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"What are you doing Deku?" A young Katsuki Bakugou snarled at his green-haired adversary, who was standing in front of another injured kid. "You tryna play Hero again? I told you to knock it off!" He screamed, sparks crackling in his palms, making 'Deku' flinch.
"N-No Kacchan! Can't you see you've hurt him?" The little boy protested, albeit weakly.
"Yeah, Dumbass, that's the point!" Katsuki snorted, getting a few snickers from his lackeys standing behind him. "And what are you going to do, Weakling? You don't even have a Quirk, you're no match for a Quirk System user like me." The boy's threat of violence, even if only insinuated, left the verdette quivering like a leaf.
"But this is wrong! Don't you want to be a Hero?" It seems this only enraged Katsuki even further as he blasted him onto the ground with a weak explosion, leaving the boy with a scraped knee and making the other child flee.
"Well, Deku, how about I show you what a real Hero is?" The blonde spoke with venom, signalling for his two goons to grab hold of green-hairs arms. "A Hero is someone who always wins," Katsuki struck the helpless boy with an explosion-powered fist to the face, "Someone who never lets others look down on them," Emphasising the statement with another attack, this time a blast to the chest. "And most importantly, Heroes are the strongest type of being, never letting others even have the chance of one-upping them!" He shouted, launching his largest explosion yet at his victim.
After seeing the boy was too weak to fight back, Katsuki said the one thing that would shatter his last remaining hopes, "You can't become a Hero, Izuku, you aren't good enough. Give up." And with that, he walked away, leaving the child crying and bloody in the playground.
That was the day Izuku Midoriya had learnt,
Not all men were created equal.
Over 200 years ago, the first Dungeon spawned in Qing Qing, China. A Dungeon is a culmination of anti-energy caused by nearby negative emotions of all entities in the area. These Dungeons are manifested as sinkholes that connect to impossibly large spaces, that often hold Monsters and rare anti-crystals. Dungeons can scale from F-Rank to S-Rank, the monster's power and anti-crystal quality increase as you move up the Ranks.
Humanity had no true means of defence from the Dungeons as militaries had no way of detecting when a Dungeon would form and couldn't close the Dungeons once they had formed, meaning many cities were destroyed and millions, if not billions, of people perished in the coming years.
That was until an Australian man discovered how to defeat a Dungeon, and finally seal them for good. He discovered that you must clear every Monster inside the Dungeon and then kill the dungeon's Boss, which is the strongest Monster in the Dungeon by a mile and often has unique traits that make them different to the rest of the Monsters.
And after the first Dungeon was sealed a miracle happened.
People around the world began developing these special abilities called Quirks, a unique power that the user can use to commit great feats, like running one hundred metres in two seconds or lifting a bus with your bare hands, or even just turning into a fish. Anything was possible with these strange gifts, that can mix with others to create offspring with an even stronger Quirk.
But that wasn't just it, there were also Systems, a rare occurrence that a few Quirk users manifested alongside their Quirk. This System allowed them to improve their Quirk's raw power or technique at even faster rates than normal Quirk Users in a way not unlike a video game.
After this revelation, Humanity finally had a new way to fight back against the monsters, however, some people decided to use their powers to fulfil their greed and break the law to disrupt the population, these people were dubbed Villains. And due to this, a new profession was born, Heroism.
Heroes are the embodiment of Humanity's will to persevere and thrive, sealing Dungeons and arresting Villains, they become something of celebrities. As Heroes began to lower Monster rates across the globe, life slowly began to return to normal as society overcame the trauma of the Dungeons, however, the world was never truly the same.
Izuku Midoriya raced through the streets of Musutafu, weaving in and out of the crowd while rapidly scrawling his thoughts across the pages of his notebook. Suddenly the boy stopped in front of an above-ground railway line, mesmerised by the sight before him. A Villain with a Gigantification Quirk was attempting to flee the scene but was caught in the act by the Hero: Kamui Woods.
Binding the criminal using his wood-like appendages, his eyes flashed a bright brown colour as he activated his System Skill, "Preemptive Binding: Lacquered Chain Pris-". The man was cut off as a giant figure leapt in front of him, drop-kicking the Villain and knocking him out.
