b

"He seems awful," Reiki was saying, glaring at Endeavour's son.

"No, he doesn't," Izuku disagreed. "He's abused."

"Que?"

"What?"

"Exactly."

"... What?"

Reiki sighed. "What do you mean, he's abused?"

Izuku gestured vaguely at his face. "Abused."

As she looked back over at the boy, Reiki's eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh."

"Yeah."

She laughed, leaning back against the wall as another prospective student came in. "It's incredible, Deku. How you look at the most prickly of people and see someone who needs saving." She grinned. "Do you think Endeavour needs saving?"

"Saving from himself, maybe," Izuku muttered, shooting a dark look at him. "I'd guess he's constantly going on spirals of self-loathing. He puts too much pressure on himself for absolutely no reason. You know what he needs? Therapy."

"Don't we all."

Nezu trotted over, eyes glinting with interest. "So. You're quirkless, yes?"

"Yes."

"And a vigilante at such a young age, interesting."

Izuku felt his heart speed up, but he managed to cover his panic by raising an eyebrow nonchalantly. Reiki was doing an excellent job of tilting her head to the side in confusion. "Hmm?"

"People are calling you Entropy."

"I've never heard of that," Izuku said. That was, at least, honest. He'd never heard anyone call him Entropy before. He had to wonder where that nickname came from. Probably Stain or Dabi. The two of them were crazy.

"How did you two meet?"

"Through a friend," Reiki said with a rehearsed smile.

"A friend at a bar?"

Izuku looked at Reiki and Reiki looked at him back and they simultaneously came to the same conclusion. Nezu was too smart for them. All they could do now is refrain from saying anything incriminating that could be used against them.

"I'm underage," Izuku said, tipping his head to the side and narrowing his focus on the conversation. One slip up and this would fall apart.

"I'm surprised you care about not breaking the law," Nezu said, "with everything you've done."

Izuku was actually quite proud of how little he did illegal things. Only occasionally, when he needed to hack into something or had to go to the bar. But technically he could do whatever he wanted as a vigilante as long as he didn't use excessive violence or use his quirk, so the laws he did break were usually minor, maybe enough to get him a couple months in jail.

But Nezu wasn't allowed to know about that.

"I'm surprised you think a prospective hero would be fine with breaking the rules."

"So you think heroes shouldn't ever break laws? Does that extend to Fujimoto-san?"

Reiki stiffened a little.

"Doctor-patient confidentiality," Izuku said smoothly. "She's legally required to help whoever she can."

Nezu laughed, corners of his eyes crinkling up. "I like you, Midoriya-kun. I hope you pass."

Letting himself relax a little, Izuku nodded. "Me too."

Reiki nudged him in the shoulder. "Obviously."

The Todorokis kept glaring at a green boy in the corner, so Inasa decided to go over and try to make friends, because any enemy of Endeavour was a friend of his. He bounded up, beaming, and bowed. "What's up, I'm Yoarashi Inasa!"

The boy smiled toothily, causing the woman next to him to start cracking up laughing for some reason. Inasa didn't mind. Both of them seemed very passionate. "Hi! I'm Midoriya Izuku. It's so nice to meet you! Are you excited for the exam?"

"Yep! I'm not nervous at all, it's going to go great, I'm sure of it!"

The boy nodded, still smiling widely. There was something off about his smile, but Inasa couldn't place what it was, so he just put it down as sheer nervousness. He rattled off, "Pronouns, favorite color, quirk. Go!"

Midoriya nodded, responding, "He series, um. Red? And I'm actually quirkless."

Inasa froze. "You're… Wait, what?"

"I'm quirkless," he repeated, smile becoming a little fixed.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry."

"It's not a bad thing," the woman next to him snapped, glaring.

"Um… okay." Inasa thought it was a very bad thing, but maybe this woman just didn't understand what being quirkless meant. It meant being weaker than everyone else, being the person heroes saved, instead of… Wait. "But then what are you doing here?" Inasa asked him, confused.

"Taking the recommendation exam."

Inasa's eyes widened. That was a terrible idea! "But, like… man, you're going to die." And even if he didn't die in the recommendation exam, there was no way he was going to get in, so why would it matter? Why take the test if he knew he was going to fail? Quirkless people couldn't be heroes.

Neither of them took his statement well. Midoriya's smile completely dropped, replaced by something a lot darker. "Am I?" he asked, voice dangerously low.

Nezu interrupted before Inasa could answer, clapping his paws together and standing on his desk. "We're going to get started now!" Nezu announced, sharp eyes drifting over to Midoriya and Inasa. They lingered on Midoriya before moving on. "The exam is split into three parts: a written exam, a practical exam, and an interview. We'll get started with the written exam now, so please find a seat. While you are all taking the written portion, I'll be interviewing your sponsors. Present Mic will be officiating the practical portion, so when you've finished the written exam please find him in the hallway and wait for the others to be finished. Thank you for your time, we look forward to your applications. I myself am quite excited for this new group of--"

Present Mic burst into the room just in time, as Nezu seemed to be about to go on a long ramble. "WHO'S READY TO TAKE THE WRITTEN EXAM?" Present Mic screeched.

Inasa cheered. No one else did, but that was fine. Present Mic had enough enthusiasm and passion for all of them.

Present Mic pointed at him as Nezu climbed down from the desk and started leaving the room. "I like you!"

"Sponsors, follow me," Nezu said, standing at the door. Inasa's sponsor gave him a good luck pat on the shoulder and left the room. Midoriya's sponsor gave him a long, serious look, to which he returned a sharp nod, before she left. When all of the sponsors were out, Nezu said, "Good luck!" and closed the door with an evil smile.

Inasa grinned, putting the quirkless kid out of his mind. He was ready.

As much as Reiki loved Deku, she didn't know how she was going to talk him up to Nezu, the smartest being on the planet. Nezu had a sharp mind, and Reiki wasn't nearly as good at lying as Deku was.

Unfortunately, Nezu seemed to be extremely interested in Deku, so he asked her to come in first.

People sent her dirty looks as she passed them. Most of them probably didn't recognize her-- her hero costume was a complicated mask, and no one ever recognized her when she wasn't wearing it. No one recognized her when she was being herself. Except for villains and Deku, that is. And even if they did recognize her, now that everyone was aware of Midoriya's quirk status, they were hostile to her for sponsoring a weakling. If they were thinking that, though, they were dead wrong, and Deku was about to prove it in the practical.

Reiki couldn't wait to watch the practical.

She stepped into Nezu's office, letting the door slide shut behind her.

"Tea?" Nezu asked, climbing up into his chair and sliding a full teacup across the desk toward Reiki.

"Thank you."

"Let's discuss Midoriya Izuku, shall we?"

She nodded, mouth going dry. This was even more stressful than she'd imagined it was going to be.

"Why do you think he'd be a good fit for U.A.? What makes him a hero?" Nezu asked.

Reiki's shoulders slumped down in relief. She could answer that. "Deku has the kindest heart I've ever seen," she said honestly. "He extends it to everyone he comes across. He has a lot of criticism on hero society, but he treats it as an issue that needs to be solved, rather than submitting to it or using it as an excuse to be violent. He's observant and he genuinely cares about everyone, in a way I don't even see many heroes caring."

"And you see this when he's a vigilante?"

The corner of Reiki's lip twitched up and she forced it down. Nezu really was tricky. "I see it anytime I'm around him."

"Do you think he can keep up with the curriculum?"

Reiki almost laughed. "He's one of the smartest people I know and he's a teenager. Of course he can. He'll probably stay ahead, even."

"Now, I know you probably want to avoid discussing this, but unfortunately we need to talk about his quirklessness."

Reiki let a scowl cross her face. So much unintentional discrimination in this world. Who cared about his quirk? He wanted to be a hero.

"Do you think he'll be able to handle the extreme conditions heroes face every day?"

"Having a quirk makes no difference in handling stress," Reiki said coldly.

"Can he hold himself against a quirked opponent?"

