794Izumi Midoriya; age 12.
Figuring out her quirk took a lot of time, effort, energy, and Izumi loved every single part of it. Sure, she was only able to practice it at most a few hours a day, in part because she was only allowed to use her quirk a few hours each day, and also because testing took a lot of energy, but that still didn't mean she couldn't devote all of her free thoughts towards figuring it out.
That was why she made her spellbook.
Sure, it was just a regular notebook that she just called a spellbook, but it still had everything she had learned about her quirk inside of it.
Taking a sip of her drink, Izumi enjoyed the privacy of the rooftop spot she snuck into for her lunch. Here she could relax and just be herself without having to deal with all of her classmates bothering her, and what's more, she could even sneak in a bit of practice with her quirk. She grabbed her spellbook and smiled.
Ever since she had figured out that her quirk could do more than just make pretty lights, they had changed the name of her quirk,
Symbology.
Izumi didn't really understand the name too much, she guessed it was because she drew symbols and then stuff happened, but wasn't ology supposed to be for like science and stuff? Like, rock science was geology, animal science was biology, and studying stars was astrology. But, she guessed it made sense because she had to actually study her quirk to use it.
"Ohh!" Izumi flipped to the back of her spellbook for a small list she kept on the last page for possible hero names. "Would Symbologist be a good hero name?"
She wrote the name down and put a bunch of question marks next to it, it was kind of silly to work on her hero name before she even got into middle school. But she wanted to have a good one for when she got into U.A! She was going to become a hero just like All Might and save everyone with a smile on her face! Only she wouldn't be seven feet tall and have giant muscles.
Unless she found a spell that did that.
Maybe there was a transformation symbol she could figure out.
Flipping to the front of her notebook Izumi went over what she knew about her quirk.
It was a bit like trying to learn a language from a single sentence, and sometimes randomly finding new words just by randomly drawing stuff. Each spell was made up of multiple parts that determined what it would do. The first spell she ever did was her magic bolt, it was made up of an impact, forward, and arrow symbols all placed in a specific order. She started to call these symbols runes, mostly because it was easier than calling everything a symbol. Besides, runes sounded more magical than symbols.
She divided her runes into categories.
Effect which she only knew two of right now; impact and light.
Direction which she had one; forward.
Shape which she had three; arrow, ball, and ring.
While light didn't do anything besides create a bright light, it was actually really useful because not only did it not take up much energy to use light spells, but they also didn't make things explode! Which was super good for sneaking in some practice!
Izumi placed her spellbook down carefully and flipped open to a page she had devoted towards developing new spells, just last week she had discovered the light rune! So now she had lots of time to practice. She took three steps forward and held her pencil up in front of her. Her quirk activated, causing the end to glow briefly.
While she could use her fingers well enough there were benefits to using a wand(pencil) to practice with, finer control, smaller spells, and it was less draining. Probably because the bigger the surface she had to draw with—her finger tips were a lot thicker than a pencil tip—the more powerful the effect would be.
Light, forward, arrow.
In the bright noon sun it was hard to see but the spell went off and a brief arrow light shot from her wand, flying off and quickly fading to nothing in the blink of an eye.
Light, forward, ball.
A sphere about the same size as a football emerged from her wand and then plodded along, the spell looked like a miniature sun made of a pure simple white light that moved a few feet before it hit a fence and exploded in sparkling light.
Now to try and develop something new. Developing a new effect would be risky on a school building, but, direction and shape shouldn't be too problematic. Maybe if she—
"What the hell are you doing up here Deku?"
Izumi spun and felt her jaw clench as she saw Katsuki Bakugo and two of her old friends holding her spellbook. A pit formed in her stomach, part of the reason why she ate lunch up here was specifically to avoid running into him. Her hand started to shake and she gripped her pencil tight. "Kaachan," She said firmly, the habit of calling him that name hadn't gone away. "Put that down."
"Ehhh?" Katsuki growled holding her spellbook rough and glaring at her with red eyes. "You're saying this is more important than me?"
Izumi bit her lip and shook her head. "To me it is."
She should have lied, she should have said anything else. But heroes don't lie.
"So this stupid notebook means more to you than your friends?" Katsuki shook the notebook with one hand, bending the spine of it as he looked at her. His other hand was free, and was held in an upwards facing claw that he liked to make whenever he was going to use his quirk. "Then without it you'll start hanging out with us again."
"You're not my friends!" Izumi took a step forward, arms straight down. "You're just a big jerk!"
"Oh? We're not?" His hand sparked and he grabbed onto her book with a laugh. "Then I guess I don't have any reason to not rip this to shreds!"
Years of notes were destroyed in seconds as her notebook went up in flames thanks to Katsuki's explosive quirk. He laughed, grabbing fistfuls of pages tearing them out and setting them ablaze, sending the flaming ashes into the air.
"You jerk!"
The first punch she ever threw out of anger landed right on Katsuki's face. And the second, and the third. After that, she was the one getting punched.
