Katsuki still remembered the first time he had met Izuku, after all, how could he forget such a weird interaction. He had originally started hanging out with him because his mom was friends with Izuku's mom, and because his mom said that the boy had trouble making friends. He was put off at first, as all kids are when their parents try to make them do something, but he agreed anyway.

When he first saw Izuku he immediately noticed that he had no arms. Katsuki wrote him off as someone he'd have to stand up for and was quite pissed. What was his mom thinking of making her son hang out with a charity case? This line of thinking was cut off though when he made eye contact with the boy. Instead of the eyes of someone who had accepted their lot in life, Katsuki was met with eyes telling a story of untold potential and frightening intelligence. It shocked him for a moment before he regained composure.

'So, he's not a sad sack.' Katsuki thought 'Maybe he'll be interesting"

"My name is Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you!" The boy said, turning towards Katsuki, a large grin plastered on his face.

"I know what your name is, my mom, knows your mom." He responded, sounding thoroughly done with the entire situation. He stuck his hand out like he'd seen his mom do when meeting new people." My name is Katsuki Bakugou, you better not forget it."

The two boys stood there in awkward silence, asIzuku stared at the hand offered to him incredulously for a few moments before looking to meet Katsuki's eyes.

"Are you trying to shake my hand?" He asked in disbelief and slight amusement.

Katsuki stood there and blinked. He put his hand down and brought it up to rub the back of his head nervously.

"Sorry, I, uh, I forgot." Gosh, he was embarrassed.

"You're good, I forget things all the time." The boy replied, never once dropping his smile.

"So, do you want to play heroes or something?" Katsuki had never been nervous, he just hoped he hadn't messed anything up.

"Heros? I don't think I've ever played that game before."

Katsuki's eyes widened. "You've never played heroes before! How could you have not played heroes before? It's the most awesome game in the world!"

Izuku was startled by the sudden shift in Katsuki's demeanor. "U-uh, well I haven't heard about heroes before, soo."

'Oh' Katsuki thought, his previous embarrassment forgotten. 'I have a lot of work to do.' Looking towards Izuku, he started making his way towards a bench.

"Come on, I've got lots to tell you."

Since he was old enough to understand anything, Katsuki knew that he was smart. He was told it constantly, and his test scores were proof that people's claims about his intelligence were true.

But even with his intelligence, he found himself unable to solve the enigma that was Izuku Midorya.

The boy had no reason to be as confusing as he was. He was kind to everyone, even though the world had given him every reason to be spiteful. He was smart far beyond his years, and Katsuki found himself playing second fiddle to him more often than not.

Katsuki had every reason (in his mind at least) to hate and be jealous of the boy, but he couldn't. He had known Izuku for years, been his friend for years, which made the fact that he couldn't understand him even more frustrating. He had grown up with him and had been there through all of his ups and downs. Yet he couldn't figure out how a single person could have that much determination and commitment. He was the last person in the class, but he never let the cruel words of his classmates get to him. Even when Katsuki had gotten his quirk and lorded it over him, giving him the name of Deku (this was a period that Katsuki dearly regretted and still apologized for), Izuku never once faltered, never stumbled, he just kept on marching forward toward his dream. Whenever Katsuki would bully other kids(Again he was sorry for it), Izuku was there to put him in his place, to remind him what it meant to be a hero.

When Izuku had gotten his quirk, he didn't try to get back at everyone who wronged him. All he did was inform everyone that he had a quirk, before going on with his life.

It made no sense to Katsuki, but he was grateful that he was friends with the boy.

12-year-old Izuku stood shirtless in the center of his room staring intensely at the large pile of rocks in front of him. Ever since he discovered his quirk, Izuku's passion for heroes increased exponentially. The walls of his room were plastered with posters and his shelves filled with figurines of his favorite heroes. One hero though had more merchandise than any other. Izuku's favorite hero is Ectoplasm. While he had loved All Might as a kid, once he started taking his dream of being a hero more seriously, Ectoplasm took the number 1 spot in his mind. To see another hero with no arms had been a major confidence booster for him as a child and had even led to him picking up martial arts as a way to further emulate him. Anything that had the Ectoplasm name on it he bought, unfortunately for him, his favorite hero was not the public's favorite hero, leaving him with very little to collect. As a way to enlarge his collection, he began making his merch with the use of his quirk. This had a very nice bonus of helping him perfect the finer parts of his quirk and had led him to where he was right now.

