(Note: I've never really written a story before, fanfiction or otherwise, so I undoubtedly will make quite a few mistakes while writing this. But the main reason I am writing this is that I seek self-improvement in my writing ability. Looking for feedback of both the positive and negative variety.)

(Warning: This story features heavy themes of blood and violence. Read at your own caution.)

Chapter 1: Helplessness

"All right now, listen up all of you. You guys are all third years now, that means you have got to take your futures seriously!" boomed a loud voice that echoed throughout the small classroom.

This was the voice of a homeroom teacher at Aldera Junior High School. Currently, he was informing all his students that they had to start thinking about their futures as the end of the school year was around the corner.

"So, you will now be getting your career aspiration forms!" the teacher said. "But... seeing as you all want to be heroes, that won't be needed! Now will it!" the teacher shouted, breaking his professional tone and energetically throwing the papers up in the air.

As he said this every student in the classroom cheered and put on a display of their quirks, every student but one. This one student was Izuku Midoryia, and he was trying to keep his head down, as this class was not a crowd that was on his side.

"Oh please, why do you gotta rope me in with all these extras!" exclaimed Katsuki Bakugo, Katsuki was Izuku's best friend, check that, former best friend and he had long ago set his eyes on becoming the number one hero with the desire for money and fame at his core, and had become more aggressive towards Izuku ever since, bullying him for his pitiful state.

"I simply have no intention of making friends with these weaklings! I'm sure you can understand that!" the explosive boy smirked.

"Hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean!" one of the other students shouted angrily.

"Oh yes, you were planning to go to UA High School, right Katsuki Bakugo?" the teacher asked while readjusting his glasses.

As Katsuki went on with declaring his intentions and arguing with other students, Izuku tried to tune him out and he subtly glanced up at the clock. The class would be ending soon, and all he had to do, was keep his head low and hope nothing would…

Before he could finish that thought he was called out.

"Oh yeah, didn't you want to enroll into UA too Midoriya?" the teacher asked while looking down at his papers.

Before any more words could be said, the whole class erupted into laughter.

"What are you even thinking? That's Impossible for you!" one kid said.

"What is this! Are you trying to make me laugh?" said another.

Izuku tried to say something in his defense, but before he could Katsuki let loose an explosion on top of Izuku's desk, and he was knocked to the ground by the force of the blast.

"You don't even have a quirk you shrimp!" Bakugo screamed at Izuku. "So why would you even try to compete with me!"

"Wha- I don't want to compete with you I just want to- to-!" the green-haired boy stammered.

"Shut it nerd!" Bakugo yelled, not even giving Midoriya the chance to defend himself. "I'll give you a piece of my mind ya hear me!"

The bullying continued a bit longer, as it always did. It wasn't that today was an especially harsh one, it had started out with the road being blocked off due to the attack of a giant villain, but even though a dangerous criminal and one with malicious intent had been in his line of sight, Izuku had not been afraid, few people ever were as sights such as these were common occurrences. Actually, Izuku was thrilled, as he got to see two heroes make their debut. Of course, then he had to go to school, where he now found himself getting bullied like so many days before. All these events were not uncommon, this was his life. To an onlooker it may seem like Midoryia's life was not one worth living, but Izuku still had hope, hope that he could realize his dream, and become a hero. Afterall All Might, the number one hero had said it himself, All Might had said it countless times on TV with his thundering, heroic voice "YOU TOO CAN BECOME A HERO!". Thanks to those words uttered by his idol, he could still believe in himself no matter what anyone said, he would not give up.

After class finally ended, Midorya reached for his notebook that was resting on his desk, when suddenly a hand entered his view and swiftly grabbed the notebook with all the grace of a typical middle school bully.

"What's this Deku? Hero Analysis #13." Bakugo said plainly while keeping his eyes on the notebook.

"That's nothing! Give that back Kacchan!" Izuku cried, getting up from his seat to try and reason with him.

"NOPE!" Katsuki said as he incinerated the collection of pages with his explosion quirk.

The contents of the notebook that Katsuki destroyed were several months' worth of sketches, notes, and information that the green-haired boy had worked on, and they had been burnt to a crisp in front of his very eyes. Izuku took his earlier thoughts back, this was an especially terrible day.

"W-Why did you do that?! I told you already, I wasn't trying to compete!"

"No matter how many times I try to get the message across you just never seem to get it, do you?!" Bakugo began to shoot him a death glare. "So let me spell it out in a way even someone as worthless as you can understand. THE ONLY PLACE IN THIS WORLD WHERE QUIRKLESS LOSERS LIKE YOU GET TO BELONG IS AT THE VERY BOTTOM!"

The terrifying power behind those cruel words alone was enough to blow the feeble teen back into his seat where he shook and cowered like the helpless boy he was.

"Well, I suppose there is still one way you can become a hero." He started onto a new point as he tossed the notebook outside of the open classroom window. "You can always take a swan dive off the roof, and hope that you'll be dealt a better hand in the next life."

After school...

Izuku was walking back home from school while in his hand he clutched his soaking wet, burnt notebook that he had fished from the school koi pond moments after it had been initially thrown in. He was thinking about what Kacchan had said to him today and pondering if said words were in fact truthful.

