Chapter Text
"Izuku" Normal Speech.
'Izuku' Normal Thought.
"Arise" Magic/Technique.
"Ashborn" Demon/Monster Normal Speech.
'Ashborn' Demon/Monster Thought.
“I wonder if it works…”
Izuku Midoriya murmured to himself as he walked down the streets of Musutafu, making his way home while staring down at the palms of his hands.
One for All.
It was the name of the Quirk that belonged to All Might, who for so long had been the Symbol of Peace and the current number one Pro Hero of Japan. In simple terms, it was a power passed down from one person to another, described by All Might himself as something akin to the sacred torch of legend, carried onward from successor to successor.
In an era where countless humans were born to extraordinary abilities called Quirks, One for All seemed like a Quirk that provided an overwhelming boost in physical strength to its user, but All Might had explained the truth to him. According to the man, the Quirk was actually the accumulated power of every previous wielder, cultivated and strengthened over generations to allow the user to stockpile an enormous amount of raw power, enhancing their physical abilities to superhuman levels. All Might himself was the clearest proof of what One for All was capable of, as the Hero had built his reputation as the strongest Pro Hero in Japan upon strength so overwhelming that most villains would rather flee than fight him.
And just a moment ago, One for All had become Izuku’s Quirk.
Almost a year earlier, after a reckless attempt to help his childhood friend, Izuku had finally met his idol in All Might, who rescued them before ultimately choosing him as his successor. What followed were ten months of hellish physical training meant to prepare Izuku’s body to withstand the raw power of One for All. Otherwise, the accumulated strength stored within the Quirk would have exploded his body the moment he inherited it.
It would have been a massive understatement to say those ten months had been difficult for Izuku, who at first could barely find the strength to stay awake at night after pushing his body to its absolute limits for hours during the day. But in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a Pro Hero capable of saving everyone despite being born Quirkless, Izuku had endured it all and completed the challenges All Might had set out for him, finally turning himself into a vessel capable of wielding One for All just in time for the entrance exam of U.A. High School, the number one Hero Academy in Japan that Izuku strived to enroll himself in.
Earlier, he had ingested a strand of hair from All Might, which was apparently the method used to transfer the Quirk. In all honesty, Izuku had been terrified that his limbs would explode off his body like he had been warned that they might, but seeing as he was still in one piece while strolling down the street of his hometown, the training appeared to have paid off.
“On recent news, the A-rank Gate in Hokkaido has been cleared by the Heroes of the Draw Sword Guild…”
Hearing that, Izuku immediately turned his attention toward the massive billboard screen attached to the nearby commercial building. The live news broadcast was currently showing several Heroes from the Hunters Hero Guild as they walked out from the enormous swirling mass of blue energy that served as the entrance to the A-rank Gate they had just cleared, which would soon disappear with the defeat of the dungeon boss holding it together.
Gate.
Twenty years ago, mysterious dimensional rifts known as Gates had begun showing up all around the world, marking the greatest global crisis since the Dawn of Quirk, an extraordinary era marred by a breakdown of human society caused by the sudden onslaught of criminals empowered by their newfound superpowers, as well as ordinary people being prejudiced against the new minority. era. Connected to dangerous pocket dimensions filled with deadly and extremely powerful magic beasts and monsters, Gates quickly became one of the greatest threats humanity had ever faced due to the fact that if they were not cleared within seven days, an event known as the Dungeon Break would occur, releasing the creatures inside directly into the real world.
Conventional weapons proved largely ineffective against these monsters, but Quirks with strong offensive powers possessed by some Heroes were capable of defeating and killing them. As a result, an enormous global industry eventually developed around Gate clearing, a process known as Raiding. Pro Heroes no longer only had to use their Quirks to protect civilians from supervillains and natural disasters, but also to enter Gates and eliminate the monsters lurking within before the catastrophic Dungeon Break could occur.
