Disclaimer: This is a revisited version of a story, by the same, that I made and deleted in my old profile. If you read the old one then fair warning, there have been some changes that I hope you'll still be to enjoy. This story takes place alongside the events of 'My Hero Academia' and is completely OC driven. I do not own the rights to 'My Hero Academia', all ownership of the series and its events and characters belong to its respective owners, Kohei Horikoshi and Studio Bones.

Prologue - Junpei Mutsuki: Origins

In this world, there is a sad truth that everyone must learn and that is that all men are not created equal. Some people in this world have more power than others. But that won't hold me back, because I was born with a unique power. The power to make myself and others equal on all levels with another's Quirk.

For clarification sake, the first incident of the worldwide phenomenon of 'quirks' was in Qing Qing City, China. A boy was born with the ability to emit light from his body. From then on, 'quirks' began appearing all over the place with little to no information on what was causing it to happen. Soon enough, what was once extraordinary and supernatural became apart of mundane society where currently 80% of people possess a unique ability. However, because of 'quirks', crime rate shot through the roof, and with no one to deal with the threat, it lead to an entirely new profession to emerge into our society, and those who took up the profession were adequately named... Heroes.

Now, with the help of my quirk, I strive towards becoming a fellow hero, myself, who fights for justice and equality.

Almost forgot, this is the story of how I became the number one sidekick to the world's greatest hero.

It was the middle of spring and the cherry blossoms were in their last two weeks of blooming. I was 14 years old at the time and was currently engaged in an all-out fist fight with a bunch of delinquent high schoolers. And by 'fist fight', I meant I was being clobbered left and right.

"Take this!" one of them said as he kneed me in the stomach.

The pain immediately shot through my entire body, nearly making me vomit. The guy then grabbed me by my shirt and threw me towards one of the others. I stumbled a bit, before I was straight up uppercutted in the face by the guy in front of me. The punch led me to fall on my back painfully, me giving out a little 'hiss' in reaction. I had no time to get back up though, as the three towering high schoolers began to ruthlessly kick me in multiple spots. My legs, arms, ribs, and face were all screaming in pain at their barrage of kicks. By the time they were done, my lips were bruised and bloodied and I could feel several large bruises in the areas that they hit. I also probably had a black eye from one of their punches earlier.

"Pathetic. Next time, don't bud in in other people's business when you know you can't put up a proper fight, Mosshead." one of them sneered as I clutched my body.

"Hmpf. Let's go fellas, we're done here." he said, and soon enough, he and his cronies began to leave.

I groaned in pain as their laughter echoed down the street. I got up and turned towards the nearby ginger tabby cat girl who they were teasing before and who was currently crying.

"You're alright?" I asked hoarsely as I clutched my side with my left hand and held my other hand to her.

It took her a while to wipe the tears from her face and compose herself before she nodded and grabbed my hand with her paw. I pulled her up effortlessly, despite being slightly injured and in pain. She was really light after all.

After making sure she was okay, I decided it was best for me to take my leave. However, she grabbed onto my hand before I could do so, shouting, "Wait!"

I turned back towards her, slightly annoyed, staring at her with my cyan-coloured eyes, waiting for a response. My annoyance, however, quickly turned to surprise as she bowed before me and shouted, "Thank you!"

"Uh... no problem. Don't mention it." I was caught off guard and began brushing a hand through my slightly spiky, lime-coloured, undercut hair.

The cat girl gave a big smile before she scurried on off, leaving me kinda proud that I did something good today. I pulled out my phone and was shocked to see the time.

"8:35! Crap, I'm gonna be late again!" I yelled as I began sprinting, ignoring the immense pain that came from doing so.

Unfortunately, however, my efforts were all in vain as I ended up being late. Because of that, I got a major earful from my homeroom teacher before she sent me to the nurse's office to get cleaned up.

Now, I always liked the nurse who works at Aldera because of how abnormally kind she tends to be. I know this because I'm pretty much a regular patient of hers.

"Who did you fight this time?" she asked as she tended to my bruised lip.

