Izuku groaned as he finished bandaging his upper left arm. "I really need to get myself some protective gear, proper protective gear." His left arm had been cut by a knife wielding mugger, and with the target of said mugger having run away at the start of the fight, he had to take the time to not only grab the knife so his blood couldn't be used to track him... well, he's sure he's dropped a bit of blood, but it would've mixed with the blood of his opponent's on the ground, but not only did he have to do that, but he also had to call the police himself.
And probably alerted either by the sounds of the fight or the crying women who almost got mugged, a pro hero that he recognized as Mr.Brave, whose quirk allowed him to expand and harden hair that he pulls from his head, meaning as long as he had hair, he had weapons. The hero had made his presence known with an oh so friendly attack with a hair made bo staff, Izuku being a bit too slow to dodge it completely, though he did manage to lessen the impact. Izuku put distance between them before throwing a baseball that he kept in his bag that was painted black and had a small red button that started blinking when pressed on it, momentarily scaring the hero back as he thought it may be an explosive of some kind. With the time that he bought himself, he performed a wall jump and grabbed onto a windowsill and pulled himself up onto the small ledge. Then jumping from there to the roof of the building on the other side of the alley, he barely grabbed onto the edge, grunting as he pulled himself up.
Unfortunately for him, there was a ladder on the building, and while he couldn't get to it with the hero in the way, the hero obviously had no such problems. And so, a chase began. The hero started quite a ways away due to Izuku's "bomb", but he began to catch up. But during the time before the hero had gotten up there, Izuku took the time to pull his bag around slightly and pulled out an item that he had made recently before shrugging his bag back in place. At first, it looked like a six-pack of soda cans with a ring attached to each of them by strings. As Mr.Brave started to get close, he pulled the ring without slowing down, and from each of the cans, there was a small spark, and slowly, with smoke coming from all the cans, each can making different colored smoke.
Mr.Brave chased after the cloud of blue, red, yellow, green, white, and black, that continued to move forward, showing that Izuku hadn't let it go yet, though he was completely hidden from view. The hero couldn't even make out an outline of his target with all the different colors moving about and intertwining with each other. Then, suddenly, it took a sharp turn downward as it dropped into an alley, and following it, he dropped down there into the large, growing multicolored cloud, holding his staff at the ready, prepared to swing it at the slightest sign of movement, moving around, looking for the vigilante. As he did, he noticed that he was alone in the alley. Quickly running out, he began searching, but he couldn't find Izuku anywhere.
Unbeknownst to him, when he was running with the cans, Izuku had thrown them forward into the alley at the same time he silently dropped into the alley before, climbing onto the fire escape there and hiding in the shadows, doing his best to silence his breathing as his pursuer jumped right above his head to the next building. Once he saw that Mr.Brave had gone over there, he climbed up, doing his best to remain unnoticeable in case the hero hadn't jumped down, and once he saw that Mr.Brave did in fact, jump down, he ran off. After about a minute, he dropped into another alley and climbed into a dumpster, closing the lid, leaving him in the dark among the garbage and foul smells. Quickly throwing off his jacket and stuffing it into his bag along with his mask, goggles, gloves, and boots that he traded out with regular sneakers, Izuku climbed out of the dumpster.
He began walking off, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible as he made his way to the dump. On the way back, he noticed Mr.Brave moving on the rooftops, searching for him, but Izuku acted like he didn't notice. After all, most people wouldn't be able to do so, and while he took off the most noticeable things from his vigilante outfit, he was still wearing the same shirt and pants, and his shoulder was cut. So if the hero was to take notice of him, specifically the cut, he was sure to be found out.
And that was how he found himself at his dump base, taking care of a cut on his arm with a bruise also on his ribs. 'Man, I definitely don't regret helping that woman, and I already knew I'd get injured and attacked by heroes, honestly, I'm surprised it took this long, I mean, no heroes and this is the first time I got something worse than a mild bruise. But for this to happen the night before my first day at UA. I better get home and go to bed quickly, only have five more hours before I gotta get ready for school.'
He quickly made his way home, sneaking in through his window before climbing into bed. Waking up four hours later, and putting on some clothes to work out in, he went on a quick run before coming back home, taking a shower, rebandaging his arm, getting dressed, ate a quick breakfast and then went on another run, this time to school.
