Hope Goes Extinct

"Hmmm. He definitely has a quirk, but for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out what it will be. Tell me, what your husband's and your quirks are?"

"Well, my husband can breathe out fire and I can pull small objects towards my hands.", she looked between her confused son and the quirk specialist in front of them, "Why? Is something wrong?"

"He seems to have a clean bill of health as far as I can tell. Though his cells looked a bit odd when I compared to those found in other people.", he brought up a diagram of two animal cells and pointed to one of them, "This is a what we call a normal human cell."

He then pointed to the next one on the diagram, "And this one here is Midoriya's cells. As you can see, there is not much difference between the two. Yet Midoriya seems to have a special organelle located right here.", he pointed to the cell diagram that a small glowing speck in it, "And it's not only in his skin cells, but in all of them. Everywhere from his blood cells to his hair cells."

He looked at the mother and son, before giving a sad smile, "I will keep the quirk registry open for you just in case any developments happen, but realize that this may in fact be the only change that will happen when it comes to his quirk."

It has been ten years since they have been to that visit to the doctor, and there were never any changes during the past decade when it came to his quirk. Even when they went to register the name for his quirk, they just named it 'Odd Cells', as the organelle mentioned during the visit didn't seem to carry out any function. Despite all of that though, Midoriya still dreamed of being a hero like his idol All Might. Although when he shared his dreams with his childhood friend Katsuki Bakugo, he just mocked him for trying to reach an impossible goal.

Their relationship changed after that visit from the doctor, as his once best friend deemed him useless for hanging around him and having such a weak quirk. With their classmates and teachers praising the volatile blonde for having such a strong power.

Now in junior high, Midoriya idly twirled a pencil at his desk to study in his science notebook as he drowned out the numerous chatter that was around him. Until the homeroom teacher announced that the All the students shouted with glee and showed off their quirks in the process. Of course, Bakugo couldn't understand their enthusiasm and made sure to remind them that. "Don't lump me with all these other rejects, I'm aiming straight for the top at UA." Then with a feral grin, he jumped onto his desk and started boasting about him himself, "I will go there and surpass All Might as the number one hero!"

"Oh, Midoriya wanted to go to UA as well?" The class fell silent at that remark, then started to break out into laughter as Midoriya blushed in embarrassment.

An explosion was on his desk before he could think and he fell back onto the floor with Bakugo sneering up at him. "Why the hell do you think you are doing?! You can't even do anything with that useless quirk of yours!"

The teacher just half-heartedly told Bakugo to stop before the class went back to normal while Midoriya went to sit back at his desk. He was used to this kind of treatment from his peers, ever since he shared his quirk at the beginning of each school year.

The fact that his quirk was so useless for pretty much anything made it easy for a target to be put on his back. Although teachers made it clear of their policies involving bully, it didn't change much of the students' treatment towards him. The bullying took mostly in the form of verbal abuse rather than physical ones, as any evidence would be found out and the guilty party would be rightfully punished. Which led to more verbal insults until he made it to Alder Junior High, where the teachers didn't seem to care for him as long as Bakugo was able to get into UA.

The day seemed to go on forever until finally, the bell rang for the students to be dismissed. Midoriya went about to put his stuff in his backpack when his hero notebook was suddenly snatched from his hands, with a sneering Bakugo and his cronies looking down from his desk.

"You're still doing this shit? When are you finally going to grow up?", the blonde then sent a small explosion that charred the notebook before lazily throwing outside with a laugh. Leaving the boy at his desk with a laugh as the two other students went for the door. "But if you want to be a hero so bad, there might be a way for you to do it. Hope that you get a better one in the next life after you jump off the roof."

The blonde cackled as he left with the two following him looking uneasy at one another, all while Midoriya stood in shock at the words by his childhood friend.

Midoriya walked through an underpass to make his way home, with the charred notebook clutched tightly in his hands. He couldn't believe that Bakugo would say something like that! He knew that he was always a bit hot-headed when it came to his power, but that was too far.

Midoriya sighed.

Even with no one supporting him, he still managed to hold his head up high on his dream to become a hero. To be able to save people with a smile like his hero All Might. He was so into his thoughts that he didn't notice the manhole behind him pop off and a large, dark green being overshadowed him before clinging onto his face and body.

"Thanks for the flesh suit kid! You will make the perfect disguise!"

The villain cackled as he jumped onto the boy and inserted himself into Midoriya's mouth and nose as much as he could. For a split second, Midoriya panicked as he felt like his entire body was buzzing and suddenly hit with electricity as he continued his attempt to escape from the slime's villain's grasp. His vision started to darken from the lack of oxygen until he heard a distinct calling out.

"Fear not citizen, why? Cuz I am here!"

A huge gust of winded was suddenly shot towards the teen, removing all of the slime from his face and causing it to splatter all along the wall. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was All Might's beaming smile.

