DISCLAIMER: I don't own My Hero Academia.

ISSUE 005! A day off

"Morning."

Midoriya greeted the only other inhabitant of his apartment room, a man in his fourties with gray hair. His eyes were so small and thin, one could argue that he didn't ever open his eyes and that he lives and sleeps at the same time. Currently he's smoking his second cigar. Midoriya tighten his nose in disgust.

"Will you quit it already, old man? At this rate my lungs will give in before long," he weakly protested whilst moving his legs to the direction of the kitchen. The one who was sitting much too comfortably on one of two dining chairs, Midoriya's guardian, only chuckled.

"Naaaah. Don't complain on how I smoke heavily, gotta start adapting from now, young man!" He remarked with a sneer, then stifled a yawn afterwards. His eyes lazily observed the fruit of his hard work. "You won't be anywhere without my proud creations, and my new job here in Tokyo."

Midoriya, unable to refute, has given up with a sigh. Welp, what's more important right now is breakfast. He opened the wooden hanging cabinet to find some... he truthfully forgotten what he has. Maybe eggs, with good old carrots and peppers to be sprinkled on top of the white rice. Instead, the treasure awaiting was one, single cup ramen. His stomach squirmed. This isn't how his day supposed to go.

"At least it's the original flavor..."

Dogi waited patiently for Midoriya to properly sit and enjoy his cup ramen. The man who's also quirkless hails from Yagishiri Island. He's the sole reason why Midoriya's even able to do day-to-day activities.

Being an expert on machinery, he utilizes a crap ton of junk he found while strolling across wasteyards scattered across the megalopolis, for as long as ten years, and crafted those into many, many astoundingly functional robotics. The moment he goes home to the isolated safe haven, an industrial revolution started. He helped advancing the quirkless' grade of living single-handedly.

It just so happens that one of his best fields is human anatomy. Along with that, he began creating parts of human body. Day to day work didn't wear him down. Not if one's life could be saved with his inventions. The most prominent example being the infant Midoriya, carried by his mother to his workplace. It was a very sad scene. Luckily, Dogi, despite his fame, is incredibly kind-hearted, if not a bit stingy.

He worked on an artificial arm made of metal, the best of the best, and offered it for free when knowing that Midoriya's mom is clearly unable to pay even the average price, and he's not some kind of asshole who demands money to a heartbroken mom. Sooner or later, he expects another amputee or two to show up in his front door. His job didn't end just yet.

After a certain incident in one certain gigantic city, the poor guy lost his other arm. When he heard the news, Dogi's so close to bawling his heart out. Another piece of artificial arm is made shortly after.

Yet after all that life-threatening experience one such child could bear so much, he still wanted to move in to Tokyo. To U.A.

"You suck." Despite the initial resentment of his choice of life, Dogi began to warm up and accepting him the way he is. Dogi knew better than anyone, despite the constant denial by the person himself, that he wanted to be a hero. Why he wanted to be a hero is a bit unclear, even 'till now, but Dogi has no doubt his heart is in the right place.

That's the primary cause he invited Midoriya Izuku to 'escape' from the islands after he got a job offer in the manufacturing sector. The company hiring him has a prestiguous history of producing most advanced support items to ever grace the heroics world. It helped so much people. People who reached roadblocks concerning their quirks. The long-term payment is more than enough for three full years of school fees plus one more year in Aldera.

That being said, each time Midoriya intends to learn how to fight better, how to dodge attacks perfectly, how to swing a sword, what workout can he use to get sturdier and more fit, Dogi's not the go-to guy.

As much as he doesn't want to, Midoriya had to bear with Dogi's awful daily life ethic. One big pack of cigars each week, one alcoholic soda every two days, never close the curtain at nighttime, many, many deodorants ran out that always fail to banish both of his armpits' deadly stench. Even Satan won't be able to hold his own against it.

The most relieving thing about Dogi is that he's not obese, and doesn't eat much. God, he didn't even want to imagine...

Noticing Midoriya becoming lost in thought, Dogi flicked his fingers to gain his attention. There's some things he's dying to know about.

"How's school for ya?" Dogi said. "I'm sorry I just asked now, but hey, Tokyo's schools isn't as bad as it sounds initially, right?"

"You think?" Midoriya snorted. "Why Aldera, of all places?" He absolutely didn't want to sound petty.

"I guess kids' stigma against quirkless people didn't change that much. That's a shame," Dogi concluded.

"Oh, that's not even the worst part," said Midoriya whlist slurping his noodles loudly, chewing it, swallowing it down, then continue speaking. "I came across one quirk that's so cool, yet people around us labeled it 'villainous' quirk," he adamantly stated.

"Hm? What's that quirk you're talking about."