He walked onto the grounds among the group of students that were also walking in. He looked around in amazement, because sure, he's been here before, but this was his dream school. And sure, he was a vigilante that had even escaped a hero, but he was still a nice friendly person who was weak and unassuming, at least on the outside. But on the inside, he stayed aware of his surroundings at all times, even now. Which was why he noticed that there were a few people here and there that whispered when they saw him. Either they were the same people from before the test that heard Bakugou, or word had gotten around. And speaking of Bakugou, Izuku was pretty sure he was coming up behind him right now.
"Move it Deku," Bakugou growled as he shoved Izuku to the side.
Izuku could've easily avoided it, but there was no need, let Bakugou look down on him, and besides, he'd be able to catch himself. And he was going to, but another student caught him before that, steadying Izuku as he grabbed him by the shoulders. "Dang, he sure is a rude one, hope I don't end up in his class. So, what'd you do to piss off Mr.Porcupine hair?"
Izuku turned his head to look at the person who had caught him. Standing taller than him by a handful of inches was a tanned boy with pure white hair that was spiked and swept back, both his eyes constantly changing colors. "Thanks for catching me. As for Bakugou, well, we've known each other for a while and I'm sure he just enjoys tormenting me." Izuku stood up straight and politely stuck out a hand.
The boy shook his head as he shook Izuku's hand. "Man, I find people like that really annoying. Hmm... you know what, I take back my earlier statement, I do want to be in that kid's class. Kinda enjoy sweeping the feet of bullies out from underneath them. Ah, forgot to introduce myself. My name is Taiyo Rifuto, but you can just call me Tai. Im in class 1-A"
"Tai huh, well... my name is Izuku Midoriya, ah, but you can just call me Izuku. I'm from class 1-C"
"Well Izuku, how about we continue this conversation at lunch, cause, I think we better get to class soon."
"Ack!" Izuku checked the time on his phone. 'Ah crap, we only got a few minutes left, and I don't know where my class is yet!" He turned to bid goodbye to Tai, but the other student was already gone, leaving him alone outside. 'Huh... but I didn't even notice that he was gone... heh, interesting. Wait, I don't have time for this!' Izuku ran off, though not at full speed, even if he made it look like it was all he had with all the panting by the time he found his class. He had to keep up appearances after all, and he'd stay quiet and on the down low until he was ready. And he didn't think it was time just yet.
Walking in, he saw that it was almost completely full, with only one empty seat... his... crap. He began silently walking to the empty seat as the bell rang, signalling the beginning of class. Sure, that meant he wasn't technically late, but... he was still embarrassed. "Alright then, seems like everyone is here now," Snipe announced, causing a few snickers. "Quiet down now, alright, I'm sure you all know the drill. We'll mainly be spending today with orientation."
And like he said, they spent the first half of their day with orientation, the whole time, Izuku was staring around, looking at all the different heroes, retired and active, that were working here. After everything was done, they were released to lunch. As he looked around the room, he spotted a person sitting by themselves who he recognised as the student that sat next to him in class.
Setting his tray across the table from him, Izuku sat down, taking in his classmate's appearance. He had dark eyebags and lavender hair that was even messier than his, and that, that was an achievement. "Hello, Shinsou right?" The student nodded as he eyed Izuku, but he didn't care. From what he saw, Shinsou stood to the back by himself, so his reaction was pretty normal. "I'm-"
"Hey there Izuku," Tai greeted as he suddenly set his tray next to Izuku before taking the seat next to him. "Finally found you. How was your day?"
"Oh, Tai, you were serious about wanting to talk to me during lunch?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? Besides, there weren't many people here so it seemed like it'd be quiet. And who's your friend."
"Oh, uh, he's not, I mean, uh-"
"My name is Hitoshi Shinsou, a classmate of Midoriya's, though, I haven't spoken to him before."
"Ah, yeah, you're right, sorry if I was a bother in any way, it's just, you were sitting alone and I know what's it's like to be alone, not that I'm saying you're alone or anything, it's just-"
"Woah, calm down, it's alright," Shinsou told him with a small smirk. "But yeah, I was sitting alone because I didn't think too many people would want to hang out around me, especially once they found out what my quirk is."
"Ooh, really, why, what is it, you totally got me curious now," Izuku huffed as he leaned in closer, before suddenly realizing what he was doing and shot back, waving his hands apologetically. "Ah, sorry if that was sudden-"
"Woah, calm down there Izuku, stop being such a spazz."
"Ah, sorry."
"Well, to answer your question, my quirk is known as Brainwash, if I speak to someone and they reply to me, I can control them."
