Chapter Text
Nezu, principal of U.A. High School, looked over this year's applications for the Hero Course with the help of his teachers on their computers. Like always, they received thousands of applications. Almost everyone in Japan wanted to enter U.A. Even strangers wanted to. But since it was U.A, the high school would only accept the best of the best, so each application was deeply studied.
Suddenly, Cementoss called Nezu.
“Mr. Principal, I have something that may interest you. A Quirkless kid who applied for the Hero Course.”
Nezu raised an eyebrow. That was a first. Usually, Quirkless kids applied for all the courses except the Hero one, knowing perfectly that it was no use to try. All the other teachers also got interested upon hearing this.
“Really? Who is this?” Nezu asked.
“One Midoriya Izuku from Aldera Junior High, Musutafu.”
Nezu immediately searched for the applicant on his computer and quickly found it. On his screen appeared the photo of a green-haired boy who… honestly looked very weak. The poor kid looked like he would get crushed by the robots of the entrance exam.
However, Nezu looked at the rest of the application. It wouldn’t do to dismiss the kid and potentially miss a hidden talent. There must be a reason why the kid believed that he could join the Hero Course.
His grades… were amazing. The kid had top marks in everything except sport where he was a disaster.
But for the Hero Course, having very good grades wasn’t enough. The kid was smart, very smart, but even ignoring the absence of Quirk, he failed where it was important: sport. Even Nezu, despite having an intelligence Quirk, could put physical effort when needed. The kid clearly couldn’t. And there wasn’t any mention of anything special about him. He had good grades, and that was all.
But… Nezu was distrustful of this application. He knew perfectly well how Quirkless people were treated. If the kid had shown any special talent, it was very likely that it was dismissed. Sadly, even teachers tended to look down on the Quirkless.
Then there were the words of said teachers. “Often gets into fights.” “Disruptive to other students.” “Lies about never causing trouble first.”
…What were the chances that Izuku Midoriya was getting bullied and the teachers put all the blame on him to protect the students judged “superior”? Very likely. Nezu saw that happening again and again and again, and he hated it. Oh, how he hated it with all his soul.
So he couldn’t trust this application. It was already a miracle that the teachers were willing to show the kid’s good grades, probably thinking that it was no use to hide them since they wouldn’t get him into the Hero Course.
No, the only thing he could trust about this kid was his own judgement. And for that…
He needed to visit Izuku Midoriya.
Izuku was a wreck. His application was sent to U.A, and now, he was left waiting, and it was killing him. Would they take a useless, Quirkless Deku like him to the Hero Course? Would they not? No, he knew that they wouldn’t. Nobody ever heard of a Quirkless in the Hero Course. And for a little scrawny thing like him who couldn’t even do a 100m without puking his gut out? Not a chance. It was a miracle that he managed to escape that sludge monster eight months ago. But… He had to try. You never know.
Just in case, he also applied for Gen.
But he really hoped that he would get accepted into Hero. It was his dream. It was why he never gave up despite everything. Despite what the teachers said. Despite what his classmates said. Despite what Kacchan said.
Despite what his mom said…
He just wanted to help others. Like his idol, All Might.
Right now, he was looking at his emails, waiting for the dreaded “We are sorry, we couldn’t accept you in the Hero Course.”
To pass the time, he was writing in one of his notebooks while mumbling, analysing the Quirk of a new hero that started a few days ago, Relay.
“Each time that someone hits him, someone else receives the hit, or if there is nobody else, an object nearby receives the hit. When he also touches something that moves with his hand, the interaction that is supposed to happen happens on something else. The original interaction is nullified. If Relay touches something thrown at him, the object suddenly loses all energy and drops. And if someone punches him, the punch ends up having no effect. So… does this mean that Relay registers the interaction and… relays it to a selected target? So far, the delay between the original interaction and the relayed one has been from one second to twelve seconds. Is this the limit? Or can Relay conserve the “force” longer? One minute? One hour? One day? More? Also, can he stock several “forces” or is he limited to—”
There was suddenly a knock at his door that interrupted him, making him jump on his chair.
“Y-yes, mom?”
His mom, Inko, opened the door and answered, “There’s someone who wants to see you.”
Someone wanted to see Izuku? His mom seemed to think the same thing, judging by her expression. Izuku… very rarely received visitors.
“Who?”
Inko seemed to have difficulty believing what she was about to say. “Mr. Principal.”
