Author's Note: Happy New Year! Sorry about the huge delay! I had a chest surgery recently (Not heart) and some other things going on. Thank you all so much for the comments. It really does keep me going, and it means a lot more than you probably think.

A crowd had gathered that local heroes and police were forced to keep at bay while they figured out the quirks of the villains wreaking havoc. One might wonder what they wanted the bank's money for, but to All Might it did not matter. When villains were disrupting his peaceful city, it was his duty to stop them. He noted without concern the rifles that they were carrying. How bold to carry such weapons in the city he protected.

"It's fine now" he shouted, descending from the building he was perched on.

He landed, and in a single instant most of the men had already fallen, bruised and bloodied. The heroes and police relaxed while the villains remaining lost the will to fight.

"Why? Becaue I am here!"

His confident shout emboldened the hearts of everyone present. All Might's glowing smile never faltered, even when a bullet shot out of one man's rifle. For most people, it would seem that he teleported. He vanished in an instant and reappeared in front of the criminal who shot. Dodging the bullet was child's play to him, and that fact terrified the villain before him.

All Might mistepped and nearly collapsed as he held back a coughing fit. He'd been careless. Even in his condition, subduing the man in front of him was simple. A single punch laid him out, sending him flying backward.

But then, the last man took off with a quirk that increased his running speed, All Might cursed internally. Interfering with this situation was a bad idea, but he couldn't do nothing. Now, he really had no choice but to do nothing, his body finally giving out after an entire day of hero work.

Catching the sprinting villain should be even easier than subduing his cohorts, but his legs were beginning to buckle, his breathing was getting more and more painful, and resisting the urge to cough was taking more and more effort.

He did a half bow to the heroes. "Sorry. Could you take care of the last one? I have somewhere I need to be!"

The resolute nods filled with trust and admiration pierced him. They trusted his words absolutely, but it was only a lie used to shelter his body from any further harm, self-inflicted at that. His blonde hair, spiked at the top, flowed when he jumped along with his long cape. He finally coughed a little and was grateful no one could have caught the blood that came with it.

Her son, Izuku, was watching the same video of All Might he'd watched a thousand times. He played it so many times that Inko remembered every line by heart, though she didn't often look at the screen. All might's laughter echoed through Izuku's room, but somehow it did nothing to alleviate the tension at all.

"He's such a cool hero," Izuku said, voice breaking, "Can I be a hero, too?"

He swiveled in his chair and she saw the tears pouring down his face. Her heart broke in two at that moment. She wasn't sure why, but it felt like her fault somehow. Maybe if she raised him differently, he would not have been so dead set on becoming a hero. She might have persuaded him to do something other than watch his infallible idol over and over. Or maybe she could have said something better than 'I'm sorry' over and over and hug him.

She was sure, in that moment, that she failed as a mother in some critical way. What should she do, what should she say? Questions and doubts haunted her every interaction with him. He knew his dream was unrealistic. She just hoped that he would find a new dream he could be passionate about. But was that right?

A mother should support her son's dreams, right? But what if that dream was unattainable? She didn't want her little boy to get hurt, or to have a painful dream he could never achieve.

She always had a bad habit of snacking and overeating when she was stressed out, so lately she had been failing at that, too. Her friend, Mitsuki, was great help, but the guilt and uncertainty still ate her up inside.

She sighed and wondered how to approach her son about his dream. "Izuku…"

Izuku came home a bit later than usual that day. She was a bit worried, and she rushed to the entrance of their small apartment to make sure he was okay. She paused at the hallway leading to the front door.

"Izuku?" she asked, shocked beyond words.

He saw her and his face lit up. "Mom! I'm sorry I'm late, but I met a man who said- Um, my notebook- I'm trying to say that I want to draw-"

"C-Calm down, Izuku." She hadn't seen him look so excited about anything in a long time. Did he run into a hero?

Izuku showed her the notebook he was holding and opened it up. Strangely, it didn't appear to be his, but it had drawings of heroes in it worse than Izuku's. Optimism filled her at the possibility that appeared in her mind.

"Did you make a new friend?" she asked, attempting to be nonchalant.

Izuku scratched his head in thought. "Well, I guess? He's more like…a teacher!"

