"All Might's right," thought Izuku Midoriya as he made his way through the streets of Musutafu, Japan. He had just finished a conversation with the number one hero, All Might, and was on his way home.
Izuku was one of the most hopeful people in the world, just ask his best friend, Katsumi Bakugou. Although, today was the first time that he had felt hopeless. Here he was, born into a world filled with quirked individuals that possessed amazing powers.
You see, in the year 2216, eighty percent of the human population was gifted with one of these quirks. Izuku, however, was a part of the twenty percent of people that were born without a quirk.
Ten years ago, Izuku and his mother went to see the doctor about his quirk. The doctor had Izuku participate in a number of tests and then took an x-ray of the boy's feet. This was because people that had quirks also lacked one of the joints in their pinky toes. Izuku was a strange case because while he showed no other sign of having a quirk, he lacked the second joint in his pinky toes, just like those with quirks. While this was strange, the doctor still diagnosed Izuku as quirkless. This broke not only the boy's heart but also his dream of being a hero to pieces.
Shortly after his diagnosis, Izuku returned to school. The students in his kindergarten class had heard of his quirklessness when Katsumi accidentally mentioned it after hearing it from her mother.
Back to the present, Izuku was continuing on his way home. "I guess I knew all this time that I couldn't be a hero without a quirk." As he made his way home, he noticed a group of spectators on a nearby street corner. "What's going on over there?" he wondered.
Letting curiosity get the better of him, he approached the scene. He tried to see over the shoulders of his fellow spectators but to no avail. Instead, he used his smaller size to squeeze past them and get to the front of the line.
"What's going on?" he asked the person next to him.
The man who resembled a fish spoke without looking at the boy. "It looks like some sort of villain is attacking," said the man.
"What?! Why aren't the heroes doing anything?" asked Izuku.
"The ones that can do something, aren't able to because of the hostage," the man replied.
"Hostage?" asked Izuku.
"Yeah," affirmed the man. "I think I heard someone say something about it being a middle schooler."
"I hope it's not someone from my school," thought Izuku, gripping the security tape harder. Suddenly, his shoulders went slack as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Wait!" he began, beginning to panic as a horrible thought crossed his mind. "Is that the same villain that All Might defeated earlier?! This is my fault then!" he thought.
The villain turned, exposing his front to the spectators. There, in his grasp, was none other than Izuku's best and only friend, Katsumi Bakugou. "Kacchan?" asked Izuku. He saw the panicked look in her eyes and rushed past the tape and the heroes who were just watching.
"Hey, kid! What are you doing?!" shouted Death Arms in an attempt to stop Izuku. Meanwhile, a familiar set of sunken blue eyes was watching Izuku sprint into action.
The villain, upon hearing the commotion, turned his eyes towards Izuku. "You!" he growled, remembering the boy and his earlier encounter that was interrupted by All Might. The villain prepared an attack at the boy.
Although he was shaking with each step, Izuku couldn't stop running forward. He tried to think about his next move, as running away was out of the equation. In the midst of his sprint, he thought back to one of his journal entries about the pro hero, Kamui Woods.
He took a deep breath as he mentally read the passage, "Page 25, Lacquered Chain Prison: 'Quickly stretch out arms in a preemptive strike to make the opponent flinch back, then use that opening to restrain them.'"
Izuku grew a new look of determination as he took his backpack off, holding it in his right hand. He quickly spun in a circle, garnering momentum for his "preemptive attack." "Now!" he yelled, seeing an opening. He threw the backpack towards the villain, and the books that he kept inside spilled out. The corner of his notebook hit the villain directly in the eye, causing him to flinch back, just as the page said.
This provided an opening for Izuku to get closer to the villain. "Kacchan!" he yelled.
Katsumi took a massive breath as her mouth was freed. "Deku!" she yelled back. "Deku, you have to leave! It's not safe here for you."
"I'm not leaving you, Kacchan!" he responded, grabbing her and pulling with all his strength. Unfortunately, he was nowhere near as strong as he needed to be to free his friend from the villain.
The villain, now recovered from the attack, was furious. It swung out a mass of sludge at Izuku. This attack sent Izuku into the wall of the nearby building the made up half of the alleyway.
"Deku!" yelled Katsumi, thinking her best friend was dead. "You bastard!"
Izuku inhaled deeply as he refilled his empty lungs. The impact had only knocked the wind out of him. "I… can't do... anything," he said as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Deku!" shouted Katsumi. "Deku, you need to calm down!"
Izuku wasn't able to hear her as the only thing he could hear at this point was the blood that was rushing to his brain via the veins by his ears. His heartbeat soon became the only sound he could hear and feel as his vision went black. The last thing he saw was Katsumi in the clutches of the villain. One thought crossed his mind before he faded out completely: "Save her."
Katsumi watched as her best friend became a pale white color, and the rocks around him began to rise shakily from the ground. "It's too late," she said.
"Oops," laughed the villain. "It looks like I killed him with that. It was my weakest attack too. That boy sure is weak." The alley fell silent as the villain laughed and mocked Izuku.
The ground then began to shake, stopping the villain from laughing any longer. "What's going on?!" asked a spectator.
What happened next caught everybody off-guard except for Katsumi. Izuku's body rose from its position on the ground and righted itself in midair. His green hair was a pure white now and even shone like a star. Around it was an almost glitch-like effect, like what you might see in an old video game. His eyes opened. They were white as well and shone just like his hair.
"I thought he was dead!" yelled the villain.
Izuku looked towards the villain and then towards Katsumi. "Save… her…," he said, repeating his previous words. He raised his hand towards the villain who had grown a terrified expression on his face.
Before the villain knew, his victim (Katsumi) was no longer in his grasp. Instead, she was in the arms of Death Arms, who was just as stunned as the villain. Next, Izuku looked towards the nearby buildings that were on fire. He cocked his head in confusion and pointed his hand toward them.
Small white squares began to form on the surface of the ground directly below Izuku. They soon began unfolding, almost like origami, and covered the entire street corner. Soon, the squares light grew intensely, almost blinding the crowd and the villain.
When they opened their eyes next, the fire was gone as well as all signs of it having been there in the first place. The buildings were perfectly intact, just as they were before the attack.
Izuku turned his head back towards the villain and once again raised his hand toward him. The same square pattern appeared inside of the villains center. The squares unfolded and formed into the shape of a pressurized air canister. Izuku snapped, and the canister exploded, sending chunks of the villain all over the walls and floor of the alley.
He turned to face the group of spectators and smiled before snapping once more, sending out a massive flash of light. When the people opened their eyes, they saw All Might standing there, holding Izuku's arm and punching the air.
Izuku had changed their memories to show a more favorable scenario. To them, there was never any fire, and All Might had defeated the villain with a Detroit Smash. Izuku would remain unconscious until the next day. While in the hospital, there was one person always by his side: Katsumi Bakugou. "Gosh," she sighed. "You did it again, didn't you?"