Izuku’s eyes widened. “Mr. Prin—You mean Nezu, the Principal of U.A? He-he came to see me?”
Inko simply nodded.
Why would Nezu himself come to visit Izuku? Certainly, it had something to do with his application. But, why? If it was to reject Izuku, surely it would be simpler to do it by email. Nezu had no reason to come. He was just a Quirkless kid with an impossible dream.
Izuku dropped his pen and got up from his chair, leaving his notebook open on his desk before his computer still turned on. He then followed his mother into the living room where the world’s most famous rat was indeed waiting, sitting on the couch, drinking tea.
Upon seeing him, Nezu smiled and gently placed his cup of tea on the table.
“Greetings, Mr. Midoriya. It’s nice to meet you.”
Izuku bowed. Low. “N-nice to meet you, Mr. Principal, sir! It’s an honor!”
“Please, simply call me Nezu. Now, come to sit. I wish to speak with you.”
Wordlessly, Izuku grabbed a chair and placed it beside the table, opposite from Nezu. Inko went to sit on the couch, beside the rat.
“Hmm… Can… Can I ask why you want to talk to me, uh… Nezu?” Izuku asked once he was sitting.
“Of course. It’s only natural to have this question. It must be confusing to have the principal of the most famous high school in Japan in your home. And to answer you, it’s simply because it is not everyday that we receive an application from a Quirkless kid asking to join the Hero Course, and I got curious. I wanted to see you personally and… judge by myself if you could get in or not. I didn’t trust your application. Well, more like I didn’t trust the words of your teachers.”
Izuku looked at Nezu in amazement. Before he could think of anything to say, Nezu continued.
“From what I could see, you have very good grades in everything but sport. You would be perfect for every course except Hero, and yet, you selected Hero. You also selected Gen Ed, but Hero was your first choice. Now, tell me, why? Why did you choose Hero despite your disadvantage?”
Izuku sputtered. “Uh… Well… Uh…”
“Breathe, Izuku. Take your time,” Inko tried to encourage him.
Izuku followed her words and took several deep breaths until he was calmed. He smiled at his mother in thanks, then took one last breath before he answered.
“I want to help people.”
Nezu smiled at that and nodded. “A very good reason to be a hero. But you could also help people by becoming a doctor, a policeman, or a firefighter, so why choose to be a hero?”
Izuku gulped, then breathed again, taking time to choose his words. “I… Well, at first, I just wanted to be like All Might. He’s my idol, you see… He’s so… cool. So amazing. The perfect hero. But now… I guess… I wanted to prove to everyone that I could become a hero despite being… Quirkless, including to myself.”
Nezu nodded again, then sipped some tea. “Good… Then, tell me… What do you have that would make you a hero? What is special about you?”
Izuku stared at Nezu in shock. No words were coming out of his mouth wide open.
“It’s clearly nothing physical, judging by your grade in sport. You certainly aren’t strong, or fast, or trained to fight,” Nezu added. “And sorry to say, but even if your other grades are so good, they won’t matter here.”
Izuku continued to stare at Nezu. Then, he sighed, dejected. “I… don’t think that I have anything special, Nezu. I’m sorry for wasting your time…”
Inko suddenly got up and walked away. “One moment.”
Izuku and Nezu watched her as she walked away… toward Izuku’s room? Not long later, she returned… with several of his notebooks that she placed before the rat.
“Please, read these.”
Izuku began to panic. “No, wait! They are nothing special! They are just… stuff that everybody thinks is creepy!”
Nezu didn’t listen to him however and opened the first notebook, beginning to leaf through it rather rapidly. Could Nezu’s Quirk allow him to read very fast?
Izuku closed his eyes, waiting for Nezu to tell him that his notes were creepy and that U.A. didn’t want a creep in its halls.
However, as Nezu read analysis after analysis… he said nothing, but in his mind, he was exulting.
“Since when did you start these analyses?” he then asked.
Izuku opened his eyes in surprise while Inko smiled.
“Uh… Since I was four…” he answered.
“I see… And everybody tells you that these are creepy?”
“Yes… When I start to write and mumble about heroes and villains and their Quirks, everyone finds it… weird.”
“Why did you start these analyses?”
“Because Quirks are so amazing and they offer so many possibilities that even heroes have difficulty understanding. Often, I watch a hero fight with difficulty, and I tell myself that if they could use their Quirk that way, they would have it much easier. Then, the day I become a hero, I could help them, and by knowing everything about their Quirks, I would know how to fight with them. And for villains, well, it’s always good to know how they work in case I… I end up facing one.”