Izuku looked at the rocks in front of him for a few seconds, before the faint green glow associated with his quirk surrounded it. Smiling slightly as the rocks floated up before losing their shape, he began to mold the "liquid" rock into the rough shape of a set of arms. Sweat started to form on his brow as he concentrated hard, the next part was where he always failed. He commended the arm to attach themselves to their respective places on either side of his body. The rock started to lose shape, but refusing to give up, Izuku doubled down, pumping as much energy as he could into them. He felt them take their place, and let go of his focus. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he inhaled deeply through his nose trying to psyche himself up for what came next. It was time for the final test. Focusing on his "arms" again, Izuku shut his eyes and began to pour a little bit of his energy into them, willing them to rise. The arms were still for a moment before starting to rise slowly but surely. After a few seconds, Izuku opened his eyes to see that his "arms" had risen just as he wanted.

"O-oh my god, i-t fi-finally worked! Oh my god!" The young boy shouted, his disbelief and excitement clear. Years of hard work culminated in this very moment. "I have to show mom!"

He sprinted out of his room, stopping to look at himself in the hall mirror. His "arms" hung at his side, their surface a mixture of grays and browns from the rocks he had his mom collect for the experiment. The surface of them was rough with odd angles, but with an undeniable shape of human arms. Across his chest and along his collarbone were two strips of stone that connected the two appendages to keep them in place when not in use. Turning to see his back in the mirror, he saw two more strips along his back serving the same function. Satisfied, he resumed his journey to find his mother. He found her in the kitchen working on dinner for the two of them.

"Hey mom, I got something to show you!" The boy said, excited to show his mother his life-changing achievement. "Mom." He said again, noticing that she was lost in thought while she worked. Getting slightly annoyed, he walked up and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

Inko, startled, spun around fast.

"Izuku! What is -" Inko's voice caught in her throat as she noticed her son's appearance. "Izuku, you, you have arms!" She exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I know mom I just fin-Uph!" He was interrupted by Inkp tackling him in a hug as she sobbed into his chest. He stood for a moment before he relaxed into the hug.

And for the first time in his life, he hugged his mother back.

—-

2 Years Later

—-

"..his lacquer chain prison is a great move for both taking out several enemies at once, as well as restraining large villains. The problem is that any villain with even a minor fire can counter him very easily, and considering that it's one of the most common types of quirks, at about 17.49% of all quirks manifested, his chances of meeting an opponent that…"

Izuku sat at his desk in school muttering to himself about the hero fight he had seen that morning as he wrote down notes about the heroes involved. He had only been able to write things down for a few years, but it quickly became one of his favorite things to do in his free time. The muttering had always been there but only grew in intensity as the years went on. It along with his constant note-taking would often scare people, which only exasperated his inability to make friends. He currently only had one, who was marching over to his desk at that moment.

"Oi Mi-dork-iya, quit it with the muttering already, you're freaking everyone out!"

Looking up Izuku saw his best/only friend staring down at him. Katsuki had been friends with him for years, the only one that was able to see past his "weirdness" and give the boy a chance. He was the one to introduce him to the world of heroes, and one of the only people that believed that Izuku could be a hero.

"Sorry Kacchan, it's just that I saw Kamui Woods today before school, and with his risin-"

"Yeah, yeah I know, just keep your thoughts in the big head of yours, we don't want villains knowing our plans to kick their asses." Katsuki interrupted. "You can mutter to your heart's content when you're at home alone. Now are you available to spar after school, I've got some new moves I want to try out against that bullshit power of yours."

Izuku had been sparring with Katsuki as soon as their parents allowed them to. These bouts were where both of them had most of their breakthroughs in applications for their quirks because nothing brings new ideas better than trying to beat the shit out of someone. They stood pretty even with each other until Izuku started fighting with arms. With a constant source of material to work with, he was able to change his fighting style from walls and throwing projectiles, to an ever-shifting array of melee weapons and projectiles. Soon their fights turned to one-sided slaughters in his favor, leading to Katsuki using him as a way to test his more destructive attacks.

"Sorry, I can't because my mom wanted me to pick some things up for her at the store after school."

"Bu-" Katsuki's protest was cut off by the bell ringing. Scowling, he made his way to his seat just in time for the teacher to walk in.

