Chapter 1: The Network Begins
Izuku Midoriya was five when he was handed his first quirkless shoe pin. Kacchan had been out sick that day, so his bullies took the rare opportunity to attack Izuku without his "bodyguard" around. He'd ended up with a broken arm and, after hours of waiting in the nurse's office, his mother was called to come get him. Inko had to take him to an underground clinic for the quirkless since no doctors or hospitals would treat someone like him.
His mom had stepped out of the room to take care of some paperwork while the doctor finished putting his arm in a bright yellow cast. When she finished her task she reached into a desk drawer. She handed something to Izuku and asked if he'd ever heard about shoe pins. He shook his head, green curls bouncing, while he examined the object in his hand. It was a small plastic bag with four pins all the same symbol of a z with a diagonal line through them. The only difference between the pins were the colors, one each of black, white, blue, and yellow.
The woman smiled kindly, "That's okay, only quirkless people know about them so if you don't have any friends or family who are like us you wouldn't have heard about them."
She went on to explain that the pins were to be put on the tongue of his right shoe. Each color meant something different. White meant the person was safe and doing okay mentally and was willing to offer help to other quirkless people. Yellow meant they were having a hard time, may need help, but would also offer help to others if they could. Black was only to be worn if they needed help because they were in life threatening danger either from others or themselves. Blue was for people who were doing fine but could offer no help to others. If someone was wearing the red shoes all quirkless people were forced to wear (because there was only one company willing to make shoes to fit the feet of people with extra toe joints and of course they picked a color that would immediately make them easy to spot) but didn't have a pin they hadn't met other quirkless yet. They hadn't found their community yet.
The doctor told Izuku that if he ever met another quirkless person in shoes with no pin to bring them to the nearest quirkless clinic because they had them specially made and always had enough to hand them out. That was the same day Izuku learned that quirkless people refer to themselves as Zeroes.
Izuku left the clinic that day with a white pin attached to his shoe, a yellow cast on his arm, and the biggest smile he'd had on his face since his diagnosis.
When Izuku Midoriya was six years old he found his way onto a website for quirkless people. It had been an accident, he'd been searching for information on a hero's quirk in an online forum where people discussed underground heroics. There had been a cryptic DM from another regular poster who'd noticed Izuku's username was quirklesswonder . (He'd created the name before he'd realized how determined society was to beat him down for who he was). They were claiming there was a site just for Zeroes and attached a link.
Curious, Izuku had followed the link and was taken to a website titled Zero Revolution that would only give him access if he provided a picture of his school or government issued ID. Because all forms of ID are required to list a person's quirk. Izuku knew better than to give out his personal information online, but the thought of connecting with people like him outside of the underground clinics for quirkless people he often found himself getting treatment at was far too tempting.
He provided his email and a picture of his student ID and was told he would be contacted by the website admins within a few days. He managed to put it out of his mind and went back to researching quirks until his computer time ended for the day.
The next day while he was eating lunch with Kacchan he started thinking about how someone had managed to set up a website that wouldn't allow access to any content without verification like that. It fascinated him and he was curious to see if he could learn to do things like that. Izuku had always been good at finding things online, when you only have one friend in the world and your mother works long shifts at three different jobs you spend a lot of time online and you pick up a few tricks. After school that day he parted ways with Kacchan and started his self taught lessons in coding.
When he checked his email before bed that night he had an email from informing him he had been accepted to their online community. There was a warning to never share the existence of this website with anyone who wasn't a Zero because they couldn't risk their safe place being shut down or infiltrated. A click of the link provided took him to a user sign up and suddenly Izuku had hundreds of new family members.
By eight, Izuku was an expert coder and provided free security updates for Zero Revolution. Izuku had taken to coding like a fish to water and quickly moved on to teaching himself hacking. That skill came in handy to beef up the site to keep any potential hackers from compromising their safe haven.
Kacchan and Izuku had been taking self defense and martial arts classes at a local gym for almost a year now. Kacchan had to threaten several different gym owners before they found one willing to overlook Izuku's quirklessness so they could attend. They spun it as a way to get Katsuki's aggression out and help keep Izuku from getting injured as much when Kacchan wasn't around to protect him to get their parents to agree. But really, they were using it to start their hero training.
Izuku hadn't given up on being a hero and Katsuki was adamant that as long as Deku worked hard he could be the number two hero no problem. Obviously Kacchan would be number one. (He didn't seem to mind when Izuku told him he thought underground heroics would be better for him as long as they both could be heroes). Teachers and classmates alike loved to laugh at Izuku for his determination to become the first quirkless hero, but a few loud explosions from his angry blonde friend usually shut them up. They followed diet and exercise regimens Izuku came up with based on the fighting styles and body types they each had. Izuku was sure no one who wasn't a child of a pro hero would be as prepared for the entrance exams as they would be.
At ten years old, Izuku was tired of losing his Zero friends. Most of them weren't lucky enough to have a mother who loved them or a best friend who protected him when he couldn't protect himself. Sure he had bad days, when the taunts and notes of his classmates or the unwarranted punishments and faked grades from his teachers got to him. But his shoe pin was usually white and he'd never used the black one.