Reiki lifted her eyes and met the rat's. "You're the one convinced he's a vigilante. What do you think?"

Exam

Chapter Notes

Okay you know what? I'm bored and don't want to do my homework so I'm posting another chapter instead. I wrote another two this morning so I'm really ahead and it's bugging me so you're going to get a chapter a day until we're caught up to where I am.

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS CHAPTER.

I was writing it and I was like… how do I get Izuku to cheat on the obstacle course? Because obviously he's not going to win unless he cheats. But then I couldn't figure it out and I had to stop writing for a FULL DAY so I could try to think through how to cheat on an obstacle course (which sucked). Anyway, I did figure out how to get him through the obstacle course.

Now confession time, I hate writing scenes like this where its rapid fire action and movement. I like the slow, plodding moments, not the ones where it's a rush and he doesn't have time to think. Mostly because that means I have to think too. Like I had to think very hard on how to get Izuku through this obstacle course. So much effort. Anyway, so if it feels… off at all, or rushed or something, that's my bad sorry.

tw// discrimination

See the end of the chapter for more notesThe written exam was easy. It was so easy, Izuku started to get concerned he was answering questions wrong, and they were secretly all trick questions. Some of them were difficult, obviously, and he knew for a fact he hadn't answered all of them correctly, but overall, the test wasn't hard at all.

Izuku finished first, by a lot. He took his test to Present Mic and went to sit at his desk. After he sat for several minutes of intense boredom, the girl with the black ponytail got up and handed in her test. The Iida kid was next, and after that, people started filing their tests rapidly. When everyone had finished, Present Mic passed out numbers to pin to their chests and started shepherding them to the location of the practical exam.

As Present Mic explained the exam, Izuku fell into deep thought.

An obstacle course. An obstacle course race .

Izuku didn't have a speed quirk, and knowing U.A., the obstacles would be difficult. So his only option was to cheat, or to stop everyone else from moving. He didn't think Nezu would mind him cheating, as long as he didn't technically break any rules. Nezu honestly would be delighted at his creative thinking. So he listened carefully as Present Mic began listing the rules, trying to figure out how to cheat the race. How could he get to the end faster than everyone else? What could he, a quirkless, weaponless kid, do to cheat on the practical?

The obstacles would probably slow everyone else down, except for the few people that were too powerful and could just blow right past them. If Izuku could find a way around the obstacles, that would be best, but based on the map, the obstacles took up the entire space of the course. He chewed on his lip. Luckily, Present Mic was sending people to go in groups, so he had time to think. Keeping half-an-eye on the other examinees, he tried to focus on the issue at hand.

Maybe the best course of action was just to take the obstacles at a pace he could deal with, showing off his skills instead of trying to get around it. He wanted to finish first, but maybe he didn't have to. Maybe he just needed to show what he could do… but what could he do, really? He was good at hand-to-hand combat and analysis and knowing what other people could do with their individual skills…

He blinked. Groups. They were being put into groups. A grin spread across his face and he turned to find the billboard that said who he was being grouped with.

Memorizing the names, he started searching through the small crowd of people who were taking the recommendation exam. He came across the girl with the ponytail and smiled.

"Hey, are you Yaoyorozu Momo?"

She blinked in surprise at being spoken to, but nodded. "Yes, that's my name."

"Hi, I'm Midoriya Izuku. We're in the same group. I was wondering if you wanted to team up."

"To team… up?"

He nodded. "Right. I was going to find everyone else too. I think we can pass the fastest out of everybody if we work together."

The Iida kid came over, chopping his hands through the air violently. "That's not how the test is supposed to work!" he scolded.

Izuku tipped his head to the side. Iida was in his group too, which was annoying because of how uptight the guy seemed to be. "There's not a rule against it. It's called teamwork, and I actually think it's an admirable quality in a person."

"I'm in your group too," a girl with dark green hair said, poking her head into the conversation. She literally poked her head in, her body was standing a few feet away. Izuku grinned.

"You must be Tokage Setsuna."

"That's it."

"Okay, can I know your quirks please? All three of you."

"I'm not sure this is a good idea…" Yaoyorozu said, crossing her arms over her waist nervously. "It might be better if we show off our skills individually."

The rest of Tokage's body came over as she frowned. "I think being able to show that you can work in a group is a really important thing for a hero. Plus, I really want to win, and I think we'll be able to do that better if we work together."

Yaoyorozu considered that for just a moment before nodding. "Okay. My quirk is creation. Anything you can think of, I can create from my skin."

Izuku's eyes widened in excitement. "That is such a cool quirk! The applications of that… does it run on fat stores and lipids and stuff? How much stuff can you make before you get tired? How much--"

"Maybe we should focus on making a plan?" Tokage suggested kindly, interrupting him.

"Right, okay, what's your quirk?"

"Lizard! I can break off pieces of my body! Up to around thirty right now, but I'm working on more!"

"That's so cool! You…" he trailed off, clearing his throat before he started rambling. They didn't have time for that. "And you're an Iida, right?" he asked the Iida kid. "So, Engine?"

"My name is Iida Tenya! Quirk: Engine!"

Izuku nodded. "Right, that's what I just said."

"What's your quirk?" Yaoyorozu asked him, flexing her fingers and glancing nervously at the board to check their names hadn't been called.

"I'm quirkless," Izuku answered immediately, purposefully following her gaze to the board so he didn't have to see everyone's shocked expressions.

"Quirkless?" Tokage repeated.

He dropped his gaze back down to his group. They were all staring at him with wide, scared eyes.

Shrugging, he answered. "Yes. Don't underestimate me."

"Midoriya-kun…" Yaoyorozu whispered, reaching out to touch his arm. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm not on my deathbed," he snapped, pulling away from her. "It's fine! I'm going to get us all across that finish line with or without a quirk, so shut up about it!"

"But quirkless people can't be heroes," Iida said, looking confused. "How are you supposed to fight villains if you don't have a quirk?"

Izuku wanted to bang his head against a wall. This really wasn't that complicated.

"I don't want to be dragged down by someone quirkless…" Tokage said slowly, like she was thinking through the ramifications of his quirklessness on the rest of the group.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Izuku muttered under his breath. He pointed a finger at all three of them, hardening his expression. "Listen up. I'm getting you all across that finish line as fast as humanly possible. So ignore the fact I don't have a quirk, because it's irrelevant. Focus on this: I have a plan."

The three of them shared a hesitating glance and then Tokage shook her head, backing up. "Sorry, I think I'll be faster on my own."

Iida gave her a sharp nod of agreement. "I too would like to try on my own." They left, going in different directions, Tokage casting a worried look at Izuku as she walked away.

Izuku sent a desperate glance at Yaoyorozu who was studying her fingers carefully.

"You really have a plan?" she asked, gaze lifting from her fingers to meet his eyes.

"I mean, it's not as good now as it was a second ago, but, yeah."

Yaoyorozu looked at her feet and then nodded. "I don't have any ideas," she said, almost apologetically.

Izuku grinned. "That's okay. I do."

Izuku lined up with Yaoyorozu and the rest of the group, frowning at the obstacle course through narrowed eyes. It shouldn't be too difficult, with Yaoyorozu with him, especially if what she said about being able to make anything was true. That meant they could pretty much just run over the obstacles without even thinking about it.

Present Mic gave them the go-ahead.

"Frictionless sled."

"What?"

"Make a frictionless sled! I'll push you because I think I'm probably a little faster."

Shaking her head in confusion, Yaoyorozu touched her forehead in concentration.

While she started making the sled, Izuku explained. "We're going to get on the sled and slide over the obstacles in it. If you could pour oil or something out in front of us as we go, that would make us even faster."

She nodded and pulled a sled out of her shimmering stomach. "Ok, I can produce oil out of my fingers as we go."

Izuku did a fist pump. "Yes! This is going to be fun, get on it."

