Wisp

The Worst

  Izuku first discovered his quirk on his fifth birthday. As he leaned forwards to blow out the candles on his birthday cake, the thin, wispy trails of smoke leaned away from him, forming the same pattern, and moving at the same time.

  The little five year old stared at the white tendrils for under a second before his eyes narrowed in what was an incredible amount of focus for a five year old boy. To his mother's surprise, and his glee, the smoke moved and wound together into a ball over the All Might themed cake.

  There was a lot of crying in the Midoriya household that night.

_______

  Izuku spent hours on end sitting infront of the small fireplace playing with the dark smoke created there.

  He sometimes got sooty and covered in ash, which exasperated his mother to no end, but he never once stopped playing with it.

  The quirk itself was quite weak. An unfortunate combination of Flame Breath and Attraction of Small Objects. Rather than pyrokinesis, telekinesis or some other form of powerful fire/mental quirk, Izuku could control a tiny, fist sized ball of smoke.

  Even so, he loved it.

  He could create whatever shapes he desired so long as they remained small enough to be fist-sized. He had absolutely perfect control over the amount of smoke he could influence.. He could even breathe it like air. That discovery had almost put poor Inko into cardiac arrest.

  Little Izuku was content with his quirk.

  The other children.. were not.

  Children are cruel creatures. Whether it be from jealousy or pride, they do their best to pull themselves up, and others down.

  Four year old Katsuki Bakugo was not an exception.

  He discovered his own quirk 6 months after Izuku, and was immediately hefted atop the totem pole by it. He could sweat a nitroglycerin like substance, and detonate it from his palms. Explosion. The perfect quirk for a hero.

  Katsuki's ego grew and grew, until he believed himself superior to everyone else.

  Especially the useless Deku.

  What's a bit of smoke going to do against a villain? Make him cough? Make his eyes water? Who would support someone that weak when you could praise the kid with explosive hands?

  So Izuku played alone. Stealing the smoke of whatever adult was smoking near the park and heading off into the trees to play with his only friend. His quirk.

  Pathetic, right?

  Nine years later, and Izuku was still friendless. He'd made considerable progress with his powers, but everybody just focused on the flashy, loud, abrasive underclassman Katsuki Bakugo.

  Izuku could perfectly control smoke contained within an area somewhere around his own size. He'd recently discovered he could change the smoke's colour, which he hadn't found a use for yet, but it was cool to know.

  His quirk wasn't good for battle. It could be used as a distraction, or to impair his enemies vision, but it was a double edged sword. He couldn't see through smoke any better than anyone else could. Trying to suffocate someone with it was a bad idea. That could very very easily turn fatal to the target, and Izuku did not want that on his conscience.

  So he'd trained his body a little. Not to a ridiculous degree, he ran every morning and lifted some light weights every now and then, but he wasn't muscular by any definition.

  Izuku had also looked up some martial arts online. It was a little late to just decide to pick one up, so he had the basic moves somewhat memorised, but he really wasn't all that good at it.

  He had been working on a supermove for the entrance exam, but it was a little.. very dangerous. Depending on what the exam entailed, it might not even be a valid option.

  He'd also solved the biggest problem of creating smoke to actually be able to use his quirk. He'd contacted a small support company that made support technology for teenagers preparing for the hero course. It was mainly used for focusing a quirk's output or dampening it if it couldn't be done manually by the user.

  For Izuku, they made cigarettes. They weren't real cigarettes, there was no tobacco or nicotine in them, they were made to create as much thick smoke as possible in a short amount of time. He had asked for that particular design for two reasons. One, it was amusing watching other people's reactions to his 'smoking problem'. Two, it disguised the fact that he couldn't produce smoke himself. A villain would see a cigarette and just ignore it. It wouldn't be the hero's only method of attack now would it?

  Once again, Inko almost had a heart attack when Izuku showed her the box. She'd eventually agreed it was a good idea, but only after making Izuku promise he wouldn't start smoking for real about 20 times.