Chapter 1: I talked to an invisible girl?!

Izuku Midoriya was staring at the front of the U.A. Hero Academy feeling a bit woozy.

The wannabe hero had arrived with some minutes to spare after making a mad dash home to take a quick shower, grab his backpack, and take a mind-numbing forty minute train ride to school. Just three hours before he had just finished his grueling ten months of training to prepare his body to become the vessel for the quirk One for All. The teen had done nearly a year of acrobatics exercises and intense physical labor cleaning a trash-ridden beach for his hero idol All Might.

And what was his reward for his efforts? A strand of his mentor's hair in his stomach.

Today was the practical portion of the entrance exam. Izuku was not worried about the written portion, even though he felt he would barely pass it, but the practical exam was a different beast. It would require daring feats of strength, dexterity, and mastery of one's quirk that most potential students would have had for over a decade to work with. Izuku had received his quirk today, and the only instructions on how to use it from his mentor were to, "Clench your butt and let your heart cry out saying SMASH!" Midoriya wished he had more to go with.

It didn't help Izuku's childhood friend, err bully, maybe frenemy; well, either way, Katsuki Bakugo had just seconds ago threatened him with death. Okay, the hotheaded teen probably just meant to threaten him with physical pain for having dared arrived to take the exam, but that still wasn't a good thing. So now repressed feelings of being abused and feeling useless from his past dealing with the explosive quirk user and other bullies were plaguing Izuku's mind as well. These thoughts were the final tipping point. In the back of the throat, Izuku could taste it, what remained of his breakfast. There wasn't time; he had to find a bathroom. What strength he could muster brought him to a decent sprint as he frantically tried to find a washroom. After two minutes sprawling around the campus grounds, he found one.

But Izuku didn't make it. Just a few steps from the men's door, so close. Usually, after upheaving, Midoriya would feel better; it's the typical reaction he thought. But today was different, still having a spinning head and tears in his eyes from a combination of the burning feeling in his legs and lungs as well as racing thoughts of what to do from having puked on the grounds of his dream school. He had also saddened because he up-chucked the breakfast his mother had worked so hard to make for him on such a short notice as he came barreling into the household just hours ago. Knees to the ground and arms clenching some grass, Izuku tried to get it together. Just a few minutes to collect himself and clean his mess then he would head to introduction ceremony, Izuku told himself.

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening came from behind. Seconds of silence passed as the boy's mind raced with excuses to say if questioned on his current position. He even repositioned himself to try and hide his handiwork laid bare on the grass in front of him. But what came next completely threw such thoughts outside his head.

"Are you trying to imitate a cow or something? Or maybe a goat," came a feminine giggle.

Everything froze in the Midoriya's mind. Oh, it just had to be a girl. Positive interactions with the opposite gender outside his mother was a rarity for the teen. Minus random strangers, he really couldn't think of any. Memories of she-devils in his classes exploiting Izuku's inability to fight back came flooding back. His classmates were teasing that no women would ever be interested in a quirkless like him, to live life alone. Holding back tears, the boy quickly shook his head but kept it facing away from whoever was behind him.

She then asked, "So just taking a breather or something? I mean I guess today is a big life-changing deal." Quick successions of nods came from Izuku. In a seemingly not convinced tone, the mysterious girl asked another question, "You sure everything is alright?" Midoriya took a few moments but eventually gave a weak and shaky thumb up with his right hand. "Ok then, if you're sure." The voice sounded as though they didn't believe a word he said but quickly changed her tone a more helpful tone. "Better hurry though; I think they will lock the doors soon as the exam is about to start!"

The soon to be a late hero in training waited a minute till after he heard the pitter patters of her footsteps fade away. Taking a deep breath, he sat up and went into the men's room to grab some paper towels and clean up his mess. With that taken care of, Izuku ran to the front doors just in time with a small smile on his face. And a thought ran through the boy's mind despite what was about to happen next.

"I talked to a girl!"

(He didn't actually talk)

A lot had happened at the exam that occurred last week.

Midoriya was still trying to take it all in. A tall teen with glasses gave him various lectures on his "supposed" misbehavior and unwanted presence brought back detested throwbacks of to his previous schools that he would rather avoid thinking about. The panicked state Izuku was in as he tried to score points during the practical still gave him the shivers. The feeling of seeing "the thwomp" bearing down on him and the other participants was a part of a few nightmares in the past few days.

