Men are not created equal…

That was a lesson that I learned at a young age.

I still remember that day. I remember it well, in fact. All I did was try to help, but instead of helping, I just got brutalized by my superior.

"Kachan, why do you have to be so mean!?" I asked, tears rolling down my face.

It was a hot summer day, and Kachan– my friend turned bully– was attacking another kid. He was strong, and the other guy was weak. That's why Kachan bullied him. There's nothing that he hated more than weaklings.

There was a small breeze that kissed my face as it passed. The wind burned my tearful eyes, but I didn't close them. No, I stared right at Kachan and lifted my fists.

My legs were trembling and every cell in my body told me to run, but I just couldn't.

I finally mustered the courage to open my mouth and say, "Stop bullying him. If you don't, I… I'll f-fight you!"

"Really?" Kachan asked in an aggravated voice.

He pounded his fist into his palm, and a small explosive pop was released from his hand. I instinctively flinched at this.

"You wanna be this loser's hero, huh?" he asked, this time with a somewhat mocking voice. "Even though you're an even bigger loser than him, you quirkless bastard…"

Kachan smirked, and his spiky ash blonde hair began to flow in the wind. My messy emerald green hair did the same as his, moving in front of my eyes and blocking my vision.

By the time I could see again, I was already on the ground…

All men are not created equal…

And no man will ever be satisfied.

…

As a kid, I wanted more than anything to become a hero. I wanted to save people. If I did, I'd become an inspiration and could help guide the generation of heroes after my own.

Kachan and I used to play hero all the time. Sometimes I'd be the hero, and he the villain. Other times it'd be the other way around. Everytime we would pretend to have a different quirk– or superpower– with our only limit being our imaginations.

One day, the dream of having a quirk became a reality for Kachan. One day in class, he showed off his new power to everyone. Using his own nitroglycerin sweat, he could cause explosions to go off from his palms. When he was little, it wasn't very destructive, but over time, it grew to be a rather dangerous quirk.

I, on the other hand, never got a quirk… I grew up without any special power. I was a part of the rare 20% of people in the world that were quirkless. And so, Kachan and I had a very intense change to our relationship. We went from being best friends, to having a bully and target relationship.

Well, one day at school, things would change for the better. I would be blessed with what can only be described as incredible luck.

…

I was six years old. At this point, Kachan hadn't completely turned into a bully, but he still had a tendency to beat others when he was upset.

Well, he and I were still somewhat friends at the time, and we both decided to go into the forest to explore. We were on a hunt for adventure, our favorite pastime.

As we walked through the woods, Kachan obviously felt the need to take the lead. He was the strong one, so he felt like him being behind me was entirely wrong and incorrect. I didn't mind, of course, but it still must be noted that his ego was already inflated when he was six.

As I followed behind my only friend, he talked about how he was going to become the next number one hero– even greater than All Might himself. For context, All Might was the undisputed number one hero and most powerful person on Earth.

Being the naive child that I was, I agreed with him and unintentionally assisted with the growth of his already much too large ego.

"Yeah, you're so cool, Kachan!"

"Well, duh. Of course I am."

I looked down at the forest floor, saying, "I wish I was as cool as you…"

"What did you say?" Kachan asked as he looked over his shoulder. He hadn't heard me, luckily.

I looked at him for a few moments of silence, before smiling and responding with, "Oh, just talking to myself. It was nothing."

He shrugged, going, "Alright." He looked back in front of himself and kept moving.

I took the chance to look around the forest. It was gorgeous… the sunlight leaked through the trees, leaving bright splotches of light on the ground here and there. An assortment of plant life could be seen all around us. Everything from bushes to flowers to trees to vines! Not only that, but we could see a few animals here and there, too.

As we kept moving, Kachan began to struggle with the walk. He almost tripped a few times, and he was starting to breathe heavily.

"Are you okay, Kachan?" I asked out of concern.

"I'm fine!" he snapped back at me. I flinched at his angered voice. I never did like it when Kachan was angry, but it was much worse when it was directed at myself.

"I'm just… fine–!"

As Kachan repeated himself, he slipped on a moss-covered log. He fell on his ass and winced in pain.

I ran to assist him. A big mistake on my end.

"Kachan, are you alright?"

I offered him a hand, but he didn't grab it. He stared up at me with a mix of emotions. Embarrassment, anger, and disbelief we're the three main ones.

"I don't need your help!" Kachan yelled at he got to his feet and pushed me back.

I gulped as I stumbled back. "K-kachan, I just wanted to help…"

"Shut up!" Kachan yelled again as he ran up to me, punching me on the left side of my jaw. I stumbled back again. I turned to look at him, but only got punched again.

