Chapter 1: Changing courses of Fate
Archive entry 1: [The following entry is a rewrite of a pre-existing diary entry of one Midoriya Izuku]
Is it wrong to be born without some genetic advantage?
This is a problem that I thought about all those years ago. I was about three years ago and I was 5 years old. It had been…very bad for me after it got out I was without some quirk. All my schoolmates shunned me or made fun of me. Those days became more and more hurtful as I was the only kid in the whole of Kindergarten not to have a quirk to call my own. I had just got my butt handed to me after I stood up to Kacchan…again, I was trying to help the boy they were beating up because he was crying and heroes don't let people cry like that.
After they left me lying there, I wanted to cry too. I wanted to yell why I didn't have some awesome quirk, why didn't I have some special power, why my pinkie toe still had some useless joint. But it was then I thought back to how much my parents loved me, even though father was often away with work, we always wrote letters and did video chats-I knew that I wanted to be a hero to keep them safe and protect people…like All Might but all I had going for myself was that I was really smart, I know I was because mother, father and my sensei all said I was.
Could I still be a hero even if I didn't have a quirk? I wanted that answer to be yes so badly, I wanted to believe that I could save people with a smile on my face.
That it happened. A super odd sight changed my life forever and made me determined to become a hero and gave me a course to follow to reach my dream.
I saw a very big bird flying above me and it looked like it was circling me like those….vultures, yeah like the vultures did Simba in the Lion King movie. It did this for a while, I had no real clue of how long because I was not keeping time, I was caught by how…free it was to do as it pleased, after some time I got up and was about to walk home when is made its call and flew down to meet me.
I should have been scared but…I wasn't…somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that this bird could kill me and I wouldn't be able to stop it but…
I was so mesmerized by those golden eyes, its small but strong built, its beautiful coat of features, and how it showed such dominance over me by just opening its wings and extending them fully.
It was then I knew what I needed to do to become a hero.
I thanked the bird and it just screeched at me and flew off. It wasn't till later that after googling it at home that I found out that I had just seen a Steller's sea eagle up close and personal and not been harmed in any way.
Archive entry 2: [The following entry is a rewrite of a pre-existing diary entry of one Midoriya Izuku]
Mother was very hard to convince, she didn't want me getting hurt all the time like heroes do but I proved to be just as stubborn about it, I told her how I had thought about it for a few days and came to the thought that I and Kacchan would never be on the same level in a physical sense because he had a quirk and I didn't but I could hope to surpass him in a mental sense because I was smart, always curious about things and had a good sense of observation according to father and sensei. I told her why I wanted to be a hero, so I can keep her safe like All Might, and eventually, she gave in and said she would help me create the means I would need to do so, at the time I didn't know she also agreed to do so thinking that I would change my path to support rather than combat but that was something I only learned down the line.
But like stone, my path had been set.
The first thing I did was build a scale model with the help of many….many YouTube videos of what I wanted to build. It took 5 months of working on it after kindergarten in my room but I finally managed to complete a scale model made from paper-mâché, Legos, and wooden parts I got at the arts and craft store down the road to show her. (Just imagine a scale model of the first Vulture flight suit from the MCU looked like…if it was built a rather smart kid instead of a genius builder like Tinkerer)
Father (Who was watching via video call) and mother were…surprised, to say the least, father asked why I made the….armour? I guess that what we decided to call it, even if it was mainly bid like wings, so I told them about the day I saw the eagle and after mother calmed down from worrying over me, I told them I wanted to be like birds, free and proud but also powerful and caring. At the time, I already liked them after watching some of my father's videos and seeing them in National Geographic, I would go so far as to say I liked them almost as much as I liked heroes since my room had equal amounts of All Might stuff as it did anything and everything I could get about Birds of Prey.
Fater was very happy with that and agreed that I could follow my dream but he said there would be a problem with it. He said that to build anything like what I wanted-I would have to follow the same steps he did to become as smart as he did.
I had to focus on and amplify my strengths, in this case, my mind and memory which meant studying harder than any of my peers(I was only 6 at the time so that meant a lot) and not focusing on my weaknesses like my lack of quirk.
To cover up my flaws and weaknesses by delegating those tasks and responsibilities to others I can trust who are good at them, mother offered to help that and even said she would look through the neighborhood for tutors and older kids to help me learn what I needed faster while father said he would send me some notes on mechanics and basic science to help me along.
