Chapter Text
Midoriya Inko was worried. Her son, Izuku, hadn't manifested his quirk yet and he was almost five years old. She was planning on taking him to the doctors shortly after his birthday to check if he would ever manifest his quirk. She wasn't a late bloomer, but her husband Hisashi said that he didn't know he had a quirk until he was almost 7. She hoped her son got a quirk that let him be a hero because he seemed so enthusiastic about it. She was just a little confused since the doctors said that they took compulsory x-rays of her son after his birth to check if he had a hidden mutation quirk, and they said he had much denser bones and muscles than newborns usually do.
What she didn't know at that time though, was her son was having a very rough time with his supposed best friend. Izuku was facing him, shaking in his big red shoes, standing in front of another boy, who was laying on the ground after getting beat up.
"That's mean Kacchan." His voice was shaking, but he raised his arms and spread his feet apart, taking a fighting stance, "If you keep going... I-I-I'll nevelfolgiveyou!" He shouted at the end, stumbling over his words slightly.
Kacchan stared back for a second before huffing. "Even though your Quirkless..." as he spoke, he and his two goons behind him prepared to attack Izuku, one of the boys growing big red wings on his back, the other's fingers extending. Kacchan pulled his hands up in front of him about his body width apart, his right hand closed in a fist and the other open. He slammed them together, creating a small explosion on collision, smoke drifting away.
They made their approach, each of them ready to throw a fist at Izuku. ' I don't want to get hit. Please don't hit me. Oh no, I'm going to get hit '. His eyes were closed and his thoughts were racing as he waited for their fists to rain down on him, but they never came. He slowly opened one eye, only to see his attackers moving in slow motion. He stood up straight, now only feeling in awe at what he was seeing. He only realised after what felt like a minute that their battle cries sounded deep, much too deep for children their ages.
Izuku took a look around the park they were in, he could see a bird flying out of a tree, except he could see it flap its wings in slow motion. He looked behind him to the kid he was protecting, and he could see the tears rolling down his face, moving down ever so slowly. He turned back to face Kacchan, his curiosity piqued but sated for the time being. He decided he'd try to move, expecting to be moving as slowly as everyone else, only to be surprised that he could move at his regular speed. He smiled. He had a quirk after all!
Suddenly everything was back to normal, except Kacchan had stopped running, a shocked expression on his face. His goons took a few more steps before they realised that Kacchan was no longer running with them. They didn't say anything, only looking at him with confused expressions on their faces. Kacchan, however, was staring at Izuku, who was smiling for seemingly no reason. He couldn't understand. ' Why is Deku smiling?! He's always crying by now! ' He resumed his attack, truly angry this time. Izuku snapped out of his stupor and dodged by taking a step to the side, which only angered Kacchan more. It went on for an unknown amount of time until eventually, Kacchan was exhausted while Izuku wasn't even out of breath. The goons from before were staring wide-eyed in shock at the event that just took place.
Just as Kacchan was about to get his goons to help him, his mother and her friend Inko, Izuku's mother, arrived at the park to pick them up. Izuku excitedly ran up to his mother, much much faster than she anticipated, since she had only seen a blur before he was in front of her and hugging her legs. She greeted her little ball of energy and said her goodbyes to her friend, Auntie Mitsuki.
----
About a week after the discovery of his quirk, Izuku's mother took him to a doctor to help flesh out his quirk. The doctor ran several scans to check his muscle mass and density among other things, and a couple of scans to check his bone density. The results were incredible, since he had muscles denser than most adults, and his bones were super-dense due to being partly composed of an unknown material.
Thinking about the accounts of what he could achieve, the doctor got Izuku to eat food while hooked up to a machine to measure how much of the caloric energy he metabolises, which was a shockingly high number, more than double that of the average person.
He did a simple test after hearing from Izuku that time seemed to slow down when he used his quirk. He had Izuku stand to the side in a large room, while at the one end a machine would shoot tennis balls to the other side, at around 60 kph. Painted on the floor spaced apart 1m, were white lines. The doctor said he wanted Izuku to use his quirk on his mark and tell the doctor how long it took the ball to travel between two of the lines. He was simply astonished at the number Izuku gave him, he almost couldn't believe that child could already have a quirk this powerful!