"CANYON CANNON!" The woman bellowed, standing up and introducing herself, "I'm the Mineyama Hero: Mt. Lady! You're my debut Villain, so feel honoured big guy." The woman teased the Villain as she secured him and handed him off to the police, getting cheers from the crowd. Izuku only stayed glued to his notebook while mumbling to himself about her Hero potential, catching the attention of a few crowd members, even Mt. Lady herself.
"You planning on becoming a Hero, Kid?" A middle-aged man with star-like protrusions growing from the side of his head asked the boy, almost catching him off guard.
"O-Oh, Y-Yeah it's been my d-dream since I w-was a k-kid," Izuku replied with a small but bright smile.
"Pfft, HAHAHAHAHAHA, Midoriya a Hero! What a Joke!" The class roared with laughter at the poor boy, who sat with his head down facing his desk, wishing the ground would just swallow him up. The boy's mature Teacher had just revealed to the entire class that he was aiming to join the UA Hero Course, which they clearly found very amusing, well, everyone except Bakugou. The boy just sat menacingly at his desk, his hands popping with rage as he was surprisingly more silent than usual.
"DEKU!" Katsuki roared as he appeared in front of the greenette's desk, slamming an explosion down onto the desk and shattering it into a heap of metal and splinters. Izuku flew back off of his chair and onto the floor and made a mad scramble to the back of the class, away from the raging nuclear bomb that was currently looming over him, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!".
"N-Nothing Kacchan! I-I'm n-not trying t-to c-compete with you! I-It's j-just been m-my dream s-since I-I was l-litt-" Another explosion next to the boy's ear sent him reeling, shutting him up immediately.
"I don't care, you won't make it! Withdraw now!" The blonde demanded, as the Teacher suddenly remembered he was meant to keep his students safe.
"N-Now, now, class. Remember using your Quirk in public is prohibited!" The Teacher very weakly proclaimed, with Katsuki not stopping until he had decided that Izuku was terrified enough first.
"Now, Midoriya go retrieve yourself another desk and we will move on with the lesson." The man ordered as Izuku followed the familiar route to retrieve yet another desk.
Hearing the bell ring out through the room, Izuku began to pack his things as quickly as possible to try and escape Bakugous wrath, but unfortunately not fast enough. The blonde swiped a notebook from Izuku's new desk right as it was about to get packed away, making Izuku freeze as his lifelong bully began skimming through his Hero notebook. After finishing the speed-read, Katsuki unceremoniously vaporized the book with a single blast, clearly putting no effort into the blast.
Izuku could only watch in horror as eighteen months five weeks and three days of notes were destroyed just like that. It was as if in slow motion as the ash weightlessly drifted to the floor, all the boy could think about was all the notes of Monsters and Heroes and anything Dungeons were so easily taken from him. "If you want to be a hero so bad, why don't you go take a swan dive off the roof and pray for some power in your next life.".
If Izuku hadn't been destroyed before, he sure was now. Katsuki's cold delivery of the statement stayed with Izuku, as he left the classroom, as he walked home, as he stopped and thought to himself 'What if I did'. But not when the ground had done what he had wished for so many times before and swallowed him up.
Everything was a blur for Izuku as he fell further and further into the hole, at some point wondering if it would even end. 'Is this a dream? What the hell is even happening right now?' Izuku had a horrible reminder that he, in fact, was not dreaming as he hit the cold, wet, stone floor where he finally stopped falling and a sickening snap filled his ears.
A red-hot pain travelled up the boy's body as he looked down to check his legs, and... Yup, his legs were bent the wrong way. The boy let out a pained cry as the agony did not stop after just a few seconds, not even noticing the jelly-like creature he was sharing the cave with. After a few minutes, the pain finally subsided enough for him to absorb his surroundings.
He was in a small dingy cave only about five metres in diameter and in a circular formation, although it was dark in the cave, he could just barely make out the form of a gelatinous blob in the corner of the room wriggling slowly closer to him with every passing minute. 'Wait, that's a slime! Hang on, falling into the floor, dark dingy cave, a slime: I'm in a Dungeon! But where are the other Monsters? This must be an F-Rank, but I've never seen one so small!' Izuku's inner ramblings were cut off by the sound of the slime growling.
