AN: Welcome to the third chapter of To Build a Hero. First, thanks to all who read and commented, I really appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you are enjoying the story. NOW COMMENT TIME WOOOOOO!

sardarhassan503: I mean, he made front page of the news, so fame or at the very least rumors will be a thing. Regarding Cross-Z, Grease, and Rogue. I have plans.

starwing1995: That honestly sounds fun to do! However, I would need to re-watch a lot of that and probably go through Drive again just to be safe. So, it most likely won't be the next one sorry, but I do like the idea and may try to flesh it out later.

ahein9937: I can confirm that I know when rabbit-tank will happen. I have no clue what chapter that will be. BUT IT IS IN MY TIMELINE. Glad you're enjoying the fic.

Blazingen1: Just responded to you in depth on A03, so I'll summarize it here as to not take up too much space. Ahem:

I can see what you're saying with Melissa, and she will be getting more development. I like your nanotech ideas and I believe I briefly mentioned it when talking about the bike, so nanotech is on the table. I am sticking to the canonical full bottles, but they will not be obtained in canonical (Kamen Rider: Build) order, and I plan to make use of the lesser used/not used at all best matches and bottles. Regarding the driver itself: I brought up hazard levels in the first (not prologue) chapter and said that those with quirks experience interference from the driver and suffer from significantly lower hazard levels compared to quirkless, so to answer you the build driver is designed to work only for quirkless people like Izuku and Melissa. However, regarding Aoyama and All Might: It will not work as the quirks in their bodies at the moment are, at least in this fic not sure about canon, providing them with quirk cells, so while they are genetically quirkless the quirk cells themselves are preventing them from safely using the driver.

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Chapter 3: To Build A Friendship

It had been one week since Izuku made front page news and he hadn't stopped there. Over the week he had been back in Japan he had stopped an additional two robberies, rescued a man out of a car crash, and gotten a dog out of a tree. All the while Izuku was blissfully unaware of the growing following that was the Kamen Rider's fanbase. People across several forums tried to guess who they were, what their quirk was, how they pulled a motorcycle out of thin air. But now Izuku and Melissa face their next challenge. School.

Izuku and Melissa stared up at the gateway to Mustafa Private Middle School, ready to begin the next step in their plan to become heroes. Izuku was hopeful that this time things would be different, for he now had a friend who he knew would stick with him through thick and thin, unlike Katsuki. Melissa however, was nervous, Izuku had taught her basic Japanese during the course of their friendship, so she could read it and write it no problem, but speaking it was another story all together, what if she and Izuku weren't in the same class, and she didn't know a word? What if she messed up her pronunciation? As if he could sense the worry Melissa felt, he turned to her, and gave her a thumbs-up. Melissa smiled, and they followed the other students through the gate.

Melissa's fears were quickly alleviated, as she and Izuku had both been placed in the same class, the two of them walked into the classroom and greeted their teacher. "We're the new students who just transferred here," Izuku told the teacher.

"Okay, find a seat, you can introduce yourselves after I make my announcements"

They both nodded, and turned to look at their class, finding a pair of seats next to one another where they could sit. There were still a few minutes before school officially began so they had some time to start to get to know some of their peers. "Hey man, are you new here?" a voice asked Izuku.

Izuku turned to see a young man with long black hair that stopped just above his shoulders, and a small scar above his right eye. "Yeah, I just moved back to Japan"

"You lived abroad, that's so awesome! Where did you live?" The young man replied.

"I lived on I-Island, it's so cool, if you ever get the chance you should visit." Izuku responded enthusiastically. "I'm Izuku Midoriya by the way"

"Nice to meet you Midoriya, I'm Eijiro Kirishima" He replied.

"Alright listen up!" The teacher shouted, getting all the student's attention before continuing, "First, I hope you all had a good break, and are ready to begin the next semester. Furthermore, we have a couple of new students in our class, so please come introduce yourselves"

Izuku and Melissa got up, and walked to the front of the class, and introduced themselves.

"Hello, my name is Melissa Shield, please call me Melissa" She started

"And I'm Izuku Midoriya" He continued

Then they both bowed and said "It's a pleasure to meet you all / Nice to meet you"

The morning continued as one would expect, when lunch finally rolled around, Izuku and Melissa followed the crowd of people that surrounded them to the cafeteria, while Inko had made them lunches, they still wanted to go and see who they could meet. Izuku and Melissa sat down, and the horde of students continued to surround them, eager to learn about the new faces.

"Hey, Midoriya! Mind if I sit here?" Kirishima asked

"Please do, the more the merrier" Izuku responds, gesturing to the seat across from him. Kirishima sat down and several of their other classmates followed suit.

