Chapter 2

While walking home he thought about everything that has happened till now. His friendship with Bakugou before his quirk-less-ness, his situation after quirk-less-ness, years of torment and discrimination he faced from the school authorities and teachers or his peers. Trying to find out what he had done wrong.

He was always polite, didn't cause any trouble, he didn't complain about anything, he worked harder than his peers, even when he was bullied he was the one who received punishment and his bullies got off with light scolding, when he got better marks than others he was under suspicion for cheating, or when he got fewer marks by chance he got called as lazy.

The same things happen with Bakugou. First Izuku was the one that follows him around but, later on, Bakugou won't leave him alone. Plus this Bakugou was quite cunning. He would always steal a copy and destroy his homework, then so he had to make multiple copies of his homework with variations. Since Izuku got better marks than him almost all the time, he would get beaten for it and if by chance he got fewer marks than him he would still get beaten for 'looking down on him.

Anything he was a problem for Bakugou. This made me shocked even more. He hadn't done anything to him. For what reason was he suffering all these years. He started regretting. Questions like, 'Why was I wasting my time on such useless people?' , 'Why was I thinking that egoistic maniac was my friend?' , 'Didn't he long said that he wasn't me friend?' , 'What was the point in putting all the effort on this so-called friend?'.

"I was a big idiot, stupid, moron…. All the signs were clear in front of me yet I ignored all of them. What should I do now? , Let's think about it later. I must hurry mom will be worried, she must have seen the news."

Not long after he reached his house, he saw what he expected. His mom staring at him with tears threatening to fall clearly on the verge of crying. As soon as he entered the room and closed the door, his mother tackled him while crying.

"Izukuuuu…. What were you thinking running straight into that villain? There was fire all around it as well. Please don't do that again."

"That's the thing mom, I wasn't thinking at that time, my legs moved on their own. I saw fear in Katsuki's eyes and the next thing I saw was that villain in front of me. After what happened today I had no intentions of having anything to do with him but you saw what happened later. Either way, mom can we discuss things tomorrow? I am very exhausted both mentally and physically. I just want to have a bath and eat food and go to sleep. I promise I'll tell you everything. There are a lot of things we need to discuss. There are a lot of things we have told each other which we can at breakfast tomorrow."

"But honey you have school tomorrow."

"I am not going waste my time anymore by going to that waste of a space that is what that school is."

"But then, what about your studies Izuku, you haven't finished your middle school course."

"I long completed high school courses. Why would I have to worry about middle school mom?"

"When did you do that?"

"Ah right! I forgot to tell you about it. Do you remember the boy with long black colored hair, our neighbor? He moved out two years ago. Seeing that I was in middle school he decided to give his high school books to me in exchange for helping him move out. He didn't ask much, I just help out by taking few boxes to the van that's all. Since I plenty of spare time I finished the whole course in the last semester."

"If it was like that then why were you going to school? You could have spared wasting so much time going to school."

"That's… I don't know mom. At the moment I can't think of any reason. Alright, mom, I going to have a bath, I feel uncomfortable with all sludge over my body."

"Ok honey, dinner will be ready in 30 minutes." "Ok, mom."

"Huh? Now that I think about it, he didn't stutter or mumble even once. I guess there will more questions for tomorrow."

After dinner, Izuku went to bed but couldn't sleep, there too many things going inside his mind. "Even after being so damn tired I still can't sleep." He reached out his phone to pass the time when a sudden thought came in which made him quite curious and intrigued whether his theory was right or not. After searching it out he felt rage, an emotion he meet today too many times, despair and disappointment, his old friends.

"Why the heck does the world have to prove that I am always right? No wonder, there hasn't been a single quirk-less hero. All those who tried either died or maimed. Some people just don't want people with mutant or weak or no quirks to come into any light. Most of those who tried either die early or disappeared. The HPSC or the government doesn't even bother to do anything about it. Most charity organizations trying to help quirk-less, weak quirk on mutant quirk disappear in time. This society is screwed up."

"I guess I have to forget about being a hero for now. I don't have any kind of strong support or background to change this situation. Guess that's a long-term goal. If I don't do anything about it I won't be able to sleep when I am old."

With that, he put his phone aside. After rolling on the bed for a while he slept.

The next morning he woke up earlier than his usual time. He quickly got ready for breakfast. After all, they had to discuss a lot of things.

"Good Morning Mom!" Izuku called out as he came out of his room.

"Good morning honey. Help me set up the table." Inko wasn't surprised to her child got up early. This was a normal occurrence. He would always get up early when he is either nervous or anxious.

Neither of them said anything, just ate the food silently. But Izuku could feel that his anxious or nervous or probably both. So he decided to speak first.

"Mom, you already figured out that I was being bullied by most of my peers right, especially Bakugou?"