'Shit, I forgot, I'm still with that slime. From what I can see it is a green slime, meaning it's very acidic being able to burn through bone in a matter of seconds, but having very weak cores' Looking around for something, anything, Izuku came to a dire realisation, he had nothing. Nothing in his school bag could withstand the acid, and nothing around him could be used as a weapon. He could use his hand, but he would rather not only have one working limb after this, so the only option was... the bones sticking out of his leg.
If this was his only option then he needed to go all out! The Acidous Viscosous can digest bone in around four and a half seconds, and the demonstration bone used a Deer Femora in the experiment which dissolved in 5.43 seconds, if I use my Tibia then should have enough time to break the core since the Tibia and Femur are so similar.
Checking to see if the beast had run, Izuku saw that it was rapidly approaching safe batting distance, biting down on his sleeve, the boy pulled the Tibia from his leg with pain coursing through his nervous system. Finally, the bone was free and he wasted no time in attacking the monster, rearing back his arm, Izuku swing down towards the slime the bone entering it with a disgusting schlop sound. Izuku began the mental countdown as the bone drifted through the creature, unfortunately, the boy had undershot his target as the bone barely skimmed by and completely dissolved.
After repeating the painful Tibia extraction process, Izuku once again swung for the core, breaching the surface.
One...
The bone is off course for the core, which Ixuku corrects as best he can.
Two...
The bone has reached the halfway point of its journey, with Izuku pumping in as much strength as possible to speed up the process.
Three...
The bone will soon reach the core but time is running out as the bone has almost completely dissolved.
Four...
The bone successfully reaches the core making it burst into a bright blue light that illuminates the cavern's walls. Izuku successfully killed the creature but suddenly fell onto his back from a mixture of exhaustion and blood loss. 'I guess I'm gonna die here then. Since I defeated all of the Monsters the Dungeon will close and I'll be trapped here. At least I got to clear a Dungeon before I died' Izuku chuckled to himself, a bit of blood leaking from his mouth. Suddenly something strange appeared in front of the boy's face.
[Acheivement Unlocked]
[Dungeon Master]
[Creating a Dungeon using only your own negative emotions is quite the feat, be proud of yourself that you have such a strong will and seek professional help immediately.]
[Reward - Access to Anti-Energy]
[Acheivement Unlocked]
[The Strongest Weakling]
[You have managed to clear a Dungeon, an impressive feat by itself, but have also done so without any form of Meta Ability! Give yourself a big pat on the back and please try to take care of yourself more.]
[Reward - Access to a System]
"What the hell is this?" Izuku asked aloud, not having the energy to hold back his thoughts. The transparent blue screen didn't seem to react to his question, however, it just kept on ranting.
[System Start-Up Sequence]
[User: Izuku Midoriya]
[User State: Critically Injured]
[Body Reconstruction: Active]
A new red-hot pain shot through Izuku's body, like magma entering his veins. He watched as his legs bent back into place and felt both of his tibias grow back, which was equally as painful. This pain made the feeling from the original injury seem like a mere scratch.
[Body Reconstruction: Complete!]
[Searching for Meta-Gene]
[No Meta-Gene Detected]
[Calculating solution...]
[Solution Found!]
[Attaching System to Body]
[Progress... 1%]
Another wave of even worse pain shot up the boy's body, enough for him to only loosely hang onto consciousness. As he was slowly losing his grasp, the cave above him fell in with light pouring through the new hole. A large being with large bunny-like horns and a piercing blue gaze, "Guess I'm going to hell." the boy said as he gazed towards the demon that was rapidly coming towards him. Letting his consciousness slip from his grip, Izuku allowed the inky black void to take him.
Surprisingly, Izuku did wake up, to a loud beeping and a strong sterilized smell flowing up his nose. Cracking his eyes open slightly only to be overwhelmed by the bright reds and blues of, what he assumed was the TV, "Agh!" he cried, clamping his eyes shut once more. Immediately he had a nurse at his side checking his vitals and assaulting him with a barrage of questions that his fried brain couldn't handle.
"Are you alright, Mr Midoriya? Do you need any water? If you have any requirements then I will make sure to cater to you as much as I can, you were in a pretty bad state when the Heroes found you in that Dungeon." This nurse just didn't stop! Izuku tried another peek at the world around him, only to be brutally blinded again.
