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Gambler's Fallacy

AO3

Izuku’s expected path down, face-first into the concrete, halted. He floated, staring at the retreating sidewalk, uncomprehending.

“Sorry!” said an unfamiliar voice. “I hope you don’t mind, I used my quirk on you! Falling would be bad luck, wouldn’t it?”

“Um,” said Izuku, not sure how to explain that was the point to this very pretty girl with this super cool quirk, oh, no, why was she even talking to him?

She tapped her fingers together, and her quirk let him go. “Good luck on the exam!” she said, walking away.

“Uh-um, y-yeah,” said Izuku.

Crap. Did that interaction count as good luck or bad? Obviously, Kacchan literally running into him on the way in was bad luck, and tripping was bad luck, but a cute girl rescuing him? And then Izuku completely humiliating himself by not being able to say thank you? If only his quirk took other people’s actions into account more, maybe he’d be able to tell. Especially when he was trying to save up his bad luck by pulling on the negative side of his quirk.

Speaking of which, he had an entrance exam to get to, and this would be the biggest test of his quirk since the day with the sludge villain. That day had been awful. He’d burned through his ‘stored’ luck and then some when All Might rescued him, bit his tongue so hard he wasn’t able to ask the man any questions, and then on the way home, he’d run into the sludge villain again, but this time, it was attacking Kacchan, and he’d had to tip his quirk balance even further into ‘debt’ for the luck to stab the villain in the eye with his pencil. When he finally got the chance to go home after that, when the heroes (except for All Might) were debating whether to berate him for quirk use, or interrogate him over his ‘clearly fake’ quirk, only constant vigilance kept him from being run over by a car or kidnapped.

(Luck only took you so far. Skill and hard work closed the gap.)

But he was far more prepared today! The last time he’d spent a significant amount of luck all at once was when he met Mr. Yagi, who’d been organizing a community volunteer event to clean up Dagobah beach. Izuku had… needed a pick-me-up after his quirk registration had been audited again. He was glad he did. Mr. Yagi was the sort of guy who was so uncool he sort of rolled over into being cool again, and he worked at Might Tower. Izuku really liked Mr. Yagi. Even if he did sometimes look at Izuku as if he were debating saying something life-altering.

Point being, he had a bunch of luck saved up, and he’d keep saving it all the way until he was taking the exam, leaning on his quirk just enough to make himself moderately unlucky until then.

It worked pretty well, in his opinion. The random seating for the written exam and for the practical orientation both put him next to Kacchan, he somehow grabbed the attention of someone confident uptight enough to scold him for muttering in front of a whole auditorium of people, he kept getting hit by doors, the robot bus driver somehow decided to register him as a bush, instead of a human, he tripped getting off the bus, the uptight guy scolded him again, and then–

“Start!” screamed Present Mic, from the announcer’s box.

Izuku didn’t have to be told twice.

Izuku didn’t actually mind having bad luck.

Not usually. Not as long as it was only a little bad luck. After all, what you did with your luck was what dictated your fate. Plus, most small unlucky events, like spills, tears, and lost items, could be countered with only a little forethought. Izuku had two of everything that was really important, and carried a mini sewing and stain removal kit with him almost all the time!

But… good luck was freedom. Good luck made him feel as if he was invincible, as if he was flying, a thousand miles up and only getting higher. Good luck was amazing.

Good luck was an almost ideal weapon in his hand the minute he stepped into the fake city, a piece of pipe that was just the right length, the right height, the right width for him to hold onto easily.

Good luck was catching sight of other students hitting the weak points of robots so clearly he knew he would be able to target them as well.

Good luck was partially-destroyed but still functional robots practically offering themselves up to him for points.

Good luck was being able to dodge every attack and stray friendly fire without even trying.

Good luck was spotting when people were in trouble before they even knew it, and pulling them out of the way.

Good luck was seeing that nice girl trapped under rubble, and throwing his pipe, spear-like, at the zero-pointer and having it hit something so vital that its progress ground to a stop.

Good luck was… rapidly running out. Actually, he’d burned through his saved buffer of bad luck a while ago.

Oops.

He didn’t even see the bit of rubble that fell on his head.

He didn’t see anything until hours later when Recovery Girl woke him up in the infirmary.

He didn’t even get to talk to the nice girl again.

But… he thought he’d done well. He could only hope he’d done well enough.

He had!

Izuku checked to make sure he wasn’t leaning on the negative side of his quirk too hard. A quirk assessment? A physical quirk assessment? On the first day? One with expulsion as a possible consequence?

He was going to die.

It wasn’t like he’d neglected physical training. Mr. Yagi had even given him some suggestions for it! (It turned out that before he’d been a secretary, he’d been a personal trainer… who knew?) But, naturally, he’d focused on his quirk, and his quirk was anything but physical. In a class with Kacchan and people with enhancement-type quirks…

Kacchan promptly underlined the point by blasting a baseball hundreds of meters away in the ball toss while shouting “DIE!” at the top of his lungs.

He was really going to die.

Unless… unless everyone else lost.

He raised his hand. “Mr. Aizawa, do you mean we can do anything to make our scores better in comparison with our classmates?”

“As long as you don’t injure anyone, yes.”

Well. He’d learned long ago that good luck for him sometimes meant bad luck for other people. He… really didn’t want to be expelled. But could he do that to his new classmates? Could he sabotage them like that?

The answer was, no, he couldn’t. But he could, apparently, get one of UA’s observation drones to go haywire, catching his baseball at the top of its arc and then zooming off to who-knew-where over a kilometer away at high speed.

He could also promptly get plowed into by another drone, which had suffered from the same AI malfunction as the first, and have to go to Recovery Girl for the resultant broken arm.

Sometimes, Izuku wondered if his quirk had a mind of its own, and, if so, what was up with its sense of humor.

No one was expelled.

Izuku stared at the numbered ball in his hand. He’d decided to take it easy in the luck department today, not leaning on it either way, but, really, this was far too much, just to make things even.

Next to him, stood Uraraka, who he might finally have a real conversation with. Across from him, stood Kacchan, who was definitely going to take this opportunity to beat the crap out of him.