It was breaking him to see the party invitations of the other Zeros on the ZR website. Every time he saw the words "I'm having a party" followed by a time, date, and place his heart shattered a bit more. Most of the time, he never met his friends in person until they were gathered on the roof of whatever building they'd chosen so the person throwing the party could say their final goodbyes. Izuku always left in tears, knowing that as soon as they were alone the person would jump. He kept a binder in his room of every article written about a quirkless suicide. He had wanted to remember who he was becoming a hero for. It had started so he could remember every name of everyone he'd lost so one day when he was standing on the rooftop as a hero, talking down a Zero, he could thank them all by name for helping him get to a place where he could inspire hope in others.
But it wasn't enough anymore. He didn't want to keep adding names to his list. He wanted to save people now! Every time he looked at the almost full binder he felt sick. So he sat down and he came up with a plan. By the time the sun came up the next morning, he had an entire notebook full of ideas and details to bring together to help his people.
His first stop that day was the Bakugo residence. He had his binder and his notebook clutched to his chest when Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru agreed to sit down with him and Kacchan. It took less than an hour to explain his plan and what he would need from them to make it work. Izuku had never been more thankful for his family than when his mother's oldest friend and her husband stared back at him with determination in their eyes and agreed to all of it.
The next item on his list was to send a message on ZR to a friend who worked as an info broker in the underground. Nova was known to sell information to both heroes and villains (standard procedure for an info broker) but they used their dealings with heroes and villains to keep the Zeroes updated on who they could and couldn't trust to help a Zero. Nova was so excited at the ideas he presented that they didn't even want any payment for their services.
That night he sat in front of his shitty laptop and created the Zero Network site. Izuku had contacted everyone Nova sent him to and gotten everything lined up. Before he finally crashed into bed for some much needed sleep he posted on the public forum on ZR. By morning every person on the website had read the streamlined version of his plan. He would never know exactly how many of them cried happy tears for the first time when they realized they had a way out.
When he started UA at fifteen the network had grown immensely beyond what he'd originally imagined. Not only were they helping Zeroes get out of the life society forced on them, but they were helping the ones who wanted to stay find a place to belong. Nova had trained over twenty new info brokers all rocking red shoes and they slowly cornered the market. Turns out when you spend your life trying to go unnoticed and learning to read people who think it's funny to trick the quirkless person, you get really good at quietly gathering information and weeding out lies.
Izuku directed people to the martial arts gym he'd trained with and soon the owner was proud of the number of quirkless people who'd worked harder than any quirked students. Almost all of their classes were a sea of red shoes. It was weird, in the last five years Izuku had gone from being desperate to become a hero to knowing he already was. Even if it was just to other Zeroes, every time he got a message from someone in the Network thanking him for giving them a new life, for giving them hope he knew this was the reason he'd wanted to be a hero. He wanted to save people, and these were the people in most need of saving.
That didn't mean he was going to give up on being a licensed hero. There were plenty of people with quirks for him to save. So he tore through robots with his support items he'd been allowed to bring to the exam. He saved another kid from the zero pointer and ignored the disgusted look on her face when he answered her question about his quirk. He left the entrance exam confident he'd placed high enough for the hero course. When his acceptance letter revealed he'd placed fifth overall, his mom made him his favorite meal and invited the Bakugos over for a celebratory dinner.
Apparently Uraraka couldn't keep her mouth shut so everyone knew he was quirkless before Aizawa started the quirk apprehension test. Kacchan was the only one standing near him while they waited for their turn for each test. The rest of the class was either sending him glares or ignoring his presence. A few were obviously just focusing on the test, the rest clearly not wanting the quirkless kid to try talking to them. Izuku made sure to remember who was who so he'd know who to avoid being alone with.
When he placed second in the test, right behind Kacchan, the shock was written on all of their faces. When Aizawa announced Hagakure, who came in last, was expelled Uraraka stamped her foot like a child, "If anyone should be expelled it should be that quirkless kid!"
Before Aizawa could open his mouth Kacchan popped off a small explosion in his hand, "Deku came in second you extra. Just because you're quirksist doesn't mean you can be stupid enough to think someone who beat sixteen losers who have quirks should be expelled! If you want to act better than him you need to work hard enough to not come in tenth place." He spun to glare at their teacher. "And if you even think about expelling Deku, I'll be leaving this shit school and we'll be hitting you and UA with a lawsuit that will bankrupt all of you."
Izuku blushed, all the attention on him made him nervous. Plus Kacchan could get in trouble for speaking to the teacher like that! If he got in trouble on the first day for Izuku, he would feel terrible. Thankfully Aizawa just raised an eyebrow, "I'm not in the habit of expelling students that show potential. Uraraka, I don't put up with discrimination and neither does UA. Detention after school today." Brown eyes examined the entire class as he raised his voice. "This is the first and only warning for all of you. If any of you discriminate against or harass any student of UA on or off campus, you'll be expelled immediately. Heroes don't look down on anyone."
The kid with purple hair, Izuku thought his name was Shinso, looked as confused as Izuku felt. A teacher had never stood up for Izuku before, and the look on Shinso's face told him he had a similar history. Maybe he should approach the boy? For now he watched his other classmates. Some were angry while others just nodded, unbothered. Uraraka looked shamed by being called out by the teacher but not regretful for what she'd said. He would need to watch out for her.