Prompt starters: Late Quirk Manifestation
He for sure aced the written exam, but this is the true test to get into UA. His hands are clammy, chest swirling with anxiety. He’s not gonna get one point for sure- he knows it. He thinks back to what All Might said to him, made his decison to prove him wrong, but that burning stubborness is waning away, causing Izuku to falter.
The exam starts— Izuku has to try, he has to! Otherwise what would have been the point of applying at all. Bots are being destroyed left and right, buildings being turned to rubble. Izuku stumbles out of the way of yet another fallen bot, jarred by the chaos of the exam. It’s all happening so quickly and he sees it, looming in the distance— the zero pointer, bulldozing everything in its path. Other examinees are bumping past him in their scramble to run, even Ingenium’s brother is running, as fast as his jets can carry him. Trapped under fallenrubble, under the shadow of the zero pointer, is the girl he tried to talk to earlier, struggling to pull herself out. She’ll die if he runs, but he has to try.
Izuku sprints, tripping over potholes as fast as he can, adrenaline coursing through him. The zero pointer is surprisingly slow, but he still doesn’t have a lot of time. Izuku assesses the damage of the girl, trying to tamp his panic.
“What are you doing? Run!” The girl screams.
Izuku braces his legs as he starts digging her leg out from under the rubble, pushing aside boulders, straning every muscle in his body.
“Use your quirk!” The girl says, her voice pitchy from panic.
“I don’t have one, I’m sorry!” Despair creeps into his chest, face growing hot, his stomach whirling, his chest burning with both embarrassment at his weakness and at his lack of a quirk. Yet, he’s halfway through digging her out, and soon he’s slinging her over his shoulder, ready to run. He wishes he were faster, wishes he were powerful enough to stop the zero-pointer all together. He can see it’s giant foot coming down on them and Izuku lets out his own scream, all of the heat in his chest and face bursting out. In one moment the foot is above and close, in another the foot is crashing down around them. Izuku sways, panting hard, molten metal glowing hot around them. Someone blasted a hole through the robot’s foot.
“I thought you said you didn’t have a quirk!” The girl says in his ear. The robot foot lifts, clearly not deterred by the hole in its foot. Izuku is dazed, confused by the hole.
“I… I don’t.”
“That was you!” The girl shouts, “do it again! Scream again!”
Scream again— his throat is raw and and uncomfortably warm, his mouth dry, smoke streaming out of his open mouth.
He has a quirk. How?! Why now?! No time! Izuku sucks in another breath, trying not to cough on his own smoke, he screams at the sky again, as loud as he possibly can and his eyes are blinded by the jet of light and heat. When he stops screaming, the robot under parts are melted, glowing gold-scarlet. It whirs, slowing to a clumsy stop.
He lets out a little raspy whimper, smoke streaming from his nose and mouth, he inhales shakily, holds it, jumps when a bloom of fire billows out in return. His hands snap over his mouth in shock. He’s holding his breath again and when he exhales, smoke is seeping out from his fingers. When he pulls his hands away he finds the flame he made floating in his palm, crackling cheerfully.
He made fire. With his mouth.
“Wow!” The girl says, “that’s an amazing quirk! Why did you say that you didn’t have a quirk? I don’t get it.”
“I don’t have a quirk. Or. At least I didn’t, until now.” Izuku clenches his hands, puts out the flames. He tries to do more breathing excersises, but everytime he holds his breath and exhales a bloom of fire roars right out.
It’s exactly like he dreamed of as a kid. Izuku is distracted as he breathes out again, capturing the flame in his hand.
They hobble out from underneath the stopped zero pointer, rising from the smoke and rubble. The other examinees are gasping in shock as they appear and Izuku helps the girl sit.
“That was amazing!” One of the examinees yelps, a boy with bright yellow hair, and a shock of black walks right up to him, “I’m Denki! What’s your name?”
Izuku jerks out of daze, trying to breathe evenly in order not to spit more fire.
“Izuku. Izuku Midoriya.” Izuku says breathlessly.
“That’s such an incredible quirk— enough power to melt steel!”
“I’m quirkless.” Izuku says despondently and Denki raises his eyebrow, “I’m supposed to be quirkless.”