"C-Could you please turn off the TV, it's h-hurting my eyes." Izuku grabbed the water that was at his side and downed it as if he had been in a desert for his whole life.
"O-Of course! Well, actually I can't do that," The nurse nervously spoke as Izuku could hear her feet clack across the room, "But I can get you some sunglasses.
"Why can't you turn off the TV?" Izuku asked undeterred as the nurse passed him his sunglasses.
Putting on the glasses Izuku's eyes widened as he looked at the man in front of him, "Because there is no TV. " The No.1 Hero: All Might spoke, his voice even more booming than in the interviews Izuku had watched.
Izuku scurried back in his bed, this was the All Might, the Symbol of Peace that closed the USA's largest S-Rank Dungeon!, in his hospital room! "A-All M-Might!" The boy's fanboy nature seemed to overpower the immense pain he was feeling in every single muscle as he looked around for his notebook only for his memory to slap him with the knowledge that Katsuki had atomized it.
"Well then, Mr Midoriya, I think we should get to the point of our visit." A man with a beige jacket and black hair said stepping forward and placing a briefcase on the table next to him "I am Detective Tsukauchi, and I would like to ask you why you jumped into that Dungeon without reporting it to the police.".
"H-Huh? I-I didn't j-jump into the D-Dungeon! I just s-started f-falling, a-and then..." Izuku's mind was foggy when he tried to remember hitting the floor, possibly a coping method from his brain.
"And then what?" All Might's voice snapped Izuku from his trance.
"O-Oh! Wel t-then I k-killed the A-Acid Slime in t-then cave using m-my t-tibia-" Izuku was then cut off by the Detective.
"Impossible, your legs were intact when we found you." The man snapped, causing Izuku to flinch.
"W-What?! But I-I b-broke m-my l-legs!" Izuku tried to defend himself, eyes welling up as his brain finally remembered the pain of doing so.
Seeing that the boy was distressed, the young nurse decided to speak up, "I-If I may speak sir, but Mr Midoriya's files say he was born without a Quirk System, however, he has a window open." The nurse gestured to the forest green hologram-like screen hovering next to the boy. "If he manifested his Quirk System in the Dungeon, it would explain why his injuries have been healed as System startups often heal the user fully before taking place." The nurse then stepped back to signify she was finished speaking.
"Well, thank you, Miss, anyway let's get on with the test." Tsukauchi opened the briefcase to reveal a computer-like screen with two different gauges. "Are you familiar with how Quirks and Systems are comprised, Mr Midoriya?" The Detective asked the boy.
"Y-Yes, they are m-made from t-the positive-particles p-produced b-by the Meta-Gene." The boy had researched Dungeons and Heroes and their powers and why enough times to know the answers from memory.
"Well, the machine I have here will allow us to get a better reading of the power of your Quirk and System by measuring the positive and negative particles that your body produces," Tsukauchi said as he handed Izuku a cylindrical object, "Tightly squeeze this until you hear a beep come from the machine, ok?". Doing as he was told, Izuku clenched down as hard as he could onto the thing until he heard a slight beep come from the machine and an audible gasp from Detective Tsakauchi.
"How are you alive, kid?" All Might said with a pale face, his iconic smile vanishing.
"What d-do you mean?" The greenette's voice trembled as the adults all seemed so afraid.
"You produce zero positive protons per second, but you produce five negative particles per minute." Now Izuku understood the situation, although it didn't sound like much, even just one-fifth of that could kill a fully grown man if it got into his bloodstream for more than a day, and Izuku was producing that much without any visible side effects.
"You should stay in the hospital for a few more days so we can make sure you are okay." The nurse said as she quickly rushed to inform the doctor taking care of Izuku.
"Mr Midoriya, what do you want to be when you grow up?" All Might asked, catching the boy off guard with the sudden and quite random question.
"I want to become a Hero," Izuku spoke with no tremor, he was sure of his wish and wouldn't allow himself to be stopped.
"Good, I will be watching you with a keen eye." All Might said with a small grin, far more genuine than his normal smile.
"Come on All Might, they need you at an A-Rank in Hosu," Tsukauchi said as the two left the room, All Might giving the boy a small wave as he left.
