Quest Received: One For All [WIP Wednesday]

This week you get the intro scene to a fic I've been working on for a very long time which I keep deleting and rewriting because it never turns out how I want. God knows how long it'll be until I post more of this one!

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Izuku yawned, rubbing at his eyes as he trudged to the mirror. He was decidedly not a morning person, the first ten minutes after crawling out of bed were the bane of existence.

He looked in the mirror, groaning at his ridiculous bed hair, and through sleep-blurred eyes he saw a blur of grey above his head.

What was that?

He rubbed his eyes again, forcing them all the way open, only to find...

No, he had to be dreaming still.

There was some kind of writing hovering above his head, backwards in the reflection. When he swiped at it, attempting to bat it away, his hand phased right through it.

Sighing, he leaned in, squinting at the letters as he tried to decipher them.

<The Gamer>

LV 2 Midoriya Izuku

He was still dreaming, then. For sure, one hundred percent.

“Izuku! Breakfast is almost ready, come get ready for school!”

He squeaked when a floating square appeared in his vision, clapping a hand over his mouth to silence it. He was surprised to find his hand was trembling, his eyes wide as he stared at the box, scanning slowly across the words emblazoned on it.

New Quest: Get Ready for School

Time Limit: 20 minutes
Repeatable: Daily

Reward: +10 EXP

Penalty: Sensei Relationship -100
Education skills -10% (6 hours)

There were two little boxes underneath – labelled “Accept” and “Reject”. With his hand still shaking, he reached out, poking at the square.

Quest Accepted: Get Ready for School

There was a list of tasks in front of him now: eat breakfast, brush teeth, pack bag – all the usual things he did before leaving the apartment each morning. He supposed this could be useful, it would help him to remember everything, right? Not that Izuku's memory was particularly unreliable on its own, but hey, no harm in a little back-up!

Pushing the thought aside, he padded out to the kitchen where his mother was setting plates down on the table.

<Mother>
LV 20 Midoriya Inko

He wanted to yell at the words, wanted to tear them off her head, or at least ask her about them, but he knew she had enough on her mind without his antics making things worse. She'd always been such a good mother to him, he couldn't scare her with his potentially failing mental health. At least not this early in the morning.

Besides, it was still just a dream, right?

But the words remained, as he ate and cleaned up and changed into his uniform, packing the last of his books into his bright yellow backpack and slinging it over his shoulder.

“I'm going, Mom!”

Quest Complete: Get Ready for School

He whined quietly to himself as he swiped the message out of his view, giving himself a good shake as he stumbled out the door. His dreams didn't usually go on so long – nor were they so weird. Sure, he'd been playing the newest Pro-Hero RPG for the past few nights, levelling up as “Small Might”, but he'd played plenty of games in the past without them crossing over into his dream-reality.

They'd never been so realistic, either.

He hoped he'd be able to shove it all to the back of his mind, that maybe he'd have stopped imagining the ridiculous images by the time he got home. That was easier said than done, though, when he could see crowds of commuters each with little tags above their heads denoting their names and levels.

Wait, was this a quirk?

He didn't think he'd run into anyone with weird abilities in the past day or so, didn't remember encountering anyone whose quirks he didn't know, unless someone had set it on him in the streets.

Was this... his quirk?

The thought seemed simultaneously horrific and too good to be true. If it was his quirk, then that meant he could be a hero. He wasn't sure how much use it would be, except maybe as an analyst? He could tell the other heroes how strong a villain was with one glance, that would be pretty cool! On the other hand, it didn't help him much with actually fighting.

Although, if this was like a normal RPG game, he should have skills somewhere, right? He could find ways to gain experience and level himself up, then pump all of his skill points into pure strength.

No, it was far too early to be thinking about possibilities like that. More likely it was a lack of sleep, or someone else's quirk accidentally cast on him when they bumped into each other in the street. People got their quirks by the time they were four and Izuku was in Junior High School. He needed to stop getting his hopes up.

