Boku no Hero Academia: Tales of Heroism

Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction story of Boku no Hero Academia. I own nothing of the series other than the stories I that write and the ideas that they originate from.

Tale 8.1:Ghost Rider Izuku

"Men are not created equal. That is the tragic truth of the world, especially in a world where superhuman abilities known as quirks exist."

A boy with green hair, green eyes and freckles on his youthful face named Midoriya Izuku was jogging towards Dagobah Municipal Beach Park. The beach used to be a popular beach until thrash started collecting onto the beach and people started to leave their own thrash there until it ultimately became a junk yard which people rarely visited. Ironically enough, it was the perfect place for Izuku to practice his quirk known as [Telekinetic Flame].

An unusual fusion and mutation of his parents' respective quirks, Izuku possessed the ability to transform his flesh and blood into a green flame which covered his black skeleton. As for what his quirk could do, Izuku's green flames allowed him to manipulate various types of non-living materials including metal, sand, clay, rock and cement. His flames could even make the said materials become hot enough to melt or cool to his current body temperature. Needless to say, greater mental concentration would be needed for more delicate manipulation with his quirk. Although his flames could not directly affect or harm living things, no one said that a manipulated piece of material could not be used to assist, restrain or harm someone. In addition, while in his transformed state, most attempts to harm his body would be useless unless his skeleton got damaged. However, maintaining that form for a prolonged period of time would put a strain on both his mind and body until he could no longer maintain his transformed state.

Much like his peers, Izuku developed his quirk at the age of four to five years old. However, nearly all of his peers were horrified by his quirk which caused him to become a black skeleton covered in green flames. Ever since Izuku manifested his quirk for the first time, he was deemed as a "villain" by his peers. The only exception was a blond boy with sharp red eyes named Bakugou Katsuki who, in his own crude and harsh way, encouraged Izuku to be a hero in spite of having a quirk which seemed to be more suitable for a villain. While Katsuki was undoubtedly prideful and violently competitive, he was also willing to consider Izuku as a rival hero instead of a villain. It was therefore ironic yet understandable that Izuku considered Katsuki as both a friend and a rival since both boys wanted to become heroes like All Might, the current No.1 Hero and Symbol of Peace.

As stated before, Izuku possessed the ability to transform his flesh and blood into a green flame which allowed him to manipulate various objects. Since Dagobah Municipal Beach Park was a junk yard, there were plenty of materials for him to use for "quirk-practice". Even better, few people visited the place so Izuku could practice his quirk in peace without accidentally scaring anyone. Izuku once invited Katsuki to join him for training at the beach but the blond boy rudely rejected his offer and basically told him that he would do his own training to become the next No.1 Hero. Used to Katsuki's rude attitude, Izuku took no offence and continued to train at the beach on his own.

Knowing that he would be training by himself, again, Izuku sighed, "It would be nice if I could have someone to train with me…" It was at that moment when he arrived at the beach and noticed a skeletal blond man with sunken blue eyes.

"In a world where quirks exists, there are two types of people. Heroes who use their quirks to uphold justice and protect the innocent and villains who abuse their quirks for selfish gain or to hurt others instead."

--Meanwhile…--

Bakugou Katsuki knew that he was awesome. After all, he possessed a powerful quirk known as [Explosion] and all of his peers, including Midoriya Izuku, believed that he could become a strong hero. However, Katsuki also knew that he was not the only one in his school to possess a powerful quirk as Izuku's quirk, while villainous in appearance, was powerful in its own way. Katsuki could still remember how Izuku somehow managed to craft a small metal statue of All Might with only scrap metal and the use of his quirk last year. The statue was very well made and clearly showed Izuku's skilful use of his quirk if nothing else. The green-haired boy even told Katsuki that he was going to try making his own "quirk-powered bike" as both a way to train his quirk and as a way to create his very own mode of transport to chase down speedy runaway villains. While both boys knew that quirks were not meant to be used in public, Katsuki had the feeling that Izuku would make that bike anyway. If nothing else, Izuku had a pretty good sense of artistic and practical design for vehicles, weapons and armours.

In a different universe, Katsuki despised Izuku who wanted to be a hero in spite of being essentially quirkless. In this universe, Katsuki had already accepted Izuku as a rival and refused to fall behind the boy who was working hard to become a great hero. Even though Katsuki understood why people would deem Izuku's quirk as villainous, he still found the idea of Izuku becoming a villain stupid. Izuku had always been a soft-hearted crybaby who still wanted to be a great hero like All Might after all. Also, Izuku had always cared about saving people and even Bakugou, who cared more about being an unbeatable hero, knew that villains do no save people. Left unsaid was that Katsuki actually found Izuku's transformation to be rather cool-looking.

