"Tch, get out of the middle of the road idiot," I snarl at the quivering mass of ooze. I hear whispers and shouts from heroes down the alley as they cry out for me to get away from this strange man. I ignore them and brush past the man made of slime as I head over to my locked front door.
"Oh, arrogant are you," the voice warbles behind me. "I'll make you into modern art with this powerful stolen quirk."
"Your funeral," I dryly state as I fish around my pocket for my key. Finally pulling it free from its confines, I insert the metal into the lock, the crackling sound of a familiar quirk coming towards me. Lazily I raise my hand over my shoulder and unleash my quirk. The crowd screamed in terror.
What if? Life has always been a long chain of one what if after another. What if I just didn't go to work today, what if I finally asked her out, what if I skipped lunch. Well for many people what ifs are not major, life changing events. Izuku Midoriya had his what if moment when he turned four and he gained his quirk. He was so excited to show the little ball of fire that he had made to his parents.
So happy that it grew with his excitement, compounding into an even larger flame, he kept bouncing around the apartment to show off how strong he could be. Then the curtains caught fire, his mother screamed. He panicked. He lost control.
The accompanying blaze that he released as his emotions fluctuated in moments let loose an inferno that burned for over a mile, hundreds died, his mother and father included. Despite the ruling of one of the most high-profile cases of the last century, he never felt not guilty, never thought it was an accident.
"In breaking development, four-and-a-half-year-old, Izuku Midoriya was found not guilty of all charges of manslaughter in this early morning session," a newscaster reported.
"On the charges of manslaughter, due to the fact that this was the first manifestation of the quirk and the unexpected power attributed to both the deceased Inko and Hisashi Midoriya having low recorded abilities with their own quirks, we find the defendant Izuku Midoriya, not guilty," the lead juror declared. Which was followed by a cacophony of noise from an angered gallery; many of whom lost family, friends, homes and livelihoods from Izuku's outburst.
The child himself just curled up in the far too large chair and cried.
After the trial, without a home to go to or even a family to take care of him, Izuku was put into the foster system. But either no one wanted to take such a potential hazard into their home or it was investigated they had the intention of abusing the child for what he had done. By luck Mitsuki Bakugo, the friend of the late Inko and Hisashi Midoriya had managed to gain custody of the young child.
For the next few years Izuku refused to use his quirk, at all, even when other kids would pile on and beat him up to see how strong he was, or to get revenge for all the people he killed, he never tried anything to stop them.
Katsuki, had been there to stop them most of the time, simply because it's pointless to see how strong someone who won't fight back is. It wasn't until Izuku was eight years old when he used his quirk again.
"Coming Aunt Mitsuki," Izuku said as he trotted along with his guardian, Katsuki had stayed home with Masaru because he was running a fever, something Izuku never had to worry about. A side-effect of his powerful fire quirk meant his body always ran at a heated fifty Celsius, which is enough to kill most bacteria and any that does stay can't reproduce in his body, meaning he never got ill.
"We only have a few more items to get for the stew tonight," the blonde mother said over her shoulder, as Izuku carried a heavy bag, which was only five pounds, she had the other six bags, but he was her little helper and insisted on carrying some of the load. A noise caused her to freeze in her tracks, large amounts of screaming and panicking as a rush of people came from the market place. Sounds of gunfire, explosions and the smell of blood wafted down the normally packed street. Dozens of villains were in battle with numerous teams of heroes while the police were providing crowd control and suppressing fire.
Mitsuki tried to shy Izuku away from the situation and down an alleyway so they could head back from the battlefield. The body of a hero was flung into the building next to them and a villain's attack went wide and struck the mother in the head, knocking her to the ground. Izuku's eyes widened in dread as he saw a faint trickle of red run down the side of her face. He began to think, his mind trying to process the scene in front of him. "This is just like last time, everyone I cared about is going to die, because of me," Izuku's thoughts came to him. "No, people will die, because of them." He turned his gaze into the warzone off to his side, his fingers flickering brilliant flames.
"ENOUGH," Izuku screamed and let a massive pillar of flame that reached to the heavens from his body. The heroes, villains, police and civilians all froze, unsure of the newest entrant in the fray. "No more," the tiny child stomped out of the alley. "No more heroes," he shouted and with precise control belying his emotions, blasted them all into a wall. The villains smirked assuming they had just gained a powerful ally, until Izuku glared at them. "No more villains," the rapidly approaching blaze cowed them into submission as the torrent of fire did not dissipate but remained hovering over them.
"No more death," Izuku screamed. "Musutafu is MINE, so every hero and villain get out of here," the small boy ordered.
The cracking sound of a gunshot rang through the quiet ally, a nervous officer had fired a shot at the child who wielded such terrifying power, the bullet melted into a puddle before it got within five feet of the boy.
