It was only a few hours ago when they received the tragic news that Izuku did not have a quirk. He did not have the telekinetic abilities of his mother, nor the fire breathing ability of his father. He was that one in a million who were diagnosed quirkless, anomalies amongst the populace.

About a century ago, people started manifesting superpowers, abilities that allowed them to perform superhuman feats, they were called quirks. Over time, more and more people started manifesting their quirks, until the majority of the population had one. Having a quirk became a norm, and those that lacked it quickly became the odd balls of society.

With the appearance of superpowers, many were bound to abuse them for their own selfish gains. But where there were those that misuse their power, there were also those that would use their powers for the greater good. This birthed the new career of becoming a hero, and honestly it was everyone's dream to be one. To be freely able to use your power at will while saving others, garnering fame.

Izuku was one such person, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol, All Might, the number 1 hero in japan. He wanted to save lives and help those in need with a smile on his face. But reality is often cruel, and that was when Izuku learned that life wasn't fair. With his recent diagnosis, his dream was crushed.

Inko could only wrap her sobbing son, as she did her best to comfort him through this news. "I'm so sorry Izuku! I'm so sorry!" As she said those words, she could feel her own tears burst forth, she couldn't bring herself to lie and give her son false hope by saying he could still be a hero.

A few years passed, Izuku was now 8 years old and despite what everyone told him, he was still hellbent on being a hero. Even when his peers or teachers put him down for being quirkless, even if he was shunned and bullied, he never lost hope. He believed that as long as he had the determination and worked hard, he could be a hero one day.

As he was walking home from school, he saw his childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki, picking on some kid. Honestly, he did not blame Katsuki for turning out the way he did. He was blessed with an amazing quirk, and with the amount of praise heaped onto him, his ego was inflated. It also did not help that there was no one to humble him and guide him properly, with all those teachers giving in to his whims. If anything, his current attitude was partially a product by the inadequate teachings of society.

Moving forward, he got in between Katsuki and the boy that was being picked on. "Kacchan, leave the kid alone!"

Katsuki's eyes flashed in irritation at Izuku, "Deku, you eyesore, I already told you to stop calling me that. And who are you to tell me what to do, you can't even do anything YOU QUIRKLESS EXTRA! EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE RESOLVE, WITHOUT A QUIRK, YOU WILL NEVER BE A HERO!" Katsuki's voice was gradually rising as he continued yelling at Izuku.

Izuku continued to stand his ground, he knew that Katsuki was rough around the edges, he was brash and harsh with his words. But deep down, Katsuki was someone who had good in him, who wanted to become a hero that surpassed All Might one day. He was just a misguided kid, he was human after all, and the experiences he had in life had shaped him to be like this. Izuku was no different, he was the way he was because of what he experienced, had he gone through what Katsuki had, he would have likely turned out the same.

Katsuki, seeing Izuku's determined gaze, swung wide with his right, tiny explosions erupting on the palm of his hand. Izuku raised his arms in defence, feeling the sharp pricks of pain as Katsuki's hand collided into his forearm. This sent Izuku tumbling to the ground. Katsuki stood over him, looking down at Izuku, "You damned nerd, how can you preach about being a hero and protecting others when you can't even protect yourself?!"

Izuku's silence only infuriated Katsuki, causing him to throw another blow at him. But right before his hit connected, his hand connected with an invisible barrier before his blow was redirected straight into the ground, where the explosion kicked up a small dust cloud. When his gaze returned to Izuku, all Katsuki saw was a simple playing card, the 7 of diamonds, floating in front of him. The card then burned up, leaving no trace of it. "W-wha", Izuku also seemed shocked at what happened, and when he looked into his lap, there was a deck of playing cards sitting there, giving off a soft ethereal glow.

"Tchh, seems like you do have a quirk after all, even if it is useless. Stay out of my way if you know what's good for you Deku." With that Katsuki stormed off in frustration, leaving Izuku to sit there trying to process what happened.

He had a quirk, his quirk finally manifested, even if he did not know what it did yet. He could only jump up and yell in excitement as he realised he finally had a quirk. He could be a hero! With that Izuku rushed home to tell his mother the good news.

