Chapter 14: Haunting Nerves

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"Sorry kid, it's not going to happen."

After the doctor had proclaimed him as quirkless, Izuku had been in shock all the way home. Izuku went home with his mom who barely looked at him, but when she did, she would flash a forced reassuring smile filled with pity and sadness. Hisashi had come to greet them only to drop his smile and ask what had happened.

Inko had been unable to reply and Izuku finally began to cry before managing to whisper out that he was quirkless. Hisashi looked at Inko who just began to cry, looking down and away.

Izuku watched his father walk towards him in a silent rage before slapping him to the ground and saying that he was 'no son of mine'. Hisashi was rarely home for a week before he started to pack his things one day and left saying he was headed to America and cutting all ties.

Inko had holed up in her room after Hisashi left, crying. Eventually, she started working again, picking up as many shifts at the hospital that she could to try and pay for her and her son.

Despite his father's sudden absence and his mother's distance, Izuku held onto hope. He finally went to play with Kacchan again after getting a small nod in approval from his mother. Surely his best friend, his brother, would be there for him.

Alas, Kacchan looked at him with an unreadable emotion and told him that he couldn't become a hero anymore and that they weren't friends because Izuku had broken their promise.

Izuku pleaded, Kacchan had told him that he would protect Izuku when they became the top heroes together and that he could still help. Kacchan scoffed and told him a worthless Deku could never help anyone, much less be a hero.

All Izuku could do was watch as his former friend stormed away from him in anger while a dull pain throbbed in his shaking chest.

Katsuki started to get physical with his bullying when they were 5 since teachers didn't care so long as no one had to go to the hospital or died. Even Inko didn't care and brushed it off as boys being boys. Fortunately, Izuku started online schooling when he was 8, but he still sometimes ran into Katsuki and his friends when he left the house.

In spite of everything, Izuku didn't listen to anyone and began to study anything and everything he could. Coding, hacking, mechanics, and analytics were his favorite subjects as he rushed through his online classes.

When Izuku was 9, he got attacked by a Sludge Villain and was saved by All Might. He asked him if he could be a hero, and All Might turned him down without a second thought before leaving Izuku alone on the street, not even bothering to check him for injuries.

At first he was depressed while heading home, but after rushing forward and saving Kacchan from the same villain later, he realized that All Might had been wrong. He just saved someone when the 'heroes' couldn't, and he was literally a tiny child with a pen.

They scolded him, but he didn't listen to them, he just sent them a glare and calmly asked them what they were doing by sitting there, so what if their quirks 'weren't suited for the situation', were they going to give the same excuse to his parents at the kid's funeral? Izuku walked away from the shocked crowd, more determined than ever.

He would become a hero, no matter what. Even if the world denied him, he would save people.

~ ~ ~

Izuku couldn't relax for the life of him, the UA entrance exam was now only two days away and he was getting nervous. There was really no reason why, he simply wasn't mentally prepared to be back at school again.

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Sure, the principle of UA, rat satan himself, constantly proclaimed and enforced a 'no quirk discrimination' policy, but Izuku didn't even have a quirk so he wasn't sure if it fell under that category. After all, every school had the policy, and yet none of them helped him in the past.

Even his online classes were difficult, groups projects were done by himself and he would receive messages from other students from time to time. Some told him the usual insults, other told him to just die already. So nothing new.

But it still hurt, and he was not looking forward to people finding out he didn't have a quirk. Nezu was the type of person to look at skill rather than quirk, so Izuku knew the rat wouldn't deny him immediately, but he couldn't stop the thoughts of what ifs.

Would his classmates turn on him? Would his teachers give him the same treatment as others? Would he have to find a hiding place at lunch? How would he have to survive?

Worst of all, he completely forgot that Katsuki would be attending no doubt. With his quirk, he would easily get into class 1-A and the thought made Izuku a hundred time happier that he hadn't tried for heroics. His fake name and hair color would hide him well enough, and they hadn't even seen each other for over 5 years, but he still didn't want to face the Pomeranian again.

Despite his own reassurances, he couldn't really shake his worries. School has always been a place of hell for him, and despite everything, UA was still a school. He could only hope it was not as bad as his others used to be.

On top of that, the Support course exam material had made him both excited and nervous. It was split into 2 (technically 3) sections of testing. The first part was a simply academic test that every student needed to take regardless of course.

The second phase was not so much a test as it was a demonstration. Each student needed to bring 2-3 blueprints for some kind of support gear and explain them. Izuku knew that they weren't looking for too much, just if the student had basic understandings of the course material.

Of course, Izuku was tempted to be the overachiever that he usually was by creating all of his blueprints beforehand to bring in, but he managed to restrain himself to only creating one of them for showcasing. Normal students wouldn't do this, but Izuku already had an excuse ready for his skills.

Which brings him to the last test, the most fun and troublesome of all. The students were to either pick a blueprint from a given list or submit their own for approval in advance that they would be making in the span of 2 hours.

Izuku probably should have chosen one from the list, but after asking Sushi what he should do, she had stubbornly insisted on his own blueprints.

Now the prospect of creating his own blueprint that he could make with top quality materials from UA was like a dream come true- but, he knew that he was better than most all of the first year student's currently at UA. 

He definitely didn't hack into their security cameras to check or anything.

His excuse for now was that he started tinkering as a young child and it evolved. Not entirely true, but close enough. And hopefully convincing enough. 

Even knowing this, Sushi had convinced him to give into his excitement, so he had drawn up an actual blueprint for a voice modifier that he had already been creating small sketches of for a while, wanting to make it for Hitoshi one day. But now, even though it was meant for his exam, he couldn't wait any longer and decided he could come up with something else for the exam. 

The next time he saw Hitoshi, he had practically begged the taller boy to let him make the item right now, insisting on finishing it for Hitoshi to use in the practical exam, but the boy had refused and instead resolutely told Izuku make it for his own exam.

They argued over it for a bit, Izuku insisting he could draw up another blueprint for his exam, until Hitoshi finally won. He had already got a boa-staff approved for the practical and couldn't take anything else, so Izuku begrudgingly backed down.

Hitoshi hadn't been too happy about Izuku's choice to go into the support course, but after explaining his reasons, the taller boy had to accept it. After all, he couldn't argue when it came to the topic of Izuku's vigilante identity. So instead, he was trying to help Izuku do as well as he could so that he would join him in heroics one day. Izuku was already a hero, now Hitoshi just had to make sure he became a legal one.

~ ~ ~

A/N: So this is kind of an excuse to get some of Izuku's past solidified. The cannon slime attack happens when Izuku is 9, along with everything else from that day pretty much. There are a ton of other parts to everything like how All Might actually turned down Izuku (he isn't a whole asshole but he is a bit ignorant and brash, I might redeem him later) and how Izuku and Inko's relationship changed over the years. But! Everything will be revealed in more detail eventually, this overview was just to show why Izuku is so nervous for UA. Lots of people rejected the poor bean, but he is gaining support now!

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