The nurse of this school was a plump lady, but still pretty nonetheless. She had long, flowing black hair and eyes the shade of fresh grown oranges. She was also one of the 20% of people who didn't manifest a quirk.

"Oh, y'know, just some high school jerks picking on someone." I told her.

"Uh huh, so tell me. Why did you let these 'jerks' beat you up?" she asked.

I already knew where this was going. It became a regular thing where each time I got into a fight and got beat up, she would ask why I just stand there and take it. At this point, I thought she would let it go. Obviously not, it seems.

"Look I... just don't like fighting back, that's all. I'd rather protect someone by taking the hits for them than me hurting someone else for the sake of protecting them." I answered.

My method of protecting people, though unorthodox, has worked so far. Someone tries to pick on or beat up someone else, I interfere, they do it to me instead, they then leave and the person I'm protecting is safe. It's an equal exchange where everyone gets what they want.

"And what about you?" she asked suddenly.

"Pardon?" I say back questioningly.

"I said, 'What about you?'. It's not fair on you to get beat up instead, and what happens when there comes someone who doesn't just leave after you've been beaten?" she's now staring at me intently, waiting for my answer.

However, I'm too preoccupied to think of one as what she just said triggered me to remember a horrible memory from my childhood. One I wish I could forget.

I'm laying on the ground, beaten and bloodied. I'm unable to move a single muscle in my body. My vision is blurred, but I could still make out the shoes of a man standing before my mother who was laying on the ground. I try to say something, anything that would turn his attention away from her. But I can't, for no words are able to come out. It was if my voice was silenced or stolen, but I knew straight away what it was. It was fear. Fear had manifested within me and was keeping me from saying a single word. My silence and inability to protect my mother lead to me hearing the worst sound imaginable. It was the sound of a–

DING! DONG!

The sound of the school bell pulled me out of my flashback.

"Sorry, Mrs. Sano, I gotta run. See ya!" I said as I immediately left her office.

I felt bad that I wasn't able to give her an answer, but for what it's worth... I don't think I had one.

I spent the rest of the day zoning in and out of reality as I wondered about Mrs. Sano's question. If a person persists on hurting another even though they've already hurt me, should I fight back then?

To tell the truth, I've always been scared of fighting another person. Taking hits is easy for me because I'm not really scared of the thought of receiving pain, but the thought of delivering it... scares me to my core.

Most people won't bat an eye when they hurt someone else, especially if they deserve it. But that's where my problem lies, I don't like hurting others or letting others be hurt. I'd rather just let myself be hurt and be done with it. But if I truly want to protect someone, I may have to hurt someone else to do it. And maybe if I did that back then, she would still be here.

My train of thought suddenly gets derailed as someone taps me on the shoulder. I look up to see who it is that touched me and find that it's my best and only friend, Kyoraku Somosomo.

I've known Kyoraku ever since we were 6, but we didn't become friends until our third year of elementary, where I protected him from a bunch of bullies. Kids bullied him because his family was rich and that they were rather jealous of that. It didn't help that back then, Kyoraku was rather clueless and sensitive, easy prey for the likes of bully. Now though, Kyoraku is like a completely different person. He's not as sensitive as he once was and is now rather straightforward.

"Hey, Kyoraku. What's up?"

"School's ended." he said bluntly.

"Really? I did not know that." I said sarcastically.

"Okay, well..." he then began to quickly walk away.

"Wait! Wait! I'm just kidding." I tell him as I get up from my desk and walk after him.

Moments later, we're walking through the streets engaged in casual conversation.

"So your parents okay with you wanting to become a hero?" I ask him.

"Haven't told them." he said back.

"What?! Dude, you gotta! The high school entrance exams are 10 months away!"

"You of all people should know how much they don't condone or support hero professionalism, Jun."

"Why is that anyway?"

Kyoraku sighs, "Well, my father is very old-school and believes that you don't need to wear some stupid costume to put criminals behind bars."

"That's not all what heroes are."