When his mother heard about his quirk, she too was elated, happy that her son finally manifested a quirk. It was heartbreaking for her to watch how fascinated her son was with quirks and heroes, yet did not have one. To celebrate the wonderful news, she cooked his favourite katsudon for him. It was only halfway through dinner when they heard a knock on the door.

When Inko went to open the door, she was surprised that her friend Mitsuki was there, along with her son Katsuki, who was noticeably sporting a red and swollen ear. "Hey Mitsuki, what brings you over to our place today?"

Mitsuki's response was to nudge Katsuki forward, where his head hung in shame. "I-I'm here to apologise to Izuku for the way i was acting, it wasn't right and I have no excuse for my actions."

As Inko nodded in acknowledgement, she made way for Katsuki to go in and find Izuku and apologise to him. Inko looked at her friend for an explanation, wanting to know what was up. Mitsuki just explained how Katsuki let all the praise get to his head and was bullying others, including Izuku, and she found out about this when Katsuki described to her how Izuku awakened his quirk. So she made him come over to apologise and do the right thing. Inko smiled at her friend in gratitude for her actions.

Meanwhile, Katsuki walked into the living room, seeing Izuku there eating his dinner. "I-Izuku, I-I'm sorry for the way I treated you. I have no excuse for my actions and I hope you can forgive me."

Izuku regarded him for a moment before cracking a smile, "Your mom made you apologise right?" Katsuki only looked on in shock as Izuku gave a chuckle.

"I forgive you Kacchan, friends?" Izuku asked as he held his hand out to Katsuki

"Friends!" Katsuki grasped Izuku's hand, showing that they were willing to put their past behind them and move forward.

About 7 years later, both Izuku and Katsuki were training together for the upcoming UA entrance exam which was only 10 months away. They decided to use a nearby beach for their training. It was covered in a whole lot of trash and no one really visited it anymore, but it made the perfect training ground for them. Since their quirks did not enhance them physically, they needed to build some basic strength, so moving and cleaning some of the junk off the beach made for a good workout. The trash filled terrain served as a good combat ground for them, where it provided a lot of uneven footings and obstacles whenever they sparred against each other.

Izuku had quite a lot of time these last seven years to figure out what his quirk did. It was a quirk that revolved around card decks. When his quirk is activated, he gets a random deck of cards, each deck having different abilities. The more he hones his ability the more decks of cards he unlocks. So in the beginning, he only had his standard playing cards. But since then, he had unlocked clue-do and unstable unicorns as well. Another thing about his quirk was that before he could summon a new deck of cards, he had to finish the previous deck.

It was a rather odd quirk to have, and it did take him a while to slowly discern which card did what, but he eventually got the hang of it. Now he was in a sparring match against Katsuki, they were both circling each other, waiting for the other to move. "What's wrong Deku? Scared?" The taunting from Katsuki was expected, and honestly he did not mind being called Deku, because to him it meant Dekiru, which meant "I can do it!" Katsuki knew this too which was why he continued to call him such, more of a nickname, not so much bullying.

"Me? Hardly. But with how reluctant you are to move in, you seem like the scared one." Izuku replied. He knew Katsuki was impatient and wasn't going to wait forever. And just as he expected, Katsuki rushed forward, using his explosions to propel him forward at a greater speed. Izuku immediately summoned his deck of cards, and realised he got the clue-do deck.

The deck is such that you draw about 3-6 cards whenever you begin. With a lightning fast shuffle, Izuku quickly mixed up the cards and drew straight from the top. "Ah it seems it gave me 5 cards this time, 3 weapons, 1 person and 1 place. I can work with this" Izuku thought. He immediately activated his first card, the lead pipe. Said weapon immediately appeared in his right hand. With all the strength he could muster, Izuku swung his weapon in a deadly arc towards Katsuki.

Katsuki wasn't able to stop his approach so he improvised, using his left hand to direct an explosion at the floor. This kicked up a small cloud of sand while also propelling him upwards, dodging Izuku's strike. With the forward momentum and the upwards force, Katsuki catapulted over Izuku and landed behind him. He planned on taking advantage that Izuku was temporarily blinded by the sand and he was not going to react fast enough to his next move. But Izuku, predicting where Katsuki will be, blindly swung his lead pipe backwards in an horizontal arc.