Thank goodness nothing big was riding on this Battle Trial. Even if All Might kept looking at him like he was going to say something life-altering.

Actually… Was All Might related to Mr. Yagi? No, that was silly. Just because two people worked in the same place and had similar mannerisms, and the same color of hair, and the same color of eyes, and the same smile, and similar heights, didn’t mean… um… Hm.

That was a thought for later.

For now…

“My quirk is called Gambler’s Fallacy,” said Izuku. “It lets me manipulate my luck. I can store up bad things that happen to me, and then use them to make me lucky later, or, if I don’t have any luck stored, I can make myself lucky now, but I have to pay for it later. I can also make myself unlucky on purpose, and store up the bad things that happen because of that. But I don’t have anything stored up right now, since I spent it all yesterday, during the quirk assessment.”

“Wow,” said Uraraka, “that sounds really complicated. So, you could just… make us win?”

“Not exactly. If winning or losing was based entirely on chance, then, yes, but it isn’t. This is mostly skill and ability.”

“Mm,” said Uraraka. “So we’ll just have to be more skilled! Anyway, even if you can’t make us win, we’ll know that we didn’t lose just because of dumb luck, right?”

Izuku nodded. “You’re right! I, um, I do have a plan.”

“Let’s hear it!”

Izuku’s quirk apparently thought winning was worth breaking an arm (again). Maybe if he factored in Recovery Girl’s quirk, he could understand that.

But it still hurt.

(And Kacchan was still angry. Izuku wished he’d stop blaming all of his bad luck on him. Even if it was Izuku, this time.)

Getting trampled twice in one day, first by reporters, then by people running away from reporters, was definitely bad luck.

“I tend to say whatever is on my mind,” said Asui– No. Tsu. She said to call her Tsu.

“Okay?” said Izuku.

“Your quirk is very hard to understand.”

“Ah, yeah,” said Izuku, rubbing the back of his neck. “It is. I’m really glad quirks grow with you. If I was able to push my luck then as much as I can now, I probably would have died.” As it was, he'd gotten into a few bad situations over the years. Once, while operating with neutral luck, he'd won a contest that was apparently more chance-based than advertised, and the results had been… interesting.

('Interesting' being code for terrifying.)

“Hah!” scoffed Kacchan. “There’s nothing hard to understand about it! He just sabotages everyone around him!”

“Like you’re any better,” said Kaminari, as Izuku slouched down in his seat, trying to disappear. “If you don’t tone things down, all of us will be deaf by the time we graduate!”

“I could make you some earplugs, if you think that would help,” offered Yaoyorozu.

As it turned out, being attacked by a whole league of villains during the first field trip of the school year was so absolutely, unmitigatedly bad that it topped off Izuku’s ‘gauge.’ The last time that had happened, he’d been in elementary school.

It meant that he danced around the first attacks with ease, and when he did fall through a portal, it deposited him right outside a very clearly labeled maintenance door. It was locked, but Izuku’s costume didn’t include a utility belt just for aesthetics. He pulled a set of ‘universal’ keys out of one of the pouches, jammed the first one he grabbed into the lock, and grinned as he heard all the tumblers click home.

Random chance was his friend today.

He ran up, into a sort of control room. Several of the screens were blinking, warning that the system had lost connection to the main campus. He cleared the warnings and swept his eyes over the controls. There was a set of headphones on one of the monitors, and he put them on. They’d been sized for someone bigger than him, but that was fine. There were sounds coming through them, so… There. He could switch freely between hidden microphones in a number of places, apparently.

More importantly, at the moment, he could control vital aspects of a number of the simulations. He got to work, draining the shipwreck zone, strategically flaring the fires in the conflagration zone, activating a landslide in the landslide zone, ‘rebuilding’ collapsed houses in the typhoon zone… Anything he could think of, to damage the chances of villains and let his classmates escape.

Then, his elbow hit the microphone button, switching what the headphone channel to the central plaza just in time to hear ‘Shigaraki Tomura’ order ‘Nomu’ to kill Mr. Aizawa.

All Might burst through the doors before Izuku could even begin to come up with a plan to escape the frankly horrifying Nomu, and never before had Izuku been so relieved to feel his luck drain away and equalize.

All Might was here - and that was apparently equal to the villains in the eyes of his quirk. They’d be safe, now. They were saved.

Izuku almost cried.

Then he really did cry as Nomu and the portal villain actually proved to be a challenge. If Nomu could hold All Might still, and the portal villain could portal one of All Might’s limbs to Shigaraki Tomura… Or even if the portal villain could close a portal with something in transit…

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, All Might punched Nomu through the roof of the USJ.

Izuku tracked Nomu’s meteoric rise with a sense of wonder. His quirk was great and all, but he’d never, ever be able to do anything like that.

The rest of the teachers piled through the hole All Might had made in the side of the USJ, and the portal villain swept himself and Shigaraki Tomura away. Izuku, finally, let himself relax, loosening his grip on his quirk.

He… didn't think that anyone had died. That was as lucky as they could possibly expect to be.

The problem with the sports festival was that the positive Izuku’s quirk was only effective for short periods of time.

Could he constantly maintain a low level of good luck, like he could with the bad? Technically, yes. He’d been tempted to do just that more than once. But if he ever lost grip on his quirk while he was carrying around a big luck debt… Well. It was better to be owed luck than to owe it. When not being actively managed, his quirk tended to just equalize.

Could he save up and then slowly spend his good luck? Again, technically, yes, but… and this was something Izuku was embarrassed to admit…

He was bad at spending good luck slowly. In fact, not only did he usually push his good luck to happen faster than it usually would, when he was using that side of his quirk, he tended to overshoot. By a lot. Hence incidents like at the end of the entrance practical.

(He was glad he hadn’t overdrawn his luck at the USJ. He’d probably have had Nomu fall on him or something.)

If he wanted to do well in the sports festival, he couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t do him any good to win, say, a relay race, like they’d done for the second event a couple years ago, and then step on his shoelace and concuss himself before he could do anything for the next event.

So. He had to figure out how to either regulate his quirk use better, or how to pass at least one event without using it. Preferably both.

Izuku kept his quirk in neutral until the minefield. Who decided that a minefield was a good idea for a school sports festival? Well… Plus Ultra, he supposed.

