Disclaimer:(See Prologue)

Chapter 2: Unlocked

Katsuki was walking through an alleyway, drinking a can of soda as his two lackeys followed behind him.

"I can't believe Midoriya bitch slapped Bakugo like that,'' one of them said, still in disbelief on what he witnessed. "I didn't think he'd have the balls to even raise a hand to Bakugo, let alone hit him."

"He did say that one of his great-grandparents was an American, maybe that's where he got it from." the other lackey said; he then looked to the spiky blond's direction, "Looks like Deku is much of a deku after all, huh, Bakugo?"

"Shut up." Katsuki commanded, getting both of them to be quiet. His cheek was now sporting a bruise due to that back hand, and it pissed him off. He knew Izuku for a long time, and knows that the greenhead doesn't have the guts to fight back against him. So he knew that Izuku used his quirk.

"Deku, you really are a pathetic piece of shit." Katsuki said, letting off an explosion, destroying the empty can in his hand. "Not only did you dare to hit me, but you couldn't even have the balls to do it on your own. You think people will want a hero like that? You don't deserve the privilege."

He kicked away two soda bottles that were in his path, their contents spilling out when they landed.

"Hey, man, forget about him," one of the lackeys said, taking out a cigarette and a lighter, "Let's head to the arcade and have some fun. I heard they got some new machines."

"PUT THOSE AWAY, DUMBASS!" Katsuki shouted, turning towards the lackeys, "Someone might see you with that! I'm not risking my perfect record going into U.A. be ruined by your vices!"

The unlit cigarette fell out of the boy's mouth, but not because of what Katsuki said.

"Uh, Bakugo?" the other boy said, his voice trembling in fear as he pointed behind the bomber.

A large shadow loomed over them. Katsuki turned to see what was behind him, and saw a large mass of thick, green slime.

"You'll do quite nicely." The slime said as its face emerged from the mass.

Izuku sighed as he walked down the road, looking over the contents of his hero notebook.

"I still didn't get a clear answer." he said to himself.

*(flashback)*

Izuku could only stare at the strange man in front of him. All Might was just there a moment ago, now there's someone else in his place.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" he screamed in shock, "WHERE DID ALL MIGHT GO!?"

The man was just as shocked as him; the last thing he expected was this boy shout at him in perfect English. Breaking out of his stupor, he might as well explain himself to the boy.

"I'm All Mi-blargh." he began, only to vomit blood. Izuku screamed once again, but out of concern for this strangers well-being this time.

He also acknowledge what the man tried to say, but he can't completely believe him. He took a good look at the stranger; the man had the same cargo pant and plain white shirt that the hero was wearing, his hair was also the same shade of yellow and his eyes were the same bright blue. The man was All Might, but different.

"You can't be All Might," Izuku said, in denial, "he has large muscles and a smile that drives away fear from the hearts of people."

"The muscles are from me sucking in my belly and puffing out my chest, like what guys do at the beach or pool." All Might explained. The image of what he said left Izuku in disbelief.

" "A smile that drives away fear" huh?" the hero said to himself quietly, "Young man, what did you mean when you said "someone like me" in your question?"

Izuku's attention was brought back to his idol with that question. He then took a deep breath to calm himself and began to explain.

"It's my quirk, sir," he said, "It allows me to relive the memories of the past four generations of my family; it's completely different for my parents' quirks. I'm able to learn a lot of things in a short amount of time thanks to these memories, but that's all my quirk is able to do; it's all mental, and I can only use it on myself, not on others. My doctor said that I'm practically quirkless because of that fact, and that I should give up on my dream and find something more realistic."

"Your dream?" All Might inquired, though he could already guess what it was.

"To be a great hero, one that saves everyone with a smile," said with a faint smile, "Just like you. That has been my dream ever since I saw your debut online. But ever since that doctor's visit, I've been doubting if I can make that dream a reality. I tried to find the answer, but I never found a clear one. I was hoping you could give me a clear answer so I can end my doubt."

"I see," All Might said when he finished. The hero sat down on the building's roof floor and leaned on the railing. "What's your name, young man?"

"Oh, I'm Izuku Midoriya, sir." he introduced himself.

"Well, young Midoriya, let me show you something," All Might said and lifted his shirt. What Izuku saw was a large, scarred-over wound disfiguring the hero's left side; the skin blue and purple, showing that has yet to fully heal.

"Nasty, isn't it?" All Might rhetorically, "A villain gave me this injury five years ago, I'm missing half of my left lung and my stomach is basically nonexistent; Because of that, I can only maintain my image for five hours a day if I don't push myself."

"Oh my God." Izuku said in English, "Wait, five years ago; are you saying Toxic Chainsaw did this to you?"