"Hey..."

"Hey..."

He felt rapid tapping along his cheek as he slowly came to, with the number one hero looming over him with that big eager grin of his.

"Hey, are you ok?"

The boy jolted up in surprise and scrambled backward, both by the close appearance and the fact that he was seeing All Might in the flesh. The hero just let out a booming laugh at his gesture before Midoriya's eyes widened in realization. This was the chance to get his notebook signed by his idol, finding it on the ground he opened it to the next available page. Only to find out that he already signed it!

"You did a good job of fighting off that villain until I showed up young man! Though I must be going to turn in the villain.", he exclaimed while patting his pocket. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the slime villain was inside a plastic soda bottle.

This was his chance to ask All Might a question that has been eating up inside of him ever since he got his quirk diagnosed, and as saw All Might about to leap away, he rushed to cling on as he gripped his idol's hero as the two flew in the air.

...

Now on a rooftop, Midoriya tried to regain his breath from being hurdling into the air as All Might looked down at him.

"Young man. I am impressed by your enthusiasm, but I really must go."

"W-Wait I just want to ask you something!"

The boy looked down at the ground while tightly clenching his fists as he built up the courage to ask his question. All while missing the small amount of steam emitting around from All Might's body.

"It was always my dream to be a hero, but I have a quirk that doesn't do anything. Even so, I always wanted to be like you... Can I be a hero even without a power?!"

Finally looking up, the boy saw a frail man with two large yellow bangs dropping down in place of the number symbol of peace. Smoke was slightly emitting from his skin as he looked back at him with a strained expression.

"W-What?! Who are you?! This can't be All Might?!"

"I can assure you, I am All-"

The man in front of him started wheezing and coughing up blood as he slumped down on the railing, sending Midoriya in a spiral of panic and questions. Eventually, the man in front of him got his coughing fit under control before looking at him with a grim expression.

"I can only be a hero for about three hours each day, with me buffing up kind of like the guys at the pool.", Midoriya flinched as the man lifted up his shirt to reveal a horrendous puncture wound that looked like a crater smashed into the side of his stomach, "It's because of this injury from five years ago that I am now limited."

"Was that from your fight with Toxic Chainsaw?"

All Might huffed in amusement at the boy's knowledge of his heroics before shaking his head, "No, this was from an attack from a villain that I asked not to broadcast. As the symbol of peace can't be daunted by evil."

His steely black eyes locked onto Midoriya's, making the boy flinch as the frail hero stood up, "Heroes are always risking their lives for the sake of others, so I can't just say that 'you can become a hero without a quirk'".

Midoriya's hope of getting recognition for his dreams shattered as the hero made his way down the stairs.

"If you want to help people, you can be a firefighter or police officer.", he paused at the door, but not turning around to face him., "It's not bad to dream young man, but you have to consider what is realistic."

The man finally shut the door, leaving behind a boy who could nothing but stare blankly ahead of him.

He started to numbly make his way back home after his encounter with All Might as an unsettling feeling started to build throughout his body. It felt like his inwards were stretching and shifting in many different odd angles. He concluded that it was his body's way of telling him to accept the idea of never becoming a hero. Who was he kidding? If even the number one hero said that his dream was an impossibility, then there must be no hope for him after all.

Midoriya was brought out of his thoughts as he saw another crowd forming due to a villain attack, with explosions and flames ringing out through the area. He must've unconsciously been driven towards the noise out of habit. Finally getting a better view, he saw that it was the slime villain again trying to overtake someone.

Looking closely at the victim, he could see a familiar pair of glaring red eyes thrash around as he struggled to get a breath of air in his lungs. A giant pit formed in his stomach as he saw who the victim was.

It was Bakugo! But how did the villain escape? All Might had him secured in his pocket. There was no way that the villain could've escaped.

His eyes widened in realization.

This was all his fault. The bottle must've fallen off when he went to cling onto All Might! If he hadn't bothered All Might as he took off this wouldn't be happening!

The heroes already there at the scene were just standing around while his friend was in trouble. Something about waiting for the right person with the right quirk to come along to deal with this villain. Yet he knew that Bakugo wouldn't be able to hold out for that long.

Even if he didn't have a quirk on his own, he couldn't let someone die over his mistake. He shoved past the barrier and started to run headfirst into the fray, thinking of all of the possible solutions that could free his friend.

Only to stumble and fall as his legs started to tremble while the unpleasant feeling from earlier increased in intensity. Ignoring the feeling and gritting his teeth, Midoriya pushed his right leg forward up to start moving again only for him to fall back as the sensation started to increase.

He lifted his arm outward to call out to Bakugo and saw that his hand started to turn into a sickly green sludge that started to slide off of him like melted ice cream. Looking at his other hand, he saw that the other was going through the same process as his fingers turned the same shade of green before falling off.

