I'm having a lot of fun writing this story.

Clockwork was invisible as he watched Bakugo shout at Midoriya for trying to save his life from that sludge villain with just a smidge of frustration. He never understood humanity and the odd little boxes and categories that they put their society in. Seeing the same song and dance about ostracizing others for being 'different' than the majority numerous times throughout history. He had to admit it got a bit tiring seeing humans not learn anything after a while.

Although while he felt some frustration about Midoriya and his situation about wanting to be a hero without a power, he was more fascinated by his resolve when it came to doing the right thing. In some ways, it reminded him a lot of Danny. Where no matter how bad things get for them, they always seemed to do the right thing in the end.

However, unlike Danny, who had powers compared to a relatively normal human and was a bit selfish in the use of them from time to time, Midoriya was powerless. Whereas the average human now had some type of odd power called 'quirks' for them to use in their profession and their day-to-day lives, Midoriya didn't have one. Causing him pain and torment for being different from the rest of his peers.

Yet somehow, there were zero traces of bitterness and anger in the green-haired teen whenever he interacted or spoke to others. Speaking to others in kindness even if he wasn't treated the same way, and helping others even when he wasn't helped. It was this quality that made Clockwork sure that he would be the perfect candidate for a hero in his time, and he knew he wasn't the only one who thought that.

Around the corner was the symbol of peace himself sprinting where the green-haired was about to pass. Raising his glowing staff towards the charging blonde just before he got a couple of meters away from Midoriya, he called out a move that made him different than all the other numerous ghosts found in the Ghost Zone.

"Time out."

The muscular blond froze midstride as the ghost moved in closer to inspect the number one hero. Of course, he knew the reason why he was rushing towards Midoriya in the first place. Wanting the same thing from the young teen that he did: to offer the chance to become a hero.

Being the keeper of time, he saw many variations of the world they live in and the possibilities that can happen. One of which All Might had trained the young teen and given his quirk, One for All, for him to use to become the world's greatest heroes along with the help of his potential classmates in UA. However, in that timeline, there were no ghosts to terrorize the country.

"I'm sorry All Might", the ghost said as he watched Midoriya make his way home in the distance, unaware of the symbol of peace's presence, "But I need him to take a different route this time."

He chuckled at his little joke before unfreezing All Might and warping out of there. Leaving All Might to burst around the corner with an eager smile.

"I am here! Looking to speak to yo-", the hero coughed as he deflated to his normal form, realizing that the teen was nowhere to be seen.

"He was just here.", the frail blonde looked around in confusion, "I could've sworn I heard him just now. I hope I didn't miss him." He continued to walk the opposite direction where Midoriya was heading, unknowingly missing the opportunity to offer his quirk.

Midoriya looked at the door of his apartment, bracing himself for what is about to happen next as he went to knock on the door. He only managed to knock on it once before it was flung open and his mother rushed him with a hug that nearly squeezed the air out of his lungs.

"Izuku! Are you ok?! I saw what happened on the news!"

Unfortunately, the boy couldn't answer, as his mother continued to squeeze the air out of him. Thankfully she stopped after a few more seconds of hugging him as she looked back at him with concern and tears in her eyes.

While her son looked ok physically, she saw the looks in his eyes and noticed that they weren't as bright as they were before. Even with the encounter of meeting All Might, his favorite hero.

"I-I'm fine mom. J-Just a bit tired from today.", the boy tried to pass it off with a smile, but Inko could tell that his heart wasn't really in it.

Inko pursed her lips, deciding whether or not to continue asking about what happened.

"Well... I have dinner on the stove if you are ready to eat. It's your favorite."

She was glad that was able to bring a small smile from him with that, but she could tell that it wasn't enough whenever she went back to their table with two steaming plates of Katsudon in her hands While he did show a smile when she sat at the table and started eating, it didn't seem to last.

He seemed to be distracted by something, as his eyes often went to the side and went unfocused as he occasionally ate. Eventually, their plates were empty, with her son hugging her and thanking her for the meal before heading to his room.

"Izuku...", Inko called out to him just before he entered his room, "I'll be here if you ever want to talk. You know that, right?"

Midoriya turned a bit to give her a reassuring smile to her, "I will mom.", he said before he disappeared behind the door. Making Inko worry about what he is thinking about.

The green-haired boy sighed heavily as he looked at the massive amount of All Might merch that decorated his room as he entered, with a feeling of uneasy acceptance forming in his gut as he remembered the words his hero said to him.

'It's not bad to dream. But you also have to consider what's realistic.'

