Some say being born without a quirk is the worst thing that can happen to someone. My dad always told me being born with a useless quirk is worse, it's just wasted potential. My name is Ashitaka Akira and I can never be a hero like my ancestors before me. My father can move faster than a race car, and my grandfather could stop time for up to a minute at a time. All I can do is react faster than most people, it's a useless quirk if that something is faster than I can move. Say a car coming around the corner as I walk outside, i'd know it's coming and my body will try to move itself out of the way but no matter what i can't move fast enough and I'll be hit. Hell my quirk just stops working after a while if it's used too much, you probably think i'd win every sport in school, normally you'd be right. Until I get tired and my reflexes die and I may as well be quirkless.

I wasn't always so hard on myself, as a kid when my quirk first developed i was the talk of the class and of my family, everyone thought i got my father's super speed in some odd way. But as i grew older and couldn't even run faster than most out of shape kids in my class, it was apparent my quirk was worthless if I wanted to carry on my family's namesake as protectors of peace.

I gave up any chance on being a hero a long time ago, I may have been twelve I think or maybe I was about to be twelve. My mother and I were out shopping for school supplies, I sensed something was coming and my body moved on its own, my arms latched onto my mother's shirt and we started running away. I didn't know what was wrong I could just feel it, and then because of my running in the store the man who was about to rob the place panicked and took his gun out early, blasting my mother's brains all over me. Most people use something horrible like that as a drive to become something more, to become a hero, for me it was a sign I would be the worst pro hero yet.

I don't know what I'll do with my life, maybe be a voice actor maybe? People always said I had a nice speaking voice and should talk more often but i think it may just be flattery for the sake of being nice. I have the right height down for modeling, i'm just fifteen and i'm already five eleven and i'm only supposed to get bigger, but my face isn't anything special and people say I look more like a Jojo's character than a regular human so I guess anything involving my physical appearance is out. For now all I do is wake up, get dressed, deal with my father's and siblings stares of hate in the morning, go to school trying to fly under the radar and go home and stay locked up in my room. I would have been fine with another three years of that if my guidance counselor hadn't called me in one day, demanding i see him after school.

I stood at his day and sighed before knocking, " Come in!" As I opened his door and stepped in i couldn't help but cringe at his appearance. My guidance counselor had pale yellow skin with large green spots covering his body, his eyes seemed vacant as if it was only his skin with a set of irises and his reptile like jaw and tail always sent a shiver down my spine. I waved and stayed standing waiting to see what he wanted. He perked up some seeing me and motioned for me to sit down in a nearby chair, " Ah Ashitaka, please have a seat we have a lot to discuss about your high school options!"

I sat down and didn't know what he was talking about it, " What do you mean? Aren't I just going to the one down the road from here?"

" If that's what you want but it would be such a waste to not try and aim higher! I noticed you haven't come asking me for any of the forms to apply for any of the hero schools. Why is that? With your family name you'd be accepted anywhere."

" ...I'm no hero alright? My quirk won't make a big difference or even a little one. I'm not like the rest of my family."

He didn't like the sound of that, he reclined in his chair and crossed his arms. " Oh? You have the best reflexes i've seen of any student in my twenty years as a counselor and you think you can't be a hero?"

I sighed and did my best to explain to him, " Have you ever known you're going to be pelted in the face by a baseball before it even leaves someone's hand but you were too tired to even react? Has your quirk ever...ever hurt someone when you tried to help?"

" Is this all about your mother? It wasn;t your fault, you reacted on insti-"

" My quirk killed my mom and you're asking why don't I try and use my quirk to make a difference it can't make?" My heart was pounding and i could feel the sweat pouring down my face, i always felt so shaken up when someone brought up my mother.

He leaned in closer, uncrossing his arms he then reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out an old wrinkly photo. He smiled at it and handed it to me. I hesitantly grabbed it and was confused at what I saw. It was a woman who looked similar to him , horrifying features and all, only she was in a super hero suit, but something was wrong. She looked weak and tired but she kept a smile on her face. I looked at it some more trying to figure out why he wanted me to look at this, then I saw some kid and their parents embracing each other in the background, and some knocked out mystery man nearby, maybe a villain?

My guidance counselor cleared his throat, " my mother had the same quirk as I have. All we can do is chomp down hard on our enemies and hope to break their bones or cause some sorta damage with our bites. She had no super speed or reflexes, and that picture there was the day of her last rescue. Some guy with poisonous blood for a quirk was mugging that family you see there. My mother being a hero jumped in, bit the villain and died a few hours later."

I didn't know why he thought this would make a difference, I handed him his photo back, " I'm sorry to hear that. But what does this have to do with me?"

