Alright then. That's my third fic. Technically written side by side with the second one (Ties that Bind), while the first one (Cure to Evil) is already complete. Give them a read if this is the first of my fanfics that you run into :P Each one is independent creation, just so we're clear.

What can you expect from this story? Well, I decided to write the story of how the hero system was born. Of the Dawn of Quirks. But since just throwing a hundred different OCs would be a pain in the ass (especially the names, I have no idea how japanese names work like, really), so I decided to make it into an alternative universe. Where the canon MHA cast (plus a handful of my well-established OCs from Ties that Bind and Cure to Evil) was born right in time to witness the Dawn of Quirks.

Expect vigilantism, familiar names and faces in unfamiliar places (characters as a whole will be the same, except for certain details born from lack of quirks and different occupations). Oh and also Izuku being very popular with the girls (I think his hair has a girl attraction quirk ngl, everyone thinks that it looks fluffy, weird but oh well), just not to the 'main character takes every female in the story' level.

Zero crack here, guys. Absolutely zero. Expect some angst and perseverance in the name of your ideals in spite of it.

(***)

Superheroes were born in a multitude of ways in fiction. Sometimes they discovered their inhuman parentage, meaning that they were super all along. Sometimes they received their power from someone or something. Sometimes they lose someone important to them and dedicate themselves to training, with such a ferocity that they reached the absolute peak of what humans are capable of - and sometimes, they marched beyond that.

But not all heroic backstories are so unique. Sometimes a hero is born in the most humble of scenarios. Sometimes the start of their journey is so thoroughly anticlimactic that it wouldn't make the cut for a comic book or a videogame.

Izuku Midoriya, an eighteen-year-old superhero fan from Musutafu Prefecture, was a perfect example of that. There were no heroes or villains in his world. So his love for the superheroes (some would say, escapism) found its outlet in the fictional ones.

His room was filled with merch that he has mostly created on his own or got through the internet - his family wasn't wealthy, and his times weren't easy to live in. Posters of Ironman, Superman and Batman (plus a lot of smaller ones) were the only witnesses to what was going to be a prologue to the change of the world.

Izuku Midoriya read a manga chapter on his aged computer (they got it before the war, and they surely had no way of getting enough money for a replacement when it inevitably breaks). One with superheroes, of course. One of them was using telekinesis to throw objects and villains around.

Young Midoriya loved imagining himself as a hero. With Japan in the state that it was, it certainly needed some hope and someone to save it. He was an idealist, one that life was yet to break. He still lives in the world of vibrant imagination and hope.

So he told himself that having such power would be super cool. And decided to check if he didn't have it.

Oh, he KNEW he didn't have it. He was optimistic and creative, but not insane. It was more of a heat of a moment thing. Something that he did because his mind was still in the fictional world of the manga. So he looked at the pen lying on the verge of the desk, and - pushing his brain to the limit, and boy if it wasn't far away from the start point - he imagined pulling it towards the edge.

The pen hit the ground a second later. Izuku Midoriya stared at it in shock for a dozen seconds at least.

Sometimes greatness is born in the most humble of circumstances.

(***)

Only after five pens, two erasers, a notebook and a folded T-shirt - pushed back from the edges of several furniture pieces - Midoriya Izuku felt comfortable enough to say those words in his head.

I HAVE A SUPERPOWER.

Of course, the first thing that he did after that was to pinch himself. But he didn't wake up in his bed, with a feeling of existential disappointment. Like he did the last time. This time, yeah, it was the real world. Not a dream.

AND HE HAD A SUPERPOWER.

Telekinesis, apparently. Which was honestly super cool and probably fit him a lot. His body was weak, and because of the underlying medical conditions, he couldn't hope to change that. His dream of becoming a police officer was dead before it started, and his choice of potential jobs was rather limited.

And he couldn't hope to get into a university. Not because of poor grades - he had very good ones, actually. But his family lacked money for tuition and getting a scholarship without knowing the right people was a lost cause nowadays.