Due to the dangers posed by each Gate, which were ranked under an international system ranging from E-Rank to S-Rank based on their level of threat, Heroes had gradually begun banding together to form Hero Guilds, organizations specialized in coordinating Gate Raids. Over the past ten years, the Guild system had grown into a massive part of modern Hero Society, with some Guilds becoming influential enough to rival entire nations in both power and resources.
Although Heroes could still choose to operate independently, only those affiliated with a Hero Guild were permitted to participate in Gate Raids, as attempting to clear a Gate alone was considered outright suicide in most cases. Pro Heroes themselves were also classified under the same S-E ranking system, with their ranks determined by the overall effectiveness of their Quirks while Raiding. A Hero whose skills and abilities specialized in other aspects of a Raid could be ranked just as highly as one serving on the main strike team responsible for killing the monsters, as Raiding had evolved to the point where multiple conditions needed to be fulfilled for the operation to be considered successful.
It was also the reason a Raid could, and should, never be tackled by a single Hero. There was simply no Hero in this world that could effectively handle every operation of a Raid all by themselves, even if there were individuals strong enough to clear low to mid-ranked Gates entirely on their own, such as All Might, who used to run solo but was commissioned by the top Hero Guilds to assist with their raids back in the days. Izuku himself also hoped that he would one day be able to join a Hero Guild after earning his license and graduating, though that didn’t mean he had no interest in following in All Might’s footsteps and operating as a solo Pro Hero.
Not like they were rare these days.
“Argh, I’m getting ahead of myself again…” Izuku lightly slapped his cheeks with both palms, firmly reprimanding himself as he forced his racing thoughts back under control. He had not even gotten into U.A. High School yet, and he was already imagining his future as a Pro Hero.
Still, even knowing that, Izuku could not stop the excitement bubbling inside him. After all, for the first time in his life, the dream he had chased for so many years no longer felt impossible. The entrance exam of U.A. High School was next week. Just a few more days and…
Before Izuku could turn his attention back toward the screen, which was showing a reporter interviewing a member of the Draw Sword Guild, a sudden chill washed over him, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over his head. Izuku had never experienced such a feeling before, but he, like everyone in the world, knew what was about to take place, and could do nothing but look on as the space several meters ahead abruptly distorted.
“A GATE IS OPENING!”
Someone cried out, and the next instance, an eruption of what was known as mana burst outward, kicking up the dust and sending strong gusts of wind through the street, knocking nearby pedestrians off their feet as countless cries of panic immediately rang out across the area. Blue energy twisted violently in midair as the giant mass started expanding, forming a towering swirling vortex right across the street from where Izuku was standing.
Unlike those around him, Izuku managed to keep his footing, his balance holding against the strong winds. Nearby, an elderly woman had fallen onto the pavement, having trouble pushing herself up while the crowd around her looked on, with some already using their phones to call the Hero Association hotline.
Without a moment of hesitation, Izuku rushed over to the elderly woman and gently helped her to her feet.
“Are you okay, obaa-san?” He asked, looking her over to see if she had sustained any injuries. Fortunately, she seemed fine, though still visibly shaken.
“Thank you, young man.” The woman said, giving him a warm smile as Izuku bowed his head politely in response before turning his attention back toward the Gate. From what he was hearing around him, the Hero Association had already been informed, and it would not be long before their response team arrived at the scene to control the situation.
“Hey, man, what are you doing?”
Izuku turned slightly at the voice, noticing a group of young men in local high school uniforms edging closer to the Gate than anyone else around them. While most civilians kept their distance, these students were walking toward the blue vortex as if the whole thing was nothing more than a spectacle.
The one the question was directed at leaned forward, peering at the swirling energy with curiosity before turning around to look at his friends while speaking casually, almost dismissively.
“Why are you guys freaking out so much?” He asked. “Don’t you know Gates that just opened like this are completely safe. Nothing can come out yet, and it takes like a week before a Dungeon Break even happens.”