The doctor then had an idea. His curiosity was piqued. He asked Izuku to stand at the other end of the room and on his mark attempt to catch the ball. Of course, Izuku's mother was against this, since she saw how fast that ball was moving! Izuku could die! But she relented when she saw Izuku's puppy eyes, staring big and wide at her. The machine fired, and she saw the ball travel across the room, nought but a blur. Her fear spiked when Izuku didn't move a muscle, despite that it had gotten close as fast as it had. She was shocked though when Izuku disappeared from his spot at the end of the room and appeared in front of her holding the tennis ball out to her, grinning widely. She stared at him blankly, while the doctor was still stood next to the machine, making strangled noises in an attempt to formulate a response to the development.
Deciding they had done enough testing, the doctor took them back to the office. They sat there in silence, Izuku was grinning brightly. The doctor spoke after a few minutes of silence; "I'm honestly surprised that nothing showed up earlier. This is clearly a mutation quirk since there are no signs it could be anything else from any of the tests we've done. Did you perhaps notice anything Ms Midoriya?"
She was quiet for a moment, thinking of a response before she said something; "After he was born they did some tests to check if he had a mutation quirk, and we were told he had extremely dense bones. That, and over the years I have noticed that he could always run faster and for longer than the other children. Both younger and older."
The doctor had a contemplative look on his face. He was clearly thinking about what could've caused the boys quirk to only act up now. Regardless he needed to register the boys' quirk. "All I can think of is it took a certain level of maturity for it, but that doesn't apply to mutation quirks. Regardless, do you perhaps have a name for your quirk, Izuku?"
The boy dropped his grin and adopted a very serious face, thinking about what to name his quirk. ' Super speed? No that's not cool at all! I can’t think of anything else though! ' "'Superspeed' I guess?" He finally said, face squishing in disgust. The doctor and his mother chuckled. With that, he could go about his life not having to worry about being bullied for being quirkless.
----
The next day at kindergarten, Izuku ran into the class calling out for Kacchan, seemingly having forgotten about the events that helped him manifest his quirk. Kacchan looked to the green-haired boy and smiled. When Izuku felt he was close enough he started speaking rapidly; "KacchanIhaveaquirk! It'ssocool!" Kacchan, having gotten used to the boy talking quickly, managed to understand everything he said.
He smirked and said; "Oh yeah? What is it? I bet it's weak because it's yours Deku." Izuku frowned at that. It wasn't weak at all!
"I can run super fast!"
"How do you think you can be a hero with that? All you can do is run away because you're just weak little Deku. Scared of everything." Izuku's frown only grew at the blonds words. He wasn't sure that he wanted to be friends with Kacchan anymore, suddenly remembering all the things he's had happen to him at Kacchan's command. He thought in silence for a while, not noticing he was using his quirk to think at super speeds.
Eventually, he came to a decision; "Kacchan, I don't think I want to be your friend anymore. You're really mean to me and I don't like that, so I'm going to do what my Mom did to my Dad, and leave you."
Suffice to say, Kacchan did not like the words he just heard. His face turned into an angry scowl and his palms started lighting up with sparks. He growled; "Hah?! You don't quit being friends with me! I'm better than everyone! Especially you Deku!" He had caught the attention of the other children, but luckily the caretakers were busy doing something elsewhere, so he couldn't get in trouble. He lunged at Izuku, aiming his still sparking palms at Izuku's face. Izuku, on the other hand, stood still, not out of fear but out of courage, or stupidity depends on who you ask. He just didn't want to prove Kaccha- No, he didn't want to prove Katsuki right. So instead of running away, he would fight. Of course, he wouldn't take the hits, since pain sucks. So, he'll dodge and hit Katsuki in the gut, in the hopes it'll deter him from continuing.