But now? Now he had something else.

He was a smart kid. Much more than people typically gave him credit for. The school wasn't exactly pleasant to someone missing a father AND being so small and timid, yet still dreaming of something as big as becoming a police officer. Especially now. School never really gave him a chance to spread his wings.

He was a smart kid. So he knew that announcing himself as a holder of a superpower was stupid. He was, for as much as he knew, the first one of his kind - or the only one. He read enough comics about governments and corporations and terrorist groups attempting to use people like him for nasty things. Izuku was genre-savvy.

He had a superpower now. He had to be cautious about it. What if it had some downsides? What if overuse of it could kill him? What if he would lose control over it? What if, as it was already stated, he would become a target for having it?

First, he had to gauge what exactly he could do with his power. With no one knowing.

He pulled out one of his notebooks. He used it to plan things for his little superhero novel. There were dozens of pages of Izuku brainstorming applications of superpowers of fictional characters. Even if someone found it, they would not notice the fact that one entry was about something significantly more real.

He spent a few minutes brainstorming the name of the new character. He remembered the teachers telling him he should be realistic about planning his future. His mother was doing her best to support him, but was clearly aware that he was only going to get hurt in the end. He remembered his classmates picking upon him, telling him to give up. Oh, he had a perfect name.

Defiant.

He was going to prove them all wrong.

(***)

The best place to truly test the limits of his ability was Takoba Beach Municipal Park. Oh, going to a PARK to test your secret superpower was, by nature, rather dumb. But that park wasn't… well, park, anymore.

It was a dump.

Decades of governmental neglect changed it into an open-air junkyard. What was once a beach was now a disaster of broken machines. Fridges, broken computers, damaged furniture, even cars. No one was going there anymore unless it was to dump even more stuff.

He just had to be attentive to his surroundings AND pick the right place in the junkyard to conduct his tests in, and nobody would notice him being there. Just in case, he also brought his favourite hoodie and a facemask with him.

Plus a notebook. And some writing tools. He was ready to self-examine his newly gained superpower.

(***)

The funniest part about his telekinesis was that it wasn't telekinesis. He couldn't freely control an object. He could do exactly a single thing - pull an object in some direction. That, however, didn't mean that he couldn't 'push' something - he just had to 'pull' an object in the opposite direction.

Which was a bit of a pain, since he couldn't push the object directly away from him. He had to at least somewhat see what was 'before' it to pull an object in that direction. This meant having to curve any projectiles he launched at something - and limited his stopping power if, say, a car was going directly at him.

Not like he could seriously slow down a car. He was only starting. Hopefully, the powers grow as you use them because the heaviest thing he lifted was a TV. An antiquated, thick one, but still.

He also couldn't pull liquids or gasses. They weren't solid enough for his power to latch onto. Another potential weakness. He could drown. He could die from a poison gas inhalation.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He tested it, and it turned out that he was right! He could - although it forced him to push his power to the limit - make something akin to a temporary barrier. It was like a small field (one meter per one meter per twenty centimetres, more or less) that automatically pulled anything that entered it in the desired direction.

Too bad it lasted for like ten seconds without his attention. Did he just develop a super move? Like Superman's laser eyes? Or Batman's batarangs? Or Iron Man's…

Wait. If he developed his power further, would be able to constantly pull himself up, thus negating gravity? Would that make him capable of flying?

Midoriya Izuku LOVED his superpower.

(***)

Mina Ashido hated her superpower.

There was a time where she was having a normal family, a normal life… and friends. It wasn't even that far ago. Two years, if she remembered correctly. When she still looked normal. When she didn't have that 'power' of hers.

The first thing that happened was that she began to secrete acid. That alone was pretty cool, at least once she got the hang of it. Her parents were worried but supportive. She trained her power in secret in her house' basement and figured out the basics of it. Enough to NOT accidentally spray anything with acid.