Although Izuku did not fully agree with them getting so close to the Gate, since there were clear civilian safety protocols in place whenever a Gate appeared in a populated area like this, he had to admit the basic logic behind the confidence was not entirely wrong. A Gate always remained sealed to the monsters inside for seven days after its opening, and only Heroes were permitted to enter during that period to clear it before a Dungeon Break could occur. The Hero Association would normally assign a Hero Guild to conduct the Raid, but others could also lay claim to a Gate if they met the required clearance conditions set by the Association.
After all, a low ranking Guild would never be allowed to take on a Gate that…
Crack!
Like a sheet of glass breaking apart, a sharp cracking sound suddenly echoed through the street, loud enough to make the civilians on the opposite side of the road snap their heads back toward the Gate in alarm after many had already begun turning away and returning to what they had been doing earlier. Everyone standing nearby could only watch on as fractures rapidly spread across its swirling blue surface, releasing a burst of mana powerful enough to send visible waves through the air.
“This is…” Izuku murmured before crying out as loud as he could, his eyes widening in horror when he realized what was happening “RUN! GET OUT OF THERE!”
But his warning never reached its intended target, as a massive green hand suddenly burst out from the broken Gate and grabbed the head of the closest student before anyone could process what they were saying, violently lifting him off the ground while friends stumbled back in terror. Panic instantly spread through the surrounding area as nearby civilians scrambled away from the Gate, some tripping over themselves in their desperation to escape while others remained frozen in disbelief at the sight of the struggling teenager dangling helplessly in midair directly in front of the broken Gate.
From where he was standing, Izuku could hear the boy’s muffled screams and see the sheer terror in his eyes as he desperately clawed at the massive hand gripping his head, trying with all his strength to break free. And for a split second, Izuku stood rooted in place as fear surged through his entire body, his mind screaming at him to run while his widened eyes remained locked on the horrifying sight unfolding in front of him.
“HOLD ON! I’m coming!”
Then his body moved on its own. Ignoring the fear clawing at him, Izuku lunged forward toward the student, his instinct driving his body as he rushed in to help despite having little idea what he could do against something that had emerged from the Gate.
But before he could even take a second step, a sickening, bone chilling crunch suddenly reverberated through the air when the massive green hand twisted its fingers, causing the body of the student it was holding to go limp instantly.
A horrified scream escaped someone nearby as the boy’s neck bent at an unnatural angle, his arms falling limply to his sides while dark, towering figures slowly began emerging from the shattered Gate behind him.
One after another, massive humanoid creatures leaped through the swirling blue vortex and landed heavily onto the street outside, their enormous frames slamming against the pavement hard enough to crack the ground beneath their feet. Each one stood well over two meters tall, their bodies packed with thick muscle beneath layers of fur clothing and crude makeshift armor. Several carried massive weapons in their hands while others emerged empty-handed, their clawed fingers flexing as guttural growls rumbled from their throats.
The hand holding the dead student belonged to the first Orc that had crossed over. Its glowing yellow eyes slowly swept across the street filled with panicked civilians before its lips pulled back into a savage grin that quickly twisted into a vicious snarl. A deafening roar erupted from its throat moments later, loud enough to make several nearby civilians fall down in fear as more and more Orcs continued pouring out from the broken Gate behind it.
The entire street immediately descended into complete chaos. While many fled in terror, others desperately shouted into their phones trying to inform the Hero Association of what was happening before being pulled away by terrified family members. Several cars screeched to a halt nearby as frightened drivers abandoned their vehicles, with more than a few crashing directly into the charging Orcs in panic, only for the monsters to remain standing completely unharmed before bringing their massive weapons down onto the vehicles to crush both the metal and even the people still inside.
The Orcs surged through the street like wild beasts let loose upon helpless prey, staining the street with the blood of their victims in the span of just a few seconds as their massive bodies tore through vehicles and fleeing civilians alike while terrified screams echoed throughout the entire area. Some people tried fighting back with their Quirks in desperate attempts to survive, but even if their powers proved to be effective, none had the skills to hold their own against the feral monsters, who made quick work of those attacking them.