He had an idea.

He had an idea he needed to be lucky for. But he'd only have to be lucky for a minute. Maybe even less.

He put his scrap metal shield aside, and started stacking mines. When he figured he had enough, and had them in more or less the right shape, he picked up his scrap metal and, using it to shield himself, jumped on the mines.

He went soaring. It was exhilarating. It was terrifying. It was working.

Kacchan and Todoroki were in sight. He was gaining on them. He was–

Getting hit by a bird.

He tumbled sideways, away from Todoroki and Kacchan. Barely, he managed to get the shield under him again, before he hit the ground and another mine went off, sending him shooting in the other direction. He landed back in the path Todoroki and Kacchan had cleared, which was weird if his luck had run out…

It hadn’t run out.

Then where had the bird…? Why…?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was that he wasn’t going to try that again, but he need to get a move on if he wanted to finish this race. He wrenched his quirk back to neutral, and started running.

He came in third, and collapsed in the waiting area. Yeah. Running. Being exploded. Still hard.

It took a while for everyone else to cross the finish line. A while during which Izuku wondered why he’d been hit by that bird. Maybe Kouda…? No, he was nowhere nearby, and he usually didn’t make his helpers commit suicide runs which… that probably was, unfortunately. Was his quirk just broken? He didn’t like the thought of that. His quirk screwed him over in a lot of ways, but it had never backstabbed him or failed to work.

But as soon as Midnight announced the results…

Yeah.

His quirk wasn’t broken.

(He’d have to burn some incense for that poor bird, though. Yikes.)

He, in third place, had a headband worth two hundred points for the next event. Kacchan had one worth two hundred and five.

Todoroki’s was worth ten million.

Izuku’s calvary team was made up of Uraraka, Tokoyami, and Hatsume, an unfamiliar girl from the support course. Hatsume was the rider. Izuku didn’t have any offensive quirk that being rider would let him leverage, Uraraka didn’t want to be in a position where she would have to use her quirk on herself, and Tokoyami and Dark Shadow were strong together. Hatsume, meanwhile, had all sorts of unbelievable gadgets that she could operate from the rider position.

Between her and Tokoyami, their ability to collect headbands shouldn’t be bad. While everyone else went after Todoroki and Kacchan, they should be able to snag smaller point values. Once they got a comfortable number, they could use Hatsume’s jetpacks and hide out in the air until the clocks ran down.

“I’m impressed,” she said, after Izuku finished explaining the plan.

“It’s nothing fancy.”

“Not that, third place. I’m impressed you’re letting someone else take the spotlight.”

“Well,” said Izuku, “I’m… probably not going to be a spotlight hero, honestly. My quirk isn’t all that fancy.”

“Hm. Maybe. I feel like we’ll be surprised.”

And maybe she was right.

The more chaos inherent in a system, the more Izuku’s quirk could do. The cavalry battle had a lot of chaos.

So, when Izuku flared his quirk to give them just that little edge, trying to keep their points out of Iida’s hands–

Rin’s team and Kamakiri’s team slipped and fell as Honenuki overshot his quirk use, becoming immediately disqualified. Monoma brushed against Todoroki… while he already was holding Kacchan’s quirk. The explosion wasn’t the biggest Izuku had ever seen, but it wasn’t small. Kaminari, startled, shocked Iida, who stumbled, and almost capsized their whole team, letting Kacchan almost grab the ten million point headband, except that Todoroki suddenly caught on fire.

Izuku shut his quirk off. He’d used more luck than he intended, but he still has some for later, and for now…

“Take us up, Hatsume!”

“Thought you’d never ask, third place!”

When they landed, they hadn’t finished in first place, but they were far from dropping out, which was a true relief.

The third event was single combat, which, hm. Yeah. His odds weren’t good on this. He was planning on losing a lot of the recreational games between the second and third rounds, but the stakes of those were low, so he wouldn’t get a lot of luck from them. In a bare concrete ring, one on one, skill against skill, with almost no outside variables… It was possible for his quirk to make someone trip over their own feet, or get weird muscle spasms, but under these circumstances, it would be expensive.

Well, there was a little interlude even before that, so he was going to go freshen up…

Neither Izuku nor his quirk could decide what kind of luck overhearing all that counted as. First Todoroki trying to have some kind of rivalry heart-to-heart with Kacchan, where he heavily implied he was the result of a eugenics project, and then whatever that was with his father. Should he report this? Who would he even report this to? Who would believe him?

He was kind of freaking out.

And Todoroki’s quirk.

“I thought I was the only one who had self sabotage as part of my quirk,” he whispered.

Actually, he was pretty angry about that. Edging into fury, really. It wasn’t like Todoroki was the only one who’d been dealt a bad hand when it came to fathers, but Izuku wasn’t refusing to use his quirk over it, even though his father’s permanent departure had been the inciting incident for his quirk’s first activation.

(His father abandoning them had, actually, given Izuku a small reserve of good luck that took several days to naturally deplete. It was something Izuku was perversely grateful for, knowing what his quirk might have done to him otherwise.)

But what could he do?

Except, maybe… He’d used his fire instinctively, in the cavalry battle. Maybe if someone could pressure him…

Could Izuku do that?

No. Probably not. Not without a lot of luck.

… this was going to be painful later.

Of course, he couldn’t beat sense into Todoroki unless he actually made it to the second round of battles. Making it to the second round of battles seemed… unlikely, at the moment. His quirk couldn’t protect him from his own stupid decisions, after all.

He was walking towards the edge of the ring, not in control of his body, barely in control of his quirk, which he had turned on as much as he could.

He tripped. Over his own feet, as it so happened.

Before Shinsou could react, he was back on his feet and attacking. Shinsou’s story sounded… sad. Lonely. But Izuku had lived the same life! He’d been called bad luck and a vampire ever since he’d first fully explained his quirk! He wanted to commiserate! To comfort! To empathize!

But, right now, it was time to fight, and he threw Shinsou out of the ring.

Unfortunately, getting out of Shinsou’s grip had come at the cost of his remaining luck. That meant that if he used any for the fight with Todoroki - a fight he was almost certain to lose anyway - he’d be paying for it later.