Just as Izuku was about to look through his new System, a familiar face came crashing through the door, wailing as she gave him a spine-crushing hug. "Izuku my baby! I thought you had died!" Inko wailed as the boy tried his hardest to not have his arms broken by his mother.
"Sorry for worrying you, Mom." He managed to squeak out, his mother was still in her nurse uniform, meaning he was in the hospital she worked at, great.
"I-Izuku never d-do that again!" She once again started bawling next to Izuku, who was trying to calm her down, when the nurse came back in, saw the bawling woman and just walked back out. It was going to be a long few days.
After a few days in the hospital and tons of tests, Izuku was finally discharged on the notice that he is immune to negative particles and just needs to have a check-up once per week to check for any changes. Izuku sat down on his bed and looked towards the green screen hovering next to him.
[Progress... 99%]
Seeing that his System was almost finished, Izuku decided to start working on his new Hero Analysis for the Future notebook. Turning on his computer, the greenette pulled up the Hero webpage and began speedily drawing diagrams, listing super moves, theorizing possible uses and overall deconstructing every Hero, Monster, and Villain that had the misfortune of piquing his interest.
After five hours of Hero analysis, Izuku heard a high-pitched ding noise ring out, but there was nothing around him that he could trace the noise to. Suddenly a new screen popped up in front of the boy, spooking him and making him fall off his chair, following him to the floor.
[Say: "System"]
Seeing no reason not to follow the screen's orders, Izuku cleared his throat, "System,".
[Welcome to the Tutorial for your System!]
[User: Izuku Midoriya]
[Race: Human] [Level: 1] [50/50 Anti-Particles]
[Title: None]
[Quirk: Negative (Replaced with Anti-Particles)]
[Unique Trait: Anti-Particle Creation]
[Stats]
[Strength: 3]
[Agility: 4]
[Dexterity: 5]
[Endurance: 3]
[Wisdom: 8]
[Intelligence: 9]
[Charisma: 2]
[Luck: 3]
[Skill Points: 0]
[Skills]
[Analysis: Level 1 - 7%: Active/Passive]
[Your constant analysis of everything Dungeons has given you the skill to analyse everything on the go. Allows you to view the name of something and its level, it also increases your overall analysis speed and accuracy.]
[+1Wis +1Int per level]
[Japanese Language: Level 32 - 32%: Passive]
[Overall skill in speaking, writing, reading, and interpreting the Japanese language]
[+1Wis +1Int per level]
[Pain Tolerance: Level 3 - 46%: Passive]
[Due to experiencing extreme pain you have manifested the skill to ignore your pain. You experience 3% less pain.]
[+1Endurance per level]
"Wow!" The boy gawked at the sheer amount of information displayed in front of him. "Why are my physical stats so low?! I'm not that out of shape, am I?" Izuku looked down and stared at his scrawny body and noodle arms. "I need to get some workout equipment ASAP," The appearance of his system had caused the small embers of his dream to be a hero to turn into a new raging inferno that couldn't be extinguished.
"Izuku! What was that noise?!" Inko shouted up the stairs, making Izuku freeze. He had only just gotten out of the hospital and his overprotective mother was pretty on edge about the whole situation.
"Nothing, Mom. I just fell off my chair." Izuku said calming his mother... hopefully. God forbid when he brings up buying weights for his training.
The UA exam was in three months and Izuku Midoriya was making sure he entered the Hero Course, at any cost.
[New Quest]
[Become the Strongest]
[You have vowed to become the strongest you can at any cost,]
[You will be held to your word]
[You will be given a task every day which will become more demanding every Sunday]
[Rewards - Daily]
[+1Str]
[+1Agi]
[+1Dex]
[+1End]
[+1 Random Box]
[Have fun tomorrow]
[Failure will be punished]
Well that was ominous, it's probably fine. Izuku looked at his stats once more being filled with determination. He would become a Hero, he was going to show all of them he would break the system.
Thats it for chapter one, I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I have decided to try to make a fic where the greater world of MHA is different to the one of Cannon, as you will see in future chapters. I decided to shorten Izuku's preparation time so he doesn't become too OP, I hope you don't mind! This fic was very much so inspired by Solo Leveling, but a lot of the system is original work. Many of the details about UA and their teaching methods and lessons will definitely be different from the OG. Next chapter will be focused on Izuku training with his system. With that said, see you next chapter!