He told me to always be ready and willing to learn and that I should start by keeping a notebook where I can write down what I learn, my observations, and theories about the quirks of others and the world around me, he told me to try and learn something new every single day, no matter how small and unimportant it might be.
Lastly, he told me to try and put that knowledge into practice as often as I can so that find it easier not just to remember it but how it works and how it can be applied in varying situations, he said to experiment and play with it(in a controlled environment if possible).
Archive entry 3: [The following entry is a rewrite of a pre-existing diary entry of one Midoriya Izuku]
Father is smart
Like…really smart.
When I was younger, I never really knew just how smart he was, all I know was that he worked abroad and was rarely home.
It wasn't till I got older that I understood just what he did for a living. Father works as a researcher for the University of Tokyo and regularly travels with National Geographic funding and support so he can research and study animals and plants around the world. Just the other day he was telling me and my mother about how even animals can develop quirks, which can lead to new behaviors, diet, mating, etc. Simply put, quirks are creating their new species in the animal kingdom.
Maybe that Eagle had a quirk, that's why it came to me of all people? That would explain what it was doing this far inland anyway since they mostly feed on fish.
Father also let me more notes to work with so I can't complain.
Archive entry 7: [The following entry is a rewrite of a pre-existing diary entry of one Midoriya Izuku]
It has been around 13 months since that fateful day, I'm now 6 and three quarters and have made some serious headway. At first, I just studied extra hard in numbers and spelling class till I was at the top of the class, the others made fun of me but I didn't let it get to me.
After that, my mother started to take time off work and would help me learn things they only start to teach in the 2nd and 3rd years of Elementary. It got hard more times than I can count but I refused to give up and pushed on. It helped that my mother was able to get some of the older kids to help me with my studies. I like hanging out with them, even if most of the time they were just helping me with my studies.
Oh, and I have already filled the 3rd book with my 'Hero Analysis for the Future' and my 2nd 'Book on Characteristics of Winged flight in Combat'. I never knew you could learn so much from being observant.
Archive entry 9: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
I did it!
I was able to accomplish my short-term goal!
I'm only 8 years old and in the last days of the 1st year of elementary but I've already completed the yearly curriculum for 5th Graders. Now, mom will let me learn how to use Power tools, with adult supervision, of course, she doesn't like me holding the knives in the kitchen after all.
Romeo says that there is a Body-shop nearby, maybe they'll let me watch them work till I'm old enough to help out and learn about their craft.
Till then, I have to wait and find a title which should give me a heads-up, 'Mechanics for Dummies'?
Well, I suppose I have to start somewhere.
Archive entry 10: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
Bakugou is being mean again.
I just don't understand him anymore. Always picking on others and always so angry. Maybe the day will come when I do understand him.
But today isn't that day. Ever since he got his quirk, he changed for the worst, everyone wants to be the best, there's nothing wrong with it but why does he have to be so mean about it?
Now he's starting to target me more and more, about the fact that I keep posting the top of the whole grade in just about every single academic topic we do. I told him that he can't stop me from reaching for my dream, and I made a vow to show the world that being quirkless doesn't mean useless and that wouldn't change no matter how many times he calls me that stupid nickname.
He was so shocked that he didn't even do anything when I left the classroom but I have a feeling he will be ready tomorrow.
Maybe I should start working out?
Archive entry 11: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
Turns out that exercise isn't such a bad idea, mom said that every hero knows some form of self-defense and dad told me keeping in shape is always a good thing, no matter your occupation. Plus there is that pesky law in Japan about being overweight which at this point might as well be illegal as most stores don't sell larger than average clothing unless the customer is naturally large like All Might or has some mutation like Gang Orca, there also the fact that you could lose your job if you're overweight.
Yeah, mom and I need to work out more and I already came up with the best exercise regimen:
5-minute warm stretches, followed by 20 Push-ups and 20 Sit-ups then a 2km jog, and lastly cooling down stretches.
.
.
.
Mom removed the jog and replaced it with 1 hour of a home workout video. I never knew what the heck Tae-Bo was till now. Then I made the mistake to tell my older tutors about it.
Apparently, it's a type of work-out mostly used by middle-aged mothers and they laugh so hard that Akito fell in tears.
Why mom? Why?
