"I was going to hand out these life course sheets," The teacher says at the front of the room, gesturing toward a stack of papers on his desk. "But, I know you all want to be heroes - "

"Damn right!"

"Aww yeah!"

"I'm gonna be the best hero!"

Everyone started using their quirks, showing off. Screaming and laughing. Except a certain green-haired kid sitting silently in the back.

"Hey! No quirks allowed during school hours!" The teacher called. Everyone begrudgingly settled down.

"Don't put me in the same group as these nerds. I'm better than all of them!" Everyone immediately stopped talking and turned to the blonde boy who had spoken those words. Bakugou Katsuki, the biggest jerk in the school... "My superiority is obvious." He raised a glowing hand. "I'm going to go to UA and become the best hero. I'll even surpass All Might!" He created an explosion to prove his point.

"Isn't the exam super hard?" A kid asked.

"Yeah, how do you know you'll even make it in?" Another voiced

"I aced the mock exam, why not the real one?" Bakugou growled.

"Surpass All Might? Seriously?"

"Shut up!" Bakugou turned to explode the girl who said that.

"Midoriya also intends to go to U.A as well."

Everyone stopped. For a beat, there was silence. Then everyone turned to the silent green-haired boy. Bakugou barked a laugh. "That loser? Seriously?"

It wasn't long before the rest of the class joined in.

"Midoriya?"

"What a joke!"

"That Quirkless loser?"

"Ha!"

"How would he even get in?!"

"Yeah, you'd need a quirk for that."

"You can't get in if all you do is study!"

"Yeah"

"Midoriya Izuku, the world's lamest hero!"

The boy in question didn't react. He sat in silence, letting his classmates ridicule him. He couldn't care less, really, as to what his classmates thought of him. It wasn't anything new, something as normal as how the sun rose and went down every single day.

It's not like I can use it. Besides, once he got into U.A, he wouldn't have to worry about them. No, you'll have a whole new set of problems, then.

The bell rings, and all the students quiet for a moment, before rushing out of the classroom, green-haired boy forgotten. He sighed and grabbed a notebook and his backpack, before standing. Suddenly, there's an explosion in his face. Izuku looks up to see Bakugou in his face. Awesome.

"Look, Deku." The blond growls, trying to be intimidating, Izuku guesses. "Don't try to put yourself on my level. You're just a Quirkless loser. And before you make some smart-ass comment about me using my Quirk, school hours are over, so I can do whatever I want." Bakugou put his hand on Izuku's desk. "The exam is impossible for you, so don't even try."

Izuku waits a bit to see if that's all the boy had to say. When he confirms that Bakugou is done talking, he grabs his backpack and notebook again, intending to leave the classroom. Bakugou grabs him by the collar. "Where do you think you're going?" The blonde snatches the notebook from Izuku's hand. Cursing internally, Izuku attempts to diffuse the situation. "Look, Kaccan, " He almost winced at the stupid nickname. But he had a part to play. "Give me my notebook back - "

Bakugou looked bored. "Why should I?" He taunted. He held the book out the window, dangling it as he asked, "What if I drop it? What if my hand . . . slips?" He drops the notebook before quickly grabbing it again. "Ha!" He laughed. "You should see the look on your face!"

Izuku looked at him with blank eyes. "Just give it back." That notebook had important information in it. He couldn't afford to lose that much hero analysis.

"Hm.." Bakugou pretended to think about it for a second - which Izuku did not appreciate - "No." His hand began to glow again. Izuku knew what was about to happen. He watched as the burned paper fell into the fountain below. He sighed. Bakugou laughed and walked out of the room with his buddies. "Maybe you should take a swan dive off the roof of the building and hope the next life treats you better!"

Izuku just put on his backpack and went to retrieve the notebook. He pulled the wet paper out of the fountain and decided it would be fine as long as he didn't mess with it too much as it dried.

Izuku was lost in his thoughts. What if I did take a "swan dive" off the roof? What would Bakugou do then? He sighed, It's not like anyone would miss me. He glared at the ground for a second, before forcing himself to be calm. He heard a strange noise, and suddenly, he was choking.

It was all around him, choking, smothering, killing. He couldn't breathe. Izuku tried to kick and punch, but he was met with a liquidy substance, instead of skin. The world was growing dimmer and dimmer, and he was losing his strength. He could hear whispers of puppets and bodies or something, but he wasn't paying attention.

Wow, he thought. How lucky… I guess it won't matter any longer if I took a swan dive or not...Since after all...

No one would even notice.

"Hey. Wake up. Hey. Hey. Hello? Wake up. Hey." Someone was smacking his face. And not very lightly, either. He sat up and opened his eyes. Oh. I'm not dead.

"Can you please stop that?" he groaned, not wanting the other man to keep slapping his cheeks.