So that's what he did. He threw his little fist at Katsuki after moving to the left to dodge his attack. What he forgot to do though, was throw his punch at a normal speed rather than super speed. What he also forgot, was that his denser muscles made him stronger. Him forgetting these two key pieces of information sent Katsuki flying. Or he looked like he flew anyways. He was thrown back about 2 meters before landing on his back, out of breath from the impact. There was only a stunned silence as Katsuki groaned and coughed while he tried to get air into his lungs.
At some point, the caretakers came into the classroom with a crowd of silent kindergarteners staring at Katsuki and Izuku. They, of course, panicked. Though Izuku wasn't silent just because he was surprised by how much power he had hit Katsuki with, he was also silently contemplating the fact he had just made himself Katsuki's sole target for bullying for the rest of his life.
----
Izuku found every day to be too slow for him, so he started to waste time going on a quick run every morning. He didn't really need to since his quirk always made sure every part of his body he needed to run was in top condition, but he did it anyway to pass the time. He started with a nice short 10 kilometres but found that it didn't take up enough time for him, so he bumped it up to 15 kilometres. He ran the same route and saw the same people every morning. It did suck that he didn't have any good running clothes though, and his shoes always wore through to quickly when he went super speed, so he had to keep it to jogging speed.
Recently he had started his third year of middle school, and it was good. Somehow though, he had Katsuki in his class again. They always end up in the same class, it's like the school knows their on bad terms and just loves to mess with them. Though it's not any real issue for Izuku since Katsuki was far too slow to ever bother him. He was worried about something today though, he hadn't seen his trainer at all. The man is almost always running with Izuku, so the fact he wasn't there made him think that training might have been cancelled. They hadn't exchanged contact details at all, so he wouldn't be able to ask.
Izuku finished with his run, going back to his room and getting dressed for school. Once he was done he had breakfast with his mother, the two of them making casual conversation about what that day's events would likely hold. He then finished his preparations for school and walked to school. He got to an underpass of a train track though, where there was a villain with a gigantification quirk rampaging. He contemplated dealing with it himself but decided against it when he saw Backdraft, Death Arms and Kamui Woods.
Kamui Woods was about to contain the villain with a special move when a hero came out of nowhere and drop kicked the villain. It turned out to be Mount Lady, a new hero making her debut. She also appeared to have a gigantification quirk, though it made her much larger than the villain she defeated. Izuku filed the event away in his mind to record and write about in his journal later. He loved analysing heroes and their quirks so much!
He continued making his way to school, deciding to pick up the pace so as not to be late. Being late would be very out-of-character for someone with a quirk like his now wouldn't it?
He made it to class on time, taking his seat close to the back of the classroom. He sat there waiting for his homeroom teacher, who never made it a point to be on time, to arrive and start class. Eventually, he walked in, carrying a stack of papers.
The moment he got to his podium, he put the papers down and started yelling; "You guys are all third-years. It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures! I would hand out these future career forms, but..." He grabbed the papers again, turning around and throwing them behind him dramatically as he said; "I assume you all want to be heroes!" The moment he finished, every student, sans two of them, erupted into a cacophony of noise, firing of their quirks. After a few seconds, the teacher thought they'd had enough fun and began to scold them for using their quirks.
Just as he had got the students calmed down, one of the aforementioned two students, Katsuki, yelled at him; "Teach! Don't lump me in with these losers!" He now had the attention of the whole class, so he continued; "As if I have anything like their crappy quirks." This definitely got on the nerves of the other students because someone shouted “Get over yourself Katsuki!” to which he shot back; "Shut up! Extras should just act like extras!"
It was then the teacher thought it'd be a good idea to say something. But he didn't try to get the class to calm down, he instead said something else; "Ah Bakugo. You, of course, must be aiming for U.A. high school." That got the other students to shut up. They each made exclamations on how prestigious U.A. was, how it was difficult to get into, and that they accept almost no one.
Katsuki decided it'd be a good time to take back control of the 'conversation'; "Ah, the stupid chattering of extras! I aced the mock exam!! I'm the only one here with the stuff for U.A.!" He was standing on his desk now, shouting at the top of his lungs; "I'll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there! Not to mention I'll be one of the richest people in the world!!"
"Oh. You're also going for U.A., aren't you, Midoriya?" The teacher asked.