Archive entry 15: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
As much as I hate to admit it but those Tae-Bo videos do help. When I had my last check-up with the doctor, he said I was as healthy as a horse, when I saw myself in the mirror this morning, I saw myself but I was much more toned and muscularly defined(or as defined and toned as a 9-year-old could be anyway).
I also found that the local beach had a lot of spare and 2nd parts lying around. Shame that no one wants to clean it up but I suppose it's not as glamourous and flashy enough for people to care.
Anyway, it's a great source of spare parts since I got permission to shadow the mechanics at the body shop. The owner goes by Kenny Levin and he seems pretty nice, he takes time to show me around the
Different tools and other equipment. He showed me how to take apart a basic generator and put it back together again….then told me to do the same which took me around 3 and a half hours to do what he did in 20 minutes, I blame the fact that the tools are real heavy. After that, he and the rest of the crew put me through my paces and made sure I memorized just about every tool and part needed for mechanics. One of them even gave me his old notebook where he wrote stuff about the more complex aspects of Mechanics.
Dad came back for the week so I was able to show him all 8 books with my 'Hero Analysis for the Future' notes and all 5 'Books on Characteristics of Winged flight in Combat', I even started another series I call 'Land-based Avian combat tactics' since a lot of birds can't fly, I'm so far still working on the first one for that. We spent some time going over my notes, he was a great help as he pointed out stuff I had noted that was redundant, too complex, and should be kept for later times, and what was too summarised to be of great importance. We also were able to make a more realistic drawing of my idea together.
We even went on a family picnic and while we were out, we found the perfect spot for me to test out my new suits once I start building them.
Archive entry 16: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
All Might's been acting strange lately
I mean he's always acting odd but that just how he is, that's All Might for you, but now, there is something different to it. I noticed it the other day when I was working on the internal skeleton for my Mk I suit. All Might used to be seen almost all the time during the day, either fighting crime, saving people, or just witnesses saying they saw him running or jumping through towards wherever he wanted to go. Now he's barely seen for more than a few hours a day, I counted, at most, the time he's seen in a day amounts to about 5 and a half hours. Why is that?
He doesn't look like he's getting old, he and Endeavour are more or less the same age...I think, and he's as active as ever, maybe more so now that All Might around as often.
Maybe he's sick? Like Grandpa was before he went to the doctor's and got that operation done? If that's true then why doesn't he just go to the doctor?
Maybe I'm overthinking things again, dad says I have that mentality. Anyway, I've finished this year's curriculum and now I'm bored out of my mind in class, I already know what Sensei is telling us and have completed all the assignments, tests, and projects for the year, maybe I should talk to mom about it.
Archive entry 17: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
I suppose Bakugou now has even more reason to be mean. Mom talked to the principal and because of my academic brilliance, they concluded that I should be moved two grades up to the 6th grade so I can 'continue to grow'. It must have been odd when my former homeroom teacher told the class that I was too smart to be in the 4th grade and had been bumped up to a higher class but it was necessary to do so, it's not like I had any friends to worry about leaving behind.
Now I can start touching upon more complex levels of Mechanics. I also picked up some books and downloaded some videos on Airframe Design and Complex Mechanism Design since Tou-san was able to get one of his colleagues to look at my designs and point out many flaws in them. It's still possible but I would need to heavily revise the design to make it a reality.
Also, Kenny told me that working with such heavy tools and machinery requires a strong body so I've increased my workout regimen to:
5-minute warm stretches, followed by 60 Push-ups and 60 Sit-ups, followed by a 600m run and 20 minutes of Tae-Bo videos, and finished with 5-minutes of cool-down stretches.
I've only been at it for about a month but I swear I can feel the changes already.
Archive entry 20: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
The Mk I flight suit was a complete and utter failure.
It took me two whole months of all-nighters and Sunday sessions to finish it but that thing was a bust. Mom and I drove to my new secret testing site and luckily for me, she was able to convince me not to wear the suit but rig it with a bag of rocks that weighed more or less the same as myself.
The giant set of wings and propeller blades was the length of 1 and a half cars and needed to be assembled on sight since it wouldn't fit in the car otherwise. The thing was also very heavy as it weighed around 315kgs, was extremely noisy since we could hear it powering up from over 500m(546yds) away since we needed to be at a distance in case something happened and lastly, it was unable to sustain flight for more than 30 seconds with something as heavy as me and without weight only lasted an additional 45 seconds. Even then, the thing couldn't get more than 2m(6.5ft) off the ground before it caught fire and crashed into a nearby tree. The only thing this model shows is that it is possible to carry one after much work back at the drawing board.
