I Don't Need A "Quirk"

-} Two {-

By the time Izuku entered his third and final year of middle school, he had a fairly good grasp on how to handle all sort of weapons. 

Asuga hadn't put him on them right away, instead taking him and running drill after drill after drill. He had thought she pushed him harder than everyone else before, but now it was like she was trying to kill him on the daily. 

As a result he had to cut back on his jobs even more. And that wasn't good, it meant he wouldn't be able to pay his sensei. 

A week before school started he was trying a kick and kept messing up, just because his head was in a rush of trying to figure out how to change his time so he could still get money. His sensei stopped him, grabbing his ankle and holding it in the air. 

"Izu, what's going on with you recently. The past week you've been really out of it." Her warm dark eyes glittered in concern, muscles tense to prepare herself for an answer. 

"It's nothing Sensei, just a bit . . . out of it." He used her own words, trying to take his ankle back. 

"It's not nothing if it's distracting you." 

"I just . . ." He cut himself off and sighed. "With the extra training I can't work as much as usual, and I'm starting school next week which means I have to cut back even more. Especially since this year has all these exams to do, it's the last year of middle school. I want to get into UA, and that's hard enough when you have the best grades and an amazing quirk. But I'm quirkless! And I just am so-so . . . So . . . desperate. I want this, I want to keep this up I want to be a hero but I'm running on about four hours of sleep on average. And Sensei . . . I don't think I can do this. Maybe they were all right, maybe I should give up." 

Asuga squared her jaw, crossing her arms as she looked over the boy in front of her. 

"This simply won't do." She said. Izuku looked up at her, eyes wide and questioning. "Izuku, you are no longer allowed to pay for your lessons with me." Her pupil gasped and tried to tell her he didn't want that-but she cut him off. "You will, as soon as school starts, bring your homework and other things here after you get out for the day. You will study and train at the same time, save some time and gain some more." She walked over to where they had set their water bottles, tossing Izuku's over her shoulder. He caught it mid-air only to hold it and not drink at all. 

"Next, yes. You are quirkless." She turned him, eyes burning with passion and determination. "You have no special power, or cheat code to help with any of this." She waved her had to encompass the world as a whole. "But here's what you aren't truly getting." Asuga paused to take a long drink from her purple bottle. 

"You don't need a fucking quirk, Izuku." His sensei hissed, not at him, she wasn't mad at him. She was mad about the situation. Her glare cut through him, to his soul, words spilling over the cracks and edges, smoothing and healing. "You have more brains than anyone I've ever met, could probably go toe-to-toe with that damned principle you talk about so much and come out on top. You have more guts than any one of those "heroes" everyone talks about all the time, and the drive to top even fucking All Might." 

Asuga stood right in front of him as she growled out the last words of her rant. "I don't want you to say one more goddamned self-destructive thing. If you say it you'll start to believe that bullshit. Izuku, you are the best kid I've ever seen or heard about. You have everything you need to be a hero. The drive, attitude, heart, guts, instincts, and soul. All of it." She gripped his chin and made him meet her eyes, even if he hadn't been locked on them already. "You don't need a quirk, and you certainly will not be giving up if I have one goddamned word to say about anything!" 

Izuku stared at her, green eyes sparkling with love and affection. In his gut the tiny flicker of a candle roared back into the inferno he had been born with.