Although both boys had their disagreements on what a hero should be, there were two things they could both agree on, "Sometimes, the only way to save someone is to defeat the villain and a hero cannot be called a winner if he fails to protect or save others."

Smirking at the memory of himself and Izuku coming to an agreement, Bakugou continued to practice his quirk so that he could create a bright explosion to stun his enemies. He was going to be the next No.1 Hero and he would be damned before letting any competitor take that title without giving it his all.

"However, this begs the question on who has the right or authority to decide that a person is a hero to be admired or a villain to be reviled. While personal opinions can be biased even in the best of times, society as a whole is anything but free of bias or prejudice."

--A few days later…--

Izuku, whose arms were basically green flames surrounding black bones, was busy converting what used to be an abandoned bicycle into a "quirk-powered bike" which resembled a small motorcycle frame that lacked engine parts. He was also giving is a skeleton-themed design for "aesthetic purposes". Izuku honestly never understood why most people, including his own mother who possessed the ability to attract small objects, Midoriya Inko, found his tendency to use skeletal designs morbid at best. At least Katsuki appreciated the skeletal designs and even requested some skull-themed accessories for his hero-suit.

Izuku was creating a skull-shaped headlight when a voice suddenly spoke, "I see that you're still working hard on your bike, Midoriya-shounen."

Looking up, Izuku recognised the skeletal blond man whom he had met a few days ago. Known as Yagi Toshinori, the blond man was a former hero who had to retire due to suffering a grievous injury from a villain's attack. Smiling at the grinning man, Izuku replied, "I'm almost done making my own bike, Yagi-san. If all goes well, I'll be able to use it together with my quirk to go as fast as Ingenium."

Knowing that the engine hero, Ingenium, was a fast-moving hero due to the engine-like organs in his arms, Toshinori rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression on his face and said, "That's awfully ambitious of you."

Izuku shrugged and replied, "Maybe, but if I can make a functional 'quirk-powered bike' which can be reshaped into different forms such as armour, weapons or even a hover pad, I will be able to easily carry a minimum amount of equipment with me wherever I go."

Nodding in approval, Toshinori added, "That is certainly a creative way of equipping yourself, my boy. That said…" Looking at the various skeleton-themed designs on the "quirk-bike", the blond man had to ask, "Do you honestly need to make your bike so morbid-looking?"

Izuku pouted as he thought to himself, "Not him too!"

--A while later…--

Izuku's bike was finally ready for testing and he was understandably eager to try it out. Toshinori, who was a retired hero, had enough authority to allow Izuku to try it out at the beach under the condition that it did not move faster than that of a typical bicycle for safety reasons. Not wanting to waste any more time, Izuku transformed into a black skeleton covered in green flames. He then got onto his bike which started to turn black as it was covered in his flames. Grinning in spite of having a flaming black skull for a head, Izuku used his quirk to power it and made it move at a slow pace.

Smiling at the excited boy, Toshinori hoped that he would be able to enter U.A. Highschool, the more prestigious hero high school in all of Japan and the same school which All Might himself had graduated from. His smile widened into a grin as Izuku got off his bike and transformed it into a set of armour and weapons which included a chain, a staff and even a pair of "chakrams". Watching the boy use his quirk to manipulate his chain as an extension of his will, Toshinori thought to himself, "His strange sense of aesthetics aside, that boy has potential."

"To be perfectly honest, I'm still not really sure what a real hero really is. Most of the time, I just do the very best I can, if not more, and hope that it would be enough to protect and save the innocent."

--The next day…--

Katsuki had already known that Izuku was making his own "quirk-powered bike" and was sure that the other boy would complete a prototype version of it at some point. Even so, he did not expect Izuku to slowly ride on a bicycle which looked like a small motorcycle frame that lacked engine parts and had a skeleton-themed design straight to his house. He also noticed that Izuku was blushing as various passers-by and even a hero known as Death Arms were staring at the bike and its rider.

Slapping his hand into his own face, Katsuki growled, "Bonehead, did you honestly have to bring your fucking 'quirk-bike' here?" As much as Katsuki respected Izuku's abilities as a potential rival hero, he honestly found Izuku's antics irritating most of the time.

Izuku scratched the back of his head sheepishly and said, "Sorry, Kacchan, but I got excited after testing it out yesterday and wanted to show it to you. I didn't expect to have so much trouble riding it without using my quirk."

Irritated by Izuku's ridiculous level of innocence in spite of having a quirk that transformed him into a black skeleton covered in green flames, Katsuki swore that Izuku was going to make him pop one blood vessel too many one day as he spoke, "Please tell me that it at least fucking works with your quirk."

Izuku's sheepish smile became a confident grin as he gave Katsuki a thumb's up and said, "Yes, it does!"

