All The Power

18: Patrol

Izuku didn't wait for Burnin to follow as he pushed the button for the top floor where Endeavor's office was. Arriving, he saw it was empty, so he returned to the elevator and went down to the gym. He found Endeavor sparring with Shoto, and by the looks of it, it was brutal. Shoto did his best to fight back against his father, but the veteran hero didn't give any ground. Izuku stood to the side and waited for their fight to finish. He saw many martial arts put to use. He recognized some, but he didn't have practice in the arts.

Finally, Endeavor knocked Shoto down, and he lay there for a moment. Endeavor turned to Izuku. "What is it you want?"

"Training in hand-to-hand fighting."

"Where is Burnin?" He furrowed his brow.

"I left her in the cafeteria. She pointed me to another, but she refused to train me. So I came to you for training."

"What training have you had before?"

"None, I wasn't allowed in training classes." Izuku wasn't going to hide his previous status anymore. If they scorned him, he would deal with it one way or another. It gave no benefit for hiding it, and revealing it will allow him to see what kind of person he is speaking with.

"Why is that?" Endeavor did read Izuku's profile, which contained what had happened in the USJ and his resulting psychological evaluation request. His admittance of not being allowed into a training center made him think of his rumored, unstable nature. Not to mention his last showing at the Sports Festival.

"Quirkless aren't allowed in them, I am a late bloomer." He saw the younger Todoroki was paying rapt attention to him.

"How late?" Endeavor continued.

"Last year." He watched Endeavor, and he couldn't read his expression. Shoto, on the other hand, was shocked.

"And you've managed to control your quirk in this short of time, incredible." He said it more to himself than Izuku. "Shoto, take a brake. I wish to see what Flux has in him." He dismissed his son without looking.

The rest of the day was grueling for Izuku. His previous training helped him keep up to a point, but he didn't have any formal training in anything. Endeavor didn't hold back as he threw Izuku left and right. Thankfully, Izuku could absorb the impacts, but his muscles will still be sore the next day. After a shower, he walked into the room set for him and Shoto. The other boy was already on his bed reading as Izuku came in with a damp towel on his head. He sat and checked his phone for the group chat. Everyone seems to be having fun with their internship with pictures sent through the app. He smiled to himself as he saw Tooru's selfie with her interned hero.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Shoto speaking. "What was it like growing up quirkless?"

Izuku looked up and saw the curiosity. "Hell, the scars I have are from others using their quirks on me because if I reported them they could get away with it. From teachers to police, they didn't care for a quirkless person, a fourth-rate citizen. Grades were marked lower to make the quirked look better than me. You can imagine the rest."

"Fouth-rate citizen? I thought the expression was 'second-rate citizen'?"

"I was at the bottom. You were on the top. If you wanted to go out there and study to be whatever you wanted, you could. I would have been rejected because what's better, someone with the same grades but one had a quirk. Who do you think they'll choose?" Izuku held no scorn for Shoto's better life compared to his but he wanted to use it as an example.

He scowled slightly. "My life wasn't as good as you think."

"I wasn't talking about your home life, I was talking about how you could go out without anyone batting an eye at you. I don't know what your home life was like but outside you could walk the streets without a kid your age jumping on you and the police looking the other way."