"You are very well informed, young Midoriya," All Might remarked, "But no, that villain isn't capable of causing this. The fight I had with the villain that caused this was never shown to the public. Being a Superhero is a dangerous responsibility, you are always putting your life at risk to save the day. That smile you see drive away fear actually hides a great amount of fear."

All Might got up and started walking towards Izuku, who stayed silent.

"I'm sorry, young Midoriya, but I cannot give you the answer you are looking for," All Might sighed, "You have a great quirk, unlike any that came before; I'm pretty sure that you can do anything you set your mind to. But with my experience as a Superhero, I just can't give you a definitive answer."

The hero then began walking toward the door leading into the building. Izuku could only look down at his feet, still choosing to remain silent.

"Hey, chin up my boy," All Might said, seeing the state Izuku was in. The boy turned to look at him, "I wasn't lying when I said you can do anything you set your mind to; there are many ways to save people with a smile other than being a Superhero. Ultimately, it's your call to make; and whatever future you decide to take, you can count on me cheering you on."

"Thank you, sir." Izuku said with a smile, hearing that lifted his spirits a bit.

*(flashback end)*

"How come no one can ever give me a straightforward yes or no answer?" Izuku asked no one in particular. "Not even All Might can give me a clear answer."

Izuku shook off the feeling of frustration that was starting to grow. He had no good reason to feel that way.

"Dad was right," he declared in his head, "The only one that can give a straight answer is me and me alone. I shouldn't have to wait for someone else to tell me to live my dream; I already passed the mock exam to the best superhero school in the nation and I didn't wait for someone's permission. And if I don't get in, it's not the end; like All Might said, there are many ways to save people with a smile. I'm going to be a great hero, super or otherwise, no matter what!"

Izuku clench his fist with conviction, his eyes full of resolve with his mental declaration. He has found his answer.

"Now that that issue is out of the way, I can now focus my full attention on preparing for the entrance exam." He said. He grabbed a pencil from his pocket, turned to a blank page in his notebook and began writing.

"But first, I have to figure out what's happening with my quirk recently." Izuku prioritized, recalling the day's events. "I can safely say that I can now relive the memories of ancestors beyond four generations back, and mimic their body movements, too. But out of all my ancestors, why do those six in particular stand out?"

A large explosion nearby interrupted Izuku's thinking. He looked up to see smoke billowing from an alleyway near him, a crowd of civilians and police already at the location.

"Did I subconsciously bring myself to a scene of a hero and villain fight?" Izuku asked himself. He then made his way to the front of the crowd to see who the heroes were and what quirks were being used; might as well fill in more pages in his notebook now that he's here.

Many heroes were on the scene, and he recognized three right away; Kamui Wood from this morning is here, as well as two other heroes Izuku knew, Death Arms and Backdraft. Backdraft was currently trying to prevent the surrounding fires from spreading while the other two heroes were standing at a distance from what was causing the destruction.

That's when Izuku saw the familiar mass of slime. "What!? Him!?" he asked internally, "How is he here? Last I saw him, he was captured by All Might." That's when Izuku realized what happened, "Fuck, he must've dropped out of All Might's pocket when I grabbed on to him. I knew I shouldn't have bugged All Might like that; my desperation for a simple answer caused this situation."

"Make way! Mt. Lady coming through," the heroine announced, entering the scene in her giant form. She reached to grab the slime villain, but the alleyway he was in was too narrow for her to fit into, "Crap, no good," she said, "I can't do anything here without causing more damage to the buildings."

"Dammit," Death Arms cursed in frustration, " we still have to wait for a hero with a suitable quirk to handle this thug."

"We can't keep waiting!" Kamui Wood exclaimed, equally frustrated, "The longer we wait, the more we risk the hostage's life!"

"Hostage?" Izuku repeated, looking back to the villain. Sure enough, the green mass had someone trapped; but not just anyone.

Izuku's eyes widened, "Kaachan?"

Katsuki continued to struggle against the villain that captured him.

"Dammit," he cursed mentally, "You think your scummy ass can beat me of all people? That's so stupid, it's not even funny."

"JUST DIE!" the bomber commanded, creating a huge explosion to blast the slime off of him. It did not but made the heroes, police, and civilians take a step back as well as create new fire to add to all the current ones being dealt with.

"What an awesome quirk you got, kid," the slime villain said with glee, unaffected by the explosion, "with it, no one, not even All Might, will think of messing with me."

The villain then started covering Katsuki's mouth and nose, suffocating him.

"Dammit!" Kamui Wood cursed, seeing what was happening, "He's harming the kid!"

"Don't!" Death Arms said, holding him by the shoulder to stop him, "anything we do now will only put his life in greater risk."