Laughing now, she set the sled on the ground and held onto it while she got on. Immediately, it started to try to slide away and Izuku grabbed the end of it before it could. "Okay, ready?"

She nodded, grinning, holding a hand out over the front of the sled. Oil started dribbling out of her fingers, making a little puddle on the ground.

Izuku started running with the sled, pushing on it and gathering speed as they approached the first big downhill, Yaoyorozu squirting oil out in front of them to make the sled go even faster. As it started to go faster than him, he climbed on the back, crouching down behind Yaoyorozu as the sled took off down the hill. They slid and flew right over a slew of obstacles, Izuku trying to steer the sled in a way that would keep up the pace. "Start trying to make wood planks! With lightweight motors attached to them!" he shouted over the rush of wind as they flew past the examinees in the back.

She nodded, cutting off the oil supply while she focused on making a new thing. They were going quickly enough that they didn't need it now anyway.

They were quickly approaching the big pool of water at the bottom of the hill. Grinning, Izuku braced himself for impact. The sled hit the water with a huge splash, skimming along the top of it for a good fifty feet, and leaving the other examinees in the dust, until slowing down and starting to sink.

"Wood plank!"

Yaoyorozu nodded and a moment later a few big wooden planks, fitted with elegant black motors, bobbed to the surface of the water. They held onto them, floating in the middle of the big pool. "How do you turn on the motors?" Izuku asked after a fruitless attempt.

"I'll do it." She reached over and flipped on his motors, sending him rushing forward. It wasn't the fastest, so he started kicking to help, cursing the fact that the Iida kid, who was already pulling ahead again, hadn't decided to join them. Izuku and Yaoyorozu were in third place by the time they reached the other end of the pool, Iida and Tokage in front of them. Iida was just ahead, just now hitting the rock wall they had to climb. Tokage, however, was nowhere to be found. Izuku had known she had a dangerous quirk in this game-- the ability to split herself apart made her much much faster, and gravity defiant. Her quirk was the reason he wanted her on his team in the first place-- to slow her down. But that didn't matter now. They needed to catch up.

"Retractable grappling hook, about two hundred feet."

A moment later, one was placed in his hand. Without a second's hesitation, he pointed it up and fired at the top of the cliff. It caught and he retracted it, letting him fly up into the air. Yaoyorozu followed a moment later, and they soared past the people trying to climb the rock cliff, putting themselves in second again, just behind Tokage. "Springy shoes!" Izuku shouted at her as they were pulled up the cliff. "And a hang glider!"

Her eyes lit up in surprise and excitement and then she nodded.

He helped her over the top of the cliff, smirking at how much space there was now between the two of them and Iida, who was only about halfway up the cliff. As he was looking down, he felt a nudge on his arm and turned to be handed a pair of shoes with jets on the soles.

"I know you said springs, but I thought jets would be better," she said.

"Jets are better. Will they work?"

"I think so?"

"I'll take it."

He pulled his on, hopping on one foot and then the other, and then started sprinting for the other edge of the cliff, behind which there was a huge gorge. Yaoyorozu matched his strides. "Hang glider!" he shouted. She drew it out of her arm, passing one end to Izuku as they ran. "We need some height!"

She nodded and activated their jet boots, sending them both flying into the sky for a moment. The hang glider caught their fall as the jet boots ran out of steam, and they glided over the gorge and the rest of the obstacle course. They passed Tokage, who was stuck in some mud below them. After gliding right over the last obstacles, they landed just behind the finish line.

Izuku glanced at their time. They were third fastest, right behind Todoroki and Yoarashi from the first group.

"That was awesome," Yaoyorozu said, collapsing the hang glider in one smooth motion and tucking it under her arm. He opened his mouth to agree, and to thank her for agreeing to work with him, but then she said "But why did you lie about not having a quirk?"

He froze, mouth half open, and then frowned, eyebrows furrowing. "What?"

"I mean, a quirkless person wouldn't be able to do that," she said. "You were thinking so fast! I could barely keep up. You must have an intelligence quirk, or an analysis quirk, right?"

Izuku shook his head. "Nope. I'm quirkless."

She frowned, and then shrugged. "If you say so."

What's that supposed to mean ?

"Midoriya Izuku, it's time for your interview," a sleepy voice said over the speaker.

With a little huff of displeasure, Izuku turned away from Yaoyorozu and started toward the building. Maybe Nezu would be a little more accepting of someone different than the normal mould.

After all, Nezu didn't really fit in either.

Chapter End Notes

geatuibiaebgateejrt i just rewatched season 5 god I love this show so much istg

ok so technically frictionless sleds are not a real thing. But like. It's fan fiction. And physics is a butt.

Interview

Chapter Notes

Happy Thursday, the day I'm actually supposed to be updating.

I think I can keep updating through Saturday, maybe Sunday, and then we'll go back to the normal schedule.

I love the manga. I love the anime. I love this story and all the characters and I am so excited for the anime to catch up to the manga because I want to see everything in color.

tw//discrimination

See the end of the chapter for more notes"Midoriya Izuku," Nezu hummed thoughtfully, looking over the green-haired boy's file. The child was clearly talented, that much was obvious just from how much of a name "Entropy" had by this time. Nezu had only heard of Entropy because he'd been paying attention to the underworld-- he wasn't even sure Tsukauchi knew about the vigilante by now. After he'd realized Entropy was young and a protege of Stain, he'd started going through records of rejected hero course students, looking for potential matches. Most vigilantes tended to come straight from hero school rejection letters, figuring they'd try their hand without support from the Hero Commission-- an exploit Nezu fully supported. Too many people depended on the Hero Commission as it was. It was healthy for people to break out of the mould.

Unfortunately, however, there weren't any green eyed hero rejects that fit the picture Nezu was looking for. He realized this vigilante must be younger . Around this time, he'd also noticed how the vigilante never showed any sign of quirk use. Then he'd followed that trail for a while, looking for possible candidates. Just as he was starting to give up and decide that no one would ever discover the true identity of Entropy, Fujimoto Reiki sent him an email recommending a small, green-eyed, quirkless boy to U.A.

Fujimoto Reiki was an interesting character. Nezu hadn't ever paid attention to her before she sent in a recommendation letter for a quirkless child, but the moment she did, he was on her tail. Within an hour, he knew everything there was to know about the Hero "Stitch." There was much to know. He had to drink a cup of tea before resuming his research spiral, attempting to process everything he had learned. She was a villain disguised as a hero-- or, perhaps more accurately, a hero disguised as one of Stain's 'fakes.' He believed she had noble goals, and decided that as soon as his response to the application of this "Midoriya Izuku" was mailed out, he would be giving her financial backing to start a hospital for low-income or criminal people in need of treatment.

But that brought him back to the matter at hand, Entropy. A quirkless boy from Musutafu. A Midoriya Izuku.

He'd kept his suspicions to himself until Midoriya stepped on campus, and it was immediately obvious that this was, indeed, Entropy. There was something in the way he moved, or the way he looked at other people, or the way he looked at his sponsor, even-- eyes full of understanding, like he knew much more about her than most. Perhaps he did.

So Nezu had decided to confront Midoriya and ask, in the most blunt way possible, if he was the vigilante Entropy. After a moment of clear disorientation, Midoriya's entire persona shifted into something much more calculating than the faux-bubbly teenager who had walked in, as if he was on high alert. The transformation was truly incredible to watch. He'd denied Nezu's accusations, of course, but had done so by skating around the truth, an impressive display of beating around the bush.

As Nezu watched his performance in the practical, he was even more impressed. The boy showed off his skill in the least flashy of ways, with a self-assurance that usually only comes after years of experience. Nezu had to wonder how much Entropy was doing completely under the radar. After all, even Nezu had only managed to find two ten-second clips of Entropy in action. That was all the footage there was. So how much was Midoriya Izuku doing unseen? He acted with the ease of a professional, and stayed hidden better than most high-ranked criminals did.