"Yes, I knew about it. I had discussed with both Mitsuki and school authorities on you being bullied by their students, especially Bakugou after all there wasn't anyone with a fire-type quirk nearby. They ensured that nothing like that would happen again. But I was a fool to believe that."

"Here I thought that I was the only foolish one, but it looks like it runs in the family." Izuku joked.

"Don't be so mean, Izu-chan," she said while pouting.

"Well jokes aside, the whole scenario was way harsher than you think it was. I was beaten down on daily basis. Katsuki used to steal my homework, thanks to which I had to do only twice in the start. Later on, others also started doing the same, so I had to do it multiple times with variation to get detention for copying. Yet in the end, the teachers tried to find excuses to give me detention. This led me to a massive amount of work daily. Plenty of times the lunch was used for it, which made left hungry most of the time." Inko had already started crying, which made him paused as she asked.

"But you said that you always ate your lunch?" He could only smile bitterly at that.

"I didn't get to eat because either I never got the time or my bullies would trash down my lunch most of the time." She looked at horrified.

But it kind of made sense now, because even if it wasn't much she tried her best to fulfill his needs he still was malnourished. Even if she had to do multiple jobs, she gave her all effort to make good health, had proper hobbies, or didn't catch bad habits. As she was questioning herself, he continued.

"Well, in short, I was beaten down, made to do more work, bullied, insulted, humiliated, asked to die, my complaints were ignored, so that I don't destroy any of those quirked individuals' lives."

Inko was at a loss to what to say. Then she looked towards Izuku so that she could console him only to find a devilish smile on his face, but his eyes were full of rage. She could understand the rage but she didn't understand why he was smiling so she thought that he might be planning something, so she asked. "What are you going to do Izuku?"

"I am going to ruin their careers mom, but of course by doing nothing illegal or morally wrong, but by simply filing a case against them, which will go in their records. I remember you saying that you had a friend who is part of a big law firm?"

"I do have such a friend. You may remember her or maybe not, you were only there years old after all. She helped me divorce Hisashi when ran off to the U.S.."

"I remember her to have sort of long green hair. She was nice. What's her name?"

"Beru Asui"

His jaws dropped, as he asked her while almost yelling.

"Beru Asui, as in the biggest anti quirk discrimination activist in Japan?"

"Yes, the very same." She said with a smile on her face remember her good old days with her friends.

"If that's the case, then why didn't you get any alimony from him."

"Oh," He saw his mother avoiding her eyes from him.

"You normally avoid your eyes when you messed up something. Did you not ask for money, or did you spend it all by wasting it?"

"I... I used all of it to get rid of all my anger I had thanks to him. Plus it wasn't much. He was pretty much broke himself." She tried to explain still avoiding her eyes.

"So that's how you started becoming so um, fa... chubby. Well never mind about that, I have done plenty of my share of stupid things. I only asked because I curious, that's all."He obviously won't call his mother fat, that would be very rude.

"Either way, why are you asking for a lawyer?"

"You remember the first drone I made?" "Yeah, I was so proud. You made it from the scavenged/trashed electronics on that beach."

"Yes, that one. I kind of normally used it for recording hero fights, but started using it to observe my surroundings. So I am pretty sure that I have recorded my last two years of suffering. Now that we have plenty of evidence it won't be difficult to sue the school authorities and that Baka-go Bratsuki. Plus we can ask for compensation. Thanks to this you don't have to search for any new job, and you can focus on your weight loss program." He said that looking at her with 'I know everything look'. Well her son has always been observant, so it wasn't surprising that he found out. So she was just embarrassed that how quickly he saw through her. So she simply gave her reason away.

"I saw Mayumi chan last month. She still looked the same as the last time I saw her which was a decade ago. So I kind of felt embarrassed comparing her with myself, so I thought it's high time I lost weight."

"Who are you talking about mom?"

"You remember Beru chan but not her? She kind of wanted to adopt you the moment she saw you. You know the black-haired beauty that spoiled you a lot?" He looked confused.

"We'll talk about her later. You haven't said what happened yesterday. Something happened that changed you completely, not that I mind it, I kind of like it. Your confidence issue bothered me for years. You lost your confidence the day we found that you were quirk-less. I was never able to find a way to bring back that confidence you had. Except for being a hero, I encouraged you to anything. I praised you for all the amazing things you did, even what you call boot-licking, but you always doubted yourself. So tell me what happened? What made you change overnight?"

*Sigh*" Yesterday teacher asked about career filling forms about broadcasted my choice. It made Bratsuki mad. Teach stopped him after he finished his threatening. But that wasn't enough for him. At the end of the school hours, he came again and suicide baited me. Which was something I thought would happen as I saw him as a friend. But after that, I realized that it just an illusion that I created for myself. I was friendless from the day I was declared quirk-less." Tears were forming in his eyes, after all, most of the time it's difficult to accept harsh realities.

"It's alright Izuku. You may not have friends now, but in the future, there will be those who understand you, those that would not look down on you, those who see your brilliance and stand by your side. So don't worry about it and continue to work for the future. So what happened after that."