Amidst the chaos, Izuku suddenly heard the sound of a little girl crying nearby. His head immediately turned toward the source of the voice just in time to spot a young girl collapsed beside an overturned car, tears streaming down her face as she desperately tried to crawl backward across the pavement. One of the Orcs had already noticed her and was slowly making its way toward her position, its massive club dragging against the ground behind it as the child saw it and froze completely in terror.
“Get away from her!”
Without hesitation, Izuku launched himself forward, the ground beneath his feet shattered apart from the force of his movement as green lightning erupted across his body. He crossed the distance to the orc in an instant and drove his fist directly into it with a devastating punch empowered by One for All, causing a massive shockwave to explode through the street as the monster was blasted away like a speeding bullet, its enormous body soaring across the road before crashing violently into a nearby building. Nearby windows shattered from the force of the enhanced blow while a powerful gust of wind tore through the area, kicking up the dust and sending debris scattering in every direction.
The entire street seemed to fall into silence for a brief moment as every Orc in the area immediately turned toward Izuku, their glowing yellow eyes locking instantly onto him almost in unison, with not a single one of them sparing more than a glance toward the Orc he had just sent flying through a building. The little girl behind him stared up at him with wide tear-filled eyes while Izuku himself remained standing in front of her, his breathing ragged as green lightning continued crackling around his body.
“O-Onii chan… your… you arm.”
She sobbed, but Izuku couldn’t hear her, nor did he feel anything in his right arm anymore. Adrenaline surged so violently through his body that the pain had yet to properly register in his mind, but the unnatural angle of his arm and the blood running down from it made the damage obvious enough.
But it didn’t matter.
“Go! Get away from here!” Izuku shouted quickly to the girl before turning back to the monsters as they came charging at him, their massive weapons raising with guttural roars echoing throughout the street. Fear screamed inside his head at the sight of the approaching horde, yet his body still moved forward regardless, knowing that as long as their attention were focused on him, then they wouldn’t care for the others.
Green lightning exploded around Izuku once more as he charged forward and threw himself directly at the charging Orcs, instantly destroying his other arm in the effort to drive the orcs back. The force of this blow was also strong enough to send them stumbling back while another was thrown across the space, but the other orcs continued advancing toward him, their weapons descending toward his body while their hands tried to seize Izuku, who poured power into his feet to quickly move out of the way.
But the moment he pushed One for All through his lower body, agony violently exploded through him as the muscles in his legs began tearing apart under the overwhelming strain. That brief moment when Izuku faltered was enough for one of the orcs to catch him, its club slamming into his chest body hard enough to send him flying back and skidding across the pavement before slamming into a car. Pain finally caught up to him and crashed through his entire body all at once as Izuku coughed out a mouthful of blood upon impact, his body giving out beneath him before collapsing face-first onto the broken street.
Through the haze of his blurry vision and ringing ears, Izuku could still make out towering shapes of the Orcs that continued to move through the ruined street. Some were already rushing toward him with their weapons raised while others continued chasing after the fleeing civilians further down the road, their terrified screams echoing throughout the area. None were spared from their ferocity and murderous intentions, whether it was men, women, or even children unfortunate enough to be caught in their destructive path.
“No…” Izuku rasped weakly when he saw the screen unfolding before his very eyes “No. NOOOO!!!”
Thinking back, Izuku would think that the scream had torn his own throat apart as he poured everything he had left into his feet for a desperate charge, slamming his shoulders down to push himself up when his arms failed to respond to him and hang limply at his sides. Green lightning burst wildly around his broken body as he pushed forward before throwing himself shoulder first into the nearest Orc with every ounce of strength he could still muster. The impact caved the monster’s chest in and sent its enormous body crashing backward into several others behind it, but after the attack landed with Izuku rolling through the street to a complete stop, he could feel his body finally giving out beneath him, leaving Izuku to lay there unmoving.
His vision blurred heavily as pain consumed every part of him, his consciousness fading while distant screams and roars echoed around the area. Through his barely functioning eyes, Izuku could still see the Orcs continuing to advance toward him.