"Ah yes. Sorry, I'm usually much more careful about protecting citizens, but navigating a sewer system is much harder than one would think!" Boisterous laughter followed this statement, and Izuku almost covered his ears like a child. He looked up, past the massive legs that were in his face, and saw the smiling face of . . .

All Might.

Great.

Izuku didn't dislike All Might, he envied him really, for having such an all-around-useful quirk. Not at all like his own. But he did find him much more annoying in person. He hadn't realised that the man literally screamed every sentence. Izuku stood up, before saying, "Where's my notebook?"

All Might's smile faltered a bit. Just a flicker, really, but enough to let Izuku know he was shaken. Probably because the boy hadn't immediately jumped up with a round of "Oh my goodness, All Might? He's so cool! I can't believe I'm meeting him in person!" and all that. Izuku couldn't be bothered with that, though, he needed that notebook, it was already halfway full, losing that much information would really set him back on his analysis. All Might kept his ridiculous smile on and pulled Izuku's notebook seemingly out of nowhere. "Here you go!" He screamed. "I took the liberty of signing it for you!" And sure enough, as Izuku flipped through the pages, he saw "ALL MIGHT" in giant letters across two pages. At least they were blank ones, but jeez. Two whole pages? That was two fewer pages that could hold information.

"Thanks." Izuku closed the notebook and looked around, feeling relieved when he realized that his backpack was still alright. He stuffed the notebook into it before turning to All Might, who was still stuck in that stupid position. "For saving me, I mean. I really appreciate it." And he continued his walk home.

Izuku had barely walked a block when he heard explosions. A villain attack? Intrigued, he walked over, hoping to get some new quirks to analyze. Not surprisingly, there was a crowd. He shoved through it ruthlessly, to find…

The same villain that attacked him. There's no way. All Might isn't this incompetent. Izuku looked around for a hero. He saw Death Arms and some others, but none of them are doing anything. "It has a hostage!" He hears someone yell. A hostage? Izuku inspected the villain closer. He saw a head of blonde hair.

Explosions… Blonde hair… and was that… screaming? Cursing. It was cursing. No… it couldn't be…

"LET GO OF ME, DAMMIT. I'LL KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!"

Bakugou.

Of course.

Before he knew what was happening, Izuku ran past the heroes, ignoring the yelps of "Kid, what are you doing!" and "Stay back!". He knew he could handle this. The sludge villain saw Izuku and said, "Ohhhh, it's you! I guess today is my lucky day, two victims for the price of one!" Izuku ignored him. The sludge villain sent out a chunk of its body. Just a stream of . . . goo. Izuku rolled to the side, before taking his school bag and throwing it at the villain. The creature was shocked for a moment, and Izuku used this moment to unscrew his water bottle, which he had taken out on purpose, and splashed the whole thing where Bakugou was. The gooey substance that the villain was made of diluted around the boy and Izuku pulled him out. The villain had recovered by now, so Izuku used his strength to throw Bakugou out of the way, and ducked under the steam of sludge. Shocked, the villain tried to hit him again, when suddenly,

"DETROIT . . . SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

And the sludge villain went flying everywhere. Bits and pieces of the nasty slime landed all over the street. Izuku sighed. Well, at least no one could claim that he took out the villain by himself, that would be dangerous. But still…

"Are you alright, my boy?"

Izuku looked up at the ridiculously tall (and loud) man and said "Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for saving me… again. I guess I'll try to be like you when I become a hero." He ignored Bakugou's grumbling about how that would never happen.

"All in a day's work." The hero struck a pose. "Oh, excuse me, I believe the media wants a word." And then Izuku was left alone with angry heroes.

"That was dangerous, kid."

"No shit." Izuku looked directly at Death Arms.

The hero looked offended before recovering, "You could've died. You shouldn't - "

"Shouldn't what? Help people? "Leave it to the heroes", right? Well, the heroes weren't doing anything, so I had to do something, or else he would've died. Isn't that supposed to be your job? You save people? Why should a junior high student even have to step in? There was plenty you could've done. Pulled him out, splashed water on him like I did, literally anything. You should've been prepared to risk your own life for his, but instead, you held back. And a 15-year-old saved his ass." He stood up, grabbed his bag, and continued on his path to his house. Ignoring the baffled looks of the heroes.

Izuku sighed. How had his afternoon gotten so disrupted? Suddenly:

"I DIDN'T NEED YOUR HELP, YOU DAMN NERD! I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL, I WOULD'VE GOTTEN OUT JUST FINE. DON'T GO THINKING YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME!" Bakugou. Nice. Izuku stood there and waited for him to be done so he could be on his way. But nooooooo. Bakugou had other plans.

The blonde grabbed Izuku by the collar and raised him. Izuku didn't react, which, of course, made Bakugou think that Izuku was mocking him. "ARE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME?"

Izuku then replied with, "Well yeah, I kinda have to, since you're down there and I'm up here." He wiggled his feet for emphasis. "See? Not on the ground."