The heroes at the scene started to notice his presence as he tried to stand, only to fall down as more of his body started to turn into sludge.

"Hey! You are not supposed to be here!"

"Get that kid away from there!"

Death Arms tried to get a grip on the kid as Midoriya continued to squirm his way out of his hand to try to make his way to Bakugo. His efforts were futile, as he couldn't make it more than a couple of feet before getting grabbed by the hero again or falling as he stumbled against his increasingly gelatinous body.

"Kacchan!", Midoriya shouted in desperation even as his own voice started to get muddled with slime.

He saw the blonde widen his eyes at his call before his eyes fluttered shut close. Meanwhile, the symbol in hiding gritted his teeth as he clutched his wound in frustration as he watched the spectacle.

'What am I doing?! Sitting on the sidelines like this?!', his eyes shifted to the boy who struggled against the heroes as he tried to make his towards the scene with a quirked brow, 'Odd... He has the same quirk as the villain. Maybe a sibling of his?'

He shook away those thoughts as he watched the scene in front of him, finally deciding that he watched for too long before pushing past his limit to deal with the slime once more. Separating the two with a mighty "Texas Smash", and causing the rain to fall on the cheering crowd.

Midoriya could only sigh in relief once he saw All Might, the hero behind him having to keep a tight hold of his body to prevent him from being sent flying along with the villain. While looking in awe of the environmental change caused by his idol, his eyes shifted towards the victim of the event and his smile fell once he caught sight of his friend. As he was lying on his back staring up into the sky.

And he wasn't moving.

He was so caught off guard that everything else around him got tuned out. The cheering fans, the hero berating him for charging in, and the raindrops falling onto his sloshing green body. Knocking the arms off of the hero, he made his way towards the blonde along with the paramedics who moved in as soon as the confrontation was dealt with.

The hero was about to berate him once more until he saw where the boy was looking at and also fell silent, along with the other heroes on the sight.

Midoriya awkwardly sloshed his way forward, the slimy body making moving difficult in his school uniform. The crowd also fell silent as they finally took a hold of the scenario in front of them, with All Might being gone the moment reporters started closing in on him.

Midoriya could feel thick tears fall from his eyes as he watched the paramedics try to resuscitate his friend, and failing to do so. After several agonizing minutes, he could see the paramedic shake his head sadly as he declared the boy dead, and a harsh silence took place of the cheering spectacle of the number one hero.

And Midoriya knew that it was all his fault.

The world was a blur the next few days for Midoriya, starting from the questioning from the police and the visits to the doctor about his sudden quirk awakening.

The changes in his body were quite apparent, as his entire body was now the same slimy substance that the villain had, though strangely enough. His eyes and mouth were kept the same oddly enough, and though his head and hair had the same structure, it was always loosely kept together. The ends of his now slimy curls and face occasionally drip with sludge.

Most doctors couldn't figure out what happened to the boy, as the change was too drastic for most to decipher, and had to reach to a professional in the form of Recovery Girl, who dealt with numerous quirks at her role in UA.

The boy sat in a doctor's office with a saddened blank expression while her mother worriedly looked to her son in concern. Yet based on the bags on their eyes, both had taken the loss of Bakugo hard, with Inko helping out Mitsuki and dealing with her loss of their son as well as Izuku's.

"I must say, your quirk is very interesting young man.", Recovery Girl said as held up a petri dish that held some of his slime, "While this may look different, it still contains the cells that you had before you transformed.", her gaze turned soft and understanding, "And while I read the report of the incident, it didn't explain how your quirk suddenly changed into that villain. Do you mind explaining if anything happened that might've been left out?"

Midoriya's hollow expression barely changed as he explained his encounter with the villain. Barely feeling the grip from his mother tighten on his hand. He left out the part of gong after All Might though, all while the pro nurse listened with rapid attention. She took a few moments to process this and went back to look at the cell once more before going back to the two.

"I may have an idea of what may happen. I think the cells tried to replicate the villain's quirk.", both of the parents looked at the nurse in shock as she continued, "Of course, it's not a perfect replication. As Midoriya here seems more anatomically structured than the criminal. It almost looks like the cells tried to mimic as much as the quirk as it could before any drastic anatomical modifications can occur."

The two took some time to process the information before the mother spoke up again.

"Will he always be in this state forever?"

Surprisingly, the nurse shook her head.

"If I'm right about the way the cells tried to copy his quirk and the way they are structured, then theoretically he should be able to change back. Though it may take some time and concentration on the young man's part."

The mother thanked the doctor with Midoriya mumbling the same before they both exited the office to make their way home. Even the information of Midoriya finally having a power to use didn't spring joy between the two, as they now had to get ready for the funeral of Bakugo in a couple hours.