"Would things really be better if I were to just kill myself, If I left this life behind in the hope that the next one would offer me a better chance?" he thought to himself.

"Of course not! What am I even thinking!" he shouted out loud this time, and stopped walking beneath the underpass of a bridge.

"I have to stop listening to what other people tell me! I need to believe in myself more!" he yelled out loud again.

Suddenly the boy felt a wet sensation moving up his legs, and when he looked down he saw a green-black sludge-like substance quickly moving up his body and beginning to envelop him completely.

"HUH?!" he yelled and tried to get out of the sludge, but it just wouldn't stop crawling up his body that was too weak to fight back effectively.

"Ugh… stop… struggling." a strange voice muttered.

Izuku had tried to ask the voice who he was and what was happening to him, but before he realized it, his mouth was completely covered with the sludge. As Izuku was slowly being devoured he tried to escape, he clawed at the sludge but it was all to no avail. By this point the sludge had almost completely had his whole body encased, it was in his mouth, ears, and in his nose, all five of his senses were screaming with revulsion towards the vile sensation. Izuku was starting to suffocate, it was now becoming impossible to breathe, he tried to fight it but there was no escape and he was beginning to fade into a state of unconsciousness. The pitiful schoolboy felt more fear than he ever had in his short existence, this was nothing like the villain he saw earlier that day, because now he had been targeted, and there were no heroes in sight. He was afraid for his life, afraid that he would die here without doing a damn thing.

"TEXAS SMASH!" a loud voice roared.

The last thing he saw before everything went black was the sight of an imposing and powerfully-built man wearing a white shirt, green pants, and he had signature stylized blonde hair, that even half a conscious Midoriya, could recognize by heart.

Several hours later...

"ALL MIGHT!" that was the first thing that came out of Izuku's mouth when he suddenly woke up.

"My BABY! YOU'RE OKAY!" Izuku's mother, Inko Midoriya said with tears flowing from her eyes as she ran over and hugged her teenage son.

Caught off guard and still very confused and unaware of his present situation, Izuku returned his mother's hug and took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a hospital room, and was sitting on a bed.

"What happened? Where am I mom?"

Inko relaxed her grip on him and took a minute to clear most of the tears from her eyes before he spoke.

"You're at the hospital, you were attacked by a villain, but All Might saved you. I was so worried, but now you're okay." she explained, and then hugged him warmly a second time.

He breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that, he could feel his nerves calming down, when suddenly…

"I AM HERE!" shouted a booming voice.

Both Midoriyas jumped in surprise at the sudden outburst and looked in the direction the voice had come from. Standing in the door frame stood the powerful figure of All Might. Izuku's eyes lit up at this once-in-a-lifetime sight.

"I came to check on you my boy! How are you feeling?" All Might asked, his hand resting on his hips in a heroic pose.

"I-I'm feeling great." That was all Izuku managed to say, and it was true, not only getting to seeing his idol, but also being able to speak with him, this was turning out to be an amazing day, eventful, but nevertheless amazing."

"Yes, thank you so much for saving my son, this is a debt that I will never truly be able to repay." Inko said as she bowed her head in respect with tears still in her eyes.

"Don't say that, I was simply doing my job." All Might said reassuring the boy's mother. "But I'm truly glad that you're okay my boy, now take a look you even made it on the news."

As All Might said this he gestured up at the hospital room TV, and Izuku looked up at it. Just as promised Izuku could see video of All Might talking to press reporters while carrying the unconscious body of a certain green-haired boy in his arms, and then handing him off to a paramedic. Of course, all the attention was on All Might, and Izuku's name was never spoken, but the fact remained that his face was on a broadcast that half of Japan would see.

"Well seeing as you're now safe and sound, I must be off, there's no telling who could be in need of my help as we speak!" as All Might announced this he began to walk out of the room.

Izuku was happy that he got this once in a lifetime experience of talking to All Might, but something inside himself could not just leave it at that, there was something he just had to ask.

"WAIT!" Izuku shouted as he leaped from the bed. "There's one thing I have to ask. Can somebody become a hero, even if they're quirkless?!"

His eyes gazing at the ground, too nervous to look him straight in the eyes, but he could feel the hero's powerful gaze on top of him, and then came the answer that he had been waiting for, ever since that day in the doctor's office.

"No." All Might responded after a while. "It's not wrong to have dreams, and as noble as the dream of becoming a hero is, it is simply not attainable for someone without a suitable quirk. But if your wish is to save people, then you can always become a police officer, it's a fine job, and you'll get to perform great services for your comunity." and then he walked off as soon as he dropped down those heavy, heavy words on top of the poor boy's phyche.

Hearing that, Izuku fell to his knees, the only thing that had kept him going for so many years was the hope that his dream could come true because All Might had said that anyone could become a hero. But now that his hero had told him to give up, straight to his face, he could feel that hope crumbling at the very foundation.

Inko knelt down next to him and hugged her son, "I'm so sorry." she said. It was the same as that day all those years ago. He didn't have the willpower, to say or do anything, right now all he wanted to do, was just hide away in some other world.