But then her skin changed colour. And then they were the horns. She was always an outgoing person. She spent most of her free time hanging out with people. Karaoke, dancing, partying. That was her life.

There was a limit to what make-up could do. Especially when her horns were involved. They just kept growing back. Faster each time she cut them off.

So she hid. Hid in her home. Her parents knew how much it hurt her, but she was terrified of what people would think of her. How do you exactly hang out with a person who can secrete deadly acid at will? And what if some mean person found out about her?

Well, she found out the answer to the last question the hard way. Her parents died, she was kidnapped and spent half a year dissolving corpses and evidence for a criminal group. She didn't see the light of day the whole time.

But eventually, she escaped. Her grasp on her acid grew when no one was looking at the freak locked in their basement. She melted the wall off and slid off into the night. She stole some clothes (including a hoodie, that was something straight from Identity Concealment For Dummies handbook, but it WORKED), and then she found herself trying to escape as far as possible.

She couldn't use a train. She couldn't hitchhike. She couldn't use a bus. She walked through three prefectures, stealing food and sleeping in forests. At least it was summer.

Mina Ashido had a destination. It was desperation on her part, though. She didn't trust the police. She knew the group that kidnapped her was in cahoots with the local cops. She would not go back there. She would rather die.

She had a friend once. He moved out of her prefecture with his parents. She knew the street address. She knew that he lived far enough from her old home that maybe the gang wouldn't find him. He was a good guy. A good friend. He would help her, even if she was a freak, right?

She reached her destination, only to discover that it was no longer a thing. He had his eighteenth birthday a week ago and has already moved out. To Takoba in the Musutafu Prefecture. Two prefectures away.

She continued her trek. She had no other option.

(***)

Having exact measurements of your superpower strength AND keeping track of its growth in a notebook for fictional superheroes would be potentially damning evidence if someone found it. So, Izuku Midoriya played it super cautiously.

He only wrote the initial stats and then compared them with what he achieved during his most recent training sessions in Takoba Park. After a week, he realized something. Something rather important.

His power was growing. Quite fast. He expected he would hit a plateau, eventually. It couldn't be an endless growth. But for now, his power was steadily growing more and more… well, powerful.

In one week, his ability to 'levitate' objects temporarily grew from ~40kg to thrice that. He could actually float himself now (and with a lot of power to spare), but he still had problems with multitasking enough to actually move in the air. The one time he tried that, he ended up landing in the water.

He was only doing the flying tests after nightfall. He was going to be extremely cautious about it. It was everything but low-profile.

He also began to train himself in aiding his physical strength with some directed telekinesis. It would not make him super-strong, but let's be real. He was a wimp. He needed to at least get to the human average level without damaging his body anymore. And it was rather easy to damage.

His barriers have also stuck around for almost twice the time. It was rather incredible and offered so much potential! If they grew strong enough, they might shield him from bullets!

In fact, he made a quick test when he got that idea. And it turned out that yes. He can anchor the barriers to objects, even ones in motion. Like himself. He added the telekinetic armour (made of pull barriers directed outwards of his body) to the list of potential super moves that he worked on in secret. That, plus a shield - something requiring less stamina but still useful in the melee. You don't need omnidirectional armour at all times.

Unfortunately, he also discovered another weakness of his power. His stamina - or whatever he was using to power up his telekinesis - was horribly bad. It was clearly improving, but not even remotely as fast as his telekinesis strength.

It was clearly going to be an Achilles' heel of his. One more thing to the notes. Right next to the discovery that trying to push himself beyond the limits of his stamina gave him a nasty headache.

He discovered another thing that evening when he returned home from training. Mom stared at him in shock (she was almost tearful too) and asked him what he did to his hair. His shock at the question was genuine enough to persuade her that no, he didn't dye part of his black hair to a dark green colour.

What the hell?! Though it looked quite nice on him, he had to admit.

It took him almost an hour to persuade her to NOT take him to a doctor. Not like they could afford a decent one, either way. He decided to let it stay like that. Hair dye was costly, and it's not like he was really attending his school anymore. Ever since that accident with Kac… Bakugou, he switched to homeschooling.

