Quirks.

They showed up in this world such a long time ago. I believe they first arose in the forties? Or at least that's what Dad told me. The first human with a Quirk in recorded history was the "Luminescent Baby," (Which was born somewhere in China, if I remember correctly) and from that point forward Quirks became a more widespread thing. Children all over the world suddenly started developing superpowers by the age of five. It was an odd time. It spawned a lot of things: riots, discrimination, hatred...before those with Quirks outnumbered the Quirkless, the abuse was immense.

Enough of that. That has nothing to do with the story I'm about to tell. The story I'm going to tell is about how I become the fourth top ranking hero. You all already know who number one is, and probably two and three as well. My story doesn't start with me finding out I'm quirkless...in fact, it's more along the lines of discovering how useless mine is, and how it seemed to only hold me back and cause pain.

...

"BUT MOOOOM! YOU CAN'T USE MISTER TOASTER ANYMORE! HE'S GETTING TIRED! AND IF YOU USE HIM TOO MUCH HE'S GONNA DIIIEEE!" You see that little girl? With the turquoise hair? Violet eyes and weird rings surrounding the pupils? Who seems to be in the middle of defending a toaster with her life? That's me, and my name is—

"EUREKA NOVAK! YOU GET DOWN FROM THE COUNTER RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND LET MOMMA USE THE GODDA—...GODDANG TOASTER!"

Well, there you go. Eureka Novak — that's my first and last name, and my Quirk is, or I thought was "Mechapathy," which is the ability to talk to machines, something I took very seriously as I thought of each and every machine as a person, as a living thing. The person yelling at me is my mother, Talho Novak, although you might know her better as "Airspace-bending Heroine: Great Izumo." Her Quirk is the ability to control air, and it allowed to her to do fancy things like flying. I swear, every time I did this, you could tell how angry she got because her short bob cut always stood up on end, and those weird little flower designs on her cheeks seemed to glow a bit.

"NONONONONO, I CAN'T! I CAN'T, I CAN'T, I CAN'T!"

"Jeez, what are you?! Some kinda toaster rights activist? Just let me toast my freakin' toast!"

"YES! YES I AM! AND I CAN'T! HE SAID HE WAS TIRED! SUPER TIRED!" From that point you could hear my father, Holland Novak, laughing his butt off, although once again you may know him better by his hero name: "Stylish Airtime Hero: Gekko." His Quirk was known as "Lifting," which allowed him to fly on the things he stood on, although it has its limits of course. He always had that permanent five o'clock shadow, and he constantly wore that slick-looking black-and-yellow leather jacket everywhere, even at home. Mom never stopped giving him flak about it, and she still hasn't.

"EUREKA! I DON'T CARE WHAT THE TOASTER FEELS! HOOOOLLAAAAND! SHE'S YOUR PROBLEM TOO! HELP ME OUT HEEEREEE!"

"PFFFT! HAHAHA! Oh, come ON, Talho! Lighten up a bit; just use the microwave or something!" Dad always used to wave off my actions with a hearty chuckle and would end it off with telling mom to chill out...until I did the same thing with him, then he suddenly got mad.

"MICROWAVED TOAST TASTES LIKE SHI— CR— ...UUUGGHHH!" Talho always used to stomp around whenever she didn't get what she wanted, and especially when I pulled things like that. However, she did impart some bits of wisdom on me, more than once in fact. For example...

"Really? You're still getting all broken up about this kind of thing, Eureka? You should know better by now, bringing all those things everywhere you go is just asking to get them stolen. With a Quirk like yours I'd expect you to grow up a little quicker." She said this after an especially rough day for me, after my best friend (which was a Gamelad SP at the time) got stolen at school. Was it cruel? Yes. Was she wrong? Not at all; in fact, I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to call her names, I wanted to cry and smack her, and rant about how just because she couldn't hear doesn't mean it's not there...but I couldn't. Because I knew that my mother was right. I needed to grow up, I needed to stop letting these things affect me, I needed to stop getting attached to every little thing that I could talk or listen to. And so, I did.

Well, at that moment I broke out into tears, sobbing madly. My nose was runny, my eyes were red, and my face was crimson. My mom didn't understand; I don't think it was POSSIBLE for her to understand. I ran up to my room and locked myself in there for hours. Talho realized what she did and tried to apologize, but by that point the thought was too far ingrained in my mind. From that point on, I became an entirely different person. I was a happy kid, clearly I was someone who was ready to get grounded for the sake of a toaster, but past that point something in my mind changed; I believed I needed to be more adult. I needed to act like a grown up, because of my Quirk which made me perhaps get a little too attached to machines. I used to talk to them, I used to hear their voices, I used to bring so many with me to school each and every day. My clock used to sing me to sleep, and I used to have conversations with my video game consoles. But from that point forward I blocked it out. I ignored the voices of my friends.

Over time, I became more withdrawn. I became stoic, reserved, uncaring, and distant. This worried both of my parents, it worried my teachers, and it didn't help that my grades began dropping as well. I suppose I was in a slump of sorts, although that did change, just around the time I found out what my actual Quirk was. It was near the end of my final year of middle school. I remember it quite fondly, as it was the first time I met the man who'd become the number one hero.

...

Have you ever gotten that feeling when you first meet someone? That they're destined for something greater? Something beyond you and everyone you know? Yet they don't seem to know it? Yet at the same time they radiate this aura of...kindness? A feeling of gentleness and care seems to flow through your body every time you talk to them? And in the back of your mind you think: Maybe they aren't as far off as you think? And that maybe you could do what they do and it's worth a try? That's what I thought when I met him, that's why I wanted to get into heroics. Seeing someone like him trying so hard even though at the time he had no Quirk...it set something off inside me. It made me realize I want to protect people like him, that I want to protect the dreamers, and maybe even protect the protectors.

Now I know how ridiculous that sounds; that one person could fire off such a chain of reactions and set someone on the path to becoming one of the world's top ranking heroes. I don't know how else to explain it. His drive, his passion, his will to go on, it inspired me to such an incredible degree! This is the man that went on to become the symbol of peace for our generation, yet even before he ever thought about holding that title, he already inspired someone into becoming a hero.

It was a rocky road for me, filled with troubles, self-doubt, villains who were stronger than me and made me eat the dirt I walked on, and the struggles of coming to terms with who I am and what it means to be the Protector of Protectors.

My name is Eureka Novak, my hero name is "Psalm of Heroic Passion: Eureka Effect," and this is how I became who I am today.