Stunned silence struck the classroom for a moment as each student turned to look at Izuku as if he was some criminal. Then they laughed. "Huh?! Midoriya?! No way!!" "You can't just run your way into the hero program!" Students made exclamations of disbelief at the idea of Izuku joining the hero program, simply because they were only concerned with the fact his quirk was called "Superspeed" not with anything it actually allowed him to do. Izuku tried to speak up but they only got louder, except Katsuki, who was boiling with rage that Izuku even dared to think about becoming a hero.
He decided he'd had enough and jumped towards Izuku, pulling his right arm back with his palm open. Izuku could see his sweat gathering in his palm, preparing to be ignited the moment it came close to Izuku. Izuku thought about possible solutions to the oncoming hothead. ' I could dry off his hand, that'd be funny. I could just dodge it too, but then I'd be proving them right... Alright, I'll just dry off his sweat '. The world slowed, so much so, that time almost looked frozen. Izuku has only gotten faster with age, though it'll probably peak once he finishes high school. He grabbed a handkerchief he had on hand for something like this, and got up and walked around his desk towards the suspended Katsuki. He couldn't really reach Katsuki's hand well enough since he had jumped from off the top of a desk, so he hopped on a nearby chair and placed the cloth snugly and tightly against his palm. ' That's not going to stay there, I'll tape it on '. So he did just that. He looked through desks until he found some, and got a sizeable amount before he walked back to Katsuki, who had barely moved an inch. He took his time sticking the tape on, after all, it's not like they could prove it was him. Once his work was done, he went back to his seat, sat down, and leaned back to watch the show.
Everything resumed at its regular speed. Katsuki descended, landing in front of Izuku's desk. His hand slammed down on top of it, but nothing happened except for a loud SLAP. Confusion took over Katsuki's features. It took a lot out of Izuku not to betray that it was him. Katsuki roared in frustration as he ripped off the handkerchief and tape from his hand. He didn't bother trying to make another explosion, instead opting to continue where he left off; "You think you can stand shoulder to shoulder with me?! HUH DEKU?!" No one said or did anything. The teacher especially didn't, his face just had 'I'm not paid enough to get blown up' written all over it. Izuku decided that he should answer Katsuki;
"Of course I can. Who do you think just dried up your nasty sweat for you?" Izuku smirked at him. Before Katsuki could do anything else though, the teacher decided that it was a good time to get class back on track. In the end, he did hand out the forms out of obligation to his duty as a teacher. The rest of the day was pretty normal, except that Katsuki shot him a glare more times than he could be bothered to count.
----
Izuku had spent the last 10 minutes of class looking through some of his notes in his latest hero analysis book, so when the bell went signalling the end of school for the day, he mindlessly packed up and didn't notice Katsuki and his two lackeys. He was about to pack his notebook in his bag when suddenly it's no longer in his hands. He looks up to see Katsuki looking up to him slightly holding Izuku's notebook in his left hand.
"Give it back Katsuki," Izuku commanded, leaving no room for argument.
"What if I don't wanna?" He asked, sneering at him.
"Then I'll take it back thank you," Izuku answered, moving his hand faster than Katsuki ever could, grabbing his notebook back and quickly put it in his bag. He turned to leave only to come chest to face as one of Katsuki's lackey's attempts to block the way there. ' I don't have time for this ', he thought to himself as he pushed the guy out of his way. The lackey stumbled at the unexpected force, but he was out of Izuku's path before he could do anything. Before Izuku could open the door to leave though, Katsuki slammed his hand next to it, creating a small explosion and charring the wall slightly.
"Katsuki, I'm sure you have better things to do than try and threaten me into not going to U.A.," Izuku said, stunning Katsuki. He left before the debacle could continue.
----
Izuku was on his way to the training location he and his trainer use, which is some dump that used to be a beach. They'd only been training a month but they (Izuku) have already cleared about a tenth of it. Izuku was hoping his trainer was fine since no one else seemed to know how to help someone with natural super strength, even if it was only minor enhanced strength compared to people with strength enhancement quirks.
