Chapter Text
We all know the story of the quirkless kid who impressed a hero, how that hero in turn gave him a quirk to make his dream a reality. It all started when he was told he would never get a quirk, when he cried and asked his mother if he could still be a hero. And her response was simply to cry and tell him she's sorry.
...But what if she didn't? What if she resolved to support her son? What if her response was instead, “Honey, I'm so sorry...that I ever made you think you couldn't.”
With those words, Inko Midoriya walked over and held her son, rubbing his head and calming his sobbing. She decided that day that she was going to give Izuku the best shot at living his dream that she could. Even if he never made it, he would have done his best, and would have no regrets if he decided to do something else.
And over the next few months, things changed drastically for young Izuku. Within a month, his mother had sold the house and moved them to the other side of town, giving the Bakugos a piece of her mind as she left. The young Katsuki looked horrified, seeming to come to grips with the reality of his horrible treatment of his “friend.” He didn't want to admit it, but the youngest Midoriya felt a little bit of sick pleasure at watching his bully get what was coming to him.
Izuku had difficulty at first making new friends in his new school due to the outing of his status of being quirkless. This was solved the next day by Inko personally threatening the principal with legal action if something wasn't done. Three days later, lo and behold, Izuku's record no longer showed him as quirkless, but his quirk was listed as [redacted]. And with rumors of his true, quirkless nature quickly squashed by faculty, students were only left to question what his quirk was, which netted him some companions purely through intrigue.
Recognizing her son's natural affinity for analysis and learning, Inko decided it would be a good idea to enroll him in some extracurricular classes, as well as assign him some private studying at home. To help with the ultimate goal, she also decided to enroll him in some self defense classes after school. Between all these things, the young boy's schedule was pretty packed. But he took to the challenge like a fish to water. Not only was he acing his classes, he was studying topics in his off time that his regular schooling wouldn't touch for at least two more years. He also took a good amount of his private study time to learn many of the most prominent heroes, along with their quirks, how they use them, and where their weaknesses were. Two months after moving, the only thing he wasn't excelling at was his self-defense classes.
It's not that he didn't want to follow through with his mom's suggestion. It's just that the more he researched, the more he realized that head on fights with powerful quirk users was a suicide attempt. His heart just wasn't in the training anymore. Sure, there were a few moves that he could pull out in a pinch to surprise an opponent, but how does one judo throw a guy with spikes all over his body? Was he really expecting to be able to punch a lava-skinned guy in the jaw to knock him out? It just wasn't realistic, if he wanted to put it mildly. He eventually built up the courage to tell his mother as much, and her only response was to apologize.
“I'm sorry, you're right. I'll see if I can find other classes, but for now we'll just free up that slot in your schedule. You just worry about your hero training, I'll let the instructors know you won't be coming in anymore.”
While he was sad to see his mom so disheartened, he knew that this was the best way forward. He'd learned more than he would ever really be able to use from that class. He just needed to remember the useful techniques and keep that muscle memory in case it ever came up. But for a replacement, Izuku looked to the internet.
Sure, he could train himself to be stronger, but what he needed was to be faster. No matter how hard he trained, he knew that realistically he could always be taken out in one or two hits. So he needed a way to avoid that. He'd already spent some time learning proper dodges from his HEMA reading, but he needed ways to be exceptionally mobile and hard to hit. An hour later, Izuku was halfway through his third video tutorial of how to do parkour.
Years passed, and Izuku started a journal compiling all of his notes and thoughts of various heroes, eventually including a few villains to the mix in case he ever came up against them. His grades never faltered, with his fellow students, and eventually most of his teachers, convinced he had a mental quirk to heighten his intelligence and learning. His body developed very lean from years of acrobatic maneuvers, but one would be a fool to assume he didn't have some strength. Due to his interactions among his friends, he did grow a little more harsh and sarcastic as time went on, but he always strove to make sure it was all light-hearted, or at the very least constructive. He never shunned away from mentioning his dream to be a pro hero, and through his founded support system, he got plenty of assurance that he would do it.