" You have a fine quirk Ashitaka, you may think it killed your mother but it was the gunman who killed her. Just as it was that man's poison blood that killed my own mother, not her one trick quirk. If you actually apply yourself and work hard, you can prevent so many evil acts like you had to suffer through." I had nothing to say, I knew he was wrong. All I could do was look down and hope he was done talking so I could go home. " So I went and recommended you for U.A. High school."

I shot my head up and looked at him with nothing but confusion, " Wha-can you even do that without my consent?"

" Nonsense, I only needed your father's."

" My father wouldn't do that, he thinks I'm a failure!"

" No Ashitaka, he may not say it but he knows your quirk can one day surpass his if you just apply yourself! You need to move on, use your past as a catalyst and make sure it never happens to anyone again."

I stood up and headed for the door, " Just because you recommend i get in doesn't mean I will. I can't be a hero ." I didn't give him enough time to respond before I left the room and closed the door behind me.

I tried to clear my head on the way home, I'll just stop by the arcade and waste some of my birthday money for a few hours of fun, maybe that can cheer me up. As I neared the arcade I felt my body stop. I knew the feeling I was going through, my eyes directed themselves to the gas station i was passing by. Two men in masks were using their quirks to rob the place. They hadn't seen me yet and my body acted on it's own and took four steps backwards so I was out of their sight. I took out my cell phone and dialed 911, but there was nothing but static. One of them must have had some sort of electricity based powers and was causing my phone to mess up even from outside the store. I was about to make a run for it and go far away as possible so i could try and call the cops again, but then my body moved itself to the side as glass bricks and debris went flying only a second after I moved. I gulped and stood frozen in fear as I saw the large hole that had been created in the store, the man behind the register was under the bricks and glass with blood and bruises all over his face and who knows where else.

I heard the voices then, the first was high pitched and neurotic, " Woah FUCK! Man i didn't expect for him to go flying like that! I still don't know my own strength huh?" The second voice came soon after, " Well get to know it, the whole neighborhood probably heard you smashing him though the damn wall!"

I could feel my eyes widen in fear as my body moved on its own, I ran back ton the main road, hoping over the poor man's body, then I felt my body try to move again this time to the side, but I wasn't fast enough. I felt burning and shocking course all over my back as I hit the ground. I screamed in pain as I laid on the sidewalk, I turned over to see the man who had shocked me, he had on a skull shaped mask and had an odd scaled skin, " Aww..have we got a scared little kid trying to run for help?"

My body moved on its own again and rolled out of the way and got me on my feet just before he fired another blast. I was back on my feet, but it didn't matter, I couldn't fight these guys. these were villains and I had a useless quirk. The best scenario was I keep dodging and hope I die of exhaustion before they can do things worse to me than the poor shop owner.

The shop owner! my eyes shot over to him and he was coughing, groaning in pain. The first villain groaned as he bent down to look at him, " Damn it I didn't even kill him!"

" Stop making so much noise moron!" the skull helmeted one cried out to his partner. I looked around and people were stopping, recording what they say and taking pictures, super battles have always been a game to the public. What was wrong with them, a man was dying beneath the rubble and I was about to get shocked again by some psycho in a skull helmet!

Where are the damn pros when you need them?! Oh no, I can't be the only hope these people and that poor guy have for any hope of defense am I? The two robbers grew more and more agitated as more people showed up. The skull helmeted one started to fire small lightning bolts at cars and people alike. He hit them most the time, people tried to take their phone out and calling for help but just like with me they couldn't get a signal. More and more bodies started to hit the floor as the skulled man tried to make a path for him and his partner's escape. " Lemme punch our way through! I wanna see How long I can go this time before my knuckles start going all inside out!" The higher pitched said before looking to me and smiling, " You know if I were you I'd be want to stay down and play dead after getting shocked like that." He was right, all because of my damn quirk moving my body on its own I'm going to die now to some psychopath and not a single pro in sight!

The high pitched psycho with the apparent super strength quirk charged at me, at an unimpressive speed though, my body just did the dodging on its own, and...I did something by myself, as I dodged his charge i swung with a right hook and put all my weight into it as I knocked him on the back of his head and sent him nose first onto the pavement. I didn't have time to wait and see what he'd do next, the electro guy was still trying to scare people away and hurting them in the process and that man was still buried under the rubble. I moved as fast as I could back to the store owner, pushing the chunks of bricks off of him and helping him up, " Can you walk?!" I asked in a quick panicked voice, all he did was mumble something i couldn't make out. Blood was dripping from his mouth and i noticed some stained on my hand as I held onto his back for support, he was in much worse condition than I was with my one burn. Oh god my burn, just like that my attention went back to it and it felt worse than it did before.