Izuku decided to take a shortcut through an underpass. He was too absorbed in his thinking about what to do if his trainer wasn't there or he didn't arrive there, to realise that something was coming out of the manhole he had just walked over. It was only when he heard someone say something behind him that his attention was focused back on his surroundings; "A disguise... *pant* in medium-size..." Everything slowed down to a crawl as Izuku turned to the source. ' He sounds tired like he's been running. He also called me a disguise... Is this guy a villain? It'd probably benefit me to not get caught since there probably isn't much I could do against someone made of liquid '. While Izuku was thinking, he was also fighting the urge to ask the apparent villain: 'Are you a bad slime?'
"Are you a bad slime?" He failed. The urge was just too strong. The villain clearly wasn't expecting to be asked a question as he stopped moving for a second, stunned. He continued onward, flinging himself at Izuku in an attempt to catch and cover him. Too bad he was much slower than him, so Izuku simply took a few steps back.
"Stand still you brat!" The villain yelled at Izuku.
"Now why would I do that when I can stall you until help arrives?" Izuku asked, turning to the side to dodge a disgusting dark green tendril. It was at this moment Izuku heard something else come from the manhole, it sounded like heavy footsteps. The villain screamed in frustration as the manhole cover behind him shot up and hit the ceiling of the underpass. A large silhouette jumped out and shouted,
"FEAR NOT! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!" The villain seized up and Izuku stared at the apparent pursuer of the villain in excitement. ' All Might! I've wanted to meet him my whole life! I wonder... Is he faster than me? '
As Izuku was in his head, All Might dispatched the villain with a Texas Smash and was trying to get the boys attention. What All Might wasn't expecting when he approached the kid, was for him to be mumbling at what seemed to be supersonic speeds, "KID!! CALM DOWN, THE VILLAIN HAS BEEN APPREHENDED." Izuku seemed to have heard him and immediately started fanboying.
"Oh my god, it's All Might! Hey hey, All Might, what's your top speed? Actually, can I get an autograph? But really what's the fastest you've ever run?" Izuku fired out the questions almost too fast for All Might to catch it, ‘ just like always, Young Midoriya. You always have spoken at speeds that are rarely coherent, it's amusing sometimes ’.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY TOP SPEED IS YOUNG MAN, BUT I'M SURE YOU COULD MATCH IT WITH HARD WORK! HAHA! NOW, I MUST BE OFF TO HAND THIS VILLAIN TO THE POLICE." All Might spoke as he signed Izuku's book on the first empty page he saw. He then pocketed the villain who now resided within two empty soda bottles. Izuku noticed that they weren't very securely put in his pockets and decided to let All Might know so he can avoid any more incidents.
He turned to All Might who was crouched and ready to leap into the sky. "All Might! The bottles! They're not secured properly in your pockets!" This caught All Mights attention, and he realised that they were indeed not secured properly and almost looked like they would've fallen out the moment he took his leap.
"THANK YOU, YOUNG MIDORIYA! THAT COULD HAVE CAUSED MANY ISSUES!" ' Uwaaahhh!!! That could've been absolutely horrible! I'm already running short on time! Who knows what that could've done! '
Izuku waved at All Might as he left, excitement all over his features. He stood there staring at where All Might was standing, then remembered he had somewhere to be. He continued on his way now armed with a story to tell his mentor. Though, he didn't tell All Might his name...
----
Izuku arrived at the beach they were training at, Dagobah. It was a sad place really, covered entirely with trash. Recently though, it had been getting cleaner and was slowly gaining back its former beauty. Izuku walked through the piles until he got to a little clearing which was nigh impossible to spot from outside the beach. It was there that Izuku trained with his mentor. Izuku normally got there before him though, so as usual he got changed into workout clothes while he waited.
After about 20 minutes his mentor arrived, "Young Midoriya! I see you're here on time as usual. How about we get started yeah?"
"Yes, Mr Yagi!"
~~~~
Izuku met Mr Yagi on a morning run a little over a month before school started. He was about halfway done with his route when he saw a blond man hunched over gasping for breath. He ran up to the man and decided to strike up a conversation, "You ok there? I was doing my run then I saw you looking like you just ran a marathon."