"So, where are you guys from?" Someone started

"I-Island" Melissa responded.

"Isn't that the floating island with some insane tech" a short boy with a racoon mutation asked

"Yeah, it's super cool there," Izuku confirmed.

"What are your hobbies?" A taller girl asked

"Well we both love tinkering, I personally spend my free time either drawing support gear or reading. And the shrub over here is a training nut, he's either in a lab, doing analysis, or finding some way to train. Usually ending up breaking a wall or pushing something through the ceiling" Melissa replied

"Hey!"

"Sorry, I know you mentioned in the hallway that you're not native a Japanese speaker Melissa, great job so far by the way, but you said push, did you mean hit or throw" Kirishima asked

Melissa let out a laugh. "No, I mean push. One time Izuku was doing weight training and was bench pressing 200 pounds, he pushed so hard, the sweat on his hands caused the bar to slip out of his grip and go straight into the ceiling"

"Mel! You told me you'd never tell anyone that" Izuku spoke with mock betrayal

"What, aren't you the one saying what's progress without a few mishaps?"

"How dare you twist my words and still have me agree with you"

Melissa smiled contently knowing she had won this small exchange.

It was then a pink girl spoke up after a squeal "Oh! My! Gosh! You two are so cute!"

Upon hearing those words, both Izuku and Melissa turned bright red. Melissa started twiddling her fingers, while Izuku attempted to hide his blush with his hand.

"Thanks, uh-"

"Mina, Mina Ashido"

"Right, Ashido-san, but. We're not dating"

The crowd went silent for a moment.

"HOW!" they shouted

"Sorry but, how, you two are over here acting like a perfect couple, I thought the ship had already sailed?"

"Ship? Izu, is that a slang term?"

"SEE! You even have a nickname for him!"

"Mel, I think she means relationship, as in she sees us as a couple she'd like to see"

"YUP! See Mido here gets it"

"I think we'd actually have to go on a date to be considered dating, wouldn't we"?

"Yeah, kinda hard when all we do is work, study, and train"

"Yeah, and how many times have I found you passed out on the floor of the garage? We've only been here for a week, and it's been four times already!"

"Man, they even fight like a couple" Mina commented

"Not my fault you won't let me put a bed down there"

"Because you'd never leave if we did!"

Izuku raised his finger to make a point, paused, then slowly lowered it, knowing she was right.

"Shield-2, Midoriya-0" One of their classmates stated, as the table let out a laugh.

Kirishima was the first to speak after the laughter died down: "Oh yea! Melissa said that you pushed two-hundred pounds into the ceiling, you must have some crazy strength quirk to do that Midoriya"

"Nope, not a strength quirk" he responded, his smile faltered slightly

"Then what is your quirk"

"I, uh, I" Izuku began to stutter, it was a question he knew to be coming, the same question that ruined his friendship with Bakugo. Melissa understood, but would they, they all probably had quirks and they might turn on him, just like Katsuki. These thoughts began to cloud his mind until Melissa subtly grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Izuku took a breath, and smiled "we are quirkless"

The table fell silent for a second time. Nobody knew what to say, an awkward silence passing by until Kirishima spoke.

"That just makes it even cooler!" He exclaimed with wonder in his eyes "How cool! You can easily throw two-hundred pounds without a quirk"

"Yeah, he doesn't need a weak quirk like yours Kiri to be strong" A tall boy with snakes for arms commented. A malicious grin on his face. Before he continued. "So, your strong, what are going to do about it"

Izuku stood up and looked the boy in the eyes, he was not going to let the first person at this school who didn't think he was worthless because of his lack of quirk be the victim like he was. "Simple, we are going to UA and be heroes."

The boy flinched, as Izuku stood taller and looked down slightly in order to make eye-contact. "Well, if you can easily throw weight like that, I guess you might have a better shot than sharky over here, he'd be better off trying to use his teeth to fight a villain than that weak quirk of his"

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch, tension high, as Mina broke the silence "W-Well let's get back to class"

The rest of the day went normal, but throughout the day Kirishima kept switching a glance over to Izuku, which Melissa took note of. After their last class, she nudged Izuku, and nodded towards Kirishima.

"I think he wants to talk to you"

"Okay"

Izuku then walked over to Kirishima, and spoke:

"Yo, how are you holding up?"

"H-Huh?"