His hair turned to a dark green entirely during the next week. Together with his eyes. It was rather odd, but he actually liked his new look. He just had to keep hiding from the people, because it was clearly making him stand out.

Clark Kent would have been ousted quickly if he and Superman had green hair as the only people in the city. Then again, no one ever noticed him. He had no friends to speak of, and aside from his mom, nobody knew about his new look.

His dark green (ironic) hoodie was going to become his new best friend.

He kept wondering if he was truly the only person with a superpower out there. It made him feel… redundant? Not like he wanted to face a genuine supervillain! He wanted to become a hero, but normal criminals (especially those with, well, guns) sounded like enough of a hurdle to overcome right now.

If his genre-savviness was anything to come by, he probably wasn't the only one. And there certainly were prospective supervillains out there.

(***)

"IMASUJI, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He hears a shout from outside of his current hideout. What idiot is it this time?

Goto Imasuji doesn't bother to remember the names of people that he murdered. Ever since he discovered the wonderful TRICKS that he could do with his muscles, he killed too many to count.

He looked out through the window of the rundown and abandoned apartment building that he spent the night in.

The one shouting looked vaguely familiar. Some local mobster. Came with a few friends. Goto thinks he killed someone close to him. Oh, whatever. They might have some guns, but he already discovered that if he augments his muscles, he can shrug gunfire.

He goes out and murders them one by one. While wondering if there is someone out there to actually put up a fight. All that murdering is slowly getting boring when the other sides can't even scratch him.

Maybe he should pick up a fight with the police? A thought for another time.

(***)

Mina Ashido finally arrived at her destination. Only to immediately get cold feet about the whole idea.

It was dumb. Incredibly so. So much time she spent on the journey here, only to have second doubts right now? Right in front of it? How dumb that was? Where was the positive and happy and optimistic Mina?

Oh, right. She was dead. Dead and dissolved in acid, just like her family. Yeah, that explained a lot.

The apartment building is in a district that clearly had its best times behind it, but was still persevering without giving up entirely. There was an activity on the streets. There were even some police patrols. And business. Though the buildings were clearly missing out on some maintenance. And the streets could use some cleaning.

She channels whatever positivity is left in her (not much) and knocks on the door.

Is he at home? He has to be. She wouldn't motivate herself to try it again. Not enough hope left.

Something moves behind the door.

"Who is it?" IT'S HIS VOICE! He is home. He is probably seeing her through the visor, but she has a hoodie, face mask AND sunglasses (to hide her rather unnatural eyes). It's sensible to be cautious.

"K…K...Kiri?" She utters. Her arms are crossed in front of her, her fingers trying to drive themselves into her side or arms. She is nervous. Way too nervous. "It's…"

"Mina?!" He interrupts her. She can hear the hurried unlocking of the door. Then they open up and for the first time in two years (and three months) she can see her old friend. "Holy shit, is that really you?"

He changed. A lot. She remembered him as a rather timid black-haired kid who was always hanging out with her. She loved teasing him to the ends of Earth. The guy in front of her has red hair, and it looks like he bulked up a lot.

Ejirou Kirishima was now a beefcake. Literally the last thing that she expected. Maybe save for herself developing a superpower that messed her life up. That came completely out of the blue.

"Y...yes." She manages to say. "Can… Can I come in?"

He can clearly see that she is acting NOT like Mina he knew. Rather than suspicious, he seems to be worried. About her.

He invites her inside with a motion and steps aside to leave some space.

His apartment is small. She can see an entrance to the bathroom, a kitchen annex, and a small living space. A small table with two chairs, a couch-turn-bed and some miniature training equipment fill almost the entire area.

"Sit there." Kiri says and points out to one of the chairs. She obeys absentmindedly. "Do you want to eat something?"

She does. She is so damn hungry. But to eat, she would have to take off the facemask, and that requires some explanations.