Then, suddenly, a massive figure suddenly descended from above, crashing into the street with enough force to shake the entire battlefield, creating a shockwave that blasted numerous Orcs away at once as several monsters were sent flying through nearby buildings.
Even through his fading consciousness, Izuku had no trouble recognizing that towering silhouette.
How could he mistake it for anything else, for he had idolized it for his entire life.
But just before he passed out, Izuku faintly saw a flash of light, bearing a message text:
[!] Notice
You have met all of the requirements to complete the secret quest: [Courage of the Weak]
“Ahhh!”
“Izuku!”
Before Izuku could even properly comprehend where he was as he threw himself up, a familiar voice suddenly rang out before he found himself being pulled into a tight embrace, the sudden pressure causing him to wince instinctively before Izuku realized that the person embracing him was none other than his mother, Midoriya Inko.
“Okaa-san!?”
Blinking rapidly, the blurriness in his vision gradually faded away, allowing him to finally take in his surroundings. The faint smell of disinfectant was enough for him to immediately tell that he was in a hospital room, with sunlight streaming through the window beside the bed he was currently sitting on. He was wearing the standard light grey patient gown, and aside from the IV tube connected to the back of his hand, he felt perfectly fine. Even his broken arms and legs, or what else his body had suffered in the effort to use One for All, seemed to have been completely healed.
“You’ve finally woken up…” Inko Midoriya said shakily as tears streamed down her face. “You’ve been unconscious for three days, Izuku…”
“Three days!?” Izuku asked in surprise before the memories rushed back to him “The Dungeon Break! Okaa-san, what…”
““Ah, I see that you are awake, Young Midoriya!”
Before Izuku could finish asking his question, the door at the side of the room suddenly slid open, and a sickly skinny, spiky blond-haired man dressed in loose baggy clothing walked inside while waving a hand above his head, an obvious look of relief spreading across his face the moment he saw Izuku sitting there with his mother embracing him.
“All… I mean, Toshinori-san!” Izuku quickly corrected himself.
A brief while later, after Inko Midoriya had left the room to give the two their requested privacy, Izuku found himself sitting silently on the hospital bed while listening to All Might explain everything that had happened after he lost consciousness.
According to Toshinori Yagi, the civilian identity of the number one Pro Hero, he and multiple other Heroes had taken out all the Orcs in the area and headed inside the Gate, which was recorded to be high B-rank, to defeat the boss monster before the situation could spread any further into the surrounding districts. But even so, the damage had already been done. Twenty five civilians had died during the incident, while countless others had been injured before the Heroes managed to fully contain the sudden Dungeon Break, the first case in the history where a Gate had broken open shortly after it formed.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Young Midoriya.” Yagi said firmly, making Izuku finally lift his gaze toward him. “Without your efforts, far more people would have died before we managed to get to the scene. You did everything you could, and the fact that you were willing to throw yourself into that situation to protect others is exactly what makes you worthy of being a Hero.”
“B-But I could have done more. I could have saved them…”Izuku argued, his voice shaking as his hands tightened against the hospital blanket resting over his laps. The images from the Dungeon Break continued replaying inside his mind no matter how hard he tried to stop them. All his life, everything he had ever seen about Gates had been what was shown on television, carefully filtered footage of Heroes defeating monsters and rescuing civilians.
But he never realized the true horror of those dimensional rifts until now. The screams, the blood, the fear in people’s eyes as they desperately tried to escape while those monsters slaughtered anyone too slow to get away… it was far more horrifying than anything Izuku could have ever imagined.
“Listen to me carefully, Young Midoriya.” Yagi interrupted him, speaking up in a much more serious and firmer tone as he stood up from his chair to grab Izuku by the shoulders, forcing the young man to look at him right in the eyes “In our line of work, there will always be people we fail to save. No matter how strong a Hero becomes, no one can protect everyone. It is painful, and it never truly gets easier to accept, but if you allow every loss to completely break you apart, then you will never be able to continue saving the people still in front of you.”