His plan to get the other examinees to team up was also an excellent idea, even if the others hadn't followed through with it. No one ever considered the idea that team-ups were a great way to work together to show skill. Everyone always viewed the obstacle course as a race-- which it was, of course-- but it was also an opportunity to show off. An opportunity people rarely took.

Midoriya took it. He used Yaoyorozu Momo to show his ability to strategize and think quickly under pressure. It paid off. Nezu was impressed. If Midoriya could just do well in the interview, he would be well on his way to becoming an official U.A. student.

There was a knock at the door and Nezu glanced up from Midoriya's file in surprise. He'd been so immersed, he forgot to pay attention to the door. "Come in," he announced, unlocking the door from his seat. It slid open a moment later to reveal Midoriya Izuku, this time sporting a passively determined look, as though he was both uncaring and determined at the same time. Determined to be uncaring, perhaps. Or determined in an impassive manner.

Nezu grinned. A battle of wits. How intriguing.

"Nezu-san," Midoriya said immediately, nodding at him.

"Am I a rat? A bear? A--"

"You're a chimera," he said, rolling his eyes at Nezu's antics. "Next question."

Nezu almost laughed. He settled for an amused expression instead. Almost as blunt as Todoroki Shouto, then, but in an intentional way. "Would you like a cup of tea?" Nezu suggested, pushing one across the table.

Midoriya looked at the teacup with a blank expression and then, without so much as touching it, returned his gaze to Nezu. They held each other's eyes, each of them seeming to dare the other to speak first.

Nezu interrupted the silence first, asking, "Are you the vigilante Entropy?" while attempting to look casual by pouring himself a cup of tea as well.

"Why do you ask questions you already know the answers to?" Midoriya shot back.

"Is that a yes?"

"On another earth, maybe."

"Are you wearing one of your infamous masks now, Midoriya-kun?"

"My infamous…" Midoriya scowled. Somehow it looked more natural than the smile he'd had when he opened the door earlier that day. "I don't have any masks."

"Not even emotional ones?"

"Doesn't everyone have emotional masks?"

"Ah, but not everyone wields them as well as you do."

"If I was a vigilante, wouldn't I be called Masks, then? Aren't people supposed to name themselves after their strengths?"

"Entropy could be a strength," Nezu mused, picking up his cup of tea.

"For a sadist," Midoriya said, with a disgusted expression.

"So you don't consider yourself a sadist."

"No." He paused, tipping his head to the side, and Nezu allowed him time to think. "But, to be fair," he said just a moment later, "neither do many real sadists."

"Humanity has such an interesting mental block on self-awareness," Nezu said.

"It takes true wisdom to know oneself," Midoriya replied without a beat.

Nezu couldn't help himself now. He laughed. One corner of Midoriya's mouth quirked up, as though he felt he'd won something. Perhaps he had. After all, Nezu had broken first. But the stakes weren't as high for Nezu. "You have an exceptional mind!" Nezu informed Midoriya, pouring a fresh cup of tea for himself.

"Thank you," Midoriya responded immediately, relaxing back into his chair and picking up his cup of tea, mask dropping at last. "I can assume you're done questioning me about hypothetical extracurriculars, then?"

"Quite, for now."

"I'll take it."

"Have you ever broken a law, Midoriya Izuku?"

"Hasn't everyone?" he answered, taking a sip of his tea.

"I'm fairly certain that the youngest Iida hasn't."

"Only a matter of time."

Chuckling to himself, Nezu flipped open Midoriya's folder. It was time to discuss the more important question at hand-- vigilante or not, was Midoriya Izuku going to be accepted into U.A. high school?

Tenya watched the green haired kid leave Nezu's office, a thoughtful expression on his face. He had that expression Tensei sometimes got when he was mentally going through all the questions he thought he might have missed on his final.

Tenya hoped the green boy had had a good interview, but at the same time, he really hoped Nezu didn't accept him. Hero work was too dangerous for quirkless people, everyone knew that. The boy (Tenya had forgotten his name) was crazy for even trying. Maybe he was here on a dare. Some other, less responsible teenagers did that sometimes.

He walked up to the kid, deciding to express his condolences on the boy's probable failure. It wouldn't matter if he came in fourth on the practical. He only did that because he used someone else's skills to get ahead.

"I'm sorry for your inevitable loss," Tenya said, bowing very low to the quirkless kid.

"What the fuck," he heard the kid mutter.

He straightened up, affronted. "Don't use such language on a school campus!" he scolded.

"Don't be quirkist on a school campus, hypocrite!" the quirkless boy retorted, looking equally angry, if not more so. "Stuff like that is both illegal and… wait…" Light dawned in the boy's eyes and he turned to stare at the top of the wall next to them, right where it met the ceiling. "Tell me you saw that, Nezu-san! Tell me you saw him breaking a law! I told you it was only a matter of time!"

Reiki had an emergency hero situation she had to go to so she told Izuku he had to wait at the school while she went and cleared it up. Which was fine, except for that now Izuku was sitting at U.A., well after he should have left, and was probably breaking several rules, and maybe even some laws.

He hadn't intended on crossing into illegality, but he'd seen a member of the school board walk into the building and he'd been curious on what they were going to be talking about -- more specifically, what they were going to be saying about him in particular, so he'd snuck into the school after them. Then he'd remembered that Nezu was a tricky little stalking sneak and so he probably had secret tunnels all over the school. Only two minutes after coming to this realization, Izuku found the secret tunnels. So now he was sitting in a well hidden air vent, right over the school board's meeting space.

He was starting to regret coming up here for two reasons. One, he wasn't sure how he was going to get back down. And two, he wasn't particularly liking what he was hearing.

"The boy is quirkless ," one man was saying, gesticulating wildly. "It would be a waste of a spot to let him in."

"A waste?" Nezu repeated, sounding dangerously annoyed. Izuku wished he could see his expression.

"A waste! He would die the moment he set foot in the field. All I'm saying is, U.A. usually takes students who have potential for growth, and this… Midoriya Izuku doesn't have any. Quirkless people can't be heroes, it just can't be done."

"Why not?"

"Because he'll die !" the man said, sounding as though he was having trouble believing Nezu was as smart as everyone always said he was. "He's too weak--"

"Did you see his practical?"

"In which fooled Yaoyorozu Momo into thinking he was worth working with and then relied on her skills to get by? As far as I'm concerned, that's cheating."

Shaking his head, Izuku started to wiggle back out of the vent. He didn't want to hear any more of this.

"It's not cheating, it's making use of his brain. Teamwork is an important skill to have in hero work, and Midoriya-kun showed he knows how to lead others and adapt."

"It's taking advantage of other people. Midoriya Izuku isn't anything like a hero. If anything, he's displaying the character traits of a villain."

With those words ringing in his head, Izuku dropped out of earshot. Hopefully Reiki would be there to pick him up soon, because he didn't know how much more quirkism he could stand today. Maybe he didn't want to be a hero, if these were the type of people he'd have to deal with all the time…

Chapter End Notes

I am so excited for the next part. Who am I kidding, I'm always excited. I'm just very excited about this work in general. I hope everyone's liking it :)

Also I was wondering. Is it weird to write fanfiction for nanowrimo? I've never participated in nanowrimo and I thought it might be fun to try it out (with BNHA fanfiction). I have an idea in mind but I'm not sure if I should carry through with it or not... thoughts?

Pass

Chapter Notes

I had something really cool to say and I don't remember what it was.

Oh well you know what shameless plug, I wrote my first one shot because I was bored

Tw// discrimination, mentioned violence, mentioned death threats

See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku wasn't sure how his test had gone.

Well, that wasn't true, actually. He told Reiki he wasn't sure how his test had gone because he didn't want her to get upset when he inevitably got rejected. But he knew.

His test had gone perfectly.

He'd gotten every question right on that godforsaken written test. He'd passed fourth in the practical, and Nezu was absolutely delighted with their interview. Midoriya Izuku had every right to go to U.A. as a hero student.

And Midoriya Izuku would not be getting into U.A.