Archive entry 22: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
It's the winter holidays and the year hasn't been that exciting for me. School is still a place with no friends since everyone is put off by my quirkless status or the fact I'm two grades ahead of everyone else my age. I was able to find out the many problems which lead to the poor performance of the Mk I and have dedicated my whole winter break to solving as many of them as I can.
But I can't help but feel sad…when I look out the window and see all the other kids playing in the snow and having fun but who am I fooling, even if I went outside, no one wants to play with me because I'm not like them, I'm different.
Archive entry 27: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
Well, it's official, I'm a genius.
I was able to finally complete the Mk II and it shows much more promise than its older predecessor which I have to give thanks to dad, the Mk I was mainly made(85% to be exact)made from junk I found by Dagobah Municipal Beach which did account for some the Mk I failings but thanks to dad getting his hands on some better parts from some of the engineering students attending Tokyo university, the Mk II is only 60% trash now, I paid extra attention to picking out the most suitable parts this time around. I've also improved on the mechanical and electrical side so all that lead to the Mk II being much less clunky as to the Mk I and weigh less coming in at 260kg, not as noisy as it now just sounds like a muscle car when powering up and can lift to 55kg(121lbs) up to 6m(19.6ft) off the ground for over 3 minutes.
It was such a success that mother let me ride it around for a bit before we went home. Now, all we have to do is tone down the size, make it more streamlined, add flight time and increase how much it can carry-after all, I'll have to carry people to safety so it needs to be able to support that kind of weight. But I was able to create the proper flight mechanism to help stabilize movement, so like I said I'm a genius.
I did find something else to do over the winter break, whenever I got frustrated with the Mk II, I would head over to Dagobah beach and just let the breeze calm me down, not many people went there and the times than they did were few and far between. After a while I thought about cleaning the place so that people could enjoy the beach, it was the right thing to do after all.
So I did it, while all the other kids were playing in the snow or hanging out with friends, I went to the beach every morning at the crack of dawn for three weeks and clean what I could till mid-day before I would go home, shower-eat something and work on the Mk II till supper. After I finished the Mk II, I would spend even the afternoons cleaning the place. I don't think I'll finish anytime soon but I can see that I'm making progress as the garbage piles grow smaller and smaller, one inch at a time, day by day.
Mom likes that I'm doing community service like that, she believes that it is very heroic to clean up the beach so that people can enjoy it again, she liked to go there when she was younger and even helps me whenever she has a day off from work at the hospital.
Dad even came home with great news the other day! He got invited to I-island for a three-day conference for a summit on the global animal watch. He said we could come with him! I don't even know what I'm going to wear since dad said that very rich and fancy people will be in attendance. Mom said she'll get me a suit and tie later this week. Maybe I can ask Mr. Shield about my plans, he's super smart and knows just about everything about machines so he'll be able to help me solve the problem.
Now how to make a prototype flight combat suit and get it past customs?
Archive entry 29: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
I-island is every bit as amazing as I thought it would be and more. I can't believe that this whole place is dedicated to the pursuit of science and knowledge. Dad must be respected in the scientific community if he was invited here, after all, there are a lot of tourists here but they all had to pay to get here. There is so much cutting-edge tech just sitting around for public use or entertainment. There was so much to see and so much to do that mom and I spent the whole day just walking around acting like tourists, there were even some foreign pro heroes here too. I filled up two whole 2 books worth for 'Hero Analysis for the Future' and another three books just about the tech that I saw.
When I think about it, my stuff really is amateurish in comparison but they all have their P.H.D.s. Already, I'm a genius, not a Saitama who can pull victories from any situation no matter what. Speaking of which, I need to download Shingeki no Kyojin and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood while we're here. We don't get much wifi at home and I need my anime fix. Maybe I'll get some Pewds videos too. It's been a while since I watched his videos since I've been busy lately.
Archive entry 30: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
I can't believe that I got to meet the David Shield! The man whose effect on the world is second only to All Might, he was All Might's first partner from when he lived in the States and is the only person to receive a Noble Quirk prize! He was at the summit and I fanboyed out when we talked to him. Dad has a big project coming up which means he'll be paired up with David Shield, I don't know much but I do know that it'll involve the brains of mammals and that dad will be living here for the next year.