“There’s no reason to be humble now.” Denki says with a grin, “you did great! You even rescued somebody!”
Recovery Girl is handing them healing candies and Izuku chews on them thoughtfully as Denki sings his praises.
“But I’m not being humble.” Izuku says to Denki, “I never had a quirk. I really am quirkless.”
Denki stares at him for a second, clearly not believing him, but the girl speaks up.
“He told me he was quirkless too when he was rescuing me!” The girl says, “he wasn’t using his quirk at all.”
“Well if his quirk can do that, I doubt it would have helped.”
“I didn’t score a single point.” Izuku says, “if I always had a quirk, then I would have scored some points.”
Denki is thoughtful, “y’know? I didn’t think about it, there isn’t any other melted robots. Just the zero pointer.” Then he splutters, his face crumpling into a baffled expression, “that’s not how quirks work! If you’re quirkless then you don’t just… get a quirk randomly.” He deflates, “that only happened like, a long long time ago.”
“I don’t know how I got it either.” Izuku says. He tries puffing air onto his hands, the flame floating in his palms. He tries tossing the flame, and it leaps out of his hand before dissipating into the air.
It should be everything he ever dreamed of, everything his young child heart imagined and wanted. He holds his breath again, breathes another stream of fire onto his palm. It’s a shame that it happened now, at the wrong time, when he needed to be running.
Kacchan’s gonna be pissed.
When he gets home, mom is already asking how things went.
“I bombed it. I definitely flunked.” Izuku says miserably, dumping himself onto the couch.
“Oh, Izuku.” Mom says, “you gave it your all, and that’s what matters.”
She gives him a tight hug, kissing his hair.
“What’s worse.” He continues, “is that my quirk manifested.”
Inko tears away in shock, eyes wide, mouth agape, “you’re joking.”
“I’m not.” Izuku says, “it came at the wrong time and everything.”
He puffs a breath into his hand, showing her the flame that dances in his palm. Inko gasps, eyes growing even wider than he’s ever saw them grow.
“It’s Hisashi’s quirk.” Inko breathes.
“Not just Dad’s.” He tosses the flame from hand to hand, watching the ball float crackle.
“The doctor was wrong.” Inko whispers, tears already streaming down her cheeks, “the doctor was wrong!”
She’s engulfing him into a tight hug, nearly choking the life out of him. He coughs and a flame catches onto her cardigan. She yelps, shrugging it off and stamping out the flame with her foot.
“Sorry!” Izuku squeaks, “I still don’t know how to control it!”
“Oh baby, I don’t care! I’m so so proud of you!”
“I already flunked the physical exam.” Izuku says with a pout and the realization burns into his face, making tears rise in his eyes. At least he knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be a hero while quirkless, but now? Izuku plays with the newest flame in his hand, entranced by its light, he can’t help but feel a little bitter.
Izuku already made the choice to try to hide his quirk from Kacchan, and it’s proving difficult to do. He starts learning to even out his breathing, trying to stay calm so he doesn’t breathe fire. He’s writing all of the traits of his quirk like he was outside of his body, testing its limits, testing ways he could hide it. He found that one way was through drinking water. If he drank enough water he can tamp the flame before it comes out. He finds that the same can be said with his hands. The flame won’t transfer well if his hands were wet.
Mom’s hand is shaking as she clenches onto the envelope, holding it out to him. Izuku’s heart is thundeing his chest, and smoke is wafting out of his nose. He sucks down water, little puffs of steam coming out of his mouth instead.
He opens the letter, and he sees All Might presenting the ranking and the scoring of the exam. He can’t help but feel a bit dejected at the sight of his idol. Yet, All Might cheerfully announces Izuku’s acceptance into the Hero Course.
His spirits lift, and Mom treats him to his favorite dinner, her excitement for him infectious. He’s going to become a hero— it was finally possible.
The friends he makes in Class 1-A are confused as to why he still responds with Quirkless when they ask him about his quirk. To him it’s simpler than saying that it randomly manifested itself ten years way too late.
Kacchan is still ornery at him anyway, shouting at the sight of him. It takes all of Izuku’s power not to accidentally puff out a gasp of fire when Katsuki blasts his desk.
