Chapter Text
We could see a green-haired boy walking through the city streets, looking deeply sad and depressed. His eyes shone more than usual, carrying a faint reddish tint as he tried to hold back his tears. In his trembling hands, he clutched a burned notebook, staring at the pages where he had written his hero analyses. He walked through the city without paying the slightest attention to his surroundings.
The real question here was: what happened to him? Why had he cried?
Professional heroes face dangers far too powerful—so powerful that someone Quirkless could never face them.
Don’t say that. It’s obvious he can’t. It’s pathetic that he still can’t accept the reality right in front of him, and he’s already in his third year of middle school!
It’s time you seriously start thinking about your future.
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming, but you must be realistic, young man.
I’m sorry, Izuku. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!
“Deku” means “useless.”
You should give up.
By the way, I forgot—there’s actually a quick method that could work if you’re that desperate to become a hero. Take a leap of faith from the rooftop and pray you’ll reincarnate with a Quirk in your next life!
I can’t tell you that you can become a hero while being Quirkless.
“Even the strongest hero in the world said so,” Midoriya muttered to himself, breathing heavily as he swallowed the mucus sliding down his nose. “Don’t cry…”
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.
“You already knew the truth. The cruel truth. You knew it… That’s why you were trying so desperately. You were avoiding it. Avoiding facing reality…”
He tried to suppress his tears again.
Suddenly—
The ground trembled.
A powerful shockwave rippled through the city.
Everyone froze in fear.
Midoriya lifted his head along with the crowd and saw it—
A massive column of smoke rising into the sky on the outskirts of the city.
“A villain…?” Midoriya whispered in shock.
His sadness vanished instantly, as if none of what had happened earlier had ever existed.
“What hero will go there?” Midoriya asked as he began running.
But then—
He stopped.
Those words returned.
Dragging him back into the same emotional pit he had been in before.
Midoriya sighed in frustration and helplessness. He began walking again, rereading his burned notebook, barely paying attention to where he was going.
Without realizing it—
He arrived at the exact place where the explosion had originated.
The smell of burning hit him violently.
Midoriya snapped back to reality and lifted his head—
He was on the outskirts of the city.
Right at the epicenter of the explosion.
It had triggered what looked like a forest fire.
“No way… Did I walk all the way here because of my bad habit without even noticing?” he muttered, staring at the burning trees.
“Right now… I feel so insignificant.”
Trees burned and collapsed around him.
Midoriya sighed and made the obvious decision. He pulled out his phone and started dialing the fire department—like the good citizen he was.
As he dialed, he scanned the area, stretching his neck to look for injured people.
He didn’t think anyone would still be here.
Until—
He saw a man crawling across the ground, severely wounded.
Midoriya pressed his lips together and shrugged slightly, thinking no one was there, and pressed the final digit to call the fire department.
But Midoriya jumped and blinked several times, realizing what he had seen.
And then—
His eyes widened.
He looked again.
Really looked.
There, crawling desperately across the scorched earth—
Was a man around twenty-four years old.
Spiky black hair shaped like a palm tree.
Badly injured.
Trying to escape the flames.
“No—no—no! This can’t be happening!” Midoriya gasped in horror.
“I have to call—!”
He looked at his phone.
No signal.
“No signal?!”
Midoriya quickly shoved his phone and notebook into his backpack and frantically searched for a hero or police officer.
There was no one.
He was too close from the city.
“Damn it! Damn it! Where’s a hero when you need one?!”
No one.
Midoriya turned his head around, looking for someone who could make a difference in that situation, but he also turned his gaze back to that man to check that nothing had happened to him.
The man stopped crawling on the ground due to the little strength he had left, blinked slowly because he was about to lose consciousness. and scanned the area, but all he saw were burning trees.
But he spots a figure and turns to look at it, focusing his gaze on it.
Midoriya turned his head towards that man to look at him.
And then—
Their eyes met.
The man looked at him with sorrowful eyes.
His gaze said it all.
And before he realized it—
He was running.
Straight into the burning forest.
“Why am I running?! What am I doing?! Why?! What can I even do?!”
The man closed his eyes because of his injuries, but he fought to stay awake.
Midoriya ran swiftly towards that man.
A flaming branch fell and struck his right arm, sending him crashing to the ground in agony.
He tore off the burning sleeve of his uniform and kept running.
A burning tree trunk fell in Izuku's path at the last moment, and he tripped over it. Midoriya screamed in pain and fear as the fire reached parts of his pants. He quickly tore off the pieces of fabric, got up, and continued running toward the man.
An even larger tree fell just as Izuku was running alongside it. The treetop crushed Izuku to the ground, making him scream in pain. Weakly, Izuku climbed out of the treetop, extinguished the small flames that were burning him, got up, and continued running, but this time more slowly and limping because of the pain in his injuries.
Adrenaline pushed him forward.
Finally, he reached the man.
Despite the weight—
Midoriya lifted him onto his back and ran.
The injured man woke up and looked down weakly.
“Gohan…?” he whispered.
Then blinked.
“No… you’re not Gohan…”
It was Goku.
“Who are you…? Leave… you’ll burn alive, kid…”
“I can’t just leave you here!” Midoriya shouted while running.
“Why did you come for me…?” the man asked faintly.
Midoriya thought of many answers.
You should give up.
I’m sorry, Izuku.
How can you even think of standing where I stand?
He always saves people with a smile.
Midoriya looked at him with a trembling, terrified smile.
“You looked like you were asking to be saved.”
Tears streamed down his face.
Goku was surprised, but smiled gently.
“Thank you… you’re my…”
And then he went unconscious.