It was a sunny day when my twin brother finally figured out what a jerk the boy he'd been following around his entire school career was. We were only 4-years-old when I saw them in the park. One kid was already on the ground crying with Izuku standing in front of him in tears clutching the bottom of his shirt.
"Why're you being so mean?" Izuku asked his oldest friend. "You're making him cry, Kacchan! If you keep on hurting him, uh... I'll uh... I'll stop you myself!" Bakugo just smirked at him. The pair behind him showed off their Quirks (red wings and elongated fingers).
"Humph. You wanna pretend to be a hero?" Bakugo asked him punching one hand into the other creating an explosion. "You don't stand a chance without a Quirk. Deku." Izuku gasped in fear as the other boys attacked him. I quickly ran up to him and stopped them with my Quirk. I projected a small force field around me, my brother, and the boy behind him. "Mina! Get outta the way!"
"No way!" I glared at the blond in front of me and he continued causing explosions on my little force field. He knew my limit cause I told Izuku and he wanted to impress the kid in front of me. We were only 4 and I'd only had my Quirk for a few weeks. Eventually, the force field gave out and I did my best to block the worst of it from Izuku. Here's the truth of life. No one is created equal on this planet. Some have more power than others. Not that it's ever stopped my brother.
I ran behind Izuku as we headed off to school. We were running late because he was writing something in one of his hero journals. I've tried to downplay my own Quirk in light of him not having one, but he tells me not to. He's pushing himself to become a hero, even applying to UA, without a Quirk. He wants to be a great hero without a Quirk to help others like him. As we ran to school, Izuku gasped in surprise happiness and we found ourselves to the back of a large crowd as a new villain went on a rampage.
"That's one huge supervillain!" Izuku exclaimed.
The first Quirk was discovered in Qingqing City. A baby was born glowing a blinding light, and after that reports of people with superpowers popped up across the globe. No one knew what was causing these Quirks, and they still don't. Before long, the supernatural became the natural and dreams were made real. The world became a superhuman society with roughly 80% of the population possessing some uncanny ability. Our streets turned into those from comic books. As cities swirled with chaos and confusion, a new profession dominated our collective consciousness. This is the age of heroes.
The villain swung his arm around breaking one of the towers close to him. One of the known heroes raced in and caught it just in time to protect everyone.
"Oh, nice! Way to go, Death Arms!"
"The Punching Hero!"
"I wish I had a Quirk that made me super strong." Water appeared in front of the cops creating a barrier between them and the fight that was about to happen.
"Everyone, please stay back!" Another hero ordered. "This area is far too dangerous.
"Whoa, the rescue specialist, Backdraft is here? He'll make sure we're okay!"
"This guy must be pretty desperate to go full monster in the middle of the city."
"Do you know what happened?"
"Just some amateur. Stole someone's bag and then got himself cornered. A Quirk like that, and he's just a petty thief." Izuku and I forced ourselves to the front of the crowd so we could get a better look at what was going on.
"I got held up. Train's out. Another villain. I'm not sure when I'm gonna make it into the office."
"It's Kamui! We're your biggest fans!" Kamui Woods ran in and jumped up to where he could get to the villain. He got up to the tracks and the villain punched where he was standing, but Kamui jumped out of the way in time.
"Get away from me of I'll break you, toothpick!" the villain warned him just as Izuku and I made it to the water barrier.
"This is gonna be good!" Izuku said excitedly. The villain swung at Kamui, but the new hero had wrapped wood around a tower connection (AN: sorry don't actually know what it's called) and was able to pull himself back and land on it. "It's Kamui Woods! He may be new, but he's making a big name for himself!"
"One look at that dopey grin and I know what you are. A fanboy!" someone next to us said to Izuku.
"Uh- Sorta..."
"Come one!" I wrapped my arm around my brother's shoulders with a grin on my face. "You're the biggest fanboy I know." We watched as Kamui ran up the villain's arm and attacked the villain. The villain tried to block with his arm, but Kamui wrapped his elongated wooden arm around his wrist and swung around before landing on a building. Kamui's arm grew to look like roots.
"There! His special move!" Izuku pointed out while we watched.
"Come on, Tree Man, show us somethin' flashy!"
"The Pre-emptive..."
"...binding..."
"...Lacquered Chain Prison!" Just as Kamui's attack was about to wrap around the villain, another voice made us all look away.
"Canyon Cannon!" A giant blonde woman kicked the villain towards us before she landed on the ground, shaking us. She was ginormous!
"Money shot, money shot, money shot..." a bunch of guys with cameras popped up out of nowhere and started taking her picture.
"Piece of cake for the world's next hottest hero," the woman said as she bent over to pick up the villain. "Hi there, everyone, I'm Mt. Lady. And you don't have to worry about this bum anymore." She winked and the boys took more pictures. Izuku had already started writing in his journal everything he could see about her. The rise in superpowers also gave an explosive increase in criminal activity. While governments were stuck trying to figure out how to reform laws with Quirks in mind, courageous people started performing heroic acts to keep our cities safe. Mt. Lady shrank back down to normal and the press was all over her and the villain. Heroes like her were protecting us villains who abused their powers for evil. With overwhelming public support, heroes found an official place as peacekeepers alongside our police officers. Those who performed the best were paid the most and got all the fame and glory. Their career depended on their ability to stay in the spotlight.
"Gigantification, huh?" Izuku asked as he filled in a page for her. "Well she's definitely got the looks and attitude to be a crowd favorite, and her Quirk is really showy, but it'll be kinda hard for her to get around much in the city without damaging lotsa things. That means, she might not be very useful," Izuku muttered as he wrote.