By the time he was fourteen, the young man was a far cry from the boy who'd been bullied by an explosive quirk. He had a close circle of friends, a few of which knew and kept his secret. He'd not only stood up to quirked bullies over the years, he'd actually won most encounters and sent them running. He was a little shorter than he would like, but that wasn't a big deal. It just meant he was faster on his feet. And all the years of parkour combined with actual fight experience had honed his body into a lean mass of pure acceleration. And his mind was honed to abuse every advantage he could think of. And he would think of one before long. His green hair was cut short to manage its unruly curls, as well as prevent its use as a handle to manipulate him. He wore his school uniform partially unbuttoned to allow more comfort and flexibility, while still conforming to requirements. And he always wore his favorite red shoes.
It was near the end of his last year of middle school that Izuku reached a turning point in his life. He was walking home one day, musing over his notes on All Might when he heard some slurping behind him. A quick check with his peripherals revealed a large, mostly amorphous blob with eyes, a mouth, and some money stuck in it. He stopped, closing the notebook.
“I think you'll do,” it said coldly, lunging at the young man. Unfortunately for the blob, Izuku was faster. He leapt to the side, sliding to a stop to avoid the villain and force them to swap directions if they wanted to keep up.
“Think I'll do for what?” Izuku replied, feigning innocence.
“How did you,” the villain began. “Whatever. Don't worry. I'm just going to take over your body. This'll only hurt for about a minute.”
“Oh, if that's all,” Izuku responded sarcastically. “Let me guess, that's how long to suffocate me and reorganize my organs? Sorry, I kinda like the way I have this whole thing set up.”
He motioned to his body for emphasis. “So that's gotta be a hard pass from me.”
“Well, what are you going to do to stop me?!” the blob villain yelled, lunging forward again.
But before either side could make a proper move, a nearby manhole launched from its spot in the road high into the air. Shortly after, a large, blonde man stepped out, his left fist still raised, and a wide smile across his face.
“It's all right now, young man,” the large man said confidently. “For I am here!”
Even in a simple white t-shirt and cargo pants, it was hard not to recognize the number one hero in Japan: All Might. Izuku smiled, turning back toward the slime villain. But before he could make any snide remarks, the ooze lashed out with an extended arm toward the hero, who easily dodged it. With another, he attempted to grab Izuku again, but he'd done way too much training to let some small-time slime get the better of him. He leapt over the tendril, legs spread wide for more clearance, then brought his legs down early to land on the outstretched limb and spring off of it toward his long time hero.
“Texas SMASH!” the pro yelled, punching toward the slime villain. The force of his fist through the air caused enough pressure to launch a wind vortex at the slime, blowing it to pieces.
A little while later, with two liters of soda drank, and the bottles refilled with slime, All Might turned to the young man.
“You know, you really handled yourself well back there,” he said with a thumbs-up. “You were a big help. Sorry for getting you involved in my villain fighting. I don't usually make mistakes like this, but I was distracted by my vacation.”
So this was the number one hero, huh? He looked a lot different in person. Good to know he was just as great in person as on screen, though.
“Well, I'm glad for it,” Izuku joked. “Means I get to meet my favorite hero. Oh, and while I'm on the topic....”
Izuku opened up his notebook to All Might's page as he petered off, holding up it and a marker for the man.
“Would you mind if I asked for an autograph?”
“Okay!” The large man replied in English. With a flourish, he slid the bottles into his pants' side pockets, and snatched up both the pen and paper before him. With a quick scribble, he handed it back, now complete with his name in English, as well as a small symbol to represent his face.
“Thank you very much,” Izuku responded with a bow. As he righted himself, he slid the notebook back into his pack, buttoning together the front pocket reserved for it.
“Well, I need to take this guy to the police,” All Might replied with a wave. “See you again on the other side of the screen!”
“Wait, already?”
“Pros are constantly fighting enemies and time,” the pro said casually as he stretched, prepping for takeoff.
Unfortunately for him, Izuku still had things he wanted to discuss, and couldn't let such a golden opportunity just leap away.
“Well then,” the hero began slowly, then leapt into the air. “I'm counting on your-”
“Sorry, but I'm not done yet,” Izuku interrupted from his spot on All Might's back. “I have something important I need to ask.”