Izuku continues to test the limits of his quirk, holding his breath for longer and longer, realizing a scream can create a flamethrower like stream of fire. The longer and harder he holds his breath, the more powerful his fire-breath. He may have accidentally passed out from holding his breath too long, combined with the flame eating up the oxygen around him.
—-
Shouta Aizawa finds Izuku Midoriya to be an enigma. The first quirkless student in the Hero Course. At least, the first labeled quirkless student. The footage doesn’t lie. Izuku Midoriya does in fact, have a quirk. Yet his file lists him as quirkless.
The boy is diligent enough, a good enough student. Rescuing the girl at the exam is honorable enough, he has the potential for heroism, even without a quirk. Yet, how did the quirk registry fail this badly?
And why isn’t the boy using his quirk now? His throw is pitiful, brow furrowed in frustration.
“Midoriya. It shouldn't be this hard to use your quirk.”
Midoriya’s frown deepens, lips pressed into a thin line.
“I just need a little time to think.” Midoriya says, “I was quirkless before.”
Aizawa raises his eyebrow. It makes no sense. Yet there the boy stands, looking puzzled at the ball in his hand.
“We’d like a third throw Today, Midoriya.” Shouta drawls, a tic of annoyance sparking in his brain. Midoriya goes red, then he wedges the ball into his mouth, takes a deep breath and screams.
A brilliant arc of fire roars out and launches the ball into the air, far, far into the field. Ochako and Kaminari cheer for him, even Tenya is congratulating him, giving him a pat on the back.
“WHAT?” Bakugou is barking, livid and he’s about to lunge for Midoriya hands sparking. Aizawa lets erasure flare to life and the sparks fizzle out quickly. Bakugou looks at his hand, puzzled, and whirls to Aizawa in rage.
“I’m not going to stand for that kind of behavior, Mr. Bakugou.”
Bakugou sucks his teeth, yet still rears onto Izuku like his quirk wasn’t canceled.
“Little shit! You’ve been hiding your quirk this whole time!”
“No I haven’t!” Midoriya says back, “I am quirkless! was quirkless!”
“You think you’re better than me!” Bakugou seethes, “you’re a fucking liar!”
“I do not!” Midoriya yelps and Aizawa spots the puff of smoke streaming out of his mouth, “I didn’t lie!”
The more Midoriya’s voice rises the more smoke streams from his mouth. Shouta lets erasure flare to life again and the smoke dissipates as Midoriya continues to argue with Bakugou.
“I swear, Kacchan, I wouldn’t have hidden a quirk like this from you!” Midoriya touches his mouth, surprised at the lack of fire and smoke. He turns to look at Shouta, and Shouta can swear he can see relief etched onto his face.
—-
Kacchan and Iida are being paired as villains in this training exercise and Izuku knows that he’s not just adjusting to his role.
Katsuki clearly wants to kill him. Izuku wouldn’t be able to take a magnified version of Bakugou’s explosions, Izuku is panicked, he’s torn his throat raw screaming, trying to blast fire in Katsuki’s direction, but the distance is too short, even though the heat melts some of the rubble around them.
Katsuki’s grenade is directly in Izuku’s face— and Izuku throws his hands up to fruitlessly block the oncoming blast, the force of the blast flings Izuku back but there isn’t burning or singed hair or skin. Instead, Izuku is holding Bakugou’s fireball in hand, the flame popping and smoking, morphing into a proper flame. Katsuki’s mouth drops open in surprise, skittering to a stop, Izuku looks at the fireball in his hand and throws it hard at Katsuki. The fireball pops— explodes right in Katsuki’s face and Izuku takes the time to wrap his capture weapon around him. A win— sort of.
“Whoa cool!” Tsu says, “Gave Bakugou a taste of his own medicine!”
Katsuki hisses, ready to snap at her in irritation.
“You knew that would happen wouldn’t it, nerd?” Katsuki’s voice is deadly, low and growly. Izuku gulps, shakes his head.
“I didn’t think I could handle other people’s fire.” Izuku says, “Just my own.”
“That’s a cool move though!” Tsu observes, “you keep saying that you were quirkless Midoriya, so it makes sense that you wouldn’t discover that feature until it manifested.”
Izuku can feel Katsuki’s scrutinizing gaze on his back.
——-