"My thoughts exactly. As for my mother, she's just very overprotective of me and doesn't want me to get a job in anything that's remotely dangerous. Like heroing, for example."

I had always knew that Kyoraku's parents were strict and kinda overly controlling, but I never thought it was this bad.

"Anyway, what about you?" Kyoraku suddenly asked.

"What about me?"

"Don't you wanna become a pro hero just like your father?"

"My dad has nothing to do with why I wanna become a hero, Kyoraku." I say in annoyance.

"From the sounds of it, it feels like you have some sort of grudge against your father."

"I don't have a grudge against him. I just hate the fact that because my dad's a hero, I should live up to his name or aspire to be a hero just like him."

"Is that why you don't wanna take the recommendation course?"

I halt to a stop and look up at the various billboards with different heroes on them.

"I want to become a hero through my own merit. I don't want to be coddled or get a higher chance of succeeding because of who I'm related to. I want to be the sort of hero who fights for justice and equality. In order to do that, I need to start on the same level as everyone else until I'm my own hero."

All of a sudden, I hear the sound of an explosion nearby.

"What was that?" Kyoraku asked.

"I don't know, let's check it out."

We then began sprinting towards the area were the sounds of explosions were coming from. When we got there a crowd of people had already formed, and from what I could hear, it seemed like heroes were already on the scene.

"He's taken someone hostage!" what sounded to be a man with a deep, gruff voice shouted out.

"No way." I whispered to myself.

I then decided to sneak past the crowd of people with Kyoraku right behind me. As soon as we got to the front of the crowd where police were keeping civilians from going any further, I was able to see the pro hero, Death Arms, charge at what seemed to be a villain made of green sludge surrounded by walls of fire, no doubt caused by the explosions we heard. Inside the sludge villain, however, was the aforementioned hostage. An ash blonde boy around my age who was wearing the same school uniform as me was stuck within the villains sludge body.

"How dare you pray on a child!" Death Arms yelled out before he leapt into the air and delivered what was no doubt, a very strong punch.

It was all in vain, however, as his fist sank into the villain's gooey body. As he struggled to get his hand out, the villain thwacked him into a nearby wall. Two other heroes came to assist Death Arms but had to pull back as the villain attacked them as well.

"Stay back or I'll snap his neck." the villain warned them.

All of a sudden, the boy being held hostage pulled his head out of the sludge villain's body, yelling whilst doing so.

"You picked the wrong guy to mess with! I'm gonna sink you back to whatever sewer you crawled out of! LET ME GO!!!" he yelled out furiously as large explosions began emitting from his hands.

The villain, however, simply smirked at his tenacity before beginning to morph his sludge-like body.

"Woah, is that some sort of special move. This dude's a legit supervillain." a guy right next to us said as he watched on worryingly.

The girl clutching his arm then gasped and shouted, "It's her! That new hero, Mt. Lady, will stop him!"

Just as we all had hope that a hero would put a stop to this sludge villain, Mt. Lady, all of a sudden, halted in her tracks.

"My only weakness! I need at least a two lane road if I'm gonna make my way through here!" she exclaimed.

Inside the valley of flames, pro hero, Kamui Woods, was taking people who got caught up in the explosion blasts to safety.

"Fire and wood don't exactly make a good combination! I'll let someone else stop this guy!" he informed.

At the same time, rescue specialist, Backdraft, was busy putting out the dozens of flames with his water quirk.

"Don't look at me, I've got my hands full here! Where are those firetrucks?! Can you guys get to him?!" he questioned, looking left and right.

Death Arms then answered back, "Can't get a grip on his weird body, plus that kid's quirk is causing explosions left and right!"

The hero next to him then said, "This is a shutout! We gotta rally and knock him out of the park somehow!"

The boy causing the explosions continued to resist and struggle as the villain attacked the heroes once more again. Luckily, they were able to dodge in time.

"It's no good! None of us have the right quirk to stop a villain like this!" Death Arms exclaimed.

One of the other heroes then said "We'll do damage control until someone with the right power shows up!"

"There are still plenty of people to save!" Backdraft informed.

