Okay, so being attacked by a slime villain was not the way she wanted this day to go, but it was totally worth it to meet the real All Might.
He seemed very surprised when she made an off-hand comment about preferring his 'deflated' form over his Hero persona. She hated it when people hid behind self-created masks, especially since it was clear that he was only hurting himself...quite literally in fact.
Then her day went down hill again seeing Kacchan being at the mercy of the same creepy villain All Might had saved her from.
She saw red, and for a brief moment Bakugo's eyes met hers. He blinked twice, and she knew he understood that he'd have to act fast once she reached him.
Bakugo was a long time friend, though he hid behind a tsundere personality. After the one time he attempted to bully her, only to get hit with a week of low-level but still highly traumatizing series of pranks until he apologized properly, they had come to a mutual understanding.
The understanding being that he would become a pro hero and that she would be the doctor who patched him up. Even those without quirks could still become doctors...they would just be limited in how much they could do.
Hence why Midoriya Nozomi was planning to join the support class in UA, rather than go near the hero. So long as her grades were good enough she could at least get into that or possibly the general studies.
UA students could often write their own ticket regarding which colleges they could attend. Most places would fight to have a UA graduate in their school, even offering scholarships and special courses.
Nozomi pulled out a rather ordinary looking spray bottle that had a bright red strip of tape around the middle.
Bakugo felt an iota of pity regarding what was about to happen...he would have felt more if this creep hadn't been trying to possess his body anyway. If he knew that the slime had tried to possess his best friend not two hours earlier, he would have known that pity would have been wasted on someone truly too stupid to live.
Nozomi checked around her. The pro heroes were too inefficient to deal with this particular villain and there was no telling if All Might would show up again.
Which was why she dashed past a surprised Kamui and displayed some rather impressive parkour moves to jump above the slime.
Bakugo, through many years of being used to her devious and quite honestly terrifying mind, promptly closed his eyes and waited.
He was rewarded with the sound of the slime absolutely screaming in pain and the hold around him lessening. He felt a warm hand reach through the sludge and grab his and he didn't hesitate to blast the jerk holding him captive before running like hell past the shell-shocked heroes.
Just then, All Might appeared and knocked the villain out with a mercy hit...though he gave Nozomi an odd look.
"What exactly is in that bottle?" he asked with open concern.
"A mixture of ghost pepper oil and water. It works better than most commercial pepper sprays and it's not illegal," said Nozomi bluntly. "When he wakes up, just throw some milk on his face and he'll be fine in a matter of days. Just make sure it gets into his eyes though."
"Ghost pepper?" said Kamui Wood. He blinked twice. "Isn't that one of the hottest recorded peppers in the world?"
"Hence why using a mixture of the oil produced and plain water is extremely effective," said Nozomi with a sniff. "Since none of you heroes were equipped to deal with this particular type of villain, I thought it was worth a try to see if he was still succeptible to the high levels of capcasin in the oil."
Bakugo snorted. As Nozomi was more than happy to demonstrate, anywhere and anytime, quirkless did not mean helpless if one was willing to put in the effort.
She got around her lack of quirk by becoming the most devious and passive aggressive bitch around. A fact she was beyond proud of and had no shame in admitting to.
Still she did get a lecture for recklessly jumping in like that, even if she did save the hostage without any harm being done to him. The villain was another matter, but considering she had only used what was apparently an overpowered home-made pepper spray in order to distract him, she was given a stern reprimand.
A few hours later...
Nozomi had to wonder why All Might was before her.
"You seriously need to stop putting up that mask if it's making your condition worse," she scolded him.
"It's not a mask, it's my hero form," said Toshinori, wiping his mouth of the blood.
"If this is your default form, then All Might is your mask," said Nozomi. "Are you going to be alright?"
"I'll live, for now," said Toshinori. "That's not why I came here though. You asked me if I thought someone without a quirk could be a hero. Why?"
Nozomi's expression became a textbook picture of irriation.
"For years all I ever hear about is how only those with quirks can be heroes. As if it's inconcievable that a normal person might step up to the plate and do something extraordinary and bring hope to others. I wanted to get your opinion, considering you are considered the number one hero of our age group."
Toshinori was silent for a moment.
"Under normal circumstances, I would have to say no. If only because the danger to those without quirks going up some of the bigger villains is simply too high to consider. However you managed to effectively neutralize a villain even the heroes on the scene couldn't handle at all with a plan that they didn't even think of and rescued the hostage. All without a single quirk and no hesitation."
"Quirks are just fancy tricks that society has come to rely on, rather than explore all the possibilities," said Nozomi flatly. "If you use your brain and indulge in some creative thinking, even an impossible situation can turn itself around."
"I agree," said Toshinori. "You displayed the sort of mentality a hero should have, and found a solution when everyone only saw a problem. Which is why I wanted to ask you... how would you like to become a pro hero?"
Nozomi blinked.
"A...hero?" she said in shock.
"I was once quirkless myself, so I know your frustration. However someone once gave me an opportunity to turn that around, just as I am offering you one now."
"What sort of offer?" she asked cautiously.
Rather than be insulted, Toshinori approved of her caution. Clearly Midoriya Nozomi was a sensible girl and not one who took risks without first thinking things through.
"What do you know about my quirk?"