XXXX
Her face still hurt.
When Katsuki and her had both got sent home, her mom had wasted no time in getting things started. Katsuki's mom had called a dozen times to apologize, and Katsuki had gotten a longer suspension than she had, but the damage had been done.
"So, after reviewing your daughter's case Ms. Midoriya, and going over her grades we've decided that the best place for her is at Haruno Junior," The bird headed lady in a suit folded her feathered hands over her lap and tilted her beak to the side. Her voice was songlike and she was very colorful as well. "We'll still need her to take the entrance exam however, just to be sure."
"Oh, that's no problem, that's no problem at all, right Izumi?" Her mom asked, glancing over to her with a panicked smile that she had on all day. "Thank you so much Mrs. Paradise."
Izumi just nodded, she really didn't want to transfer schools, mostly because she didn't understand why she had to go while Katsuki got to stay, but it wasn't like she had any friends at that old school because of Katsuki.
"Excellent, excellent, now, at Haruno Junior we do have a strict club enforcement, but, thanks to our donors such as the Yaoyorozu we have a wide range of clubs for you to choose from, our girls volleyball team actually went to the nationals last year as well, so, Izumi dear, what, what do you care about most?"
Before her mom could say something like drawing or anything else, Izumi said what she wanted.
"I want to be a hero."
Somehow despite her beak Izumi could see the woman smiling. "Oh? Well that's fantastic, we've had quite a few pro heroes pass through our doors in the past, I'm certain that you'll be on the way as well, so, I take it you'll want an athletic club then, maybe Judo, or perhaps even track and field? Something to keep you active?" Mrs. Paradise stood and clapped her feathered hands. "Oh, I know, we're having a tour next sunday for some of our future first years, why don't you join in as well? I believe a few of the girls also wish to become heroes as well."
"Sure!" The more Izumi was hearing about this school, the more she was actually looking forward to going there as well.
XXXX
"Hello! I'm Nejire Hado!" the bubbly third year that was going to be giving their tour bounced around practically floating as she skipped around like a fairy. "I'm a third year here at Haruno Junior! I'm going to be your tour guide today! I'm also going to be the captain of the swimming club once the school year starts so I hope to see some of you there!"
Haruno High was a bit further away than her old school, and even further away than the middle school she would have normally gone to, making for a forty minute trip to and from each day, but, seeing the school when it wasn't raining made it feel worth it.
The campus was huge too! With several buildings for classrooms, and even more for sports! All of the gardens tended to and there was like no garbage too! It just felt so nice and clean looking.
It was hard not to smile in a place like this.
Plus the uniform was super cute too!
It was a white sailor outfit with a pink ascot, and the skirt was blue as well, and it was fun to swish with.
And it looked even cuter on her soon to be senpai, especially with how she bounced in it. So that's what a third year looked like.
"Alright! So!" Nejire stuck her hand up in the air. "We're going to have people buddy up, my senpai had us group up by birthday last time, but that's boring so we're going to have everyone group up based on if I think you two look cute together!"
Somehow, likely through her quirk, Nejire was about to float as she zoomed around the group of ten or so girls, pairing them up with each other.
"And you two!"
Izumi nearly collided with the tall black haired girl that had almost crashed into her. She looked like the kind of girl that could be class president, tall, with long black hair, black eyes, and kind of smart looking too.
"Ooh, umm, sorry about that," The girl muttered, straightening out her uniform, "I think our new senpai is a bit too excited."
"Yeah, but at least she's fun." Izumi smiled up at her new buddy.
"I'm Momo Yaoyorozu by the way." The girl extended her hand towards Izumi.
It felt like Izumi had heard that name somewhere before.
"I'm Izumi Midoriya, let's be friends alright?"
"Ehh? Is it that easy to make friends?" Momo asked a look of shock coming over her face as she covered her mouth with one hand.
Izumi just shrugged. "I guess, I didn't really have any friends in middle school." She pointed towards her still black eye. "Had bullies though."
"Oh, that's terrible, what did you do to get bullied?" Momo asked with genuine concern coming over her face.
"I wanted to be a hero," Izumi said proudly. "They were mad that I was practicing my quirk during lunch I guess."
Or, just Katsuki being a general asshole.
"That's a silly thing to bully someone over, but don't worry, I want to be a hero too." Momo said proudly, then her shoulders slumped just a bit, "but, I used to be homeschooled, so sorry if I'm not good at being a friend."
"You're already a great friend Momo!" Izumi could feel the smile pulling on her cheeks. "Hey, why don't we make a promise! Let's both get into U.A!"
Momo blinked, smiled, and then nodded. "Sure, that sounds— Guh!"
"Gah!"
They both looked over towards their Senpai, Nejire who was hovering a few inches off the ground looking at them with bright eyes. "You two are so cute! I've decided you're my favorites! Come on! Let's start the tour! Oh and tell me all about your quirks!"
AN: I saw art of Momo jogging and decided that she wins.