"Young man, even without a quirk, you can become a hero!"

  Izuku stared in shock at the gaunt man.

  "Y-you think I can do it? Even though I'm just a worthless D-Deku..?" He asked.

  All Might chuckled gently.

  "I'll let you in on a little known secret. I was a late bloomer. I didn't manifest my quirk until I was fifteen years old." The hero confessed.

  Izuku's eyes widened.

  "Fifteen? But that would be during your first year at UA... That would mean..!"

  All Might nodded.

  "I passed the entrance exams, made it into the Hero course and became top of my class without a quirk. Getting a quirk was just an added bonus that pushed me to even greater heights! I aimed to become the first quirkless hero, but it was not to be."

  Izuku's eyes started to water. The number one hero All Might, Izuku's idol, the greatest hero ever known.. had been just like him?

  All Might grinned at the young boy.

  "I wasn't able to do it, so I'm passing the torch onto you my boy! Izuku Midoriya, for the next ten months you will need to train! Train until your arms fall limp, and your face eats the dirt! You've got a lot of ground to make up, but I'm sure you can do it!" He said, clenching his fist.

  Izuku wiped his tears away, narrowing his eyes in determination.

  "Thank you All Might.. I won't let you down!"

  The hero chuckled.

  "I know you won't kid. Now, I'd better get this guy-" he patted the sludge bottles, secure in his pockets "- to the police!"

  Izuku followed the skinny man down the many flights of stairs. He muttered the whole way, to the hero's amusement.

  "If I'm going to train I'll need to focus on certain aspects.. I'm small and skinny, not enough time to pack on some real muscle, so I'll focus on speed and agility.. gaining some muscle in the meantime will still be good though.. how should I train though, I've never done this before..."

  The blonde coughed, breaking the boy from his thoughts.

  "This is where we part ways. Here, how about this? Are you doing anything this Saturday? Meet me at Dagobah beach at around ten o'clock, I'll be happy to train you myself. Don't worry, it's not a bother, I've had an excellent idea. I'll see you then Young Midoriya!"

  Without giving the boy (who would undoubtedly refuse to 'waste' the hero's time) a chance to respond, All Might buffed up and leapt off into the distance. Izuku stood dumbfounded for a couple of seconds, before walking home with a spring in his step.

_________

  Saturday couldn't come quickly enough. Time seemed to move at a crawl through Tuesday, all the way to Friday. When the final bell chimed on Friday afternoon, Izuku was out of the door like a bullet. He'd been doing a little research into training before the meeting with  All Might, and had found something.. interesting.

  There were currently 1,639 professional heroes in Japan. Of those, 421 were underground, 508 were rescue, and the rest were limelight heroes. Of all of the 1,639 heroes in Japan, only 313 of them were trained in a martial art.

  266 of those 303 heroes were underground heroes. The rest were mainly Rescue heroes who wanted to have some way of defending themselves. There were a few outliers, like Gunhead, but most limelight heroes didn't use a martial art. Miruko used kicks, sure, but she just repeated the same one over and over again.

  The number two hero Endeavour occasionally threw a punch... To make his attacks look cooler.

  Even All Might, the number one hero, didn't use martial arts. He threw punches, but they were just flailing attacks, with no finesse. He relied on brute force from his quirk to do the work. As did every other hero, apart from the 303 with non- combat oriented quirks.

  That was the path Izuku chose. He would surpass all other heroes with just his wit and skill.

  Izuku spent most of his week trying to get the basics down. How to dodge, how to roll and how to throw a proper punch. He fell over any time he tried anything, but never as quickly as when he first started.

  The meeting with All Might finally came around, and Izuku headed down to the 'beach'.

  I say beach in the loosest sense, because there was not a single grain of sand visible as far as the eye could see. Just junk and rubbish towering over the walls.

  "Ah, Young Midoriya, right on time!" A voice called.

  Izuku smiled at the gaunt man.

  "All Might! Why did you want me to meet you here? It doesn't seem like a very good place to train..." He said.

  All Might chuckled.

  "Not right now it doesn't. However, for the next two months you will be clearing away the rubbish and junk in a wide area to create your training ground! Doing this will also build up your muscle mass! Not too much, as I believe speed will be your greatest strength."

  And that was how Izuku spent the next two months. He got up in the morning, went for a run, got back, showered, went to school, fiddled with hand clamps under the table, went to the beach, cleaned up a heap of rubbish and headed home to study another aspect of martial arts.

  There weren't any dojos or anything in the area, so Izuku had to teach himself from old Heropedia pages, posted from way back when it used to be 'wikepedia' or something.

  Izuku considered learning to wield a weapon, but quickly abandoned that idea. He didn't want to rely on a chunk of metal that could just be ripped out of his hands and make him useless. Besides, where would he get a weapon of any kind?

  By the time the first two months were up, Izuku was a little stronger than before. He was stronger, faster, more agile, and far, far more skillful.

  The hero clapped Izuku on the back.

  "You should have a good base strength now! You can build on it by doing a set of reps each morning, but it should be good enough for now!" He congratulated.

  Izuku smiled.

  "What's next All Might?" Izuku asked.

  The skinny man chuckled.

  "You can't leap into the sky, or sprint along the roadside, but you will need a way to get around! I've signed you up for parkour in Dagobah gym! It's just around the corner, to the left there. That should both improve your speed and agility, and also give you a useful skill for Hero Work!" All Might said.

  "Y-you don't need to do that All Might! You're already giving up your time, I can't let you use your money on me too!" Izuku said.

  The blonde man just laughed.

  "I'm the number one hero. Even with all of the charities and projects I fund I still have more money than I'll ever need. Don't worry about it Young Midoriya, you're doing me a favour."

  Izuku sighed.

  "Well.. if you say so.."

  All Might chuckled again.

  "They're not open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays however, so you can do other training in that time. You could come and clean more of the beach if you'd like, build a bit more muscle? I've got an idea on how to use the space you've created, but it won't be for another few months yet."

  And so the next 2 months passed in yet another blur. Izuku had become much more agile than before, and could speed through any obstacle course with ease. His only weaknesses now were his quirklessness, his lack of stamina (which had been steadily increasing over the last four months), and his overall proficiency with each of his skills.

  Izuku had become excellent at parkour, he was a half decent martial artist, and his analysis had only gotten sharper.

  All Might met him at the beach once more to discuss the next stage of his training.

  "Young Midoriya, you've done excellently thus far! Now however, comes the hard part. You need to train your stamina. Strength and skills don't mean anything if you can't keep going! Now, let's hop to it!"