He was quirkless. Useless, quirkless Deku. He needed to accept that.

A thunderous crash broke him out of his daze, and he whirled around just in time to see a gigantic monster – no, a villain, he supposed – rise above the buildings. A crowd was already gathering to watch, and Izuku turned on his heel, jogging toward the area.

He squeezed his way through the crowd, grateful for once for his small stature, eyes shining when he saw Death Arms on the scene, slamming the villain with an unbelievably strong punch. Above his head floated a familiar little tag, and Izuku squinted to read it.

<Punching Hero>
LV 38 Death Arms

A stream of water shot past him like a thick, liquid rope, and he turned to look in a hurry, delighting in the sight of Backdraft creating one of his signature barriers to keep the crowd back from the scene.

LV 35 Backdraft

Well, if he had this weird quirk going on, he may as well use it, right?

He turned to the villain again, rubbing his eyes and attempting to make out the number in the distance as the giant man thrashed around. He caught a glimpse of a three in the number, level thirty-something he supposed – a pretty even match for the heroes on the scene, except that there were two of them and only one of him.

When Kamui Woods arrived, though, the fight was over – his little “LV 42” tag flying over Izuku's head. Izuku had played enough video games to know that even if the villain was level thirty-nine, Kamui Woods – along with the other heroes on scene – was more than a high enough level to take the guy out.

Izuku couldn't stop himself from cheering as limbs stretched out into collections of twigs and branches, ready to encase the villain in his quirk.

And then, a rumble.

Did the villain have back up? Was someone else coming to help him? Was-

<Rookie Hero>
LV 30 Mt. Lady

The crowd went nuts for her as she sent the villain flying, even though Kamui Woods looked a little put-out by the steal.

An old man stood next to him in the crowd, someone who had been chatting to him as they watched the fight, and when Izuku pulled out his notebook to scribble his thoughts down, the man laughed.

“You want to be a hero?” he asked kindly. “Work hard! You can do it!”

“I will!” Izuku beamed, a warmth building in his chest like he'd never felt before.

He supposed no one had ever encouraged him so easily before.

When Izuku looked up, there was a little grey box floating around Mt. Lady, as she fielded questions and photos from the crowd.

Level Up!

<Rookie Hero>
LV 31 Mt. Lady

So her final blow had landed her enough experience to raise her level? Interesting.

Izuku found himself wishing he knew what her experience had looked like prior, how much it had really netted her to get that final hit. Would fighting the entire time have gotten her more? Or was it that last blow that mattered? None of the other heroes had gone up a level, but then, they were higher to begin with – levelling usually slowed down as you got higher up, right? Required more experience points?

A little “ding!” drew his attention away, like a tiny bell right in his ear, but when he turned to look, there was nothing there.

A new skill [ANALYSE] is created
Displays further information on an identified target

Wait, really?

He turned his attention on Mt. Lady again, concentrating hard as he stared her down.

“Analyse,” he murmured.

A little dialogue window popped up again, and for a moment, Izuku couldn't even focus on reading it. He was too distracted by the fact that it had worked.

Name: Takeyama Yuu
Occupation: Hero
Hero Name: Mt. Lady
Quirk: Gigantification
Level: 33
EXP: 1.2%

Okay, now that was a useful skill.

A clock chimed above them, towering over the town, and Izuku jolted, swiping the box away in a hurry. He was going to be late to school, and school was already hard enough without everyone staring at him as he walked through the door.

He strapped his bag on and took off, weaving through people as he ran down the street toward the school gates. If he was lucky, he could get there before the final bell rang. If he was lucky, he wouldn't even be the last one to-

He opened the door on a full classroom, everyone just sitting down at their desks. With his face flushed bright red and every eye in the room on him, he skittered over to his desk.

So close.

A new skill [HASTE] is created
Boosts agility by 25% for a short time

Where was that five minutes ago?