“The most important thing is that you have chosen to act.” Yagi continued. “Most people, even Heroes, would have run away in fear against monsters like that, but you still acted to protect all those people.”
The room grew quiet for several moments before Yagi let out a small sigh and sat down on the bed in front of Izuku, his hands leaving his shoulders to reach toward one of the bottled waters he had brought with him into the room. There were also multiple giftboxes there, and they were apparently sent by people all over Japan, including the families of those who had managed to survive the Dungeon Break incident thanks to Izuku.
“Right now, Hero Associations all around the world have already started investigating the incident.” He explained. “A Gate breaking open immediately after appearing has never happened before. Not once in the twenty years since Gates first began showing up. Right now, the leading theory is that the boss inside might have been able to forcibly break it open all along, though we still don’t know if it’s true or not. No other Gate that has opened these past few days has shown the same abnormal behavior.”
“I see.” Izuku nodded his head in understanding.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean we are going to ignore the possibility of another Gate like that.” Yagi continued “Precautionary measures are already being discussed. We’ll never allow another incident like this to happen again.”
“That’s… that’s good to know,” Izuku said quietly, finally allowing a small smile to appear on his face as he looked toward Yagi. “And… Thank you, Toshironi-san. For saving me and everyone.”
Yagi blinked for a second before a gentle smile spread across his face. “That’s the least I could do for you. Especially after you risked your life trying to save everyone else first.”
“I felt like I hurt myself more than those Orcs did.” Izuku admitted, raising his hands up and looking at them. Something he had no trouble recalling was the horrifying sensation of One for All tearing through his body every single time he forced more power out of it. The pain had been unbearable, especially near the end when his arms and legs had practically stopped functioning altogether.
“Your injuries were quite severe when you were brought here, but fortunately Chiyo Shuzenji-san, the Recovery Girl from U.A. High School personally came over to heal you. Her Quirk allows her to amplify and speed up the human body's natural healing process, but it uses the life energy from the recipient so…”
But the rest of Yagi’s explanation immediately went in one ear and out the other the moment Izuku heard the words “U.A. High School.”. The fact that he had been out for several days finally fully proceeded in his mind, making Izuku widen his eyes when he realized that he had missed something important.
“The entrance exam!” Izuku cried out in horror as he practically shot upright on the bed. “I missed it! U.A. 's entrance exam was… yesterday!!” He finished in horror, looking at the calendar on the far wall to see that the exam was indeed yesterday.
Yagi stared at him for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter.
“Calm down, will you! Or the doctors will throw me out!” He said between laughs and coughs of blood before finally calming down enough to continue. “You don’t have to worry about it. Your actions during the Dungeon Break already proved more than enough about what kind of Hero you are.”
“Huh…?” Izuku blinked at him in confusion as he turned his gaze down to look at All Might.
“Why do you think Recovery Girl personally came over here to heal you?” Yagi pointed out “Your spirit of self-sacrifice, your heroic deeds weren’t overlooked, and the school board has decided they’re more than enough to be qualified as your practical test result with maximum score when I told them you were aiming to enroll in U.A.”
“R-Really?!” Izuku asked, tears welling up in his eyes as he realized what it meant for him and his dream.
“Of course!” Yagi added with a grin. “You still need to pass the written portion before you can officially enroll into U.A. High School. But arrangements have already been made for you to take it once you are discharged from the hospital. I’m sure you will pass that as well, so… welcome to your Hero Academia, Midoriya Izuku.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Izuku found himself slowly sitting back down onto the hospital bed as tears of happiness streamed uncontrollably down his face, forcing him to quickly raise the sleeve of his patient gown to wipe at his eyes. Yagi could only smile softly at the sight before reaching over to gently pat Izuku on the shoulder while the boy continued trying and completely failing to hold back his overwhelmed sobs of relief and happiness.
“I think I should let you rest for now, Young Midoriya. Check out those gifts if you want, but try to not eat anything strange if you find candies of snacks in those boxes, okay?”