He knew it. Everyone else who had been present at the exam assumed it. Reiki probably guessed it. No one would let a quirkless teenager go to the best hero school in Japan. Just based on the other examinees' reactions to his quirk status, he knew. There was no way to escape the discrimination in his dream line of work.

Izuku was one of the best examinees to have taken the test this year, and he still would not be accepted to U.A., because he was quirkless.

Nezu, at least, seemed to want him at U.A. Nezu had clearly been extremely excited about the prospect of teaching Izuku at his school, at the idea of fostering the first quirkless hero. But convincing Nezu to not be a quirkist asshat and convincing the rest of the world to not be quirkist asshats were two very different things. He'd accomplished one. It was impossible to accomplish the other.

So Izuku started making back-up plans. He applied to an online school, the only one in all of Japan. It was admittedly a pretty good school. It had a lot to offer, especially in the computer science field. He also started brainstorming ways to make money in his free time, trying to figure out how to market "Entropy." Or at the very least come up with a side job. He needed a way to get supplies for his vigilantism, because the time when he would no longer be able to rely on Stain was coming quickly. Another important item on his to-do list was finding who on earth had decided to call him "Entropy." Seriously, who had come up with that name? He needed to find and murder them.

It was better than "Deku," at least.

He actually kind of liked it, loath as he was to admit it.

And since when had Nezu known he existed?

Pulling up his search engine, he typed in, Nezu views on vigilantism.

0 search results. Typical.

Izuku sighed, leaning back in his chair and thinking. Nezu hadn't immediately called the police on him, which Izuku chose to see as a good sign. But then again, even if Nezu had called the police, there was no real evidence that Izuku was a vigilante at all. The police couldn't get a warrant to search his house or his person and they wouldn't be able to tail him or watch his house. The best Nezu could do was tip-off the police on his suspicions and maybe get Izuku into the police station for an interrogation, but even that was questionably legal. Add all that to the fact that Izuku was both a quirkeless and a middle-schooler and chances were high that Nezu would get laughed at.

On the other hand, Izuku wasn't sure that Nezu would stick to legal ways of stopping him. Izuku chose to think that Nezu had a nice enough view on vigilantes that he wasn't going to try to intervene legally or illegally, at least not until Izuku did something actually morally wrong, like killing someone. But Izuku had no plans to kill anyone, nor did he think he could actually carry through with it if he had such plans, so he felt relatively safe on that front.

Who had come up with "Entropy" was the more pressing question. Reiki had expressed her lack of knowledge on the situation, so Izuku seized his phone and called Dabi.

"Are you aware of the time?" Dabi answered grouchily. Izuku glanced at his clock. It was well past noon.

"Mid afternoon?" he suggested.

"Too early," Dabi growled.

"I don't even want to know why you think this is early. I was wondering about something I heard today though… people are calling me Entropy?"

"Isn't it great?" Dabi answered, tone immediately perking up. "Stain came up with it."

"He did not," Izuku said, affronted.

"He thought it made you sound cool."

"It doesn't! It makes me sound like a nerd, like someone who watches physics documentaries for fun or intentionally mixes dangerous chemicals to see what'll happen."

"Wouldn't you do those things?"

Izuku scowled, leaning back in his chair. Dabi had a point. "Shut up."

"So have you gotten your test results back?"

"You haven't finished answering my Entropy questions! So Stain came up with it, how on earth did it spread?"

"Oh that would be me. I did that part."

"I hate both of you," Izuku declared.

"Yes, yes, were you accepted?"

"I don't know yet."

"Do you think you passed? Are you going to get to go to high school?"

Izuku had kept the whereabouts of his entrance exams secret from everyone but Reiki. He didn't want anyone else to know that he was applying to U.A., partially because he didn't want to be laughed at, but also because letting a bunch of criminals know where to find him during the school year was never a good idea.

"I'm going to get to go to high school," Izuku informed Dabi. Even if it wasn't U.A. He was going to get into the online school, at least, and Izuku didn't want to go to U.A. anymore anyway.

He sat bolt upright in his chair as that last thought came through. He didn't want to go to U.A.? Was that true? Did he really not want to?

"I have to go," he mumbled into his phone before hanging up abruptly.

He'd wanted to go to U.A. all his life-- where was this coming from? Surely he still wanted to go?

He thought back through the entire experience of taking the recommendation exam, of the pity on everyone's faces when they found out he was quirkless, the worry in their tone when he told them he was taking the exam, the hate in their eyes when they thought he might actually succeed. He thought about that one guy in the board room, screaming about how he would be a waste of a spot-- and everyone else who had nodded in agreement. He thought about how people immediately assumed he was weak because he was quirkless, and hated him for not fitting in with the normal social standards.

Of course he didn't want to go to U.A. Everyone at that exam had hated him. He'd been alone his entire life, he didn't want a repeat of that experience in high school, especially now that he knew what friendship felt like. And he knew that if he went to U.A., if he learned to be a hero, the friends he had now would quickly become his enemies.

He jumped to his feet, pacing around his room as he thought through hypothetical situations.

Option one: He didn't get into U.A. He went to online school instead. He failed to get a job because of discrimination, eventually either dying or falling to crime. He lived a miserable life, but he still had Stain and Dabi and Reiki on his side.

Option two: He got into U.A. He went to U.A., but everyone discriminated against him constantly because he was quirkless. He became a hero and everyone still discriminated against him constantly. He got a lot of death threats. He was killed in battle, proving the haters 'right.' He did all of this without friends or any form of support, except maybe Nezu.

Izuku didn't like either of those options. He hated both of them, although he had to admit the first option was marginally more appealing than the second.

A third option floated into his mind and he clapped his hands against his cheeks, thinking it through carefully.

Option three: He didn't get into U.A. He went to online school when he could, and spent the majority of his time doing what he'd been doing so far in his life-- saving the people the heroes ignored. He became a real vigilante, not a vigilante in training. He kept his friends. No one found out he was quirkless. He found a way to make money through "Entropy," maybe by doing private investigation or being paid for side jobs.

The doorbell rang and Izuku wandered out of his room, lost in thought.

What if Entropy became his school? What if he… what if he used his rejection from U.A. as a way to make him stronger, in unconventional ways? What if he became an established vigilante, instead of a hero? Isn't that what he wanted? To save people? Who cared how he did it?

"It's from U.A.," his mom shrieked from the front.

That jerked Izuku out of his thoughts. He sprinted to the door, holding his hands out for the letter. He had to know. He had to know if he got in.

She put it in his hands, trembling slightly. He ripped it open and read through it, feeling disappointment flood through his veins.

Dear Midoriya Izuku,

Congratulations on your acceptance to U.A. High School! After carefully reviewing your application, we have decided to make an extra recommendation student slot, just for you. You will be our fifth recommendation student, and you will have extra supplementary classes to help you learn how to deal with your quirklessness.

Please send us your designs for a costume, as specific as you can make it. This can be changed later, but for now we need to know what support items you need and how you would like us to style your costume.

Thank you again for your application, and congratulations on your acceptance!

We look forward to seeing you this semester.

Sincerely,

The U.A. School Board

"I got in," he mumbled miserably.

'Deal' with my quirklessness, honestly .

"Congratulations, sweetie!" his mom said, faking a smile.

"What do I do now?" he asked her, a pained expression on his face as he skimmed his eyes over the letter again. He'd gotten into U.A. He was going to be stuck with all those condescending heroes-in-training for all of high school.

Oh fuck, what if Bakugou got in too? Then he'd be stuck with Bakugou and all the condescending heroes-in-training. It was like a nightmare coming to life.

"Well, are you going to accept it?" his mother asked, voice sounding a little hopeful.

Oh right! He was allowed to decide whether or not he was going to accept.

"Not sure yet," he said lightly, folding up the letter again. Better not make rash decisions. Sleep on it, Izuku. See how you feel in the morning . "I'll think about it."

And think about it he did.