Seeing that his attack did nothing and the heroes weren't doing anything, Katsuki started trying to claw his way out of the slime. Having no effect and losing oxygen, he started to panic; he began to look around for anything that could save him.

That's when Izuku saw something in the blond's eyes he never saw before; a desperate call for someone to help him. Before he knew what he was doing, Izuku began to run towards his childhood friend, dropping his notebook, pencil, and backpack in the process.

"Kid, stop!" Death Arms shouted as he saw a green-haired boy run through the barricade and heroes towards the villain.

"What are you doing?!" Kamui Wood shouted.

"You!" the slime villain growled, his one good eye filled with rage as he remembers the boy who blinded him earlier.

"WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING!?" Izuku asked himself, shocked by what's happening, "It's one thing to rush into danger, but to rush into danger without thinking of a plan first!?"

"Can't dwell on it now," he thought as he continued running, "I need to do something to distract this slime guy before he does anything. Think, Izuku, think!"

He then remembered what happened with his first encounter with the slime and what he wrote in his hero notes after seeing Kamui Woods fight today. "I need to strike his eyes from a distance to get close enough to Kaachan." He immediately went to grab his backpack, only to realize he dropped it before he started running. "SHIT!"

"DIE, YOU BRAT!" The villain shouted and threw a large mass of slime directly at him with the speed of a fastball. The heroes were too far away to do anything to stop the attack from hitting the boy.

Time slowed to a near halt as Izuku's mind went into overdrive. "What do I do?! What do I do?!" he asked himself, activating his quirk to find anything that can help him. "No good!" he remarked, finding no solution in the past four generations, "I have to try going farther back, it's the only thing I can do now!"

He began to do so; his quirk did change, he is now able to look farther back in his family line. But everything came in and out like a blur. Izuku is able to recall the memories of his past four generations in a snap because he has been doing it for years, so he knows right away which ancestors have the best solution and when in their lives to find it. But now that he's going through new memories at the same speed, he doesn't know who has the best answer right away or when to find it.

Izuku started to lose consciousness as his mind became overwhelmed with the large flow of memories coming in and out. His vision began to fade to black as the slime projectile slowly moved closer to him. But before he could succumb to the strain, a voice, a woman's by the sound of it, cut through his mind and silenced the jumbled mess of memories.

"If this is the path you choose to take, I cannot, in good faith, let you go without giving you something to make the journey a little lighter."the voice said.

He couldn't see anything, but he felt a sensation he never experienced grow from the core of his being and spread throughout his body.

"Unlock."

Izuku's vision came back and a new feeling was experienced in his hands and arms, like he was using a muscle he never had before.

The flames closest to him were pulled towards him and began to circle around his arms. A great amount of fire gathered around Izuku, but he didn't notice as the green projectile closed in on him.

"Hold strong, men! Do not break!" his captain ordered as they all locked their hoplons in a tight phalanx formation.

"Don't break!" the order was given again as their enemies were about to crash into them from their charge.

"BRACE!"

They braced; the force of an entire army pushed against his shield, but he didn't break. The formation held strong.

The slime villain was surprised at what he saw, just like everyone else who witnessed it. This brat has a pyrokinesis quirk, and he just tanked his attack.

The fire around Izuku's left arm took the form of a large round shield, which he used to block the projectile head on. On his right hand he was holding flames that took the shape of a spear.

Izuku lifted the fire spear above his head as he started running towards the villain again. With great form, he threw the spear; it soared through the air with great speed. It reached its target, hitting the slime between the eyes and bursting on impact.

The villain let out a yell in pain as he was blinded again; the slime around Katsuki's nose and mouth receded, allowing the boy to some much needed air.

"KAACHAN!" Izuku shouted as he reached the blond. He struck the slime keeping his peer trapped with the edge of the fire shield without a moment's pause. After cutting away a decent amount of slime away, the shield dispersed as he began to pull his childhood friend out.

"Deku!? What the hell are you doing here!?" Katsuki asked, realizing who was pulling him out.

"I don't know; I started moving before I knew what I was doing, but that doesn't matter!" Izuku answered. He didn't know what he was doing in such a dangerous situation, but he knew in his heart why, "It looked like you were asking for help, so here I am!"

With a strong heave, he was able to free Katsuki from the villain's hold. Izuku lost his balance and they both fell to the ground.

"The kid did it!" Exclaimed Death Arms in disbelief. All the other heroes who saw what the greenhead did were just as stunned.

The slime villain recovered from the flames, his good eye still working, and saw that the kid has managed to free his leverage. He let out a shout of rage, the heroes will have no reason to stand back now.