But could he really leave this alone? Being a hero was risky. Being a hero while using only half your quirk was worse.

The match started, and Izuku jumped. He was lucky, of course. Todoroki had pretty good control of his ice, but there were, naturally, random peaks and valleys in the less-controlled parts, and Izuku happened to fall into a valley. He also managed to break off an ice spike on the way down.

Lacking other weapons, he threw it at Todoroki.

“You know,” said Izuku, managing to hide from ice behind yet more ice, and acquiring a few more projectiles while he was at it, “if you used your fire to melt these, you wouldn’t have to dodge!”

This actually stopped Todoroki dead in his tracks. “You–”

“I overheard your conversation with Kacchan!” Izuku dodged again. “Do you really think you can be a hero using only half a quirk? When all the rest of us are trying our–”

He was forced to dodge again. This went on for some time. Izuku, barely manage to dodge, Todoroki whipping another, more fragile, glacier at him, Izuku throwing ice and words he barely heard himself back at him.

Izuku, though… He was wearing down. The temperature was getting to him, and Todoroki had winged him a few times.

“I won’t do it!” declared Todoroki through gritted teeth. “I won’t use his quirk! I’ll show him–”

“It’s not his! It’s yours! Use your quirk, Todoroki! Show me your power!”

Through the ice, Izuku saw orange flare from the tips of Todoroki’s fingers.

The thought crossed Izuku’s mind that suddenly heating up this much cold air might not go very well. For the very first time in his life, Izuku’s survival instinct decided to do its job and he threw himself out of the ring just in time for Cementoss to raise the blast walls to contain Todoroki’s explosion.

“Uh,” said Midnight a minute later. “Todoroki, wins?”

Izuku was just as surprised as she was that he hadn’t been turned into a fine paste. Of course, that could still happen. He had a massive bout of bad luck coming up.

Still. Lying here next to two Pro Heroes, he was probably safe.

Izuku tripped going down the stairs leaving the ring.

“How do you break so many bones going down stairs?” asked Recovery Girl, incredulously.

Izuku grunted. Broken bones could be healed. So could frostbite.

But, for him at least, the sports festival was over. He just had to hope he’d made a good impression.

(Todoroki joined him in the infirmary an hour later.

“Bakugou is extremely violent,” he said, by way of explanation.

“Yeah, he’s kind of… Yeah.”

“You’re still friends.”

“Uh,” said Izuku. “Maybe?”

“What’s your phone number?”

Somehow, Izuku wound up adding Todoroki to the class group chat.)

“Who sent your recommendation?” asked Uraraka, over lunch.

“Native!” said Izuku, vibrating with excitement. His quirk was kind of boring, visually, and hard to understand, so he hadn’t expected to get any offers at all!

“Native?” asked Uraraka, her face dropping. “Isn’t he kind of, um. His whole image is a bit…”

“Appropriative?” filled in Iida.

“That’s a misconception,” said Izuku. “He actually is native. His father is Japanese, obviously, but he’s Ainu, and his mother is from an indigenous North American tribe. They met at some kind of conference for displaced indigenous peoples, I think? The documentary was really interesting, but it’s been a while… I think there was later some kind of controversy with his mother, but I don’t really understand American politics…”

“Oh!” said Uraraka. “I didn’t know that! I guess I should try to research, before just assuming things.”

“It’s… It’s a common misconception,” said Izuku, waving his hands. “A company he’d investigated for illegal quirk experimentation ran a really nasty smear campaign against him, and, uh, his public persona isn’t really great.” Which was the polite way to say that he got irritated at reporters (and everyone else) really easily. “The important thing is, you know now.”

“Mhm! I guess so! That’s a really good way to put it.” She leaned forward. “I really like your hero name! It’s super cute!”

“Thanks!” said Izuku, brightly. “I’ve wanted to use it since I was a little kid!”

The ride to Hosu was painfully awkward. Mainly because every attempt Izuku made to try and start a conversation with Iida fell flatter than a pancake.

Not that he blamed Iida! He probably had a lot on his mind, after all.

“He-hello, sir!” said Izuku, bowing deeply to Native, who had been leaning up against the front desk of his agency, talking to the secretary. “I’m Clover! Y-your intern! Please take care of me!”

“Hey, hey,” said Native, “there’s really no reason to be like that, it’s irritating. You need to loosen up a little, kid.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Native sighed. “Okay, anyway, you good here, Satsumi?”

“Yes, I think I have all the information,” said the secretary.

“Great. So, I guess I can give you the tour and the intern talk.”

Native’s agency wasn’t anything fancy. A lot of things in it were worn out. Old. But, then, after the smear campaign, it was probably hard for him to get sponsorships.

“So, Clover,” said Native, after he had given him a rundown of the temporary dorms and the main common areas, “why did you decide to intern with me?”

“W-well,” said Izuku, “for a couple reasons. The first is that you’re the only one who requested me, specifically, as opposed to agencies that just have general agreements with UA, so I figured there was probably a reason for that.”

“Uh huh,” said Native, sounding unimpressed, “what else?”

“Well, you also have a strictly mental quirk. Not a lot of heroes have that, not the ones on UA’s open internship list. Ragdoll and Mandalay from the Wild Wild Pussycats are the only other ones, and… I’d be worried about being a liability in a rescue situation.”

“Anything else?”

“I don’t think so? Of course, your record was–”

“Nothing else that might have been in the news?”

“Um. No?”

Native nodded. “I’m surprised anyone took me up on my offer this year, honestly.”

“Be-because of the smear campaign? I, um, I never believed it. I remembered your interview when you talked about your parents, so…”

“Ah. Okay. That makes sense. Sorry. Just had to make sure you weren’t one of those weirdos who try to congratulate me for ‘sticking it’ to an already oppressed group.” He sighed. “You’d think we’d have solved at least some of these problems, since we got superpowers, but no, we just came up with even more ways to be awful.”

“O-oh,” said Izuku. “Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Native, waving off the apology. “So. Tell me about your quirk.”

