Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Knight In Training
Once upon a time, humans lived in a dystopian world where demons mercilessly tortured them for no apparent reason. An organisation of rebels formed to stop this and create a better future. They were called Heroes. Ever since their first few attacks, the demon population started decreasing rapidly, while the organisation kept increasing in numbers.
However, with the help of a traitor, the demon species mutated and eventually wiped out many from the group of warriors. This only caused their rampage to continue for a while. Meanwhile, the remaining heroes travelled to sacred places to gain the strength they needed to carry out their mission. It took many years but it was all worth it to end the long period of despair. Slowly, yet surely, the mutation stopped and with the help of magic and luck, they were able to seal them all and store them in a forbidden area of the castle.
Ever since then, humans were guaranteed to live in peace once again. Hundreds and hundreds of years passed ever since their victory. To mark their 750th year of peace, Queen Nana decided to throw a huge party at the kingdom. There was a lot of singing, dancing, eating and drinking when a few demon seals broke. The first person to witness this was the young Prince's best friend, Toshinori Yagi, who was only around seven at that time. He was playing around near the forbidden area when he heard some glass shatter. Suddenly, unusual shadows were seen lurking around the room. Voices were playing in his head telling him that they were finally free.
Panicking, Toshinori ran to the main room. "There are monsters in the castle basement!" he yelled. However, nobody believed him and carried on with their celebrating.
"Oh Toshinori, you must be playing one of your 'pretend games'. Monsters are now extinct and it has been like that for 750 years. In fact, their defeat was the only reason why we're celebrating!" the queen laughed. Many others laughed with her. That is until the shadow arrived at the room and revealed itself. Soon enough, there was a huge army of them. That was when everyone in the palace realised that the boy was, in fact, right. The demons have broken out of their seal after hundreds of years of neglect. Filled with rash, one of them charged towards Queen Nana and her son and ripped their heads off, only to be brutally murdered by an army of swordsmen. The other demons weren't as powerful since they got wiped out pretty easily. However, a large portion of them bolted out of the castle, soon followed by hundreds more.
Filled with rage over the traumatic event, Toshinori strived to become the best Hero there could ever be. Soon enough, the legendary organisation formed, once again, to eliminate all problematic beasts. Demons have been mutating and evolving rapidly as ever, to the point where there were many species of such creatures. However, recently, it was proved that not all demons were sadists- there were some good demons too. But those didn't matter. They weren't a problem. Toshinori, later on, took the alias of “All Might” and became the best knight there ever was. Peace was sure on society's side whenever he was around.
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That was over forty years ago. The demonic society remains but hasn't been talked about very much nowadays, ever since All Might's presence. He was a huge threat to the demons and had always been targeted for elimination. Despite that, he had many fans who admired him and everything he does; the biggest fan of all being no other than Izuku Midoriya.
Izuku Midoriya was a knight in training, striving to be just like All Might. He lives in a mushroom-like house with his mother, who slightly doubted his intentions. She couldn’t tolerate the fact of him fighting such creatures as a hobby. Seeing him train worried her enough.
Izuku: Mother, I’ll be out for a bit! I promise I’ll be back by dusk!
Izuku’s Mother: Okay, be safe!
The night before, Izuku had a dream about All Might. He was telling him that even he could be a hero. As soon as he woke up, he knew it was his fate to become the best hero there could ever be. His passion has become so strong that even his mother gave up trying to stop him from achieving his goals.
While roaming in the forests, the green-haired boy thought about the recent news. It was apparent that All Might has gone missing in action after a battle against a higher rank demon. Even though the chances were low, he was certain that the number one knight was alive somewhere. Izuku even planned to head to the town he was last seen before the battle. He had no idea where he was going, yet he was certain that this was the right route.
After around twenty minutes, he finally arrived at an unfamiliar village. There were many markets and merchants trying to trade their items. Looking at the food, Izuku knew he was quite hungry. The boy decided to buy some bread, even though there were much better options. The person who sold bread in that market looked like he was in his early twenties. He had scruffy, ginger hair, with brown eyes.
Seller: That would be four pence, young boy
Izuku checked his pouch and he, indeed, was able to afford it.
Seller: You seem unfamiliar. Are you new to this village?
Izuku: Actually, I came here to find out some information about All Might’s disappearance.
Seller: Is that so? It was such a shame he’s gone missing.
Izuku: Do you know anything about it?
Seller: Well… he was a good friend of mine when we were a little younger. Even so, he never really told me about his intentions. He did, although, tell me once that he was running out of time. I don’t really know what that meant but I do have some ideas…
Izuku: I really hope he isn’t gone for good. I haven’t even had the chance to tell him how much I desire to be like him.
The man just chuckled, while Izuku looked as if he was close to hyperventilating.
Seller: Let’s just hope for the best, shall we?
Izuku: Y-yeah…
And with that, he ran off, but not without quickly waving at the kind man. One thing he regretted was not thanking the man for the information. But what did All Might really mean by running out of time...?