Midoriya thought that this was a fine punishment for him, to be cursed with the quirk of the person who murdered his friend. He should've listened to the others whenever they said that he should stop trying to become a hero. Should've listened to his mother whenever she talked about choosing a different career.

He barely spoke to anyone when they were at the funeral, as the heroes on the scene said their condolences towards the Bakugo's for their loss with even All Might saying a few words. Looking at the Bakugo's and the boy made of sludge in sorrow. Though Midoriya couldn't help but think bitterly about how the heroes besides All Might didn't even try to save him during the incident.

One by one, the people started to leave. With Inko giving her son a tight squeeze and telling him not to stay out too late before heading off with the Bakugo's. Leaving Midoriya to stand staring at the grave of his friend.

The sight of Bakugo's name on the gravestone made Midoriya sick the longer he stared at it, yet he couldn't look away.

Even when they were young, Bakugo always went on bragging about how a hero's job was to never lose a fight no matter the cause. Now in a cruel twist of irony, he was in a grave after encountering his first villain. Dead before he even got the chance to become a hero.

Most people may have written off that Bakugo was a terrible choice to become a hero, and while the boy could see the logic in their way of thinking, he didn't agree with them. They didn't see the kind of person Bakugo was before his quirk came in. The way the boy's eyes lit up whenever he saw All Might pull off a new move and saved the day. Even when Bakugo tries to drill the idea that Midoriya couldn't become a hero through harsh and vulgar words, Midoriya always held out hope for him. He had hoped that his time in UA would've taught him to dial back his tendencies and actions.

He was so caught up in his thoughts and guilt that he almost didn't notice the frail form of All Might walk up and stand next to him. With the number one hero looking onto the grave with a sad gaze as dark clouds started building overhead.

It was rare when the number one hero was unable to save someone in need of saving whenever he was on site. He always tried his best out on the field so that he could avoid instances like this from occurring. With loved ones in sorrow over the actions of a criminal.

The past week he got a lot to reflect on his actions, from the encounter with that boy on the roof and the way he handled the situation. He really should've buffed up earlier to save the boy, but really, he should've stayed behind to make sure that everyone was safe and sound. The excuse of his limit was in no way valid in the way he should've acted.

He then looks at the boy next to him. When he heard the name 'Kacchan', he thought it was a nickname for the Villain, as he assumed the two were siblings or relatives of some kind. But after reading the report he got of the incident and the interrogation of the criminal, he soon found out that the name was for the victim. Which only worsened his guilt, as someone else had more courage and strength to try to move and save young Bakugo than he did.

"Why did you say it...?", the boy made of sludge asked with a drone tone with only a hint of curiosity as he kept his eyes on the grave, "Up on the roof, when you said I couldn't be a hero."

All Might could only look on in slight shock, realizing that the boy next to him was the person up on the roof. When their eyes met, he could only think about this was the same boy who tried to charge in the fray without any hesitation. The same boy who looked so hopeful about being a hero and then got shot down by him.

There was almost no joy in his eyes, like a light has been snuffed out in them as he looked up at him for an answer. There was also no malice or anger in them when their eyes locked, just dull curiosity.

"I said it to protect you. As sad as it is, it is not something that one can do without a quirk."

Logically, Midoriya knew that he shouldn't be so surprised. He knew that the idea of a person becoming a hero without a quirk was foolish from the start. Even so, he was still shocked that All Might would just outright admit that. The man who claimed numerous times online and on the news that 'Anyone can be a hero'.

"So you lie...?"

"Yes... To protect people."

Hot tears started to build up in the young man's eyes as he locked onto the ground and tightly clenched his mushy fists. Bakugo was right from the start. The dream of being a hero was impossible from the beginning and he should've given up the moment he heard that his quirk didn't do anything instead of living a false fantasy his entire life. Maybe then he would still be alive.

"But you proved me wrong.", All Might said unaware of the internal conflict inside of the young man, "When you charged into the fray with everything backed against you. Young man, you can become a hero."

When the boy looked up again, All Might had to hold in a flinch at the anger inside the green's boy eyes. Where that anger was placed was anyone's guess.

Anger towards himself? For following a dream that was a lie from the moment he heard the words on tv? Anger towards All Might? For denying his dream, only to retract that statement after he got someone killed?

No matter the reason, that was the day where hope for heroes died in Izuku Midoriya. Whether it be the concept of heroism and heroics or the idea of himself becoming one.

He brought out his notebook to find the page of All Might's autograph and tore it out before crumbling and throwing it onto the ground. Before he turned and ran his way home with hot and angry tears falling from his face.

All Might raised a hand to call out to him before deciding against it, as the act from the teen made it clear what his answer was about becoming a hero. He bent down and unraveled the paper with his signature and gripped it tightly as light raindrops started falling onto him and the paper.

That was the second time that week the Symbol of Peace failed in saving someone.