He thought about it for two days, avoiding going out at night, contemplating pros and cons of going to U.A.-- pros and cons of being a hero in general.

At the end of the first day, he got accepted into the online school.

At the end of the second day, he made a decision.

At four in the morning on the third day, he called Stain.

Chapter End Notes

I hate the hologram thing, so it doesn't exist in this world. I think the reason it's there is so that they didn't have to figure out how to animate Izuku reading a letter, but ehhhh it still doesn't make a lot of sense so I'm editing it out (This is why I love fanfiction)

anyone wondering what Reiki looks like?

I HAVE DRAWN IT ALL BY MYSELF (jk i just edited a picture of momo lol) HERE:

REIKI

you're welcom

Alone

Chapter Notes

Happy Saturday!

I am now officially caught up with my notes, so I'll be going back to posting every thursday!

I should say-- I have a feeling this will happen again because the other day I realized that if I'm going to write 70 chapters (maybe more, the chapter count keeps going up) and I'm updating once a week it's going to take me more than a year to finish. So there will probably be times when I just post a lot of chapters all at once, like this week, to try to 1. get it out of my folder and 2. speed up the writing process a bit. I'll try to warn you next time!!! :)

Tw for suicidal thoughts, mentioned bullying, mentioned verbal abuse, abuse from a teacher, discrimination

See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku sat down on one of the highest roofs in the city, dangling his legs over the edge and looking out over the city. He could see the faint pinpricks of dawn over the buildings, but it would be a while before the sun was fully up. He could sit here for a while. He could still be back in time for his mom to wake up.

But did he want to?

"So, you wanted to meet?" Stain said, dropping onto the roof behind Izuku.

Twisting around to face him, Izuku nodded. He held out his stack of notebooks. "I promised you copies of these once I passed my entrance exams."

Stain looked at the stack of notebooks, not making any move to take them. After a moment of serious contemplation, he reached out and pushed the notebooks into Izuku's chest, shaking his head.

"I don't want them."

Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, Izuku flipped open the top one, almost expecting something to be wrong with it, for Stain to have rejected it. "Why? That was part of the deal, I thought."

"It was."

"But… don't I need to pay you for--"

"I got to train the world's first quirkless hero," Stain said, shaking his head again. "What other payment would I want?"

Izuku sighed and turned away. The first quirkless hero. Right. "I'm not gonna be a hero," he said softly.

Stain's voice was surprised as he responded,"You're not?"

Releasing a short huff of air, Izuku covered his face with his hands, recollecting himself. He'd come to this conclusion, hadn't he? Before he'd gotten his acceptance letter from U.A. He'd decided. Now was he going to actually carry through with it?

Stain was still watching him curiously.

"The first time…" Izuku said softly, resting his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees, "the first time someone told me I was useless, I was five years old and I was playing with my friends. Kacchan said it-- that I was useless. I thought he was joking, at the time, just making fun. And maybe he was, but it stuck. All his friends caught on to it, and they all said it too." He frowned. "The fourth person I heard it from was a teacher."

A sharp intake of breath came from Stain, but Izuku ignored it, keeping his eyes fixed on the sunrise.

"She said that because I was quirkless, I wouldn't be able to do anything with my life. She said I should make sure that I find something useful to do in her classroom, because she didn't want to drag extra weight." His frown deepened. That day had been so painful. He'd never told anyone about it before. "I remember feeling confused, because she didn't tell everyone else they needed to find something useful to do. Having their quirks was enough.

"That was the first time I realized I was alone."

Biting his lip a little, he looked over the city, eyes skimming the buildings at the first stirrings of movement as people left their houses and got ready for early work shifts.

"I never did find a way to be useful, but I got very good at not being extra weight. I was quiet in class, I didn't complain about the bullying, I did well in school, but never too well because I didn't want to seem too far ahead of the kids with powerful quirks. I did my best to blend in with the crowd, and with the exception of bullies, no one ever noticed me. So I didn't have any friends, or people I knew had my back. I've never had anyone who cared about me before. It's scary, when I think about it. The amount of times I… the amount of times everything could have gone wrong."

He sighed again.

"I've been alone my entire life," he said honestly. "When people meet me, they see someone worthless and because of that they don't want to be around me. They don't want extra weight to carry either."

"You're not—"

Izuku shot him a pained look and Stain fell silent.

"It's hard to be alone when you're surrounded by people," Izuku said, curling one of his legs up and resting his chin on his knee. "Sometimes I used to wish something would just come and kill me. I never wanted to do it myself— it was too much work, and I didn't want people to have to deal with cleaning it up. But life is so hard , Stain. Why is life so hard?" His voice cracked as he turned and looked at his mentor, who sighed and sat next to him on the roof without answering. But Izuku wanted an answer. Life wasn't fair to anyone, and Izuku was more alone than most.

"I wish sometimes that I didn't have to make decisions for myself," Izuku said, bitterness creeping into his tone. "I wish there was just a set path laid out for me, someone steering me through life so I didn't have to think . So I didn't have to feel anything. Because… it hurts." He twisted his fingers together in his lap, shoulder stiffening as he braced himself for his next statement. It took him a while to work up the courage to say it, and they sat in silence for a long time before he managed to say flatly, "I got into U.A."

Stain shot upward, sitting with a perfectly straight, tense back. "You what ?"

"I got into U.A.," Izuku repeated, "and I…" His eyes started to prick with tears and he tipped his head back, blinking them back. "I don't want to go," he finished, voice cracking. "I don't want to go to a school where everyone hates me because of something I was born without." The tears started to spill out and he let them slide down his cheeks, chin wobbling. Stain watched him silently, expression blank. "I don't want to go there, Stain! I don't-- I can't-- I hate being alone." His body started to curl in on itself and he made a weird whining noise in the back of his throat as he tried to stop crying. It didn't work, and the tears just fell faster. " Why did you ever let me feel like I matter, Stain, how could you do that to me ?" he asked, voice cracking and shaking with every word. Because it hurt, now that he understood what real friendship felt like. It hurt now that he could feel the difference between what he'd experienced his whole life and what he had now. Sometimes he wished he'd never met Stain, that he'd just stayed oblivious, because this was so much more painful. "I don't want to go to U.A.," he repeated again, pressing his hands into his temples. "I can't go there, I just can't."

"What happened?" Stain said softly.

Izuku released a half sigh, using his hands to wipe his tears away, even as more were dribbling out. "Nothing," he said, voice breaking a little. Stain gave him an incredulous look. Clearly he didn't think whatever happened was 'nothing.' But it was. It was nothing because it was normal, and Izuku honestly should have expected it. To everyone else, it was nothing. To Izuku it was everything, but he was so used to it by now it barely registered. If he hadn't met Stain and learned what it felt like to truly be accepted, he probably wouldn't have even been able to tell by now that the way he was being treated was wrong.

Trying to avoid Stain's piercing eyes, Izuku continued trying to stop crying, holding his breath through the hiccups. The pressure of the silence was too much though, and he blurted out, "Is it really so hard to treat me like a normal human being? Is that really so difficult?"

"It's not hard at all," Stain said, voice still soft and steady. Izuku chanced another look over at him. His expression was unreadable, but there was definite anger behind those eyes. And also care. God, he hated the care. Why should Stain care about him, when he was so worthless and quirkless? And how could Stain make his life so much harder, with all his care?

He huffed out an angry breath, rubbing his hands under his eyes and effectively stopping the tears. "I'm not going there," he said firmly. "I'm not going to U.A. I'm not going to another school where I'll be surrounded by people, but totally alone. I'll be by myself and alone instead. It won't hurt as much, and I can still save people. Like Reiki does." He looked at Stain again, a decisive note in his tone. "Like you taught me to."

Stain gave him a long, analyzing look and then nodded slowly. "You don't need to be a hero to save people. You're already more heroic than all of those fakes, and you don't have a license."

Izuku gave him a determined nod. "I'll be a vigilante, and I'll kick ass. And no one will ever need to know I'm quirkless."