Midoriya knew that his goal of being a hero was just that, a dream. Something out of reach for him as he continued to write about heroes and their quirks whenever he got the chance to write about it. It was just that he never really wanted to face the reality of the situation. Now, the only thing to figure out was what to do next, as he didn't really have any other big ambition or drive that he had after being a hero. Maybe a doctor? A Lawyer? Quirk specialist?

He didn't really know what the next path for him was, but he knew it wasn't going to come to him just standing in his room looking at the numerous faces of All Might. Which didn't fill him with awe or inspiration like it used to.

He found a spare box in his closet and slowly started to take down his figures and posters of All Might, when he got to the last few figures on his desks he paused. It wasn't like he hated the man for what he said, he just felt a bit off whenever he saw his face. He still had a great deal of respect for him, even if he didn't feel the same when he looked at him. He decided to leave a poster of him and three figures standing on his desk when all was said was done.

Feeling mentally exhausted, he quickly got changed and went to bed, wondering what was in store for him tomorrow as he drifted off to sleep.

(The next day.)

Midoriya walked to his desk doing in his last class doing his best to ignore the constant chatter of his classmates as they looked between him and Bakugo, no doubt talking about their encounter with the sludge villain the day before.

Of course, Bakugo wasn't pleased with the attention it brought him. Yelling at anyone who even brought up the incident and making it clear that Midoriya did not save him when he was trapped. Midoriya put a lot of thought into his next step, and while he still didn't know what his next path in life was, he knew one thing he had to do.

He walked up to the teacher and handed in his correction to his plans to UA, with the teacher lazily reading it with his eyes widening slightly after a brief double-take.

"Midoriya, you want to transfer to UA's General Studies?"

All conversations were stopped, with even Bakugo looking at him with a bit of surprise. Which Midoriya couldn't blame them for, since it was something that he always stated boldly and only yesterday when he turned in the form stating that he wanted to join the UA's Hero course. Then the whole class started to laugh just like they did before.

"He gave up!?"

"Finally woke up after the slime attack huh?"

Oddly enough, Bakugo stayed silent the entire time. Watching Midoriya with angry narrowed eyes as he walked back towards his desk with his head hung down. Eventually, the class started to calm down with just brief chuckles leaving their mouths as the last class of the day finally started.

The bell finally rang for dismissal, with the class leaving with bright eager smiles on their faces. Midoriya wasn't sure what he wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon but also moved towards the door before a familiar pair of red eyes bore down at him. Though while the classroom was empty with just the two of them like yesterday, his lackeys were nowhere to be found.

"So you finally given up huh Deku!", a sinister sneer formed on Bakugo's face as he loomed over the green-haired teen, "After all these years, you finally realized how useless your dream was. I just got to know, what made you finally wake up."

Midoriya looked towards the ground and pursed his lips, unsure of how he will react to the answer. While he couldn't tell anyone of All Might's injury and his limited time as a hero, he was still unsure how others will react to what he said.

"A-All Might told me.", the boy said as he kept his head down, "H-He said I needed to find a different d-dream."

If he had been looking at Bakugo, he would've seen the brief surprise that went across his features before it disappeared back into the nasty sneer.

"Looks like even the number one hero had enough common sense to send a quirkless freak like you out into the field. At least now you will finally stay out of my way and watch as I become the new number one hero on the sidelines.", the volatile blonde said as he finally left the classroom with a laugh, free of the pebble that was a bother to him for so long.

Midoriya walked home with his head down and a jumble of emotions in his chest. He was feeling a flurry of emotions at the moment, sadness for never being able to live out his dream of becoming a hero, anger at himself for being following a dream for so long without waking up, nervousness about what to tell his mother of what his next plans are for high school as even he had no idea what he even wanted to do.

He heard another villain attack down the street and was about to open his backpack again to take notes when he paused and realized what he was doing. Shaking his head bitterly before clutching his backpack straps harshly and going back where he was heading originally.

Truth be told, he didn't want to go home right now. He didn't have the strength to put on a facade of 'everything is ok' to his mother with the flurry of emotions going inside of him right now. It was then that he saw a familiar forest ahead of him and started to move towards it, wanting to be alone for the time being.

As he entered, he started to walk on a familiar path that he once walked on when he was a kid. When he and Bakugo were still friends at a young age. Midoriya passed by a giant log that went over a small stream of water and was reminded of the time Bakugo knock his hand away from him when he tried to help him out.

He never really understood why he did that when he was only trying to help him back up, but he supposed it didn't matter anymore. The two were going on different paths now, with Bakugo moving towards the UA hero course and him going to general studies.