"I'LL KILL YOU, KID!" Losing all sense of reason, the slime villain reared back a formed slime arm and swung down at Izuku, intending to end the brat that caused his so much trouble today. Izuku saw what was going to happen, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Using his quirk at such an extreme and whatever he just did has left his mind and body sluggish.

"Shit, we won't reach them in time!" Kamui Wood shouted as he and the rest of the heroes moved as fast as they could to stop the villain. But the mass of slime came crashing down long before they could reach their target.

The dust cloud from the impact soon parted, and the two boys realized that the strike didn't reach them.

"What kind of hero am I, not practicing what I preach?" a voice familiar to the two boys said. They looked up and saw that All Might, in all his buff glory, has taken the hit for them.

"A HERO IS ALWAYS IS PUTTING THEIR LIFE AT RISK TO SAVE THE DAY!" The Symbol of Peace declared, pushing the villain back.

"ALL MIGHT!" the slime villain roared as he launched himself towards the #1 Superhero, rage consuming his reason. All Might reeled back his right fist, he's going to end this in one blow.

"DETROIT SMASH!" All Might shouted. The punch not only launched the villain up in a large torrent of wind, it extinguished all the surrounding fires in an instant; a few moments later, it caused the sky above to rain.

All Might subtly wiped away the blood on his lip as the crowd behind him cheered him on for saving the day. He turned and looked down to the two boys that were behind him; both of them were unconscious due to the area of force his attack had.

"Young Midoriya, you are something else." he thought to himself, looking at said boy.

"Boy, do you know how reckless you were just now!?" Death Arms scolded

"Not only did you put your own life in danger needlessly, you put your friend's life in even greater danger!" Kamui Wood berated, wood-covered arms crossed.

Izuku just came to a minute ago and was now being reprimanded by the two heroes for his actions. Nearby, he could hear the other heroes praising Katsuki for being brave and giving him comforting, supporting words that he couldn't make out at the moment.

"Furthermore, you used your quirk in public without a proper license," Kamui Wood informed him, "that's illegal; punishable by prison time."

"However, since everything turned out well in the end, we'll only give a warning." Death Arms said, "But just this once; if we catch you doing it again, we're going to have to take you in."

"Now head home, kid," Kamui Wood said, handing Izuku his backpack with the notebook and pencil he dropped, "the media and crowd are distracted by All Might at the moment; get out of here before you draw attention to yourself, we'll cover for you."

Izuku could only nod; he was too tired to do anything else.

OOO

The sun was starting to fall into the horizon as Izuku trudged his way back home. All he wanted to do now is hug his mom, eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.

"DEKU!" an angry voice called behind him.

Izuku turned around and saw that it was Katsuki, panting with hands on his knees from running.

"Listen, and listen well," Katsuki stated, looking at Izuku with eyes that always held hostility, "I didn't need your help and I wasn't asking for it! I was doing fine on my own; that punk is nothing compared to me, so the situation was in my control to begin with! I especially didn't need whatever deus-ex-machina bullshit you pulled back there! You're still just the pathetic Deku who can't rely on himself to solve his problems!"

"DON'T YOU EVER FORGET THAT, OR ELSE YOU'RE DEAD!" the blond finalized as he turned around and walked away, now bothering to wait for a response.

"...Alright." was all Izuku had to say, and continued trudging his way home. He was too exhausted to take what Katsuki to heart.

"I AM HERE!" All Might announced, suddenly appearing in front of him. Izuku could only stare at his idol with tired eyes.

"Hello, my boy; it is I, ALL MI-blargh!" the hero vomited blood, turning back to his lanky self in a puff of steam. That woke Izuku up a bit.

"Young Midoriya, I'm here because I want to tell you something," All Might said after wiping away his blood. "I was at the alleyway where the slime villain incident occured today. I already reached my limit on my buff form, so I chose to stand by and watch as the other heroes did nothing to help that other boy. If it wasn't for your actions today, I would live the rest of my life as a hypocrite who couldn't put his own principles into action. For that, you have my thanks."

"Don't thank me," Izuku said, looking to the ground, "That incident wouldn't have happened if just let you leave at that overpass. Because of my selfish desire to have my question answered, I put someone's life at risk and had to rush into danger recklessly."

"But it's that reckless behavior that inspired me to be the hero should." All Might said. Izuku looked up to the lanky man's direction, "I inspired him?" he asked himself, stunned by the confession.

"Many great heroes have stories from their youth, and all share the same thing." All Might said, "Their bodies moved on their own before they got a chance to think. It's the same for you, isn't it, young Midoriya?"

Izuku could only nod; is this going where he thinks it's going?

"Then I have no doubt in my mind," All Might said, looking at Izuku with full certainty.

"My boy, you can become a hero."

Izuku already clearly answered his own question himself, but hearing someone else say it brought tears of joy out of his eyes.