Native’s quirk, compared to Izuku’s, was simple. It affected his perception. Not his senses themselves, but the way his brain processed the data from those senses. His eyes and ears weren’t any sharper than a normal person’s, but what he could process about what he could see and hear was. And he could do it fast. He could glance at a full page of writing for a second, and know everything that was written on it.

It wasn’t terribly like Izuku’s quirk, and didn’t affect the outside world, like Izuku’s did, but like Izuku’s, the activation and management of the quirk were all in his head. Which meant that he could advise Izuku on how to better use it.

Unfortunately, Native seemed more interested in the stockpile aspect of his quirk.

“So,” said Native, “hypothetically, if something bad happened to you that had nothing to do with luck, would that count? Like, if someone decided to hit you.”

“Um, not really. Like, whenever someone throws a punch, there’s a small amount of chance involved in it hitting at all, but that’s, um, negligible, as far as I’ve been able to tell.”

“So you couldn’t bank luck by, say, purposefully getting assigned crappy paperwork?”

“Uh,” said Izuku, “no. Not unless the paperwork was randomly assigned and I was leaning on the negative side of my quirk to get it.”

“Okay. And, then, what if you traded the paperwork to someone else, afterwards?”

“I think I… I’m not sure? If I’d set the trade up before hand, probably, um, it’d just do whatever would get me the bad paperwork?”

“What if you needed the bad paperwork for some reason?”

“Then I’d have to use good luck, otherwise I wouldn’t get it.”

“What if you needed something bad to happen to you for some reason? Like, you wanted to break your arm or get sick to get out of a school assignment?”

“Oh, I actually tried… something like that a few times.” Not to avoid school work, but to avoid bullies. “It only worked once, and I really regretted it.”

“Got really sick, huh?”

“Yeah,” said Izuku.

“Okay,” said Native. “I’ve got to go out on patrol soon, but I’ve asked Satsumi to give you the basic operational rundown. Pro-tip? It’s always the secretaries who are really running the show.”

“I-I’ll remember that, sir!”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, enjoy the break, because I already have some training ideas for tomorrow.”

“So,” said Native as Izuku ran through his costume checklist. “The thing is, even though our quirks are pretty different, there are still some similarities in– Hey, are you paying attention?”

“Yes, s-sir!”

“Uh huh. There are some similarities in how we have to fight because of them. Both of us have to rely heavily on the environment and respond to changes in it quickly. Me, because that’s the only advantage I have, you, because even if your quirk gives you the best opening possible, you still have to move to take advantage of it. So.” He gestured at the crowded room, packed full of various random items. “That’s what we’re doing. Simulating a changeable environment for you to keep track of. You ready?”

“Yes!”

“I’m going to take you out on patrol today,” said Native.

“R-really?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t going to. There’s a limited amount you can learn from sparring and helping Satsumi with the paperwork - The paperwork is really important, though. If you screw it up enough, it can break you. Mainly because of insurance problems. You don’t want insurance problems. Or Hero Commission problems. If they decide they don’t like you, they’ll jump on anything they can to get rid of you.”

Izuku made note of this important fact.

“Anyway, unless I give you permission, or you’re directly attacked, you are not to engage any villains or criminals, got it? And if I tell you to run, you run.”

“I-I’ve got it!”

“Cool. So. Ready to make your debut, Clover?”

“Yes!”

“Great. Oh, and bring those marbles. They worked well for you in yesterday’s session.”

The first few hours of patrol went more or less the way Izuku expected it to. There wasn’t a whole lot of crime in Hosu at this time of day. Native caught an older teenager trying to break into a car, and gave him a warning for a first offense, they were called to a four-year-old’s somewhat awkward and chaotic quirk awakening - which Izuku helped with! - and a welfare check for an older couple who had missed a book club meeting (they were fine, they had just gotten the date wrong). Otherwise, it was just walking around Hosu, including some really sketchy alleyways, Native pointing out things to keep an eye on and how to spot trouble in specific places.

But, then… things exploded.

It wasn’t like Izuku was unused to explosions. He’d gone to school with Kacchan. But this explosion was bigger, and had a different character than Danny was used to. It was also, thankfully, further away.

Still, the middle of a city like this was not a good place for an explosion. He started forward, towards the source of the sound, but Native caught his arm.

“Never,” he said, pulling out his phone (a HeroGrade 32! They weren’t available to the public, yet!), “never run blind into a situation when you can gather info first.”

“But–”

“There are other heroes with closer routes,” said Native. “We can be more useful if we know what’s going on first. Crap. Looks like a mass villain attack.” He flipped his phone to face Izuku. A HeroNet video was playing on it.

He caught sight of exposed brain matter and gasped. “Nomu?”

“You know one of these guys?”

“No,” said Izuku, “but they look just like one of the villains that attacked the USJ! Maybe they’re relatives?”

“Any weaknesses?”

“No, they were really strong. All Might had trouble, even.”

“Crap. Hopefully, these guys don’t have the same kind of quirk. Come on, now that we know what we’re up against, the faster we get there, the better.” He started running. “I want you to work with on-site sidekicks clearing civilians from the area. You can use your quirk, but if your stockpile runs out, evacuate with the civilians. If you get cornered, I give you permission to fight, but only if you get cornered. Otherwise, run, got it?”

“Ye-yes!” said Izuku. It was easier for him to keep up with Native than he’d thought it would be, but he didn’t quite have the lung capacity to respond with full sentences.

They turned into an alley and–

Native stopped dead, scanning the area.

“Uh, Native?” said Izuku. “Is–?”

Native pulled him to one side as something fell on them from above. No. Not something. Someone. Someone– Vest, bandaged arms, scarf, swords–

Native, naturally, processed the information much faster than Izuku.

“Stain!”

Oh.

Izuku pulled on his quirk instinctively and reached for his belt, grabbing the first thing that came to hand and throwing it at Stain. The handful of marbles hit the side of Stain’s beaten katana and knocked it aside enough for Native to dodge.

But Stain had another knife, and it flicked against Native’s stomach, cutting through his suit and drawing blood. The wound looked shallow, though, so–

Stain licked his knife, and Native stiffened mid-step and started to fall. Izuku caught him, then pulled him back, out of Stain’s immediate reach.

“I-I can’t move!” said Native, sounding shocked.