He saw a fork in the road, one that looked familiar to him. Where one led to a brightly lit passage of trees and one that he remembered crossing with Bakugo as a kid, the other was a path that led deep into the woods, where numerous signs warning people to stay away.

He was always curious about what was on the other end of this path since even Bakugo didn't go there when they were kids. He hesitated for a moment before steeling his nerves and started to walk on the alternate path.

While at first, the path didn't look much different than the other one, he soon realized that the trees in the surrounding area were much thicker and numerous than the other. Almost blocking the sunlight from entering the path as he continued to venture forward.

There were thick branches that kept coving his path his way forward, and he struggled to move forward. He was about to give up and turn around when he saw something inside the deep underbrush ahead. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like an abandoned building of some sort.

The boy continued to move branches out of the way until he saw it, a grey bunker of some sort in the middle of a clearing surrounded by massive thick trees. Midoriya could also see that there was a garage of some sort and moved to inspect it, but it seemed that it had to opened from the inside. He looked to see if there was a door of some kind and was surprised to find one unlocked.

"Hello?"

Peeking his head in hesitantly, he called out to see if there was anyone inside before opening the door fully with his eyes widening as he fully entered.

"Whoa..."

He walked into a room that had its lights off and was covered with numerous cobwebs and dust, yet based on the furniture and items it seemed more to be a lab of some sort with numerous pieces of equipment and high-tech vehicles unlike anything he had ever seen. Such as a hovercraft that had no wheels, but rockets attached to the back of it, a glowing green dream catcher, and a heavily armored vehicle. When he brushed his hand against the side to uncover a bit of dust, he saw a faded green letter 'F' painted on the hull of the vehicle. He looked at all the equipment in awe, as he never even heard anyone making a hovercraft before. Even I-island seemed to be focused on more hero-based equipment than advancements in transportation. He wondered how long has this building has been hidden from the world.

His eyes continued to linger on the various pieces of equipment that were laid out of the table and the giant monitor that was against a wall when caught the sight of something that gave him pause towards the side. It looked like a hole in the wall, with various cybernetic wirings littered throughout the floors and walls and a white jumpsuit with black gloves a Sharp "D" planted in the middle of the chest hanging off to the side. As he stepped closer, he saw a note that looked fairly recent posted to the side of the machine alongside a blueprint of the machine.

-Make sure you are wearing the jumpsuit ;) -

He paused as he viewed the note once more, it looked way too new compared to the various other pieces of equipment that were littered throughout the room, and after removing a bit of dust from the blueprint, he saw that the machine was for a...

"Ghost Portal...?", Midoriya said in amusement as he looked at the plans before looking around the room uncertainly. He was about to laugh at the idea of ghosts after reading the plans but then thought about the room he was in.

Midoriya himself didn't believe in the existence of ghosts, as he never even heard of such a thing before except in films and cartoons. Yet that begs the question, why would someone go so far as to make devices and gadgets for something that didn't exist? And who made the note?

He took a few uneasy glances between the jumpsuit and the supposed portal as he decided whether or not to continue on. He thought about quitting right now and heading home, but his curiosity won out and he hesitantly put on the jumpsuit after removing his backpack. The suit was surprisingly comfortable and easy to get into, almost like it was made in his size.

He entered the portal and looked around the portal hesitantly. He didn't really know how this thing worked, and he probably was never going to if the looks of the wiring and components inside were any indication. Yet, that thought didn't erase the wonder and amazement he felt as he took in the device's appearance. He was just about to walk out when his left hand brushed a panel on the inside and accidentally pressed the green 'on' button on the inside while an automated voice started to speak from the outer room.

-Connection Reestablished, Initiating Restart-

Midoriya panicked as the inside started to hum with bright green lights circling around him, turning around to see the outer room getting their lights back on as well.

He turned to make his way out of the portal, but was unsuccessful as the inside of the portal was filled with a bright green light that blurred his vision and a jolt was felt throughout his entire body. Making him scream as he tried to bear the pain of the device giving him shocks throughout his body.

Unknown to him at the time, as his DNA was getting infused with ectoplasm, the router that was used to keep the ghosts out from earth was also connected to the building's electricity. So when the power went back on, the device was overloaded with power and gave out as Midoriya finally managed to stumble out of the portal.

He groaned as he laid on the floor and tried to stay awake from his encounter with the portal, and started to feel his eyes start to fall as the giant monitor in the room came to life.

The new phantom was born.