With that said, Yagi pushed himself back onto his feet before making his way out of the hospital room, quietly sliding the door shut behind him as he left. The moment the room fell silent again, Izuku slowly let himself fall backward onto the soft hospital bed, staring blankly up toward the ceiling while the excitement swelling inside his chest refused to calm down no matter how hard he tried.
U.A. High School.
Of course there’s still a Written Test, but Izuku was confident, having always kept up with his academic study…
He was really going there. He’s really going to join Bakugo and others in the journey to become a Pro Hero. Only a year ago, he had still been a Quirkless middle schooler who had almost given up on his dream of becoming a Hero.
And now…
[!] You have unread mails.
Slowly, Izuku turned his gaze down, looking at the strange translucent window bearing the notification that he had unread mail that was still floating exactly where it had been ever since he first woke up. Its appearance resembled some kind of holographic game screen, emitting a faint blue light with the words displayed across its surface. From the moment that All Might had entered the room and started his conversation with him normally, it had been confirmed to Izuku that he was the only one who could see it.
“Now, what in the world is this?” Izuku asked. It was a question more to himself than anyone as he stood up and reached a hand toward the floating screen, briefly wondering if he should have asked Yagi about it before he left. The moment his fingers touched the surface of the window, however, they passed straight through it without resistance. “Guess it’s not a touch screen…”
Frowning slightly, he waved his hand through the translucent screen several more times, only to get the exact same result every single attempt. Despite clearly being able to see it floating right in front of him, the strange window had no physical presence whatsoever.
Did he hurt his head so now he had started hallucinating? That couldn’t be, right? He felt fine.
“Weird.” Izuku murmured, rubbing his chin with a thoughtful expression before an idea came to his mind. “Uhm… Open Mailbox.”
To his surprise, the moment the words left his mouth, the blue screen suddenly flickered brightly, making Izuku widen his eyes in surprise. Right before his eyes, the original text vanished instantly before a letter flew toward the center of the screen before it tore open to dissolve into light. In its place, several new lines of text began to rapidly fill out across the glowing surface one after another.
[!] Notice
You have met all of the requirements to complete the secret quest: [Courage of the Weak]
[!] Congratulations, Midoriya Izuku. You have been chosen as the [Player] of the [System].
The System is designed to assist with the [Player]’s growth, and thus cannot be revealed to those who might compromise it. Failure to comply will be met with a [Death Penalty].
“Uh… what?” Izuku blurted out in utter confusion, thoroughly puzzled out of his mind as he read the texts in front of him.
Before he could say anything else, another window flashed into existence over the first. Izuku could only widen his eyes in shock as he read the new texts, because this one immediately reminded him of those missions in the RPGs he used to play on his computer all the time.
[!] Message
You have received a new [Daily Quest]
[!] Daily Quest: The Path toward All Might I
Push-ups: 0/100
Sit-ups: 0/100
Squats: 0/100
Run: 0/10km
Reward: 100 experience points
[First time completion reward] Rejuvenation and 2 additional bonus stat points.
Warning! – Failing to start this daily quest within the time limit will bring a punishment associated with this [Quest].
And directly beneath the warning was a small white symbol accompanied by a countdown timer that had already begun ticking downward. [00:02:59]
“…Wait, what!?” was the only thing Izuku could manage to blurt out as he stared at the rapidly decreasing timer, realizing that whatever this… System was, it genuinely resembled something straight out of a video game.
And it was demanding that he complete a series of physical exercises, but in all honesty, compared to the brutal training regimen All Might had forced him through for the past ten months, the exercises themselves were not actually that unreasonable. Back on that beach, there had been days where he had done far worse than a hundred push-ups or a ten kilometer run.
The real problem was the warning attached to the Quest.
“Punishment associated with this Quest…” Izuku muttered nervously as his eyes flickered back toward the countdown timer. “What kind of punishment?!”