"After that, I decided to take the shorter route while trying to cheer up myself. But then the sludge villain attacked me while I was not paying attention. I was almost choked out when All Might saved me. He punched a 'Detriot Smash' at the villain, which knocked out both of us. After that when he was leaving I grabbed his legs, which he kind of scolded me for it. It was a very reckless move on my part and I agree with it."

She deadpanned at him, "That was indeed a very reckless stunt young man."

"I was kind of desperate at that moment. Well, after that he landed on a roof, and I asked him whether a quirk-less person be a hero while babbling about my dream only to find a skeleton guy instead of a super buffed hero. Then he explained why he was in that condition. Although he didn't say who wounded him, I figured out it was probably the bogeyman after all only he had the strength to wound All Might so badly. Then he said that one cannot become a hero without a quirk. After saying that he left with me being still on the roof."

His mother looked furious. That stupid Symbol of Peace left her son who had been suicide baited on the roof after destroying his dreams. Did he have shits for brains? Then a thought struck her, so she asked him.

"Izuku, did you ever had any suicidal thoughts?"

"Not even once mom. Only cowards commit suicide. Even after all these years I never had any such thoughts." He replied instantly. Inko sighed in relief. Hearing his words she felt proud of her son, even after going through so many difficulties he never ran away from the problems, only faced them head-on.

"Well, later on when collected me I heard explosions, so I went only to find Bratsuki held as a hostage, almost suffocated, and the heroes waiting for someone with a better quirk. Rest you know what happened. After being berated by the heroes for doing their job I started my journey back home, only to stop by an angry pomeranian who instead of saying thank you or sorry, insulted me and left. Then my stupid ex-idol came but I ignored him and returned. On the way, I thought about what has happened and what have I done. So reflecting on my past I decided to make changes in my plans. But a sudden thought made me do research which changed my plans again."

Carefully taking everything in what her son said, she figures out what the changes were. "So you don't plan to be a hero anymore and what was your initial plan? We haven't discussed much it." There was only doubt in her question and no other sentiment.

"Initially I planned to go for two courses, both heroics, and support. Then last night I searched for quirk-less heroes only to find nothing. Then I checked for quirk-less hero trainees. I found that either they were killed or maimed only to disappear with their families. So the whole thing screamed of a huge conspiracy. So I gave on becoming a hero. Since I don't have any power or support, to beat the government."

"Why do you think that the government is part of this?" "Without their support, it's impossible mom."

"So what do you plan on doing from now on?"

He took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"First leave that useless school. I don't want to waste any more of my time there. I plan to sign up few online courses that would help in the future." Inko agreed to that. After all, he had already completed his middle school course.

"Second, get rid of All Might merchandise. Although I don't like him anymore, I don't exactly hate him. But I might end up doing so if I keep seeing his face." His mom giggled at that.

"Your room is full of his merchandise. You won a few rare ones in quizzes and competitions. So are you going to donate them?"

"Nah, sell them. It would bring us good money. It takes a lot of money for the support course. I scavenged a lot of parts from the beach but most of them are already in an unrepairable state. I will need a lot of tools to practice for the course."

"Third I plan to start working out. Since I plan to continue my pet project it would be like killing two birds with a single stone. Although I have a good amount of stamina, I don't have much strength or speed. I am too weak. I was going to ask you to help me out in plan my diet and schedule."

"What pet project?" She was confused. He never said anything about any pet project.

"Looks like I forgot to explain it to you. I planned to clean the Takoba Municipal Beach Park. Scavenging was just a part of it."

"So my son was already a hero. I never knew that." She jokingly said. "I know that it's not a hero's responsibility, but nowadays people hardly do any community service. They practically leave everything to the heroes. That's one of the reasons I didn't want you to be a hero. I didn't like the fact people can't do anything without depending on quirks."

After considering what his mother said he kind of agreed. Plus most of the heroes nowadays had stopped doing community service. They spend most of the patrolling or rather roaming around signing autographs or fooling around ignoring what's going around.

One of the reasons why the number of underground heroes was decreasing. The current meaning of heroism had changed from enforcement and protection to showbiz.

"Izuku how long will it take you to compile all the evidence?" His mother asked changing the topic.

"Two days max. It's mostly the same stuff. The same things happened almost every day. Why are you asking about it?"

"Only two days! Why don't you take a month? Compile it nicely, don't leave out anything."

"Don't worry mom I'll compile it nicely in two days. You can ask her after a month, it's not a problem. After all, you are meeting your best friend after almost a decade, you should look as presentable as you used to be."

He teased her as he figured out why she wanted to delay.

"Bad boy, stop teasing your mother." She said pouting. "I'll take care of the school and online courses plus the diet and stuff so you should rest for now."

Saying that she collected the dishes and left.

'Well, I can start planning while resting.'