"Only that it appears to be a strength based one, but no real details have been confirmed. However the fact you just mentioned being quirkless before it manifested means that you didn't inherit it naturally. So I'm guessing it can pick and chose who inherits it?" said Nozomi carefully, mind going into Quirk analysis mode. Seeing his slight nod she continued. "If it can be transferred, then it's possible it might also come with the ability to absorb the power levels of past users and pass it on to the next one, thus making it more versitile. It would be far more worrying if it had some sort of diminishing exchange because if you're this strong now while at the tail end of having it, then how strong was it originally before it started losing effect?"
Toshinori was somewhat excited. She had managed to guess parts of it that very few even realized about his Quirk and even a few aspects that only those who were granted the power ever learned about.
"It gains power with each user," he confirmed. "And while transferring it would result in my own power weakening, considering my current condition it would be a moot point anyway. I have been looking for an heir ever since that fight. Though it does beg the question of what you would do if you had my quirk."
"Become a doctor," was Nozomi's immediate response. Toshinori blinked. Twice. "While being a pro hero might seem a good idea on the surface, the truth is that doctors save more lives than heroes every day and it means that the risk of losing someone during a villain attack diminishes if there's a hero that has medical training already there since they can treat the wounded. Actually I was planning to go into the Support or General classes at UA, since most colleges jump at the chance to get a graduate into their schools even if they don't take the hero track, and UA is still considered a premiere high school."
Toshinori felt his decision to pass on One for All to young Nozomi was his best choice. She was not only intelligent, but she had a solid career goal in mind that would allow her to save others even if she had no quirk to work with. More importantly she didn't let something like not having a quirk stop her from rushing in to save a friend and had come up with a rather reasonable way to contain a villain most heroes would have had trouble with that wouldn't leave any lasting effects.
Still the fact remained that she could save a lot more people as a pro hero directly than she could as a support class or general studies.
Several months later...
Nozomi wasn't sure if she should be happy that she was attempting the hero exam, or more than slightly grossed out that she had to eat one of All Might's hairs a week earlier in order to establish the pathways for One for All.
The good thing was that because she had already been in excellent physical shape before meeting All Might, she had managed to finish a bit early and thus had a full week to allow the quirk to settle into her body.
All Might had told her to rest and that she would figure out how to properly kick-start the quirk once she was in the test. She had spent the better part of a week trying to map out the new paths in her core. That way she could figure out how to allocate the quirk's ability to her muscles without causing damage.
Bakugo had looked shocked to see her there, but knew better than to make any snide comments about it.
Nozomi wanted to cackle evilly...she had trained the explosive teen well and instilled a healthy 'respect' for strong women.
Rather than be offended, Bakugo's mother had cackled as well and thanked her for it. His father, not so much, though he was thanking every deity he could think of that Nozomi only viewed his son as an annoying younger brother that had to be brought back into line occasionally.
"I thought you were going for the support course?"
"Someone convinced me to try for pro hero first and trained my ass off so I might have a chance to actually get in with you. Though if I don't I can still go for support or general."
Bakugo felt a bit of pity if they had to fight anyone.
Nozomi was pretty happy to be in the exam hall, and glared at the straight-laced teen who called her out deliberately because he caught her chatting to her friend about the pro hero at the front of the room. He reminded her a bit too strongly of Percy Weasley from her last life.
"Are you an idiot, or just unbelieveably dense?" she calmly cut out, her voice loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. "Did you really just call another student out simply because they were quietly chatting?"
"We should be respecting the sacredness of this test!"
"And you should learn there's a time and place for reprimands," she shot back without hesitation. "We were being quiet enough that we weren't bothering anyone and you are being considerably more disruptive than two friends chatting with each other. I highly doubt we are the only ones quietly whispering in this auditorium."
Dead silence. Nozomi would swear she heard one boy saying "Served!" quietly just within the range of her hearing. Clearly she wasn't the only one irritated with the boy's attitude.
"In any case!" Present Mic spoke up, hoping to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand, "The practical test is going to begin in an hour."
Unfortunately a verbal dispute wasn't enough to keep the straight-laced teen from the young woman, but hopefully the distraction of the test would keep it from coming to blows.
Bakugo would later have a minor heart attack finding out she had one-shot the zero pointer. While she couldn't effectively use One For All and was badly damaged by it's first activation, she still got a decent amount of points before she had to rescue another girl from the larger robot's attack.
A week later...
She still couldn't believe she had made it into the pro hero course. Or that her mother had zero problems with the uniform she designed using a tablet.
She couldn't really draw, so she had settled for using her special tablet to mix and match designs until she had something she really liked. Her mother had accepted it because it wasn't some ridiculous skin tight bodysuit and was actually very conservative for a girl her age.
Of coursed she added the "All Might Bunny ears" as she jokingly called the almost antenna-parts of his hair to the hat. A simple sticking charm would keep it attached no matter what happened, though it could still be destroyed. They were a vibrant cheerful green instead of the blond, but they suited the witch costume she had designed as a joke...and to poke fun at Bakugo who had once called her an "evil witch".
She really wondered what sort of expression he'd get on her face if he knew she literally was a witch. A reincarnated one anyway.
Hearing the teacher say they had to show off their quirks made her twitch.
Perhaps she could cheat just a little? It would be annoying to get expelled this early because of a bad showing.
Besides, seeing Bakugo freak out a little is always hilarious. He was such a tsundere!