Hitoshi Shinsou has joined the chat
Hitoshi: So what is this, Hatsume?
Mei: Kyouka was my best friend a few years ago before her family moved to Musutafu. I finally reconnected with her when her parents reached out to mine a few days ago for her 10th birthday.
Hitoshi: Happy Birthday
Kyouka: Thank you!
Broccoli: What's your quirk?
Kyouka smacked Izuku's shoulder. "Izuku! We just went over this with Mei. Introduce yourself before being a massive nerd."
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Ah… Sorry, Kyo."
Kyouka: Sorry about him, he's a little quirk obsessed.
Hitoshi: Is his name really Broccoli?
Kyouka and Mei burst out laughing at Shinsou's question, the latter staying in her seat and the former falling out of her chair onto the ground.
Broccoli: My name is Izuku Midoriya, but Kyo here has me in her phone as Broccoli Head. Something I just learned about today, by the way.
Hitoshi: Fair. My quirk is Brainwash. If someone answers a question that I ask them, I can make them do what I say as long as it's not complex.
As soon as the group had received the text, Kyouka looked at Izuku. The boy's eyes were wide in excitement. He almost immediately started typing furiously. Rolling her eyes, Kyouka sent a message into the group text first.
Kyouka: I'm sorry about what's about to happen.
Hitoshi: What exactly is she apologizing for?
Mei: You'll see. He's still typing.
Eventually, Izuku's thesis went through the group chat, filling up the entire screen of the phones and then some with just the one message.
Broccoli: That's such a cool quirk! It's really good for hostage negotiations and deescalating criminal activity! There's so many different things that can do, the possibilities are endless! What's the extent of what you can make someone do? Is there a way to break out of it? I wonder what can happen if you train it more. Will it get stronger? How do you train that? You said you're wanting to be a Hero right? Hatsume said that you want to go to UA as well, right? We should all get together and train sometime! That would be a lot of fun! I'd love to see your quirk in action.
Mei: You done?
Broccoli: Yeah, I'm done.
Hitoshi: I'm flattered. Nobody's shown this much genuine interest in my quirk before. They always say I'm gonna be a villain with it, but I want to help people with it. I would be honored to train with you at some point.
Mei: Alrighty boys, don't wanna cut this short, but it's Kyouka's birthday, and we need to party. We'll message after it's over alright, Hitoshi?
Hitoshi: Again, Happy Birthday.
The three of them enjoyed the rest of Kyouka's birthday party, eventually ending in Mei parting ways with the two. The four of them quickly became the best of friends, with Mei and eventually Hitoshi making semi-regular visits starting a few months later.
A year later, something happened. During one of Izuku's solo training sessions in the gym he was going to, he was mid rep when the doors slammed open and then quickly shut. Looking to the door, he saw what looked to be a kid around his age, but with what looked like the head of a raven, feathers and all. The kid sat on the ground behind the door, panting. With nobody else really in the gym due to how late it was and Izuku just doing reps on training, he figured that if anyone was gonna say anything, it was gonna be him.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Shh!" was all that the kid said as he slowly opened the door to peer outside. The sound of multiple sets of footsteps could be heard ringing out on the pavement just outside the door.
"Where did that damn bird brain go?" A familiar voice shouted from outside. "C'mon, this way!"
"Kacchan…" Izuku muttered to himself.
"You know him?"
"He used to bully me. Asshole." Izuku said. Truthfully, Kyouka's language had had an impact on him, especially in the last year.
"It seems that the predator has found a new prey in myself. I would defend myself, but I fear the abyss of night would make it so my quirk would do more harm than good."
He certainly was… eccentric. "Why is he chasing you?" Izuku asked.
"He thinks I'm weird and different, and he doesn't like that. I think he thinks that my quirk is challenging him."
"What is your quirk?" Izuku asked, curious. "Oh wait, before you tell me, let me get something from my bag." He quickly grabbed his latest notebook, this issue being number 10, and brought it back to the boy. Izuku opened the notebook, but before he started writing anything, he lightly tapped his forehead with his palm, remembering what Kyouka keeps drilling into his head. "I'm sorry, that's rude. Introductions first. My name is Izuku Midoriya. What's your name?"
The raven boy looked to Izuku and said, "Fumikage Tokoyami. It's nice to meet you, Midoriya. Now, to answer your question, my quirk is Dark Shadow." As if on cue, a small tendril of inky darkness ebbed out of the young boy, forming into a somewhat avian form, two yellow slits forming what seemed to be eyes.
"Yo." This creature, this Dark Shadow, said while saluting Izuku.
