CHAPTER ONE

Dream vs Reality

POSTED: June 20th, 2019

DISCLAIMER: For the first and last time, I do not own Boku no Hero Academia series and all credits should go to Horikoshi Kohei as the esteemed author.

She had been staring to the career form in front of her for what seemed like ages now. The form was due a month ago but it was still blank and her homeroom teacher's gripes were starting to annoy her. She didn't need to be told to make up her mind for so many times. Nobody knew how much thought she put into it.

"Just what do you hesitate for, Yuzuki?" she questioned helplessly with her face in her palms. It was a rhetorical question because she knew fully well what the cause was. Unsurprisingly, not even her bedroom being very obvious what her lifelong dream was can make her write it down. It frustrated her so much she wanted to pull her black locks.

'Damn it,' she thought sourly as the fourteen-year-old girl's forehead landed on her desk. She really envied her classmates who can write what they wanted to be so very easily and without a second thought. Kami knew she wanted to do that too.

.

.

*KABOOOM!*

Yuzuki faltered in her steps and it wasn't just because of the tremble on the ground. Her light-brown-colored irises drifted to the direction of the blast and she wondered whether she could live without regret if she chose to miss it. But she kept herself in check. She reminded herself that with the distance to the crime scene - it's obviously a villain again - being as it was, she could still rein her curiosity and nosiness. She knew it'd be impossible otherwise.

It didn't mean she wasn't itching to just bolt to the crime place. As it was… the girl looked back to her mobile phone screen which was still displaying a thread about the newly-debuted heroine, Mt. Lady, and thought up a good idea. She opened one of the applications in it and inserted '100' to an option box, mumbling "I'll go check if the number is between 79 and 90" before pressing the 'START' button. It was a random number generator and she was giving herself a chance because she did want to go there.

Then completely out of her expectations, the number of '88' appeared and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Wha…" She let out, completely owlish. She certainly didn't expect that.

Not looking a horse gift in the mouth however, Yuzuki hurriedly dropped her phone inside her tote bag - she played truant from school today so she wasn't in her uniform - and ran full speed to the direction to the blast.

Little did she know that this incident was what led the girl to a completely different path than what could have happened otherwise. But whether the divergence was for the good or not, it's too early to tell. One thing for sure, it was all thanks to the random number generating application.

.

.

She wasn't winded at all from her sprint when she arrived at the mouth of a marketplace, and while she knew she didn't get the place wrong, she couldn't see what's going on either. It was really crowded there and not even her 165-cm stature helped her situation at all. To make things worse - she didn't know it was possible - there was a very tall but sickly-looking man in front of her with his right hand gripping to the electricity pole and while his left hand clutched his stomach. If she wasn't buzzing with impatience and expectations inside, she would feel concerned for the man who was there in his condition. Unfortunately, all she felt was annoyance as she peeked between gaps of people and seeing nothing but more people.

After a minute, she became very much desperate and she had every intention to tap the shoulder of the man in front of her - not the sick man, mind you - to move out of her way when a green blur shot past not far from her left side. Her jaw dropped and her eyes became as wide as saucers. She didn't want to believe it.

"SHITTT!"

"GET BACK HERE KID!"

"STOPPP, YOU IDIOT!"

"STOP STOPPPP!"

"YOU'RE GONNA GET KILLED-

The heroes' shouts and screams rang in her ears like sirens at railway crossings and Yuzuki's breath hitched. She was completely frozen in place. What completely snapped her out of her trance was the heart-wrenching scream that came after. It wasn't really loud because of the distance between the crowd and wherever he was, but she could tell what he was saying with clarity and that's what's important. It was most likely from the curly-haired boy who ran out of the crowd to reach the villain and hostage.

"KACCHAN!" A shout was heard. Yuzuki assumed it was from the boy and he was yelling to the hostage. Even if she couldn't see it for herself, everyone made it obvious that a hostage was involved. They weren't being discreet at all, really.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE BASTARD?!" Another yell was heard although this time it was louder, angrier, and more desperate. She wondered if it was the hostage.

"M- MY LEGS MOVED ON T- THEIR OWN! I DON'T KNOW W- WHY!" The voice sounded bewildered, confused even, and there were many emotions all jumbled up in it.