“A… sidekick?” said Stain.

“He’s just-” Native’s breath caught. “He’s a student. An intern. I’ve only known him for a day. Don’t–”

“A day is more than long enough for the rot to creep in. Well, boy, do you stand by this fake, or will you give up his lies?”

“Clover, run!”

“I-” said Izuku, “I won’t leave you!” He also wasn’t sure if he’d make it, even if he did run. Stain was good, as shown by how he’d still managed to stab Native, even though Izuku was using his quirk, and with the way the alley was constructed, they were standing in a corner, the direct path to the street blocked and blinded by buildings.

“Then you, too, will be culled.”

Izuku jumped back from the lunge, unfortunately sacrificing his phone to deflect the blade. Hopefully, the text he’d been making behind his back had gone through… he might not be connected to HeroNet, but he did have a network, and he knew at least two of them were in this city.

He hoped this worked.

Then, faster than could be believed, it did. Iida came racing around the corner and–

–apparently didn’t notice Izuku and Native fighting for their lives at all, but Izuku was willing to give him a pass, because he was a) there, b) clearly really upset by what happened to his brother, and c) took Stain’s attention off of him and Native. Whatever. But he also narrowly missed getting decapitated, and only avoided getting paralyzed by Stain because Izuku had picked up Iida’s helmet and beaned Stain over the back of the head with it.

“What are you doing here?” demanded Iida.

This was such a ridiculous question that Izuku didn’t answer it. He was getting attacked by a serial killer. That should’ve been obvious.

“Take Native and leave, this is my business.”

“You take Native and leave!”

Iida could maintain a viable escape speed while carrying Native, unlike Izuku, and then Izuku could also run, no longer having to worry about whether or not he was leaving someone to their death. Unfortunately, Stain did not wait for Izuku to explain this to Iida.

What followed could have been a slapstick comedy. Stain lunged, but put his foot down on a marble, which let Izuku and Iida dodge. He recovered quickly, however, and swiped at Iida, who he called a fake hero - this was technically correct, as neither Iida nor Izuku had their licenses yet - but the blade was deflected by Iida’s armor, and all the blow accomplished was to knock a piece of Iida’s armor loose.

(Izuku had to wonder if Iida’s costume manufacturer had skimped on the connective parts of his armor. Parts of a costume shouldn’t just come off like that, except for capes, for safety reasons.)

But loose metal junk was one of Izuku’s favorite weapons, and when the bracer landed in his hand, he didn’t waste time throwing it at Stain’s face. Then he pulled out his other favorite weapon. A telescoping baton.

He didn’t have it during the USJ, but after the sports festival… Yeah. He’d realized he needed something, and Mei had been all too happy to fulfill that need. Literally too happy. Powerloader had nixed most of her ideas and given Izuku a standard baton until he could work out potential bugs.

Anyway.

He alternated between throwing trash at Stain (the alley had a lot of trash) and trying to smack him with the baton. Iida, meanwhile, tried to kick his face off. The only reason they weren’t dead - or paralyzed like Native - was that Stain kept slipping on marbles and getting weapons stuck in the alley walls. They were not, in any way, winning.

Then Todoroki arrived like a divine spirit descending from heaven, and froze Stain solid.

Well. He didn’t freeze Stain immediately. There was quite a bit of back and forth, because it turned out that the dodging technique Izuku had lucked into during the sports festival was something Stain could do at will. And he tried to kill Todoroki too, a few times. And there was some stabbing involved, but with Todoroki there, they could freeze the blood, and Iida was only paralyzed for a little bit, and all the while everyone was yelling about their personal philosophies, and heroism, and All Might, and–

His point was, after Todoroki showed up, it felt like the fight went really fast.

But with Stain frozen, Izuku felt like he could relax just a little…

… and lose his grip on his quirk, which was very far in the red.

Claws closed around his torso, and he was swiftly lifted from the alley. Swiftly enough that his head cracked on the side of one of the buildings and he lost consciousness.

Later, he learned that the nomu (which was apparently a class of being and not a family or personal name) had carried him around, apparently confused, for fifteen minutes before a flight-capable hero named Gran Torino rescued him.

He was, naturally, brought to the hospital, and, equally naturally, was the most injured out of the four people in that alleyway (not counting Stain, who they had really beaten the crap out of, apparently).

He was relieved to hear that everyone had lived, and the nomu attack had only resulted in a few serious injuries, due to the strong hero presence in Hosu.

He was significantly less relieved to hear that the police were thinking about charging him with vigilantism.

“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Native, who had evidently overheard the police chief while taking a walk down the hallway. “Clover had my permission to fight, if he was cornered. Which he was. I don’t know about the other two, but legally speaking, my intern is in the clear.”

Izuku sighed in relief. He didn’t think he and his mother could afford to go to court.

“And kid?”

“Y-yes?”

“Stop using your quirk while you’re this beat up. I know it’s instinctive, but I don’t want you to wind up getting an air embolism or something stupid from the kickback.”

“Oh,” said Izuku. “Yes, sir.”

In preparation for the first term’s final exam, Izuku eased himself back into days where everything was just a little bit awful.

He tore a hole in his favorite sweater. He fell off a building during the Rescue Training Race. Mr. Yagi kept staring at him with that weird expression when he went to volunteer. He got every question he guessed on wrong on the mock exam. He let himself get fleeced by Uraraka in small-scale gambling games. He lost every round of rock-paper-scissors he played. His mother sneezed and accidentally cut off way too much of his hair while giving him a trim, and Monoma started calling him a sheared sheep. All Might kept staring at him with that weird expression during heroics lessons. He lost a lot of in-class fights for silly reasons, like the elastic in his pants giving way, or, in one case, random neutrino interaction with the program controlling a simulation.

It was good practice for when - not if, when - his quirk decided to screw him over in the middle of a real fight.

But, maybe, Izuku should have realized that decisions about the final would be made significantly in advance of the final actually happening, and he wouldn’t have kept his quirk going until the last minute.

Maybe then he wouldn’t have been paired with Kacchan. Maybe then, they wouldn’t be facing All Might himself.