He asked, but the window remained completely the same, with the timer continuing to tick down. Izuku immediately began pacing around his hospital room while frantically trying to think it through. Maybe it was fake, or some kind of a joke. Maybe it was some strange hallucination caused by One for All or the injuries he had suffered during the Dungeon Break. There were rumors that sudden exposure to a tremendous amount of mana could negatively affect the human mind, and considering he had never even been near a normal Gate before, let alone a B-Rank one that had undergone a premature Dungeon Break, maybe the entire incident had affected him somehow.
But even as Izuku tried to rationalize it that way, his eyes kept drifting back toward the floating screen and the countdown timer continued to tick downward right in front of him.
[00:01:47]
The numbers were still moving, and at some point during his panicked overthinking, the countdown clock had shifted from white to an alarming yellow color. Another thirty seconds passed while Izuku debated whether he should call Yagi back into the room and ask if there was some kind of Quirk capable of causing things like this, only for the timer to suddenly turn a dangerous shade of red.
“W-Wait wait! I just have to do it, right?!” Izuku blurted out in panic as he immediately threw himself onto the floor beside the hospital bed. He had played enough video games to know that timed quests with penalties attached to them were almost never something you wanted to ignore, and if this strange System truly behaved like an actual RPG, then he absolutely did not want to learn firsthand what kind of punishment it had prepared for failure. “Nope! I’m not risking it!”
[00:00:31]
With that said, Izuku immediately started doing push-ups, his eyes constantly flickering back toward the floating window where the countdown timer had finally stopped decreasing. Still, after five seconds of holding himself in the same position, the timer started moving again, leaving Izuku with no other choice but hurriedly continue working out while mentally wondering how in the world he was supposed to explain to the doctors later why a recently hospitalized patient had suddenly started sprinting laps around the hospital facility.
Name: Midoriya Izuku
Class: Novice Hero
Subclass: Fighter
Title: None
HP: 500 / 500
MP: 50 / 50
Level: 5
STR: 15
INT: 10
VIT: 29
PER: 11
DEX: 7
RES: 8
Unspent Attribute Points: 0
Quirk: One for All.
[!] One for All
Description: A transferable Quirk that accumulates and stores power from each of its previous users, growing stronger with each generation. One for All grants its wielder the ability to stockpile power within their body, enhancing physical abilities far beyond normal human limits, including strength, speed, and overall bodily output.
Additional features (?) remain partially unknown due to the unique nature of its lineage and the presence of multiple inherited factors embedded within the Quirk.
[!] Warning: Due to the immense stockpiled energy contained within the Quirk, the user’s body is not naturally compatible with its full output at low levels. Attempting to release power beyond the user’s current physical limit will result in severe damage proportional to the gap between physical durability and required output.
Required VIT: 100 (Current: 29), with each point below the threshold increasing One for All’s strain on the user’s body, resulting in an additional 0.75% of max HP damage per missing VIT point when using full output.
- Safe Output Range: 1% – 5%
- Moderate Output Range: 6% – 20% (Risk of cumulative musculoskeletal damage)
- High Output Range: 21% – 50% (Severe strain, high probability of fractures and internal injury)
- Critical Output Range: 51% – 100% (Catastrophic self-damage, permanent limb failure possible)
End of Chapter 01
Note: My latest attempt to write My Hero Academia crossover story, and this one is a Solo Leveling crossover!
I hope everyone will enjoy this read, and support this story. I have done some research and discovered that this crossover have already been done multiple times, but I'd also like to try it out in my own direction and see just how far I can take it. As you can see, the world of My Hero Academia and Solo Leveling has been blended together to become this world of My Hero Leveling. Hunters are now Heroes, and the powers they are awakened with has become known as Quirks. We will explore it more in the future chapters, with the next one going indepth into the System, which will originate from the same System in Solo Leveling, but at the same time is very different (if you are familiar with my other Solo Leveling crossover, Dragon Leveling, you already know what I am striving for here)
And that's it! I hope that you guys have enjoyed the read. Make sure to leave behind a REVIEW once you have finished reading. Tell me what you think of the first chapter and what I have done so far for the story!
That's it for now.
Stay safe, stay awesome, and I'll see you in the next one!
Peace!