The worst of it all, however, was the lack of contact with All Might. Sure the possibility that the number one hero might be regretting his decision of choosing Izuku dangled in his head, but he just wanted to talk to the pro hero. Midoriya didn't want some info on how he did, just something, even negative feedback; he just wanted someone hero related to talk to. He loved spending time with his mother, but as someone whose quirk wasn't ever suited for hero work, it would be hard to relate his troubles of the hero-biz with her.

Izuku had only told his mother about the one positive outcome of the exam. Destroying "the thomwp" which in turn recused the gravity-defying girl from injury who then saved him from falling to his death afterward. One for All had saved Izuku some dignity in the end, minus the thrashed arm he got from using his quirk for the first time. This made his mother almost faint when he came home with a sling over his arm that afternoon. Typical of his mom, but still worried the boy nonetheless. He truly was glad All Might had pushed him so hard during the training. Izuku shuttered at the idea of what could have happened to his body if he wasn't as trained as he was. The thoughts of a "what if scenario" of a missing limb made Izuku cringe a bit.

Of course, all these worries melted away when the letter from U.A. came.

It was lunchtime on the first day for first-year students taking the hero course at U.A.

Yes, Izuku Midoriya had passed. He was here.

His first class with his homeroom teacher was, interesting. While seeing the hero Eraserhead in the flesh blew the boy's marbles, the blunt style of his teaching while at first felt extremely intimidating, had pushed Izuku to come up with a slightly less destructive way of using his quirk. Instead of a broken arm, only a finger was thrashed. And for that alone, he was incredibly thankful. Izuku wasn't used to the feeling of self-induced pain; he was used to others dishing it out on him both physically and mentally. This new pain he had to endure required the healing help from the school's nurse and also well-known pro hero, Recovery Girl. The teen hated the feeling of having to rely on her, now twice, and he could tell the older woman was already showing some disdain for his injuries. If that was more because of him or All Might, he couldn't tell.

But that was the past, and this was now. And now the problem was something he forgot he had to experience in his pervious school on a daily basis. Where was he to seat himself during lunch? The obvious and natural choice was just to sit alone like he always did. And maybe get asked to move to another table a few times. He had a quirk now, things would be different, right? This was a new place, with new people he had almost no history with! Ok minus an obvious blonde haired teen who was giving Izuku dagger-like stares from across the cafeteria. He wanted to try and make some friends for once. Before he could ponder this thought any longer, however, the answer to this dilemma came from an unlikely source that would baffle the teen for the rest of the day.

From his left, Izuku heard, "Hey puke-boy, need a seat?"

Izuku recognized that voice, even though it was over a month ago since he last heard it. And puke-boy? His head sulked into his shoulders as he realized his poor attempt to hide his predicament had failed. He slowly turned to see a table with a small circular table with six chairs, but with only one occupant. Or did it? There was definitely someone there. But Izuku had to double take to make sure what he was seeing was real because all he saw was a floating school girl's uniform waving its sleeve at him.

The girl continued, "Trouble finding someone to have lunch with? I got plenty of room over here!"

No visible head. No visible arms or hands. No visible legs.

Izuku Midoriya whispered to himself, "I talked to an invisible girl?!"

(Still, doesn't count as talking)

My gosh. I actually just wrote and uploaded this. I mean it's a short first chapter, but hey I did it! Promise the next few will be like twice as long!

I went to sleep the night before writing this chapter wondering how an Izuku x Tooru fic would work. I then did a lot of driving the next day (picking up groceries and I picked up a baby western hognose snake as a pet, yeah I'm weird) and spent most of it brainstorming this story. Once I got to a computer, a few hours of typing later, chapter one was typed and I had an outline for like the next five chapters ready as well.

Sorry if my style of writing is different from what you are used to seeing, where I left out the exact scenes from the manga. I have read so many fics with this series, and so many are WORD per WORD just copies of what happened in the manga with slight changes. We all know how the events happened in the manga/anime. I want to focus on the time between the set pieces of the main story. Unless there are changes that I wish to address that I can't write in a summary, then don't expect many retellings of manga scenes from me.

I'd say a great inspiration for me writing this, and some of the ideas I came up with are thanks to an excellent writer who is currently writing two amazing Izuku x Mina fics, QuirkQuartz (formerly known as 123pearlshipping). I have not seen anything that comes close to his level of writing for this series, minus Nucleophile's slow-burn Izuku x Tsuyu fic (even if it hasn't updated in a while). So if you're reading this, thanks, ya'll are awesome.

Oh and the title's purpose? That will be addressed way later.

For the first couple chapters, expect a weekly release every Sunday.

By the way got problems with the fic? Please tell me via reviews (I answer all of them); it's my first and probably only one I'll write, so open the floodgates. I wanna learn!