"A teacher?"

"He wants to teach me stuff! He's really nice!"

She was feeling a little concerned. "He's not a teacher at your school? Where did you meet him? Is he your age?"

Izuku looked contrite. "W-Well, I s-sort of used my allowance to see…a, um…"

"It's okay, just tell me," she coaxed.

He relaxed a little. "I hired him because I wanted to…t-talk about not having a quirk..."

There was shame in his voice, like he was expected to just shoulder it instead of asking for help. She supposed that was what happened when a boy idolizes a hero who does everything on his own.

"Izuku," she started softly, "you can talk to me about anything. If you wanted to talk to a professional, you should have told me. But how in the world did you afford something like that with allowance?"

He froze and patted his packets before drawing a few thousand yen from his pockets. "I-I forgot to pay!"

She thought so. The man sounded very nice, talking to a client for free. Did talking to him make Izuku that happy? She wished he would have talked to her instead, but it was like a massive weight was lifted from her shoulders.

"Did talking with him make you feel better?"

"He's the one who gave me the notebook! He said it was okay to have more than one dream. I want to draw a story, Mom!"

Her legs almost gave out, and she found herself holding back tears. She wanted to thank whoever gave her son a new dream to focus on profusely. She made a mental note to get his location out of Izuku for a litany of reasons.

"I can't wait to learn from him! He said I could really be a hero!"

Huh?

"And, um, he said he was a psychic! It was kind of weird, and I didn't really get it, but-"

Izuku rambled about his new 'teacher,' but Inko had a sinking feeling that replaced the earlier gratitude she felt. What kind of man did her son meet with? Now she was more determined to meet him than ever. Just who was he?

Reigen stared, blank-faced, at the line he had to wait in. This was the trade-off for getting sweet deals at the local grocery store, but maybe he should have stopped by his office first. Aside from groceries, he was carrying books about learning how to draw and some other similarly educational stuff. Mostly, it was stuff about how to teach someone.

What was he doing? These stupid books weren't going to help…Well, maybe they'll be the first books on his bookshelf if nothing else. Nothing like a huge bookshelf to give customers the appearance that he knew what he was talking about.

The doors opened and a man walked through. He would not usually notice something so benign if it weren't for the fact that said man was donning a ski mask and holding a pistol. A mini cyclone was building in his hand.

Was he a magnet for superpowered robbers in this world or what?

"Everyone on the floor! No one has to get hurt!"

Straight from the cliché handbook for criminals. He would usually just do what he said, probably. He'd never been in a robbery situation, but now he had psychic powers. He should probably…Nah. Waiting for the police was a lot smarter.

He did what the man said. As he was laying on the floor waiting for the police, he took notice of the man lying next to him for the first time. A blonde, spindly man with sunken eyes. He was not out of shape, exactly, but he looked like he was in pain.

His eyes spoke volumes about his frustration. It really sucks to be in a position you can't do anything about. He was probably scared, too. Everyone was no doubt counting this as the worst day they've had in a long time, if not ever.

"Give me all the money ya got in there!"

He looked at the tall man again who caught him staring. He was halfway to moving from where he was. Was this crazy guy going to play hero? He knows there are literal heroes, right? He was sweating like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. Maybe he was a hero? He wouldn't pretend to regognize every hero.

If he had Reigen's abilities, he would probably do something about the robber, not even having to move his body. But that wasn't his style.

Still…he had the ability to stop what was happening right in front of him. 'It's all about how you use those knives' is what he told his student once. Old habits die hard, he supposed. He didn't have much to worry about if he would be fine even when he screwed up. He smiled at the blonde man reassuringly.

"Don't worry," Reigen whispered. "I've got this."

He stood up as the man let out a "Wait!" The robber turned and sneered, but his hand was shaking. His eyes wouldn't meet his and his finger never touched the trigger no matter how much he waved the gun around. He had a ring he forgot to take off on his ring finger. There was no doubt about it.

"Please," Reigen implored, "don't throw your life away for a hand full of cash."

"W-What the hell do you know!?" the man screamed, pointing the gun at Reigen.

Reigen reached for his wallet and the man pointed his gun at him. "Don't move!"