"Ah, let me guess, people say stuff like that being the quirk of a villain," Izuku said as he suddenly calmed down and began nodding sagely. "But truly, it's a great quirk, one that'd allow you to easily handle hostage situations, or defeat a villain without an actual fight, keeping collateral damage to the minimum. But with how UA's hero course entrance test is, it'd be extremely difficult as it involved fighting robots. If you were able to build up muscle and were to know their inner layout, you could theoretically take them out but-"
"Woah there, again, calm down there man. Though, it's too bad that the hero course test is set up the way it is, I mean, he's right, your quirk would be pretty useful for a hero. "
"Heh, well, that's certainly the first time I've heard someone put it like that."
"Ah, sorry about that, I kinda go on rambling sometimes."
"So is that your quirk then, got some kind of giga IQ or some hyper analysis?"
"Probably wouldn't have put it like that, but yeah, is it?"
Izuku quickly clammed up before looking down. 'The moment I tell them, they're going to look down on me. But, I've already decided I need to stop being so weak.' "Actually, I'm quirkless." 'There, bombshell dropped now, how're they going to react?'
"Huh, guess that means that intelligence was all natural. That's cool."
"Yeah, don't worry, after the amount of times I've been called the villain kid, I'm not going to put you down too. After all, you're one of the few people who'd still be talking to me so normally."
"Eh..." Izuku was completely shocked, there weren't many who would think like that, the last person to not look down on him in some way was probably... Stain... no, they weren't like him, they weren't the same.
"Well, since you've all answered, guess I better tell you what my quirk is. It's called rift, and pretty much, I can rip open space itself, allowing me to make portals. I can even make a storage room that I can access over and over again, whenever I want." Izuku was about to start rambling again when Shinsou interrupted him.
"I'm guessing since you were blessed with a quirk like that, you're in the hero course."
"Right you are, though honestly, I barely made it in. If just a single person did better than me, I wouldn't have made it in. My own fault for not taking it too seriously. But, I was like, super tired, and... kinda bored."
Shinsou and Izuku seemed completely bewildered by that comment. "What do you mean bored, do you know what I'd give to be in your position?"
"He makes a good point, Tai, you're talking about the entrance exam to the top hero school in Japan, the training grounds for those who are meant to protect others at all costs. And you were bored?"
"Woah there, calm down grape brothers." The two sputtered and coughed to that comment. "I know I know, look, I'm not always like that, I know when to take things seriously. And I know heroes are meant to protect the innocent and all that... well... they're supposed too... anyway, don't worry, I'm gonna be quite the hero in the future. Saving all the people, AND making it out of there alive. After all, if all the heroes threw their lives away, there'd be no heroes to protect people later on. So there's no way I'd let my self die so easily."
"Well... you got a point I guess," Shinsou conceded. "Be careful though, otherwise I'm going to take your spot in the class during the sports festival."
Tai chuckled and began eating himself while scrolling through his phone. The trio began to eat in silence, just three students, none of them caring about their different positions as they ate their food, Izuku thinking about the pause in Tai's speech when Tai let out a small whistle. "Well now, looks like there's a new vigilante out and about."
Izuku had to use all his willpower to not choke on his food or anything of the sort at that comment. "What now?"
"Oh yeah, I think I've seen a whisper here and there going around the internet recently."
"Yeah, apparently they've actually made their debut a few weeks ago, in fact, twas the night before our entrance exam. Some woman was about to get attacked when some new name hero showed up, just to get knocked to the ground. In her words, "that was when this mysterious figure appeared, and he wasn't even that big, but he ended up knocking out the drunk right away. And then he took the hero's mask to change his voice before scolding him for doing a bad job as a hero. It was honestly kinda funny." I guess she didn't want to say anything about the person who helped her or something, but honestly, if that last bit actually happened, it'd be pretty funny."
"Yeah, but is there anything else on this person," Izuku asked.
"Actually, the main thing that's getting this person some attention, is not only that story, but also one from last night. The person beat up some mugger, called the cops with the guy's own phone, and when a hero showed up, he just vanished without a trace. Guy's got skills. And get this, people are starting to call him Justice, because based on a few other stories, he doesn't just beat up the baddies, but he'll sometimes stay with the victims before the cops show up and talk to them a bit. And if they asked why he did it, he'd say it was because it was the right thing to do."
Izuku wanted to groan, but that wouldn't be normal for someone who had no connection to this so he had to just swallow it down. But still, he was starting to become well known. And with such a name too.