"I must say it's an honor for you to come to our school." Principal Nezu was leading him through the halls. "I wouldn't have my students interviewed by anyone else."
Izuku Midoriya was in U.A. to see the quirkless student for himself. He got special permission from his school to go for his job. It was Saturday, two days after the press conference. The quirkless hero student still irked him, so he took the first opportunity to talk with him without looking like a stalker.
The hallway was long, the wall on his left was a large window, and the one on his right had a door every few paces. It was the greatest place he'd ever been.
"The pleasure's all mine." Quirkless people didn't belong in U.A. His being there was a violation in every sense. But it did make him excited.
He had to know why there was suddenly a quirkless hero student. Why did the principal wait so long to reveal that fact? Who was Mikumo Akatani?
"I have one question for you, Principal Nezu. Why did you wait for me to ask about the allegations to refute them by revealing your one quirkless student? Was it some kind of game to you? What's your angle here?"
The Principal answered nearly instantly. "My school specializes in making the best heroes of a generation. The entrance exam is meant to find those who can be curated into heroes who make it into the top ten. Mikumo Akatani was just the first quirkless applicant who met the qualifications. So you see, I've never once stopped a prospective student just because they were quirkless. I needed a way to deal with accusations fast so we could all move on." He wasn't saying everything, he expected more questions.
"You know there will be more accusations now. Like how you brought it up at that exact moment. They won't listen to the context of the situation, they'll focus on the tokenism of it all."
"I don't like it as much as the next person, but I have to stick to the values of making a school that makes the best heroes. I can't just change the exam to curate it for a specific population of people. That would be unfair. If I can have another quirkless student as strong as Mr. Akatani, I'd have him in a heartbeat." He could've been lying, but actions speak louder than words, and Akatani was a student.
"You're the most interesting person I've met. That doesn't mean a lot, though. I haven't met many people."
"Trust me, I've also never met anyone more interesting than me."
They didn't talk until they made it to 1-A. The door was massive, this gave Izuku another question. "How do you get in?"
"I have my ways." Izuku looked to where the principal was and there was nothing.
The door opened. "You can come in," said the teacher inside. He did as he was told.
It was a normal classroom. He didn't know why he thought any different.
"Wow, he looks just like Akatani," yelled out a pink girl.
"Ashido, quiet. Yell out again and I'll have you stay after class." She sat down again, forcing her mouth closed. "This is Izuku Midoriya. He's here to interview you. I don't know about what, and I don't care. Get it over with soon, I have an announcement before school ends." The heavily bandaged man walked to the corner and curled up in a sleeping bag.
Izuku looked into his notepad, it had all the students' names in the class. "I guess we'll start with Aoyama. Come on out." He went back to the hall.
The interviews went fine. He used the generic questions he prepared and took vague notes of their answers. He could write multiple filler articles to pad his resume.
He had just finished talking to an invisible girl when Kaachan came out. He was waiting for him this entire time. Finally, someone he could stand to hold a conversation with.
Kaachan grabbed him by the collar and lifted him. "The fuck you doing here?"
"Just doing my job." And getting info on the quirkless kid, but he didn't need to say that.
Kaachan let him go. "Alright, but if I see you around this place again, you're dead." He created a few sparks next to Izuku's face.
They did the interview. Izuku hung onto every word. If he could write every article about him, he could. But after writing one his editor banned from writing about him forever. He said it was 'unsettling to read.' But what does he know, he published an entire paper with All Might stories exclusively.
When the interview ended, Kaachan went back to his class. Now it was time for the interview he came for, he could lie and say something came up so he didn't have to interview anyone else.
Mikumo Akatani, the quirkless hero student, walked out of his classroom and stood in front of Izuku. He had an aura of gloom about him.
It was like looking into a mirror. They had the same face, hair, and body type. Akatani was a little taller, but his slouching put him at eye level. The only difference Izuku saw was the hair and eye color. Black hair and red eyes, it was like they took Izuku and dyed his hair. So that's why Ashido kept bringing it up during their interview.
It was finally time for the interview. He looked for the questions his editor prepared, they were standard questions asked at any interview and ignored them. "What makes you so special?" That was a terrible way to word it, he just made his job much harder.
"Excuse me?" Akatani was caught off guard. It was clear everybody was telling each other what questions he asked. So when he was asked something different, he was confused.
"I mean, how did you come to be the first quirkless hero student in the country, maybe even the world."
"Oh, I get my own questions?" He smiled lightly. "I feel so honored."
"Please answer the question." Izuku made a show of opening a new page on his notepad. Akatani took notice.
His story was pretty short, it sounded a lot like his own. He wanted to be a hero but he couldn't because he was quirkless. Then one day, he happened to save someone where Snipe, a pro hero, saw. The hero offered to train him and he said yes.
Izuku was pissed, he crushed the pen in his hand, and the ink-stained his glove. This kid got training from a pro hero because he was lucky? What made it worse was the big dumb grin on his face as he told it. This wasn't fair, he never got a chance to save anyone, all he got was a dirty homeless man and a rock in his hand. Akatani saw his anger and stopped his story, then immediately bowed.
"I'm sorry for offending you!"
"Uh, what? Why?" Izuku couldn't get his thoughts straight.
"You're angry because I was telling my story. I figured that was because you wanted to be a hero but couldn't."
"What makes you think that?" This guy was proving smarter than Izuku thought.
"It was your pen. It was sold only to the biggest hero fans around ten years ago. I know because I was there, I never cared about the pen part. I just cared that it proved I wanted to be a hero no matter what.
"But then you broke it, which means you were so angry you forgot what you were holding. Did I get it right? I've only been training my deductive reasoning for a couple of months." Akatani stood up.
Akatani was right, Izuku looked at his limited edition All Might pen and felt his heart sink. He completely forgot about it. "Alright, fine. I wanted to be a hero too. But I didn't have a quirk, I also didn't have a hero who wanted to give me handouts."
"You're right. You didn't have the opportunities that were given to me. I didn't realize it until you told me. I may be the first quirkless hero. I don't want that, I just want to save people." He bowed again, putting out his hand. "So please, train with me, so we can both become heroes!" He stood up. "You can become a hero first."
Izuku felt water on his face, he was crying before he knew it. He took a deep breath, burying his emotions deep, and wiped the tears from his face. "Okay, I'll train with you."
"Take my number." Akatani gave him a slip of paper. "Call me when you want to get started."
Izuku pocketed his broken pen. "I guess I can't take any more notes. Tell the other two I'm sorry I couldn't get to them." He turned and left.
"You can borrow my pen."
"Yeah, whatever." He waved the offer off. "They'll live."
He made it outside of the school and into an alleyway. He punched the wall hard enough to bloody his knuckles. He was so pissed he felt the veins on his head. He couldn't believe he let himself cry in front of that loser. He now knew what he had to do, it was his purpose, destiny, even. To keep the title of 'hero' pure, he had to kill Mikumo Akatani.
Author's Note
The first chapter without someone dying, YAY! My lawyers have advised me to say that was not a joke, murder is bad. But don't worry, this chapter is not an outlier. In the end, there will be way more chapters than murdered people, probably. It depends on how I'm feeling.
If you see any grammar issues, keep it to yourself, I'll ignore it if you tell me. The first 2,000-word draft disappeared and I couldn't be bothered to write the same chapter again. I got the gist of it, the next chapter will be better for sure.