Yuzuki's eyes hardened and she felt she had heard enough. And so, both of her eyes glowed and her quirk activated. For the first time since she came there, the girl was very thankful that nobody cared for her, that she was standing at the last row, and that she might get away with activating quirk in public because although it was prohibited, everyone was none the wiser because the world around her came to a halt, and was probably in the dark to what was happening. She had no time to mull over this though. The countdown has started.

10…

She ran full speed to the villain, not bothering to be nice about the people she elbowed and bumped while sprinting forward.

9…

She was still running.

8…

She skidded to a stop just before the frozen villain, hostage, and the curly-haired kid, planted her fingers into the slime, and tugged the hostage with all she could.

7… 6…

She inwardly thanked everyone who made her life hell with physical exercises because she made significant progress in loosening the boy from the villain's grip.

5… 4… … 3…

She grunted as both her and the boy fell backward to the ground. The boy was finally loose from the tight grip of the slime, but her time! She decided to sprint while grabbing the two by their collars. The two boys' back would hurt because she dragged them by their backs but there's nothing she could help because-

2… 1…

She let both of them go and hurried to where she had been standing-

0…

And stared to the mid-transforming sickly blonde man with wide eyes.

-1…

'Isn't this…' she trailed, dumbfounded.

She blinked owlishly - it definitely wasn't just because she was starting to feel her eyes straining - and the world was back in motion already. 'Geh,' she thought inwardly when she realized that there was a path before her, the result of her forcing her way straight ahead to the crime scene with full speed. She shifted and stood a little to her left and prayed that nobody noticed that she was involved. 'Please don't let them know I'm involved!' she screamed inwardly. Her prayer was answered when All Might who could distract anything and anyone made his appearance.

While the superhero announced his grand appearance, Yuzuki tried to look as innocently and confused as possible because everyone was staring in bewilderment toward the two boys lying on the ground in front of the crowd and making a great big deal out of it. Even All Might looked around in confusion for a moment. If she could be honest, it was hard to keep up the act with the cold sweat that trickled down her forehead and her sweaty palms. Nobody called her out but she still felt restless and feeling like she had every right to be. It wouldn't be surprising if somebody got suspicious of her with the three glaring facts: the two boys involved were lying just in front of them all in safe area, the path in a sea of people that led not-so-exactly to her, and her not-so-subtle attitude.

Her nerve-wrecking experience aside (this was the first time she broke any law), All Might - the very sick-looking man from earlier, he is forcing himself when he's sicksicksick - caught himself in time when he saw the two boys safe from harm and instantly went into action. With a (possibly, because she couldn't see the action herself) single punch and a yell of "DETROIT SMASH!", the very angry villain was (possibly) blown away completely with rain following closely behind. Yuzuki's worry was left forgotten in instant after that. Even if she couldn't see the action herself, it was impossible not to feel overwhelmed by the wholehearted cheers coming from the big crowd in front of her.

She was once again reminded why she respected and idolized heroes so much. From the curly-haired boy to the obviously sick All Might going into action when there were other heroes in the area… Yuzuki was taught again that heroes made living peacefully a reality because they're the ones who are allowed to use their quirks in public to help others. And heroes are humans like her too and if All Might was still in action with his very much deteriorating health and skeleton figure… What did it tell about Yuzuki being so hesitant to take a tiny step with a quirk like hers?

It wasn't even because she didn't want to be involved, get hurt, and help others. Kami knew she did. But with the existence of desire, there was also her fear that kept her from moving forward. She was scared to make herself and her quirk known to everyone in the world and scared of being used like a tool, being viewed only for her quirk. Her fear was enough to keep her awake at night, chasing her relentlessly in her nightmares.

Nightmares aside, helping silently and unlicensed were no good. It was considered an act of vigilante or kami-forbid a villain (if things went south instead). It was because she knew that she swallowed thickly when she realized that her only options were either going all out or not doing anything at all because like hell Yuzuki wanted breaking laws something of daily occurrence. Of course not!

Then she realized she was back to Square One all over again. The girl buried her face to her palms in weariness. She had made up her mind just an hour ago before leaving her abode that she was going to stay the safe path and live safely, nurturing her love for heroes instead of taking part in it and now she's second-guessing herself? She couldn't believe this.

.

Yuzuki didn't realize that she wasn't quite at the starting point anymore. The sparkle in her eyes when she looked to the visage of All Might was an indication, no?

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