The teacher was lecturing them, that was par for the course, but today was different. He was trying to drill into their minds the importance of making the correct decision regarding their future career prospects.

He was going the wrong way about it though, since he was discussing out loud what the students had written on their choice sheets.

"I get that most of you kids want to be heroes, but you must be realistic. Even in our society, with upwards of 80% Quirk users, not everyone can be a hero."

Their teacher grabbed one of the random books that littered his desk and laid it open in full view of everyone.

"My Quirk is named 'Dictionary Search', but that is an inaccurate name, because it is not related to dictionaries at all." He waved at the book with his pointer finger and the pages started to move by themselves, rapidly flipping from the first page to the last in the blink of an eye.

Looking carefully Izuku could easily deduce that it was a simple telekinesis Quirk that could only interact with paper-related materials. Maybe if it had been a bit more powerful, it could have interacted with plants instead , or even trees, but he certainly was no Kamui Woods.

"Quirks are everything if you want to be a hero. Think carefully about it, and if your Quirk cannot support other heroes, and disable, or take down villains, then you should forget about it."

'He's pretty sore about it.' He mused internally.

His rowdy classmates were speechless for a second, before loudly disagreeing with their teacher.

It really didn't matter too much to Izuku, since he could see future choices light up in his mind's eye.

Choice #1 was staying in class while his classmates got riled up, showing off their Quirks illegaly until a certain someone got fed up and literally exploded.

Choice #2 was going to his sanctuary before he got a headache.

"Sensei, I'm not feeling too well. Can I go see the nurse?" Izuku asked, standing up from his desk.

"Huh? Oh Midoriya." Their teacher stopped trying to settle down his classmates and waved him off with a grunt. "Yes, yes, whatever, go on. I'll let your next teacher know as well."

Izuku did as instructed with a shallow bow to his teacher before walking out.

Going to the Nurse's room to ditch class when he was feeling annoyed was the best. The teachers couldn't deny him either, not when his Quirk was very volatile and prone to "going out of control".

'That's what everyone believes, thankfully.'

His Quirk manifesting later than the usual age had been a blessing in disguise, and he had spun a nice sob story about frequently needing peace and quiet, otherwise his Quirk could cause a fair bit of collateral damage when he got "really stressed", which thankfully had only happened once.

Honestly it was laughable how overpowered 'Vector Conversion' was even the second it first manifested, at 11 years old.

Some idiot bullies throwing stones at him had been the first victims, one of them almost ending up with an eye gouged out from the activation of his Quirk under stress and having the stone he threw deflected back at him.

There had been a lot of blood when the kid's cheekbone had broken into pieces and shards of bone had burst out, and even though he didn't know how fast the stone had been deflected back, it probably was near 3 times the speed the kid had thrown it.

It was absurd no matter how you put it, and if he had any real control over his quirk back then as he did now, the head of the bully would have exploded like a watermelon.

It was a mess, with parents shouting, death threats being tossed around, plus the principal of the school, the police and the Hero Public Safety Commission showing up to deal with the matter before someone got killed for real.

Being of above average intelligence even at his young age, he had known how to hide the signs of bullying from his mother, who was a worrywart and prone to fits of crying over the smallest thing.

Needless to say, when the paramedics had checked him over for any wounds and his mother saw some bruises and a couple of scars from being "helpfully reminded of his place in the food chain by his classmates" for being Quirkless, she had cried. A lot.

Obviously, she was hysterical and in tears until the paramedics were able to calm her down. And she went right back up into having a fit when the police and the HPSC had proceeded to interrogate him.

That had been fun, answering questions from a plain-faced detective with a lie-detector Quirk.

He had lied to the detective with a straight face and then got called out on his bullshit for his trouble. At least he had only lied about how long the bullying had been going on, prompting his mother to cry again.

The representative from the HPSC had been interesting to talk to, they offered him specialized training, personal tutoring so he didn't have to go back to school unless it was to take his final year exams and even a house for him and his mother to live at.

Near one of their district offices, obviously, and even though his mother refused it all, he didn't really mind.

After all, it was HISQuirk. HISto discover, HISto develop, and HISto do as he pleased.

He didn't need any stuffy scientists, doctors or trainers trying to tell him what to do or how to train his quirk.

He also didn't want to suffer the same fate as some of the top ranked heroes employed personally by the HSPC. The internet was full of baseless rumors and speculation, but the official explanation given as to why Lady Nagant "retired" was total bogus, and fairly obvious that there was some ulterior motive behind it.

It was for the best, that no one but him knew his full capabilities.

'Another day gone, and a couple of months left before high school...' He sighed tiredly and even though he spent half the day taking naps in the nurse's office, his brain had still been running full tilt, trying to come up with smarter and more efficient ways to use his Quirk.