A flash of pain crossed Stain's face, but it was gone in an instant, and Izuku thought he'd imagined it.

He stood up as the sun started to peek over the horizon. Rejecting U.A. would be easy, but everything else he had to do around that… that would be the real challenge.

And it would start with his mother.

Inko was surprised when instead of entering the kitchen from his room, as would be expected at this hour of the morning, Izuku walked in through the front door. She was even more surprised when she caught sight of his puffy red eyes, a clear indicator that he'd been crying.

Before she got a chance to ask him what was wrong, he caught sight of her and released a heavy sigh. "I think… I think we need to talk about some stuff," he said. He sounded tired. Much more tired than usual.

She suddenly realized what this was about. He'd been stressed ever since the entrance exam, and somehow even more stressed since he got his acceptance letter. And, to be honest, she was equally anxious. She didn't want her quirkless baby going to such a big school for powerful people! It was dangerous! He'd get eaten alive! But she didn't say that. She just nodded knowingly and said, "U.A."

"U.A.," he agreed, sitting down at the table.

Sensing that this wasn't the type of conversation to have while cooking breakfast, she slid into the seat next to him. He gave her the half-smile he'd been using lately, the one that stayed in his mouth and died quickly before wrinkling the corners of his eyes. It disappeared even more quickly than usual this time and he sighed. "You don't want me to go."

Inko winced. Yes, she didn't, but she also wanted her baby to be happy, and he couldn't be happy if she was hovering over him like an overprotective butterfly. "I--"

"Please," he interrupted, eyebrows twisting up as he gave her an imploring look, "let me finish."

She pursed her lips together, twisting her fingers on the table.

"You don't want me to go to U.A.," he repeated, tilting his head back and looking at the ceiling, "and I don't want to go either."

If Inko had been standing, she would have fallen over. Instead, she went rigid in her chair, staring at him. What? Of course he wanted to go to U.A., he'd wanted to for his entire life. And he'd been getting so much stronger lately, preparing and preparing so that he could finally get into his dream school. And now he was talking about… about rejecting his acceptance? "W-what?"

"I don't want to go to U.A. anymore."

Amazed, she spluttered, "Why?"

He scowled and she flinched back, shocked to see such an angry expression on her baby's face. "Because those heroes are going to constantly kick me to the side," he spat. His voice went kinder as he explained, "At the entrance exam, they didn't want me there. They wanted me to lose. They thought I was going to. And I don't want to have to deal with that for the rest of my life. If I become a hero, people are constantly going to be trying to shut me out and protect me. I want to be able to act independently, to be strong even though I'm quirkless and have no one be able to judge me for something they don't understand."

He gave her a cautious look, like he wanted to say something else but wasn't sure if he should. She wanted to say something encouraging, but she knew him well enough to know that that was a surefire way of shutting him down, so she just waited patiently for him to decide whether or not he could share. Luckily, he decided he could. Unluckily, the sentence he uttered was, "I'm going to tell you something, and it's going to make you into a criminal."

Inko was now very glad she was sitting down. "W-why?"

"Because I've been doing some very illegal stuff," he said seriously, "and when I tell you about it you won't want to go to the police, and that's also illegal."

Laughing nervously, Inko let her eyes flicker back and forth between Izuku's. Surely he was joking. Her baby wouldn't do anything illegal! He wanted to be a hero! But there was no laughter in Izuku's eyes, and Inko felt her smile drop as she searched his eyes for the joke.

There wasn't one to be found.

"Baby," she whispered, horrified. "What did you do?"

Principal Nezu,

It is with great excitement that I have decided to inform you that I will not be attending U.A. I have decided, due to the exceptional amounts of discrimination and rudeness from fellow prospective students that I endured on campus during the recommendation exam, that going to your school would be unhealthy for me. I also have certain extracurricular activities that are going to be taking more and more of my time as I dedicate myself to following my interests without fear of being the victim of a hate-crime. I would prefer to not live my life in other people's egotistical and close-minded shadows.

Thank you for your time, and for vouching for me during the board meeting (you should hide your secret tunnels better).

Sincerely,

Midoriya Izuku

Chapter End Notes

Imo Izuku would tell his mom. She's really the only person he has, and I don't think he would think it was fair to her to not tell her. Especially since he's now making being a vigilante his full-time job.

Transition

Chapter Notes

I'm up late, working on a project, thought I would post because it is now Thursday, you're welcome

I think we're all good on cw? I can't think of anything, but if you see something I missed, please lmk, as always!

See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku was bored.

It wasn't the first time, since he'd rejected his acceptance to U.A., but still. He was so, so bored.

Online classes were easy. Too easy. Painfully easy. Izuku loved his classes, especially all the electives he'd piled up on quirk theory and analysis, but most of them weren't too challenging, and Izuku was already moving really quickly through all the content. He'd probably be done with his first semester in a couple weeks. He could honestly probably finish all of high school by the end of this year, which would be fun, if pointless.

Sighing, he stretched out his fingers and flipped his laptop open. Maybe he could try to hack into something super well-protected for fun. Like… The Hero Public Safety Commission. Or maybe U.A., but Izuku didn't think he was quite ready to go head to head with Nezu. Not yet, maybe not ever. Then again, Nezu seemed to really like Izuku and there was always a chance he would just be amused by Izuku's attempts and leave him alone. Maybe Izuku needed to make some internet signature that made it obvious it was Entropy hacking in… ehh too much effort.

He started by just hacking into the city cameras, tiredly flipping through them. There wasn't anything new. The streets were all quiet and--

Oh, hell no.

That was a villain. Definitely. Trying to rob a… what was that, a jewelry store? It didn't matter, civilians were getting injured and that was a lot of property damage.

Izuku rifled through the cameras as quickly as he could, looking for a nearby hero. A moment later, he caught a glimpse of Eraserhead, hiding in an alley and looking for trouble. He grinned.

His first time partially revealing his real self as a vigilante, and it was into a U.A. teacher's ear? How perfect.

"Hi? Is this Eraserhead's comm line?"

Shouta froze as the unfamiliar voice of someone way too young to be on the comms came into his ear. "Who the fuck are you and how did you get access to the hero comms?" he snapped, instinctually tilting his head to the left in an attempt to hear better.

"Oh good, it is you!" The kid sounded relieved and happy, in a way. "I was worried I got the wrong… Anyway! There's a robbery two blocks to your right in an alleyway. The guy seems to have some sort of mutation quirk? I think it's sort of like a hydra, you know that myth? It's all tentacles but then it's like he keeps intentionally cutting them so he can grow more and… you're… is there a reason you're not moving?"

Well, the reason was that a random kid had just appeared in his earpiece and he had no clue if anything he was saying was legit. He didn't want to embarrass himself by running a couple blocks only to come up short, or worse get seriously pranked. On the other hand, if it was legit and he ignored it, that could be really bad, and have some serious repercussions psychologically and legally. Crossing his arms, Shouta said, "If this is a prank, I swear--"

"It's not a prank! I promise it's not, really, but you should hurry because he's doing a lot of damage," the kid said, with a worried tone now.

With an annoyed huff, Shouta turned to the right and ran two blocks. The kid in his ear was muttering rapidly about the so-called villain's quirk, and possible tactics to use against it. If Shouta hadn't been annoyed and almost completely sure he was doing all this running for nothing, he might have been impressed.

But then, two blocks later, he heard the sound of a robbery happening.

"Oh good you found it! I just saw a mugging on the other side of town so I'm going to leave your ear now and get someone else. Good luck!"

There was a click and the kid's voice disappeared.

Well , Shouta thought as he launched himself into fighting the robbery, that was different .

The villain was low-level, cowering the moment Shouta took his quirk away, and sighing about the waste of time, Shouta sent him back to the police station. He spent the rest of his shift wandering around the alleys looking for trouble, directed by the kid who would occasionally drop into his earpiece to direct him to a crime scene.

It was the most productive Shouta had been in weeks.