Maybe then he wouldn’t be lying on the ground, bleeding, with Kacchan screaming at him to take his ‘stupid bad luck deku self’ and go away.

In the end, however, Kacchan was the one who stomped away. Izuku was left to slowly sit up, still feeling stunned. Part of him couldn’t believe Kacchan still held a grudge over childhood quirk slip ups, especially considering what he had done to Izuku with his quirk. Part of him… very much could.

Kacchan was a jerk.

Although… Izuku probably should have tried to come up with a plan more palatable than ‘run away.’ He’d known that Kacchan would never accept anything less than a perfect victory after the sports festival.

He shook his head, even though that made his ears ring, and pulled a coin out of one of his suit’s pouches. In theory, this should work. He had pretty good evidence of this usually working, for less vital things.

He flared his quirk and flipped the coin. Heads, he’d go with his original plan, and try to escape. Tails, he’d try to back up Kacchan.

Heads.

Well, then.

It turned out that Izuku’s quirk was pretty good for stealth, given a large enough playing field.

Izuku let go of his quirk as soon as he stepped through the gate, pleased to note that he still had some luck left. Intending to keep it that way, and not spend it trying not to get murdered by Kacchan, he decided to jog back to where the other groups were waiting.

Judging by the explosions behind him, this was a wise choice.

He didn’t go back to his usual low grade bad luck until he was home safe, with the knowledge that he would be going to the training camp, and Kacchan wouldn’t be.

Except it turned out the students who had failed were going on the trip after all. Yay.

Low grade bad luck was not supposed to include Shigaraki Tomura crashing a shopping trip, and yet.

At least the ridiculous threat to his life - how had Shigaraki even recognized him? He’d spent most of the time in the USJ in the maintenance room! - meant that he had a bit of extra luck to lean into, and he was hoping that Mr. Aizawa, or, heck, even All Might had decided this was a good day to shop, too.

But as the conversation wore on, it became obvious that his current quasi-kidnapped state was a direct result of his last kidnapping. Shigaraki wanted to know “What did you do to my nomu?” and “What did you do to Stain?” and, most importantly, “Why do people pay attention to Stain and not me?”

Which, in Izuku’s opinion, was a pretty petty thing for a supervillain to worry about, but this supervillain did have a dangerous quirk pointed at Izuku’s throat, so he wasn’t about to say that.

“W-well,” he said, instead, “Stain is… understandable. He has goals. And even if you don’t agree with his goals, they’re pretty clear. What he wants is… normal. And the source of his conviction– It’s All Might! It’s like that for a lot of people. Even if the way he’s going about fulfilling his goals isn’t something people can accept. You… I don’t think anyone understands what you want. What your, um, ideals are…”

“Ha,” said Shigaraki. “Ha.”

Izuku didn’t dare move. He didn’t dare swallow. Shigaraki’s middle finger was so close to his throat…

“I get it now,” he said, a horrible smile-like thing on his face. “It’s all so clear now. It all makes sense. It’s so obvious why the hero killer is so irritating. It’s all because of All Might.” He laughed again. “Right? Right. That’s the conclusion. Man. Of course it was All Might. It’s always him. The reason all these idiots can smile– It’s him! Him, smiling, as if there’s no one he can’t save!”

At this point, Izuku started to tune him out, because it was hard to pay attention to something as trivial as words when you’re actively being strangled.

And then, right when he was sure he was going to die one way or the other, Uraraka showed up.

“I think I hate that guy,” said Izuku to Uraraka, later.

“Yeah,” she said. “Me too.”

Well, the training camp was going well. And by well, Izuku meant he sure was training. A lot.

He was also, for some reason, catching a small ball-punching child who had been knocked off a wall by a pervert.

They really should come up with some method to stop Mineta before he took things too far… Some of his stunts were getting scary.

But that was a task for tomorrow! The task for today was listening to the story of a horrible family tragedy and then passing out.

But then it turned out that the task for tomorrow was more training, and then–

And then the Test of Courage was crashed by a bunch of villains.

The forest was filled with toxic gasses and fire, and there was a grade schooler somewhere on the mountain, but this was fine! Totally fine! Izuku had this handled! And there were actual adults, trained heroes, who were not paralyzed, here, so, really, this was more like the USJ than the fight with Stain!

… Shockingly, this observation didn’t make him feel better.

Finding Kouta did make him feel better.

Encountering Muscular seconds later didn’t.

Nor did discovering that the villains planned to kidnap Kacchan and Tokoyami. At least Kacchan was safe back with the other people who’d failed the test. Tokoyami, not so much.

He had mixed feelings about the results of throwing the nearest stick at Muscular. He’d prefer that he not be known as the hero who habitually put out people’s eyes, but if he complained about it, that would mean he survived to complain about it.

He took the opportunity to run.

Izuku would very much like to know why Kacchan was out here and not safely back in the buildings with Vlad King and Mr. Aizawa.

Why was Moonfish here? Didn't Shigaraki know the reason Moonfish got caught was because he tried to eat his accomplice?

There was a shape-shifter involved. This explained nothing.

Why didn't this guy become a stage magician or something?

Izuku managed to catch the right orb and break Kacchan free, but even the best luck in the world couldn't save you from stupidity. Stupidity in this case being Kacchan immediately shoving Izuku away and getting caught by the villains again.

So.

Kacchan got kidnapped.

The villains left.

A tree fell on Izuku.

He was, of course, sent to the hospital.

In the hospital, he wondered if Kacchan’s last words to him before he was hauled into that portal were right. If he was just bad luck. If he should just stay away.

If Kacchan's shove had kept *Izuku* from being taken.

They were on a rescue mission, and none of that mattered. They were going to Kamino Ward.

They were hiding behind a wall about a meter high. It had been much taller a second ago.

Izuku's quirk was screaming at him. It had never done that before.

They could hear All Might and the villain talking, and it was terrible, terrible what he'd done to Ragdoll, but… it filled in so many gaps. It explained the nomu. It explained Shigaraki’s hatred of All Might. It explained why this villain was so powerful.

But.

None of that mattered right now. What mattered was saving Kacchan.

They were soaring high above the battlefield, and Kirishima held out his hand - the chances were one in a million or less, but–

Kacchan was with them, and they were running.