The national news had a field day, "Local child declares the city of Musutafu a no-go-zone."
Heroes were interviewed daily, "What are your plans to arrest this child for such blatant use of his quirk without a license?"
"Are there any heroes capable of reigning in this little tyrant?" After a report came out that rising Pro-hero Endeavor attempted to bring in the small boy, only to find out that Izuku didn't just control his flames, he controlled all fires and even the powerful Hellflame fell under the small child's quirk supremacy.
Then about a month later a new report came out, Musutafu safest city in the country. "Reports have come in that one of the most crime ridden cities in Japan has become one of the safest with a drastic drop in villain activity in a single month since, what is being dubbed, the Midoriya Incident."
Reporters interviewed citizens extensively to gauge responses to that claim.
"Well sometimes a villain shows up to challenge the kid, but no one's been able to even get close to him without getting burned up," a business man said into a microphone. "It's really turned the city into a more profitable location."
Construction workers were questioned, "Wells yeahs, we was used to stop all work nearly every days just to go patch up buildings and stuffs afters a villain fight, but now we just keep on schedule with building."
The Mayor of Musutafu had this response, "On a purely economic basis, the drop in high profile villain activity in the city has freed up a lot of resources that were previously diverted to repairs and incarcerations, we do not condone the declaration of one Izuku Midoriya, but there has been a noted benefit to the surrounding community after his statements."
Over the next few years there would be a few challenges to his reign in the city, as upstart villains and gangs would try to test themselves against the young boy, on the basis that if they could take him down the city was theirs to do with as they pleased.
There was a particularly devastating battle that took place near the Bakugo's home when a stone villain had attempted to power through the heat and get at the boy, thinking he was safe from the heat. But stone melts all the same, even if Izuku had to crank the heat to well over a thousand degrees Celsius.
Afterwards Izuku decided that staying with the Bakugo's was too dangerous, if people would attack him, then the people around him were also in danger. So, he moved out and found an apartment of his own, which considering he was still a minor was a miracle they even gave him one, he suspected the government was involved in allowing this.
Things had gotten quiet in Musutafu, villains rarely ever attempted to challenge him anymore as he had an undefeated record and even rookie hero groups gave up trying to bring him in, with the knowledge that the current Number 2. Endeavor had already failed once.
There were whispers about whether All Might would step in, but he never attempted too; stating that, "It's more important for me to be stopping an active crime now than go after a child where there is no crime." And some people accepted that seeing as the boy was only breaking the law about using his quirk without a license and not stealing or murdering anyone, so it would rank low on the Number One's list of priorities.
Present Day: A few hours ago.
Izuku was having an annoying day, he had gotten his results back from his high school mock exam that he took, he didn't particularly care which one he got into, but it turns out his principal had switched his test with the U.A. mock exam and he scored well above passing. The administrator's excuse was that if Izuku attended the school he could stop villains legally, as the boy clearly had an aptitude for it.
Which he had considered, even over the years he never stopped wanting to be a hero but wanting something and it being possible are two different things.
Bakugo challenged him to another fight afterschool, which he handily won, seeing as the explosive teen's resistance to heat was not able to match Izuku's. He was told that Aunt Mitsuki was making katsudon and he'd never be his friend again if he didn't come over and spend time with his 'family'.
That had all changed when he neared his apartment after grabbing a few gifts for the only people that stayed in his life for all these years.
Moments after unleashing his quirk.
The intense heat rolled off Izuku's hand and scorched the wall behind him as large portions of the gelatinous body were burned away, a solid thud on the ground next to the apathetic teen drew his gaze, "Oh hi Kacchan, having fun?"
"Don't you," the teen wheezed. "Hi Kacchan me," The ash blonde teen stood up on shaky legs as he took large gulps of air. "Your shit's burning," he said while pointing to the devastated alleyway.
"Right," Izuku raised his arm and in a sweeping motion drew in the fire and condensed it into a ball before snuffing it out.
The crowd of Musutafarians cheered as their resident peacekeeper had stopped another villain. But they all got quiet as a shadow loomed over the two teens.
Katsuki turned to look up at what was casting it before he reached over and shook Izuku's shoulder, "Uh Deku, you might want to pay attention to this."
Izuku groaned, he had groceries to put away, "Kacchan if it's another villain, I can handle, ALL MIGHT," the inner herotaku in the boy came bursting out at seeing his favorite hero.
"IN THE FLESH YOUNG MIDORIYA," All Might shouted. The crowd of heroes and civilians watching what could be the greatest confrontation of their age. The titanic hero stared down at the two powerful boys. Then demurely spoke, "May we speak inside?"
Izuku slowly nodded and pushed open the door for the giant man who had to squeeze himself through the smaller doorway. "Today is going to be a strange day," he muttered as he followed the Number One into his home.