After his shift was over, he made his way to the police station, rubbing his head tiredly and trying to figure out who on earth the kid in his earpiece was. Sighing, he entered the building and settled down to fill out paperwork.

Tsukauchi came in from his office, nudging a small child out.

"He was so cool !" the child enthused, turning to look at his mom. "Wasn't he, mama?"

"Very cool, sweetie," his mother agreed, nodding. "But remember, honey, he's not a real hero."

"He's my hero."

"All right, sweetie," the mother glanced up at Tsukauchi. "Do you need anything else?"

He shook his head, waving them out the door with a warm, probably fake smile. "Thank you for your help in the investigation."

As soon as they were gone, he turned and gave Shouta the most tired look Shouta had ever seen from the man, looking absolutely exhausted and annoyed.

"Having a nice night?" Shouta asked sarcastically, aggressively writing his name at the top of yet another page of his report. He hated this part of being a hero. Filling out forms was the worst, and yet arguably one of the most important, parts of his work.

"There's someone out there who's been taking out villains before we even know there are villains to be taken. It's terrifying," Tsukauchi explained, rubbing the spot between his eyebrows and plopping down into the seat across from Shouta. "He's fast, he's skilled, and no one knows anything about him except green ."

"Green?"

"That's all anyone's been able to see of him. He has a green costume, apparently. A green hoodie. And red shoes. And a lot of knives."

Shouta gave him an unimpressed look. He was going to need more information than that. "So… what are we looking for, then? Any other features? Voice? Weaknesses?"

Tsukauchi, for maybe the first time since Shouta had met him, looked helpless. "I have no idea. He's a protege of Stain."

"You mean he's inspired by Stain?" Shouta asked, tiredly writing his name down again .

"No, he's being trained by Stain," Tsukauchi corrected miserably.

Head snapping up, Shouta gave the detective a sharp look. "There's a new vigilante out who no one knows anything about and he's being trained by Stain ?"

Tsukauchi looked on the verge of slamming his head on the table in misery and defeat. Clearly this had been bothering him for quite some time.

Shouta sighed. "Do you have a name to go off of?"

Tsukauchi gave him a dark look. "People are calling the kid… Entropy."

"The kid," Shouta repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Apparently he's around the age of most new vigilantes-- probably a hero school reject."

"So he's a high schooler."

"Most likely."

Shouta thought back to the conversation he'd had over the comm line a few hours ago. "Do you happen to know if he's any good at hacking?" he asked casually.

Tsukauchi shook his head. "Why?"

"Something happened earlier-- it's in my report, but I can explain. Some kid hacked into my comms and led me to a crime-in-progress. I'd assume whoever it was had been hopping through the city cameras."

"We'll see if we can find a way to trace that," Tsukauchi said doubtfully, "but don't get your hopes up. For now, just keep your eye out for a vigilante in green."

"Entropy," Shouta said. Who on earth would choose that for their street name?

Stain insisted that Izuku couldn't keep running around in a green hoodie and red hightops as his vigilante costume, especially if he was going to be official.

As such, Izuku had to make a new costume.

He went over to Dabi's apartment one night-- a messy little hole in one of the least safe neighborhoods available-- and wriggled in through the window. Dabi glared at him from the couch. "Why couldn't you do this at Stain's apartment?"

"He's moving again," Izuku answered flatly, hopping over a pile of empty cans to get to the couch. "You know, this place would suck a lot less if you actually made the effort to clean it."

Dabi rolled his eyes. "Too difficult."

"I'd help."

"No."

Sighing in resignation, Izuku climbed onto the back of the couch and perched there, not trusting the actual cushions to be clean. Dabi and Reiki had been informed of his decision to not go to hero school. They both had been very pleased, Reiki explaining how she wished she'd been able to make that choice and Dabi just looking exceptionally smug, for some reason.

"Stain's coming, right?" Dabi asked.

"And Reiki. I still think this is stupid."

"It is," Dabi agreed. "Costumes are for the weak."

"But you have a--"

"Shut up."

A knock fell on the door and Izuku rolled off the back of the couch, landing on his feet and making his way over. Shoving aside the chair Dabi had put in front of the door, he pulled it open. Reiki was standing there, nose wrinkled up.

"I'm staging an intervention," she said, eyeing the piles of trash. "Dabi, you have to clean this up."

"Leave my house alone!"

"It's not a house anymore! It's a trash pile!" She peered angrily into the smoggy darkness. "And do you not own any lights?"

"It's his bat cave," Izuku said, holding the door open as Stain swung in.

"Dabi," Stain said in a warning tone, "if your apartment is still this dirty the next time I come over, I--"

"Fine! I'll clean it!"

"Like, now," Izuku said.

"I'm going!"

"Good."

"Now, Midoriya," Reiki said, climbing over the back of the couch and plopping down on top of Dabi, who pulled himself out from under her with a groan of annoyance. "Costume."

"Why, though."

Izuku had made the executive decision to tell Stain and Dabi his real identity, and explain that his mother was aware of his extracurriculars. She wasn't exactly okay with it, but Izuku had made it clear that this was the only thing keeping him happy and that if she turned him into the police, he would be going to jail. Maybe. The loopholes could keep him out of jail, but just the trial would be enough to ruin his already-low chances of ever getting a real job.

Dabi had been over to Izuku's house twice now. After the first time, his mom actually confessed that she liked Dabi, so Izuku decided it was okay for him to visit occasionally. It actually made his mom feel more comfortable with the idea that Izuku was a vigilante now, since he had people looking out for him-- although she had already told Izuku on multiple occasions that she didn't agree with anything Stain did and if he came over, she would call the police, no questions asked. So Izuku had been avoiding bringing Stain to his house. Which meant that for meetings like these, they had to meet at Dabi's apartment.

"Because no one is going to notice you if you wear a green hoodie all the time," Stain said in answer to Izuku's rhetorical question, crouching on the arm of the couch and passing Izuku some sheets of paper.

"I don't want to be noticed," Izuku argued.

"How about this-- you can keep the hoodie but we're making some adjustments to everything else," Reiki suggested.

Dejected, Izuku looked around at everyone in the room. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

"No," Dabi said, pulling a black trash bag out from under his sink and flicking it open.

"Fuck you."

"Language!" Stain gasped, reaching out and swatting his arm.

"I just want the hoodie," Izuku said, taking a pencil from Stain and drawing a hoodie on the top sheet of paper.

"Do black or grey pants with that. With lots of pockets," Reiki said, leaning over his shoulder to watch.

"And you're going to need holsters for your knives," Stain added, pointing at a couple places on Izuku's sketch. "Chest, thighs, back, hips, forearms, shoes."

"Shoes!" Reiki said, grinning. "Let's keep the red hightops, I like them. But do steel toes so you can kick people. And we can put a compartment in the bottom of one of them for an emergency phone."

"You're going to want knee and elbow pads," Stain said, giving up with directing Izuku's hand and just grabbing the pencil from him. He expertly drew knee pads on the sketch and drew elbow pads on the side of the drawing, with an arrow pointing that they would go underneath the sleeves of the hoodie.

"Do red gloves," Reiki said, stealing the pencil from Stain and drawing gloves with fingers on just the thumb, index, and middle finger. "That way you don't get fingerprinted."

"Why leave the pinky and ring finger exposed?" Stain asked, reaching across Izuku for the pencil.

"Traction," Reiki explained, holding the pencil away from him. Izuku sighed as Stain reached more insistently, smashing Izuku in between him and Reiki.

"Keep the black mask," Stain said, managing to snatch the pencil and attack the sketch with it. "We'll have it be like a turtleneck so it protects your neck."

"Smoke bombs," Dabi suggested from across the room, scooping more trash into a new black bag.

"Oh yeah!" Reiki agreed, taking the pencil back from Stain, "And you'll need somewhere for first aid supplies. We'll give you a belt."

"Fanny pack," Dabi snickered.

"Absolutely not," Reiki said, drawing a red belt on the sketch.