It's sad knowing that once we leave here, dad will stay behind but we already promised to chat and send letters, and dad never breaks a promise!
Also, I got to meet Mr. Shield's daughter-Melissa, she's older than me by around two years and is doing her 1st year at Junior high but already has many rewards to her name-like father-like daughter I suppose. It was nice to talk to someone close to my age for a change and since I've also started my 1st year in Junior when I get back to Japan, we had a lot more to talk about while we were together. We walked around the labs and met a lot of the researchers, I almost passed out what they were working on, all this could change the world one day!
Melissa is quirkless like me but she doesn't let it get her down and she works hard to help create the tools that heroes will use to save people, I like that about her. Really, what's not to like about her? After we exchanged numbers to keep in contact(I can't believe I got a girl's number!) she left to get her stuff together for classes on Monday so I left and looked around for Mr. Shield. I found him near his lab and was able to ask him if he could help me later on since I needed to got get the Mk II and show him. He probably thought it was some school project and agreed to meet me the next day, which happened to be Sunday.
Archive entry 30: Diary entry of Midoriya Izuku
I can't believe that I made Mr. Shield gawk like that, to be fair I was already strapped into the suit and waiting for him by the time he showed up. He was impressed with my work! He even said it was amazing that I made such a thing with mostly broken, 2nd hand or used parts I found in the scrapheap, I got complimented for my work by the David Shield! This will go down as one of the best days in my life!
He was impressed with the control system I came with and how a compensated for the fact my hands were busy with the control by using my legs for picking stuff up and combat like actual birds of prey and by the fact that the wings were strong enough to knock a grown man on his butt. After I removed the gear and we sat down, the ideas he added to my plans left me with a blown mind, I'll didn't doubt his mind before but after that, I'll never will.
As we talked I told him how the suit's power source was just an old diesel engine I got off a motorcycle I found in the dump that I repurposed and upgraded to which he said was creative but was the reason the suit couldn't fly very high or lift larger loads since no motorcycle engine could provide such power. He suggested that I used a special kind of battery they developed here on I-Island to make up for this and replace the engine with a new one being developed here on I-Island, which relied on solar energy for the secondary charge. Plus it would generate 6 times the power of the old engine I was using and last much longer.
We also swapped out the heavier steel alloy I had used for the construction and replaced it with lightweight but strong gold-titanium alloy which according to our math would offer more strength at less weight. The feathers of the wings were also replaced with a dense but lightweight aluminum-steel alloy Mr. Shield had developed so that they would be just as strong but at two-thirds the weight. After we put it all together as fast as we could, we tested it.
And it was a success!
The new onboard OS made the ride much smoother as it controls the systems necessary for flight and quick reaction times that normally would require the user to do so I could focus on other things. The new design was the best one yet, it looked so modern, so sleek…so graceful that I hardly recognized it when it was completed. The new wiring and support components in the joints and each feather also helped reduced drag as the wings can move more freely to compensate for such. And all this came in at only 145kg(319lbs) in weight. Rather than being noisy, it sounded much softer now but we both knew it was producing more power than all three predecessors which was proven when in the very large lab, we found out it could lift a max of 165kg(363lbs)kgs in weight! Had a flight time of over 15 minutes and when we flew it outside, had an altitude ceiling of 24m(78ft) and could reach a top speed of 52km/h(116mph).
Afterward, I did ask why Mr. Shield helped me since I can't be the first kid that asked. He nearly fainted when he told me that my dad had told him about it before he got here since he knew I would ask him for assistance. I cried when he told me that I could be a hero and he was behind me in my journey to become one 100%. Before mom and I left for home, Mr. Shield gave me a 6TB hard drive with everything I would need to know about: Physics; Chemistry; Metallurgy; Mechanical Science; Electrical Engineering; Aerospace Engineering; Software design, and other fields of Computer science and finally many…many notes and papers on Plasma and Nuclear physics since he figured that I would want to develop an even stronger power source down the line.
As a fell asleep on the flight back to Tokyo, I thought to myself that I had 5 years till the UA entrance exam, I had five years to master everything Mr. Shield gave to learn, five years to perfect my idea to a level where I can use it like any hero uses their quirk. As a closed my eyes with my head on mom's lap I made a vow.
I'll become the armored hero from above, I'll become a Bird of Prey to Villains and a Dove of peace to the weak….
'I'll become a Vulture'