He'd known Kacchan was going to react badly to the announcement that he was going to apply to U.A. But... he didn't expect him to act so harshly about it, telling him to commit suicide. Midoriya Izuku bit his lip and clenched his notebook in his hands. It smelt of ash from Kacchan's Quirk and was sopping wet from when his friend had thrown it into their school's koi pond a mere hour before. If Izuku put too much more pressure on the already wrecked paper, it would tear. What would Kacchan have done if he actually went through with suicide? He knew one thing for sure, it wouldn't be a very heroic situation.

Izuku bit his lip and rapidly blinked back tears, trying to keep his focus on putting one foot in front of the other. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to see his mother and cry into her shoulder about the loss of his notebook. Izuku'd worked so hard on it. The 'Hero Analysis Journal,' as he'd titled it, was one of many and was his most recent. It had almost been complete before Kacchan got a hold of it.

Izuku sighed, nearing the underpass of a bridge near his house. Why did he have to be born Quirkless? In a world where he wanted nothing more than to be like his hero, All Might, and be a hero that always smiles... he would need a Quirk. He would never admit this to himself, but deep down, he felt like he'd always known this. Sure, Izuku was smart. He was basically the top of his class, right behind Kacchan.

To himself though, as he'd been told since he was a child and showed no signs of manifesting a Quirk, he was nothing but a useless wimp. A Deku. Right...

The boy always held one hope in his heart, though, no matter how hard things seemed to get. No matter how may burn marks he had to hide and bandage himself, to keep from upsetting his mother. No matter how many times he's laughed at for his dreams. One day he would be a hero. One of the best. If he ever had a chance to ask All Might, he was sure his hope would be confirmed.

Can a Quirkless person become a hero?

Izuku was sure, no, positive that the answer would be 'yes.'

He could almost imagine the large smile and deep voice of All Might confirming his thoughts. 'You can be a hero! Why? Because I am here!'

Izuku chucked mirthlessly to himself. That would probably never happen in his lifetime, no matter how much he wished it. But some support would be nice.

A large shadow suddenly passed over his face, catching his attention. He looked up to see he had reached the underpass while lost in his thoughts.

A break would be nice, Izuku thought to himself and stepped over to a shoulder on the ground. He set his bag down, but before he sat, he stared at the notebook in his hands. His fingers clenched over it more and he worried at his lip as the journal cover tore. A water drop landed just above the tear, soaking into it before being joined by several more. Izuku didn't even have to touch his cheeks to know he was crying. Of course.

He felt hopelessness well in his chest and he choked back a sob. Why was he crying now? He dealt with this all the time, so why was it affecting him more now?

Hopelessness gave way into irritation, then into frustration, then into anger. At himself.

With a yell he turned around and chucked the journal as far as he could down the path, feeling no satisfaction as it flipped through the air and landed upside down and open on the ground not even five feet away. Izuku sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, trying to hold back another sob that popped up. Just perfect. He couldn't even throw his own notebook a decent length away, even with all of his strength. He was nothing like All Might.

All Might. The one person Izukua wanted to be more like in the whole world. Was he unobtainable? Unbidden, his thoughts turned to the day he found out he was Quirkless. An extra joint in his pinky toe, he'd been told. There was no way for him to ever develop a Quirk. That night, he'd rewatched All Might's debut video over and over again, begging for a Quirk, pleading with his mother that he could still be a hero.

'I'm sorry,' Midoriya Inko said as she hugged her son and cried. Not 'You can do it. I believe in you.'

'No, that's not it. That's not it, Mom.' He remembered himself thinking at the time. It was traumatic enough that this moment always stuck with him. What he wanted her to say back then was...

It was never said. Because of what he was. Who he was.

Hopeless.

Quirkless.

Deku.

Hands clenching at his side, Izuku swallowed. He wasn't useless. He didn't want to be. So he wouldn't be.

That's right. Don't worry about what other people think! Hold your head up and plunge forward! He thought to himself. Izuku just had to find a way to go forward. He could do it, he knew he could. With a sigh and a scuff of his foot, he walked towards his book bag and slung it over his shoulder, turning to head home once again.

Schlick! Bang!

A loud noise suddenly came from behind him and Izuku turned on the spot, eyes wide and scared. He'd turned in time to see the sewer lid go flying through the air to crash into the far wall of the underpass. Izuku barely had a thought to comprehend the absurdity of it flying off with seemingly no reason before a huge, dank mass pulled itself from the sewers. It was barely a second before the form slithered in a strange circle for a moment, then crazed, yellow, pinpoint eyes locked onto him.