'Maybe I should have taken up the HSPC's offer of tutoring for these junior high school years, if only to escape this boredom...' He was lost in his musings before his biggest pain in the ass decided to make himself known.

It was the sound of tiny explosions crackling on clenched fists what gave it away at first, then the unkempt blond spiky hair looking like its owner had been electrocuted, and the same went for the face that was stuck on a perpetual snarl.

In Izuku's opinion the best part were the red eyes, wide open and bloodshot, with a pupil the size of a pinprick, always shrunk due to the constant flashing lights of Katsuki's favorite past time.

Illegal. Quirk. Usage.

"I see you wasted away another day away at the nurse's office, you damn nerd." The ash-blond spat at him. "Keep it up and you won't even be able to pass the U.A. entrance exam."

"And I see you're still illegaly using your Quirk, despite multiple warnings by the faculty. It could lead to a black mark in your record y'know? Imagine that, a delinquent from the boonies attending U.A." He snorted and walked away before mentally counting down.

'3, 2, 1... boom.'

The crackle of fireworks signaling an incoming grenade detonation sounded out, and his prediction came true.

BOOM.

The ash-blond ignited his palms to make a big explosion, whilst grinding his teeth so hard, that Izuku thought some of them were due to crack in the near future, if Katsuki kept it up.

"You and the rest of those extras! I'll squash you like bugs." The ash-blond forcefully calmed himself down and breathed deeply, before glaring at Izuku one last time, spitting at the ground and walking away.

Izuku just waved back mockingly, knowing it was futile to even try talking to him, he really was a rabid dog, but at least he had some sense of self-preservation.

'Welp, time for some training.'

Auto-Reflect was gimmicky but very, very useful, and to put it simply, it was a transparent energy barrier that his body projected at 1 cm away from his skin pores.

It filtered out things he did and didn't need, such as oxygen, food and light being allowed inside of the barrier so he could breath, eat and see.

But it also automatically filtered out things things that could harm him when allowing oxygen or light inside, such as dirt, dust or the light from a concussion grenade.

Even things from outside of his immediate vision, such as someone attacking him from behind.

His Auto-Reflect had evolved with the passing of time and the clandestine training he put himself thru, and nowadays he could deflect things back at six times the speed, and so unless he forcefully lowered the deflecting speed, if say, someone tried to punch him, they would be blasted back quite a fair distance and their arm probably turned into mulch.

It was honestly quite scary, and he'd probably have to hold himself back quite a bit when sparring with his future classmates, or they would just end up in the hospital half-dead.

His mental musings finally saw him arrive to the filthy Takoba Beach, it was honestly gross and disappointing, how such a formerly beautiful beach had ended up being dumping grounds for trash.

At least it was a good place for him to secretly train.

'And at least I can't cut myself with all this rusty metal, so no threat of tetanus. It's a win-win, really.'

It was a shame that he couldn't train his quirk too much without being fairly obvious about it, and he'd already had a close call when he punched a fridge into the sea.

He'd been forced to haul ass before heroes came to check what the hell had caused a gigantic splash in the middle of the coast.

'So embarrassing.'

He still flushed when thinking about it.

It was unclear how much his Quirk would improve at U.A., when he finally was allowed to go all-out, but efficiency he could improve now. He'd been smart before unlocking his Quirk, but it was much more obvious now, he had some sort of processing speed increase on his brain, and could easily read trajectories and sort-of predict movement.

The best way to train was to tax his brain trying to read the trajectories of different moving objects at once. It was fun as well.

Izuku opened the small leather pouch he kept on his backpack, unconsciously smiling at the clinking sounds, and dumped the contents on his hand.

It was kids' playing marbles. And he loved to put them against the light of the sun to watch the light pass thru the different patterns they had inside.

He could really chuck anything into the distance with a punch, a kick, or a toss, without any care about weight or shape, but marbles were his favorite since their added weight opened up possibilities.

Who wouldn't like to pitch a marble like a baseball with spinning effect?

He'd watched tutorials and learned how to do it, and the best of all was that they wouldn't break, even after leaving his hand, since some kind of energy residue from his Quirk could be used as protection for the things he tossed, so they wouldnt vaporize mid-flight or detonate like a bomb once they hit the target. Not unless he wanted.

The results were spectacular, and he was one-hundred percent adding a pouch full of marbles on his hero costume.

Quickly counting the amount of marbles on his hand, he put half the total amount on each hand.

His left hand shot the marbles into the air, and after some quick processing of their current and future trajectory, his right hand shot the remaining marbles into the air, trying to make them crash against the ones already in the air.