"Alright, since it is your third year, it's time for your children to start seriously thinking about what you want to do with your future. Now I could pass at these aptitude tests I was given by the district, but who am I kidding, you all want to be heroes!" The teacher threw the test into the air and the classroom exploded with sound as everyone showed off their quirks. "Now I know you all have impressive quirks, but remember that public quirk usage is illegal, so cut it out."

"Hey teach, don't lump us in with these third-rate extras, there's only two here that got what it takes to be a hero, and that's me and Midoriya. The rest of you can give up on hopes, cause you'll be nothing more than sidekicks!" Katsuki exclaimed, standing up on his desk in the process.

Izuku put his head down and shifted his arms into a dome around his head in a futile attempt to hide. He never understood why Katsuki always felt the need to make big exclamations and put people down while doing it. He hated the unneeded attention it brought.

"That's right." The teacher continued. "Both you and Midoriya put UA down on your high school lists."

The classroom burst into whispers at this.

"UA, wow do you think they can make it?"

"I heard that it only has a 1% acceptance rate."

"I mean I get Bakugou, but Midoriya really, he's nice and all, but I don't see him being cut out for hero work."

The last one hurt Izuku on a personal level. He had always had doubts about his dream of being a hero. Sure Katsuki and his mom constantly assured him that he could be a hero, but their reassurance did little to shield him from the biting words of his classmates. They always brought up that no matter how powerful or useful his quirk was, he'd always be starting with a disadvantage. Luckily for him, Katsuki usually came around to tell the kids to piss off, in fact here he was now.

"HEY! Shut it you extras, Midoriya is one hundred times the hero any of you can ever hope to be!"

The teacher, seeing that he was losing control over the classroom, decided it was time to reel them in. "Alright that's enough of that, today we'll continue our lecture on the early years of quirk society. Now one common theme in books about the early quirk era is the idea of a boogeyman. Often called "The Quirk Merchant" this fig…"

Having heard all of it before, Izuku turned his attention back to his analysis of Kamui Woods.

"...alternatively he could pair up with a water-based hero such as Backdraft to increase his chances of…"

—-

After School

—-

Izuku made his way home from the store where he bought what his mom wanted for dinner that evening. He carried the bags, while simultaneously looking over his shoulder every few seconds to see if he'd be called out for public quirk usage. He generally tried to obey the law, but like everyone else ever, he made a few exceptions. These were mostly for doing school work and the rare occasions that his mom asked him to do something for her after school. Even then he hated the looks he got when he didn't use his quirk. The mix of pity and shock he saw in the eyes of strangers made him feel like an animal on display. This, mixed with his curiosity, led him to try to take a new way home every day. His daily exploration had brought him to an underpass today.

As he walked through the underpass, lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice a nearby grate move to reveal a thick dark green sludge. This sludge ended up being a person, who upon seeing Izuku, started to pool around his feet. Izuku didn't notice this until it made its way around his waist.

"Well, what do we have here, hmm, a medium-sized skin suit, perfect for hiding from him. Don't worry kid, it'll only hurt for a second, you've been a real hero for me." The villain whispered Izuku's ear as he started to envelop him.

Izuku, not knowing what to do at the moment, mentally grabbed onto anything he could and drew it into himself, forming a protective wall between him and the villain. This action startled the sludge villain, causing him to back off for a moment. Not being one to pass up an opportunity, Izuku capitalized on the villain's slip up, and reached out for more material, before trapping the villain in a dome.

'Huh, I guess I have my capture move now.' He idly thought to himself as he continued to reinforce the dome. 'What should I call it? Capture Dome? No, that's too basic.'

His train of thought was cut off by a large figure burst through the same sewage hole the villain came through.

"FEAR NOT I AM– UH, AM I TOO LATE?" All Might had arrived.

—-

Yagi Toshinori was having a rough day. It was his first day in Musutafu , and his plans had already been ruined. His new apartment had nothing in it, so he had to spend the day buying everything he would need to get by. That had been the plan at least because every time he had tried to make a purchase something would happen preventing him from getting the goods he so desired. The most recent offense was a villain snatching the purse of a woman on the street, this had turned into a several-hour sewer crawling adventure that left him wet and feeling dirty. The worst part was that when he had eventually caught up to the villain, he had already been subdued by some middle school boy with green hair. Well, he could at least take the fiend to the station.