"Don't worry! I bet every hero in the city's coming!" Kamui Woods reassured as he placed civilians from the fires on a nearby, safe rooftop.

Death Arms could only look on and clench his fists as he yells out, "Damn! If I had more power I could blow this guy away!"

I looked at the scene unfold in share disbelief as people surrounding Kyoraku and I began shouting words of support. What later caught me off guard though, was hearing that this was apparently a villain that All Might was dealing with earlier today. Did that mean this villain defeated him? No, of course not, the most likely thing that happened was that this villain got away. If that's the case then... where is All Might?

The sludge villain was growing smaller by the minute, seemingly merging with its hostage. I was about to rush in to try and help but Kyoraku placed his arm in front of my chest, preventing me from doing so.

"You can't, Jun, this isn't like the high school delinquents. This is a real villain. Besides you oppose fighting back, remember?."

His reaction caught me off guard, only because of the fact that this is the most worked up I've seen him get in a long time.

"I'm sorry, Kyoraku, but I can't let someone who's right in front of me be in a state of constant hurting, and if I have to hurt the person doing it to save them... so be it."

It was then that I was about to rush in to try and save the guy the villain held hostage until... a boy... with messy green hair... and who was rather plain-looking... leapt before me.

He rushed towards the sludge villain with an ironic, terrified look on his face as Death Arms yelled out for him to stop. From what I could see, it didn't seem like he had any kind of an actual plan. That was until he threw his yellow bag at the villain. Notebooks poured directly out of the open bag and into the villains massive eye. With the villain blinded, the boy began clawing at his body, slowly try to free the other boy inside. However, the villain was content on keeping the boy with the explosive quirk his hostage and was about to strike the boy who had came to free him. Death Arms and the other heroes were trying to get to him as fast as they could but they were too far away. All seemed lost for the boy, that was until what seemed to be a large gust of wind zoomed past us towards the sludge villain. Smoke clouded our view but when it cleared, it revealed that it was All Might than came to save the boy. His arm was caught in the sludge but he effortlessly pulled it out and grabbed the two boys, before delivering his infamous...

DETROIT SMASH!!!

The impact of his punch created a torrent of wind, of which, Mt. Lady was protecting us from. After the torrent disappeared, it showed that the clouds had suddenly turn grey and that droplets of rain was suddenly seen spitting from the sky. It would seem that his punch was so powerful that it changed the very weather itself. And that's not all, to show his victory, All Might raised his fist to the sky which made the crowd start cheering.

After the excitement from the sludge villain incident had died down, me and Kyoraku left to continue our walk back home. The walk was quiet for the most part as the sun began to slowly set. I, all of a sudden, stopped, which prompted Kyoraku to stop.

"Something on your mind, Jun?" Kyoraku asked.

I stared up at the sky to see a single star glimmering in the bright, orange-coloured haze.

"From what you saw today... do you think that people are born equal?" I ask him.

It took him a while before he replied, "I'm not really sure. People are born with different abilities and traits that it's really hard to determine if people are, as you say, 'born equal'."

"Well, the way I see it is that even though we're born different, we're still, in a way, born the same. We may grow up to have more power than others or be smarter than others or look better than others. But deep inside, the thing that makes us equal is that we're all people with our own individuality that makes us do the things we do. From protecting someone in harm's way to causing pain and suffering for others. From being just normal to being something extraordinary. That is being born equal."

There's a moment of silence before Kyoraku spoke up, "I think you're reading too much into this, Jun."

For some reason, I look at him and begin to laugh to myself and it doesn't take long for him to follow suit.

[Character Data - Junpei Mutsuki]

Japanese Name: 六月順平

Romaji Name: Mutsuki Junpei

Birthday: June 14

Age: 14, 15 (by next chapter)

Gender: Male

Height: 168 cm (5'6")

Hair Colour: Lime

Eye Colour: Cyan

Blood Type: O

Quirk: Level Playing Field (will be explained next chapter)

Birthplace: Near Shizuoka Prefecture

Favourite Thing: Wasabi