The Trash Heap

Izuku dips his head down, immediately sliding under the desk on instinct. Izuku's left-hand twitches, and then again. He looks down when he suddenly feels a freeing warmth in his palm only to find emerald green flames licking around his open palm. He can feel how the power flows out of his skin, he presses it out mentally and it gets extinguished. He peeks his head out from under the desk when the noise stops. He sees Hizashi rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, holding his phone.

"I set that alarm so we could get to school on time." Hizashi said with a nervous chuckle.

"And you didn't think to turn down the volume because we're in a library?" Aizawa asks, as deadpan as ever.

"I-I mean it worked right Sho? It got our attention." He replies and starts quickly packing everything of his up.

"Hizashi, you're not going to escape me by running away, we're going to the same place." He calls out after Hizashi, who is speed-walking towards the door. Both Aizawa and Oboro pack up their things, albeit much slower than the highly motivated Hizashi.

On his way back into the bookshelves, Aizawa calls over his shoulder "Bye kid."

He gets a much more enthusiastic "BYE!" from Oboro as he follows after Aizawa.

He sits down on a chair, his legs stiff from standing for so long. He glances down at his hand, still feeling whatever caused the flames beneath the surface. He tries to use it on his finger, but his entire hand and forearm light up in the green flame. He jerks his arm to the side, trying to not set anything on fire and his arm moved to where he wanted it to much faster than normal. It takes a considerable amount of concentration and effort to rein the flames back in. He starts analyzing his own quirk, making guesses based on the situation with the information he has. 'Maybe speed increase? Or strength boosting like All Might has?! That'd be cool. It does more than that too! I saw that same flame when my injuries disappeared… I'll check it out soon when I'm not near so many objects that can be lit on fire.'

He is jolted from his thoughts by his stomach rumbling. He pulls an apple out of his stash and starts eating it. Promptly ignoring the thought about how his mom used to cut his apples into slices and that they even tasted better that way. When he's done with his apple he puts the core back into his quirk. Izuku realizes that it'd be best to learn the most about his quirk that he can. He wouldn't want to accidentally burn anything, after all. He walks out of the computer and lounge area, navigating his way back through the bookshelves to the front door. A different employee is at the desk currently, but they're scrolling through their phone and didn't even look at him.

He walks around, trying to find an alleyway that doesn't have anything he can burn or melt. He struggles to find one that fits his requirements. Apparently, there are a lot of things that can be set on fire. He is about to give up and find his way back to the library when he spots a large pile of trash just barely sticking over a nearby building. His curiosity gets the better of him and he walks around that building, finding a long road. Across the road from him, there are piles of garbage, lots of them.

The next thing he notices is the stench. He decides to not breathe through his nose, but it only helps so much. Izuku attempts to figure out what happened to this area and finds a stone sign, partially covered with a trash can lid. He pulls the lid off and the sign reads "Takoba Municipal Beach Park" Izuku pauses, he can't even see the sand of the beach through all of the trash.

'Well… I guess this is better than all of the places I came by earlier today.' He steps in between the trash heaps, finding a clearing where he can actually see some sand. He walks into the middle of the open space, questioning why there's a random space in the middle of the trash dump. It's almost like it was conveniently placed there for the plot.

Shaking off those thoughts, he looks around the area. 'This is as good a place as any to test out my quirk. Quirks? Or is it just one?.' He figures that he'll start off with the one he knows less about, to get a better grasp on it. He tugs off his shirt, placing it on the rusting car exoskeleton off to the side. He doesn't want to burn it, after all. There are no other shirts that Izuku has access to currently. He holds his right palm out and lets the power flow out of it. The Emerald green flames poured out and wrapped around his hand, creating an almost fabric-like weaving pattern. Then, slowly does it with his left hand. He slowly opens up the metaphorical gates in his forearms, testing his limits. He feels an extreme rush of power flow out of him and panics. Only to stop when he realized that the flames on his hands and lower arms were still in control.

An odd feeling hand clasps onto Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku freezes in place, thoughts racing about who or what the hand belongs to.

"Hey, kid! Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help with your power." When Izuku feels the grip loosen, he scampers forwards, spinning on his heel and almost running into the car frame. He meets eyes with a… golden ball of flames that has eyes?

"Uhhhhh who are you?" he asks, still cautious of the newcomer.

"I am the goddess of the golden flames-"

"You look more like a blob of flames."

The flames disappear, taking a humanoid shape when she reappears.

"You're mean kid, you didn't even let me finish speaking," she says while pouting like a child.

Izuku huffs and rolls his eyes "Well go on then, I don't have all day."

"I know that you do, in fact, have all day since you have nothing going on."

"Really? And how can you be so sure about that oh-so-mighty goddess of flames?"

She sighs and says "I lived in your head for a while kid, I don't even know why I thought you'd be friendly."

"Yea that was pretty stupid of you-"

"HEY!"

"Calm down, I'm just messing with you. Plus, I was gonna go to the library."

"You don't need to do that child, I have all of the knowledge you could ever need."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Like I just said, I lived in your head. Do you really think a child could be that smart without an intelligence quirk?"

"Ouch, and you said I'm the unfriendly one. But yeah, I suppose that does make sense."

"See? How many children casually use the word "suppose" in a sentence?"

"Well, uh, I do..?"

She faced palms. "That's not what I meant kid, now. Enough slacking off, let's get you in shape!"

"I have no idea where to start."

"Well, that's what I'm here for!"

Izuku groans "Why do you even care?"

She looks him dead in the eye, with toxic green eyes meeting slightly more flaming eyes, and says "Entertainment."

He snorted, "I was expecting a bit more than that, to be honest."

"You're an interesting character."

"Uhhh… thanks?"

"You're welcome, kid! Now stop avoiding the inevitable and get moving."

"You've still yet to tell me what to do."

"Oh," she chuckles sheepishly "Yeah I forgot that part…"

"Didn't you say that you had all the knowledge I would ever need?"

"Drop and give me 50 kid."

"W-what?"

"50 pushups, go. You're a walking stick, we need to fix that."

"I'm 4 years old-"

"Stop making excuses."

He groans "Fine fine."

He drops to the floor and starts doing push-ups.

"Normally, kids your age shouldn't be working out because their bodies aren't ready yet. But you are an exception because your body adapted to the flames."

He hums in response to the information "Do you have a name or am I just going to have to keep referring to you as lady?"

"I don't have a name, I was never given one. So call me whatever you want."

"Annoying." Izuku replies with no hesitation.

"You little-"

"I'm done, by the way." he says, standing up. He brushes the sand off of his hands. "Though it is strange how easily I did those."

"You never let me explain what powers I give you. You'll have more physical capabilities than the average human. I'll live in your head and can talk to you. This is also why you're able to retain much more knowledge than the average person. It was also the tugging sensation from before, but I wasn't able to manifest just yet. And obviously, the flames, though they aren't normal flames. The user can decide what they want to set ablaze and what they don't want to. They also allow you to go into speed mode when you spread out the flames evenly. This will further increase your physical capabilities, though this buff is much more significant. This mode will take a lot out of your body, so be careful."

"Jeez for being made of flames, you sure do talk a lot."

"I, in my two hundred-plus years of living, have never met someone as disrespectful as you."

"What're you having me do next, old hag?"

"What did you just call me?"

"Huh? What're you talking about, old hag?"

"You're going to regret calling me that kid."

...

Izuku did end up regretting calling her that. He groans, sprawled out across the asphalt, trying to suck in as much air into his lungs as possible. He closes his eyes and lets himself drift off into a dreamless, and surprisingly comfortable sleep.

The next day, he's jolted awake.