The blond man seemed almost shocked that someone was talking to him. He then smiled and spoke, "Yes I'm fine, just taking a short break. I'm not exactly in the best shape," he gestured to himself as he said the last part. "And you? Did you just start? You seem to be doing fairly well for someone your age." The man continued.
"Ah, no actually, I was about halfway when I saw you. Though I guess I am pretty good when it comes to running, especially when my quirk relies on it. That's probably why I'm a bit lacking in the upper body department compared to my legs." Izuku replied.
"If I may ask, what is your quirk Young man?" The man asked.
"It's uhh... It's super speed. Though I get a few other perks like super endurance and increased regeneration to name a couple. It's a mutation quirk too, so my legs are naturally well built, though my upper body is made to withstand the speeds I can, so I'm not exactly weak," Izuku spoke shyly.
' Damn! That's amazing, his quirk is perfect for hero work! ' "That's amazing! I do hope you're aiming to become a hero?" The man asked him.
Izuku smiled widely and spoke, excitement clear in his voice, "Yes sir! I want to help people with a smile on my face! Just like All Might!"
The man smiled at that. ' Just like me huh? I hope he succeeds '. "Well Young man, it was nice meeting you. Oh and it may be a little late now, but my name is Yagi Toshinori." He offered his hand to Izuku.
"It was nice meeting you Mr Yagi, my name is Midoriya Izuku," Izuku said in reply, a smile on his face.
Izuku turned away so that he could finish his run. Just before he could get going again though, Mr Yagi called out from behind him "Young Midoriya! Actually, I think I could help you out with some strength training. It's up to you though." Izuku took a few moments to think about it. ‘ I mean, I was already checking out some gyms, but if he's willing to help… ’
"Sure! What did you have in mind?" Izuku said in return to the offer.
"Well, I was thinking you could meet me at Dagobah Municipal Beach this Saturday we can get started then if that's alright with you Young Midoriya?" Mr Yagi answered. Mr Yagi thought to himself, ' This kid seems like a good candidate for One For All... Hopefully, my judgement isn't wrong' .
"Hm... Alright! Say... is 12:00pm alright? I'm pretty busy up until then but I can switch my schedule around after that." Izuku agreed, while also taking the initiative and deciding on the time.
"That's a little later than I'd have liked, but if that's the earliest you can be there, then that will have to do. See you there Young Midoriya!" As he replied, Mr Yagi turned around and continued his run.
Suffice to say, Izuku was satisfied with his morning run. He managed to find someone who not only praised his quirk but also offered to train him ! He was ecstatic when he got home, much to his mother's delight.
~~~~
They met up at the beach and decided that they would regularly meet up to train, though Mr Yagi didn't do any training himself. He just supervised Izuku and gave him tips, while driving a truck to dump the trash Izuku moved. Mr Yagi did eventually give Izuku a meal plan that would help build muscle. It was also around this time Izuku experienced a growth spurt, in which he grew several centimetres by the time school had started. Mr Yagi also said that Izuku could get some training equipment for home if he felt like it, just in case he wanted to do some extra stuff.
It was about a week after the sludge villain incident that Mr Yagi had to cut one of their training sessions short though. "Why is that sir?" Izuku asked out of curiosity.
"I have a meeting I can't miss. It's very important." Mr Yagi answered plainly.
Izuku hummed to himself in thought. ' Interesting... Well, if it's important there's no helping it. And I don't think it's my place to find out either, it's his business, not mine '.
"Well, have fun and good luck!" Izuku said.
As Mr Yagi was leaving he thought to himself ' I don't think I'm ready to pass down One for All yet, but it has to be done soon or the torch will go out. So, I hope this Togata-kun that Nighteye speaks so highly of is as good as he says. From what I've heard and the little bit I've seen of him he is quite remarkable, but I want MORE than just ability. I want WILL, I want CONVICTION '.
That night, Izuku pushed himself a little harder with his home training because his beach training had ended early.
That night Mr Yagi, better known as All Might, was presented with a difficult choice to make.