They made it out, made it away, and Izuku kept a tight grip on his quirk, because he wouldn't, couldn't, let any bad luck happen now. Not when it could spill over onto that battle.

Then he saw the screen.

Izuku looked at All for One, standing in the ruins of Kamino Ward, standing above All Might, Mr. Yagi, who struggled to stand, to make one more attack, protect one more person, and he knew–

All for One was a person with a lifetime’s worth of good luck.

He was practically made of luck. From his quirk, which had to be the best quirk Izuku had ever heard of - the ability to take and give quirks? Really? That was a thing? - to having found the right quirks to live for centuries, to surviving that ‘last’ fight with All Might that he’d mentioned, to flying under the hero world’s radar for so long. He’d won the lottery of life.

If Izuku ever got luck like that, it’d kill him.

He slowed, stopping behind his classmates and–

And he turned.

And he ran.

He ran, and cranked his quirk up as high as it would go. Made himself as lucky as he possibly could. The luck, not having anywhere else to go, spilled out, touching everyone around him with its glow.

The small cluster of cancer cells in a man he passed spontaneously died.

A woman fumbled her phone and sent a text message that would one day radically change her life for the better.

Hospitals nearby recorded a practically unheard of rash of Lazarus Syndrome cases.

Rubble from the battlefield shifted just enough that a family of four were able to crawl out of the ruins of their living room.

Uraraka's father won the lottery- a fact he wouldn't notice for another week, too worried about his daughter to check his prize.

Damage in Iida Tensei's spine inexplicably reversed itself. It was only by a small amount, but even if he'd still never walk, he'd be able to move and feel his legs.

None of the attacks All for One launched hit his target. Not a single one.

Izuku was a shooting star. A brilliant light, burning into nothing. Izuku had never before accumulated so much debt on his quirk. One way or another, he knew he never would again.

He ran across fields of rubble that should have sent him sprawling. He dodged stray attacks from a combatant who might not even register his presence. He got closer and closer, impossibility unscathed, until he slid between Mr. Yagi and All for One just as Mr. Yagi was caught under the crushed walls of a building.

He bowed, the crown of his head touching broken concrete. "Please! Please don't kill him! I- I- Take my quirk, do anything you want to me, but please don't kill him."

"No! Young Midoriya! Get out of here!"

"And why should I take your quirk?" asked All for One, sounding amused.

"Because- Because my quirk is luck. I just got across this battlefield, unscathed. If you take my quirk, you'll never have to worry about- about the kinds of injuries you have again." That was a bit of a guess, but if he had to risk things on a guess, it would be now, with his quirk blazing inside him. "No one would get lucky enough to even touch you. Please. Take it."

Because All for One's quirk had to work one of two ways. Either it took a quirk as it had been when it first manifested, or it took it as it currently was.

Izuku's quirk had taken into account his prior luck when it first manifested, and he was building up a massive debt, now. His quirk was the perfect poison pill. He just needed All for One to take it.

"Well," said All for One. "I don't know about sparing All Might, but I could never refuse a quirk offered up so nicely."

Izuku felt All for One's hand on his head.

What followed was agony, and after that, an aching, hollowness, and the sound of someone crying.

Was… was Mr. Yagi crying over him? That was silly. He wasn't dead, and his plan was going great.

"Now," said All for One, "All Might-"

A horrid orange light and a deafening crack filled the air, and when Izuku could see again, the top half of All for One's body was gone, and there was a smoking crater a few meters behind the legs. Everything smelled faintly burnt.

"What," croaked All Might.

"Oh," said Izuku, faintly. "I always worried something like that would happen to me."

He promptly passed out.

Izuku stared up at the ceiling of his hospital room. This would be the last time he could blame getting hurt on his quirk. His quirk, which was well and truly gone, now, along with Ragdoll’s and countless others. Not that he could’ve gotten it back from All for One if his plan hadn’t worked but…

He was quirkless now.

Kacchan had always been a jerk, and there were more than a few people in his class that were jerks along with him, really believing that Izuku was giving them bad luck every time they failed a test. But he’d had a few casual friends in middle school despite that, and except for the teachers who thought he’d been falsifying his quirk, they usually stopped Kacchan before he went too far.

But he knew how they all talked about quirkless people. He knew the statistics. He… hadn’t really been thinking of the consequences when he came up with the plan. Not that he regretted it! He didn’t. But he knew it would be hard to be a hero without a quirk.

Or would it? Would living like this be like his quirk was always in neutral? Or would it be something entirely different? It already felt like something different. It felt… weird. Not being aware of how his luck was going. Like being blind. And he knew his luck was just random, now. Knew that bad luck wouldn’t mean good luck to follow, and good luck didn’t mean bad luck to follow but… Even thinking that felt alien to him.

He could have good luck forever. He could have bad luck forever. That was statistically unlikely, of course. Either way, he had no control over it.

“Oh, Izuku!”

“H-hi, Mom,” he said, and let his mother fuss over him. He wasn’t up for much conversation at the moment, unfortunately.

Behind her, Mr. Yagi, walked in and quietly shut the door.

“Um,” said Izuku, “a-am I in trouble? I mean, I know, I know that I technically killed someone with my quirk, but, uh. I did do that. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, you’re here to arrest me, I–”

“Nonsense, Young Izuku! If anyone tries to charge you for that man accidentally killing himself with his own quirk, I will simply eat them.”

“And that’s if they get through me, first,” said his mother, pleasantly.

“Oh,” said Izuku. “So, why…?”

“Two reasons,” said Mr. Yagi. “First, I wanted to thank you. I’ve spent my entire career trying to get rid of that man.”

Izuku nodded. ‘Get rid of’ was pretty ambiguous, here, but Izuku was the last person who could blame him for trying to kill the guy.

“The other thing I wanted to talk to you about…” Here, Mr. Yagi got that look on his face. “I want to talk to you about a quirk called One for All.”

#god i love this fic #this is the second time it's come across my dash and i couldn't not reread it #it's so economical with words for all that it accomplishes #short but perfectly encapsulating its concept #and the ending.... wow #yet another example of why five-rivers/marsalias is one of the most talented authors on here #bnha #save

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