This carried on for quite some time… Kachan brutally attacked me over and over again for several long minutes without even taking a break. By the time he was finally done, my lip was cracked and bleeding, two black eyes found themselves belonging to me, and the horrid taste of blood filled the back of my mouth.

"I hate you!" Kachan screamed as he hit me one last time. I fell to my knees and began to sob. Kachan just stared at me for a few minutes, before running towards the direction of the entrance to the forest.

I laid there for almost an hour without doing anything. I didn't even move. All I did was lay and think.

Why was Kachan so mean? All I did was try to help him…

Eventually, I weakly got to my feet.

I looked around, sighing.

"It'd be a waste to go back now," I sighed.

And so, I continued to walk the way that Kachan and I had been going towards previously. My body was aching, a common aftereffect of being Kachan's punching bag. However, I chose to simply ignore it.

The forest quickly grew denser. Darker, too. Even then, I still moved forward. There had to be something here. Something that would make this painful journey worth it!

I was beginning to feel bitter. I had been walking for over an hour, and all I found was more trees! Why did this forest have to be so annoying…?

Suddenly, I saw something. A mirage-like image of a light blue eastern dragon. It moved towards me at an alarming pace, quickly reaching me in less than a second.

I tightly shut my eyes as it approached me. I was nothing more than a scared child, and this thing may have been able to kill me if it wanted to.

However, nothing happened…

I hesitantly lifted my eyelids, being greeted by the sight of the dragon quickly circling my body. My fear was quickly replaced with amazement as it moved around gracefully.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a giggle.

It circled around once more before moving ahead, quickly disappearing into the darkness of the forest. I watched it go in disappointment.

With a sigh, I turned around to go back home. However…

The dragon came back and circled me once more. Then, it left again, only to come back and repeat this action several times over.

"Do you want me to follow you?"

As if to say yes, the dragon started to move ahead once more, but this time at a slower speed that I could keep up with.

"Okay, I'm coming!" I laughed as I chased after it.

The forest grew even denser as I continued to run after the dragon. I almost tripped a few times, but I made sure to keep running so I didn't accidentally get left behind.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed the peculiar mirage.

As if to answer my question, the forest suddenly grew less dense, leading directly into a large opening.

I gazed up into the sky, laughing as the dragon flew up into the air.

The dragon then proceeded to go to the center of the clearing, where a massive tree bearing odd and unique fruit. Some were multicolored, some were oddly shaped, and some had weird patterns surrounding them.

"What are these?"

I wasn't answered, but instead, I was given a gift.

The dragon flew up near the top of the tree, where it used its mouth to pick a single fruit. It brings it down to me, placing it in my hands.

The fruit was odd, to say the least. It was spherical and light blue, which technically wasn't actually very odd. However, it somewhat resembled a pine cone, with scale-like overlapping sections. Each 'scale' had an oval spiral on them, giving its already interesting appearance even more depth. Finally, it had two stems. One was purple, while the other was light pink. And at the top of these stems were two orange leaves.

I stared at the fruit for a second, unsure if I should eat it or not.

Suddenly, I heard a voice enter my head.

'Izuku Midoriya. If you consume this devil fruit, then you will finally obtain the power that you've been desperately wishing to have.'

"Is that you, Mr. Dragon?" I asked as I looked at the dragon, which was now staring at me intently.

'Yes,' it answered simply. 'Now, what are you waiting for?'

I looked back down at the fruit. If I ate this I would gain power? I had wanted that for so long…

"Alright," I said excitedly, "I'll do it!"

Without hesitation, I quickly took a bite out of the weird fruit. Instantly, a small bit of regret entered my thoughts. I began to gag, and almost threw up.

'Oh,' the dragon said, 'I forgot to mention that it doesn't taste all too great.'

I nodded, before struggling to swallow that bite. Then, I stared at the fruit in disgust for a few moments.

"Well, I don't have anything to lose… except maybe my stomach."

I quickly gobbled down the rest of the fruit, fighting through the awful taste.

When I was finally finished, I suddenly felt lighter, maybe even stronger.

'Use that power well,' the dragon said as it began to disappear. 'I had to strain quite a bit to last long enough for you to eat it…'

Suddenly, the dragon disappeared. I tried to call out for it, but my eyelids became heavy, and I collapsed on the ground…

…

When I woke up, I was in my own bed.

"That was one weird dream," I yawned as I sat up.

Then, I looked down at my hand, and my eyes immediately went wide.

"What the?"

My hands were now partially covered with a large amount of emerald green scales…

My face lit up, and I called out to my mother.

"Mommy, I think I have a quirk now!"