Shit. A villain!?

Izuku took a step backwards, ready to drop his bag to run, but he was too slow.

The villain was on Izuku in an instant, covering him in disgusting slime. The smell, in the mere moment he was able to grab a breath, was enough to make his eyes water. Then his mouth and nose were covered by wet mucus and he feet were off the ground. It clicked in his head then, Izuku needed to do something or he was going to die.

Screaming through the sludge, he started to struggle, trying to pull the muck away from his mouth so he could drag in a breath and get away. It was forcing its way through his nose, he could feel it trying to drip down his throat. Panic sprang inside of him and he tried screaming louder, feet kicking and he struggled to do something, anything.

"A medium size invisibility cloak," the villain croaked and could Izuku only vaguely comprehend it as he continued his struggles. His eyes burned from the stink and tears started to well. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. "Don't worry. I'm just going to take over your body. Calm down. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds."

45 seconds!?

Alarm shot through Izuku at this. It couldn't have been more than twenty seconds now.

He could feel the slime forcing its way down his throat, through his nose, his ears. The taste was awful, something that couldn't even be described nor did he want to focus on it enough to know what it was. All he knew, was that if he didn't get air soon, he was going to die.

Izuku felt the slime tighten its hold around his neck, focusing more on suffocating him than keeping him still.

His lungs hurt, they screamed for air. He kicked feebly, starting to loose strength, his heart starting to slow, the villain shushing him all the way.

No, this couldn't happen to him. Izuku was supposed to become a hero. He was supposed to save the day with a smile. His mother was waiting for him at home. He had a notebook to rewrite and heroes to analyze. He couldn't...

Lungs past the point of screaming for air, Izuku's vision started to tunnel as his limbs started to become heavy and limp.

The last tangible thing Izuku could see was his notebook, as messed up and torn as his soul, sitting thrown away on the ground. He couldn't breathe but he had to do something... anything. Please.

His finger flicked and as he watched... the notebook skidded away from Izuku and the villain, seemingly sent away by an invisible force.

...Ah... Was his last thought as the darkness started to close off.

...That's not fair...


Yagi Toshinori, under the hero moniker of All Might, had not been having a good day, as per usual. His old injuries kept him from doing a lot of things he wanted and needed to do, being able to stay in his 'hero form' for as long as he wanted being the main one. There was a villain he was supposed to be chasing, but his powers gave out on him half way through the chase and he had to stop for a moment to get back some of his stamina. He was walking on thin ice already, but he was the only hero in the area available to chase the villain.

Hedoro Viran: a serial killer, known for suffocating his victims and stealing their bodies. It took even All Might a while to find and catch up to the villain, and now that he had him, he couldn't let something as simple (complicated) as old injuries keep him from catching Hedoro.

Breath caught, All Might returned to his hero form and launched forward through the sewers, following the trail of sludge that the villain constantly left behind. If it weren't for the trails, Yagi would have never even gotten this far. He continued on until he spied a light streaming from up ahead. An open manhole with a ring of sludge dripping down. The villain had to have exited the sewers through there.

With a grunt, All Might launched himself through the hole, coming out into an underpass. He quickly looked around, not spotting his prey at first glance. Hedoro must have gone much farther ahead than he thought he had time for.

His searching eyes stopped on a figure in the shadows, small and young. A boy. All Might relaxed his posture, calling out the the child who must have been scared, especially if he was there when the villain came out and rushed off. "You there! Did you see a sludge villain pass by?"

The child yelped, stumbling over himself. "A-All Might!" Definitely a kid, probably in the midst of puberty if the squeak was anything to go by. "N-no sir!"

All Might smiled as he looked at the kid. He was nervous and innocent looking, all wide eyes, green fluffy hair, pale skin, and chubby cheeks. A book bag lay on the ground a bit away and there was a notebook in the kid's hands.

"Sorry to startle you!" All Might widened his smile. Out of habit, more than anything, he took the notebook, signed his signature, then handed the notebook back, ruffling the kid's hair. "If you have any information, call the police or a near by hero! Bye for now!"

With a rush he was off again, searching for any signs of Hedoro Viran.

But, if he had stayed a moment longer, or turned around to call back as he ran... he would have seen the dark smirk that crossed the child's face as a thin stream of sludge ran down his chin...


Gimme more aaangst! I'll probably edit this eventually and rewrite it better, but for now I had to get the angst out of my head. As for Hedoro Viran, I know it means Sludge Villain in Japanese, but that's literally what his name is listed as as well. So why not actually make it such? Let me know if you guys want me to continue this or leave it as a one-shot!