I felt like I would fall backwards or start crying any second. But my body wouldn't let me, i still had plenty of juice. I rushed with the poor guy as fast as I could, my eyes always looking back to make sure psycho number one was still on the ground and that number two was still being trigger happy trying to clear a path. I managed to make it to someone's car, I banged on their window, " Hey! This guy needs help you gotta take him to a hospital!" Thank god they opened their passenger door. I helped the man in, I was about to get in the back of his car myself. But then I looked back and psycho number one was getting up from the pavement and appeared to be in a raging frenzy as he started smashing his fists into the road before charging for the crowd of people, ironically just as his partner had cleared a path.

" You idiot! You're wasting time!" the skulled man said, the psycho didn't care, he tried swinging at people and when he missed he would just slam his fist into the nearest corpse or body.

Oh fuck the sounds, I could hear the bones snapping and breaking from where I was and I was at least thirty feet away. I just stood there in fear as I watched the electro villain run away with a bag of cash in hand as his psycho friend kept up his rampage. I turned back to the driver of the car i was planning to get into, " Go! Get him to the hospital now!"

" What about you kid?"

" JUST FUCKING GO!" He drove off with smoke trailing behind him. I gulped in fear, sweat was washing over me like a waterfall as I marched toward the villain, " Hey! None of these people hurt you! I was the one who hit you remember?!"

As he turned around to look at me I actually noticed his eyes this time, they were bloodshot with rage but he had a smile on the whole time, " That's right! You hit me! You made my face hurt! Now I'm gonna make you wish you were that shop guy after I'm done with you!" he roared like some kind of wild animal as he charged at me, I stood firm for once in my life and remembered what my counselor said, if I just applied myself and focused. I focused on the man coming for me, and my body seemed to focus with me, I didn't move out of the way to dodge him this time, instead I crouched down at the last possible second and landed a hard left jab right into the psycho's gut. He grunted in pain and held his stomach tight and even gagged a little. I must have hit him somewhere sensitive.

Before he could react I did the only thing I could think of, I planted my foot firmly on his own as I stomped harder than I ever have before, in the process I grabbed hold of his brown hair and brought it in for a headbutt. Horrible decision. I felt myself get dizzy as I stepped backwards and felt uneasy. All I heard was the psycho yelling as he run right for me, I was getting tired. I dodged slower this time but managed to move still. He started to just swing crazy at me and I dodged the first few, but the burning on my back was still there and it hurt every time I moved, my head was throbbing with pain from the headbutt and I couldn't focus anymore. To top it off, I was tired, I was so so tired. He was too. He was breathing heavy and his punches slowed down and he stopped screaming. I thought maybe I had him on the ropes, but i didn't know anything anymore. My quirk stopped working as I grew too tired to move and simply stood there as he landed a punch harder than anything i've ever felt right onto my chest.

I must have flown at least six feet backwards before I hi the hard road. I coughed up blood and squinted at the sky before me as the sun shined in my eyes brightly. I turned my head side to side as hard as it was to move, and no one was around anymore. Everyone got away, the bystanders even went and helped those who had fallen or been hit get up and away. I rested my head on its side and wondered what was taking the villain so long to finish me off.

It took him a while before he got over to me. He stood over me and planted his foot on top of me and started pushing down on where he had hit me. I was too tired to even scream, all i could do was let out an inaudible cry as he tortured me. As he pushed down harder and harder I heard a distant rumbling. A blur of color zoomed over me and tackled the villain, planting him firmly into the concrete. The figure marched over my way and lifted me up, I couldn't see who it was, my eyes were shut, I was too tired to even open my own damn eyes. Then he spoke, " Ashitaka are you alright?! Say something!"

" D-dad?"

I felt my father do something he hadn't done since before my mother died because of me. He hugged me it seemed and I could feel what I guess was his sweat pour down on my face as it rolled of his, I swear I could have heard him sobbing a bit. He rushed me to the hospital as fast as he could with his super speed. I don't remember checking in, all I remember was waking up in a hospital bed with flowers and other novelty hospital gifts around me. I just wanted to go back to sleep, until i saw a framed photograph next to my bed on a nightstand. It was a newspaper clipping, my local paper. It had my student picture and said. " local hero saves dozens from psycho duo. "

I don't know what overcame me but I started crying right there in the hospital room alone. I remembered what my counselor had said. And he was right, I can't let my past mistake define me anymore, to honor my mother's spirit I am going to become a hero.

Author's notes
This is the first of what's going to be an ongoing series about this original character in the world of my hero academia. I'm very excited to be writing this and hope you all enjoy it! If you want to see how he'll change the story with his influence and presence be sure to keep checking in for the next update!