"What's that, fanboy?" the guy from earlier asked Izuku. "You takin' notes over there? Wanna be heroes, too, huh?"
"Yes! More than anything!"
"So. As third-year students, it's time to start thinking seriously about your futures and what you want to do with your lives," Our teacher told us in class today. I could pass out some career aptitude tests, but, why bother? I know you all want to go to the hero track!" He threw the tests in the air as everyone around us cheered. High schools now had multiple tracks in them. Hero. Support. General. Management. Getting into the right school wasn't just what was needed, getting in the right track at the right school was mandatory to make it to the big times. "Yes, yes, you've got some very impressive Quirks. But no power usage allowed in school! Get a hold of yourselves."
"Hey, teach. Don't lump me in with this buncha losers. I'm the real deal, but these guys'll be lucky to end up as sidekicks to some busted D-Lister. Heh." Bakugo said smirking at everyone. He wasn't wrong, of course. Out of everyone here, he had to most showy Quirk that would actually be useful in a fight against a villain.
"You think you're better than us, Katsuki?!"
"Let's go, I'll take you all on!"
"Huh. You've got impressive test results. Maybe you will get into UA High," the teacher commented.
"He's gonna try for the national school?"
"That school has a 0.2% acceptance rate!"
"It's impossible to get into."
"That exactly why it's the only place worthy of me." Bakugo jumped on his desk and I sighed in annoyance. "I aced all of the mock tests. I'm the only one at this school who stands a chance at getting in. I'll end up more popular than All Might himself, and the richest hero of all time! People all across the world will know who I am. And it all started with UA High!"
"Oh yeah, Minako and Izuku, don't you wanna go to UA, too?" I could hear Izuku jumped in fear at the teacher pointing that out to everyone. Everyone started laughing making Izuku yelp in surprise.
"Izuku Midoriya? You're kidding, right?"
"There's no way you're getting into the hero course without a Quirk!"
"Well, actually they got rid of that rule," Izuku told them. "I could be the first one." Bakugo growled and slammed his hand on Izuku's desk causing it to explode.
"Listen up, Deku! You're even worse than the rest of these damn rejects, your Quirkless wannabe. You really think they'd let someone like you in when they could have me?
"Huh? No, wait!" Izuku raised his hands up in surrender. "You've got it all wrong! Really! I'm not trying to compete against you. You gotta believe me!" Izuku bumped into the wall. "It's just that I've wanted to be a hero since I was little. I may not have a Quirk, but I can still try my hardest, can't I?"
"You'd never be able to hang with the best of the best. You'd die in the exams!" Bakugo shouted at him as everyone started to laugh. "Defenseless Izuku. This school's already crappy. You really wanna embarrass it more by failing so hard?"
"He won't fail!" I shouted at Bakugo standing between him and Izuku. "Izuku'll be one of the best heroes we could want. Unlike you with your ego!"
"Why you..."
"Now, now," the teacher said stopping Bakugo's words as we glared at each other. "Let's make sure you get out of here before arguing about who's going to be the best."
"Oh yeah, we should go karaoke tonight."
"Yeah, let's go."
"Hey, what you looking at?" I asked looking over Izuku's shoulder at his phone.
"That fight from this morning is all over the news," he told me.
"Of course it is," I said. "Mt. Lady used it as her big introduction so everyone's going to want to cover it."
"Better write some notes down before I forget anything." Izuku opened his notebook and I sat on the desk next to him.
"I don't think that'll happen," I teased before his notebook was snatched out of his hand by Bakugo.
"I dunno what you think you're doin', Deku, but we're not done."
"Whatchu got? His diary?" another student mocked him.
"Uh-"
"Huh? Don't tell me you're taking notes on how to be a hero? That's so pathetic."
"He's delusional." The pair behind Bakugo laughed and I glared at them.
"At least he'll be prepared unlike the two of you," I said and they glared at me.
"Real funny, guys," Izuku said worriedly. "Just give it back." Bakugo slammed his hands together making a small explosion and Izuku yelped in the desperation of his notes going up in smoke. "That's so mean." Bakugo threw the notebook over his shoulder and out the window and Izuku screamed.
"Most first-string heroes show potential early on," Bakugo reminded us. People look at them and just know they're destined for greatness. When I'm the only student from this garbage junior high to get into UA, people'll start talkin' about me like that. They'll realize I'm legit, the next big thing. That's not ego talking, I just know I'm good." Bakugo placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder making my brother gasp as his shoulder started to smoke. "Here's a little word of advice, nerd. Don't even think of applying. Or else." Izuku whimpered as they passed us both by.
"That's just sad. I thought you at least had some fight in you."
"He finally gets it. He'll never be a hero. Better to find out now instead'a later, I guess.
"Y'know, if you really wanna be a hero that badly, there actually might be another way," Bakugo said and I looked at him in surprise. Was he actually going to help Izuku? "Just pray you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life. Then take a swan dive off the roof of the building."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted at him. He lifted his hand and made small explosions go off around it.
"Something wrong?"
"Of course there is!" I shouted. "What kind of person who wants to be a hero encourages someone to kill themselves?!" Izuku placed his hand on my arm while whimpering and I looked back at him.
Izuku insisted I walk home alone that day. I remember the day Izuku found out he wasn't going to get a Quirk of his own. I'd had mine for months at that point and he tried his best not to let it who that it bugged him as much as it actually did. Mom was heartbroken for him and let him watch his All Might video as many times as he'd wanted from that point on. Mom worried about him more as he continued to talk about becoming a hero. I vowed to help Izuku the best I could, but I couldn't put my own dream of becoming a hero on hold for him to be one. I truly believed Izuku, if he could, would be a great hero, but without a Quirk was that even possible?