Clink, clink, clink.

'Missed 3, damn it.' He sighed. 'Not bad though, 3 out of 15 is pretty decent.'

He clenched his fist in annoyance.

'No, I can't settle for mediocrity.' He crouched down, picking up the scattered marbles in the sand and breathed deeply.

'Again.'

He trained until he got a headache. And he really hoped he wasn't getting all these headaches for nothing.

His house was nothing special, just another rented, small, square, squat family unit in the outer suburbs of Mustafu, built with cheap materials so it could be torn down 20 years later by the property owner, rebuilt and then re-listed with a nice fat upcharge on rent.

But his mother had worked hard on making it distinctive and special, there was nothing that could be done about the roof tiles, but she enjoyed gardening and it showed.

Almost all of the faux brick front wall of the house was covered in ivy, and whatever space was left was covered by hanging potted plants. Some of them were edible like rosemary and parsley, and others were poisonous but beautiful, like lily of the valley and foxglove.

She had even refused the addition of cement for a parking space in favor of just leaving a big patch of dirt to plant fruits and veggies. They were tasty overall and saved them some money on groceries.

Izuku was happy that his mother was able to enjoy her hobby despite having to work overtime most days and he always felt guilty about how she rejected the cushy offer from the HSPC for his sake.

He opened the door and went in, leaving his shoes by the rack at the door and shrugging off any leftover sand from his socks.

"Ma, I'm home!" he called out as he walked in further into the house, walking next to framed pictures of himself growing up, and with his mother in many of them. There was no sign of a father.

He was quickly welcomed by a thin, short woman with green hair, and equally green eyes framed by purple bags that made her look older than she really was.

He really hated his damn father, and how him walking out of their life after finding out he was supposedly Quirkless started the downwards spiral that made his mother end up looking like this.

Even then, she still beamed at him, with her eyes crinkling closed in a smile for a second, before opening menacingly.

He was assaulted then. By a wooden spoon. And with the hidden strenght that all mothers could employ to scold their progeny.

She hit him in the forehead 3 times in quick succession before sighing and hugging him tightly. He found himself hugging her back on instinct, breathing deeply the familiar smell of home, and the spices from the tasty curry katsu she was currently cooking.

"What have I said about returning so late, young man?" She asked him with a mock glare after letting him go.

"To return home before sunset, yes I know Ma." He replied, scratching his head sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I know it's a bad habit."

She sighed at that, knowing that sooner or later would happen again, but at the very least no matter how much she worried, she knew that it was very difficult if not impossible for him to be truly hurt , so even if she worried about her son coming home late like any other parent, he never was in any real danger.

"Good, now go wash up, dinner is almost ready and I won't have you stinking up the house." Inko threatened, waving her wooden spoon for emphasis.

Izuku just laughed and ran upstairs, hearing his stomach growl at the mention of food.

The food had been heavenly as usual, and Izuku was just way too bloated to properly think, so he was just browsing his notes and bouncing ideas on how to improve his quirk.

'So, if I shoot something at high enough speed, obviously a rush of wind will come afterwards... so if I could somehow harness this wind, I could turn one projectile into two.'

He had to use a calculator for the math, but the results weren't good at all. The rush of wind was useful, but unless he could really control that wind, the most it would do was tousle his enemies around.

He tapped the wooden frame of his bed thoughtfully. 'Might as well shoot 2 marbles instead of one then. But that's not a viable option unless I just want to carry a ton of marbles.'

He lightly bounced 2 marbles on his left hand, trying to use the clinking noise to wake up his brain.

It didn't work, unsurprisingly.

'I probably need more training, real training. I don't think I've ever really strained my Quirk before, it's as if I'm boxing with kid gloves...'

He opened his right hand in a fan-like shape and moved it up and down as quickly as he could, trying to make even the slightest bit of breeze.

It did work, unsurprisingly.

What was surprising was noticing that he actually could feel the wind particles and their vectors moving, and with a small mental tug, he took control of them.

Up until now he hadn't really paid attention to this aspect of his Quirk, since he had just dealt with physical objects most of the time, and their vectors didn't change when they left his hands or were touched by his energy barrier (when reflecting something back).

If this test wasn't a fluke, then any movement on his part created vectors that he could take control of, and then potentially use them to do whatever he wanted.

'This is huge.' he thought, spinning around his pointer finger and making the wind particles and the vectors create a small twister that moved all the papers and notes he had around him.

'I won't risk going any further with this for today, but there is some absurd potential hidden in here.'

He let the twister die out, and just went to sleep with a smile on his face, not minding the mess of notes and devices around him.

Timeskip 2 Months.

The day had finally arrived, it was time for the U.A. entrance exam.