"The thing at lunch"

"Ah" Kirishima broke eye contact and looked down. It was going to happen again wasn't it, this guy who is quirkless is stronger. What can I do with a weak quirk like mine if I can't even use it to keep up here? Those thoughts spawned by the countless insults ridiculing his quirk plagued his mind, normally he'd laugh it off, but Izuku's tone was too serious to try that, he showed genuine concern, and clearly wanted to help. But how could he, he didn't have a weak quirk! He didn't even have one to be called weak. Then it hit him. He didn't have a quirk to call weak, but the way that he was spoken to before standing, he was being looked down on, maybe Izuku could understand. It was a risk, to open up to someone new, but for the first time Eijiro may have found someone who could relate, so he clenched his fists and spoke. "Can we talk somewhere else"

"Yeah, sure, where do you want to go"

"Uhhhh, there is a small cafe nearby, we could go there"

"Sure, are you cool if Mel comes too?"

"Yeah, that's fine" It was fine, if Izuku could understand then someone as close to him as Melissa seemed must be fine too

After a short walk to the cafe, Izuku, Melissa, and Kirishima sat down at a table, ordered drinks and sat in silence.

Izuku was the first to break it. "So, about lunch…" he trailed off

"Oh, uh that was nothing, ha-ha, happens all the time, after all my quirk is kinda lame" Kirishima spoke.

"If it was nothing you wouldn't have wanted to talk elsewhere" Melissa responded

"Yeah, Kirishima, I'll be honest with you. You seem like a cool guy, and when you said how it was even cooler that I could do the bench thing despite being quirkless, it made my day.

"Yeah but my quirk is lame, and I won't be able to be a hero with it"

"What's so lame about it? If I can be a hero without one, why can't you with one" Izuku stated

"Because all I can do is get hard!"

"Phrasing" Izuku started looking around making sure nobody heard him shout

"Right…my quirk allows me to harden my skin, kinda simple. Simple and lame"

Kirishima looked up and Izuku and Melissa looked at him like he grew a second head.

"That quirk sounds awesome!" Izuku cheered

"Huh, what no it's-"

"Really useful sounding" Melissa finished. "If your quirk can harden your skin, then you can be both offense and defense. Kinda like a juggernaut"

"Juggernaut? What's that mean"

"I'll keep it simple, big, strong, and overwhelming strength"

"Hard to take down, but deals strong blows"

They both look at each other than at Kirishima and said in unison: "Kirishima, you can be a hero"

Kirishima's eyes widened, he reached out, hearing the words he'd wanted to, no, needed to hear. Someone telling him that he could be a hero, that his quirk wasn't weak or lame. But a seed of doubt remained, a small seed saying no. So, he asked

"How can you be so confident; you don't even have quirks to help you"

Izuku gave a knowing smile "Kirishima, you answered your own question"

"H-huh"

"We don't have quirks to help us, so we worked harder than those with quirks. Do you think I can launch two-hundred pounds through the ceiling at birth? No, I worked hard to get to that point. A quirk is nothing more than a tool that the owner has, some have strong flashy ones, some have smaller, more simple ones. But every tool has its use. I don't come with a fancy tool, so I built my own. I worked hard to make my body its own tool, sharpened my mind to be a tool. Kirishima, my confidence isn't natural, it took years of hard work, positive reinforcement, and failures to get to where I am, and I still falter sometimes. Heck, I was super nervous during lunch today once my quirk status was brought up, at least until you said how cool it was, Kirishima, today you were my hero, so thank you."

Kirishima's eyes widened, and tears threatened to spill as he sputtered "H-how can you say that so easily that I can be a hero? That we can both be heroes?"

"Simple, I'm not going to let an extra toe-joint stop me from following my dreams, and you shouldn't let you lack of one stop you either" Izuku said with a reassuring smile

To Kirishima, it's like the sun was shining on him. Here it was, finally, it all came together. He could listen to Crimson Riot all day and work harder, feel better, but he couldn't see him in person. But here he was, suddenly appearing before him, someone with who also had a heroic spirit, someone who could pull him out of his pit, someone he wanted to stand by as fellow heroes.

"so manly" he muttered

"Huh?"

"SO MANLY!" Kirishima cheered "Midobro, that was the manliest thing I've ever heard! Thank you bro!"

"Midobro?"

"Sorry, I want to call my friends bro, you know, like a nickname. Sorry if it bothers you" he looked down slightly embarrassed.

"No, I like it. Please feel free to call me that, Kiribro" Izuku said with a smirk, while Melissa smiled next to him.

Kirishima looked up and broke out into a big toothy smile. Yep, these were his friends, everything was going to be ok.

Next episode preview:

Kirishima: Midobro have you seen the news?

Izuku: What news?

Kirishima: The Kamen Rider was challenged to a duel

Melissa: A duel?

Kirishima: Yeah! A rising top 20 hero challenged them! It's so manly!

Next Time on To Build A Hero:

To Build Respect