Five years ago...

A ten year old Izuku was flat on his back, panting heavily with exhaustion in an alleyway. Bruises and bumps of different colors and sizes decorated his form and face. Now why would he be in such a position? Unlike canon, the Midoriya Izuku here had a quirk, albeit a weak one. While he wasn't isolated or hated, he wasn't also incredibly loved. His classmates saw him as nosy busybody who was nothing short of delusional about being a hero.

That was what led up to this point. He'd tried (yet again) to intervene when he noticed some older kids picking on one of his classmates after school. He was successful though, just not in the way he wanted. The bullies had left the classmate alone but it was in favor of beating him for getting in their way. Outnumbered and outgunned, it wasn't hard to put together the reason for his current state.

His everything hurt. The bullies had been merciless. The boy getting bullied, Tatsuma, had immediately ran off the moment he noticed the attention was off of him. Not that young Izuku minded though. He'd accomplished what he sought out to do. Tatsuma was saved and that was what truly mattered.

He'd never admit to himself how much his soul yearned for a simple 'thank you' and appreciation for what he'd done for the boy, even if nobody had asked him to.

It wasn't until Izuku tried to get that he realized just how much pain he was in. He could barely lift his arms and even that action alone made his eyes go blurry with tears. They streaked down the sides of his face as he was now fully grasping his situation. His body wasn't responding to him, he couldn't go home and even if he could, he'd have his mother worry, fret and overall try to make him give up on his dreams.

Should he really worry his mother like that? She didn't deserve that. Maybe…maybe it was time to give up? Right now Izuku just wanted to close his eyes…

Heavy footsteps that we're getting closer had him turning to his head slightly to where it came from. Darkness encroached his vision as he stared at the black boots of someone who'd stopped to look at his beaten form.

"They sure did a number on ya didn't they, kid?"

Izuku was almost fully unconscious now, but not before feeling being gently picked up.

Then he passed out.

Present…

"Urgh… I am never doing that again."

A groan left Midoriya Izuku's mouth as he slowly roused himself into consciousness. His body was like a limp noodle. His limbs feeling annoyingly heavy. He was used to this though, easily recognizing the symptoms of overusing his quirk. Why did he do that again?

Oh yeah, the 0-pointer. He thought, recalling the last moments before he passed out.

He blinked multiple times when he saw the unfamiliar white ceiling. Where am I?

"Oh good, you're awake. I was wondering when you'd get up."

He started at the sound of the voice and quickly sat up. In front of him was a very old woman that was incredibly short height. Fitted on her head was a pink headgear with a purple visor over her eyes. Her grey hair was neatly tied into a bun and kept in place with a syringe shaped hair pin.

She wore a typical doctor's jacket over her hero costume with yellow gloves and pink shoes. A syringe shaped cane was in her hand.

UA's resident healer, Shuzenji Chiyo AKA Recovery Girl.

Izuku sat up and just blinked dumbly as he watched the Youthful Heroin walk up to what he now realized was the bed he'd been passed out on.

"Here child, have some gummies, it should bring back some of your energy." Outstretched in her open palm were three colored gummy bears.

He nodded in understanding before picking up the candy from her hand into his mouth and chewed. The effect was almost instant; a portion of his energy reserves coming back to him.

It wasn't close to half but it was enough for the slight fog in Izuku's head to clear up. A satisfied expression was now on Recovery Girl's face, obviously expecting the effect.

"Now that that's settled… I'm sure you want to know what happened while you were passed out, dearie."

It wasn't phrased as a question but Izuku still nodded affirmative nonetheless.

Recovery Girl then recounted the aftermath of what happened after he'd destroyed the 0-pointer. Apparently, he'd passed out from extreme stamina drain and quirk exhaustion. Recovery Girl couldn't heal him partly because there were no physical injuries to heal and partly because of the nature of her quirk and how healing him would have caused more problems.

He'd been asleep in her office for over two hours. The exam had ended and most people had gone home. Though it still felt like he was missing something…

"W-wait! Where's my sword?!" He asked slightly panicking when he realized what felt wrong. "Oh…"

Beside his bed was an already sheathed and wrapped Kaiketsu. He'd picked it up before he knew what he was doing, unwrapping and inspecting the entire scabbard's form for any oddities. Obviously there were none but you could never be too sure.

Too engrossed in inspecting his weapon, the greenette didn't notice Shuzenji wearily eyeing the blade in his hands, "That's quite the blade you have there…where did you get that from?" She asked.

Izuku blinked (he felt like he'd been doing that a lot today) at the sudden question. There was an unrecognizable tone with how she asked it… suspicion? What would she be suspicious of? Still, he couldn't find a real reason not to answer.

"It was a gift, from my mentor." He said.

"I see…"

He wanted to ask why she seemed interested in the origins of Kaiketsu but before he could, the doctor was already leaving his side, "You'll feel slightly sluggish for the next few days, take it easy for that period, try not exert yourself. Other than that, there should be no problems with your health."

The obvious change of subject didn't go unnoticed but Izuku decided not to dwell on it. He nodded and got off the bed to stand. His knees felt slightly shaky but was fine nonetheless. He took a deep bow in front of Recovery Girl. "Thank you for taking care of me, ma'am."

A small smile made its way to Chiyo's face, "No problem, dearie. It was my pleasure." Her eyes widened in realization as she walked to the door, "I almost forgot, you have a visitor."

That caused him to tilt his head slightly in confusion. Who came to visit him?