Bakugou threw Izuku to the ground. "You think you're so funny, huh? Well, you won't be laughing when I kill you!"

Izuku stood up. "Uh, yeah. When you're able to kill me, let me know." I would love to see you try. He walked around Bakugou, leaving him alone on the block.

Izuku almost made it this time. He was so close to making it home when a large shadow suddenly came from around the corner. He immediately took up a defensive stance, ready to pummel whatever it was, when the shadow stopped, revealing… All Might.

"Hello, my boy!" The obnoxious human stated. "I came to find you!" He flashed a smile that could rival the sun.

Izuku held back a sigh. "Hi, All Might."

The man suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. Izuku almost flinched. When the smoke cleared away, it revealed a . . . skeleton man? Izuku immediately took up a defensive stance, when the man said, "Wait!"

Izuku froze and narrowed his usually blank eyes. "Who are you? Where's All Might?"

The man sighed. "I'm All Might."

Izuku's eyebrows rose by a millimeter. "Interesting."

All Might frowned. "You believe me?"

Izuku settled back into a casual position. "Yeah, it makes perfect sense, actually."

All Might's frown deepened. "How so?"

"Well, for one thing, there was that battle from a couple of years back, where you got really injured. It was very hushed up though, and almost no one talks about it. That alone is enough to make someone like me suspicious. Then, of course, there's the fact that your strength and physique are impossible to achieve. You're like, 8 feet tall, and your muscles have muscles. It just isn't possible for someone to achieve that level of physical fitness. Plus, as much as you've been trying to hide it, anyone who's been paying attention can see the clear decline of the hero activity that you've been doing since that incident. I'm guessing there's some sort of time limit to how long you can keep up that form." Izuku stopped there before his analysis descended into full-on muttering. He went back to staring at All Might in silence.

All Might was stunned. He wasn't ready for all that. And was he really that easy to figure out? What if someone else had noticed as well? Who was this boy, and why was he so good at analyzing?

Izuku looked at him through bored eyes. "Calm down. It's not likely that anyone else figured it out. And I'm not going to tell anybody anyway. But we're getting off topic here. Why did you come to find me?"

"Oh, right." All Might stood straighter, before slouching again. "What's your name, young lad?"

Izuku was annoyed but didn't show it, "Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya."

All Might straightened again with what was probably supposed to be a smile. A puff of smoke and he stood in all his 8-foot-tall glory. "Young Midoriya!" He boomed.

Izuku inwardly cringed. Of course. How did no one hear him?

"I have chosen you! To be my successor!"

Izuku just stared at him. It was what he was doing the whole time, but now he really was just gazing at the man in confusion. "What?"

"I choose you to be my successor!"

"Yeah, I heard that part. What I mean is, what do you mean by 'successor'"?

"Many have wondered about my quirk, most assume it is a physical quirk, superhuman strength, speed, and agility."

Izuku was getting annoyed again. How exactly does this story answer my question?

"But that is not true. My quirk is a quirk that has been passed down from person to person, multiple people helping to cultivate its power, all adding to it before giving it to someone else. My quirk is called . . . One for All."

"That's amazing. But what was the point of that?"

Now it was All Might's turn to be confused. Shouldn't this kid be more amazed? The sarcasm in his statement was obvious. Shouldn't he feel more humbled and wow-ed? Apparently not. Izuku just waited for All Might's answer with a look of mild annoyance on his face.

"Erhm, the point, is that I am going to give it to you!"

"Cool." Izuku was actually kind of impressed. "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but why me?"

All Might smiled at the question. "Your heroic act of bravery when saving that child earlier really moved me. It was what sparked my action! How someone like you went to save him and did it without using a quirk, too! All the best heroes have these "body moved without thinking" moments. And you, Young Midoriya, may become one of the best heroes of all!"

Izuku blinked. "Cool. So how do I get the quirk?"

All Might poofed back into his weak form, coughing up blood. Seriously, what was with this kid? Was All Might really making the right choice? Giving this child who barely respects him One for All? Not that Midoriya's lack of adoration for All Might has anything to do with it. None at all. But seriously, if the kid ended up not listening to him, he may abuse One for All, or even become a villain. All Might wasn't sure if it was a smart move but the way that the boy had shown courage that no one else had dared to show, that somehow made him certain that the kid could do it, erasing his worries. This was the kind of person he had to give his quirk to…

And besides… he had already told him about his secret…

"Okay!" All Might said. "In order to receive my quirk, your body will need to be physically ready for it. If your body is not up to par, the results could be disastrous!"

"What happens if my body's not 'up to par'?"

"Your limbs could get blown off!"

"Gotcha. Then what do I need to do?"

"Meet me at the beach, the one that no one goes to, at 7:00 AM tomorrow."

"Takoba Seaside Bay, right?"

"Yeah."

"7:00 AM?"

"Too early for you?"

"Nah, it's just kinda late."

Late? All Might wonders. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then, Young Midoriya."