Katsuki, barely brought his guard up in time and used an explosion to redirect the trajectory of the lead pipe. But this momentary pause gave Izuku all the time he needed to jump away from Katsuki and create some distance. "Oioi running away now? I thought you said you weren't scared!" Katsuki tried mocking him, hoping to throw Izuku off his game.

Not waiting for Izuku's response, Katsuki moved forward once again, but this time, timing his explosions one after another from alternating hands, such that he moved forward in a zigzag fashion. Izuku merely activated his next card, which had a bathroom illustrated on it. The very next moment, they were both in some sort of domain, which in this case was a very grand and elegant looking bathroom. "I suspect Mustard murdered Katsuki in the bathroom with a wrench." At this point, Izuku was smiling as he activated another two cards.

In between the two of them, a yellow humanoid golem materialised, holding a wrench as a weapon. And following Izuku's claim, its glowing eyes locked onto Katsuki and began chasing him, intent on putting the boy down. Katsuki dodged the golem's strikes, using his explosions to give him more mobility, but space was limited in this bathroom, and it wasn't easy to move around.

"Don't forget about me Kacchan" Izuku appeared behind Katsuki, sandwiching Katsuki between him and the golem. Katsuki to his credit, reacted quickly, using one arm to block Izuku's blow while letting his other arm create a smokescreen against the golem, temporarily blinding it. He grabbed onto Izuku's leadpipe with his left hand, and used another explosion with the right to send him to the side, wrenching the lead pipe from Izuku's hand as he moved along. Katsuki threw the lead pipe straight at the yellow golem, hitting it straight on the head, stunning it, before dashing towards it.

With as much sweat as he could gather in his palms, he let loose a large explosion at the golem, blowing off the right side of its torso and face, while also severing its right arm, depriving it of its weapon. But before he could finish the golem off, he felt a rope tie around his torso, and before he knew it, he was being swung around and thrown straight into a bathtub of water

"So he finally used his last card, until this domain collapses and all the cards he activated have runned their course, another 'game' won't begin and he won't get a new hand. I need to crush him now!" These were the thoughts running through Katsuki's head as he emerged from the water in the bathtub. But his breath of air was short lived as the golem suddenly appeared over him and used his left arm to shove his head back underwater, smashing his head against the bottom of the bathtub.

Snarling in irritation, Katsuki went wild, letting loose his explosions and attacking the golem like a rabid dog. The explosions not only destroyed the golem, but caused a lot of the water to evaporate into steam, blocking both their visions. Izuku could only gather the rope in his hand and look into the steam trying to discern where Katsuki will approach from.

Out of nowhere, Katsuki popped out of the steam from Izuku's blindspot, throwing a huge right hook at Izuku's back, the explosion sending Izuku flying. But Katsuki wasn't done as he quickly grabbed Izuku's foot while he was mid air, and slammed him into the ground. Before he could throw another attack, Izuku quickly swung his legs and tripped Katsuki, sending him to the floor as well.

They proceeded to scuffle with each other all around the floor, until Izuku finally managed to tie Katsuki up with the rope. Even though he won, Izuku looked much worse off in comparison, due to the numerous explosions. "Good game, honestly if you weren't so desperate to crush when I didn't have cards, you would have noticed I still had my rope and rid me of my weapon first." Izuku explained as he untied Katsuki.

"Tchh it was a close match, don't act all arrogant just because you won this match, I'll crush you next time! Anyways, let's go eat that Katsudon, I'm hungry" Katsuki remarked after he was untied. Izuku merely gave a hum of agreement, he was hungry too and who could say no to Katsudon. With that Izuku collapsed the bathroom domain and deactivated his quirk, causing his deck of cards to disappear.

With that both the boys went off to eat a nice hot bowl of Katsudon while reviewing their training session.

Author's Note

I'll be the first to say, I do not know wtf I'm writing, like a sudden bout of inspiration hit me and yeah. So I apologise if the writing is crap and not to your taste, but yeah i'm just having fun with this. Anyways I decided to minus the slime villain encounter and the inheriting of OFA.