She opened it slightly to let her head peek outside, "You can come in now, dear." Referring to whoever must have been waiting outside.

The girl that stepped into the room had an air of nervousness about her was fidgeting a lot. Her brown shoulder-length hair was bobbed and curved inwardly at the end with two longer clumps of the same shape on either sides of her round face. Two pink blushes were permanently on both her cheeks.

She was shorter than Izuku. She wore a dark jacket with what he assumed was her middle school's black uniform skirt and tights of the same color underneath. A pink plaid scarf was wrapped around her neck.

"Ummm…I-uh…Thank you for saving me!" she said and took a deep bow.

Izuku finally recognized her as the girl trapped girl from the test site. "It was no problem. You don't have to bow miss…," he replied, letting an easy smile fall on his face, his own way of trying to reduce her nervousness.

It seemed to help when she also smiled, "Uraraka Ochako," the now identified Uraraka replied, "It's nice to meet you."

"Midoriya Izuku, its nice to meet you too. I hope you didn't get too hurt from the rubble, you looked pretty bad back there."

She seemed a bit embarrassed by the statement if her slightly redder cheeks and nervous grin were any indicators, "I'm fine now, Recovery Girl fixed me up good as new!" she put up her arm in a mock flex for emphasis.

He chuckled in amusement, "That's good to hear, though I wasn't really expecting you to wait for me."

"Eh?! Of course I would, you saved my life, the best thing to do would be to thank you!" She replied.

"Ok, that's enough, lovebirds," Recovery Girl cut in while waving her cane about, ignoring how Uraraka sputtered, "The exams are already finished so the both of you can leave now. You'll get your results in-mail in about a week."

In a surprising show of strength, the pro-heroine shoved the two of them out of her office.

As the Izuku was about to head out the door after Uraraka, he paused and turned back to the school who seemed to be sorting some files on her desk, "Recovery girl?"

"Yes, dearie?"

"Thank you again for taking care of me." He was out the door before she could reply.

Before long, Midoriya and Uraraka were walking out of the school and into the streets.

"So…" Uraraka broke the silence, "what's your quirk, Midoriya-kun? It looked pretty cool! You were all like woosh and the 0-pointer was all shink and then BOOM!"

He let out a small laugh at Uraraka's emphasis on sound effects before giving her a basic rundown on Upgrade and how it worked (obviously there was more to its details but that would be too long).

"Wow, that's really strong! All I can do is make things float." Her shoulder drooped a bit in self-deprecation.

Izuku recognized that look. It was one he was all too familiar. How could he not when he'd felt the same for six years of his life?

"A quirk is only as strong as its user, Uraraka-san," Izuku repeated something he'd been taught, "There was a time in my life when I couldn't even upgrade a pencil without almost passing out from exhaustion! Besides, from what I've seen, your quirk seems extremely useful for non-lethal disablement and disaster rescue."

His words seemed to have the right effect on her when she brightened a bit and made a face of contemplation. "…I guess you're right Midoriya-kun, it just doesn't feel that way sometimes."

"I know what you mean." A look of understanding was now on his face, "but that's why we're training to be heroes, to improve on ourselves before we go out to the world and help people."

"That's… actually very smart. Thank you, Midoriya-kun." Her face morphed into a bright grin that also had him grinning.

"So where did you learn to use a sword? I didn't think they still taught that anymore." She moved on to lighter topics.

She was correct. With the rise of quirks? Normal weaponry like guns were usually seen as redundant. Swords even more so. It was one of the reasons the police were often ridiculed since they were only allowed to use their quirks in strict and specific situations (not to mention rare).

His gaze went to the wrapped sword in hand. "My mentor taught me everything I know and even helped me train my quirk. I owe a lot to that crazy geezer."

And wasn't THAT the truth. He honestly didn't know where he would've been if it weren't for the old man. Probably still getting beat up by bullies.

Ochako put a finger on her cheek to give a thoughtful look and he just noticed she had finger pads on each digit like a cat, "He sounds kinda' nice, do you think he could help me?"

THAT made him stare wide-eyed at her innocent, unknowing expression, "Trust me, Uraraka-san, you don't want that."

Ochako blinked owlishly at his response but didn't speak on it. She probably didn't want to know.

It wasn't long before they parted ways at the bus station. Uraraka apparently lived not too far from UA whilst he lived near the Shizuoka prefecture. He watched as Uraraka got on the transport vehicle before she turned around and gave a big grin and wave.

"It was nice meeting you Midoriya-kun." She said.

"It was nice meeting you too, Uraraka-san," he replied, "I'll see you in UA."

And the bus was off. He watched as it got smaller and smaller as it rode into the distance. He couldn't help the smile on his face.

It'd been a good day.

Shuzenji Chiyo stared at the door that Midoriya Izuku had just gone through. Her mind going back to the sword he used in the exams. She hadn't been mistaken, she recognized those engravings the moment she laid her eyes on it. Shuzenji let out a long deep sigh as she got comfortable on her office chair, her aged eyes staring into nothing.

"It's good to know you're still kicking…Ghost."

AN: Sorry if the chapter felt too short but I was itching to put something out, especially since I don't have an update schedule AND the fact that prepping for college is exhausting.

-Uraraka has been introduced. I hope I got her character type with the rather short dialog. She won't be a love interest if that's what any of you are thinking ( I suck at romance).

-Recovery Girl seems to be privy of some knowledge about Midoriya's mentor. Next chapter (hopefully), we'll find out just who it is.

-