He will freak out and chase her away, right?

"L...later." She has to tell him. "Kiri, I…"

"What happened?" He sits in front of her. "I heard your parents died, you disappeared and… everyone assumed you died." Maybe she did.

"I… was kidnapped." She replies. "I escaped a few weeks ago. I didn't know where to go. I was at your old home but you didn't live there anymore, so I walked here and…"

"You walked through two prefectures?!" He blinks at her a few times. "Mina, you should have gone to the police, they would …"

"No!" She shouts louder than she wanted to. "They were… the local police worked with the kidnappers. I didn't know whom to trust and…"

And she came to him. The look on Ejirou's face leaves no doubts as to the fact that he understood the unspoken words. Despite all that happened, she trusted him enough to get to his house.

"You're safe here." He says. "You can stay for as long as you want to." She sobs under her hoodie (he looks like he wanted to leap at her and hug her, but clearly wasn't sure if she would be comfortable with it, so he stopped himself). Will he keep those words when he discovers who… what she is?

"I... I… I have to tell you something first." She braces herself for the talk. C'mon Mina, you can do it. Things like that came so easily to you before all of that. "They kidnapped me, because…"

"Mina, did they…" He is horrified but at the wrong thing. Secreting acid at will is one thing that makes people NOT want to come into physical contact with you. Small mercies.

"No, no!" She shakes her head. "No, they didn't. It's… Soon after you left, I… think I developed… a superpower of sorts? They kidnapped me for it." He is shocked. He opens his mouth, probably to rebuke what she said. But she extends her hand over the table and lets some of her acid out of the fingertips.

She made it not very acidic. Destroying a table would be a bad way of restarting their friendship (she hopes that it's still possible). But it burns the surface of it a bit.

"A...acid." She says. "I can secrete and control it. They had me dispose of evidence and… corpses. I melted the wall and escaped. But it also… changed the way I look. I can't even get out without the disguise." She starts sobbing again.

"Mina." Ejirou comes to a decision. He seems to have figured the unspoken fear of rejection on his own. "It doesn't matter. You were my first friend. My best friend. You changed my life for the better more than you can imagine. I will not chase you away because you look different or can do cool things with acid. That would be super unmanly." His hands move, only to freeze in the middle of a distance between their initial standing position and her hoodie. "Can I?"

She nods. She isn't sure if she would manage to say anything, even if she tried.

He takes off her hoodie gently (the horns are a bit in the way, but he perseveres). She can feel his eyes on the horns and her pink skin. Then he takes off her sunglasses, exposing her black eyes with yellow pupils. Besides the horns, those are probably the least 'normal' part of her.

There are a few long seconds of silence in the room. Mina is too scared of what look he probably has on his face to look at him. She is staring at the damaged part of the table, barely holding back the tears.

"Well…" He says finally. She clenches her eyelids. Will he hit her? Will he just chase her away? "...I kinda expected worse after hearing all of that."

What?

WHAT?

She looks up at him finally. He is scratching the side of his head, and the look on his face makes him appear GENUINE.

"W...what?" She stutters, staring at him in shock.

"I mean, after the acid part, I thought you are like… disfigured or something. You catch my drift?" He replies, visibly dumbfounded by her reaction. "You just have some different colours here and there. And the horns. They are kinda cute, I think?" He blushes a bit. Yeah, that's the Kiri that she knew.

The dam breaks. She cries. A lot. This time he no longer restrains herself and hugs her. She hugs him back and cries into his shoulder for a long while, all while he is trying to console her.

She goes to sleep an hour later, after her first shower in more than a month. He gave her his bed while relocating to the floor. Anything else would be unmanly.

Mina Ashido doesn't have any nightmares that night, for the first time since her parents died.

(***)

Mina's introduction should tell you everything that you need to know about the 'no crack, also angst' I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. Also: Kirishima is the god of manliness and you can't persuade me otherwise.

The real question is how long can Izuku stay this innocent and happy, huh.