When Izuku showed what his new bike could do with the use of his own quirk, Katsuki had to begrudgingly agree with him that the bike was awesome yet practical when used together with his quirk. It also made Katsuki realise that he had to increase his own training as Izuku planned to train his body so that he could carry heavy equipment without getting encumbered even without using his quirk. Even if Katsuki was confident that his combat skills were superior, Izuku was no slouch when it came to finding unique ways to use his own quirk or even the quirks of others. Knowing Izuku, he would probably find a way to use his quirk to create a "quirk-powered car" which could transform into some sort of "quirk-powered armour" or even a small aircraft. Whether or not such equipment would be practical for use in heroics was another matter altogether.

Katsuki looked forward to the day he and Izuku could compete to find out who was the best.

--Later that day…--

Midoriya Inko sighed as she wondered how such a clever and sweet boy such as her son, Midoriya Izuku, could be so clueless about his skeleton-themed designs being ill-suited for heroics. Granted, Izuku's quirk could be part of the reason since he would transform into a black skeleton covered in green flames whenever he used it. The other reason would be that his childhood friend and rival, Bakugou Katsuki, actually liked his skeleton-themed designs because he found them "cool". Even so, Inko could not help but be exasperated at times such as the fact that Izuku had recently finished creating his very first "quirk-powered bike" and it looked as morbid-looking as she had feared. It certainly did not help that her neighbours had seen the bike as well and were already thinking that it looked more suitable for a villain to use.

Inko could only hope that Izuku would not face any unfair complications due to his quirk and unusual sense of aesthetics.

--A few months later…--

It was the day of the entrance exams into U.A. High School and Izuku gazed upon the gates into U.A. High School. Nervousness and excitement filled his heart as he was taking his first step into becoming a student in the high school that offered the best hero course in all of Japan. Taking a deep breath, Izuku walked through the gates with the hope that he would be able to become a student of the hero course and begin his journey as a future hero.

Although he would not bring his bike into the practical part of the exam, he knew his quirk would allow him to remake any suitable materials into a new bike if necessary. Besides, he had been training his body and quirk for the past few months until he somehow managed to actually clean out the entire beach the day before so he was pretty confident about his ability to lift heavy objects if nothing else. He even managed to collect more materials which he planned to use to upgrade his bike or even make a new bike from scratch.

As Izuku walked through the gates towards the building where the other examinees were gathering, he was being observed by Yagi Toshinori. In truth, Toshinori's skeletal appearance was the true form of the current No.1 Hero and Symbol of Peace, All Might. Just as he had told Izuku, he had suffered from a terrible injury which had caused his body to waste away. Even though Toshinori most certainly had not retired, as he was still working as a hero who upheld the peace, he could not maintain his muscular form as All Might for more than three hours a day. He was also looking for a successor and felt that Izuku was a worthy candidate even though he was presented with a promising third-year student known as Togata Mirio. Toshinori knew that he should pick a successor soon but he also had to be careful about choosing his successor correctly and decided that he would pick one after the sports festival at latest.

Smiling at Izuku who had just been "saved" from falling onto his face by a brown-haired girl with a gravity-cancelling quirk, Toshinori thought to himself, "The hero course in U.A. might get very interesting next year."

"This is a story of how I, along with my classmates, became some of the greatest heroes of our time. This is a story of heroism and being the best we can be to save and inspire others."

--End Chapter--

Author's Notes:

In canon, Izuku's mother has the ability to attract small objects towards herself while his father had the ability to breathe out fire. As for Ghost Rider canon, one of his abilities is to transform a normal motorcycle into a hell-bike. Izuku's quirk in this story is the result of putting the two ideas together. It should be noted that Izuku has no hell-based abilities including the dreaded 'Penance Stare' but he can create red-hot pieces of metal to attack or even bind his enemies.

- If anyone is curious about Izuku's appearance when he uses his quirk, he basically looks like Ghost Rider if he has a black skeleton and is covered in green flames. Clothes would vary depending on what Izuku is wearing though. His green flames and black skeleton are inspired by Blight from Batman Beyond.

- Izuku will be able to use his bike (and its updated/upgraded forms) as a part of his hero costume.

- Yes, Izuku is still a cinnamon roll in spite of his quirk and has a more friendly rivalry with Katsuki compared to the early part of canon. I also think that Katsuki would not be easily intimidated by a flaming skeleton and may even find it cool since he does consider "Lord Explosion Murder" as a viable hero name.

- Izuku's nickname is "bonehead" which is a reference to his quirk. As for Izuku's hero name, I'm considering the idea of "The Rider Hero, Ghost". Post your opinion in the comments section.

Until next time, go beyond, plus ultra!