"THANK YOU VERY MUCH CITIZEN FOR YOUR HELP, BUT I HAVE IT FROM HERE." He said to the boy in his normal over the top tone.

"You're welcome, he attacked me while I was walking home from school, but he was pretty easy to deal with, the only damage is that my groceries got destroyed." The boy replied, pointing over to the pile of ruined food by the entrance of the underpass

"WELL THEN, I BETTER GET THIS EVILDOER DOWN TO THE STATION. FAREWELL, AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!"

All Might picked up the dome the villain was trapped in, as well as some of the ground underneath, and prepared to leap off. Before he could leave though, he heard the boy call out to him.

"All Might, can I ask you a question?"

Deciding he had a few minutes to spare, Yagi began to reach for the pen and paper he always kept on him for autographs."WHY CERTAINLY! NOW, WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?"

The boy went silent for a moment before he seemingly gathered his thoughts.

"Do you think I could be a hero?"

The question caught Yagi off guard. Looking at the boy it was obvious from his build that he had put in the time to train himself, and based on the captured villain he was holding, he was certain that the boy had a suitable quirk for the job. While these were both important parts of being a hero, Yagi had come to realize the hard way that they weren't the most important.

"Tell me, what's your name son?" Yagi's voice was no longer loud and energetic, but serious and subdued to match the weight of the question.

"I-izuku Midoriya sir." He responded, thrown off by the sudden tone shift.

"Alright, now tell me Midoriya, what does it mean to be a hero to you?"

Upon hearing the question, Izuku visibly brightened. "A hero is someone who puts the needs of others first. Someone who is able to get back up no matter what. Someone who can save the day with a smile."

Yagi was impressed. Most people would say something about having a good quirk or being strong, but this boy seemed to be able to understand the true meaning of the word. Maybe he'd make a good hero, but Yagi still had one question. "Good, now will you be able to do that?"

The boy looked taken aback. "What do you mean? I don't understand the question."

"Will you be able to be the hero you described?" Yagi asked, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Will you be able to set aside what you hold dear in order to save a stranger? Will you be able to stand up and continue, even though you know you're going to be knocked down as soon as you stand up? Will you be able to smile after seeing the worst of humanity?"

"I-I d-don't kno-know." The boy could barely speak.

"Then that is a question you need to answer before you can become a hero." With his piece said, Yagi picked up the captured villain again and began making his way to the police station, leaving Midoriya to ponder the true meaning of being a hero.

He knew that he was being harsh, but he needed Midoriya to understand what it truly meant to become a hero. He was aware of the influence he had over people, and he could not in good conscience throw someone into the world of heroics unprepared. Fighting evil was a truly taxing and Sisyphean career, not one that just anyone can do. Looking back at Midoriya one last time, he continued his journey. He would either step up to the challenge and take on the true meaning of being a hero, or he would be saved from a life of loneliness and pain.

The choice was up to him.

—-

Izuku sat on his bed thinking about the conversation he had with All Might. He had always had an idea of what being a hero meant, but today he was forced to see the true meaning of the word. Was he cut out for it? He always had his doubts, but now, they were so much worse.

He had the power, and he had the skill, but did he have the mental strength? He knew that before anything else he needed to answer that question, he just didn't know where to begin.

Izuku was pulled from his thoughts by his mother opening his door.

—-

"Izuku dinner ti-honey what's wrong?" Inko asked, seeing the turmoil in his head reflecting on his face.

"Mom, do you think I can be a hero?" He asked the same question that he had asked all those years ago.

"Why of cours-"

"NO. Do you think I can be a hero?" His voice was fragile and tears were welling in the corner of his eyes

Inko was stunned. Never had she seen her son so torn up about anything. She knew that her answer would have major ramifications. "I do honey, I really do. You've trained and worked so hard, and I know that you will be an amazing hero."

"And what if it breaks me?" His voice barely reached her ears, but they broke her nonetheless.

She cupped his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. "Then I'll be there to put you back together." She wrapped him in a hug and sat with him.

After several minutes he pulled away. The turmoil went from his eyes.

"Thanks, mom, now let's go get dinner." The lightness of his voice let her know that whatever was bothering him was solved.

"Alright, fair warning though it might be a bit burned now." She said lightheartedly. "And Izuku, you know that I'll always be there for you right?"

He looked over his shoulder to respond.

"I know mom, I'm counting on it."