"That's so cool! I wonder…" Izuku trailed off, stopping himself. He may have worked with Kyoua a lot over the past year to get rid of his stutter for the most part as well as working to try and be a normal person instead of solely focusing on quirks, but that last one was still a work in progress. Tokoyami didn't need someone gushing over his quirk. He was being pursued right before this. He needed someone to listen. "You said that you 'feared the abyss of night would make it so my quirk would do more harm than good.' What does that mean?"
"Dark Shadow is a very powerful quirk, but the amount of light in an area as well as how I feel can make him hard or impossible to control. The darker it is, the harder Dark Shadow is to control. He can become a raging monster." Tokoyami explained. Dark Shadow laughed, slightly embarrassed by his nature.
"And so that's why you didn't fight back against Kacchan. With it being so dark out, you didn't want to lose control. That's very noble of you." Izuku said with a smile. A few moments of silence passed between them before Izuku looked to the boy. "I'm in the middle of a training session right now. I don't know if this is something you'd be interested in, but would you like to train with me?"
"What are you training for?"
"I want to be a Hero. Since my quirk isn't super combat focused, I need to be starting training on fighting now. I started learning capoeira about a year and a half ago. My teacher couldn't make it today, but he said I could practice here on my own. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you did as well."
"In that case… I shall join you. For I also wish to be a Hero. Your eagerness in your training makes me want to walk away from the dark and into the light." Tokoyami said, standing up from the floor.
The two sparred for about two hours, both learning to adjust to the other's quirk. Izuku had to be aware of Dark Shadow coming from any direction, whereas Tokoyami began to notice firsthand how unlucky Izuku could make him. Things that he hadn't messed up before: foot placements, body rotation, and even when he blinked. They were all subject to exploitation by the young fighter's quirk. It was, in a word, irritating, but Tokoyami found himself admiring just how subtle it all was. Of course, that didn't mean that he couldn't exploit it, or rather, that Dark Shadow couldn't exploit it. It seemed to be that while Izuku could affect Tokoyami with Luck quite easily, it was a bit more difficult to affect Dark Shadow. At that point in time, Izuku had only really focused his luck on normal humans or animals, not beings of darkness. This gave Tokoyami a leg up in certain situations, but with how versatile Izuku's training in various different martial arts was, Tokoyami was just slightly outmatched. The strength that Izuku had not only in his legs, but with his arms astounded Tokoyami. His punches packed a punch for sure, but the handstands that the boy would do to avoid attacks among all of his other evasion techniques were, in no uncertain terms, works of art in and of themselves. If there was one thing that Tokoyami was certain of, it was that this boy would become a great tool for Justice.
As Tokoyami picked himself up off the ground for the last time that night, he smiled. They had both taken each other down a good number of times, but that last bout was the closest that Tokoyami had gotten to taking him down that ended in him falling instead.
Izuku walked towards the raven headed boy, clutching his own forehead. "Well, it looks like I found something about my quirk. Focusing on things that aren't humans or animals and trying to affect their luck with it for long periods of time can cause headaches. Good to know."
"I'm sorry to have caused you trouble with that." Tokoyami bowed.
"Get up, man. Don't worry about it. I would have learned eventually, and it's better I did in training than on a mission. Plus, I made a new friend in the process. So I'd call it a win for today." Izuku smiled. "Oh, speaking of which, you said you wanted to be a Hero too. You want to be added to a group chat with some of my other friends? We're all trying to get into UA, so it would be awesome if we all got in together."
"I would appreciate that. I'm sure that we can get in. You're a very skilled fighter." Tokoyami got out his phone and gave Izuku his contact information. As the two walked out of the gym and headed their separate ways, Izuku added his sparring partner to the chat.
Fumikage Tokoyami has joined the chat.
Kyouka: Alright, who's this guy and who added him?
Broccoli: I added him. We just got done sparring for a bit. He said he wanted to be a Hero too. I figured why not, y'know?
Fumikage: I am humbled by your acceptance, Midoriya.
Mei: Oooh! A new Hero hopeful! Maybe I can test out some of my Babies on him!
Fumikage: … I am confused.
Hitoshi: Her 'babies' are her inventions.
Kyouka: Mei here wants to be a Support Class student. The rest of us are gonna be in the Hero Program!
Fumikage: I see, a noble desire. One last question: Why is Midoriya's name Broccoli Head?
Kyouka: Have you seen his hair?
Fumikage: I understand now.
Izuku smiled as he read everything. The group of them were certainly a weird one, but they seemed to fit together well in spite of all of that. With friends like these by his side, Izuku was confident in his future: his future as a student, as a man, and as a Hero.
And while his dedication was strong, that didn't mean that it wouldn't waver sometimes. The first of two key moments was approaching the young man, and his destiny was soon about to shift in ways he had never imagined.
