the copycat hero: Deku

Chapter 3

"I hate you."

"Love you too, Nei-tan," Izuku chuckled as the two teens sat in the familiar waiting room, the blond looking down at the piece of notebook paper in his hands.

It was a Sunday, the day when the two teens had met with their quirk specialist for the past 9 years, the 14-year-olds having cemented their friendship over the same time. Izuku grinned at Neito as the blond slipped the paper into his bag, treating it like a sacred document.

"I can't believe you actually met All Might," Neito sighed, looking at Izuku, "And ended up all over the news. Really, I thought we agreed that we'd both be Underground Heroes."

"Sorry," Izuku laughed, "Got a bit carried away. But hey, showed Kacchan up some more. He actually came and spouted some bull about "Not needing my help" right after, too."

"That boy has some serious problems," Neito laughed, lightly elbowing Izuku in the side as the door to the office opened, "You go first, I have some homework to catch up on."

"Later, Neito, try not to break anything while I'm gone," Izuku chuckled as he jumped to his feet, grinning to himself as his friend gave an exasperated sigh, walking into the office of the smiling quirk specialist.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it really is amazing," Neitori muttered as he read over the notes on his clipboard, "Long range replication of any emitter or transformation type quirks, with a current range of around ten meters, after that the effectiveness of the copy drops exponentially; and the ability to sense quirked individuals and the nature of their quirks up to one kilometer away through the use of the "glow"."

"Do we really have to keep calling it that?" Izuku flinched at the last word, letting out a tired sigh, "I was a kid, I didn't know how else to describe it. I don't actually see any light, it's more of a…of a feeling, really."

"Hey, don't fix what isn't broken," The older man laughed, going back to his notes, "Though your biggest weakness is that you need at least a base understanding of the "mechanics" behind the quirk in order to actually use it. These are often more…esoteric than just a simple description of what the quirk does, rather being more about how the quirk feels to use. Have you been keeping up with the quirk analysis diaries I told you to keep?"

"Only for the last ten years," Izuku answered, digging around in his bag for his latest notebook, handing it to the older man, who quickly flipped through it.

"Amazing, you're always so detailed," Neitori muttered, "Have you been doing the exercises I gave you?"

"I've been working to find commonalities between similar quirks and how they work and feel, so I don't have to ask every person I meet how their quirk works," Izuku nodded, "I actually managed to copy a couple of kids quirks in the park the other day. One could stretch himself like rubber, the other could turn into fire."

"And you did that without asking about either quirk?"

"Only by feeling," Izuku said proudly, "Well, I saw the rubber kid stretching his face, so I kind of figured out what his quirk was from that. But I figured out the fire quirk without seeing it."

"Excellent!" Neitori-sensei cried as he snapped the notebook shut, giving Izuku a wide smile as he handed it back, "Now, shall we end this here? I'm sure Neito is eager to get his session over with so the two of you can go train."

"Yes, Neitori-sensei," Izuku said as he got up from the small stool he'd been sitting on.

"I just want to say, I'm proud of you two!" The man grinned at the two teens as they said goodbye at the door, "Over all the years I've known you, you've always done your best to keep positive and work hard, and have had a drive and ambition that I fail to see in even the most determined of people. I know the two of you are going to be trying out for the UA entrance exams, and so, I wish you the best of luck."