"I'll give you my money instead," Reigen promised, causing the robber to gape at him along with everyone else. "I've got a few hundred dollars from my last few jobs. It'll put me out, but I have money."

The robber lowered his gun slightly. "Have you lost it!?"

He took that as his que to pull out his wallet. The robber fixed his gun on him again and lowered it completely when he saw the wallet. Reigen took the money from it and held it out, bunched up in his left hand.

The stunned robber reached out without thinking. Reigen scrunched the bills in his hands and the next few moments seemed to go by in a flash. He grabbed the man's arm to stop him from raising his gun and drove his elbow into his face with brutal force.

"Anti-Weapon Elbow Strike!" Reigen shouted.

This was one of Reigen's special moves. Distracting an opponent with money, he strikes with intensity while keeping the weapon unusable with the ultimate goal of disarming his opponent. It's a move he had considered too dangerous to use in the past.

The robber's eyes rolled into the back of his head as Reigen grabbed his gun. He fell back, unconscious.

"Don't go waving a gun around." A moment of silence passed before the people in the store stood up and began cheering,

"That was amazing!"

"Is he a hero?"

"He's wearing normal clothes though…"

Reigen made to leave quickly, dropping the gun, and only hurried as he heard flashing cameras. Shit. If people caught him attacking people in public, they might think he was a vigilante or something. He made it outside, pretty sure no one got a picture of his face, and started speed walking until he heard a man's voice.

"W-W-Wait!" the man stuttered, bowing his head, not out of nervousness but because of the intense pain he was in. "I-I have to ask you something!"

But when the man looked up, Reigen was already gone.

Later that day, Toshinori Yagi was watching a news story about a certain incident that exploded in popularity. While the store he was in was being robbed, everyone wished for a hero like All Might to arrive. Little did they know that it was basically impossible. He wondered if he should do something.

In an instant, thoughts about the limitations of his body crossed his mind. He couldn't do much if his body simply refused to let him stand. He also considered the words of his friend who used his quirk to prophesize a grim end to Toshinori Yagi, should he continue his hero endeavors. Against all reason, he nearly slinked off to take on his hero persona anyway.

Yet, that man stepped up, using no Quirk, to resolve a deadly situation. What was he thinking? Surely, he had a combat-related Quirk. But maybe he did not.

Desperately, Toshinori wanted to speak with him. What were his reasons, what was his quirk? He thought that he might discover something vital, or rediscover what he lost. If the man was younger, he might have taken the man as a protegee of sorts. He'd put more thought into having a successor after his final confrontation with his mortal enemy.

The blonde man leapt into action like a true hero when, unbeknownst to him, the world's number one hero was wallowing in self-pity. All he had to go by now was a single image spreading over the hero-loving public. An out of focus, hastily taken photo of the man's back showing little more than his hair color and proclivity for simple suits.

It was something of a cult following. No one was sure, including Toshinori himself, if the man was a vigilante. The image didn't gain much traction beyond Musutafu City, and even then it was mostly on the back of rumors that a single man in a suit 'crushed a gang.' Though, people did get a kick out of the rumors that the man fought a gunman with his bare hands.

A concerned citizen supposedly spotted a plain-looking man wander into what locals considered a hotspot of low-time criminals that were a bit too zealous for their own good. Toshinori knew the accuracy, however, because he was made aware of the local miscreants.

It was suggested that they might be connected to the all-encompassing All For One, the greatest villain, and the least heard of by design. But he had better leads than a group of small fry, and those leads lead him to the man himself. Even his own underlings probably didn't know of All For One's downfall; such was the care put into the event's secrecy.

That group vanished overnight. Not much was known about their members, but the groups influence – what little they had – dissipated like ice in the sun. They were gone in minutes after being a nuisance for some time, yet no one turned up dead or in jail.

He might have chalked it up to his underlings going underground, but there was no way people that low on the food chain got news they covered up so well so quickly. Not to mention the picture of the man in the suit.

Toshinori studied the pictures again but gained little more insight than what others had speculated. Maybe there was a new vigilante. Heck, he might be an up-and-coming hero, despite his age. His eyes locked onto the name people had assigned him as he pondered a single question: Who was this man?

'The Golden Brawler.'