"Brainwashing." Midoriya then speedily explains his research regarding it.

"..." Dogi can't help but cringe. Did the user named it that on purpose, or? "The blame is not on the people, in my opinion. Why the name is Brainwashing? Even to name it Mind Control is a little, tiniest bit better than that."

"Come again? Hm. It—it makes sense..." even Midoriya stumped on that bit. Next time he and Shinsō meet, he's gonna brainstorm different alternatives to call such quirk for his sake. It seems like Shinsō unconsciously treated his own self as a wanna-be villain, courtesy of those quirkist, those jerks on society. That would explain how he kept the name Brainwashing.

"Shit. This is even worse than I thought," cursed Midoriya in his mind. His fingers running through his curly hair, pressing his skull with such force. "There's... there's so much things I have yet to cover, something big that I miss." He absentmindedly stares to the now empty cup ramen, finding solace or some sort. "God damn, at times like this... Forget lack of a quirk, even someone with amazing quirk got misunderstood here!"

"Midoriya..." muttered Dogi. "You're overthinking things. Well, maybe it was for the best."

"Current government said, those quirkless in cities are guaranteed to have better chance of ideal life. I reckon that's not the entire truth... is it? What if they unknowingly suffered, their scream got lost in the midst of the sound of moving vehicles..."

An hour later...

"Can't believe I forgot. Tokyo is a bunch of cities in a single package, Musutafu here being one of them," observed Midoriya. He's still awestruck on how different city life is compared to his usual lifestyle in the island village. Currently he stands rigidly in a large sidewalk amongst many pedestrians coming back and forth, busy with their own purposes and destinations. He vaguely remembered what leads him to go out in the first place.

"Here. Spare key. Get out from this apartment, the longer the better. I have an appointment that lasts until near midnight, feel free to explore around."

"Not a bad idea. The weather's ideal. Thanks, old man."

"Oh, one more thing. Bring this with ya... You won't regret it. Apparently two guys had a debut near here, one of them is a gigantic bimbo. Ugh. It's sure to cause a ruckus, so be careful."

Midoriya felt a rush of excitement and pure anticipation washed over his very being. He's going to do quirk analysis again! And for the first time in his life, he's gonna directly meet the heroes! No such thing like stupid TV screen or a disturbed signal to ruin the experience. If things went well, he could ask for their autographs! THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE! I COULD PASS OU—

"Midoriya?"

"Ueh?" He jolted. Who the fuck dared to jumpscare him just now? Hikari? He turned to the direction of that someone, who turns out to be the lavender we all know and love. He stilled. "Uh... what a concidence, Shinsō!" The unintended animalistic glare made by Midoriya didn't help in diffusing the awkwardness between them. Midoriya could only stall time by asking more. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to... there's this cat cafe that's just opened up recently," he answered somewhat flusteredly. He quickly added. "It has free Wi-Fi, no way I would pass it up."

"Okay then. Do you came here with a friend?"

"... Nope." Shinsō wanted nothing more than to crawl in the hole and die. He steadily recovered, then diverted the attention by asking the same thing to Midoriya. "What are you doing here?"

"Hero analysis! Or quirk analysis. Whatever works."

"Um, okay," said Shinsō dumbly. "What's that?"

"You'll see," seemingly read his mind, Midoriya eagerly said that. "Do you walk on the same direction as me? Mine's that way," he pointed to the south, a quite long straight walk awaits. Shinsō nodded nonchalantly, in turn Midoriya grinned. "Then let's get moving." Without anymore interruptions, the two ran through the bustling society, heading to the rumored place Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods debuted, and for the other one to grasp a heavenly time with cute cats galore.

One man watches the scene with interest. Long, black, unkempt hair that reaches his shoulders. Very tired eyes watched his potential protégé with equally tired eyes, meeting up with another guy. A mysterious one, might he add. Aizawa Shōta hummed to himself. This is going to be very interesting.

TEAM REJECTS

Shinsō: "So, we've reached the point of Episode 1... or manga chapter 1. Finally."

Midoriya: "Yeah, finally. Though, again, it may take a long, loooooong time for us to reach the U.A.'s entrance exam. We still have a bunch of characters to introduce before both 1-A and 1-B are even established!"

Shinsō: "I hope there won't be bad blood between me and each of them... uh, what's this?"

Midoriya: "What's what?"

Shinsō: "I don't know. I just... I suddenly got an irritating feeling about... that I won't get along with a certain blonde?"

Dogi: "HAHAHAHAHAH! We'll see about that, dude!"

Midoriya: "Old man? How d'you get here? I never invited you to our skit here!"

Shinsō: "Who's thi—UEEEGGH. What the fuck? Where did this horrible smell come from? Holy fuck my nostrils hurt! Urrrggh!"