“Hey! Getting a little too friendly there! Let go!”
“If I do, I'll fall to my death.”
“You're right,” the large man replied after a short pause. “Just hold on, we'll land soon.”
As he looked around for a safe place, All Might gave a slight cough. And Izuku saw a small drop of blood leave the side of his smile, only to be pulled away by the wind. Something was clearly wrong.
With a loud thud, the two landed on a rooftop, and Izuku hopped down from his perch.
“If you go down, I'm sure-”
“I'll worry about getting down from here after I ask you my question.”
“Sorry, but I'm seriously out of time. I have to-”
“Sir, please. I have to ask you this,” Izuku interrupted again, his expression hardened. Even after years of prep work, doing his damnedest for a day like this, he still had to fight his nerves.
“Do you think that even though I don't have a quirk, I can become a pro hero?”
Clearly, that caught the man's attention. He stopped looking around, his focus returned to the boy in front of him.
“Can someone without a quirk be like you?” Izuku repeated, his resolve hardened.
“Quirkless...?”
As the pro started to consider the question, he gave a sharp inhale, and stood bolt upright for a second before hunching over in obvious pain, using the railing nearby to steady himself. With a groan, smoke started pouring out of the man, covering his entire body. And Izuku knew that wasn't a feature of his quirk.
“All Might? Are you okay? What's going on?”
He didn't have to wait long for an answer as the smoke cleared to reveal a skeleton of a man where his hero had stood mere seconds earlier. It actually took Izuku a moment to recognize the signature golden tufts coming from his scalp.
“What the hell?” he asked before he could catch himself. “All Might? Is that still you?”
With an annoyed groan, the deflated man replied. “Yeah, it's still me.”
This was accompanied with a violent cough, blood pouring out of the man's mouth. He continued as he rubbed his mouth, cleaning off the expulsion.
“You know those guys at the pool, constantly flexing and posing? It's kind of like that.”
“But that doesn't make any sense. How can you be like this?”
With another groan, the skeletal man sat down.
“Look, kid. Now that you've seen me like this, you can't go revealing my secret, okay? I'll tell you, but you've gotta keep it under your hat.”
With that, he lifted the side of his shirt, revealing a grievous wound to his left side. It looked like he'd been stabbed by a lance the size of a man, with all the force of a fully-loaded eighteen-wheeler at freeway speed.
“I got this injury five years ago fighting a villain. I lost a lung, and most of my stomache. I've become emaciated from the multitude of surgeries and recoveries, and now I can only do hero work for about three hours per day.”
“Five years ago? Well, I know it couldn't have been Toxic Chainsaw, that guy's quirk doesn't stab people like that. And that's the only big fight I can remember from back then.”
“You know your stuff,” the pro mused. “But no, that punk couldn't have had a chance against me. It was a fight that never made the public eye, by my own personal request. I will save people with a smile. I'm the Symbol of Peace. I can't be daunted by evil. So I smile to keep my fellow heroes' hopes up, and scare off the fear I feel.”
Izuku cocked an eyebrow at the mention of All Might's fear. He certainly hadn't expected those words to be in the same sentence.
“Look, kid. Us pros are constantly risking life and limb for this job. So no, I can't say I think you could become a hero without power.”
Izuku nodded, looking down. Of course, he had expected this. Deep down, he'd always known that was what people thought. He sighed deeply.
“I see,” he said softly.
“If you want to help people-” All Might began as he started to stand up again.
“I guess I'll just have to prove you wrong, too.” Izuku finished, looking up again with a wolfish grin.
“Look, it's not bad to dream, but you-”
“Have to be realistic?” Izuku finished for him, his smile shifting to an angry glare. “Yeah, I think we're done here. Go ahead and turn in that slime prick. I'm gonna go continue my prep for school.”
It was as Izuku mentioned the slime from earlier that he realized both of All Might's side pockets were empty. That meant the villain was out there somewhere right now.
KABOOM!
And that narrowed down the possibilities of where it had gone.
“Fuck.”