Nezu continued to read. “These analyses put to shame what most professional analysts do. And you said that you didn’t have anything special? Clearly, this is not the case. These analyses are a work of art, and you, Mr. Midoriya, have a talent. These good grades undersold your brilliant mind.”
Again, Izuku stared at Nezu in shock, this time, with his eyes starting to get wet.
“That’s what I always told myself,” Inko said. “I often wondered why he never got to skip a year.”
Nezu frowned. “I know very well why, and I think that you two also know why.”
The two Midoriya looked down at that, knowing that the rat was right.
“Thank you, Ms. Midoriya, for showing these treasures to me, or I would have overlooked a diamond in the rough. And I guess that you never tried to sharpen this mind of yours, right, Mr. Midoriya?”
Izuku crossed his arms, looking away in shame. “It… It was hard to put any effort… when nobody believed in me… And I guess that I never really believed in myself either…”
Inko looked away, guilt in her face.
Nezu sighed and rubbed between his eyes. “I really hate today’s society… So this is why you also never tried to gain any muscle despite knowing that a hero needs to be strong, right?”
“...Yes…”
Nezu stared at the boy with determination in his eyes. “Then… Time to fix that.”
The two Midoriya immediately looked at the rat with big eyes at that.
“Izuku Midoriya, you have potential. Today, we have lots of heroes with strong bodies and strong Quirks, and even both at once, but heroes with a mind as strong as yours? It’s very rare. Among your analyses, how many are of heroes that are actual geniuses?”
“...Only yours, sir.”
“Exactly. Now, let’s do a little test. Let’s go to your computer.”
Still reeling from being complimented by Mr. Principal himself, Izuku got up from his chair and led the rat to his room. When Nezu entered, he looked around and saw the many notebooks certainly filled with countless analyses. He then climbed on the chair before the computer and grabbed the mouse.
“Tell me a hero or a villain you haven’t analysed yet.”
“Uh… Tarantula. I just know that she has a Quirk that allows her to create silk, but I never took time to analyse her.”
Nezu immediately found a video of the villain known as Tarantula.
“Good. Now, watch this video and analyse her.”
Izuku did so, and Nezu was amazed, which didn’t happen a lot nowadays. After having watched just a few seconds of the video, Izuku dissected Tarantula’s Quirk and found all her strengths and weaknesses, including some that nobody but Nezu had found, and even added what kind of support item would have made her Quirk better, without forgetting ways to improve her Quirk. He asked all the right questions, made all the right theories…
They did a few more villains, and also heroes, and even random people who weren’t heroes or villains, and Izuku brilliantly analysed all of them very rapidly.
And today’s society almost made the monumental error of making this boy disappear in the shadows.
But with the right training…
“Mr. Midoriya, you just proved my point. You have the potential to become a rare kind of hero: a genius hero. Even if you are Quirkless, your brain makes up for it, and that alone can make you very dangerous.”
Again, Izuku’s eyes widened.
“For years, people focused on what you lacked. Today, I wanted to know what you had. Now I have my answer. And this is why, I ask you, Mr. Midoriya… Do you want to become my apprentice?”
Izuku began to sputter. “But… But… the others… They all say…”
“I don’t care what the others say. I say that you can become a great hero. You are Quirkless? Yes, and that won’t be a problem. You have everything. You have the drive. You have the brain. Now, you just need training and, clearly, more self-esteem, and I can give you those.”
Izuku sputtered a little more, not finding the words. Then, tears appeared, he closed his eyes, and he cried.
“Yes! Yes, I want to be your apprentice! Please! Take me! I will do my best! I will train hard! I will go plus ultra! I will be the best hero possible!”
Nezu grinned. “Perfect. Then we will start tomorrow. Come to U.A. at 6 AM, sharp. Bring sports clothes. You’re going to regret saying yes.”
Izuku gulped.
At the room’s entrance, Inko, who had been smiling, widened her eyes. “But, what about his school?”
“Madam, I’m a principal. I can take over your son’s education from now on. And, clearly, his school isn’t suitable for him.”
Izuku rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the tears. “I-I will be there, Nezu. I p-promise.”
At that, Nezu ruffled his hair before he told them goodbye and left.
He needed to prepare the boy’s training. There were only two months until the entrance exam. It should be more than enough. Not physically, but mentally… Oh boy.