(Let's take a look backwards before we go any further.)
Once upon a time, Midoriya Izuku had aspirations to be a hero.
He'd get a fancy quirk, become a hero alongside his best friend, and save the world with a smile.
After his quirkless diagnosis at four, he'd hoped and prayed to every deity that some of those aspirations could eventually still come true.
Even without a quirk, he knew he could do great things. He could be heroic. He could still save people with a smile.
Centuries of history before the emergence of quirks were filled with stories of people accomplishing great feats without superpowers. It was possible! It had happened before, and could happen again.
His best friend drifted away, leaving behind a trail of burned skin and broken promises.
Without a quirk and without his best friend, he knew he could do good things. He could still be heroic. He could stand up for the weak and help them back to their feet with a smile.
Few people agreed with his dreams.
Fewer allowed his hope to linger.
Some even seemed so inclined to discourage any kind of growth.
More simply closed doors (and windows) in his face until his avenues for improvement were nothing more than back alleys, the darkened passages that skirted around legality and hovered at the forgotten or neglected fringes of society.
Without a quirk, without his best friend, without a clear path forward, he could still do something to help people. Probably.
Izuku spent his formative years learning how to navigate life that refused allowances for the quirkless. Great test scores or well-written assignments were thrown out for obvious cheating and plagiarism. Physical development classes either put him on the sidelines for being too fragile to participate or ignored his classmates' inappropriately rough behavior.
He wasted too much time learning how to avoid attention by hiding from sight and disguising any intelligent work behind the veil of mediocrity.
If they didn't notice his existence, they couldn't use it against him.
No secondary school worth their salt would permit him to sit their entrance exams. At least, none in the country. He found a public high school that didn't have impossible requirements that could bar his enrollment, but his brief attendance was soured by poor curriculum made worse by even poorer oversight of student behavior.
He dropped out after eight days and half as many broken bones.
Without a quirk, without a friend, without a clear path forward, and without a smile, he knew he could still somehow save people, but he'd have to get creative.
Online education turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Internationally accredited education plans couldn't legally request quirk status in order to meet regulations of several countries, so he could submit his best work without getting flagged for cheating or being looked down upon as some kind of unworthy student. Anything he couldn't test out of could be worked at an accelerated pace, and he found plenty of time to squeeze in courses that would prove invaluable to his planned career.
His plans grew into a beautiful, carefully crafted setup. If he couldn't help in person, he'd do it from the shadows (with a smile).
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the cute guy next door (might be a villain) // ShinZuku
Fanfiction[BNHA/MHA] [M/M] Quirkless, young adult Midoriya Izuku has a problem. Namely, he has a crush on his purple haired, tired-looking neighbor. They keep running into each other and the guy is actually pretty nice under that deadpan façade, has a sense o...
